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It is raining drones over vitalsecurity installations in the

Jammu region.After a sensational drone

attack on Jammu Air ForceStation late on Sunday, twomore drones were spotted overRatnuchak-Kaluchak militarystation located on the Jammu-Pathankot National highway inthe wee hours of Monday.Alert troops fired upon them.

On May 14, 2002,Kaluchak military station wasattacked by three Pakistani ter-rorists who had infiltrated viathe International border.Wearing combat dresses thefidayeens (members of the sui-cide squad) had barged insidethe Kaluchak military stationafter lobbing grenades at thefront gate.

At least 31 people, includ-ing three Army personnel, 18Army family members and 10civilians, were killed and 47others were wounded in one ofthe bloodiest terror attacks.

Repeated incidents ofdrone spotting and their use forweapons dropping, narcoticssmuggling is keeping securityforces on the tenterhooks for along time.

Defence Spokesman inJammu, Lt Col DevenderAnand said, “On midnight of27-28 June 2021, two separatedrone activities were spottedover Ratnuchak-KaluchakMilitary area by troops. Thefirst drone was spotted ataround 2345 hours on June 27and the second was noticed inthe vicinity at around 0240hours on June 28, 2021”.

Immediately, a high alertwas sounded and QuickReaction Teams engaged themwith firing.

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Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman on Monday

announced eight new schemesinvolving �1.5 lakh crore ofadditional credit facility toprovide a helping hand to thesectors worst affected by therestriction imposed under theCovid-19 lockdown across thecountry. Health and tourismsectors have drawn specialattention of the FM. TheGovernment also extendedbenefits from the free food-grain programme for unprivi-leged people till November.

Under the news schemes,the Centre would extend afederal guarantee on bank loansto healthcare sector while waiv-ing visa fees for 500,000 foreigntourists to perk up tourism.

Together with previously

announced �93,869 crorespending on providing freefoodgrains to the poor tillNovember and additional�14,775 crore fertiliser subsidy,the stimulus package — most-ly made up of Governmentguarantee to banks and micro-finance institutions for loansthey extend to Covid-hit sec-tors — totalled up to �6.29 lakhcrore.

Addressing a press confer-

ence, Sitharaman said,“Economic relief measures arebeing announced today.”

She provided �23,220 croreof additional funding for set-ting up children and paediatriccare/paediatric beds at hospi-tals to prepare healthcare infra-structure to deal with anyemergency arising for Covidwave hitting children.

To incentivise job creation,the Government is committedto paying the employer andemployee’s share to providentfund (PF) for all new recruit-ments done till March 2022.Previously, the Governmentpaid �902 crore for 21.42 lakhbeneficiaries of 79,577 estab-lishments.

With the tourism sectorbeing hit hard by the pandem-ic, she announced up to �10lakh loan to tourist agenciesand �1 lakh loan to touristguides while waiver of visa feefor the first 5 lakh foreigntourists visiting India aftertravel restrictions ease.

Tourist visa fee waiver willcost the Government �100crore.

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Days after blocking UnionInformation Technology

Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad’sTwitter account for almost anhour, Twitter courted a newcontroversy on Monday after apage on its website showed adistorted map of India. Thistime map on Twitter showedJammu & Kashmir and Ladakhas separate countries. This isthe second time Twitter hasmisrepresented India’s map.Earlier, it had shown Leh aspart of China.

However, soon after abacklash on social media,Twitter removed from its web-site the distorted map of India.

Sources said the Ministryof Electronics and InformationTechnology is looking into theissue, and the Governmentmay take strict action againstTwitter. “The Government hastaken cognizance of this issueand is enquiring about when

the changes were made in themap,” sources added.

The distorted mapappeared on Twitter website’sCareer section under the head-ing “Tweep Life” section. Thesection on the career page hasa world map.

It showed a demarcationbetween the map of India andJammu & Kashmir andLadakh. Jammu & Kashmirand Ladakh were representedas separate countries. The com-pany showed that there was ateam of Twitter users all overthe world.

The misrepresentationcaused an uproar online amidthe ongoing impasse between

the Government and themicroblogging platform. ManyTwitter users shared screen-shots and slammed Twitter’sgross misrepresentation ofIndia’s map.

The distorted map wasfirst noticed by user@thvaranam. The hashtag“Twitter Ban” in India becameone of the top trends on it. Infact, a twitter user said Twitteris banned in China but stillshows China occupied Ladakhas part of China. But doesn’tshow Jammu & Kashmir andLadakh as part of India. Evenbig-tech crawls before Chinadespite not being allowed.

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India saw a new vaccinerecord at 32.36 crore doses as

it surpassed the United Statesin total number of dosesadministered so far. The US hasgiven 32.33 crore doses.

In fact, India has recordedthe highest weekly vaccinationwith over 3.3 crore jabs admin-istered in the last 5 days sincethe launch of the revised vac-cination policy on June 21.

This comes amid a dip infresh Covid cases as India reg-istered 46,148 cases in the last24 hours and 979 deaths, tak-ing the overall cases to3,02,79,331 and the total num-ber of deaths to 3.96 lakh.

Responding to a tweet bythe Union Health Ministrywhich said India has overtak-en the US in the total numberof Covid vaccine doses, thePrime Minister congratulatedthose who got vaccinatedagainst the coronavirus disease,and also lauded front-line war-rior working hard to ensure somany citizens got the vaccine.

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In a finding that will have amajor bearing on the much-

anticipated “third wave” ofCovid-19, a sero-survey con-ducted by the BrihanmumbaiMunicipal Corporation (BMC)has revealed that more than 50per cent of the paediatric pop-ulation — already exposed toSARS-COV-2 — has devel-oped antibodies.

One of the key findings ofsero-survey of SARS-CoV-2infection among the children inMumbai — conducted by BYLNair Hospital and KasturbaMolecular DiagnosticLaboratory of the BMC —suggested that “more than 50per cent of the paediatric pop-ulation in a healthcare settinghave already been exposed toSARS-COV-2”.

“The overall sero-positiv-ity is 51.18 per cent. Thisincludes 54.36 per cent from

the public sector and 47.03 percent from the private sector.Moreover, it is found that, theproportion of paediatric pop-ulation having antibodiesincreased as compared to ear-lier sero-survey. Seropositivityis highest in the age group 10-14 years i. e. 53.43 per cent,”Mumbai MunicipalCommissioner IS Chahal said,giving details of the sero-sur-vey findings of paediatric pop-ulation.

Anticipating that the pos-sible third wave of Covid-19might affect children dispro-portionately, Chahal andAdditional MunicipalCommissioner (WesternSuburbs) Suresh Kakani had

directed the two medical estab-lishments to conduct sero-sur-vey of paediatric populationduring the second wave itself.

As per the directions, BYLNair Hospital and KasturbaMolecular Laboratory con-ducted the sero-survey betweenApril 1 and June 15, 2021.

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Protecting the Right toEducation (RTE) for every

child in Delhi, Deputy ChiefMinister on Mondayannounced that no school inthe national Capital can denyadmission to a child on thegrounds that they declared thename of just one parent.

The decision is being con-sidered significant since it willhelp children who have lost oneor both parents to Covid-19.

Sharing the notification ofthe Department of Education,signed by Udit Raj Prakash,Director of Education, Sisodia,who also holds the portfolio ofEducation Minister, tweeted:No school in Delhi shall denyadmission to a child ongrounds that the child is declar-ing name of his or her singleparent only.

The circular issued on thebehalf of Delhi Governmentread: “All the heads of schoolsof all managements are herebydirected not to deny admissionto the candidates who have

filled details of just one of theparents in the application formwhile taking admission.”

The order will be applica-ble for all Government, semiGovernment, private and aidedschools in Delhi.

Earlier, students in Delhifaced difficulties in gettingadmissions and producing cer-tificates if they declared onlyone parent.

The online registrationprocess for the candidates seek-ing admission for Classes VI toIX at various Delhi schoolsbegan on June 11, 2021.

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The mudslinging betweenRaj Bhavan and Nabanna

(State secretariat) hit a new lowwith Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee on Mondaycalling Governor JagdeepDhankhar a “corrupt man”alleging that his name had fig-ured in the Jain hawala scam.

Hours later, the BengalGovernor refuted the chargessaying he had nothing to dowith the scam and that henever had to move the court onthe issue.

He added that the names ofher own party colleague andformer Union MinisterYashwant Sinha and lateTrinamool Congress leader AjitPanja were indeed in the chargesheet though they were acquit-ted in the case.

The Chief Minister’s alle-gations came hours after

Dhankhar raised a demandfor an audit by Comptrollerand Auditor General into thefinancial affairs of GorkhalandTerritorial Administration. Hesaid “thousands of crores oftaxpayers money have not beenaccounted for” and hence he asthe Governor of the State was“empowered to order an audit”into GTA finances.

Mamata said, “Though Ifeel bad saying this, he is a cor-rupt person… the Governorwas named in the 1996 Jainhawala case. I am sorry to say,but he is a corrupt man. Whydid the Central Governmentallow such a person to becomea Governor? If the Centre doesnot know it, then I am tellingthem. Check the chargesheet,you will know if he was named

or not.”Mamata further said, “He

(Governor) later appeared inthe court and got his namecleared and later on a fresh writor PIL was filed and the mat-ter is still pending... I havealready written to the Centrethree times seeking his with-drawal from Bengal.”

Referring to his northBengal visit, the CM said theGovernor was trying to createdisturbance in the State byencouraging divisive elements.

“He is intentionally tryingto disturb north Bengal… hewent there and spoke to peo-ple who believe in dividing theState,” the Bengal CM saidquestioning the timing of hisvisit to that part of the State.

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Olympic-bound RahiSarnobat displayed sen-

sational form to clinch thewomen’s 25m pistol gold medalat the ISSF shooting World Cuphere on Monday, however teen sensation Manu Bhakerended seventh in the sameevent.

Sarnobat’s gold is India’sfirst in the ongoing edition afterthe country secured one silverand two bronze medals earlierin the tournament.

The 30-year-old Sarnobatfired a final score of 39 afterqualifying second with a totalof 591. Her stupendous per-formance in the final includedperfect scores in the third,fourth, fifth and the sixthseries.

“After I got assurance aboutthe gold, it was more abouttechnicalities for me in the lastfew series as I wanted to try outa few things so I was doingthat,” she said about her stellarperformance.

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New Delhi: Over 300 dronesand unidentified flying objectshave been sighted along thesensitive border with Pakistanpost the 2019 abrogation of

Article 370, central securityagencies have said, even asthey grapple to find a suitabletechnology to check these lethalsky-floaters. PTI

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New Delhi: It will be unfair toput a date for any Covid waveas the behaviour of coron-avirus is unpredictable and adisciplined and effective pan-demic response can help thecountry get away from any sig-nificant outbreak, Covid TaskForce chief VK Paul said onMonday.

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Nainital: The UttarakhandHigh Court on Monday stayedthe Char Dham Yatra reversinga State Cabinet’s decision toopen it partially for residents ofthree districts from July 1.

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Paris: Star Indian archerDeepika Kumari on Mondayregained the number one posi-tion in global rankings follow-ing her hat-trick of gold medalsat the World Cup Stage 3 here.

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India favours dialogue to resolveissues related to the Line of

Actual Control(LAC)but is readyto meet any challenge and give abefitting reply, Defence MinisterRajnath Singh said on Monday.Visiting Ladakh, he also said thecountry will never forget the sac-rifice of the ‘Galwan bravehearts.’

He was referring to the 20Indian army personnel includingthe commanding officer whowere killed in a brawl with theChinese in the Galway valley onJune 15 last year. At least 40Chinese soldiers were also killedbut Beijing is yet to officially con-firm casualties.

On a three-day visit toLadakh to oversee operationalreadiness of the armed forces,Rajnath said efforts should bemade to find solution to issuesthrough dialogue with neigh-bouring countries but at thesame time noted that India willnot tolerate if someone tries tothreaten it.

Interacting with the troops inLeh, Rajnath also said: “We arethe priests of world peace. Evenwhen we take up weapons that isonly to establish peace. Till date,India has neither attacked anycountry, nor have we captured aninch of land of any country.”

His remarks came days afterthe diplomatic-level talks

between India and China wereheld last week under the aegis ofthe Working Mechanism forConsultation and Co-ordina-tion(WMCC). Both the sidesreiterated their commitment toaddress the LAC through talksand agreed to hold the 12thround of Corps Commanderlevel talks soon. The last roundwas held in April.

Stalemate prevails at threefriction points with the armies of

the two countries in a stand-offsituation for the last one year.The sites include Hot Springs,Gogra and the Depsang Valley.

The two sides had disen-gaged from the southern andnorthern banks of the PangongTso(lake)in late February this yearafter ten months of eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation. However,after that no positive develop-ment regarding disengagementand de-escalation has taken place.

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New Delhi: The DefenceMinister in Ladakh inaugurated63 bridges built by the BorderRoads Organisation(BRO).These infrastructure projectsworth over �245 crore are locat-ed in six states and two UnionTerritories (UTs).

One of the bridges inaugu-rated is a 50-metre-long singlespan steel super structure bridgeconstructed on the Leh-LomaRoad in Ladakh and replaces anexisting bailey bridge. This willensure unhindered movement ofheavy weapon systems, includingguns, tanks and other specialisedequipment.

“The Leh-Loma Road,which connects Leh with placessuch as Chumathang, Hanley

and Tso Morori Lake, is vital foraccess to forward areas inEastern Ladakh,” the defenceministry said in a statement.

Of the other 62 bridges inau-gurated, 11 are in Ladakh, fourin Jammu and Kashmir, three inHimachal Pradesh, six inUttarakhand, eight in Sikkim,one each in Nagaland andManipur and 29 in ArunachalPradesh. With the inaugurationof 63 bridges in one go, the BROhas surpassed its own record of44 bridges launched in 2020.These 63 bridges, combinedwith 12 roads dedicated to thenation by Rajnath Singh on June17 this year, form a bouquet of75 infrastructure projects com-pleted by the BRO.

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Mahoba (UP): A 13-year-old girlwas allegedly gang-raped fourmonths ago and a health workercolluding with the criminals gaveabortion pills to the pregnantminor, police said on Monday

Three of the four men whoallegedly raped the girl in a villageunder Srinagar Police Station areaof the district and the health work-er have been arrested, they said.The incident came to light on

Friday when the condition of thegirl, who became pregnant, deteri-orated after she was given abortionpills by the Accredited SocialHealth Activists (Asha) workernamed Sushila, police said.

In her statement to police, thevictim alleged that B P Singh,Ram Babu Singh, Raghu Raikwarand Shatrughan Singh had rapedher while Sushila was part of a con-spiracy to cover up the crime. PTI

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Panaji: Goa Chief MinisterPramod Sawant and state BJPchief Sadanand Shet Tanavadeon Monday welcomed UnionFinance Minister NirmalaSitharaman's stimulus pack-age for the tourism sector amidthe COVID-19 outbreak.

The stimulus packageincludes five lakh free touristvisas, financial support to11,000 registered tourist guides,travel and tourism stakehold-ers, providing working capitalor personal loans to people inthe tourism sector to dischargeliabilities or restart businessesimpacted due to Covid-19,among other benefits. PTI

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With a sharp focus on Telangana andAndhra Pradesh, the BJP on

Monday sought to claim the politicallegacy of former Prime Minister P VNarsimha Rao on his birthday by accus-ing the Congress of disrespecting the'tallest Telugu Bidda'.

BJP, which has almost replacedCongress as the main Opposition partyin Telangana, is also trying to push outTelugu Desam Party (TDP) in AndhraPradesh and be the main challenger to theruling YSR Congress before the nextassembly polls in 2024.

"Congress family has systematical-ly erased the memory of all other lead-ers be it Sardar Patel or Narsimha Rao,..BJP respects leaders across the spec-trum, 100th birth anniversary of Rao isan important milestone but forgotten byCongress", said BJP's Rajya Sabha mem-ber GVL Narasimha Rao.

Talking to The Pioneer, Rao said thelate Prime Minister is "the tallest Telugubidda and he is not only a politician buta multidimensional personality..the realfather of market reforms".

Late Prime Minister's grandson N VSubhash, who is a BJP's spokesperson inTelangana, has also accused Congress

and its president Sonia Gandhi of sidelin-ing the contributions made by Rao andattributing him with the failures of theparty. He has stated that after the deathof Narasimha Rao in 2004, Sonia andother Congress leaders did not speakabout the contributions of the formerPrime Minister or remember him.

Union Minister of State G KishanReddy, who hails from Telangana, hit-outat the Congress for not acknowledgingRao's contribution saying BJP will accordhim the respect that the late leader alwaysdeserved and referred to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi's efforts to rememberRao's work as Prime Minister.

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From Page 1“This competition was absolutely

not about performance or medalbecause I was trying out a few thingswhich I am going to do in the OlympicGames and this is the final competitionbefore that.

“It was more about trying outthings and finalising every thing beforethe Olympics for the last time and thatwas just that,” she added.

Nonetheless, winning a gold herehas given Sarnobat the belief that herpreparations are on the right track forthe Tokyo Games.

“...I have to keep working on this upto and after the Olympic Games as well,”she said.

The silver went to France’s MathildeLamolle, who scored 31 in the final. RioOlympics silver-medallist in the 10m airpistol, Russian Vitalina Batsarashkina,won bronze with 28 hits, bowing outafter the ninth five-shot series.

In the qualification, Sarnobat fireda brilliant 296 in the rapid fire round

on Monday. Her precision score was anequally impressive 295 on Sunday.

Bhaker recorded a total of 588 toqualify third after firing a 296 in therapid fire round on Monday followingan impressive 292 in the precisionround on Sunday.

However, she was eliminated earlyin the final with a disappointing scoreof 11, losing a shoot-off to Bulgaria’sViktoria Chaika.

There was disappointment for Indiain the women’s 50m rifle 3 positionscompetition as both Tejaswini Sawantand Anjum Moudgil failed to make thefinals.

Sawant ended 20th in qualificationwith a score of 1168, while Moudgil wasfurther down at 32nd after firing 1162.The top eight shooters from qualifica-tion make the final cut.

Earlier in the tournament, Bhakerhad teamed up with SaurabhChaudhary for the 10m air pistolmixed team silver.

She had earlier clinched thewomen’s 10m air pistol team bronzewith Sarnobat and Yashaswini Deswal.

From Page 1Be like China. There is little to no value

in being a liberal democracy. Another user wrote that the Twitter

website shows J&K as a separate countryand Ladakh as part of China. Second timeTwitter showed the wrong map of India.Alas! We all know Govt will again playnotice with no concrete action againstTwitter.

One of twitterati said, ‘”Twitter againshowing their left face showing the wrongmap of India… are still waiting for an offi-cial apology from Twitter? Show them theirplace this time.”

Earlier in October 2020, Twitter hadlabelled the Indian territory of Leh inLadakh as part of the People’s Republic ofChina (PRC). The Government had issueda warning to CEO Jack Dorsey over the mis-representation of the Indian map. TheGovernment had said that such attempts notonly bring disrepute to Twitter but also rais-es questions about its neutrality and fair-ness as an intermediary. Later, Twitter Indiaissued an apology and removed the imagesand related tweets. In December last year,

the Government warned Wikipedia for mis-representing the country’s borders. Since itwas a particular page, it issued Wikipediaan order to scrap it.

The US digital giant has been engagedin a tussle with the Indian Government overthe new social media rules. Twitter hadflagged “freedom of expression” concernswhile responding to the new rules, whichinclude appointing India-based complianceofficers.

The Government has slammed Twitterfor deliberate defiance and failure to com-ply with the country’s new IT rules, whichhas led to the microblogging platform los-ing its legal shield as an intermediary inIndia, and becoming liable for users post-ing any unlawful content.

The Parliamentary Standing Committeeon Information Technology came out hardon Twitter last week and asked the socialmedia platform to follow the law of the landinstead of dilly-dallying. In response, theofficials told the panel that “we follow ourown policies,” which was strongly object-ed to by the committee members, who cat-egorically told the Twitter India officials thatthe company is not above the law of theland.

From Page 1On his repeated complaints

of violence in the State, the ChiefMinister said that the Governorbroke all the protocols of pan-demic by meeting trucks load ofpeople in North Bengal and gen-erated tones of lies about so-called violence. “There may acouple of genuine cases buthere he was speaking to trucksload of people who were spe-cially taken by the BJP to meethim by breaking all the pan-demic laws and in order to cre-ate tension,” Mamata said.

From Page 1Other announcements included an

additional �19,041 crore for providingbroadband internet cover to all villagepanchayats, an extension of tenure ofproduction linked incentive (PLI)scheme for large scale electronicsmanufacturing by a year and �88,000crore of insurance cover for goodsexporters.The support measures wereannounced as states start lifting restric-tions after new coronavirus infec-tions showed a decline. The economyseems to be on a recovery path afterbeing hit by a devastating second waveof infections that was dubbed as theworld’s worst Covid-19 surge.

Sitharaman said the EmergencyCredit Line Guarantee Scheme isbeing expanded �Rs 4.5 lakh crorefrom �3 lakh crore. Under the scheme,a collateral-free loan is provided bybanks to small businesses and the gov-ernment stands guarantee for anydefault.

The ECLGS, launched last year, hashelped cash-starved small businesses

raise funds during the Covid-19 lock-down for working capital and to meettheir orders. As much as �2.73 lakhcrore has been sanctioned under thethree previous ECLGS programmes, ofwhich �2.10 lakh crore has alreadybeen disbursed. Another Rs 1.1 lakhcrore loan guarantee scheme for Covid-affected sectors was announced. Thisincluded Rs 50,000 crore for the healthsector, with a three-year single loan ofRs 100 crore carrying an interest of 7.95per cent. Loans to other sectors suchas tourism and hospitality would comeat 8.25 per cent per annum interest rate.

Also, micro-finance institutionswill extend 25 lakh small borrowersloans of up to Rs 1.25 lakh at an inter-est rate that is 2 per cent lower than thebenchmark lending rate, she said.

The government also extendedthe loan guarantee programme to thetourism sector, after last month widen-ing it to airlines and hospitals.

inancial Services SecretaryDebasish Panda said the objective ofcredit guarantee is to encourage banksto lend to enterprises so that they getcredit at low cost. The measures

announced Mondayare “to ensure money comes into

hands of small, medium and largeenterprises,” he said.

The credit programme supple-ments separate measures announcedby the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) lastmonth to boost credit for health careservices and provide fresh lending tovaccine-makers.

It provided an on-tap liquiditywindow for banks worth Rs 50,000crore to extend credit to health servicesand vaccine manufacturers until March2022.

The extension of free foodgrainsto 80 crore poor till November will costRs 93,869 crore more, bringing the totalcost of the programme to more thanRs 2.27 lakh crore, she said.

After the outbreak of the secondwave in April 2021, the PMGKAYscheme was reintroduced, initially forMay-June and then extended tillNovember this year. The total moneyspent on PMGKAY will be Rs 2,27,841crores. Besides, farmers to get addi-tional protein-based fertilizer subsidyof nearly Rs 15,000 crores. To revive the

North Eastern Regional AgriculturalMarketing Corporation (NERAMAC),the government has announced apackage of Rs 77.45 crore proposed forfinancial restructuring and infusion offunds.

Sitharaman said the estimatedfinancial implication for providingfree foodgrains is Rs 93,869 crore forthis year. The Centre spent Rs 1,33,972crore last fiscal on this scheme. Thetotal financial implication is estimat-ed at Rs 2,27,841 crore for PMGKAY,Sitharaman added.

In the wake of the second wave ofCOVID-19, the scheme wasrelaunched in May 2021 to ensure thefood security of the poor. Then on June23, cabinet approved the proposal toextend it by five more months tillNovember-end. Under this scheme,National Food Security Act (NFSA)beneficiaries will be provided 5 kg offood grains free of cost until November2021. This is over and above the dis-tribution of 5 kg foodgrains per per-son every month at highly subsidisedrates of Rs 1-3 per kg via ration shopsto NFSA beneficiaries.

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From Page 1He tweeted, “India’s vacci-

nation drive keeps gainingmomentum! Congrats to allthose who are driving this effort.Our commitment remains vac-cines for all, free for all.” Modicongratulated all those “who aredriving the momentum of India’svaccination drive.” India hasstill to go far in its vaccinationdrive given its total populationof over 138 crore vis-a-visAmerica’s 33 crore.

On Sunday, in his monthlyradio talk, the Prime Minister

had appealed particularly to thepeople of rural areas to shed vac-cine hesitancy and take both thedoses of vaccines made byIndian scientists ‘which arecompletely safe’, he said.

Nearly 81 lakh (80,95,314)vaccine doses were administeredacross the country on the firstday of the implementation of theCentre’s ‘Revised Guidelines forCovid vaccination’ kickstarted.

It is the highest number ofdoses administered in a daysince the vaccination drive start-ed on January 16. The previoushigh was of over 48 lakh doseson April 1.

From Page 1“These blood samples were

made available from the sam-ples received in laboratories forvarious medical investigationsand were transported frompublic and private laboratoriesto Kasturba MolecularLaboratory,” the BMC state-ment said.

As many as 2,176 bloodsamples were collected frompathology laboratories spreadacross 24 civic wards ofMumbai — comprising 1,283from Aapli Chikitsa Networkand Nair Hospital of BMC and893 from a network SER of twoprivate laboratories.

According to the findings,the sero-positivity is highest inthe age group 10-14 years i. e.53.43 per cent. The Sero-posi-tivity rate of 1 to 4 years is 51.04per cent, 5 to 9 years is 47.33 percent, 10 to 14 years is 53.43 percent, 15 to 18 years is 51.39%.The overall Sero-positivity rateof 1 to 18 years is 51.18%.“There is a notable increase inthe sero-positivity in the pae-diatric population to SARS-CoV-2 in this study as com-pared to Sero-survey 3 con-ducted in March 2021 whichshowed a sero-positivity of39.4% in the age group of ? 18years which indicates that a sig-nificant proportion of childrenaccessing the healthcare ser-vices were exposed to the virusduring the second wave ofCOVID-19,” one of the findingsstated.

The study has also sug-gested targeted health educationand awareness about COVID-19 appropriate behaviour. IECshould include the use of socialmedia platforms (examplesinclude memes, collaboratingwith social media influencers,etc.), cartoon advertisementsand catchy jingles.

From Page 1Both the Drones flew away. “A major threat thwarted by the

alertness and proactive approach of troops. The security forcesare on high alert and the search operation is in progress”, Lt ColAnand said.

Meanwhile, the investigators collecting evidence frominside the Air Force Station have not found any wreckage ofdrones which clearly indicated the aerial vehicle went back afterdropping the IED’s on the Air Force Station.

The possible targets were the Air Traffic control tower andthe hangers where helicopters were parked inside the air forcestation.

According to a senior police officer, the investigation agen-cies have not yet concluded whether the drones were flown fromacross the border or from the close vicinity of the air force sta-tion to launch the attack.

The FIR lodged in the Satwari police station clearly statedthe payloads were dropped using drones. Jammu and Kashmirpolice are also keeping a close watch on the suspicious activi-ties of some of the Over ground workers and anti-national ele-ments living in the close vicinity of the air force station.Meanwhile, teams of National Investigation Agency, NationalBomb data centre, IAF officers continue to piece together theforensic evidence and explosive material used for targeting thestrategic air force asset.

Investigators are of the opinion high grade explosive mate-rial was used to target the Air Force Station,Jammu.

Inspector General of Jammu police Mukesh Singh Mondayattended another high-level meeting with the investigating agen-cies inside the Air Force Station.

The security of the vital installations in the region has beenbeefed up to prevent another strike with the help of drones.

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The Delhi Government hasinitiated a certificate course

for health assistants in which5,000 individuals will betrained in Covid-related careand thereafter assist doctorsand nurses in hospitals and alsosupport communities in med-ical emergencies.

Keeping in mind the emer-gence of a possible third Covid-19 wave, the initiative waslaunched in collaboration withthe Guru Gobind SinghIndraprastha University.

The course was launchedon Monday by Deputy ChiefMinister Manish Sisodia andHealth Minister Satyendar Jain,in the presence of Atishi, MLAKalkaji and professors of GuruGobind Singh IndraprasthaUniversity.

The two-week-long course

launched by the DelhiGovernment will include 500trainees in the first batch whowill be equipped with life sup-port skills, heart functioning,Covid care, blood testing, sam-pling, first aid, home care etc.

Sisodia said, “We want tocreate a model youth force inDelhi which will be equippedwith all the basic skills andknowledge needed to fight anymedical crisis. Not only will ouryouth be prepared to fight anycrisis, they will also be able toprovide medical assistance totheir family and people in theircommunity.

“Within a matter of fourdays, thousands of peopleapplied to be a part of thistraining programme. This indi-cates that people are keen to bea part of this course and learn.While in the first batch we haveinducted 5,000 trainees, weplan on scaling this and mak-ing it a long-term, ongoing ini-tiative,” he said.

Health Minister Jain statedthat the course is extremelyimportant to tackle any med-ical crisis of the future. “Thiscourse will be able to provideindividuals with employmentopportunities considering thereis an increasing need for health

assistants in hospitals who willbe able to assist nurses and doc-tors,” he said.The trainees willreceive a certificate and med-ical kit upon completion of thecourse. The medical kit willinclude a blood pressure mon-itoring device, thermometerand an oximeter. “The two-week long course is dividedinto two stages – the first weekwill include didactic anddemonstrative training while inthe second week, trainees willreceive practical experience,”the Government said in astatement.

“Nine hospitals have beenroped in for this course, wheretrainees will be given basictraining. The hospitals areDeen Dayal UpadhyayHospital, Ram Manohar LohiaHospital, Rajiv Gandhi SuperSpeciality Hospital, ChachaNehru Child Clinic, SanjayGandhi Hospital, AmbedkarMedical College, ESIC HospitalBasaidharapur, Hindu RaoHospital and VardhamanMahavir Hospital. The DelhiGovernment has disbursed anamount of � 5 crore for this ini-tiative,” it said.

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In order to ensure develop-ment in villages in the

national Capital, the DelhiVillage Development Boardhas sanctioned �235 crore toimprove the condition of roads,drains, water bodies, commu-nity centres, parks, cremationcentres and playgrounds situ-ated in the villages.

Development MinisterGopal Rai said the Aam Aadmi

Party (AAP)-led Governmentwill take all necessary steps toimprove the condition of roads,parks, small drains and multi-purpose community halls. Itwill also ensure supply of waterand electricity in all villageareas.

Apart from providing basicamenities to the people ofDelhi living in urban areas, theGovernment is committed toproviding facilities to the peo-ple living in rural areas also, he

said.“These developmental

works will be executed throughthe Government agenciesincluding the Irrigation andFlood Control Department,the Municipal Corporationsand Delhi Jal Board etc,” headded.

A meeting of the DelhiVillage Development Boardunder the chairmanship of theMinister of Development wasconvened on Monday. Themembers drew attentiontowards the pendency of pro-posals.

The chairman stressedtime-bound action by thedepartment concerned in theproject files of village develop-ment.

The chairman also direct-ed the main executing agencyof the village developmentworks i.e the Irrigation andFlood Control Department toexpedite the preparation ofproject estimates and also exe-cution of sanctioned projectswithin the given time frame.

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The Special Cell of DelhiPolice has apprehended a

man from Punjab in connec-tion with the Red Fort flaghoisting case. Police said that areward of �1 lakh was declaredon information leading to hisarrest.

The accused, Gurjot Singh(23) is a resident of TaranTaran in Punjab.

According to SanjeevKumar Yadav, DeputyCommissioner of Police(DCP), Special Cell, NorthernRange, specific inputs werereceived that Gurjot wouldcome near the Gurudwara TootSahib, Jaspal Nagar in Amritsar,following which a trap was laidand he was apprehended.

“During interrogation,Gurjot Singh confessed to hisinvolvement in the Red Fortincident on January 26. He fur-ther disclosed that from theonset of the Kisan Andolan inSeptember 2020, farmers of hisvillage were coming to theSinghu border in support of theagitation. He was also in sup-port of the Kisan Andolan andhe used to watch provocativevideos of Lakkha Sidhana andDeep Siddhu on YouTube

regarding the stir,” saidthe DCP.

“In December 2020,he came to the Singhuborder twice and on theappeal of Sarwan SinghPandher and SatnamSingh Pannu (KisanMajdoor SangharshCommittee leaders) healong with his villagefriends and relativesGurpreet Singh, NavdeepSingh, Gurjant Singh andBaljinder Singh decidedto participate in theJanuary 26, tractorparade,” said the DCP.

“He reached Delhi inthe tractor trolley of hiscousin, Gurpreet Singh. Theyreached Singhu border onJanuary 21 and on January 26,at about 8 AM when the trac-tor parade started, he alongwith his cousin Gurpreet andtwo other persons were part ofa group that crossed the desig-nated route,” said the DCP.

“He reached Red Fort byfoot along with the mob. Atthat time the Red Fort door wasclosed and he waited outsidethe gate, which was openedforcefully by the Nihangs andthe mob. He met Gurjant,Jajveer and Boota at the Red

Fort,” said the DCP.“Gurjant hoisted the ‘Nisan

Sahib’ flag on the Red Fort.After that Singh spoke to themedia where he disclosed hisrole in the incident of flaghoisting at the historic monu-ment,” said the DCP.

“On that basis, he waswanted in the case and areward of �1 lakh wasannounced on his arrest.Further investigation andefforts are being made to appre-hend other absconding accusedpersons connected with thisincident,” said the DCP.

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A32-year-old man was shotdead in northeast Delhi’s

Gokalpuri area. Police saidthat they have identified theaccused and a manhunt hasbeen initiated to nab them.

The deceased has beenidentified as Azeem, a residentof Bhagirathi Vihar.

According to a seniorpolice official, on Saturdayaround 6 PM, a police controlroom (PCR) call was receivedregarding firing in Gokalpuri,Delhi area following which anEmergency Response Vehicle(ERV) was dispatched for thespot.

“During initial investiga-tion it was revealed that Azeemwas seated on pavement withhis friends when two youngboys came and shot him on hischest and fled away. He wasshifted to hospital where he wasdeclared brought dead,” saidthe senior police official.

“An First InformationReport (FIR) under section302/34 of the Indian PenalCode (IPC) and 25/27 ArmsAct has been registered atGokulpuri police station,” hesaid.

“On the basis of humanintelligence and technical sur-veillance the culprits have beenidentified,” the senior policeofficial added.

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Fire incidents were reportedin All India Institute of

Medical Sciences (AIIMS) andSafdarjung Hospitals onMonday. A fire broke out in aroom adjacent to the operationtheatre of EmergencyDepartment in AIIMS here onMonday morning. No one wasinjured.

According to Atul Garg,the Director, Delhi Fire services(DFS), a call was received at5:04 AM about a blaze in theoperation theatre (OT) ofEmergency Department andseven fire tenders were rushedto AIIMS.

“The fire was broughtunder control very quickly,said Garg, adding it broke outin the store room adjacent tothe OT.

According to police, aPolice Control Room (PCR)call was received at Hauz Khaspolice station at around 5.15am about the blaze and onreaching AIIMS, sparking andsmoke was observed in adummy room near the casual-ty area.

“All the patients in thevicinity were evacuated. Sevenfire brigade vehicles reached at

the spot and extinguished thefire,” said Atul Kumar Thakur,the Deputy Commissioner ofPolice (DCP), South district

adding that the situation is nownormal and under control, andthere is neither any casualty norany injury to any person.

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The Gurugram police havearrested 22 people for

allegedly partying at a guesthouse in Sector-38 area here inviolation of curbs imposed tofight Covid-19, officials said.

Based on reliable infor-mation, the police team con-ducted a raid at a guest house‘Aqua Inn’ located in Sector-38and apprehended 22 personsfor allegedly organising a liquorparty without taking permis-sion and violating the Covid-19 protocols, late night onSunday.

They were identified asAman Kapoor, Nikhil Vaid,Saadh, Parth Dua, Abhishek

Sharma, Nitin Dua, SurjitPanchal, Pulkit, Pradeep Goyal,Yash Sharma, Neeraj Sharma,Sumer Singh, Deepak, AkashGarg, Anshul Mittal, Virenalias Honey Yadav, Vivek, Amit,Mukesh Gupta, Deepak Rana,Sagar and Mukesh Kumar.

“It was a liquor party at theAqua Inn guest house inSector-38 area. Twenty-Twopeople from Delhi were presentthere. Most of the party atten-dees are 25-30 years old,”Sunder Pal, an additional sta-tion house officer, Sadar policestation said.

“They had violated thepandemic as well as the nightcurfew protocols,” he said.

They were booked underrelevant sections of the Indian

Penal Code (IPC) including theDisaster Management Act,2005 at the Sadar police station.

However, all the arrestedhave been released on policebail.

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The Municipal Corporationof Gurugram (MCG) is

soon going to start an onlineportal for redressal of com-plaints and to get time to meetthe Municipal Commissioner.The name of this portal hasbeen proposed by theCommissioner as ‘MCGSamadhan.com’.

In this regard, MCG com-missioner Mukesh KumarAhuja held a meeting with theIT Wing official on Mondayand gave necessary guidelinesand suggestions for preparingthe portal.

This portal is being pre-pared by the IT wing of thecivic body and it will be acces-sible to the general public soonafter it is finalised. It was toldin the meeting that after theintroduction of this system, any

citizen will be able to fix hisappointment with the corpo-ration Commissioner throughan online medium.

“The citizen will have to fillthe column of his name,address, mobile number, e-mail and write the reason forthe meeting. The time of meet-ing with the Commissionerwill be fixed through the por-tal and the complaint receivedwill be forwarded to the con-cerned officer. Category wise,3, 5 and 7 days will be fixed forresolution of the complaint. Ifthe complaint is not resolvedwithin the stipulated time, thecomplaint will go to the pend-ing section,” an MCGspokesperson said. The specialfeature of this portal will be thatthe complaint will be sentdirectly to the concerned offi-cer resolving the grievance anda copy of it will be forwardedto the monitoring officer.

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Delhi Police Commissioner,SN Shrivastava on

Monday felicitated the teams ofSir Gangaram Kolmet hospitaland Hamdard NationalFoundation who supervisedand rendered valuable assis-tance in arranging doctors andparamedical staff required forrunning Delhi Police CovidCare Centres in Rohini andShahdara.

“With the timely supportof Hamdard foundation andSir Gangaram KolmetHospital, two covid care cen-tres for police personnel andtheir families were started inShahdara and Rohini.

“These centers providedservice to about 125 police per-

sonnel and their families (124),along with critical support of47 patients who were referredto other big hospitals,” saidChinmoy Biswal, thespokesperson of Delhi Police.

The CP thanked both theinstitutions for providing time-ly and valuable support inestablishing these centres in ashort span of time.

“The noble initiativebecame an immediate successdue to the whole hearted coop-eration of these institutions.

“Their selfless and noblecontribution has earned theenduring gratitude and respectof the entire Delhi Police fam-ily and has inspired us to con-tinue working for the residentsof the city with renewed vigorand dedication in these diffi-cult times,” said Biswal.

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The former CongressMunicipal Councillor from

Rajouri Garden, SunitaSubhash, joined the AamAadmi Party (AAP) onMonday.

Saurabh Bhardwaj, thespokesperson of AAP andMLA along with MLA JarnailSingh, welcomed her to theparty. Sunita Subhash was ear-lier associated with theCongress Party.

Jarnail Singh said that theteam led by Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal andthe entire Delhi Governmentwas working tirelessly and hon-estly for the people of Delhi, inorder to bring relief to them.

“This is influencing all thepeople who want to bringabout change as well as an hon-est system in Delhi. Hence, theyare joining the family of theAam Aadmi Party,” said Singh.

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The Centre on Mondayinformed a Parliamentary

panel that Covid-19 cases withvariants of concern rose from10.31 per cent of total infectionsin May to 51 per cent till June20 and stressed that bothCovaxin and Covishield workagainst these strains albeit withslightly reduced potency.

Sources said the panel,headed by Rajya Sabha memberAnand Sharma, was alsoinformed that the economicimpact of the second wave ofviral infection was “asynchro-nous in its onset and wider inits spread particularly in ruralhinterland”.

Union Home SecretaryAjay Bhalla, Health SecretaryRajesh Bhushan, AdditionalSecretary in the Home MinistryGovind Mohan, AdditionalSecretary in the FinanceMinistry K Raja Raman wereamong the officials who

deposed before theParliamentary StandingCommittee on Home Affairs on‘Socio-economic fallout of theCOVID-19 pandemic’s secondwave’.

About the availability ofvaccine doses, officials informedthe panel that 135 crore jabs willbe made available in the coun-try during the August-Decemberperiod this year.

The doses would be ofCovishield, Covaxin, Bio ESubunit vaccine, Zydus Cadila’sDNA vaccine and Sputnik V,they said.

Sharing details about variouscoronavirus variants of concern,officials told the panel that itincludes the Alpha, Beta,Gamma and Delta variants.These variants have been tracedin 174 districts of 35 states andUnion Territories, with the max-imum reported fromMaharashtra, Delhi, Punjab,Telangana, West Bengal andGujarat, the parliamentary panel

was informed.According to the details

shared by officials with the par-liamentarians, coronavirus’ vari-ants of concern led to increasedtransmissibility, change in viru-lence and effect on diagnostics,drugs and vaccines. “Officials toldparliamentarians that the pro-

portion ofC O V I D - 1 9cases with vari-

ants of concern has risen from10.31 per cent in May to 51 percent in June 20,” a source in thepanel said.

A study by the IndianCouncil of Medical Research andthe National Institute of Virologyon the efficacy of Covaxin andCovishield against coronavirusvariants of concerns found that“antibody potency is slightlyreduced against these strains as

compared to standard strain. Butthe vaccine is effective in pro-tection against severe forms ofthe disease,” the source added.

The panel was informedthat a similar study on evaluat-ing the efficacy of both these vac-cines against the latest variant ofconcern -- Delta plus -- is beingconducted and will be complet-ed within the next two weeks.

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Even as there has been ris-ing concerns over the

Delta plus variant of the virus,Covid Task Force chief VKPaul on Monday asserted thatneither there is any scientificdata so far to establish that thenew variant is highly trans-missible or reduces vaccineefficacy nor any date when itwould arrive.

“It will be unfair to put adate for any Covid wave as thebehaviour of coronavirus isunpredictable and a disci-plined and effective pandem-ic response can help the coun-try get away from any signif-icant outbreak,” he said.

His assertion yet againcomes in contrast to AIIMS

chief Randeep Guleria’s pre-diction that the third wave willcome in next eight weeks. DrArora had on Sunday alsocited an ICMR study to claimthat the third wave of coron-avirus could be delayed untilDecember this year.

Dr Paul said that anotherwave of any size would bedependent upon several fac-tors, including overall disci-pline in terms of Covid-appro-priate behaviour, testing andcontainment strategies, andvaccination rates.

“And in addition, theunpredictable behaviour ofthe virus can also change thepandemic dynamics. In sucha scenario, their complex fac-tor will determine the chain oftransmission and outbreak,”he told a news agency.

“Occurrence or non-occurrence of any wave, is inour own hands. To my mind,it is not fair to put any date forany wave,” he said.

“If we are determined anddisciplined and marshal effec-tive pandemic response, weshould be in a position to getaway from any significantoutbreak,” Paul said.

Currently, three Covidvaccines — Covaxin by BharatBiotech, Covishield by SerumInstitute of India (SII) andRussia’s Sputnik V— are beingused for inoculation in India.

When asked about theDelta plus variant, Paul saidscientific knowledge about itis still in the early stage. “Weshould wait for these aspectsto be studied systematically,”he pointed out.

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Noted lawyer ParashantBhushan created a flutter

on Monday by tweeting thathe is not going to take vac-cines against Covid.Subsequently, he received a lotof brickbats in social mediawith netizens demandingTwitter to act against him forhis tweets that were againstthe policy of the micro-blog-ging site.

In a series of tweets,

Bhushan said he is not anti-vaccine but against the pro-motion of universal vaccination.

Bhushan claimed theyounger population has ahigher chance of dyingthrough vaccination as com-pared to suffering severecomplications or even deathdue to coronavirus.

“For the record, I havenot taken, nor do I intend totake any Covid Vaccine,”tweeted Bhushan.

“The healthy young havehardly any chance of seriouseffects or dying due to covid.They have a higher chance ofdying due to vaccines. Thecovid recovered have muchbetter natural immunity, thanthe vaccine gives them.Vaccines may even compro-mise their acquired naturalimmunity,” Bhushan said ina subsequent tweet.

Bhushan’s stand againstvaccination is not a new phe-nomenon.

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India on Monday suc-cessfully test-fired a

new variant of thenuclear-capable Agni bal-listic missile. Having arange of 1,000km to2,000 km, this missilewill give operational flex-ibility to the armedforces.

I n d i g e n o u s l ydesigned and built bythe Defence Researchand DevelopmentOrganisation (DRDO),the missile, named AgniPrime, was successfullytested after it waslaunched from the Dr AP J Abdul Kalam islandoff the coast of Balasore,Odisha at 10.55 am.

The new generationmissile was tracked byvarious telemetry andradar stations positionedalong the eastern coast.The missile followed textbook trajectory, meetingall mission objectiveswith high level of accu-racy, officials said here.

Agni Prime is a newgeneration advancedvariant of Agni class ofmissiles. It is a canis-terised missile. DefenceMinister Rajnath SinghMonday congratulatedthe DRDO for success-fully flight testing themissile.

“Congratulations to@DRDO_India for themaiden successful flighttest of Agni P advanced

variant of Agni class ofmissiles. I complimentthe efforts of the teambehind this mission,” hetweeted.

He said manyadvanced technologies,including propulsion sys-tems, innovative guid-ance and control mecha-nisms and state-of-the-art navigation systemshave been introduced inthe missile.

Agni Prime is a next-generation, nuclear-capa-ble weapon made fully ofa composite material,

Two days ago, theDRDO successfully testfired an extended rangeversion of the indige-nously developed ‘Pinaka’rocket.

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In the Covid second wave sofar, India has reported

40,845 cases of mucormyco-sis or black fungus, of whichnearly 85 per cent has beenseen in coronavirus-infectedpatients. The fungal diseasehas already claimed 3,129lives.

These data were sharedby Union Health MinisterHarsh Vardhan in a meetingof the group of ministers onCovid on Monday.

Since April, mucormy-cosis infec-

tions have skyrocketed acrossthe country. Till June 7, morethan 28,000 cases had beenoff icial ly reported, thusshowing that the cases havenearly doubled since then.

Mucormycosis mainlyaffects people who are onmedicat ion for health problems that reducestheir ability to fight envi-ronmental pathogens.

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Balram Bhargava, Secretary(health research) and

Director-General of ICMRon Monday cautioned that thesecond wave of covid-19 has

still not subsided as 80 dis-tricts in the country havehigh positivity. “There should-n’t be any laxity at this stage,”said the ICMR chief at ameeting of the group of min-isters on Covid.

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Two unexploded IEDsrecovered from the

Jammu air force stationhold clues to the investi-gation into the earlymorning airdropping oftwo other IEDs thatexploded at the commu-nication and logistics hubof the Indian Air Force.

The recovery of theunexploded IEDs has fur-ther added to the mysteryof the first-ever droneattack on an air force assetas it indicates that thetwo suspected drones orthe quadcopters had asignificant payload carry-ing capacity.

The aerial attack is afirst of its kind in thecountry. But this is the45th drone strike carriedout across the globe so farthis year. While dronestrikes are carried out bystate agencies, aerial hitsby terror groups throughsuch machines are dubbed‘attacks’ and the agenciesare seeking to discriminatebetween the two throughthe ongoing investigation.

Security agencies,meanwhile, are trackingJammu-Pakistan calls afterleads gathered from analy-sis of cell phone towerdump data even as a fewRohingyas are also undersurveillance, sources said.

In the wee hours onSunday, two blastsoccurred at about 0140Hours and 0146 Hours atthe Air Force Station,Satwari, Jammu. Theblasts occurred nearHelicopter Dispersal Park.While one of the IEDs hitthe top of the single-storeybuilding the second explo-sive device hit the open

ground area behind thestructure.

Due to the impact ofthe IED blast at therooftop, a crater wasformed and the sound ofthe explosions was heardin a range of one kilome-ter which indicate use ofhigh-grade explosives likeRDX or PETN even as theforensic reports of thenature of blast material isawaited. Since the thick-ness of the roof built fromRCC (reinforced concretecement) slabs is betweensix to nine inches, lowgrade explosives could nothave formed the crater,officials said.

“These pointershelped the investigators inconcluding that the blastoccurred due to an aeri-al/drone attack and thatthe likely target was ahelicopter parked at theHelicopter DispersalPark,” an official involvedin the investigation said.No fatal casualty wasreported from the inci-dent.

The whirring soundof only two drones washeard. Following this, twoout of four IEDs wentunexploded and the inves-tigators are studying thematerials used for fabri-cating them.

All the IEDs wereequipped with impactcharge features to modu-late the timing of theexplosions.

The one that explod-ed on the roof of thebuilding exploded justafter hitting the surface.The other one that explod-ed in the open groundblasted after six minutes.

Cell phone towerdump data of the mobilephone network is also

being analysed to tracepossible clues or callsmade in the immediateaftermath of the explo-sions at the air facility inJammu. Jammu-Pakistanphone calls are also beingtracked in order to tracethe masterminds of thedrone attacks, investiga-tors related to the droneattacks probe said.

“It is highly plausiblethat dismantled droneswere smuggled fromPakistan and assembled inJammu before carryingout the attack on the airforce station. However,the possibility of a droneflying from Pakistan to hitthe target in Jammu is alsobeing investigated. If themachines originated fromPakistan, then operationcould be the handiwork ofthe state actors there,” offi-cials added.

Meanwhile, the secu-rity agencies have con-ducted searches in a ham-let close to Satwari whichis dominated byRohingyas.

The security agenciesare also grilling one arrest-ed accused Nadeem, 20,from whose possession 5kg IED was recovered bythe Special OperationsGroup (SOG) of Jammupolice on Sunday evening.Nadeem hails fromBanihal town and wasarrested by the SOG fromNarwal area under TrikutaNagar police station.Linkage between theseized IED and the droneattack is yet to be estab-lished.

Belying the prevailingtrends in Jammu andKashmir, no terror grouphas so far owned respon-sibility for the droneattacks.

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Though she had to quit as head of Kerala Women’sCommission last week following widespread protests

against remarks made by her towards a victim of domesticviolence, M C Josephine, the CPI(M) leader found herselfin another controversy on Monday.

Ace athlete Mayookha Johny, national record holder intriple jump, held a press meet at Thrissur on Monday andalleged that Josephine tried to hush up a sexual assault casethat happened in 2016 to save the hunter. “The Police towhom we complained showed scant regard to us followingthe interference of Josephine and since then the hunter hasbeen threatening the victim,” said Johny. The athlete said thatthe victim was a close friend of her.

“The incident happened in 2016. Johnson, the accused,has been tormenting my friend for quite some time.Though she saved herself on many occasions from themarauding Johnson, he once trespassed into her house andmolested her. The man also filmed the victim in compro-mising position.” Said Mayookha.

The victim filed a complaint against Johnson immedi-ately after the incident. But the police, though kind enoughto assure the victim of all possible help, Josephine who wasa close friend of the accused entered the scene and hushedup the case. “Even after this, he continued to threaten thevictim and tried to misbehave with her as he had the tacitsupport of Josephine,” charged Mayookha Johny.

Though Josephine was removed from the post ofChairperson of the Womens Commission, she continues tobe the member of the Central Committee of the CPI(M), theelite and apex policy decision making body of the party. Themembership of the Central Committee of the CPI(M) is acoveted position because of the vast international contactsoffered by the august body.

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The ruling CPI(M) in Kerala is facingcharges of protecting and safeguarding

‘professional gold smugglers’ in the State forthe services rendered by the latter in cash,kind and other means.

The recent seizure of smuggled gold bythe Customs Dept from KozhikodeInternational Airport has opened a pando-ra’s box for the CPI(M). Leaders of the partydeclared that the CPI(M) would keep off peo-ple with track records of gold smuggling andcriminal activities.

But all those who have been identifiedwith gold smuggling are the ones who act ascyber warriors and professional musclemenof the party with links to top leadership. ArjunAyanki and Akash Thillankeri, two youngactivists of the CPI(M) who have been namedby the Customs Department have issued athreat to the CPI(M) leadership for dump-ing them at this hour of crisis. ArjunAyanki’s social media page is full of pho-tographs featuring him with top CPI(M)leaders including Chief Minister PinarayiVijayan. Last week’s road accident nearKozhikode airport which claimed the livesof five passengers in an over speeding car ledthe Customs and Police officials to another

group which was giving the former a chase.“The race between the two groups fromPalakkadu and Kannur were for the goldworth crores of rupees smuggked in throughKozhikode. But they were ignorant of theseizure of the smuggled gold made by theCustoms officials on duty,” said a Customsofficials. According to high ranking Customsofficials in Kerala, Kozhoikode has becomethe epicentre of gold smuggling and the oper-ators enjoy political patronage. “There is aCPI(M) fraction in the Customs Departmentwhich make matters for us,” said anotherCustoms official who referred to the attempton the life of Sumit Kumar, PreventiveCommissioner, Customs in the month ofFebruary. The case was hushed up by polit-ical leaders despite Kumar’s open announce-ment that his life was in danger.

Akash Thillankery , in his social mediapost, has issued a warning to the party’sKannur district for dumping the duo fol-lowing the seizure of gold and related inci-dents. “I as a dedicatred worker of the Leftbrand of politics is doing all that I could doto strengthen anti-Fascist forces. But therecent announcement by the district leader-ship of the CPI(M) that the party would keepoff such people is like dumping us afterexploiting our services.

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Lieutenant Governor, ManojSinha on Monday paid his

obeisance at the Holy CaveShrine of Shri Amarnathji.

The Lt Governor, who isalso the Chairman of the ShriAmarnathji Shrine Board,accompanied by the senior offi-cers from Army, Civil adminis-tration, Police and the ShrineBoard, performed puja at theshrine.

“May the divine blessings ofLord Shiva ensure good healthand happiness in everyone's lifeand bless us with strength toovercome the ongoing health cri-sis”, prayed the Lt Governor.

The Lt Governor wasaccompanied by Lt Gen DPPandey, General OfficerCommanding (GOC) 15 Corps;Pandurang K Pole, DivisionalCommissioner Kashmir; Dr.

Piyush Singla, DeputyCommissioner Anantnag; AbdulJabbar, DIG South KashmirRange (SKR); Anup KumarSoni, Additional Chief ExecutiveOfficer, SASB besides officers ofArmy, Police, CRPF & ShrineBoard.

The annual pilgrimage tes-tifies to the tradition of thewonderful cultural syncretism ofJammu & Kashmir.

But, considering the ongoingsituation due to Covid-19 pan-demic, Shri Amarnath Ji Yatrahas been cancelled.

KOCHI: On the eve of hisretirement from Indian PoliceService, Loknath Behra, Chiefof Kerala Police made a star-tling disclosure. “Kerala hasbecome the largest recruitingcentre of terrorist organisa-tions. This is because of thehigh literacy rate among theyouth in the State. The terror-ist organisations prefer torecruit educated perons forthe anti-national activities,”Behra told media persons in hiscustomary interaction beforedemitting office.

Orissa born Behra is thelongest serving police chief inKerala having taken up the jobin 2016. He was responding toa query on the influence wield-ed by the Islamic State (IS) inKerala. “The instances of edu-cated youth joining the terror-ist organisation has to beviewed seriously. These organ-isations will not hesitate to goto any extent to charm the edu-cated and make them join thedreaded outfits. There are anynumber of persons who havejoined them from Kerala,” saidBehra. PNS

�� 5*��)

The family of a Special Police Officer(SPO) of Jammu & Kashmir Police was

wiped out by a group of Jaish-e- Mohammadterrorists late on Sunday night atHariparigam Tral in the Awantipora area ofSouth Kashmir's Pulwama district.

Meanwhile, a top Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)commander Nadeem Abrar, who wasinvolved in several attacks on securityforces and civilians in Kashmir, was arrest-ed on Monday. “Top LeT commanderNadeem Abrar arrested. He was involved inseveral killings. Big success for us,” IGPKashmir zone Vijay Kumar said in a tweet.

According to police, Abrar was involvedin the killing of three Central Reserve PoliceForce (CRPF) personnel at Lawaypora ear-lier this year

Meanwhile, a fresh encounter alsobroke out between security forces and ter-rorists in the Parimpora area of the city hereon Monday in which one CRPF SubInspector received injuries on his arm.

According to a police spokesman themartyred SPO from Hariparigam Tral hasbeen identified as Fayaz Ahmad. Wife ofa martyred SPO, Raja Begum also suc-

cumbed late Sunday night while theirdaughter, Rafia, died early Monday morn-ing in the hospital.

According to a police spokesman, atleast 2-3 terrorists had barged inside thehome of a SPO and fired indiscriminately.His wife and daughter also received criticalinjuries and were rushed to the nearby hos-pital. Inspector General of Police, Kashmirrange Vijay Kumar Monday visited the res-idence of the SPO and expressed sympathieswith the bereaved family members andassured them that the terrorists involved inthis barbaric act will be neutralised soon

Interacting with the media after meet-ing the family of the martyred cop Kumarsaid Jammu and Kashmir Police have beenworking at the forefront of anti-terroristoperations.

“Last night, two terrorists, who seemedto be foreign terrorists, fired on one of ourSPOs. When his wife and daughter came torescue him, they fired on them too. Theywere taken to the hospital where they suc-cumbed to their injuries. We are saddenedby this incident. We will identify and neu-tralise them soon. There is a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) in this area and it mustbe them,” said the IGP.

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KOCHI: In a rare gesture, hitherto unseen orunheard in Kerala, Governor Arif MohammedKhan on Monday called on the parents ofVismaya, the young bride who was found deadunder mysterious circumstances in her husband’shouse last week.

The Governor drove down to Vismaya’s houseat Kollam and consoled her parents and brotherwho could not control their tears when theyrecounted everything to the former. GovernorKhan told Vismaya’s parents that he stands bythem and they are free to call on him for any help.“Vismaya, though I have not seen her, was likemy own daughter. It is as a mark of my respectto those girls who lost their lives because of dowryharassment that I have come here,” said theGovernor. He spent more than 20 minutes withVismaya’s family members . After coming out ofthe meeting, the Governor set aside all protocolsand spoke to the media. “There are laws and leg-islations against dowry. But still we see manyunfortunate incidents like the young girls losingtheir lives because of harassment. The youth ofthis country, especially the media, should inten-sify their campaign against dowry, a social evil,”the Governor told the waiting reporters. PNS

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The India MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD)’s latest data

shows Central Delhi has recordedjust 8.5 mm rainfall this monsoonseason so far and is the second-most rain-deficient district in thecountry. The rain deficit in Kistwardistrict of Jammu & Kashmir is thelargest in the country. It has record-ed 5 mm precipitation against thenormal of 68.4 mm— a shortfall of93 per cent.

Meanwhile weak monsoonconditions are expected to contin-ue over most parts of the countryuntil first week of July. This breakmonsoon will adversely impact theagriculture. This will also bring hotand humid weather conditions innorth and northwest India.

According to the IMD, CentralDelhi has received only 8.5 mm

rainfall against the normal of 53.3mm since June 1— a deficiency of84 per cent. In the national capital,East Delhi has received 19.2mmrainfall against the normal of53.3mm – a dearth of 64 per cent.Northeast Delhi has gauged20.7mm rainfall, which is 61 percent below normal, and SouthDelhi got 22.2 mm – 58 per cent lessthan normal. Southwest Delhiand New Delhi have recorded 29.6mm and 27.7 mm rainfall so far --50 per cent below their respectivenormal rainfall. North Delhi hasreceived 37.7 mm rainfall – 33 percent less than normal – andNorthwest Delhi 29.8 mm rainfall– 22 per cent below the average pre-cipitation. Only West Delhi hasreceived normal rainfall so far –53.5mm against the average of52.9mm.

June 1 to September 30 is offi-

cially considered the monsoon sea-son in India. The IMD on Mondaysaid Delhi and nearby areas innorthwest India will have to wait foranother week for their first mon-soonal showers.

"Prevailing meteorological con-ditions, large scale atmosphericfeatures and the forecast wind pat-tern by dynamical models suggestthat no favourable conditions arelikely to develop for further advanceof southwest monsoon into remain-ing parts of Rajasthan, west UttarPradesh, Haryana, Chandigarh andDelhi and Punjab during the nextsix to seven days," the IMD said ina statement.

The weak monsoon is expect-ed to impact kharif sowing season.According to a private weatherforecaster Skymet, break monsoonconditions are expected from June29.

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Having factored the anticipated “thirdwave” of Covid-19 in the State, the

Maharashtra Government is gearing itselfto administer 15 lakh doses per day.

Speaking at a function organised to adedicated Covid centre built by the stare-MMRDA to the BrihanmumbaiMunicipal Corporation (BMC), chiefminister said: “In anticipation of thethird Covid-19, we have to take extra pre-cautions. Given that the incidence of DeltaPluc Covid-19 infections is increasing, weneed to follow Covid-19 norms strictly.Keeping this in mind, we are makingpreparations to increase the vaccinationsto 15 per day”.

The Covid-19 centre that theMMRDA has developed at Malad in northMumbai has 2,170 beds. Of these 2170beds, 1,536 are Oxygen beds, while the 190ICU beds. Similarly, there are 200 Oxygenbeds for children, while 50 beds are pae-diatric ICU beds. Uddhav said that in addi-tion to the Jumbo Covid-19 centre set upat Malad, the state govrrnment was plan-ning to new jumbo Covid-19 centres inKanjurmarg, Sion, Worli and also increasethe number of beds in existing jumbo cen-tres at NSCI Worli, NESCO Goregaon andRichardson & Cruddas Byculla to ensurethat there are no shortages. The ChiefMinister said that though the Governmentplans new jumbo centres in Kanjurmarg,Sion, Worli and increase the number ofbeds in existing jumbo centres at NSCIWorli, NESCO Goregaon and Richardson

& Cruddas Byculla to ensure that there areno shortages

The Chief Minister said that thoughbeds may be going empty, the secondwave had still not subsided in the pastnearly five months.

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President Ram Nath Kovind, who took atrain ride Delhi Lucknow via Kanpur by

the special Presidential Express Train, onMonday lauded the Indian Railways for pro-viding easy transportation across the lengthand breadth of the country. In a note hepenned in the Indian Railways' visitors'book, Kovind also said he and his familywere "extremely impressed" by the trainjourney.

Kovind, who is on a five-day visit to hishome state Uttar Pradesh, arrived at theCharbagh railway station around noon. Hewas received by Uttar Pradesh GovernorAnandiben Patel, Chief Minister YogiAdityanath, state ministers and a large num-ber of senior officials and public represen-tatives.

After his journey, the president wrotein the visitors' book of the Indian Railways,praising the national transporter. "My goodwishes to the Indian Railways, which pro-vides easy and convenient transportationfrom the inaccessible mountain ranges ofthe Himalayas to the sea coast ofKanyakumari and from the green land ofnortheast India to the deserts in westernGujarat. By undertaking a happy and pic-turesque train journey after a long time fromDelhi to Kanpur and then to Lucknow, I andmy family are extremely impressed," Kovindwrote in the visitors' book.

"During this memorable journey, I hadthe pleasant experience of meeting my oldfriends and relatives in Rura and Jhijhak. Iam confident that the Indian Railways, asthe preferred daily transport service forcrores of Indians, will maintain its leadingposition in rail services across the world. Mythanks and good wishes to the entire teaminvolved in serving the Indian Railways," hesaid.

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New Delhi: More than 40 per cent ofthe fragile Kumaun Himalaya is sus-ceptible to permanent displacement incase of earthquake of magnituderanging from 7 to 8.6 Mw, warns a newstudy by a team of Scientists from theWadia Institute of Himalayan Geology,Dehardun, an autonomous instituteunder the Department of Science andTechnology (DST).

The scientists had carried out aprobabilistic assessment of co-seismiclandslides for the Goriganga valleylocated in the Kumaun Himalaya as itlies in the highest seismically activezone of the seismic zoning map ofIndia. This research has been pub-lished in the ‘Bulletin of EngineeringGeology and the Environment’ recent-ly.

Several studies suggest that thisregion is prone to a great futureearthquake of 8.0Mw or greater. Theteam of Scientists including SandeepKumar, Vikram Gupta, ParveenKumar & Y. P. Sundriyal estimated theNewmark permanent displacement,which provides the distribution of pre-dicted slope failure in the area.

It was found that more than one-third of the area was vulnerable to theco-seismic landslide and that earth-quakes of magnitudes 7.0, 8.0, and 8.6(Mw) might moderately damage thearea of about 1459 km2, 1256 km2,and 1134 km2 in the study region,respectively.

This work is the first of its kind inthe Himalayas region, in which earth-quake-induced landslides have beenexplored in view of future major togreat probabilistic earthquakes, said ascientist from the DST. PNS

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As lakhs of students across the countrywait for the announcement of the dates

for the revised schedule of the JEE Main2021 and NEET 2021 entrance exams, theNational Testing Agency (NTA) under theMinistry of Education (MoE) is likely tomake an announcement in this regard bythe end of this week.

MoE sources said a review meeting wasconvened on Monday on the issue ofpending JEE and NEET. “The present tim-ing could be conducive for the conduct ofentrance tests before the country is hit bya probable third wave of the corona pan-demic, the participants deliberated,” sourcessaid adding the JEE Main pending examswill be held be July end and August begin-ning and the JEE Advanced is likely to bescheduled for August end or Septemberbeginning.

The NEET UG exam conducted foradmission in MBBS, BDS, BAMS, BSMS,BUMS, and BHMS courses will also beannounced simultaneously to end thespeculations and anxiety within the aspi-rants, parents, institutions and all other

stakeholders related to the professionalcourses.

Sources said Education MinisterRamesh Pokhriyal was scheduled to inter-act with candidates and parents over thesubject last week on social media but heended up by conveying only a recordedmessage on the suggestions of MoE officials.“There was nothing concrete and therecould have been a deluge of queries on JEEand NEET which the Ministry was not pre-pared to answer. This could have furtherraised the anxiety of the candidates,” saidthe sources.

While the entrance schedule is yet to benotified, the admission brochure of the IITentrance - JEE Advanced — has alreadybeen released by this year’s nodal institute–IIT Kharagpur. This year’s JEE andNEET were postponed twice due to the pre-vailing pandemic situation in the country.The JEE Advanced was earlier scheduled tobe held on July 3 but it too was postponed.The decision comes in the wake of a MoEdirective to offer the relaxation as severalstudents had claimed that they could notappear for the IIT entrance exam last yeardue to the lockdown imposed by the state

governments due to pandemic.As per the IIT brochure released on

Sunday while most rules remain as it is,some eligibility and admission rules keep-ing the pandemic in mind have beentweaked. Along with the JEE Main 2021qualifying candidates, those who were eli-gible to appear for JEE Advanced 2020 butfailed to appear in the exam will now beallowed to appear for the IIT entrance.

“This is a one-time measure valid onlyfor JEE-Advance 2021. These candidates willbe considered in addition to and not as partof the total number of candidates whowould qualify from JEE-Mains 2021 forappearing in JEE-Adv 2021,” as per thebrochure. Till last year, an IIT aspirant hadto score 75 percent or more in the class 12board exams as mandatory eligibility for theJEE-Advance, but for this year the criteriahas been relaxed considering the completescrapping of the class 12 Board exams thisyear.

However, candidates should haveappeared and cleared their class 12 examsand should be among the top 2.5 lakh suc-cessful candidates including all categoriesin JEE-Mains 2021, read the brochure.

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Mumbai:The Covid-19 deaths droppedto 287 while the infections went down to6,727, even as 10,812 patients were dis-charged after full recovery from varioushospitals in the State.

A day after the State logged 405deaths and 9,974 infections in the state,Maharashtra witnessed the deaths dropby 118, while new cases went down by3247.

Of the deaths reported on Monday,there were 101 current fatalities, while 186were “old and hither-to unaccounted”deaths, which have been added to the statetotal Covid-19 toll as part of the ongoingreconciliation process.

As 10,812 patients were dischargedfrom the hospitals across the State afterfull recovery, the total number of peopledischarged from the hospitals since thesecond week of March last year increasedfrom 57,90113 to 58,00925. The recov-ery rate in the State rose from 95.91 peecent to 95.99 per cent.

The total “active cases” in the statedropped from 1,22,252 to 1,17,874. Thefatality rate in the State rose from 2 percent to 2.1 per cent.

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(IS), debilitating sanctionsagainst Iran continued and it fig-ured prominently in the “Axis ofevil”. Americans wasted oppor-tunities to thaw relations withIran, partly driven by pressuresfrom Arab Sheikdoms andIsrael, who had their own sec-tarian and domestic considera-tions, as also due to Americancalculation of resultant cost-ben-efit analysis of hypotheticallyundoing its belligerent posture.On the rebound, Iranians soonreposed faith in the hardlinepopulism and fiery anti-USrhetoric of MahmoudAhmadinejad — willy-nilly, theAmericans had forsaken theopportunity of engaging mean-ingfully with the pragmatistsand the reformists.

Oddly enough, confronta-tional politics of the Iranianhardliners suited both Tehranand Washington DC as eachregime was able to justify theirintransigence to their domes-tic constituents and the Arab-Israeli combine was contentwith the rupture. Only thecoincidentally overlappingtenures of a statesman inBarack Obama and a yet anoth-er Iranian moderate-progres-sive, Hassan Rouhani, couldnudge and shape the path-breaking Joint ComprehensivePlan of Action (JCPOA) or theIran Nuclear Deal. In July

2015, the deal was signed andthe crippling sanctions againstIran were lifted; for once andonly for once, the hands of themoderate political options inIran were strengthened.However, within a year, DonaldTrump was railing against the“rotten” deal and threatened to“tear up” the deal, if elected.Trump was indeed elected,and he did renege on a deal thatwas complying with all its pro-visions, as per all internation-al expert accounts. Humiliatingsanctions soon returned.

Joe Biden had campaignedon “rejoining” the Iranian Deal,albeit with political correctnessof “if Iran returns to strict com-pliance with the nuclear deal”.Biden was confirmed onNovember 7, 2020, and swornin on January 20, 2021. TheIranian presidential electionswere slotted for June 18, almostfive months after Bidenassumed the presidentship, butBiden, who oversaw the Israel-Palestinian flare-up in the inter-im, did not move forward onre-ratifying the Iranian NuclearDeal, something he hadpromised. Even on lifting sanc-tions as part of COVID-relat-ed humanitarian relief, Bidenremained inexplicably silent.Beyond the controlled levers ofthe Iranian ElectionMonitoring Agency (EMA),

managed by the clergy-ledGuardian Council, allowingfor only a handful of candidatesto run — popular circum-stances and frustrations withthe continuing failures of themoderates in power to stymiethe socio-economic conditionsor revive the Iranian NuclearDeal successfully led to revi-sionist sentiments and thereturn of the familiar hardlin-ers, with Ebrahim Raisi. Themoderates had no substantivecase to justify their re-electionand their popularity had plum-meted, and the US had facili-tated their helplessness.

Familiar sabre-rattling hasreturned with Raisi refusing tobudge from pursuing Iranianmilitaristic plans, supportingfriendly militias or from meet-ing Biden. The new IsraeliPrime Minister, NaftaliBennett, has opened account bycalling out Iran’s “regime ofbrutal hangmen” whereas theUS is left mumbling a half-con-vincing, “Iranians were deniedtheir right to choose their ownleaders in a free and fair elec-toral process”. History repeatsitself with the US misusing its“monopoly on truth”.

(The writer, a military vet-eran, is a former Lt Governorof Andaman & Nicobar Islandsand Puducherry. The viewsexpressed are personal.)

�� Sir — At a time when the country is strug-gling to contain the spread of COVID-19,which is mutating alarmingly and snatch-ing the lives of lakhs of people and the lock-down in many parts of the country has alsopushed them to face innumerable problems,it is unfortunate that President Ram NathKovind preferred to make a five-day trip toUP, including a visit to his native villageParaunkh in the State. The Railways imme-diately made all the arrangements toorganise a special train with all luxuries andcomforts for the First Citizen of India, hisfamily and entourage, in deference to hisdesire to undertake a train journey this time.

Further, as the car carrying a patient,Vandana Mishra, to a hospital was stoppedfor the presidential convoy to pass throughin Kanpur late on Friday, she died for wantof timely medical attention. ThoughPresident Kovind has sent a condolencemessage to Vandana’s family in keeping withobligations of his high office, one reallywonders when are we going to give up thistype of VVIP culture? Why can’t we learnfrom other nations, where we find no suchstoppage of traffic is entertained? When arewe going to give up this type of culture atthe cost of the lives of our citizens?

Tharcius S Fernando | Chennai

�� Sir — It’s debatable whether Saturday night’sterrorist attack on the Indian Air ForceStation at Jammu came two days after PrimeMinister Narendra Modi met the leaders ofmainstream political parties from Jammuand Kashmir, or Lashkar-e-Taiba’s (LeT)attack on the Air Force Station against ear-lier Jammu and Kashmir Police arrested analleged LeT operative with an improvisedexplosive device (IED) weighing nearly fivekg in Jammu, but hope that this is not theindication of five States, particularly UttarPradesh, elections knocking on the door.

As per the short official statement onits official Twitter handle, the Indian AirForce said: “Two low-intensity explosions…….one caused minor damage to the roofof a building while the other exploded in an

open area” without any damage to anyequipment. Whatsoever, this could be arehearsal for more high-intensity attackswhich may be planned. This way, thePakistan-based terrorists could check ourArmy’s intelligence.

Undoubtedly, our three Services chiefsand our nation’s forces are capable enoughto face any sort of attacks and fight any bat-tle, but in the crucial moment they arevoiceless.

Yes, the terrorist attack is an indicationto the Modi Government that it’s the pri-mary business. But it seems that the PrimeMinister is simply happy with his CentralVista, Ram Mandir or election rallies. TheModi Government must wake up and notremain under any false illusion.

Bidyut Kumar Chatterjee | Faridabad

�� Sir — The global pandemic has not pro-vided us any relaxation so far. While thenumber of cases of the pandemic has comedown, on the other hand, a new type of virushas started spreading. According to expertsand doctors, Delta Plus has been placed inthe category of “Variant of Concern” sinceits spreading intensity is more than others.

It is worth noting that research is goingon this variant so that it can be detected,whether the vaccines could be effective. Insuch a situation, many questions are beingraised. However, no citizen should leave anystone unturned to get the jab.

Aman Jaiswal | New Delhi

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The history of the fracturedUS-Iranian relationshipis fraught with deliberateamnesia and convenient

posturing on both sides that laysa disproportionately large blameon the Iranian side, in driving Irantowards hardline anchorage. Thestarting point of the Americanangst and narrative is the IranianRevolution in 1979, and the fol-lowing US Embassy hostagedrama that lasted for 444 days. Inthe Iranian conscience (complete-ly ignored in the US), the grousestarted much earlier with the US-backed coup against Iran’s nation-alist, reformist and immenselypopular Prime Minister,Mohammad Mosaddegh, in 1953.

Mosaddegh was not a bigot,instead he personified seculardemocracy — but his moves toliberate Iran from the grosslyunfair and inequitable strangle-hold of western oil companieswere his undoing. The proudpeople of a civilisation founded byCyrus the Great around 550 BCdid not take too kindly to repeat-ed sleights, manipulations andclientelism that were to trigger therevolt and takeover by the religiousfundamentals, ultimately. In thetentative years following theIranian Revolution, Americansstrengthened the hands of theIranian Ayatollahs during thedeadly Iran-Iraq war, by support-ing the Ba’athist regime of SaddamHussein (who too would be dis-owned later). The US knowinglysupported Iraq with double-usagetechnology, shared intelligence,given training, overlooked excess-es and continued giving econom-ic support — the decade-long warwith an estimated 1-2 millioncasualties, mostly on the Iranianside, galvanised the Shiite spirit ofmartyrdom and legitimised thetheocracy in Iran. Later, from 1989to 2005, Iran saw the presidentshipof moderate pragmatists in AkbarHashemi Rafsanjani andMohammad Khatami — this wasalso the years of the two Gulf Warsand Islamic extremism, wherethe pointers were squarely on theArab Sheikdoms, yet Iranremained designated ‘ForemostState Sponsor of Terrorism’!

With nothing to suggest theIranian hand in the 9/11 attack, therise of groups like Al Qaida,Taliban, or later the Islamic State

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The agreement reached by theFinance Ministers of advancedeconomies at the G-7 meetingontaxing MNCs stands on two

main pillars, viz., a global minimum cor-porate tax (GMCT) rate of 15 per cent andsecondly, “reaching an equitable solutionon the allocation of taxing rights, withmarket countries awarded taxing rightson at least 20 per cent of profit exceed-ing a 10 per cent margin for the largestand most profitable multinational enter-prises”.

They also agreed that while coordi-nating international taxation rules aroundthese two pillars,concurrent efforts willbe made for the removal of all DigitalServices Taxes, and other relevant simi-lar measures imposed by several countrieson these companies. The agreement willbe discussed at a meeting of G-20 FMsand central bank governors in July 2021.

The G-7 move is prompted by a ten-dency among MNCs to register in low-tax European jurisdictions such as TheNetherlands, Ireland, and Luxembourgand some Caribbean nations, and showtheir revenue and profits in those juris-dictions regardless of where their sales aremade. This enables them to avoid payinghigher taxes in the 'source' country.

According to the Tax Justice Networkreport, governments in source countriesare losing around $100 billion annuallyin tax revenue with the US alone losingnearly $50 billion a year. India too is los-ing huge sums estimated to be $10 billionannually. It is affected mostly by digitalgiants such as Google, Facebook, andAmazon whichreport a bulk of the rev-enues generated from Indian customersin the books of their investmentarms/subsidiaries registered in low-taxjurisdictions such as Singapore, Mauritius,and Ireland.

The problem also referred to asBEPS (base erosion and profit shifting)is also being addressed in a ‘structured’manner under the aegis of theOrganization for Economic Cooperationand Development (OECD) which iscoordinating efforts of over 140 countriesto arrive at the so-called BEPS frameworkagreement for taxing profits of theseMNCs. In a draft on “taxing digital com-panies” released on October 9, 2019, theOECD had stated: “Profits of MNCsshould be available for taxation in thecountry where their customers are, irre-spective of any physical presence in thatmarket, and that a formula should beevolved for such taxation.” However,progress on this has been stymied by theCoronavirus crisis.

Meanwhile, by-passing the OECDprocess, the developed countries led bythe US have taken the lead. The G-7agreement seeks to mount a two-prongedattack. First, by requiring every countryto set a floor below which it cannot setits corporate tax, it wants to kill the veryurge which drives MNCs to register theirsubsidiaries in low-tax jurisdictions.

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China is not a member ofthe G-7 which metrecently. It was not a for-

mal topic of discussion at themeeting either. However, it issaid the three Cs —Coronavirus, Climate, andChina - dominated the group-ing much of whose delibera-tions, obliquely, had an anti-China tone.

Prime Minister NarendraModi emphasized the role of'democratic and transparentnations' in dealing with theCoronavirus pandemic, whichsimply means that we do notexpect any solution from Chinaabout dealing with the pan-demic because China is neitherdemocratic nor transparent.The demand for a probe intothe origins of the pandemicfound much traction. A topmember of the Biden admin-

istration stressed the need torespond to China's lack oftransparency, poor environ-mental and labour standards,and coercive approach. Theissues of Hong Kong's autono-my, human rights in theXinjiang region, and peace andstability around the TaiwanStrait also resonated.

China must have felt isolat-ed being distanced from the G-7 summit. An anti-Chinatenor was growing across theworld in the last 16 monthsafter the Coronavirus outbreakwas sourced to that country.However, for the first time, theG-7, a grouping of the world'spowerful countries, appeared tounite against China, highlight-ing issues the country wouldwant to brush under the carpet.

Simultaneously, Quad,another powerful grouping of

the US, India, Japan, andAustralia, is conducting jointmilitary exercises to neutraliseChina and curb its maritimepower in the Arabian Sea andthe Pacific Ocean. This is notonly a powerful response to themaritime challenge India facesfrom China but also a vital con-dition for peace and stability inthe Indo-Pacific region. Theunambiguous statement of theG-7 on the security of the

Taiwan Strait is in a way a directchallenge to China. The factthat all the Quad membersattended the G-7 makes it a spe-cial event. It helps expand thescope of Quad itself.

China has been taking for-ward the Belt and RoadInitiative (BRI) project andover 100 countries are its sig-natories. Coincidentally, Italy isboth a BRI signatory and a G-7 member. Two special invi-tees to G-7, South Africa andSouth Korea, are also signato-ries. The G-7 summit boldlyproposed the B3W (Build BackBetter World) initiative tocounter the BRI. This infra-structure building plan is beingpushed by US President JoeBiden. Till two years ago, it wasthought impossible to stop theBRI project, but the G-7 hastaken a step in that direction.

It is important to point outthat if China's ambitious BRI iscurbed and US-backed B3W ispromoted, India is expected tobe a big gainer not just strate-gically but also economically.The BRI project is dominatedmainly by Chinese banks andinstitutions and Chinese infra-structure companies (mostlyfrom the public sector). Due totheiropaque and discriminato-ry business approaches, notonly were the countries thatsigned up feeling the increasingdebt burden, but were alsoexperiencing growing politicalinterference from the Chineseestablishment. In contrast,B3W will both be transparentand beneficial for membercountries. For instance,infra-structure companies in coun-tries like India will get big busi-ness opportunities and eco-

nomic development will getaccelerated, while at the sametime curbing China's domi-nance. For a long time, Chinahad been capturing the world'smarkets through its ever-expanding industrial produc-tion and has increased its eco-nomic clout. On the strength ofits increasing economic andmilitary power, it has beenintimidating its neighboursand trying to grab their land.The G-7 stand will boost theconfidence of these countries.For the last five years, severalcountries in the world includ-ing India are becoming sensi-tive and protective about theirindustries and economy. Theefforts of 'Make in India' and'Self-Reliant India' calls areintended to reduce depen-dence on China. In such a sit-uation, it will not be easy for

China to maintain its pace ofgrowth.

For some time, China hadbecome arrogant because of itseconomic and military powerand clout. That is why officialstatements from China used tobe combative. However, seeingthe aggressive attitude of theworld, China has now softenedits posture under the impres-sion that its changed behaviourmight douse the world's grow-ing anger.But that is not all.China is also on targetabout theorigin of Coronavirus and itsspread. It can be said thatChina should be worried aboutthe increasing global mobilisa-tion and undoubtedly, to saveitself, China willlet go of itsarroganceand its economic andmilitary aggression. Perhapsthis will pave the way for peacein the world.

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Second, source countries get to taxa certain portion of the profitsgenerated by most profitableMNCs from the operations intheir territories.

Far from addressing the coreissue, this prescription will onlycreate more anomalies. Imposinga corporate minimum tax willinterfere with the sovereign rightof a country to determine ‘whatshould be its tax policy’ andimpair its ability to galvanize thepolicy to achieve certain objec-tives. For instance, on September20, 2019, the Indian Governmentbrought about a steep reduction inthe tax rate for new entities in themanufacturing sector (incorporat-ed from October 1, 2019, andcommencing production byMarch 31, 2023) from the existing25 per cent to 15 per cent. Thiswas done to attract investment(including foreign investment),give a boost to growth, and createjobs. Under the GMCT regime,with the floor set at 15 per cent,India will lose the freedom tolower its corporate tax rate belowthis level. In fact, under an earli-er proposal mooted by the Bidenadministration to set GMCT at 21per cent(in 2017, the Trumpadministration had introduced acorporate offshore minimum taxcalled "Global Intangible Low-Taxed Income (GILTI) -it isapplied on the offshore income ofUS-based MNCs having sub-sidiaries in low-tax countries at10.5 per cent; Biden wanted todouble GILTI to 21 per centand insync GMCT at 21 per cent), Indiawould have been forced to

increase its minimum tax from 15per cent to 21 per cent. India’s abil-ity to attract investment will befurther undermined if in additionto GMCT of 15 per cent, the homecountry of the MNC (read theUSA) goes for the ‘top up’ option(under GILTI) i.e., the Indian taxrate remaining at 15 per cent, theformer collects six per cent tax onprofits earned by the firm inIndia. The effective incidence oftax - in this scenario - being 21 percent (15 per cent paid in India plussix per cent levied by US), UScompanies will be deterred frominvesting in India. That apart, aglobal minimum tax rate will dolittle to tackle tax evasion.

The only logical way forwardto do this is for the source coun-try, where the profits are generat-ed, to capture and tax them - asemphasized in the OECD draft.The GCMT cannot be a substitutefor this. Taking the Indian exam-ple, a levy of tax at 21 per cent-against the prevailing low of 15 percent (new manufacturing units) -will not result in additional taxcollection to fully offset the lossresulting from profit shifting. Forinstance, if out of �100 only �20is recorded in India, the extra rev-enue from the higher rate will beonly �1.20 (20x.06) against a lossof �12 due to profit shifting(80x0.15).

This brings us to the secondPillar of the G-7 deal. The pro-posed formula is seriously flawed.It gives to the source country tax-ing rights only to the extent of 20per cent of the profit (exceedinga 10 per cent margin) for the

largest and most profitable MNCs.Put simply, if the firm earns �100from its operation in India then,the latter gets to collect tax onlyon �20. Who gets the right to theremaining tax on �80? Will the taxhaven (read country where thefirm is incorporated and whererevenue from Indian operations isrecorded) get taxation rights on it?Or the home country of the MNCalso get a share in the cake?

The formula iserroneous.Neither the country ofincorporation nor MNC's homecountry has any right to collect taxon profits generated from itsoperations inthe source country.This right should vest entirely withthe source country. Further, itshould have the right to collect taxfrom all offshore companies doingbusiness on its territory andnotjust from the largest and most profitable MNCs - as proposed byG-7.

To conclude, G-20 shoulddrop the GMCT proposal. Itshould only focus on Pillar II witha clear stipulation that only thesource country from where an off-shore firm is deriving its income- irrespective of where it is record-ed - has the sole right to collect taxon it. A consensus should bebuilt around a criterionfor arriv-ing at the annual taxable profit.The source countryshould havethe freedomto decide the tax rateit deems fit in sync with its poli-cy imperatives. Till this is done,India should retain DST (or'equalization levy' introduced in2016/2020 instead of tax on prof-its) on digital giants.

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Islamabad: In a rare admission,a top Pakistani Minister hassaid that the families ofAfghanistan’s Taliban militantsreside in Pakistan, including inpopular suburban areas of thenational capital, and some-times the members of theinsurgent outfit receive medicaltreatment in local hospitals.

Islamabad has been con-sistently rejecting allegationslevelled by Afghan leaders thatthe Taliban use Pakistani soil todirect and sustain insurgentactivities in Afghanistan.

In an interview aired byprivate Pakistani TV channelGeo News on Sunday, InteriorMinister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed

said, “Taliban families live herein Pakistan — in areas likeRawat, Loi Ber, Bara Kahu andTarnol.”

The areas mentioned bythe minister are well-knownsuburban areas of Islamabad.

“Sometimes their (fighters)dead bodies arrive and some-times they come here to hos-pitals to get medical treat-ment,” Rashid told the Urdu-language network.

Pakistan is often accused ofhosting and supporting theAfghan Taliban militants whohave been fighting theAfghanistan Government forabout the last two decades. It israre for a top Pakistani minis-ter and senior politician toaccept it.

In the same interview,Rashid said that former mili-tary dictator Pervez Musharrafbelieved in the efficacy ofdrone attacks to target rebels inareas which were inaccessibleto Pakistani forces.

The Taliban has intensifiedattacks against Afghan gov-ernment forces since May 1when the US-led internation-al forces formally began theirwithdrawal from the country.

Last week, Prime MinisterImran Khan ruled out hostingAmerican bases in Pakistan formilitary action insideAfghanistan, fearing it mightlead to his country being “tar-geted in revenge attacks” by ter-rorists. PTI

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Islamabad: Pakistan onMonday claimed that morethan 5,000 militants of theTehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan(TTP) were present inAfghanistan, a day after Kabuldenied the presence of thebanned terror outfit in thewar-torn country.

“The assertions of theAfghan side are contrary tofacts on ground and variousreports of the UN, which alsocorroborate the presence andactivities of over 5000-strongTTP in Afghanistan,” PakistanForeign Office spokespersonZahid Hafeez Chaudri said.

He made the remarks inresponse to the media queriesabout the Afghan ForeignMinistry statement, whichsaid that the TTP “is neitherfounded in Afghanistan noroperates on our soil.”

“This movement along

with other terrorist groups isrecognised as the enemy ofpeace, stability, and prosperi-ty in Afghanistan and theregion, and the Afghan gov-ernment fights against this ter-rorist outfit like any otherterrorist group without dis-crimination,” the AfghanForeign Ministry said onSunday.

Afghanistan has “consis-tently stressed upon imple-mentation of UNSC resolu-tions and Doha agreementwhich calls on Taliban to cutties with regional and inter-national terrorist groupsincluding the Tehrik-i-TalibanPakistan (TTP), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), The IslamicMovement of Uzbekistan(IMU), The East TurkistanIslamic Movement (ETIM),Al-Qaeda and ISIS,” it said.

PTI

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Washington: The US military,under the direction ofPresident Joe Biden, carried outairstrikes against what it saidwere “facilities used by Iran-backed militia groups” near theborder between Iraq and Syria,drawing condemnation fromIraq''s military and calls forrevenge by the militias.

Pentagon Press SecretaryJohn Kirby said the militiaswere using the facilities tolaunch unmanned aerial vehi-cle attacks against US troops inIraq. It was the second time theBiden administration has takenmilitary action in the regionsince he took over earlier this year.

Kirby said the US militarytargeted three operational andweapons storage facilitiesSunday night — two in Syria

and one in Iraq.He described the airstrikes

as “defensive,” saying they werelaunched in response to theattacks by militias.

“The United States tooknecessary, appropriate, anddeliberate action designed tolimit the risk of escalation —but also to send a clear andunambiguous deterrent mes-sage,” Kirby said.

The Pentagon said thefacilities were used by Iran-backed militia factions, includ-ing Kata'ib Hezbollah andKata''ib Sayyid al-Shuhada.

Secretary of State AntonyBlinken, speaking to reportersin Rome on Monday, saidBiden has been clear that theUS will act to protect Americanpersonnel.

AP

Moscow: The leaders of Russiaand China on Monday hailedincreasingly close ties betweentheir countries and announcedthe extension of a 20-year-oldfriendship treaty, a show ofunity amid their tensions withthe West.

Speaking in a video callwith Chinese President XiJinping, Russian PresidentVladimir Putin said that thetreaty signed in July 2001 inMoscow helped take relationsbetween Moscow and Beijingto an “unprecedented height”and would be extended foranother five years.

The Russian leader notedthat the coordination of foreign

policy efforts by Russia andChina has played a “stabilizingrole in global affairs.”

Xi in his opening remarksemphasized the importance ofa “strategic cooperation”between Moscow and Beijingin defending their commoninterests on the global stage. Headded that Russia and Chinahave worked to uphold a “truemultilateralism and global jus-tice.”

Putin and Xi have devel-oped strong personal ties tobolster a “strategic partner-ship” between the two formerCommunist rivals as they viewith the West for influence andface soaring tensions in rela-

tions with the U.S. and itsallies.

While Moscow and Beijingin the past rejected the possi-bility of forging a militaryalliance, Putin said last fall thatsuch a prospect can''t be ruledout entirely.

During Monday's call,Putin congratulated Xi on the100th anniversary of theCommunist Party of Chinacelebrated Thursday, sayingthat China is marking it with“new achievements in thecountry's social-economicdevelopment and on the inter-national stage” and recallingSoviet support for the Chinesecommunists. AP

Seoul: Heartbroken NorthKoreans have been worryingtearfully about leader Kim JongUn''s “emaciated looks,” statemedia quoted a local residentas saying, in a rare acknowl-edgement of foreign specula-tion about his weight loss.

The comments were seenas an effort to boost domesticsupport for Kim's efforts as hegrapples with deepening eco-nomic hardships caused bythe Covid, mismanagement,U.N. economic sanctions andnatural disasters, experts said.

“Our people's hearts achedmost when we saw (Kim''s)emaciated looks,” NorthKorean state TV cited theunidentified male residentwearing a straw hat as sayingon Friday. “Everyone says theirtears are welling up in their eyesnaturally.”

In recent state media pho-tos, Kim has appeared to havelost a considerable amount ofweight. Some North Koreawatchers said Kim, who isabout 170 centimeters (5 feet,8 inches) tall and has previouslyweighed 140 kilograms (308pounds), may have lost 10-20kilograms (22-44 pounds).

Kim''s health is the focus ofkeen outside attention as the37-year-old leader hasn't pub-licly anointed a successor whowould take charge of NorthKorea''s advancing nucleararsenal targeting the US and itsallies if he is incapacitated. AP

Berlin: German ChancellorAngela Merkel on Mondaydefended the idea of holding aEuropean Union meeting withRussian President VladimirPutin, arguing that it wouldoffer an opportunity to con-front Putin with Europeanconcerns.

The idea was rejected lastweek by eastern EU members.

At a summit on Friday, EUleaders agreed only to “exploreformats and conditionalitiesof dialogue with Russia.” Therewas no mention of any high-level meetings or plans for asummit with Putin, an idea thatGermany and France had

pushed. The outcome reflecteddeep divisions in the 27-nationEU''s approach to Moscow.

The EU is concerned thatPutin is turning increasinglyauthoritarian and wants to dis-tance himself from the West.Both it and the NATO militaryalliance are struggling to bringRussia back to the table. U.S.President Joe Biden's meetingwith Putin this month was arare exception.

“The concern was that weperhaps wouldn''t be able to putup a united front, (and) such asummit of course requires veryintensive preparation,” Merkel said at a question-and-answer session with Germanand French lawmakers. Shesaid it would allow Europeansto “address all the questionsthat weigh on us and alsothose on which we want tocooperate.”

AP

Tehran: Iran has not made a decision yet about whether to extendan agreement with the UN atomic watchdog over access to sur-veillance footage at its nuclear sites, the country''s foreign min-istry said Monday. The remarks by Foreign Ministry spokesmanSaeed Khatibzadeh come after a three-month deal between Tehranand international nuclear inspectors to preserve video data at thecountry's atomic installations expired last week, following a one-month extension. “No decision, either negative or positive hasbeen made,” Khatibzadeh told reporters. “Neither the continu-ation of the deal nor the erasure (of data). We are in the previ-ous position for the time being.”

Iran began limiting the access of U.N. atomic watchdoginspectors to its nuclear sites earlier this year, part of a pressurecampaign on the West over its tattered 2015 nuclear deal withworld powers. AP

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Union Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman on

Monday said that the financialexpenditure on the free distri-bution of ration to over 80crore poor people under thePradhan Mantri Garib KalyanAnna Yojana (PMGKAY) thisyear will be �93,869 crores.After the outbreak of the sec-ond wave in April 2021, thePMGKAY scheme was rein-troduced, initially for May-June and then extended tillNovember this year. The totalmoney spent on PMGKAYwill be �2,27,841 crores.Besides, farmers to get addi-tional protein-based fertilizersubsidy of nearly �15,000crores. To revive the NorthEastern Regional AgriculturalMarketing Corporation(NERAMAC), the government

has announced a package of Rs77.45 crore proposed for finan-cial restructuring and infu-sion of funds.

Addressing a press confer-ence to announce fresh stimu-lus measures for the economy,Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman said the estimatedfinancial implication for pro-viding free foodgrains is�93,869 crore for this year.The Centre spent �1,33,972crore last fiscal on this scheme.The total financial implicationis estimated at �2,27,841 crorefor PMGKAY, Sitharamanadded.

In the wake of the secondwave of Covid-19, the schemewas relaunched in May 2021 toensure the food security of thepoor. Then on June 23, cabinetapproved the proposal toextend it by five more monthstill November-end.

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The Government onMonday allocated an addi-

tional �19,041 crore to providebroadband connectivity in allvillages under the BharatNetproject.

Prime Minister NarendraModi had on August 15, 2020

announced that all villages willbe connected with broadbandin 1,000 days.

Additional �19,041 croreis being provided so that thecommitment that in 1,000 daysfrom 2020 all villages will havebroadband connectivity is ful-filled, Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman said while

announcing stimulus measuresfor various sectors.

"Total outlay for thisBharatnet project goes up to �61,109 crore," she added.

She further said �42,068crore has been already utilisedfor reaching 1,56,223 grampanchayats that are now readyfor broadband services as ofMay 31. "Now with this addi-tional �19,041 crore we shouldbe able to complete the rest,"Sitharaman said.

Under the BharatNet pro-ject, the government initiallytargeted to cover all 2.52 lakhgram panchayats with high-speed broadband services.

The Prime Minister laterannounced expansion of theproject to cover all villages aswell.

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New Delhi:The Governmentwill provide free visas to 5lakh tourists visiting India,Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman said on Monday.

Announcing measures torevive the tourism sector bat-tered by Covid-19,Sitharaman said financialsupport would be provided tomore than 11,000 registeredtourist guides, travel andtourism stakeholders.

PTI

New Delhi:Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman onMonday said the governmentwill infuse funds into ExportCredit Guarantee Corporation(ECGC) over a five-year peri-od to boost merchandiseexport insurance cover by Rs88,000 crore.ECGC promotesexports by providing creditinsurance services.

PTI

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The NCLT has reserved itsorder on the settlement

plan for Siva Industries after itgrilled the promoters and IDBIand asked them whether thesettlement plan is a ploy by thepromoters to seek a back doorentry. C Siva Sankaran is thepromoter of Siva Industriesand a citizen of Seychelles. In2018, the CBI filed a criminalcase against Siva Sankaran andformer senior officials of IDBIBank for defrauding the lendersto the tune of 600 crores. Thecase is still pending.

At the same time theSerious Fraud InvestigationOffice had alleged that SivaSankaran had defrauded ILFSfor hundreds of crores in activeconnivance with top brass ofILFS, Ravi Parthasarathi, HariSankaran and Ramesh Pahwa.

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�How safe are the COVID-19vaccines for pregnant women?

There is no doubt that preg-nant women need to be immu-nised against COVID-19 toenhance their protection.Unfortunately, much of the dis-course has been driven by vari-ous messages on social media.Within the span of a month offi-cial directives have gone from notpermitting the COVID vaccinefor pregnant women and lactat-ing mothers to the Government’srecent recommendation allowingCOVID-19 vaccine for both preg-nant and lactating women. Whilethis was done with an intentionof providing protection to thesewomen, critical decisions likethese should be based on scien-tific evidence with individualsafety being priority. �Which vaccine is safe for preg-nant women?

Based on documented evi-dence from the USA and the UKthe only evidence of safety for useduring pregnancy at the momentrests with the two mRNA vac-cines — Pfizer-BioNTech andModerna.

When one is dealing withpregnancy and lactation, thepublic health benefits at macro-scopic level cannot outweigh theserious risks at microscopiclevel. A dreaded complication ina particular individual could bedisastrous for a woman, herpregnancy and her family. Thespecific concerns with the rarercomplications of some vaccinessuch as the risk of blood clots orthromboembolism cannot bebrushed aside since being preg-nant itself carries a manifoldincrease in the risk of thrombo-sis magnifying the vaccine relat-ed risk. We are in urgent needfor more scientific evidence

regarding safety before power-ing ahead. �Pregnant women are a vulner-able group and are at increasedrisk for severe illness fromCovid-19. What illnesses?

In terms of getting the infec-tion, pregnant women are just asvulnerable as any other person.But when a pregnant woman getsinfected then she has a muchhigher risk of morbidity andmortality as compared to a non-pregnant woman. Pregnantwomen with severe disease are atgreater risk of ICU admission,

ventilation and death. Pregnantwomen with coexisting illnessessuch as Diabetes, hypertensionand obesity are at an even greaterrisk. There is also a higher risk ofpreterm birth, cesarean deliveryand hypertension associated withCOVID-19 infection duringpregnancy.�The COVID-19 vaccine shouldbe considered on the basis ofbenefit versus risk assessment.Who will assess the risk?

It is unfair for us to shiftresponsibility of whether or notto take the vaccine and whichvaccine to accept and take towomen shoulders since they donot have the necessary knowl-edge, understanding or skillsets to make such a decision.Besides this in reality a largepopulation of women in Indiaare not adequately empoweredor free to make these choices.Only science can do this forwomen through good evidencebacked by research. Once wehave evidence of safety andclarity as to the type of vaccineto use the answer will be evidentfor all to see.

��Sattu is a protein-richflour made from powderedchana or other pulses andcereals. The dry powder isprepared in various ways as aprincipal or secondaryingredient of dishes.

Drinking the sattu shar-bat helps you stay energeticthroughout the day. It can beprepared by mixing sattu witheither sugar and water or jal-jeera, green chillies, black saltand coriander leaves, depend-ing on how you want to haveit — sweet or sour. Sattu shar-bat is the perfect drink to bat-tle dehydration and heat stroke.

Sattu has amazing hydrat-ing properties, hence if con-sumed regularly; it can helprestore your skin’s natural glowIt also prevents the wear andtear of skin cells.

It is good for Diabetes too.It has a low glycemic index thatkeeps our sugar levels in check.The namkeen sattu drink maybe a good option for diabetics.

It also helps in weight lossby preventing unwantedhunger calls and also boostsdigestion.

COVID-19 is dropping abombshell every once in awhile, sometimes with the

sudden spike in cases, while theother with its variants. Once again,what proves to be a tough challengefor the experts is the Delta Plus vari-ant.

This has led to doctors andexperts predicting that the latestvariant could possibly trigger athird wave of the pandemic.

“The Delta Plus variant is avariant of concern that has beenrecently declared by theGovernment. It has already beenidentified and isolated in ninecountries and 22 cases have alreadybeen seen in India, especially inMaharashtra, which is already brac-ing for a third wave. It looks like thethird wave will hit Maharashtra inthe next six to eight weeks,” DrShuchin Bajaj, Internal Medicine(Founder-Director), Ujala CygnusGroup of Hospitals, tells you.

He adds that like the last wavewhich was driven by the Delta vari-ant, it is feared that the next wavewill be driven by Delta Plus.

What makes the variant a mat-ter of concern is the increasedinfection rate. “Delta Plus is muchmore infectious than the previousone. The other reason that makes iteven more concerning is it’sincreased binding to lung cells,which may give rise to a moresevere disease. And, the third is itspotentially reduced response to

monoclonal antibodies, which mayinterfere with the vaccine responseas well as medicines like the mon-oclonal antibody cocktail,” Bajajsays.

This means that even the pre-viously infected or vaccinated indi-viduals may suffer from the disease.

“All these reasons suggest thereis a definite risk that this new vari-ant will be more widespread as wellas more severe if it causes the thirdwave,” he adds.

Some symptoms of the variantresemble to the previous variantslike cough, diarrhoea, fever,headache, skin rash, discolourationof fingers and toes, chest pain andshortness of breath. While, stomachache, nausea and appetite loss canbe some of the new signs of the dis-ease.

“Delta plus variant has beeninstrumental in causing new waveof COVID pandemic in UK andparts of US. This is a variant of con-cern because of its high infectivityand can cause severe disease. Thereare concerns that it can bypass vac-cine immunity a phenomena calledimmune escape. A country likeIndia with big population size isalways at a risk of having extensiveeffect. This strain is likely to causethird wave if it ever comes. It istherefore important that peopleneed to follow COVID appropriatebehaviour at all times,” opines DrArunesh Kumar, HOD, Paras ChestInstitute & Senior Pulmonologist,

Paras Hospital, Gurugram.Dr Piyush Goel, Senior

Consultant, Pulmonary and CriticalCare, Columbia Asia Hospital,Palam Vihar, Gurugram, warnsthat the variant can possibly alsopre-pone the onset of the third waveas predicted, because of the risingcases of this variant.

“There are high chances thatthe Delta Plus variant can give riseto a third wave much before than wehave ever predicted. The efficacy ofthe available vaccines against thisvariant remain under the scannerbecause we don’t have proper stud-ies to support it. But with theincreased severity of the diseasewith this variant, the third wave canprove fatal. Needless to say, follow-ing COVID appropriate behaviouris paramount,” Kumar adds.

However, amid all this fear,there are people who have alreadystarted following COVID inappro-priate behaviour. Be it travellingwithout a reason or giving up theuse of mask, things seem to be backon square one. “The situation callsfor proper measures and it should-n’t be taken lightly. People, as we allcan see, have again become compla-cent. They should know that trav-elling unnecessarily can fast forwardthe spread of this variant. Thismeans that we have to follow allthe precautions like we did duringthe second wave. Only then, we willbe able to sail through the thirdwave,” says Goel.

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The Coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns haveimpacted not only the cancer care but also the research in the

field of it. The uncertainty has introduced new risks for cancerpatients, disrupting the delivery of cancer treatment and the con-tinuity of cancer research. Many elective surgeries were cancelledto redirect resources and healthcare staff to manage the coronaviruspandemic. But at the same time it has revolutionised the clinicalcare by the introduction of tele-medicine, artificial intelligence anddigital healthcare services. It was the need of the hour to shift tothe digital medium so that continuous healthcare services shouldbe provided to the needy patients and curtail the spread of the virusso that patient can avail the services within the comfort of theirhouses.

For cancer patients, the challenging and unintended timesbegan for those who didn’t know that they are going through can-cer. Various studies have suggested that the pandemic led to aroughly 80 per cent drop in routine screening appointments thatcould catch new cancers in March and April. Since the cancerscreening can’t happen virtually, the cases of breast, colon andcervical cancer also increased. Most of the screenings for above-mentioned cancer require an in-person procedure like acolonoscopy (for colon cancer), mammogram (for breast can-

cer) or a pap smear (for cervi-cal cancer).

Delays in cancer screeningsand treatment are expected tolead to more than 10,000 addi-tional deaths from breast andcolorectal cancer over the nextdecade. However as we aregetting back to normal manyhealthcare centres are onceagain encouraging patients tocome in for routine care. Manyhave implemented safety pro-tocols that make it safe for mostpatients to come in for screen-ing tests. Doctors are also ask-ing outstation cancer patients,who are in the advanced stage,

to get their chemotherapy done from their nearest hospital justin case travelling is an issue.

COVID-19 can be harsh on cancer patients: COVID-19 hasa dangerous consequence of having an overaggressive immuneresponse known as a cytokine storm, which can damage lungand other tissues. Patients with cancer are treated with immune-stimulating therapies such as immune checkpoint inhibitors,chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies and bi-specif-ic T-cell engagers (BiTEs) are at the risk for complications if theimmune response produced by these therapies results in an attackon normal, healthy tissue. Patients treated with CAR T-cell ther-apies and BiTEs, in particular, can develop a side effect knownas cytokine release syndrome, which is similar to the cytokinestorm in patients with COVID-19. Researchers have theorizedthat COVID-19 could aggravate cytokine release syndrome inpatients treated with certain immunotherapies, but studies havenot definitely shown that this is happening, a new report states.

To limit the spread of COVID-19, many laboratories havedeveloped new policies so that limited number of lab workerscan enter. This also resulted on putting many studies on hold.Many projects supported by private philanthropy group facedfunding issues. Drastically decreased donations to cancer-focusedphilanthropic organisations have also been witnessed. This is notall. Some cancer centers also put a hold to all the enrollment onclinical trials entirely during the height of the pandemic. Despitethese challenges, investigators have come up with variety of waysto adapt to challenging circumstances so that trials could con-tinue. These included: leveraging telehealth, e-signatures for trialdocumentation and shipping oral medications and allowing teststo be done even outside the lab.

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Someone is rememberingyou, is the most com-mon reply we get when-

ever we have hiccups. While,we don’t know how true thefact is, what we know for sureis that it is annoying.

Often we are toldto slowly drinkwater, drop bydrop. While, itmay work forsome, butthere aremany whokeep ondoing it with-out afavourable result.Here are a few homeremedies that can help.

Put a teaspoon of sugarcrystals under your tongueand allow it to melt. Swallowand then have a glass ofwater. The hiccups will stop.Swallowing sugar stimulates

the vagus nerve and makesthe body forget the hiccups.

Holding of breath isanother age-old way to dealwith hiccups. It is recom-mended that you hold yourbreath for around 20-30 sec-

onds and repeat theprocedure twice

or thrice or tillthe hiccupsstop.

A l s o ,spices likecardamomand dry

ginger areknown to be

effective in deal-ing with the prob-

lem of long-term hiccupswhich refuse to go awayonce they come. Have gingerjuice with honey or boil halftsp of cardamom in one cupof water and sip like tea forbest results.

Hiccups can be extremelyannoying and hard to get ridof, especially for those suffer-

ing from it for a long time.ROSHANI DEVI shares easyhome remedies that can help

bid adieu to the problem

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Have you encountered a health issuethat aggravated because you worrytoo much? About one in seven

people in India suffered from mental dis-orders of varying severity in 2017, withdepression and anxiety disorders being themost common mental disorders affecting45.7 million and 44.9 million peopleeach in the country, as per a study doneby Indian Council of Medical Research.

It is said that, “If you believe you aresick, sickness will get you. And if youbelieve you are fit, fitness will embraceyou”. Modern science already acknowl-edges the strong connection betweenmind and body. The term psychosomat-ic refers to real physical symptoms influ-enced by the mind and emotions ratherthan a specific organic cause in the body(such as an injury or infection).

Whilst the necessity of formal medicalintervention cannot be emphasisedenough in treating a disease, supplement-ing it with a holistic approach of keepinga positive attitude and relaxed mind dra-matically improves the speed and quali-ty of the patient’s recovery. More impor-tantly, a psychological approach to well-being assures long-term cure minus theside effects from prolonged medication.

This is where Neuro LinguisticsProgramming (NLP) becomes an extreme-ly potent mind-programming instrument.A fusion of psychology, linguistics, cyber-netics and hypnosis balanced together,NLP is a toolbox of techniques workingat conscious and unconscious levels thatcan alter your thoughts, beliefs, memoriesand even habits. Its simple, fast and prac-tical methods help you take control of yourmind with proven benefits on psychoso-matic health issues.

Here are a few NLP techniques thatpractitioners use:

Anchoring: Setting up your mind tosubconsciously trigger desired emotionsanytime. Imagine installing a ‘emotionswitch’ you can use to get positive feelingsinstantly.

Reframing: Giving an optimistic andempowering perspective to any adversityand handle it calmly. Situations are onlyas good or bad as what you make them inyour mind.

Dynamic Spin Release: A proven,instant-anxiety-release process used bythousands of people to get immediate andpermanent relief from fears, anxiety andnegative feelings.

Swish pattern: The time-tested tech-nique to install any desired behaviorsuch as exercising, healthy eating, elimi-nate bad habits and set up a positivelifestyle.

As a full-fledged therapy science,NLP offers a plethora of methods toreverse even psychosomatic disorderslike asthma, allergies, ailments, hyperten-sion and much more. Worldwide, millionsof people are learning NLP and experienc-ing its incredible benefits in keepingtheir mind and soul healthy and thriving.Anyone can enroll into a NLP workshopor take NLP training online to keep theirmind and soul healthy.!�� "� �� F��3��6=��-=��!��6�E�� G��

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When a child is born, theirgender already defines whatthey wear and how they

need to behave in society. Sadly, thisconditioning becomes the norm andgets ingrained in the way kids liveand interact with others. Moreover,they carry this mindset to school,which paves the way for gender dis-crimination and stereotypical behav-iour, precisely why schools need tostep up and strip away these gendernorms.

Before these thoughts processesbecome rigid practices, teachersneed to adopt a gender-neutral set-ting, a learning environment that isinclusive to all. So, where do youstart? Fostering a learning environ-ment that is welcoming and support-ive. The journey to nurturing aninclusive learning culture may belong and challenging. But it startswith you.

For children, school is a cocoonwhere they feel safe and happy.Moreover, a child’s mind is like a cleanslate, waiting to explore and absorb.Teachers can mould their thinkingand encourage them to be the bestversion of themselves. When teachersreflect on their own experiences,they tend to build a learning culturethat is inclusive and inviting. So, howcan one be more sensitive towards theway gender is presented or spoken ofin classrooms? Championing genderequality techniques to kickstart a newera of learning.

Knowing the students well:Taking the time to learn about achild’s interests, hobbies, and back-ground can ensure that they feelincluded. When teachers take aninterest in knowing a child, they forgea bond with them. Through constantencouragement and motivation, chil-dren feel comfortable and also startrespecting those around them.

Going beyond the binaries: Oneof the most effective ways to expanda child’s thinking on gender equalityis by breaking the binaries. Whenreferring to children in the classroom,teachers can use gender-neutral pro-nouns like ‘they, them, their, everyone’instead of ‘he, she or guys’. Using inclu-sive language lays the foundation foran equal learning atmosphere.

Eliminating assumptions:Children tend to pick up a habit or abelief very quickly. Thus, teachers needto be aware of the language they usein class. They need to ensure that theydon’t make any assumptions aboutsomeone’s ability, personality, or pro-fession. Including role reversal tech-niques (like women in construction ormen doing a household chore) chal-lenges these assumptions, forces themto question the norms, and promotesgender equality among students.

Giving them a voice: Listening isa skill that not many tend to possess,but it is a vital skill. Teachers need tobe good listeners, give students thesuitable space to express their con-cerns, and share their experiences.This creates a gender-inclusive learn-ing environment where students thriveand respect the opposite gender.

Being open to feedback:Continuous evaluation leads to con-sistent learning. Making the classroom

open for feedback and discussions isa great way to keep growing. Whenteachers start involving children, thewhole atmosphere transforms, andkids start thriving in a more open andinclusive environment.

Encouraging project-basedlearning: Pairing up boys and girls fora group project can be a great ice-breaker. Once they become a team and

work together on projects, theyunderstand the nuances of individualbehaviour and respect each othermore.

Re-visiting the curriculum:Teachers can re-visit the curriculumto ensure that it includes stories andvoices of people from all walks of life.Making the curriculum more inclu-sive by featuring a more gender-aware

syllabus can be a great place to start.Gender equality is not just about

listening and understanding; it ismore about respecting and accepting.Children understand more than youknow, and teaching them about gen-der-neutrality from a young age canmake them more aware and empa-thetic.

(The writer is the ManagingDirector of The Green Acres Academy.)

Actor Ayushmann Khurrana delivered an exceptional per-formance in the Anubhav Sinha directed Article 15. On

its second release anniversary, Ayushmann feels superlativecontent will be the driving force to bring people back to the-atres post-pandemic.

He says, “Article 15 is a special film in my filmographyand I can’t thank Anubhav Sinha sir for giving me one ofthe most cherished films of my career. It was an eye-open-ing film for me and helped me see things from a differentlens. We will needfilms like Article 15,with its superlativecontent, to pull peo-ple back to theatres.”

He adds, “Wewill need to be dis-ruptive and presentfresh content forpeople to enjoy,engage and discuss.I’m a firm believerthat the pandemicand lockdowns havemade us more opin-ionated than beforeand people wouldonly want to investtime and energy onthings that are out ofthe box and differ-ent. They wouldwant to have community experiences that are worthwhile.”

Ayushmann is a firm believer that fresh, unique and dis-ruptive cinema will manage to restart the theatrical busi-ness in India. He says, “Cinema will provide them with thatoption but we will have to produce the best content that wehave ever produced. People will want to be entertained withfilms that celebrate new ideas. The scale of the film will beimmaterial because content will take precedence in a wholenew world.”

“People have already been exposed to brilliant contentfrom across the world. So, for them to step out to a theatreto watch a film they need a huge incentive and content willplay this crucial role. People will want to watch brilliant films.So, let’s all aim to provide the audience with that and suc-cessfully restart our industry and the exhibition sector,” headds.

Ayushmann will soon be seen in three entertainersChandigarh Kare Aashiqui, directed by Abhishek Kapoor,Anek, directed by Anubhav Sinha, and Doctor G, directedby Anubhuti Kashyap.

With the unprecedented tur-moil from the global pan-

demic, being anxious about yourloved ones’ wellbeing has affect-ed your health. The vitality ofsleep is usually sacrificed duringsuch stressful situations. Sleep isvital to physical health and for theeffective functioning of theimmune system. A key promot-er of emotional wellness andmental health, restful sleep helpsfight back stress, depression andanxiety. With increased stressand anxiety, there is an increasedimpact on sleep patterns and thebest way to improve your sleep isto stick with good sleep habits.

A good night’s worth of sleepstrengthens your body’s defenceand empowers you to build aneffective immune system. Thiscritical biological process con-tributes to complex thinking,learning, memory and decisionmaking, heightening our brain’sfunctions.

While it can also effectivelyenhance your mood and improvemental health, lack of sleep caus-es irritation, low energy levels,feelings of depression.

Getting consistent, high-qual-ity sleep improves all aspects ofhealth which is why it is arguablymore important than ever in thebackdrop of the pandemic. Ahealthy sleeping schedule is thefruit of consistency and effort.However, it should come ease toyou, if you abide by the following:

�Your bed should only bereserved for sleeping, avoid bring-ing a laptop, food or games to

bed! Create a cosy bed environ-ment to help your purpose ofsleeping better. Keep your bedwell organised and clean at alltimes, fluff your pillow, changeyour sheets. And most important-ly, invest in a mattress that con-tributes to your restful sleep.

�Build a sleep schedule foryourself. Define sleep specifictasks and stick to the routine. Setyourself a sleep alarm that helpsyou wind down every night.

�Your daytime eating habitshave a major impact on yourbody and your sleep! Limit yourintake of caffeine, sugar andcarbs not just to sleep better, butalso for a healthier body.

�Meditation and exercise aremajor contributors that help you

get restful sleep and also con-tribute to a healthy body andmind. However, engaging in vig-orous exertion of any sort lessthan two hours before bedtimemay affect your sleep. Deepbreathing and light stretchingbefore bedtime will push themind and body into a restfulslumber.

�Lastly, but most impor-tantly, let go of stress, anger andworry before sleeping. Developbedtime rituals that help youclear your thoughts and investyour time in journaling or use aweighted blanket to unwind andget restful sleep.

(The author is founder andCEO of a luxury sleeping mattress-es brand.)

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The ongoing lockdown restrictionsin India might have eased up, but

most of the workforce continues towork from home. However, the ideaof working from home will continueto be a norm in the coming future.Over the past year and a half, therehave been multiple talks and discus-sions on how WFH can be taxing attimes. With long working hours,individuals are unable to take out timefor self-care and their partners.

During the pandemic, there wasa surge in online dating. However,keeping it going might be a challenge,keeping in mind the WFH culture.Here are some creative tips to aceonline dating while working fromhome.

��The idea of taking it one day at a

time has been the core philosophy ofthe pandemic. We are not disagreeingwith this notion, but it is equallyimportant to plan your day not onlywith your work task list but with yourpartner as well. With tight deadlinesand hectic schedules, make it a pointto discuss the availability of your part-ner. Have a hearty conversation withyour partner either before they startfor the day, during a break or whenthey log off. A schedule like this willbring stability to your relationship anda sense of security knowing that yourpartner is there to comfort you dur-ing the day.

�� .�)�We all have a sense of gratitude

towards our employers who havesupported their teams by allowingthem to work from home. However,this cannot be equated by working24×7. This has been a major problemduring the pandemic. The right wayto address this is to be open and trans-parent with your team. Share yourwork timelines and load with them

and say no when you feel you arebeing overwhelmed with work.Discussing these issues will make thebalance of working from home moretransparent. Prioritising work is right,but that does not mean cancelling vir-tual dates. You know they count too!

��!!��#��Voicing your thoughts and opin-

ions to your partner becomes muchmore significant when you are notmeeting them physically. Forinstance, if you feel uncomfortabletalking till late at night or are tiredof talking because of work, expressthe same. Keeping these thoughts willmake you frustrated and eventuallywill take a toll on your relationship.Honesty is the best policy, evenwhen it comes to online dating! Also,you will look forward to your timewith your partner, and not merely acall that you just have to get overwith.

�� Bollywood actor Sharukh Khan

talked about 70 minutes in Chak deIndia; we say you have a 60-minutecruising session with your significantother. Amid the tight schedule and

deadlines, take out an hour only foryour partner. Spend that time exclu-sively with your partner, you candance to some music or watch a film,among other things. Use your imag-ination, surely you have some bril-liant ideas too? Believe us, this willbring excitement to your monoto-nous schedule and bring you bothcloser.

��!��!�F��!��While it is beautiful to have a con-

versation with your loved one after atiring day, it is equally important toindulge in some self-care. Usually, inthe rigmarole of work and life, we for-get to give ourselves a break. Thiscould be writing a journal, drinkingcoffee with your favourite music, orjust reading something. This will giveyou clarity about where your life andcareer are heading, and help you buststress before it becomes a serious con-cern. Being relaxed will have positiveimplications on your relationships aswell.

(The author is head of trends foran online dating app.)

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BCCI President SouravGanguly on Monday con-

firmed that the T20 World Cupscheduled to take place in Indialater this year is now being shift-ed to the UAE owing to thehealth safety concerns posed byCovid-19.

Ending weeks of specula-tion surrounding the mega-event in October-November,Ganguly told PTI, “We haveofficially intimated the ICCthat the T20 World Cup can beshifted to the United ArabEmirates. The details are beingchalked out.”

“The decision was takenkeeping health safety concernsof all stakeholders in mind,” headded.

The BCCI will, however,remain the hosts of the show-piece.

The former Indian captainalso informed that October 17has not been finalised as thestart date of the tournament yet.

“We will be able to finaliseitinerary details in some days.October 17 start hasn’t yet been

finalised.”Even an ICC spokesperson

confirmed that the global bodyis yet to zero in on a final sched-ule.

The ICC, at the start of themonth, had given BCCI a four-week window to decide andinform whether India couldhost the marquee event consid-ering the Covid-19 situation inthe country.

BCCI secretary Jay Shah, ina letter to all state units, said thatthe decision was taken keeping

in mind that “safety of playersand other stakeholders is ofparamount importance...”

Shah also wrote that “it wasnot an easy decision and wemulled over it for months, con-stantly keeping an eye on Covidsituation all along.”

“However with the secondwave causing such devastation,the decision ultimately boileddown to the safety and wellbeing of the players and orga-nizers,” he admitted.

“There is nothing more

that we could have wanted thanto host this prestigious tourna-ment in India, but it was not tobe.”

It was a foregone conclusionthat India will find it difficult tohost a 16-country tournamentacross nine cities with so manylayers of health security con-cerns being there.

The ICC had already start-ed its preparations and logisticsfor the tournament which willbe held in Dubai, Sharjah andAbu Dhabi.

The qualifying round couldbe held in Muscat, which willgive ideal time to the pitches inUAE to freshen up after 31remaining games of IPL are heldtill October 15.

Once the IPL was shifted tothe UAE, it was apparent thatthe T20 World Cup will movetoo given the looming concernsabout a possible third wave ofCovid-19 infection around thattime.

Shah, in his letter, men-tioned that “with its prior expe-rience in hosting IPL in UAE,we can say with certainty that itwill be hosted smoothly...”

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An Ecuador side fighting tokeep their Copa America

hopes alive managed to hold apreviously perfect Brazil —playing without a restingNeymar — to a 1-1 draw onSunday and reach the quarter-finals.

Seeking to extend a 10-match winning streak, Brazilcame out pressuring in Goianiaon the group’s final match day.

A free kick in the 37thminute set up Eder Militao,who headed the ball at a sharpangle into the top right cornerof the net, well clear of Ecuadorkeeper Hernan Galindez’s out-stretched arm.

But facing the specter of anearly exit, Ecuador came outfighting in the second half.

They got the equalizer inthe 53rd minute, as Brazil triedto clear a corner kick.

Enner Valencia managed tohead it back the other way, set-ting up Angel Mena, whosprinted in to fire the ball pastAlisson.

In other match, Peru fin-

ished the group stage on ahigh note after a spectacularturnaround.

The Incas opened the tour-nament with a 4-0 thrashing byBrazil.

But they went on to defeatColombia, then battle backfrom 2-0 down against Ecuadoron Wednesday to secure a draw.

They added three morepoints Sunday thanks to Andre

Carrillo, who capitalized onVenezuela’s clumsy failure toclear a corner in the 48thminute in Brasilia.

Brazil finished the groupstage as heavy favourites with 10points from four matches —three points clear of runners-upPeru in Group B.

Colombia finished thirdwith four points and Ecuadorfourth with three.

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Arocket from ThorganHazard knockedreigning champions

Portugal out of Euro 2020 onSunday and earned Belgiuma blockbuster quarter-finalwith Italy.

Hazard’s swerving shotbefore half-time sealed a 1-0win for Belgium and settleda scrappy contest in Sevillethat never really lived up to itsbilling as the stand-out tie ofthe last 16.

But it could prove a state-ment victory for Belgium,whose chief concern nowwill be the fitness of Kevin DeBruyne and Eden Hazard,

who both hobbled off injuredand will undergo scans.

De Bruyne suffered anankle injury while coachRoberto Martinez saidHazard’s problem was “moreof a muscle feeling”.

Cristiano Ronaldo testedThibaut Courtois with a dip-ping free-kick in the firsthalf but the 36-year-old nei-ther broke the internationalgoals record nor added to hisfive for the tournament.

Raphael Guerreiro wentclosest to a late equaliserwhen his shot came back offthe post, one of 29 shotsPortugal had, six of them ontarget.

But before the late rally,

Belgium were the braver,more fluid team andMartinez hailed his side’sfighting spirit to hold on.

“We showed our talent inthe first half and in the sec-ond half we showed an aspectthat wasn’t there two or threeyears ago,” said Martinez.“This is what a winning teamneeds.”

For all the superstarnames on the pitch, it wasEden Hazard’s less heraldedbrother Thorgan who proveddecisive, the BorussiaDortmund winger who Edenonce said had even more tal-ent than him.

“In these games if youhave a chance you have to

New Delhi: The India OpenSuper 500 and Hyderabad OpenSuper 100 tournaments were onMonday cancelled by theBadminton World Federation(BWF), which announced arevamped international calenderto salvage the remaining seasonaffected by the Covid-19 pan-demic.

The $400,000 India Open,which was supposed to be oneof the qualifiers for the TokyoOlympics, was scheduled to beheld from May 11 to 16 but waspostponed in April due to risingCovid cases in the national cap-ital. The $1,00,000 HyderabadOpen was slated to be held fromAugust 24 to 29.

However, Syed Modi IndiaInternational Super 300 tourna-ment, scheduled to be held inLucknow from October 12 to 17,remained on course as of now,according to the new calender.

In other announcements,the world body on Mondaysaid that Finland will host theSudirman Cup Finals in

September-October while theseason-ending World TourFinals will be staged inIndonesia.

China was scheduled tohost both the Sudirman CupFinal and the World Tour Finalsbut BWF decided to move boththe events out of the country dueto Covid-19 restrictions.

The apex body also decid-ed to push the prestigious WorldChampionships, to be held inSpain, by two weeks.

Denmark will host theThomas & Uber Cup Finals2020 in Aarhus (October 9-17),which was postponed last year.

It will be followed by back-to-back World Tour events —Denmark Open in Odense(October 19-24), French Openin Paris (October 26-31) andSaarLorLux Open (Nov 2-7).

The Indonesia Masters andIndonesia Open will be heldfrom November 16-21 andNovember 23-28, followed bythe World Tour Finals fromDecember 1-5. PTI

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Third seed Stefanos Tsitsipasknocked out in first round

by Frances Tiafoe while NovakDjokovic overcame an earlyscare before getting his bid fora sixth Wimbledon and record-equalling 20th Grand Slam titleoff to a winning start onMonday while rain broughthavoc to the schedule, one yearafter the tournament was can-celled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

T s i t s i p a sbecame the first bigname to exitWimbledon on thefirst day of play,losing 6-4, 6-4, 6-3.He has now lost inthe first round atWimbledon on three occa-sions.

It was quite a contrast in for-tunes for the Greek who only afortnight ago lost in five sets toDjokovic in the French Openfinal.

Tiafoe, the world No 57,goes on to face either Canada’s

Vasek Pospisil or RobertoCarballes Baena for a place inthe last 32. It was the first timein 12 attempts that 23-year-oldTiafoe had beaten a playedranked in the top five in the

world.Defending champion and

world No 1 Djokovic, looking tobecome just the third man inhistory to complete a calendarGrand Slam, claimed a 4-6, 6-1,

6-2, 6-2 win over Britain’s 253rd-ranked Jack Draper.

However, the 34-year-oldSerb struggled on the slipperyCentre Court surface with theroof closed above it due to the

rain.Left-handed Draper, playing

just his fifth match on the maintour, saved seven of seven breakpoints in the opener to stun thetop seed.

But Djokovic soon snuffedout any danger of him becom-ing only the third defendingchampion to lose in the firstround, by sweeping throughthe remainder of the tie. He fin-ished with an impressive 25 acesand 47 winners as his 19-year-old opponent, who grew up justsix miles (9.5km) from the AllEngland Club, wilted.

Wimbledon looks very dif-ferent with Covid-19 protocolsin place and a 50% capacityuntil finals day, but one famil-iar feature was the summerrain.

Play on the outside courtsstarted five hours late with 16of the day’s scheduled 64matches cancelled untilTuesday.

Osijek: Olympic-bound RahiSarnobat displayed sensationalform to clinch the women’s 25mpistol Gold medal at the ISSFshooting World Cup here onMonday but teen sensationManu Bhaker ended seventh inthe same event.

Sarnobat’s Gold is India’s firstin the ongoing edition after thecountry secured one Silver andtwo Bronze medals earlier in thetournament. The 30-year-oldSarnobat fired a final score of 39after qualifying second with atotal of 591. Her stupendous per-formance in the final includedperfect scores in the third, fourth,fifth and the sixth series.

“This competition wasabsolutely not about perfor-mance or medal because I wastrying out a few things which Iam going to do in the OlympicGames and this is the finalcompetition before that.

“It was more about tryingout things and finalising everything before the Olympics for thelast time and that was just that,”she said. PTI

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Sao Paulo: Brazil coach Titehad an emotional exchangewith his Ecuador counterpartGustavo Alfaro after the teamsdrew 1-1.

TV footage showed Alfaropraising his counterpart’sethics and adding that Titedeserves the World Cup title.“Don’t go, please. Resistbecause you will end up beingworld champion, rememberwhat I am saying,” Alfaro toldTite on the pitch after thematch. “You dignify this (job).”

Alfaro confirmed duringhis news conference that he’dpraised Tite during their post-match conversation.

“I admire Tite a lot, Ithink he is a genius. For uscoaches he is a role model forhis commitment, his struggle,”Alfaro said.

“He can be world cham-pion and, honestly, I wouldlike coaches like that to havetheir reward. AP

‘Tite deserves to winFIFA World Cup title’

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Spain are through to the quar-ter-final on Monday after an

unbelievable game inCopenhagen involving bizarreown goals, dramatic comebacksand extra-time winners.

Spain had a huge chance toopen the scoring after 16 min-utes, when Koke was slipped inon goal by Pedri, but the AtléticoMadrid midfielder could onlyshoot straight at the goalkeeper.

Croatia then took the leadcourtesy of a huge blunder fromSpain goalkeeper Unai Simón.The ball was played back byPedri but the Athletic Bilbao‘keeper made a mess of control-ling it, and the ball spun off hisfoot into the net.

The goal was later creditedas a Pedri own goal.

Spain went in search of anequaliser and before long theygot it, when Pablo Sarabiapounced on a rebound from thegoalkeeper and fired into the topcorner for 1-1.

Into the second half and thescoreline was turned on itshead, when Ferran Torres’ssuperb cross was met with a bul-let header from CésarAzpilicueta to put Spain 2-1 up.

Croatia then came close toan equaliser when the ball brokefor Joško Gvardiol in the box,but Simón redeemed himself

somewhat for his earlier error bygetting down well to make asave.

And in the 76th minute,provider became scorer forSpain as Torres nipped in frontof Gvardiol before calmly finish-ing past Dominik Livakovic for3-1.

There was to be late dramahowever, as Mislav Oršic scram-bled the ball over the line tomake it 3-2 with just over fiveminutes of normal time remain-ing.

And in the 92nd minute,Croatia equalised when MarioPašalic ghosted into the box tohead home for 3-3 and take thetie to extra-time.

Croatia then nearly went 4-3 up in the extra period, whenAndrej Kramaric poked towardsgoal amid more chaos in thebox, but Simón was again equalto it.

That were made to rue thatmistake a few minutes later,when the ball dropped forÁlvaro Morata in the box, andthe Spain striker brought itdown brilliantly before smash-ing into the roof of the net for4-3.

And moments later it was 5-3, when Dani Olmo foundMikel Oyarzabal in acres ofspace, and the Real Sociedadwinger’s shot snuck into the bot-tom corner.

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have a go,” Thorgan said. “It went in,with a bit of luck and it was the goalthat got us through. It’s a dream forme.”

Portugal, meanwhile, stuck to thedefensive approach that served themso well in France five years ago but hasperhaps been outgrown by a side thatnow boasts some of the most creativetechnicians in the world.

“I think it’s an unfair result butthey scored and we didn’t,” saidPortugal coach Fernando Santos.

“Looking at that second half, weare lucky to win,” Belgium defenderThomas Vermaelen said. “Portugalmade it really hard for us. We had toreally stay focused. It has cost us a lotof energy, but we have some time torecover and now we are looking for-ward to the game against Italy.”

While Portugal’s run for a secondconsecutive European title ended,Belgium stayed on track to end its titledrought. The Belgians lost in theEuropean Championship final in 1980and finished third three years ago atthe World Cup for their best finish atthat tournament.

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