Actor Shruti Haasan took to Instagram, where sheshared a throwback picture of herself froman underwater photo-shoot

WATER BABY

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Mumbai attack convict David Headley can’t beextradited to India, a US attorney tells afederal court INTERNATIONAL | P10

VOLUME 10, ISSUE 87 | www.orissapost.com BHUBANESWAR | SUNDAY, JUNE 28 | 2020

LEISURE | P2

A serological survey for comprehensiveanalysis of the spread of Covid-19 inDelhi has commenced TWO STATES| P7

SEROLOGICAL SURVEY

12 PAGES | `4.00

IRREGULAR by MANJUL

I’m disappointed. We worked really hard to win the best

entertainment channel award.

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Humidity 95% 79%Rainfall Nil Nil

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Partlycloudy sky

26.4°

WINGED MENACE: Ascrop-destroying desert

locusts swarms are spotted in Delhi, the govt

issues precautionaryadvisory. National

capital’s IGI Airport has also been kept on

high alert AGENCIES

New Delhi, June 27: After swarmsof crop-destroying desert locustsreached the outskirts of Delhi Saturday,the city government directed the dis-trict magistrates to make all possiblearrangements to distract them.

People have been directed to keeptheir doors and windows closed andcover outdoor plants with plasticsheets. The District Magistrates havealso been asked to be on high alert.

“District Magistrates are advisedto deploy the adequate staff to makeall possible arrangements for guid-ing the residents to distract the lo-custs,” the advisory by agriculturejoint director AP Saini stated.

The government said that they canbe distracted by way of making highdecibel sound through beating of drumutensils, playing high volume musicon music systems, firing crackers andburning of neem leaves.

Over the past few months, locustswarms have attacked and destroyedcrops in various states, includingRajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, andMadhya Pradesh.

Three-kilometre-long swarm of

desert locusts reached the outskirts ofDelhi after entering Gurgaon Saturdaymorning. Earlier, Delhi EnvironmentMinister Gopal Rai called an emer-gency meeting to discuss the situa-tion pursuant to the locust attack inneighbouring Gurgaon.

According to a Union Agricultureministry report, 84 districts ofRajasthan, Punjab, Gujarat, UttarPradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradeshand Chhattisgarh, spread over an areaof 1,14,026 hectares, had been in the gripof locusts till June 21, 2020.

National capital’s IGI Airport hasbeen kept on high alert following swarmof locusts were spotted near to the keyinstallation. The spotting took place nearto NH 8’s stretch which connects thenational capital to Gurgaon around11.00 a.m., sources said.

Accordingly, the airport was kept athigh alert as operations could havebeen affected due to the incoming lo-cust swarm. However, due to a changein wind direction the swarm has movedin a completely different direction altogether.

“As of now operations are completelynormal, but we are maintaining a look-out and coordinating with differentagencies,” sources said. Last month,Directorate General of Civil Aviation(DGCA) had issued safety guidelinesregarding flight operations in view ofthe threat posed by locust attack incertain parts of the country.

IN DELHI, ‘KEEP DOORS, WINDOWS CLOSED’

AGENCIES

Chennai, June 27: Outrage at thedeath of a father-son duo in thecustody of Tamil Nadu police ear-lier this week mounted Saturday,with thousands on social mediacomparing the incident to the deathof George Floyd in the United States.

J Jayaraj, 59, and BennicksImmanuel, 31, were subjected to abrutal thrashing, which resulted inrectal bleeding and eventual death,according to a letter to governmentofficials written by Jayaraj’s wife JSelvarani. The letter, based on eye-witness testimony and reviewed byReuters, seeks action against thepolice officers involved.

Police in Sathankulam, a town lo-cated 50 km (31 miles) south of theport city of Thoothukudi in south-ern Tamil Nadu state, said in a FIRreviewed by Reuters that Jayaraj andBennicks were picked up Friday,June 19 for breaching coronaviruslockdown rules.

Bennicks died Monday after com-plaining of breathlessness andJayaraj died Tuesday, Chief MinisterEdappadi Palaniswami, who over-sees the police in the state, said ina statement Wednesday. Two po-licemen involved in the incidenthad been suspended, he added.

“We will take action over this in-cident as per the law,” Palaniswamisaid. Hundreds of thousands of

tweets were sent out using the hash-tag #JusticeforJayarajandBennix,that was among the top Twitter top-

ics trending in India Friday andamong the top 30 trending globally,with celebrities and politicians con-

demning police action.“The George Floyds of India are

far too many,” tweeted Gujarat MLAJignesh Mevani.

“Will Indians march on streets inthousands, like America?,” Mevaniasked his nearly 7,50,000 Twitterfollowers, referring to events fol-lowing the death in police custodyMay 25 of George Floyd, a Blackman. Nearly 15 cases of custodialviolence and torture were reportedin daily on average, with nine peo-ple dying in judicial or police cus-tody every 24 hours, according to thelatest annual report by NHRC for theyear 2017/18. The NHRC said in itsreport that some custodial deathswere reported after considerabledelay or not reported at all, addingviolence in custody was so ram-pant “that it has become almostroutine.” MORE P2

AGENCIES

New Delhi, June 27: The Indian mil-itary is amassing more men and ma-terial as a precautionary deploymentalong the 3,488-km-long border withChina.

The deployment, perhaps one of thebiggest in the recent years, comes at atime when India and China are lockedin a hitherto unprecedented standoff– for eight weeks now – at multiplepoints along their border.

Sources said that Indian Army hasdeployed three more divisions in east-ern Ladakh region to bolster its posi-tion on the Line of Actual Control(LAC).

Apart from tanks and artillery, theArmy has deployed their advancedvery quick-reaction surface-to-air mis-sile defence systems, including Akashmissiles which have the capacity totake down combat aircraft and drones.

It was stated that four weeks ago animportant division had started accli-matising for high-altitude warfare andtwo weeks later, parts of it were de-ployed at the 18,000-foot-high Depsangplains, a plateau located north of the

Galwan valley. Similarly, reserve forceshave been moved to forward locationsto match up the Chinese deployments.

Asked whether it is full deployment,a senior Indian Army officer said: “Itis a mirror deployment.”

Indian Army spokesperson, ColonelAman Anand was, however, unavailablefor comments. In a separate domain, theIndian Navy and the Indian Air Forceare also on full operational alert. TheIAF has deployed a number of SAGWsystems to Ladakh.

The movement of additional men

and material to the border comes whentalks between military commandersat the Chushul-Moldo in Ladakh haveended in a stalemate.

The situation at the four flash points– Galwan Valley, Hot Springs, Depsangand Pangong Lake – in eastern Ladakhis tense. At Pangong Lake, Chinesetroops have moved up to Finger 4 wherethey have brought over 120 vehiclesand dozens of boats.

The Chinese Army has also openedup a new front in the area near theDepsang Bulge, north of Galwan. They

have built camps and deployed vehiclesand troops.

At Patrol Points 14 at Galwan, 15 atKongka La and 17 at Hot Springs, theChinese Army has been deployed to alarge extent.

In response, the Indian Army has alsoupped the deployment in these positions.

Chinese People’s Liberation Armytroops have even retur ned toPatrolling Post 14 in Galwan Valleywhere the barbaric June 15 attack, inwhich 20 Indian soldiers were killed,occurred.

PNN & AGENCIES

New Delhi/ Bhubaneswar,June 27: For the 21st con-secutive day Saturday, dieselprice was hiked by 21 paisea litre. Petrol price too hasgone up by 25 paise a litre.In the current phase of ratehike, petrol has gone up by`9.12 a litre while that ofdiesel has gone by a highermargin of ̀ 11.01 a litre, na-tionally.

In Delhi, where the dieselcosts more than petrol, boththe fuels are now pricedabove `80. While petrol isselling at 19-month highlevel, diesel is at all-timehigh level. Rates have been

increased across the coun-try but the final retail sell-ing price differs from stateto state depending on theincidence of local sales taxor VAT.

In Mumbai, petrol pricewent up from ̀ 86.91 per litreto `87.14, while diesel ratewas hiked to `78.71 from`78.51.

While diesel rates havebeen hiked for the 21ststraight day, petrol pricehas been raised on 20 occa-sions in three weeks.

The cumulative increasesince the oil companiesstarted the cycle June 7 nowtotals to ̀ 9.25 for petrol and`10.85 for diesel in Odisha.

PNN & AGENCIES

Bhubaneswar, June 27: The statereported one more Covid-19 fa-tality Saturday, taking the toll to18 as 170 more people, including anNDRF jawan, tested positive for thevirus, pushing the tally to 6,350.

In a statement issued Saturday,the health department said a 68-year-old Covid-positive man died inGanjam district. The victim was alsosuffering from co-morbid conditionsof hypertension and diabetes, it said.

With this, the Covid deaths re-ported from Ganjam district in-creased to nine. Four deaths werereported from Khurda, three fromCuttack and one each fromBargarh and Puri. The state hadreported its first Covid death inBhubaneswar April 6, the offi-cial said.

Besides this, seven other Covid-positive persons have also diedbut the reason of their deaths wasdue to other diseases, the officialsaid.

Of the 170 fresh cases, 143 werereported from quarantine centreswhere people returning from otherstates are lodged for preliminaryobservation, while 27 others werelocals. Of the fresh cases, 169 werereported from 14 districts while onebelonged to the NDRF.

As many as 58 cases were re-ported from Ganjam district, fol-lowed by 19 each in Khurda andNabarangpur, 16 each fromGajapati and Rayagada, 14 fromCuttack, six each from Puri andKendrapara, five from Malkangiri,three each from Jajpur andNayagarh, two from Sambalpurand one each from Koraput andBargarh districts, the I&PR de-partment said.

INDIA’S GEORGEFLOYDS

Protests, social media outrage over TN custodial deaths Thousands of tweets are sent out using the hashtag #JusticeforJayarajandBennix, with celebrities and politicians condemning police action

Jayaraj and Bennicks were subjected to a brutal thrashing, which resulted inrectal bleeding and eventual death, says Jayaraj’s wife J Selvarani

n Questions have been raisedover the judicial magistrate D.Saravanan’s role in grantingcustody without conducting themandated medical check-up

n The Madurai bench of MadrasHigh Court took suo motucognizance of the matter andJune 24, a bench ordered the SP,Thoothukudi, to inquire andsubmit a status report

n Two sub-inspectors have beensuspended so far

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, June 27: PresidentRam Nath Kovind promulgatedthe Banking Re gulation(Amendment) Ordinance, 2020,Saturday. The amendment willbring all urban and multi-state co-operative banks under the super-vision of the Reserve Bank of India(RBI).

In Odisha, there are 17 urbancooperative banks, of which nineare functioning and others are onliquidity stage. If the state gov-ernment implements the deci-sion, the nine urban cooperativebanks will come under the su-

pervision of RBI, said a govern-ment official.

About 1.98 lakh depositors arethere in the above nine banks.These banks are having ̀ 1,155 croredeposits and have provided loansto the tune of `686 crore.

Former state finance ministerPanchanan Kanungo welcomedthe move and said, “It has been along-standing demand. It will bringtransparency and strengthen the co-operative banking system.Otherwise, the cooperative bankseasily escape after doing irregu-larities like what happened dur-ing chit fund scam.”

MORE P11

2 held for couple’s murder over sorceryPOST NEWS NETWORK

Malkangiri, June 27: A couplewas allegedly murdered over sus-pected sorcery at Pednalguda villagein Malkangiri district, Saturday.Police have detained two persons inthis regard.

The deceased were identified asSoma Madhi (50) and his wife SukriMadhi (45). Police have detainedtwo persons for the crime. Reportssaid that the duo was found mur-dered Friday.

Some locals allegedly killed thecouple on suspicion over commit-ting sorcery, sources said.

Upon receiving information about

the double murder Malkangiri IICTam Prasad Nag and other policeofficials rushed in and seized the bod-ies.

Police started an investigationto the double murder and detainedtwo persons of Pednalguda for in-terrogation.

It may be mentioned here thatsuch cases, every now and then,

have been reported in tribal-dom-inated pockets of the district.

About a couple of days ago, awoman and her daughter were sus-pected of hexing at Binayakpurunder Motu police limits. The twowere attacked at night. While thewoman died on the spot, her daugh-ter was critically wounded and ad-mitted to the Koraput district head-quarters hospital.

June 15, a man beheaded his aunton the suspicion of practicing witch-craft. The incident took place atKarakachia village under Khuntapolice limits Mayurbhanj district.The horrifying crime once morehighlighted the deep-rooted su-

perstitions embedded in the mindsof people living in rural areas. Theaccused was identified as 28-year-old Budhiram Singh and the de-ceased as 60-year-old DempharSingh. Sources said, Budhiram’sfour-year-old daughter had fallen sicka week ago and died. Budhiramblamed his aunt for her death. Hethought his daughter had fell vic-tim to Demphar’s sorcery.

Such gruesome cases still go un-abated due to poor awareness andsuperstitious beliefs even if thestate government has made strin-gent legal provisions under theOdisha Prevention of Witch HuntingAct, 2013.

THE DECEASED WERE IDENTIFIED AS SOMA MADHI (50) AND HIS WIFE SUKRI MADHI (45)

For 21 days in arow, fuel pricesmove northwardThe cumulative increase since the oil companiesstarted the cycle June 7 now totals to `9.25 for

petrol and `10.85 for diesel in Odisha

Build-up continues along LACINDIAN MILITARY AMASSES MORE MEN, MATERIAL AT BORDER WITH CHINA

REPRESENTATIVE PHOTO

MIRROR DEPLOYMENTn Indian Army deploys 3 more divisions

in eastern Ladakh region

n Advanced very quick-reaction sur-face-to-air missile defence systems,including Akash missiles, which cantake down combat aircraft anddrones, deployed

weeks ago an important division hadstarted acclimatising for high-altitudewarfare4weeks later, parts of it were deployed atthe 18,000-foot-high Depsang plains, aplateau on the north of Galwan valley2

Nine urban co-op banks instate may come under RBI TOTAL CASES

6,350RECOVERIES

4,606ACTIVE CASES

1,719

CUMULATIVE TESTS: 2,49,902

FUEL PRICES IN BHUBANESWARPETROL `80.94 (+ `0.25)DIESEL `78.55 (+ `0.21)

EXTRADITION NOT EASY

State’s Covid tollmounts to 18;cases reach 6,350

POST NEWS NETWORK

BHUBANESWAR: The coronavirus-in-duced lockdown has forced people to relyheavily on the Internet and social media tostay connected with their dear ones. Manypeople are coming up with online chal-lenges to battle isolation blues. The latestaddition to the list is ‘online painting chal-lenges’ by the painters.

The challenge is simple and about ex-ploring the painting skills of artists to ex-plain the difficult times. It is being loved bythe painters amid the lockdown.

Contemporary artistes are nominatingeach other to express their feelings on can-vasses during these dark hours. The namesinclude Nibedita Mohanta, RutuparnaMaharana, Deepak Mohanta , Dibya Rout,Subhendu Jena, Sujit Mohanta, Sunil

Hembram and Dasaratha Mohanta. Speaking to OrissaPOST, sand artist

and painter Dasaratha Mohanta ofMayurbhanja said, “An artist can speak a lotsilently using his/her painting tools. Needlessto say that art is a medium of expressing emo-tions, truth and positive and negative aspectsof our society. During this pandemic I havechallenged my co-artists to express themselvesreflecting the present times.” Dasarathahas conveyed his feelings through his paint-ing of a child in her mother’s womb during

the pandemic.Similarly Jajpur-based painter

Rutuparna Maharana’s Tale of birds isa depiction of the miseries of feath-ered animals.

“The virus has taken a toll on everyaspect of life. Now we are realising howit feels to be confined to our homes fora long time. Therefore, I have made anattempt to highlight the plight of thewinged creatures that are not meantto live in cages,” said Rutuparna.

Painter Nibedita Mohanta fromBaripada, in her creation, has tried toexplain the impacts of the pandemic onhuman civilisation.

Her work also sends a message thathow windows have been opened for theenvironment to breathe after humanswere compelled to stay home followingthe imposition of the lockdown. Theattempts made by the artists have earnedappreciations from the critics, art loversand their friends.

Art critic Rajiv Sahoo said, “Online artchallenge is a good platform for the emerg-ing artists. All of them look promising anddeserve proper grooming to thrive in future.”

Mumbai: Actress Swara Bhaskerhas responded to an objection raisedby Central Board of FilmCertification (CBFC) Chief PrasoonJoshi, over a scene in her latestweb series Rasbhari.

Prasoon Joshi had tweeted point-ing out a scene in the web series has‘irresponsible content.’

Swara Bhasker took to Twitter toexplain the purpose of the scene tothe CBFC Chief and pointing out thatmaybe he misunderstood it.

“Respected sir, maybe you aremisunderstanding the scene. Theway you are describing the scene,it is just the opposite. The child isdancing at her own will. Her fa-ther feels embarrassed after seeing

this. The dance is not provocative.She is simply dancing and has noidea about how society will sexu-alise her too. This is what the sceneshows. #Rashbhari,” tweeted SwaraBhasker in Hindi.

Swara's tweet comes as a re-sponse to Prasoon Joshi's tweetwhich reads: “Saddened by Webseries #Rasbhari’s irresponsiblecontent portraying a little girlchild dancing provocatively infront of men drinking. Creatorsand audience need to seriouslyrethink Freedom of expressionor freedom of exploitation?Let’s spare children in the des-perate need for entertainment.”IANS

Mumbai: Cineworld has condemned the alleged po-lice brutality on a father-son duo and their eventualdeath in judicial custody, in Tamil Nadu’s Tuticorindistrict.

The father-son duo of Jayaraj and Benicks, akaFenix, died in judicial custody earlier this week afteralleged police torture.

Condemning the incident, Priyanka Chopra shared:“Reeling from what I am hearing. Absolutely stunned,sad and angry. No human being deserves such bru-tality, whatever be the crime. The guilty must not beallowed to go unpunished.”

“This might just be one case out of many but it takesonly one case to begin the snowball effect.#JusticeforJayarajAndFenix,” tweeted Taapsee

Pannu. “Hope this is investigated thoroughly and jus-tice prevails,” shared Anushka Sharma in herInstagram story. "We go to the police when we are indanger. How can they BE the danger?

#JusticeForJeyarajAndFenix,” shared ParineetiChopra. Disha Patani shared a cartoon showing po-lice beating up two people. It is captioned: “The un-chained animals”. “This has to stop. #policebrutal-ity” wrote filmmaker Zoya Akhtar condemning theincident. Actors Rajkummar Rao, Kriti Kharbanda,Gauhar Khan and several others shared a video ofa radio jockey from Chennai who describes how thefather-son were killed alleging police brutality. Thefather-son duo of Jayaraj and Benicks were bookedfor not closing their mobile shop in time June 19. Theywere lodged in the Kovilpatti jail June 21.

Jayaraj died June 22 night and his son Benicks June23 morning in judicial custody. The family alleged po-lice assault led to their deaths. IANS

P2 NO PRE-SHOOT RITUAL FOR MCAVOY

leisureActor James McAvoy says there was a pre-shoot ritual that he used to follow, butthen he stopped because he found it ‘juststupid’. McAvoy is known for his roles inmovies like The Last King Of Scotland andthe X Men franchise in which he playedCharles Xavier aka Professor X.

WHITE ACTORS DROPPED The Indian origin character ApuNahasapeemapetilon will no longer bevoiced by actor Hank Azaria in thepopular animated show, The Simpsons.“Moving forward, The Simpsons will nolonger have white actors voice non-whitecharacters,” the makers said in astatement, reports mirror.co.uk.

SUNDAY | JUNE 28 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

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AQUARIUSYou will feel deeplyinclined towards develop-ment and research,today. Actions speaklouder than words, and your efforts andoverall growth will speak plenty aboutyour character. Your romantic side willcome to the fore today.

PISCESFor those who aresalaried, today should be aprogressive day for you.Important meetings at thework-place will benefit from your pres-ence and the suggestions you have tomake. This should enhance your relation-ship with your superiors.

SAGITTARIUSYour far-sightedness andbrilliance will not onlyimpress your peers, butalso help you to rope inbig clients and huge projects. Cheers tothat! Thanks to your systematic anddisciplined approach, you are entitledto be the 'most desirable' employee ofthe company.

LIBRAGanesha says that todayin your office you shouldbe very careful in yourwork. It is likely that your superiors willnot be happy about your work or yourability today. Those of you who are busi-nessmen should try and delay sendingoff tenders today. Those who have giventheir job interviews may not get a favor-able response to it.

SCORPIOThere's always a firsttime, and today is the daywhen you would seal aprofitable deal for your new business ven-ture. However, close the deal only if it isbeneficial for a long term. Be cautious andwatch your steps carefully to avoid anyunfortunate situation.

LEOYou will not be able toreap the rewards ofyour hard work fullytoday. You will take allmatters very seriously today. You willfeel a sense of responsibility and will tryto find lasting solutions to problemstoday. It is a good day to put to restsome worries that have been hauntingyou for some time now, says Ganesha.

VIRGOYou will enchant peo-ple with your adapt-ability and your desireto gel with your sur-roundings. For those who are in love,something unexpected may take place,but there is no need to panic as by and bythings will turn out to be in your interest.

GEMINIIt is a day filled with joyand happiness on thehome front. You willspend a lot of time with children. You willcomplete long pending household proj-ects as well as take an interest in ironingout differences between family members,says Ganesha.

CANCERThere is a chance todayto benefit from women-folk. Though you aremethodical and disci-plined in your work, you will feel rudder-less. Yet you will et relief from thismonotony and feel jovial, says Ganesha.

ARIESToday ideas will floodyour mind, but it is goodthat you will be able tocarry them out efficiently. However,Ganesha warns you not to take brashdecisions. Wise people will help youalong the way. Pay heed to the advise ofexperienced people.

FORTUNE FORECAST

TAURUSThe stars are very auspi-ciously disposed towardsyou, announces Ganesha.You have an exceptionallybright and enjoyable day ahead of you. Allevents and situations will work in yourfavour. If you are pursuing higher studiesyou will perform brilliantly.

CAPRICORNPrint and electronicmedia will attract yourattention, if you're justplanning to begin yourcareer. Your spiritual and philosophicalapproach give you inner peace, andalso inspire you to visit a holy place.Overall, you will have a balanced day,today, says Ganesha.

BREVITY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTSCROSSWORD

SUDOKU

SOLUTIONS

CRO

SSW

ORD

SUD

OKU

CHECK FOR SOLUTIONS OF THE PUZZLES TOMORROW

postTo solve the Sudoku puzzle, each row, column and box must contain the numbers 0 to 9 and the letters A to E.

B-Town condemns Tuticorin custodial deaths

Mumbai: Actress Shruti Haasancalls herself a ‘water baby’.

Shruti, daughter of veteran starsKamal Haasan and Sarika, took toInstagram, where she shared athrowback picture of herself from

an underwater photo-shoot.“Water baby #throwback,” she

captioned the image.She also shared a pho-tograph of her face,

where she showedher two

birthmarks inher eye and urgedeveryone to celebrateall the things that makethem what they are.

“Yes, those are birthmarksin my eye - no it’s not some weirdreaction - no it’s not a disease-yes they get lighter and darkerjust like freckles - yes it’s very com-mon- yes I have had them for yearsand years and I think they’re superspecial ?? and YES you should cel-ebrate all the things that make youYOU,” Shruti wrote.

Shruti made her Hindi filmdebut in 2000 with the film Luck.She was later seen in filmslike Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji,Ramayya Vasthavayyaand Behen Hogi Teri.IANS

Swara defends controversial scene

Now painting challenge to beat lockdown bluesOne of the works brings home amessage that how windows have

been opened for the nature tobreathe after humans were

compelled to stay home

A work of Dasaratha Mohanta

P3 STRICT VIGIL

Police check vehicles atKalpana Square inBhubaneswar toenforce the shutdownover Covid-19, Saturday

SANITISATION DRIVE

Fire brigade personnelsanitise Krushi Bhawan inBhubaneswar in the wakeof novel coronavirusoutbreak, Saturday downtown

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SUNDAY | JUNE 28 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

POST NEWS NETWORK

Puri, June 27: A group of engi-neers, carpenters and blacksmithsSaturday examined the status of thethree chariots of Srimandir deitiesahead of the Bahuda Yatra July 1.

According to sources, the expertteam examined Nandighosa rath ofLord Jagannath, Taladhwaja of LordBalabhadra and Darpadalan of DeviSubhadra thoroughly at Sharadhabalinear Srigundicha temple.

“The three chariots were foundin good condition. Only some minorrepair works were carried out on thechariots,” said a source.

Srimandir chief caretaker

Sudarshan Mekap said experts usedto examine the status of the char-iots prior to the Bahuda Yatra ofSrimandir deities. “The expert teamtoday examined the three chariotsat Sharadhabali. Subsequently, allminor repair works were carried outon the chariots. The chariots wouldtake Dakshina Moda (south turn)Sunday. Our experts will once againexamine the chariots just beforethe Bahuda Yatra,” Mekap said.

As per Srimandir tradition, LordJagannath and his siblings LordBalabhadra and Devi Subhadratravel on their respective chariotsto reach Srigundicha temple for anine-day sojourn on the occasion of

Rath Yatra. The deities return to theLions’ Gate of Srimandir on theoccasion of Bahuda Yatra.

Lakhs of devotees from acrossthe country as well as abroad con-gregate in the Holy City to witnessthe mega festival. This year, the an-nual event is being organised with-out congregation of devotees in the

wake of novel coronavirus outbreak. The state government has con-

ducted Covid-19 tests on severalhundred Srimandir servitors andpolice personnel to hold the megafestival amid the pandemic.

Moreover, the Shree JagannathTemple Administration (SJTA), inassociation with the Boyanika, hasdistributed specially-designed facemasks among the servitors.

Besides, the servitors have beentold to stay in home quarantine tillthe culmination of the festival.Earlier, the temple administrationhad distributed immunity-boost-ing homoeopathic medicines amongthe servitors, sources said.

BAHUDA YATRA AHEAD

Chariots to take south turn today

Experts examine the chariots at Sharadhabali ahead of the Bahuda Yatra of Srimandir deities, Saturday OP PHOTOS

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, June 27: In brazenmisuse of power, two senior policeofficials of Odisha had visited Puritown on the Rath Yatra day despitethe state government’s order pro-hibiting entry to the Pilgrim city tillJune 24 afternoon.

Although the officials in chargeof law order in Puri remain tight-lipped over the issue, sourcesclaimed that the senior cops vis-ited the Holy town on the RathYatra day – June 23, flouting thegovernment’s order.

According to highly-placedsources, one of the errant officersis deployed at Khurda as DeputySuperintendent of Police (DSP)while the other officer works as anassistant commissioner of police(ACP) in Bhubaneswar Urban PoliceDistrict of Commissionerate Police.

The state police immediatelyswung into action and ordered thePuri superintendent of police (SP)

and DIG Central Range to initiatean enquiry into the matter follow-ing the incident.

On June 24, the state police, inhaste, released an advisory re-stricting the visit of cops who werenot on Rath Yatra duty to not visitPuri apparently to avoid any furtherembarrassment.

The advisory said, “It is hereby laiddown that other than officers postedin Puri district and those deputed forLaw and Order (L&O) duty by StatePolice Headquarters, no officerswill be permitted to go to Puri on of-ficial duty till July 4, 2020.”

The state police also mentionedabout the incident involving thesuspended IIC of Barchana policestation in Jajpur district duringthe lockdown in April.

“The embarrassment faced byOdisha Police when an officer ofJajpur police visited Puri and triedto enter Srimandir during lock-down may be recalled. Possibilityof some officer alone or with fam-ily reaching Puri on the pretext ofofficial work or otherwise for dar-

shan cannot be totally ruled out,”adds the advisory.

Notably, the two officers havealso earlier embroiled in various con-troversies in the past. The ACP inquestion had also faced suspensionon the charges of departmentalmisconduct.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Puri, June 27: Herapanchami, aunique ritual of annual Car Festival,was performed at Srigundicha tem-ple here Saturday.

Goddess Mahalaxmi, the consortof Lord Jagannath, was taken tothe Srigundicha temple fromSrimandir on a palanquin for the con-duct of the Herapanchami ritual.

As per the tradition and belief,Mahalaxmi, the consort of LordJagannath, was peeved at LordJagannath as she was left out on thenine-day sojourn to Srigundichatemple. Angry Mahalaxmi reachedSrigundicha temple and tried topersuade Lord Jagannath to re-turn to Srimandir. The Goddessbroke a small portion from

Nandighosa chariot at Sharadhabaliafter her master refused to ac-company her.

“Herapanchami ritual displaysthe Manabiya Leela (humanly ac-tivities) of Lord Jagannath. GoddessLaxmi was brought to Srigundichatemple from Srimandir in a pro-cession. She was taken to the Jay-Bijay gate of the shrine after duepermission from Lord Jagannath.The Goddess was taken back toSrimandir after completion of theritual,” said a servitor.

Priests and servitors ofSrimandir performed the ritual inaccordance with the tradition andbelief. However, the ritual was per-formed at Srigundicha temple with-out the congregation of devotees dueto the Covid-19 restrictions.

IN A NUTSHELL

Although the officials incharge of law order in Puri

remain tight-lipped over theissue, sources claimed that thesenior cops visited the Holytown on the Rath Yatra day –June 23, flouting thegovernment’s order

According to highly-placedsources, one of the errant

officers is deployed at Khurda asDSP while the other officerworks as an assistantcommissioner of police inBhubaneswar Urban PoliceDistrict

On June 24, the state police,in haste, released an

advisory restricting the visit ofcops who were not on Rath Yatraduty to not visit Puri apparentlyto avoid any furtherembarrassment

GODDESS LAXMI BREAKSNANDIGHOSA CHARIOT

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, June 27: Striking a con-ciliatory tone after raising tensionsin eastern Ladakh to a fever pitch,China Thursday said it was readyto work with India to properly dealwith the border standoff while not-ing that "suspicion and friction"was a wrong path that goes againstthe fundamental aspirations of peo-ple of the two countries.

In an interview to PTI, ChineseAmbassador Sun Weidong said Indiaand China are able to properly man-age their differences, and calledupon New Delhi to avoid taking ac-tions that may "complicate" the sit-uation in eastern Ladakh. He wenton to add that at present, the over-all situation in the China-India bor-der areas is "stable and controllable."

"We hope the Indian side meetsthe Chinese side halfway, avoidstaking actions that may complicatethe border situation and takes con-crete actions to maintain stabilityin the border areas," he said.

The Indian and Chinese armiesare locked in a bitter standoff in mul-tiple locations in eastern Ladakh forthe last six weeks, and the tensionescalated manifold after 20 Indiansoldiers were killed in a violentclash in Galwan Valley June 15.

The Chinese ambassador said"mutual respect and support" is asure way and meets the long-term

interests of both countries, but at thesame time, largely put the onus onIndia to ease tension in the region.

"China and India are both largedeveloping countries and emerg-ing economies with more than onebillion people, and both have thehistoric mission of realising ourown development and revitalisa-tion," he said.

He further said: "China and Indiaare willing and able to properlymanage differences. In the last fewweeks, both sides have held a seriesof diplomatic and military talks tocool down temperature even asChinese military has increased itspresence in all sensitive areas alongthe 3,500 km Line of Actual Control(LAC), the de-facto border

At a weekly media briefing,Exter nal Af fairs MinistrySpokesperson Anurag SrivastavaThursday said Chinese side de-parted from previously agreed un-derstanding in respect the GalwanValley area and sought to erectstructures just across the LAC.

"When this attempt was foiled,Chinese troops took violent ac-tions on June 15 that directly re-sulted in casualties," the spokesper-son asserted. He said the conductof Chinese forces this year has beenin complete disregard of all mutu-ally agreed norms.

The ambassador said:"Mutualrespect and support is a sure way

and meets the long-term interestsof both countries; suspicion andfriction is a wrong path and goesagainst the fundamental aspira-tion of the two peoples."

"Under the guidance of the im-portant consensus reached by theleaders of the two countries, we areready to work with the Indian sideto properly deal with the current sit-uation, jointly uphold peace and sta-bility in the border areas, and en-sure a sound and steady developmentof bilateral relations," Sun said.

In their historic informal summitin Chinese city of Wuhan in 2018,Prime Minister Narendra Modi and

Chinese President Xi Jinping un-derscored the importance of main-taining peace and tranquillity inall areas of the India-China borderregion in the interest of the devel-opment of bilateral relations.

The summit had taken placemonths after a 73-day military face-off between the two armies inDoklam that raised fears of a warbetween the two Asian giants.

In the course of the interview, Sunrepeated the Chinese government'sstand -- which has been rejected byIndia -- that Indian troops are re-sponsible for the Galwan Valleyclashes, and indicated that the onus

was on India to improve the situa-tion in eastern Ladakh.

"The onus is not on China. TheIndian side crossed the LAC (Lineof Actual Control) for provocationand attacked the Chinese bordertroops. The Indian forces seriouslyviolated agreements on border is-sues between the two countries,"he said.

After the killing of 20 Indian sol-diers in Galwan clashes, India calledit "a premeditated and planned ac-tion by China" and sent a veiledwarning to China saying "Indiawants peace but if provoked, Indiais capable of giving a befitting reply".

Referring to talks between foreignministers of the two countries June17, the envoy said both sides agreedto "fairly address" the serious sit-uation caused by the Galwan con-flict and vowed to jointly follow theconsensus reached at the com-

mander-level meeting on June 6 toease the situation as soon as possible.

Sun said China would not liketo see a similar situation like theGalwan clashes, repeating Chineseforeign ministry's allegations thatIndia was responsible for it.

The Ambassador said the twosides kept peace for decades inGalwan Valley, adding since the be-ginning of 2020, the Indian side hasbuilt facilities at or the crossing ofthe LAC in the Galwan Valley, "con-stantly changing the status quo ofground control.

On May 6, he claimed the Indiantroops crossed the LAC in theGalwan Valley by night and tres-passed into Chinese territory.

"They resorted to violent meansto create a standoff between thetwo sides and built infrastructuresin an attempt to maintain a per-manent presence," he alleged.

India has been maintaining thatGalwan Valley belongs to it andhas strongly rejected China's claimof sovereignty over it.

Sun said Chinese side lodgedrepresentations on multiple occa-sions to the Indian side throughmilitary and diplomatic channelsfollowing the incident and thatIndia agreed to withdraw its per-sonnel from the area.

The two sides held Lt General-leveltalks on June 6 during which theyagreed on disengagement of troopsfrom all the standoff areas.

The ambassador said the Indianside promised in the talks that theywould not cross the estuary of theGalwan river to patrol and buildfacilities, adding the two sides agreedto build observation posts on ei-ther side of the Galwan river mouth.

"However, after the commander-level meeting, when the situation onthe ground was already easing, theIndian border troops copped outon the consensus reached at thecommander-level meeting, de-manded that China dismantle its ob-servation post," he said.

India has been consistently main-taining that Galwan Valley clasheshad taken place on the Indian sideof the LAC. The envoy said ac-tions taken by the Indian side arenot in consonance with the spiritof several agreements signed by thetwo countries.

NOT CHINA, INDIA RESPONSIBLE: CHINESE ENVOY The onus is not onChina. The Indianside crossed the LAC(Line of Actual

Control) for provocation andattacked the Chinese bordertroops. The Indian forcesseriously violated agreementson border issues between thetwo countriesSUN WEIDONG I CHINESE AMBASSADOR

AGENCIES

New Delhi, June 27: In what canbe seen as the government puttingits foot down, Prasar Bharati, India’spublic broadcaster, is sending a let-ter threatening to end its “rela-tionship” over the alleged “anti-national” reportage by news agencyPress Trust of India or PTI. Thiscomes soon after the PTI carried aninterview with Chinese ambassa-dor Sun Weidong, where he blamedIndia for the India-China violentstandoff that saw 20 Indian brave-hearts getting martyred.

Sources say a “strong letter” wasbeing to PTI just ahead of its Boardmeeting Saturday where the pub-lic broadcaster expressed “deepdispleasure on anti national re-porting by PTI.” The public broad-caster has communicated that thePTI’s editorial stance makes it un-tenable to “continue relationship.”

Government sources claim thatthe broadcaster had been “sup-porting PTI with huge financialfees” which often ran into severalcrores. This arrangement has been

going on for decades, claimed thesource. However, it insisted thatPTI has been “rigid” on review ofthe same since 2016-17.

Meanwhile, government sourcesindicated that it was not a one offincident that sparked the outragebut the “totality of PTI’s conduct.”

In the controversial interviewwhich was published June 25, theChinese diplomat had put the onusto resolve the crisis on India. “Theincident was completely instigatedby the Indian side and the respon-sibility does not lie with the Chineseside,” PTI had quoted him.

After the interview, Sun tweeted:“Gave interview to PTI on#GalwanValley Incident. Onus is noton #China. We are willing & ableto properly manage differences.

Mutual respect & support is sureway. Suspicion & friction is wrongpath. Will jointly uphold peace & sta-bility in border areas, ensure sound& steady relations.” (sic)

Miffed Prasar Bharati threatensto dump ‘anti-national’ PTI

After the news agency carried an interview with Chinese ambassador,Prasar Bharati has been mulling to end its “relationship” with the former

MANY RUN-INS

The PTI had its share of run-ins with the present

government. A few years ago,Union Minister Smriti Irani hadpointed out that the PTI used awrong image of a floodedairport, which was being passedoff as Ahmedabad airport inflood-ravaged Gujarat. It thenapologised for its mistake. Inanother incident, the newsagency showed a picture of theBJP and JDU cadres wearingModi and Nitish Kumar masks tomark ‘Friendship Day’. In August,2017, Irani had tweeted:“@PTI_News is this how electedheads will be projected? Is thisyour official stand?” (sic) Thenagain, the news agency hadissued an apology.

With some minor repairworks carried out on the chariots, the threeraths were found in good condition

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, June 27: In areshuffle among young IAS officersof 2017 batch, the state govern-ment Saturday transferred fiveofficers.

According to a notification issuedby the General Administration(GA) department, Somesh KumarUpadhyay has been appointed asTitlagarh sub-collector with ad-ditional charge of Titlagarh mu-nicipality executive officer.

Likewise, P Anvesha Reddy hasbeen posted as Baripada sub-col-lector with additional charge ofBaripada municipality executiveofficer, the notification said.

Moreover, Patil Ashish Ishwar,Divakara T S and Hema KantaSay have been appointed as sub-collectors of Balasore,Dharmagarh and Jeypore re-spectively. These three officerswill also remain in charge of urbanlocal bodies (ULBs) of the placesconcerned, read the GA depart-ment notification.

Five IAS officerstransferred

Cops in the soup for visiting Puri fest

Servitors carry Goddess Mahalaxmi from Srimandir to Srigundicha temple inPuri for performance of Herapanchami ritual, Saturday OP PHOTO

Curfew in Puri from June 30 to July 2Puri: Curfew will be enforced in the entire Puri district from 10pm June30 till 10pm July 2 for the Bahuda Yatra. All the roads leading to Puriwould be sealed while Badadanda, the venue of the fete, would be understrict curfew. The buildings located on either side of Badadanda werenoticed not to allow outsiders to go to the rooftop during the BahudaYatra. However, only the owner family members of the buildings werepermitted to witness the fete from their roof.

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POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, June 27: The CuttackMunicipal Corporation (CMC)Saturday claimed that Rs 3,99,300had been collected from erring cit-izens of the city for violation ofCOVID 19 rules over last few months.

CMC Commissioner Ananya Das,in a press conference, Saturdaysaid the offences included not wear-ing masks or not maintaining socialdistancing during lockdown andCOVID 19 outbreak.

“In the last few months we havecollected around Rs 3 lakh as penaltyfrom the erring citizens who de-faulted on wearing masks in pub-lic or not maintaining social dis-tancing,” she said.

Ag riculture De par tmentPrincipal Secretary Saurabh Gargsaid a review meeting for the pre-paredness of the city against COVID19 was organized Saturday. He alsoappreciated the roles of ward com-mittees and Puja committees forsupporting the civic body in man-agement of COVID 19 crisis.

According to Garg, 59 ward com-mittee panels and 179 Puja and Sahicommittees of the city have beenroped in to volunteer for COVID 19management and early warningand awareness.

“The CMC is taking their help intheir fight towards COVID 19. Policeare also in contact with them andthey are being trained and informedthrough video conferencing. Theyare monitoring the health condi-tions of communities,” he said.

Garg also said that around 10,000senior citizens have been identi-fied in the city for whom volun-teers are working to home-delivertheir essentials to keep them safeand not expose them to vulnerableconditions.

“The CMC has constituted 10Rapid Action Teams (RATs) to goand manage the COVID cases. Thiscomprises MBBS and Ayush doctors.They have also planned work for thevulnerable community. Police haveformed teams to manage 10,000 sen-ior citizens. Their home-deliveriesare taken care of to prevent them

from coming outside,” he said. According to the civic body, the

region has seen a return of 5101people up till now from outside.“We are doing their tracking and al-lowing them to opt for home quar-antine. 3,892 people are either underhome quarantine or have finished

with it. There are 949 cases of in-stitutional quarantine,” Das said.

The CMC commissioner saidCuttack currently has 18 quarantinecentres with 1,290 beds. “This is togo up to 1500 beds too. Seven quar-antine centres with 171 beds areoperative,” she said.

BHUBANESWAR: Experts work-ing on the COVID 19 outbreak opinethat the state government needs tochange its strategy to tackle the cri-sis by escalating the number of testsin the light of development of moreindigenously-built testing systems.

“The strategy in our country istest, track and treat. Identify the in-fection by testing, track the con-tacts and treat patientsat early stages, bywhich we can con-trol the trans-mission of in-fections anddecrease thedeath rate.Now we haveenormous in-digenous test-ing capacity inour country,”said Dr ManojKumar Sahu, Headof De par tment,Gastereolo g y, SUMHospital.

Dr Sahu has been associated withthe World Health Organization(WHO) on Eradication of Hepatitis,also on prevention of Corona in-fection. He added, “All states needto increase the number of tests . RT

PCR and rapid antigen tests foridentification of active infectionsand antibody test for sero-preva-lence of the disease. When we knowthe actual status of the disease, thestrategy might change accordingly.”

The state, meanwhile, has al-ready planned to increase the test-

ing by making more test kitsavailable for rapid an-

tibody tests. TheIndian Institute

of LifeSciences hasplanned toescalate thetestingthroughnew kitsgiven by

the govern-ment, the in-

stitute had toldthe media re-

cently.This comes after the

Indian Council of MedicalResearch (ICMR) sought increas-ing testing across the country. ICMRapproved kits are likely to reachOdisha within a week. The testingis likely to be used for door to doorCOVID screening.

`3.9L collected for lockdown violations in CuttackMORE TESTING KEY TO CHECKPANDEMIC, SAY EXPERTS

The media briefing in progress OP PHOTO

(From top) A mechanised

sweeping machinecleans a stretch ofroad near Janpath

during the coronavirus-inducedshutdown; otherwise

busy PMG areawears a deserted

look and people face inconveniences near

Master CanteenSquare as public

transport remainsoff the road due tothe weekend shut-

down inBhubaneswar,

SaturdayOP PHOTOS

CITY IN COVID TIMES

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Jun 27: In viewof the rising COVID-19 cases inthe capital city, the civic authori-ties here have decided to rope in peerleaders of Socially Smart Projectof Bhubaneswar Smart CityLimited (BSCL) as CovidSachetakas, to increase awarenessamong people.

Peer leaders of the BSCL’s projectare youths that are involved in com-munity development, largely in slumareas. A collaborative initiative ofBMC, BSCL and United NationsPopulation Fund and the peer leaderdevelopment has been operationalsince 2017. A two-day training by theBhubaneswar Municipal Corporation(BMC) and doctors for these lead-ers at Saheed Nagar Kalyan Mandapconcluded Saturday.

“The BMC has decided to in-volve these peer leaders in help-ing our fight against the pandemic.Their job will involve going door todoor and educate people about so-cial distancing, hand hygiene andsymptoms of COVID. They willalso work to identify people withprobable symptoms of Covid andinform ZCO and other officials forfurther support,” informed BMCCommissioner, Prem Chandra

Chaudhary. Sources at the BMCsaid the civic authority’s move torope in extra hands has come in thewake of the increasing spread ofCOVID-19 in the city. The totalCovid cases in the city currentlystand at 283. They included 148 re-coveries and 131 active cases whilethree deaths were reported.

Moreover, a few of these caseshave now started to come out ofslums where potential outbreak ispossible owing to poor social dis-tancing. As many as four caseshave been reported from LaxmiBazaar slum in the city with two fe-males, aged 31 and 38 years, testingpositive for Coronavirus apart fromtwo males aged 50 and 18. All ofthem are linked to an earlier-re-ported positive case.

With an aim to help the author-ities efficiently battle againstCOVID-19, Deepanjali Swain, atrainee, of Jagannath Basti PressColony, said, “It is a unique op-portunity to contain the spread ofvirus at our community level.People in our slums are not verycareful and can be seen playingcards in groups. Many of themalso do not use masks. We will forma group and move from house tohouse and create awareness on thevarious aspects of the pandemic.”

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, June 27: As partof the 5T initiative, the state gov-ernment has decided to develop amobile application for filing andmonitoring RTI applications.

The information and public re-

lation (I&PR) department will en-gage a firm to develop the appli-cations. According to sources, theapplication will be named as BijuTransparency App (BIJUTAPP)which will be in English and Odialanguages. This application willbe developed in sync with the re-spective web applications.

The need for a mobile applica-tion is high as most of the placesin Odisha do not have proper in-ternet connectivity. This became

a problem for the users of the por-tal. By using the mobile applica-tion, people without dependingupon cyber café and other inter-net sources can use the mobileapplication to upload their issues,the sources said.

The mobile app will have login

for common users and public au-thorities, online filling & receiv-ing of RTI applications, uploadingof necessary documents while fill-ing the online applications, up-dating of RTI proactive disclosures& e-filing and SMSes & mail inte-grations.

The government has also goingto redevelop state RTI portal--http://rtiodisha.gov.in to make itmore user friendly, the source said.

The portal will have e-filing tool

like the Central RTI portal.Currently, the government is usingmanual reporting system. This re-porting mechanism is dependentupon the mail and postal deliverysystems. The postal departmenttakes long time to deliver the reportto concern person. Therefore, the

e-filing too will be developed sothat people will not need to postthe application after online filing.

Moreover, the portal will havee-reporting model for the PublicInformation Officer (PIO) so thatthey can get any type of statisticsand subjective data from top to bot-tom offices.

Over 12,000 government officeswill be connected in this portal andall will submit data and report ina single format, the source added.

State to develop appto file RTI applications

Covid fight to rope inpeer leaders in slums

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, June 27: IndiaMeteorological Department (IMD)Saturday said the prevailingweather condition would continuein the state till July first week.

“Rainfall activity has comedown in the state. Very few placesare receiving heavy rain due tothunderstorm while light to mod-erate rain is happening in manyplaces. Such weather conditionwill continue till July first week,”said Bhubaneswar Met Centre di-rector HR Biswas.

The rainfall activity is likelyto intensify in the state from Julysecond week, he added.

The MeT Centre said heavyrainfall is very likely to occur atone or two places over the dis-tricts of Sundargarh, Deogarh,Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj, Sunday.

Besides, thunderstorm withlightning will occur at a few placesof the districts of coastal Odisha,Kandhamal, Rayag ada,Sundargarh, Deogarh, Keonjhar,Mayurbhanj and Dhenkanal dur-ing next 24 hours.

The IMD has issued yellowwarning (thunderstorm) for northinterior Odisha, Cuttack, Jajpur,Kendrapara Bhadrak and Balasore,Monday.

‘Odisha to remain as edu hub’POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, June 27: All de-partments and higher educationinstitutions should cooperate withthe government in its war againstthe coronavirus, Higher Education(HE) Minister Arun Sahoo said.

Speaking at a webinar organ-ised by FICCI Odisha State Council,Friday, Sahoo said, “COVID -19 sit-uation in the state is under control,but the next one or two monthscould be challenging. The current

pandemic will be over in a fewmonths. The state government canassure that Odisha would remainas the education hub of the east-ern region.” Officials of HE de-partment, academicians, researchscholars and students attended thewebinar. Chaiperson of FICCIOdisha State Council Monica NayyarPatnaik said that COVID-19 has af-fected higher education. Patnaiksaid that online education duringcurrent crisis has become the onlyoption. In a special session, acade-

micians and Vice Chancellors (VCs)of several universities of Odishaexpressed their views on higher ed-ucation in post COVID-19 scenario.

KIIT University VC HrusikeshMohanty expressed his concernover the quality of education of-fered during current situation.

VC of Odisha Higher EducationCouncil AK Das said that safety,employment and livelihood will bea challenge while putting studentsin home and providing them on-line learning.

Erratic rainfall tillJuly first week

The need for a mobile application is high as most of theplaces in Odisha do not have proper internet connectivity

The application will be named as Biju Transparency App(BIJUTAPP) which will be in English and Odia languages

The app will have login for common users and publicauthorities, online filling & receiving of RTI applications,uploading of necessary documents while filling the onlineapplications, updating of RTI proactive disclosures & e-filing and SMSes & mail integrations.

The government has also going to redevelop state RTI portal--http://rtiodisha.gov.in to make it more user friendly

The portal will have e-filing tool like the Central RTI portal

FOCUS TRANSPARENCY

Cong slams govtfor Rath Yatra‘goof-up’ in SCPOST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, June 27: TheOdisha Congress, Saturday, blamedthe state government for the allegedmishandling of a case before theSupreme Court pertaining to con-duct of Rath Yatra in Puri.

Odisha Congress SpokespersonSatya Prakash Nayak accused thestate government of ignoring theviews of Puri Gajapati KingDibyasingha Deb, who is the chiefof the Temple ManagingCommittee.

“The Odisha government hasgoofed up massively in Rath Yatraepisode. The explosive statementsfrom Gajapati MaharajaDibyasingha Deb are evident ofthe irresponsible and anti-devoteemindset of the government. Theapex committee of the temple hasbeen empowered by law. GajapatiMaharaja is the legal head of thepanel,” he said.

He also added, “Deb alleged thathe believed that the state govern-ment has gone to SC to ensureconduct of the Rath Yatra but thestance taken by the governmentlawyers before the SC stunnedhim. He alleged that his viewswere not presented before the SC.”

Nayak said that the state al-legedly supported the argumentsof the rival party – Odisha BikashParisad. This hints that there wasestablished conspiracy in the case,he said, adding that the state gov-ernment has adopted a dual pol-icy on Rath Yatra.

“Gajapati Maharaja’s statementhints that the state had a ‘matchfixing’ with the NGO over the mat-ter. The Gajapati King has writtento the state government thriceover the issue but the latter didn’trespond,” Nayak alleged.

He also said, “Let the peopleknow when there was a plan wasto conduct the Lord’s Rath Yatrawithout devotees, who informedthe SC that around 10 to 12 lakh peo-ple would congregate in Puri ifthe Car Festival is held. The coun-sel for the state government wasmisled by the State AdvocateGeneral. It seems misleading in-formation was provided to thecourt. Who should be held re-sponsible for this?”

The BJP also raised questionsover the entire episode. OdishaBJP spokesperson PrithivirajHarichandan said that the statefailed to listen to the concerns ofthe temple administration.

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Dhenkanal, June 27: The spread of herpesinfection has gripped elephants in Dhenkanalreserve forest under Hindol range killingthree and infecting many over the past oneand a half years.

The infection is on the rise and with no pre-ventive measures the forest department ap-pears ill prepared.

As elephants are social animals, the prob-ability of mass infections cannot be ruled outin coming days. If the infection spreads, it couldwipe out the entire elephant population ofHindol forest range, locals apprehended.

Between January 2019 and June 2020, threepachyderms died in Hindol range due to her-pes infection, of which one was a femaleand the two others were calves.

The calf who died at Kapilash elephant res-cue centre a year back was suspected to havehad been infected by herpes. The forest de-partment officials did not clarify on the rea-sons of the calf ’s death and tried to suppressthe matter, according to a source.

Further, a female jumbo that died a few daysback was also infected by herpes, the post-mortem report confirmed. It has been al-

leged that forest officials despite havingknowledge of the animal’s serious infectiondid not provide it adequate treatment.

Similarly, another infected calf from theforest had infiltrated into Rasol region last

year. The animal died due to the alleged ap-athy of the forest department. Senior vet-erinary doctors from Satkosia had advisedfor immediate treatment of the sick calf. Butthe calf died a day after being rescued, owing

to gross neglect by forest officials.A complete course of antiviral injection

for herpes treatment costs around Rs 20,000to Rs 25,000 in the open market. It is allegedthat the department is reluctant to purchaseantiviral injection due to its high priceswhich has given rise to more number ofjumbo infections in Dhenkanal.

Reacting to this, senior veterinary doctorof Satkosia Dr Kishore Sahu said, “Generally,Asian elephants get infected by herpes-1virus and their African counterparts by her-pes-2 virus. Herpes-1 infection is fatal forcalves and causes swelling of throat andmouth as well as wounds all over the body.”

“The jumbos fail to intake food and grad-ually become weak, thereby leading to theiruntimely death. In the absence of adequatetreatment, an adult elephant dies within 1 to20 days of getting infected,” Dr Sahu ex-plained. Dhenkanal Divisional Forest Officer(DFO) Bimal Prasanna Acharya said, “We haveinformed the department higher-ups aboutherpes infection found in a female elephantthat died of late.” Acharya did not commentfurther citing he has already been trans-ferred to Bhubaneswar-based NandankananZoological Park.

Dhenkanal jumbos in grip of herpes infection WORRYING

TRENDn Between January2019 and June 2020,three pachyderms diedin Hindol range due toherpes infection, whilemany are infected bythe virus

n The infection is onthe rise and with nopreventive measuresthe forest departmentappears ill prepared

n As elephants are social animals, theprobability of massinfections cannot beruled out in coming days

It is alleged that the forest department is reluctant to purchaseantiviral injection due to its high prices

POST NEWS NETWORK

Kendrapara, June 27: With thestate government’s 2004 boat rulesbeing flouted and passengers beingferried to various destinations inboats with no safety gears in place,yet another major boat mishapis only a matter of time inKendrapara district.

Past mishaps arestill fresh in people’smind. A boat capsizedin Mahanadi June 19near Pitapat villageunder Mahakalaparablock but the five labour-ers who were travellingin the boat cheated death asthey managed to swim ashore.

In another mishap that took placeat the same place March 1, 2013, 13young cricketers of Jagatsinghpurdistrict met watery graves as the boatcapsized. As many as 10 womenand children were killed after their

boat drowned at Nipania January2, 2019.

The casualties could have beenavoided had the boats had safetygears like life jackets and ring buoys.

Seventeen panchayats are en-circled by rivers in this district.

And theses panchayatsare yet to be con-

nected by bridges.Even today, peo-ple of thesepanchayats arecommuting byboats putting

their lives inharm’s way.

Visitors goingto tourist spots

near the BhitarkanikaNational Park like Hukitola,Habalikhati, Batighar and Baruneialso commute in boats putting theirlives at risk. According to socialactivist Abhitabh Chand, all theboats engaged in ferrying passen-

gers should have been insured as perthe 2004 boat rules. But this is notthe case here. Let alone insurance,most boats are operating withouteven fitness certificates. “God for-bid no mishap should take place. Butif it happens and some people drown,

they will not get any compensa-tion. More than 60 boats are oper-ating in Bhitarkanika NationalPark area,” Chand said.

Echoing the same, NarendraSahu, a resident of Gupti inRajnagar block, said there are more

than 1,700 saltwater crocodiles inBhitarkanika. In this area, boatsare operating from Gupti, Chandbali,Khola, Jaynagar, Bahakuda andJamboo. The possibility of anothermishap cannot be ruled out as inmost boats, the boatmen are mi-

nors and inexperienced. Besides,they take in more passengers thantheir capacities. Expressing hisconcern, Bibhuti Rout, a resident ofMahakalapara, said people areforced to use boats as means of acommunication in the absence ofbridges. For people of Bahakudand Kharinasi, bridges have be-come a dream. Hundreds of fami-lies residing on the banks ofMahanadi, Brahmani and Baitaraniare travelling in country boats. Butthe district administration has for-gotten to conduct checks, Rout said.

DFO Bimal Prasanna Acharya,meanwhile, said direction has beenissued for the insurance of bothboatmen and boats.

Additional District Magistrate(ADM) Basant Kumar Rout saidboatmen have been made aware ofthe rules and regulations. If anyboat is found not following the rules,the administration will take actionagainst them, the ADM said.

In absence of bridges, risky boat rides a normal hereNORMS VIOLATION

SEVENTEENPANCHAYATS INKENDRAPARADISTRICT AREENCIRCLED BYRIVERS AND ARE YETTO BE CONNECTEDBY BRIDGES

EVEN TODAY,PEOPLE OFTHESEPANCHAYATSCOMMUTE BYBOATS PUTTINGTHEIR LIVES INHARM’S WAY

IN MOST BOATS, THE BOATMEN AREMINORS AND INEXPERIENCED ANDTHEY TAKE IN MORE PASSENGERSTHAN THEIR CAPACITIES

THE LACK OF SAFETY GEARS LIKE LIFEJACKETS AND RING BUOYS MAKES THEBOAT RIDES ALL THE MORE RISKY

Allthe boats

engaged in ferryingpassengers should havebeen insured as per the

2004 boat rules. But this isnot the case here

ABHITABH CHAND ISOCIAL ACTIVIST

THE ART OF ANGLING

Children angling in a construction pit, which was flooded after floodwater was released from Hirakud dam in Sambalpur OP PHOTO

POST NEWS NETWORK

Berhampur, June 27: Concernedover the increasing COVID-19 in-fections in Ganjam district,Collector Vijay Amruta Kulangeurged rural people in the districtto not enter urban areas of thedistrict for the next 15 days.

The decision has been taken asa preventive measure to contain thespread of coronavirus in the ruralareas.

Kulange tweeted, “We requestpeople in rural areas to not visitany urban area for the next 15days if not an emergency.”

The Collector advised the peo-ple to follow the three basic guide-lines of COVID-19 -- social dis-tancing, use of masks and regularhand wash for 20 seconds or use ofsanitisers to stay safe and fightthe deadly virus.

“We have to avoid crowd, usemask and constantly maintain so-cial distancing to control coron-avirus,” Kulange said.

With 58 new COVID-19 cases re-ported in district Saturday, thetotal number of cases in Ganjam reached 1,195.

The number of active cases inthe district has now reached 376.The district has also reported eightdeaths due to the coronavirus dis-ease so far. However, 811 patientshave also recovered from the ten-tacles of the deadly virus.

Ganjam district tops the COVID-19 infection list in Odisha with1,195 cases. Among those hit bythe virus, 18 are Corona warriors.Two of them are from Shergad,seven are from Rangeilunda, oneeach from Sanakeamundi ,Kukudakhandi, Buguda andBhanjanagar, two from Aska andone each from Purusotampur andBerhampur MunicipalCorporation.

Among those who tested positivefor the disease Saturday, 57 havetravel histories and one is fromlocal area who was tested positivefor coronavirus after coming incontact with a Surat returnee.

The district administration isworried about the sharp rise inCOVID-19 cases BerhampurMunicipal Corporation for whichit announced a four-day shutdownin the BeMC area starting fromSaturday.

Ganjam admin urgesvillagers to not enterurban areas for 15 days

COVID CONTROL

POST NEWS NETWORK

Rasulpur, June 27:Even as the gov-ernment has laid stress on properexecution of the Mahatma GandhiNational Rural EmploymentGuarantee Scheme (MGNREGS)during the COVID-induced lock-down, irregularities have scuttledits purpose in Rasulpur block ofJajpur district, a report said.

People of Atlapur in this blockalleged that owing to an unholynexus between officials and con-tractors, official guidelines werethrown to the winds in the execu-tion of a project under MGNREGS.

“While job card holders in the lo-cality have been sitting pretty, thecontractor engaged cheap workersfrom outside,” they pointed out.

It was learnt that Rs 2 lakh wasallocated for restoration of an em-bankment in Atlapur panchayat.Surprisingly, the estimated costmentioned in the informationplaque is Rs 5 lakh. The scheme of

the project was named as ‘Brahmaniriver embankment road’.

Officially, it was stated that thework was started February 13, 2020and completed June 5, 2020. Thebill of the project has been cleared.However, there is no mention aboutuse of tractors in the documents sub-mitted for clearance of bill.

The villagers also alleged thatthe contractor has used sand in-stead of soil in the project.

Moreover, outside workers were

engaged in sand transport whilelocal workers were sitting idle, thevillagers said, demanding a probeinto the illegalities. When askedabout the illegalities, Anil KumarBiswal, engineer of the departmentconcerned, said Rs 5 lakh waswrongly mentioned as cost of theproject. However, he could not replyabout the irregularities in the work.

In other panchayats, fake musterrolls are prepared in MGNREGSprojects, it was alleged.

MGNREGS employment normsgo for a toss in Jajpur district

It was learnt that `2lakh was allocatedfor restoration ofan embankment inAtlapur panchayat.Surprisingly, the estimated cost inthe informationplaque is `5 lakh

POST NEWS NETWORK

Angul, June 27: Taking up a mas-sive plantation drive in the districtduring rainy season this year, Angulforest division has prepared over18.5 lakh saplings for the purpose.

Out of the above number ofsaplings 3,14,000 will be planted on895 acres of land, on along sides68km long roads here and remaining15,28,000 saplings will be distributedamong different organisations, cor-porate houses and private indi-viduals, forest officials informed.

The afforestation drive includesplanting of 10,500 saplings inBantala range, 46,500 saplings inJarapada range, 84,500 saplings inChhendipada range, 33,660 saplingsin Angul range, 47,500 saplings inTalcher range including highestnumber of 91,500 saplings in Kaniharange. Gambhari, sishu, asan,karanja, arjun, amla, neem, jamunand bamboo saplings will be planted.

Plantation drive on 1,757 acresof land was taken up the previous

year and 4,39,208 different saplingswere planted including 57km longroadsides and 8,71,490 saplingswhich were distributed among var-ious organisations and private in-dividuals. Despite planting of ahuge number of saplings every year,the drive has gone for a toss with-out proper care and maintenance,local environmentalists, naturelovers and intelligentsia have opined.

Reacting to this, a senior offi-cial of Angul forest division said,“We are taking care of saplingsafter planting those. However, thesaplings which are distributed toothers are often not taken care of.Forest department officials havebeen instructed to see to it.”

Angul forest division takes upplantation drive on 895 acres

POST NEWS NETWORK

Berhampur, June 27: An amountof Rs 80, 800 was collected from 404COVID guideline violators in 24hours here, Berhampur SP PinakMishra said in a tweet Saturday.

Even as coronavirus is fastspreading its tentacles inBerhampur, people here still seemto be not serious enough aboutthe invisible enemy.

The administration has beencreating awareness among peo-ple on how can the virus be keptat bay and asking people to wearmasks and maintain social dis-tancing at shops. In its attempt todiscourage people from floutingnorms, fines are being collectedfrom violators. The police caught404 violators between Friday 6amto Saturday 6am and collected Rs80, 800 from them.

`80K collectedfrom COVID-19norm violators

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Koraput, June 27: In a majorhaul, Odisha police have seized1,700 kilograms of ganja and ar-rested 26 people in this connec-tion from Koraput district, an of-ficial said Friday.

Police said the banned drugwas procured from Machkundarea of the district, from where itwas being smuggled to other states.

“Owing to the lockdown, ganjasmugglers are supplying the con-traband in vehicles meant fortransporting essential commodi-ties to give the police the slip.However, we have intensified ourraid in the past few months andhave enhanced our patrolling onsuspected ganja corridors in thedistrict,” Koraput SP MukeshKumar Bhamoo said.

Police seized 10 four-wheelers inwhich around 1,700 kilograms ofg anja was being smuggledThursday, on the eve of theInternational Day Against DrugAbuse and Illicit Trafficking.

“We were tipped-off about theconsignments and accordinglythe vehicles were intercepted at var-ious locations,” the SP said.

Raids were conducted atSunabeda, Semiliguda, Pottangi,Boipariguda, Machkund andJeypore Sadar police station areas.

Despite raids in these areas,hemp plantation and supply frominaccessible pockets have not beenchecked completely.

According to the SP, since August2019, the district police have seized25,462 kilograms of ganja and havearrested 263 people for smugglingthe contraband.

“Also, we have destroyed 19,000cannabis plants spread over 550acres in the district in past fewweeks,” the SP said.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhawanipatna, June 27: Mysteryshrouds the death of an IndianReserve Battalion (IRB) jawanwhose body was fished out froma nullah in Dharmagarh area ofKalahandi district Saturday.

The deceased has been identi-fied as Biswajit Mangaraj fromGolamunda area in Kalahandi.

Police recoveredthe body and sentit for post-mortem.A case has beenregistered and aninvestigation intothe incident wason, a police officersaid. Prima facie, itis suspected to be a case of mur-der, the officer added.

According to Biswajit’s familymembers, the deceased went outof home Friday night telling themthat he was going to his work-place. Family members launcheda frantic search in nearby areas in-cluding his workplace after hedidn’t return.

Mystery shroudsIRB jawan’s death

1,700 kg ofganja seized in Koraput

Panchayat shutdown after 3 Covid deathsDHARAKOTE: After the death of three persons including the vice-chairperson of Dharakote block due to Covid-19, the sarpanch of Jahadapanchayat in Ganjam district announced a shutdown in the area for sixdays using the special power of District Magistrate, Saturday. Thecontainment which came into effect at 1 PM Saturday will remain in forcefor six days till 1 PM July 2, said sarpanch Sulata Behera. The Dharakotepanchayat samiti vice-chairman and two siblings have succumbed to thevirus in last couple of days.The situation has become quite alarmingfollowing 800 migrants returning to their homes in the panchayat.

power post P6

E ven critics of the Prime Minister and his party have been taken abackby his position on China’s intrusions. Of all the things that he hasadvertised himself, even the Modi haters had accepted that he was

a nationalist, whether or not they agreed with nationalism or ultra na-tionalism of the sort he promotes.

But nobody, including them, expected him to run away from an inva-sion of Bharat Mata, as he has done.

Modi has made only one public statement on the matter of China andthat was to say: “Na koi wahan hamari seema mein ghus aaya hai, na hikoi ghusa hua hai, na hi hamari koi post kisi dusre ke kabze mein hain.”This was used by China to claim control over all of Galwan Valley, whereit has intruded.

Modi’s words have become such an embarrassment that they havebeen removed from the official PMO video.

Modi has not spoken on the issue after this, and appears to be pre-tending that there is no intrusion. Satelliteimagery confirms that the tent our mendied trying to remove has now become aseries of Chinese structures on our side.

Reports, which have not been denied bythe government, say China has made afourth intrusion at Depsang where it is 18km inside India. Our response is so mutedas to be shocking. Everyone in the gov-ernment seems to be worried, and therehas been a long statement from the foreignministry and an interview with the Indianambassador in Beijing asking China to re-spect the Line of Actual Control. But atthe same time nobody is saying Chinahas intruded, because they fear contra-dicting Modi.

The defence ministry has said anony-mously to reporters that the army hasbeen given a free hand. But this doesn’tmean anything. The army cannot decidewhether or not we are at war with China.This is a political decision. It is Modi whomust decide that India will use force to kickthe Chinese out, like Nehru decided, andonly after that does the military comeinto the picture.

Saying the forces have a free hand in thissituation is abdication of duty and re-sponsibility and passing off political ac-countability to the military.

The government is treating this as a lo-calised policing issue though clearly theintent of the Chinese is strategic. India isfacing danger but the government is notprepared or willing to acknowledge it.

Because we are speaking in so manydifferent voices we have lost the oppor-tunity to mobilise international supporton China’s aggression. If we had beentransparent about the aggression wecould have put Xi Jinping on the back foot.Instead what has happened is that Chinahas publicly used Modi’s statement aboutno intrusion and not only blamed Indiafor the stand-off but expanded its claimover our land.

Modi’s very vocal backers have gonesilent over this because even they havebeen taken aback by the incompetencewith which this is being handled. And, to go back to where we started,on an issue on which nobody thought Modi would be soft. After all thebrave words from him when the UPA was in power with respect toChina’s temporary intrusions, to have him waffle and dissemble whenthey are making the intrusion permanent is unexpected.

What does that say about his nationalism? We can call it pseudo nationalism.It is fake. The dictionary defines nationalism as a patriotic feeling, andextreme devotion to one’s nation. It is an ideology that promotes sover-eignty and resists foreign influence.

What we are seeing unfolding in Ladakh is the opposite of that. It ispseudo nationalism of the sort that only talks big and attacks its own cit-izens while cowering in the presence of the foreign bully. It is surpris-ing to me that being as political smart as he is, Modi does not grasp thevalue of resistance here.

It does not matter if we are a poorer, smaller and less powerful nationthan China. We cannot be pushed around without resistance as is now hap-pening. The bully wants the victim to not look him in the eye. It makespushing them around easier.

Modi must realise the value of our unity at this time. Even those whodo not like him (‘Modi haters’) will rally to his call if he says that the coun-try’s sovereignty is being threatened by China’s aggressive intrusions. Theother political fights in our democracy will be put aside and can wait tillwe see off this immediate and external threat.

Rallying and bringing us together is the responsibility of the govern-ment and of the Prime Minister. He has chosen instead to side with theopponent and agree that there is no aggression.

Whatever else we can call his behaviour at this crucial time it cannotbe called nationalism.

A s the Indian consumer mar-ket recovers from the coro-navirus-induced lockdown

and the ailing economy graduallyheads back to normalcy, the spateof deal-making in the telecom sec-tor has firmly brought the focus onthe Indian consumer markets andthe potential the consumer marketholds in the foreseeable future.

For investors with a long-termview and using other markets as atemplate, the Indian consumertheme hinges upon the idea of grad-ually rising incomes for a signifi-cant mass of people leading tohigher demands creating oppor-tunities in satisfying the conse-quent consumer needs.

As investors and businesses as-sess the dynamics of the Indianconsumer markets, it would beprudent to be aware of a few im-portant trends. In the context ofthe Indian consumer market, “pre-miumisation” of product, the im-portance of both experience andproduct quality and market intri-cacies will be vital in this context.“Premiumisation” of a productrefers to the need of the consumerthat can be satisfied by products thatclimb up the value chain in termsof both quality and the concomitantexperience. For businesses across

the board, a significant opportunitywill be to satisfy consumer needsthat demand both higher qualityand experience than what they arecurrently consuming. This wouldspan industries from FMCG to ap-parel. While this trend isn’t new, onewould expect that as consumerwallets expand beyond the essen-tials for a significant part of the pop-ulation, the trend of premiumisa-tion will gather momentum.

The premiumisation trend im-plies that investors and businessesalike must focus even more on cre-ating “premium” brands in the dif-ferent consumer segments to fulfilfuture consumption needs. Also,as the premiumisation theme gath-ers momentum, it is reiterated, afocus on both product quality andexperience will be vital. One can al-most view the product experienceas a subset of the entertainmentbusiness. Regarding the experi-ence component of the package,entertainment helps understandthat the consumers will be lookingfor something beyond just the prod-uct quality. The “entertainment” as-pect of satisfying consumer needsis especially crucial for physical re-tail businesses that will compete inwhat will be an omnichannel world,as far as distribution is concerned.

Mainly, the ability to highlydifferentiate the consumer expe-rience will be a significant driverof value creation for consumersand therefore businesses. Offeringan exceptional premium productwill be one part of the business,but the capacity to deliver the ex-perience will help brands differ-entiate, gain market share andeventually emerge as winners intheir categories.

The last decade has seen signif-icant investments in the “pipelines”that reach the consumer. One canview e-commerce platforms, andtelecom plays as the “carriage”.While the carriage part of the busi-nesses will continue to see signif-icant interest, the coming decadewill also see increasing interest inthe "content" part. Primarily, in-creased innovation around theproduct and experience deliveredto the consumer. The increasedfocus on consumer products and theexperience associated with theproduct is where the premiumi-sation theme will play out in India.

While premiumisation will beessential, in India, one will have tobear in mind that product designsfor India will have to factor in thedefinition of “premium” in India andIndian tastes. Furthermore, as in-

comes rise in India, the premiumproduct need not necessarily be theone considered premium in more de-veloped economies. The ability topick the point on the demand curvewith significant demand and yetcreate a premium offering will bea critical factor for brands that even-tually emerge as winners.Additionally, Indian tastes in a lotof segments are very well defined.For instance, Indian breakfast habitsdidn't budge much as certain peo-ple had expected when breakfastcereals were introduced to India.Primarily, catering products thatsuit the Indian sensibilities will beessential going forward.

In summary, the trend of pre-miumisation is one that is boundto happen with gradually risingincomes. The opportunity to createconsumer value and business suc-cess in India will be immense. Akeen eye on the market intricaciesin the Indian context will be a vitalfactor separating the winners fromthe losers.

The author headsDevelopment Tracks,

an advisory firm. You can contact him at

taponeel.mukherjee@develop-ment-tracks.com.

IANS

Premiumisation: Key play for India

KIM GOES BACK ON SCRIPTL

ike the leading character ina long-running television se-ries, North Korean leaderKim Jong-un has kicked

off the latest crisis on the KoreanPeninsula with familiar theatrics.After cutting off all communica-tions with South Korea, the Kimregime bombed the building inwhich it had previously hostedSouth Korean diplomats. It hasredeployed troops into demilita-rized border areas and issued re-newed threats of violence againstthe South. The latest displays ofbombast follow Kim’s scene-steal-ing performance in May, when heannounced that North Korea wouldboost its investment in “nuclearwar deterrence.”

For its part, US President DonaldTrump’s administration has ig-nored the latest episode, and forgood reason. After two years ofplaying along with Trump’s made-for-TV summitry, Kim is convincedthat the “bromance” storyline hasrun its course, and that an oldernarrative will keep his ratings up.

Having banked his politicalgains from Trump’s fecklessness,Kim is now unambiguously as-serting North Korea’s status as anuclear power. To drive that pointhome, he has promoted the generalin charge of the nuclear pro-grammr to serve as vice-chair-man of the Central MilitaryCommission, while also rewarding69 other generals who have con-tributed to the country’s strate-gic success in recent years.

Since the failed nuclear sum-mit in Hanoi in February 2019,Kim has been consistent in bothword and deed. Last April, hewarned that Trump had until theend of 2019 to lift US sanctions onNorth Korea. Since then, the Northhas continued its short-range mis-sile testing (chalking up note-worthy successes), expanded amissile production plant, and builtnew support facilities for its mis-sile programme.

Clearly, Trump’s “maximumpressure” campaign to choke offNorth Korea’s clandestine sourcesof income and trade has utterlyfailed to alter the course of theregime’s nuclear and missile pro-grammes. American officials ac-knowledged last month when the

US Department of Justice indicted28 North Korean and five Chineseofficials and bankers for (suc-cessfully) circumventing the sanc-tions regime. Since 2014, the in-dictment alleges, the North’s globalnetwork of front companies has –with China’s help – funneled $2.5billion into Kim’s nuclear weapons,missile, and high-tech programs.

Kim has been no less consistentin expanding North Korea’s mas-sive conventional military capac-ity. While its military hardwareremains far inferior to the US-fur-nished armor and aircraft acrossthe border, the North has nonethe-less managed to upgrade both theaccuracy and reach of its weapons.It has also placed 70% of its 1.1million-strong army within 60 milesof the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ),putting South Korea’s capital wellwithin its sights. By one estimate,the North could rain down 25,000artillery rounds on the Seoul met-ropolitan area – including a majorUS military compound – in thespace of just ten minutes.

To be sure, US and SouthKorean forces would have a majortechnological edge in an all-outwar on the peninsula. But evena short-lived conflict would bedevastating to Seoul, which, withsome 25 million people, accountsfor half of South Korea’s popu-

lation and 70% of its GDP.Against this background,

Trump’s effort to extort SouthKorea to quadruple its financialsupport for US forces stationedthere is astonishingly irrespon-sible. Although negotiations torenew the expired US-South Koreancost-sharing pact remain at animpasse, a new stopgap deal atleast ends the furlough of 4,000South Koreans who work at USfacilities. But with South Koreatemporarily assuming the cost ofthese salaries, the deal will hardlyimprove Trump’s standing in theeyes of South Koreans.

Kim can take further comfortfrom the fact that Trump has alsobeen browbeating Japan, de-manding that it, too, boost its fi-nancial support for US forceswithin its borders. Though Japanis crucial to South Korea’s de-fense, the two countries have arocky relationship. Last year,South Korea threatened to pullout of a bilateral intelligence-sharing arrangement before re-versing course under US pres-sure. As in South Korea, mostJapanese have no confidence inTrump’s handling of interna-tional affairs. Such factors in-evitably will contribute to diplo-matic disarray between the US,South Korea, and Japan, all of

which will benefit Kim.In addition to undermining US

alliances in the region, Trump isalso doing Kim a favor by esca-lating tensions with China, whichnow will be less inclined to rein inits client state. With China ac-counting for over 90% of NorthKorea’s trade, Kim has been cul-tivating a closer relationship withChinese President Xi Jinping, whovisited Pyongyang last June. Thatmeeting and others suggest thatChina is neither surprised norparticularly concerned about Kim’sbehavior.

This is not to suggest that Kimhas clear sailing ahead. Owing toUS sanctions, limited food pro-duction, and various reform fail-ures, North Korea faces formida-ble challenges at home. Followinga speech at the Workers’ Party ofKorea’s annual plenum inDecember 2019, public remarksissued by Kim in February andApril suggest that he may havespent the first half of this yearfocusing on domestic priorities.By forcing the closure of theChinese border, the COVID-19 pan-demic has undoubtedly hurt theNorth’s faltering economy. Andthe fact that Kim has imposedtougher oversight on implemen-tation of his previous economic re-forms suggests that more domes-tic trouble may be on the horizon.

With or without economic prob-lems, Kim is unlikely to deviatefrom his family’s well-rehearsedoeuvre. Like past performancesby his late father and grandfather,his repertoire will continue to fea-ture threats of violence, sensa-tional provocations, and poten-tially even military incidents likethe shelling of South Korean is-lands a decade ago. All signs in-dicate more brinkmanship on thepart of the North. The leadingcharacter in the Korean Peninsula’slong-running psychodrama maystill be new, but the play remainsthe same.

The writer, a former seniorCIA analyst, served as

National Intelligence Officerfor East Asia, Chief of

Station in Asia, and the CIA’sDirector of Public Affairs.

© PROJECT SYNDICATE

LOL

FOCUS

SPECTRUM

Having banked his political gains from Trump’sfecklessness, Kim is now unambiguously asserting North Korea’s status as a nuclearpower. To drive that point home, he has promoted the general in charge of the nuclearprogrammr to serve as vice-chairman of theCentral Military Commission

Pseudo nationalism

Researching this insect

Aprominent Polish scientistconducted very important

experiment. He trained a flea to jumpupon giving her a verbal command(“Jump!”).In a first stage of experiment heremoved flea’s leg, told her to jump,and the flea jumped. So he wrote inhis scientific notebook: “Uponremoving one leg all flea organsfunction properly.”So, he removed the second leg, askedthe flea to jump, she obeyed, so hewrote again: “Upon removing thesecond leg all flea organs function

properly.”Thereafter

he removed allthe legs but one, the

flea jumped when ordered, so hewrote again: “Upon removing thenext leg all flea organs functionproperly.”Then he removed the last leg. Toldflea to jump, and nothing happened.He did not want to take a chance, sohe repeated the experiment severaltimes, and the leg less flea neverjumped. So he wrote the conclusion:“Upon removing the last leg the flealoses sense of hearing.”

SUNDAY | JUNE 28 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

There is a thirst for Love whichno human relation can quench. Itis only the Divine's love that cansatisfy that thirst.

THE MOTHER

CONSUMER MARKET

LIKE THE LEADING

CHARACTER IN ALONG-RUNNING

TELEVISIONSERIES, NORTH

KOREAN LEADERKIM JONG-UN

HAS KICKED OFFTHE LATEST

CRISIS ON THE KOREAN

PENINSULAWITH FAMILIAR

THEATRICS

Kent Harrington

WISDOM CORNERThe fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself tobe a fool. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is timeto reform (or pause and reflect). MARK TWAIN

When someone loves you, the way they talk about you is different.You feel safe and comfortable. JESS C. SCOTT

WORLD

Readers of Orissa POSTare most welcome to contribute letters(200 words), articles andcolumns (between 750-1250words). Contributors arerequested to send theircontact numbers and fullpostal address/email ID. They may alsosend in their valuable comments, opinionand suggestions, preferably by email, to: edit@orissapost.com

B-15, Rasulgarh Industrial Estate,Bhubaneswar-751010

LettersTO THE EDITOR

THE PREMIUMISATION

TREND IMPLIESTHAT INVESTORSAND BUSINESSES

ALIKE MUST FOCUSEVEN MORE

ON CREATING“PREMIUM”

BRANDS

Taponeel Mukherjee

Isolating Pak

Sir, India ‘taming the wild horse’ Pakistan on more than one instance, via diplo-macy and military, has brought the latter to its knees. Therefore, it has takenrecourse to an indirect, lily-livered, strategy of torturing Indian soldiers orofficials. After two Indian diplomatic officers in Pakistan were tormented bythat country’s ISI, India has downgraded diplomatic ties with it. Pakistan hasbeen asked to cut its High Commission strength in India down to half. Earlier,in May, New Delhi, in a quick move, had rusticated two Pakistani HighCommission officers for serious espionage activities. A smarting Pakistan,having lost face on several global platforms regarding its nefarious deals, in-cluding in the United Nations, appears flummoxed. It is the same country thatexpelled India’s High Commissioner Ajay Bisaria on India’s move on Kashmir.New Delhi’s returning ‘tit-for-tat’ is befitting. It is unfortunate that many‘purists’ have gone overboard advocating a ‘dialogue’ between the two neigh-bours. Well, people of both countries are yearning for peace. No ordinary cit-izen wants bilateral confrontation, let alone a war. Yet, Pakistani political ‘lead-ers’ and the military deserve nothing less than contempt. If at all talks haveto take place, Islamabad should divorce its terror companions. IsolatingPakistan, a country on the brink of bankruptcy, is a deft move.

Ganapathi Bhat, EMAIL

Absolutely unfair

Sir, I am very sorry to ventilate this episode to the countrymenregarding the allocation of RGF in the country’s annualBudget during the period of our former Prime Minister Dr.Manmoan Singh, one of the renowned economists in the world.As a homage to the late Rajiv Gandhi and in support of thelaudable objectives of the foundation, government has decidedto contribute `100 crore to the foundation at the rate of `20crore per annum for a period of five years beginning fromthe current year, the then Finance Minister had said in hisBudget speech. The Rajiv Gandhi foundation was estab-lished in the memory of the great leader and to promote theideals and objectives for which he lived and laid down his life,Singh had said. This is a disclosure that came to light as RGFcomes under scrutiny following exposes that the Governmentof China and China Embassy were donors to the foundation.Though the amount could not be disbursed to RGF, it is verysad and unfair, especially because the tax payers’ moneycannot be squandered away.

Naresh Mandal, BHADRAK

cmyk

cmyk

Aakar Patel

Modi must realisethe value of our

unity at this time.Even those who donot like him (‘Modi

haters’) will rally tohis call if he says

that the country’ssovereignty is

being threatenedby China’s aggressive

intrusions. Theother political

fights in ourdemocracy will beput aside and canwait till we see off

this immediate andexternal threat

cmyk

cmyk

SUNDAY | JUNE 28 | 2020 | BHUBANESWARP7

DELHI

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

New Delhi, June 27: Staff at theluxury Suryaa hotel used to wearbright saris as they welcomed guests.Now they must don medical suitsand handle gurneys as New Delhidesperately prepares for a predictedsurge in coronavirus cases in thecoming weeks.

The pandemic is still raging inIndia with more than half a millioncases. The capital, home to 25 mil-lion people, is the country’s worst-hit city – its hospitals at breakingpoint and authorities reaching deepto confront the crisis.

“For doctors and nurses it is a partof their lives. For us this is a to-tally new experience and a verydifficult one at that,” said RituYadav, operations manager at thefive-star Suryaa, as staff in masksrush to deep clean the building.

“We have got training from thehospital on how to wear the PPE(personal protective equipment)and then take it off but this is some-thing I never thought I would haveto do when I chose hospitality asmy career.” Delhi, home to some ofIndia’s most crowded slums, hasaround 75,000 cases so far, but the citygovernment predicts this will soar

to half a million by the end of July.With newspapers full of reports

about patients being turned awayfrom overflowing hospitals, Delhitold the city’s hotels earlier thismonth they would be roped in to pro-vide hospital care. It is also con-verting wedding halls, and has sev-eral hundred repurposed railwaycoaches standing by – without air-conditioning despite outside tem-peratures over 40 degrees Celsius.

The Delhi authorities have evenstarted converting a spiritual cen-tre or ashram into a coronavirus iso-lation facility and hospital with10,000 beds, many made of card-board.

‘HOSPITALITY, NOT HOSPITAL’But for hotels, the move triggered

outrage in an industry already reel-ing under losses because of travelrestrictions. The owners of Suryaaand four others approached thecourt, arguing many staff wereover 50 and therefore were high-risk themselves, with no experi-ence of hospital care or handling bio-medical waste.

“It came as a shock because wewere not spoken to about it, we got

to know through the press,” GreeshBindra, a top executive at the hotel,told AFP.

“It’s like you are sleeping in ahotel and the next morning whenyou wake up you are told your hotelhas become a hospital. Your first re-action will be how is this possible.We are hospitality, not a hospital.”

The hotel won a reprieve from thecourt – of sorts. Instead of becom-

ing a hospital, it could act as aCOVID-19 care centre, housing pa-tients on their way to recovery withmild to moderate symptoms.

It and around 30 other hotels inDelhi are set to be attached tohospitals which will provide staffto deal with any emergency. Thehotels can charge a maximumUS$66 a day, including meals. Butthey and their employees, used

just to changing bedsheets andproviding room service, have hadto improvise and innovate. Fromusing disposable plates and draw-ing red lines to ensure social dis-tancing, they have minimum con-tact with their special guests.“You have to keep your staff safeas after all they are your people,”said Bindra, whose hotel will beoffering 200 beds.

But whether the efforts of theDelhi government – which is squab-bling with the federal governmentof Prime Minister Narendra Modi– will be enough is unclear.

Delhi has just over 13,000 beds forcoronavirus patients in state-runhospitals with another 10,000 inprivate ones. The city governmentforecasts it will need 80,000 beds bythe end of July. The government hascancelled leave of all healthcare staffand plans to rope in volunteers tofight the crisis. It has refused toreimpose a lockdown, as the south-ern city of Chennai has done.

Many in Delhi are worried andare taking matters into their ownhands. Some resident welfare as-sociations are buying oxygen cylin-ders and other equipment, whileusing vacant flats as isolation wards– exposing the lack of trust in au-thorities. “One of our residentslost his life just because he could-n’t get a bed in time. Then wethought we should do something atour level,” said Lokesh Munjal,the head of a west Delhi housing society.

“We don't want to be at the mercyof government and hospitals.”

Hotels repurposedas Capital

anticipates surgein virus cases

LACK OF TRUSTMany in Delhi are worried and aretaking matters into their ownhands

Some resident welfareassociations are buying oxygencylinders and other equipment,while using vacant flats asisolation wards – exposing the lackof trust in authorities

People at housing societies saythey don't want to be at the mercyof government and hospitals

It’s like you are sleeping in a hotel and the next morning when you wake up you aretold your hotel has become a hospital. Your first reaction will be how is this possible.

We are hospitality, not a hospital GREESH BINDRA I SENIOR EXECUTIVE, SURYAA HOTEL

AGENCIES

New Delhi, June 27: A serologicalsurvey to undertake a compre-hensive analysis of the spread ofCOVID-19 in Delhi commenced insome parts of the city on Saturdayamid a rise in the number of coro-navirus cases.

As part of the survey, blood sam-ples of 20,000 people will be testedto ascertain the presence of anti-bod-ies, the Union health ministry hassaid. The exercise will be jointlycarried out by the National Centrefor Disease Control (NCDC) andthe Delhi government till July 10.

"The serological survey hasstarted from Saturday and willcover 20,000 people. The survey isbeing conducted door to door andwill reveal the extent of coron-avirus spread in Delhi," ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal said in anonline briefing.

His deputy Manish Sisodia alsoechoed similar views. "Sero Testinghas been started from today in thefight against Corona in Delhi. Underthis, 20 thousand blood sample willbe taken from all over Delhi. Thistest will prove to be very effective

in the Delhi government's cam-paign against Corona," he wroteon Twitter. The survey began inCentral district Saturday, officialssaid, adding that the response fromthe public was good and 450 bloodsamples were collected on the firstday itself. The target was to collect

700 samples and some teams arestill on the ground, the officialssaid. The district has deployed 30teams comprising accredited so-cial health activists (ASHA) andlaboratory technicians for collect-ing samples.

The survey also began in the

Kewal Park area of north Delhi, aNorth district official said, addingthat since it was the first day, the em-phasis was on putting logistics tothe ground. The response of thepeople will be known in the next two-three days. Nine teams have beenformed to complete the survey, theofficial said.

In Southwest district, the col-lection of samples commenced insome areas but will start in fullswing from Sunday, an official said.

According to an official fromEast district, the NCDC would trainthe laboratory technicians on howto collect samples on Saturday andthey are likely to commence theexercise from Monday.

Similarly, in Southeast district,the survey did not start Saturday aslogistics were being worked out.

An official from Northeast dis-trict said the survey will begin therefrom Monday. The serological sur-vey is part of a new COVID-19 re-sponse plan prepared by the Delhihealth department, in accordancewith the recommendations of a com-mittee headed by NITI Aayog mem-ber V K Paul. The committee comesunder the Union health ministry.

Serological survey commences in Delhi

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia visits Nabi Karim area, where samples are being collected for serological survey to analyse the spread ofCOVID-19 in New Delhi Saturday. PTI PHOTO

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Amaravati, June 27: Despitethe hurdles in transport due toCOVID-19 lockdown and socialdistancing norms put in place,the Andhra Pradesh governmentmanaged to procure a record7,83,246 tonnes of crops duringthe Rabi season.

Managed by the state coopera-tive marketing federation (MARK-FED), the procurement worth Rs2,571 crore has benefitted morethan 2.35 lakh farmers of thestate. To speed up the process,MARKFED set up around 1,000procurement centres across thestate. The approach also reducedthe distance that farmers had tocover for disposing their produce.

Special Commissioner ofAg ricultural Marketing PSPradyumna said, “MARKFEDhas done the highest quantity ofprocurement in its history in Rabiseason despite the lockdown con-ditions. At a time when otherstates are facing various issues,

we at MARKFED, however, havesuccessfully supplied fertilizersto farmers for Kharif as well asRabi seasons.” The crops thatwere procured include maize,Bengal gram, Jowar, red gram,turmeric, and onion. While maizecrop to the tune of 3,97,123 MT wasprocured and topped the list,1,78,013 MT of Bengal gram,1,09,424 MT of Jowar, 60,020 MTo f r e d g r a m , 2 4 , 8 4 2 M T o fturmeric, and 957 MT of onionwere also procured by MARK-

FED.As part of the initiatives tosupport the procurement process,the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy-ledstate government has launchedCM App, a dedicated mobile appfor undertaking all procurementoperations by all the nodal agen-cies. An end-to-end solution foragricultural commodity price up-dates and for the necessary mar-ket intervention, the app providescomprehensive monitoring ofagriculture commodity pricesand procurement.

Despite pandemic, AP achievesrecord Rabi crop procurement

RARE FEATn To speed up theprocess, MARKFED set uparound 1,000 procurement centres across the state

n The approach alsoreduced the distance thatfarmers had to cover forselling their produce

n As part of the initiatives to support the procurement process, the YS JaganMohan Reddy-led state government has launched the CM App, a dedicatedmobile app for undertaking all procurement operations by all nodal agencies

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Amaravati, June 27: In a shockingincident, the body of a Covid-19 vic-tim was carried on a JCB earth-mover to the cremation ground bymunicipal staff in Andhra Pradesh’sSrikakulam district Friday.

The incident took place inUdayapuram area of Palasa mu-nicipality after the 72-year-old diedof Covid-19.

The PPE-clad municipal workersplaced the dead body covered in acloth on the front portion of the ma-chine and drove to the cremationground. Following the incident,District Collector J. Nivas sus-pended Palasa MunicipalCommissioner C Nagender Kumarand the sanitary inspector. He alsoordered a probe into the incident.

The man, himself a former em-ployee in the municipality, died athome following illness. He had un-dergone Covid-19 test during door-to-door drive by the local authori-ties. The report of the test alsocame around the time of his death.

As neighbours put pressure onthe family to remove the body, thedeceased’s granddaughter, a gov-ernment volunteer in the town,called the municipal staff to shiftthe body for cremation.

Andhra Pradesh Chief MinisterYS Jagan Mohan Reddy Saturdayexpressed his anguish over the in-human act of transporting of themortal remains of a COVID-19 vic-tim. The chief minister took toTwitter to voice his anguish and or-dered immediate suspension ofthe officials concerned of Palasatown in Srikakulam district.

“Shocked to hear the incident oftransporting dead body of COVIDpatient by JCB excavator at Palasain Srikakulam district. It is sad thatsome people are being inhuman ata time when they should show com-passion. Serious action should betaken against those responsible sothat such incidents do not recur.”Palasa is already in the grip of Covid-19 fear and traders in this town andother parts of the district are vol-untarily observing the lockdown.

Meanwhile, Telugu Desam Party(TDP) president and former ChiefMinister N. Chandrababu Naidutweeted that he was utterly shockedto see the bodies of coronavirusvictims wrapped in plastic & trans-ported on JCBs and tractors. “Theydeserve respect & dignity even indeath. Shame on Y.S. Jagan gov-ernment for this inhumane treat-ment of the mortal remains,” hetweeted along with a video.

Earthmover used tocarry Covid victim’sbody for cremation

ANDHRA PRADESH CM ORDERS PROBE; TWO CIVIC OFFICIALS SUSPENDED

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, June 27: The DelhiPolice has arrested three suspectedsympathisers of the KhalistanMovement who were planning toexecute targeted killings in variousnorthern states, officials saidSaturday.

The accused have been identifiedas Mohinder Pal Singh (29), a res-ident of Delhi; Gurtej Singh (41), aresident of Punjab; and Lovepreet(21), a resident of Haryana, theysaid. Three pistols and seven livecartridges were recovered fromtheir possession. Three phoneswith many "incriminating" videosand photographs related to theKhalistan Movement were also re-covered from them, a senior po-lice officer said.

“Police got a tip-off regardingthe activities of Mohinder, a sym-pathiser of Khalistan LiberationForce. He was planning to commita terrorist activity in the nationalcapital. Thereafter, a trap was laid

near H astsal on June 15and...Mohinder was arrested,”Deputy Commissioner of Police(Special Cell) Sanjeev KumarYadav said.

Following his interrogation,Lovepreet was arrested from Kaithaldistrict in Haryana. Later, the duoled the police to Mansa in Punjabwhere Gurtez was arrested, Yadavsaid. The arrested persons havedisclosed their links with theKhalistan Liberation Force leaderssettled abroad and revealed theirplans to commit targeted killingson instructions from Khalistanimilitant sponsored by Pakistan'sInter-Services Intelligence (ISI),the police added.

Delhi police crackdown onKhalistani sympathisers The arrested persons have disclosed their links with theKhalistan Liberation Force leaders settled abroad and

revealed their plans to commit targeted killings oninstructions from militants sponsored by ISI

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Hyderabad, June 27: The AndhraPradesh government has partneredwith the Indian School of Business(ISB) as a nodal agency to revive eco-nomic growth in the state postCovid-19 and to formulate a roadmapfor sustainable development.

Minister for Industries,Information Technology and Skills,M. Goutham Reddy Wednesday vis-ited the ISB Hyderabad and inter-acted with key professors to dis-cuss strategies to revive economicgrowth in the state and come up witha long term roadmap for sustainabledevelopment in the state throughdata-driven policy making.

He expressed his keenness tosee a seamless functioning of var-ious departments towards devel-opment and urged ISB to come upwith a governance model to createa synchronous functioning of de-partments of development. The

minister also expressed the desireto work together on creating jobswhere the labour is, creating qual-ity management structure in gov-ernment, skill gaps among others.

He also mentioned that an ad-visory council on development ofAndhra Pradesh will be formedwith ISB as a nodal agency. Variouskey areas of engagement wereidentified to be taken up as projectmode including Andhra PradeshPulse, an advanced data analyticsapplication using near real-timedigital data on citizen interactionswith government schemes and sys-tems. The advisory council willalso work to attract investments. It

will undertake a comparative analy-sis of incentives and investment pat-terns across states. "This will allowAndhra Pradesh to learn from ex-perience across India and struc-ture incentives to make the statemore attractive for targeted in-vestment," said an official release.

It will also try to use the skillsof returning migrants. The re-turning migrants are often skilledworkers who can be deployed pro-ductively in local jobs requiringsimilar or adjacent skills, whichwill also contribute to local eco-nomic recovery. ISB would like tocontribute towards building a sys-tem to record the skill sets of re-turning migrants in order to assessthe gap between skills and avail-able jobs in post-pandemic times.

“ISB faculty and students are de-lighted to collaborate with theGovernment of Andhra Pradeshon the agenda of inclusive andsustainable development throughthe JumpStartIndia@ISB initiative.We applaud the spirit of open-ness and collaboration, and pledgeto support the Government ofAndhra Pradesh to the fullest ex-tent possible,” said ProfessorAshwini Chhatre, AssociateProfessor of Public Policy, ISB.

Andhra partners with ISB forpost-pandemic economic revivalWith this collaboration, the government wants

to come up with a long term roadmap for sustainable development in the state through

data-driven policy making

ITBP personnel and health workers sit beside beds at the Sardar Patel COVID Care Centre and Hospital in New Delhi, Saturday

The national capital recorded 2,948 fresh coronaviruscases in the last 24 hours, taking the total case countacross the 80,000-mark, and 66 more deaths due to thedisease, authorities said Saturday

After June 22, it was the first time that the number ofcases per day fell below the 3,000-mark in the city

The total number of COVID-19 patients in the capitalnow stands at 80,188. The death toll due to the diseaseis 2,558, according to the latest Delhi health department bulletin

As many as 49,301 patients have recovered, been discharged or migrated so far, while there are 28,329active cases, it said

READYING INFRA

PTI PHOTO

ANDHRA PRADESH

Today we stand at a transformativemoment. A pandemic hasdevastated our globalised economic

system. It has affected the way we live.While it is too early to say that thecoronavirus has altered our way of lifeforever, it has reduced humanity'sinstinctive comfort in the presence of othersS JAISHANKAR | EXTERNAL AFFAIRS MINISTER

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Intensive CareUnits (ICU)beds are being

ramped up acrossthe national capitalfor serious patients,while those in thehome isolation have been sentpulse oximeters to measure theiroxygen levels

ARVIND KEJRIWAL | DELHI CM

of theday uote

Kerala has registered overone lakh people becomingliterate in the last threeyears, the Kerala StateLiteracy Mission claimedSaturday

GOOD NEWS

One killed Amaravati: A companyofficial was killed due toAmmonia gas leak from anindustrial plant in AndhraPradesh's Kurnool districton Saturday, police said.The incident occurred atSPY Agro Industries Limitedin Nandyal town. Companygeneral manager SrinivasRao was killed in themishap. Four others whowere also present with himrushed out. All of themwere reported safe. KurnoolDistrict Collector G.Veerapandian said the fireservices personnel weretrying to plug the gas leak.

DMK MLA testscorona positive Chennai: The DravidaMunnetra Kazhagam (DMK)legislator R.T. Arasu hastested positive forcoronavirus and has beenadmitted for treatment in aprivate hospital here. TheDMK President M.K. Stalinin a tweet Saturday wishedArasu a quick recovery sothat he can carry on withhis public work. Arasurepresenting the Cheyyurassembly constituency isthe second lawmaker fromDMK party to be infectedwith the coronavirus. Thefirst was DMK legislator J.Anbazhagan who lost hislife recently.

CBI to probe copsuicide caseNew Delhi: Almost a monthafter an SHO (Station HouseOfficer) posted at Rajgarhpolice station in Rajasthan'sChuru district committedsuicide, the Central Bureauof Investigation (CBI) tookover the probe. The CBIregistered a case on June 26on the request of theRajasthan government. Thestate government haddemanded for a CBI probe onJune 6 to investigate thesuicide by Vishnu DuttVishnoi. The CBI has bookeda case against unknownpersons to probe the reasonsbehind suicide of Vishnoi. Thebody of the SHO of RajgarhPolice station was foundhanging at his governmentresidence May 23.

Jawan diesNew Delhi: A 43-year-oldCentral Reserve PoliceForce (CRPF) officialsuccumbed to the novelcoronavirus Saturday takingthe total number of deathsin the country's largestparamilitary force to eight,officials said. This is alsothe 24th death among thefive Central Armed PoliceForces -- CRPF, BSF, CISF,ITBP and SSB.

SHORT TAKES

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In an alarmingthreat to ournational

security andterritorial integrity,China has nowoccupied ourterritory up to 18 km inside the LAC,in the Depsang plains, up to the Y-Junction or the bottleneck, as permultiple reports

PALLAM RAJU | CONGRESS LEADER

It seemsCongressleaders are

spokespersons forChina. They onlytalk against PrimeMinister NarendraModi and never dare to questionChina

PRALHAD JOSHI | UNION MINISTER

Children bathe on a hot day in Amritsar, Saturday PTI PHOTO

COOLING OFF

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi , June 27: AnEnforcement Directorate (ED) teamSaturday questioned seniorCongress leader Ahmed Patel athis residence in Delhi in connectionwith the Sandesara brothers moneylaundering case, officials said.

They said a three-member teamreached Patel's home at 23, MotherTeresa Crescent in the Lutyenszone of central Delhi around 11:30am. The team members were seencarrying files and wearing masksand gloves as precautionary meas-ures against coronavirus spread.

Patel's statement is beingrecorded under the Prevention ofMoney Laundering Act (PMLA)and the politicians' purported linkswith the Sandesara brothers areunder the scanner, they said.

The ED had summoned Patel,70, twice for questioning in thecase but the Congress Rajya SabhaMP from Gujarat later cited pre-vailing COVID-19 guidelines that ad-vises senior citizens to stay in-doors in order to remain safe fromthe pandemic.

The agency then assured theCongress party treasurer that allcare will be taken while he is ques-tioned at its office but it was pointedout by his legal team that thereare media reports about coron-avirus cases being found in the EDHeadquarters too.

The agency then told him thatthey are willing to visit his homeas taking the probe forward in thecase was important. Subsequently,the time for home visit was fixedand the agency informed Patel thatthey will send the investigating of-ficer of the case to him for ques-tioning.

Patel has earlier been the polit-ical secretary to UPA chairpersonand Congress president SoniaGandhi and considered one of themost powerful persons in the grandold party.

This money laundering case per-tains to the alleged `14,500 crorebank loan fraud that is said to havebeen perpetrated by the Vadodara-based pharma firm Sterling Biotechand its main promoters -- NitinSandesara, Chetan Sandesara andDeepti Sandesara -- all of whomare absconding. The agency hassaid that this is a bigger bank scamin volume than the PNB fraud in-volving diamantaires Nirav Modiand Mehul Choksi. The total fraudamount pegged in the PNB case isabout `13,400 crore.

The Sandesaras are also facingseparate probes by the CBI and theIncome Tax Department for theiralleged nexus with some high-pro-file politicians and charges of cor-ruption and tax evasion, respec-tively.

At present, they are stated to bebased in Nigeria, from where Indiais trying to extradite them. TheED registered a criminal case in con-nection with the alleged bank loanfraud on the basis of an FIR and acharge sheet filed by the CBI.

UNDER LENS

ED GRILLS PATELThe team members were seen carrying files and

wearing masks and gloves as precautionarymeasures against coronavirus spread

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Jaipur, June 27: The COVID-19crisis is tough for everyone, espe-cially the fresh pass-outs from theworld’s best known colleges whoare clueless on how to pursue theirdreams as the virus has turnedeverything topsy turvy leading touncertainty about a bright future.

Mormukut Rathore, a hospital-ity student from Jaipur, was luckyto get admission in Glion Instituteof Higher Education in Switzerland.

"I went to pursue BBA inHospitality Management withSpecialization in Finance &Hotel Development which was athree and a half year course and wascompleted this year in February.

Even after spending around `1.5crore on my education, it seems Ihave nothing in my hand", he says.

Mormukut, however, is lucky tohave a family business in hotels. "Iam using this time as an opportu-nity to build a strong foundation at

each of our hotels, and prepare foraccelerated recovery when the cri-sis subsides. On the education side,I have been doing a couple of onlinecourses and learning more," he says.

"The pandemic has challenged thehospitality industry strongly and

some of my placement offers are onhold until further notice while oth-ers have been postponed to nextyear." Another student PranaavParrth went to New York Universityto pursue his Bachelors'' in PublicPolicy and Economics. The durationof the course was 4 years.

Although he will complete hiscourse in May 2021, he is worriedas most firms have postponed re-cruitment for the time being. Hesays, "I am interning with a venturecapital firm in Dubai. This is myfinal summer before graduationwhich is considered to be the mostimportant professionally since in-dustries like investment banking andconsulting have set up recruitingpipelines that hire college students

based on their internship per-formance. All of those plans havegone awry as firms postponed or can-celled their internship programmes.Although I am happy where I am,there''s no option on the horizon."

Student Karni Singh too facesan uncertain future after complet-ing his four-year course in Bachelorof Technology in AutomotiveEngineering, SRM Institute ofScience & Technology, India thisJune as he has no job in hand. Heis now going for higher studies inthe upcoming field of electric ve-hicles to acquire the necessaryskills in this field. He has alreadyspent ̀ 30-40 lakhs on his educationbut he understands the fact thattimes are tough.

TOUGH TIMES

Students clueless as Covid hits placements

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Ranchi, June 27: The mental de-pression is proving to more dan-gerous than coronavirus inJharkhand these days. If data ofsuicides is taken into considera-tion during lockdown and Unlock1.0, the average of people com-mitting suicide everyday is 5.5.

According to data of the stategovernment, 449 people have com-mitted suicide in March, Apriland upto June 25. In June itself 134people have committed suicide.One person is committing sui-cide every 4.50 hours. Psychiatristssay that the depression due tolockdown has made deep impacton minds of the people.

"During lockdown and Unlock 1.0around 1,200 people suffering from

depression have approached ourinstitute. During lockdown we weregetting more than 150 phone callsevery day from people sufferingfrom depression. There were 20per cent people who had given uphope to live and wanted to end theirlife," said a doctor at the CentralInstitute of Psychiatry here.

Dr Sanjay Kumar Mandal, apsychiatrist of CIP admitted alarge number of people ap-

proached the institute during lock-down suffering from depression.

In state capital Ranchi, 55 peo-ple committed suicide from April1 to June 25. Psychiatrists say thateconomic slowdown, fear of los-ing jobs, unemployment and otherfactors caused deep depressionamong people. The sense of in-security prompted many people tocommit suicide.

"People were locked insidehomes during lockdown whichled to rise in disputes among fam-ily members, and domestic vio-lence witnessed spurt. These fac-tors promoted many people tocommit suicide as they were un-able to control their emotions.The right counselling within fam-ily could have saved many lives"said psychiatrist Ajay Kumar.

Depression more dangerousthan corona in Jharkhand

AGENCIES

New Delhi, June 27: Sowing ofcrops in the current kharif seasonhas gained momentum due to goodmonsoon. The area under sowingof all kharif crops increased by104 per cent over the previous year,while the area under oilseeds in-creased by 525 per cent from the pre-vious year and the sowing of pulsesincreased by about 222 per cent.The planting and sowing of paddy,the main crop of the Kharif season,has been 35 per cent higher than theprevious year.

According to the data released bythe Ministry of Agriculture andFarmers Welfare on Friday, thekharif crops in the crop year 2020-

21 (July-June) have been sown in315.63 lakh hectare, which is 161.11lakh hectare or 104.25 per cent moreas compared to the same periodlast year.

So far, paddy has been planted in37.71 lakh hectare this year, whichis 9.35 lakh hectare or around 35 percent higher than the previous year.

The area under pulses increased by13.37 lakh hectare, or 221.72 percent, to 18.48 lakh hectare from lastyear. The acreage of tur in pulseshas increased by 8.04 lakh hectareto 9.97 lakh hectare since last year.At the same time, area under uradand moong has increased to 2.75lakh hectare and 5.30 lakh hectarerespectively.

Monsoon showers happinessSo far, paddy has beenplanted in 37.71 lakhhectare this year, whichis 9.35 lakh hectare oraround 35 per cent higherthan the previous year

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Patna, June 27: Former Unionfinance minister Yashwant SinhaSaturday alleged that the Centre isresorting to "profiteering" by in-creasing fuel prices on a daily basis.

“On one hand, the Centre an-nounced a ̀ 20-lakh crore packageto uplift the economy, while onthe other, it "robbed" people whotravel by motorbikes, scooters andother vehicles,” he said. Whilediesel rates were hiked for the21st straight day on Saturday,petrol prices have been increasedon 20 occasions in three weeks.

"There are occasions when theprice hike in petrol and diesel(prices) becomes imperative. ButI can tell you on the basis of myexperience that it is nothing butsheer profiteering in today's cir-cumstances," Sinha said at a pressconference here.

"It is unfortunate and sadden-ing to know that the governmentis resorting to profiteering," hesaid. Sinha said it is well knownthat "crude oil price is soft in theinternational market".

Saturday, the price of petrolwas hiked by 25 paise per litreand diesel by 21 paise per litre,taking the cumulative increasein rates in three weeks to `9.12and `11.01, respectively.

June 7, oil companies hadrestarted revising prices in linewith costs after ending an 82-dayhiatus during which they adjustedsteep excise duty hikes by the gov-ernment against the fall in bench-mark international oil rates.

YASHWANTSLAMS FUELPRICE HIKE

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Guna (MP), June 27: A 20-year-old woman was arrested for al-legedly eloping with her minorpartner and "marrying" her atGuna town in Madhya Pradesh, po-lice said Saturday.

The matter came to light, whena resident of Budhe Balaji area ap-proached the Kotwali police stationon Monday with a complaint thathis 17-year-old daughter had gonemissing, additional superinten-dent of police T S Baghel said.

On investigation, it was foundthat a relative from a villageShivpuri district, who was livingwith the family, was also missing,he said. A team was sent to the vil-lage and the duo was caught onFriday, the official said, addingthat the woman had married theminor, who claimed that she hadeloped of her own volition.

WOMAN HELDFOR ELOPINGWITH GIRL

It took 110 days for coronavirus infections in the country to reach one lakh, while just 39 days more to gopast the five lakh-mark. Medical experts have pointed to the ramped up Covid-19 testing, now available

more extensively and at a reasonable price, as a big reason for the spike in cases recently

Huge surge in Covid casesAGENCIES

New Delhi, June 27: It took 110days for coronavirus infectionsin the country to reach one lakh,while just 39 days more to go pastthe five lakh-mark. Medical ex-perts have pointed to the rampedup COVID-19 testing, now avail-able more extensively and at a rea-sonable price, as a big reason forthe spike in cases recently.

Six days after recording fourlakh infections, India's COVID-19tally went past the five lakh-markSaturday with the highest single-day surge of 18,552 cases, whilethe death toll climbed to 15,685,according to Union health min-istry data.

The COVID-19 caseload increasedto 5,08,953, while 384 fatalities wererecorded in the last 24 hours, theupdated figure at 8 am showed.This was the fourth consecutive daywhen coronavirus infection in-creased by more than 15,000, whilethere has been a surge of 3,18,418infections from June 1 till 27.Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi,Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh are thetop contributors to the rising tally.

It took 64 days for COVID-19cases in India to touch the (May 19)one lakh-mark from 100 cases, andanother fortnight to cross two lakhcases on June 3. It took 10 daysfor the tally to touch the threelakh-mark and another eight daysfor the cases to climb to four lakh.

The nationwide lockdown wasfirst imposed on March 25 for 21days in a bid to contain the spread

of the novel coronavirus. The lock-down was first extended till May3 and then again till May 17. Itwas further extended till May 31.

The lockdown is now restrictedonly in containment zones acrossthe country and will continue tillJune 30. A large number of so-cial, economic, religious and sportsactivities are currently allowedto function under what the

Ministry of Home Affairs termedas 'Unlock 1'.

After the government initiatedthe unlock procedure to make-upfor the economic cost of the lock-down, the COVID-19 cases startedto gallop. Dr. Monica Mahajan,Director, Internal Medicine, MaxHealthcare, said it is importantto understand the reason for theexponential rise in cases.

The numbers are doubling atsuch a fast rate due to factors suchas the high reproduction numberof the virus (the number of cases,on average, an infected personwill cause during their infectiousperiod), she said. Also, with the lift-ing of lockdown norms people's be-haviour has changed again as theyare not acting as responsibly as be-fore in terms of social distancing,and testing has become more lib-eral, Mahajan said.

She said the price of the testhas come down and test kits aremore easily available, so morecases are being detected. Notedcity-based lung surgeon Dr ArvindKumar said definitely a big reasonfor cases going up is increasedtesting.

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Covid-19 is spreadingrapidly into new partsof the country. TheGovernment Of Indiahas no plan to defeat itRAHUL GANDHI | CONGRESS LEADER

The Jharkhand government hasdecided to extend the lockdown tillJuly 31 to contain the spread ofcoronavirus in the state. All schoolsand religious places will remainclosed during this period

J’KHAND EXTENDS LOCKDOWN

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Most of thecategories ofemployment

mentioned at theevent are facingproblems. Self-employed peopleare in tremendous crisis due to lackof direct financial support from thegovernment. The condition of smalland medium scale industries is sobad that it is estimated that 62 percent of MSMEs will cut jobs and 78per cent will cut wages

PRIYANKA GANDHI VADRA | CONGRESS

LEADER

of theday uote

Punjab ismovingtowards

“bankruptcy” and“lagging behind indevelopment” underits regime and theruling party has “failed” to fulfill itskey promises of waiving completefarmers' loan and jobs forunemployed youths

NARENDRA SINGH TOMAR | UNION

AGRICULTURE MINISTER

Suppose RGFreturns the Rs 20 lakh, will

PM Modi assure thecountry that Chinawill vacate itstransgression andrestore status quo ante

P CHIDAMBARAM | CONGRESS LEADER

Five ex-Cong MLAs join BJPAhmedabad: Five formerCongress MLAs from Gujarat,out of the total eight who hadresigned as legislators inMarch and June- ahead of theRajya Sabha elections- joinedthe BJP Saturday. FormerCongress MLAs JituChaudhary, PradyumnasinhJadeja, J V Kakadiya, AkshayPatel and Brijesh Merjajoined the BJP in thepresence of party's state unitpresident Jitu Vaghani andother senior leaders. Of thesefive former MLAs, Patel,Merja and Chaudhary hadresigned as legislators earlierthis month, soon after theElection Commissionannounced June 19 as thenew date for the Rajya Sabhaelection in the state.

2 cops suspended Palamu (Jharkhand): Twopolicemen were suspended inJharkhand's Palamu districtSaturday on the charge ofaccepting bribes, a policeofficer said. The authoritiestook action against the twoafter they allegedly acceptedRs 2,000 as bribe from amotorcyclist who was ridingwithout wearing a helmet,Superintendent of Police AjayLinda said.

Jawan injuredRaipur: A CISF personnel wasinjured after suspectedNaxals attacked him with astone and decamped with hiswalkie-talkie in Dantewadadistrict of ChhattisgarhSaturday, police said. TheNaxals also took away his andhis colleague's mobilephones, police said. Theincident took place in themorning when two staffers ofthe CISF, which guards themines area of the NationalMineral DevelopmentCorporation (NMDC) inKirandul and Bacheli areas ofthe district, were out onroutine patrolling, DantewadaSuperintendent of PoliceAbhishek Pallava said.

Girl raped Ballia (UP): A man has beenarrested in a village in UttarPradesh's Ballia district forallegedly raping an eight-year-old girl by luring herwith the offer of a toffee,police said Saturday. Stationhouse officer of Revti policestation Shailesh Singh said,"On June 22, the eight-year-old girl had gone to a shop tobuy some items, where aperson lured her by offering atoffee and later raped her."

SHORT TAKES

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, June 27: China willhave to pay a "heavy price" fordecades for resorting to aggressivemilitary behaviour towards Indiain eastern Ladakh as it will isolatethe country globally, strategic af-fairs experts said Saturday.

They said the economic cost ofChina's misadventure in the lastcouple of months in eastern Ladakhand South China will be "massive"as it has "exposed" Beijing's "realface" when the entire world is fight-ing coronavirus.

The experts have also referred toChina's tariff war with the US,

growing bickering with Australiaon trade-related issues and the fastdeteriorating situation in HongKong. "China has made a huge mis-take by resorting to aggressive mil-itary behaviour in eastern Ladakh.By triggering the standoff whenthe world is fighting the coron-avirus pandemic, China has ex-posed itself globally," former DeputyChief of Army Staff Lt Gen GurmitSingh said.

"The cost for China will be huge.It will be heavy. It will keep payingthe cost for several decades forkilling Indian soldiers in Galwan val-ley on June 15. China has lost itsgoodwill in India and elsewhere," he

added. Referring to brutal attackson Indian soldiers in the Galwan val-ley, he said the action has reinforcedthe view that China's People'sLiberation Army is "just a political"

force and that it does not conformto military standards.

Former Deputy Chief of ArmyStaff Lt Gen Subrata Saha too saidChina is getting itself isolated by its

unacceptable military aggressionand the country will have to pay aheavy diplomatic and economicprice for it."China is isolating itselfby its aggressive conduct both mil-itarily and diplomatically. So therewill be a price for it. It is putting it-self into a corner," he said.

Lt Gen Saha said there will asignificant economic price thatChina will have to pay for its "mis-adventure". He also referred togrowing international concernsabout what is happening in HongKong, South China Sea as well asin East China Sea. Gen Saha alsotalked about trade war betweenChina and the US calling it a kind

of "fight to finish" conflict. He alsoreferred to China's deepening tradecrisis with Australia.

The Indian and Chinese armiesare locked in a bitter standoff inmultiple locations in eastern Ladakhfor the last six weeks, and the ten-sion escalated manifold after 20Indian soldiers were killed in a vi-olent clash in Galwan valley onJune 15.

Following the Galwan vallyclashes, the Army has sent thou-sands of additional troops to forwardlocations along the Line of ActualControl in various sectors includ-ing in Arunachal Pradesh,Uttarakhand and Sikkim.

CHINA WILL HAVE TO PAY HEAVY PRICE: EXPERTSSTRAINED TIES

CHALLENGES GALORE

Few takers for virtual schooling in GoaPRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Panaji, June 27: Days after GoaChief Minister Pramod Sawantannounced that online classeswere not compulsory, teachersof higher secondary schools com-plained that several students wereopting out from virtual lessons.

Earlier this week, Sawant hadclarified that online classes werenot compulsory, as many stu-dents did not have gadgets andproper internet facilities. In a re-lease, the Higher SecondaryTeachers' Association has ques-tioned why the state governmenthad asked schools to start onlineclasses for Classes 11 and 12 in thefirst place.

"Earlier, the chief ministerhad said that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there will be a delayin reopening of schools.Accordingly, teachers were trainedby the department of educationfor online classes," president of theassociation Anant Pissurlekarsaid. However, Sawant's latest an-nouncement has led to a declinein the number of students at-tending online classes, with many

who were initially attending alsoopting out, he claimed. "If theseonline classes were not benefi-cial, then why did they ask us toconduct them in the first place?"he asked.

Meanwhile, a senior officialof the education department saidthe decision to not make onlineclasses compulsory was takenafter several parents complainedabout lack of internet connec-tivity. "Some parents also foundit difficult to buy gadgets suchas laptops and mobile phones,which are required for virtualschooling," he said, adding thatthe chief minister had made thesereasons amply clear in his an-nouncement.

UTTER SILENCE

Security personnel stand guard at a closed market in Dibrugarh, Saturday. Authorities have announced a completelockdown PTI PHOTO

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Jaipur, June 27: In another jolt toyoga guru Ramdev, an FIR hasbeen lodged here against him,Patanjali Ayurved CEO AcharyaBalkrishna and three others forallegedly making misleading claimsthat the herbal medicine companyhas found a cure for COVID-19called Coronil.

The complaint was filed at JyotiNagar police station in JaipurFriday. Avnish Parashar, AdditionalDeputy Commissioner of Police(DCP), south, Jaipur, said: "Ramdev,Acharya Balkrishna, Balbir SinghTomar, Anurag Tomar and AnuragVarshney, were booked underSection 420 (cheating) of the IndianPenal Code and relevant sectionsof the Drugs and Magic Remedies(Objectionable Advertisements)Act, 1954, as per the FIR lodged byan advocate Balbir Jakhar."

Two of the accused includingBalbir Singh Tomar and AnuragTomar, are the chairman and thedirector of the Jaipur-based NIMSUniversity.

The fifth accused, Varshney, isa scientist at Patanjali Ayurved.Jakhar said the accused have en-dangered the common people'slives by making false claims offinding a COVID-19 vaccine as theyneither informed the Rajasthangovernment nor the Centre aboutthe clinical trials of Coronil.

Patanjali Ayurved, Tuesdaylaunched Coronil tablet andSwasari vati medicine claimingthat they can cure COVID-19 withinseven days. However, the AYUSHministry expressed unawareness

about the development andPatanjali was stopped from ad-vertising the medicine within afew hours after its launch.

Patanjali earlier also claimedthat the two Ayurveda-based med-icines have shown 100 per centfavourable results during clinicaltrials on COVID-19 patients exceptthose on a life support system. Theclinical trials were reportedly heldin NIMS Jaipur.

While Ramdev claimed makinga thorough clinical case study onpatients admitted at NIMS, itsChairman, B.S. Tomar on the otherhand said, "No clinical trial in ourhospital was made for the drug asthere was no serious case of pa-tients admitted. Only 100 asymp-tomatic patients in our hospitalwere given a few ayurvedic medi-cines under the Patanjali banner.We did not ask for medicine tocure coronavirus but had onlythese ayurvedic immunity boost-ers who helped recovery of asymp-tomatic cases faster by 35 per cent."

CORONA CURE CLAIM

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New Delhi, June 27:BJP PresidentJP Nadda Saturday lashed out atCongress president Sonia Gandhifor the alleged fund gate involv-ing the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation(RGF), labelling it as "sin".

"I want to ask Soniaji not to tryand avoid the original questionsunder the garb of Corona or thesituation at China border," saidNadda. Asking 10 pointed ques-tions to Gandhi, Nadda startedwith, "The nation of 130 crore peo-ple wants to know about the deedsdone by the Gandhi family, whatwork you did while in governanceand how you betrayed the peo-ple." Nadda alleged cast insinua-tion while he went on using, "Whatwas the need to be a part of RCEP?How did India's trade deficit withChina rise from $1.1 billion to$36.2 billion?"

In a no holds barred attack onthe Congress Chief, the BJPPresident questioned, "What isthe exact relationship betweenINC and the Communist Party ofChina? What is the tacit under-standing? What is the signed andunsigned MoU? The country wants to know."

Raising the issue, Nadda asked,"The RGF worked in close associ-ation with China Association forInternationally Friendly Contact.This organization is a vehicle usedby the Central Military Commissionof China. The purpose of thisCommission is to infiltrate and in-fluence the voices of leaders ofother countries." CAIFC was dubbedas a front for intelligence gath-ering in an August 2018 US re-port.

Nadda also raked up the issueof money being "diverted fromPM National Relief Fund to RGFbetween 2005-2008". Turning thetable against Rahul Gandhi whoonce coined the term "suit bootki sarkar" to corner Modi gov-ernment for its alleged pro-busi-ness outlook, the BJP Chiefasked bluntly, "The RGF tookhefty donations from majorIndian corporates, but theirrhetoric was for the poor people.Wasn't this quid pro quo of thepurest form?"

Dig ging dee per into thePMNRF funding RGF, Naddaclaimed, "Who is the auditor ofthe PM National Relief Fund? Theauditor was Thakur Vaidyanathanand Aiyyar Co. This was foundedby Mr Rameshwar Thakur, whohappened to be Union MoS ofFinance. He was Rajya Sabha MPfor two terms and was governor offour states."

Another jolt to Ramdev

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New Delhi, June 27: The gov-ernment Saturday rubbishedPakistan's "readiness" to reopenthe Kartarpur Corridor for IndianSikhs, by calling it an attempt to cre-ate "a mirage of goodwill".

Taking to Twitter, Pakistan'sForeign Minister Shah MahmoodQureshi Saturday, announced:"Asplaces of worship open up acrossthe world, Pakistan prepares toreopen the Kartarpur SahibCorridor for all Sikh pilgrims, con-veying to the Indian side our readi-ness to reopen the corridor on 29June 2020, the occasion of thedeath anniversary of MaharajaRanjeet Singh." The corridor wastemporarily closed March 16 inthe wake of the COVID-19 pan-demic that originated in China'sWuhan city. Official sources inNew Delhi said that Pakistan istrying to "create a mirage of good-will" by proposing to reopenKartarpur Corridor on June 29,at the short notice of two days,while bilateral agreement pro-vides for information to be sharedby India with Pakistan side at least

seven days before the date of travel.This would need India to open upthe registration process well inadvance, the sources said. Besides,Pakistan has not built the bridgeon their side across the flood plainsof the Ravi river despite havingcommitted to it in the bilateralagreement. With the advent ofmonsoon, the sources said, it wouldneed to be evaluated whether pil-grim movement is possible throughthe corridor in a safe and securemanner. Official sources said crossborder travel has been temporar-ily suspended as part of measuresto prevent and contain the spreadof coronavirus.

"Further view would be taken inconsultation with health author-ities and other stakeholders con-cerned," an official said. The 4.2 kmcorridor links Dera Baba Nanaktown in Gurdaspur district withKartarpur Sahib Gurdwara inShakargarh tehsil in Narowal dis-trict of Pakistan.

India and Pakistan in October2019 signed an agreement to op-erationalise the Kartarpur Corridorto allow Indian pilgrims a visa-free visit to the holy gurdwara,believed to have been built on thesite where Guru Nanak died inthe 16th century, and located some4 km inside Pakistan.

The complaint was filed at JyotiNagar police station in Jaipur Friday

Patanjali Ayurved, Tuesdaylaunched Coronil tablet and Swasarivati medicine claiming that they can

cure COVID-19 within seven days

India rejects Pakistan’s planThe Kartarpur Corridor was temporarily closed March 16 in the wake of

the COVID-19 pandemic that originated in China’s Wuhan city

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi ,June 27:Dexamethasone, an inexpensiveand widely used steroid, was in-cluded in the treatment protocol forCOVID-19 patients in moderate tosevere stages of illness by the Unionhealth ministry Saturday.

The updated 'ClinicalManagement Protocols for COVID-19' advises the use of dexametha-sone, which is already used in awide range of conditions for itsanti-inflammatory and immuno-suppressant effects, as an alter-native choice to methylprednisolonefor managing moderate to severecases of COVID-19.

Keeping pace with the evolvingknowledge about COVID-19, espe-cially in terms of effective drugs,the change has been made afterconsidering the latest available ev-idence and expert consultation,the health ministry said.

Union Health Secretary PreetiSudan has also forwarded the up-dated protocol to all states andUnion Territories to make neces-sary arrangements for availabil-ity and use of the new protocols andthe dexamethasone at the institu-tional level also, it said.

The health ministry had June13 also allowed the use of an-tiviral drug remdesivir for re-stricted emergency use.

NADDA HITS OUT AT SONIA

Covid: Green signal to dexamethasone

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, June 27:The CongressSaturday asked Prime MinisterNarendra Modi to publicly con-demn China for its "brazen incur-sions" into Indian territory andurged the government to take"strong and quick action" to re-solve the Line of Actual Control(LAC) issue.

Senior Congress leader KapilSibal said at a virtual press con-ference that the prime ministershould address the nation and prom-ise that anyone capturing Indian ter-ritory would be pushed back. He saidthe entire nation and the entire op-position would stand behind himand his promise. Alleging that thelast six years have seen the biggestdiplomatic failure under the Modigovernment, the former Unionminister said "some quick action"should be taken to resolve the LACissue with China.

"Some quick action is required,"he said seeking early resolution ofthe border dispute with China, whilenoting that diplomacy and economicblockade with China would notwork. "Yes, the action should bestrong (against China). The qual-ity, nature and the timing of that ac-tion has to be decided by the gov-

ernment," he said when asked what"quick action" he was asking for.Sibal said it was for the governmentto decide and not the opposition.

The Congress leader alleged thatChina has erected tents and struc-tures near PP-14 in Galwan Valley,the place where 20 Indian soldierssacrificed their lives. He added thatsatellite imagery also reflects con-struction of new black top roadsby Chinese forces on the Galwanriverbed, erection of large num-bers of military tents and presenceof bulldozers and other heavy equip-ment. "What is our governmentdoing about it? The PM must clearthe air and condemn these brazenChinese incursions," he said. Askingwhy the prime minister does notopenly and publicly condemn the"brazen acts of infiltrations, in-

cursions and occupation" of Indianterritory by China, he said, "I wantthe PM to publicly condemn China.We will support the prime minister."

Sibal said the situation is suchthat the PM's statement that no-body intruded into India is beingused by the Chinese globally. "Wewant the prime minister to addressthe nation and promise that if any-one has captured Indian territory,we will push them back. If you sayso, the public and the entire oppo-sition will stand behind you andyour promise," he said.

There has been a standoff be-tween Indian and Chinese troops inthe eastern Ladakh area for over amonth and a bloody clash took placebetween them on the night of June15 in the Galwan Valley, resulting inthe death of 20 Indian soldiers.

LAC ISSUE: CONG TARGETS PMSIMMERING TENSIONn The Congress leader alleged thatChina has erected tents and structures near PP-14 in GalwanValley, the place where 20 Indiansoldiers sacrificed their lives

nAlleging that the last six yearshave seen the biggest diplomaticfailure under the Modi govern-ment, the former Union ministersaid "some quick action" shouldbe taken to resolve the LAC issue

P10SUNDAY | JUNE 28 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

internationalObviouslythe

African-Americancommunity hassuffered from racismfor a very, very longperiod of timeANTHONY FAUCI | WHITEHOUSE HEALTH ADVISOR

The UN Charter “brought rules and hopeto a world in ruins” Secretary-GeneralAntonio Guterres told a virtualceremony, commemorating 75 years since the organidation’sfoundational text was signed

UN MARKS 75TH ANNIVERSARYOF CHARTER SIGNING

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We have beenclear thatanyone who

assaults the policeor any of ouremergency serviceworkers who keepus safe should feel the full force ofthe law

BORIS JOHNSON | UK PRIME MINISTER

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A globalinitiative tospeed up the

development andproduction ofCOVID-19 tests,vaccines andtreatments will require more than$30 billion over the next year

TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS |WHO CHIEF

Balochistan ison the brink ofa rupture and

will beuncontrollable ifanother Balochleader isassassinated

ASIF ALI ZARDARI |FORMER PAKISTAN PRESIDENT

Israel strikesHamas facilitiesJerusalem: Israeli warplanescarried out air strikes onHamas targets in the GazaStrip in response to a rocketattack, the Israel DefenseForces (IDF) said Saturday.Hours after two rockets werefired into southern Israel, IDFaircraft conducted anairstrike late Friday against arocket manufacturingworkshop and a weaponsmanufacturing facility,Xinhua news agency quotedthe IDF as saying in astatement. There were noimmediate reports from theGaza Strip on the extent ofdamage or injuries.

Two killed inIllinois shootingChicago: Two people werekilled and one criticallyinjured after an employee ofa coffee-dispensermanufacturer opened fire atthe company’s warehouse inSpringfield, the capital of theUS state of Illinois, policesaid. The shooting took placeat the Bunn-O-Matic plantFriday morning. The suspect,Michael Collins (48), then fledthe scene and was laterfound dead in his car of aself-inflicted gunshot wound,with two handguns besideshis body.

3 dead in MexicoCity attackMexico City: A group ofgunmen opened fire onMexico City Chief of PoliceOmar Garcia Harfuch and hisbodyguards, injuring him andkilling two officers and acivilian, according toauthorities. The Mexicancapital city’s police said thatGarcia Harfuch was admittedto the hospital for surgeryafter sustaining multipleinjuries in the attack Friday,reports Xinhua news agency.The attack occurred at 6.35local time a.m. as the policechief was travelling in aresidential neighbourhood tothe west of the city.

2.5mn Yemeni kidsfacing hungerSanaa: Around 2.4 millionchildren below the age of 5 inYemen were facing hungerand malnutrition due to ashortage of humanitarian aidfunding amid the coronaviruspandemic, according to theUnicef. In a statement Friday,the organization said thatwithin the next six monthsaround 30,000 Yemenichildren younger than fiveyears could suffer fromsevere and potentially “life-threatening” acutemalnutrition, taking thenumber of overallmalnourished children in thisage category to 2.4 million.

SHORT TAKES

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Washington, June 27: Mumbaiterrorist attack convict DavidHeadley cannot be extradited toIndia, but Pakistani-origin Canadianbusinessman co-conspiratorTahawwur Rana faces extradition,a US attorney has told a federalcourt while opposing his bail plea.

Rana, 59, a childhood friend ofDavid Coleman Headley, was re-cently rearrested June 10 in LosAngeles on an extradition requestby India for his involvement in the2008 Mumbai terror attack in which166 people, including six Americans,were killed. He is a declared fugi-tive in India.

According to the federal prose-cutors, between 2006 and November2008, Rana conspired with Headley,also known as “Daood Gilani”, andothers in Pakistan to assist Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Harakat ul-Jihad-e-Islami, both US-designated ter-rorist organisations, to plan andcarry out the Mumbai terrorist at-tacks. Pakistani-American LeT ter-rorist Headley was involved in plot-ting the 2008 Mumbai terror attack.He was made an approver in thecase, and is currently serving a 35-year prison term in the US for hisrole in the attack.

The US is yet to file India’s re-quest for Rana's extradition, but isexpected to do it soon. It is evidentthat the offences for which Ranawas tried in the Illinois court willdiffer from the Indian offences

mentioned in the complaint.Rana in his defence has argued

that US' decision not to extradite hisco-conspirator, Headley, to India isinconsistent and bars his extradi-tion. However, Assistant USAttorney John J Lulejian told afederal court in Los Angeles Fridaythat unlike Rana, Headley imme-diately accepted responsibility forhis conduct and pleaded guilty to allof the charges in the SupersedingIndictment.

“Because Headley fulfilled the re-quired terms, the plea agreementestablished that Headley would notbe extradited to India. Rana’s sit-uation is different because he nei-ther pleaded guilty nor cooperatedwith the United States.” “As a re-sult, he is unable to avail himself ofthe benefits afforded to Headley

through his negotiated plea. Thus,he cannot complain that he faces ex-tradition, while his co-defendantdoes not,” the US attorney said.

Rana’s bail application is duefor hearing next week. Early thisweek, his attorney told the court thatthe 26/11 convict is not a flight riskand has proposed a $1.5 millionbond for his release.

“Rana should be released on a ro-bust bond: secured by approxi-mately $1.5 million in propertypledged by family and friends andunder the supervision of his daugh-ter, Lemaan Rana, a matriculatingmedical student and Ph.D. candi-date,” Amy Karlin, the InterimFederal Public Defender, said inthe court submission on behalf ofRana. India seeks his arrest on anumber of offences, including the

conspiracy to commit murder, con-spiracy to commit forgery for thepurpose of cheating, and murderunder relevant sections of theIndian Penal Code (IPC). He issought for his role in 2008 terror-ist attacks in Mumbai.

The US attorney urged the courtto continue his detention pend-ing the extradition proceedingsto India. Describing Rana as aflight risk, the attorney said thatno matter what bond package heoffers, Rana poses an unaccept-able flight risk.

If the US extradites Rana to Indiaand he is convicted of the charges,he may be eligible for the deathpenalty. Given what is at stake,Rana has an extreme incentive toflee and avoid facing these extra-dition proceedings, Lulejian said.

‘Headley cannot be extradited to India’MUMBAI ATTACK Pakistani-American LeT terrorist

David Headley was involved inplotting the 2008 Mumbai terrorattack along with Pakistani-originCanadian businessman co-conspirator Tahawwur Rana

Rana, 59, a childhood friend ofDavid Coleman Headley, was

recently rearrested June 10 in LosAngeles on an extradition requestby India for his involvement in the2008 Mumbai terror attack

HEADLEY WAS MADE AN APPROVER IN THE CASE, AND IS CURRENTLY SERVING A 35-YEAR PRISON TERM IN THE US FOR HIS ROLE IN THE ATTACK

AGENCIES

Washington, June 27: The NationalAeronautics and SpaceAdministration (NASA) has re-leased a startling video of 10-yeartime-lapse of the Sun, condensinga decade of activity into an hour.NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory(SDO) has been watching the Sunnon-stop for over a full decade.While orbiting around the Earth,SDO has gathered 425 million high-resolution images of the Sun, NASAsaid in a statement while releas-ing the time-lapse footage.

As of June 2020, SDO has nowbeen watching the Sun non-stopfor over a full decade. From itsorbit in space around Earth, SDOhas gathered 425 million high-res-olution images of the Sun, amass-ing 20 million gigabytes of dataover the past 10 years. This infor-

mation has enabled countless newdiscoveries about the workings ofour closest star and how it influencesthe solar system.

With a triad of instruments, SDOcaptures an image of the Sun every0.75 seconds. The Atmospheric

Imaging Assembly (AIA) instru-ment alone captures images every12 seconds at 10 different wave-lengths of light. This 10-year timelapse showcases photos taken at awavelength of 17.1 nanometers,which is an extreme ultraviolet

wavelength that shows the Sun’soutermost atmospheric layer – thecorona. Compiling one photo everyhour, the movie condenses a decadeof the Sun into 61 minutes. Thevideo shows the rise and fall in ac-tivity that occurs as part of theSun’s 11-year solar cycle and no-table events, like transiting planetsand eruptions.

This 10-year time lapse of theSun at 17.1 nanometers (an extremeultraviolet wavelength that showsthe Sun’s outermost atmosphericlayer – the corona) shows the riseand fall of the solar cycle and no-table events, like transiting planetsand solar eruptions.

While SDO has kept an un-blinking eye pointed toward theSun, there have been a few mo-ments it missed. The dark framesin the video are caused by Earth orthe Moon eclipsing SDO as they

pass between the spacecraft andthe Sun. A longer blackout in 2016was caused by a temporary issuewith the AIA instrument that wassuccessfully resolved after a week.The images where the Sun is off-cen-ter were observed when SDO wascalibrating its instruments.

The organisation also explainedthat the dark frames in the videowere caused by Earth or the Mooneclipsing SDO as they pass betweenthe spacecraft and the Sun. An in-strument failure in 2016 resultedin a longer blackout.

NASA said the SDO and its othermissions will continue to watchour Sun in the years to come, pro-viding further insights about ourplace in space and information tokeep our astronauts and assets safe.

In 2016, NASA had also releaseda time-lapse of Mercury zippingpast the Sun in a rare transit.

NASA releases startling 10-year time-lapse video of SunTHE VIDEO SHOWS THE RISE AND FALL IN ACTIVITY THAT OCCURS AS PART OF THE SUN’S 11-YEAR SOLAR CYCLE

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

New York, June 27: US regu-lators are getting close to un-d e r t a k i n g a t e s t f l i g h t o fBoeing’s grounded 737 MAXand could schedule the key stepfor as soon as next week, twosources said.

The long-delayed test flight by theFederal Aviation Administrationis a critical step in recertifyingthe plane for service but the exacttiming remains fluid.

The plane has been groundedglobally since March 2019 follow-ing two deadly crashes.

Boeing has upgraded softwarefor a flight handling system thatwas quickly identified as a majorfactor in crashes of Lion Air andEthiopian Airlines planes that to-gether claimed 346 lives.

But the recertification of thejet has been delayed by subse-quent issues identified up by airsafety regulators.

“The team is making progresstoward FAA certification flights inthe near future,” an FAAspokesman said Friday.

“ T h e FA A i s rev i ew i n gBoeing’s documentation to de-termine whether the companyhas met the criteria to move to thenext stage of evaluation. We willconduct the certification flightsonly after we are satisfied withthat data.”

REUTERS

Washington, June 27: US intel-ligence has concluded that theRussian military offered bountiesto Taliban-linked terrorists inAfghanistan to kill American troopsand other coalition forces, the NewYork Times reported.

Citing officials briefed on thematter, the Times said the UnitedStates determined months ago thata Russian military intelligenceunit linked to assassination at-tempts in Europe had offered re-wards for successful attacks lastyear. Islamist terrorists, or armedcriminal elements closely associ-ated with them, are believed tohave collected some bounty money,the newspaper said.

The White House, the CIA andthe Office of the Director ofNational Intelligence declined re-quests from Reuters for commenton the Times report.

US President Donald Trump hasbeen briefed on the intelligencefinding, the Times said. It said theWhite House has yet to authorizeany steps against Russia in re-sponse to the bounties.

Of the 20 Americans killed in

combat in 2019, the Times said, itwas not clear which deaths wereunder suspicion. After nearly 20years of fighting the Taliban, theUnited States is looking for a wayto extricate itself from Afghanistanand to achieve peace between theUS-backed government and theterrorist group, which controlsswathes of the country.

On February 29, the United Statesand the Taliban struck a deal thatcalled for a phased US troop with-drawal. US troop strength inAfghanistan is down to nearly 8,600,well ahead of a schedule agreedwith the Taliban, in part becauseof concerns about the spread ofthe coronavirus, US and NATO of-ficials said in late May.

‘Russia offered bounties toradicals to kill US soldiers’

A report said the US determined months ago that a Russian military intelligence unit linked to assassination attempts in Europe had offered

rewards for successful attacks last year

Boeing 737 MAX testflight likely next week

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Baghdad, June 27: A total of 24Islamic State (IS) militants werekilled in a security operation andairstrikes in Salahudin provincein north of Baghdad, the Iraqimilitary said Friday.

The Iraqi Counter-TerrorismService (CTS), backed by the Iraqiand international coalition air-craft, carried out a two-day oper-ation against IS hideouts in themountainous area of al-Khanougain the northern part of the province,the CTS said in a statement.

The operation resulted in thekilling of 16 IS militants in thefirst day and eight others in the sec-ond, the statement said without ex-actly specifying the days. The Iraqiand coalition airstrikes destroyeda number of IS hideouts and sev-eral caves and tunnels, where themilitants were holed up,

The operation came as the ex-tremist IS militants have intensi-fied their attacks on the securityforces, including Hashd Shaabiforces, and civilians in the for-merly IS-controlled Sunniprovinces, resulting in the killingand wounding of dozens.

The security situation in Iraqhas been improving since Iraqisecurity forces fully defeated theIS militants across the country.

24 Islamic State militants killed in Iraq

A rainbow appears over a statue of Abraham Lincoln ahead of a racial inequality protest calling for the removal of thestatue at the Emancipation Memorial at Lincoln Park near the US Capitol in Washington REUTERS PHOTO

COLOURS OF DISCONTENT

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Washington, June 27:Democraticpresumptive presidential nomineeJoe Biden was ahead of PresidentDonald Trump in some polls, butexperts have said the winner ofthe 2020 race to the White House wasstill far from a done deal.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemicand recent civil unrest, Trump hascome under severe criticism on anumber of fronts.

A New York Times/Siena Collegepoll released this week shows Bidenwith a strong, 14-point advantage,at a time when Trump is still fight-ing the pandemic, as well as deal-ing with the economy, badly hit bythe nationwide lockdown.

The lockdown triggered by thepandemic has put millions ofAmericans out of work, and thejobless rate now stands at levelsnot seen since the Great Depressionnearly 90 years ago.

Many Americans still supportTrump, as his administration rolledback years of red tape and regu-lations that slowed economicgrowth. But now, the thriving econ-

omy with a constant growth and alow level unemployment rate inthe past recent years has beenerased, and the president is rac-ing against the clock to get theeconomy moving forward againin the next crucial months beforeNovember's elections.

While Trump has maintainedthe economy will bounce back in aso-called “V shape”, many econo-mists were sceptical. Moreover,Trump’s personal style may be aturn-off to many voters, althoughhis supporters love his outspokenand sometimes outlandish persona.

“The emotional basis for Trump’scampaign is: things are bad, this isthe fault of bad people... Such peo-ple are trying to stop me from fix-ing what’s wrong. Join me and I’llcrush them and then I’ll makethings better,” Clay Ramsay, a sen-ior research associate at the Centerfor International and SecurityStudies at University of Maryland,told Xinhua.

However, there are several X fac-tors, one of which is that pollsshowing Biden ahead might notpredict the general election.

A New York Times/SienaCollege poll releasedthis week shows Bidenwith a strong, 14-pointadvantage, at a timewhen Trump is stillfighting the pandemic,as well as dealing withthe economy

Biden surges ahead ofTrump in some polls

Nepal-India border issue figures in NCP meetingPRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Kathmandu, June 27:Nepal-Indiaborder dispute and a proposed $500million US grant assistance toKathmandu were among the majorissues discussed during the ongo-ing meeting of the ruling NepalCommunist Party’s powerfulStanding Committee here Saturday,sources said.

Nepal last week completed theprocess of redrawing the country'spolitical map through aConstitutional amendment, in-corporating three strategically im-portant Indian areas.

India has termed as “untenable”the “artificial enlargement” of theterritorial claims by Nepal afterits Parliament unanimously ap-proved the new political map ofthe country featuring Lipulekh,

Kalapani and Limpiyadhura areaswhich India maintains belong to it.

On Saturday, most of the speak-ers of the 48-member StandingCommittee deliberated on the Nepal-India border issue and described thegovernment's recent move to re-draw the country’s political map in-corporating Lipulekh, Kalapaniand Limpiyadhura throughConstitution amendment as “mea-sures to consolidating Nepal’s na-tional unity and sovereignty”, ac-cording to sources.

They, however, raised questionson the government's inability tohold talks with India on the borderissue. Speaking at the meeting,Foreign Minister Pradeep KumarGyawali claimed that India did notshow any interest in holding a di-alogue with Nepal on the borderissue despite Kathmandu’s repeated

efforts, according to senior leaderof the NCP Ganesh Shah, who wasalso present at the meeting.

“Nepal seeks to resolve the bor-der dispute through political dia-logue and will continuously initi-ate for talks to resolve the matterthrough dialogue,” Gyawali said.Even Indian television channelsand print media are highlighting theborder issue, he told the meeting.

India has said that Nepal’s actionviolates an understanding reachedbetween the two countries to re-solve the boundary issues throughtalks. “This artificial enlargementof claims is not based on historicalfact or evidence and is not tenable.It is also violative of our current un-derstanding to hold talks on out-standing boundary issues,”spokesperson in the MEA AnuragSrivastava said earlier this month.

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businessSUNDAY | JUNE 28 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

AtmanirbharBharat does not

mean that nothing will beimported but that Indiawill have the capacity to produce globallycompetitive goods andservicesUDAY KOTAK | PRESIDENT, CII

India's foreign exchange reserves fell by $2.078billion during the week ended June 19. Accordingto RBI’s weekly statistical supplement, the overallforex reserves decreased to $505.566 billion from$507.644 billion reported for the week ended June12. India's forex reserves comprise FCAs, goldreserves, SDRs and reserve position with the IMF

FOREX RESERVES FALL BY OVER $2BN

cmyk

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The exportorders are ona medium

performance-levelnow but the order-enquiry for the nextquarter is good. Onthe whole, the market situation oftextiles is gradually recoveringamid the massive impact of COVID-19

PRABHU DAMODHARAN | CONVENOR, ITF

of theday uote

Onceaccounts arered-flagged, it

is imperative forbanks to also thenconclude it eitherways in areasonable period of time to ensurethat appropriate actions areinitiated. Timely intervention willenable banks to protect and ring-fence good business within theaccount

SANJAY DOSHI | FINANCIAL SERVICES

ADVISORY LEADER, KPMG IN INDIA

Analysisshows that anextended

period of lockdown,along with theincrease in thenumber of (COVID-19) infected cases, is restraining thereturn of supply side normalcy

ARUN SINGH | CHIEF ECONOMIST, DUN &BRADSTREET INDIA

Sheer profiteeringby Centre: SinhaPatna: Former Union FinanceMinister Yashwant SinhaSaturday alleged that theCentre is resorting to"profiteering" by increasingfuel prices on a daily basis.On one hand, the Centreannounced a `20-lakh crorepackage to uplift theeconomy, while on the other,it "robbed" people who travelby motorbikes, scooters andother vehicles, he said. Whilediesel rates were hiked forthe 21st straight daySaturday, petrol prices havebeen increased on 20occasions in three weeks.

NHPC net profitdives 60 pcNew Delhi: State-ownedhydro power giant NHPCreported over 60 per centdecline in consolidated netprofit to `238.64 crore inMarch quarter, mainly due tolower revenues. Itsconsolidated net profit was`602.91 crore in the fourthquarter previous fiscal, thecompany said in a regulatoryfiling. Total income was`2,382.36 crore in the periodunder review, compared to`2,450.08 crore in the year-ago period. Consolidated netprofit for 2019-20 stood at`3,324.72 crore, compared to`2,835.79 crore in 2018-19.

GM wants judge removedDetroit: General Motors askeda federal appeals court Fridayto overturn an order thatrequires its CEO to meet withthe head of Fiat Chrysler bynext week to try to settle alawsuit related to corruptionby union leaders. GM alsoasked the appeals court toremove US District Judge PaulBorman from the case. GM issuing crosstown rival FCAalleging that it got anadvantage by paying off unionleaders to reduce labour costsduring contract talks.

ITC Q4 profitrises 9.3%New Delhi: FMCG-to-hospitality major ITC hasreported a 9.28% growth inits consolidated net profit forthe January-March quarter at`3,926.46 crore. During thesame quarter of the previousfiscal, FY 2018-19, thecompany had reported a netprofit of `3,592.80 crore. Forthe full fiscal year basis, thecompany’s profit after taxgrew by 21.4% to `15,136.05crore, aided by reduction incorporate income tax ratesduring the year.

SHORT TAKES

Thai low-cost airline NokScoot shuts downBangkok: Thailand’s low-cost carrierNokScoot has announced that it wasshutting down due to mountingeconomic losses in recent years thatbecame unsustainable after acomplete halt in operations duringthe COVID-19 pandemic. NokScootwas established as a joint venture

between Singaporean airline Scoot and Thailand’s Nok Air six years ago,reports Efe news. In a statement released Friday, Scoot which owns 49%stake in NokScoot announced that the low-cost airline’s Board of Directorshad approved the company’s liquidation, although the decision has to bepassed in a general meeting of shareholders within two weeks. TheSingapore-based airline said that NokScoot had accumulated losses eversince it was founded in 2014 due to intense competition in its sector andthe situation had grown worse due to the global health crisis.

Hitachi, Microsoft ink multi-year dealTokyo: Hitachi and Microsoft have announced a multi-year strategicalliance to accelerate the digital transformation of the manufacturing andlogistics industries across Southeast Asia, North America and Japan.Hitachi will integrate its industry-leading solutions such as Lumada, and itsInternet of Things (IoT)-ready industrial controllers HX Series, with theMicrosoft cloud platform, leveraging Azure, Dynamics 365 and Microsoft365 to help businesses increase their workforce productivity and opera-tional efficiency. The first joint solutions will be available in Thailand inJuly, the companies said in a statement."Through this collaboration withMicrosoft, we will be able to accelerateour customers' digital transformationand continue to deliver social, environ-mental and economic value," said JunAbe, Vice President and ExecutiveOfficer, CEO of Industry andDistribution Business Unit, Hitachi.

Oil imports see biggest drop in over a decade

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New Delhi, June 27: India is on itsway to make its biggest savings inthe oil import bill this year withCOVID-19 related disruptions andsluggish demand conditions squeez-ing down the country’s crude pay-ments to a fourth of previous year’slevel in the first two months of current fiscal.

In the period of April-May 2020-21,India’s oil import bill has fallen to ameagre $5.4 billion as against $19.3billion in the same period a yearago. Apart from lower oil prices, thequantum of imports in the two monthperiod has also fallen to 31 milliontonne (MT) from 39 MT last year.

The fall has been more stark inthe month of May this year whenthe oil import bill stood at a mere$2.3 billion as compared to $9.5 bil-lion last year. In fact, India's crude

oil import in May fell 22.6% to 14.6MT, the biggest single month dropsince 2005, as both fuel demand andrefinery production was hit byCOVID-19 disruptions.

Interestingly, between April andMay, global crude oil prices have

bounced back 60% from a level ofaverage $20 a barrel in April toover $30 a barrel in May. But com-pared to May, 2019’s average crudeprice of over $70 a barrel, the current price are still at less thanthe halfway mark.

"The conditions this year areideal for India to bring its oil importbill close to the halfway mark ofFY’20 levels. But it will depend onhow oil producers respond to cur-rent disruptions and how long thecurrent coronavirus crisis con-tinues and controls the demandconditions. Oil price have risenthis month to over the $40 mark, butcould rise further if a concernabout the prolonged presence of

the virus gets re-established," saidan oil sector expert.

As per the Petroleum Planningand Analysis Cell’s (PPAC) provi-sional estimates, India’s oil importsbill is expected to settle just over $100billion mark in FY’20. If it fallscloser to $50 billion mark in FY’21,the government would be able tocover its increased spending topump up the economy in Covidtimes easily. Already taxes on pe-troleum products have been jackedup to mobilise additional resourcesfor these unplanned expenditures.

While India imported crude oilworth $112 billion in FY’19, its im-port bill has transited substantiallylower in the previous three finan-cial years with oil import bill stand-ing at mere $64 billion in FY’16when oil prices slipped on over sup-plies, especially with the entry of USshale oil.

US-based Carlyle buys 20% stake inPiramal Pharma for over `3,700 cr

Requested CommMin to allow exportof PPE kits: GadkariPRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, June 27: MSMEMinister Nitin Gadkari Saturdaysaid he has requested theCommerce Ministry to allow exportof Personal Protective Equipment(PPE) kits, as the country is pro-ducing it in large quantities.

Addressing a webinar on theoccasion of International MSMEDay, Gadkari, who also holds theportfolio of Road Transport andHighways, said about two monthsago that India imported PPE kitsfrom China via a special aircraftbut now the country’s industryand MSMEs were manufacturinglakhs of PPE kits per day.

"Now, already I have requestedthe commerce ministry" to allowexport of PPE Kits from India,the minister said, adding that it wasbeing considered. Stressing thatPPE has export potential, he saidthat people are getting orders forPPE kits from Dubai, Canada, theUS and European countries.

Recently, Indian apparel exportindustry body AEPC had also urgedthe government to lift the ban on ex-ports of PPE kits as its productionhas reached 8 lakh units per day.

Gadkari also launched the reportof the GAME National Task Forcefor MSMEs, entailing industrywide recommendations to boost theunits and entrepreneurial dy-namism in India.

IN THE PERIOD OF APRIL-MAY 2020-21, INDIA’S OIL IMPORT BILL HAS FALLEN TO A MEAGRE $5.4BN AS AGAINST $19.3BNIN THE SAME PERIOD A YEAR AGO

SLUGGISH DEMAND

BIZ BUZZ

IDBI Bank to sellstake in insurance JV to partnersAGENCIES

New Delhi, June 27: IDBI BankSaturday said its board has ap-proved the sale of more than halfof the bank's 48 per cent stake inIDBI Federal Life Insurance CoLtd (IFLI) to current joint ven-ture partners for `595 crore.

In a regulatory filing, IDBI Banksaid it will sell 23% stake to AgeasInsurance International N.V and4% to Federal Bank.

After the deal, the Belgian in-surer Ageas stake in IFLI will in-crease to 49%, while Federal Bank’sstake would go up to 30%. Poststake sale, IDBI Bank will have21% stake in IFLI.

"The board of directors, at itsmeeting held Friday, June 26, 2020,has approved to sell IDBI bank’sstake in IDBI Federal LifeInsurance Company Limited (IFLI)to the extent of 23% to Ageas and4% to Federal Bank at a combinedvalue of about ̀ 595 crore," it said.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, June 27: TheGovernment of India Saturdaybrought cooperative banksunder the regulatory frame-work of the Reserve Bank ofIndia (RBI) by amending the70-year-old Banking RegulationAct through a PresidentialDecree. President Ram NathKovind promulg ated theBanking Re gulation(Amendment) Ordinance, 2020which will ensure helping co-operative banks to access thecapital.

The new ordinance seeks toprotect the interests of depos-itors and strengthen coopera-tive banks by improving gov-ernance and oversight byextending powers already avail-able with the RBI.

However, Odisha State Co-operative Bank (OSCB) claimedwhy there was a need to bringcooperative banks under reg-ulatory framework of RBI. Thepresident of OSCB AkshayaKumar Mohanty said, “We ma-jorly provide loans to farmers,and we hardly gets repayment

from these lonees. And the de-posits are also safe with us.Therefore, we don’t calculatewhy cooperative banks werebrought under RBI framework.There is no logic in the new or-dinance.”

Instead, Mohanty said, urbancooperative banks should bebrought under regulatory frame-work of RBI. “Urban coopera-tive banks offer loans to otherfirms rather than farmers. Ifthese banks would come under

the regulation, the interests ofdepositors would be secured,”he said.

There are 17 central co-op-erative banks and just one stateco-operative bank in Odisha.“OSCB has set a target to dis-burse Kharif crop loans ofamounting ̀ 9,000 crore to farm-ers till September 30, 2020. Co-operative banks (Central level+ OSCB) in Odisha have de-posits of over `10,000 crore,”said the President.

The amendments do not af-fect existing powers of the StateRegistrars of Co-operativeSocieties under the state co-op-erative laws.

The Ordinance by thePresident also amends Section45 of the Banking RegulationAct, to enable making of ascheme of reconstruction oramalgamation of a bankingcompany for protecting the in-terest of the public, depositorsand the banking system andfor securing its proper man-agement, even without makingan order of moratorium, so asto avoid disruption of the fi-nancial system.

AGENCIES

New Delhi, June 27: US-basedglobal investment firm CarlyleGroup Inc has agreed to buy a20% stake in the pharmaceuticalunit of Indian conglomeratePiramal Enterprises Ltd for about$490 million (over `3,700 crore),the companies said in a statementSaturday.

The capital raise will acceleratePiramal Pharma's organic and in-organic growth plans, the AjayPiramal-led Piramal Enterprisesand Carlyle Group said inthe joint statement.

"... CA CloverIntermediate IIInvestments,an affiliatedentity ofCAP VMauritiusLtd, an in-vestmentfund man-aged andadvised by af-filiated entitiesof The CarlyleGroup Inc hasagreed to invest freshequity capital for a 20 per centstake in Piramal Pharma Ltd...,"it said.

The transaction values thepharma business at an enterprisevalue (EV) of USD 2.775 billion(over `20,980 crore), with an up-side component of up to USD 360 mil-lion (over `2,720 crore) dependingon the company's FY’21 perform-ance, the statement said.

"Based on the EV (excluding theupside component), exchange rate

and pharma net debt ason March 31, 2020, the

estimated equity cap-ital investment forCarlyle's 20% stakein PiramalPharma wouldamount to USD490 million (over`3,700 crore)," it

added. The final amountof equity invest-

ment will de-pend on the net

debt, exchange rate and per-formance against the pre-agreedconditions at the time of closingof the deal.

The transaction is expected toclose in 2020, it added.

"This is an affirmation of thestrength of our ability to buildnew, attractive and scalable busi-nesses with a significant runwayfor continued organic growth andopportunities for consolidation,"Piramal Enterprises ChairmanAjay Piramal said.

This infusion of funds "will fur-ther strengthen our balance sheetand provide us with a war chest forthe next phase of our strategy,"he added.

Asked about the stake PiramalEnterprises will hold in the com-pany post the transaction, AjayPiramal told PTI it will have 80per cent stake.

On whether Piramal EnterprisesLtd (PEL) will list Piramal Pharmagoing forward, he said: "We havepublicly stated in the past, that inthe medium term we will sepa-rate the two PEL businesses. Thisis a step closer towards that en-deavour."

PEL has two businesses -- pharmaand financial services.

Piramal Enterprises ExecutiveDirector Nandini Piramal said,"This fresh growth investment intoour pharma business will be usedas growth capital for the pharmabusinesses to expand capacity acrossour sites as well as to tap attractiveacquisition opportunities withinand outside India.

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Mumbai, June 27: Amid the ongoing economic woes created bythe coronavirus pandemic, theReserve Bank of India (RBI) has de-cided to extend the enhanced bor-rowing facility provided to thebanks to meet their liquidity short-ages till September 30.

The RBI, as a temporary meas-ure, had increased the borrowinglimit of scheduled banks underthe marginal standing facility(MSF) scheme from 2% to 3% oftheir Net Demand and TimeLiabilities (NDTL) with effect fromMarch 27, 2020.

Under the MSF, banks can bor-row overnight funds at their dis-cretion by dipping into the StatutoryLiquidity Ratio (SLR).

This relaxation, which wasgranted till June 30, 2020, has nowbeen extended till September 30.

"On a review, it has now beendecided to extend this enhancedlimit till September 30, 2020," the RBIsaid in a circular.

Banks may continue to accessovernight funds under the MSF

against their excess SLR holding, itadded. The marginal standing facilityrate currently stands at 4.25%.

The RBI has also extended the re-laxation on the minimum dailymaintenance of the Cash ReserveRatio (CRR) at 80% for a further pe-riod of three months till September25, 2020.

The minimum daily mainte-nance of the CRR, March 27, wasreduced from 90% of the prescribedCRR to 80% till June 26, 2020.

This was done in view of thecontinuing of hardships faced bybanks in terms of social distancingof staff and consequent strains onreporting requirements.

The RBI had increasedthe borrowing limit ofscheduled banks underthe MSF scheme from2% to 3% of their NetDemand and TimeLiabilities with effectfrom March 27, 2020

Thisfresh growth

investment into ourpharma business will be

used as growth capital forthe pharma businesses to

expand capacity across oursites as well as to tapattractive acquisition

opportunities within andoutside India

NANDINI PIRAMAL I EXECUTIVEDIRECTOR, PIRAMALENTERPRISES

RBI extends enhancedborrowing limit underMSF till September 30

AKSHAYA KUMAR MOHANTY PRESIDENT, OSCB

The fall has been more stark inthe month of May this yearwhen the oil import bill stood ata mere $2.3bn as compared to$9.5bn last year

India’s crude oil import in Mayfell 22.6% to 14.6 MT, the biggestsingle month drop since 2005

No logic in bringing co-op banksunder RBI lens: OSCB prez

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Printed and published by Tathagata Satpathy on behalf of Navajat Printers and Media Pvt. Ltd. and printed at Navajat Printers, B-15 Industrial Estate, Rasulgarh, Bhubaneswar -751010, Odisha;Phone:7894447142(Marketing). Editor: Tathagata Satpathy, RNI No. ORIENG/2011/371591

PORTUGUESE BACK IN FORM AS JUVENTUS CRUSH 10-MAN LECCE 4-0

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Rome, June 27: Cristiano Ronaldois back in form. He set up two goalsand converted a penalty to helpJuventus beat 10-man Lecce 4-0Friday and boost their chances ofclaiming a record-extending ninthsuccessive Serie A title.

Ronaldo had struggled since foot-ball resumed in Italy, but his re-turn to form pushed Juventus sevenpoints clear of second-placed Lazio,which hosts Fiorentina Saturday.

“What’s important is that wecontinue to get results,” Juventuscoach Maurizio Sarri said whenasked about their increasing ad-vantage at the top of the table.

“We struggled at the beginningand then we managed to get goingat the end of the first half. But I sawa good mentality because evenwhen the match was over, we stillcontinued to attack.”

Lecce remained in the relega-tion zone but is level on points withGenoa, which occupies the last po-sition of safety.

Lecce started brightly but itschances of getting anything fromthe match diminished when de-fender Fabio Lucioni was shown astraight red card for a last-manchallenge on Rodrigo Bentancur,leaving the visiting side in 10 menfor nearly an hour.

“Until the sending off the matchwas balanced,” said Lecce coachFabio Liverani, who also bemoanedthe number of players he is miss-ing through injury.

“Maybe if we had had everyplayer available I could have madedifferent moves. At the moment Ihave a maximum of 14 playersavailable. But I am sure that witha bit of fortune, getting some play-ers back, we can have our say inmatches against direct rivals.”

Juventus scored all of its goalsafter the red card and in the secondhalf, but struggled to break downthe visitors. Ronaldo had severalchances but sent an overhead kickpast the left post and somehowheaded over an empty goal fromtwo yards out.

However, the Portugal interna-tional set up Juve’s opener eight min-utes after the break as he cut the ballback to Paulo Dybala who curledinto the roof of the net from the edgeof the area.

Ronaldo then got on the score-sheet himself with his secondpenalty in as many matches afterhe was tripped by Luca Rossettini.

Ronaldo also set up Juve’s thirdin the 83rd minute, back-heelingthe ball for Gonzalo Higuain to scoreshortly after coming off the bench.Matthijs de Ligt headed in a DouglasCosta cross two minutes later tocap a great night for Juventus.

CR7 lifts Juve

PUJARA GRATEFUL TO DRAVIDPRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, June 27: India’s Testbatting mainstay Cheteshwar Pujaracannot describe in words the in-fluence that Rahul Dravid has hadon his life but says he will alwaysremain grateful to him for teachingthe importance of switching offfrom cricket.

Often compared to Dravid, whowas considered the ‘Wall’ of Indiancricket, Pujara said he is thankfulto Dravid for teaching him how tokeep personal and professionallives separate.

“He helped me understand the im-portance of switching off fromcricket. I had the same thought,more or less, but when I spoke tohim, it gave me a lot of clarity aboutit and I was sure of what I neededto do,” he told ‘ESPNcricinfo’.

“I also saw in county cricket howthey keep personal and professionallives separate. I value that advicea lot. Many people consider me tobe focused. Yes, I am focused, but Ialso know when to switch off. Thereis life beyond cricket.”

In his illustrious international ca-

reer, Dravid amassed 13288 runsin 164 Tests and 10889 runs in 344ODIs. He also captained India in 79ODIs, winning 42 of them, which in-cludes the world record of 14 suc-cessive wins while chasing.

“I cannot say in one line whatRahul bhai means to me. He has al-ways been an inspiration, and willremain one,” Pujara said.

His mental fortitude and battingtechnique is often compared toDravid but Pujara said ‘despite myenchantment with him’ he nevertried to ‘copy him’.

“There is a similarity in ourgames, but that’s not because ofmy fascination with him. Thatcame mainly through my experi-ences with Saurashtra, where Ilearned that scoring a hundredalone isn’t enough, you have tocarry your team,” he said.

“That is how I learned respon-sibility – it is about helping myteam to raise a big total, and forthat I ought to attach importanceto my wicket. I learned that from myjunior cricket days with Saurashtra,which was a weaker team in do-mestic cricket.”

Viswanath recalls hurtful past

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Bangalore, June 27: FormerIndian batsman GundappaViswanath Saturday revealed thathe was ‘very hurt’ after his distin-guished career came to an abruptend following a poor Test seriesagainst Pakistan in 1982-83.

Along with Sunil Gavaskar, hewas one of the mainstays of theIndian battling line-up through the’70s, playing some fine knocks againstthe best pace attacks of that era.

However, a poor outing in a six-Test series against Pakistan cutshort his career as he was droppedfor the tour of the West Indies andsubsequently could not make it tothe 1983 World Cup squad.

“I was very, very hurt when I wasdropped. At that time, in all the threetimes (innings) I took wrong deci-sions. It is part of the game. But inthat (situation) in two innings, if Ihad scored well, they would not haveremoved me,” Viswanath said on‘Star Sports 1 Kannada’ show

‘Diggajara Danthakathe’. “Kapil’scaptaincy was not announced but itwas almost known to everyone.”

Known for his legendary squarecuts and flicks, Viswanath, the firstsuperstar batsman from Karnatakato play for India, played a pivotal rolein the state’s Ranji Trophy triumphs.

He quickly rose from domestic tointernational cricket because ofhis batting prowess. He came tothe limelight under the captaincyof Erapalli Prasanna for Karnatakaand under Mansoor Ali KhanPataudi for India.

“Thanks to Prasanna who pushedfor me initially. It helped me playfor the state. Pataudi was playingfor Hyderabad in the Ranji Trophy.As a part of Karnataka team, we hadto play against him. He (Pataudi) sawme closely there.

“For a match playing forPresident’s XI, New Zealand hadcome in 1968 and I got a chance to play.Chandu Borde was the captain andwe had a good partnership,” he said.

“He (Chandu Borde) recom-mended me to Pataudi and that’show I came into prominence muchearlier than what I expected,” the71-year-old Viswanath recalled.

He scored a century on debutagainst Australia in Kanpur in1969, the first of the 14 hundreds hewould go on to score during an il-lustrious career spanning over 14years while fetching 6000 runs.

Roberts slamsHetmyer for his‘no’ to Eng tourPRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, June 27: West Indiespace legend Andy Roberts hasslammed batsman ShimronHetmyer for opting out of theEngland tour because of healthconcerns amid the coronaviruspandemic.

Along with senior pro DarrenBravo, Hetmyer pulled out of thetour of UK and forced the RogerHarper-led selection committeeto make some last-minute changes.

“They would have played an in-tegral part of the batting. As muchas we don’t like the way Hetmyerhas been playing, he is one of thebatsmen for the future. But some-body has to get into his head andlet him realise that you can’t scoreruns sitting in the pavilion,” Robertssaid in an episode on MichaelHolding’s YouTube channel.

Holding, Roberts’ equally il-lustrious pace bowling partnerthrough the 1970s and ’80s, hadcalled the two batsmen’s move‘unfortunate’.

According to Roberts, the chal-lenge for most West Indies bats-men was they ‘don’t really train andpractise enough to work the ball intogaps. We believe in boundaries’.

Gerrard pays tribute to captain Henderson

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Liverpool, June 27: FormerLiverpool skipper Steven Gerrardpaid a heart-warming tribute tocurrent captain Jordan Hendersonafter the latter guided the club toa historic Premier League title.

Liverpool were crowned cham-pions of the league after ManchesterCity lost to Chelsea 1-2 at StamfordBridge. This meant that the de-fending champions couldn’t over-haul Liverpool’s point tally with

seven matches to go and the Redswere crowned league winners.

This is Liverpool’s first top-flighttitle in 30 years and their maidenPremier League crown. EvenGerrard, who is widely regardedas the best captain in Liverpool’s his-tory, failed to achieve whatHenderson managed to do. Gerrardacknowledged Henderson’s feat andshared an image of the two togetheron Instagram and his post read:“Couldn’t of (sic) passed it to a bet-ter person. Proud of you, mate.”

Suarez lauds former teammate JordanLiverpool: Barcelona striker Luis Suarez has labelledJordan Henderson as ‘one of the best captains’ inLiverpool’s history while expressing his delight at see-ing his former club win the Premier League. “It’s apleasure for me to speak with you and the Liverpoolfans. I am so excited as well because I played for afew years there and I have so many friends there,”Suarez told Liverpoolfc.com. Henderson is the onlyplayer remaining at Anfield since Suarez’s time on Merseyside – which conclud-ed in the summer of 2014. “When I saw last year (him winning) the ChampionsLeague, I was so happy for him. Why? Because as some people know he hadsome problems with his dad and he had really good moments and some badmoments in Liverpool,” the 33-year-old said. “When he lifted the trophy, thedream is done but this season I (will be happy to) see him lifting the (PremierLeague) trophy because he is a really good person. I speak sometimes with himand I said to him, ‘You have a really good chance this season’ and he is so excit-ed. We watch some (Liverpool) games when we can and we see that Jordan, heis the captain from the midfield. He (Henderson) speaks a lot and for his team-mates this is so important, when they have confidence with the captain. For me,Jordan is one of the best captains in Liverpool’s history,” Suarez added.

Not being part of 1992 WC glory hurts WaqarINDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Lahore, June 27: Former Pakistanspeedster Waqar Younis has re-called the heartbreaking momentin 1992 when he missed the WorldCup in Australia due to an injury.

The fast-bowler had to miss theshowpiece event Down Under be-cause of a stress fracture in hisback right before the tourna-ment. Waqar had to watch histeam lift the trophy from homeand he has stated it wasn’t a happymoment for him.

“That (tournament) was not thebest time for me. I got injured. Ibroke my back, got a stress frac-ture in my back, just before theWorld Cup started,” Waqar said

during the ‘Cricket Badger Podcast’as per Cricket Pakistan.

“I was on tour, with the team,and in one of the warm-ups some-thing went wrong in my back andI couldn’t really walk after thatWorld Cup for a long time.

“That was probably the worsttime because I was (at the) top of mygame, I was bowling really well.And me being in the team, Pakistanwere favourites to win that WorldCup. Pakistan still won the WorldCup, but missing out on that glory,was probably a not-so-happy mo-ment for me,” he added.

Waqar also spoke about how histeammates made him feel like he waspart of the squad after their returnto Pakistan with trophy. Despite

that, Waqar stated he had a mixed-bag feeling, considering he could-n’t play any part in team winningthe prestigious cup.

“I was very, very happy. I still re-member the day they came backto Pakistan, they landed at Lahore,I was there, I was there to receivethem with the chief minister ofthe time,” Waqar recollected.

“It was heartening as well asheart-breaking. It was a mixedfeeling, but I was more happy.They recognised me that I missedout – they lifted me up and putme up on the truck, and gave meall the respect and love that Imissed out on. I was hurting, in away, but also it was very, verypleasing,” he added.

Yuzi picks winnerbetween him, KohliNew Delhi: India spinner YuzvendraChahal Saturday tried to get thebetter of skipper Virat Kohli onpopular social media platformTwitter. Sports broadcaster ‘StarSports’ asked a quirky question totheir followers on social media thatwho would come out on top if Kohlihad the ball in hand and Chahalwas batting. Their post read: “YuziChahal with the bat vs Virat Kohliwith the ball – who would you thinkwould win this battle?” The leg-spinner was quick to respond andwrote: “No doubt Yuzi Chahal only@StarSportIndia.”

Odisha FC, asst. coach Singto part waysBhubaneswar: Indian Super League (ISL) club Odisha FC and its assistantcoach Thangboi Singto have parted ways. Singto had joined the clubahead of 2019 ISL and was also the head of club’s youth development. “Itwas a great and wonderful experience for me at Odisha FC and wouldlike to thank everyone at the club for their support. It was great to workwith Head Coach Josep Gombau. I would like to wish the club,management, staff and players all the best for the upcoming ISL season.Will miss Odisha, its peace loving people and the cheers of theJuggernauts. Dhanyabad OFC,” said Singto.

Lewandowski voted‘Player of the season’Berlin: Bayern Munich’s free-coringstriker Robert Lewandowski hasbeen named as Bundesliga’s ‘Playerof the Season’. Lewandowski wonmore than 50 per cent of the votesand defeated the likes of TimoWerner, Jadon Sancho, AmineHarit, Erling Haaland, Kai Havertzand Serge Gnabry. BorussiaDortmund star Sancho finishedsecond overall, with BayerLeverkusen’s Havertz completingthe podium. Lewandowski wasonce again the league’s leadinggoalscorer, according to the officialBundesliga website.

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New Delhi, June 27: Former Indiaspinner Pragyan Ojha has said thatspin great Anil Kumble had con-trasting personalities on and offthe pitch. Ojha, who took 113 Testwickets in his brief five-year in-ternational career, said that Kumblewas as aggressive on the field as hewas calm off it.

“When he was on the ground,Kumble used to be very aggressive,both with the opponent and with hisown players,” Ojha told ‘Wisden’ inan interview. “Off the field, youwon’t be able to relate. I was takenaback, ‘Am I talking to the sameperson who I saw on the ground?’He used to compete hard, but off thefield, he was very soft-spoken.”

Ojha played his entire interna-tional career under the captaincyof MS Dhoni. His time with theIndian team coincided with the oldguard of Sachin Tendulkar, SouravGanguly, Rahul Dravid and VVSLaxman phasing out and the ar-rival of the likes of Virat Kohli

and Rohit Sharma.“Sachin paaji used to be very

calm, composed. He never used togive any reaction. He had a differ-ent approach. Anil bhai had a dif-ferent approach. Dhoni and Kohli,they want to win games for thecountry, but their approach is com-pletely different,” he said.

“Someone like VVS Laxmanwould listen to Suprabhatam andthen go and bat. That is his ag-gression. Someone like a Kohliwill be listening to loud, Punjabimusic, showing body language – notgestures – and he likes to show heis in your face. It is not wrong inany way, it was just different.”

Ojha opens up on Kumble NEWS IN BRIEF