ˇ ˆ ˙˝˛˚ # ˆ $ · 3/1/2021 · against india’s critical infra-structure. other targets...

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In the middle of the stand-offin eastern Ladakh last year,

China unleashed coordinatedcyberattacks on India’s powerfacilities that may have trig-gered the massive power out-age in Mumbai in October2020.

The outage led to a coun-trywide uproar as India’s finan-cial capital came to a grindinghalt on October 12. Mumbailifeline local trains were shut,hospitals could not carry life-saving operations and stockexchange remained out of gearfor hours.

The cyberattack on powerfacilities may have been initi-ated by a group of Chinesehackers, according to a studythat first appeared in the NewYork Times.

China-linked threat activ-ity group RedEcho may haveplanted malware in key powerplants in India, said the study.“The Mumbai power cut pro-vides additional evidence sug-gesting the coordinated tar-geting of Indian Load DispatchCentres,” said the study.

The study also suggestedthat some of the country’smost sensitive infrastructuresare vulnerable to cyberattacksfrom Chinese hackers.

Meanwhile, the Ministry ofPower on Monday said there isno impact on operations ofPower System OperationCorporation (POSOCO) dueto any malware attack and that

prompt actions are taken onadvisories issued against suchthreats.

However, the Ministry didnot mention about the Mumbaioutage in its statement.

Responding on the find-ings of the study, the Ministrysaid, “There is no impact onany of the functionalities car-ried out by POSOCO due tothe referred threat. No databreach/data loss has beendetected due to these inci-dents.”

The Ministry further said,“Prompt actions are beingtaken by the CISOs (chief

information security officers) atall these control centres underoperation by POSOCO for anyincident/advisory receivedfrom various agencies likeCERT-in, NCIIPC, CERT-Trans etc.”

The CERT-in (IndianComputer EmergencyResponse Team) is the nodalagency to deal with cyber secu-rity threats like hacking andphishing.

The National CriticalInformation InfrastructureProtection Centre (NCIIPC) isnational nodal agency for crit-ical information infrastructure

protection.Confirming the possibility

of the cyberattack, MaharashtraEnergy Minister Nitin Raut onMonday said the New YorkTimes report claiming that themassive power outage inMumbai last year might havebeen due to a cyber attack fromChina was true.

“There is truth in theclaims made by the NYT. Wehad formed three committeesto enquire into the matter. Wewill receive a detailed reportthis evening from the cyberdepartment,” Raut said.

The Maharashtra cyber

department had initially sus-pected that a malware attackcould be responsible forMumbai’s power outage inOctober last year, whichstopped trains and shut downhospitals and the stockexchange for hours. Some areasin suburban central Mumbaisuffered outages for almost 10to 12 hours.

Recorded Future, a US-based company that analysesonline digital threats, firstdetected the flow of malware.Recorded Future’s Insikt Groupobserved that from early 2020there was a large increase insuspected cyberattacks againstIndian organisations fromChinese state-sponsoredgroups, said the report.

“From mid-2020,Recorded Future’s midpointcollection revealed a steep risein the use of infrastructuretracked as AXIOMATICAS-YMPTOTE, which encom-passes ShadowPad commandand control servers, to target alarge swathe of India’s powersector. 10 distinct Indian powersector organisations, includingfour of the five regional loaddispatch centres responsiblefor the operation of the powergrid through balancing elec-tricity supply and demand,have been identified as targetsin a concerted campaignagainst India’s critical infra-structure. Other targets iden-tified include two Indian sea-ports,” the report said.

Continued on 1

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Prime Minister NarendraModi, Vice-President M

Venkaiah Naidu, Union HomeMinister Amit Shah andMinister for External Affairs(MEA) S Jaishankar receivedthe Covid-19 jab even as morethan one million citizens reg-istered themselves on the Co-WIN portal till 1 pm onMonday with India opening upvaccination drive for thoseover 60 years and within theage bracket of 45 to 59 yearswith specified comorbidities.

AIIMS chief Dr RandeepGuleria said the PrimeMinister’s move to take the firstdose of Covid-19 vaccine onthe very first day of the inoc-ulation drive should eliminateany hesitancy from the mindsof people about the vaccine.

Vaccines provided to ben-eficiaries at the Governmenthealth facilities will be entire-ly free of cost, while privatefacilities cannot charge thebeneficiary a sum above �250per person per dose (�150 for

vaccines and �100 as opera-tional charges.

As the vaccination pro-gramme got underway in otherplaces across the country,Venkaiah, Shah, Jaishankar toowas vaccinated on Monday.

Bihar Chief Minister NitishKumar and his Odisha coun-terpart Naveen Patnaik alsoreceived their shots.

Similarly, NCP chief

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New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked the nurs-es administering the Covid-19 vaccine to him on Mondaywhether they were planning to use some special thick nee-dle as politicians are known to be “very thick-skinned”, draw-ing laughter from the medical staff who immediately felt atease.

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leaders in the vulnerable agegroup on Monday said they arenot afraid of coronavirus andwon’t take vaccine jabs, even asthe second phase of vaccinationdrive got underway to inocu-late senior citizens and thoseabove 45 with underlying med-ical conditions.

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Sharad Pawar, his wife, and MPdaughter Supriya Sule tooreceived the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine at a civic hospital inMaharashtra while Kumar saidvaccines will be provided freeto everybody.

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Chief Minister YogiAdityanath carried out a

surprise inspection of a primaryschool in Narhi on Monday.The primary schools which wereclosed due to the Covid-19 pan-demic for almost a year re-opened on Monday.

The chief minister inspect-ed the work which was being car-

ried out in the school under the‘Operation Kayakalp’ and alsointeracted with children. Heasked the children how theystudied when the schools wereclosed, and the students told himthat they were attending onlineclasses. The children were allmasked-up and the CM askedthem to keep following Covid-19protocols for their own safety.

The CM was informed that

two smart classes have beenestablished in the school, one in2019 and the other in 2020.

The school had a total of 138classes I-V students. The workunder ‘Operation Kayakalp’ wascarried out in the school by LMCin 2019.

The CM was accompaniedby Additional Chief SecretaryNavneet Sehgal, DistrictMagistrate Abhishek Prakash

and other senior officials.Basic Shiksha Adhikari

Dinesh Kumar said the CMasked the students whether theywere feeling happy on comingback to school, and the studentssaid that they were happy.Chocolates were also distrib-uted among the students. Kumarsaid there was a 40 per cent atten-dance of students in governmentschools on the first day.

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After a harsh winter for thenorthern States, most parts

of the country should brace fora hotter than usual summerthis year.

In its summer forecast,India MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD) onMonday forecast that day tem-peratures are likely to be abovenormal in north, northeast,parts of east and west Indiaexcept for south and centralIndia between March and May,which represents the pre-mon-soon season for the country.

“The maximum tempera-tures will be as high as 0.86degrees celsius higher thannormal across northern, east-ern, and western India,” theIMD said.

However, the pre-mon-soon months of March, April,and May will provide somerespite for the other regions,especially south India, wherethe mercury is likely to dip asmuch as 0.57 degrees celsiusfrom its normal. There is aprobability forecast for abovemaximum temperatures inChhattisgarh, Odisha, Gujarat,coastal Maharashtra, Goa andcoastal Andhra Pradesh.

The worst impact of thesummer will be felt in Odishaand Chhattisgarh, where max-imum temperatures will devi-ate 0.86-degree celsius fromtheir usual averages. Last week,Bhubaneswar was the firstregion to record 40 degrees cel-sius anywhere in India this year.North Indian States such asDelhi, Himachal Pradesh,Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh

Continued on Page 11

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Uttar Pradesh ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath

will, on Tuesday, kick-start hiselection campaign in Bengalwhere he is likely to give aglimpse of the developmentmodel of UP that can bereplicated in Bengal which ismired by poverty and back-wardness.

"The Yogi model of dealingwith mafia and criminals inUttar Pradesh, enriching cul-tural heritage and self-reliancein economy will be the maintalking points in West Bengal,"said a person close to Yogi hereon Monday.

The Bharatiya JanataParty's strategy in West Bengalis to take on Mamata Banerjeethrough the Yogi model.

"The party is now prepar-ing to repeat the success of YogiAdityanath's rallies in Biharand Hyderabad in West Bengal.Yogi will have many questionsto ask on the situation ofmigrant labourers in WestBengal, love jihad, zero toler-ance towards corruptionbesides highlighting the con-struction of Ram temple atAyodhya," the source said.

Yogi is likely to be thebiggest star campaigner afterPrime Minister Narendra Modiand Home Minister Amit Shah.He will address rallies in thoseareas dominated by peoplefrom Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

"In view of Yogi's aggressivecampaigning style and influ-ence on Hindu votes, he hasbecome the most demandedleader after PM Modi," thesource said, adding that theparty was busy planning a longschedule of Yogi's election tourin West Bengal.

"Yogi is in big demand inBengal. Local leaders are ask-ing for dates," the source said.

Yogi Adityanath, besidesbeing a firebrand leader, has theimage of an honest and strictadministrator. This is the rea-son why BJP's dependence onhim has been the most afterPrime Minister Modi. Thiscan be gauged from the factthat he is the only chief minis-ter of BJP who campaigned inthe municipal elections inHyderabad.

The effect of his electioncampaign was seen in theelection results. The BJPwon 48 seats, pushingAsaduddin Owaisi's All IndiaMajlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen(AIMIM) to number three,and became the number twoparty.

Earlier in the Bihar elec-tions, people have seen thewonders of Yogi Adityanath'sprowess as an election cam-paigner. Yogi influenced theresults on more than 75 seats inthe Bihar elections as headdressed 19 meetings in 17districts.

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Chief Minister YogiAdityanath said that reha-

bilitation of the families thatwould be displaced during theconstruction of Jewar airport inNoida was the priority of thegovernment and there shouldbe better rehabilitation mech-anisms and the whole processshould be carried out afterconsultation with the familiesconcerned.

The chief minister issuedthese directions while review-ing the progress of the projecton Monday on the occasion ofthe signing of the State SupportAgreement between YamunaInternational Airport PrivateLimited and NoidaInternational Airport Limitedconstituted by Zurich AirportInternational AG, the selecteddeveloper for Jewar airport.

The chief minister saidthat the population of NaglaGaneshi and different hamletsof village Rehi coming on theway of the proposed runwayshould be shifted first.

"This issue should beaddressed by March 6. Theprocess of allotment of plots tothe displaced populationshould be conducted with com-plete transparency. It shouldalso be broadcast live," hesaid.

The chief minister saidthat a committee should beconstituted for the rehabilita-tion process under the chair-manship of AdditionalCommissioner of Meerut divi-sion. "It will be appropriate tonominate retired IAS officersand retired judges as observers.Even the Chief Minister'sOffice should regularly review

the work of the Jewar airportproject," the chief ministersaid. The district magistrate ofGautam Buddha Nagarinformed the chief ministerthat 48.0979 hectare land hadbeen arranged in Jewar Bangarfor rehabilitation of the dis-placed population.

Yogi said that the stategovernment would provide afour-lane connectivity facilityfor Jewar airport besidesupgrading, modernising andmaintaining the existing roads.He said all efforts would bemade to connect the airport

with Metro rail. He said all ser-vices related to the utility wouldbe completed with full commit-ment. "All types of permissionshave been obtained for thedevelopment of the airport.The government will release allthe necessary clearances atstate government level in time,"he said.

The chief minister appreci-ated the work of Zurich AirportInternational AG, a developerselected for Jewar airport, andassured its representatives thatall possible help would be pro-vided to them by the govern-

ment. The chief ministerrecalled that the Jewar airportproject was lying pending withthe previous governments foralmost thirty years. "We decid-ed in March, 2017 that this pro-ject would be completed onpriority in the interest of thecountry and the state," YogiAdityanath said.

The chief minister saidthat he was of the view thatgood connectivity expeditesthe development process. "Theprocess of operationalisation of21 airports and seven run-ways is underway. This effort

will make Uttar Pradesh soar inthe field of civil aviation," hesaid.

On behalf of the state gov-ernment, Additional ChiefSecretary to CM, SP Goyal, andSecretary to CM and CivilAviation Surendra Singh, CEODr Arun Veer Singh and nodalofficer Shailendra Bhatia onbehalf of Noida InternationalAirport Limited andChristophe Schnellmann,Kiran Jain and Shobhit Guptaon behalf of YamunaInternational Airport Pvt Ltdsigned the agreement.

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Uttar Pradesh assembly witnessednoisy scenes and heated exchanges

between the ruling BJP and the oppo-sition parties over the issue of unem-ployment and forcing the Speaker HNDikshit to adjourn the House for halfan hour.

The government claimed that it hadprovided employment to several lakhyouth during its four-year tenure whilethe opposition parties accused the gov-ernment of taking the unemployedyouth for a ride and cheating them.

Raising the issue through adjourn-ment notice, leader of opposition andsenior Samajwadi Party leader RamGovind Chaudhary said the joblessnesshad reached alarming proportions. Hesaid the demonetization of high valuecurrency notes in November 2016 fol-lowed by the implementation of Goodsand Services Tax in July 2017 had dealt

a severe blow to the economy. He said the unplanned nation-

wide lockdown due to the pandemicimposed in March last year was a hugeblow to the unorganised sector of theeconomy.

The SP leader said even as the threeblows to the economy caused the clo-sure of a large number of small andmedium business establishments, thefailure of the BJP-led UP governmentto honour its election promise during2017 assembly elections for filling all thevacancies in government departments,had further aggravated the crisis for thejobless youth within 90 days of comingto power.

He said as many as five lakh postswere lying vacant in various governmentdepartments.

He said the government's claim ofproviding employment during the lastfour years was far from the truth. Healleged that to stall the recruitment in

government departments, the stategovernment was using various trickslike postponing written examinationsfor recruitment.

Congress member Ajay KumarLallu said unemployment was thebiggest crises before the youth of thestate and many were forced to commitsuicide. He said despite the large num-ber of vacancies in government depart-ments, recruitments were not beingdone.

Rebutting the charges of the oppo-sition, Labour Minister Swami PrasadMaurya said the state government hadadopted a very transparent recruitmentprocess. Taking a jibe at the opposition,he said, "We do not sell jobs, we makeactual recruitment."

Targeting the previous SamajwadiParty government, the minister said,"During the SP government's tenure,Subordinate Service Commission, UPState Public Service Commission and

other recruitment bodies were knownfor rampant corruption and irregular-ities."

He said the BJP government wasmaking recruitment in governmentdepartments in a transparent manner.

Giving details of the recruitmentmade by the government, Maurya saidduring the last four years over three lakhpersons had been recruited. He alsorebutted the contention of the opposi-tion that the number of the registeredunemployed persons had increasedduring the last four years.

Irked by the claims of the labourminister, the opposition members wereon their feet and started raising anti-government slogans.

Speaker HN Dikshit tried to paci-fy the irate opposition members. Theopposition members, however, refusedto be persuaded, forcing the speaker toadjourn the House for 15 minutes andlater extend it by another 15 minutes.

pamphlets, posters or writ-ings, marking with ink, paintand chalk.

The law also providesfor punishment on violation fora term which may extend toone year or with fine not lessthan Rs 5,000, which mayextend to Rs 1 lakh or withboth.

The statement of objectsand reason of the bill states thatthe distortion of the public andprivate property on the invoca-tion of political processions,illegal demonstrations, strikes,shutdown and agitations inthe state is done by the peopleparticipating in the aforesaidactivities.

It has been noticed thatpublic property is defaced bypasting pamphlets, posters bywall writing.

It states that house, walls,fences and other structures ofprivate properties are alsodefaced during such activitiesand such defacement spoilsthe public view and beauty ofthe properties and creates a badimage of the state in the mindsof the citizens and tourist/vis-itors, forcing the owners toremove such disfigurement orrepaint the property at theirowner cost.

The bill lays down proce-dure of investigation and trialof offences. The municipalcommissioner, executive officerof nagar palika, nagar panchay-at, lekhpal or secretary of vil-lage panchayat, apar mukhya

adhikari of zila parishad andchief executive officer ofCantonment Board or anyother authority notified by thestate government shall beresponsible and duty bound toremove defacement from anypublic property in their respec-tive area.

On violation of the lawthe authority shall issue noticeto the person or companyresponsible to remove thedefacement.

The person on receipt ofthe notice shall be duty boundto comply with the directionwithin a period of one week innormal course and within 24hours if the model code of con-duct is in force during the elec-tions.

Leader of opposition RamGovind Chaudhary said themodel code of conduct of theElection Commission hadalready imposed many restric-tions on the political partiesand other organisations.

He said the new lawwould impose more restric-tions on the political parties inconducting publicity for carry-ing legitimate political activi-ties.

Ujjwal Raman Singh ofthe Samajwadi Party said thenew law was totally uncalled forand unwarranted. He said itwas none of the business of thestate government to decide thecolour of the paint to be paint-ed on the boundary wall of theprivate house.

Lucknow (PNS): In yetanother experiment just beforethe panchayat elections, theCongress on Monday appoint-ed one more president for theLucknow City unit. His namewas included in the list ofseven new presidents of dis-trict and city Congress com-mittees (DCC) in UttarPradesh announced onMonday.

Interestingly, the partyhad come under sharp criti-cism when it announced a sec-ond president for Lucknowcity unit a few months back.After Mukesh Chauhan, theparty declared Ajay Srivastava`Ajju' as another president.The Congress leaders claimedthat it would only lead to aconflict between Chauhan andSrivastava as both would try toblame or take credit for failureor success of any programme.

Now the party hasannounced Dilpreet Singh alsoas Lucknow city unit president(South) along with MukeshChauhan and Ajay Srivastava`Ajju'. Interestingly, the areaallocation is yet to beannounced by the party highcommand for the threeLucknow city unit presidents.Interestingly, some veteranleaders hailed the decision ofUPCC chief Ajay Kumar Lallufor making three leaders pres-ident of the party's city unit inLucknow. "All the major

demonstrations and protestsagainst the government wereorganised by the party in thestate capital but as the loneLucknow city unit presidentfailed to ensure a respectablecrowd, now at least three pres-idents would fill that gap andensure good crowds," said asenior spokesman of the party,adding that every leadershould be made office-bearerin the party with a promisethat he/she must attend all theparty's functions with one ortwo followers so that big gath-ering can be ensured at allfunctions.

It may be mentioned thaton the directions of partypresident Sonia Gandhi,UPCC chief Ajay Kumar Lalluappointed new district unitpresidents in Deoria,Maharajganj, Jalaun, KanpurNagar/Dehat, Unnao,Bulandshahr, Lucknow City(South). An official statementfrom the All India CongressCommittee said that theCongress president hadapproved the proposal forappointment of chiefs of sevendistrict/city committees ofCongress in UP with immedi-ate effect. Ramji Giri has beenappointed president of DeoriaDCC , Sharad Singh Babloo ofMaharajganj DCC , RajivNarayan Mishra of JalaunDCC, Amit Kumar Pandey ofKanpur Nagar/ Gramin.

In the Office of the AdministratorGeneral and Offical Trustee,Uttar Pradesh, ALLAHABAD

Dated Allahabad, the 08 day of��2021 Case-No. F 03/2020 Inthe matter of the goods of ��

deceased�� !��"#�$��#%Citation under rule 26 of the AdministratorGeneral's (U.P.) Rules, 1929 Whereas an application has beenmade to this office by �$�&'(��

resident of�� !��"#�$��#%�$)� of the deceased for the grant ofa certificate under section 29 of theAdministrator General's Act, 1963(Act 45 of 1963) in respect of theestate of, �� who died at��#� on the 05 day of �#�*��+�� this citation is issued callingupon all persons claiming to haveany interest in the estate of thedeceased, to come and see theproceedings before the grant ofcertificate in this office on the 15day of ',��+�+� at 11:30 a.m. in theforenoon.By order of the Administrator General,

Uttar Pradesh.Head Assistant,

Office of the Administrator GeneralUttar Pradesh.

Notice is hereby given by the undersignedfor and on behalf of LIC Housing FinanceLtd., Lucknow, pursuant to circularNo.422/Annexure-E of LIC HFL that the orig-inal sale-deed dated 09-12-1996 vide SerialNo. 5094, registered in the office of Sub-Registrar-Hardaoi, U.P. executed by Mr.Ramautar S/o Mr. Nanhe in favour of Mr.Ram Vilas S/o Mr. Madhur Pal in respect ofPlot, Part of Khasra No.1581 Ka Min.,admeasuring 900 sq.ft., situated at Village-Uncha Thook, (Under Nagar palika), Bangar,Hardoi, which have been lost. It is informedto us that the above noted original saledeedis mortgage with any person(s), FinancialInstitution(s), Bank(s) or any other one, mayinform immediately to LIC Housing FinanceLtd., Lucknow, or Anoop Kumar SinghAdvocate, LIC HFL, Mobile No.9455032691,9554472272 otherwise the above noted pro-posal shall be finalize immediately after theexpiry of 15 days of this publication.

NOTICE

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There is good news foryouths aspiring to make a

career in film production andacting. Chief Minister YogiAdityanath has given the goahead to set up a film institutein the state.

"This institute will be setup in 40-acre land within thefilm city where one can betrained in various genres relat-ed to film and TV productionsuch as direction, production,choreography, editing, screen-play writing and sound record-ing, and also learn the nuancesof acting," the chief ministersaid while reviewing the actionplan for the development of theproposed 'Film City' inGautam Buddha Nagar.

Talking about making'Film City' a new destinationfor the entertainment industry,the chief minister describedthe proposed film institute as

a dream of the youth.A report by world class

consultants CBRE, selectedfor film city's development,and the officials of YamunaExpressway IndustrialDevelopment Authority(YEIDA) has been submittedto the chief minister, It con-tains in-depth study of theInfotainment City developedin different countries of the

world. The chief minister said

that reputed filmmakers, direc-tors, studios and technicians ofthe world should be consultedso that their inputs could helpin making the Film City ofUttar Pradesh as a truly worldclass destination.

He said that such effortsshould be made that the shoot-ing could start there by the year

2022. The chief ministerdirected the officials to executevarious projects of Film Cityon public private participation(PPP) model.

Representatives of YEIDAand CBRE were present duringthe presentation along withAdditional Chief Secretary(Information) Navneet Sehgaland Director of InformationShishir.

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Amidst resistance by theopposition parties, the UP

assembly on Monday passedthe Uttar Pradesh Prevention ofDefacement of Public andPrivate Property Bill, 2021.

The law seeks to preventthe defacement of private andpublic property by pasting

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NOTICE FOR EMPANELMENT

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LIC of India invites sealed application for empanelment from the reputedagencies/firms/ vendors service providers for supply/jobs mentioned below forDivisional office Faizabad & Branch/Satellite offices under its jurisdiction -

Supply and maintenance of all types of furniture & fittings (Wooden, IronAluminium & Steel Moduler), Safes, Slotted angle racks, Water cooler,Water purifiers, RO Systems, Air Coolers Telecommunication equipmentssuch as EPABX, Intercom, Telephone instruments, Note CountingMachine, Fake note Detectors, Flex Board, Employees name plates,Information Display Board, Electrical appliances, Wall clocks Fans, BedLinen, Mattress, Hand Towels and Cloth traders. Supply of Table & officeStationery, Printing & supply of forms etc. (Offset/Screen printing),Computer Continuous Stationery, Craft papers Envelope, Policy Dockets,PVC/ Plastic/ECO friendly Policy Wallet, Rubber stamps/ Nylon stamps,Binding work, Xerox (photo copying) work. Housekeeping & Maintenanceservices for Office Premises & Guest House, Furniture fittings repairs,Waste paper purchase and scrap lifting services, Courier Service, Cateringservices, Railway and Air Ticket Booking, News paper AdvertisingAgencies, Transportation Service (3 wheelers & 4 wheelers), CCTV cam-eras, Fire extinguishers & equipments, Supply of office upkeep & clean-ing material, Laundry Services.

1. Complete details & Application form may be obtained from Office Servicesdepartment, Divisional Office-Faizabad from '02-03-2021 to 22-03-2021between 10:30 AM to 3:00 PM on all working days on payment of Rs. 295(250+45 GST) in cash or DD in favour of “LIC of India” payable at Faizabador from our website www.licindia.in/tenders. The last date of submissionof completed application form along with other requisite documents is upto3:30 PM. on 22-03-2021.

2. Vendors/ Agencies/Firms already working/enlisted with us should also applyfor fresh empanelment.

3. Further communications, corrigendum, if any & extension of date forsubmission of tender if required, will be uploaded in the above givenweb-site only.

4. LIC of India reserve the right to accept/reject any or all of the applicationwithout assigning any reason whatsoever.

Sr.Divisional Manager

BENIGANJ, AYODHYA ROAD, FAIZABAD-224001 PHONE 05278244265 E-MAIL [email protected]

NOTICE

I, Anandita, R/o 1/57,Rashmikhand, Lucknow,226002, have added surnameto my name and now it isAnandita Gupta sworn beforenotary.

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There has been a drasticreduction in the number of

research works at local level inthe field of language and as peran earlier census report, thereare many languages on theverge of extinction. Therefore,research work needs to beencouraged, special effortsmade to conserve the extinctlanguages. Khwaja MoinuddinChishti Language Universitycan contribute significantly inthis direction.

These views wereexpressed by GovernorAnandiben Patel at the fifthconvocation of the languageuniversity on Monday. Thechief guest and keynote speak-er at the convocation was ProfAshok Chakradhar, who wasalso awarded an honoraryDLitt degree on the occasion.Deputy Chief Minister DineshSharma was present at theconvocation as a special guest.

As many as 482 degreesand 85 medals were awarded atthe convocation. The KhwajaMoinuddin Chishti andChancellor medals werereceived by Maryam Hafeezwhile the Vice-Chancellormedal was given to RashidKhurshid Ahmed.

In her address, the gover-nor said that KMCLU hasformed a high-level committeefor languages and it will con-duct high-level multi-discipli-nary research along with read-ing and speaking areas ofIndian and foreign languages.

The governor appreciatedProf Ashok Chakradhar’s con-vocation address and said hisvision can bring a new revolu-

tion in the field of language.She said the university shouldwork under his guidance andestablish new records in thefield of language.

Addressing the school chil-dren who also attended theconvocation, Patel said shehoped they would be able totake inspiration from the pro-gramme and mark their namesin the field of higher education.

Prof Chakradhar said thatseveral languages are facingextinction and some peopleblame it on globalisation andcomputers, but computers area tool through which these lan-guages can be retrieved.

He said that an IndianInstitute of LanguageTechnology Centre should beestablished in the university toconsolidate and co-ordinatethe field of Hindi technology,save its documents and see thefeasibility of open source. Healso mentioned IMALI, whichcan be an alternative to Alexafor India and provide infor-mation to Indians in their per-sonal languages. He also spokeabout his plan, National andInternational KnowledgeAccreditation Standards forHindi, through which multi-level Hindi proficiency exam-ination can be conducted andstudents who succeed in it canbe given online certificates.The examination would be onthe lines of TOEFL and IELTSwhich is conducted by the for-eign embassy, he added.

Prof Chakradhar said thata good word processor isneeded to store Indian lan-guages so that the work of lan-guage technology can be donesuccessfully. He added that

this university should emergeas a carrier of change in lan-guage preservation, standard-isation and digitisation.

Deputy CM DineshSharma said that researchwork can protect the lan-guages which are on the vergeof extinction. “In our histor-ical evidence, a special type ofscript has been used and if wecan perform excellently inresearch work, we can getthat glorious knowledge. Inthe field of language, this uni-versity is the only education-al institution in the statewhere such research is beingdone,” he added.

He urged the universityteachers to make availableinformation about theirresearch activities on the‘ShodhGanga’ portal so thatthe flow of knowledge couldreach everywhere beyond geo-graphical boundaries.

KMCLU Vice-ChancellorProf VK Pathak presented theprogress report and pointedout that in the last threemonths, many positiveimprovements have beenmade in the university. Theuniversity has launched ‘OneView’ app for studentsthrough which they can gettheir results at one place.Also, for the first time, the stu-dents have been provided thefacility of filling examinationforms online, he said.

During the program, theannouncement ofChakradhar’s association as anhonorary professor of the uni-versity was also made by theVC. A souvenir was alsoreleased and schoolchildrenwere presented gifts.

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Prior to heist at Lala JugalKishore and Bankers’ show-

room in Aminabad, the thieveshad stayed in a house adjacentto the establishment for a day.The thieves gained access to the3-storey showroom and reach-ing the ground floor. The stun-ning facts surfaced after theirarrest by a team of police thatwas investigating the case sinceFebruary 27.

Commissioner of Police,Lucknow, DK Thakurannounced a cash prize of Rs50,000 to the team that crackedthe case. The police recoveredgold ornaments (10.159 kg),precious gems worth Rs 25lakh, diamonds worth Rs 25lakh, over 70 lakh in cash, a pis-tol and cartridges stolen fromthe showroom. The police alsorecovered gold ornaments,worth over Rs 8 lakh, whichwere stolen from jewellerystores in Mahanagar andThakurganj. A scooty was alsorecovered from their posses-sion. The total cost of thegoods recovered was estimat-ed at over Rs 7.5 crore.

The accused arrested were

identified as Shoeb (28) &Sabruddin Ansari (39) ofHasanganj and Ansari Ahmadof Thakurganj.

Joint Commissioner ofPolice N Chaudhary said theaccused were tracked downwith the help of CCTV footagein which they were seen trans-porting goods in sacks. Theaccused entered the adjoininghouse which has been lyingvacant for the last three monthsand started their operationfrom there. The thieves choseThursday which is a weeklymarket closure day in the area.

The miscreants tried tocut the iron doors of the housein which they were holed up by4 pm on Thursday and laterleapt to the terrace to reach the

showroom where they usedgas-cutters. They unsuccessful-ly tried to cut the doors of thestrong room where gold orna-ments and precious stoneswere kept in bulk, and latermanaged to cut doors of theshowroom on the ground floor.They collected booty onThursday night and transport-ed it to another place by ascooty, which was seen in aCCTV footage. The accusedowned up their crime and dis-closed that they had also com-mitted theft at two jewellerystores in Mahanagar andThakurganj in the past.

ADCP (West) RajeshSrivastava said the miscreantsused to choose showroomsclose some houses or places.

“The thieves were adept atscaling high-rise buildings,leaping from one building toanother through the terrace.They used to make limited useof mobile phones and theirgang consists of a limited num-ber of thieves,” he said.

He added that Sabruddinhas been named in attemptedto murder, attempted theft andother cases in Lakhimpur dis-trict. The police weretightlipped when asked if therewas any insider involved in thetheft. However, they said therewere some more arrests to fol-low. The thieves were arrestedfollowing a tip-off. Sourcessaid the accused had been con-ducted the recce of the show-room for the last one month. “Itis possible that someone tippedthem off about the showroomdetails and items stored there,”the sources said.

In February 26 night, themiscreants had sneaked intothe showroom in Aminabad,which is one of the busiest mar-kets in the city. The thieveswere well-versed with thetopography of the area and lay-out of the showroom, the policesaid.

�� -".�/�

Atotal of 1,217 people werevaccinated against a target

of 900 at four hospital inLucknow on Monday. The ben-eficiaries included those above60 years and others agedbetween 45-59 years with co-morbidities. District immuni-sation officer Dr MK Singh saidit was a soft launch of vaccina-tions for the general populationthrough walk-in registration.

Dr Singh said those whowere administered Covid vac-cine jabs on Monday included868 who were aged above 60years and 154 aged between 45-59 years. Besides, 195 healthcare workers were also vacci-nated. The district immunisa-tion officer said that 892 ben-eficiaries got the Covishieldwhile 325 Covaxin jabs. Thecoming sessions will bethrough pre-registrations onthis link (http://selfregistra-tion.cowin.gov.in).

“The next session will beon March 4 and 5. People canalso register through theAarogya Setu app,” he said. Headded that there was a massiverush of people aged above 60years at the Civil hospital.

Chief Minister YogiAdityanath visited Civil hospi-

tal to take stock of the vaccina-tion and he also interactedwith the beneficiaries. By 1 pm,160 people had been vaccinat-ed though the target was only100. With the frontline andhealth workers already gettingvaccinated, people were notapprehensive of the vaccinejabs, the district immunisationofficer said.

On some senior citizenshaving problems in coming tothe hospitals for vaccination, hesaid, “If senior citizens arebed-ridden and have severediseases, they should not bevaccinated. However, in othercases, they will have to come tothe hospitals to get vaccinated.

We have all kinds of facilitiesbut we cannot go from door todoor to administer vaccinejabs to people.”

At RMLIMS, KGMU andCivil hospital where the vaccinejab was free of cost, a numberof senior citizens turned up. AtShekhar Hospital where bene-ficiaries had to shell out Rs 250,there was 100 per cent vaccina-tion. Former chief engineer(PWD) Jitendra Srivastava saidhe went to RMLIMS after hisfriend told him that vaccinationwas taking place on a walk-inbasis. “I also got my wife vac-cinated. Later, I called myfriends who have elderly par-ents and told them about the

vaccination drive,” he said. Vishwadeepak, chief gen-

eral manager of a governmentdepartment, also got vaccinat-ed on Monday. He said hisfriend told him about the vac-cination. “I also got my 76-year-old father and 72-year-oldmother vaccinated after I learntthat it was only a one-daywalk-in drive. All of us wereperfectly fine after getting thevaccine jabs,” he said.

Rakesh Srivastava, a retiredgovernment official who cameto the hospital early in themorning, said he was amongstthe first ones to reach the hos-pital and was vaccinated soonafter. “I contacted several of my

friends and told them to getthemselves vaccinated,”Srivastava said.

“I also wanted my wife toget vaccinated but the doctorsuggested that since there is afeeling of general malaise aftervaccination, it would be betterif husband and wife get the jabson different days,” he said.

RMLIMS spokesperson DrShrikesh Singh said peoplewere not very much awareabout walk-in vaccinations.“Prime Minister NarendraModi himself got vaccinated todispel apprehensions. After 12noon, the vaccination pickedup pace at the hospital,” hepointed out. Since the CoWIN

portal was slow, the namescould not be fed and peoplekept waiting.

At KGMU, nodal officerfor Covid Dr Nishant Vermasaid the response was goodbecause it was a walk-in regis-tration. However, he pointedout that most of the peoplewere not aware about onsiteregistrations.

“At our hospital, most ofthe employees brought theirparents and relatives and it wasmassive rush at all the booths.Most of them were related tofrontline and health workers.We mobilised most of our ownemployees to get their parentsvaccinated,” he said.

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Asafai worker employed atthe Gomti Nagar Vistar

STP was found hanging in hishouse on Monday. Police saidhe committed suicide but failedto explain the reason. Thedeceased was identified as RamBaran Prajapati ofMohanlalganj. Brother-in-lawLavkush said Ram Baran wasstaying in a rented accommo-dation in Bahiswara locality.“He ended his life around 10 amon Monday. When we reachedthere, we found him hangingfrom the ceiling with a rope tiedaround his neck,” he said.

Meanwhile, two youthslooted a motorcycle from aman after throwing chilli pow-der into his eyes in SushantGolf City area on Mondayafternoon. Satyanand Singh ofGomtinagar was targeted neara shopping mall in the area. Anunidentified youth stoppedhim to ask for an address. “Assoon as I stopped the bike,another youth reached thescene and threw chilli powderinto my eyes. Later, theypushed me and sped off on mybike,” he told police.

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Lucknow (PNS): Amidst fearsof the spike in fresh Covidcases in some of the districts,15 people tested positive inLucknow on Monday while 12patients recovered. The statecapital’s death toll stands at1,186 while there are 254active cases. According to asenior health official, thosewho tested positive includedthree each from Indiranagarand Gomtinagar. Across thestate, a total of 87 people test-

ed Covid positive, including sixin Kanpur, four each inGhaziabad & Gautam BuddhNagar, two in Varanasi and onein Meerut, pushing the UPcase tally to 6,03,527. Besides,there were three deaths in thestate, including one each inGorakhpur, Hardoi & Unnao,taking the state toll to 8,727.With 104 patients recovering,the recovery figures reached5,92,803. There are 2,078 activecases in the state.

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Lucknow (PNS): Aiming atfast-track growth of digitalcommunication infrastructureand universal access of broad-band at every village, the YogiAdityanath government, underthe National BroadbandMission, has connected as manyas 31,149 gram panchayats ofthe state with optical fiber.

To connect every village inthe state with high-speedbroadband connectivity, theYogi government has set a tar-get to connect 58,194 grampanchayats in 75 districts of thestate with optical fiber byDecember 31, 2022.

As many as 14,100 grampanchayats will get internetconnection in the next 60 days,according to an officialspokesman. Under this mission,launched by the Government ofIndia, 50 lakh kilometres opti-cal fiber is to be laid to ensureavailability of high-speedbroadband service in rural andremote areas of the state. In

addition, the tower density is setto be increased from 0.42 to 1.0per thousand populations sothat access to governmentschemes in rural areas can befacilitated.

On the instructions ofChief Minister YogiAdityanath, Chief SecretaryRK Tiwari constituted a state-level Broadband Committeeunder his chairmanship. In itsmeeting, it was decided to runthe mission in three phases. Inthe first phase, 17,903 grampanchayats in east UP and10,481 gram panchayats inWest UP were provided broad-band access by December 31,2020. In the second phase, thetarget has been set by the offi-cials of the IT and ElectronicsDepartment to provide internetaccess to 17,032 gram panchay-ats of east UP and 2,195 grampanchayats of West UP byMarch 31 (which will beextended to April 30). Afterthis, the third phase will begin.

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The National Human RightsCommission directed the

state government to submitproof of payment to the victimof a gang-rape in Moradabadthe amount it had sanctioned onthe recommendations of theNHRC but apparently did notrelease it. The NHRC, reiterat-ing its earlier recommendationissued on February 23 last,called for a compliance reportwithin four weeks. The NHRCdirected deployment of ladypolice officers in all police sta-tions and sought a list of policestations where there was no ladypolice officer. It also sought dis-ciplinary action against theerring police officers and to reg-ister a case under Section 166AIPC against police personnelwho did not register case onallegation of rape.

The NHRC had registeredthe case on the basis of a com-plaint that some men of herlocality, under the jurisdiction,PS Civil Lines, in Moradabad,had barged into her house onNovember 18, 2018, while shewas alone. She was tied up,gang-raped and tortured by themen in broad daylight beforeleaving the house. On hearingher groans, a person reached thehouse and set her free.Thereafter, when she was takento the Civil Lines police stationto report the matter, she wasmade to wait till midnight butno FIR was registered.

During the course ofinquiry, through its investiga-tion division, the NHRC foundthat the police did not registerthe case or take action on thevictim's complaint. The casewas registered only after theintervention of the court. Thiscaused one and a half months'delay in the registration of thecase by the police.

The NHRC observed thatthis delay led to the destructionof vital evidence of the case. Itsaid this act of negligence ofpolice officials violated humanrights of the victim for whichthe state government was liable.

Therefore, a notice underSection 18 of the PHR Act,1993 was issued to the UP gov-ernment through its chief sec-retary, to show cause why Rs2,00,000 should not be recom-mended to be paid as relief tothe victim.

In response, the report ofthe state government said thatthe victim's complaint datedNovember 25, 2018 was

received by the PS Civil Lineson December 12, 2018.Thereafter, investigation start-ed. The report further statedthat in the interim, the com-plainant filed an applicationU/S 156(3) CrPC in the court.

On the directions of theCourt, an FIR No. 1308/18 u/s452/376/ (d)/ 323 were regis-tered against the six accusedpersons. After investigation,final report No. 47/19 datedFebruary 6, 2019 was submit-ted before the court. The com-plainant also filed a protestpetition against the final report.Again, on the directions of thecourt the matter was re-inves-tigated and the final report wassubmitted in the court. Thereport from the state govern-ment also revealed that twopolice officials, including theChowki in-charge, were foundnegligent for not registering theFIR immediately on the com-plaint of the victim. Hence, thestate government stated thatthe relief of Rs. 2 lakh, as rec-ommended by the NHRC, wasallowed to be paid to the com-plainant for violation of herhuman rights. However, theNHRC observed that the reportby the state government wasnot conclusive as no inputswere provided on the actionstaken by the authorities con-cerned on the three actionablepoints recommended by theNHRC. Therefore, the NHRCissued a reminder notice to theGovernment of Uttar Pradesh.

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U.P. POWER TRANSMIS-SION CORPORATION LTD.E-TENDER NOTICE Following

E-Tenders are invited from the experi-enced/reputed contractors for execution offollowing works For more details login onwebsite www.etender.up.nic.in. 1- E-Tender No.71 / AETC /2020-21:-Work ofannual grass cutting and spraying roundup (glycel chemical) in switchyard of 220kV S/s, Hafizpur, Azamgarh. EarnestMoney: Rs. 2500.00 (Rs. Two ThousandFive Hundred) only. Tender Cost: Rs.296.00 (Rs. Two Hundred Ninety Six) only.2- E - Tender No.72 /AETC/2020-21:-Maintenance of 5x16.5 Ton AC system at400 kV S/s, Hafizpur, Azamgarh. EarnestMoney: Rs. 4000.00 (Rs. Four Thousand)only. Tender Cost: Rs. 472.00 (Rs. FourHundred Seventy Two) only. Earnestmoney will be in the shape of RTGS/NEFTduly pledged in favour of SuperintendingEngineer, Electy. Transmission Circle,UPPTCL, Azamgarh.Tenderers can uploadtheir tender bids against E-Tender No 71& 72 upto 17.00 hrs. of 5.04.2021 and thesame shall be opened on dated 6.04.2021at 13.00 Hrs. & 14.00 Hrs. In case the ten-der opening date is holiday or the under-signed remains out of headquarters, thedate of opening of the tender will standextended to the next working day.Undersigned has the right to reject/divideany tender without assigning any reasonthereof. Conditional tenders shall not beaccepted. SUPERINTENDING ENGINEER(TRANS.) AZAMGARH No. 265 Date27.2.2021 SAVE ELECTRICITY IN THEINTEREST OF NATION

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Lucknow (PNS): Farmers fromKakori and Mall blocks havestarted producing strawberriesof excellent quality under thesupervision of Central Institutefor Subtropical Horticulture(CISH) scientists. Although thisis their maiden effort, they aredetermined to continue thecultivation in near future.

Director Shailendra Rajansaid CISH has been makingefforts to make strawberry com-mercial crops for the farmers ofLucknow since 2014.

“The institute standardisedtechnology and demonstrated itin the field of farmers inMalihabad, Kakori, Mall andMohanlalganj. Package of prac-tices was standardised andplanting material procured fromtemperate zones of the country,mainly from Himachal Pradesh.Now for these farmers, straw-berry is not a new crop,” he said.

He added that CISHarranged tissue culture straw-berry plants for SC farmers dur-ing the past, but crops failed dueto inferior quality plant mater-ial. “The steps taken up by theinstitute have empowered 25farmers during this year andnow they are producing the cropsuccessfully. For popularisingthe cultivation, a field day onstrawberries in subtropical areasat Sarasanda village of Kakoriblock in the field of ManishRawat was organised. Over 120farmers from the villages ofSarasanda, Gopramau,Hasanapur Kakrabad, SaraiAlipur etc of Mall and Kakoriblocks attended it,” Rajan said.

Principal scientist Dr AshokKumar interacted with thefarmers and told them that thestrawberry is a crop of temper-ate climate, but it can also begrown successfully in subtrop-ical climate with advanced tech-nology, hard work and guidanceof scientists.

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The music of Uttar Pradeshis not only traditional but

also very rich because it car-ries the treasure of folk apartfrom being classical anddevotional. Youth should beencouraged to learn Indianart and music, GovernorAnandiben Patel said whilespeaking at the 10th convoca-tion of Bhatkhande MusicInstitute Deemed Universityon Monday.

As many as 44 studentswere awarded medals. Thegirls won 13 gold, five silverand six bronze medals. The

maximum medals wereawarded to Usmeet Singh invocal music.

“Every student’s first aimis to get a degree at an edu-cational institute and toachieve other goals on thebasis of their capabilities. Thestudents who have beenawarded the degrees willmake a name for themselves,not only in the country butalso abroad,” Patel said.

The governor said Indianculture is an invaluable her-itage of knowledge, music, artand science, in which educa-tion plays an important role.“Education gives a combina-

tion of social, philosophicaland moral values enrichingthe lives of students,” she said.

She added that under theNew Education Policy, 70 percent of the course would be asper the interest of students.The governor said that regu-lar medical check-ups offemale students should becarried out because a new-born dies every 53 seconds,primarily because girls areanaemic and married at ayounger age. “It is importantfor universities to look afterthe health of female students,”she said.

�� ",'('��!��The 2-day online science

and computer festival, ‘Vista2021’, organised by CityMontessori School, AliganjCampus I to mark NationalScience Day, concluded with aprize distribution ceremonyon Monday. Deputy ChiefMinister Dinesh Sharma calledupon teachers and parents todevelop scientific, human andglobal outlook in students fromthe beginning. The winners ofvarious competitions were hon-oured amidst a colourful edu-cational-cultural presentation.

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The School ofManagement Sciences andElectric One organised a‘Marathon Run for Green’,which started from gate num-ber 4 of Janeshwar MishraPark at 7 am. About 700 peo-ple participated in the run.Dignitaries from governmentand non-governmental institu-tions also registered their pres-ence in the event. The closingceremony was held under thechairmanship of Sharad Singh,secretary and chief executiveofficer of the School ofManagement Sciences andmanaging director of Electric-One Shweta Singh. Prizes ande-certificates were given awayto the winner and runners-up.

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Corporation (UPMRC) is com-memorating Foundation Dayof National Safety Council onMarch 4 by celebrating SafetyWeek from March 1 to 6.National Safety Council isentering its 50th year andLucknow metro is activelyinvolved in renewing the com-

mitment of employees andgeneral public for work safety.The theme for National SafetyDay is ‘Learn from disaster andprepare for a safer future.’

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The Lucknow Circle ofState Bank of India has got theopportunity to organise the‘All-India Inter Circle HockeyTournament 2020-21’.Lucknow Circle had successful-ly organised table-tennis andhockey tournaments in pastyears. In earlier days, there werelots of national and internation-al players in the LucknowCircle team, includingOlympian & gold medallistRavinder Pal Singh andOlympian Syed Ali. CGM &president of CWC Ajay KumarKhanna said: “I hope all theCircle teams from differentparts of India will show goodsportsmen sprit during thetournament. A total of 10teams will participate in thetournament from all over India.The teams will be divided intothree groups and 12 leaguematches will be played fromMarch 3 to 5. Semi-final will beplayed on March 6 and final onMarch 7.

./��$��$�� !%$BJP MP from Faizabad

(now Ayodhya) Lallu Singh hadan informal meeting with theDRM of Northern Railways,Lucknow division, at the latter’soffice on Monday. Singh dis-cussed in detail the ongoingworks in Ayodhya. He stressedon the need of timely comple-tion of projects. An officialspokesman of NR said the DRMtook immediate cognisance ofthe proposals by the MP andassured him swift redressal.

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In yet another hoochtragedy, four people died

after consuming spuriousliquor in Nevadhiyaghat vil-lage in Dehat Kotwali policearea of Mirzapur, police saidon Monday. AdditionalSuperintendent of PoliceSanjay Verma said that in thefirst incident, two peopleidentified as Chhedi Nishadand Mahesh Nishad died atthe district hospital. He saidthat both had bought liquorfrom an individual whomakes illicit alcohol in thevillage on Saturday evening.When their conditions dete-riorated, their families admit-ted them to the hospitalwhere they died earlyMonday morning whilereceiving treatment.

The bodies were sent forpost-mortem. The ASP saidthat Raja Tiwari and Suresh(50) also died in the villageon Sunday. He said the duowere habitual drinkers. Theirbodies have been crematedand an investigation is under-way.

Based on the statementsof the deceased's families,police have arrested oneKashi on charges of makingillegal liquor and recovered250 illegal pouches of alcoholand paraphernalia used inmaking liquor from hishouse. Commissioner ofMirzapur division,Yogeshwar Ram Mishra,District Magistrate PraveenKumar, Superintendent ofPolice Ajay Singh inspectedthe spot.

Police jawans have been

deployed in the entire villageto avert any untoward inci-dent.

It may be mentioned thatabout a month back, fourpeople had died after con-suming suspected spuriousliquor at Jeetgadi village ofBulandshahr.

Reacting strongly to thetragedy, the state govern-ment had placed four police-men, including a stationhouse officer, in Bulandshahrdistrict, under suspension.

A departmental probewas initiated against JointExcise Commissioner MeerutZone Rajesh Mani Tripathi,Deputy CommissionerSuresh Chandra Patel andBulandshahr District ExciseOff icer Sanjay KumarTripathi for laxity in supervi-sory work over the incident.

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Two minors were burnt aliveafter a tenant threw petrol and

set the wife and kids of his land-lord on fire at Nehru Nagar inAkbarpur area of Kanpur Dehat,police said on Monday.

Superintendent of PoliceKeshav Kumar said that corpora-tor Jitendra Yadav was livingwith his wife Archana and twochildren daughter Akshita (4)and one-and-half year old sonHanu in Nehru Nagar nearAkbarpur Kotwali. A womanconstable Usha, who is deployedat the Kotwali, and her husbandAvneesh were tenants in JitendraYadav's house. As per the neigh-bours, Avneesh poured petrol onArchana and her two kids lateSunday night and set them on fire.As the trio started screaming,Jitendra, who was sleeping out-side, and his neighbours rushedto rescue the victims. They some-how doused the flames andrushed all the four, includingJitendra, to district hospital in crit-ical condition where both the kidssuccumbed to injuries.

Meanwhile, the peoplechased Avneesh to nab him whenhe was trying to flee. To make asafe escape, Avneesh tried tocross the highway but he failed tonotice a speeding truck and washit by it and critically injured. Thelocals shifted him to a hospitaland informed the police. SPKeshav Kumar, who visited thespot along with local police, said

that the accused was in mentalstress for many days. He said thepolice had also detained womanconstable Usha and were grillingher to find out what prompted herhusband to kill the landlord andhis family.

Meanwhile in Pilibhit, policedetained a 16-year-old boy forallegedly raping a four-year-oldgirl. Police said the boy alleged-ly took the four-year-old to asecluded place in the village onSaturday and raped her.

"The boy has been caughtand will be produced before theJuvenile Justice Board. He stud-ies in class VIII. Both the boy andthe girl are from the same com-munity," the local SHO said.

The girl's father stated in thecomplaint that his daughter alongwith other children were playingoutside the house on Saturdayevening when the accused cameand gave something to his daugh-ter to eat. The boy then took thechild to a secluded place andraped her, the police said quotingthe complainant.

In Aligarh, the body of a 16-year-old Dalit girl was found ina field in the Akrabad area, fol-lowing which villagers clashedwith police and indulged instone pelting, police said onMonday. The girl had gone to thefields on Sunday afternoon to col-lect fodder for cattle but did notreturn. Later, her body was foundin a field when her family mem-bers started searching for her.Police said prima facie the girlwas strangled. As the newsspread, irate villagers peltedstones at a police party which wastrying to take the body for post-mortem. Inspector PranendraKumar was injured in the attack,police said.

Senior Superintendent ofPolice Muniraj G told reportersthat they rushed to the spot andpacified the villagers who thenhanded over the body to police-men. He said the allegations ofsexual assault were being probedand they were waiting for theautopsy report.

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Chennai: DMK President MKStalin turned 68 on Monday andthe party marked the occasionby releasing a campaign song forthe April 6 Assembly elections.

The song titled “Stalin dancevaraaru, vidiyal than poraru”(Stalin is going to come andensure dawn) was relased bysenior DMK leaderDuraimurugan.

On Monday, Stalin paidfloral tributes at the memorialsof his father and former ChiefMinister of Tamil Nadu,Muthuvel Karunandihi, thefounder of Dravidian politics,C.N. Annadurai, besides visitingthe memorial of E.V.S. Periyar,the rationalist leader of TamilNadu. While addressing a DMKleadership meet, Stalin said thatif voted to power, he will striveto make Tamil Nadu the beststate in all spheres of life.

Several programmes,including sporting events, wereorganised by the DMK youthwing across the state to mark theoccasion. IANS

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Gandhinagar: There was anaverage of around 64% pollingin the local body elections formunicipalities, district and tehsilpanchayats in Gujarat onSunday. Voting for 8,473 seats inmunicipalities, 980 in districtpanchayats and 4,773 in talukapanchayats took place across36,008 booths. The counting ofvotes will take place on March2. According to the StateElection Commission (SEC),around 64 per cent voter turnoutwas recorded in the elections toGujarat's 81 municipalities, 31district panchayats and 231 talu-ka panchayats which were heldin a largely peaceful manner.

As per the figures providedby the State ElectionCommission (SEC), there was58.82 percent voter turnoutacross 81 municipalities, 65.80per cent in 31 district panchay-ats, and 66.60 per cent in 231taluka panchayats. The average

voting percentage across allthese local bodies together wasaround 63.74 per cent.

The SEC officials said vot-ing for 8,473 seats, comprising2,720 in 680 wards in 81 munic-ipalities, 980 in 31 district pan-chayats and 4,773 in 231 talukapanchayats took place across36,008 booths. Out of them, 237seats remained unopposed, andno forms were filled for two seatsin taluka panchayat. The elec-tions were held on a total 8,235seats for which the BJP had field-ed 8,161 candidates, Congress7,778, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)2,090, among others, said theSEC. Besides these, by-electionsfor two seats in taluka panchay-ats and 24 seats in municipali-ties, was also held on Sunday,where there was 47.63 percentvoter turnout in municipalityby-elections and 68.65 per centin taluka panchayats by-elections. IANS

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Alert jawans of Kathuapolice in Jammu region

late Sunday night foiled a cowsmuggling bid after intercept-ing a water tanker near SatkeyChak and rescued ninebovines packed inside themodified cavity.

However, the driver ofthe water tanker managed togive a slip to the police partydeployed at one of the securi-ty checkpoints along theNational highway. In the lastone month Kathua police hassuccessfully foiled 16 bovinesmuggling bids and rescuedover 200 bovines.

At present Kathua policeis catering for over 500bovines, kept in a cowshed inKathua. These bovines wererescued by the police teamswhile they were being illegal-ly transported towards theKashmir valley.

Senior Superintendent ofPolice, Kathua Shailendra

Mishra said, “late Sundaynight a rare type of bovinesmuggling bid was noticed inwhich a water tanker wasbeing used for illegal trans-portation of animals”.

He said a water tankerbearing Reg.No.JK02AD-5569was intercepted by the policeteams.” When the driver wasdirected to stop for checking,the driver of the water tankerparked the vehicle way behindthe naka point and fled away

from the spot taking advan-tage of the darkness”

During checking of thesaid tanker 09 bovines werefound loaded inside thetanker.

According to a writtenstatement issued by theKathua police, “A case videFIR No. 100/2021 UnderSections 188 IPC,11 PCA Acthas been registered in P/SKathua and further investiga-tion has been set into motion”.

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Maharashtra Governor BhagatSingh Koshyari said here on

Monday that the Centre owed a siz-able sum of Rs 29,290 to the ShivSena-led MVA Government asGoods and Services Tax (GST)compensation.

Addressing a joint sitting of theMaharashtra Legislature on the firstday of the State Legislature, Koshyarisaid: “By the end of February 2021,out of the Rs 46,950 crore due to myGovernment as Goods and ServicesTax Compensation, the CentralGovernment has paid just Rs 6140crore and Rs 11,520 crore as loan forGoods and Services Tax compensa-tion. Goods and Services TaxCompensation to the tune of Rs29,290 crore is overdue from theCentre”.

Lamenting that the State econ-omy had slowed down because ofthe Covid lockdown, medical emer-gency and natural calamities, theGovernor said: “Of the revenue col-lection target of Rs 3,47,456 crore,the State has collected just Rs1,88,542 crore at the end of January2021. This is 35 per cent less thanthe budgetary estimate and 21 percent lower than the collection in thesame period in the previous year.

The Governor said that thestate government was pursuingwith the Government of India forincreasing the grant in aid receivableto my State in accordance with therecommendations of the Central

Finance Commission.“Last year was not only a year

of medical emergency but also pre-sented several economic challenges.As jobs and livelihoods were affect-ed, my Government undertookmassive humanitarian aid pro-grammes,” he said. The Governorsaid that in view of the pandemic sit-uation and the economic condition,the State government is pursuingwith the Centre to increase the lat-ter’s contribution to central schemes

“To stimulate the economy, mygovernment has provided for 75 per-cent of the budgetary provision forcapital expenditure and released 100percent money to the LocalDevelopment Fund, DPC schemesand Dongri Vikas Karyakram,” theGovernor noted.

Alluding to the success ‘MyFamily, My Responsbility’ scheme ofthe chief minister, Koshyari said thatthrough as an ‘innovative healthcheckup mission in the country’, thestate government had carried outtwo rounds of surveys, the stage gov-ernment had reached out to all thefamilies in the state. During the sur-vey, it had examined high-risk per-sons and senior citizens and detect-ed many Covid-19 cases whichhelped chart out the state healthmap. “By participation of citizensin the management of Covid-19pandemic, our state ensured success-ful control of this epidemic. But thebattle against Covid-19 is still on andnow the ‘Me Jababdar’ (MyAccountability) mission has been

launched,” the Governor said. Koshyari said that the state

government had effectively combat-ed the pandemic by reducing thenumber of active cases, dealingsuccessfully with problem areas likeDharavi (Mumbai slum), first to setup jumbo (field) corona hospitals,implementing the Mahatma PhuleJeevandayi Yojana to prevent exor-bitant charges for treatment.

The government had also aug-mented testing facilities and regu-lated testing fees, hiked capacity inpublic hospitals and reserved bedsin private hospitals at affordablerates, for public benefit, he said.

Stressing on the need for “con-stant Vigil” on safety measures as theCovid-19 dangers have not passedwith the imminent possibility of a‘second wave’, the Governor stressedon physical distancing norms, face-masks, washing hands, etc.

The Governor said that the Statewas also implementing the Covid-19 vaccination programme andinvesting in public health infrastruc-ture by approving new medical col-leges for Sindhudurg, Nashik andOsmanabad, with plans for more infuture. Chief minister UddhavThackeray, his deputy Ajit Pawar,Leaders of Opposition in rthweAssembly and Council respective-ly Devendra Fadnavis and PravinDarekar, ministers and legislatorsfrom both the houses were presentat the Joint sitting of membersfrom both the Houses of the StateLegislature.

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Itanagar/Agartala: Arunachal Pradeshhas reported zero Covid cases during thelast ten days, even as the state's recoveryrate stands at 99.67 per cent, the secondhighest in the country after the UnionTerritory of Dadra & Nagar Haveli andDaman & Diu having a recovery rate at99.82 per cent, health officials said onMonday.

According to the data released by theUnion Ministry of Health and FamilyWelfare on Monday, the total Covid-19positive cases in Arunachal Pradeshwere 16,836, while the number of recov-eries stood at 16,780.

In all, 56 patients have succumbed tothe coronavirus in the northeasternstate registering the fatality rate of 0.33per cent. As per the information releasedby the Union Ministry of Health andFamily Welfare, the recovery rate of sevenof the eight northeastern states exclud-ing Sikkim is above 98 per cent.

Sikkim's recovery rate is 97.05 percent and mortality rate is 2.20 per cent,the third highest in India after Punjab(3.20 per cent) and Maharashtra (2.42 percent). The northeastern state of Mizoramamong the 28 states in India has the dis-tinction of having the lowest death rateof 0.23 per cent and the state's recoveryrate is 99.21 per cent.

Mizoram was the lone state in Indiawhere there was no Covid-19 relateddeath until October 28 last year even asthe first death was reported in India onJanuary 30, 2020. According to thehealth officials in Aizawl on Monday,Mizoram has so far reported 4,423Covid-19 cases with ten people having

died. While 4,393 people have recoveredfrom the infectious virus, there were 20active cases as on Monday. The officialssaid that all the ten deaths were in two-- Aizawl (9) and Serchhip (1) -- of thestate's 11 districts.

Meanwhile, in a bid to contain thespread of coronavirus, officials inMeghalaya said that the night curfew (11p.m. in the night to 5 a.m. in the morn-ing) would remain in force in Shillongand other adjoining areas under the EastKhasi Hills district for the next seven daysfrom Monday. Besides Shillong, thenight curfew is being extended from timeto time in Mizoram capital Aizawl.

According to the officials of theHealth and family Welfare Departmentof Assam, the state had reported its firstdeath due to coronavirus on April 10 lastyear. The first death in Assam, as well asin the northeastern region, was report-ed from Hailakandi district in southernAssam where a middle aged man, whohad gone abroad, succumbed to Covid-19 at the Silchar Medical College andHospital.

In Assam, 2,17,537 people have so farbeen infected by the dreaded virus and2,14,830 people recovered from the dis-ease with the recovery and mortality ratesare 98.76 per cent and 0.50 per centrespectively. The state's active cases onMonday were 1,615. With 39 active caseson Monday, Tripura, where so far 32,987people have recovered out of the 33, 417Covid-19 infected people, did not witnessany death due to Covid-19 during thepast 43 days. So far, 391 people have dieddue to Covid-19 in Tripura. IANS

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The lawyers of AllahabadHigh Court on Monday

took out a procession fromHigh Court to Civil Lines inprotest against the EducationService Tribunal Bill, whichprovides for setting up of theprincipal bench of theEducation Service Tribunal atLucknow.

Meanwhile, the workingin Allahabad High Courtremained paralysed as lawyerscontinued to boycott the judi-cial work on the fourth consec-utive day. In a resolution passedon Friday, the Allahabad HighCourt Bar Association (HCBA)also resolved to continue toboycott judicial work onTuesday on the same issue.

Later, in a general housemeeting, the speakers termedthe present Education ServiceBill as an attempt to weaken thejudiciary by making inroads

into the areas which are ear-marked for judicial functions.According to speakers, at pre-sent around 10 to 12 courts aredealing with education andeducation service matters in theHigh Court. The speakersalleged that by this proposededucation tribunal, all suchmatters will go to the tribunal,which will be presided over byretired officers, who have noknowledge of law.

The general house meetingwas presided over by HCBApresident, Amrendra NathSingh, while secretaryPrabhashankar Mishra con-ducted it.

In a press release issued byHCBA joint secretary (press)Rajendra Kumar Singh, a meet-ing of the former office-bear-ers and senior advocates will beheld on Saturday in the studyroom of the bar association tochalk out future strategy for theagitation.

B O D Y O F M A NFOUND: The body of a 30-year-old man was found on theroad under mysterious cir-cumstances in Kaushambi dis-trict of UP. His head was badlycrushed. When people saw thebody on Monday morning,they expected that the man waskilled. However, police believedthat there is a possibility ofdeath in a road accident due tobroken vehicle glass and mobiloil lying on the road. Police arecurrently investigating the mat-ter.

The body of a 30-year-oldman was found with his headcrushed on the road onMonday morning near a turnin Rahimabad village of PipriKotwali. Police reached thespot on getting informationfrom the people, through theAadhar card found near thebody, they informed the rela-tives. The family membersidentified the young man as

Rohit Kumar son of RamKripal resident of Mendwarapolice station.

According to the relatives,Rohit used to eke out the liv-ing comprising his three chil-dren including his wife bydoing odd jobs. On Mondaymorning he went to Prayagrajto do his wages. He was goingfrom a vehicle to Prayagraj.Meanwhile, his body wasreported to be lying near thebend in Rahimabad village ofPipri area. A glass of brokenauto and scattered mobil oil issuggested to have died in theaccident at the scene. There wasa possibility that the vehicle onwhich Rohit was riding, waslikely to die due to the collapseof the same. Rahimabad out-post incharge of Pipri,Awadhraj Yadav, said that thedeath of young men was yet tobe ascertained. The vehicle onwhich he was riding was alsobeing traced, he added.

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Union Minister for Textilesand Women & Child

Development Smriti Irani vis-ited Kashi Vishwanath templehere on Monday and offeredprayer. In the presence of priestDr Srikant Mishra she alsooffered Dughdhabhishek andduring her staying there, alongwith some senior officers andBharatiya Janata Party (BJP)leaders, she also inspected thepremises to see the ongoingconstruction work of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’s‘Dream Project’ KashiVishwanath Corridor.

During her staying there,she was apprised of the ongo-ing project by the ChiefExecutive Officer (CEO) ofKashi Vishwanath temple SunilVerma. Smriti Irani expressedher happiness over the pace ofprogress in the corridor’s work.She attracted the attention ofthe people when she stayed ata shop and tasted Golgappas.She was in the city on her twodays programme of BJP. Sheattended almost all the pro-grammes of party president JP Nadda including one at Gokuldhan Lawn, Harahua

where Nadda addressed theMPs, MLAs, MLCs and othersof Kashi regional unit of theparty.

PRIMARY CLASSESREOPEN: After a long gapsince nationwide lockdownwas imposed to prevent spreadof worldwide coronavirus pan-demic, the primary school stu-dents attended their classeshere on Monday. As per theCOVID-19 guidelines to thegovernment, only 33 per centstudents were called for attend-ing the classes and by this newarrangement, the childrenstudying from Class I to V willattend their classes only twicea week.

Since the order given bythe government, for the last oneweek the schools were makingarrangements for the sameallowing only 33 per cent stu-dents for a day. The upperclasses of the secondary schoolshave already reopened andthey are running also with thesame arrangements. Theschools are allowing the chil-dren only after getting theconsent from their parents/guardians.

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For private doctors treatingand running OPD for

patients in a government hos-pital, this may sound bizarrebut is nonetheless true. Thestate government has approvedthe opening of super-speciali-ty clinics at government hospi-tals too. To start with, thefacility is being provided at TejBahadur Sapru (Beli) Hospitalof Sangam city and BalrampurHospital of Lucknow.

‘Following the instructionsof the government, we wouldbe starting these clinics fromMarch 2 for which we arerequesting the private doctorsof the city, who are specialist oftheir own field, to kindly spare

some valuable time from theirschedule and provide theirconsultancy to the patientswho cannot afford thembecause of poor financial con-dition’, said Chief MedicalSuperintendent (CMS) of TejBahadur Sapru HHospital, DrKiran Malik.

Since our hospital has beenselected for this unique schemeof providing a super specialityclinic for the common man,private doctors would be treat-ing the patients for free. In theinitial phase the clinic willhave treatment for plasticsurgery, gastro and neuro-surgery which would be furtherextended to other fields too, sheadded.

To start with, the hospital

has got the acknowledgementfrom the eminent plastic sur-geon of the city, Dr SanjayTiwari who would be provid-ing his services from March 2.The CMS also informed thatthe system of gastro-neuro-surgery will start soon.

Dr Tiwari would provideconsultation to the patientsfrom 9 am to 11am on everyTuesday. Besides, he wouldalso conduct operations everyThursday.

The private doctors, whowould be providing their ser-vices at the hospital wouldalso be provided with a suitablehonorarium by the govern-ment.

‘It is more of an opportu-nity for the medicos to con-

tribute towards the society asnot many people can afford thefees of private doctors’, said DrMalik. Only two hospitals inthe state have been approvedfor super-speciality clinics andit’s an honour that Beli hospi-tal has also been included.CMS, the superintendent andthe staff members of this 112years old hospital are veryexcited about this scheme.

‘Our efforts to provide bestof the treatment will continueat the hospital but indeed theadditional help that wouldcome to us in the form of con-sultation of the private doctorswould be an added advantagefor the patients’, saidSuperintendent of the hospitalDr Manoj Akhori.

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In his bid to encourage theparty workers of Purvanchal

(eastern UP) for the nextassembly election under party’sMission-2022, Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP) President JP Naddacalled upon the party workersto follow the path given byPrime Minister Narendra Modiin view to strengthen the party,telling them ‘to put all theirstrength in social welfare, onlythen we will be able to fight wellagainst the coronavirus.’ He wasaddressing the workers ofBooth Number 251 (HartirathWard) under MadhyameshwarMandal unit here on Monday.

‘If the booth is strong thenthe district, state and nationwill also be strong as the bestplace for any politics is thebooth,’ he said, adding thatonce a month, booth workerscollectively listen to the PM’s‘Mann Ki Baat’ programme,suggesting every worker toparticipate in each other’s hap-

piness and sorrow. Accordingto him, six programmes of theparty should be planned andcelebrated at booth level,reminding the same as 6 April(Foundation Day), 14 April(Ambedkar Jayanti), 25September (Pandit DeendayalUpadhyay birth anniversary),25 December (GoodGovernance Day on the birthanniversary of Pandit AtalBihari Vajpayee), 23 June (DrShyama Prasad Mukherjee’ssacrifice day) and 11 February(Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay’sdedication day).

He asked the booth chiefsto contact at least six housesevery day. Booth presidentRajesh Kumar Yadav welcomedNadda while the function wasconducted by Ashish Yadav. Inthe morning, Nadda visitedKashi Vishwanath and KalBhairav temples and offeredprayer there. He also tastedBanarasi Kachori, Jalebi, Idli,Dhokla and Malayo, apart fromsipping tea in earthen pot.

Later, the BJP chief visitedtrans-Ganga area located PtDeen Dayal Upadhyay SmritiUpvan at Parao in Chandaulidistrict where he met socialmedia workers after payingtributes to Pt Upadhyayterming him, as an inspirationof crores of workers by givinga new direction to the BJP andJansangh.

He congratulated all for thestart of the second phase ofCOVID-19 vaccination, hailingthe leadership of Modi duringthe coronavirus pandemic bysaving the nation.

Earlier, Nadda addressedthe meeting of MPs, MLAs,MLCs and mayors in the sec-ond session on the first day ofhis two-day visit. He praisedboth the Prime Minister andChief Minister.

Speaking on the occasion,the CM Yogi Adityanath saidthat the leadership of parlia-mentarian of Varanasi Modi isan inspiration for all of us andwe all have a moral responsibil-

ity to follow the noble lifestyleof our principal leadership andimbibe in life that paves theway for the progressive devel-opment of society. The meetingwas conducted by MP andincharge of Kashi area SubrataPathak.

The meeting was alsoattended by State PresidentSwatantra Dev Singh, unionministers Mahendra NathPandey, Smriti Irani, deputyCM Keshav Prasad Morya,state incharge Radha MohanSingh, Allahabad MP RitaBahuguna Joshi, UP ministersDr Neelkanth Tiwari, RavindraJaiswal, Anil Rajbhar, NandGopal Nandi, Girish Yadav,Rajya Sabha MP SeemaDwivedi, MLCs LaxmanAcharya, Ashok Dhawan,MLAs Saurabh Srivastava,Surendra Narayan Singh, DrAvadhesh Singh, Sushil Singh,Sadhna Singh, Anurag Singh,mayors Mridula Jaiswal(Varanasi) and AbhilashaGupta Nandi (Prayagraj).

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The elderly over 60 years ofage were administered the

corona vaccine in the ongoingwar against the coronavirushere on Monday. In Prayagraj,they were now being vaccinat-ed with Covid vaccine today i.e.Monday. The elderly were seento have more ardor and enthu-siasm than health workers.The district’s Tej BahadurSapru (Beli) Hospital, MedicalCollege campus and UnitedMedicity Hospital have wit-nessed a surge of the elderly.Immunisation staff were alsoexcited over this.

Vaccination today was onlyfor the elderly and sick people

between the ages of 45 and 60years.

There was a lot of enthusi-asm among the elderly too.Today, maximum 100 peoplewere vaccinated at each centre.Elderly people over the age of80 were also seen coming to thehospitals. Some people werealso accompanied by their rel-atives for supporting them.

ACMO Dr Satyendra Raisaid that the vaccination wasconducted by 5 pm. Phonenumbers were written in thecards given to the beneficiarieswho got vaccinated.

Medical assistance can beobtained by calling that num-ber in case of any problem, headded.

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Congress’s much-publicized‘Nadi Adhikar Yatra’ began

around 1 pm on Monday after-noon from Baswar village inGhurpur. After a brief address,Pramod Tiwari, a special invi-tee member of the CongressWorking Committee, flaggedoff the yatra by showing theparty flag. He said that theCongress will give the Nishadcommunity their ancestralrights.

After launching the NadiAdhikar Yatra, Pramod Tiwaritold the people present therethat Maa Ganga and Yamunahave a mother-son relationshipwith Nishad. The BJP govern-ment has done the work of sep-arating mother and son. On theformation of the Congress gov-ernment, the law implementedat the time of former ChiefMinister Narayan Dutt Tiwariwill be restored and the Nishadcommunity will have the rightover the river, soil and sand.

On the first day, about 300

people participated in thepadyatra under the NadiAdhikar Yatra. It also includesNishad of Arail, Mawiya village.All the people had left for thenext stop under the YatraIncharge Congress’s BackwardClasses State Unit President

Manoj Yadav.It may be noted that on

February 4, the administrationtook action on illegal mining ofsand in Baswar. Oppositionparties have made it an issue.First the Samajwadi Partyopened the front and then the

Nishad Party came forward.After this, the Congress led byPriyanka Gandhi Vadra alsotook the government on target.Priyanka Gandhi Vadra herselfcame to Baswar village onSunday, February 21. She alsorequested for assistance of Rs10 lakh to 23 Nishad familiesfor repairing the broken boatson behalf of the State CongressCommittee, and alsoannounced for taking out NadiAdhikar Yatra.

The Congress GeneralSecretary had spoken of fight-ing on this issue from the roadto the Parliament. The NadiAdhikar Yatra will conclude onMarch 20 at Manjhi Ghat inBallia. During this,Congressmen will communi-cate with people in about 600villages.

The Yatra will reach Balliavia Mirzapur, Bhadohi,Varanasi, Chandauli, Ghazipur.Congress General SecretaryPriyanka Gandhi Vadra isexpected to join the Yatra inMirzapur.

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Amidst prevailing of sever-al confusions about how to

enroll one’s name for gettingvaccine shot, the second phaseof vaccination has started in thedistrict on a lack-lustre manneras just a few hundreds of thebeneficiaries were invited forvaccination in governmenthospitals/ centres whereas thesame has also started at privatehospitals. Confusions are stillprevailing as both the districtand health departments failedto inform a huge number of oldaged persons for the vaccina-tion. In the early phase, thehealth and frontline workerswere vaccinated for over adozen days since the processstarted on January 16.

Meanwhile, only one newCOVID-19 patient has beentested positive, increasing thetally of confirmed cases to22,002 by Monday evening.

With no COVID-19 deathbeing reported in the last 24hours, the death toll remainsat 377.

With two COVID-19patients having been cured inhome isolation, the number ofCOVID-19 patients recov-ered in the district so far is21,581 including 18,605 inhome isolation and 2,976 inCovid hospitals.

As present 44 active casesare under treatment in the dis-trict. The recovery rate in thedistrict is 98.08 per cent andthe mortality rate 1.71 percent.

MGKVP CONVOCA-TION TO BE HELD TODAY:A total of 81,566 graduate andpostgraduate students willreceive degrees in the 42ndconvocation function to beheld on Tuesday at 3 pm atconvocation place in human-itarian faculty of MahatamaGandhi Kashi Vidyapeeth

campus. Tripti Singh of MPEd will

be honoured with Dr VibhutiNarayan Singh Gold MedalAward for topping the univer-sity.

Secretar y, Science &Technology, Government ofIndia Prof Ashutosh Sharmawill deliver convocationspeech, while the Governorand varsity ChancellorAnandiben Patel will presideover it, the Vice-ChancellorProd TN Singh informed thepresspersons.

A total of 81,566 graduateand postgraduate studentsincluding 30,652 boysand 50,919 girls wil lreceive degrees, the V-Cinformed adding, the degreeof PhD will be given to asmany as 40 students, whileone student will get the degreeof DLitt.

Tripti Singh of MPEd willbe honoured with the presti-

gious Dr Vibhuti NarayanSingh Gold Medal Award forsecuring the maximum marksin the university, the V-Cinformed and added, besidesher, a total of 59 students willbe given gold medals includ-ing 14 students at graduatelevel, 43 at postgraduate leveland two from sports.

A total of 571 studentssecured place in top 10 oftheir respective coursesincluding 154 at graduatelevel and 417 at postgraduatelevel.

On Monday, the rehearsalof the convocation functionwas held and a sobha yatrawas also taken out on the eveof function.

The registrar Dr Saheb LalMaur ya and director ofMadan Mohan MalviyaInstitute of Hindi JournalismProf Om Prakash Singh werealso present during the pressconference.

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.��#��#��#��ALLAHABAD (PNS): TheBank of Baroda (BoB) employ-ees’ organisations protestedagainst the privatisation ofbanks here on Monday. Ameeting of the managing com-mittee of Lucknow Zone ofBank of Baroda EmployeesOrganistion Uttar Pradesh andBank of Baroda EmployeesUnion in Prayagraj was alsoheld here. The employeesshowed unity in a meetingheld at a hotel on Civil Lines.

Karunesh Shukla, presi-dent of the organisation presid-

ing over the meeting, opposedthe privatisation of nationalbanks by the Central govern-ment. He explained the illeffects that would have on therural economy. He said thatprivatisation would be fatalfor social upliftment andprogress of the nation. It wouldencourage capitalists contraryto the basic spirit of theConstitution. OrganisationGeneral Secretary VinayPrakash Saxena informed themembers about the policychanges at the bank level. At the

same time, he encouraged all toparticipate in the proposednationwide strike by the UnitedForum of Bank Union onMarch 15th and 16th in protestagainst privatisation. He saidthat he is against any such pol-icy of the government whichhinders the progress of theweaker sections of the society.However, the organisation alsocommitted to support thebank’s progress. AssistantGeneral Secretary and RegionalSecretary Prayagraj SK Singhwelcomed the guests and mem-

bers from different places of thestate. Kunwar Tej Pratap Singhthanked the members ofPrayagraj area includingSundar Lal, Anand Singh,Kanhaiya Yadav, PrabhanjanPrasad, Vikram Singh, Rajeshand others for the successfulorganisation of the programme.

Senior officials of theorganisation Rajesh Srivastava,Vipin Rao, Arvind Shukla fromKanpur, Khalid Wali, ArunAgarwal from Lucknow, SBSingh from Sultanpur etcattended the meeting.

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Afamily counselling seminarwas organised to make the

families of the personnel workingin the Dudhichua project ofNorthern Coalfields Limited(NCL) aware of the working ofthe mines and day-to-day chal-lenges, for providing some impor-tant information related to theirsafety along with their healthbesides discussing topics likeestablishing coordination in thework area and family life. Atotal of 50 families participated in the familycounselling seminar organised in Dudhichuaarea-situated Suryakiran Bhawan and sharedtheir experiences of workplace and daily fam-ily life. General Manager, Dudhichua Area,Bipin Kumar, who presided over the pro-gramme motivated everyone to increase pro-duction and productivity while being vigilant andalert towards safety and also praised importantcontribution of families in ensuring the safety

and health of the personnel.On the occasion chairpersonof Sangini Mahila Samiti,Kiran Kumar, who was thechief guest, interacted with thepeople present there and whilepraising the contribution ofwomen said that success in nomajor work can be achievedwithout the support of family.Kumar shared her experienceson the role of a good work-place environment as well as agood family environment. Inthe programme the imple-

mentation of mines safety standards was dis-cussed with the employees and their familymembers and gratitude was expressed towardsthe women of all families for their special con-tribution. A film on the working style of Dudhichuaarea was also screened on the occasion. Dudhichuaarea’s all departmental heads with their families,CMOAI general secretary Sarvesh Singh, ShramSangh office-bearers besides other officers andemployees were present during the programme.

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A‘Swavalamban’ (self-reliance) programme was

organised by the RuralDevelopment Department ofHindalco Renusagar PowerDivision at Renusagar audito-rium recently. In order tomake women of the nearbyrural areas self-reliant sewingmachines were distributed,for agricultural work sprayingmachines to villagers and toworkers with electrical train-ing tools kits and certificates.Besides to meritorious stu-dents from remote areas solarlamps were distributed, formaking the needy self-relianthandcarts and to studentswho had secured more than75 per cent marks through thecoaching centre being run inGarbandha and Parsi villagesstudying material. The chiefguest, Superintendent of Police(SP), Sonbhadra, AmarendraPrasad Singh, and President(Energy) of Renusagar Division

KP Yadav inaugurated theprogramme by jointly lightingthe lamp. The schoolgirls pre-sented a welcome song. In hisaddress SP Amarendra PrasadSingh said self-reliance con-nects our life with economicdevelopment. HindalcoRenusagar is playing an impor-tant role for the all-rounddevelopment of the needy, hesaid. Earlier president (Energy)KP Yadav welcomed the chiefguest by presenting a bouquetto him. At the end of the pro-gramme HR head of Renusagar

Shailesh Vikram Singh pro-posed the vote of thanks. Theprogramme was conducted byRural DevelopmentDepartment incharge Anil Jha.On the occasion HindalcoRenusagar Operations depart-ment’s Yogesh Prajapati, KRBabu, Hitendra Jha, BKVajpayee along with gram prad-hans belonging to the nearbyareas were present. The supportof the team of the RuralDevelopment Department inmaking the programme a suc-cess was commendable.

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As many as 13 couples gotreunited under ‘Project

Milan’ on Sunday. Report saidthat matters related to Chilh,Kachhawaan Vindhyachal,Madihan, Katra Kotwali, Jigna,Padari and Ahraura police sta-tions had been referred by thepolice to the counselling cen-tre located at Police Lines. Thecentre succeeded in pursuingthe 13 couples, who were livingseparately due to misunder-standings, to live together.After counselling the couplesreturned to their residences ina joyful mood. For this successthe role of woman head con-stable Shashibala Yadav, mem-bers, Krishna Kumar Srivastavaand Salil Pandey and otherswas remarkable.

TRAINING PRO-GRAMME: MLA (City)Ratnakar Mishra while speak-ing as the chief guest during the

inaugural function of the three-month training programmeon astrology and ‘vastu’ at ShivInter College on Saturday,

claimed that science of Tretaera was more developed thantoday. On the occasion thespeakers opined that astrologywas the way to recharge life.They extended their best wish-es for the success of the train-ing programme and expressedthe hope that it will be suc-cessful in increasing the knowl-edge of the new generationabout astrology and ‘vastu.’Earlier the programme startedwith the ‘Swasti Vachan’ by theteam of Nitin Awasthi andwas conducted by SamarChand. Proposing the vote ofthanks Kamlesh Kesarvanimanager of Shiv Inter Collegeexpressed his gratitude to theorganisers for selecting itsbuilding for an auspiciouswork. Prominent among thosewho graced the programmewere Dr Ramlal Tripathi, DrBrajdev Pandey, Dr BaijnathPandey, Suryakant Malviya,Sandeep Dubey, Salil Pandey,

Alankar Jaiswal, VendheshwariPandey and Sandarbh Pandey.

MASS MARRIAGE: Asmany as 107 couples tied the

nuptial knot during a massmarriage programme organ-ised by Social Welfare depart-ment at Patehra, block head-quarters of Madihan, onSaturday. The beneficiariesbelonged to Rajgarh andMadihan blocks. The mar-riages were held amidst therecital of the Vedic ‘shlokas’ bya team of ‘purohits’. For bless-ing the newly-married couples,UP Minister of State for EnergyRama Shankar Singh Patel,who was the chief guest, wasaccompanied by MLA RahulKol and CDO Avinash Singh.Addressing the function at theoccasion the minister saidDuring his address the minis-ter said that to provide directhelp to the needy the govern-ment was sending �35,000 inthe account of the bride,�10,000 were spent for cere-monial items like anklets,sarees ete and �6,000 onarrangements. In entire pro-gramme the transparency wasmaintained strictly, he added.He announced that the con-struction of roadways busstand, government inter collegeand government degree collegeat Patehra were in the pipelineand the work will be started soon.The function was convened bySocial Welfare Officer GireeshDubey and conducted by VinodSrivastava. Prominent amongthose who also graced the func-tion were BDO MadihanDinesh Kumar Mishra, RajuPatel and Gyandas Singh.

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The body of missing formervillage pradhan was found

in a well on Sunday. As per thereports, Jivbodh Singh (80), aresident of Kelabela villageunder Chunar police station,who was the former pradhanand owner of a brick kiln, hadgone to sleep on Saturday nightand was found missing fromhis bed the next morning.Thereafter his anxious familymembers launched a search forhim and found his body in awell near the house. On gettinginformation about the matterthe police personnel ofAdalpura outpost reached thespot and managed to get thebody out from the well.According to the police, themental state of the deceasedwas not normal.

16 INTER-DIST GAM-BLERS ARRESTED: TheChilh police arrested 16 inter-district gamblers, recovered�73,100 and seized six motor-cycles on Saturday. As per thereports, Station House Officer(SHO) Raghvendra Singh dur-

ing routine patrolling on thesaid evening was tipped off byan informer about gambling inPachevra village under Chilhpolice station. Acting swiftlythe police team raided theplace and found two groupsinvolved in gambling there.The police recovered �61,000from the gambling table and�12,100 on frisking the gam-blers along with playing cards.After taking all the 16 gam-blers into custody theybrought them to the police sta-tion. After registering a caseunder Section 13 of theGambling Act in this connec-tion, the police arrested theaccused and seized theirmotorcycles under MotorVehicles Act. The accused werelater identified as Vijay Prakashbelonging to Kusaanv villageunder Jalalpur police station inJaunpur, Rahul Kumar of Sahnivillage under Kerakat policestation in Jaunpur, PankajTiwari, a resident of Jaathi vil-lage under Gyanpur police sta-tion in Bhadohi, PrakashMishra, a resident of Mahuariaunder City Kotwali, Mirzapur,

Satish Yadav of VisundarpurNeebi under City Kotwalipolice station, Mirzapur,Manish Chaurasia ofImambada under KotwaliKatra police station, BrijeshKumar of Virohi village underVindhyachal police station inMirzapur, Raman Kumar ofGaneshganj under KotwaliKatra police station, SunilKumar, resident of Bhatwa KiPokhari under Kotwali Katrapolice station, Amit Sonkar ofHathia Fatak under KotwaliKatra police station, OmPrakash Shukla of Mahathuavillage under Aurai police sta-tion, Bhadohi, Heera L Dubey,resident of Bhawanipur vil-lage under Aurai police station,Bhadohi, Rajendra Kumar, res-ident of Noopur village underSuraj police station, Bhadohi,Sanjay Khatri of Ghajia Tolaunder City Kotwali police sta-tion, Mirzapur, Surya PrasadShukla, a resident ofHarinarainpur village underSuraj police station, Bhadohi,and Anuj Khatri belonging toNarghat under City Kotwalipolice station in Mirzapur.

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Hundreds of bank employ-ees, rallying under the

banner of United Forum ofBank Unions, staged animpressive dharna and demon-stration at PNB, Govind Nagargate, on Monday as part of thenation-wide agitation againstprivatisation of governmentbanks.

The bank employees,sporting masks and holdingbanners and placards, shout-ed anti-government slogansand demanded that privatisa-tion move be stopped or theywould be forced to intensifytheir agitation. They alsodecided to go on a two-daystrike on March 15 and 16,2021.

Addressing the gathering,state deputy general secretaryof the union, Sanjay Trivedi,said the BJP government haddecided to privatise banks but

the United Forum of BankUnions had decided to fight ittooth and nail and prevent pri-vatisation and ensure that thebanks remained nationalised.He said it was time for all bankemployees to stay united andoppose the evil designs of thegovernment.

He said all the nationalised

banks, with the help of socialbanking, had opened 42 croreJan Dhan accounts and hadwoven a strong network ofbranches from urban to ruralareas. He said besides givingloans to MSME, farmers, stu-dents for education, and toprimary areas or backwardsegments, the nationalised

banks were providing easyloans to the weaker sections ofsociety. He said on the con-trary, the private banks havetill date opened only 1.25crore Jan Dhan accounts, thattoo on higher interest rates. Hesaid the objective of thesebanks was to earn profits.

Addressing the gathering,Anil Sonker said from March2 a campaign would belaunched to file online peti-tions to the prime ministeralong with a parallel twittercampaign. He said the bankemployees would also stagemassive demonstrations out-side Parliament on March 15and 16, 2021 and remain onnation-wide strike for twodays.

Prominent leaders whotook part in the dharna includ-ed Renu Tiwari, Pooja, VijetaGupta, Nitin Bajpai, JeetNarayan, Harmendra Hazariaand Hari Om Pal.

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Mayor Parmila Pandey,while inaugurating a

Communicable DiseaseControl Programme in a meet-ing called at Kanpur NagarNigam on Monday, said thisdrive would continue till March31 and would be run in theentire district.

She said the objective ofthis drive was to make thepeople aware of the vector-borne diseases like dengue,malaria, chikungunya,Japanese encephalitis andother fevers.

She later administered theoath to be part of the controlprogramme.

She said to fight commu-nicable disease the first andthe foremost was to keep sur-rounding clean inurban, semi-urban and ruralareas. She said the main focushad to be on drains wherestagnant water was a reservoirof the vectors that spread dis-ease.

She said the PanchayatiRaj Department had beenasked to lend support to KNN.She said Chief Minister YogiAdityanath wanted effectivecontrol over communicablediseases and for this bothawareness and streamlining ofthings were essential.

She said the control ofcommunicable diseases

depended on a healthy envi-ronment (clean water, ade-quate sanitation, vector con-trol, shelter), immunisation,and health workers trained inearly diagnosis and treatment.She said the conditions lead-ing to an epidemic werecaused mostly by secondaryeffects and not by the prima-ry hazard, except in the caseof flooding, which couldcause an increase in water-borne and vector-borne dis-eases.

Pandey said highly conta-gious diseases - those spreadby personal contact - weremost commonly the result ofcrowding survivors living incrowded temporary accom-

modations without adequateventilation or adequate facil-ities for personal hygiene. Shesaid the length of time thatpeople spent in temporarysettlements was an importantdeterminant of the risk ofdisease transmission and theprolonged mass settlement intemporary shelters with onlyminimal provision for essen-tial personal hygiene was typ-ical of a situation that maycause epidemic outbreaks ofinfectious diseases.

Prominent health officialswere present, prominentamong them being Dr AjaySankhwar, Dr Sheela Mishra,Dr AK Singh and Dr GCMishra.

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"��@��+�� +��KANPUR (PNS): Sub-Divisional Magistrate (Sadar)Srilaxami VS while addressinga function organised by theVimala Group of Institutionsunder Women Empowermentto felicitate outstanding womenon Monday, said self-determi-nation could help achieve anyspecific target. She said todaywomen were posing a stiffchallenge to their male coun-terparts in every sphere ofprofession and today not onlyparents but even society hadclearly understood the impor-tance of education in women’suplift. She appealed to the par-ents to take up challenges ofsociety and educate theirdaughters and motivate themto achieve their dream goals.

She said this could be doneprovided the parents reflectedfaith in their daughters andextended all possible help tothem when they felt weak. Shesaid today if girls were fighterpilots and excelled in artilleryand physical combat, it showedthat if given the right motiva-tion and support they could dowonders. Addressing the func-tion, Assistant Income TaxCommissioner, Dr NiveditaSingh, said it was beyond doubtthat family background playeda critical role. She said it wastrue that family background,operationalised as family socio-economic status, influenceddaughters’ participation inschool activities and theamount of resources available

for their education and sever-al factors. She said advantagedfamilies were able to instill highlevels of learning motivation intheir daughters by providinghigh levels of social-emotion-al support as well as class-basedopportunities and resources athome. AdditionalSuperintendent of PoliceNiharika Singh said peers likeparents and teachers were keyadults who shaped students’learning, especially in girls,through classroom interac-tions. She said today theincreasing number of womenin administrative services clear-ly showed that women werecapable of taking up any chal-lenge if given the right direc-tion and motivation. She said

it had been proved beyonddoubt that women werenowhere inferior to men andthey could perform equallywell as their male counterparts.

Later, the lighting cere-mony for the nurses was heldwhere several successful nurs-es shared their experiences tothe entrants and motivatedthem to excel in their area ofprofession. Addressing thegathering, VGI CEO Dr ShilpaSingh said although nursingwas demanding, physicallychallenging, and required a lotof hard work, nurses wererewarded by making a differ-ence in the lives of their clients,developing trusting relation-ships with other peoplethrough connecting and caring,

and being part of a professionallegacy that had stood the testof time. She said good nurseshad a positive attitude, werenon-judgmental, innovative,confident, and committed toproviding the best evidence-based care to all and to life-longlearning. She said they workedwell in a team and under pres-sure and were good commu-nicators and promoted patientautonomy. Other prominentwomen officials felicitated wereSDM (Ghatampur) Dr PoojaYadav, Kshipra Patel, SavitaSingh, Pinky, Akanksha, AngelSingh, Khushi Yadav, AnshikaTiwari, Kaushaki Awasthi,Shivangi Rajpur, ShivangiVerma, Geetanjali Singh andPrerna Verma.

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Ayouth was killed by thekind of a woman with

whom he was in relation inNarkhurd village underRasoolabad police station ofKanpur Dehat late Sundaynight.

Police have taken four per-sons of the woman's family intocustody for quizzing.

According to reports,Badan Singh Rajput (45) ofRasoolabad Kotwali police areawas having an affair with a localwoman. After the woman'sfamily members came to knowabout their illicit affair, theydecided to eliminate her para-mour.

As per plan, they asked thewoman to call her paramour onsome pretext at their house onSunday night. When BadanSingh reached there, theycaught hold of him and bat-tered him to death and lockedthe body in a room. Thereafter,they informed the police aboutthe entry of an unknown per-son in their house.

The police rushed to thespot and found the profusely-bleeding body of the youth inthe room. Police also recovereda blood-stained pestle from thespot.

Police immediately tookthe woman's kin into custodywho, on being grilled, admittedthat they had killed BadanSingh.

On Monday morning, iratevillagers demanded that thehouse of complainants bedemolished. As tension pre-vailed in the village, a heavypolice force was deployed there.

'�&$��#��$�KANPUR (PNS): The Delhipair Bachiraju Satyanarayanaand Kiran Nadar won the AllIndia Sir Padampat SinghaniaMemorial Bridge trophy andbagged the first prize of Rs30,000 in the online Singhaniabridge tournament that con-cluded on Sunday.

Chennai pair MJRVasudevan and S Vijayraghvanwere at the second place andreceived Dr Gaur HariSinghania memorial trophyalong with prize money of Rs20,000, while the combinationof Bengal and Delhi pair of DMajumdar and RajeshwarTiwari won the Seth RamKumar Newatia second run-ners-up trophy and prizemoney Rs 12,000.

Efforts of chief technicalmanager TC Pant andGajendra Singh of SPSBA forsuccessful conduct of the tour-nament were praised.

TB SEARCH CAM-PAIGN: Chief Medical OfficerDr AK Mishra on Monday saidthat the TB ControlDepartment had decided tolaunch a search campaign forTB patients by visiting everyhouse from March 10 to 24.

He said the governmenthad decided to involve Ashaand Anganwadi workers inthis campaign. He said theDastak Abhiyan was being runsince 2017 but now it hadincluded TB patients as well.

He said with the help ofthis campaign every effortwould be made to identify themaximum number of peoplesuffering from TB. He said thecampaign would also covermalnourished children andJapanese encephalitis.

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The Supreme Court, hearingan appeal against a Calcutta

High Court order allowing CBIprobe into an alleged coal min-ing and transportation case,Monday said it would firstexamine a legal issue whetheran intra-court appeal can beentertained by the high court ina criminal matter against anorder of a single judge bench.

A bench headed by JusticeD Y Chandrachud, meanwhile,granted time to CBI to file itsresponse to the appeal of AnupMajee, the director of a com-pany engaged in purchase andsale of the dry fuel, which is anaccused in a case of alleged ille-gal coal trading in the Asansol-Raniganj belt of West Bengal.

Majee, in his plea, has chal-lenged the Calcutta High Courtorder which allowed the CBI toinvestigate a case of alleged ille-gal mining and transportationof coal in West Bengal withoutthe State’s consent.

In the proceedings con-ducted through video confer-encing, the bench, also com-prising Justice M R Shah,referred to an earlier judgementin which it was held that a let-ter patent appeal (LPA), alsoknown as intra-court appeal,would lie in the high courtagainst the order of a singlejudge bench in a criminal case.

“We are concerned with theissue of maintainability of LPAbefore the division bench. Weare not concerned with subse-quent development,” the bench

said. It adjourned the hearing on

Majee’s plea to March 10 afteraccepting the request ofSolicitor General Tushar Mehtawho was representing the CBI.

Earlier, the bench hadissued notices to Centre andCBI and had sought theirresponse by March 1 on the pleawhich claimed that the centralprobe agency lacked jurisdic-tion to lodge an FIR in the caseafter the withdrawal of gener-al consent by the West BengalGovernment in 2018.

It, however, had refused togrant protection to Majee.

Senior advocate A MSinghvi, appearing for WestBengal government, had saidthat he supported the con-tention of Majee on the ques-tion of law as there was no con-sent given to the CBI to inves-tigate the case after West Bengalwithdrew its general consent.

On February 12, a divisionbench of the Calcutta HighCourt had stayed a single benchorder that had restricted a CBIinvestigation into alleged illegalmining and transportation ofcoal to just “railway areas” of thestate and rejected the plea ofMajee for grant of protectionfrom any coercive actionagainst him.

It has been observed that ifthe process of investigation isstalled at this stage, material evi-dence which may have to becollected can get lost and theaccused may be able to achievethe objective for which “frivo-lous litigation” has been filed.

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Five States—Maharashtra,Kerala, Punjab, Karnataka,

Tamil Nadu and Gujarat —continue to cause serious con-cern for the Centre by showinga consistent surge in newCovid-19 cases. Put together,they contributed 84 per cent ofthe 15,510 fresh infectionsreported in a day on Monday.

The Union HealthMinistry said on Monday,India’s total number of activeCovid-19 cases was recorded at1,68,627, comprising 1.52 percent of the total infections.

Maharashtra aloneaccounts for 46.39 per cent ofIndia’s total active cases, fol-lowed by Kerala with 29.49 percent. “A total of 15 states andunion territories have regis-tered more than 1,000 active

cases. Kerala and Maharashtraare the two states with over10,000 active cases, while therest of the 13 States and UTshave between 1,000-10,000active cases,” the Ministry said.

The total number of caseswith the UK, South Africa andBrazil variants of SARS-CoV-2 in the country as on date hasreached 213, the Ministry said.

A total 15,510 new caseswere registered in a span of 24hours. Maharashtra continuesto report the highest daily newcases at 8,293, followed byKerala with 3,254 cases whilePunjab has reported 579 newcases.

The Centre is continuous-ly engaging with the states andunion territories manifestinghigher number of active casesand those reporting a rise in thedaily new Covid-19 cases.

States and UTs have beenadvised to maintain a contin-ued rigorous vigil for contain-ing the spread of COVID-19.Need for effective testing, com-prehensive tracking, promptisolation of positive cases andquick quarantine of close con-

tacts are strongly emphasised,the Ministry said.

“Eight states are displayingan upward trajectory in thedaily new cases,” it underlined.

So far, a total of 1,43,01,266vaccine doses have beenadministered to beneficiaries

through 2,92,312 sessions.These include the first dose to66,69,985 healthcare workers,second dose to 24,56,191healthcare workers and51,75,090 frontline workerswho have taken the first dose.

“The next phase ofCOVID-19 vaccination hascommenced from today forthose who are over 60 years ofage and for people aged 45 andabove with specified comorbidconditions.

“A simplified process ofregistration has been set up,whereby potential beneficiariescan have the option of advanceself-registration, on-site regis-tration or facilitated cohortregistration,” the ministry said.

Five States account for86.79 per cent of the newdeaths. Maharashtra saw themaximum casualties of 62deaths. Kerala followed with 15daily deaths and Punjab hasreported seven fatalities in aspan of 24 hours.

A total of 20 States and UTshave not reported any Covid-19 deaths in the last 24 hours.

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Politics erupted over PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’s

vaccination on Monday as theOpposition accused him ofusing the occasion for electoralgains while the BJP sought thenation to “speak in one voice”in the battle against coron-avirus and sought theOpposition to not to come upwith “wild theories” and politi-cise the vaccination drive

Politcising Modi gettinghis first vaccine dose in thesecond-phase scheduled forsenior citizens, TrinamoolCongress MP Shantanu Senclaimed that the PrimeMinister’s jab was “publicity”adding, “Photograph is moreimportant than protocol”.

Commenting on Modi’s“changed appearance”, heclaimed that the PM’s “newlygrown Rabindrik beard”would have become invisibleif he had worn a mask.Adding ‘God save India’, theTrinamool MP added thatMamata Banerjee was “savingBengal”.

Several other politicianslike Congress’s Adhir RanjanChowdhur y and SP’sAkhilesh Yadav have politi-

cised vaccination as a BJP“stunt”.

Chowdhury said, “InPM’s inoculation visuals,there was gamcha of Assam,and nurses who vaccinatedhim were from Kerala andPuducherry”.

Kicking off part-2 ofIndia’s Covid vaccination pro-gramme, Pr ime Minister Modi received hisfirst jab of the vaccine onMonday at All India Instituteof Medical Sciences in NewDelhi, sporting an AssameseGamcha.

He got a jabb by nurses-Sister Niveda & s is terRosamma hai l ing f romPuducherry and Tamil Nadurespectively.

The event soon turnedinto political name calling inthe backdrop of high pitchpoll campaigns in five States,including Bengal, Assam andTamil Nadu and Kerala,going for Assembly electionsby the march-end and thenext month.

BJP hits back with UnionMinister R avi ShankarPrasad stressing the need tospeak in one voice to battle-out coronavirus pandemicas BJP president JP Nadda

demanded that theOpposit ion should stopresorting to “ wild theories”to criticise Indian achieve-ment.

Prasad said Modi hadworn Assamese gamcha andMundu last year when he hadappealed to light a lamp tofight corona. “Than therewere no elections”, Prasadsaid and taking a swipe upsuggested to Chowdhury to “wear all Bengali symbolswhen he gets himself vacci-nated “.

BJP chief said that theOpposition party comes upwith “wild theories” to rid-cule India’s achievements.

“C ongress and theOpposition is not proud ofanything Indian. They shouldintrospect about how theirlies on the COVID-19 vac-cine will be used by vestedinterest groups for their ownagendas. People of India havebeen rejecting such politicsand will keep doing so in thefuture”, Nadda tweeted.

Union aviation ministerHardeep Singh Puri also tooka swipe at the oppositionleaders, saying they are on aquest for permanent politicalmarginalisation.

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Farmer ProcessingOrganisation (FPO)

‘Krishak Utpadak SanghthanEvam Audyanik ViparanSahkari Samiti’ from UttarPradesh’s Varanasi, PrimeMinister’s ParliamentaryConstituency has become thecountry’s first agricultural enti-ty to be registered under theambit of the CooperativeSocieties Act.

Generally, the FPOs areregistered under theCompanies Act. But, this is thefirst time that such an entity hasbeen established under theCooperative Societies Act asthe part of the Government’sCentral Sector Scheme titled“Formation and Promotion ofFarmer ProducerOrganizations (FPOs)” to formand promote 10,000 new FPOs.More FPOs are on the wayunder the scheme.

One of the implementingagencies of the scheme, theNational CooperativeDevelopment Cooperation(NCDC), an apex finance enti-ty under the Union AgricultureMinistry, will handhold theVaranasi-based FPO for nextfive years in helping it settingup the multi-service center

facilities for mushroom pro-duction and cultivation whilethe green chilli drying systemwill be equipped with dryerswith vacuum nitrogen dryingcapacities. It was registered onFebruary 26, 2021, as part ofthe ‘Formation and Promotionof Farmer ProducerOrganizations (FPOs)’ schemewhich was launched by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi onFebruary 29, last year.

It aims at bringing smalland marginal farmers on abigger platform as a joint enti-ty to help them become ‘aat-manirbhar’ (self-reliant) in thelong run.

On the occasion of thefirst anniversary of the schemeon Monday, UnionAgriculture Minister,Narendra Singh Tomar tweet-ed that FPOs will help toimprove the rural economyand create employmentopportunities for rural sectorin the villages itself and thiswill prevent migration tocities. Later at an event online,Parshottam Rupala, UnionMinister of State forAgriculture and FarmerWelfare termed the FPOs’scheme as a game changer inthe country’s agricultureecosystem and said that “FPOswill make farming more viable

by aggregating land. ““Formation of FPOs is

not just a scheme but it is aplan to give a new dimensionto Indian Agriculture in anew India. We will ensure thateach FPO is a role model initself,” he said at the eventwhich was also attended byKailash Choudhary, UnionMinister of State forAgriculture and FarmerWelfare besides senior officialsfrom the concerned depart-ments from the Ministry andimplementing agencies likeNABARD.

Sanjay Agrawal, UnionAgriculture Secretary said thatin each block there should bean FPO which acts as catalystfor institutional infrastruc-ture while Sundeep Nayak,Managing Director of theNCDC, said that the farmersin the country are keen to setup FPOs as it will help themboost their income and makethem self-sustaining.

“This is just the begin-ning”, he said adding thatmore than 2200 FPOs produceclusters have been allocated forthe formation of FPOs in thecurrent year. “TheGovernment aims at trans-forming agriculture into a sus-tainable enterprise throughFPOs,” Nayak said.

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With 2,000 assessors whowill go on the field to

assess the performance of citiesthis time, the Ministry ofHousing and Urban Affairs(HUA) on Monday launchedthe field assessment ofSwachchh Survekshan (SS)2021, which is dubbed as theworld largest cleanliness drive.

Launching the sixth editionof the SS 2021, Durga ShankarMishra, Secretary, Ministry ofHUA said that this year SwachhSurvekshan will get over 3crore citizen feedback throughvarious platforms and focuswould be on parameters per-taining to wastewater treat-ment and reuse along withfaecal sludge. Similarly, thecrucial issues of legacy wastemanagement and remediationof landfills have also beenbrought to the fore in this edi-tion of Survekshan.

Every year, the on-fieldassessments for SS takes placebetween January 4-31.However, the same had beendelayed by two months due tothe COVID pandemic and willnow be conducted between 1-28 March 2021. The secondphase of SBM-U for a period of5 years (2021-26) has recentlybeen announced in the UnionBudget of 2021.

Speaking at the webinar,Mishra said, “SS has led to aspirit of healthy competitionamong cities and towns ofIndia. The journey that startedin 2016 with only 73 cities withmillion plus population hasgrown manifold, with 434 citiesin 2017, 4,203 cities in 2018,4,237 cities in 2019 and 4,242cities in SS 2020, including 62Cantonment Boards. Citieshave been regularly filling intheir data, updating theirprogress in the MIS along withrunning several citizen centriccampaigns in preparation of SS2021. Today, we are happy toformally kick off the survey asmore than 2,000 assessors getready to go on the field to assessthe performance of cities”.

The Swach Survekshan wasintroduced by MoHUA in 2016as a competitive framework toencourage cities to improve thestatus of urban sanitation while

encouraging large scale citizenparticipation.

Since its launch in 2014,Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban(SBM-U) has made significantprogress in the area of bothsanitation and solid waste man-agement. 4,360 Urban ULBshave been declared ODF, 2158cities certified ODF+ and 551cities certified ODF++.Moreover, 66 lakhs individualhousehold toilets and over 6lakhs community/ public toiletshave been constructed/ or areunder construction.Additionally, nearly 60,000 toi-lets across 2,900+ cities havebeen made live on GoogleMaps. In the area of solidwaste management, 97% ofwards have 100% door-to doorcollection while 68% of thetotal waste generated is beingprocessed. A total of six citieshave been certified as 5 Star, 86as 3 star and 65 as 1 star underthe Star Rating Protocol forGarbage Free Cities.

The next phase of theMission will focus extensivelyon aspects of sustainable san-itation including faecal sludgeand wastewater management,along with holistic solid wastemanagement with a focus oncurbing and ultimately elimi-nating the use of single-useplastic (SUP), reducing air pol-lution through effective man-agement of construction &demolition waste, and reducingsoil pollution through remedi-ation of legacy dumpsites.

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“Are you willing to marryher,” was the question

posed to a public servant, whois accused of repeatedly rap-ing a minor girl but when theSupreme Court on Mondaywas told that he is alreadymarried he was asked to seekregular bail from the courtconcerned.

A Bench headed by ChiefJustice S A Bobde was hear-ing a plea filed by the accusedwho is serving as a technicianin Maharashtra StateElectr icity ProductionCompany Ltd and has movedthe apex court against theBombay High Court February5 order which had cancelledthe anticipatory bail grantedto him in the case.

When the hearing com-menced, the bench also com-prising Justices AS Bopannaand V Ramasubramanian,asked the accused “Are youwilling to marry her?”

“If you are willing tomarry her then we can con-sider it, otherwise you will goto jail,” observed the benchadding “We are not forcingyou to marry.”

After taking instructionson the query posed by thebench, the counsel appearingfor the petitioner, said theaccused was initially willingto marry the girl but she hadrefused and now he was married to someone else.

As the counsel said thatthe accused is a public ser-vant, the bench said, “Youshould have thought thisbefore seducing and rapingthe girl. You knew that youare a government servant”.

The counsel said thatcharges in the case are yet tobe framed. “You apply for reg-

ular bail. We will stay arrest,”the bench said.

The apex court grantedthe accused protection fromarrest for four weeks.

The top court was hearinga plea filed by the accusedagainst the Bombay High Court’s February 5 ordercancelling the anticipatorybail granted to him by thetrial court in January lastyear.

He has also been accusedof offences punishable underthe Protection of Childrenfrom Sexual Offences(POCSO) Act.

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Aplea challenging the ElectionCommission’s decision to

conduct Assembly elections overeight phases in West Bengalwas filed in the Supreme Courton Monday.

The plea, filed by lawyer ML Sharma, seeks the apex court’sdirection to the poll panel to stopit from conducting eight-phaseelections in the State as it violatesArticle 14 (right to life) andArticle 21 (right to life) of theConstitution.

On February 26, theElection Commissionannounced the schedule forassembly elections to be held inWest Bengal, Assam, Kerala,Tamil Nadu and in Puducherry.While the Trinamool CongressParty-led West Bengal will haveelections over eight rounds fromMarch 27-April 29, polling inTamil Nadu, Kerala andPuducherry will be held in onephase on April 6 and in Assamover three phases.

The plea, which may comeup for hearing in few days, alsoseeks a direction to the CBI toregister an FIR into the allegedchanting of religious slogansduring electioneering in WestBengal.

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The NIA on Monday arrest-ed four alleged drug traf-

fickers from Srinagar in con-nection with the HandwaraNarco-Terrorism Case.

The arrested accused areAltaf Ahmed Shah(Dangherpora , KheerBhawani, Ganderbal, Jammuand Kashmir) ShowkatAhmad Parray (ParrayMohalla, Wangipora Sumbal,Bandipora, J&K), MudasirAhmad Dar (Wanduna,Shopian, J & K) and Amin

Allaie alias Hilal Mir (NearPetrol Pump, Shan-e-KashmirNational Highway Sangam,Bijbehera, Anantnag, J&K).

The case relates to seizureof 21 kg of heroin and cashamount of Rs 1,35,89,850from the members of a drugssyndicate operating in theValley.

The case was initially reg-istered as FIR No. 183/2020dated June 11, 2020 atHandwara in Kupwara districtwherein during checking ofvehicles at Kairo Bridge,Handwara, accused Abdul

Momin Peer’s Hyundai Cretavehicle was intercepted bypolice at a naka and during

search Rs 20 Lakhs along withtwo kg heroin was recoveredand seized.

The NIA had re-regis-tered the case on June 23 lastyear and took up the investi-gation of the case. Achargesheet was filed in theinstant case on December 5,2020 against six accused per-sons before the NIA SpecialCourt, Jammu.

Investigation so far hasrevealed that the accused per-sons were involved in cross-border smuggling of heroin inhuge quantities from Pakistanand were supplying the samein J&K and other parts of thecountry, the NIA said.

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rich quickly by avoiding com-petition against Indian busi-ness communities and cross-ing over to the new State,where they would have tocompete only against thePunjabi and Sindhi farmers.For the rest, Jinnah pleadedbrilliantly for those Muslimswho wanted or half-wished aseparate homeland. This wasJinnah’s role in actuality; hisfee was his place in history’shall of fame. Fortunately forhim, he died within 13 monthsof Independence. The wordmohajir, a term for Muslimsfrom Uttar Pradesh (UP) andBihar migrating to Pakistan,came into circulation soonthereafter. But mohajirs soonfound themselves not onlyunwelcome but also the targetof ethnic hostility in the newlycarved out Muslim home-land. Jinnah’s deputy LiaquatAli Khan, from UP, was assas-sinated a mere four years afterPakistan had been carved out.

What prevails in Pakistannow is the will of the WestPunjabis who are two-thirdsof the country’s population.Their need for Kashmir hasbeen to keep the countrytogether and paper over theirdominance of everything,which is now a bone of con-tention. Plus, they portrayIndia as a great threat to the

survival of Pakistan and thusjustify the indispensability ofthe Army as the country’sguardian.

If one looks at the latestceasefire agreement, onewould conclude that forIslamabad, it is a temporarymove to hopefully tide overthe crises the country is facing.The moment Pakistan’s rulersare able to find some way ofrelief for these crises, the cur-rent agreement will turn intoa mere piece of paper. Onereason for Pakistan’s softeningcould be that its rulers realisethat China has overplayed itshand, whether with India,Taiwan or the South ChinaSea, and that the US hasreacted strongly, though so faronly in words. Otherwise,there is no explanation forBeijing to kick off a con-frontation in Ladakh duringthe winter. It could have wait-ed until after the spring toexercise its options whichwere three: To try and grabsome strategically useful landpoints, to ease off by extract-ing some other concessions orby continuing to harass theIndian forces by creating localpoints that would pose athreat. Similarly, Islamabadwants to cool off vis-à-visNew Delhi until China warmsup again after, say, arriving at

some settlement with the US.If not, the rulers would waitfor circumstances to change;for a true momin, his faith inAllah the Merciful is infinite.We must not compare it withthe mind of a thinking or ret-icent Hindu.

Another possibility mightbe that Pakistan’s real ruler,General Bajwa, wants to easeIndia’s pressure on his easternIndian front and use it to set-tle his scores with Baluchistan,like General Tikka had tried todo in East Pakistan in 1971.Bajwa may have been advisedthat the Baloch province is sorich in resources that it couldgreatly help in solvingPakistan’s economic problems.But to exploit these resourceswould take time, peace andcomplete control. I concedethat this possibility may soundtoo farfetched, but unlessIslamabad takes some drasticsteps, how can it keep the eco-nomic wheels of Pakistanrolling? If it depends onChinese loans, Pakistan couldbecome a Beijing protectorateinch by inch, as one hasalready begun to see with theChina Pakistan EconomicCorridor coming into play.

(The writer is a well-known columnist and anauthor. The views expressedare personal.)

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One mistake Indiansmust not make is toread Pakistan throughIndian eyes.

Normally, anything that leads topeace should be welcome.Similarly, we should welcomethe fact that Pakistan has agreedto cessation of the ongoinghostilities with us and honourthe ceasefire pact of 2003.

Yet, one must interject a noteof caution here. This is becausequite a few Indians, includingexpert observers, have interpret-ed the venom from Islamabadon Kashmir for years as revengefor India dismembering theircountry in 1971. In actual fact,as soon as the anger of the defeatwas forgotten, the Pakistaniswere relieved that the “darkshort people” — as the Bengalisare contemptuously referred toby Pakistanis — who were amajority of their population,were finally gotten rid of.

Poet Mohammad Iqbal, whowas also a leading light of theMuslim League, as its presidenthad in 1930 at Prayagraj (thenAllahabad) proposed a separateMuslim homeland which com-prised only the north westernprovinces. He made no mentionof Bengal or any part thereof.The larger Pakistan was for MAJinnah’s glorification; he beganby dreaming of six provinces,four in the west and two in theeast, including Assam. Throughhis League colleague who wasthe Premier of Assam for sever-al years after 1939, Mohd SaadAli, he had nearly succeeded inrecording that the adivasis werenot Hindu but animists. Thiswas to bring down the Hindupercentage of population anddraw Assam into Pakistan whenthe moment of decision came.When Jinnah could not getAssam, except the district ofSylhet, Bengal and Punjab weredivided by Sir Cyril Radcliffe,the lawyer dispatched byLondon. Jinnah was sorely dis-appointed at getting what hecalled “a moth-eaten Pakistan”.

Here, it has to be iterated thatJinnah did not represent the ulti-mate choice of any Pakistaniexcept the Gujarati-speakingbusinessmen like the Khojasand Memons who wanted to get

�� Sir —The second phase of India’s vacci-nation drive has been rolled out andPrime Minister Narendra Modi got thefirst shot of COVAXIN, the India-researched and produced COVID-19vaccine (produced by Bharat Biotech) atthe All India Institute of Medical Sciences(AIIMS) in Delhi. The drive aims tocover 10 crore people across the coun-try. So far, more than 1.5 crore peoplehave received the jabs.

Mostly the elderly would benefit inthe second phase. This phase is a nation-wide drive to inoculate people above 60years of age and those above 45 years withco-morbidities. Several old people wereseen at the centres to get themselves inoc-ulated. The self-registration process in Co-WIN module has allowed people to get asmany as four people registered, pickslots at their nearby vaccination centre andreschedule the appointment. Thus, thevaccination pace is expected to increasein the coming days.

A lot of hard work has gone intoreaching this phase wherein theGovernment has started to vaccinate gen-eral population. We must rely on our vac-cines as they are absolutely safe and arebeing used all over the world. In the com-ing days, we hope that the process willpick up pace and get completed inrecord time. On the other hand, there isalso the need to worry as the countryreported a single-day rise of 16,752cases in the last 24 hours, the highest inthe last 30 days, taking the overall tallyto 1,10,96,731 on Sunday.

CK Ramani | Mumbai

�� Sir — When cricket matches like T-20s andODIs are making life hell for the bowlerswith batting-friendly surfaces, Test match-es of late, especially pink-ball day-nightTest matches, have come like a whiff offresh air for the bowlers. The pink-ball Testcricket is still evolving and teams are stillgetting to grips with the ball that was toughto handle for a spinner due to the extra

gloss on it. Also, there have been only 16pink-ball Test matches in the world andmany of those have finished fairly early.There have been some abysmal battingperformances, like in the pink-ball TestsIndia and England have played. The pink ball is bringing new dimensions

to the game, and the players need to adoptthese. If one plays more and more, hewould obviously get used to it. Cricketerswere playing with the red ball for a longperiod of time, then they shifted to thewhite ball. That’s how the format keeps onevolving and, with this new dimesnsion,more action is expected in the comingdays. Not only the players but also spec-tators will enjoy more pink-ball game inthe coming days.

V Nagendra Kumar | Hyderabad

�� Sir — It is good on the part ofMaharashtra Forest Minister SanjayRathod to resign from his post after theOpposition BJP linked him to a 23-year-

old woman’s alleged death by suicide inPune. This will pave the way for animpartial enquiry in the case.

The audio clip which surfaced onsocial media two days after her death, inwhich two men are talking about thewoman’s death, should be sent to foren-sic science laboratory for examination.The BJP has claimed that one of the menin the audio clip is Rathod while the ShivSena leader has denied the charge. On theother hand, responding to theOpposition’s demand for a case againstthe Minister, Chief Minister Thackeraysaid a First Information Report (FIR)can’t be registered before investigation.The Maha Vikas Aghadi Governmentmust get the case investigated by theCentral agencies for a free and impartialinvestigation. The CM must act andthink out-of-the-box to save his image.

MR Jayanthy | Coimbatore

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Under a big bang approach to privatisationannounced in the Union Budget, FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharaman has divid-

ed the Central Public Sector Undertakings(CPSUs) in two broad categories i.e. strategic andnon-strategic. Whereas the former is broken upinto four subgroups: Atomic energy, space anddefence; transport and telecommunications;power, petroleum, coal and other minerals; bank-ing, insurance and financial services, the latterincludes all other sectors such as hotel and touristservices, industrial and consumer goods, trad-ing, marketing and so on. As per the plan, allPSUs in non-strategic sectors will be privatisedand all loss-making enterprises in this catego-ry will be closed. In the strategic sector, too, theGovernment will be open to privatisation withthe caveat that at least one undertaking (and amaximum of four) will be retained in the pub-lic sector.

When seen in the backdrop of the UnionGovernment having made an indiscriminateentry in almost every conceivable business activ-ity, including areas such as hotel and tourist ser-vices where it had no business to be present inthe first place, any initiative aimed at exitingfrom all of these is welcome. This has the poten-tial to unlock value and generate huge revenuebecause of the high valuation that the real estateand properties under these PSUs command. Asregards the strategic sector, though theGovernment does not rule out privatisation, thecaveat of retaining a maximum of four under-takings in the public sector can defeat the pur-pose. For instance, currently there are around12 oil PSUs ranging from upstream oil produc-ers like the ONGC and OIL to downstream oilrefining and fuel marketing firms IOC, BPCLand HPCL to gas transporter GAIL IndiaLimited and engineering firm Engineers IndiaLimited. These 12 could be consolidated intofour behemoths through a process of merger andamalgamation, leaving no space for privatisationwhatsoever.

Why does the Government want to put thiscaveat? What does it fear? Sans this, will it com-promise national interest? In the above exam-ple, consider an extreme scenario, in which thereis not even one PSU and the entire oil and gasspace is occupied by private enterprises. Are weto infer that this will compromise India’s ener-gy security? If this were to be the case, then whynot reserve this sector exclusively for PSUs? Whyallow even one private company? This line ofargument is bizarre. For ensuring security instrategic items, the critical requirement is to havea minimum number of companies to ensurethere is adequate competition and supply in themarket. Who those firms are —whether ownedby private promoters or the Government —should not matter.

In the 1970s-80s, when India needed todevelop these sectors and private players wereunwilling to invest, it made sense for theGovernment to take the lead. Since then, lot ofwater has flown down the Ganga. Currently,there is considerable interest among privateinvestors and the Government itself is invitingthem. Therefore, any arbitrary restriction shouldbe avoided. Any decision to privatise a PSU

should be taken on the merit ofeach case, irrespective of whetherit is in a strategic or non-strategicarea. Likewise, the mandatory clo-sure of any loss-making enterpriseshould apply to all such entitieswithout any distinction. Nationalsecurity concerns are always bestaddressed through strong, resilientand responsive regulatory andsurveillance mechanisms.

Implementation is far moreimportant than the policy. In thisregard, the score of the ModiGovernment during the last sevenyears or so (it was pursued undera sophisticated nomenclature‘strategic disinvestment’) has beendisappointing. Except for two bigticket sales like the divestment ofits 51.11 per cent shareholding inHPCL in 2017-18 and 52.63 percent stake in the REC in 2018-19,there is nothing much to show.Even these sales can’t be termed asprivatisation as the buyers wereONGC and PFC respectively —both PSUs.

As per the original plan, 51.11per cent shares of the UnionGovernment in HPCL were to besold to a private investor. Butthings did not pan out as plannedand in January 2018, theGovernment had to ask ONGC topick up the entire stake, as it des-perately needed money to meet thefiscal deficit (FD) target. In the caseof REC too, it asked the PFC tobuy. During 2018-19, Air India wasalso put on the block but failed.

During 2019-20, besides resur-recting that offer, the Governmentalso took up sale of all of its share-holding in BPCL (53.29 per cent);CONCOR (30 per cent); SCI(63.75) per cent; NEEPCO (100per cent) and THDC India Limited(75 per cent). Sans NEEPCO andTHDC which were sold to NTPC— a CPSU in the power sector —others made no progress. During2020-21, COVID-19 spoilt theparty. For 2021-22, there is notmuch hope either. The target forproceeds for disinvestment speaksfor itself. At �1,75,000 crore, thisis substantially lower than thetarget for 2020-21 (�2,10,000crore). This is despite adding twoPublic Sector Banks (PSBs) andone general insurance company tothe list of those (Air India, BPCL,SCI, CONCOR, LIC) alreadyunder the hammer. The man-darins in the Finance Ministryhave sensed that some disinvest-ments may not go through, otherswould fetch lower valuation.

There are four major bottle-necks in the way like policy flip-flops (it stymied Air India’s sale in2018-19/2019-20); bureaucraticred tape (but for this, HPCL couldhave got a private suitor andBPCL’s sale could have happenedin 2019/20); thrusting decisions onPSU Boards under a typical top-down approach; linking share saleto meeting the FD target. The lasttwo reasons have the inevitableeffect of delaying and reducing

realisation from every sale. The Budget offers nothing to

address any of these bottlenecks.Under a business as usualapproach, it will take several years,if not decades, for the sale processto get completed. The decision toset up an empowered group of sec-retaries to address the concerns ofpotential investors won’t be ofmuch help as even under thisarrangement, bureaucrats will con-tinue to rule the roost.

The Centre should de-bureau-cratise the process of runningPSUs. This should be done evenbefore privatisation is taken up.The Government may set up aholding company — on the linesof a bank investment company rec-ommended by an RBI committeeunder P Nayak — where all itsshares in PSUs will be vested. Itshould authorise the holding com-pany to take all decisions, includ-ing share sale to private investors,in consultation with the manage-ment. To be manned by eminentprofessionals drawn from respec-tive fields, the company should tobe given full autonomy in itsworking.

This mechanism will also helpin de-linking divestment from theBudget exercise and give much-needed flexibility to the holdingcompany to decide the contoursand timing of sale, taking intoaccount the market conditions soas to maximise the proceeds fromsales.

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In today’s world we are sur-rounded by ArtificialIntelligence (AI) which

finds its application every-where, from science fiction tolocal hospitals. AI helps med-ical professionals by relievingthem of routine tasks and alsomakes medical proceduressafer and pocket-friendly forpatients.

Further, AI-guidedmachines are also capable ofperforming minute surgerieswith accuracy and help intransporting substances,which are unsafe for humansto handle. In medical systems,call centre staff for websiteshas increasingly beenreplaced by chatbots that useNatural Language Processing(NLP) to provide callers withinformation and managequeries.

In various hospitals andother health institutes, AItechnologies such as fuzzy

systems, Bayesian networks,artificial neural networks andsmart hybrid systems arebeing used.

AI in medicine can be dif-ferentiated into two subtypes— virtual and real. The phys-ical segment deals with robot-ics that helps in procedures,for instance smart prosthet-ics for people with disabilitiesand the treatment of theelderly. The interactive com-ponents range from applica-tions for electronic healthrecord systems to neural net-work-based guide in caredecisions for patients.

There is increasing use ofAI-powered robots in thesurgical environment.Robotics technology can beapplied in many areas thatdirectly affect patient care.Some of their applicationsinclude disinfecting patientrooms and operating setsand reducing the risks for

patients and medical per-sonnel.

They can be used in lab-oratories to take samples andtransport, analyse and storethem. Also, the robotic labassistant can exactly locate thevessel from which the bloodis required to be taken andextract the sample withoutcausing pain and anxiety tothe patients, who are troubleda lot by the multiple pokesthat a doctor or nurse makesfor finding a good vein.

AI software also helpsprimary healthcare doctors inidentifying patients who needadditional treatment and havespecific protocols. It will beused by medical practitionersfor commenting, reviewingpatient conversations and soon.

The COVID-19 pandem-ic has changed the world andadversely affected multiplelayers of our society. Frontline

workers and particularlythose who have been in directcontact with patients areexposed to major risk.

To mitigate the spread ofthe Coronavirus and to pro-tect healthcare workers andpatients, medical services hadbeen largely restricted,including the cancellation ofelective surgeries. This result-

ed in a substantial burden forpatients and economic lossfor various hospitals. It is insituations like this that AI-robot surgeries could be apowerful tool to maintainsurgical volumes while at thesame time mitigating the fearof contamination by operat-ing procedures on patientswithout healthcare workerscoming in physical contact.

While talking about theCoronavirus, it is imperativeto mention that using AI topredict its pattern was able tohelp mitigate the crisis tosome extent. For instance —BlueDot — a Canadianorganisation specialising ininfectious disease forecasting,used AI to gather data frommultiple points.

It was able to predict theCOVID-19 outbreak andalert people around, evenbefore the World HealthOrganisation (WHO) did so.

Similarly, an AI-poweredchatbot, based in Singaporenamed SGDormBot, helpedin mass screening for symp-toms among migrant work-ers.

The pandemic has alsohighlighted the need for rapidscreening and testing ofpatients to improve treat-ment pathways and reducethe risk of cross-infection.The use of AI here, for access-ing electronic health records(EHR) of routinely-orderedtests and vital signs can pro-duce an effective tool toscreen patients in emergencydepartments and hospitaladmission units.

Data collected fromEHRs can be further supple-mented with data from wear-able technology such as smartwatches or mobile healthapps and medical devices.

With the potential appli-cation of AI within the

healthcare system, the ques-tion remains how this willaffect the workforce.According to McKinseyGlobal Institute, 50 per centof companies say thatautomation will decrease thenumber of full-time staff by2022 and that by 2030, robotswill replace 800 million work-ers across the world.

Also, automation of cler-ical processes could potential-ly have an impact on the non-clinical workforce of thehealthcare system. Specialtiessuch as radiology whereimaging reports can be auto-mated and produced by AIalgorithms may well be thereality.

Of course, the ethics ofdata sharing and privacyimplications for patients andtheir insurers is debatable. Aswe enter a brave new worldwith AI, it entails certainbenefits and limitations.

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The writer is a New Delhi-based

policy analyst.The views expressed

are personal.

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The writer is a Padma Shri awardee and

cardiothoracic surgeoncredited with India’s

first bypass. He is Chairman and CEO of

Frontier Lifeline Hospital. The views expressed

are personal.

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FEDERALBNK 84.45 84.75 82.5 83.05IGL 495 501.05 490.45 494.25RVNL 32.25 33.45 31.75 32.45CONCOR 560 573 556.65 562.45NESTLEIND 16274.95 16360 16090.7 16288.2AMBUJACEM 279 279.55 273.5 277.85CUMMINSIND 787 804.9 786.5 801.8BLUESTARCO 899.95 947.5 843 860.25SBILIFE 860 878.5 852.5 875.3SUZLON 5.93 6.05 5.81 5.91MANAPPURAM 179.9 179.9 172.1 174.35IEX 294 304 293 301.3ASTRAL 2168 2220 2148.35 2197.05SUNTV 496 513 496 504.8GLENMARK 469.45 473.5 462 467.75PVR 1385 1385 1349.3 1369.65NAUKRI 4949 5017.6 4878 4906.3INTELLECT 436.75 447.35 421.5 425.9AMARAJABAT 882.85 904 881.25 899.7HONAUT 45525 46400 45165.9 45462.85ACC 1750 1779.45 1727.25 1775.25SHREECEM 26311 27800 26311 27691.7STAR 838 855.2 828.95 835.4TATAELXSI 2696.7 2708.2 2602.65 2622.1SPICEJET 84.05 84.9 82.8 83.2TV18BRDCST 29.25 32.95 29.25 32.55BHARATFORG 614.25 627 611.7 618.4MFSL 868 896.3 859.3 861.4FORTIS 158.1 172 158.1 170.65PETRONET 258.25 260 250.4 251.35BOMDYEING 74.25 77.45 74.25 76.2SUDARSCHEM 540 589.55 527.45 570.6GREAVESCOT 139 144.3 135.05 140.7VOLTAS 1040 1062.4 1021.95 1044.15CHAMBLFERT 248.4 264.45 243.8 257.95SIEMENS 1893.35 1923.6 1848 1907.4BLISSGVS 176 176 172.95 174.65PAGEIND 28500 28604.7 27950 28072.9NCC 89.05 93.85 87.65 92.45HAL 1100 1104 1080 1085MARICO 404.6 404.6 396.25 401.7AFFLE 5354.9 5400 5230 5347.15MUTHOOTFIN 1299 1330.55 1285.15 1302.1GRAPHITE 485 489.55 476.6 478.5CENTURYTEX 481.05 494.65 476.8 487.2ADANIGREEN 1170 1170 1131.3 1140.55BDL 354 370 354 367PFC 124.5 127.4 123.15 126.85TNPL 132.6 138 130.8 134.5RAIN 171 172 163 164.15CADILAHC 435.35 438.3 430.35 435.3ATGL 522 529 517 525.25MRPL 41.4 44.7 41 43.4BATAINDIA 1422.25 1477.25 1422.25 1470ADANIPOWER 56 56.5 55.45 55.7IDFC 55.2 55.65 53.9 54.35GODREJPROP 1545 1573.45 1517.5 1539.8FRETAIL 70 70.2 69.05 69.35NBVENTURES 75 75.7 71.65 72PHILIPCARB 197.05 200.6 196.8 197.65DABUR 503.7 507.85 502.85 505.95CASTROLIND 132 136.8 130.5 135.7AUBANK 1152.9 1165 1127 1148.33MINDIA 23200 24460.6 23200 24125.35HFCL 29.5 30.2 29.05 29.2DELTACORP 147.8 152.8 147.1 148.95NLCINDIA 53.15 56.6 53.15 55MINDTREE 1605 1642.25 1597.2 1632.8RAYMOND 372 386 371.4 379.1GRANULES 323.4 344.4 323.4 341.55BIOCON 396.5 398.5 387.5 395.4TRIDENT 14.04 14.04 13.51 13.77TORNTPHARM 2400 2449 2400 2438.65MOIL 152.7 163.2 151.45 158.85EXIDEIND 205 207.3 203.1 206.65DBL 680 707.4 680 697.6SRF 5443.7 5515.3 5386.55 5422.35CGCL 378.25 378.25 357.4 371.25

STLTECH 213.2 220 209.25 215.65GMRINFRA 26.3 26.5 25.85 26.2RECLTD 137 139.7 136.3 138.95NOCIL 167.25 174.6 165.8 171.35SYMPHONY 1140.1 1217 1140.1 1204.6MIDHANI 191.15 197.5 191.15 195.2LALPATHLAB 2340 2344.05 2286.5 2334.25RADICO 580 599.5 574.05 593.9BANKINDIA 84 84.15 80.6 80.9EIDPARRY 316.3 339.75 316.3 336.7NAVINFLUOR 2575 2725 2537.55 2659.65IDBI 31.95 32.5 31.6 31.8CYIENT 655 669 645.9 652.1JCHAC 2600 2820 2600 2746.25MAHABANK 25.1 25.1 22.85 23.25MGL 1158.2 1173.15 1141.8 1158.9MEGH 81.05 83.4 81.05 82.3ICICIPRULI 465 477 464.3 471.85UCOBANK 14 14.2 13.54 13.74TATACOMM 1080 1123.6 1077.1 1114.8PIDILITIND 1702 1710 1685 1698.65CROMPTON 394.9 399.25 382.05 386.5TEAMLEASE 3444 3840 3404 3592.1HDFCAMC 2937.65 2979 2928.2 2938.25RAMCOCEM 983 1000.25 968 995.8PIIND 2169.9 2182.7 2152 2174.1BALKRISIND 1564.45 1598 1559.2 1584.85APLAPOLLO 1105 1124.95 1050 1092.55HEG 1477 1488.4 1434.9 1442.3PCJEWELLER 30.55 30.65 29.65 29.85IOB 18.9 18.95 17.65 17.8LTI 3598 3692.4 3592 3612.3WABAG 288.3 291.8 275.45 280.9INOXLEISUR 308 316.3 303 308.4CEATLTD 1620 1642.6 1582.9 1608.35CENTURYPLY 310.35 310.4 304.1 307.8GMDCLTD 63.4 64.95 62.3 63.6GODREJCP 686 690.5 673.55 685.75GUJALKALI 314.05 346.6 314.05 342.2INDIANB 137 139.5 136.15 137.45TORNTPOWER 390.9 390.9 379.95 384.6CHENNPETRO 100.35 108.05 99.5 105.55OFSS 3030 3167.6 3030 3154.55INDUSTOWER 261 264.95 250.65 252.35GICRE 190.3 200 188.35 197.85RITES 245 262.65 242.2 259.15UNIONBANK 40.75 41.45 39.9 40.05PTC 74 76 72.75 73.95ABBOTINDIA 14400 14520 14264.75 14492.5KAJARIACER 946.5 954.75 931.3 936.5JKTYRE 126.6 129.75 123.2 126.45COROMANDEL 780 786 772.3 784.15TRENT 813.1 838.45 807.4 830.95BALMLAWRIE 125 128 124.55 125.7MCX 1522 1531.05 1499 1503.7CENTRALBK 19.95 20 18.5 18.65BALRAMCHIN 174.6 184 174.6 180.85JKPAPER 145.05 149.45 145.05 146.4AMBER 3259.8 3259.8 3165.75 3200.1IFCI 8.95 9.86 8.95 9.5ABB 1537.05 1560 1508.3 1523.75COLPAL 1585 1591.15 1566.25 1582.25MPHASIS 1660 1664.1 1625 1635.85GMM 4115.45 4428.45 4115.45 4293.4NHPC 24.15 25.2 24.15 24.5IIFL 285 286 278 283.9WOCKPHARMA 501.15 513.45 497.7 500NAM-INDIA 331.9 350.95 328.9 343.9FSL 102.95 102.95 99.1 99.3FINOLEXIND 623.7 639.95 618.3 621.7SONATSOFTW 479 493.35 465.3 476.65HINDZINC 298 304.5 298 300JAGRAN 67.7 67.7 60.2 61.15WELCORP 131.1 133.9 129.4 132KNRCON 208.25 212 207.8 208.1ADVENZYMES 355.2 365.65 341 348.65COCHINSHIP 375 394.4 373.5 388.05SWANENERGY 146.6 148.5 144.05 147.4OBEROIRLTY 546.6 566.55 546.2 552BSOFT 228.15 232 223.5 225.5RELAXO 869.9 874.4 832.6 837.7SANOFI 8399.9 8399.9 8205 8264.1SUMICHEM 298.7 308.25 293.8 299.45INDHOTEL 123.8 124 120.35 121.5AJANTPHARM 1786 1786 1685.55 1757.7AARTIIND 1235 1278.3 1227.35 1268.7VGUARD 232 232 220.75 222.15HINDCOPPER 155.5 157.25 155.5 157.25ADANITRANS 764.6 768 737.55 758.35PNCINFRA 267.65 271.5 259 268.05BAJAJELEC 1020 1020 966.65 989.15SJVN 26 27.15 25.65 26.75JAICORPLTD 91.5 94.35 90.5 92.3GODREJAGRO 487.15 491.5 478.95 479.85LINDEINDIA 1584 1655 1574 1643.45GALAXYSURF 2205 2349 2205 2326.45PARAGMILK 112 113.9 108.05 110.75UJJIVAN 245.45 253.5 244.6 246.2UBL 1189.8 1194.55 1161 1187.95NATCOPHARM 819 824.5 805.35 819.65DALBHARAT 1452.7 1500 1425 1468.6ASTRAZEN 3442 3594 3441 3454.1POWERINDIA 1450 1483.2 1388 1415.2IPCALAB 1850 1925 1822.05 1902.85WESTLIFE 506.1 526 506.1 518.95VAIBHAVGBL 3503 3611.2 3460 3551.9PNBHOUSING 474 474 430.75 433.4DCBBANK 116.5 118.05 115.05 116UFLEX 362.7 370 362.4 365

PRESTIGE 302.65 307.55 298.5 303.55ALKYLAMINE 5058 5149.95 5052.3 5078.9BAJAJHLDNG 3698 3698 3571 3600.2GSPL 259 259 246.65 248.85CANFINHOME 480.5 490 473.45 474.7OIL 127.95 128 125.7 127.1SUPREMEIND 2059.9 2123.7 2058.4 2081.8COFORGE 2618.3 2618.3 2477 2505.45ICICIGI 1429.95 1455.3 1407 1426.7NIACL 155 160.45 152.25 156ZENSARTECH 301.9 303 284.45 289.9IRCON 96.2 97.6 94.4 96.05SWSOLAR 232.5 244.05 227.5 240.8CESC 604 620 600.05 617APLLTD 919 939 908.55 923.3KEC 443 454.7 436.45 450TAKE 57.4 58.55 56.7 56.8CUB 168.7 169.5 166.5 168.65AVANTI 480.55 485.85 477.2 484.45ATUL 6980 6980 6415 6583.55MINDACORP 103.75 108.25 103.5 107.25JKLAKSHMI 375 396.55 375 393.8JSWENERGY 72 75.4 71.9 74.4GESHIP 314 325.45 305 307.5J&KBANK 29.15 29.5 28.7 28.95JINDALSAW 81 81.85 78.85 79.6BAJAJCON 248.95 253.4 244.15 246.3VBL 1057.85 1061.9 1007.5 1044.35ISEC 411.95 411.95 402.3 403.55KTKBANK 68.25 68.85 67.6 67.75TIMETECHNO 58.95 60.9 56.7 59.7SUNTECK 355 357.1 348.3 350.6AEGISLOG 311.85 323 311.85 322ITI 126.55 131.05 126.55 127.35SYNGENE 560.1 567 555.95 557.6POLYCAB 1351.05 1362.3 1340 1350.1LTTS 2605 2626.6 2570.5 2576.5DISHTV 11.26 11.64 11.26 11.37VINATIORGA 1444 1475 1393.65 1446.55EDELWEISS 70.35 71.9 68.75 69.6KALPATPOWR 384 396.25 384 387.7PFIZER 4566 4647.15 4530 4630.3JKCEMENT 2680 2779.75 2622.05 2666.85DCAL 120.3 121.45 117.9 118.2GODFRYPHLP 901 909.9 895.65 901.8SPANDANA 632 634.2 601.15 608.05ORIENTCEM 92.1 96.45 92.1 94.45SPARC 165.2 167.6 164 165.95EMAMILTD 452.35 475 443 459.25GARFIBRES 2601 2650 2550.8 2592.95FCONSUMER 8.1 8.1 7.95 7.98TIINDIA 1025.05 1108 1021.5 1045.85HERITGFOOD 325 357.55 316 344.6GRSE 201.65 202 198.55 199.5JAMNAAUTO 70.15 70.9 68.1 68.2PERSISTENT 1686.9 1703.95 1641.3 1684.05ARVINDFASN 157.5 161.65 157.05 157.75GHCL 219 220.35 217.1 218.65THERMAX 1350 1431 1350 1398.35UJJIVANSFB 33.6 34.45 33.6 33.9HATHWAY 30.95 32.4 29.85 31.15CARBORUNIV 522.9 533.45 506.95 529EQUITAS 86 88.6 85.7 88.25JBCHEPHARM 1150 1173.55 1117 1146.65KPRMILL 945 991 923.95 977.1JMFINANCIL 92 93.8 91.15 91.5BAYERCROP 5141 5200 5049.05 5078.15ENDURANCE 1489.85 1489.85 1399.65 1404.1SIS 429.2 433.7 425 425.6ITDC 323.25 336 321.8 325.45TATAINVEST 1123 1149.5 1120 1131.35DCMSHRIRAM 454.85 477.1 453.05 462.8RAJESHEXPO 510 514.9 504 505.25WHIRLPOOL 2437.15 2458.3 2395 2448.2CREDITACC 720 720 684 707.85IRB 109 109.9 106.65 107.15DBCORP 100.15 103.5 100 100.7GODREJIND 455.9 455.9 446 451.95RALLIS 257.3 259.85 254.2 256.8KEI 504.7 505.6 490.35 493.75LAXMIMACH 6590 6687 6310 6399.35PHOENIXLTD 839 839 821.55 828.7BBTC 1182.45 1185.4 1157.8 1161.65SCHNEIDER 114.9 116.65 112.75 113.35EPL 219 223 215.3 219.95MASFIN 898.9 950 895.7 939.95PRSMJOHNSN 106.3 108.8 103.25 103.75CARERATING 465.45 472.6 465.45 468.35KPITTECH 146.05 147.55 141.7 142.9BIRLACORPN 859 878.35 857 866.4VENKYS 1602.05 1622.05 1589.7 1596.45SHK 117.9 120.3 117.5 117.85FDC 278 282 275.45 279.1MAHINDCIE 184.9 185.7 180.95 183.45MAHLIFE 529.9 561.05 527.8 536.7GLAXO 1455 1473 1446.9 1454.8BLUEDART 4700 4736 4600.05 4616.5FINCABLES 399 399 390.5 392.5KRBL 200 200 194 194.6JTEKTINDIA 90 91.8 87.95 88.6ESABINDIA 1900 1930.5 1877.8 1898.95REPCOHOME 336 346.05 330.75 336.65SOBHA 443 444.55 435.1 439.6JUBLPHARMA 775 786.6 764.45 780.2VRLLOG* 262 266.75 256.2 258.3BASF 1967.4 1991 1876.95 1898.7INDOCO 291 301.75 290 297.35KANSAINER 566.7 566.7 555.55 562.1TTKPRESTIG 7245 7413.1 7082.65 7119.85

MINDAIND 577.65 578.65 564.35 571.35HAWKINCOOK 5587.2 5700 5501 5616RATNAMANI 1925 1938 1911 1929.4METROPOLIS 1990 1995 1951 1956TVSSRICHAK 2184 2184 1864 1923.85SFL 2089 2089 1992.85 2014.1SUNDRMFAST 719.6 725.2 703.45 714.45GRINDWELL 864.95 924.25 864.95 910.5ORIENTELEC 272.9 275.95 269 271.65HEIDELBERG 237 237 226.15 227.45FORCEMOT 1338 1340 1307 1312.4SUPRAJIT 283.85 288.4 277 284.9TVTODAY 270 283.75 267.9 276.95JYOTHYLAB 149 150.6 147.3 147.85VTL 1184 1222.8 1153 1175.45REDINGTON 188.35 188.5 182 184.1ORIENTREF 231.8 233.55 225 230.1AAVAS 2273.85 2283.9 2251.55 2263.05PGHL 6723.6 6830 6582.6 6603.45KSB 747.95 762.3 723.85 732.05JSLHISAR 125.2 125.25 122.4 122.85SOMANYCERA 460 460 431.4 434.9LAOPALA 218.45 222 217.5 220.8

DHANUKA 730 748 725 726.25VSTIND 3416 3482.7 3416 3432.45LUXIND 1753.5 1774.45 1730 1748.35THYROCARE 910.1 925.5 909.25 920.85WELSPUNIND 70.6 70.6 68.65 68.9GILLETTE 5505 5592.7 5505 5554.6SHANKARA 445.55 464 445.55 454.05CHOLAHLDNG 594 618.3 588.7 606.65JSL 71.9 72.5 70.05 70.45FINEORG 2348 2356.25 2309.45 2325.05LEMONTREE 42.05 42.05 40.5 40.65IFBIND 1244.95 1244.95 1202.55 1207.2AIAENG 1823.75 1830 1801 1806.5HIMATSEIDE 158.4 161.8 156 157.05CERA 3818.4 4010 3800 3994.45VARROC 409.75 414.65 402.75 410.8MOTILALOFS 616 616 606.5 607.8MAHSCOOTER 3848.95 3848.95 3661.55 3675.85NESCO 592.5 600 586 597.05AKZOINDIA 2176.7 2180 2140 2145.15CRISIL 1949.15 1957.95 1920.85 1925.05NH 461.95 461.95 430.25 434.85SOLARINDS 1322.65 1341 1312.35 1339.55SHRIRAMCIT 1591 1640 1496.9 1518.1GPPL 98.55 100.45 98.4 98.85CAPPL 471.95 471.95 465.25 467.1GEPIL 274 279.35 274 276ERIS 584.05 601.35 584.05 595.05GET&D 128.55 133.85 127.85 131.9ALLCARGO 129.7 129.9 128.2 128.75EIHOTEL 99.5 99.5 96.25 96.55SKFINDIA 2264.75 2264.75 2210.05 2227.8CCL 236.8 236.8 228.6 231.55PGHH 13000 13080 12951 13018.95NILKAMAL 1829.35 1845 1804 1808.75ZYDUSWELL 1925 1935.05 1908 1918.95NAVNETEDUL 90.45 90.75 87.45 89.5BRIGADE 293.35 298 290.4 292.5FLUOROCHEM 585 585.55 569.05 576.55STARCEMENT 98 99.4 98 98.7GDL 179.25 181.15 174.7 175.75SHOPERSTOP 208.2 214.6 207.2 212.1MAHSEAMLES 282.7 287.7 280 285.8VMART 2660.95 2660.95 2600 2616.5TCIEXP 928 940 918.55 926.95CSBBANK 226.45 228 225.75 227.3GULFOILLUB 738.85 761.1 738.35 759.6MAHLOG 488.7 497 479.2 483.85SCHAEFFLER 5180 5256.35 5140 5167.3IIFLWAM 1211.7 1215.65 1159.5 1162.2TASTYBIT 15450 15450 15123.05 15123.05ECLERX 940 940.45 927.75 935.7MHRIL 228 230.25 226 229.3TIMKEN 1284 1289.45 1260 1268WABCOINDIA 5908 5947.75 5867.1 5879.3TCNSBRANDS 504.95 507.5 494.15 494.15INDOSTAR 339 341 330.55 331.15ASTERDM 147 147 143.1 143.5OMAXE 70.5 71.35 70.5 70.5

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY 50 14,702.50 14,806.80 14,638.55 14,761.55 232.4POWERGRID 217.5 228.8 217.4 228.8 14.5ONGC 114.3 117.65 113.5 117.65 6.65GRASIM 1,206.95 1,270.00 1,202.20 1,270.00 69.2UPL 570 592.7 570 590 28.45SHREECEM 26,600.50 27,832.50 26,600.50 27,665.00 1,163.30ULTRACEMCO 6,218.80 6,389.80 6,170.60 6,362.00 247ASIANPAINT 2,300.00 2,369.90 2,300.00 2,368.00 90.8HEROMOTOCO 3,255.00 3,363.05 3,250.00 3,352.00 128KOTAKBANK 1,811.00 1,854.90 1,801.40 1,846.40 66.05TITAN 1,421.50 1,466.00 1,416.60 1,454.00 47.1DIVISLAB 3,396.70 3,485.00 3,381.35 3,475.00 111.9ADANIPORTS 684.6 704.65 673.3 697.6 21.7IOC 101 101.5 99.8 100.9 2.85JSWSTEEL 402.6 408.45 393.35 406.5 11.05HDFC 2,556.00 2,614.60 2,548.60 2,610.00 70.6EICHERMOT 2,523.00 2,568.90 2,497.15 2,559.75 61.15HCLTECH 916 934.45 915.65 931 21.55MARUTI 6,977.00 7,032.85 6,917.05 7,024.90 158.75TATASTEEL 724 738.25 711.35 730.9 15.75LT 1,456.00 1,486.00 1,438.20 1,473.50 31GAIL 144.1 145.65 142.5 144.8 3TECHM 935.45 957 926.35 937.95 19.1ICICIBANK 607.55 611.85 600.2 609.5 11.75SUNPHARMA 600 610.8 597.05 606 11.4HDFCBANK 1,564.00 1,572.55 1,540.70 1,560.35 25.95COALINDIA 155.5 157.1 153.7 154.65 2.45M&M 821 852.7 816.2 819 12.6ITC 205.45 207.75 204.05 207 3.15BAJAJFINSV 9,799.00 9,848.60 9,613.70 9,790.00 141.4TATAMOTORS 330 331.85 322.7 327.7 4.75BRITANNIA 3,371.50 3,420.00 3,367.05 3,412.00 48.25TCS 2,926.00 2,965.00 2,901.80 2,935.50 41.2INFY 1,263.30 1,284.50 1,259.00 1,271.00 17.7HINDALCO 342 347 334.6 345 4.75WIPRO 411 418.7 409.2 416 5.7BPCL 456 463.85 450.1 455.9 6.05SBIN 395.1 397.7 391 395.2 5.05NESTLEIND 16,236.00 16,367.60 16,100.00 16,301.00 199.4SBILIFE 860 879 852.2 875.6 8.7HINDUNILVR 2,135.20 2,154.00 2,128.00 2,152.60 20.55NTPC 109.5 109.8 107.15 108.3 1HDFCLIFE 711.3 713.5 700.15 707 6.35RELIANCE 2,110.20 2,112.00 2,062.50 2,103.00 17.2AXISBANK 738 743.5 722.25 730.45 5.65DRREDDY 4,445.00 4,478.00 4,400.25 4,459.00 32.45BAJAJ-AUTO 3,798.70 3,858.80 3,751.00 3,822.00 23.3INDUSINDBK 1,075.00 1,096.60 1,063.15 1,069.20 6.25CIPLA 795 800.5 782 789.5 2.45BAJFINANCE 5,315.00 5,369.90 5,195.00 5,279.00 14.1BHARTIARTL 558 559.1 521 532.8 -23.5

SE 500B

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY NEXT 50 34,491.40 34,655.05 34,326.60 34,552.05 325.7MOTHERSUMI 216.95 233.5 216.15 229.7 15.7BERGEPAINT 681 723 681 720 40.15GICRE 192 200.3 188.25 198 8.95ALKEM 2,743.10 2,855.00 2,722.10 2,833.85 111.8OFSS 3,050.00 3,168.75 3,050.00 3,155.90 112.3NMDC 129.3 132.25 127.7 131.65 4.65INDIGO 1,621.00 1,685.00 1,620.05 1,673.60 53.65SIEMENS 1,864.35 1,925.00 1,848.15 1,909.65 59.65TATACONSUM 614.9 628.5 609.2 627.05 17.9PEL 1,862.30 1,945.60 1,855.00 1,880.10 50.85SBICARD 1,078.25 1,110.70 1,076.00 1,097.50 28.9PFC 125.4 127.5 123.2 127.3 3.3AUROPHARMA 855.1 879 849.4 876.9 21.7UBL 1,167.50 1,194.20 1,160.10 1,188.55 27.2ICICIPRULI 464.05 477.2 464.05 472 10.45MCDOWELL-N 537.9 547.5 532.2 547 11.9HINDPETRO 246.4 252.4 243.55 247.8 5.35ACC 1,754.40 1,779.85 1,725.70 1,771.20 38BOSCHLTD 15,000.00 15,345.05 14,905.00 15,175.00 320.1BIOCON 395 399 387.4 397.8 7.6AMBUJACEM 275.55 279.65 273.5 278.3 4.8DLF 305.8 310.7 302 307.8 5.3CONCOR 562.9 573 556.25 565.8 7.95ADANITRANS 757.7 768 736.9 759.6 9.6MARICO 400.9 402.7 396.05 402.4 4.85HAVELLS 1,124.00 1,125.55 1,096.05 1,117.05 11.5PIDILITIND 1,706.00 1,710.95 1,684.65 1,703.00 17.05HINDZINC 300.1 304.55 298.25 300.1 2.6PGHH 13,096.80 13,096.80 12,946.75 13,029.35 110.25ABBOTINDIA 14,450.00 14,520.00 14,250.00 14,500.00 110.55DABUR 504 507.85 502.8 506.5 3.4IGL 494 501 490.3 494.9 2.95LUPIN 1,023.45 1,034.90 1,011.00 1,024.00 5.65COLPAL 1,577.00 1,591.00 1,565.25 1,588.25 7.05LTI 3,590.00 3,695.20 3,590.00 3,615.00 15.15MUTHOOTFIN 1,297.30 1,330.35 1,285.00 1,303.00 3.3NAUKRI 4,920.00 5,018.70 4,875.45 4,921.00 10.65ICICIGI 1,430.00 1,454.95 1,406.00 1,428.50 2.5GODREJCP 690 692.4 673 687.3 0.9PNB 41.4 41.45 40.55 40.9 0.05TORNTPHARM 2,406.80 2,450.00 2,400.00 2,430.50 2.3HDFCAMC 2,935.00 2,980.00 2,930.00 2,937.30 0.3CADILAHC 437 438.4 430.4 435 -0.2ADANIGREEN 1,170.00 1,170.00 1,130.15 1,144.80 -15.05BAJAJHLDNG 3,693.30 3,693.30 3,561.00 3,580.00 -50.2PETRONET 259.1 260 250.45 251.6 -3.55BANDHANBNK 349 351.25 336.25 339 -6.25INDUSTOWER 261.15 265 250.7 253.1 -4.7BANKBARODA 85.4 86.35 82.9 83.5 -1.9

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Leading car makers MarutiSuzuki, Hyundai and Tata

Motors reported robust salesgrowth in the domestic marketin February as the demand forpersonal mobility amidCOVID-19 pandemic contin-ues to drive the market.

Others, including ToyotaKirloskar Motor (TKM),Mahindra & Mahindra, andHonda Cars India, also report-ed strong wholesale dispatch-es to dealers last month.

The country’s largest car-maker Maruti Suzuki India(MSI) said its domestic salesincreased 11.8 per cent to1,52,983 units last month, asagainst 1,36,849 units inFebruary 2020.

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India’s first auction of spec-trum in five years attracted

Rs 77,146 crore of bids on theopening day on Monday withReliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, andVodafone Idea participating inthe bidding process - aresponse that the governmentsaid was better than expected.

There were, however, notakers for spectrum in 700MHz and 2500 MHz bands onthe first day, and the auctionswill continue and conclude onTuesday.

About 2,308.80 MHz ofspectrum, that carry telecomsignals, in seven bands worthnearly Rs 4 lakh crore at thereserve or start price, wasoffered for bidding in the auc-tion that began on Monday.Communications MinisterRavi Shankar Prasad said Rs

77,146 crore worth of spectrumwas bid on the first day butthere were no takers for the air-waves in the premium 700MHz as also 2500 MHz bands.

The response from playersand the bids received sur-passed government’s internalestimates, that had anticipatedbids worth Rs 45,000 crore.

“The winning bids thathave come till 6 PM today is Rs77,146 crore. We thought sincethere are only three players, andspectrum replacement is hap-pening...Our estimation wasthat the bids will touch aboutRs 45,000 crore, but it is a mat-ter of assurance that it has goneas high as Rs 77,146 crore,”Prasad said.

The bidder-wise detailswere not available immediate-ly. A total of 2,308.80 MHzspectrum is being put to auc-tion, out of which there have

been bids for 849.20 MHz sofar, an official release said.

Bids were received in 800MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz,2100 MHz and 2300 MHzbands, as players gave theprized 700 MHz band a misson the first day of auctions.

“Total value of spectrumput to auction was about Rs 4lakh crore. In this, 700 MHzband was a costly band, andthat cost itself is Rs 1.97 lakhcrore,” the minister said addingthat the government will takea call on 700 MHz band, usedfor 5G, in case it remainsunsold in the ongoing auctions.Excluding 700 MHz and 2500Mhz bands, the biddingaccounted for 60 per cent of thespectrum that was put to auc-tion.

The 700 MHz band wentunsold during the 2016 auc-tions, too. During 2016, when

there were seven bidders, thespectrum sold was 41 per centby quantity and 12 per cent byvalue of the total spectrum putto auction. The correspondingfigures in the 2021 spectrumauction so far are 37 per centand 19 per cent respectively,with three participants.

Spectrum will be offeredfor assignment for a validityperiod of 20 years. Successfulbidders can pay entire bidamount in one go (upfront), orexercise an option to pay a cer-tain amount (25 per cent forspectrum won in 700 MHz, 800MHz, 900 MHz bands or 50per cent for spectrum won in1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300MHz, 2500 MHz bands)upfront with remainingamount in a maximum up to16 equated annual instalments,after a moratorium of twoyears.

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Benchmark BSE Sensexsurged nearly 750 points

and NSE Nifty rallied over232 points on Monday asinvestors cheered the domesticeconomy returning to positiveterritory after two quarters ofcontraction.

The 30-share BSE indexbriefly traded above the 50,000-mark in day trade before clos-ing at 49,849.84, showing a riseof 749.85 points or 1.53 percent. Of the Sensex con-stituents, 29 closed with gains.

Likewise, the NSE barom-eter Nifty settled with a gain of232.40 points or 1.60 per centat 14,761.55.

Top performers werePowerGrid, ONGC, UltratechCement, Asian Paint, KotakBank and Titan – rising asmuch as 5.94 per cent.

“Positive global cues andUS yields retreating from highsled to a strong opening todaywith Indices sustaining gainsthroughout the day. The broad-er markets saw energetic buy-ing momentum across PSUbasket and sectors like Paints &Speciality Chemicals,” SRanganathan, Head ofResearch at LKP Securitiessaid.

After two consecutivequarters of contraction, theIndian economy has finally

entered an expansionary path.The Gross Domestic

Product (GDP) grew 0.4 percent in the October-December2020 period compared with thesame period a year back, datareleased by the National

Statistics Office on Fridayshowed.

High-frequency indica-tors were pointing towards thefact that the domestic economyis slowly entering the recoverypath.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Monday empha-

sised on farmers getting moreavenues to sell crops and said afood processing revolution wasneeded in the country for valueaddition to farm produce and torealise better prices.

Addressing a webinar oneffective implementation ofBudget provisions regarding the

Agriculture Ministry, he under-lined the need for increased par-ticipation of private players in thefarm sector, including in researchand development (R&D) work.

Without making any directreference to the three new farmreform laws or to the three-month-old agitation by farmers,Modi said there is a need forexpanding options for the coun-try’s farming community to sellagri produce.

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The rupee dropped by 8paise to close at 73.55

against the US dollar onMonday, extending its fallingstreak to a third day due tospike in global crude oil pricesand strong American curren-cy.

At the interbank forexmarket, the local unit openedlower at 73.76 against thegreenback and witnessed anintra-day high of 73.19.

The local currency finallyended at 73.55 against theAmerican currency, registeringa fall of 8 paise over its previ-ous closing.

On Friday, the rupee hadsettled at 73.47 against theAmerican currency.

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Gold prices on Monday roseby �241 to �45,520 per 10

grams in the national capital inline with the strong global bul-lion market trend, according toHDFC Securities.

The precious metal hadclosed at �45,279 per 10 gramsin the previous trading session.Silver also jumped by � 781 to�68,877 per kg, compared withthe previous close of 68,096 perkg.HDFC Securities SeniorAnalyst (Commodities) TapanPatel said, “Spot prices for 24karat gold in Delhi rose by�241, in line with the recoveryin global gold prices whilerupee appreciation cappedupside.” The spot rupee wastrading around 16 paisestronger against the dollar,halting three days of loss, dur-ing the intra-day session,HDFC Securities added.

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Cooking gas LPG price was onMonday hiked by Rs 25 per

cylinder across all categories,including subsidised fuel andthose availed by Ujjwala schemebeneficiaries - the fourth increasein rates in a month’s time.

LPG prices have gone upby Rs 125 per 14.2-kg cylindersince the beginning of February,price data from state-owned oil

marketing companies showed.Also, jet fuel prices were

hiked by a steep 6.5 per cent onthe back of a rally in internationaloil prices. A 14.2-kg cylinderin Delhi now costs Rs 819 asagainst Rs 794 at which they weresupplied on Sunday.

The increase is applicableacross all categories, includingsubsidised and non-subsidisedusers. LPG is available only atone rate, market price, across the

country. The government, how-ever, gives a small subsidy toselect customers.

However, this subsidy hasbeen eliminated in metros andmajor cities through successiveprice increases over the pastcouple of years.

So, in places like Delhi, thereis no subsidy paid to customerssince May 2020 and all LPG userspay the market price, which cur-rently is Rs 819.

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Police in Myanmar’s biggestcity fired tear gas Monday at

defiant crowds who returned tothe streets to protest lastmonth’s coup, despite reportsthat security forces had killed atleast 18 people a day earlier.

The protesters in Yangonwere chased as they tried togather at their usual meetingspot at the Hledan Centerintersection. Demonstratorsscattered and sought in vain torinse the irritating gas fromtheir eyes, but later regrouped.

The coup reversed years ofslow progress toward democra-cy in Myanmar after five decadesof military rule. It came Feb. 1,the same day a newly electedParliament was supposed totake office. Ousted leader AungSan Suu Kyi’s party would haveled that government, but insteadshe was detained along with

President Win Myint and othersenior officials.

The army has leveled sev-eral charges against Suu Kyi —an apparent effort by the mil-itary to provide a legal veneerfor her detention and poten-tially to bar her from running

in the election the junta haspromised to hold in one year.On Monday, Suu Kyi made acourt appearance via video-conference and was chargedwith two more offenses, herlawyer Khin Maung Zaw toldreporters.

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AParis court on Mondayfound French former

President Nicolas Sarkozyguilty of corruption and influ-ence peddling and sentencedhim to one year in prison anda two-year suspended sen-tence.

The 66-year-old politician,who was president from 2007to 2012, was convicted for hav-ing tried to illegally obtaininformation from a seniormagistrate in 2014 about alegal action in which he wasinvolved. The court saidSarkozy is entitled to request tobe detained at home with anelectronic bracelet.

This is the first time inFrance’s modern history that aformer president has been con-victed of corruption.

Sarkozy’s co-defendants —his lawyer and longtime friendThierry Herzog, 65, and now-retired magistrate GilbertAzibert, 74 — were also foundguilty and given the same sen-tence as the politician.

The court found thatSarkozy and his co-defendantssealed a “pact of corruption,”based on “consistent and seri-ous evidence”.

The court said the factswere “particularly serious”given that they were commit-ted by a former president whoused his status to help a mag-istrate who had served his per-sonal interest. In addition, as a

lawyer by training, he was“perfectly informed” aboutcommitting an illegal action,the court said.

Sarkozy had firmly deniedall the allegations against himduring the 10-day trial thattook place at the end of lastyear. The corruption trialfocused on phone conversa-tions that took place inFebruary 2014.

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Berlin: A temporary agreementwith Iran to allow UnitedNations inspectors continuedaccess to the country’s atomicfacilities lays the groundworkfor the return to full verifica-tion measures if and whenTehran allows it, the head of theInternational Atomic EnergyAgency said Monday.

Iran began restrictinginternational inspections lastweek, but under a last-minutedeal worked out during a tripto Tehran by Rafael Grossi, thehead of the Vienna-based UNatomic watchdog, some accesswas preserved.

Under the agreement, Iranwill no longer share surveil-lance footage of its nuclearfacilities with the IAEA but ithas promised to preserve thetapes for three months. It willthen hand them over to theIAEA if it is granted sanctionsrelief. Otherwise, Iran hasvowed to erase the tapes, nar-rowing the window for a diplo-matic breakthrough.Inspections are a critical part of

the landmark 2015 nucleardeal with world powers, knownas the Joint ComprehensivePlan of Action, or JCPOA.

Since President DonaldTrump pulled the US unilater-ally out of the deal in 2018, Iranhas been slowly increasing itsviolation of the pact by enrich-ing more uranium than allowed,and to a greater purity thanallowed, among other things.

The violations have beenintended to put pressure on theother signatories to the deal —Britain, France, Germany,Russia and China — to come upwith ways to offset the economicdevastation caused by Americansanctions, but so far they havenot been able to come up witha solution suitable to Iran.

US President Joe Bidenhas said he is ready to join talkswith Iran and world powers todiscuss a return to the deal. Thenew restrictions on inspec-tions complicate matters, and,in effect, set the clock tickingon coming up with some sortof a resolution. AP

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In his first public speech sinceleaving office in January, for-

mer US president DonaldTrump indicated he mightlaunch a third presidential bidin 2024, called for RepublicanParty unity and slammed theJoe Biden administration, say-ing it was “anti-jobs” and “anti-science”.

“We will take back theHouse. We will win the Senateand then a Republican presi-dent would triumph the WhiteHouse. I wonder, who thatwill be,” he said amidst cheersfrom his supporters at theannual session of theConservative Political ActionCommittee in Orlando,Florida.

Though 74-year-oldTrump multiple times in his

speech stopped short fromannouncing that he will run forpresident 2024, he gave enoughindications that he is moving inthat direction.

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Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu on

Monday accused Iran of attack-ing an Israeli-owned ship in theGulf of Oman last week.

Netanyahu spoke to Israelipublic broadcaster Kan andsaid that “it was indeed an actby Iran, that’s clear.”

“Iran is the greatest enemyof Israel, I am determined tohalt it. We are hitting it in theentire region,” Netanyahu said.

The mysterious explosionstruck the Israeli-owned MVHelios Ray, a Bahamian-flaggedroll-on, roll-off vehicle cargoship, as it was sailing out of theMiddle East on its way toSingapore on Friday.

Kathmandu: Nepal PresidentBidya Devi Bhandari onMonday summoned a sessionof the House of Representativeson March 7, days after the apexcourt reinstated the lowerhouse in a landmark verdictthat annulled embattled PrimeMinister KP Sharma Oli’s“unconstitutional” decision todissolve it.

President Bhandari calledfor the commencement ofHouse on recommendation ofGovernment of Nepal, inaccordance with Article 93 (1)of the Constitution of Nepal,according to a notice issued bythe President’s Office onMonday. As per the notice, the275-member lower house willbegin at 4:00pm on the slateddate. PTI

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Hungary’s right-wing PrimeMinister has threatened to

pull his party out of its groupin the European Union’s legis-lature as the conservative groupedges closer to excluding itslargest Hungarian delegation.

In a letter on Sunday tochairman of the EuropeanPeople’s Party (EPP) group inthe European Parliament

Manfred Weber, PrimeMinister Viktor Orban con-demned a group proposalagreed to on Friday that wouldallow for entire parties to beexcluded from the center-rightEPP, rather than just individualMEPs as currently allowed.

Orban wrote that the pro-posed rules, which are expect-ed to pass with a two-thirdsvote at an EPP group meetingon Wednesday.

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The new head of the WorldTrade Organization threw

her support behind long-fruit-less efforts among membercountries to agree on fisheriessubsidies that could reduceoverfishing, calling the effortsa top priority as she took office

on Monday.Director-General Ngozi

Okonjo-Iweala, a Nigerianeconomist and former gov-ernment minister, donned amask and doled out elbowbumps — Covid-19 oblige —as she took up the job at WTOheadquarters on the banks ofLake Geneva.

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In his first public speech sinceleaving office, former US

president Donald Trump hascalled for Republican Partyunity while indicating that hemight launch a third presiden-tial bid in 2024 even as heslammed the Biden adminis-tration, claiming that the coun-try has gone from “AmericaFirst” to “America Last” in justone month.

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He also appealed to everybody to come for-ward and get themselves vaccinated.

“Happy to share that I took my first dose of#COVID19 vaccine today. Grateful to our sci-entists, health workers for their race against timeto deliver the vaccine to people. Appeal to alleligible people to come forward and get the vac-cine for a #COVIFFreeOdisha,” Patnaik said onTwitter.

Union Health Minister Harhsvardhan saidhe will take the Covid-jab on Tuesday.

In the nationwide vaccination drive, Covaxinand Covishield are being offered to citizensunder phases. Covaxin has been indigenouslydeveloped by Bharat Biotech in collaborationwith the Indian Council of Medical Research(ICMR).

Besides Covaxin, Oxford-AstraZeneca’sCovishield manufactured by Serum Institute ofIndia (SII) is the other vaccine being adminis-tered in the country.

The Union Health Ministry said citizens canregister and book an appointment for vaccina-tion, anytime and anywhere, using the Co-WIN2.0 portal Cowin.Gov.In or through other ITapplications such as Aarogya Setu.

There is also a walk-in provision for the ben-eficiaries to get themselves registered at the near-by session site to get vaccinated, it said.

The eligible beneficiaries can choose the cen-tre of their choice and book an appointmentbased on the slots available.

Citizens can register through their mobilenumber, said the Ministry as it also released auser manual to handhold the citizens to regis-ter and schedule an appointment for vaccina-tion. Amid reports of glitches and some peoplesaying they were finding it difficult to navigatethe Co-WIN 2.0 app to register and book anappointment, the Ministry clarified to say theapp on PlayStore is meant for use only by admin-istrators. Registration and booking for appoint-ments has to be done through the portal, it said.

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should brace for summer temperaturesanywhere from 0.46-degrees celsius to 0.71-degree celsius above normal.

“During the upcoming hot weather sea-son (March to May), above normal seasonalmaximum temperatures are likely over mostof the subdivisions of north, northwest andnortheast India, a few subdivisions fromEastern and Western parts of Central Indiaand few coastal subdivisions of north penin-sular India.

However, below normal seasonal maxi-mum temperatures are likely over most of thesubdivisions of the South peninsula andadjoining central India,” the IMD said.

The IMD said above normal seasonalminimum temperatures are likely over mostof the subdivisions of north India along the

foothills of Himalayas, Northeast India, theWestern part of Central India and Southernpart of peninsular India. Kerala and Southinterior Karnataka would experience thecoolest summer this season, followed in thatorder by Tamil Nadu, North InteriorKarnataka, Rayalaseema and MadhyaMaharashtra.

The next coolest on the list are Telangana,Marathawada, Vidarbha, West MadhyaPradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Laddakh.

“However, below normal season mini-mum temperatures are likely over most of thesubdivisions of the Eastern part of CentralIndia and few subdivisions of the extremeNorthern part of the country,” it said.

The onset of summer began a little ear-lier than normal this year, with most of theNorthern, Western, and Eastern parts of thecountry breaching the 30 degrees celsius marknearly two to three weeks before they usual-ly do.

The IMD said moderate La Niña condi-tions are prevailing over the equatorialPacific and sea surface temperatures (SSTs)are below normal over the central and east-ern equatorial Pacific Ocean. The latestmodel forecast indicates that La Niña con-ditions are likely to sustain during theupcoming hot weather season (March toMay), it added.

La Nina is associated with the cooling ofthe Pacific waters and El Nino is its anthe-sis. The phenomenon has an impact on theweather of the Indian sub-continent. TheIMD said it will release the second summerforecast for April to June in April.

The IMD last month had said the mini-mum temperature recorded in the country inJanuary was the warmest for the month in 62years. South India was particularly warm.

The month was the warmest in 121years, with 22.33 degrees Celsius in southIndia, followed by 22.14 degrees Celsius in1919 and 21.93 degrees Celsius in 2020 as thesecond and third warmest months.

Central India was also the warmest(14.82 degrees Celsius) in the last 38 yearsafter 1982 (14.92 degrees Celsius), while 1958with 15.06 degrees Celsius was the warmestin the 1901-2021 period.

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“There was a clear and consistent pattern ofIndian organisations being targeted in this cam-paign through the behavioral profiling of net-work traffic to adversary infrastructure,” saidRecorded Future. The Chinese hacker targeteda total of 21 IP addresses linked to 12 Indianorganisations in the power generation and trans-mission sector - classified as critical.

“At this time, the alleged link between theoutage and the discovery of the unspecified mal-ware variant remain unsubstantiated. However,this disclosure provides additional evidence sug-gesting the coordinated targeting of Indian LoadDispatch Centres,” said the report.

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The dissident Congress campcontinued to criticise the

party decision-making, withsenior Congress leader AnandSharma questioning the party’salliance with the Indian Secular

Front (ISF) for the West Bengalelections.

Taking to Twitter, the for-

mer Union Minister in theManmohan Singh Governmentsaid that Congress alliancewith parties like ISF and othersuch forces “militates againstthe core ideology of the party”and Gandhian and Nehruviansecularism, which forms thesoul of the party. Sharma is alsothe Deputy Leader ofOpposition in the Rajya Sabha.

Stating that these issuesneed to be approved by theparty’s highest decision-makingbody, the Congress Working

Committee (CWC), Sharmasaid the Congress cannot beselective in fighting commu-nalists but must do so in all itsmanifestations, irrespective ofreligion and colour.

“The presence andendorsement of West BengalPCC president is painful andshameful, he must clarify,”Sharma said in an apparent ref-erence to visuals of BengalCongress chief Adhir RanjanChowdhury at a joint rallywith the Left and the ISF.

Responding to AnandSharma’s remarks,Chowdhury said that all deci-sions with regard to thealliance are taken with theconsent of the party’s topleadership and not unilateral-ly. “We are in charge of a Stateand don’t take any decision onour own without any permis-sion,” the State Congress chiefclarified on the same socialmedia platform. Chowdhuryis also the leader of the partyin the Lok Sabha.

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In the batt le royal forBengal, two Yadav chief-

tains from Bihar and UttarPradesh have thrown theirweight behind Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee.

Both Samajwadi Partychief Akhilesh Yadav andRashtriya Janata Dal leaderTejashwi Yadav have declaredtheir parties’ support for theTrinamool Congress in thecoming Assembly elections.

The RJD leader, whocalled on Mamata in heroffice at State SecretariatNabanna on Monday,appealed to the people ofBihar who live in Bengal tosupport the TMC in the com-ing elections. He had anhour-long meeting with theChief Minister during whichthe duo reportedly discussedseat-sharing.

Lending his support forthe TMC chief, former UPChief Minister Akhilesh

Yadav, too, said that the BJPwas trying to wrest power inBengal by hook or by crook.

Supporting Mamata inher contention that “ElectionCommission should not beguided by the BJP,” Yadavsaid, “Mamata ji is right inopposing the eight-phasepolls in Bengal … it is BJP’sold policy to hold elections inmultiple phases because morea number of phases give themthe opportunity to createmore problems.”

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The Centre on Monday toldthe Delhi High Court that

WhatsApp’s new privacy poli-cy, which is scheduled to comeinto effect from May 15, wasbeing being examined at thehighest level and they wereseeking some clarification fromthe instant messaging platformon the issue.

Taking note of the submis-sion, Justice Sanjeev Sachdevagranted three weeks time to theCentre for the purpose andasked it to file a status reportwhile listing the matter for fur-ther hearing on April 19.

The court was hearing apetition by a lawyer against thenew privacy policy ofFacebook-owned WhatsAppon the ground that it violatesusers right to privacy under theConstitution.

Central government stand-ing counsel Kirtiman Singhsaid they are in the process ofgathering more clarity on theissue and are seeking clarifica-tions from the instant messag-ing platform.

He said the matter is beingexamined at the highest leveland sought three weeks time tofile the status report.

The Centre had earlier

informed the high court thatWhatsApp was treating Indianusers differently fromEuropeans over opting out of itsnew privacy policy which wasa matter of concern for theGovernment and it was lookinginto the issue.

It had also said it was alsoa matter of concern that Indianusers were being “unilaterally”subjected to the change in pri-vacy policy by the instant mes-saging platform.

The High Court had ear-lier observed that WhatsAppwas a private app and it wasoptional whether to down-load it or not.

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Jammu: The recovery of ‘stickybombs’ from Samba sector inthis region last month has setalarm bells ringing within thesecurity establishment inJammu & Kashmir as this indi-cates initiation of a new phaseof terrorism in the union ter-ritory, officials said on Monday.

The BSF had recoveredthe bombs dropped by a dronealong the international borderin the Samba sector of Jammuregion on February 14, puttingsecurity agencies on high alertwith an assumption that someof the IEDs could have alreadyfound their way to the Kashmirvalley, the officials said.

According to the officials,the drone-dropped consign-ment had six pistols and 14Improvised Explosive Devices(IEDs) with inbuilt magnets,which could be used as ‘stickybombs’ by sticking them onvehicles and controlling themusing a timer and a remotely-held device.

The consignment wasmeant for The Resistance Force(TRF), believed to be a shadowoutfit of banned Lashker-e-Taiba terror group, they said.

This definitely was the firstsuch recovery of ‘sticky bombs’which has found much use inAfghanistan and Iraq. In India,it was used by suspectedIranian terrorists in February2012 by sticking a bomb on thecar of an Israeli diplomat result-ing in injury to his wife.

The recovery is a cause ofconcern in Kashmir and thestandard operating proceduresfor the movement of security

forces’ convoys need to berevised to eliminate this kind ofa threat, a senior official said.

The development comestwo years after a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist carriedout a sensational attack whenhe rammed an explosive-ladenvehicle into a bus carryingsecurity forces that left 40CRPF personnel dead in 2019.

In response, India had car-ried out an air strike on terrorcamps located across the border.

Sticky bombs, which werealso used by the British forcesduring World War II, can beput on any vehicle and deto-nated through a remote controlor an in-built timer, the officialssaid.

This is yet another signif-icant recovery after securityforces had found three PointDetonating (PD) fuzes, used bythe Pakistani army in their 82mm mortar shells, from a ter-rorist in North Kashmir.

The three PDs were recov-ered by the Baramulla Police onthe eve of New Year when theforce intercepted a vehicle.Unaware of the material recov-ered, the police had declared it“unique grenade” which waslater found to be the PD, usedby the Pakistani army for the 82MM mortar shells, they said.

The PD could be usedduring the fabrication (manu-facture) of an ImprovisedExplosive Device (IED) toincrease its impact. It helps insuper-quick detonation ofexplosives or at times can delaythe impact mode for a biggerdamage, the officials said.PTI

The Associated Chambersof Commerce and

Industry of India(ASSOCHAM), one of theapex trade associations of thecountry successfully organ-ised another edition of thewebinar series on ‘Illness toWellness’ campaign, themedaround “Thyroid & RelatedDisorders – Impact on Health”.

ASSOCHAM organisedthis webinar with an objectiveto cascade mass awarenessand disseminate knowledge &wisdom for prevention andtreatment of thyroid.

The virtual event wasgraced by a team of eminentGastroenterologists, hepatolo-gist who shared their valuableinputs on causes, trends andrecent advancements in thetreatment of thyroid.

The ASSOCHAM’s cam-paign running under a CSRinitiative supported bySAVLON, aims at promotinghealthy living with a keenfocus on wellness and preven-tive health through healthy

habits, diet, exercise, and holis-tic health.

Sharing his perspective,Dr Joshi said: “Thyroid disor-der occurs when thyroid glanddoes not work properly eitherpermanently or temporarily.However, the disease is treat-able and one needs to consultendocrinologists once in threemonths and in some cases onlyonce in a year.”

Dr Joshi also emphasisedon following healthy lifestyle,balanced diet and follow reg-ular exercise regime.

Addressing theASSOCHAM webinar, DrTripathi talked about the var-ious thyroid disorders in detail.He said, the commonest thy-roid disorder isHypothyroidism, followed byH y p e r t h y r o i d i s m .Hypothyroidism can affectthe entire life span of a humanfrom congenital hypothy-roidism at birth, to juvenilehypothyroidism, adult onsethypothyroidism and even inthe elderly age group. The

treatment of hypothyroidismis generally lifelong, but it iseasy to begin and continue andis without side effects.

Dr Kapoor, in his addressalso explained thyroid is a but-terfly shaped gland in theneck which weighs about 18grams it is not a disease. Theunder functioning glands leadsto hypothyroidism and theover functioning gland leads tohyperthyroidism.

On behalf of the chamber,Rajput said that following aregular exercise regime, main-taining healthy weight togeth-er with low fat, low sugar, lowrice and high fibre diet can goa long way for everyone tokeep such ailments at bay.

He added: “In India over42 million people suffer fromthyroid ailments and 1 in 10adults suffer from hypothy-roidism, a condition in whichthe thyroid gland doesn’t pro-duce the required hormones tomeet the needs of the body. Itcan also cause serious compli-cations during pregnancy.”

ACentral Fabrication Unit for pros-thetics and orthotics is being devel-

oped at Narayan Seva Sansthan withsupport from Rotary Foundation. Theunit will provide artificial limbs andequipment to bolster NSS global cam-paign for empowering the differently-abled. The cutting-edge technologyinstalled at the unit will ensure qualityand affordable prosthetics and will helpto bring down the cost of the procedures.

During the programme Rotary gov-ernor (District 6900), Rajesh Agrawalsaid: “To give a fresh start to the differ-ently-abled, NSS is serving needy indi-viduals by offering services such as freefood, operative surgery, limbs, education,and skills. With setting up for artificiallimb manufacturing, which will bring usadditional accomplishment to change thelives of differently-abled people.”

In a two-phase project, GlobalGrant by Rotary Foundation, RotaryClub Emory-Druid Hills(USA District-6900), Rotary Club Udaipur Mewar bud-get is USD 182995 passed in the firstphase.

Speaking on occasion PrashantAgarwal, President, Narayan SevaSansthan said: “Due to the RotaryFoundation, our various efforts toestablish this unit have now been suc-cessful. NSS hopes that the installationof the central manufacturing unit willmeet the demands and release of thepatient load to achieve stability in thequality of equipment manufactured ina short period of time.”

�"�"#":� Papayas are rich inVitamin C, fibre andantioxidants which preventcholesterol build up in yourarteries and boosts immunity,apart from the several otherhealth benefits.

It also helps in weight lossbecause the fibre content inpapaya leaves you feeling fulland clears your bowel move-ment.

It is also a richsource of phytonu-trients andflavonoids thatprevent yourcells fromundergoingfree radicald a m a g e .Some stud-ies have alsolinked the con-

sumption papaya to reducedrisk of colon and prostate can-cer.

The presence of variousvitamins and nutrients alsohelp in preventing the skinfrom free radical damage there-by keeping all the signs of age-ing at bay.

Several studies have shownthat eating papayas also help inmaintaining and improving

h e a r thealth.

With India beginningthe COVID-19 vacci-nation phase 2 fromMarch 1 administering

vaccines to those above the age of60 and people with other medicaldiseases, it won’t be too long whenpeople above 50 and less will alsobe able to receive the jab.

Despite the fact that the virusis a new and a highly transmissibleone, the medical fraternity haslearnt immensely from it in the lastyear. It has managed to fight the dis-ease, analyse and lay down proto-cols for the treatments, and aboveall, have worked from all parts of theworld together as one to producereliable and safe vaccines in recordtime.

Therefore, as your much await-ed turn rolls in, here are some pre-cautions you should remember toadhere to before you go to thehealth facility for your inoculation.

Some of these precautions applyto any vaccine you may have takenbefore this.� Take normal diet the eveningbefore the vaccine.�Avoid alcohol before the injection(and for a few days after). This helpsin reducing any mild side effectsyou may have. �Clarify with your physician aboutyour underlying illnesses and med-ical history (the Ministry of Healthand Family Planning, Govt. of

India has issued clear guidelines andyour physician will be aware of this).

Precautions specific to theCOVID-19 vaccine:� The three basics of COVID-19preventive measures will have to befollowed (i.e. wearing a mask, handhygiene and social distancing) at the

vaccination site and in public places.�Cough/sneeze etiquette should bepracticed in all areas. � Register yourself for the vaccineand go to the centre designated toyou on the date intimated.�Do not worry about side effects.Any vaccine can have side effectsbut they are miniscule compared tothe good they do to the individualand to the society.

Vaccines are voluntary, so

decide for yourself but rememberthat we already have a vast experi-ence in vaccines, tried and tested inmany diseases to make the world ahealthy place for ourselves and ourchildren.

With the COVID-19 vaccines,we have learnt to deal with this dis-ease scientifically, clearly and withoptimism.

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Dysphagia, a medical condition that makes swallowing of foodor fluid difficult, is one of the lesser-known side effects of

COVID-19 infection. The condition has so far been observedas a fallout of viral and bacterial infections, pharyngeal andesophageal obstructions or other palate problems and neurolog-ical diseases. Dysphagia was witnessed in maximum cases ofsevere cases of COVID-19, especially those who developed acuterespiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and were ventilated.

There are a few ways to feelbetter even if one has this con-dition:� Think of baby food andbring your food to that consis-tency. Include a lot of fluid suchas juices to the diet. As you getcomfortable, slowly shift to anormal diet. Chew the foodcompletely before swallowing� Sit upright when you eat ordrink. Start with liquids usingstraw. Do not lay down orbend while eating or drinking.Stand or walk for a minimumof 30 minutes after meals � Small portion sizes help toease the discomfort of dyspha-gia. Clear your mouth com-pletely before taking the nextbite.

Most of the COVID-19patients also experienced achange in their voice, rangingfrom a rough one to a deeper-pitched one or a mere whisper.

The inflammation of vocal cords is exacerbated by long periodsof coughing. Such an effort makes the vocal folds put extra effortto clear any mucus from lungs and throat, in the process mak-ing them swollen and inflamed.

Easing the sore throat and post-COVID voice problem canbe done by following these steps:� Keep yourself well hydrated with warm fluids. Drink abouttwo liters of fluid (plain water and fresh juices) daily. Avoid caf-feine or alcohol as they can aggravate the condition� Warm saline gargles and steam inhalation for at least 15 min-utes� Try to rest your voice as much as possible.

If you are in hospital then you must keep a few things in mindthat comprises immediately informing the concerned Doctoror paramedical staff immediately if you are feeling more shortof breath during or after the meals.

If you are recovering at home, then you must be careful abouta few things and directly inform your General Physician if youare facing problems while eating or drinking something andcoughing or choking while having your food. Such patients shouldavoid shouting, smoking or chewing tobacco and going in dustyareas Medicated lozenges can also be used.

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We all might havehad a toothacheat least once in a

while. While as painful it is,it is also extremely annoy-ing.

Here are a fewremedies thatcan helprelieve thepain.

R i n s ewith saltwater. Saltwater is a nat-ural disinfec-tant. One canrinse their mouthtwice to relieve the pain andinflammation caused bybacteria.

Use garlic. Garlic canhelp in killing the harm-

ful bacteria that causes den-tal plaque and can also helpin relieving toothache.Crush a clove of garlic and

apply it to the affected areaand let it sit for five minutes.Alternatively, you can alsochew a clove of garlic.

Cloves can help. Clovesare known to relieve

toothache andreduce inflam-

mation formany years.Dab a smallamount ofclove oil ontoa cotton ball

and apply it tothe affected area.

You may want todilute the clove oil with

a few drops of a carrier oil,like olive oil, or water. Dothis a few times per day.

You can also add a dropof clove oil to a small glassof water and make a mouth-wash. Use it twice daily forbest results.

Toothaches are common,especially if one prefers to eat

a lot of sweets. ROSHANI DEVI shares easyhome remedies that can help

ease the pain without much hassle

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Good health and beauty are two sidesof the same coin. For a flawless skin,lustrous hair and a slim figure, good

health must be on top of the list. A healthywoman is also better equipped to deal withthe stresses of daily life. A body that ishealthy is imperative for preserving beau-ty and building up immunity.

The right diet is absolutely essential togood looks. A diet for beauty should be highin vitamin-rich foods and low in carbohy-drates and sugar. The answer is to choosefrom a variety of foods, to ensure a balanceddiet. Fresh fruits, raw salads, sprouted grainsand yogurt should be included in the dailydiet. Have whole grain cereals. Reduce teaand coffee and have freshly extracted fruitand vegetable juices, lassi and clear soups.Avoid fried snacks, rich gravies and desserts,and confectionary items. Add the juice ofa lemon to a glass of water and have it firstthing in the morning. Drinking adequatewater helps to eliminate toxins and wastesfrom the system.

Exercise, together with a balanced diet,can work wonders. Not only does it buildup stamina and strength, but improvesblood circulation to the skin and scalp.Every tissue of the body needs oxygen, sobegin your exercises by doing deep breath-ing in front of an open window. Check withyour doctor before beginning regular exer-cise. Walking is good physical activity, as itexercises all the muscle groups. The ancientIndian doctrine of Yoga has attained uni-versal popularity today. In fact, it hasbecome very relevant to modern lifestyle,bringing about harmony of body andmind.

Pay attention to cleansing and dailyhygiene. Improper daily hygiene can under-mine the health in a number of ways. Theskin is influenced by many external factors,like dirt, chemical pollutants, bacteria andvirus. By daily washing, bathing andcleaning, we can remove impurities andkeep ourselves free from infections. A dailybath, or shower, is a must, especially onreturning home. During the ancient times,infusions were used to wash the body. Soakneem leaves in hot water and let it standovernight. Use the water to bathe the nextmorning.

Adequate sleep is also essential for fit-ness. Sleep is a way of restoring energy tothe body and is nature’s best cure. It is abeauty treatment in itself.

A positive mental attitude is alsoimportant, because mind and body areclosely related. All of us encounter a certainamount of stress and anxiety in our dailylife. It is a matter of learning how to copewith it. We have to train our minds towardspositive thinking and relaxation. Regularpatterns of rest and exercise, along with hob-bies and interests certainly help. Some peo-ple are so aware of the world around them.They are always keen to learn new things.Hobbies, interests and new activities canactually be very relaxing to the mind. Theyalso give another dimension to the person-ality.

Indeed, the finest foundation for beau-ty consists of some common factors, whichwe often overlook.

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��*��"��.�#��India has embarked on the third

and the largest phase of vaccina-tion drive against Covid-19 whichwill reach out to around 27 crore ofpopulation aged above 60 or above45 with co-morbid conditions.

However, registration isrequired to receive the vaccinedoses. The Government has provid-ed three modes for the registrationof eligible beneficiaries — online,on-site and facilitated cohort reg-istration.

The first is advance self-regis-tration under which the beneficia-ries will be able to self-register inadvance by downloading the CO-Win 2.0 portal and through otherIT applications such as ArogyaSetu etc.

Eligible people can registerthemselves on the platform fromMonday, March 1, 9 am onwards.The platform can be accessed viaweb or through a mobile applica-tion.

Eligible beneficiaries can regis-ter at the CO-WIN 2.0 portalthrough their mobile number fol-lowing a step by step process. Afterregistration, the application willshow the government and privatehospitals serving as CovidVaccination Centres (CVC) withthe date and time of the availableschedules. The beneficiary would beable to choose the CVC of his/herchoice and book an appointmentfor vaccination.

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As the world experiences theCOVID-19 pandemic, there hasbeen an upsurge in people turn-

ing active on social media. This phasehas unlocked the creative minds andpushed people to explore relativelyfresh opportunities. AradhanaSrivastava, Public Relations Expertfrom Savin Communication says,“Social Platforms have hidden potential,if cultivated fairly can yield exception-al output both in matter of content andvogue.”

Social Media has always been ahighly interactive platform catering tousers of a young generation, giving riseto a new community called“Influencers.” These social media con-noisseurs have turned into a drivingforce for the national economy in themost surprising way. They are the firstpreference of any brand because of theirbetter reach among millions of insta-gram users and creators.

Welcome the nano influencersThe latest community of influ-

encers added to the Instagram family ispopularly called “Nano Influencers.”These are the social media warriors withthe power to influence a small group of1000-5000 people and have the abilityto nurture communities with specificinterests and influence.

Partnering with nano-influencers isfast becoming a major strategy point for

brands with budgetary constraints dueto the pandemic. A report by MarketingWeek projected that 52 per cent ofbrands are planning to collaboratewith more nano-influencers in theforthcoming months and 44 per cent ofbrands who are already collaborating,plan to continue their association with

these new-age agents of social mediagrowth. Engaging with such influencersis not only cost-effective but also help-ful in reaching highly engaged audiences.

New-age celebsRemember the ice bucket chal-

lenge? Those were the days when film

celebrities used to set trends that wentviral but the situation has flipped now.Nowadays, it is the Nano influencers’who are driving public opinion in amicro-manner than global celebrities. Nowonder that this community has becomethe new-age celebs and has even moti-vated various brands to collaborate.

Taking over competitionNano-influencers may take over

from the micro-influencers as key brandpartners in the coming years. Micro-influencers who have followers between5k to 100k have been the premiere pref-erence for any brand campaigns for thepast couple of years but it is beingobserved that nano influencers haveestablished a closer relationship withtheir audience and are considered a morereliable option to take the brand forward.

The need of the hourSince there are thousands of nano

influencers creating content forInstagram, brands look for a platformthrough which they can directly pick theright influencer for their needs. One suchforthcoming platform is ‘We TheInfluencers’. It is an online communityof talented and enthusiastic influencersfrom all across the country. This platformwill cater to a common room for boththe brand and the influencer, allowingthem to communicate and create fruit-ful collaborations.

A helpful companion Marketing specialists are searching

for creators with an individual approachand who enjoy the trust of their follow-ers. Since the nano influencers tick boththe boxes, they’ve become the ideal com-panion for brands looking for new waysto spread their message. What makes thisassociation better is the fact that theseyoung guns are also highly dedicated totheir work and are open to learning newthings.

Do you often find yourselfjuggling to achieve a fine

balance between the lifespanand design of our interiors?Trust us, it’s not a herculeantask. Undoubtedly, home decormust be planned very thought-fully whether you are re-pur-posing the space or thinking ofsome minor tweaks. There arevarious elements and aspects tokeep in mind, such as the cli-mate in your city and the designaesthetics. Today, the evolvingtechnology and innovationshave ensured the integration ofall these elements under oneroof. Parul Mittal, Director,Greenlam Industries Ltd sharesa few simple decor themes thatoffer you the best of both worlds– durability and design.

"�� &�*�-"��- The entry of your house is

usually through the living roomwhich sets the tone for the entirehome and leaves the firstimpression. Therefore, a mini-mal and clean look is needed forsuch spaces. Calming shadesgive your mind, body and soula certain level of relaxation.Throw muted shades of yellow

and grey to your cushionsplaced on a sofa set in mutedblue. These colours will instant-ly infuse a comforting vibearound your space. The bestway to distinguish your colourscheme is by keeping yourwalls, door and floor crispwhite.

While visual impact ofdoors must not be compro-mised as they are some of themost visible design elements inthe house, its resistance andlifespan should top your check-list.

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The majestic grandeur andsimplicity of a natural elementlike wood is just limitless. Woodholds the power to make anunmatched statement and looksabsolutely charming when usedfor home interiors. If you havecream or off-white interiors,opting for a darker shade ofwooden doorset to comple-ment the entire ambiance. Keepyour area spick and span byplacing minimal kitchen essen-tials out in the open. Make itlook more modern by showcas-

ing your silver crockery andglassware in open cabinets.

�� $� �"��#�#��%�We all have stepped into a

new year with positivity andhopefulness. How about wepaint this outlook all over thehouse to ensure every touchpoint encourages you? Spill thepantone colour ‘Ultimate Gray’on your walls to add an instantwarmth and comfort. Since, weare talking about all the earthytones, we suggest going for acrisp yet classic white shade fordoors. It will not only exudesheer panache but also a strongsense of calmness. Make yourspace functional and minimal;this can be done by placing astatement sofa and a mini-breakfast table in oppositedirections.

Every element of yourhouse speaks to you and bringsalong a purpose to fulfill. Thethree distinct decor looks arean inspiration for designing aspace that brings élan as well asensures durability. So, think nofurther and get on with curat-ing your own dream-likehaven.

The armed forces of Indiahave been on the front-

line of the COVID-19 pan-demic in India, protectingthe citizens of the countrywhile being in harm’s way.Bollywood star AyushmannKhurrana, who is current-ly shooting for his next,Anek, directed by AnubhavSinha, has been deeplymoved seeing the com-mendable work that theCentral Industrial SecurityForce (CISF) in Guwahatihas been doing. The youthicon was requested to senda video message to theentire unit stationed inAssam and Ayushmannsent them a heartfelt thankyou.

In the video,Ayushmann says, “I wouldlike to congratulate all themajors and soldiers fromthe CISF Guwahati regi-ment on how right sinceCOVID-19 unfolded, untilnow, they have contributedto the aviation security withpatience and valour. I trulysalute all your efforts toserve. I truly hope you staysafe and healthy.”

Ayushmann has alwaysbeen inspired by the armymen in India who selfless-ly devote their lives to pro-tect others. The actor hasalso been deeply moved bythe pandemic and how ithas impacted people fromevery strata. He has alsocomposed some heartfeltpoems on this sufferings of

people during the pandemic, whichinstantly became a rage in the coun-try. The actor will be shooting forAnek right through March beforejumping onto his next film, Doctor G.

At the art gallery, Akar Prakar,there are canvasses created by

Sayed Haider Raza in his last fewyears. They are a testimony to his lovefor painting and clearly prove that hewas a pilgrim of deeper intensities ingeometry and symbolism.

Amongst all the works in thisseminal show, it is Shantibindu thatstrikes a deep chord in this critic. Ina conversation to me in 2004 on theeve of his 85th birthday, he said, “Mybindu is primarily a philosophicalexpression, an act of faith in the infi-nite, an affirmation of spirituality.When I sit down in front of one of mypaintings to contemplate, I sudden-ly feel a great expansion of the spir-it, I feel like a man liberated from thewants of material desires, a man whobelongs to the vastness of the presentand past.

Shantibindu tryst Raza Sahib’s tryst with the

Shantibindu began in the 1990s. Theblack orb that went beyond the blacksun into infinite realms and referencesgave way to a set of concentric geo-metric circles that formed a suffusedethereal Bindu, which looked like asymphony of peace created for a vistaof harmonies. For Raza, the recurringBindu became a new corollary oncanvas with infinite variations.

The Shantibindu for Raza was anexemplification of Purusha Prakritiprinciples. These principles dwellon the infinite, on dualities anddeeper philosophies of the innerspirit and outer realities of nature’s rel-ativity. Born of a meditative mooring,

his bindu was the device of a spiritu-al firmament. The softly nuancedpastel toned circles resonate with aharmony emanating from the epi-centre. Their terracotta and soft tint-ed colour tones form an elegantexemplar. The Shantibindu became

an iconic nucleus in which the cen-tral core was an energy that createda ritual.

Nostalgia and memory Looking at this show highlights

the power and prowess of his paint-

ings that come rushing into humanmemory. His early landscapes ofEuropean cities, churches, glowingember like landscapes that spoke ofhis passion for nocturnes, his mid-night moorings of works likeTapovan, La Terre, Saurashtra,

Rajasthan and his Shantibindu series,all become a part of his pilgrimageof painting. India’s avant grade artistwho combined expressionist brush-work with the symbolism of geom-etry woven into personal memorylives through his works.

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Six Indian players made it to the main roundsof the UP Open World Tennis Tour ITF Men’s

$15000 event at the Vaijyantkhand Stadium hereon Monday.

In the qualifying matches played on Monday,Moldovian Dimitri Baskov had to get out allhis reserves to overcome Indian player RishiReddy 5-7,7-6(5),10-7 in a three hour thriller.Former national champion Dalwinder Singhmade a fighting comeback from first set loss toget past Great Britain player Jonathan Binding2-6, 6-4, 10-7 in another close match.Meanwhile, Ireland’s OsgarO’Hoisin out-played Leonardo Catani of Italy 6-2,6-1 to booka place in the main draw

Another seasoned Indian Vinayak SharmaKaza was taken to full-length by compatriot YashChaurasia before winning 6-3, 6-7(1), 10-7. NitinKumar Sharma , Suraj Prabodh , Ishaque Eqbaland Lakshit Sood were the other qualifiers.

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The Amateur Soft Tennis Associationannounced state’s the men’s and women’s

team for the 17th Senior National Soft TennisChampionship to be held at Srinagar from March4. Regional sports officer Jitendra Yadav also dis-tributed the kit to the players.

Teams:Men’s: Akshat Kumar, Adarsh Chaudhary,

Shreyansh Kumar, Tanmay Sharma, DevashishMalkani, Gautam Anand, Atul Sripatel, ShanishMani Mishra. Manager: Prashant Sharma

Women’s: Neha Yadav, Naina Yadav,Mariyam Khan, Muskaan Yadav, SamikshaYadav, Komal Srivastava, Shreya Kumar.Manager: Neetu Sharma.

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Press XI defeated Mahapaur XI by six wick-ets in a league match of Lucknow Nagar

Nigam Cricket Tournament at KD Singh ‘Babu’Stadium on Monday. Batting first, Mahapaur XIpiled up 123 runs for the loss of five wickets inthe stipulated overs with Shailendra Singh (39)being the top scorer. In reply, Press XI achievedthe target in 17.2 overs for the loss of four wick-ets.BRIEF SCORES:

MXI: 123 (Shailendra 39, Saurabh 31;Abhishek 12/2, Anish 16/2)

PXI: 124 (Abhishek 36, Sushir 26, Anupam20; Md Shakeel 25/2)

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Milan won an intense bat-tle with rivals Roma at

the Stadio Olimpico in theItalian capital on Sunday night,as Stefano Pioli’s side push fora first league title since 2011.

A Franck Kessie penaltygave Milan the lead five min-utes before the break afterFederico Fazio fouled DavideCalabria.

Jordan Veretout pulledRoma level five minutesafter the break with anarrowed shot, but the awayside were soon back in front.

Ante Rebic drilled homethe winner eight minutes laterafter collecting a pass fromAlexis Saelemaekers follow-ing a poor clearance fromRoma goalkeeper Pau Lopez.

Off-form Milan star ZlatanIbrahimovic had been substi-tuted shortly before Croatiainternational Rebic scored thedecisive goal.

“I told the lads that twogames (losses) cannot takeaway the confidence build up

over a year,” said Pioli.“It’s an important win at a

decisive moment in the seasonwhich takes us out of

two very strange weeks.”Earlier, Napoli’s record

goalscorer, Dries Mertens,returned from injury tohelp the southerners boosttheir Champions League

hopes with a 2-0 win overlocal rivals Benevento, to

sit just a point behind Romain sixth.

Mertens started for thefirst time in over two monthsafter injuring his ankle inmid-December, and the 33-year-old got his boot to aFaouzi Ghoulam cross after

half an hour for his 131stNapoli goal.

Matteo Politano turned inthe second in the 66th minute,with Gattuso’s side holding onfor the points despite KalidouKoulibaly’s sending-off 10minutes from time.

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Domestic giants Mumbaitrounced Himachal

Pradesh by 200 runs in theirfinal Elite Group D game hereon Monday to remain unbeat-en in the league stage of theVijay Hazare Trophy.

Mumbai had won their firstfour matches against Delhi,Maharashtra, Puducherry andRajasthan.

Opting to bat at the SawaiMansingh Stadium, Mumbaiposted an imposing 321/9, cour-tesy Shardul Thakur’s 92,Suryakumar Yadav’s 91 andAditya Tare’s 83 after a top-orderfailure.

Himachal were then bun-dled out for a meagre 121, withleg-spinner Prashant Solanki(4/31) shining with the ball.

After losing four for 49,Suryakumar began the rescueact and toyed with the Himachalattack, striking 15 boundarieson his way to a 75-ball 91.

He found an able ally in theexperienced Tare (83 off 98balls; 6x4; 1x6) who played theperfect second fiddle as the duoforged a 99-run fifth wicketstand to rally the innings.

After Suryakumar fell in the31st over, Tare and Sharduladded 112 runs for the sixthwicket, as they tackled the

Himachal attack with ease.Shardul, one of the heroes

of the Brisbane Test againstAustralia, hammered six bound-aries and as many sixes, as hecantered to 92 in just 57 balls.

Thanks to Shardul’s hit-ting, Mumbai crossed the 300-run mark, but Tare’s patientknock was equally important ashe anchored the innings andsupported the aggressors.

In the other two Elite GroupD league games, Maharashtrathrashed Puducherry by 137runs, while Delhi defeatedRajasthan by eight wickets.

SAURASHTRA IN Q/FIn Group E games at

Kolkata, Saurashtra suffered ashocking 62-run loss at the

hands of Services but still man-aged to finish as group toppersand qualified for the knock-outphase.

Saurashtra finished with 16points, four clear of Chandigarhwhose direct qualification hopeswere dashed with an eight-wicket loss to Jammu &Kashmir at the JadavpurUniversity second campus inSaltlake.

At the 22 Yards Academy inSaltlake, Services rode on RahulSingh Gahlaut’s career-best 158to post a challenging 301 forseven and in reply Saurashtrawere bundled out for 233 in 43.1overs.

Elsewhere at Eden Gardens,hosts Bengal lose by five wick-ets against Haryana.

U’KHAND PIP ASSAMUttarakhand thrashed

Sikkim by 145 runs to remainunbeaten in the Plate group, andclinch a spot in the knockoutphase, pipping Assam by virtueof a better net run-rate.

Assam completed itsengagements with a crushing182-run win over Mizoram.

Both Uttarakhand andAssam finished with an all-winrecord but the former qualifiedfor the next stage due to a high-er NRR (3.273) as against thelatter’s 1.909. Meghalaya edgedNagaland to the third spot byvirtue of a superior NRR despitesecuring 16 points. They werefollowed by Sikkim (4 points),Arunachal Pradesh (2),Mizoram (2) and Manipur (0).

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Jurgen Klopp believesLiverpool can prove the

doubters that have written theirseason off wrong after snappinga four-game Premier Leaguelosing streak to win 2-0 atSheffield United on Sunday.

The English champions’title defence has been decimat-ed by injuries and they face abattle just to qualify for nextseason’s Champions League viaa top-four finish.

Klopp’s men remain insixth, but are now just twopoints behind fourth-placedWest Ham and can leapfrogChelsea in fifth when the Bluesvisit Anfield on Thursday.

“Plenty of people have writ-ten us off. That’s fine,” saidKlopp. “With all the problemswe have had, we’re still aroundthe exciting places.”

Jordan Henderson has beenadded to Liverpool’s long-terminjury list, while goalkeeperAlisson Becker was absent after

he lost his father this week. But the Championship-

bound Blades proved the per-fect opponents for Klopp’smen to restore some confi-dence as Curtis Jones’ second-half strike and Kean Bryan’sown goal got the Reds back towinning ways.

“This was about us show-ing we’re still there,” addedKlopp.

“We play Chelsea onThursday, we have to show itagain. We have to win footballgames, we know that. There’sno way into the ChampionsLeague without results.”

Sheffield United are still 15points adrift of safety at the bot-tom of the table and managerChris Wilder admitted his sidelacked the quality to challengeeven a depleted Liverpool.

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Atletico Madrid bouncedback from recent poor

form with a hard-fought 2-0win at Villarreal on Sundaythat allowed the La Liga pace-setters to extend their lead tofive points.

An own goal from AlfonsoPedraza and Joao Felix’s pow-erful strike gave Atletico a pre-cious win after a wobble whichhad allowed Barcelona andReal Madrid to gain ground inthe title race.

Diego Simeone’s side hadcome into the match off theback of a Champions Leaguelast 16 defeat to Chelsea and aleague run in which theypicked up just five points from

their previous four matches.However, the win ensures

Atletico hold second-placedBarca at bay and crucially

keeps the gap between themand rivals Real Madrid at sixpoints ahead of next weekend’slocal derby.

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Big guns Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharmaand Ajinkya Rahane went full throt-

tle at the nets as the Indian cricket onMonday trained in earnest for theupcoming fourth and final Test againstEngland.

The fourth Test starts here onThursday.

Captain Kohli, his deputy Rahaneand senior opener Rohit were seen bat-ting at the nets in a video posted by theBCCI on Twitter.

The three senior players drove,pulled and flicked against the fast

bowlers and spinners at the NarendraModi Stadium here.

Head coach Ravi Shastri was seeninteracting with Rohit and Kohli beforethe two star batsmen sat together for adiscussion.

Left-arm spinner Axar Patel, whobagged 11 wickets in India’s thumpingwin in the pink ball third Test at the samevenue, was seen rolling his arms over atthe nets against some of the world’s bestbatsmen.

They were also seen fielding withRahane, standing next to Rohit in thesecond slip position, taking a one-handed diving catch to his right.

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West Indian battinglegend Viv Richardsis not amused with

past and present English crick-eters “moaning and groaning”about the spin-friendly pitch-es in India and said the visitorsdid not prepare well for thechallenge.

The newly-laid Moteratrack in Ahmedabad became asubject of debate after Indiacrushed England inside twodays in the third Test to go 2-1 up in the four-match series.The severe criticism camefrom former England captainslike Michael Vaughan and asection of the British media.

All the chatter has notgone down well with Richards,whose incredible range ofstrokes and fearless approachto the game terrorised thebest of bowlers in his prime inevery corner of the cricketingworld.

“I’ve been asked questionsrecently about the Test matchthat was played in India, thesecond and third Test matchagainst England.

“And I am a little confusedabout the question reallybecause there seems to be a lotof moaning and groaningabout the wicket that theywere playing on,” Richardssaid in a video posted on hisFacebook page.

“I just felt that the oneswho are moaning, in my opin-ion, should realise that thereare times that you’re going toget a seaming track, a ball thatis basically jumping off a goodlength and everyone thinksthat’s a problem for batters,” hereasoned.

The 68-year-old pointedout that playing in India hasmostly been about tacklingquality spinners and thatEngland may not have donetheir homework properlyahead of the tour.

Weighing in on the debate,the batting great said, “... Butnow you’ve seen the otherside, and this is why I think itwas given the name Test matchcricket, because of the test ofthe mind and will and every-thing else that goes with itwhen you’re competing.

“And the complaints havebeen that the wicket is spin-ning too much and all thatsorts of stuff. This is another

side of the coin guys.“People seem to forget that

if you’re going to India, youshould expect that. You aregoing to spin land. You shouldbasically prepare yourself toknow what you’re going toencounter.”

Richards said that Indiahave pushed England out oftheir comfort zone, weeks afterthe visitors started the serieswith a big win.

“Ever since that first Testmatch, England were in theircomfort zone. They have nowbeen taken out of their comfortzone at present and they havegot to find ways and means tocope with what they are going

to encounter.“Spin is also a part of the

game, this is what a Test matchbrings. The Indian pacers havebeen brilliant over the past fewyears in terms of substance, thewicket-taking ability and stufflike that.”

The legend urged theEnglish team to work harderand face the challenge resolute-ly.

“...Now that you’re in India,you are going to encounterthings and have got to find away. You’re going to get dirty.There is nothing in the rulebook that says I’ve got to scoremy runs in pretty, classicalways,” he said.

London: England on Mondayappointed former openerMarcus Trescothick as the newbatting coach of the nationalteam, besides roping in JonLewis and New Zealand’s JeetanPatel as bowling and spin bowl-ing coaches on permanentbasis.

These three are part of thefour new appointments toEngland’s coaching set-up,which is being headed by chiefcoach Chris Silverwood.

Trescothick will take overfrom Jonathan Trott, whoreplaced South African JacquesKallis in the ongoing tour.Kallis had played the role of abatting consultant for Englandin Sri Lanka.

“...I’m really excited aboutthe calibre of the individualsthat we’ve appointed into thesespecialist roles. Marcus, Jonand Jeetan have demonstratedtheir ability at the highest leveland also show huge potentialfor the future,” ECB perfor-mance director Mo Bobat saidin a statement.

Trescothick, who scoredover 10,000 International runsacross formats between 2000and 2006, is expected to take uphis new role in mid-Marchafter stepping down from hisposition as assistant coach atSomerset. PTI

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New Delhi: Australian greatSteve Waugh feels that ViratKohli is like a “modern-dayhero” who represents the “newattitude of India” of takingeverything head on with amind set of nothing is impos-sible.

In a 60-minute documen-tary titled, Capturing Cricket:Steve Waugh in India, the for-mer Australia captain said thatKohli is loved by the fans for hisattitude of not being intimidat-ed by an opposition.

“What they love aboutKohli is that it’s like the newattitude of India, get stuck in,don’t be intimidated. Takeeverything on and anything isachievable and possible. But he’slike the modern-day hero,”Waugh was quoted as saying ina media release after the launchof the documentary.

The documentary capturesthe very essence and undyinglove for the game in Indiathrough the lens of Waugh andis brought by discovery+. PNS

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Australian all-rounder GlennMaxwell is chuffed about

playing alongside and learningfrom Virat Kohli in the upcom-ing IPL, calling the Indian cap-tain “the pinnacle of the game”for his dominance across for-mats. The Kohli-led RCB boughtMaxwell, who was released byPunjab Kings, for a whopping�14.25 crore at the auctions lastmonth.

“It’s (RCB stint) going to benext level,” Maxwell toldAustralian Associated Press. “He’s(Kohli) been the pinnacle of thegame for a while as a multi-for-

mat player from Tests all the wayto T20s. “He’s been able toadapt his game, dominate for along period of time and dealwith the Indian pressure ofbeing their captain and their bestplayer,” Maxwell added.

The Indian Premier Leagueis scheduled to start in the sec-ond week of April and theswashbuckling all-rounderhopes to pick up some leader-ship qualities from the Indianskipper, who will also beMaxwell’s captain at RCB.

“I’m looking forward towatching him go about hiswork, not just in games but intraining, and hopefully tappinginto some of the leadershipstuff and try and learn off him.”

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