80˘&’-$%:# ;; =?6 ;6 a; ; 6 ; ; ;6 ˛ @˝ < = 6 6 < = > =...2020/11/18  ·...

12
A dvocating a tough stance against terrorism, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday urged the interna- tional community to call out nations backing this scourge and they must be “brought to book.” He also favoured reforms in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Trade Organisation (WTO). Modi made these observa- tions during his address at the Brazil-Russia-China-South Africa (BRICS) conclave. The virtual event was attended by heads of Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa. President Vladimir Putin hosted the high-powered con- clave. Besides Modi and Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro attended the meet- ing. The 12th summit’s theme was “Global Stability, Shared Security and Innovative Growth.” Incidentally, this was the second time Modi and Chinese President Xi Jingping were coming face to face albeit vir- tually since the stand-offs start- ed between the two nations in Eastern Ladakh in May. During the first meeting at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) on November 10, Modi in a veiled reference to China’s expan- sionist policy said, “India believes that to improve con- nectivity it is important to respect the other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.” Prime Minister Imran Khan was also present at that event. Modi said, “Terrorism is the biggest problem facing the world today. We have to ensure that the countries that support and assist the terrorists are held accountable, and this problem is tackled in an organised man- ner.” The Prime Minister was apparently underlining the role of Pakistan in fanning cross- border terrorism in India and China’s support to it. He congratulated Russia for the finalisation of the BRICS counter-terrorism strat- egy under its leadership and promised that India will take forward the matter during its leadership next year. With the world battling coronavirus pandemic, the Prime Minister highlighted India’s contribution to the international community dur- ing the crisis. Modi said due to the strength of India’s pharmaceu- tical sector, India was able to provide medicines to over 150 countries during lockdown. He assured the BRICS nations that India’s coronavirus vaccine production and delivery abili- ty will help mankind in the same way. As India will be taking over the chairmanship of the BRICS in 2021, Modi announced that his country will promote digital health and traditional medicine among BRICS countries. The summit held against the backdrop of the 75th anniversary of the UN, the leaders discussed intra-BRICS cooperation and key issues in the global context, including the reform of the multilateral system, measures to mitigate the impact of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, coopera- tion in counter terrorism, trade, health, energy and people to people exchanges. Modi highlighted his Government’s flagship Atmanirbhar Bharat or Self- Reliant India campaign on the BRICS platform. The Prime Minister said the campaign will instill a comprehensive reform process, which can help India become a strong con- tributor to the global value chains in the post-Covid era. “We have started a com- prehensive reform process under the ‘Self-reliant India’ campaign. The campaign is based on the belief that a self- reliant and resilient India post- Covid can be a force multipli- er for the global economy and make a strong contribution to the global value chains,” Modi said. He also called for urgent reforms in the United Nations to ensure that the organisation remains relevant. Being a founding nation of the United Nations, India has always upheld its values of multilater- alism, “but the organisation has not kept up with the changing times,” he said. The Prime Minister also stressed the need to reform UN Security Council as well as organisations like IMF and WTO. The Prime Minister also highlighted reform initiatives undertaken by his government under the ‘self-reliant India” campaign. “We have started a com- prehensive reform process under the ‘Self-reliant India’ campaign. The campaign is based on the belief that a self- reliant and resilient India post- Covid can be a force multipli- er for the global economy and make a strong contribution to the global value chains,” the PM said. I n view of alarming surge in coronavirus cases in the national Capital, the Delhi Government on Tuesday sent a proposal to the Centre seek- ing power to shut down mar- kets which may emerge as Covid hotspots. In another proposal sent to the Lieutenant-Governor (L- G), the Government sought to permit only 50 people to attend wedding functions now against the earlier limit of 200 people. Addressing the media, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said, “Following the Central Government’s guidelines and considering the marriage sea- son, the Delhi Government earlier allowed 200 guests at the marriage functions. Earlier, this number was 50 but con- sidering the recent spike in the number of corona cases, the Delhi Government has decid- ed to withdraw this relaxation. I have sent the proposal to the L-G for his approval.” The CM said, “We wit- nessed massive crowds in some of the popular markets of Delhi before Diwali. In these markets, no social distancing was fol- lowed and due to this situation, the number of Covid-19 cases has surged significantly in the Capital. In the last order passed by the Central Government, it was noted that permission to impose local lockdowns in the State should be taken from the Centre. We have requested the Centre to permit shutting down markets if necessary.” Kejriwal thanked the Centre for providing 750 addi- tional ICU beds for Covid patients in Delhi. He appealed to the people of Delhi to wear masks and follow social dis- tancing norms to protect them- selves from Covid. New Delhi: The number of new coronavirus infections reported in a day ropped below 30,000 after four months, taking India’s COVID-19 caseload to 88.74 lakh, while the number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 82,90,370 according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Tuesday. Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday suggested that Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine against Covid-19 could be produced in China and India, which are members of the five-nation BRICS bloc. T he Congress on Tuesday distanced itself from Gupkar alliance after Home Minister Amit Shah sought clarification from Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi about their stand on the agen- da put forth by a conglomera- tion of leaders from the Kashmir valley. In a series of tweets Shah termed Gupkar “gang” as an unholy alliance and said Sonia and Rahul must clarify their stand clear to people of India. Hitting out at Shah, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said, “To spread lies, fraud and creating new illusions have become the way of the Modi Government. It’s a shame that Home Minister Amit Shah is keeping aside the responsibility of the national security and is making false, misleading and mischie- vous statements on Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh... Congress party is not a part of Gupkar alliance.” Shah alleged that the “Gupkar Gang is going global” and wants foreign forces to intervene in Jammu & Kashmir. T he Government on Tuesday imposed a 30-day moratorium on Lakshmi Vilas Bank, restricting cash with- drawals at 25,000 per depos- itor, and simultaneously announced a scheme to merge t h e cash-strapped lender with DBS India. Singapore’s DBS will infuse 2,500 crore into DBS Bank India for the proposed merg- er with cash-strapped Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB). The step was taken on the advice of the Reserve Bank in view of the private sector bank’s deteriorating financial health. The Reserve Bank also superseded the board of LVB and appointed TN Manoharan, former non-executive chair- man of Canara Bank, as its administrator for 30 days. The RBI placed in the public domain a draft scheme of amalgamation of LVB with DBS Bank India Ltd (DBIL). DBS Bank India, in a state- ment, said the proposed amal- gamation will provide stabili- ty and better prospects to LVB’s depositors, customers and employees. “To support the amalgamation, DBS will inject 2,500 crore (SGD 463 million) into DBIL if the scheme is approved. This will be fully funded from DBS’ existing resources,” it said. LVB is the second private sector bank after Yes Bank which has run into rough weather during this year. In March, capital-starved Yes Bank was placed under a moratorium. The government rescued it by asking state-run SBI to infuse 7,250 crore and take 45 per cent stake in the bank. The Department of Financial Services, in a gazette notification, said LVB “shall not, without the permission in writing of the Reserve Bank of India, make, in the aggregate, payment to a depositor of a sum exceeding 25,000 lying to his credit, in any savings, cur- rent or any other deposit account” during the moratori- um period up to December 16, 2020. However, the bank can make payment in excess of 25,000 to meet unforeseen expenses in connection with medical treatment of a depos- itor or any dependent person, or towards the cost of higher education of the person/dependants. Besides, the Central ban can permit the bank to dis- burse more than 25,000 for payment towards obligatory expenses in connection with marriage or other ceremonies or any other unavoidable emergency. U nion Home Minister Amit Shah’s tweet label- ing People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) as “Gupkar Gang” triggered a fresh war of words between him and two former Chief Ministers of Jammu & Kashmir, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, in the vir- tual world on Tuesday. Reacting sharply, Omar tweeted, “We are not a “gang” Amit Shah ji, we are a legiti- mate political alliance having fought & continuing to fight elections, much to your dis- appointment”. Following in the footsteps of Omar. U nion Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Tuesday at a Press briefing expressed disappointment over laxity in the imple- mentation of the Central SOPs in Delhi despite the national Capital having more than 4,000 containment zones. He noted that now, an active case search and house to house surveillance need to be stepped up in Delhi. The Centre’s interven- tion follows emergence of “unprecedented situation” in Delhi, which, experts said, could worsen in coming weeks with Covid-19 cases rising to 500 cases per mil- lion population. Noida: People coming from Delhi to Noida will be ran- domly tested for Covid-19 from Wednesday, the admin- istration of Gautam Buddh Nagar, adjoining Delhi, in Uttar Pradesh said. C hief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday announced that the State Government would provide smartphones to all households of Malkangiri district’s Swabhiman Anchala free of cost. Interacting with the people of the area through videocon- ferencing, Patnaik also launched the mobile phone distribution programme. He said the initiative would improve connectivity in the region and ease students’ study- related activities. As many as four mobile phone towers have been installed in Swabhiman Anchala while there are plans for another three towers with 4G network in the area.“A package of Rs 100 crore for development of the area under SETU Yojana was announced in July 2018 during the inau- guration of Gurupriya bridge. The package amount has been increased to Rs 250 crore,” the CM said. Work for a 33×11- KV sub-station would be com- pleted soon and an 11-KV 3- phase line connection would be provided to the residents. A total of Rs 100 crore would be spent for construction of con- crete roads in all villages, 78 km of pucca road and seven bridges in the area, said Patnaik. For provision of drink- ing water, a mega pipe water supply project at a cost of Rs 20 crore has been initiated while work for 250 tube-wells has been completed. An amount of Rs 32 crore would be spent for 43 lift irri- gation projects and 419 cluster deep bore-wells. It would pro- vide irrigation to 1,700 hectares of land, he said. On the occa- sion, Patnaik urged the Maoists to shun violence, join the social mainstream and cooperate in development of the area. B eating all odds of the Covid-19 pandemic, the State Government has brought in new investment proposals of around Rs 1,19,214.72 crore envisaging employment oppor- tunities for over 54,131 persons since February because of its enabling policy and ‘ease of doing business’, said an official relase on Tuesday. This was known from a Single Window Clearance Authority meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy where- in Industries Principal Secretary Hemant Sharma pre- sented the details for discus- sion. Tripathy directed the IPI- COL for a realistic assessment of the land and water that the industries actually need. He also wanted to explore possi- bilities of advanced technical intervention for harvesting large quantity of rainwater and its recycled use. The meeting gave in-prin- ciple approval to four invest- ment proposals of worth Rs. 464.72 crore envisaging direct employment opportunities for over 873 persons. The proposals approved in the meeting included the fol- lowing:A medium density fibreboard (MDF) unit with an annual capacity of 72,000 cubic meters to be set up by Galax Industries Pvt Ltd at Malipada of Khordha district with an investment of Rs 93 crore and direct potential employment for over 310 persons. A 120 KLPD grain-based distillery and a 4-MW cogen- eration power plant in Khordha and Nayagarh, respectively, by Globus with an investment of Rs 151.72 crore and employ- ment for over 300 persons. A pellet plant of 1.6 MTPA capacity at Lathikata in Sundargarh district by Envirocare Infrasolution Pvt Ltd with investment of Rs 100 crore and employment for over 195 persons. A 4-MTPA slur- ry pipeline project at Koira in Sundargarh by Envirocare Infrasolution Pvt Ltd with investment of Rs 100 crore and employment opportunities for 68 persons. M aintaining the declining trend, State capital city Bhubaneswar on Tuesday reg- istered 48 new Covid-19 cases. With this, the total tally mount- ed to 30,227 including 650 active cases. The new cases included 37 local contacts and 11 quaran- tine cases. The local contacts included five cases from Laxmisagar and three each from Bapuji Nagar, Tankapani Road, Patia and Nayapalli. Meanwhile, one more per- son succumbed to the disease on the day, pushing the total toll to 198. However, 64 patients recovered on the day, increasing the total recoveries to 29,358. A n 11-year-old girl of Kendrapada district walked 10 km to meet Collector Samarth Verma on Monday to lodge grievances against her father. Sushree Sangeeta Sethi, a student of the Dumuka Vidyapeeth in Marshaghai block, accused her father of taking away her stipend and midday meal (MDM) money. After her mother’s death two years back, Sushree Sangeeta’s father Ramesh Chandra Sethi remarried. Her father and stepmother alleged- ly refused to take care of her, following which the girl stayed at her uncle’s house. When her father refused to give her stipend and the amount provided by the Government towards MDM, she decided to approach the Collector for his intervention. Though she is having a bank account, the stipend and MDM money are being credited to her father’s account. The Collector directed the District Education Officer (DEO) to credit the MDM amount to the girl’s bank account immediately. The DEO was also asked to take steps to recover the MDM money from the girl’s father. The Collector ordered an inquiry into the whole mat- ter.Besides, the school head- master was asked to provide MDM rice to the girl. Notably, in view of the closure of schools amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the Government is providing 150 grams of rice and Rs 8.10 per day towards MDM to each stu- dent. I n a major declining trend, the number of new Covid-19 positive cases registered in a day in the State dropped to 650 on Tuesday after several months.Now, the State’s total the positive tally stands at 3,10,052.Of the new cases, 371 were detected from quarantine and 273 were local contacts. While the new positive cases were reported from all 30 dis- tricts, no district recorded over 100 positives. Khordha district recorded the maximum 73 cases fol- lowed by Sundargarh 62, Mayurbhanj 59. Cuttack 38, Keonjhar 37, Puri 34 Balangir 32, Angul and Kendrapada 29 each, Jagatsinghpur 27, Jharsuguda 26, Bargarh 19, Jajpur 17, Malkangiri 16, Kalahandi, Nabarangpur and Sambalpur 15 each, Bargarh 14, Baleswar 13, Subarnapur 10, Nayagarh and Nuapada nine each, Ganjam seven, Dhenkanal six, Gajapati, Boudh and Deogarh three each and Rayagada one. Besides, 17 cases were reported from the State pool. Meanwhile, 17 more patients died on the day, mounting the total toll to 1,560.Four patients succumbed in Sundargarh district, three in Sambalpur, two each in Jagatsinghpur and Subarnapur and one each in Khordha (Bhubaneswar), Bhadrak, Bargarh, Puri, Ganjam and Cuttack. The deceased in Sundargarh were a 70-year-old woman, a 56-year-old man, a 76-year-old man and a 76- year-old man. The causalities in Sambalpur were a 72-year-old woman, a 71-year-old man and a 62-year-old woman. The deaths in Jagatsinghpur were of a 54- year-old man and a 73-year-old woman. The fatalities in Subarnapur were a 70-year-old man and a 60-year-old man. The other deceased were a 56-year-old woman of Bargarh, a 55-year-old man of Bhadrak, a 60-year-old man of Khordha (Bhubaneswar), an 81-year- old man of Cuttack, a 47-year- old man of Pui and a 50-year- old man of Ganjam. However, 1,315 persons recovered on the day, taking the total recov- eries to 3,00477.

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Page 1: 80˘&’-$%:# ;; =?6 ;6 A; ; 6 ; ; ;6  ˛ @˝ < = 6 6 < = > =...2020/11/18  · China’s support to it. He congratulated Russia for the finalisation of the BRICS

����� ��������

Advocating a tough stanceagainst terrorism, Prime

Minister Narendra Modi onTuesday urged the interna-tional community to call outnations backing this scourgeand they must be “brought tobook.” He also favouredreforms in the United NationsSecurity Council (UNSC),International Monetary Fund(IMF) and World TradeOrganisation (WTO).

Modi made these observa-tions during his address at theBrazil-Russia-China-SouthAfrica (BRICS) conclave. Thevirtual event was attended byheads of Brazil, Russia, Chinaand South Africa.

President Vladimir Putinhosted the high-powered con-clave. Besides Modi and Putin,Chinese President Xi Jinpingand Brazilian President JairBolsonaro attended the meet-ing. The 12th summit’s themewas “Global Stability, SharedSecurity and InnovativeGrowth.”

Incidentally, this was thesecond time Modi and ChinesePresident Xi Jingping werecoming face to face albeit vir-tually since the stand-offs start-ed between the two nations inEastern Ladakh in May.

During the first meeting atthe Shanghai CooperationOrganisation (SCO) onNovember 10, Modi in a veiledreference to China’s expan-sionist policy said, “Indiabelieves that to improve con-nectivity it is important to

respect the other’s sovereigntyand territorial integrity.” PrimeMinister Imran Khan was alsopresent at that event.

Modi said, “Terrorism isthe biggest problem facing theworld today. We have to ensurethat the countries that supportand assist the terrorists are heldaccountable, and this problemis tackled in an organised man-ner.”

The Prime Minister wasapparently underlining the roleof Pakistan in fanning cross-border terrorism in India andChina’s support to it.

He congratulated Russiafor the finalisation of theBRICS counter-terrorism strat-egy under its leadership andpromised that India will takeforward the matter during itsleadership next year.

With the world battlingcoronavirus pandemic, thePrime Minister highlightedIndia’s contribution to the

international community dur-ing the crisis.

Modi said due to thestrength of India’s pharmaceu-tical sector, India was able toprovide medicines to over 150countries during lockdown.He assured the BRICS nationsthat India’s coronavirus vaccineproduction and delivery abili-ty will help mankind in thesame way.

As India will be takingover the chairmanship of theBRICS in 2021, Modiannounced that his countrywill promote digital health andtraditional medicine amongBRICS countries.

The summit held againstthe backdrop of the 75thanniversary of the UN, theleaders discussed intra-BRICScooperation and key issues inthe global context, includingthe reform of the multilateralsystem, measures to mitigatethe impact of the ongoing

Covid-19 pandemic, coopera-tion in counter terrorism, trade,health, energy and people topeople exchanges.

Modi highlighted hisGovernment’s f lagshipAtmanirbhar Bharat or Self-Reliant India campaign on theBRICS platform. The PrimeMinister said the campaignwill instill a comprehensivereform process, which can helpIndia become a strong con-tributor to the global valuechains in the post-Covid era.

“We have started a com-prehensive reform processunder the ‘Self-reliant India’campaign. The campaign isbased on the belief that a self-reliant and resilient India post-Covid can be a force multipli-er for the global economy andmake a strong contribution tothe global value chains,” Modisaid.

He also called for urgentreforms in the United Nations

to ensure that the organisationremains relevant. Being afounding nation of the UnitedNations, India has alwaysupheld its values of multilater-alism, “but the organisation hasnot kept up with the changingtimes,” he said. The PrimeMinister also stressed the needto reform UN Security Councilas well as organisations likeIMF and WTO.

The Prime Minister alsohighlighted reform initiativesundertaken by his governmentunder the ‘self-reliant India”campaign.

“We have started a com-prehensive reform processunder the ‘Self-reliant India’campaign. The campaign isbased on the belief that a self-reliant and resilient India post-Covid can be a force multipli-er for the global economy andmake a strong contribution tothe global value chains,” the PMsaid.

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In view of alarming surge incoronavirus cases in the

national Capital, the DelhiGovernment on Tuesday senta proposal to the Centre seek-ing power to shut down mar-kets which may emerge asCovid hotspots.

In another proposal sent tothe Lieutenant-Governor (L-G), the Government sought topermit only 50 people to attendwedding functions now againstthe earlier limit of 200 people.

Addressing the media,Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwalsaid, “Following the CentralGovernment’s guidelines andconsidering the marriage sea-son, the Delhi Governmentearlier allowed 200 guests at themarriage functions. Earlier,this number was 50 but con-sidering the recent spike in thenumber of corona cases, theDelhi Government has decid-ed to withdraw this relaxation.I have sent the proposal to theL-G for his approval.”

The CM said, “We wit-nessed massive crowds in someof the popular markets of Delhibefore Diwali. In these markets,no social distancing was fol-lowed and due to this situation,the number of Covid-19 caseshas surged significantly in theCapital.

In the last order passed bythe Central Government, itwas noted that permission toimpose local lockdowns in theState should be taken from theCentre. We have requested the

Centre to permit shuttingdown markets if necessary.”

Kejriwal thanked theCentre for providing 750 addi-tional ICU beds for Covidpatients in Delhi. He appealedto the people of Delhi to wearmasks and follow social dis-tancing norms to protect them-selves from Covid.

New Delhi: The number ofnew coronavirus infectionsreported in a day roppedbelow 30,000 after fourmonths, taking India’sCOVID-19 caseload to 88.74lakh, while the number ofpeople who have recuperatedfrom the disease surged to82,90,370 according to theUnion Health Ministry dataupdated on Tuesday.

Moscow: Russian PresidentVladimir Putin on Tuesdaysuggested that Russia’s SputnikV vaccine against Covid-19could be produced in Chinaand India, which are membersof the five-nation BRICS bloc.

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The Congress on Tuesdaydistanced itself from

Gupkar alliance after HomeMinister Amit Shah soughtclarification from SoniaGandhi and Rahul Gandhiabout their stand on the agen-da put forth by a conglomera-tion of leaders from theKashmir valley.

In a series of tweets Shahtermed Gupkar “gang” as anunholy alliance and said Soniaand Rahul must clarify theirstand clear to people of India.

Hitting out at Shah,Congress spokespersonRandeep Surjewala said, “Tospread lies, fraud and creatingnew illusions have become theway of the Modi Government.

It’s a shame that HomeMinister Amit Shah is keepingaside the responsibility of thenational security and is makingfalse, misleading and mischie-vous statements on Jammu,Kashmir and Ladakh...Congress party is not a part of

Gupkar alliance.”Shah alleged that the

“Gupkar Gang is going global”and wants foreign forces tointervene in Jammu &Kashmir.

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The Government onTuesday imposed a 30-day

moratorium on Lakshmi VilasBank, restricting cash with-drawals at �25,000 per depos-itor, and simultaneouslyannounced a scheme to merget h ecash-strapped lender with DBSIndia.

Singapore’s DBS will infuse�2,500 crore into DBS BankIndia for the proposed merg-er with cash-strapped LakshmiVilas Bank (LVB).

The step was taken on theadvice of the Reserve Bank in

view of the private sectorbank’s deteriorating financialhealth. The Reserve Bank alsosuperseded the board of LVBand appointed TN Manoharan,former non-executive chair-man of Canara Bank, as itsadministrator for 30 days.

The RBI placed in thepublic domain a draft schemeof amalgamation of LVB withDBS Bank India Ltd (DBIL).

DBS Bank India, in a state-ment, said the proposed amal-gamation will provide stabili-ty and better prospects toLVB’s depositors, customersand employees. “To supportthe amalgamation, DBS will

inject �2,500 crore (SGD 463million) into DBIL if thescheme is approved. This willbe fully funded from DBS’existing resources,” it said.

LVB is the second privatesector bank after Yes Bankwhich has run into roughweather during this year.

In March, capital-starvedYes Bank was placed under amoratorium. The governmentrescued it by asking state-runSBI to infuse �7,250 crore andtake 45 per cent stake in thebank.

The Department ofFinancial Services, in a gazettenotification, said LVB “shallnot, without the permission inwriting of the Reserve Bank ofIndia, make, in the aggregate,payment to a depositor of a

sum exceeding �25,000 lying tohis credit, in any savings, cur-rent or any other depositaccount” during the moratori-um period up to December 16,2020.

However, the bank canmake payment in excess of�25,000 to meet unforeseenexpenses in connection withmedical treatment of a depos-itor or any dependent person,or towards the cost of highereducation of theperson/dependants.

Besides, the Central bancan permit the bank to dis-burse more than �25,000 forpayment towards obligatoryexpenses in connection withmarriage or other ceremoniesor any other unavoidableemergency.

����� � ��

Union Home MinisterAmit Shah’s tweet label-

ing People’s Alliance forGupkar Declaration (PAGD)as “Gupkar Gang” triggered afresh war of words betweenhim and two former ChiefMinisters of Jammu &Kashmir, Omar Abdullah andMehbooba Mufti, in the vir-tual world on Tuesday.

Reacting sharply, Omartweeted, “We are not a “gang”Amit Shah ji, we are a legiti-mate political alliance havingfought & continuing to fightelections, much to your dis-appointment”. Following inthe footsteps of Omar.

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Union Health SecretaryRajesh Bhushan on

Tuesday at a Press briefingexpressed disappointmentover laxity in the imple-mentation of the CentralSOPs in Delhi despite thenational Capital having morethan 4,000 containmentzones.

He noted that now, anactive case search and houseto house surveillance need tobe stepped up in Delhi.

The Centre’s interven-tion follows emergence of“unprecedented situation” inDelhi, which, experts said,could worsen in comingweeks with Covid-19 casesrising to 500 cases per mil-lion population.

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Noida: People coming fromDelhi to Noida will be ran-domly tested for Covid-19from Wednesday, the admin-istration of Gautam BuddhNagar, adjoining Delhi, inUttar Pradesh said.

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Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik on Tuesday

announced that the StateGovernment would providesmartphones to all householdsof Malkangiri district’sSwabhiman Anchala free ofcost.

Interacting with the peopleof the area through videocon-ferencing, Patnaik alsolaunched the mobile phonedistribution programme.

He said the initiative wouldimprove connectivity in theregion and ease students’ study-related activities.

As many as four mobilephone towers have beeninstalled in SwabhimanAnchala while there are plansfor another three towers with4G network in the area.“Apackage of Rs 100 crore fordevelopment of the area underSETU Yojana was announced

in July 2018 during the inau-guration of Gurupriya bridge.The package amount has beenincreased to Rs 250 crore,” theCM said. Work for a 33×11-KV sub-station would be com-pleted soon and an 11-KV 3-phase line connection would beprovided to the residents. Atotal of Rs 100 crore would bespent for construction of con-crete roads in all villages, 78 kmof pucca road and sevenbridges in the area, saidPatnaik. For provision of drink-

ing water, a mega pipe watersupply project at a cost of Rs 20crore has been initiated whilework for 250 tube-wells hasbeen completed.

An amount of Rs 32 crorewould be spent for 43 lift irri-gation projects and 419 clusterdeep bore-wells. It would pro-vide irrigation to 1,700 hectaresof land, he said. On the occa-sion, Patnaik urged the Maoiststo shun violence, join the socialmainstream and cooperate indevelopment of the area.

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Beating all odds of theCovid-19 pandemic, the

State Government has broughtin new investment proposals ofaround Rs 1,19,214.72 croreenvisaging employment oppor-tunities for over 54,131 personssince February because of itsenabling policy and ‘ease ofdoing business’, said an officialrelase on Tuesday.

This was known from aSingle Window ClearanceAuthority meeting held underthe chairmanship of ChiefSecretary Asit Tripathy where-in Industries PrincipalSecretary Hemant Sharma pre-sented the details for discus-sion. Tripathy directed the IPI-COL for a realistic assessmentof the land and water that theindustries actually need. Healso wanted to explore possi-bilities of advanced technicalintervention for harvestinglarge quantity of rainwater andits recycled use.

The meeting gave in-prin-ciple approval to four invest-ment proposals of worth Rs.464.72 crore envisaging directemployment opportunities forover 873 persons.

The proposals approvedin the meeting included the fol-lowing:A medium densityfibreboard (MDF) unit with anannual capacity of 72,000 cubicmeters to be set up by GalaxIndustries Pvt Ltd at Malipadaof Khordha district with aninvestment of Rs 93 crore anddirect potential employmentfor over 310 persons.

A 120 KLPD grain-baseddistillery and a 4-MW cogen-eration power plant in Khordhaand Nayagarh, respectively, byGlobus with an investment ofRs 151.72 crore and employ-ment for over 300 persons.

A pellet plant of 1.6 MTPAcapacity at Lathikata inSundargarh district byEnvirocare Infrasolution PvtLtd with investment of Rs 100crore and employment for over195 persons. A 4-MTPA slur-ry pipeline project at Koira inSundargarh by EnvirocareInfrasolution Pvt Ltd withinvestment of Rs 100 crore andemployment opportunities for68 persons.

��� � ���� ���� �

Maintaining the decliningtrend, State capital city

Bhubaneswar on Tuesday reg-istered 48 new Covid-19 cases.With this, the total tally mount-ed to 30,227 including 650active cases.

The new cases included 37local contacts and 11 quaran-tine cases. The local contactsincluded five cases fromLaxmisagar and three eachfrom Bapuji Nagar, TankapaniRoad, Patia and Nayapalli.

Meanwhile, one more per-son succumbed to the diseaseon the day, pushing the totaltoll to 198. However, 64patients recovered on the day,increasing the total recoveriesto 29,358.

����������� � �

An 11-year-old girl ofKendrapada district

walked 10 km to meetCollector Samarth Verma onMonday to lodge grievancesagainst her father.

Sushree Sangeeta Sethi, astudent of the DumukaVidyapeeth in Marshaghaiblock, accused her father oftaking away her stipend andmidday meal (MDM) money.

After her mother’s deathtwo years back, SushreeSangeeta’s father RameshChandra Sethi remarried. Herfather and stepmother alleged-ly refused to take care of her,following which the girl stayedat her uncle’s house.

When her father refused togive her stipend and theamount provided by theGovernment towards MDM,she decided to approach theCollector for his intervention.Though she is having a bank

account, the stipend and MDMmoney are being credited to herfather’s account. The Collectordirected the District EducationOfficer (DEO) to credit theMDM amount to the girl’sbank account immediately.

The DEO was also askedto take steps to recover theMDM money from the girl’sfather. The Collector orderedan inquiry into the whole mat-ter.Besides, the school head-master was asked to provideMDM rice to the girl.

Notably, in view of theclosure of schools amid theCovid-19 pandemic, theGovernment is providing 150grams of rice and Rs 8.10 perday towards MDM to each stu-dent.

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In a major declining trend, thenumber of new Covid-19

positive cases registered in aday in the State dropped to 650on Tuesday after severalmonths.Now, the State’s totalthe positive tally stands at3,10,052.Of the new cases, 371were detected from quarantineand 273 were local contacts.While the new positive caseswere reported from all 30 dis-tricts, no district recorded over100 positives.

Khordha district recordedthe maximum 73 cases fol-lowed by Sundargarh 62,Mayurbhanj 59. Cuttack 38,Keonjhar 37, Puri 34 Balangir32, Angul and Kendrapada 29each, Jagatsinghpur 27,Jharsuguda 26, Bargarh 19,Jajpur 17, Malkangiri 16,Kalahandi, Nabarangpur andSambalpur 15 each, Bargarh 14,

Baleswar 13, Subarnapur 10,Nayagarh and Nuapada nineeach, Ganjam seven,Dhenkanal six, Gajapati,Boudh and Deogarh three eachand Rayagada one. Besides, 17cases were reported from theState pool.

Meanwhile, 17 morepatients died on the day,mounting the total toll to1,560.Four patients succumbedin Sundargarh district, three inSambalpur, two each inJagatsinghpur and Subarnapurand one each in Khordha(Bhubaneswar), Bhadrak,Bargarh, Puri, Ganjam andCuttack. The deceased inSundargarh were a 70-year-oldwoman, a 56-year-old man, a76-year-old man and a 76-year-old man. The causalities inSambalpur were a 72-year-oldwoman, a 71-year-old manand a 62-year-old woman.

The deaths inJagatsinghpur were of a 54-year-old man and a 73-year-oldwoman. The fatalities inSubarnapur were a 70-year-oldman and a 60-year-old man.

The other deceased were a56-year-old woman of Bargarh,a 55-year-old man of Bhadrak,a 60-year-old man of Khordha(Bhubaneswar), an 81-year-old man of Cuttack, a 47-year-old man of Pui and a 50-year-old man of Ganjam. However,1,315 persons recovered onthe day, taking the total recov-eries to 3,00477.

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The BJP would formGovernment in Odisha in

2024. The prospects are veryhigh as the party cadres areworking hard to achieve themission, said party nationalpresident JP Nadda during avirtual inauguration of six newdistrict party offices in theState on Tuesday.Inauguratingsix Karyalayas (party offices) in

Dhenkanal, Keonjhar,Baripada, Sundargarh, Bargarhand Angul via videoconfer-encing, Nadda said, “Out of 33tribal (Assembly) seats inOdisha, the party has won in 11constituencies and the voteshare has increased to 38 percent compared to 21 per centin 2014 in the Assembly elec-tions.”

The vote share of the partywhich was 18 per cent in 2014has climbed to 32 per cent inthe last elections. I congratulatethe BJP unit in Odisha for thisfeat,” added Nadda.

The Central Governmentunder PM Narendra Modiwants to see Odisha as a devel-oped State. Already six medicalcolleges and other develop-mental projects including the

coastal highway and other rail-way projects are being execut-ed in the State. Union MinistersDharmendra Pradhan andPratap Sarangi, national vice-president Baijayant Panda andnational spokesperson SambitPatra were present in NewDelhi on the occasion.

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BJP State spokespersonLekhashri Samantsinghar

on Tuesday drew ire of leaderscutting across party lines forher controversial statementthat people of other parts of thecountry got to know about pil-grim town Puri being inOdisha only after her partynational spokesperson SambitPatra contested for Member ofParliament from the con-stituency in the 2019 elections.

Addressing party workersat an event here, Samantsingharsaid people used to think thatPuri is in Kolkata, but theycame to know about the townbeing in Odisha only afterPatra contested from there.Soon after a video clip of herstatement went viral on socialmedia, leaders of different par-

ties slammed Samantsingharfor her claim. BJD MP AmarPatnaik said, “First, BJP nation-al vice-president BaijayantPanda compared Odisha withPakistan; and now,Samantsinghar is giving such astatement.

It is an insult to Odisha andthe land of Jagannath, the Lordof the Universe. Even a three-year-old child knows wherePuri is, the humble abode ofLord Jagannath. Make no mis-

take; He is the lord of Kolkataas well.” Similarly, CongressMLA Suresh Routray said LordJagannath is Himalaya andSambit Patra is not even a dirtbefore Him. “Why is she evencomparing? Has she lost hermind,” Routray questioned.Khandapada BJD MLASoumya Ranjan Patnaik said,“In my experience, wheneverpeople outside the State used toask me where is Odisha, Iused to tell them about Puriand people would easily under-stand and recognise.

Puri BJD MP Pinaki Misra,who defeated Sambit Patra inthe elections, said, Puri and theLord’s abode have been thepride of Odisha from timesimmemorial and would remainso long after the arrogance ofsome is swept away into the Bayof Bengal.

���������� ���� �

The Crime Branch’s SpecialTask Force (STF) on

Tuesday seized a leopard skinfrom the possession of a personat Baramunda underKhandagiri police station.

Later, the accused wasarrested and forwarded tocourt. He was identified asPrasant Kumar Naik ofKaranjia area in Mayurbhanjdistrict. He works as a driverwith a private university.According to reports, Naikhad planned to sell the leopard

skin to a person at Baramunda.Acting on inputs STF teamraided the spot and recoveredthe leopard hide from sidebox of his motorcycle.

A case under Sections 379and 411 of the IPC and 51 ofthe Wildlife (Protection) Actwas registered in this connec-tion. Further investigation bySTF was underway to ascertainthe involvement of others in theoffence.

The leopard hide would besent to Wildlife Institute ofIndia in Dehradun for chemi-cal examination.

���������� ���� �

The KIMS hospital here hasstarted a Post-Covid

Mother & Child Clinic fromNovember 16.

The clinic will have asenior obstetrician and paedi-atrician who will look after the

mother and child together andrender advice.

All types of tests, imagingare available in the campus andif advised the mother and childcan be seen by a Cardiologist,Pathologist and Neurologistor Physician. The OPD willfunction on all days.

���������� ���� �

The Utkal Sammilani onMonday severely criticised

the Andhra PradeshGovernment for eying Odishaland and creating disturbancesin border areas and asked lead-ers of neighouring State torefrain from biasing people.

“Andhra PradeshGovernment and leaders mustnot take Odisha’s simplicityand silence as its weakness.

If they think so, then itwould be understood that theyhave little knowledge aboutthe history vis-à-vis borderdisputes and are visionless,”said Sammilani MancheshwarIndustrial Estate Branch pres-ident Dillip Dashsharma.

He called upon Andhraleaders to maintain peace in theborder areas and treat Odishaas a good neighbour.

���������� ���� �

Railway Protection Force(RPF) personnel on

Monday arrested a person andseized 12.2 kg of ganja at theBhubaneswar railway station .

The accused, identified asRabibur Alam, was planning tosmuggle the contraband toWest Bengal by theYa s h o v a n t p u r - H o w r a hDuronto Express.SuspectingAlam’s movements at the rail-way station while waiting forthe train, the RPF personnelfrisked him and seized theganja.

During interrogation,Alam revealed he brought theganja from Koraput toBhubaneswar by bus. He wasthen supposed to smuggle thecontraband item fromBhubaneswar to Rampur inKolkata.

����� ���

The Jagannath Temple man-agement committee on

Tuesday approved an annualbudget of Rs 154 crore for the2020-21 financial year,informed Shree JagannathTemple Administration (SJTA)Chief Administrator KrishanKumar.

After a high-level meetingheld here under the chairman-ship of Gajapati MaharajaDibyasingha Deb, the ChiefAdministrator said that thetemple’s income has plungedthis year due to the restrictionson entry of devotees into theshrine following the Covid-19outbreak. On the other hand,the temple’s expenditure hasincreased this year due to thepandemic.

“Apart from the expendi-ture for daily rituals at the tem-ple, additional funding wasmade for setting up of CovidCare Homes for servitors andother related activities. To meetthe gap, the temple adminis-

tration has decided to launchonline donations,” said KrishanKumar and urged devotees tocontribute to the temple fund.

The meeting stressed onvarious issues, including theupcoming Nagarjuna Besha ofthe deities, Kartika rituals andwelfare programmes for thetemple servitors. Regardingreopening of the temple fordevotees, Krishan Kumar said,

“Discussions will be held withthe Chhatisa Nijog again and itwill take about four more weeksto be prepared for the reopen-ing. After that, if the StateGovernment gives green signal,we will reopen the temple fordevotees.”

Among others, PuriCollector Balwant Singh and SPAkhilesh Singh were present inthe meeting.

����� ���� ���� �

The process for Covid-19 testof MLAs ahead of the

Winter Session of theLegislative Assembly com-menced on Tuesday. The PSOsand drivers of the legislatorsand the Assembly employeeswill also undergo the test.

The RT-PCR tests are to beconducted once before thebeginning of the session andone more time after the con-clusion of the session.

The swab samples are to becollected by a team of doctorsfrom 8.30 am to 1.30 pm and3 pm to 5 pm on November 17and 18 and from 8.30 am to1.30 pm on November 19. Ateam of doctors will be presentat the Assembly during the ses-sion and carry out antigen testof anyone developing Covid-19

symptoms. Speaker SurjyaNarayan Patro has informedthat the Assembly buildingwould be sanitised everydayduring the session.

The House would run onSaturdays and Sundays whileoption for the MLAs to partic-ipate through videoconferenc-ing is available, he said.

The session is scheduled tocommence from November 20and conclude on December 31.

���������� ���� �

The Arya Samaj, Odisha ledby president president

Aryakumar Jnanendra cere-brated the 87th death anniver-sary of its founder MaharshiDayananda Saraswati throughzoom video on Diwali onSaturday.

Dibyajeevan Sangha saintSwami JagannathanandaSaraswati Maharaja inaugurat-ing the programme saidMaharshi Dayananda had fore-told his disciples about hisdeath.

He had worked to makeVedic knowledge reach com-mon people uninterruptedly.

Noted Vedic expert PanditBirendra Kumar Panda saidMaharshi Dayananda had

established Arya Samaj fordevelopment of common man.He said every Vedic verse ismeant for the welfare ofhumans. Basic Science CollegeDirector Prof Bikash Pandasaid Maharshi Dayananda havemade scientific experimentsthrough religion.

He said the Arya Samaj,established 145 years back, isnot only a spiritual organisationbut also an institution againstsocial stigmas.

A Vedic Yanja had beenperformed under the guidanceof Binod Bihari Das.At the out-set, Yuva Arya Samaj, Odishapresident Prabira Arya haddelivered the welcome address.The programme concludedwith a vote of thanks proposedby Deepak Arya.

����� 6��� 6�

With the possibility of sec-ond wave of coronavirus

looming large during winterseason, the Cuttack MunicipalCorporation (CMC) hasrestricted the maximum num-ber of persons to be allowed atwedding events in the city to100 and that of death rituals to50.

CMC said that the restric-tions would remain in forcefrom November 25 until fur-ther order. It will be the jointresponsibility of the function’shost and the management ofKalyan Mandaps, conventionhalls or marriage halls toadhere to the guidelines.

The permission for thefunctions must be obtainedfrom the local police station,local authority (CMC in thiscase) mandatorily. Besides,marriage procession of anykind is strictly prohibited. “Theperson with SARI/ILI like

symptoms will not be allowedto the venue/hall. In funeralrelated functions, such personsneed to be avoided to partici-pate as far as practicable.

Other vulnerable groups ofpeople such as old age person,pregnant women or childrenbelow 10 years of age or personwith other comorbidities arealso advised not to attend thesefunctions,” civic body orderadded.

The host of the functionshould ensure thermal screen-ing of all participants at theentrance of the venue. Thehost of the function shouldensure adequate provision ofhand sanitization, hand wash-ing at the venue, the CMC said

Physical distancing of atleast 6 ft must be maintained atall times by the participantsduring the function.

The participants willmandatorily use face maskduring the function exceptduring eating.

����� ���� ���� �

Responding to the NationalHuman Rights

Commission’s (NHRC) warn-ing of coercive action over thelack of protection and promo-tion of ‘Rakta Tirtha Eram’ inBhadrak district of Odisha,the District Collector in areport has stated that needfulhas been done and the processwould be completed byDecember 31, 2020.

The NHRC has expressedit serious displeasure againstthe Odisha Government timeand again over the six-yearpending case filed by humanrights activist and lawyerRadhakantaTripathy. Visitingthe spot and witnessing the sit-uation recently, Tripathy saidthat even after 78 years of

freedom struggle, Rakta TirthaEram known as‘Jalianawalabagh of Odisha’continued to be neglected andnever got the historical impor-tance it deserves.

In 2014 ,the NHRC hadasked the State Chief Secretaryto submit an action takenreport over the issue. Later on,the Ministry of Home Affairshad also taken cognisance of anapplication submitted byTripathy for providing touristtag to Eram and doing theneedful for making it a place ofnational importance. Sincethen the issue is making roundsin the bureaucratic jugger-nauts.

Even after five years ofannouncement of the area as atourist place, nothing has beendone to develop the place.Pertinent to mention here threeyears ago Union PetroleumMinister Dharmendra Pradhanhad sanctioned Rs 1 crore todevelop Eram. However, themoney lies unspent, Tripathyalleged.

���������� ���� �

The Odisha MiningCorporation (OMC) on

Monday contributed Rs 20crore to the Chief Minister'sRelief Fund (CMRF) towardsthe Aahaar scheme of the StateGovernment, which is an ini-tiative for subsidised meal tothe poor and needy in theurban areas.

The scheme had beenlaunched on April 1, 2015 onthe auspicious day of UtkalDivas by Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik to providecooked hot meals -- steamedrice and dalma to the poor andneedy people at Rs 5.

����� 6��� 6�

The Orissa High Court hasallowed an additional

month’s time to the StateGovernment to file its counterin response to a PIL filed by asocial activist of Mahanga ofCuttack district alleging thatthe Government has shown“discriminatory” attitude inaccording due honour in casesof deaths of dignitaries or per-sons, who have had occupiedimportant Constitutional postsduring their lifetimes.

Debendra Kumar Sahoo,president of MahangaSwabhiman Manch and secre-tary of ‘Budhhayan’, a BudhhistCultural body, in his petitionhas alleged that the

Government did not accord“State Honour” to formerAssembly Speaker, formerMinister and former MP SaratKumar Kar, who passed awayon September 12 this year.

Kar’s body was cremated atthe Satyanagar crematorium inBhubaneswar. The after-deathprotocol for dignitaries was notobserved in the case of Kar, thepetitioner said, alleging that theGovernment adopted a dis-criminatory and negligent atti-tude during his treatment,death and cremation.

The Bench of Chief JusticeMohammad Rafiq and JusticeCR Dash allowing the time pleaof the Government, has fixedDecember 16 for the next hear-ing of the petition.

����� ���� ���� �

The IIT Bhubaneswar con-ducted online registration

programme for the newly-admitted students in B Techand Dual Degree programmeon November 10 and 12. Andthe two-day orientation pro-gramme for these studentsbegan on November 17.

The programme com-menced with the online addressby Director Prof RV RajaKumar. All 475 seats of theinstitute have been allotted inthe six rounds of admission.

Director Raja Kumarinformed, "The fresh studentswill be completing their firstyear education by mid-Julyand continue their educationonline. IIT Bhubaneswar iscommitted to provide its stu-

dents with holistic educationfor producing tomorrow’s lead-ers by nurturing their person-ality, encouraging creativity,innovative mindset and capa-bility in science and technolo-gy, humanities, managementand other domains of humanexcellence.

I wish the students, ameaningful, memorable and

rewarding journey at IITBhubaneswar.” Among othersProf VR Pedireddi, DeanStudent Affairs, Dr PR Sahu,Dean Academic Affairs, all theHeads of the School, DrShantanu Pal, Warden, DrSankarsan Mohapatro, DrSrinivas Bhaskar Karanki, ProfSujit Roy and Prof RK Pandawere present.

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The Odisha Society ofAmericas (OSA) would be

holding its first-ever WorldWeb Festival on December 26and 27. The schedule wasrevealed recently in an inter-national webinar convened bypresident of OSA Kuku Das.

The online event will beshowcasing of Odisha’s rich andvibrant art, culture, tradition,handicrafts, architecture, lan-guage, literature, tourism, and

cuisine. Besides, presentationof Odishi dance, music, folkdance and several other uniqueperforming art forms of theState will be made. sThe festi-val will also include the virtu-al competition of culinary skillsof Odias in preparation of tra-ditional food items. The specialattraction would be a brain-storming session on the possi-ble vital role of Non ResidentOdias in facing huge chal-lenges in post Covid era andformulating roadmap.

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A14-year old tribal girl, whohad consumed poison at

Marigeta village underKalimela block in Malkangiridistrict, died on Tuesday at ahospital.Source said the girl wasstudying in an Ashram School.She consumed poison onMonday night, following whichshe was admitted to theKalimela Community HealthCentre (CHC).

However, in the morningher condition further deterio-rated and she breathed her lastat the CHC.“What forced theminor girl to take this extremestep remains a mystery. But wehave lodged a complaint in thisconnection and begun investi-gation,” police said.

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Installing a Doppler WeatherRadar (DWR) station for the

natural calamities-prone dis-trict of Baleswar has become adistant dream. Even after 11years the project is hanging inbalance.

According to reports, thedecision for establishing a radarweather forecasting facility herealong with three others in theState was taken way back in2006 by the CentralGovernment keeping view thevulnerability of the coastal dis-trict where cyclones and floodsare the regular visitors, to alertthe residents beforehand.

The project which began inother places including Paradipand Gopalpur have alreadyinstalled the radars and theestablishments are operational.

In the absence of the

sophisticated radar, the weath-er forecast data is beingobtained from the radarinstalled in the DRDO,Chandipur.

Although in August 2013the work for construction of amulti storeyed building beganand target fixed to complete byend of 2014 yet the buildingnow stands incomplete.Reports also added that theproject began with an esti-mate of about Rs 4.5 crore andthe work was undertaken bythe PWD for the four storeyedbuilding at Hindigaon inChandipur.

Even after 6 years, thebuilding is incomplete. In themeantime the project has facedboth time and cost overrun.

However , an official ofMet department said that theradar would be installed in theestablishment after comple-tion of the building.

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Aone-day capacity-buildingprogramme for members

of village-level Child ProtectionCommittee to prevent childagainst various abuses in Indiawas organised by the WorldVision, Germany and thePECUC, Bhubaneswar, atBaliapal, recently.

Inaugurating programmeCDPO Tanushree Mishracalled for concerted efforts toreduce child marriage, childlabour, trafficking and childsexual abuse. He said role ofmembers of the village levelchild protection committee isimportant in this regard.

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At least three persons werekilled and more than 15

were injured when the bus bywhich they were travellingoverturned near Hajaridangavillage in the Bissamcuttackarea of Rayagada district onMonday night.

The deceased were identi-fied as the bus driver, thehelper and a passenger.According to reports, the vehi-

cle was on its way to Cuttackfrom Laxmipur. The driver ofthe bus lost control over thewheels around 10.30 pm, as aresult of which the vehicleskidded off the road and turnedturtle on roadside farmland.

Several passengers weretrapped in the bus that wasbadly damaged. Getting infor-mation, police rushed to thespot and rescued the passen-gers with the help of locals andshifted them to a hospital.

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Adistrict-level paddy pro-curement meeting was held

here on Monday. WaterResources and I&PR MinisterRaghunandan Das emphasisedon a flawless process in procur-ing paddy from farmers andclearing their payments. DistrictCollector Saroj Kumar Mishrasaid paddy procurement wouldbegin from January 5 adheringto Covid preventive measures.

Millers, Civil Supplydepartment officials, RMC,Agriculture CooperativeSociety and CentralCooperative Bank will join thepaddy procurement in the dis-trict.

For this a mass awarenesscampaign would be launched ineach Gram Panchayat for sen-sitizing, Collector informed.

District Civil Supply OfficerBibekananda Korkara informedthat about 85,294 metric tonnepaddy would be collected fromfarmers in Jagatinghpur districtin 2021-22.

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Once again theft of man-ganese ore is going on

rampantly in the Barbil ForestRange under Keonjhar ForestDivision.

The fact came to light onFriday when about 150 MT ofhigh grade iron ore valued atabout Rs 5,00,000 was seized bya joint enforcement squad ofJoda mining officials andpolice at Roita forest underThakurani reserve forest nearKalapahad square.

Sources revealed thatThakurani reserve forest andSidhamath reserve forest underBarbil are rich in high gradeiron ore and manganese ore

deposits.The ForestDepartment officials shouldensure that there is no illegalmining of iron ore from thereserve forest. But it is allegedthat due to the nexus of the for-est officials with the mafias,daily 100MT of illegal iron oreand manganese is being rout-ed to the neighbouring Statesof Jharkhand and West Bengalthrough Bileipada forest sec-tions situated near the borderof Odisha and Jharkhand.

When contacted, Forester,Bileipada, Pradeep Behera whohas been newly posted at thisimportant location after beingpromoted just six months backtold that he was on leave andcouldn't say anything in thisregard.

It is demanded that someexperienced officials shouldbe posted there to put a checkon the illegal transporting ofiron ore and manganesethrough Bileipada forest sec-tions.

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The National Press Day wascelebrated at district head-

quarters at Jagatsinghpur,Baleswar and Phulbani throughvirtual mode under the chair-manship of respective districtCollectorsAt Jagatsinghpur,Collector Saroj Kumar Mishrapresided over the meeting.ADM Satchidananda Sahoo,Sub-Collector DharmendraMallick, DIPRO KaminiranjanPatnaik and a few officials andmediapersons were present.

Speaking on this year’sPress Day theme ‘Role of mediaduring the Covid 19 pandem-ic and its impact on media’, theCollector said coronavirus hasput pressure on health, eco-nomic and social sectors.

The Media can play a vitalrole in making people knowabout the virus and preventivemeasures against it.Amongothers, scribes Manoj Dash,Sasanka Sekhar Panda,Subhankar Jena, SomanathParida and Radhakanta Mishraspoke. In Paradip, the StateUnion of Journalists (SUJ),Jagatsinghpur district unit cel-ebrated the day amid Covid-19guidelines.

The event was presidedover by SUJ district coordina-tor Rabindra Kumar Jena. Newoffice-bearers of Jagatsinghpurdistrict unit were announced.Jena was declared as presi-dent, Nrusingha Charan Barikas vice-president, SanjayKumar Mishra as secretary,Purushottam Satpathy as assis-tant secretary, JagannathSatpathy as treasurer. SabitaMohapatra was nominated aschief advisor, senior journalistsGagan Bihari Sahoo, SasankaSekhar Acharya, Ratnakar Jenaand Prasanta Kumar Rout as

advisors. At Baleswar, DistrictCollector K SudarshanChakravarthy, ADM SambitNayak and APD NiluMohapatra spoke on theme“The role of media duringCovid pandemic and its impacton media”. The meeting wasconducted by DistrictInformation and PublicRelations officer Deepak Sahu.Several scribes also expressedviews and opinions. TheCollector appreciated respon-sibilities being discharged bydistrict journalists in makingpeople learn about Covid pre-cautions.

At Phulbani, Kandhamaldistrict Collector Dr Brunda Dpresided over meeting. Hepraises journalists of the districtfor supporting administrationin containing spread of Covidpandemic. ASP Bipin BihariBehera, senior journalist ShibaPrasad Tripathy, SadashibaPatra, Batakrushna Behera andAjit Kumar Moharana joined asguests.

Sub-Divisional Journalists’Association Pallahara cele-brated the day under the chair-manship of Press Club presi-dent Dr Sontosh Dehury andwith Angul ZP Vice-PresidentIndramani Garnayak as chiefguest and Raja Sahib ofPallahara Balkrisna Pal andsenior journalist BishmaGarnayak as guests of honour.

The Press Day was alsoobserved at Bhapur inNayagarh district. Bhapur PressClub secretary RameshChandra Barad presided overthe programme where seniorscribe Rabindra KumarPatnaik, educationist PrafullaKumar Mohanty, LecturerSumant Kumar Jena, teacherManoj Kumar Satpathy,Nityananda Das and CHC DrAnnada Prasad Tripathy gracedas guests.

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In an incident that claimedthree Indian lives in Bahrain’s

Crown Electro and MechanicalServices, a 30-year-old manfrom Odisha’s Bhadrak dis-trict was choked to death in themishap on Sunday. The othertwo deceased were residents ofBihar.

Debashis Sahoo fromKismat village under ChandbaliTehsil was working in the for-eign company as a mechanicalfitter.

He and the two others hadgone 35 feet under the groundwith oxygen support to carryout plumbing work. They soonstarted suffocating and werechoked to death. Later, theirfamilies were informed aboutthe tragedy.

Debashis had joined thecompany in 2015 through acontract agency inBhubaneswar. He was planningto return home in 2021, hisdevastated family informed.

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Aperson drowned while tak-ing bath while two of his

freinds were still missing inriver Kathsangada underMandarpur GP in Baleswardistrict. Efforts were on byfire brigade personnel to tracethe missing duo.

According to reports, fiveyouths of Nilgiri had come totake bath in the river. Theywere swept away deep into theriver gorge. Two of them couldswim back to the bank. Thelocal administration pressedthe fire brigade to trace themissing ones.

Fire Services personnelfished out one dead body whilethe whereabouts of the missingones were still not known. Itwas feared that they gottrapped in a gorge in the river.The search and rescue opera-tions were still on.

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Police on Tuesday arrested aperson in connection with

the rape and murder of a five-year-old girl of Kharkhari vil-lage under the Kankadahad vil-lage of Dhenkanal district onNovember 13.

The arrestee was identifiedas Sankarshan Dehury ofKaliapani village in Jajpur dis-trict. He is a relative of thedeceased girl, police said.

The body of the girl wasfound in a drain near a marketat Kharkhari. It was alleged inthe complaint by the deceased’sfamily that the child was rapedand then murdered. Later, thebody was dumped in the drain.

During the course of inves-tigation, police apprehendedDehury. He has confessed tothe crime during interrogation,police said.

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Forest Department officialshave arrested as many as

eight fisherman of AndhraPradesh for allegedly fishing inRushikulya river mouth inGanjam district.

A trawler and 295 kg of fishhave been seized from the fish-ermen’s possession. Officials ofBerhampur Forest Circle, act-ing on a tipoff about the illegalfishing, apprehended the fish-ermen.

Notably, fishing and simi-lar activities in the portion ofthe water body have beenbanned from November 1 toMay 31 due to the nesting sea-son of Olive Ridley turtles.

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Tension prevailed inthe smelter plant of

Nalco here after a 42-year-old worker diedafter falling around 90feet off a building in thepremises on Tuesday.

The deceased wasidentified as AkshayDehuri of Tulasipal village in the district.

The incident took place at around 10 am when Dehuri waslaying asbestos sheets on the building of RPO civil departmentof the smelter plant. He apparently lost balance and felldown.Following the mishap, family members of the deceasedstaged a demonstration in front of the plant demanding com-pensation and a job to a kin. Nalco Thika Mazdoor Sangha pres-ident Babuli Sethi and Nalco Nirman Mazdoor Sangha vice-pres-ident Prasanna Mohanty also took part in the dharna.

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Afeast with friends provedfatal for three youths in

Baleswar district when threepersons drowned in front oftwo others in the Budhabalangriver on Monday.

While the body of oneAnkit Pati from Kadamsahiunder Nilagiri NAC was recov-ered on Monday evening, thoseof his friends Piyush Naik andMrutunjoy Mishra were fishedout on Tuesday morning.

The trio along with twoother college batch mates,Ranjan Sala and Jyotrimayafrom Nilagiri had gone to the

Triveni Ghat for the feast.After having their food, theywent to the river to take bath.Ankit, Piyush and Mrutunjoyslipped into deep water andwere swept away by strongcurrent.

After failed attempts totrace the three missing friends,Ranjan and Jyotrimaya man-aged to swim ashore and raisedan alarm.

Fire Service personnel withthe help of locals launched arescue operation and fished outthe body of Ankit. The bodiesof Piyush and Mrutunjoy weretraced and recovered onTuesday morning.

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Tension ran high in thepremises of Bheden police

station in Bargarh districtwhen some irate villagers ofBurada village vandalised thepolice station and hurledstones at police personnel onTuesday.

Protesting the allegeddelay in the police probe intothe death of one Jitu Naik fromBurada village and demandingimmediate arrest of theaccused, around 200 villagersstaged a dharna in front of thepolice station and later van-dalised the police station andhurled stones at police per-

sonnel injuring some cops.However, details of the num-ber of cops injured in the inci-dent were not available till thefiling of this report. Also, avehicle of a mediaperson wasreportedly damaged by theagitators.

The situation was broughtunder control after policeresorted to a lathi-charge todisperse the agitators.

As per reports, the body ofJitu Naik had been recoveredon July 18 in the village.

Alleging murder, family mem-bers of Jitu knocked at thedoors of the local police andthe Bargarh SP and demand-ed immediate arrest of theaccused.

A family member of thedeceased stated that the primeaccused is yet to be nabbedeven though four months havepassed since the incident.Meanwhile, a group clash alsoensued in the village at around4 pm on Tuesday over Jitu’sdeath.

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The indigenously-developedQuick Reaction Surface to

Air Missile (QRSAM) airdefence system was successfullytest-fired from the IntegratedTest Range (ITR), Chandipurhere on Tuesday afternoon. Ithit a target pilotless aircraft fly-ing in medium range and alti-tude. The QRSAM is capable ofdetecting and tracking targets

on the move and engagingtarget with short haltsThe airdefence system had also beentest-fired successfully earlier onNovember 13. The missile hasbeen developed as part of airdefence system of the IndianArmy. Defence MinisterRajnath Singh congratulatedthe Defence Research andDevelopment Organisation(DRDO) for the two successivetrials of the QRSAM.

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The Town police on Tuesdayarrested a 34-year-old

priest on the charge of attempt-ing to rape a minor girl in theSanamangala area inKendrapada town.

The accused was identifiedas Smruti Ranjan Pati aliasShiba.Police said Shiba went tothe house of the victim to per-form puja .

But finding the girl alone,attempted to rape her. Later, thevictim’s family member lodgedan FIR at the Town police sta-tion.

Acting on the complaint,police registered a case andarrested the priest.Later, hewas produced in a local court,which sent him to judicial cus-tody rejecting his pail petition,police said.

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Under the instructions ofthe Water Resources

Minister, 3 Chief Engineers,namely, Sushant Kumar Ratha(floods), Bijay Kumar Mishra,(Rushikulya basin) and LKSabat (Quality Control) visitedRushikulya-Kharakhari mouthunder Ganjam district here onTuesday to study over-floodingof river banks due to chockingof the mouth situated nearBarapalli village.

Later, the Chief Engineersalso visited some nearby vil-lages, namely, Alladigaon,Bhuanbhuin, Balia andUDSpur area and met some ofthe farmers on the recurringflood in the area in every 2/3

years due to overflow ofRushikulya-Kharakhari banksnear these villages. Due tofloods, several villages likeUDSpur, Barapalli andBhuanbhuin remain maroonedand cut off from main land.Besides, 10,000 hectares ofland remain stagnated withwater damaging crops, forwhich the Government had toundertake relief and restorationwork at a huge cost.

The Chief Engineers alsovisited Prattapur andRushikulya-Baruni Ghat whichwas badly damaged in lastTitli.

During the visit, formerAssembly Deputy SpeakerRama Chandra Panda led theteam to the vulnerable floodpoints of Rushikulya andKharakhari.

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After successfully complet-ing the first phase of the

high-profile Malabar series ofnaval exercises in earlyNovember, the navies of India,the US, Australia and Japan onTuesday began the secondphase of the exercise in thenorthern Arabian Sea.

Raising the profile of theexercise, the USA deployedaircraft carriers besides a num-ber of frontline warships, sub-marines and maritime recon-naissance aircraft.

The highlight of the four-day exercise is participation ofIndian Navy’s Vikramadityacarrier battle group and theNimitz strike group of the USNavy. The USS Nimitz is theworld’s largest warship.

The first phase of theMalabar exercise took place in

the Bay of Bengal fromNovember 3 to 6 and featureda number of complex drillsincluding anti-submarine andanti-air warfare operations.

The Australian Navy hasdeployed its HMAS Ballarat, anAnzac-class frigate while theJapanese Navy has sent itsleading destroyer JS Murasamefor the exercise.

The mega exercise is takingplace at a time India and Chinaare locked in an over six-month-long bitter border standoff ineastern Ladakh. This exercise isinvolving coordinated opera-tions of increasing complexityamong the navies of the fourcountries which are part of theQuad or Quadrilateral Coalition,officials said.

“The two carriers, alongwith other ships, submarinesand aircraft of the participatingnavies, would be engaged in

high-intensity naval operationsover four days,” the IndianNavy said on Monday.

A carrier battle group orcarrier strike group is a meganaval fleet comprising an air-craft carrier, accompanied by alarge number of destroyers,frigates and other ships.

The Navy said the exercise

will include cross-deck flyingoperations and advanced airdefence exercises by MIG 29Kfighters of Vikramaditya and F-18 fighters and E2C Hawkeyefrom Nimitz.

Apart from Vikramadityaand its fighter and helicopterair-wings, the Indian Navy isalso deploying destroyers

Kolkata and Chennai, stealthfrigate Talwar and fleet supportship Deepak in the exercise.The Indian contingent is beingled by Rear Admiral KrishnaSwaminathan, Flag OfficerCommanding Western Fleet.

Last month, Indiaannounced that Australia willbe part of the Malabar exercise

which effectively made it adrill by all four member nationsof the Quad which is primari-ly focusing on containingChina’s military expansionismin the Indo-Pacific region.

China has been suspiciousabout the purpose of theMalabar exercise as it feelsthat the annual war game is aneffort to contain its influence inthe Indo-Pacific region.

The invitation by India tothe Australian Navy for theexercise came two weeks afterforeign ministers of the ‘Quad’member nations held extensivetalks in Tokyo with a focus onenhancing their cooperation inthe Indo-Pacific. The Malabarexercise started in 1992 as abilateral drill between theIndian Navy and the US Navyin the Indian Ocean. Japanbecame a permanent memberof the exercise in 2015.

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Amid declining Covid-19cases in the past few days,

the Government on Tuesdaywarned people not to be com-placent as “effects of polls,Durga Puja, Diwali may beseen in coming weeks”.

Union Health SecretaryRajesh Bhushan told mediapersons that it was essentialthat people strictly follow allthe precautionary measureslike not visiting crowded places,taking extra care of vulnerablesections of the society andmaintaining “6-feet” distance.

“As part of Covid-19appropriate behaviour, citizensmust ensure that if they areexperiencing any symptoms,then they must get tested.Don’t hesitate, get yourself test-ed,” he said.

“We believe that effects ofrecent elections (in Bihar andelsewhere), Durga Puja, Diwaliand other festivals are still to beplayed out in full. We have tokeep watching new cases verycarefully,” he said cautioningpeople against letting theirguard down despite “very lowper million cases” in India.

In the last two days, India’s

Covid-19 daily case countdropped to an average of 30,000,Government data released onTuesday showed after 4-weekaverage of 48,000 daily cases.

“We are not reading toomuch into this (drop),”Bhushan said, adding weeklytrends better reflected the pan-demic’s progress. However, asteady case surge has beenobserved in West Bengal sinceDurga Puja, in Kerala sinceOnam and in Delhi for the pastfortnight ahead of Diwali.

The Union Health

Ministry also noted India’sincreased capacity to conductCovid-19 tests on a daily basis.Evaluating India’s testing capa-bilities as compared to othernations, the Secretary said, “interms of Covid-19 tests con-ducted daily we are abovenations like the United States,United Kingdom and Russia.”

Also, India’s positivity rateis declining continuously andits death rate is low as com-pared to the rest of the world,said the official. India’s Deathsper Million Population is also

amongst lowest in world;stands at 94 deaths per millionpopulation, he added.

About the progress of vac-cines, VK Paul, NITI Aayogmember added that the one ofthe Serum Institute is in thethird phase. Meanwhile, at leastfive vaccines are under trial inIndia, out of which two are inthe third phase, he added.

As per the Ministry data,75.14 per cent of the new casesare being reported from 10states and UTs. Delhi, which sawa surge in new cases over the lastfew days, reported only 3,797new cases yesterday, followed byWest Bengal which reported3,012 new cases. Kerala record-ed 2,710 new cases.

In terms of new fatalities,the data suggests 78.40 per centof the 449 new deaths are con-centrated in ten states and UTs.More than a fifth, 22.76 per centof the new fatalities reported arefrom Delhi which reported 99deaths. Maharashtra reported 60fatalities, followed by WestBengal (53).

The total recovered casesstand at 82,90,370. With this, the recovery rate hasimproved to 93.42 per cent, theMinistry added.

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Amajor measles outbreak islikely to occur during 2021

as many children have missedout on measles vaccination amidCovid-19 pandemic, researchershave raised concerns.

They have suggested “threepillars” of action — helpingcountries vaccinate their chil-dren through catch-up andcampaigns; countries need toprepare for expected outbreaksand maintaining measles andrubella elimination targets pro-vided by WHO’s new MeaslesRubella Strategic Framework2021-2030 in alignment withthe Immunization Agenda2030 — to address the con-cerning situation.

In their article published inthe Lancet, the researchersincluding lead author ProfessorKim Mulholland, from theMurdoch Children’s ResearchInstitute and Chair of theWHO’s SAGE Working Groupon measles and rubella vac-cines, said many children havemissed out on measles vacci-nation this year, making futuremeasles outbreaks inevitable.

Professor Mulholland saidwhile 2020 had been a quiet

year for measles, in part due totravel reductions and nationalCovid-19 control measures,the economic impacts wouldlead to many cases of child-hood malnutrition.

The study mentioned thatthe WHO estimates that by theend of October 2020, delayedvaccination campaigns in 26countries have led to 94 millionchildren missing scheduledmeasles vaccine doses.

“The inadequate vaccina-tion that led to the 2019 measlesoutbreaks has still not been ade-quately addressed, and the sit-uation is now exacerbated byservice disruptions during theCovid-19 pandemic so thathigh-risk, unimmunised chil-dren are clustered together in

unreached communities,”Professor Mulholland added.

Just a few days ago,Henrietta Fore, UNICEFExecutive Director had notedthat before there was a coron-avirus crisis, the world wasgrappling with a measles crisis,and it has not gone away.

“While health systems arestrained by the Covid-19 pan-demic, we must not allow ourfight against one deadly diseaseto come at the expense of ourfight against another. This means ensuring we havethe resources to continueimmunisation campaigns forall vaccine-preventable dis-eases, even as we address thegrowing Covid-19 pandemic,”Fore said.

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The Central Reserve PoliceForce (CRPF) has deployed

20 doctors and six dozen para-medical staff for ramping upmedical facilities to counter thefresh surge in Covid-19 cases inDelhi and the National CapitalRegion (NCR).

“As intimated by MHA, inview of rising number of Covidpositive cases in Delhi and NCR,it has been decided to opera-tionalise additional number ofbeds/ICU beds in Covid CareCentres at Chattarpur (being runby ITBP) and Delhi Cantt. (beingrun by AFMS),” reads an inter-nal order of the CRPF.

Accordingly, MHA(Ministry of Home Affairs)has desired to detail 20 MedicalOfficers and 60 paramedicalstaff from CRPF and they wereasked to report in Delhi byMonday (November 16), offi-cials said.

After consideration of prosand cons, competent authori-ty in the CRPF has approveddeployment of medical officersand paramedical staff fromvarious formations of theparamilitary, they said.

Apart from those detailed

in the Covid Care Centres inthe national capital, 14 doctorshave been kept in reserve and10 paramedical staff have beenkept on standby to augmentany further exigency in thenational Capital.

The Union Home Ministryhas further instructed that those

who are not entitled to air trav-el may be allowed to travel by airso that they can reach Delhi intime by the earliest flight.

For smooth deploymentof the medical officers andparamedical staff, the SectorInspector Generals and Headsof Offices were directed torelieve the identified personnelby Monday so that they canreport in Delhi on the desig-nated time.

The CRPF headquarters hasfurther directed its units not togrant leave to the medical offi-cers and paramedical staff keptin reserve without the approvalof the Medical Directorate of theparamilitary force.

The move comes after theUnion Home Minister AmitShah chaired a high level meet-ing on Sunday with Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal andofficials of the Central gov-ernment and Delhi adminis-tration to contain the spike inthe numbers of those gettinginfected with Covid-19 here.

The ITBP-run Sardar PatelCovid Care Centre at Chattarpurhas 10,000 beds capacity and theother one at Delhi Cantt. hasprovision for 1,000 beds, includ-ing 250 ICU beds.

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The Supreme Court on Tuesday expressed displeasure over theCentre’s affidavit in the case related to media reporting of

Tablighi Jamaat congregation here during the onset of Covid-19 pandemic, and said the Government should consider settingup a regulatory mechanism to deal with such contents on TV.

Observing that the Ministry of Information andBroadcasting’s affidavit did not deal with the applicability of CableTelevision Network Act (CTNA) in the case, the apex court saidthe Government has the power to put a regulatory mechanismin place and it cannot be left to an outside agency like NBSA(News Broadcasters Standards Authority.

“We want to know the mechanism employed by you and thisaffidavit has nothing on it. Why should we refer to NBSA etc.When you have the authority to look into it. If it does not existthen you create an authority. We can also hand it over to an out-side agency,” said a bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde.

The top court, which was hearing the pleas filed by JamiatUlama-I-Hind and others alleging that a section of the mediawas spreading communal hatred over Tablighi Jamaat congre-gation during the onset of pandemic, asked the Centre to file afresh affidavit dealing with mechanism to regulate electronicmedia under the CTNA. The congregation at Nizamuddin Markazin the national capital in March, attended by thousands of Indian and foreign nationals, was cited as being responsible foraccelerating the spread of coronavirus or Covid-19, with its attendees allegedly carrying the infection to different partsof the country.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre,referred to the freedom of speech and expression of the mediaand said that NBSA is a part of the self-regulatory mechanism.

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In a move to back farmers’protests, ten Central trade

unions on Tuesday announcedtheir support to nationwidegeneral strike on November 26.The meeting of the JointPlatform of Central TradeUnions (CTUs) and SectoralIndependent Federations andAssociations was held virtual-ly on November 16, 2020.

Unions expressed satisfac-tion over the tremendousresponse being received fromworkers and the people at largethroughout the country to theongoing campaign for thecountrywide general strike onNovember 26, 2020, a jointforum statement said.

The forum consists ofIndian National Trade UnionCongress (INTUC), All IndiaTrade Union Congress(AITUC), Hind MazdoorSabha (HMS), Centre of IndianTrade Unions (CITU), AllIndia United Trade UnionCentre (AIUTUC), TradeUnion Co-ordination Centre(TUCC), Self-EmployedWomen’s Association (SEWA),All India Central Council ofTrade Unions (AICCTU),Labour Progressive Federation(LPF) and United Trade UnionCongress (UTUC).

The preparatory campaignfor the general strike against“the anti-people, anti-worker,anti-national and destructivepolicies of the BJP Governmentled by Modi, has been going onwith great enthusiasm all overthe country”, the statementsaid. Joint conventions, posters,leaflets jointly as well as inde-pendently by the Central tradeunions and their affiliated tradeunions are being held at state,district and local levels as wellas at the sectoral level.

The strike notices havebeen served, it said adding thatin addition to workers, peoplefrom all walks of life and all sec-tions of the society, viz, students,youth, women, peasants havebeen coming forward extendingtheir whole-hearted support tothe call of general strike onNovember 26. The meeting wel-comed the whole-hearted sup-

port extended by the unitedplatform of the peasants’ organ-isations, the All India KisanSangharsh CoordinationCommittee (AIKSCC), to thegeneral strike by the workers.

“It is heartening that thepeasants, who are already in themidst of struggle against thedraconian farm laws passed bythe Modi govt, support theworkers fighting against theanti-worker measures of thisGovernment,” it added.

The Joint Platform andSectoral Federations andAssociations, which has beenextending active solidarity andsupport to the struggles of thepeasantry and agriculturalworkers from the very begin-ning, has reiterated its activesupport to the countrywideprotest actions and march toDelhi on 26-27 November 2020announced by the AIKSCC.

The charter of demands ofthe general strike by CTUs andfederations and associationsincludes the demand to scrapthe draconian farm laws.Along with the demandsdirectly related to the workers,the trade unions have alsobeen campaigning on thisdemand, it added.

Meanwhile, the All IndiaPower Engineers Federation(AIPEF) has also stated thatpower engineers across thecountry will protest onNovember 26 against the pri-vatisation policies of theCentral Government. TheAIPEF is demanding to scrapof Electricity (Amendment)Bill, 2020 and standard biddingdocument (SBD) for the pri-vatisation of electricity.

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India on Tuesday successful-ly test-fired the Quick

Reaction Surface-to-Air Missile(QRSAM) system at an inte-grated test range in Chandipuroff the Odisha coast, thedefence ministry said. It saidthe missile “accurately and suc-cessfully” neutralised an air-borne target. It was the secondsuccessful test firing of themissile in the last five days.

“The flight test, second inthe series, was conducted todayat around 1542 hours from theintegrated test range,Chandipur, off the coast ofOdisha. “The test was carriedout once again, against thehigh-performance jetunmanned aerial target calledBanshee, which simulates anaircraft,” the ministry said.

Defence Minister RajnathSingh congratulated DRDOscientists on the successfultest-firing of the missile.

“Congratulations to@DRDO_India for two back toback successful test trials ofQuick Reaction Surface to Air

Missile. First launch test on 13thNov proved the Radar andMissile capabilities with directhit. Today’s test demonstrated thewarhead performance on prox-imity detection,” he tweeted.

The successful test-firing ofthe QRSAM, having a range ofaround 30 km, paves the way forits commercial production, offi-cials said. “The flight test wasconducted in the deploymentconfiguration of the weaponsystem comprising of the launch-er, fully automated commandand control system, surveillancesystem and multi-functionradars,” the ministry said.

“The QRSAM weapon sys-tem, which can operate on themove, consists of all indige-nously developed subsystems.All objectives of the test werefully met. The launch was car-ried out in the presence of theusers from Indian Army,” it said.

In the last two months,India has test-fired a number ofmissiles, including a new ver-sion of the surface-to-surfacesupersonic cruise missileBrahMos, and an anti-radiationmissile named Rudram-1.

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The special committee of theCongress to assist party

chief Sonia Gandhi on Tuesdayavoided any discussion on Biharpoll debacle as also trenchantcriticism of the party’s func-tioning by senior leader KapilSibal. These issues will now betaken up at the CWC meetingscheduled later this month.

AICC sources said this wasa routine meeting for party’sadministrative issues throughvideo conferencing.

The special panel of theCongress was formed in Augustto assist Sonia Gandhi on organ-isational and operational mat-ters. Ahmed Patel, KCVenugopal, AK Antony, Ambika

Soni, Mukul Wasnik, RandeepSurjewala are its members.

“This was a scheduledmeeting and nothing to do withthe Kapil Sibal controversialremarks. And not much wasdiscussed due to the absence ofsenior party leader and mem-ber of the group Ahmed Patel.The only agenda was the sig-nature campaign. Some mem-bers made a brief critical ref-erence to Sibal’s commentsand said that the party chiefshould take note of of is fre-quent comments against theparty on public fora. It wasdecided that such issues to betaken up in the CWC,” said theAICC sources.

On the administrative part,the party discussed setting up

committees and create certainposts in all the states and unitsto review the party’s groundsituation. All these points willbe briefed to the party chief forher opinion and action there-after,” said the sources.

The Bihar poll debacle hasonce again brought up a pub-lic blow-out among its topleaders after Kapil Sibal’s opencriticism of the party leader-ship. Sibal had called for “expe-rienced minds, experiencedhands and those who under-stand political realities” torevive the organisation. Healso said the “time for intro-spection is over”.

Rebutting Sibal, RajasthanChief Minister Ashok Gehloton Monday said that there was

“no need” for his colleague tomention “internal issues” in themedia. In a series of tweets.Gehlot also said that afterevery electoral loss, the partyhad shown “undivided andfirm belief in the party leader-ship” and had emerged strongerfrom each crises.

Sibal was one of the 23Congress leaders behind the“dissent letter” that caused anall-out clash within the party inAugust but changed littleexcept for key letter-writersbeing shunted out. The letterhad suggested sweepingchanges after the Congress lostpower in Madhya Pradesh aftera revolt by Jyotiraditya Scindiaand barely saved its Rajasthangovernment after a rebellion.

Earlier in the day seniorparty leader Salman Khurshidtook a dig at such party col-leagues calling them “doubtingThomases” who suffer period-ic “pangs of anxiety”.

In a Facebook post thatstarted with an Urdu couplet ofMughal emperor Bahadur ShahZafar, former union ministerKhurshid, who is among theleaders considered close to theGandhi family, said if the moodof the electorate is resistant tothe liberal values the party hasespoused and cherished, itshould be prepared for a longstruggle rather than look forshort cuts to get back intopower. Noting that everyone inthe party is perplexed andpained by the continuing mis-

fortunes of the Congress thatsome have chosen to describeas “our misadventures”,Khurshid said there is some-thing called faith, not neces-sarily blind, in destiny.

The favourite panacea of“doubting Thomases”, intro-spection and collective leader-ship, might do no collateraldamage but is a bit overesti-mated, Khurshid asserted.

“Our real redemptionmight be found in under-standing the mind of the con-temporary citizen, molded byprevailing circumstances andinfluenced by a self-servingpotion of social envy and suspicion, if not hate, fedby the ruling establishment,” he said.

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Migratory foreign birdshave began arriving on

Shekha lake in Aligarh fromsiberia, eastern Europe, Chinaand the Philippines for dating.After dating , they return totheir respective countries withtheir new born in February .

The Forest department hasfound after its survey onShekha lake that this year 5600foreign birds have alreadyarrived and 43 rare species ofMigratory birds have alreadybeen identified by forestdepartment . Though these

migratory foreign birds arebusy in dating but they have nosecurity at all from hunters andstray dogs . In this connection, District Forest Officer told, “survey on Shekha lake wasunder taken through binocularsystem . Till moment we havecalculated that 56,00 foreignbirds have arrived on Shekhalake which belongs to 147species . Among them 43 arerare species of Migratory birds. These migratory birds havebeen provided complete secu-rity and required environmentfor their dating in a free atmos-phere”.

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With an eye on the 2021Assembly elections the BJP

has divided Bengal into five orga-nizational divisions to be super-vised by as many central leaders.

According to sources thesefive divisions are North Bengal,Rarh Bengal comprising Purulia,Bankura and Birbhum, Kolkataand surrounding areas, Hooghlyand West Midnapore andKrishnagar-Nadia and surround-ing regions.

These regions would besupervised by Garish Dwivedi,Vinod Sonkar, D Gautam, SunilDeodhar and Vinod Tawade in

that order, party sources saidadding these leaders in consulta-tion with the local leadershipwould hold organizational meet-ings to prepare a preliminary listof party candidates by November20, whereafter the report would besent to BJP national president JPNadda and Union Home MinisterAmit Shah.

The Home Minister whocame to Bengal on a two-day tripearly this month is likely tomake a second visit of the Statearound November 30 apparent-ly to discuss the organizationalmatters, inside sources said.

Meanwhile, Bengal BJP pres-ident Dilip Ghosh on Tuesday

mounted a fresh attack on theTrinamool CongressGovernment for failing to doanything for the minorities allow-ing All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) to findbase in the State.

What the TMC leadershipdismissed as the BJP’s ploy todivide the Muslims votes throughdisinformation campaign, Ghoshsaid “though the Trinamool hasextracted votes from the Muslimsby promising them sky they havedone nothing for them which iswhy the minorities of this Stateare a disgruntled lot and are look-ing for an alternative.”

Ghosh said a search for an

alternative by the Muslim votershas provided the AIMIM a toe-hold in Bengal. “The AIMIM isgetting toehold in this Statebecause the Muslim voters whohad reposed faith in theTrinamool Congress are nowleaning towards that party as theyhave felt cheated,” he said.

The State BJP president alsosaid that the elections wouldhave to be held by the centralforces as no one had any faith inthe State police. “The BengalPolice is a servant of the TMC andso the elections will have to beconducted by the CRPF,” he said.

Reacting to Ghosh’s state-ments senior Bengal Minister

Firhad Hakim said that it was hisploy to divide the Muslim votes inthe State. “By saying this the BJPis trying to divide votes inBengal… this is why we havealready said that AIMIM is an allyof the BJP… The voters from boththe minority and majority com-munities in Bengal are consciousenough about the present politi-cal circumstances and hence theywill take the right decision andone is sure that BJP will not befavoured by any of them.”

Incidentally Bengal ChiefMinister had in a circuitous ref-erence of the AIMIM said last yearthat some radical organizationswith terror links were trying to

make inroads in Bengal but wouldfail to win any seat in this State.

After winning five seats inBihar the AIMIM leadership hasdeclared that they would contestfrom Bengal where they havepresence in more than 30 seats.

“Now that our organizationhas become stronger why shouldnot find election in Bengal… ofcourse we will,” AIMIM chiefAsaduddin Owaisi had said soonafter the Bihar poll results.

In a separate development theLeft and the Congress were meet-ing on Tuesday evening to decideon the seat-sharing and other con-ditions of their alliance, sourcessaid.

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In a major development a senior BSF official facingcharges of cow-smuggling was questioned for several

hours by the Central Bureau of Investigation.Cows worth several thousand crores were smuggled

out to Bangladesh in 2016-17 when Satish Kumar a seniorcommanding of the BSF posted here, sources said.

The CBI had earlier raided Kumar’s residence at SaltLake. According to sources Kumar who appeared at theNizam Palace of the central agency was asked as towhether other influential persons were involved in theracket or not. He was reportedly avoiding certain ques-tions, sources said.

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Agartala: Vice President MVenkaiah Naidu on Tuesdaysaid that the new NationalEducation Policy (NEP) aimedto make India a global knowl-edge superpower and under-lined the need for the countryto again become a 'VishwaGuru' in education.

He said that the NEP drawsinspiration from the ancientIndian education system which

focused on developing holisticand well-rounded personalitiesand thus seeks to make Indianeducation holistic, multi-dis-ciplinary, and practical.

“The ancient educationsystem always taught us to livein harmony with nature andrespect all beings and non-beings. Our education waspractical, wholesome, andcomplementary to life,” Naidu

said while virtually addressingthe 13th convocation ofNational Institute ofTechnology (NIT), Agartala.

Calling upon higher edu-cation institutions and uni-versities to make India a thriv-ing hub of knowledge andinnovation, the Vice Presidentadvised them to take up cut-ting- edge research in variousfields, establish synergy with

industries and other similarinstitutions, and turn campus-es into exciting centres of cre-ativity and research.

Recalling the advice of for-mer President APJ AbdulKalam to the youth to dreambig, he asked the students to setgoals and then strive hard toachieve them.

“You will succeed if youwork with dedication, disci-

pline and sincerity withoutwavering from your chosenpath. Students, researchers andacademicians, therefore, cannotafford to remain in a world ofstatus quo. They have to con-stantly learn, update themselves, and innovate everyday.”

The Vice President alsourged the corporate sector toidentify key research projects in

various sectors and fund themunder the CSR initiatives.

“Enhancing public and pri-vate investments in research isof vital importance for creatinga knowledge-driven society.”

With about 65 per cent ofthe country's population com-prising youth, the Vice-President called for fully chan-neling their energies and cre-ating the right ecosystem for

promoting entrepreneurshipamong them.

Naidu asked all students tospend some time in villages tounderstand the challengesfaced by rural India. Termingagriculture as 'our basic cul-ture', he called for makingfarming a viable and profitableactivity.

Agartala NIT's Chairmanof Board of Governors Dr

Subhash Chandra Sati, DirectorProf HK Sharma and othersparticipated in the virtualevent.

In the convocation 24 PhDscholars, 181 MTech and 14MBA students, 24 MSc and 20MCA passouts were among 857students who received theirdegrees. Gold medals weregiven to 25 students for meri-torious achievements. IANS

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Six-year-old granddaughter of BJP MP RitaBahuguna Joshi succumbed to burn injuries on

Tuesday morning.Kiya had sustained 60 per cent burn injuries while

bursting crackers on the roof of her house onMonday evening.

She was admitted to a private hospital for treat-ment and the family was making arrangements to shifther to Delhi for advanced treatment in an air ambu-lance on Tuesday.

Kiya was the only daughter of the MP's sonMayank Joshi and his wife Richa Joshi.

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Dravida MunnetraKazhagam (DMK)

President MK Stalin onTuesday demanded scrappingof NEET for medical collegeadmissions as the Centre hadallowed for separate entrancetests in its 11 such institutionsin Tamil Nadu.

Similarly, in medical col-leges in Tamil Nadu, admis-sions for postgraduate coursesshould not be made based onNational Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) scores,

he said.Stalin urged Chief Minister

K Palaniswami to write toPrime Minister Narendra Modion this subject so that admis-sions to postgraduate medicalcourses could be made and 69per cent reservation quotaimplemented for the same.

The Leader of theOpposition in the Tamil NaduAssembly also urgedPalanswami to hold counsellingfor admissions to special med-ical courses for governmentdoctors with 50 per cent reser-vation.

�*#�3������/�#�"$%&*��*���$4$'�&������/�#��<*�8#'$'����?�����&� Mumbai: Top leaders from

various political parties andcommoners paid homage tothe founder-patriarch of ShivSena, the late BalasahebThackeray on his eighth deathanniversary here on Tuesday.

Chief Minister UddhavThackeray led the state alongwith his wife RashmiThackeray, son and MinisterAditya Thackeray besides min-isters, leaders of other parties,and paid floral tributes at thelate leader's memorial at ShivajiPark.

In a message, Deputy ChiefMinister Ajit Pawar said: “Aheartfelt tribute to BalasahebThackeray whose leadership,

eloquence and contributionswill rule forever in the hearts ofthe Marathis.”

Nationalist Congress PartyPresident Sharad Pawar saidthe late Balasaheb Thackeray'swork as “an effective orator,cartoonist and political com-mentator” are of special sig-nificance and political activistsare reminded of his ever-vigi-lante attitude.

Similarly, Congress leaderand Minister Ashok Chavanpaid homage to the memory ofBal Thackeray.

The Bharatiya JanataParty's Leader of OppositionDevendra Fadnavis saluted thelate leader who remained com-

mitted to his thoughts andspeeches while Prasad Laddescribed him as the “HinduHriday Samrat, Nationalist,enlightening leader”.

The MaharashtraNavnirman Sena spokespersonSandeep Deshpande ques-tioned why despite coming topower since one year, the MahaVikas Aghadi government hasfailed to construct a memori-al to Balasaheb Thackeray atthe site near the Shivaji Park.

Scores of Shiv Sainiks andfollowers converged at theShivaji Park and offered theirtributes to the late leader whopassed away at the age of 86 onNovember 17, 2012. IANS ����������������������� .�� � ������������������&�� ��� ��� ! � �

Amaravati:Andhra Pradeshhas registered 1,395 newCovid-19 infections, increasingthe state's tally to 8.56 lakh,even as 2,293 more recoveriesoutnumbered infections onTuesday.

Krishna district accountedfor the highest number of casesin the past 24 hours, 260, fol-lowed by West Godavari (247),East Godavari (214), Guntur(199), Chittoor (137) andVisakhapatnam (75).

Among other places,Anantapur (58), Kadapa (52),Srikakulam (37), Vizianagaram(35), Nellore (32), Prakasam(31) and Kurnool (18).

With the new additions,Kurnool's tally is inching clos-er to the 60,000-mark.

East Godavari continues to

shoulder the highest number ofcases at 1.2 lakh.

Meanwhile, nine morepatients succumbed to thevirus in the past 24 hours, tak-ing the state's death toll to6,890. Chittoor continues to bethe district with the highestnumber of Covid deaths at 812.

However, the southernstate is consistently recordingan impressive number of recov-

eries every day.On Monday, 2,293 more

patients recovered from the dis-ease to increase the total num-ber of recoveries to 8.32 lakh.

Of the 8.56 lakh cases,active cases currently stand at16,985. In the past 24 hours,Covid-19 tests fell to 66,778samples. The state has so farconducted over 92.6 lakh tests. IANS

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Kochi: A court here on Tuesday refusedto grant bail to IAS officer and KeralaChief Minister's former PrincipalSecretary, M. Sivasankar.

Sivasankar was arrested by theEnforcement Directorate on October 29in the gold smuggling case and is beingquestioned by the financial probe agency.

His judicial custody ends onNovember 26 and prior to that, reportsindicate he will be continue to be ques-tioned by the various national probeagencies.

Heated arguments had taken placeat the Principal Sessions Court withcounsel for Sivasankar arguing that hewas being pressurised to name high-fly-ing ruling front political leaders, but theprosecution denied the claim.

The prosecution, however, citedseveral pieces of evidence against

Sivasankar and it was these the courtrelied on to dismiss his bail plea.

The ED even contended that SwapnaSuresh, the prime accused in the goldsmuggling and Life Mission cases, wasbeing used by Sivasankar who kneweverything what was happening.

The Customs had arrested P.S. Sarith,a former employee of the UAE Consulatehere, on July 5 for allegedly smugglinggold in a diplomatic baggage destined forthe Consulate. Swapna, who was also anex-employee of the Consulate, and herassociate Sandip Nair were also arrest-ed by the National Investigation Agencyfrom Bengaluru.

Vijayan removed Sivasankar as hisPrincipal Secretary and then as ITSecretary after it surfaced that Swapnaand Sivasankar were allegedly closefriends. IANS

Bengaluru: Karnataka wouldsoon set up a developmentboard for the betterment ofVeerashaiva-Lingayat commu-nity in the southern State, anofficial said on Tuesday.

“Chief Minister B.S.Yediyurappa directed state chiefsecretary T.M, Vijay Bhaskar toconstitute a KarnatakaVe e r a s h a i v a - L i n g a y a tDevelopment Board for thesocio-economic improvementof the dominant community inthe state,” a Social Welfaredepartment official told IANShere.

The decision to set up theboard came three days afterYediyurappa on Saturdaydirected the department to

form a Maratha DevelopmentAuthority with Rs 50-crorecorpus for the welfare ofMarathas living in the state.

The dominant Lingayatcommunity is estimate toaccount for 16 per cent of thestate's 7-crore population.

Incidentally, Yediyarappais considered the tallestLingayat leader in the statethough the community is con-sidered economically andsocially backward.

“Veerashaiva-Lingayatsform a large community in thestate, many of whom are eco-nomically, socially and educa-tionally backward,”Yediyurappa said in a note toChief Secretary TM Vijay

Bhaskar. “The board will workfor the overall development ofthe community,” said the ChiefMinister.

Several Lingayat legisla-tors of the ruling BJP, opposi-tion Congress and JD-S urgedYediyurappa to set up the boardfor the Lingayat sect, whosemembers are more than othercommunities across the state.

Congress lawmaker M.B.Patil and JD-S senior legislatorBasaraj Horatti also urged theChief Minister to make 16 percent reservation in govern-ment jobs and educationalinstitutions for the Lingayats, asMaharashtra has done forMarathas in the neighbouringstate. IANS

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The Juhu police on Tuesdayclaimed to have busted a major

inter-State kidnapping and humantraffic racket, with the rescue of a4-month-old infant from Telanganastate and arrest of three personswho had sold the kid for Rs 4 lakh.

Acting on a complaint lodgedby a resident from a poor family liv-ing at Juhu in north-west Mumbaion November 11 that his four-month-old male child had been

taken away by some unidentifiedabductors, Mumbai PoliceCommissioner Param Bir Singhhad formed a special team, led bySenior Police InspectorPandharinath Wahval, to crack thecase.

In the absence of any evi-dence or witnesses, the police teamused tech-intel ad and policeinformers to crack the kidnappingcase.

During the course of investi-gation, the police learnt that after

abducting the infant, the miscreantshad ‘sold’ the child for Rs 4 lakh tosome persons in Telangana.

While one of the accused wasarrested Andheri (west), anotherperson was taken into custodyfrom Bongir in Nalgonda district.The third one was arrested fromSaroornagar near Hyderabad.

“We have arrested three per-sons. We have rescued the child andhanded him over his parents,”Additional Commissioner of Police(West) Sandeep Karnik said.

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Lucknow: Congress general sec-retary Priyanka Gandhi Vadraon Tuesday questioned thewomen empowerment pro-gramme 'Mission Shakti'launched by the Yogi AdityanathGovernment.

In a tweet, Priyanka askedthe Chief Minister to explainhow successful 'Mission Shakti'has been in UP.

“From the reports of crimeagainst women UP, it is clear thatwomen are not safe in the state.

A number women have endedtheir lives because no one hasresponded to their problems,”she said.

Priyanka also listed aboutten incidents of crime againstwomen in UP.

Priyanka has been regular-ly lashing out at the growingincidents of crime againstwomen in the state and has beencriticizing the Yogi Adityanath government on theissue. IANS

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As part of the ongoing agitationagainst the Central farm laws,

the Maharashtra Congress hascollected signatures of a stagger-ing 60 lakh farmers to demandrepeal of the “anti-farmer”Central farm laws.

A petition carrying 60 lakhsignatures was handed over byRevenue minister and StateCongress President BalasahebThorat to the Congress’ in-chargefor Maharashtra HK Patil. “Noother party has ever carried outsuch a massive campaign and col-lected such a large number of sig-natures,” a state party statementsaid.

“Today, we handed over thesignatures of 60 lakh farmers in thestate to Shri HK Patil ji who will

hand over the petition to Congresspresident Sonia Gandhi,” Thoratsaid. These signatures –along witha statement signed by farmersacross the country -- will be hand-ed over by the Congress toPresident Ramnath Kovind inNew Delhi on November 19.

“These 60 lakh signaturesshow the huge opposition of thefarmers to this law. Maharashtra'sfight against agricultural laws hasbecome a role model for the coun-try,” Patil said

Speaking at a function organ-ised at Tilak Bhavan here, Thoratsaid: “During the recent weeks, wecarried out agitations against thenew agriculture laws. We organ-ised a virtual rally of Maharashtrafarmers – which was attended by50 lakh farmers”.

“It is not a small task to sub-

mit a petition with 60 lakh signa-tures. It is a historic campaign.These unjust laws should berepealed. Maharashtra has alwaysbeen a guiding state for the rest ofthe Country. We intend to protectthe interests of farmers by enact-ing a better agricultural law thanPunjab,” Thorat said. .

Thorat said that under theleadership of late Indira Gandhi,a green revolution took place inthe country and the agriculturalsector was transformed. “But thepresent BJP government has con-tinuously worked to weaken thefarmers and the agricultural sys-tems of the country,” he said.

Apart from Thorat and Patil,prominent among those present atthe function organised at TilakBhavan were Energy minister Dr.Nitin Raut, Medical Education

Minister Amit Deshmukh,Mumbai Guardian Minister AslamShaikh, Mumbai CongressPresident Eknath Gaikwad.Former Minister Naseem Khan,Former MP Hussain Dalwai andState party working PresidentMuzaffar Hussain.

It may recalled that onSeptember 30, the Maharashtragovernment had stayed the notifi-cation issued by it in August toimplement the three ordinancesissued by the Centre that had pre-ceded the farm Bills which havenow been enacted and set up aCabinet sub-committee to studyimplementation or otherwise of the“anti-farmer” central farm lawswhich have evoked vociferousprotests from farmers across thecountry.

The ruling Congress and NCP,

which are two constituents of theMVA government in Maharashtra,have come out in the open abouttheir opposition to the farm laws,while the Shiv Sena is also verymuch with the two of its rulingpartners in the state in its reserva-tions in implementing the threefarm laws in the state.

Talking to media persons ear-lier on Tuesday, Thorat said that thestate government would soon comeout a law that would nullify theadverse impact of the three newlypassed laws --the Farmers ProduceTrade and Commerce (Promotion& Facilitation) Act, 2020, TheFarmers (Empowerment &Protection) Assurance and FarmService Act, 2020, and The EssentialCommodities (Amendment) Act2020 – would have on the farmersin the state.

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Page 6: 80˘&’-$%:# ;; =?6 ;6 A; ; 6 ; ; ;6  ˛ @˝ < = 6 6 < = > =...2020/11/18  · China’s support to it. He congratulated Russia for the finalisation of the BRICS

Adisengagement deal onthe Line of ActualControl (LAC) withChina, whose ingredi-

ents have been leaked, is beingconsidered by the Government.External Affairs Minister SJaishankar mentioned it in mid-October as a confidential Chineseproposal and Army Chief GenNaravane recently likened it to awork in progress. It apparentlyinvolves vacating the strategicChushul heights on Kailash range — a critical bargainingleverage superbly created by theSpecial Frontier Force (SFF), whichmust not be frittered away in apiecemeal limited disengagementfor Chinese withdrawal from theFingers area.

Defence Minister RajnathSingh is speaking the obvious: “Weneed a strong military to deteraggression.” We have one but it cancheckmate Pakistan, not China.Prime Minister Narendra Modiknows that due to economic reces-sion, the modernisation of armedforces will be grounded. So he isboosting soldiers’ morale by cele-brating Diwali with them, ridingthe Arjun tank and acclaiming hisGovernment’s record in defencereforms. But defence allocationunder his watch has been the low-est as a percentage of GDP, whichhas been declining since hisGovernment came to power. Singhshould be informed that shastrapuja (worshipping weapons) alonewill not add to deterrence.

If a limited disengagementand not a full and complete disen-gagement and de-escalation isimplemented, it will be at anextraordinary strategic cost. Chinahas been insisting that Chushulheights be vacated as part of a par-tial disengagement limited to northand south bank of Pangong lake.Colossal confusion prevails aboutthe exact contours of the with-drawal as to whether it will beacross all intrusion points in EastLadakh or just the Pangong Lakeregion. The strategic heightsgained by SFF must not be vacat-ed as these are on the Indian sideof the LAC and were in our pos-session in 1962. An infantrybrigade fought on these heights butwithdrew prematurely, first toChushul and then in panic to Leh.India must not repeat theHimalayan blunder for paintingpolitical success after a poundingfrom the opposition for loss of ter-

ritory. China has already pushedIndia into a corner by imposingunequal terms during the initialdisengagement, which separat-ed troops from friction pointsculminating in the Galwanclash.

The Indian Army wasforced back from positions itheld earlier in Galwan, HotSprings and Gogra; buffer zoneswere created on the Indian sideof the LAC even as the People’sLiberation Army (PLA) failed tofaithfully disengage from all theflashpoints. The Chinese haverefused to discuss Depsang,where it has intruded 18 kmand blocked Indian patrols. Onits part, the PLA has managedto creep forward towards its1959 claim line and annexedterritory. In the proposed disen-gagement plan, China wantsvacation of Kailash range forwithdrawal from the Fingersarea.

What is incentivising Indiato de-induct from the com-manding heights overlookingthe PLA Moldo garrison andfrom where, on a clear day, onecan see the Aksai Chin road thatChina has illegally constructed?It could be the difficulty of sup-porting a Brigade on and alongthese heights in the harsh win-ter to follow where temperatureis already minus 30 degreescentigrade and will go down tominus 40 degrees centigrade.The snow will be different fromwhat the soldiers are used to inSiachen, which has been made

habitable and defensible overnearly four decades of occupa-tion. If sustenance of troops isthe compulsion, a smaller forcecan be kept and turned over asis being done on Saltoro Ridgein Siachen. Withdrawal fromKailash range should never bepart of any limited Chinese pro-posal on disengagement.

The Chushul heights are acountervailing advantage inforcing withdrawal fromDepsang and becoming thepivot of any tradeoff in anoverall disengagement and de-escalation agreement, which isreturn of status quo ante, April2020. PLA is occupying BlackTop post close to the Mukhparipost on Kailash range. Chinesesoldiers are conscripts, whonormally do not man posts atan altitude of 17,000 feet. TheChinese are facing a greaterdegree of difficulty in theiroccupation of heights in areasnear the Kailash range. Thethree-step withdrawal plan lim-ited to both banks of PangongLake area reportedly consists ofthe following:(a) Removal of heavy weaponsfrom both banks of the lake(b) Full vacation by PLA fromNorth Bank in Fingers area,back to the original Finger 8.The Indian Army similarly willpull back to its permanent loca-tion at Dhan Singh Post nearFinger 3. Area between Fingers4 and 8 will be converted tobuffer zone (another bufferzone on Indian side).

(c) Indian Army will vacateChushul heights and PLA, BlackTop. Withdrawal will includedismantling of structures onNorth Bank like barracks, for-tifications, jetties.(d) A verification and monitor-ing mechanism has beenincluded.

Apparently, a more authen-tic version of the selective dis-engagement was discussed onNovember 6 during the eighthround of military comman-ders’ talks, which weredescribed by India as “candid,in-depth and constructive inwhich views were exchanged onall friction points along LAC inthe western sector of India-China border areas.” It was alsothe first time that the twoGenerals held a one-on-one,which is very rare with Chineseinterlocutors. The ninth roundof the commanders’ talks isexpected later this month sothat withdrawals can begin bymid-December.

The Government relies onleaking information throughits civil and military officials totest ideas. So while some news-papers have reported that dis-engagement is confined to theLake area, North and SouthBank, others have said it coversall friction points, includingDepsang. In other words, it is afull and complete disengage-ment. With trust and faith gonewith the wind after Galwan, fearis that once you pull out fromthe Kailash range, its re-occu-pation will not be easy giventhat terrain and PLA’s duplici-ty. The strategic heights haveshifted the balance of militaryadvantage and bargainingpotential to India. In 2005,India came close to withdraw-ing from Siachen in an agree-ment with Pakistan. With com-plete breakdown of trust, ArmyChief Gen JJ Singh said: “IndianArmy will withdraw if ordered.But don’t ask it to re-occupySiachen.” Since then any with-drawal from Siachen isenveloped in silence.

Two former NorthernArmy Commanders, Lt GensHS Panag and DS Hooda, havesaid that vacating Chushulheights without full restorationof status quo ante will be squan-dering a strategic asset. Anyagreement with China, which isabout a piecemeal disengage-ment, must be unacceptable.Nothing should be left to lateror a separate phase of withdraw-al. Surrendering one’s trump-card ab initio is a monumentalfolly.

(The writer, a retired MajorGeneral, was Commander, IPKFSouth, Sri Lanka, and foundermember of the Defence PlanningStaff, currently the IntegratedDefence Staff)

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������������������Sir — Kerala-based journalistSiddique Kappan has beendenied interim bail by theSupreme Court (SC). Arrestedon October 5, he was on his wayto meet the Hathras rape-mur-der victim’s family when he wasconfronted by the Uttar Pradesh(UP) Police. After denying reliefto Kappan, the SC issued anotice to the UP Governmentand sought a response on theplea seeking his release.

The apex court was hearinga plea filed by the Kerala Unionof Working Journalists (KUWJ)challenging Kappan’s arrest.Arguing for the journalist, senioradvocate Kapil Sibal said that theFIR does not disclose any offencecommitted by him. And while aplea for interim bail had beenfiled, other journalists were notallowed to meet him in jail.

The brutal torture and gan-grape of the Dalit girl had gotnational attention. The victimsuccumbed to her injuries a fewdays after the incident and wascremated in the dead of night bythe police. Her family was notallowed any access to her bodyand the UP Government andpolice were widely criticised forviolation of human rights and

due legal processes. Her death triggered protests

across India. Kappan, along witha few other journalists, was on hisway to meet the family when hewas arrested. He must be givenbail immediately. For he was justdoing his duty as a journalist,gathering facts, and had noteven filed a biased report. Thevoice of the media should not bestifled like this in a democracy.

And it is a crying shame thatnone of the other journalists inthe national media is coming outin support of Kappan. Why arethey so afraid?

Bhagwan ThadaniMumbai

�������������Sir — The legendary SoumitraChatterjee was a man of many

parts. He was a screen actor, atheatre doyen, a playwright, apoet, a literary figure, a painter,an intellectual and a cultural icon.Eulogised as Satyajit Ray’s pro-tégé and alter ego, he enrichedthe cultural life of West Bengaland India. Ray brought out thebest in Chatterjee. But it may beworthwhile to say that Chatterjeebrought out the best in Ray, beingthe perfect vehicle for the latter’s

creative expression. His actingcareer spanned over six decadesand he starred in over 300 films.Apur Sansar, Abhijan Charulata,Aparichito, Ashani Sanket andDekha are among the worksthat have made movie buffsidolise him.

At one level, he breathed lifeinto characters struggling tocope with the perennial conflictbetween personal urges andsocial mores. At another level, heplayed the roles of characters inquest of opportunities to realisetheir potential in an independentIndia. He had that indefinableedge that made him a greatactor. His was a screen presencepeople could relate to, love andadmire. He had a great zest forlife and retirement was the lastthing on his mind. In WestBengal, Chatterjee and UttamKumar shared all the populari-ty between them. It is a sad partof history that he is not in theframes made by Ritwik Ghatak,even though he acted in filmsmade by acclaimed directorslike Mrinal Sen, Tapan Sinha andAjoy Kar. He will be missed.

David MiltonMaruthancode

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India’s premier investigation agency, theCentral Bureau of Investigation (CBI), is nowpassing through the worst crisis it has ever

faced in all the years of its existence. In the past,the agency has often faced allegations (especial-ly when handling politically-sensitive casesagainst Opposition or rival party leaders), ofworking at the behest of its political masters atthe helm of affairs at the Centre. To the extentthat it has often been called a “caged parrot” bythe judiciary and the media. However, now thewoes of India’s premier investigation agency seemto have multiplied with eight non-BJP ruled Statesbanning its entry into their territory. The CBI isthe Central Government’s anti-corruption agencyand its main activity is to check corruption orillegal activities in Central Government depart-ments, Central Government PSUs, banks and soon. However, the major problem with the CBIis that it is governed by an archaic law called theDelhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act,1946 (DSPE Act). This law has a curious provi-sion that allows State Governments to withdrawthe “general consent” to it. In such a case, the CBIneeds directions from the High Court or theSupreme Court on probes related to the Stateinvestigating agencies.

As a result of this provision, the CBI has beenblocked by Punjab, Kerala, Maharashtra,Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, West Bengaland Mizoram. This is the first time in the his-tory of the agency that so many States havebanned it from their turfs. As a result, the CBIhas had to approach courts in order to be ableto conduct raids and investigations in these States.This restriction even stops the CBI from conduct-ing investigations at Central Government officesin these States. Probes into complaints of pettybribery in Central Government organisations inthese States are subject to permissions of the localgovernments. Needless to say, this is a big hur-dle in the working of the CBI.

When in 2018, the Telugu Desam Party(TDP) left the BJP-headed NDA, the AndhraPradesh Government used this special provisionin the DSPE Act and blocked the CBI from enter-ing the State, sensing political vendetta. It wasonly in mid-2019 that the position changed afterthe BJP-friendly YSR Congress regime came topower. Similarly, during the probe in the Saradhascam, when the CBI summoned the KolkataPolice Commissioner, the West BengalGovernment ruled by the Trinamool Congress(TMC) also did the same and refused it permis-sion. Anyway, in the end, the State could notblock the probe in the Saradha Scam, as the inves-tigation was handed over to the CBI by theSupreme Court. The agency also got supportfrom the Supreme Court in arresting the KolkataPolice Commissioner, which had earlier beenprevented by the State administration.

Now, it faces the same situation with the eightStates and will have to knock on the door of thecourts just to be able to do its duty. So what isthe remedy of this peculiar situation? Theanswer is simple: The archaic DSPE Act will haveto be amended by the Central Government. Theamendment, if it ever passes muster inParliament, will empower the CBI to register orprobe any case related to the Central Governmentin any part of the country without requiring the

general consent of the States. The CBIshould have been empowered long ago.Particularly after 2013, when theGauhati High Court first questioned thevalidity of the agency. Even though thenext day the CBI was saved by a stayorder issued by the apex court, this inci-dent should have been an eye-openerfor the Central Government to eitheramend the DSPE Act or bring about anew Act empowering the CBI.

But for the past seven years noth-ing happened to ameliorate the situa-tion and the CBI’s administrativeMinistry, the Department of Personneland Training (DoPT), which is underthe Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) hasnot yet taken a call to settle this vexedissue.

Ever since the dilution of thePrevention of Corruption Act in 2018,the CBI has been facing a big handicap.Section 13(1)(d), which gave the agencyits powers, was scrapped. The 2018amendment of the Act put too manyrestrictions on the CBI even for a basicprobe. As per the new rules, the CBI hasto get a sanction for starting an inves-tigation against officers under suspi-cion. This means getting a sanctionfrom the senior officers of the sameorganisation where corrupt practiceshave been spotted. Will a senior offi-cer, particularly one who is in cahootswith corrupt officers, give sanction toprobe his/her junior? Plus, even if thesenior officer is honest, the moment theCBI applies for sanction to probe graftin the organisation, others will come toknow of it, corrupt officers will cover

their tracks and the trail will go cold. When these amendments were

brought about, the Government said inParliament that they were needed toprotect officers. These changes weremooted by the UPA Government in2012, when it was facing the heat of ahuge anti-corruption wave in the coun-try. It is intriguing why the BJPGovernment, despite being in power formany years, has carried forward theCongress-led UPA’s policy which dilut-ed the powers of the CBI.

The amendments have opened aPandora’s Box as many accused peopleand companies, facing trial or appealin corruption cases, have approachedHigh Courts around the country argu-ing that they should also get the ben-efit of the now diluted Prevention ofCorruption Act of 2018.

The CBI and the EnforcementDirectorate (ED) are appealing in theDelhi High Court against the 2G casetrial court’s verdict, which surprising-ly acquitted all accused persons andcompanies. From October 5 onwards,a daily hearing is being held on theappeal and for the last 30 days, all theaccused are arguing that they have fileda case in another Bench seeking thefavours of the provisions of the newPrevention of Corruption Act, thoughthey were charged under the old Act.This has affected ongoing trials too.

Though the law is very clear on thisaspect that the charges are based on thelaws that were prevalent at the time ofthe commission of the crime, thisamendment has delayed many cases

across India. The CBI was onceslammed by the Supreme Court fordragging its feet in the Jain Hawala case.In the 1997 judgment in the case filedby journalist Vineet Narain, the courtlaid down guidelines to ensure indepen-dence and autonomy of the CBI andordered that the agency be placedunder the supervision of the CentralVigilance Commission (CVC) and befreed from executive control or inter-ference. But we have seen the spirit ofthis landmark judgment sabotaged inthe infamous tussle between the CBIDirector Alok Verma and SpecialDirector Rakesh Asthana in 2018.

Even though the Supreme Courthas given many judgments on sanctionfor prosecution, all Governments havebeen eager to protect senior officersfrom the Joint Secretary level andabove in corruption cases. And the dilu-tion of the Act in 2018 completely sab-otaged the spirit of many landmarkjudgments on Sanction for Prosecutionof high level officers.

Laws are an evolving process andit is time for the Central Governmentto bring appropriate amendments in thearchaic DSPE Act of 1946. It is time tonullify the general consent-givingpower of the States to the CBI for prob-ing Central Government organisationson their turfs. The Central Governmentmust also analyse what it achieved bydiluting the Prevention of CorruptionAct in 2018 and its impact on the pros-ecution of corrupt people.

(The writer is Special Correspondentof The Pioneer)

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In spite of global efforts to containand mitigate the Coronavirusoutbreak, the world is still battling

the pandemic, with a number ofcountries facing recurrent peaks.Our own national Capital has beengrappling with an upsurge ofCOVID-19 cases with the start of thewinter season, which usually sees thecity enveloped in smog.

There has been a sharp rise inthe number of COVID-19 patients(7,000 to 8,000 cases daily) in the lastthree weeks due to the dangerouscocktail of an early winter andCoronavirus fatigue. The last sawhuge crowds mill around markets,restaurants and private parties. Thisis the third surge of cases followingthe first peak in late June and the sec-ond peak in September. This is

actually in line with my predictionof multiple waves of COVID-19happening in India, in these columnsin June. This also reflects our under-standing of different peaks occurringin various parts of India at differenttimes.

This has been the trend acrossthe globe with the pandemic behav-ing in a similar way, be it in Americawhere the cases rose sharply in oneState and then moved across gradi-ents to affect another State. Manycountries in Europe, too, have expe-rienced a similar phenomenon ofmultiple waves of the pandemic atdifferent times.

It is not just the number of newcases that is worrying. The more dev-astating factor is the number of dailydeaths, almost one hundred in thelast week itself in Delhi. So far, thenational as well as Delhi’s COVID-19 case fatality rate has been report-ed to be one of the lowest in theworld with an improving recoveryrate. However, since the cases aresurging, the number of daily deathsis bound to rise, too, owing to thefragile healthcare system, which isbuckling under the pressure of therising infections.

It was expected that cases will goup with the double whammy ofcrowds during the festival seasonalong with the increased infectivi-ty of the Coronavirus due to thesurge of influenza-like illnesses in thewinter months. However, the air pol-lution has made matters worse.

Pollution not only hampers thecapacity of our lungs to clear theCoronavirus infection but particulatematter or pollutants can also facili-tate its transmission by acting as avehicle for large droplets which tendto stay suspended longer and lowerdown in the environment. These caninfect more people.

There is enough evidence nowthat there is a direct relation betweenhigh PM2.5 levels and increasedinfectivity of the Coronavirus asshown in studies from China, the UKand Italy during this pandemic. It isalso pertinent to know that the newpositive cases being reported as ofnow are the reflection of exposureand infections which occurred in theprevious weeks. There is a lagbetween exposure and clinical symp-toms due to the incubation period ofthe viral infection, which is anythingbetween two to 14 days for the

SARSCoV2 virus. Therefore, thenew positive cases represent theinfections occurring five to sevendays preceding the reports.

Similarly there is a lag betweenexposure, clinical symptoms andthe need for ICU admissions andassisted ventilation and fatalities insevere cases of COVID-19. Thisperiod is usually 10 to 14 days.

It is important to understand thislag period as the number of deathsbeing reported today is reflective ofinfections occurring at least twoweeks ago, since deaths lag behindinfections by weeks.

This is an important implicationas the number of new positive casesis bound to increase tremendously inthe coming two weeks post-Diwalidue to compounded effects of overcrowding, air pollution, bursting ofcrackers and the cold weather. It isquite predictable that the coming twoweeks will be crucial, both in termsof new positive cases, the number offatalities and the unfolding of a seri-ous situation. Therefore, an urgentaction plan is mandatory and inte-grative and coordinated efforts fromall stakeholders are required torespond to this looming scenario.

First, containment and mitiga-tion measures, which slow down thespread, are the only options in theface of the unrelenting infectionphase, while augmentation of infra-structure in terms of ICU beds andtrained manpower in critical care, arecrucial to prevent deaths. Provisionof ICU beds is not the solution unlesswe have enough trained manpowerto manage the severe COVID-19patients and run these critical carefacilities.

Moreover the fundamentals ofcontainment and mitigation remainthe same, including sanitising, mask-ing and distancing. We all know thedrill but it is crucial to enforcebehavioural changes like in the caseof driving laws.

Second, since the positivity ratein Delhi (15 per cent) is too high,which is more than three timesthan the national average, there is noother option but to scale up testingto contain the spread of the infection.This needs to be brought below fiveper cent consistently to ensure ade-quate testing is being done.

There has been more of therapid antigen testing in Delhi andfewer RT-PCR tests, a formula which

needs to be reversed. Ideally all thetests should be RT-PCR tests, whichare more sensitive and would pick upmore cases. Moreover anyone whoundergoes the test should remain inquarantine till they get the results to limit transmission of the infection.

There needs to be a two-stagehouse-to-house cluster sero surveil-lance, as is being done in countrieswith robust healthcare systems. Thisensures identification of people withsymptoms of COVID-19. The RT-PCR testing for them confirms activeinfection and measures the quantumof past infection through antibodytesting.

This strategy would not onlymitigate cases but also help policy-makers plan a public health responsein the coming months. We need toact aggressively and quickly to savelives and avoid preventable deaths.The time to act proactively is now tosave each and every life in the com-ing weeks. The fact remains that thevirus is here to stay and the vaccineis still miles away.

(The writer is Head of NeurologyDepartment, Lady Hardinge MedicalCollege and SSK Hospital)

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Washington: President-electJoe Biden has warned that manymore Americans “may die” ifincumbent President DonaldTrump does not cooperate withthe transition process and ham-per the incoming administra-tion’s ability to tackle the dead-ly coronavirus pandemic.

According to media pro-jections, Democrat Biden haswon the November 3 presiden-tial election. Biden has 306votes in the electoral college,surpassing the 270 thresholdneeded to win.

However, Trump, aRepublican, has not concededand instead alleged electionfraud without presenting anysignificant evidence. The Trumpcampaign has also mountedlegal fights in a number of bat-tleground states where he lost.

“More people may die if wedon’t coordinate,” Biden said inhis home state of Delaware onMonday, responding to a ques-tion on President Trump refus-ing to concede the election and

the outgoing administrationnot co-operating in the transi-tion process.

The US Governmentagency that launches transitionprocess — the General ServicesAdministration (GSA), headedby a Trump appointee — has yetto recognise Biden and his run-ning mate Kamala Harris aswinners.

The Trump-appointedadministrator of the GeneralServices Administration has sofar refused to take the legallynecessary step to begin thetransition process, which wouldgive Biden’s team a budget,intelligence briefings and accessto federal agencies.

“A vaccine is important. It’sof little use until you’re vacci-nated. So, how do we get thevaccine, how do we get over 300million Americans vaccinated?What’s the game plan? It’s ahuge, huge, huge undertaking toget it done, prioritise thosegreatest in need and workingour way through, and also

cooperate with the WorldHealth Organisation and therest of the world in dealing withthis,” he said.

“So they (Trump adminis-tration) say they have this ‘WarpSpeed’ programme that notonly dealt with getting vac-cines, but also how to distributethis.

The number of COVID-19infections in the US has reachednew heights in recent days,surpassing 160,000 cases in oneday for the first time since theoutbreak began. More than247,000 people have died in theUS do the disease.

Dr Anthony Fauci, the topUS infectious diseases expert,has warned that the countryfaces “a very challenging andominous situation” as itapproaches winter.

Calling nationwide vaccinedistribution a “huge undertak-ing”, Biden said that if his teamhad to wait until 20 January - hispresidential inauguration - untilthey could begin work on the

distribution programme, theywould be behind by “over amonth, month and a half ”.

Biden said coordination isimportant “now, or as rapidly aswe can get that done,” and saidthat “it would make it a lot eas-ier if the President were to par-ticipate.”

“I am hopeful that thePresident will be mildly moreenlightened before we get toJanuary 20,” he said.

“The idea the President isstill playing golf and not doinganything about it is beyond mycomprehension,” Biden said.

Biden also criticised Trumpfor failing to work withCongress to negotiate a measureto aid businesses and unem-ployed Americans as the pan-demic rages heading into thewinter.

Biden was also asked abouthis thoughts on Trump’s tweetover the weekend where hefirst seemed to acknowledgethat Biden had won the election.However, soon after Trump

said he would not concede,and that he had won.

He called Trump’s refusal toacknowledge he lost the elec-tion, despite calls to do so fromboth sides, “totally irresponsi-ble”.

“I interpret that asTrumping-ism, no change in hismodus operandi. And I thinkthe pressure will continue tobuild,” he said.

The President-elect saidthat he is having a lot of meet-ings with world leaders on thetelephone and he can get intonegotiating with them aboutthings that are going to bedone. They are calling withsome degree of enthusiasmeveryone from a holy father toprime ministers across theglobe.

“So we are moving alongknowing what the outcomewill be and … but I find thismore embarrassing for thecountry than debilitating formy ability to get started,” Bidensaid. PTI

Tokyo: Australian PrimeMinister Scott Morrison is inJapan to hold talks with hisJapanese counterpart, YoshihideSuga, to bolster defence tiesbetween the two US allies tocounter China’s growingassertiveness in the Asia-Pacificregion amid a transition inAmerican leadership.

The two countries are closeto concluding a ReciprocalAccess Agreement, a legalframework to allow theirtroops to visit each other’scountries and conduct trainingand joint operations.

Morrison and Suga are tohold talks later Tuesday andmay conclude the deal. Theyare also expected to discuss thecoronavirus and the economy,Japanese officials said.

If signed, it will be Japan’sfirst such agreement since the1960 status of forces agreementwith the United States, whichset bases for about 50,000American troops to operate inand around Japan under theJapan-US security pact.

Japan is committed tomaintain and deepen its 60-year-old alliance with the US as

the cornerstone of Japanesediplomacy and security, buthas in recent years sought tocomplement its regionaldefence by stepping up coop-eration with others, especial-ly Australia, amid China’sgrowing maritime activitythat has spread from the Eastand South China seas andbeyond. AP

Washington: Barack Obamahas said that he had ruled outinvolving Pakistan in the raidon Osama bin Laden’s hideoutbecause it was an “open secret”that certain elements insidePakistan’s military, and espe-cially its intelligence services,maintained links to the Talibanand perhaps even al-Qaeda,sometimes using them asstrategic assets againstAfghanistan and India.

Giving a blow-by-blowaccount of the Abbottabad raidby American commandos thatkilled the world’s most wantedterrorist on May 2, 2011 in hislatest book “A Promised Land”,the former US president saidthat the top secret operationwas opposed by the thendefence secretary Robert Gatesand his former vice presidentJoe Biden, who is now thePresident-elect.

In the book that hit thestands globally on Tuesday,America’s first Black presidentdescribed the various optionsof killing bin Laden once itbecame increasingly clear thatthe elusive al Qaeda chief wasliving in a safe hideout on theoutskirts of a Pakistani militarycantonment in Abbottabad.

“Based on what I’d heard,

I decided we had enough infor-mation to begin developingoptions for an attack on thecompound. While the CIAteam continued to work onidentifying the Pacer, I askedTom Donilon and JohnBrennan to explore what araid would look like,” Obamawrites in his memoir.

The need for secrecy addedto the challenge; if even theslightest hint of our lead on binLaden leaked, we knew ouropportunity would be lost. Asa result, only a handful of peo-ple across the entire federalgovernment were read into theplanning phase of the opera-tion, he said.

“We had one other con-straint: Whatever option wechose could not involve thePakistanis,” he wrote.

“Although Pakistan’s gov-ernment cooperated with us ona host of counterterrorismoperations and provided a vitalsupply path for our forces inAfghanistan, it was an opensecret that certain elementsinside the country’s military,and especially its intelligence

services, maintained links tothe Taliban and perhaps evenal-Qaeda, sometimes usingthem as strategic assets toensure that the Afghan gov-ernment remained weak andunable to align itself withPakistan’s number one rival,India,” Obama revealed.

Despite all the risksinvolved, Obama and hisnational security team optedfor the second option, but notbefore multiple rounds of dis-cussions and intensive plan-ning.

“Joe (Biden) also weighedin against the raid, arguing thatgiven the enormous conse-quences of failure, I shoulddefer any decision until theintelligence community wasmore certain that bin Ladenwas in the compound.

“As had been true in everymajor decision I’d made aspresident, I appreciated Joe’swillingness to buck the pre-vailing mood and ask toughquestions, often in the interestof giving me the space I need-ed for my own internal delib-erations,” Obama wrote. PTI

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Thailand’s political battle-ground shifted on Tuesday

from the streets to the country’sParliament, where lawmakersare considering proposals toamend the constitution, one ofthe core demands of thenation’s student-led pro-democracy movement.

Seven draft constitutionalamendments are scheduled tobe voted on in a two-day jointsession of the House andSenate. Constitutional changesrequire a joint vote of those twobodies. Any that are passed willhave to go through secondand third readings at least amonth after this week’s vote.

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Brussels: NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenbergwarned on Tuesday that themilitary organisation couldpay a heavy price for leavingAfghanistan too early, after aUS Official said PresidentDonald Trump is expected towithdraw a significant numberof American troops fromAfghanistan in the comingweeks.

“We now face a difficultdecision. We have been inAfghanistan for almost 20years, and no NATO ally wantsto stay any longer than neces-sary. But at the same time, theprice for leaving too soon or inan uncoordinated way couldbe very high,” Stoltenberg said

in a statement.He said the conflict-rav-

aged country “risks becomingonce again a platform forinternational terrorists to planand organize attacks on ourhomelands. And ISIS (IslamicState) could rebuild inAfghanistan the terrorcaliphate it lost in Syria andIraq.”

The US decision comesjust days after Trump installeda new slate of loyalists in topPentagon positions who sharehis frustration with the con-tinued troop presence in thewar zones. The expected planswould leave 2,500 troops inAfghanistan after mid-January. AP

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Kabul: The UN’s top official forrefugees said on Tuesday thatif the Afghan peace process col-lapses and violence continues,there will be a humanitariandisaster as thousands of dis-placed people struggle to sur-vive the pandemic amid theharsh winter.

UN High Commissionerfor Refugees Filippo Granditold The Associated Press at theend of a four-day visit toAfghanistan that if the fightingcontinues, there will be moreinternal displacement.

“If this peace effort col-lapses then we could see a bighumanitarian disaster in thecountry that is for sure, I hopeit won’t,” he said.

Violence and chaos haveincreased in Afghanistan inrecent months even as govern-ment negotiators and theTaliban are meeting in Qatar tofind an end to decades ofrelentless war. The two sideshave made little progress.

“I think we need to beready for everything here, weneed to be ready for morehumanitarian issues,” Grandisaid. AP

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Sanaa: Fierce fighting in south-ern Yemen between Emirati-backed separatists and the coun-try’s internationally recognisedgovernment killed nearly 50fighters this week on both sides,security officials said onTuesday.

The flare-up of clashes inthe province of Abyan was thelatest blow to a cease-fire agree-ment brokered by Saudi Arabialate in 2019 with the goal of clos-ing the rift between the twosides. The sides are allies in a US-backed, Saudi-led coalition fight-ing against the Iranian-backedHouthi rebels since 2015.

At least 47 fighters were

killed and around 90 otherswere wounded in the clashescentred in Zinjibar, the Abyanprovincial capital, and the offi-cials described it as the fiercestin the recent months.

The officials spoke on con-dition of anonymity becausethey weren’t authorised to briefthe media. The fightingbetween Yemen’s internation-ally recognised governmentand the separatists’ SouthernTransitional Council startedin August 2019. Last fall, thetwo sides signed a power-shar-ing deal in the Saudi capital ofRiyadh, but the agreement wasnever implemented. AP

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Washington: Hate crimes inthe U.S. Rose to the highestlevel in more than a decade asfederal officials also recordedthe highest number of hate-motivated killings since theFBI began collecting that datain the early 1990s, according toan FBI report released Monday.

There were 51 hate crimemurders in 2019, whichincludes 22 people who werekilled in a shooting that tar-geted Mexicans at a Walmart inthe border city of El Paso,Texas, the report said.

The suspect in that August

2019 shooting, which left twodozen other people injured,was charged with both stateand federal crimes in whatauthorities said was an attemptto scare Hispanics into leavingthe United States.

There were 7,314 hatecrimes last year, up from 7,120the year before — andapproaching the 7,783 of 2008.

The FBI’s annual reportdefines hate crimes as thosemotivated by bias based on aperson’s race, religion or sexu-al orientation, among other cat-egories. AP

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Cape Canaveral: SpaceX’snewly launched capsule withfour astronauts arrived Mondayat the International SpaceStation, their new home untilspring.

The Dragon capsule pulledup and docked late Mondaynight, following a 27-hour, com-pletely automated flight fromNASA’s Kennedy Space Center.The linkup occurred 262 miles(422 kilometers) above Idaho.

“Oh, what a good voice tohear,” space station astronautKate Rubins called out when theDragon’s commander, Mike

Hopkins, first made radio con-tact. “We can’t wait to have youon board,” she added after thetwo spacecraft were latchedtogether.

This is the second astronautmission for SpaceX. But it’s thefirst time Elon Musk’s compa-ny delivered a crew for a fullhalf-year station stay. The two-pilot test flight earlier this yearlasted two months.

The three Americans andone Japanese astronaut willremain at the orbiting lab untiltheir replacements arrive onanother Dragon in April. AP

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Nairobi: Ethiopia’s prime min-ister says “the final and cru-cial” military operation willlaunch in the coming daysagainst the Government of thecountry’s rebellious northernTigray region.

Prime Minister AbiyAhmed in a social media poston Tuesday said a three-daydeadline given to the Tigrayregion’s leaders and specialforces “has expired today.”

Abiy, last year’s NobelPeace Prize winner, continuesto reject international pleas fordialogue and de-escalation inthe two-week conflict in theHorn of Africa that has spilledinto neighboring Eritrea andsent more than 25,000 fright-ened Ethiopian refugees pour-ing into Sudan AlarmedAfrican neighbors includingUganda and Kenya are callingfor a peaceful resolution, butAbiy’s Government regardsthe Tigray regionalGovernment as illegal after itdefiantly held a local electionin September. AP

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Sugar production rosesharply in the ongoing sugar

season 2020-21 which startedfrom October 1, as more than270 sugar mills were in opera-tion till November 15.Thesugar mills operating in thecurrent season produced 14.1lakh tonne sugar till November15, 2020 as against 4.84 lakhtonne during the same periodlast year, as per the official datareleased by the India SugarMills Association (ISMA), anapex industry body. Therefore,sugar production in the one-and-a-half months of the cur-rent sugar season 2020-21increased by more than 191%from last year.

As compared to 127 sugarmills crushing sugarcane lastyear on November 15, 2019,274 sugar mills were crushing

sugarcane on November 15this year, said ISMA in a state-ment.In UP, 76 sugar millshave started their crushingoperations for the current sea-son and produced 3.85 lakh tonsugar by November 15, 2020.During the same period lastyear, 78 mills were in operationand had produced 2.93 lakhtons till November 15.Unlike in2019, owing to good rainfalland sufficient water availabil-ity in reservoirs in Maharashtraand Karnataka, as also bettercane availability due to highercane acreage and improvedyield per hectare, crushing sea-son commenced well in timeduring the last week of October2020.In Maha, 117 sugar millsstarted crushing operations onNov 15, 2020 while last year’sseason commenced late in thefourth week of November 2019due to drought.

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The State Bank of India is setto offer a �5,000-crore loan

to Adani Enterprises Ltd’sAustralian mining company,now renamed Bravus Mining &Resources, as per mediareports.

As per media reports, theloan agreement between SBIand Adani Group is nearlydone and a ratification isexpected from the bank’s exec-utive committee soon.

This could mark the resur-gence of on earlier controver-sy. SBI and Adani had enteredinto a memorandum of under-standing in 2014 for a $1-bil-lion loan. The loan was not exe-cuted after it became a politi-cal controversy.

Opposition parties hadquestioned the loan agreementat a time when the mining pro-ject was mired in controversy.

The Opposition had point-ed out that five leading globalbanks - Citibank, DeutscheBank, Royal Bank of Scotland,HSBC and Barclays - haddeclined to fund the project cit-ing a decline in coal mining inAustralia.

SBI had then walked backon the loan agreement statingthat it was only an MoU and nomoney had been lent to thecompany.

Media reports quotedsources as saying that six yearslater, there is a better under-standing on the future of theproject.

“Much water has flowed inthe last 5-6 years. The concernsraised in 2014 are no longerthere.

“Most of the local regula-tory approvals are in place andthe company is expected tostart producing coal from 2021onward,” said a source close tothe development, the reportssaid.

Financial Times had earli-er reported that the AdaniGroup’s total outstanding debtcame to more than $30 billionas of November 11, accordingto data from Dealogic, includ-ing $7.8 billion worth of bondsand $ 22.3 billion in loans. Highdebt is nothing new amongIndian conglomerates but theAdani Group’s rapid expansionhas raised concern.

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The September quarter’s(2QFY21) corporate earn-

ings season was a blockbusterwith big beats and upgradesacross sectors.

According to a report byMotilal Oswal InstitutionalEquities, wiith an upgrade(more than 5 per cent) todowngrade ratio (less than 5per cent) of 4:1, this has by farbeen the best earnings seasonin many years.

“As many as 63 per cent ofthe companies in our coverageuniverse beat 2QFY21 esti-mates, while 18 per centreported below estimateresults.

This has resulted in the firstmaterial earnings upgrade forNifty EPS estimates in manyyears,” the report said.

New Delhi:The fifth-genera-tion (5G) cellular technologycould drive up to $31 trillion incumulative consumer revenuein the ICT industry globally by2030, said a report by Swedishtelecom gear maker Ericssonon Tuesday.The report esti-mates that communicationsservice providers (CSPs) couldearn $3.7 trillion of that total -a figure that could increase fur-ther as new adjacent digital ser-vices opportunities arise.

CSPs could generate up to$131 billion by 2030 from dig-ital service revenues alone, by

proactively bundling and mar-keting 5G use cases, accordingto the estimate.About 40 percent of these revenue projec-tions are attributed to con-sumer spending on enhancedvideo, augmented reality (AR),virtual reality (VR) and cloudgaming over 5G networks.

The report projects that ARis likely to drive more than halfof all consumer spending onimmersive media by 2030 --starting with gaming andextending to other areas likeshopping, education andremote collaboration.

New Delhi: The news of a suc-cessful vaccine against coron-avirus has brought fresh ener-gy in the oil markets withglobal crude oil prices crossing$ 44 a barrel mark. While an increase in crude

prices has been welcomedacross major global oil pro-

ducers, at home oil marketingcompanies are looking at thisfirming up with concern. Theconcern now is that at this levelof crude and higher productprices, it would be difficult tokeep the retail price of petroland diesel steady for any timelonger. IANS

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The States have paid thehighest price for their debt

at the latest round of marketborrowing on Tuesday where-in the cost of debt has gone upby 38 basis points (bps) to 6.65per cent, according to a report.

At Tuesday’s auction ofstate development loans(SDLs), nine States raised�8,716 crore, taking overallborrowings to �4.72 lakh croreor 93 per cent of the target, by28 States and two UnionTerritories since April 7, CareRatings said in a note after theauctions.

The entire notified amountwas raised at the auction.

At �4.72 lakh crore of mar-ket borrowings, these Stateshave raised 49 per cent morethan the borrowings in thesame period last fiscal whenthey had raised �3.16 lakhcrore. According to the bor-

rowing calendar, the stateshave borrowed �5.07 lakh crorein the first three quarters.

With this, the states havealready borrowed 93 per centof the targeted debt, with theaverage weekly borrowingbeing �14,328 crore, rangingbetween �5,200 crore and �32,560 crore.

According to MadanSabnavis, the chief economistat the rating agency, cost of bor-rowing rose this week with theweighted average cost comingin at 6.65 per cent, which is 38bps higher than last week andis the highest in the last six auc-tions.

The increase in yields attoday’s auction can in part beattributed to the expectations ofadditional supply of govern-ment securities following theCentre’s latest stimulus packagewhich can lead to higher mar-ket borrowings, Sabnavis said.

Although weighted aver-

age cost has declined after theRBI introduced OMOs in SDLslast month, the extent ofdecline has narrowed from 30bps on October 13 to 15 bpstoday, he said.

But this is still very lowconsidering that Kerala had inApril paid 9.96 per cent for itsfirst borrowing.

The RBI has so far pur-chased SDLs of �20,000 crorevia OMOs through two auc-tions held in late October andearly November.The spreadbetween the 10-year state debtand G-Secs this week stood at67 bps. Nearly 50 per cent ofthe SDLs on Tuesday and 40per cent of issuances so farcarry a tenure of 10 years.

States have been resortingto higher market borrowings tomeet the shortfalls in theirfinances consequent to thesharp fall in revenues due to thepandemic and the resultantlockdowns.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Tuesday pitched

India as the most attractiveinvestment destination forthose looking to invest inurbanisation, mobility, inno-vation and sustainable solu-tions.

Speaking at the BloombergNew Economy Forum, he saidIndia and some African nationswill witness the biggest wave ofurbanisation over the next twodecades.

The post pandemic worldhas to be rebuilt around peo-ple and cities will have to bemade more liveable, he saidadding post-Covid restart willnot be possible without a resetof mindset, process and prac-tices.

Modi said his govern-ment will deliver 10 millionaffordable houses before the2022 deadline.

As much as Rs 2 lakh croreis being invested in 100 smartcities, he said adding that of

this, projects worth Rs 1.4 lakhcrore have been completed orare nearing completion.

“If you are looking toinvest in urbanisation, Indiahas exciting opportunities foryou. If you are looking toinvest in mobility, India hasexciting opportunities for you.If you are looking at investingin sustainable solutions, Indiahas exciting opportunities foryou,” he said.

These opportunities, hesaid, come along with a vibrantdemocracy, business-friendlyenvironment and a big market.

“India is well on its way forurban transformation,” he said.

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Equity indices rallied to all-time highs on Tuesday, dri-

ven by banking, finance andmetal stocks, as encouragingdata from another Covid-19vaccine trial bolstered investorsentiment.

A recovering rupee added tothe buying momentum,

traders said. After touching itslifetime peak of 44,161.16 dur-ing the session, the 30-shareBSE Sensex settled 314.73points or 0.72 per cent higherat its new closing record of43,952.71.

Similarly, the broader NSENifty touched a fresh intra-dayhigh of 12,934.05. It finally fin-ished 93.95 points or 0.74 percent up at its lifetime peak of12,874.20.

Tata Steel was the top gain-er among the Sensex con-stituents, surging 6.24 per cent,followed by SBI, HDFC Bank,Bajaj Finance, Axis Bank, L&T,Maruti, IndusInd Bank andHDFC.

On the other hand, NTPC,HCL Tech, ONGC, Infosys,ITC, PowerGrid andHindustan Unilever wereamong the major laggards,dropping up to 2.69 per cent.

Wall Street vaulted to life-time highs in the overnight ses-sion after US-based biotech-nology giant Moderna said itsCOVID-19 vaccine candidatewas found to be 94.5 per centeffective in Phase 3 trials.

The announcement camejust a week after Pfizer andBioNtech said their COVID-19vaccine was more than 90 percent effective in preventingCOVID-19, based on prelimi-nary data. “The market hit theall-time high, factoring yester-day’s trading holiday, led bybanking stocks and investorsrejoicing about the news ofanother vaccine to end thepandemic. This week, globalmarkets started well, howevertoday, it experienced mixedsentiments owing to increase invirus cases and tighter restric-tions in the western world.

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Covid-19-triggered ‘workfromHome’ norm has

increased residential demandin suburbs in Bangaluru,Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi-NCR and Pune, according toreal estate platformNoBroker.Com.Areas that werenot previously considered byworking professionals are nowexperiencing greater demand,it said, citing latest data.Potential homebuyers were ear-lier researching best localitiesto buy a house near their work-place.But data from the plat-form shows how it has allchanged since the onset of thepandemic.Earlier, proximity toworkplace took the topmostspot among homebuyers’ con-siderations.”But ever since theCovid-19 outbreak triggeredthe new normal and workfrom home became the norm,the demand in areas otherthan the ones located near IThubs has been increasing,” itsaid in a statement.InBangaluru, localities such asWhitefield, Marathahalli, HSRLayout, and Electronic citywhich were sought-after inpre-Covid times.

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New Delhi:Gold prices rosemarginally by �3 to�50,114per 10 gram in the nationalcapital on Tuesday amidchoppy trade and rupeedepreciation, according toHDFC Securities. The pre-cious metal had closed at�50,111 per 10 gram in theprevious trade.Silver pricesjumped �451 to �62,023 perkilogram from �61,572 perkilogram in the lasttrade.”Spot gold prices for 24carat in Delhi were tradingmarginally up by �3 on chop-py global gold prices andrupee depreciation. The spotrupee was trading around 12paise weaker against the dol-lar for the day,” HDFCSecurities Senior Analyst(Commodities) Tapan Patelsaid.

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The rupee on Tuesdayappreciated by 16 paise to

settle at 74.46 against the USdollar as positive news oncoronavirus vaccine boostedappeal for riskier assets.

Besides, a weak dollaroverseas also supported thelocal unit.

At the interbank forexmarket, the domestic unitopened strong at 74.43against the US dollar andlater touched a high of 74.38in day trade.

The local unit finallyclosed at 74.46 against the USdollar, registering a gain of 16paise over its previous close.On Friday, the rupee had set-tled at 74.62 against the USdollar. Forex market wasclosed on Monday onaccount of Balipratipada.

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Page 10: 80˘&’-$%:# ;; =?6 ;6 A; ; 6 ; ; ;6  ˛ @˝ < = 6 6 < = > =...2020/11/18  · China’s support to it. He congratulated Russia for the finalisation of the BRICS

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After restricted outing for morethan nine months, along with

the adults, kids are also movingtowards a new normal, adapting tothe new routine, new ways of study-ing, socialising, playing, and keep-ing themselves occupied. In anattempt to make the transforma-tions fun and easy, the Children’sBooks division of NavneetEducation Limited has launchedtwo new books, titled, Till We HugAgain and Mylo Discovers The RealSuperheroes, under the Mylo TheMongoose series.

Commenting on the launch ofthe new books, Shailendra Gala,Managing Director, NavneetEducation, said: “We at Navneethave undertaken various projects toease the transition to the new nor-mal. Addition of new books to theMylo series is one of the severalefforts to help children accept thesudden changes in their lives. It isknown that picture books helpchildren learn faster and we used thesame technique to teach them thenorms of new normal.”

Commenting on the launch ofthe new books, Prriety Gosalia,Publication Head, Children’s books,

Navneet Education, said, “Navneetis known for providing top-notch,engaging, content for children. Wehave received an exceptionally goodresponse for our other books in theseries. With the current scenario,where the lockdown is affectingeveryone, we believe it is also ourresponsibility to help children dealwith the difficult situation better,with curated content. We hope toreceive a similar, heart-warmingresponse, on our new books.”

Mylo Series are picture story-books about social-emotional issuesthat can help kids think deeplyabout feelings and social issues.

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Four scientists of AmritaVishwa Vidyapeetham

have been featured in theranking of top 2 per cent sci-entists in the world in theirrespective fields publishedby Stanford University of theUS. Dr Maneesha Ramesh,Dr Shanti Nair, Dr RJayakumar and Dr. MadhavDutta figure in the ranking inrecognition of the quality oftheir research.

Dr Maneesha Ramesh,from Amrita Center forWireless Networks &

Applications, Amrita Schoolof Engineering (AmritapuriCampus), has been recog-nised as among the world'stop scientists in the field ofnetworking, telecommunica-tions, artificial intelligenceand image processing.

Dr Shanti Nair and Dr RJayakumar, both from theCenter for Nanosciences &Molecular Medicine, AmritaInstitute of Medical Sciences(Kochi campus), figure inthe Stanford list for theirwork in the areas of polymers, nanoscience andnanotechnology.

Ranking agencies rank B-schoolsbased on several parameters, but

students who aspire to pursue an MBAstill look at placement opportunitiesprovided by the B-school as one of themost important parameters whilethey decide to select a B-school — topursue their Master of BusinessAdministration (MBA). This beingthe case, should B-schools becomeplacement hubs and focus and trum-pet about placement statistics? ShouldB-School focus on churning out peo-ple who are ‘just coolies’ of the cor-porate world? Shouldn’t the B-Schoolshape the mindset of students tobecome Atma Nirbhar or entrepre-neurs? These are some questions thatmust be pondered.

Indian B-schools must think outof the box to be able to face theIndustry 4.0 revolution. Being employ-able is an inherent requirement of anMBA graduate. The selection process,the pedagogy and syllabi must ensurestudents are industry-ready and alsolearn the way industry works. But indoing so, blindly joining the rat racemodel will be detrimental for B-schools. MBA is not just meant for giv-ing industry training to learners butit is also about equipping students withthe knowledge that is necessary for

taking the industry beyond, by pre-senting innovative solutions to theperennial problems.

B-schools must ensure that theMBA programme helps students tocontinuously learn and apply thelearning for bringing a change in theorganisation, in society, and thenation at large. In order to achieve this,B-schools must focus on impartingknowledge related to innovation andskills that can help them take theentrepreneurial journey. Structuredcourses on design thinking and prob-lem solving must become mandato-ry subjects in the MBA curriculum.In short, the MBA curriculum must

not only focus on creating coolies forthe corporate world but also giveexposure to the emerging aspects ofthe management discipline and mustkindle the fire in the graduates to bejob creators and not job seekers.

B-schools have a humongous taskin making the aspirants realise that theMBA programme is for making themhone their leadership abilities, learnteam building skills, learn negotiationskills, learn the art and science ofproblem solving and critical thinking,and several other skills and knowledgeneeded to lead the industry. Hence,they must understand that B-schoolsmust not be looked as a power house

for placement. There is a need tochange the mindset of students andmake them understand this aspectand it’s a tall order claim.

They must ensure that the desireto become entrepreneurs is seededinto the minds of students. Theopportunities that are available for anentrepreneur, the lucrative careeralong with the chance to create abright financial stability, must beshared and showcased to them. BSchools must focus on launching pro-grams which focus on Innovation &Entrepreneurship and must also makeit clear that no placement is given tothe students at the end of the pro-gramme.

Students who join such pro-grammes must be encouraged tokick-start their start-up and must begiven all the support needed to do so.The programme must have subjectslike design thinking, problem solving,global mega trends, etc along withmanagement disciplines like financialmanagement, organisational behav-iour, marketing management andothers. ���������������������A��!���������������������� ������A������B��� AC ����!����� ������A��!�����

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Social and emotional abilities areconsidered as a relevant index toreckon how well an individual

can align to his or her surroundings,adjust to modifications and, eventu-ally, how successful she or he will bein life. Most children have school astheir place where deficiencies in theirabilities can be addressed before theytake up the role of being active zonemembers of the society. As a matterof fact, core development character-istics such as conscience, emotionalstability, sociability and agreement canbe as or more vital than cognitiveintelligence in deciding future employ-ment. In accordance to the compe-tencies with regard to the life out-comes it can be difficult for educatorsto work out efficacious methods tostructure, teach and assess the socialemotional skills.

Compounding these skills withacademic development forms a high-quality learning experience and sur-rounding which further empowersstudents to be more effective con-tributors in their classrooms today andamong their peers and professional life

tomorrow. Teachers and administrators at

schools now have a high emphasis forsocial emotional learning skills. Theeducating faculty is specifically eagerto render expert, training and supportnecessary for efficaciously imple-menting this new programme, toprovide the students with holisticdevelopment. The new curriculumwill promise improved students socialbehavior, learning and development.Given the recent assistance that SocialEmotional Learning has received inthe education community, it mayjust be a matter of time before it turnsout to be a general teaching practice,widely adopted.

Developing an emphasis on thisprogramme in schools will be groundsto an effective and supportive area forstudents to openly share their creativeideas, ask out questions without anyshame and learn academic conceptswhile structuring lifelong abilities. Thegeneral uplifting of social emotionallearning will require a step by stepalteration in pedagogy. In the dueprocess, the system can shape out a

holistic education system to bring upsocially responsible citizens, who arehighly equipped to work in a groupand create a better world.

How social-emotional learning

Skills aids students in their holisticdevelopment:

Self-awareness: An open mindwith an active sense of self awareness,aids the students to develop their emo-tions, acknowledge their strengthsalong with a frame of mind workingtowards creativity. Therefore an indi-vidual can assess one’s limitations andpositives.

Self-management: Today man-aging yourself is vital. All studentsmust have the general cognition formanaging their personal traits likeemotions, life goals, manage stress andcontrol impulses.

Social awareness: It is critical attimes to view things from other peo-ple's perspective, displaying empathy,and appreciating diversity of culture.

Relationship skills: All studentsneed to have active skills for com-munication, cooperation, and conflictresolution. This aids students to con-stitute a healthy and pleasing rela-tionships, and to act in accordancewith social norms.

Responsible decision-making:It provides the students with the

learning of how to make constructivechoices about personal behavior andsocial interactions across diverse sit-uations and settings.

Although the vast majority of edu-cation department will agree thatSocial Emotional Learning is impor-tant, but it has for long remained onthe sidelines. In the past educationistshave focused on academics, asopposed to the development of thewhole child.

All schools currently are mostlymulticultural and multilingual withstudents belonging to diverse socialand economic backgrounds.Educators and community agenciesneed to render students with con-trasting motivation for engaging inlearning, behaving positively, andperforming academically. Social andemotional learning will work as aground or a foundation for safe andpositive learning, eventually deepen-ing the students' noesis to succeed inschool, professionally, and in gener-al life.

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LED lighting plays a pivotalrole in uplifting the look of

your home or workspace.Whether it’s about giving a mod-ern look to the interior design orcontemporary look to the exte-rior design, lighting has becomea significant component whenyou think of decorating yourhouse, shop or office. Noveltiesin the LED lighting industry areemerging every day to meet thecontemporary decorating needsof the masses.

Now who is behind the con-cept of designing smart lightingsystems that complements yourspace? They are LED lightdesigners who have the perfectknowledge to design decorativeLED lights and give a sophisti-cated look to any defined space.As the LED lighting industry ischanging rapidly, new careeropportunities are coming up forstudents who are keen to make acareer in this emerging field.Generally, courses related to LEDlighting are not included in anycollege curriculum. However,there are some institutes offeringshort-term courses related tothis. But, after doing this course,you can start a career as an LEDengineer or designer in LED

manufacturing and designingcompanies.

Those who want to learn thelighting design essentials canundergo two to three months ofcertification course. Given theskill gap and the need of thelighting industry, ElectronicsSector Skills Council of Indiaformed under the Ministry ofSkill Development andEntrepreneurship and NationalSkill Development Corporationoffers a short-term course in thisfield via its different trainingpartners. The candidate shouldhave BTech or BE or Diploma inElectrical, Electronics, Optical orMechanical Engineering fordoing such short-term courses.

Career Opportunities: Thissector has both job and self-employment opportunities.There are many renowned elec-tronic companies in the country,where one can easily get job inthis field. In the field of LEDlighting, skilled freshers can getjobs on a package of �2.5 lakhsper annum. Further, your salarydepends upon the company’spolicy and your performance.

Entrepreneurship opportu-nities: In addition to jobs in thefield of LED lighting, there arealso good opportunities for entre-preneurship. After engineeringmost of the youth are cominginto this field and starting theirbusiness in LED lighting. Due tothe Self-Reliant India campaignand the Startup India campaignof the Government of India,youth are getting attractedtowards it in every state of thecountry. Youth can also availstartup business loans from thebank to start their business. Low-cost traders can start the businessof making lamp components.For starting a new business, atleast required �4 to �5 lakhs ini-tially. �������������1'�A�1���������������

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The Sweden India Nobel Memorial Quiz (SINMQ), one ofIndia’s most prestigious and eagerly awaited quiz contests

for college students organised by the Embassy of Sweden inNew Delhi along with the Consulate General of Sweden inMumbai, is back in an all-new, digital avatar designed for thenew normal.

Registrations for participation are open on www.swe-deninindia.com for the quiz which goes live on November 20,2020. semi-finals and finals of the SINMQ will be held onDecember 7 and December 9, respectively.

The first prize winner will take home a prize of 100 000INR!

In 2020, when most educational institutions are closed dueto COVID and students are studying from home, the compe-tition is between individuals as against the norm of three-mem-ber college team since 2008.

Over and above the winner, top 100 students will also winexciting prizes, including exclusive merchandise. Certificateswill also be provided to the finalists.

The quiz is powered by Quizworks and curated by quiz-master Raj Dam, and will test the students’ knowledge onAlfred Nobel, the Nobel Prize and Nobel Laureates. Therewould also be general questions around Swedish Innovations,industries, history, society and culture.

The SINMQ is conducted since 2008 as a part of the SwedenIndia Nobel Memorial Week, which is in 13th year.

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Anushka Chaturvedi, a student ofPratham Test Prep, scored an All India

Rank 3 in the recently declared results of theDelhi University’s Joint Admission test(DU-JAT). Around 18,000 students fromall over the country in pursuit of admissionto undergraduate management programmesat DU had appeared for the computer-basedadmission test.

Out of the total students appearing forthe test, Anushka will get admission to theprestigious institution Shaheed SukhdevCollege of Business Studies (DelhiUniversity) under BMS. This test being theonly medium to get admission to top col-leges in DU for management programmes,

makes it one of its kind special.“The level of the exam this year was

between moderate to difficult. HarmandeepSingh Sahni, who secured the rank 1 underthe PwD category, is also eligible for admis-sion to Shaheed Sukhdev College ofBusiness Studies. As expected, historyrepeated itself, when four out of the top 10ranks were obtained by our students. Theother bright minds who secured the rank-ings among the top 10 list include SarthakBindal (AIR 4) and Anirudh Gupta (AIR7). Manan Jain who secured AIR 11 isamong the total 60 out of the top 100 stu-dents in the DU-JAT entrance exam whohave made us proud with their diligentefforts,” said Ankit Kapoor, ManagingDirector, Pratham Test Prep.

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�1�$(!$�#���>���The Engineering and

Technology subject areas(General engineering,Electrical and ElectronicEngineering, MechanicalEngineering, CivilEngineering, ChemicalEngineering) of VelloreInstitute of Technology (VIT)are ranked among the topeight Universities in Indiaand among the Top 501-600universities in the world in therecently released WorldUniversity Rankings bySubject 2021 by the TimesHigher Education (THE), UK.

The Vellore Institute ofTechnology (VIT) ComputerScience is ranked one amongthe top four Universities inIndia in the THE WorldUniversity Ranking by Subject2021.

VIT Computer Sciencehas been ranked in the band

of 301-400 universities of theworld in the ranking.

The weightings for subjectrankings (in ComputerScience and Engineering andTechnology) are teaching(learning environment)-30%,research (volume, income andreputation) — 30%, citations(research influence) — 27.5 %,International outlook (staff,students and research) —7.5% per cent and industryincome (innovation) — 5%.

The Times HigherEducation (THE) Rankinguses 13 calibrated perfor-mance indicators to providethe most comprehensive andbalanced comparisons, andall data are independentlyaudited by professional ser-vices f irm. THE WorldUniversity Rankings, an inter-national ranking agency liststhe top universities globally.

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Page 11: 80˘&’-$%:# ;; =?6 ;6 A; ; 6 ; ; ;6  ˛ @˝ < = 6 6 < = > =...2020/11/18  · China’s support to it. He congratulated Russia for the finalisation of the BRICS

Post the great recession in2018, the Indian bankingindustry witnessed unprece-

dented growth until about a cou-ple of months before the COVID-19 outbreak. As the entire econo-my has come to a halt, an intimi-dating slowdown has now beenmaking the entire scenario worse.However, the silver lining of thiscrisis is that the unprecedentedtimes have given the immenseopportunity for the Banking,financial services and insurance(BFSI) sector to bring about a fun-damental change in the way thatit functions.

The time is just apt for play-ers in the BFSI space to reinventthemselves and test newer businessmodels that are more digitally-dri-ven. By leveraging advanced tech-nologies and digitising their exist-ing set of offerings, they can altertheir age-old processes with newer,more optimised workflows.

Considered a pivotal sectorthat can further accelerate thegrowth of the country, the man-power requirement in the BFSIindustry has also risen to fuel thatprogress.

The National SkillDevelopment Corporation(NSDC) has reported that the pro-jected human resource require-ment between 2008 and 2022 isestimated to reach over 4.2 mil-lion. Now, let us explore the var-ious aspects of the BFSI industry,its career prospects, and the kindof skills required to fulfill the skillrequirements for job roles within.

���'���������An Insurance Agent develops

relationships with potential cus-tomers to sell them insurance.Insurance Agents describe andexplain different types of insuranceand coverages to customers, offer-ing recommendations on whichpolicy to choose. Insurance Agentsmay work in different areas includ-ing auto, home, life, or healthinsurance coverage.

�����*�+��(�Personal bankers work in

retail banking branches and assistcustomers with various banking orfinancial needs. Such needs mayinclude opening checking andsavings accounts, obtaining mort-

gage and auto loans, and investingin banking products-certificates ofdeposit (CDs), money markets,and other commercial bankingproducts. They may also help thecustomer with retirement plan-ning. While investment bankerswork mostly with institutionalinvestors, personal bankers workprimarily with everyday people.

����������*3��Not just in terms of technol-

ogy, we are moving to a worldwhere financial services areadvancing at the speed of light.Here, the demand for a financialanalyst will grow further, settingto be one of the most highlydemanded jobs in the financialindustry. The job entails research-ing macroeconomic and micro-economic scenarios, gatheringfinancial information along withcompany fundamentals, to graftdynamic growth plans. Here, dex-terity over the economic variancesof the world and analytical insightsare required.

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associated with brokerage firms orare independent brokers.Independent brokers are respon-sible for buying and selling stocksand other similar securities forretail as well as institutionalpatrons. The job is usually carriedout in exchange for a set fee orcommission.

6'������The salary package for fresh-

ers in the industry is expected tohave �10,000 to �12,000 permonth. A seasoned professionalcan also earn lots of incentives, likea seven-30 per cent share in salesdepending on the level of a taskaccomplished.

�(�**��G'� �The most required specific

skills are proficiency in sales,stock market knowledge, mathe-matical aptitude, mutual fundawareness, and knowledge aboutbanking operations. Other softskills like good communicationskills and confidence also addvalue to your curriculum vitae.

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The traditional teacher trainingprogrammes and course workhave failed to prepare teachers for

the 21st century. Left with no choice,our teachers are dependent on on-the-job learning. The absence of skills orgap between education and demandsof a teacher’s job profile continues to abig obstacle facing a teacher's career.This is the major reason why teachinghas become the last career choice. Frombeing inaccessible to inadequate andoutdated, teacher education continuesto be a popular topic of debate amongacademicians and curriculum experts.

If teachers want to get high payingjobs, explore career opportunities andget international qualifications andcertifications, upgrading their skills isthe key.

The changes in the demand forskills from students continues to haveprofound implications for the compe-tencies which teachers need to acquireto effectively teach these skills to theirstudents. We are not living in an erawhen teaching a fixed syllabus of con-tent was at the centre of education.Today, the jobs are changing and so arethe expectations from teachers.Teachers are expected to follow differ-entiated pedagogical practices. Unlikethe curriculum cantered educationapproach, today, focus is on learner.

We can say that the kind of edu-cation needed and taught todayrequires teachers to constantly advancetheir professional knowledge and skills.Teachers need to stay updated with theadvancements in different fields, skillsin demand, future of work and poten-tial careers for students. They arerequired to be agents of innovationbecause innovation is critically impor-tant for generating new sources ofgrowth through improved productiv-ity and efficiency.

In order to be most effective,learning environments should ensurethat learning is social and often col-laborative; be highly attuned to stu-dents’ motivations; make learning cen-tral and encourage engagement; beacutely sensitive to individual differ-ences, and promote connections acrossactivities and subjects, both in and out

of school. A 21st Century teaching pro-fessional is expected to have passion,strive to improve, be ethical, value pro-fessionalism, aim for high standards,have enquiring nature, a quest for learn-ing and be adaptive and resilient. Theyneed to have people managementskills, facilitative skills, technologicalskills, pedagogical skills, reflective skilland thinking dispositions, communi-cation skills, innovation skills andsocial and emotional intelligence.

Online learning was already on therise even if we don’t take the pandem-ic effect into account and it is expect-ed to popularise more among learners.The pandemic has triggered the behav-ioural change. Upskilling the teachersis of utmost importance to guide themon best practices when it comes toonline teaching methods.

The issue of upskilling teachers isboth complex and multi-dimensional.A central foundation for improvingteaching is a deep understanding ofadvancements in learning and itsprospects. How children learn hastransformed greatly over the past years,however, it has not had a profoundimpact on teacher practice as majori-ty of teachers continue to interpret newideas through established beliefs.

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The University ofSheffield is offeringtwo international LLM

scholarships worth £4,000towards tuition fees for twooutstanding students.

Eligibility: You must bean overseas student for feepurposes; have an academicoffer from us to study the full-time LLM (includes SheffieldLLM, LLM Corporate andCommercial Law and LLMInternational Law and GlobalJustice pathways); have anapplication number

Scholarship applicationswill be considered togetherwith your application foradmission.

Successful applicants willbe notified before the end ofJuly 2021.

How to apply: You mustcomplete the InternationalLLM Scholarship applicationform, including a 2,000 wordessay. Essay topic ‘Law alonecannot address all socialproblems.’ Discuss.

Application deadline:The last date to aply is June11, 2021.

The University ofSaskatchewan invites appli-cations for InternationalBaccalaureate (IB)Excellence Awards for theacademic session 2021/2022.

Award: To provide an

award amount of $20,000to all selected students.

E l i g i b i l i t y :Undergraduate degree in allthe subjects offered by theuniversity. Applicant mustmeet the following criteria:International students (non-Canadian citizens paying dif-ferential tuition) completinga full IB diploma entering anydirect-entry college at the Uof S will be considered for anIB Excellence Award.

Recipients are eligible toreceive the InternationalBaccalaureate ExcellenceAwards in addition to aGuaranteed EntranceScholarship.

Indian students canapply.

Students must also sub-mit the necessary supportingdocuments such as:Academic transcript; Copy ofpassport

Admission require-ments: For taking admis-sion, candidates must checkall the entry requirements ofthe university.

English languagerequirements: If English isnot your first language, thenyou will need to show thatyour English language skillsare at a high enough level tosucceed in your studies.

How to Apply: By apply-ing online for undergraduateadmission, students will beeligible for consideration.

Application deadline:The last date to apply isFebruary 15, 2021.

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Wicketkeeper-batsman Alex Carey on Tuesday saidhe is hoping to regain his place in the Australian

T20 side for the series against India after having workedon “little technical” aspects of his game under RickyPonting during the recent IPL.

Carey had the opportunity to work with Pontingin the UAE during his time with Delhi Capitals.

“...My first opportunity to be part of IPL and tohave Ricky as head coach of Delhi and a few otherfamiliar faces in the squad made it a really enjoyablecouple of months,” Carey told reporters during a videoconference.

“I was lucky enough to work with him throughthe World Cup last year and formed a good relation-ship. He was an amazing player, and is an amazingcoach, and he picks up on little things really quickly,”he added while talking about his maiden IPL experi-ence.

The 29-year-old was dropped from Australia’s T20side before the final match of a series against Englandin September due to poor form. In the IPL, he playedjust three matches, scoring 32 runs.

Australia and India will lock horns in three T20Isstarting December 4 after a three-match ODI series,which begins on November 27.

“We had a lot to talk about and although I didn’tplay a lot of games it gave me a lot of opportunity totrain and just work on a few little technical parts ofmy game which will hopefully help me grow and devel-op and have a successful summer,” he said.

Carey had hit his maiden international century inAustralia’s series-clinching ODI win over England.

However, in the preceding T20 series againstEngland, he had to make way for Matthew Wade inthe third T20I after scoring just three runs in the firsttwo games.

He had an equally forgettable outing in SouthAfrica in February last year where he scored 7, 14 and27 in three T20 innings.

“I guess my numbers in the past few T20s prob-ably allowed the opening of the door for Wadey tocome in. I never like being left out of any team but it’sallowed me to go away and develop,” he said.

“If it’s a lower-order role or back up the top of theorder, I’m doing everything I can to get back into that

team and it’s something I want to do.“Since then I felt like I finished off

that UK tourr e a l l ys t rong ly

and took alot out of the

IPL workingwith (Ponting).”

With therescheduled T20 World

Cup just 12 months away,Carey is hoping to get

his place back in theT20I series againstIndia.

“I think it’s agreat opportunity to

continually workout the best line-up. Although it’s12 months away,you want to hone

in on some specif-ic roles and getting some formgoing into that World Cup.

“Coming up againstEngland recently and Indiasoon, we’re playing the best inthe world so it’s a great indi-cator of where our T20.

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Fast-rising Australian bats-man Will Pucovski feels hehas “earned the right” to be

in the red-ball squad for theseries against India and is betterprepared to make his Test debutcompared to a couple of seasonsago.

Pucovski, who was named ina 17-member extended Australian

Test squad for the four-matchseries against India, is coming offback-to-back double hundreds inthe Sheffield Shield.

Despite missing the openingtwo rounds of the competition, hehas scored 495 runs so far thisseason in three innings and is cur-rently the tournament’s highestrun-scorer.

“This time it feels like I’veearned the right to be here, and

I’m pretty pumped to take thechallenge on of playing India if Ido get the chance,” Pucovski saidon SEN Radio.

The 22-year-old was was firstnamed in the Test squad for the2019 Sri Lanka series but steppedaway from the game, citing men-tal health concerns.

It is the first time since thenthat Pucovski has earned a Testsquad call-up.

“I feel like I’m in a much bet-ter place to take the opportunityif it presents itself now, than I mayhave been a couple of years ago.

“I was 20 a couple of years agoand I’m 22 now. I’ve played 15 or20 more first-class games, and I’veput a stack of work in off-field tomake sure my life and my crick-et is in a really good place,” headded.

Very few young Australiancricketers have generated the

kind of buzz that Pucovski hasmanaged. His sensational form inthe Sheffield Shield has led sev-eral Australian greats to call for hisselection in the team.

Talking about what haschanged since the last call up,Pucovski said: “Probably the dif-ference in feeling is you’re excit-ed, but you’re ready to do a jobthis time.

“Whereas last time, not thatI wasn’t ready, but I was probably

just so excited to get picked forAustralia that I didn’t think toomuch about the job at hand,” headded.

Pucovski’s inclusion has setup a competition with fellowopener Joe Burns, who is feelingthe heat after a disastrous start tothe first-class summer.

But head coach Justin Langerand skipper Tim Paine both havehinted at persisting with theexperienced Burns.

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New Zealand captain KaneWilliamson and pace spear-

head Trent Boult will miss theupcoming T20 series against theWest Indies to concentrate onTest matches, selectors said onTuesday.

However, the Black Capshave added an exciting elementto the 13-man T20 squad in theform of South African-borndebutant Devon Conway, thestand-out domestic batsmanin recent seasons.

Coach GaryStead saidWilliamson and Boult were sit-ting out the three T20s —beginning in Auckland inNovember 27 — to keep themfresh for the two Tests againstthe West Indies in December.

“We’ve had to make adecision on Kane and Trent toprioritise the Test matches,given how important they areto our red-ball team and thefact they both played such big

roles in the recent IPL while alsomanaging injuries,” he said.

Stead said the NewZealanders focused on the five-day format because they were arealistic prospect of makingthe World Test Championshipfinal after posting an upset 2-0series win over India earlier this

year.He was looking for-

ward to seeing Conway onthe international stage,

predicting the 29-year-old would “soak up”the experience.

The left-hander,who became eligible toplay for New Zealandin August, replaces fel-low power hitter ColinMunro, who is playingin Australia’s Big Bash

League.Fast bowler Kyle

Jamieson is the only othernew cap in the T20 squad,while the Test side is thesame one that faced India

in February.

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The limited-overs competitionawaits them first but Indian

players, led by captain Virat Kohli,seemed focussed on next month’sTests against Australia as theypractised in simulated long-formatmatch conditions complete withpacers using red and pink ballshere on Tuesday.

All the top batsmen andbowlers, who are in all the threesquads, were seen taking part inthe practice session.

The likes of senior pacerMohammed Shami and youngsterMohammad Siraj were seen bowl-ing to Kohli in a video posted onTwitter by the captain himself.

“Love Test cricket sessions,”the tweet from Kohli read.

The star batsman will featurein just the opening day-nightTest, starting December 17 inAdelaide, before flying back toIndia for the birth of his first child.

The video showed the playersusing the centre strip of theground with proper Test matchfield and a batsman at the non-striker’s end, which is a deviation

from traditional net sessions.Given that the players were

kept busy by the IPL for the lasttwo months, the white-ball train-ing has taken a back-seat.

Opener KL Rahul facing thepink ball was an indicator that heis in line to be picked for the firstTest.

In another video, posted bythe BCCI, Shami was seen bowl-ing in tandem with youngsterSiraj.

The 30-year-old Shami, whotook 20 wickets from 14 matchesfor Kings XI Punjab in the IPL, isa part of all the three squads.

India will rely heavily on him

during the four-match Test seriesstarting with the day-night pinkball game in Adelaide.

Siraj, who is only in the Testsquad, followed his senior team-mate and was seen sending downa few deliveries as other seniorplayers watched him bowl.

The 26-year-old, who hasplayed one ODI and three T20Is,took 11 wickets from ninematches for Royal ChallengersBanagalore in the recent IPL.

“The master and hisapprentice. When@MdShami11 and Sirajbowled in tandem at#TeamIndia’s nets. Fast andaccurate!,” the BCCI tweetread.

On Monday, the starstudded batting line-up was seen gearing upfor the livelyAustralian pitcheswith the tradi-tional tennis balltraining aftercompeting onthe slow UAEtracks during theIPL.

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Cricket South Africa’s mem-ber council on Tuesday

made a U-turn and appointedthe nine-member interim boardahead of the much-anticipatedEngland series, just days afterrejecting it citing technicalitiesin terms of CSA’s Memorandumof Incorporation.

“Acting President of CricketSouth Africa (CSA), RihanRichards today confirmed thatthe Members’ Council of CSA

has appointed the InterimBoard in terms of the CSAMemorandum of Incorporation(MoI), with a clear understand-ing of roles and responsibilitiesfor the immediate future ofCSA,” the board said in a state-ment.

“The appointment followsa frank, honest and constructiveengagement held between rep-resentatives from the Members’Council and the Interim Board.Everyone agreed on the way for-ward and to collaborate, strict-ly in accordance with the rele-

vant legal framework.”The interim board, which

was appointed by SportsMinister Nathi Mthethwa, willrun the administrative body forthe next kthree months.

CSA member council’srefusal to recognise the interimboard had earlier thrownEngland’s upcoming white-balltour in jeopardy.

The England team hasreached South Africa for threeT20Is, starting November 27,followed by as many ODIs fromDecember 4 to 9.

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England’s much-awaited tourof Pakistan for a short T20

series early next year is set tobe postponed to October dueto unavailability of top playersand matters related to costs.

According to mediareports the tour, which was ten-tatively scheduled for January-February, is expected to bemoved to October before theT20 World Cup in India.

“The problem arising isthat early next year Englandwill be engaged in series withSri Lanka and India and someof their T20 specialist playersare also signed up for the BigBash in Australia,” a sourceaware of the developmentssaid.

“The other problem is thecosts involved in England tour-ing Pakistan.

“As it is just a three-match

series with Karachi the likelyvenue, the costs of flying theEnglish team by a charteredflight after holding a trainingcamp in Dubai does not makeit cost effective for the Englandboard,” he said.

He said both the boardshad discussed the more viableoption of shifting the series toOctober as that would allow thefull England T20 team to stopover in Pakistan for the shortseries before flying to India,”the source said.

England has not played inthe country since 2005 due tosecurity reasons and when thePakistan and English boardsconfirmed they were consider-ing a short tour, it gave a bigboost to Pakistan cricket.

“Even the PCB didn’t wanta ‘C’ team from England play-ing early next year as it is a bigseries and a breakthrough forPakistan cricket.”

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Cricket Australia on Tuesdayairlifted players, including

Test skipper Tim Paine andstar batsman MarnusLabuschagne, to New SouthWales from Adelaide in anattempt to save the seriesagainst India as a coronavirusoutbreak in South Australiathreatened the upcoming sum-mer.

As Western Australia,Queensland and Tasmaniaclosed their borders to SouthAustralia on Monday, the coun-try’s cricket board brought play-ers from Australia’s white-ball,Test match and Australia Asquads into Sydney from

Adelaide to ensure that theupcoming fixtures of the 300million dollars season remainunaffected.

“CA has taken a proactiveapproach and mobilised a num-ber of people across the countryover the past 24 hours to shore upour men’s domestic and interna-tional schedules,” CA’s interimchief executive Nick Hockleywas quoted as saying byESPNCricinfo.

“I would like to thank theplayers and staff for their under-standing regarding the changes totheir travel schedules and fortheir commitment to ensuringthe summer of cricket is a hugesuccess.”

Besides Paine and

Labuschagne, the list of playersrelocated include their colleaguesMatthew Wade, Travis Head andCameron Green among others.

Despite the spike in Covidcases and developments related toit, CA maintained that theAdelaide Oval will host the firstTest of the summer against Indiafrom December 17.

Hockley added, “CA willcontinue to monitor the situationin South Australia and the result-ing border restrictions around thecountry.

“As ever, we will remain agilein addressing the challenges pre-sented by the pandemic andremain more confident than everof hosting a safe and successfulsummer across all formats.”

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