the pioneer · 2020. 11. 7. · that you have chosen me to ... but i promise you this: i will be a...

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S wept by a whirlwind of change, NDA in Bihar seemed headed for a big set- back in the State Assembly polls. The exit polls on Saturday projected the ouster of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and installation of a RJD-led Government headed by Tejashwi Yadav. The third and final phase of the Bihar Assembly elections took place on Saturday with around 55 per cent turnout. Out of the 243-strong Assembly, 78 constituencies went to polls in the final phase. While all exit polls gave clear edge to the Grand Alliance, the India Today- Axis Exit polls projected 138-161 seats to the Grand Alliance, while Chanakya pro- jected 180 seats to it. The exit polls forecast serve a grim message to the NDA that there are few takers for Hindutva-driven campaign if the Opposition could flag issues that concerned the com- mon man. If the exit polls projection comes true on November 10, then it will be a rude shock to the NDA strategists who till one month ago were confident of winning over 200 seats in the 244-member Assembly. After all, only 18 months ago in the Lok Sabha polls, the NDA swept the State winning 39 out of 40 seats and logging in 54 per cent votes as against 29 per cent by the Grand Alliance. Apart from 15 years of anti-incumbency, Nitish Kumar also faced sabotage from Chirag Paswan, who put up candidates against each and every JD(U) candidates and went to the poll with the sole objective of oust- ing Nitish Kumar. Throughout the poll campaign, the BJP could not dispel the impression that Chirag was not fighting a proxy battle on its behalf to cut to size Nitish Kumar. In the end, the LJP seemed to walk away with 7-8 per cent votes, which would translate into loss of dozen of seats for the JD(U). Political circles in Bihar were abuzz with speculation that the BJP wanted Nitish to get far less seats than it so that he himself will not lay claim to the post of Chief Minister on moral ground. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president JP Nadda did repeat- edly claim that Nitish will retain his chair even if his party were to get less seats than the BJP, but their failure to pub- lically chastise Chirag kept the pot of confusion and distrust boiling throughout the poll campaign. In the end, both the BJP and the JD(U) paid the price as supporters of both the parties tried to sabotage each other on several seats. JD(U) MP from Bhagalpur Ajay Kumar Mandal was heard asking his workers not to vote for the BJP inviting severe tongue-lashing from Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi. He was not the lone leader to play spoilsport for the alliance. Several BJP leaders also tried to sabotage the JD(U) candidates. The con- fusion was all the more visible on the ground among workers from both the parties. With Covid-19 causing extreme economic stress among the lower strata of the society and nearly 25 lakh migrant workers returning to Bihar under heart-rending conditions, the burden of anti- incumbency grew that much heavier for the NDA. Turn to Page 4 I n a major political develop- ment, the newly formed People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration on Saturday decid- ed to contest the upcoming District Development Council (DDC) polls unitedly in Jammu & Kashmir. The eight phase DDC polls are scheduled to take place between November 28 and December 19 amid tight secu- rity arrangements along with bypolls on the vacant seats of urban local bodies in J&K. It is for the first time the Kashmir-based regional par- ties, considered arch rivals, have decided to contest any polls under the same banner. The alliance was earlier founded to carry forward their “constitutional” fight for the restoration of Article 370 and 35-A in Jammu & Kashmir. The announcement was made by the spokesman of the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), Sajad Gani Lone, soon after the maiden meeting of all the con- stituents ended here in Jammu on Saturday. During the day several delegations from Jammu met these leaders at the residence of Farooq Abdullah and shared their assessment of the prevailing political situation in the region. Jammu & Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) also announced that it will contest the DDC polls. Turn to Page 4 F or the first time, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) will start issuing forecast for malaria outbreaks from next monsoon. “The IMD studied the phenomenon of occurrence in malaria and its relationship with rainfall and temperature. The IMD first studied the malaria data it got from Nagpur. This can be applied to other places as well. This can give predictions on large scale malaria outbreaks,” Ministry of Earth Sciences Secretary M Rajeevan said on Saturday. According to the 2019 World Malaria Report, 19 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and India carried almost 85 per cent of the global malar- ia burden. Rajeevan said the same technique can be applied to other monsoon-related dis- eases such as dengue and cholera. Malaria is rampant in parts of Africa and sub-tropi- cal countries. According to the National Health Portal (NHP), the majority of malaria cases are reported from eastern and cen- tral part of the country and from States which have forest, hilly and tribal areas. These states include Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and some north- eastern States like Tripura, Meghalaya and Mizoram. Turn to Page 4 D elhi has reported more than 6,000 Covid-19 cases daily in the past few days and 13 per cent of this increase has been estimated to be due to air pollution, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) said on Saturday. Stating that N-95 masks and air purifiers may not pro- vide full time protection, the doctors’ body stressed on the implementation of long-term measures to bring down pol- lution levels. Air pollution damages the inner lining of the lungs and hence increases the severity of Covid-19 infection. In the last 10 days, the national Capital and its neigh- bouring areas have seen a sharp spike in air pollution levels. Turn to Page 4 D emocrat Joe Biden on Saturday triumphed over incumbent US President Donald Trump in a divisive, bitter and closely-fought pres- idential election, to become the oldest man ever elected to the White House. The 77-year-old former US Vice President will become the 46th president of the United States, after a victory in Pennsylvania, the state where he was born put him over the 270 electoral votes needed to win. With Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes, Biden now has a total of 273 electoral votes. Before becoming the Democratic presidential nom- inee, Biden served as vice pres- ident under former President Barack Obama. Senator Kamala Harris, 56, who is of Indian origin, has become the first ever woman Vice President-elect of the United States. She would also be the country’s first Indian- origin, first Black and first African American Vice President of the country. Biden and Harris would be sworn in as the President and Vice President of the country on January 20. “America, I’m honoured that you have chosen me to lead our great country. The work ahead of us will be hard, but I promise you this: I will be a President for all Americans - whether you voted for me or not. I will keep the faith that you have placed in me,” Biden said in a tweet after the US media projected him as the winnner of the November 3 election. “This election is about so much more than” Joe Biden “or me. It’s about the soul of America and our willingness to fight for it. We have a lot of work ahead of us. Let's get started,” tweeted Vice President-elect Harris. Trump, a Republican, was playing golf in Virginia when major media outlets called the race. He is now the first incum- bent president to lose reelection bid after George HW Bush in 1992. Trump, 74, was in no mood to concede the race and declared himself as the winner of the November 3 presidential election. “I WON THIS ELEC- TION, BY A LOT!” tweeted Trump. Major media outlets started calling Biden the win- ner after it became clear that he has taken a major lead the bat- tleground State of Pennsylvania, which has 20 electoral college votes. Counting of ballots is still ongoing in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada and Georgia. Biden has the lead in all the four states, which according to major media outlets is unlike- ly to be reversed. Turn to Page 4 T he exit polls for the bypolls in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh have indicated that the BJP will consolidate its presence in the three States. According to the India Today-Axis My India exit poll, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan Government in Madhya Pradesh will survive with the BJP likely to bag 16- 18 Assembly seats. The Congress is estimated to bag 10-12 of the total 28 seats that were up for by-election in Madhya Pradesh. If these esti- mates hold true, the BJP’s vote share has risen by 5 per cent to 46 per cent while the Congress’ vote share rose by two per cent to 43 per cent. It predicts 0-1 seats in MP going to the BSP. Turn to Page 4 New Delhi: Delhi’s air quality deteriorated to “severe” cate- gory on Saturday as Punjab and nearby regions recorded the highest number of stubble burning incidents this season. Delhi’s overall (AQI) was 427 on Saturday evening and 443 in the morning.

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Page 1: The Pioneer · 2020. 11. 7. · that you have chosen me to ... but I promise you this: I will be a President for all Americans - whether you voted for me or not. I will keep the faith

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Swept by a whirlwind ofchange, NDA in Bihar

seemed headed for a big set-back in the State Assemblypolls. The exit polls on Saturdayprojected the ouster of ChiefMinister Nitish Kumar andinstallation of a RJD-ledGovernment headed byTejashwi Yadav.

The third and final phaseof the Bihar Assembly electionstook place on Saturday witharound 55 per cent turnout.Out of the 243-strongAssembly, 78 constituencieswent to polls in the final phase.

While all exit polls gaveclear edge to the GrandAlliance, the India Today-Axis Exit polls projected138-161 seats to the GrandAlliance, while Chanakya pro-jected 180 seats to it.

The exit polls forecast servea grim message to the NDAthat there are few takers forHindutva-driven campaign ifthe Opposition could flagissues that concerned the com-mon man.

If the exit polls projectioncomes true on November 10,then it will be a rude shock tothe NDA strategists who tillone month ago were confidentof winning over 200 seats in the244-member Assembly. Afterall, only 18 months ago in theLok Sabha polls, the NDAswept the State winning 39 outof 40 seats and logging in 54per cent votes as against 29 percent by the Grand Alliance.

Apart from 15 years ofanti-incumbency, NitishKumar also faced sabotagefrom Chirag Paswan, who putup candidates against each and

every JD(U)candidates and

went to the pollwith the sole objective of oust-ing Nitish Kumar. Throughoutthe poll campaign, the BJPcould not dispel the impressionthat Chirag was not fighting aproxy battle on its behalf to cutto size Nitish Kumar. In theend, the LJP seemed to walkaway with 7-8 per cent votes,which would translate into lossof dozen of seats for the JD(U).

Political circles in Biharwere abuzz with speculationthat the BJP wanted Nitish toget far less seats than it so thathe himself will not lay claim tothe post of Chief Minister onmoral ground. Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, HomeMinister Amit Shah and BJPpresident JP Nadda did repeat-edly claim that Nitish willretain his chair even if hisparty were to get less seats thanthe BJP, but their failure to pub-lically chastise Chirag kept thepot of confusion and distrust

boiling throughout the pollcampaign.

In the end, both the BJPand the JD(U) paid the price assupporters of both the partiestried to sabotage each other onseveral seats. JD(U) MP fromBhagalpur Ajay Kumar Mandalwas heard asking his workersnot to vote for the BJP invitingsevere tongue-lashing fromDeputy Chief Minister SushilKumar Modi. He was not thelone leader to play spoilsportfor the alliance. Several BJPleaders also tried to sabotagethe JD(U) candidates. The con-fusion was all the more visibleon the ground among workersfrom both the parties.

With Covid-19 causingextreme economic stressamong the lower strata of thesociety and nearly 25 lakhmigrant workers returning toBihar under heart-rendingconditions, the burden of anti-incumbency grew that muchheavier for the NDA.

Turn to Page 4

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In a major political develop-ment, the newly formed

People’s Alliance for GupkarDeclaration on Saturday decid-ed to contest the upcomingDistrict Development Council(DDC) polls unitedly in Jammu& Kashmir.

The eight phase DDC pollsare scheduled to take placebetween November 28 andDecember 19 amid tight secu-rity arrangements along withbypolls on the vacant seats ofurban local bodies in J&K.

It is for the first time theKashmir-based regional par-ties, considered arch rivals,have decided to contest anypolls under the same banner.

The alliance was earlier

founded to carry forward their“constitutional” fight for therestoration of Article 370 and35-A in Jammu & Kashmir.

The announcement wasmade by the spokesman of thePeople’s Alliance for GupkarDeclaration (PAGD), SajadGani Lone, soon after themaiden meeting of all the con-stituents ended here in Jammuon Saturday. During the dayseveral delegations fromJammu met these leaders at theresidence of Farooq Abdullahand shared their assessment ofthe prevailing political situationin the region.

Jammu & KashmirPradesh Congress Committee(JKPCC) also announced thatit will contest the DDC polls.

Turn to Page 4

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For the first time, the IndiaMeteorological Department

(IMD) will start issuing forecastfor malaria outbreaks fromnext monsoon.

“The IMD studied thephenomenon of occurrence inmalaria and its relationshipwith rainfall and temperature.The IMD first studied themalaria data it got fromNagpur. This can be applied toother places as well. This cangive predictions on large scalemalaria outbreaks,” Ministry ofEarth Sciences Secretary MRajeevan said on Saturday.

According to the 2019World Malaria Report, 19countries in sub-SaharanAfrica and India carried almost

85 per cent of the global malar-ia burden.

Rajeevan said the sametechnique can be applied toother monsoon-related dis-eases such as dengue andcholera. Malaria is rampant inparts of Africa and sub-tropi-cal countries.

According to the NationalHealth Portal (NHP), themajority of malaria cases arereported from eastern and cen-tral part of the country andfrom States which have forest,hilly and tribal areas.

These states includeOdisha, Chhattisgarh,Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh,Maharashtra, and some north-eastern States like Tripura,Meghalaya and Mizoram.

Turn to Page 4

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Delhi has reported morethan 6,000 Covid-19 cases

daily in the past few days and13 per cent of this increase hasbeen estimated to be due to airpollution, the Indian Medical

Association (IMA) said onSaturday.

Stating that N-95 masksand air purifiers may not pro-vide full time protection, thedoctors’ body stressed on the

implementation of long-termmeasures to bring down pol-lution levels.

Air pollution damages theinner lining of the lungs andhence increases the severity of

Covid-19 infection.In the last 10 days, the

national Capital and its neigh-bouring areas have seen a sharpspike in air pollution levels.

Turn to Page 4

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Democrat Joe Biden onSaturday triumphed over

incumbent US PresidentDonald Trump in a divisive,bitter and closely-fought pres-idential election, to become theoldest man ever elected to theWhite House.

The 77-year-old formerUS Vice President will becomethe 46th president of the UnitedStates, after a victory inPennsylvania, the state wherehe was born put him over the270 electoral votes needed towin. With Pennsylvania’s 20electoral votes, Biden now hasa total of 273 electoral votes.

Before becoming theDemocratic presidential nom-inee, Biden served as vice pres-ident under former PresidentBarack Obama.

Senator Kamala Harris, 56,who is of Indian origin, hasbecome the first ever womanVice President-elect of theUnited States. She would alsobe the country’s first Indian-origin, first Black and firstAfrican American VicePresident of the country.

Biden and Harris would besworn in as the President andVice President of the countryon January 20.

“America, I’m honouredthat you have chosen me tolead our great country. The

work ahead of us will be hard,but I promise you this: I will bea President for all Americans -whether you voted for me ornot. I will keep the faith thatyou have placed in me,” Bidensaid in a tweet after the USmedia projected him as thewinnner of the November 3election.

“This election is about somuch more than” Joe Biden “orme. It’s about the soul ofAmerica and our willingness tofight for it. We have a lot ofwork ahead of us. Let's getstarted,” tweeted VicePresident-elect Harris.

Trump, a Republican, wasplaying golf in Virginia whenmajor media outlets called therace. He is now the first incum-bent president to lose reelection

bid after George HW Bush in1992.

Trump, 74, was in nomood to concede the race anddeclared himself as the winnerof the November 3 presidentialelection. “I WON THIS ELEC-TION, BY A LOT!” tweetedTrump. Major media outletsstarted calling Biden the win-ner after it became clear that hehas taken a major lead the bat-tleground State ofPennsylvania, which has 20electoral college votes.

Counting of ballots is stillongoing in Pennsylvania,Arizona, Nevada and Georgia.Biden has the lead in all thefour states, which according tomajor media outlets is unlike-ly to be reversed.

Turn to Page 4

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The exit polls for the bypollsin Madhya Pradesh,

Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh haveindicated that the BJP willconsolidate its presence in thethree States. According to theIndia Today-Axis My Indiaexit poll, the Shivraj SinghChouhan Government inMadhya Pradesh will survivewith the BJP likely to bag 16-18 Assembly seats. TheCongress is estimated to bag10-12 of the total 28 seats thatwere up for by-election inMadhya Pradesh. If these esti-mates hold true, the BJP’s voteshare has risen by 5 per cent to46 per cent while the Congress’vote share rose by two per centto 43 per cent. It predicts 0-1seats in MP going to the BSP.

Turn to Page 4

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New Delhi: Delhi’s air qualitydeteriorated to “severe” cate-gory on Saturday as Punjab andnearby regions recorded thehighest number of stubbleburning incidents this season.Delhi’s overall (AQI) was 427on Saturday evening and 443 inthe morning.

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Page 2: The Pioneer · 2020. 11. 7. · that you have chosen me to ... but I promise you this: I will be a President for all Americans - whether you voted for me or not. I will keep the faith

�What is your role in Molkki?I play Virender Pratap Singh, he is the

mukhiya and runs 40 villages. He getsmarried to a molkki girl, who is half her age.There is no connection between the two andthe show revolves around their struggles andhow he handles situation. Molkki is atradition in Haryana, where the man has tobuy the bride from outside the State becausewomen are less in number. The tradition isgood but it is being misused.�How is this different from DharamSuryavanshi in Saath Nibhaana Saathiya?

There is a major difference between thetwo characters, apart from the fact that bothDharam and Virender get married to amuch younger girl. Both the shows and thestories are different. Dharam wanted to takerevenge from the Modi family, hence hemarried Meera, but here it is a differentconcept. Molkki is a tradition that Virenderhas followed. In Molkki, a poor girl has beenbought by a super rich family and the storytalks about how things change drasticallyin their lives.�What is your take on shows that giveout a social message?

It is good. Even for Molkki, I didn’tknow that such a tradition does exist. I hadto do my research. Through, the show weare getting to know about this old traditionin Haryana. Hence, there is a need to comeup with more shows that give out a socialmessage to bring in awareness.�How does it feel to be back to work afterlockdown?

I was very excited for the show. Afterspending so many months at home, it wassomething I was looking forward to. WhenI was offered this show, I found myself tobe lucky to be able to work after thelockdown was lifted. Also, I am back onColors after Bigg Boss 5, so it does feel great.� From Dekh Bhai Dekh to Molkki, howhas your experience been?

Brilliant. I feel lucky to have startedworking so early and that I am stillworking. When I got Dekh Bhai Dekh, Ihad no idea of what was happeningaround me. It was like an acting schoolfor me. Till date, 95 per cent of my showshave been Number 1. It has been a longjourney and I have no complaints at all.I have got to play brilliant characters,there is nothing I could have asked formore. Yes, this industry is demandingand one needs dedication to survivehere. You have to work for 12 hours aday, but having said that I have enjoyedevery bit of this beautiful journey. Eventoday, I feel that I have just started.One thing that I have learnt in theindustry is that you have to be trueto your character. You can just feel

that people know me well and I will be ableto pull off a character. At least for me it isnot like that, I put in all the efforts for everycharacter that I take. Even for Virender, I hadto learn that Haryanvi accent and work uponmy body language a bit. If you are not trueto your role, you can’t survive in this industryfor long.�You have been in the industry for about27 years now. How do you think it hasevolved?

From having VHS recorders on sets tonow hi-tech equipments, the industry hasbecome huge. TV has grown and I havegrown with TV. Back then, there was nopressure on the producer or the actors ingeneral. There were no daily soaps, it wasa weekly thing and everyone had ample timeto prepare and shoot. We used to reach our

sets at 9 am and around four hours werereserved for improvising things. We did

rehearsals or were just randomlylistening to the script. Now thingshave become fast forward. There ispressure on the producer and thecreatives to create good contenteveryday. Because the audience hasbecome habitual to watching dailysoaps. Then the producer has toget the desired TRPs, it is anadded pressure. If not, thenthere are chances that the showmight get off-air. Also, there areway more channels now. TVhas become a game changernow and there is highcompetition in it. Even filmactors come to TV shows to

promote their films, so it hasgrown leaps and bounds.�Was there a moment when you

felt like quitting?Not really. But there were times

when I didn’t know what do with acharacter. Like in Kyonki Saas BhiKabhi Bahu Thi, I had a lot ofconfusion with the makers for thecharacter. I have had faced situationsthat were completely new and so Ididn’t have anyone has an examplefor me. In fact, I became an examplefor many with the choices that Imade.�What kind of roles attract you?

I am very clear about theroles I do. I can’t stand uselessly in

a scene. I like to do characters that havea spine. Hence, I always sort things out withthe makers beforehand. Not that I have tobe there in every scene, but when I am thereI should do something and play my part.When it is the other character’s part, I won’tmind that. But it’s just that my part has tobe clear.

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Some movies have a great subject andstory but unfortunately, they fall flaton their face due to the manner in

which the plot unfolds and the story istold. Directed and written by NarendraNath Miss India, a Telugu drama film,loses on many counts.

First, how is it possible for a newbieuprooted to San Francisco, US girl whohas yet to get used to coming to Americamanage to get a job as a tele-marketerafter an MBA from the US? If this is whatshe had wanted to do, why do an MBAat all?

Second, how does the brothermanage to afford such a luxurious houseon his first salary even if he is brilliant?

Third, the men our heroinencounters seemingly want only two

things — either for her to be a submissivedutiful wife or throw her out? She takesthe latter and walks away. While Nathtime and again reiterates that our girl isstrong and independent and wants to dothings her way — no harm here — theproblem is that she sure manages toattract the wrong kind of men andtherefore even though the entire movierests on her slim shoulders, the end resultis a flop show.

Fourth, Naresh, who playsSamyuktha’s (Keerthy Suresh’s father) isdetected with Alzheimer’s. How hebehaves, belittle those who actuallysuffer from the disease.

Finally, it is bizarre that a seasonedbusinessman who has been in the US fordecades is outwitted and outsmarted bySamyuktha. His strange proposals tobring her down are downright childishand so un-businessman-like.

It is sad that a movie that has sucha great idea, would end up a damp squib.One needs to stay away from this cup ofchai.

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This is the festival season andthe whole idea is to spread joyall over even to those who live

in far-flung areas and have noaccess to civilization for thousandsof miles. Their only connectionwith the rest of the world is the dropof essentials they get ever yChristmas.

Operation Christmas Drop is allabout spreading the joy of sharingon, of course, Christmas. But therehas to be a scrooge. In this one, itis a Congresswoman who is hellbent on shutting an air base thatdoes the good deed — savingtaxpayers’ money is important forthe country’s strategic locationmilitary wise.

But we all know how a feel-good movie is going to end. From

the word go, the film is predictable.Yet, it is sweet and cute especiallywhen there is romance in the air.The smell of romance during theholidays? What could be better.

However, if you are the kindthat finds such movies too sweet

and give you a toothache, betteravoid. But if you want your childrento learn a lesson — sharing thingswith those who don’t have it — thisone is right up your alley.

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It is extremely sad that a movie that was lending itselfout as a psychological thriller has not even an ounceof thrill factor and takes nearly 45 minutes into the

film of the one hour and 36 minutes of run time to getto the point.

There are a few things that don’t make sense in thisone directed by Ratan Sil Sarma.

Which girl, who takes a cab late at night would stopsomewhere to have a bite with the cabwalla? Obviously,Sarma has not taken into account the number of incidentsinvolving the cab drivers and their lady passengers. Evenif we stretch our imagination and go with the premisethat it is a movie and hence make-belief, the idea isbizarre and alien at least in Indian setting.

Then there are the whole three bikes following thecab and when the lone cab driver confronts the six guyswith just an iron rod in his hand, they disappear. Either,the men were just trying to be funny or pansies. Ormaybe the director was trying to build the scare-quotient.All it does end up doing is make the viewer bang thehead against the nearest wall.

Also, the title of the film doesn’t have any bearingon what transpires unless one gives credence to the factthat our villain cooks chicken for his victim. Bang head again.

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Page 3: The Pioneer · 2020. 11. 7. · that you have chosen me to ... but I promise you this: I will be a President for all Americans - whether you voted for me or not. I will keep the faith

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Air quality in Delhi wasrecorded in the ‘severe’ cat-

egory on Saturday with 32 percent contribution of stubbleburning from the neighbouringStates escalating value ofParticulate Matter (PM) 2.5 to306. This is five times higherthan abnormal limit which is 60(μgm-3) by the World HealthOrganisation (WHO) for India.

While the overall AirQuality Index (AQI) wasrecorded 456 on the NationalAmbient Air Quality Index(NAAQI), Delhi’s map hasturned ‘dark red’ first time inthe season.

In its air quality forecast,SAFAR said city’s air quality islikely to remain ‘severe’ onDiwali as well.

After a short respite frompollution, Delhi’s air deterio-rated further with 4528 farm

fire incidents observed onNASA’s observatory leadinghealth emergency in theNational Capital of India pop-ular for winter pollution.

Citing MeT and stubbleburning , major cause of pol-lution, SAFAR in its health bul-letin advised any outdoor activ-ities causing unusual coughing,chest discomfort, wheezing,breathing difficulty, or fatigueand consult Doctor.

“If the room has windows,close them. If the air condi-tioner provides a fresh airintake option, close it. Avoidburning anything, such aswood, candles or even incense.Keep the room clean — dontvacuum. Do wet mopping frequently,” SAFARsaid, adding, “Masks known asN-95 or P-100 respirators mayonly help if you go out. Do notrely on dust masks for protec-tion.”

Mentioning about reasonsof sudden spike in pollutants

values, it said, “Despite moder-ate day time dispersion condi-

tion, air quality has declined,owing to sustained unusually

high fire emissions. Surfacewinds have become calm todaymorning and pollutants areaccumulating near the surface.”

SAFAR synergized stubblefire counts over Punjab,Haryana, UP, Uttarakhand, andneighboring areas increasedand stood at 4528 yesterday, thehighest of this season.

The boundary layer winddirection is Northwesterly, andfavorable for the fire-relatedintrusion to Delhi NCR region,stubble burning share in PM2.5in Delhi’s air is estimated as 32per cent.”

“Surface winds are forecast-ed to decrease on the November8 and 9. No quick recovery isexpected unless a drastic reduc-tion in fire counts takes place. Airquality is forecasted to stay at theSevere to the higher end of verypoor,” it added.

Meanwhile, AQI at Siri fort— 398, PUSA — 379, Mandir

Marg 417 Dwarka —236, KirtiNagar — 343,RK Puram-398,IBHS-380 recorded.

New Delhi: The twin factors ofrising air pollution and a surgein Covid-19 cases haveincreased the burden on Delhi’shospitals with the number ofvacant beds shrinking fast andout patient departments(OPDs) witnessing a spike infootfall, doctors said onSaturday.

Besides, the ICU beds withventilators at most top privatehospitals and major Centre-runfacilities are also getting filledup with spiralling cases in thelast few days.

Delhi recorded over 7,000Covid-19 cases for the firsttime, taking tally to over 4.23lakh on Friday, while the tollrose to 6,833 with 64 moredeaths, authorities said.

The 7,178 fresh cases cameout of the 58,860 tests con-ducted on Thursday, while thepositivity rate stood at 12.19per cent amid the festive sea-son and rising air pollution inthe city, according to the bul-letin issued by the Delhi healthdepartment.

The previous highest sin-gle-day spike was 6,842 casesrecorded on Wednesday.

The number of daily caseshad crossed the 6,000-mark forthree consecutive days fromNovember 3-5.

Sixty-four new fatalitieswere recorded, pushing thedeath toll in the national cap-ital to 6,833. On Thursday, 66fatalities were reported fromCovid-19.

The air quality in thenational capital has also dete-riorated and greater move-ment of people in public places,especially crowded areas suchas markets and shops, and lax-ity in adhering to safety norms,have led to surge in cases,experts have said.

Rana A K Singh, MedicalSuperintendent at RMLHospital said, there is a rise inthe number of patients visitingthe hospital with complaints ofrespiratory problems proba-bly due to spike in pollutionlevels and because of change inweather.

“On top of that, the num-ber of Covid-19 patients com-ing to the hospital has alsoincreased,” he said.

“Our Covid and non-Covid ICU facilities are at fullcapacity and to create ICUbeds at the stroke of the ham-

mer is not possible because itrequires equipment and man-power,” Singh said.

Large number of coron-avirus positive patients whocome with complaints ofbreathlessness become betterwith high-flow oxygen therapyfor which one requires a specialequipment (high-flow nasal),which is in adequate numbers,he said.

AIIMS Director DrRandeep Guleria too said thatbeds are filling up fast in thehospital’s Intensive Care Unit(ICU).

With the spike in Covid-19cases, patients requiring admis-sion will also increase, puttinga strain on the hospital servicesand healthcare infrastructure,he said.

“Additionally, there is anincrease in the number ofpatients coming to the emer-gency with acute respiratoryproblems because of air pollu-tion and respiratory viral infec-tions. It’s a double whammy,”Guleria told PTI.

He further said that thereis data which suggests that airpollution can increase severityof Covid-19 cases.

Air pollution leads toinflammation in the lungsmaking it more vulnerable forthe virus to penetrate. Thosealready suffering from respira-tory diseases like asthma,COPD or fibrosis etc are facingexacerbation of the symptoms,he added.

“Also, healthy people arecoming with complaints likedry cough, throat irritation,nasal congestion and feeling ofmalaise which may be directlyrelated to sudden spurt in pol-lution levels,” another doctor ata leading hospital, who did notwish to be identified, said.

“There is an emergent needto curb the pollution levels asthe likely morbidity in this sea-son where Covid-19 also isaffecting lungs adversely willincrease,” the doctor added.

The online coronavirusdashboard of the Delhi gov-ernment showed that at 6.30pm, out of 1,253 ICU beds withventilator facility, only 250were vacant. At Max hospitalsin Saket, four out of 51 ICUbeds with ventilators werevacant, while at Sir GangaRam Hospital, the number was16 out of 45. PTI

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South Delhi MunicipalCorporation (SDMC) inau-

gurated the first of its kind lowcost compost plant at TagoreGarden with a capacity toprocess two tonne waste per day.

A senior SDMC officialsaid that the civic body is suc-cessfully running its two tonnesper day (TPD) aerobic compostplant to convert biodegradablegarbage into fertilizer fromwet waste per day collectedfrom the residents of nearbycolonies of Tagore Garden andRajouri Garden with negligibleoperation cost.

In a function organised atTagore garden, the compost

generated from these plants issupplied to all the parks of westzone in the presence of DeputyCommissioner Sanjay Sahay, PC Meena (chief engineer),Dinesh Yadav Director(DEMS) and other senior offi-cials of the SDMC.

On the occasion NodalOfficer of Swachh BharatMission Rajeev Jain said “Thisis the first such plant set upwith negligible capital cost inDelhi. The capital cost of thisplant was Rs 50,000/- only.Now five metric ton organiccompost of high quality is gen-erated from this plant andtoday we have supplied thiscompost to the horticulturedepartment for use in SDMC

parks,” he said.“The organic compost is

prepared from bio- degradablewaste mixed with some qty ofsaw dust and old compost /soilto decrease the duration ofcomposting. This compost isprepared by adopting differentmodules such as drum com-poster, Jali Boxes of differentshape and size. The time takenfor composting is three weak.

SDMC CommissionerGyanesh Bharti applauded theproject, saying that it willreduce the burden on landfillsites by utilising the compostprepared in municipal parks which will also increasethe fertility and nutrient valueof the soil.

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Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal on the last week

of ‘10 Hafte 10 Baje, 10 Minute’campaign congratulated thepeople of Delhi for their par-ticipation in this campaignwhich has resulted in zerodeaths due to dengue. Thechief minister appealed to allthe citizens to join this cam-paign on Sunday.

Kejriwal has also expressedhis gratitude for the citizens ofDelhi as the massive partici-pation from the people thisyear. “People have successful-ly managed to bring denguecases to 489 this year from15,867 in 2015. Compared to60 dengue-related deaths in2015 there have been nodengue-related deaths thisyear,” he said.

Responding to the appeal ofthe chief minister, this yearstarting from children to‘Resident Welfare Association’,traders, celebrities and the cit-izens of Delhi made the cam-paign a significant success story.

Hailing the 10 campaign,Anand Mahindra the chairman

of Mahindra Group tweeted, “Aseemingly small piece of newsbut such ‘human development’indicators affect the quality ofour everyday lives. Such mile-stones are worth celebrating.”

Delhi Health MinisterSatyendar Jain had creditedthe Arvind Kejriwal govern-ment’s anti-dengue campaignfor no dengue-related deathsthis year. He tweeted, “Delhipeople did it! No death due todengue this year. There is also

a sharp fall in the number ofcases compared to the figuresreported last year. ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal’scampaign ‘10 Hafte 10 Baje 10Minute’ has been made a suc-cess by you all.”

On September 6, CMKejriwal kickstarted the 10 cam-paign by inspecting his housefor any signs of stagnant cleanwater and draining it, which canlead to the breeding of mos-quitoes and other vector-bornediseases such as dengue, malar-ia, and chikungunya.

Last year, the same cooper-ation from all people, RWAs,religious and cultural associa-tions, ministers and MLAs andpublic leaders and influencershad played a huge role in reduc-ing the impact of Dengue in thecity, with only 2036 cases andtwo deaths as against 15867cases and 60 deaths in 2015. Thefirst edition of the anti-denguecampaign was launched in 2019.This year, the Delhi governmenthas also launched a Denguehelpline - 01123300012 andWhatsApp helpline -8595920530 to assist the gener-al public with Dengue.

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Delhi Police Commissioner,SN Shrivastava, on

Saturday held a Crime andCovid-19 meeting to discuss thelaw & order and implementa-tion of Covid guidelines aheadof Diwali and other festivals.

The CP, Delhi directed totake strict action against crim-inals such as burglars, drugtraffickers, bootleggers andgamblers. During the meetingemphasis was also laid on solv-ing cases on crime againstwomen while discussing MHA’slatest advisory on women’ssafety.

The CP expressed satisfac-tion with application of com-munity initiatives like YUVAand encouraged the districtheads to further spread aware-ness on such programs onjuvenile reforms so that moreand more youngsters feel moti-vated to stay away from crime.

On the efforts to tracemissing children, it was under-lined that desired results arecoming, but a lot more can bedone. It was recommendedthat jail-bail released criminalsbe verified and watched, andpreventive action be initiatedwherever required.

The CP also directed theattendees to strengthen the

mechanism of Case PropertyDisposal at police station leveland divide work among theforce on the lines of segregat-ing law & order from investi-gation. While discussingarrangements on festivals andanticipating rush in markets, headvised all the personnel totake adequate precautionswhile implementing govern-

ment’s guidelines.The CP also discussed the

officers’ presence on socialmedia and directed them to takesupport of volunteers to keepthem updated of movements onsuch platforms. On welfare mea-sures, concerned officers weredirected to clear pending casesin respect of providing com-pensation to families of deceasedCorona Warriors.

The CP also rewarded thebeat officers from North andCentral districts for handlingdigital beat books and makingrequired entries to maintainmaximum data about theirrespective Beats. He alsoapplauded the personnel fromOuter-North District in recog-nition of gallant and exem-plary work done by them incatching four desperate crimi-nals of ‘Gaurav Monti Gang’involved in seven heinous cases,after exchange of fire inKanjhawla area.

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With the arrest of eightpersons, including four

women, the Delhi Police hasbusted a gang of cheats whoused to prepare Governmentdocuments and then obtainedcredit debit cards of variousbanks on fake ids. Over 60cards, jewellery and Rs 14 lakhcash recovered from theirpossession.

The accused have beenidentified as Ajay Kshatriya(35), his wife (32), ManishKshatriya (40), Kawal Raj(66), his wife (65), wife ofManish Kshatriya (37), ArunSharma and his wife.

According to Dr O PMishra, the JointCommissioner of Police,Economic Offences Wing(EOW), The Citibank, afterits internal audit, filed acomplaint with EOWregarding identification of 36customers who got the savingsaccounts opened in differentnames and addresses.

“They also procured PANcards, Voter IDS and AadharCards on the basis of fakedocuments. These customersalso obtained Citibank creditcards. In the complaint filed

before EOW, Citibank alsomentioned that several cus-tomers had obtained creditcards on the same residentialaddress,” said the Joint CP.

“During subsequent veri-fication by the Citibank team,several customers were foundmissing from their addresses

also. On the basis of theircomplaint, a case was reg-istered and investigationwas taken up,” said theJoint CP.

“The accused werearrested after raids by thepolice team at differentlocations and they revealedthat they have preparedseveral fake PAN Cards,Voter ID Cards, Aadharcards on impersonated fakedetails viz different sur-names, date of birth,parentage and address. Onthe basis of these fake iden-tity documents theyopened accounts in differ-ent banks and also obtainedcredit cards from thesebanks,” said the Joint CP.

“These credit cards wereimmediately used by theaccused persons for heavy shopping of jewellery,other costly items. The accused have their ownswiping machines and they

further misrepresented to banksthat credit cards were swiped butpayment couldn’t credited andgot credited provisional pay-ments from the banks. After thatthey also obtained loans onthese credit cards and thereafterabsconded by changing theiraddresses,” said the Joint CP.

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In view of the increasing airpollution level in Delhi, East

Delhi Municipal Corporation(EDMC) took action against pollution causing unitsdue to the ongoing construc-tion activities. As per the dataprovided by the corporation till7th November 2020, it hasissued 212 challans for illegaldumping of garbage, nine foropen burning, 18 under con-struction and demolition activ-ities, 22 for dust control viola-tion on construction sites and17 challans were issued forhealth activities.

The civic body also tookaction to remove debris acrossits areas. Besides, mechanicalroad sweeping has also beendone regularly. Apart fromthis, about 640 km of roadshave also been sprayed withwater with the help of watersprinkler machines to settledust, a senior official said.

Also, about 2800 metrictonnes of garbage is beingpicked up on a daily basis, headded.

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Delhi Congress presidentAnil Kumar criticised

the Delhi Government over“failing” to contain pollutionat 13 identified hotspots withlack of proper strategy andrelevant infrastructure totackle the menace.

Kumar said Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind haddeclared a war (‘yudh’)against pollution by identi-fying 13 hot spots acrossDelhi but did nothing to cre-ate any infrastructure toaddress the issues related tothe problem. The congresspresident said that CMArvind’s plans have gonehaywire is evident from thefact that Delhi’s air hasturned from “very poor” to“severe” category.

Meanwhile, in a specialmeeting of dalit and back-ward caste organizations thatheld under senior partyleader and chief advisor ofthe Landless ConflictCommittee, Jaikishan said “Ithas been decided not to cel-ebrate Diwali this year. Thedecision was taken afterreceiving no response fromRashtrapati Bhavan as manyorganizations representingdalits wanted to meet thepresident and apprise himabout issues being faced bythe community.

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MUMBAI: Haj aspirants willhave to submit COVID-19negative report 72 hours priorto their journey to Saudi Arabiain 2021, Union MinisterMukhtar Abbas Naqvi said onSaturday.

After holding a meetingwith the Haj Committee andother stake-holders, the min-ister for minority affairs toldreporters that December 10 isthe last date for submittingapplications for Haj pilgrimage2021.

“The applicants can applyonline, off-line or through Hajmobile application as well. Inview of the coronavirus pan-

demic, we are making itmandatory for all the pilgrimsto submit their COVID-19negative report of RT-PCRtest. The date of testing shouldbe 72 hours prior to boardinga flight to Saudi Arabia,” hesaid.

Naqvi also said embarkingpoints for Haj 2021 have beenreduced to ten in view of theCOVID-19 situation and thefeedback received from AirIndia and other agencies.

Previously, there were 21such embarking locationsacross the country.

He said the ten boardingspots are Ahmedabad,

Bengaluru, Cochin, Delhi,Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kolkata,Lucknow, Mumbai andSrinagar.

Naqvi said applicationsfilled for Haj 2020 by womenin “without mehram (malecompanion)” category are validfor Haj 2021 as well.

“Besides, new applicationsare also being accepted fromwomen who want to performHaj 2021 without mehram,” hesaid.

The minister also saidMuslim women applying in“without mehram” categorywill be exempted from the lot-tery system. PTI

'������������� $� ��!������������ Fatehpur/Lucknow: Cases have

been registered against at least 30farmers in different areas of UttarPradesh's Fatehpur district forallegedly burning farm stubble in thepast two days and eight of them weresent to jail as they could not pay thefine, police said on Saturday.

Several states, including UttarPradesh and Punjab, have bannedstubble or crop residue burning tocheck air pollution.

To stop stubble burning in thestate, awareness programmes arebeing held in all districts and theyare showing good results, a seniorgovernment official said in state cap-ital Lucknow.

“On Thursday, in Bhairampurvillage, cases for burning farm stub-ble were registered against eightfarmers and the sub-divisional mag-

istrate has recovered the fine fromthem,” Station House Officer (SHO),Hussainganj, Satyendra SinghBhadauria said.

The action was taken on reportsfrom lekhpals (revenue officials), hesaid. “Eight farmers have been sentto jail as they were unable to pay thefine to the sub-divisional magistrate,”SHO, Mallawa, Sher Singh Rajputsaid.

His Kotwali counterpart,Ravindra Srivastava said that actionhas been taken against three farm-ers in his area and a fine of Rs 10,000has been recovered from each ofthem.

SHO, Thariyon, UpendranathRai said that late on Friday night,cases were registered against 14farmers in his area. Prior to this,almost a fortnight back, cases were

registered against six farmers at theKhakheru police station and fourfarmers at the Khaga police stationfor violating the ban on stubbleburning.

District agriculture officerBrijesh Kumar Singh said that so farcases have been registered against 28farmers for burning stubble, and finehas been recovered from them.

However, a senior district policeofficer alleged that the agriculturedepartment was not giving correctfigures.

In the last fortnight, cases havebeen registered against over 100farmers on complaints lodged byrevenue officials, he said.

Bundelkhand Kisan Union pres-ident Vimal Kumar Sharma said thatthe action taken against farmersamounts to “atrocities”. IANS

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The Covid-19 infectionsplummeted to 3.959 and

the number of deaths camedown marginally to 150 inMaharashtra, even as the pan-demic toll crossed 45,000 markin the state.

A day after it logged to5027 infected cases and 161deaths, Maharashtra recordedthe second lowest number ofinfections (3959) in fivemonths. Earlier on October 26,infections plummeted to 3645.Subsequently on November 2,the daily infections had comedown to 4009.

With fresh infections, thetotal number of infectionsjumped from 17,10,314 to17,14,273.

The daily death tally camedown 161 to 150 during the last24 hours. With fresh deaths, theCovid-19 toll crossed 45,000mark as the deaths jumpedfrom 44,965 to 45,115.

in Maharashtra on Friday,as 161 people succumbed to thepandemic in various parts ofthe state.

As 6,748 more people weredischarged from various hos-pitals the number of people dis-charged from the hospitalsafter full recovery since the sec-

ond week of March this yearwent up to 15,69,000. Therecovery rate in the state rosefrom 91.35 per cent to 91.53per cent.

Of the 150 deaths report-ed on Saturday, Pune account-ed for a maximum of 38 deaths,followed by 32 deaths in Satara,23 in Mumbai and 16 in Thane.

In the lower range, therewere seven deaths in Nashik, 6each in Solapur and Sangli, 4 inNanded, 3 each in Yavatmaland Nagpur, 2 in Latur and onedeath each in Raigad,Ahmednagar, Dhule, Jalgaon,Kolhapur, Ratnagiri,

Aurangabad, Beed, Bhandaraand Chandrapur.

With 23 deaths, the Covid-19 toll in Mumbai climbedfrom 10,399 to 10,422, whilethe infected cases went up by576 to trigger a jump in thetotal infections from 262,473to 263,049.

Meanwhile, the number of“active cases” in the state camedown one lakh mark as thetotal cases dropped 1,02,099 to99,151. The fatality rate in thestate stood at 2.63 per cent.

Currently, 10,71,163 peopleare in home quarantine while9,799 people are in institutionalquarantine.

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In Hathras's case, the victim'sbrother has refused to under-

go a polygraph test, but thefamily is ready for the audiotest.

The call detail record of theconversation with the mainaccused Sandeep with the SIMnumber purchased in the nameof the victim's husband has alsobeen denied by the brotheronce again.

The brother told that theCBI asked him to do a poly-graph test, but he refused bysaying that he did not know

what is there in it, but he isready for the audio test.

The victim's brother saidCBI must interrogate theaccused in the jail and askedthem how they killed my sister.For the last week, the victim'sfamily is avoiding media. TheCBI talked to the victim'smother and brother for twohours, after which both werereturned to their house. Aftera while, the media people triedto talk to them, but they wentinside their room. The victim'sfather said that they have asevere headache and will not beable to talk.

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UP's first VVPAT warehousein Aligarh is ready with a

budget of ��2.5 crores which ishaving a capacity to store 5500VVPAT machines. ElectionCommission was made neces-sary to install VVPATmachines at every booth from the last elec-tion. There are 2700 booths inthe district according to which the same number ofVVPAT machines were sent bythe Election Commission.

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Patna: While the three-phase Bihar Assembly elec-tions are slated to come to a close on Saturdayevening, an independent candidate in the poll frayfrom Benipatti segment in Madhubani district diedof coronavirus at AIIMS here.

Sanjay Jha died at the All India Institute ofMedical Sciences where he was admitted for the last10 days. Jha, a former Janata Dal-United leader,rebelled against the party after denial of ticket fromBenipatti.

Reports said a 45-year-old woman was moweddown by a speeding car in Supaul district on Saturdaymorning while she was returning after casting hervote. The accident occurred in area in the jurisdic-tion of Lalit Gram police post on National Highway-57. Meanwhile, Congress Rajya Sabha member andAICC incharge of Bihar affairs, Shaktisinh Gohil test-ed positive for coronavirus after an RT-PCR test.Gohil tweeted on Saturday: “I will fight coronavirus too with your blessings. Nothing to worryabout.” IANS

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Ballia: A 15-year-old Dalit girlwas set ablaze in a village herein Ballia district by a youth forrejecting his sexual advances,police said on Saturday.

The girl was set on fire by21-year-old youth KrishnaGupta, a resident of her villageon Friday after which the vic-tim was admitted to a hospitalin Ballia, said Dubhar policestation SHO Anil ChandraTiwari. As the girl situationturned critical, she was referredto a hospital in Varanasi, he said.

On the girl's father com-plaint, the police registered acase against the accused undervarious sections of the IndianPenal Code, the ScheduledCaste and Scheduled Tribe(Prevention of Atrocities) Actand the Protection of Childrenfrom Sexual Offences(POCSO) Act. PTI

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Thiruvananthapuram: Keralarecorded 7,201 new COVID-19cases on Saturday, including 61health workers, as the tollclimbed to 1,668 with 28 newfatalities.

As many as 7120 have beencured of the disease, taking thetotal recoveries so far 3,95,624,while 83,261 are under treat-ment, Health minister K KShailaja said in a press release.

The Covid case load in thestate has mounted to 4,80,669with the new additions.

In the last 24 hours, 64,051samples have been tested whileso far 50,49,635 samples have

been sent for testing.Ernakulam reported the

maximum number of cases(1042), followed by Kozhikode971, Thrissur 864 andThiruvananthapuram 719, theminister said.

Of the positive cases, 6,316persons were infected throughcontact while 96 had comefrom outside the state.

As many as 3,07,107 areunder observationin variousdistricts, including 20,785 inhospitals.

Fourteen new areas wereincludedin the hot spot list and38 were removed. PTI

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Jaipur: Rajasthan recorded 13more coronavirus deaths, tak-ing the toll to 1,979 onSaturday, while the tally rose to2.09 lakh with 1,841 new cases,the Health Department said.

There are 16,327 activecases of the coronavirus disease(COVID-19) and 1.91 lakhpeople have been discharged sofar. The total number of peo-ple infected with the virus roseto 2,09,438, according to ahealth bulletin. PTI

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From Page 1“The PAGD has unani-

mously decided to fight theDDC elections unitedly.Despite the abruptness of theDDC elections in terms oftiming it is important that thissacred space in democracy isnot allowed to be invaded andmarauded by the divisiveforces”, Sajad Lone said whilereading out a brief statement inthe presence of senior leadersDr Farooq Abdullah, PDPChief Mehbooba Mufti, OmarAbdullah, Muzaffar HussainShah of Awami NationalConference, MY Tarigami ofCPI(M) and Javaid MustafaMir of the People’s Movement.

Lone said that all themodalities and new adminis-trative rules will be lookedinto and the alliance presidentDr Farooq Abdullah willdeclare the names of contes-tants on his own. Interestingly,none of the leaders respondedto the media queries and dis-persed.

Addressing a news confer-ence in Jammu, Mir said thatafter consultation with all theleaders of Congress party fromdifferent districts, they havedecided to contest the upcom-ing DDC polls. He saidCongress is the oldest party inJ&K and it has never stayedaway from the democraticprocess. “We will not give a freefield to BJP in the DDC polls,”he said, adding that theCongress party has some seri-ous concern regarding the con-duct of DDC polls in J&K andall these issues were put up

before the State Electionauthorities.“There are somesecurity concerns also and wehave forwarded all our con-cerns before higher authoritiesand state election authorities,who have assured us that theseissues will be looked into,” hesaid.

On the other hand, newlyappointed National GeneralSecretary of the BJP, in-chargeof J&K affairs Tarun ChugSaturday chaired a meeting ofBJP leaders in Jammu to takestock of the situation ahead ofDDC polls.

Addressing a press confer-ence here at party headquartershe made it clear under no cir-cumstances Article 35-A will berestored in Jammu & Kashmir.He also labeled the People’sAlliance for Gupkar declarationa group of “day dreamers.”

While responding to adirect question over People’sAlliance for GupkarDeclaration, Chug termed it asa day dreamer’s group, addingthat these leaders are exploit-ing people of Jammu andKashmir through a bundle oflies. “There is no chance ofrestoration of Article 35-A inJammu & Kashmir.” Chug said.

Regarding rehabilitationpolicy for militants, BJPsnational general secretary saidthat “we will not talk to any-body holding guns and thoseholding guns have only oneplace and that is grave.”

He added that a long planfor development of Jammu &Kashmir is in offing and theGovernment is working on it.

From Page 1“Former vice president Joe Biden is projected to win

Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral votes, according to EdisonResearch, putting him over the 270 needed to win the pres-idency,” The Washington Post reported.

The call came about 11:30 a.M. Saturday (local time),after a report of more counted votes from Pennsylvania.

“Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. Was elected the 46th pres-ident of the United States on Saturday, promising to restorepolitical normalcy and a spirit of national unity to confrontraging health and economic crises, and making Donald J.Trump a one-term president after four years of tumult inthe White House,” The New York Times said.

Biden’s victory amounted to a repudiation of Trumpby millions of voters exhausted with his divisive conductand chaotic administration, and was delivered by an unlike-ly alliance of women, people of colour, old and young vot-ers and a sliver of disaffected Republicans. PTI

From Page 1

In UP, the BJP could bag five to six seats. In addition, theSamajwadi Party could win 1-2 seats and the BSP 0-1

Assembly seats where bypolls were held. In Gujarat, the BJPcould win 6-7 of these Assembly seats. Similarly, theCongress could bag 0-1 seats where bypolls were held.

According to Times Now-CVoters exit polls, the BJPcould win 16 to 18 seats, while the Congress party will haveto settle with just 11 seats in the MP bypolls. The BJP maywin 6-7 seats, the Congress could win just 0-1 seats. In 2017Assembly polls, the BJP had won 100 seats while theCongress bagged 77 seats, 15 up from what it had in 2012.

Dainik Bhaskar exit polls predicted 14-16 seats for theBJP; 10-13 seats for the Congress and one for others in MP.

Bypolls were held for 28 seats in MP, 8 in Gujarat and7 in UP. Similarly, Assembly seats were up for bypolls inKarnataka (2), Jharkhand (2), Odisha (2), Nagaland (2),Haryana (1), Chhattisgarh (1) and Telangana (1). The count-ing for bypolls will be done on November 10 and resultsare also expected to be announced the same day.

From Page 1Add to that massive unemploy-

ment caused by Nitish Kumar’sdecision to enforce liquor prohibi-tion, and it was a tailor-made situ-ation for the Opposition to politi-cally exploit by promising a welfare-oriented “ change.”

The exit poll will gladden theheart of former Chief Minister LaluPrasad, who is incarcerated in aRanchi prison as a fodder scam con-vict. Unlike Lalu Prasad, who prac-ticed brazen caste politics, his sonTejashwi Yadav kept the focussquarely on the issue of employment,health, education and development.If M-Y was the campaign slogan forLalu Prasad for 15 years, thenTejashwi invented the catchy sloganof A to Z, implying he would try tocarry every caste and groupingtogether to make a new Bihar. Thatwas the reason the youth voters roseover the caste lines to support him.

Unlike the divided NDA, theGrand Alliance ran a smooth cam-paign with few hiccups. The GrandAlliance leaders didn’t react toaggressive Hindutva card played bythe Prime Minister and UttarPradesh Chief Minister YogiAdityanath and stuck to their cam-paign theme. Exit polls also showthat younger voters who have onlyheard about the so called “jungle raj”and not lived in it, have over-whelmingly voted for the GrandAlliance. That’s where the NDA pollcampaign went totally wrong. Thefocus on jungle raj didn’t resonatewith this class of voters who want-ed to embrace the future and moveout of the shadow of the past.

From Page 1In India, malaria cases

have consistently declined from2.08 million in 2001 to about 4lakh in 2018. Of the countrieshardest hit by malaria, onlyIndia showed progress inreducing its disease burden, theNHP said.

Delivering a lecture on“recent advances in weatherand climate predictions”, organ-ised by the Indian Academy ofSciences, Rajeevan on Saturdaysaid India also plans to ramp upits high performance comput-ing (HPC) facility from theexisting capacity of 10 petaflopsto 40 petaflops, a step that willsignificantly help in improvingweather predictions. Currently,India is only next to the US, theUK and Japan in HPC.

A report released by theMinistry of Earth Sciences thisweek said nearly Rs 990 crorespent on the NationalMonsoon Mission and HPChad yielded dividend 50 timesthe investment made. In hislecture, Rajeevan said 90 percent of the meteorology-relat-ed data comes from satellites.The rest of it comes from con-ventional sources like Dopplerradars, buoys in the sea, shipand aircraft observation andother observations.

From Page 1“Increased air pollution

leads to increased inflamma-tory response. In the last fewdays, Delhi has reported morethan 6,000 Covid-19 cases perday. 13 per cent of the increasehas been estimated to be due topollution,” the IMA said.

The Air Quality Index(AQI) in Delhi on Saturdayremained above 350 while safelimit is 0-50. The WHO’s ambi-ent air pollution data showsthat the levels of PM 10 andPM 2.5 in Delhi are way abovethe normal levels, the IMA stat-ed.

Poor air quality may resultin the aggravation of asthma,COPD, high BP and even car-diovascular diseases. Merelywalking could result in healthcomplications due to the highconcentration of particulatematter (PM) 2.5 in Delhi’s air.

“N-95 masks and air puri-fiers may not provide full timeprotection. An AQI of above300 makes it difficult not onlyfor people with respiratoryproblems, but healthy people aswell. Hence, it is advisable thatpeople do not go out early inthe morning when pollutionlevels are the highest. Elderly

and children are more likely todevelop infections and allergiesdue to smog,” the doctors’body said.

The major sources of airpollution in Delhi are vehicu-lar pollution, constructionactivities, carriage of con-struction material, dust onroads, burning of agriculturalor crop residue, industrial andpowerhouse emissions, burn-ing of municipal wastes, ther-mal energy power plants andmining in Aravalli hill areas, itsaid.

It listed measures such asuse of public transport, buyingenergy efficient vehicles, plant-ing a garden wherever possible,making use of solar energy,using recyclable productswhich can be adopted by thepeople to help reduce pollution.There is also a graded responseaction plan in Delhi and NCRwhich includes measures suchas prohibition on entry oftrucks into Delhi, ban on con-struction activities, introduc-tion of odd and even scheme,closure of brick kilns, ban ondiesel generator sets, garbageburning in land fill etc.Banning of crackers and stub-ble burning in hinterland arehelpful public healthmeasures.

“Implementation of longterm measures is important,”the IMA added.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Saturday asked IIT

graduates to recognise theneeds of the country and con-nect with the changes on theground.

Addressing the 51stAnnual ConvocationCeremony of IIT Delhi as chiefguest via video conferencing,the PM also asked them toidentify with the aspirations ofthe common people in thecontext of Atamnirbhar Bharat.

The Prime Ministerencouraged the fresh graduatesto take up the AtmaNirbharCampaign that he claimedgives opportunities to youth,technocrats and tech-enter-prise leaders of the country.

The Prime Minister saidpost-Covid world is going to bevery different and technologywill play the biggest role in it.He said Virtual Reality wasnever thought of but nowVirtual Reality and Augmented

Reality have become theWorking Reality. He said thepresent batch of students has afirst mover advantage to learnand adapt to the new normsemerging in the workplace andhe urged them to make mostuse of this. He said Covid -19has taught Globalisation is

important but Self-Reliance isequally important

He claimed that afavourable environment hasbeen created for implementa-tion of the ideas and innovationof the technocrats freely and toscale them and market themeasily. He said that today’s

India is committed to provide‘ease of doing business’ to itsyouth so that they can bringchanges in the life of crores oftheir countrymen through theirinnovation.

“The country will give you‘ease of business’ you just workfor ‘ease of living’ of the people

of this country,” Modi said. He further explained that

this has been the thoughtprocess behind the majorreforms that have been done inalmost every sector in therecent past. He listed the sec-tors where opportunities havebeen created for innovationand new start-ups for the firsttime due to the reforms.

The Prime Minister saidOther Service Provider (OSP)guidelines have been simplifiedand restrictions have beenremoved recently, which wouldreduce the Burden ofCompliance for BPOIndustries. He said BPOIndustry has also been exempt-ed from various requirementsincluding bank guarantee.

The PM added that provi-sions that prevented the TechIndustry from facilities such asWork From Home or WorkFrom Anywhere, have alsobeen removed. This will makethe country’s IT sector global-ly competitive and will give

more opportunities to youngtalent.

The Prime Minister saidIndia is among the countrieswhere corporate tax is the low-est. More than 50 thousandstartups have started in Indiasince the Start-up India cam-paign. He listed the outcome ofthe Government’s efforts withrespect to promoting startupslike the 4 fold increase in thenumber of patents in the coun-try in the last five years, a 5-foldincrease in trademark regis-trations. He said over 20 Indianunicorns have been establishedover the years and this numberwould increase further in thenext one or two years.

The Prime Minister point-ed out that today from incu-bation to funding, Startups arebeing helped. He said for fund-ing of startups, Fund of Fundshas been created with a corpusof ?10 thousand crores. Inaddition for a period of 3years, startups are offered manyfacilities like Tax Exemption,

Self-Certification and Easy exit.The Prime Minister said

today under the NationalInfrastructure Pipeline, invest-ment of more than ?1 lakh crorehas been planned. This will cre-ate a state-of-the-art infra-structure across the countrythat will meet the needs of bothpresent and future. He saidtoday the country is working innew ways to achieve maximumpotential in every field.

The Prime Minister alsogave four mantras to the stu-dents for their workplace- focuson quality; never compromise;ensure scalability; make yourinnovations work at a massscale; assure reliability; buildlong-term trust in the marketand bring in adaptability; beopen to change and expect un-certainty as a way of life.

He said working on thesebasic mantras will bring shineon one’s identity as well as onbrand India, since students areIndia’s biggest brand ambas-sadors. He remarked the work

of the students will give globalrecognition to the country’sproduct and will accelerate theefforts of the country.

The Prime Minister said thecountry has shown in the recentpast, how technology can be themost powerful means for thegovernance to reach the poor-est of the poor.

He listed the schemes of thegovernment which havereached the poorest of the poorwith the help of technology likeconstruction of toilets, gas con-nections etc. He said the coun-try is making rapid strides indigital delivery of services andmaking the lives of ordinary cit-izens easier. He remarked tech-nology has made last miledelivery efficient and reducedthe scope of corruption. In thecase of Digital Transactionsalso, India is far ahead of manycountries of the world andeven the developed countrieswant to adopt Indian platformslike UPI.

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In its first mission this yearamid the COVID-19 pan-

demic, India on Saturday suc-cessfully launched its latestearth observation satelliteEOS-01 and nine interna-tional customer spacecraft onboard a Polar rocket from thespaceport in Sriharikota. Thepandemic induced lockdown‘’disturbed 10 missions beingplanned by the agency.

The Indian SpaceResearch Organisations work-

horse Polar Satellite LaunchVehicle (PSLV-C49) injectedEOS-01, intended for appli-cations in agriculture, forestryand disaster managementsupport and other satellitesone by one in orbit around 20minutes after lift-off fromthe Satish Dhawan SpaceCentre (SDSC), about 110km from Chennai, at 3.12 pm.

The nine customer satel-lites are from the USA,Lithuania and Luxembourg.ISRO Chairman K Sivandescribed the mission as a

“success” and termed it as“unusual” for ISRO as a rock-et launch cannot happen like‘’work from home’’ and allengineers and technicians hadto travel from different cen-tres and work together atSriharikota for rocket launch-es.

“Today, I am extremelyhappy to declare that PSLV-C49 successfully placed earthobservation satellite EOS-01as well as nine customer satel-lites precisely into 575 kmsorbit,” he said at the mission

control centre.Subsequent to the suc-

cessful launch, the primarysatellite commenced operat-ing its own functions includ-ing deployment of solar pan-els, Sivan added.

In view of the pandemic,ISRO implemented precau-tions for COVID-19 and sci-entists, mission directors, pro-ject directors, were seen withface masks and maintainingsocial distancing at the mis-sion control centre. Therewas no gathering of media

persons and the public view-ing gallery too was closed.ISRO made arrangements forlive telecast of the launchthrough various platforms,including its website andsocial media sites.

In a text book sequence,the four stage 44.5-metre tallPSLV-C49, in its 51st flight,blasted off from the firstlaunch pad of SDSC at 3.12pm at the end of the 26-hourcountdown and soared intothe sky. The launch, original-ly scheduled for 3.02 PM, wasdelayed slightly as the scien-tists before lift-off “decided toput it on hold following debrison the path of the rocket andinclement weather condi-tions.”

After the 10 minute delay,the rocket blasted off amidheavy rain leaving a trail oforange fumes before vanish-ing into thick clouds over thespaceport. After a flawlessflight with all four stages per-forming as programmed, therocket first injected primarysatellite EOS-01 into orbitaround 15 minutes after liftoff, followed by the customerspacecraft as the mood at themission control centre turnedjubilant with scientists break-ing into cheers.

PSLV Mission Director SR Biju announced that all the10 satellites were separatedand were placed into desiredorbits.

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The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) on

Saturday conducted searches atthe residential premises of for-mer functionaries ofComunidade of Serula in amoney laundering case relatedto illegal allotment of plots aswell as illegal acquisition ofland belonging to theComunidade of Serula, Goa.

Those whose premiseswere searched are Agnelo C.Lobo, former Attorney ofComunidade of Serula, hisbrother Reginaldo Lobo, for-mer official of theComunidade, Joseph D’Sa, for-mer clerk, and Rajesh SuhasVerenkar, under the provisionsof Prevention of MoneyLaundering Act (PMLA) inillegal allotment of plots as wellas illegal acquisition of landbelonging to Comunidade ofSerula in Goa.

PMLA investigation wasinitiated by the ED on thebasis of FIRs registered by theCrime Branch, Goa Police.According to the FIRs, themembers of ManagingCommittee of Comunidadeof Serula were involved inillegal allotment of plots byfraudulently citing and usingduplicate file numbers per-

taining to files of Offices ofvarious Administrators ofComunidades and GazetteNotifications of Governmentof Goa, thereby cheating theComunidade of Serula andother authorities.

“During the course ofsearches, incriminating docu-ments and records relating tothe illegal allotment/acquisi-tion of plots/land belonging to the Comunidadeof Serula have been seized,” theED said in a statement here onSaturday.

The incriminating docu-ments, the agency said, includeold blank Indian stamp papersof 1960s, old blank papers hav-ing Portuguese stamps usedfor making forged documentsand Deeds of Sale used for ille-gal acquisition of land belong-

ing to Comunidade of Serula.The documents seized alsoinclude old registers belongingto the office of Administratorof Comunidades, Bardez,Government of Goa whichwere being used for the pur-pose of illegal allotment ofplots, the agency said.

The ED is conducting fur-ther investigation in coordi-nation with the Crime Branch,Goa Police.

The Comunidades of Goawere a form of land association developed in Goawhere land-ownership wascollectively held, but con-trolled by the male descen-dants of those who claimed tobe the founders of the village.It was the predominant formof landholding in Goa before1961.

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The Election Commissionon Saturday said that the

polling percentage recordedin the by-elections to Lilongand Wangjing-Tentha seats inThoubal district, Saitu inKangpokpi and Wangoi inImphal West in Manipur was91.54 per cent. The by-electionswere necessitated afterCongress MLAs of the fourconstituencies resigned fromthe state Legislative Assembly,quit the party and joined theBJP.

According to the EC, thepolling percentage at Lilongwas recorded at 93.29, Saitu at90.88 per cent, WangjingTentha at 90.86 per cent and91.19 per cent was recorded atWangoi. The KukiRevolutionary Army (KRA)has been alleged of threateningvoters to vote for BJP. A videothat has gone viral shows awoman from Leimakhong cry-ing as she wasn’t unable to voteas per her choice. The EC offi-cial said that 11 candidates

from the ruling BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP), IndianNational Congress (INC) andNational People’s Party (NPP)are in the fray, including threeindependent candidates.

The ruling BJP is contest-ing in three seats and support-ing an independent candidatein Lilong assembly segment,while the opposition Congressis in the fray in all four con-stituencies.

The Wangoi assembly seg-ment will witness an interest-ing battle as the NationalPeople’s Party (NPP), a coali-tion partner of the BJP-ledGovernment in the state, hasfielded its candidate against thenominees of the Congress andthe saffron camp.

The counting will be con-ducted on November 10.

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Noting that the coronaviruspandemic presented a

unique challenge for the pollpanel in holding safe elections,Election Commissioner SushilChandra on Saturday said var-ious facilities were extended toCOVID-19 patients to casttheir vote in the BiharAssembly polls, includingpostal ballot facility and exten-sion of polling time. He said theElection Commission cannotremain “silent” to situationswhere persons suffering fromCOVID-19 are unable to exer-cise their democratic right.

“This time, besides seniorcitizens and women, we had tomake additional arrangementsfor COVID patients... Weextended polling time by onehour,” he said addressing anevent. Chandra said thoughpostal ballot facility wasextended, any person wantingto cast vote at the polling sta-tion was free to do so.

“Our polling officials werefully equipped with PPE kitsand other measures to handlethe situation,” he said. Manypeople suffering from COVID-19 came to cast their votes inall the three phases on October28, November 3 and November7 (Saturday).

“We cannot remain silent,we cannot remain spectatorsthat a person suffering fromCOVID ... and he be deprivedof casting vote. That is the basictheme of EC,” he said. Chandrasaid the voter turnout in thefirst two phases has dispelled allfears and doubts, adding thevoters of Bihar have defeatedthe fear of virus as they cameout in large numbers.

In its broad guidelinesissued in August for holding

polls amid the pandemic, thepoll panel extended the optionof postal ballot for electors whoare marked as persons with dis-abilities and those above 80years. Electors who areCOVID-19 positive or are sus-pected of having the infectionand in quarantine at home orat an institution were alsoallowed to exercise the postalballot option.

An officialexplained that thispostal ballot facility isdifferent from the oneextended to servicevoters. Here, thosewilling to use the facil-ity have to fill up aform. Officials thencarry the ballot to theresidence of such vot-ers and videograph

the voting to ensure trans-parency.

“COVID-19 patients whoare quarantined will be allowedto cast their vote at the last hourof the poll day at their respec-tive polling stations, under thesupervision of health authori-ties... Sector magistrates shallcoordinate this in their allo-cated polling stations,” theguidelines said.

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The Supreme Court has stayeda Delhi High Court order

asking cash-strapped airlinesSpiceJet to deposit around �243crore as interest in connectionwith a share transfer dispute withits former promoter and mediabaron Kalanithi Maran and hisfirm KAL Airways.

A bench comprising ChiefJustice S A Bobde and justices AS Bopanna and VRamasubramanian also issuednotices to Kalanithi Maran andhis firm on an appeal of SpiceJetLtd and its promoter filed againstthe September 2 order of theDelhi High Court.

“Issue notice returnablewithin four weeks. There shall bea stay of operation of theimpugned order until furtherorders,” said the bench in itsorder after hearing both partiesvia video conferencing on Friday.

SpiceJet and its promoterAjay Singh were asked to depositaround �243 crore as interestpayable on �579 crore, which thehigh court had in 2017 asked theairline to deposit under the 2018arbitration award in the sharetransfer dispute.

The high court had grantedsix weeks to SpiceJet Ltd tomake the payment and the dead-line for paying the money, as perthe September 2 order, expiredon October 14.

After this, Maran and hisfirm had moved the high courtfor attachment of the entireshareholding of Singh in Spicejetand taking over the managementfor non-payment of �243 crore.

The top court took note ofthe appeal of the Spicejet andpassed an interim order stayingthe high court order.

Maran and KAL had movedthe high court over a sharetransfer dispute with SpiceJet,demanding that 18 crore war-rants redeemable as equity sharesbe transferred to them.

The high court on July 29,2016 had asked both parties tosettle the share transfer disputeunder arbitration. It had direct-ed SpiceJet and Singh to deposit�579 crore in the high court’’sregistry.

SpiceJet was permitted tofurnish a bank guarantee for�329 crore and make a cashdeposit of the remaining sum of�250 crore by the high court.

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India’s COVID-19 caseloadmounted to 84,62,080 with

50,356 infections being report-ed in a day, while the numberof people who have recuperat-ed from the disease crossed 78lakh pushing the nationalrecovery rate to 92.41 per cent,according to data updated bythe Union Health Ministry onSaturday.

The coronavirus death tollclimbed to 1,25,562 with 577new fatalities, the data updat-ed at 8 am showed.

A total of 78,19,886 peoplehave recuperated fromCOVID-19 so far pushing thenational recovery rate to 92.41per cent, while the case fatali-ty rate has further declined to1.48 per cent.

The number of active casesof COVID-19 remained below6 lakh for the ninth consecu-tive day.

There are 5,16,632 activecases of coronavirus infectionin the country as on datewhich comprises 6.11 per centof the total caseload, the datastated.

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Questioning the very inten-tion behind the previous

Devendra FadnavisGovernment’s decision tochoose Aarey colony as thevenue for Mumbai Metro-IIIcar shed, the MaharashtraCongress charged that the thenruling BJP wanted to com-mercially exploit part of theland at Aarey colony.

Giving a dimension to theMVA Government’s decision toshift the Mumbai Metro-III carfrom Aarey colony toKanjurmarg, the Congressalleged that the previous BJP-led Devendra Fadnavis gov-ernment had chosen Aareycolony as venue for the metro-3 car shed project “only froma commercial point of view”.

A day after he claimedthat it was the previous BJP-led government that hadplanned to shift the project toKanjurmarg and that therewas no dispute over the landas was being made out by theOpposit ion BJP now,Maharashtra state Congress’general secretar y andspokesperson Sachin Sawantsaid: “The proposal for theKanjurmarg site was deliber-ately rejected. It has nowbeen proved that a privateperson will have to be paid�5,000 crore for theKanjurmarg land was a lief loated by the FadnavisGovernment”.

Sawant charged that thatdespite knowing that themetro project in AareyColony required only 20hectares of land, the previousDevendra Fadnavis govern-ment had al located 62hectares of land for the pro-ject so that it could exploit theremaining 41 hectares of land.

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New York: Two heavily armedmen “coming to deliver a truckfull of fake ballots” have beenarrested near the Philadelphiaconvention center where elec-tion workers were countingvotes from the undecided USpresidential election, policesaid.

Antonio LaMotta, 61, andJoshua Macias, 42, both ofChesapeake, Virginia, werearrested on Thursday nightoutside the center on suspicionof carrying handguns inPennsylvania state without per-mits, according to US mediareports.

Philadelphia police saidthey found the men onThursday night after receivinga tip that people with firearmswere heading to thePennsylvania ConventionCenter in a silver Hummer

truck.Both men were carrying

loaded handguns, and policefound an AR-type rifle in theHummer, authorities said at anews conference on Friday.

About 160 rounds ofammunition were found in the

weapons and the vehicle,authorities said.

Details about the allegedfake ballots -- including wherethey came from, whether theywere found in the Hummer, orwhat was marked on them --were not immediately available,

CNN reported.It’s unclear what those men

were allegedly intending to do.The FBI and PhiladelphiaPolice are investigating theincident, CBS News reported.

Prosecutors say text mes-sages show the men say they

were concerned about the votecounting happening at theConvention Center and theywere “coming to deliver atruck full of fake ballots toPhilly.”

The vehicle with Virginiatags was found unattended onthe 200 block of North 13thStreet in Center City.

A few minutes later, offi-cers stopped two armed menon the street. Police say they didnot have a license to carry inPennsylvania and were placedunder arrest.

Stickers and a hat withlogos of the far-right QAnonconspiracy movement werefound in the vehicle,Philadelphia District AttorneyLarry Krasner said.

“I don’t have informationthat any of them are knownmembers of an extremistgroup,” Krasner said.

The two men were chargedwith having a concealedfirearm without a license andcarrying a firearm on a publicstreet or public property,Krasner was quoted as sayingby CNN. PTI

Dhaka: A madrasa has beenopened for transgenders inBangladesh’s capital city Dhaka,believed to be the first-of-its-kind initiative for the commu-nity in the Muslim-majoritycountry.

More than 100 students ofany age can study in the non-res-idential Islamic school, DawatulQuran Third Gender Madrasa,at Lohar Bridge Dhal inKamrangirchar, thebdnews24.Com reported

At the inauguration onFriday, 40 transgender peoplejoined. Besides the Islamicteachings, the madrasa author-ities also plan to launch a sepa-

rate department of technicaleducation for the transgenderpeople. The government passeda policy in 2013 recognising themembers of the Hijra commu-nity as of the “third gender”.

The Election Commissionallowed the registration of thetransgender people as “thirdgender” voters the followingyear. They have stood in elec-tions as well. Abdul AzizHusaini, one of the 10 trainersat the madrasa, said that it is amemorable day for the entireworld because the first knownIslamic school for the transgen-der people has been launched,the news website reported. PTI

Le Pecq: Police in France ques-tioned four 10-year-olds whovoiced support for the behead-ing of a schoolteacher andwho said they would kill theirown teacher if he lampoonedIslam’s prophet, the govern-ment reported as the primeminister warned Saturday thatIslamic extremists are recruit-ing in France with “ignoranceand hate.”

The children and their par-ents were detained and ques-tioned for several hoursThursday by police in theAlpine town of Albertville,Interior Ministry spokes-woman Camille Chaize said.

On Monday, when Frenchschools held a nationwideminute of silence to honour theslain teacher, Samuel Paty, thechildren voiced support for

his killing last month nearParis, the spokeswoman said ina video statement Friday night.

They “justified the teacher’sassassination by arguing that itwas forbidden to offend theprophet and adding that theywould kill their teacher if hecaricatured the prophet,” shesaid.

Paty was killed on October16 outside his Paris-regionschool by an 18-year-oldrefugee of Chechen originafter he showed his class car-icatures of the ProphetMuhammad for a debate onfree expression.

The children in Albertvillewere released after questioning.Judicial authorities orderededucative training for them, theministry spokeswoman said.Police also searched their

homes.Paty’s killing was followed

Oct. 29 by the killing of threepeople in a knife attack at achurch in Nice. Leading aSaturday memorial for thethree victims in theMediterranean city, FrenchPrime Minster Jean Castexwarned that extremists wererecruiting French citizens. “Weknow the enemy,” Castex said.

“Not only is it identified,but it also has a name: It is rad-ical Islamism, a political ideol-ogy that disfigures the Muslimreligion by distorting its texts,its dogmas and its command-ments to impose its domi-nance by ignorance and hate,an enemy that benefits fromsupport overseas but, alas, alsocounts French citizens in itsranks.” AP

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Baltimore: The United Statesset a record of more than126,400 confirmed cases in asingle day on Friday.

The seven-day rolling aver-age of new daily cases in theU.S. is approaching 100,000 forthe first time, according todata from Johns HopkinsUniversity.

Total U.S. cases since thestart of the pandemic are near-ing 10 million, and confirmedcases globally are approaching50 million.

Worldwide infection num-bers are also setting records.The world reached 400,000daily confirmed cases on Oct.15; 500,000 on Oct. 26, and600,000 on Friday.

The seven-day rollingaverage for daily deaths in theU.S. rose in the past two weeksfrom 772 on Oct. 23 to 911 onFriday. Those numbers werehigher in the spring andAugust. The global death tollhit a daily record of 11,024confirmed deaths onWednesday. AP

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Washington: A panel of threejudges on Friday became thethird federal court to rule thatPresident Donald Trump’seffort to exclude people in thecountry illegally from thenumbers used for dividing upcongressional seats is unlaw-ful.

The federal court inMaryland prohibited theCommerce Department,which oversees the CensusBureau, from sending to thepresident any figures thatinclude the number of peoplein the country illegally in eachstate when transmitting theapportionment count at theend of the year.

Federal courts in NewYork and California alreadyhave issued similar orders.The Trump administrationhas appealed the New Yorkcase, and the Supreme Court

is hearing arguments on it atthe end of the month.

The Maryland decisionwas more like the New Yorkruling in that it merely foundTrump’s order unlawful, ratherthan unconstitutional. TheCalifornia court decided thatTrump’s order violated theConstitution and federal law.

The Maryland lawsuit wasbrought by several advocacygroups and individuals whosaid Trump’s order discrimi-nates against Hispanic peopleand immigrant communitiesof colour, and that they will beharmed because the states theylive in will lose congressionalseats if the order is enforced.

The census determinesnot only how many congres-sional seats each state gets, butalso the distribution of $1.5trillion a year in federalspending. PTI

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Washington: The conserva-tive evangelical Christians whohelped send Donald Trump tothe White House four years agostuck by him in 2020. Buteven if Trump doesn’t get a sec-ond term, some conservativeChristians see reasons to cele-brate in this year’s electionresults.

White evangelical votersmade up 23% of the votenationwide and overwhelm-ingly favoured Trump this fall,with about 8 in 10 backing him,according to AP VoteCast.

Their support may not have been enough to re-elect the president yet evan-gelicals still took heart in theirstrong presence at the polls andthe GOP’s success in down-bal-lot races. AP

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Dhaka: Tensof thousandsof Muslimsmarched inthe streets ofBangladesh’scapital onMonday in the country’s largestprotest yet against the Frenchpresident’s support of secularlaws that allow caricatures ofthe Prophet Muhammad.

The protesters, organisedby the Hefazat-e-Islam group,a network of teachers and stu-dents at thousands of Islamicschools, gathered outside themain Baitul MokarramMosque in downtown Dhaka.

They chanted “Down withFrance” and “Boycott FrenchProducts” and burned effigiesof French President EmmanuelMacron. AP

Dubai: The United ArabEmirates announced onSaturday a major overhaul ofthe country’s Islamic personallaws, allowing unmarried cou-ples to cohabitate, looseningalcohol restrictions and crimi-nalising so-called “honourkillings.”

The broadening of person-al freedoms reflects the chang-ing profile of a country that hassought to bill itself as a sky-scraper-studded destination forWestern tourists, fortune-seek-ers and businesses despite itslegal system based on a hard-line interpretation of Islamiclaw.

The changes also reflect theefforts of the Emirates’ rulers tokeep pace with a rapidly chang-ing society at home.

The announcement alsofollows a historic US-brokereddeal to normalise relationsbetween the UAE and Israel,which is expected to bring aninflux of Israeli tourists and

investment.Changes include scrapping

penalties for alcohol consump-tion, sales and possession forthose 21 and over.

The legal reforms wereannounced on state-run WAMnews agency and detailed instate-linked newspaper TheNational.

Previously, individualsneeded a liquor license to pur-chase, transport or have alcoholin their homes. The new rulewould apparently allowMuslims who have been barredfrom obtaining licenses to drinkalcoholic beverages freely.

Another amendmentallows for “cohabitation ofunmarried couples,” which haslong been a crime in the UAE.Authorities, especially in themore free-wheeling financialhub of Dubai, tend to look theother way when it comes to for-eigners, but the threat of pun-ishment still lingered for suchbehavior. AP

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Islamabad: Pakistan PrimeMinister Imran Khan onSaturday lashed out at three-time former premier NawazSharif, describing him as a“jackal” who is trying to create“rebellion” in the Army byaccusing it of involvement inthe country’s politics and call-ing for a change in the militaryas well as the ISI leadership.

Sharif, the 70-year-oldsupreme leader of the PakistanMuslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) who was ousted frompower in 2017 by the apex

court on graft charges, had lastmonth for the first timedirectly named Army chiefGen Qamar Javed Bajwa andISI head Lt Gen Faiz Hameedfor interfering in the generalelections of 2018 to ensurevictory of Khan.

Sharif had made the com-ments virtually on October 16during a joint rally organisedby the Opposition partiesunder the banner of PakistanDemocratic Movement(PDM), formed to oust theKhan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-

Insaaf (PTI) government.Prime Minister Khan said

that Sharif is sitting in London“like a Jackal” and targetingthe Army. Hitting out atSharif, Khan said the formerprime minister was “trying tostir up a rebellion in thePakistan Army by alleging itis involved in politics andcalling for changing the Armyand ISI chiefs,” Khan saidwhile addressing a publicgathering in Mingora inKhyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP)province. PTI

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Kyiv (Ukraine): BelarusianPresident AlexanderLukashenko on Saturday for-mally opened the country’sfirst nuclear power plant, a pro-ject sharply criticized by neigh-bouring Lithuania.

Lukashenko said thelaunch of the Russian-builtand -financed Astravyets plant“will serve as an impetus forattracting the most advancedtechnologies to the country,and innovative directions inscience and education.”

Lithuania has long

opposed the plant, locatedabout 40 kilometers (25 miles)southeast of its capital, Vilnius.

Lithuanian authorities saythe project has been plagued byaccidents, stolen materials andthe mistreatment of workers.

In line with a law banningelectricity imports fromBelarus once the nuclear plant started up, Lithuania’sLitgrid power operator cut theinflow of electricity fromBelarus when the plant beganproducing electricity onTuesday. AP

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Egyptians began votingSaturday in the second and

final stage of the country’sparliamentary elections, after arelatively low turnout in thefirst stage that embarrassedthe government of PresidentAbdel-Fattah el-Sissi.

Polling centers opened at 9a.M. In 13 of Egypt’s 27provinces, including the capi-tal Cairo and the restive north-ern part of the Sinai Peninsula.

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The Supreme Court hasstayed a Delhi High Court

order asking cash-strapped air-lines SpiceJet to deposit around�243 crore as interest in con-nection with a share transferdispute with its former pro-moter and media baronKalanithi Maran and his firmKAL Airways.

A bench comprisingChief Justice S A Bobde andjustices A S Bopanna and VRamasubramanian also issuednotices to Kalanithi Maran andhis firm on an appeal ofSpiceJet Ltd and its promoterfiled against the September 2order of the Delhi High Court.

"Issue notice returnablewithin four weeks. "There shallbe a stay of operation of theimpugned order until furtherorders," said the bench in itsorder after hearing both partiesvia video conferencing onFriday. SpiceJet and its pro-moter Ajay Singh were asked to

deposit around �243 crore asinterest payable on �579 crore,which the high court had in2017 asked the airline todeposit under the 2018 arbi-tration award in the sharetransfer dispute.

The high court had grant-ed six weeks to SpiceJet Ltd tomake the payment and thedeadline for paying the money,as per the September 2 order,expired on October 14.

After this, Maran and hisfirm had moved the high courtfor attachment of the entireshareholding of Singh inSpicejet and taking over themanagement for non-paymentof �243 crore. The top courttook note of the appeal of theSpicejet and passed an interimorder staying the high courtorder. Maran and KAL hadmoved the high court over ashare transfer dispute withSpiceJet, demanding that 18crore warrants redeemable asequity shares be transferred tothem.

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Domestic air travel demandcontinued on an upward

trajectory month-on-month,with the October volume wit-nessing a 33% growth to 52lakh passengers overSeptember, Icra said.

On a year-on-year basis,however, the domestic traveldemand declined 58%andinternationally the fall was 87%, it said. The Indian aviationindustry has witnessed con-

tinued recovery in domesticpassenger traffic in Octoberwith a sequential growth (overSeptember) of around 33 percent to around 52 lakh pas-sengers, Icra said in a releaseon Friday. Icra further notedthat the capacity deployment inOctober 2020 at around 52 percent over the same month lastyear, is a significant increaseover the around 33 per centcapacity deployed in Augustand around 46 per cent capac-ity in September this year.

Jaipur:Housing CommissionerShri Pawan Arora to Rajasthanon FridayA delegation ofadministrative service officialsmet and metResidential planbeing developed in PratapNagar, Jaipur forofficersDemanded for inclu-sion in "AIS Residency".

The Commissionershowed a positive stance on hisdemand and said that first hewas willingBring the list of offi-cers, then it will be considered.Before this

Through the presentationof this scheme by the con-cerned officials to thedelegationInformation given

In this delegation, ShriArun Garg, Officer ofRajasthan AdministrativeService, Shri.Ramnivas Mehta,Mrs. Alpa Chaudhary, Mrs.Sanchita Vishnoi, Mr. ManishGoyal, Mr. RakeshSharma, Dr.Prabha Vyas and Mrs. MadhuRajvanshi were present.

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The Supreme Court onFriday said blacklisting

orders may spell the deathknell of an organisation, as it setaside an indefinite backlistingorder issued against VetIndiaPharmaceuticals Ltd in 2009.

A bench headed by JusticeR. F. Nariman and comprisingJustices Navin Sinha andKrishna Murari said: "An orderof blacklisting operates to theprejudice of a commercial per-son not only in praesenti (at thepresent time) but also puts ataint which attaches far beyondand may well spell the deathknell of the organisation/insti-tution for all times to comedescribed as a civil death."

The pharma company wasserved an order of blacklistingby the Animal HusbandryDepartment of Uttar PradeshGovernment referring stateanalyst report in October 2008,declaring the batch supplied byit to be of substandard quality(misbranded/not in accordancewith Oxytetracycline injec-tion), which violated tenderstipulations.

The bench noted the injec-tion was not supplied.

The company said it hadnever made any supplies underthe tender in question and themisbranding was an inadver-tent error.

This order was challengedin 2019 in the High Court,which dismissed it on ground

of delay. The apex court set thisorder aside.

The bench observed that itfound blacklisting order unsus-tainable and considering thelong passage of time, the courtis not inclined to remand thematter to the authorities.

The bench said: "The factthat the terms of the tendermay have provided for black-listing is irrelevant in the factsof the case. In absence of anysupply by the appellant, theorder of blacklisting datedSeptember 8, 2009 invokingclauses 8.12 and 8.23 of theTender is a fundamental flaw,vitiating the impugned orderon the face of it reflecting nonapplication of mind to theissues involved."

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Fast paced economic recov-ery along with healthy earn-

ings results are expected toaccelerate the rise of India’smain benchmark equity indicesduring the upcoming tradeweek.

Besides, analysts opinedthat positive global cues such asan early outcome of the USPresidential elections will buoysentiments.

On the domestic front,healthy reading in high fre-quency data on factory outputdata, along with better thanexpected quarterly results witha rise in auto sales volume androbust GST collection will con-tinue to support the upwardtrajectory.

"The overall structure ofthe market remains positive.With the economic activityrecovering fast, more earningsupgrade cannot be ruled out,"said Siddhartha Khemka, Head

- Retail Research, MotilalOswal Financial Services.

"Further strong global mar-kets can keep the liquidityabundant in the system, thusproviding support to the over-all market."

In terms of the USPresidential election, DeepakJasani- Head of Retail Researchat HDFC Securities pointed outthe process was still unre-solved going into the weekend,but even "if Biden is declaredwinner, close votes and lawsuitsare likely to result in recounts".

"Technically apart frompositive global cues and FPIflows, the local corporateresults give one more reason tocheer going into key festivalweek," Jasani said.

"Nifty is just 167 pointsaway from its all time high.Though it does not seem dif-ficult at all going by themomentum seen over the lastfew days, global markets showsigns of slowing down.

New Delhi:The EconomicOffences Wing of Delhi Policehas registered a case and start-ed probe against two firms,including the NayatiHealthcare, whose chairper-son and promoter is NiiraRadia of the infamous Radiatapes controversy.

Along with the Gurugramhealth firm, the other onenamed in the EOW FIR is theNarayani investment privatelimited -- both have beenaccused of misappropriatingfunds amounting to more than�300 crore that were obtainedthrough a loan. IANS

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With the aim to drive bidsfor round-the-clock

(RTC) power supply, theMinistry of Power has amend-ed the guidelines for tariff-based competitive bidding forpower procurement from suchprojects, allowing thembundling with any non-renew-able source of energy ratherthan just coal-based thermalprojects.

The earlier guidelines forbundled projects required abidder to place tariff bids afterallowing power generated fromrenewable resource and viabased thermal power projects.

With the changes in guide-lines, a bidder for a RTC ten-der can quote tariff by bundlingpower from renewable andany other non-renewableresource such as thermal andhydro, including power fromenergy storage systems.

The measure is expected togive more flexibility to gener-

ators while placing bids forRTC. However, under theamended guidelines, bundlingwill be allowed only with onenon-renewable resource andnot multiple resources.

Also, the amended regula-tions have made stricter pro-visions for penalty if a powergenerator is unable to meetcommitments on power supply.The regulations provide thatthe generator maintain mini-mum power supply of 85 percent annually and if it falters, itwould have to pay a heftypenalty equivalent to 400 percent of the cost of power theyfell short of. The penalty levelearlier was 25 per cent.

The penalty will be higherat 400 per cent even for anyshortfall in supply of commit-ted level of renewable power.

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The China smartphone mar-ket witnessed a 14.3 per

cent drop in the third quarterthis year with 84.8 millionunits shipment, according to anIDC report, as the countryfaced soft demand, Huaweissupply constraints and delayedflagship launches from bothHuawei and Apple.

At the top of the tablewith 41.4 per cent share,Huawei cautiously managedits shipments across its productlineups and lowered the pro-duction of some popular mod-els like the Mate 30 series.

Its channel managementand prioritisation also resultedin a supply shortage in thelower-tier cities, delaying pur-chases from loyal customers,said IDC ‘Worldwide QuarterlyMobile Phone Tracker’. "Theescalated US trade restrictionsin August ultimately impededHuawei’s momentum in itshome market.

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India is expected to becomethe ‘Fastest Growing’ major

economy from FY22, PHDChamber of Commerce andIndustry said on Saturday.

According to SanjayAggarwal, President, PHDChamber of Commerce andIndustry, the country’s econo-my is "going to attain its fastestgrowth trajectory from thenext financial year 2021-22onwards".

In a recent growth estimateby the International MonetaryFund (IMF), India is projected

to become the fastest growingeconomy among the top 10major economies in the worldeconomic system from 2021 to2025. "The average GDPgrowth of Indian economy innext five years from 2021 to2025 will be at 7.8 per cent,highest as compared with top10 economies including 6.2per cent of China, 3 per cent ofFrance, 2.9 per cent of UnitedKingdom, 2.9 per cent ofCanada, 2.4 of United States,2.3 per cent of Germany, 2.3per cent of Italy, 2.3 per cent ofBrazil and 1.4 per cent ofJapan," Aggarwal was quoted as

saying in a statement."The size of the economy

will increase from Rs 203 tril-lion in FY 2019-20 to Rs 331trillion in FY 2025-26 at cur-rent prices, which becomes ataround US$ 4.42 trillion con-sidering the exchange rate at74.9 (average of current fiscalyear 2020-21; April-October)."

Besides, the industry bodypointed out that percolation ofmore and more economicreforms at the ground levelwith effective implementationwould be crucial to attain thepotential trajectory of $5 tril-lion in the next 6 financial years

by FY 2026-27 (GDP at currentprices; considering theexchange rate between 74-75).

"On the back of variousreforms undertaken by thegovernment, economic recov-ery has become visible in thehigh frequency economic andbusiness indicators of therecent months," he said.

Recently, PHD Chamberon the basis of PHDCCIEconomic and BusinessMomentum (EBM) Index, esti-mated that the GDP growthwill be at around (-) 7.9 percent for the current financialyear 2020-21 as compared with

the median forecasts of (-) 9.3per cent by various nationaland international forecastingorganisations.

"At this juncture, demandcreation measures are needed toattain a positive growth trajec-tory sooner rather than later,"he said. "Demand creationalong with increased spendingon infrastructure will have mul-tiplier effects on the economicgrowth trajectory by boostingprivate investments, creatingnew employment opportunitiesin the country, generatingdemand for commodities suchas steel, cement and power."

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The country’s economy,which has

Shown resilience to comeout from a downturn causedby the Covid-19 pandemic, isexpected to bounce back fromthe next fiscal, State Bank ofIndia chairman DineshKumar Khara said on

Saturday.There will be a "para-

digm shift" which will lead toa more matured economy"with economic players learn-ing to contain costs, he said.

Addressing the virtualannual general meeting ofBengal Chamber of Commerceand Industry, Khara said, "Theeconomy is expected to bounce

back from the next fiscal start-ing from April 2021. The nextnormal will see a paradigmshift and some of them will bepermanent."Khara said theeconomy had shown "resilienceto come out from the down-turn" and some positive trac-tion was witnessed towards theend of the first quarter of thecurrent fiscal.

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New Delhi: With a view toextending healthcare access topeople in India, AffordPlanaims to partner with 80% hos-pitals in most tier-1 cities by2021. Affordplan Swasth, theco-branded loyalty card anddigital wallet with YES bank,allows hospitals to offer a com-plete healthcare access topatients, keeping affordabilityand patient needs at the centre.“With AffordPlan Swasthcard,hospitals can offer financialbenefits in less than INR 1 perday to patients and their fam-ilies,” said AffordPlan co-founder and CEO Tejbir Singh.

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At 57, this Delhi-based environ-mentalist andplantologist ismaking the world

a better place to live, if not thebest. Till date, she has plant-ed 3,90,000 tress pan India.Meet, Radhika Anand, CEOof Plantology, an organisationwhich is working towards thecause under the initiative FalVan.

“Environment is in myDNA. My father and grand-father also loved plants, so itnaturally there in me. I alwayshad this thing in mind that Iwill plant trees, no matterwhat I was doing and who Iwas talking to, the thoughtnever left my mind,” she says.

It was only in 2014 whenAnand decided to work thiscause. “On a train journey, Imet an army man and I sharedmy idea with him. Later, Icame to know that he was theGeneral and he welcomed myidea. He told me that I shouldgo forward with my idea.That’s when I thought of giv-ing it a try,” he tells you.

Things were not as easy asit seems, there were severalroadblocks on Anand’s way. “Ihave done a lot of work withthe Delhi government, and theCentral government, but ini-tially some were agreeing tomy idea, while others criti-cised it by saying: “What areyou saying ma'am, do you seeany land available in Delhi,where will you grow treeshere?”. Some even said:“Ma’am, aap to hume phaswadoge”. I asked them the reasonto which they said: Ma’amdon’t you know there is a sit-uation of drought in twoStates, from where will we getwater for the trees. We can’tafford it,” she tells you.

Not that our Governmentis not doing enough, theyare, but unfortunately, we loveto live in this world of statusquo, “Jaise chalra hai vaisechalne do”, don’t knock theboard, she says.

“This was possible onlywhen I decided to utilise mysavings and giving it back tothe Mother Nature. I went tovarious army men and sharedmy ideas with them. One ofthem agreed and asked me

how many lakh trees I want-ed to plant. They talk in bignumbers and I was a bitshocked with it. I told my hus-band, Sharad Anand who is anex-banker, about it and heasked whether I was sureabout putting my money intothis. He told me to start witha lesser number first, in hun-dreds. But then, I planted85,000 trees back then,” shetells you.

Anand is a one-womanman army and believes indoing things all by herself. “Iwas and am a one-womanarmy. I get a little supportfrom my family company —Parijat Industries, basicallythe back-office help, but I amthe face of Plantology, whichI started in 2005. When I workwith the army, I give them myknow-how and there are threestages in which I visit the sitewhere the plantation has totake place. First, either I goright in the beginning and dorecce and see what kind ofplants can be planted here sothat research is my part andsince I am an environmental-ist, this much homework I caneasily do. The second is, some-times they call me in themiddle of the plantation sothat some photo op can hap-

pen. The third is when all heplantation is over and I just goin the end to probably cut aribbon. The best part workingwith the armed forces is thereare no big challenges as such,because it’s just a piece of cakefor them,” she says.

She tells you that thebiggest lesson we should learnfrom this pandemic is that weshould never try to be themaster of environment, it willalways be our master.

Her family, she says, hasalways been supportive andhave respected her decisions.“I am a mother to two boys,both of them are married. Inmy life, I had gone through avery difficult period medical-ly, so there was a time when Iwas almost bed-ridden andstruggling. I was trying to livefor my children. That periodstayed for about 22 years, somy boys know that theirmother has wisdom from thephoenix, she had got that gritand determination, if she cancome out of that, then she cando anything. Hence, my fam-ily has been very supportiveand they have never everquestioned my decision, noteven when I was giving up mymoney. In fact, somewhere inthe back of their mind they are

happy that their mom is upand about, she is doing somuch and she is getting all theenergy from the environment.Yes, they do get concernedabout my health, when I gooverboard. So, I have to bal-ance it out,” she tells you.

To her credit, she hasbeen awarded the title ofGreen Ambassador by theArmy. “That was very exciting.I was elated that day. It allstarted when I was in NSG forthe plantation day and therewas one gentleman in plainclothes, who was a VVIP. Hetook my business card andvanished. The next day, I wascalled to the CISF office.When I went there, to my sur-prise, this gentleman who hadtaken the card, was no one butthe Director-General of theCISF. They were all waiting forme in a huge conferenceroom, where there must havebeen 40-50 officers. TheDirector-General stood upand asked me “Ma'am, canyou be our Green Ambassadorfor CISF?” I was left awe-struck. And then they organ-ised a planting day inGhaziabad, and there theyhonoured me with the title.After knowing this, the direc-tor-general of NSG called meand said, “Ma’am how can thishappen, how can CISF stealour idea?”, and I found outthat NSG were also makingme their Green Ambassador,so at the next function, theygraciously awarded me theGreen Ambassador, and even-tually, the BSF also did it. So,I’m the Green Ambassador forall three of them. It was hum-bling experience for me,” shetells you.

There are a few linesthat Anand recites whenev-er she addresses a talk onenvironment and it sums upthe message that she wants togive. “If the heat bothersyou, plant a tree; if the waterbothers you, plant a tree; ifyou like birds, plant a tree; ifyou like fruits, plant a tree,and if you like life, plantmany trees. You have to startvery young so that the seedof the environment is embed-ded in you and that seed cangrow into a beautiful tree,”Anand tells you.

Financial crisis , suicidalthoughts, loss of a loved oneand getting fired from the job,he has seen it all at 27. MeetHutansh Verma, a Delhi-based

artist, who has seen the worst of timesand is still standing strong.

“Art has always been of interest to me,but painting portraits of martyrs hap-pened only in 2014. It was actually myfather’s idea. He knew my love and pas-sion for painting. One day, while he waswatching news of a soldier who was mar-tyred in Jammu and Kashmir, he askedwhy not I make portraits of thesejawaans and gift it to their families. Backthen, the idea sounded a bit weird to me.Because my only focus in life was to earnenough money for my family. I wasn’taware of what was going in the countryand neither did it was of interest to me.Hence, I just said okay and tried to ignoreit. But my father was serious enough andhe insisted that I should do it at least oncea year,” Verma, who works as a Fine Artsteacher in Manav Rachna InternationalSchool, Noida, tells you.

After listening to his father’s advice,Verma finally thought of making the por-trait. That is when he realised that he hadno clue about the martyred and or hisfamily or even how many wars India hasfought till date. “It was like a self-reali-sation for me. Then I started readingabout the Kargil War and got to know thataround 527 families were destroyed dur-ing that war. That hit me hard and in May,2014, I decided to start making the por-traits. I wrote several mails to army peo-ple to seek details about the martyrs andtheir families. Till September that year,I was able to make around 12 portraitsand courier them to their families. I toldmy father about that and together wecame up with the theme — Portraits ofPatriots,” Verma explains.

Life gave Verma a major blow whenin the same month, his father passed awaydue to several medical conditions. “Myfather took his last breath in my arms. Hesuffered multiple organ failures and wasgone in a matter of a day. I was left shat-tered. It left a void inside me that couldnever be filled. That was the time whenthe artist inside me was about to die. Andit did, at least for the next few months.It was only in 2015 that I decided to takeup painting again. This time, more seri-ously than ever. So much so, that I madeup my mind that instead of sending theportraits via courier, I would visit thefamilies of martyrs and gift them the por-traits myself. It was because may be now,I was able to connect with their pain,” hetells you.

The first family that Verma visitedwas of Captain Vijayant Thapar’s inNoida. “I made his portrait and went to

visit his family. When his father saw theportrait, he said: “Aesa lag raha hai hama-ra beta hi vapas aagaya hai.” Those wordsgot engraved in my heart and that feel-ing can’t be put into words. I wasextremely happy,” he says.

His father’s demise wasn’t the onlytime he had to go through a tough phasein his life, losing his job and getting sui-cidal thoughts were there too.

“My childhood was filled with chal-lenges. Financial crisis was just one ofthem. Hence, I always made sure that Iwas working even when I was in school.It was after I passed Class XII that I waslaid off my job. It was a showroom thatI worked in and I was just asked to leavewithout being given a reason. It felt thatI have lost everything. I was questioningmyself that how will my family survivenow. I felt suicidal and decided to takemy life on a railway track. I started walk-ing on the track in the opposite directionof the train, so as to I don’t get to knowwhen the train comes closer to me. It waswhen the train was hardly a kilometeraway that within a fraction of second mywhole life was flashed in front of my eyes.That’s when I realised how much my par-ents have struggled for my education andupbringing and leaving them alone wasnot a wise decision. Immediately, I got offthe track and convinced myself that I amstronger than all this and that I wouldnever try to do it again,” Verma recalls.

Till date, Verma has made 65 por-traits and delivered them to their fami-lies. “From Kashmir to Kanyakumari andfrom Gujarat to Arunachal Pradesh, Ihave travelled all over India to deliver the

portraits. I have met dozens of familiesand the most common thing that Ifound in all of them was that via that por-trait they all felt that their son has comeback home,” he says.

However, on his way, Verma had tobrave a lot of stares and taunts. “Initially,many of my relatives felt that I have gonenuts. They told me that this thing won’ttake me anywhere. Some of them mockedme, while others gave a piece of theiradvice. But, I was positive. Today, whencelebrities call me over for a meet-up orwhen people recognise me, those peoplewho once mocked me are the first onesto introduce me as their relatives,” he tellsyou.

Money was another challenge that hefaced. “These portraits are not commer-cial. I fund them. Once, there was a timewhen I had made a portrait but wasunable to go and give it to the familybecause of financial constraint. I wroteabout this on my social media pages. Agenerous man, who never disclosed hisidentity, reached out to me and offeredme a sponsored trip. So, I believe if youare on a way to do good, things will even-tually fall into place on their own,” he says.

From writing mails to army person-nels to now getting requests for portraits,Verma has already come a long way.“People now reach out to me and requestfor portraits. Even children reach out tome on my social media handles andrequest for portraits of jawaans who weremartyred from their area. It’s such a proudfeeling that even the youth today aredoing their bit and are becoming moreresponsible,” he tells you.

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Peaking at the right timeand with all their boxesticked, Sunrisers

Hyderabad are certain to holdsway over a dishevelled DelhiCapitals in the second IndianPremier League qualifier here onSunday.

The past couple of weekshave been a picture in contrastfor the two franchises.

After an underwhelmingfirst half, SunrisersHyderabad startedpushing the envelopewith the mercurialDavid Warner mar-shalling his resourceswell.

Capitals, on the other hand,looked like serious contenderstill their first nine games, win-ning seven in that phase beforean inexplicable slump saw themlose five out of their next sixmatches with skipper ShreyasIyer looking all at sea.

The current situationnotwithstanding, young Iyerwould want to lead the Capitalsto their first summit clash in 13editions while Warner wouldn’tmind adding another silver-ware to his 2016 triumph.

In fact, if he can win the nexttwo games, Warner could boast

of guiding comparatively one ofthe more inexperienced teams inthis IPL.

For Capitals, the biggestworry has been their top-orderwoes — especially the first threeslots where Shikhar Dhawan(525 in 15 games) has shone thebrightest.

Prithvi Shaw’s (228 from 13games) technique against topquality fast bowling has left a lotto be desired and AjinkyaRahane (111 from 7 games) has

had only one knockof note so far.

Something thatwould definitelyworry coach RickyPonting is the num-

ber of ducks by the top-order —nine. Dhawan has four, Shaw hasthree and Rahane didn’t botherthe scorers twice.

However, the bowling unithas done well save a few occa-sions like the first qualifier,where Mumbai Indians battingtook them apart.

Kagiso Rabada (25 wickets),Anrich Nrtje (20) andRavichandran Ashwin (13) havedone exceedingly well in most ofthe games.

Sunrisers’ batting line-up,which has gathered momentumover the last few games, is wellaware of that, and Orange Army’s

premier all-rounder JasonHolder acknowledged the fact.

“What we have done inbatting is that we have beenaggressive upfront. David hasobviously led the charge, wellsupported by (Wriddhiman)Saha.

“Jonny (Bairstow) has donean outstanding job and Manish(Pandey) has kept the momen-tum going,” Holder said whenasked about their strategy to faceDC attack.

“And then we have the levelheadedness of Kane(Williamson). Being good tocome and finish games. So wedon’t play names, we see the balland strike the ball,” Holder said.

Saha’s groin injury, whichruled him out of the eliminator,might also keep him out of thesecond qualifier.

“We have faith in(Shreevats) Goswami. He hasbeen around for some time andwe need to give confidence,” saidHolder, whose 13 wickets in sixgames along with crucial mid-dle- order contributions, hasbeen the ‘x factor’ for his side.

Rashid Khan’s parsimoniouseconomy rate of less than sixruns per over, the unheralded TNatarajan’s subtle variations andSandeep Sharma’s ability to getsome swing upfront only add to

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the strengths of Warner’s team.For the Capitals however, the weak

spots which they can exploit is the inex-perience of two middle-order players —Priyam Garg and Abdul Samad — who areplaying some of the biggest matches oftheir nascent careers.

In the event Capitals make earlyinroads, it will be a test of character for theyoung but talented duo.

Daniel Sams’ poor show with the ballso far is a concern for the Capitals and theymight explore the option of bringing backShimron Hetmyer in place of the left-armseamer, which will also add some battingfirepower.

In that case, Marcus Stoinis might haveto bowl his full quota of overs alongsideRabada, Nortje, Ashwin and Axar Patel.

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MATCHES 17DELHI CAPITALS 06SUNRISERS HYDERABAD 11

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Former India opener and two-time IPL champion skipper

Gautam Gambhir feels ViratKohli’s non-performance asRoyal Challengers Bangalorecaptain should lead to hisremoval from the hot seat as itis now a question of accountabil-ity.

Known for his straight-talk-ing, the hero of India’s twoWorld title triumphs made itclear that Kohli’s name as aleader shouldn’t be taken along-side the likes of Mahendra SinghDhoni and Rohit Sharma, whoare IPL’s most successful cap-tains.

Asked if Kohli should beremoved from RCB’s captaincy,Gambhir told ESPNCricinfo,“100 per cent, because the prob-lem is about accountability.Eight years into the tournament(without a trophy), eight years isa long time.

“Tell me any other cap-tain…forget about captain, tellme any other player who wouldhave got eight years and would-n’t have won the title and wouldhave still continued with it.

“So it has to be accountabil-ity,” Gambhir, who led KKR totwo IPL titles in 2012 and 2014,said on the show Time Out.

Gambhir has been a staunchcritic of Kohli’s IPL leadershipover the years but he insistedthat there is nothing personal.

“...But somewhere down theline, he needs to put his hand upand say, ‘yes, I am responsible.I am accountable’.”

Gambhir then cited theexample of Kings XI Punjab,who didn’t show patiencewith Ravichandran Ashwinafter the veteran off-spinnerfailed to deliver as captain forjust two seasons.

“Eight years is a long,long time. Look at whathappened to R Ashwin.Two years of captaincy(for the Kings XIPunjab), he couldn’tdeliver and he wasremoved.”

For someonelike Rohit, who ison the cusp of hisfifth title, a long stintas Mumbai Indians captain hasbeen only possible because hehas delivered, said Gambhir.

“We talk about MS Dhoni,we talk about Rohit Sharma, wetalk about Virat Kohli...Not at all.Dhoni has won three (IPL)titles, Rohit Sharma has wonfour titles, and that’s the reasonthey’ve captained for such a longtime because they’ve delivered.

“I’m sure if Rohit Sharmawouldn’t have delivered for eightyears, he would have been

removed as well. There shouldnot be different yardsticks fordifferent people.”

Gambhir said it irk-some to see Kohli’s reluc-tance to accept that thebuck stops at him.

“You’re the leader,you’re the captain.When you get thecredit, you should

take the criticism aswell.”He even went to the

extent of saying that RCB didnot deserve to qualify for theplay-offs after four successivelosses.

“You can keep saying‘we qualified for the playoffsand we deserved to qualify

for the playoffs’, absolutelynot. RCB actually never

deserved to qualify for theplayoffs.”

Gambhir said RCB hasincreasingly become a side aboutonly two people — Kohli andAB de Villiers.

“And then they should havehad a squad, probably if Viratwanted to open, they shouldhave picked a middle-order bat-ter in the auction. But again itwas all about Virat and AB (deVilliers).”

It was only de Villiers whocame up some match-winningperformances to prevent RCB’sseason from becoming a totaldisaster.

“Imagine if AB would havehad a bad season, tell me whatwould have happened to RCB,”Gambhir said.

“He was the one who actu-ally won them two or threegames out of seven. I don’tthink as a unit they’ve done any-thing different from what theydid last year. It’s exactly the samethis year as well.

“Only because you’ve qual-ified for the playoffs, just becauseof one individual’s absolute bril-liance, it doesn’t make you astrong contender to win the IPL.”

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India skipper Virat Kohli might skip the last twoTests of the highly-anticipated four-match

series against Australia as he gears up for the birthof his first child in January which could pave theway for an in-form K L Rahul’s entry into themiddle order.

Kohli’s actor wife Anushka Sharma is due togive birth to the couple’s first child in earlyJanuary.

An official word on the skipper’s itinerary isnot yet out but a BCCI source told PTI that Kohlican be expected to take paternity leave after thefirst two Tests of the series starting December 17.

“The BCCI has always believed that family ispriority. In case, the skipper decides on availingpaternity break, he will then be available only forthe first two Test matches,” the senior source said.

The four Test matches will be held in Adelaide(D/N, December 17-21), Melbourne (Dec 26-30),Sydney (Jan 7-11, 2021) and Brisbane (Jan 15-19).

The BCCI has, over the years, encouragedcricketers to take paternity breaks and it is no dif-ferent for India’s captain and best batsman.

“Look, in normal times, he could have flownback for the birth of his first born, missed a Testand played the final one in Brisbane. However, ifthe 14-day quarantine is still in place, it will bedifficult to go and come back again,” the sourceadded. There is a school of thought that KL Rahul’spresence in the Test squad could be doubly ben-eficial in such a scenario.

While Rohit Sharma (expected to be fully fitbefore the Test series starts), Mayank Agarwal andPrithvi Shaw are there as opening options,Kohli’s probable absence might warrant a bit moresolidity in the middle-order.

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Sri Lanka’s ChamariAtapattu smashed a

quick-fire half-century astwo-time championsSupernovas reached theirthird successive final witha narrow two-run win overTrailblazers in a last-ballthriller at the Women’sT20 Challenge here onSaturday.

After the final leaguegame, all the three teamsended with two pointseach but Supernovas (-0.054) and Trailblazers(+2.109) qualified due totheir better net-rate thanVelocity (-1.869) in thecompetition. TheHarmanpreet Kaur-ledSupernovas will now takeon Trailblazers captainedby Smriti Mandhana inMonday’s final.

Opting to bat, Atapattulaid the foundation with anaggressive 47-ball 67,which was studded withfive fours and four sixes.Harmanpreet then playedsome big shots (31 off 29)to take the team to 146 for6. In reply, Deepti Sharma(43 not out) and HarleenDeol (27 off 15 balls) tookthe chase deep but

Trailblazers could onlymanage 144 for 5 in theend, courtesy a superb lastover by left-arm spinnerRadha Yadav (2/30).

For Supernovas, thespinners did a fine jobwith Anuja Patel (1 for 18)and Radha drying up runsin the middle while medi-um-pacer Shakera Selmanpicked up two wickets.

Trailblazers were off toa good start to their chasewith Deandra Dottin (27)and Smriti Mandhana (33)raising 43 for no loss in thefirst six overs.

But Selman strucktwice in the seventh over,

first trapping Dottininfront of wicket and thencleaning up Richa Ghosh(4).

Deepti and Mandhanatried to repair the inningsbut Anuja, who came in forPooja Vastrakar, caughtand bowled the skipper inthe 13th over to reduceTrailblazers to 83 for 3.Deepti then kept them inthe hunt but Trailblazerscould only score seven outof the 10 runs required inthe last over.

Earlier, Atapattunotched up the first fifty ofthe competition and added87 for the opening wicket

with Priya Punia (30 off37). However, Trailblazersspinners Harleen (1/34)and Salma Khatun (1/25)pulled things back after 10overs, giving away just 23runs in next five overs.

Atapattu amassed 14runs in the 16th over witha four and six, whileHarmanpreet exploded inthe 19th over, smashing afour and a six to pile up 15runs to swell the total.

Left-handed openerAtapattu looked for runsfrom the word go andmade her intentions clearwith two boundaries in thesecond over of the inningsbowled by Deepti Sharma.

Later in the fourthover, the Sri Lankan non-chalantly hoisted one overmid-off for a six and thenswept Deepti for a bound-ary as Supernovas amassed15 runs.

Atapattu’s openingpartner Priya Punia, whogot off the mark in herninth ball, played secondfiddle as the duo scoredfifty in the powerplay.

Priya, on 17, got areprieve when Dottindropped a catch offRajeshwari Gaikwad’sbowling.

Supernovas beat Trailblazers, enter final

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The 14th edition of Hero I-Leaguewill kick off on January 9 next year

in Kolkata, the All India FootballFederation (AIFF) said on Saturday.

The 11participatingteams will berequired toenter a bio-secure bubble 14 days prior to their firstmatch according to the schedule, whichwill be announced shortly.

The matches will be telecast Live on1Sports.

Owing to the Covid-19 pandemic,the previous edition of the second-tierleague was stopped abruptly beforefootball action resumed in Indiathrough the I-League Qualifier inOctober this year.

The West Bengal Government andIndian Football Association (IFA)joined hands with the AIFF to organ-ise the qualifiers successfully.

All the 11 teams will face each otheronce in the first leg of the league beforethey are divided into two differentgroups.

The top six teams, according to thepoints table, will face each other onceagain to decide the winner while theother five teams will play against eachother in a one-leg league format.

The team with maximum points(cumulative points collected from allfifteen matches) will be the winner ofthe I-League 2020-21.

The tournament will be organisedby adhering to the COVID-19 guide-lines released by the union healthministry and no spectator will beallowed inside a stadium during amatch.

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Captain Babar Azam hit a flu-ent half century and spurred

Pakistan to a six-wicket victoryover Zimbabwe in first T20I onSaturday.

Azam made 82 off 55balls to reach his 15th halfcentury in T20s as Pakistaneased to 157-4 in 18.5 overs fora 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

M o h a m m a dHafeez scored 36 off32 balls and togeth-er with Azam sharedan 80-run stand asfast bowler BlessingMuzarabani finishedwith 2-26.

Earlier, 20-year-old

Wesley Madhevere hit ninefours and a six to score anunbeaten 70 but Pakistan’s pacestill restricted Zimbabwe at 156-6.

Elton Chigumbura made aquickfire 21 off 13 balls, butZimbabwe’s top order strug-gled to accelerate againstfast bowlers Haris Rauf (2-

25), Wahab Riaz (2-37) andMohammad Hasnain

(1-25). The secondmatch will beplayed on Sundayb e f o r eZ i m b a b w e ,which lost theODI series 2-1,

wraps up its lim-ited-overs tour toPakistan on Tuesday.

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Ole Gunnar Solskjaer lashed out atthe Premier League’s schedulingafter Manchester United fought

back to beat Everton 3-1 on Saturday,saying his struggling team were “set upto fail”.

Man-of-the-match Bruno Fernandesscored twice after Bernard had givenEverton the lead, before Edinson Cavaniopened his account for United, easing thepressure on the beleaguered United boss.

United started the match atGoodison Park a lowly 15th in thePremier League table, smarting afterdefeat to Arsenal and an embarrassingloss to Istanbul Basaksehir.

A visibly angry Solskjaer praised hisplayers after the match but fired abroadside at league bosses for schedul-ing United’s match early on Saturdayafter their midweek Champions Leaguecommitments.

“We were set up to fail,” theNorwegian told BT Sport.

“The kick-off time set us up to fail.We have been to Turkey, played loads ofgames this season already, we got backThursday morning and we are playingSaturday lunchtime, it’s an absoluteshambles.

“These boys deserve better. LukeShaw has got injured because of it. It's ahamstring which might be a long oneand Marcus Rashford might be strug-gling.

“The authorities set us up to fail,who is responsible? We've had enoughof that. Players this season, in these times,a pandemic, mentally and physically it’sdraining. Let us play on a Sunday, there’san international break after this, it’s ajoke.”

AWAY FORMThe victory at the home of Carlo

Ancelotti’s early-season pacesetters wasUnited’s seventh straight Premier Leagueaway win.

Their form on the road contrastssharply with their struggles at OldTrafford, where they have not won a sin-gle league game so far this season.

Bernard put Everton ahead in the19th minute. The ball fell to the Brazilianafter a long Jordan Pickford punt upfield.

He shuffled the ball onto hisright foot, beating Aaron Wan-Bissaka, before driving a shotpast David de Gea at hisnear post.

United’s heads couldhave dropped but theywere level six min-utes later whenFernandes, givenfar too muchspace in the box,headed a Shawcross into the top cor-ner past Pickford.

Lucas Digne had achance to put Evertonback in front as the gameopened up but smashedhis shot against the out-side of De Gea’s nearpost from a tight angle.

United, now play-ing with far more zipand purpose, wereahead in the 32ndminute. Rashford

collected the ball before feedingFernandes on the left of the box.

The Portuguese, thriving inthe absence of Paul Pogba, whowas left on the bench, curled over

a cross for Rashford, who failedto connect with his attempt-ed header but the ball crept inoff the far post.

Everton dominated pos-session in the early

stages of thesecond halfbut United’sdefence, mar-

shalled by theimpressive Harry

Maguire, waslargely untroubled.

United had a shoutfor a penalty on the hourmark after a clumsyPickford challenge onMaguire but Evertonescaped.

Solskjaer broughton Pogba and Cavani

with eight minutes to go and theUruguayan scored his first goal forUnited deep into stoppage time fromFernandes's unselfish pass, lifting Unitedto 13th in the table ahead of the inter-national break.

Everton, who topped the PremierLeague table earlier this season, havenow suffered three consecutive leaguedefeats.

“I hope that after the interna-tional break we will back in a dif-ferent shape,” said Ancelotti. “Itis not only a problem of thedefenders, it is all of the team.

“I know how to manage dif-ficulties, every year you havethem. We can start again after the

break, we are really bad at the momentbut we started well.”

Frank Lampard’s Chelsea have thechance to climb to third in the table ifthey beat Sheffield United at StamfordBridge later Saturday.

Elsewhere, Crystal Palace host Leedsand West Ham welcome Fulham to theLondon Stadium.

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Lionel Messi came off thebench at halftime to score

two goals as Barcelona beat10-man Real Betis 5-2 onSaturday to end its four-game winless streak in theSpanish league.

Barcelona coach RonaldKoeman gave Messi somerare rest during the first half.It was Messi’s first leaguegame as a substitute inmore than a year.Assistant coachAlfred Schreudersaid before kick-off that Messi“was not fresh.”

O u s m a n eDembele blasted a shot pastformer Barcelona goalkeep-er Claudio Bravo to give thehosts the lead in the 22ndminute.

Betis forward AntonioSanabria equalized in thefinal seconds of the first halfthat featured four clear miss-es by Barcelona’s strugglingforward Antoine Griezmann,including a penalty blockedby Bravo.

Messi spent the first halftucked in a winter coat andwearing a face mask likeother substitutes in the oth-erwise empty Camp Nou.That all changed when Messiwent on at the start of the sec-ond half for Ansu Fati andhad a decisive impact.

Messi only needed fourminutes to impact the match

when he smartly skippedover a pass to let it runthough for Griezmann totap home. Messi continued toshow his playmaking skills.Deep inside Betis’ area, Messiturned and fed a pass to

Dembele, whose shot wasgoal-bound when defenderAissa Mandi blocked it withhis arm. A video review ledto Mandi being shown a redcard for impeding a cleargoal.

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Alexander Zverev advancedto the Paris Masters final for

the first time by beating top-seeded Rafael Nadal 6-4, 7-5 onSaturday, denying Nadal thechance to win a tournament thatcontinues to elude him.

The fourth-seeded Zverevfaces No. 3 Daniil Medvedev inSunday's final, and leads him 5-1 in career meetings.

Nadal has won 86 titles,including a record-equaling 20Grand Slams and 35 Mastersevents, but lost his only finalhere in 2007 to DavidNalbandian.

Serving for the match at anempty Bercy Arena because ofthe coronavirus pandemic, theimposing Zverev opened withhis 13th ace.

He double-faulted on hisfirst match point at 40-0. But onthe next one, Nadal’s forehanddown the line went wide to givethe 23-year-old German only hissecond win in seven matchesagainst the Spanish veteran.

Nadal was broken to love inthe third game and dropped theopening set for the third time in

his four matches. Zverev won78% of points on first serve com-pared to 60% for Nadal and led9-1 in aces in that set. Heclinched it with a sliced shot atthe net which Nadal could notreach.

Zverev broke Nadal again inthe third game of the second set.

A frustrated Nadal punchedhis racket head when he failedto convert two break points inthe sixth game, but held hisnerve to save four break pointsin the next game and thenfinally broke Zverev to make it4-4.

But an erratic and agitatedNadal was conceding too manychances on his serve and, afterZverev broke him for a thirdtime, he sat shaking his headduring the changeover.

Earlier, Medvedev reachedthe Paris Masters final for thefirst time after beating MilosRaonic 6-4, 7-6 (4) in a contestbetween big servers. He securedthe win with a smash at the net.

The 10th-seeded Raonichas never won a Masters eventand missed out on a second finalhere, having lost to Novak

Djokovic in 2014. The Canadianhad 12 aces compared to sevenfor Medvedev and both playerswon around 80% of their pointson first serves.

“I don’t think it was the besttennis I have played this year, butit was definitely one of the bestmatches,” Medvedev said. “Iwas playing good in the begin-ning of the year, and then therewas a stop (because of the pan-demic).”

Raonic missed a chance inthe second set when Medvedevsaved three break points at 0-40down in the eighth game, butRaonic finally broke him on hisfourth break point in the 12thgame to make it 6-6.

“I think in some keymoments he found a way to bea bit more the aggressor. He wasdictating a bit more, I was try-ing to change the pace up,”Raonic said. “He was a lot moreefficient at creating his opportu-nities.” Medvedev raced into a 4-0 lead in the tiebreaker andsealed victory on his first matchpoint. The 2019 U.S. Open run-ner-up is seeking his eighthcareer title and first this year.

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Novak Djokovic on Fridayemulated childhood

hero Pete Sampras by claim-ing the year-end world num-ber one ranking for the sixthtime.

Djokovic, 33, was con-firmed in the position afterRafael Nadal, the only manwho could deny him topspot, opted not to play in theSofia event next week.

Djokovic was also a sea-son-ending world numberone in 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015and 2018.

“Pete was somebody I

looked up to when I wasgrowing up, so to match hisrecord is a dream come true,”said Djokovic.

The Serb star, a winner of17 Grand Slam titles, hadalready moved past Sampras’tally of 286 weeks in the topspot in September.

Djokovic can go past all-time record-holder RogerFederer’s mark of 310 weekson March 8 next year.

“To finish the year as No1is one of the most impressiveachievements in our sport,one which requires sustainedexcellence across the season,”said ATP chairman

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Real Madrid’s Belgianforward Eden Hazard

and his Brazilian team-mate Casemiro have bothtested positive for coron-avirus, the La Liga clubannounced on Saturday.

“Real Madrid informsthat our players, Casemiroand Eden Hazard, havetested positive in theCovid-19 tests undertakenyesterday (Friday), in themorning,” the club said ina statement. “Neither play-er will feature in the side to

take on Valencia on Sunday.Nor will they be able to joinup with their respectivenational teams during thecoming international win-dow as both are required togo into isolation.

It marks another set-back for Hazard whomissed the start of the sea-son owing to a series ofankle injuries. He onlyreturned to the Madridline-up for the ChampionsLeague meeting withB o r u s s i aMunchengladbach onOctober 27.

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���� ��������*�������'���Rawalpindi: FormerZimbabwe captain EltonChigumbura will retire frominternational cricket after theconclusion of the ongoingT20I series against Pakistan,his country's cricket boardsaid on Saturday.

The veteran Zimbabweall-rounder will bring the cur-tain down on a 16-year inter-national career that began in2004. The 34-year-oldChigumbura had featured in14 Tests, 213 ODIs and 54T20I matches before the startof his farewell series. He made

his Zimbabwe debut in 2004.According to ZC, the all-

rounder is retiring because“injuries had continued totake a toll on him as well as topave the way for young bloodin the national side”.

Te all-rounder hadamassed 5782 internationalruns and taken 138 wickets,including two hundreds and26 half-centuries. He is onlythe second player fromZimbabwe to achieve a dou-ble of 4000 runs and 100wickets in ODI cricket, afterGrant Flower. PTI

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Page 12: The Pioneer · 2020. 11. 7. · that you have chosen me to ... but I promise you this: I will be a President for all Americans - whether you voted for me or not. I will keep the faith

Come festivals and all one isexcited about apart from eatingthe delicious foods is receiving

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� What inspired you to write SirSir Sarla?

The play was written back in2001. I have been playwriting since

1988-89 — short plays. The journeyturned to writing one-act plays. Till

2000 I was writing plays which wereabstract and absurd. I was experiment-

ing with a

lot of space all the time. I felt that therewas a need to write around love. Purelove, after a parents’ love it is that of astudent for the teacher. This is fromwhere you evolve and learn about life.So, I wrote a play keeping this in mind.Since then the play has been running for20 years now and standing tall.� What makes this play so popular?

Nobody sees the complications orsimplicity of a relationship between a

Professor and a student. It is so piousand everyone knows their limita-

tions and yet so much is offeredunconditionally. All the fourcharacters — Professor and histhree students — in the playhave been identified by peoplein real life. There are so manypeople who find a connectionand think of the girl theycould never confess their loveto and say: “Aree Sarla, I love

you.” Or that I got married toKeshav but still love the Professor.

That is why people find a connec-tion here. The cast and the dialogues

also make a difference.� Is it difficult to write, direct and act

in your own projects?I love doing all three. It is the actor

that gives the rhythm to the writer – towrite for the character. The directorhelps the writer to write in such a waythat you have, in playwriting, set a craft.Everything is interlocked perfectly.� How did you get interested in act-ing?

I had been part of the inter-collegetheatre since forever after Class X. Weused to take these competitions veryseriously. I was a sports person and partof kho-kho, cricket and a mountaineer.But I felt I wanted to create and be partof something from where I didn’t haveto retire. I felt that writing helped meto answer questions that I had. I usedto act and decided to concentrate on it.� Why is theatre in Mumbai differentfrom the rest of India?

The Mumbai audience is willing tobuy tickets and watch theatre. In Delhi,people want passes. In Mumbai, we havea show even on the weekday at 4 pm inMarathi. We have a 6 pm and 9 pmshow at Prithvi Theatre. It is nice thatI have had the audience for so manyyears. People here want to see plays.

There have been instances where peo-ple have come to see a play eventhough there has been a blockbusterfilm or a cricket match.� You have been part of Hindi, Tamil,Kannada, Marathi, Telugu andMalayalam cinema. How did you endup being part of diverse languages andcinema?

I need to thank the South cinemafor this. It is they who decide whom theywant to cast. They really go out of theirway to cast you. That is how I ended upin their projects.� In many of your Hindi films, youend up playing a drunkard. Why?

I chose to play characters that weresmaller. I chose to take up roles whereI had little to contribute since I want-ed to do more theatre. I used to beoffered bigger roles. I was offered therole in Circuit in Munna Bhai MBBS.But I turned it down because I wantedto be around the theatre.� What is the best thing about doingtheatre?

Money is not the attraction ofbeing part of the stage since it doesn’t

pay that much. Theatre gives a thrill andexperience. There have been caseswhere I have performed with no audi-ence because it was a new place and wewere trying to create awareness. Therewere instances when there was notransport and we walked. We have donetwo shows back-to-back. It is one hellof a job.� Tell us about Ansh Theatre.

I have been doing original theatrefor Ansh barring one by RabindranathTagore’s Chitrangada. I want to put outoriginal work, not that I am trying toboast about this. When I say original,I mean a play that has never been stagedbefore where it answers questions thatI have.� What is your take on showcasingplays on TV?

We tried and ensured that it does-n’t look like a TV serial or resemble aproject on an OTT platform. Care hasbeen taken that the essence of theatrehas not been lost. Due to the pandem-ic, no plays are being staged, ZeeTheatre has a wide reach and peoplewho have only heard of the plays cannow watch them on TV.

� How did you end up as a singer?I grew up in New Hampton in the UK. Where I grew up,

there were lots of kids who were into different styles of musiclike Hip-hop and 80s pop. For Indians living outside, my par-ents were always playing Bollywood music, Punjabi bhangra andqawwali. There was so much music around me as a kid. I wasalways encouraged to perform when we had family and friendsover. My dad would set up a camera and music and my sisterand I would dance. When I was six-seven I was given the oppor-tunity to sing at our satsang. Even though it was a spiritual envi-ronment and I was in front of only 30-40, it gave me an adren-aline rush of just singing. I grew older, my interest only increasedand knew that I wanted to pursue music even when my fatheris a businessman and wanted me to join him.� What is your Asar about?

While we were writing the song with producer Bharat Goeland lyricist Siddhant Kaushal, before we would start the session,we would catch up with what was happening with each other.We were talking about relationships and how difficult it is in theage of Tinder and Snapchat and striving to be what we are not.I told them how I was sure about who I am rather than pretendto be what I am and how I have improved as a person becauseof my partner. So, on the basis of this, we started writing thissong. It is more of a self-love song – how your asar on me hasmade me a better person.� What were the challenges due to the pandemic?

I came to know that the song had been selected for compe-tition that Universal Music are doing with Sterling Reserve whenI was back in London. I was told that I would have an auditionin front of Shaan and Devraj Sanyal. MD & CEO, India & SouthAsia at Universal Music Group. I had to do an online audition.I was a bit apprehensive since I had not sung in months but itwas successful. The biggest challenge was to shoot the video. Wecouldn’t go through the normal auditions. The lead opposite metested positive, we had to reschedule and look for another actress.We all had to all take the test to rule out COVID-19. We had totake frequent breaks to air out the room. Even the direction washappening remotely; he was in India. We just learnt how to makedo with what we had.� Is this your solo song?

Yes, this is my first Punjabi solo single. Before this, I usedto be part of a band and released a few songs in India. But thisis my first song since I have moved here.� How tough has been the shift?

Since I was part of this band, we had already released a fewlabels here. In 2014, I came to Delhi, I spent a couple of monthsmaking the video with the band and realised that I liked the kindof music that was being made here. I ended up living here fortwo years and worked with a few artists here. It became a per-sonal mission that I share the great music being made here withthe rest of the world. � Does it help, creatively, that you can go back to the UK?

Definitely. The way technology works, one doesn’t have tobe in a particular place to record music. I can carry my equip-ment in my bag now and record it. When I produced my firstsong, I was lying on a hospital bed but I had my laptop and head-phones. The benefit of being able to be in the UK and here isthat in India, one hears more Bollywood and Punjabi music. Inthe UK, one hears western music. This exposure to different musichas helped me develop my music.� Why choose a Punjabi song as your first solo?

I was in an English band and sang and wrote in English. ButI grew up in a Punjabi family. Any artist or musician who doesmusic out of passion and not just for money, every time, theyfind something new that becomes exciting to them, they pur-sue it. I found I loved singing in Hindi and Punjabi because ofthe language. I loved the techniques used here. While it is easyfor me to sing and write in English, to do a Hindi or Punjabisong, the feeling is great. It is more fun.

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He has been seen in supporting and pivotal rolesin films like Sarfarosh and Swades. His contribu-tion to theatre includes over 50 short plays and 40

full-length plays, including Sir Sir Sirla. Theactor speaks with Shalini Saksena aboutwhat made him write this play, his the-

atre group and why he has chosen toplay only small roles in films

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�� What is your song BlackCoffee about?

The song was done duringthe lockdown due to COVID-19. The year has been veryvolatile and damaging for a lotof people globally. So manypeople have lost their jobsand have had to make life alter-ing decisions. This song is areminder to people to justbreathe in and let music andsmall activities of your life be.The video is as heartwarmingas the song itself - featuringfriends from all over the worldenjoying and surrendering toeveryday activities and truly

finding comfort in the smallpleasures.�� What is Chori Choriabout?

I come from a rich Punjabiculture. I just wanted to revis-it my roots and one way ofdoing this was revisiting themusic that was born in undi-vided India. The stories andsentiment of the culture hasbeen dispersed through thesongs created by the poetsand singers of that era. ChoriChori is one such song origi-nally sung by iconic singerReshma. I have been singingthis song for years now and

decided to reinvent thisclassic with producerand guitarist KaranPandav. It is a con-temporary take onelectronic produc-tion and beats butretaining the folk.There is sarangi inthe middle playedby maestroS u h a i lY u s u fKhan.�� W h a tmade youpursue musictherapy?

Over time, mymusic taste andpreferences startedto evolve andchange. I realisedthat I wanted todo more than just

perform. I wantedto do somethingmore with mymusic. The drum-

mer of the bandI was a part ofleft for the

B e r k l e eCollege of

Music inBoston.

He told me about the pro-gramme on music therapy. Iknew what I wanted to do. I gotaccepted to Berklee on schol-arship to pursue music thera-py and have worked with avariety of clients ever since.�� ss

There are many situationsa music therapist can help - thescope is vast. My personalexperience has been in a hos-pital setting and with neuro-logic music therapy. In the hos-pital I worked with chronical-ly and terminally ill patients.These patients have to be in thehospital for extended periods

of time, sometimes their entirelives. They experience pain,social isolation, medical trau-ma, financial burdens, and a lotof times end in the demise ofthe patients. Music supportsthem in providing normalcy intheir abnormal lives. Musicalso is used in accompanyingprocedures to reduce stressand pain perception. Songswritten by patients and theirfamilies are recorded and arememories with those patientswho pass away. However, dueto COVID-19, this has shiftedonline and things have to bedone differently.

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It’s that time of the year againwhere life is all about diyas,

lights, rangolis, mouth- sweets, andhappiness. While Diwali is mostlycelebrated on one of darkest nightsof the year, you all would agreewhen we say that 2020 has been oneof darkest years in all our lives. This

pandemic has not onlytaught us the importance ofhealth, but also the impor-tance of home-cooked food.This Diwali, it’s time to ditchthose packaged drinks andcolas, and instead indulge insome delicious and simpleDIY mocktails that will keepyou hydrated.

Cucumber Mojito: Thisrefreshing drink is probablythe easiest one to make. Allyou need are some slicedcucumbers, fresh mint

leaves, water, sugar and lime juice.Blend the mint leaves and cucum-ber and strain the juice. Add thatjuice to the water. Additionally, youcan add sugar and lime juice to thatminty water according to yourtaste. This recipe is perfect to kickstart your Diwali celebrations.

Trusty ol’ Jaljeera: No festiveseason is complete without thefamous tangy Jaljeera. This mock-tail has been our go-to-welcomedrink since generations. So after youhave gorged on some deliciousDiwali food, you must gulp down aglass of this digestive drink. Trust us,your stomach will thank us later! Allyou need to do is mix some drymango powder, dry mint powder,black salt, cumin powder, black pep-per powder and add this to a glassof water. And voila, you're done!

Red Blood: This one is a hatkemocktail. If you like the taste oftomato juice, then this recipe issomething you definitely need to try.You'll need fresh tomatoes (peeled,deseeded, blended), fresh orangejuice, fresh green chilly, crushed icecubes and some black salt. Mix theseingredients together and you'll lovethe concoction. It's definitely for thefaint hearted, but if you like a kickin your mocktail, you can definite-ly try this one.

Tip: Skip using the chilly ifyou’re planning on serving thismocktail to your kids

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India is a land of stories. Thetales from our ancient past havebeen told and re-told over mil-lennia in different ways andforms. We have heard them from

elders; seen them depicted in artthrough the devotional scrolls ofPichwai and Phad; experienced theirenthralling rendition in Ram Leela orKathakali; and even watched themcome alive in festivals such as DahiHandi. Modern historical figures suchas Rani Lakshmi Bai, too, have becomea part of our storytelling traditions.Indeed, our sense of history, culturaland moral sensibilities have beenshaped by our indigenous stories. Thelegends of the heroes and heroineshave inspired us through our growing-up years.

��������������Along with the various oral story-

telling traditions in India, the writtenformat has also existed for centuries.Long before the printing press came tothe country, Indians have been pre-serving their stories on birch or palmleaf manuscripts. Panchatantra, one ofthe most ancient fables in the worldhas been found preserved in both theancient manuscripts and also 18thcentury hand-written paper versionswith colourful illustrations. In contem-porary times, old stories from Vedicand Puranic literature continue toinform, entertain and educate us asthey adapt to new forms and mediums.

Hinduism with a huge pantheon ofrevered characters and universally rel-evant themes provides artists and writ-ers with enormous creative fodder. It isalso the only major religion in theworld that allows great freedom inartistic representations of its Gods.The inherent liberalism of Indicthought not just accepts, but alsoencourages new expression. Thebreadth and brilliance of its texts alsolend well to fantastical adaptations inillustrated mediums. It is not surpris-ing therefore that these tales were thespringboard that catapulted the Indiancomic industry to popularity and suc-cess for almost three decades from1960s onwards.

����� �������Comic books came to India a

couple of decades later than the West.The initial comics published in thecountry were the American ones.Indian comics, however, saw theirmost successful phase later whenAmar Chitra Katha with its beautiful-ly illustrated comic series fromHindu literature and Indian historybecame a household name. The blendof art and story brought India’s cul-turally history alive for the 20th cen-tury and it became a hit with bothchildren, teachers and parents.

A children’s magazine of that era,the classic Chandamama, though nota comic book per se, was known forits illustrations and published long-running mythological stories that ranfor years. The stories embedded inthe never-ending story of KingVikramaditya and Betal (Vampire),an adaptation of an ancient Sanskritwork Baital Pachisi, brought widerepute to this magazine.

The story was adapted in theform of a television series in 1985.This shift was portentous. As thenumber of television sets grew expo-nentially over the next decade, read-ing became a less favoured pastime.Stories from ancient India such asVikram-Betal, and series suchRamayana and Mahabharata stillremained popular but the mediumhad changed. By the time the centuryended several comic book publisherswere out of business.

�������� ��In recent years, comic books have

seen a resurgence. The advent of digi-tal technology and social media arehelping new designers and artists cre-ate and promote their work more easi-ly. Today’s comic artists are both pas-sionate creators and smart entrepre-neurs. They are driven by a strongconviction about the type of work theyundertake but also know how to effec-tively reach the readers. The graphicnovel has now moved from beingfocussed on children to targetingadults.

During the research for my bookThe Indic Quotient, ReclaimingHeritage through Cultural Enterprise, Icame across one such comic book ven-ture, Vimanika comics. The founderKaran Vir Arora told me that his moti-vations to start this venture weremulti-pronged. “I had a three-pointagenda: firstly, educating the youtharound the world about Indian culture,heritage, and spiritual values.Secondly, I felt the need to share thestories in a format that appeals toyoung people. And thirdly, I wantedthese graphic novels to be ultimatelycreated into live-action and animatedfilms like Superman and Batman,” hesaid.

Vimanika’s stories are steeped inIndian mythology, but the art is highlystylised. Apart from a team of anima-tion artists, writers, and editors,Vimanika also has archaeologists,researchers, and historians, who helpkeep the content authentic. Arora saysthat they pick up historical events that

have created an impact, especiallythose that exemplify individualcourage. “Our comics are a completepackage of drama, emotion, action,and spirituality. They also have fantas-tic artwork.” Vimanika is a part of thenew wave of comic books in India. Notonly is the expression more in tunewith the times, the comic book pub-lishers are using unconventional waysto promote and market their books.

� ��������������� ����Conventions like Comic Con are

specifically curating events aroundcomic books and their characters anddrawing thousands of visitors inIndian cities. These gatherings do notonly sell the books, but also otherparaphernalia connected with popularcomic book themes. Comic Conattracts young professionals, collegekids and parents. Since this consumersegment has more disposable incomeit brings higher publicity and sales.Inspired by this trend, Arora too hastried to build a new revenue channelsbased on his comics. “We decided totake our heroes beyond books,” saysArora, adding, “We have ventured intomerchandise, collectibles, and toys.”

While Indian comics take tentativesteps into new channels to boost visi-bility and sales, innovative digital plat-forms are setting a new trend in theWest. With comic apps and dedicatedmobile based platforms, comic booksare finding it easier to reach a genera-tion that is more comfortable withsmart phones than physical copies ofbooks. Marvel Comics, one of

America’s biggest comic book companywas an early mover and launched itsdigital app several years before the oth-ers caught up. While Marvel and DCComics, which is Marvel’s biggest com-petitor, have their own apps, there areothers which work like e-readers forcomic books and offer a range ofcomics from different publishers. Theyprovide readers a catalogue of comictitles for a specific download price orwork on a subscription model withunlimited access to their library.

With growing downloads andincreasing revenues, the digital app-based graphic novel has become agame-changer in comic book publish-ing. In India, too, comics have adaptedto the digital ecosystem. Not only dowe find bigger names such as AmarChitra Katha and Tinkle comics avail-able as apps but several other playershave leveraged the this medium toreach out to readers. These includeboth graphic novels based on warheroes such as those by Indian WarComics as well as stories from Indianlegends from the fast-growing comiccompany Graphic India.

Graphic India states, on its website,“In the same way that America createdsuperheroes and Japan created anime,Graphic is tapping into the creativity ofIndia to launch a new wave of enduringcharacters and mythic heroes to capti-vate the imaginations of youths in Indiaand around the world.” The companysays that it is using uses digital comicsand animation to develop new storiestargeting the 550 million Indian youthunder the age of 25 and the 900-mil-

lion-person mobile market as they taketheir stories directly to smartphones.

Graphic India, in fact, is highlyfocussed on the new media. It is spark-ing a new creative revolution in comicbook storytelling by using enhancedvisual effects and interactive elementsthat lend well to a digital medium. Itmade waves when it recorded 20 mil-lion views for the first of its kind short-form comic books ‘18 Days: TheMahabharata’, and its female super-heroine series, ‘DEVI’ which itlaunched on the video-content plat-form TikTok for a limited period oftime.

Graphic India is now expandingtheir motion comics and audio comicsto include new languages beyondEnglish and Hindi, and a quick look atGoogle Playstore reveals that manylesser known Indian comic apps arealso available in Hindi and otherregional languages.

As comic book players continue topursue new creative ways to competein an increasingly competitive space,the best is perhaps yet to come. Thepast two decades have seen an expan-sion in the genres and formats ofIndian comics. While the storytelling isgetting more attractive and the formatsmore diverse, Indian themes form thebulk of the comics sold. It seems likeIndian stories rooted in tradition andcultural ethos are here to stay.

The writer is an author. She hasrecently published The Indic Quotient,Reclaiming Heritage through Cultural

Enterprise with Bloomsbury India

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The decision to take the ulti-mate plunge to build yourown firm is never an easy

one. The decision can be spurredin a moment of realising a path-breaking idea or an intense desirefor individual freedom driven bya stifling corporate culture.Whatever the reason, the path isakin to a game of thorns wherethe entire world seems to queueup against you. This chapterintends to serve as a primer foraspiring entrepreneurs to helpthem navigate through the initialdays before the real battle begins!

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It is a no-brainer that youneed to have a potential idea thatsolves a genuine pain point forend consumers. The pain point istermed as genuine if at least amillion consumers feel it (not justa few consumers on 80 feet road,Koramangala, Bangalore) and areready to pay for it. By paying, itimplies an amount that makesunit economics positive. Whilethis idea of yours is getting proto-typed, it is advisable to not rockyour existing job or source of sta-ble cash flow. The disruption toyour steady cash flow is advisableonly when your great idea hassuccessfully been piloted.

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Although it is important tostay fully committed and passion-

ate to your start-up, it is sensibleto be legally sound and protect-ed. The business structure ofyour start-up needs to be agreedupon at the very start to avoidunforeseen future debacles. Themost primitive version is thesole proprietorship model whereyou are the eventual owner withevery revenue and cost item hit-ting your personal wealth. As aconsequence, you are individual-ly liable for all losses to yourfirm. This structure is advisablefor freelancers who do not havesignificant cost liabilities whileoperating your businesses. Asafer version of a business struc-

ture, termed by some as thegreatest invention of the previ-ous century, is the limited liabil-ity partnership model. As thename suggests, the model guar-antees you access to the entirerevenue and profits while limit-ing your losses to the investedcapital. As a result, your person-al wealth that is not invested inyour company is deemed safe.

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While entrepreneurs in theprevious century were famousfor working in their garagesbefore making it big, the 21st

century has made it easier foraspiring entrepreneurs to get aphysical space. The ever-mush-rooming co-working spaces(e.g., WeWork, Innov8), withdesks and rooms for rent withall other services taken care of(e.g., internet, cleaning, security,cafeteria, parking), are anextremely attractive propositionfor aspiring entrepreneurs. Thecost of such services is fairlyreasonable with an individualdesk costing between 8,000 and12,000 a month while a dedicat-ed meeting room costingbetween 15,000 and 20,000 amonth.

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Registering your company is anecessary evil. It involves obtain-ing a DIN (director identificationnumber), filing the certificate ofincorporation at the MCA web-site, obtaining a permanentaccount number, tax accountnumber, registering for Goodsand Services Tax (GST), blockingthe company name among othersteps. In case a patent is involvedfor your product, it involves a fewmore days. To be reasonably prac-tical, the entire process of regis-tering your start-up can takearound three weeks including the

time you require to get the docu-ments ready.

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Even before you have decidedto take the plunge and registeryour firm, a social media presenceto test the concept and user inter-est can be of great help. In termsof effectiveness of media,Facebook is passé whileInstagram is the new king of com-merce. Not to forget, leveragingLinkedIn for understanding enduser traction is picking up. Morethan product testing, a followingof at least 10,000 people on your

product pages is a handy start. Topay for followers or likes is notadvisable, they rarely end up sub-scribing to your product. Anorganic following is always advis-able in the beginning before dri-ving up an audience by paying forthem.

In conclusion, as exhilaratingas it may sound, starting yourown firm is a very difficult job,both emotionally and physically.

An excerpt from Hacks forLife and Career: A Millennial’s

Guide to Making it Big bySandeep Das, published by SAGE

Publications India/SAGE Response

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Six months ago India had 3,500Covid-19 cases. At that time,India was under lockdown andone evening millions beat theirplates congratulating Indians for

successfully staying home. Six months agoit would have been unthinkable to stepout of the safety at home, take a flight(wearing the PPE kit) to Mumbai whichcontinues to be India’s Covid-19 hotspot,and supervise a construction site full ofpeople, who too have ultimately chosento step out to work. But this is preciselywhat a family member will do this week,at a time when we need to be more care-ful than ever in a country with over8,267,623 cases such that one has greaterchances to run into infected people nowthan one was six months ago.

Offices have opened even if hospitalbeds are full. Roads are packed with traf-fic even if greater number of people needto be quarantined indoors. Flights are ondespite the high risk of giving the virusto a co-passenger. We are clearly living ina dystopian world.

Ask anyone in your circles who is outand about the reason, and it is likely thatmany of them will tell you about lock-down fatigue. The more people realisethat Covid-19 is here to stay for a whilemore, the more they feel that life must goon with or without Covid-19.

“Covid-19 is not a fatal disease,” I haveoften been told. “Kids will go crazy anddrive us crazy if kept with us indoors,” aparent once told me. “I need to step outto earn a living,” said a family member.This is not just in India. “Cases have risenagain in Switzerland and we have anoth-er lockdown. But, thankfully, the day carefor our baby is open this time round, soit is more manageable,” a friend told me.Some others these days also point to datathat suggests that the Covid-19 curve inIndia has bent and daily new cases aredeclining since mid-September in thecountry, and so it is alright to step out.All of them belong to high incomegroups.

These are all very sound reasons toget on with life out of our homes, exceptthat these are also great examples of ourimpressive capability to find reason foractions we desire rather than actions thatwill keep us safe.

Increasingly more of my friends andacquaintances are out and about, and theyare also increasingly being either infect-ed or seem to know those in their imme-diate circles who are Covid-19 infected.Now this is a fairly logical correlation tomake — Covid-19 is a fast spreading virus

and more you get in contact with othersthe more you are bound to catch it. Thelack of information as well as new muta-tions of the virus make it impossible forus to make assumptions that wearing amask or keeping some distance from peo-ple while interacting, will protect us.Indeed all we need to do is stop meetingpeople for a few months of our life untilthere is a vaccine (or other such solution).

We do not know how long this willtake — but is this unpredictability not the

very characteristic of difficult times we allhave certainly encountered in our lives?Times that are tough and difficult doseem that they will never end until weknow better when difficult times finallyrecede. However, my point is that lack ofcaution leading to more cases is explic-able.

What is less comprehensible is thathow are the numbers of Covid-19 casesin India decreasing when around me —and perhaps around the readers of this

piece — more numbers of people are get-ting infected? I hear more numbers offriends and their friends and family get-ting infected, than ever before. Yet thetotal number of Covid-19 cases in Indiaare declining. Why are the nationalnumbers in India not matching the newsin my social circles?

This was an interesting question in achat group (equivalent these days to a liveconversation) that echoed my bafflement.The members of this chat group were peo-

ple like me who are engaged in the fightagainst Covid-19 in India. They, like me,were also all members of high incomegroups. We and our family members aremore likely to take flights, go to offices,and return to social entertainment.

In India, the high income groups aresmaller in number compared to the largerproportion of India’s population which isthe economically weaker sections andslums from where we have been told withgreat euphoria that the cases have stabilisedto a large extent.

The latter perhaps explains why theoverall national numbers have been recent-ly declining. However, what we do know isthat higher income groups have clearly hadenough of social distancing and Covid-19wariness, forgetting that it was preciselythem who, by their travel and various socio-professional activities, are responsible for theunprecedented global spread of the virus.

So if we indeed have a situation whereCovid-19 cases have moved from the eco-nomically weaker groups where the major-ity of India’s population is, to the higher eco-nomic groups that have fewer numbers butpossibly where the majority of our social cir-cles are, how long will it take for the eco-nomically weaker group to be re-infected?

A plausible answer is that this massinfection will take three months which isapproximately when the immunity will wearoff.

Here we have a perfect vicious circle,a game of ‘passing the virus’ across socio-economic groups. The pandemic startedwith people who travelled internationally,so indeed it infected the high income groupsfirst who then spread it to the large num-bers of economically weaker groups.However each time these economicallyweaker groups gain immunity for two orthree months the case load will decline, butthen this will lead to the higher incomegroups lowering their caution as well as weare seeing in current times.

I do not wish to add more worryingnews to the daily Covid-19 stress. Yet at thistime the break from this vicious circular pat-tern once again depends to a large extenton those belonging to higher incomegroups. We need to focus only on essentialphysical meetings with people for some timelonger. For now dump that flight, workmeeting, family trip out.

The writer is CEO of Sustain Labsand Adjunct Professor at SciencesPo

Paris. She is also a columnist andauthor of the 2019 bestseller IndianInstincts — essays on freedom and

equality in India

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+�����D3������������ �����-$��Although it will take a few

weeks for a formal decla-ration of results of theNovember 2020 presidentialelection in the United States,the results and lead reported sofar make it quite clear that therewill be a change of guard in theWhite House.

On January 20, 2021, as thenew President, presumably JoeBiden, takes oath as the nextPresident of the United States,a post-Trump era will dawnwith substantial challenges forthe American people and evenfor the world.

This election was contest-ed in the midst of a globalCovid-19 pandemic that hit theAmerican people the hardest interms of lives lost, livelihood injeopardy and health security inabsolute red zone. Yet the vot-ers’ turnout was the highest inmore than a century. Physicalsecurity of people, economicsecurity of the nation, andAmericas standing in the worldwere all in stake.

Analysts had begun toponder whether the Trumpera in the country’s historywould be an aberration or anew trend. But the fact thatabout four more million peo-ple voted for Donald Trump in2020 than they did in 2016speaks volume of the post-Trump phase of events in theUS even if a Democratic can-didate assumes office in theWhite House. The race hasbeen very close and Trumpsupporters have proved all pollsurvey results wrong the way itdid in 2016.

Significantly, a new presi-dency without adequate sup-port in the US Congress isbound to face political hurdlesin achieving the policy objec-tives. The pious intentions ofuniting the country, preservingthe American values and giv-ing a healing touch to thenation may prove to be aHerculean task.

Today’s America is lesswhite and much younger withchanging values of GenerationZ. The role of the Baby

Boomers and Generation X hasdeclined and role of theMillennials and Generation Zis becoming increasinglyprominent.

There is notable demo-graphic shift in the societyand the political dynamicshave changed with people ofcolour and minorities beingmore conscious of their rightsand political role. DonaldTrump’s immigration policy,attitude towards racism, viewson the white supremacists, theBlack-Lives-Matter movementwith supports from a largenumber of white population areall indicative of an America thatis divided.

The priority of the nextAmerican President will, ofcourse, be providing a healing

touch to the bruised andwounded society in an utterlydivided nation. But how? It isnot going to be easy. PresidentTrump may no longer be in theWhite House, but his influenceis unlikely to disappear anytimesoon. Sooner the RepublicanParty is able to discover amore temperate, tolerant, classyand compassionate leadershipbetter it would be for the coun-try to face the shifting reality ofa changing demography andsettle down with a new societalconsensus.

The next USAdministration will also haveto ensure health security,improve economic wellbeing ofthe masses and promote racialequity. In all these, the role ofthe Indian-American commu-

nity is going to be crucial. Andthis is where the roots of thesocio-economic connectionbetween India and the UnitedStates can be located.

The Indian-Americancommunity has of late provid-ed the strong social bridgebetween the two countries andthe political and the econom-ic role of this community in theUS are critical to sustaining themomentum of India-US strate-gic partnership. This is a com-plex connection and it cannotbe explained in plain language.But it needs emphasis that theIndian Government underPrime Minister Narendra Modihas successfully engaged theIndian-American communityin a manner that serves theinterests of India as well as the

United States. Detractors would likely

spread their discourse thatPrime Minister Modi throughthe Indian-American commu-nity endorsed PresidentDonald Trump in an electionyear and thus Joe Biden mayplay hardball with India. Theymay also draw attention toPakistan bestowing “Hilal-e-Pakistan” on Joe Biden in 2008and thus argue that a Bidenpresidency may be friendlierwith a Pakistani Government.

The reality is quite differ-ent. First, Prime Minister Modihad gone to America to bolsterIndia’s ties with that countryand sought to impress upon thePresident the role of a vastnumber of Indian-Americansin promoting American society

and economy. He would havedone the same thing in theHouston rally or Ahmedabadroadshow, had it been a differ-ent person in the White House.

Reasoning that Biden’s pol-icy towards Pakistan will beinfluenced by an award hereceived about 12 years ago islikewise untenable and falla-cious. After all, Biden was theVice President when Osamabin Laden was killed inPakistan!

Significantly, India-USstrategic partnership began totake shape since President BillClinton’s path-breaking trip toIndia in March 2000 and sign-ing of a Vision Statement withPrime Minister Atal BihariVajpayee. It is that partnershipenvisioned by an American

President and an Indian PrimeMinister about 20 years agothat has borne fruit today andIndia-US relationship has neverbeen better than what it istoday.

Twelve years of RepublicanAdministration since end ofBill Clinton’s DemocraticAdministration have not erect-ed any barriers to America’sstrategic partnership withIndia. Eight years of ObamaAdministration and now nextfour years of BidenAdministration cannot but fur-ther strengthen the US-Indianties.

It was President Clintonwho established a strategicpartnership with India notlong after India went nuclear.It was President George WBush who signed the 123Agreement to bolster India-UScivil nuclear cooperation. It wasPresident Obama who consid-ered India a “lynchpin” of his“Asia Rebalancing” strategyand it was President Trumpwho made India a key anchorof his “India-Pacific” strategy.It was the ObamaAdministration who startedthe Defence Dialogue betweenthe Pentagon and the Ministryof Defence. It was PresidentTrump who expanded it into2+2 dialogue to include theState Department and Ministryof External Affairs. What elseexample can be given to under-score the robust bipartisansupport in the US for having astrategic partnership withIndia!

Prime Minister NarendraModi has an extraordinarycapability to forge personalbond with key world leaderswith a view to promotingIndia’s national interests. He didthat with President Obama,President Trump and now he can do so with JoeBiden, presumably the nextUS President.

(The writer, ProfChintamani Mahapatra, anexpert on US studies, is present-ly Rector, JNU, New Delhi)

��*������$��+ ���+���-���C�% ������+������ �+���2Nearly eleven political par-

ties have been up in armsagainst the Imran Khan-ledPakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)Government almost for amonth now over a number ofissues, especially on the eco-nomic front.

Economic woes faced byPakistan at the moment areoffering a rare advantage to thePakistan DemocraticMovement (PDM) coalitionled by two of the most promi-nent political parties — thePakistani Muslim League(Nawaz) and the PakistanPeoples Party (PPP) amongothers to attack theGovernment.

The first PDM rally wasorganised in mid-October. Fornow, the veteran MaulanaFazlur Rehman, head of theJamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F), isheading the PDM. Just beforebeginning his first pubicappearance, he clearly under-lined the objective of the coali-tion, “The Opposition is com-mitted and there should be noimpression that any of the par-ties are waiting for an agree-ment. All parties are commit-ted and are united in restoringthe sanctity of the people’svote.” Outlining the PDM’sunited role in its fight againstthe PTI Government, he said,“We don’t have personal enmi-ty with anyone. But it should bespecified that Pakistan belongsto Pakistanis. It does not belongto western entities.” He alsostressed on the fact that“Pakistan did not come intopower to be ruled by the glob-al establishment. It all impliesthat the PDM is solidly behindthe Maulana and they want anImran-free Pakistan whereinthere would be no westernintervention at all.

Maryam Nawaz, formerPrime Minister Nawaz Sharif ’sdaughter and vice-presidentof the PML(N), while embark-

ing on this journey, regardedherself as the “Nawaz’s foot sol-dier”. She vowed to continueher father’s mission forPakistan. Meanwhile BillawalBhutto-Zardari, the PPP chair-man and son of formerPresident Asif Ali Zardari andlate Prime Minister BenazirBhutto, too has joined thestruggle and made it a unitedfront to bring down the ImranGovernment.

Indeed, these second-gen-eration leaders of the two mainOpposition parties have putforward a rare fight to theArmy-backed PTIGovernment in Islamabad.

The 26-point charterreleased by the PDM is verysignificant. It clearly spells outthat there should be an end tothe establishment’s role in pol-itics. Among other things, italso highlights that Imran mustresign immediately, anddemanded production of miss-ing persons and reduction ofthe prices of basic commodi-ties. The PDM has alsoannounced a clear line ofaction for the immediatefuture. Apart from its hugeGujranwala rally, the alliancewill hold joint rallies across thefour provinces of the country.Also it says that these rallieswill be followed by massprotests across the country inDecember and a long march tothe capital city of Islamabad inJanuary 2021. The coalitionlawmakers may also considerthe option of resigning fromthe country’s NationalAssembly.

At the moment, PML(N)founder Nawaz, who was con-victed of corruption in 2018, isnow based in London after get-ting bail on medical grounds,had given fiery video speech-es at two different rallies organ-ised by the PDM. In one of hisspeeches, he created almost ahistory of sort. He called out

the name of the head of thePakistan’s Army GeneralQamar Javed Bajwa andaccused him of engineering hisouster in 2017 and 2018 victo-ry of the PTI in the generalelection. It’s in fact very rare fora senior politician of a formerPrime Minister’s stature to

make specific allegationsagainst a sitting Army chief ofthe country. This is a worry sig-nal for the country at thismoment. But Nawaz in hisspeeches maintained that hisfight is not against Imran butonly against those people whohas brought him to power.

And undoubtedly, it is clearthat he is pointing finger at thecountry’s Army establishment.Questioning the all powerfulArmy is somewhat prohibitedin a country like Pakistan as it’spopularly known as the “deepstate” of the country. Besides,the Army in that country

absolutely regulates all internaland external moves of anycivilian Government that hasever come to power since itsformation.

Precisely, in the last 73years of Pakistan’s history, therewere four occasions when theArmy ruled the country. Andsuch Opposition alliances hadin the past came togetheragainst military rulers and attimes with significant success-es. In the late 1960s, theOpposition parties had thrownout Field Marshal Ayub Khanfrom the office of the Presidentof Pakistan. However, theOpposition parties could notregister similar success inregard to General Zia-ul-Haq’spresidency in the 1980s. Thecharges against Zia were led bythe Movement for theRestoration of Democracy(MRD). Again, such an alliancecalled Alliance for theRestoration of Democracy(ARD) came up to dethroneGeneral Pervez Musharraf inthe 1990s. It’s not that theseOpposition parties only ralliedagainst the military dictatorsbut they also came up to pulldown civilian governments inthe past. For example, the pop-ularly elected Zulfikar AliBhutto Government was pulleddown by such alliances in theyear 1977 to bring home theGeneral Zia presidency. Buthere we must remember thatthere were specific allegationsof election rigging and manip-ulation of economic policiesagainst the then BhuttoGovernment. In those days, theOpposition coalition was led bythe Pakistan National Alliance.

When it comes to the coali-tion against ImranGovernment, it must be notedhere that it is fully backed bythe Army unlike the BhuttoGovernment of the 1977. Sotoday’s PDM struggle is veryunique in that sense and if goes

further, it may garner morepublic support for it.

What has exactly enragedthe Opposition and the publicis deep economic crisis accom-panied by the severe attack ofthe global corona pandemicacross Pakistan. The acuteshortage of wheat and sugar haspressed a large number of peo-ple to look out for an alterna-tive government in the country.Besides these two problems, thedevastating floods and locustattack on grain fields havetogether accentuated the cur-rent crisis in Pakistan.

It is an open secret thatcorruption of successive estab-lishments, including the PTI inIslamabad, has severely plaguedthe entire administrative sys-tem of the country. It hasbecome an inseparable part ofPakistan’s public governancesystem. Sadly, Imran has addedan extremely poor politicaldiscourse to the existing pub-lic sphere of the country. Hisscant disregard for politicalopposition and arrogance inpublic forums has furtheraggravated the problems for theGovernment.

Currently, ousting the PTIGovernment is seemed to be aninsurmountable task. The sim-ple reason is that it is solelybacked by the Army ofPakistan. But how long thissupport sustains is a matter ofbig question. Till then, Imranis safe. The traditional rivalriesof the two Opposition partieswithin the PDM i.e. the PML(N) and the PPP must make itsure their differences shouldnot break the alliance in thedays to come. Looking atPakistan’s tumultuous politicaland historical past, it can besafely concluded that the PTIGovernment will not survivethe test of time.

(The writer is an expert oninternational affairs)

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Adecade ago, one of the NorthEastern states was undergoingpolitical turmoil. Many promi-

nent members in the Cabinet were vyingto replace the incumbent Chief Minister.All of them were lobbying with the cen-tral leadership, staking their claim. Butsomehow, consensus was not buildingup in favour of any one. This tussle washelping the then Chief Minister survive.Meanwhile, someone advised one of thechallengers to seek my advice about hisprospects.

The person concerned approachedme in early March 2007. But he didn’tknow his exact birth particulars. So, ahorary chart was cast, when heapproached me. Based on my finding, Ioffered my opinion: “Well, change ofguard is on the cards. You, though holdthe potential to occupy that positionsometime later, but do not hold a chancein immediate times. Rest assured, youmay occupy the high position after fouryears. At the moment, you will serve tobe a king maker. Better rally aroundsomeone else.” The man accompanyingthe said leader was an astrologer. Heasked me for the basis.

Lagna sub-lord Venus, the 10th lord,

which also happened to be 11th sub-lordthough in exaltation but was in the 8thhouse. Venus occupied the constellationowned by Mercury, the 11th lord in ret-rogression and tenanted in the 6thhouse. The lagna sub-lord, thus, stronglysignifying the 11th, 10th and 6th house,suggested that he had the potential tooccupy the high office. All the more,because benevolent Jupiter from 4thhouse (Simhasansthana) extended itsaspect to the 10th house and 10th lord.However, the fact that Mercury, the con-stellation lord of Venus, was in retro-grade motion, implied that it did notpromise fulfilment of his desires inimmediate terms.

Sun, the natural Karaka for the manin power (incumbent Chief Minister)was conjunct Rahu and Uranus, andsquare to Jupiter. It implied that the oneholding charge had lost the favour ofcentral leadership. Also, his fall frompower (Rahu conjunct Sun) was immi-nent.

A few days later another challengerapproached me. In his case, too, thehorary chart offered similar finding. Inthis case, Cancer lagna was rising.Saturn, the 7th and 8th lord occupied

the lagna, which was detrimental to hisinterest. Lagna sub-lord was again Venusin exaltation in the 9th house aspectedby 6th and 9th lord Jupiter. But Venusoccupied the nakshatra owned byMercury, the 3rd and 12th lord in retro-grade motion. 10th sub-lord was againVenus. 11th sub-lord was Mercury inretrogression. In this case also, Sun wasin rapt conjunction with Uranus andRahu and square to Jupiter.

So, once again, I opined that therewill be change of guard, but he doesn’thave a chance at that point of time. Hecould act as a king-maker.

Towards March end came the per-son who finally succeeded in dislodgingthe incumbent Chief Minister and occu-pied the high office. A look at the RulingPlanet chart revealed that Moon wasover the head, indicating that the ques-tioner will be in public limelight soon.Being a fast moving planet, the resulthad to come very soon. But Saturn stoodguard, being conjunct Moon. So, it hadto create hurdle in the way. But thenbenevolent Jupiter, and also the 6th lordidentified with success over adversary,with its trine aspected mitigated Saturn’smaleficence towards fulfilment of desire.Venus, the Lagna lord and incidentally

the lagna sub-lord also, aspected thelagna, which lent strength to the personconcerned. Venus occupied the sub ofRahu, which was tenanted in the con-stellation owned by Jupiter posited in the2nd house. It extended trine aspect onthe Sun posited in the 6th house; as wellas Moon and Saturn tenanted in the10th house. 11th sub-lord Jupiter was indirect motion occupying the constella-tion owned by Mercury, which againwas in direct motion. So, fulfilment ofdesires was promised. Mercury hap-pened to be the 10th sub-lord identifiedwith position of responsibility, is again afast moving planet, and so, the resulthad to come fast.

Sun was at 13 degrees and 48 min-utes in Pisces sign. In another 12 days,Sun will move by another 12 degreeswhen Jupiter will be exactly trine to it.So, I predicted that he may becomeChief Minister in another 12 to 15 days.In fact, exactly after 12 days, he wassworn in as chief Minister.

To sum up, a reasoned astrologicalprediction can be surprising.

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