RfcjR DRZ_Z V^ScRTV DA - Daily Pioneer

12
D ays after resigning from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) former Ministers and powerful Other Backward Class (OBC) leaders Swami Prasad Maurya, Dharam Singh Saini as well as six other rebel BJP MLAs officially joined the Samajwadi Party (SP) on Friday on the occasion of Makar Sankranti. The defection from the party is a setback for the ruling BJP, which enjoyed the support of the OBCs in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh (UP) Assembly elec- tions and 2019 general elec- tions. The SP chief Akhilesh Yadav welcomed Maurya and the others. Addressing the meeting at the SP headquarters, Maurya said Makar Sankranti will mark the beginning of the end of the BJP. “The big leaders of the BJP who never paid any heed to our demands are having sleepless nights now. The BJP has duped the OBCs, Dalits, minorities and youth of the country. They formed the Government by encashing on the name of Keshav Prasad Maurya and Swami Prasad Maurya. There were talks about making either of us the CM, but they brought someone from Gorakhpur and duped Dalits and Backwards”, alleged Maurya. He alleged that under the Yogi Adityanath regime, upper caste people were enjoying their life, while backward castes and Dalits were strug- gling. “They say the elections are 80 per cent vs 20 per cent, but I say now its 85 per cent vs 15 per cent, 85 per cent hama- ra hai and 15 per cent me bhi bantwara hai (85 per cent is ours and there is division in 15 per cent too). BJP leaders say they will win on the Hindu card, then why did they try to play with the reservation given to Dalits and Backwards. Appointment letters were given to 19,000 general cate- gory people, when 69,000 appointments were Okayed. I want to know if Backwards and Dalits are not Hindu? If yes, then why did you give their reservation to others,” asked Maurya. Further attacking the BJP, Swami Prasad Maurya said, “When I was in the Cabinet, there was a proposal that the posts should be filled with general category applicants without advertisement as there were no applicants from Dalit and Backwards communities. I strongly objected and the CM noted down my objection, but still he didn’t stop the propos- al.” “Now they are disinvesting and privatising the Central PSUs only to scrap reservation for the SCs and OBCs. When things will go to private hands there will be no reservation. Yogi ji, I want to say that you are doing a sin while sitting on the CM’s chair. Are only upper caste people Hindus in your eyes? If only those 10 per cent are Hindus in your view then your pack-up is definite. Now, all the Backwards, Dalits and everyone is against you. There will be further division in those eight to ten per cent with you as there are many Samajwadis and Ambedkarwadis in that per- centage.” “I thought after spending 14 years in exile, the BJP would have learnt its lessons, but it seems that once again they will return to what they were before 2017. I want to tell BJP leaders that after today, there will be a tsunami in the State which will devastate the BJP. I joined hands with Akhilesh Yadav as he is young, educated and able, I will make crores of peo- ple stand behind him and will destroy the BJP. I also challenge that whomever I leave, they stand nowhere. Behen Ji (Mayawati) is a liv- ing example, till the time I was with her, she was the CM. I left her, today she is nowhere,” said Maurya. Another former BJP Minister who joined the SP, Dharm Singh Saini said, “Today’s programme is being held in the party office because of the Model Code of Conduct, otherwise if there was no ban, there would have been more than ten lakh people. We take oath on Makar Sankranti to save the Constitution, and to save the oppressed Dalits from atrocities. We take a pledge that we will form a Samajwadi Government on March 10. The humanity and respect that I got from Akhilesh ji was not found anywhere else because I have been both in the BSP and BJP. Will get you (Akhilesh Yadav) sworn in as Chief Minister in March and will get you sworn in as Prime Minister in 2024.” I ndia is all set to ink the first- ever export deal with the Philippines for the indige- nously-designed and manu- factured BrahMos supersonic missile. The Government-to- Government deal is worth over $375 million. This is the first major export of sophisticated weapon systems by India to any coun- try. India is aggressively pur- suing the target of exporting weapon systems worth over $5 billion by 2025 and turn the country into an attractive man- ufacturing hub for Defence systems. The BrahMos Aerospace, the first joint venture between India and Russia to manufac- ture high-end missile system, recently submitted its price list to the Philippines which has accepted it, sources said here on Friday. The two sides will shortly ink the deal totaling $375 mil- lion, they said adding that the contract is for the shore-based anti-ship missile system for the Philippine Navy. India had recently offered a $100-million line of credit to the Philippines for Defence purchases. The Philippines Government recently allocated 2.8 billion pesos ($55.5 million) for initial funding for the BrahMos cruise missile. The Philippines selected the Indian missile system after tough negotiations and exten- sive trials, officials said adding a team from the Philippine Navy visited the production unit of BrahMos Aerospace in Hyderabad some months back as part of the acquisition process. The BrahMos Integration Complex in Hyderabad undertakes inte- gration of mechanical systems and assembling electronic sys- tems. Various sub-systems fab- ricated in other centres in India and Russia are integrated and checke The Philippines armed forces are implementing a revised modernisation pro- gramme. India and the Philippines signed an imple- menting arrangement in March last year for the Government- to- Government deals regard- ing military equipment includ- ing the BrahMos missile. The Philippines will acquire the BrahaMos missile which can cover a target range of 290 kms with a capability to carry a 200 kg warhead. India has other variants of this mis- sile also having a range of more than 400 kms. This deal came about in the backdrop of India engag- ing with several Southeast Asian countries including Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam for the sale of the mis- sile system, they added. India’s ties with the Philippines were stepped up in the past few years. The two countries signed a bilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Defence and Logistics in 2018. In 2020, an MoU on Sharing of White Shipping Information (non-military/non-govern- ment shipping vessel informa- tion) was signed. In 2019, the Philippine Navy participated in a group sail in the South China Sea along with the navies of India, the United States, and Japan. India has inducted the land and sea version of the BrahMos into its security architecture. The supersonic cruise missile can be launched from sub- marines, ships, aircraft, and land platforms. BrahMos mis- sile flies at a speed of 2.8 Mach or almost three times the speed of sound. D elhi, Mumbai, and West Bengal, three Covid-19 hotspots in the latest wave of Covid infection saw marginal dips in new cases on Friday. However, Southern India saw a huge spike in Covid-19 cases with Karnataka leading the way, followed by Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Overall, fresh Covid-19 cases in India rose by 7 per cent to nearly 2.64 lakh in the last 24 hours, a day after a record rise of more than 50,000 had pushed the day's tally to 2.47 lakh. Deaths from the virus remained relatively low but were rising. Among the poll-bound States, Uttar Pradesh is seeing big jump in the number of fresh cases by the day. Karnataka on Friday reported 28,723 new Covid-19 cases and 14 deaths. Capital Bengaluru alone accounted for 20,121 new cases and seven deaths. The positivity rate is now at 12.98 per cent in the State. On Thursday the State had recorded 25,005 new cases of Covid-19 and 8 fatalities. State Health Minister K Sudhakar said the number of hospitalisations in the third wave so far is less than that recorded during the second wave last year. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has sought Central assistance to raise the number of oxygenated beds and oxygen plants in the State. The total number of active cases across the State is now 1,15,733. Doctors in the two States described the status of pan- demics in the two southern States as black Pongal for Tamil Nadu and a black Friday for Kerala. Continued on page 2 New Delhi: The Court of Inquiry (CoI) looking into the December 8 helicopter crash that killed all 14 passengers, including the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat, has ruled out sabotage, mechanical failure or negli- gence as the cause of the mishap. This was officially made public on Friday. The Pioneer dated January 6 had reported that the most plausible cause of the accident was bad weather. Technically, it is known as Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CIFT) wherein an aircraft unintentionally collides with terrain be it the ground, a mountain, cliff or a tree-top. The Tri-Services probe team headed by Air Marshal Manvendra Singh, himself an accomplished helicopter pilot and currently Chief of Training Command and IAF chief VR Chaudhari had apprised Continued on page 2 Cape Town: A South African team going through one of its toughest transition phases embarrassed a star-studded Indian team with a seven- wicket victory in the third Test to clinch a memorable 2-1 series triumph here on Friday even as India Test captain Virat Kohli rued batting failures. The target of 212 wasn't a tough ask and starting the day at 101 for two, Keegan Petersen (82, 113 balls) along with Rassie van Der Dussen (41 not out) added 54 runs for the third wicket to seal the match before Temba Bavuma (32 not out) helped in putting the final touches. Continued on page 2 T he Budget Session of Parliament will commence on January 31 with the address of the President to both the Houses and conclude on April 8, sources said on Friday citing the recommendation of the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs. The Union Budget will be presented on February 1. The Economic Survey is likely to be tabled on January 31 after the president's address. The first part of the session would con- clude on February 11. After a month-long recess, part two of the session would begin from March 14 and con- clude on April 8, the sources said. The recess allows depart- ment-related Parliamentary Committees to examine bud- getary allocations made to their respective Ministries. During part one of the session, campaigning for phase one of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections would be in full swing for which votes will be cast on February 10. When the two Houses meet after recess on March 14, the results of Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Punjab and Manipur would be out as the counting is on March 10 for all the five States. Continued on page 2 A trial court in Kerala's Kottayam district on Friday acquitted Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar Diocese of all rape charges levelled by a nun of the Missionaries of Jesus Convent. The nun's case was that the Bishop had raped her 13 times during 2014 to 2016 and the Catholic Order to which she was associated had rejected her pleas. She had told the police that though she had approached all authorities in the Catholic Congregation, includ- ing the office of the Pope, her pleas fell on deaf ears and she was forced to file a complaint. Bishop Mulakkal, who hails from Thrissur district in Kerala, had denied the charges of rape as "baseless and con- cocted" and said allegations were born out of her ire against the religious order for rejecting her demands for favours. Additional sessions judge G Gopakumar of additional district and sessions court, Kottayam, who heard the case from November 2019 to January 2022, ruled on Friday that the prosecution had failed to produce corroborative evi- dences to substantiate the alle- gations made by the victim. The judge said that the evi- dences do not match with the charges made by the nun and hence the Bishop was being acquitted of all rape charges. S Harishankar, former superintendent of police, Kottayam, who was the inves- tigating officer, expressed dis- may and disappointment over the verdict. "We, the investiga- tion team and the public pros- ecutor, were confident of the authenticity of our findings and were expecting the court to convict the accused. But this is a shocking verdict," said Harishankar while interacting with the media after the pro- nouncement of the judgment. Continued on page 2 D ays before the Republic Day celebrations, an improvised explosive device (IED) was found in the nation- al Capital's Ghazipur area on Friday morning, sending police and securities agencies into a tizzy. The IED weighing around three kilogram, aimed at causing maximum damage, was kept in an iron box inside a black backpack at Ghazipur's busy flower market main gate. The police suspect it was a ter- ror attempt ahead of the January 26 Republic Day cele- brations. An FIR have been regis- tered at Delhi Police Special Cell under explosive act and police team will also be receiv- ing a detail report by the NSG on the IED samples collected According to National Security Guard (NSG), which disposed the bomb, the initial examination suggested that the explosive is a nitrate and RDX mix while the triggering device could be a clock or a mobile phone. Continued on page 2

Transcript of RfcjR DRZ_Z V^ScRTV DA - Daily Pioneer

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Days after resigning fromthe Bharatiya Janata Party

(BJP) former Ministers andpowerful Other BackwardClass (OBC) leaders SwamiPrasad Maurya, Dharam SinghSaini as well as six other rebelBJP MLAs officially joined theSamajwadi Party (SP) on Fridayon the occasion of MakarSankranti.

The defection from theparty is a setback for the rulingBJP, which enjoyed the supportof the OBCs in the 2017 UttarPradesh (UP) Assembly elec-tions and 2019 general elec-tions. The SP chief AkhileshYadav welcomed Maurya andthe others.

Addressing the meeting atthe SP headquarters, Mauryasaid Makar Sankranti will markthe beginning of the end of theBJP. “The big leaders of the BJPwho never paid any heed to ourdemands are having sleeplessnights now. The BJP has dupedthe OBCs, Dalits, minoritiesand youth of the country. Theyformed the Government byencashing on the name ofKeshav Prasad Maurya andSwami Prasad Maurya. Therewere talks about making eitherof us the CM, but they broughtsomeone from Gorakhpur andduped Dalits and Backwards”,alleged Maurya.

He alleged that under theYogi Adityanath regime, uppercaste people were enjoyingtheir life, while backwardcastes and Dalits were strug-

gling. “They say the electionsare 80 per cent vs 20 per cent,but I say now its 85 per cent vs15 per cent, 85 per cent hama-ra hai and 15 per cent me bhibantwara hai (85 per cent isours and there is division in 15per cent too). BJP leaders saythey will win on the Hinducard, then why did they try toplay with the reservation givento Dalits and Backwards.Appointment letters weregiven to 19,000 general cate-gory people, when 69,000appointments were Okayed. Iwant to know if Backwardsand Dalits are not Hindu? Ifyes, then why did you givetheir reservation to others,”asked Maurya.

Further attacking the BJP,Swami Prasad Maurya said,“When I was in the Cabinet,there was a proposal that the

posts should be filled withgeneral category applicantswithout advertisement as therewere no applicants from Dalitand Backwards communities. Istrongly objected and the CMnoted down my objection, butstill he didn’t stop the propos-al.”

“Now they are disinvestingand privatising the CentralPSUs only to scrap reservationfor the SCs and OBCs. Whenthings will go to private handsthere will be no reservation.Yogi ji, I want to say that youare doing a sin while sitting onthe CM’s chair. Are only uppercaste people Hindus in youreyes? If only those 10 per centare Hindus in your view thenyour pack-up is definite. Now,all the Backwards, Dalits andeveryone is against you. Therewill be further division in

those eight to ten per cent withyou as there are manySamajwadis andAmbedkarwadis in that per-centage.”

“I thought after spending14 years in exile, the BJP wouldhave learnt its lessons, but itseems that once again they willreturn to what they were before2017.

I want to tell BJP leadersthat after today, there will bea tsunami in the State whichwill devastate the BJP. I joinedhands with Akhilesh Yadav ashe is young, educated andable, I will make crores of peo-ple stand behind him andwill destroy the BJP. I alsochallenge that whomever Ileave, they stand nowhere.Behen Ji (Mayawati) is a liv-ing example, till the time I waswith her, she was the CM. I

left her, today she is nowhere,”said Maurya.

Another former BJPMinister who joined the SP,Dharm Singh Saini said,“Today’s programme is beingheld in the party office becauseof the Model Code of Conduct,otherwise if there was no ban,there would have been morethan ten lakh people. We takeoath on Makar Sankranti tosave the Constitution, and tosave the oppressed Dalits fromatrocities. We take a pledge thatwe will form a SamajwadiGovernment on March 10. Thehumanity and respect that I gotfrom Akhilesh ji was not foundanywhere else because I havebeen both in the BSP and BJP.Will get you (Akhilesh Yadav)sworn in as Chief Minister inMarch and will get you swornin as Prime Minister in 2024.”

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India is all set to ink the first-ever export deal with the

Philippines for the indige-nously-designed and manu-factured BrahMos supersonicmissile. The Government-to-Government deal is worth over$375 million.

This is the first majorexport of sophisticated weaponsystems by India to any coun-try. India is aggressively pur-suing the target of exportingweapon systems worth over $5billion by 2025 and turn thecountry into an attractive man-ufacturing hub for Defencesystems.

The BrahMos Aerospace,the first joint venture betweenIndia and Russia to manufac-ture high-end missile system,recently submitted its price listto the Philippines which hasaccepted it, sources said here onFriday.

The two sides will shortlyink the deal totaling $375 mil-lion, they said adding that thecontract is for the shore-basedanti-ship missile system forthe Philippine Navy. India hadrecently offered a $100-millionline of credit to the Philippinesfor Defence purchases.

The PhilippinesGovernment recently allocated2.8 billion pesos ($55.5 million)for initial funding for theBrahMos cruise missile.

The Philippines selectedthe Indian missile system after

tough negotiations and exten-sive trials, officials said addinga team from the PhilippineNavy visited the productionunit of BrahMos Aerospace inHyderabad some months backas part of the acquisitionprocess. The BrahMosIntegration Complex inHyderabad undertakes inte-gration of mechanical systemsand assembling electronic sys-tems. Various sub-systems fab-ricated in other centres in Indiaand Russia are integrated andchecke

The Philippines armedforces are implementing arevised modernisation pro-gramme. India and thePhilippines signed an imple-menting arrangement in Marchlast year for the Government-to- Government deals regard-ing military equipment includ-ing the BrahMos missile.

The Philippines willacquire the BrahaMos missilewhich can cover a target rangeof 290 kms with a capability tocarry a 200 kg warhead. Indiahas other variants of this mis-sile also having a range ofmore than 400 kms.

This deal came about inthe backdrop of India engag-ing with several SoutheastAsian countries includingThailand, Indonesia, andVietnam for the sale of the mis-sile system, they added. India’sties with the Philippines werestepped up in the past fewyears. The two countriessigned a bilateralMemorandum ofUnderstanding (MoU) onDefence and Logistics in 2018.In 2020, an MoU on Sharing ofWhite Shipping Information(non-military/non-govern-ment shipping vessel informa-tion) was signed. In 2019, thePhilippine Navy participated ina group sail in the South ChinaSea along with the navies ofIndia, the United States, andJapan.

India has inducted the landand sea version of the BrahMosinto its security architecture.The supersonic cruise missilecan be launched from sub-marines, ships, aircraft, andland platforms. BrahMos mis-sile flies at a speed of 2.8 Machor almost three times the speedof sound.

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Delhi, Mumbai, and WestBengal, three Covid-19

hotspots in the latest wave ofCovid infection saw marginaldips in new cases on Friday.

However, Southern Indiasaw a huge spike in Covid-19cases with Karnataka leadingthe way, followed by TamilNadu and Kerala.

Overall, fresh Covid-19cases in India rose by 7 per centto nearly 2.64 lakh in the last24 hours, a day after a recordrise of more than 50,000 had

pushed the day's tally to 2.47lakh. Deaths from the virusremained relatively low butwere rising.

Among the poll-bound

States, Uttar Pradesh is seeingbig jump in the number offresh cases by the day.

Karnataka on Fridayreported 28,723 new Covid-19

cases and 14 deaths. CapitalBengaluru alone accounted for20,121 new cases and sevendeaths. The positivity rate isnow at 12.98 per cent in theState. On Thursday the Statehad recorded 25,005 new casesof Covid-19 and 8 fatalities.

State Health Minister KSudhakar said the number ofhospitalisations in the thirdwave so far is less than thatrecorded during the secondwave last year.

Chief Minister BasavarajBommai has sought Centralassistance to raise the numberof oxygenated beds and oxygenplants in the State. The totalnumber of active cases acrossthe State is now 1,15,733.

Doctors in the two Statesdescribed the status of pan-demics in the two southernStates as black Pongal for TamilNadu and a black Friday forKerala. Continued on page 2

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New Delhi: The Court ofInquiry (CoI) looking into theDecember 8 helicopter crashthat killed all 14 passengers,including the Chief of DefenceStaff (CDS) General BipinRawat, has ruled out sabotage,mechanical failure or negli-gence as the cause of themishap. This was officiallymade public on Friday.

The Pioneer dated January6 had reported that the mostplausible cause of the accidentwas bad weather. Technically,it is known as Controlled FlightInto Terrain (CIFT) wherein anaircraft unintentionally collideswith terrain be it the ground, amountain, cliff or a tree-top.

The Tri-Services probeteam headed by Air MarshalManvendra Singh, himself anaccomplished helicopter pilotand currently Chief of TrainingCommand and IAF chief VRChaudhari had apprised

Continued on page 2

Cape Town: A South Africanteam going through one of itstoughest transition phasesembarrassed a star-studdedIndian team with a seven-wicket victory in the third Testto clinch a memorable 2-1series triumph here on Fridayeven as India Test captain ViratKohli rued batting failures.The target of 212 wasn't atough ask and starting the dayat 101 for two, Keegan Petersen(82, 113 balls) along withRassie van Der Dussen (41 notout) added 54 runs for the thirdwicket to seal the match beforeTemba Bavuma (32 not out)helped in putting the finaltouches. Continued on page 2

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The Budget Session ofParliament will commence

on January 31 with the addressof the President to both theHouses and conclude on April8, sources said on Friday citingthe recommendation of theCabinet Committee onParliamentary Affairs.

The Union Budget will bepresented on February 1. TheEconomic Survey is likely to betabled on January 31 after thepresident's address. The firstpart of the session would con-clude on February 11.

After a month-long recess,part two of the session wouldbegin from March 14 and con-clude on April 8, the sourcessaid. The recess allows depart-

ment-related ParliamentaryCommittees to examine bud-getary allocations made to theirrespective Ministries.

During part one of thesession, campaigning for phaseone of the Uttar PradeshAssembly elections would be infull swing for which votes willbe cast on February 10. Whenthe two Houses meet afterrecess on March 14, the resultsof Assembly polls in UttarPradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa,Punjab and Manipur would beout as the counting is on March10 for all the five States.

Continued on page 2

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Atrial court in Kerala'sKottayam district on

Friday acquitted Bishop FrancoMulakkal of Jalandhar Dioceseof all rape charges levelled bya nun of the Missionaries ofJesus Convent.

The nun's case was that theBishop had raped her 13 timesduring 2014 to 2016 and theCatholic Order to which shewas associated had rejectedher pleas. She had told thepolice that though she hadapproached all authorities in theCatholic Congregation, includ-ing the office of the Pope, herpleas fell on deaf ears and shewas forced to file a complaint.

Bishop Mulakkal, whohails from Thrissur district inKerala, had denied the chargesof rape as "baseless and con-cocted" and said allegationswere born out of her ire againstthe religious order for rejectingher demands for favours.

Additional sessions judge

G Gopakumar of additionaldistrict and sessions court,Kottayam, who heard the casefrom November 2019 toJanuary 2022, ruled on Fridaythat the prosecution had failedto produce corroborative evi-dences to substantiate the alle-gations made by the victim.

The judge said that the evi-dences do not match with thecharges made by the nun andhence the Bishop was beingacquitted of all rape charges.

S Harishankar, formersuperintendent of police,Kottayam, who was the inves-tigating officer, expressed dis-may and disappointment overthe verdict. "We, the investiga-tion team and the public pros-ecutor, were confident of theauthenticity of our findingsand were expecting the court toconvict the accused. But this isa shocking verdict," saidHarishankar while interactingwith the media after the pro-nouncement of the judgment.

Continued on page 2

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Days before the RepublicDay celebrations, an

improvised explosive device(IED) was found in the nation-al Capital's Ghazipur area onFriday morning, sending policeand securities agencies into atizzy. The IED weighingaround three kilogram, aimedat causing maximum damage,was kept in an iron box insidea black backpack at Ghazipur'sbusy flower market main gate.The police suspect it was a ter-ror attempt ahead of theJanuary 26 Republic Day cele-brations.

An FIR have been regis-tered at Delhi Police SpecialCell under explosive act andpolice team will also be receiv-ing a detail report by the NSGon the IED samples collected

According to NationalSecurity Guard (NSG), which

disposed the bomb, the initialexamination suggested that theexplosive is a nitrate and RDXmix while the triggering devicecould be a clock or a mobilephone. Continued on page 2

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Though the Navratna Centralpublic-sector undertaking NationalAluminium Company Limited(Nalco) on Wednesday celebratedits achievement of having made allthe 960 pots at its smelter plant atAngul for the first time, the com-pany had failed to achieve the full-capacity utilisation of pots all theseyears leading to loss of hundreds ofcrores of rupees.

The Comptroller and AuditorGeneral (CAG) of India has rappedthe Nalco for less-than optimal per-formance resulting in excess expen-diture and loss of earning to thetune of over Rs 2,000 crore. The

Central auditors, in their scrutiny,covered production performancesof the Nalco’s mines, alumina re-finery, smelter plant and captivepower plant (CPP) for the periodof 2012-13 to 2016-17. In its re-port tabled in the Parliament, theCAG noted that non-developmentof a coal block allotted to Nalco bythe Government proved to be ex-pensive in terms of production lossat the smelter plant. The capacityutilisation of the plant remainedlower than the rated capacity due tonon-availability of adequate powerfrom the CPP, which faced coal sup-ply issues. The aluminium output atthe smelter fell short by 0.49 mil-lion tonne during 2012-13 to 2016-17 for want of the required power.As a result, Nalco lost the opportu-nity of earning incremental contri-bution amounting to Rs 1,086.63crore, the report said.

The company also incurred anadditional expense of Rs 326.62 croretowards excess consumption of coalin the CPP during the period underscrutiny due to higher Station HeatRate as compared to the norms. Simi-larly, a failure to detect slippage inquality of coal supplied to the CPPled to an avoidable expenditure ofRs 239.23 crore, it said.

Thus subsequently, years afteryears, full-capacity utilisation of 960pots could not be done for manylapses of the management, forwhich no action has been taken yet.“Rather, officials responsible for grosslapses leading to non-utilisation offull capacity are well-placed in themanagement,” told Jana AdhikarMancha President Bijaya Parida.

A Performance Audit was con-ducted covering the productionperformances of the mines, alu-mina refinery, smelter plant and

CPP for the period from 2012-13to 2016-17. The objectives of theaudit were to assess whether themines and the CPP were operatingin the manner and at the level re-quired for optimum operation ofthe alumina refinery and smelterplant, respectively. The audit wasdone also to see whether the alu-mina refinery and smelter plant wereoperating at the required capacityin a cost-effective manner. The Per-formance Audit report highlights thefollowing: “NALCO was not able todevelop the Coal Blocks allotted byGovernment of India for supply ofcoal to the Captive Power Plant forgeneration of required power forSmelter Plant. NALCO was not ableto detect slippage of quality of coaldue to non-availing the facility ofjoint sampling of coal at the loadingpoint. This has resulted in avoidableexpenditure of Rs. 239.23 crore to-

wards grade slippage of coal duringthe period 2012-13 to 2016-17.” Inthese four years, the Nalco saw a pro-duction loss of 493,000 tonnes. Italso incurred an additional expen-diture of Rs 326.62 crore on excessconsumption of coal at its CPP dueto higher-than norms station heatrate (the amount of fuel required togenerate one unit of electricity). Itsfailure to detect slippage of the qual-ity of coal cost it another Rs 239.23crore, according to the performanceand productivity audit report.

Along with others, the CAG hadrecommended, “The allotted CoalBlocks may be developed at the ear-liest to ensure supply of coal to theCaptive Power Plant.” This recom-mendation was also not compliedwith, which became one of the im-portant causes for non-utilisationof the full capacity at the smelterplant till January 12.

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Odisha should take judiciousbudgetary decisions to address theCovid crisis while focusing on thesocial security issues.The expenditure on social sectorshould be increased to 50% of thetotal budget to take care of emerg-ing needs, opined the panelists andpeople’s representatives during awebinar on ‘Pre-Budget Consulta-tion: People’s Priorities in OdishaState Budget 2022-23’.

The webinar jointly organisedby the Centre for Youth and SocialDevelopment (CYSD) and theOdisha Budget and AccountabilityC entre was hosted by the CYSDhere on Wednesday. Even thoughthere has been increased budget al-

location for health due to the pan-demic, the primary healthcare needshave been unaddressed. The publichealth expenditure should go up to7-8 per cent in the total State bud-get, with increased emphasis onprimary healthcare, pointed out thepanelists. They pitched for an um-brella scheme both for diagnosisand treatment. All the schemes de-signed for diagnosis and treatmentat the public health facilities free ofcost need to be subsumed into asingle window for better transpar-ency and accountability. A griev-ance mechanism needs to be inplace to address the cases of healthrights violations and poor healthinfrastructure, they said. Whilebudgetary allocation should bethere to properly implementschemes like Jal Jeevan Mission andBasudha to provide piped-water sup-ply to households, provisionsshould be made for spot watersources to ensure water security in

mountainous regions, where pipedwater supply is difficult. The panel-ists also emphacised on increasedbudget allocation for establishmentof water quality monitoring labs atblock headquarters and mobile wa-ter testing laboratories in villageand panchayat levels. There mustbe enhanced allocation for the dis-ability sector in view of the fact thata substantive reduction has beenmade in the last Union Budget forthe sector. As the modern agricul-tural practices are negatively impact-ing the environment, the budget-ary provisions must give priority toensure that traditional, natural andorganic farming practices are en-couraged and adopted in a missionmode, pointed out the panelists.

The budget should also haveadequate provision for establish-ment of post-harvest infrastructureand processing units especially fordairy, poultry, fishery and perish-able horticultural produce. Besides,

there should be strategic interven-tion through Agriculture Produc-tion Clusters in a mission mode toboost floriculture. The speakersemphacised on significant budget-ary provision for capacity buildingof farmers and farmer-producerorganisations; professionally man-aged marketing structure; and pro-moting solar irrigation systems.Budget provisions need to be madeto strengthen the digital infrastruc-ture, availability of digital devicesand improving digital education inbackward areas. Capacity buildingof school management committeeand digital fitness of school teach-ers also need budget provisioning,they opined. There should be pro-visions to address women issues ata time when the Covid-19 pan-demic exacerbated the crisis of vio-lence against women.

More numbers of one-stop-centres (SAKHI) should be estab-lished for violence survivors with

direct transfer provisions as survivalsupport of the victims, they said Anincrease in budgetary provision toraise the minimum wage will en-courage people to work underMGNREGS, opined the speakers.Joint Secretary Finance DrSatyapriya Rath, former Chairmanof the State Finance CommissionProf Sudhakar Panda, DrNavaneeta Ratha of SociologyDepartment, Utkal University, DrAmarendra Dash from the Schoolof Humanities and Social Science,NISER, Bhubaneswar and econo-mist Dr Pravas Mishra joined aspanelists in the webinar. Around150 civil society leaders from rural,urban and tribal pockets, academiaand government organizations alsoparticipated in the consultation.The outcome of the consultationwill be submitted to the Govern-ment, said CYSD co-founderJagadananda, who moderated thewebinar.

5������""��=#���K����������������=� �Tops in mangroverise, ranks 3rd inforest rich tigerreserve�(����� ����� � �$A�$/;85@/<

Odisha has registered a net in-crease of dense forest area by 243sqkm in last two years as per IndiaState of Forest Report (ISFR)-2021.Odisha also became first in the rateof increase in mangrove forest, andthird in forest rich tiger reserve.

This was known in the Statelevel Steering Committee Author-ity of CAMPA held here under

chairmanship of Chief SecretarySuresh Mahapatra wherein Addi-tional Chief Secretary Dr MonaSharma outlined the issues for dis-cussion. Dr Sharma appraised thatas per as per ISFR-2021, the verydense forest in Odisha was 7,213sqkm with additional increase of243 sqkm during last two years.Similarly, the State also became firstin the growth rate of mangroveforest with additional increase of 8sqkm taking the total to 259 sqkm.She said Maharashtra became 2ndwith additional increase of around4 sqkm followed by Karnataka withincrease of around 3 sqkm. TheSimilipal Reserve Forest also became

third in forest rich tiger reserve. Sheadded that around 10,000 womenself help groups (WSHGs) and VSSwould be involved in forest activi-ties during the annual action planperiod of 2022-23. Mahapatra di-rected the DFOs and field level for-est officers to have more fire-breaklines in the forest and keep thoseclean for checking spread of thefire. They were also asked to en-sure active involvement of thelocal community in this task.The committee deliberated andapproved the APO of around Rs1,241 crore under CAMPA forthe year 2022-23.

Principal Chief Conservator of

Forests Sishir Kumar Ratho said25,000-hectare plantation wouldbe done under AJY in the areas of500 Vana Sanrakshyana Samites(VSSs) with an estimated invest-ment of Rs 69 crore. So far, 4,600VSSs were involved in differentactivities of afforestation and con-servation. Ratho also said 18-month-old seedlings would beraised by WSHGs in permanentnurseries of the department, andRs 98 crore would be invested inthe activity. It was also decided thatmore nursery raising and affores-tation activities would be under-taken in convergence withMGNREGS.

I��7�"��J�-�����J��"��������9���"� Demands actionagainst DM, SP, LAOfor razing hisbuildings"21:� ;�"2���<2"����� ����� �3�<7

Even as 10 days have passed to thedharna by Anil Gochikar, winner ofMr India title, here, the Puri admin-istration has not come forward to havea discussion with him. As Mr Indiafor three consecutive terms from2017 to 2019, Gochikar has alreadyenjoyed 10 chilliest nights on foot-path closer to the sea beach. He alsowill spend more nights ahead untiljustice is meted out to him, he said.

Claiming that the destructionof his building and shops within thesecurity zone of Jagannath Temple

had robbed him of his bread as thatwas the only source of his income, hesaid the compensation price given tohim was too meager. Gochikar haslodged an FIR against the Collector,SP, SP, Sub-collector and Land Ac-quisition Officer (LAO) for unlaw-fully destroying his paternal build-ing without a court order. Gochikarsaid that when the case is still pend-ing in the Orissa High Court, the of-ficers demolished the structure ille-gally. He said if the local police wouldnot take action, he would move tocourt seeking arrest of the DM, SP,Sub-collector and LAO. Notably inthe ongoing eviction of structureswithin the security corridor projectsurrounding the Jagannath Temple,Gochikar has lost a building, 47 deci-

mal of land and 10 shops towardnorth-west corner of the tallest shrine.Whereas all other structures have al-ready been evicted from near theshrine, the demotion of the lonebuilding suffered inordinate delaysas a case is sub judice.

However, recently the adminis-tration demolished the structure andbrought the property under Govern-ment control after crediting aroundRs 4 crore as compensation in LARAoffice in favour of Gochikar.Gochikar demanding Rs 20 crore hassought the intervention of the court.But now, Gochikar demands penalactions first against the officers forunlawfully breaking his building andhas launched an indefinite stir infront of Collectorate.

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Commemorating the first deathanniversary of Dr Prasanta KumarSethi on Wednesday, the DrPrasanta Kumar Sethi Foundationconferred the Dr Prasanta KumarSethi Award for Excellence in Jour-nalism-2021-2022 uponPradyumna Sathua, bureau head,Kalinga TV, and Soumitra RanjanHarichandan, bureau chief,Nandighosha TV, and Dr PrasantaKumar Sethi Social Media ImpactAward-2021-2022 upon the Asso-ciation of Twitter Activists, Puri foroptimum utilisation of social me-dia for raising the issues of thevoiceless before the administration.

The event was held at theSanskruti Bhawan, Puri and at-tended by Puri MLA JayantaKumar Sarangi as chief guest.

Guests of honour wereSurendranath Dash, ex-Chairman,Puri Municipality and PKDA, SJyotiranjan, lawyer and columnist,who is the managing trustee of thefoundation. Dr Prasanta Sethi wasa physician par excellence, who pos-sessed the rare feat of having earnedLLB and MA in Political Scienceand Sociology despite being a doc-tor by profession. Hhe started thejourney of his life from being amenial labourer's son, then himselfsuch a labourer to becoming the Dy.Director of AYUSH, Odisha. He es-tablished National Association forWelfare of Scheduled Caste's andScheduled Tribes and; both estab-lished and edited a magazine, TheRADAR. He advocated for devel-opment of Ayurveda and for in-tegration of Ayurved with mod-ern medicine and wanted bestmedical facilities and education tothe poorest of the poor.

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The Queen’s Baton for the 2022Commonwealth Games reachedBhubaneswar on Thursday and wasreceived and welcomed by OdishaHockey Promotion Council Chair-man Dilip Tirkey and officials ofSports and Youth Services Depart-ment at the airport. Eminentsportspersons Anuradha Biswal andShradhanjali Samantray were alsopresent.

The Queen's Baton relay is aGames tradition that celebrates,connects and excites communitiesfrom across the Commonwealthduring the build-up to the games.The relay began on October 7 atthe Buckingham Palace, whereQueen Elizabeth II placed her mes-sage to the Commonwealth intothe baton. The games are to takeplace from July 28 to August 8.

3������������*������!��������"����"Cong demands judi-cial probe�(����� ����� � �$A�$/;85@/<

The Congress on Friday con-demned the alleged police excesseson the villagers of Dhinkia.Former MLA Lalatendu Mohapatrasaid that while the people in thearea have been silently protestingthe JSW project, the police brutal-ity crossed the limits. Why theGovernment and police are ada-mant at the behest of a company,he asked.

He termed the attack as viola-tion of the villagers’ Constitu-tional right. Even women and chil-dren were not spared by the po-lice. The village is virtually withina police barricade for last 13 days,he said. Mohapatra demanded a ju-dicial probe into the police attackand immediate action against po-lice. Lok Shakti Abhiyan Statepresident Prafulla Samantara alsocondemned the police atrocityagainst Dhinkia villagers. Whenpeople tried to prevent their beetlevines from forceful destruction,they were lathi-charged, he stated.

He urged human rightsorganisations, the civil society andpolitical parties to ask Chief Min-ister Naveen Patnaik to stop the“barbaric police attack” on villag-ers and protect their right to life.

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Tension erupted in the Dhinkiaarea on Friday as police lathi-charged locals protesting the JSWproject. Hundreds of villagers, in-cluding women and children, andcops were injured in the scuffle.Eight project opponents were ar-rested. Police have set up campsin the village.

The trouble took place atMahala village near Dhinkia

when locals converged opposingthe betel vines’ demolition. Po-l ice picked up former localSamiti Member DebendraSwain, who is leading the agita-t ion. Project opponentMuralidhar Swain and otherarrestees were shifted to theErasama police station. Someinjured villagers received medi-cal aid at the Dhinkia PHC whiethe serious ones were moved tothe Erasama hospital.

Three gates erected by localswere demolished by police be-fore entering into the village.

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Reeya Sahu, a 3rd Year Com-merce student from Christ College,Cuttack, who is Senior Under Of-ficer of 1st Battalion NCC Cadet,returned from a 12-day culturalexchange foreign tour from Dhaka,Bangladesh.

During her stay there, she per-

formed ‘Odishi dance’ which waswell appreciated by all. She also dis-cussed the importance of culturalactivities of Odisha. After her re-turn, the CM of Odisha and Direc-tor of NCC Odisha have given hercash award of Rs 7,500 and Rs 3,500respectively. She was felicitated byChrist College PrincipalMadhumita Patra, members ofManaging Committee and staffmembers. She is the daughter ofCharted Accountant LalatenduSahu and lawyer JyostnamayeeSahu and granddaughter of seniorlawyer Tax Satya Narayan Sahu.

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The Union Government has ex-tended the tenure of Odisha ChiefSecretary Suresh ChandraMahapatra by six months fromFebruary 28, when he was due toretire. Sources said the State Gov-ernment had made a request to theUnion Government to extend thetenure of Mahapatra, a 1986-batchIAS officer, and, accordingly, theDepartment of Personnel & Train-ing of the Government of India issueda notification on Thursday after ap-proval of the Competent Authority.

Page 3: RfcjR DRZ_Z V^ScRTV DA - Daily Pioneer

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A girl of Sundargarh district hadmarried in lower caste and was killedby her husband four days ago. Herfamily members from her paternalside refused to touch her body cit-ing that she had married in lowercaste and even the family mem-bers from her in-laws side also did

not come forward to cremate her.Pushpa Bag (30), a native of

Hemgiri block had love marriagewith one Nandu Karali, a nativeunder Talasara police station. Bothhad married six months ago and hadbeen staying in a house atBhandarishankara under Talsara po-lice station. After Pushpa marriedNandu, the caste and society ofPushpa had ostracized her since shehad married in lower caste. The par-ents and other family members from

paternal side of Pushpa had also sev-ered their relation with Pushpa. OnTuesday night, Pushpa and Nanduhad a tiff following which Nanduhad killed her by pressing herthroat. On Wednesday,Sundargarh police after recoveringbody of Pushpa, had arrestedNandu.

Thereafter police had calledfamily members from Pushpa’s pa-ternal side to take her body for fu-neral but they refused citing the

reason that if they would touch herbody, their caste and society wouldcast them off. Pushpa’s in-laws alsorefused to lift the body. Findingno other alternative, police con-tacted some volunteers for cremat-ing the body. On Thursday after-noon, volunteers Sidhanta Panda,Sisir Behera, Manoj Tirpathy,Kamlesh Nathani, Bishnu Raxaand Deben Sahu brought the bodyto Sundargarh swargadwar and cre-mated her as per Hindu rituals.

�(�2�%/;�"���6"(��2%�%��%2�/" �2��1<"(Bhubaneswar : The Utkal SammilaniMancheswar branch paid rich tributes to thelegendary writer, architect of Odia languagemovement and former president of the UtkalSammilani Vyaskabi Fakir Mohan Senapation his birth anniversary on Friday. Membersof the organisation led by branch presidentadvocate Dillip Dashsharma garlanded thestatue of Fakir Mohan. Dassharma said today’s youths should readFakir Mohan’s creative best ‘Patent Medicine’. Sammilani branch vice-president Dr Surendra Mishra, joint secretary Siddhartha ShankarGarnayak and Maheswar Biswal participated in the programme.

=�;2�&"@�"(�=%6%�2"3%�/" �2��1<"(���23<&"?Bhubaneswar : DAVians ofChandrasekharpur observedthe 179th birth anniversaryof Vyasakabi Fakir MohanSenapati on Friday. Activitieslike floral tributes, chorus, life

sketch, quiz contest were organised to mark the importance of theday. Speakers highlighted the matchless contributions of FakirMohan to Odia language. The programme was also streamed insocial media for the students and parents.

=�/"�=�%(3�3��")�("3>6��21/%12<���=<"�2Bhubaneswar : ICAR-CentralInstitute of Freshwater Aquac-ulture, Bhubaneswar, PrincipalScientist and National FellowDr Pramoda Kumar Sahoo hasbeen bestowed with the presti-gious ICAR National Professorrecognition from the IndianCouncil of Agricultural Research. He is a world-renowned researcherworking in the fish health management research for three decades.He was one among the Stanford University’s Top 2% Scientists Listfor 2020 and 2021. Upon his achievement, he was felicitated by theinstitute in a special ceremony. Dr Saroj Kumar Swain, Director,ICAR-CIFA congratulated him for his achievement.

@��"2�����%A"��&%/%22%&Sambalpur : The MBBS examination scheduled to be held at the VeerSurendra Sai Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (VIMSAR) atBurla on Saturday has been postponed. Informing this, the collegeauthorities said the decision was taken following detection of severalCovid-19 cases at the campus. With rising daily cases, Sambalpur dis-trict has come under Red Zone. On Friday, the district reported 529fresh infections. Earlier on January 9, five doctors and two medicalstudents of the VIMSAR had been found positive for the virus. Be-sides, over 10 patients of the healthcare facility had contracted thevirus the day before.

/�6���;�=�&�2%=312�"21:��"3("� �(1��12%Baripada : Veteran Ollywood music direc-tor Saroj Patnaik passed away following aheart attack at his residence at Badabazarhere on Thursday. He was 81. Patnaik, anengineer by profession, had begun his ca-reer in the Odia film industry as the musicdirector in the movie ‘Abhiman’ in 1977.He had composed and directed severalOllywood hits including ‘Phula Chandana’,‘Abhilash’ and ‘Hakim Babu’. He received the Best Music Director Awardfor the films ‘Abhilash’ and ‘Phula Chandana’.

;��<16&��611&�&1("3�1(�="��OLATPUR : The Utkal BipparnaSahayata Samiti (UBSS) conducteda blood donation camp at theArogya Bhavan in Olatpur on theoccasion of Swami VivekanandaJayanti. Guests NIRTAR Director DrPatitapaban Mohanty and RSS

zonal executive member Simamchal Khatua encouraged the donors.The camp was managed by Red Cross, Cuttack and NIRTAR staffs.Total 39 persons, including the NIRTAR Director, donated blood.

�1)"6���" "2�"( 2"(3��=%6%�2"3%&�"3�)"(&<�(")"2Brahmapur : Residents ofGandhinagar 3rd Lane Extensioncelebrated Pongal and MakarSankranti on Friday. BusinessmanVenkat Rao led the event and dis-tributed Kandamula, coffee, tea tothe guests. The residents, particu-larly youths and children sat around burning firewood in the tradi-tional manner, took cake and enjoyed the event. Among others,Neelanchal Sahu, Nabakishore Panda, Shriram Sahu were present.

)61�"6�;2?"�("�" "2�<%6&�"3��"2"&��Paradip : On the occasion ofMakar Sankranti, the UnionMinistry of AYUSH hosed aglobal Surya Namaskar dem-onstration programme on Fri-day. It was the world's largest

global movement to salute the sun and the new year's beginning. PPTofficials led by Chairman PL Haranadh joined the programme andbecame part of the first-ever global demonstration on Makar Sankrantito commemorate the journey of the sun to the northern hemisphere.

�"2"&��>�%A$�123�3%"=<%2��"32"��"%�"5"?Paradip : Former PET of the Paradip Port UPSchool and High School Prafulla ChandraPatra (69) passed away on Wednesday whileundergoing treatment in Bhubaneswar. Heis survived by his wife and three sons. Manyintellectuals and associates, including alumniand journalists Sasanka Acharya, SanjayMishra, Rabindra Jena, Bishwanath Bal,Jagannath Satpathy, Deepak Das, AdityaRautaray paid their last respects to him.

A'������������������������"�$�������������Tendering processbegins formultipurpose project;�"=<" ��1<"(3?����� �����$/+85@/<

After hanging in fire for overtwo decades, the much-awaitedmultipurpose Bankatira projectlooks to be seeing the light of theday as the tendering process for

the project has begun, informedthe Action Committee which wasspearheading an agitation in thedemand of the project.

The project envisages con-struction of a barrage over theBudhabalanga river near Darakuliat Banktira village underNizampur GP of Remuna block.It will irrigate 6,100 hectares ofagriculture land, including 5,000hectares in Remuna and Sadarblocks and rest 1,100 hectares in

Basta block, mainly to be helpfulin raising the Kharif crop. Be-sides, it will also help in contain-ing the ferocity of floods in theriver. The water from the sourcescould be tapped for drinking wa-ter. A proposal for the estimatedRs 600 crore project had beengiven to the State Governor in2003 and he in turn had for-warded it to the State Govern-ment after assessing the necessi-ties. The State Government after

a survey and detailed study andobtaining a clearance from theCentral Water Commission(CWC) had approved the project.

The catchment area at theproposed barrage is 220 sq kmand it is fern leaf shaped sur-rounded by hills. The barragewould be designed for maximumflood discharge of 6,801.87 cusecsand the construction won’t re-quire any forest clearance or dis-placement. The Budhabalanga

river originating from the hillranges of Simlipal reserve forestin Jashipur block of Mayurbhanjtravels about 110 km in east di-rection and finally drains into theBay of Bengal near Baleswar dis-trict, 20 km downstream of theproposed project, said technicalreports.

It may be noted that while theproject was in cold storage foryears, it was expedited during thetenure of previous MP RK Jena.

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The Vigilance police on Thurs-day caught Jasmita Bharasagar, Rev-enue Inspector (RI), Sahaspur Rev-enue Circle, Laikera Tehsil andChinki Rani Naik, Assistant Rev-enue Inspector (ARI), PakelpadaCircle, Laikera Tehsil in Jharsugudadistrict, red-handed while accept-

ing a bribe of Rs 7,000 from a per-son. They had demanded the moneyto submit verification report to theLaikera Tehsidr for issuance of legalheir certificate. Following the trap,simultaneous searches were carriedout on the residential houses andoffices of the two accused. Later,the RI and the ARI were arrestedand forwarded to court.

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The Ganjam district NetajiSubash Chandra Bose’s 125th yearsof Birthday Celebration Commit-tee has decided to conduct a host ofcompetitions at district level inonline/virtual mode among stu-dents to mark the event. This wasinformed by the Committee secre-tary Somanath Behera.

The competition will include

patriotic songs in Odia, Hindi andTelugu, besides a poetry recitationprogramme. Similarly, a debatecompetition in Odia on the theme“ Netajinka Swapna O’ AjeerBharat” will be held. The intendingparticipants of music, debate andpoetry recitation competitions shallhave to prepare the relevant videoreflecting the theme, name of theinstitution they represent, and theclass to which they belong. They

will have to send the video alongwith a copy of their ID proof. Thevideo to be played online would beof three minutes duration only. Thecommittee will distribute e-certifi-cate to all the successful participantsand will award prizes to respectivewinners. The students from Class-6th to +2 , Diploma and DegreeCourses, ITI as well as PG are eli-gible to participate in the competi-tions.

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Fulfilling a longstanding de-mand of commuters, the SouthEastern Railway has launched spe-cial train services from Baripada toPuri. Union Minister of State forJal Shakti and Tribal AffairsBishweswar Tudu flagged off thetrain on Thursday.

The train leaves Bhanjapur at11.50 pm every Thursday and ar-rives at Puri at 7 am next day. On

return direction, the train departsfrom Puri at 11.50 pm every Fri-day and reaches Baripada at 7 amevery Saturday. The train has stop-pages at Baripada, Betnoti, Rupsa,Baleswar, Bhadrak, Jajpur, KeonjharRoad, Naraj Marthapur,Bhubaneswar and Khurda Road.

The Minister said the Railwaysis considering an extension of thetrain service on a daily basis in thecoming days.

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As per a mid-winter waterfallbird status survey report of theBhitarkanika National Park, morebirds have come this time to thepark than last year. Besides, theycame in more types.

According to Rajnagar Man-groves and Wildlife Division DFODr Jangyadatta Pati, 144 bird spe-cies with a population of 1,38,107thronged Bhitarkanika in the on-going winter season as per the re-

port of the bird status survey -2022carried out in five forest and wild-

life ranges on January 12. This year,23 more bird varieties were spotted

and 2,015 more winter featheredguests have been spotted. Last yearas many as 121 types of bird specieswith a population of 1,36,092 hadthronged Bhitarkanika. Highest of59,286 geese and ducks of 16 vari-eties followed by 34,353 gulls, ternsand skimmers of seven types havevisited the park this year. Similarly,16,821 sore birds-waders of 30 typesand 7,879 of herons, egrets and bit-terns in 10 types were spotted. Butthis time, pelicans, cranes, flamin-gos and Indian skimmers were notspotted at Bhitarkanika, informedthe DFO. The other species spottedthis year were cormorants, storks,

Ibises, spoonbills, jacanas, Indianshags, oriental darters, Asian openbills, black winged tilts and black-tailed godwits. Dunlin, broad billedsandpiper and Eurasian (white)spoonbill like species have not beenspotted during the survey.

According to official sources,these migratory birds fly thousandsof miles to Bhitarakanika to escapethe harsh winter in Siberia, Af-ghanistan, Iraq , northern Asia andsome central European countries .The Bhitarkanika is stated to be thetransit point for the bird species asthey throng in large numbers whenchill increases.

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The family members ofKonchada Arvind of Gouda Streethere on Thursday donated his deadbody and eyes to the MKCG Medi-cal College Hospital for scientificstudy and medical use. Arvinda dieddue to cardiac arrest. After beingmotivated by humanist and ratio-nalist Jammula Suresh, thedeceased’s wife K Suprabha and lonedaughter K Ashima agreed to do-nate his eyes and body. DrSoubhagya Panda and Dr PrakashBehera of the hospital’s Ophthalmol-ogy Department collected the cor-neas of both eyes and the body wasreceived by Dr Nilesh, Dr Vandanaand Dr Sunita Patro of theAnatomy Department. Thehandover process was conducted inthe presence of family membersLaxminarayan Patro and VShankar. This was the 10th bodydonation to the MKCG MedicalCollege Hospital.

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The CPI(M) Ganjam districtcommittee on Thursday de-manded resumption of the dailyMEMU passenger train fromBrahmapur to Bhubaneswar andback.

A memorandum in this regardaddressed to the Union RailwayMinister was handed over to theBrahmapur Railway Station Mas-ter. Party leaders warned to startagitation if the demand is not ful-filled. When MEMU train services

have been resumed in many otherplaces, why not betweenBrahmapur and Bhubaneswar? Isit not a matter of negligence ofthe railway authorities? a senior

party leader asked.The memorandumpointed out that withsuperfast and expresstrain running in theEast Coast Railwayroutes, passengershave to pay heavyprices and wait for

hours to catch a train.The delegation included party

district secretary Judhisthir Behera,Babula Nayak, Sibaram PrasadMohapatro, Gopal Panigrahi andGokul Tripathy.

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Health and Family Welfare Min-ister Naba Kisore Das claimed that theBJD will win all the nine Zilla Parishadseats in the ensuing panchayat elec-tion in Jharsuguda district. Address-ing mediaperons at the BJD officehere, Minister Das said that BJD wasconfident of winning the ZP seats.He told that attributed the vision andpro-people attitude of CM NaveenPatnaik would be the key. He alsoadded that the sudden demise of dis-trict BJD president and BrajrajnagarMLA Kisore Kumar Mohanty justbefore the panchayat election was agreat loss for the party. Senior Con-gress leader and former Lakhanpurblock panchayat samiti Chairman,Sanat Singh, former Army officerTrilochan Adhari and Labo Pradhanjoined the BJD in a special programmeorganised in the district BJD office.On the occasion, BJD district generalsecretary Biswanath Nayak, vice presi-dent Sambhu Mohanty, SanjeebPradhan, Youth BJD district presidentNaresh Abhari, Lakhanpur Block Chair-man Rabiratna Pradhan, Sidharth Sarkar,Robin Panda, Manas Ray and ChintuPati were present among others.

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While around 60 employeesof the Talcher Municipality arein utter distress without salaryfor last six months, contrary tothe law, a number of tax collec-tors and peons have been trans-ferred from the civic body of-

fice. Besides, allegations are ga-lore pertaining to massive cor-ruption in different works un-dertaken by the municipality.

As many as 16 employees,including four tax collectors, aJamadar and 11 peons, havebeen transferred to differentNACs of the State even as thereis no provision in municipal lawto transfer these staffers, espe-cially the fourth grade ones, to

other districts. Earlier, three taxcollectors were transferred fromTalcher Municipality to HindolNAC unlawfully. The concernedstaff members have challengedthe order and a case is sub judicein the Orissa High Court.

More disconcert ing isTalcher municipal administra-tion has failed to clear salary ofmany of its employees. Theseemployees are reeling under

acute financial strains thesedays. Besides, after dissolutionof the council body, sanitation,lighting, fogging, cleaning ofdrainage systems have beenbadly affected and no one isthere to listen to the commonman's grievances. Attempts arealso made to sweep the massiveirregularities in different devel-opmental works under the car-pet, added sources.

Page 4: RfcjR DRZ_Z V^ScRTV DA - Daily Pioneer

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With an aim to conduct free,safe and fair elections,

the Election Commission ( EC)on Friday asked observers, whowill be deployed for assemblypolls in five states, to be visible,accessible, neutral and ethicalwhile functioning as the eyesand ears of the poll body. Thepoll body will meet on Saturdayto decide whether to continuewith its ban on physical electionrallies, road shows and padyatras as the COVID-19 caseson Thursday crossed over 2.66lakh cases in a day.During thebriefings, observers are givencomprehensive inputs aboutvarious aspects of election man-agement by senior officials ofthe EC. Over 1,400 officialsattended the briefing, with 140officials attending it in personand the rest connecting virtually.In his address on Friday, ChiefElection Commissioner SushilChandra also told expenditureobservers to sharpen their skillsand be innovative in counteringnewer methods being used toinduce voters. Chandra madethese remarks while addressinggeneral, police and expenditureobservers to be deployed inUttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand,Goa, Punjab and Manipur dur-ing the elections. Chandra askedthe observers to work in coor-dination with enforcement

agencies. This is the first brief-ing of the commission to thesenior officers, who have beendeployed in the forthcominge l e c t i o n s . E l e c t i o nCommissioner Rajiv Kumarcautioned that even strayinstances of human errors bypolling personnel abd non-compliance of Covid protocolsat polling material distributioncentres can create a "deviantnarrative and derail the smoothconduct of elections". Accordingto an EC statement, ElectionCommissioner Anup ChandraPandey, while acknowledgingthat conducting elections amidstCOVID-19 was a challengingtask, exhorted the designatedobservers to ensure that a level-playing field is maintained forall political parties and candi-dates. Officers drawn from IAS,IPS, IRS and other accounts ser-vices across the country aredeployed as general, police andexpenditure observers. Kumarreminded the observers thatthey are always under strict andmicroscopic scrutiny by stake-holders and thus should becareful and discreet about theirown behaviour and conductduring the election process.Hesaid observers are representa-tives of the commission andmust be acutely aware and cog-nisant of this sacred and oner-ous duty entrusted upon them.

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Amid rise in hospitaladmissions augmented by

the transmissible Omicronvariant across the countries,the World HealthOrganisation (WHO) has rec-ommended two new Covid19treatments — Baricitinib, anoral drug, used in the treat-ment of rheumatoid arthritisand Sotrovimab, an alternativeto casirivimab-imdevimab,which is monoclonal antibodycocktail.

WHO experts said arthri-tis drug baricitinib used withcorticosteroids to treat severeor critical Covid patients led tobetter survival rates andreduced need for ventilators.The guidelines by the UNagency’s panel of internation-al experts have been pub-lished in the British MedicalJournal on Friday.

Experts also recommendedan experimental monoclonalantibody treatment, Sotrovimabfor people with non-seriousCovid at highest risk of hospi-talisation, such as the elderly,people with immunodeficien-cies or chronic diseases such asdiabetes. Monoclonal antibod-ies are lab-created compoundsthat mimic the body’s naturaldefence mechanism.

Sotrovimab's benefits forpeople not at risk of hospital-isation were deemed insignif-icant and the WHO said itseffectiveness against new vari-ants like Omicron was "stilluncertain".

Only three other treat-ments for Covid-19 havereceived WHO approval, start-ing with corticosteroids forseverely i l l patients inSeptember 2020.Corticosteroids are inexpen-sive and widely available andfight inflammation that com-

monly accompanies severecases.

Arthritis drugs tocilizum-ab and sarilumab, which theWHO endorsed in July, are IL-6 inhibitors that suppress adangerous overreaction of theimmune system to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Baricitinib is in a differentclass of drugs known as Januskinase inhibitors, but it fallsunder the same guidelines asthe IL-6 inhibitors. Baricitinibis produced by United Statespharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly,and while generic versions areavailable in India andBangladesh, patents are in forcein many other countries includ-ing Brazil and Indonesia.

"When both are available,choose one based on issuesincluding cost and clinicianexperience," the guidelines say.

Synthetic antibody treat-ment Regeneron was approvedby the WHO in Septemberand the guidelines saySotrovimab can be used for thesame type of patients. TheWHO's Covid treatment rec-ommendations are updatedregularly based on new datafrom clinical trials.

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Aspecially designedPranayama module com-

prising of a string of breathingexercises, every day for 28 dayscan be highly effective in pre-venting Covid-19 infection inexposed healthcare profes-sionals (HCPs), finds a studyconducted by doctors fromLady Hardinge Medical Collegeand Morarji Desai NationalInstitute of Yoga (MDNIY)under the Union AyushMinistry.

The experts said that thestudy which was conductedduring the first wave in 2020 isstill relevant as Pranaymaremains the first line of defensefor the frontline health careworkers amid the third wavethat now looms large over thecountry.

The researchers includedDr Rakesh Sarwal from (NITI)Aayog, Dr Rajinder K.Dhamija, Professor and Headof Neurology, Lady HardingeMedical College, Delhi andKhushbu Jain and Dr Ishwar V.Basavaraddi, both fromMDNIY, Delhi

Dr Basavaraddi said a fewstudies have shown the practiceof Pranayama, a component ofYoga, to be effective in improv-ing immune function andreducing infection.

However, no clinical trialon the efficacy of Pranayama inpreventing Covid-19 has beenconducted till date.

“We conducted a pilot pro-ject in five hospitals in thenational capital duringSeptember-November, 2020.280 HCPs assigned duties withCovid-19 patients who werefound negative in antibodytests in pre-intervention assess-ment were recruited and ran-

domly assigned to interventionand control groups.

The intervention grouppracticed specially designedPranayama modules twice aday (morning and evening) for28 days, while those in the con-trol group were advised gener-al fitness practices (like walk-ing, jogging, running).

The morning protocolcomprised activities likeDhyana that helped to clean thenasal passages and maintainthe sinuses and helps to get ridof pathogens whileKapalabhati is a process offorceful exhalation and normalinhalation which helps toimprove pulmonary functionsand secretions, also cleansethe frontal sinuses and easemovement of diaphragm.

“Since body’s immunityplays an important role inCovid-19 infection, non phar-macological interventionswhich have an immune-mod-ulatory effect, could serve as apreventive as well as a thera-peutic measure for patientswith infection,” Dr Basavareddisaid.

“Our study reveals thattwice daily practice of special-ly designed PranayamaModules administered bytrained Yoga instructors inHCPs exposed to active caseslead to a significant protectiveeffect in preventing Covid-19infection.

“This is the first of its kindstudy to assess the effect of thespecially designed Pranayamaprotocol in preventing Covid-19 infection,” said Dr Dhamija.

Co-author Sarwal said thatPranayama modules may bepromoted and adopted toimprove immunity in all sec-tions of the population.Considering the implications of

the study for health care pro-fessionals and the general pub-lic living in fear of COVID-19,larger studies across differentgeographical, ethnic and cul-tural backgrounds are neededto extend and verify the gen-eralization of the presentresults.

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In some settings, such as peo-ple returning to care homes

after illness, people continuingto be infectious after ten dayscould pose a serious publichealth risk.

For, a study has said thatone in 10 people may have clin-ically relevant levels of poten-tially infectious SARS-CoV-2past the 10 day quarantineperiod. The research is pub-lished in the internationalJournal of Infectious Diseases.

Led by the researchersfrom University of Exeter, thestudy used a newly adapted testwhich can detect whether thevirus was potentially still active.It was applied to samples from

176 people in Exeter who hadtested positive on standardPCR tests.

The study found that 13per cent of people still exhib-ited clinically-relevant levels ofvirus after 10 days, meaningthey could potentially still beinfectious. Some peopleretained these levels for up to68 days. The authors believethis new test should be appliedin settings where people arevulnerable, to stop the spreadof Covid-19.

The paper is entitled‘Persistence of clinically-rele-vant levels of SARS-CoV2envelope gene subgenomicRNAs in non-immunocom-promised individuals’.

Professor Lorna Harries, ofthe University of ExeterMedical School, who oversaw

the study said: “While this is arelatively small study, ourresults suggest that potentiallyactive virus may sometimespersist beyond a 10 day period,and could pose a potential riskof onward transmission.Furthermore, there was noth-ing clinically remarkable aboutthese people, which means wewouldn’t be able to predictwho they are”.

Conventional PCR testswork by testing for the presenceof viral fragments. While theycan tell if someone has recent-ly had the virus, they cannotdetect whether it is still active,and the person is infectious.The test used in the lateststudy however gives a positiveresult only when the virus isactive and potentially capableof onward transmission.

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The number of Covid-19cases in the paramilitary

forces jumped nearly four-foldin a week from 1,668 cases onJanuary 7 to 6,595 cases onJanuary 13, including one deathdue to the deadly viral diseasein CRPF and 1,254 infectionswithin the last 24 hours.

Till now, as many as 95.980paramilitary personnel havebeen infected with Covid-19 ofwhich 89,036 patients haverecovered. The forces have suf-fered 349 deaths till so far and6,595 patients continue to beactive.

As on Thursday, out of atotal of 6.595 cases, the CentralIndustrial Security Force(CISF) tops the list with 2,237active cases followed by 1,824in Central Reserve Police Force

(CRPF), 1.048 cases in BorderSecurity Force (BSF), 892 inSashastra Seema Bal (SSB),365 in Indo-Tibetan BorderPolice (ITBP), 181 in NationalDisaster Response Force(NDRF) and 48 cases inNational Security Guard(NSG), according to officialdata.

However, genomesequencing has not beenundertaken and there is noclarity if there are any cases ofthe Omicron variant of thecoronavirus in their ranks,officials said.

During the last 24 hours, asmany as 1,254 personnel weredetected with the infection,including a maximum 423 inCISF, 362 in CRPF, 187 in SSB,182 in BSF, 60 in ITBP, 21 inNSG and 19 in NDRF. This isnearly three times the number

of paramilitary personnel con-tracting the disease in a singleday as on January 7 with a tallyof 441 cases.

In a single day, the tally ofCovid cases had jacked up by441 cases from 1,227 cases onThursday to 1,668 cases onJanuary 7.

Out of the total casualtiesof 349, the CRPF has taken themaximum toll at 133 deathsfollowed by 90 in BSF, 83 inCISF, 23 in SSB and 17 in ITBP.Likewise, the NDRF lost twopersonnel and the NSG suf-fered a casualty of one person-nel due to Covid-19.

Earlier, the number ofactive Covid-19 cases in theparamilitary forces has jumpedover 11 times in just 11 daysfrom a meagre 148 cases as onDecember 28 to 1,668 cases onJanuary 7.

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More than 75 lakh peoplefrom across the globe

performed Surya Namaskaron Friday as part of the ‘SuryaNamaskar for Vitality’ pro-gramme organised by theMinistry of AYUSH under theCentre’s Azadi Ka AmritMahotsav initiative. The pro-gramme was launched virtual-ly by Union AYUSH ministerSarbananda Sonowal andUnion Minister of StateMunjapara Mahendrabhai.

Sonowal said, “Sun wor-ship is done through SuryaNamaskar to improve the phys-ical and mental well-being ofpeople. Under the leadership ofPrime Minister NarendraModi, yoga and SuryaNamaskar are being promotedfor the wellness and health ofmankind.”

Surya namaskar is a com-bination of eight asanas per-formed in 12 steps. TheAYUSH ministry has not onlyengaged other ministries andstate governments but hasinvolved all major stakeholdersin the global yoga fraternity inthis mass demonstration pro-gramme.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi will interact with 150

startups today which wouldalso include startups linked tothe sectors like agriculture,health, enterprise systems,space, industry, security andenvironment to liven up theeconomic activities in thecountry.

More than 150 startupshave been divided into sixworking groups based onthemes including Growingfrom Roots; Nudging the DNA,From Local to Global;Technology of Future, BuildingChampions in Manufacturing;

and Sustainable Development,according to the PrimeMinister’s Office (PMO).

Each group will make apresentation before the PrimeMinister on the allotted themein the interaction.

The event marks the 6thanniversary of the launch of theStartup India initiative.

The aim of the interaction,according to the PMO, "is tounderstand how startups cancontribute to the national needsby driving innovation in thecountry."

As a part of 'Azadi kaAmrit Mahotsav', a week-longevent, “Celebrating InnovationEcosystem”, is being hosted by

DPIIT, Ministry of Commerceand Industry, from January 10to January 16.

Prime Minister has beenstressing the potential ofStartups to contribute signifi-cantly to the growth of thenation.

This was reflected in thelaunch of the flagship initiativeStartup India in 2016.

Given the restrictionsplaced by the Covid-19 situa-tion, the Government hasbeen working on providing an"enabling atmosphere" forboosting the growth and devel-opment of Startups and the"startup ecosystem" in thecountry.

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The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) on Friday

said it has attached assets worthRs 2.07 crore of former DeputyDrug Controller, LicensingAuthority Solan, HimachalPradesh, Kapil Dhiman andothers under the Prevention ofMoney-laundering Act in adisproportionate assets case.

The attached assets includeeight immovable propertiesconsisting of land and buildingin Solan, Mandi, Kullu andPanchkula in the name of Kapil

Dhiman and others and mov-able properties like balance inbank accounts, fixed depositreceipts (FDRs) and insurancepolicies maintained in variousbanks/financial institutions,the ED said in a statement.

The ED had initiatedmoney laundering investiga-tion on the basis of an FIRdated December 14, 2012 andcharge sheet dated March 7,2018 of State Vigilance andAnti-Corruption Bureau,Solan, Himachal Pradesh.

The ED investigation

revealed that Dhiman thenDeputy Drug ControllerLicensing Authority Solan,Himachal Pradesh used to takebribe for issuing and renewinglicense of pharmaceutical com-panies.

He acquired movable andimmovable properties out ofproceeds of crime to the tuneof Rs 2.07 crore, in his nameand in the name of his familymembers and firm/companyand projected them as untaint-ed properties, it said, addingfurther investigation is underprogress.

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Aday after the SupremeCourt order on 'dharam

sansad' events where hatespeeches were given, seniorlawyer and a former UnionMinister Kapil Sibal onThursday wrote to authoritiesin Uttar Pradesh andUttarakhand seeking preven-tion of inflammatory speechesat more such events plannedthis month.

On behalf of the petition-ers in the hate speeches case inthe Supreme Court, Sibal wroteto the district magistrates ofAligarh and Haridwar urgingthem to take preventive mea-sures including imposition ofSection 144 to prevent holdingof such events.

"We are in the midst ofgeneral elections to the leg-islative assembly and while wedo not want to attributemotives to any person, but ifsuch speeches are made in themidst of an election, they willdestabilize the social order andhave serious consequences onthe polity of this country. Werequest you to take such pre-ventative action within yourpowers as is necessary, includ-ing under Section 144 of theCriminal Procedure Code,

1973 and Sections 3 and 5 ofthe National Security Act,1980," Sibal said in his letter.

He has also sent copies ofhis letters to chief ministers,home secretaries and policechiefs of Uttar Pradesh andUttarakhand besides the super-intendents of police in Aligarhand Haridwar. A copy was alsosent to the ElectionCommission.

"There are news reportsnow that another 'dharamsansad' is being organised nowin Aligarh on January 22-23,2022 wherein the speakers whoparticipated in the aforemen-tioned events held between17-19th December, 2021 arelikely to be speaking again,"Sibal said in his letter to AligarhDM.

In another letter toHaridwar DM, he said, "Thereare news reports now that theShankaracharya Parishad seersannounced on 06.01.2022 aprotest meeting to be held onJanuary 16, 2022 against thefirst information report (FIR)registered against speakers atthe December 17-19 meeting ofthe Dharma Sansad."

The senior Congress leadersaid the responsibility to takepreventive measures to preventany possible incident of mob

violence falls on the districtadministration, "so the respon-sibility falls on your shouldersto take preventive action toensure no speeches of thisnature are made".

"We believe if such eventsare held in the state of UttarPradesh as well and similarspeeches are made, it will notonly disturb the public orderbut will amount to variouscriminal offences," Sibal noted.He also referred to the judge-ment of the Supreme Court inthe Tehseen Poonawala versusUnion of India case, where thestate government was directedto appoint nodal officers ineach district for taking mea-sures to prevent incidents ofmob violence. These nodalofficers have not been appoint-ed in Uttar Pradesh.

The Supreme Court hadissued notice to the respon-dents and posted the matter forhearing after 10 days. The topcourt was hearing a petitionfiled by journalist Qurban Aliand former Patna High Courtjudge and senior advocateAnjana Prakash, who have alsosought a direction for an "inde-pendent, credible and impartialinvestigation" by an SIT intothe incidents of hate speechesagainst the Muslim communi-ty.

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The year 2021 was the fifthwarmest year in India since

1901, with the country record-ing its annual mean air tem-perature at 0.44 degree Celsiusabove normal. The IndiaMeteorological Department(IMD) on Friday released itsannual statement on climate ofIndia for the year 2021, whichis found to be the fifth warmestyear after 2016, 2009, 2017 and2010 during the last 121 years(1901-2021).

As per the annual state-ment, as many as 1,750 deathswere reported across India dueto extreme weather events suchas floods, cyclonic storms,heavy rain, landslides, light-ning, among others, duringthe year. Maharashtra was themost adversely affected stateduring 2021, which reported-ly claimed more than 340deaths mainly due to extreme-ly heavy rainfall, floods, land-slide, lightning, cyclonic stormsand cold-wave events.

“The annual mean air tem-

perature for the country wasrecorded at 0.44 degree Celsiusabove normal. The warm tem-perature during winter andpost-monsoon season mainlycontributed to this," it said.

“In 2016, the mean airtemperature was 0.71°C high-er than normal; 0.55°C in 2009;0.54°C in 2017 and 0.53°C in2010. In the 121 years between1901 and last year, the meantemperature rose by 0.63°Cabove normal,” the report said.

The report showed that11 out of 15 warmest years wereduring the recent fifteen years(2007-2021).The past decade(2011-2020/ 2012- 2021) wasalso the warmest decade onrecord with the decadal aver-aged annual mean temperatureanomaly ( Actual-LPA) of 0.34degree Celsius/ 0.37 degreeCelsius. The country averagedmean monthly temperatureswere warmer than normal dur-ing all the months of the yearexcept four months (April,May, June, and November).

"The winter (January toFebruary) and post-monsoon

(October to December) seasonswith all India mean tempera-ture anomalies of 0.78 degreeCelsius and 0.42 degree Celsiusrespectively mainly contributedto this warming," it said.

Also, the country last yearwitnessed a rise in the annualrainfall, which was 105% of itslong-period average (LPA).Rainfall during the southwestmonsoon season, from June toSeptember, was normal at 99%of the LPA. Notably, the north-east monsoon period saw rain-fall at 171% of the LPA - recordhighest since 1901.

Speaking on the 147thfoundation day of the IMD,Union Minister of State forEarth Sciences, Jitendra Singhon Friday said the IMD isgoing to play a major role inIndia's crusade for climatepreservation at internationalfora.

The data showed thatheavy rainfall and flood-relat-ed incidents claimed over 750lives last year, while thunder-storms and lightning killed atleast 780 people in different

parts of the country. There were five cyclonic

storms in 2021 - Tauktae overthe Arabian Sea (May 14-19);Yaas over the Bay of Bengal(May 23-28); Shaheen over theArabian Sea (September 29-October 4); Gulab over the Bay

of Bengal (September 24-28)and most recently, Jawad overthe Bay of Bengal (December2-6). The most devastating ofthem was Tauktae, whichslammed the Saurashtra coast-line on May 17, eventuallyclaiming at least 144 lives.

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The Centre is all set to makeit mandatory for carmak-

ers to provide a minimum ofsix airbags in motor vehiclesthat can carry up to 8 passen-gers for enhanced safety ofoccupants. Union MinisterRoad Transport and HighwaysMinister Nitin Gadkari said hisministry had already mandat-ed the implementation of fit-ment of the driver airbag witheffect from July 1, 2019 andfront co-passenger airbag witheffect from January 1, 2022.

"In order to enhance thesafety of the occupants inmotor vehicles carrying upto 8passengers, I have nowapproved a Draft GSRNotification to make a mini-mum of 6 Airbags compulso-ry," Gadkari said. GSR herestands for General StatutoryRules.

He further said that tominimise the impact of frontaland lateral collisions on theoccupants seated in both frontand rear compartments, it hasbeen decided that 4 addition-al airbags be mandated in theM1 vehicle category.

"Two side/side torso airbagsand two side curtain/tubeairbags covering all outboardpassengers. This is a crucial stepto make motor vehicles in Indiasafer than ever," Gadkari said ina tweet message. According tothe Minister, this will ulti-mately ensure the safety ofpassengers across all segments,irrespective of the cost/variantof the vehicle

According to latest gov-ernment data, total 1,16,496road accidents occurred onnational highways (NHs),including expressways, in 2020,causing 47,984 deaths. Lastyear, Gadkari in an interviewhad said small cars, mostly

purchased by lower middle-class people, should also havean adequate number of airbagsand had wondered whyautomakers are providing eightairbags only in big cars boughtby rich people.

His remarks had comeagainst the backdrop of theautomobile industry raisingconcerns that high taxationand stricter safety and emissionnorms for vehicles have madetheir products expensive.Mostly, lower middle-classpeople buy small economycars and "if their car won't haveairbags and when accidentshappen, then it may result indeaths. So, I appeal to all carmanufacturers to provide aminimum of six airbags acrossall variants and segments of thevehicle," he had said.

The minister had acknowl-edged that additional airbags insmall cars will increase theircost by at least Rs 3,000-4,000.

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People should brace up toface severe cold wave along

with dense to very dense fog innorth India in the next fewdays. The India MeteorologicalDepartment ( IMD) onThursday predicted dense tovery dense fog over NorthIndia during next 4-5 daysand a wet spell over east andadjoining central India during

next two days, which willdecrease significantly there-after. "A Western Disturbance(WD) would affect northwestHimalayas on 16th & 17th andanother WD affect NorthwestIndia from 18th to 20thJanuary, 2022", it saidMeanwhile, no significantchange in minimum tempera-tures is very likely over north-west and central India duringnext 4-5 days.

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Lucknow: Samajwadi Partypresident Akhilesh Yadav onFriday took a swipe at ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath, say-ing by the "80 versus 20" asser-tion, he meant only 20 per centof the population will back theBJP in the Uttar Pradesh elec-tions, while the remaining 80per cent will support his party.

But after the arrival ofSwami Prasad Maurya andothers in the SP, the saffronparty would lose even this 20per cent, Yadav said in hisspeech after giving party mem-bership to Maurya and othershere.

"Baba mukhya mantri

(Adityanath) should engage amath teacher," the SP presidentsaid, referring to the chief min-ister's "80 vs 20" remarks.

Adityanath had recentlysaid that in the Uttar Pradeshelections, while 80 per centsupporters will be on one side,20 per cent will be on the other,which many thought was allud-ing to the 20 per cent Muslimpopulation in the state.

Yadav also pooh-poohedthe BJP's claim of winningthree-fourth seats in the 403-member Uttar PradeshAssembly, saying, "they meantthey will win three or fourseats." PTI

Sagar Island: Over 3.5 lakhpilgrims took the holy dip atthe confluence of the Gangaand the Bay of Bengal here onthe occasion of MakarSankranti on Friday, even asofficials carried out RT-PCRtests as part of the measures tocheck the spread of COVID-19.

Those who have taken thedouble dose of COVID vac-cines and found negative forthe disease have been allowedto enter Sagar Island for theGangasagar fair, a senior offi-cial of West Bengal's South 24Parganas district said.

The holy bath began atmidnight as pilgrims from dif-ferent parts of the countrygathered at the confluencebraving cold and steady drizzle.

They also offered prayers atthe Kapil Muni temple here.

According to locals, phys-ical distancing went for a tossduring the dip even though dis-aster management and civildefence personnel, policemenand volunteers were active tomaintain Covid protocols.

The district administra-tion claimed it regulated theproceedings to a great extentand most of the pilgrims fol-lowed the instructions, an offi-cial said.

"We didn't allow anyonewithout RT-PCR test and dou-ble vaccination certification thistime. The screening was done atall embarkation points, includ-ing Kolkata's Babughat andSouth 24 Parganas' Namkhanaand Lot 8. As of now, an esti-mated 3.5 lakh pilgrims took theholy dip," he said.

According to HinduCalendar, the holy dip onMakar Sankranti is scheduledfrom 6.02 am on Friday andwill continue till 6 am onSaturday.

A two-member panelformed by the Calcutta HighCourt to monitor adherence toCOVID-19 norms at the fairhad inspected the preparationssince Wednesday. PTI

Noida: The Rashtriya Lok Dal(RLD) has chosen educatedcandidates hailing from theconstituency and with no crim-inal background, while partnerthe Samajwadi Party pickedthem on their 'winnability' fac-tor as the alliance announcedthe first list of nominees for theUttar Pradesh Assembly polls.

The alliance of AkhileshYadav's and Jayant Chaudhary'sparties, which was stitched lastyear, on Thursday announcedcandidates on 29 seats – 10from the SP and 19 from theRLD - in western Uttar Pradeshwhich will go to polls onFebruary 10.

These seats across districtslike Muzaffarnagar, Shamli,Aligarh, Agra, Ghaziabad,Meerut, Hapur, Ghaziabadwere largely won by the BJPcandidates in the 2017 electionsbut have now seen a consider-able influence of the recentfarmers' agitation and changingcaste equations.

“The criteria for ticket dis-tribution have been a candi-date's background. Of the can-didates announced by the RLDtoday, no one has a criminal

background. They are all edu-cated and qualified candidateshaving a good connect with thepeople of their region. None ofour candidate is an outsider. Allbelong to the assembly seatwhere they are contesting theelection,” RLD spokespersonSandip Chaudhary told PTI.

He added that party lead-ers have held campaigns andpanchayats in recent monthswhich has led the RLD to alsotake decisions on the basis of“public feedback”.

Chaudhary also highlight-ed that the recent agitation offarmers against the four con-tentious central farm laws,which have now been repealed,have dented the BJP's prospectsin Uttar Pradesh, particularly inthe western region.

“The farmers are unhap-py. The Muslim community isalso unhappy with the BJP. Thepeople have realised the BJP'sfalse promises and false dreamsit had shown to them lasttime,” he claimed.

As the tickets wereannounced, Samajwadi Partyspokesperson Abbas Haidersaid the alliance of his party

and the RLD has a “definiteinfluence” in western part ofUttar Pradesh.

On distribution of tickets,Haider told PTI, “Winnabilityof a candidate is the first crite-ria for ticket distribution in thealliance. The party workersare also being kept in mindduring the process.”

“The atmosphere in theregion is against the BJP andthat is evident as people acrosssectors have come out in sup-port of the SP-RLD alliance,” heclaimed.

Of the 29 seats on whichthe alliance announced candi-dates Thursday, the SamajwadiParty's Nahid Hasan had wonthe 2017 polls from Kairanaand Rafeeq Ansari fromMeerut and the party hasrepeated both the candidatesthis time.

Sahender Singh Ramalawas the only RLD candidatewho won the party a seat in thelast elections. He had wonfrom the Chhaprauli seat inBaghpat district, once consid-ered a party stronghold. The2022 candidate from the seat isyet to be announced. PTI

Kolkata: BJP's West Bengalunit president SukantaMajumdar on Thursday dis-solved all the departments andcells of the party in the stateamid growing resentmentamong its leaders.The BJP has35 departments and 15 cells inWest Bengal. Among these arethe legal department and therefugee cell.

"As per instructions of DrSukanta Majumdar, all depart-ments and cells stand dissolvedtill the time they are reconsti-tuted, and new appointmentsare made," said a statementissued by the state BJP.

The announcement wasmade days after Union

Minister Shantanu Thakur, aleader from the politically pow-erful Matua community, quitthe party's WhatsApp groupsamid disappointment over thenewly-formed state office bear-ers' committee.

Last month, five MLAshad left the WhatsApp groupsin protest after being droppedfrom the committee.

A senior state BJP leadersaid dissolving the depart-ments and cells is a usualprocess in the party after a newpresident takes over.

"Whenever a new presidenttakes charge, he forms newcommittees, departments andcells. After Sukanta Majumdartook over last year, he did notform the new committees andcells," he said.

However, a disgruntled BJPleader said all the party old-timers and experienced leadershave been sidelined by thenew dispensation in the stateunit. PTI

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Gorakhpur: Uttar PradeshChief Minister Yogi Adityanathhad a meal at a Dalit householdhere on Friday and said duringthe Samajwadi Party rule it was"social exploitation" and not"social justice", whereas theBJP government was workingfor the development of everysection of society without anydiscrimination.

Adityanath's visit to theDalit family in Gorakhpurcame a little before SwamiPrasad Maurya, Dara SinghChauhan and Dharam SinghSaini, who resigned from thegovernment accusing it ofbeing anti-Dalit, gathered at theSamajwadi Party office inLucknow to take up its mem-bership in the run-up to theassembly polls beginningFebruary 10.

Several BJP and Apna Dallegislators have also quit theirrespective parties to join the SP.

After having meal atAmritlal Bharti's home on the

occasion of Makar Sankranti,Adityanath told reporters,"Only 18,000 houses were givento people under PM AwasYojna in full five-year term ofthe Akhilesh Yadav govern-ment in UP, whereas the pre-sent BJP government has given45 lakh houses to the poor andthe deprived under thescheme."

"It was 'samajik shoshan'

(social exploitation) and not'samajik nyay' (social justice)during the SP rule in UP," he said,taking a swipe at his predecessorand SP chief Akhilesh Yadav.

He said 2.61 crore house-holds got toilets and 1.36 crorefamilies benefitted from theUjjwala Yojana under the "dou-ble engine" government, refer-ring to the BJP rule at theCentre and in the state. PTI

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Voice of decent againstalleged dynastic politics

seems to have begun in theTrinamool Congress withsenior party MP KalyanBanerjee reiterating that he"will continue in the TrinamoolCongress till Mamata Banerjeeis around … no one except heris my leader.”

Referring to TMC nation-al general secretary AbhishekBanerjee’s statement that he forone was opposed to any pub-lic gathering ---political orreligious --- for another twomonths in view of rising coro-na cases, Kalyan Banerjee saidthat “such decisions are takenby our supreme leader MamataBanerjee and not anyone else.”

He said “such statementsneed her approval and since myleader MamataBanerjee hasnot spoken anything about it Iwill assume that it is notherview … in that case I do notsubscribe to whatever he

(Abhishek) has said.”On whether he regarded

Abhishek Banerjee --- who isalso the nephew of the ChiefMinister --- as his leader theTMC Lok Sabha Chief Whipsaid, “I consider only MamataBanerjee as my leader … I amaround till sheis there … I do notaccept anyone else as my leader.”

Attacking Abhishek formaking a statement that was intune with what the BJPdemanded Kalyan Banerjeesaid “whatever he said match-es witht he views of the BJP …because his statement camesoon after the BJP leadershipmade similar statements …but did he (Abhishek) tell any-thing about the UP elections …did he tell anything about the-crowds gathering in other partsof the country.”

Though there was noimmediate reaction from theChief Minister another seniorleader and party disciplinarycommittee chairman PatrhoChatterjee asked all sides to

make statements commensu-rate to the party policy.

“No statement against anyleader that goes against theparty’s conductrules will betolerated … everyone is askedto exercise restraint,”Chatterjeesaid even as State partyspokesperson Kunal Ghoshsaid cognizance of KalyanBanerjee’s statements wouldbe taken by the party.

Another TMC MP fromHooghly Aparupa Poddar toocame out against KalyanBanerjee seeking his resigna-tion as the Chief Whip. “Heknows full well that AbhishekBanerjee is the party nationalgeneral secretary and we arebound to follow his line … nowafter he has made statementsagainst him, Kalyan Banerjeeshould resign as the ChiefWhip of Lok Sabha because hehas acted like Bivishana --- theepic figure of Ramayana wholeft his brother Ravana thedemon king to join the ranksof Lord Rama.”

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Technical snags might haveled to the Thursday’s train

accident at Moynaguri in NorthBengal that left 9 people deadand many others injured,Railway Minister AshwiniVaishnaw on Friday said after-visiting the spot.

This, even as BJP MP RupaGanguly demanded a CBI inves-tigation into the mishap consid-ering the timing of the accident.

“Are the Railway tracksthinking creatures that theywill cause the train to derail …Do trains derail out of nothing… we have to consider the tim-ing of the accident … the elec-tions are around and consider-ing the fact that no big mishaphas taken place in the past sev-eral years it becomes imperativeto get the investigation con-ducted by the CBI to ascertainthe truth,” Ganguly said draw-ing instant reaction from the

ruling Trinamool Congress.“Even the Union Railway

Minister has not said anythingabout any conspiracy … even hehas pointed at some technicalsnag and here their leader is rais-ing political issues which isunacceptable ... instead of reach-ing out to the people they arepoliticizing the matter,” saidTMCspokesperson Kunal Ghosh.

Meanwhile, former engi-neers of the Railways said thatprima facie it seemed that oneof traction motors of the enginehad fallen off blocking thetracks and causing the coach-es to derail. “We are conduct-ing a high level investigationand will make things knownsoon after we come to a con-clusion,” Commissioner forRailway Safety Latif Khan said.

Twelve coaches of theBikaner-Guwahati Express trainhad derailed and some of themcapsized near Domohani inJalpaiguri district on Thursday.

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Aday after the MaharashtraGovernment asked the

Centre to provide 40 lakhCovaxin and 50 lakhCovishield doses to increase thevaccination coverage, theUnion Health Ministry onThursday scotched reports in asection of the media that theState was facing vaccine short-age and said that it had 24 lakhunutilised doses of Covaxinand that it received additional6.35 lakh doses during theday.

Alluding to media reportsstating that the StateGovernment was unable toincrease the pace of vaccination

in the State owing to shortageof vaccine, the Union HealthMinistry said in a statement:“Such reports are ill informedand incorrect. It is clarified that,as per the reports availabletoday (14th January 2022),Maharashtra has over 24 lakhunutilized doses of Covaxinavailable with it. An addition-al 6.35 lakh doses have beenreceived today”.

“ As per their weekly con-sumption data available onCo-WIN, the average con-sumption by Maharashtra forCovaxin to cover the eligiblebeneficiaries for 15-17 yearsand for precaution dose isalmost 2.94 lakh doses perday. Therefore, the State has

adequate vaccine doses forabout 10 days to cover the eli-gible beneficiaries withCovaxin,” the Health Ministrysaid.

“Furthermore, forCovishield, the state has 1.24crore unutilized and remainingdoses available as on date.With an average consumptionof 3.57 lakhs per day, this willsustain for more than 30 daysfor the beneficiaries to be vac-cinated using the vaccine,” theUnion Health Ministry state-ment said.

“Hence, the media reportsare not factually correct and donot reflect the correct pictureof the available stock of balanceand unutilized Covid vaccine

doses with Maharashtra,” thestatement added

At a meeting of ChiefMinisters and ministers of var-ious states called by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi totake stock of the Covid-19 sit-uation across the country, theMaharashtra government hadasked the Centre to provide 40lakh Covaxin and 50 lakhCovishield doses to increase thevaccination coverage.

Talking to media personsafter the meeting, State PublicHealth Minister Rajesh Topehad said: “Covaxin is requiredfor the vaccination for the 15-18 age group and Covishield forpeople over 60 years of age andthe frontline workers”.

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Ablack Pongal for TamilNadu and a black Friday

for Kerala. That’s how doctorsin the two States described thestatus of pandemic in the twosouthern States. While thenumber of people diagnosedwith Covid-19 shot up to23,459 in Tamil Nadu duringthe last 24 hours (out of 1.5lakh samples tested), Keralaregistered 16,338 cases onFriday. The death toll in Keralareached 50, 568 while TamilNadu’s Department of HealthDirectorate said the number ofvictims succumbed to the pan-demic till date reached 36,956.

Tamil Nadu Government,shocked over the spurt in thenumber of Covid-19 cases havetightened the rules anddeclared a partial shut down

with many restrictions. Schoolsand Colleges have been askedto stick to online classes till fur-ther notice taking into accountthe warning issued by theTamil Nadu GovernmentDoctors Association.

The Kerala Government ina review meeting held onFriday decided to shut down allschools and asked theGovernment and private estab-lishments to opt for onlinemode in districts where TestPositivity Rate is more than 20per cent. The State’s TPR onFriday stood at 23.68 per cent.

Bengaluru: Karnataka ChiefMinister Basavaraj Bommaion Thursday sought Centralassistance to raise the numberof oxygenated beds and oxygenplants in the State.

Bommai sought the assis-tance today while taking part ina video conference held byPrime Minister Narendra Modiwith Chief Ministers of variousstates over the COVID-19 sit-uation in the country.

"I explained the measurestaken by the state governmentto control and manage Covid.The Prime Minister appreciat-ed the high rate of testing andvaccination in the state whichis higher than the nationalaverage," the CM was quoted assaying by his office in a release.

Noting that the PM wasalso apprised about measuresinitiated to ramp up the med-ical infrastructure, he said, "I

sought the central assistance toraise the oxygenated beds andoxygen plants."

The Prime Minister gaveinstructions on making allpreparations based on theexperience of the first and sec-ond wave of Covid, as thepandemic is expected to peakin February, the CM said.

During the third wave over94 per cent infected are inhome isolation, and thereforethe Prime Minister wanted togive priority to ensuring sup-ply of medicines, appropriatecare and measures to instill asense of confidence among theinfected, he said.

Further Bommai said, theUnion government has sug-gested ramping up testing, pur-chase of ambulances andimproving medical infrastruc-ture under the Rs 32,000 crorepackage it has provided. PTI

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Upping the ante over the ill-health of Chief Minister

Uddhav Thackeray once again,the Opposition BJP on Fridayasked him to step aside andhand over his post to someoneelsewhere till his health condi-tion improved.

The BJP’s demand shouldbe seen in the context of thefact that Uddhav -- who hasbeen recouping from the cer-vical spine surgery that heunderwent at HN RelianceHospital here on November 12– did not attend the Covid-19review meeting through videoconferencing called by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi onThursday, owing to health rea-sons.

Talking to media persons atKolhapur in westernMaharashtra, State BJP presi-dent Chandrakant Patil said:“The State Health Minister has

said that the chief minister didnot attend the Covid-19 reviewmeeting called by the PrimeMinister as he cannot sit at oneplace for two to two and a halfhours. That being the case,Uddhav Thackeray shouldhand over the chief minister’sresponsibility to someone elsein the party till recovers fullyfrom his illness”.

“People are saying that thechief minister has not metpeople for almost 70 days now.That being the case, UddhavThackeray should delegate hispowers to someone who canattend daily meetings andsometimes visit some places inthe state,” Patil said.

“He ( the chief minister) islike our friend, so I wish hima speedy recovery. However, thetask of administering the state,which has a population ofaround 12 crore, cannot bedone just by sitting at home.Such responsibilities should

be taken more seriously,” thestate chief said.

On Shiv Sena leader SanjayRaut’s criticism of the BJP,Patil said: “Raut should under-stand that the Sena is losing dueto this coalition government. AShiv Sena candidate cannotwin the election of Mumbaicooperative Bank, whereas anNCP candidate becomes itschairman.”

Referring to the NCP’sdecision to contest the UttarPradesh Assembly polls, Patilsaid: “If Sena is contestingupcoming elections in Goaand Uttar Pradesh, it is mere-ly to win a certain number ofvotes in order to get the tag ofa national party. You need toget a certain number of votesin more than one state to getsuch recognition”.

Patil had made a similardemand that Uddhav should stepaside from his chief minister’spost till he recovers fully from his

cervical spine surgery that heunderwent at HN RelianceHospital two months ago.

The reiteration of hisdemand by Patil comes a weekafter the a BJP social mediafunctionary Jiten Gajaria hadsparked a controversy by puttingout an “objectionable” tweetdescribing Maharashtra chiefminister Uddhav Thackeray’swife Rashmi Thackeray as“Marathi Rabri Devi” .

In his tweet put out alongwith photograph of RashmiThackeray, Gajaria had likenedher to Bihar’s former chiefminister Rabri Devi, who hadtaken over the reins of thenorthern state after her hus-band and RJD chief LaluPrasad Yadav resigned in thewake of his involvement in thefodder scam.Through histweet, Gajaria had indirectlyreferred to the health issuesfaced by chief minister UddhavThackeray.

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on Security and Threats’found. Of those who havebeen arrested thus far, “overhalf were business owners,CEOs and from white-collaroccupations. Over a quarterhad college degrees and onlya third had criminal records,while 13 per cent belonged toextreme right-wing militiagroups”. It concluded thatthe mob was overwhelming-ly White Non-Latinos, inages between 35-50 yearsand the vast majority hadcome from pockets of Trumpsupporters in districts andStates that were either major-ity Democrat or had swungtowards the Democrats.

The most interestingaspect of the study was therevelation that the singlemost important motivationfor those who participated inthe insurrection was theirbelief in the “GreatReplacement Theory”. A con-spiracy theory first pro-pounded in France by authorRenaud Camus in whichwhite nationalists claimedthat the French white popu-lation was being demograph-ically and culturally replaceddeliberately by Non-European peoples. It hasfound much traction not just

in France but also in otherEuropean nations and in theUnited States and NewZealand. In America, it hascome to be seen as the Non-Latino White populationbeing replaced by Blacks,Hispanics and People ofColour. In essence, a growingfear of losing their privi-leged and entitled position insociety that the colour oftheir skin provided.

A fear that DonaldTrump was able to effective-ly harness not just in thepresidential campaign of2016 but also, even moresuccessfully, in his 2020campaign despite his even-tual loss. Interestingly, theReplacement Theory withappropriate modificationscan just as easily be adaptedin support of other extrem-ist ideologies as well, bothreligious and ethnic. In ourown context, for example,there are groups within theHindutva fold that use asimilar argument, not sup-ported by any scientific data,to suggest that birth rates inminority communities are sohigh that they will eventual-ly overtake the majorityHindu population in a fewdecades. There are groups

that have recently gone fur-ther in propagating evenmore radical views than this.

Clearly, one need not bea social scientist to under-stand that the motive forsuch baseless assertions iscompletely rooted in politics,and works as an effectivetool for propagating fear togarner votes. What is trulydangerous is the insidiousnature of the threat posed.The fear of the unknown, aswe all know, obliterates allreasoning and logic andbrings out a purely emotion-al response. Unfortunately,what most people overlookis that while it is relativelysimple to start a fire, theconflagration leaves noneunscathed. Those fanningthe flames of religious big-otry would do well to heed18th century English poetSamuel Taylor Coleridge’swise words that “in politics,what begins in fear usuallyends in failure”.

(The writer is a militaryveteran, who is a VisitingFellow with the ObserverResearch Foundation andSenior Visiting Fellow withThe Peninsula Foundation,Chennai. The views expressedare personal.)

�������������� �������������Sir —Since the derailment of SeemanchalExpress in February 2019 in Biharwhere six people lost their lives, and thecurtailment of the railways due toCOVID-19, the Railways was trying hardto renew its claims of safety and devel-opment. Just at that moment, at leastseven people were killed and over 40injured after 12 coaches of the Bikaner-Guwahati Express derailed in WestBengal’s Jalpaiguri district. The peopleare unable to digest the claim that dueto the pandemic, there were fewer pas-sengers on board the train. It seems tobe a wrong statement by the officials con-cerned. There were 550 passengers in theaffected coaches and 1,100 passengers inthe train; so, it's not less.

Moreover, it’s 2022 and still thesetrains are using IFC coaches instead ofLHB (Linke Hofmann Busch) coaches.Instead of inaugurating stations after sta-tions, there’s a pressing need to developthe rail compartments first. The silver lin-ing amid the tragedy was to see about 50ambulances reaching the spot in no timeat such a remote place, also thanks in nosmall measure to locals for a quick help-ing hand and all parties for overcomingpetty politics and joining hands to helpthe passengers. It shows that our medicalsystem and coordination improved.Heartfelt condolences to the bereavedfamilies and praying for early recovery ofthose injured.

Bidyut Kumar Chatterjee | Faridabad

����������������������Sir — We have too many people aroundwhose sentiments are too easily hurt bywhat happens in the advertisements butnot enough by what happens out therein reality. Added to the fact that we gen-erally lack a sense of humour and everyimagined slight is blown out of propor-tion, it has made it nearly impossible forany creative person to take a different,independent view from the accepted tra-ditional view. After 2014, there is a grow-ing constituency of eagle-eyed ‘protec-tors’ of Indian cultural and religious tra-ditions waiting to getting offended at the

slightest chance.Thanks to the attitude of the

Government in power and other ele-ments that are patronised by it extra-con-stitutionally, which offers them protec-tion from the essence of the law of theland, this creed believes they have the soleproprietary rights over Indian culture.Culture is dynamic and the fossilisedthought processes of the many ‘guardiansof Indian values’ need a changeover if thenation is to progress.

Anthony Henriques | Mumbai

�������������������Sir — While cricket has seen a lot ofinnovations over the years like colouredclothing, emergence of T20 format,introduction of pink ball, etc, ambidex-trous bowling is something that hasn’tmade its way yet into the game. Butbeing an ambidextrous bowler, andmore so a fast bowler, is highly challeng-ing and far more demanding in termsof physical fitness because the bowlerneeds to rewire his body very often dur-

ing the game. Across cricketing nations,only five cricketers have so far tested outambidextrous bowling — AkshayKarnewar (India), Kamindu Mendis(Sri Lanka), Yasir Jan (Pakistan), ShailaSharmin (Bangladesh) and JemmaBarsby (Australia.)

But how far can ambidextrous bowl-ing be really effective and sustainable atinternational level is the moot questionas these days, batsmen like Glen Maxwellare adept at employing switch-hitting atwill, a shot which is highly productive inT20 cricket. In fact, ambidextrous bowl-ing was in use long ago when Pakistan’sHanif Mohammed tried it out a fewtimes, though in desperation, like he didto Gary Sobers during his monumentalknock of 365 n.o. at Kingston, Jamaica,in 1958. It’s believed to be the first-everinstance of ambidextrous bowling ininternational cricket.

Ranganathan Sivakumar | Chennai

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We live in a worldthat, as Canadianp h i l o s o p h e rBrendan Myers

puts it, is “utterly saturatedwith fear. We fear being attackedby religious extremists, bothforeign and domestic. We fearthe loss of political rights, a lossof privacy, or a loss of freedom.We fear being injured, robbedor attacked, being judged byothers, or neglected, or leftunloved.”

Politicians understand thiswell. With the COVID-19 pan-demic having already laid uslow and in the absence of anyreal health-revival hopes onthe horizon, they have lost notime in using fear to entice andrecruit volunteers to their ownpersonal causes.

Former AmericanPresident Donald Trump is aprime example of a politicianwho has successfully used fearto his advantage, and continuesto do so despite having lost thePresidency by approximatelyseven million of the popularvote. With absolutely no evi-dence to show, he has stillbeen able to sell the “Big Lie”that he was denied victorybecause the election machinerywas compromised and allowedincumbent Joe Biden to winfraudulently, something thatmillions continue to believeeven to this day.

This issue, as we are allaware, boiled over on January 6,2021, the day Congress was toformally certify President-electBiden’s win. An unruly mob ofTrump’s supporters, egged on byhim but he choosing not to jointhem, attacked Capitol Hill inan effort to stop Congress fromcarrying out its constitutionalmandate. In the ensuing vio-lence, two policemen werekilled and over 150 injured,leading to the arrest of overseven hundred of thoseinvolved, with many more stillat large.

One would have expectedthat the fanatics who attackedthe Capitol and unleashed uttermayhem there would belong tothe very fringes of Americansociety. Surprisingly, that wasnot the case, as a study by theUniversity of Chicago’s ‘Project

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India was earlier known for its flour-ishing trade in spices and textiles,along with precious metal and stone.AfterIndependence, India inherited

an economy that was one of the poorestin the world with no industrial base andmostlydevastated land deprived of forestand fertility. The Britishleft a poor base forthe already developed handicraftsuniver-sally acclaimed for their quality andcraftsmanship.

In Mahatma Gandhi's view,industrialcivilisation fostered by British rule was themain cause of India's social, ecological andeconomic distress. He believed that India'ssalvation lay in the restoration of itsancient civilisation where economicprogress and moral progress intertwined.

Gandhi knew that "India lives in herseven lakh villages" thereforethe eco-nomic and social revival of these villagesis a pre-condition for reconstruction ofIndia. He wanted to make the villages self-sufficient and build a rural economywhich is not solely based on agricultureand allied activities but also has strongrural industries thereby generatingemployment for the villagers.

Gandhi once said, "If the village per-ishes, India will perish too". He imaginedhis ideal village will consist of cottages madefrom locally sourced materials with suffi-cient light, ventilation, proper sanitationand produce its own grains, vegetables,fruits, and Khadi. It will have wells, placesof worship, a common meeting place, acommon grazing field, a co-operativedairy, primary and secondary schoolswhere vocational training will be impart-ed and panchayats for settling disputes.

Gandhi was againstthe concentrationof power and the system that makes theindividual subservient to the machine andmaterial. He wanted a development processwhich is harmonious, poverty free, nonvi-olent, based on cooperation and ethics.Therefore, he proposed an ecologicalmodel centered on limitation of wants incontrast to the modern civilization that pro-motes material welfare and individualprofits. He was sure that too much empha-sis onmaterialism could lead to violence,unhappiness and a culture of oppression,exploitation, and dominance.

Gandhi's concept of sustainable devel-opment is rooted in a holistic approachwhich emphasizes the development of anindividual and society as a whole in con-nection with nature.By preaching "simpleliving," Gandhi sought to curb both humangreed and mindless exploitation of natur-al resources. He said, one should know thedifference between 'need' and 'want' andtaking more than required to fulfil ourneed, in a way is theft from other species,humans and the future.

Gandhi often said,"The earth providesenough to satisfy every man's needs, butnot every man's greed".

He warned against the perils of mas-sive industrialization and unsustainable pat-terns of consumption in the west. He

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described the process of urbaniza-tion as a "double drain", i.e., it willharm the villages and the villagersand thus proving fatal toboth.Hence, in order to ensureeconomic balance, it is importantthat the urban sector does notdrainthe rural sectorand shift thefocus from centralization to decen-tralization. He argued, that a tech-nologically sophisticated economywill have two major consequences:it would disempower the econom-ic autonomy of the masses andgreatly undermine the ecologicalfabric on which millions depend.

Therefore,to increase the pro-ductivity, we should avoid indis-criminate use and non-selectiveadoption of imported technology.He foresaw that the development ofsmall-scale technology could boostefficiency in rural production with-out displacing rural labour andad-vocated an appropriate technolog-ical mix with controlled productionto maximise the social benefits ofscience and technology and tomaintain a proper balance betweenman and environment.

He emphasized the develop-ment of village and cottage indus-tries where handicrafts, spinning,weaving, and likewise remain con-stant sources of income andrevenuegeneration. This will protect the vil-lage crafts and the workers from thecrushing competition of the power-driven machinery and ensure jobsfor the villagers.

Gandhi ideas couldnot be morerelevant than today when India iswitnessing jobless growth and fac-ing the worst unemployment crisisin this pandemic situation. It is evi-dent that the current paradigm ofdevelopmentis causing serious envi-ronmental problems whichis neitherecologically nor socially sustainable.It is leading the planet into a vor-tex of inequality, widening the rift

between rich and poor, and provedinadequate to address the issues ofthe millions living in poverty.

Gandhi was well aware of thepitfalls of such developmentas wellas the consequences of unequal dis-tribution of wealth between differ-ent classes.The World InequalityReport 2022 ranked India as themost unequal country in the world.The top 10 per cent and top one percent hold 57 per cent and 22 percent of the total nationalincome,respectively,while the bot-tom half 's share has come down to13 per cent and they barely haveanything. Thomas Piketty asserts inhis influential book, Capital in theTwenty-First Century, that inequal-ity is rapidly intensifying and glob-al cooperation is desirable to preventthe wealthy from simply shiftingassets into other jurisdictions.Heproposed, an extremely highincome-tax rates on upper-incometaxpayers along with a global wealthtax.Economic progress devoid ofmoral elements will deepen divi-sions and increase dissensionsamong people.

With growing population, theincrease in food demand has con-siderably altered land-use practiceswhichhas led toagricultural inten-sification at the expense of forestsand grazing lands.Increased use ofchemicals and fertilizers are caus-ing pollution, soil and groundwater contamination, loss of bio-diversity and killthebeneficialorganisms whichincreases fertili-ty.Gandhi believed in sustainableagriculture and advised the use ofbio-manures and bio-pesticides toimprove soil fertility. Today, theexperts in the healthcare areemphasizing the importance ofchemical-free crops because exces-sive amounts of chemicals in plantsare causing health related problemsin humans as it affects kidneys,

lungs, may also cause cancer andcongenital abnormalities like mal-nourished children, etc.

Gandhi's understanding of theecological crisis was far ahead of histime and anticipated many of ourgreatest challenges of today.Knowing that afforestation can bean effective step to combat futurewater crisis, he urged people toplant trees. He also proposed,water harvesting for irrigationalpurposes to prevent droughts andfamines.

Climate change has once againshed light on Gandhi's philosophyof self-sufficiency and sustainabledevelopment and made the worldrealize the importance of practic-ing a lifestyle that has minimalenvironmental impact. These prin-ciples remain the driving forcebehind all the UN's climate agree-ments, environmental conservationtreaties, and sustainable develop-ment goals. Many of his ideas fore-shadow the holistic thinkingbehind the "Agenda 2030:Transforming Our World" forSustainable Development. The cen-tral idea of Agenda 2030 is capturedby the tagline "Leave No OneBehind." The plan aims to achieveprosperity for people and the plan-et and calls for "transformative"change, which includes changingthe way we live, produce, andconsume.

Thus, the current climate cri-sis and the need to find sustainablemeans has brought a long-sup-pressed and quintessentiallyGalbraith's unanswered question tothe fore — "How much should acountry consume?" — along withGandhian corollary — "How muchshould a person consume?". Theyhave become fundamental ques-tionsfor the 21st century and willdominate the intellectual and polit-ical debates.

(The writer is a formerIndian Forest Service

officer. The viewsexpressed are personal.)

Tobacco consumption is amenace that is worsethan the current

Covid019 pandemic and caus-es innumerable fatalities. BothFinance Ministry and GSTCouncil appear to have over-looked the causes of this mal-ady despite representations bycivil society organizations,Members of Parliament, themedical fraternity, state repre-sentatives, Ministers and citi-zens.

There have been no majortobacco tax increases after theGST council placed tobaccoproducts in the 28 per centbracket in 2017. The option oftax increase on tobacco prod-ucts gives the government agolden opportunity to raisebadly required finances.Remember, lower taxesincrease the affordability of

tobacco consumers, especiallyteenagers and children. TheUnion Government has theoption of hiking the exciseduty and NCCD in the annu-al budget while the GSTCouncil can increase the cess.This will ensure India has opti-mal tobacco taxation as man-dated by WHO.

A submission toParliament mentioned that asmall excise duty hike ensuredtax collection of Rs 4962 crores.This proves the point that rais-ing excise duty and calamityduty substantially in the com-ing budget can fetch a hand-some revenue.

The costs imposed on oursociety and our economy, bothdirect as well as indirect, havebeen huge. India has over 27crore tobacco users today andthe consumption of tobacco

kills more than 13 lakh Indiansannually. At a global level,eight million deaths are report-ed people every year.Overseven million deaths aredue to direct use of tobaccowhile the rest are caused bypassive smokers exposed tothe poisonous smoke. As perthe data of GYTS (GlobalYouth Tobacco Survey) in 2019,nearly one-fifth of the stu-

dents aged 13-15 have used anyform of the tobacco product(smoking, smokeless, and anyother form) in their life.Clearly, consumption of tobac-co isnot just about one's healthat the individual level, but asocietal problem we facenationally.

Tobacco taxes and, there-fore, the prices have to beincreased regularly, so as to sig-nificantly reduce the affordabil-ity over a period of time. Thiswas the practice in the pre-GSTera with additional options ofthe states adding VAT. Tobaccotaxes and prices have not beenincreased enough over time toreduce the affordability of theseproducts resulting in morenumbers of consumers get-ting addicted. A long, four-yeargap of no tax increase hastobacco companies share prices

soaring on the one hand, andon the other, we see rampantconsumption leading to moredeaths and spread of dreadeddiseases. The tobacco industrymay have its reason to look theother way, but the governmenthas no such option.

The annual economic costfrom all tobacco products isestimated to be Rs 177.341crores in 2017-18 amounting tomore than one per cent ofIndia's GDP. This will contin-ue to grow in the post-Covidera and the next GATS reportwill surely point out the alarm-ing rise of casualties. In acountry like India, an estimat-ed 1.3 million deaths areaccounted for by tobacco abuse.As per WHO data, the mostcommon way tobacco killsisthrough cardiovascular dis-eases (CVDs) - nearly 4,49,844

deaths such deaths occurred inIndia as of 2018. The highprevalence of non-communica-ble diseases due to tobacco useis posing a huge challenge tothe country's response toCovid-19 management, ampli-fying India's health burden insuch difficult times.

It is time that the FinanceMinistry launches a multi-pronged attack for the socialcause of tobacco control byincreasing taxes on tobaccoproducts both in the annualbudget and also in the GSTcouncil to wipe out the gap ofthe last four years. Doing thissocial good will not raise anyeyebrows and citizens will wel-come it for reasons of publichealth.

I am sure that the listeningposts in the Ministry will con-vey the right message to the

Minister and also work out themodalities of tax rationalizationwhich mandates that a sinproduct sale needs to be limit-ed and citizens be protected.We are especially talking aboutchildren and teens who aremajor contributors to our econ-omy.

A resilient healthcare sys-tem as an outcome will emergethat complements our 'AtmaNirbhar Bharat' mission, whichnot only focuses on revival ofthe economy but also on over-all improvement of the healthof our citizens. To mark theNational Youth Day which hasthe theme, 'SakshamYuva,Sashakth Yuva', by makingtobacco products unaffordablewe may save the young gener-ation from this deadly productand make them healthy andaatmanirbhar.

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(The writer is a medicalpractitioner and Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha.

The views expressed are personal.)

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Third world nations wereoffered about 100 million

Covid-19 vaccines that werenear expiry, which countrieswere forced to dump, accordingto UN's children's fund Unicef.According to Unicef 's head ofsupply Etleva Kadilli, more than100 million vaccines were, inDecember alone, rejected bycountries as they were unable todistribute them, BBC reported.

The problem was com-pounded by many countries'insufficient storage facilities,Kadilli was quoted as saying tomembers of EuropeanParliament on Thursday.

Many of world's poorestcountries, most of them inAfrica, have been relying on UN-backed Covax scheme for theirvaccines.

The programme faced chal-lenges in accessing doses earlylast year, but situation signifi-cantly improved towards end of2021 with wealthier countriesreleasing doses they were hold-

ing. According to provisionaltracking by UNICEF, about 910million doses were deliveredthrough UN-backed initiative asof December 30. Nearly half ofdoses delivered in Decembercame from three US-backedvaccine manufacturers: Johnson& Johnson, Moderna and Pfizer.

However, many of dosesoffered have been close to theirexpiry date, and have beenrejected by recipient nations,BBC report said.Some countriessuch as Nigeria struggled withadministering vaccines forcingthem to destroy expired jabs.

Only about 10 per cent ofpopulation on continent hasbeen fully vaccinated. "Morethan 9.4 billion vaccine doseshave now been administeredglobally. But 90 countries did notreach target of vaccinating 40 percent of their populations by endof last year, and 36 of those coun-tries have not yet vaccinated 10per cent of their populations,"Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus,chief of World HealthOrganization.

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British Prime Minister BorisJohnson on Fridayfaced

mounting leadership pressureamid further allegations ofparties

held at his Downing Streetoffice-residence by staff, cate-gorisedas a “partygate” scandaldue to the apparent serialbreaches of lockdown rules inplace at the time.

‘The Daily Telegraph'reported on two farewell par-ties made up of about 30 peo-ple drinking alcohol and danc-ing to music until the early-hours of April 17 last year, thenight before the funeral ofPrince

Philip – the Duke ofEdinburgh's funeral. DowningStreet said thetiming was“deeply regrettable” and that ithad apologised to BuckinghamPalace.

“It is deeply regrettablethat this took place at a time ofnationalmourning andNumber 10 has apologised tothe Palace," the UK PrimeMinister's spokespersonsaid."You heard from the primeminister this week, he's recog-nised Number10 should beheld to the highest standardsand take responsibility forthings we did not get right,” thespokesperson said.

It is understood that a callfrom the Prime Minister'soffice was made to the Palaceon Friday. Restrictions at thetime banned indoor mixingbetween different householdsand Queen Elizabeth II satalone during the church cere-mony for her late husband inkeeping with social distancingrules. "This event should not

have happened at the timethat it did. I am deeply sorry,and take full responsibility,"said James Slack, the UK PrimeMinister's former Director ofCommunications, at the centreof the farewell that led to theparty last April.

Slack, now deputy editor-in-chief at ‘The Sun' newspa-per, apologised"unreservedlyfor the anger and hurt caused".

While Prime MinisterJohnson was not at either of thetwo gatherings in April 2021 ashe was spending the weekendat his Buckinghamshirecountryestate Chequers, the latest rev-elations add to the saga aroundrules being broken at the heartof the UK government.

Ministers have insisted thattop civil servant Sue Gray'songoing internal investigationinto such gatherings will deter-mine the extent of wrongdoingand therefore judgment shouldbe reserved until her probeconcludes.

"If the details that are inthis story turn out to be true,clearlypeople are going to formtheir judgment," UK SecurityMinister Damian Hinds saidon Thursday, with reference tothe fresh revelations which callBoris Johnson's leadership ofhis party and country intoquestion.

"I am entirely behind thePrime Minister and the gov-ernment, and I think the lead-ership that the Prime Ministerhas shown, particularlythroughthe coronavirus, has been verystrong," said Hinds. But battlelines are being drawn withinthe Conservative Party,withmany of Johnson's own MPsdemanding he step down asleader. “I want to apologise.

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As Boris Johnson's “party-gate” troubles mount and

members of his ownConservative Party demand hestep down as the British PrimeMinister, one name is doingthe rounds as a frontrunner totake charge –his Indian-originChancellor andDowningStreet neighbourRishi Sunak. The UK-bornson of a pharmacist motherand a National Health Service

(NHS) general practition-er (GP) father is an OxfordUniversity and Stanford grad-uate. He is married to AkshataMurty, the daughter of Infosysco-founder Narayana Murthy,and the couple has two young-daughters Krishna andAnoushka. The MP forRichmond in Yorkshire firstentered the UK Parliament in2015 and has quickly risen upthe Tory party ranks as astaunch Brexiteer, who hadbacked Johnson's strategy toleave the European Union(EU).

From working in mymum's tiny chemist shop tomy experience building largebusinesses, I have seen how weshould support free enter-prise and innovation to ensureBritain has a stronger future,”Sunak had

said during the Brexit ref-erendum.He co-founded a 1-billion-pound global invest-ment firm and specialised ininvesting in small British busi-nesses before his entry intopolitics.As the first Chancellorof the Exchequer of Indianheritage, Sunak made historyin February 2020 when he wasappointed to the most impor-tant UK Cabinet post.

If the Tory party mur-murings and bookie bettingodds are anythingto go by,then the 41-year-old may wellbe in line to make historyasBritain's first Indian-originPrime Minister. "No, definite-ly not. Seeing what the PrimeMinister has to deal with, thisis a job hard enough for me todo," Sunak said back in

October 2020, when asked ifhe had prime ministerialambitions. But a lot has hap-pened since, with Sunak lead-ing the charge for the country'seconomic fightback againstthe COVID-19 pandemic.

Many of the schemes heput in place as finance minis-ter, including the furlough-based Coronavirus JobRetention Scheme andCOVID support grants forstruggling businesses over thecourse of several lockdownshave proved largely popular.

However, proposed taxhikes coming up from thisApril and consistentlyrisingenergy and cost of living costshave proved less popular with-in the Conservative Party base.The famously low-tax favour-ing Tories may find his hightax plansto recoup some of thelost economic ground duringthe pandemic hard

to digest when things real-ly come to a leadership scrum.

In fact, there is alreadytalk within the party ranks ofhim having overplayed hishand by not speaking outmore firmly in support of

57-year-old Johnson, fol-lowing his Parliament apolo-gy earlier thisweek over aDowning Street garden partyin apparent breach of lock-down rules. Sunak, who wasmiles away on a business visit,tweeted much later in eveningto say that “the PM was rightto apologise and I support hisrequest for patience while SueGray carries out her enquiry”.This was seen as a half-heart-ed show of support andviewed as reflectiveof his ownleadership ambitions.Thewealth associated with Sunakand his wife Akshata has alsooften hit spotlight for wrongreasons, with the Chancellor's95-pound pair of slippersspotted in official photographsreleased pre-Budget lastOctober the latest luxury itemto hit the headlines. This fol-lowed being pictured with a180- pound so-called “smartmug”, which was reportedly agift from his wife.

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China devoted resources toexpanding mass surveil-

lance systems nationwide, inthe absence of meaningful legalprotections against unlawful orabusive government surveil-lance, the Human RightsWatch (HRW) said in its WorldReport 2022.

Chinese companies withreported links to governmentcontinue to draw global scruti-ny for their data collectionpractices, the HRW reportsaid.

March 2021 marked fifthanniversary of landmark Anti-Domestic Violence Law, yetvictims continued to face anuphill battle in seeking author-ities' protection and account-ability for their abusers. InFebruary, an article by formerjournalist Ma Jinyu on violentabuses she suffered by herhusband ignited a heated dis-cussion on social media aboutgovernment's persistent failureto prosecute domestic vio-lence.

The Belt and RoadInitiative (BRI), announced in2013, is the government's tril-lion-dollar infrastructure andinvestment program stretchingacross some 70 countries. SomeBRI projects have been criti-cized for lack of transparency,disregard of community con-cerns, and negative environ-mental impacts, the HRW said.

The HRW published areport last August that docu-mented economic, social, andcultural rights violations inCambodia resulting fromLower Sesan 2 dam's displace-ment of nearly 5,000 peoplebetween 2013 and 2018 andimpacts on livelihoods of tensof thousands of othersupstream and downstream.

The dam was a BRI projectfunded mainly by a Chinese-state owned bank and built bya Chinese-state owned elec-tricity generation company.China Labour Watch, an NGO,reported, in April, that overseasChinese workers working onBRI infrastructure projects inAlgeria, Indonesia, Pakistan,and other countries were vic-tims of human trafficking andforced labour, including beingdeceived into working illegal-ly, held against their will, and

forced to work while infectedwith Covid-19 in early andmid-2020. China is by farlargest emitter of greenhousegases globally, making a majorcontribution to climate crisisthat is taking a mounting tollon human rights around globe.

China's imports of agri-cultural commodities drivemore deforestation globallythan those of any other market,including imports of all 27member states of EuropeanUnion (EU) combined.

Canada, the EU, the UK,and US imposed coordinatedand bilateral targeted sanc-tions on Chinese governmentofficials and companiesresponsible for serious humanrights violations, includinginternational crimes, inXinjiang.

The US also imposed sanc-tions on several senior HongKong officials for imposingthe National Security Law. InAugust, the US gave HongKong people in US a temporary18-month "safe haven."

In September, UN HighCommissioner for HumanRights Michelle Bacheletexpressed "regret" that author-ities had not given her mean-ingful access to Xinjiang, andsaid that her office would issuean assessment of human rightsin that region

Parliamentarians inBelgium, Canada, the CzechRepublic, Lithuania, theNetherlands, and UK passedresolutions accusing Chinesegovernment of committinggenocide against Uyghurs;some also called on their gov-ernments to limit participationin 2022 Beijing WinterOlympics.

The UK Parliament passeda non-binding motion sup-porting a diplomatic boycott ofGames. Members of EuropeanParliament halted EU's pro-posed ComprehensiveAgreement on Investment withChina, citing human rightsconcerns, and freezing con-sideration of deal for as long asthey are subject to Beijing'scounter sanctions. InSeptember, they also adopted arecommendation for a new,more assertive, and bettercoordinated EU strategy onChina, placing human rights atits core.

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Meta (formerly Facebook)is facing a $3.1 billion

class-action lawsuit in the UKover allegedly abusing its mar-ket dominance and if the law-suit succeeds nearly 44 millionBritish Facebook users couldreceive a $68 payout each.

Competition law expertDr Liza Lovdahl Gormsen hasbrought the class-action lawsuitagainst Facebook's parent firmMeta at the UK's CompetitionAppeal Tribunal, Daily Mailreported on Thursday.

The lawsuit claims thatFacebook should pay its 44 mil-lion UK users compensationfor the exploitation of their databetween 2015 and 2019.

"It is claimed this allowedthe firm to generate billions inrevenues from their data, whileusers received no monetaryreturns, which the claim labelsan 'unfair deal', said the report.

The lawsuit alleged thatFacebook made billions by"imposing unfair terms andconditions that demanded con-sumers surrender valuable per-sonal data to access the net-work".

"In the 17 years since it wascreated, Facebook became thesole social network in the UKwhere you could be sure toconnect with friends and fam-ily in one place," Gormsensaid in a statement.

"Yet, there was a dark sideto Facebook; it abused its mar-ket dominance to imposeunfair terms and conditions onordinary Britons giving it thepower to exploit their person-al data.

I'm launching this case tosecure billions of pounds ofdamages for the 44 millionBritons who had their dataexploited by Facebook," sheelaborated. Dr Gormsen is aSenior Research Fellow at theBritish Institute of Internationaland Comparative Law (BIICL)and the director of theCompetition Law Forum.

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Disappointed after monthsof engagement, a US

House panel has slammedYouTube parent companyAlphabet, Meta (formerlyFacebook), online discussionforum Reddit and Twitter forfailing to provide additionalinformation on how thoseplatforms were used to organ-ise violent events at the USCapitol on January 6 last year.

Chairman Bennie G.Thompson (D-MS)announced that the SelectCommittee has issued sub-poenas to four social mediacompanies as part of its inves-tigation into the January 6attack on the US Capitol andits causes.

After inadequate respons-es to prior requests for infor-mation, the Select Committeeis demanding records fromAlphabet, Meta, Reddit, andTwitter relating to the spreadof misinformation, efforts tooverturn the 2020 election,domestic violent extremism,and foreign influence in the2020 election.

"Two key questions forthe Select Committee are howthe spread of misinforma-tion and violent extremismcontributed to the violentattack on our democracy, andwhat steps "if any" socialmedia companies took to pre-vent their platforms frombeing breeding grounds forradicalising people to vio-lence," said ChairmanThompson.

It's disappointing thatafter months of engagement,"we still do not have docu-ments and information nec-essary to answer those basicq u e s t i o n s " . A l p h a b e t ' sYouTube was a platform forsignificant communicationsby its users that were relevantto planning and execution ofJanuary 6 attack on USCapitol, including livestreamsof attack as it was takingplace, according to panel.

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North Korea fired two sus-pected ballistic missiles

eastward on Friday, afterPyongyang publicly warnedearl ier in the day of a"stronger and certain"response to the new US sanc-tions, South Korea's militarysaid.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff(JCS) said the short-rangeprojectiles were launchedfrom Uiju in North PyonganProvince, a northwesternregion bordering China, andthat they flew around 430 kmat an altitude of 36 km,reports Yonhap News Agency.

It detected one of themissiles at 2.41 p.m and theother at 2.52 p.m. The mis-siles flew at top speed ofaround Mach 6, six times thespeed of sound, according toofficials.

The intelligence authori-ties of South Korea and theUS are conducting a detailedanalysis for more informa-tion, the JCS said.

The North's latest firingmarks its third show of forcethis year.The North fired whatit claimed to be hypersonicmissiles on January 5 andTuesday.

South Korea's military ismonitoring related NorthKorean movements andmaintaining a firm readinessposture, the JCS said.

Earl ier in the day,Pyongyang issued the warn-ing after Washington slappedthe sanctions on six NorthKoreans involved in theregime's weapons of massdestruction and ballistic mis-sile programs on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the US Indo-Pacific Command said that itis aware of the missile launch-es, but assessed they do "notpose an immediate threat toAmerican personnel or terri-tory or to our allies".

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The Ministry of Agricultureon Friday showed a total

area sown under Rabi crops is664.59 lakh hectare so far asagainst 656.44 lakh hectarearea last year, an increase intotal Rabi area coverage by 8.15lakh hectare, which is clear aindication that there was noimpact of the third wave ofCovid-19. Though rainfall hasaffected some Rabi crops inMadhya Pradesh (48871hectare), Rajasthan (69375hectare), Uttar Pradesh(111700 hectare), Haryana(97676 hectare), Maharashtra(5276 hectare) and Tripura(13542 hectare).

“There has been no impactof the pandemic on farm oper-ations and total acreages areexpected to exceed last year’slevels if current sowing trendsholds,” said officials. In 2020-21, when India faced a rarerecession due to the pandem-ic, agriculture was the only sec-tor to post positive growth ofabout 3.1%.

This helped keep farmincomes steady. Higher fer-tiliser subsidies, raised by?14,000 crore during the sum-mer-sown season, kept farmgrowth up.

The data showed wheatsown at 336.48 lakh hectareagainst 340.74 lakh hectarearea of last year, a decrease in

area coverage by 4.26 lakhhectare as farmers shifted tooilseeds, mustard and rapeseedcrops keeping in view of high-er minimum support price.

According to officials,decline in wheat sowing is amatter of concern as the gov-ernment has expected goodwheat crops keeping in mind ofnormal to above normal rain-fall.

Rice reported to be sown at19.82 lakh hectare area against24.33 lakh hectare of last year,which is decreased by 4.50lakh hectare. The area coverageunder Pulses reported to be at160.20 lakh hectare against160.13 lakh hectare last year, anincrease by 0.07 lakh hectare.

Area coverage reportedunder Coarse Cereals is 47.82lakh hectare against 48.91 lakhhectare last year which ismarginally decreased in areacoverage by 1.09 lakh ha in thecountry.

Area coverage reportedunder Oilseeds 100.27 lakhhectare area against 82.34 lakhhectare area of last year, thussignificantly increase in areacoverage by 17.93 lakh ha. InOilseeds mainly significantincreased area coverage hasbeen recorded under Rapeseed& Mustard 90.45 lakh hectarecompared to correspondingperiod of last year 72.93 lakhhectare, thus area coverageincreased by 17.52 lakh hectare.

New Delhi: The wholesale price-based inflation bucked the 4-month rising trend in December2021, and eased to 13.56 percent, even though food priceshardened, and experts believethe RBI is expected to hold ratessteady in its monetary policynext month.

WPI inflation has remainedin double digits for the ninthconsecutive month beginningApril. Inflation in Novemberwas 14.23 per cent, while inDecember 2020 it was 1.95 percent.

Inflation in food articles,however, spiked to a 23-monthhigh at 9.56 per cent inDecember, against 4.88 per centin November. Vegetable pricerise rate jumped to 31.56 percent, against 3.91 per cent in theprevious month.

In the food articles catego-ry, pulses, wheat, cereals and

paddy all witnessed a month-on-month price rise, while potato,onion, fruits and egg, meat andfish saw some softening.

"The high rate of inflationin December 2021 is primarilydue to rise in prices of mineraloils, basic metals, crude petro-leum & natural gas, chemicalsand chemical products, foodproducts, textile and paper andpaper products etc as comparedto the corresponding month ofthe previous year," theCommerce and IndustryMinistry said in a statement.

Inflation in manufactureditems was lower at 10.62 per centin December, against 11.92 percent in the previous month. Infuel and power basket the rate ofprice rise was 32.30 per cent inDecember, against 39.81 percent in November.

Data released earlier thisweek showed, retail inflation

based on Consumer Price Index(Combined) rose to 5.59 percent in December, from 4.91 percent a month ago as food pricesinched up. ICRAChief Economist Aditi Nayar,said the food inflation has spikedfrom the marginal 0.1 per centin October 2021, to an unpleas-ant 23-month high of 9.6 percent in December 2021, reflect-ing the unfavourable base par-ticularly for vegetables.

"Notwithstanding the con-tinued double-digit WPI infla-tion in December 2021, weexpect the MPC to pause inFebruary 2022. The duration ofthe current wave and the sever-ity of restrictions will determinewhether policy normalisation(change in stance to neutralalong with hike in reverse reporate) can commence in April2022, or be delayed further toJune 2022. PTI

New Delhi/Geneva: PrimeMinister Narendra Modi willaddress the online DavosAgenda summit of the WorldEconomic Forum on the firstday of the five-day event begin-ning January 17, joining a hostof other global leaders who willshare their visions for 2022 onthe state of the world.

While the WEF had todefer its physical annual meet-ing in the Swiss ski resorttown Davos due to the coron-avirus pandemic, it will host the‘Davos Agenda’ summit digi-tally for the second consecutiveyear in the previously sched-uled week for the event. Ithopes to convene the 2022annual meeting later this year.

Announcing the schedule,

the WEF said ‘Davos Agenda2022’ will be the first globalplatform for key world leadersto share their visions for 2022and it is being convened on thetheme of ‘The State of theWorld’.

Heads of State andGovernment will join CEOsand other leaders for a virtualweek-long dialogue on criticalcollective challenges and howto address them, while this dia-logue will be a springboard tothe Annual Meeting in Davos,scheduled for early summer.

Mumbai: The Sensex and Niftybroke their five-day risingstreak to close with slim loss-es on Friday, weighed by neg-ative global cues and foreignfund outflows.

In a largely subdued ses-sion, the 30-share BSE Sensexended 12.27 points or 0.02 percent lower at 61,223.03.Similarly, the NSE Nifty slipped2.05 points or 0.01 per cent to18,255.75.

Asian Paints was the toploser on the Sensex chart, shed-ding 2.66 per cent, followed byAxis Bank, HUL, M&M,Wipro, HDFC and BhartiAirtel. On the other hand,TCS, Infosys, L&T, TechMahindra, HDFC Bank andUltraTech Cement were amongthe prominent gainers, climb-ing up to 1.84 per cent.

The market breadth wasnegative, with 18 declines and

12 advances. "TheIndian market opened on aweak note following nervous-ness in global markets, how-ever, it managed to erase mostof its losses to close flat, sup-ported by positive trends in IT,realty and healthcare sectors.

"Fed official's latest com-ment on a likely rate hike dur-ing March triggered selling inglobal equities. Globally, infla-tion worries worsened after theUS reported a 40 year high CPIinflation reading while a slow-er rise in producer prices pro-vided some relief," said VinodNair, Head of Research atGeojit Financial Services.

On a weekly basis, theSensex surged 1,478.38 points,or 2.47 per cent, while the Niftygained 443.05 points or 2.48per cent. S Hariharan, Head-Sales Trading, Emkay GlobalFinancial Services, said, "Strong

guidance from many mem-bers of US FOMC about hikinginterest rates in CY22, along-side continuing high inflationprints globally, make for anadverse flow environment forequities in general."

"The reaction to strongresults from frontline IT namesappears to point to heavy pre-positioning in the market, andmight be a recurring theme forthe ongoing results season -- inthat good results are priced inand fresh catalysts may beneeded to push the ongoingrally further," he noted.

Sector-wise, BSE telecom,FMCG, healthcare, auto andbankex shed as much as 1.20per cent, while capital goods,realty, industrials and IT post-ed gains. In the broader mar-kets, the BSE smallcap andmidcap indices spurted up to0.50 per cent.’ PTI

Mumbai: Snapping its five-daywinning run, the rupee onFriday slumped 25 paise toclose at 74.15 against the USdollar, in line with other emerg-ing market currencies as hawk-ish comments by FederalReserve officials weighed onsentiment.

At the interbank foreignexchange market, the localcurrency witnessed an intra-day high of 74.05 and a low of74.21 against the US dollar.It finally settled at 74.15, down25 paise over its previous closeof 73.90. US Fed policymak-ers signalled they will start toraise interest rates in March tocombat sky-high inflation.

The dollar index, whichgauges the greenback's strengthagainst a basket of six curren-cies, was trading 0.01 per centdown at 94.78.Meanwhile, Brent crudefutures, the global oil bench-mark, advanced 1.01 per centto USD 85.32 per barrel.On the domestic equity marketfront, the BSE Sensex ended12.27 points or 0.02 per centlower at 61,223.03, while thebroader NSE Nifty fell 2.05points or 0.01 per cent to18,255.75.

Foreign institutionalinvestors remained net sellersin the capital market onThursday, as they offloadedshares worth � 1,390.85 crore,as per exchange data.

According to JateenTrivedi, Senior ResearchAnalyst at LKP Securities, thedomestic currency traded weaknear 74.15 on the back of longposition unwinding in rupee.

Rupee can be seen in therange of 74.00 to 74.50, headded. "The Indian Rupeedepreciated on Friday as for-eign banks continued to covertheir dollar short positions,"said Sriram Iyer, SeniorResearch Analyst at RelianceSecurities.

On a weekly basis, therupee appreciated 19 paiseagainst the dollar. Therupee appreciated for thefourth straight week against theUS currency, tracking gains inmost regional currencies amida persistent drop in the dollarindex.

"The Rupee was alsohelped by corporate dollarsales, trade-related selling, fundflows and rumours of inter-vention from the Reserve Bankof India," Iyer said. PTI

Mumbai: Bank credit grew9.16 per cent to �116.83 lakhcrore and deposits rose 10.28per cent to �162.41 lakh crorefor the fortnight endedDecember 31, 2021, RBI datashowed.

For the fortnight endedJanuary 1, 2021, bank creditstood at � 107.02 lakh crore anddeposits at � 147.26 lakh crore,according to RBI'sScheduled Banks' Statement ofPosition in India as onDecember 31, 2021, released onFriday.

In the previous fortnightended December 17, 2021,bank advances had risen by7.27 per cent and depositswent up by 9.58 per cent. InFY21, bank credit had risen by5.56 per cent and deposits by11.4 per cent. PTI

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New Delhi: Gold price in the national Capital on Friday gained� 93 to �47,005 per 10 grams, in line with a jump in prices of inter-national precious metal along with rupee depreciation, accordingto HDFC Securities.

In the previous trade, the precious metal settled at �46,912per 10 grams. Silver also jumped � 59 to �61,005 per kg from �60,946 per kg in the previous trade. The Indian rupeedeclined by 26 paise to close at 74.16 against the US dollar on Friday.In the international market, gold was trading with gains at USD1,826 per ounce and silver was flat at USD 23.19 per ounce.

"Gold prices traded firm with spot gold prices at COMEXtrading 0.21 per cent up at USD 1,826 per ounce on Friday," HDFCSecurities Senior Analyst (Commodities) Tapan Patel said. PTI

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New Delhi: The country'sexports in December 2021surged 38.91 per cent on anannual basis to USD 37.81 bil-lion, the highest-ever month-ly figure, due to healthy per-formance by sectors such asengineering, textiles and chem-icals, even as the trade deficitwidened to USD 21.68 billionduring the month, govern-ment data showed on Friday.

Imports in December 2021also increased 38.55 per cent toUSD 59.48 billion, on accountof an increase in petroleum andcrude oil imports, which soared67.89 per cent to USD 16.16billion.

Gold imports expanded by5.43 per cent to USD 4.72 bil-lion. During April-December 2021-22, exportsrose 49.66 per cent to USD301.38 billion. Importsduring the period surged 68.91per cent to USD 443.82 billion,leaving a trade deficit of USD142.44 billion, the data showed.The trade deficit in December2020 was USD 15.72 billion."Merchandise exports inDecember 2021 were USD37.81 billion, as compared toUSD 27.22 billion in December2020, exhibiting a positivegrowth of 38.91 per cent. Ascompared to December 2019,exports in December 2021exhibited a positive growth of39.47 per cent," the commerceministry said in a statement.

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An excited teenager who playedthird or even fourth fiddle toKareena Kapoor’s Geet in Jab

We Met, Wamiqa Gabbi has slowlybut steadily started charting hercourse in celebdom. Appearances inPunjabi films followed and she gotrecognition for Tu Mera 22 MainTera 22, Ishq Brandy, Nikka Zaildar,Parahuna, Dil Diyan Gaalan andGrahan, the web series on 1984 riots.The actress has appeared in manynotable Bollywood movies and manyother regional films too.

Recently, Gabbi played cricketer,Madan Lal’s, wife in the film, 83. Sheshares, “I’m grateful to get the chanceto be a part of this movie. You knowwhen the film is made on such a his-torical moment, it’s a different kindof happiness. So… when Chhabra Ji’s(Mukesh Chhabra)office called,nothing came to my mind regardinghow that part is and what it is… I justwanted to be part of this film and I’mso glad that people loved the film,”she giggled.

Talking about the reason shetook up the role, she shares, “A filmon the 1983 World Cup was a goodenough reason for me to be its part.And then, Kabir Khan was directingit! I knew that I wanted to work withhim and I was excited to be part ofa project like this. Deepika Padukone,who was the producer, played RomiDev while I was Anu Lal. The twowere like best friends and there wereseveral scenes with her. When all thisbecame clear, I was like, I’m quick-ly doing this.”

Gabbi has primarily worked inPunjabi cinema and has done filmsin other languages too. She says, “Ihave worked in Punjabi films. AndTelugu, Tamil as well as twoMalayalam films. So there were nochallenges. When you are workingwith good people, everything worksout. Challenges arise when you areworking with difficult people andwhen you feel that it’s getting too dif-ficult. But this was very pleasant, youknow, the atmosphere was such thatit was good working in this. So, I’mreally happy that I was part of 83.”

Further, while talking aboutGrahan, where Gabbi played the role

of Manu, she elaborates, “Grahanwas…. the first show, the first pro-ject I did after the pandemic. At ourmeeting, director Ranjan Chandelread paragraphs from the bookChaurasi/84 which touched myheart. He read out Manu and Rishi’slove story which gave me goose-bumps. While listening, Manu start-ed seeming to be very beautiful andI got so excited that I would get to

play this character. And Ranjan,Anshuman... all of us started prepar-ing for our characters and Ranjan sirhelped all of us in getting in the skinand bringing out the minute details.”

Galwakdi, another Punjabi filmreleased last month. She said, “Weshot in London for a month and itwas quite a ride. My co-star, Tarsem(Jassar) ji, is a very calm and patientperson, I enjoyed working withhim.” On the challenges that shefaced in the film, she expressed, “Anaccident takes place... I had neverdone that before so that seemed verydifficult to me... but I’m glad that itlooks good on screen.”

About Galwakdi, to her fans,Gabbi says, “The film is not just alove story or it’s not just about twopeople falling in love. It talks aboutlife, its way and balance.”

In addition, while talking aboutchoosing roles, she says, “Anythingthat touches my heart. Anything thatI feel, that I should be part of ... ‘Yehmere begair nahi banna chahiye, touss cheez ko mai haan kar deti hun(Wherever I feel that this should notbe made without me, I says, yes).”

Her favourite actor is IrrfanKhan. “Unfortunately I’ll never beable to work with him, that was onedream. I’ll always remember him,he’ll always inspire me as an actor.The kind of rawness that he broughtto his character, vo bohot kam dekhneko milti hai (It is not seen often)…that rawness, simplicity and thesmall things that he brought. I wouldlove to work with Ranbir Kapoor. Heis one of the finest actors, we have inour industry. I’m always excited tosee what he has to offer, the kind offilms he is doing, the characters thathe is playing and what he is doing inthose characters, so maybe in future...in the next five-six years… will geta chance to work with him.”

While sharing about her currentand forthcoming projects, she says,“Mai is also there of Clean SlateFilmz. It’s for Netflix and also starsSakshi Tanwar. Then Khufiya withVishal (Bhardwaj) sir and Tabu.Working with Vishal sir, one of thebest directors, along with Tabu is likea dream come true.”

Squid Game creator HwangDong-hyuk has said he still

believes in a humanity that movespeople to put confidence to helpeach other even under the life-and-death pressure of social sur-vival games.

“We are living in a societywhere people dare to tread onother people to survive,” he said ina pre-taped interview by the Seoul-based Corea ImageCommunication Institute. “But Istill believe that this society does-n’t have to be one where we needto kill others and override them togo up.”

He cited a quote by Sae-byeok(the character played by Jung Ho-yeon) in the eighth episode: “Don’tdo it. That isn’t you. You’re a goodperson at heart.” The words inter-rupt Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), whotries to stab his old friend and finalcompetitor Sang-woo while he issleeping, ahead of the final roundof the deadly contest of heavilydebt-ridden people to win theequivalent of $38.2 million inprize money.

The simplicity of the children’sgames and satire of modern cap-italist society in Squid Game wonenthusiastic response across the

world, becoming the most success-ful Netflix show in history. It wasviewed for more than 1.65 billionhours in the first four weeks afterits release on September 17 lastyear.

Hwang, who wrote and direct-ed the nine-part dystopian series,said that the world has changed toa large extent since he first con-ceived the idea of making SquidGame about 10 years ago. A draftof Squid Game had been shelvedfor about a decade, as localinvestors and producers turneddown Hwang’s project.

—IANS

Actor-producer Jackky Bhagnaniasserts that the medium of cinema is

here to stay. Taking a cue from history,he opines that it takes at least two to fouryears for things to get back to normal aftera pandemic strikes.

Of course, a pandemic expedites andtriggers evolution but it doesn’t necessar-ily mean that theatres will shut downcompletely.

Sharing his thoughts on the subjectof cinemas in the era of pandemic, hesays, “History proves that once a pandem-ic hits, it takes 2-4 years for things to nor-malise, to see the socio-economic upturn.Until such time, we have to learn to co-exist with Covid-19, which I think allindustries are trying to do.”

He continues, “Asfar as theatres are con-cerned, theatreswere, are andalways will be anintegral part ofthe society’secosystem. Id e f i n i t e l ydon’t see itgoing awayanywhere,just that theconsumptionpatterns willevolve. I fore-see a cleardivide on thekind of contentpeople willwant to watchon the bigscreens vs whatthey will like toconsume on

their devices at home. Both mediums willhappily co-exist and thrive.”

He adds, “Being a massive film buffmyself and having seen pretty much allaspects of filmmaking, I can say for surethat nothing can replace the immersivecinema experience and the joy & thrillthat it brings along with it. So yes, movies

get made – while somewill be designed espe-

cially for homescreens and somefor the biggerones.”

In his opin-ion, OTT and the-atres will coexist in

the near future,“Today, we are in an

era of entertainmentwhere both these

mediums attractaudiences. The

kind of cinemawill get differ-entiated.”

“So, whilethe audienceswill look for-ward to certainfilms on thehome screens,they will defi-nitely wait towatch othersonly on the

big screens. I amconfident thatboth mediums

will run paralleland successfully”,

he concluded.—IANS

Aside from the medical con-cerns that the epidemic pre-

sented to millions of people,there was also an overwhelmingsense of loneliness and fear thatcontributed to mental healthproblems. Humans are socialbeings, so it’s only natural thatthey want to connect with oth-ers and develop meaningfulbonds. In fact, in the 21-30 agerange, 90 per cent of men and 78per cent of women showed astrong desire to venture outduring these difficult times.

Eagerness to get out andmeet new people

Two out of every three malesin the 18-21 age group believethat they are obligated to go outand meet intriguing people; theybelieve that they no longer havea choice. Instead, it’s an absolutemust to keep them sane.

According to QuackQuackCEO Ravi Mittal, the epidemichas produced a global feeling ofagonising isolation triggered bystay-at-home standards. ‘Theyearning among people, partic-ularly young people, to return toregular conduct is stronger thanever. They’ve been glued to theirscreens for the past 18 monthsand can’t take it any longer.’

The sweet spot betweenvideo calls and restaurant dates.

While the epidemic hascaused certain mental problems,it can never be regarded casual-ly. It is necessary to maintain vig-ilance since lives are at stake. Adecent strategy would be tokeep the interactions online foras long as feasible and thenorganise for ‘meets-in-person’when the pain of nostalgiabecomes too much to bear. Menand women can communicatevia phone conversations, chats,and video calls while also plan-ning meet-ups at a favouritehangout.

At least 52 per cent of menaged 21 to 30 and 45 per cent ofmen aged 31 and up are willingto leave their homes on occasionfor brunch or dinner dates. Thefact that this population hasalready been vaccinated is oneclear reason. According to App,75 per cent of males in the 18-20 age bracket are willing to goout with their dates while adher-ing to all pandemic restrictions.

A combination of online andphysical dates, according to 44per cent of women, is the great-est option for pursuing a roman-tic relationship.

Challenges that stem fromdating the ‘hybrid’ way

In this time of uncertaintyand disease, about 55 per cent ofwomen between the ages of 21and 30 are nervous about goingout on a date. They do agree, how-ever, that if they are too lonely ormiserable to stay at home for toolong, they may reconsider theirdecision not to go on an offlinedate. Moving out of your gatesand attempting to enjoy a fewmoments with the one you loveis both exciting and terrifying.Hybrid dating may not be thegreatest option for lovers who areso enamoured with each otherthat they don’t want to be apart foreven a second. It is still the mostpractical approach that is precise-ly aligned with the current cir-cumstances.

It has the support of a largenumber of people of various ages,and as the trend gains traction, itis safe to assume that hybrid dat-ing is not risky - 83 per cent ofmales in the 30+ age group agree.People are catching on to this newtrend: in the last three months, thenumber of women who agreewith the concept of hybrid datinghas increased by 50 per cent. Afterall, mental health is at the top ofthe list of things that might assistyou in living a happy life. Thereare no questions to be asked ifanything assists you in achievingthat goal. Everything is fair andjust when it comes to finding waysto spend time with the people youcare about.

IANS

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ASouth African team goingthrough one of its toughesttransition phases embar-

rassed a star-studded Indian teamwith a clinical seven-wicket victo-ry in the third Test to clinch a mem-orable 2-1 series triumph here onFriday.

The target of 212 wasn't a toughask and starting the day at 101 fortwo, young pretender KeeganPetersen (82, 113 balls) along withRassie van Der Dussen (41 not out)added 54 runs for the third wicketto seal the match before TembaBavuma (32 not out) helped inputting the final touches.

Petersen walked away with boththe player of the match as well asplayer of the series honours.

Sunil Gavaskar termed it as a"Nightmare for India" as they werenot even close to competing in thelast two Tests and Dean Elgar's earto ear grin and the bear hugs that heshared with his teammates said it all.

It was especially sweet for thehosts who lost premier pacer AnrichNortje to injury before the series andwere then hit by Quinton de Kock'ssudden mid-series retirement.

The Indian team, meanwhile,lost it in their mind after the con-tentious DRS review of Elgar thatwent wrong on Thursday and theirfocus on using stump microphonemore to take digs at broadcasterSupersport instead of focussing ongetting Petersen out spelt theirdoom.

"It's a great spectacle of Tests foreveryone to watch; hard-foughtseries. Great first game but SA didamazingly well. In both Tests theywon, they were clinical with the ballin crunch moments," India skipperVirat Kohli admitted after the game.

With this series defeat, India'srecord of never having won a Testseries in the Rainbow Nation forthree decades, remained intact.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni is theonly India captain to have manageda drawn series back in 2010.

It was one of the strongestIndian teams on paper against oneof the weakest South African teamson paper.

However, the operative wordhere was "on paper" as Elgar'sunheralded bunch showed a lot ofcharacter in punching above theirweight and also getting heavilyrewarded for their relentless efforts.

"The way our bowling unitdelivered throughout the series isbrilliant.

I threw down the challengeafter the first game and the guysresponded brilliantly," said an elat-ed Elgar.

The mindless chatter and inces-sant sledging didn't bother the likesof Petersen and Van der Dussen asthey went about their job in a thor-oughly professional manner.

India's batters were far toodependant on bowlers to bail themout for the past few years but thisseries showed that this attack ishuman too even though they puttheir best foot forward, which was-

n't complemented at all by the wil-low wielders.

The only hope for India was thefirst spell from Jasprit Bumrah andMohammed Shami in sultry condi-tions with the semi-new ball andthey did their bit with all sincerity.

Petersen was beaten time andagain but, in between, scored his

runs to keep the scoreboard ticking.Their strategy was to see off the

first spell and capitalise whenUmesh Yadav, who is known to bowlboundary balls, was brought into theattack.

Bumrah, in his second spell, didget one to straighten but CheteshwarPujara, enduring a poor series with

the bat, dropped a crucial regulationslip catch with the batter on 59.

If one remembers, it was RossTaylor, who had got a 'life' whenPujara dropped a sitter duringWorld Test Championship finaland the bowler at the receiving wasagain, Bumrah.

It was Shardul Thakur who

finally had the young man played onbut by then Petersen had ensured aseries win for his team.

It needs to be put as it is. Indiadid not lose the Test because of oneDRS that went wrong but for theconsistent poor batting throughoutthe series save the first innings of thefirst Test.

The scores of 202, 223 and 198is the reason India lost and the sec-ond innings effort at bothWanderers and Newlands showedthat Indian bowlers could only doas much.

The heavy duty tirade againstthe host broadcasters Supersportwith their customised diatribe didnot look good in the face of a dis-mal performance.

The skipper himself led theattack and it seemed like a forcefulway of trying to put the blamesquarely on technology that "may ormay not have gone wrong".

The die-hard Kohli fans believethat the Indian skipper needs a nar-rative to spur him on and hisfavourite script is "he and his teamagainst the entire world" as hisdeputy for the series KL Rahulwould have fans believe on thestump-mic.

It's far from truth but it workswell for him to push the envelope.

Van der Dussen was subjectedto intense sledging on the fourthmorning and so was Petersen butthey remained unfazed.

Once Bavuma started hittingthose boundaries, the strokes did theanswering.

But Kohli losing his counsel andblowing his top was also a projec-tion of a man who is under immensepressure and a Test defeat against amuch lower-ranked side which hadbeen grappling with all kinds ofsocio-political issues over the pastfew years, isn't going to go downwell with the BCCI.

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Travis Head spoiled a promisingstart for England in the Ashes on

Friday with his second century ofthe series as Australia recoveredfrom 12-3 to reach 241-6 at stumpson a rain-hit first day of the fifthTest.

Head, who scored 152 in theopening test at Brisbane, counter-punched England's early successwith an aggressive 101 off 113 ballsin the day-night test as Australiacame back strongly after losing thetoss.

Cameron Green contributed anauthoritative 74 and MarnusLabuschagne scored a rapid 44before rain arrived around half anhour after tea and prevented furtherplay.

Head entered with Australia inserious trouble after a brilliant spellof swing and seam bowling fromOllie Robinson (2-24), one of thefive changes England made, andStuart Broad (2-48) on a livelygreen wicket.

Head, who missed the SydneyTest due to the coronavirus, first put

the innings back on track with a 71-run stand with Labuschagne, but notbefore Zak Crawley had droppedLabuschagne at second slip beforethe batter had scored.

That drop proved costly forEngland which has already lost theAshes after losing the first three testmatches at Brisbane, Adelaide andMelbourne before the draw inSydney. "Nice to be back and con-tributing," Head told Channel 7.

"I was really conscious of mak-ing the right decisions -- attacking

the right balls, defending the rightones, being hard to get out.

I felt like I came into this testready to go."

Labuschagne counterpunchedthe pace of Chris Woakes (1-50) andMark Wood (1-79) by clobberingnine boundaries before getting dis-missed in a bizarre fashion justbefore the first session. Labuschagnewas clean bowled in an unusual stylewhen he appeared to slip in thecrease and Broad had the middlestump knocked back with the bats-man falling over on his knees whilegoing way across his stumps. ButHead and Green continued to pros-per against Wood and Woakes in adominant middle session whichyielded 130 runs. Head played someexquisite drives on both sides of thewicket, particularly in front ofsquare as he hammered 12 bound-aries before raising his century bycutting Woakes to backward pointfor two runs. However, Head fell aball later after reaching his hundredwhen he lobbed a gentle catch tomid-on. Green didn't have troublewith the pace before he finally fellto a trap

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Virat Kohli's outburst against acontroversial DRS decision

during the third Test against SouthAfrica was "immature" and withsuch "exaggerated" reaction, theIndia skipper will never be a rolemodel for youngsters, feels formeropener Gautam Gambhir.

Kohli, his deputy KL Rahul andoff-spinner Ravichandran Ashwinmade some unsavoury commentsabout umpiring and technology instump mic after rival skipper DeanElgar got a massive reprieve due toa contentious DRS decision in thelast hour on day 3 on Thursday.

"This is really bad. What Kohlidid, going near the stump mic andreacting in that manner, that is real-ly immature. This is not what youexpect from an international cap-tain, from an Indian captain,"Gambhir told Star Sports.

Australian great Shane Warnefelt the ball was hitting the stumps.

"That's going on to smash halfway up middle though, there is noway that's going over, even Erasmus

shook his head," Warne was quot-ed as saying by Fox Sports.

Gambhir pointed out thatMayank Agarwal too had got areprieve during the first Test inCenturion but it didn't invite sim-ilar response from the SouthAfrican skipper.

"Then technology isn't in yourhand. Then you have reacted in thesame manner when there was a

caught-behind appeal on the leg-side, neither did Dean Elgar reactin that manner. During thatMayank Agarwal appeal, it lookedout from the naked eye, but Elgardid not react in that manner," hesaid.

Former England captainMichael Vaughan was critical of theIndian skipper.

"I think that is disgraceful from

the Indians personally," Vaughansaid on Fox Sports.

"Decisions go with you, they goagainst you, that didn't go the waythey think it should have gone. ViratKohli is a legend of the game, butthat's not the way to act, that is notthe way to act in a game of Testmatch cricket.

"The ICC have to stamp thisdown, they have to stamp down onthe Indian side, you can't get awaywith talking down the stumpmicrophone like Ravi Ashwin hasdone and the Indian captain hasdone,” said Vaughan.

In the 21st over, Elgar wasadjudged LBW by on-field umpireMarais Erasmus when he was hit onthe pads by an Ashwin delivery.However, the decision was over-turned on review.

Livid with the decision, a fum-ing Kohli went up to the stumps andsaid: "Focus on your team as wellwhen they shine the ball eh, not justthe opposition. Trying to catch peo-ple all the time."

Rahul and Ashwin alsoexpressed similar reactions.

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Record four-time champions India will beaiming to maintain their envious record

and unearth a plethora of talent along the waywhen they begin their U-19 World Cup cam-paign against South Africa here on Saturday.

Expectations will be high from the likes ofHarnoor Singh, Rajvardhan Hangargekar,skipper Yash Dhull and Ravi Kumar, who havealready shown glimpses of their potential intournaments leading into the World Cup.

India flew into the Caribbean straight aftertheir Asia Cup triumph and tuned up for theICC event with wins over hosts West Indiesand Australia in the warm-up games.

India have been the most successful teamin the tournament's history and getting intothe final of the last three editions is a testimo-ny to their remarkable consistency.

No player from the 2020 batch, which fin-ished runners-up to first-time championsBangladesh, has gone on to play for India andonly time will tell if someone from the classof 2022 reaches the highest level.

The current batch doesn't posses prodigieslike Prithvi Shaw and Shubman Gill (2018 passouts) but some of the players have alreadyattracted attention.

Jalandhar-born left-hand opener Harnooris expected to score a bagful of runs in the tour-nament, much like what Yashasvi Jaiswal didin the previous edition.

The 18-year-old was India's leading run-getter in the Asia Cup with 251 runs in fivegames and struck an unbeaten 100 againstAustralia in the team's final warm-up game onJanuary 11.

Right-arm pacer Hangargekar, who hasplayed senior cricket for Maharashtra, isanother player to watch out for.

He impressed with his raw pace in the AsiaCup, picking up eight wickets, and is also ahandy batter down the order.

Left-arm pacer Ravi Kumar will also beexpected to provide timely breakthroughs andhe will be high on confidence following a four-wicket haul against the Australians.

Skipper Dhull, who is a highly rated bat-ter in Delhi cricket circles, did not do anythingnoticeable in the Asia Cup but his back-to-back

fifties in the warm-up games show he is ingood touch. All-rounder Raj Bawa, who bowlsright-arm medium pace and bats left-handed,will also play a crucial role for the team.

Head coach Hrishikesh Kanitkar spokeabout India's rich legacy in the competitionahead of the South Africa game.

"There is a huge legacy since India hasdone so well in this tournament.

It doesn't help that we have won four times.There is a new team, so you have to startafresh," said Kanitkar adding that the playersare also getting used to bi-bubble life inCOVID times.

India are placed in Group B alongsideSouth Africa, Ireland and Uganda. Top twoteams qualify for the knockouts.

The game against South Africa is likely tobe the toughest one for India.

The 2014 edition winners South Africa'schances of success on home soil were endedat the quarter-final stage two years ago.

All-rounder Dewald Brevis has generatedmaximum attention in the junior Proteascamp.

He played in the CSA Provincial T20Knockout competition in October and his bat-ting style drew comparisons with AB deVilliers, while his leg-spin caused West Indiesplenty of problems in a recent warm-upseries against the hosts.

Left-arm spinner Asakhe Tsaka and cap-tain George van Heerden will also hope tomake a name for themselves in the comingweeks as South Africa look for a second title.

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New Zealand's white-ballcricket tour to Australia

later this month is in doubtbecause of extended borderrestrictions which require theteam to have isolation placesbooked for their return.

The Black Caps are due toleave for Australia on Jan. 24,to play one-day matches onJan. 30, Feb. 2 and Feb. 5 anda Twenty20 international atCanberra on Feb. 8.

New Zealand Cricket did-n't book places in managedisolation for the team inFebruary because they antic-ipated the implementationin mid-January of a policywhich would allow NewZealand citizens and resi-dents returning f romAustralia to do so withoutgoing through managed iso-lation.

The change has now beendelayed until late Februarybecause of the emergence of

the omicron variant whichNew Zealand so far has con-tained at the border.

New Zealand Cricket onFriday said it expects theAustralian tour to go aheadbut is discussing options withCricket Australia. That mightinclude rescheduling ordelaying the team's returnfrom Australia.

A spokesperson toldmedia the team will not trav-el to Australia unless a planis in place for its return.

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Ireland beat the West Indiesby five wickets in a rain-

interrupted second one-dayinternational at Sabina Park.

Ireland was chasing 230 towin and was well ahead of therun rate at 157-4 in the 32ndover when rain stopped playfor 90 minutes.

When the match resumed,the Duckworth-Lewis methodreduced Ireland's ask to 168from 36 overs, or 11 more runsfrom 28 balls. The Irishknocked them off in sevenballs, winning on a pair of noballs at 168-5.

Victory tied the series 1-1, with the deciding ODI onSunday on the same ground.

This ODI was resched-uled from Tuesday, whenIreland was too depleted tofield a side because of fivecoronavirus cases and twoinjured players. Four weren'tavai lable on Thursday,including captain AndyBalbirnie.

The West Indies successful-ly defended 269 last Saturdaybut not so much 229, which

was boosted by 30 extras.William Porterfield and

stand-in skipper Paul Stirlinggave Ireland a flying start of 37in the first five overs.

Harry Tector anchored theshow with 54 not out off 75balls, his second straight half-century and fourth in his lastfive ODIs.

Tector featured in standsof 44 with Andy McBrine,who added 35, and 53 withCurtis Campher.

McBrine also starred withthe ball when West Indieswas made to bat first.

The West Indies was cau-tious from the start and medi-um-pacer Craig Young took

advantage with the first threewickets, all cheap. He took outopeners Shai Hope, JustinGreaves and No. 3 NicholasPooran to have 3-12 off fourovers.

McBrine's offspin wasintroduced in the 18th overwith West Indies 53-3, and heclaimed Roston Chase thenKieron Pollard for 1.

Sharmarh Brooks, whomade 93 in the first ODI, heldthe innings together againuntil he was out lbw for 43 off64 balls, attempting to sweepleft-arm spinner GeorgeDockrell.

The West Indies didn'tlook like reaching 200 at 143-7 in the 40th, but OdeanSmith immediately hit twosixes over McBrine's head, hittwo more against Campher,and swatted Mark Adair overthe long off fence. Smith made46 off 19 balls in a partnershipof 58 with Romario Shepherdto get West Indies over 200.

Shepherd then hit fourboundaries and was the lastman out with two overs leftwhile trying to pull McBrine,who took 4-36.

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Ten days after announcinghis retirement from inter-

national cricket, batterBhanuka Rajapaksa has madehimself available to play for SriLanka "for years to come."The 30-year-old had tenderedhis letter of resignation to SriLanka Cricket (SLC) onJanuary 3. However, aftermeeting the Sri Lankan SportsMinister Namal Rajapaksarecently, the Southpaw haschanged his mind. "Pursuantto a meeting with the Hon.Namal Rajapaksa – Minister ofYouth & Sports and after con-sulting with the NationalSelectors, Bhanuka Rajapaksahas notified SLC that he wish-es to withdraw his resignationwhich he tendered to SLC on3rd Jan. 2022, with immediateeffect," a SLC stated in a mediarelease. "In his letter to SLCwithdrawing his resignation, hefurther states that he wishes torepresent his country.

SOUTH AFRICA WRAP UP SERIES WITH SEVEN-WICKET WIN

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Prime Minister Imran Khanwill be travelling to Beijing

next month to attend the open-ing ceremony of WinterOlympics, bolster the all-weather bilateral ties and seekmore investments in variousprojects under the ambitiousCPEC, the Foreign Office saidhere on Thursday.

The Beijing WinterOlympics will be held fromFebruary 4 to 20, followed bythe Paralympics Winter Gamesfrom March 4-13, amid a diplo-matic boycott by severalWestern countries, including

the US and the UK over con-cerns of China's alleged humanrights abuses.

“The premier will beembarking on a three-day visitto Beijing from February 3 onthe invitation of the Chineseleadership,” Foreign OfficeSpokesperson Asim Iftikharsaid during his weekly newsbriefing.

Khan will also have aninteraction with the Chineseleadership to further strength-en Pakistan-China all-weatherstrategic cooperative partner-ship and to exchange views onregional and internationalissues, Iftikhar said.

Khan's visit is consideredsignificant because severalwestern and European coun-tries have announced a diplo-matic boycott of the event.

Tensions have risenbetween China and severalWestern countries over a num-ber of issues.

The US has accused China

of genocide in its repression ofthe predominantly MuslimUyghur minority in the west-ern region of Xinjiang - an alle-gation China has rejected.

While projects pertainingto the China-PakistanEconomic Corridor (CPEC)will be key to the talks betweenthe two sides, Iftikhar opinedthat Khan's visit would helppromote international cooper-ation required to overcomethe challenges faced due to theongoing pandemic and openup avenues of collaborationwith other developing coun-tries. The USD 60 billionCPEC connecting China's

resource-rich Xinjiangprovince with Pakistan's strate-gic Gwadar port in Balochistanis regarded as the flagship pro-ject of the multi-billion Beltand Road initiative, the petscheme of Chinese President XiJinping aimed at furtheringChina's influence globally withChinese funded infrastructureprojects. Iftikhar said thatPakistan welcomes the GlobalDevelopment Initiative put for-ward by Chinese President XiJinping as a timely and goodintention to facilitate imple-mentation of the UN 2030 agenda for sustainabledevelopment.

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Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu and world champi-onship bronze medallist

Lakshya Sen registered contrastingwins to advance to the women's andmen's singles semifinals, respective-ly, at the Yonex-Sunrise India Openbadminton tournament here onFriday. Top seed Sindhu, a formerworld champion, got the better ofcompatriot Ashmita Chaliha 21-7 21-18 in 36 minutes, while Sen rallied hisway to a hard-fought 14-21 21-9 21-14 victory over H S Prannoy in anoth-er all-Indian quarterfinal.

The 26-year-old from Hyderabadset up a women's singles last-fourclash with Thailand's sixth seedSupanida Katethong, who entered thesemifinals after the third seeded YeoJia Min of Singapore pulled out of thetournament due to "high fever".

Sen, seeded third, will square offagainst Malaysia's Ng Tze Yong in thesemifinals.

In the other women's semifinal,Aakarshi Kashyap will face secondseeded Thai BusananOngbamrungphan after the Indiannotched up a 21-12 21-15 win overcompatriot Malvika Bansod onFriday.

Busanan trounced USA's LaurenLam 21-12 21-8 in another last-eightclash.

Second seeded men's doublespair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy andChirag Shetty also entered the semi-finals with a 21-18 21-18 win ver

Singapore's Hee Yong Kai TerryAndLoh Kean Hean.

Haritha Manazhiyil Harinarayanand Ashna Roy also made it to the lastfour in women's doubles after beat-

ing Rudrani Jaiswal and JamaludeenAnees Kowsar 21-16 21-16 in thequarterfinals.

The last time Sindhu was upagainst Chaliha, at the 83rd Yonex-

Sunrise Senior NationalChampionship in 2019, the youngsterfrom Assam had produced a spirit-ed performance.

On Friday, Chaliha took time to

get into the groove and put up a goodfight in the second game but could-n't stop Sindhu from walking awaywith the match.

Sindhu came out all guns blazing

in the opening game, jumping to a 11-5 lead at the interval and then reeledoff the last 10 points to earn the brag-ging rights.

Chaliha gave a better account ofherself in the second game as she tied9-9 before Sindhu managed a slenderone-point advantage at the break.Sindhu zoomed to 15-11 but Chalihaagain clawed her way back to 15-15.

Thereafter, Sindhu switched gearsand grabbed four match points.Chaliha saved two match pointsbefore Sindhu closed out the tie.

In men's singles, it was the firstinternational meeting but third over-all between Sen and Prannoy as theduo engaged in a battle of suprema-cy. On a comeback trail, Prannoy,who had reached the quarterfinals atthe last world championships, dom-inated the proceedings initially tosecure a 6-2 lead. He got his actstogether in time to turn the tables at12-10 and then zoomed from 15-14to pocket the opening game.

"The pace was high in the firstgame as both of us tried to up thepace but I made errors at 13-13 andit cost me the game," Sen said.

Sen, however, roared back intothe contest in the second game as heran up a huge 12-5 lead and didn'tlook back from that point, asPrannoy crumbled. In the decider,Prannoy took the early initiative,opening up a 6-1 advantage butcouldn't sustain it as Sen moved to11-9 at the interval and then pock-eted nine of the next 11 points to sealthe match in his favour.

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No v a kDjokovic

faces deporta-tion again afterthe Australiang o v e r n m e nt

revoked his visafor a second

time, the latesttwist in theongoing saga

over whetherthe No 1-ranked ten-

nis player will beallowed to compete inthe Australian Opendespite being unvacci-nated for COVID-19.

I m m i g r a t i o nMinister Alex Hawkesaid Friday he used hisministerial discretionto cancel the 34-year-old Serb's visa on pub-lic interest grounds —

just three days beforeplay begins at theAustralian Open, whereDjokovic has won a

record nine of his 20Grand Slam titles.

Djokovic's lawyers were expectedto appeal at the Federal Circuit andFamily Court, which they already suc-cessfully did last week on procedural

grounds after his visa was first canceled whenhe landed at a Melbourne airport.

A hearing was scheduled for Friday night.Deportation from Australia can lead to a

three-year ban on returning to the country,although that may be waived, depending on thecircumstances.

Hawke said he cancelled the visa on"health and good order grounds, on the basisthat it was in the public interest to do so."

His statement added that Prime MinisterScott Morrison's government "is firmly com-mitted to protecting Australia's borders, partic-ularly in relation to the COVID-19 pandem-ic."

Morrison himself welcomed Djokovic'spending deportation. The whole episode hastouched a nerve in Australia, and particularlyin Victoria state, where locals went throughhundreds of days of lockdowns during the worstof the pandemic and there is a vaccination rateamong adults of more than 90%.

Australia is currently facing a massive surgein virus cases driven by the highly transmissi-ble omicron variant. On Friday, the nationreported 130,000 new cases, including nearly35,000 in Victoria state.

Although many infected people aren't get-ting as sick as they did in previous outbreaks,the surge is still putting severe strain on thehealth system, with more than 4,400 people hos-pitalized. It's also causing disruptions to work-places and supply chains.

"This pandemic has been incredibly diffi-cult for every Australian but we have stucktogether and saved lives and livelihoods. ...Australians have made many sacrifices during

this pandemic, and they rightly expect the resultof those sacrifices to be protected," Morrisonsaid in a statement.

"This is what the Minister is doing in tak-ing this action today."

Everyone at the Australian Open — includ-ing players, their support teams and spectators— is required to be vaccinated for the illnesscaused by the coronavirus. Djokovic is not inoc-ulated and had sought a medical exemption onthe grounds that he had COVID-19 inDecember.

That exemption was approved by theVictoria state government and Tennis Australia,apparently allowing him to obtain a visa to trav-el. But the Australian Border Force rejected theexemption and canceled his visa when he land-ed in Melbourne on January 5.

Djokovic spent four nights in an immigra-tion detention hotel before a judge on Mondayoverturned that decision. That ruling allowedDjokovic to move freely around Australia andhe has been practicing at Melbourne Park dailyto prepare to play in a tournament he has woneach of the past three years.

He had a practice session originally sched-uled for mid-afternoon Friday at Rod LaverArena, the tournament's main stadium, butpushed that to the morning and was finishedseveral hours before Hawke's decision wasannounced in the early evening.

An Australian Open spokeswoman saidtournament organizers did not have any imme-diate comment on the latest development inDjokovic's situation, which has overshadowedall other story lines heading into the year's firstGrand Slam event.

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The Boxing Federation of India has decid-ed to pull out of the Asian Under-22

Championships for men and women inTashkent, Uzbekistan due to the globalsurge in COVID-19 cases but is willing toparticipate if the tournament is rescheduledto a time when the pandemic subsides.

A reliable source in the feder-ation has confirmed to PTI that a let-ter has been sent to the Asian BoxingConfederation as well as the tourna-ment's organising committeeconfirming India's withdrawal.

The event was scheduledto be held from January 20 to30. The Asian event was orig-inally slated to be held fromDecember 7 to 17 lastyear but was postponedbecause of the pan-demic.

Indian boxing hasbeen hit by a COVID cri-sis of its own. The men's senior

national camp in Patiala has reported 26cases, including 20 boxers.

Boxers born in 1999, 2000, 2001 and2002 are eligible to compete in the event thatis being held for the first time in the conti-nent.

The competition was to be held in 12women's and 13 men's weight categories.

The Indian men's squad featuredthe likes of Asian youth bronze-medallist Mohammed Etash Khan(63.5kg) and reigning national

champion Rohit Mor (60kg) amongothers.

The women's squad fea-tured the likes of worldyouth champion ArundhatiChaudhary (71kg) andinternational medallistJaismine (63kg). Chaudharyhad recently made the head-lines by taking the BoxingFederation of India to courtfor not holding trials in her

weight category for the worldchampionships in Turkey.

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Hockey India on Fridayannounced a new-look core

probable group for the seniorwomen's team which will play inmany major international tourna-ments this year. The group wasselected following selection trialsheld in Sports Authority of India,Bengaluru for a group of 60 whowere called-in on the basis of their

performances in various nationallevel events. "It is time for us tostart afresh and plan for the future.We have grown over the past yearwith our experiences in Tokyo andwe must continue to develop, andgrow in the coming years, aheadof Paris 2024," India women'steam chief coach JannekeSchopman said in a release issuedby Hockey India. While an 18-member Indian team, led by

Savita, will be travelling to Muscatfor the upcoming women's hock-ey Asia Cup, the remaining play-ers from the core group will stayon at the camp and continue totrain for the FIH Hockey ProLeague matches to be held inBhubaneswar, Odisha next month."The upcoming camp is importantfor us to recognise the players whoare ready to showcase their skillson the biggest stages, and also towork on the areas where we needto improve upon," Schopman said.List of players: Savita, RajaniEtimarpu, Bichu Devi Kharibam,Deep Grace Ekka, Gurjit Kaur,Nikki Pradhan, Udita, IshikaChaudhary, Suman DeviThoudam, Akshata AbasoDhekale, Mahima Chaudhary,Rashmita Minz, Nisha, SalimaTete, Sushila Chanu Pukhrambam,Jyoti, Navjot Kaur, Monika,Namita Toppo.

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The Sports Ministry hasapproved the appointment

of Maurit ian AveenashPandoo as the first HighPerformance Director (HPD)for weightlifting until the2024 Paris Olympics. Hisappointment was recom-mended by the SportsAuthority of India's (SAI)Foreign Coach SelectionCommittee in conjunctionwith officials of the IndianWeightlifting Federation(IWF). According to a state-ment issued by the SAI, hisannual salary will be USD54,000 (approx Rs 40.50 lakh).

The HPD has been appoint-ed with specific focus on

development of junior talent,with an eye on 2028 Olympicsand to create strong coachingstructure with a capabilities

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Indian women's football teamhead coach Thomas

Dennerby said his side is wellprepared and its first realistictarget is to reach the quarter-finals of the upcoming AFCAsian Women's Cup.

Hosts India will opentheir campaign against Iran onJanuary 20. "I said from thebeginning when we started, wesaid that yes, to come to thequarter-final is our first target,first aim,” Dennerby said dur-ing a virtual media interactionin the run-up to the continen-tal tournament on Friday.

"And if we come all the wayto the quarterfinal, everythingcan happen because when weare in quarterfinal and it's aknock-out stage, everybody,all teams will play under pres-sure. But definitely (reaching)quarterfinals is our target andwe also think it's a realistic tar-get."

The Indian team has beendrawn against Iran (January20), Chinese Taipei (January23) and China (January 26) inGroup A of the competitionthat consists of 12 teams.

Talking about the opposi-tion, Dennerby said: "It is (like)three different teams with three

different playing styles. I guessthe first game against Iran willbe a tough one for us becausewhat we have seen so far (theyare) defending very well. Theyare organized and they will playlow, defending.

"They also have one reallygood striker that's always onthe run. So, even if we domi-nate the game, as a defenderyou always have to be on yourtoes.

"They are also good on setpieces, they scored a lot of goalson free-kicks and corners, sowe also need to be very sharpon that (front). Don't givethem any corners or easy free-kicks," he added.

According to Dennerby,India's second game againstChinese Taipei will be an "equalgame" but the final matchagainst China will be a toughone.

"Finally, China, I will sayfrom my point of view; classi-cal Asian style with a lot ofshort passes with good combi-nations. It is going to be a toughone, of course, but still Chinais not at the level they were acouple of years ago and theywon this tournament. But stilla very good team and probablythe toughest game for us,” henoted.

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Daily Pioneer

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:A= TRfXYe S`h]VU - Daily Pioneer

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DA deZeTYZ_X R]]ZR_TVd e` eR\V `_ 3;A - Daily Pioneer

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8fcf EVX VaZe`^V `W :_UZR_ ecRUZeZ` - Daily Pioneer

Floodwater level rises in Krishna - Daily Pioneer

Floodwater level rises in Krishna - Daily Pioneer

4`_X SZUd e` V_U 8`R deR]V^ReV - Daily Pioneer

4`_X SZUd e` V_U 8`R deR]V^ReV - Daily Pioneer

Sense of hatred prevails: Priyanka - Daily Pioneer

Sense of hatred prevails: Priyanka - Daily Pioneer

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5V]YZ a`]]d UReV R_jeZ^V RWeVc ;R_ ' - Daily Pioneer

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DA deZeTYZ_X eZVd e` eR\V `_ 3;A - Daily Pioneer

ARhRc deR_Ud Sj >RYR 9> - Daily Pioneer

ARhRc deR_Ud Sj >RYR 9> - Daily Pioneer

DfcgVj TYRced >`UZ UcVR^ aReY - Daily Pioneer

DfcgVj TYRced >`UZ UcVR^ aReY - Daily Pioneer

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CVd`]feZ`_ V]fUVd :_UZR 4YZ_R eR]\d - Daily Pioneer

DaVR\Vc `fded "% ^`cV >=2d - Daily Pioneer

DaVR\Vc `fded "% ^`cV >=2d - Daily Pioneer

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DDC¶d dZdeVc WRTVd TYRcXV - Daily Pioneer