· 2020. 12. 17. · getting essential food and other supplies as right to protest cannot mean...

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In a morale booster for theagitating farmers, the

Supreme Court on Thursdayasked the Centre to consider toput on hold the three con-tentious farms laws and alsoupheld the right of farmers tonon-violent protests.

The Centre opposed thecourt’s suggestion to tem-porarily shelve the farm laws toenable negotiations saying agri-culturists would then not comeforward for the talks.

The apex court, however,said it would not be right nowto examine the validity of thelaws but would prioritise theissue of farmers’ protest andothers’ right to move freely.

Instead of going into thelegality of the three laws, thecourt indicated it wanted theissued to be resolved throughnegotiation.

It said it is thinking of set-ting up an “impartial and inde-pendent” panel of agricultureexperts and farmer unions toresolve the impasse.

While the court upheldthe farmers’ right to stagepeaceful protests, it also said itis of the fundamental rights ofothers to move freely and ingetting essential food and othersupplies as right to protestcannot mean blockade of theentire city.

Advising the farmers tohold talks with the Centre, thecourt a said, “You continue theprotest. You have the right. Butyou have a purpose also and

that purpose is served only ifyou talk, discuss and reach aconclusion.”

The Bench headed byChief Justice SA Bobde alsosaid in a democracy, police andauthorities have to be givenpower to prevent the protestorsfrom infringing the rights ofothers.

The Bench said it wouldpass order on constituting acommittee only after hearingall the parties, including theprotesting farmer unions andputting on hold the imple-mentation of new farm laws bythe Centre would enable nego-

tiations with farmers.However, Attorney General

KK Venugopal opposed thesuggestion and said if theimplementation of the farmlaws is put on hold then farm-ers would not come forward fornegotiations.

The top court said it is notasking the Centre to stay thefarm laws but only suggestingthat its implementation be puton hold for the time being toenable the farmers to talk withthe Government.

“We are worried about theplight of farmers. We are alsoIndian but we are worried with

the way things are going on,”the Bench, also comprisingJustices AS Bopanna and VRamasubramanian, said andadded “they (protesting farm-ers) are not a mob”.

The top court said it willpass orders for serving noticesto the protesting farmers’unions and give them the lib-erty to approach the vacationBench during the winter break.During the hearing conductedthrough video-conferencing,the Bench observed that itrecognises the farmers’ right toprotest but this right should notinfringe the fundamental rights

of others to move freely and ingetting essential supplies.

Maintaining that in ademocracy, police and author-ities have to be given power toprevent the protestors frominfringing the rights of others,the Bench said, “Who will takeguarantee that if farmers areallowed to enter the city in suchhigh numbers, they will notresort to violence?

Continued on 1

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As the farmers’ protestentered the 22nd day on

Thursday, Union AgricultureMinister Narendra SinghTomar wrote an eight-pageopen letter in a bid to clear con-fusion over the three con-tentious agrarian laws.

Tomar urged the farmersnot to believe in the “white lies”being spread by some peoplethat MSP, APMCs and aboutcontract farming.

In his letter to the farmerswith six assurances that theCentre is ready to provide,Tomar stated that MSP, APMCswill continue and whateverthe situation be, these laws donot allow anyone to seize con-trol over farmers lands.

“New farm laws will con-stitute the foundation of newphase of agricultural growth inthe country and it will make thefarmers more empowered andfree them of any bondages,”Tomar said in the letter, allay-ing their apprehensions.

The Minister reiteratedthat the Government was readyto provide a written assuranceon MSP and said StateGovernments can be allowed tolevy tax on private markets out-side the APMCs.

Tomar also stated thatStates will have the right to reg-ister agricultural deals and noone can claim rights on farm-ers’ lands because these laws donot allow the transfer, sale, leaseand mortgage.

Continued on Page 11

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The Delhi LegislativeAssembly passed a resolu-

tion against the three newfarm laws in a Special Sessionheld on Thursday.

While tabling the resolu-tion in the legislative Assemblyto repeal the Centre’s threenew farm laws, Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal saidhe cannot betray the farmersand the soldiers of the coun-try, and tore up copies of theCentre’s three new farm lawsin the Assembly.

Addressing the Assembly,the CM also alleged that thelaws “have been made forelectoral funding of the BJPand not the farmers”.

“I support the resolutiontabled in the Assembly today.

I am pained that I have to dothis. I did not intend to, but Icannot betray the farmers ofmy country who have beensleeping on the streets in thecold…when the temperature isjust 2 degrees Celsius. ThisAssembly rejects the threelaws and appeals to the CentralGovernment to meet thedemands of farmers,” he said.

He said the Centre shouldnot be under the impressionthat the farmers will return totheir homes. In 1907, a farm-ers’ protest had continued fornine months till the Britishrepealed some laws, he said.

The Government con-vened a one-day SpecialSession of the Assembly to dis-cuss the alleged misappropri-ation of nearly Rs 2,500 crorein the municipal corporations.

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New Delhi: Protesting farmers,who have been holding theirfort at the Singhu Border forover 20 days, are keepingmonotony and boredom at bayby adding new books to theirreading list — day after day.

For many, it is a new foundlove.

T h i r t y - t w o - y e a r- o l d

Harbans Singh, for instance,who has been camping forpast one week, said he can’trecall the last time he picked abook for reading.

His reasons for doing itnow: “to keep tempers down”and “to get inspired by thegreats”.

“There are many like me

who have started reading booksduring the protest only.Currently, I am reading ‘PunjabTera ki Banu’ by novelistJaswant Singh Kanwal. I lookforward to finish this one andread another soon,” said Singh,who hails from Barnala districtin Punjab and has come withhis friends to protest. PTI

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Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee on

Thursday lambasted the UnionGovernment for “forcing itswill” on the State by orderingthree senior Indian PoliceServices (IPS) officers out ofBengal.

The forced transfer order— against the wishes of theState Government — camedays after alleged TrinamoolCongress hooligans attackedBJP president JP Nadda’s con-voy injuring senior leaders likeKailash Vijayvargiya andMukul Roy while they weretravelling to Diamond Harbourin South 24 Parganas.

An infuriated ChiefMinister tweeted, “TheGovernment’s order of Centraldeputation for the three serv-ing IPS officers of West Bengaldespite the State’s objection isa colourable exercise of powerand blatant misuse of emer-gency provision of IPS CadreRule 1954,” depicting the act as

“nothing but a deliberateattempt to encroach uponState’s jurisdiction and demor-alise the serving officers inWest Bengal.”

She said, “This move, par-ticularly before the elections isagainst the basic tenets of thefederal structure. It’s unconsti-tutional and completely unac-ceptable,” vowing not to allow“this brazen attempt by theCentre to control the Statemachinery by proxy! WestBengal is not going to be cowedinto submission in front ofexpansionist and undemocra-tic forces.

Earlier , the Union HomeMinistry on Thursday issued a

reminder to West BengalGovernment to immediatelyrepatriate the three IPS officersto Central deputation by issu-ing posting orders to them. Thethree officers — BhalanathPandey, SP of DiamondHarbour; Praveen Tripati, DIGof Presidency Range; andRajeev Mishra, ADG of SouthBengal — were responsible forthe security of the BJP chief JPNadda, whose motorcade wasattacked by TMC workers.

The MHA said Pandey hasbeen appointed an SP in theBureau of Police Research andDevelopment, Tripathi as aDIG in the Sashastra Seema Bal(SSB) and Mishra an IG in theITBP. The Ministry of HomeAffairs (MHA) in the reminderletter to the West BengalGovernment and the DGP saidthat they have failed to adhereto the rules and according toSection 6 (1) of IPS cadre rules— “in case of any disagree-ment, the Centre’s decisionshall prevail”.


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The Trinamool Congress onThursday suffered a twin

blow with two rebel leadersquitting the ruling party with-in hours of each other.

While powerful satrapSuvendu Adhikari left his pri-mary membership of the partyin the morning, former AsansolMayor and MLA JitendraTiwari quit in the evening.Both the leaders had onWednesday night held a secretmeeting with another rebelleader and MP of BurdwanWest constituency SunilMandal whose future course ofaction has not been known asyet.

Adhikari — once the primespearhead of Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee’s Nandigrammovement that catapulted herto power — and Tiwari are like-ly to join the BJP in presenceof Home Minister Amit Shahwho will hold a rally atMidnapore on December 19,

sources close to them said.While Shah would come to

Bengal in a two-day organisa-tional trip, his party leadersGajendra Shekhawat, SanjeevBalyan, Prahlad Patel, ArjunMunda, Mansukh Mandaviya,UP Deputy Chief Minister KPMaurya and Madhya PradeshMinister Narottam Mishrawould visit the State after hehad left.

While Adhikari would notissue any political statementsince Wednesday noon whenhe quit as the party MLA —nearly a month after quittinghis ministerial portfolios —

Tiwari went all out against theparty leadership saying he wasnot allowed to function prop-erly as the Mayor of Asansol —the second largest city ofBengal — by the leadership sit-ting in Kolkata. With electionsoverdue in most of the State’smunicipal boards Tiwari hadbeen functioning as theAdministrator of AMC.

Tiwari who had earlieroffered to continue as a com-mon party man later left theparty alleging an attack on hisoffice at Pandaweshwar nearAsansol. “I had resigned as theAdministrator of AMC andalso as the District TMC pres-ident but had not given up theprimary membership of theparty … but when some peo-ple vandalised and occupiedmy party office at the instanceof the leaders sitting in KolkataI had no other way but to quitthe party too,” he said appeal-ing to the State administrationfor police protection.


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With the objective of givinga boost to the local

defence industry, DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh onThursday cleared procurementproposals worth over �28,000crore. The items include air-borne radars, offshore patrolvessels and modular bridges.

The deals were given thego-ahead in the DefenceAcquisition Council (DAC)chaired by the DefenceMinister. The armed force willhave to procure items worthover �27,00 crore of the totalamount from the Indian indus-try, officials said here.

They said the apex body,responsible for giving the nodfor the deals, approved capitalacquisition proposals of variousweapons, platforms, equipmentand systems required by the

Indian Army, the Indian Navyand the Indian Air Force at anapproximate overall cost of�28,000 crore.

The major procurementsinclude the Defence Researchand Development OrganisationOrganisation (DRDO)designed and developedAirborne Early Warning &Control (AEW&C) Systemsfor the IAF, next generation off-shore patrol vessels for theIndian Navy and modularbridges for the Indian Army.

The IAF plans to induct atleast six AEWC systems. Theywill be mounted on planesacquired from Air India.Expected to cost more than Rs10,000 crores, these modifiedplanes will enable the IAF tolook deep into Pakistan andChina while flying in its ownairspace.


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India may need to spendUSD1.8 billion on Covid-19

vaccines in first phase of a coro-navirus vaccination pro-gramme, even after getting

support under the Covax glob-al vaccine-sharing scheme,according to estimates by theGAVI vaccines alliance.

India’s Covid-19 caseload isclose to cross 1 crore mark with99.51 lakh cases reported on

Thursday, the world’s secondhighest caseload of coronavirusafter the United States.

India plans to inoculate300 million people over thenext six to eight months.


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Chief Minister YogiAdityanath said that the

‘Noida International Airport’would be one of the best air-ports across the globe andassured that his governmentwould leave no stoneunturned to make it worldclass.

“This airport will becomethe pride of India. We willpresent it as a global brand onthe world stage,” Yogi saidafter watching a presenta-tion at his official residencein Lucknow on Thursday.

Its name, ‘NoidaInternational GreenfieldAirport, Jewar’, and its logoafter UP’s state bird ‘Stork’along with its design on thelines of London, Moscow andMilan airports, were alsoapproved by Yogi.

The chief minister saidthat the setting up of NoidaInternational Airport at Jewar

would lead to development ofindustrial infrastructure inUttar Pradesh and increaseemployment.

“This airport will notonly encourage manufactur-ing and exports but air traf-fic will also pick up steamafter it becomes operational,”he said.

Pointing out that the avi-ation sector was a medium ofmult i- faceted progress in the present time, Yogih o p e dthat the Noida InternationalAirport would significantlyhelp the state in tourism.

The initial capacity ofthe airport, proposed to bebuilt in four phases, would be12 million passengers peryear and it would be expand-ed to 70 million passengersper year by 2050.

Besides, while it would bea two-runway airport initial-ly, the number of runwayswould be expanded to five in

due course of time.Detailing the updated

project status, Civil AviationDirector and Specia lSecretary Surendra Singh saidthat the YamunaInternational Airport Pvt.presented a master planbefore Noida InternationalAirport Ltd for the construc-tion and it had been submit-ted to the Civil AviationMinistry.

At present, land for layingout two runways has beenacquired, whi le 3 ,418hectares of land is to beacquired for the remainingthree runways.

Singh informed the chiefminister that acquisition of1,334 hectares of land for set-ting up the international air-port was taken up by the dis-trict magistrate of GautamBuddha Nagar and so far,48.097 hectares of land hadbeen acquired for rehabilita-tion and displacement.

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The Border Security Force(BSF) on Thursday gunned

down two armed Pakistani ter-rorists along the India-PakistanInternational Border inAmritsar, Punjab.

“On 17.12.20 at about 0220hrs, alert troops of BOP(Border Out Post) Rajatal, 71Bn BSF, Amritsar detected sus-picious movement ahead of thefence within Indian territory. Inthe ensuing firing, BSF troopsshot dead two armed Pakintruders,” the BSF said in astatement.

The paramilitary recov-ered one AK 56 Rifle, two mag-azines, 61 live rounds, oneMagnum rifle (caliber 223 boresemi automatic), one magazine,29 rounds of ammunition, onepistol (Olampia,caliber-30Bore, Mark Norinco), twomagazines and 30 Pak curren-cy, two PVC pipes of approxi-mately 10 feet each, it furthersaid.

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Hitting out at the Bharatiya Janata Party gov-ernment at the Centre over the rising prices

of LPG, former chief minister and SamajwadiParty president Akhilesh Yadav said that the rul-ing party was not bothered by the travails of thecommon man as price of the cooking gas washiked twice in 13 days.

“In the BJP rule, it has become difficult forthe common man to live with the government’s‘back-breaking’ inflation. If the government can-not bring down prices then at least they shouldnot hike prices. The government must roll backthe increased price of LPG cylinder in publicinterest,” the SP chief said in a statementreleased on Thursday.

“People in power are openly supporting ille-gal mining in UP. The police, the administra-tion and the government are silent and gettingtheir shares. In Bidhuna area of Kanpur, a BJPleader’s kin is neck deep in illegal mining on theland of gram sabha. A Hindu Yuva Vahini leaderwas caught mixing dung, straw and harmful oilto make fake spices in Hathras. Animal fat,bones, feet and hooves have been found in a fakeghee factory in Agra. Why has the chief minis-ter not yet imposed NSA on these adulterators?”the SP chief asked.

Further attacking the government for back-ing crime in the state, Akhilesh Yadav said thatthe opposition party workers were being killedin daylight but the police were not taking action.“The truth is that criminals are being patron-ised by those in power,” he said.

The SP chief also hit out at the BJP govern-ment for “avoiding the opposition” by not hold-ing the winter session of Parliament this year cit-ing the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Union government had assured to hold

the session in January next year.“The BJP government is trying to evade fac-

ing the farmers and the opposition by doingaway with the winter session of Lok Sabha usingCOVID-19 as an excuse. The sessions of LokSabha and UP Assembly should be convenedimmediately to discuss farm laws, privatisation,unemployment, price rise and law and orderissues in UP, women’s security and stalled devel-opment,” Akhilesh Yadav said.

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Lucknow (PNS): Close onthe heels of the death of eightpassengers in a road mishapwhen a UP Roadways bus col-lided with an oil tanker inSambhal, in yet another mishap,two women were killed and adozen passengers injured whenanother Roadways bus rammedinto a stationary truck inBarabanki late Wednesday night.As per reports, a Roadways bus(UP43T-5813) ofAmbedkarnagar depot washeaded to New Delhi when itcrashed into a stationary trucknear Safdarganj in Barabanki lateWednesday night. The victimswere identified as Noorus Saba(20) of Ramnagar (AmbedkarNagar) and five-year-old Aaliyafrom Baskhari (AmbedkarNagar)

Lucknow (PNS): -An inci-dent of acid being thrown at agirl by a youth from anothercommunity in Mujariya arealed to communal tension inBadaun on Thursday.

The victim was admitted toa hospital in a serious conditionand a heavy police force wasdeployed in the area to avertany untoward incident.

As per reports, a BA sec-ond year girl student from avillage in Mujariya accusedher neighbour Mahesh Pal akaBantu of raping, promising toget married. When the girlcomplained to the police, apiqued Pal attacked her withacid while she was returninghome from a market.

Senior Superintendent ofPolice at Budaun, SankalpSharma, said that the victimaccused the youth of sexualharassment on the falsepromise of marriage afterwhich a case of rape was reg-istered at Mujariya police sta-tion and investigations were on.

In Ballia, a 13-year-old girlwas raped by her 22-year-oldteacher in the Bairia area twomonths ago. An FIR waslodged by the victim’s father onWednesday. He alleged that hisdaughter was raped by theteacher as she went to theschool to fill up a scholarshipform. The accused was laterarrested.

Elsewhere in Lalitpur, a32-year-old woman and her

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The Uttar Pradesh govern-ment has initiated a process

to facilitate procurement ofpower by industrial unitsthrough short-term openaccess, thereby fulfilling a long-standing demand.

Additional Chief Secretary(Energy) Arvind Kumar toldnews persons in Lucknow onThursday that the UP PowerTransmission Corporation Ltd.(UPPTCL) has uploaded stan-dard operating procedure andintegrated online ABT portalon its websitewww.online.upptcl.org/abt forgranting permission, inspec-tion and installation consentfor Availability Based Tariff(ABT) meters.

“The ABT meters providea flexible solution for energymonitoring and billing bulkinter-utility power flows, par-ticularly for power supplythrough open access,” he said..

Customers intending toavail short-term open accesscan now obtain the no-objec-tion certificate (NOC) onlinethrough UP State LoadDispatch Centre (UPSLDC)web portalwww.eass.upsldc.org/eass/OAPreRegistration.jsp for one-timeregistration on the prescribedapplication format.

“So far 63 short-term openaccess consumers have regis-tered in the state, of which 58are active registrations andconsumers have already availed224.42 megawatt out of a total

of 347.56 megawatt powersanctioned under open accessin UP,” Kumar said.

The senior official furthersaid that open access was oneof the strategic measures to cre-ate a competitive and healthyindustrial environment, where-by medium and large con-sumers could have access totransmission and distributionnetworks to obtain power fromsuppliers other than local dis-tribution company (discom).

As per UP ElectricityRegulatory Commission(UPERC) regulations for openaccess, short-term open accessmeans the right to use intra-state transmission systemand/or distribution system fora period of not exceeding threemonths at a time.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi will bethe chief guest at the centenary celebra-

tion of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU)on December 22. This was confirmed byAMU Vice-Chancellor Prof Tariq Mansooron Thursday.

Besides, Union Education MinisterRamesh Pokhriyal would also accompany

the prime minister.Prof Mansoor also said that in the

coming days, President Ram Nath Kovindwould also pay a visit to the AMU to jointhe celebrations.

“The entire university campus hasbeen illuminated and decorated withlights for the celebrations,” he said.

Meanwhile, AMU authorities appealedto the university’s fraternity, including stu-

dents, to keep its centenary programme“above politics” as it announced thatPrime Minister Narendra Modi hadaccepted an invitation to address thefunction on December 22.

In a letter to the staff, students andother members of AMU fraternity, Vice-Chancellor Tariq Mansoor appealed tothem to keep the centenary programmeabove politics.

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Launching a scathing attackon the opposition for

opposing the new farm laws,Chief Minister Yogi Adityanathsaid that these parties werefighting the battle for middle-men and brokers as they couldnot digest the welfare of farm-ers.

Addressing a farmers’ gath-ering in Bareilly on Thursday,Yogi Adityanath said that theopposition leaders were plot-ting to mislead farmers byspreading rumours about theend of minimum support price(MSP) and mandis, therebypitching in for middlemen andbrokers.

The chief minister saidthat vested interests of theseparties were impeding the wel-fare of the farmers that wasbeing ensured by PrimeMinister Narendra Modithrough a series of agricultur-al reforms.

“These people cannotdigest farmers’ welfare. PrimeMinister Narendra Modi isdedicatedly working for thebetterment of farmers andensuring that they get all facil-ities like seeds, fertilisers, mar-kets and MSP,” he stressed.

Yogi said that farmers’ loan

to the tune of Rs 36,000 crorehad already been waived andthe Union cabinet had decid-ed to send Rs 3,500 crore ofcane export subsidy directly tothe accounts of farmers onWednesday.

“Benefits of the schemesare directly reaching the farm-ers and this is why they (oppo-sition) are having problems.They were always into robbingfarmers’ rights. Now there is nomiddlemen between the gov-ernment and the farmers andthis has disturbed them,” hesaid.

Yogi further said, “The

government is guaranteeingMSP and the Union cabinethas increased it. The new lawwill ensure a healthy competi-tion in the market and thefarmers will get higher pricesfor their produce as they cansell their crops anywhere andthere will be no taxes any-where.”

“Those who do not like tosee the farmers progressingare spreading rumours. Soonafter the formation of BharatiyaJanata Party government inUP in 2017, crop loans of thefarmers totalling Rs 86 lakhwere waived. We are continu-ously buying farmers’ produceand purchase centres have beenopened across the state,” hesaid.

Yogi claimed that duringthe previous regimes, sugarmills closed down one after theother and for six years, canedues were not cleared.

“We sent Rs 1,12,000 croreof cane dues directly to farm-ers’ accounts and more thanRs 22,000 crore was trans-ferred to farmers’ accountsunder the PM Kisan SammanNidhi scheme. The next instal-ment of Rs 4,300 crore willsoon be directly sent to theiraccounts,” the chief ministersaid.

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Tuesday. A case was registered at

Lalitpur police station on thebasis of a complaint filed byNigam’s family.

During probe, it surfacedthat Nigam’s wife, Deepmala,and her lover, Jairam Sen (20),were behind the murder afterwhich both were arrested.

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The 3-day district-leveltraining for Covid-19

immunisation kicked off inLucknow on Thursday.Additional CMO and districtimmunisation officer MKSingh said all the safety mea-sures would be followed dur-ing the vaccination process.Health education officers anddata entry operators are beingtold about the waiting room,observation room and vacci-nation room. The ANMs, staffnurses and pharmacists arealso being told how to verifythe beneficiaries and how toupload the data during vacci-nation. They are also beingtrained in cold chain mainte-nance and conditioning ofthe ice pack. The traineeswere briefed regarding theusual side effects of the vacci-nation process which includesnausea, vomiting, diarrhoea,anxiety, giddiness and vertigo.

They were also briefed about the biomedical wastemanagement.

Singh said they are stillworking on the number ofcentres where the vaccina-tion will take place.

On Thursday, 235 personstested positive for coronavirusin Lucknow while 180 patientsrecovered. With seven moredeaths, city’s toll climbed to 1,072.

There are still 2,866 activecases in the state capital. Thefresh cases included 16 fromGomtinagar, 15 fromIndiranagar, 18 from RaeBareli road, 12 each fromHasanganj & Chinhat, and 10each from Hazratganj,Talkatora and Ashiyana.Across the state, 1,539 personstested Covid positive, includ-ing 68 in Kanpur, 113 inGhaziabad, 73 in GautamBuddhnagar, 64 in Varanasiand 72 in Meerut, taking theUP tally to 5,70,789. There are18 deaths in the state, includ-ing two in Varanasi, and oneeach in Prayagraj, Meerut,Moradabad, Deoria, Jaunpur,Azamgarh, Pratapgarh,Ghazipur & Hapur, taking

the toll to 8,136. Besides,1,159 patients recoveredacross the state. A senior offi-cial at the CMO office point-ed out that there has been adip in the number of activecoronavirus cases in Lucknowand the same have come downbelow 3,000.

“The cases have comedown in all the areas, includ-ing in the high-risk ones. Wehad sent public health expertsto the areas with maximumcases. Hopefully by the end ofthis month, the situation willimprove further,” he said.

Meanwhile, incharge ofICU-3 at the Rajdhani Covidhospital of SGPGI Dr TanmayGhatak said the number ofserious patients continues toremain the same. “We aregetting moderate to severepatients also suffering fromdiabetes, COPD and otherchronic diseases. The winterseason is making the mattersworse for COPD patients. Thepatients include those fromthe city and others referredfrom other districts,” he said.Ghatak said they were follow-ing the ICMR protocols fortreatment.

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Son of former cabinetminister Gayatri

Prasad Prajapati wasarrested by a Gomti NagarVistar police team inLucknow on Thursday.Anil Prajapati was namedin a case of fraud, misap-propriation of land and criminal conspiracy onSeptember 17. The FIR was lodged by Brij BhawanDubey, who is also a former director of a companyrun by the former minister. Dubey had also namedGayatri Prajapati in the case. He had alleged thatGayatri, along with his son Anil and aides, forcedhim to get a land (current cost approx Rs 2.5 crore)registered in the name of a woman. Dubey had stat-ed that she was the same woman who had accusedthe minister of gangrape in 2017. Dubey furtheralleged that the same woman turned hostile and wasthreatening him to take his name in her statementto be recorded in another rape case registered lastyear in Gautampalli police station, while the aidesof Prajapati were also threatening to kidnap his son.Prajapati is already lodged in Lucknow jail. InspectorAkhilesh Pandey said Anil was arrested fromHazratganj following a tip-off by an informer.

Meanwhile, a joint team of Gomti Nagar Vistarpolice and crime branch nabbed a hardened crim-inal bearing a cash reward of Rs 25,000 during anencounter late on Wednesday night. He sufferedfirearm injuries in the exchange of fire with thepolice. The accused was identified as Ram SanehiLoniya (26) of Sitapur. He has served jail term in acase of dacoity and under Gangster Act. The teamthat carried out the operation was headed by inspec-tor Akhilesh Pandey (Gomti Nagar Vistar) andinspector Ajay Prakash Tripathi (crime branch).

The police said they got a lead about the move-ment of the miscreant during constant surveillanceof criminals. Later, the crime branch team sharedthe inputs with the Gomti Nagar Vistar police andboth the teams left for the operation. The accusedwas surrounded at a place and asked to surrender,but he opened fire. The cops returned fire and over-powered the accused, who suffered bullet injuriesin a leg.

��A middle-aged man was accused of raping a

mentally unsound girl in Mohanlalganj onWednesday. As per reports, the accused, identifiedas Angnu of the locality, raped the girl who was allalone in her house. He later threatened to kill herparents if she approached police. On Wednesdaynight, the girl shared her ordeal with her parents,who lodged a case in this connection on Thursday.

��An 18-year-old boy committed suicide at his

house in Talkatora early morning on Thursday.Reports said the teen, identified as Rajesh of B-Blockin the area, was found hanging from a wooden polewith a dupatta tied around his neck. Father JamunaKanaujia spotted Rajesh hanging around 4:30 am andinformed police.

Lucknow (PNS): Cold winds increased the chill inthe state capital on Thursday. Lucknow recorded theminimum temperature at 7.8 degree Celsius whilethe maximum temperature at 20.6 degree Celsius.

MeT director JP Gupta said the chill wasbecause of cold winds coming from the north-west-ern region where hills witnessed a snowfall. “Thecold weather conditions will continue till the west-ern disturbance brings relief,” he said. In the state,the lowest minimum temperature (3.5 degreeCelsius) was recorded in Meerut.

The forecast for Lucknow is shallow fog in themorning and clear sky thereafter. The maximum andminimum temperature is expected to be around 22degree Celsius and 7 degree Celsius, respectively.

Across UP, the weather is most likely to be drywith shallow to moderate fog likely at isolated placesover the state in the morning. There is a warningfor cold wave conditions at isolated places over east-er UP and severe cold wave conditions at few placesover western UP. The cold day conditions are expect-ed at isolated places over western UP.

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Three luxury (Scania) busesparked opposite a work-

shop in Banthra were went upin flames under mysteriouscircumstances on Thursdaymorning. Police said that thebuses were there for mainte-nance and that they were inves-tigating the cause of fire.

As per reports, some com-

muters spotted flames leapinghigh from the buses around 10am and alerted the police. Apolice team, along with fire ten-ders, reached the scene. Trafficwas stopped and the rescueoperation was started. Thepolice said they were yet to getany complaint regarding theincident. The buses were reg-istered in the name of aMumbai-based travel company.

Sources said that the cost ofbuses was over Rs 4.5 crore andthey were once run on contractwith roadways. However, thepolice did not confirm thesame. Roadways officials, oncondition of anonymity, saidthe contract of the buses hadended a few months back andthey were parked outside theworkshop of the manufactur-er’s company.

�&�� 2:<,-4+

In a daring incident, sixunidentified miscreants

looted Rs 2 lakh from a veg-etable wholesaler in Kakori onThursday morning. However,police doubted claim of thevictim and said they did not find any eyewitness to the case.

As per reports, the victim,identified as Chandra ShekharLodhi of Dubagga, left hishouse for the shop on amotorcycle around 4 am. Hesaid six miscreants ridingthree different motorcyclessurrounded him when hereached near a school inKakori. “The miscreantsattacked me with sticks andlater they looted the cash andtwo gold chains. They all hadtheir faces covered with han-kies. The hanky of one ofthem fell off in a hurry to fleethe scene and I identifiedhim,” he said. Lodhi said hecalled out the name of themiscreant but the latter threwdust in his eyes and all of themsped off.

The police worked on thecase and scanned CCTV. Thevictim, identified by the com-plainant as Gulab Singh of

Kakori, was later arrested.The police said they wereinterrogating Gulab Singh.

Meanwhile, an imposter,impersonating a policeman,duped a woman of her orna-ments in Vikas Nagar onThursday. Reports said thewoman, identif ied asAlimunnisa (70) ofShekhupura Colony in thearea, was going to DandaiyaBazaar for shopping around 2pm. When she reachedVishnupuri Colony, a bike-borne unidentif ied manstopped her and asked herwhere was she going. Whenthe woman exclaimed, he toldher that he was a policeman.He also told her that a youthhad killed a man after lootinghis ornaments. He asked thewoman not to move on theroad while wearing ornamentsand asked her to take the same off. The woman kept theornaments in her purse whichthe conman took from her. Helater took out a sachet and putthe ornaments in it beforehanding it to the woman.When the woman returnedhome and checked the sachet,she found artificial ornaments.She later complained to policeabout the incident.

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Lucknow (PNS): Over 35 fur-niture shops in Purania scrapmarket were damaged in a firewhich broke out under myste-rious circumstances onThursday night. Police teams and fire tenders rushedto the scene to douse theflames. No casualty was report-ed in the fire.

As per reports, the firebroke out in one of the shopsaround 8:30 pm and soonengulfed the neighbouringshops. Locals called the policeand a team of cops, along withfiremen, reached the scene.Before the rescue operationcould begin, the fire took a vio-lent turn and engulfed some ofthe nearby shanties. Fire ten-ders from different locations inthe city were sent to the spotand the exercise to contain thefire was on till last reports came in.

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Principal scientist at CentralDrug Research Institute

(CDRI) Dr Ritu Trivedi hasbeen conferred with NASI-Reliance Industries PlatinumJubilee Award (2020) inBiological Sciences. Theaward carries a plaque andcash of Rs 3 lakh. CDRIspokesperson Sanjeev Yadavsaid the major scientific con-tributions of Dr Ritu Trivediare in the area of metabolicbone disorders, specificallypost-menopausal osteoporo-sis and osteoarthritis. “Her

work has led to potentialproducts from naturalresources and small moleculesfor improvement of bonehealth. She has shown thatDalbergia sissoo or Indianrosewood exhibitedosteogenic efficacy with novelosteogenic markers which ledto translational benefits as arapid fracture healing agentby the name, ‘Reunion’, whichis in the market. One-yearclinical trial has been done inpost-menopausal women,” hesaid. He added that anotherproduct by the name ‘JointFresh’ for osteoarthritis from

Spinacia oleracea or Spinachhas cartilage proliferative abil-ity. “These contributions haveled to 23 patents both nation-al and international to hercredit with more than 100articles in peer reviewed jour-nals,” he added.

She is the fellow of theNational Academy of Sciences(India). She has got the pres-tigious TATA InnovationFellowship 2019-20 by theDepartment of Biotechnology,Union Ministry of Scienceand Technology in recogni-tion of her outstandingresearch contributions.

Lucknow (PNS): Generalmanager of North EasternRailways (NER) Vinay KumarTripathi inspected differentrailways stations, includingLucknow Junction, and askedthe officials to improve civicamenities and facilities relatedto train operations and freightservices. He said the railwayshad to live up to the satisfac-

tion of the passengers andfocus on improved services.“We have to work constantlyand attentively to achieve thegoal of passenger satisfaction.Availability of modern civicamenities their expansion is animportant aspect that oneshould never forget,” he said.

The GM visited the inte-grated crew lobby and sought

details related to train opera-tions, safety arrangements infoggy weather and problems ofemployees. He also met repre-sentatives of the employees’union. The GM later held ameeting with the officials andsought progress reports of dif-ferent undergoing projectsasking them to ensure comple-tion in time.

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Actress Shilpa Shinde is a bigfan of Lucknow’s

chikankari and has a huge col-lection of chikan kurtis. Knownfor her role in TV serial‘Bhabhiji Ghar Par Hain’ and aBigg Boss participant, Shilpawas in Lucknow along with co-actress Poulomi Das for promo-tion of their show. Shilpa andPoulomi, who play the pivotaland challenging characters ofQueen Meerawati and Kalarespectively, vouched for thechaat and kebabs that Lucknowis famous for. Asked aboutshooting and promoting theirshow in Covid times, Shilpasaid there has to be some sortof start, albeit with precautions.Poulomi said they have beenregularly getting themselvestested for Covid and ensuringall the precautions. “It waswonderful to portray an ambi-tious character in a show whichtouches upon a lot of seriousissues like male patriarchy, gen-der politics, power etc thatexisted even in those times. Iam delighted to be a part of

such an interesting show. Weare here for promotions and Iam in love with this city. Thechikan kurtis and kebabs are myfavourite,” Shilpa said.

Shilpa, who has faced quitea few ups and downs in hercareer, said she has learnt fromthe past and is extremely happydoing this role. “Despite all thathappened in the past, I was pos-itive that something good willcome my way,” she said.

She added that she wasinterested in doing roles withequally talented actors and theshow is all about palace politics

had some great actors are partof the show. “I am glad to be apart of such a great ensembleand it is going to be remarkablefor Indian OTT platform. Todaywe are in Lucknow and we arereally thankful to all the peoplefor showering us with love asalways. I hope the people ofLucknow watch and love ourshow,” Poulomi said. The peri-od-drama series, directed byShachindra Vats also starsMilind Soman, Sahil Salathia,Annu Kapoor, Anantvijay Joshi,Flora Saini, Aditya Lal andKashish Rai, among others.

#�0#��1�&��The Lucknow division of North

Eastern Railways (NER) earned thehighest revenue (Rs 48.23 crore) inthe financial year 2020-21 amongstall the divisions of Indian Railwaysby sale of scrap through e-auction.A spokesman said the e-auctionwas conducted on e-procurementportal of Indian Railways. He saidthe work was conducted under theguidance of DRM, NER, MonicaAgnihotri and the revenue earnedwas the highest amongst all divi-sions of Indian Railways. He saida total of 14,990 metric tonnescarp was disposed and efforts wereon to make the Lucknow divisionof NER scarp-free.

��#��#��A prabhat pheri was organised

in RDSO on Thursday under the‘Fit India Movement’ to promotefitness across the country. Theprogramme is being organisedunder the guidance of the Ministryof Youth Affairs and Sports.Officers, staff and their familiesparticipated in the prabhat pherito spread the message of ‘Fitnesska dose aadha ghanta roz’ bymeans of banners, placards andslogans.

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Aday after the announce-ment of the results of the

election held to the local bod-ies in Kerala, the factional fightin the Congress party hascome out in the open.Thursday saw the entire KeralaPradesh Congress Committeehead quarters atThiruvananthapuram plas-tered with printed postersalleging massive scalefavoritism and groupism inselection of party candidatesfor the local body polls by theCongress leadership.

While the printed posterscarried highly critical allega-tions against the KPCC lead-ership and asked for itsrestructuring, it also featurednames of senior party leaderswho handpicked their “concu-bines”, “girl friends” and“lovers” overlooking the claimsof party’s long time activistsand workers. Names of lead-ers includes that of formerministers, MPs, MLAs andState level office bearers. Theposters were tore down by the

KPCC staff within minutes ofthe media teams reaching thespot. But veteran party leaderslike K Sudhakaran MP , AjayTharayil and former depurtychairman of Rajya Sabha P JKurian came out in the openlambasting the party leaders inthe selection of candidates.

“There was a situationfavorable to the UDF as aresult of the dilemma faced bythe CPI(M) that was facingmultiple charges of corruptionand scams. But the Congressleadership failed to exploitthe situation,” saidSudhakaran. He said he wasnot interested in continuing asthe working president of theKPCC as the leadership haslost the sense of collectiveresponsibility. Group owingallegiance to K MuraleedharanMP, son of late KKarunakaran, launched a cam-paign demanding the appoint-ment of the former as theKPCC chief. But P J Kurianhas another story to tell.

“The minorities, especial-ly the Christian community inthe State is keeping away from

the party as a fall out ofunhappiness in the selection ofcandidates and the failure ofthe party leadership to takethem into confidence,” saidKurian.

Adding to the woes of theKPCC leadership, P kKunhalikutty MP and leader ofthe Muslim League and ShibuBaby John of the RSP (bothconstituents of the UDF) tooblamed the Congress for thelackluster performance of theUDF.

“Both the LDF and UDFhad alliances with parties likeWelfare Party of India andJama-at-E Islami in past elec-tions. But this time we saw theCongress leaders themselveswashing dirty linen in publicover the alliance. This couldhave been avoided,” said John.

Meanwhile the CPI(M)managed to cobble up major-ity in the Kochi and ThrissurCorporation councils with thehelp of dissident MuslimLeague and Congress candi-dates who scored “shock wins”over official candidates.

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In a drop in the infected cases and fatal-ities, Maharashtra on Thursday logged

3880 fresh Covid-19 infections and 65deaths, even as 4358 people were dis-charged from various hospitals across thestate after full recovery.

A day after 95 people died ofCoronavirus and 4,304 others tested pos-itive for the pandemic, the infectionsdropped by 424 and deaths came down

by 30 in the state. With 3880 fresh infec-tions, the total infections in the stateclimbed from 18,80.893 to 18,84,773.Similarly, with 65 fresh deaths, theCovid-19 toll in Maharashtra rose from48,434 to 48,499.

As 4358 patients were dischargedfrom the hospitals across the state afterfull recovery, the total number of peopledischarged from the hospitals since thesecond week of March this year rose to17,74,255. The recovery rate in the state

rose marginally from 94.1 per cent to94.14 per cent.

With 10 new deaths, the Covid-19toll in Mumbai went up from 11003 to11,013, while the infected cases went upby 586 to trigger a jump in the infectionsfrom 2,84,404 to 2,84,990. Meanwhile,the number of “active cases” total casesin the state dropped from 61,454 to60,905. The fatality rate in the state dropped from 2.58 per cent to 2.57per cent.

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After having cheated sev-eral high-end hotels

across the country, 63-year-old savvy conman VincentJohn’s luck ran out, when hetried to pull off a cheat-and-run game plan at a five starhotel at Navi Mumbai. Thelocal police arrested Johnwith a whooping 58 PAN andAadhar cards.

Wanted in as many as 187similar crimes in severalparts of the country, Johnwas taken into custody by thepolice on Tuesday, as he waspreparing to escape afterhaving cheated a five-starHotel from the Tunga Hotelschain at Navi Mumbai.

John, who hails fromTamil Nadu, was producedbefore a Thane cour t which remanded t i l lDecember 18.

John’s modus operandihas been to stay in luxuryhotels using his false identi-ties, run up hefty bills andwalk away whatever prizeditems he can lay hands.

John’s attempt was nodifferent when he checkedinto a high-profile suite andstayed at a five-star hotelfrom the Tunga Hotel chainbetween December 12 and 14using a photocopy copy of hisAadhar card. During stay, heordered costly cigarettes andl iquor through hotel service.

“During his stay at thehotel, John also booked abanquet hall for a dozenguests for business meet-cum-party scheduled on theevening of December 13 forwhich he placed orders for

food and beverages. He eventook a laptop from the hotelpurportedly for a presenta-tion,” Inspector RavindraPatil said.

However, when no gueststurned up at the banquethall for the party. The hotelmanagement got suspiciousand looked out for John whoby then had quietly fled thescene with the lap-top.

Having realised that ithad been taken for a ride byJohn, the hotel managementlodged a complaint with theNavi Mumbai. Without los-ing any t ime, the NaviMumbai police formed ateam which tracked Johndown to a hide-out alongGhodbunder Road at nearbyThane, where he was arrest-ed on December 15.

Patil said that John hailsf rom i la-Uruddi inThoothukudi distr ict ofTamil Nadu. “John has beenmoving around with differentnicknames. We have seized58 PAN and Aadhar cardsfrom him obtained by himusing his fake nicknames.He has confessed that hewould sell outside the expen-sive liquors, cigarettes andother stuff +that he picked upfrom hotels without clearingthe bills from the deluxehotels. He would sell thestuff to finance his lavishlifestyle that included airtravel,” the InvestigatingOfficer said.

The investigations haverevealed that he has commit-ted similar crimes in Gujarat,Tamil Nadu, Kerala, AndhraPradesh, Karnataka andother states and cities acrossthe country.

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Showing its determination,Central Reserve Police Force

(CRPF) personnel of 95thBattalion continued its drive forthe sixth day here on Thursdayto make historic Pushkar Kund(pond) near Assi clean. Thedrive was launched in associ-ation with Srijan Samajik VikasNyas, Nagar Nigam andNational Disaster ResponseForce (NDRF). Apart fromremoving wastes from thepond, the CRPF personnel alsocontinued their drive to sani-tise the surrounding localities.Since the nationwide lock-down was imposed to prevent

the spread of global coron-avirus pandemic on March 25last, the local Battalion of CRPFhas continuously launched itsdrive of santisation and clean-liness in different parts of thecity. During the campaign, aprogramme was held atPushkar Kund in which thechief guest was Commandantof CPRF Narendra Pal Singh,while the function was presidedover by Srijan chief and brandambassador of Environmentdepartment, UP, Anil KumarSingh.

Addressing the function,CRPF Commandant said ‘weall know that water gives lifeto us and all other living ani-

mals. Without water, life onthe earth is impossible. Verylittle of the water available onthe earth is potable. We haveto conserve the drinkingwater. If the rain water is pre-served in the ponds and waterresources, then this water canbe useful for our drinkingpurpose. He further said ‘wehave to keep our availableponds clean so they can notonly store rainwater but alsohelp in recharging the groundwater. In this way, if we con-serve these reservoirs, thensurely we can conserve waterfurther.’

According to him, in thisdirection, the 95th Battalion of

CPRF and Srijan are workingtogether to conserve waterand protect the environmentso that they can give a beau-tiful healthy future to ourcoming generations.

During the drive, a teamof local units of the NDRFBattalion also collaboratedwith their own boats andsailors. On the occasion,CRPF Assistant CommandantParikshit Rahul and otherpersonnel, Srijan memberAnand Vijay, supervisor ofNagar Nigam Sarita Yadav,safai employees, leading entre-preneur and social workersKeshav Jalan, Abhishek Jalanand others were present.

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Vinod Kumar Pandey waselected as the new presi-

dent of the Banaras BarAssociation (BBA), while VivekSingh became it's new generalsecretary.

In a tough contest, VinodKumar Pandey secured 1,041votes and defeated his nearestrival Dhirendra Nath Sharmaby a margin of 117 votes as hegot 924 votes. The other can-didates Arun Kumar Dubey,Awadhesh Kumar Singh,Meera Yadav, Nityanand Rai,Ram Pravesh Singh and SajjanLal Gupta got 44, 284, 162,166, 566 and 52 votes respec-tively. The chairman of seniorcommitte RamanandSrivastava announced theresults after the counting con-cluded late evening on

Wednesday. The polling hadtaken place on December 15last.

On the other prestigiouspost of general secretary,Vivek Kumar Singh registeredvictory by bagging 1,141 votes.He defeated his nearest rivalRatnesh Kumar Pandey by acomfortable margin of 474votes. Ratnesh got 667 votes.The other candidates KamleshSingh Yadav, Kaushik KumarPandey, Pradeep Kumar Raiand Rajiv Kumar Goswamigot 368, 242, 572 and 235votes respectively.

On the post of seniorvice-president, SatyendraKumar Srivastava wasdeclared victorious as hesecured 789 votes. He defeat-ed nearest rival Jyoti ShankarUpadhyay with a margin ofjust 7 votes. Jyoti got 782

votes. The other candidates Alok

Kumar Srivastava, AnupKumar Sinha and Om Prakashgot 363, 571 and 612 votesrespectively. On the two postsof vice-president (practice ofmore than 10 years) AshokKumar and Prashant KumarSrivastava were elected asboth secured 1,311 and 879votes respectively. On the postof vice-president (practice lessthan 10 years) Ashish KumarSingh was elected as he got1,532 votes.

Shailendra Kumar Singhbagged 1,131 votes and waselected as treasurer. He defeat-ed his nearest rival RajeshPrajapati who got 1,099 votes.Radheshyam Sharma (1,550votes) was elected as joint sec-retary (library), SurendraKumar Seth (1443) was elect-

ed as joint secretary (publica-tion) and Sunil KumarMishra (1,473) was elected asjoint secretary (administra-tion).

For the six members ofmanagement committee(practice less than 15 years),Dilip Kumar Srivastava,Dhananjay Kumar, DhananjayYadav, Anurag Baranwal, ShivKumar Sinha and AbhishekKumar Pandey were elected bysecuring 1,885, 1,783, 1,722,1,641, 1,566 and 1,551votes respectively. AmitKumar Jaiswal was elected asauditor.

For the members of man-agement committee (practicemore than 15 years) AnujGond, Manoj Tiwari,Prem Prakash and SatyendraNath Rai were elected unop-posed.

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Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)succeeded in winning three

seats in six-member executivecommittee of the VaranasiMunicipal Corporation(VMC). The election of all themembers took place unop-posed.

The VMC met onThursday to elect six membersof its executive committee atTown Hall here. As the con-struction work is being carriedout at VMC office, the MiniHouse is shifted to Town Hall.

Since, all the political par-ties have already reached to aconsensus realising theirstrength of numbers in the

House and they decided not togo for the polls. There is at pre-sent 89 members in out of total90 members of the House com-prising 39, 21, 14, 2 and 13from the Bharatiya Janata Party,Indian National Congress(INC), Samajwadi Party (SP),Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)and independent respectivelywhile one seat is lying vacant.

Rajesh Yadav Challu of theBJP proposed the names ofNarsingh Das Baba, DrRavindra Kumar Singh andRajesh Keshari for the mem-bers of executive committeefrom the party and SitaramKeshari of the INC proposedthe name of Riyazuddin, whileHarun Ansari of the SP pro-posed the name Bhaiyya Lal

Yadav as the members from theparty. Ajit Singh proposed thename of independent corpora-tor Haji Vikas Ansari for themember of the executive com-mittee. All the party reachedto a consensus and thusNarsingh Das Baba, DrRavindra Kumar Singh &Rajesh Keshari (BJP),Riyazuddin (INC), Bhaiyya LalYadav (SP) and Haji OkasAnsari (Independent) wereelected unopposed for the six-member executive committeeof the House. After the meet-ing was over the piquant situ-ation prevailed at Town Hallwhen the husband of the cor-porator from Khanduri WardPriti Chaubey, MayankChaubey laid before the vehi-

cle of Municipal CommissionerGorang Rathi to put up protestagainst the deplorable condi-tion of the road in Khajur areafor the long time. He blamedthat the corporation officersdid not pay any heed towardsthis problem despite the repeat-ed complaints. Rathi assured ofpaying serious attention to theproblem. In the meantime, theheated exchange of words alsotook place between Rathi andcorporator from NawabganjWard Sita Sharma on the mat-ter of works being carried outby the corporation in the ward.The Mayor Mridula Jaiswalpresided over the proceedingsand congratulated to newmembers of the executive com-mittee.

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Union Minister of State forHealth Ashwani Choubey

came for a day's visit to Prayag.The minster also took theinformation about the prepara-tion of health services by hold-ing a review meeting with DrSP Singh, Principal of MedicalCollege and doctors and staff ofCGHS at Circuit House. On theissue of crunch of doctors, theminister said that according toPrime Minister NarendraModi, MBBS seats have beenincreased significantly. By 2022,

a sufficient number of doctorswill be available in the country.

In the review meeting, inreference to the MedicalCollege, the minister directedthe principal of the college toensure better treatment to thepatients. Especially seriouspatients should be taken carefor properly. He also askedthem not let any kind of neg-ligence in the case of COVID-19. He has assured that on thenext visit, he would discussover the staff shortage issue atat the Swaroop Rani NehruHospital. Preparations for vac-

cination etc were also dis-cussed.

Thereafter, he also went onto inspect the CGHS No-1George Town. The arrange-ment here was satisfactory butthe hospital administrationmaintained that there was ashortage of doctors. On this,the Health Minister alsoassured to take some concretesteps soon. After this, theHealth Minister left forChitrakoot. Choubey will againcome in a couple days and willmeet party officials and work-ers at Circuit House. Earlier in

the morning, Protocol secre-tary Ajay Rai welcomed himalong with the workers.

The Union Minister ofState for Health said that thetrial of three vaccines in thecountry is in the final stage.Prime Minister Narendra Modihas already taken stock of thepreparations of vaccine. In thefirst phase, one crore healthworkers will be vaccinated.Twenty-two million Coronawarriors will be benefited bythis, but all must compulsori-ly follow the COVID-19 proto-col.

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The devotees visiting MaghMela area would not have

trouble while talking overphone. Arrangements are beingmade for this purpose. Thistime in the mela area, tempo-rary mobile towers will beinstalled in every sector.Applications have been soughtfrom the mobile tower instal-lation agency. These towerswill be installed before the fairstarts.

The Magh Mela along the

confluence Ganga, Yamunaand mythical Saraswati willbegin from January 14.Thereafter, there will be a gath-ering of lakhs of devotees herefor about two months. For theKalpavas of these devotees, thework of settling the city of tentsin about 650 hectares is goingon. The fair will be set up in fivesectors. During this time, thedevotees who come here andstay here, should not havetrouble talking to their relativesover phone. Therefore, themela administration will tem-

porarily install mobile towers inthe entire fair area.

At least one tower will beinstalled in every sector. BSNL'stower is already installed on theparade ground. Apart fromthis, the fair administration hasissued a tender to erect towersof private companies. Tenderswill be filled by December 21.After that, the completion ofthe tender process will startthe installation of mobile tow-ers.

Mela Adhikari VivekChaturvedi said that at least

one mobile tower will beinstalled in every sector.Whereas two to three towerswill be erected here when thereis more crowd around SangamNose. All mobile towers will beinstalled before MakarSankranti.

This time due to corona,the mela area is expected toreduce congestion.Nevertheless, parking of vehi-cles will be made on the paradeground. The mela administra-tion has issued a tender forparking.

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Ayouth was brutally attackedin Jari village, under the

Kaundhiyara police station inthe trans-Yamuna area ofPrayagraj in late evening hourson Wednesday. Private part ofthe boy was chopped off andattempt was made to slit openhis throat with sharp edgedweapons. Love affair is stated tobe the cause behind this savageattack. SP (trans-Yamuna) ismonitoring the investigationsand is hopeful that the mysterywill be resolved within a day ortwo.

According to reports, theyouth was a regular student ofa coaching centre and used tocome to Prayagraj on a regularbasis. He had an affair with agirl of his village, and onWednesday the family mem-bers of the girl caught themred-handed in an agriculturalfield. The boy was beaten upbrutally and then he wasattacked with sharp edgedweapons. After chopping off his

private part, the attackers tar-geted his neck and then lefthim in the field. The boy wasspotted by some passerby inlater night hours in a pool ofblood. They raised alarm andcollected the villagers. Thepolice were informed immedi-ately and the youth was admit-ted immediately at SRNHospital of MLN MedicalCollege in a critical condition.

The police recovered someslippers from the crime spot,and are studying call details ofthe boy. Some suspects havebeen detained by the police inthis connection.

150 POWER THIEVESCAUGHT: Power engineersin Prayagraj are in action.Within two days over 150power thieves have beenbrought to books. Besidesimposing heavy fine on them,FIR has also been lodged toensure their arrest.

Action against powerthieves had been postponedand almost no FIR had beenlodged during the past couple

of months. But on the direc-tions of the Power Minister, thedepartment has geared up itselfand is taking with them vigi-lance officers also along withcamera teams. The ministerhas sent strong instructions toturn tough against the powerthieves and ensure 24 houruninterrupted power supply.With the arrival of winters, thepower thieves are applyingtricks to bypass meters forrunning heaters and waterheaters. The power engineershad taken an initiative to raidsuspected houses in late nightor early morning hours tocatch culprits red handed, oth-erwise they used to normalisethings in day hours. In old cityareas the power engineerscaught 150 power theft caseswithin two days. The videogra-phers and photographers aredoing their work as a proof ofpower theft, which will help insending the culprits to jail.

ACCIDENT: A man waskilled, while his wife sustainedgrievous injuries when the

pucca house in which theywere living in was damagedbadly after the truck carryingthe ballast went uncontrolledand entered the house on theside of the road under the theBahria police station of the dis-trict on Wednesday night. Thecouple was asleep in the veran-dah outside the house and gotinjured by the truck in whichthe husband died a short timelater, while the wife was under-going treatment at a local hos-pital. Karnaipur market is inBahria police station area ofPrayagraj. A ballast laden truckwas going from this marketlocated on Sikandra-Dandupurroad on Wednesday night.Around 11 o’clock in the night,the truck reached in front of thehouse of one RadheshyamGupta (58), resident of TruckBazaar, and went uncontrolledand entered his house. A largepart of Radheshyam’s two-storey house was damaged inthis accident while the couplesleeping in the outer verandahof the house were injured.

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UP Minister of State(Independent Charge)

Ravindra Jaiswal lit the lampnear the bust of MahatmaGandhi after cutting the lace tomark the inauguration ofKhadi Utsav- 2020 at UrbanHaat, Chowkaghat CulturalComplex here on Thursdayafternoon. Speaking on theoccasion, Jaiswal appealed tothe people to popularise the callof ‘vocal for local’. He said thatif people use the goods pro-duced by the entrepreneursand cottage industries aroundthem, then not only smallentrepreneurs would beencouraged but it would alsocreate employment opportuni-ties in the area.

Highlighting the purposeof Khadi Utsav, he said that thistype of exhibition is organisedevery year by Khadi Village andIndustries Commission

(KVIC), whose main objectiveis to promote local entrepre-neurs and cottage units.According to him, KVIC hasprovided employment to 1,000people against the target of giv-ing employment to 250 peoplethis year, which is praiseworthy.He informed that as many as 27departments are giving subsi-dies to increase different types

of employment opportunitiesand in this direction a work-shop would be organised bythese departments during theUtsav from December 22 to 26so that the youths can beinformed about employmentgeneration. He said that hewould also attend the pro-posed workshop.

More than 60 stalls have

been set up at the Khadi Utsavand the festival will remainopen till December 26.

In addition to the stalls ofVaranasi division, the productsfrom Jammu and Kashmir,West Bengal and others havealso been displayed in the exhi-bition selling items like Khadiand cotton garments, silksarees, blankets, kurtas, Sadri,mattresses, quilts, bed sheets,carpets, jams, jellies, pickles,namkeen, wooden furniture,cupboards, Ayurvedic medi-cines and pain relieving oil etc.District KVIC Officer UPSingh said that the main objec-tive of the exhibition is to pro-vide a market to the entrepre-neurs of rural areas andencourage them to assist inmarketing and selling of theirproducts.

Special guest was the KVICmember Dilip Sonkar, JointCommissioner (Industries)Umesh Singh and others werepresent.

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As many as 37 more newpatients have been detect-

ed in the district on Thursday,increasing the total number to20,474. The day also saw onemore death, increasing the tollto 339. During the day, the fol-low-up negative reports includ-ed 68 and all of them have beenrecovered from home isolation,increasing the number to16,700. As no patient has beendischarged from any hospital,the number of patientsremained at 2,890. The totalnumber of patients who have

been recovered so far is 19,590,leaving 545 active cases. Therecovery rate is 95.68 percent, while the mortality rate is1.65 per cent.

Chief Medical Officer(CMO) Dr VB Singh hasinformed that in the firstreport of the day, 18 positivepatients were found out of2,636 reports received. Tillthen, the total test reportsreceived were 4,78,155 and theresults of 3,001 are awaited.Out of them, 4,57,700 werenegative, while 20,455 posi-tive. The total number ofsamples collected was

4,99,280. Earlier, a male aged76 from Madhauli succumbedto COVID-19 at Sir SundarlalHospital, Banaras HinduUniversity (SSH BHU). Withthe addition of six new redzones, the total number ofhotspots has increased to2,588 including 217 red zones.One green zone has been con-verted into a red zone again.There are 2,371 green zoneswith five new ones.

On the instructions of theDistrict Magistrate (DM)Kaushal Raj Sharma, mass/group antigen tests continuedto be conducted at Varanasi

Junction (Cantt.) andManduadih railway but all 37and 110 tests conducted thererespectively have been foundnegative.

Besides, all the 245 testshave been found negative atShree Shiv Prasad Gupta(SSPG) Hospital, Kabirchauraapart from 135 at LBSHospital Ramnagar, 210 atGovernment Women’sHospital, 75 at SwamiVivekanand Hospital,Bhelupur and 52 at SSH BHU.However, one out of 42 testshas been detected positive atCHC Shivpur.

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North Central Railway joinshands in creating aware-

ness on ‘One Nation OneRation Card’. Audio spot isbeing played on publicannouncement (PA) system atstations for mass awareness.

Ministry of ConsumerAffairs Food and PublicDistribution is implementingnationwide portability of rationcards covered under theNational Food Security Act,2013 (NFSA) through the

ambitious ‘One Nation OneRation Card (ONORC)’ whichis also a part of the PrimeMinister’s technology drivensystem reform under the AtamNirbhar Bharat Abhiyan. Theobjective of ONORC is toempower migrant (NFSA)population to seamlessly accesstheir food security benefitsunder the Act, from any FairPrice Shop (FPS) of their choicein the country by using theirexisting/same ration cardthrough biometrically/Aadhaar authenticatedtransactions on an

electronic point of sale (ePoS)device.

Railway being most popu-lar and common mode oftransport of migrant popula-tion across the country, it hasbeen decided to play audiospot/ jingle using publicannouncement system at sta-tions to create mass awarenesson ONORC system. Role ofNorth Central Railway is par-ticularly important as thisRailway caters to most popu-lous area of the country andhad recently contributed signif-icantly in movement of migrant

population by operating morethan 53 per cent of approxi-mately 4,500 Shramik specialtrains run by Railways duringCOVID-19 pandemic.

To meet the above saidobjective audio spots of approx-imately 40 seconds containingvoice of the Prime Minister inHindi and other regional lan-guages have been shared withPrayagraj, Jhansi and Agradivision for playing on publicannouncement system at sta-tions to create large-scaleawareness on ‘One Nation OneRation Card’.

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After 25 days the number ofpersons infected with

COVID-19 has crossed 100.The reduced number ofpatients almost doubled. At thesame time, the number ofthose who beat Corona for thefourth consecutive day wasless than the infected. OnWednesday, 122 new coronainfected people were found inthe Prayagraj district.

Out of these, the Covidreport of 57 people came pos-itive only in Focus TargetSampling. About 58 peoplebecame infection-free in 24hours. A corona infected diedduring the course of treat-ment.

According to Nodal Officerfor Corona Dr Rishi Sahai, onWednesday, 4,343 people weretested for Covid. It has report-ed positive of 122 people. Atotal of 13 patients were dis-charged from different Covidhospitals. 45 people completedhome isolation. One patientdied during treatment.

According to Nodal Officerfor Corona Dr Rishi Sahai,Focus Target Sampling wasstarted among the decreasingnumber of patients. The infect-ed people were found at bothplaces, the danger of spreadingthe infection was also realised.The Covid report of 30 stu-dents in ECC and 27 in CRPFCamp Parila Phaphamau hascome positive. Dr Sahai said

that none of the people whowere sampled during the Targettest found any symptoms ofCovid. Testing will be made tothose people who came incontact with such infected per-sons.

To prevent the spread ofcorona infection, ECC willhave a Covid screening of allthe teachers along with otherstudents on Friday. At the sametime, by conducting specialoperations in the CRPF camp,the infected will be identified.According to Dr Sahai,Wednesday's action is a majorachievement to prevent thespread of corona by identifyingthe infected patients among thecorona patients. Now the orderof testing of the Focus Target

Group will continue.The increased number of

corona infected includes twodoctors from SRN Hospitalalong with OT techniciansfrom CHC Soraon. At thesame time, the report of BSNLDivisional Engineer andAdditional OfficerSuperintendent has also comepositive. Two of the four infect-ed teachers belong to DPS.Among the infected, theAssistant Account Officer ofCDA Pension, MutthiganjInspector and a constable of thepolice station have also beeninfected. In the CRPF's Targettesting, one nursing assistant,two sub inspectors and 11 con-stables have been identified ascorona infected.

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At Technical TrainingCentre of the Banaras

Locomotive Works (BLW) awritten competition for offi-cers and staff was organisedunder the EnergyConservation Week-2020 onWednesday on the topic,‘Suggestions for maximum energy conservationby BLW’. The aim of the competition is to explainthe importance of conserving maximum ener-gy to people. Many BLW personnel took part in

it with enthusiasm. EnergyConservation Week was inau-gurated by GM Anjali Goyalon December 14 with a videodemonstration to save domes-tic and industrial energy.Earlier an essay competition forofficers and employees wasorganised on Tuesday to markEnergy Conservation Week –

2020 at the Technical Training Centre of BLW.The topic of the essay competition was ‘Energysaving, building the future.’ Many BLW per-sonnel participated in it.

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The railway administration ismaking changes in the tim-

ings and days of the run of thefollowing special trains beingrun by for the convenience ofpassengers. As a result, the05015/05016 Gorakhpur-Yesvantpur-Gorakhpur super-fast special train will from April12, 2021, be run fromGorakhpur on every Mondayand from Yeshvantpur on everyWednesday from April 14, 2021,until further notice. Apart fromthis the 02591/02592Ye s v antpu r- G or a k hpu r-Gorakhpur special train willfrom April 10, 2021, everySaturday be run fromGorakhpur and fromYesvantpur from April 12, 2021every Monday until furthernotice. Therefore, the people arerequested to know about therevised timetable of trains at thetime of making reservation orbefore travelling in order toavoid inconvenience. All coach-es in these trains will be ofreserved category and passen-gers traveling in them will haveto follow the Covid-19 guide-lines, CPRO PK Singh said.

05015 GKP-YPR SPE-CIAL: The 05015 Gorakhpur-Yeshvantpur superfast weeklyspecial as per the revisedtimetable, will from April 12,2021, depart from Gorakhpurevery Monday at 06.35 hrs,from Gonda at 9.05 hrs, fromBarabanki at 10.27 hrs, fromBadshahnagar at 11.04 hrs,from Aishbagh at 11.50 hrs,from Unnao at 12.42 hrs,from Kanpur Central at 13.22hrs, from Pokhrayan at 14.15hrs, from Orai at 14.52 hrs,from Jhansi at 16.45 hrs, fromBina at 19.10 hrs, from Bhopalat 21.00 hrs, from Itarsi at 22.50hrs, second day from Nagpur at4.00 hrs, from Chandrapur at06.35 hrs, from Balharshah at07.45 hrs, from SirpurKaghaznagar at 08.30 hrs, fromKazipet at 11.10 hrs, fromSecunderabad at 13.45 hrs,

from Mantralayam Road at18.55 hrs, Guntakal at 20.25hrs, Dharmavaram at 23.00 hrsand reach Yesvantpur at 02.45hrs on the third day. During thereturn journey the 05016Yesvantpur-Gorakhpur super-fast weekly special train willfrom April 14, 2021, departfrom Yesvantpur everyWednesday at 23.40 hrs, fromHindupur on the second day at01:00 hrs, from Dharmavaram01.55 hrs, from Guntakal at04.00 hrs, from MantralayamRoad at 05.25 hrs, fromSecunderabad at 11.05 hrs, fromKazipet at 13.20 hrs, from SirpurKaghaznagar at 15.15 hrs, fromBalharshah at 17.20 hrs, fromChandrapur at 17.40 hrs, fromNagpur at 21.00 hrs, from Itarsion third day at 02.00 hrs , fromBhopal at 03.40 hrs, from Binaat 05.35 hrs, from Jhansi at 07.55hrs, from Orai at 09.10 hrs, fromPokhrayan at 10.02 hrs, fromKanpur Central at 11.35 hrs,from Unnao at 12.07 hrs, fromAishbagh at 13.25 hrs, fromBadshahnagar at 13.48 hrs, fromBarabanki at 14.30 hrs, fromGonda at 15.55 hrs and reachGorakhpur at 18.50 hrs. A totalof 21 coaches, including two ofgenerator-cum-luggage van, fourof general second class, seven ofsleeper class, six of AC third classand two of AC second class willbe attached in this special train.

02591 GKP-YPR SPL: The02591 Gorakhpur-Yesvantpurweekly special train will fromApril 10, 2021, every Saturdaydepart from Gorakhpur at 06.35hrs, from Khalilabad at 7.15 hrs,from Basti at 7.44 hrs, fromMankapur at 8.28 hrs, fromGonda at 9.05 hrs, fromBarabanki at 10.27 hrs, fromBadshahnagar at 11.04 hrs, fromAishbagh at 11.50 hrs, fromUnnao at 12.42 hrs, fromKanpur Central at 13.22 hrs,from Pokhrayan at 14.15 hrs,from Orai at 14.52 hrs, fromJhansi at 16.45 hrs, from Lalitpurat 17.50 hrs, from Bhopal at21.00 hrs, from Itarsi at 22.50hrs, from Ghoradongri at 23.50

hrs, on second day from Betulat 00.32 hrs, from Amla at 00.54hrs, from Nagpur at 4.00 hrs ,from Chandrapur at 06.35 hrs,from Balharshah at 07.45 hrs,from Belampalli at 09.00 hrs,from Manchiryal at 09.25 hrs,from Ramagundam at 09.43hrs, from Kazipet at 11.10 hrs,from Secunderabad at 13.45hrs, from Begumpet at 13.56 hrs,from Raichur at 18.31 hrs, fromMantralayam Road at 18.55 hrs,from Adoni at 19.30 hrs, fromGuntakal at 20.25 hrs, fromAnantapur at 21.35 hrs, fromDharmavaram at 23.00 hrs andreach Yesvantpur at 03.00 hrs.During the return journey the02592 Yesvantpur-Gorakhpurweekly special will from April12, 2021, every Monday departfrom Yesvantpur at 17.20 hrs,from Hindupur at 18.40 hrs,from Dharmavaram at 20.50 hrs,from Anantapur at 21.33 hrs,from Guntakal at 22.50 hrs,from Adoni at 23.40 hrs, the sec-ond day Mantralayam Road at00.10 hrs, from Raichur at 00.43hrs, from Begumpet at 05.41 hrs,from Secunderabad at 06.15hrs, from Kazipet at 08.35 hrs,from Ramagundam at 09.50hrs, from Manchiryal at 10.10hrs, from Belampalli at 10.35hrs, from Balharshah at 12.40hrs, from Chandrapur at 13.00hrs, from Nagpur at 15.55 hrs,from Amla at 18.10 hrs, fromBetul at 18.28 hrs, fromGhoradongri at 19.02 hrs, fromItarsi at 22.05 hrs, from Bhopalon third day at 00.05 hrs, fromLalitpur at 02.45 hrs, fromJhansi at 04.25 hrs, from Oraiat 06.00 hrs, from Pokhrayan at06.40 hrs, from Kanpur Centralat 08.40 hrs, from Unnao at09.07 hrs, from Aishbagh at10.20 hrs, from Badshahnagarat 10.42 hrs, from Barabanki at11.35 hrs, from Gonda at 12.55hrs, from Mankapur at 13.21hrs, from Basti at 14.08 hrs,from Khalilabad at 14.32 hrsand reach Gorakhpur at 15.40hrs. A total of 22 coaches,including four of general sec-ond class, will be attached in it.

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Under the SwachhSurvekshan conducted by

Nagar Palika Nigam, Singrauli,Madhya Pradesh, the volun-tary organisation of NTPCVindhyachal, Suhasini Sangh,was awarded the SwachchhataChampion Award.

The Nagar Palika Nigam,Singrauli, certified that

Suhasini Sangh by showingalertness towards cleanlinessparticipated as a ‘swachchchta’champion. Accepting this

award at Bal Bhavan, SuhasiniSangh chairperson MridulaJohari said its members willalways strive for cleanliness. Onthe occasion Suman Bhatia,adviser/Tiny Tots, VinitaSubedar, adviser/ Welfare, AnjuMishra, adviser/AdultEducation, Richa Mangla, gen-eral secretary/Suhasini Sanghand senior members of SuhasiniSangh were also present.

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Uttar Pradesh Minister ofState for Energy Rama

Shankar Singh Patel said thatit was the need of the hourthat we adopt horticulture asan nessential part of farmingto enhance earning. Theseviews were expressed by himat a function organised byHorticulture departmentunder Dr Shyama PrasadMukherji Rurban MissionProgramme at Government Ganga Nursery,Bisunderpur on Wednesday. Speaking on theoccasion the minister exhorted the farmers toavail the facilities provided by the governmentand contribute to the nation. He said his gov-ernment was committed to improving the con-dition of farmers and in very that direction thedistrict was declared as banana hub. Making

such announcement he saidthat the plan had been sent tomake available expert facilitiesto increase production ofbanana in the district whichwill pave the way to improv-ing the per capita income ofthe area. The minister dis-tributed the saplings of aloevera and dragon fruit to thewomen belonging to SHGs ofHalia block who were trainedrecently to do the businessthrough farming of such

plants. Majhawan MLA Shuchismita Maurya alsoexpressed her views and underlined the medic-inal qualities of aloe vera and dragon fruit. ChiefDevelopment Officer (CDO) Avinash Singhspoke about the benefits of banana farming andgave details that after declaring the district as abanana hub what facilities from the governmentwere to be made available for its development.

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One person was killed and 19 others sustainedinjuries when a bus overturned at Kuba turn on

Chunar-Rajgarh road under Chunar police station onWednesday. As per the reports, father of Jawahir, a res-ident of Nadihar village under Madihan police station,had died on Wednesday. For his cremation the villagershad gone at Chunar Ghat. While returning the driverof the bus lost control over it and it overturned. As aresult Somaru (50) died on the spot and the 19 injuredwere sent to the hospital. Meanwhile another reportsaid that Jagannath (45), a resident of Vishnupatti vil-lage under Chilh police station, was seriously injuredon Monday when his motorcycle collided with anoth-er one. He was admitted to the district hospital wherehe succumbed to his injuries on Wednesday. His wifehad died two years ago. He is survived by five children.

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The police on Wednesday arrestedthree members of a gang of thieves

and recovered �2.17 lakh in cash andornaments from them. The arrestedaccused were produced in the court fromwhere they were sent to jail. They wereidentified as Ravi and Amit Sharma, res-idents of Paswan Dhala, and SujitKumar, a resident of Devahia Tola,Nausad under Gida police station.According to the police, the leader of thisgang is Sarfaraz, a resident of Jail Road,Shahpur. The accused along with himhad committed a theft in the house ofSultan Khan on night of November 24in Turkmanpur locality.

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A3-day grievance redressalcamp was organised at

Kanpur DevelopmentAuthority premises onWednesday.

KDA Secretary SP Singhheard the grievances of theallottees and other people anddirected the officials concernedto dispose of the com-plaints/grievances on priority.

On the first day, 43 com-plaints relating to Zone 1 andbulk sale department werereceived. Jagdish Shah, PrabhaTewari, Subhra Tewari andRajesh Tandon submitted theirapplications for mutation. Inher application, Rekha urgedthe KDA for issue of allotmentletter by the bulk sale depart-ment while Manju Saxena’sapplication related to registry ofa flat at Signature Greens apart-ment. The KDA secretary saidthe special camp was organisedto resolve problems of peoplerelating to mutation ofplot/house/flat, freehold fromlease, registry, refund, illegalconstruction, unauthorisedpossession on KDA property,

building layout etc. KDA Additional Secretary

Gudakesh Sharma, JointSecretary KK Singh, FinanceController VK Lal, OSD Alok

Kumar Verma, City PlannerAjay Kumar and other officerswere present at the camp.

Applications/complaintsrelating to Zones 2 and 4 were

heard on Thursday from 10 amto 2 pm. The visitors wereasked to follow COVID-19protocols of social distancingand using masks at the camp.

KANPUR (PNS): Plant nutri-tion deficiency reflects on thecrop output in Uttar Pradesh,engendering the need for prop-er and planned plant nutrition.

This was stated by CSAUniversity of Agriculture andTechnology’s ResearchDirectorate Assistant Director(Research) Dr Manoj Mishrawhile addressing a session on‘Development of plants’ at theuniversity on Monday.

He said crops grown inmost soils in India sufferedfrom deficiencies of one ormore micronutrients, eventhough the soils often con-tained apparently adequatetotal amounts of the respectiveelements.

He said the nature andextent of the deficiencies var-ied with soil type, crop geno-type, management and agro-ecological situations.

Dr Mishra said plant nutri-ent development was highlyessential in the current times

and analysis of soil and plantsamples indicated that 49 percent of the soils in India werepotentially deficient in severalnutrients.

He said plant nutrition wasthe study of the chemical ele-ments and compounds neces-sary for plant growth, plantmetabolism and their externalsupply. He said in its absence,the plant was unable to com-plete a normal life cycle, or theelement was part of someessential plant constituent ormetabolite.

He added that threemacronutrients — nitrogen,phosphorus and potassium —were the most important forcrops as they directly affectedplant growth and practicallycreated plant parts.

He said nitrogen was themost important element forcrop growth and development,strongly influencing germina-tion and vegetative growth.He added that the correct use

of plant nutrients played animportant role in sustainableagricultural intensification. Hesaid it was indeed important toensure a maximum uptake ofneeded nutrients by plants soas to minimise losses to theenvironment, which can also bein the form of GHGs, whilekeeping in mind that zero loss-es was not an achievable goalgiven that one were dealingwith biological processes.

Dr Mishra said there weremore than a dozen nutrientsthat were essential to achievingoptimal plant health. He saidmaximum crop yields wereonly possible if these nutrientswere supplied to the crop atappropriate timing and in theamount each plant needed forhealthy development.

He said even though manyof these nutrients were natu-rally occurring in the soil, theywere not all naturally availableto the plant in a soluble formthat benefited the plant.

He said nitrogen was anessential nutrient for plantgrowth, development andreproduction, and was part ofevery living cell and it was vitalbecause it was an importantcomponent of chlorophyll.

He said as plants depend-ed on chlorophyll to help themduring photosynthesis, whenthey used the energy in sun-light to produce sugars fromwater and carbon dioxide. Hesaid if the plant lacked nitrogenit would not be able to utilisesunlight as an energy source.He said the nitrogen cyclehelped understand how nitro-gen converted from inorganicor plant soluble forms to organ-ic forms of nitrogen.

Dr Mishra said that differ-ent crops had different timingfor their nitrogen requirements.He said corn took up much ofits nitrogen midsummer whileon the other hand, wheat usedmost its nitrogen in the springto early summer.

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Principal Income TaxCommissioner, UP West,

(Verification Unit) JayantMishra said that in facelessprocess a few IT issues wouldbe hand-picked for physicalverification of the tax payer.

He said this could be doneonly with prior permission ofPrincipal Income TaxCommissioner.

He said the faceless assess-ment had already taken off andunder it the tax payer remainedignorant of who comprisedthe assessment team and wereassessing their return. He saidthe team of officials who wereprobing the assessment alsoremained ignorant as to who’sassessment they were carryingout.

Mishra was speaking onthe topic ‘Inquiry andVerification under FacelessAssessment’ at the IT BarAssociation .

He said if the officials feltthe need of a physical verifica-tion they would forward it tothe Verification Unit. He saidthis could be done only afterprior permission was soughtfrom the PITC and then onlythe team could proceed to theparticular assigned destina-tion.

He said to seek permission,the officials would have to givegenuine and potent reasons andat least two inspectors would gofor the verification.

He sounded a caution thatthe ground which had beensought by the officials couldonly be probed into and notany other issue at that point oftime.

He said the report had tobe forwarded to the Nationale-Assessment Centre and theywould have to place on the spotphotographs. He said the cen-tre would then forward thereport to the assigned team.

He said the team, beforetaking a final decision, wouldsend a draft order to theassessee as to how much taxhad been worked out on himand on which sections so thatthe assessee could put up hisversion later.

He then cleared the doubtsof the tax consultants.

Prominent among thosewho took part were DC Shukla,Atul Agarwal, Govind Krishna,Ajay Goyal, Sudhindra Jain,Rajesh Mehra, HimanshuKapoor, consultant ShailendraSachan , SK Gupta and PradeepMehrotra.

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Uttar Pradesh GovernorAnandiben Patel expressed

happiness on seeing severalhearing and speech impairedchildren successfully talkingafter undergoing Cochlearimplants under SN MehrotraFoundation.

She had invited the SNMehrotra Foundation and thechildren with their guardians toRaj Bhawan on Thursday.

The UP Governor saidmore people should follow suitso that children born withcongenital defects could bebrought into the mainstream ofsociety.

She later gave gifts to thechildren and interacted withthem.

Addressing press persons

later, Cochlear implant spe-cialist Dr Roht Mehrotra saidall this could be done under thescheme Bal Shravan Yojanaintroduced by Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath.

He said besides the Centralscheme, ADIP, was providingimmense support to ensurethese children who were facingthis disability were surgicallyoperated upon and then withthe implant they could lead anormal life.

Dr Mehrotra said the SNMehrotra Foundation had beendoing a yeoman’s job and tilldate it had successfully placedCochlear implants in over 500children.

He said the objective of theSN Mehrotra Foundation wasto ensure that by 2030, hearingand speech disability were

eradicated. He said it was a matter of

great concern that there was lit-tle awareness of hearing andspeech disability and appealedto parents of such children toensure they availed themselvesof the facility.

He said Cochlear implantsurgery was done in a hospitalor clinic where the surgeoninserted the implant electrodesinto the cochlea.

He said then the surgeonplaced an electronicdevice called the receiverunder the skin behind the ear,securing it to the skull in thisarea.

Dr Mehrotra said Cochlearimplants were the world’s mostsuccessful medical prosthesesin that less than 0.2 per cent ofthe recipients rejected it or did

not use it and the failure rateneeding re-implantation wasaround 0.5 per cent.

He said most individualsnoted a significant growth intheir awareness of soundswithin days after theirCochlear implant wasturned on, which was aboutfour to six weeks after thesurgery.

He said speech under-standing improved more grad-ually, with most individualsexperiencing the largestimprovement within the firstsix months.

Prominent among thosepresent at the Raj Bhawanwere project managerNagendra Mishra and childrenDhruvi Bajpai, Riya Sigh,Sakshi , Zaid Khan and SakshiYadav.

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Kanpur Nagar reported 67more coronavirus positive

cases on Thursday evening.Chief Medical Officer Dr AnilK Mishra said that 67 morepeople had tested positive forcoronavirus infection betweenWednesday evening andThursday evening taking thetally of confirmed cases to31,705 cases. He said that 20patients were discharged fromhospital. He said one COVID-19 death in the city wasreported t i l l Thursdayevening keeping the deathtoll to 804. The CMO said atpresent 720 active cases wereundergoing treatment. DrMishra said 4148 sampleswere sent for testing in thecity.

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��6��KANPUR (PNS): A corrugat-ed box manufacturing unitcaught fire in Dada NagarUdyog Kunj in Govind Nagarpolice station area lateWednesday night. Powerfulexplosion of gas cylinders inthe unit created panic amongthe residents and workers of theother factories there. Electricshort-circuit was stated to bethe cause of fire. As many aseight fire tenders reached thespot and extinguished the fireafter three hours.

THEFT : Cash amountingto Rs 2.50 lakh was stolenfrom an iron rod agency inMohammadpur village ofChaubepur police area onTuesday night. The thievesalso took away CCTV camerasand DVR installed in the shop.

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As China is forging closerties with countries neigh-

bouring India, Chief of DefenceStaff(CDS)General Bipin Rawathas advised Nepal to be cau-tious while inking interna-tional pacts. He, however, didnot name China.

Asserting that ties betweenIndia and Nepal are as deep asthe Indian Ocean and strong asthe Himalayas, Rawat saidIndia’s goodwill towards itsneighbour comes with nostrings attached.

“...the canvas and spread ofcooperation, friendship andpeople to people contactbetween India and Nepal aredeep and extensive. But in thepresent age, Nepal is also open-ing to other nations includingChina based on its independentforeign policy,” said Rawat atthe second annual dialoguewith the Nepal Institute forInternational Cooperation and

Engagement (NIICE) duringthe virtual meeting.

He said “India’s goodwillcomes with no strings attached.Nepal is free to act indepen-dently in international affairsbut must be vigilant and learnfrom Sri Lanka and othernations which have also signedagreements with other coun-tries in the region.”

Rawat also called for theneed to bolster the existingrelationship further for thepeace and prosperity for bothcountries who are already“inseparable in every way.”

Incidentally, his observa-tions come in the backdrop ofrecent souring of relationsbetween India and Nepal afterthe inauguration of a road to

Mansarovar in Uttrakhand. Itled to mass protests in theHimalayan nation.

In an effort to assuage thesentiments, several diplomat-ic visits later took place andArmy Chief General M MNaravane also visitedKathmandu last month.

Meanwhile, Rawat alsosaid India’s economic relationswith Nepal are quite uniquealthough much more could bedone. In 2019-2020 economicassistance has crossed �12 bil-lion for development in thevarious sector of the economysuch as agriculture, waterresources, energy, infrastruc-ture and the list can go on andon, he said.

India accounts for over 30per cent of the Foreign DirectInvestment(FDI) in Nepal andover 150 Indian ventures arealso operating in Nepal, in var-ious fields, he said.

Noting that the balance oftrade is in India’s favour asNepal has to import severalessential items from India,Rawat said the Indian indus-tries are working there inbanking, insurance, telecom,power sector and tourismindustry.

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Asserting that standing com-mittee meeting “is not a

protest site,” Union MinisterPrakash Javadekar on Thursdaylashed out at Congress leaderRahul Gandhi for walking outof the Parliamentary standingcommittee discussion ondefence.

Rahul has complained to theSpeaker Om Birla’s that he wasnot allowed to speak in themeeting of standing committeeon Defence on Wednesday.

BJP has hit-out at theCongress leader for his conduct.

“Rahul Gandhi attended 2of 14 meetings of Parliamentarystanding committee on defencein the last year and a half. He’shimself absent and the blamesgovernment and all proceduresand walks out of meeting inprotest. Standing committeeisn’t a protest site,” said Javadekar, a day after Gandhi walked outof the committee’s meet.

“Being absent, not dis-cussing their desired agenda ofdiscussion and then makinginsinuations of non-discussion

of important issues is an insultto all parliamentary proceduresand constitutional institutions.We condemn this attitude,”Javadekar further said.

On Wednesday, Rahul alongwith his colleagues, walked outof the meet after not beingallowed to speak during a dis-cussion on the armed forces’uniforms and ranks. The formerCongress president reportedlysaid during the meet that suchmatters were best left for theforces themselves to discuss andsuggested that the panel focus on“more substantive issues.” Onthis, people said, Gandhi wastold by the committee headand BJP MP, Jual Oram, tostick to the agenda of the day,which was “an introduction tothe rank, structure of the defenceforces including their uniforms,stars and badges, and review ofworking of cantonment boards.”

Congress has been hittingout at the Government forallegedly not equipping armedforces following the stand-offwith China at the Line of ActualControl on the eastern Ladakhborders.

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The Indian liquor manufac-turers Association has

urged Bihar Chief MinisterNitish Kumar to graduallywithdraw prohibition in theState claiming that it has notonly increased smuggling andsale of illicit liquor but has alsocaused major financial losses tothe State exchequer.

It said that the prohibitionhas also adversely impactedpotential investments, and jobcreation opportunities.

In its representation to theChief Minister and leaders ofNDA constituent parties, theConfederation of IndianAlcoholic Beverage Companies(CIABC) has sought immedi-ate withdrawal of prohibitionwhich has led to creation ofliquor mafia, and has causedmajor damage to state’s econ-omy.

In its letter, which has alsobeen addressed to the DeputyChief Minister, NDA alliesJitan Ram Manjhi and MukeshSahani, the CIABC has statedthat an organised liquor cartelhas come up in the state whichwas selling liquor at 400% pre-mium.

“While people are forced topay exorbitant prices forprocuring liquor illegally, thegovernment revenues areseverely hit by the illegal sale.Revenue from liquor sale usedto be a major source of revenuefor the state exchequer. Thestate government is missingout on an annual revenue of�7,000-8000 crore, while thestate is moving towards debtcrisis due to major loss of rev-enue” said CIABC DirectorGeneral Vinod Giri.

Giri said the need of thehour is that Bihar governmentshould review its prohibitionpolicy. “The State Governmentneeds to gradually end prohi-bition and go for controlled andchannelised opening of liquortrade in the state. We have sug-

gested that liquor sale should beallowed only in urban areas tobegin with, and the governmentshould fix a minimum price sothat cheap liquor which is moreharmful is not sold in the mar-ket. The government shouldalso strictly tackle drinking inpublic places as is being done instates like Delhi,” he added.

“We have also suggestedthat the Government shouldput a women welfare tax onliquor and additional moneygenerated from it should beused for women empower-ment. We have asked the gov-ernment to make it mandato-ry for liquor producers thattheir workforce in factoriesshould comprise 50% womenfor which the industry is readyto cooperate,” Giri said.

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In a bid to encourage yoga,spread awareness about its

benefits and to help improvephysical and mental wellbeingof the people, the Governmenton Thursday formally recog-nised yogasana as a competi-tive sport, which will enablethe ancient practice to availGovernment funding.

Sports Minister KirenRijiju and Minister of AYUSH(Ayurveda Yoga andNaturopathy Unani SiddaHomoeopathy) Shripad YessoNaik formally promotedyogasana as a competitivesport during an event here.

“Yogasana has been a com-petitive sport for a long time.But it has to be recognised bythe Government of India sothat it becomes an official andrecognised competitive sport,”Rijiju said.

“Today is a big day, we arelaunching it formally as a com-petitive sport and I am sure itwill go a long way,” he added.

An International YogasanaSports Federation was formedunder the presidentship ofyoga guru Baba Ramdev withDR HR Nagendra as secretarygeneral in November last year.

It was recognised by thesports ministry as a NationalSports Federation (NSF) lastmonth.

Rijiju said the sports min-istry will start by providing

financial support to the NYSFIso that the federation can chartout its plan for the comingyear. “Till now it wasn’t recog-nised but now that it has comeunder us, the Sports Ministrywill start by providing theNYSF with financial support tomake their annual trainingand calender.” The SportsMinister also said yogasanawill be inducted in futureKhelo India Games pro-gramme.

“It’s popularity will notdoubt increase in India and wewill include it in the KheloIndia School and UniversityGames,” Rijiju said.

For competitions, 51medals have been proposed infour events and seven cate-gories in the sport.

Events proposed includetraditional yogasana, artisticyogasana (single and pair) ,rhythmic yogasana (pair, freeflow/group yogasana), indi-vidual all round-champi-onship and team champi-onship.

A pilot championship—National Individual YogasanaSport Championship—hasalso been proposed to beorganised in February nextyear, followed by district, State,national and WorldChampionships.

The two ministries havealso developed an automatedscoring system for competi-tions.

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Union Minister of State forHome G Kishan Reddy on

Thursday said as Indian awaitsthe launch of Covid vaccina-tion drive, the Governmentand health agencies will takehelp of 90 lakh private securi-ty guards across India in theroll out of massive vaccinationdrive. “Private security industrywill have a big role to play in thedistribution of Coronavirus vac-cine as it will be a big task forthe government, police or offi-cials to distribute and adminis-ter vaccine to 130 crore peopleacross the country. With such alarge workforce only securityguards can ensure wider andfaster distribution of vaccineand ensure that every householdis covered in the vaccinationprogramme,” Reddy said whileaddressing the AnnualLeadership Summit of theCentral Association of PrivateSecurity Industry (CAPSI) inthe national Capital.

Reddy praised the privatesecurity industry for its yeomanservice during the Corona pan-demic prompting the govern-ment to cover the industryunder the “essential services”.“Private security guards wereeverywhere – in hospitals,

banks, markets, institutions –and they worked as frontlinewarriors in the time of Coronapandemic. We consider the pri-vate security industry as anintegral part of India’s securityparaphernalia and HomeMinistry has been taking vari-ous steps to promote andstrengthen it,” he said.

He also ensured that theHome Ministry will take upwith the Union FinanceMinistry for relaxation in theGST regime for the privatesecurity industry. He said theGovernment was committed tomake the private security indus-try meet global standards andpromote ease of doing businessin the industry.

Speaking at the event,Vivek Bhardwaj, AdditionalSecretary in the MHA, said theHome Ministry would write tothe Union Health and FamilyWelfare Ministry to includeprivate guards in the frontlineworkers list so that they couldalso be inoculated in the firstphase of the vaccination pro-gramme. CAPSI ChairmanKunwar Vikram Singh saidCAPSI has entered into tie upsand agreements with variousglobal agencies to improveemployability of private securi-ty guards globally.

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The Central Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI) has reg-

istered two separate cases relat-ing to bank fraud of about�452.62 crore (approx) andabout �72.55 crore and con-ducted searches at nine placesat premises of the accused inGujarat and Mumbai in boththe cases.

The first case was regis-tered on a complaint fromState Bank of India against aprivate f irm based atAhmedabad, Gujarat and oth-ers including its Directorsand unknown public servantsbesides unknown others onthe allegations of cheatingthe consortium of banksincluding State Bank of Indiato the tune of �452.62 crore(approximately) during theperiod 2013 to 2017.

“It was alleged that, dur-ing the period 2013 to 2017,the accused entered into acriminal conspiracy todefraud / cheat the consor-tium of banks comprising ofState Bank of India, Bank ofIndia, Bank of Baroda, CentralBank of India, Bank ofMaharashtra, Punjab NationalBank and Vijaya Bank in thematter of various credit facil-ities extended by them. Inpursuance of the said con-spiracy, the accused manipu-lated/falsified the books ofaccounts anddiverted/siphoned off thefunds of the banks, and there-by cheated the consortium ofbanks to the tune of �452.62crore (approx), “ the CBI saidin a statement.

Searches were conductedtoday at four places includingofficial and residential premis-es of privatecompany/Directors atAhmedabad which led torecovery of incriminating doc-uments/articles, it said.

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In order to make the globalCovid-19 vaccination pro-

gramme successful, the avail-able jab must be able to achievethree goals — prevent infectionbecoming established in anindividual; prevent disease pro-gression; and prevent onwardtransmission.

“Whether all three of thesegoals will be met by ‘first gen-eration’ vaccines is not known,but it is vital to the long-termsuccess of the programme,” agroup of researchers said intheir study published in thejournal Anaesthesia.

“Preventing onward trans-mission — referred to as ‘ster-ilising immunity’ is particularlyimportant as it is epidemicmodifying,” said the UK’s influ-ential Scientific AdvisoryGroup for Emergencies(SAGE) committee.

“It is possible that the firstvaccines, including those beingreleased now, maybe moreeffective in preventing diseaseprogression and hospitalisa-tion and less effective in pre-venting transmission,”explained study senior authorJeremy Farrar from SAGE.

“Knowledge of their per-formance in pre-approval tri-als and in surveillance trialsafter licensure will enable fur-ther modifications such thatimproved second and third-generation vaccines may beavailable later in 2021 andbeyond,” Farrar added.

They also emphasised theimportance of prioritisingthose most vulnerable andhealthcare workers before thewider population.

The authors stated vacci-nation is a global rather than anational necessity. The WorldHealth Organisation (WHO)ACT-accelerator and COVAXinitiatives both emphasise theimportance of vaccines reach-ing the most vulnerable andhealthcare workers in all coun-tries at a similar time.

Widespread vaccination ofone or a few countries withoutaddressing this need globally isin no one’s interests and will notprovide the protection we allneed.”No country has mount-ed a whole population vacci-nation campaign in livingmemory, and it will need to beundertaken with local leader-ship and cultural sensitivity,”the experts stressed.

They also discussed theimplications of the widespreadvaccination and the challengesfor those who don’t get vacci-nated.

They asked: “Will a cer-tificate of vaccination (a vac-cine passport) be a requirementfor patients and their familiesbefore elective surgery, or towork in the health or socialcare, to travel abroad, or toattend medical conferences, oreven to participate in theOlympics?

The authors make clearthe vaccine is not a panacea,and that SARS-CoV-2 will onlybe brought fully under controlby also continuing to adapt ourbehaviour, plus better access todiagnostics and treatments,but add: “safe and effective vac-cines will undoubtedly changethe trajectory of the pandem-ic, rebuild confidence and startto return the world to the ‘pre-Covid’ era.”

“There is no merit or safe-ty in creating high rates of vac-cination and low rates of dis-ease inside one country’s bor-ders if this is not replicatedthroughout the rest of theworld. We really are all in thistogether,” they concluded.

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In a study, doctors from aLucknow hospital have

found that the antibodies aredepleting at a faster rateamong the Covid-19 survivorsabove 50 years of age and withat such low immunity theycould be at the higher risk ofre-infection.

The study was conductedby the Transfusion MedicineDepartment of King George’sMedical University (KGMU),Lucknow .

The studied samples ofplasma showed that survivorsin all the age groups, whowere symptomatic for justone day, had stronger andmore lasting antibodies incomparison to those who weresymptomatic for more than aday.

These are the two inter-esting results thrown up for

further research on 800Covid-19 survivors who camefor plasma donation afterrecovering from the disease.

The results of the studyalso revealed that antibodieswere not only in sufficientnumbers but also strong whenthe plasma was donated with-in 12-53 days post-recovery.

According to the head ofthe Transfusion Medicine,Prof Tulika Chandra, thedepartment conducted thestudy during collecting plas-ma from Covid-19 patients,post-recovery, for the bloodand plasma bank.

Of 800 plasma donors,400 were not found suitablefor donation. While 50 ofthem were anaemic or under-weight or HIV positive andhad other complications, 70had contact history but nevertested positive through RT-PCR method. About 53 were

found unfit because they hadcome after the lapse of thethree-month post-recoveryperiod prescribed for dona-tion.

However, the remaining227 donors out of 400 ‘unfit’donors were such who fulfilledall the criteria -- they had con-firmed positive, post-recov-ery period below three monthsand had no other disqualifica-tion but their plasma was nottaken because antibodies wereeither not present or were ininsufficient quantity.

“A majority of such donors,both male and females, wereabove 50 years of age. “We donot know yet whether anti-bodies were not formed at allor only short-acting antibod-ies were formed in these cases,but the result suggests that thethreat of re-infection might behigher in people above 50years,” she said.

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Chief Minister PinarayiVijayan in a hard-hitting

letter to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi has warnedabout the deterioration of theCentre-State relations becauseof the highhanded attitude ofthe Central agencies probingthe gold smugglingscam.Vijayan was upset thathis additional special secretaryC M Raveendran was sum-moned by the EnforcementDirectorate for probing thenexus between the ChiefMinister’s Office and the king-pins of the gold smugglingthrough diplomatic channelswhich broke out in June 2020.

Though Raveendran wassummoned thrice in the past

by the ED for questioning, thesenior party activist hailingfrom Vijayan’s village cited ail-ments live Covid-19 to avoidthe grilling by the agency.But his luck ran out byThursday as the Kerala HighCourt dismissed his petitionseeking to quash the sum-mons by the ED. Raveendranis being questioned by EDofficials at Kochi at the timeof going to the Press.

Vijayan reminded thePrime Minister that it was theforner’s letter dated July 8seeking investigation by theCentral agencies into thebeneficiaries of gold smug-gling which resulted in theNational Invest igat ionAgency being deputed by theCentre.

�4�� 4��+<�� "�Panaji: No true nationalists

would ever oppose the Presidentof India's visit to Goa, ChiefMinister Pramod Sawant said onThursday, two days ahead ofRam Nath Kovind's official visitto the coastal state to inauguratethe 60th anniversary celebra-tions of Goa's Liberation Day.

Sawant's comments made ata press conference here camedays after Vijai Sardesai, thePresident of opposition partyGoa Forward, wrote to Kovind,urging him to cancel his Goavisit, accusing the state govern-ment of splurging money on cel-ebrations at a time when thestate treasury is facing a cashcrunch on account of the Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuingeconomic slowdown.

“This is the first time in thehistory of Goa that the Presidentwill be present for the GoaLiberation Day event. Those

who are true nationalists andlove Goa will never urge thePresident to not come to Goa.We have to welcome thePresident,” Sawant said.

“Those who are nationalistsshould not write such letters tothe President of India. Theyshould now write to thePresident again, urging him tocome. We are people who lovethe country,” Sawant said.

On December 15, Sardesaiin a letter to Kovind had said:“Spending Rs 100 crore for thefunction really doesn't make anysense. We look to you to holdour plight, we look to you to hearour voice, and we look to you tobe our representation. Therefore,we humbly request you to kind-ly turn down the government'sinvite and avoid visiting the stateon December 19.”

Sawant, however, said thatRs 100 crore has been ear-marked for the year-long cele-brations and not just for oneevent, saying the opposition hasmisunderstood the issue.

“Many believe that we arespending Rs 100 crore on a sin-gle event. This is not true. Theamount is for celebrationsthroughout the year and forbeautification and renovation ofplaces linked to the freedomstruggle and glory of Goa,”Sawant said. IANS

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It is gratifying to find that theMaharashtra Governmenthas decided to give freerations to sex workers dur-ing the pandemic. This sec-

tion of the society is in a wayunjustifiably ostracised andviewed with contempt. Hardly aday passes when the media doesnot report one rape case or anoth-er; yet few Indians, social scien-tists included, see a connectionbetween frequent gender crimesand their alleviation, paid sex, butrather view it as a crime. Withcontinual urbanisation, the num-ber of families living apart mustincrease. When most people livedin villages or small towns, fami-lies lived together. With jointfamilies, the young man’s incomewas not a pressing, urgent issue.Hence early marriages were morea rule and less an exception. Thechallenge of sex did not normal-ly arise. Whatever few sexoffences took place, were commit-ted largely by perverse men.

Even in those easier times, thecontempt towards sex outsidemarriage was largely confined tothe middle classes. Among theupper rungs of society, whetherland-based or industry support-ed, having a mistress was notlooked down upon. On the con-trary, a wealthy man without atawaif was not usual. In many asociety circle in Mumbai beforeIndependence, the measure of aman’s status was the quality of hismistress’ singing and, possibly,dancing. A cousin of the writer’sgrandfather Nathubhai Voralived most of his life with a ladyno less than the famous classicalsongstress Kesarbai Kelkar, whowas a Padma Vibhushanawardee. An incidental blessingwas that he was not married. Ifany relatives dropped in to callon him, Kesarbai would bearound like any other friend.

On the other hand, the work-ing classes did not particularlyattach any stigma to extramari-tal sex. If the farm could not sus-tain the livehood of a man, he hadto go to a city for work. Noteveryone could afford housing oreven a room for his family there.The result was that he livedalone months on end. He thenfound release by payment whichwas altogether preferable tomolestation or rape. This crimeis only now being looked at asdastardly, especially since theNirbhaya tragedy. Some havecalled it beastly, but the writerdisagrees. Animals or beasts donot rape; the male follows a

female when she is in heat andnot otherwise. Whether perpe-trated in public or within fam-ily, rape is a barbaric act.

On the other hand, theworld’s oldest profession is notfundamentally very differentfrom a contractual — as dis-tinct from a sacramental —marriage. Only the time spanvaries; some contracts requirepayment, called mehr, at thetime of wedding. An eligiblegroom is universally an incomedrawing man. A marriage issanctified by either a priest ora Government official where-as paid sex is a private mutualarrangement. At the same time,having a tawaif was not lookeddown upon, whereas anythingconfined to a short duration isdeemed immoral.

Although one appears tonot have questioned the Shiapractice of nikah-e-mut’ah,which has no minimum timelimit. Raja Ghazanfar Ali Khan,who in pre-Independence dayswas the divan of the Kotaprincely state, was invited withhis wife to a special birthdayparty of the Maharaja. As he didnot wish his wife to be seen inpublic, he contracted a nikah-e-mut’ah with a lady apparent-ly for going to the party. TheRaja subsequently became anenvoy of Pakistan to India. SirVidia Naipaul, a Nobel Prizewinning author, is reported tohave been visiting sex workersin London as reported by his

biographer Patrick French, afamous writer. This was despitehim being married to LadyPatricia until her death.

The Vaishali-bornAmrapali was beautiful androse to become the nagarvad-hu or royal courtesan. She wasa contemporary of LordBuddha who, once in responseto her invitation, visited herhouse and dined with her. Thisincident reflects the social atti-tude towards courtesans inthose times; Buddha did notdeem it degrading to dine withone. In any case, a number ofHindu temples did havedevadasis who were sanctifiedby dancing for the ostensibleentertainment of the deities.There are camp followersattached to most militaries,duly approved by the defenceauthorities.

The contempt perhapsdeveloped after the entry ofChristian influence in India.The religion looks upon sex asa sin and is to be avoided. JesusChrist was therefore said tohave been born of ImmaculateConception, free from originalsin. The Church might be jus-tified in its contention but if ithas moulded our morality, it isunfortunate, especially forwomen in India. This has beenunfortunate for both the girlswho are victims of molestationas well as the poor women whogive pleasure for payment.Incidentally, at one time,

Europe did recognise flawedsaints. Mary Magdalene wasone duly respected byChristianity. Or did the preju-dice grow out of dread of con-tagious diseases?

No doubt, a system oflicence should be introduced togive the profession due legiti-macy. More importantly, thesystem would help protect thehealth of these women as wellas their patrons. And, above all,the women would be freedfrom the frequent harassmentthey suffer at the hands of thelaw and order authorities.Strangely enough, it is invari-ably the women who are arrest-ed and punished. One neverhears of any patron beingarrested. Why? Because if anylaw is violated, both partiesmust be held accountable. Forlong years there has been alocality in Kolkata, off themain arterial road ChittaranjanAvenue, called Sonagachi.There are many houses therethat are rented by individualwomen professionals. There isno particular stigma attachedto the locality or the practice.One does not hear or read inthe papers about raids andarrests made in the area.

This writer grew up inKolkata and spent 38 yearsthere. He cannot remember anyreports of either rape ormolestation during thosedecades. Among the middleclasses, there was respect for

females. The most affectionateway to address one, even adaughter, was to call her ‘Maa’.Was it because most Hindusworshipped Durga the most? Inall, there are 13 Devi pujas inthe year. Was the attitudetowards women influenced bythis worship of female deities?Some sociologists think so.There is no doubt thatHinduism is about the onlyfaith which bows to so manyfemale deities. It is eminentlyshameful, therefore, that therebe so many rape cases so often.

Paid sex has widely beencalled the world’s oldest profes-sion, which means it datesback centuries when collectivehuman living began. It alsomeans that there has been auniversal, permanent need forit. Why the widespread con-tempt for it then? Amazingly,there has been no attempt inIndia to reform or reorganisein any way to improve its con-dition. After all, an over-whelming majority of womengo into this profession out ofsheer poverty. Where is oursocial conscience? Why notbegin by giving it profession-al legal recognition and thenmaking rules to ensure health,hygiene and fairness? A num-ber of countries in Europe didso years ago.

(The writer is a well-known columnist and an

author. The views expressedare personal.)

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��Sir — Keeping in mind that morethan half of the Indian populationdepends on agriculture but itsshare in GDP is nowhere nearexpectation, then PM Atal BihariVajpayee had in 2002 asked MSSwaminathan, an agricultureexpert, to file a report for theimprovement of farmers’ condition.

Swaminathan filed his reportin 2006. His message to the farm-ers and the Government was: “It(the favourable recommendations)is not much for farmers; they havealways been the sufferers.” The mes-sage for the other half of the pop-ulation was: “If agriculture goeswrong, nothing else will go right!”

Food security is fundamentalto national sovereignty. For the pastthree weeks, both the protestingfarmers and the Government areadamant on their respective standsand no midway path is in sight. Theimpasse is affecting the nation’seconomy which had already takena hit owing to the COVID pan-demic and the subsequent lock-down. The nation’s image is beingtarnished globally due to the farm-ers’ agitation and even the UNSecretary General had recentlyexpressed his concern on the issue.

Yash Pal RalhanJalandhar

��Sir — I was happy to read thatCongress MP Rahul Gandhi andhis party colleagues walked out ofthe parliamentary standing com-mittee on defence meeting for notbeing allowed to speak by chairJual Oram during a discussion onthe rank structure, uniforms, starsand badges of the defence forces.

The war of words broke outwhen Gandhi pointed out that thepanel was wasting time discussingranks and uniforms when Indiansoldiers were facing a crisis on theborders. He opined that the com-mittee should focus on discussingstrategy and ways to better equipsoldiers stationed at the borders.

The Indian forces had theirown history and tradition on the

basis of which uniforms andranks were decided, Gandhi said,adding that any decision to changeuniforms or ranks should remainonly with the service chiefs.

When he asked why the panelfailed to discuss the LAC situation,Oram stopped him from speak-ing, which led to the walkout.

Bhagwan ThadaniMumbai

��Sir — China’s expansionistdesigns have asserted controlover Hong Kong, intruded intoTaiwan’s airspace, trained guns onthe Philippine navy, harassedMalaysian vessels, sunk aVietnamese fishing ship, rammeda Japanese coast guard vessel,reignited a deadly border conflictwith India and conducted cyberattacks and economic coercionagainst Australia.

Its ill-conceived and provoca-tive actions near the Line of ActualControl, which also violated pre-vious deals between the twonuclear-armed rivals, have furthersoured relations between the coun-tries and reached a tipping point.

China is engaged in a highlysophisticated campaign, whichincludes bribery, blackmail andcovert deals, to malign India. TheGovernment is utilising the servicesof a technology firm to collect per-sonal data of Indian politicians andof 10,000 organisations. This sur-veillance is being seen as part of ahybrid warfare, which uses non-military means to gain domination.

Seetharam BasaaniHanamkonda

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There are more than 460 million people inIndia with insufficient access to basic health-care. When this is combined with increased

life expectancy and high chronic disease prevalence,there is a need for long-term comprehensive careand interventions. Though the Ayushman Bharatscheme and initiatives like the National MedicalCommission Act and the National Digital HealthBlueprint have created a foundation for health inte-gration, the issue of a fragmented healthcare sys-tem needs to be addressed urgently. This can bedone through better profiling of patients, betterorganisation of healthcare delivery, besides creat-ing a seamless, interoperable and integrated dig-ital health landscape. With the 154th position inglobal rankings in quality and accessibility, the sub-par performance of the Indian healthcare sector— in comparison to countries with equallymature economies and democracies — is a criti-cal yet underappreciated problem of a disunitedhealthcare system. The delivery system focusses andacts on various parts in silos without adequatelyappreciating their interrelation and position in thelarger picture.

This imbalance is at the root of the more obvi-ous healthcare crises of poor quality service,inequality as well as inequitability. This divide isat the heart of the ineffectiveness of our increas-ing efforts to nurture improvement.

As Sir William Osler, the world-renownedphysician and author, said, “It is more importantto know what sort of person has a disease than toknow what sort of disease a person has.” The expe-rience of healthcare in our country, however, isoften one of not being known as a person. Thisexperience affects the poor, who have difficulty get-ting access to basic medical care until their prob-lems become emergencies. It is also experiencedby the rich and the middle class, who receive asmuch (and often more) of the sometimes danger-ous commodities of healthcare but feel abandonedwhen they need help putting together the piecesof their illness-shattered lives.

For instance, a working mother of two froma middle class family in Delhi went from doctorto doctor trying to find the reason for her fatigueand decreasing energy levels. Each specialistexamined her and prescribed the latest drugs andtests. However, they were unable to help her andthe patient got worse each passing day. In the endher problem remained and she went into adepression.

The above experience of a patient is what isexactly the opposite of healing. Because, healingrequires relationships, which in turn build trust andhope. They also provide a sense of being knownto the care provider and thereby feeling secure thats/he will get the best treatment. The emotional con-nection between the healer and the sick is uniqueand priceless and imparts health benefits to thepatient.

The country’s current healthcare system does-n’t contemplate on this aspect of treatment. It does-n’t deliver empathy and give a patient hearing toa person’s health issues. Increasingly, it deliverscare/commodities that can be quantified, incen-tivised and sold or bought while the person, thewhole system and communities get worse in spiteof massive investment of time, effort and money.

Focussed research is must to understand thebehaviour needed for discrete treatments of dif-ferent diseases. But improving health is fosteredby a different science, one that considers the behav-iour of multiple interacting factors which advancethe health of people.

It is a poor healthcare professional who con-siders only the disease and not the person. It is a

poor policymaker who designs health-care systems that deal only with discretediseases and fails to create environmentsthat support interaction among differentparts of the system.

Fragmentation at times renderswell-intentioned actions into the unin-tended consequence of making thingsworse. This results in an inefficient, inef-fective and unequal care delivery that iscommoditised. A cacophony of narrow-ly-focussed programmes and servicesmay be a good strategy for expandingrevenues for service in the private sec-tor but definitely not a strategy for effi-cient public healthcare delivery. Efficienthealthcare requires an ability to person-alise and prioritise problems based on “anacquaintance with the particulars,” seenin the context of a person as a whole orwhole people, communities and systems.

Today the efforts of public health,healthcare systems and philanthropistsare directed at narrow programmeswith insufficient focus on the larger pic-ture. The lack of an integrative way ofmaking sense of the world and the needto control and understand narrowlyreplace the greater promise of whole-sys-tem approaches.

Doctors treat whoever comesthrough the door, often oblivious to themany barriers to entry. Manufacturersmake their products based on the eco-nomic niche more than public good.Hospitals and healthcare systems striveto attract “the right case mix” to max-imise profits, or just to stay in business.

Knowledge generation is narrowlypartitioned in disease-specific institutesand initiatives without sufficient balanc-ing research that crosses these bound-aries. Specialists, drug and device mak-ers, hospitals and service agencies focuson delivering their well-reimbursed ser-vices without a way to consider theireffect on the whole person or system, orthe opportunity costs on the socialdeterminants of health, such as educa-tion and employment.

The promise of healthcare is reducedwhen it is treated as a commodity. Whenpatients become customers, citizensbecome consumers and healers becomeproviders. By focussing their role narrow-ly on a technical skill, procedure, or bodypart, healthcare professionals have com-pleted one part of their contract withsociety. But in focussing just on exper-tise without also attending to theirresponsibility to the whole person andto society, most of the healthcareproviders have not acted responsiblytowards society. In our system, we def-initely can’t settle for technicians in placeof compassionate healers. We have toremember that higher levels of healingare possible by balancing the biotechni-cal with the biographical.

Patients appear to be dissatisfied withhealthcare in more fragmented systems.Indeed, the failure of repeated attemptsto fix the problems can result in a kindof shared hopelessness. When we see onlyparts, disconnected from the whole, welose our ability to find incrementalactions that are connected to a larger evo-lutionary improvement.

The search for single sustainablesolutions gets in the way of fosteringdevelopment toward equitable, integrat-ed, personalised, prioritised healthcare.Furthermore, the fragmentation ofhealthcare leads to a get-what-you-canmentality among all involved. Developingshared goals requires continuous atten-tion but discernment of how each per-son’s health and healthcare affects theothers can provide a platform for seek-ing a better way together.

With rapidly aging populations andan increasing burden of patients withchronic conditions and their complexneeds, there’s a pressing need for a com-prehensive healthcare delivery system inour country. In an effort to cope with thisgrowth, public health spending hasbeen raised consistently since 2014,with an increasing share of the country’sGross Domestic Product (GDP) being

distributed towards public healthcare. Anestimated �1.6 trillion were spent on pub-lic healthcare in 2018. The total per capi-ta Government spending on healthcarehas nearly doubled from �1,008 per per-son in the financial year (FY) 2015 to�1,944 in FY20, but is still low. The totalexpenditure by the Centre and States forthe FY20 was �2.6 trillion or 1.29 per centof the GDP, including establishmentexpenditure comprising salaries, grossbudgetary support to various institutionsand hospitals and transfers to Statesunder centrally-sponsored schemes suchas Ayushman Bharat. Of the total pub-lic expenditure, the Centre’s share is 25per cent.

In a fragmented healthcare system,spending more on some parts does notimprove the whole system. Similar crit-icisms of fragmented disease-by-diseaseefforts by the World Health Organisationhave been raised on the 30th anniversaryof the Alma Ata plan for “providing acomprehensive, universal, equitable andaffordable healthcare service for all.”

The benefits of integrated care havebeen widely acknowledged and it hasbeen adapted extensively in NorthAmerica and Europe, especially for themanagement of patients with chronic dis-eases. Understanding the fundamentalproblem of fragmentation in our disin-tegrating healthcare system would be animportant step forward towards univer-sal health coverage. Viewing healthcareas an evolving “whole” instead of as frag-mented parts can help us instill hopewhere now there is cynicism. It will leadto personalisation of care and relation-ship with the healer where now there isdetachment and isolation. There will beprofessional and corporate sharedresponsibility where now there is narrowself-interest. High-value healthcare wherenow there is ineffectiveness, waste andinequality as well as inequity.

(The writer is an author and a doc-tor by profession. The views expressed arepersonal)

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The socio-economic distress trig-gered by the lockdown necessi-tated by the ongoing Coronavirus

pandemic has been a cause of anxietyfor many in India and globally, too.According to the United NationsInternational Labour Organisation(ILO), more than 400 million workersfrom India’s informal sector will bepushed deeper into poverty due to theeffects of COVID-19.

India’s underpreparedness and fail-ure to have a smart testing and tracingstrategy to counter the spread of the

virus is proving disastrous not only forthe economy but also for its underpriv-ileged and marginalised citizens. As aresult, education, especially that of vul-nerable communities, has taken a hugehit.

More than 320 million studentshave been hit by the COVID-19 lock-down and shifting of classes online. The75th report of the National SampleSurvey Office (NSSO) for 2017-18highlights the digital divide in the coun-try. Only 23.8 per cent of India hasaccess to the internet, with urbanareas leading with 42 per cent and ruralavailability languishing at 14.9 percent. Amid such a digital divide, frus-trated students have been pushed totake extreme steps like self-harm. Therecent suicide by a LSR student high-lights the financial hardships faced bythem.

Many scholars were forced to dropout due to the unavailability of digitaltools to access online education andstarted working on farms to augment

the income of the family. In particular,the education of the girl child has suf-fered the most, with 42 per cent of thegirls surveyed reporting a decline intheir family’s income during theCOVID-19 pandemic, resulting inlack of acccess to digital education.Consequently, one in two girls surveyedwas at risk of dropping out. Thespillover effect of girls dropping out ofschools and colleges will be massive,

amounting to $30 trillion in lost lifetimeproductivity and earnings. As theunlocking of the economy, as well asschools, colleges and universities, takesplace, there is a need for a concrete planto address the challenges that are set toarise. This is because the resumption ofclasses increases the exposure and vul-nerability of students, teachers, and staffto COVID-19. Therefore, it is vital toensure that COVID-19 testing is made

accessible and affordable to all in orderto ensure the maximum safety of allstakeholders and students. This will pre-vent any long-lasting impact on theeconomy and society.

The Government needs to focus onscientific measures to control thespread of the virus. Opening up ofschools and colleges without an effec-tive testing and tracing strategy will becatastrophic as children are consideredto be spreaders of the virus. Thehealthcare systems are overburdenedcurrently and, in such a situation,access to health to the most vulnerablesuffers the most. And so, it is crucial notto lose sight of the effectiveness of tar-geted testing and rigorous contacttracing across the country.

There are global studies which havenoted that screening students every twoor three days using rapid tests, coupledwith strict behavioural interventions, ishelpful to maintain a controllablenumber of COVID-19 infections. Itpermits the safe return of students to

campuses. This will also allow govern-ments to take a more comprehensiveview of the situation on the ground andallow them to make practical decisionson opening colleges and schools, andnot just be based on an ad-hoc policy.

The economic downturn has takena huge toll on students and educationin India. While a robust testing andtracing strategy will effectively managethe spread of the Coronavirus, we alsoneed to undertake other initiatives tosupport students from vulnerable com-munities through the disbursement ofscholarships, a special stimulus pack-age for students, sector-focussedupskilling and reskilling and accessibil-ity to proper internet facilities and lap-tops. School fees should also not beincreased in this situation to stem theexclusion of marginalised students ofthe country from their right to educa-tion.

(The writer is the All-India GeneralSecretary of SFI. The views expressed arepersonal.)

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Script Open High Low LTPSBIN 270.40 272.10 266.80 267.60INDUSINDBK 913.00 948.00 913.00 935.90BAJFINANCE 5143.50 5300.00 5103.35 5284.25HDFCBANK 1415.00 1444.00 1404.50 1441.40HDFC 2431.15 2509.00 2425.00 2494.90IDEA 9.95 10.23 9.85 9.93JUBLFOOD 2704.90 2927.50 2700.00 2825.00RELIANCE 1980.90 2005.00 1977.10 1985.05ICICIBANK 514.00 516.45 509.05 511.50ZEEL 230.70 238.10 223.95 225.95LUPIN 965.00 984.60 961.40 970.40ITC 214.50 214.75 211.30 213.00TATAMOTORS 183.60 184.15 180.65 181.65IBULHSGFIN 208.00 208.75 203.50 205.15TATASTEEL 645.00 645.70 631.75 634.65BSOFT 202.00 205.25 200.00 200.50DRREDDY 5040.00 5132.35 5033.60 5074.95INFY 1166.35 1168.50 1156.50 1159.10ASHOKLEY 101.00 102.05 99.00 99.55SAIL 60.00 60.35 57.10 57.60BAJAJFINSV 9319.00 9398.95 9211.40 9282.95VOLTAS 838.35 844.95 820.25 823.05ONGC 105.00 105.65 100.65 101.50MFSL 648.60 671.25 644.80 653.00UPL 461.50 466.40 453.10 455.25BHARTIARTL 518.10 522.60 512.00 514.00BANKBARODA 66.40 67.15 63.35 63.75CANBK 121.65 125.60 120.10 124.10LT 1267.60 1283.70 1254.05 1277.80HAVELLS 899.65 926.20 890.45 910.75DIVISLAB 3719.00 3847.90 3716.80 3830.00HCLTECH 886.00 887.95 876.65 879.45IRCTC 1428.05 1441.00 1415.00 1424.80MOTHERSUMI 157.00 162.45 157.00 158.30TCS 2813.95 2849.00 2805.55 2837.90PAGEIND 26050.00 27921.80 25907.6027247.45HINDUNILVR 2344.00 2344.00 2310.05 2315.45MARUTI 7813.00 7829.35 7631.55 7686.20SUNPHARMA 578.00 586.40 570.00 571.35KOTAKBANK 1965.20 1968.80 1942.65 1965.50DLF 235.90 237.55 231.05 234.35

HINDPETRO* 232.10 232.70 224.75 225.80ULTRACEMCO 5144.00 5220.00 5124.55 5169.50DMART 2638.00 2646.80 2505.00 2548.20GAIL 125.40 125.50 123.50 123.85HDFCLIFE 650.00 660.95 650.00 654.50ADANIGAS 359.85 373.00 359.05 362.10HINDALCO 251.55 254.90 244.50 245.85AXISBANK 607.35 610.95 603.15 605.40LAURUSLABS 341.65 352.00 339.00 342.10TATAPOWER 76.45 76.70 74.70 75.20COLPAL 1619.80 1622.05 1600.00 1600.35BOMDYEING 84.60 84.75 80.45 81.15POWERGRID 194.95 195.30 191.60 193.25SUNTV 506.10 517.50 495.80 498.50BEML 808.00 903.00 792.50 880.85JUSTDIAL 616.00 679.20 612.50 647.30FEDERALBNK 68.00 68.85 67.00 67.10TATACHEM 497.00 506.15 492.00 493.90PNB 38.30 38.35 36.75 37.00VEDL 149.45 149.45 145.85 146.00ADANIPORTS 476.00 478.50 466.05 467.85APOLLOTYRE 196.90 199.70 195.55 196.95IOC 96.35 96.90 95.00 95.35SPICEJET 103.40 106.30 100.05 101.55SBICARD 827.20 842.00 824.20 840.20CIPLA 787.50 795.00 781.55 783.20M&M 747.00 747.00 726.00 730.05ASIANPAINT 2577.00 2603.25 2557.80 2579.05TITAN 1499.00 1518.80 1491.55 1502.00RAYMOND 350.00 376.00 348.10 358.10L&TFH 93.60 93.60 91.10 92.05ADANIENT 465.80 473.90 455.45 459.35IDFC 44.00 44.00 39.20 39.75BRITANNIA 3727.00 3765.00 3720.60 3727.50CROMPTON 363.05 393.60 363.05 374.00HEG 888.50 927.80 885.00 896.10JINDALSTEL 287.35 287.35 276.00 278.30HINDCOPPER 58.60 66.75 58.25 63.30CADILAHC 470.00 481.00 468.90 475.00AMBUJACEM 247.50 251.45 246.25 246.75TECHM 923.90 932.15 912.70 929.65AUROPHARMA 880.00 889.90 869.25 871.90RBLBANK 241.80 242.60 234.65 236.75AAVAS 1670.00 1705.90 1665.00 1669.75HEROMOTOCO 3139.00 3156.00 3103.00 3112.05LTTS 1845.00 2000.00 1839.75 1972.00GRAPHITE 292.10 306.30 292.10 298.20SUZLON 4.76 4.76 4.62 4.76DEEPAKNI 919.80 939.00 912.00 934.90BEL 119.45 120.80 115.85 120.30MUTHOOTFIN 1219.00 1234.40 1213.25 1216.55

APOLLOHOSP 2397.70 2422.45 2381.00 2400.25BAJAJ-AUTO 3310.00 3326.00 3258.65 3264.00LICHSGFIN 383.00 385.40 375.55 377.40POLYCAB 1055.00 1093.20 1032.10 1050.00NMDC 113.70 117.75 113.70 115.55PEL 1442.50 1483.00 1435.35 1441.05BHARATFORG 551.00 563.10 550.25 558.45M&MFIN 182.15 182.15 176.20 177.05SRF 5330.00 5585.00 5327.10 5555.00BHEL 36.45 36.80 35.70 35.85BPCL 402.00 402.80 394.50 395.55VAKRANGEE 55.60 56.65 50.25 55.10NATIONALUM 44.75 45.00 43.00 43.25INDIGO 1650.00 1652.15 1625.75 1641.30HFCL 24.05 25.70 23.75 24.20JSWSTEEL 372.00 373.05 364.50 366.20CENTURYTEX 401.00 414.00 394.55 396.60GODREJPROP 1348.80 1387.50 1330.00 1356.95PVR 1429.90 1456.65 1394.90 1403.65SRTRANSFIN 1078.90 1078.90 1051.90 1056.45EXIDEIND 194.20 194.75 191.00 191.75ACC 1645.00 1659.90 1634.85 1639.00COALINDIA 145.45 145.45 142.55 143.45TVSMOTOR 495.00 500.00 487.65 489.70TATACONSUM 585.95 593.00 575.30 577.15NAM-INDIA 312.90 319.00 311.00 313.85EICHERMOT 2495.00 2496.20 2442.65 2450.00DABUR 516.00 517.35 510.45 511.45BANDHANBNK 408.70 414.00 405.05 406.30TV18BRDCST 33.30 34.10 32.00 32.15NTPC 105.90 105.90 104.00 104.40BIOCON 461.60 465.80 458.75 460.90DELTACORP 173.50 173.50 165.10 166.00IBREALEST 77.45 79.50 74.70 75.00ADANIPOWER 46.00 47.75 46.00 47.20JKPAPER 104.00 109.80 103.50 108.00GLENMARK 529.00 535.15 515.50 518.20WOCKPHARMA 512.00 534.75 509.85 516.10IDFCFIRSTB 37.95 37.95 37.25 37.40ALOKTEXT 22.90 23.90 22.90 23.10NBCC 31.70 32.00 31.00 31.15BATAINDIA 1600.00 1620.90 1582.45 1590.80IPCALAB 2253.65 2253.65 2102.40 2163.30NESTLEIND 18325.00 18395.80 18156.0018336.00INFRATEL 244.90 247.20 240.15 241.50PIDILITIND 1645.00 1652.00 1625.90 1629.05HSCL 46.30 47.40 45.35 46.10BERGEPAINT 693.00 711.50 689.00 709.30WIPRO 358.30 359.20 355.75 356.75ESCORTS 1345.35 1355.60 1324.00 1330.70JAICORPLTD 97.50 102.20 97.00 97.65NCC 58.05 59.10 56.85 57.85IGL 491.00 491.00 478.15 479.90MRF 78931.55 79197.25 77100.0077343.25TATAELXSI 1660.00 1660.00 1624.00 1630.00WESTLIFE 482.05 487.00 428.00 436.80GRANULES 382.00 385.60 376.05 377.75RVNL 24.00 24.50 23.70 23.90BLISSGVS 178.00 178.90 173.85 175.00THYROCARE 989.60 1031.40 954.10 975.00TCNSBRANDS 487.00 554.60 474.85 508.95JMFINANCIL 92.20 93.45 88.15 89.45RECLTD 141.95 141.95 137.00 137.50AUBANK 910.05 949.50 910.05 943.80ADANIGREEN 1020.10 1059.10 1014.50 1041.10GRASIM 916.15 926.55 911.45 913.00APLLTD 1105.00 1145.20 1100.55 1127.05NOCIL 152.80 155.95 149.00 149.80STAR 784.00 801.75 763.80 771.10SHREECEM 24485.05 24900.00 24423.4524570.95JKTYRE 78.05 79.50 75.50 76.70NAUKRI 4622.90 4660.45 4534.50 4564.00CHOLAFIN 376.00 380.80 372.45 373.15PFIZER 5255.95 5263.20 5222.00 5248.50PIIND 2300.50 2310.00 2243.00 2266.55AFFLE 4050.00 4050.00 3885.00 3972.95BALKRISIND 1647.95 1648.00 1630.35 1636.65CHAMBLFERT 231.35 237.90 228.30 229.60BALRAMCHIN 180.20 185.00 177.10 179.00MANAPPURAM 174.80 176.50 172.75 174.25JUBILANT 810.00 810.00 782.20 788.00MARICO 415.00 415.00 409.25 413.55RELAXO 770.00 774.20 760.20 764.30FRETAIL 79.05 79.70 78.50 78.90KEI 468.00 490.00 461.85 485.85KAJARIACER 678.00 696.80 673.45 694.00SBILIFE 859.80 865.45 851.50 855.70CONCOR 413.90 417.45 405.30 408.35CGCL 295.20 295.20 294.00 294.05IIFL 116.10 123.00 116.10 117.10ABB 1185.05 1239.00 1185.05 1236.00MCX 1705.05 1751.10 1705.05 1711.85RAIN 132.00 135.50 131.00 131.65AARTIIND 1219.00 1221.95 1206.80 1215.00NATCOPHARM 950.00 953.90 938.00 941.65NHPC 23.30 23.70 22.90 23.05PETRONET 265.30 265.30 258.15 259.85TORNTPHARM 2790.00 2794.20 2749.80 2758.10GMRINFRA 28.00 28.25 27.30 27.50VBL 975.55 999.10 957.00 999.00ORIENTCEM 77.80 83.00 77.80 82.85GODREJAGRO 526.10 555.00 526.10 549.60CUB 190.00 190.00 183.05 184.25CSBBANK 221.10 231.35 220.00 221.30ERIS 558.00 574.90 551.65 564.95HAL 866.85 875.00 864.90 866.95HUDCO 40.30 42.40 39.75 42.05OIL 118.00 119.10 111.00 113.65WELSPUNIND 73.95 77.00 73.95 76.30

INDIAMART 5526.90 5790.00 5526.90 5768.00MPHASIS 1367.00 1377.00 1334.30 1346.95MINDTREE 1460.00 1466.65 1447.00 1452.00NETWORK18 39.00 40.35 38.05 38.15SIEMENS 1544.40 1562.10 1518.55 1523.10ABFRL 165.20 166.80 161.80 165.10TATAMETALI 610.00 625.80 605.00 613.75RITES 279.00 281.65 276.90 277.50DIXON 13561.00 13772.90 13399.3013717.35VINATIORGA 1155.55 1179.90 1155.55 1164.40MGL 1050.15 1066.80 1041.00 1043.30PCJEWELLER 24.20 24.45 23.55 23.90DCBBANK 123.80 123.80 118.65 120.45HDFCAMC 2862.00 2862.00 2825.00 2841.60KNRCON 318.00 324.95 316.00 318.00PFC 120.25 120.80 118.00 118.45GODREJCP 722.00 732.65 716.25 718.60JKLAKSHMI 343.00 350.75 339.90 341.30PHILIPCARB 165.50 169.10 163.20 165.00SONATSOFTW 352.60 368.95 352.60 366.05RCF 58.00 58.00 55.30 55.80INDIANB 92.50 94.85 90.20 90.60ADANITRANS 433.00 441.55 424.70 426.50DISHTV 14.53 14.79 13.80 13.89EMAMILTD 420.25 428.15 415.25 415.70CENTRALBK 14.42 14.46 14.20 14.25UBL 1166.00 1173.30 1134.05 1136.55AARTIDRUGS 766.05 770.30 751.00 752.50AMARAJABAT 959.45 961.70 931.00 938.95ICICIPRULI 487.20 489.45 479.85 481.80NAVINFLUOR 2538.00 2620.40 2538.00 2561.15OBEROIRLTY 535.00 564.15 530.40 557.05JYOTHYLAB 144.75 145.50 142.20 144.65SOBHA 341.70 348.00 335.25 337.40JSWENERGY 69.50 72.20 67.65 68.50CUMMINSIND 596.80 606.60 585.80 585.80GODFRYPHLP 995.00 1019.95 995.00 999.95LAOPALA 228.00 243.80 222.00 231.95CASTROLIND 127.00 128.75 126.45 127.35FORCEMOT 1418.80 1443.00 1394.40 1412.45SHK 115.00 121.30 111.00 111.85ICICIGI 1485.00 1489.45 1464.00 1475.70CHENNPETRO 113.05 115.40 112.10 112.90SOUTHBANK 9.30 9.30 9.12 9.14ABCAPITAL 91.25 91.75 89.55 89.95SYNGENE 621.50 624.95 612.65 617.05ALKEM 2900.05 2939.00 2899.60 2927.00ENDURANCE 1165.55 1232.00 1160.00 1208.10GRSE 216.30 219.05 204.00 204.65CYIENT 545.40 548.55 529.00 543.00SHOPERSTOP 211.00 224.65 210.70 216.30KTKBANK 59.75 59.75 57.80 58.10IDBI 42.00 42.45 41.00 41.20INDIACEM 151.35 152.90 148.30 148.80BAJAJHLDNG 3140.00 3160.55 3100.00 3129.95INDHOTEL 131.55 131.55 128.90 129.40RAMCOCEM 852.60 867.95 838.00 840.20FSL 80.50 81.75 78.00 79.05CENTURYPLY 227.00 231.95 226.40 230.00TATACOFFEE 109.10 111.70 108.45 109.15CEATLTD 1147.00 1166.40 1104.20 1116.15SCI 85.70 85.80 83.55 83.85SWANENERGY 136.00 137.35 134.00 135.00BOSCHLTD 13351.20 13420.00 13300.0013339.10BAJAJCON 219.80 224.00 218.60 218.85TATAMTRDVR 77.45 77.45 76.20 76.35GNFC 249.80 251.05 241.00 241.15HONAUT 32390.10 32958.00 31411.8032400.00ITI 133.85 133.85 129.90 130.20FORTIS 158.25 161.80 157.20 157.50IFCI 9.80 9.80 9.29 9.38GLAXO 1545.00 1592.15 1540.00 1588.00MMTC 24.75 26.40 24.60 25.05DALBHARAT 1085.65 1113.20 1074.30 1080.55LEMONTREE 44.00 44.00 42.65 43.30ISEC 453.00 460.85 453.00 456.00VMART 2330.50 2494.75 2330.50 2402.00HIMATSEIDE 161.00 165.75 144.10 145.85EIDPARRY 348.90 354.70 337.75 337.75BAYERCROP 5365.10 5379.00 5300.75 5365.00MIDHANI 210.00 213.50 206.80 207.75IEX 219.00 224.45 218.65 219.15LALPATHLAB 2160.00 2195.10 2145.00 2164.00GPPL 91.50 94.50 91.05 91.60APLAPOLLO 792.80 802.50 787.85 788.65KPITTECH 115.15 118.50 110.00 111.60ARVINDFASN 160.05 167.95 160.00 160.15NBVENTURES 59.00 60.30 58.40 58.85COCHINSHIP 378.75 382.30 364.40 366.25UJJIVANSFB 40.00 40.45 39.65 39.75ENGINERSIN 78.30 79.55 76.25 76.80TNPL 116.70 122.50 116.20 119.55JINDALSAW 80.00 80.00 76.70 77.05CANFINHOME 481.40 490.60 479.85 489.95SUMICHEM 302.10 314.40 300.80 306.55LTI 3299.95 3315.90 3294.05 3295.55BAJAJELEC 608.55 621.15 603.30 607.00AJANTPHARM 1687.55 1699.95 1630.00 1645.00KPRMILL 930.05 955.35 903.50 914.45TORNTPOWER 330.00 331.55 325.35 325.95COFORGE 2535.00 2547.35 2496.30 2512.60SUVENPHAR 429.85 438.60 416.40 422.50VIPIND 360.55 368.50 360.55 364.35ESABINDIA 1779.80 1928.00 1773.90 1851.35THERMAX 895.00 971.30 895.00 954.00WABAG 215.10 219.30 209.35 210.60BANKINDIA 51.65 52.25 50.00 50.40UNIONBANK 32.95 32.95 31.80 32.00FDC 345.00 356.45 344.15 349.95

GMDCLTD 55.25 56.15 54.45 54.60MEGH 80.60 81.20 79.60 79.75FCONSUMER 8.60 8.81 8.60 8.66OFSS 3112.00 3156.75 3103.10 3137.00BASF 1674.55 1697.00 1635.10 1637.00FLUOROCHEM 583.00 615.00 567.50 581.10GICRE 142.50 148.00 141.40 145.25NESCO 543.80 567.55 538.00 539.70TRIDENT 9.90 9.94 9.62 9.66MRPL 37.00 37.40 35.50 35.90TRENT 719.55 719.55 698.45 700.00INOXLEISUR 285.85 288.80 280.30 281.20SJVN 26.55 26.70 25.85 26.00SPARC 188.35 191.80 185.65 186.35HINDZINC 243.45 245.65 240.05 241.95WELCORP 140.50 140.50 134.05 134.65GALAXYSURF 2027.90 2049.00 1984.60 1992.50MOIL 144.05 148.90 144.05 147.15JAMNAAUTO 59.00 59.15 57.00 57.25PRESTIGE 280.00 280.65 272.00 274.65UJJIVAN 293.00 295.65 288.75 289.15ATUL 6100.00 6184.00 6052.25 6159.00ABBOTINDIA 16260.00 16363.10 16035.6016109.75ORIENTELEC 226.90 231.65 225.95 230.55MAHSCOOTER 3777.05 3947.95 3777.05 3881.00RAJESHEXPO 478.00 495.95 476.80 483.50BIRLACORPN 728.00 737.45 722.00 724.00LAXMIMACH 4828.80 4918.00 4797.60 4797.60CHALET 200.00 202.70 194.90 196.90GREAVESCOT 89.50 89.70 85.05 85.50STLTECH 164.95 165.65 162.65 164.90JBCHEPHARM 1080.00 1087.00 1060.80 1085.50WHIRLPOOL 2199.00 2200.00 2169.00 2197.90EDELWEISS 74.25 75.40 73.25 73.55SIS 477.00 477.00 461.20 465.25VGUARD 197.00 198.40 193.90 194.70JKCEMENT 1958.00 1958.00 1927.00 1927.00COROMANDEL 799.45 807.00 791.85 801.05J&KBANK 24.39 24.39 23.73 23.81JSL 67.65 71.35 65.95 70.00GMM 3778.90 3789.15 3691.00 3695.90JCHAC 2210.65 2293.65 2210.65 2224.75VRLLOG 209.00 212.95 203.75 204.80AMBER 2358.60 2369.80 2332.00 2350.00SUNTECK 321.90 328.20 318.40 325.50PARAGMILK 115.75 121.00 115.75 117.75ALLCARGO 136.10 136.25 131.60 133.85PTC 63.50 63.50 61.45 61.60PGHL 6700.05 6888.00 6700.05 6878.25ITDC 284.50 298.95 275.15 290.90GSPL 232.00 232.00 221.00 225.10IRCON 91.75 91.75 88.95 89.15GUJGAS 365.00 365.00 360.75 361.95SWSOLAR 265.20 270.50 265.00 266.70ASHOKA 93.05 93.90 91.45 91.85BDL 340.90 341.80 336.20 338.00RADICO 464.60 465.90 455.65 459.70PERSISTENT 1306.00 1318.95 1285.00 1310.00AVANTI 540.40 545.00 536.00 536.50MOTILALOFS 636.00 649.45 635.75 637.50NIACL 130.90 135.90 130.40 131.70DEEPAKFERT 165.50 166.55 163.95 164.40JSLHISAR 134.75 137.50 133.40 136.20CREDITACC 794.90 815.00 783.55 807.55SUPREMEIND 1724.05 1746.00 1701.70 1704.55GEPIL 306.00 313.80 300.10 301.05ASTERDM 170.10 174.60 164.25 168.20GSFC 76.25 78.10 75.80 76.00CARERATING 535.00 542.10 530.00 534.75MINDACORP 93.20 95.25 91.75 92.25TVSSRICHAK 2035.80 2039.40 1982.00 1993.40REPCOHOME 248.05 255.55 247.90 250.90ECLERX 808.05 822.55 796.00 802.35BBTC 1341.00 1358.00 1316.30 1320.00IFBIND 1124.10 1147.00 1074.10 1085.00ASTRAL 1493.60 1507.90 1452.00 1455.05SUDARSCHEM 480.10 491.00 480.10 481.05RALLIS 289.00 292.90 288.95 289.90ADVENZYMES 348.00 349.40 343.30 343.85TATACOMM 1055.20 1058.30 1039.10 1041.00DCAL 160.45 161.40 153.50 154.90GHCL 199.05 206.50 198.00 202.00DBL 400.00 403.55 393.90 395.05FINCABLES 364.75 366.55 352.00 355.80NLCINDIA 57.15 57.65 56.55 56.80INDOSTAR 352.75 353.00 328.75 335.25UFLEX 394.90 399.00 386.85 387.45INDOCO 275.95 277.95 265.05 270.45CAPPL 518.95 522.50 506.00 506.75FINEORG 2510.00 2520.00 2480.00 2484.50GODREJIND 478.00 478.60 465.35 467.00SHILPAMED 471.75 473.15 466.15 467.70VARROC 402.50 404.50 386.00 388.00ZYDUSWELL 1865.05 1975.20 1854.00 1932.50AKZOINDIA 2301.90 2337.10 2239.20 2250.10MAHABANK 14.11 14.35 13.61 13.75GUJALKALI 354.00 357.00 345.00 347.50FINOLEXIND 642.00 645.00 623.55 628.00BRIGADE 241.75 248.55 239.20 248.00GILLETTE 5900.00 5940.00 5851.80 5880.00SKFINDIA 1676.15 1685.00 1638.00 1669.60IOB 11.25 11.28 11.08 11.15UCOBANK 13.22 13.22 12.90 13.00PHOENIXLTD 767.90 783.00 764.80 773.30EQUITAS 69.55 69.70 68.75 69.00GESHIP 288.80 288.80 280.75 281.80PNBHOUSING 379.80 380.80 372.25 374.05ASTRAZEN 4409.00 4450.00 4398.00 4398.00DCMSHRIRAM 380.95 397.00 380.00 382.10

HATHWAY 34.35 34.90 33.50 33.60HEIDELBERG 208.80 215.90 208.80 214.15CCL 267.00 270.00 265.30 266.00ALKYLAMINE 3816.00 3875.00 3816.00 3845.00KALPATPOWR 318.50 323.45 317.00 319.50TIINDIA 835.50 835.50 804.40 812.05DHANUKA 746.00 752.55 736.70 748.00JTEKTINDIA 91.50 92.20 87.00 87.80GDL 122.45 129.75 121.35 123.00BLUESTARCO 787.00 787.50 769.80 775.70LUXIND 1591.75 1618.10 1591.75 1595.05NH 413.00 419.95 407.80 412.15KRBL 247.15 251.30 247.00 247.25AEGISLOG 242.85 247.55 241.55 243.00BLUEDART 3900.00 3915.00 3870.00 3883.30TIMETECHNO 47.20 49.90 47.20 48.75

VENKYS 1717.50 1722.60 1686.55 1688.40KEC 379.00 379.00 368.00 375.90MINDAIND 393.50 396.55 387.85 389.00PNCINFRA 179.20 179.80 174.60 174.80JAGRAN 46.35 46.45 44.00 44.35BALMLAWRIE 118.75 118.75 116.50 117.10HAWKINCOOK 5174.90 5200.00 5165.00 5182.00TATAINVEST 1024.00 1024.80 1003.20 1007.00SCHNEIDER 90.00 90.00 87.00 87.50EPL 264.00 264.20 258.05 262.20POWERINDIA 1349.00 1365.00 1311.00 1330.00TEAMLEASE 2613.95 2621.95 2550.00 2550.00KANSAINER 551.30 557.65 550.10 556.00ORIENTREF 230.00 240.00 225.05 225.70QUESS 490.70 492.00 481.50 484.30SANOFI 7946.05 8000.00 7946.05 7975.45CRISIL 1902.50 1910.95 1892.00 1894.55CARBORUNIV 381.85 386.00 376.80 386.00VTL 1032.80 1055.00 1002.05 1014.00METROPOLIS 1943.95 1950.90 1907.00 1916.95MAHSEAMLES 323.25 326.15 316.15 317.10CERA 3399.00 3420.00 3367.75 3367.75CESC 617.00 618.90 614.00 614.55SUNDRMFAST 563.25 569.00 550.60 550.60LINDEINDIA 933.85 935.00 924.10 928.05REDINGTON 134.10 135.40 131.90 134.15SUPRAJIT 202.30 203.00 199.15 199.35TTKPRESTIG 5799.90 5821.55 5726.60 5814.00RATNAMANI 1590.00 1600.00 1564.00 1569.30PRSMJOHNSN 92.00 93.00 90.80 91.90EIHOTEL 100.25 100.65 99.00 99.70PGHH 11274.85 11301.00 11122.8011167.20SOMANYCERA 322.00 327.95 312.15 323.00MHRIL 209.65 211.30 196.00 205.50AIAENG 2019.00 2045.30 2000.70 2030.75TIMKEN 1090.00 1102.55 1083.85 1084.05STARCEMENT 95.30 95.30 91.15 91.95SYMPHONY 940.00 940.00 928.40 929.50MAHLIFE 337.15 341.75 334.35 341.753MINDIA 22889.20 22889.20 22575.0022575.00GRINDWELL 659.05 679.75 655.00 655.80SCHAEFFLER 4313.95 4313.95 4251.00 4283.40IRB 114.65 115.60 112.10 112.55SOLARINDS 1070.35 1113.45 1070.35 1095.40TASTYBIT 11286.35 11314.30 11143.4011143.40GULFOILLUB 755.30 758.50 744.35 747.65GARFIBRES 2238.40 2255.00 2211.25 2212.10VSTIND 3780.00 3887.35 3780.00 3845.00ZENSARTECH 240.20 242.40 235.15 237.20NAVNETEDUL 87.75 88.35 86.40 86.90SHRIRAMCIT 1045.00 1066.00 1044.00 1046.60SPANDANA 737.20 747.45 725.95 728.60TVTODAY 218.35 218.65 215.10 216.50DBCORP 87.45 88.45 85.85 86.35WABCOINDIA 5714.00 5717.20 5656.60 5672.15TCIEXP 896.05 902.35 892.85 900.85MASFIN 1040.00 1041.00 999.00 1005.50CHOLAHLDNG 533.20 535.80 528.50 535.00OMAXE 86.55 87.80 85.00 85.00VAIBHAVGBL 2185.00 2190.15 2150.00 2152.35HERITGFOOD 315.00 320.50 308.10 308.10KSB 633.95 637.40 633.80 637.40MAHLOG 407.70 418.00 407.50 411.35SFL 1635.05 1651.00 1630.00 1630.25NILKAMAL 1427.00 1435.00 1420.00 1427.70IIFLWAM 1053.25 1065.00 1023.60 1029.30

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY 50 13713.55 13773.25 13673.55 13740.70 58.00DIVISLAB 3711.30 3854.20 3711.30 3830.00 112.10HDFC 2434.90 2509.00 2420.15 2490.10 65.45BAJFINANCE 5139.85 5303.15 5101.60 5270.00 123.40HDFCBANK 1418.60 1445.00 1404.50 1440.00 29.30INDUSINDBK 914.00 948.00 914.00 937.95 16.15SHREECEM 24383.70 24899.00 24315.00 24599.90 340.80TCS 2811.00 2853.70 2805.00 2848.70 34.50POWERGRID 193.30 195.40 191.60 193.40 2.20ULTRACEMCO 5153.70 5219.00 5126.60 5170.20 57.20HDFCLIFE 651.00 661.20 650.25 653.85 5.15DRREDDY 5050.00 5134.50 5030.00 5074.45 35.50LT 1270.00 1284.00 1254.05 1277.00 8.75KOTAKBANK 1965.00 1969.00 1942.55 1964.00 11.45TECHM 921.55 932.75 912.40 926.70 5.15RELIANCE 1984.50 2005.00 1977.15 1985.50 8.95BAJAJFINSV 9257.70 9399.90 9208.00 9281.00 23.30AXISBANK 607.25 611.00 603.20 606.00 -0.10TITAN 1495.15 1520.00 1492.30 1503.90 -0.55NESTLEIND 18338.00 18395.15 18136.80 18308.35 -15.10HEROMOTOCO 3135.00 3157.50 3101.05 3115.00 -2.50GRASIM 915.90 926.40 912.00 914.00 -0.80ASIANPAINT 2569.00 2603.35 2557.00 2580.00 -2.45SBILIFE 857.50 865.90 851.60 856.00 -1.50ICICIBANK 514.00 516.50 509.10 511.30 -1.15GAIL 125.25 125.70 123.50 124.00 -0.40BRITANNIA 3740.10 3767.00 3721.00 3739.00 -13.60NTPC 105.65 105.65 104.00 104.50 -0.40BHARTIARTL 517.00 522.50 512.00 514.00 -2.20CIPLA 790.75 794.85 781.10 783.15 -3.65ITC 214.20 215.10 211.25 212.85 -1.15WIPRO 358.40 359.25 355.50 356.45 -1.95M&M 735.10 738.45 725.35 727.90 -4.05INFY 1165.90 1168.90 1156.20 1158.60 -7.10TATAMOTORS 184.00 184.00 180.65 181.30 -1.25EICHERMOT 2471.70 2495.00 2440.00 2453.25 -16.85SBIN 270.00 272.15 266.70 267.35 -2.05HCLTECH 887.00 887.00 877.00 878.00 -7.05SUNPHARMA 579.50 586.30 569.70 571.15 -5.45UPL 461.45 466.40 453.20 455.00 -4.65IOC 96.50 97.00 95.00 95.30 -1.05HINDUNILVR 2342.00 2342.00 2310.00 2316.95 -27.00BAJAJ-AUTO 3307.10 3330.00 3258.00 3264.85 -38.65BPCL 402.50 402.55 394.30 394.90 -4.70JSWSTEEL 369.95 373.35 364.05 365.55 -5.05ONGC 105.10 105.60 100.70 101.45 -1.45TATASTEEL 643.40 646.00 631.45 634.25 -9.15ADANIPORTS 478.00 478.80 465.55 468.75 -6.80MARUTI 7799.90 7831.90 7625.00 7664.00 -132.35COALINDIA 145.25 145.25 142.50 142.90 -2.60HINDALCO 251.90 254.90 244.45 246.00 -5.45

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY NEXT 50 32211.05 32303.90 31953.50 32031.75 -112.10BERGEPAINT 688.50 712.00 688.50 711.00 21.25GICRE 141.95 148.50 141.10 145.45 4.10ADANIGREEN 1023.90 1059.40 1013.75 1043.10 23.70SBICARD 829.00 842.50 824.15 841.70 14.50CADILAHC 469.00 481.00 468.10 475.40 6.40LUPIN 966.00 984.50 960.50 971.00 10.65ALKEM 2912.00 2941.70 2900.00 2928.00 31.90NMDC 114.60 117.90 114.40 115.65 1.05MOTHERSUMI 157.55 162.50 157.40 158.00 1.25HAVELLS 898.00 926.00 891.00 907.60 6.45OFSS 3134.90 3159.00 3102.50 3130.40 18.25PIDILITIND 1630.00 1652.00 1626.35 1634.00 8.05BIOCON 461.80 466.00 458.95 461.75 1.75ACC 1639.40 1659.85 1634.00 1638.60 5.50BOSCHLTD 13350.00 13450.00 13300.00 13361.00 36.85LTI 3305.00 3319.00 3288.20 3295.05 6.10MUTHOOTFIN 1217.00 1234.05 1213.20 1218.00 0.45MARICO 413.00 414.90 409.05 413.25 0.10GODREJCP 720.65 732.85 714.90 720.00 -0.65CONCOR 410.85 417.50 405.10 407.40 -0.45AMBUJACEM 248.50 251.50 246.20 246.50 -0.75AUROPHARMA 880.00 889.60 868.60 873.00 -2.70ICICIGI 1490.00 1490.00 1464.00 1473.90 -5.45HINDZINC 242.70 245.95 240.00 241.00 -1.15PGHH 11156.00 11368.45 11055.30 11150.00 -55.55DABUR 515.20 517.40 510.50 511.00 -2.65COLPAL 1615.00 1623.20 1600.00 1602.55 -8.95BAJAJHLDNG 3147.95 3163.00 3105.00 3125.00 -23.95HDFCAMC 2862.00 2862.70 2822.05 2839.00 -23.70ADANITRANS 432.00 441.90 424.15 427.95 -3.70ICICIPRULI 488.00 489.40 479.25 482.00 -4.25NAUKRI 4601.15 4665.00 4530.80 4555.90 -45.25PEL 1450.00 1483.85 1435.65 1443.00 -14.60TATACONSUM 584.95 593.40 575.55 577.65 -5.95BANDHANBNK 408.20 414.20 405.00 405.80 -4.35ABBOTINDIA 16382.00 16385.55 16005.00 16100.00 -176.60INDIGO 1654.00 1654.00 1625.45 1636.90 -18.95TORNTPHARM 2785.00 2795.00 2750.00 2757.00 -31.95SIEMENS 1541.00 1563.00 1518.15 1522.10 -19.85INFRATEL 244.30 247.40 240.20 241.90 -3.40PETRONET 264.00 264.75 258.05 260.30 -3.80UBL 1164.00 1173.80 1132.95 1140.20 -16.95DLF 235.30 237.60 231.00 231.60 -3.80PFC 120.00 120.90 118.00 118.25 -2.00IGL 490.00 490.00 478.50 479.00 -8.55DMART 2645.00 2650.00 2503.00 2580.00 -47.05PNB 38.15 38.35 36.75 37.20 -0.75MCDOWELL-N 598.00 599.70 582.20 582.80 -12.05HINDPETRO 232.70 232.70 224.65 225.40 -5.20BANKBARODA 66.40 67.15 63.35 63.65 -2.75

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Domestic rating agency IcraRatings expects the tech-

nical recession in the country’seconomy to end in the fourthquarter of the current fiscal,limiting the contraction in theGDP to 7.8 per cent in thefinancial year 2021.

In the second quarter offinancial year 2021, GDP con-tracted 7.5 per cent as againsta decline of 23.9 per cent in theApril-June quarter.

With a steady perfor-mance of the agricultural sec-tor and a lagged recovery in thecontact-intensive parts of theservices sector, the agency fore-casts a small contraction of oneper cent in the Indian GDP inthe third quarter of financialyear 2021.

The rating agency’sPrincipal economist AditiNayar said healthy procure-ment and a favourable outlook

for the rabi season, as well asgreater visibility of anapproaching COVID-19 vac-cine rollout, will strengthendemand and economic activi-ty in the fourth quarter offinancial year 2021.

“The technical recession islikely to end in that quarter(Q4), with a muted 1.3 per centgrowth benefiting from a realrecovery as well as the low baseeffect.

This is expected to limitthe contraction in Indian GDPin real terms to 7.8 per cent inFY2021,” Nayar said in areport.

After the NSO hadreleased the GDP data for thesecond quarter in financialyear 2021, the rating agencyhad projected the GDP con-traction in financial year 21 torange between 7-9 per cent.

With the updated projec-tions for Q3 and Q4 financialyear 2021, it has now pegged

GDP contraction in financialyear 2021 at 7.8 per cent.

Nayar further said thespending seen during the fes-tive season was driven by pent-up demand, and consumptionis yet to fully stabilise in vari-ous sectors.

“While many indicatorshave displayed growth in theongoing quarter relative to aweak performance in the sameperiod in FY2020, volumesstill remain below FY2019 lev-els in a number of sectors,highlighting that a full recov-ery remains somewhat dis-tant,” she said.

The rating agency said thatsupply-side and logistical dis-ruptions have re-emerged insome states.

Further, the tailwinds oflow commodity prices are turn-ing into headwinds, as the vis-ibility of vaccine availability isnow pushing up global com-modity prices, it said.

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IT secretary Ajay PrakashSawhney on Thursday said

the new decade is of India andit is time for the country tocome up with a data protectionmodel that the world follows.

The data protection modelfor both personal and non-per-sonal is at an infancy stage andthere is learning that is comingfrom various countries as ofnow, he added.

“We have actually practisedfor the past several decadeswhere we look at models whichhave emerged somewhere elseand then sort of improve onthat. This is 2020 and decade ofIndia.

“I truly believe it’s India’sdecade and it’s India’s time tocome up with a model that theworld looks at and does somecut and paste, and some impro-visation of what comes out ofIndia,” Sawhney said at a virtual

panel discussion organised byVidhi Legal.He said that theidea of creating data trusts isgoing to be very significant forboth personal and non-per-sonal data.The Personal DataProtection Bill was introducedin the Lok Sabha in Februaryand has been referred to a JointParliamentary Committee ofboth the Houses, headed byBJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi, forexamination and report.

“Our framework is some-thing that the world is lookingvery carefully and I believe thisto be recognised as the bestthinking at the current level.These are of course subjectsthat are there at the infancystage. There is learning alreadyfrom GDPR implementationand from other countries aswell, but as we move not onlyto personal data protectionbut also into various aspects ofnon-personal data,” Sawhneysaid.

New Delhi:Bullish global cuesafter the US FOMC meet lift-ed the key Indian equity indicesto reach new record intradayhighs on Thursday.Accordingly, the market had a“gap up” opening at theirrespective high levels.In termsof sectors, most of the indicestraded in the green. Amongthem, Pharma, Realty andFinancial Services indices werethe major gainers.At 2.30 p.m.,Sensex was trading at46,868.59, higher by 202.13points or 0.43% from the pre-vious close.The Nifty50 wastrading at 13,738.65, higher by55.95 points or 0.41 per centfrom the previousclose.”Considering currentchart structure and derivativesdata, we are expecting contin-uation in ongoing up move ofNifty towards 13,900 levels incoming week. IANS

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Corporate earnings are like-ly to witness a sharp revival

in the next financial yearbacked by economic recovery,said a report by KotakInstitutional Equities.

“We expect 28 per cent and19 per cent growth in net prof-its of the Nifty-50 Index inFY2022 and FY2023 following11 per cent growth in FY202,”it said.

The report noted that thegrowth in FY2021 reflects lowbase in a few sectorsin FY2020 such asoil, gas and consum-able fuels reflectinglarge adventitious orinventory losses in4QFY20 and tele-com reflecting lowARPUs and profits.

There is a possi-bility of moderateearnings upgrade

over the next few months andthe extent of earnings upgradeswould be one of the key driversof the market, it added.

Nonetheless, a few sectorsmay disappoint if consump-tion, especially discretionaryconsumption, was to decelerateon sustained Covid-19 impacton household incomes, said thereport.

It has projected a strongrecovery in the economy inFY2022 (9.3 per cent real GDPgrowth) following the likelylarge contraction of (-)8.6 percent in FY2021.

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The Govt on Thursday extend-ed relaxed norms for onion

imports for one and a halfmonths till January 31 next year,to boost domestic supply andcheck the retail prices of the keykitchen staple.To facilitate importof onion, the government had on

October 21 relaxed the condi-tions for fumigation and addi-tional declaration on thePhytosanitary Certificate underthe Plant Quarantine Order ,2003 for import up to December15, 2020. In an official statement,the Agriculture Ministry said ithas decided to extend the relax-ation for imports up to January

31, 2021, in the light of publicconcern over high prices ofonion in the market. The min-istry said the consignments ofimported onions, which arrive inIndian port without fumigationand such endorsement on thePSC, would be fumigated inIndia by the importer through anaccredited treatment provider.

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Further adding to the recov-ery signals, advance tax

payment by companies hasshown a massive 49 per centgrowth to �1,09,506 crore in

the third quarter this fiscal, aCBDT source has said.

The increase can primari-ly be attributed to the low-baselast fiscal when theGovernment had slashed cor-poration tax rates to a record

low of 25 per cent in the Q3,leading to lower tax payout bycompanies. During the samequarter last fiscal, corporateadvance tax stood at �73,126crore. The gross tax collectionstood at �7,33,715 crore, while

net mop-up was �5,87,605crore in the quarter, the sourcetold PTI on Thursday.

During the quarter, thedepartment has refunded�1,46,109 crore, which is lessthan 8.1 per cent from �

1,58,988 crore in Q3 of FY20.Overall advance corporate

tax stood at �2,39,125 crore sofar this year, down 4.9 per centfrom �2,51,382 crore as the firsttwo quarters bore the brunt ofthe lockdown.

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Moscow: Russian PresidentVladimir Putin on Thursdayrejected allegations that theKremlin was behind the poi-soning of his top political foe,opposit ion leader AlexeiNavalny, and accused US intel-ligence agencies of fomentingthe claims.

Speaking via video call dur-ing an annual marathon newsconference, the Russian leadercountered the accusations bysaying that if the Kremlin want-ed to poison Navalny it wouldhave pressed the attack home.

“If there was such a desire,it would have been done,” Putinsaid with a chuckle.

Navalny fell sick on Aug 20during a domestic flight inRussia, and was flown while hewas in a coma to Germany fortreatment two days later. Labs inGermany, France and Sweden,and tests by the Organization forthe Prohibition of ChemicalWeapons, established that hewas exposed to a Soviet-eraNovichok nerve agent.

Russian authorities havevehemently rejected the accusa-tions of involvement in the poi-

soning.On Monday, the investiga-

t ive group B el l ingcat andRussian outlet The Insiderreleased a report alleging thatoperatives from the FSB, Russia’sdomestic security agency, whichis a top KGB successor, followedNavalny during his trips since2017, had “specialized trainingin chemical weapons, chem-istry and medicine” and “were inthe vicinity of the oppositionactivist in the days and hours ofthe time-range during which hewas poisoned.”

The investigation, conduct-ed by Bellingcat and The Insiderin cooperation with CNN andDer Spiegel, identified the sup-posed FSB operatives and labo-ratories where poisons likeNovichok were made after ana-lyzing telephone metadata andflight information.

It mentioned two instancesin 2019 and 2020, in whichNavalny or his wife Yulia suf-fered from unexplained symp-toms. Navalny said the investi-gation has proven beyond doubtthat FSB operatives tried to killhim on Putin’s orders. AP

Kabul: The top US general heldunannounced talks with Talibanpeace negotiators in the PersianGulf to urge a reduction in vio-lence across Afghanistan, evenas senior American officials inKabul warned that stepped-upTaliban attacks endanger themilitant group’s nascent peacenegotiations with the AfghanGovernment.

Army Gen. Mark A Milley,chairman of the Joint Chiefs ofStaff, met for about two hourswith Taliban negotiators inDoha, Qatar, on Tuesday andflew Wednesday to Kabul to dis-cuss the peace process withAfghan President Ashraf Ghani.

Milley’s meetings cameamid a new drawdown of UStroops, although under currentUS policy a complete pullouthinges on the Taliban reducingattacks nationwide.

“The most important part of the discussions that

I had with both the Taliban andthe government of Afghanistanwas the need for an immediatereduction in violence,” Milleytold three reporters, includingone from The Associated Press,who accompanied him to Qatarand Afghanistan. “Everythingelse hinges on that.”

Under ground rules set byMilley for security reasons,the journalists travelling withhim agreed not to report oneither set of talks until he haddeparted the region. It wasMilley’s second unannouncedmeeting with the Taliban’snegotiating team; the first, inJune, also in Doha, had notbeen reported until now. AP

Paris: French PresidentEmmanuel Macron has testedpositive for Covid-19, the pres-idential Elysee Palaceannounced on Thursday.

It said the president took atest “as soon as the first symp-toms appeared.” The brief state-ment did not say what symp-toms Macron experienced.

It said he would isolatehimself for seven days. “He willcontinue to work and take careof his activities at a distance,”it added.

It was not immediatelyclear what contact tracingefforts were in progress.Macron attended a EuropeanUnion summit at the end of lastweek, where he notably had abilateral meeting with GermanChancellor Angela Merkel. Hemet Wednesday with the primeminister of Portugal. Therewas no immediate commentfrom Portuguese officials.

Macron on Wednesdayalso held the Government’sweekly Cabinet meeting in thepresence of Prime MinisterJean Castex and other minis-ters. AP

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Turkey won’t step back from its decisionto deploy Russian air defence systems

despite US sanctions imposed on the coun-try over the purchase, Turkish ForeignMinister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday.

In an interview with Turkey’s 24 TV tele-vision, Cavusoglu also said Turkey wasmulling steps it would take to reciprocateagainst the US sanctions, but did not say whatthe steps could entail.

The US announced sanctions earlier thisweek over Turkey’s procurement of Russia’sadvanced S-400 system, under a US lawknown as CAATSA, aimed at pushing backon Russian influence. The sanctions targetTurkey’s Presidency of Defence Industries,the head of the presidency and three other

senior officials.The penalties block any assets the four

officials may have in US jurisdictions and bartheir entry into the US. They also include aban on most export licenses, loans and cred-its to the agency.

It is the first time that CAATSA has beenused to penalise a US ally.

“If we were to step back we would havedone so before now,” Cavusoglu said inresponse to a question on whether Turkeywould cancel the S-400 deal with Russia.

Cavusoglu added: “Now we are assess-ing the impact of these sanctions in greatdetail...And will take steps accordingly.” The Minister also described the sanctions as“wrong both legally and politically,” arguingthat Turkey’s purchase of the Russian systemin 2017 predated the CAATSA law.

Washington: Expressing con-cern over China’s increasingaggression across the globefrom Hong Kong, Taiwan,South China Sea and along theIndia-China border, a seniorWhite House official said theUS has stood with New Delhiduring its military standoffwith Beijing.

Speaking on condition ofanonymity, the official assert-ed that US President DonaldTrump, during his presidency,has really strengthened allaspects of the US-India securityand defence cooperation tobuild a comprehensive, endur-ing and mutually beneficialdefence partnership.

“We have been very con-cerned with China’s increasingaggression really across theglobe, whether it be HongKong, Taiwan, South China Seaand of course along the India-China border,” the senioradministration official fromthe White House told PTI in anexclusive interview.

“We have stood with India

as it faced this aggression alongits border over the last six-seven months. We providedequipment. We have beenengaged with India, shown ourmoral support for India to beable to stand up to the Chineseand make sure that there’s apeaceful resolution and de-escalation of the situation,”said the official.

The armies of India andChina are locked in a tense bor-der standoff in eastern Ladakhsince early May. Both sideshave held multiple rounds ofmilitary and diplomatic talks.However, no breakthrough hasbeen achieved yet.

During the Trump admin-

istration, the United States hasbecome the second largestarms supplier to India, growingfrom virtually no sales a decadeago to more than $20 billiontoday, the official said.

Earlier this year, the USand India concluded $3 billionin defence sales for naval andattack helicopters. To bolsterIndia’s role as a net provider ofsecurity in the Indo-Pacific, theTrump administration has lift-ed restrictions on provision ofsensitive defence technology,enabling India to become thefirst country that’s not a treatyally of the United States to beoffered armed MQ-9 Reaperdrones.

In support of India duringits border standoff with China,the United States has leased twoMQ-9s to India while the saleof MQ-9s is being finalised,said the official.

The US also expediteddelivery of cold weather gear tosupport the deployment ofIndian military along the Lineof Actual Control (LAC)

through the winter, said thesenior administration official.

“In addition, we have con-cluded the basic exchange andcooperation agreement, which isthe last of the so-called keydefence enabling agreements. Ithink this is really a historicachievement that clearly demon-strates progress in defence part-nership,” said the official.

Responding to a question,the senior administration offi-cial said that the US cut secu-rity aid and reimbursements toPakistan in January 2018. Therehave been some exceptions,such as for things that are in theUS interest.

“Some minor exceptions.But the suspension remains ineffect. We continue to look toPakistan to crack down on ter-rorists and militants on its ter-ritory. We’ve seen some progresson that front. But we certainlyneed to see more. We need tosee a decisive crackdown, andsustained measures to rein inthese terrorists and militantgroups,” said the official. PTI

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President-elect Joe Biden andVice President Mike Pence

are set to receive the Covid-19vaccine soon.

According to two transi-tion officials familiar with thematter, Biden will receive thevaccine publicly as early as nextweek. The officials spoke oncondition of anonymitybecause they weren’t authorisedto discuss it publicly.

The White House saysPence and his wife, Karen, willreceive the vaccine publiclyon Friday.

Biden said on Tuesday thatDr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’stop infectious-disease expert,advised him to get the vaccine“sooner than later.” Biden hassaid that he wants to keepfront-line health care workersand vulnerable people as the toppriority as the vaccine is rolledout throughout the country.

But he’s also noted theimportance of him getting thevaccine publicly to build con-fidence among Americans toget vaccinated.

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9�� '��+�.8� ��Dhaka: Prime Minister SheikhHasina on Thursday said thatIndia is Bangladesh’s true friendas she expressed her gratitude tothe country and the IndianArmy for their support duringthe 1971 liberation war.

Addressing a virtual summitwith her Indian counterpartNarendra Modi, Hasina saidthat she is happy to meet himagain, “particularly on thismonth of victory”.

“December evokes in allBangladeshis the spirit of joy,freedom and celebration as werecall with deep gratitude our‘Father of the Nation’Bangabandhu Sheikh MujiburRahman. Under whose dynam-ic leadership we earned ourgreat independence,” she said.

“India is our true friend,” theBangladesh Prime Minister said.

“I pay deep homage to thethree million martyrs who laiddown their lives. I pay tribute tothe members of the Indianarmed forces martyred in thewar and to their families. I pay

my gratitude to the govern-ment and the people of Indiawho extended their whole heart-ed support for the cause of ournation,” she said.

The war in 1971 broke afterthe sudden crackdown at mid-night past on March 25, 1971 inthe erstwhile East Pakistan bythe Pakistani troops and endedon December 16. The sameyear Pakistan conceded defeatand unconditionally surren-dered in Dhaka to the alliedforces comprising the freedomfighters and the Indian soldiers.

Officially three million peo-ple were killed during the nine-month long war.

Modi and Hasina jointlyinaugurated a digital exhibitionon Mujibur Rahman andMahatma Gandhi in an effort tocelebrate the life and legacies ofthe iconic leaders. Hasina andModi also relaunched a trans-border rail route betweenChilahati and West Bengal’sHaldibari which has been inop-erative for almost 55 years. PTI

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��3��N��%��Ankara: Turkey and Iraq have agreed to con-tinue their cooperation in fighting extrem-ist organisations, including the Islamic Stategroup and Kurdish rebels, Turkish PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday.

Speaking to reporters following meetingswith visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafaal-Kadhimi, Erdogan also said he hoped thatan Iraqi-Turkish oil pipeline that was dam-aged by the IS during the conflict against the

militant group would soon be repaired andwould resume oil transfers to world markets.

Turkey has carried out numerous groundand aerial cross-border offensives into neigh-bouring northern Iraq to attack militants ofthe Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, whomaintain bases in the region. The latestoffensive in June, dubbed Operation ClawTiger, saw Turkish commandos being airliftedinto Iraqi territory. AP

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“Contractors will not be allowed tomake any changes on farmers’ lands andcontractors will not be permitted any loanto make any developments of farmers’lands,” the letter stated.

“Some farmer groups have spreadrumours and misinformation. It is my jobto dispel them come from a farming fam-ily. Those sitting on railway tracks whostopped rations reaching our soldiersprotecting our borders, can’t be farmers,”the letter stated.

He said farmers from several Stateshave hailed the farm reforms and new lawswhile some unions misleading the farm-ers over the laws.

Tomar claimed most of the farmers arehappy with the farm bills but some con-fusion has been created by a certain sec-tion as part of a conspiracy to create ten-sions based on falsehood.

“I belong to a farmer’s family and sincechildhood, I have experienced the toughlife of farmers. It is very satisfactory thatafter implementation of the law, MSP pro-curement has set a new record this time,”Tomar went on to add.

He also pointed out that to ensure bet-ter infrastructure for the benefit of farm-ers, the Centre has created an “AgriculturalInfrastructure Fund” of Rs 1 lakh crore.

Repeating the Centre’s attack on theCongress’ hypocrisy over the farm laws,Tomar has mentioned that the previousGovernments were also a proponent of thereforms announced in the agriculture sec-tor.

Besides letter, the Government has alsoissued an e-booklet highlighting the suc-cess stories of farmers who have benefit-ed from contract farming after enactmentof these legislations. In the 100-page e-booklet “Putting Farmers First”, theGovernment said it has made clear the“truth” about the farm reforms and hasmentioned “what will happen” and “whatwill not happen” for farmers.

Highlighting briefly the success storiesof farmers who have benefitted from thenew laws, the Government said, “There aremany success stories already for such mar-ket access across various States.”

“Nearly 1,300 farmers in the Aligarhdistrict of Uttar Pradesh recently enteredinto an agreement with Fortune Rice toproduce export quality paddy and areearning 15-20 per cent higher income,” itsaid.

More than 2,500 potato farmers across

north Gujarat are earning nearly Rs 40,000more per acre under agreement withpotato processing company HyFun Foods,it said. Over 1,000 seed potato farmersacross Punjab, northern Haryana and west-ern Uttar Pradesh are earning guaranteed35 per cent margin above cost under theagreement with Technico Agri SciencesLtd, the Government said.

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“Court cannot guarantee this. Courtdoes not have the wherewithal to preventany such violence. It has to be the policeand other authorities who will protect theright of others,” the bench said, adding thatright to protest cannot mean blockade ofthe entire city. It said that even police andauthorities should not incite the protest-ing farmers to indulge in any kind of vio-lence.

The court referred to the 1988 BoatClub protest by farmers in Delhi and saidthe farmers’ organisations had thenbrought the entire city to a stand-still.

The top court told Bharatiya KisanUnion (Bhanu) group, which was the onlyfarmer organisation represented before thecourt today through lawyer AP Singh, thatthey cannot keep on protesting withouttalking to the Government.

“You cannot sit in protest for years andyears and don’t talk to the Government. Wehave already said that we recognise yourright to protest but the protest has to havesome motive. You need to talk to theGovernment,” the Bench said.

During the hearing, the Bench said itwould set up the committee which mayinclude experts like P Sainath and repre-sentatives of the Government and farm-ers’ bodies to look for the resolution of thedeadlock over the statutes.

“We acknowledge the right of farmersto protest but it has to be non-violent,” itsaid.

The top court said the purpose of stag-ing protest can be achieved if the farmersand the government will hold talks and “wewish to facilitate that”.

“We will not decide the validity of lawtoday. The only thing which we willdecide is the tch of petitions seekingremoval of farmers protesting at severalroads along Delhi’s borders.

The apex court had on Wednesdayindicated that it may form a committeehaving representatives of the Governmentand farmer unions across the country toresolve the deadlock over farmers protest-ing at several roads near Delhi borders

against the three new farm laws, saying “itmay become a national issue”.

The top court had told the Centre that,“Your negotiations have not worked appar-ently.” Multiple pleas have been filed in thetop court seeking a direction to theauthorities to immediately remove thefarmers, saying commuters are facinghardships due to the road blockades andthe gatherings might lead to an increasein the number of Covid-19 cases.

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The ultra modern radars will enablethe Services to have latest and real timeinformation about any hostile movement.The radars will have the 360 degrees capa-bility for surveillance.

At present, the IAF has four Israelimanufactured Phalcon AWACS. The elec-tronic systems of these AWACS are fittedon Russian made IL-76 planes. These air-borne radars can remain in the air for morethan 10 hours and pick up any movementin Pakistan up to a distance of more than400 km.

The Defence Ministry in a tweet alsosaid out of the total amount Rs 25,000 crorewere approved under the indigenousdesign and development.

Officials also said this was the firstmeeting of the DAC under the newregime of Defence Acquisition Procedure2020 and these are the first set ofAcceptance of Necessity (AoNs) accord-ed with majority AoNs being accorded inthe highest categorisation of Buy Indian(IDDM). Six of seven proposals, that is, Rs27,000 crore out of Rs 28,000 crore forwhich AoNs were granted will be sourcedfrom the Indian industry to give a boostto the “Make in India” and “AtmanirbharBharat” initiatives.

The latest decision to go in for Indianproducts comes months after the DefenceMinistry listed nearly 100 items which willnow be manufactured by the local indus-try. Earlier, the forces were importing theseitems.

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“As I have quit all my posts and theparty an attack was mounted on myoffice, there can be future attack on my fol-lowers too. I apprehend threat to my lifeand so have asked for police protection,”

he said.Referring to the two leaders’ quitting

the party Bengal BJP president DilipGhosh said, “This is the beginning of theend of the Trinamool Congress and onewould see more people leaving the partyin the coming days.” On Adhikari andTiwari’s joining the saffron outfit he said,“They are welcome in the BJP if they wantbecause they are able leaders and our partywill accord them adequate respect.”

Meanwhile, Adhikari had written toGovernor Jagdeep Dhankhar seeking pro-tection and alleging that he and his sup-porters were facing threat, sources close tohim said adding the Governor had for-warded that letter to Chief Minister rec-ommending action.

Elsewhere the BJP Government hadprepared a list of 25 leaders --- who werelikely to quit the Trinamool Congress ---for providing them Y-plus, Y and X cate-gory security, sources said.

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The vaccines to be used areAstraZeneca, Russia’s Sputnik, ZydusCadila and Bharat Biotech.

At least 600 million shots will berequired in the first phase alone for crit-ical workers and people most at risk fromCovid-19, a list of whom has already beenprepared, as per the plan submitted byIndia at the international forum.

If India got 190-250 million shots ofthe vaccine under the Covax facility - abest case scenario - then the Governmentwould need to line up about $1.4 billionto make up for the shortfall, accordingto a news agency which quoted anunpublished report prepared for GAVI’sthree-day board meeting that began onTuesday.

On the other hand, if India receiveda lower allocation of 95-125 milliondoses, then the cost to the governmentof procuring additional shots would goup to USD1.8 billion.

By comparison, India’s 2020-21Union Budget allocated just under $10billion to healthcare. The Covax plan, co-led by the World Health Organizationand GAVI, aims to provide poor andmiddle-income countries with diagnos-tic tests, drugs and vaccines through afund known as the Access to Covid-19Tools (ACT) Accelerator, set up last April.

GAVI, an alliance of Governments,drug companies, charities and interna-

tional organisations, said it was in dis-cussions with the Government over asupport package.

“Providing a low range of supportwould exacerbate the country’s ability toallocate enough resources to mitigate therisks of continued transmission of Covid-19,” the GAVI report said.

The GAVI report identified India’seconomic burden due to the pandemicas “disproportionate” and suggested adonor-funded plan of USD1.3 billion tosecure 190-250 million doses. The planneeds to be approved by the GAVIalliance board.

According to a vaccination planshared with international donors, theUnion Health Ministry targets to inoc-ulate 10 million frontline health workersby February, 20 million essential work-ers by the following month and then 270million people by August, mostly peopleabove the age of 50 and those with otherhealth issues that make them more vul-nerable. India also needed USD30 mil-lion to USD80 million for the infra-structure to transport and store vaccinesthat must be kept at very low tempera-tures, the GAVI report said.

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The MHA had earlier asked the WestBengal Government to immediately releasethe three IPS officers for Central deputa-tion.

The three IPS officers include IFP,South Rajeev Kumar, DIG PresidencyRange Praveen Tripathy and SP South 24Parganas Bholanath Pandey. The officershave been deputed on ITBP and SSBduties, sources said.

Soon after the attack took place onDecember 10, the stated officers wereasked to report for Central deputation. Butwhen the State Government refused torelease them the Centre used its specialpowers to seek them back.

The Centre had summoned Bengal’sChief Secretary and the Director Generalof Police (DGP) reportedly to explain thelaw and order situation in the State. Theduo, however, would not respond to theCentral order saying the attack was beinginvestigated.

Incidentally Bengal Governor JagdeepDhankhar had prepared a lengthy list of“partisan” bureaucrats and had sent theirnames to the Centre, sources said.

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The Supreme Court on Thursday saidit is “not satisfied” with the work done

by the Commission for Air QualityManagement (CAQM) in the Delhi-NCRand adjoining areas, which has been con-stituted by the Centre to tackle air pol-lution.

A bench headed by Chief Justice SABobde said that even people in Delhi arenot satisfied with the work done by the

Commission on the issue of pollution.“We don’t know what your commissionis doing. People in Delhi are not satisfiedwith your work. We are also not satisfied,”said the bench, also comprising JusticesAS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta,appearing for the Centre, said theCommission is working on “war footing”

Additional Solicitor GeneralAishwarya Bhati, also appearing for theCentre, apprised the bench that they havealready filed a comprehensive affidavit asdirected by the court earlier.

The apex court said it would hear insecond week of January the petition filedby Aditya Dubey who has raised the issueof pollution caused due to stubble burn-ing in neighbouring states of Delhi.

The top court had on Monday askedthe Centre to apprise it about the stepstaken so far by the Commission to tack-le the problem of air pollution.

The Centre had informed the benchthat the government was readying a com-prehensive affidavit which would befiled in the apex court in the matter.

On November 6, the apex court hadasked the Centre to ensure there is nosmog in Delhi as it was informed that theCommission has started functioningfrom that day.

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This has been a landmark year inmore ways than one bringing abouta new normal in all aspects. It has

disrupted both personal and profession-al lives and accelerated the work fromhome culture, blending both worlds. Wegot comfortable with status quo, even inthe form of adoring a casual attireinstead of dressing up for work.

While this new trend felt like a wel-come change from the earlier workingstyle, it also brought about several set-backs for employees. With increased workhours; people were spending more timeindoors, which coupled with social iso-lation has caused a lot of stress. This is acritical issue that needs to be addressedin the coming months. Many profession-als also found work from home a chal-lenge due to lack of a dedicated homeoffice setup, lagging internet connectiv-ity, lack of proper ergonomic furniture,issues in collaborating with colleagues,unwanted distractions, acoustics andprivacy issues.

Going forward, the focus will large-ly be on enabling a smoother transitionto from home and on-premise environ-ments with technology as a key catalyst.The latter has brought with it some pos-itive changes and made us acknowledgethe things that we will need in the futurefor a smooth and comfortable workingscenario. The underlying message here isfor workplace design that catalyses thedrive to return to work, feeling safe andworry free. In this light, here are a fewworkplace trends that may emerge in2021.

Employee-centric policiesThis has been the most stressful year

for employees across various profes-sions. Companies are now trying toaddress the critical aspect of employeemental health through regular counsel-ing and well-being sessions and seminars.It will most likely continue as a majortrend in the coming year. Companies canno longer just be in business to makeprofit. They must now make a differenceto the society, especially during thesetimes of hardship and political andsocial polarisation. Employees are also

asking companies to give them flexiblework schedules, safe office facilities,paid leave, childcare, training and men-tal health support. Several organisationshave declared work from home as a per-manent working option to its employeesallowing them to feel safer and more incontrol in these unforeseen times.

Safety first Employees are now choosing safety

of the work environment over opportu-nities for professional growth. Theyexpect companies to keep their facilitiesclean, communicate regularly about theirreopening status, and maintain safeworking conditions. However, severalcompanies are integrating technology toensure workers safety. For instance, somehave an automated temperature elevationdetection solution to spot COVID-19infections in buildings. Whereas, somecompanies have an automated contacttracing tool that notifies employees whohave been in contact with another work-er who tested positive for the virus.

A hybrid workplace and workforceInstead of taking extreme approach-

es to work environments, many compa-nies have a hybrid approach. In such ascenario, employees come into the officefor a few days, while working remotelyfor the rest. They also try to plan theschedules in such a way that every per-son comes into the office on specifieddays which also allows the company tomaintain the overall occupancy. Thehybrid workplace model allows for struc-ture and sociability (at an office) whileoffering independence and flexibility (athome).

Growing demand for retraining andreskilling

COVID-19 has disrupted the global

economy, widening the skills gap. Anincrease in job automation catalyses thedemand for retraining. With a shift inbusinesses and economic demands, theskills required to do the new jobs are alsocreated. Retraining and up-skilling work-ers will become even more of a need head-ing into 2021 because of shifting marketsand growing investments in new technol-ogy. Both of these can be attributed to theimpact of the pandemic. The larger skillsgap has also made it imperative to pro-

vide more training for employees to sup-port the digital transformation needs andspeed of change. Many of these technolo-gies, like contact tracing, collaborativetools, and AI-driven software, have beenwidely adopted to support employeemental health and increase productivitywhile allowing for flexibility and safety.

The current situation has put to testmany of our ideas and thought process-es about ourselves and the world aroundus. This includes the purpose and design

of the workplace. The pandemic has notyet run its course but organisations arealready creating and evaluating theirreturn to work strategies to breathe newlife into the workplace concentrating onemployee safety and comfort. As we moveinto the new year, workplace design willbe a combination of collaboration, aesthet-ics, and experience, allowing the employ-ees to feel safe and cared for.

(The writer Swaviman Das is DesignDirector, Space Matrix.)

Stand-up star Vir Das has dropped a newcomedy special, Outside In. He says he did

not plan to make this into a show and that get-ting it to a point where it felt like he wantedto put it out was tough for him.

The comedy special is created out of 30 vir-tual shows he did during lockdown and fea-tures audience joining in from all over theworld. The special captures the mundaneaspect of being stuck at home, besides heart-warming stories about everything that lock-down put us through.

The show primarily unfolds through con-versations Vir Das has with the audience.Working from home, he said, “wasn’t difficultat all,” adding, “I had such minimal equipmentso it was quite easy to shoot. I put a cameraon a stack of books and started to shoot. So,in that sense it was not very difficult at allbecause the entire show was conversation withpeople across the world, that was a little bittough because you ended up with having a lotof footage at the end of it.”

He added, “Editing was definitely a littlehard. I didn’t even plan to put out the special.There were zero plans to make this into a show.I think just getting it to the point where it feltlike I wanted to put it out that was tough.”

He had earlier shared that the show is ded-icated to each one of us who has survived thisyear. It premieres on Netflix.

Every year Edmunds’ experts puttheir heads together to determine

the very best new vehicles on sale.Spread across eight categories, theEdmunds Top Rated Awards aregiven to the cars, trucks and SUVsthat rank at the top of their classaccording to their vehicle testing pro-gramme. That means each winnerhas been tested at the Edmunds testtrack and thoroughly evaluated overmany miles of real-world use.

We’ve highlighted the four first-time winners for 2021, along with areturning champion from last year’sawards. The vehicles are listed inascending order by manufacturer’ssuggested retail price and includedestination charges.

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Starting MSRP: $24,455What Edmunds’ experts say:

“The all-new Kia K5 has the style andsubstance to set it apart from othermidsize family sedans. It’s impressive-ly easy to drive and comfortable onlonger trips thanks to a smooth rideand an exceptionally quiet cabin.Wireless connectivity for AppleCarPlay and Android Auto smart-phone integration is standard, andthat’s just the beginning of a rich fea-ture list that somehow manages toundercut the competition on price atevery level.”

Counterpoint: The K5’s slopingroofline can make it hard to get inand out for taller rear passengers.

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Starting MSRP: $30,635What Edmunds’ experts say:

“The Edmunds Top Rated Truckmust balance capability, comfort,technology, innovative features andvalue. The Ford F-150 was alreadyone of the best pickup trucks on themarket; its significant list of additionsand improvements for 2021 couldcement its standing for years tocome. Thanks to a raft of new featuresand high-end tech advancements,including an optional hybrid power-train, the F-150 unseats the incum-bent Ram 1500 as Edmunds’ toptruck for 2021.”

Counterpoint: If you’re lookingfor a premium feel, the F-150’s cabinmight not seem as luxurious as the

Ram’s.

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Starting MSRP: $33,160What Edmunds’ experts say: “It

seems like Kia went for a ‘baby LandRover’ look and nailed it. Inside andout, the three-row midsize Telluride

has a more premium look and feelthan the competition. It also boastsan impressively smooth ride, a third-row seat roomy enough for adults,and plenty of features for the money.It was Edmunds Top Rated SUV lastyear, and it’s back in the winner’s cir-cle for 2021.”

Counterpoint: There are fewer

storage bins and cubbies than you’llfind in some rival SUVs.

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Starting MSRP: $43,995What Edmunds’ experts say: “In

some cases, a non-luxury brandenters luxury territory with an EVoffering, and so it is with the all-newFord Mustang Mach-E. An electricSUV with Mustang-influencedstyling, the Mach-E stands out withits premium cabin and easy-to-usecontrols. It lives up to its Mustangnamesake, too, with approximately300 miles or so between charges,depending on configuration, plus aprojected 0-60 mph time of lessthan four seconds in the forthcom-ing GT version.”

Counterpoint: The Mach-E’sfront seats can be somewhat uncom-fortable for taller drivers.

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Starting MSRP: $55,300What Edmunds’ experts say: “A

true luxury experience is the mainfocus of this award, but value is alsotaken strongly into account. TheMercedes-Benz E-Class delivers onboth fronts, with a refresh for 2021helping it move into the No. 1 spotfor this category. A particular high-light is the car’s new infotainmentsystem that allows you to operatemost of the car’s systems with voicecommands. On top of that is the E-Class’ peerless combination of a pre-mium interior, a smooth ride, top-notch construction and excellentadvanced driver safety aids.”

Counterpoint: The E-Classsedan’s trunk capacity is small by seg-ment standards, although the avail-able E-Class wagon solves that prob-lem.

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Nutrition and health are going tobe the key drivers of foodtrends as strengthening immu-

nity would be the primary consumerfocus at least for the next few years aswe approach the dawn of 2021.

Food safety in terms of safe andhygienic cooking processes and thekind of food is consumed will be themain emphasis. Health will largelyoverrule taste because consumers aregradually realising that delicious foodbut cooked in unhygienic and unsan-itary conditions could be extremelydamaging to their health and can cre-ate problems beyond the joy of con-suming delicious food. In India, it isoften assumed that salads are mosthealthy, it is not necessarily truebecause the water is also unsafe.Therefore, it would be advisable forpeople to consume cooked/boiledfood rather than uncooked/raw food.

GO GREENThere will be an increased con-

sumption of greens and vegetableswhich are easy to digest such as mil-lets, wheat and rice and lower intakeof fried foods and meats because theyare perceived to be less healthy,though it is not always the case.

There will be a spike in the con-sumption of foods like avocados,fruits and cereal-based options.

IMPORTANCE OF HYGIENEDue to safety concerns, food

from roadside eateries and unregulat-ed food stalls within and around cor-porate hubs are going to see a signif-icant dip.

Conscious eatingConsumers will be more aware of

the risks associated with consumptionof outside meals and hence, make theright food choices. For example, eggshave the highest consumption risks,about which, unfortunately, most

people are not aware. It is because ofthe contamination in eggs and theinfection they can potentially carry.Most food service providers do notfocus adequately on sanitisation ofeggs and this is a cause for concern,

especially in India. Also, an inclina-tion towards vegetarianism is on therise given the concern around con-sumption of chicken, the most-wide-ly consumed non-vegetarian fooditem in India.

TECH-DRIVEN CAFESTechnology will be a key driver of

innovation in the food industry andwill enable true analysis of consump-tion patterns, enforcing safety, socialdistancing norms and monitoringthem on digital platforms.

SMARTER USE OF FOOD WASTEApart from this, food waste is an

increasing and alarming concern atends, including the food system andthe climate. Studies have shown thatbetween 30 to 40 per cent of the foodsupply gets wasted on a yearly basis.The impact further becomes graverwhen we look at the water, energy, andland resources which were utilised forproducing food that never even getsconsumed.

The awareness of food waste isincreasing and has already started totake roots in India. As a result, manymanufacturers and producers arenow making an effort to use ingredi-ents that would normally be wasted.This concept is promising as it pro-motes good health and reduction offood wastage simultaneously. Hence,the upcycled food is going to be atrend. It is similar to the agenda ofupcycled furniture — using a discard-ed material and turning it into some-thing useable, which means ediblewhen it comes to food.

Companies across the world areinnovating and we can today see ayoghurt company using surplus fruitand whey, a bi-product of yoghurtproduction process, to make probiot-ic tonics and frozen probiotic pops.Another such brand is using leftoverfruits and vegetables to make chipswithout the use of preservatives andso on. Chefs too are innovating andmaking optimum use of the peels ofvegetables and fruits in dishes as thispart of the nature’s produce is large-ly ignored or neglected or used inef-ficiently by many.

We can’t have the luxury of beingable to casually toss the scraps.Rather, the businesses that pull aheadare those that make smarter use of‘waste’ products. Consumers careabout the environment just as muchas they care about their food sources.Upcycling combines the two andgives you a powerful messaging tool.And it’s only going to get better asmore and more consumers under-stand what goes into upcycling. Asthere is increasing awareness aboutupcycled food, people do not want towaste food.

As the food production industrycontinues to feel the economic andenvironmental implications of foodwaste, more companies are creatingchannels and partnerships to sourceupcycled ingredients, thus helping tocurb the amount of food that goes towaste globally per annum.

Well, consumers in 2021 areexpected to make healthier foodchoices and focus on boosting theirimmunity to be better equipped forthe challenges in the post-pandemicworld.

(The writer is CEO & MD, EliorIndia.)

If you’re thinking about growing apples, takesome time to test the varieties and talk with the

local growers.I grow an apple called Hudson’s Golden Gem

and I do so for one reason. Yes, this apple’s rus-seted, golden skin is beautiful. But it’s theflavour that puts it above the rest.

When you buy apples at the store or orchard,your choice is limited to the dozen or so varietiesthat have been chosen because they look pretty,ship well, store well and have flavour with broadappeal.

We gardeners, on the other hand, can plantany of more than 5,000 apple varieties that strikeour fancy. And we can plant and harvest with-out regard to a variety’s appearance, shelf-life orother commercial attributes.

What the doyen of horticulture, Liberty HydeBailey, said early in the last century aboutapples applies equally well today — “Why do weneed so many kinds? Because there are so manyfolks. A person has the right to gratify his legit-imate tastes (and) should be accorded that priv-ilege.”

We can also harvest at each variety’s peak ofperfection. My Macoun apples, for instance, tastedifferent — and much better — than anyMacoun apples I can buy. One reason is becauseI don’t harvest mine until they are so ripe, theyare about to or have fallen from the branches.

Here are some other flavourful apples I’veplanted. They may have other shortcomings, butthey all taste great.

Ashmead’s Kernel originated more than 200years ago in a Dr Ashmead’s garden in Gloucesterin England. The fruit is a russetted golden brownwith a reddish-bronze cheek when struck by sun-light. Inside, a delicious, crisp, yellow flesh.

Cox’s Orange Pippin is another old varietythat originated in England, thanks to a retiredbrewer named Richard Cox, in 1825. The colour,orange and red, washed with carmine over a yel-low background, limits its market. Prized strict-ly for its flavour, Cox is still grown by Britishfarmers despite some commercial flaws.

Ellison’s Orange is a British apple, a relativeyoungster, that originated in Lincolnshire in 1911.It’s a late summer or early fall apple, golden yel-low with carmine stripes, with juicy flesh and avinous flavour that hints of anise. Cox Orange

Pippin is one of its parents.Not all the good apples come from England.

Macoun, for instance, originated in New York,in 1923, with McIntosh as one of its parents.Hudson’s Golden Gem originated in an Oregonfencerow in 1931.

Another American apple that I’ve grown isNewtown Pippin, which originated in New YorkCity (Queens) about 300 years ago. The light yel-low fruit, tart with a hint of tangerine, rounds outthe apple season by not developing its best fla-vor until it’s been in storage until after Christmas.As testimonial to its good flavour, NewtownPippins were shipped to England in colonialtimes.

And superior flavour isn’t limited to old applevarieties, British or American. Mutsu (Crispin)came from Japan in 1948. This large, round, yel-low apple has a delicate, spicy flavour and a pleas-antly coarse texture that is reminiscent of bitinginto a snowball.

Jonagold was introduced only 40 years agofrom the New York State Agricultural ExperimentStation. It combines the flavours of its parents,the sprightly Jonathan and the aromatic GoldenDelicious. The large fruits are yellow with a splashof light scarlet. Jonagold also has a nice “crack-ing” flavour — the crisp fruits explode in yourmouth with juice and a delicious taste.

I round out my present collection with thevariety Liberty, also from New York, dating to1978. Besides an excellent flavour, not surpris-ing with Macoun as one of its parents, Liberty isresistant to the major apple diseases.

The above is only a sampling of the manygreat-tasting apple varieties. Take a little time totaste a lot of varieties and speak to locals in yourarea and you might find other varieties that tick-le your tastebuds and are well-suited locally.

Before you get too enthusiastic about plant-ing apples, a word of caution — apples are notan easy fruit to grow in many regions. The plantsrequire annual pruning and pest control. (EvenLiberty, although disease-resistant, still getsattacked by insects.)

But if you’re willing to learn about pests andmake the efforts to thwart them, a few trees ofapple varieties selected for excellence in flavourwill reward you with years of delectable eating.

—AP

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Star Australian bats-man David Warner

on Thursday said hewas aiming to play theBoxing Day Test againstIndia in Melbourne,calling his injury-enforced absence fromthe opening clash inAdelaide “devastating”.

Warner limped outof Australia’s secondone-day internationalagainst the tourists lastmonth in agony afterstraining his groin.

“I am (hopeful),that’s one that I neverwant to miss out on,”Warner told Australiansports radio network

SEN about theMelbourne Test.

“(Adelaide’s) myfirst missed Testthrough injury so I’mobviously very disap-pointed with that. Withthe big series that it is,it’s devastating to miss aTest but I know that theguys who are walkingout there are going toput their best foot for-ward.”

With only nine daysuntil the MelbourneTest, Warner said thathe planned to increasethe intensity of his rehabwork.

“Hopefully I can getup and about and startrunning at a highertempo,” he said. “I man-aged to get up to 14kilometres an hour(8.7mph) so I’ve got towork towards a max of26 to 30 kilometres anhour by next week. If Ican run between wick-ets and move laterallyand do some groundfielding by the end ofnext week, I should beready to go. Fingers arecrossed.”

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Virat Kohli’s enduringlove affair with AdelaideOval resulted in a classy

74 but his untimely run-outtriggered a batting collapse asIndia ended the opening day at233 for 6 against Australia inthe first Day/Night Test hereon Thursday.

Kohli, who looked in com-plete command, was run outwhen his deputy AjinkyaRahane backed out after call-ing for a singleand it happenedjust before thesecond new ballwas taken.

From a comfortable 188for 3, India slumped to 206 for6 as Rahane and HanumaVihari (16) found the pace andswing generated by the pinkball under lights too hot tohandle.

Ravichandran Ashwin (15batting) and Wriddhiman Saha(9 batting) saw off the final fewovers and also got a few runs.

In conditions, which can’texactly be called batting friend-ly, Kohli blended the rightamount of caution and aggres-sion in his 180-ball innings,showing one and all that he isa few lightyears ahead of hispeers when it comes to quali-ty batsmanship.

If Cheteshwar Pujara (43off 160 balls) let bowlers dic-tate terms with an ultra-defen-sive approach, his skipper gaveopposition the respect itdeserved but also from time totime, played those shots todrive home a point.

His 88-run partnershipwith Rahane (42 off 91 balls)during the final session nearlyput India on even keel but for-tunes tilted once Kohli wasback in the pavilion. Rahanewas soon snapped with the sec-ond new ball by Mitchell Starc(2/49), easily the best bowler inaction.

Earlier, Pujara’s ultra-defensive approach became hisown undoing as India literallycrawled during the first two

sessions. So intent was Pujaraon blocking anything and leav-ing everything for the betterpart of his innings, that a 68-run stand for the third wicketwith Kohli couldn’t releasepressure going into the secondbreak of the evening.

In the morning, PrithviShaw’s (0) poor technique wasonce again exposed by Starcwhile Mayank Agarwal (17) gota beauty from Pat Cummins.

The Australian pace troikaof Starc (2/49 in 19 overs), JoshHazlewood (1/47 in 20 overs)and Pat Cummins (1/42 in 19overs) bowled a very steady linecomprising mostly of fullerdeliveries.

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The refurbished Sardar Patel stadi-um in Ahmedabad will host the

knock-out matches of the SyedMushtaq Ali T20 championship, fromJanuary 20-31.

As per the letter shared by BCCIsecretary Jay Shah to all the secretariesof the state associations, the teams havebeen divided into six Groups — fiveElite Groups and one Plate Group withMumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Indore,Chennai and Vadodara being thevenues for league games.

Chennai will be hosting thematches of the Plate Group, whichcomprises eight teams, while theother 30 teams have been divided intofive Elite Groups, with each Group,having six teams.

The knock-outs are scheduled tostart on January 26, with the quarter-finals to be played on January 26 and27, while the two semi-finals will beplayed on January 29 and the final onJanuary 31 in Ahmedabad.

The players will have to undergothree Covid-19 tests on January 2, 4and 6, the results of which will bedeclared on the subsequent day.

Even before the knock-outs, theplayers will be undergoing two Covid-

19 tests, one on January 20 and theother on January 22.

Karnataka, who are the defendingchampions, have been placed in EliteGroup A, and will be playing theirmatches in Bengaluru. Domesticgiants Mumbai have been placed inElite Group E and will play theirmatches in Mumbai, while Bengalhave been placed in Elite Group B andwill play their matches in Kolkata.

��Elite Group A: Karnataka, Punjab,Uttar Pradesh, Railways, Tripura, Jammu& Kashmir (Venue — Bengaluru)Elite Group B: Odisha, Bengal,Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Assam,Hyderabad (Venue — Kolkata)Elite Group C: Gujarat, Maharashtra,Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh,Baroda, Uttarakhand (Venue —Vadodara)Elite Group D: Services, Saurashtra,Vidarbha, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh,Goa (Venue — Indore)Elite Group E: Haryana, AndhraPradesh, Delhi, Mumbai, Kerala,Puducherry (Venue — Mumbai)Plate Group: Chandigarh, Meghalaya,Bihar, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram,Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh (Venue —Chennai).

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9�� $�/�C�� The run out of Indiaskipper Virat Kohli was “mas-sive” and it turned to be amomentum-shifting moment,says Nathan Lyon as the hostssnared quick wickets towards theend of the opening day of thefirst Test to walk off the fieldsmiling on Thursday.

India looked pretty settled at188 for three when a terriblemix-up between Ajinkya

Rahane and Kohli resulted inrun out of the Indian captain,who made 74. When the day’sproceedings ended, India were233 for six.

“It was massive. A wicketlike that, run out, specially ofVirat is massive. It was good tobe back on board after theAshes. He was batting prettywell, so happy with that,” Lyonsaid after the day’s play.

Lyon said the Australiandressing room was happy withthe way things panned out forthem on Thursday. “Definitelysatisfying, but we can get a lotbetter. We are very happy withwhere we are at but can keeppushing the boundaries andkeep getting better as a bowlingunit. We are happy, but still lotof work to do,” Lyon, who dis-missed Pujara, said. PTI

� �� %��+'&�"'��. ��' &� ��%9�� It took CheteshwarPujara 148 balls to get his firstboundary but not for once didthe senior India batsman feelthat he batted too slowly duringthe opening day’s play in the firstPink ball Test on Thursday.

Pujara, who scored a sedate43 off 160 balls, feels that a firstinnings total of 350 would bevery handy for the visitors.

Asked if he felt that he couldhave paced his innings better,the Saurashtra man had anemphatic no for an answer.

“Not at all. We were in avery good position in the firsttwo sessions,” said Pujara,defending the 41 scored by theteam in the first session and 66runs that were scored in the sec-ond. “We needed to make surethat we don’t lose wickets whenthe ball is swinging. It was agreat day of Test cricket andthere are no regrets at all aboutthe strategy. We couldn’t havelost more wickets playing shotsand getting bowled in a day,”said Pujara. PTI

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