4 5˛...2021/01/29  · the three farm laws and section d contains questions on the msp. the last...

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T o register their protest over the controversial farm leg- islation, leaders of 16 Opposition parties on Thursday announced they will boycott President Ram Nath Kovind’s address to Parliament on Friday. In a joint statement issued, they said they have decided to stay away from the President’s address in both the Houses of Parliament, reaffirming “the collective demand” for repeal of the farm laws and in solidari- ty with the agitating farmers. Describing the Opposition parties’ move to boycott the President’s address to Parliament as the “most unfor- tunate”, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi on Thursday urged them to recon- sider their decision. Talking to reporters here, he said the issues cited by the Opposition parties for boy- cotting the President’s address can be raised during the debate on the motion of thanks. He said the President was above party politics and the BJP as an Opposition party never boycotted the President’s address. Slamming opposition par- ties for their decision to boycott the President’s address to Parliament, the BJP on Thursday accused them of "constitutional and moral bankruptcy”. Among the parties signa- tories to the statement are Congress, NCP, Trinamool Congress, Shiv Sena, SP, RJD, DMK, CPI, CPI(M), among others. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is not a signato- ry of the joint statement, has also announced that its mem- bers in the House will boycott the President’s address. The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has also announced that it will boycott the President’s address over farm laws. This will be the second time in a row when the Opposition will stay away from the President’s address — a constitutional requirement before any session of the Parliament to begin. Last year, the Opposition parties had staged a protest in front of Ambedkar statue in support of those opposing the citizenship amendment law. The joint statement of the Opposition parties says that the farm laws were brought “with- out any consultations with States and farmer unions and lacked national consensus”. The parliamentary scrutiny was bypassed and the laws were pushed through muzzling the Opposition,” it said. “The farm laws are an assault on the rights of the States and violate the federal spirit of the Constitution. If not repealed, these laws will dis- mantle the edifice of National Food Security that rests upon MSP, Government procure- ment and PDS,” the statement said accusing the Prime Minister and the BJP Government remains arrogant, adamant and undemocratic in their response. Continued on Page 2 K eeping the Covid protocols of social distancing, the Budget Session of Parliament will begin on Friday with the President’s address to both the Houses (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha) seated in three different locations for the first time. While 144 members of Parliament will be seated in the Central Hall, including the Council of Ministers, Chairpersons of various Committees of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, leaders of differ- ent parties and groups in both the Houses, former Prime Ministers and national presi- dents of BJP and Congress. The remaining members of Parliament will be seated in the chambers of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha as per the Covid induced physical distancing norms. Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu took the Covid test ahead of the session and so were several members of Rajya Sabha. A total of 1,209 officials and staff of the Rajya Sabha Secretariat also was adminis- tered Covid test as part of the preparations for the Budget Session. Continued on Page 2 A fter Ghaziabad adminis- tration asked protesting farmers to vacate UP Gate protest site by Thursday mid- night tension is brewing in the area with union leader Rakesh Tikait remaining adamant and said he would commit suicide but won’t end the stir. A confrontation was build- ing up at the UP Gate in Ghazipur bordering Delhi with heavy security deployed while frequent power cuts were wit- nessed at the protest site, where Bharatiya Kisan Union mem- bers, led by Tikait, are staying put since November 28. However, two days after the tractor parade turned violent the crowd at the protest sites in Delhi’s Singhu and Tikri bor- ders was visibly thin on Thursday. Farmer unions said it was because the protesters, who had come to Delhi to take part in January 26 march, have returned home. The “verbal” communica- tion from the district adminis- tration to BKU comes after three farmers union withdrew their protest over the violence on Republic Day. “Ghaziabad DM Ajay Shankar Pandey has commu- nicated to the protestors camp- ing at the UP Gate at Delhi bor- der to vacate the spot by tonight or the administration will remove them,” a district official told PTI. Continued on Page 2 T he Delhi Police on Thursday issued 44 look- out notices to protesters and farmer leaders named in an First Information Report (FIR) in connection with the vio- lence during the farmers’ trac- tor parade on Republic Day. Police also asked union leaders to surrender their passports and also invoked sedition charges in a case of the Red Fort incident as the force intensified its investiga- tion. Police has registered 33 FIRs out of which nine FIRs filed at Samaypur Badli police station, Kotwali police sta- tion which is near Red Fort, I P Estate police station at ITO, Pandav Nagar, Nangloi and Najafgarh police stations, have been transferred to Crime Branch. The Special Cell of Delhi Police has also summoned six farmer leaders and has asked them to join the police inves- tigation at their office. Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the violence on Republic Day was unfortunate but it would not end the farmers’ move- ment against the three agri laws. He also said strictest punishment must be given to those responsible for the vio- lence. Earlier in the day, Union Home Minister Amit Shah along with Home Secretary, Ajay Kumar Bhalla and Delhi Police Commissioner SN Shrivastava visited Sushruta Trauma Centre and Tirath Ram Shah Hospital to enquire about the health of policemen injured in the violence during the farmers’ tractor parade on Republic Day. Continued on Page 2 T he Bharatiya Kisan Union (Lok Shakti) here on Thursday announced it was ending its protest against the new central farm laws. BKU (Lok Shakti) chief Sheoraj Singh made the announce- ment during a press conference here, a day after two other farmers’ union ended their stir. “The protest has been called off,” BKU (Lok Shakti) spokesperson Shailesh Kumar Giri told PTI. The farmers' union had been camping at the Dalit Prerna Sthal since December 2, demanding with- drawal of the three new farm laws. T The Haryana Government has extended the suspen- sion of mobile Internet ser- vices in Sonipat, Jhajjar and Palwal districts till Friday 5 pm “to prevent disturbance of peace and public order”. “... It has been brought to my notice by ADGP, CID, Haryana … that the situation is still tense and violence may simmer in the areas of Delhi adjoining State of Haryana which aroused in view of law and order situation created during tractor parade on January 26 by protestors, agi- tators, miscreants and anti- social elements..,” Haryana’s Home Department order said. T he Supreme Court- appointed committee on farm laws has sought sugges- tions from all stakeholders engaged in agricultural activi- ties or any other activity relat- ed to it over the three farm laws and the minimum support price (MSP) by February 20. The committee has pre- pared a feedback form which includes 20 multiple questions, divided into five sections. Sections A, B, and C deal with the three farm laws and section D contains questions on the MSP. The last section, E, seeks the respondents’ suggestions. The questions include: Are you aware about the Act deal- ing with contract farming? Where do you sell your prod- ucts? What are the three main products you sell? Do you sell your produce at MSP and whom do you sell? The panel has made a request to all the concerned to share their com- ments, views and suggestions so that they can be compiled and presented before the SC. Section A is related to the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020 and it contains eight questions and respondents will have to answer in only “yes” and “no”. The questions are: Are you aware about this Act? Where do you sell your produce? Do you feel that the provisions in the Act will give more choice to the farmers to sell their produce beyond APMC markets? Will such an arrangement benefit farmers in realising better prices of their produce? There are apprehensions that the pro- visions in the Act will collapse APMC markets. Do you feel so? If yes, how it will be respon- sible for the collapse of APMC markets? Do you think that the Act will provide opportunities for electronic trading? The Act proposed that any person (other than individual) having a PAN or FPO or coop- erative society can create elec- tronic platform and trade. Do you wish to propose any mod- ification to this provision? Continued on Page 2 A s stalemate continued at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) for the last nine months, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Thursday the incidents in Ladakh last year have “profoundly” dis- turbed ties with China. Making this assertion, he cautioned the relations between the two countries were at cross- roads and choices that are made will have profound reper- cussions not just for two neigh- bours but for the entire world. Expressing concern over these events, Jaishankar stressed eight broad princi- ples for repairing ties between India and China. They includ- ed strict adherence to all agree- ments on management of the LAC, mutual respect and sen- sitivity, and recognising each other’s aspirations as rising Asian powers. Sharing these observations during an address at an online conference on India-China ties, the Minister said, “The events last year have profoundly dis- turbed the relationship and asserted that any attempt to unilaterally change the status quo along the LAC is com- pletely unacceptable”. Jaishankar’s remarks came days after the ninth round of Corps Commander-level talks on Sunday could not break the logjam. Similarly, the diplo- matic-level parleys over the past few months also failed to restore peace at the tense LAC. The External Affairs Minister said any expectation that the situation at the border “can be brushed aside and life can carry on undisturbed” is simply not realistic. Jaishankar said the India- China relationship is truly at the crossroads today and choic- es that are made will have pro- found repercussions not just for the two nations but for the entire world. He said the Chinese actions in eastern Ladakh not only sig- naled a disregard for commit- ments about minimising troops level but also showed a will- ingness to breach peace and tranquility. “Significantly, to date, we have yet to receive a credible explanation for the change in China’s stance and massing of troops in border areas,” he said at the All India Conference on China Studies. Elaborating on eight points for moving forward in bilater- al ties, the External Affairs Minister said agreements already reached on manage- ment of the LAC must be adhered to in their entirety and in letter and spirit. He also reit- erated any attempt to unilater- ally change the status quo is completely unacceptable. While both nations are committed to a multi-polar world, Jaishankar said, there should be a recognition that a multi-polar Asia is one of its essential consequences. Continued on Page 2 T he Supreme Court on Thursday said control over TV programmes having “insti- gating effect” is as important as providing “lathis” to policemen for law and order, and slammed the Centre for “doing nothing” to curb such shows. Hearing a plea on the media reporting issue in the Tablighi Jamaat case, a bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde also referred to the internet shutdown in some areas of Delhi on January 26 when the tractor parade by farmers protesting against three new farm laws turned violent, leaving 300 policemen and scores of others injured. “Fair and truthful report- ing is normally not a problem. Problem is when it is used to agitate others. It is as important as providing ‘lathis’ to police- men. It is an important pre- ventive part of the law and order situation,” said the bench, also comprising Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian. Continued on Page 2 I ndia has carried out the fifth highest number of Covid-19 vaccinations by inoculating 2.03 million people till January 26. India has administered over 25 lakh vaccine doses so far, till Thursday afternoon. According to the Health Ministry, the number of active cases are declining, there are 1,75,000 active cases in the country as of now. Two States still have 40,000 or more active cases and contribute 67 per cent of the total caseload — Kerala with 72,000 active cases and Maharashtra with 44,000 active cases. Addressing a Press confer- ence, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said India has become the fastest country to reach one million Covid-19 vaccination. “We achieved this within 6 days, the US did this in 10 days, Spain in 12 days, Israel in 14 days, the UK in 18 days, Italy in 19 days, Germany in 20 days and UAE in 27 days,” said Bhushan. “As per our world data till January 26, India, which launched its nationwide vacci- nation drive on January 16, had carried out the fifth highest number of vaccinations in the world by vaccinating 2.03 mil- lion people. The important point is many other countries are showing their progress for over 50 days while India is showing its vaccination on January 26 after just 11 days,” Bhushan said. Till January 26, the US had administered 23.54 million doses, the UK 7.64 million doses, the UAE 2.76 million doses, Germany 1.99 million doses, Italy 1.58 million doses, Spain 1.36 million doses and France 1.14 million doses. Bhushan said that the number of beneficiaries who have been vaccinated against Covid-19 in India since the nationwide drive was rolled out has reached 25,07,556 till January 28 at 2 pm. Lakshadweep (83.4 pc), Odisha (50.7 pc), Haryana (50 pc), Andaman and Nicobar Islands (48.3 pc), Rajasthan (46.8 pc), Tripura (45.6 pc), Mizoram (40.5 pc), Telangana (40.3 pc), Andhra Pradesh (38.1 pc), Karnataka (35.6 pc) and Madhya Pradesh (35.5 pc) are among the better perform- ing States with over 35 per cent vaccination coverage of health- care workers, he said. Continued on Page 2 Washington: US President Joe Biden’s pick for the ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, on Wednesday did not explicitly commit the support of the new administration for India to be a permanent member of the Security Council. Three previous adminis- trations, that of George W Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump, had publicly said that the United States sup- ports India’s bid to be a per- manent member of the UN Security Council. However, Thomas- Greenfield, who has spent more than 35 years in foreign service before being nominated to the position, during her confir- mation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee told lawmakers that this is a matter of ongoing discussion. “Do you think India, Germany, Japan, should be (permanent) members (of the UN Security Council),” Senator Jeff Merkley from Oregon asked during her confirmation hearing for the position of the US Ambassador to the UN. “I think there has been some discussions about them being members of the Security Council and there are some strong arguments for that. “But I also know that there are others who disagree with- in their regions that they should be the representative of their region. That, too, is an ongoing discussion,” she said in an apparent reference to the Coffee Club or United for Consensus. Continued on Page 2 I ndia will soon make available more Covid-19 vaccines to other countries after two Made-in-India jabs have already been introduced to the world, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday while emphasising India’s global responsibility in fighting the pandemic. In a special address at the World Economic Forum’s online Davos Agenda Summit, Modi also said he wants to assure the global business com- munity that situation will now change rapidly on the eco- nomic front also and invited businesses from all over to participate in the country’s growth journey. Modi said that some had said in February-March 2020 that India would be the worst affected country by COVID-19 and would face a “tsunami of corona infections”. “Some had talked about 70-80 crore people expected to get infected in India, while some talked about over 20 lakh possible deaths but India did not let the disappointment get better of it,” he said. Continued on Page 2

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Page 1: 4 5˛...2021/01/29  · the three farm laws and section D contains questions on the MSP. The last section, E, seeks the respondents’ suggestions. The questions include: Are you aware

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To register their protest overthe controversial farm leg-

islation, leaders of 16Opposition parties onThursday announced they willboycott President Ram NathKovind’s address to Parliamenton Friday.

In a joint statement issued,they said they have decided tostay away from the President’saddress in both the Houses ofParliament, reaffirming “thecollective demand” for repeal ofthe farm laws and in solidari-ty with the agitating farmers.

Describing the Oppositionparties’ move to boycott thePresident’s address toParliament as the “most unfor-tunate”, Parliamentary AffairsMinister Pralhad Joshi onThursday urged them to recon-sider their decision.

Talking to reporters here,he said the issues cited by theOpposition parties for boy-cotting the President’s addresscan be raised during the debateon the motion of thanks.

He said the President wasabove party politics and the BJPas an Opposition party neverboycotted the President’saddress.

Slamming opposition par-ties for their decision to boycottthe President’s address toParliament, the BJP onThursday accused them of"constitutional and moral

bankruptcy”.Among the parties signa-

tories to the statement areCongress, NCP, TrinamoolCongress, Shiv Sena, SP, RJD,DMK, CPI, CPI(M), amongothers.

The Aam Aadmi Party(AAP), which is not a signato-ry of the joint statement, hasalso announced that its mem-bers in the House will boycottthe President’s address. TheShiromani Akali Dal (SAD) hasalso announced that it willboycott the President’s addressover farm laws.

This will be the second

time in a row when theOpposition will stay away fromthe President’s address — aconstitutional requirementbefore any session of theParliament to begin. Last year,the Opposition parties hadstaged a protest in front ofAmbedkar statue in support ofthose opposing the citizenshipamendment law.

The joint statement of theOpposition parties says that thefarm laws were brought “with-out any consultations withStates and farmer unions andlacked national consensus”. Theparliamentary scrutiny was

bypassed and the laws werepushed through muzzling theOpposition,” it said.

“The farm laws are anassault on the rights of theStates and violate the federalspirit of the Constitution. If notrepealed, these laws will dis-mantle the edifice of NationalFood Security that rests uponMSP, Government procure-ment and PDS,” the statementsaid accusing the PrimeMinister and the BJPGovernment remains arrogant,adamant and undemocratic intheir response.

Continued on Page 2

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Keeping the Covid protocolsof social distancing, the

Budget Session of Parliamentwill begin on Friday with thePresident’s address to both theHouses (Lok Sabha and RajyaSabha) seated in three differentlocations for the first time.

While 144 members ofParliament will be seated in theCentral Hall, including theCouncil of Ministers,Chairpersons of variousCommittees of Lok Sabha andRajya Sabha, leaders of differ-ent parties and groups in boththe Houses, former PrimeMinisters and national presi-dents of BJP and Congress. Theremaining members ofParliament will be seated in thechambers of Lok Sabha andRajya Sabha as per the Covidinduced physical distancingnorms.

Rajya Sabha Chairman MVenkaiah Naidu took the Covidtest ahead of the session and sowere several members of RajyaSabha. A total of 1,209 officialsand staff of the Rajya SabhaSecretariat also was adminis-tered Covid test as part of thepreparations for the BudgetSession.

Continued on Page 2

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After Ghaziabad adminis-tration asked protesting

farmers to vacate UP Gateprotest site by Thursday mid-night tension is brewing in thearea with union leader RakeshTikait remaining adamant andsaid he would commit suicidebut won’t end the stir.

A confrontation was build-ing up at the UP Gate inGhazipur bordering Delhi withheavy security deployed whilefrequent power cuts were wit-nessed at the protest site, whereBharatiya Kisan Union mem-bers, led by Tikait, are stayingput since November 28.

However, two days after thetractor parade turned violentthe crowd at the protest sites inDelhi’s Singhu and Tikri bor-ders was visibly thin onThursday. Farmer unions saidit was because the protesters,who had come to Delhi to takepart in January 26 march, havereturned home.

The “verbal” communica-tion from the district adminis-tration to BKU comes afterthree farmers union withdrewtheir protest over the violenceon Republic Day.

“Ghaziabad DM AjayShankar Pandey has commu-nicated to the protestors camp-ing at the UP Gate at Delhi bor-der to vacate the spot bytonight or the administrationwill remove them,” a districtofficial told PTI.

Continued on Page 2

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The Delhi Police onThursday issued 44 look-

out notices to protesters andfarmer leaders named in anFirst Information Report (FIR)in connection with the vio-lence during the farmers’ trac-tor parade on Republic Day.

Police also asked unionleaders to surrender theirpassports and also invokedsedition charges in a case ofthe Red Fort incident as theforce intensified its investiga-tion. Police has registered 33FIRs out of which nine FIRsfiled at Samaypur Badli policestation, Kotwali police sta-tion which is near Red Fort, IP Estate police station at ITO,Pandav Nagar, Nangloi andNajafgarh police stations, havebeen transferred to CrimeBranch.

The Special Cell of Delhi

Police has also summoned sixfarmer leaders and has askedthem to join the police inves-tigation at their office.

Meanwhile, Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal saidthe violence on Republic Daywas unfortunate but it wouldnot end the farmers’ move-ment against the three agrilaws. He also said strictestpunishment must be given tothose responsible for the vio-lence.

Earlier in the day, UnionHome Minister Amit Shahalong with Home Secretary,Ajay Kumar Bhalla and DelhiPolice Commissioner SNShrivastava visited SushrutaTrauma Centre and TirathRam Shah Hospital to enquireabout the health of policemeninjured in the violence duringthe farmers’ tractor parade onRepublic Day.

Continued on Page 2

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The Bharatiya Kisan Union(Lok Shakti) here on

Thursday announced it wasending its protest against thenew central farm laws. BKU(Lok Shakti) chief SheorajSingh made the announce-ment during a press conferencehere, a day after two otherfarmers’ union ended theirstir.

“The protest has beencalled off,” BKU (Lok Shakti)spokesperson Shailesh KumarGiri told PTI. The farmers'union had been camping at theDalit Prerna Sthal sinceDecember 2, demanding with-drawal of the three new farmlaws.

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TThe Haryana Governmenthas extended the suspen-

sion of mobile Internet ser-vices in Sonipat, Jhajjar andPalwal districts till Friday 5 pm“to prevent disturbance ofpeace and public order”.

“... It has been brought tomy notice by ADGP, CID,Haryana … that the situationis still tense and violence maysimmer in the areas of Delhiadjoining State of Haryanawhich aroused in view of lawand order situation createdduring tractor parade onJanuary 26 by protestors, agi-tators, miscreants and anti-social elements..,” Haryana’sHome Department order said.

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The Supreme Court-appointed committee on

farm laws has sought sugges-tions from all stakeholdersengaged in agricultural activi-ties or any other activity relat-ed to it over the three farm lawsand the minimum supportprice (MSP) by February 20.

The committee has pre-pared a feedback form whichincludes 20 multiple questions,divided into five sections.Sections A, B, and C deal withthe three farm laws and sectionD contains questions on theMSP. The last section, E, seeksthe respondents’ suggestions.

The questions include: Areyou aware about the Act deal-ing with contract farming?Where do you sell your prod-ucts? What are the three mainproducts you sell? Do you sellyour produce at MSP andwhom do you sell? The panelhas made a request to all theconcerned to share their com-ments, views and suggestionsso that they can be compiledand presented before the SC.

Section A is related to theFarmers’ Produce Trade andCommerce (Promotion andFacilitation) Act, 2020 and itcontains eight questions andrespondents will have to answerin only “yes” and “no”. Thequestions are: Are you awareabout this Act? Where do yousell your produce? Do you feelthat the provisions in the Actwill give more choice to thefarmers to sell their producebeyond APMC markets? Willsuch an arrangement benefitfarmers in realising betterprices of their produce? Thereare apprehensions that the pro-visions in the Act will collapseAPMC markets. Do you feelso? If yes, how it will be respon-sible for the collapse of APMCmarkets? Do you think that theAct will provide opportunitiesfor electronic trading?

The Act proposed that anyperson (other than individual)having a PAN or FPO or coop-erative society can create elec-tronic platform and trade. Doyou wish to propose any mod-ification to this provision?

Continued on Page 2

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As stalemate continued atthe Line of Actual Control

(LAC) for the last nine months,External Affairs Minister SJaishankar said on Thursdaythe incidents in Ladakh lastyear have “profoundly” dis-turbed ties with China.

Making this assertion, hecautioned the relations betweenthe two countries were at cross-roads and choices that aremade will have profound reper-cussions not just for two neigh-bours but for the entire world.

Expressing concern overthese events, Jaishankarstressed eight broad princi-ples for repairing ties betweenIndia and China. They includ-ed strict adherence to all agree-ments on management of theLAC, mutual respect and sen-sitivity, and recognising eachother’s aspirations as risingAsian powers.

Sharing these observationsduring an address at an onlineconference on India-China ties,the Minister said, “The eventslast year have profoundly dis-turbed the relationship andasserted that any attempt tounilaterally change the status

quo along the LAC is com-pletely unacceptable”.

Jaishankar’s remarks camedays after the ninth round ofCorps Commander-level talkson Sunday could not break thelogjam. Similarly, the diplo-matic-level parleys over thepast few months also failed torestore peace at the tense LAC.

The External AffairsMinister said any expectationthat the situation at the border“can be brushed aside and lifecan carry on undisturbed” issimply not realistic.

Jaishankar said the India-China relationship is truly atthe crossroads today and choic-

es that are made will have pro-found repercussions not just forthe two nations but for theentire world.

He said the Chinese actionsin eastern Ladakh not only sig-naled a disregard for commit-ments about minimising troopslevel but also showed a will-ingness to breach peace andtranquility.

“Significantly, to date, wehave yet to receive a credibleexplanation for the change inChina’s stance and massing oftroops in border areas,” hesaid at the All India Conferenceon China Studies.

Elaborating on eight pointsfor moving forward in bilater-al ties, the External AffairsMinister said agreementsalready reached on manage-ment of the LAC must beadhered to in their entirety andin letter and spirit. He also reit-erated any attempt to unilater-ally change the status quo iscompletely unacceptable.

While both nations arecommitted to a multi-polarworld, Jaishankar said, thereshould be a recognition that amulti-polar Asia is one of itsessential consequences.

Continued on Page 2

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The Supreme Court onThursday said control over

TV programmes having “insti-gating effect” is as important asproviding “lathis” to policemenfor law and order, and slammedthe Centre for “doing nothing”to curb such shows.

Hearing a plea on themedia reporting issue in theTablighi Jamaat case, a benchheaded by Chief Justice SABobde also referred to theinternet shutdown in someareas of Delhi on January 26when the tractor parade byfarmers protesting against threenew farm laws turned violent,leaving 300 policemen andscores of others injured.

“Fair and truthful report-ing is normally not a problem.Problem is when it is used toagitate others. It is as importantas providing ‘lathis’ to police-men. It is an important pre-ventive part of the law andorder situation,” said the bench,also comprising Justices ASBopanna and VRamasubramanian.

Continued on Page 2

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India has carried out the fifthhighest number of Covid-19

vaccinations by inoculating2.03 million people till January26. India has administeredover 25 lakh vaccine doses sofar, till Thursday afternoon.

According to the HealthMinistry, the number of activecases are declining, there are1,75,000 active cases in thecountry as of now. Two Statesstill have 40,000 or more activecases and contribute 67 percent of the total caseload —Kerala with 72,000 active casesand Maharashtra with 44,000active cases.

Addressing a Press confer-ence, Union Health SecretaryRajesh Bhushan said India hasbecome the fastest country toreach one million Covid-19

vaccination. “We achieved thiswithin 6 days, the US did thisin 10 days, Spain in 12 days,Israel in 14 days, the UK in 18days, Italy in 19 days, Germanyin 20 days and UAE in 27 days,”said Bhushan.

“As per our world data tillJanuary 26, India, whichlaunched its nationwide vacci-nation drive on January 16, hadcarried out the fifth highestnumber of vaccinations in theworld by vaccinating 2.03 mil-lion people. The importantpoint is many other countriesare showing their progress forover 50 days while India isshowing its vaccination onJanuary 26 after just 11 days,”Bhushan said.

Till January 26, the US hadadministered 23.54 milliondoses, the UK 7.64 milliondoses, the UAE 2.76 million

doses, Germany 1.99 milliondoses, Italy 1.58 million doses,Spain 1.36 million doses andFrance 1.14 million doses.

Bhushan said that thenumber of beneficiaries whohave been vaccinated againstCovid-19 in India since thenationwide drive was rolled outhas reached 25,07,556 tillJanuary 28 at 2 pm.

Lakshadweep (83.4 pc),Odisha (50.7 pc), Haryana (50pc), Andaman and NicobarIslands (48.3 pc), Rajasthan(46.8 pc), Tripura (45.6 pc),Mizoram (40.5 pc), Telangana(40.3 pc), Andhra Pradesh(38.1 pc), Karnataka (35.6 pc)and Madhya Pradesh (35.5 pc)are among the better perform-ing States with over 35 per centvaccination coverage of health-care workers, he said.

Continued on Page 2

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Washington: US President JoeBiden’s pick for the ambassadorto the United Nations, LindaThomas-Greenfield, onWednesday did not explicitlycommit the support of thenew administration for India tobe a permanent member of theSecurity Council.

Three previous adminis-trations, that of George WBush, Barack Obama andDonald Trump, had publiclysaid that the United States sup-ports India’s bid to be a per-manent member of the UNSecurity Council.

However, Thomas-Greenfield, who has spent morethan 35 years in foreign servicebefore being nominated to theposition, during her confir-mation hearing before theSenate Foreign RelationsCommittee told lawmakers

that this is a matter of ongoingdiscussion.

“Do you think India,Germany, Japan, should be(permanent) members (of theUN Security Council),” SenatorJeff Merkley from Oregonasked during her confirmationhearing for the position of theUS Ambassador to the UN.

“I think there has beensome discussions about thembeing members of the SecurityCouncil and there are somestrong arguments for that.

“But I also know that thereare others who disagree with-in their regions that theyshould be the representative oftheir region. That, too, is anongoing discussion,” she said inan apparent reference to theCoffee Club or United forConsensus.

Continued on Page 2

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India will soon make availablemore Covid-19 vaccines to

other countries after twoMade-in-India jabs havealready been introduced to theworld, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi said onThursday while emphasisingIndia’s global responsibility infighting the pandemic.

In a special address at theWorld Economic Forum’sonline Davos Agenda Summit,Modi also said he wants toassure the global business com-munity that situation will nowchange rapidly on the eco-nomic front also and invitedbusinesses from all over toparticipate in the country’sgrowth journey.

Modi said that some had

said in February-March 2020that India would be the worstaffected country by COVID-19and would face a “tsunami ofcorona infections”.

“Some had talked about70-80 crore people expected toget infected in India, whilesome talked about over 20lakh possible deaths but Indiadid not let the disappointmentget better of it,” he said.

Continued on Page 2

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Amid reports of anti-Indiaactivities by Khalistani ele-

ments abroad, India onThursday said it is closelyengaged with the Governmentsconcerned to apprise them ofthe threats posed, convey itsconcerns and seek their inter-ventions.

Asked about the activitiesof Khalistani elements andtheir targeting of Indian mis-sions abroad, Ministry ofExternal Affairs (MEA)Spokesperson AnuragSrivastava said the safety andsecurity of the Indian diplo-matic premises and personnel

is the responsibility of the hostGovernment.

“Whenever the protestsand demonstrations are held orthey are going to be held, weask them to take necessaryaction to safeguard our premis-es and personnel,” he said at anonline briefing.

“As regards anti-Indiaactivities of certain elementsabroad which actually repre-sent a very small fringe of com-munity, we are closely engagedwith the relevant foreign Governments toapprise them of the threatsposed, convey our concerns aswell and to seek their inter-ventions,” he said.

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An introductory phone callbetween External Affairs

Minister S Jaishankar and hisAmerican counterpart AntonyBlinken will be scheduled soonand it will be an “important”opportunity to discuss thebilateral as well as regional andglobal issues of mutual interest,a senior Indian official said onThursday.

The Joe Biden administra-tion began formal engagementwith top Indian leaders onWednesday with DefenceSecretary Lloyd Austin andNational Security Advisor JakeSullivan holding telephonicconversation with their Indiancounterparts, Defence MinisterRajnath Singh and NSA AjitDoval respectively.

“As a new US administra-tion takes shape we continue to

remain engaged at all levels towork together to furtherstrengthen our comprehensiveglobal strategic partnership,”External Affairs ministryspokesperson AnuragSrivastava said at a media brief-ing.

He said Jaishankar hasalready congratulated AntonyBlinken on his appointment asSecretary of State.

“The introductory phonecall between the two will bescheduled soon at a mutuallyconvenient time. It will be animportant opportunity to dis-cuss the bilateral as well asregional and global issues ofmutual interest,” he added.

Srivastava was replying toquestions on India’s engage-ment with the US under theleadership of Biden who wassworn in as the 46th AmericanPresident on January 20.

“The prime minister hadcongratulated President Bidenon his election on November 8and they had a telephone callon November 17 where theyexchanged views on workingtogether on shared prioritiesand global challenges,”Srivastava said.

Referring to the phone callbetween Singh and Austin, hesaid they reiterated the com-mitment to deepen the ongo-ing defence cooperationbetween the two countries.

A read out by the Pentagonon Wednesday said SecretaryAustin emphasised the USDefence Department’s com-mitment to the US-India majorDefence Partnership, observingthat it is built upon shared val-ues and a common interest inensuring that the Indo-Pacific region remainsfree and open.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi spoke to Abu Dhabi

Crown Prince SheikhMohammed Bin Zayed AlNahyan and the two leadersdiscussed the impact of theCovid-19 pandemic in theregion, expressing satisfactionthat cooperation between Indiaand the UAE did not halt evenduring the health crisis.

In a telephone conversa-tion, the PMO said in a state-ment on Thursday, the twoleaders agreed to continueclose consultations and coop-eration to further strengthenthe India-UAE partnership inthe post-Covid-19 world.

In this context, they dis-cussed the opportunities forfurther diversifying trade andinvestment links. In a tweet,Modi said, “Had a warm tele-phone conversation with my

friend Sheikh@MohamedBinZayed. Thankedhim for his personal attention tothe well-being of Indians inUAE. Even the pandemic hasnot slowed India-UAE cooper-ation, and we agreed to contin-ue enhancing and diversifyingour partnership.”

The crown prince is alsothe deputy supreme comman-der of the UAE armed forces.

The two leaders sharedtheir confidence that theCovid-19 crisis would soonbe overcome, and looked for-ward to meeting in person inthe near future, the statementsaid. Earlier in the day, Modihad hailed India’s growing tieswith countries in the MiddleEast and had in this contextnoted that India-bound Rafalefighter aircraft were recentlyrefuelled midair in the UAEand countries like Greece andSaudi Arabia had also helped.

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From Page 1Delhi Lieutenant Governor

Anil Baijal on Thursday visit-ed the hospital and enquiredabout the health injuredpolicemen.

A group of people claimingto be locals at Delhi’s Singhuborder also staged a protest atthe Singhu border, demandingthat the area be vacated fol-lowing the Republic Day vio-lence in the city.

Police have also formedseveral teams to locate all theculprits. Police in its noticesalso asked the farmer leaders tosubmit their response withinthree days, explaining whylegal action should not betaken against them as they didnot follow conditions set for theparade. The lookout noticesalso include names of farmersleaders such as Yogendra Yadav,Darshan Pal, Rakesh Tikaitand Balbir Singh Rajewa.

Eish Singhal, the PublicRelation Officer (PRO) ofDelhi Police, said a preliminaryassessment suggests there waspre-conceived and well-co-ordinated plan to break theagreement reached betweenDelhi Police and leaders offarmers’ organisations.

“The Special Cell is inves-tigating larger conspiracy andcriminal designs behind theunfortunate events. A criminalcase has been registered and isbeing investigated under pro-visions of Unlawful ActivitiesPrevention Act and sections ofIPC dealing with sedition. Roleand conduct of organisationsand individuals based in India,as well as those out of country,is being probed,” said Singhal.

Police have earlier named37 farmer leaders, includingRakesh Tikait, Yogendra Yadavand Medha Patkar, in the FIRregistered at Samaypur Badlipolice station that mentionedcharges of attempt to murder,rioting and criminal conspira-cy.

Other farmer leaders who

have been listed in the FIR areDarshan Pal, Gurnam SinghChanduni, Kulwant SinghSandhu, Satnam Singh Pannu,Joginder Singh Ugraha, SurjeetSingh Phool, Jagjeet SinghDalewal, Balbir Singh Rajewaland Harinder Singh Lakhoval.The Crime Branch is nowinvestigating this FIR.

The Delhi Police has reg-istered a sedition case in con-nection with the violence atRed Fort during a tractorparade by farmers on RepublicDay, officials said on Thursday.

According to a seniorpolice officer, a case undersection 124A (sedition) of theIndian Penal Code (IPC) hasbeen registered and the inci-dent is being investigated.

Earlier, Delhi Police hadnamed actor Deep Sidhu andgangster-turned-social activistLakha Sidhana in an FIRlodged in connection with theRed Fort incident.

At the Singhu border point,a “sadbhawana march” wastaken out by protesting farmerunions. In a written message to

Delhi Police personnel onThursday, Shrivastava saidcoming days can be more chal-lenging and they will have to bealert.

“You have showed greatpatience despite the farmers’agitation turning violent...394of our friends have beeninjured in the violence duringthe farmers’ agitation,” he saidin his message.

Meanwhile, Delhi borderpoints remained under heavypolice deployment onThursday in the aftermath ofthe violence. Security person-nel have also been deployed atthe Red Fort.

Thousands of farmers,mostly from Punjab, Haryanaand western Uttar Pradesh,have been camping at severalborder points, demanding acomplete repeal of the threefarm laws.

The farmer unions protest-ing against the three farm lawsalleged that there was a con-spiracy behind the violence,which left 394 police personnelinjured and one protestor dead.

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From Page 1As many as 715 officials

and staff of the Rajya SabhaSecretariat, who are not direct-ly connected with the pro-ceedings of the House havebeen administered AntigenTests, while 494 associatedwith the proceedings of theHouse have been administeredRT PCR tests. None has testedpositive in the Antigen Tests.This is in sharp contrast to 64officials and staff of the RajyaSabha Secretariat having test-ed positive ahead of theMonsoon Session last year.

Naidu reviewed in detailon Wednesday the preparationsfor the Budget Session with theSecretary General and otherofficials of the Secretariat. Hehas directed that the personalstaff of the Ministers, membersof Rajya Sabha and officers ofthe ministries visitingParliament shall also be testedfor Covid.

Rajya Sabha will meet at 3pm on Friday and one hourafter the presentation ofGeneral Budget for 2021-2022on February 1, 2021. On theremaining days, the House willmeet between 9 am and 2 pm.

Naidu has also convened ameeting of leaders of variousparties and groups in theHouse on Sunday while theBusiness Advisory Committeechaired by Naidu will meetafter the President of Indiaaddress.

The Budget Session with 33sittings assumes importanceas General Budget for 2021-2022 is the first to be present-ed after the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic which causedsevere social and economicdisruption over the last oneyear.

Rajya Sabha will have bothZero Hour and Question Hourduring the Budget Session withQuestion Hour beginning at9.30 am. Zero Hour andQuestion Hour were not takenup during the MonsoonSession last year as the Housemet for only four hours per day.

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From Page 1“When COVID arrived,

India had its share of problems.At the beginning of last year,several experts and organisa-tions had made several pre-dictions that India would bemost affected by the pandem-ic. Looking at the condition ofcountries with better healthinfrastructure, the world wasright in worrying about us,” hesaid.

The prime minister, how-ever, said in the midst ofnumerous doubts, he was herewith “a message of belief, pos-itivity and hope from over 1.3billion Indians”.

Modi said, “We trans-formed the fight against coro-navirus into a people’s move-ment and today India is amongthe most successful countries insaving lives.”

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From Page 1“Shocked by this insensi-

tivity, we, the followingOpposition parties, reaffirmingthe collective demand for therepeal of agri-laws and in sol-idarity with Indian farmershave decided to boycott thePresident’s address in both theHouses of Parliament onJanuary 29,” the statementreads.

The Budget Session ofParliament is being conductedin two parts. The first phase ofthe session will begin onJanuary 29 with President’saddress and end on February15.

The second phase will beheld between March 8 andApril 8. The Union Budget willbe presented in Parliament onFebruary 1.

From Page 1On the other hand, Tamil

Nadu (15.7 pc), Delhi (15.7 pc),Jharkhand (14.7 pc),Uttarakhand (17.1 pc),Chhattisgarh (20.6 pc) andMaharashtra (20.7 pc) haveless than 21 per cent vaccina-tion coverage and need toimprove, he said.

Giving details of Covid-19cases in the country, Bhushansaid that the number of activecases are declining, there are1,75,000 active cases in thecountry as of now. A steady anddeclining trend is being exhib-ited. Two States still have40,000 or more active cases andcontribute 67 per cent of thetotal caseload - Kerala with72,000 active cases andMaharashtra with 44,000 activecases. India’s cumulative Covid-19 positivity rate is 5.51 percent and is declining.

India’s cumulative Covid-19 positivity rate is 5.51 percent and is declining while theactive cases are less than 1.75lakh after seven months and is

declining, Bhushan stated.Earlier in the day, Union

Health Minister HarshVardhan said that India hasflattened its Covid-19 graphand 146 districts have report-ed no new case of the viral dis-ease in the last seven days, 18in 14 days, six in 21 days and21 districts in the last 28 days.

This has been achieveddue to pro-active testing withmore than 19.5 crore Covid-19tests conducted in the countryso far, Vardhan, who chairedthe 23rd meeting of the high-level Group of Ministers(GoM) on Covid-19 through avideo-conference, said, accord-ing to a statement issued by theHealth Ministry. Meanwhile,India’s Covid-19 tally of casescrossed 1.07 crore with 11,666new coronavirus infectionsbeing reported in a day, whilethe national recovery rateclimbed to 96.94 per cent,according to the Union HealthMinistry data updated onThursday.

From Page 1“Obviously, each state will

have its interests, concerns andpriorities, but sensitivity tothem cannot be one-sided. Atthe end of the day relationshipsbetween major states are reci-procal in nature,” the Ministersaid. Jaishankar said as risingpowers, each nation will havetheir own set of aspirations andtheir pursuit to it cannot beignored. He said peace andtranquility in border areas isthe basis for development ofties with China in otherdomains and if it is disturbed,“so inevitably is rest of the rela-tionship”.

The Minister said far frommitigating already existing dif-ferences, events of 2020 haveactually put the relationshipunder “exceptional stress.” Anyexpectation that the situation atborder can be brushed asideand life can carry on undis-turbed is simply not realistic, hesaid. Jaishankar said if the tiesare to get better, policies musttake into account the learningsof the last three decades.

Giving the background,Jaishankar said despite differ-ences the border between Indiaand China remained peaceful.In an obvious reference to theGalwan valley incident where20 Indian soldiers were killedlast year, he said the last violentincident resulting in deathswas in 1971.

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In an order to improve the safety and traffic system in Gurugram, theGurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) has installed

750 cameras at different locations across the city.GMDA officials said this is the first phase of the project which will

see a total of 1,200 cameras installed across Gurugram. The remaining450 cameras will be installed in the city soon.

The development authority has also connected these cameras to itsmobile app. The city's residents can now download the GMDA app ontheir phones and get information about where the cameras are installedin the city.

This step will be beneficial for the officers of the GMDA departmentas they will be able to access the cameras from anywhere and also knowthe conditions of the cameras and whether it's operational or not, theysaid. According to GMDA officials, one of the objectives of making thelocation of the cameras available on the app is that if any untoward inci-dent happens to anyone anywhere in the city, they can easily find outthe place where the incident has occurred.

They can also inform the police about such incidents so that the policecan reach on time. The second objective is that if people have informa-tion about the location of cameras, then they will also fear police actionand will detter to break traffic norms. Currently, people can see the loca-tion of 750 CCTV cameras on this app of GMDA. These have been linkedto the app. "The work of installing the remaining 450 cameras is under-way. The GMDA had identified 22 key intersections for installation ofthese cameras. These cameras have been attached to the IntegratedCommand and Control Center at the GMDA office at Sector-44. Wherethe authorities and police personnel monitor them," said a senior GMDAofficial. These cameras are equipped with modern facilities which include-- scan the number plate of the vehicles, measure the speed of the vehi-cle, park the vehicle at Zebra crossing, detect wrong parking and recog-nize the face. GMDA has laid fiber cables across the city to connect theseto a single centralized center and will be monitored from there. Apartfrom Millennium City, the authority has started installing cameras in theManesar area.

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The Union Home Minister Amit Shah along withHome Secretary, Ajay Kumar Bhalla and Delhi

Police Commissioner, S N Shrivastava visited SushrutaTrauma Centre and Tirath Ram Shah Hospital toenquire about the health of policemen injured in theviolence during the farmers' tractor parade. DelhiLieutenant Governor (L-G), Anil Baijal on Thursdayvisited the hospital and enquired enquire about thehealth injured policemen.

“Meeting the injured Delhi Police personnel. Weare proud of their courage and bravery,” Shah tweet-ed. “Visited the Sushrut Trauma Center and inquiredabout the wellbeing of the injured police personnel.Instructed concerned Medical Officers to provide bestpossible care and treatment,” the L-G tweeted.

“I pray for their speedy recovery and urge every-one to exercise restraint for maintenance of peace andharmony,” Baijal said in another tweet.

The Delhi Police on Wednesday had alleged thatfarmer leaders made inflammatory speeches andwere involved in the violence during the tractor paradeby agitating farmers that left 394 of its personnel injured,as it warned that no culprit will be spared. In a writ-ten message to Delhi Police personnel on Thursday, theDelhi CP said that coming days can be more chal-lenging and they will have to be alert. “You have showedgreat patience despite the farmers' agitation turning vio-lent...394 of our friends have been injured in the vio-lence during the farmers' agitation,”the CP said.

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In its First Information Report(FIR) registered in connec-

tion with the Red Fort incident,the Delhi Police has alsoincluded the names of actorPunjabi Deep Sidhu and gang-ster-turned-social activistLakha Sidhana. The protestershad snatched two magazineswith 20 live cartridges eachfrom the guns of two constablesat Red Fort during violence onRepublic Day, stated the FIRregistered at Kotwali policestation in North Delhi. The FIRhas been transferred to CrimeBranch for investigation.

The FIR regarding the RedFort incident has has beenfiled at Kotwali police station.A total of 141 security person-nel were injured during the vio-lence at Red Fort.

According to the FIR, therewas heavy security deploy-ment in and around Red Fortdue to the Republic Day.

“Police allowed the tractorrally of the farmers on fourroutes. They were not allowedto enter the Kotwali area.Around 12 pm on Tuesday, thenorth district control roominformed that the farmers inhuge numbers were heading

towards Shanti Van Chowkfrom Rajghat. The barricadeswere already put in place dueto the R-Day security. At 12.15pm, 1,000 to 1,200 people cameon 30 to 40 tractors, 125 to 130bike and in private cars andreached near the barricadesand insisting to go towards RedFort,” stated the FIR.

“They were asked to headback towards their pre-decid-ed routes for the rally, but theprotestors did not pay heed topolice warnings and broke thebarricades with their tractors.They also tried to ran over theirtractors on police personnel.Later, they broke the barricadesand headed towards the RedFort. When they were goingtowards the Red Fort, tableauxalso passing through the NetajiSubhash Marg,” stated the FIR.

“The mob later hoisteddifferent flags there. They alsostarted creating nuisance on therampart. The unruly mob wasasked to come downstairs.They went to Meena Bazar areato enter into Red Fort. Whenpolice tried to take them out ofLahore Gate, the mob becameviolent and attacked personnel.The mob thrashed the policepersonnel and threw them inthe wells,” stated the FIR.

“They damaged a bus, agovernment gypsy and othervehicles. The mob robbed theanti-riots gears -- cane stick,shields, body protectors, hel-mets etc from the police per-sonnel. The mob has also takenhostage some police personnelnear the Lahore gate public toi-let. They also damaged the tick-et counter,” the FIR added.

Police have invoked IPCsections 186 (obstructing pub-lic servant in discharge of pub-lic functions), 353 (assault orcriminal force to deter publicservant from discharge of hisduty), 308 (attempt to commitculpable homicide), 152(assaulting or obstructing pub-lic servant when suppressingriot, etc), 397 (robbery, ordacoity, with attempt to causedeath or grievous hurt), and307 (attempt to murder).

The Prevention of Damageto Public Property Act,Provisions of the AncientMonuments andArchaeological Sites andRemains Act and the Arms Acthave been added in the FIR.

According to a seniorpolice official, police has reg-istered the case at Kotwalipolice station of North districtunder relevant sections of the

Indian Penal Code (IPC), thePrevention of Damage toPublic Property Act and otherlegislations.

Provisions of the AncientMonuments andArchaeological Sites andRemains Act and the Arms Acthave been added in the FIR.

“The police has invokedIPC sections 186 (obstructingpublic servant in discharge ofpublic functions), 353 (assaultor criminal force to deter pub-lic servant from discharge of hisduty), 308 (attempt to commitculpable homicide), 152(assaulting or obstructing pub-lic servant when suppressingriot, etc), 397 (robbery, ordacoity, with attempt to causedeath or grievous hurt), and307 (attempt to murder),” saidpolice.

The Red Fort will remainclosed for visitors from January27 to January 31, according toan order issued by theArchaeological Survey of India.

While the order does notmention the reason behindthe closure, it refers to earlierorders of January 6 and January18 whereby the iconic monu-ment was closed from January19 to January 22 due to a birdflu alert.

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Aam Aadmi Party nationalconvenor Arvind Kejriwal

on Thursday announced thatthe AAP will fight elections insix States in the next two years,UP, Uttarakhand, Goa, Punjab,Himachal Pradesh, andGujarat.

Addressing the 9thNational Council Meeting ofthe party, he said sin the last 70years, the BJP and Congresshave destroyed the nationwhich is why people need AAPbecause it has established pol-itics of work and politics ofdevelopment in just five years.

The chief minister encour-

aged the council members pre-sent in the meeting to form anorganization to bring a changein the country.

"A national political partytalks about India's history buthas no vision and asserted thatonly AAP can give a vision fora 21st and 22nd century India.At a time when Delhi witnessed8500 cases, we had 7000 vacantbeds due to Delhi's effectiveCorona strategy, unlike NewYork where the health systemhad collapsed completely at6300 cases," he said.

Terming the violence on26th January unfortunate,Kejriwal said that the violencedoes not mean that the farm-

ers’ movement that representstheir issues is over.

“The farmers have beendeceived by all parties for thelast 70 years. It is a question oftheir existence and they willlose their livelihoods if they donot sit on the streets," he said.

Kejriwal said, "For the firsttime in the country, we estab-lished politics of work andpolitics of development in theseelections. All parties play thereligion card to vote for theirparties.

The chief minister saidthat both BJP and Congressdestroyed the nation in the last70 years. "This is the reasonwhy people love AAP, what

these governments could notdo in the last 70 years, the AAPhas done in the last five years,"he said.

"Mankind has gonethrough some very difficult cir-cumstances in the last year dueto the Corona pandemic. Allthe villages and states weregoing through a very difficultperiod. But Delhi witnessed avery effective Corona man-agement strategy due to therestraint and dedication of theAAP government. There wasno politics and all organizationsauthorities, governments, andpeople were brought togetherand this management is beingdiscussed across the world," he

added. "We have opened Mohalla

clinics and improved infra-structure in government hos-pitals and because of this, theAAP government-managedCorona even though the pan-demic had the worst impact onDelhi," he said.

"We implemented homeisolation and plasma therapy. Isaw that one person was givingrepeated Corona samples at ahospital somewhere in someother state, which proves thatfake tests were being conduct-ed. We did not tamper with thestats and showed the people thetrue picture. We were heavilycriticized when the impact of

corona started increasing inDelhi," he said.

The AAP Government isbeing appreciated worldwide.The world's first plasma bankwas started in Delhi on July 2and on August 27, the USPresident followed on the linesof Delhi to use plasma therapy,he said.

Kejriwal said that the workdone by the AAP governmentin Delhi is being recognizedand appreciated across thecountry. AAP is respected andloved across villages and states.But when it comes to voting,they talk about how AAP is notestablished in these states, headded.

"If the AAP could do thisin just five years, the BJP andCongress could do it in the last70 years. This just proves thatit was a deliberate attempt topush back the nation by keep-ing the people uninformedand keeping the nation under-developed," he said.

Kejriwal further said, "Thefarmers of our country are indistress. They have only beendeceived by all parties in thelast 70 years. They werepromised loan waive-off thatdid not happen and promisedjobs to their children that didnot happen. Over 3.5 lakhfarmers have committed sui-cide in the last 25 years. Now,

these three bills will snatch thelivelihood of farmers, i.e. farm-ing and giving it to the corpo-rates,".

Speaking on the violencehappened on Wednesday, hesaid "The violence was unfor-tunate. The people and the par-ties who are the real culpritsshould be given the strictestpunishment. But the move-ment of the farmers, due towhich they are sitting on theborders for the last 60 days isnot over. A nation where thefarmers are unhappy can neverprosper. We all have to supportthe farmers in our states, andour support should be non-vio-lent," he said.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Thursday said

India showed last year that it iscapable of taking all steps tomeet challenges, be it fromcoronavirus or at its borders ina obvious reference to ongoingstand-offs at the Line of ActualControl(LAC)in Ladakh.

Addressing a rally of theNational Cadet Corps (NCC)here, Modi said India hasshown its capabilities on allfronts as he referred to pro-duction of Made in India vac-cines against the virus.

“Whether it is developingprotective shield of the vaccineor destroying with modernmissiles intentions of thosechallenging India, the countryis capable on all fronts,” he said.

Modi said in order tostrengthen the security networkin the border and coastal areas,the participation of NCC isbeing boosted and theGovernment has made effortsto see that the role of NCC isfurther expanded.

“On August 15th last year,it was announced that NCCwill be given new responsibil-ities in around 175 districts in

the coastal and border areas.For this around, one lakh NCCcadets are being trained byArmy, Navy and Air Force. Ofthese, one-third are girl cadets,”he said while addressing thePrime Minister’s NCC Rally.

On steps taken to mod-ernize the armed forces, Modisaid If India is ‘aatmanirbhar’in vaccine, it is also trying withequal vigour to modernise itsarmed forces, Modi said. Theprime minister asserted that allsteps are being taken to ensurethat every wing of India’s armedforces is the best, adding thatthe country now has excellent“war machines”.

Referring to the mid-airrefuelling of Rafale fighter air-craft while they were on way toIndia, Modi said it was done inthe UAE and Saudi Arabiaand Greece also helped.

This highlights our grow-ing ties with Gulf countries, hesaid.

Speaking of hisGovernment’s efforts to boostdomestic defence manufactur-ing, he said, “India will soon beknown as a big producer ofdefence equipment instead of abig market as it is today.”

Lauding the NCC, he said

be it the floods or any othercalamity, NCC cadets helpedthe people of this country lastyear and during the COVID-19pandemic lakhs of cadetsworked with the administrationand society across the country.

He said training infra-structure for NCC is beingstrengthened. As against justone firing simulator earlier, 98are being established now.Micro flight simulators arealso being increased from 5 to44 and rowing simulators from11 to 60, Modi said.

Talking of Maoist threat inthe country, the Prime Ministersaid i said it was this blend ofsense of duty among the citizenry and bravery of thesecurity forces that broke theback of naxalism and Maoismwhich was affecting a large partof our country. “Now menace ofNaxalism has been shrunk to avery limited area of the countryand affected youths have left thepath of violence to join thedevelopment mainstream,” headded.

Modi also inspected theGuard of Honour, reviewed theMarch Past by NCC contingentsand witnessed cultural perfor-mance during the event.

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Claiming that economy is infor a “V-shaped” recovery

with unemployment at sixper cent improving frompre-covid phase, the BJP onThursday asserted that theUnion Budget, next week,would be a “game-changer”that will “provide support tothe middle-class and theweaker sections” and “pusheconomy to next-level ofgrowth”.

Referring to the ReserveBank of India Report ofDecember,1920, which quotesShakespeare to say that econ-omy is in for a “glorious sum-mer after winter of discon-tent”, BJP maintained that allindicators point to a “atm-nirbhar and resurgent Bharat”.

Addressing a press con-ference here BJP spokespersonGoal Kishan Agarwal andRajya Sabha MP Syed ZafarIslam, said InternationalMonetary Fund report l,2021,point to “double-digit growthof 11.5 percent” for Indiawith the country “ continuingto retain the tag of the fastestgrowing economy”.

Agarwal said report ofMinistry of Finance saysgrowth charts of “high fre-quency indicators reflect V-shaped recovery” in sectors of

electricity, coal and mobility-after certain fall duringCovid19.

The BJP leader saidPurchase Measure Index(PMI) indicate growth inmanufacturing sector andIndex of IndustrialProduction (IIP) data signalrise in labour force partici-pation with “85 percent recov-ery in labour force “which isnow back to original”.

He said Goods andServices Tax (GST) collec-tion has crossed Rs one lakhcrore in last three months andgovernment expenditure, “amajor propellent of economy”has increased by 285 percent.He claimed that Indiareceived”highest FDI” andagriculture grew at 3.5 per-cent.

Agarwal said all these fac-tors signal that economy wason “recovery path afterCovid19”.

He said the Modi-Government is “walking pathof strong reforms” and “creat-ing a transparent and business-friendly eco-system”.

Agarwal said the Februaryone budget would be a “gamechanger and focus on areawhich earlier did not receivesupport”. Budget would payattention too middle-class andthe weaker-sections”, he said.

Answering questions, BJP’sRajya Sabha member ZafarIslam said the unemploymentrate which was 7 percent in thepre-covid phase has comedown to 6 percent in January

2021.On the boycott of

President’s address in the joint-session by the opposition, hesaid “Opposition is runningaway from its responsibility”.

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Ahead of the BudgetSession beginning from

Friday, the Congress onThursday demanded that theGovernment initiate cashtransfers and reduce taxes tostrengthen the economy.

Addressing a joint pressconference, Congress leadersP. Chidambaram, JairamRamesh and MallikarjunKharge said, “As regards theeconomy, what needs to bedone to stem the decline andaccelerate the recovery havebeen identified by a number ofeconomists, including thosewho have supported the Modigovernment in the past.”

The grand old party’s sug-gestions to Modi Governmentfor the revival of economyincluded abandoning protec-tionist policies, re-engage withthe world, enter into bilateraltrade agreements with asmany countries as possible,and remove the bias againstimports.

“The Government mustimpart a large fiscal stimulusto the economy, even if it isbelated. Such a stimulus alonewill put money in the hands ofthe people,” former financeminister P Chidambaram said.

Congress leaders askedthe Centre to make directcash transfers to 20-30 percent of the families who are atthe bottom of the economy fora period of at least six months.

Congress also asked thegovernment to formulate andimplement a rescue plan forMSMEs to revive closed units,

recover lost jobs and createnew jobs for those who havemoderate education and skills,and also reduce tax rates,especially GST and other indi-rect tax rates on petrol anddiesel.

Jairam said theGovernment should increaseGovernment capital expendi-ture and encourage publicsector banks to lend withoutfear of investigative agenciesprobing every loan.

Kharge in his addressedadvised the NDA regime toformulate sector-specificrevival packages for telecom-munication, power, mining,construction, aviation andtourism & hospitality.

“Review and rescindamendments to tax laws thathave been widely viewed astax terrorism. Initiate a com-prehensive and time-boundreview of the regulations madeby RBI, SEBI, TRAI, CERCand other regulatory agenciesthat have been widely regard-ed as over-regulation,”Chidambaram suggested.

However the Congressleaders said they had noexpectations from this gov-ernment. “Our effort today isto highlight the wrong poli-cies, the incompetent eco-nomic management and themissed opportunities, and thereality is that the economy isin a recession, the recoverywill be slow and painful, andthe rate of GDP growth in2021-22 (in constant prices)will be modest — no morethan 5 per cent,” mentionedJairam.

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The Directorate General ofCivil Aviation (DGCA) on

Thursday extended the sus-pension of scheduled com-mercial international flightstill 11.59 pm on February 28,2021. This restriction, howev-er, will not apply to interna-tional cargo operations andflights specifically approvedby the DGCA. The DGCAalso extended the restriction onflights between India and UKupto midnight of February 14,2021.

Issuing a modified order inthis regard, the DGCA statedthat international scheduledflights may be allowed onselected routes by the “compe-tent authority on a case-to-casebasis”.

Scheduled internationalpassenger services have beensuspended in India sinceMarch 23 due to the coron-avirus pandemic. But specialinternational flights have beenoperating under the VandeBharat Mission since May, andunder bilateral “air bubble”arrangements with selectedcountries since July. India hasformed air bubble pacts with 24countries including the US,the UK, the UAE, Kenya,Bhutan and France.

The DGCA has alsoextended the restriction onflights between India and UKupto midnight of February 14,2021.”The competent authori-ty has further extended therestriction on flights betweenIndia and UK upto 14’February, 2021 (23.59 hrs),” theDGCA said. “The other termsand conditions of the said let-ter shall remain unchanged.UK carriers may file their bub-ble schedule accordingly toDGCA for approval.” The flightservices between India andUK resumed from January 6,while those from UK to Indiawill recommenced fromJanuary 8. Last month, theseservices were suspended tostop the spread of a mutantCovid-19 strain which wasrecently discovered in the UK.

Several countries, includ-ing India, had suspended flightservices to the UK in the wakeof the new mutant Covid-19strain.

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The CBI has taken overinvestigation of Uttar

Pradesh police FIR relating tofraudulent withdrawal of �4.25crore from a branch of Bank ofIndia in Prayagraj by theCurrency Chest Officer in con-nivance with a businessmanand his son.

Currency Chest OfficerBashishtha Kumar Ram, busi-nessman SK Mishra and hisson Sanju Mishra are named asaccused in the case. Theaccused persons have beencharged for criminal conspir-acy, cheating, criminal breachof trust and forgery amongothers.

According to the UPpolice FIR, which is now partof the CBI case, Rs 4.25 crorewas found missing from thecurrency chest during an auditon July 3, 2019. The localpolice registered a case on July3, 2019 on a complaint fromthe Bank of India.

During initial questioningby Prayagraj police, Ramclaimed that he had trans-ferred the money to a ‘GraminBank’ but could not give thename of the gramin bank.Upon further questioning, headmitted that he did not trans-fer the money to any graminbank and instead gave themoney to a businessman andhis son and used to illegallytake interest on the missingamount for personal gain.

Ram intentionally mis-used the amount of currencymissing from the bank’s chest.He siphoned the governmentfunds with a dishonest inten-tion, according to the FIR.

The agency is studyingthe contents of the FIR and theprobe reports of the UP policeand will subsequently initiatefurther action and investiga-tion in the matter, officialssaid.

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One of the oldest khadiinstitutions in Assam,

which remained in a van-dalised state bearing the scarsof the Bodo insurgency forover 30 years, has beenbrought back to life by Khadiand Vil lage Industr iesCommission (KVIC).

The Khadi workshed atvillage Kawali in Baksa dis-trict of Assam, which wasburnt down by Bodo insur-gents in 1989, has beenrevived as a Silk reeling cen-tre by the KVIC.

Spinning and weavingactivities will restart at theworkshed with 15 womenartisans and 5 other staff in

the second week of February.The workshed was con-

structed by a Khadi institutioncalled Tamulpur AnchalikGramdan Sangh which shiftedto Assam from ArunachalPradesh following the Chineseaggression in 1962. It beganoperations with mustard oilproduction and by the year1970, spinning and weaving activities also startedt h e r eproviding livelihood to 50artisan families. However,tragedy struck when the insti-tution was burnt down byextremists in 1989 and itremained defunct since then.

KVIC Chairman VKSaxena said the revival ofthis Khadi workshed assumed

historical significance andthat resumption of Khadiactivit ies would createemployment for the locals.“To begin with, KVIC willdevelop this unit for reeling ofelegant Eri Silk of Assam.Other Khadi activities likemanufacturing of villageindustry products will also bestarted in future. This centerwil l become a major employment creator for thelocal ar t isans,” Saxenas a i d . ” T h i sinitiative is aligned withKhadi’s core Gandhian prin-ciple of “rural resurgence”which also coincides with theHon’ble Prime Minister’svision - Sabka Sath, SabkaVikas,” Saxena added.

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The Supreme Court onThursday said that if a

Member of LegislativeAssembly is disqualified underanti-defection law, he cannot beappointed as Minister, till theremaining term of the House,even if he is nominated asMember of Legislative Council.

The top court upheld theverdict of Karnataka HighCourt which had said that dis-qualification of BJP MLA AHVishwanath under the anti-defection law continues till May2021 and had dashed his hopesof becoming minister in the BSYediyurappa-led governmentin the state.

The top court said if he waselected as MLA or MLC then itcould have been another mat-ter but since he was nominatedto legislative council, he cannotbecome a minister.

A bench of Chief Justice SABobde and Justices AS Bopannaand V Ramasubramanian dis-missed the appeal filed byVishwanath against theNovember 30, last year order ofthe High Court.

“The special leave petitionsare dismissed. As a sequel to theabove, pending interlocutoryapplications, if any, stand dis-posed of”, the bench said.

At the outset, senior advo-cate Gopal Sankaranaryanan,appearing for Vishwanath saidthat the issue pertains to legal

interpretation of the provisionsof the Constitution which dealswith the disqualification ofmember of the house.

He said that his disqualifi-cation is restricted to the capac-ity of the office from which hewas disqualified.

The bench said that as perthe provision, the disqualifica-tion will remain effective, if theperson is simply nominated tothe legislative council and notelected to it.

“If you are elected as aMLA or MLC, you can becomeminister in the government butif you are nominated, you can-not become minister. The HighCourt is right. We are dismiss-ing your SLP,” the bench said.

Sankarnarayanan said thatthe court will be setting a wrongprecedent by upholding a ver-dict given on a PIL, which hadsought restraining of a personfrom becoming a minister onthe ground that he was dis-qualified as MLA.

The bench said that hecannot be granted relief on thetechnical ground and the fact ofthe matter is that, “You are notentitled to become a Minister”.

On November 30, last year,the High Court had held thatVishwanath’s disqualification asMLA under the anti-defectionlaw continues till May 2021 andhence he cannot be appointedas a minister on being nomi-nated as member of legislativecouncil.

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Even as her Government onThursday passed a resolu-

tion demanding withdrawal ofcontroversial farm laws amid anoisy walkout by BJP MLAs,the Chief Minister launched ascathing attack on PrimeMinister Narendra Modi formaligning the farmers’ move-ment and demanded his resig-nation if he failed to repealwhat she termed “black laws.”

“Farmers are our foodproviders … If they suffer thenthere will be shortage of foodthroughout the country. Thethree farm laws will only affect

Haryana and Punjab but alsowill adversely impact the agri-culture of Bengal. We want thatthey (central government) tocall an all-party meeting and

repeal the laws immediately” orelse “… Prime MinisterNarendra Modi should resignfrom his post.”

Alleging that “the BJP hasset the country on fire,” theChief Minister said that “theseblack laws have been forciblyimposed on the people … and

when the farmers organised apeaceful movement for thepast several months now theyare trying to destroy this move-ment,” by playing dirty tricks.

“Our Government is withthe farmers,” Banerjee said thatshe would offer all the supportto the protesting farmers and

added the central governmentwhich has earlier waived cor-porate loans, should alsoextend the same benefit tofarmers

“Either the Centre shouldwithdraw the laws or stepdown …” Banerjee said hold-ing the Delhi Police and HomeMinister Amit Shah responsi-ble for the January 26 incidentat Red Fort even as BJP MLAswalked out of the Assemblyshouting Jai Shri Ram slogans.

“Delhi police is to beblamed for what happenedthere… What was the policeadministration doing? It was acomplete intelligence failure…

It is clear that the Police mis-handled the tractor parade …we even saw how a Punjabiartist was involved in this (RedFort) incident … and this is thesame man who had earlierbeen seen in photographs withthe Prime Minister and HomeMinister … And now they arecalling the farmers anti-nation-als … We will not toleratefarmers being branded as trai-tors. They are the assets of thisnation,” Banejee said.

“By demanding PrimeMinister’s resignation TheChief Minister is insulting thenation,” BJP MLA Manoj Tiggasaid.

Kolkata: Leader of theCongress in Lok Sabha AdhirChowdhury claimed onThursday that intelligence fail-ure on the part of the DelhiPolice was to blame for thechaos and violence at Red Forton January 26.

He also cast doubt on theCentre’s intention, stating thatthe Union government proba-bly did not do much to avertviolence as it “might havewanted to take advantage of thesituation”.

Thousands of farmers,protesting against the new agri-

cultural laws, had clashed withthe police on January 26. Manyof them, driving tractors,reached the Red Fort and scaledthe walls of the monument.

Some even hoisted flags onthe domes and placed theflagstaff at the ramparts of themonument, where the nation-al flag is unfurled by the primeminister on Independence Day.

Speaking to reporters here,Chowdhury said that the DelhiPolice had given designatedroutes to the farmers to take outthe tractor parade.

“But the farmers took dif-

ferent routes and a section ofthem breached the Red Fort.Surely, it was due to intelligencefailure on the part of Delhi Policeand other agencies,” he said atthe state Congress headquarters.

Accusing the BJP of brand-ing any and every issue raisedagainst the saffron party as “anti-national, Pakistani or Khalistani”,Chowdhury, who is also the WestBengal Congress president, fur-ther said, “At times I feel that thecentral government deliberatelyallowed this (January 26 inci-dent) to happen to take advan-tage of the situation.” PTI

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With the BJP reportedlyplanning to take out a

Rath Yatra from North Bengalthe Congress and the Left par-ties on Thursday appealed toChief Minister MamataBanerjee to red flag the Yatra asit could lead to communal dis-turbance.

The Yatra likely to be led byBJP national president JPNadda may start from NorthBengal on February 5.

Pradesh Congress presi-dent and party leader in LokSabha Adhir Chowdhury saidthat “this Rath Yatra is intend-ed at creating communal dis-turbance in the State and Irequest the Chief Minister notto give permission to this Yatra

or else there will be massive lawand order problem.”

Left Front Chairman andCPI(M) politburo memberBiman Bose said that withelections round the corner theBJP has started its business withreligion. “The BJP trades withreligion and when the electionshave come they will have aroaring business … this is thereason they have planned thisRath Yatra so that they canpolarize the electorate but thisshould be stopped at all costs,”Bose said.

The BJP however hit back

saying the Left and theCongress which had literallybeen obliterated from Bengalwere trying to gain back t heirrelevance by raising such issues.

“These parties have littlepresence in Bengal and are try-ing to resurface by raising suchissues again… but the questionis will they succeed in doingso… They will not because thepeople have already rejectedthem,” senior leader and partyvice president Mukul Roy saidadding “BJP is a responsibleparty with national obligations… it never indulges in unrulythings or riots … by raising theissue they are only strengthen-ing the hands of the TrinamoolCongress and Chief Ministerwho the people of Bengal wantout of power.”

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Leader of Opposition in theUttar Pradesh Assembly

Ram Govind Chaudhary onThursday said instead of farm-ers, an FIR should be registeredagainst the Delhi police com-missioner and top BJP leadersfor the violence in New Delhion Republic Day.

“The chaos and the unfurl-ing of a religious flag at the RedFort on January 26 is a con-spiracy of the Delhi police,which is under the home min-istry and the top leadership ofthe BJP, to weaken the farmers’agitation. For this, the Delhi

Police and the leadership of theBharatiya Janata Party shouldbe condemned. Instead offarmers, an FIR should be reg-istered against the Delhi policecommissioner and the BJPleaders, whose names havesurfaced in connection withDeep Sidhu...,” the SamajwadiParty (SP) leader said in a state-

ment here.“Even after this big con-

spiracy, farmers did not losepatience. It is not a minorthing. I salute the patience ofthe farmers and once againdemand from the Centre thatinstead of weakening the farm-ers’ agitation, it should with-draw the farm laws. The farm-ers of the entire country areshocked by the conspiracy andattitude of people occupyingtop positions,” he added.

The SP, under the leader-ship of its president AkhileshYadav, is and will remain insupport of the ongoing farmers’movement, Chaudhary said.

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Salim Madavoor, nationalpresident of the Loktantrik

Yuva Janata Dal (LYJD), hasalleged that the Centre was try-ing to break the farmers’ agi-tation with the help of RSS andother Sangh Parivar elements.

“Inhuman methods arebeing used by the NarendraModi Government to break theagitation by the poor farmersin the country. Electric anddrinking water supply has beendisconnected and SanghParivar activists have beenfielded by the Centre to createconfusion among the strikingfarmers,” he said in a statementreleased to the media.

He said that the UnionGovernment was portrayingthe farmers as Khalistani ter-rorists since most of themwere from Punjab. “Had the

agitating farmers wereMuslims, the Governmentwould have portrayed them asPakistani terrorists,” hecharged.

Salim asked the Centre towithdraw the Farm Bills if it hasat least a little concern for thefarmers in the country. TheLoktantrik Yuva Janata Dalleader who had been touringPunjab and Haryana as part ofhis initiative to get informationfrom Ground Zero said that themood of the nation was total-ly against Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and HomeMinister Amit Shah.

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Amid a raging controversyover its earlier verdict that

groping without “skin-to-skin”contact is not sexual assault, theBombay High Court has stirredup a hornet’s nest once againthrough its fresh ruling that“unzipping pants or holding aminor’s hand” does not amountto “sexual assault” under thePOCSO Act.

“The acts of ‘holding thehands of the prosecutrix’, or‘opened zip of the pant’ as hasbeen allegedly witnessed byPW-1, in the opinion of thisCourt, does not fit in the def-inition of ‘sexual assault’,”Justice Pushpa V Ganediwala ofthe Nagpur bench of theBombay High Court has ruled.

Justice Pushpa came upwith this ruling, while decidingon a criminal appeal filed byLibnus Kujur (50), a labourerfrom Gadchiroli, who was con-victed by a lower court.

On the complaint filed inthe case, the judge noted:“....the informant (PW-1) fur-ther testified that her daughterinformed her thatappellant/accused removed hispenis from the pant and askedher to come to the bed for sleep-ing. The informant also noticedthat the zip of the pants of theappellant/accused was opened.”However, after she screamed,her daughter was freed.

Reproducing what is sexu-

al assault as per section 7,Justice Pushpa noted:“Whoever, with sexual intenttouches the vagina, penis, anusor breast of the child or makesthe child touch the vagina,penis, anus or breast of suchperson or any other person, ordoes any other Act with sexu-al intent which involves phys-ical contact without penetra-tion, is said to commit sexualassault.”

However, the Judge ruledthat the offence of ‘sexualharassment’ under section354(A)(1)(i) of the IndianPenal Code that deals with‘physical contact and advancesinvolving unwelcome andexplicit sexual overtures’, isattracted.

Accordingly, the Nagpurbench set aside the accused-appellant’s conviction underthe sections 8, 10, 12 ofPOCSO Act but pronouncedhim guilty under the IPC thatattracts a maximum of 3 yearsjail term.

While AC Jaltare wasadvocate for the appellant, MJKhan was the assistant publicprosecutor in the case.

It may be recalled that rul-ing given by the same Judgesome time last year in anothercase had sparked a debate invarious circles. In that ruling,the same Judge had ruled thatgroping a minor’s breast with-out ‘skin to skin contact’ couldnot be termed as sexual assault.

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Fresh sparks were witnessedin the vexed Maharashtra-

Karnataka border dispute onThursday over Karnataka’sDeputy Chief Minister LaxmanSavadi’s demand that Mumbaibe declared a Union Territorypending its inclusion in south-ern state, even as the UddhavThackeray Government decid-ed to speed up the pending lit-igation in the Supreme Courtover the border disputebetween the states.

A day after Uddhavdemanded that the Marathi-speaking areas along theMaharashtra-Karnataka bor-der in “Belgaum, Karwar,

Nippani, Bidar” be declared asa Union Territory (UT) pend-ing a final ruling by theSupreme Court in the borderdispute case, Savadi made anoutlandish claim that Mumbaibe declared as an UT pendingits inclusion in Karnataka.

In their swift reaction toSavadi’s statement, the rulingShiv Sena and NCPMaharashtra Vikas Aghadi(MVA) hit out at theKarnataka’s Deputy ChiefMinister for his “questionable”statement. Maharashtra’sDeputy Chief Minister andsenior NCP leader Ajit Pawarsaid that the Centre shouldintervene in the matter. “Whentwo states are at dispute, the

Centre should intervene...Pending a final Supreme courtruling on the dispute , theKarnataka Governmentrenamed Belgaum as Belagavi,which was then declared as thesecond capital. A VidhanaSoudha was built and then alegislature session was held..The Centre needs to take animpartial view of the issue”.

“There are Kannada schoolsand organisations inMumbai...the Government herealways supports them....doesthe Karnataka Governmentsupport Marathi schools inBelgaum?.”Shiv Sena chiefspokesperson Sanjay Raut asked.

A Rajya Sabha member,Raut asked Savadi to come to

Mumbai and speak to theKannada industrialists andhoteliers here and know theiropinion.

Hitting out Savade for hiscontroversial statement, NCP’schief spokesperson MaheshTapase wanted to knowwhether the Maharashtra’s BJPleadership agreed with what theKarnataka deputy chief minis-ter’s statement “The deputychief minister of a BJP ruledstate has demanded thatMumbai be part of Karnataka.I would like state BJP presidentChandrakant Patil and leaderof opposition in AssemblyDevendra Fadnavis clarify theirstand on Savde’s statement.

Reacting to Uddhav’s state-

ment, Savadi said: “UntilMumbai is made part ofKarnataka, I urge the centralgovernment to declare it as aUnion Territory. Now that weare asking for Mumbai, thingswill get even”.

Alluding to theMaharashtra-Karnataka bor-der dispute, Savadi said: “Wecondemn the Maharashtrachief minister’s statement. TheMahajan report is final. We areconfident that the SupremeCourt will rule in our favour aswell. The demand of the peo-ple in our region (Mumbai-Karnataka) is that since wehave been part of it, we, too,should have our right onMumbai”.

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The ruling CPI(M) in Keralais trying to sabotage the

upcoming election to the StateLegislature, according to asenior Congress leader.

KC Joseph, MLA and for-mer minister has written to theElection Commission of Indiacomplaining against the effortsby the CPI(M) to manipulatethe election process.

“As a prelude to manipulatethe polling, the CPI(M) is busydeploying party loyalists inKerala Government Service aspolling officers and electoralstaff to man all polling boothsin the State,” Joseph told ThePioneer. He said he has writtena comprehensive letter to theElection Commission of Indialisting the malpractices beingcommitted by the ruling party.

“They themselves knowthat the LDF is in for a totalrout and are trying to rig the

election with the help of Stategovernment officials owingallegiance to the party. SeniorCPI(M) activists have beenhandpicked by the party lead-ership from the employeesunions affiliated to the party,”said Joseph, deputy leader of the Congress legisla-ture party.

“Government Staff who donot subscribe to the ideology ofthe CPI(M) and those who aremembers of trade unions affil-iated to other political partiesare kept away from poll duties,”he said.

He also alleged that theSocial Justice Department wasplanning to introduce postalvotes to all those voters who areabove 80 years of age andthose who are physically chal-lenged. “This too is with anintention to manipulate thepolling. Each booth in theState has at least 100 to 150such voters and the CPI(M)

activists are past masters inmanipulation,” he said.

Joseph pointed out thateven CPI(M) leaders had comeout questioning the fairness ofthe strategy being pursued bythe party leadership. “Earlythis month Prof KMSreekumar of KeralaAgricultural University, whoheads the CPI(M) controlledteachers’ wing had openlydeclared that a party MLA byKunhiraman threatened himwith dire consequences whenthe former objected votersentering polling booths repeat-edly to cast votes. WhenSreekumar saw people whohad cast their votes turning upagain and again to cast votesimpersonating as other voters,he objected to it. Kunhiramanwho rushed to booth warnedhim that he would get the pro-fessor’s legs chopped if he doesnot allow the impersonators tocast votes,” said Joseph.

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Afarmers’ protest againstthree farm laws of the

Centre, which was continuingon a national highway in thisUttar Pradesh district sinceDecember 19 last year, hascome to an end with the pro-testers alleging use of force bypolice.

The police, however,claimed that the matter wasresolved through deliberationsand the protesting farmerswere sent home on Wednesdaynight. The protesters havealleged that police personnelentered their tents late onWednesday night, used forceon the sleeping farmers andchased them away.

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Congress leader RahulGandhi on Thursday continuedto attack the Centre over thethree farm laws and claimedmost farmers were not aware ofdetails of the bills and if theydid, there would have been anagitation throughout the coun-try.

Referring to the con-tentious central farm laws, hesaid it was the “latest deadlyassault” on the farmers.

A day after violence duringthe farmers’ tractor rally inDelhi, Gandhi had appealed tothe Narendra Modi govern-ment on Wednesday to repeal,what he claimed were, “anti-agriculture” laws.

“Most of the farmers arenot aware of the details of thefarm bills.Because if they did,there would have been an agi-

tation throughout the country,”he said,addressing a UDF con-vention on Thursday atKalpetta in Wayanad, his LokSabha constituency, on the sec-ond day of his two-day visit topoll- bound Kerala.

He also alleged that whilethe BJP Government at theCentre was “aggressively” usingits central agencies-CBI and theEnforcement Directorate (ED)-against opposition party ruledgovernments, there was nosuch pressure on left ruledKerala where the assemblypolls are only months away.

“In every opposition partyruled states, CBI and ED areused aggressively by theBJP.There is no such thing inKerala. There is no such pres-sure on the Kerala government.

CBI and ED are veryrelaxed on the cases here,”Gandhi said.

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Page 6: 4 5˛...2021/01/29  · the three farm laws and section D contains questions on the MSP. The last section, E, seeks the respondents’ suggestions. The questions include: Are you aware

a different story. Of coursesome people were adamant onbreaking the barriers, but amajority of the farmers resist-ed this attempt and were peace-ful. Police surveillance footagewould also confirm the same.Rakesh Tikait and other farmerleaders stood between the pro-testers and the barricades andstopped the protesters frombreaking the barriers. Theyeven fought with some of thefarmers and tried to save thepolicemen. It was due to theirefforts that a major part of thetractor rally stuck to the desig-nated route and did not enterDelhi. These leaders even man-aged to call back some of thetractors that broke throughthe barricades.

Reports from Singhu andTikri, too, indicate that thefarmers’ leaders stood theirground and prevented majorviolence. It would not be anoverstatement to say that theycollectively managed to trans-form a potential nuclear explo-sion into a pressure cookerblast. But nevertheless therewas violence by some people,which marred the peacefulspirit of the movement that hadbeen going on for two months.Only an impartial investigationcan reveal the truth.

We must not forget that itis these farmers who feed thepolicemen on duty at the

protest sites. The policemenalso enjoyed the langar that hasbeen set up by the farmers. Thebig question is why the peaceloving community of farmerswould resort to violence andanarchy all of a sudden? Theanswer is that they were insti-gated by a few unscrupulouselements bent upon discredit-ing the stir, the cause and thepeaceful growers. It makessense that the farmer unionshave also asked for an investi-gation into the links of DeepSindhu with the BJP.

What we saw was a nefar-ious tactic of breaking a demo-cratic movement with splintergroups, strike breakers andradicalised individuals. Theydiscredited the peaceful move-ment with this one act of vio-lence.

The Centre, which now hasthe upper hand, has alreadygiven an ultimatum to theleaders. They must acquiesce tothe Government’s proposal orthere would be no further talksand there would be policeaction. Now the questionremains, should the farmers’leaders take moral responsibil-ity for the violence unleashedby saboteurs and rabble-rousers? Let us look back a yearto the Delhi Riots in 2020.Should any of those leaderswho were allegedly involved inthe riots have taken moral

responsibility for the blood-shed? They should have, butthey didn’t. So why should thefarmers’ unions do so?Machiavelli too gave us amantra for the future: “He willbe successful who directs hisactions according to the spiritof the times and he whoseactions do not accord with thetimes will not be successful.”The age of violence is upon usand if Machiavelli is right anon-violent person cannot winin violent times. Farmersunions need to proveMachiavelli wrong andGandhiji right.

The unions are definitelyon the back foot in the mediaand are fighting with theirbacks against the wall. If tomor-row the investigations revealcollusions between miscreantsand the Government, all hellwill break loose. Always keepin mind, that violence at theRed Fort, may actually resonatewith the masses and will add tothe polarisation on both sidesof the electoral base. To emergevictorious the Governmentshould embrace the farmers’cause and not obfuscate itbecause of violence by a fewmiscreants.

(The writer is ProgrammeDirector for Policy andOutreach, National SeedAssociation of India. The viewsexpressed are personal.)

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India’s 72nd Republic Day wasmarred by unprecedented vio-lence and mayhem in the

Capital. On one hand the coun-try showcased its military mightat the historic Rajpath, while onthe other hand chaotic scenes werewitnessed with a sea of farmersstorming the Capital and layingsiege to the Red Fort. The miscre-ants also hoisted a religious flagfrom the ramparts of the iconicbuilding. Why is it that State vio-lence bring “peace and stability”while outbursts by citizens end inchaos and obloquy. Russian nov-elist Fyodor Dostoevsky’s famouscharacter from the acclaimedbook ‘Crime and Punishment’Raskolnikov, often thought:“When is murder (violence)right?” He asked himself why wasNapoleon France’s greatest herodespite butchering millions, whilehe (Raskolnikov) felt extremeguilt even as he served a sentencein prison for murdering a tight-fisted moneylender?

The unfortunate events thattook place on Republic Day at theRed Fort will remain a festeringwound on the farmers’ movementforever. It was a dark day, not onlybecause of the mayhem and riotsthat took place but also becausethe cause of thousands of peace-fully demonstrating farmers waslost in oblivion after the darkclouds of violence engulfed theCapital.

Farmer leaders like RakeshTikait and others have beennamed in the First InformationReports (FIRs) that were lodgedsoon after the incident.Meanwhile, the “godi media” hasalready declared farmers and theirleaders guilty and their media trialhas begun. On the other hand,Deep Sindhu who is allegedly oneof the main conspirators behindthe chaos that erupted in Delhi,roams free. In his own video he isseen at the Red Fort inciting thefarmers. Opportunist leaders havealready parted ways and the issueat hand is no longer agrarian dis-tress but “us and them.”

“Violence begets violence”,the Government’s response wasquite natural. But let us heed thewarning of Bertrand Russell and“examine the facts” by ourselves.Those who were present at Delhi’sGhazipur border when the farm-ers broke the barricades, narrate

�������������������� �� ����������Sir — The release of VK Sasikala from jailhas created a sensation in the political cir-cles of Tamil Nadu (TN). Even though herrelease was expected, the absence of theRajinikanth factor has made her positionmore relevant in the politics of the State.It is obvious that she will favour hernephew’s party, the Amma MakkalMunnettra Kazagam (AMMK), but thiswill only result in the splitting of the AllIndia Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam(AIADMK) votes as she still has a follow-ing in the old party and among the peo-ple. Plus, political parties like KamalHaasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam and theone to be floated by MK Alagiri soon, willadd to the division.

Now that her mentor Jayalalithaa isgone, it will be prudent for Sasikala to workfor an alliance between the AMMK, theAIADMK, the Pattali Makkal Katchi(PMK), the Desiya Murpokku DravidaKazhagam (DMDK) and the BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) which have commonideologies to some extent and also have anational outlook. This will be a crediblealliance in the eyes of the electorate andif they win, they will give a stableGovernment in TN. On the other hand,the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)will have an alliance with its old friends.If these two groups emerge, it will be atough contest in the southern State. In asignificant move, a day after Sasikala leftjail, the Poes Garden residence ofJayalalithaa, ‘Veda Nilayam’ was convert-ed into a memorial by the StateGovernment. It looks like the AIADMKis planning to milk the Amma-Sasikala fac-tor after all.

M Raghuraman | Mumbai

��� ������ ��������������Sir — It refers to the editorial ‘Sports hasno colour’ (January 28). As expectedCricket Australia had to admit that therewas racial abuse against a few of the Indianplayers during the recently-concludedseries. But it was sad to see that they wereunable to identify those who were guiltyof hurling abuse despite having a very

small number of people on the ground. Itis also unfortunate that no action has beentaken against the four accused who werearrested earlier. Racial abuse is not new andhas been witnessed many times across theworld and even in India against our ownpeople. However, mere condemnation isnot enough.

Sports is known to unite people of dif-ferent races and colour and any kind ofracial abuse on the ground should not betolerated by the players and umpires.Credit goes to Indian captain AjinkyaRahane for carrying on with the gamedespite having an option to leave the fieldas offered by the umpires. It makes onehappy to see that Rahane spent part of thefirst day in quarantine in Chennai — aheadof India’s first Test against England — play-ing with his daughter and not broodingover the unsavoury incident.

However, all cricket Boards must joinhands with the International CricketCouncil (ICC) and work closely to find asolution to such a problem. Harsh punish-

ment should be handed to those guilty ofit and a lifelong ban on their entry into sta-diums should be imposed.

Bal Govind | Noida

���� ������������� �Sir — The Union Home Ministry hasissued fresh guidelines for surveillanceand containment of the pandemic, whichwill be effective from February 1 and willremain in force up to February 28. Theprime focus of the new norms is to con-solidate the substantial gains that Indiahas achieved against the spread of thevirus in the last four months. One canonly hope that the new instructions willbe followed by all stakeholders and thecitizens sincerely so that the economichealth of the nation can be restored at theearliest. It is the need of the hour and ourdreams of a new India depend on it.

Amit Singh Kushwaha | Satna

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The Union Budget is the most anticipated eventfor every sector. While the pandemic hit theeconomic growth of the country in 2020, it

taught us lessons in self-reliance also. To achievethis self-reliance, the forthcoming Union Budgetneeds to invest more in ‘Make-in-India’ as also‘Design-in-India’ besides ensuring that both get sup-ported by a renewed emphasis on the creativeindustry, education, vocational training and devel-opment of universities. The creative industryhopes to see improved grants from the Governmentin the field of design education. This is becausedesign assists innovation, the most powerfulengine of economic growth, the future of a new-age India.

Design is an important as well as muchsought after aspect in the current scenario owingto the shifting consumer trends. The trend has shift-ed from mere functionality to aesthetics and user-friendliness of products. It is natural at themoment to expect more measures to be taken inthe forthcoming Union Budget in the domains ofinnovation, research and technology. This will ben-efit the basic infrastructure of an autonomousnation and will result in India not depending uponimports from vigorously growing manufacturinggiants like China and smaller ones like Vietnam,Myanmar and so on.

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave theclarion call to the nation to kick-start the‘AtmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan (Self-reliant Indiacampaign)’, he was taking his ‘Make in India’ flag-ship campaign a step further. As the campaign web-site clearly states, ‘Make in India’ is devised to trans-form India into a global design and manufactur-ing hub. Modi himself has been underlining theneed for design at many forums, stressing that‘Design in India’ is as important as ‘Make in India.’

Design is the critical ingredient required to suc-ceed in positioning India as a global manufactur-ing destination. Design is horizontal among all ver-ticals as it assists innovation, the most powerfulengine of economic growth. A case in point is thatof South Korea, where the Government connect-ed big industry with the design community, lead-ing to the creation of several global design-led con-sumer brands like Hyundai, Samsung, Kia Motorsand so on. Major companies from diverse sectorsare making a beeline for premier design schools tohire fresh creative talent.

From apparel brands to computer giants,from heavy manufacturing industries to FMCG big-wigs, the growing list of corporate majors arrivingfor recruitment shows the growing importance ofdesign in the business world. Wipro, Whirlpool, theTitan Group, Tanishq, Toshiba, Philips, AdidasIndia, Adobe, Ashok Leyland, GE Healthcare,General Motors, Godrej Industries, HindustanUnilever, HP Labs, IBM India Research Lab, Infosys,Oracle, JP Morgan, LG Electronics, GlaxoSmithKline, Honda India, Mahindra and Mahindra,Renault, Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki India, NokiaResearch, Ebay, Myntra, Relaxo Footwear, Welspun,Zomato and so on, have emerged as the leadingrecruiters scouting for talent at design schools inthe country. The reasons for this unprecedentedquest for designers are the changes taking place inIndia as a market. It has reached a critical mass,becoming the largest consumer market after the USand China. Indian consumers today are aware oftrends and advancements in technology and theydemand similar sophistication. More important,they want products built to their needs. That meansnot just automobiles, household appliances and con-sumer electronics, but also mobile phones, foodsand apparel. Redesigning a product or introduc-ing a new one helps a brand reach out to an addi-

tional local consumer. Frequentsoftware updates on our mobilehandsets are a classic example of howcompanies are reinventing them-selves. The rewards for a well-designed product customised forlocal use, are huge. Take the case ofNokia 1100, launched in 2003 as anentry-level mobile handset that wasspecially designed for India. Itbecame the best selling consumerelectronics device and more than 200million units were sold.

More and more multinationalcorporations (MNCs) are now sell-ing products that are not just madein the country, but are also designedfor it. For instance, Whirlpool Indiadesigned washing machines thatrestart automatically after a powerfailure. LG and Samsung designedrefrigerators that keep food cold forfour to five hours without electrici-ty. In South India, microwave ovenshave an idli-mould as a starter kit.Tupperware sells a spice boxdesigned and manufactured here.Brands like Miniso, Uniqlo andMuji have put together completedesign teams to customise theirofferings for India. Uniqlo aims tooffer innovative apparel that drawson the nation’s distinct culture andtraditions. Many products designedfor the Indian market have goneglobal, finding takers outside thecountry, especially in the subconti-nent and West Asia. For instance,many of the offerings created forIndia by McDonald’s are popular allover west Asia. Philips India’s UVintelligent water purifier, a productdesigned especially for India is nowbeing exported to Eastern Europe,Thailand, Turkey and Brazil.

Till recently, the design of whitegoods had a relatively limited impacton the consumer’s choice. Marketingstrategies tended to promote white

goods by focusing on price and ener-gy efficiency, rather than on brand-ing or iconic features. This haschanged. Manufacturers are nowusing bright colours and iconicdesigns to make their products sta-tus symbols. This allows the con-sumer to make a visual statementabout their lives. Take the case ofSymphony air-coolers. Investing indesign has made a bankrupt manu-facturer a �8,000 crore company.Design is now deeply integrated intotheir business model.

The automotive sector is one theworld’s most important industrieswith a value of over £1.3 trillion ayear, surpassed by only foureconomies. Changing consumerdemand for connected smart andautonomous vehicles is creating ahuge demand for design inputs. It isnow felt that the Indian automotiveindustry, especially the auto compo-nent industry should focus on local-ising automotive designs, whichcombined with India’s frugalapproach to production, will allowit to take on the global supply chain.

With every passing day automat-ic cars become more of an acceptedway of transport than somethingwhich was an optional or additivefeature a few years ago, not belong-ing to the mainstream fleet of cars.Already there is a growing preferencefor an automatic gear box over amanual one, for an easier drivingexperience, which is leading to anincrease in the number of automat-ic cars being manufactured today.

That said, for the design indus-try to grow and flourish, it wouldneed more than the jump in demandand sprouting of design depart-ments in companies. It needs sup-port from the Government in theform of formulation and implemen-tation of promotional and develop-

mental measures for growth of thedesign sector. Government interven-tion will help increase knowledge,develop design capability, encouragebusinesses to use design and drivevalue creation through design. Thebenefits of successful promotion ofcreative industries cannot be over-estimated as investing in them dri-ves economic growth. And, unlikeother segments of the economy, thecreative arts also contribute to cul-tural identity and social cohesion.

Smart governments recognisethat different creative industrieshave specific needs. Creative indus-tries encompass a broad set of com-panies that bring together everyonefrom engineers and managementprofessionals to artists and design-ers. The Government needs torecognise the financial viability ofcreative careers and to generatedemand for local creative output.

Design education, too, requiresa financial thrust to support a bet-ter and world-class infrastructure,further leading to advancement ingaining knowledge and competingwith global D-school giants.

We are living in a brave newworld. Paradigm shifts are poised tochange the nature and future ofwork. As a consequence, designersare finding a bigger role to play inthe new order. They know how toevolve and bring something new tolife. In the coming decade commer-cial, product and industrial designjobs are set to experience hugegrowth and spurt in demand.

However, this cannot happenunless the Government gives its sup-port to creative education and indus-tries in the country. The forthcom-ing Union Budget is an opportuni-ty for the Government to do just thatand give a boost to a vibrant and self-reliant Bharat.

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In the passing away of seniorSupreme Court lawyer NM‘Appa’ Ghatate recently,

many would recall his silentcontribution in the building ofthe BJP and its predecessor theBharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS).Appa, was the bridge betweenlate Prime Minister Atal BihariVajpayee and his deputy LalKrishna Advani. He had attend-ed the Prince of Wales’ RoyalIndian Military College(RIMC), Dehradun between1949-53, the school I studied atthree decades later. At an alum-ni function, I was introduced tohim by the patriarch of theschool’s alumni association lateMaj-Gen Virendra Singh, some-time in the 1990s, soon after Ihad landed a job with The

Pioneer. Since like Appa, I toohad not made it to the armedforces, we got along well. He hada good legal practice andrumour had it that he washired by Charles Sobhraj, theenigmatic international gang-ster.

Once Appa called me to hisHailey Road apartment to dis-cuss the possibility of doing abook on VK Krishna Menon. “Iwas his legal junior when hetook up practice in the SupremeCourt after resigning fromNehru’s Cabinet,” he told me. Itwas at that meeting that onerealised that Appa was a keenstudent of India’s history andpolitics. An obituary by VinaySitapati, the author of‘Jugalbandi: BJP Before Modi’

failed to mention Appa’s school-ing at the RIMC. The institu-tion, known for having given thefinest military leaders to bothIndia and Pakistan, embeddedin Appa certain values whichstood out all through his life.

Despite being from a fam-ily which was the founding pil-lar of the RashtriyaSwayamsevak Sangh (RSS), theHindu Mahasabha, the BJS andhis lifelong loyalty to the rightof the centre ideology, Appa wasmuch at ease even in the com-pany of the school’s alumni fromacross the border. He was partof the delegation led by GenVishwa Nath Sharma, the for-mer Chief of Army Staff, whichtravelled across the RadcliffeLine in 1996 to invite their

schoolmates to celebrate theRIMC’s platinum jubilee inMarch 1997. Consequently, alarge Pakistani delegationturned up under the leadershipof veteran diplomat and formerForeign Minister SahibzadaYaqub Khan. The unique thingabout this visit was that the

Pakistani military leaders werehosted by their Indian counter-parts and they stayed at theirhomes including one at thehouse of Gen Harbaksh Singh,who was instrumental in Indiahanding the neighbours ahumiliating defeat in 1965.

One realised that Appa wasmuch influenced by his lifelongfriend Vajpayee. Their friend-ship went back to 1957, whenthe young lawyer was given thetask of taking the newly-elect-ed Member of Parliamentaround Delhi. And Appa did itin style with Vajpayee riding pil-lion on his Royal Enfield motor-cycle. Appa came in contactwith Advani when the latterjoined Vajpayee’s team in the late1950s. Like his father Babasaheb

Ghatate was the bridge betweenHindu Mahasabha leader VDSavarkar and RSS head GuruGolwarkar, Appa was the linkbetween Vajpayee and Advani.He enjoyed the confidence ofboth the men, something whichwas impossible when they wereat the height of their power dur-ing the NDA-I regime.

Appa was a self-effacingperson and during the alumnimeets in Dehradun, when hiscontemporaries would stay inthe guest rooms of a militarymess, Appa preferred to stay inthe school dormitories. He wentback to RIMC every year for theannual reunion. Alas! He wouldnot be there to attend the schoolcentenary in 2022.

Post Vajpayee’s demise,

there were a slew of books onhim but it was Appa who wasthe ‘official’ custodian of hispapers. He edited Vajpayee’sspeeches in the Hosue publishedunder the title, ‘Four Decades inParliament.’ Appa’s also articu-lated well on issues of parlia-mentary law and criminaljurisprudence. He was a doctor-ate from the AmericanUniversity, Washington DC andtaught international relationsbefore returning to legal prac-tice.

As Vice-Chairman of theLaw Commission he was instru-mental in the formation of theArmed Forces Tribunal forspeedy dispute resolution. Thearmed forces would foreverremain indebted to him for it.

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Washington: The Biden admin-istration has ruled out any com-promise with China on issueslike theft of intellectual proper-ty and South China Sea forarriving at a deal on the exis-tential issue of climate change.

The US has serious differ-ences with China on some veryimportant issues, SpecialPresidential Envoy on ClimateChange John Kerry toldreporters at a White Housenews conference.

The relations between theUS and China are at an all-timelow. The two countries are cur-rently engaged in a bitter con-frontation over various issues,including trade, the origins ofthe novel coronavirus pandem-ic, the communist giant’s aggres-sive military moves in the dis-puted South China Sea andhuman rights.

“I am as mindful of that asanybody, having served asSecretary of State and in theSenate, the issues of theft of

intellectual property and accessto market, the South China Sea.I mean, run the list; we all knowthem. Those issues will never betraded for anything that has todo with climate. That’s notgoing to happen,” he asserted.

But climate is a criticalstandalone issue that the US hasto deal on in the sense thatChina is 30 per cent of the emis-sions of the world. The US isabout 15 per cent of the emis-sions of the world. Clubbed withEuropean Union, the three enti-ties account for more than 55per cent, he said.

“So, it’s urgent that we finda way to compartmentalise, tomove forward. And we’ll waitand see. But President Joe Bidenis very, very clear about the needto address the other issues withChina. And I know some peo-ple have been concerned.Nothing is going to be siphonedoff into one area from another,”Kerry said in response to a ques-tion. In his maiden media

appearance in his new capaci-ty, Kerry, said that climatechange is the existential threatto the world.

The stakes on climatechange just simply couldn’t beany higher than they are rightnow. It is existential, he said.

“We use that word too eas-ily, and we throw it away. Butwe have a big agenda in front ofus on a global basis, andPresident Biden is deeply com-mitted — totally seized by thisissue, as you can tell by thisexecutive order and by theother — the initiative for gettingback into Paris immediately.That’s why he rejoined the Parisagreement so quickly, becausehe knows it is urgent,” he said.

“He also knows that Parisalone is not enough — notwhen almost 90 per cent of allof the planet’s global emis-sions come from outside of USborders. We could go to zerotomorrow and the problemisn’t solved,” he said. PTI

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Washington: To the lastmoments of his presidency,Donald Trump trumpetedSpace Force as a creation for theages.

And while President JoeBiden has quickly undone otherTrump initiatives, the space-far-ing service seems likely to sur-vive, even if the new adminis-tration pushes it lower on the listof defense priorities.

The reason Space Force isunlikely to go away is largelythis: Elimination would requirean act of Congress, where abipartisan consensus holds thatAmerica’s increasing relianceon space is a worrying vulner-ability that is best addressed bya branch of the military focusedexclusively on this problem.

The new service also islinked to an increasing U.S.Wariness of China, which isdeveloping capabilities to threat-

en U.S. Satellites in space andwhich has become, in the mindsof some, the singular nationalsecurity challenge. Russia, too,stands accused by Washingtonof seeking to challengeAmerican dominance in space.

“They’re building capabili-ties to use space against us. Wehave to be able to respond tothat,” Gen. John Hyten, vicechairman of the Joint Chiefs ofStaff, told the National SecuritySpace Association, an advoca-cy group, last week, referring toRussia and China.

As a career space officer,Hyten says he often gets askedwhat will become of SpaceForce under Biden. And whilehe offered no prediction, heclearly believes Space Forceshould remain. Biden has notpublicly commented on hisintentions with Space Force. Hisdefense secretary, Lloyd Austin,

has been noncommittal whilestressing the strategic impor-tance of space.

The White House did notrespond to a request for com-ment on Biden’s view.

Although some see it as aTrump vanity project, SpaceForce is not the farcical force ofthe public imagination.

In the military, it’s seensoberly as an affirmation of theneed to more effectively organ-ise for the defense of U.S.Interests in space — especiallysatellites used for civilian andmilitary navigation, intelligenceand communication.

While far smaller than anyother branch of the military,Space Force is acquiring thestandard trappings of a service,including an official flag, logo,seal and doctrine. It haslaunched commercials to attractrecruits. AP

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Washington: President JoeBiden is set to take his first stepsto reverse Trump administra-tion health care policies. TheWhite House said Biden planson Thursday to sign orders ona range of issues including get-ting more Americans coveredand removing curbs on abor-tion counselling.

The most concrete short-term impact will come fromBiden reopeningHealthCare.Gov insurancemarkets as coverage has shrunkin the economic turmoil of thecoronavirus pandemic. Createdunder the Obama-eraAffordable Care Act, also called“Obamacare,” the marketplaces

offer taxpayer-subsidized cov-erage regardless of a person’smedical history, or preexistingconditions, including COVID-19. That new three-month“special enrollment period”could begin as soon as February15, according to a White Housesummary.

Biden will also immedi-ately reverse a federal policythat bars taxpayer funding forinternational health care non-profits offering abortion coun-seling or referrals. Known as theMexico City Policy, it can getswitched on and off dependingon whether Democrats orRepublicans control the WhiteHouse. AP

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New York: President JoeBiden’s nominee for ambas-sador to the United Nations,Linda Thomas-Greenfield hasdescribed China as a “strategicadversary” and a “threat” to itsneighbours, asserting that herhighest priority will be to pushagainst Chinese influence inthe Security Council.

The relations between theUS and China are at an all-time low. The two countriesare currently engaged in abitter confrontation over var-ious issues, including trade,

the origins of the novel coro-navirus pandemic, the com-munist giant’s aggressive mil-itary moves in the disputedSouth China Sea and humanrights.

At the United Nations,Chinese are “undermining ourvalues…undermining our secu-rity”, Thomas-Greenfield testi-fied at her confirmation hearingheld by the Senate ForeignRelations Committee onWednesday which was heavilydominated by questions fromlawmakers on China. PTI

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Moscow: Several allies andsupporters of Russian opposi-tion leader Alexei Navalnywere detained in Moscow earlyThursday after mass protestslast Saturday demanding hisrelease from prison drew tensof thousands to the streets inover 100 Russian cities.

Navalny’s top ally LyubovSobol, Dr. Anastasia Vasilyevafrom the Alliance of Doctorsunion backed by Navalny andMaria Alyokhina from thePussy Riot punk collectivehave been detained for 48hours along with Navalny’s

brother Oleg.All four are reported to be

suspects in a criminal probeinto alleged violations of coro-navirus regulations during themass rally in Moscow. Theraids came four days beforenew protests that Navalny’ssupporters have called forSunday.

The 44-year-old Navalny,the most well-known critic ofPresident Vladimir Putin’s gov-ernment, was arrested January17 upon his return fromGermany, where he spent fivemonths recovering from nerve-

agent poisoning that he blameson the Kremlin. Russianauthorities have rejected theaccusations.

The overnight detentionsof his supporters came after more than a dozen raids on apartments and offices of Navalny’s family,associates and supporters inconnection to the probe.Searched locations includedNavalny’s apartment, wherepolice detained his brother,and a rented apartment whereNavalny’s wife, Yulia, has beenliving. AP

Islamabad: Pakistan’s SupremeCourt on Thursday dismissedappeals against the acquittal ofBritish-born al-Qaeda terror-ist Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikhin the sensational kidnappingand murder of Daniel Pearl in2002 and ordered his release,a judgement denounced bythe American journalist’s fam-ily as “a complete travesty ofjustice.”

Pearl, the 38-year-old SouthAsia bureau chief for The WallStreet Journal, was abductedand beheaded while he was inPakistan investigating a story in2002 on the links between thecountry’s powerful spy agencyISI and al-Qaeda.

Sheikh and his three aides- Fahad Naseem, Sheikh Adiland Salman Saqib - were con-victed and sentenced in theabduction and murder case ofPearl in Karachi in 2002.

Pearl’s murder took placethree years after Sheikh, alongwith Jaish-e-Mohammad chiefMasood Azhar and MushtaqAhmed Zargar, was released byIndia in 1999 and given safepassage to Afghanistan in

exchange for the nearly 150passengers of hijacked IndianAirlines Flight 814.

He was serving a prisonterm in India for kidnappingsof Western tourists in thecountry.

A three-judge bench ofthe apex court led by JusticeMushir Alam on Thursdaydismissed the Sindh govern-ment’s appeal against the SindhHigh Court’s (SHC) decision tooverturn the conviction ofSheikh in the Pearl murdercase. The beheading of theAmerican journalist in 2002had grabbed internationalheadlines.

The bench issued a 2:1 splitjudgment to uphold the SHCorder by rejecting the appealsand ordered Sheikh should beset free, his lawyer MahmoodSheikh told the media.

The court ordered thatthree others, who had beensentenced to life in prison fortheir part in Pearl’s kidnappingand death, also be freed.

Ruth and Judea Pearl - theparents of Pearl - criticised thejudgment that would endangerthe lives of journalists every-where, said Faisal Siddiqi, thePearl family lawyer. PTI

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London: The UK Governmenthas further tightened its over-seas travel measures andwarned British holidaymakersthat they could face fines of 200pounds as their journeys do notfall within the coronavirus lock-down valid travel exceptions.

As part of measures laidout by UK Home SecretaryPriti Patel in the House ofCommons on Wednesday, alloutbound and inbound pas-sengers will be expected to jus-tify their reasons for travel aspart of measures to reduce therisk of Covid-19 transmission.

She also confirmed a com-pulsory 10-day hotel quaran-tine requirements for anyinbound passengers into theUK from high-risk “red list”countries with high rates ofCovid infections and new vari-ants are to be confirmed in thecoming days.

“There are still too manypeople coming in and out ofour country each day. Therules are clear — people shouldbe staying at home unless theyhave a valid reason to leave.Going on holiday is not a validreason,” said Patel. PTI

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Kinshasa (Congo): Lawmakersin Congo have voted to removePrime Minister Sylvestre IlungaIlunkamba, paving the way forPresident Felix Tshisekedi toappoint someone more loyal.

The no confidence vote inIlunkamba is the latest move byTshisekedi to distance himselffrom a coalition formed withhis predecessor, Joseph Kabila,the strongman who governedthe impoverished CentralAfrican nation for 18 years.

The coalition with Kabila’sparty has restricted Tshisekedisince he took office in 2019.Congo analysts say this week’svote is a strategic move toweaken Kabila’s influence. AP

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The Nepal Supreme Courton Thursday ordered

Prime Minister KP SharmaOli to appear before it withinthe next seven days with awritten response to the casesof contempt of court filed

against him.Two separate cases of con-

tempt of court were filedagainst Oli at the Apex courton Tuesday, for his allegedremarks on 95-year-old senioradvocate Krishna PrasadBhandari, calling him “agrandpa lawyer”.

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Warsaw (Poland): A near-totalban on abortion has takeneffect in Poland and triggereda new round of nationwideprotests three months after atop court ruled that the abor-tion of congenitally damagedfetuses is unconstitutional.

Led by a women’s rightsgroup, Women’s Strike, peoplepoured onto the streets ofWarsaw and other cities lateWednesday. More anti-gov-ernment demonstrations areplanned for Thursday evening.

Poland’s top human rightsofficial denounced the furtherrestriction of what was alreadyone of the most restrictiveabortion laws in Europe, call-ing it a tragedy for women.

“The state wants to furtherlimit their rights, risk theirlives, and condemn them totorture,” said Adam Bodnar, the

human rights commissioner, orombudsman, whose role isindependent from the Polishgovernment. “This offensive isopposed by civil society.”

The only remaining legaljustifications for abortion underPolish law are if the woman’s lifeor health is at risk or if a preg-nancy results from a crime likerape or incest. The restriction ofabortion comes amid a broad-er erosion of civil liberties anddemocratic norms under right-wing populist governments inPoland, as well as Hungary. Theerosion of democratic rights inthe two nations also is spread-ing to other parts of ex-com-munist central Europe, present-ing a challenge for U.S. PresidentJoe Biden as he seeks to restoredemocratic norms at home andabroad. AP

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India’s rank has slipped sixplaces to 86th among 180

countries in a corruption per-ception index (CPI) in 2020.

For 2020, TransparencyInternational (TI)’s corruptionperception index was releasedon Thursday.

The index, which ranks180 countries and territories bytheir perceived levels of publicsector corruption according toexperts and business people,uses a scale of 0 to 100, where0 is highly corrupt and 100 isvery clean.

India’s rank is 86 out of 180nations with a score of 40.

“India was ranked at 80thposition out of 180 countries in2019. The CPI score for Indiais constant this year as well asthe previous year’s score,” the

index said.India is still very low on

corruption Index, the reportsaid, noting that experts feel theCPI does not reflect the actu-al corruption level in any coun-try. The integrity score deter-mines the corruption situationof a country.

This year, New Zealandand Denmark were ranked atfirst position with scores of 88.Somalia and South Sudan wereranked lowest at 179th positionwith scores of 12.

New Delhi: GAIL Gas Limitedhas been awarded the ‘City GasDistribution – EstablishedCompany of the Year’ byFederation of Indian PetroleumIndustry (FIPI). The awardwas given by Hon’ble UnionMinister of Petroleum &Natural Gas and Steel, ShriDharmendra Pradhan toChairman & ManagingDirector, GAIL Shri ManojJain and Chief ExecutiveOfficer, GAIL Gas Shri M.V.Ravi Someswarudu at the FIPI

Oil & Gas Industry AnnualAwards 2020 ceremony heldhere.

The award recognises lead-ership in performance by oper-ating City Gas Distribution

network for distribution ofNatural Gas to consumers inthe domestic, industrial, trans-port and commercial sectors ina Geographical Area (GA) inIndia during the year of award.

Mumbai:Life InsuranceCorporation -owned IDBIBank reported a standalone netprofit of �378 crore forDecember quarter 2020-21 onthe back of healthy growth ininterest income. The lender,which is under the ReserveBank of India’s prompt correc-tive action (PCA) since May2017, had reported a stand-alone net loss of �5,763 crorein the year-ago quarter.

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Foreign direct investment(FDI) into the country

jumped to USD 8.51 billion inNovember 2020 from USD 2.8billion in the same month of2019, according to theCommerce and IndustryMinistry data.

Total FDI, including re-invested earnings and othercapital, during the monthunder review grew by 81 percent to USD 10.15 billion.

The data also showed thatFDI grew by 37 per cent toUSD 43.85 billion during April-November 2020.

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Bharti Airtel on Thursdaysaid its network is 5G ready

now as the telco successfullydemonstrated live fifth gener-ation service - with ultra highspeeds - over a commercial net-work in Hyderabad city.

The move assumes signif-icance as telcos are gearing upto leverage 5G as the nextfrontier for future growth tobolster revenues and

provide stronger customer

experience. While the latest demon-

stration underscores the com-pany’s technology capabilitiesfor rolling out of fifth genera-tion services in future,

Airtel said the actualimpact of 5G experience will beavailable to customers, “whenadequate spectrum is avail-able and government approvalsare received”. For the demorun, the company leveragedexisting liberalised spectrum inthe 1800 MHz band.

“In many ways now, it is aflick of a button to turn on 5G.It is important that we get theright 5G experience for whichadequate spectrum in the rightbands need to be made avail-able.

“Today, we have conclu-

sively demonstrated that as faras Airtel is concerned, we are5G ready,” Bharti Airtel MDand CEO Gopal Vittal said ata virtual conference.

The company said Airtel5G is capable of delivering 10xspeeds, 10x latency and 100xconcurrency when comparedto existing technologies.Specifically, in Hyderabad,users were able to download afull length movie in a matter ofseconds on a 5G phone.

Using dynamic spectrumsharing, Airtel seamlessly oper-ated 5G and 4G concurrentlywithin the same spectrumblock. The company said itsdemonstration has validatedthe 5G readiness of Airtel’s net-work across all domains --radio, core and transport.

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Equity indices nosedived forthe fifth straight session

on Thursday as investors tookmoney off the table amid for-eign fund outflows and heavyselling in global markets.

Participants also preferredto remain in a risk-averse modeahead of the Union Budget nextweek, traders said.

The 30-share BSE Sensexskidded 535.57 points or 1.13per cent to finish at 46,874.36.

Similarly, the broader NSENifty tumbled 149.95 points or1.07 per cent to 13,817.55.

The Sensex has now lost2,917.76 points in five days,while the Nifty has retreated827.15 points.

HUL was the top loser inthe Sensex pack on Thursday,shedding 3.65 per cent, fol-

lowed by Maruti, HDFC Bank,PowerGrid, Kotak Bank,IndusInd Bank, HCL Tech andBajaj Finserv.

On the other hand, AxisBank, SBI, ONGC, ICICI Bankand UltraTech Cement wereamong the gainers, jumping upto 6.16 per cent.

On the global front, WallStreet posted its biggest one-day percentage drop in threemonths amid a wave of profit-booking, even as the US Fedleft the benchmark interestrate unchanged near zero andvowed to maintain its bondbuying program.

Asian and Europeanbourses too wilted under sell-ing pressure amid unabated risein COVID-19 cases.

“Market turned cautiousafter the unidirectional upsideof the last 10 months due to

ambiguity ahead the Budgetand profit booking in the glob-al market due to over-enthusi-asm.

“Global risk parametersincreased despite the US Fedmaintaining its supportive pol-icy, due to high speculation inthe equity market and likelydrop in fiscal and monetary liq-uidity in the future,”said VinodNair, Head of Research atGeojit Financial Services.

BSE realty, IT, FMCG,teck, auto and healthcareindices lost up to 2.07 per cent,while oil and gas, telecom,bankex and consumerdurables managed to close inthe green.

The broader BSE midcapand smallcap indices slipped upto 0.46 per cent.

According to traders,recent foreign fund outflowsfrom the domestic capital mar-kets are also weighing on mar-ket momentum.

Foreign portfolio investors(FPIs) offloaded shares worth

a net Rs 1,688.22 crore onWednesday, according to pro-visional exchange data.

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The Reserve Bank of Indiahas told the Supreme Court

that the National PaymentCorporation of India (NPCI)allowed WhatsApp to “go live”on UPI only after ensuring itwas fully compliant with its cir-cular.The central bank alsostressed the onus is on theNPCI to respond on the statusof compliance of WhatsApp,Google and Amazon with thesystem rules/procedural guide-lines governing the UnifiedPayments Interface (UPI).

In an affidavit, the RBIsaid: “NPCI is the systemprovider of UPI and, therefore,comes under the regulatoryradar of the RBI. Since it wasNPCI that allowed Amazon,Google and WhatsApp to oper-ate under UPI, the responsi-bility to ensure that these enti-ties comply with all the

rules/regulations/guidelinesgoverning UPI lies with theNPCI.”

The RBI added that theNPCI was advised not to per-mit full scale operations ofWhatsApp till the time they arefully compliant with therequirements of the RBI direc-tions.“NPCI subsequentlyallowed ‘go live’ of WhatsAppon UPI only after ensuring thatWhatsApp was fully compliantwith the circular,” it said in theaffidavit.

The RBI issued directionsthrough a circular on April 6,2018 on storage of paymentsystem data and not data shar-ing or privacy. It said it has notissued any instructions on datasharing by Third-Party AppProviders (TPAPs) or the par-ticipants of UPI, and mattersrelated to data privacy anddata sharing come under thedomain of the Centre.

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Airline major IndiGo’s netloss narrowed during the

third quarter of FY21 on asequential basis.

Accordingly, InterGlobeAviation, which runs the air-line, reported a quarterly netloss of �620.1 crore from a netloss of �1,194.8 crore postedduring the second quarter of2020-21.

The airline had reported anet profit of Rs 496 crore dur-ing the Q3FY20.

Besides, the company saidthe capacity for the quarter wasdown by 40.8 per cent com-pared to the same period lastyear.

The ‘Revenue fromOperations’ declined by 50.6per cent to �4,910 crore for thequarter compared to the sameperiod last year.

New Delhi:About 84 per centIndian consumers agree thatArtificial Intelligence (AI) hasthe potential to provide bettercustomer experience, improvebrand reputation, and increasecustomer loyalty, a studyrevealed on Thursday.

According to softwarecompany Pegasystems, thestudy surveyed over 1,000 con-sumers in India on their viewsabout AI as it relates to moral-ity, ethical behaviour andempathy.

Indian consumers gener-ally trust new technologies likeAI if they see the potential toimprove their productivity and

make things simpler. But at thesame time, respondents stillworry about the ethics behindAI and the potential for it to actwith bias, the company said ina statement.The study alsoindicated that almost 78% arecomfortable interacting with AIfor business-related queries.

“This presents an impor-tant opportunity for Indiancompanies to accelerate theirAI adoption -- particularly asthe pandemic forces them toincrease their digital engage-ment capabilities,” SumanReddy, Managing Director,Pegasystems India, said in astatement.

New Delhi:Centre’s FY22 mar-ket borrowings are expected toremain at an elevated level,even as external deficit financ-ing is set to increase, IndiaRatings and Research (Ind-Ra) has said.Accordingly, theratings agency expects the grossmarket borrowings of theCentral Govt to be �10.82 tril-lion and net market borrowingsto be �9.02 trillion in FY22.InFY21 (April-November), theCentral government hasalready borrowed �12.16 tril-lion against its revised bor-rowing target of �12 trillion.

“The accommodative

monetary policy stance, weakcorporate sector demand,excess banking sector liquidi-ty, higher savings especially byhouseholds, and higher exter-nal financing (mainly borrow-ing from multilateral institu-tions such as the World Bank)helped the government to fundits deficit smoothly and reducepressure on domestic interestrates,” the report said.

At present, India does notfinance its deficit by raisingsovereign bonds, it borrowsfrom multilateral donor agen-cies to benefit from a long tenorand low cost.

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India’s top liquor manufac-turers have raised strong

objections to the new excisepolicy recommendations pre-pared by an expert commit-tee and warned that it wouldlead to monopoly of a fewcompanies, mainly MNCs,and will bring in cartelisationbesides hitt ing DelhiGovernment’s revenues.

In a joint representationto Delhi Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal, the fourmajor Indian players haveopposed any change in freepricing criteria besides rais-ing red flag over the proposedchange in registration ofbrands, which claimed was“extremely unfair, one-sidedand violative of principles offree competition”.

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Snapping its six-sessionrising streak, the rupee

depreciated by 13 paise toend at 73.05 against the USdollar on Thursday, track-ing muted domestic equitiesand a strengtheningAmerican currency over-seas.

Foreign fund outflowsand a sell-off in global mar-kets also weighed on thelocal unit, forex traderssaid.

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Back when Ford India broughtthe EcoSport to the country,the big thing about the car

was the ‘EcoBoost’ engine. In fact,during the initial media drive of theEcoSport in Goa, the vehicles wereequipped with the small-tur-bocharged EcoBoost and Ford’sdual-clutch gearbox. This enginewas a beauty, but there were down-sides as well. Small turbochargedengines with dual-clutchgearboxes engineered forperformance meant thatfuel-economy waswell, not ideal. Backin 2016-17, dieselwas still king ofthe hill, and Forddoes have a pret-ty good TDCiengine. With theengine andt r a n s m i s s i onbeing importedand Ford’s smallpresence inIndia, the compa-ny really could notdo the enginealthough theEcoBoost option was sold mated toa six-speed manual in its last fewmonths in India before theEcoSport was facelifted in late-2018.It was a pity to see the 123PSEcoBoost go. It gave the EcoSport

great performance,

which coupled with Ford’s natur-al good handling, made it a potentpackage. Maybe that engine in theFigo could have done wonders, whoknows?

In the meantime, the marketleader, Maruti-Suzuki, tried theirhand at a turbocharged option aswell with the Baleno RS which came

with the ‘Boosterjet’ engine.Unfortunately that car had twoissues, not least the fact that Marutidetuned the engine’s power down

to 105PS instead of the125PS that European cus-

tomers got and it had prettybad rubber. The latter mightnot have been an issue on pub-lic roads but when we drovethe car for the first time at theBuddh International Circuit,

it felt that it lacked adhesion.The Baleno has fabulous han-dling and the RS could havebeen a killer had Maruti-Suzukidone things correctly and Ihope that the company triessmall turbos again soon, theBaleno RS was a manual, but it

was a fun car. This brings me to today,

Hyundai-Kia have clearly decidedthat small turbocharged engines arethe future in India. They clearly sawthat after the Supreme Court’s deci-sion to cap the amount of time youcould use diesel cars to just 10 years

in the NCR. There was a gradualshift to petrol engines even forSUVs and better engine technolo-gy, particularly how lean-burn-ing engines have become. Thischallenged the notion thatsmall turbocharged engineswere uneconomical. Over2,000 kilometres that Irecently drove on thenew i20 Turbo with theDCT gearbox, Iachieved 15 kilometresa litre, sure we did not‘gun’ the car as speedwarnings are irritating.But the car delivers agreat blend of perfor-mance and economy.On the clutchless IMT KiaSonet that I have also been dri-ving over the past few months inalmost completely urban condi-tions with the small 1.0 litreturbo engine, economy is around12 kilometres per litre. The 1.2litre naturally aspirated engine onthe i20 and Sonet is slightly more

economical but is third less power-ful.

Now talking about the latestturbo entrant into the market: TheTata Altroz iTurbo. While Altroz isstill a good-looking car, maybe afew more distinguishing features toseparate it from the regular Altrozwould have been warranted. ButTata Motors wants the AltroziTurbo to be a ‘sleeper’, although itdoes have a unique new blue colour.This engine isn’t as crazy as theHyundai-Kia engine, and indeed,

is actually the same 1.2 engineon the naturally aspirated

Altroz. But the added-Turbo gives the car an

additional 20-oddhorsepower. You

feel the addition-al power, but

things like

accelerating from 40-ish while onfifth feel a bit sluggish. Better thanthe regular Altroz, but you are occa-sionally left wanting more, Whenyou mash the gearbox, this car canbe fun, but you really have to playaround. Tata Motors says that anautomatic option is on its way in afew months and that is somethingI would really like to drive. I wishTata Motors had improved the kitinside, particularly the size andquality of the screen, and maybedone something to make you feeldifferent inside with the iTurbo. Ihope that they will.

But the Altroz iTurbo has ahuge trump card over its rivals. It’sthe price! The top-end XZ OptionAltroz iTurbo is cheaper than theSportz i20 by almost �30,000 (ex-showroom), although Hyundaigives the car with the clutchlessmanual rather than the regularfive-speed. However, given thatHyundai does not offer the turboengine in lower variants, the Altrozcan win over buyers who want per-formance for a price, with the XTmodel being over a lakh cheaper(ex-showroom) than the i20.Personally, I prefer the i20 but theTata Altroz Turbo is tremendouslygood value. While you wish itlooked a bit more special and itcould do a bit more with the power,you can have fun with the car. Andfrankly, that is the bottom line.

We all know that2020 was anu npre d i c t ab l eyear for educa-tional institutes

as much as it was for the rest of theworld. We were faced with disrup-tions, chaos, confusions and par-ents were left juggling betweentheir jobs, personal life and theirchildren’s education more so thanbefore. Educational institutionshave to swiftly shift gears andmove to online teaching so as toprevent any disrupting studentlearning, and a month into 2021,we will carry some of these learn-ings forward. Given the unpre-dictability of how this year willpan out, below is a list of sometrends that we can expect toobserve in school education dur-ing the coming months.

Greater focus on socio-emotion-al learning: After a year filled withuncertainty and unprecedentedchange, we have realised the valueimportance of social-emotionallearning (SEL) more than ever

before. SEL is important in teach-ing students as well as adults howto manage their emotions, rela-tionships and organise them-selves. Adults and students canboth benefit from time spent onSEL, especially because of theemotional difficulties this pan-demic has created for everyone. Asa result, it is important for schoolsand educators to place moreemphasis on it to create a safe andconducive learning environment.A focus on SEL can also help stu-dents navigate through difficulttimes in future situations that theymay encounter.

Virtual learning and ed-tech:We have seen how many new dig-ital learning platforms and ed-techhave come up this past year.Massive acquisitions and biginvestments in disruptive educa-tion ideas have taken up largespaces in our daily news updates.It is, therefore, probable that in2021 parents and students willexplore these new offerings.Schools may also begin tie ups

with such service providers tomaximise student learning, espe-cially if the COVID-induced lock-down continues to prevail, phys-ical industries like in persontutoring will likely be affected bythe entrance of so many digitaland tech-based players.

Digital classrooms and hybridlearning: While we are all hope-ful about the vaccines, theirimpact and reach, the uncertain-ty of 2021 still remains. Even asschools plan for their physicalreopening, the implementationwill likely be slow and phased. Wecan, therefore, expect digital class-rooms to continue to be the normfor a good part 2021. Students willmost likely continue to learnonline for at least the first half ofthe year. As physical schoolsreopen, hybrid learning class-rooms will be common. Hybridclassrooms are those where thereis a mixed use of in-person teach-ing along with online learningmethods in order to maximise stu-dent’s knowledge and ensure no

loss of learning.

Blended learning: Finally, blend-ed learning is likely to be anexpected feature of physical class-rooms in the year. After beingforced to use only technology andinnovative ways of teaching forclose to a year, educators have hadthe opportunity to experiencefirst-hand the many advantages oftechnology in the classroom. It is,therefore, the best time to bringtechnology into classrooms.Children are more familiar andcomfortable with it than everbefore. The long process of imple-menting technology in classroomshas already been taken care of forus by the pandemic.

One of the big fears of parentshas always been the use of technol-ogy in the classrooms, the com-mon misconception being thatthis will result in students beingdependent on it. However, due tothis global health crisis scenario,we have seen how technology canbe used appropriately in order tobenefit students.

Other less obvious changeswill also take place in our learningenvironments this year. Studentswill show a greater sense of agency,as in the last year we have seen stu-dents take more control of theirown learning than ever before.Similarly, parents’ involvementand support became a key elementof learning during the pandemicand so more parent participationand community engagement canbe expected. Additionally, we haveseen the important role educatorshave played for students, whileeveryone was stuck at home. Wecan hope that this sense of grati-tude and appreciation continues,restoring in some ways the respectthat this profession has lost.

And lastly, the new year, if itbrings with it some normalcy,will also require a great deal ofcatching up. While educators andeducation institutions have adapt-ed to the new normal and showngreat resilience, students have cer-tainly experienced some losses inlearning. As we come to termswith the new normal, a big prior-ity will be ensuring that those whohave been most affected, areenabled to catch up!

(The writer is the ManagingDirector of an educational institu-tion)

Refurbishing home mightseem like a herculean task buta little makeover every now

and then is totally worth it. Andwhile you are at it, make sure to dothe renovation the green way orwith a little regard to the environ-ment. An eco-friendly home doesnot only reduce the negative impacton the surroundings but alsoensures good health and happinessof your family. If you think thatremodeling house the sustainableway can burn a hole in your pock-et, then you are certainly mistak-en. Here are some of the efficientways you can redo your house in anaffordable manner and take the firststep towards green living.

VOC-FREE PAINT OR CON-CRETE WALLSBeautifully decorated walls set thetone of the house and make all thedifference. Repainting is one of thebasic ways to give a new look andfeel to the house but using a paintthat contains a lot of harmfulchemicals can potentially harmthe environment and affect the airquality of the house. Cheap paintsemit Volatile Organic Compounds(VOC), hazardous fumes and otherparticulate matter, which can dras-tically make one vulnerable tochronic health disorders. Thus,make sure to choose only eco-friendly paints that are free ofVOCs and lead, especially if youhave children at home. Concrete walls are considered to beanother option to go for whileremodeling your place sustainably.They are constructed or moldedwith cement giving different shapesand designs. These are more intrend these days instead of paintgiving a fine royal finish to your liv-ing area.

WELCOME GREEN PLANTSINDOORS The vibrant green houseplants donot only embellish your livingspace but also makes the air clean-er and fresher. Plants help toremove toxins from air, improvemood, boost creativity and lowerstress and anxiety. While keepingthe plants can be immensely ben-eficial for the health of inhabitants,it is essential to choose an eco-friendly planter so that the plantsfunction properly. Opt for inexpen-sive and sustainable concreteplanters to accommodate yourhouseplants as they put less strain

on the environment and enableplants to thrive, providing a suitablehabitation.

RECLAIMED WOODWhile selecting green materials foryour home, stick to basics and optfor wooden furniture as it nevergoes out of the style. From kitchencountertops to floors, patios to out-door seating options, old wood canbe included in every possible wayas these are highly durable and easyto maintain. Incorporatingreclaimed wood pieces do not onlysave up renovation costs, but alsoprovide stylish interior décor with-out harming the environment.

NATURAL TEXTILES AND FIN-ISHINGSChoose hypoallergenic, biodegrad-able and recyclable fashioning pil-lows, mattresses, bedding materi-als. Upholstery made of naturallatex is an eco-friendly option tokeep away dust mites, moisture, andVOCs. Opt for carpets and rugscreated from natural materials suchas cotton, jute or wool rather thansynthetic fibers that ultimately endup languishing the landfills.

SAVE ENERGYLet the natural light inside thehouse and carefully position mir-rors that encourage light to bouncearound a pokey room. Even ceilingportholes can channel light fromthe roof and diffuse natural light inthe living space, making it vibrantand full of life. Save up energy byusing LED lighting as they consumeconsiderably less amount of powerand are more sustainable sources ofartificial energy. (The writer, Gurpreet Kaur Tuteja,is the founder of Eliteearth.)

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The chilly winter days are usuallymarked by warm, filling and

flavour-packed hot bowl of tomatosoup or streaming cup of tea and cof-fee. These help us beat the cold foggymornings and frozen toes.

Nutritionist and certified dia-betes educator, Avni Kaul says thattomato soup is one of the most com-monly made soups during the winterseason. The tomatoes are roasted,stewed and later pureed to prepare acreamy and rich soup. A single bowlof soup consists of several nutrientsthat include Vitamin A, C, E, and Kbesides important minerals andantioxidants that are beneficial foryour overall health.

There are various other healthbenefits too that make it a must-havesoup during the season. Avni shedslight on some of it.

BONE HEALTHThe vitamin K and calcium in

tomato soup helps you get healthybones. Lycopene in the soup boostsbone mass which helps counteringosteoporosis. Consuming this soupdaily decreases the blood levels of TNFalpha by approximately 34 per cent. Adeficiency in lycopene could increaseoxidative stress in the bones and causeunwanted changes in the tissues. Youcan keep these issues away by makingthis soup a part of your daily meal.

DISEASE COUNTERING LYCOPENEAs stated, tomato soup is rich in

lycopene, the pigment that providesbright colour to the fruits. Processedtomato has more lycopene than rawones. This element neutralises theoxidative damage that occurs due to

free radicals, a molecule that assistsageing. A diet rich in lycopene helpsfight chronic diseases and preventsstroke. A cup of tomato soup gives13.3 milligrams of lycopene, sufficientenough to keep your body fit.

CARDIOVASCULAR HEALTHThe high amount of vitamin C in

tomato soup gives arterial protection.It bolsters the heart and protects itfrom problems like blockage of arter-ies and prevents stroke. It further helpsin decreasing the deposition of fats inthe blood vessels, decreasing badcholesterol. Tomato soup also helpsprevent the clumping of platelet cellsin the blood.

BLOOD CIRCULATIONSelenium present in tomato soup

improves blood circulation whichprevents anemia. This is one of it’s topbenefits. A single serving of tomatosoup gives seven micrograms of sele-nium, providing 11 per cent of thedaily recommended intake.

VITAMINSTomato soup is a source of vita-

min A and C. The former is neededfor tissue development. It activates thegenes of the newborn cells helpingthem to grow into mature tissue. Abowl of tomato soup gives nearly 16per cent of the daily recommendedquantity of vitamin A. Vitamin C isneeded to maintain healthy tendonsand ligaments. This soup gives 20 percent of the daily recommended quan-tity of vitamin C. So, roll yourself ina quilt and sip on this soup to keepyour body healthy and soothe yourmind.

The global pandemic has leftmany reeling from its ram-ifications. Many sectors of

the economy have been signifi-cantly disrupted and the food andhospitality community hasn’t beenspared either. If there is one take-away for the food industry fromthe crisis, it is the need to beabsolutely agile, responsive andadaptable from top to bottom.

Human lives and their well-being continue to be a top prior-ity and the primal concern at thecentre of COVID-19 and conse-quent economic slowdown. As theworld struggles to curb the spreadof the virus, the F&B and hospi-tality industry have been at theforefront of the fight against theoutbreak feeding those in direneed in these trying times. Thefocus is entirely on the safety ofthe employees as well as the secu-rity of customers, giving them theoption to order via the fooddelivery platforms and makingthings technically efficient.

This is understandably play-ing a crucial role in acceleratingthe entire process of recovery andreversing the collateral damagecaused by this catastrophe. Somelessons that the industry has pos-sibly learned from the pandemicwhich is helping them strength-en businesses and prevailing prac-tices and preparing to betteraddress and withstand a futurepandemic are as follows:

�� �������,�������During the lockdown, many

operations had to be stopped orcut back on production owing tothe lack of key raw materials oringredients. This majorly hap-pened with those processors whowould arrange materials whenneeded and not maintain a largeinventory. The COVID outbreakhas highlighted the importance ofdiversifying one’s suppliers.Processors must have at least oneor two secondary suppliers forraw materials and ingredients,and they should patronise themby regularly ordering from themas well.

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The pandemic has necessitat-ed carrying out risk assessmentsat food production facilities andeating outlets from time to time.The assessment will have to becarried out on ingredients, rawmaterials used, packaging and therelated processes. Risk assess-ment includes primarily two ele-ments: possibility of occurrenceand severity of the occurrence.Many food processors and restau-rateurs have also brought in placemechanisms meant to handleemergency situations like natur-al disasters and pandemics.

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Technological changes thatwere already underway before thepandemic have now become vital.Companies and firms in the F&Band hospitality sectors are train-ing their staff to be prepared fornew and unanticipated challengeslike this one. Contactless Dine-in,QR code-enabled digital menus,wearing a head covering masks,and enhanced hygiene and sani-tation have become the tenets ofthe industry. Hotels and restau-rants are working in tandemwith local and national authori-ties to recover and win back thecustomer trust.

Despite having been hit thehardest, this industry has beenproactive in responding to thecalamitous situation. The F&Bsector have put in place contin-gency plans and necessary provi-sions for unfathomable scenarios,coupled with pre-defined rolesand accountabilities for theemployees. This preparednesswill help them make key deci-sions rapidly in the face of anyunforeseeable crisis in the forth-coming years.

(The author is ManagingDirector and the GastronomeChef, Kitchen Kraft LuxuryCatering.)

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Manchester United’sPremier League titlehopes suffered a huge

blow on Wednesday with a 2-1 defeat by bottom sideSheffield United as Chelseastarted the Thomas Tuchel erawith a goalless draw againstWolves.

The shock result at OldTrafford leaves Pep Guardiola’sManchester City a point clear atthe top with a game in handand looking increasingly hotfavourites to win a third title infour years.

Elsewhere on a busy nightof midweek action, Leicesterdrew 1-1 with Everton, Burnleybeat Aston Villa 3-2 andBrighton drew 0-0 withFulham.

Manchester United startedtheir match against SheffieldUnited on a high after an FACup win against Liverpool onSunday but they were sloppy

and uninspired from the kick-off.

The Blades broke the dead-lock midway through the firsthalf when Kean Bryan rose toglance home John Fleck’s cor-ner after David de Gea failed topunch clear.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s menwere level in the 64th minutewhen an outswinging cornerfrom Alex Telles was met witha thumping header by Harry

Maguire.But Sheffield United were

back in front again 10 minuteslater when United failed toclear and Oliver Burke’s strikewent in off the underside of thebar after taking a wicked deflec-tion off Axel Tuanzebe.

TUCHEL ERA FOR BLUESChelsea struggled to make

an impression against NunoEspirito Santo’s men, whose

form has nose-dived after for-ward Raul Jimenez fractured hisskull in late November.

The home side dominatedterritory and possession, butcreated few clear-cut chancesand the visitors had opportuni-ties to leave with all threepoints.

But Tuchel did not appeardownhearted despite the flatdisplay.

“I was very happy perfor-

mance-wise,” he said.“Unfortunately we couldn’tscore. If we take care of our per-formance like this the resultswill come.”

The draw lifted Chelsea toeighth spot, five points behindfourth-placed West Ham butTuchel knows time is not on hisside, with more than half of theseason gone.

ANOTHER PICKFORD ERRORJordan Pickford was pun-

ished for the latest in a long listof embarrassing errors as theblundering Everton goalkeep-er allowed Youri Tielemans torescue a draw for Leicester.

Clinging to the first-halflead given to them by JamesRodriguez, Everton weredenied three points whenPickford let Tielemans’ shotsquirm into the net after thebreak at Goodison Park.

Leicester sit third in thePremier League, two pointsbehind Manchester City, andlook capable of pushing for atop-four finish even with lead-ing scorer Jamie Vardy current-ly sidelined through injury.

Burnley beat Aston Villa 3-2 to pull nine points clear of therelegation zone, thanks to ChrisWood’s late winner.

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Pakistan’s spinners Yasir Shahand Nauman Ali grabbed

three wickets in the space of tenruns to halt South Africa’sfightback on the third day ofthe first Test in Karachi onThursday.

When it looked like SouthAfrica would end the day atparity after wiping outPakistan’s big 158-run firstinnings lead, Yasir struck twiceand Nauman once to leave thetourists on 187-4 at the close.

Nightwatchman KeshavMaharaj was unbeaten on twoand skipper Quinton de Kockwas yet to score, as SouthAfrica now lead by 29 runswith six second-innings wick-ets in hand.

Earlier, Pakistan scored378 to take a crucial lead overSouth Africa’s first inningstotal of 220.

Opener Aiden Markram,who scored a polished 74 forhis 8th fifty, added 127 for thesecond wickets with Rassievan der Dussen who scored asolid 64.

But Yasir, with figures of 3-53, changed the scenario by dis-missing Dussen caught andthen trapped Faf Du Plessis leg-before for ten, while Naumanhad Markram caught by aclose-in fielder to trigger athree-wicket collapse in 33balls.

Markram, dropped on 27by Pakistan skipper BabarAzam off-spinner Yasir, also

had a leg-before decision over-turned on four.

Dussen also had a leg-before decision overturned on56. Markram hit ten bound-aries and Dussen five.

Both Yasir and Naumanwill be major threats for SouthAfrica on a fourth-day Nationalstadium pitch which produced14 wickets on day one, four onthe second and six on thethird.

South Africa were off to aconfident start with Markramand Dean Elgar defyingPakistan’s attack, and were 37without loss at lunch.

Elgar, in visible discomfortafter being hit on the left handby a rising delivery from pacerShaheen Shah Afridi, wascaught by diving wicketkeeperMohammad Rizwan off Yasirfor 29.

In the morning Pakistan’stail added 70 runs to frustrateSouth Africa, who were look-ing for quick wickets.

South Africa’s pace spear-head Kagiso Rabada bowledHasan Ali for 21 to reach 200wickets in his 44th Test.

Rabada, 25, is the eighthSouth African to take 200 ormore Test wickets.

Pakistan were 323-9 at thatpoint, but Yasir and Naumanadded 55 valuable runs for thefinal wicket.

Yasir, who scored a Testcentury in Australia in 2019, hita six and four fours in his 38not out, while debutantNauman scored three bound-aries before falling for 24.

Rabada with 3-70 andspinner Maharaj, who took 3-90, were the pick of the SouthAfrican bowlers.

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Indian shuttlers P V Sindhuand Kidambi Srikanth were

out of contention for the knock-out stage after losing theirrespective second round match-es in the BWF World TourFinals here on Thursday.

A week ago Sindhu had suf-fered a demoralising defeat toRatchanok Intanon and therewas no change of fate for theworld champion this time too asshe went down 18-21, 13-21 tothe third seeded Thai.

“It wasn’t my day. Losing thefirst game made the difference.My timing was a bit off, so a bitdisappointed,” Sindhu said.

Thailand’s PornpaweeChochuwong beat world num-ber one Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan21-17, 21-11 in another matchon Thursday to qualify for theknock-out stage. Chochuwonghad beaten compatriot Intanonin the first round.

The other semifinalist willbe either Intanon or Tzu Ying asthey face each other on Friday.

Srikanth enjoyed a 3-0head-to-head count againstWang Tzu Wei ahead of his

match but it mattered little asthe Taiwanese world No 12claimed a come-from-behind19-21, 21-9, 21-19 win over theIndian.

Wang and AndersAntonsen of Denmark enteredthe knockouts from men’s sin-gles Group B with two winseach.

With only the top two play-ers from each group making itto the semifinals, the twin defeatsealed the fate of the Indian duoin the tournament.

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Big bodied Shahrukh Khan’sbrute power will be coun-

tered by experience and guile ofChahar brothers Deepak andRahul, when a formidable TamilNadu lock horns with spiritedRajasthan in the semi-final of theSyed Mushtaq Ali Trophy onFriday.

With IPL auction set forFebruary 18, players from bothside wouldn’t like to miss out onan opportunity to impress thetalent scouts of various IPLteams like Shahrukh did againstHimachal Pradesh during TamilNadu’s quarter-final victory.

Rajasthan on the other handhave been a steady side with ahost of young T20 specialistslike Mahipal Lomror (170 runsat strike rate of 165 plus) in bat-ting and Chahar along with lastIPL’s find Ravi Bishnoi and left-armers Khaleel Ahmed andAniket Chaudhary in bowlingdepartment.

Rajasthan’s top-scorer inthe tournament is Ankit Lamba(198 runs) but he would like toimprove on his strike-rate.

Rajasthan will howeverdepend on their premier legspinner Rahul Chahar (11 wick-

ets) who has been named as astand by for England series.

Similarly for Tamil Nadu,their premier run-scorer NJagadeesan (322 runs) would feelthat he might have done enoughto ensure that Mahendra SinghDhoni gives him regular chancesfor CSK in the upcoming IPL.

Skipper Dinesh Karthik,who is certainly Tamil Nadu’sbest T20 player by a distance,have had a quiet season by hisstandards but is known to fire onbig days.

Even the others batsmenlike C Hari Nishanth, the ever-reliable Baba Aparajith and KBArun Karthik will be more thankeen to make an impact againsta quality Rajasthan attack.

In the bowling department,leg-spinner Murugan Ashwinand left-arm spinner R SaiKishore have been quite a hand-ful but it was Baba Aparajith,who was the surprise packet,taking the new ball and enjoy-ing a great degree of success too.

The trio will be keen to playtheir roles to perfection and aidthe pacers MohammedMohammed and Aswin Crist inabsence of Sandeep Warrier,who has been picked as a netbowler for the England Tests.

PUNJAB PACERS VS SOLANKIPunjab’s battle hardened

veterans like Siddarth Kaul andSandeep Sharma will pose a fewquestions in the semi-final forBaroda’s Vishnu Solanki, whohas won many fans with a per-fect last ball execution of‘Helicopter Shot’ during histeam thrilling quarter-final winagainst Haryana.

Kaul, Sandeep andArshdeep Singh, along with leg-spinner Mayank Markande havebeen outstanding throughoutthe tournament with economyrate of less than seven runs perover. Baroda would want theirpacers Lukman Meriwala andformer India U-19 Atith Shethto rattle the Punjab top-orderand their left-arm spinnersBhargav Bhatt, Ninad Rathwaand off-spinner Kartik Kakadewould also hold the key.

But when it comes to theirbatting, it would be all aboutskipper Kedar Devdhar andSolanki, who have bailed out theteam more than once in thetournament.

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He was among the key plotters ofEngland’s historic 2012 Testtriumph in India and former

coach Andy Flower sees no reason whyan encore is not possible this year as hebelieves the visitors have enough “for-midable players” to challenge theupbeat hosts.

The spin duo of Graeme Swannand Monty Panesar, along with themagnificent Kevin Pietersen, were the

architects of England’s 2-1 series winthat year, the only victory by an over-seas team in India during the lastdecade.

Flower, a former Zimbabwe captainand one of England’s most successfulcoaches in recent history, didn’t wantto get into predictions but cited India’sremarkable Test conquest of Australiato assert the point that visitors are nolonger underdogs in the longest format.

“India won a T20 series, theMelbourne and Brisbane Tests this year

and a Test series a couple of years agoin Australia, which goes to show thatthere are ample opportunities for vis-iting squads to make a mark,” Flowertold PTI.

Asked to pick a favourite for thefour-Test series starting February 5 inChennai, Flower declined.

“It would be premature to declarethe direction in which the fortunes ofany team would swing. However, theEnglish side has a formidable combi-nation of players who can set them-selves into comfortable or winning sit-uations,” Flower said.

He was obviously referring to thelikes of skipper Joe Root along with thepace duo of James Anderson andStuart Broad, and not to forget thatpowerhouse of all-round talent calledBen Stokes.

Flower said that the series, likeevery other contest, would be abouthow one seizes critical moments.

“A lot will depend on the game day,and the star performers’ ability toconvert critical opportunities. TheEnglish squad has some amazing play-ers who have excelled in all formats ofthe game,” the Zimbabwean said.

A lot of England’s Test success canbe credited to the champion pacebowling duo of Broad and Anderson,who between them, have a whopping1100 plus Test wickets.

Flower admitted that once the twoleave, it will be hard to fill in their bigshoes.

“All teams undergo such periods oftransition when they have to replacestar performers that are phasing out,”said Flower.

“Building a fierce bowling attackoften takes some amount of time, andboth Anderson and Broad have dom-inated the pace attack for England forlittle over a decade.

“They will be leaving a memorablelegacy behind, and the new set ofbowlers have large shoes to fill,” said thegritty left-hander of yesteryears, whohimself enjoyed a lot of success in thesub-continent.

England would be coming into theseries after beating Sri Lanka in theirown backyard, a confident build-up towhat is likely to be a gruelling assign-ment next month.

India, on the other hand, can’t befaulted if they are still a bit giddy afterthat epic win over Australia in Brisbane,which earned them all-round praiseand respect.

In recent times, there has been atrend of top batsmen playing expresspace well but coming up short againstswing bowling.

These include Indian players whohaven’t done well against Anderson,Broad or a Trent Boult for example.

“It is not necessarily true for allinternational batsmen, as it has gotmore to do with preparation for a seriesand reading the bowlers’ tactics right,”said Flower, who played 63 Tests and213 ODIs for Zimbabwe.

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India’s quality pace attack, compris-ing a world-class operator in Jasprit

Bumrah, could prompt the hosts toprepare seamer-friendly pitchesinstead of the traditional sub-conti-nental spinning tracks in their upcom-ing Test series against England, feelsvisiting opener Rory Burns.

The 30-year-old Burns says oneshouldn’t put too much pressure ontheir spin duo of off-break bowlerDom Bess and slow left-arm orthodoxJack Leach, who will be up against aformidable Indian batting line-up.

“Honestly, I don’t think you needto put too much expectation on them.

They will go about their business andthey have bowled in Sri Lanka to getinto the groove which is importantand its about switching their skills onto Indian surfaces.

“I think they have both been herebefore on different tours with theIndian Lions, so they have experienceof playing here,” Burns said during avirtual media conference onThursday.

“But you don’t want to put toomuch expectation on them withoutknowing about the surfaces going tobe and with Indian seam attack, itmight be slightly seamer friendly,there is a Day/Night Test, so yeah itcould be a bit different,” added Burns.

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