:_UZR cV[`ZTVd Re 4YR_f¶d WVRe - Daily Pioneer

16
A confident smile never leav- ing her face, Mirabai Chanu ended India’s over two- decade long wait for a weightlifting medal at the Olympics, clinching the 49kg category silver medal five years after leaving the same platform in tears following a disastrous debut. With her historic triumph, she ensured that India was second on the medals tally for a brief while, a feat that has never been achieved before by the country. It was also the first time that India managed to win a medal on the opening day competitions. The diminutive iron lady from Manipur lifted a total of 202kg (87kg+115kg) to better Karnam Malleswari’s bronze in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. With this, she exorcised the ghosts of the 2016 Games where she had failed to log a single legitimate lift, leaving her shattered. “I am very happy, I have been dreaming of this for the past five years. I am very proud of myself right now. I did try for gold but even silver is a great achievement for me,” Chanu told reporters after her career- defining triumph for which she had been training in the US for past few months. The 2016 experience was a watershed in her career and Chanu had spoken about how confused she had felt during her debut at the biggest stage. There was none of those nerves to be seen on Saturday, just a very composed and focussed athlete who knew she was des- tined for the podium. “I am very happy to win the first medal for India at these Games. I don’t just belong to Manipur, I belong to the whole country,” she said in response to a query on what it meant for her as a Manipuri. “I would like to thank my coach Vijay Sharma andthe support staff for their contin- uous hard work, motivation and training,” she added. Continued on Page 4 A s fighting rages in Afghanistan, the Indian embassy there on Saturday said the situation “remains dangerous” and advised all Indian nationals there to exer- cise caution. The advisory came days after the IAF planes evacuated more than 50 diplomatic staff of the Indian consulate in Kandhar . The note of caution by the embassy in Kabul on Saturday urged Indians staying, visiting, and working in Afghanistan to exercise utmost vigilance at all times and avoid all non-essen- tial travel as security situation in Afghanistan remains dan- gerous. It also warned Indian nationals are not exceptions, and they additionally face a serious threat of kidnapping. The detailed advisory also asked the Indian nationals to remain vigilant with security at workplace, place of residence and also during movement to their places of work. It is rec- ommended that all types of non-essential movements be avoided. Movements especial- ly during peak commuting hours should also be avoided. While traveling on roads, maintain distance from possi- ble targets like military con- voys, official vehicles of Government and Ministries, high ranking officials, law enforcement agencies, it cau- tioned. Indians were also asked to refrain from going to crowded markets, shopping complexes, restaurants and other public places. All essential movement may please be kept as discrete as possible, it said. It also advised traveling outside the main cities should be strictly avoided. Moreover, all Indian nationals arriving in Afghanistan are advised to reg- ister with the Embassy. Continued on Page 4 I n the latest unlock guidelines issued on Saturday for the national Capital, the Delhi Metro and public buses in the city will operate at full seating capacity, while cinema halls, theatres and multiplexes will open with 50 per cent occu- pancy from Monday. The city witnessed an unprecedented surge of cases and deaths during the second wave of coronavirus in April and May. The situation seems to have been improving over the past few weeks, allowing the Government to reopen the city in a phased manner. The latest unlock guide- lines by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) said the Delhi Metro, the city’s lifeline, will be allowed to operate with 100 per cent seating capacity from Monday but no standing passenger will be allowed. Cinema halls, theatres and multiplexes will be allowed to open with 50 per cent seating capacity from July 26, while business-to-business (B2B) exhibitions will also be allowed, but only with business visitors, the guidelines said. The order also directed that number of people allowed at marriage functions and last rites will be raised to 100 from Monday. Spas can also open from July 26 but their all employees have to be fully vaccinated or undergo RT-PCR test fort- nightly, the DDMA said. Delhi faced a brutal second wave of the pandemic that claimed a large number of lives daily. The rapid rise in the number of cases led to a shortage of med- ical oxygen at various city hos- pitals. On April 20, the city had reported a record 28,395 cases. On April 22, the case positivi- ty rate was 36.2 per cent, the highest so far. At 448, the highest number of deaths was reported on May 3. A historic silver medal and a radiant smile were not the only eye-catching things about Mirabai Chanu on Saturday, her gold earrings shaped like Olympic rings were as striking, a gift from her mother who sold her own jewellery for them five years ago. The hope was that the ear- rings would bring her “good luck”. It didn’t happen in the Rio 2016 Games but Chanu made the little sacrifice count in Tokyo this morning with a silver medal and Saikhom Ongbi Tombi Leima has strug- gled to stop her tears from flowing ever since. “I saw the earrings on TV, I gave them to her in 2016 before the (Rio) Olympics. I have made it for her from the gold pieces and savings I have so that it brings luck and suc- cess,” Leima told PTI from her home in Manipur where a considerable number of rela- tives, friends and well-wishers gathered to watch Chnau script history in Tokyo. Continued on Page 4 S ecretary of State Antony Blinken will raise issues of human rights and democracy with Indian officials during his first visit to New Delhi as the two nations have more values in common on those fronts than otherwise, according to a senior US official. Blinken is scheduled to arrive in New Delhi late on July 27. During his stay in the country, he will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. The Ministry of External Affairs said in New Delhi that National Security Adviser Ajit Doval will also meet Bilinken. “With respect to the human rights and democracy question, yes, you’re right; I will tell you that we will raise it, and we will continue that conver- sation, because we firmly believe that we have more val- ues in common on those fronts than we don’t,” Dean Thompson, the Acting Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, told reporters during a conference call ahead of the visit. “We believe India is going to be a really important part of continuing those conversations and building strong efforts on those fronts in partnership as we go forward,” Thompson said in response to a question. India has previously reject- ed criticism by foreign Governments and human rights groups on allegations that civil liberties have eroded in the country. Continued on Page 4 M ore than 89,000 people were evacuated from the rain-ravaged coastal Konkan region and several parts of western Maharashtra as multi- ple agencies continued rescue and relief operations in the flood-affected areas of the State on Saturday. Despite a let-up in the rain in most parts of the State, large parts of western Maharashtra districts of Satara, Sangli and Kolhapur remained thick sheets of floodwater, while the towns of Chiplun, Khed in Ratnagiri district and other areas in coastal Konkan region continued to reel under inundation. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray visited Talai village in Mahad taluka of Raigad district where more than 50 people were killed in a massive landslide on Friday. He assured the affected people that the State Government would, apart from giving compensation to the affected families, undertake rehabilitation of the displaced people across the coastal Konkan region and other parts of the State. As many as 89,333 people were rendered homeless as they were evacuated in various flood-affected districts of coastal Konkan region and several parts of Western Maharashtra. Sangli district in western Maharashtra bore maximum brunt of the flood situation arising from the heavy rain bat- tering the region for the past four days. While 40,573 people have been evacuated to safer places in Sangli district, the neigh- bouring Kolhapur district accounted for the evacuation of 40,882 people. As many as 2,681 marooned people were shifted to safer places in Thane district, there were evacuation of people in other districts like Ratnagiri (1200), Raigad (1000), Satara (734) and Pune (263). Due to heavy rainfall in the district and heavy discharge from the Koyna dam, rivers in the district, including the Panchgana breached the dan- ger mark and contributed to inundation in many areas in Sangli and Kolhapur districts. On its part, the district admin- istration evacuated people from low-lying areas with help of NDRF and local teams. Apart from the heavy rain, the discharge of huge volumes of water from Almatti dam is contributing to the flood situ- ation in Kolhapur district. The authorities have sounded high alert and deployed more teams to face any eventuality. Earlier in the day, the State Disaster Management Authority pegged the current rain-flood toll at 76, while another 59 have gone missing and 38 others were injured in the floods, landslides and other rain-related tragedies. Continued on Page 4 T he CBI on Saturday con- ducted searches at around 40 locations in Srinagar, Jammu, Udhampur, Rajouri, Anantnag, Baramulla and Delhi, including the premises of two IAS officers, in the on- going investigation of a case related to arms licence racket. The CBI teams searched the premises of around 20 gun dealers and other public ser- vants from early morning across multiple locations. Some officials in con- nivance with gun dealers were involved in the issuance of more than 2.78 lakh arms licences to the non-entitled persons. According to a statement issued by the CBI headquarters, “CBI had registered two cases on the request of J&K Government and further noti- fication from Government of India, and taken over the inves- tigation of two FIRs i.e No.18 of 2018 dated 17.05.2018, ear- lier registered at Police Station Vigilance Organisation Kashmir (VOK), and FIR No. 11 of 2018 dated 17.05.2018 of Police Station Vigilance Organisation Jammu (VOJ) on the allegations of bulk issuance of arms licences in the erstwhile State of J&K during the period 2012 to 2016”. The CBI collected docu- ments about the issuance of these arms licences allegedly spread over 22 districts of J&K. During investigation and scrutiny of documents, the CBI reportedly found that cer- tain gun dealers in connivance with District Magistrates were allegedly issued such illegal arms licences. The persons who got these licences were not residents of the places from where the said arms licences were issued. Senior IAS officer Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, who served as DM in three districts of Reasi, Udhampur and Kathua during the said period of investigation, posted a tweet confirming the raid at his res- idence. “With reference to media reports I’ve to confirm that CBI did search my resi- dence & found nothing incrim- inating in the ongoing arms licence probe. Media friends may note the probe covers 4 years across all dists. I am fully answerable to CBI for my tenure,” Dr Shahid Iqbal wrote giving details of total arms licences issued during his tenure.

Transcript of :_UZR cV[`ZTVd Re 4YR_f¶d WVRe - Daily Pioneer

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Aconfident smile never leav-ing her face, Mirabai

Chanu ended India’s over two-decade long wait for aweightlifting medal at theOlympics, clinching the 49kgcategory silver medal five yearsafter leaving the same platformin tears following a disastrous

debut.With her historic triumph,

she ensured that India wassecond on the medals tally fora brief while, a feat that hasnever been achieved before bythe country. It was also the firsttime that India managed to wina medal on the opening daycompetitions.

The diminutive iron lady

from Manipur lifted a total of202kg (87kg+115kg) to betterKarnam Malleswari’s bronze inthe 2000 Sydney Olympics.With this, she exorcised theghosts of the 2016 Gameswhere she had failed to log asingle legitimate lift, leaving hershattered.

“I am very happy, I havebeen dreaming of this for the

past five years. I am very proudof myself right now. I did try forgold but even silver is a greatachievement for me,” Chanutold reporters after her career-defining triumph for which shehad been training in the US forpast few months.

The 2016 experience was awatershed in her career andChanu had spoken about how

confused she had felt duringher debut at the biggest stage.There was none of those nervesto be seen on Saturday, just avery composed and focussedathlete who knew she was des-tined for the podium.

“I am very happy to winthe first medal for India at theseGames. I don’t just belong toManipur, I belong to the wholecountry,” she said in responseto a query on what it meant forher as a Manipuri.

“I would like to thank mycoach Vijay Sharma andthesupport staff for their contin-uous hard work, motivationand training,” she added.

Continued on Page 4

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As fighting rages inAfghanistan, the Indian

embassy there on Saturdaysaid the situation “remainsdangerous” and advised allIndian nationals there to exer-cise caution.

The advisory came daysafter the IAF planes evacuatedmore than 50 diplomatic staffof the Indian consulate inKandhar .

The note of caution by theembassy in Kabul on Saturdayurged Indians staying, visiting,and working in Afghanistan toexercise utmost vigilance at alltimes and avoid all non-essen-tial travel as security situationin Afghanistan remains dan-gerous. It also warned Indiannationals are not exceptions,and they additionally face aserious threat of kidnapping.

The detailed advisory alsoasked the Indian nationals toremain vigilant with security atworkplace, place of residenceand also during movement totheir places of work. It is rec-ommended that all types ofnon-essential movements beavoided. Movements especial-ly during peak commutinghours should also be avoided.While traveling on roads,maintain distance from possi-ble targets like military con-

voys, official vehicles ofGovernment and Ministries,high ranking officials, lawenforcement agencies, it cau-tioned.

Indians were also asked torefrain from going to crowdedmarkets, shopping complexes,restaurants and other publicplaces. All essential movementmay please be kept as discreteas possible, it said.

It also advised travelingoutside the main cities shouldbe strictly avoided. Moreover,all Indian nationals arriving inAfghanistan are advised to reg-ister with the Embassy.

Continued on Page 4

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In the latest unlock guidelinesissued on Saturday for the

national Capital, the DelhiMetro and public buses in thecity will operate at full seatingcapacity, while cinema halls,theatres and multiplexes willopen with 50 per cent occu-pancy from Monday.

The city witnessed anunprecedented surge of casesand deaths during the secondwave of coronavirus in Apriland May. The situation seemsto have been improving overthe past few weeks, allowing theGovernment to reopen the cityin a phased manner.

The latest unlock guide-lines by the Delhi DisasterManagement Authority

(DDMA) said the Delhi Metro,the city’s lifeline, will be allowedto operate with 100 per centseating capacity from Mondaybut no standing passenger willbe allowed.

Cinema halls, theatres andmultiplexes will be allowed toopen with 50 per cent seatingcapacity from July 26, while

business-to-business (B2B)exhibitions will also be allowed,but only with business visitors,the guidelines said.

The order also directedthat number of people allowedat marriage functions and lastrites will be raised to 100 fromMonday.

Spas can also open fromJuly 26 but their all employeeshave to be fully vaccinated orundergo RT-PCR test fort-nightly, the DDMA said. Delhifaced a brutal second wave ofthe pandemic that claimed alarge number of lives daily. Therapid rise in the number ofcases led to a shortage of med-ical oxygen at various city hos-pitals.

On April 20, the city hadreported a record 28,395 cases.On April 22, the case positivi-ty rate was 36.2 per cent, thehighest so far. At 448, thehighest number of deaths wasreported on May 3.

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Ahistoric silver medal and aradiant smile were not the

only eye-catching things aboutMirabai Chanu on Saturday,her gold earrings shaped likeOlympic rings were as striking,a gift from her mother whosold her own jewellery forthem five years ago.

The hope was that the ear-rings would bring her “goodluck”. It didn’t happen in theRio 2016 Games but Chanumade the little sacrifice countin Tokyo this morning with a

silver medal and SaikhomOngbi Tombi Leima has strug-gled to stop her tears fromflowing ever since.

“I saw the earrings on TV,I gave them to her in 2016before the (Rio) Olympics. Ihave made it for her from thegold pieces and savings I haveso that it brings luck and suc-cess,” Leima told PTI from herhome in Manipur where aconsiderable number of rela-tives, friends and well-wishersgathered to watch Chnau scripthistory in Tokyo.

Continued on Page 4

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Secretary of State AntonyBlinken will raise issues of

human rights and democracywith Indian officials during hisfirst visit to New Delhi as thetwo nations have more valuesin common on those frontsthan otherwise, according to asenior US official. Blinken isscheduled to arrive in NewDelhi late on July 27.

During his stay in thecountry, he will meet PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andExternal Affairs Minister SJaishankar. The Ministry ofExternal Affairs said in NewDelhi that National SecurityAdviser Ajit Doval will alsomeet Bilinken.

“With respect to thehuman rights and democracyquestion, yes, you’re right; I willtell you that we will raise it, andwe will continue that conver-sation, because we firmlybelieve that we have more val-ues in common on those fronts

than we don’t,” DeanThompson, the ActingAssistant Secretary of State forSouth and Central AsianAffairs, told reporters during aconference call ahead of thevisit.

“We believe India is goingto be a really important part ofcontinuing those conversationsand building strong efforts onthose fronts in partnership aswe go forward,” Thompsonsaid in response to a question.

India has previously reject-ed criticism by foreignGovernments and humanrights groups on allegationsthat civil liberties have erodedin the country.

Continued on Page 4

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More than 89,000 peoplewere evacuated from the

rain-ravaged coastal Konkanregion and several parts ofwestern Maharashtra as multi-ple agencies continued rescueand relief operations in theflood-affected areas of the Stateon Saturday.

Despite a let-up in the rainin most parts of the State,large parts of westernMaharashtra districts of Satara,Sangli and Kolhapur remainedthick sheets of floodwater,while the towns of Chiplun,Khed in Ratnagiri district andother areas in coastal Konkanregion continued to reel underinundation.

Maharashtra ChiefMinister Uddhav Thackerayvisited Talai village in Mahadtaluka of Raigad district where

more than 50 people werekilled in a massive landslide onFriday. He assured the affectedpeople that the StateGovernment would, apart fromgiving compensation to theaffected families, undertakerehabilitation of the displacedpeople across the coastalKonkan region and other partsof the State.

As many as 89,333 peoplewere rendered homeless asthey were evacuated in variousflood-affected districts ofcoastal Konkan region andseveral parts of WesternMaharashtra.

Sangli district in westernMaharashtra bore maximumbrunt of the flood situationarising from the heavy rain bat-tering the region for the pastfour days.

While 40,573 people havebeen evacuated to safer placesin Sangli district, the neigh-bouring Kolhapur districtaccounted for the evacuation of40,882 people. As many as2,681 marooned people wereshifted to safer places in Thanedistrict, there were evacuation

of people in other districts likeRatnagiri (1200), Raigad(1000), Satara (734) and Pune(263).

Due to heavy rainfall in thedistrict and heavy dischargefrom the Koyna dam, rivers inthe district, including thePanchgana breached the dan-ger mark and contributed toinundation in many areas inSangli and Kolhapur districts.On its part, the district admin-istration evacuated people fromlow-lying areas with help ofNDRF and local teams.

Apart from the heavy rain,the discharge of huge volumesof water from Almatti dam iscontributing to the flood situ-ation in Kolhapur district. Theauthorities have sounded highalert and deployed more teamsto face any eventuality.

Earlier in the day, the StateDisaster ManagementAuthority pegged the currentrain-flood toll at 76, whileanother 59 have gone missingand 38 others were injured inthe floods, landslides and otherrain-related tragedies.

Continued on Page 4

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The CBI on Saturday con-ducted searches at around

40 locations in Srinagar,Jammu, Udhampur, Rajouri,Anantnag, Baramulla andDelhi, including the premisesof two IAS officers, in the on-going investigation of a caserelated to arms licence racket.

The CBI teams searchedthe premises of around 20 gundealers and other public ser-vants from early morningacross multiple locations.

Some officials in con-nivance with gun dealers wereinvolved in the issuance ofmore than 2.78 lakh armslicences to the non-entitledpersons.

According to a statementissued by the CBI headquarters,“CBI had registered two caseson the request of J&KGovernment and further noti-fication from Government ofIndia, and taken over the inves-tigation of two FIRs i.e No.18of 2018 dated 17.05.2018, ear-lier registered at Police StationVigilance OrganisationKashmir (VOK), and FIR No.11 of 2018 dated 17.05.2018 ofPolice Station VigilanceOrganisation Jammu (VOJ) onthe allegations of bulk issuanceof arms licences in the erstwhileState of J&K during the period2012 to 2016”.

The CBI collected docu-ments about the issuance ofthese arms licences allegedlyspread over 22 districts of J&K.

During investigation andscrutiny of documents, theCBI reportedly found that cer-tain gun dealers in connivancewith District Magistrates wereallegedly issued such illegalarms licences. The personswho got these licences were notresidents of the places fromwhere the said arms licenceswere issued.

Senior IAS officer DrShahid Iqbal Choudhary, whoserved as DM in three districtsof Reasi, Udhampur andKathua during the said periodof investigation, posted a tweetconfirming the raid at his res-idence. “With reference tomedia reports I’ve to confirmthat CBI did search my resi-dence & found nothing incrim-inating in the ongoing armslicence probe. Media friendsmay note the probe covers 4years across all dists. I amfully answerable to CBI for mytenure,” Dr Shahid Iqbal wrotegiving details of total armslicences issued during histenure.

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�How was your experience working withBritannia Good Day?

It was beautiful. We were going to startbefore the second lockdown, but thesituations that arose caused a delay. Finally,we were able to come up with this film andI am happy and excited. I love the concept,so I was dying to be a part of it.�How was your experience collaboratingwith Karan Johar for the campaign film?

It is a beautiful opportunity for me. Heis someone I have seen him as a fan. He isan icon for a lot of us, over the years. Iremember watching Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.I remember watching his interview onDoordarshan after the film. In our memory,it is always a magical moment when we meeta person we have seen on TV in real life. So,it is a magical moment for me. Someone Ihave seen giving interviews as a kid, todayI am getting to see them work in real life.�What made you guys come up with theidea of swapping. And how difficult or funwas it for you?

The idea itself is fun. As an artist I wouldlike to say that image is for under confidentpeople who are not sure of themselves.Protecting image is something you dowhen you are very insecure. I assume Karanas well as me, though we are twodistinguished personalities, we have full faithin what we do in our separate fields. Thus,we didn’t refrain from looking like someoneelse. The experience of swapping was soexciting that there was no second thoughtabout doing it or not.�A trait of Karan Johar thatyou would like to swap withyours.

I think his access to ShahRukh Khan and all the actresses inthe world. I am a huge Shah RukhKhan fan and somebody who canbe in his first circle is somethingthat I would like to exchange. I cangive him my cricket gangfrom Bombay in exchange forit, or my Anvar Kranti fromChacha Vidhayak HaiHumare. So, he can give meShah Rukh Khan and I cangive him Anvar Kranti. �How do you think yourfans will react when youswap your personality?

I think first of all I have nofans, all of them are myfriends. And everything is finein front of friends. Max to max,they will make fun of me and thereis no harm in it. And I do not think that

my fans see me like that. They know me inmany different avatars. They know that I ama musician, I have played sitar for 21 yearsof my life and I do stand-up comedy. So, Ikeep doing things which are pole apart, inmy life. The people who know me are notaffected by it and the people who do notknow me, I am not affected by them.�While Karan and you are both writers,you both have very different personalities.Did you take any time to prepare or studyeach other’s personality to execute thisbetter?

Of course, I saw some of his interviewsand tried to understand how he talks.Secondly, as an iconic figure, I somehowknew how he talks to a certain extent. Butyes, some days before the shoot I tried tounderstand how he works. And as an artist,I am not a very good mimic but I canimitate. So, I was just trying to look at thekind of mannerisms I can pick, and what willlook nice. There are some things which youpick, but they do not look good on you. So,the idea was to pick things which will lookokay on me.�You have been one of the most popularfaces in Indian stand-up comedy. Do youthink that now we have a wider audienceto appreciate your field of art?

I feel even when the audience was less,it was wide for me. Because, the art form isso new that we still do not know what is itsfull potential. My aim is to explore and toreach to more and more people so that therecomes a time when we know exactly thenumber of people that are there in theaudience. �Do you miss the stage? How different isit to perform on a virtual platform?

Stage is different from a virtualplatform. It is like meeting someone youlove in person and talking to them on videocall. They are exactly two very different

things. The affection is there of course,but the warmth is definitelymissing. That hype, that rush ofbeing on stage is definitely not

there, though, the rush ofgood conversations isalways there on an onlineplatform. But not as great

as what it is on stage. It islike asking somebody thathow do they feel catchingthe scent of biryani ascompared to actuallygetting to taste it. Ofcourse, having biryani is

more satisfying than just getting tosmell it.

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�What was your reaction when you were offeredto play a 2500-year-old asura?

When I was approached for the project, I was nottold what character I was being offered. I was onlygiven the brief. They told me that they already hadtheir main lead. And now they were looking for aperson who was more powerful than this superhero— someone who can make the hero a superhero. Iwas interested. I felt that the show was unique. I havealways tried to do projects where I could be differentfrom what I had done in the past. When I was offeredthis role, I was excited. However, when I was told thatI would be an asura, I was taken aback a bit but I wastold that I would remain in my human form; just thatI would have superhuman powers. The best part wasthat I would get to be part of the project with mybrother.�How did you come on board the project?

I was lucky that I didn’t have to audition for thisproject. The producer of Peninsula Pictures, AlindSrivastava offered me this role. He said that he wantedme to be part of this show and play Shivaay. I agreedand here I am.�What are the challenges that come with playingShivaay?

There were quite a few. First, Shivaay’s voice is abit heavy. I am unlike Veer Nanda (Hero) who isstreet-smart. I am all-powerful and strong. Then thereis the look. I have tattoos and initially it would takeup to two hours to get ready. Now, of course, it doesn’ttake that long. Also, the dialogue delivery is different;he is extremely intelligent. Whatever he says hasdeeper meaning. How this has to be conveyed hadto be practiced.�Do you get into fights with your brother — off-screen?

Onscreen, I am obviously trying to turn him intoa superhero, so there are fight sequences. Off-screen,sometimes we have differences of opinion and get intoverbal fights, as is normal. We sometimes end up ina WWE kind of situation. But we are brothers andrespect each other. The good part is that we have no

ego clashes.�How did you get into acting?

I never wanted to be an actor. My backgroundas a gymnast left very little time for anyrecreational activities. If I ended up on the news,that was enough for me. I was in the hostel; Ididn’t have a mobile; we had to practice for eighthours a day. That left little time for anything else.It never occurred that I would end up acting. Ihave a Gold in parallel bar and a Silver in highbar at 58th National School Games, Pune andduring one of the games I was spotted and wasapproached for the audition of Bournvita ad.That is how I came into the industry. It wasdestined.�Was it tough to do the ad?

It was tough. I had no acting background.I have never taken any classes. It was difficult toface the camera, well-known actors and memorisedialogues and deliver them with emotion was soalien to me. This made me nervous. But I wasdetermined that since I was offered to play a part Iwould do it to the best of my abilities. So, I workedreally hard.�You have done a couple of movies. Why not pursueBollywood?

I am sure that there is something really big thatwill come my way from Bollywood. I am also lookingat roles that I can play in web series. Since I came intothis industry I have always tried different roles. I knowonly one thing however big or small the screen maybe, my job is to give my best.�You have done a few music videos. How has theexperience been?

Doing music videos is so different from serials.There are two types of music videos. One where thereis a song and there is a boy and or a girl and they godancing about. Then there are videos that tell a story.What I have done comes under the second category.I love doing such music videos since they are shotwithin two-three days; it is a stress-buster. Listeningto music and performing it is very relaxing.

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Six labourers, who were sit-ting on the roadside, were

injured after a speeding car hitthem in north Delhi’s Narelaarea. Police said a manhunt hasbeen initiated to nab the driverwho fled from the spot after theincident.

The injured have beenidentified as Narender (43),Sharad (40), Sanjay (35), Sunil(30), Nand Lal (32) andSukhdin (21).

According to a seniorpolice official, information wasreceived at Narela IndustrialArea police station regardingthe accident following whichEmergency Response Vehicle(ERV) was dispatched for thespot.”On spot, police teamfound that all the injured per-sons were shifted to MVHospital. One accidentalBaleno car was found at thespot. Enquiry revealed thatthe car was coming fromNarela side and going towardsBawana which got disbalanceddue to over speed and thevehicle hit the labourers sittingnear roadside green area,” hesaid. “Medico-legal cases ofthe victims have been collect-ed and a case under section 279(rash driving) and 337 (causinghurt by act endangering life orpersonal safety of others) of theIndian Penal Code has beenregistered,” he said.

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The Lieutenant Governor’soffice on Saturday for-

warded a file of the DelhiCabinet rejecting Delhi Police’sproposal to set up panels ofpublic prosecutors for theRepublic Day violence andnortheast riots to the Ministryof Home Affairs (MHA) due todifference of opinion.

Last week, the Aam AadmiParty (AAP) Government hadrejected police’ proposals andthus setting a stage for a freshround of confrontation withthe Centre and the office ofLieutenant Governor AnilBaijal. “The matter has beenreserved for the considerationof the President of India due tothe difference of opinionbetween the L-G and the elect-ed AAP Government. The fileof Cabinet decision received bythe L-G office was forwarded tothe Ministry of Home Affairson Friday for further action,” aDelhi Government official said.

“It has been recommendedthat the 11 special public pros-ecutors in Republic day vio-

lence-related cases and threeothers in northeast Delhi riotscases, proposed by the DelhiPolice be immediately appoint-ed in view of the gravity of thetwo matters,” he said.

This is the first time the L-G has reserved any matter forconsideration of the President,owing to the difference ofopinion with the ArvindKejriwal dispensation, sincethe Government of NationalCapital Territory of Delhi(Amendment) Act, 2021, cameinto force in April this year,” thegovernment official added.

Last year, in a similar way,the L-G had used his specialpowers to give effect to theappointment of Delhi Police’sspecial prosecutors in casesrelated to northeast Delhi riotsof 2020 that claimed over 50lives besides resulting ininjuries to hundreds of personsand extensive damage to pri-vate and public property.

The Delhi Cabinet, in itsmeeting chaired by ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal onJuly 16, had observed that “afree-and-fair trial of these cases

would not be possible by apanel of lawyers selected by thecity police itself,” rejecting L-G’srecommendation of specialpublic prosecutors suggested byDelhi Police.

The Delhi Governmenthad in July 2020 also rejectedthe proposal of the Delhi Policefor the appointment of specialprosecutors in the riot’s cases.The LG had overturned theDelhi Government’s decisionand directed its home depart-ment to grant approval to theDelhi Police’s proposed panel of

lawyers.Baijal had rejected the cab-

inet decision by exercising hisspecial power under Article239AA(4) of the Constitutionby reserving the matter ofappointment of public prose-cutors, for consideration by thePresident of India.

The Delhi Governmenthas already protested with theLG over his use of “veto power”in matters relating to subjectsof its domain. Deputy ChiefMinister Manish Sisodia in aletter to Baijal last Saturday had

stated the Constitution hasgiven “veto” power to the LG toreserve any matter on which hedisagrees with the decision ofthe elected Government, forconsideration of the President.

“However, the Constitutionbench of the Supreme Courthas stated that the LG will useit occasionally and under extra-ordinary circumstances,”Sisodia had said referring to anapex court verdict in 2018 thatamong other things empow-ered the elected Government inDelhi of decision making in allmatters except police, land andpublic order.

In April this year, howev-er, Delhi’’s lieutenant governorbecame the effective in-chargeof the national Capital with theCentre notifying a new lawmaking it clear that the elect-ed government will now haveto seek the opinion of the L-Gbefore any executive decision.

The Union HomeMinistry’’s notification givingeffect to the Government ofNational Capital Territory ofDelhi (Amendment) Act, 2021came into effect from April 27.

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Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)accused the north munic-

ipal corporation of demolish-ing areas around Gaffar Marketto reconstruct complexes andto sell it afresh while evictingthe existing shopkeepers.

AAP chief spokespersonSaurabh Bhardwaj said thatthe north corporation wants toevict shopkeepers who weregiven a lease of 99 years in 1976and reconstruct it with a newbuilder who will sell theseshops to new people instead.

“The corporation did notcarry out maintenance for 40years and now served an evic-tion notice to empty the mar-ket within three days. MCDand DDA construct marketcomplexes at various places andthe shops in these markets aregiven on lease for 99 years.Ideally, these leases are con-verted into freehold deeds.However, the MCD in con-nivance with big builder mafiasis coming up with a new tech-nique,” he said.

He further added, “Themost astounding thing in thissituation is that the MCD wantsto evict the shopkeepers whowere given a lease of 99 years.There are about 39 such marketsin Delhi and the MCD is mak-ing a similar plan for all thesemarkets. This is being done sothat the BJP can fill hundreds ofcrore rupees in their pocketsbefore leaving the MCD.”

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The Delhi Police has arrest-ed a 41-year-old security

guard for allegedly killing aperson who used to harass hisdaughter in southwest Delhi’sMahipalpur area. Police saidthat the accused was caught bypolice on the weekly hours ofSaturday while he was trying todispose of the body in a cartrickshaw.

The accused has been iden-tified as Surmesh, a resident ofMahipalpur and native ofBareilly in Uttar Pradesh (UP).He was working as a securityguard with NS Security for thelast four year.

According to Ingit PratapSingh, the DeputyCommissioner of Police(DCP), Southwest district, ataround 4 AM on Saturday,head constable Vinod Kumarfrom the PCR unit spottedSurmesh carrying the body ona rickshaw and nabbed him.

“The deceased has a tattooon his left arm and a parkingslip of IGI airport was found in

his pocket. He was later iden-tified as Santosh Kumar Jha(25), a resident of Mahipalpurand native of Muzaffarpur inBihar. He was a driver in acourier company,” said theDCP.

“Interrogation revealedthat Jha was harassing thedaughter of Surmesh for thelast three years. He used to fol-low her whenever she went out.On Thursday, Jha came to thehouse of the accused in adrunken condition and startedarguments with him. Duringthese arguments, they bothwent to the ground floor andentered a vacant room,” said theDCP.

“During heated arguments,Surmesh gave a fist blow to Jhaand strangled him with gamchathat Jha was carrying withhim. He kept the body in aroom in the basement where hewas working as security guardand on Saturday, he was tryingto dispose of it and was caught.Accused has been arrested andis being produced in the court,”said the DCP.

“No complaint wasreceived against Jha for harass-ing the daughter of the accused.Further investigation is inprogress,” he said. Surmeshhas a wife, one daughter andone son.

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The Crime Branch of DelhiPolice has rescued a 16-

year-old girl from Bhind inMadhya Pradesh (MP) whowas sold there for marriage bya person whom she met on asocial media application.

The accused, identified asRajeev Garg, a resident ofBhind, was also arrested onThursday.

According to MonikaBhardwaj, the DeputyCommissioner of Police(DCP), Crime Branch, on May29, the girl told her parents thatshe was going to one of herfriends’ house and when shedid not return, search wasmade by her family and later acase was registered at Ranholapolice station next day under

section 363 (punishment forkidnapping).

“The call detail records ofthe victim were scrutinizedand police focused on a mobilenumber whose location wasfound to be in Etawah in UPand Gwalior and Bhind in MP.The location of that mobilenumber was in Delhi on theday when the girl went missing.Its movement was followedand police apprehended Gargon Thursday from Bhind,” saidthe DCP.

“On his instance, the vic-tim was recovered from a housenear bus stand, Bhind, MadhyaPradesh. Enquiry revealed thatthe victim had created an ID ona social media applicationwhere she came into contactwith Garg through his ID thathe had created in the name of

Mahi Garg,” said the DCP.“The interaction between

them started and the girl hadno idea that the person on theother end was a man withnefarious designs.

One day, when she came toknow that her virtual friend isa male and not a female, shestopped talking to him andlater blocked his mobile num-ber when he tried to contacther,” said the DCP.

“After sometime, Gargcalled her from some othernumber and emotionallyexploited her to continuefriendship and unblock hisphone number,” said the DCPadding that he also convincedher to meet him at MadhubanChowk.

“On May 29, the girl wentto Madhuban Chowk and metGarg who abducted her andtook to Bhind to sell the victim.The victim was subjected tophysical and sexual assault byGarg and he had sold her toone Ram Mohan, a resident ofBhind, for Rs 50,000 and shewas forced to marry him,” saidthe DCP.

“Garg has remained inGwalior Jail for seven monthsin a dowry case. Mohan is atenant of Garg and is at large.Efforts are on to trace him.Victim and Garg were broughtto Delhi and handed over tolocal police for further neces-sary action,” said the DCP.

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While the LieutenantGovernor Anil Baijal on

Saturday rejected the DelhiCabinet’s decision to reject thepolice’s proposal to set up pan-els of public prosecutors infarmers’ case, Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal said the L-G’sinterference in everyday workis an insult to the people ofDelhi and the Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP) should respectdemocracy.

“Delhi people formed theAam Aadmi Party (AAP) witha historic majority and defeat-ed the BJP. Let BJP run thecountry and let ‘AAP’ runDelhi,” Kejriwal added.

Deputy Chief MinisterManish Sisodia said that theCentral Government’s anti-farmers conspiracy would beexposed in Court. “Fearingthat Central Government’santi-farmer conspiracy wouldbe exposed in Court, LG reject-ed the panel of lawyers decid-ed by the Delhi Cabinet,”Sisodia said, “Overturning cab-inet’s decisions like this is aninsult to the people of Delhi,BJP should respect democracy.”

“It was decided in the DelhiCabinet on July 19 that lawyerswould be appointed by theDelhi Government with respectto the farmer agitation casesgoing on in the Court.However, the LieutenantGovernor reversed this deci-sion of the Delhi Governmenton Saturday and sent the file tothe President.”

“As per the Constitution,the Chief Minister of the elect-ed government of Delhi has

been given the right to appointlawyers. Overturning the deci-sion of the Delhi Cabinet by theLieutenant Governor is entire-ly against the Constitution. Ifthe appointment of lawyers isalso to be done by theLieutenant Governor, what willhappen to the rights of theGovernment elected by thepeople as per the constitu-tion?”

“The Constitutional Benchof the Supreme Court, includ-ing 5 senior judges, had clear-ly stated in its order that theLieutenant Governor of Delhihas only two powers.

Either the LG can agreewith the decision of the elect-ed Government and act accord-ingly, and if the LG disagrees,then he may send his dis-agreement to the President.The Supreme Court had alsosaid in its order that theLieutenant Governor has beengiven the power to refer amatter to the President only inextraordinary circumstancesand not in every case.”

Sisodia alleged that the

Centre is violating the consti-tutional rights of the electedDelhi Government. “Centreneeds to read the constitutionand reflect that if the govern-ment elected by the people isnot being allowed to function,then what is the need to holdelections, and what is the needfor the constitution? Thisshows the unconstitutional andundemocratic attitude of theBJP-led Central Government,”he added.

Questioning the CentralGovernment, the Deputy ChiefMinister Manish Sisodia asked,“What is the intent behindrejecting the panel of lawyersdecided by the DelhiGovernment?

The Central government isafraid that the panel of lawyersappointed by the CM willexpose the conspiracy led bythe Central government againstthe farmers in Court.” Whileadvising the Centre, Sisodiasaid that the CentralGovernment should stop inter-fering in the matters of farm-ers and the Delhi Government.

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Bahraich (UP): A local courthere has sentenced a man to 10years' imprisonment andimposed a fine of �30,000 onhim for raping a 13-year-oldgirl over 14 years ago.

The FIR in the case waslodged on October 17, 2006,against Lav Kumar, aliasBadkau, of Sarwantara villageunder the Rupediha police sta-tion, additional governmentadvocate Girish ChandraShukla said on Saturday.

The trial was going on inthe court of Additional SessionsJudge (POCSO Act) NitinPandey.

On Friday, the court pro-nounced its verdict and sen-tenced Kumar to 10 years' rig-orous imprisonment.

In case he fails to pay thefine, the convict will have toundergo further imprisonmentfor one year, the advocateadded. PTI

Jehanabad (Bihar): A femaleconstable died after being runover by a vehicle here while try-ing to quell a mob which inprotest against a custodialdeath indulged in heavy stone-pelting and fired gunshots inthe air, leaving many policepersonnel injured.

The busy Jehanabad-Arwalhighway remained jammed forhours on account of the troublethat erupted in Parasbighapolice station area of the district,said Sub Divisional PoliceOfficer, Jehanabad, AshokKumar Pandey.

The mob was furious overthe death of one Govind Manjhi

who was arrested some timeback for engaging in liquortrade. He had been remanded tojudicial custody and lodged ata jail in the adjoiningAurangabad district”, he said.

Notably, sale and con-sumption of liquor is com-pletely banned in Bihar wherethe Nitish Kumar Governmenthad brought in a stringentprohibition law six years ago.

"Manjhi died at the jail onFriday. As the news reachedhere, residents of his villagesquatted on the highway blam-ing the death on physical tor-ture. When a police party triedto assuage them, they took

recourse to violence", saidPandey.

The SDPO said the con-stable, Kanti Devi, "was hit bya vehicle while she was engagedin the operation and she suc-cumbed to injuries while beingrushed to a hospital".

"The agitators indulged inheavy stone-pelting and fired afew shots from unlicensedfirearms. Several police per-sonnel have received grievousinjuries. We have arrested fivepeople in this connection. Aheavy deployment of police isin place to keep the situationunder control". Said Pandey. PTI

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Bengaluru: Nine people havedied and three were missing inKarnataka so far,with torrentialrains battering several parts ofcoastal, malnad and north-interior region of the state,causing flood like situationand landslides, officials said onSaturday.

A total of 31,360 peoplehave been evacuated from lowlying areas, while 22,417 peo-ple are taking shelter in 237relief camps that have beenopened by the Government.

According to data sharedby the State DisasterManagement Authority, 283villages in 45 taluks have beenlashed by rains, affecting apopulation of 36,498.

Among the deaths report-ed since July 22, four are fromUttara Kannada district, twofrom Belagavi and one eachfrom Chikkamagaluru,Dharwad and Kodagu.

Landslides have occurred

at seven locations in UttaraKannada, four inChikkamagaluru, three inKodagu and one each inShivamogga and Hassan dis-tricts.

Over 2,600 houses havebeen damaged, and 78 animalshave died in rain-related inci-dents.

An estimated 58,961hectares of agricultural cropsand 1,962 hectares of horticul-ture crops have been damageddue to rains and floods, whichhas also damaged over 555 kmof road, more than 3,500 elec-tric poles and 342 transform-ers.

According to theKarnataka State NaturalDisaster Management Centre,Uttara Kannada, Shivamogga,Belagavi, Hassan,Chikkamagaluru, Dharwad,Dakshina Kannada andKodagu districts received wide-spread heavy to extremelyheavy rains on Saturday. PTI

Ahmedabad/Bhopal: At leastnine persons, including fourchildren, have died after suf-fering grievous injuries in theexplosion of an LPG cylinderand resultant fire in a room onthe outskirts of Ahmedabad inGujarat, police said onSaturday.

The deceased belonged toMadhya Pradesh, a senior offi-cer said.

The incident occurred onthe night of July 20. While eightvictims - labourers and theirfamily members - died in thelast couple of days during treat-ment, another one succumbedto injuries on Saturday morn-ing, he said.

"Leakage of gas from anLPG cylinder had triggeredexplosion and fire, in which 10

persons, including childrenand women, suffered severeburn injuries.

The incident has claimedthe lives of nine of them so far.They were undergoing treat-ment at the civil hospital,"inspector P R Jadeja of Aslalipolice station said.

The labourers and theirfamily members were sleepingin the small room when the gasfrom their cylinder startedleaking.

When their neighbourknocked on their door to alertthem about the leakage, one ofthe labourers got up andswitched on the light, whichtriggered a spark and led to theexplosion due to the concen-tration of gas, another policeofficial said. PTI

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Kolkata: Several Class 12 studentswho have been declared failed by theWest Bengal Council of HigherSecondary Education(WBCHSE)blocked roads and ran-sacked furniture of a school duringprotests across the state on Saturday.

Of the 8,19,202 candidates,97.69 per cent have passed this year.

The agitating students said withno exams having taken place thisyear due to the COVID-19 situation,they were baffled by the evaluationprocess. They wondered how someexaminees were declared as havingpassed while some others weredeclared unsuccessful.

An evaluation method had beenworked out this year based onmarks obtained by an examinee inthe Madhyamik (class 10 examina-tion) and class 11 annual test.

Some of the agitators even pro-ceeded to the residence of EducationMinister Bratya Basu but were dis-suaded by the police, an officer said.

An official of the WBCHSE

said its president Mahua Das washolding talks with the heads of sev-eral schools on the issue.

Officials said, irate students ofInda Krishnalal Sikshaniketan inPaschim Medinipur district bargedinto the classrooms of their educa-tional institute and damaged furni-ture demanding they be declared aspassed.

Protests were held atHariharpara in Murshidabad districtwhere the unsuccessful candidatesof nearby Saratpur Bidyalaya burnttyres in the middle of a road dur-ing a road blockade.Unsuccessful candidates alsoblocked roads at Habibpur in Maldadistrict, and at MadhyamgramChowmatha in North 24 Parganasdistrict on similar grounds.

"Since there was no examinationthis year, we should be declared aspassed. Or everyone must bedeclared as failed," a protesting girlstudent was heard screaming inMadhyamgram. PTI

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BJP national president JP Nadda, who ison a two-day visit to Goa, on Saturday

addressed Members of Parliament, MLAsand functionaries from the party here andasked them to ensure that people affected bythe floods caused by heavy rains over thepast few days are taken care of.

Nadda, who arrived in the State in theafternoon, was welcomed by chief ministerPramod Sawant, state unit chief SadanandShet Tanavade and others.

“In his address, Nadda asked leaders toensure that the party organisation managesto reach those affected by the floods. He alsoappreciated the state government's Covid-19 vaccination drive," a functionary said.

On Sunday, Nadda will visit theMangueshi Temple at 8.30 am, and thenattend a tree plantation event with SadguruBrahmeshanandacharya Swami atTapobhumi in Kundai at 9.15 am.

At 10.30 am, he will visit a vaccinationcentre at Don Bosco High School here, andat 3:15pm, he will address a press conference,the party functionary informed.

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�������������������������������������� ������������������������ Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh

Government will provide free WiFifacility to the youth of the State fromAugust 15 this year.

Under this initiative by the StateGovernment, people especially the youthwill be able to avail free WiFi facilityacross all 75 districts, offices, municipalcouncils, 17 municipal corporations and217 public places in the State.

On the instructions of Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath, the urban developmentdepartment officials are now busy withthe campaign to provide free WiFi facil-ity to the people.

Divisional Commissioners, DistrictMagistrates and MunicipalCommissioners have been instructed toprovide the facility at major publicplaces.

They have been instructed to makesure the hotspots for WiFi services areidentified so that from August 15, peo-ple in the state can get the free facility atevery bus station, places near the railwaystations, tehsils, courts, block offices, reg-istrar offices and main markets in eachcity of Uttar Pradesh. IANS

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From Page 1Her smile shone the brightest

during the entire performance onSaturday but also hard to miss werethe Olympic rings’ shaped earringsthat she was sporting, which were agift from her mother.

“I would like to thank my fam-ily, especially my mother for a lot ofsacrifices and believing in me,” shesaid.

The gold went to China’s HouZhihui with an effort of 210kg(94kg+116kg), who created Olympicrecords in all three categories(snatch, clean and jerk and Total).

“I’ve tried many times to beather. I failed one attempt (on clean &jerk) but I was trying very hard tobeat her,” Chanu said.

Aisah Windy Cantika ofIndonesia took home the bronzewith an effort of 194kg(84kg+110kg).

Considered her weakness inthe run up to the marquee event,Chanu attempted 84kg in her firstsnatch attempt. The Manipuri tookher time and cleanly heaved the bar-bell.

She lifted 87kg in her nextattempt and raised the weight to89kg, which was 1kg more than herpersonal best of 88kg that she hadlifted at the national championshiplast year.

However, she was unable to bet-ter her personal best and settled for87kg in the snatch event only behindleader Zhihui, who created a newOlympic record with an effort of94kg.

The Chinese lifter also holds the

world mark (96kg) in the category.In the clean and jerk, world

record holder Chanu lifted 110kgand 115kg in the first two attempts.

However, she was unable toraise 117kg in her final attempt,which would have been an Olympicrecord but it was enough to fetch hera medal and open India’s account.

The diminutive Mannipuribroke down after realising that shehas secured a medal and huggedhead coach Vijay Sharma in jubili-ation.

She later broke into a punjabibhangra too to celebrate the historicpodium finish.

Delighted by her achievement,not even a face mask could hideChanu’s smile that spread ear to earat the medal ceremony, where therewas a bit of confusion among thewinners.

As per COVID-19 protocolslaid out for the Games, the winnerswere supposed to be social distancedand not pose for a group photographas per the Games protocols.

But the three medallist con-gratulated each other and cametogether to get pictures clickedbefore being asked to distance by anofficial.

An Olympic medal was longoverdue for the Indian, who hasproved her mettle as a fighter in theinternational arena time and again.

Her cabinet includes a covetedworld championship gold medal,two Commonwealth Games medals-- silver in 2014 and gold in 2018 -- and an Asian Championshipbronze.

From Page 1The Government has asserted that

India has well established democraticpractices and robust institutions tosafeguard the rights of all.

The government has emphasisedthat the Indian Constitution providesfor adequate safeguards under variousstatutes for ensuring the protection ofhuman rights.

Thompson asserted that the rela-tionship with India is a strong one thathas endured through administrationsof all colours and stripes in the UnitedStates and will continue to do so.

“We are lookingforward to this oppor-tunity for the Secretaryto talk with PrimeMinister NarendraModi, with External

Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, andcontinue to pursue the myriad areas ofcommon interest that we have,” he said.

“I think it’s fair to say that we seethe relationship continuing at a veryhigh level, and India will. Of course.Remain an incredibly important part-ner,” he said.

“We’re going to continue pursuingour global comprehensive strategicpartnership, and I think by virtue of thePresident making the Quad and ourpartnership with India very high pri-orities right at the outset of thisadministration, it sets the tone for whatwe think we can achieve and accom-plish with them, and with our otherpartners as well. So. I would expect tocontinue the dialogues that we’ve hadon all those fronts,” Thompson said.

From Page 1“I was in tears seeing it and

also during the moment she wonthe medal. Her father (SaikhomKriti Meitei) was also in tears.Tears of joy. All her hard work hasled to the success.”

Chanu ended India’s 21-yearwait for a weightlifting medal atthe Olympics by clinching a sil-

ver medal in the 49kg category toopen the country’s account onSaturday.

The 26-year-old lifted a totalof 202kg (87kg+115kg) to betterKarnam Malleswari’s bronze in the2000 Sydney Olympics. With this,she exorcised the ghosts of the2016 Games where she had failedto log a single legitimate lift.

From Page 1The Indian companies in Afghanistan were advised once again to

make special security arrangements in respect of their Indian employ-ees deployed at project sites. Special attention was drawn to membersof the Indian media travelling to Afghanistan to cover events throughground reports. Media persons covering events on the ground wasadvised to establish contact with the Indian Embassy for a personal-ized briefing including specific advice for the locale they are travelingto.

The Ministry of External Affairs on July 12 had said after the evac-uation India-based personnel were brought back for the time being inview of intense fighting near Kandahar city.

Describing the pull out of the India-based personnel as a tempo-rary measure, the Ministry had said the consulate continues to oper-ate through the local staff members.

“The safety and security of our personnel is paramount. The con-sulate general of India in Kandahar has not been closed. However, dueto the intense fighting near Kandahar city, India-based personnel havebeen brought back for the time being,” Ministry spokespersonArindam Bagchi had said.

There were reports that at least two foreign missions in Mazar-e-Sharif, the capital of northern Balkh province, have closed their oper-ation in view of the escalating violence in the region.

From Page 1The toll estimated by the

SDMA is a conservative one.Unconfirmed reports said thenumber of deaths had crossed100 and the final toll might bemuch more.

Giving an overall picture ofthe rain and flood situation incoastal Konkan region andwestern Maharashtra, a seniorstate government official said,“Mahad and Poladpur inRaigad, Chiplun and inRatnagiri in Konkan regionand districts of Satara,Kolhapur and Sangli have beenbadly affected both by rainsand consequent flood. We arewitnessing flood situation inThane and Palghar districts.”

In an effort to deal with theflood situation, the DisasterManagement, Relief &Rehabilitation authoritiesdeployed teams of the NationalDisaster Response Force(NDRF) and the State Disaster

Response Force across all theaffected districts. As many as890 villages have been affectedby the floods.

A total of 25 NDRF teamsplus 8 on standby, 3 units eachof Indian Army and IndianCoast Guard, 7 of Indian Navyand 1 of Indian Air Force havebeen engaged in the rescueoperations nonstop since thepast over 24 hours.

According to officialreports, heavy rainfall led to thebreaking of the banks of Savitririver, resulting flooding inMahad and Poladpur towns.The whole town of Mahadwas completely cut off and wasnot accessible by road. Manypeople were stranded on rooftops and upper floors of thehouses.

Owing to overflow ofSavitri river water onto thebridges, rescue teams could notreach the said regions. Therelandslides in the villages of

Tayle, Sakharsutarwaadi inMahad taluka and Kevnale inPoladpur taluka.

In Ratnagiri district,Chiplun and Khed towns havebeen completely inundated dueto discharge from the Koynadam and subsequently theKoltewadi dam leading to therise in the levels of the Vashistiriver.

The two towns were cut offdue to land routes being inun-dated. The bridge over theVashisitiriver on the MumbaiChiplun route was washedaway.

Thousands of people werestranded on roof tops andupper floors of the houses asthe water levels rose to over 15to 20 feet in many places.NDRF and Coast Guard teamswere deployed. Helicopters ofthe Airforce were also deployedfor rescue and air dropping offood and water packets.

Relief camps have been setup at three locations where allarrangements were made forthe rescued people. “One col-

umn of the Army was also dis-patched for relief efforts. CoastGuard teams were also dis-patched to the spot. More than1000 people were safely evac-uated by the various responseteams,” the State Governmentofficial said.

Meanwhile, MaharashtraFood and Civil SuppliesMinister Chhagan Bhujbalannounced that the StateGovernment provide free food-grains and kerosene to thepeople in the flood-affectedregions of the State.

Talking to media persons atNashik in north Maharashtra,Bhujbal said the StateGovernment would provide10 kg wheat, 10 kg, five kgs daland five litre kerosene to eachfamily, as per a governmentpolicy of March 2019.

“The kerosene will helppeople cook their meals sincemany areas are still water-logged and without electricityand other fuels supplies due tothe floods since the past threedays,” he said.

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All India Institute of MedicalSciences (AIIMS) Director

Dr Randeep Guleria onSaturday said that India mighthave to adopt a booster dosewith second-generation Covid-19 vaccines as the Delta vari-ant of the coronavirus hasswept across the world and dri-ven up infections in severalcountries.

He further said BharatBiotech’s Covaxin trials forchildren are presently under-way and the results are expect-ed to be released by September.

“It seems that we probablyneed the booster dose of vac-cines as with the passage oftime the immunity tends tofall,” Dr Guleria said. “There iswaning immunity. We wouldlike to have a booster dose thatwill cover for various emergingvariants,” Dr Guleria saidadding that the booster dosewill be a second-generationvaccine.

“We will have second-gen-eration vaccines which wouldbe better in terms of the immu-nity they give, covering of thenew variants and a having a

better overall efficacy,” DrGuleria said.

On Covaxin trials on chil-dren, he said: “The BharatBiotech’s Covaxin trials shouldbe over by August orSeptember, and by that time weshould get an approval. Pfizervaccine has been alreadyapproved by the FDA (US reg-ulator - Food and DrugAdministration). Hopefully, bySeptember, we should startvaccinating children, and thatwill be a big boost as far asbreaking the chain of trans-mission is concerned.”

Dr Guleria’s statementcomes as the second dose ofCovaxin is likely to be admin-istered to children aged 2-6years in trials next week. “Weneed to get our own vaccinestoo - that’s why both BharatBiotech and Zydus are impor-

tant. Getting the Pfizer vaccinewill also be helpful, as there isenough data to suggest it’ssafe... but we can’t be sure if wewill get required numbers. Wewill hopefully have more thanone vaccine for children bySeptember,” he said. The sec-ond dose of Covaxin hasalready been given to childrenbetween the ages of 6-12 yearsat the Delhi AIIMS. BesidesCovaxin, the trials for ZydusCadila’s vaccine for children arealso currently underway in thecountry.

On June 7, Delhi AIIMSstarted screening childrenbetween the age of 2 to 17 fortrials of Covid-19 vaccine. OnMay 12, the DCGI granted per-mission to Bharat Biotech tocarry out phase 2, phase 3 tri-als of Covaxin on children asyoung as two.

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The Council of IndianSchool Certificate

Examination (CISCE), whichconducts the exams for theIndian Certificate of SecondaryEducation (ICSE), or Class 10,and Indian School Certificate(ISC), or Class 12, on Saturdaydeclared the results of the can-celled exams.

The overall pass percentagefor this year is 99.98 per centfor ICSE results and 99.76 percent for ISC results.

The CBSE is scheduled todeclare the results any daynext week.

The Southern region hassecured the best pass percent-age for the Class 10th and Class12th exam results followed bythe Western region in Class10th results and Northernregion for Class 12th results.While the pass percentage forthe Southern region in ICSEresults is 100 per cent, it is 99.91per cent for ISC exams.

Delhi NCR has recorded apass percentage of 100 percent.In ISC Class 12 results, Delhihas also recorded 99.93%.

The overall pass percentagein West Bengal for ICSE is99.98 per cent and it is 99.63per cent for ISC Class 12th. Asmany as 39,520 and 26,859 stu-dents have enrolled for Class

10th ICSE and ISC Class 12thexams respectively.

Odisha has recorded a passpercentage of 99.98 per cent inthe ICSE results While in ISCClass 12 results, the state hasrecorded 99.83 per cent. In thisyear, 8,935 students haveappeared for the ICSE exami-nation. For ISC exams, 1,813have appeared this year.

The overall pass percentagein Punjab for ICSE is 99.99 percent and it is 99.79 per cent forISC Class 12th. As many as13,773 and 2,796 students haveenrolled for Class 10th ICSEand ISC Class 12th examsrespectively.

Karnataka has recorded apass percentage of 100 percent in the ICSE results Whilein ISC Class 12 results, the statehas also recorded 99.95 per-cent. The analysis of results ofother States were being exam-ined till the report filed.

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The Congress on Saturdaymade changes in its Assam

and Manipur units. WhileBhupen Bora was appointed aschief of its Assam unit byreplacing party’s Rajya Sabhamember Ripun Bora for thepost, Loken Singh was appoint-ed interim president of theManipur Pradesh Congresswith immediate effect till a full-time chief is named.

With this the Congresshas effected changes in fourStates within a week’s timeincluding Punjab andUttarakhand. Of the changesdone, Punjab, Uttarakhand,Manipur goes to assemblypolls next year while electionswere conducted in April thisyear in Assam where theparty’s performance was notgood.

Continuing with theorganisational revamp, a partystatement said Congress pres-

ident Sonia Gandhi hasappointed Bhupen Bora aspresident of the AssamPradesh Congress Committee(APCC) and also named threeworking presidents -- RanaGoswami, Kamalakhya DeyPurkayastha and Jakir HussainSikdar.

The organisational changesin the state unit came weeksafter the party’’s defeat in theassembly polls for which itentered into a grand alliancewith the Badruddin Ajmal-ledAIUDF and some other partiesbut failed to stop the BJP fromcoming back to power.

The party appreciates thecontributions of outgoingAPCC president Ripun Bora,the statement said.

Bhupen Bora and RanaGoswami are being relievedfrom their present responsi-bilities as All India CongressCommittee secretaries, it said.

In another appointment,Loken Singh was appointed

interim president of theManipur Pradesh CongressCommittee with immediateeffect till a full-time chief isnamed.

AICC general secretaryOrganisation K C Venugopalin a statement said theCongress high has appointedNameirakpam Loken Singh asthe interim president of theManipur unit of the party.The development took placefollowing the resignation ofparty leader GovindasKonthoujam as the MPC pres-ident a few days ago. Theappointment of Loken Singh,senior vice-president of theMPCC, comes into force withimmediate effect. Venugopalsaid that Loken Singh, also anMLA, will be in his new posi-tion till a full-time state unitpresident is appointed.

Also, the party namedArya Kumar Jnanendra aschief organiser for the OdishaPradesh Congress Seva Dal.

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New Delhi: The SupremeCourt has declined to enter-tain a PIL seeking to declarethat the National CompanyLaw Tribunal (NCLT) cannotact as an appellate authority tothe decisions of the top courtand find flaws so as to cir-cumvent the “rule of law” laiddown.

A bench of Justices D YChandrachud and M R Shahsaid the petition is clearly notmaintainable and there is noreason to entertain the peti-tion under Article 32.

“It is not necessary forthis court to return any find-ing on the question sought tobe raised in the abstract with-out any live challenge to anorder of the adjudicating

authority. In any event thereare appellate remedies avail-able under the Insolvencyand Bankruptcy Code (IBC)to an aggrieved party. Thepetition is dismissed,” thebench said.

The apex court was hear-ing a PIL filed by one AshokSurana seeking to declare thatthe NCLT cannot act as an appellateauthority to the decisions ofthis court and find flaws so asto circumvent the “rule oflaw” laid down.

The plea also soughtdirections that the “rule oflaw” laid down by the topcourt is binding on theauthorities below without anyconditions and cannot be

sidelined or overruled.“Declare that the rule of

constructive res judicata(matter decided) applies tothe decisions of this court andis a fundamental rule whichsustains the rule of law inensuring finality to litiga-tion,” the plea said.

Surana submitted that theNCLT has misinterpreted thejudgments of this court and,hence, the invocation of thej u r i s d i c t i o nunder Article 32 is sought tobe justified.

He also clarified that he isnot a party to any of the pro-ceedings before the adjudi-cating authority under theInsolvency and BankruptcyCode 2016. PTI

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Parts of central and adjoin-ing west India, particularly

the States of Madhya Pradeshand Gujarat, are likely to havesome intense rainfall activityfor the next two-three days.The India MeteorologyDepartment (IMD) onSaturday said rainfall intensityalong the west coast is expect-ed to decrease over the next 24hours, in a much needed reliefto rain-battered Maharashtraand Goa. Rainfall activity willincrease over the north Indianplains and hills from July 25, itsaid.

Having already drenchedChhattisgarh, Telangana, eastMadhya Pradesh and centralMaharashtra, the system hasnow shifted its focus on to thewestern half of MadhyaPradesh. The IMD has indi-cated that the system will pro-duce isolated extremely heavyfalls over west Madhya Pradeshon Saturday, July 24.

Therefore, a red warninghas been issued over the sub-division for the day, as itinstructs the residents to ‘takeaction’ to protect themselvesfrom rough weather.Meanwhile, since the beginningof the monsoon period onJune 1, both Madhya Pradesh

and Gujarat have receivedbelow-average rainfall.

“Further reduction in rain-fall intensity is very likely alongthe west coast, includingKonkan, Goa and adjoininginterior Maharashtra, duringthe next 24 hours,” the IMDsaid. “Fairly widespread towidespread rainfall with iso-lated heavy to very heavy falls( a r e )very likely to continue overwest coast, includingMaharashtra, on July 24 andisolated heavy falls thereafter,”it said. Extremely heavy rainshave killed scores of people inMaharashtra over the past fewdays, submerging several areasand damaging property.

The National DisasterResponse Force (NDRF) hasenhanced the number of itsteams from 26 to 34 for under-taking rescue operations inthe coastal areas ofMaharashtra that have been hitby landslides and floods trig-gered by heavy rainfall.

A spokesperson for thefederal contingency force saidthese teams are being deployedin affected areas of Mumbai,Ratnagiri, Thane, Palghar,Raigad, Satara, Sangli,Sindhudurg, Kolhapur, Puneand Nagpur for rescue andrelief work after consultation

with the state administration.“In view of the severity of

the situation, additional eightNDRF teams have been airlift-ed from Kolkata and Vadodarabase which are being deployedin affected areas ofMaharashtra,” the spokesper-son said. “This will take thetotal NDRF deployment to 34teams,” the spokesperson said.

The IMD said scattered tofairly widespread rainfall withisolated heavy to very heavyfalls are likely to continue overGujarat till July and reducethereafter. Widespread rain-fall with isolated heavy to veryheavy falls are likely to contin-ue over east Rajasthan till July26 and reduce thereafter.

In north India, rainfallactivity is likely to increase overnorthwest India from July 25.“Fairly widespread to wide-spread rainfall with isolatedheavy to very heavy falls (are)likely over Uttarakhand duringJuly 25-28; Himachal Pradesh,Haryana and West UttarPradesh during July 26-28, andPunjab and east Uttar Pradeshon July 27 and 28,” the IMDsaid.

Isolated extremely heavyfalls are also likely overHimachal Pradesh andUttarakhand on July 27 and 28,it added.

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Aday after the Governmentinformed Parliament that

no fixed timeline can be indi-cated at present for the com-pletion of the vaccination drive,former Congress PresidentRahul Gandhi on Saturdaytook a swipe saying people’slives are on the line and it’s aclassic case of a missing spine.

In a tweet he said, “People’slives on the line, Governmentadmits no timeline, classic caseof missing spine.”

He tweeted with the hash-tag of #WhereAreVaccines.

His remarks came a dayafter the government said thatno fixed timeline can be indi-cated at present for the com-

pletion of the vaccination drive.The Government said it is

expected that beneficiaries aged18 years and above will be vac-cinated by December 2021.

Minister of State for Healthand Family Welfare Bharati

Pravin Pawar in response toCongress MP Rahul Gandhiand Lok Sabha MP Mala Roy’sunstarred question said, “TheCovid-19 vaccination is anongoing and dynamic process,which is being guided byNational Expert Group onVaccine Administration forCovid-19 (NEGVAK) on thebasis of concurrent scientificevidence.”

She said that in view of thedynamic and evolving nature ofthe Covid-19 pandemic, “nofixed timeline at present can beindicated for the completion ofvaccination drive”.

Pawar said, “However, it isexpected that beneficiaries aged18 years and above will be vac-cinated by December 2021.”

New Delhi: The SupremeCourt has agreed to hear a pleathat has raised a legal issue asto whether the policy for premature release from jailexisting at the time of conviction or the subsequentone which is in existence at thetime of consideration of suchrelief would be applicable.

The apex court sought theresponse of the MadhyaPradesh government and oth-ers within four weeks on theplea filed by a convict, who isserving a life term and is seek-ing directions to the state torelease him from jail on the grounds that he hasundergone a sentence of over20 years including the period ofremission.

The petitioner has saidthat he also qualifies under thepolicy for premature releasewhich was applicable at thetime of his conviction in thecase.

The plea came up for hear-ing on Friday before a bench ofjustices L Nageswara Rao andHrishikesh Roy which issued anotice seeking the response ofthe state government and oth-ers.

“Issue notice returnable infour weeks,” the bench said.

The petition, filed throughadvocate Rishi Malhotra, saidthe petitioner was convicted bya trial court in a case of 1996along with others and wassentenced to life imprison-ment in September 2005.

The plea said at the time ofhis conviction, the policy forpremature release datedDecember 4, 1978 was applic-able.

“However, for the firsttime on January 10, 2012,there was a substantialchange/departure from thesaid policy wherein it stipu-lated that such prisoners whoare facing life imprisonment would have toundergo actual sentence of 20years with a total sentence of26 years,” it said.

The plea said as per theDecember 1978 policy, anyconvict who has been sen-tenced to life imprisonmentafter December 18, 1978 andhas undergone 14 years of theactual sentence and completed a total sentence of20 years would be entitled topremature release. PTI

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Srinagar: Three unidentifiedmilitants were killed while anArmy jawan was injured in anencounter in Bandipora districtof Jammu & Kashmir onSaturday, officials said.

Security forces launched acordon and search operation inShokbaba forest in the Sumblararea of Bandipora in northKashmir following inputs aboutthe presence of militants there,they said.

The officials said as theforces were conducting search-es in the area, the militants firedupon them.

The forces retaliated, ensu-ing an encounter in which sofar three militants have beenkilled, they added.

Srinagar-based PRODefence Col Emron Musavisaid an Army personnel suf-fered injuries in the gunfight.

He said the injured jawanhas been evacuated and isundergoing treatment.

The officials said the iden-tity and group affiliation of theslain ultras are being ascer-tained.

The operation is inprogress and further details areawaited, they said. PTI

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Despite strict regulationsslapped on movement of

people across the State,Saturday saw 18,531 new per-sons getting diagnosed withCovid-19 in Kerala out of the1.55 lakh samples tested dur-ing the last 24 hours.

A release issued by theHealth Minister’s office saidthat 98 patients succumbed tothe pandemic taking the deathtoll till date to 15,969. TheState’s average Test PositivityRate (TPR) showed 11.91 per-cent while there are 271 placesacross Kerala which have TPRof 15 per cent and above.

Dr P Gopikumar, secretary,Indian Medical Association’sKerala wing told The Pioneerthat the home quarantine andisolation of persons tested pos-itive was no more paying thedesired results.

“The virus causing Covid-19 detected during the secondwave of attack has been foundto be more powerful than theearlier version. Now what hashappened is that the othermembers of the family wherethe patient is put in quarantineor isolation too get afflictedwith the pandemic and this

does not augur well,” said DrGopikumar.

He said the IMA has askedthe State Government to shiftall the persons who test posi-tive to either community livingcentres or First Line TreatmentCentres foe which there are nodearth in Kerala.

“Ill not go to the extent oftelling that the situation wasalarming. We, the IMA hasasked the Government toreschedule the lock downmode and allow shops andbusiness establishments tofunction on all days. But thecrowd restrictions should beenforced strictly,” said DrGopikumar.

But senior Governmentphysicians said the situation inKerala was a cause for concern.“It has been found that the pan-demic is spreading much fasterthan the initial phases. Keralahas become an epicenter of

Covid-19 and there are norestrictions on movement ofpeople, Public transport, espe-cially buses and whatever trainsthat ply are filled to capacity.There is no reduction in traf-fic blocks even in small towns,”said a senior Governmentphysician in Ernakulam.

Both Dr Gopikumar andthe Government physicianwere on the same page regard-ing their word of caution topeople in other States who areplanning to visit the State.“Kerala is not safe for a holidaytrip. It is safe and better to post-pone the scheduled journey tothe State lest the travelers endup as victims of the pandem-ic,” they said in unison.

There are four districts inthe State each showing morethan 2,000 new Covid-19 caseson Saturday while there werethree districts each loggingmore than 1,000 cases.

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Aday after Jammu & Kashmir police shotdown a Pakistani drone fitted with a 5kg

IED in Kanachak area of Jammu, senior offi-cers of the Border Security Force of Jammufrontier Saturday lodged a strong protest withtheir Pakistani counterparts during their firstsector commander level meeting after the dec-laration of ceasefire agreement by DGMOs onFebruary 24/25, 2021.

The meeting was held on the request ofPakistan Rangers in the Suchetgarh area.

The BSF delegation was led by SurjitSingh, DIG, Border Security Force andPakistan Rangers delegation was led by BrigMurad Hussain,sector commander PakistanRangers, Sialkot Sector.

According to a BSF spokesman, "Duringthe meeting, Commanders of both the bor-der guarding Forces, discussed various issueswith main emphasis by BSF delegation on PakDrone activities, terrorists activities byPakistan from across the border, digging of

tunnels by Pakistan and other issues relatedto Border management.A very strong protestwas lodged by BSF delegates against droneactivities by Pakistan authorities in theJammu Area".

According to a BSF spokesman, "It wasdecided to re-energize instant communicationbetween field Commanders, wheneverrequired, to resolve the ops matters. Meetingwas held in a cordial, positive and construc-tive atmosphere and both sides agreed forexpeditious implementation of the decisionstaken in the earlier DG level talks and com-mitted to each other to maintain peace andharmony at the International Border".

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At a time when theGovernment of Kerala is on

a warpath with the UnionGovernment over the latter’sdecision to set up a Ministry ofcooperate affairs which the for-mer alleges to be a blatantencroachment into the rights ofthe State, suicide of a seniorCongress leader in Thrissur dis-trict over the irregularities inKaruvannur Cooperative Bankhas come as an embarrass-ment to the ruling LeftDemocratic Front.

Officials of the StateCooperative Department, intheir preliminary investigationhas come across financialimpropriety to the tune of Rs1,000 crore in the bank. The

Registrar of CooperativeDepartment on Thursday nightdissolved the director board ofthe Bank and appointed anassistant registrar as adminis-trator. The director board of theBank was full of CPI(M) nom-inees.

T M Mukundan, a 59-year-old Congress leader, committedsuicide by hanging in his houseon Thursday. According to fam-ily members, Mukundan resort-ed to the extreme measure fol-lowing the receipt of a revenuerecovery notice from the Bank.

According to family mem-bers, Mukundan had availedloan worth �25 lakh in lieu of16.5 cents land and a house. “Butthe revenue recovery notice saysthe loan amount was �80 lakhand interest. He was summoned

by the Bank authorities andasked to settle the loan withoutdelay. We were in the process ofdisposing a property to settle theloan but of late the Bank author-ities started to torment himwith threats,” said a close relationof Mukundan.

But the Bank officials statethat Mukundan had availedloan amount of �50 lakh on2018 March 3. “He stood secu-rity for another person for �30lakh. Since the borrower failedto pay back �30 lakh, theresponsibility of paying theamount fell on Mukundan, “said a Bank official. They alsodisclosed that Mukundan hadagreed to repay the loan arrearsby February 2021 itself.

Investigation has beenordered into how the �25 lakh

loan availed by Mukundan shotup to �80 lakh and why he wasnot given the ‘breathing space’to pay back the loan despite theassurances made by him to theBank.

Though the manager of theBank had informed theCooperative Departmentauthorities about the shady dealscarried out by the director boardmembers in 2016 itself, aCPI(M) leader who was also theminister in the previous LDFgovernment (2016-2021) gotthe manager dismissed citingindiscipline and financial impro-priety. Investigating officials toldThe Pioneer that the Bank wasa conduit for money laundering.By Saturday morning, the probeagencies including police andcooperative department have

found that the many cooperativebanks in the State were activelyengaged in money launderingand embezzlement to the tuneof more than �10,000 crore.

Karunakaran Nambiar, allIndia general secretary ofSahakar Bharati told ThePioneer that Cooperative Banksin Kerala were being used formoney laundering and hoard-ing of black money.

“Since provisions like KnowYour Customer (KYC) werenot applicable in theseCooperative Banks, they areideal avenues for money laun-dering and violation of all finan-cial regulations. Besides Banks,the cooperative sector in theState itself is enmeshed in finan-cial embezzlement,” saidNambiar.

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Gearing up for the 2022 UttarPradesh Assembly elections,

the ruling Bharatiya Janata Partyhas prepared a mega plan and ifsources are to be believed, the partyis set to field all its veterans in theupcoming polls.

The ruling party leaders whoare certain to contest the electionsinclude Chief Minister YogiAdityanath, Deputy ChiefMinisters Keshav Prasad Mauryaand Dinesh Sharma and BJP statepresident Swatantra Dev Singh,cabinet minister Mahendra Singhand others.

The BJP holds an over-whelming majority of 312 seats inthe 403-seat UP Assembly at pre-sent and aims to win over 300 plusseats in the next polls.

Well-placed sources in theBJP said in Lucknow on Saturday

that Yogi Adityanath, currently amember of UP Legislative Council,would contest the poll from anyconstituency of his home districtGorakhpur. Similarly, other MLCslike Deputy Chief Minister KeshavPrasad Maurya would contestfrom Sirathu seat of Kaushambi,and Deputy Chief Minister DineshSharma from one of the Assemblyconstituencies of Lucknow andminister Mahendra Singh fromPratapgarh.

In 2019, Keshav PrasadMaurya was elected to the LokSabha from Phulpur constituencywhile Dinesh Sharma was electedtwice as Mayor of Lucknow.

Prime Minister NarendraModi recently kicked off the UPpoll campaign by praising ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath's Covid-19 handling during his recentvisit to his Lok Sabha constituen-cy, Varanasi.

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Pipping another record in Covid vaccination onFriday, Uttar Pradesh administered as many as

10.06 lakh doses of the vaccine in a single day, tak-ing the total number of jabs given till date to a whop-ping 4.38 crore.

A top State Government official said, “We havesurpassed our previous best performance in Covidvaccination which was around 10.03 lakh doses onJuly 6. The State Government is sparing no effort totrace every case and contain the transmission of coro-navirus infection and is now focusing on the impor-tance of the vaccine to prepare itself in a better wayagainst the anticipated third wave of Covid-19. Also,Uttar Pradesh has administered the maximumnumber of first doses to people in the age group of18-44 years.”

Meanwhile on Friday, the state also witnessed thesharpest decline in the number of active Covid-19cases with the caseload standing at 932, a decreaseof 99.6 per cent from its peak capped at 3.10 lakh caseson April 30. In the last 24 hours, over 2.55 lakh sam-ples were tested, taking the total number of Covidtests conducted in the state to 6.37 crore. Besides, thepositivity rate also slumped to 0.02 per cent, the low-est in the country.

The total number of fresh novel coronavirusinfections detected in the last 24 hours in the Statewas just 42 while during the same period, 99 Covid-19 patients recovered across the state.

Where other States have been witnessing a surgein fresh coronavirus infections (daily cases in therange of 14,000-3,000), Uttar Pradesh has restrictedthe daily case count below 50. In what comes as a bigrelief, none of the 75 districts of the state reportedfresh coronavirus cases in double digits.

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Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh report-ed 2,174 fresh cases of coronavirus,2,737 recoveries and 18 deaths in 24hours ending 9 am on Saturday.

The total positives stood at19,52,513, a health department bul-letin said.

The active cases slide to 22,358after a total of 19,16,914 recoveriesand 13,241 deaths, it said.

East Godavari added 418 freshcases to its count while Chittoorreported 329, Krishna 248, SPS

Nellore 246, Prakasam 233, WestGodavari 209, Guntur 132 andVisakhapatnam, 103.

Five districts reported less than90 cases each, with Kurnool loggingjust eight in a day.

Krishna had five fresh fatalities,Chittoor four, East Godavari,Prakasam and West Godavari twoeach and SPS Nellore, Srikakulamand Visakhapatnam one each.

Five districts did not report anyCovid-19 toll in a day. PTI

Silchar: A visit by their deputy commissioneron Covid-19 duty has inspired the women of aremote village along the Bangladesh border inCachar district of Assam to form their first self-help group (SHG) which would now providethem the linkage to Government welfareschemes.

Cachar Deputy Commissioner Keerthi Jallihad visited the minority-dominated Tukergramrevenue village (Puran Basti), borderingBangladesh, under Harinagar Gaon Panchayatof Katigorah Development Block, for Covid-19 testing and vaccination awareness onJune 11, an official statement said on Saturday.

During the visit, Jalli noticed that womenof the area aspired to do developmental worksbut were not organised to that extent, it added.She then asked them to form a SHG, compris-ing marginalised women of that area, so that they

could be brought under the fold of Assam StateRural Livelihood Mission (ASRLM) and sup-ported through various Government schemes,like 'Kanaklata Mahila Sabalikaran Yojana'.

This led to the formation of the first SHGin the area, named 'Pally Unnayan SHG', onThursday, the statement further said.

Expressing her happiness at mobilising thesewomen to enable them to avail benefits undergovernment schemes, Jalli said, “I am optimisticthat skilling and handholding under ASRLMwould enable them access to income generat-ing platforms through activities like goat rear-ing, milk farming, etc.

“Most importantly, they are now in a posi-tion to plan for their families on financial mat-ters as well, which paves the way for them toemerge as role models of women empowermentamong their community and area." PTI

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Bollywood actress ShilpaShetty has defended her

businessman-husband RajKuinde, whjo has been namedas a “key conspirator” in thescam involving the producingand streaming of pornograph-ic films on mobile and otherApps, by saying that Kundra’sHotShots App did not havepornographic content and thatall content was of bold anderotic in nature.

Shilpa, who was ques-tioned by the Mumbai Crimebranch sleuths on Fridayevening, distanced herself fromhusband’s firm M/s ViaanIndustries Ltd, of whichKundra is the owner and sheused to be the co-owner, whilePradeep Bakshi Bakshi — aBritish citizen, who is marriedto Kundra’s sister — is theChairman of Kenrin Ltd.,London.

In defence of herself andher husband, Shilpa – who hasmade come back into filmsthrough “Hungama 2” releasedon an OTT platform, report-edly told the police that “con-

tent on Raj Kundra's App wasnot pornography but erotica.He is innocent”.

Kundra, who was arrestedon July 19, was on Fridayremanded in police custody tillJuly 27.

The crime branch sleuthsof the Mumbai police haveseized 48 TB worth of imagesand videos, most of which isadult content.

During their investigations,the investigators have traced arecord of transactions - from anaccount in Yes Bank registeredto Mr Kundra to one in theUnited Bank of Africa.

They suspect money wasaccrued from the sale of porno-graphic content. A sum of � 7.5crore has been seized sofar.

Following a raid conduct-ed on February 4 this year bythem on a private bungalow atpicturesque Madh Island atMalad (west) in north Mumbaiwhere a porn film was beingshot, the Malwani police reg-istered a case in pornographicmovie racket. It was a tip-offfrom an affected woman whoapproached the police with

her grievance that led to theraid.

After initial investigation,the Mumbai Police handed thecase to the Property Cell ofCrime Branch-CID for fur-ther probe during which thename of United Kingdom-based Pradeep Bakshi, thebrother-in-law of Kundra, sur-faced.

Meanwhile, Kundra hasmoved the Bombay HighCourt challenging his arrestand seeking dismissal of thelower court's order on extend-ing police custody on that dis-tinction.

His petition also claims hewas arrested after being sum-moned to the police station"under the garb of recording hisstatement".

On their part, the MumbaiCrime branch sleuths haveuncovered the conspiracybehind the making and stream-ing of pornographic videosthrough an app called"Hotshots" and also OTT plat-forms by putting up advertise-ments on social media plat-forms.

The investigators have alsorecovered the messages from asWhatsApp group run byKundra to deal with moneyaccrued from the porn movies

produced by them. The groupwas named “H AAccounts”and had Kundra as its adminwith four other members:Pradeep Bakshi, Rob DigitalMarketing Hotshot, Raw Evans.They have found some incrim-inating messages relevant to thecase being investigated bythem.

The distribution and mar-keting strategy adopted byKundra and team was to sendthe videos produced inMumbai through an applica-tion to Kenrin Production inthe UK to avoid legal issues inIndia. Kenrin Productionwould edit and upload thepornographic films Hotshot.Kenrin was allegedly fundingthe porn film productionthrough agents based in India.

The HotShots app ---described as the “world’s first18+ app” showcasing some ofthe hottest models and celebsglobally in exclusive photos,short films and hot videos(implying soft-to-hard porn) –was removed from mobile plat-forms. Similarly, Apple andGoogle have removed the appbecause of the pornographiccontent in it.

In all, eleven persons –including Kundra, his aideRyan John Tharpe and Kamat,

have been arrested in connec-tion with the pornographyracket. They are: TV actressGehna Vashisht (32) YasminBaig Khan alias Rowa Khan(40) Monu Joshi (28) PratibhaNalavade (33) Atif Ahmed(24), Shaan Banerjee aliasDipankar Khasnavis (38),Bhanusuryam Thakur ( 26)Tanvir Hashmi (40) and UmeshKamat (39).

Model-actress GehanaVashisth, while Yasmin RowaKhan was the producer-direc-tor. Kamat was the frontmanfor Kundra. Pratibha was thegraphic designer, Joshi wascameraman.

Gahna and Kamat wereboth involved in producingand shooting porn, writingscripts; they also sent copies oftheir scripts to Kundra.

In a related development,Gehna – who is currently onbail – has claimed that she wasarrested wrongly in the case."Those videos are just adultvideos. They are of eroticnature. None of them fallsunder the category of porn,"she said.

On their part, the investi-gators are examining callrecords on her phone andinformation on her laptop bothof which they seized.

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Gangtok: Sikkim's Covid-19 tally rose to 24,823 on Saturday as 225 morepeople tested positive for the infection, while one fresh fatality pushed theHimalayan state's coronavirus death toll to 330, a health bulletinsaid.

West Sikkim district reported the highest number of new cases at 81,followed by East Sikkim (72), South Sikkim (71), and North Sikkim (one).

Sikkim now has 2,849 active cases, while 21,380 people have recoveredfrom the disease, and 264 patients have migrated to other states so far, it said.

The recovery rate among the coronavirus patients in the state stands at87 per cent.

The Himalayan state has tested over 1.87 lakh samples for Covid-19 thusfar, including 1,972 in the last 24 hours, the bulletin said, adding the posi-tivity rate now stands at 11.4 per cent. PTI

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Chennai: The Tamil NaduGovernment has informed theMadras High Court that acomprehensive study is beingundertaken with the assistanceof World Wildlife Fund toensure that elephant corridorsand habitats in the Nilgiris area,if invaded, are restored to theforests and the animals.

International experts arealso part of the inititiave,thefirst bench of Chief JusticeSanjib Banerjee and JusticeSenthilkumar Ramamoorthywas told on Friday when a PILpetition from animal activistMuralidharan and anothercame up.

Recording this, the benchadjourned the matter tillSeptember 2 with a direction tothe state government to filewithin four weeks, an affidavitindicating the status of thearea, the manner in which itwas in use and its presentstate.

Earlier,the petitionerinformed the court that one ofthe areas considered as a cor-ridor was restored as it was laterdiscovered to be a habitat andthe restoration of the same wasalso upheld by the SupremeCourt. PTI

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The US administration, ledby President Joe Biden,

believes lasting peace inAfghanistan is possible onlythrough a political solution, theWhite House has said, notingthe ongoing dialogue betweenthe Government of the war-torn country and the Taliban.

"I would note that there areongoing political negotiationsand discussions that we cer-tainly support between Afghanleaders, members of theAfghan Government, and theTaliban," White House PressSecretary Jen Psaki toldreporters at her daily newsconference on Friday, amid awave of violence from theTaliban.

"We believe a political solu-tion is the only outcome to last-ing peace in Afghanistan, but

we will continue to providesupport to the Government inthe form of humanitarian sup-port, security support, training.We will also continue toencourage them to take a lead-ing role in defending and pro-tecting their own people," shesaid.

In an interview to MSNBC,Secretary of State Tony Blinkensaid the US is determined thatAfghanistan does not becomea training ground for terrorismdirected against the UnitedStates or its allies and partners.

"That's exactly why wewent there in the first place,which is important to remem-ber. We were attacked on 9/11,we went to Afghanistan to getthe folks — who attacked us —to bring them to justice. Osamabin Laden was brought to jus-tice 10 years ago, and thegroup, al-Qaida, responsible

for those attacks has been dra-matically diminished in termsof its capacity to attack anyonefrom Afghanistan,” he said.

“We're going to make surethat we keep our eyes on that.If we see the threat re-emerg-ing, we're going to be in a posi-tion to take action against it.But that's why we were there,and now we're 20 years and atrillion dollars and thousandsof Americans lost later in thatcampaign. I think the reasonwe went there is what we haveto keep the focus on, and we'velargely succeeded in doingwhat we needed to do," Blinkensaid.

The United States, he said,does have deep concerns aboutthe actions the Taliban is tak-ing, indicating that it may betrying to take the country byforce.

Senior American military

officers have admitted that theTaliban has gained “strategicmomentum,” with their forcesnow controlling about half ofAfghanistan's more than 400district centres.

Blinken said Afghanistanwould become a pariah state, ifthe Taliban took it by force.

"It would not get the assis-tance that it's looking for andthat the Taliban says it wants ifit has any responsibility for thecountry. It would not get thesupport from the internation-

al community that it says itwants. We're actively engagedin diplomacy because there isno military solution to this con-flict that's been going on formore than 40 years inAfghanistan, and we're work-ing to try to bring that to anend," he said.

US Central Command,which is in charge ofAfghanistan, said recently thatthe withdrawal of US forces ismore than 95 per cent com-plete.

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Pakistan has deployed regu-lar troops at forward posi-

tions along the Afghan borderdue to the fluid security situ-ation in the neighbouring war-torn country in the wake of thewithdrawal of American andNATO troops, a media reportsaid on Saturday.

Interior Minister SheikhRashid Ahmed said thatPakistan Army soldiers havereplaced the FrontierConstabulary (FC), LeviesForce and other militias fromthe frontline positions, theDawn newspaper reported.

The US and NATO are onthe verge of completing theirfinal troops withdrawal fromAfghanistan.

Ahmed said the FCBalochistan and other militiasworking under the interiorministry had been called backfrom border patrolling.

“Now regular army troopsare manning the border afterreplacing the paramilitaryforces,” the minister said,adding the decision had beenmade in wake of the volatilesituation across the border.

Ahmed said the situationnot only demanded contain-ment of the influx of refugeesfrom Afghanistan but also the

entry of armed army person-nel and militants into Pakistan.

“Paramilitary troopsincluding the FrontierConstabulary, Levies, Rangersare deployed at the borders todeal with regular issues includ-ing illegal border crossing,smuggling etc,” the ministerwas quoted as saying in thereport.

“However, the currentvolatile situation (inAfghanistan) demands thatregular military troops bedeployed along the border,” hesaid. Military spokespersonMajor General Babar Iftikharrecently told a TV channel thattroops were manning the bor-der and the move would helpprevent escalation of conflictfrom the Afghan soil or air-space to the Pakistani side.

Meanwhile, sources in thearmed forces told the newspa-per that the most serious chal-lenge in the current scenariowas not just the inflow ofrefugees or any infiltrators inthe garb of refugees but themovement of Afghan armypersonnel or Taliban fighters.

“We have seen that morethan 1,000 Afghan soldiersfled into Tajikistan early in Julyto escape clashes with theTaliban,” an officer said.

“But Taliban's presence in

the northern areas ofAfghanistan is not as strong asit is in the areas borderingPakistan. Therefore, if Afghanarmy troops enter Pakistanwhile fleeing fighting, there arechances that Taliban would fol-low them and the conflict wouldspill over inside Pakistan, and itcould spread to the mainlandtoo,” the officer added.

Pakistan and Afghanistanhave already traded barbs lastweek after the Taliban tookcontrol of the Spin Boldakborder crossing, and theAfghan Air Force wanted toattack Taliban positions fromthe Pakistani side, which wasnot allowed by Islamabad.

“Pakistan does not want tosee any such situation when theAfghan air force might use ourairspace without permission toattack Taliban and in retalia-tion the militants attackPakistani positions creating anew issue,” the officer said.

Meanwhile, responding toa question, the interior minis-ter said that the fight insideAfghanistan was their internalmatter and Pakistan was nottaking any side and had nofavourites.

“It is time that the Afghanpoliticians and their militaryleadership learn to deal withtheir issues,” Ahmed said.

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Pakistan's National SecurityAdviser Moeed Yusuf and

ISI chief Lt Gen Faiz Hameedare likely to visit the US nextweek for talks with theirAmerican counterparts on thesituation in Afghanistan aspart of Washington's diplo-matic efforts aimed at ensuringa peaceful transfer of power inthe war-torn nation, accordingto a media report.

The efforts also includevisits by US Secretary of StateAntony Blinken to New Delhiand Kabul for talks aimed atformulating a regional responseto the Afghan crisis, the Dawnnewspaper reported from

Washington while quotingdiplomatic sources.

The trip of Yusuf and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)Director General Lt GenHameed was part of thesediplomatic efforts, it said.

“Pakistan has a key role ina new US diplomatic offensiveaimed at ensuring a peacefultransfer of power inAfghanistan,” diplomaticsources told the newspaper onFriday. Under a deal with theTaliban, the US and its NATOallies agreed to withdraw alltroops in return for a commit-ment by the militants that theywould prevent extremist groupsfrom operating in areas theycontrol.

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Several Pakistani Ministerson Saturday lashed out at

former prime minister NawazSharif for meeting AfghanNational Security AdvisorHamdullah Mohib in London,saying the PML-N supremowas a “close friend” of everyenemy of Pakistan.

Mohib recently made head-lines in Pakistan for calling thecountry a “brothel”, evoking a

sharp response from ministers inIslamabad, including fromForeign Minister Shah MahmoodQureshi who asked him to "reflectand correct" his behaviour.

Afghanistan's NationalSecurity Council on its Twitteraccount shared a picture ofMohib and Afghan StateMinister for Peace Sayed SadatNaderi meeting Sharif inLondon, where he has been liv-ing since 2019 for medicaltreatment.

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Chinese President Xi Jinpingunderlined the importance

of long-term stability and pros-perity in Tibet during a meet-ing with top military officials inLhasa, the state media report-ed on Saturday, a day after hemade a previously unan-nounced visit to the strategi-cally important region, includ-ing to Nyingchi, a town close tothe border with ArunachalPradesh.

Xi, also General Secretaryof the ruling Communist Partyof China (CPC) and Chairmanof the Central MilitaryCommission, met top officialsof the Tibet Military Commandof the People's LiberationArmy, guarding China's borderwith India in Arunachal

Pradesh, and also called for"fully strengthening the work oftraining soldiers and warpreparation," the Global Timesreported.

Xi, 68, made his first visit

to Tibet as President fromWednesday to Friday. But hisimportant visit was kept underwraps by China's official mediatill the end of the tour onFriday due to the sensitivities

of the trip. As part of his trip,he first went to Nyingchi, astrategically located town closeto the border with ArunachalPradesh. On Thursday, Xi wentto Nyingchi Railway Station,learning about the overalldesign of the Sichuan-TibetRailway and how the Lhasa-Nyingchi section has beenoperated since June 25.

It was the first time inrecent years, a top Chineseleader visited the Tibetan bor-der town. From there he wentto the provincial capital Lhasaby the recently launched high-speed train.

He wound up his visit tothe politically sensitiveHimalayan region on Friday bymeeting “representatives oftroops stationed in Tibet”.

“Xi met with representa-

tives of troops stationed inTibet, calling for efforts tostrengthen military trainingand preparedness in all aspectsand make contributions to thelasting stability, prosperity anddevelopment of Tibet," thestate-run Xinhua news agencyreported.

However, the CPC-runtabloid Global Times said thatXi in his meeting with the PLArepresentatives “stressed thatthe local troops should fullystrengthen the work of trainingsoldiers and war preparationand contribute positivestrength to promote the long-term stability and prosperity ofTibet".

Xi's first visit to Tibet tookplace amidst the current India-China military tensions in east-ern Ladakh.

Jerusalem: Amid the ragingcontroversy over its surveil-lance software Pegasus, Israelicybersecurity company NSOGroup has defended itself bysaying that millions of peoplearound the world sleep well atnight and walk in the streetssafely due to such technologiesavailable with intelligence andlaw enforcement agencies.

The company also statedthat it does not operate thetechnology nor does it haveaccess to the data collected byits clients.

The alleged use of thePegasus software to spy onjournalists, human rightsdefenders, politicians and oth-ers in a number of countries,including India, has triggeredconcerns over issues relating toprivacy. Politicians, rightsactivists and journalists wereamong those targeted withphone spyware sold to variousgovernments by the Israelifirm, according to an interna-tional media consortium.

“Millions of people aroundthe world are sleeping well atnight, and safely walking in thestreets, thanks to Pegasus andsimilar technologies which helpintelligence agencies," aspokesperson for NSO said. PTI

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President Joe Biden led thekind of campaign rally that

was impossible last yearbecause of the pandemic,speaking before nearly 3,000people in support of a fellowmoderate Democrat whoserace for Virginia governorcould serve as a test of Biden'sown strength and coattails.

Biden motorcaded acrossthe Potomac River Friday night

to back Terry McAuliffe, a for-mer governor looking for a sec-ond term whose centrist lean-ings in many ways mirror thoseof the president. The race isseen as an early measure of vot-ers' judgment on Democraticcontrol of all branches of thefederal government.

The president stood beforean enthusiastic and largelyunmasked crowd who gatheredaround a park pavilion andplayground on a warm July

night. He emphasized that heshared the same vision asMcAuliffe about the need forgreater public investments inorder to drive economicgrowth. But Biden was alsofocused on the political stakes.

“You're not gonna findanyone, I mean anyone, whoknows how to get more donefor Virginia than Terry,” Bidensaid. “Off-year election, thecountry's looking. This is a bigdeal.”

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New Delhi:The country’slargest lender State Bank ofIndia (SBI) on Saturday openeda branch at President’s Estate.The branch was inaugurated byPresident Ram Nath Kovindalong with First Lady SavitaKovind, in the presence ofFinance Minister NirmalaSitharaman, SBI said in a state-ment.The branch will provideall types of banking servicesincluding safe deposit lockersto the residents of President’sEstate, it said.Secretary to thePresident K D Tripathi, SBIChairman Dinesh Khara andother senior officials of thebank were also present at theinauguration ceremony, itsaid.This branch at President’sEstate is a jewel in the crownfor SBI and will offer a conve-nient and seamless bankingexperience to all the customers,said Khara. PTI

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The Indian pharmaceuticalIndustry is expected to

grow almost by three times toabout 130 billion US dollars by2030, Chairman of Dr Reddy’sLaboratories, K Satish Reddysaid on Saturday. “If you see,currently it’s (pharmaceuticalindustry) about 42 billion dol-lars, half between the domes-tic sales, half between theexports. We expect that it willgrow almost by three times inthe coming decade, reachingalmost 120 to 130 billion dol-lars by 2030. Truly, we believethat we are poised for a tremen-dous growth in the coming

decade,” he predicted.Reddy, Chairman of

Boardof Governors of NIPER-Hyderabad, was virtuallyaddressing the 9thConvocation of the institute.

The government’s encour-agement (‘Atma NirbharBharat’ policy), a lot of reformsin the policy to incentivize theindustry and thrust being givento innovation, among others,augur well for the industry, hesaid.

The Indian pharmaceuticalindustry worked continuouslyduring the testing times ofCovid-19 pandemic secondwave to ensure the availabilityof life saving medicines.

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Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman on Saturday

said honest taxpayers deserveto be recognised for dutifullypaying their due share of taxesand appreciated the IncomeTax Department for successfulimplementation of variousreforms.

In her message to the I-TDepartment on the 161stanniversary of Income TaxDay, she complimented thedepartment for continuing towork towards simplifying itsprocedures and processes, andmaking its functioning hassle-free, fair and transparent.

“The minister observedthat the honest taxpayersdeserve to be recognized for thecontribution they are makingto the progress of the nation bydutifully paying their due shareof taxes... She also lauded tax-

payers for discharging theircompliance obligations despitethe difficulties caused by thepandemic,” an official state-ment said.

Minister of State forFinance Pankaj Chaudharyobserved that most of theprocesses and compliancerequirements have been shift-ed to online platforms and theneed for taxpayers to physical-ly visit tax offices has beeneliminated or minimized.

He highlighted the factthat the interaction with tax-payers is now characterized bya spirit of trust and respect,relying more on voluntarycompliance.

Revenue Secretary TarunBajaj also complimented thedepartment for having donewell in adapting itself to theemergent changes in the econ-omy and having been able toachieve a healthy growth in tax

collections.He also appreciated the

initiatives undertaken by thedepartment to reorient itsapproach towards revenue col-lection, making its functioningtrust-based and taxpayer-cen-tric.

Central Board of DirectTaxes (CBDT) Chairman J BMohapatra lauded the taxofficers for their collectiveefforts and effectively fulfill-ing their twin role as the rev-enue earning arm of thenation and provider of tax-payer services.

Referring to the larger andfar-reaching policy measureslike ‘Honouring the Honest’,Faceless Regime and adoptionof the Taxpayers’ Charter, henoted that these initiatives havemade the departmental func-tioning more transparent,objective and taxpayer-friend-ly.

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Commerce and IndustryMinister Piyush Goyal on

Saturday expressed confidencethat India will continue toattract high foreign directinvestment (FDIs) in the cur-rent financial year.

He said India has receivedhighest ever FDI in the Covid-impacted 2020, in contrastwith a shrinkage in invest-ment inflows globally.

In 2020-21, FDI into thecountry grew by 19 per cent toUSD 59.63 billion. Total FDI,including equity, re-investedearnings and capital, rose 10per cent to USD 81.72 billionduring 2020-21 as against USD74.39 billion in 2019-20.

“This year, we are veryconfident that we will contin-ue this streak of seven contin-uous years of historic highs inour foreign investments,” Goyalsaid at the CII-Horasis IndiaMeeting webinar.

Similarly, he said, India’sexports too are recordinghealthy growth and wouldreach USD 400 billion by theend of the current financialyear.

During July 1-21, exportcrossed USD 22 billion and itis “poised to cross USD 32-33billion by end of the month(July), which means our runrate is on track to achieveUSD 400 billion of exports tar-get for the first time ever”.

Further, he said that cur-

rently India is in talks with 16countries including the UK, theEU, Australia, Canada, andthe UAE for trade agreements.

With some countries,India is working for early har-vest agreements which willallow the country to quicklyidentify areas of mutual inter-est and progress negotiationsfaster towards a comprehensiveeconomic partnership agree-ment, or FTAs, the ministersaid. “We have focused ourefforts on a few very promisingagreements where I can clear-ly see huge comparative advan-tages for India to get marketaccess and the ability to tradeboth in goods and services ina much bigger way. The UK,EU, Australia, Canada, UAE arecountries with whom we canvery quickly expand our dis-cussions and engagements,” headded.

India has inked FTAs withseveral countries, includingJapan, South Korea, Singapore,and ASEAN members.

Under such agreements,two trading partners signifi-cantly reduce or eliminateimport/customs duties on themaximum number of goodstraded between them.

Talking about vaccination,he said the government hadpermitted the private sector toprocure 25 per cent of Covid-19 vaccines but

they are not buying.“CII should take a

lead and get all of you toensure that you take that 25 percent vaccines... Some industrygroup said we will do onecrore vaccinations...Nobodyhas gone to Bihar, North East,Jharkhand to run campaigns toremove vaccine hesitancy,” hesaid.

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Oil marketing companies(OMC) continued to

pause fuel price revision forseven consecutive days, thelongest period in weeks, as theglobal development on oil pro-duction and rising US inven-tories softened crude andproduct rates.

However, they stoppedshort of reducing the retailprice of petrol and diesel asmore time will be required tostudy oil price movementbefore any downward revi-sion.

Already, crude has firmeda bit for last few days and thiscould prevent price cut by theOMCs.

With no change in priceson Saturday, in the nationalcapital petrol continues to besold for Rs 101.84 per litre,while diesel remains at theunchanged price of Rs 89.87 alitre.

The pump price of fuel hasbeen static since Sunday. It lastincreased on July 17 withpetrol being revised upwardsby 30 paisa per litre, whilediesel prices remainedunchanged. One of the mainreasons for pause in fuel pricerise is an over 10 per cent fallseen in global oil prices withbenchmark crude sliding to$69 a barrel from a high of over$77 barrel just a few weeks ago.It had again risen to over $74a barrel on strong demand pro-jections.

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International air travel shouldbe opened up for at least fully

vaccinated air passengers, glob-al airlines’ association IATAtold IANS.As per the associa-tion, a comprehensive systemshould be set in place thatallows hassle free travel forthose inoculated. Moreover,the system should also ensuretesting and verification of thosepassengers who have not beeninoculated but without increas-ing the already set restrictions.

“Vaccination and testinghave a role to play in therecovery of international trav-

el. It is not an option to wait forvaccines to be widely availablebefore reopening borders. Theglobal vaccine roll-out is like-ly to take time,” said ConradClifford, IATA’s DeputyDirector General and RegionalVice President for Asia Pacific.

“That’s why testing is thealternative for those who donot have access to vaccines orare unable to be vaccinated forvarious reasons.”

According to Clifford, it isnot sustainable to maintain azero case load approach, espe-cially with scientists believingthat Covid-19 will end upbecoming endemic.

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India’s key equity indices areexpected to maintain caution

on the back of rising Covidcases globally as well as the ratedecision of the US Fed duringthe upcoming week.

However, expectations ofrobust quarterly results alongwith hopes for an acceleratedeconomic recovery will retaininvestors’ interest in the mar-ket.

“US Fed interest rate andprogress in spread ofCoronavirus and its variantswill be watched keenly,” saidDeepak Jasani, Head of RetailResearch at HDFC Securities.

“Nifty has formed lowertop lower bottom on weeklycharts compared to the previ-ous week. Hence 15,962 resis-tance becomes an importantdeterminant of the future direc-tion.”

Besides, Jasani cited that aslong as this level (15,962) is notbreached, markets, sectors andstocks could undergo rota-tional profit taking.

Furthermore, the weekahead will witness the releaseof Q1FY22 corporate resultsfrom ICICI Bank, ITC,Indusind Bank, Axis Bank,L&T, Tata Motors, Kotak Bank,Dr Reddys, Maruti Suzuki.

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The Adjusted Gross Revenue(AGR) related dues payable

by telecom majors, includingVodafone Idea and BhartiAirtel, cannot be a subjectmatter of any future litigation,the Supreme Court has said.

A bench headed by JusticeL Nageswara Rao stated thiswhile dismissing the plea of tel-cos seeking rectification ofalleged errors in the calculationof AGR.

The top court said the dis-pute relating to AGR has beenpending in courts for a verylong period of time and thedues payable by TSPs (TelecomService Providers) cannot bethe subject matter of any futurelitigation.

It said there is no room forany doubt from the perusal ofthe earlier judgement datedSeptember 1, 2020 with respectto this court entertaining anyapplication for altering theAGR dues of the TSPs.

The court said that issuesconcerning the ambit of pro-ceedings under Section 18 ofthe Insolvency and BankruptcyCode, 2016 in relation to spec-trum, the manner in whichpayment has to be made by andliabilities apportioned betweenthe TSPs in case of spectrumsharing and spectrum trading,“with which we are not con-cerned in these Applications”,

were also dealt with in itsjudgment dated September 1,2020

The telecom companieshad pleaded before the apexcourt that arithmetical “errors”in the calculation be rectifiedand claimed there were cases ofduplication of entries.

“Though these applica-tions appear to be innocuous atfirst blush, the end result of therelief sought by the applicantsin the guise of correction orrectification of the defects orarithmetical errors in the cal-culation of AGR dues, would berecalculation which wouldamount to the AGR dues, asspecified in the order of thisCourt dated July 20, 2020,being altered.

“The dispute relating toAGR dues had remained pend-ing in courts for a very longperiod of time and bearing thisin mind, this Court was atpains to emphasise, at the costof repetition, that the AGRdues payable by TSPs cannot bethe subject matter of any futurelitigation,” the bench also com-prising justices S A Nazeer andM R Shah said.

The apex court said theorder dated July 20, 2020 makesit clear that there is no scope forany recalculation/re-computa-tion of AGR dues.

“Even at the time of pass-ing of the order dated July 20,2020, an attempt was made to

seek recalculation and reassess-ment, as recorded in the order,which was rejected by thisCourt outright,” the benchsaid.

The top court inSeptember last year had givena time period of 10 years totelecom service providersstruggling to pay Rs 93,520crores of AGR-related dues toclear their outstanding amountto the government.

During the hearing on theapplications on July 19, thebench had referred to an ear-lier order passed by the apexcourt in the matter andobserved that it said no re-assessment of AGR-relateddues can be done.

One of the lawyers repre-senting a telecom firm had con-tended that they were notblaming the Department ofTelecommunications (DoT) forit as there are arithmeticalentries and they want to placethe entries before the depart-ment so that they can re-con-sider it.

In its September last yearorder, the apex court had saidthat telecom operators shallmake the payment of 10 per-cent of the total dues asdemanded by the DoT byMarch 31, 2021 and the restamount to be paid in yearlyinstallments commencing fromApril 1, 2021 to March 31,2031.

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The country is in an excitingphase of growth and the

economy is expected to addUSD 2.5 trillion in the next 5-10 years, Paytm founder andCEO Vijay Shekhar Sharmasaid on Saturday.

“If this country’s economyis USD 2.5 trillion today. Innext 5-10 years, you will seeanother USD 2.5 trillion. Ittook 70 years for us to make itUSD 2.5 trillion ... Now only in10 years all that history will berecreated and doubled.

“It’s an amazing, inspiringmoment for us to be in Indiaand lucky to be in India,”Sharma said while speaking ata 2-day virtual youth conclaveorganised by IMC Chambers ofCommerce and Industry.

He said one should neverhesitate to do what they feelvery strongly about even if itseems small.

“When somebody makesyou feel that you’re solo.. That’sjust the way you handle the

adversity.And once you are a success,

all these adversities will becomethe folklores, so you shouldnever feel bad about it,” headded.

Meanwhile, Arin CapitalChairman Mohandas Pai inanother session of the conclavesaid, new business models cancome up as the wide distribu-tion network is no longer thelimiting factor for businesses.

“So your business modelscan come up, you can start abusiness and produce some-thing in India and sell to thewhole world cheaply,” he added.

He said through technolo-gy the disadvantage and advan-tage of starting a business inany country no longer exist.

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In March last year schools’ gates were shut,hoping to open in a few months, but thatmonth never came. It has been more than18 months into the pandemic, and itremains unclear when physical class-

rooms will resume — though, it will notbecome part of history.

From online classes to no Boards, the edu-cation sector had seen several unprecedentedchanges during this period. Were these for thebetter is a question still unanswered.

67�67��� ����However, the constant to and fro in Boards

or school assessment decisions has exposed sev-eral fault lines in the education sector. Amid allthe noise, students are left confused regardingtheir future. “The pandemic has, indeed,exposed fault lines and fundamental flaws in theeducation sector that existed even earlier. Wemust take this opportunity to not merely sailthrough the pandemic but to reform the systemfrom scratch based on sound scientific princi-ples of what constitutes good learning,” says DrJamshed Bharucha, Founding Vice Chancellor,Sai University. He adds that the 50-50 formu-la on CBSE Boards is an understandable deci-sion under crisis circumstances, but it shouldspur systemic reform for the future.

However, Bharucha says, “I would be inter-ested to hear the explanation of why Class X andClass XI are given equal weightage, given thatstudents are conditioned to view 11th as lessimportant.

Students should not be penalised for nothaving taken 11th exams seriously, which hasbeen the cynical message communicated tothem by the system.”

Prof Dheeraj Sanghi, VC Designate, JKLakshmipat University, believes that as a shortterm measure to reduce anxiety and stress instudents, this is a welcome move. But this doesnot address the issue of quality at all.

On the other hand, Dr Sanjay Govind Patil,Associate Dean & Director — RICS School ofBuilt Environment, Amity University, Mumbai,says that it is a much-appreciated step to helpbreak down the syllabus. “I fully vouch for thismove because it will break down the entireassessment into small parts; hence, learning willbe much better. Students’ shortcomings in theprevious part exam could be overcome in thenext exam through a robust feedback mecha-nism, thus achieving a better learning outcome,”opines Patil.

��A� ����������High-stakes exams, Bharucha says, have no

empirical support in research on learning. Thelearning tends to be transient, devoid of mean-ingful context, and does not transfer well to thekinds of problems students will have to solveas professionals. Research shows that, if admin-istered frequently — with feedback after eachexam and repeated testing of the same mater-ial in different ways — exams can be powerfultools for learning, not just for assessment.

“The system has failed students by contin-

uing to rely on high-stakes examinations. Whyshould a single mark on a single high schoolexam be the measure of what you’ve learnedthroughout high school? Why should it deter-mine what you can and cannot do in the future?Research on how the brain learns is complete-ly at odds with this system of learning andassessment,” says Bharucha.

He adds that the CBSE Board decisions forthis batch are understandable, but they areband-aids; they should be followed by mean-ingful steps to re-energise, mentor, and empow-er students whose education got disrupted andlives thrown into confusion. Most of these stu-dents, probably, will adjust and be fine. But,some may fall between the cracks of this rigidsystem of narrow credentialing and career chan-nelling.

�������� ����“The Board should establish a committee

consisting of a broad range of stakeholders —including students — to hear the concerns ofstudents who have been adversely affected andto propose ways to get these students back ontrack in life. A nation has a responsibility toensure that every single child should have a pro-ductive path forward,” says Bharucha.

The Board should also establish a diverseblue-ribbon committee to implement NEPrecommendations at the high school level. Thegoal should be to enable students' unique tal-ents and shortcomings and give them the fun-damental cognitive tools to pursue their dreams.Society benefits when all talent is unleashed —in all its messy but glorious diversity.

“There is no empirical basis for forcing stu-dents to make irreversible choices betweenstreams. A student may love math and litera-ture, computers and music, biology and eco-nomics. It’s the unforeseen combinations ofideas that will trigger future innovations — andcontinuous innovation is what driveseconomies. We, as educators, are deeply mis-taken if we believe we know which branches ofknowledge are in the best interests of our chil-dren to know,” adds Bharucha.

Sanghi says that the problems of quality ineducation were well-known much before thepandemic. “I feel that the problems of qualityin the school education sector were well-known much before the pandemic. The AnnualState of Education Report (ASER) has beentelling us how poorly our students have beenperforming even with our standards. As far asinternational standards are concerned, we havenot even participated in the Program forInternational Students Assessment (PISA),”says Sanghi.

���� ���������������Yet, the pandemic has exposed one myth

which was that technology would solve all ourproblems. “There is no doubt that technologycan help, but we have seen during the pandemicthat access to technology is limited. We may takepride in having the largest number of mobilephone users with Internet access or the high-

est per capita data consumption, but all this isskewed, and the poor still has little access toonline education. If we want to depend on tech-nology to improve the quality of our education,we will have to seriously think about how under-privileged sections of our society can getaccess to both devices and data, and perhapsspace where they can study peacefully,” addsSanghi.

Being compelled to teach online has high-lighted the known weakness of passive formsof learning in which teachers speak and studentslisten. To keep the attention of studentsonline, teachers have had to make the online ses-sions more interactive.

“But active and interactive learning shouldbe the norm even in the physical classroom. Ina physical classroom, a student can be physi-cally present but mentally absent. Only by hav-ing students actively engaged (speaking, solv-ing problems, collaborating, creating) in theclassroom can meaningful and enduring learn-ing be optimised. So, let’s come out of the pan-demic with an agenda for fundamental reformthat is more than a temporary crisis fix,” saysBharucha.

&�� �'���&��A&� �����Since we are amid a pandemic of the kind

that hasn’t happened in the world for 100 years,Sanghi says, there is going to be an emergencyresponse, and the decisions will change as thetrajectory of the virus changes.

“So, confusions will happen, and that wouldcause anxiety and stress amongst the students.We need to work on two aspects. One, what todo while the pandemic is still a threat, and edu-cation will continue to see disruptions. And sec-ond, what to do when the pandemic threat hassufficiently faded, and we are back to some nor-malcy,” he says.

In the current scenario, experts believe thatwe must keep some semblance of educationgoing, at least what is considered as more impor-tant aspects of it, so we have reduced syllabus,easier exams, teacher training in online edu-cation, access to technology for the poor andso on.

“When we finally open up, we may need toredesign the curriculum of the next few years.Maybe some fresher courses. Each schoolBoard will have to plan the post-pandemic sce-nario carefully. It should not happen that theynow want to cover both — what was left dur-ing the pandemic and the usual syllabus of thenext classes. That would be too much of a bur-den on students,” opines Sanghi.

��� ���� ����� ��������� Experts say that there are many issues in

every aspect of school education. And we doneed to rethink the whole education processholistically. However, few simple things canimprove the quality of education in the shortterm drastically.

“One idea is to ensure that the marks print-ed on the board marksheet reflect the educa-tional attainments of the students. And, I am

not referring to this year's process where youget some marks assigned based on your per-formance in something completely different.Even in pre-Covid times, CBSE would add lotsof marks to the actual marks obtained by thestudents.; this is beside the practical markswhere the whole country seems to get perfectscores. And that is on top of having easy papersand an extremely liberal grading. It may benoted that CBSE has the reputation of being oneof the best school boards in India. If we canbring in honesty in evaluation by the boards,there will be a lot of pressure within the systemto perform better,” says Sanghi.

He adds that the boards cannot be honestsince there is competition among the schoolboards to be more dishonest than the others -- a race to the bottom. “They justify it on thegrounds that if one board tries to be honest, itsstudents will face difficulty in gaining admis-sions in universities that only look at Class XIImarks. Also, if one State board tries to be hon-est, the pass percentage in that State would godown, leading to political issues. And frankly,there is no political constituency for quality edu-cation. There is only a lip service paid to thequality,” he says.

����&�����������>����The changes, Sanghi says, should begin with

having a large number of school boards.“Maybe every district should have one. Theremay be some school boards that are State-wideand a few which are national. By having 100sof small school boards, it would be possible forsome boards to do experiments in improvingquality that may succeed, and others could learnfrom it. Also, political pressures would be loweron individual boards if they all affect a small-er number of students,” opines Sanghi.

Second, there could be a few standardisedtests in various subjects that would be option-al for students. Students will take those tests onlyif the university they seek considers these testscores as one of the inputs in deciding admis-sions. “Universities should develop admissionstrategies that consider multiple parameters(and unlike the popular perception, it is pos-sible to have a completely objective system thatconsiders multiple parameters). If the admis-sions are based on standardised tests andother achievements of the students, we couldstart the admission process six months early.Students can be offered admission before theBoard exams, and they will then take thoseexams in a stress-free fashion,” adds Sanghi.

Bharucha thinks, "In the future, continuousmodes of assessment should be adopted (bi-weekly or monthly). Research shows that fre-quent assessment produces more enduringlearning than a single assessment at the end; thiswill not be the last pandemic, nor will it be thelast crisis that disrupts our lives. Learning andassessment must both be continuous. At anygiven cross-section in time, the student, theschool, and the Board should know where a stu-dent stands."

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An Olympic medal final-ly around her neck, starIndian weightlifter

Mirabai Chanu on Saturdaysaid she can finally take abreak at home without worry-ing about training after manag-ing just five trips to her placein Manipur in the last fiveyears.

“I have just been home forfive days in the past five years.Now I will go with this medal,”said Chanu, whose family isbased in Nongpok Kakchingvillage about 20 kilometresfrom Imphal.

“I will now go home andeat food made by my mother,”she added.

Chanu revealed that afterthe Rio Games debacle shechanged her training and tech-nique completely so that shecould redeem herself in Tokyo.

Competing in her secondOlympics, Chanu claimed theSilver medal in the 49kg cate-gory with a total of 202kg(87kg+115kg). It was India’ssecond Olympic medal in thesport after Karnam Malleswari’sBronze that came 21 years ago

at the Sydney Games.“My dream of winning an

Olympic medal has been ful-filled today. I tried a lot in Rio,put in a lot of effort but it wasnot my day then. I thought thatday only that I will provemyself in Tokyo,” Chanu saidduring a virtual press confer-ence.

Considered a strong medalcontender five years ago in Rioas well, Chanu buckled underpressure in the women’s 48kgevent and failed to log a legit-imate lift.

“I learnt a lot from that day— my training and techniquewas changed, we put in a lot ofeffort after that.

“I was very sad after Rio,there was a lot of pressure onme and I got nervous, I could-n’t understand anything fordays but then coach sir and thefederation counselled me, told

me that I have a lot of poten-tial,” she added.

Head coach Vijay Sharmarevealed he was also under a lotof pressure after the disappoint-ing outing in Rio.

“There was a lot of pressureon me after the Rio failure, wefailed in a very important com-petition and we were expectedto win then also,” Sharma said.

Determined to prove her-self in the Tokyo Games,Chanu and Sharma changedthe Manipuri’s training,employing a more stringentregimen.

“After that we changed thetraining pattern and techniquea lot. The result of which wesaw in the 2017 in world cham-pionship, then we took theGold in the 2018Commonwealth Games. Wewon a medal in the 2019 worldchampionship. We have been

growing and improving regu-larly.

“The lesson we learnt wasthat we need a lot of determi-nation and discipline. I workedwith that and Mira partneredme.

“She hasn’t done anythingbut eat, sleep and train in thelast five years. It took us 2.5years instead of 1.5 for theOlympic qualification becauseof coronavirus. Overall theresult of the journey is that weare sitting here today with themedal.”

The Manipuri’s sole focusfor the past five years was onwinning a medal at theOlympics and that requiredseveral sacrifices including stay-ing away from her family.

The efforts paid off asChanu went on to win theworld championship in 2017following it with a Gold at the

2018 Commonwealth Games.At the 2019 Asian champi-

onship she picked up a Bronzein clean and jerk where medalsare awarded separately forsnatch, clean and jerk, andtotal lift.

Ahead of the Tokyo Games,the Khel Ratna awardee hadcreated a world record in cleanand jerk at the 2020 Asianchampionship earlier this year.

Chanu hoped her exploitsin the international arena andthe Olympics win can inspiremore girls to take up the sportspecially weightlifting.

“There will be change, thereare few girls in weightliftingright now but I hope many willbe inspired by me and will feelthey can also achieve somethingin the sport.”

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Tokyo: India’s slim hopes for atable tennis medal in mixeddoubles vanished in no time butManika Batra and SutirthaMukherjee made promisingstarts to their women’s singlescampaign on Saturday.

The start to India’s table ten-nis campaign was disappointingwith Sharath Kamal and Manikalosing 0-4 to the third seedsLin Yun-Ju and Cheng I-Ching of Chinese Taipei inthe mixed doubles roundof 16.

However, worldnumber 62Manika returnedto beat 94th-ranked Tin-Tin Ho ofBritain 4-0 inher singlesopener while98th-rankedS u t i r t h amade as t r o n gimpres-sion on

her Olympics debut with a comefrom behind 4-3 win against78th-ranked Linda Bergstrom ofSweden.

Mukherjee play Portugal’sFu Yu in the second roundwhile Manika takes on Ukraine’sMargaryta Pesotska.

Mukherjee showed remark-able grit to down her Swedish

opponent after trailing 1-3 inthe best of seven affair. Shewon 5-11, 11-9, 11-13, 9-11,11-3, 11-9, 11-5.

Earlier in the mixeddoubles, Sharath and

Manika had tomake all chancescount against asuperior oppo-nent fromChinese Taipeibut they couldn’tdo so after lead-ing 5-1 and 5-3

in the first two games.In the end, it was acomfortable 11-8, 11-6, 11-5, 11-4 win forLin and Cheng.

Tokyo: The Indian men’s dou-bles pair of SatwiksairajRankireddy and Chirag Shettyshocked the world No 3 pair ofYang Lee and Chi-Lin Wang ofChinese Taipei in a thrillinggroup A match of the bad-minton competition wherethe country experienced dis-appointment in the singles’event on Saturday.

Chirag and Satwik, thecurrent world No 10, notchedup a stunning 21-16, 16-21,27-25 win over third seeds Leeand Wang, who had claimedback-to-back titles at theYonex Thailand Open, ToyotaThailand Open and BWFWorld Tour Finals in Thailandearlier this year.

However, 13th seeded BSai Praneeth suffered a demor-alising 17-21, 15-21 loss toworld number 47 MishaZilberman of Israel in a 41-minute men’s singles group Dmatch.

Satwik and Chirag, whohave been working underDanish coach Mathias Boefor the last few months, dishedout a tactical superior gameand held their nerves in thefinal moments to emerge vic-torious during the one hourand nine minute contest,which turned out to be anedge-of-the-seat thriller.

The Indians had five

match points but the ChineseTaipei pair, the 2018 Worldchampionship Bronze-medal-lists, saved all of them beforegrabbing one themselves butChirag and Satwik were up tothe task and had the last laugh.

Satwik and Chirag willnext play Indonesian world No1s Marcus Fernaldi Gideonand Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljoon Sunday.

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Tokyo: Sumit Nagal on Saturdaybecame only the third Indiantennis player to win a men’s sin-gles match at the OlympicGames and the first in 25 years,when he edged past DenisIstomin 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-4 in twohours and 34 minutes on court10 at the Ariake Tennis Centre.

Zeeshan Ali was the firstIndian to win a singles match atthe 1988 Seoul Games when hebeat Victo Caballero fromParaguay.

After that, the legendaryLeander Paes won the historicmen’s singles Bronze at the 1996Atlanta Games, beating Brazil’s

Fernando Meligeni.No Indian could win a sin-

gles match after Paes’ heroic feat.“To lose second set from 5-

3 and then comeback in thethird set in a weather like this,is not easy. Playing for my coun-try gave me the push,” saidNagal after the match.

Nagal now faces a herculeantask as he takes on AustralianOpen runner-up Medvedev.

“I am very excited for thismatch to play the world numbertwo on a big court. That’s whywe play tennis for, to live forthese moments. I am lookingforward to it,” he said.

Tokyo: Indian boxer VikasKrishan (69kg) was out-punched 0-5 and left with abloodied eye by local favouriteSewonrets Quincy MensahOkazawa as he bowed out ofOlympics on Saturday afterfighting with a shoulder injuryin the opening round.

The 29-year-old Vikas sus-tained a cut below his left eye inthe high-voltage clash.

“During the last sparringsession in Italy (before the teamleft for Tokyo), he injured hisshoulder. He got treatment andwe had hoped that he would be

fine, he started without prob-lem,” India’s High PerformanceDirector Santiago Nieva said.

“But when he attempted ajab at Okazawa’s body, he hurtthe shoulder again and couldnot use his left hand properly.He fought with one hand today,”the Swede added.

Vikas was the only Indianboxer in action on the day.

On Sunday, six-time worldchampion M C Mary Kom(51kg) and CommonwealthGames Silver-medallist ManishKaushik will compete in theiropening bouts.

Tokyo: Harmanpreet Singhscored a brace and veteran goal-keeper P R Sreejesh stood like awall in the closing minutes as theIndian men’s hockey team over-came a late surge from NewZealand to eke out a close 3-2win in its opening OlympicGames match on Saturday.

Aside from Harmanpreet(26th and 33rd minutes),Rupinder Pal Singh (10th) wasthe other goal-getter for theeight-time former champions,currently ranked fourth in theworld, in the Pool A match at theOi hockey stadium.

For the eighth-ranked NewZealand, Kane Russell scoredfrom a penalty corner in thesixth minute before StephenJenness (43rd minute) reducedthe margin of defeat later in thematch.

India will next play mightyAustralia on Sunday. TheKookaburras beat hosts Japan 5-3 in another Pool A tie.

India’s chief coach GrahamReid was happy to start the cam-paign on a winning note but saidthere are many areas to improveahead of Sunday’s tough match.

“Winning three points in acompetition like the OlympicGames is really important. Ithink we had a good second andthird quarter but the first andfourth we struggled a little bit,”he said.

“When we watch the videolater today, we will be able to findout what we need to get betterat and surely there are going tobe things we learn from today

too,” he added.

INDIA WOMEN LOSE 1-5The Indian women’s hock-

ey team fought valiantly in thefirst two quarters before losingthe steam to go down 1-5 againstworld No 1 Netherlands in theiropening pool match.

Felice Albers gaveNetherlands the lead in thesixth minute before the advan-

tage was evened out by Indiaskipper Rani Rampal in the10th minute.

The Indians defendedbravely in the first two quartersto go into the half time lockedat 1-1 but the break seemed tohave broken their momentum asthe Dutch came out all gunsblazing after the change of endsand pumped in three goals tonip any chance of an upset in thebud.

Margot van Geffen (33rdminute) restored Netherlands’lead soon after resumptionbefore the three-time Olympicchampions and reigning Silvermedallist scored two goals inquick succession through Albers(43rd) and Frederique Matla(45th) to take control of the pro-ceedings.

If that was not enough,there was more agony in storefor the Indians as CaiaJacqueline van Maasakkerslammed home from their sixthpenalty corner in the 52ndminute.

India will play Germany intheir next Pool A match on July26.

Tokyo: Indian shooters enduredmultiple heartbreaks on the firstday of their competition in theTokyo Olympics on Saturday,with the biggest disappoint-ment being SaurabhChaudhary’s failure to win amedal after topping the qualifi-cations.

Chaudhary could not repli-cate the form he displayed in thequalifications to finish seventhin the men’s 10m air pistol final.

His roommate and friendAbhishek Verma could notmake the eight-man finals, set-tling for the 17th place with 575in the event that was consideredone of India’s best bets for a

podium finish.In the women’s 10m air

rifle event, first-timer ElavenilValarivan and Apurvi Chandela,too, failed to qualify for thefinals, finishing 16th and 36threspectively, at the Akasa Range.

Following his sensationalentry into the finals, a lot of hopewere pinned on Chaudharyafter a dismal show by thewomen. But the script did notpan out the way the country’sshooting team would have want-ed it to.

The Indian ace shot 137.4to be eliminated in the seventhplace. Things were different inthe qualifications though, with

Chaudhar shooting 586 tofinish ahead of a world-classfield, thanks to a perfect 100in the fourth series after back-to-back 98.

Verma was also in con-tention to make the cut afterstaging an excellent rally, but two8s in the final series dashed hishopes.

Earlier in the day, worldnumber one Elavenil finished16th in the qualifications aftershooting 626.5 over six series of10 shots each, while the moreexperienced Apurvi, who is alsothe finals world record holder inthe event, settled for the 36thplace after aggregating 621.9.

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New Delhi: A historic Silvermedal and a radiant smilewere not the only eye-catch-ing things about MirabaiChanu on Saturday in Tokyo,her gold earrings shaped likeOlympic rings were as strik-ing, a gift from her motherwho sold her own jewelleryfor them five years ago.

The hope was that theearrings would bring her“good luck”. It didn’t happenin the Rio 2016 Games butChanu made the little sacrificecount in Tokyo on Saturdaymorning with a Silver medaland Saikhom Ongbi TombiLeima has struggled to stopher tears from flowing eversince.

“I saw the earrings on TV,I gave them to her in 2016before the (Rio) Olympics. Ihave made it for her from thegold pieces and savings I haveso that it brings luck and suc-cess,” Leima said from herhome in Manipur where aconsiderable number of rela-tives, friends and well-wishersgathered to watch Chanuscript history in Tokyo.

“I was in tears seeing itand also during the momentshe won the medal. Her father(Saikhom Kriti Meitei) wasalso in tears. Tears of joy. Allher hard work has led to thesuccess.”

The Chanu household atNongpok Kakching village,around 25km from state cap-ital Imphal, visitors had beentrickling in since Fridaydespite the curfew caused inpart by the Covid-19 pan-demic.

“She had told us she willwin Gold or at least a medal.So, everybody was waiting forit to happen. Many of our rel-

atives who lived far came lastevening. They stayedovernight with us,” Chanu’smother said.

“Many came this morningand the people of the localityalso thronged. So, we havebrought out the television tothe verandah and around 50people were there to watchMirabai in Tokyo. Many sat atthe front courtyard. So, it wasa kind of festival.

The Gold they hadwished for didn’t come but theSilver was enough to send apacked courtyard, glued to theTV, into frenzy as the tense lit-tle crowd broke into celebra-tions, unclenching their fistsand clapping frantically.

Chanu was on video callwith her family from theweightlifting arena in Tokyobefore her event began andshe had sought blessings fromher parents.

“She (Chanu) rarelycomes home (because oftraining) and so we have

made a Whastapp group tocommunicate with eachother,” said Chanu’s cousinAroshini.

“This morning, she had avideo call with all of us andshe bowed down and soughtblessings from her parents.

“She said ‘bless me towin a Gold medal for thecountry’. They gave theirblessings. It was a touchingmoment.”

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“Could not have askedfor a happier start to@Tokyo2020! India is elatedby @mirabai_chanu's stu-pendous performance.Congratulations to her forwinning the Silver medal inweightlifting. Her successmotivates every Indian.#Cheer4India #Tokyo2020.”

—PRIME MINISTERNARENDRA MODI

“Many manyCongratulations to@mirabai_chanu on winningIndia’s first medal at#Tokyo2020. Such An inspir-ing performance that will beremembered for a long timeto come and will inspiregenerations. Well done.”

— ABHINAV BINDRA

“Congratulations for abeautiful opening on medaltally @mirabai_chanu. ThisSecond place medal medal isa morale boost for our Indiancontingent. Thank you for aspectacular perfor-mance…… jai hind.”

— BAJRANG PUNIA

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Manpreet & Co start with win, women’s lose

Shillong: Union Minister Amit Shah andChief Ministers of all eight North Easternstates on Saturday gave a standing ovationto Mirabai Chanu who took home India’sfirst Olympic medal in weightlifting at theongoing Tokyo Olympics, officials said.

Manipur Chief Minister Biren Singhbroke the news during the meeting whichwas chaired by the Union Home Ministerfollowing which everyone in the meetinggave the standing ovation with pride, theysaid. Singh also announced a �1 crore

package besides other perks an Olympianenjoys besides reserving a special post forthe 26 year old Manipur woman.

All eight CMs of the Northeast areattending a meeting presided over by Shahin Meghalaya’s capital Shillong.

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New Delhi: Suryakumar Yadavhas received his maiden Testteam call-up and he along withopener Prithvi Shaw will be fly-ing to England as replacementssought by the team managementafter three players were ruled outdue to injury.

Shubman Gill, WashingtonSundar and Avesh Khan havebeen forced out from the ongo-ing tour. The Test series is dueto start on August 4.

Off-spinner Jayant Yadavwas also supposed to go to UKas Washington’s replacementbut it has been learnt that as ofnow only Suryakumar andPrithvi are being sent.

A senior BCCI office-bear-er confirmed the development.

“Yes, Prithvi and Surya areflying to UK from Sri Lanka.Jayant was also supposed to gobut there has been some changein plans due to quarantinerequirements. Jayant is now notgoing. Both players will have abubble to bubble transfer fromColombo to London. Whetherthey will fly in the middle ofthe T20Is (Shaw and andSuryakumar are part ofteam in Sri Lanka) orpost that is being workedout,” the senior official said.

“But yes, they are ourreplacement players for Testseries in England. They mightjust leave after the threeT20Is but we will getconfirmation inanother three days.”

It is understoodthat Shaw’s formhas impressed theteam managementand MayankAgarwal’s currentrhythm isn’t the greatest.

However, with quar-

antine rules in place, it is notclear if Suryakumar and Shawcan make it in time for the firstTest after completing their hardquarantine.

As far as Jayant is con-cerned, he was considered for hissuperior batting abilities as hehas a Test hundred. He was alsolooked upon as a steady netbowler unless RavichandranAshwin or Ravindra Jadeja suf-fer from any injury in the longseries. But the plan has beenshelved for now.

Suryakumar’s assertive bat-ting could be used during somepoint in the series as AjinkyaRahane’s hamstring injury willkeep the team concerned.

“In any case, if Ajinkyamisses the first Test, it will be KLRahul who will bat in the mid-dle-order in Nottingham. Theteam management is still confi-

dent that Ajinkya mightbe alright before

the first Test.”Howe ve r

no pacer isbeing sent rightnow as alreadythere are seven

speedstersin UK for

m a t c hand netsessions.

PTI

��0�8� ������������+���� ��6������ Colombo: India captain

Shikhar Dhawan said theteam management will tryout new faces but only if theyfit into the best playing XIduring the upcoming three-match T20I series against SriLanka, starting here onSunday.

Like India blood-ed as many as five new-comers in the final ODI,Dhawan indicated onSaturday that he is not averseto experimenting with newmen like Ruturaj Gaikwad,Varun Chakravarthy andDevdutt Padikkal in thecoming games, butseries win will remain apriority.

“New guys defi-nitely have the oppor-tunity to play. We haveto win the series. Inthe last ODI, therewas a good opportuni-ty to give some young-

sters a chance and givethem a taste of interna-tional cricket, becausewe had already won theseries,” Dhawan saidahead of the first game.

“Now it’s a newseries, so we will of

course go in withour best XI first.We will try to

win the first twomatches, and thenaccording to thesituation, we canexperiment in thelast game if need-

ed,” Dhawan said.He also feels

that the current SriLankan team has

shown a markedimprovement throughthe ODI series.

“I think the com-petition will be good.You saw the Sri Lankanteam improve a lot in

the last two matches. Theyplayed really well and they area good team, with a lot ofyoungsters.

“So I think it will makefor a good contest betweenthe two teams. We have bothalready played three matchesnow, so both teams knoweach others’ strengths andweaknesses. That’s a goodthing, and it will add to thechallenge (of the series).”

On a personal note,Dhawan knows that even heis auditioning for a place inthe T20 World Cup side.

“It is very important. Ofcourse, any internationalmatch has its own impact, andwhenever you perform inter-nationally it makes a hugeimpact.

“So, on a personal note, Iam really looking forward to

perform over here and makemy place more stronger for

the World Cup. Then we’ll seehow it goes in the future.”

Tokyo: Indian judoka ShushilaDevi’s challenge in the TokyoOlympics came to an early endas she lost her contest toHungarian Eva Csernoviczki.

Csernoviczki, a 2012London edition Bronze medal-list, pinned Shushila for a full 20seconds to claim the Ippon andwin the round of 32 match.

Shushila fought hard for amajor part of the bout until shecommitted a small error, whichproved to be disastrous for theIndian and cost her the match.

Shushila was the onlyIndian Judo athlete at this year’sOlympic Games.

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Going by the rankings it wasa fair call but tactically

appears a mistake as PravinJadhav joined Deepika Kumarifor archery’s mixed pair eventinstead of Atanu Das and thelast-minute pairing fumbled togo out of the medal race at theTokyo Games, here on Saturday.

Deepika and Jadhav lookedcompletely out of sorts and lost2-6 to Korea in the quarterfinalsdespite some below-par shoot-ing by the top seeds.

The two Korean Olympicdebutants, 17-year-old Kim JeDeok and 20-year-old An Sanwon two sets despite scoringonly 35 out of a possible 40showed the below-par shootingsby both the teams.

The team think-tank hereon Friday made the bold deci-sion to split up the husband-wifecombination of Deepika andDas, who had won a World Cupmixed team Gold less than amonth back in Paris.

The mixed teams areformed on the basis of scoresand on Friday it was Jadhav whowas best among the trio finish-ing 31st, four places ahead ofDeepika’s ‘favourite’ partner Dasin the ranking round.

Countries, however, haveone-hour time to exercise theoption of switching to theirbest combination but the Indianthink-tank chose to be bold.

Deepika was already unhap-py at the surprise decision torejig the combination.

“I’m a little sad, he (AtanuDas) is not with me in the mixedteam. It mattered, as I reallywanted to play with him but itdid not happen,” Deepika saidafter the first round win againstChinese Taipei.

Archery Association ofIndia (AAI) official VirendraSachdeva, who is accompanyingthe team in Tokyo, howeverdefended the decision.

“There was no problem

with the coordination as we didreally well to bounce backagainst the Chinese Taipei.

“But archery at theOlympics will remain a mysteryfor us. We lost the match in thefirst set only after we failed towin despite the Koreans shoot-ing a poor 35.”

“It’s not the Koreans whowon, we lost the match. I’venever seen Koreans shoot sopoorly that too at the highestlevel.”

Asked about the decision toleave out Das, he said: “He(Jadhav) earned his place pure-ly based on the ranking scoreand there was absolutely nofavoritism. Our selection com-mittee was neutral and sent ourNo 1 archer. There’s always a firsttime together.”

Deepika and Jadhav lookedscrappy in their first matchtogether against Chinese Taipeiand trailed 1-3 but the duoseized the momentum with six10s in the final two sets to storminto the last-eight.

Up against the Korean pair,who were making their Olympicdebuts, Deepika failed to notcha single perfect 10 from eightarrows, while rookie Jadhavmisfired a six in the crucialfourth set after drilling in threeperfect 10s to lose the match.

With no women’s team infray, India now stare at yetanother grim prospect as theybrace for tougher challengesahead in the men’s team andindividual rounds slated nextweek.

ROWERS IN REPECHAGEThe Indian rowing duo ofArvind Singh and Arjun Lal Jatqualified for the repechageround after finishing fifth in themen’s lightweight double scullsheat on Saturday.

Competing in heat 2, theIndian pair finished with a tim-ing of 6:40.33 in the six-teamfield, failing to qualify for thesemifinals.

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Aroundup of gold medalsfrom Saturday, July 24 at

the Tokyo Games:

ARCHERY (MIXED TEAM)An San and teenager Kim

Je Deok paired up to leadSouth Korea to a Gold medal inthe Olympic debut of archery’smixed team event at the TokyoGames.

On a sizzling Saturday atthe Yumenoshima ParkArchery Field, they held offGabriela Schloesser and SteveWijler of the Netherlands by atally of 5-3 to bring home yetanother archery Gold for SouthKorea. The country has nowcaptured 14 of 17 Gold medalsin archery team competitionssince the current format wasintroduced to the Olympics in1988.

Alejandra Valencia andLuis Alvarez combined forMexico and knocked offYasemin Anagoz and MeteGazoz of Turkey to earn theBronze medal.

CYCLING (MEN'S ROADRACE)

Ecuador won its firstcycling medal as RichardCarapaz took Gold in theOlympic road race.

FENCING (WOMEN'S EPEEINDIVIDUAL)

Sun Yiwen of China defeat-ed five-time Olympian AnaMaria Popescu of Romania 11-10 in overtime to win Gold inthe women’s épée fencing com-petition.

Popescu tied the score at 10with 3 seconds remaining to goto overtime, but Sun soonscored the winning point in thedeciding period. Sun complet-ed her set of Olympic medalsafter winning individual Bronzeand team Silver at the 2016 Riode Janeiro Games.

MEN'S SABRE INDIVIDUALAron Szilagyi of Hungary

became the first Olympic fencerto win three individual sabreGold medals after beating LuigiSamele 15-7 in the men’s final.

Szilagyi used his fast reflex-es to build an early 7-1 lead andheld off a brief comeback fromhis Italian opponent beforeclosing out the win.

Szilagyi won Gold at the2012 London Games and the2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.

JUDO (WOMEN'S 48-KILO-GRAM)

Distria Krasniqi of Kosovobeat Funa Tonaki in thewomen’s 48-kilogram Olympicjudo final.

MEN'S 60-KILOGRAMNaohisa Takato has won

Japan’s first Gold medal at itshome Olympics, beatingTaiwan’s Yang Yung-wei in themen’s 60-kilogram judo final.

SHOOTING (WOMEN'S 10-METER AIR RIFLE)

China’s Yang Qian won thefirst Gold medal of the TokyoOlympics in women’s 10-meterair rifle.

Yang overtook AnastasiiaGalashina when the Russianmissed the center two rings foran 8.9 on her final shot.

Yang had a 9.8 on her finalshot and finished with anOlympic record 251.8.Galashina finished at 251.1.

MEN'S 10-METER AIR PIS-TOL

Javad Foroughi has becomethe oldest Iranian athlete to winan Olympic medal, earningGold in men’s 10-meter airpistol.

Foroughi set an Olympicrecord with 244.8 points, finish-ing 6.9 ahead of Silver medal-list Damir Mikec of Serbia.China’s Pang Wei, the 2008Gold medalist, took Bronze.

TAEKWONDO (WOMEN'S49KG & MEN'S 58KG)

Panipak Wongpattanakit ofThailand and Vito Dell’Aquila ofItaly won the first two Goldmedals of the Olympic taek-

wondo competition.Wongpattanakit won her

first Gold in dramatic fashion inthe women’s 49-kilogram final,scoring two points on a bodykick inside the final 10 secondsfor an 11-10 victory over 17-year-old Adriana Cerezo ofSpain. Wongpattanakit’s Gold isonly the 10th in Thailand’sentire Olympic history.

Dell’Aquila defeatedMohamed Khalil Jendoubi ofTunisia 16-12 in the men’s 58-kilogram final to claim his firstOlympic medal.

W E I G H T L I F T I N G(WOMEN'S 49 KG)

Hou Zhihui won China’ssecond Gold medal of theTokyo Olympics with a com-manding showing in thewomen’s 49-kilogramweightlifting category.

Hou lifted a total 210kg,3kg short of her world record,to take Gold.

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Sri Lanka head coach MickeyArthur on Saturday said

his team is improving fast butneeds to have depth in batting.

Sri Lanka lost the ODIseries 1-2 to India but the winin the final ODI gave confi-dence to Arthur.

“We are creating depthsacross all the departmentsnow. We just have to get thatlittle bit of consistency and thatsame depth into our batting,”Arthur said.

“For numerous reasonswe never seem to put our best

batting line up out there. It isbeing about creating depth forme, but also trying to be con-sistent. Giving guys clear rolesbut then allowing them to goout and playing with freedom.We saw a really good exampleof that in Charith (Asalanka)the other night,” added theSouth African.

“The growth I have seen inthese players has been fantas-tic and the growth comesfrom giving them confidenceand giving them that consis-tency that they are going toplay. We will see the rewardsof that in the future for sure,”

the 53-year-old noted.Arthur also said that the

Sri Lankan team learned a"massive amount" from theODI series against India.

"We are right at theembryonic stage of this jour-ney and it is about us playingagainst ourselves every-daywe go out on the ground. Wehave got benchmarks, whichwe want to meet in everygame.

"We are measuring our-selves and the progression interms of those KPIs has beenoutstanding. We are gettingbetter and better," he added.

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Star India batter JemimahRodrigues roared back to

form with a superb unbeaten 92off 43 balls to power NorthernSuperchargers to a six-wicketvictory over Welsh Fire in thefourth match of The Hundredhere on Saturday.

Rodrigues hit an astound-ing 17 boundaries and a six asSuperchargers chased down atarget of 131 in 85 balls afterFire posted 131 for 8 in 100

balls at the Headingley.The innings gains more

significance as Superchargerswere reduced to 19 for 4 after18 balls but Rodrigues’ swiftcounter-attack changed the

course of the match in a flash.Rodrigues had a lean patch

through the home series against

South Africa and the recentlyconcluded limited overs match-es in England as she was

dropped from the playing XIduring both series.

On the day, she showed herattacking instincts with somedelectable strokes all round thewicket as West Indies off-spin-ner Hayley Matthews was takenfor 29 off 15 deliveries includ-ing six boundaries.

She didn’t spare any of thebowlers as 17 out of the 21 foursthat Superchargers hit came offher blade. Fittingly, she got thePlayer of the Match award.Brief Scores: Welsh Fire 131/8in 100 balls (Hayley Matthews30 off 20 balls, LInsey Smith3/14) lost to NorthernSuperchargers 131/4 in 85 balls(Jemimah Rodrigues 92 not outoff 43 balls).

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Boosting immunity has neverbeen a top priority of amajority of people but, it isnow! When travelling thesedays, one might be wonder-

ing how to stay safe, healthy and awayfrom the risk of catching an infection.For sure, you would not want to fallsick on a trip, especially on a work trip.

Spending time in railway stations,airports or places where people gath-er increases the risk of catching flu orcold. Following a healthy routine ona trip is hard and busy schedule,unhealthy food, as well as abnormalsleeping patterns, enhance the prob-lem. From backaches to low immuni-ty and stress-induced headaches,there are many problems that routinetravellers face. Fortunately, there areseveral ways of travel immunity checkand to ensure that nothing puts adamper on your trip and you enjoyyour travel to the fullest.

HEALTHY DIETFollowing a healthy diet in a

routine is always a good idea becausewhile you can plan for a foreseen trip,there is nothing you can do forimmediate travel plans — for work orpersonal reasons. When you are onthe go, you generally rely on packedfood, ready to eat stuff or fast foodwhich interferes with your immunesystem. On top of it, if you follow anunhealthy diet even in routine anddon’t provide your body with thenutrition it needs to ensure a strongerimmune system, it will make youprone to sickness while you travel.

Your immune system needs reg-ular nourishment and good food toperform efficiently so it is important

to follow a diet that is rich in micronu-trients. Also, while you are travelling,make sure to pack some healthysnack like protein bars, dry fruits, dietmixtures etc.

STAY HYDRATEDA hydrated body can save you

from stomach infections, dehydra-tion and many other health issues.Make sure you take a particularamount of water intake daily espe-cially in summers. You can alsoinclude water based fruits and veg-etables in your diet like cucumber,watermelon, orange, musk melon etc.

Even while you are travelling, try tostay hydrated, avoid tapped waterand avoid alcohol & caffeine baseddrinks.

GET ENOUGH SLEEPGetting enough sleep is impor-

tant to ensure a strong immune sys-

tem as a lack of sleep increases thechances of getting sick. Try to getgood night's sleep a few days beforeyou travel to ensure that you arehealthy, active, engaged and safe onyour trip. To get a good sleep, avoidusing smartphones or gadgets atnight and minimise your alcohol &caffeine intake.

EXERCISE Exercise routine and a healthy

diet are directly connected to goodimmunity. Doing some yoga orstretching exercises in a routinecan boost your immunity. You maydownload a fitness or meditationapp to keep yourself motivated.Further, several foods like berries,banana, lemon, kiwi etc in addi-tion to multivitamin supplementshelp in supporting the immunesystem.

WATCH WHAT YOU TOUCHMake sure you don’t touch any

contaminated surface and even if youhave to, wash your hands frequent-ly or sanitise them. Also, avoidtouching your face before sanitisingor washing your hands. You can alsouse disinfectant wipes or spray toclean armrests, table top or any othersurface you come in touch in routineas well as while you are travelling.

Lastly, being fit, healthy andensuring strong immunity should bea lifestyle choice and not somethingyou only follow right before orwhile travelling. The more you fol-low a healthy lifestyle, the less youwill have to worry about immunitycheck before stepping out for avacation or office trip.

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�How did you end up doingSunflower — the web series?

This was my first Hindi ven-ture so I was quite excited aboutit. Like any other actor, I wentthrough a couple of rounds ofauditions and finally made it tothe role.�How was the experience ofworking with Vikas Bahl?

It was amazing. Vikas is agreat mentor. He lets you impro-vise and makes it very comfort-able and easy for an actor to per-form. There’s a lot that I learntfrom him. I hope to associatewith him in the future as well.�What’s your role here? Howexciting was it to do this genre?

I play Justina. The charactershows how every woman can bebold. She speaks her mind outand values that immensely. Sheis confident and independent. Itwas easy to identify with thischaracter; I truly have the samekind of beliefs. So, the character’sattitude towards life is very sim-ilar to mine. I thoroughlyenjoyed being part of this pro-

ject and playing this role. Iwould say that it is among mymy favourites till date.�You started as a model, howdid acting happen?

When I got a call from ManiRatnam’s office, I came on boardfor his hit film, ChekkaChivantha Vaanam. Post that,there’s been no looking back. I’mglad I transcended to films and

I’m looking forward to explor-ing film industry in various lan-guages. I definitely want to bepart of more Bollywood projectsas well and look forward to thedifferent roles that I can play.�You have done so many adcampaigns, what’s the bestpart of it?

The best part of it is that youget to meet a lot of experienced

people and there is always some-thing to take back from eachcampaing that one does. I’velearnt a lot by being part of somany ad campaigns.�Are you still pursuing mod-elling?

Yes, I still enjoy modellingbut I have limited myself to edi-torials and designer campaigns.It all started with modelling, soI can never dissociate myselffrom that.�Lots of actors are doingregional films as well. What isthe driving force here?

Honestly, for me the drivingforce is the content. As far as Iam getting good scripts that havegreat content, I will do thatwhether it’s regional cinema orBollywood. Also I feel, OTT hasbeen great platform for region-al cinema. The medium doesn’treally matter to me. All that mat-ters is the content and my part.�What next?

I am working on a few pro-jects but I can’t really talk aboutthem right now.

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�What is The Most Epic Max Show about?My show is about the smaller simple things

in life that make you feel epic inside, meaningthat you don’t have to do epic things to feel

epic. I think it’s been a rough year andeverybody in the world deserves to feelgood about themselves and celebrate

the smallest things that bring themjoy. I’m coming from a place of notknowing and willing to learn but

also willing to fail massively and glo-riously.

�The show’s concept is fun. Werethere any challenges that you facedwhile shooting? Any fun instancesyou'd like to share?

We shot the show during thepandemic when the lockdown hadlifted. All of a sudden, the frills thatone may usually be used to sudden-ly went away. Limited crews, people inPPE kits all around me, all trying to

create something fun with all cardsstacked against them. It was challenging,

but I had a great team around me thatkept everyone’s moral high. I think the funreally came from the limited resources andthe creative way we improvised when weneeded to.

�In every episode you take on a new task,be it making Maggi in less than two min-utes or writing the perfect apology. Whichepisode stood out for you the most?

I don’t think there is any one partic-ular episode that was more fun to shootthan the other. But I think the foodie inme enjoyed the ice cream episode themost. I surprised myself with how thatturned out. I have my MasterChef

application form on standby.

�What can the viewers expect from theupcoming episode?

As the show progresses, I will contin-ue to take on challenges — pushing mycreative boundaries — while coming upwith innovative techniques and ingenioussolutions. Each challenge is either entire-ly ‘Epic’ or a complete ‘Fail’. Either way, allepisodes create a fun learning experiencefor Snapchatters!

�What helped you stay active/fit phys-ically and mentally during the lockdown?

We all struggled with keeping mental-ly and physically fit in the lockdown. Mylife went from travelling the world andbeing in amongst 1000’s of people everynight to not travelling past my front doorand trying to entertain my wife, which Ialso failed with.

Trying to be creative and knowing thatthere will be light at the end of the tunnelkept me going. Not losing faith, and try-ing to just innovate, preparing myself forthe day I can pack my suitcase again andbe better than when I last unpacked it. Thatkept me going.

�What is your biggest takeaway fromlockdown?

Time! Time to recharge, rethink andrevisit some of the things I had onlythought of but never had the time andmotivation to do.

The biggest takeaway from this chal-lenging phase is that it is important tofind happiness in small things. It’s not theoutcome but the journey that matters.You may either do something out of thebox or simply fail; thus, learning from iteither way.

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‘IT ISIMPORTANT TOFIND HAPPINESSIN SMALLTHINGS’

‘IT ISIMPORTANT TOFIND HAPPINESSIN SMALLTHINGS’

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We all use ‘I am fine’ as the mostpowerful means to avoid anypotentially costly confronta-tions, be it with a spouse, within-laws or at work. But what if

your colleague at work agrees with your con-structive feedback in the meeting to avoid con-frontation and later forgets to copy you in animportant email? What if your usually punctu-al spouse doesn’t show up on time for a dinnerdate simply because he or she disagreed withyour choice of restaurant? And what if youhave noticed a pattern in this behaviour butevery time you try to bring it up with yourspouse you are dismissed for reading too muchbetween the lines?

While developing the characters for ThatNight, I accidentally stumbled upon an interest-ing article about passive aggression in a mar-riage and how sometimes what might appearlike a difference of opinion on the surface couldbe a classical setup for passive aggressive rela-tionship. Although the partner exhibiting suchbehaviour in a relationship might not be a full-fledged, card carrying passive aggressive per-sonality, but he or she could be a member of theclub, subtly abusing the partner emotionally andsometimes physically too.

According to WebMD: Passive-aggressivebehaviour is when you express negative feel-ings indirectly instead of openly talking aboutthem. During World War II, when soldierswouldn’t follow officers’ orders, expertsdescribed them as “passive-aggressive.”Someone who uses passive aggression may feelangry, resentful, or frustrated, but they actneutral, pleasant, or even cheerful. They thenfind indirect ways to show how they really feel.

We all might show a streak of passiveaggression at times, however, when this repeti-tive sulking, backhanded compliment, with-drawal, or manipulation becomes a way of life,it can result into grave consequences in a rela-tionship, especially in a marriage. Identifying apassive aggressive partner could be the firststep towards curbing the hostility growingbetween you and your partner.

While each passive-aggressive spousemight operate differently, but they all have onething in common: they avoid confrontation,and often these individuals appear and behaveoutwardly supportive or content, which makesit all the more difficult to spot them. However,identifying a behavioural pattern can serve as akey differentiator between a momentary angryacceptance and a passive aggression in a rela-tionship.

������������� ������� ����� ����Below are some red flags that can help youidentify a harmless sulking from a hostile one. ��Disguised Verbal Hostility: ‘I’m JustSaying’ a sentence that sounds so harmless canbe your partner’s coping mechanism developedover the years to express his or her angry feel-

ings without being affirmative about it. � Disguised Hostile Humour: ‘Can’t You

Take a Joke?’ The backhanded complimentor sarcasm could be another powerfulweapon often used by a passive aggressivepartner, especially in the instances whenthey are confronted about their demeaningact. Playing a victim card ‘that it was meantto be a joke’ is their knee-jerk reaction toavoid any uncomfortable conversations.

� Guilt-Baiting: ‘You were taking so long tofinish that call with your mom that I startedthe match instead.’ Aggressive passivespouses are an expert at wielding guilt as aweapon to show their disagreement or hos-tility. They inadvertently or skilfully manip-ulate and coerce you into an agreement byattacking your vulnerable spots.

� Disguised Psychological Manipulation: ‘Ithink you need to go for a yoga class tomanage your stress.’ Passive aggressivespouse usually have a tendency to changeyour perception by spinning the wholeblame on you for being the inconsiderate orthe short tempered one.

� Stonewalling: Avoiding responsibility, duty,and obligations and withdrawing from arelationship is another trick up the sleevesof these individuals. It’s their way of main-taining power and control by imposingmany hurdles for you to jump through. While the phrases such as ‘I am just saying’,

‘It was a joke’ and the silent treatment areinvariably part of every marriage, it should notbe a breeding ground for hostility that leavesthe receiving partner shattered and confusedabout her or his own worth in a relationship.

Unfortunately, often these tricky psycho-logical manoeuvres take absolutely no plan-ning on your passive-aggressive partner’s part.On the contrary, they are acting on pureinstincts. Hence identifying the cause for suchbehaviour could work as a powerful tool tostop such manoeuvres in the track.

���������������� �������� ����� ����� Upbringing: Voicing your strong opinion

was(is) often categorised as disrespectful inmost Indian households. However, a con-stant suppression of opinion during the for-mative years can impact adversely, pushingan individual to find ways to passivelychannel their anger or frustration.

� Sense of powerlessness: A manipulation ina marriage can often be a side-effect of tus-sle of power between the partners, especial-ly when one partner feels out of control in asituation or area where his or her spouse isenjoying success. This sense of insecuritycan fuel underhanded tactics to sabotagethe partner’s success and emotional wellbe-ing, sometimes without even realising it.This power hunger can also manifest intoestablishing their territories by subtle emo-tional and physical abuse.

� Inability to accept their own emotion:Passive aggression is a personality disorder,and these individuals cannot approach situa-tions, feelings, relationships or communica-tion directly. They are often unaware of whatthey are doing, and when confronted, theyrefuse to acknowledge both the behaviourand the results.

� Low self-esteem: The passive-aggressivepartner often feels that he or she is the one atthe receiving end, inadvertently playing thevictim card. These individuals often operateout of a deep sense of insecurity, and theypersistently feed their negative emotions tojustify their actions, sometimes to the extentof demeaning the partner in an attempt toelevate themselves.

� Buried feelings of inadequacy and injus-tice: Often words like ‘it’s-unfair’ can be pas-sive aggressive person’s way of communicat-ing that the spouse has some kind of unfairadvantage over them in a relationship. Itcould be in career, relationships at work andfamily, or kids.

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Once you have identified a classical patternof passive aggression in your spouse, the mostcritical step is to protect your and your partner’semotional wellbeing. The following few stepscan act as a crucial steppingstone in bringingyour relationship back to a healthy track.� Accepting the situation: It’s painful to

accept that your spouse is operating within apassive-aggressive pattern, especially,because these individuals have a tendency tomanipulate your emotions by displaying sac-rifices made by them in a relationship. Theyusually go an extra length to prove that theirlove for their spouse is unmatched. But ifyou notice a concrete pattern in the sugar-coated humiliation or purposeful withdrawalto punish you, it’s time to trust your instinctsand accept the reality.

� Identify the trigger: There is no excuse foraggression and abuse of any form in a mar-riage. However, knowing the reason for thisaggression can help you predict the behav-iour pattern of your spouse. Also, sometimesthe issue can be as trivial as your spousefearing to hurt your feelings and thus, he orshe inadvertently finds an underhanded wayto express his or her dislike. Understandingthe triggers can minimize the potential dam-age to your relationships.

� Don’t justify your spouse’s behaviour: Thechances are that you have been manipulatedenough in a relationship by now that youtend to find flaws in you than in the spousewho appears so nice and non-confrontation-al. So, train yourself to stop inwardly justify-ing or finding excuses for your spouse’sunacceptable behaviour.

� Stay calm and keep you anger in control:It’s essential to keep a check on your emo-

tions, especially when the passive aggressivespouse is acting up. If you can recognise trig-gers of your own anger and get a control ofyour reactions, you are less likely to get psy-chologically manipulated or gaslighted bythe partner.

� Establishing a healthy channel of commu-nication: It is important to approach yourspouse with vulnerability and empathy aspassive aggressive individuals are hypersen-sitive and often operate from low self-esteemor sense of insecurity. You can help them bywording their angry feelings in a way that itdoesn’t appear judgmental yet factual. Sharewith your spouse how his or her behaviourhurts you but do it without placing theblame on them.

� Set healthy boundaries and ground rules:It hurts deeply to accept that your spousemight not have your best interest in mindalways. However, it is important to setboundaries to protect yourself from anyform of emotional or physical abuse. Bydrawing a clear list of acceptable and unac-ceptable behaviour might help you and yourpartner identify the patterns you’ve beenexperiencing. Also, setup consequences forthe next time he or she does the same thingand don’t back down if they demean you.

� Seek help of a marriage therapist: It neverhurts to seek help of a good marriage thera-pist. With the right approach and profession-al support, you can overcome passive-aggressive patterns and manipulations in arelationship to build a happier, healthiermarriage together. However, even after repetitive efforts at

your end, if your partner still believes thatyou are at fault, in that case, you might beforced to take the tough decision of savingyourself from any form of emotional abuse. Ifdespite all your love and patience your part-ner is persistently falling back to his or herold ways of demeaning you or manipulatingyou, or they refuse to seek help, it’s time towalk out of a relationship that is ruining you(and your partner) inside out. Because mar-riage should not be about turning yourselfinside out, it should also be about lovingyourself and defining your own worth in arelationship, and it can only happen when theboundaries about what is acceptable and notare defined clearly for both the partners. Andif something unacceptable still finds its wayinto your marriage, time and again, despite allyour efforts, perhaps walking away from arelationship would be a better idea. Becausethese episodes of withdrawal, aggression,abuse and manipulation are a double-edgedsword that wounds you and your partner, too.So, before you fall out of love with yourselfand with your partner seek help.

The writer is an engineer-turned-headhunter.That Night, published by Penguin,

is her debut novel

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The formation and thebreak-up of a society deter-mine the consequences of a

radical shift in external forces.For instance, the negligible say ofwomen in the USA before the1800s prompted women leadersto band together to promote anew, separate women’s rightsmovement and change the direc-tion of Abolitionist Movement ofthe 1830s.

Generations upon genera-tions, the gender equalityrhetoric has filled the gap ofresponsibilities and rightsthrough gradual and profoundmovements around the globe.However, the 21st-century demo-graphic picture is still blurry forwomen, which face constantdenial of individual rights andpowers.

The Covid-19 pandemic hasbeen the greatest peacetime dis-ruptor of years of progress indemographics of the society,especially in India, where thereonly 943 females per 1000 males.Moreover, in 2020, India rankedat 189th position out of 201countries in terms of female tomale ratio. In a society where77% of parents prefer a malechild over a female, this dispro-portion in the gender ratio hashad profound implications in thelives of an average Indian womanduring the pandemic.

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With only 66% women liter-ate as compared to 83% men inIndia, the social awarenessamong women is at the lowest,which makes them incapable ofvoicing their power againstdomestic abuse. Indian womenfiled more domestic violencecomplaints than recorded in asimilar period in the last 10years. But even this unusualspurt is only the tip of the ice-berg as 86% of women who expe-rience domestic violence do notseek help in India. Social isola-tion amid the pandemic has alsocaused circumstances where vic-tims and aggressors cannot sepa-rate, and there are fewer options

for women to escape their condi-tions, especially in the ruralregions.

Despite this fact, post firstwave, India saw a nearly three-fold increase in cases pertainingto divorce and child custodybeing filed. From an average of1,280 cases in a month, theirnumbers went up to it 3,480 dur-ing the lockdown. This hasplaced them in a situationwhere they have to face socialdenial and the increased financial burden of their childindividually.

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A study by McKinsey foundmothers are more than threetimes as likely, compared withfathers, to meet the majority ofthe demands for housework andcaregiving during the pandemic.In addition, they are morethan one and a half times aslikely as fathers to spend threeor more hours per day on theseactivities.

This “second shift” is wherewomen complete their day ofpaid work and then spend anoth-er full shift doing work at homesupporting children, families andat-home tasks. This dynamic hasbeen exacerbated by the limitsand lockdowns associated withthe pandemic.

Naturally, this has broughtdetrimental effects on the men-tal fitness of working women,which constitutes 21% of thetotal workforce in India.According to a LinkedIn survey,the pandemic is taking a toll onthe emotional well-being ofIndia’s working women as 47%report they are experiencingmore stress. For men, this num-ber stood at 38%, pointingtowards a disproportionateimpact on women.

����������� ����Female job loss rates due to

Covid-19 are about 1.8 timeshigher than male job loss ratesglobally, at 5.7% versus 3.1%respectively. Moreover, 4.5% of

women’s employment is at risk inthe pandemic globally, comparedwith 3.8% of men’s employment.This is because women are over-represented in industries that arelikely to experience the greatest

declines because of the pandemic.These include hospitality andfoodservice, retail, education andmanufacturing.

As a direct consequence, thepandemic will push 96 million

people into extreme poverty by2021, 47 millions of whom arewomen and girls, widening thegender poverty gap.

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In India, women-owned a lit-tle over 20% of all micro, smalland medium businesses comparedto nearly 80% among men inFY21. The crisis has made familyresources scarce for women, suchas financial capital to invest inbusinesses or digital devices thatfamilies must now share as chil-dren’s schooling has gone online.This has brought a disproportion-ate impact on female entrepre-neurship, including women-owned microenterprises in devel-oping countries like India

������������������The cascading effect of pan-

demic-induced economic insecu-rity is not just the income lossesbut also the rippling effect ofyears of education denied towomen and girls. Impacts on edu-cation and employment havelong-lasting consequences that, ifunaddressed, will reverse hard-won gains in gender equality.

According to a UNESCO esti-mate, a total of 11 million girlsmay leave school by the end of theCovid crisis; evidence from previ-ous crises suggests that many willnot return.

Lack of education and eco-nomic insecurity also increasesthe risk of gender-based violence.Without sufficient economicresources, women are unable toescape abusive partners and face agreater threat of sexual exploita-tion, trafficking and teen preg-nancy.

These consequences won’tdisappear when the pandemicsubsides: women and girls arelikely to experience long-term set-

backs in workforce participationand income. The fallout will bemost severe for the most vulnera-ble women, those who are rarelyin the headlines: migrant workers,refugees, marginalised racial andethnic groups, single-parenthouseholds, youth and the poor-est of the poor.

����������� ������The challenge is huge but the

cause is even gargantuan. Directinterventions are needed to drawan inflection point in the currentdemographic status to bring afundamental change down theline. This mandates addressingattitudinal biases. Any drivetoward gender parity arguablystarts with efforts to changeentrenched, widespread attitudesabout women’s role in society.This is an extremely difficult andcomplex challenge that willrequire all stakeholders to play asustained part over the longterm.

Addressing unpaid child carecannot be overstated. There is animmediate requirement of reduc-ing the gender imbalance inresponsibility for care. Thisinvolves employer- or state-fund-ed provision of childcare or taxpolicies that encourage bothspouses to work and a profession-alised childcare industry, withpublic-financing support toenable women to work and createemployment for others

Interventions are alsorequired to address digital andfinancial inclusion. Closing thegender gap in digital inclusion isan urgent priority in the pandem-ic. This involves a special focus onwomen-owned enterprises underthe stimulus programmers. Taxburdens should be eased andwhere possible, governmentsshould source food, personal pro-tection equipment, and otheressential supplies from women-led businesses.

Mehta is a consultant inMarket Entry, Innovation & Public

Policy and Goel is a researcherwith interest in public policy,

international business andcapital markets

With the tragic sec-ond wave ofCovid-19 in Indiadone and dusted,malls and restau-

rants in cities are once againthronging with customers.However, in rural India the devas-tating effect of Covid-19 this timeround has been so grave that themood there might take far longerto pick up.

By May 2021, one in every twocases was in India’s rural areas,while states like Uttar Pradesh andRajasthan had 75% of their cases inrural areas. Exposing the weaknessof the public healthcare system,rural India only had 40% of thebeds in the country even when itis home to 70% of India’s popula-tion. In fact the number of hospi-tal beds per 10000 populationbetween 2010 and 2020 reducedfrom 9 to 5.

I spent much of last monthleading the philanthropic effort ofa consortium of partners to estab-lish more Covid care facilities inrural parts of India. It has beenchallenging to raise funds for Covidrelief in the second wave as chari-table funds for health care in Indiahave dried up while governmentregulations have clamped down oninternational funds coming in tothe NGOs in the country.

Secondly, given the intensity ofthis wave, only ICU beds or at leastbeds equipped with oxygen con-centrators were mostly needed inthe second wave, pushing up theeffort and cost of equipment pro-curement. Thirdly, many individ-uals and organisations includingestablished not-for-profits were nolonger contributing to the causevoluntarily but instead leveragedthe desperate situation of the sec-ond wave to make a buck.

Nonetheless with the supportof local NGO iBihar and its founderAnis Bari, the sustained efforts ofAnant National University, besidesmy own firm Sustain Labs, wemanaged to establish 13 Covid carefacilities in rural Bihar.

It is indeed easy and not incor-rect to blame the government asstate governments with higherexpenditure on health had lowerconfirmed cases of Covid.However, at a time when the gov-ernment has demonstrated sub-stantial inertia in effectively man-aging the pandemic in the country,the civil society must (and has!)step up. With management exper-tise, wide distribution networks inthe country, human resources atdisposal, the private sector has anespecially strong role to play in dis-aster management in rural India.Corporations hold enormous influ-ence within their domains andcommunities around their factoriesand depots that are often located inremote or rural areas. In this con-text, government effectiveness inrural areas can thus be strength-ened by leveraging existing private

sector capacities, reach and corecompetencies.

There is a need to emphasizegreater market driven ways for theprivate sector to support ruraldevelopment in India, during andbeyond disasters. A balancedapproach to driving market drivenrural development strategies ensurethat the development is sustainedas stakeholders see incentives to doso. CSR funds alone, on the otherhand, are undependable as it runsdry exactly at the time of socio-eco-nomic crisis such as the currentpandemic, which is ironically whenit is most needed.

There are at least three waysthat the private sector can play acentral role in managing disastersbetter in rural India.

First, through the investmentsthey make and the decisions theytake, companies directly impact the

world around us. Establishing mar-kets in rural regions and offeringaffordable products and services torural India is a market opportuni-ty. For example, Visaka IndustriesLimited is a Hyderabad baseddiversified company that manufac-tures asbestos cement roofingsheets, building products and tex-tile yarn, in ways that establishedit as a primarily green business.Further, 90% of Visaka’s asbestossheets, 30% of VBoard products,and 20% of its ATUM solar roof-ing are sold in rural and semi-urban parts of the country, thusenhancing the quality of life of ruralcommunities.

Similarly, ICICI too has a sub-stantial rural presence. 650 ofICICI’s rural branches are in pre-viously unbanked villages andwhich also promote entrepreneur-ship among women by developing

tailored financing and loan optionscatering to rural India. During dis-asters such as the ongoing pandem-ic, the reach and institutionalisedpresence of companies in theserural areas are of paramountimportance for providing sustainedlivelihood and disaster relief to peo-ple.

Secondly, rural India still needsto be better connected to cities viaroads, highways, and also telecom-munications. Goods for relief work(and beyond) need to be transport-ed by roads to villages and thisbecomes difficult to do if roadinfrastructure is inadequate. UntilJune this year we also saw that thevaccination distribution exclusive-ly relied on a digital portal forbooking vaccination slots for a sig-nificant population of the country,which became an impediment forIndia to achieve universal immu-

nisation. Ultimately on June 2,2021, the Supreme Court asked thegovernment to explain how the useof the CoWin app for booking slotsis going to overcome the digitaldivide in rural and urban India, fol-lowing which offline channels ofvaccine booking were introduced.This again is an opportunity for theprivate sector to step in and buildphysical and digital infrastructurethat connects rural India better tothe rest of the country. Indeed thegovernment needs to also prioritisethe development of infrastructureprojects, make approvals moreefficient, besides tightening quali-ty control.

Third, we need more publicprivate partnerships. Disasters bythemselves are beyond anyone’scontrol. However, the preparationand response to them can be man-aged so that the human and eco-nomic losses can be minimised oreliminated. This is why, whereasstates have the overall responsibil-ity to drive disaster recovery andmitigation efforts it must be under-stood as a shared task between thegovernment and relevant stake-holders. Currently the Indian pri-vate sector provides disaster sup-port in a less systematic and moread-hoc manner. Far more strategicand planned partnerships betweenthe government and the private sec-tor for rural development and dis-aster mitigation and recoveryremains an area for improvement.

If more private companies per-ceive rural development during andbeyond disasters as a market invest-ment, instead of an evangelist ormissionary ad-hoc project alone,we will be able to better support ourrural regions and not lose as manylives during disasters.

The writer is the CEO ofSustain Labs, a company that

transforms companies towardsbeing sustainable and profitable.

She is the author of IndianInstincts: Essays on Freedom &Equality in India, and a GlobalLeadership Fellow at the World

Economic Forum

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���/� *(,��*!,�!)�(��/�<���0#�,�(:�,/�I�#/,�)�<�)��*I�()�$�()�(<�%�0!,,��#���/�(*,� !<��,*#�;*�<�.��(<���,//�$�#�,�*(�I#* ��(��()�!)�(%��,��/�0��(�C$�#��(<�(:<*(,�(!�)�-�*��(<�%�()� �<�<*##!$,�*(%$*-�#,B��()!()�#)�-��*$ �(,.�*��-�#%�,���17,��((�-�#/�#B�*I<*!(,#B?/���/,*#�<�<���-� �(,�*I�()�$�()�(<�$#*-�)�/��(*$$*#,!(�,B�,*��(;�<,I#�/���(�,��,�-�/�,*,���*(:*�(:�$��<�$#*<�//

+�$���6������� /� �����������������7����>For a country as populated as

ours, where a large sectionstruggles to make a decent liv-ing, access to basic educationstill remains a privilege.However, there exists an inher-ent paradox where even a goodpercentage of the educatedpopulation find it difficult tohave gainful and stable employ-ment. So, given this paradox,how do we expect that educating the underpriv-ileged lot will somehow helpthem in finding a better livelihood?

But before making anattempt to decipher the under-lying code behind this paradox,we need to dig a little deeperbeneath the surface to come upwith an answer to this question.

Who exactly are the stake-holders that tend to benefitmost out of the current educa-tion system?

All the educational insti-tutes usually serve the purposeof signalling certain qualitieslike intelligence, diligence,compliance, and conformityto potential employers. As aresult, there is a widespreadclamour among students to getthemselves validated through apaper degree as it presumablyincreases the chances of land-ing a well-paying job.

Therefore, as long as wedon’t find any fault in sub-scribing to a free market doc-trine, only skills and experi-ences that are directly con-vertible to income are consid-ered useful. As a consequence,the need for the educationsystem to make itself suffi-ciently market aligned has

always managed to remain thetop priority, where instituteskeep thriving by serving as acertification agency. As long asboth the stakeholders (stu-dents and institutes) are happy with this arrange-ment, the 20th-century educa-tional ecosystem will keephaunting us even in the 21st century.

Whereas the third stake-holder (parents) doesn’t seemto bother much about the pre-sent education system, pri-marily because they them-selves are a product of that sys-tem. Besides, in India, thesense of pride associated withraising an academically excep-tional child is something diffi-cult to express in words. It is theultimate validation to provetheir worth as successful par-ents. It helps parents in cover-ing every other possible flawsin their parenting. Not onlythat, but it also gives them afalse sense of assurance thattheir children will eventuallybecome an overachiever inactual life.

The false promise!Now given this ground

reality, the more we see changearound this system, the morethey seem to remain the same.And that seems to be true forthe growth in EdTech plat-forms. All the changes intro-duced so far in the educationecosystem remind us of theearlier models of coaching cen-tres that held a promise of abetter tomorrow if you couldafford their fees.

However, despite theseapparent shortcomings, the

media is never tired of cele-brating the success of EdTechinitiatives that are nothing buta rehash of the same old winein the shinier bottle. The con-tent and delivery by most ofthese EdTech platforms arewoefully dated, with a mini-mum collaboration, participa-tion, and feedback from stu-dents.

Now given the widespreadcelebration in media, there is atemptation to accept educationas a potent investment oppor-tunity for people with deeppockets. Given the poor qual-ity associated with most formsof public education, people, ingeneral, have been conditionedto accept the association ofgood quality education at acost. As a result, there is nodearth of institutes claiming tooffer the same.

As an integral part of tar-

geting the gullible parents andstudents, there is a deliberateattempt from these EdTechentities with deep pockets tosell their product as somethingvery essential for the success ofstudents — an unsubstantiat-ed claim sold as gospel truth.

Celebrity endorsement isanother potent method to cap-ture the attention of insecureparents. These insecure parentsare made to feel guilty if theydare to deny their kids “the keyto success” on financialgrounds. There is a lot ofunnecessary noise created inthe media about the potency oftheir life-altering products andcourses. A kid as young as 5years is not spared from theirtempting media campaigns.

Is there a way to weed outthese outright commercial enti-ties occupying the educational

space?In the era of low-cost inter-

net, the availability of goodquality free content has neverbeen in question. It’s the con-comitant contextual under-standing and subsequent fol-low-up lectures that make thewhole difference. You can’texpect a student with limitedworking knowledge of Englishto comprehend a two-hourlecture by Harvard faculty onquantum physics.

So, what’s the solution?Given the kind of com-

plexity inherent in the problem,the solution needs to incorpo-rate the seemingly conflictinginterest of different stakehold-ers into account. Therefore, itwouldn’t make sense to comeup with one size solution thatfits everyone.

It’s important to embracethe true potential of EdTech. It’s

not just about reformattingbooks into pdf or teachingremotely, it’s also about usingtech to deliver brand-newlearning architecture, opening up the world of edu-cation to new audiences, boost-ing student engagement, whilecutting costs to improve accessfor all.

There is no denying thatthe pre-university generation isdigital natives; they favourindividual expression and per-sonalisation to such an extentthat they expect to resolve allof life’s problems with thedevice in the palm of theirhands. They don’t mind beingbombarded with informationvia social media.

Therefore, there is a needto go straight to the heart ofsocial media, where Gen Zspends a lot of time. EdTechplatforms need to find a way to

cut through the noise andreach students across the socialdivides who could be given theneeded support.

In the name of online class-es whatever is being done withbooks and whiteboard canmerely be termed as a goodstart especially for visual learn-ers, but can’t be termed as atechnological revolution in theeducation space by any stretchof the imagination. Because aforward-looking twenty-first-century education envisagesmore than exposing students toaudio-visual content. Hereevery learner is expected to col-laborate, communicate, be cre-ative and think critically tosolve problems!

We need to prepare stu-dents to work in teams,exchange ideas with peers whomay be in different geogra-phies. The students are expect-ed to find solutions by think-ing out of the box with theworld of information at theirfingertips. We need to outgrowthe mentality of spoon-feeding,and allow children to learn forthemselves and be there to sup-port them as a facilitator.

Till we succeed in bringingthese much-needed changeswithin the existing ecosystem,the promise of gaining a betterlivelihood after going throughthe pain of years of formal edu-cation will eventually turn outto be a hollow one.

(The writer is an educator,former IRS officer & author ofupcoming book “The Current Perspective on INDIANECONOMY.”)

South Sudan became theworld’s youngest nation on

July 9, 2011. The birth of theRepublic of South Sudan wasthe culmination of six years ofpeace process that began withthe signing of theComprehensive PeaceAgreement (CPA) in 2005.With the signing of the CPA,the war between the Southand the North Sudan came toan end and the peace deal,known as the NaivashaAgreement between KhartoumCentral Government and theSudan People’s LiberationArmy/Movement (SPLA/M),led to a historic referendumwhich took place in SouthernSudan between January 9 and15 in 2011.

The main purpose of thereferendum was to decidewhether the region shouldcontinue to remain a part ofSudan or become indepen-dent. However, a simultaneousreferendum that was supposedto be held in the Abyei regionon whether to join SouthSudan could not take place dueto massive violence. TheReferendum Commission pub-lished the results of the refer-endum on February 7, 2011,which showed more than 98.83per cent people voted in favourof separation from the main-land Sudan.

South Sudan’s partitionfrom Sudan was predicted longago. Interestingly, this part ofSudan was experiencing unrestfor nearly six decades before itsIndependence. Omar al-Bashir,then President of Sudan and aformer army veteran, who ruledthe country from 1989 to 2019,indeed talked about the right ofSouth Sudan to secede from themainland. Once a powerfulstrongman who ruled one ofAfrica’s largest nations with aniron fist, Bashir commentedthat the referendum for SouthSudan was helpful as hebelieved “unity could not beforced by power”. However,then he was of the opinion thatsecession was not the answerfor bringing an end to themyriad of problems of SouthSudan. He had said, “The sta-bility of the South is veryimportant to us because anyinstability in the South will havean impact on the north…The

South suffers from many prob-lems. It’s been at war since 1959.The South does not have theability to provide for its citizensor create a state or authority”.

The brutal man, who ruledhis country for three decadesand having the scar of carryinggenocide in Darfur, almostturned his words propheticover the newly independentSouth Sudan. As of this date,Juba is fervently struggling forpeace, stability and unity.

This month the country iscelebrating its first decade ofIndependence, but there is notmuch to rejoice. Since its sep-aration from mainland Sudan,it has been experiencing con-tinued violence, endemic cor-ruption, poverty and underde-velopment. South Sudan islocated in the northern andeastern hemisphere of the plan-et earth. It is bordered by sixother African nations — Sudanto the north, Ethiopia to theeast, Kenya to the south-east,Uganda to the south, theDemocratic Republic of Congoto the south-west and CentralAfrican Republic to the west.The country has been under-going a number of significantchanges since 2011. At its birth,South Sudan had only 10provincial States, but in 2015,it was divided into 15. In 2017,the country was further madeinto 32 provinces purely basedon ethnic lines. However, afterthree years of running a trou-bled Government and signingof a peace treaty in February2020, the South Sudanese CivilWar came to an end. And withthis, Juba decided to roll backthe ethnic divisions of Statescreated in 2017 and reverted tothe earlier system of 10 States.

How the Civil War beganin South Sudan? The two titans— Salva Kiir, the President, andRiek Machar, the former VicePresident, were fighting toclaim their rights over thefragile nation. This conflictstarted just after two years ofthe country’s Independencefrom the mainland Sudan. Thevast majority (over 80 percent) of the people fleeingSouth Sudan in the past arewomen and children. Andsadly, children make up to the63 per cent of the total SouthSudanese refugees during the

country’s recent Civil War thatlasted between December 15,2013 and February 22, 2020,covering a period of nearly sixyears, two months and oneweek. Since the Civil Warerupted, nearly 400,000 peoplehave been killed and over 2.3million became refugees andasylum seekers.

In November 2013,President Kiir, from the Dinkaethnic group, dismissedMachar who belonged to theNuer group of South Sudan.Following the rumours of apossible coup, the Presidentimmediately replaced themembers of the Army and theGovernment. He added fuel tothe fire by dismissing all themain organs of the SudanPeople’s Liberation Movement(SPLM), citing that their timein office had expired. Further,massive violence sparkedbetween the armed groups ofKiir and Machar, when thePresident accused the latter ofplotting a coup against him inDecember 2013. Gradually, theviolence took an ethnic turn bydividing and arming militiasand villagers belonging to theDinka and Nuer groups. Therehave also been allegations byboth sides of crimes againsthumanity, including rape,extra-judicial killings, abduc-tions, torture and the use ofchild soldiers in the war.

How has the UN respond-ed to the crisis so far? As largeswaths of South Sudan are fac-ing violence against civilians,particularly children andwomen, the UN peacekeepingmission in the country knownas United Nations Mission inSouth Sudan (UNMISS) isestablishing a number of campsto protect the victims. NicholasHaysom, the UN SecretaryGeneral’s SpecialRepresentative for South Sudanbriefed the UN SecurityCouncil about the current sit-uation on June 21, 2021. In hisbriefing he said: “I would liketo highlight the pervasive inse-curity, in particular inter-communal violence, whichcontinues to obstruct the real-isation of a durable and sus-tainable peace in South Sudan.This year more than 80 percent of the civilian casualtieswere attributed to inter-com-

munal violence and commu-nity-based militias”. Therefore,the UNMISS has a turbulentroad ahead in South Sudan.

What is the latest peacedeal? On September 12, 2018,President Kiir and Vice-President-turned rebel leaderMachar signed a renewed peaceagreement to put an end to thefive-year long ethnic war inSouth Sudan. The agreementknown as the RevitalisedAgreement on the Resolution ofthe Conflict of the Republic ofSouth Sudan (R-ARCSS) wasnothing new and indeed builtupon a previous peace dealsigned by both the leaders. It’sa renewed peace process asboth these rebels have comeacross a number of negotiationsin the past. But then all of themfailed as both the parties keepviolating the terms for strength-ening their own militias. The R-ARCSS envisioned an eight-month “pre-transitional period”that focussed largely on stabil-ising the security situation ofthe country. After eight months,the agreement stipulates thestarting of another eight month“transitional period” when thecountry would be led by a“Unity Government” with Kiiras President and Machar as

Vice President. Needless to say,that the proposed UnityGovernment structure resem-bles the Agreement on theResolution of the Conflict of theRepublic of South Sudan(ARCSS) signed on August 17,2015. Even under that agree-ment, Machar was supposed tobe appointed as the VicePresident of the country. Butunfortunately, the formationof that Government wasdelayed till April 2016 asMachar refused to travel to theCapital city, fearing for hissecurity and life. Eventually,fierce fighting between the two groups began in thesummer of 2016 in Juba andMachar had to leave as wide-spread violence engulfed theentire country.

A UN Report highlightedthat the slow implementationof the revitalised peace accordmay push the country againinto a chaos. Experts on Africasay that political, ethnic andmilitary divisions are growingacross South Sudan. The par-ties and factions that signed thepeace deal are again fighting inmany places. Also, the UN saysthat nearly 100,000 people arefacing famine like situations inthe war-torn nation.

Even barely a year aftersigning the peace deal in 2019,South Sudan’s National SecurityService recruited a force of10,000 fighters in PresidentKiir’s stronghold. These were allapparently violating the peaceaccord. The Kiir administrationis taking very little interest infollowing the terms and con-ditions of the deal. Sadly, anoften-overlooked conflict, theSouth Sudanese civil war hasalready taken the lives of morethan 400,000 people so far.Violence, disease and direscarcity mar this land-lockedcountry in East Central Africaeven after a decade of itsIndependence. Women andchildren are largely bearingthe brunt of the violence.

However, the 10th anniver-sary of South Sudan’s historicachievement of Independenceprovides an opportunity toinject fresh initiatives to theongoing peace process. Theidea is to bring back peace, sta-bility and growth that all SouthSudanese people deserve today.Notwithstanding the recentsigns of tranquillity, the over-all implementation of the revi-talised agreement is abysmal-ly slow. Nevertheless, the fee-ble and almost paralysed insti-

tutions of State governancethroughout South Sudan havedirectly helped the perpetratorsof violence to exploit the exist-ing perennial ethnic and com-munal cleavages. Entrenchedinsecurity has prevented theregular cultivation and herdrearing practices of the tradi-tional communities in thecountryside leading to foodshortage and famine.

Above all, the globalCovid-19 pandemic and a con-tinued economic downturnare deteriorating the currentstate of affairs in South Sudan.The weakened law and orderand rising criminal networksare making huge roadblocks inbringing peace back. It is timefor Kiir and Machar to rebuildthe newest nation of the worldonce again. Let Juba jubiliate!

(Dr Makhan Saikia hastaught political science andinternational relations for overa decade in institutions ofnational and internationalrepute after specialisation inglobalisation and governancefrom Tata Institute of SocialSciences, Mumbai. He is thechief editor of the Journal of Global Studies, an interna-tional research journal)

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One of friends based in the US,seeking clarification on interrela-tion between thought process and

planetary placements in a horoscope,wrote: “Everyone has positive as well asnegative thoughts. I believe that goodplanets excite positive thoughts. Often,bad planets supersede the influence ofgood planets and breed negativethoughts. Is there any astrological remedyto contain undesirable thoughts? Doescounselling help?” As thought trendshave bearing on our quality of life, thequestion deserves attention.

You need to change your perception,I replied. Planets are not doers in theirown right. They won’t define yourthought process. Planets are respectivelymarked with energy streams of a particu-lar character passing through differentregions in the cosmos, with the said plan-et in the centre. And, energy doesn’t haveits own drive. It will work accordingly asit is applied or responded to. It is some-thing like electrical energy, which couldequally activate a heating element as wellas an air conditioner. Similarly, planetaryemissions will influence a being, accord-ing as an individual mind is inherentlyframed. There is nothing like a good or

bad planet. All planets have to play theirpart in carrying on the life cycle, and areavailable in equal proportion to all. Theylack the discriminatory ability necessaryto differentiate one person from the otherto offer varying influence. So, there is noscope for having astrological remedy tomanage your thought process.

The world is a unified organism,where all existences are inseparablyframed into an interdependent mecha-nism. There has to be correspondenceamong all field players, including humanbeings. What goes inside the mind, can’tbe read by others. But planetary motionscan be calculated. Based on the principleof correspondence, a look into planetaryalignment offers ground to have aninsight into your thought trends.Knowing which, you can take correctivemeasures by self-educating yourself, andthen redefine your thought process.

Here, a look into how thoughtprocess works, becomes imperative.Every individual is born with a stockpileof thought seeds in mind, coming as itmay as Karmic carryover from the past.The imprints of the skill sets you develop,good or bad experiences one would havehad, habits and attitudes inculcated dur-

ing life time and unfulfilled desires if any,get carried over to the next life in theform of thought seeds. These memoryimprints set the premise on which yourthought process moves — desire trends,likes & dislikes; prejudices & obsessions;and passions. Accordingly, one sets thegoal of life and responds to the situations

Coming to the chemistry of mind,the karmic imprints involuntarily developindividual specific belief pattern. As andwhen congenial ground becomes avail-able, the belief system comes into activeplay. Accordingly, you make choices inlife. The belief system excites desiretrends, which when gravitate after pro-cessing in mind, turn into thoughts, thattranslate into actions. And every actionhas consequences, good or bad, depend-ing on the content and character of thethoughts driving the mind. Evidently, onedoes not wish to invite bad consequences.

To overcome this vulnerability,human beings are empowered with anexclusive privilege to guide one’s actionsby choice and discrimination. The dis-criminatory ability, however, doesn’t playout involuntarily. You need to consciouslyinvoke it for due diligence before takingany call. The paradox, however, is that

more often one’s ahamkara (ego con-sciousness) identifies itself with theinherent mind-trend. It takes things onits face value, as if that would be its endgame. Also, it gets drawn towards tempt-ing influences of the seeming world andaccordingly sets its dream destination. Inthe process, it fails to utilise its empower-ment tool, and evidently to its detriment.

Your empowerment tool enjoinsupon you with the capability to observeand evaluate your thought process.Applying this privilege, you could reflect,identify and acknowledge your thoughttrends, and make necessary corrections.But more often ahamkara doesn’t let youidentify your own fault lines. Here comesthe role of a Guru, who shows your mir-ror image and then counsels you how togive a positive turn to the mind. Life maythen turn into a beautiful experience.

So goes the saying: “Watch yourthoughts, they become words; wordstranslate into action; action turns intohabit; habit develops your character; andcharacter defines your destiny.

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