:_UZR W]ZVd $*# ^`cV e` WcVVU`^ - Daily Pioneer

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S tepping up efforts to bring its citizens back home, India on Sunday airlifted 392 people, besides some Afghan politi- cians, from Kabul to New Delhi. They were evacuated in three different flights of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and Air India. Some more flights are planned in the days to come to safely bring back stranded Indian cit- izens from Afghanistan. A team of Indian officials is now based in Kabul to assist those Indians who want to return home. However, the operations will depend on those willing to return being able to reach the airport. The Taliban has set up checkpoints at various places in the Afghan capital and roads leading to it from other provinces, sources said here on Sunday. Giving details of the oper- ation to fly back the lucky ones to New Delhi and Hindon near the national Capital on Sunday, officials said the res- cued people included two Afghan Members of Parliament. With the latest evacuation, the number of peo- ple flown in by India from Kabul since last Monday reached 590. A total of 168 people, includ- ing 107 Indians and 23 Afghan Sikhs and Hindus, were flown from Kabul to Hindon airbase near Delhi in a C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft of the IAF on Sunday. Another group of 87 Indians and two Nepalese nationals were brought back in a special Air India flight from Dushanbe, a day after they were evacuated to the Tajikistan capital in an IAF C-130J trans- port aircraft, officials said. Separately, 135 Indians, who were earlier evacuated from Kabul to Doha in the last few days by the US and NATO aircraft were flown back from the Qatari capital city to Delhi on a special flight, they said. The group of 168 people, who were evacuated from Kabul, included Afghan lawmakers Anarkali Honaryar and Narender Singh Khalsa and their families, sources said. “India is our second home. Even if we are Afghans and live in that country, people often call us Hindustanis. I thank India for extending its helping hand,” Khalsa told reporters at the Hindon airbase near Delhi. Continued on Page 2 A s the new I-T portal con- tinued to have glitches and remained unavailable for two consecutive days, the Finance Ministry “summoned” Infosys MD and CEO Salil Parekh on Monday to explain to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman the reasons for the continued snags even after over two months of the site’s launch. However, just ahead of the meeting with Sitharaman, Infosys late on Sunday night said that emergency mainte- nance on the website had been concluded and the portal was live again. Infosys India Business, which is the Twitter handle of Infosys India Business unit, in a tweet said: “The emergency maintenance of the @IncomeTaxIndia por- tal has concluded and the por- tal is live. We regret any incon- venience caused to taxpayers.” The new income tax e-fil- ing portal Incometax.Gov.In, developed by Infosys, had a bumpy start from the day of its launch on June 7, as it contin- ued to face tech glitches with users complaining that cer- tain functionalities were either unavailable or too slow. Consequently, the I-T Department had to allow man- ual filing of remittance forms and also extend due dates for electronic filing of forms relat- ed to intimation by pension funds and sovereign wealth funds. “Ministry of Finance has summoned Salil Parekh, MD &CEO @Infosys on 23/08/2021 to explain to FM as to why even after 2.5 months since launch of new e-filing portal, glitches in the portal have not been resolved. Continued on Page 2 P akistan has decided to allow fully-vaccinated Sikh pil- grims to visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, Kartarpur from next month with strict Covid-19 protocols, ahead of the 482nd death anniversary of Sikhism’s founder Guru Nanak Dev on September 22, media reports said on Sunday. On this occasion, three-day rituals will be held at the shrine from September 20. Guru Nanak died in Kartarpur on September 22, 1539. Pilgrimage to the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara was suspended in March 2020 because of the Covid-19 outbreak. Due to the Delta variant, India was in cat- egory C in Pakistan from May 22 till August 12. Detailed report on P8 A t least 2,800 trees will be chopped for the develop- ment of the proposed 242.14- crore Ayodhya airport in Uttar Pradesh. However, the Government is making sure that nature does not pay for the developmental projects in Ayodhya. The plantation of more than 7,87,00,000 trees has been stipulated under com- pensatory afforestation as per the project report. The Yogi Government’s pet project, Ayodhya Airport, is planned to be developed in Faziabad city. It will serve the districts of Bahraich, Gonda, Sultanpur, Amethi and Basti in eastern Uttar Pradesh The proposed airport, to be known as Maryada Purushottam Sriram Airport, Ayodhya, will be spread over 347.62 acres (140.67 ha) of land, including 177.62 acres needed for existing runway. About 170 acres (68.79 ha) of additional land has already been hand over by the district administration for the pro- posed development activities. Continued on Page 2 A mid the Afghanistan crisis and India’s ongoing evac- uation exercise following the Taliban takeover of the coun- try, Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Sunday cited the evac- uations from Afghanistan to back the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The law allows citi- zenship to persecuted non- Muslims who reached India before 2015. “Recent developments in our volatile neighbourhood and the way Sikhs & Hindus are going through a harrowing time are precisely why it was necessary to enact the Citizenship Amendment Act,” the Minister tweeted, quoting a media report on the evacua- tion of 168 people — which included 23 Afghan Sikhs and Hindus — from Kabul by the Indian Air Force. The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has triggered an exodus, especial- ly of foreigners, religious and sectarian minorities. Over the past week, hun- dreds of Afghan Sikhs and Hindus have been lining up at the Kabul international air- port, looking for a way out of Afghanistan. Continued on Page 2 Kabul: A panicked crush of people trying to enter Kabul’s international airport killed seven Afghan civilians in the crowds, the British military said on Sunday, showing the danger still posed to those try- ing to flee the Taliban’s takeover of the country. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, too, on Sunday described as “incredibly volatile” the situation at the air- port and said several citizens had died. The deaths come as a new, perceived threat from the Islamic State group affiliate in Afghanistan has seen US mili- tary planes do rapid, diving combat landings at the airport surrounded by Taliban fighters. Other aircraft have shot off flares on takeoff, an effort to confuse possible heat-seeking missiles targeting the planes. The changes come as the US Embassy issued a new secu- rity warning telling citizens not to travel to the Kabul airport without individual instruction from a US Government repre- sentative. Officials declined to provide more specifics about the IS threat but described it as sig- nificant. They said there have been no confirmed attacks as yet by the militants, who have bat- tled the Taliban in the past. On Sunday, the British mil- itary acknowledged the seven deaths of civilians in the crowds in Kabul. Continued on Page 2 W ith Afghanistan and Pakistan being the only two countries in the world where polio is still endemic, India on Sunday said as a pre- ventive measure it has decid- ed to give polio vaccinating to those returning from the vio- lence-hit nation. Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said this on Sunday even as he shared a photo where returnees could be seen getting jabs at the Delhi international airport. In 2014, India was officially declared polio-free, along with the rest of the South-East Asia Region. “We have decided to vac- cinate Afghanistan returnees with free polio vaccine — OPV and fIPV, as a preventive mea- sure against the Wild Polio Virus. Congratulations to the Health Team for their efforts to ensure public health. Take a look at the vaccination drive at Delhi International Airport,” Mandaviya tweeted. W ith resentment between Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and his Cabinet colleague TS Singh Deo growing and both washing dirty linen in public, the Congress leadership has sum- moned both to Delhi on Tuesday. The resolution of the inter- nal tussle between the duo in the State Congress, which rules Chhattisgarh with two-third majority, has now become another headache for the cen- tral leadership after tackling rifts in Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, and a cou- ple of North Eastern States. With both sides threaten- ing to resign, party sources said Baghel and Deo have been called to meet senior leaders separately. This was the same method the Congress high command applied in Punjab unit and was also making sim- ilar attempts in Rajasthan to solve the crisis. Baghel and Deo are likely to meet AICC general secretary organisation KC Venugopal, State in-charge PL Punia, Pawan Bansal among few oth- ers first and, then if need be, former party chief Rahul Gandhi and then Congress president Sonia Gandhi, as per the AICC sources. After the Assam Assembly elections where he was made the in-charge, Baghel has come into the good books of the party high command that may now reward him by making him responsible for managing the election affairs in Uttar Pradesh next year. Continued on Page 2 A fter exposing the murky deals of a section of Hurriyat leaders who were found selling Pakistan-based MBBS seats to fund terrorism in the Kashmir Valley, the Union Government is set to impose a permanent ban on both factions of the Hurriyat Conference under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). The Hurriyat Conference was formed in 1993 with 26 groups, including some pro- Pakistan and banned outfits such as the Jamaat-e-Islami, the JKLF and the Dukhtaran-e- Millat (DeM) among others. The grouping also included the People’s Conference and the Awami Action Committee headed by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq. The original separatist con- glomerate broke into two fac- tions in 2005. The moderate group was led by the Mirwaiz and the hard-line faction was headed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani. Both factions are esti- mated to have linkages with Pakistan’s ISI-Army combine as also the political parties there, sources in the security agencies said. The Centre had earlier banned the Jamaat-e-Islami and the JKLF under the UAPA. Dropping clear hints of an imminent crackdown against both the factions of the Hurriyat, official sources said, “It is a matter of time. Continued on Page 2 Dubai: The Taliban said on Sunday that “hundreds” of its fight- ers were heading to the Panjshir Valley, one of the few parts of Afghanistan not yet controlled by the group. Since the Taliban overran Afghanistan, flickers of resistance have begun to emerge with some ex-Government troops gathering in the Panjshir, north of Kabul, long known as an anti-Taliban bastion.

Transcript of :_UZR W]ZVd $*# ^`cV e` WcVVU`^ - Daily Pioneer

Page 1: :_UZR W]ZVd $*# ^`cV e` WcVVU`^ - Daily Pioneer

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Stepping up efforts to bring itscitizens back home, India on

Sunday airlifted 392 people,besides some Afghan politi-cians, from Kabul to New Delhi.They were evacuated in threedifferent flights of the IndianAir Force (IAF) and Air India.Some more flights are plannedin the days to come to safelybring back stranded Indian cit-izens from Afghanistan.

A team of Indian officialsis now based in Kabul to assistthose Indians who want toreturn home. However, theoperations will depend onthose willing to return beingable to reach the airport. TheTaliban has set up checkpointsat various places in the Afghancapital and roads leading to itfrom other provinces, sourcessaid here on Sunday.

Giving details of the oper-ation to fly back the lucky onesto New Delhi and Hindonnear the national Capital on

Sunday, officials said the res-cued people included twoAfghan Members ofParliament. With the latestevacuation, the number of peo-ple flown in by India fromKabul since last Mondayreached 590.

A total of 168 people, includ-

ing 107 Indians and 23 AfghanSikhs and Hindus, were flownfrom Kabul to Hindon airbasenear Delhi in a C-17Globemaster transport aircraft ofthe IAF on Sunday. Anothergroup of 87 Indians and twoNepalese nationals were broughtback in a special Air India flightfrom Dushanbe, a day after theywere evacuated to the Tajikistancapital in an IAF C-130J trans-port aircraft, officials said.

Separately, 135 Indians,who were earlier evacuatedfrom Kabul to Doha in the lastfew days by the US and NATOaircraft were flown back fromthe Qatari capital city to Delhion a special flight, they said.

The group of 168 people, whowere evacuated from Kabul,included Afghan lawmakersAnarkali Honaryar andNarender Singh Khalsa andtheir families, sources said.

“India is our second home.Even if we are Afghans and livein that country, people oftencall us Hindustanis. I thankIndia for extending its helpinghand,” Khalsa told reporters atthe Hindon airbase near Delhi.

Continued on Page 2

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As the new I-T portal con-tinued to have glitches and

remained unavailable for twoconsecutive days, the FinanceMinistry “summoned” InfosysMD and CEO Salil Parekh onMonday to explain to FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanthe reasons for the continuedsnags even after over twomonths of the site’s launch.

However, just ahead of themeeting with Sitharaman,Infosys late on Sunday nightsaid that emergency mainte-nance on the website had beenconcluded and the portal waslive again. Infosys IndiaBusiness, which is the Twitterhandle of Infosys IndiaBusiness unit, in a tweet said:“The emergency maintenanceof the @IncomeTaxIndia por-tal has concluded and the por-tal is live. We regret any incon-venience caused to taxpayers.”

The new income tax e-fil-ing portal Incometax.Gov.In,developed by Infosys, had abumpy start from the day of itslaunch on June 7, as it contin-ued to face tech glitches withusers complaining that cer-tain functionalities were either

unavailable or too slow.Consequently, the I-T

Department had to allow man-ual filing of remittance formsand also extend due dates forelectronic filing of forms relat-ed to intimation by pensionfunds and sovereign wealthfunds.

“Ministry of Finance hassummoned Salil Parekh, MD&CEO @Infosys on 23/08/2021to explain to FM as to why evenafter 2.5 months since launchof new e-filing portal, glitchesin the portal have not beenresolved.

Continued on Page 2

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Pakistan has decided to allowfully-vaccinated Sikh pil-

grims to visit Gurdwara DarbarSahib, Kartarpur from nextmonth with strict Covid-19protocols, ahead of the 482nddeath anniversary of Sikhism’sfounder Guru Nanak Dev onSeptember 22, media reportssaid on Sunday.

On this occasion, three-dayrituals will be held at the shrinefrom September 20. GuruNanak died in Kartarpur onSeptember 22, 1539.

Pilgrimage to the KartarpurSahib gurdwara was suspendedin March 2020 because of theCovid-19 outbreak. Due to theDelta variant, India was in cat-egory C in Pakistan from May22 till August 12.

Detailed report on P8

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At least 2,800 trees will bechopped for the develop-

ment of the proposed �242.14-crore Ayodhya airport in UttarPradesh. However, theGovernment is making surethat nature does not pay for thedevelopmental projects inAyodhya. The plantation ofmore than 7,87,00,000 trees hasbeen stipulated under com-

pensatory afforestation as perthe project report.

The Yogi Government’s petproject, Ayodhya Airport, isplanned to be developed inFaziabad city. It will serve thedistricts of Bahraich, Gonda,Sultanpur, Amethi and Basti ineastern Uttar Pradesh

The proposed airport, to beknown as Maryada

Purushottam Sriram Airport,Ayodhya, will be spread over347.62 acres (140.67 ha) ofland, including 177.62 acresneeded for existing runway.About 170 acres (68.79 ha) ofadditional land has alreadybeen hand over by the districtadministration for the pro-posed development activities.

Continued on Page 2

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Amid the Afghanistan crisisand India’s ongoing evac-

uation exercise following theTaliban takeover of the coun-try, Union Housing and UrbanAffairs Minister Hardeep SinghPuri on Sunday cited the evac-uations from Afghanistan toback the controversialCitizenship Amendment Act(CAA). The law allows citi-zenship to persecuted non-Muslims who reached Indiabefore 2015.

“Recent developments inour volatile neighbourhoodand the way Sikhs & Hindusare going through a harrowingtime are precisely why it wasnecessary to enact theCitizenship Amendment Act,”the Minister tweeted, quotinga media report on the evacua-tion of 168 people — whichincluded 23 Afghan Sikhs andHindus — from Kabul by theIndian Air Force. The Taliban

takeover of Afghanistan hastriggered an exodus, especial-ly of foreigners, religious andsectarian minorities.

Over the past week, hun-dreds of Afghan Sikhs andHindus have been lining up atthe Kabul international air-port, looking for a way out ofAfghanistan.

Continued on Page 2

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Kabul: A panicked crush ofpeople trying to enter Kabul’sinternational airport killedseven Afghan civilians in thecrowds, the British militarysaid on Sunday, showing thedanger still posed to those try-ing to flee the Taliban’s takeoverof the country. US Secretary ofState Antony Blinken, too, onSunday described as “incrediblyvolatile” the situation at the air-port and said several citizenshad died. The deaths come as anew, perceived threat from theIslamic State group affiliate inAfghanistan has seen US mili-tary planes do rapid, divingcombat landings at the airportsurrounded by Taliban fighters.

Other aircraft have shot offflares on takeoff, an effort toconfuse possible heat-seekingmissiles targeting the planes.

The changes come as theUS Embassy issued a new secu-

rity warning telling citizens notto travel to the Kabul airportwithout individual instructionfrom a US Government repre-sentative. Officials declined toprovide more specifics about theIS threat but described it as sig-nificant. They said there have

been no confirmed attacks as yetby the militants, who have bat-tled the Taliban in the past.

On Sunday, the British mil-itary acknowledged the sevendeaths of civilians in the crowdsin Kabul.

Continued on Page 2

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With Afghanistan andPakistan being the only

two countries in the worldwhere polio is still endemic,India on Sunday said as a pre-ventive measure it has decid-ed to give polio vaccinating tothose returning from the vio-lence-hit nation.

Union Health MinisterMansukh Mandaviya said thison Sunday even as he shared aphoto where returnees could beseen getting jabs at the Delhiinternational airport. In 2014,India was officially declaredpolio-free, along with the restof the South-East Asia Region.

“We have decided to vac-cinate Afghanistan returneeswith free polio vaccine — OPV

and fIPV, as a preventive mea-sure against the Wild PolioVirus. Congratulations to theHealth Team for their efforts to

ensure public health. Take alook at the vaccination drive atDelhi International Airport,”Mandaviya tweeted.

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With resentment betweenChhattisgarh Chief

Minister Bhupesh Baghel andhis Cabinet colleague TS SinghDeo growing and both washingdirty linen in public, theCongress leadership has sum-moned both to Delhi onTuesday.

The resolution of the inter-nal tussle between the duo inthe State Congress, which rulesChhattisgarh with two-thirdmajority, has now becomeanother headache for the cen-tral leadership after tacklingrifts in Punjab, Rajasthan,Haryana, Jharkhand, Madhya

Pradesh, Karnataka, and a cou-ple of North Eastern States.

With both sides threaten-ing to resign, party sources saidBaghel and Deo have beencalled to meet senior leadersseparately. This was the samemethod the Congress highcommand applied in Punjabunit and was also making sim-ilar attempts in Rajasthan to

solve the crisis. Baghel and Deo are likely

to meet AICC general secretaryorganisation KC Venugopal,State in-charge PL Punia,Pawan Bansal among few oth-ers first and, then if need be,former party chief RahulGandhi and then Congresspresident Sonia Gandhi, as perthe AICC sources.

After the Assam Assemblyelections where he was madethe in-charge, Baghel has comeinto the good books of theparty high command that maynow reward him by makinghim responsible for managingthe election affairs in UttarPradesh next year.

Continued on Page 2

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After exposing the murkydeals of a section of Hurriyat

leaders who were found sellingPakistan-based MBBS seats tofund terrorism in the KashmirValley, the Union Governmentis set to impose a permanent banon both factions of the HurriyatConference under the stringentUnlawful Activities (Prevention)Act (UAPA).

The Hurriyat Conferencewas formed in 1993 with 26groups, including some pro-Pakistan and banned outfitssuch as the Jamaat-e-Islami, theJKLF and the Dukhtaran-e-Millat (DeM) among others.The grouping also included thePeople’s Conference and theAwami Action Committee

headed by Mirwaiz UmerFarooq.

The original separatist con-glomerate broke into two fac-tions in 2005. The moderategroup was led by the Mirwaizand the hard-line faction washeaded by Syed Ali ShahGeelani. Both factions are esti-mated to have linkages withPakistan’s ISI-Army combine asalso the political parties there,sources in the security agenciessaid.

The Centre had earlierbanned the Jamaat-e-Islamiand the JKLF under the UAPA.

Dropping clear hints of animminent crackdown againstboth the factions of theHurriyat, official sources said,“It is a matter of time.

Continued on Page 2

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Dubai: The Taliban said on Sunday that “hundreds” of its fight-ers were heading to the Panjshir Valley, one of the few parts ofAfghanistan not yet controlled by the group. Since the Talibanoverran Afghanistan, flickers of resistance have begun toemerge with some ex-Government troops gathering in thePanjshir, north of Kabul, long known as an anti-Taliban bastion.

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Punjab Chief MinisterAmarinder Singh asked

State Congress president NavjotSingh Sidhu on Sunday to"reinin" his advisers after twoof them made "atrocious" com-ments recently on sensitiveissues like Kashmir andPakistan.

In a statement issued here,Singh warned against such"atrociousand ill-conceivedcomments that were potential-ly dangerous to thepeace andstability of the State and thecountry".

The Chief Minister, whohas been at loggerheads with

Sidhu in thepast, trained hisguns on the Punjab PradeshCongress Committee (PPCC)chief 's advisors.

He urged them to stick togiving advice to Sidhu and notspeak onmatters "of which theyclearly had little or no knowl-edge and hadno understandingof the implications of theircomments".

Singh was reacting to thereported remarks of Pyare LalGarg, questioninghis criticismof Pakistan, as well as an ear-lier statement madebyMalwinder Singh Mali onKashmir. Both of them wererecently appointedby Sidhu ashis advisors.

New Delhi: "All achievements ofthe last 20 years in Afghanistanhave been lost. Nothing is left. It'szero now," said Afghan lawmak-er Narender Singh Khalsa soonafter his arrival along with 167others at the Hindon airbase onSunday as part of India's evacu-ation mission from Talibanbesieged Kabul.

The Sikh lawmaker thankedthe Indian Government for res-cuing him, his family and sever-al other members of his com-munity. Recalling the harrowingexperience of the past seven daysafter the Taliban took control ofKabul, Khalsa said the situationis "very bad" and appealed to theIndian Government to rescue theremaining stranded Hindus and

Sikhs from the war-torn country."The Taliban used to ask us

to remain in Afghanistan sayingyour security is our responsibil-ity. As there are so many groupsof Taliban, we do not knowwhom to speak to and whom tobelieve. That's why we decided toleave as the situation is serious,"he added.

Khalsa said almost allIndians and Afghan Sikhs weretaking shelter at gurudwaras inKabul and elsewhere and thatsome 200 other Indians andIndian-origin people are waitingto be rescued.

“We are worried about ourpeople who are still staying there,"he said. Asked about the briefdetention of Indians and the

Afghan Sikhs and Hindus onSaturday by the Taliban whenthey were on their way to theKabul airport.

"They separated us fromthe Indians...In each of the gatesat the airport, 5000-6000 peoplewere standing. Initially, we couldnot go inside," he said.

"A person from Talibanharassed us. Then we left theplace and came to a gurudwara.Our Indian friends were alsoharassed. It was difficult to under-stand who was a good person andwho was bad. Then around 8 atnight, we entered the airport bya VIP entry point," he added.

Khalsa said the temples andgurudwaras in Afghanistan areunharmed and safe so far. PTI

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From Page 1“I am feeling like crying.

Everything is finished. It is avery difficult and painful deci-sion to leave the country. Wehave not seen such a situation.Everything has been snatchedaway. It’s all over,” a visiblydespondent Khalsa said whenasked about the situation inAfghanistan.

Thanking India for under-taking these missions,Afghanistan Ambassador toIndia Farid Mamundzay said,“I appreciate the kind words ofsympathy and support mes-sages from all Indian friendsand the diplomatic missions inNew Delhi over the suffering ofAfghans in the past few weeks,particularly the last seven-eightdays.

“The avoidable suffering ofAfghanistan is man-made andat a scale beyond all civilisedcontemplation. Afghanistan isgoing through a difficult time,and only good leadership, com-passionate attitude and inter-national support to the Afghanpeople would somewhat bringan end to these miseries,” hetweeted.

India carried out the evac-uation missions in coordina-tion with the US and severalother friendly countries. Agroup of Indian officials iscoordinating the evacuationmission at the Kabul airportand another batch of Indians isexpected to be brought backfrom the Afghan capital on

Monday. Sources said Afghannationals with Indian visas arefacing increasing scrutiny fromthe Taliban.

The small group of Indianofficials in Kabul is coordinat-ing the country’s evacuationmissions amid continuingchaos and a challenging groundsituation, sources said.

The multi-agency groupis coordinating with theAmerican officials handlingsecurity at the airport as well asother relevant authorities, theysaid. The US armed forces arecontrolling the Kabul interna-tional airport.

“Evacuation continues! IAFspecial repatriation flight with168 passengers on board,including 107 Indian nationalsis on its way to Delhi fromKabul,” External AffairsMinistry spokespersonArindam Bagchi tweeted hoursbefore the plane landed atHindon.

It is learnt that the Indiansevacuated to Doha from Kabulwere employees of a number offoreign companies that wereoperating in Afghanistan.

“Bringing Indians homefrom Afghanistan! AI 1956carrying 87 Indians departsfrom Tajikistan for New Delhi.Two Nepalese nationals alsoevacuated. “Assisted and sup-ported by our Embassy@IndEmbDushanbe. Moreevacuation flights to follow,”Bagchi tweeted at around 1:20

AM.Two days after the Taliban

seized control of Kabul, Indiaevacuated 200 people includingthe Indian envoy and otherstaffers of its embassy in Kabulin two C-17 heavy-lift transportaircraft of the IAF.

The first evacuation flightbrought back over 40 people,mostly staffers at the IndianEmbassy, on Monday last. Thesecond C-17 aircraft evacuat-ed around 150 people includ-ing Indian diplomats, officials,security personnel and somestranded Indians from Kabulon Tuesday.

Following the evacuation,the External Affairs Ministrysaid the focus now would be toensure the safe return of allIndian nationals from theAfghan capital.

The Ministry said theimmediate priority for theGovernment is to obtain accu-rate information about allIndian nationals currently stay-ing in Afghanistan.

It also requested theIndians as well as their employ-ers to urgently share the rele-vant details with the specialAfghanistan cell that was set upon August 16.

Sources said the cellreceived more than 2,000phone calls and answered over6,000 WhatsApp queries dur-ing the first five days of itsoperation. The cell answeredmore than 1200 e-mails duringthe period.

From Page 1Fearful of religious persecution, these

minorities are pleading to the Governments ofIndia, the US, and the European Union to beevacuated from the war-torn country at the ear-liest. External Affairs Ministry spokespersonArindam Bagchi also posted pictures of the evac-uation efforts on Twitter. Bagchi posted detailsof the evacuation efforts by Air India and IndiGoflights. He also posted a short video clip wherethe evacuees can be seen chanting “Bharat MataKi Jai”, adding more evacuation flights will fol-low.

The crisis in Afghanistan has brought thecontroversial CAA again into discourse as it aimsto grant Indian citizenship to persecutedHindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis andChristians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh andPakistan, who arrived in India before the endof December 2014. The rules under the Act areyet to be notified. The CAA was passed inDecember 2019 and one of its provisions

promises the grant of permanent citizenship tonon-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladeshand Afghanistan fleeing religious persecution.The Opposition parties and several groups haveprotested against the implementation of CAA.The detractors of CAA believe that the law, cou-pled with the National Register of Citizens(NRC) exercise is intended to target the minori-ties in India.

The Ministry of Home Affairs had earlierstated that it is committed to repatriating allIndians and Afghan Sikhs and Hindus. It hasrecently reviewed the visa provisions and cre-ated a new e-visa category for Afghan nation-als -- mainly Hindus and Sikhs -- to apply online.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi early thisweek chaired a high-level meeting of theCabinet Committee on Security on the Afghansituation and directed officials to ensure the safeevacuation of all Indian citizens and also to pro-vide refuge to Sikhs and Hindus wanting to cometo India.

From Page 1There have been stampedes and crushing injuries

in the crowds, especially as Taliban fighters fire intothe air to drive away those desperate to get on any flightout of the country.

“Conditions on the ground remain extremely chal-lenging but we are doing everything we can to man-age the situation as safely and securely as possible,” theDefence Ministry said in a statement.

On Saturday, British and Western troops in fullcombat gear tried to control the crowds pressing in.They carried away some who were sweating and pale.With temperatures reaching 34 degree Celsius the sol-diers sprayed water from a hose on those gathered orgave them bottled water to pour over their heads.

“Listen sir, you need to calm down,” one soldier tolda man laying in the dirt, as another gave him an orangeliquid. “Calm down.” It wasn’t immediately clearwhether those killed had been physically crushed, suf-focated or suffered a fatal heart attack in the crowds.

Soldiers covered several corpses in white clothesto hide them from view. Other troops stood atop con-crete barriers or shipping containers, trying to calm thecrowd. Gunshots occasionally rang out.

Amir Khan Motaqi, chief of the Taliban’s guidancecouncil, criticised America over the situation at the air-port in an audio clip posted online Sunday.

He described the US’ actions as “tyranny” — evenas it is Taliban fighters who have beaten and shot atthose trying to access the airport over the last week.

“All Afghanistan is secure, but the airport whichis managed by the Americans has anarchy,” he said. “TheUS should not defame itself, should not embarrass itselfto the world and should not give this mentality to ourpeople that (the Taliban) are a kind of enemy.”

Speaking to an Iranian state television channel lateon Saturday night in a video call, Taliban spokesmanMohammad Naeem also blamed the deaths at the air-port on the Americans in what quickly became a com-bative interview. “The Americans announced that wewould take you to America with us and people gath-ered at Kabul airport,” Naeem said. “If it was announcedright now in any country in the world, would peoplenot go?”The host on Iranian state TV, which long hascriticised America since the 1979 Islamic Revolution,quickly said: “It won’t happen in Iran.”

Naeem responded: “Be sure this will happen any-where.” The Biden administration is considering call-ing on US commercial airlines to provide planes andcrews to assist in transporting Afghan refugees oncethey are evacuated from their country by military air-craft.Under the voluntary Civil Reserve Air Fleet pro-gram, civilian airlines add to military aircraft capabil-ity during a crisis related to national defence. That pro-gramme was born in the wake of the Berlin airlift. AP

From Page 1In fact, since 21/08/2021 the

portal itself is not available,” theIncome Tax department tweeted.

As users complained of variousglitches after a fortnight of launch,Sitharaman on June 22, called ameeting with key officials of Infosysto review the issues on the portal.The Minister had then asked Infosysto address all issues without furtherloss of time, improve their services,and redress grievances on priority asit was impacting taxpayers adverse-ly.

Infosys CEO Salil Parekh, andCOO Pravin Rao, along with othercompany officials, took note of theissues highlighted by the stake-holders.

They also acknowledged thetechnical issues in the functioningof the portal and shared the statusof the resolution with respect to theissues highlighted by the stake-holders, an official statement issuedafter the meeting had said.

In 2019, Infosys was awarded acontract to develop the next-gener-ation income tax filing system toreduce processing time for returnsfrom 63 days to one day and expe-dite refunds. Till June 2021, theGovernment has paid Rs 164.5crore to Infosys for developing theportal.

Infosys India Business, which isthe twitter handle of Infosys IndiaBusiness unit, in a tweet on Sundaysaid, “The @IncomeTaxIndia portalcontinues to be under emergencymaintenance. We will post an updateonce the portal is available again fortaxpayers. We regret the inconve-nience.”

It had on Saturday tweeted thatthe Income Tax portal is “currentlyinaccessible due to planned main-tenance”.

Quoting the I-T departmenttweet, Ministry of Information &Broadcasting, Senior Advisor,Kanchan Gupta, tweeted, “This isthe second major GoI project@Infosys has messed up. The first

was #GST portal. Now it is#IncomeTax portal. Infosys bags GoIprojects using L1 route which lim-its options Clearly lacks eithercapacity or intent to deliver. Two‘failures’ in a row cannot be coinci-dence.”

‘L1’ route refers to the lowestbidder in the tender for a contract.

Infosys had also developed theGST Network (GSTN) portal, usedfor GST payment and return filing.The software major had faced flakfor slow functioning of the GSTNportal.

Sitharaman last week had saidthat technical glitches in the new e-filing portal will be largely fixed inthe next few days and that she hasbeen constantly reminding Infosysabout the issue.

“I have been reminding Infosysconstantly, and (Infosys head)Nandan Nilekani has been messag-ing me with assurances that nextcouple of days they will sort outmajority of problems,” she had said,adding that to a large extent, the sys-tem is far better than what it was inJune but still some issues remain.

The revenue secretary is mon-itoring this on a weekly basis, shehad said, adding the glitches will befixed largely in the next couple ofweeks.

Earlier this month, in a reply toa Parliament question on whethertechnical glitches continue to marthe functioning of the new IT por-tal, Minister of State for FinancePankaj Chaudhary had said most ofthe issues reported by tax payers per-tain to non-availability or technicalissues of certain functionalities orforms. “Certain key functionalitieslike user profile, dashboard, filing ofITR 1,2 & 4, e-proceedings includ-ing Video conferencing requests,Digital Signing Certificate, viewingof old Income Tax returns, e-verifi-cation, e-PAN service, Aadhaar-PAN Linking, Adding AuthorisedRepresentative, etc. Are available tothe users,” he had said in a writtenreply to the Lok Sabha.

From Page 1Last month, Baghel met

party chief Sonia, Rahul, andPriyanka Gandhi.

Baghel’s rival, HealthMinister Deo, has been givingtrouble to the Congress whichis ruling the State with a verycomfortable majority. Heclaims that that the partypromised half tenure (two andhalf year) to him after anoint-ing Baghel as the CM soonafter the Assembly results weredeclared in December 2018.

As per the claims made byDeo and his side, Baghel shouldvacate now that 2.5 years haveelapsed , a promise which theparty has time and againdenied making.

AICC sources said a dif-ferent formula similar to that ofPunjab would be worked uponas the Congress high com-mand has no intentions ofchanging the leadership andwants to continue with Baghelas the CM. Last month, ten-sions escalated after Deowalked out of the Assemblydemanding an enquiry orrelease of a statement overallegations of staging an attackon party MLA Brihaspat Singh.

The rift recently deepenedafter Deo sought a meetingwith the party high commandseeking to replace Baghel. Bothleaders have also reportedlymet senior Congress leaders atdifferent points in Delhi to seeka solution to the crisis.Congress general secretary in-charge of the State PL Puniavisited Chhattisgarh recentlyand tried to play down the dif-ferences and rubbished thepossibility of any change ofleadership.

After meeting Sonia, theCM last month had assertedthat he will step down from thepost if the party asks him to doso. When the Congress wrest-ed power from Raman Singh’sBJP 10 years rule, there werefour contenders for the post ofCM - Bhupesh Baghel, TSSingh Deo, Tamradhwaj Sahu,and Charandas Mahant. Allfour had been called in for adiscussion by the thenCongress president Rahul andfinally Baghel was chosen.There have been speculationssince then that formula todivide the chief ministerialtenure between Baghel andDeo was made to keep every-one happy.

From Page 1The pact for the develop-

ment of the airport has beensigned between the UttarPradesh Government andAirport Authority of India(AAI), which is project propo-nent.

Besides 2,800 trees, the AAIhas identified at least 298 otherobstacles, including seven celltowers, four each electric polesand sign boards, which will beremoved during its construction,said the DPR prepared by theAAI.

While seeking its approvalfrom the Central green panel,the project proponent has enlist-ed a range of benefits it will bringin such as better infrastructurefacilities for air passengers, pro-motion of tourism, trade, com-merce, etc., and increase inregional economy as it willboost tourism and commercialactivities in the region, besidesmore employment opportunitiesfor the locals.

The State Government isproviding extra land free ofcost for the further expansionand for the construction of a ter-minal.

About two aircraft will beoperated per day in the pro-posed Ayodhya Airport. Withthe development of the airport,there is expected to be a hugegrowth of air traffic from theeastern part of Uttar Pradesh,said the AAI. According to theGovernment, total 76,72,337trees were cut down between2016-17 and 2018-19.

From Page 1The Government is expect-

ed to declare HurriyatConference to be unlawful.”

Official sources in the J&KHome Department claimed anongoing probe into funding ofterror groups has clearly estab-lished the alleged involvementof secessionist and separatistleaders, including the membersand cadres of the HurriyatConference who have beenacting in connivance withactive militants of proscribedterrorist organisations Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), DeM andLashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

On the basis of materialevidence collected so far, theCentre is most likely to crackits whip by issuing a notifica-tion in the Official Gazette,declaring such association to beunlawful. The Jammu andKashmir (J&K) Police have sofar arrested four separatistleaders while it is looking forothers in connection with thecase. The FIR in the case wasregistered in July 2020.

Referring to the modusoperandi, official sources said,the Hurriyat cadres raisedfunds in the country and fromabroad through various illegalchannels, including hawala,for funding separatist and ter-rorist activities in J&K. Thefunds collected were used forcausing disruption in theKashmir Valley by way of pelt-

ing stones on security forces,systematically burning schools,damaging public property andwaging war against India aspart of a criminal conspiracy,they claimed.

A large number of second-rung separatist leaders are cur-rently lodged in different jailsin connection with the terror-funding cases.

They include separatistleaders Altaf Ahmed Shah, theson-in-law of Geelani; busi-nessman Zahoor AhmedWatali; Geelani’s close aideAyaz Akbar, who is also thespokesperson of the hard-lineseparatist organisationTehreek-e-Hurriyat; PeerSaifullah; Shahid-ul-Islam,spokesperson of the moderateHurriyat Conference;Mehrajuddin Kalwal; NayeemKhan; and Farooq Ahmed Daralias ‘Bitta Karate’.

Yasin Malik, chief of theJKLF, DeM head Asiya Andrabiand pro-Pakistan separatistMasarat Alam were also namedin a supplementary chargesheet in a case of terror financ-ing.

Another case which is like-ly to be cited for banning thetwo Hurriyat Conference fac-tions is the one against PDPyouth leader Waheed-ur-Rahman Parra, who is allegedto have paid Rs 5 crore to theson-in-law of Geelani for keep-ing Kashmir in turmoil after

the death of HizbulMujahideen terror commanderBurhan Wani in 2016, the offi-cials said.

The NIA has alleged thatafter the death of Wani, whowas killed in an encounterwith the Army in July 2016,Parra got in touch with AltafAhmad Shah, alias AltafFantoosh, and asked him toensure that the Valley was kepton the boil with widespreadunrest and stone-pelting.

Also, the CounterIntelligence (Kashmir), abranch of the CID departmentof J&K Police, registered a casein July last year following infor-mation that several unscrupu-lous persons, including someHurriyat leaders, were hand inglove with some educationalconsultancies and are sellingPakistan-based MBBS seatsand securing admission inother professional courses invarious colleges and universi-ties there.

In this case, four persons,including Mohammad AkbarBhat alias Zaffar Bhat, self-styled chairman of SalvationMovement which is part ofmoderate Hurriyat Conference,were arrested.

The constituents ofHurriyat Conference wereallegedly “selling” MBBS seatsin Pakistan to Kashmiri stu-dents and using a part of thefunds for fuelling terrorism.

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The Delhi Police has arrest-ed two men for allegedly

involved in illegal supply ofweapons from outer Delhi'sMangolpuri area.

The accused have beenidentified as Vipin (22) andImran (28), both residents ofMangolpuri.

Police said that both havebeen active in the trade of ille-gal supply of firearms for thelast eight months. Police saidthe duo were unemployed fora while now and during thisperiod, they came in contactwith the Uttar Pradesh basedperson who lured them intothis trade of illegal supply onthe pretext of making easymoney.

According to ParvinderSingh, the DeputyCommissioner of Police(DCP), Outer district, actingon a tip off, police team on

August 20 identified two menengaged in business of supply-ing illegal firearms and laterarrested them fromMangolpuri area.

“Seven illegal weapons and27 live rounds were recoveredfrom them and during ques-tioning, it surfaced that the duoact as a conduit between UPbased suppliers and gangsoperating in outlying areas ofDelhi,” said the DCP.

The accused duo disclosedthat they received the recoveredillegal weapons from a suppli-er based in Uttar Pradesh,police said, adding efforts arebeing made to nab him.

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The Delhi Metro RailCorporation Limited

(DMRC) on Sunday handedover a mobile phone to a pas-senger who had lost his phoneat New Delhi Metro station onSaturday night.

Damanjeet Singh, whose

mobile phone fell down and gotstuck under the railway track atNew Delhi Metro station saidthat he is a merchant exporterand he was returning homefrom Delhi to Amritsar fol-lowing Raksha Bandhan whendue to sudden congestion atNew Delhi Metro station, hismobile phone fell.

“I immediately contactedthe Metro officials who triedmany times to find my mobilephone but failed. Later ataround 12 AM. I got a call fromStation Controller Rajesh Yadavwho informed me that theyhave found my phone and I cancollect it from their office,” saidSingh.

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Delhi Metro has undertak-en a massive drive to

replace the conventional exist-ing lights with ‘Light-emittingdiode’ (LED) lights at 155locations covering Metro sta-tions, depots, parking etc.

The decision to replaceconventional lights (incandes-cent bulbs, fluorescent lamps,CFL lamps etc) is taken with anaim to save energy and providea much better lighting experi-ence.

A senior DMRC officialsaid that the DMRC hasalready covered 75 per cent ofthe drive in recent months byinstalling around one lakhLED lights at these locations byreplacing the conventionallights.

The official further saidthat remaining 25 per cent ofthe drive will be completed bythe end of October 2021wherein around 35000 LEDlights will be installed in theremaining portion of theselocations.

“The LED based light sys-tem will help DMRC savearound half of the energyexpenditure vis a vis the exist-ing lighting system. As a result,the whole cost of installingthese lights will be recoveredby DMRC in around two years

time,” he said.The lifespan of LEDs is

long as compared to conven-tional existing lights with muchreduced maintenance cost. Theaverage LED lasts 50,000 oper-ating hours or more. It is morethan 40 times of the lifespan ofan incandescent bulb. In addi-tion, LED lights have an ener-gy efficiency component whichmakes them consume a verylow amount of power.

Talking about challenges inundertaking this drive, he saidthat it was a challenging task forthe DMRC maintenance teamsas there is regular movement ofpeople. “The work had to be exe-cuted at night time due to safe-ty reasons which in turnincreased the installation time.Even during night, the workcould be carried out for aroundtwo hours only in a day since thetime window available from theclose of last passenger serviceand commencement of firstpassenger service is very limit-ed and other important opera-tional preparedness and routinemaintenance activities areundertaken in this period only,”he said.

DMRC had to arrangespecial scaffoldings and cranesto cover the spaces at twice orthrice the normal height of abuilding which is again verytricky and a time consumingexercise, he added.

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The Special Cell of the DelhiPolice has busted a Dubai

based international syndicate offake Indian currency noteswith the arrest of its two mem-bers from Delhi’s Sarai KaleKhan area.

Fine quality Fake IndianCurrency Note (FICN) of �4lakhs were recovered from theaccused, identified asMohammad Jakir and KamreAlam, who also circulated fakeIndian notes in Delhi NCR onthe directions of a Dubai basedman.

The recovered amountwere in the denomination of100 and 200 rupee notes, policesaid.

According to SanjeevKumar Yadav, DeputyCommissioner of Police(DCP), Special Cell, in thepast few months, informationwas being received throughsources about a FICN syndicateoperated by a Dubai basedperson named Sariq alias Sata.

“Sariq is involved in the cir-culation of FICN in Delhi-NCR in a large quantity. Butthrough surveillance and track-ing skills, our team found outthat the FICN racket is beingoperated by Jakir and Alam inDelhi NCR on the direction of

Dubai based Sariq,” said theDCP.

“On August 20, police teamgot a tip off that a delivery ofFICN would take place nearSarai Kale Khan here. A trapwas laid and during the lateevening hours, Zakir who sup-plied FICN in Delhi and NCRwas apprehended with a totalFICN of Rs. Four lakhs,” saidthe DCP.

“Later, his associate --Kamre Alam, was also appre-hended from Sambhal in UttarPradesh. During interrogation,it was further revealed thesyndicate is being run by Dubaibased Sariq who has links withPakistan," said the DCP.

"Sariq is the kingpin of thesata gang that steals luxurycars in Delhi- NCR and otherstates. He is involved in morethan 50 cases of auto theft,robbery, dacoity, Gunda Act,NSA etc. After shifting Dubai,besides operating a motorvehicle theft gang, he alsostarted dealing in FICN,” saidthe DCP.

“On his direction, fakeIndian currencies are circulat-ed in Delhi NCR and otherstates by accused Kamre Alamand Zakir. They exchangedthese fake notes with originalIndian currency notes at therate of Rs 60 for Rs 100 FICN,”said the DCP.

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With a dip in Covid-19cases and easing of

restrictions, several people herechose to travel to meet their rel-atives and celebrate rakshabandhan on Sunday, unlikelast year when festivities weresubdued because of a rampag-ing pandemic.

No death due to Covid-19was recorded in Delhi onSaturday, the second consecu-tive day the daily fatality countstood nil, while 19 new cases,the lowest since April 15 lastyear, were also reported here,according to health depart-ment data.

However, informationtechnology (IT) professionalSwati Singh celebrated the fes-tival of brother-sister bond athome for the second consecu-tive year as her family is yet tobe fully vaccinated againstCovid-19.

She said that on every rak-sha bandhan, before the infec-tion's outbreak, her family wentout for lunch at a restaurant tocelebrate the day.

"Even though we miss eat-ing out, this has turned out tobe a good way to bond. We allare cooking a little of some-thing, and enjoying a variety ofdishes at home," Singh toldPTI.

Professional photographerAnkit Gautam, who lost hismaternal uncle in May in

Jamshedpur, decided to travelwith his family to the city inJharkhand.

"This year, I am away fromhome (Delhi) and celebratingrakhi with my cousins. Theother purpose of this visit, is totake my maternal grandfatherto Delhi as he still has somecomplications post-recoveryfrom Covid," he said.

Gautam said that travellingto Jamshedpur, brought somechange.

Preeti Mishra, a researcherat IIT-Delhi, caught up with hercousins to celebrate the festivalafter a year's gap.

"This year, we are back toour regular celebration. We

cousins met up to celebratewhich we missed last year duethe pandemic. This year, we allgathered at one of my cousins'house," she said.

According to the DelhiTraffic Police, traffic jams werereported from Tilak Nagar,Najafgarh, Punjabi Bagh,Pitampura and Peera Garhi,among other places in the city.

"I m going to Delhi to mygrandmother's house to tierakhi to my cousin... Stuck intraffic for an hour. Just howmuch I wish I was at home..."a Twitter user posted.

Police in responded saying,"traffic is heavy due to festival".2019.

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Ahead of the harvesting sea-son, the Commission for

Air Quality Management(CAQM) has asked Delhi andneighbouring States to ensurethe adoption and application ofa standard protocol developedby ISRO for estimation of cropresidue burning fire eventsusing satellite data.

The commission, mandat-ed to devise and execute plansto prevent and control air pol-lution in the national capitalregion and adjoining areas,has also asked Delhi, Punjab,Haryana, Uttar Pradesh,Rajasthan to develop a time-bound comprehensive actionplan, in consultation withstakeholder agencies responsi-ble for monitoring and report-ing of agriculture residue burn-ing events, based on the pro-tocol.

The commission hadstressed the need to developand implement a standardisedmethodology across NCR andadjoining areas for the moni-toring of fire events at meetingswith the Indian Space ResearchOrganisation (ISRO) at a meet-ing held in December last year.

The protocol has been pre-pared in consultation withstakeholder agencies like StateRemote Sensing Centers andIndian Agricultural ResearchInstitute, it said.

"Now, therefore, in view ofthe compelling need to moni-

tor and control air pollutionfrom stubble burning, the com-mission…hereby directs gov-ernment of NCT of Delhi toensure adoption and applica-tion of the standard protocolfor estimation of crop residueburning fire events using satel-lite data," the directions read.

The commission said theprotocol should be adopteduniformly across the states ofPunjab, Haryana, UttarPradesh, Rajasthan, and Delhi,and not restricted to Punjaband Haryana alone.

The panel on air qualityhas also asked these states tosubmit a compliance report onthe adoption of the protocol byAugust 30.

The northern states ofPunjab, Haryana, Rajasthanand Uttar Pradesh attract atten-tion during the paddy har-vesting season betweenOctober 15 and November 15.

Farmers set their fields onfire to quickly clear off the cropresidue left behind after har-vesting and before cultivatingwheat and potato. It is one ofthe main reasons for the alarm-

ing spike in pollution in Delhi-NCR.

Despite a ban on stubbleburning in Punjab andHaryana, farmers continue todefy it as there is a short win-dow between the harvesting ofpaddy and sowing of wheat.

The high cost of manual ormechanical management ofstraw is a major reason whyfarmers choose to burn it.

State governments are pro-viding 50 to 80 per cent subsidyto farmers and cooperativesocieties to buy modern farmequipment for in-situ man-agement of paddy straw,installing paddy straw-basedpower plants and running amassive awareness campaignagainst stubble burning.

But these measures are yetto make any significant impacton the ground.

According to a recent studyby the Council on Energy,Environment and Water(CEEW), a Delhi-based not-for-profit policy research insti-tution, a relatively longer stub-ble-burning period andunfavourable meteorologicalconditions were primarilyresponsible for Delhi's wors-ening air quality in winters lastyear.

The analysis showed thecontribution of stubble burningto Delhi's PM2.5 levels exceed-ed 30 per cent for seven days(between October 10 andNovember 25) in 2020 asagainst three days in 2019.

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Atwo-year-old boy wasallegedly kidnapped and

killed by his aunt and uncle inwest Delhi's Rajouri Garden,police said on Saturday.

The accused identified asYamuna (24) and her husbandRajesh, residents of RaghubirNagar, have been arrested, theysaid.

A day after the toddlerwent missing from his home,police found his body in aflooded drain in Punjabi Bagh.

According to police,Yamuna felt that her motherloved her sister's son morethan her daughter, due towhich she hatched the plan tokill the boy. Ten teams wereformed and they started trac-ing the missing child, a seniorpolice officer said.

Police analysed the CCTVfootage and saw Yamuna andRajesh taking the boy towardsGanda Nala, Punjabi Bagh,Deputy Commissioner ofPolice (west) Urvija Goel said.

Yamuna was held fromSubhash Nagar and upon inter-rogation, revealed that she andRajesh had kidnapped and killedthe child, the DCP said. The accused took the tod-dler to Punjabi Bagh drain,strangulated him and to makesure that he was dead, drownedhim in the drain, police said.2019.

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Several passengers faced dis-comfort as services were

affected for about three hourson a section of the Pink Linedue to a technical snag onSaturday night.

Services between MajlisPark and Rajouri Garden sta-tions were affected due to atechnical issue with the OHE(overhead equipment) line,sources said.

The Pink Line was fullyconnected, end-to-end, after asmall segment near Trilokpuriwas bridged.

The 59-km-long MajlisPark-Shiv Vihar corridor or thePink Line, spans 38 stations.The snag occurred about 7 pmand was fixed around 10 pm,sources said.

Earlier, the DMRC tweet-ed at 7.17 pm: "Pink LineUpdate Delay in servicebetween Majlis Park andRajouri Garden. Normal ser-vices on all other lines".

Around 10.11 pm, it tweet-ed: "Pink Line Update. "Normalservice has resumed"."There was a delay on the PinkLine between Majlis Park andRajouri Garden due to an

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Heavy rain in Delhi on earlySaturday gave a much-

needed respite from heat topeople of the national Capital,but the resultant waterloggingat several locations, and theRaksha Bandhan festival, hitvehicular movement onSunday.

Some parts of Delhi alsowitnessed light rain on Sundayas well.

Delhi recorded its highestone-day rain for August (139mm) in at least 13 years onSaturday, resulting in heavywater logging in many parts ofthe city and traffic snarls.

The IMD had issued a yel-low alert for the nationalCapital on Sunday and had pre-dicted bad weather for the day.

Meanwhile, there were traf-fic snarls at several stretchesbecause of Raksha Bandhan.The Delhi-Noida link road,Vikas Marg, Anand Vihar, FirniRoad in Najafgarh and manymore areas witnessed heavytraffic as people came out inlarge numbers to visit their rel-atives on the festival.

Meanwhile, traffic onstretches like Minto Bridge,Rajghat, Connaught Place, andITO was also affected due torain.

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When Covid-19 turnedinto a global pandemic,

many nations across the worldcame up with a strategy to setup makeshift hospitals to caterto the needs of growing infect-ed patients as the virus chal-lenged the healthcare facilitieseven of all the developednations. Apart from the med-ical oxygen-crisis, limitedhealthcare facilities during thesecond Covid wave was alsoone of the most apparent rea-sons for the devastating pan-demic in India. As the viruscontinued to pose challenges tothe healthcare facilities acrossthe nation, many makeshifthospitals were constructed onan urgent basis to accommo-date the patients suffering fromthe infection. The IndianRailways stopped all trains andconverted many coaches intoisolation centres for thepatients.

However, the daily Covidcase trajectory has shown thedeclining trend now, allmakeshift hospitals in thenational Capital Delhi are oper-ational and will remain in a

standby mode to face the sever-ity of a possible third Covidwave.

The health scientists arecontinuously warning aboutthe possible third wave in Indiaanytime. Recently, the DelhiGovernment announced build-ing seven makeshift hospitalswith 7,000 ICU beds in the nextsix months to prepare for apotential third covid wave.These seven makeshift hospi-tals will be constructed by the

public works department(PWD) in Sarita Vihar,Shalimar Bagh, Sultanpuri,Kirari, Raghubir Nagar, GTBhospital, and Chacha NehruBal Chikitsalaya.

The makeshift Covid-19facility attached to the LokNayak Jai Prakash NarayanHospital at Ramleela Maidanstarted operations with 250ICU beds during the secondwave. Dr Ritu Saxena, MediaCell Chief, says that the

makeshift Covid-19 facility atRam Leela ground is fullyoperational and "we are plan-ning the extension of the facil-ity there as per the directionfrom the government to pre-pare in advance for possiblethird wave. She said, "Till weget any direction from thegovernment, the facility willremain operational." Though,she accepts that only a fewCovid patients are visiting thefacility now.

Dr Purvi Verma, ClinicalDoctor at the CWG Covidcare center, said, "We are readyto face the challenges of thethird wave with two oxygenplants ready and a total of 450beds attached with the oxygensupply."

She said we have two hallshere where 450 beds are avail-able along with 50 beds withICU facilities. "We havereceived directions for 460beds to be in complete opera-tion". A Medical Mobile Unit(MMU) facility also runs fromthe CWG center that detectsthe Covid patients and providesquality treatment. The facilityis presently running in NewDelhi district.

"SPCCC Radha SoamiSatsang Beas in Chhatarpurwill continue to function tillfurther orders. We will con-tinue to manage the centre tillthe time we are asked to do so",ITBP spokesperson VivekKumar Pandey said. He said,"However, we are receivingnear to zero Covid patients andhave reduced the staff for thefacility. We will continue to beoperational till we get anydirection from the govern-ment.

Delhi Health MinisterSatyendar Jain recently saidthat all necessary measuresare being taken and healthinfrastructure is being rampedup to unprecedented levelswith more than 37,000 Covid-19 dedicated beds being builtfor the fight against the likelythird wave of Covid-19. Hesaid that if third wave comes,it will be milder than the sec-ond wave in Delhi at leastbecause the majority of thecases that emerged duringApril-May this year werecaused by the Delta variant,implying the majority of thepopulation may already haveantibodies.

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The maximum temperaturein the national Capital set-

tled at 34.3 degrees Celsius onSunday, the meteorologicaldepartment said.

The Met has forecast gen-erally cloudy sky with light rainand thundershowers at isolatedplaces on Monday. The maxi-mum and minimum tempera-tures on Monday are expectedto be around 35 and 26 degreesCelsius respectively.

Rains lashed some parts ofthe city on Sunday morning,and the minimum temperaturesettled at 24.5 degrees Celsius,two notches below the season'snormal, said the official.

The relative humidityrecorded at 5.30 pm was 72 percent. In the last 24 hours, thecity received 9.2 mm rainfall,they said

OHE-related issue. It wasresolved and services were nor-malised around 10 pm. It wasnot a major issue," a source said.

Many commuters hadtaken to Twitter to share thehardship faced by them due tothe long delay in services.

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Amixed tanzeem, led byPakistan-based terror

group Lashkar-e-Tayabba, isplanning to carry out multipleattacks on the vehicles/convoysof security forces in Jammu byusing magnetic IEDs/stickybombs. Similar attacks wereearlier planned by the terrorgroups for the Valley, accord-ing to intelligence inputs.

The likely targets are vehi-cles moving from Rajouri toJammu side including Jammutown. Other possible targets arevehicles of security forces mov-ing from Poonch-Surankot viaold Mughal Road to Shopianincluding in Shopian district,reads the input shared withstakeholders involved incounter-insurgency operations

as also law and order duties.Another input suggests

that three-four LeT terroristshave managed to infiltratethrough Kanachak (Jammuregion) on August 13. “Theywould try to carry out some bigattacks but due to tight securi-ty they are facing difficulties,”agencies warned through theinputs.

Reportedly, weapons havealready been cached inDomana, Jammu and the ter-rorists are trying to extract thesame.

A local terrorist ShahidKhurshid of the LeT and itsaffiliate The Resistance Front(TRF) along with foreign ter-rorists were noticed in Golporaarea. “They might plan tosnatch weapons and causegrenade attacks on security

forces deployed in Pampore,Panthachowk, Lasjan Bridgeand Nowgam Area.

Recently, inputs had alsosuggested that the terrorgroups are in the lookout totarget temples in Jammuregion to flare up communalpassions.

The terrorists have alreadybeen able to carry out dronehits on the Jammu air base inthe recent past. The case isbeing probed by the NationalInvestigation Agency (NIA)without much headway.

The shift in the terror tac-tic to target Jammu has beenmade by the jihadi groups asthe security grid in the Valleyis particularly difficult for thetanzeems to penetrate amid astrong security footprint, offi-cials said.

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Rich tributes continued topour in for the late former

Chief Minister and GovernorKalyan Singh.

Prime Minister NarendraModi reached Lucknow onSunday to pay his tributes.Later talking to the media, hesaid: “This is a moment of grieffor all of us. His parents hadnamed him Kalyan Singh. Helived his life in such a way thathe fulfilled the name given byhis parents. He lived his entirelife for the public welfare. Hemade ‘’jan kalyan’’ as the mantraof his life, and dedicated his lifefor the BJP, Bharatiya Jan Sanghfamily, for an ideology and forthe bright future of the country,”Modi said even as he hailed himas a “committed decisionmaker” who had become “aname of faith (vishvaas) acrossthe country”.

“For the most part of hislife, he made efforts for publicwelfare. Whatever responsibil-ity he had got, be it as an MLA,any post in the Government, oras a governor, he had been acentre of inspiration for every-one. He became a symbol offaith for the common public,”Modi added.

“We have lost a capableleader. We should make maxi-mum efforts by taking his val-ues and resolutions to com-pensate for him; we shouldleave no stone unturned in ful-filling his dreams,” the PMsaid.

Lauding the role of KalyanSingh in the ‘RamJanambhoomi movement’,senior BJP leaders LK Advaniand Murli Manohar Joshi saidon Sunday that the late UPChief Minister’s commitment,drive and sincerity towardsresolving the Ayodhya issue wasa great source of strength for hisparty and others and that hewas the nation’s leader.

Advani said Singh was astalwart of Indian politics anda grassroots leader.

“I cherish my many specialmemories with him during theRam Janmabhoomi Movement.His commitment, drive andsincerity towards resolving theAyodhya issue was a greatsource of strength not only formy party, the BJP, but for scoresof Indians who were eagerly

waiting to see the realisation oftheir dream of a grand templeof Lord Ram at RamJanambhoomi,” he said.

Singh, also an ex-StateGovernor, was ill for sometime, and passed away at theSanjay Gandhi Post GraduateInstitute of Medical Sciences inLucknow late on Saturday.

A ‘Lodh leader’, he was thefirst OBC Chief Minister of theState and drew considerablesupport from Advani in gain-ing political eminence.He hadfallen-out with Atal BihariVajpayee and formed his ownpolitical outfit but rejoined theparty in 2004 at the latter’sbehest.

For his part, Joshi said,“Kalyan Singh wasn’t the leaderof a caste. He felt pain for farm-ers, oppressed and backward

but he wasn’t their leader alone.He was the nation’s leader. It’sa personal loss. We facedbatons & bullets together. It’llbe tough to make up for theloss.”

“My acquaintance withKalyan Singh ji is from 1962. Iknow him since he was ateacher at a college in Aligarh.He used to sing very goodsongs, Kalyan Singh ji had avery melodious voice. He wasa caretaker of the RashtriyaSwayamsevak Sangh.”

Joshi applauded Singh’stenure as the UP CM saying,“The most important tenure ofKalyan Singh ji was the timewhen the Ram Mandir move-ment was going on. I was thePresident of the party at thattime and he was the UP CMand when he announced that‘no matter what happens, I willnot shoot at Kar Sevaks’, itraised his stature and peoplegot the idea that he is a man ofprinciples,” Joshi said.

“At that time, he had alsomade it clear that he will notallow bloodshed in the move-ment of this temple under anycircumstances. Back then, thisannouncement was a big deal,”he said.

Defence Minister RajnathSingh, who also paid tributes tothe departed leader inLucknow, said he lost an elderbrother. “We used to tell him(Kalyan) that we are ‘’bhoot-poorv’’ (former) chief minister,you are ‘’abhootpoorv’’(unprecedented) ChiefMinister, on which he used tolaugh. I have seen him as anelder brother,” he maintained.

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Ivermectin, a controversialanti-parasitic drug com-

monly used for livestock butlooked upon as a potentialCovid-19 treatment, shouldnot be taken to treat or preventCovid-19, the US Food andDrug Administration has said.

In India, sold in black-market during the secondCovid -19 wave, Ivermectin isnow already off the covid treat-ment list.

The USFDA warning camea day after the Mississippi StateDepartment of Health issued asimilar statement in response toreports that an increasing num-ber of people in Mississippiwere using the drug to preventa Covid infection.

Some studies last yearspurred use of the drug againstCovid-19, especially in LatinAmerica, and Fox News haspromoted some of those stud-ies’ findings on air.

But the National Institutesof Health said in February thatmost of the studies related toIvermectin and the coronavirus“had incomplete informationand significant methodologicallimitations,” including smallsample sizes and study out-come measures that were oftenunclear.

Ivermectin, which is alsoformulated for use by people totreat parasitic worms, had beencontroversially promoted as apotential Covid treatment ear-lier in the pandemic, but recentstudies found that the drug’sefficacy against the coronavirusis thin, and the F.D.A. has notapproved the drug for Covidtreatment.

In India, there has beenmixed response for the usage ofthe drug. Some state govern-ments like Uttar Pradesh andGoa had during the raginginfection wave advocated itsuse for Covid-19 treatmentand as a prophylaxis (preven-tive medication).

In June, the Union HealthMinistry’s directorate general ofhealth services (DGHS) hadissued revised guidelines tostop the use of Ivermectinbesides Doxycycline in Covid-19 treatment for asymptomaticand mild cases.

It said these drugs have notbeen found to be effective intreatment of the Covid-19.

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Senior BJP leader from TamilNadu La. Ganesan was on

Sunday appointed as the newGovernor of Manipur.

The post of the Governorhad fallen vacant after theretirement of Najma Heptullaearlier this month.

A communique from theRashtrapati Bhavan saidGanesan will be the new“Governor of Manipur witheffect from the date he assumescharge of his office”.

Heptulla had demittedoffice on August 10 and on thesame day, the charge was givento Sikkim Governor GangaPrasad.

Puducherry Chief MinisterN Rangasamy greeted Ganesanon his appointment. In hismessage to Ganesan, the CMsaid his appointment as theGovernor of Manipur was a‘’proud development.’’

Rangasamy also stated inhis message that the rich polit-ical experience and adminis-trative proficiency of Ganesanwould be of immense help forManipur to make progress.

“I extend my greetings andbest wishes on my behalf andon behalf of the people ofPuducherry,” he said.

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The number of days it takesin trial and judgment of

commercial disputes has comedown significantly in Delhiand Mumbai, according to thelatest data of the Law Ministry.

According to the WorldBank’s ‘’doing business’’ reportfor India, it used to take 1,095days in trial and judgment ofcommercial disputes in 2020.

But following a push forreforms, the number of dayshas come down to 424 inDelhi and 306 in Mumbai,according to the data put thein public domain by theDepartment of Justice in theLaw Ministry.

The Code of CivilProcedure of 1908 providestime standards for case man-agement.

According to it, the filingof written statement should bedone within 30 days of thenotice served on defendantand the judgment should bedelivered within 30 days from

hearing conclusion date.Time standards are

respected in more than 50 percent of cases in dedicated com-mercial courts, the depart-ment said.

Fixing of time standardsfor key court events andstreamlining of trial processhave led to speeding up casedisposal, it claimed.

Order XVII Rule (1) of theCPC provides for a maximumof three adjournments duringthe hearing of a suit.

Order XVII, Rule 2(b) ofthe CPC states that noadjournment will be granted atthe request of a party, exceptwhere the circumstances arebeyond control.

The Department of Justicehad sent letters to the highcourts of Delhi, Bombay,Calcutta and Karnataka toadhere to the three-adjourn-ment rule.

The four high courts haveissued advisory to all the ded-icated commercial courts

under their jurisdictions tostrictly adhere to the timelinesand three-adjournment rule.

The rule of maximumthree adjournments is beingactively enforced in more than50 per cent of cases of dedi-cated commercial courts ofDelhi, Mumbai, Kolkata andBengaluru.

This has reduced the timetaken for trial, arguments andfinal judgment, the depart-ment noted.

Besides, e-committee ofthe Supreme Court hasensured compliance with thethree-adjournment rule by cre-ating facility which is provid-ed in “daily proceedingsscreen” to alert judge about thelisting of case.

Green colour indicates thatthe case is listed on the samestage for less than three times.

Orange colour indicatesthat the case is listed on thesame stage between three andsix times.

Red colour shows the caseis listed on the same stage formore than six times.

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With monsoon deficiencystill 8 percent in the

country, area sown to summercrops like paddy was laggingbehind by 1.55 per cent at1,043.87 lakh hectare so far inthe ongoing kharif season ofthe crop year 2021-22 (July-June) as against 1060.37 lakhhectare last year. The IndiaMeteorological Department(IMD) on Sunday said that cur-rent rainfall activity over plainsof northwest India was likely toreduce from Monday.

The Ministry ofAgriculture on Sunday releaseda kharif sowing data said thatarea sown to paddy (the mainkharif crop) remained mar-ginally lower at 374.03 lakhhectare till August 20 of thiskharif season as against 378.07lakh hectare in the year-agoperiod.

Similarly, area sown tooilseeds remained slightlylower at 187.88 lakh hectare asagainst 189.98 lakh hectare,while that of coarse cereals

acreage was down at 169.06lakh hectare as against 171.82lakh hectare in the said period.However, area sown to pulseswas marginally higher at 134.23lakh hectare so far this kharifseason, from 132.03 lakhhectare in the year-ago period.

In cash crops, area sown tocotton was down at 117.04lakh hectare so far this kharifseason, against 127.69 lakhhectare in the year-ago period.But, acreage under sugarcanewas slightly higher at 54.63 lakhhectare as against 53.85 lakhhectare, while jute and mestaarea was flat at 7.02 lakhhectare as against 7 lakhhectare in the said period.

Sowing of kharif crops insome places continues tillSeptember and harvestingbegins from October onwards.Sowing operation is still under-way and planting of summer (kharif) crops can becontinued till the end ofAugust, it said.

Sowing of kharif cropsbegins with the onset of south-west monsoon from June.

Monsoon rainfall was lowereight per cent between June 1and August 20, the ministrysaid. However, water storageavailable in 130 reservoirs inthe country was 96 per cent oflive storage in the correspond-ing period of last year, and 99per cent storage of average inthe last 10 years, as per theCentral Water Commission, itadded.

According to the ministry,“sowing is still going on” instates growing kharif cropswith “occurrence of monsoonrains in many states”. A major-ity of States have informed theCentral Government that thesowing of kharif crops, partic-ularly paddy, urad, moong andsesamum castor, can be con-tinued up to the end of August,it said.

Castor can be grown up toSeptember 15 in Gujarat whichhas been receiving good rainsfor the last two days. Similarly,sowing of kulthi and nizer andearly mustard seed can be doneup to September in Jharkhand,it added.

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In an effort to increase its pres-ence in the Pacific region and

strengthen Quad alliance,Indian Navy ships have reachedGuam for the Malabar series ofexercises to commence shortly.The Malabar series comprisesthe Quad countries includingIndia, US, Japan and Australia.

Giving details of the forth-coming exercise, navy officialsaid here on Sunday warshipsINS Shivalik and Kadmattarrived at Guam, an IslandTerritory of the USA onSaturday as part of their on-going deployment to nations inSouth East Asia and the PacificOcean. The two ships are sched-uled to participate in the annu-

al Exercise Malabar betweennavies of Australia, India, Japanand the USA. Malabar series ofmaritime exercises commencedin 1992 as a bilateral India-USexercise and has grown instature over the years to includefour prominent navies in thePacific and Indian OceanRegion.

As part of the Exercise,Vice Admiral AB Singh, FlagOfficer Commanding-in-Chief,Eastern Naval Command willhave operational discussionswith Rear Admiral Leonard C.“Butch” Dollaga, CommanderCTF-74 focussing on develop-ing an action plan and coordi-nated operations in the mar-itime domain. Flag OfficerCommanding Eastern Fleet,

Rear Admiral Tarun Sobtiwould be embarked onboardINS Shivalik during the conductof Sea Phase commencing 26Aug 21.

The latest exercise will befor four days commencingAugust 26. The drill will providean opportunity for commonminded navies to enhance inter-operability, gain from best prac-tices and develop a commonunderstanding of procedures forMaritime Security Operations.

It will witness high-tempoexercises conducted betweenDestroyers’, Frigates, Corvettes,Submarines, Helicopters andLong Range Maritime PatrolAircraft of the participatingnavies.

Complex surface, sub-sur-

face and air operations includ-ing Live Weapon Firing Drills,Anti-Surface, Anti-Air andAnti-Submarine Warfare Drills,Joint Manoeuvres and Tacticalexercises will be conductedduring the exercise.

The conduct of these exer-cises despite Covid restrictionsis a testimony of synergybetween the participating naviesand commitment to safer seas.

The participating IndianShips are the latest indigenous-ly designed and built, multi-roleGuided Missile Stealth Frigate and Anti-Submarine Corvette respec-tively and form part of theIndian Navy’s Eastern Fleetbased at Visakhapatnam,Eastern Naval Command.

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Expressing its condolenceson the demise of former

Uttar Pradesh Chief MinisterKalyan Singh, the RashtriyaSwayamsevak Sangh (RSS) onSunday said that his death hascaused an irreparable loss inpublic life.

In a joint statement, RSSchief Mohan Bhagwat and JointGeneral Secretary DattatreyaHosabale said, “The RashtriyaSwayamsevak Sangh expressesits deep condolences on the

demise of former Governorand former Chief Minister ofUttar Pradesh, popular publicleader Kalyan Singh ji. He wasa grounded politician and anefficient administrator. Hisdeath has caused an irrepara-ble loss in public life.”

“He was devoted toHindutva, Bhagwan Shri Ramand Bharatiya values. He hadbecome a people’s leader afterfulfilling his national con-sciousness in the Shri RamJanmabhoomi movement,”they said.

Referring to Singh’s asso-ciation with the RSS, they said,“He was proud to be a Sangh

Swayamsevak. He played animportant role in strengthen-ing the BJP organization inUttar Pradesh as a worker andleader. He worked for theempowerment of the weakersections of the society andalways kept public welfare para-mount.”

“The RashtriyaSwayamsevak Sangh paysheartfelt tributes to KalyanSingh ji. We pray to thealmighty to give strength to hisfamily to bear this loss and toplace his departed soul at hisfeet,” they added.

Singh (89) passed awaydue to sepsis and multi-organfailure in Lucknow on Saturdaynight. A two-term ChiefMinister of Uttar Pradesh,Singh had also served as theGovernor of Rajasthan from2014-2019.

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Bengal BJP is vertically divid-ed over State party presi-

dent Dilip Ghosh’s open standin favour of partitioningBengal.

Contradicting what Ghoshsaid on Saturday in support ofUnion Minister John Burla’sdemand for a separate Statecomprising the districts ofNorth Bengal, former Stateparty president Rahul Sinha onSunday said “there is no ques-tion of the BJP supporting anydivisive cause … we want tomake all those who have beenmaking such comments awareof what Rabindranath Tagoredid on Raksha Bandhan Day …he called upon the people ofundivided Bengal to tie rakhion each other’s hands as a markof unity … how can we beingthe descendents of Tagoreuphold such mischievousdemands…

“I can say with full respon-sibility on behalf of my party

that irrespective of some indi-vidual sentiments the BJP hasnever been in support of par-titioning Bengal … the BJPwants a united and prosperousState.”

Ghosh had earlier made astrong point in support ofBurla an MP from Alipurduarsaying “if he has said some-thing … it is not unjustifiedbecause as a representative ofthe people he has a dutytowards airing the views of thepeople of that region.”

Burla had on more thanone occasion demanded divi-sion of Bengal by carving outa separate State comprisingthe districts of North Bengal.

“There has been no devel-opment in this part of theState for decades … the localpeople have their aspirationswhich have to be fulfilled as theprevious Governments havefailed to perform the people ofthis region want a separate State… they can settle for even aUnion Territory … at least we

will be under the Centre so thata full-fledged development ofthis area can take place,” Burlahad said even before PrimeMinister Narendra Modi madehim a central minister

apparently dropping asilent hint of the BJP’s ideas.

Though Ghosh had dis-tanced himself from Burla’sviews earlier saying it was thesaffron MP’s personal views, onSaturday he made u-turn say-ing “he has full right to makesuch demands.” In fact whilebacking Burla in North BengalGhosh also took into the sweepof his argument theJangalmahal areas of SouthBengal saying the leaders ofboth these regions deserved todemand separate States becausethe “Mamata BanerjeeGovernment has done nothingfor them … there has been nodevelopment … no big hospi-tal, no job opportunity … thepeople have to go to otherStates like Odisha, Jharkhandand Gujarat from these regions

for jobs and medical help … soI think such demands havearisen from deprivation ofthese regions.”

When asked whether hisstatement could adversely affectthe party’s performance amongthe Bengali-speaking peopleGhosh said “even MamataBanerjee backed the GorkhaJanmukti Morcha against theLeft Government in order toearn supporters in Darjeelingand Terrain region … even theTMC struck an alliance withthe GJM even after they wereasking for a division of Bengal.”

Incidentally BJP has astronghold in North Bengaland Jangalmahal sending mostof its MPs and MLAs fromthese regions.

According to sources in theparty Ghosh was making suchcomments to hold togetherthe disintegration of his partyin these regions. In fact Ghosh’scomments came almost in tan-dem with 11 local level BJPleaders joining the Trinamool

Congress in North Bengal.“If he does not raise such

issues then the party will sim-ply collapse with a sectiongoing to the TMC and theother going to the Left whichhad a strong following in thisarea before 2019,” said IKLahiri a political analyst.

Attacking Ghosh for his“irresponsible statements”TMC MP Sukhendu SekharRay said, “BJP is encouragingfissiparous elements to divide

Bengal after suffering ahumiliating defeat in the recentassembly election…. But thepeople will reject them in2024.”

Another senior leader andminister Firhad Hakim said “ifthe BJP continues to do so theywill be obliterated from Bengal.A third leader said that “Burlais trying to play with the trib-al votes of North Bengal but intrying to win 4 lakh votes hisparty will lose the vote of 20lakh Bengali-speaking people,”

Udhampur (J&K): FahimNazir Shah is walking to Delhifrom Srinagar, hoping that hisaround 815-km journey will getthe attention of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and he will getan opportunity to meethim.

"I am a very big fan ofPrime Minister Modi," the 28-year-old, who works as a part-time electrician in Jammu andKashmir's Srinagar, said as hereached Udhampur on Sundayafter walking over 200 km.Taking short breaks on hisjourney, which started twodays ago, Shah, a resident of theShalimar area in Srinagar,believes that at the end of thisarduous journey his dream ofmeeting the Prime Ministerwill be fulfilled.

"I am on my way to Delhiby foot to meet him (Modi) and

I hope to attract the attentionof the Prime Minister. To meetthe Prime Minister is my cher-ished dream," he said, addingthat his previous attempts tomeet the PM did not fructify.Shah said that he has been fol-lowing the prime minister onsocial media over the past fouryears, and his speech andactions have "touched myheart".

"At one time, when he wasdelivering an address at a rally,he stopped suddenly on hear-ing the 'azaan' (Muslim call forprayer) leaving the publicastonished … that gesture ofour prime minister touched myheart and I became his ardentfan," he said. Shah said thatover the past two and a halfyears, he has made severalattempts to meet PrimeMinister Modi in Delhi. PTI

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Bengaluru: Former PrimeMinister H D Deve Gowda onSunday rued the unruly scenesin the Rajya Sabha and wastageof the recently concludedParliament session without anydebates on issues affecting peo-ple, saying he had not seen any-thing like it in his 30 years asa parliamentarian.

After the conclusion of themonsoon session on August 11,he met the opposition leadersand asked them what they hadachieved as none of the issuesaffecting the people was dis-cussed, Gowda said.

"I was not allowed tospeak during the monsoonsession due to the ruckus bymembers of the ruling andopposition parties. No businesstook place and the session waswasted," the JD(S) leader toldreporters at the party officehere.

On the unruly behaviourof parliamentarians in theRajya Sabha, he said, "I am dis-gusted with the behaviour ofthe ruling party, as well as themembers of the opposition...People danced on the table in

the well the house. In my 30years as a parliamentarian, Ihave never witnessed any inci-dent like this." Such behav-iour was not good for societybecause it showed the degen-eration of democratic valuesand was an insult to the greatpeople who fought for the free-dom of the country, he said.

Vice President M VenkaiahNaidu had suspended fourTMC MPs on August 4 for therest of the day for creating aruckus over the Pegasus spyingissue.

Gowda said his partywould launch a State-widecampaign after the conclusionof the legislature session onSeptember 24, to resolve thewater disputes in the state,including that pertaining to theKrishna and Mahadayi riversand the Mekedatu balancingreservoir project across theriver Cauvery.

He said Karnataka ChiefMinister Basavaraj Bommaihad spoken to NCP chiefSharad Pawar and other BJPleaders in a bid to find a solu-tion to the Krishna and

Mahadayi water sharing dis-pute between the State andMaharashtra.

Regarding the Mekedatuissue, he said some leadersfrom Tamil Nadu he had spo-ken to had advocated a reser-voir on the Cauvery river atHogenakkal on the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border, and notMekedatu in Ramanagara dis-trict. "A reservoir atHogenakkal would meanencompassing a large catch-ment area whereas inMekedatu, the catchment areais small," Gowda said.

The former PM said onlya regional outfit like JD(S)could find a solution to thesetwo river water disputes andnot any national party.

He said Congress leaderRahul Gandhi needed to 'walkthe extra mile' to hone his polit-ical skills and wondered whathe had achieved by taking outa bicycle rally recently toprotest the hikes in fuel prices.

To a question on his recentmeeting with Bommai, Gowdasaid he assured him support onvarious issues. PTI

Guwahati: The AssamGovernment alleged on Sundaythat Mizoram officials enteredits territory in Hailakandi andstarted constructing a bridge, ina fresh escalation between thetwo Northeastern States.

The incident took place onFriday when a few workersfrom Mizoram were trying toconstruct a bridge at Kachurthalin the Ramnathpur police sta-tion area, Hailakandi'sSuperintendent of Police GauravUpadhyay told PTI.

"The Officer In-Charge(OC) of Ramnathpur policestation and his patrolling teamimmediately reached the spotand stopped the constructionwork, calling it a trespass byMizoram as they had no author-ity to build a bridge on theAssam side," he said.

Upadhyay alleged thataround 40-50 security person-nel from Mizoram reached thebridge site on Saturday and few

of them crossed to the Assamside "in complete violation of thejoint statement issued by bothStates on August 5 to maintainpeace in the border area".

The local police team fromAssam urged the Mizoramsecurity personnel to leave theAssam land, but they refused todo so, he alleged.

"In order to assert the posi-tion of Assam and to askMizoram forces to retreat fromthe Assam side of the bridge, aparty of around 200 AssamPolice personnel and comman-dos under my leadership andother senior officials reachedKachurthal on Sunday morn-ing," Upadhyay said.

He, however, stated thatbeing a responsible force, theAssam Police did not confrontand gave the respective civiladministrations a chance toamicably resolve the matter bystopping the construction onthe unauthorised bridge and

remove the force of Mizoram."The allegation of any theft

by a disciplined force like AssamPolice is absolutely concocted,baseless, malafide and devoid ofany facts and is an attempt byMizoram administration todivert the attention from mainissue, that is illegal constructionby Mizoram authorities onAssam soil," Upadhyay asserted.

The Mizoram Governmentsaid that it has filed a caseagainst personnel of the AssamPolice for allegedly "stealing"construction materials from thebridge site, which it claimed tobe in its territory.

Mizoram's Kolasib deputycommissioner H Lalthlanglianatold PTI that personnel of theAssam Police entered the state'sterritory at Zophai near Bairabitown and allegedly stole someconstruction materials, includ-ing iron rods, from the bridgeconstruction site on Friday. PTI

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CP Radhakrishnan, two-time BJP MP from

Coimbatore and former StateChief of the party, is a personwho is known for economicaluse of words. As part of the JanAshirwad Yatra in Kongunaduregion (south west TamilNadu), Radhakrishnandeclared in all the meetings headdressed that the day is not faroff when Lotus blooms in theState.

In addition to his prophe-cy about the blooming of Lotus,Radhakrishnan gave enoughhits of the BJP emerging as analternative force to the DMKand the AIADMK in the State.Looking towards K PRamalingam, former DMK

MP and Duraisamy, formerDMK MLA, Radhakrishnansaid that the BJP would makesituation conducive for wel-coming many senior Dravidianparty leaders to the saffronparty. “We will welcome M KAlagiri if he decides to join us.There is nothing that separatesAnnan (big brother as Alagiriis addressed by friends) fromus,” said Radhakrishnan onSunday which has caused afurore in Tamil Nadu politics.

Alagiri, the Madurai basedelder son of late MKarunanidhi, the former chiefminister of Tamil Nadu whowas also the party chief for 49years till he breathed his last in2017, was expelled from theDMK in 2014 and has been inpolitical wilderness since then.During the 2019 Lok Sabha

election and 2021 assemblyelection Alagiri lied low at therequest of his mother DayaluAmmal and sister Selvi withwhom he enjoys good rapportdespite his anger towardsyounger brother M K Stalin,the chief minister.

“Thampi (Tamil foryounger brother), don’t askme anything as of now. I amnot in active politics. Let every-thing be over and then Illspeak to you in detail,” Alagirihad told The Pioneer whenasked about his stance prior tothe assembly election,

“I did not tell Annan wouldjoin the BJP. What I told wasthat if he opts to join the BJP,there is nothing in his way toblock his decision,” saidRadhakrishnan who enjoys aspecial relation with Alagiri.

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Guwahati:A four-month-old Gangahad lost her mother to surging watersof the Brahmaputra nearly two decadesback, but she has now found her homeon the banks of another river and is ahealthy mother of four young ones.

Orphaned by the floods in Assam'sfamed Kaziranga National Park, Gangahad found a refuge on the peripheryof the Park where she was raised beforesetting out to live on her own in hernatural habitat.

Ganga was the second rhino tobe rescued by the Center for WildlifeRehabilitation and Conservation(CWRC) in Kaziranga in 2003, alongwith another rhino calf, Rathin Barmanof Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) toldPTI. Hand-raised by the staff of theCWRC, the pair was translocated toManas National Park (MNP), about300 km away from their birthplace,four years later where they have thrivedover the years. Named Ganga-Jamunafor their bonding by the frontline staffof MNP, they were the second lot ofrhinos sent to the Park with the first

being Mainou (Lakhsmi in local Bodolanguage) preceding them by a year toManas, also from the CWRC.

While Ganga gave birth to herfourth calf in the last week of July thisyear, Jamuna has three calves of herown and Mainou had also becomemother to three calves over the yearsbefore dying of natural causes a cou-ple of years back, Barman said.

The Center was established byGovernment of Assam, Wildlife Trustof India (WTI) and InternationalFund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), withthe support of Government of India,in 2002.

It is located at the periphery of theKaziranga National Park and attendsto wildlife displacements originatingmainly from the Park and adjoiningDibru-Saikhowa National Park.

The Center has been engaging inrescue of wildlife that stray out of theirnatural habitats and rhinos of KNPhave been among such animals thathave found a new lease of life in itspremise. PTI

Surat:A 30-year-old doctor allegedly killed hermother and sister by injecting them with drugsbefore overdosing on sleeping pills in a bid to endher life here in Gujarat but survived, police saidon Sunday.

Dr Darshana Prajapati injected her motherManjulaben (59) and her sister Falguni (28) withdrugs at their house in the Katagram area onSaturday night that caused their death on Sundaymorning. She also tried to end her life by con-suming a large number of sleeping pills. She is cur-rently undergoing treatment at the civil hospital,a police officer said.

"Both Manjulaben and Falguni died apparentlydue to drug overdose while Dr Darshana is under-going treatment at the civil hospital where thepolice recorded her statement," AssistantCommissioner of Police (ACP), D-Division, DJChavda told reporters. Dr Darshana told thepolice that she was fed up with her life, he said.

"Since her mother and sister were dependenton her, she wanted to take their life before killingherself. She said she injected them with a sleep-inducing drug. The exact drug injected will beknown after postmortem,” Chavda said. PTI

Itanagar: Arunachal PradeshChief Minister Pema Khanduon Sunday admitted that thepandemic has been an “eye-opener” for the StateGovernment prompting it torevamp the health sector in thelast 18 months which it couldnot do in decades.

The Government has“learnt the lesson the hardway” due to the outbreak ofCovid-19 and is developing thesector through the creation ofinfrastructure.

“It was this pandemic thatenabled us to ‘right' the ‘wrong'and revamp the health sector inthe last one and half years thatwe couldn't do in decades,” theChief Minister said.

Khandu said this whilelaying the foundation stone ofa 200-bedded speciality unit ofthe Ramakrishna Hospital here.

“Being the chief ministereven I was not aware of the sta-tus of our health facilities,especially at the ground level.Due to the pandemic, we

repeated reviews, consulta-tions, and meetings at all lev-els, which subsequentlyrevealed the poor condition ofour health infrastructure. I

“We are completely over-hauling infrastructure andfacilities of all the district hos-pitals. We have recruited andwill continue recruiting suffi-cient doctors, including spe-cialists, nurses of all categories,paramedics, and other sanitaryand assisting staff as required,”he said.

Khandu also informed thatthe government has decided toselect and develop one hospi-tal each in every assembly con-stituency with all facilities.

Applauding the role ofRamakrishna Mission Hospitalhere in the fight against Covid-19, the Chief Minister saiddoctors, nurses, paramedics,and all staff of the facility haddone everything possible fortaking care of the sick andneedy during the pandemic.

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala reported10,402 Covid-19 positive cases and 66related deaths on Sunday, taking the totalnumber of those affected in the State bythe viral infection to 38,14,305.

State Health Minister Veena Georgesaid 63,406 samples were tested in the last24 hours and the test positivity rate was16.41 per cent. Till now, 3.02 crore sam-ples have been tested in the state. Amongthe districts, Malappuram reported thehighest number of cases today at 1,577, fol-lowed by Kozhikode with 1,376 andPalakkad 1,133. The Minister said out ofthose found infected today, 104 reachedthe state from outside, 9,674 contracted thedisease from their contacts. PTI

Bengaluru: Karnataka registered 1,189 fresh Covid-19 cases and 22 deaths taking the total infections andfatalities due to the disease to 29.38 lakh and 37,145respectively, the health department said on Sunday.

There were 20,556 active cases in the state whilethe recovery of 1,456 patients took the total recover-ies to 28,80,889. Dakshina Kannada district, whichborders Kerala, remained the number one Covid-19hotspot with 286 infections and four fatalities whichwas the highest among all the districts on Sunday.Bengaluru urban district was the second majorCovid-19 hotspot with 267 cases and two deaths. TheKarnataka capital has so far reported 12,35,036infections and 15,959 deaths.

There were 7,762 active cases. Other districts tooreported Covid-19 cases including 132 Udupi, 79 inMysuru, 75 in Hassan, 55 in Kodagu and 50 inChikkamagaluru. According to the media bulletin,there were deaths in 14 districts including Bengaluru,Dakshina Kannada, Tumakuru, Udupi, Mandya andDharwad. Kalaburagi district recorded zero infectionsand zero fatalities. There were zero fatalities in 17 dis-tricts in Karnataka. The department said in its bul-letin that 1,25,158 Covid-19 tests were conducted onSunday including 92,842 RT-PCR tests and othermethods. With this, Karnataka has so far performed4.19 crore Covid-19 tests in the State, the departmentsaid. There were 1,50,127 inoculations done on Sundaytaking the total vaccination to 3.69 crore. The posi-tivity rate today was 0.94 per cent while the case fatal-ity rate was 1.85 per cent, it said. PTI

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preached at the institution hasworldwide influence. A trueMuslim’s first duty is to defendhis religion wherever it is underattack. Sunni Islam of SouthAsia has been impacted themost by these teachings.

The Jamiat-e-Ulema-I-Hind (JUH), the Party ofClerics of Hindustan, formedin 1920 later resulted in twosplinter groups: TablighiJamaat (Preaching Party) ledby Naqshbandi Sufi MaulanaMuhammad Ilyas followedthe teachings of ShahWaliullah. The second was ledby Mawdudi, who promoted anew political agenda. For him,Islam had to present itself as aviable political and social alter-native to both Western capital-ism and socialism. He advocat-ed a new political platformbased on Islamic revival andseparation through politicalaction and jihad. Islam had toconfront non-Islam head on.Out of the Islamic revolutionwould emerge the IslamicState purged of all accretions,that is, a ‘democratic’ caliphatewhose citizens would embraceSharia willingly. In 1939,Mawdudi moved to Lahore.Two years later, he foundedJamiat-e-Islami (JI) in directopposition to JUH. As thedemand for a separate MuslimState grew in India, a numberof Deobandis formed another

outfit, the Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam, or party of scholars ofIslam, in 1945 under the lead-ership of Maulana ShabbarAhmad Othmani andMaulama Mufti Mahmud. Itsaim was to shape the upcom-ing nation of Pakistan into atruly Muslim State with anIslamic Constitution in confor-mity with the Quran andSharia, a vision it shared withTablighi Jamaat.

Ahead of Partition in1941, there were around 200madrasas in Pakistan, rising to893 by l972. Of these, 354 wereDeobandi, 144 Al-Hadith and267 Barelvis. By 1980, nearly70 per cent of the madrasaswere controlled by Deobandis.By 2002, their number was10,000; of this, 7,000 belongedto Deobandis. Going by thistrend, all madrasas wouldnow be under the control ofDeobandis. Such is the extentof influence of the institutionbased in Deoband.

Most of the Taliban are theproducts of these madrasas,which have become nurseriesfor producing more Taliban.The various fundamentalistorganisations that exist now inIndia and Pakistan are oneway or the other connected tothe Deoband madrasa. TheTaliban in Pakistan andAfghanistan have acknowl-edged the inspiration received

from Deoband (India).Charles Allen, in his book

‘God’s Terrorists — TheWahhabi Cult and the HiddenRoots of Modern Jihad’, pointsout that Wahhabism is theguiding ideology behind mod-ern Islamist terrorism. TheTaliban are representatives ofthis ideology in action. Allenmentions that Ahmad Rashidhas meticulously captured therise of Taliban in his book,‘Taliban: The Story of theWarlords’. In Rashid’s words:“The Taliban represent nobodybut themselves and recognisedno Islam but their own.”

The Shia Revival says thatthe Deobandi area of influencestretches from Bangladesh tosouthern Afghanistan. TheDeobandis became associatedwith the Afghan war in the1980s. Many other of SouthAsia’s Sunni extremists hailfrom the Deobandi tradition.The Pakistan-trained Talibancommitted atrocities on theAfghan Hazaras. The Talibandeclared Afghan Shias to beinfidels and massacred at least2,000 of them in Mazar-e-Sharif and Bamiyan in 1997-98.Others have been told to con-vert to Sunnism or face death.

(The author is a seasonedwriter, an editor and analystwith publications in Hindi andEnglish. The views expressedare personal.)

�������������������� ����Sir — The Northeast region seldomcatches attention unless somethingtragic happens there. Although theregion has been divided into variousStates, the boundary disputes refuse torecede which can be gauged from theturbulent and violent nature of eventswhich occurred over the last fewmonths. Northeast India has the distinc-tion of remaining aloof from the rest ofthe country. However, frequent insur-gency, political instability, separatist ten-dencies and distinct identities have dis-torted the culture and history of theregion for decades.

However, with the arrival of digital-isation and a shift from PV NarasimhaRao’s ‘Look East Policy’ in the 1990s to‘Act East Policy’ by the ModiGovernment in 2014 to expand its foot-print for electoral and geopoliticalgains, a renewed vigour in developmentprojects can be seen. But at a time whenthe world is struggling with issues likethe Taliban imbroglio, Coronaviruspandemic, terrorism and fast-changingcentres of powers, India cannot affordto be complacent in its internal mattersand interstate disputes. TheGovernments’ approach must not exac-erbate these fault lines by polarisationbut respect their regional identities. TheCentre must also closely monitor the sit-uation from slipping out of control.Consensus and confidence-buildingmeasures must be adopted to solve theborder issues at the earliest.

Vijay Singh Adhikari | Nainital

���� ������������� ����Sir — India must be on the alert andwatch carefully how the Taliban run theGovernment in Afghanistan. Eventhough the Taliban leaders have assuredthe world that they would moderatetheir harsh religious principles, theTaliban have so far failed to walk thetalk. They have been perpetratingatrocities against the civilians eversince they took over Afghanistan. It isa fact that if the new Taliban regime in

Afghanistan functions against theinterests of the people of the country,it will be difficult for it to sustain in thelong run.

The agitation by Afghans led toprotests in parts of the country wherethey were seen waving the national flagof the previous Afghan Government. Itremains to be seen whether the Afghanscontinue to stage protests against theTaliban after there were rounds fired atthem. Against this backdrop, Indianeeds to wait and watch. A pragmaticapproach needs to be adopted by Indiarather than an ideological one. Theinterests of India must reflect in itsthinking and actions. Given that thereare some elements in India who cele-brate Talibanisation of Afghanistan,the re-emergence of the Taliban is a mat-ter of grave concern for India.

Venu GS | Kollam

������������������ ��������Sir — It is good augury that theCollegium has cleared nine names forelevation to the Supreme Court. The

total strength of judges, including theChief Justice, in the Supreme Courtwould come to 33 as against the sanc-tioned strength of 34. The inordinatedelay in the disposal of cases by all thecourts has hurt the litigant publicbadly. Cases filed during the evening oflife of many litigant public are taken for-ward by their heirs and it has becomea dream for the petitioners to see jus-tice in their lifetime.

A ray of hope dawns only if all thevacancies are filled up in all the courtsand also when the sanctioned posts areincreased to meet the growing needs. Itis appalling that in many High Courts,the posts filled are far less than 50 percent. In such a situation, it is no useexpecting that the justice would bedelivered swiftly. The Government andjudiciary should work in tandem to fillup all the vacancies, without which thepace of justice may further slow down.

KV Seetharamaiah | Bengaluru

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The Taliban in our neigh-bouring Afghanistan arein the news after thesudden takeover of

Afghanistan by the militia’shordes. But who actually are theTaliban? To learn more aboutthem, we must turn our attentionto Deoband, barely 300 km fromour Capital, Delhi.

The Deoband madrasa wasset up in 1867 as a reactionagainst the end of what remainedof the Mughal Empire followingthe defeat of the Sepoy Mutiny of1857-58. The seminary’s objec-tive was to preserve Islamiclearning and way of life. It beganwith one teacher, MullahMahmud Deobandi, and wasoriginally known as the Arabmadrasa. There were those whoswore vengeance on the British;out of these movements emergedthe Taliban as well as al-Qaeda(though much later), with glob-al aspirations.

In the period military dicta-tor General Zia-ul-Haq was fer-vently Islamisising Pakistan, theTaliban first emerged inAfghanistan as a cohesive unit.Rahimullah Yusufzai, a Peshawar-based scholarly journalist, in aninterface with Charles Allen, arenowned historian of the BritishRaj (and grandson of the founderof The Pioneer daily), reportedbeing the first journalist to notethe appearance of the Taliban onthe Afghan scene in 1994. Theywere unsmiling youngsters withuntrimmed beards, black turbans,black waistcoats, carrying eitherKalashnikov automatic rifles orgrenade launchers.

In 1879, the Deobandmadrasa assumed the additionalname of Dar-ul-Uloom, or theabode of Islamic learning. Englishwas prohibited; all students had tolearn the Quran and the Hadith inArabic. This was in accordancewith the teachings of ShahWaliullah of Delhi. The madrasaretained militant jihad as a centralpillar of the faith. Officially,Deoband has rejected ijtihad (theuse of independent reasoning) inmatters of the Sharia. Around theend of the 19th century, the teach-ings at the madrasa were tradition-al and termed Salafi, or followingthe forefathers based on the ideasof renowned jurists Hanabali andIbn Tamiyya. The ideology

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The Taliban takeover is the firststep in the establishment of analternative world order devoid ofany international law. As the US

exits its 'forever-war' phase, many are stillbewildered about the how Taliban man-aged to become an important "stakehold-er" in the region. Today Pakistan isgoing to be the first country to recognizethe terror reign. It will be soon followedby China and other powers hostile to theWest. Expansionism has thus joined ter-rorism. There is a possibility that whenthe West was focused on the talks, theTaliban was using the talks platform togain political recognition. It was simul-taneously rearmed by others. Move a fewsteps back and the contours of the entan-gled geo-politics emerge.

Taliban's quest for diplomatic andpolitical recognition can be traced backto the year 2007 when it established apolitical commission to reach out to theworld, especially the US. The fundamen-tal objective that the Taliban had in mindwas to project itself as a "political move-ment" instead of a terrorist organisation.Later, the opening of their first overseasoffice in Dohain 2013 gave them defac-to recognition as it was visited by diplo-mats from different countries. The talkswere unsuccessful and the office was shutdown. However, it gained the Taliban a"diplomatic" voice for itself and themuch-required political space.The inter-national community had started differ-entiating between Taliban, Al-Qaida,and ISIS, something which India hadalways disapproved of and had time andagain appealed for "zero tolerance" againstterrorism.

In early 2014-15, major powers andTaliban converged to finish off ISIS. TheIranian Government allowed the Talibanto open its office in Mashhad. This con-vergence also led to the US-Iran nucleardeal of 2015. The USthrough Iranengaged with the Taliban indirectly tofight ISIS. Iranian military commanderQasem Soleimani played an importantrole in helping the US to fight ISIS. In away or the other, the US "outsourced" thefight, a development that was covered inthe Washington Post.

The Russian interests too coincidedagainst ISIS. This motivated powers suchas Russia and China to engage theTaliban and treat it as an important stake-holder. Dealing with the regional andextra-regional powers by using backchannels was a moment of a tactical andstrategic victory for the Taliban.Thiswas also the time when the re-arming ofthe Taliban was initiated by Iran andRussia. For instance, Tehran's military aidto the Taliban included light arms, rifle-propelled grenades, and even militarytraining. Pakistan's military support toTaliban is already well established. Thejoint resistance against ISIS thus paved theway for the Taliban. Two objectives of theTaliban were fulfilled. First, a sneak into

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Every crisis comes with anopportunity. India todayis at the cusp of a major

transformation that has thepotential to make hera globalleader. India's greatest asset ishuman capital that has thepotential to make a differenceto the emerging world order.More than 300 million peopleare part of the skilled domes-tic workforce in the country.

India today has a diversifiedpool of quality, ready to meetthe needs of an expandingeconomy. In the past decade, amillion Indian students havepursued education at universi-ties abroad. This pool will be agreat strength for India if we areable to engage with them andshow them the emergingopportunities. In comparison toChina, Indian professionalshave a better talent perception

rating and India's global percep-tion, as per Pew Research, addsstrength in terms of engage-ment. We need to focus ondeveloping leadership skillsfrom the schooling stage.

Our education systemrevolves around the colonialand socialist era that focuseson creating educated labourrather than entrepreneurs anddomainexperts. A major draw-back of this ecosystem is itsinability to help students learnfrom failures. The educationsystem has limited flexibilityfor students to pick their sub-ject combinations from theavailable options. We need amodel of pedagogy that facil-itates engagement, quality ofteaching and creates diversityof streams and effectiveness ofability for application of learn-ing. The present model fails to

build self-confidence and inde-pendent thinking. Emphasison bookish knowledge andassessment of what childrendonot know should bereplaced by building an under-standing of various subjects,ability to integrate and applylearnings in form of projects.

We lack in our worldview and the ability to linkmacro-economics and microbusiness strategy. The keyarea of deficiency is socialskills and the ability to buildcollaborative networks to

expand opportunities. Economic growth thrives

on trust, collaborationandcapability. Our education sys-tem is key to building a socialquotient and interpersonalskills to drive collaboration,innovation and change. Ourgrowth depends on our abil-ity to collaborate. Lack ofemphasis on building socialskills, participation in sportsand extracurricular activitieshampers the ability of young-sters to interact, get differentinsights and become moreconfident about themselvesthrough such interactionsand presentations. Such skillsform the core for leadershipand enterprise building to besuccessful in other profes-sions as well.

Universities need to bedeveloped as centres of excel-

lence with direct support fromthe HRD ministry and inter-national partnerships.We needto create the right funding andsupport system to developenterprise and research. Thesystem should be friendly forgrowth and not marred by redtape. India needs to initiate anational integrated educationpolicy that encourages crosscountry cultural and socialexposure for graduates andpost-graduates from differentparts of the country to getexposed to work being done bytheir peers in other states anddevelop a strong understand-ing of cultures of different partsof the country. Activities relat-ed to sports and NationalCadet Corps should be includ-ed in the curriculum.

It is time for an IndiaSovereign Wealth Fund with

focus on start-up incubationand modernizing the educa-tion system with emphasis onteaching quality, research facil-ity and technology support.Indians can reach their poten-tial only by showcasing theease of business in tier-2 citiesand the talent pool availablethere. Each Indian state willhave to create the right envi-ronment for expansion of busi-ness and the mobility of work-ing professionals and students.

India has everything thatis required to take advantageof the changing world orderinthe post-pandemic era witha changing global economicand geo-political order. A verypositive and significant devel-opment has been India receiv-ing nearly $82 billion in foreigninvestment in 2021. Efforts byPrime Minister Narendra

Modi and former PresidentDonald Trump to get QUADinto action for safeguardingeconomic, security interestsand Trump's personal effort torename 'Asia-Pacific' as 'Indo-Pacific' and thereby bringingIndia the world's most crucialgeo-economic region holdsenormous potential that willunfold in the years to come.

Time has come for Indiato position itself as a worldeconomic power beyond justthe label of a "market" or"source of cheap talent". It istime to embark on OneNation - One HRDInitiativefocusing on quality.

To paraphrase SwamiVivekananda, we will beremembered for what we areand we have the power tomake ourselves whatever wewish ourselves to be.

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POINTCOUNTERPOINT

(The writer is anAssistant Professor atCentral University of

Punjab, Bathinda. Theviews expressed are

personal.)

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the stakeholders' club, and second,how it regained a stronghold inAfghanistan which then gavewings to its old aspirations offorming an Islamic Emirate.

China had initiated its OBORin2013 and stretched its econom-ic presence to South, Central, andWest Asia apart from Africa. It alsomade tactical inroads in the regionthrough its small arms suppliesand supporting the undemocrat-ic and tyrannical governmentsacross all these regions. China thusadopted a policy of a "shadowboxer" wherein it loosely cooper-ated with countries who are inim-ical to the US in their sub-regions.It also strengthened its strategic,military, and economic relationswith Russia as well as Pakistan. Thelucrativeness of Iran to both Russiaand China is thus well-founded.The sharp polarisations becameevident in 2016 at the sixthHeart of Asia (HoA) conferenceheld at Amritsar. India andAfghanistan,despite attempts tohighlight Pakistan's role in theterror network,were brutallyside-lined when Islamabadreceived diplomatic appreciationfrom Russia.

Simultaneously, the Sino-Paknexus supported the armed insur-gencies in Afghanistan through theHaqqani and Hekmatyar networkswhile also offering their goodoffices to broker a deal betweenKabul and the Taliban. Such a dealat that particular point of timemeant initiating some sort of legit-imacy for the Taliban.The Afghanpeace process was a fertile groundto sow the seeds of China-Russia-Pakistan and Iran's cooperation.The first meeting of theQuadrilateral Coordination Group

(QCG) on the Afghan Peace andreconciliation process was held inIslamabad in January 2016.Through this platform, Pakistanwas successfulin bringing both USand China to the same table. Thisensured that whatever decisionwould be taken would be inPakistan's favour; and projectionof its strategic utility to the US,Russia, and other European pow-ers would be a bonus.

As Beijing continued to influ-ence Moscow, new tripartite talksbetween China, Pakistan, andRussia were held for the first timein December 2016 whereinMoscow decided to work on"working group on Afghanistan".India and Afghanistan were againlet down in this geo-politics. It setthe stage for an emerging Pakistan-China-Russia alliance. Overtime,as the fundamentalists from Syriaand Iraq moved towardsAfghanistan, Moscow and Beijingfurther enhanced their coopera-tion with the Taliban. This alsodownplayed the US-led Mission inAfghanistan. For these reasons, theHaqqani network and its proxiesplayed an important role.

Upon India and Afghanistanvoicing their concerns, the talkswere converted to six-party talksin 2017 but both had little influ-ence.The pressure of Russia,Pakistan,and China made theAfghan government talk onunconditional terms with theTaliban in 2018 and it was com-pelled to recognize it as a politicalparty. India despite its divergenceswith Afghanistan on the issuecontinued its humanitarian sup-port and its developmental pro-jects.

By this time, a Sino-Russo

entente had taken shape, and U.S.withdrew from the JCPOA in May2018. Iran had encouraged therelations between Russia and theTaliban. Further, the ex-Taliban dis-sidents who joined ISIS posed acommon threat to both Moscowand Tehran. This resulted in the US,India, and Afghanistan being leftout completely and the shift of thefulcrum towards China and its allies-- Russia, Pakistan, and Iran.Taliban by this time was recognizedas an important stakeholder andhad started negotiating over issuessuch as terrorism, drugtrafficking,and the rights of women projectingtheir "sovereign" claims overAfghanistan. They went to theextent of declaring non-recognitionof the Afghan delegation. Further,Iran embraced the OBOR and thegeostrategic landscape of Southand Central Asia completelychanged. Expansionism had thusjoined terrorism.

Having realized the encir-clement, the US struck a "peacedeal" with the Taliban, of course,with certain obligations on the lat-ter's part such as peaceful return,the safety of women and the chil-dren, etc., and obligated itself for aSeptember-2021 departure. Theenvironment became too hostile forthe US and thus resulted in an earlyexit. In all these circumstances,there are no complete victories ordefeats. China readies itself to be ina creditor's trap in both Pakistanand Afghanistan. For India too, thechallenges are immense and Indiadisplayed its character by doing allthat it could do on humanitariangrounds -- from building parlia-ment to Libraries, dams and provid-ing scholarships to the Afghanstudents.

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The US military is consider-ing “creative ways” to get

Americans and others into theKabul airport for evacuationfrom Afghanistan amid a rangeof security threats, DefenceSecretary Lloyd Austin said,and the Pentagon on Sundayordered six US commercialairlines to help move evacueesfrom temporary sites outside ofAfghanistan.

Austin told ABC's “ThisWeek” that as President JoeBiden's August 31 deadline forending the evacuation opera-tion approaches, he will rec-ommend whether to give itmore time.

Tens of thousands ofAmericans and others haveyet to flown out of the country.

The interview aired Sundaybut was taped Saturday asother US officials citedincreased concerns about secu-rity threats at the Kabul airportfrom militants affiliated withthe Islamic State group.

The US Embassy issued asecurity warning Saturdaytelling citizens not to travel tothe airport without individualinstruction from a US govern-ment representative. Officialsdeclined to provide morespecifics about the IS threat butdescribed it as significant.

“We're gonna try our verybest to get everybody, everyAmerican citizen who wants toget out, out,” Austin said in theinterview.

“And we've got — we con-tinue to look at different waysto — in creative ways — toreach out and contactAmerican citizens and helpthem get into the airfield.”

He later said this includednon-Americans who qualifyfor evacuation, includingAfghans who have applied forSpecial Immigrant Visas.

Austin noted that the USmilitary on Thursday had usedhelicopters to move 169Americans into the airportfrom the grounds of a nearby

hotel in the capital. That is the only announced

example of US forces goingbeyond the airport to get evac-uees, who often are blocked bychaos, violence and crowds atairfield gates.

A central problem in theevacuation operation is pro-cessing evacuees once theyreach other countries in theregion and in Europe. Thosetemporary waystations, includ-ing in Qatar, Bahrain andGermany, are sometimes reach-ing capacity.

In an attempt to alleviatethat, and to free up military air-craft for missions from Kabul,the Pentagon on Sunday acti-vated the Civil Reserve AirFleet. The Defense Departmentsaid 18 aircraft from six com-mercial airlines will be direct-ed to ferry evacuees from inter-im waystations. The airlines will not fly intoAfghanistan.

According to the Pentagon,the activation involves three

aircraft each from AmericanAirlines, Atlas Air, Delta AirLines and Omni Air; two fromHawaiian Airlines; and fourfrom United Airlines.

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Potential Islamic State threatsagainst Americans in

Afghanistan are forcing theUS military to develop newways to get evacuees to the air-port in Kabul, a senior US offi-cial has said, adding a newcomplication to the alreadychaotic efforts to get people outof the country after its swift fallto the Taliban.

The official on Saturdaysaid small groups of Americansand possibly other civilians willbe given specific instructions onwhat to do, including move-ment to transit points wherethey can be gathered up by themilitary. The official spoke oncondition of anonymity to dis-cuss military operations.

The changes come as theUS Embassy issued a new secu-rity warning Saturday tellingcitizens not to travel to theKabul airport without indi-vidual instruction from a USgovernment representative.Officials declined to providemore specifics about the ISthreat but described it as sig-nificant.

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Tony Blair, the British primeminister who deployed

troops to Afghanistan 20 yearsago after the 9/11 attacks, saysthe US decision to withdrawfrom the country has "everyJihadist group round the worldcheering."

In a lengthy essay postedon his website late Saturday, theformer Labour Party leadersaid the sudden and chaoticpullout that allowed the Talibanto reclaim power riskedundermining everything thathad been achieved inAfghanistan over the past twodecades, including advancesin living standards and the edu-cation of girls.

"The abandonment ofAfghanistan and its people istragic, dangerous, unneces-sary, not in their interests andnot in ours," said Blair whoserved as prime minister dur-ing 1997-2007, a period thatalso saw him back the U.S.-ledwar in Iraq in 2003.

"The world is now uncer-tain of where the West standsbecause it is so obvious that thedecision to withdraw fromAfghanistan in this way was

driven not by grand strategybut by politics," he added.

Blair also accused U.S.President Joe Biden of being "inobedience to an imbecilic polit-ical slogan about ending 'theforever wars', as if our engage-ment in 2021 was remotelycomparable to our commit-ment 20 or even 10 years ago."

The former prime minister,whose reputation in the U.K.took a dive from the failure tofind the alleged weapons ofmass destruction that werecited as justification for U.S.coalition's invasion of Iraq,said Britain has a "moral oblig-ation" to stay in Afghanistanuntil everyone who needs to beevacuated is taken out.

"We must evacuate andgive sanctuary to those towhom we have responsibility— those Afghans who helpedus and stood by us and have aright to demand we stand bythem," he said.

Like other nations, Britainis trying to evacuate Afghanallies as well as its own citizensfrom Afghanistan, but with aU.S.-imposed Aug. 31 deadlinehovering into view, it's a raceagainst time.

In addition to the 4,000 orso U.K. citizens, the country isthought to have around 5,000Afghan allies, such as transla-tors and drivers, earmarked fora seat on a plane. The Ministryof Defense said Sunday thatnearly 4,000 people had beenevacuated so far.

Blair conceded that mis-takes were made over the pasttwo decades but added thatmilitary interventions can benoble in intent, especially whenchallenging an extreme Islamistthreat.

"Today we are in a moodwhich seems to regard thebringing of democracy as autopian delusion and inter-vention virtually of any sort asa fool's errand." he said.

Moscow: The Russian ambas-sador in Kabul says the Talibanhave asked his embassy to con-vey their offer of a deal to aremaining pro-government hold-out in northern Afghanistan.

Ambassador DmitryZhirnov said on Saturday thata senior member of theTaliban's political leadershiphas asked Russia to tell fightersin the Panjshir Valley that theTaliban hope to reach a politi-cal agreement to settle the sit-uation there. The diplomat saysthe Taliban claim they don'twant bloodshed in the region.

The Panjshir Valley north ofKabul, a stronghold of theNorthern Alliance militias thatwere allied with the US duringthe 2001 invasion ofAfghanistan, is the only area thathasn't fallen to the Taliban. AP

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British Prime Minister BorisJohnson has said he will con-

vene a meeting of leaders fromthe Group of Seven nations onTuesday for “urgent talks on thesituation in Afghanistan.”

In a statement posted onTwitter, Johnson said it is “vitalthat the international commu-nity works together to ensuresafe evacuations, prevent ahumanitarian crisis and supportthe Afghan people to secure thegains of the last 20 years.”

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As China, Pakistan mull ajoint strategy to push for a

global recognition of theTaliban regime in war-tornAfghanistan to further theirinterests, experts have warnedthe “all-weather allies” of long-term losses, especially a blow-back effect from the US whichmay turn its ire on Beijing andIslamabad to avenge its Afghan

imbroglio.Since the Taliban's takeover

of Kabul on August 15, Chinaand Pakistan have stepped upcontacts amidst a sense of theirdelight over a “humiliatingdefeat” of the US after a 20-yearwar in Afghanistan despite lin-gering concerns over the returnof the Taliban with all its bag-gage of the al-Qaeda and theIslamic State terror groups.

Contrary to its oft-stated

diplomatic position that it hasno favourites in Afghanistan,the Pakistani government isclearly comfortable with thereturn of the Taliban, the HongKong-based South ChinaMorning Posted quoted somePakistani analysts as saying.

Within hours of Kabul'sfall, Pakistan Prime MinisterImran Khan said the Afghanpeople had “broken the shack-les of slavery” to the West.

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Israel's military bombedPalestinian militant weapons

sites in the Gaza Strip earlySunday in response to a violentdemonstration on the perime-ter fence that left an Israelipolice officer critically injured,the army said.

Saturday's violence erupt-ed after hundreds ofPalestinians took part in ademonstration organised byGaza's Hamas rulers to drawattention to the Israeli-Egyptianblockade of the territory.

The demonstration grewviolent after dozens of peopleapproached the fortified borderfence and threw rocks andexplosives toward Israeli sol-diers from behind a blacksmoke screen billowing from

burning tires. At least 24Palestinians, including a 13-year-old, were injured by Israeligunfire, according to the Gazahealth ministry. An IsraeliBorder Police officer was shotand critically injured.

The army said in a state-ment that in response to theviolent demonstrations, fight-

er planes hit “four weapons andstorage manufacturing sites”belonging to Gaza's Hamasrulers, and that the militarydeployed additional troops tothe region near the borderwith the Palestinian enclave.There were no immediatereports of injuries in theairstrikes.

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Palestinian police on Sundaysaid they arrested 24 people

protesting the government'sresponse to the death of aprominent political activistwhile in the custody ofPalestinian security forces.

The demonstrators hadplanned to call for accountabil-ity in the death of Nizar Banat,an outspoken critic of thePalestinian Authority who diedin custody on June 24 shortlyafter he was arrested. But policeprevented Saturday's protestand arrested two dozen activists.

Police spokesman LouayArzeigat issued a statementsaying the demonstrators hadnot received a permit and“refused to sign the condi-tions for the gathering.” It didnot elaborate.

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Iranian President met Sundaywith Japan's foreign minister

in the capital of Tehran and thetwo discussed de-escalation oftensions in the region, Iranian news agencies report-ed.

The president's officialwebsite, president.Ir, said thatJapanese Foreign MinisterToshimitsu Motegi discussedbilateral, regional and interna-tional issues with PresidentEbrahim Raisi.

The two-day visit is thefirst by a Japanese official sinceRaisi became Iran's new pres-ident and the first since theJapanese prime minister visit-ed Iran in 2019. ISNA saidMotegi is in Tehran at the offi-cial invitation of IranianForeign Minister MohammadJavad Zarif.

The report said Motegiwould meet with other Iranianofficials, including Raisi's nom-inated foreign minister,Hossein Amirabdollahian andother high-ranking officialsduring his two-day visit.

Iran's state-run IRNA newsagency reported Saturday thatMotegi's visit to Tehran isaimed at boosting bilateralrelations with Iran and fur-thering diplomatic efforts tode-escalate and stabilize theMiddle East.

During Sunday's meeting,Raisi welcomed efforts by Japanand other countries to helpestablish peace and stability inAfghanistan and the region.“Iran has always supportedpeace and stability inAfghanistan. Of course, webelieve that Afghans shouldmake their own decisions inAfghanistan.”

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Qatar on Sunday announcedOctober 2 as its date for

the country's first election tovote for members of its topadvisory panel, known as theShura Council.

The date was announcedby royal decree, according to areport in the state-run QatarNews Agency.

The Shura Council electionaims to give the country's cit-izens more say on how theirhereditary emirate is governed.Qatar's ruling emir, SheikhTamim bin Hamad Al Thani,has described the election as“an important step” for thecountry.

The election allows Qataricitizens to choose 30 membersof the country's 45-seat ShuraCouncil, which are now allhand-picked by the ruling elite.The council has no substantivelegislative power but advises theemir on new laws and policies.

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Pakistan has decided to allowfully-vaccinated Sikh pilgrims to

visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib,Kartarpur from next month withstrict Covid-19 protocols, ahead ofthe 482nd death anniversary ofSikhism founder Guru Nanak Devon September 22, media reportssaid on Sunday.

On this occasion, three-dayrituals will be held at the shrinefrom September 20. GuruNanak died in Kartarpur onSeptember 22, 1539.

Pilgrimage to theKartarpur Sahib gurdwara wassuspended in March 2020because of the Covid-19 out-break. The decision to open theKartarpur shrine was taken bythe National Command andOperation Centre (NCOC) onSaturday due to the approach-ing death anniversary ofSikhism founder Baba GuruNanak Dev on September 22.

Dawn newspaper reportedthat the NCOC meeting unan-imously decided to allow Sikhpilgrims to visit Kartarpur nextmonth under strict Covid-19

protocols. Due to the Deltavariant, India was in categoryC in Pakistan from May 22 tillAugust 12, and a specialapproval was required for peo-ple coming from the country,including Sikh pilgrims.

However, fully-vaccinatedpersons with certificates will beallowed to enter Pakistan pro-vided they show Real-TimePolymerase Chain Reaction(RT-PCR) test reports whichshould not be more than 72hours old. Apart from this, aRapid Antigen Test (RAT) willalso be conducted at airportsand in case of a positive result,the individual will not beallowed to enter Pakistan.

Besides, as per Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions(NPIs), a maximum of 300people will be permitted toassemble at a time at the dar-bar. According to an official ofthe Ministry of National HealthServices (NHS), Pakistan hadintroduced three categories todeal with the coronavirusspread.

“Countries in category Aare exempted from the manda-

tory Covid-19 test, travellersfrom areas falling in categoryB are required to present a neg-ative PCR test that must betaken within 72 hours of thetravel date, while visitors fromnations in category C arerestricted and can travel onlyunder specific NCOC guide-lines,” the official said.

The movement of pilgrimsto Pakistan through theKartarpur corridor has beensuspended since March 2020due to the Covid-19 pandem-ic and the neighbouring coun-try banned all travel fromIndia citing the surge in caseshere in April this year, UnionMinister of State for HomeNityanand Rai told Parliamentin New Delhi on August 3.

India signed the Kartarpurcorridor agreement withPakistan on October 24, 2019.Under the pact, Indian pilgrimsof all faiths are allowed toundertake round-the-year visa-free travel through theKartarpur corridor toGurudwara Kartarpur Sahib,one of the most revered shrinesof Sikhs, in Pakistan.

Kyiv: German ChancellorAngela Merkel sat down fortalks with Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy aftertraveling to Kyiv on Sunday.

The two leaders wereexpected to discuss relationsbetween the countries, reformsin Ukraine and implementationof the 2015 peace deal designedto end the fighting with Russia-backed separatist in the easternUkraine.

Merkel's trip came twodays after she went to Moscowto meet with Russian PresidentVladimir Putin. The chancelloris not running in Germany'snational election next monthand is nearing the end of heralmost 16-year-long leader-ship of Germany.

After meeting Putin onFriday, Merkel made it clearthat she hasn't given up hopeof progress on the long-stalled

efforts to bring peace to east-ern Ukraine, where fightingbetween Ukrainian forces andRussia-backed separatists haskilled more than 14,000 peoplesince 2014.

Germany and France haveworked to help broker a peace-ful settlement to the conflict,including a since-violated 2015ceasefire agreement reachedin Minsk, Belarus.

“I will work until my lastday in office so that the terri-torial integrity of Ukraine canbe ensured,” Merkel said.

It's not clear when she willstep down, because Germany'soutgoing government willremain in place until a new oneis formed after the election.

Putin asked Merkel to reaf-firm to Ukrainian authoritiesduring her Kyiv visit the impor-tance of honoring their oblig-ations under the 2015 deal. AP

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Stefan Lofven, Sweden'sSocial Democratic Prime

Minister since 2014, saidSunday that he will step downas head of Government and theparty in November.

The unexpected announce-ment — made during his annu-al summer speech —- cameahead of next year's generalelection and after Lofven inJune became the first Swedishleader ever to lose a motion inparliament.

Port-au-Prince: Haiti's CivilProtection Agency said Sundaythat the toll from this month'smagnitude 7.2 earthquake hasgrown to 2,207, with 344 peo-ple still missing.

The previous figure hadbeen 2,189 on Wednesday. Theagency said via Twitter that12,268 people were injuredand nearly 53,000 houses weredestroyed by the August 14quake. The new toll comes at atime when relief operations areexpanding — the US-basedaid agency Samaritan's Purseopened a field hospitalSaturday — but authorities arestruggling with security at dis-tribution points. AP

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The remains of American-born singer and dancer

Josephine Baker will be rein-terred at the Pantheon monu-ment in Paris, making theentertainer who is a World WarII hero in France the firstBlack woman to get the coun-try's highest honour.

Le Parisien newspaperreported Sunday that FrenchPresident Emmanuel Macrondecided to organize a ceremo-ny on November 30 at the Parismonument, which houses the

remains of scientist MarieCurie, French philosopherVoltaire, writer Victor Hugoand other French luminaries.

The presidential palaceconfirmed the newspaper'sinformation.

After her death in 1975,Baker was buried in Monaco,dressed in a French militaryuniform with the medals shereceived for her role as part ofthe French Resistance duringthe war. Baker will be the fifthwoman to be honoured with aPantheon burial, and will alsobe the first artist.

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Washington: US President Joe Biden is scheduled to virtually meet other leaders of the G-7 coun-tries on August 24 to discuss close coordination on Afghanistan policy, White House Press SecretaryJen Psaki said on Sunday. The leaders will discuss continuing our close coordination on Afghanistanpolicy and evacuating our citizens, the brave Afghans who stood with us over the last two decades.

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Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman will launch the

National Monetisation Pipeline(NMP) today, which will listout the Government’s infra-structure assets to be sold overthe next four-years, an officialstatement said.

“The NMP comprises afour-year pipeline of theCentral Government’s brown-field infrastructure assets.Besides providing visibility toinvestors, NMP will also serveas a medium-term roadmap forthe asset monetisation initiativeof the Government,” the NitiAayog said in a statement onSunday.

Department of Investmentand Public Asset Management(DIPAM) Secretary TuhinKanta Pandey had earlier thismonth said that the govern-ment is finalising � 6 lakh croreworth infrastructure assets,including national highwaysand power grid pipelines,which would be monetised.

“A national monetisationplan of about � 6 trillion is inthe offing which will have arange of assets from pipelinesto power grid pipelines to

national highways, ToT (toll-operate-transfer) and so on,”Pandey had said.

The Union Budget 2021-22, laid a lot of emphasis onasset monetisation as a meansto raise innovative and alter-native financing for infra-structure. In her Budgetspeech, Sitharaman had saidthat monetising operating pub-lic infrastructure assets was avery important financingoption for new infrastructureconstruction.

“A National MonetisationPipeline of potential brownfieldinfrastructure assets will belaunched. An asset monetisa-tion dashboard will also be cre-ated for tracking the progressand to provide visibility toinvestors,” she had said.

The government views assetmonetisation as a strategy forthe augmentation and mainte-nance of infrastructure, andnot just a funding mechanism.

The NMP book will bereleased in the presence ofNiti Aayog Vice ChairmanRajiv Kumar, Niti Aayog CEOAmitabh Kant, and Secretariesof relevant ministries whoseassets constitute the monetisa-tion pipeline.

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The Indian Banks’Association (IBA) has

moved an application to theReserve Bank of India (RBI)seeking licence to set up a �6,000-crore National AssetReconstruction Company Ltd(NARCL) or bad bank, accord-ing to sources.

NARCL was incorporatedlast month in Mumbai follow-ing the registration withRegistrar of Companies (RoC).

According to sources, thecompany after mobilising aninitial capital of � 100 crore andfulfilling other legal formalitieshas approached the RBI seek-ing licence to undertake assetreconstruction business.

The RBI in 2017, raised thecapital requirement to � 100crore from the earlier level of� 2 crore, keeping in mind thehigher amount of cash requiredto buy bad loans.

RBI has its process andprocedure for granting licencefor such business, sources said,adding, it could take next fewweeks to obtain licence fromthe regulator.

RBI’s approval could comeeither in September or October,sources added.

Legal consultant AZB &Partners has been engaged toseek various regulatory

approvals and fulfilling otherlegal formalities.

IBA, entrusted with thetask of setting up a bad bank,has put a preliminary board forNARCL in place. The compa-ny has hired P M Nair, astressed assets expert fromState Bank of India (SBI), as themanaging director.

The other directors on theboard are IBA Chief ExecutiveSunil Mehta, SBI DeputyManaging Director S S Nairand Canara Bank’s ChiefGeneral Manager Ajit KrishnanNair.

Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman in Budget 2021-22,announced that the high levelof provisioning by public sec-tor banks of their stressedassets calls for measures toclean up bank books.

“An Asset ReconstructionCompany Limited and AssetManagement Company wouldbe set up to consolidate andtake over the existing stresseddebt,” she had said in theBudget Speech. It will manageand dispose the assets to alter-

native investment funds andother potential investors foreventual value realisation, shehad said.

Last year, IBA made a pro-posal for the creation of a badbank for swift resolution ofnon-performing assets. Thegovernment accepted the pro-posal and decided to go for anasset reconstruction companyand asset management com-pany model in this regard.

Meanwhile, state-ownedCanara Bank has expressed itsintent to be the lead sponsor ofNARCL with a 12 per centstake.

The proposed NARCLwould be 51 per cent owned byPSBs and the remaining by pri-vate-sector lenders.

NARCL will take overidentified bad loans of lenders.The lead bank with an offer inthe hand of NARCL will go fora ‘Swiss Challenge’, whereinother asset reconstruction play-ers will be invited to better theoffer made by a chosen bidderfor finding a higher valuationof a non-performing asset onsale.

The company will pick upthose assets that are 100 percent provided for by thelenders. Banks have identifiedaround 22 bad loans worth Rs89,000 crore to be transferredto NARCL in the initial phase.

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Venture capital f irmsinfused a total of $17.2

billion investment into theIndian startup ecosystem dur-ing January-July 2021, accord-ing to data released by theIndian Private Equity andVenture Capital Association(IVCA) and VentureIntelligence (VI).

This is much higher thanthe $11.1 billion and $13 bil-lion investments made by VCsin 2020 and 2019, respective-ly.

VC funding included seedto series F investments in com-panies less than 10 years old,and late stage tech investments.

Some of the big VC dealsincluded those in Udaan,Lenskart, Zomato, Swiggy,PharmEasy, Meesho, Pine Labs,Zeta, Cred, RazorPay,HealthifyMe, Byju’s,Unacademy, Eruditus, Vedantu,Dunzo, Bira 91, Boat,Mamaearth, MyGlamm,Uniphore Software Systems,Yellow.Ai, Entropik and others.

“The strong deal flow isexpected to continue in the lat-ter half of the year with move-ment forecast in the AI/ML,Edtech and food tech space,”IVCA said.

The report said the average

VC deal cheque size expandedin 2021 across stages whencompared to 2019-20.

The amount put in seedfunding was approximately$1.8 million compared to $1.2million in 2019, the reportsaid.

The amount invested inseries A and B funding wit-nessed a marginal increasewith $6.8 million investment,across 110 deals tillnow.

Additionally, the growthstage deals almost doubled thisyear — $7.5 million in 2021whereas it was close to $4.9million in 2020, the reportsaid.

The average amountinfused in the late-stage techecosystem till July in 2021 was$217.57 million across 38 deals,it added.

“There are tailwinds sup-porting exits as the ecosystemhas started actioning IPOs andoffshore listing for Indian star-tups is under discussion, withthe Government of India alsoin sync with this principally,”IVCA President Rajat Tandonsaid.

The Indian consumptionstory is really playing out,users have been switching todigital buying more throughthe COVID t imes, he added.

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The total loans and advancesextended by NABARD

during 2020-21 registered agrowth of 25.2 per cent year-on-year to reach �6 lakh crore,with half of it going into pro-duction and investment, thebank said in its annual report.

The report said NABARDearned �34,671.2 crore incomeduring 2020-21, or a 6.1 percent increase over the preced-ing year. Its profit before tax in2020-21 was � 6,081.4 crore,against � 5,234.3 crore in theyear-ago period. The profitafter tax was � 4,320 crore com-pared with �3,859.2 crore in2019-20.

The National Bank forAgriculture and RuralDevelopment (NABARD) alsosaid its balance sheet sizereached �6.57 lakh crore as onMarch 31, 2021, most of whichis on account of non-idle (earn-ing) assets that, in turn, helpedcreate private and public invest-ments at the ground level.

“We achieved a record year-on-year growth of 24 per centin our total assets and similarimpressive growth in loan port-folio,” NABARD Chairman G RChintala said in the annualreport.

He noted that because ofthe government’s AatmanirbharBharat package and hardwork-ing farmers, the agriculturalsector recorded a growth \of 3.6per cent last year and is likely torepeat the performance in thecurrent financial year also.

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Foreign portfolio investors(FPI) have pumped in a net

�7,245 crore into the Indiancapital markets in August so faramid positive sentiments due toan improving macroeconomicenvironment.

The gradual increase in theamount of net inflows indicatesthat investors are slowly drop-ping their cautious stance andgaining higher conviction onthe Indian markets, saidHimanshu Srivastava, associatedirector - manager research,Morningstar India.

As per depositories data,�5,001 crore was invested inequities and �2,244 crore inthe debt segment by overseasinvestors between August 2-20. This took the total netinvestment to �7,245 crore.

Regarding other emerg-ing markets, ShrikantChouhan, executive vice pres-ident, equity technical researchat Kotak Securities, noted thatflows in South Korea, Taiwanand Thailand continue to benegative to the tune of USD

5,269 million, USD 855 millionand USD 341 million, respec-tively.

On the other hand,Indonesia reported FPI inflowsof USD 156 million.

As per Srivastava, theIndian equity markets offer anattractive investment proposi-tion from the long-term per-spective. With improvingmacroeconomic environmentand positive outlook, FPIs arefocusing their attention onIndian equities.

However, he added thatshort-term risks continue topersist.

Additionally, lower chancesof further rate cuts on theback of global inflation con-tinue to add to their worries.

“With the latest Fed min-utes indicating the possibility oftapering by year-end, marketshave turned a bit volatile. Withthe Dollar index at around93.57, FPIs are likely to be ona wait & watch mode, goingforward,” said V KVijayakumar, chief investmentstrategist at Geojit FinancialServices..

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The CBIC has asked customscommissionerates not to

issue any circular or reportswhich are in the nature ofinterpretation or clarificationon matters covered under theCustoms Act, a move aimed atavoiding any possible contra-diction and ensuring ease ofdoing business.

In an instruction to allPrincipal ChiefCommissioners of Customs,the Central Board of IndirectTaxes and Customs (CBIC)said in order to establish astandard practice on all mattersof classification of goods, withrespect to levy of duty and forthe implementation of anyother provision of the CustomsAct, 1962, directorates/com-missionerates/audit will notissue any circular which are inthe nature of clarification orinterpretation.

C u r r e n t l y ,circulars/reports/alerts areissued by the directorates/commissionerates/audit to allthe Customs zones in order topromote information sharingon the modus operandi, find-ings or observations detectedduring the investigation, auditor risk analysis.

This has helped in uniform

application of the findingsresulting in the safeguarding ofrevenue and better enforce-ment of compliances.

However, it has beenobserved that on multiple occa-sions, communications areissued which are either con-trary to an existing circularissued by the Board or delve onmatters covered by Section151A of the Customs Act with-out the approval of, or a refer-ence to the Board, the CBICsaid.

“.... In order to establish astandard practice on all mattersof classification of goods, withrespect to levy of duty thereonand for the implementation ofany other provision of theCustoms Act, 1962 or of anyother law for the time being inforce... It is hereby directed thatDirectorates/Commissionerates/Audit shall not issue anyCirculars/ Reports/Alerts etc.Which are in the nature ofi n t e r p r e t a t i o n /clarification/prescription forthe sake of uniformity, on mat-ters covered under section151A of the Customs Act,1962...,” the CBIC said.

Clarifications on all suchmatters would be issued by theCBIC under Section 151A ofthe Customs Act, 1962, itadded.

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India’s holding of US Governmentsecurities surged by more than

$20 billion in just three monthsended June to $ 220.2 billion amidrising foreign exchange reserves.

Compared to June last year,when most of the economic activ-ities were ravaged by the coron-avirus pandemic, the exposure ofIndia to the US Treasury securitiesjumped by nearly $40 billion.

Latest data from the USTreasury Department showed thatIndia, with holding worth $ 220.2billion at the end of June this year,is the 11th largest holder of thesesecurities while Japan has the mostexposure at little over $ 1.277 tril-lion.

India has been steadily hikingits exposure to the treasury secu-rities since March when it was at$ 200 billion. In April, the holdingrose to $ 208.7 billion and then to$ 215.8 billion at the end of May. In February, the country’sexposure stood at $ 204.4 billion,a steep decline from $ 211.6 billionin January. The holding was at USD182.7 billion at the end of June 2020.

Unmesh Kulkarni, ManagingDirector Senior Advisor at wealthmanagement major Julius BaerIndia, said the rise in India’s expo-sure to US treasuries needs to beseen in the context of the contin-uous build-up of the country’sforex reserves. “US Treasury yields,

after bottoming out around themiddle of last year and risingsteadily thereafter, have been on adecline since May’21, while RBI hasbeen gradually raising its exposuresince April’21,” he told PTI.

Forex reserves of India stoodat USD 619.365 billion in theweek ended August 13 after touch-ing a record high of USD 621.464billion in the previous reportingweek.

Kulkarni noted that domesticliquidity in the Indian moneymarkets has been ruling high,and RBI has been trying to nor-malise the liquidity situationthrough variable rate reverse repoauctions. “The increasing forexreserves further add to the domes-tic rupee liquidity, and therefore itmakes sense for RBI to drain a partof the surplus liquidity by pur-chasing forex assets.

“Among forex sovereign assets,the USdollar isgeneral-ly them o r ep r e -f e r r e dcurren-cy ofthe RBI;c o n -trary tomarkete x p e c -tations,the USd o l l a r

has been stable in the current cal-endar year so far, and has in factappreciated 4.1 per cent (DollarIndex) and 1.8 per cent against theINR,” he said, adding that apartfrom RBI, it is learnt that Indiancommercial banks have also start-ed deploying some of their surplusfunds in overseas sovereign papers.

In terms of US Treasury secu-rities’ holding, Japan is at the topfollowed by China with an expo-sure of USD 1.061 trillion at theend of June.

At the third spot was theUnited Kingdom with holdingworth USD 452.9 billion, followedby Ireland (USD 322.9 billion),Luxembourg (USD 301.8 billion),Switzerland (USD 270.1 billion),Brazil (USD 249 billion), CaymanIslands (USD 244.8 billion),Taiwan (USD 239.4 billion) andBelgium (USD 228.5 billion), asper the data.

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Petrol and diesel prices were cut by 20 paiseper litre each on Sunday - the first reduc-

tion in petrol rate in over a month, and thefourth in case of diesel in less than a week.

Petrol price in Delhi was cut to �101.64a litre and diesel to �89.07 per litre, accordingto a price notification of state-run oil compa-nies.

The reduction came as international oilprices tumbled to their lowest level since May,after the US Federal Reserve signalled it wasset to start tapering asset purchases withinmonths, hurting commodities and lifting thedollar.

The price cut in diesel is the fourth sinceAugust 18, when the reduction cycle began. Allfour reductions have been of 20 paise per litreeach.

On the previous three occasions whendiesel rates were cut, petrol prices remainedunchanged.\Sunday’s cut in petrol price cameafter 36 days of status quo in rates. Diesel ratechange was effected after 33 days of no change.

The freeze in rate revision coincided withParliament session, where the opposition par-ties tried to corner the government on variousissues including the hike in fuel prices.

Petrol and diesel prices were last hiked onJuly 17. Prior to that, the petrol price wasincreased by Rs 11.44 a litre between May 4 andJuly 17. Diesel rates had gone up by �9.14 dur-ing this period. The price hike during this peri-od pushed petrol prices above Rs 100-a-litremark in more than half of the country, whilediesel crossed that level in at least three states.

International oil rates have fallen to $66 abarrel from $75 per barrel touched last month.

India is dependent on imports to meetnearly 85 per cent of its oil needs and sobenchmarks local fuel rates to international oilprices.

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Xiaomi is bringing in offer-ings like gold loans, credit

line cards and insurance prod-ucts as it looks to provide thefull spectrum of financial ser-vices across payment, lendingand insurance in India, itsIndia head Manu Jain said.

Speaking with PTI, Jainsaid these financial services willbe offered in partnership withorganisations like Axis Bank,IDFC Bank, Aditya BirlaFinance Ltd, Stashfin, MoneyView, Early Salary and CreditVidya.

He stated that Mi Credit, acurated marketplace for per-sonal loans of up to Rs 1 lakh,in 2019 witnessed a lot ofeuphoria, and more than onelakh loans have already beendisbursed.

However, as the pandemichit, its lending partners took abackseat.

“Many quarters went intore-thinking about the future ofMi Credit or Mi FinancialServices should look like. Weare now back to growing thisparticular platform. Q1 2021versus Q4 2020, we grew 95 percent, and Q1 2021 versus Q12020, we saw 35 per centgrowth,” he added.

Jain highlighted that thecompany is working on build-ing a full spectrum platform

with respect to overall financialservices as well as credit per-spective.

He said Xiaomi is addinginsurance vertical to its plat-form as well as expandinglending category with the addi-tion of offerings like gold loansand credit line cards.

The top executive said MiCredit will now offer a higherpre-approved loan of Rs 25 lakh(against Rs 1 lakh previously)and tenure of up to 60 months.

Besides, the company hasstarted offering SME Loansand credit line cards as well.

“Mi Credit, in partnershipwith Stashfin, has launchedCredit Line cards.

“It is a unique productthat comes with a propositionof Buy Now Pay Later com-bined with personal loan inorder to enable the customer toutilise the offering across chan-nels without any limitations,”Xiaomi India Financial Services

Head Ashish Khandelwal said.Another service that will be

launched in the next few weeksis gold loan, he added.

Jain said 40 per cent of thecompany’s credit product usersare self-employed and theremaining 60 per cent aresalaried employees.

“In 2021, we are planningto further diversify and provide20 per cent of the loans toMSMEs (micro, small andmedium enterprises).

We have launched businessloan to meet the emergingneeds of entrepreneurs andMSMEs,” he added.

Xiaomi’s Mi Pay service,which was launched in 2018,had touched 20 million regis-tered users in a year’s time. Thisnumber has now crossed 50 mil-lion users. Talking about theinsurance segment, Khandelwalsaid Xiaomi has partnered withICICI Lombard to curate ahealth insurance product.

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Adding more fire to thealready-frenzied IPO mar-

ket, three insurance sectorcompanies are entering theprimary market with initialpublic offerings in comingmonths to mop up over�10,000 crore.

These companies are — PBFintech, which runs the insur-ance brokerage Policybazaar;standalone health insurer StarHealth & Allied InsuranceCompany; and third-partyadministrator Medi AssistHealthcare Service. They havealready filed their draftprospectus with markets regu-lator Sebi.

Already over 40 companieshave hit the IPO market so farthis year, raising close to � 70,000 crore.

August alone saw four list-ings, and the fifth one (NuvocoVistas Corp, which raised Rs5,000 crore) is slated for Mondayand as many as 24 more havefiled their IPO papers so far thismonth, seeking to mop up over�4,000 crore.

Investment bankers areexpecting more than 100 issuesthis year, making it the best-ever for the IPOs.

PB Fintech, the parentcompany of online insurancedistributor Policybazaar, is

looking to raise Rs 6,017 crore,which will make it the second-biggest issue so far this yearafter the Rs 9,375-croreZomato issue last month. PBFintech is backed by TigerGlobal and Tencent Holdings.

Star Health, the largeststandalone private health insur-er, is planning to raise Rs 3,000crore; while Medi Assist, whichis the largest third-partyadministrator, is lining up a Rs840-1,000 crore issue, accord-ing to their draft red herringprospectus (DRHP) filed withthe market watchdog.

While PB Fintech has filedthe DRHP on August 4 (a daywhen four companies launchedtheir IPOs), and Star Health didso on July 28 and Medi Assiston May 11.

Star Health, backed by bil-lionaire Rakesh Jhunjhunwalaand Westbridge Capital, is thelargest standalone privatehealth insurer with a marketshare of 15.8 per cent in thehealth insurance market in thefinancial year 2021.

Its public offering will con-sist of a fresh issue of sharesaggregating Rs 2,000 crore andan offer-for-sale (OFS) of 60.1million shares by shareholders.

Safecrop Investments Indiais looking to offload 30.68 mil-lion shares, followed by ApisGrowth, which is looking to sell

7.68 million shares. Otherinvestors such as the Universityof Notre Dame, Mio Star, RocCapital, Sai Satish, VenkatasamyJagannathan, Konark Trust,Bejris Minoo Desai, and MMPLTrust are also selling sharesthrough the OFS.

PB Fintech addresses thelarge and highly underpene-trated online insurance andlending markets in the countrythrough its Policybazaar andonline lending platformPaisabazaar, the largest digitalinsurance marketplace with a93.4 per cent market sharebased on the number of poli-cies sold. In the financial year2020, 65.3 per cent of all digi-tal insurance sales by volumewas transacted through thePolicybazaar platform.

Its Rs 6,017.5-crore publicissue comprises a fresh issue of Rs3,750 crore and an offer-for-saleof Rs 2,267.5 crore by existingselling shareholders. The OFSconsists of sale by investor SVFPython II (Cayman) for Rs 1,875crore, and Rs 392.5 crore worthof shares by other shareholders.

Medi Assist is the country’slargest third-party insuranceadministrator in terms of rev-enue and premium serviced. Itoperates a pan-India networkcomprising over 11,000 hospi-tals across 722 cities and towns.

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����������A period drama, The Empire revolves around the fall and

rise of Mughal dynasty in India through the generations ofBabur to Aurangzeb. It shows Babur’s coming of age tobecome one of the finest rulers of the empire. The histori-cal fiction releases on August 27 on Disney+Hotstar.

����An 80-year old criminal lawyer decides to fulfil his whim

of playing real-life games with his group of friends.Conducting a mock trial of the same, they make sure thatjustice will be served. It releases on August 27 onDisney+Hotstar.

: � 3 3 � 0 For years, our brains have beenprogrammed to believe in the

philosophy of ‘the more the better’.However, people are now realisingthat expensive products and lengthyroutines are not the answer to clearand glowing skin. Are you one ofthose people who has a 10-step skin-care routine that includes Koreanhome remedies? Let me tell you thatyou are not alone.

When it comes to skincare, youmust understand your skin andgive it its due. Now, if you have askincare regimen that works for you,that’s fantastic! If, on the otherhand, you’re constantly struggling tofind the right products and wonder-ing why nothing ever works for you,you’re in for a treat. Skin fasting isa new beauty and skincare conceptthat has gained a lot of traction inrecent months. It only needs thatyou do nothing in terms of skincare.Leave all of your routines at homeand secure all of your belongings.

The process of decreasing thenumber of creams and treatmentsyou use on your face for a set peri-od is known as skin fasting. Thismight be as simple as deleting yourdaily moisturiser from your routineor reducing the amount of time youspend on your skincare altogether.The objective is to remove all treat-ments and substances from theskin and enable it to relax and reset.Allow your skin to naturally healand renew. For those who are in thehabit of wearing makeup, daily,skin fasting is very beneficial. Itrelieves you from synthetic coloursand pigments.

�Have you ever wondered if itactually works?

Many people claim to have hadincredible benefits with skin fasting,

while others claim to have hadmore outbreaks than ever and wouldnot recommend it. Excess sebum,debris, and dead skin cells canblock pores and cause breakouts ifyou skip cleaning and exfoliatingfrom your skincare routine.

�Should you try Skin Fasting? To begin with, we can’t say if a

skin fast would be beneficial orharmful to your skin. This is entire-ly dependent on your unique skincondition, as well as a variety ofother factors. Furthermore, if you’vedeveloped a skincare routine that

works for you, it’s not worth riskingan imbalance and having to re-accli-mate your skin.

Even while you’re indoors, youshould apply SPF to your facebecause UV rays can still harm yourskin via glass. Take a step back fromyour skincare routine to re-evaluateit if you feel you’re overloaded yourskin with products and aren’t surewhich ones are effective.

Cleansing and exfoliating aretwo of the most crucial beautyhabits to follow. If you’re on skinfast, you could feel that cleansingand exfoliating aren’t necessary

because you’re not washing theproduct off your face at the end ofthe day. Cleansing and exfoliating,on the other hand, aid in theremoval of filth and oil generated byenvironmental aggressors. Becausethis clogs pores and creates break-outs, it’s critical to get rid of themto maintain a clear and radiant

complexion.Our skin works on a basic prin-

ciple — if you put too much prod-uct on your face, it adjusts to theexternal nutrients and goes intoauto-pilot mode. It reduces theamount of work it did and allows thepricey creams and masks to takeover. When you don’t give the skinanything, it goes through a completereset and begins compensating foreverything that isn’t provided top-ically. It creates natural oils to keepthe skin hydrated and handles all ofthe other processes as well.

Skin fasting is ideal for acne suf-ferers because it eliminates the useof products that could exacerbatethe problem. If you want to go onskin fast, start by progressivelyremoving cosmetics from your rou-tine and allowing your skin to per-form its magic on its own.

Consider skin fasting to be anelimination diet. If you have a prob-lem, refrain from using cosmeticsand that will allow your skin toadjust on its own.

�How to notice if you’re on theright track with skin fasting?

You’re no longer using theincorrect product for your skintype.

You’re exfoliating too much,and skin fasting allows your skin toheal.

For delicate skin, you’ve stoppedusing harsh or irritating substances.

While you’re fasting, your skin’scells are turning over.

No depositions of extra miner-als and pigments into the skin.

(The author is an aromathera-pist and a cosmetologist who

founded Inatur, a range of ethical-ly made skin, hair and wellness

products.)

Anyone who has been to the FashionWeeks couldn’t have help butnoticed a dapper man who seems

to be everywhere doing a zillion things persecond. Directing the seating, ensuring thatruffled egos are pacified, views are notobstructed and more — all of this — with-out a single hair out of place or a wrinkleon his perfectly-fitted suit. There is no mis-taking the fact that while the designersmight take their ensembles to the stage, itis Sunil Sethi — the chief of the FashionDesign Council of India (FDCI) since itsinception in 2008 — who owns it. Not sur-prisingly, Sethi is a style icon in his ownright. He sported a beard, long before it wasfashionable, topped off with a perfectlycurled-up mustachio that had turned sil-ver just like his hair. Yes, before it becamea trend during the lockdown, Sethi ownshis greying hair with so much elan that ithas become a part of his dynamic persona.

When I connect with him over a call,he comments — matter-of-factly — abouthow he’s been unable to reach his officeeven though it’s post-noon, as he has beenbusy firefighting over the phone. He says,with a laugh, “When the day ends, all ofus don’t know what have we accomplished,”before getting down to the more seriousbusiness of fashion and the forthcomingIndian Couture Week, which kickstartstoday. Excerpts from the interview:

�How have the fashion weeks and theindustry changed since everything shift-ed online during the pandemic?

I’m quite old school and never reallyshifted to the digital world. But this one-and-a-half year has taught me its benefits.We realised how fashion was missing thislink. This is the second digital CoutureWeek. Look at the number of people wecan connect with now. In this new setup,problems of front-rows don’t exist, neitheris there an issue about managing crowdsand putting up large structures.

The stress, now, is that the designerswere initially not used to making top-levelfilms since we were doing live shows. Buttechnology worked for us really fast andIndian designers have adopted it. As theyare in command, they decided whetherthey will shoot in a farmhouse or a beachor a haveli or a forest, or a palace, or insidea studio as they work in coordination withthe Director of Photography. Now, theydecide how they want to present theirproduct. Earlier there were many variables.

Also, you have to see that Indian fash-ion designers’ capability and creativity havecome out as the films are very, very crisp.Unlike live shows, films help the design-ers to focus on the surface textures,embroideries and silhouettes that theywant to highlight or emphasise upon.

�The rise of social media has changedthe way fashion is consumed as there isan emphasis on looking good, whetherit be reels or webinars...

We were taking longer to achieve this.There was a time when everyone said,‘fashion is for the elite’. Every journalistasserted that ‘fashion is overpriced’.It’s taken the last 10 years for theFDCI to bring fashion to manydifferent levels where ‘afford-able fashion’ is what many ofthe designers are doing.They’re doing slow, sustain-able fashion while also beingengaged in couture.

With social media, thefact that everybody wantedto look good has been high-lighted a bit more. Designer-wear is much sought after.In every nook and corner ofthe country, you see sign-boards that say ‘designer-wear’. And who is the design-er? Always an Indian.

I’ve just been a part of ajury where people from dif-ferent parts of the countryhave enlisted to becomemodels. I couldn’t imaginepeople coming from Kullu,Dharamshala, Aizawl,Dehradun and more. I’vedesigners from Amritsar,Puducherry and Jalandhar. Thiswas unheard of earlier as peoplecame from Delhi Mumbai,Kolkata. People are studyingfashion, returning to their cityand practising it there.

It seems, with the influx of Instaand all, there’s competition whereeveryone wants to outdo themselves bycoming up with different reels or usingaccessories. At the end of the day, thebeneficiary is the designer. So, it’s goodthat people are learning about differentfashions and styles. I see this as a posi-tive.

I worry that maybe fashion is mov-

ing too fast. My concern is that it wouldtake the people a bit more time to realisetheir responsibility towards slow fashion.But sooner or later, they’ll certainly under-stand the importance of sustainability.

One thing that the pandemic hastaught us is to reach back into ourwardrobes and see that there are so manystyles, accessories and ensembles that wehaven’t used in the past three or four years.Since the shops were shut, during this time,a lot of the fashion came out of their exist-ing wardrobe. We shouldn’t forget the les-son we are learning during this time.People will have to recycle, repurpose andreuse — not just as buzzwords to get atten-tion but — to adopt these as an ideology.It’s no longer a total taboo to wear the samedress, sari or jacket a second time. Morethan one-and-a-half years back, if an actoror a celebrity repeated a dress, the fash-ion police were sure to point it out. But noone will talk about that now. If someonerepeats, they make a statement. Yesterday,I read that Vidya Balan doesn’t want to bephotoshopped... so people are now proudand accept who they are.

�Fashion has been called one of the mostpolluting industries. Has the pandemicgiven an impetus to move towards sus-tainable fashion?

I am doing a national competition withBlenders Pride called Showcase. Its taglineis ‘My Planet, My Pride’ and all the 10young designers who have been selectedhave been given six dresses each.Contributed by 60 FDCI designers, theseare ones which were unsold, out of fash-ion, not moving or had a slight defect orsample pieces. So, these young designershave to create a collection combiningmaybe a Rajesh Pratap minimalist withJJ Valaya embroidery with a cotton printfrom Paromita Banerjee done with veg-etable dyes, a Dhruv Kapoor denim andsilk by Samant Chauhan. The winner willbe decided based on how these areutilised to create an ensemble and that’sit is called, ‘My Planet, My Pride’.

When big corporates are goingahead and doing stuff like this, then you

know the whole world will follow suit. TheFDCI is powering this.

�Sabyasachi has tied up with H&Mrecently. Are more designers movingtowards affordable fashion?

Yes, I do. I feel affordable fashion is

very important because that stigma of itbeing just for the elite has been removed.But affordable could also mean buyingdirectly from the weaver or the maker ofan accessory. With so many designersworking with weavers, the latter’s sensibil-ities, too, have evolved. Affordable saris,in colours and motifs that you want towear, are now available. These are tradi-tional but have been contemporarised.

�You were a proponent of ‘Made in India’much before the phrase gained curren-cy. You took brands abroad and market-ed them under their own names. Howdid you have the foresight to do so?

There was no foresight. I learnt fromthe West. All the buyers and internation-al designers that visited me, 30 years agoaround 1989-90, were not looking for thesame products that I was. The furniturethat we were discarding from our houseswas what they wanted. They valued veg-etable dyes and block printing while wewere moving fast towards screen printing.It was the western eye which helped meappreciate our Indian-ness. The fact thatI was successful in selling to the westernstore meant that it was the ‘Made in India’tag which gave me my identity.

When they opened Armani Casa,sometime in the 90s, for the first time, Iwas invited as many of my products wereselling there. I dressed in a black Indianbandhgala, which everyone wears every-where nowadays, because I wanted to standin my Indian identity. The fact that we wereable to get Indian products into ArmaniCasa was a feather in our caps.

My entire business was dependent onmy Indian identity. So I always did that,whether it was rugs, textiles, handicraftsor fashion. I did take pride in the ‘Madein India’ brand much before anyone did.Also, when you are exporting, unless youknow what is the speciality of India, howcan you sell it? I realised that everyonelooks at our craftsmen and artisans in awe.That kind of talent is probably not therein other countries. There was a distinctadvantage of being Indian.

�Would you say that we are more con-fident in our skins, about who we are ascompared to 30 years back?

Very, very, very much. Everybodyknows that it’s important to be comfort-able in any brand that you choose to wear.It is no longer important that it is bought

from the best shop in town. People havethat particular look of Fabindia or Anokhiwhich has been recreated by other small-er brands online. And people are comfort-able sporting that style. They are secure intheir Indian identity... but their style, aswell. Comfort has replaced fast-movingtrends.

People have stopped talking about the‘little black dress’. Earlier, everywhere youwent, you found women wearing differentversions of it. Now, they wear their styleand no one bothers. People are allowingothers to be who they are.

Yo can see, I’ve sported a beard for along time. But several people are doing thatnow. Many people, mostly men, have alsostopped dying their hair. You see a lot ofsilver-streaked men now. Being alive ismore important than being in trend.

�You were one of the first people whodared to go grey?

That is also because I am supported bymy age. But, yes, I did it much earlier.

�What can we look forward to in thisCouture Week?

Digital has made it possible to movefrom 10-12 shows to 19 of them. The bestthing about digital is that designers are soexcited about their own signature collec-tions. Two of them travelled with crews toother parts of the country to film. Manywent to five-star hotels to shoot while oth-ers have found havelis which haven’t beenused for the purpose earlier. People are try-ing to bring in an era of luxury. I amimpressed with the effort everyone is mak-ing only because of the choice of location.

During the pandemic, there was alsoenough time to come out with a fantas-tic collection and products. Moreover,retail is opening up. I am sure what isshown will be lapped up. For the next sixmonths to a year, they will easily sell fromwhat they are going to show.

Accessories will also play an impor-tant part in Couture Week. It will be a treatfor people to watch. Moreover, if you missout on a show, you can always go back.

The added advantage is that youdon’t have to be turning up in yourSunday best where paparazzi are eyeingwhat you wear. You can attend it in thecomfort of your home and your dress.And you won’t even miss a show as youcan easily catch all the action on socialmedia channels later.

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New diseases are often accom-panied by misconceptions,superstitions and rhetoric.

During the 1974 smallpox epidem-ic of India — one of the worst epi-demics of the 20th century — mostof the rural areas believed it to be thewrath of a regional goddess called‘Sheetla Mata’. Even today, if some-one is infected with smallpox, peo-ple claim that the goddess is upsetwith the infected person and thatthey should worship her to get ridof the disease. Today, when the entireworld is faced with the challengescreated by the COVID-19 pandem-ic, the rumours and misconceptionsassociated with this novel virushave made the fight even more dif-ficult. The situation is worse in ruralareas.

Rural regions in India are oftendisconnected in terms of informa-tion and awareness due to inacces-sibility to the relevant informationin a timely fashion. Women, owingto their restricted mobility, are fur-ther pushed away and rely on theinformation provided by men in thefamily. The ones who are literate andaware are often neglected by theirfamilies and forced to follow the mis-

conceptions they believe to be true.

Women at the crossroadsWhenever Pooja Kumari, a 23-

year-old graduate from RampurBabuwan village in Uttar Pradesh’sSultanpur district, tries to explainCOVID-19 through a scientific lens,her in-laws discard her informationupholding a traditionalist view-

point, resulting in a never-endingdisagreement. While her husbandand brother-in-law work in anoth-er city, she lives in the village withher in-laws and two small daughters.Expressing her difficulty in makingan informed decision, Pooja says,“My in-laws are orthodox and do notbelieve in the concept of immunisa-tion. Going against their beliefs, I

ensured that my elder daughterreceived all the important vaccines.My decision has angered them, andthey keep complaining. I am, how-ever, aware of what is best for mychild’s future. I will also get her vac-cinated against the novelCoronavirus, once it’s available forinfants.”

Lack of proper awareness aboutvaccines has also contributed to dis-agreements among household mem-bers. “In my village, there is a con-tinuous conflict regarding vaccina-tion within several households.While half of the household mem-bers are willing to get vaccinated, therest are dominated by their appre-hensions,” informs Namita Dwivedi,an Anganwadi worker fromNandauli village in Sultanpur dis-trict. In a situation where the fami-ly’s opinions are divided, it becomesdifficult for a woman to make a deci-sion based on her knowledge. Shewill be ridiculed for a long time andwill be held responsible for every-thing that goes wrong in the future.

The bigger challengeAnother concern that stops vil-

lagers from agreeing with the

informed opinions to participate inthe fight against the pandemic bygetting vaccinated is the fear of pos-sible side effects. They are quiteapprehensive about these. A com-mon question arises as to why theyget fever after getting vaccinated;why does a medicine meant to pro-vide relief cause fever? With no oneto address their concerns, somehave developed a fear of death.This absence of information regard-ing the Covid-19 vaccine has result-ed in various misunderstandings andmisconceptions. Namita furtheradds, “I feel people are extremelyscared. Last year, the sudden spreadof the virus and deaths in urbanareas shook them. In the secondwave, the virus reached the remotestcorner of the villages, killing hun-dreds. Now, there are severalrumours regarding vaccination.People are not going to fully trust ituntil they are properly informed.The myths and superstitions amongrural women, who are least educat-ed, regarding vaccination are deep-rooted.” She emphasises the urgencyof ending superstitions, which is thebiggest challenge and is influencingpeople’s decision-making. This hasincreased the challenges of thefrontline workers who often strug-gle to educate the village communi-ty about Covid-19 and vaccines.

Learn from the pastWhile underlining the impor-

tance of effective information dissem-ination, Pappu Kumar, project man-ager for the National Rural LivelihoodMission in the district’s Baldiraiblock says, “The way the second waveimpacted the villages, it is importantto focus on the education and aware-ness of villagers. We need to learnfrom the past endemics. During thepolio eradication drive that started in1994, as the vaccinations were beingadministered, rumours started doingrounds that the polio vaccine islaced with infertility hormones. Amassive media campaign, publicmessaging and door-to-door aware-ness drives helped address the con-cerns of villagers.” He stressed thatthis time the administration needs toinvest double the efforts.

There is a need to run specialawareness campaigns for the Covid-19 vaccines and pull villagers from thestate of confusion. Until then, the tus-sle between science and superstitionwill continue and we will not be ableto defeat Covid-19.

(The article has been writtenunder the Sanjoy Ghose Media

Award 2020)A( $ ��� � ��

Last week, India and Indianscelebrated the platinum jubilee

(75 years) of the country’sIndependence in various waysand with various feelings. Leaders,thinkers and writers gave theirvariegated assessment and analy-sis of the achievements and fail-ures of the country during the lastseven and a half decades. Whilesome had words of admiration forattaining self-sufficiency con-cerning food and for becoming aconsiderable economic and tech-nological power, others spoke ofits miserable failure in its effortsto bring down the rate of popu-lation growth, achieving the goalof mass-literacy and to bringsome economic benefits to thepoor.

On this day of great nationalimportance, some senior-moststatesmen and freedom fightersgave the eye-witness account ofwhat happened on that historicnight when stalwarts such as DrRajendra Prasad and Dr RadhaKrishnan spoke at midnight andPandit Jawahar Lal Nehru gave hisfamous ‘Tryst with Destiny’speech when the whole worldslept and India awoke to freedom,“to redeem its pledge, not whol-ly or in full measure, but very sub-stantially”. They also spoke of thepledge taken by all the membersof the Constituent Assembly, pre-sent at that moment, “whichcomes but rarely in history”, say-ing loudly with one voice that theydedicated themselves in all humil-ity to the service of India and herpeople to the end so that thecountry could “attain her rightfulplace in the world and could makeher willing contribution to thepromotion of world peace and thewelfare of mankind”. Others wereheavy with sorrow and spoke ofincalculable sacrifices made byinnumerable persons for achiev-ing independence, which wasaccompanied by the great tragedyand horrors of partition and thebarbarity and bloodshed of and bythousands of people on bothsides of the border. One thing thatwas admitted by all the leadersand common men was that thecountry has not yet been able to“wipe every tear from every eye”as Bapu Gandhi had deeplyaspired nor has it been able tohave the ‘swaraj’ he had envi-sioned. All spoke with one voicethat the country had failed to pro-vide effective social and econom-ic justice to the backward andpoor classes, that almost half ofthe population does not feel anyworthwhile benefit ofIndependence. We tend to forgetthat independence is not only liv-ing freely but also allowing oth-

ers to live freely. The majority of us do not

realise the fact that all our prob-lems have arisen from an identi-ty crisis, i.e the deep ignorance ofour real identity which is that ofa soul and not the body. Hence thediscrimination based on the acci-dent of birth as well as issues ofcommunalism, casteism, violenceand disgraceful attitude towardsthe tribal and the backward class-es will all go away if we realisedthat each one of us is a soul. Therewould have been no massacre in1947 or even partitioning of thesub-continent if people had theawareness that they are souls.Also, there would be no injusticeof any kind or corruption of anybrand or gender bias if peoplebecome soul-conscious. We mustthus remember that our spiritu-ality and spiritual response willarise from our soul-consciousnessand from that would come realswa-raj i.e rule of the self or soul.

The day is not far when wewill see a world centred aroundthe purity of character and values,where every being is divine andwould co-exist in harmony withnature. There will be no form ofviolence, be it physical, mental oremotional. Every person will bean embodiment of truth anddivine virtues. Pure love andrespect will form the basis of rela-tionships. They will be complete-ly ignorant of evil, vices and suf-fering. Materially, they will be liv-ing in opulence and abundance.Science will be used for creatingperfect technology and comfortsthat are a necessity. People willenjoy perfect health, natural beau-ty and a long lifespan free fromsickness and untimely death.Everybody will be happy andcontent. There will be lightness,innocence, purity and joy inevery action. Don’t ever think thatthis is all but a myth. No! It’sindeed a reality that’s as close astomorrow.

The United Nations’Intergovernmental Panel

on Climate Change’s SixthAssessment Report (SAR6)has confirmed the climatecrisis this generation and theones in the future are going toface and is unequivocal abouthuman influence in globalwarming. Globally, food lossand waste contribute to 8 percent of emissions.

To understand the social,environment, and economicimpact of food loss and wastein India and the current stateof play, the World ResourcesInstitute India (WRI India)undertook a systematic analy-sis of 106 published and greyliterature, along with consul-tations with sectoral experts.This study, supported by theFood and Land Use Coalition(FOLU) India platform, high-lights significant gaps inresearch, policy and practicewhich need to be addressedsystematically to manage foodloss and waste in India.

The new study from WRIIndia, Food Loss and Waste inIndia: The Knowns and theUnknowns , provides animportant foundation to startdeveloping a road map foraddressing the nation’s foodloss and waste, like under-standing the magnitude, iden-tifying the hotspots and crit-ical loss points, and so on.

The study found that: �There is much more

research emphasis on thequantity of post-harvest loss-

es than on food waste inIndia. Even in post-harvestlosses, the quality aspects offood loss remain neglected.

�While there is nationaland sub-national research onpost-harvest losses, the exist-ing data across various stud-

ies are not comparable due todifferent measurement met-rics used by them.

�The empirical researchon the extent of food waste atthe household, retail and ser-vice level is almost non-exis-tent. The interventions

around food waste are main-ly focused on food bank inter-ventions or managing wastethrough composting.

�The social, economic,and environmental aspects offood loss and waste in Indiaare largely unexplored.G e n d e r - d i s a g g r e g a t e dresearch on food loss andwaste is neither available norconsidered in improving tech-nology or in solutions for itsmanagement.

�The policy interven-tions are largely focused on

augmenting post-harvest stor-age infrastructure includingthe cold-chain infrastructure.

Talking about the find-ings, Monika Agarwal, seniormanager at WRI India, said,“Significant amount of food inIndia never gets consumedbecause it gets wasted duringits movement from farm toplate. The loss is much morethan just the amount of food,it is about the health of ourpeople, ecosystem - plants,animals, soil, water, biodi-versity which are all inter-linked. We need concertedmulti-actor efforts to reducefood getting lost in how weproduce, store, transport,process, distribute, and con-sume food.”

Dr O P Agarwal, CEO ofWRI India pitched in, “WRIIndia’s motivation for workingon this issue is that largereductions in food loss andwaste is a crucial element inachieving healthy diets by2050. Cutting down foodwaste is an opportunity toreduce pressure on land, waterand air. It will also enhancethe availability of food, andimprove the incomes of farm-ers and consumers. Thoughthere are gaps in research,there is significant informa-tion on post-harvest lossesthat need to be built upon sys-tematically.”

Considering the obser-vations, the study recom-mended developing aroadmap for managing food

loss and waste in India, basedon data-driven strategies andsolutions and taking intoaccount the challenges facedby diverse stakeholders.

Call to actionIn accordance with the

findings, WRI India andFOLU India coupled thelaunch of the working paperwith a round table to discussthe ‘Champions 12.3 strate-gy of Target-Measure-Act’which includes adopting theSustainable DevelopmentGoal target 12.3 whichunderlines halving foodwaste and reducing losseswhile measure food loss andwaste to take action on thehotspots identified. The find-ings have resulted in theemergence of the ‘Friends ofChampions 12.3’ in India, agroup of entities from diversesectors across the globe thatare committed to reducingfood loss and waste.

Dr Jayahari K M, thecountry co-ordinator forFOLU, expressed,“Considering the complexi-ties in Indian agricultureand management of com-modity supply chains in pri-vate and public sectors,FOLU looks forward to cre-ating a strong action coali-tion under the Friends ofChampion 12.3 partnership,with wider participation andfocus. We hope governments— both subnational andnational — would join thisaction coalition.”

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Barcelona were given a tor-rid time by Athletic Bilbao

but escaped from their trip toSan Mames with a point asMemphis Depay’s superb latestrike secured a 1-1 draw forthe Catalans on Saturday.

Depay found the net witha fine left-foot half-volley 15minutes from time in theBasque Country for his firstgoal in La Liga since moving toBarcelona from Lyon.

Ronald Koeman’s side hadimpressed in their first matchof the post-Lionel Messi era asthey beat Real Sociedad 4-2 lastweekend, but they were fortu-nate to depart with a pointfrom this game and it wasimpossible to avoid questionsabout the Argentine at full-time.

“I don’t like to always talkabout the same thing but he isthe best in the world and theopposition might be moreafraid if Messi is there,”Koeman admitted.

“For us too, if there is a passto Leo, normally he doesn’t losethe ball, and today we gave theball away too often in the firsthalf.You notice it, but that’s howit is, it can’t be changed now.”

It was a difficult night forBarcelona’s defence in particu-lar, with Gerard Pique comingoff after half an hour and EricGarcia being sent off in stop-page time for bringing downInaki Williams.

Former Manchester Citydefender Garcia received newsof his grandfather’s deathbefore the match and struggledthroughout the 90 minutes,allowing Inigo Martinez to getaway from him to head in theopener early in the secondhalf.

Athletic will feel theyshould have won despite miss-ing several key players, amongthem goalkeeper Unai Simon,who has not featured at thestart of this season after help-ing Spain reach the Euro 2020semi-finals and then the finalof the Tokyo Olympics.

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South African skipper TembaBavuma has said that the

upcoming 2021 men’s T20World Cup serves as a tourna-ment of vital importance for histeam and country. South Africahave never made it past thesemifinal stage of either themen’s T20 or 50-over WorldCups.

“The 2021 ICC T20 WorldCup is of vital importance to theProteas and South Africa as anation. Not only is the T20 for-mat a key part of Cricket SouthAfrica’s strategy to introducenew fans to the game of crick-et, this tournament will also bethe first of three opportunitiesfor us to claim our first-ever ICCWorld Cup trophy,” said Bavumato icc-cricket.com

South Africa have beendrawn in a tough group 1 in theSuper 12 stage alongside reign-ing champions West Indies,2010 winners England, Australiaand two more teams from thefirst round.

“The group that we are in isan exciting one and we’re look-ing forward to facing off with

everyone in it as we go about ourmission to reach the final andthe ultimate championship,”affirmed Bavuma.

South Africa started thisyear with a 2-1 away series lossto Pakistan in February. It wasfollowed by a 3-1 series loss tothe same opposition at home inApril. But they bounced back to

beat West Indies 3-2 in June andJuly followed by Ireland 3-0 laterin the month.

South Africa will get thechance to decide their combina-tions ahead of the World Cupwhen they take on Sri Lanka ina three-match T20I series inSeptember.

“We have a really excitingteam that we are building witha lot of raw talent, coupled withthe experienced hands that willguide and lead the youngsters.We have spent the greater partof the year preparing for thiscontest and I look forward toleading our country in my firstworld showpiece as captain,”concluded Bavuma.

South Africa start their T20World Cup campaign againstAustralia on October 23 in AbuDhabi.

Carnoustie: Aditi Ashok hadan off-day at the CarnoustieLinks as she carded a roller-coaster three-over 75 in toughand challenging weather con-ditions to slip to T-58 with oneround to go in the AIGWomen’s Open.

Aditi, who began the weeknicely with 71, had a roughstart with three bogeys in a rowfrom second to fourth butmade up with three birdies ina row from sixth to eighth andturned in even par.

On the back nine of theLinks course, she bogeyed 11thand closed with a double bogeyon the tough 18th.

Sweden’s Anna Nordqvistproduced the best round of theweek with a sensational 65and was the co-leader headinginto the final day. PTI

����������������� ��� �������������Munich: Serge Gnabry struck

twice as Bayern Munich pickedup their first Bundesliga win thisseason with a 3-2 victory overCologne on Sunday with all fivegoals scored in second-half.

Goals by RobertLewandowski and Gnabry putBayern 2-0 up just after thebreak, but Cologne roared backwith two goals in as many min-utes by Anthony Modeste andMark Uth.

Gnabry gave JulianNagelsmann his first Bundesligawin as head coach by smashingthe winner into the roof 19 min-utes before the whistle.

Bayern seized control atthe Allianz Arena when second-half replacement Jamal Musiala,18, ghosted through theCologne defence and squaredfor Lewandowski on 50 min-utes.

The Poland star, who scored

a record 41 goals in theBundesliga last season, hasalready scored twice in as manyleague games in 2020/21.

Gnabry doubled the leadwhen he stabbed in a ThomasMüller cross on 59 minutes.

Cologne deserve credit forfighting back at 2-0 down andscored just a minute later.

When Bayern defender

Niklas Süle misjudged a cross,Modeste powered home hisheader. The French veteranthen swung in a cross onCologne’s next attack whichUth stabbed home to level.

Gnabry restored Bayern’slead when he picked his spotfrom the edge of the area as hisshot flew past Cologne ‘keeperTimo Horn. AFP

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Former England batsmanGraham Gooch believesthat England are way too

dependent on captain Joe Rootto score runs. Though he isconfident of Root continuinghis run-making spree, Goochwonders if Root is feeling thepressure just like he felt in hisplaying days.

“We’re too reliant on theone person. I have had thatexperience and that’s not acomplaint but at certain stagesof my career there was a greaterresponsibility on having todeliver. As a player, you can bein the best form of your life butyou can’t deliver all the timeand that expectation is nothelpful. You need everyone tocontribute,” said Gooch in aninterview to Daily Mail onSunday.

He added, “Whatever hesays, Joe will be feeling the pres-sure because at the moment he’s50, 60, 70 per cent of our bat-ting, isn’t he? Can he keep thisform going for the rest of theseries? Of course he can.”

“He’s a world-class playerand he’s performing unbeliev-ably. He can keep it going. Butof course, with any performerin any sport there is going to bea fallow period. It’s not possi-ble to keep it going game aftergame after game,” concludedGooch.

The 68-year-old, whoserved as the batting coach ofthe England team between2009 and 2014, had some sym-pathy for the top order whichis set for a rejig ahead of theLeeds Test on Wednesday. WithDom Sibley dropped from thesquad, Haseeb Hameed is inline to partner with Rory Burnsat the top with Dawid Malan atnumber three on his return tothe Test fold after three years.

“Every one of those crick-

eters works hard, trains hard,prepares themselves. It’s notlack of effort but things likeattitude, technical ability,knowledge and concentrationall come into play, especially foran opening batsman becauseone mistake and it’s the end ofyour day,” said Gooch.

He is supportive ofHameed, who made zero andnine in his comeback Test atLord’s. “They’ve got to play himfor the rest of the series becauseyou don’t bring someone in andleave them out after one game.”

Malan’s selection mighthave raised some eyebrows. ButGooch finds it to be a goodone. “He’s got a technique

where he plays the ball late,plays straight. He’s a composedplayer, he knows his own game,he knows how to score runs,he’s had a bit of success at Testlevel before. Just because some-one has had a go doesn’t meancompletely shot and can’t comeback.”

Gooch finished by sayingthat Sir Alastair Cook, whoretired from internationalcricket in 2018, would still getinto the current Test team.“He’d still play if he was avail-able, of course he would.”

The third Test betweenEngland and India begins atHeadingley from Wednesday.

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Romelu Lukaku marked hissecond Chelsea debut with

his first Premier League goal forthe Blues as the European cham-pions outclassed Arsenal 2-0 onSunday to compound theGunners’ miserable start to theseason.

The Belgian has returned toStamford Bridge for a clubrecord £97 million ($132 mil-lion) as the missing piece of aproven goalscorer to turn theChampions League winners intoEnglish champions.

Thomas Tuchel’s men havemade a formidable start towardsthat aim with six points, fivegoals scored and none conced-ed from their opening twogames of the Premier Leagueseason.

Arsenal, by contrast, have

Eugene: Olympic championElaine Thompson-Herah scoredan emphatic 100m victory overthe returning Sha’CarriRichardson at the PrefontaineClassic in Oregon on Saturday.

Jamaican star Thompson-Herah powered over the line atHayward Field in 10.54sec — thesecond fastest time in history —as Richardson finished a distantlast in 11.14sec.

Thompson-Herah’s com-patriot Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce finished second in10.73sec whileShericka Jacksontook third in10.76sec — a car-bon copy of theTokyo Olympic 100mpodium.

T h o m p s o n -

Herah’s winning time saw herslice 0.07sec off her Olympicrecord of 10.61sec set on July 31.

Only the late FlorenceGriffith Joyner has ever runfaster, with Thompson-Herahnow tantalisingly close to theAmerican’s 33-year-old world

record of 10.49sec.“To come back with

a PB after the champi-onships, that is amaz-

ing,” Elaine said. “Itmeans a lot to

me...becausemy job is toinspire a gen-eration. I have

more races, so Idon’t get too

excited, too carriedaway. I have to con-tinue doing the job.”

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Nairobi: Highly-talented long jumperShaili Singh on Sunday missed out onscripting history by a mere 1 cm as theIndian settled for Silver medal in the U-20 World Athletics Championships here.

The 17-year-old Indian’s personalbest effort of 6.59m was not enough forthe Gold medal as she was pipped at thepost by Sweden’s reigning Europeanjunior champion Maja Askag, who man-aged 6.60m for the top spot on the finalday of the championships.

A protege of legendary long jumperAnju Bobby George, Shaili was leading atthe end of the third round but the 18-year-old Swede overtook her in the fourthround by a mere 1 cm, which proved tobe decisive in the end.

“I could have jumped farther than the6.59m and won the Gold. My mother hadtold me about winning Gold and nation-al anthem being sung in the stadium (butI could not do it),” an emotional Shaili saidafter the race.

“I am just 17, I want a Gold in nextU20 World Championships (in Cali,Colombia). There is also Asian Games andCommonwealth Games next year and Iwant to do well in those events.”

India ended their campaign with abest ever medal haul of 2 Silver and 1Bronze, though the country had won onegold each in the earlier two editions — byOlympic champion javelin thrower NeerajChopra (2016) and quartermiler HimaDas (2018).

Shaili began brightly with a 6.34m andrepeated the same distance next before herbest effort in the third round. Her next twoattempts were fouls and she could not getpast the 6.60m in her final jump and theyoungster seemed to be distraught at miss-ing a Gold and a chance to create history.

In men’s triple jump, DonaldMakimairaj missed the Bronze by 3cm ashe produced his personal best of 15.82mbut had to be content with a fourth-placefinish. PTI

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Alexander Zverev came fromtwo breaks down in the

third set to beat StefanosTsitsipas 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7/4) onSaturday and reach the final ofthe WTA and ATP CincinnatiMasters.

The German, who brieflyleft the court to vomit in the finalset as he stepped up his fightbackin front of a full crowd, will takea 4-0 record into Sunday’s finalwith Andrey Rublev.

The Russian fourth seedended the winning run of worldNo 2 and Montreal championDaniil Medvedev 2-6, 6-3, 6-3.

World No 7 Rublev hadnever won so much as a set infour previous losses toMedvedev, top seed in the pres-tigious hardcourt tournamentthat serves as a tuneup for theUS Open.

Zverev also turned a cornerthis week, having never won amatch in six previous Cincinnatieditions.

Zverev got worked up at theend of the first set when Tsitsipas— as now seems to be his habit— left the court with his full bagof gear, presumably to changeclothes. His absence lasted an

infuriating eight minutes asZverev complained to the chairumpire, indicating he thoughtTsitsipas could use the break toreceive coaching via text.

Tsitsipas tried to take anoth-er break after winning the sec-ond set but was informed he hadused up his one break. Despitethe tension, the two traded afriendly embrace at the netwhen the match ended.

Zverev moved into his ninthMasters 1000 final with 42 win-ners including 15 aces afternearly two and three-quarterhours. He had lost six previousmatches out of eight playedagainst the Greek.

Medvedev, who was seeking

a Canada-US Masters doubleafter lifting the title in Torontoat the weekend, required threeseparate medical timeouts dur-ing his loss to Rublev.

He received treatment onhis left hand after he hit an on-court camera during a rally andalso had treatment on his rightforearm and right thigh duringa match played in oppressive 31-degree (C) heat.

Rublev re-adjusted after los-ing the opening set, hung onduring his opponent’s injurydramas and heated discussionwith the umpire on cameraplacement and finally got hischances in the concluding setafter two and a quarter hours.

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Former India pacer Zaheer Khanlavished praise on seamer Jasprit

Bumrah for his all-round show inIndia’s win over England in the Lord’sTest. Zaheer also believes the heatedexchange with James Anderson actedas a motivation for Bumrah in thematch.

“If by getting angry, he can carryhimself and perform like this, Ibelieve he should at times needle theopposition. See, in the first innings,he had gone wicketless and being theclass bowler that he is, I am sure it

must have bothered him,” Zaheer wasquoted as saying by Cricbuzz.

“After that, the whole Andersonepisode that unfolded, the bouncershe bowled to him and then while bat-ting, the manner in which theEngland pacer went after him allthose things motivated him, and hechannelised that anger in the rightway. England must be thinking ‘weshould have let Bumrah bowl bounc-ers’ and not mess with him. Theintensity with which he bowled, wasworth praising.”

The Bumrah-Anderson fight inthe Lord’s Test happened on day

three when India pacers looked tobowl out the England batting lineupin their first innings. Bumrah bowleda 10-ball over to Anderson, in whichhe overstepped the line four times.

Apart from bowling no balls,Bumrah also bowled a few short-pitched deliveries to the Lancashirecricketer who managed to save hiswicket. However, Mohammad Shamiclean bowled Anderson in the last ballof day three and when the playerswere walking back to the dressingroom, everyone witnessed Andersonhaving a war of words with Bumrah,as the latter kept smiling back.

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The Indian team on Sundaybegan training for the

upcoming third Test againstEngland in earnest with almostall its top players sweating it outat the nets at Headingley.

The visitors started practic-

ing soon after reaching Leeds toplay the third Test of the five-match series, having taken a 1-0 lead with a big 151-run winover the hosts at the Lord’s.

From skipper Virat Kohli,his deputy Ajinkya Rahaneand senior opener RohitSharma to pacers JaspritBumrah, Mohammed Shamiand the spin duo ofRavichandran Ashwin andRavindra Jadeja, all the playerswere seen training at the nets.

Also part of the session waswicketkeeper Rishabh Pant.

The last time India playeda Test at Headingley was wayback in 2002, meaning it will bethe first outing for all the cur-rent team players.

The third Test starts onWednesday.

“Hello and welcome to theHeadingley Stadium, Leeds.Our venue for the 3rd Testagainst England. #ENGvIND,”the BCCI tweeted after theteam’s arrival.

yet to register a point or scorea goal as the gulf betweenMikel Arteta’s men and thetitle contenders was exposed.

Circumstances have alsogone against Arteta as he lost£50 million signing BenWhite before the game to thefifth positive case for coron-avirus among his squad inthe past 10 days.

A difficult start could geteven worse with a trip todefending championsManchester City next week-end.

A bright start in front ofthe first full house at theEmirates for 17 monthsquickly dissipated onceChelsea found their rhythm

and began to play to Lukaku’sstrengths.

The former Inter Milanstriker received the ball withhis back to goal on 15 min-utes, shrugged off Pablo Marias the ball was worked toReece James on the right andthen stayed onside to taphome his 114th PremierLeague goal for four differentclubs.

Lukaku should havebeen given another on aplate moments later whenJames instead picked outMason Mount, whose shotwas deflected behind.

But Arsenal did not learntheir lesson and affordedJames huge spaces being the

right.Mount picked out his

England teammate 10 min-utes before half-time andJames thrashed a brilliant fin-ish high past Bernd Leno.

James, though, was luckyjust before the break when hispush on Bukayo Saka as heburst into the box wentunpunished by both refereePaul Tierney and VAR.

Rob Holding shouldhave halved Arsenal’s deficitafter the break when thecentre-back headed widefrom close range.

At the other end Lenoalso did his case to hold offRamsdale as number oneno harm with an incredible

save to deny Lukaku a debutdouble as he turned a bulletheader onto the crossbar.

Lukaku turned away in dis-belief as he watched the replayon a big screen, but his presencehas blown away any lastingdoubts over Chelsea’s ability tochallenge City in the title racethis season.

Earlier, Harry Kane madehis first appearance forTottenham this season as NunoEspirito Santo earned a 1-0 winagainst his former club Wolves,while Mason Greenwood sal-vaged a 1-1 draw for ManchesterUnited at Southampton.

Striker Kane came off thebench in the second half atMolineux after the ManchesterCity transfer target missed thefirst two games following his latereturn from his close-season hol-iday.

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