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News Brief

STAY INDOORS - STAY SAFE - STAY HEALTHY

A migrant worker onboard Shramik Special train showing thumps-up beforetrain departed from Nagercoil Junction, Tamil Nadu to Patna UNI.

An aerial view of Holy Ganga river in Varanasi UNI.

With over 5K new cases, IndiaCovid tally jumps to 96,169

New Delhi, With the sharpest spike

of 5,242 new cases in 24hours, India’s total casecount of coronavirusjumped to 96,169, the UnionHealth Ministry data re-vealed on Monday.

According to the HealthMinistry, of the total, 56,316are active cases while atleast 36,823 people havebeen cured from the dis-ease.

At least 157 deaths werereported in the last 24 hours,taking the total fatalitycount to 3,029.

In Maharashtra, theCovid-19 cases climbed to33,053, followed by Gujaratwhich has 11,379 cases andTamil Nadu 11,224 cases sofar.

Maharashtra has also re-ported the highest numberof deaths, 1198, followed by659 in Gujarat and 248 inMadhya Pradesh.

National capital’s totaltally crossed the 10,000-mark on Monday and stoodat 10,054, according to theHealth Ministry data.

States which have re-ported more than 4000cases are Rajasthan (5,202),Madhya Pradesh (4,977) andUttar Pradesh (4,259).

Other major states andUnion Territories that havereported more than 1,000cases are West Bengal(2,677), Andhra Pradesh(2,407), Punjab (1,964),Telangana (1,551), Bihar(1,262), Jammu and Kashmir

(1,183) and Karnataka(1,147).

Among other states andUTs that have reported a sig-nificant number of cases areHaryana (910), Kerala (601),Odisha (828), Tripura (167),Jharkhand (223), Assam(101), Uttarakhand (92),Himachal Pradesh (80) and

Chandigarh (191).Goa which had main-

tained Corona Free statusfor quite a long time andhad few resurged cases re-cently, reported at least 15new cases, taking the totaltally there at 29, said theHealth Ministry.

—IANS

‘Saptarishi aarti’ row: Reportsubmitted to DM Varanasi

Varanasi, The temple administra-

tion of the Kashi Vishwanathtemple (KVT) in Varanasi hasallowed eight priests of dif-ferent states to enter thetemple for performing ritu-als as per tradition.

The decision comes af-ter the team probing theMay 7 Kashi Vishwanathtemple’s Saptarishi Aartirow, submitted its report tothe district authorities.

However, the entry oftemple’s former mahant andhis family members to per-form the rituals of SaptarishiAarti has not been permit-ted as they did not reply tothe notices issued to them,said KVT chief executive of-ficer Vishal Singh.

Varanasi District Magis-trate Kaushal Raj Sharmasaid: “The ADM City and SPSecurity, who had been as-signed the task to probeinto the May 7 incident ofperforming of SaptarishiAarti on road near gate-4 oftemple, have submittedtheir report to me.

“This report has beenforwarded to the principalsecretary (religious affairs),divisional commissioner,temple administration toinitiate further action with

the finding of investigationand recommendations.”

The district magistratesaid that during the investi-gation it was found thatsome photographs, whichwere taken when the houseof former mahant was get-ting vacated in March, wereissued by them claimingthem as current photo-graphs to prove that por-tions of a temple inside KVcorridor had been dam-aged.

“The investigatorsfound that these photo-graphs were released withill-intention of instigatingreligious sentiment ofpeople at the time oflockdown. This could be aconspiracy,” he said.

The district magistrateof Varanasi is the ex-officiomember of the temple trust.

Recommendation hasbeen made by investigatorsto initiate action against amember of former mahantfamily who led the entireepisode.

“The livelihood offormer mahant family de-pends on temple, but in-stead of performing theirresponsibility at a time oflockdown, this act amountsto disloyalty for the temple

and breach of trust,” said thedistrict magistrate.

He said that course ofaction in this regard wouldbe decided by the religiousaffairs department, divi-sional commissioner,temple administration andtrust. He said a case has al-ready been lodged againstthe persons who performedrituals on road by violatinglockdown.

Regarding actionagainst the priests who took

part in the rituals performedon road on May 7, thetemple’s CEO said that eightpriests from different stateshad given their reply totemple administrationagainst the notices issued tothem for their act.

He said that satisfiedwith their reply, the templeadministration had allowedthem to perform rituals intemple like past. The formermahant and his family didnot give any reply againstnotices given to them henceno decision had been takento allow their entry intemple to perform rituals ofSaptarishi Aarti.

It may be recalled thaton May 7, an awkward situ-ation was created in andaround the KVT when twoparallel Saptarishi aartis ofLord Vishwanath were per-formed.

While a group of priestsbelonging to family andgroup of former mahant oftemple performed the aartion road, another aarti wasperformed inside temple’ssanctum sanctorum by thepriests arranged by thetemple administration.

Later a probe was or-dered into the incident.

—IANS

American expatdies in Hydmountain bikingaccident

Hyderabad, A weekend mountain

biking trip ended in trag-edy for an American ex-patriate in the city. The USnational, identified by po-lice as Paul Robert, wasfound dead in the rockyterrain near the Gandipetreservoir on Hyderabad’soutskirts.

A search operationwas launched by the po-lice, when Robert’s wifeapproached them afterhe did not respond to herphone calls.

J&K court orders probe after mancollects money pleading starvation

Srinagar, A court on Monday ordered probe into the fraudulent

collection of Rs 27 lakh as donation by a local who claimedhe had no food to eat during the holy Muslim fastingmonth of Ramadan and the ongoing pandemic.

In a video circulated on the social media last week alocal belonging to Kashmir’s Kupwara district, who is pres-ently living in Srinagar city, had claimed that he and hisfamily had to break their day-long fast with water as theyhad no food to eat.

He had sought donations to save his family from star-vation.

Interestingly, Rs 27 lakh were donated by people intohis account within 24 hours.

Police has already lodged an FIR against the person for‘willingly and intentionally cheating public’.

Reports said the fraudster had earlier also cheatedpeople by seeking monetary help to save his ‘starving fam-ily’

Reports here said the account into which the donationspoured has already been seized by the authorities.

Following a complaint filed via virtual mode againstthe fraudster by a local lawyer, the Chief Judicial Magis-trate Srinagar, Gowhar Majid said in his order, “In order toascertain the truthfulness or otherwise, I deem it properto get the complaint investigated through the stationhouse officer (SHO) of the concerned police station undersection 202 CrPC.”

The complaining lawyer has also mentioned the prop-erty details of the accused and the names of those whohelped him after learning about the alleged plight of theaccused.

—IANS

Low intensityquake inHimachalPradesh

Shimla, Himachal Pradesh

experienced a low inten-sity earthquake on Mon-day, an official said here.There was no loss of life.

An earthquake mea-suring 3.5 on the Richterscale was recorded at7.53 a.m., the Meteoro-logical office told IANS.

The epicentre of thequake was Chamba dis-trict, bordering Jammuand Kashmir.

—IANS

20 migrants inAyodhya, 10 inHamirpur injuredin mishaps

Ayodhya/Hamirpur (Uttar

Pradesh), Twenty migrant

workers were injuredwhen a mini-truckrammed into a truck inAyodhya district onMonday morning.

The mini-truck wascarrying workers fromMumbai and washeaded to SiddharthaNagar in Uttar Pradesh.

UP chief ministerYogi Adityanath, takingcognizance of the inci-dent, directed the dis-trict magistrate and po-lice chief of Ayodhya toreach the spot and over-see rescue operations.

SP Ayodhya, AshishTiwari said that sevenpersons had been ad-mitted to the districthospital while the restwere discharged afterfirst aid. Two personshad fractured their legswhile one sustained aneye injury.

In another incidentin Hamirpur district onMonday, ten migrantworkers were injuredwhen the bus over-turned.

The bus, with 30 pas-sengers, was taking theworkers from Noida toMahoba district. The in-jured were treated at alocal hospital

Sources said that thedriver fell asleep and lostcontrol of the vehicle.

—IANS

GoM to meettoday to reviewand monitor ecopackage

New Delhi, A meeting of group

of ministers (GoM) withthe responsibility ofmonitoring Rs 21 lakhcrore special economicpackage is to take placeat the residence of De-fence Minister RajnathSingh on Monday.

Union Home Minis-ter Amit Shah, FinanceMinister NirmalaSitharaman, Rural Devel-opment MinisterNarendra Singh Tomarand Cabinet MinisterSmriti Irani among oth-ers will attend the meet-ing to be held at 12noon on Monday.

The GoM is likely toreview the announce-ment of the economicrevival package totallingan economic value of Rs21 lakh crore by FinanceMinister Sitharaman onfive consecutive days.

The economic pack-age will tend to theneeds of the MSME sec-tor, as well as reform cer-tain agricultural infra-structure in the country.The central governmenthas stepped up reformsfor sectors includingcoal, minerals, defenceproduction, air spacemanagement, and air-ports. The GoM is alsolikely to strategize howthe benefits of the eco-nomic package reach tothe needy and the mostvulnerable.

Ahead of big WHO meet, 100+ countries back calls for probe into Covid-19 origin New Delhi,

The European Union-drafted resolution to seek aprobe into the origin of thecoronavirus disease that haskilled over 300,000 peopleand the WHO’s response hasgained the support of over100 countries including In-dia, according to docu-ments filed ahead of theWorld Health Organisation’s( WHO) biggest annualevent on Monday.

The World Health As-sembly, the WHO’s keypolicy making body, is meet-ing Monday afternoon, 3.30pm IST. This is the first timethat the meeting is beingheld via video conference.The conference will bewrapped up in two days fornow and resume once theworld gets a grip on the vi-rus that has infected mil-

lions of people.The resolution seeks a

probe into the source of thevirus, now called Sars-CoV-2, and the route of its intro-duction to the humanpopulation. Coronavirus, thedisease that the pathogencauses, was first detected inChina’s Wuhan city.

But Beijing, which hasbeen accused of trying toconceal the disease in theearly days of its detectionlast year, occasionally insiststhat it could have originatedelsewhere. More than oneChinese foreign ministry of-ficial has Australia, who hadplayed a lead role in build-ing support for the resolu-tion that targets China, haswelcomed the growing sup-port for the probe, accord-ing to news agency Reuters.Australian Foreign Minister

Marise Payne said the reso-lution is “an important partof the conversation westarted”.Australia has alsoborne the brunt of Beijing’sanger for this role. Chineseauthorities have threat-ened to impose heavy du-ties on barley imports andalready suspended beefimports from four Austra-lian suppliers.Chinese for-eign ministry has deniedthat the decision was linkedto Australia’s push for theCovid origin inquiry that ithas described as “highly ir-responsible” and could “dis-rupt international coopera-tion in fighting the pan-demic”.

Australia, backed by theUnited States, however,stayed the course and keptup its efforts. An updateddocument on the WHO’s

website indicates that sup-port for the resolution hasbeen growing.

Saudi Arabia, Qatar andthe 54-nation Africa Grouphave also signed off on theresolution - now supportedby 123 members - that notonly puts China’s role butalso that of the WHO lead-ership under scrutiny. Inparticular, WHO directorgeneral Tedros AdhanomGhebreyesus.

The draft resolutionasks the WHO chief to startan “impartial, independentand comprehensive evalu-ation” to review experiencegained and lessons learnedfrom the WHO-coordinatedinternational health re-sponse including an evalu-ation of the effectiveness ofthe mechanisms at WHO’sdisposal.

Migrant workers waiting in queue by maintaining social distance at Rajkot Rail-way station to reach their home towns in Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and MadhyaPradesh during the fourth phase of nationwide Lockdown to curve the spread ofCovid 19 pandemic, in Rajkot UNI.

Agra’s Covid tally touches 807, no relaxation allowedAgra,

The Agra administrationon Monday said movementbetween villages and urbancentres will remain sus-pended in the Taj city tillMay 31 as the Covid-19 tallyreached 807, with four morecases reported in the past24 hours.

On Sunday, the policehad a tough time pushingthe hordes of migrant back,while the agitated mob dis-played lack of patience, pro-tested, set fire to garbagedumps and blocked thehighway.

Social activist SonvirSingh who was therealongwith several villagers

on Gwalior road, told IANS“Most are youths. They aredesperate to reach theirhomes at any cost. Someone has told them thatCovid-19 was essentially anurban disease and the ruralareas were safer. Many havecategorically stated theywould never return to urbanghettoes, come what may. Inour villages MANREGA cardswere being issued to themigrants and free rationsbeing supplied.”

District Magistrate P.N.Singh said though the re-covery rate had consider-ably improved, with 42 re-turning home on Sunday,but there could be no let up

or complacency in efforts tocombat Covid-19.

Those who were expect-ing some relief and respitefrom harsh lockdown con-ditions in the 44 hot zonesof the Taj city, were dis-heartened. The police hasbeen directed to strictlyenforce the Lockdown4.0to cut off the chain of infec-tions.

A lot of good samari-tans have been making ad-ditional arrangements forfood packets, water bottles,at the Agra Cantt railwaystation and ISBT bus stand.A senior police official lsoprovided shoes andchappals free to the mi-

grants while anotherorganised free food service.

A lot of work on broadbasing the health infra-structure remains to bedone. The number of L-1and L-2 level hospitals hasto be increased, Singh said,adding all helpline num-bers were operational andpeople could easily accessmedical facilities or consul-tations with doctors.

Divisional Commis-sioner Anil Kumar said theadministration would pro-vide better health servicesand streamline supply ofessentials in the fourthphase of the lockdown pe-riod.

Manali-Leh highwayreopens after winter break

Manali, Closed for over five

months due to heavy snow-fall, the Manali-Leh highwaywas reopened to motoristson Monday with thecompletion of the snow-clearing operations amidthe coronavirus pandemic,officials said.

The route is strategic forthe movement of the armedforces and their suppliesand wares to the areas inLadakh.

“Traffic between Manaliand Leh was resumed. This

time it was reopened muchearlier,” a Border RoadsOrganisation (BRO) officialtold IANS here.

He said the snow was30-35 feet high in somestretches close to theBaralacha Pass, posing a bigchallenge to those clearingthe snow.

The work to repair theentire 475-km stretch, whichlinks the Himachal Pradeshtourist city with Leh inJammu and Kashmir, wascompleted.

The Manali-Leh highway

winds its way through theRohtang Pass (13,050 feet),Baralacha Pass (16,020feet) , Lachlungla Pass(16,620 feet) andTanglangla (17,480 feet).

The BRO maintainsthe strategic highways inthe country.

The BRO’s ‘ProjectDeepak’ is responsible forclearing snow on the 222-km Sarchu-Manali high-way while ‘ProjectHimank’ takes care of the253-km Leh-Sarchu high-way.—IANS

VOL. 53 * NO. 298* AHMEDABAD TUESDAY* 19/05/2020

Ahmedabad, Page 2

Editorial2STAY INDOORS --------- STAY SAFE --------- STAY HEALTHY

Farm gate in focus: On amendingEssential Commodities Act

Move to amend the Essential Commodities Act isfraught with risks

The Centre’s objective of using the COVID-19 crisisto usher in an Atmanirbhar Bharat saw Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman focus Friday’s tranche of announce-ments on farm sector reforms. The centrepiece was a Rs1-lakh crore fund to finance agriculture infrastructureprojects at the farm gate and produce aggregationpoints. Given that the lack of adequate cold-storage fa-cilities continues to extract a high price on farmers andthe agrarian economy by way of post-harvest losses, es-pecially in perishables, the targeted outlay is a welcomestep. The decision to channel the funds to agriculturalcooperatives, farmer producer organisations, rural entre-preneurs and start-ups is also encouraging as it lays theonus of creating the appropriate infrastructure or logis-tics solution largely on the principal beneficiaries, thefarmers themselves. The Minister also unveiled a Rs10,000crore scheme to promote the formalisation of micro foodenterprises. Suggesting a cluster approach focused indifferent regions on signature produce, Ms. Sitharamansaid the goal was to assist unorganised enterprises inscaling up food safety standards to earn the productscertification and build brand value. The package, though,may be more beneficial in the longer term than provid-ing any immediate relief from the lockdown-exacerbateddistress in the rural hinterland.

Crucially, the Minister also announced three reformproposals that are ostensibly aimed at enabling betterprice realisation for farmers by removing restrictions andfacilitating enhanced marketing freedom. These includeamendments to the 1955-vintage Essential Commodi-ties Act that would effectively hollow out the legislationby deregulating cereals, pulses, oilseeds, edible oils, on-ions and potato. While the Economic Survey, in January,had recommended jettisoning the “anachronistic” Act,the law has nonetheless remained a vital tool in thegovernment’s armoury for protecting consumers fromirrational volatility in the prices of essentials by tampingdown on black marketeers and hoarders. While the Act’sprovisions do have scope for an overzealous bureaucracyto harass even an honest exporter, who may have paid afair price to the farmer and stocked produce for ship-ment overseas, total deregulation for foodgrains isfraught with the risk of future inflationary food pricespikes. The other two proposals are also of concern. Whileone seeks to bypass the APMC regime through a centrallaw that would allow farmers the freedom to sell acrossState borders, the other proposes a framework for farm-ers to enter into pre-sowing contracts that would pur-portedly help assure them of offtake volumes and prices.Both the changes, once enacted, could privilege marketforces without necessarily safeguarding food security.Surely, it would be in no one’s interest to throw the babyout with the bathwater.

FromEditor’sDesk

Ahmedabad,In the fight against the

novel Coronavirus, manylives have been uprooted.Amid this, Indian Railwaystook initiative to bringstranded labourers back tothe care of their homes invillages across the nation.Contributing to this gener-ous initiative, Western Rail-way has successfully run 500Shramik Special trains till16th May, 2020, across thecountry resulting in around7 lakh passengers reachingtheir home states.

According to a press re-lease issued by ShriRavinder Bhakar - ChiefPublic Relations Officer ofWestern Railway, of thesespecial trains run to ferrymigrant labourers, 349trains were bound to UttarPradesh, 56 to Bihar, 39 toOrissa, 26 to MadhyaPradesh, 11 to Jharkhand, 6trains each to Chhattisgarhand Rajasthan & 4 toUttarakhand states. A spe-cial shramik train was alsobound to states of Manipur,West Bengal andMaharashtra. A total of6,99,931 passengers havebeen ferried to their homesin different states of thecountry from 2nd May, 2020to 16th May, 2020.

Shri Bhakar stated thatthese Shramik Special trainshave helped in facilitatingfaster movement ofstranded labourers to theirnative places. On 16th May,2020, 61 Shramik Specialtrains were bound to statesof Uttar Pradesh (45 trains),Bihar (5 trains), Jharkhand (2

WR Successfully runs 500 shramik specialtrains to ferry nearly 7 lakh migrant labourers

Excited children looking forward to head their native homes across the na-tion through Shramik Special train. Free bottles of water being distributedamong passengers at Rajkot station.

trains), Orissa (4 trains),Madhya Pradesh (2 trains),West Bengal (one train),Chhattisgarh (one train) andUttarakhand (one train). Outof these, 9 trains were runfrom Mumbai Suburbansection of Western Railway.Six trains were run fromBorivali station and onetrain each from Bandra Ter-minus, Vasai Road andPalghar stations. From 3rdMay to 16th May, 2020, a to-tal of 47 Shramik Special

Trains have originated fromMumbai Suburban Section.These trains were bound toGorakhpur (10 trains),Jaunpur (11 trains), Gonda(4 trains), Varanasi (4 trains),Pratapgarh (2 trains) andone train each bound toJaipur, Meghnagar,Prayagraj, Bhagalpur, Pali,Falna, Sikar, Katihar,Darbhanga, Unnao, Purnia,Bikaner, Kishanganj,Howrah, Ballia and KhurdaRoad in the states of Uttar

Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthanand West Bengal.

These special trains hadthe capacity of 1200 to 1700passengers with maintain-ing social distancing norms.Under the guidelines ofMinistry of Home Affairs,proper thermal screening ofpassengers have been en-sured before boarding thetrain. During the journey,passengers are also beinggiven free meals and pack-aged drinking water.

Aerial photo taken on May 13, 2020 shows fish breeding rafts at the Hailing Island in Yangjiang, south China'sGuangdong Province UNI.

It is likely that the peaks inMumbai and Delhi will befirst, followed closely byother metros and movingdownstream to the tier 2and tier 3 centers.

Q: Health Ministry hadsaid plasma therapy is not asure-shot solution for Covid-19 treatment, what is yourview on it?

A: Correct. Too many un-knowns. Will there be anti-body in the plasma? Will thetiter be enough? Can weidentify the correct patientwho will benefit from this?Can this be given at the timewhen it is most likely tohelp? Will it be effective? Theproblem is that once theseviral syndromes progressbeyond a certain level, thebody’s immune response isthe major culprit. In suchsituations, the antibody maynot do much for the patient.In Covid-19, we now knowthat there are multiplethings that happen in thesick- blood clotting (throm-bosis), “storm” of small in-flammatory mediators(cytokine storm- IL6) and soon. These cannot be fixed byantibodies.

Lockdown helping me designnew choreographies: Ashley Lobo

New Delhi,For an artiste, isolation often works as an inspiration.

Otherwise leading a hectic life crisscrossing the continentsfor his performances, ace choreographer Ashley Lobo hasnow been home ever since the pan-India lockdown startedin end-March. Being the workaholic that he is, Lobo is us-ing the time to design new routines and choreographies.However, since most of these new routines are being taughtonline, Lobo has had to adapt to a very different sense ofspace. “The lockdown is helping me design new routinesand choreographies. It is challenging because we are teach-ing online. For one, the choreography itself has to be verylimited. It has to involve more micro moves and somethingthat does not take too much space. Any steps that involvetraveling across the floor have to be omitted,” Ashley Lobosaid. Ashley is renowned for his Prana Paint technique, aunique sensitizing approach developed by him that ex-plores movement through yoga, breath, connectivity andtouch. This notable technique has put him on the interna-tional map and led to him being invited to teach and cho-reograph overseas. His style of choreography has a stronginfluence of cinematic techniques combined with clearnarrative. Lobo has to his credit, over 30 Hindi films and asmany stage productions and has also been a judge onIndia’s ‘Dancing Superstar’ on Star Plus. While he works onhis new routines, the world-renowned choreographer addsthat online omits the human touch from the teaching.“When you are online no matter how well you teach whatis missing is the group dynamic. It creates excitement anddraws out the dancer more. They cannot hide and part ofperforming is overcoming shyness.”

Antibodies of cured younger lot may help in treating Covid-19By Sumit Saxena

New Delhi, As the Covid-19 cases

jump past 78,000-mark anddeaths cross 2,500, a sepa-rate statistic — the numberof recovered patients —may play a crucial role indeveloping counter strate-gies to minimize pandemic’sinfection rate as the countrynears the end of lockdown3.0.

In an interview withIANS, Dr SubramanianSwaminathan, InfectiousDiseases Consultant inGleneagles Global Hospitalsin Chennai and Bengalurusaid antibodies of the youngpeople who recovered inthe first wave of coronavirusmay help in treatment ofCovid-19 patients.

Covid-19 peak can hap-pen anytime mid-July on-wards, and it is likely thatMumbai and Delhi may ex-perience peaks first, fol-lowed closely by othermetros and moving down-stream to the tier 2 and tier3 centers, addedSwaminathan who is alsoChair, Transplant ID subcom-mittee at Clinical InfectiousDiseases Society.

He insisted that relyingon a century-old strategy,plasma therapy, to treatCovid-19 might work posi-tively, as progress in vaccinedevelopment have notbeen fast enough so far.

Q: In the first wave ofCovid-19, mostly youngpeople were infected. Doyou think the antibodies ofthe recovered would help inplasma therapy for Covid-19patients?

A: Very possible. Thereare still some unknowns.Can a person survive an ill-ness without development

of protective antibodies? Wethink that is unlikely here,and the vast majority willhave good titers at least forsome time. For how long?We do not know. At least acouple of months. SARS sur-vivors had good titers foryears, so hopefully here aswell. Further, will the titersbe good enough. Ideally, wewould like to do neutralizingantibody titer before use,but that is not available out-side research, so one optionis to use pooled plasma thatis plasma that is pooledfrom multiple survivors, sothat the average titer shouldbe adequate.

Q: Harvesting plasma ofrecovered patients and thenisolating the protective an-tibodies, which kept themalive, like Takeda — Japa-nese pharma giant — did it.Does this have any future infighting Covid-19 in the ab-sence of a vaccine?

A: That is similar to whatI suggested — pool plasmaand keep it frozen. This canlast a long time and can bethawed and used. Trying topurify it may be nice, but in-creases cost without a sig-nificant benefit. This couldbe used in particular pa-tients, like transplant recipi-ents to prevent immune ac-tivation. Based on experi-ence from Ebola and SARS,it is likely to help. Convales-cent plasma works whenthere is a neutralizing anti-body for the infection, andin the case of Covid-19, theantibody to the spike pro-tein is what we need; sothere is optimism.

By vaccines, you meanactive immunization — thatis likely 12-18 months away.Remember that using anti-bodies is passive immuniza-tion. This is routinely used to

treat tetanus; after a dogbite to prevent rabies and soon. In fact, this form of treat-ment is older than antimi-crobial use.

For now, I think it showstremendous promise, butno treatment is effectiveunless used at the right time.Studies have shown thatonce a Covid-19 patientends up on a ventilator, mor-tality is very high (one studyquotes 88 per cent), so thatit too late. Identifying thoseon a bad trajectory and us-ing this early is the most ef-fective method.

Q: Do you see exponen-tial rise in case in May andJune?

A: There have beenmany graphs — from JohnsHopkins; from Boston Con-sulting and so on. The effectof the lockdown has been topush the curve further out-wards. Depending on theeffectiveness from here on,and mechanism of recovery,the peak could happen any-time from mild July on-wards. Again, given that weare a subcontinent, we willnot be peaking simulta-neously all over the country.

Q: What are the possibleways to achieve herd immu-nity?

A: Herd immunity is nota strategy, it is a natural phe-nomenon. If this did not ex-ist, our vaccine programwould fail. For measles, it is95 per cent; polio about 85per cent and so on. It is thenumber of people in a com-munity who need to be im-mune to an infection, for theinfection to die out in thatcommunity. For Covid-19,the estimates are between60-80 per cent.

The only ways to getthere are by infection or byvaccine. Therefore till wehave the vaccine, it will bedifficult. The flattening ofthe curve will prevent bur-dening of the system, andreduce the risk of overloadto the system, but willstretch out the pain over alonger period of time.

The western world isstruggling with this as theyhave an older population,and they run a greater riskwith infection; we have theadvantage of a youngerherd — 50 per cent of ourpopulation is 25 and under,

the very low risk group. If theinfection is concentrated inthis group, the mortality andstrain on the system can beminimized. This is where theconcept of reverse quaran-tine comes in.

If we can place the eld-erly and those with medicalissues out of the general cir-culation till such time as avaccine becomes available,this would be a good option,as this could allow servicesto be restarted. The issue isthat once reopening hap-pens, it is likely to take off ata furious pace, which maynot be possible to control,and this group is not a wa-ter tight compartment.

In the economicallyweaker section, the elderlyare living with the young; inthe affluent, the elderly,even if living alone, are un-willing to give up their free-dom and mobility, makingreverse quarantine chal-lenging. This conceptsounds good only if it is ex-tremely of short duration. Itappears that we have manymonths of pain ahead of us,and this approach is unlikelyto be practical.

Raageshwari’s new inner ‘duniya’By Sukant Deepak

New Delhi, She remembers the

time when her albumsbroke all records. Also thatmoment when her motherremoved all mirrors fromthe house after her face’s leftside was left paralysed. Butit’s hard to sense any self-pity when she reveals thelatter part.

This 90’s Indian pop mu-sic sensation and actor, who

would lighten the screenand stage with her viva-ciousness now talks about‘inner journey’ and ‘mindful-ness’ like a pro. ForRaageshwari Loomba , whogave that generation somehandy albums for schooland college parties, includ-ing ‘Duniya’ and ‘Sach KaSaath’ which broke allrecords, destiny could nothave played a crueler jokewhen she was diagnosed

with Bell’s palsy, which lefther with a paralysed left sideof the face and a slur in thevoice. Undeterred, thissinger, who who was alsoseen in films ‘Aankhen’, ‘DilAa Gaya’, ‘Zid’ and ‘MumbaiSe Aaya Mera Dost’ amongothers, rehabilitated herselfwith Yoga, physiotherapyand ancient Tibetan rites.

It’s been almost 20 yearssince that happened, andnow she is out with her de-but book ‘Building a HappyFamily’: 11 Practices ofMindful Parenting (PenguinRandom House), that fo-cuses on the impact thatbooks, music, art, and posi-tive reinforcement have onchildren’s lives. “It’s abouthow young minds developand the environment athome impacts theirbehaviour well into adult-hood,” she tells IANS.

Raageshwari’s journeyto being an author goesback to the time when shewas diagnosed with the dis-ease — that’s when shestarted collecting notes andwriting her journal. “Thethought that transformedmy life was the realisationthat our inner world createsour outer one. I also got in-troduced to ‘Mindfulness’with the collaborations I hadwith Jack Canfield and the

late Louise Hay. My own fa-cial paralysis was the proofof my inner turmoil. Iwanted this powerful phi-losophy to reach people.There was this urge to em-power, liberate andstrengthen other people’sworlds too.”

Stressing that herforced solitude resulted inmuch reflection, pushingher towards books andpeople who transformedher, she adds, “I realised thatmy there was too much go-ing on in my inner world. Ihad just been through abreakup, and I was goingthrough intense workschedules.

On the surface, I mayhave looked like a very suc-cessful pop singer but be-neath, I was heartbroken. Sothis realisation that the tur-moil inside can spiral andexpress itself externally iswhat I have spoken about indetail in my chapter onaffirmations in the book.”

Talk to her about herinitial reaction when thedisease was diagnosed, andshe shares, “I did feel I hadlost it all, there were somany fears and severe lows.But my greatest supportsystem was the love of myfamily, especially the ten-derness of my mother..”

New Delhi,A unique collaboration

between sarod maestroUstad Amjad Ali Khan, hissons Amaan Ali Bangashand Ayaan Ali Bangash andmultiple Grammy-winningclassical guitarist SharonIsbin, allows viewers to listento the two music instru-ments being strummed to-gether.

The album titled ‘Stringsfor Peace’ is slated for releasenext week on the ZOHO la-bel (ZM 202004).

The music is a amalgam-ation of classics wherein lis-teners will witness the magi-cal combination of sarodand classical guitar in aneclectic East-West fusion,the organisers said.

“Each of the artistsbrings the spirit of sharingthe great unique treasuresof their own artistic tradi-tions, as well as finding com-mon ground in ragas andmedieval modes. The idea isto achieve a cross-fertilisation at both the cel-lular and cosmic levels oftwo classical music tradi-tions, which are often heldto be radically different,”Khan said. The album’s four

Grammy winner SharonIsbin teams up with Ustad

Amjad Ali Khan, sonstracks cover a wide range ofexpression, lyricism, colourand virtuosity. The ragascomposed by Amjad AliKhan receive their worldpremiere in settings for gui-tar and sarod: By The Moon-Behag, Love Avalanche-Mishra Bhairav, RomancingEarth-Pilu, and SacredEvening-Yaman.

Ustad Amjad Ali Khanand Sharon, who haveknown each other for overa decade, have contem-plated a collaboration foryears which has now cometo fruition.

“It took a long time toget the right partners to re-alize this unique vision onthe guitar. Our instrumentshave so many interestingsimilarities and differences.Combining the sarod andguitar results in an extraor-dinary blend. It’s a pleasureand inspiration to performwith the finest. Strings forPeace is a beautiful compi-lation of music that success-fully interweaves therhythms of sarod and guitar.Listeners will experience aremarkable spiritual andemotional journey,” SharonIsbin shared.

Stress-Busting by cleaning?Picking up cleaning equipment and getting down to

clear clutter around oneself could be one possible way tocope with stress. But, what really is stress cleaning?

“The act of cleaning, if done within limits, can bring anadded benefit of exercise, which can be great for relievingstress, so called ‘stress-cleaning’. Response to stress can besubjective, for example, some people can comfort eat orexercise or some may resort to cleaning as a way of stress-busting”, states Dr Santosh Bangar, Consultant Psychiatrist,Global Hospital, Mumbai told IANSlife. A cluttered housecan lead to negative emotions like irritability, tension, worry,whereas a clean space is more likely to be linked to posi-tive emotions like feeling happy, calm and a sense ofwellbeing. People can experience a feeling of achievementor pride, enhanced self-esteem after a cleaning-up session.

Why it could be good and bad?The response to stress is subjective, as some people can

respond well to stress or even thrive (healthy stress), whileother people’s emotions can be excessive leading to a fullblown panic attack, characterised by shaking of body, dry-ness of mouth, sweating, palpitations, rapid breathing, feel-ing of impending doom. If excessive stress goes undetec-ted or untreated, it may have number of physical and men-tal health complications. Depression, anxiety disorders suchas panic disorder, generalised anxiety disorder, substancemisuse, sleep disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder(OCD) and suicide in extreme cases are known complica-tions of untreated and persistent stress. Stress cleaning canworsen or induce OCD, Dr Bangar says.

All Things WhiskySingle malt scotch is a flavour forward drink making it

one of the most preferred spirits globally. India being oneof the largest consumers of whisky, is a testimony of itsgrowing preference. It’s interesting to know what singlemalt was back in the day and what future has in store for it.

To that end IANSlife spoke to Glenfiddich Indian brandambassador, Mr. Angad Singh Gandhi, to gain a better in-sight. Experimenting with casks

A growing phenomenon in the whisky industry is spe-cial cask finishes. Whisky producers are experimenting withtechniques and finishes to make whisky taste a little differ-ent.

After a definite period, a single malt is transferred intoa port, sherry or another cask for its final maturation. Thisgives the spirit an unusual finish and varied notes whichadds that final flavour to what is already a fine whisky.Gradually more distilleries are moving on from traditionalcask finishes and experimenting with casks of India PaleAle, Ice Wine, Mizunara and French cuvée casks.

Did you know? A Majority of the flavour in a single maltcomes from the cask it’s matured in. It’s a common miscon-ception that single malt whisky is the product of one cask.In fact, it is the product of a single distillery and may actu-ally come from several casks therein.

Pairing food and whisky: a marriage of flavoursSingle malts can surprise you when it comes to pairing

them with tea/coffee and dessert. Exotic teas and coffeesenhance the flavours of single malts, allowing you to ap-preciate it in a mellow or strong flavour, depending on yourpreference. You can even pour a flaming whisky or a singlemalt over your favourite flavour of gelato to accentuate thetaste.

AHMEDABAD TUESDAY 19/05/2020

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A H M E D A B A D * M A R K E T * G U I D E

In the news 3STAY INDOORS --------- STAY SAFE --------- STAY HEALTHY

Migrate labours on queue with social distance at Rajkot Railway station fortheir home at Gonda in Uttar Pradesh during Lockdown 3rd due to epidemiccovid 19 in Rajkot UNI.

Mumbai,This International Family

Day, Disney+ Hotstar Pre-mium has added a Holly-wood family entertainer toits extensive movie cata-logue – Maleficent: Mistressof Evil. Starring AngelinaJolie and Michelle Pfeiffer, itis a sequel to the 2014 fan-tasy movie Maleficent andremains to be one of thebiggest movies created in2019.

Making its digital pre-mier in India on Interna-tional Family Day, Malefi-cent: Mistress of Evil will nowbe available to stream ondemand starting 15th May2020 in English on Disney+Hotstar Premium. Addition-ally, the queen of BollywoodAishwarya Rai Bachchanlent her voice for the Hindirendition of the movie avail-able Disney+ Hotstar VIP;giving families across thecountry another whole-some blockbuster to enjoytogether.

The second installmentof this epic fantasy adven-

Angelina Jolie starrer Maleficent: Mistress of Evil makesits digital premiere on Disney+ Hotstar Premium

ture picks up several yearsafter Maleficent and followsthe ascendant princess Au-rora and the darkly charis-

matic Maleficent. Togetherthey try to navigate thecomplex dynamics betweenthem, form new alliancesand confront new adversar-ies - all in a bid to protecttheir land and its subjects;taking families on a spell-binding new journey.

Mounted on a grandscale with vibrant special

effects that make the movievisually spectacular and amust watch for families. Ma-leficent: Mistress of Evil hasbeen directed by JoachimRonning, an Academyaward nominated directorwho was previously associ-ated with popular movie Pi-rates of the Caribbean: DeadMen Tell No Tales. The moviestars the best of Hollywoodactors including AngelinaJolie, Michelle Pfeiffer, ElleFanning, Chiwetel Ejioforand Harris Dickinson in piv-otal roles. Disney+ HotstarPremium has a large selec-tion of English titles includ-ing 35 Disney+ Originals,latest American shows,blockbuster Hollywoodmovies and award-winningcontent from the best Inter-national studios like HBO,FOX, Showtime and more!Disney+ Hotstar VIP offersusers an unparalleled enter-tainment experience withthe best of Super Hero mov-ies like The Avengers, IronMan, Thor: in Hindi, Tamil &Telugu.

Mumbai:ICICI Bank stands in soli-

darity with the Governmentof Gujarat by providing pro-tective equipment to thestate government, hospitalsand police forces for theirtireless efforts to safeguardcitizens of the state in thewake of COVID-19 pan-demic.

ICICI Bank is working ac-tively with the authoritieson this front. The Bank hasdonated protective equip-ment like over 1.4 lakhthree-ply surgical masks,over 8,000 litres of sanitisers,10,750 gloves, 2,500 N95masks, 4,000 handkerchiefs,2,000 soaps and 30 thermalscanners to the authoritiesof almost all the districts ofGujarat; to name a fewVadodara, Surat,Ahmedabad, Valsad, Kutch,Patan among others. Thisinitiative is part of the Bank’snation-wide drive of con-

ICICI Bank provides protective equipmentto Gujarat coronavirus warriors

tributing various protectivegears to aid the front-linersto combat the pandemic.

Speaking on the initia-tive, Mr. Saurabh Singh,Head-Government Banking,ICICI Bank said, “ICICI Grouphas a legacy of supportingthe development of the na-tion as well as providingsupport in times of naturalcalamities and disasters. Tak-ing this legacy forward, weare standing in solidaritywith various state govern-ments, police departmentsand health professionals intheir tireless efforts to treatand safeguard citizens ofthe country in the wake ofCOVID-19 pandemic. Oursupport to the various au-thorities in Gujarat is part ofthese activities.

The doctors treating theCOVID-19 suspects / pa-tients and the police andparamilitary forces manag-ing orderly implementation

of the lockdown are at thefrontline of this combat. Wehave focussed our efforts toreach out to the govern-ment hospitals and theforces in the state. Despitesupply chain challenges, weare providing them suppliesin the form of sanitisers, sur-gical masks, N95 masks,gloves, personal protectionequipment, etc. We are alsoproviding equipment likethermal scanners and non-invasive category ventila-tors. “ Additionally, the Bankdeployed a mobile ATM vanin affected and containmentareas of Ahmedabad to en-able residents, who are ad-vised to stay home, to with-draw cash conveniently andsafely. The van was inaugu-rated by Shri. Nitin Sangwan,(IAS) -Deputy MunicipalCommissioner, AhmedabadMunicipal Corporation &CEO - Ahmedabad SmartCity.

Mumbai,The current Covid 19-in-

duced lockdown has beenan eye-opener for busi-nesses. It has devastatedprevalent models acrosssegments around theworld, and has thrown ex-isting structures and deliv-ery models into disarray.Moreover, it has brought tothe fore the inadequacy ofcurrent theories of runningbusinesses. As is the casewith all crises, those whoare able to adapt and ac-commodate new systemsinto their DNA will be thoseto survive, thrive and be atthe forefront of a new worldwith new sustainable busi-ness models.

Time and again it hasbeen proven that a countrylike India – with its massivepopulation - never faced a

Businesses that adapt and take opportunities will thrive post-pandemic,Says Anil Mathews CEO, Mathewson Brand & PR Consultants

dearth of demand. In fact,our varying tastes, con-sumption patterns and cul-tural differences often havebeen fertile ground for at h r i v i n geconomy, thatcontinues to liftmany out of pov-erty Says - AnilMathews CEO,M a t h e w s o nBrand & PR Con-sultants

At times likethese, it ’s pru-dent to look atthe past, whichhas always beena good teacher for us. Be itprevious crises like theBlack Death of the 14thcentury, the Spanish Flu of1918, the Great Depressionof the 1930s, the WorldWars or the more recent re-

cession of 2007-08 – hu-manity has always endured,learned, adapted andchanged for the better. Theoptimists among us will

certainly hopethat is the casenow, as theworld faces itsbiggest collec-tive crisis in overa century.

Let’s look atthe last-men-tioned eventabove to illus-trate. The finan-cial crisisbrought about

banking reform around theworld and is hypothesizedto have siphoned talentfrom Wall Street to SiliconValley, resulting in much ofthe technological innova-tion we’ve seen over the

last 15 years. It also pro-vided a fillip to emergingmarkets such as India, theIMF noting that developingeconomies accounted for73.5% of global GDPgrowth from 2007 – 2017with China and India lead-ing the pack.

Indeed, a few years afterthe recession, Asia was theonly region to not experi-ence an economic contrac-tion – merely a slowedgrowth rate.

Subsequently, marketsand economies picked upthrough globalization – au-tomobile, retail, banking,travel, hospitality and ofcourse, technology – allthrived over the next de-cade, bringing in newnorms and creating newjobs. India’s young, increas-ingly upwardly-mobile,

consumer-driven marketplayed a big role in this, andthe growth of various sec-tors point this out. Auto hasseen steady growth and weare now a major manufac-turing hub, with exportslast year growing 14.5%. Weare poised to become the3rd largest aviation marketby 2024. FinTech is growingat 20.2% CAGR fromFY2017-21. And of course,we remain the world’s pre-ferred IT/BPO hub, that sec-tor alone about to reach $1trillion. But perhaps not sec-tor has been more storiedthan that of telecom, whichas seen stunning growth –India is now the world’s sec-ond largest market, with itsinternet subscriber basegrowing at a staggering45.74% CAGR from FY06-FY09.

Noah on growing up inshadow of sister Miley Cyrus

Los Angeles, Singer Noah Cyrus says it was really tough growing up

in the shadow of her sister and pop star Miley Cyrus.Noah released the song “Young & Sad” off her EP “The

End of Everything” last week, and has now opened up aboutits connection to her sister during an Instagram Live ses-sion, reports people.com.

The new track, which Noah released on Friday, includesthe lyrics, “My sister’s like sunshine, bringing good lightwherever she’ll go/ and I was born to rain clouds, blessedin her shadows.”

The 20-year-old star opened up about the song duringthe live session, and at one point broke down while reflect-ing on the criticism she faced when she was younger.

“I think just the message in the second verse, being bornin the family I was in, everyone gave me such a hard timefor having a hard time being Miley’s little sister. But youknow, I always felt like I was that person that no one gave as**t about due to what people said to me online,” she said.

“It was absolutely unbearable. And that’s why I write,‘My sister’s like sunshine, bringing good light wherevershe’ll go/and I was born to rain clouds, blessed in her shad-ows.’ Because, that’s why everybody always says to me, thatno matter what, I was going to be in that shadow,” Noahadded. Noah admitted that she “always believed” she wouldonly stay in sister Miley’s shadow. “That was something Iheard my whole life, every single day, my whole life. It waseither that or that I wasn’t enough in some way, whether itwas the way I look or the way I am. Like I said the other day,sometimes I feel like I don’t even.

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City-State4STAY INDOORS --------- STAY SAFE --------- STAY HEALTHY

Traffic on Ellisbridge in Ahmedabad, Gujarat on Monday. (Photo : Jayesh Modi)

Another batch of 551 Gujaratisarrive in Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad: As manyas 551 Gujaratis, stranded inthe UK and Kuwait, returnedback to Ahmedabad in twoflights on Thursday morn-ing. While 374 passengersarrived on a flight from Lon-don, another 177 werebrought from Kuwait.

After a medical check-up of all the passengers,they were sent to variousdistricts of their choice forinstitutional quarantine. Of-ficials of the districtpanchayat and secretary

Mamta Verma were presentat the airport to overseesmooth arrival and trans-portation of passengers toquarantine facilities. Theywill be allowed to go homeafter completing the man-datory 14-day quarantineperiod.

Qutubuddin Virpurwala,a Vadodara resident, whoarrived on one of the flights,thanked the Indian embassyand the government forgranting him priority to re-turn back. I have a heart ail-

ment and the embassy wasvery considerate in ensuringthat I could return back onpriority It feels good to beback home, Virpurwala said.

A girl student, who ar-rived from London, said thatthere were 60 students whowere stranded in the UK andthe Indian embassy therewas very helpful in ensuringtheir return.

The number of cases inthe UK is rising very rapidly.We were really worriedabout our safety. The high

commission helped us withfood and accommodationuntil we boarded the flightback home, the girl said.

A youth, who identifiedhimself as Falak, said he hadalmost completed hismaster’s degree in the UK.Colleges are closed and wewere confined to ourrooms. We are happy to re-turn, he said. Over 1,000persons stranded in differ-ent countries are expectedto return at theAhmedabad airport.

Ahmedabad: 8-day wait for vegetables,groceries finally ends today

Ahmedabad: After a long wait of eight days, stores sell-ing groceries, vegetables and fruits will finally resume op-erations across Ahmedabad, bringing relief to citizens. Asthe decision to shut shops selling all items except milk andmedicines from May 7, was announced in the evening onMay 6, people had little time to procure essentials, and manyreturned empty-handed despite waiting in serpentinequeues outside stores.

I was left without vegetables and even groceries sinceit was barely the start of the month. I only had onions andpotatoes at home. Looking at the never-ending queuesoutside stores and the chaotic rush, I avoided buying any-thing and returned home. But I really hope there is somerespite as stores resume operations, said Arjun Dave, a resi-dent of Ambawadi.

However, some are extremely wary of the anticipatedrush at stores and therefore, have chosen not to ventureout over the next two-three days. The civic authorities haveissued at least 30,000 licenses to vegetable and fruit ven-dors and grocers. Strict conditions of maintaining socialdistancing, use of mask, gloves and sanitisers by staff andencouraging digital payments and using separate trays forcash payments have been imposed by civic authorities.

Meanwhile, the APMC has made arrangements to en-sure that adequate supply of fruits and vegetables is en-sured in the city. Sources said that the wholesale marketshave been set up at Riverfront Gurjari Market, AMC groundat Bhakti Circle in Nikol and AES ground near DoordarshanTower, so that traders don’t have to rush all the way up toJetalpur APMC to procure vegetables.

324 new Covid-19 cases, 20 deaths registeredover last 24 hours, state tally now 9,592

Ahmedabad: Gujaratrecorded 324 new Covid-19cases in the last 24 hours,while 20 died because of thedisease during this time. Thetally for the state stood at9,592. State’s principalhealth secretary Jayanti Ravisaid that 5,210 patientswere stable, while 43 pa-tients are on ventilator. A to-tal of 191 patients havebeen discharged in the last24 hours.

Ravi said that the recov-ery rate from the diseasestands at 38.43% and that atotal of 3,753 patients havegot discharged from varioushospitals. In all the state hastested 1.24 lakh individualstill date and in the last 24hours 2,412 tests were con-ducted, a majority of whichwere in Ahmedabad, whichworks out around an aver-age of 1,859 tests per millionin Gujarat. Our tests are

above the national averageand we will maintain thisrate from now, said Ravi.

Ravi said that over thepast few days she had beenreceiving complaints that pri-vate labs are conducting testseven of asasymptomatic pa-tients. “ICMR guideline saysthat only those patients whoare symptomatic should betested. Only exceptions willbe those who are admittedfor surgeries said Ravi. She

added, at this rate if all per-sons start getting tested it isneither sustainable nor scal-able. If any person wants aCovid-19 test done for emer-gency, they can approach pri-vate labs. Ravi said that Dr.Prabhakar at Civil Hospital,has been appointed as the is-suing authority for Covid-19tests. She also assured thatsome of the best critical carespecialists in Ahmedabad willbe treating Covid-19 patients.

Four walk 200km toreach AhmedabadAhmedabad: As the

state administration failedto reach out to them, fourmigrant workers includingthree teenagers who weresacked by their employerdecided to walk till theyfaint to reach their nativeplace.

Their only hope was thatsome good-hearted personwill save them. They set outon foot from the industrialcluster of Shapar in Rajkottowards Ahmedabad toboard a train.

One of them faintednear Sardar Patel Ring Roadin Nikol and was rescued bysome locals who gave themwater and food. They hadbeen marching on emptystomachs under the merci-less sun for two days.

Sundarlal Saroj, 19, a na-tive of Allahabad and histhree friends, including twominors aged around 16, be-gan walking from Shapar toreach Ahmedabad. InShapar they used to work inan ancillary unit of automo-bile parts.Saroj says that we

started walking as our em-ployer sacked us. Wethought that either the copswill catch us or we will fallunconscious while walking.When Saroj and three oth-ers reached near Palm HotelCrossroads near Ring Road,they were spotted by somelocals who offered themfood. But as Saroj begandrinking water, he fainted.Locals offered him someenergy drink and he re-gained his consciousness.After some time, he hadsome food the locals gave.

Saroj says that we got alift from a truck near Chotila,but later we had to walk.Ravi Panchal, 23, a business-man from Nikol, who alongwith other residents helpedthe migrants, said that theywere so weak after walkingon empty stomach that theycould not even stand.

The four migrant work-ers were taken to Odhavpolice station and will go totheir native place inAllahabad in the nextcouple of days, said Panchal.

PIL seeks to restrain copsfrom beating citizens

Ahmedabad: A public interest litigation in the Gujarathigh court has questioned the high-handedness used bypolice in implementing the lockdown imposed by the gov-ernment due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Petitioner advocate Harshit Shah has filed the PIL seek-ing court’s directions to police to stop committing atrocitywith citizens found on streets during lockdown. The PILraised a question as to whether a an unarmed policemancan keep a lathi; and whether such police atrocity is viola-tion of human and constitutional rights.

The PIL states that policemen deserve a salute for be-ing Corona Warriors due to the government policy. But thepetitioner asserts that an unarmed policeman cannot keepa baton or lathi, because it falls in the definition of a weaponaccording to the notification issued by ccompetent authori-ties. The notification prohibits a citizen from bearing an armor weapon. If any citizen wields a lathihe is liable to bebooked under Section 135 of the Gujarat Police Act. ThePIL further claims that a policeman is also liable to be pros-ecuted for the violation of law, for beating a citizen is againstany law. Petitioner’s lawyer Neil Lakhani stated that the PILhas been filed through present e-filing system, and it is likelyto be heard through video conferencing in coming days.

Gujarat inches towards 10,000 cases,Ahm’d crosses 7,000 and Surat 1,000

Ahmedabad: Gujaratrecorded 340 cases and 20deaths in 24 hours as thestate's case tally reached9,932 and death toll 606.

In the same period, 282patients were discharged,taking thetotal number to4,035. Jayanti Ravi, principalsecretary (health & familywelfare), said that the state’sdischarge rate has improvedto 40.6%.

With the new cases,Ahmedabad district crossed7,000 total Covid-19 casesand Surat 1,000 with 7,171and 1,015. The districts witha death toll of 479 and 47have recorded 87% of totaldeaths of Covid-19 patientsin Gujarat and 82% of totalcases.

In the past fortnight,Ahmedabad has added4,145 cases and Surat 401.Ahmedabad's case tally hasincreased by 136% whereasSurat has recorded 65% rise.In the same period,Ahmedabad has recorded330 deaths and Surat 22. The

cities have recorded 221%and 88% rise in death toll,indicate figures.

Ahmedabad, Surat,Vadodara, Gandhinagar andBhavnagar have recorded100-plus Covid-19 positivecases.

The new cases in past 24hours include 261 fromAhmedabad, 32 from Rajkot,15 from Vadodara, 12 fromRajkot and 11 fromGandhinagar. Likewise, 20deaths included 14 fromAhmedabad, 3 from Suratand one each fromanchmahal, Anand andMehsana. With the newdeaths, the state has crossed600 deaths.

There was a slight im-provement in daily testingafter ccriticism over lowtesting rate. On Thursday,Gujarat had recorded 2,412tests, which was the lowestin past one one week. Thestate conducted 3,150 tests,improvement of 30%.Gujarat has conducted 1.27lakh tests so far.

Teens informed eight daysdeath of father at Civil hospital

Ahmedabad: Havinglost their mother a few yearsago, sibling Dimple (16) andAryan (14) were praying forrecovery of their fatherMahesh Solanki, 57, whowas hospitalized in CivilHospital with coronavirus.They got a rude shock whenpolice informed them thattheir father had died a eightdays ago.We were toldMahesh was under treat-ment and hospital authori-ties would update us. Wecannot believe that helaydead while we prayed forhis recovery. Were Civil Hos-pital authorities so busy thatthey forgot to inform us foreight days? asked Solanki'srelative Mukesh Rathod, al-leging that authorities failedto update them at all.

Soon after, his phonegot discharged and wecould not reach him. He wasdiabetic. We still don't knowwhat went wrong, he said.The family alleged the or-deal continued even afterhis death. They were askedto take the body from thestretcher and put on themortuary van without pro-tection. The van was alsoloaded with another bodyto be taken for last rites.

This is not the first timeCivil Hospital, Ahmedabadhas been in eye of the storm.Since the outbreak, havebeen many cases of alleged

mishandling.While a Porbandar man,

who was in hospital for can-cer treatment went 'missing'and was found in themorgue , the hospital isfielding hundreds of queriesabout whereabouts and

health updates of patients.The relatives of a patienthad to seek police help tolocate a patient in the 1200-bed hospital.

Dr M M Prabhakar, OSDof Medicity, which housesCivil, told TOI they have re-

ceived complaints and inci-dents are unfortunate. Butwe have streamlined thesystem at the help desk nowwhere relatives would beable to get updates on thepatients admitted for Covid-19 treatment, he said.

Ban on vegetable sales leads vendorto suicide

Ahmedabad: A marginalized farmer and veg-etable vendor aallegedly committed suicide at hishome in Sola village as the abrupt 7-day ban on veg-etable sales in the city completely stopped his earn-ings which had already reduced due to lockdown,while his debts piled up. The deceased, GanpatDantani, 45, resident of Thikariyavas in Sola villagewasthe sole earning member of his family of eightincluding five daughters and a son, said Dantani’swidow in her statement to police.

His widow, Saroj, said that Dantani had rented asmall plot of land to farm cucumbers and sell nearSatyam Mall. Since the lockdown was imposed hisincome had reduced considerably, but last week hewas unable to earn anything at all due to the abrupt7-day ban on veegetable sales, and he failed to repayhis loans.

Inspector J P Jadeja of Sola high court police sta-tion said that Saroj had told cops that Dantani hadtaken a loan to run his house but he could not repaydue to the lockdown which led him to commit sui-cide.

According to the report registered with Sola highcourt police, the family went to sleep at around 11pmon Thursday. At around 2am on Friday, Saroj suddenlywoke up from sleep and could not find her husband.

Maintain social distancing whenshops open: Ahmedabad DGP

Ahmedabad: A day before the abrupt 7-day banon sales of vegetables and groceries ends in city, DGPShivanand Jha warned people to remain cautiousabout forming crowds and ignoring social distanc-ing. Reminding that the lockdown is still in full force,Jha said that people earlier caught breachinglockdown norms will have their vehicles seized andwill face strict legal action if found committing thesame offences.

Jha reiterated that a two-wheeler should carryonly one person and a car just two persons. Thoughpeople have been warned to avoid gatherings at re-ligious places, some are flouting the rule Jha said.

Eight people along with a priest were booked forholding an ‘aarti’ at a temple in Sabarmati area, headded.

Jha also pointed at misuse of lockdown exemp-tion passes given to vehicles and individuals. The statemonitoring cell caught a tanker which had a stickerfor carrying essential supplies, but was carrying liquorworth Rs 51 lakh. In Rajkot, two touts were caughttaking money from people to get them lockdownexemption passes, Jha said.

114 fishermen stranded on boat fortwo days

Surat: Navsari administration forces them to stayonboard as they had set off from Okha without be-ing medically screened; also social distancing was notkept; fishermen live without food, water and accessto sanitation for two days before being all allowed toget off

Covid-19 is putting enormous pressure on par-ticular communities. Among the worst-affected arefishermen who stay away from their homes for daysand weeks in the deep sea. About 114 of them, hail-ing from Navsari, were stuck in Okha for several daysdue to the lockdown.

Lakhan Kher, Vice President of Gujarat FishermanAssociation said a boat carrying 114 fishermenstarted from Okha port for Navsari, as they were des-perate to return home. However, they were not al-lowed to dock at Navsari and forced to stay on theboat for 2 days. They lived without access to food,water or sanitation. Ultimatel after prolonged talkswith the administration, they were allowed to get offthe boat, he said.

According to Jani, the fishermen will be screenedbefore being allowed to head home. Navsari admin-istration will also inform its Devbhoomi Dwarka coun-terparts to ensure such boats are not allowed starthenceforth.

When asked whether fishermen stayed onboardfor days, Jani said they were asked not to get off basedon prior informatin that two more boats were readyto depart from Okha for Navsari. Only after ensuringthat more boats were not on the way, the fishermenwere allowed to get off the boat.

244 Indians, mostly students, arrivefrom US, Philippines

Ahmedabad: As many as 244 stranded Indians,most of them students, arrived back in Gujarat dur-ing the early hours. The state government has madeinstitutional quarantine. Arrangements for them, af-ter which they will be allowed to go to their homes.

Two flights from New York and Manila arrived inAhmedabad. Most of the students were happy to beback in Gujarat.

The office of the DDO, which has been entrustedwith the task of receiving persons coming fromabroad, conducted health check-up of all the passen-gers, before ferrying them in special buses to vari-ous quarantine facilities in neighbouring districts.

Wearing both face shields and masks, the passen-gers emerged out of the planes and were ushered toa health check-up facility before being taken to ho-tels of their choice as well as other quarantine facili-ties put into place by the state government.

Woman seeks pension money fromson, evicted

Ahmedabad: A 42-year-old woman,Mumtazbanu Pathan has accused her 23-year-old sonFaisalkhan Pathan of driving her out of their house inIsanpur just because she demanded money from herpension, paid to her because her policeman husbanddied of cancer about 12 years ago. Mumtazbanu al-leged that her son also beat her.

According police sources, Mumtazbanu’s hus-band who was a policeman had died of cancer about12 years ago and for the past three years his son,Faisalkhan used to take his mother pension money.On May 2, Mumtazbanu demanded some of themoney from the pension.

Faisalkhan got agitated and asked her who shewas going out with that she needed the money.Mumtazbanu said she was going out with no one andhow could he deny her the pension-money.Faisalkhan then drove her out of their house.Mumtazbanu alleged he also hit her, said a police of-ficial.

Congress launches E-Janmitra Covid-19 app

Gandhinagar: The state Congress launched ‘E-Janmitra Covid-19’, a web application through whichaffected persons can seek help during the ongoingcrisis. The BJP attacked the Congress, saying it wasshedding crocodile tears.

Launching the web application, GPCC chief AmitChavda said, Our workers received a lot of feedbackfrom the masses that the Covid-19 crisis has been mis-managed by the state government. Migrant workersand others don’t know where to look for help.

Gujarat suggestsrelaxations in lockdown

Gandhinagar: TheGujarat government, in adetailed note ment hassuggested sevsent to thegovernment of India, hassuggested resumption ofalmost ament has sug-gested sevll economic ac-tivities in tment has sug-gested sevhe fourth phaseof the lockdown that willcome into force from May18. In its representation,the state government hasalso recommended re-sumption of some activi-ties in areas marked as redzones as well.

Providing its input forguidelines duringlockdown 4.0, the stategovernment has sug-gested several relaxationsin the cities of Ahmedabad,Surat, Vadodara andRajkot.

A key source in thegovernment said thatkeepinment has sug-gested sevg in mind thelooming economic crisis inthe ment has suggestedsevstate because of theCovid-19 pandemic andsubsequent lockdown, theGujarat government hasrequested the Centre to al-

low normal economic ac-tivities with stringentsafety ment has suggestedsevguidelines. “The stategovernment has opinedthatment has suggestedsev even in cities likeAhmedabad, Surat,Vadodament has sug-gested sevra and Rajkot,only some wards should benotified as red zones, whileregular economic activitycan commence in orangeand green zones of thesecities, the source said.

Top officials said thataccording to the proposalssent to GOI, all religious so-cial and ment has sug-gested sevpolitical gather-ings will not be permittedduring lockdown 4.0. Whilemultiplement has sug-gested sevxes will remainshut, shops located withinmalls will be allowed to re-sume with reduced staffand stringent safety guide-lines, the official said.

The state governmenthas proposement has sug-gested sevd that smallshops and establishmentsbe allowed to remain openeven in red zones for a lim-ited time.

Will announce train details for migrantson local channels: Gujarat Govt to HC

Gandhinagar: Thestate government has toldthe Gujarat High Cour tthat it will start announce-ments on vernacular TVchannels about theShramik Special trains formigrants, stranded due tothe Covid -19 lockdown, toprevent them from crowd-ing at the assembly pointsor the administrative of-fices. The court had takensuo motu cognisance ofmedia reports on migrantworkers.

The government saidthis to the court, in re-sponse to the citation ofan Indian Express reporton migrants being madeto wait 19 hours beforeboarding a train home.

The issue of non-pay-ment of salaries to around200 staff members of theAhmedabad MunicipalCorporation-run SardarVallabhbhai Patel hospital,

which is among the front-l ine hospitals treatingCovid-19 patients, imme-diately, the Advocate Gen-eral Kamal Trivedi calledup the authorities and re-verted to the court thatthe salaries had been paid.

The state also submit-ted that it had asked its of-ficials to inquire into thematter after which a re-port was submitted by R.VAsari, Superintendent ofPolice (Ahmedabad Rural).

As per this report, onMay 10, the prepared listof 1,195 migrant workersgathered at the assemblypoint at GIDC industrialestate, in Changodar,where all related formali-ties were completed.Thereafter they weretaken to the ViramgamRailway Station in 24GSRTC buses, when theprocess of transferring thelisted migrant workers to

Viramgam Railway Stationwas going on, many othermigrant workers not re-ferred to in the said list,took just a chance togather outside the officeof the concerned MLA inViramgam. It has been fur-ther reported in this be-half that the crowd of thesaid migrant workerswanted to see that theyare also allowed to boardthe train. This kind of epi-sode is a rarity, so far asthe State of Gujarat in par-ticular, is concerned,stated the affidavit.

The state governmentsubmitted that as on date66 shelter homes were ar-ranged which had 1,338migrants lodged, acrossGujarat. According to thestate, of the 1,721 beds inshelter homes in AMC ju-risdiction, only 502 wereoccupied by migrantworkers from other states.

11 held for violatinglockdown in City

Ahmedabad: Narol po-lice on Friday arrested 11people fhering of more thanfour people at one placeand also for or violating thesection 144 which prohibitsthe gathering of more thanfour people at one placeand also for the violation ofthe lock-down order.

The cops said they spot-ted a group of peoplestanding near a society inNarol. However, upon see-ing thering of more thanfour people at one placeand also for he cops’ vehicle,the people started runninginside the society. Wechased the group and ar-rested eleven of them, saidan official from Narol policestation.

AHMEDABAD TUESDAY 19/05/2020

Ahmedabad, Page 5

International 5STAY INDOORS --------- STAY SAFE --------- STAY HEALTHY

An Australian pelican catches a fish thrown by a zoo keeper at Taman Safari In-donesia in West Java, Indonesia UNI.

The new rules are set to be finalised by ministers, with any hopes of summer holidays expected to be dashedas exemptions are largely limited to lorry drivers. However, Ryanair chief Michael O'Leary (right) dismissed claimsit will prevent his aim of resuming flights in July, saying he believes the policy is so 'defective' and impossible toenforce that the public will merely ignore it. He insisted face masks were the best way to protect the travellingpublic - despite many scientists saying they are of limited benefit. Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden signalled thismorning there is little prospect of holiday destinations being spared, saying the exceptions will be 'very limited'.

Experts have warned a working coronavirus vaccine is unlikely to be ready this year as they told people not tohave 'false expectations' after ministers said they are hoping to have 30 million doses for the UK by September. BothOxford University and Imperial College London are working on vaccines with the former now having done a dealwith pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca to mass produce its effort if it is shown to be effective. Business SecretaryAlok Sharma said yesterday the Government is hoping to be in a position to roll-out a mass vaccination programmein the Autumn of this year. But one of the professors involved in the Imperial initiative today urged caution as hesaid there are 'no guarantees' a working vaccine will be developed and that even if one is it probably will not beready for mass production until next year at the earliest. Robin Shattock, head of mucosal infection and immunity atImperial, said it is 'important not to have a false expectation that it is just around the corner'.

New Israeli govt sworn in after 508 days of impasseJerusalem,

Israels 35th govern-ment was sworn in at theKnesset (Parliament), bring-ing an end to a 508-day po-litical impasse.

On Sunday night, theKnesset voted 73-46 infavour of the new coalitiongovernment agreed byPrime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu and his formerrival, Benny Gantz, reportsThe Times of Israel.

Netanyahu was sworn inas Prime Minister and willhead the government forthe fifth term of his politicalcareer.

Gantz, also the Chair-man of the Blue and WhiteParty, was sworn in as “alter-nate Prime Minister and fu-ture Prime Minister” as wellas Defence Minister.

Netanyahu, Israel’s long-est-serving leader who wasfirst elected as Prime Minis-ter in 1996 and has servedthree consecutive termssince 2009, promised tohand over the premiershipto Gantz on November 17,2021.

“We established the pre-cise terms under which our

agreement will be fulfilledand will not be fulfilled,”Netanyahu said later in aChannel 12 interview, amidwidespread scepticism thathe will honour the deal.

“I will fulfil exactly, butexactly, what is written inthe agreement. It is my in-tention and my goal to doso. And there is no reason for

me to say anything to youbut, yes, that’s what we willdo.”

In addition toNetanyahu and Gantz, 32ministers were sworn in, in-cluding the first female ul-tra-Orthodox Minister, OmerYankelevich (Diaspora af-fairs), and the first Ethiopia-born Minister, PninaTamano-Shata (immigrationand absorption), in Israel’shistory, said The Times of Is-rael report.

Totaling 73 lawmakers,the coalition will include 35MKs from the Likud party, 16from the Blue and Whiteparty, nine from the Shasparty, seven from the UnitedTorah Judaism party, twofrom the Labor party, twofrom the Derech Eretz party,one from the Jewish Homeparty and one from theGesher party.

Speaking at thecabinet’s first meeting,which took place immedi-ately after the swearing-inceremony, Netanyahu toldthe new Ministers that theCOVID-19 pandemictopped the government’sagenda.

The second missionwould be to pass a statebudget and revive theeconomy, while the thirditem would be to combatIran, he said.

The fourth was fightingthe war crimes probe in theInternational Criminal Courtand the fifth was the diplo-matic issue of West Bankannexation.

Gantz spoke afterNetanyahu, saying Israel wasending the “worst politicalcrisis in its history” and call-ing for an end to “the era ofincitement” and the start ofan “era of reconciliation”.

He said he would do ev-erything so that all Israelicitizens — Jewish or Arab,heterosexual or LGBT —would “feel at home”.

Meanwhile, the newgovernment’s swearing-incomes just a week beforeNetanyahu’s criminal trialover his suspected corrup-tion.

His trial on charges ofbribery, breach of trust andfraud will start on May 27,but he denies any wrong-doing, slamming the allega-tions as part of “a witchhunt”.

—IANS

Ghani, Abdullah ink deal toend Afghan political deadlock

Kabul, Afghan President

Mohammad Ashraf Ghaniand his rival AbdullahAbdullah have inked apwer-sharing agreement toend the political deadlockfollowing last year’s presi-dential election, a govern-ment officials has con-firmed.

Under the agreementsigned on Sunday, Ghani re-mains as President, whileAbdullah will head the HighCouncil for National Recon-ciliation to lead the peacetalks with the Taliban, re-ports Xinhua news agency.

Addressing a televisedbroadcast, President Ghanisaid that Afghans were ableto settle their differenceswithout mediation of for-eign friends, a reference tothe 2014 political disputeover election results whichwas later resolved with themediation of former US Sec-retary of State John Kerry.

“I am hopeful the peopleof Afghanistan will seeceasefire in the coming daysand then lasting peace inthe country under the lead-ership of Abdullah,” Presi-dent Ghani said in his ad-dress.

For his part, Abdullahsaid: “Afghanistan hashugely suffered due to war,political instability and nowCOVID-19, and I am hopefultoday’s agreement will bethe end of crisis.”

Under the new agree-ment, Abdullah will intro-duce members of his teamto the President to be in-cluded in the cabinet.

Abdullah, who served asChief Executive in the previ-ous government and con-tested the presidential pollon September 28, 2019, hadchallenged the outcome ofthe vote in which the Elec-tion Commission declaredGhani as winner.

When the delayed re-sults of the election were fi-nally announced in Febru-

ary, Ghani was again de-clared President by the In-dependent Election Com-mission after earning aslightly higher percentagethan Abdullah, reports TOLONews.

But the tensions in-creased after Ghani andAbdullah, both held inaugu-ration ceremonies on thesame day in their adjacentrespective palaces, after thelatter rejected the outcome.

Welcoming Sunday’sdevelopment, US SpecialRepresentative for Afghani-stan Reconciliation ZalmayKhalilzad tweeted: “The US isprepared to partner withthe new government in apeace process that ends thewar. That process must bebased on timely implemen-tation of commitmentsmade to date. Both leadersshould not repeat mistakesin governing...

“It is high time to takeseriously the resolve of theAfghan people, and theworld, to finally see an endto this conflict.”

In a statement, NATO’sSecretary General JensStoltenberg said: “In themidst of the COVID-19 pan-demic and continuedTaliban violence againsttheir fellow Afghans, it ismore important than everthat all Afghan leaders uniteand work towards enduringpeace in Afghanistan.

“We call on the Talibanto live up to their commit-ments, reduce violence now,take part in intra-Afghan ne-gotiations, and make realcompromises for lastingpeace and the benefit of allAfghans.”

The UN Assistance Mis-sion in Afghanistan(UNAMA) said the agree-ment will enable the leadersto address the grave chal-lenges facing the country.

Besides, Turkey, India,Iran and Canada also wel-comed the agreement.

—IANS

Taliban attack kills 7 inAfghanistan’s Ghazni

Kabul, At least seven people

were killed and 25 others in-jured in a Taliban attack andan ensuing gunfight outsidean intelligence agencycamp in Afghanistan’sGhazni province on Monday,a security source said.

The incident occurredwhen a Taliban suicidebomber detonated a mas-sive car bomb at around5.30 a.m. outside a NationalDirectorate for Security(NDS) camp in the provincialcapital of Ghazni city, thesource told Xinhua newsagency

The blast enabled a sec-ond group of militants toengage with security forcemembers before trying toenter the camp.

The explosion also dam-aged a nearby Islamic affairsoffice, the source added.

Security forces have cor-doned off the area wheresporadic clashes betweenattackers and security forcescontinued.

Thick gray smoke wasseen rising above the site.

On Saturday, the Afghangovernment’s Office of Na-tional Security Council(ONSC) said that over 120Afghan civilians were killedand 350 others injured inTaliban attacks over the pastthree weeks despite anagreement signed betweenthe militants and the US forpeace in Afghanistan.

On May 13, PresidentAshraf Ghani ordered theAfghan National Securityand Defense Forces to re-

turn to “offence mode”against the insurgents dueto the increasing number ofattacks.

He made the statementin the wake of deadly at-tacks in Kabul andNangarhar a day ago whichkilled over 50 people.

On April 25, ONSC fig-ures provided indicated thatthe Taliban had conductedan average of 55 attacks perday since the signing of thepeace deal with the US inDoha on February 29.

It said that the Talibanconducted 2,804 attacksfrom the beginning ofMarch to April 19, addingthe group “

Wuhan won’t charge residentsfor expanded nucleic acid tests

Wuhan, Wuhan, the capital of China’s Hubei province where the

COVID-19 pandemic originated last December, will notcharge residents as the city moves to expand its nucleicacid tests to cover every individual who has not been testedfor the novel coronavirus.

The city’s health commission said in a statement onMonday that the costs of the tests will be borne by the dis-trict and municipal governments, and no personal paymentwas required, reports Xinhua news agency.

Last week, the provincial capital had announced its planto expand nucleic acid tests in order to detect asymptom-atic cases, or people who show no clear symptoms despitecarrying the virus.

The decision was made as the city continued to reportdaily increases of asymptomatic infections, raising publicconcerns as Wuhan reopened factories, businesses andschools. The testing will give priority to residential com-pounds that had previously reported infections, as well asold and densely populated buildings.

Children under six were not required to take the tests.To minimize cross-infection risks, the commission said

they will set up open-air testing sites in residential com-pounds and remind residents to maintain distance whenlining up for the tests.

WHO prepares to host 73rd AssemblyGeneva,

The World Health Orga-nization (WHO), which hasbeen at the forefront of theglobal fight against thecoronavirus pandemic, waspreparing to launch one ofits most complex assem-blies since its inception.

On Monday, representa-tives of the UN’s 194 mem-ber states will gather for the73rd Assembly devoted al-most entirely to strengthenglobal coordination againstthe pandemic, reports Efenews.

The assembly will lasttwo days and will be held ina virtual format due to re-strictions in place to curbthe spread of the viruswhich originated in the Chi-nese city of Wuhan last De-cember.

The annual meetingcomes at a time when WHOhas attracted unprec-edented global attention forits coordinating and advi-sory role during the pan-demic which has infected atotal of 4,713,620 peopleglobally and killed 315,185others.

But the organization hasnot escaped criticism norcontroversy during its han-

dling of the crisis, with thebulk of accusations of mis-management coming fromthe US government, but alsoAustralia and Germany.

WHO Director-GeneralTedros AdhanomGhebreyesus has weath-ered much of the criticismand has been accused by USPresident Donald Trump ofbeing biased towards Chi-nese information in the firstweeks of the outbreak at thebeginning of the year.

Ghebreyesus famouslysaid that China had set “anew standard for outbreakcontrol” and that thecountry’s actions had“bought the world time”.

This did not stop Trumpfrom freezing US funding ofWHO in April, whichamounts to around 15 percent of the organization’sentire budget.

Up until then, the US hadtraditionally been theorganization’s main donor.

There will be anotherthorny issue on the agenda:whether to include Taiwanas an observer of the As-sembly.

Taiwan became the firstcountry in the world to de-ploy prevention measures

against the coronaviruswhich resulted in only 440cases and seven deaths, de-spite being just 180 km fromChina.

Diplomatic allies of theisland, including LatinAmerican countries such asGuatemala, Honduras, Nica-ragua and Paraguay, haveformally requested to inviteTaiwan to the meeting.

US Secretary of StateMike Pompeo also publiclyrequested for the island-

state to be present.Member states will vote

on whether to invite Taiwaninto the assembly at the be-ginning but a unanimousresult is necessary and themany think it is unlikely theChinese government will al-low it.

Ever since pro-indepen-dence President Tsao Ing-wen was sworn into office in2016, China has vetoed thecountry’s inclusion in theUN. —IANS

NATO chief welcomes deal betweenAfghan political leaders to end deadlock

Brussels, The chief of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization

(NATO) welcomed the deal reached between Afghanistan’spolitical leaders to end the political deadlock.

“I welcome the decision by Afghanistan’s political lead-ers to resolve their differences & join efforts to form an in-clusive government. NATO remains committed to support-ing Afghanistan build lasting peace,” NATO Secretary Gen-eral Jens Stoltenberg tweeted on Sunday, Xinhua newsagency reported.

Afghanistan’s President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani andhis rival Abdullah Abdullah, who also claimed victory in thepresidential election, inked an agreement on Sunday to endthe political deadlock following last year’s presidential elec-tion, presidential spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said on Twit-ter.

—IANS

Ousted IG was looking into if Pompeomade staffer run personal errands

Washington, Steve Linick, the ousted Inspector General (IG) for

the US State Department, was looking into whetherSecretary of State Mike Pompeo had asked a staffer torun personal errands for him, media reports said.

In a report on Sunday, NBC News, citing two con-gressional officials, said that Linick, who was fired byPresident Donald Trump on May 15, was investigatingwhether Pompeo “made a staffer walk his dog, pick uphis dry cleaning and make dinner reservations” for himand his wife, reports Xinhua news agency.

The officials said they are working to learn whetherLinick may have had other ongoing investigations intoPompeo, according to NBC News.

CNN and The New York Times also reported the al-legations on Sunday.

Trump said he’s firing Linick because he hasn’t hadthe fullest confidence in the official, who began his ten-ure as the State Department’s watchdog in 2013.

A White House official reportedly said Pompeo rec-ommended the move and Trump agreed.

The decision has triggered an inquiry from Demo-crats and scrutiny even from several Republicans.

Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine who co-authored a law asking the President to notify Congress30 days prior to the removal of an inspector generalalong with the reasons for the move, tweeted on May16 that the White House has not provided the kind ofjustification for the firing of Linick required by the law.

“I have long been a strong advocate for the Inspec-tors General,” she said.

“They are vital partners in Congress’s effort to iden-tify inefficient or ineffective government programs andto root out fraud and other wrongdoing.”

As Inspector General, Linick was responsible for,among other things, conducting administrative andcriminal investigations of waste, fraud, mismanagement,and misconduct in the State Department.

He was appointed to the role in 2013 by then-Presi-dent Barack Obama.

—IANS

‘Amphan’ might cross B’desh betweenTuesday-Wednesday

Dhaka, The severe cyclonic storm ‘Amphan’ may cross

Bangladesh coast between late Tuesday night andWednesday evening, the country’s Met Department saidon Monday.

The storm moved northwards and currently lies overthe west central Bay and adjoining south Bay, The DailyStar newspaper quoted the latest special weather bul-letin of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department assaying.

It was centred, at 6 a.m. on Monday, about 1,150 kmsouth-southwest of Chattogram Port, 1,090 km south-southwest of Cox’s Bazar Port, 1,070 km south-south-west of Mongla Port and 1,050 km south-southwest ofPayra port, the bulletin said.

It is likely to intensify further and move in a north-northwesterly direction and then re-curve north-north-east wards, it said.

Maximum sustained wind speed within 74 km of thestorm centre is about 110 kph rising to 130 kph in gusts/squalls.

Sea will remain very high near the cyclone centre,the bulletin said.

Maritime ports of Chattogram, Cox’s Bazar, Monglaand Payra have been advised to keep hoisted localwarning signal No. 4.

All fishing boats and trawlers over north Bay anddeep sea have been advised to remain close to the coastand proceed with caution till further notice, so that theycan take shelter within a short notice.

They are also advised not to venture into the deepsea.

The India Meteorological Department on Mondayissued a cyclone alert for West Bengal and north Odishacoasts as the extremely severe cyclonic storm was overthe central parts of the South Bay of Bengal and adjoin-ing central Bay of Bengal.

—IANS

Chinese team to probe envoy’s death inIsrael

Tel Aviv, China will send a special team to investigate the

death of its Ambassador to Israel on Monday, Du Wei,whose body was found in his official residence here aday ago, sources told the Haaretz newspaper.

According to a Haaretz report, the special team willcarry out “an independent investigation” and will alsoarrange arrangements to fly Du’s body back to Chinafor burial.

A family representative will be joining the team, thereport said, adding that it would not be required to en-ter the 14-day quarantine period normally required forarrivals in Israel due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry announced on Sundaymorning that Du, 57, had been found dead at his offi-cial residence in the coastal town of Herzliya located inthe Northern part of the Tel Aviv district, The Times ofIsrael reported.

The Foreign Ministry said police were on the scene.According to the Ynet news site, aides tried to wake

the envoy after they found him on his bed, not breath-ing.

The initial assessment was that he had suffered car-diac arrest during the night.

Channel 12 news reported there were no externalsigns of violence on Du’s body.

The ministry said that his family members were notin Israel with him.

He arrived in Israel on February 15 to take up hispost, and immediately spent two weeks in quarantinedue to coronavirus regulations.

He was unable to present his credentials to Presi-dent Reuven Rivlin in person due to the pandemic.

S.Korea postponesmaritime live-firedrills

Seoul, South Korea has de-

cided to postpone a majormaritime firing exercise, ini-tially scheduled for thisweek, due to adverseweather conditions, the De-fence Ministry said on Mon-day, rejecting allegations thedecision was aimed atavoiding angering NorthKorea.The Army, Air Forceand the Navy had plannedto carry out their biannuallive-fire drill off the southeast-ern coast of Uljin on Tuesday,involving major assets, suchas ballistic missiles, combatships and fighter jets, reportsYonhap News Agency.

AHMEDABAD TUESDAY 19/05/2020

Ahmedabad Page 6

6 SportSTAY INDOORS --------- STAY SAFE --------- STAY HEALTHY

IAN LADYMAN: If ever there was a walking example of how time catches up with even the best coaches, VanGaal (pictured with Marcus Rashford, inset) was it. Rooney certainly had his own moments with the United man-ager (main). I remember, for example, standing in the broiling Washington heat watching United train on a summertour of America in 2014. Rooney was practising penalties at the end of the session and was, to put it mildly, some-what aghast when his then 62-year-old manager wandered over, moved him aside and started to show him howhe should be doing it. At that stage of his career, Rooney had scored more than 150 Premier League goals for theclub.

A South Korean football team has apologised after being accused of populatingempty stands with sex dolls. FC Seoul took on Gwangju FC on Sunday and picturesshowed mannequins in face masks scattered across one of the empty stands at theirSeoul World Cup Stadium. Some of the artificial supporters wore t-shirts with the logoof SoloS, a sex toy seller, and after gaining worldwide attention, the club looked to setthe record straight.

Nani has revealed that Sir Alex Ferguson once refused to speak to him on a carjourney home after the Manchester United star missed a penalty. Ferguson wasneighbours with the Portugal winger in Wilmslow and Nani used to give his manager alift back from Stockport station when United travelled to games in London by train. Butafter he came off the bench in a 2-2 draw at Fulham in August 2010 and had a penaltysaved by goalkeeper David Stockdale, Ferguson lambasted Nani in the dressing-roomand then gave him the cold shoulder on the way home.

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Ishant ready to adapt if ball doesn’t shine as per liking without salivaNew Delhi,

India pacer IshantSharma believes cricketerswill have to get used to thenew normal once cricket re-sumes amid the COVID-19pandemic.

In order to stem thetransmission of coronavirus,potential changes such asban on usage of saliva orsweat for shining the ballhave been proposed and itcould be a reality going for-ward. However, Ishant is notthinking too much aboutthat and is looking to stay inthe present.

“We know there are talksof some changes and ad-justments in cricket, but Ifeel cricketers will have toget used to the new normal,whatever that is. The ballmay not shine as per yourliking if you are not allowedto use saliva, or you mayhave to go and fetch the ballyourself during nets — but

there is no option but to getused to these things,” Ishantsaid during an InstagramLive session with DelhiCapital’s official handle.

“But honestly I don’t liketo think about these thingstoo much. I feel it is impor-tant to stay in the presentand not look too far ahead.”

Talking about the impor-tance of discipline, Ishantadmitted that he was “ini-tially a bit frustrated duringthe lockdown, but has man-aged to change his scheduleto ensure he’s able to keephis discipline.

“I’ve started waking upat 5am and I ensure that I’mputting in a running sessionin the morning and thenworking out during the dayto stay very fit. I think it’s re-ally important to be very dis-ciplined if you are to keepperforming at the highestlevel, and I think that is whatsets the best apart from av-

erage,” said the 31-year-old.After having struggled

in the middle phase of hiscareer, the cricketing worldhas seen a different Ishant inthe past three years, and thelanky bowler said it’s downto him enjoying his bowlingmore.

“People keep sayingIshant 2.0, which it makes itsound like I am a robot! Butthe phase before 2017 wasone when the pressure toperform was a lot. It gave mesleepless nights, and I hardlyfound any joy in my bowl-ing. My county stint withSussex was what changedeverything. It was a gruel-ling stint for me because Iwas bowling 22-23 overs ina day, batting as well, andthen coming back home todo the chores. It was a toughdrill but somehow I enjoyedit a lot,” he said.

“It was kind of a self-realisation also. I think I en-

joyed a lot more there and Iended up learning a lotabout myself — credit alsoto Jason Gillespie who wasmy coach there. When Icame back to India to playafter that, I felt a lot free andfocussed only on enjoyingthe present, which took offa lot of pressure from me.That change in mindset isthe reason for me being animproved cricketer today,”he added.

Ishant also referred toDelhi Capital’s head coachRicky Ponting as “the bestcoach” he’s met during hiscareer.

Having played with andagainst the Australian greatduring his ongoing 12-yearlong career, Ishant got theopportunity to play underPonting for the very firsttime during the 2019 IPLseason and believes it was aconfidence booster.

“He’s (Ponting) the best

coach I’ve ever met. I wasvery nervous when I wasmaking a return to the IPLlast season. I was almostfeeling like a debutant walk-ing into the camp the firstday, but he gave me a lot ofconfidence since the firstday I arrived at the DelhiCapitals’ camp,” said Ishant.

“He just told me, ‘You’rea senior player and youshould help the youngsters.Just don’t worry about any-thing - you’re my firstchoice.’ And I think that bitof conversation reallyhelped me,” the experi-enced pacer added.

Speaking of the timewhen he got the better ofthe Australian legend, in2008, Ishant said, “Peoplestill talk and ask me aboutthe Perth Test, and the spellI bowled to him. Later thatyear when Australia visitedIndia too, I was in greatform.”“Gary (Kirsten) was

our coach then, and he toldme that the Australians playonly to win, which is why aperformance against them,even on home soil, counts alot, and would help me getnoticed. That success I hadagainst them in 2008 is eas-ily one of the highlights ofmy career.”

Ishant was also seentalking about his first seasonwith the Delhi Capitalswhich saw him pick 13 wick-ets in as many matches.

“I didn’t watch the IPLauction last time but I wasoverjoyed when I heard Ihad been picked up by theDelhi Capitals. Apni state,apni state hoti hai. I knewwith Ricky as coach andplaying for my home city, itwas going to be a really niceexperience. We all wanted towin the trophy, but we willgo again next time we getthe chance,” said the pacer.

Virat’s relentless & fighting naturea great example for us: Shreyas

By Baidurjo BhoseNew Delhi,

Any young cricketer inthe team is the best personto tell you about the culturewithin the group as well asthe environment in thedressing room. And Indiabatsman Shreyas Iyer be-lieves that skipper ViratKohli is not just someonewho inspires all with hispositive attitude, but is alsoa person who grows on youand you end up learningfrom his habits.

Speaking to IANS,Shreyas said that Kohli’s re-lentless energy and fightingnature is something that in-spires every player to give itthat extra bit to ensure thatthe team comes out on thewinning side. He goes on toadd that the positivityaround the India skipper issomething that youngsterscan feed off.

“Virat is a great examplefor all the youngsters in theteam because he has thatrelentless and fighting na-ture. We pick up a lot fromhim and he keeps motivat-ing us and he is the kind ofenergy that if he is around,you are also bound to pickup his routines and habits. Itis excellent to not just havehim around, but also how heleads us and keeps uspumped up. The way heleads the team is simplyamazing,” the 25-year-old

said.While he is learning the

tricks of the trade from stay-ing around Kohli in the na-tional team, Shreyas is him-self a captain in the IndianPremier League. And in onlyhis second season as skip-per of Delhi Capitals 9tech-nically first full season), thebatsman managed to takethe team into the play-offs

after seven years.Shreyas says that while it

might have seemed differ-ent from the outside, asthere was a change in lead-ership mid-season in 2018,he already had a good equa-tion with the likes of theskipper Gautam Gambhirand also playing a match-winning knock in his firstgame as leader also helpedhis cause.

“I already had a goodchemistry with Gautambhai, the players and coach-ing staff and thankfully, Iscored a 93 (off 40 ballsagainst Kolkata Knight Rid-ers as DC won the game by55 runs) in my first game ascaptain and that changed alot of thing as peoplestarted looking at me witha lot more belief that I wouldtake the team to the nextlevel.

“Personally, it was notvery difficult for me also be-cause I was preparing in mymind for a scenario whereinif I was put in such a situa-tion, how I would react. Itwas a dream come true tolead a franchise like DelhiCapitals and I am really ex-cited and hoping to win thechampionship,” he smiled.

While some are lucky tobe handed over the reins ofsupremely successful teams,there are other like Shreyaswho was made captain of ateam that was clearly strug-gling. But the batsman.

Bundesliga: Bayern Munichbeat Union Berlin 2-0

Berlin, Robert Lewandowski’s 26th goal of the season helped

Bayern Munich to maintain their four-point advantage atthe top of the standings after beating newly promotedUnion 2-0 in the 26th round match.

On Sunday, the hosts grabbed a bright start against theGerman giants as Marius Bulter forced goalkeeper ManuelNeuer into action in the fifth minute before Anthony Ujahpulled over the bar two minutes later, reports Xinhua newsagency.

Bayern thought they had opened the scoring with 18minutes played but Thomas Muller’s goal was ruled offsideby the video assistant referee.

As the match progressed, the Bavarians gained the up-per hand and eventually broke the deadlock in the 40thminute when Neven Subotic felled Leon Goretzka in thebox, allowing Lewandowski to slot home the opener fromthe penalty spot. After the restart, the visitors remained incontrol and pressed Union into defence. However, the Ger-man champions lacked in accuracy as Muller and BenjaminPavard missed the target from promising positions.

Hansi Flick’s men remained on the front foot thoughand put the result beyond doubt in the 80th minute afterPavard headed home Joshua Kimmich’s corner kick.

With the 18th victory of the season Bayern Munich re-store their four point lead atop the standings meanwhileUnion Berlin slip to the 12th position after suffering the14th defeat of the season.

Elsewhere, Mainz bounced back from two goals downagainst Cologne and snatched a two-all draw by courtesyon the second hals goals from Taiwo Awoniyi and KundeMalong.

Gibson feels now could be thetime for Mortaza to move on

Dhaka, Ottis Gibson,

Bangladesh’s bowlingcoach, has urged MashrafeMortaza to bid adieu to in-ternational cricket as hedoesn’t see the 36-year-oldfast bowler in the scheme ofthings for the 2023 WorldCup slated to be played inIndia.

Gibson, who joinedBangladesh in January thisyear, said that head coachRussell Domingo has to lookat several younger bowlersto build a team in the nextthree years.

“I think he (Mortaza) hashad an outstanding interna-tional career,” ESPNcricinfoquoted Gibson as tellingBengali daily Prothom Aloon Monday.

“He has done himselfand his country proud. Withthe next World Cup in 2023,any international coach willnow start to build a team. Iam quite sure that’s whatRussell will be thinking.

“So he would want tosee players like youngHasan Mahmud,(Mohammad) Saifuddin,Shafiul (Islam) and Ebadot(Hossain.) We haven’t seenEbadot in white-ball cricketyet. There’s Taskin (Ahmed)and Khaled (Ahmed) gets fitagain. We have Hasan and(Mehedi Hasan) Rana. Sothere’s a lot of young crick-eters in the country,” Gibsonadded.

According to Gibson,

Domingo is now trying tobuild a team for the futureand that’s why Mortazashould now move on andcan advise country’s youngfast bowlers in a differentcapacity.“I think if Russell isnow trying to build a teamfor the future, then I don’tknow what part Mashrafewill have to play in that. Per-haps now is his time, with allthat’s going on in the world,to move on,” Gibson said.

“He (Mortaza) can findother ways to pass on hisvast knowledge and experi-ence to the young guys. Idon’t think he has to be onthe field to be able to passon what he has learned over

his career. He needs to findother ways to pass on thatmessage,” he added.

Mortaza, had steppeddown from captaincy dur-ing Bangladesh’s last homeseries, against Zimbabwe inFebruary. His retirement hasbeen talked about for quitesome time now however hehasn’t made any official an-nouncement

The right-arm bowlerhas so far representedBangladesh in 220 ODIs inwhich he has scalped 270wickets. He has also played36 Tests and 54 T20Is inwhich he has picked 78 and42 wickets respectively.

—IANS

Jayawardene questions need tobuild largest cricket stadium in SL

Colombo, Former Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene ques-

tioned the need to build a new cricket stadium in the coun-try after it was revealed that the government is planningto build the largest cricket stadium in the Island Nation inHomagama.

The construction of the new stadium is expected to becompleted in three years and will host Day-Night matchesas well. The proposed stadium can hold up to 40,000 spec-tators and is set to cost the Sri Lankan authorities around30-40 million dollars as per www.newswire.lk.

Jayawardene took note of this announcement andquestioned the need of having a new stadium as accord-ing to him, the existing stadiums aren’t being used to theirfull potential.

His post on Twitter read: “We don’t even play enoughinternational cricket or domestic first-class cricket in theexisting stadiums we have ... Do we need another one?”—IANS

If players are scared, they won’t beable to perform: Allardyce

London, Former England head coach Sam Allardyce be-

lieves authorities will have to give greater impor-tance to mental conditioning of the players beforethey can get back to resuming football in the coun-try.

The former Bolton Wanderers manager believesplayers should be told they won’t be reprimandedif they opt against playing in such unprecedentedconditions.

Football in England has been suspended sinceMarch as a precautionary measure againstcoronavirus pandemic and Allardyce feels if theplayers are scared they won’t be able to perform atoptimum levels on the pitch.

“Getting the players fit in four weeks could bedone, but that’s the least of their worries. I think thebiggest challenge for the players will be dealingwith the mental side,” Allardyce wrote in his columnfor The Times.

“I’d reassure them that there would be no re-percussions if they decided that they’d find it toodifficult to play. I’d really hate it if someone was ridi-culed for saying ‘I just can’t do it’. Nobody must beput under any undue pressure to play.

“If they’re too scared about those conditions,they won’t be able to perform to their best, and thenthey will start getting criticised.”

Premier League is targetting mid-June as a pos-sible date for resumption of football in the country.Earlier, Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero wasone of the first players to raise such concerns re-garding the safety of footballers and their families.

“The majority of players are scared because theyhave children and families,” Aguero told ArgentineTV station El Chiringuito.

“I’m scared, but I’m with my girlfriend and I’mnot going to be in contact with other people. I’mlocked in my house and the only person I could in-fect is my girlfriend.

“They’re saying that there are people that haveit and don’t have any symptoms but still infect you.That’s why I am here at home. Maybe I have the ill-ness and I don’t even know.”

—IANS

COVID-19: Ajinkya Rahane takes up‘keep it up’ challenge

Mumbai, India’s Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane is the

latest to take up the ‘keep it up’ social media chal-lenge after fellow teammate Rohit Sharma hadpassed on the baton to him.

Former India all-rounder Yuvraj Singh had chal-lenged Sachin Tendulkar, Rohit and HarbhajanSingh to juggle a cricket ball with the side of a bat.

Accepting the challenge from Rohit, Rahane onMonday posted a video on Instagram where he isseen juggling a pink cricket ball with the side of hisbat.

Rohit on Sunday pledged his commitment tostay at home by completing Yuvraj’s challenge. Hehad further nominated India teammates ShreyasIyer, Rishabh Pant and Rahane.

Former and current cricketers have been takingto their social media handles to keep connectedwith the fans since the sport came to a standstill inMarch due to the coronavirus pandemic.

India currently remains in a nationwidelockdown which was first imposed for 21 days start-ing March 25 and then extended on April 15 andlater on May 4 with an aim to stem the spread ofnovel coronavirus. The lockdown has now been fur-ther extended till May 31 as the number of con-firmed coronavirus cases have gone past 96,000mark.

More than 3000 people have also lost their livesdue to COVID-19 in India.

—IANS

Want to be in good position behindworld’s best Lyon, says Agar

Sydney, Australia spinner Ashton Agar feels compatriot

Nathan Lyon is the best spinner in the world in Testcricket presently so he will have to bide his time andbe ready whenever opportunity comes knocking onhis door.

Agar stated he will have to keep performing inAustralia’s premier domestic competition, SheffieldShield, and make the second spot, behind Lyon, ashis own.

“To play consistent Test cricket, you need to havea really good idea of how to go about your bowlingover a long period of time,” Agar said during anonline conference in a video uploaded onESPNcricinfo.

“And like I said, you have to practise that ingames, day in, day out, in Sheffield cricket... takewickets, put yourself in the best position you canbe to be the second spinner at the moment becauseNathan Lyon is the best spinner in the world in myeyes, especially in red-ball cricket.

“So just to put yourself in a strong position tobe the second spinner is the key.”

Agar has so far played four Tests, 13 ODIs and24 T20Is in which he has scalped 9,10 and 25 wick-ets respectively.

—IANS

Difficult for Khawaja to get back intothe team, feels Ponting

Melbourne, Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting believes

it will be difficult for batsman Usman Khawaja tomake a return into the national team after beingommitted from Cricket Australia’s central contractlist for 2020-21.

Ponting feels Khawaja’s inconsistency is a bigproblem and so far in his career, the southpaw hasonly shown glimpses of the brilliance which he iscapable of.

“I honestly think now he’s going to find it diffi-cult (to get back into the Australian team) and I feelfor him,” Ponting told ABC Grandstand as perESPNCricinfo.

“I love Usman Khawaja, I got really close to himover the last 10 years since he made his debut andI talk to him quite regularly.

“I’ve always felt he’s a very good player and weprobably never saw the absolute best of him at in-ternational cricket. We saw glimpses of it, and dribsand drabs, but not the consistently good player Ithought he could have been for Australia.”

Earlier, former Australia captain Michael Clarkehad questioned CA’s decision to exclude Khawajafrom its list of centrally contracted players.

The new list for the upcoming year was an-nounced last month and featured a number of lim-ited-overs specialists with the upcoming T20 WorldCup in mind. Khawaja has so far played only nineT20Is, the last of which was in September 2016.

“I find it very hard to believe that someone withthe talent and the runs behind him over 10 yearsisn’t in Australia’s top 20 players,” Clarke said on BigSports Breakfast. —IANS

Playing cricket inempty stadiumlike marriagewithout bride:Akhtar

Lahore, Former Pakistan

pacer Shoaib Akhtar be-lieves playing cricket be-fore empty stands wouldbe without much excite-ment and something dif-ficult to market.

Amid the ongoingCOVID-19 pandemic,many sports have re-sumed behind closeddoors and cricket is alsosupposed to be playedlike that in the near fu-ture so as to contain thespread of novelcoronavirus. “Playingcricket in the empty sta-diums may be viable anddurable for cricketboards. But I do not thinkwe can market this. Play-ing cricket.

AHMEDABAD TUESDAY 19/05/2020

Ahmedabad, Page 7

DisclaimerA d v e r s t i s e m e n tappeared in this NewsPaper have not beenverified factually and“WESTERNTIMES” doesnot stand responsible forthe sales proposition.

Business Brief

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Pudumjee Paper resumes productionof paper products at Pune plant

Pune,Pudumjee Paper Products Limited (Company)

had suspended its plant operations at Pune with ef-fect from 23rd March, 2020 to ensure the safety ofemployees/workers of the Company in the wake ofthe Novel Coronavirus (COVID19) pandemic. Pune,currently, is classified under Red Zone.

On 8th May, 2020, the Company received permis-sion from Government of Maharashtra for resumingproduction at its Pune plant. Accordingly, the Com-pany has resumed manufacturing of Specialty paperproducts required as input for packaging material inthe manufacture of pharmaceutical products, hospi-tal supplies, hygiene sectors, food, confectionery etc.

Earlier, in April, the Company received permissionfrom Government of Maharashtra for dispatch andtransport of manufactured paper products of theCompany lying in its inventory for use in essentialsupplies like soap wrappers, papers for medical pack-aging, food packaging, tissue paper for hygiene etc.,which in turn is required to maintain supply chain ofessential commodities/services during prevalence ofthe Pandemic. Similarly, the Hygiene Division en-gaged in supply of essential products had also re-sumed its operations.

Microsoft introduces Back2BusinessSolution Boxes in India

New Delhi,Microsoft has announced the launch of the

Back2Business Solution Boxesfor helping Indian smalland medium businesses(SMBs) maintain businesscontinuity and embark on their cloud adoptionjourneys.Curated for specific scenariosin different or-ganization sizes, they bring together offerings acrossAzure and Modern Workplace.

Indian SMBs are facingmultiple challenges in run-ning their operations seamlessly during the currentcrisis, including accessto remote working solutionsin a secure and scalable environment,disaster recov-ery and advanced security with device managementand threat protection. To provide support in keepingbusinesses running through any outages andreducingon-premise infrastructure managementcosts, theseofferingsare tailored to boost employeeproductivity and improve customer engagement.

“Small and medium enterprises are an integralpart of the Indian economy. We’ve witnessed theirresilience and entrepreneurial energy in action as webuild the new normal in these difficult times. In ourefforts to support these businesses operate todaywithout constraints and be future-ready with thebest-in-class technological platform and solutions,the Back2Business Solution Boxes offer speed in de-ployment and usage and flexibility with pay-as-you-go pricing, along with our commitment to privacy andsecurity,” said Harish Vellat, Senior Director, Small andMid-Corporate Business, Microsoft India.

Railways operated 1,034 Shramiktrains since May 1: Goyal

New Delhi, Union Railway and Commerce Minister Piyush

Goyal on Saturday said that the Indian Railways hasoperated 1,034 Shramik Special trains to transport thestranded migrant workers across the country.

In a tweet, Goyal said, “To bring back the workerstill date, the Railways has operated 1,034 ShramikSpecial trains. Out of which 106 were operated yes-terday (Friday). Uttar Pradesh and Bihar has takensteps positively and 80 per cent of the total ShramikSpecial trains have been operated by these twostates.” The Indian Railways has started to runShramik Special trains to transport the stranded mi-grant workers, students, pilgrims and tourists sinceMay 1.

Till date the railways has transported over 12 lakhpeople across the country in these Shramik Specialtrains. According to railways, till Friday Uttar Pradeshoperated over 474 Shramik Special trains while 52more are in pipeline. Similarly, Bihar operated 248Shramik Special trains and 21 are in pipeline.

FDI limit for defence manufacturing tobe raised to 74%

New Delhi, In a big-bang reform measure, the Union govern-

ment has decided to raise the limit for foreign directinvestment (FDI) for defence manufacturing from 49to 74 per cent under the automatic route.

Speaking to the media here, Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said that time-bound defence procurement process and faster de-cision-making will take place under the new policy.

The government will set up a project manage-ment unit to support contract management. Further,

Instagram launches new featuresto reduce online bullying

New Delhi,Social media giants

Facebook and Instagram,today released the fifth edi-tion of the Community Stan-dards Enforcement report,which tracks the companysprogress to keep both plat-forms safe. In addition to thisreport, Instagram also an-nounced new safety fea-tures to lead the industry inthe fight against online bul-lying.

“We want Instagram tobe a safe place for self-ex-pression and we’re con-stantly looking for new andimproved ways to achievethat. This edition of theCommunity Standards En-forcement Report high-lights our progress in en-forcing our policies in tenareas, including removingcontent that puts the safetyof young people at risk, andremoving bullying content.This report demonstrates

improvements in how muchcontent we proactively findand remove before it is re-ported to us. Additionally,we’re now announcing newfeatures that mark the con-tinuation of our effort tolead the industry in the fightagainst online bullying.”said, Ankhi Das, Director ofPublic Policy, Facebook - In-dia, South and Central Asia.

The new feature helpspeople manage multipleunwanted interactions atonce and to manage a rushof negative comments. Theplatform has tested the abil-ity to delete comments inbulk, as well as block or re-strict multiple accounts thatpost negative comments.Early feedback has been en-couraging, and the socialmedia apps have found thatit helps people, especiallywith larger followings, main-tain a positive environmenton their account.

To enable this feature oniOS, tap on a comment andthen the dotted icon in thetop right corner. Select Man-age Comments and chooseup to 25 comments to de-lete at once. Tap More Op-tions to block or restrict ac-counts in bulk. To block orrestrict accounts on An-droid, press and hold on acomment, tap the dottedicon and select Block or Re-strict.

In addition to removingnegative comments, it’s away to give people an easyway to amplify and encour-age positive interactions.Soon, the platform will be-gin testing Pinned Com-ments. This feature givespeople a way to set the tonefor their account and en-gage with their communityby pinning a select numberof comments to the top oftheir comments thread.

Tags and mentions can

be used to target or bullyothers, so Facebook andInstagram are set out to putnew controls that allow oneto manage who can tag ormention you on Instagram.You can choose whetheryou want everyone, onlypeople you follow or no oneto be able to tag or mentionyou in a comment, captionor Story.

This announcementcomes in addition toInstagram’s ongoing effortsto engage with the youth ontopics such as gender sen-sitivity, mental health, andbullying, which began at thestart of the year with the‘Unlabel India’ initiative. Inpartnership with Yuvaa, ayouth media and insightscompany, this included aroadshow to colleges acrossthe country, to inspire con-versations among youthand initiate positive onlinedialogue.

Protection against mosquitoes withGoodknight Naturals Neem Agarbatti

Mumbai,Goodknight Naturals Neem Agarbatti (incense stick),

from India’s home insecticide category market leaderGoodknight, is a natural solution to effectively repel mos-quitoes. The months beginning from March till Septemberare when mosquitoes are at their peak leading to cases ofmalaria & dengue. To empower families against thesedeadly mosquito-borne diseases, Goodknight NaturalsNeem Agarbatti with 100% natural ingredients provides athree-hour long protection from all kinds of mosquitoes.This 100% solution against mosquitoes is priced reason-ably at INR 15/- for each pack containing 10 incense sticks.

Infused with nature’s two most potent natural ingredi-ents – Neem and Turmeric, Goodknight Naturals NeemAgarbatti emits a pleasant natural fragrance and releasesless smoke. It offers effective protection for your family andis completely safe for everyday use. Goodknight with its mis-sion of protecting each and every citizen from vector-bornediseases across the country, has always offered superior,affordable and safe solutions. With the launch ofGoodknight Naturals Neem Agarbatti, the brand is empow-ering Indians to fight against the menace of mosquitoeswith a 100% natural solution. Households buy repellents,liquid vapourisers, coils as well as incense sticks offeringprotection from mosquitoes. Incense sticks are affordable,easy to use and is increasingly used by the masses. How-ever, many unauthorized manufacturers are now makingthese incense sticks. They use harmful chemicals and pes-ticides that are not approved by the government. Using il-legal pesticide-laced mosquito repellent incense stickscause multiple health disorders, bronchitis, asthma, reac-tive airways disease and other respiratory ailments. Thus,people should use only approved, safe incense sticks of re-puted brands such as Goodknight Naturals Neem Agarbatti.

Govt revenue can rise by Rs 30K cr byregulating non-Virginia tobacco: NHF

New Delhi, Government revenue

collections can increase byRs 30,000 crore throughregulation of non-Virginiatobacco and these fundscan be used by the govern-ment for Covid-19 relief ef-forts, according to the Na-tional Health Forum.

NHF has written to theMinistry of Finance and Min-istry of Health for regulatingthe sale of non-Virginia to-bacco by ensuring that thesale is processed throughauction platforms.

NHF has said that thesale of non-Virginia be pro-cessed through auctionplatforms overseen by theTobacco Board of India orvia APMCs and taxing thenon-Virginia tobacco at thesame tax as the Virginia to-bacco on per kilogram basis.

“The initiative will havea double benefit, first the en-hancement of revenue andsecondly controlling thesale of the so far unregu-lated tobacco products inIndia”, NHF said.

National Health Forum(NHF), India’s leading NGOworking in the field of to-

bacco control and whichhas been involved in variouskey effective activities ontobacco control measures,lauded the efforts beingmade by the government infighting the Covid-19 pan-demic.

According to MandakiniSinh, Managing Trustee,NHF, “As per our estimates, a30 per cent levy as a reversecharge levied upon andpaid by the manufacturersand dealers of non-Virginiatobacco products will yielda revenue increment ofaround Rs 30,000 crore. Thiswill lead to a far wider net oftaxation and all types of to-baccos will be uniformlybrought into the tax net.Currently, all tobacco prod-ucts manufactured usingnon-Virginia tobacco (suchas Burley tobacco) are in theunorganized sector andthere is large scale evasionof tax by manufacturers andscant respect for the to-bacco control laws.”

Presently, non-Virginiatobacco is freely sold with-out any intervention by thegovernment and in the pro-cess, the Indian farmer gets

a raw deal. The non-Virginiatobacco is used in themanufacture of chewing va-rieties of tobacco, hookah,gutkha, kiwam, gudaku,zarda and bidis. These non-Virginia tobaccos constituteabout 85 per cent of to-bacco grown in India.

NHF said these are nei-ther appropriately taxednor it’s growers who arethe poorest of poor farm-ers get stable prices fortheir produce. There areprivate intermediaries andmiddlemen who take ad-vantage of the situationand milk the poor Indianfarmers.

Virginia Tobacco on theother hand, is properly andstrictly controlled andtaxed by the governmentwith checks and balancesin place, such that not onlyproper revenue is gener-ated but the interest of thefarmer is also addressed.

A sizeable quantity ofthe non-Virginia tobaccogoes in the manufacture ofchewing tobacco, gutkha,Pan Masala with tobacco,zarda and snuff which areall products that are ex-

tremely dangerous in thecontext of the COVID-19pandemic as they need tobe spat out after consump-tion, NHF said.

“There is no doubt inour mind and other likeminded NGOs that if thegovernment regulates thesale and distribution ofnon-Virginia tobacco as ithas done in the case of Vir-ginia tobacco, it will lead tofair and uniform taxationof all tobacco products anddefinitely benefit our farm-ers (who are currently notpaid for almost a year afterthe sale occurs due to theprice setting power of thepowerful middle man)”, ac-cording to NHF.

COVID-19 pandemichas caused widespread de-struction of economic ac-tivity and there is a need tochannel increased re-sources in resurrectingeconomic activity and pro-vide relief to the joblessand new source of tax col-lection to the tune of Rs30,000 crore will be a greatboost to support the postCOVID rebuilding efforts.

—IANS

Apple reopens 100 retailstores globally, more to follow

San Jose, Apple has managed to reopen 100 retail stores out of

more than 500 worldwide, as it aims to safely restart op-erations.

Apple closed all its retail stores outside Greater Chinain March as COVID-19 pandemic spread. All the Applestores in Greater China are now open.

The company plans to reopen 25 more stores in theUS, 12 in Canada and 10 in Italy over the next week. Applehas reopened some stores in the US, starting with Idaho,South Carolina, Alabama, and Alaska.

“In China, and later around the world, we were one ofthe first companies to close our stores. In Greater China,we saw the importance of swift action — and the criticalimportance of social distance — to slow the virus’ spread,”said Apple’s head of retail Deidre O’Brien in a statementon Sunday.

“As time has gone on, we’ve continued to refine andexpand our iings will be required for all of our teams andcustomers, and we will provide them to customers whodon’t bring their n-store health and safety measures, whichhave proven so effective in places like Greater China, whereour stores have been safely open for months,” he added.

Apple said it looks at every available piece of data —including local cases, near and long-term trends, and guid-ance from national and local health officials, before it re-opens stores.

“These are not decisions we rush into — and a storeopening in no way means that we won’t take the preven-tative step of closing it again should local conditions war-rant,” according to O’Brien.

Apple is taking some additional steps in most places.“Face coverings will be required for all of our teams and

customers, and we will provide them to customers whodon’t bring their own. Temperature checks will be con-ducted at the door, and posted health questions will screenfor those with symptoms — like cough or fever — orwho have had recent exposure to someone infected withCOVID-19,” O’Brien elaborated.

Throughout the day, Apple is conducting enhanceddeep cleanings that place special emphasis on all surfaces,display products, and highly trafficked areas.

“We’ve also taken this time to consider how we canserve our customers’ needs even more effectively, whetheronline or in our stores. For many stores, that will mean curb-side pick-up and drop off. If you choose to buy online, wecan ship to your home or make your new items availablefor convenient pick-up at our stores,” informed the Appleexecutive.

—IANS

Why people should stopgoogling medical symptoms

Sydney, Many people turn to ‘Dr Google’ to self-diagnose their

health symptoms and seek medical advice, but onlinesymptom checkers are only accurate about a third of thetime, warn researchers.

The new study, published in the Medical Journal ofAustralia, analysed 36 international mobile and web-basedsymptom checkers and found they produced the correctdiagnosis as the first result just 36 per cent of the time, andwithin the top three results 52 per cent of the time.

The research also found that the advice provided onwhen and where to seek health care was accurate 49 percent of the time.

“While it may be tempting to use these tools to findout what may be causing your symptoms, most of the timethey are unreliable at best and can be dangerous at worst,”said study lead author Michella Hill from Edith Cowan Uni-versity from Australia.

Online symptom checkers ask users to list their symp-toms before presenting possible diagnoses.

According to the researchers, online symptom check-ers may be providing a false sense of security.

“We’ve all been guilty of being ‘cyberchondriacs’ andgoogling at the first sign of a niggle or headache,” she said.

But the reality is these websites and apps should beviewed very cautiously as they do not look at the wholepicture - they don’t know your medical history or othersymptoms, they said.

“For people who lack health knowledge, they may thinkthe advice they’re given is accurate or that their conditionis not serious when it may be,” Hill said.

CAIT seeks revised economicpackage in support of traders

New Delhi, Registering its displea-

sure over no stimulus for thetrading community, theConfederation of All IndiaTraders (CAIT) has asked Fi-nance Minister NirmalaSitharaman to reconsiderthe economic package andannounce measures to sup-port the trading commu-nity.

In a statement, the trad-ers’ body said that it has re-sented with deep regretthat one of the largest andmost committed segmentsof the trading community inthe country has been omit-ted in wide reaching an-nouncements of the eco-nomic package.

The traders’ body haswritten to Sitharaman tocome up with measures foraround seven crore retailtraders in the country. It hasalso sent similar communi-cation to Home MinisterAmit Shah, Defence MinisterRajnath Singh, CommerceMinister Piyush Goyal andTextile Minister Smriti Irani.

In the letter, CAIT hassaid that the traders of Indiahave stood firmly with thegovernment and the peopleof India in these troubledtimes to ensure continuoussupply of essential com-modities but now the trad-ers feel that the Centre haslet them down. It reiteratedthat at the time of lifting oflockdown, the traders willhave to meet various finan-cial obligations like pay-ment of salary to employees,payment of GST, Income Taxand other levies, EMIs, bankous other incidental ex-penses among others.

“All such circumstanceswill land the traders in tur-bulent time of financial cri-sis and it is expected that inabsence of anyhandholding of the tradersby the traders, about 20 percent marginal traders willhave no other alternativebut to close down their busi-ness establishments andrest of the traders will haveto do great struggle in reviv-ing their business activities,”it said. —IANS

Samsung’s chip productionup 57% in Q1 2020

Seoul, Samsung Electronics’

chip production in the firstquarter of the year in-creased 57.4 per cent froma year earlier despite thespread of the novelcoronavirus, the company’squarterly business reportshowed on Monday.

Samsung, the world’slargest memory chip maker,produced 277.4 billion unitsof semiconductors in theJanuary-March period, upfrom 176.2 billion units ayear earlier, according to thereport. Its chip factory op-eration rate was 100 percent.

Industry insiders saidSamsung’s increased pro-duction was aimed at meet-ing rising demand for serverchips as the coronaviruspandemic boosted non-face-to-face activities.

In contrast, Samsung’smobile phone and displayproduction plunged in thefirst quarter, the reportshowed, due to factory shut-downs from the virus out-break.

Samsung produced 58.7million handsets and 1.45million units of display prod-ucts in the first threemonths of 2020, down 34.4percent and 35.5 percentfrom a year earlier, respec-tively.

GUJARAT WATER SUPPLY &SEWERAGE BOARD

E-TENDER NOTICE NO. 01/20-2021E-Tender No. 408232

The Executive Engineer, P. H. Mechanical Division, “JalBhavan”, Saru Section Road, Jamnagar-361008, Ph. No.(0288) 2551893 department invited E-tender Two Bid Systemfrom experienced Agencies for similar work of SITC of PumpingMachineries with Electro-Mechanical accessories etc.

Sr. Name of Woark Estd EMD Tender ClassNo. Tend Rs Fee Regi1 er

ValueRsinLakhs

1 2 3 4 5 61 38.76 39000 1500 E1

&above

Supply, Installation, Testing &Commissioning of Submergedcentrifugal Pump Sets withMechanical and ElectricalEquipments & AccessoriesEtc. Complete withComprehensive Operation &Maintenance of Five Years atLatipar H.W. Pumping stationsunder Aji III RWSS in Ta.Jamnagar, Distt. Jamnagar.

Tender documents can be seen, download and submitted onWebsite http://www.nprocure.com. Last date for online Bidsubmission date 08.06.2020 to 18.00 hrs. Physical from latest bydate 09.06.2020 upto 15.00 hrs. Any additional information of thetender will be available at above mention office. All right is receivedto reject any or all tender without assigning reason thereof. For anyquarry related to Village Water Supply Scheme contact on Toll FreeNo. 1916. Any amendment regarding this Tender will be shown /publish on website only. MAHITI/JAM 68

Gujarat Water Supply &Sewerage Board

Tender Notice No. 01 of 2020-21(Tender I.D.No.408246)

Executive Engineer, Public Health Works Division,GWSSB, Jal Bhavan, District Patan. Mo.9978406754invites tender for below mentioned work by‘E-Tendering System’.(A) Name of Work:-Bid documents for “Construction of 6 MLD (273 M3/Hr.) Water Treatment Plant, 20 Lakh Lits. Capacity U/G Sump, 5 Lakh Ltd. Capacity 25 Mt. Height ESR,Pump Room with Pumping Machinery & Providing,Supplying, Lowering Laying, Joining Rising mainPipeline from KBC to ZAZAM WTP @ZAZAM with 24months O & M TA.-SANTALPUR, Dist.- PATANUnder BADP Programme.” (ID-408246)

(B) Estimated Cost:- Rs.3,31,76,329.00(C) Eligibility of Contractor:- Bidders havingConstruction Registration “A” & Above class as perResolution Dt.6/8/2011 of R&B Deptt. GoG or inequivalent class with any State of India or Govt. ofIndia before date of above Resolution & havingexperience as laid down in tender documents.(D) Last Date of Submission of Tender:- 18/06/2020up to 18.00 Hrs and Physically documents producelast date: 19/06/2020 upto 15.00 Hrs by RPAD/SpeedPost/Hand delivery only. For detailed information ofthis tender notice available atwww.statetenders.com, www.gwssb.org &www.gwssb.nprocure.com. For detailed informationof tender & conditions, contract office mentionedabove during office hours. GWSSB reserves the rightto accept / reject any tenders & is binding to all. Nextany amendment shall be viewable on website.

WATER SUPPLY HELP LINE NO. 1916Save Water, Water will Save You

No.DDI/PATAN/22/2020-21

AHMEDABAD TUESDAY 19/05/2020

News in a Nutshell

Ahmedabad Page 8 CMYK

CMYK

8 NationalSTAY INDOORS --------- STAY SAFE --------- STAY HEALTHY

A migrant worker child with bread packet waiting in a queue to board Shramik Special train departed fromNagercoil Junction, Tamil Nadu to Patna UNI.

Migrant workers waiting in queue to board Shramik Special trains at Dr MGR Central Railway Station, in Chennaion UNI.

A couple wash their son's hand before boarding Shramik Special train departed from Nagercoil Junction, TamilNadu to Patna UNI.

Combination of zinc, HCQ & azithromycin helps in recovery from COVID-19: Shanghai-based Indian DocBy Sumit Saxena

New Delhi, China, where the novel

coronavirus originated, hasreported 111 cases sincebeginning of May, whichshows the infection rate hasdipped, and 3 deaths sinceApril 27, according to theWHO. A Shanghai-basedNoida doctor says China isclose to winning the battleagainst Covid-19, and thecombination of zinc,hydroxychloroquine (HCQ)and antibiotic azithromycinhas been able to save thelives of coronavirus patients.Speaking to IANS, DrSanjeev Choubey, MedicalDirector Internal Medicineat St. Michael Hospital saidthis combination has beenadopted as a line of treat-ment for patients infectedwith coronavirus, and as a

result patients are recover-ing, decreasing their needfor intensive care.

Q1) What is the line oftreatment for COVID-19 pa-tients, which also include as-ymptomatic patients?

A) The combination ofzinc, hydroxychloroquineand antibiotic azithromycinhas produced positive re-sults, and it helped in the re-covery of many COVID-19patients. The combination— Ascorbic Acid, B-complex,Zinc, Selenium, L-carnitine,Vitamin B-12 and Glu-tathione normal saline –should be administered onpatients twice a week for atleast 6 weeks. This is COVID-19 treatment protocol forprophylaxis, and it impliesboth asymptomatic andsymptomatic along withother medicine support.

Q2) Based on your expe-

rience on COVID-19 inChina, after how many tests,is it safe to call a personcoronavirus free?

A) The coronavirusshould be performed atleast 9 times, before terminga patient COVID-19 free. It isa standard in China. Thisprocedure has worked inChina and it will also work inIndia. Minimum five testsshould be mandatorythrough RT-PCR.

Q3) Does coronavirusmajorly attack the respira-tory system or it could leadto organ failure too?

A) Line of treatmentshould not be just looking atthe respiratory system, asthe problem lies some-where else. COVID-19 at-tacks many vital organs inthe body. In China, acoronavirus patient diedfrom a stroke. In the autopsy

it was found that the inner-most layer in the arterieswas swollen. It was con-cluded that coronavirus hadinflamed the layer of the ar-teries leading to clotting,which was a factor in gener-ating a heart attack. There-fore, COVID-19 is not just arespiratory problem.

Q4) Amid thecoronavirus pandemic,should autopsy be mademandatory in the case ofunpredictable death orwhere reasons for death arenot unknown?

A) Patients below 50years, who die suddenly andthe reasons are not known,then it should be manda-tory to conduct the autopsy.After death, coronavirus isactive in the body for fivedays, and it fades away onday 6. Therefore, if an au-topsy is done then it will

help in understanding thisdisease. In China, we haveseen young COVID-19 pa-tients, aged 22 and 28, suc-cumbed to strokes.

Q5) Since the beginningof May, India has recordedmore than 2,000 cases ev-eryday in the first week, thenit jumped past 3,000 mark inthe second week. Finally, thetally is 4,987 on May 17. At90,927 cases, has India pro-gressed into communitytransmission or Stage3?

A) Yes, India has movedinto Stage 3. The data sug-gests that 3,000 to 4,000 ac-tive COVID-19 cases, whoare asymptomatic, are mov-ing around and spreadingthe infection.

The research has indi-cated that COVID-19 froman infected person spreadsin 30 minutes to non-in-fected persons. The relax-

ation on the lockdown willcertainly contribute to ahigh infection rate.

Q6) Do you think Indiahas reached its peak inCOVID-19 cases, or the sharprise will continue till Julyend?

A) It seems India has al-ready reached its peak andcases will begin to comedown from June end or be-ginning of July first week. Ifsocial distancing norms arefollowed then certainlythings can improve, but ifnot followed then it may getworse. High population den-sity is a major contributor forthe increase in cases. Thegovernment should con-tinue to focus on findinghotspots, and urge peopleto follow the rules, eventu-ally it is for people’s ownbenefit.

—IANS

Karnataka’s ITBT sector performed wellamid lockdown: Ashwathnarayana

By Narendra PuppalaBengaluru,

Dr. C.N.Ashwathnarayana, is a medi-cal doctor by profession,and Karnataka’s deputychief minister handling arange of portfolios, promi-nent among them being In-formation Technology andBiotechnology (ITBT). Inter-acting with IANS, he spokeabout the state’s experi-ences with COVID-19, andthe likely way forward.

Q1 What has been themost challenging aspect ofCOVID-19?

A The movement andmigration of people was thebiggest challenge thatemerged out of the COVID-19 lockdown for us. Whathas helped immensely was,the Centre took very strongstand and it took lots of de-cisions, Stringent guidelineswere given. Otherwise leftto each state, it would havebeen difficult. Because we’llbe under lot of pressure.Each person comes withtheir opinions, his solutions,then it becomes difficult inexecution in a democraticset up. Handling in acentralised way made ahuge difference. Otherwiseit would have been very dif-ficult. each state would havefound it difficult to handle intheir own way.

Q2 How did the

COVID-19 lockdown affectthe state’s Information Tech-nology and Biotechnology(ITBT) sectors?

A During lockdown, allour sectors were activelyworking. None of our sec-tors suffered and they havein fact performed better.They were able to provideall their global client ser-vices. Even locally also, forhandling, leveraging, en-abling, throughout thecovid lockdown, it washandled excellently by theIT sector. Except for somestart-ups who suffered alittle setback, and we hopethey’ll be able to recouptheir losses once normalcysets in. The BT sector wasalso active throughout thelockdown and in fact to-gether, the ITBT sector inKarnataka deliveredaround 30 products target-ing the COVID-19 chal-lenge.

Q3 Will the work fromhome (WFH) concept affectBengaluru’s position as oneof the IT sector’s prime lo-cation?

A I agree with you tosome extent, but an ecosys-tem that creates the con-nect chemistry should alsobe there. Connectivity ofdifferent culture, of mix andmatch. Everything matters.Ultimately, everything can-not be done from home.

Preferably, IT professionalscan do most of their workfrom homes, but there willstill be substantial amountof work that needs an officeecosystem. We hopegrowth will double, in thisway. The government ofKarnataka has already be-gun moves to attract inves-tors keen on moving out ofChina. Shortly, I’m also go-ing to initiate contact withforeign investors throughtheir embassies andconsulates.Q4 Accord-ing to you, what is the timerequired for things to re-turn to pre-lockdown sta-tus in Karnataka?

A Once things start roll-ing, getting money or gen-erating revenues is not abig issue. Our system isstrong and sufficientlystructured to withstand anyreasonable kinds of shocks.So, we can pull on andbounce back. It ’s only amatter of time. Once nor-malcy is restored, transportresumed, without quaran-tine, if all these restrictionsare not there, I think gradu-ally people will return. Itshould take no more than6 months for us to get backto normal. But more than fi-nance and money, I think itis the current rapid rate ofreforms that will bring posi-tive transformation. Earlier,reforms used to take more

than five years to happen.Now reform process is fast.

Q5 But how willKarnataka cope with themigrant exodus?

A Whatever available re-sources are there, we’ll beable to do it. We’ll keeputilising our existingworkforce. And whoeverhas gone, will come back.Some sectors there mightbe challenges, such as con-struction. But even con-struction technology haschanged for the better. Forevery change there will bea solution. Everything willchange.

Q6 As a medical doc-tor, do you see COVID-19 asa temporary issue or morepermanent challenge?

A We have to live with it.Definitely, spiking or in-crease in cases will be there,and we were in anunorganised condition.Due to the lockdown, wewere able to organise our-selves, put systems in place.Along with the technologyand monitoring systems inplace, now people can availtreatment from theirhomes. Now with a systemin position, we’ll be able tocater to anyone, in anyplace. If you had asked methis question two monthsago, I would have said it’sdefinitely not possible!

—IANS

Cyclone alert for Bengal, Odisha as‘Amphan’ intensifies

New Delhi, The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on

Monday issued a cyclone alert for West Bengal andnorth Odisha coasts as an extremely severe cyclonicstorm ‘Amphan’ was over the central parts of the SouthBay of Bengal and adjoining central Bay of Bengal.

In a statement, the IMD said, “The Very Severe Cy-clonic Storm ‘AMPHAN’ (pronounced as UM-PUN) overthe central parts of South Bay of Bengal moved north-northeastwards with a speed of 13 kmph during pastsix hours, has intensified into an Extremely Severe Cy-clonic Storm and lay centred at 0230 hrs IST of today,the 18th May, 2020 over central parts of South Bay ofBengal and adjoining central Bay of Bengal near lati-tude 12.9°N and longitude 86.4°E, about 820 kmnearly south of Paradip (Odisha), 980 km south-south-west of Digha (West Bengal) and 1090 km south-south-west of Khepupara (Bangladesh).”

“It is very likely to intensify further during next sixhours. It is very likely to move north-northeastwardsand move fast across northwest Bay of Bengal and crossWest Bengal - Bangladesh coasts between Digha (WestBengal) and Hatiya Islands (Bangladesh) during the af-ternoon/evening of 20th May, 2020 as a Very SevereCyclonic Storm,” the IMD further warned.

—IANS

12 migrants injured in accident in UPLucknow,

At least 12 migrant labourers were seriously injuredafter a bus in which they were travelling to Bihar col-lided with a truck coming from the opposite directionin Uttar Pradesh’s Kushinagar district.

The collision took place late on Sunday night neara petrol pump in Patherwa on national highway 28.

All the 12 migrants have sustained serious injuriesand seven of them are said to be in a critical condition.They have been admitted to the Gorakhpur MedicalCollege.

The bus was ferrying the migrants to Bhagalpur inBihar.

After hiatus of 4 days, 5 corona casesin Chandigarh

Chandigarh, After a hiatus of four days, five coronavirus cases in

two families were reported in the city on Monday, spik-ing the total cases to 196. All the five cases were re-ported from the packed-to-the gills Bapu Dham local-ity from where 127 of the total 196 COVID-19 patientswere reported — 64 per cent of the total cases and 89per cent of active patients. Three patients were of onefamily. All five were family contacts of the previous casesand were asymptomatic, a government statement said.

Chandigarh Administrator V.P. Singh Badnore saidspread in Bapu Dham in Sector 26, which houses nearly60,000 people, largely economically weaker sectionsand slum dwellers.

5 UP policemen punished forlaxity in checking cow slaughter

Moradabad (Uttar Pradesh), Five policemen, including a Station House Officer

(SHO), have been sent to the police lines for their failure tocheck cow slaughter incidents in Uttar Pradesh’sMoradabad district.

At least 10 complaints of cow slaughter were reportedfrom the Kgala village and slaughtered in a mango orchardin the neighbouring Mohammad Jamapur village.

Harioundarki area in the district over the past week andno arrests had been made so far.

In one such complaint, a cow was stolen from theRaonagala village and slaughtered in a mango orchard inthe neighbouring Mohammad Jamapur village.

Hariom Saini, a farmer whose cow went missing, statedin the police complaint that after a brief search, he found acarcass lying in the next village.

“By slaughtering my cow, my sentiments have beenhurt and the accused have also directly affected my liveli-hood, as the cow was a major source of income for my fam-ily,” he said.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Amit Pathak saidthat the Kundarki SHO and his team had not taken ad-equate action.

He added that along with the SHO, Inspector PrempalSingh, two Sub-Inspectors Amarpal Singh and Raj Singh,and two constables Kashish Kumar and Abdul Mutaliv, havebeen sent to the lines. An inquiry has also been orderedagainst them.

Inspector Ajaypal Singh has been given charge of thepolice station now.

Area circle officer Mahendra Singh, meanwhile, said thatfour teams have been asked to conduct raids and arrestthose ‘actively’ involved in cow slaughtering in the area.

—IANS

India among 58 nations questioningWHO on COVID-19 responseNew Delhi,

India is among 58 na-tions, including 27 Euro-pean Union members, whohave moved a draft resolu-tion demanding evalua-tion of the World HealthOrganisation (WHO)’s re-sponse towards the novelcoronavirus pandemic.

The European Union-led draft resolution on glo-bal COVID-19 response isset to be tabled at the up-coming World Health As-sembly on Monday.

The draft resolution de-mands initiation “at theearliest appropriate mo-ment to review experiencegained and lessonslearned from the WHO-co-ordinated internationalhealth response to COVID-19”.

“We are deeply con-cerned by the morbidityand mortality caused byCOVID-19 pandemic, thenegative impacts on physi-cal and mental health andsocial well-being, thenegative impacts oneconomy and society andthe consequent exacerba-tion of inequalities withinand between countries,”read the draft.

“We express solidarityto all countries affected bythe pandemic, as well ascondolences and sympa-

thy to all the families of thevictims of COVID-19,” itadded.

The resolution says

timelines are to be evalu-ated regarding “recom-mendations the WHOmade to improve globalpandemic prevention, pre-paredness, and responsecapacity”.

The WHO on January23 declare a global healthemergency, but did not de-clare it and waited for aweek for its director-gen-eral Tedros AdhanomGhebreyesus to returnfrom China.

By that time, COVID-19cases increased 10 timesand the virus entered 18countries.

According to HealthPolicy Watch, till as late asFebruary, the WHO did notsupport countries for im-posing travel restrictionsto China.

“When countries be-gan evacuating their citi-zens from Wuhan, theCOVID-19 epicentre, theWHO said it did not favourthis step”.

The WHO finally de-clared it a pandemic onMarch 11.The globalhealth body has come un-der criticism not just fromthe US for its response be-ing “China-centric”.

—IANS

Loitering youth pastesRs 10 note as mask

Meerut (Uttar Pradesh), Caught loitering amid lockdown restrictions, a youth

in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut city pasted a Rs 10 note on hismouth to avoid consequences, police said. The youth, acontractual worker, even justified it saying a mask costs atleast Rs 30 more, which he did not have.

Amit was caught moving around ‘aimlessly’ with hisfriend Mehboob, who quickly covered his face with a hand-kerchief when he saw the policemen approaching, butAmit did not have a handkerchief so he quickly pasted aten-rupee note on his mouth.

Circle officer, Civil Lines, Sanjeev Deshwal, said: “I wason lockdown duty on Sunday when a bike carrying twoyouths crossed by. The one driving the motorcycle waswearing a handkerchief and the pillion rider quickly pasteda ten-rupee note on his face. When questioned the pillionrider, Amit, admitted that he did not have a mask. We gavehim two masks and warned him not to move around with-out wearing one.”

Amit later told reporters: “A mask costs Rs 40 and I hadonly Rs 10. So, I used it as a mask. We live in Parikshitgarharea of the district and had come to the city to collect pay-ment from our employer.”

An FIR has been registered against them under IPC sec-tion 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by pub-lic servant) and relevant sections of Epidemic Diseases Act.

The two youths, Mehboob and Amit work as contrac-tual workers in Meerut.

—IANS

AHMEDABAD TUESDAY 19/05/2020