R^ReR ^VVed A>, TYRZ aV TYRcTYR hZeY D`_ZR e`URj

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T he State Government on Tuesday announced a hike in dearness allowance (DA) for its employees. With this, the new DA rate will be 28 per cent, up from 17 per cent. The increase in DA will be applic- able from July 1. This decision is in line with the decision taken by the Central Government this month. The proposal related to this was given nod to in Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting. With the increase of DA by 11 per cent more than 3.5 lakh Government employees will be benefitted, at the same time the State Government will bear an expense of 1,000 crore on the exchequer. In view of the Corona epi- demic, the Central Government had banned Dearness Allowance from January-2020. Recently, the Central Government had decided to remove the ban on dearness allowance increasing the DA from 17 per cent to 28 per cent. Cabinet Secretary, Vandana Dadel said, “The State Government has decided to increase the DA of State gov- ernment employees by 11 per cent. The DA will be hiked from existing 17 per cent to 28 per cent.” The hike in DA is seen as a double bonanza for State Government employees as last month, the State Cabinet raised the government’s contribution to the National Pension Scheme to 14 per cent of basic salary from the current 10 per cent. On Tuesday, approvals to 19 agenda were given at the Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Hemant Soren. The Cabinet also gave its nod for distribution of books to students studying at class IX and X at free of cost. Ex post facto approval for extension of tenure of Jharkhand State Law Commission from November 14, 2019 to November 13, 2021, was also given nod to at Tuesday’s meeting. Ex-post facto approval of 5,51,00,000 for operation of Madhupur bypoll from State contingency fund was also approved in Cabinet meeting. Approval for increasing the training fees in State Government industrial training institutes was also given nod. Srinath University Bill, 2021 was given approval. Jharkhand Motor Cart (Amendment) Manual was approved in the format of 2021. Approval for increasing the number of villages under Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana under the decen- tralised distributed production programme (Off Grid) from 230 villages to 246 villages was given nod to. The total cost of the scheme is 109 crore out of which the centre share will be 65.40 crore, while loan from REC will be 32.70 crore while state share will be 10.90 crore. Administrative approval for construction of Barlanga Nemra Pirgul Kasmar road under State highway was also given approval at meeting. The two lane road will be 27.608-km long and will be constructed at the cost of 176.70 crore. T wo more confirmed cases of Mucormycosis in Ranchi took the black fungus tally in Jharkhand to 104 on Tuesday, data released by the health department highlighted. The State, however, did not report fresh casualties caused by the fungal infection during the past 24 hours and the toll remained 30. With 40 confirmed patients, Ranchi has reported the high- est number of mucormycosis cases in the state so far, high- lights data compiled by the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP). The district has also reported 11 deaths, the highest among the 24 districts. As per IDSP data, besides the 104 confirmed cases, the State has reported 58 suspect- ed cases of the fungal infection. As many as 104 patients, including some under treat- ment for suspected mucormy- cosis, have been discharged from hospital so far in the state. Meanwhile, the State reported one more Covid death on Tuesday, which took the toll in the state to 5125, a bulletin from the National Health Mission (NHM) stated. The active caseload of Covid-19 also increased slightly as Jharkhand reported 39 fresh cases of infection against 37 recoveries. Jharkhand on Tuesday vac- cinated over 90,000 residents against Covid-19 after manag- ing to inoculate over 1.45 lakh residents daily on an average in the past three days. As per pro- visional data released by the NHM, the State on Tuesday administered the first dose of vaccine to 70,151 residents, while the second jab was administered to 19,913 benefi- ciaries. Almost 60,000 resi- dents in the age bracket of 18 years to 44 years got inoculat- ed in Jharkhand on the day. As per Government records, over 90 lakh residents have at least received one dose of vaccine against Covid-19 so far. The State, as per figures released by the NHM on Tuesday evening, had 4,01,840 doses of vaccines in stock to run the immunisation campaign until fresh supplies arrive. At least 1074 session sites for Covid-19 vaccination were operational across Jharkhand on Tuesday, as per the Co-Win portal. According to data avail- able on the Co-Win dash- board, at least 57 session sites inoculated 7354 residents in Ranchi on the day, while 4,184 beneficiaries got their jabs at 55 session sites in East Singhbhum. At least 53 session sites were operational in Dhanbad and over 10,000 res- idents were vaccinated there. As per NHM data, at least 247 people were battling the viral infection in Jharkhand by the end of Tuesday. The fresh casualty was reported in Bokaro on the day, which took the Covid toll there to 283. Besides reporting one fatality, Bokaro also reported the highest spike of nine cases among the 24 dis- tricts in Jharkhand on Tuesday. The State on Tuesday test- ed swab samples of 60,461 res- idents and 0.06 per cent of them were found infected by SARS-CoV-2. So far, over 3.46 lakh people have been infect- ed by the deadly virus in Jharkhand and 98.45 per cent of them have recovered, while 1.47 per cent of patients could not survive. D ishom Guru Poshan Vatika Yojana, an aspirational scheme rolled out by the Government of Jharkhand, is showing a positive impact on the health of rural and tribal populations across the State. Residents of Mangudih village, a tribal village surrounded by forests and mountains in the Kuchai block of Seraikela, had been deprived of nutrition-rich food. Through the means of this scheme, nutritious food is now a regular element of the food intake of the women and chil- dren in the village; due to this a continuous improvement in their health is being registered. Agriculture is the main source of livelihood for the vil- lagers of Mangudih village. The Body Mass Index (BMI) and MUAC health check-up pro- gram run by the government revealed the poor physical health of the villagers. The Jharkhand Tribal Development Society immedi- ately came into action to work on improving the health of the villagers. Awareness programs related to the importance of nutrition-rich food and the ways to improve that helped villagers understand that improving the intake of green vegetables can have a charis- matic effect on their health. As well as, it can lead to a better, healthy, and prosperous future for their children. Impressed by the awareness programme highlighting the importance of nutrition, run by Jharkhand Tribal Development Society, Belmati Hembrom came forward to establish a kitchen garden in her courtyard. The State Government provid- ed seeds, fertilizers, and tech- nical information to her while covering her with Dishom Guru Poshan Vatika Yojana. Today, Belmati cultivates seven types of vegetables in the kitchen garden near her house. It brought a pos- itive change in her life as she does not need to buy vegetables from the market anymore. Apart from this, the health condition of Belmati has also recorded a positive change. In a very short time, she gained the required weight due to her intake of nutrition-rich food. Her BMI has also improved. She ensures that everyone in her house gets nutritious food on their plate. Looking at Belmati, other vil- lagers are also joining this scheme and cultivating vegeta- bles for their use near their houses or courtyard. Dishom Guru Poshan Vatika Yojana is being imple- mented through JTDS. Apart from informing the villagers about this scheme, JTDS is pro- viding other information relat- ed to the cultivation of vegeta- bles, including the use of seeds, fertilizers, and other technical information. Positive changes are being recorded in the health of women and children of the vil- lage due to this scheme. The rate of malnutrition among women and children is still high in Jharkhand. Women in rural areas are suffering from anaemia. The State Government has started Dishom Guru Poshan Vatika Yojana to remove malnutrition among women and children and enable them to access healthy and nutritious food. B asavaraj S Bommai, 61, the State Home Minister, a “Lingayat” by caste and a close confidant of BS Yediyurappa was on Tuesday declared the new Chief Minister of Karnataka after BJP legislature party met at the State capital. Bommai is expected to take oath of Chief Ministership on Wednesday. The name of Bommai, the son of former State Chief Minister SR Bommai (a Janata parivar leader) who had joined the BJP in 2008, was proposed by Yediyurappa, the “Lingayat” strongman and former Chief Minister. The new Chief Minister is a two-time MLC and three- time MLA from Shiggaon in Haveri district. “It is a big responsibility in the given situation. I will strive to work for the welfare of the poor. It will be pro-people and pro-poor people governance,” said the Karnataka CM-elect soon after he was elected to the post. The outgoing Chief Minister, Yediyurappa, said, “We have unanimously elected Bommai as CM.... we are very happy.” The MLAs’ meeting at Bengaluru’s Hotel Capitol that elected Bommai was attended by the Central observers — Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, G Kishan Reddy and general secretary and State-in- charge Arun Singh. Pradhan announced the name of Bommai as a successor to Yediyurappa amid loud cheers and clapping. By picking-up Bommai, a Sadara “Lingayat”, the BJP seemed to have satisfied the caste dynamics of Karnataka, pre-empted influential com- munity’s wrath, and agreed to Yediyurappa’s choice of the CM candidate. Yediyurappa himself belongs to the Veerashaiva- Lingayat community which is seen to be the BJP’s core support base in Karnataka. W est Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on a high-profile visit to the nation- al Capital met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his resi- dence on Tuesday ahead of a series of meeting with top Opposition leaders to prepare the strategy for a unified chal- lenge to the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. On Wednesday, Mamata will hold “chai pe charcha” with Congress president Sonia Gandhi. This was the Bengal Chief Minister’s first meeting with the Prime Minister after the bitter Bengal election campaign. Mamata told reporters after the meeting that there should be a Supreme Court- monitored enquiry into the Pegasus scandal involving Opposition leaders, two Union Ministers and 40 journalists revealed as potential targets of surveillance using Israeli Pegasus spyware that is sold only to Governments. Mamata’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee is among the potential targets whose name has surfaced as part of a worldwide investigation by a media consortium that includes India’s The Wire. Mamata announced a judicial enquiry led by former Supreme Court judges on Monday. Mamata described her meeting with the PM as a “courtesy visit” and said she discussed the Covid situation, the supply of vaccines and medicine to the State and also a proposal to rename Bengal as Bangla. “I should not speak what the PM said,” she told reporters when pressed for details. Apart from Sonia, Mamata is scheduled to meet top Opposition leaders like NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Om Prakash Chautala, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and political strategist Prashant Kishor. P lacards of “Big Brother is Watching” and ear-split- ting slogans were the only highlight of the sixth day of the Parliament session which ended without transacting any business on Tuesday even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave tongue-lashing to the Congress for obstructing busi- ness in both Houses and asked BJP MPs to “expose” the Opposition party. Both Houses of Parliament have barely transacted any business as they have been witnessing a repeat adjourn- ments on account of Congress- led vociferous protest on a range of issues, including farm- ers’ agitation and Pegasus spy- ware controversy. Both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha were adjourned multiple times on Tuesday as members of the Opposition continued their vociferous protests on the Pegasus snooping issue, seek- ing an independent judicial probe into the matter. Apart from the reports by the Pegasus Project partners, the issues of the farmers’ demand to repeal the three farm laws and petrol prices sky- rocketing have also been raised by Opposition members. However, it was the Pegasus issue that has domi- nated proceedings in both the Houses so far. As soon as the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha resumed their sessions, the Opposition members began raising slogans in support of their demands for a probe. I ndicating that a booster dose is going to be the next in-thing after two mandatory jabs against Covid-19, a study published in The Lancet journal has found that the total antibody levels start to weaken just six weeks after both doses of immunisation with Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines. The antibody levels may also be reduced by more than 50 per cent over 10 weeks or 2-3 months, said researchers from University College London in the UK. They said if the anti- body levels carry on dropping at this rate, there are concerns that the protective effects of the vac- cines may also begin to wear off, particularly against new variants. T he Government is expected to begin vaccinating children against Covid-19 by next month, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya told the BJP Parliamentary Party meet- ing on Tuesday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also present at the meeting. The Union Government had expressed confidence that it would be soon able to vacci- nate children between 12 and 18 years of age. Mandaviya said India is on course to become the largest vaccine producing country as more companies will get pro- duction licences. Zydus Cadila, which is developing DNA vaccines, has concluded its trials for the 12-18 age group, and subject to statu- tory provisions, the vaccine may be available in the near future, the Centre had said. This will be a big step in breaking the chain of trans- mission and also reopening schools across the country amid warnings of a possible third wave of Covid, according to medical fraternity. Earlier this month, Dr NK Arora, who heads the National Expert Group on Vaccines, had said that vaccination for chil- dren will start by September with the Zydus vaccine for 12 to 18-year-olds. Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and Zydus Cadila’s candidate are testing vaccines for children. The results of the Covaxin trials are expected by September, AIIMS chief Randeep Guleria has said.

Transcript of R^ReR ^VVed A>, TYRZ aV TYRcTYR hZeY D`_ZR e`URj

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The State Government onTuesday announced a hike

in dearness allowance (DA) forits employees. With this, thenew DA rate will be 28 per cent,up from 17 per cent. Theincrease in DA will be applic-able from July 1. This decisionis in line with the decisiontaken by the CentralGovernment this month. Theproposal related to this wasgiven nod to in Tuesday’sCabinet meeting.

With the increase of DA by11 per cent more than 3.5 lakhGovernment employees willbe benefitted, at the same time

the State Government will bearan expense of �1,000 crore onthe exchequer.

In view of the Corona epi-demic, the Central Governmenthad banned DearnessAllowance from January-2020.Recently, the CentralGovernment had decided toremove the ban on dearnessallowance increasing the DAfrom 17 per cent to 28 per cent.

Cabinet Secretary, VandanaDadel said, “The StateGovernment has decided toincrease the DA of State gov-ernment employees by 11 percent. The DA will be hikedfrom existing 17 per cent to 28per cent.”

The hike in DA is seen as adouble bonanza for StateGovernment employees as lastmonth, the State Cabinet raised

the government’s contributionto the National Pension Schemeto 14 per cent of basic salaryfrom the current 10 per cent.

On Tuesday, approvals to19 agenda were given at theCabinet meeting chaired byChief Minister Hemant Soren.

The Cabinet also gave itsnod for distribution of books tostudents studying at class IXand X at free of cost. Ex postfacto approval for extension oftenure of Jharkhand State LawCommission from November

14, 2019 to November 13,2021, was also given nod to atTuesday’s meeting.

Ex-post facto approval of�5,51,00,000 for operation ofMadhupur bypoll from Statecontingency fund was alsoapproved in Cabinet meeting.Approval for increasing thetraining fees in StateGovernment industrial traininginstitutes was also given nod.Srinath University Bill, 2021was given approval. JharkhandMotor Cart (Amendment)

Manual was approved in theformat of 2021.

Approval for increasing thenumber of villages underDeendayal Upadhyaya GramJyoti Yojana under the decen-tralised distributed productionprogramme (Off Grid) from230 villages to 246 villages wasgiven nod to. The total cost ofthe scheme is �109 crore out ofwhich the centre share will be�65.40 crore, while loan fromREC will be �32.70 crore whilestate share will be �10.90 crore.

Administrative approvalfor construction of BarlangaNemra Pirgul Kasmar roadunder State highway was alsogiven approval at meeting.

The two lane road will be27.608-km long and will beconstructed at the cost of�176.70 crore.

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Two more confirmed casesof Mucormycosis in Ranchi

took the black fungus tally inJharkhand to 104 on Tuesday,data released by the healthdepartment highlighted. TheState, however, did not reportfresh casualties caused by thefungal infection during thepast 24 hours and the tollremained 30.

With 40 confirmed patients,Ranchi has reported the high-est number of mucormycosiscases in the state so far, high-lights data compiled by theIntegrated Disease SurveillanceProgramme (IDSP). The districthas also reported 11 deaths, thehighest among the 24 districts.

As per IDSP data, besidesthe 104 confirmed cases, theState has reported 58 suspect-ed cases of the fungal infection.As many as 104 patients,including some under treat-ment for suspected mucormy-cosis, have been dischargedfrom hospital so far in the state.

Meanwhile, the Statereported one more Covid deathon Tuesday, which took the tollin the state to 5125, a bulletinfrom the National HealthMission (NHM) stated. Theactive caseload of Covid-19also increased slightly asJharkhand reported 39 freshcases of infection against 37recoveries.

Jharkhand on Tuesday vac-cinated over 90,000 residentsagainst Covid-19 after manag-ing to inoculate over 1.45 lakhresidents daily on an average inthe past three days. As per pro-visional data released by the

NHM, the State on Tuesdayadministered the first dose ofvaccine to 70,151 residents,while the second jab wasadministered to 19,913 benefi-ciaries. Almost 60,000 resi-dents in the age bracket of 18years to 44 years got inoculat-ed in Jharkhand on the day.

As per Governmentrecords, over 90 lakh residentshave at least received one doseof vaccine against Covid-19 sofar. The State, as per figuresreleased by the NHM onTuesday evening, had 4,01,840doses of vaccines in stock to runthe immunisation campaignuntil fresh supplies arrive.

At least 1074 session sitesfor Covid-19 vaccination wereoperational across Jharkhandon Tuesday, as per the Co-Winportal. According to data avail-able on the Co-Win dash-board, at least 57 session sitesinoculated 7354 residents inRanchi on the day, while 4,184

beneficiaries got their jabs at 55session sites in EastSinghbhum. At least 53 sessionsites were operational inDhanbad and over 10,000 res-idents were vaccinated there.

As per NHM data, at least247 people were battling theviral infection in Jharkhand bythe end of Tuesday. The freshcasualty was reported in Bokaroon the day, which took theCovid toll there to 283. Besidesreporting one fatality, Bokaroalso reported the highest spikeof nine cases among the 24 dis-tricts in Jharkhand on Tuesday.

The State on Tuesday test-ed swab samples of 60,461 res-idents and 0.06 per cent ofthem were found infected bySARS-CoV-2. So far, over 3.46lakh people have been infect-ed by the deadly virus inJharkhand and 98.45 per centof them have recovered, while1.47 per cent of patients couldnot survive.

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Dishom Guru Poshan VatikaYojana, an aspirational

scheme rolled out by theGovernment of Jharkhand, isshowing a positive impact onthe health of rural and tribalpopulations across the State.Residents of Mangudih village,a tribal village surrounded byforests and mountains in theKuchai block of Seraikela, hadbeen deprived of nutrition-rich

food. Through the means of thisscheme, nutritious food is nowa regular element of the foodintake of the women and chil-dren in the village; due to thisa continuous improvement intheir health is being registered.

Agriculture is the mainsource of livelihood for the vil-lagers of Mangudih village. TheBody Mass Index (BMI) andMUAC health check-up pro-gram run by the governmentrevealed the poor physicalhealth of the villagers.

The Jharkhand TribalDevelopment Society immedi-ately came into action to workon improving the health of thevillagers. Awareness programsrelated to the importance ofnutrition-rich food and the

ways to improve that helpedvillagers understand thatimproving the intake of greenvegetables can have a charis-matic effect on their health. Aswell as, it can lead to a better,healthy, and prosperous futurefor their children.

Impressed by the awarenessprogramme highlighting theimportance of nutrition, run byJharkhand Tribal DevelopmentSociety, Belmati Hembromcame forward to establish akitchen garden in her courtyard.The State Government provid-ed seeds, fertilizers, and tech-nical information to her whilecovering her with Dishom GuruPoshan Vatika Yojana. Today,Belmati cultivates seven types ofvegetables in the kitchen garden

near her house. It brought a pos-itive change in her life as shedoes not need to buy vegetablesfrom the market anymore.Apart from this, the healthcondition of Belmati has alsorecorded a positive change.

In a very short time, shegained the required weight dueto her intake of nutrition-richfood. Her BMI has alsoimproved. She ensures thateveryone in her house getsnutritious food on their plate.Looking at Belmati, other vil-lagers are also joining thisscheme and cultivating vegeta-bles for their use near theirhouses or courtyard.

Dishom Guru PoshanVatika Yojana is being imple-mented through JTDS. Apart

from informing the villagersabout this scheme, JTDS is pro-viding other information relat-ed to the cultivation of vegeta-bles, including the use of seeds,fertilizers, and other technicalinformation.

Positive changes are beingrecorded in the health ofwomen and children of the vil-lage due to this scheme. Therate of malnutrition amongwomen and children is stillhigh in Jharkhand. Women inrural areas are suffering fromanaemia. The StateGovernment has startedDishom Guru Poshan VatikaYojana to remove malnutritionamong women and childrenand enable them to accesshealthy and nutritious food.

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Basavaraj S Bommai, 61, theState Home Minister, a

“Lingayat” by caste and a closeconfidant of BS Yediyurappawas on Tuesday declared thenew Chief Minister ofKarnataka after BJP legislatureparty met at the State capital.

Bommai is expected totake oath of Chief Ministershipon Wednesday.

The name of Bommai, theson of former State ChiefMinister SR Bommai (a Janataparivar leader) who had joinedthe BJP in 2008, was proposedby Yediyurappa, the “Lingayat”strongman and former ChiefMinister.

The new Chief Minister isa two-time MLC and three-time MLA from Shiggaon inHaveri district.

“It is a big responsibility inthe given situation. I will striveto work for the welfare of thepoor. It will be pro-people and

pro-poor people governance,”said the Karnataka CM-elect soon after he waselected to the post.

The outgoing ChiefMinister, Yediyurappa, said,“We have unanimously electedBommai as CM....we are very happy.”

The MLAs’ meeting atBengaluru’s Hotel Capitol thatelected Bommai was attendedby the Central observers —Union Ministers DharmendraPradhan, G Kishan Reddy andgeneral secretary and State-in-charge Arun Singh. Pradhanannounced the name ofBommai as a successor toYediyurappa amid loud cheersand clapping.

By picking-up Bommai, aSadara “Lingayat”, the BJPseemed to have satisfied thecaste dynamics of Karnataka,pre-empted influential com-munity’s wrath, and agreed toYediyurappa’s choice of theCM candidate.

Yediyurappa himselfbelongs to the Veerashaiva-Lingayat community which is seen to be the BJP’s core support base inKarnataka.

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West Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee on a

high-profile visit to the nation-al Capital met Prime MinisterNarendra Modi at his resi-dence on Tuesday ahead of aseries of meeting with topOpposition leaders to preparethe strategy for a unified chal-lenge to the BJP in the 2024Lok Sabha polls.

On Wednesday, Mamatawill hold “chai pe charcha”with Congress president SoniaGandhi.

This was the Bengal ChiefMinister’s first meeting with the PrimeMinister after the bitter Bengalelection campaign.

Mamata told reportersafter the meeting that thereshould be a Supreme Court-monitored enquiry into thePegasus scandal involvingOpposition leaders, two UnionMinisters and 40 journalistsrevealed as potential targets ofsurveillance using IsraeliPegasus spyware that is soldonly to Governments.

Mamata’s nephewAbhishek Banerjee is amongthe potential targets whosename has surfaced as part of aworldwide investigation by amedia consortium thatincludes India’s The Wire.Mamata announced a judicialenquiry led by former SupremeCourt judges on Monday.

Mamata described hermeeting with the PM as a“courtesy visit” and said shediscussed the Covid situation,the supply of vaccines andmedicine to the State and alsoa proposal to rename Bengal as Bangla.

“I should not speak whatthe PM said,” she told reporterswhen pressed for details.

Apart from Sonia, Mamata

is scheduled to meet topOpposition leaders like NCPchief Sharad Pawar, Samajwadi

Party chief Akhilesh Yadav,Om Prakash Chautala, ShivSena leader Sanjay Raut, Delhi

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwaland political strategist Prashant Kishor.

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Placards of “Big Brother isWatching” and ear-split-

ting slogans were the onlyhighlight of the sixth day of theParliament session whichended without transacting anybusiness on Tuesday even asPrime Minister Narendra Modigave tongue-lashing to the

Congress for obstructing busi-ness in both Houses and askedBJP MPs to “expose” theOpposition party.

Both Houses of Parliamenthave barely transacted anybusiness as they have beenwitnessing a repeat adjourn-ments on account of Congress-led vociferous protest on arange of issues, including farm-

ers’ agitation and Pegasus spy-ware controversy.

Both the Lok Sabha andthe Rajya Sabha wereadjourned multiple times onTuesday as members of theOpposition continued theirvociferous protests on thePegasus snooping issue, seek-ing an independent judicialprobe into the matter.

Apart from the reports bythe Pegasus Project partners,the issues of the farmers’demand to repeal the threefarm laws and petrol prices sky-rocketing have also been raisedby Opposition members.

However, it was thePegasus issue that has domi-nated proceedings in both theHouses so far.

As soon as the Rajya Sabhaand the Lok Sabha resumedtheir sessions, the Oppositionmembers began raising slogansin support of their demands fora probe.

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Indicating that a booster doseis going to be the next in-thing

after two mandatory jabs againstCovid-19, a study published inThe Lancet journal has foundthat the total antibody levels startto weaken just six weeks afterboth doses of immunisationwith Pfizer and AstraZenecavaccines. The antibody levelsmay also be reduced by morethan 50 per cent over 10 weeksor 2-3 months, said researchersfrom University College Londonin the UK. They said if the anti-body levels carry on dropping atthis rate, there are concerns thatthe protective effects of the vac-cines may also begin to wear off,particularly against new variants.

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The Government is expectedto begin vaccinating children

against Covid-19 by next month,Union Health MinisterMansukh Mandaviya told theBJP Parliamentary Party meet-ing on Tuesday. Prime MinisterNarendra Modi was also presentat the meeting.

The Union Governmenthad expressed confidence thatit would be soon able to vacci-nate children between 12 and18 years of age.

Mandaviya said India is oncourse to become the largestvaccine producing country asmore companies will get pro-duction licences.

Zydus Cadila, which isdeveloping DNA vaccines, hasconcluded its trials for the 12-18

age group, and subject to statu-tory provisions, the vaccine maybe available in the near future,the Centre had said.

This will be a big step inbreaking the chain of trans-mission and also reopeningschools across the countryamid warnings of a possiblethird wave of Covid, accordingto medical fraternity.

Earlier this month, Dr NKArora, who heads the NationalExpert Group on Vaccines, hadsaid that vaccination for chil-dren will start by Septemberwith the Zydus vaccine for 12 to18-year-olds. Bharat Biotech’sCovaxin and Zydus Cadila’scandidate are testing vaccinesfor children. The results of theCovaxin trials are expected bySeptember, AIIMS chiefRandeep Guleria has said.

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For the first time in 14months, the city reported

zero Covid-19 cases in the last24 hours. The first positive caseof Covid-19 was reported fromWest Singhbhum at Chaibasa.The youth was of 22 year oldand had returned fromChennai on May 12, 2020.

Meanwhile, DeputyCommissioner Suraj Kumarhas directed officials to carryout large scale testing, treat-ment and surveillance in orderto bring down active cases and

new infections. He asked dis-trict officials, in a series ofmeetings, to prepare for a pos-sible third wave of infections.

"It was in May when wefirst positive case and thentoday we have no casesreported. Initially, during theoutbreak of Covid-19, it wastough to control the spreadbecause people live in largenumbers here and they didn’tfollow the norms. During thefirst and second waves, wehad made arrangements ofquarantine centres and isola-tion facilities. We are stilldoing tracing, testing andtreatment for people on aregular basis as well as carriedout door-to-door testing on a

regular basis" , said an official.

In the past 10 days,Jamshedpur has been reportingless than 10 Covid cases eachday on an average. The tally ofactive cases in Jamshedpur hascome down to 26 as per officialfigures. East Singhbhum is oneof the several districts in thestate that has not reported anyfresh case in a day. TheCoronavirus tally inJamshedpur remained at 51,765.

East Singhbhum districtadministration has conducted

45,5219 tests per million in thedistrict. The recovery rate inJamshedpur is 97.91% while themortality rate is 2.04 %.

More than 6500 were test-ed on the day. According to thedaily health bulletin, the Covid-19 test positivity is 0.00%. TheSteel City tested 6568 samples,of which, zero turned out pos-itive while five people recov-ered from the Covid-19. Thecontinuous high numbers oftests have pushed the positivi-ty rate further down to 0.00 percent, the government datashowed.

Bokaro: In view of the spreadof coronavirus infections,Independence Day will becelebrated by following the Covid-19 guidelines; obser-vation of health protocolslike social distancing andwearing of masks, saidKuldeep Chaudhary, DeputyCommissioner Bokaro.

A meeting was held regard-ing the preparations ofIndependence Day celebra-tions under the chairmanshipof Choudhary and ChandanKumar Jha, Superintendent ofPolice Bokaro at theCollectorate Auditorium.

They asked the officials toensure that Covid-19 guide-lines must be followed duringthe entire event on the day.

Speaking on the occasion,Chaudhary said, the threat ofCovid-19 is not entirely avert-ed yet. Experts are expressingthe possibility of a third web.

We need to be more carefulabout this. On the occasion ofIndependence Day, it will bemandatory to wear maskswhile following mutual dis-tance.

He said that during the flaghoisting in various govern-ment offices, the official headsof the concerned office wouldensure masks, sanitizers andother arrangements.“Instructions were also given tomake a circle for social dis-tancing at flag hoisting sites,” headded.

Rehearsal for the paradewill be held from August 9,while on August 13, theDeputy Commissioner andthe Superintendent of Policewil l joint ly inspect the parade.

Participants will have tosubmit a COVID-19 negativereport, said a district adminis-tration official.

PNS

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RPF bailed out a tribal girl ofPalamu as far away as

Dholpur under North Centralrailway, said sources.

A 21 year old tribal girlDevanti Oraon of Jaynagarunder Palamu's Chainpurpolice station was discoveredalone and haggard in theJhelum express train, saidsources.

She was made to get downat Jajo railway station there andthe RPF post of Dholpur tookprotective custody of her.

Sub inspector cum postincharge of RPF Garhwa roadjunction here Kumar NayanSing said he got a call from hisbatchmate at Dholpur RPFpost under Agra divisionKhushi Ram Yadav on July 23.

This RPF officer said he

noted down the details andbegan to trace the parents ofthis girl. Nayan said a journal-ist was very helpful in tracingthe Oraon family.

The Chainpur police tootook all pains and finally thegirl's father was traced who wasasked to reach Dholpur RPFpost to bring back his daugh-ter from there.

Nayan said the parentswent there and brought backtheir daughter. The girl withher parents arrived in Palamuon July 25.

Sources said the effortsand pains of Nayan are verywell appreciated here as anydelay or passivity on his partwould have meant more harddays for this tribal girl atDholpur.

The RPF Dholpur had putup this girl at Mahila Asha Jyotiin Agra.

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Xavier Institute of SocialService (XISS), Ranchi and

Save the Children India, BalRaksha Bharat (SCBR) havesigned a MoU (Memorandumof Understanding) for a part-nership of 100 Days of Actionand Save Our EducationCampaign with special empha-sis on girls’ education. TheRural Management (RM)Programme of XISS will be car-rying out the activities men-tioned in the MoU. Dr. RajShree Verma and SoumiHalder will be organising activ-ities of this MOU on behalf ofXISS and Save The Childrenrespectively

This partnership is in timeto amplify and advocate foreducational rights of childrenin Jharkhand and across thecountry during the campaign-ing period starting from 1stJuly to 8th September, 2021;thereby upholding basic edu-cation rights of children in thestate and across the country,amid pandemic, as a digitaldivide disabled children tocontinue their education.

Dr. Joseph MarianusKujur, Director, XISS duringthe signing of the MoU said,“XISS is elated on this collab-oration with Save TheChildren focusing on the edu-cational rights of children.The pandemic has affected inways beyond imaginationwhere several children areunable to pursue their educa-tion due to the digital divideand closure of schools. So,with this collaborative effort,we wish to bridge the gap andincrease awareness for maxi-

mum support from the gov-ernment, civil societies, andeducational institutions.”

Under this partnership,SCBR, and XISS will organiseseveral action moments duringthis campaign such as StoryTelling and Comic making com-petition in August, messagesfrom the advocacy appeal for thecampaign on social media willbe shared, a Sign the Petition:www.change.org/100DaysOfAction will be done by students andfraternity, a webinar will beorganised followed by discus-sions on issues related to childeducation amid pandemic. Adebate competition titled TheVoice of Change- “Is OnlineEducation a breach to the Rightto Education and ‘Pause andThink Moment’ was organisedin this context earlier.

Dr. Himadari Sinha, HoPof Rural ManagementProgramme of XISS duringthe signing of the MoU said:“This association of XISS andSave The Children will cer-tainly amplify the scope for

advocacy for the educationalrights of children especiallyamidst the pandemic and adivide which is arising due toit. Education is a basic right toeach one and this collaborationfocuses on bringing this issueto the fore for the Governmentand other stakeholders to finda solution to.”

Mahadev Hansda, Head -Project Office (Jharkhand),SCBR while elaborating therequirements of the MoU said,“Save the Children is veryhappy to collaborate with XISSon the educational rights ofchildren. The collaborativeefforts would help to amplifythe importance of continuity ofeducation amid the pandemic.How the closure of schoolsmight have an impact on chil-dren and it is anticipated that10 million girls might notreturn back to schools forever.So, we urge the Government,CSOs, educational institutionstogether to talk about the issueand support those children tocontinue their education.”

����� �����

Aseventeen-year-old girl, a Class X student,was allegedly raped by three youths in Kandi

of the district on Sunday night.The girl has beensent for medical examination. "Following a com-plaint by the victim, all the three accused werearrested and after being booked under relevantIPC sections and POCSO act have been sent tojail,” Station in-charge Kandi Niteish Kumar said.

Victim had gone to attend her friend's birth-day party at Kandi when the accused took herto a Moyer cycle garage , and they all raped her.When the incident came to light, a crowd start-ed gathering outside the garage. The garage doorwas locked from inside. Seeing the increasingpressure of the people, the three youths fledfrom the back of the garage leaving the girlalone. At the behest of the people, the victimonly opened the closed shutter of the garage.

Taking quick action, the police arrested allthree on the basis of mobile location.

The victim's mother said that her daughterhad left the house saying that she would attendthe birthday of her friend. Later it is learned thathis daughter has been raped. The victim'sfather has already died.

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BERMO: Bokaro Deputy CommissionerKuldeep Choudhary held a meeting of theDistrict Level Committee of Chief MinisterEmployment Generation Scheme at theCollectorate here on Tuesday.

On the occasion, Deputy DevelopmentCommissioner Jai Kishore Prasad, SDO Chas DilipPratap Singh Shekhawat, District TransportOfficer Sanjeev Kumar, Executive Officer ofChas Municipal Corporation Vivek Suman,District Welfare Officer Ravi Shankar Mishra werepresent on the occasion.

The District Welfare Officer apprised thecommittee members in detail regarding the ChiefMinister's employment generation scheme.While the Deputy Commissioner Chaudhary saidthat this scheme has been started to promote self-employment and entrepreneurship develop-ment in rural and urban areas we should also givewide publicity to it, so that people can get infor-mation about this scheme and its purpose is ful-filled.

He directed to activate JSLPS, NULM(Urban), Block Coordinators of IndustriesDepartment etc. for the promotion of thisscheme and collection of applications of theneedy who fulfill the eligibility. PNS

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In a bid to attract investors forethanol production in the

State, Department of Industriesorganised a Stakeholders’ Meeton the draft Jharkhand EthanolProduction and PromotionPolicy 2021 on Tuesday duringwhich the departmentannounced that the StateGovernment will provide 25per cent capital subsidy for theinvestors.

Addressing the gatheringSecretary, Department ofIndustries, Pooja Singhal saidthat the policy proposes a

highly remunerative incentivestructure including CapitalSubsidy at 25 per cent ofInvestment made in fixed cap-ital up to � 10 cr for MSMEsand �50 cr for Non-MSMEs.

Singhal also said that one-

time Skill Development Subsidyat Rs 13,000 per employee forthe training of employees whoare domicile of Jharkhand andEmployment Cost Subsidy is 50per cent reimbursement formale workers and 100 per cent

reimbursement for femaleworkers of expenditure onaccount of contribution towardESI and EPF scheme for a peri-od of 5 years for new units forthose employees who are domi-cile of Jharkhand up to Rs. 1000per month. She concluded byurging the investors to give theirviews and suggestions on thepolicy.

Seven policies will be pre-sented for approval within thenext two months. During themeeting to lure the investors forEthanol production the depart-ment talked about the advan-tages of investing in Jharkhandincluding the location advan-tage, Ease of Doing Business,land bank available for allot-ment and the upcoming indus-trial parks and SEZs projects.

Singhal also gave an idea ofthe feedstock that can be usedfor Ethanol production and

stated that Jharkhand can eas-ily sustain a minimum of 600KL per day of production forthe captive market available inEastern India.

Speaking on the occasion,Director Industries JitenderKumar Singh gave a briefoverview of the uses of Ethanoland the overall production fig-ures from India. He also high-lighted the benefits of Ethanolblending and gave examplesfrom across the world includ-ing that of Brazil and the USAwherein Brazil has a molasses-based blending program andthe USA has a starch-basedblending program. Singh thenproceeded to give Jharkhand’sproduction of Sugarcane, Riceand Maize and talked about theschemes launched by theGovernment of India forEthanol production.

Deputy Commissioner,

Department of Excise andProhibition, Dr Rakesh Kumarconcluded by assuring theinvestors that any applicationsfor LoI will be addressed by theDepartment of Excise andProhibition within a fortnight.

The open Question andAnswer session was wellreceived by the investors andincluded over six sessions. Theinvestors lauded the incentivestructures and gave their sug-gestions.

Before concluding theevent, eight focused B2G ses-sions were conducted with aselect group of large investorsto increase the pace of indus-trialization in the State.

Other officials at the eventincluded Regional DirectorJIADA, Ajay Kumar Singh waspresent on the occasion Theevent was attended by over 50investors.

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The State in-charge of USAIDNishtha PATH organisation,

Abhijit Sinha, met Chief Minister,Hemant Soren, and presented oxy-gen concentrator at Mantralaya onTuesday. State in-charge of theinstitution, Abhijit Sinha told theCM that in view of the possibilityof third wave of corona infection inthe State, work is being done by the organisat ion with commitment in the f ield of health.

He said that USAID Nishtha

PATH organization has so far pro-vided 300 oxygen concentrators in129 health centers of the State. Hesaid that the doctors and healthworkers have also been trained forthis purpose so that the oxygenconcentrator provided by the orga-nization can be used in the health centers in a better way.

Chief Minister Hemant Sorenappreciated the work being done byUSAID Nishtha PATH organizationand thanked the entire team includ-ing the State in-charge AbhijitSinha. The CM said that during the

infection period of Covid-19, var-ious voluntary organisations haveworked step by step with the stategovernment to deal with the epi-demic. Soren said that all of us willf ight and win unitedly from this g lobal pandemic.

Vinay Kumar Choubey,Secretary to the Chief Minister, Dr.Aniket Kumar, State Public HealthCoordinator, USAID NishthaPATH, State Monitoring andEvaluation Officer, Rahul KumarYadav were present on theoccasion.

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The Centre has proposed toallocate more than 35 lakh

doses of vaccines to Jharkhandin the month of August to con-tinue the ongoing immunisa-tion drive against Covid-19, lat-est vaccine supply schedulereleased by the Ministry ofHealth and Family Welfare(MoHFW) highlighted onTuesday.

While the Centre will pro-vide at least 27,46,930 vaccinedoses for free to the State, asmany as 7,95,250 doses will bemade available for purchase byprivate hospitals and clinicsinvolved in the immunisationdrive, a document shared bythe MoHFW stated.

With at least 35,32,180vaccine doses assured,Jharkhand will be in a positionto inoculate at least 1 lakh res-idents daily in the month ofAugust, health officials said.The state, as per records withthe health department, has atleast 3377 session sites for vac-cination and the infrastructureto immunize over 3 lakh resi-dents every day.

The state, as per govern-ment records, received around25 lakh vaccine doses in themonth of July. However,delayed supply of vaccines hitthe immunisation drive forseveral days in Jharkhand asdistricts ran out of vaccines,officials said. Owing to the cri-sis of vaccines, the stateachieved the lowest single dayvaccination figure of barely13,000 in the month of July.

While the increase in thenumber of vaccine doses inthe month of August mayhelp in smooth running of thecampaign, many residentsdesiring to get Covaxin doseor waiting for their seconddose of this vaccine may have

to deal with a shortage,sources said.

The vaccine supply sched-ule indicates that the statemight only manage to admin-ister 15,000 doses of Covaxin ina day against over 90,000Covishield doses on an average.As per the schedule of vaccinesupply, the state will receive24,08,650 Covishield doses and3,38,280 Covaxin doses free ofcost. At least 6,88,130Covishield doses and 1,07,120Covaxin doses will be madeavailable for purchase by pri-vate hospitals.

According to MoHFW,Jharkhand has at least2,60,86,097 eligible vaccinebeneficiaries and the state mayreceive over 3.5 crore vaccineson pro rata basis.

The state has so farreceived 93,02,030 doses ofvaccines from the Centre forrunning the immunisationdrive against Covid-19, high-lights data with the NationalHealth Mission (NHM). Asper NHM data shared onTuesday evening, the statehas so far administered atleast one dose of vaccine to90,32,969 residents, includingsome who took the RussianSputnik V vaccine procuredseparately by private hospi-tals.

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Following the instruction of All IndiaCongress Committee (AICC), under the

leadership of Jharkhand Pradesh CongressCommittee (JPCC) Chief, Dr RameshwarOraon, a limited number of party workersfollowing Covid guidelines will demon-strate against the increase in the prices ofpetrol-diesel and LPG at Bapu Watika ofMorabadi in the State Capital today.

Congress Legislature Party leaderAlamgir Alam, Agriculture Minister Badaland Health Minister Banna Gupta andMLAs will be present in this demonstration.

A meeting of party office-bearers washeld to ensure success of the programme onTuesday at the party headquarter in the StateCapital.

Talking to media persons JPCCSpokesperson Alok Kumar Dubey said thatall the preparations for the demonstrationhave been completed. “Banner-poster hasbeen made and a waterproof tent is also beingbuilt near the spot, where in the presence ofa limited number of party leaders and work-ers will protest. They will express their angeragainst the increase in the price of petrol-diesel, cooking gas. According to the instruc-tions of All India Congress Committee(AICC) and the Organization In-Charge, KCVenugopal agitations are being organized allover the Country regarding rising inflation,in the past, there was a nationwide protestby organizing demonstrations and cycle toursat petrol pumps,” he added.

Speaking on the occasion JPCCSpokesperson, Lal Kishorenath Shahdeo

said that it took 70 years for the price ofpetrol to reach Rs 60 and it took only 7 yearsto reach Rs 111, in spite of this, the BJPleader was only trying to curse the previ-ous Congress Government by drinkingwater for inflation but now the people of thecountry have also started to understand thatwhose rule was good. He said that NarendraModi, the head of the NDA Government,is such a magician, the Country whichCongress took 70 years to bring here,Narendra Modi took only seven years tomake that Country 100 years behind.

JPCC Spokesperson, Rajesh Gupta saidthat according to the auspicious numbers ofBJP leaders, petrol has reached the auspi-cious number 111 and diesel has reached theauspicious number 101, now the BJP is justwaiting for the gas cylinder to reach 1001,so that no one could stop India from becom-ing a Vishwa Guru. “On the one hand, forthe last 16 months, the people suffering fromthe crisis of Corona epidemic, the fallingeconomy, rising unemployment are wreak-ing havoc, while on the other hand, theCentral Government is finding epidemicopportunities and forcing the people to geton the road due to inflation,” he added.

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Lawyers in State Capital onTuesday refrained from judi-

cial work protesting against theboard day light murder of fellowlawyer at Tamar in rural area ofCapital. The lawyers holdingplacards and banners took outa protest march from RanchiDistrict Bar Association (RDBA)to Albert Ekka Chowk. Thelawyers demanded the imple-mentation of the AdvocatesProtection Act in the State.

Earlier, on Monday after-noon a middle aged practicinglawyer Manoj Jha was killed bymotorcycle-borne assailants inRadgaon area under Tamarpolice station. Police said that thedeceased was in his car with hisdriver around 500m from thebusy National Highway-33 con-necting Ranchi and Jamshedpur,when five assailants on twobikes opened fire at the lawyer.Police sources said that it cameto light that he was attackedwhen he was overseeing wallconstruction on a big plot whichwas disputed earlier.

As per information, thelawyer was getting the workdone on behalf of one of hisclients, an educational institu-tion, on the 14-acre plot. Theassailants overpowered Jha’sdriver at gunpoint and pumped

several bullets before escaping.Reacting strongly over the

death of Jha, Jharkhand StateBar Council chairman RajendraKrishna said, “The board day-light murder of a practicinglawyer is a serious issue. Theincident exposes the poor lawand order situation in StateCapital.” Jharkhand State BarCouncil member SanjayVidrohi demanded the imple-mentation of AdvocatesProtection Act in the state.The Advocates Protection Actis for the protection of advo-cates and their functions in dis-charge of professional duties.The Act is stated to be the pro-tection of advocates and toremove obstructions in the dis-charge of their duties.

He said that in recent timeincidents like assault and mur-der against advocates haveincreased. In view of this, theProtection Act is needed.

This is not the first time thatdemands for setting up theAdvocates Protection Act. TheState Bar Council had placedtheir demands for implemen-tation of Advocates ProtectionAct during the tenure of ChiefRaghubar Das, but the act couldnot be implemented. The thenGovernment had asked for adraft copy of the Act. After this,action was started on behalf ofthe Government. But after theformation of the newGovernment and given the con-ditions in Corona, the processregarding the Act slowed down.

The lawyers demandingarrest of culprits behind themurder of Jha also submitted amemorandum to SSP demand-ing arrest of persons behind theincident. Meanwhile, theJharkhand High CourtAdvocates association too hastaken strong cognizance overthe death of Jha.

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MGNREGA CommissionerRajeshwari B has directed the

Deputy DevelopmentCommissioners of all the districtsthrough a letter that for the labour-ers up to the age of 65 years, whohave worked under MGNREGAfor at least 15 days in a financialyear, there is a provision to pay theamount of ex-gratia grant tohis/her legal heir/accidental work-er in case of death or accidentaldeath or unnatural death (includ-ing murder) or dismemberment inthat financial year and subse-quent financial year. For this, atotal budgetary provision of �10crore has been made from the Statefund for ex-gratia grant for thefinancial year 2021-22.

MGNREGA is working in theState on the lines of ‘Zindagi KeSaath Bhi and Zindagi Baad Bhi’.All possible cooperation is beingprovided by the State Governmentto the labourers associated withthis. Not only is there a guaranteeof providing 100 days of employ-ment to them, but the StateGovernment is standing withthem. Everyone is becoming a par-ticipant in their happiness and sor-row. This is the reason why thegovernment is moving ahead withthe mantra “Jeevika bhi, Jeevanbhi”. An initiative has been takento strengthen the rural economy ofthe State and to provide employ-ment to the villagers through thisscheme.

The government has decidedto provide employment to therural and migrant workers of theState in their villages and townsunder the MGNREGA scheme. Itwas told by the MGNREGA com-missioner that the workers work-ing under the MGNREGA schemebelong to the poorest families ofthe State. When such a worker diesdue to natural death or unnaturalcauses, the financial condition ofthe family becomes absolutely

pathetic and they are not given thebenefit of any kind of ex-gratiagrant by the Central Government.In such a situation, it has beendecided that the labourers whohave worked under MGNREGAfor at least 15 days in a financialyear up to the age of 65 years, willdie in that financial year and in thenext financial year, or in case ofaccidental death or unnatural death(including homicide) or amputa-tion of limb, the amount of ex-gra-tia grant will be paid to his legalheir/labourer affected by accidentin the following manner –

1. In case of accidental deathor unnatural death (includingmurder) or permanent disabili-ty/mutilation, amount Rs 75,000

2. In case of partial handicapdue to accident, amount Rs.37,500

3. Amount Rs 30,000 in caseof normal death

4. Rs 50,000 as payment of ex-gratia grant to the dependents ofthe deceased who died by drown-ing in the Dobha constructedunder the MGNREGA scheme.

The MNREGA commissionerhas directed the DeputyDevelopment Commissioners ofall the districts to identify all suchdead workers suffering from acci-dents and provide the list to thedepartment within a week and ithas also been directed that in theevent of any such incident a

detailed local investigation shouldbe done immediately and if thecase is found to be true, theamount should be made availableto the dependent/victim within 24hours.

A total of 19.45 lakh labourershave been provided employmentunder MGNREGA and 467 lakhman-days have been created in thecurrent financial year 2021-22 sofar. In order to provide employ-ment to every willing family andlabourer in their village and tola asmuch as possible, the governmenthas set a target of implementationof at least 5 to 6 schemes in eachvillage tola. For this, special focusis being laid on the implementationof schemes launched by the stategovernment like Nilambar-Pitamber Jal Samridhi Yojana,Birsa Harit Gram Yojana, VeerShaheed Poto Ho Khel Yojana, DidiBari Yojana etc.

In these schemes, emphasis isbeing laid on creation of qualityassets by providing timely employ-ment to all the workers. Alongwith providing employment to allthe willing workers, emphasis isbeing laid on the timely imple-mentation of all the above schemesstarted by the state government. Atthe same time, water conservationand plantation work is beingimplemented scientifically in mis-sion mode.

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Overall Covid-19 cases mayhave been showing a

declining trend, but there are 22districts— 7 from Kerala, 5from Manipur, 3 in Meghalayaamong others in the countrywhere an increasing trend incases has been reported in thelast 4 weeks. It is a cause of con-cern, the Union Health Ministrysaid as it warned the public thatthe second Covid wave is stillnot over.

“There has been a consistentdecline in the weekly average inthe COVID cases...But if wecompare the rate of decline incases, from earlier to now, itsdecrease remains the area ofconcern. We’re in talks withstates in this regard,” LavAgarwal, Joint Secretary, UnionHealth Ministry , said at a pressconference here.

He said, “There are still 62

districts in the country whereover 100 cases are reportedevery day. These cases are foundin a localised and limited set ofareas of these districts.”

The rate of decline of caseshas however slowed downwhich is a matter of concern,cautioned the official.

Echoing similar views, NitiAayog member Dr V K Paulpointed out that vaccination isnot a full guarantee and oneshould not take Covid for grant-ed. “No vaccine provides 100%guarantee against reinfection. Allhowever reduce the risk of hos-pitalisation drastically,” he said.

In this connection he citedresurgence of Covid cases world-wide, pointing out that “it is amatter of concern and the pan-demic is not over yet.”

“If we look from a globalperspective, the pandemic isfar from over. There’s a notice-able increase in the number of

cases across the world, whichremains the area of concern.We’ve to work on containing thespread of the virus with strict-ness,” the official said.

At 29,689, India has report-ed less than 30,000 new Covid-

19 cases after 132 days, accord-ing to the government.

The number of active casesin the country also fell below4,00,000 after 124 days, it said.Fresh cases pushed India’s over-all Covid-19 tally to 3,14,40,951,

while the death toll climbed to4,21,382 with 415 daily fatalities,the health ministry said.

The active cases havedeclined to 3,98,100 and nowcomprise 1.27 per cent of thetotal infections.

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The Government on Tuesdayinformed Parliament that a

little over 2 lakh hectare of thecropped area has been damagedso far this year due to hydro-meteorological calamities. Thegovernment also informed thatit is aiming to create a federat-ed National Farmers Databaseusing digitised land recordsthat will help to offer proactiveand personalised services tofarmers.

In a written reply to the LokSabha, Union AgricultureMinister Narendra Singh Tomaron Tuesday informed that 66.55lakh hectare cropped area wasdamaged in 2020-21. However,till July 27 this year, 2.024 lakh

hectare area has been damageddue to hydro-meteorologicalcalamities/ hazards, he said.

The maximum damage wasreported from Gujarat, followedby Kerala, Maharashtra, UttarPradesh, Karnataka, Odisha,and Goa in the said period. Theminister said states undertakerelief measures in the wake ofnatural disasters from the StateDisaster Response Fund (SDRF)already placed at their dispos-al.

“As a first step in this direc-tion, the government hasalready initiated building fed-erated farmers’ database thatwould serve as the core of theenvisaged Agristack,” Tomarsaid in another written reply tothe Lok Sabha.

No private sector compa-nies are involved as far as thebuilding of the Agristack isconcerned. However, leadingTechnology/Agri-tech/startupcompanies were identified andinvited to collaborate with thecentral government to developproof of concepts (PoCs) basedon small portions of data fromthe federated Farmers’ databasefor certain identified areas (dis-trict/village), he added.

In a reply to another ques-tion, Tomar said that the Centrehad approved nearly Rs 700crore towards relief of farmersin flood-hit Maharashtra, evenas Opposition members con-tinued disrupting the lowerchamber for the fifth straightday.

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The UNESCO on Tuesdaysaid Dholavira, a

Harappan-era metropolis, inGujarat, has been inscribed onits World Heritage List,prompting Prime MinisterNarendra Modi to tweet thathe was “absolutely delightedby this news”.

“Dholavira: A HarappanCity, in India, just inscribedon the @UNESCO#WorldHeritage List .Congratulations!” UNESCOtweeted. The ongoing 44thsession of the World HeritageCommittee of the

UNESCO has alreadygiven India a new world her-itage site in the form of theRudreswara/ RamappaTemple in Telangana, which

dates back to the 13th centu-ry.

“Absolutely delighted bythis news. Dholavira was animportant urban centre and isone of our most important

linkages with our past. It is amust visit, especially for thoseinterested in history, cultureand archaeology,” Modi tweet-ed.

“As CM of Gujarat, I had

the opportunity to work onaspects relating to heritageconservation and restorationin Dholavira. Our team alsoworked to create tourism-friendly infrastructure there,”he further said.

Gujarat so far has threeworld heritage sites —Champaner near Pavagadh,Rani ki Vav in Patan and thehistoric city of Ahmedabad.

This session of the WorldHeritage Committee is beingchaired from Fuzhou in Chinaand is being held online. Itstarted on July 16 and willend on July 31.

The 44th session com-bines current work, and issuesleft outstanding since lastyear, when the annual meet-ing was postponed due to

COVID-19.“It gives immense pride to

share with my fellow Indiansthat #Dholavira is now the40th treasure in India to begiven @UNESCO’s WorldHeritage Inscription. Anotherfeather in India’s cap as wenow enter the Super-40 clubfor World Heritage Siteinscriptions,” Culture MinisterG Kishan Reddy said in atweet.

“Today is a proud day forIndia, especially for the peo-ple of Gujarat,” he said. “Since2014, India has added 10 newWorld Heritage sites – onefourth of our total sites. Thisshows PM @arendramodi’ssteadfast commitment inpromoting Indian culture,heritage and the Indian way oflife,” Reddy tweeted.

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New Delhi: Making it clear itwill not take an “elitist view”that no beggars be allowed onthe streets, the Supreme CourtTuesday asked the Centre andDelhi Government to respondto a plea seeking vaccinationand rehabilitation of beggarsand vagabonds in view of theCovid-19 pandemic.

The apex court said beg-ging is a “socio-political prob-lem” and people are com-pelled to beg on the streets toeke out some elementarylivelihood in the absence ofeducation and employment.

A bench of Justices D YChandrachud and M R Shahtold the counsel appearing forthe petitioner that it wouldnot consider one part of theprayer which sought direction

to the authorities to restrainbeggars, vagabonds andhomeless persons from beg-ging at public places or traf-fic junctions.

The bench said it wouldissue notices to the Centreand the Delhi Governmentseeking their responses on theprayer made in the petition

for rehabilitation, vaccina-tion and providing food andshelters to beggars andvagabonds amid the pan-demic.

“As the Supreme Court,we would not want to take anelitist view that no beggarsshould be there on thestreets,” the bench said. PTI

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New Delhi: Observing thatidentification of children whohave become orphans or losta parent either due to Covid-19 or otherwise does notbrook any further delay, theSupreme Court Tuesdaydirected the StateGovernments and UnionTerritories (UTs) to file statusreports giving particularsabout the number of childrenwho have become orphansafter March 2020.

The top court said thereis a need to ensure theschemes meant for orphansreach the real beneficiariesand not just remain on paper.

A Bench comprisingJustices L Nageswara Raoand Aniruddha Bose direct-ed the the DistrictMagistartes to issue necessaryinstructions to the districtchild protection officers totake assistance of the police,civil society, gram panchay-ats, anganwadi and ASHAworkers for identification oforphans.

The apex court said thisis in addition to mechanisms

available in Juvenile Justice(Care and Protection ofChildren) Act, 2015 andrules.

“The identification ofchildren who have lost bothparents or one parent afterMarch 2020 does not brookany further delay,” the benchsaid.

The Bench also clarifiedthat its order covers all chil-dren who became orphansduring this period due toCovid or otherwise.

“What we are thinking isto take care of all childrenwho have been orphanedwhether Covid or not Covid. We cannot restrict theorders passed to onlyorphans who lost both par-ents to COVID-19”, JusticeRao said.

The Bench said District

Magistrates are directed tocontinue uploading the infor-mation on Bal Swaraj portalof National Commission forProtection of Child Rights(NCPCR).

Child welfare commit-tees are directed to com-plete the inquiry within thetime limit specified underAct and provide assistanceand rehabilitation to orphans,the bench added.

“All State Governments,UTs are directed to file sta-tus reports giving particularsgiving the number of chil-dren who have becomeorphan after March 2020.The number of children pro-duced before the child wel-fare committee and theirparticular who have beenprovided with benefits of theschemes by the state govern-ments,” the bench said.

It also directed the statesto provide details regardingpayment of �2,000 mone-tary assistance given to needyorphans under the IntegratedChild Development Servicesscheme. PTI

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Seven Opposition parties havewritten to President Ram

Nath Kovind seeking his inter-vention to direct theGovernment to discuss farmers’issues and Pegasus phone-tap-ping in Parliament.

The decision to knock thedoors of Rashtrapati Bhavantook place after a meeting of theOpposition leaders held in theParliament premises after theadjournment of Lok Sabha andRajya Sabha.

Though the Congress wasalso present in the meeting, thesignatories of the letter are BSP,RLP, SAD, National Conference,CPI, CPI(M) and NCP. Later,the Opposition leaders joinedsenior Congress leaderMallikarjun Kharge for a jointPress conference outside theParliament.

Congress sources said thatthe grand old party did notbecame a signatory to the letterdue to the presence of SADhowever the both political par-ties will continue to fight for theright of farmers in theParliament till justice met.

NCP leader Supriya Sulesaid the seven parties have writ-ten to the President seeking hisintervention to instruct thegovernment to discuss the farm-ers’’ issues and Pegasus snoop-ing in the Parliament.

SAD leader HarsimratBadal, who was a Minister inModi government until sheresigned to protest the contro-versial farm laws, said it is veryunfortunate that farmers havedied while protesting against thethree farm laws but the Centreis not even ready to discuss theirissues.

Addressing the Press con-ference, Kharge said, govern-ment is not interested in ameaningful discussion anddebate.

“This Government doesnot believe in its accountabili-ty to the people of India throughthe Parliament. ThisGovernment has functioned ina manner, which has loweredthe prestige of IndianParliament and Indian democ-racy. What the opposition hasdemanded is fair, correct, with-in the ambit of rules and estab-lished Parliament practice andconventions. When collective-ly, the opposition gives a noticethat matter has to be discussed,

Parliament is not convenedonly for the legislative agenda ofthe Government,” Kharge said.

“We have no option, but tocontinue to agitate and we havecome here all of us together,because what we say inside thehouse, does not reach the peo-ple, it is never telecast.Opposition is being blackedout inside the house, so throughthe media, we want to tell ourpeople, we shall continue thisfight. The government obdurateas it is, we will force them, as ina democratic set up it is done tocome and debate, if the gov-ernment has nothing to hide, letthem start the debate todayitself, the opposition is ready,”said Anand Sharma, DeputyLeader of Opposition in RajyaSabha.

DMK’ Tiruchi Shiva, SPleader Ram Gopal Yadav, CPIleader Binoy Vishwam, TMCleader Sukhendu Shekhar Roy,RJD’s Manoj Jha and AAPleader Sanjay Singh attended themeet.

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The Government on Tuesdaytermed as “ill-informed

and misrepresenting” mediareports that claimed that Indiawill miss the end-July target ofadministering 50 crore Covidvaccine doses and asserted thatover 51.60 crore vaccine doseswill be supplied from Januaryto July 31.

“These reports are ill-informed and have clearlymisrepresented the facts,” theUnion Health Ministry said ina statement here.

The figures of 516 millionvaccine doses might have beenpicked up from varioussources which informed aboutthe likely availability of thevaccine doses from January toJuly-end, it added.

“The facts are that a totalof more than 516 million vac-cine doses will indeed be sup-plied from January 2021 to31st July, 2021,” the ministrysaid.

It added that the vaccinedoses are supplied to the statesin accordance with the

advance allocation plan andthey are informed about it inadvance. The vaccines are sup-plied to the states in variousschedules throughout themonth.

“Therefore, availability of516 million doses till end of aparticular month does notmean that every dose supplied

till that month is going to beconsumed/administered.

“There would be suppliesin the pipeline, which shouldbe available for the next fewdays till the next supplies ofvaccine doses materialize in aparticular state/district/sub-district to keep vaccinationgoing on,” the statement said.

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The Government onTuesday cited a study by

the Armed Forces MedicalCollege (AFMC) during thesecond Covid-19 wave to saythat Covishield gives 93 percent protection against Covid-19 and a 98 per cent mortali-ty reduction.

Addressing a press con-ference, NITI Aayog Member(Health) Dr V K Paul pre-sented findings of the studywhich was conducted on 15

lakh doctors and frontlineworkers.

“Protection to the extent of93 per cent was seen (in peo-ple who were administered theCovishield vaccine) and thiswas during the second wavewhich was driven by the Deltavariant... also 98 per cent mor-tality reduction was seen,” hesaid.

Reiterating the usefulnessof vaccines in battling Covid-19, Paul said inoculationreduces infection but it is nota total guarantee.

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Underlining the time-testedlong-standing defence

between the two countries,India and Russia will take partin the 12th edition of the Indo-Russia Joint Military Exercise(INDRA) at Volgograd city.The 13-day exercise will starton August 1, 2021.

The exercise will entail

conduct of counter terror oper-ations under the UnitedNations mandate by a jointforce against international ter-ror groups.

Giving details of theupcoming event, officials saidhere on Tuesday, 250 person-nel from both the nations willform part of the exercise. TheIndian Army contingent com-prising of a Mechanised

Infantry Battalion underwentrigorous training at differentlocations in India to refinetheir drills for participation inthe joint exercise.

Exercise INDRA-21 willfurther strengthen mutual con-fidence and interoperabilitybetween the Indian andRussian Armies and enablesharing of best practicesbetween the contingents ofboth the countries.

The exercise will be yetanother milestone in strength-ening security cooperation andwill serve to reinforce the long-standing bond of friendshipbetween India and Russia.

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The Lok Sabha on Tuesdaywitnessed 10 adjournments

amid continuous protests byOpposition members over thePegasus snooping row andfarm laws. After beingadjourned nine times, theLower House reassembled at4.30 PM and RajendraAgrawal, who was in the Chair,took up one matter of urgentpublic importance.

However, the Oppositionmembers again trooped intothe Well shouting slogans andcarrying banners.

Meanwhile Congress MPsfrom Punjab Ravneet SinghBittu and Gurjit Singh Aujalasat on a dharna inside the LokSabha chamber after the pro-ceedings of the House wereadjourned for the day. Thedharna was still going on whenthe last report came in. Thisprotest indicates theOpposition is expected to uptheir ante in coming days onPegasus snooping row and

farm laws. The members of Congress,

CPI, CPI(M) and TMC wereprotesting over the Pegasussnooping row, while the BSP, SPand Shiromani Akali Dal wereraising slogans against theCentre’s three new farm laws.Earlier, Speaker Om Birla ledthe members in paying tributesto Anerood Jugnauth, formerpresident of Mauritius, andKenneth David BuchizyaKaunda, the first president ofZambia. The opposition’sprotests started soon after theproceedings began at 11 AM.

Minister of State forParliamentary Affairs ArjunRam Meghwal said by dis-rupting the proceedings, theOpposition is not allowing theministers to do their duty ofreplying to questions.

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The Pegasus issue continuedto rock the Rajya Sabha for

the sixth consecutive day onTuesday. Sloganeering and dis-playing of banners by the agi-tated Opposition and some ofthem trooping into the well ofthe house were the order of theday. It witnessed repeatedadjournments due to disrup-tion.

Rajya Sabha Chairman MVenkaiah Naidu tried to restoreorder when the proceedingscommenced at 11.00 am.However, the Opposition was in no mood torelent and shouted slogans.Naidu said it was “a sorry stateof affairs” before

adjourning the house till 12.00pm.

Similar scenes were seenwhen the house reassembled and despiteDeputy Chairman Harivansh’sappeal, the din continued.

He cautioned that some ofthe members in the well werenot wearing masks and not fol-lowing the Covid protocol.

Deputy leader of the houseMukhtar Abbas Naqvi alsoobjected to the members notwearing masks and said they are posing a health risk tothe Rajya Sabha secretariatofficials.

He also objected to allegedderogatory slogans raisedagainst Prime MinisterNarendra Modi.

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The Union Home Ministryhas sought an extension

for the fifth time till January9 for framing the rules of theCitizenship Amendment Act(CAA), which was passed byParliament in 2019. TheMinistry also said that due tooutbreak of Covid-19 andflood situation, finalisation ofNational Register of Citizens(NRC) in Assam is delayedandthe process of issuingrejection slips has been post-poned.

Replying to the questionfrom Congress MP GauravGogoi, the MoS Home Affairs

Nityanand Rai informed LokSabha on Tuesday that “theCommittees on SubordinateLegislation, Lok Sabha andRajya Sabha have beenrequested to grant furtherextension of t ime upto09.01.2022 to frame the rulesunder the Citizenship(Amendment) Act, 2019,”

This is the fifth extensionsought by the governmentfor framing of these rules.According to the Manual onParliamentary Work, the rulesfor any legislation shouldhave been framed within sixmonths of Presidential assentor seek extension.

The MHA, to a query

from Abdul Khaleque(Congress) on the NRC, saidnine Gazette notifications,the last being on July 31,2019, had been published by the Office of theRegistrar General and theCensus Commissioner.“Several communications andinstructions have been sent tothe State Coordinator ofNational Register of Citizens(NRC), Assam, for complying[with] the orders of Hon’bleSupreme Court with regard to disposal of claimsand objections, publication oflists of inclusions and exclu-sions in NRC, etc.,” said theMinistry.

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Situation in Afghanistan andits impact on the whole

region and terrorism and waysto curb its funding will figureprominently during DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh’s three-day participation in theShanghai Co-operationOrganisation(SCO) conclavestarting Wednesday inDushanbe, Tajikistan.

The annual conference ofthe Defence Ministers of theSCO countries will also see theChinese and Pakistan Ministerstaking part. While Rajnath hadmet his Chinese counterpartWei Fenghe in the SCO con-clave last year in a bilateralmeeting in Moscow, it was notyet confirmed about such ameeting this year.

Rajnath and Fenghe haddiscussed ways to ease tensionat the Line of ActualControl(LAC)in nearly two-hour long parleys on the side-lines of the SCO conclave inSeptember last. Incidentally, itwas the first high level meetingbetween leaders of India andChina after stand-offs eruptedon the LAC in eastern Ladakhion May last year.

Giving details of Rajnath’sschedule in Dushanbe, theDefence Ministry said here onTuesday, the Minister willaddress the SCO gathering onWednesday.

Defence cooperation issuesamong the SCO member stateswill be discussed and a com-munique is expected to be

issued after the deliberations.During his visit, Rajnath is

also expected to meet hisTajikistan counterpart ColonelGeneral Sherali Mirzo to dis-cuss bilateral issues and otherissues of mutual interest.

Tajikistan is chairing theSCO this year and hostingseries of Ministerial and offi-cial-level meetings. A few daysback it hosted the foreignMinisters’ meet.

Addressing the SCO dia-logue on Afghanistan there onJuly 14, External AffairsMinister S Jaishankar had pro-posed a three-point way for-ward to restore peace in thestrife torn country. He alsostressed that the solution has tobe Afghan led.

Jaishankar also cautionedthat the international commu-nity is against the “seizure ofpower by violence and force”and will not “legitimise suchactions”. This was in an appar-ent reference to the Talibansurging in many districts inAfghanistan.

As regards Rajnath’saddress on Wednesday, sourcessaid he is expected to delve intoregional security challenges,including terrorism, and theways to deal with them.

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Kerala on Tuesday logged 22,129 new Covid-19 cases

across the State while the pan-demic claimed 156 lives duringthe last 24 hours. This took thedeath toll in the State till dateto 16, 326. The average TestPositivity Rate on Tuesday was12.35 percent.

The Legislative Assemblywitnessed charges and countercharges between theOpposition UDF and the rul-ing LDF over the death tollreleased by the Government.Leader of the Opposition V DSatheeshan claimed that theGovernment has not includedmore than 7,000 persons whodied of Covid-19 in its list whileChief Minister Pinarayi Vijayanretorted that the Governmentdoes not have anything to hide.“If you have any genuine griev-ances and evidences, furnish itto us and we will certainlyexamine the same,” said theChief Minister while replyingto an adjournment motionmoved by the Opposition.

Tuesday’s announcementregarding the Covid-19 detailscame amidst the concernexpressed by the UnionGovernment that Kerala’s tendistricts had the highest TPR inthe country.

Malappuram topped thelist of districts with highestnumber of new Covid-19 caseson Tuesday. WhileMalappuram registered 4,037new patients, Thrissur camesecond with 2,623 patients.Kozhikode (2,397), Ernakulam(2352) and Palakkadu (2115)were the other districts withmore than 2,000 patients.

On Tuesday, 1,79 lakhssamples were tested, accordingto the release issued by theDepartment of Health. “Thenumber of new Covid-19 casesare likely to go up further indays to come as we are waitingfor the impact of the lifting oflock down in connection withthe Id festival,” said aGovernment Physician whohas been on Covid-19 treat-ment duty for the last one year.

He said there were dis-crepancies in the details sub-mitted by the Department ofHealth , Kerala Government. “Acomparative study between thedetails released by Tamil Naduand Kerala reveal that the for-mer is more transparent.

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The Pegasus snooping list seemsunending. The latest list to

come out figures many industrial-ists and their lobbyists. It includesthe now defunct Jet Airways ownerNaresh Goyal, Spice Jet promoterAjay Singh, considered close to thetop BJP leadership, Essar Group’sPrashant Ruia, Aircel promoterSivasankaran, and Rotomac Pens’Vikram Kothari and son RahulKothari, facing bank cases.

Mukesh Ambani and AnilAmbani Group’s V.Balasubramaniam and A.N.Sethuraman and Adani Group’slobbyists’ names also figured in thelist. As per the report published byThe Wire portal, the top executivesof PSUs like GAIL, LIC, NarmadaValley Fertilizer Corporation alsofigured in the Pegasus target list.

“Apart from Goyal, the mostprominent names on the list arenumbers used by SpiceJet chairmanand managing director Ajay Singhand the Essar Group’s PrashantRuia. The list also contains multi-

ple businessmen or officials ofcompanies who have had run-inswith the law over the last fewyears, mostly due to investigationsof loan fraud. This includes VikramKothari of Rotomac Pens (and hisson Rahul), and C. Sivasankaran,former Aircel promoter and mav-erick entrepreneur,” said the Wirereport.

Former GAIL Chairman BCTripathi, who later joined EssarGroup, two numbers, “one for a for-mer boss of Life InsuranceCorporation of India and the otherfor a former executive director ofthe Gujarat Narmada ValleyFertiliser Corporation also appearson the list,” said the report.

Though the report named bothReliance Group lobbyistsBalasubramanian and Sethuraman,it did not name the lobbyists ofAdani Group who were targeted.Dravidian splinter group leaderswere also caught on the Pegasusradar. “Naam Thamizhar Katchi’sSeeman, May 17 movement’sThirumurugan Gandhi, ThanthaiPeriyar Dravidar Kazhagam’s K.

Ramakrishnan and DravidarKazhagam treasurer Kumaresanfeature in the list of potential tar-gets of an NSO Group client.

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Days after denying any deathdue to oxygen shortage

during the second wave ofCovid-19, the Government haswritten to States/UnionTerritories seeking such data,according to Governmentsources.

This data is likely to be pre-sented in the ongoingMonsoon Session of theParliament, they added.

"The Centre has written toStates for data on deaths relat-ed to Oxygen shortage. Thedata is likely to be presented inParliament before theMonsoon Session ends onAugust 13," sources told a newsagency.

The Government has beendrawing flak over the claim thatno deaths due to lack of oxygenhad been specifically reportedby states and Union Territoriesduring the second Covid-19

wave.The Centre, while respond-

ing to a question by CongressMP KC Venugopal, had on July20 told the Rajya Sabha that nodeaths due to lack of oxygenhad been specifically reportedby States and Union Territoriesduring the second Covid wave.

In the written reply,Minister of State for Health DrBharati Pravin Pawar statedthat health is a State subject andaccordingly all States, UTsreport cases and deaths to theUnion Health Ministry on aregular basis.

Hospitals across the coun-try reported severe oxygenshortages for several days andprivate hospitals in the nation-al capital approached the HighCourt demanding a steadysupply. Several hospital admin-istrations in different stateshave alleged that the shortageof oxygen resulted in the deathof several patients.

New Delhi: Union Home MInistry has called a meet-ing of the Chief Secretaries and DGPs of Assam andMizoram on Wednesday in the wake of violence alongtheir shared border, where five Assam Police personnelwere killed.

Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla will chair themeeting to discuss the sudden escalation of violencealong the Assam-Mizoram border. The meeting ofthe Chief Secretaries and DGPs is expected to workon a peace formula so that there is no repeat of theviolence along the border of the two states, a homeministry official said.

The central government is in regular touch withthe Assam and Mizoram governments and trying tocalm down the situation, the officials said, addingCRPF has been deployed in the violence-hit area. FiveAssam Police personnel, along with a civilian, werekilled and more than 50 others, including aSuperintendent of Police, were injured when MizoramPolice opened fire on a team of Assam officials onMonday.

Assam's Barak Valley districts of Cachar,Karimganj and Hailakandi share a 164 km long bor-der with Mizoram's three districts of Aizawl, Kolasiband Mamit. The incidents came two days after HomeMinister Amit Shah held talks with the chief min-isters of eight northeastern states and underscored theneed to resolve lingering border disputes. PNS

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The rain-flood toll in Maharashtraclimbed further to 209 on Tuesday,

even as 43 roads in various rain-flood rav-aged areas of Maharashtra remained sub-merged in water and the number of peo-ple evacuated went up to 4,34,185.

Seventeen more bodies were recoveredduring the day, taking the total number ofpeople killed in the rain-related mishapsto 209.

Raigad accounted for a maximum of95 deaths, while there were 45 deaths inSatara district of western Maharashtra. Thedeath tally in other places comprised:Ratnagiri-35, Thane-14, Kolhapur-7,Mumbai-4, Pune-3, Sindhdurg, Wardhaand Akola-2 each. The authorities peggedthe number of injuries at 50, while eightpersons were still reported missing.

Though there was let up in the rains,as many as 19 -- 16 teams belonging tothe National Disaster Response Force(NDRF) and three belonging to the IndianArmy – continued with their rescue andoperations in various parts of the coastalKonkan region and western Maharashtra.

Till Tuesday evening, the rescue and

relief teams shifted as many 4,34,185 peo-ple in the flooded areas of the state to saferplaces.

As many as 1351 villages were affect-ed by the rains and consequent floods.Satara bore the maximum brunt of theheavy rains, as many as 420 villages wereaffected. While 411 villages in Kolhapurdistrict were affected, the authoritiespegged the number of villages affected inSangli district at 104.

Meanwhile, as many as 308 reliefcamps are functioning in various affect-ed areas. Kolhapur accounted for maxi-mum of 296 relief camps involving 40,688evacuated people, followed by Sangli -- 43camps (2,06,611 people), Satara --29camps (2902 people), Ratnagiri -- 16camps (695 people).

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Lucknow: Sleuths of the Anti Terrorists Squad (ATS) claimed tohave busted a gang involved in human trafficking racket involv-ing Bangladeshis and Rohingyas in the country. They arrested threemembers of the gang on Tuesday and claimed that the group wasinvolved in human trafficking, especially of women and children,to settle them in cities like Ghaziabad, Noida and Delhi throughforged documents.

According to an official communiqué, the ATS sleuths weregetting information for some time that an international gang wasillegally bringing citizens of Bangladesh and Myanmar, especial-ly women and children, to India to settle them in cities like Noida,Ghaziabad and Delhi.

During investigation, it was found that the leader of this inter-national human trafficking gang was Muhammad Noor aliasNoorul Islam, who was illegally luring Rohingya and Bangladeshiwomen into marriage, and men and children to work in factories,the release stated. After bringing them to India, they were settledon the basis of coded forms.

According to the information given by the police, these humantraffickers exploited the victims, including women and childrenfinancially, physically and mentally. It also came to light that thehuman traffickers were earning a huge amount of money fromthis work. The ATS investigation revealed that Noor Muhammadwas going to Delhi by train (Brahmaputra Mail) along with someRohingya and Bangladeshi nationals when the probing teamdeboarded five persons, including two girls and interrogated themin Ghaziabad. Besides Islam, the other two arrested were identi-fied as Rahmatullah and Safiurrehman alias Safiullah, all hailingfrom Myanmar. PNS

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Taking a lead over other political parties, the BahujanSamaj Party, on Tuesday, announced the names of two

of its candidates for the coming Uttar Pradesh Assemblyelections.

Ramesh Singh Yadav will be the BSP candidate fromBithoor assembly constituency in Kanpur and KalmeshAmbedkar from Bharthana (reserved) assembly seatEtawah in the 2022 election.

The name of Kalmesh Ambedkar was announced byBSP’s Etawah district president Shilu Dohra on Tuesday.

Kamlesh Ambedkar is the wife of Bhimrao Ambedkar,chief sector incharge of the BSP for Kanpur division.

In 2007, Kamlesh's husband Bhimrao Ambedkar waselected as BSP MLA from Lakhna reserved seat, whichhas now been included in the Bharthana reserved seat,but he could not taste victory in the subsequent assem-bly elections.

The Bharthana reserved assembly constituency ispresently held by Bharatiya Janata Party, from where SavitriKatheria is the ruling party’s MLA. Shilu Dohra claimedthat the BJP would contest the 2022 assembly electionswith full force. He said preparations were being made tofield a candidate of Yadav or Shakya caste from ShivpalSingh Yadav's Jaswantnagar constituency.

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In a move aimed at defeatingthe ruling Bharatiya Janata

Party, Sharad Pawar ledNationalist Congress Party andSamajwadi Party have decidedto join hands and contest thecoming Assembly elections inUttar Pradesh.

Well placed sources inSamajwadi Party said thatSharad Pawar and AkhileshYadav had a long consultationover the issue in Delhi afterwhich the two leaders decidedto forge an alliance but the seatsharing was yet to be workedout.

The sources said Pawarwas also said to be in talks with

other “like-minded” parties ina bid to put up a united frontagainst the BJP in UttarPradesh.

While addressing partyworkers in Lucknow last week,Akhilesh Yadav had said thatthe BJP was an “anti-people”party which was running thegovernment with “hatred” andthat the assembly polls nextyear would be the “last opportunity” to save democ-racy.

"To achieve the target ofsecuring 350 seats in UP, wewill have to work day andnight," Akhilesh had said andexhorted party workers tobeware of BJP’s tricks and pro-paganda.

����� 18�9�:�

To showcase the claimof how double engine

Governments in Delhiand Lucknow hadchanged the face of UttarPradesh, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and several UnionMinisters will now frequently visit thepoll-bound UP every month to eitherinaugurate or lay the foundationstone of various developmentschemes, until the model code of con-duct comes into force.

Union Home Minister Amit Shahwill visit the state capital to lay thefoundation stone of Uttar PradeshState Institute for Forensic Scienceswhich will come up in 50-acre landin Piparsand village of Sarojini Nagartehsil in Lucknow on August 1.

The institute will also have a seatof centre of excellence and pave theway for research in DNA testing in

the state.“Like the model fol-

lowed in Bihar and WestBengal elections, thePrime Minister, his min-isterial colleagues andsenior BJP functionarieswill be visiting UP regu-

larly ahead of the imposition of themodel code of conduct to inaugurateor lay the foundation stone of devel-opment projects in the state,” a seniorBJP leader told this reporter onTuesday.

The Prime Minister will be inSiddharthnagar to inaugurate ninenew medical colleges, his second tripto the state this month after visitingVaranasi on July 15 for unveiling pro-jects. The dates will be announcedlater. It will be highlighted that thesemedical colleges have been builtunder Pradhan Mantri SwasthyaSuraksha Yojana and with theresources of the UP Government.

����� 18�9�:�

The battle of one-upmanship among two Nishad partiesstaking claim over the legacy of ‘Bandit Queen’ and for-

mer MP Phoolan Devi has worried the Samajwadi Party.The Nishad Party of UP and Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP)of Bihar, both allies of the Bharatiya Janata Party, are vyingwith each other to establish themselves as the sole repre-sentative of the Nishad community in UP and claimingthemselves as the sole representative of Phoolan Devi.

“It was the Samajwadi Party that took cudgels on behalfof the community in 1994 and not only ensured the releaseof Phoolan Devi but got her elected to Lok Sabha twice. Nownew claimants have emerged to stake claim on her legacy.Both Nishad community- based parties would be exposedduring the 2022 UP Assembly elections as people know whotheir real benefactor is,” said a Samajwadi Party leader inLucknow on Tuesday.

Nishad leader and Bihar Minister Mukesh Sahani hassaid that his outfit, VIP, will contest 165 Assembly seats inthe 2022 UP elections.

Eyeing the votes of Nishad (Mallah) community thatconstitute seven per cent of UP’s electorate, Sahani has decid-ed to install Phoolan Devi's statues in 18 UP districts includ-ing Prayagraj, Firozabad, Ballia, Sant Kabir Nagar, Banda,Ayodhya, Sultanpur, Gorakhpur, Maharajganj, Auraiya,Lucknow, Unnao, Meerut, Mirzapur, Sant Ravidas Nagar,Muzaffarnagar, Varanasi and Jaunpur.

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New Delhi: Veteran editors N Ramand Sashi Kumar on Tuesdaymoved the Supreme Court seekingan independent probe by its sittingor retired judge into the reports ofalleged snooping by Governmentagencies on eminent citizens,politicians and scribes by usingIsraeli spyware Pegasus. “The tar-geted surveillance using military-grade spyware is an unacceptableviolation of the right to privacywhich has been held to be a fun-damental right under Articles 14(equality before the law), 19 (free-dom of speech and expression)and 21 (protection of life and per-sonal liberty) by the SupremeCourt, said the petitioners.

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Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh's former ChiefMinister Kalyan Singh is in life support ashis condition is critical, according to a med-ical bulletin by the Sanjay Gandhi PostGraduate Institute of Medical Sciences hereon Tuesday.

The 89-year-old BJP veteran was admit-ted to the ICU of the hospital on the eveningof July 4 due to an infection and reduced con-sciousness.

"Kalyan Singh's health status is still crit-ical. He is on life saving support system. Hehas been on continuous dialysis. His clini-cal parameters are being closely monitoredby the expert consultants," the bulletin said.

His condition is being closely monitoredby senior doctors of the critical care medi-cine, cardiology, nephrology, neurology andendocrinology departments, a doctor said.

Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh YogiAdityanath visited the veteran leader onTuesday and enquired about his health sta-tus. Earlier, Singh was undergoing treatmentat the Ram Manohar Lohia Institute ofMedical Sciences here. PTI

����� 18�9�:�

Uttar Pradesh reported 36 new coronavirus positive cases onTuesday while 73 patients recovered during the same peri-

od while 11 districts were declared Covid- free, said AdditionalChief Secretary (Information) Navneet Sehgal here on Tuesday.

Aligarh, Budaun, Basti, Bahraich, Etah, Fatehpur, Hamirpur,Hathras, Kasganj, Mahoba and Shravasti districts have beendeclared Covid-free. Sehgal said not a case of infection was foundin 54 districts, while patients were found in single digits in 21districts. He said the positivity rate now stood at 0.01 per cent.

He said at present, the number of active cases in the Statehad come down to 798 out of which 508 were in home isolation.

The Covid-19 recovery rate in the state is 98.6 per cent. Sofar, more than 16.84 lakh people have recovered, he added.

In the last 24 hours, 2,25,009 Covid tests were conducted.More than 8.20 lakh people were administered vaccines onMonday. So far, more than 4,52,39,000 Covid vaccines have beenadministered in UP.

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CDS actually appeared on thehorizon: His office was preparedin South Block, Guard ofHonour rehearsed by DelhiArea and NDTV announcedAdm Sushil Kumar’s elevation.But between the cup and the lipwas a slip. The Naresh ChandraTask Force in 2013 revived theCDS in its less truculent avatar:Permanent Chairman Chiefs ofStaff Committee. But DefenceMinister AK Antony sat on theproposal. It was not untilChristmas Day 2019 that Modi2.0 Government issued a gazettenotification appointing Rawat as“primus-inter-pares-CDS” —tasking him to implement joint-ness by January 2023. ADepartment of Military Affairswas also created under MoD.Appointing a CDS has been anarticle of faith for the BJP.

Two questions arise fromthe reform process. First, didGoI do the necessary thinkingand research — and who did it— before issuing the gazettenotification? Why were theknown historical IAF insecuri-ties not addressed by the polit-ical authority? Unfortunately,the newly minted DefencePlanning Committee underNSA AK Doval merely issued acharter of work to Rawat with-out the DPC doing any ground-work. Clearly such an epictransformational exercise shouldhave begun by launching anSDSR (Strategic Defence and

Security Review), preferably anIntegrated Review, on the linesthe UK did in March this yearfollowed by enunciating aNational Security Strategy. TheDPC conveniently left the think-ing to CDS, ignoring theinevitable repercussions.

I recall UK DefenceSecretary Michael Heseltineexplaining to me on the back ofan envelope at RCDS London in1984 how he had rewired theCDS system for unification andwhose implementation heordered in the face of revoltfrom Service Chiefs. Thereforms were ordered top-downwithout passing the buck.

Modi had announced theappointment of CDS from RedFort in 2019. The Governmentsimply issued a fiat to CDS onjointness despite knowing oppo-sition to it. This lack of consen-sus (which all militaries havehad to overcome) emergedclumsily last month during aseminar organised by GlobalCounter-Terrorism Council inwhich both Rawat and AirChief Marshal Bhadauria spoke.It was one of the ugliest publicspats between a service chief andCDS, which has triggered an ill-informed debate. The remedi-al measure of an ExpertsCommittee headed by CDSwith Vice Chiefs of single ser-vices for more consultation anddiscussion is a bad idea: themedicine worse than the mala-

dy. The Defence Minister oughtto have intervened and done aHeseltine.

The IAF’s concerns includ-ing integrated use of air powerhave to be addressed, given thatIAF has only 30 fightersquadrons. Appointments ofCDS and CombatantCommanders of otherjoint/integrated/unified com-mands and organisations bemade by merit and not inRobin’s turn. The concepts ofair-land and tri-service battleshave to be revised and updated.Joint Professional MilitaryEducation should becomemandatory for promotion toflag rank. An equivalent of USGoldwater-Nichols Act 1986will ensure jointness to dimin-ish inter-service rivalry. Indiawas a pioneer in integrationthrough Joint Services Wing/National Defence Academy/Defence Services StaffCollege/National DefenceCollege. But long ago, the polit-ical class responsible for defenceof India stopped thinking, leav-ing it to the military to self-reform. The politician isrequired to do and say morethan “giving a befitting reply”.

(The writer, a retired MajorGeneral, was Commander, IPKFSouth, Sri Lanka, and foundermember of the Defence PlanningStaff, currently the IntegratedDefence Staff. The viewsexpressed are personal.)

������������������ � ��Sir — It looks that from Punjab toKarnataka, it is the season of change anda show of assertion by the central leader-ship of political parties to set their housein order, their sights trained on theupcoming elections. The 78-year-old,four-time Chief Minister BS Yediyurappawho had won his current term by engineer-ing defections and toppling the Congress-JDS Government in 2019, has quit .

To date, Yediyurappa and the BJP haveremained synonymous in Karnataka andnow he, despite being the only mass leaderthe BJP had in the State and in the entiresouth, has now resigned. His exit leaves theBJP without an experienced leader to helmthe Government. While the RSS wants tomove away from caste equations by pick-ing national organising secretary BLSanthosh, a Brahmin, many in the State BJPare against ignoring the Lingayat commu-nity that has been the BJP’s mainstay allthese years.

The hard fact is that the party cannotdo without the support of the Lingayatcommunity, particularly its influentialmutt heads. But what is most unfortunateis that the effect of what the seers inKarnataka have said openly has the effectof dividing people on the basis of caste linesand community. If these seers are keen ona life in politics, they should drop the pre-tence of renunciation and contest elections.

JS Acharya | Hyderabad

������������������ �����������Sir — The interstate boundary issue innorth-eastern States is a perennial prob-lem and six personnel of the AssamPolice died at the border with Mizoramwhile defending the constitutional bound-ary of the State. The incident came less thantwo days after Home Minister Amit Shahmet with the northeast CMs to resolve theinterstate boundary disputes.

Border conflicts have occurred inter-mittently since Mizoram was carved outof Assam as a Union Territory in 1972 andgot Statehood in 1987. Six Assam policepersonnel were killed in an exchange of firewith their Mizoram counterparts after the

protracted border row between the twonortheastern States took a violent turn. Theclashes at the border town of Vairengte alsoleft at least 60 persons from Assaminjured. The incident comes less than twodays after Union Home Minister AmitShah held a meeting with the ChiefMinisters of the northeast in Meghalaya’scapital Shillong for resolving the interstateboundary disputes. However, Assam alsoharbours border disputes with ArunachalPradesh, Meghalaya and Nagaland.

Krishnan Subramaniam | Ghaziabad

��� ����������������� � � ���Sir — During the election campaign sea-son earlier, the leaders of the DMKaccused the then AIADMK Governmentand its Ministers, including then ChiefMinister E Palaniswami, of rampant cor-ruption. They even submitted a memoran-dum to the Governor seeking actionagainst those “corrupt” leaders. They also

assured the electorate that if elected topower, they would initiate serious actionagainst all the Ministers and officialsfound to be involved in corruption andother malpractices leading to them amass-ing wealth disproportionate to their knownsources of income.

As assured, the DMK Government hascommenced action and the recent raidsconducted by the DVAC at the residenceand more than 20 business places connect-ed to former Transport Minister MRVijayabhaskar are part of the exercisewhich, we believe, is going to be a contin-uing process henceforth. The Governmentthat has started in the right earnest to fixthe corrupt should not succumb to anypressure from any quarters, go ahead withthe raids and investigations and see that thecorrupt get exemplary punishment.

Shalini Gerald | Chennai

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Before the monsoon sessionof Parliament, DefenceMinister Rajnath Singhinvited two former

Defence Ministers for a briefing. Hedid not dirty his hands but askedthe CDS and COAS to brief them.In the UK, it would not happen.Politicians pass the buck to the mil-itary. Expectedly, the Army and AirForce have clashed over the trans-formational reforms underway.CDS Gen Rawat described the IAFas an extension of artillery and acombat support service. Air Chiefshave been kept out of the loop dur-ing the 1965 and 1971 wars, reflect-ing mistrust of IAF which is aboutair power required for “shaping thebattlefield”. But boots on theground are essential.

Rewind: Gulf War I (1991) last-ed 44 days: 38 days of aerial bom-bardment and four-day land offen-sive. In Bosnia (1995), air poweralone won the war in 17 days.Kosovo (1999), air war was 78 dayswith no ground offensive. TheAfghanistan campaign (2001) last-ed 65 days with 11 days of groundoperations. The Iraq war (2003)lasted 21 days of air and land bat-tle. In Sri Lanka, the IAF performedits modest role effectively. The IAF’ssterling performance though wasthe Balakot bombing — political-ly and strategically a turning point,marking the threshold of counter-terrorism response. The omissionin employing IAF in 1962 was partof the political and military fiasco.Still, IAF insecurities arising fromjointness, including rotation ofthree-star slots by merit, have to beaddressed to achieve unification toobviate IAF Chief having to ask theArmy Chief to requisition in writ-ing that air support was requiredduring Kargil.

The CDS traces its history toAdmiral Mountbatten when hesounded Prime Minister Nehruabout its utility. After the 1971 war,Prime Minister Gandhi hadinformed Field Marshal SamManekshaw he would becomeCDS but nothing came of it. TheCDS was resurrected by a 2001GoM containing 100 recommen-dations, most of which were imple-mented except CDS. When anattempt was made to appoint CDS,Air Chief Marshal OP Mehraaccompanied by a posse of formerAir Chiefs met the President andblocked the enterprise. In 2002, a

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The Taliban taking over Kabul orestablishing a parallel regime inAfghanistan will involve the issueof legitimacy via its recognition.

Strongly related to this, the message fromRussia to India is clear, “it’s up to India toanalyse the situation and go ahead accord-ing to the current realities”. The new strate-gic alignment of Pakistan-China-Russia isalready in a process that will have a desta-bilising effect on the countries of South andCentral Asia. With these developments,India might then have to rethink beyond itstraditional strategies.

In this context, the entire debate wouldshift upon India’s decision for the Afghanforces and the strategic developments thatmight follow. India might decide to help theAfghan Air Force with the StrategicPartnership Agreement (2011) being themain guiding principle. The responses canrange from total military support to a mod-erate one or maybe a combination of vari-ous strategies, but certainly, the Indian gov-ernment will not be indifferent because secu-rity is at stake.

Irrespective of the decision that wouldbe taken, certain challenges are coming upfor the government. An increase in cross-border terrorism with new forms of hybridwarfare, a sharp increase in drugs andhuman trafficking, especially affectingPunjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat, andMaharashtra, and an increase in the propa-ganda warfare by the adversary working intandem with the existing and the emergingViolent Non-State Actors (VNSA). The fateof Hindus and Sikhs in Afghanistan is alsoin jeopardy. All these challenges are inter-linked. An India-centric approach is requiredto deal with them.

First, at the diplomatic level, eventhough Russia might look to stand withPakistan, strategic overlaps with Russia canbe used for the furtherance of India’s inter-ests. As we understand that geopolitics is nei-ther black nor white, how well the currentstrategic agreements are used to extractleverages would depend upon the govern-ment apart from the developments that willfollow. India should exercise its strategicleverage with Saudi Arabia and otherIslamic countries to tighten its noosearound Pakistan in the future. The role ofOIC in the coming few days would be ofimmense importance to India. The policyof exposing and isolating Pakistan shouldcontinue at a regional and international level.There can be no better platform than FATFand UNGA.

There is also an opportunity for Indiato reinvigorate its strategic relations with Iranand find new commonalities to cooperate.Iran’s initial euphoria of the US exit may soonend as it might find the Taliban committingatrocities on the Shia minority inAfghanistan. Many hardliner clerics inTehran have still not forgotten the 1998killings of Iranian diplomats.

The upcoming refugee problem in thewake of the establishment of an Islamic emi-rate is going to open up new challenges for

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July 26 happened to be thesecond anniversary ofChief Minister

Yediyurappa’s rule inKarnataka. However, it turnedout to be an occasion for anemotional farewell speechafter he announced his resig-nation. Though BSY, as he isknown in the State, resistedpressures, the high commandhad decided that it was timefor a younger leader to takeover.

Yediyurappa is now 78and well over the party’s pre-scribed age limit of 75 yearsto hold public office. He willnot lead the party in the nextassembly polls in 2023, as hewould be over 80 by then.Karnataka is the southerngateway for the BJP. It hasbecome the third pillar alongwith Congress and JD

(Secular) and Yediyurappahad a big role in that.

Unfortunately, though hecame to power four times, hehas not completed a singleterm. BSY quit reluctantly asthe high command hadworked out his exit planswith minimum damage to theparty.

Incidentally, the RSS, too,wanted a younger leader totake over. Karnataka has pro-duced many important RSSleaders -from RSS chief, thelate K. S. Sudarshan, HVSeshadri to present-day lead-ers like Dattareya Hosbole,B.L. Santosh, and C.R.Mukund.

Yediyurappa has been anasset as well as a liability to theparty. BSY was a shrewdmanipulator who knew howto snatch power from the

opponents, be it the Janata Dalcoalition or Congress. He wasadept at using age-old tricksof defection and lure ofmoney. Even in the 2017polls, the BJP did not get asimple majority. To keep BJPout, the Congress and theJD(S) formed a governmentwith the JD(S) leader H.D.Kumaraswamy as ChiefMinister. Yediyurappa pulleddown this government in2019 and became the chief

minister for the fourth time.Why is Yediyurappa

important for the BJP? First ofall, there is no Lingayat leaderto match him in the state,either in Congress or theJD(S). The BJP also did notdevelop the second rung ofleadership.

Secondly, crucial castepolitics favour him.Lingayats are the State’s sin-gle-most significant com-munity, (17 percent). Of the500 mutts in the state, mostare headed by Lingayats, fol-lowed by Vokkaliga mutts.The community can tilt thebalance in as many as 90-100of the State’s 224 assemblyconstituencies. The seers,who received support finan-cially and otherwise from thechief minister, openly sup-ported BSY.

The Lingayats traditional-ly supported the Congressbut moved away in the seven-ties only to return briefly. Butthey withdrew their supportafter Prime Minister RajivGandhi abruptly sacked pop-ular Lingayat chief ministerVeerendra Patil. In the 1994assembly elections, the com-munity voted againstCongress. This was the timewhen BSY emerged as the faceof the Lingayats. Barring 2013,the BJP always had morethan 30 Liingayat MLAs in theHouse - 32 in 2004, 39 in2008, and 38 in 2018.

Yediyurappa has risenfrom the RSS ranks and beena seven-term MLA between1983 and 2013. He joined theRSS when he was barely 15and cut his political teeth inthe Jana Sangh. A mass leader

who installed the first BJPgovernment in South India in2008, BSY continues to havehis own place in the State,despite the corruptioncharges, nepotism, and voic-es of dissent.

His meteoric rise inKarnataka was checked inthe wake of a land scam thatcost him the chief minister’sjob. He walked out of the BJPin 2012 to float his outfit, theKarnataka Janta Paksha (KJP),which dealt a severe blow tothe BJP in the 2013 assemblyelections.

The return ofYediyurappa consolidated theLingayat vote base again in the2014 general elections. Whiledealing with him, the BJPleadership had to keep this inmind. For the fourth time, hetook over as the chief minis-

ter in July 2019 after engineer-ing defections of 18 MLAsfrom Congress and the JanataDal (S). By then he hadalready crossed 76 years andlike before, was facing corrup-tion and nepotism chargesfrom his party detractors.

With the chief ministerdrumming up support fromthe mighty Lingayat mutts,the BJP cannot ignore BSYbecause holding Karnataka iscritical for the party before the2023 Assembly polls or the2024 General elections.

BSY’s innings may be overbut if the BJP high commandhandles him well, being amass leader, he could stillmobilize the Lingayat votes.His successor has a tough jobahead, taking everyone alongin a state where factionalismalways prevailed.

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Iran. The Taliban have already takencontrol of Islam Qala, a military poston its border with Afghanistan.Here, an opportunity for India isopen. It is through an independentIran policy that India can deepen itsstrategic stronghold. Another geopo-litical twist, a positive one, can be apossibility if pursued. Given the geo-graphical proximity of India to bothAfghanistan and Iran, the dynamicsof the situation are well under-stood. The US has to accept theregion’s geopolitical realities. Historyis full of examples of states havingmultiple allies who probably don’t seeeye to each other.

The role of the UN has to becalled upon as sincere joint effortsare required. India should firstapproach the UNSC and in case ofconflicting interests, the task ofmaintaining normalcy and peaceshould be discussed in the UNGA.Having an understanding that therewould be a lack of unanimity in theUNSC to protect Afghanistan andits people, India cannot let theregion be sucked into chaos andanarchy. For this, sooner or later,India has to take the lead for an“emergency special session” of theUNGA. This session can be calledby India and its allies underResolution 377A (V) that providesfor a ‘Uniting for Peace’. India mustremind the international communi-ty of its primary duty to maintainpeace and security and shouldrequest recommendations to act col-lectively to restore the peace of theregion under a unified command.The UN has provisions in case theUNSC fails to “discharge its respon-sibilities”.

All the international legal issues

such as re-arming and unlawfuldiplomatic recognition to theTaliban, suppression of the humanrights of women, children, and reli-gious minorities, and diversion offundamentalists should be discussedin the UNGA to expose countrieslike Pakistan. This will also set thetone for India’s leadership and theexpansion of the UNSC.Additionally, to secure the lives anddignity of Hindus and Sikhs inAfghanistan, the government maythink of evacuating them at the ear-liest before a full-fledged war breaksout.

Second, at a tactical level, hybridwarfare against India will deepen andbroaden. New weapons and tacticsutilised by the proxy militia will callfor measures that favour coercivepolicies. For instance, the use ofdrones and rockets by terror groupsto avoid casualties in physical attackshas already been initiated. To countersuch an emerging threat, India canexpand the horizons of its ‘offensivedefence’. It may incorporate the pol-icy of ‘deterrence by denial’ throughdisallowing the terrorists to assem-ble and execute attacks against India.Of course, it has its own risk of sub-stantial escalation when states areusing VNSA. The evolving strategiccommunication and the military-civil interface through the media tolet the world know about India’spolitical will, intentions and interestswill surely play an important role.

India should strengthen itsdefence system that is capable ofretaliating to the emerging hybridwarfare techniques that are redraw-ing the battle lines. Turkey andChina are the main suppliers ofdrones to Pakistan. Collaborative

threats either in a proxy war or a mil-itary conflict cannot be ruled out.Here, a two-way approach may beadopted. Apart from strategic pur-chases of anti-drone platforms fromthe allies such as the US, Israel,France, and Germany, long-term col-laboration may be pushed forwardto counter the asymmetric warfare.AI is another thrust area. Forinstance, the US alone has around140 projects based on AI, the knowl-edge of which is available in the pub-lic domain. This can be of immensehelp to the Indian forces.Simultaneously, indigenous R&Din defence manufacturing especial-ly in AI technologies should beboosted for surveillance and tacticalcapabilities.

There are various new areas ofAI that India has not yet explored.These include bio-inspired surveil-lance systems, AI face recognitioncameras in sensitive areas, toolsusing AI algorithms to countercyber-attacks, and overlook securi-ty issues such as indoctrination, saleof narcotics, and small arms throughthe darknet. All these measures willhelp the forces and will ensure effi-ciency in the changing times.However, the focus on AI and othertechnologies should not distract thegovernment from developing newwarfare platforms such as anti-sub-marine warfare capabilities andshort-range tactical weapons todefeat the conventional threats forthere are possibilities for simultane-ous provocations on the border.Given the current scenario and theshifting sands, India has to strive foritself and there is no one better thanIndia to think about the nationalinterests.

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Democrats are launchingtheir investigation into the

January 6 Capitol insurrectionTuesday with a focus on the lawenforcement officers who wereattacked and beaten as therioters broke into the building— an effort to put a human faceon the violence of the day.

The police officers whoare scheduled to testify enduredsome of the worst of the bru-tality. They were punched,trampled, crushed and sprayedwith chemical irritants. Theywere called racial slurs andthreatened with their ownweapons as the mob of then-President Donald Trump's sup-porters overwhelmed them,broke through windows anddoors and interrupted the cer-tification of Democrat JoeBiden's presidential win.

“We're going to tell thisstory from the beginning,” saidMaryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, aDemocrat who sits on the newHouse panel that is investigatingthe attack. “The moral center of

gravity is these officers who puttheir lives on the line for us.”

Testifying will be CapitolPolice officers Harry Dunn andAquilino Gonell andMetropolitan Police officersMichael Fanone and DanielHodges. In previous interviews,Dunn has said that attackersyelled racial slurs and fought himin what resembled hand to handcombat as he held them back.Gonell, an Iraq veteran, detailedsurgery on his foot and injuriesfrom which he struggled torecover. Fanone has describedbeing dragged down the Capitolsteps by rioters who shocked himwith a stun gun and beat him.Hodges was beaten and crushedbetween two doors, and hisbloody face and anguishedscreams were caught on video.

The panel's first hearingcomes as partisan tensions haveonly worsened since the insur-rection, with many Republicansplaying down, or outright deny-ing, the violence that occurredand denouncing theDemocratic-led investigation aspolitically motivated.

Indian Falls (US): It could bedays before officials will be ableto assess the damage done to asmall town by California''slargest wildfire, one of dozensof blazes scorching lands acrossthe US West.

Over the weekend, themassive Dixie Fire roaredthrough the remote NorthernCalifornia community of IndianFalls. The blaze had already lev-elled at least 16 houses and

other structures, but a newdamage estimate wasn''t imme-diately available because flameswere still raging in the moun-tain area on Monday.

“Fire behaviour has beenso unpredictable, it hasn''tbeen safe for inspectors to goin to work,” said MitchMatlow, a fire spokesman.“Until things settle down, wewon''t know the extent ofwhat''s burned.” AP

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The United States servednotice on Monday that it

will keep existing Covid-19travel restrictions on interna-tional travel in place for nowdue to concerns about thesurging infection rate becauseof the delta variant.

It was the latest sign thatthe White House is having torecalibrate its thinking aroundthe coronavirus pandemic asthe more infectious variantsurges across the U.S. And a

substantial chunk of the pop-ulation resists vaccination.

It was also a reversal fromthe sentiment President JoeBiden voiced earlier this monthwhen he said his administrationwas “in the process” of consid-ering how soon the U.S. Couldlift the ban on European travelbound for the U.S. After theissue was raised by GermanChancellor Angela Merkel dur-ing her visit to the White House.

White House press secre-tary Jen Psaki said the restric-tions would continue for now.

“Driven by the delta vari-ant, cases are rising here athome, particularly amongthose who are unvaccinated,and appears likely to continuein the weeks ahead,” she said.

The rising cases also arecausing the administration totake a closer look at policies onwearing masks. On Monday, theDepartment of Veterans Affairsbecame the first first major fed-eral agency to require its healthcare workers to get COVID-19vaccines.

HONG KONG: The first per-son to be tried under HongKong’s sweeping nationalsecurity law was found guiltyof secessionism and terrorismon Tuesday in a ruling close-ly watched for indications ofhow the law will be applied asChina tightens its grip on thecity long known for its free-doms.

Tong Ying-kit was chargedwith inciting secession andterrorism for driving hismotorcycle into a group ofpolice officers last year whilecarrying a flag bearing thebanned protest slogan“Liberate Hong Kong, revolu-tion of our times.” Rightsgroups condemned his con-viction, and many are bracingfor further such trials sincemore than 100 people havebeen arrested under the legis-lation — part of Beijing’sincreasing crackdown on dis-sent in Hong Kong followingmonths of anti-governmentprotests in 2019.

Tong, a 24-year-oldrestaurant worker, pleadednot guilty to the charges, argu-ing the slogan itself does notcall for secession. He nowfaces a maximum sentence oflife imprisonment, but hislawyers are expected to arguefor a lighter punishment at hissentencing hearing Thursday.

The new national securi-ty legislation not only result-ed in the charges against Tong,but it also spelled out how thetrial would be conducted. The

proceedings, which ended July20, were held in the HongKong High Court with nojury, under rules allowing theexception from Hong Kong’scommon law system if statesecrets need to be protected,foreign forces are involved orif the personal safety of jurorsneeds to be protected. Trialsare presided over by judgeshandpicked by Hong Kongleader Carrie Lam.

Reading the verdict,Justice Esther Toh said Tong“committed terrorist activitiescausing or intended to causegrave harm to the society” inpursuit of a political agenda.

His behavior was an act ofviolence aimed at coercingthe central and Hong Konggovernments and intimidatingthe public and carrying the flagconstituted an act of incite-ment to secession, she said.

Tong did not speak duringthe reading of the verdict. Hewaved to his parents and oth-ers in the gallery as he wasescorted from the chamber.

Tong’s defense lawyer hassaid it’s impossible to provethat Tong was inciting seces-sion merely by having used theslogan.

The defense also saidthere is no evidence that Tongcommitted the act deliberate-ly, that he tried to avoid crash-ing into officers and that hisactions couldn’t be consideredterrorism since there was noserious violence or harm tosociety. AP

Berlin: An explosion at an indus-trial park for chemical companiesshook the German city ofLeverkusen on Tuesday, sendinga large black cloud rising into theair. At least 16 people were injuredand five remain missing.

Germany’s Federal Office forCivil Protection and DisasterAssistance classified the explosionas “an extreme threat” and askedresidents to stay inside, turn offventilation systems and keep win-dows and doors closed, Germannews agency DPA reported.

Later on Tuesday, however,the Cologne fire departmenttweeted that measurements ofthe air’s pollution “do not showany kind of abnormality.” Theysaid the smoke had gone down butthat they would continue to mea-sure the air for toxins.

The city of Leverkusen said ina statement that the explosion atthe Chempark site, about 20 kilo-meters (13 miles) north ofCologne on the Rhine river,occurred in storage tanks for sol-vents. It said four people wereseverely injured and 12 less seri-ously. Five people are missing.

Currenta, the company oper-ating the chemical park, said theexplosion happened at 9:40 a.m.at the storage tanks of their wastemanagement center and thendeveloped into a fire.

“Sirens were operated to warnresidents and warning alerts weresent,” Currenta said in the statement.

Police in nearby Cologne saida large number of officers, fire-fighters, helicopters and ambu-lances from across the region hadbeen deployed to the scene. AP

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Four Afghan journalists werearrested by the country's

intelligence service after theyreturned to the city of Kandaharfollowing a reporting trip to aborder area recently taken bythe Taliban, an Afghan pressfreedom group said Tuesday.

The four had travelled toSpin Boldak to interviewTaliban commanders after theinsurgents captured a bordercrossing there with Pakistan. Aspokesman for the InteriorMinistry says the four areaccused of spreading propa-ganda for the Taliban.

The Afghan media watch-dog known as Nai said theyreturned home to Kandahar onMonday and were arrested bythe National Directorate forSecurity. Nai says that the jour-nalists' whereabouts onTuesday was not known.

Three of the reporters —Bsimullah Wantandost, QudratSultani and Moheb Obaidi —work for the local radio stationMellat Zhagh. The fourth isSanaullah Siam, a cameramanfor the Xinhua News Agency,the group said.

Taliban spokesmanMohmmad Naeem, with theinsurgents' political office inQatar, condemned the arrest by

the “Afghan administration,"saying the four were only doingtheir job, trying to “follow theevents and try to reveal thefacts." Nai said the arrest wasillegal and demanded the jour-nalists' immediate release.

Later Tuesday, Afghan inte-rior ministry spokesmanMirwais Stanikzai said the fourhave been accused of spreadingenemy propaganda. He insist-ed the Kabul government iscommitted to freedom ofexpression but cautioned itmust abide by the constitutionand the laws of the country.

“Any kind of propagandafor the benefit of terroristsand the enemy as well asagainst the national interest ofAfghanistan, will be counted asa crime,” Stanikzai added.

Reporters work underextremely difficult circumstancesin Afghanistan, and often faceviolence, threats and intimida-tion, preventing them from car-rying out their work properly.

The war-torn nation hasover 2,000 officially registeredmedia outlets. Violence againstjournalists was up 26% in 2020,compared to 2019, according tothe Afghan Journalists SafetyCommittee, which recorded132 threats and acts of violenceagainst journalists and mediaworkers last year.

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President Joe Biden is mak-ing his first visit to an

agency of the US intelligencecommunity, looking to empha-sise his confidence in nationalsecurity leaders after his pre-decessor's incendiary battlesagainst what he often deridedas the “deep state".

Biden is scheduled Tuesdayafternoon to visit the Office ofthe Director of NationalIntelligence, which overseesthe 17 US intelligence organi-sations. The White House saidin a statement that Bidenintends to express “admira-tion for their work and under-score the importance for ournational security of intelli-gence collection and analysisfree from political interfer-ence”.

President Donald Trumpvisited the Central IntelligenceAgency on his first full day inoffice, praising the agencies butalso airing personal grievances.Standing in front of CIA'smemorial wall with stars mark-ing each of the officers who

have died while serving, Trumpsettled scores with the mediaand repeated false claims aboutthe size of his inaugurationcrowd.

The relationship betweenthe intelligence communityand the president "went down-hill from that very day,” saidGlenn Gerstell, who thenserved as general counsel of theNational Security Agency andstepped down last year.

Trump would go throughfour permanent or acting direc-tors of national intelligence infour years and engaged innear-constant fights with theintelligence community.

In particular, he was angryabout its assessment that Russiahad interfered on his behalf inthe 2016 presidential campaignand its role in revealing thatTrump pressured Ukraine toinvestigate Biden, an action thatultimately led to Trump's firstimpeachment. Trump eventu-ally fired the inspector gener-al at the national intelligenceoffice - the internal watchdogwho brought that pressure tolight.

Islamabad: The US and NATOhave promised to pay $ 4 bil-lion a year until 2024 to financeAfghanistan's military andsecurity forces, which arestruggling to contain anadvancing Taliban. Already,the US has spent nearly $ 89billion over the past 20 years tobuild, equip and train Afghanforces.

Yet America's ownGovernment watchdog saysoversight of the money hasbeen poor, hundreds of mil-lions of dollars have been mis-spent and corruption is rife inthe security apparatus.

Monitoring where thefuture funding goes willbecome virtually impossibleafter August 31, when the lastcoalition troops leave. Here isa look at some of the issues:

US SPENDING SINCE 2001Nearly USD 83 billion has

been spent to build, equip,train and sustain Afghanistan'sNational Defence and SecurityForces, which include the mil-itary, national police and theelite special forces.

That figure covers a widerange of items. For example, theUS spent nearly USD 10 billionfor vehicles and aircraft. Itspent USD 3.75 billion on fuelfor the Afghan militarybetween 2010-2020.

AP

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President Joe Biden said onMonday that the U.S. com-

bat mission in Iraq will con-clude by the end of the year, anannouncement that reflects thereality on the ground morethan a major shift in U.S. pol-icy.

Even before Biden tookoffice, the main U.S. focus hasbeen assisting Iraqi forces, notfighting on their behalf. AndBiden did not say if he plannedto reduce the number of troopsin Iraq, now about 2,500.

The announcement comeson the heels of Biden's decisionto withdraw fully fromAfghanistan nearly 20 yearsafter the U.S. launched that warin response to the Sept. 11,2001, attacks.

Together, the wars inAfghanistan and Iraq haveheavily taxed the U.S. militaryand kept it from devoting moreattention to a rising China,which the Biden administra-tion calls the biggest long-term security challenge.

For years, U.S. troops haveplayed support roles in Iraq and

in neighboring Syria, whichwas the origin of the IslamicState group that swept acrossthe border in 2014 and cap-tured large swaths of Iraqi ter-ritory, prompting the U.S. tosend troops back to Iraq thatyear.

Speaking to reporters dur-ing an Oval Office sessionwith Iraqi Prime MinisterMustafa al-Kadhimi, Bidensaid his administrationremained committed to a part-nership with Iraq — a rela-tionship that has been increas-ingly complicated by Iranian-backed Iraqi militia groups.

The militias want all U.S.troops out of Iraq immediate-ly and have periodicallyattacked bases that houseAmerican troops.

Dan Caldwell, a senioradviser to Concerned Veteransfor America, said U.S. troopswill remain at risk.

“Regardless of whethertheir deployment is called acombat mission, U.S. troops willremain under regular attack aslong as they remain in Iraq,”Caldwell said in a statement.

“An American military

presence in Iraq is not neces-sary for our safety and onlyrisks the loss of more Americanlife.”

Biden said the U.S. militarywill continue to assist Iraq in itsfight against the Islamic Stategroup, or ISIS. A joint U.S.-Iraqstatement said the securityrelationship will be focused ontraining, advising and intelli-gence-sharing.

"Our shared fight againstISIS is critical for the stabilityof the region and our coun-terterrorism operation willcontinue, even as we shift tothis new phase we're going tobe talking about,” Biden said.

The shift from a U.S. com-bat role to one focused ontraining and advising the Iraqisecurity forces was announcedin April, when a joint U.S.-Iraqistatement said this transitionallowed for the removal fromIraq of any remaining U.S.combat forces on a timetable tobe determined later.

It did not specify whatcombat functions the U.S. wasengaged in then, nor did Bidenget into such specifics onMonday.

New York: The chair of formerPresident Donald Trump's 2017inaugural committee pleadednot guilty on Monday and saidhe was “100 per cent innocent”of charges that he secretly lob-bied the U.S. On behalf of theUnited Arab Emirates.

Tom Barrack, 74, wearinga black mask to protect againstthe coronavirus, appeared inBrooklyn Federal Court forthe first time, days after he wasfreed on $250 million bail fol-lowing his arrest in California.His lawyer entered his plea forhim.

“As you'd expect, the sys-tem is working. I think whatyou'll find is that … overtime, you'll all see that I'm100per cent innocent,"Barrack said as he left thecourthouse.

Prosecutors say Barrackused his multidecade friendshipwith Trump to influence theRepublican's policy, startingwhen Trump was a candidate in2016 and continuing after hewas sworn in as president.

AP

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Digitisation and growth-ori-ented initiatives have

enabled India to take progres-sive strides, and the govern-ment is focused on policies inareas like licencing framework,spectrum management andbroadband to strengthen digi-tal infrastructure, a senior DoTofficial said on Tuesday.

Telecom and IT industrieshave achieved a level of matu-rity and built capabilities forbusiness, technology, innova-tions and an appetite for star-tups, T K Paul, Member

(Technology), Department ofTelecom (DoT), said. Speakingat a virtual event organised byBroadband India Forum (BIF),Paul said, “(The) governmentis looking at a series of policyinitiatives to propel India to thispath of growth of digital infra-structure and the digital econ-omy as a whole”. This involveshaving a fresh look at issues, beit a licensing and legislativeframework, spectrum man-agement, new technology andinnovations, broadband infra-structure, ease of doing busi-ness, manufacturing,andresearch and development.

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Ashortage of containers andincreased freight charges

are adversely affecting exportsfrom Kolkata causing appre-hensions of huge financial andbusiness loss, exporters said onTuesday.

The crisis of vessel spaceand containers is nationwidebut the situation is worse inKolkata, they said.

“Availability of containersis less than half of the demandcausing disruptions in exports

and delivery schedule has gonehaywire.

Predictability of availabil-ity of container and freight ratesis not there anymore. Freightrates have jumped 2-3 times ofthe pre-Covid levels,”Federation of Indian ExportOrganisations(FIEO) chair-man-east, Sushil Patwari toldPTI. Freight charges have sky-rocketed and freight forwardersto the West Coast are alsodeclining to book cargo due tosevere scarcity of containers,exporters said.

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As many as 78 foreign com-panies were registered in

the country under the compa-nies law in the last financialyear, according to official data.

In 2019-20, a total of 124foreign companies were regis-tered in India. The count wasat 118 in 2018-19.

The data was provided byMinister of State for CorporateAffairs Rao Inderjit Singh in awritten reply to Rajya Sabha onTuesday.

“Foreign Company isdefined under Section 2 (42) ofthe Companies Act, 2013 (theAct) as any company or bodycorporate incorporated out-side India which (a) has aplace of business in India byitself or through an agent,physically or thorough elec-tronic mode and (b) conductsany business activity in India inany other manner,” the minis-ter said.

Mumbai:The rupee slipped by5 paise to close at 74.47 (pro-visional) against the US cur-rency on Tuesday as the dollarstrengthened in the overseasmarkets and the domestic equi-ty indices closed with losses.

Forex traders said therupee is trading in a narrowrange as investors are awaitingcues from the US Fed’s policydecision due on Wednesdayand month-end rebalancing.

At the interbank foreignexchange market, the local unitopened at 74.36 against the dol-lar and witnessed an intra-dayhigh of 74.35 and a low of 74.54during the session.

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The GST investigation armDGGI is investigating mis-

classification of rail supplies bybidders in tenders by IndianRailways, Parliament wasinformed on Tuesday.

“Directorate General ofGoods and Services Tax (GST)Intelligence (DGGI) has initi-ated investigations into tendersawarded by Indian Railwayssince July 2017, to crack downon instances of misclassifica-tion of rail supplies by bidderswho have been charged withevading taxes,” Minister ofState for Finance PankajChaudhary said.

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Foreign Direct Investment(FDI) in food processing

sector declined 57 per cent toUSD 393.4 million (around�2,926 crore) in 2020-21 ascompared to the previous year,the government said onTuesday. In a written reply tothe Lok Sabha, Minister ofState for Food ProcessingIndustries Prahlad Singh Patelsaid the FDI policy and data arethe under purview of theDepartment for Promotion ofIndustry and Internal Trade.

“As per extant policy, 100per cent FDI for FPI sector ispermitted under the automat-ic route implying that no priorapproval of the Government orRBI is required. As per theForeign ExchangeManagement Act (FEMA), theIndian recipient company hasto report the inflow of FDI toReserve Bank of India,” he

said. The FDI received by foodprocessing industries (FPI) sec-tor during 2020-21 stood atUSD 393.4 million as againstUSD 904.7 million in the pre-vious year.

During 2018-19, FDI inFPI sector stood at USD 628.24million. Patel said the min-istry has been implementingCentral Sector UmbrellaScheme - Pradhan MantriKisan SAMPADA Yojana(PMKSY) since 2016-17 foroverall growth and develop-ment of the food processingsector, including processing ofagroproducts and thus increas-ing the income of farmers.

The component schemes ofPMKSY are -- Mega FoodPark, Integrated Cold Chainand Value AdditionInfrastructure, Creation/Expansion of Food Processing& Preservation Capacities,Infrastructure for Agro-Processing Clusters.

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Increased tax collection in thefirst quarter this fiscal shows

that the economy is on therecovery path, Minister of Statefor Finance Pankaj Chaudharysaid on Tuesday.

Net direct tax collection inthe April-June quarter of thecurrent fiscal is over �2.46lakh crore, as against more than�1.17 lakh crore during thesame period of the previous fis-cal.

“Reasons for increase inthe collections include revivalof economic activities and pos-itive sentiments among tax-payers during this currentfinancial year, leading toincreased income estimatesand higher advance tax pay-ments in the first quarter of theFY 2021-22 as compared to thecorresponding period of FY2020-21,” he said in a writtenreply to the Rajya Sabha.

Net Indirect Tax (GST

and non-GST) revenue collec-tion in the first quarter of FY2021-22 is �3.11 lakh crore, hesaid.

“The increased tax col-lection (Direct & Indirect) asreported in the first quarter ofthe current financial year ascompared to the same periodprevious financial year showsthat the economy is on therecovery path. Higher tax col-lection would enableGovernment in increasing pub-lic expenditure, which wouldhave a positive impact on GDP,”Chaudhary added.

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The International MonetaryFund (IMF) on Tuesday cut

its economic growth forecastfor India to 9.5 per cent for thefiscal year to March 31, 2022 asthe onset of a severe secondCovid-19 wave cut into recov-ery momentum.

This forecast for 2021-22is lower than the 12.5 per centgrowth in GDP that IMF hadprojected in April before thesecond wave took a grip.

For 2022-23, IMF expectseconomic growth of 8.5 percent, larger than the 6.9 percent it had projected in April.

“Growth prospects inIndia have been downgradedfollowing the severe secondCOVID wave during March-May and expected slow recov-ery in confidence from that set-back,” IMF said in its latestWorld Economic Outlook(WEO).

India’s economy is gradu-

ally recovering from a deepcontraction in the fiscal yearended March 31, 2021 (7.3 percent) and a subsequent severesecond wave of COVID-19.

IMF joins a host of glob-al and domestic agencies whichhave cut India’s growth esti-mates for the current fiscal. Lastmonth, S&P Global Ratingsprojected a 9.5 per cent GDPgrowth in the current fiscal and7.8 per cent in 2022-23.

While World Bank seesGDP growth at 8.3 per cent

from April 2021 to March2022, the Asian DevelopmentBank (ADB) last week down-graded India’s economicgrowth forecast to 10 per centfrom 11 per cent estimated inApril.

Another US-based ratingagency Moody’s has projectedIndia clocking 9.3 per centgrowth in the current fiscalending March 2022. For 2021calendar year, Moody’s has cutthe growth estimate sharply to9.6 per cent.

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New Delhi:Punjab NationalBank, the nation’s leading pub-lic sector bank, held the 20thAnnual General Meeting(AGM) of the Bank’s share-holders. Amidst the prevailingCovid-19 situation, the Bankconducted its AGM throughvideo conference, without thephysical presence of share-holders at a common venue, inaccordance with guidelinesissued by SEBI and MCA. CH.S. S. Mallikarjuna Rao, MD &CEO of PNB, while addressingthe Shareholders at the 20thAGM of the Bank , highlight-ed bank’s performance andvarious initiatives undertakenduring FY 2020-21.

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���=���������6������� �����$�����������#� �����������Mumbai:Domestic marketssurrendered early gains to closein the red for the secondstraight session on Tuesday assentiment remained risk-averseamid lacklustre corporate earn-ings and a deepening sell-off inAsian markets post China’sregulatory crackdown on techcompanies.

The 30-share BSE Sensexskidded 273.51 points or 0.52per cent to finish at 52,578.76,while the broader NSE Niftyfell 78 points or 0.49 per centto 15,746.45.

Dr Reddy’s was the toploser among the Sensex con-stituents, plunging 10.44 percent, after the company report-ed a 36 per cent decline in con-solidated net profit at �380.4crore for the quarter endedJune 30, 2021, on account ofhigher expenses.

The strain of COVID-19 hasimpacted our lifestyle in manyways — learning, working, and

traveling have all been hindered. Asthe promise of a swift recovery wanes,most institutions across India areadopting an online mode of teaching.Most workplaces continue to employphygital models of working, whereassome organisations have allowed theiremployees to work remotely. It wouldbe an understatement to say that thepandemic has changed how academiaand businesses operate!

Amidst all this doom and gloom,let’s focus on the bright side.Technology is constantly evolvingand automation is catching up in mostof the industries across the globe. Onone hand, the vaccination drive isgaining momentum, on the other, theinfection positivity rate is going downdrastically.

India still has one of the youngestpopulations in the world, putting it ina unique sweet spot wherein theworking-age population is more thannon-working age. Leveraging thedemographic dividend and adoptionof digital technologies has put us in aprime position to embark on a jour-ney of rapid growth.

As more and more students jointhe workforce, the one question thatthreatens to derail us from our jour-ney is “Are India’s graduates employ-able?” “Do they have the relevant skillsrequired by the industry?”

Traditionally, educational insti-tutions have laid greater emphasis onthe academic and theoretical devel-opment of students, leaving a long-

lasting effect in terms of a lack ofdevelopment of employable skillsincluding core technical skills, com-munication skills, and other workplaceskills.

Graduate-level curriculum inIndia, in particular, does not empha-size on behavioural and soft skills. Agraduate who has finished his/hercourse and may have secured anexcellent academic rank might stilllack oratory skills, knack for presen-tation, motivation, problem-solving,and critical thinking skills.

This has also been highlighted inthe India Skills 2021 report publishedby Wheebox in association with CII.As per the report, only 45.9 per centof graduates in India are found unem-ployable.

Having the right mix of hard andsoft skills is important for a success-ful career. Today, employers valueattributes such as integrity, reliabili-ty, teamwork, and a positive attitudeas much as core technical skills in can-didates. In most organisations, theresponsibilities and KPIs defined forjob roles, require an employee to workwith different stakeholders acrossfunctions. While many of these skillsare learned on the job, there are cer-tain skills everyone should learnbefore starting their careers.

Investing in continuous learningand upskilling is essential for one tobe productive, innovative, and mar-ketable in today’s recessionary jobmarket.

The importance of making a con-scious learning effort to possess theright attitude, upskilling to tap indus-

try demand, and re-skilling further tostay relevant in the job is immense,given further the demand-supplymismatch. In India, the number ofstudents applying for a job out-weighsthe number of open positions by a fac-tor of 10x.

Upskilling to differentiate yourselffrom your peers is as necessary forsustenance as securing basic educationqualifications and degrees, if notmore.

One may then wonder, how toevaluate one’s own skills and knowwhat is required by the recruiters. Arethere some easy ways to do it?

One way to find one’s level ofemployability skills is by taking the jobfitment and aptitude tests available onthe internet. Most of these goodassessments give you a detailed reportof your skill index and areas ofimprovement, if one selects theanswers honestly. These self-assess-ments help the test taker in making aninformed decision about the rightcareer path she/he wants to pursue. Awell-structured job-fitment test acts asa career guidance and providesinsights to the test takers about theirstrengths and unique skill sets.

Another way is to study the jobdescriptions available on job portals.A well-defined job description lists theknowledge, skills, and attributesrequired to perform the job. Find thejob description of the role one wantsto take up, make a list of topics, skills,and attributes required and thenanalyse where one stands. This willhelp the students to focus on the skillsand attributes they need to work on.

So, what do the students need todo to upskill and re-skill in order tostay ahead in the race?

First, try to find the area of inter-est and find out the niche in whichone wants to make a career. Second,join several online industry-orientedcertificate courses to learn the latesttechnologies and industry best prac-tices. Thirdly, apply for internships incompanies that are in the industrywhere you finally want to land up.Fourth, make a good LinkedIn pro-file, connect with industry practi-tioners, follow the best minds in theindustry, watch out for what they aretalking about, participate in online dis-cussions, and write articles and postthem. Fifth, subscribe to podcasts,vodcasts, newsletters, to stay updatedabout the industry and professions,and finally, find a good mentor whocan guide you throughout your career.

Once you start working, makesure you don’t lose out on learning. Asyou spend more time in the role, youstart realising what skills, knowledgeand attributes are required to grow inthat path.

At that junction, make a list ofadditional skills you need to buildyourself, and work on them con-sciously. Join training programs avail-able in your company, and focus ongaining skills for particular job func-tions or roles. These programmeswithin the companies have well-defined learning outcomes to beachieved in a specified time period,and are designed to give the traineesa head start in their job profiles.

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Studying in a great university abroadis no longer just a fad, or somethingreserved for those with deep pock-

ets. Thanks to the growing appeal of aglobal career and lifestyle, the increasedspending power of the middle class andthe boom in student financing options.

The pandemic doesn’t seem to haveslowed India from becoming the secondlargest country to send international stu-dents to various countries abroad.According to a release by Common Appin January 2020, the number of interna-tional student applicants were up by 10per cent (of which Indian applicants wereup by 28 per cent) as compared to 2019-2020 levels.

So how are all these students fundingtheir study abroad dream? Betweentuition fees, accommodation, living andtravel expenses, the whole thing can betwice as expensive as planning an Indianwedding!

Self-financing: According to open-doorsdata.org, more than 85 per cent ofthe total international students choose tobootstrap their education abroad. Somestudents choose to dip into family savingsand assets to fund their education, at leastpartially and cover the rest throughscholarships and part-time work. But thisleaves the whole family at risk without aPlan B.

Secured/collateral-based educationloan: Many banks, both public and pri-

vate, and NBFCs offer education loansagainst a collateral of a certain value likea house/land etc. This is a systematic andstructured approach and has many advan-tages such as tax saving benefits. The loanrepayment usually kicks in six monthsafter the degree is completed, irrespectiveof whether you have a job or not, andmust be completed within seven years offinishing the degree. So, this is a factorthat students must consider before sign-ing up for one.

The difference between banks andNBFCs is that banks usually cover about85-90 per cent of expenses such as tuitionfees, lodging, travel, lab fees etc, where-as NBFCs offer 100 per cent Cost ofAttendance (CoA) coverage. Similarly,banks may also have an upper limit on thesanctioned loan amount for large amountssuch as over �20-�30 lakh, depending onthe course and university you select.NBFCs have no such cap on loan amount.However, banks may also offer conces-sions on interest rates for women, whichNBFCs don’t.

Unsecured/collateral-free educationloan: Another option is to opt for unse-cured education loans offered by manyfinancial institutions that require no col-lateral. This is given based on yourfinancial status, for example, your cred-it score. However, since this is riskier tothe lender, it may be more tedious andexpensive as you may be charged a high-

er interest rate for the same loan amount.Students may also not get any favourablerepayment terms for the same reason.Many banks and NBFCs require you topay interest while you study.

International financial institutions:A trending option among students is edu-cational loans from international finan-cial institutions. They may provide loanamounts in foreign currency with orwithout a cosigner/collateral. They cal-culate interest rates based on the loanapplicant's future repayment potentialrather than historic data, and hence canalso provide lower interest rates thanbanks or NBFCs.

SIP: This option depends on howearly you start and is more suitable forworking professionals rather than studentswho wish to pursue their postgraduatestudies.

A systematic investment plan or a SIPis a great way to both invest and save forsalaried professionals. The frequency ofinvestment is based on the discretion ofthe candidate to allow them a flexibleapproach. SIPs have gained a lot of trac-tion over the years in the field of financ-ing the educational endeavours of post-graduate students.

The key to remember is that everystudent is different. So, it is important toweigh the pros and cons of each optionbefore proceeding further.

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When one hears of someonevolunteering in the social

sector, the immediate reaction isto always congratulate the indi-vidual on choosing to give backto society, on being a change-maker. However, when the sameindividual announces a full-time job in the social sector, thisnews is met with hesitation, trep-idation and sometimes evenrebuke and criticism. Whatcauses this sudden change inperception, and is this shift val-idated?

Unfortunately, there are sev-eral myths associated with thesocial sector that set it in a badlight not just for donors, partnerorganisations but also for thoselooking to make a career insocial work. Some of thesemyths are that there is no growthin this sector, it is a waste of time,there are no returns, the moneyis negligible and the work isdreary. However, if one does takeout the time to talk to someonewho has worked in this sectorfor a while, they are sure to geta clearer picture of what the sec-tor actually comprises of, andwhat actually lies in store forthose who want to enter theworld of social work.

One of the prevalentassumptions is that there is noadvancement in the social sec-tor, that it is an area worth

investing only a small amount oftime in order to boost resumes.However, there is immensepotential to develop and evolvein the social sector. It offers spaceto grow not just professionallybut personally as well, for you getthe best of both worlds- deskjobs as well as field work.Further, this sector itself isalways growing, taking intoaccount the varied requirementsof beneficiaries across demo-graphics. Since the sector itselfis never stagnant, growth always

accompanies it.Several people also assume

that there are no exciting oppor-tunities available to social work-ers. However, the sector isextremely dynamic purely basedon the fact that the work isdirectly related to people inneed. Since humans themselvescan’t possibly be put into blackand white categories, the worktoo has to adapt itself to situa-tions and the issues it brings up.Each day brings with itself newchallenges, and new opportuni-

ties to bring about change. Notwo days are the same whileworking in the social sector,making it a vibrant and livelyprofessional sector.

What seems to be the mostpressing and overarching mythrelated to working in the socialsector is that there is no adequaterecompense or rewards, thatthere is no money for a socialworker. While it is true that mostNGOs cannot offer salary brack-ets that are possible at a corpo-rate job, this does not mean thatthe salaries are meagre. Further,International NGOs haveextremely attractive pay pack-ages, and these come with sev-eral perks as well. Depending onqualifications, the returns can beextremely rewarding. Of course,what makes the work even morefulfilling are the blessings onereceives from the beneficiaries,something that no amount ofmoney can ever give.

The social sector is as enter-prising, as exciting, and asrewarding as any other profes-sional sphere. The myths sur-rounding this sector are exact-ly that- baseless. The world isyour oyster when it comes tosocial work. No matter how youengage with it, it always givesback multifold.

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The signing ceremony ofthe Memorandum of

Understanding (MoU)between Entuple Technologiesand the School of Electronicsand Engineering, VIT-APUniversity was held virtuallyon the July 22, 2021.

Dr S V Kota Reddy, Vice-Chancellor, VIT-AP Universityafter signing the MoU withEntuple Technologies, saidtheir aim is to impart skill andcapabilities to the students inVLSI and RF Communicationtechnologies and enable them

to build their career in thisemerging field. This will alsoprovide an opportunity to thestudents, scholars, and facultymembers to carry out researchand to develop several

advanced applications usingVLSI and RF Technologies.

Further, EntupleTechnologies will provideinternships and job opportu-nities to selected students.

Mehta SD D, Director-sales, Entuple Technologiessaid that with this collabora-tion can conduct freeWebinar/workshop, FacultyDevelopment Program (FDP),Short Term TrainingPrograms (STTP), Trainingcum Internship Program,Career Builder Programs inassociation with Entuple tech-nologies. These programs areaimed at providing industryskills in campus and boostcompetency and employabil-ity of students.

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Department of PhysicalEducation and Sports

Science at SRM Institue ofScience and Technology(SRMIST), Kattankulathurorganised the ‘VolleyballAchievers Award 2021’ andhonoured eight of its studentsfor getting placed inGovernment and private jobs.Of this, four girls have beenselected to Indian Railwaysunder the sports quota.

The chief guest for theevent was SRMIST’s DeputyRegistrar and Director (Instituteof Hotel Management) DrAntony Ashok Kumar.

The special guests for theevent were SRMIST’s Director

(Career Centre) N VenkataSastry, Associate DirectorCampus Life & Ladies Hostel

Dr E Poovammal andManaging Director Sri VinayagaTimbers, Tambaram T

Purushothaman. A documentary on the

Women’s Volleyball Journey2020-21 was released on theoccasion.

Volleyball women’s teamcoach Om Prakash elaboratedon how the students are trained,how their diets are monitored,their workout sessions, and soon.

T Purushothaman who hasbeen a patron of the sportswished the team many morelaurels in the upcoming tour-naments.

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��'�.�#��+�C��+��������Sanskriti University,

Mathura invites online appli-cations for admission todiploma, under graduate, andpost graduate programmes inEngineering, Management &Commerce, Education, SpecialEducation, Humanities &Social Sciences, Pharmacy,Agriculture, FashionDesigning, Law and LegalStudies, Yoga andNaturopathy, Tourism & HotelManagement, Medical &Allied Sciences, Basic &Applied Sciences, Ayurveda,Unani, and Nursing courses.

Eligibility: Applicationsare open to applicants whohave passed or will appear forthe qualifying examinationsunder the higher secondary(Class XII) from any recog-nised Board of Education suchas AISSCE/IB/ICSE/CBSE, orequivalents. For Admissionto diploma programmes,Students are required to havepassed the Class X examina-tion from any state or centralboard like CBSE/ICSE.

How to apply: Applicantsseeking admission arerequired to fill an online appli-cation form availableonwww.sanskriti.edu.in. Thesubmission of the ApplicationForm can be done online orin-person at the University bydepositing �1000. For onlinesubmission, visit thislink:https://www.sanskriti.edu.in/register. The admission prereq-uisites will be in accordancewith the various regulatorybodies as amended from timeto time.

Last date to apply: July 31,2021.

����C�.����������Lakshya Bhartee Institute

of International Hotel man-agement, Delhi invites appli-cations for admission to itsthree years BSc programme inHotel management and twoyears MSc programme inHotel management.

Eligibility: For BSc inHM applicants must have

p a s s e dClass XII from a recognisedcentral/ state board or from arecognised university and forMSc in HM Applicants mustcompleted graduation from arecognised university.

How to Apply: Admissionforms can be purchased fromadmission office of LBIIHM,Pitampura, Delhi or can applyonline by visitwww.lbiihm.com.

Last date to apply: July 30,2021.

��� /�� ��������Delhi College of fire and

safety Engineering invitesapplications for admissionsto its one year certificatecourse in Fire Technology &Industrial SafetyManagement, one year sixmonths course in health safe-ty environment and six monthcertificate course in fire fight-ing.

The study of this pro-gramme is incorporated totrain candidates to gainknowledge about the preven-tive measures to be appliedduring times of emergency.

Eligibility: This full timediploma course has beenthoughtfully designed forthose who have recentlypassed Class X or Class XIIfrom any recognised boardand want to work in fire &Safety management industrycan enroll for these courses.

How to apply: To applyplease visit www.dcfse.com orthe application formsbrochure may be obtainedfrom admission office of DelhiCollege of fire and safetyEngineering, Mundka, Newdelhi-110041.

Last date to apply: July30, 2021.

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The Common Admission Test(CAT) is a national-level exam-ination conducted by The Indian

Institute of Management (IIM). It is amandatory exam for seeking admissioninto IIM or other prestigious B-schools.More than half of the candidatesappearing for CAT have an engineer-ing background. This makes the com-petition quite serious. Here are somemust-follow tips for engineers.

Work hard for the VARC section:The VARC section is a big hurdle forthe Engineering students as they do notfocus much on the English language asa subject during their graduation. But,if studied well this section will nottrouble you much.

Master the DILR section: Theonly way to score well in this sectionis to practice as much as possible. Thissection can be solved using varioustricks which you will know when andhow to apply only when you havesolved enough problems. This sectionis quite easy once you know the tech-niques.

Improve your calculations:Calculations are an extremely impor-tant factor in solving both theQuantitative Ability section. Improveyour accuracy and try achieving theright answers in the first attempt tosave maximum time. Practice solvingmentally instead of using a virtual cal-culator. You will see a difference inyour calculations if you practice reli-giously.

Get a complete idea about the sec-tions: You need to have the maximumidea about all the sections. Make sureyou know everything like the numberof questions in each section, marksallocated to the sections, topics coveredin the sections, the marking scheme,etc. Knowing all of this will make theprocess ahead easier and less complex.

Avoid rote learning: Mugging upwill land you in trouble. One shouldfocus on concepts and understandthem thoroughly. It is not at all advis-able to choose to mug-up technique.Understanding the whole concepthelps one to remember things for alonger period and on the other sidemugging up never stays for a longerperiod.

Practice makes perfect: No mat-ter how good or bad you are at the top-ics, one thing that can make you score

well in CAT is practicing. You need tokeep practicing the questions regular-ly. Buy enough practice material andmake sure you solve most of it. Makesure you know most of the concepts.Practicing every day will be of extremehelp. Solve all the previous years’question papers and the available sam-ple papers. Solve mock tests to be evencloser to being perfect.

Do not start preparing at the lastminute: Start studying well in advance.Starting from the beginning will notpile up all the work. You can study atyour own pace and understand con-cepts properly. This will result in hav-ing a lot of time for preparation. If youstart preparing at the last moment thenyou will have a chance of not coveringthe entire syllabus. You will have to fin-ish the entire syllabus in a few dayswhich may result in creating confusion.

Do not prepare without a plan:You need to have a plan. You need tomake a timetable of how you will bestudying and how much syllabus youwill complete within a day. Also, makesure you decide how much you willpractice each day after finishing upwith the portion. Make strategies onhow you will appear for the paper.Make daily targets and work hard tocomplete them.

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The Griffith Universityis offering RTPInternational Fee

Offset Scholarships for inter-national students.Scholarships fully cover theHDR me tuition fees.

Eligibility: Applicantmust: Not be a domestic stu-dent, as defined as being a stu-dent who is an Australian cit-izen or an Australian perma-nent resident or holder of anAustralian PermanentHumanitarian visa or a NewZealand citizen and be com-mencing or enrolled in HDRprogramme. Not be awardedto a candidate who is inreceipt of an equivalent awardor scholarship from theCommonwealth Governmentdesigned to offset HDR pro-gramme tuition fees.

Admission requirement:Must have previous degree.

Language requirement:Applicants whose first lan-guage is not English are usu-ally required to provide evi-dence of proficiency inEnglish at the higher levelrequired by the University.

How to apply: New appli-cants must follow the processfor submitting an online appli-cation. Visit: https://www.grif-f i t h . e d u . a u / r e s e a r c h -study/apply

Application deadline:The last date to apply for this

is September 28, 2021.

Applications are invitedfor the need-based aid offeredby the Case Western ReserveUniversity for internationalstudents for the academicyear 2021-2022.

Eligibility: Applicants canapply to study any bachelor ormaster degree programmeoffered at Case. Applicantsmust meet all the follow-ing/given criteria: Be interna-tional first-year or transfer stu-dents enrolled in a pro-gramme at Case.

Supporting documents:The students are required topresent the following docu-ments to the university:

High school resultsAdmission essayAdmission require-

ments: The applicants musthave completed high schoolgraduation to be accepted inany programme at Case.

Language requirement:The applicants are required toattain minimum scores inEnglish language proficiencytests.

How to apply: The stu-dents are required to submittheir application via theCommon Application orCoalition Application. Theapplicants are required tohave set up a CSS profile andapply for the opportunitythrough the same.

Application deadline:The last date to apply for thisscholarship is November 30,2021.

The present pandemic hasbrought the entire world toits knees and the whole

world has observed the adversecatastrophe of this global pan-demic. As the healthcare sectoracross the globe is growing, it hasopened great career opportunitiesto thousands of students of phar-maceutical science because the rateof growth of the pharmaceuticalsector is interlinked and is direct-ly proportional to the growth ofthe healthcare sector.

According to IBEF, Indianpharmaceutical sector suppliesover 50 per cent of global demandfor various vaccines and states thatwe are the largest provider ofgeneric drugs globally.

In the present scenario thedemand for medicines is increas-ing day by day, so the employmentin the pharma sector is also rising.According to sources of govern-ment statistics, over 300 institutionsimpart diplomas or degrees tonearly 20,000 students in Indiaevery year. Indian pharmaceuticalindustry is one of the largest phar-ma industries in the world and thiswidens the scope of pharma stud-ies in India and abroad.

As per the report of IndianEconomic Survey 2021, in the nextdecade the domestic market isexpected to grow three times.The pharmaceutical industry isvalued at $41.7 billlion. Ourdomestic pharmaceutical marketis estimated at $ 41 billion andlikely to reach $ 65 billion by 2024.

In India, Pharmacy Council ofIndia (PCI) is the regulatory bodywhich has been designing therducation Regulations pertainingto pharmacy which outlines theconditions to be followed bypharmacy colleges. The PCI grantsapproval to universities and col-leges to run various programmes.It has well-defined standards,norms and guidelines.

As compared to other coun-tries, the prices of medicines inIndia are amongst the lowest in theworld. Although having some ofthe medicine's lowest prices in theworld, leading firms of India alsohave the capacity to not onlyserve the Indian market for essen-tial drugs but also supply theirdrugs to the world.

Price fluctuation and poli-cy environment: Price fluctua-tion and policy environment are

the challenges created by unex-pected and frequent domesticpricing policy changes in India.One of the biggest challenges isanalysing the shifting customerbehaviour and fluctuating prices,due to this vague environment ofinnovations and investments hascreated in Industry. According toThe Indian PharmaceuticalsAlliances (IPA), to produceaffordable patients’ drugs, theGovernment and stakeholderswork together.

Paucity of proficiency in theinnovation space: Due to limitedgovernment Supported researchecosystem the pharmaceuticalcompanies have been slow togrow in the innovation space. Toovercome this hurdle Governmentneeds to invest in research anddevelopment initiatives and talentin order to expand India’s inno-vation.

A talent pool with advancedskills is limited in India as com-pared to other countries. There isalso a huge gap between the col-lege curriculum and industry'srequirements. Clinical trialsshould also be supported andsubjectivity in certain regulatory

decision-making removed.Generic market exporting:

Just like any other industry, thepharmaceutical industry is also asales-driven industry. With thehelp of AI technology, companiescan gather information regardingtargeting audiences and createunique marketing strategies forthem. This way they can under-stand the needs of the market andcan convert most leads into rev-enues. AI can help in protectingthe success or failure rate of themarketing strategy.

Effect of external market:More than 50 per cent of pharmaingredients are dependent onother countries like China. Slightchanges in policies can bring a bigdifference in the production ofmedicines and equipment. Due togrowth in the pharma industry inIndia, both directly and indirect-ly, Government needs to makeIndia a life sciences innovationhub to promote innovation by cre-ating a research ecosystem andexpanding and upskill the talentpool to handle complex tech-nologies with advanced resources.

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SHOWS THE WAYPHARMASHOWS THE WAYPHARMA

Tokyo: Dragflicker RupinderPal Singh scored a brace as theIndian men’s hockey over-came a demoralising defeat inthe previous match to cruisepast Spain 3-0 and inch clos-er to a quarterfinal berth atthe Tokyo Olympics onTuesday.

Drubbed 1-7 by Australiain their last match, India pro-duced a spirited performanceagainst world No 9 Spain andscored through SimranjeetSingh (14th minute) andRupinder Pal Singh (15th and51st) to record a comfortablewin in their third Pool Amatch at the Oi HockeyStadium.

India, ranked fourth in theworld, had earlier defeated

New Zealand 3-2 in theiropening fixture. Spain, on theother hand, are yet to registera win in the competition.

Spain drew 1-1 againstArgentina before losing 3-4 toNew Zealand.

The Indians will next playreigning Olympic championsArgentina on Thursday.

For any team it is alwaystough to recover from amorale-shattering loss withina day, but India looked moreorganised and sorted againstSpain on Tuesday.

Despite the win, India’schief coach Graham Reid saidthe team needs to work upona lot of grey areas, like conced-ing penalty corners, ahead oftheir remaining matches.

“Better result today, but alot of things to work on froman improvement perspective.The fact that we gave toomany corners, that’s always aconcern when that happens.But the team did really well in

terms of defending,” he said.“The first quarter was

played very well, we couldmove the ball really well andit was exactly what we plannedto do. We struggled a bit in thesecond and third quarters.”

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TUESDAY HIGHLIGHTS

�Hockey: India beat Spain 3-0 in Men’s Pool A Match.�Badminton: SatwiksairajRankireddy and Chirag Shettybeat Ben Lane and Sean Vendy(Great Britain) 21-17, 21-19 inMen’s Doubles Group A Match.�Boxing: Lovlina Borgohainbeat Nadine Apetz of Germany3-2 in Women’s 69kg Round of16 Bout.�Table Tennis: A SharathKamal lost to Ma Long (China)7-11, 11-8, 11-13, 4-11, 4-11 inMen’s Singles Round 3 Match. �Shooting: SaurabhChaudhary/Manu Bhaker andYeshahswini Deswal/AbhishekVerma fail to qualify for medalround in 10m Air Pistol MixedTeam event.Elavenil Valarivan/DivyanshSingh Panwar and AnjumMoudgil/Deepak Kumar fail toqualify for medal round in 10mAir Rifle Mixed Team event.�Sailing: Nethra Kumanan32nd and 38th in Race 5 and 6in Women’s Laser Radial.Vishnu Saravanan 23rd and22nd in Race 5 and 6 in Men’sLaser.KC Ganapathy and VarunThakkar 18th in Race 1 inMen’s Skiff 49er.

IN FOCUS TODAY�Hockey: India vs GreatBritain (Women’s)�Badminton: P V Sindhu vsNY Cheung (Hong Kong) andB Sai Praneeth vs M Caljouw(Netherlands).�Boxing: Pooja Rani vs IchrakChaib (Algeria.�Rowing: Arjun Lal Jat andArvind Singh in Men’sLightweight Double ScullsSemifinal 2.�Archery: Tarundeep Rai vsOleksii Hunbin (Ukraine).Pravin Jadhav vs GalsanBazarzhapov (Russian OlympicCommittee).Deepika Kumari vs Karma(Bhutan).

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Tokyo: Indian boxer LovlinaBorgohain (69kg) advanced tothe quarterfinals in her debutOlympic appearance onTuesday, defeating Germanveteran Nadine Apetz in aclosely-fought last-16 stagebout.

Borgohain, the loneIndian boxer in action on theday, prevailed 3-2 over herrival who is 12 years hersenior. Both the boxers weremaking their Games debutand the Indian became thefirst from her nine-strongteam to make the quarterfinalstage.

The 23-year-old showedgreat poise in a tense contestto triumph by the thinnest ofmargins. She claimed all thethree rounds on split points.

The 35-year-old Apetz wasthe first German woman toqualify for a boxing event atthe Olympics. She is a two-time world championshipBronze-medallist and a formerEuropean champion.

Borgohain is a two-timeWorld and Asian champi-onships Bronze-medallist andwill next face Chinese Taipei’sNien-Chin Chen on July 30,who is seeded fourth.

A win in the upcomingcontest would assureBorgohain of at least a Bronzemedal at the mega-event.

On Wednesday, Asianchampion Pooja Rani (75kg)will square off against Algerianyoungster Ichrak Chaib.

Tokyo: Indian shooters enduredyet another forgettable outing atthe Tokyo Olympics on Tuesdayas they crashed out in the qual-ifying stages of the mixed teamevents in both pistol and rifle.

Considered the team’s bestbet for a podium finish, the duoof Saurabh Chaudhary andManu Bhaker caved in underpressure and failed to qualify forthe final of the 10m air pistolmixed team event.

Thy finished seventh inQualification 2 after topping thefirst phase with 582. Both the 19-year-old shooters lost the plotcompletely when the top eightteams battled it out in the sec-ond phase.

The other Indian team inthe event, Abhishek Verma andYashaswini Singh Deswal, failedto clear Qualification 1 and fin-ished in 17th place, havingtotalled 564 across six series(three each for one member).

The team of Chaudharyand Bhaker totalled 380 across

two series each in the secondphase of the qualification.

While the top eight teamsmake the Qualification 2, the topfour pairs in the second phasequalify for the medal rounds.

Later in the day, both theIndian pairs participating inthe 10m air rifle mixed teamevent crashed out in the firstqualifications stage, missing outon yet another final after an out-ing that left a lot to be desired.

The duo of ElavenilValarivan and Divyansh SinghPanwar finished 12th with a totalof 626.5 across three series each,while Anjum Moudgil andDeepak Kumar ended 18th outof 29 pairs with an aggregatescore of 623.8.

Tokyo: Sharath Kamal matchedthe legendary Ma Long strokefor stroke in the first threegames before making a thirdround exit from the table ten-nis competition on Tuesday,ending India’s medal-lessyet impressive run atthe Tokyo Olympics.

Following theunprecedented gainsmade from the 2018Asian Games, whereIndia won a table ten-nis medal for thefirst time ever,the perfor-mance ofSharath andManika Batrain the roundof 32 addedsignificant-ly to thes p o r t ’ sg r o w i n gpopularity.

They bothachieved a first by

reaching the third round at theSummer Games.

A less tougher draw inmixed doubles, in whichSharath and Manika were seenas medal contenders, as well as

in the men’s singles couldhave seen the Indians scal-ing new heights.

The way 39-year-oldSharath played againstLong has convinced him to

think about compet-ing in his fifth

Olympics inParis.

H ef o u g h ttooth andnail in thefirst threeg a m e sa g a i n s tthe reign-

i n gOlympic and

world champi-on Long beforegoing down 7-

11, 11-8, 11-13, 4-11, 4-11 in 46minutes.

To have a player like Longunder pressure in itself is a sig-nificant achievement for theseasoned Indian.

“It was the best three gamesand probably the best matchand best tournament I everplayed,” Sharath said.

The Chinese great tooacknowledged that Sharathmade it tough for him.

“It was a tough match. Ofcourse at the Olympics everymatch, no matter the opponent,no matter the country, it’salways tough,” said Long.

“I did prepare for difficul-ties. The third game was cru-cial. After gutting it out the lasttwo games were better,” headded.

With Sharath’s defeat,India’s challenge ended in tabletennis as Manika, SutirthaMukherjee and G Sathiyanhad already exited the singlescompetition.

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The second T20I betweenIndia and Sri Lanka in

Colombo on Tuesday waspostponed by a day afterIndian all-rounder KrunalPandya tested positive forCovid-19, forcing him out ofthe series with seven days ofisolation.

However, all his eightclose contacts, who were iso-lated, have tested ‘negative’ inthe RT-PCR tests and will beavailable for the postponedgame which is being held onWednesday.

As per Sri Lanka’s healthsafety protocols, Krunal willnot be able to travel back toIndia with other members ofthe contingent on July 30 as hewill now have to undergomandatory isolation andobtain a negative RT-PCRreport.

The third and final T20 isscheduled to be held onThursday.

“Krunal is symptomaticwith cough and throat pain.

He is obviously out of theseries and will not be able ableto return with rest of thesquad,” a BCCI source track-ing the developments inColombo said.

“However the good newsis that all his eight close con-tacts who were identified bythe BCCI medical officer (DrAbhijit Salvi) have tested neg-ative.”

For now, the three-matchseries is on as even if there area couple of more cases, theIndian team has enough play-ers with negative RT-PCRreports to field a team.

Krunal, who tested posi-tive on Tuesday morning, hasalready been quarantined.

India are travelling with a20-member squad plus fourstand bye net bowlers.

Now, there will be back-to-back matches onWednesday and Thursdayprovided there aren’t any moreplayers testing positive toaffect the balance of the sideswhich will lead to cancella-tion.

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Tokyo: Indian shuttlers ChiragShetty and SatwiksairajRankireddy emerged victori-ous against the England pair ofBen Lane and Sean Vendy intheir final Group A match butstill missed out on qualifyingfor the quarterfinals at theTokyo Olympics on Tuesday.

Ranked 10th in the world,the Indians beat world number18 team 21-17, 21-19 in a 44-minute Group A men’s doublesmatch at the Musashino ForestPlaza.

However, they couldn’tmake it to the knockout stageas they finished third in theGroup A behind top-rankedIndonesian team of MarcusGideon Fernaldi and KevinSanjaya Sukamuljo and worldnumber three Yang Lee andChi-Lin Wang of ChineseTaipei.

“We knew the momentLee Yang/Wang Chi-Lin won,

we don’t stand a chance. Theywon in two games and we wonin three. It is quite sad.Unfortunately, even after win-ning two matches in the group,we don’t go through. But thatis badminton and have to livewith it,” said Chirag.

All three teams finished onsame points with two winseach and when the number ofgames won was considered toidentify the qualifiers, theIndians lost.

Chirag and Satwik’sstraight game loss to theIndonesians on Monday costthem dear.

Moments before theIndian pair stepped on thecourt, Lee and Wang had com-pleted a three-game win overSukamuljo and Gideon in thepreceding group match, ren-dering the result of India's con-test against Britain inconse-quential.

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Japan’s Naomi Osaka suffered a 6-1, 6-4 defeat to MarketaVondrousova in the third round of the Tokyo Games on

Tuesday, crushing her dreams of winning Olympic Gold at home.Osaka, who lit the Olympic cauldron during the opening cer-

emony, struggled in an error-strewn display under the centre courtroof at Ariake Tennis Park and was knocked out in 68 minutes.

Vondrousova, ranked 42nd, will go on to face Spain’s PaulaBadosa or Nadia Podoroska of Argentina.

Meanwhile, Stefanos Tsitsipas advanced to the third roundof the Olympics men’s tennis tournament on Tuesday as heavenged last month’s Wimbledon loss to Frances Tiafoe.

The Greek third seed downed American Tiafoe 6-3, 6-4 underthe centre court roof at Ariake Tennis Park, where all play onoutside courts was delayed an hour by morning drizzle.

Tsitsipas, who is also entered in mixed doubles with MariaSakkari, will play France’s Ugo Humbert or Miomir Kecmanovicof Serbia for a spot in the quarter-finals.

Also Novak Djokovic added another medalevent to his program by entering the mixeddoubles draw with Serbian partner NinaStojanovic.

INDIAN CAMPAIGN OVERThe Indian tennis team’s campaign

at the Tokyo Olympics officiallyended on Tuesday as SaniaMirza and Sumit Nagal couldnot make the cut for themixed doubles event due totheir low combined rankingof 153.

The entries were to befinalised on Tuesday morn-ing and the cut was expect-ed to be between 50-60.The Indians did not evenhave faint hopes of gettinginto the easiest of tennisevents at the Games.

Only 16 teams playthe mixed doubles eventand thus winning justtwo matches can get ateam in the medal round.

Nagal was blown away by DaniilMedvedev in the men’s singles com-petition, while the women’s doublespair of Sania Mirza and Ankita Rainalost its opener from a winning position.

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Tokyo: The Indian shootingfederation on Tuesdaypromised an ‘overhaul’ of thecoaching staff after the 15-strong contingent’s Olympiccampaign moved from onedisaster to another.

As the country’s shooterscontinued to belie expecta-tions with their horror showhere, reliving the Rio 2016debacle, the head of the sport’snational governing bodypromised a major revamp incoaching and support staff.

“Definitely the perfor-mances have not been onexpected lines and I have spo-ken of an overhaul of coachingand support staff,” NRAIRaninder Singh said.

Questions are being raisedabout why the shooters werenot able to replicate their excel-lent showing at the ISSF WorldCups at the Olympics.

“I feel something is lackingin getting our shooters pre-pared for these big occasions,because clearly the talent isthere and we have seen it hereas well,” the NRAI boss said.

However, Raninder saidthat not all is still lost for theIndian shooting team as it is leftwith a few more starts.

“Having said that we stillhave starts left and let’s contin-ue to back the team and I amsure we’ll get results.Postmortems can wait till afterthe Games,” Raninder said.

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Enoshima: Indian sailorsVishnu Saravanan and NethraKumanan finished way behindthe leaders as they ended at22nd and 33rd spot in therespective events after six racesin the Tokyo Olympics here onTuesday.

Saravanan finished 23rdand 22nd in the fifth and sixthrace in the men’s laser eventwhile Kumanan was 32nd and

38th in the two races of thewomen’s laser radial event heldat Enoshima Yacht Harbour onTuesday.

Four more races and medalrace remain in the competitionand the India duo were farbehind in the rankings.

Each event consists of aseries of races. Points in eachrace are awarded according toposition: the winner gets one

point, the second-placed finish-er scores two and so on.

The final race is called themedal race, for which points aredoubled. Following the medalrace, the individual or crew withthe fewest total points isdeclared the winner.

The medal races of both thewomen’s laser radial and men’slaser will be held on August 1after 10 races each.

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Durham: Ahead of the gruellingfive Test match series againstEngland, the Indian Test teamled by skipper Virat Kohli, hada centre wicket training at theDurhan Cricket Club here onTuesday.

Aggressive wicket-keeperRishabh Pant, who had joinedthe Test team after recoveringfrom Covid-19, also batted inthe nets.

“TeamIndia back at it andhaving a centre wicket trainingat Durham Cricket Club aheadof the five-match Test seriesagainst England,” the BCCI saidin a tweet.

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1�����������������������������Tokyo: Enduring a forgettablecampaign, bottom-placedIndian women’s hockey teamcan’t afford squandering anymore chances if it fancies upset-ting defending champions GreatBritain on Wednesday.

After a 1-5 drubbing againstworld number one theNetherlands, the Indians play-ers lifted their game by leaps andbounds to give third-rankedGermany a run for their moneybefore losing 0-2 in their nextPool A match.

But two consecutive defeatshave definitely pegged the sideback. India created a lot ofscoring opportunities againstGermany but finishing was lack-ing from the forward line. Onone occasion, Vandana Katariyawas denied by the goal post too.

But not converting thepenalty stroke was a huge miss.

However, the Rani Rampal-led side can take a lot of heartfrom its performance against theGermans given that it kept theintensity and fight intact till thefinal hooter.

With two defeats from asmany games, the Indian womenare currently lying at the bottomof the six-team Pool A, which isbeing headed by Netherlands,followed by Germany, Britain,Ireland and South Africa.

But these are still early dayswith three matches each remain-ing for all the teams. Top foursides from each pool of six willqualify for the quarterfinals.

Ranked 11th in the world,India stand a chance to make thequarterfinals but for that tohappen they will have to outplayseventh-ranked Ireland andSouth Africa, who are placed16th.

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