12
A s many as two lakh Indians stranded abroad amid coronavirus crisis and lock- down will be brought back by air and sea route from Thursday. The national carri- er Air India will operate 64 flights between May 7 and 13 to bring back Indians stranded abroad. Those taking the spe- cial flights will be charged around 50,000 from Europe and 1 lakh from the USA. Military transport planes and naval warships will also set out for Indians stuck in West Asia and the Maldives. This could be biggest ever exercise since Air India flew back 1,70,000 during the first Gulf War. In the first phase, Air India will conduct all evacuation flights but as the numbers grow, private airlines will also be allowed to conduct such flights. Sharing more information through video-conferencing, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said, Air India will operate 64 flights from May 7 to May 13 to bring back around 15,000 Indian nationals stranded abroad amid the Covid-19- induced lockdown. “A passenger on a London- Delhi flight will be charged 50,000 and on a Dhaka-Delhi flight 12,000,” the Minister said. “A comprehensive plan has been drawn out for dis- tressed citizens stranded in foreign countries. These include people whose visas have run out or they are deported or they went to (for- eign) countries just before the lockdown. This is a special mis- sion,” the Minister said. These 64 flights would be conducted by Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express to repatriate Indians from 12 countries such as the UAE, the UK, the US, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman. India will conduct 10 flights to the UAE, seven flights each to the US and the UK, five flights to Saudi Arabia, five flights to Singapore and two flights to Qatar to repatriate Indian nationals between May 7 and May 13, the Minister said. During this time period, India will also conduct seven flights each to Malaysia and Bangladesh, five flights each to Kuwait and Philippines, two flights each to Oman and Bahrain, Puri said. According to Puri, the Government has received inter- est from about 1,90,000 people who are willing to come back to the country. But the num- bers would be much higher at around 4,00,000. The Minister said that the money charged from passen- gers would be lower than the cost of carrying these passen- gers. He added that the Air India is already receiving Government subsidies to stay afloat, and hence it would strain the national carrier fur- ther if these passengers are sub- sidised by the Government. “I have to go to Finance Minister every month to seek 500-600 crore of financial package for Air India,” the Minister said. Puri said these flights are conducted on the basis of requests received from potential passengers who are willing to pay. If these evacua- tion flights are kept free, then people who can afford to pay will also unintentionally ben- efit. On the first day of evacu- ation on May 7, 10 flights will bring back 2,300 Indians stranded because of airspace closures by various countries to slow the spread of coronavirus. Depending on the aircraft, each flight will have between 200 and 300 passengers to ensure social distancing. The three ships deployed by the Navy are INS Shardul, INS Magar and INS Jalashwa. The INS Jalashwa, based in Visakhapatnam, has steamed into the Arabian Sea for the mission. The Indian Air Force has prepared about 30 aircraft, including Boeing Co.’s C-17 Globemaster and Lockheed Martin Corp.’s C-130J Super Hercules, for the mission. G oing by the total number of infections, India is the 15th worst affected country, but measured by the quantum of daily spike in absolute terms, India is now in the league of big 5 after the US, the UK, Russia and Brazil. In percentage terms — calculated on the basis of total positive cases — the vol- ume of its daily rise leaves it only behind Russia among the top five nations. On Monday, India record- ed 3,900 positive cases, less than the rise registered by the US 24,663 cases, Russia 10,581, the UK 3,985 and Brazil 7,119 in the same 24 hours. Apart from these four nations, and Peru which is giving a hot chase, India has left all other countries far behind in con- tributing in absolute daily terms. With this speed, India will take just 10 days to beat China’s count. There is another noticeable factor that should worry Indian policy makers: In terms of overall count, India has far less positive cases compared to any of these top four or five coun- tries. Take the case of the United Kingdom. It recorded 3,985 new cases from a base of 1,90,584 cases. India matched the UK’s number from a 4.5 half time lower base, signifying the speed with which the virus is spreading across the country. Making similar compari- son with the US, Russia and Brazil, it shows that India is also adding far more cases in per- centage terms compared to them. Take the case of the US which has 12,12,785 cases. In percentage term the addition of 24,663 cases is around two per cent. The UK’s rise is also nearly 2 per cent only. But India’s daily spike will stand around 6-7 per cent, which is extraordinarily high on the global scale. Such huge daily spike from a relatively lower base places the country on an alarming tra- jectory because of its lower test- ing and huge population size. This was not a one-off day when cases in India shot up in a big way due to Maharashtra recording nearly 1,600 new cases. India was the sixth largest daily contributors on daily basis on May 3 also when it logged 2,687 cases, the US 27,248, the UK 4,339 cases , Russia 10,633 cases , Brazil 4,588 and Peru 3,394 cases. Other than these coun- tries, India is clocking far big- ger numbers than some of the other nations — China, Spain, Italy, the UK, Turkey , Iran, Canada and Belgium, to name a few. Continued on Page 2 O n the second day of easing of restrictions of the lock- down on Tuesday, India woke up to be greeted by the news of a massive spike in new Covid- 19 cases during the last 24 hours. The country saw 3,900 new cases and 195 deaths between two briefings on Monday and Tuesday even as the Centre insisted that India has so far been able to stave off community transmission of the viral infection. There were 42,505 cases on Monday morning, which shot up to 46,400 cases by Tuesday morning. By Tuesday evening, the country had added 2,000 more cases, taking the total to 48,382 and 1,657 deaths, and 13,738 recoveries. Alarmingly, at least eleven States have crossed 1,000 marks with Maharashtra topping the list. Tamil Nadu recorded its highest single-day spike till date, with an addition of 527 cases, which took its tally to 3,550, while Delhi and Gujarat added more than 300 cases each. In its daily briefing, the Union Health Ministry noted the “highest increase in both new infections and deaths” and called the States and Union Territories for effectively imple- ment contact tracing, active case search and clinical man- agement of cases. Ministry spokesperson Lav Agarwal said the country has seen 3,900 new cases since Monday and 195 new deaths. Corresponding cases for a sin- gle day on Monday were 2,573 and deaths were 83. Cases have increased near- ly by 40 per cent and mortali- ty has more than doubled over the past 24 hours. The Central Government attributed sud- den surge to previously data- cagey States beginning to report cases and deaths. Continued on Page 2 D espite the Delhi Government announcing a 70 per cent “special corona fee” on alcohol late on Monday, hundreds of people on Tuesday lined up outside liquor shops in the national Capital, for the sec- ond consecutive day as they sought to lay their hands on a bottle of their favourite tipple. The crowd was seen jostling restlessly with each other without following social distancing norms across the national Capital on a day when the Delhi Government also withdrew lifting of curbs in the areas which witnessed violation of social distancing norms on Monday. Following violation of the social distancing norms, the police also used lathis to con- trol the crowd on Tuesday. Long queues were formed outside liquor vends in Krishna Nagar and Vishwas Nagar and a large number of policemen stood outside to manage the crowd and ensure social dis- tancing. At some places, like the Gole Market in Central Delhi, although the liquor shops were shut, baton-wielding paramil- itary personnel were deployed to keep the crowd at bay. There were several people who had lined up at liquor out- lets since 4 am. “We had arrived here at the liquor shop around 7 am but before us there were several others who had already formed a kilometre long queue,” said Suraj, who went to buy liquor at Laxmi Nagar. “The shop opened at around 9 am and it took me more than two hours to buy three bottles of liquor,” he said. When asked about the 70 per rent increase in liquor rates as corona fee was imposed, Suraj said it doesn’t affect and who are willing to buy liquor will buy at higher rates too. Continued on Page 2 I n one of the biggest spikes in number of coronavirus cases in the Army, at least 24 people tested Covid-19 positive in one of its most prestigious hos- pitals known as Research and Referral Centre. The positive cases were immediately shifted to the Base Hospital, Delhi Cantonment and the necessary treatment protocol was now underway. Prior to this, the 13- lakh-strong force had 14 cases, including three doctors. Nearly of them were now fit and ready to join duty. Confirming the latest cases, army sources said here on Tuesday all the affected per- sons, including 20 serving sol- diers, had been undergoing treatment in the oncology(can- cer) department of the hospi- tal and undergoing treatment. They included serving and retired personnel besides dependents. Officials said no medical staff was among the affected. In all, the armed forces have so far have nearly 70 odd corona positive cases. Most of them are from the Army and the Navy. T he Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) has reported 45 Covid-19 positive cases in its ranks and has placed around 170 under quarantine. Amid the spiralling num- ber of patients of the viral infec- tion, the ITBP has opera- tionalised its 200-bed referral hospital at Greater Noida to treat such patients from other paramilitary forces. As many as 43 Covid-19 positive personnel are from a unit at Tigri Camp here. The unit was deployed for internal security duties. While patients are undergoing treatment at Safdarjung Hospital, the 41 others are admitted to the CAPF Referral Hospital, Greater Noida. Continued on Page 2 A senior Law Ministry offi- cial has tested positive for Covid-19 after which a floor of the Shastri Bhavan was partially sealed on Tuesday. This would impact the functioning of sev- eral important ministries locat- ed in the building. An officer of the Law Ministry, housed at the fourth floor of the Shastri Bhavan, has tested positive for Covid-19. As per protocol, contact tracing has been initiated and once the list is prepared such people will be subjected to quarantine and tests for Covid-19. Certain gates and lifts will also remain closed till Wednesday for subjecting the premises to the disinfection exercise, officials said. T he Centre on Tuesday cleared the air on several academic and entrance tests related issues amidst the coro- na pandemic lockdown. HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank also announced the dates of pending entrance examinations, including the Joint Engineering Entrance (JEE) for admissions in IITs and the NEET. As per the schedules made available, NEET will be held on July 26 while JEE MAIN on 18th, 20th, 21st, 22nd and 23rd July, 2020 followed by JEE(Advance) likely to be held in August. The dates of UGC NET 2020 and CBSE 12th Board examinations will be announced soon, according to a HRD Ministry statement. Continued on Page 2 A mid coronavirus induced lockdown and loss of mil- lions of jobs, the State Governments battling with the revenue constraints are increas- ing taxes on liquor, petrol and diesel to fill their treasury. After the Delhi Government, the Andhra Pradesh Government has also increased taxes on liquor by 50 per cent to 75 per cent. More States are expected to follow Delhi and Andhra Pradesh’s special coro- na fee on liquor. Top sources said that sev- eral States are considering imposing special corona levy on liquor and hike in petrol and diesel prices to fill their coffers amid the disruption on account of the lockdown. Continued on Page 2 P ulitzer Prize for three photo journalists from Jammu & Kashmir on Tuesday ignited a political controversy as Congress leader Rahul Gandhi congratulated them and the BJP hit back at him asking whether his party considers Kashmir valley an integral part of the country or not as the photojournalists won the awards for calling Kashmir “contested territory”. The US award was given to the three journalists for their “striking images” clicked when the erstwhile State of J&K was in the lockdown state in August 2019 following abrogation of the Article 370. “Congratulations to Indian photojournalists Dar Yasin, Mukhtar Khan and Channi Anand for winning a Pulitzer Prize for their powerful images of life in J&K. You make us all proud,” Rahul said on Twitter. Dar Yasin, Mukhtar Khan and Channi Anand work with news agency AP. While Yasin and Khan are from Kashmir, Anand is from Jammu. Posting a message with the hashtag “anti-national Rahul Gandhi”, BJP national spokesman Sambit Patra asked, “Will Sonia Gandhi answer whether she and the Congress party concur with Rahul on the issue of Kashmir not being an integral part of India! Rahul today congratulated those who got an award for considering Kashmir as a “Contested Territory”!” Continued on Page 2 New Delhi: More than 10,000 Indians have tested positive in the Gulf countries, with 84 deaths recorded till now, news agency ANI quoted sources as saying. The figures came a few days before India starts evacu- ating its stranded citizens from several countries, including UAE that is home to a large diaspora. T he Union Government on Tuesday night hiked the excise duty on petrol by steep 10 per litre and that on diesel by 13 a litre. The hike in duty has taken away gains from falling global crude oil prices. Last month, benchmark Brent crude oil dropped to as low as $18.10 per barrel - the lowest since 1999, as coron- avirus wiped away demand, creating large surpluses around the globe. Prices have since rebounded to around $28 a barrel. Earlier in the day, the Delhi Government raised the value- added tax (VAT) on petrol to 30 per cent from 27 per cent and doubled it from 16.75 per cent to 30 per cent for diesel, effecting a rise of 1.67 per litre for petrol and 7.10 per litre for diesel. Petrol in Delhi now costs 71.26 a litre. Diesel price has been hiked to 69.39 per litre from 62.29.

2020/05/06  · er Air India will operate 64 flights between May 7 and 13 to bring back Indians stranded abroad. Those taking the spe-cial flights will be charged around 50,000

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Page 1: 2020/05/06  · er Air India will operate 64 flights between May 7 and 13 to bring back Indians stranded abroad. Those taking the spe-cial flights will be charged around 50,000

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As many as two lakh Indiansstranded abroad amid

coronavirus crisis and lock-down will be brought back byair and sea route fromThursday. The national carri-er Air India will operate 64flights between May 7 and 13to bring back Indians strandedabroad. Those taking the spe-cial flights will be chargedaround �50,000 from Europeand �1 lakh from the USA.

Military transport planesand naval warships will also setout for Indians stuck in WestAsia and the Maldives. Thiscould be biggest ever exercisesince Air India flew back1,70,000 during the first GulfWar.

In the first phase, Air Indiawill conduct all evacuationflights but as the numbersgrow, private airlines will alsobe allowed to conduct suchflights.

Sharing more informationthrough video-conferencing,Civil Aviation MinisterHardeep Singh Puri said, AirIndia will operate 64 flightsfrom May 7 to May 13 tobring back around 15,000Indian nationals strandedabroad amid the Covid-19-induced lockdown.

“A passenger on a London-Delhi flight will be charged�50,000 and on a Dhaka-Delhiflight �12,000,” the Ministersaid. “A comprehensive planhas been drawn out for dis-tressed citizens stranded inforeign countries. These

include people whose visashave run out or they aredeported or they went to (for-eign) countries just before thelockdown. This is a special mis-sion,” the Minister said.

These 64 flights would beconducted by Air India and itssubsidiary Air India Express torepatriate Indians from 12countries such as the UAE, theUK, the US, Qatar, SaudiArabia, Singapore, Malaysia,Philippines, Bangladesh,Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman.

India will conduct 10flights to the UAE, seven flightseach to the US and the UK, fiveflights to Saudi Arabia, fiveflights to Singapore and twoflights to Qatar to repatriateIndian nationals between May7 and May 13, the Ministersaid. During this time period,

India will also conduct sevenflights each to Malaysia andBangladesh, five flights each toKuwait and Philippines, twoflights each to Oman andBahrain, Puri said.

According to Puri, theGovernment has received inter-est from about 1,90,000 peoplewho are willing to come backto the country. But the num-bers would be much higher ataround 4,00,000.

The Minister said that themoney charged from passen-gers would be lower than thecost of carrying these passen-gers. He added that the AirIndia is already receivingGovernment subsidies to stayafloat, and hence it wouldstrain the national carrier fur-ther if these passengers are sub-sidised by the Government.

“I have to go to FinanceMinister every month to seek�500-600 crore of financialpackage for Air India,” theMinister said. Puri said theseflights are conducted on thebasis of requests received frompotential passengers who arewilling to pay. If these evacua-tion flights are kept free, thenpeople who can afford to paywill also unintentionally ben-efit.

On the first day of evacu-ation on May 7, 10 flights willbring back 2,300 Indiansstranded because of airspaceclosures by various countries toslow the spread of coronavirus.Depending on the aircraft,each flight will have between200 and 300 passengers toensure social distancing.

The three ships deployedby the Navy are INS Shardul,INS Magar and INS Jalashwa.The INS Jalashwa, based inVisakhapatnam, has steamedinto the Arabian Sea for the

mission. The Indian Air Force has

prepared about 30 aircraft,including Boeing Co.’s C-17Globemaster and LockheedMartin Corp.’s C-130J SuperHercules, for the mission.

�� ������������ ��������

Going by the total number ofinfections, India is the

15th worst affected country, butmeasured by the quantum ofdaily spike in absolute terms,India is now in the league of big5 after the US, the UK, Russiaand Brazil. In percentage terms— calculated on the basis oftotal positive cases — the vol-ume of its daily rise leaves itonly behind Russia among thetop five nations.

On Monday, India record-ed 3,900 positive cases, lessthan the rise registered by theUS 24,663 cases, Russia 10,581,the UK 3,985 and Brazil 7,119in the same 24 hours. Apartfrom these four nations, andPeru which is giving a hotchase, India has left all othercountries far behind in con-tributing in absolute dailyterms. With this speed, Indiawill take just 10 days to beatChina’s count.

There is another noticeablefactor that should worry Indianpolicy makers: In terms ofoverall count, India has far lesspositive cases compared to anyof these top four or five coun-tries.

Take the case of the UnitedKingdom. It recorded 3,985new cases from a base of1,90,584 cases. India matchedthe UK’s number from a 4.5half time lower base, signifyingthe speed with which the virusis spreading across the country.

Making similar compari-son with the US, Russia andBrazil, it shows that India is alsoadding far more cases in per-centage terms compared tothem.

Take the case of the USwhich has 12,12,785 cases. Inpercentage term the addition of24,663 cases is around twoper cent. The UK’s rise is alsonearly 2 per cent only. ButIndia’s daily spike will standaround 6-7 per cent, which isextraordinarily high on theglobal scale.

Such huge daily spike froma relatively lower base placesthe country on an alarming tra-jectory because of its lower test-ing and huge population size.

This was not a one-off daywhen cases in India shot up ina big way due to Maharashtrarecording nearly 1,600 newcases. India was the sixthlargest daily contributors ondaily basis on May 3 also whenit logged 2,687 cases, the US27,248, the UK 4,339 cases ,Russia 10,633 cases , Brazil4,588 and Peru 3,394 cases.

Other than these coun-tries, India is clocking far big-ger numbers than some of theother nations — China, Spain,Italy, the UK, Turkey , Iran,Canada and Belgium, to namea few.

Continued on Page 2

����� ��������

On the second day of easingof restrictions of the lock-

down on Tuesday, India wokeup to be greeted by the news ofa massive spike in new Covid-19 cases during the last 24hours. The country saw 3,900new cases and 195 deathsbetween two briefings onMonday and Tuesday even asthe Centre insisted that Indiahas so far been able to stave offcommunity transmission ofthe viral infection.

There were 42,505 cases onMonday morning, which shotup to 46,400 cases by Tuesdaymorning. By Tuesday evening,the country had added 2,000more cases, taking the total to48,382 and 1,657 deaths, and13,738 recoveries.

Alarmingly, at least eleven

States have crossed 1,000 markswith Maharashtra topping thelist. Tamil Nadu recorded itshighest single-day spike tilldate, with an addition of 527cases, which took its tally to3,550, while Delhi and Gujaratadded more than 300 caseseach.

In its daily briefing, theUnion Health Ministry notedthe “highest increase in bothnew infections and deaths”and called the States and UnionTerritories for effectively imple-ment contact tracing, activecase search and clinical man-

agement of cases.Ministry spokesperson Lav

Agarwal said the country hasseen 3,900 new cases sinceMonday and 195 new deaths.Corresponding cases for a sin-gle day on Monday were 2,573and deaths were 83.

Cases have increased near-ly by 40 per cent and mortali-ty has more than doubled overthe past 24 hours. The CentralGovernment attributed sud-den surge to previously data-cagey States beginning toreport cases and deaths.

Continued on Page 2

���������������� ��������

Despite the DelhiGovernment announcing

a 70 per cent “special coronafee” on alcohol late on Monday,hundreds of people on Tuesdaylined up outside liquor shops inthe national Capital, for the sec-ond consecutive day as theysought to lay their hands on abottle of their favourite tipple.

The crowd was seenjostling restlessly with eachother without following socialdistancing norms across thenational Capital on a day whenthe Delhi Government alsowithdrew lifting of curbs in theareas which witnessed violationof social distancing norms onMonday.

Following violation of thesocial distancing norms, thepolice also used lathis to con-trol the crowd on Tuesday.

Long queues were formedoutside liquor vends in KrishnaNagar and Vishwas Nagar anda large number of policemenstood outside to manage thecrowd and ensure social dis-tancing.

At some places, like theGole Market in Central Delhi,although the liquor shops were

shut, baton-wielding paramil-itary personnel were deployedto keep the crowd at bay.

There were several peoplewho had lined up at liquor out-lets since 4 am. “We had arrivedhere at the liquor shop around7 am but before us there were

several others who had alreadyformed a kilometre longqueue,” said Suraj, who went tobuy liquor at Laxmi Nagar.

“The shop opened ataround 9 am and it took memore than two hours to buythree bottles of liquor,” he said.

When asked about the 70per rent increase in liquorrates as corona fee wasimposed, Suraj said it doesn’taffect and who are willing tobuy liquor will buy at higherrates too.

Continued on Page 2

����� ��������

In one of the biggest spikes innumber of coronavirus cases

in the Army, at least 24 peopletested Covid-19 positive inone of its most prestigious hos-pitals known as Research andReferral Centre. The positivecases were immediately shiftedto the Base Hospital, DelhiCantonment and the necessarytreatment protocol was nowunderway. Prior to this, the 13-lakh-strong force had 14 cases,including three doctors. Nearlyof them were now fit and readyto join duty.

Confirming the latest cases,army sources said here onTuesday all the affected per-sons, including 20 serving sol-diers, had been undergoingtreatment in the oncology(can-cer) department of the hospi-tal and undergoing treatment.They included serving andretired personnel besidesdependents.

Officials said no medicalstaff was among the affected.

In all, the armed forceshave so far have nearly 70 oddcorona positive cases. Most ofthem are from the Army andthe Navy.

�������������� ��������

The Indo-Tibetan BorderPolice (ITBP) has reported

45 Covid-19 positive cases in itsranks and has placed around170 under quarantine.

Amid the spiralling num-ber of patients of the viral infec-tion, the ITBP has opera-tionalised its 200-bed referralhospital at Greater Noida totreat such patients from otherparamilitary forces.

As many as 43 Covid-19positive personnel are from aunit at Tigri Camp here. Theunit was deployed for internalsecurity duties. While patientsare undergoing treatment atSafdarjung Hospital, the 41others are admitted to theCAPF Referral Hospital,Greater Noida.

Continued on Page 2

����� ��������

Asenior Law Ministry offi-cial has tested positive for

Covid-19 after which a floor ofthe Shastri Bhavan was partiallysealed on Tuesday. This wouldimpact the functioning of sev-eral important ministries locat-ed in the building.

An officer of the LawMinistry, housed at the fourthfloor of the Shastri Bhavan, hastested positive for Covid-19. Asper protocol, contact tracinghas been initiated and once thelist is prepared such people willbe subjected to quarantine andtests for Covid-19.

Certain gates and lifts willalso remain closed tillWednesday for subjecting thepremises to the disinfectionexercise, officials said.

����� ��������

The Centre on Tuesdaycleared the air on several

academic and entrance testsrelated issues amidst the coro-na pandemic lockdown. HRDMinister Ramesh PokhriyalNishank also announced thedates of pending entranceexaminations, including theJoint Engineering Entrance(JEE) for admissions in IITsand the NEET.

As per the schedules madeavailable, NEET will be held onJuly 26 while JEE MAIN on18th, 20th, 21st, 22nd and23rd July, 2020 followed byJEE(Advance) likely to be heldin August. The dates of UGCNET 2020 and CBSE 12thBoard examinations will beannounced soon, according toa HRD Ministry statement.

Continued on Page 2

����� ��������

Amid coronavirus inducedlockdown and loss of mil-

lions of jobs, the StateGovernments battling with therevenue constraints are increas-ing taxes on liquor, petrol anddiesel to fill their treasury.After the Delhi Government,the Andhra PradeshGovernment has also increasedtaxes on liquor by 50 per centto 75 per cent. More States areexpected to follow Delhi andAndhra Pradesh’s special coro-na fee on liquor.

Top sources said that sev-eral States are consideringimposing special corona levyon liquor and hike in petrol anddiesel prices to fill their coffersamid the disruption on accountof the lockdown.

Continued on Page 2

����� ��������

Pulitzer Prize for three photojournalists from Jammu &

Kashmir on Tuesday ignited apolitical controversy asCongress leader Rahul Gandhicongratulated them and theBJP hit back at him askingwhether his party considersKashmir valley an integral partof the country or not as thephotojournalists won theawards for calling Kashmir“contested territory”.

The US award was given tothe three journalists for their“striking images” clicked whenthe erstwhile State of J&K wasin the lockdown state in August2019 following abrogation ofthe Article 370.

“Congratulations to Indianphotojournalists Dar Yasin,

Mukhtar Khan and ChanniAnand for winning a PulitzerPrize for their powerful imagesof life in J&K. You make us allproud,” Rahul said on Twitter.

Dar Yasin, Mukhtar Khanand Channi Anand work withnews agency AP. While Yasinand Khan are from Kashmir,Anand is from Jammu.

Posting a message with thehashtag “anti-national RahulGandhi”, BJP nationalspokesman Sambit Patra asked,“Will Sonia Gandhi answerwhether she and the Congressparty concur with Rahul on theissue of Kashmir not being anintegral part of India! Rahultoday congratulated those whogot an award for consideringKashmir as a “ContestedTerritory”!”

Continued on Page 2

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New Delhi: More than 10,000Indians have tested positive inthe Gulf countries, with 84deaths recorded till now, newsagency ANI quoted sources assaying. The figures came a fewdays before India starts evacu-ating its stranded citizens fromseveral countries, includingUAE that is home to a largediaspora.

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The Union Government onTuesday night hiked the

excise duty on petrol by steep�10 per litre and that on dieselby �13 a litre.

The hike in duty has takenaway gains from falling globalcrude oil prices.

Last month, benchmarkBrent crude oil dropped to aslow as $18.10 per barrel - thelowest since 1999, as coron-avirus wiped away demand,creating large surpluses aroundthe globe. Prices have sincerebounded to around $28 abarrel.

Earlier in the day, the DelhiGovernment raised the value-added tax (VAT) on petrol to30 per cent from 27 per centand doubled it from 16.75 percent to 30 per cent for diesel,effecting a rise of �1.67 per litrefor petrol and �7.10 per litre fordiesel. Petrol in Delhi nowcosts �71.26 a litre. Diesel pricehas been hiked to �69.39 perlitre from �62.29.

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Page 2: 2020/05/06  · er Air India will operate 64 flights between May 7 and 13 to bring back Indians stranded abroad. Those taking the spe-cial flights will be charged around 50,000

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New Delhi: Bihar has receivedthe maximum number ofmigrant labourers through spe-cial trains so far and WestBengal the least, data accessedby the PTI shows, with officialsindicating that the latter was"stalling" the movement of itsworkers stranded in otherstates.

TMC MP and leader of theparty in Rajya Sabha, DerekO'Brien, however, said the WestBengal government was doing"all it takes" to fight the coro-navirus pandemic, and accusedthe Centre of playing politics.

The data shows that mostmigrant labourers have movedfrom Gujarat to their homestates in about 35 ShramikSpecial trains so far, followed byKerala from where 13 suchtrains have left.

Among the receiving states,Bihar has accepted 13 trains,with 11 more currently on thejourney and six in the pipeline,the data shows.

Neighbouring UttarPradesh has received 10 suchtrains and five more are ontheir way, with 12 in thepipeline, the data shows.

The West Bengal govern-ment has, however, given clear-ance to only two trains -- oneeach from Rajasthan and

Kerala -- and they are on theirjourneys to the state, the datashows.

A senior official said,"While other states which havetheir migrant workers in otherparts of the country are accept-ing their labourers, WestBengal is stalling (the process).Two trains — from Thane toShalimar and another fromBangalore to Howrah — whichwere supposed to run today,did not get clearance from theWest Bengal despite both theoriginating state governmentspushing for it."

"Rajasthan has also beenslow in accepting migrantswith just three trains ferryingits workers back to the state,which are currently on theirway," the official said.

Derek O'Brien accused theCentre of playing politics overthe issue.

"States, including Bengal,are going all out -- fightingcorona. Unfortunately, theCentral government is going allout -- fighting and bad-mouthing non-BJP states usingits different ministries.

"States are the implement-ing authorities. We are alldoing all it takes. This is not thetime for politics. Or we too canask: why was a 21-day lock-

down announced with fourhours notice?" he said.

According to figures from2011 census, West Bengal ranksfourth among the states fromwhere people migrate for workand employment.

Between 2001 and 2011,nearly 5.8 lakh people migrat-ed from the state for work,which is fewer only than UttarPradesh (37.3 lakh), Bihar (22.6lakh) and Rajasthan (6.6 lakh).

The railway data showsthat Jharkhand accepted fourtrains, while five trains are ontheir way to the state. Twomore Shramik Special trains arein the pipeline.

Odisha received seventrains and five are on their wayto the state with one more inthe pipeline, the data shows.

The Railways on Tuesdaysaid that since May 1, whenShramik Special trains startedoperations, it has run 76 ofthem, carrying more than70,000 stranded migrantlabourers.

Till May 4, the Railwayshad run 55 trains.

On May 5, it ran 12 trainsin the morning and nine in theevening, taking the tally to 76.It said that zonal railways wereplanning to run 12 more by theend of the day. PTI

Srinagar: The detention offormer Jammu & KashmirChief Minister MehboobaMufti under the stringentPublic Safety Act was extend-ed by three months, hoursbefore it was due to expire.

In a similar move, thedetention of former ministerand senior NationalConference leader AliMohammed Sagar, and seniorPDP leader and uncle of Mufti,Sartaj Madani, was alsoextended by another threemonths, officials said.

In a brief order by theHome Department of theJammu & Kashmir adminis-tration, the extension of PSA

was made under the publicorder provisions of the act.

While Mufti is at presentlodged at her official residence'Fair View', which has beenconverted into a subsidiary jail,Sagar and Madani are in a gov-ernment accommodation atGupkar road.

Mufti was initiallydetained on August 5 last yearwhen the Centre abrogatedspecial status of the erstwhilestate and bifurcated it intotwo union territories --Ladakh, and Jammu andKashmir.

Later, her six-month pre-ventive custody was extendedby invoking PSA on February

5 this year along with herpolitical rival and former chiefminister Omar Abdullah.

Having spent over eightmonths in detention at twogovernment facilities that weredesignated as sub-jails, Muftiwas shifted to her home onApril 7, a move seen as a par-tial relief to her.

Earlier, Mufti was lodged agovernment guesthouse inChashma Shahi and a bunglowon Maulana Azad Road nearLal Chowk. Mufti heads thePeoples Democratic Party(PDP) which was in power inJammu & Kashmir in alliance with the BJP till June2018. PTI

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New Delhi: The anti-dumpingduty on a Chinese chemical,used in food and pharma indus-try, may be extended as the com-merce ministry has recom-mended continuing the safe-guards to protect domestic play-ers from cheap imports.

The revenue departmentin May 2015 had imposed theanti-dumping duty on importsof the chemical, sodium cit-rate, from China for five years.The duty period ends on May19, 2020.

The application for contin-uation of the duty on imports ofsodium citrate from China wasfiled by Posy Pharmachem PvtLtd. It was supported by AdaniPharmachem, Alpine Labs,India Phosphate and SunilChemicals.

In a notification, the com-merce ministry''s investigationarm Directorate General ofTrade Remedies (DGTR) hassaid there is a "positive" evidenceof likelihood of dumping of thechemical and injury to thedomestic industry if the existinganti-dumping duty would beremoved.

"The designated authorityconsiders it appropriate to rec-ommend continuation of defin-itive anti-dumping duty" on thechemical, it has said. The direc-torate has recommended two

duties USD 96.05 per tonne andUSD 152.78 per tonne. Thefinance ministry takes the finaldecision to impose this duty.

In its probe, the directoratehas concluded there is continueddumping of the product fromChina and "the imports arelikely to enter the Indian mar-ket at dumped prices in the eventof expiry of duty". The applicant,it said, has requested for initia-tion of sunset review investiga-tion concerning imports ofSodium Citrate coming fromChina, alleging likelihood ofcontinuation or recurrence ofdumping and consequent injuryto the domestic industry in caseof cessation of existing anti-dumping duties. In interna-tional trade parlance, dumpinghappens when a country or afirm exports an item at a pricelower than the price of thatproduct in its domestic market.

Dumping impacts the priceof that product in the importingcountry, hitting margins andprofits of manufacturing firms.

According to global tradenorms, a country is allowed toimpose tariffs on such dumpedproducts to provide a level-playing field to domestic man-ufacturers. The duty is imposedonly after a thorough investiga-tion by a quasi-judicial body,such as DGTR, in India. PTI

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Amid coronavirus-inducedlockdown and loss of mil-

lions of jobs, the StateGovernments battling with therevenue constraints areincreasing taxes on liquor andpetrol and diesel to fill theirtreasury. After the DelhiGovernment, the AndhraPradesh Government has alsoincreased taxes on liquor by 50per cent to 75 per cent. MoreStates are expected to follow

Delhi and Andhra Pradesh’sspecial corona fee on liquor.

Top sources said that sev-eral States are consideringimposing special corona levyon liquor and hike in petrol anddiesel prices to fill their coffersamid the disruption on accountof the lockdown. The spike indiesel and petrol will lead toinflation in all commoditiesincluding food items. Duringthe nationwide lockdown sinceMarch 24, prices of food itemsare staple and under control

except pulse prices whichincreased up to �40 per kg inseveral parts across India.

According to officials, theentire liquor business in AP iscontrolled by the StateGovernment through its ownretail outlets, numbering 3,468.For instance, a liquor bottlewith a maximum retail price of�1,000 earlier, will now cost�1,750 in the city.

Earlier, RajasthanGovernment increased thetaxes on liquor and beer by 10percentage. The maximumtax on liquor in Rajasthan is45 percent.

Sources said that severalstates are considering imposing‘special corona tax’, on liquor tofill their coffers amid the dis-ruption on account of the lock-down. Liquor contributes aconsiderable amount to theexchequers of all states andUnion Territories except Gujaratand Bihar, both of which haveenforced prohibition.

According to RBI report,during 2019-20, the 29 Statesand the UTs of Delhi andPuducherry had budgeted acombined �1,75,501.42 crorefrom state excise on liquor.This was 16 per cent higher

than the �1,50,657.95 crorethey had collected during2018-19.

Experts say revenue fromtaxes on liquor accounts for 15-25 percent of States' own taxrevenue. Prices of food itemsincluding vegetables and fruitsis all set to increase after the bighike in petrol and diesel.

In case of Delhi, the Stateexpects to mop up �6,300crore from taxes on liquor outof its estimated own tax rev-enue of �44,100 crore in 2020-21. In the previous year, Delhiis likely to have collected�5,500 crore from liquor alone.

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From Page 1 He asked if the Opposition party

considers the Valley as an integral partof India or not. Congress was in log-gerhead with the BJP on the issue ofabrogation of the article 370 when theModi Government had decided doaway with the controversial provision,last year.

The BJP leader also posted somephotographs, which he said were takenby one of the winning photographers, toask Rahul if agreed with their content.

One of the photographers Yasinreportedly told AP, “It’s not the story ofthe people I am shooting, only, but it’smy story. It’s a great honour to be in thelist of Pulitzer winners and to share mystory with the world.”

Established in 1917, the PulitzerPrize is given for achievements in news-paper, magazine and online journalism,literature, and musical composition inthe United States.

From Page 1But there were many who

still could not manage to buyliquor for the second day.

“I searched for some shopsin Krishna Nagar but therewere long queues of around400-500 people. Here, the shophas not been opened andpolicemen are sending us back.It’s not fair, the Government hasraised the price so much andstill there are problems if onetries to buy it,” said Raj Kumar,38, who had come to a liquorshop in Shakarpur in east Delhi.

Ramesh, who declined toshare his second name, said hewas trying his luck after failingto buy liquor bottles from near-by shops because of the hugecrowd.

“On Monday, I waited fortwo hours in a queue outside a

shop but the police closed itafter the crowd became unruly,”Ramesh said.

Rajbir Singh, in his late 40s,tried his luck at a liquor vendbehind Regal Cinema in centralDelhi, but failed.

“I only have one peg everyfortnight. But I have not hadeven that for long,” Singh said

About 150 Government-run liquor shops have beenallowed to open from 9 am to6.30 pm as per the latest lock-down relaxations allowed by theMinistry of Home Affairs.

On Monday, many liquorshops downed their shuttersafter crowds turned unruly,showing little care about socialdistancing.

The Special Branch of theDelhi Police has also prepareda report suggesting extendingthe timings of the liquor sale inDelhi after chaos outside shopson Monday.

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From Page 1However, increase tests

also have led to higher report-ing. On Tuesday, theGovernment reached close totesting one lakh people - a goalit had announced on April 6,when its daily testing numberswere around 17,000,

The other States whichhave seen a sharp rise in casesare Madhya Pradesh (2,942),Rajasthan (3,061), Tamil Nadu(3,550) and Uttar Pradesh(2,766).

Maharashtra has the high-est number of fatalities, amongall the States, followed byGujarat with 319 deaths,Madhya Pradesh 165,Rajasthan 77 and Delhi 64.

“This sudden rise that yousee is due to States beginningto report cases. Some Stateswere not reporting cases earli-er and there were gaps. Thosegaps have now been addressed.Timely reporting of Covidcases is very important so thatcontact tracing and contain-ment can then begin,” Agarwalsaid.

He also said communitywould need to step up precau-tions as the Government startsrelaxing the lockdown condi-tions.

“We need communityownership of the battle. TheGovernment responsibilityafter easing the lockdown hasincreased and so has that of thecommunity,” Agarwal said asIndia’s disease graph started totake an upward curve after lin-ear growth for many days.

Union Health Minister

Harsh Vardhan who chairedthe 14th meeting of the Covidgroup of Ministers to reviewthe status of containment andavailability of essential itemsnoted that the increase in casesdoes not reflect “communitytransmission”.

In fact, he said, the nationin a post-coronavirus futurecould well look back on thepandemic period as a “blessingin disguise” if Indians imbibehand, respiratory and envi-ronmental hygiene and practiseit in their everyday lives.

Underlining the impor-tance of the lockdown, whichhas been extended till May 17,the Minister said health shouldbe on the radar just as much asthe economy.

“The Government has todo a balancing act,” he said.

He added that India has sofar been able to keep itself from“slipping into the stage of com-munity transmission of thenovel coronavirus”.

“By now we know thatfighting coronavirus is no rock-et science. If behaviouralchanges such as hand, envi-ronmental and respiratoryhygiene, which are being prac-tised more rigorously duringthis period, get imbibed insociety it will become the newnormal,” Vardhan said.

The Minister also dis-cussed the chaos outside liquorvends across the country onMonday as several Statesrelaxed the lockdown in accor-dance with guidelines fromthe Union Home Ministry andpeople in several places jostledand shoved to stock up on theiralcohol without any thought tosocial distancing norms.

From Page 1The Minister who was on

an webinar interaction withstudents from across thenation also highlighted thatthe admissions to the UnderGraduate and Post-Graduateprogrammes for the session2020-21 may be completed byAugust 31 this year.

“If necessity arises, provi-sional admissions may also bemade and relevant documentsof qualifying examination maybe accepted up to September30, 2020. The academic ses-sion 2020-21 may commencefrom August 01, 2020 for oldstudents and from September01 for fresh students,” Nishanksaid during interaction.

This was his third webinarafter having interacted withparents followed by StateEducation Ministers.

Pokhriyal informed thatthe MHRD is planning tobridge the academic gap cre-ated due to Covid outbreak.MHRD has encouraged stu-dents to keep on learning andto aid the learning throughvarious e-learning resourcesand digital platforms for both

school and higher education.During the one-hour inter-

action, the Minister respond-ed to the various concernsand queries of the studentsrelating to school examina-tions, entrance examinations,academic calendar, online edu-cation, fees, mental health ofstudents, international stu-dents, fellowships among oth-ers.

The HRD Minister alsoasked students preparing forentrance examination to accesslectures on Physics, Chemistry,Mathematics and Biology onthe official website of theNational Testing Agency.

While responding to thequery relating to fee hike forNITs , IITs & IIITs for acade-mic year 20-21, the Ministersaid that there will be no feesincrease for IIT, IIITs andNITs for the academic year2020-21.

Regarding the concernsraised by students relating toboard examinations, theMinister clarified that theBoard will conduct examina-tions for only main subjectsthat will be required for pro-

motion and maybe crucial foradmissions in higher educa-tional institutions.

He informed that a PressRelease of CBSE dated01.4.2020 elaborates upon the29 subjects and other detailswhich can be accessed on theBoard’s website.

The HRD also said thatexams for 10th Class are overfor all over the country exceptNortheast Delhi and adequatetime of 10 days will be givento all stakeholders before start-ing the examinations. TheMinister clarified to the stu-dents of Northeast Delhi thatthere is no need to reappear inthese examinations if one hasalready appeared.

These exams will be con-ducted again for those few stu-dents who could not appear inthese exams on the scheduleddate due to the impact of lawand order issues on them.

As a response to Covid-19lockdown, the CBSE willassess the loss of instruction-al time for proportionatereduction in curriculum loadfor Board Exams 2021. Inaccordance, CourseCommittees of the Board haveinitiated work on reduced syl-labus in various scenarios.The students will be notified

on the same soon.Pokhriyal also shared with

students that in case the situ-ation does not appear to benormal in view of Covid-19, inorder to maintain social dis-tancing, safety and health ofthe students, grading of thestudents could be composite of50 per cent marks on thebasis of the pattern of internalevaluation adopted by the uni-versities and the remaining 50per cent marks can be award-ed on the basis of perfor-mance in previous semesteronly (if available).

The internal evaluationcan be continuous evaluation,prelims, mid-semester, inter-nal evaluation or whatevername is given for student pro-gression.

If the student wishes toimprove the grades, he/shemay appear in special examsfor such subjects during nextsemester.

In a question relating tostudents belonging to villagearea with glitches in networks,the Minister replied thatMHRD has tied up with theMinistry of Information &Broadcasting to air SWAYAMPRABHA channels on theDTH platforms of all serviceproviders.

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Given the rapid increase in thenumber of fatalities and

infections in recent weeks,Mumbai is fast emerging as theCovid-19 capital of India. Duringthe last four days alone, there havebeen 92 deaths and 1,586 newcases.

Of the total 34 deaths report-ed from various parts ofMaharashtra on Tuesday, Mumbaiaccounted for 26 deaths. Earlieron May 2, May 3 and May 4, themetropolis recorded 27, 21 and 18deaths respectively. Similarly, dur-ing the last four days, the totalinfected cases have increasedfrom 8,359 to 9,945.

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From Page 1The spike in diesel and

petrol will lead to inflation in allcommodities including food items. During thenationwide lockdown since March 24, prices of fooditems are stable and under control except pulse priceswhich increased up to Rs 40 per kg in several partsacross India. According to officials, the entire liquorbusiness in AP is controlled by the State Governmentthrough its own retail outlets, numbering 3,468. Forinstance, a liquor bottle with a maximum retail priceof Rs 1,000 earlier will now cost Rs 1,750 in the city.

Earlier, Rajasthan Government increased the taxeson liquor and beer by 10 per cent. The maximum taxon liquor in Rajasthan is 45 per cent.

Sources said that several States are consideringimposing ‘special corona tax’, on liquor to fill their cof-fers amid the disruption on account of the lockdown.Liquor contributes a considerable amount to theexchequers of all states and Union Territories exceptGujarat and Bihar, both of which have enforced pro-hibition.

According to RBI report, during 2019-20, the 29States and the UTs of Delhi and Puducherry had bud-geted a combined �1,75,501.42 crore from State exciseon liquor. This was 16% higher than the �1,50,657.95crore they had collected during 2018-19.

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Page 3: 2020/05/06  · er Air India will operate 64 flights between May 7 and 13 to bring back Indians stranded abroad. Those taking the spe-cial flights will be charged around 50,000

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Apolice head constable,posted at Gurugram Police

Commissioner's office, wasbeaten up and abused by otherpolicemen of the Rewari policeat Rewari-Kapriwas policecheckpoint on April 29 whilecrossing the Gurugram-Rewariborder. The incident took placewhen he was returning to hishome in Rewari’s TatarpurKhalsa village.

Pradeep Kumar filed acomplaint through his wid-owed mother Nagin Devi at theHaryana Chief Minister's office

and Haryana Human RightCommission on May 1 anddemand strict action againstthe accused policemen andmedical staff.

Kumar stated in the com-plaint that he left for his homeafter duty. When he reachedthe Rewari-Kapriwas check-point police personneldeployed there signalled him tomove his car on to the serviceroad. “When I entered the ser-vice road, inspector Ajitdeployed at the checkpointsignalled me to stop. I imme-diately stopped my car andshowed my police identity card.

The inspector was in so muchanger that when I stepped outof my car he slapped me sev-eral times and abused me with-out any reason,” Pradeep said.

Kumar also alleged thatafter seeing this the other fivepolicemen including a SI, headconstable Dadbir started beat-ing him with sticks.

“They even snatched mymobile and car key. The police-men misused their power andalso there were no restrictionsimposed by the StateGovernment on April 29 thatno policemen will go to hishome district,” he stated.

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Around 27 migrant workers,who were staying at a shel-

ter home in west Delhi’s TilakNagar area, have escaped, saidpolice on Tuesday.

According to police, onMonday, 56 migrant workerswere shifted from a governmentschool in Punjabi Bagh to newlycreated shelter home at SarvodayBal Vidyalaya, Chand Nagar,Tilak Nagar, Delhi.

"One of the migrants Kallumisguided them and they start-ed creating nuisance in thepremises. Thereafter, 57 peopleescaped from the shelter homeby jumping the wall of schooland breaking the lock of maingate," said a senior police official.

"Seventeen were nabbed bypolice and shelter home staff andwere sent back to the school. Outof the 40, 13 migrant peopleintercepted by police and sentback to shelter home," said thesenior police official.

"A case was registered onthe complaint of incharge ofshelter home Musraq at TilakNagar police station," said police.

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Adead body of a Delhi Police woman constablewas found from a car in south Delhi's Lodhi

Colony area on Tuesday morning. Police suspecther husband, who is also with Delhi Police, behindthe killing.

The deceased has been identified as a womanconstable of Delhi Police who was posted in OuterNorth district.

According to Atul Kumar Thakur, the DeputyCommissioner of Police (DCP), South district, thebody of a woman was found in a car with a visibleinjury on her head.

"However, the nature of injury will be confirmedonly after the postmortem. Her husband,who is alsoposted in Delhi Police is absconding and search ison nab him," said the DCP.

"Prima facie,it appears to be a fallout of mari-tal discord.The body has been sent to AIIMS forpostmortem," said the DCP.

"A case of murder has been registered at LodhiColony police station. Police teams are also scan-ni g CCTV cameras in the area to ascertain thecrime sequence and nab the culprit. Further inves-tigation is underway," said the DCP.

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A27-year-old man was killed in a firing inci-dent in North-east Delhi where a Delhi

Police constable allegedly opened fire from hisservice revolver.

The deceased has been identified asSuraj. He died on Monday.

On Monday evening around 8 pm, a con-stable had allegedly opened fire from his ser-vice revolver following an altercation with hisneighbours in Meet Nagar area of northeastDelhi. The constable was posted in Seelampurpolice station.

"In total, five people sustained injuries.While three of them sustained gun shotinjuries, two, including the policeman sus-tained blunt injuries," police said.

According to a senior police official, analtercation took place between the policemanand the neighbours. "The policeman's relativehad a quarrel with the other party who wastheir neighbour. The matter escalated andturned ugly following which he fired a cou-ple of rounds from his service pistol. A casehad been registered and further investigationin underway," he said. The constable, alongwith four other people, had already beendetained in connection with the incident.

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The Delhi Government onTuesday hiked local sales

tax or value-added tax (VAT)on petrol and diesel.

According toGovernment’s order, petrolprice in Delhi was hiked by�1.67 a litre and diesel by asteep �7.10 per litre.

This follows DelhiGovernment’s decision to raiseVAT on petrol to 30 per centfrom 27 per cent, previously.In case of diesel, VAT has beenalmost doubled to 30 per centfrom 16.75 per cent.

After these announce-ments Delhi Deputy ChiefMinister And FinanceMinister Manish Sisodia

tweeted, "Life isn't all aboutrainbows and sunshine. Toughtimes need Tough solutions" -my learning as FinanceMinister.

While AAP Governmentin Delhi is facing tough timedue to revenue shortage, themove to hike fuel prices isexpected to boost theGovernment revenue, whichhas been hit hard due to thecoronavirus lockdown.

The Delhi Governmenthad on Monday night decid-ed to impose a 70 per cent'Special Corona Fee' on liquor.

In a late night notification,Sisodia said, "70 per cent of themaximum retail price (will belevied) on all categories ofliquor sold through retaillicensees for consumption".

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Delhi airport on Tuesdayreleased operational pre-

paredness plan for post lock-down operations.

To ensure social distancingduring operations, the airportauthority have made severalarrangements from web check-in, CUSS before entering ter-minal, contactless terminalentry system, temperaturescreening with thermal cam-eras by CISF staff, Acrylic glassshields on check in counters toseparate the airport personneland the PAX few mentioned inthe blue print of the pro-gramme.

Hazmat suits will be pro-vided to the security personnelinvolved in the passengerscreening, frequent sanitizationand disinfection of the trays,DFMDs, HHMDs and theMonitors and social distancingmarkers to be installed at thesecurity screening lanes toensure strict adherence tosocial distancing guidelines.

According to airport offi-cials, travellers are encouragedto use of self check-in and SBDmachines to minimise any pos-sibility of contact and reduce

waiting time in queues.At security check point, the

airport authority has arrangedfrequent sanitisation and dis-infection of the trays, DFMDs,HHMDs and the Monitorswhile social distancing mark-ers to be installed at the secu-rity screening lanes to ensurestrict adherence to social dis-tancing guidelines

At security area, social dis-tances marking throughout thepremises Implementation ofdedicated waste bins to disposeoff the used PPEs like HAZ-MAT suits, face masks andgloves, will be ensured. SocialDistancing will be implement-ed in all the lounges includingPlaza Premium Lounge. Therewill be restrictions of the num-ber of passengers into the bug-gies and the same willbe fre-quently sanitized” airport offi-cial said.

At the boarding andbussing gate frequent fumiga-tion and disinfection of theseats, aerobridges and boardinggates after every departure,Implementation of social dis-tancing markers at the board-ing gates and In case of remotebays, the number of passengersin being boarded onto the

buses will be restricted andsanitisation of the boardingarea counters ensured.

At arrival piers, Delhi air-port has installed thermalscanner while thermal screen-ing to be done on all the arriv-ing passengers using non con-tact temperature screeners andthermal screening cameras

“Capture self declarationforms which have a record ofthe passengers travel history,health status and the contactdetails,Provision of dedicatedareas for the passengers to fillin the self declaration formsand there will be a dedicatedwaiting room has been pro-vided for the APHO person-nel if a passenger is foundsymptomatic and furtherscreening is required,” saidofficial.

There are designated areasof bus entry, baggage reclaimand thermal screening areashave been put in place forarrivals from countries withcommunity transmission

At baggage reclaim area,frequent sanitisation of thetrolleys and trays to be doneusing the automated tunnel dis-infection system have beenordered, they added.

Gurugram: A 17-year-old stu-dent of Class 12th died afterfalling off the 11th-floor bal-cony of his house in an upscaleresidential society in DLFPhase 5 on Monday night.

The deceased, identifiedas Manav, a resident of DLFCarlton Estate in DLF Phase 5was living with his parents. Thevictim was a student of a lead-ing private school (HeritageSchool).

The teenager and his par-ents were at home since thelockdown was announced inMarch. Police said he did notleave behind any suicide note.

The teenager and his fam-ily were living in a rentedhouse, his father was in a pri-vate job and for the past fewmonths, he was at home.Mother is a housewife.

The boy was in the balconyin late-night, while his parents

were in their room when heaccidentally fell from the bal-cony. However, it is still notclear how he fell from the bal-cony.

The security guard firstfound the teenager in a pool ofblood. He immediatelyinformed the security supervi-sor and parents of the deceased.The teenager was rushed to aprivate hospital where he wasdeclared dead by the doctors.

“An autopsy of the bodyhas been conducted. Accordingto the police, the investigationis being carried out underSection 174 of the Indian PenalCode (IPC).

“We are investigating thematter and will also get moreinputs from the deceased par-ents. As per the initial investi-gation, it seems like a suicide,”said police spokespersonSubhash Boken. SR

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Terming the decision to raiseVAT on fuel “anti-people”, Delhi

Congress has demanded immedi-ate rollback of the hike in fuel pricesand accused the Delhi Governmentof being profiteer from the "misery"of the common man.

Delhi Pradesh CongressCommittee (DPCC) presidentChaudhary Anil Kumar allegedthat the arbitrary and authoritariandecision by Delhi Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal, without consultingeven the ‘Resident WelfareAssociation’ (RWAs) to partially liftthe Covid-19 lockdown and with-out any planning has resulted inchaos and confusion in Delhi.

The decision of the DelhiGovernment to lift restrictions willcertainly lead to spike in theCorona cases in the Capital thatalready burdened by the ever-ris-ing graph of the Covid-19 pan-demic, he said.

Addressing a digital press con-ference, Kumar said that the DelhiGovernment has woefully failed in

combating the virus in the Capital.“Neither any roadmap was chart-ed out for the Disaster ManagementAuthority in case such an eventu-ality occurred,” he said.

Kumar demanded that theincreased VAT on diesel and petrolshould be rolled back forthwith,liquor sales should be regulated byrolling back the 70 per cent cess andcigarette/tobacco shops should beshut immediately. He said that thepeople of Delhi, already burdenedby joblessness and no source oflivelihood, have been inflictedanother blow by increasing the VATon diesel and petrol by �7.10 and�1.67 respectively.

Highlighting that hoarding

and black marketeering of essential goods have also brokenthe back of the poor and commonpeople, he said that people ofDelhi, who lived without liquor,cigarettes and tobacco for the past45 days, are now being made to paymore.

Accusing the Government ofnot drawing up any road map forthe transportation of migrantlabour to help them reachingtheir homes, he said the Congressparty came forward to help themto help them back home.

He wondered whether themove to open liquor outlets wastaken under pressure from theliquor cartel. “The KejriwalGovernment has not announcedany relief for the people throughmeasures like waiving off of waterand power charges and schoolfees,” he added.

Kumar said that due to the mis-management by the Government,the common people, small shopkeepers, daily wage earners, low-salaried and MSME people are indeep distress and desperation.

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The OppositionBharatiya Janata Party

(BJP) in Delhi on Tuesdaysaid that AAP’s decisionto hike VAT on dieseland petrol will negativelyimpact people, especiallypoor and farmers, alreadyfacing problems due to the coronavirus-inducedlockdown.

Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari demandedChief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to withdraw theVAT (value-added tax) hike, saying it will lead torise in the prices of essential items.

It's pure injustice by the Kejriwal Government.The Delhi BJP demands him to withdraw the hikebecause things like foodgrains, vegetables and otheritems of daily consumption will become costlier dueto it," Tiwari said

Gautam Gambhir, the Member of Parliament(MP) from East Delhi constituency tweeted,"Delhiites, what say? Elections in next 2 months.Everything including diesel & petrol will becomefree & delivered to your homes! I can vouch for it!!CM saab, any thoughts"?

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The Gurugram districtadministration has issued

an order to relax lockdownnorms in the district. As per theorder, people in the district canmove anywhere within the dis-trict from 7.00 am to 7.00 pm.

After 7 pm and up to 7 amthe following morning, nobodywill be allowed to move, evenwith a pass, except for medicaland essential services.

Also, the people of theContainment zones will not beallowed to come out. TheGurugram district now has 24containment zones.

"As the district falls underthe orange zone but peoplehave to behave responsibly.After 7 pm, no one can travelexcept for medical emergen-cies. The orders can be reversedif COVID-19 cases increase.People must apply a face maskand follow social distancingand other rules completely,” V

S Kundu, Additional ChiefSecretary of Haryana and CEO,Gurugram MetropolitanDevelopment Authority(GMDA) said.

He further said that move-ment of people is prohibitedunder Section 144 of the Crpc.

The barricades placed invarious areas across the city willcontinue to remain. Vehiclesare not allowed to travel overa speed of 30km per hour.

Apart from this Gurugramreported three new cases onTuesday, taking the district'stally to 87. It now has the high-est number of cases in Haryana.

Out of 87 cases, 36 are activewhile 51 patients have been dis-charged after recovery.

However, the districtreported 11 Covid-19 cases onMonday with a majority ofthem having Delhi connec-tion.

Officials said that nine ofthe cases were linked to Delhi'sAzadpur sabzi mandi and theKhandsa mandi in Gurugram.

Officials said the KhandsaMandi has been closed forfour days, from May 5 till May8. The health department saidit will disinfect all mandi's inthe district to curb the spreadof the virus.

“We have started a freshdoor to door thermal screen-ing. Houses, parks and publicplaces will be also sanitizedunder the de-containmentzones The status of the con-tainment zones will bereviewed after five days," saidDr Jaswant Singh Punia, chiefmedical officer (CMO),Gurugram.

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Ajuvenile was apprehendedand quizzed by police on

Tuesday, a day after the DelhiCommission For Women(DCW) issued notices to copsand Instagram over a group onthe social networking sitebeing used to share ''objec-tionable posts about minorgirls''.

According to a seniorpolice official, during socialmedia monitoring, it wasnoticed that one Instagramgroup by the name "BoisLocker Room" was being usedby the participants to shareobscene messages and mor-phed pictures.

"On this, a FirstInformation Report (FIR)under relevant sections of ITAct and Indian Penal Code(IPC) was registered on May 4at Special Cell police stationand investigation has been

taken up by Cyber Crime Unit(CyPAD)," said the seniorpolice official.

"The concerned platform(Instagram) has been asked toprovide the details of thealleged accounts involved inthe group. The details areawaited. As of now, about 10members of the group havebeen identified. The identifiedmembers who are major, arebeing examined. The minormembers of the group arebeing dealt with as per the pro-visions of Juvenile Justice Act,"he said.

"The devices used toengage in the offensive, vulgarcommunication have beenseized from the identifiedgroup members. Furtheraction will be taken on thebasis of material evidence thatis gathered in course of inves-tigation," the senior policeofficial added.

Delhi Commission forWomen (DCW) chief Swati

Maliwal on Tuesday said thosewho were part of an Instagramgroup where objectionablethings were being discussedabout minor girls should notbe spared. "These were thesame people who were makingplans to gang rape girls andwere making objectionablecomments about them.

"Such persons, irrespec-tive of where they are andwhether the lockdown is inplace or not, should not bespared," the DCW chief said.

She also appealed to peo-ple that they should exit suchgroups if they are a part ofthem and report about them tothe panel.

Maliwal also appreciatedthose girls who had reportedabout the group on socialmedia and called them ''brave''.

"If they are facing anyissues, they can approach theDCW and we will help them.I appeal to society to supportsuch girls," she added.

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Aday after the Governmentannounced that Indians

will be evacuated from foreigncountries from May 7 onwardsin view of the coronaviruspandemic, the Navy onTuesday dispatched two war-ships to bring back citizensfrom Maldives. They will com-mence evacuation operationnamed “Samudra Setu(SeaBridge)” from May 8.

The two ships includingthe landing platformdock(LPDs) or amphibiousships INS Jalashwa(weigh-ing17,000ton) and INSMagar(weighing 6,000 ton) arecapable of accommodatingmore than 1,500 people and theevacuated will be brought toKochi, Kerala and entrusted tothe care of the State authorities,officials said here on Tuesday.Incidentally, the Navy has car-ried out similar rescue effortsin 2006 and 2015. They werenamed Operations “Sukoon”and “Rahat” respectively.

Meanwhile, the deploy-ment of the warships for evac-uation now is part of thenational effort to bring backthose Indians desirous ofreturning from the middle-east and other countries. Thereare more than eight millionIndians working in the Gulfcountries and many of themexpressed their intention tocome back due to the pandemicand job losses in the wake ofsharp drop in oil prices.

Apart from the Navy,which is also likely to send twomore warships to the Gulfregion in the second phase ofthe evacuation operation, theAir India has also been to

directed to be on standby.Moreover, the transport planesof the IAF including C-178, IL-76 and C-130J may also bepressed into service, sourcessaid. Incidentally, the IAF hadbrought back Indians fromWuhan when the pandemicbroke out. Also, the civil avia-tion sector is prime for theeffort with more than 500 air-craft at its disposal.

As regards the Navy, offi-cials said the Government isclosely monitoring the situationwith respect to effect ofCOVID-19 pandemic on ourcitizens abroad and the forcedirected to make suitablepreparations for their evacua-tion by sea.

The Indian mission inRepublic of Maldives is prepar-ing a list of Indian nationals tobe evacuated by naval ships andwill facilitate their embarkationafter requisite medical screen-ing.

A total of 1,000 people areplanned to be evacuated dur-ing the first trip, catering forCOVID-related social distanc-ing norms vis-a-vis the carry-

ing capacity and medical facil-ities available onboard.

The ships have been suit-ably provisioned for the evac-uation operation. The evacu-ated personnel would be pro-vided the basic amenities andmedical facilities during thesea-passage. In view of theunique challenges associatedwith COVID-19 stringent pro-tocols have also been stipulat-ed.

The evacuated personnelwill be disembarked at Kochi,Kerala and entrusted to the careof state authorities. This oper-ation is being progressed inclose coordination with min-istries of defence, externalaffairs, home affairs, healthand various other agencies ofthe central and state govern-ments.

On the past rescue opera-tions, the Navy ships broughtout nearly 3,000 Indians in2006 as part of Operation“Sukoon” from war tornLebanon while nearly the samenumber were evacuated as partof Operation “Rahat” fromYemen.

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Nobel laureate AbhijeetBanerjee on Tuesday

advised India to pump moneyinto people’s hands during theeconomic lockdown due tocorona pandemic.

In a conversation with for-mer Congress chief RahulGandhi, the Nobel prize win-ner in economics said thatbottom 60 percent of the pop-ulation of India should bedirectly given money to boostdemand and kickstart the econ-omy.

Banerjee also suggestedthat the Government couldhelp MSMEs, which employs alarger chunk of the people, bycancelling debt payments forthe quarter, instead of a mora-torium.

"India needs a bigger stim-ulus package and money shouldbe put in the hands of people torevive demand," Banerjee saidin a video interaction withRahul Gandhi on the econom-ic fallout of the coronavirus cri-sis.

This is the second in theseries of the Congress leader'sdiscussion series that beganwith renowned economist andformer RBI GovernorRaghuram Rajan last week.

Abhijit Banerjee said inthe interaction that cash trans-fers must go beyond the poor-est of the poor.

Rahul on his part notedthat many small and mediumbusinesses hit by the COVID-19 lockdown could "go bank-rupt" because of the shock.This, he said, would cost jobs.

"That's the reason a lot ofus have been saying that weneed a stimulus package," therenowned economist agreed.

"That's what the US is

doing, Japan is doing, Europeis doing. We really haven'tdecided on a large enoughstimulus package. We are stilltalking about 1% of GDP.United States has gone for10% of GDP."

India should take a cuefrom the US by pumping inmore money in the hands ofthe people to revive demand,Dr Banerjee said, while sug-gesting that one should try tobe optimistic about overalleconomic revival in Indiapost-lockdown.

"Giving money in thehands of everybody, so thatthey can buy in stores or theybuy consumer goods," he said.

As Rahul suggested he

was talking about some formof direct cash transfer to people, Dr Banerjee said the beneficiaries must be amongthe poorest, but it was impor-tant to decide what criteria totarget.

"I would say bottom 60%of the population, we givethem some money, nothingbad will happen in my view,"said the economist.

Dr Banerjee said hebelieved while it was impor-tant to come out of the lock-down, one needed to be awareof disease's path.

"The sooner you comeout of the lockdown of coursedepends on the disease. Youdon't want to take down the

lockdown when a lot of peo-ple are getting sick. We haveto kind of be aware of the timepath of the disease," he said.

Dr Banerjee said hebelieved while it was impor-tant to come out of the lock-down, one needed to be awareof disease's path.

The Congress MP raisedthe scale of the food problemand how it was not reachingpeople because of ration cards.

Dr Banerjee referred tohis Op-Ed piece withRaghuram Rajan and AmartyaSen suggesting that temporaryration cards should be hand-ed out to anybody who wantsone.

"In fact, put other rationcards in abeyance, just puttemporar y ration cards.Anybody who wants one, geta temporary ration card. Lastsfor three months for now andmaybe renewed for another 3months if necessary, and hon-our that.

Give everyone a rationcard, anyone who walks ingive them one. And use that as a basis formaking transfers. I think wehave enough stocks," he said.

On the crisis of migrantsstranded by the lockdownand desperate to reach homewith no jobs, shelter or food,the two discussed the need fora decentralised system wherethe movement of migrant labour should havebeen handled by the centre.

Rahul held the first suchtalk with Raghuram Rajan,former Reserve Bank of India(RBI) Governor when DrRajan said �65,000 crore wasrequired to help the pooraf fected by the coronavirus-induced lock-down.

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The Government on Tuesdaysaid it has so far purchased

around 2.61 lakh tonnes ofpulses and 3.17 lakh tonnes ofoilseeds from farmers worth�2,682 crore during the ongo-ing marketing season of rabi(winter) crops under the PriceSupport Scheme (PSS). ThePSS is operationalised on StateGovernments' request whenprices fall below the minimumsupport price (MSP).

The procurement is under-taken by nodal agencies likeNafed at minimum supportprice (MSP). Only fair averagequality commodity is pur-chased. However, in view ofCOVID-19 pandemic, the dailyprocurement limit has beenincreased from 25 quintals to40 quintals per day under PSSfor rabi crops.

In a statement, the UnionAgriculture Ministry saidoilseeds and pulses have beenpurchased at MSP value of�2,682 crore, benefitting3,25,565 farmers. Of the totalprocurement so far, about14,859 tonnes of pulses and6,706 tonnes of oilseeds werepurchased on May 1-2 in sixstates namely Madhya Pradesh,Maharashtra, Karnataka,Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh andHaryana, it said.

As per the second estimateof the ministry, pulses andoilseeds output during the 2019rabi season have been peggedat 15.11 million tonnes and10.75 million tonnes, respec-tively. According to the min-istry, the state-run agencieshave procured 181.36 lakhtonnes of wheat, the main rabicrop, so far.

Amid the COVID-19 cri-sis, farmers are undertakingsowing of kharif (summer)crops where rabi crops havebeen harvested. Paddy, themain kharif crop, has beensown in 34.80 lakh hectares sofar, higher than 25.26 lakhhectares in the year-ago peri-od, it said.

For pulses also, area sownhas increased to 8.77 lakhhectares from 5.44 lakhhectares, while that for coarsecereals rose to 9.12 lakhhectares from 5.49 lakhhectares in the said period.Area under oilseeds hasincreased to 8.87 lakh hectaresso far in the ongoing kharif sea-son from 7 lakh hectares a yearago. Sowing of kharif cropsnormally picks up with theonset of southwest monsoonfrom June.

The India MeteorologicalDepartment has forecast a nor-mal monsoon this year, whichwill help 52 per cent of the rain-fed area in the country. TheMinistry also said that thegovernment is taking severalmeasures to facilitate farmersand farming activities at fieldlevel during the lockdown peri-od in the wake of COVID-19pandemic. Under the PradhanMantri Kisan Samman Nidhi(PM-KISAN) Scheme, theGovernment has disbursed�18,134 crore during the lock-down period, benefitting 9.06crore farmers, it added.

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Despite coronavirus pan-demic and inclement

weather, work is in full swingto construct the Rohtang tun-nel known as Atal Tunnel inManali and ensure its comple-tion in September this year.The tunnel will then connectLahaul and Spiti valleys ofHimachal Pradesh with the

entire country throughout theyear and also provide alternatestrategic road connection toLadakh. At present, theRohtang pass at a height ofmore than 13,000 feet is closedfor more than six months start-ing November due to heavysnow.

Stressing the point thatthe Border RoadsOrganisation(BRO) is deter-mined to meet the target of

September, officials said inNew Delhi on Tuesday proac-tive measures including roadsurface works, installation ofelectro-mechanic fittingsincluding lighting, ventilationand intelligent traffic controlsystems are being executed.One steel super structurebridge of 100-meter lengthacross river Chandra on thenorth portal of the tunnel isalso under construction.

The work was halted for 10days due to the COVID-19pandemic outbreak. DirectorGeneral Border Roads LtGeneral Harpal Singh hadtaken up the matter withHimachal Chief Minister JaiRam Thakur. This resulted inresumption of work on April 5with on-site labour in activecoordination with the stategovernment. Works in AtalTunnel are being executed withall necessary COVID-19 pre-cautions in place to ensure itscompletion in September 2020as planned.

Atal Tunnel is being con-structed since Manali-Sarchu-Leh road remains closed for sixmonths every year due toRohtang Pass being complete-ly snow bound betweenNovember and May. The tun-nel will connect Manali toLahaul Valley throughout theyear and will reduce the roadlength of Manali-Rohtang PassSarchu-Leh road by 46 kilo-metres. Besides connecting thepeople of Lahaul to rest of Indiathrough the year the tunnel willaid the forward connectivityoffering the security forces amajor strategic advantage.

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Defence Minister RajnathSingh on Tuesday

announced that theGovernment is determined toexpand the National CadetCorps (NCC), especially inthe Coastal and Border areas.

The Minister shared thiswhile reviewing the contribu-tion of (NCC) in preventingthe spread of COVID-19through a video conference.This is the first-ever such con-ference in which the DefenceMinister has directly interact-ed with 17 NCC Directorateslocated all over the country.

Lt Gen Rajeev Chopra,DG NCC and Dr Ajay Kumar,Defence Secretary participatedin the conference.

Singh appreciated the vitalrole that the NCC directorateswere playing as more than60,000 NCC cadets, of whom

25 per cent are girl cadets, areassisting the local adminis-tration in preventing COVID-19.

The NCC cadets havebeen engaged in logistics andsupply chain managementduties, ensuring supply ofessential food material, med-icines, assisting in trafficduties, etc. Some of cadetshave also made educational

videos fors o c i a lmedia, whileothers havemade masksand distrib-uted themlocally.

W h i l eappreciatingtheir praise-worthy role,the Ministerc a u t i o n e dthat the

NCC cadets should bedeployed for only such tasksfor which they have beentrained.

He also stressed on themodernisation of NCC with aview to make it more relevantto the new and changed timesand to make the NCC activi-ties compatible with thesemester system of the collegesand universities.

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Amid Covid-19 lockdown,many Janaushadhi Kendras

under the Union Ministry ofChemicals and Fertilisers areaccepting the orders for medi-cines on WhatsApp and e-mailon the basis of uploaded pre-scriptions and being delivered atthe patient’s doorsteps.

The move is ensuring use oftechnology for facilitating eas-ier procurement of medicines bythe users at a time whenCoronavirus scare has restrict-ed their movement.

Complementing theKendras initiative, UnionMinister of Chemicals andFertilizers DV SadanandaGowda said, " it is heartening tonote that many PMBJKs areusing modern communicationtools including social mediaplataforms like Whatsapp toprovide better services in effect-ing faster delivery of essentialmedicines to the needy."

Janaushadhis are workingunder the Pradhan MantriBhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana( PMBJP). At present there areover 6,300 PMBJKs functioningin 726 districts of the countryensuring supply of quality med-icines at affordable prices. Thesemedicines are cheaper by about

50 per cent to 90 per cent on anaverage, said an official from theMinistry.

In April this year, around Rs52 crore worth of medicinehave been supplied throught thecountry.

In addition, supply arrange-ments with India Post has alsobeen made for supply toremotely located stores, headded.

Moreover, Bureau ofPharma PSUs of India(BPPI)under Department ofPharmaceuticals, UnionMinistry of Chemicals andFertilizers, has paid its vendorswithin due date for solvingtheir working capital issues for

raw material and logistics.Dedicated Team has been

created of BPPI Officers forevery State to sort out bottle-necks in supply due to lock-down, said the official.

Jan Aushadhi warehousesare working at full capacity andinhouse residential arrange-ments have been made for staffwhile helpline numbers havebeen launched to resolve anyissues of consumers and storeowners.

For maintaining supply ofessential Medicines during lockdown period, BPPI has issuedpurchase orders for 178 fastmoving medicines in April,2020 worth �186.52 crore.

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Due to the ban on interna-tional flights, India has

extended the consular access tothe stranded foreigners andcontinued cancellation of VISAexcept in diplomatic category.According to Union HomeMinistry the present norms willcontinue till the starting ofoperation of internationalflights.

“Right of Multiple entrylong term Visa facility forvisiting India for any purpose,granted to OCI Cardholders,to remain in abeyance tillprohibition on internationalair travel of passengers fromand to India is l i f ted.Government of India grantsConsular Services to ForeignNationals, stranded in Indiadue to travel restrictions inwake of Covid-19 pandemic,for a period upto 30 days fromthe date of lifting of prohibi-tion on international air trav-el of passengers from India,”said Union Home Ministry.

The Home Ministry alsosaid that all the entry VISAsexcept granted to officials,diplomats and UN staffersare continue to stands can-celled till further announce-ment.

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Congress leader in LokSabha Adhir Ranjan

Chowdhury has been yet againappointed as the chairman ofthe Public AccountsCommittee (PAC).

Every year, Lok SabhaSpeaker re-constitutes the pan-els including PAC, which is tra-ditionally headed by the rep-resentative of the mainOpposition party. Chowdhuryis the only member of Congressin the PAC, which has total 15members from Lok Sabha andseven MPs from Rajya Sabha.

Lok Sabha members inthe committee from BJPinclude -- Jayant Sinha, Ajay(Teni) Misra, Sudheer Gupta,Darshana Vikram Jardosh,Satya Pal Singh, SubhashChandra Baheria, VishnuDayal Ram, Jagdambika Pal,and Ram Kripal Yadav. Themembers from other partiesinclude TR Baalu, RahulRamesh Shewale, RajivRanjan Singh, BalashowryVal labbhaneni, andBhartruhari Mahtab, as perthe press release issued by LokSabha Speaker Om Birla.

The members appointedfrom Rajya Sabha to the PAC

are Rajeev Chandrasekhar, CM Ramesh, Naresh Gujral,Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, andBhupender Yadav. Two seatshave been kept vacant.

The PAC which is themost powerful panel of theParliament is empowered toconsider all CAG reports andgive recommendations toGovernment. The panel canlook into any accounts andfund flow and its irregularityrelated issue to examine andsummon any Governmentofficers and private individu-

als. Though Chairman who isalways from the main oppo-sition party has authority todiscuss and select any subjectto be examined, voting systemhelps the ruling party to takedecisions in the report.

The members includingChairman is also empoweredto put their dissenting viewsattached with the main report.

At present the major sub-jects listed before the PAC arethe controversial Rafale jetspurchase and clean Gangaproject.

The new committee isexpected to carry forwardthis. However, due to massivemajority of BJP and non- active nature ofOpposition parties, from mid2014, the PAC’s functions areconsidered to be slow pace.Earlier during UPA regime,the PAC under then BJP vet-eran leader Murli ManoharJoshi’s reports were alwayscreated blows to theG o v e r n m e n t .In the present PAC, exceptChowdhur y, no otherCongress MPs are accommo-dated and this would be majorblow to Congress in raisingissues against Government.

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The Supreme Court Tuesdayexpressed displeasure over

vacancies not being filled at tri-bunals and said that govern-ment keeps creating forums totake away work from judicia-ry but cannot man them.

The top court also referredto the vacancies in high courtsand said that many a time theSupreme Court collegium andGovernment are not on samepage due to which large num-ber of recommendation do notgo through.

A bench of Justices AshokBhushan, Sanjay Kishan Kauland B R Gavai extended bythree months the tenure of theNational Consumer DisputesRedressal Commission(NCDRC) member V K Jain,who is set to retire on May 29.

The bench asked SolicitorGeneral Tushar Mehta to takesome constructive instructionson filling up of vacancies andposted the matter after sixweeks.

During the hearing, senioradvocate Parag Tripathi saidhere are seven vacancies atNCDRC as against the sanc-tioned strength of 11 membersand includes three for judicialand four non-judicial mem-bers.

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Chennai residents were infor a shock when it was

known that the virus hadinfected White House, theheadquarters of Tamil NaduPolice by Tuesday. Nine offi-cials working in the policeheadquarters were diagnosedwith coronavirus and investi-gation is on to find out thedamage caused by corona inone of the heavily guardedbuildings in the State.

The speed with whichTamil Nadu crossed the 4,000mark in the number of personstested positive for coronavirushas shocked all except Dr TJacob John, south India’s lead-ing virologist and the duo of Dr

CV Krishnaswamy and Prof BM Hegde , the country’s med-ical warriors.

These three doctors with

decades of experience in diag-nosis, research, treatment,turned medical evangelists andwere asking the general public

about the importance of wear-ing face masks, washing handsfrequently, observing the socialdistance and staying indoorswhich were ignored to a bigextent.

It was on March 7, 2020 theState confirmed the detectionof the first coronavirus patient.It took 36 days for the numberof patients with COVID-19 treach the 1000 mark. Withinthe next 16 days Tamil Nadu’scoronavirus cases crossed 2000.The number shot past the 3000mark in five days and byMonday evening it stood at3,550. It crossed the 4000 markin just two days.

Officials of the Departmentof Health said that majority ofthose who tested positive were

contacts of covid-19 patients.“On Monday there were 36 pri-mary cases out of the 266 per-sons tested positive in Chennaialone. Remaining were thosewho had contacts with theaffected persons,” said a seniorofficial.

Koyambedu, the State’sbiggest fruits and vegetablemarket was found to be the epi-centre of coronavirus inChennai city.

Based on the number ofpersons who were infectedwith coronavirus after visitingthe market(mandi), the diseaseitself has been renamed(though unofficially) asKoyambedu Corona.

The market has been shutdown and hectic activities are

on to translocate the same toThirumazhisai, a far away sub-urb. This has prompted thewholesale businessmen inKoyambedu to declare a shutdown till May 10. Rajasekhar,the leader of the association ofwholesale dealers said thatThirumazhisai has no infra-structure facilities and hence itwas not possible to set upshops in the area.

Ayurvedic medical doc-tors in south India are upsetover the indifference beingshown by the Clinical TrialsRegistry-India to their requestthat a drug for coronavirus theydeveloped yet to be taken upfor clinical trial though a pri-vate company has been prefer-ence over them.

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The mutual mudslingingbetween the Trinamool

Congress and the BJP culmi-nated into a fierce attacklaunched by the former whichon Tuesday raised a “funda-mental question” holdingCentral Government respon-sible for “importing” corona toIndia.

A day after GovernorJagdeep Dhankhar — whomthe TMC regards as a “BJPspokesperson” — slammedChief Minister MamataBanerjee for running a policeraj and diluting lockdown pro-tocols — the Bengal ruling out-fit launched a fierce counter-attack retracing the history ofcorona pandemic in India.

It held the Centre respon-sible for its “gross negligence”allowing the disease to prolif-erate in the community. In apress conference addressed bythree senior Ministers of the

State, Partho Chatterjee,Chandrima Bhattacharya andRajib Banerjee, the party raiseda “fundamental question” ask-ing “why the BJP Governmentrisked the lives of millions ofIndians by allowing repatriation of lakhs of Indianswho were flown in even after the World HealthOrganisation announced thepandemic.”

In a hard-hitting attackRajib Banerjee said, “the firstcase in India was recorded onJanuary 30, after that, caseswere reported from Karnatakaand Haryana on March 9 and5 … the next week WHOdeclared corona as a pandem-ic.

“Still the Government con-tinued to snore it away. Theyflew in lakhs of Indians strand-ed in other countries. Thisprocedure of flying in Indianscontinued till March 22 …This was a gross negligence onthe part of the Centre which

was at that time more occupiedhorse-trading to topple anelected Government inMadhya Pradesh.

“Many infected Indianswho were flown in spread thepandemic in India. So whoshould be held accountablefor pushing Indians to this sit-uation.”

It was Mamata Banerjeewho had first objected to theIndians being flown in indis-criminately without puttingany concrete plans in place hesaid. “The people were simplyflown in and left to mingleamong the public. There wasno plan in place and not theyare blaming the oppositionruled Governments. Our ChiefMinister objected to this butnone listened.”

Attacking the BJP and theGovernor “who is acting like itsspokesperson” for maligningBengal and bringing it to dis-repute TMC general secretaryPartho Chatterjee said “After

pushing India and Bengal intothis great trouble they sentIMCT to fish in troubled waters… This team did not come tocooperate with us but to fundloopholes and create problemsin fighting the virus.”

Questioning the proprietyof sending the IMCT withouttesting the officers for the virusthe Ministers said “the mem-bers of the team that was trav-elling Bengal was untested…Today we hear that the driverof the team and a security offi-cer has been infected. Now whowill trace their contacts?”

Hitting out at the Centrefor spending crores in beauti-fication of Delhi and erectingstatues but forcing the migrantworkers to pay for their traintickets back home the TMCleaders said “Rs 20,000 crore isbeing spent to beautify Lutyen’sDelhi, Rs 3,000 crore was spentto erect a statue and Rs 80 crorewas spent to host DonaldTrump but the poor workers

were forced to pay for theirreturn ticket.”

Attacking the Centre forcoming out with contradicto-ry guidelines Banerjee said,“today they are asking as toimpose strict lockdown andthen tomorrow they are tellingus to open shops. When we askfor clarification there is noreply. The Centre’s anti-coronapolicy is full of ad hocism…But here the BJP is out politi-cizing the whole war againstcorona by blemishing our ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee whounlike her counterparts puttingher own life at risk anddescending on the streets toenforce lockdown.”

Rejecting the BJP and theGovernor’s allegations aboutmalpractices in the public dis-tribution system the TMC lead-ers said “about 9 crore of peo-ple have been served by thecurrent rationing system andthe corrupt ration dealers havebeen punished. There has been

no irregularity as such in PDS system.”

Rather it was the BJPwhich was indulging in rationcorruption Chatterjee saidadding how “rice bags provid-ed by the central Governmentwere recovered from severalBJP party offices in NorthBengal.”

Meanwhile, Bengal onTuesday recorded 85 new infec-tions taking the total numberof active cases to 1008, sources said.

There were 7 more deathsin the past 24 hours taking thetotal number of deaths to 68.

The central report howev-er put the tally at 131. The Statehad tested 2455 people in thepast one day Home SecretaryAlapan Bandopadhyay saidadding the total number ofpeople tested were 25,116. Atrain carrying about 1,200 peo-ple from Ajmer Shariefreturned to Kolkata onTuesday.

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Global InformationTechnology major Wipro

Limited has teamed up with theMaharashtra Government toset up a 450-bed intermediarycare Covid-19 hospital on its ITcampus at Hinjewadi in Pune.

The Covid-19 hospital willbe ready by the end of thismonth and will be equipped totreat moderate cases. Amongother things, the hospital willhave 12 beds to stabilise criti-cal patients before shiftingthem to a tertiary care facility.

This will be an indepen-dent, isolated COVID-19 ded-icated complex. It will alsoinclude 24 well-appointedrooms to accommodate doc-tors and medical staff.

A Memorandum ofUnderstanding (MOU) wassigned between Wipro Ltd andthe Maharashtra governmentin this regard, recently in thepresence of Pune districtCollector Naval Kishore Ram

and Pune Zilla Parishad’s ChiefExecutive Officer Ayush Prasadand Wipro’s Senior VicePresident and Global Head-Operations Hari Prasad Hedgeto set up Covid-19 hospital inPune.

Speaking on the occasion,Maharashtra chief ministerUddhav Thackeray said: “Thishumanitarian contribution byWipro will further strengthenour medical infrastructure andbenefit the medical fraternitywho are at the forefront of ourfight against the pandemic”.

Rishad Premji, Chairman,Wipro Limited, said: “Wiprowill provide the physical infra-structure, medical furniture,and equipment besidesappointing an administratorand skeletal support staff tohelp operationalize the hospi-tal quickly with the requiredmedical professionals”.

“We are fully committed tosupporting the country’sresponse to the pan

demic and we must all

work together to deal withthis crisis and minimise itshuman impact. We stand firm-ly with the Government ofMaharashtra in its battle againstCOVID-19,” Rishad said.

The Wipro Ltd, WiproEnterprises Ltd and AzimPremji Foundation, togetherhave contributed Rs 1,125 croreto tackle the unprecedentedhealth and humanitarian crisisarising from the COVID-19pandemic outbreak.

“These resources will helpenable the dedicated medical

and service fraternity in thefrontline of the battle againstthe pandemic and in mitigat-ing its wide ranging humanimpact,” Rishad said.

“Wipro and Azim PremjiFoundation are engaged inCOVID-19 related humani-tarian and healthcare reliefwork in Maharashtra acrossMumbai, Pune, Aurangabad-Waluj, Amalner, Ahmednagar,Akola, Beed, Chandrapur, andGadchiroli,” a companyspokesperson said.

Agra: With the nationwide lockdown adverse-ly affecting different sections of society finan-cially, around 3,500 men and women acting asguides at different tourist places and spots in theregion too have not remained untouched.

With no financial backing from their asso-ciation for such exigencies, they are all at sea asto what the future holds for them. They claimedthat they wrote to different authorities but gotno response.

Unesco World Heritage Monuments includethe Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, Humayun’t tomb andQutub Minar in Delhi and Mahabalipuram etc.In the second category, there are monumentsunder the Archaeological Survey of India like

the tomb of I’timad-ud-Daulah in the city andSikandra near Agra.

These monuments have been closed sinceMarch 17, even before the nationwide lockdownwas announced amid coronavirus fears.

Agra Approved Guides AssociationPresident Sanjay Sharma told IANS that whileall sectors of the economy had been hit by coro-navirus pandemic, the tourism sector andthose associated with it directly or indirectly toohad been hit hard and left in the lurch.

“The tourism sector and guides have beenhit hard because the work is seasonal and touristsmake bookings in advance,” he pointed out.

IANS

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The Coronavirus situation inMumbai’s Dharavi locality

continued to be on the boil onTuesday, as 33 more personstested positive for Covid-19taking the total number ofinfected cases in Asia’s largestslum to 665.

A day after 42 positivecases were reported from thisdensely populated slum,Dharavi once again erupted asit came up with 33 pandemiccases.

There were nine infectedcases in 90 feet area in thisslum. Of the infected was aseven year-old girl.

Indira Nagar was anotherseverely affected area fromwhere five positive cases werereported.

The other areas whereactive cases were recordedcomprised: Ambedkar chawl,Kumbarwada, Rajiv GandhiNagar, Madina Nagar, PMGPcolony, Gangadhar chawl, VijayNagar, Mukund nagar, SocialNagar, TATA colony, AbuBakar chawl, janata housingsociety, 60 feet road area, Newmunicipal chawl, Dharavi PC,Matunga Labour camp,Kalyanwadi and ShashtriNagar.

With 33 fresh cases, the

total number of positive caseshas risen to 665 in Dharavi.Dharavi has witnessed sub-stantial number infected casesin Dharavi for the past fourdays.

On Monday, there were 42new positive cases of Covid-19.

On May 3, Cornavirus claimedtwo lives and left a recordday’s tally of 94 others infect-ed in this slum. On May 2,Dharavi recorded as many as89 Covid-19 positive cases.On May 1, there were 38 newcases. Earlier on April 23, onedeath and 25 cases had beenreported from Dharavi in a sin-gle day.

There have so far been 20Covid-19 triggered deaths inDharavi, which is one of theCoronavirus hotspots inMumbai.

“We have so far screened83,500 people in Dharavi.Currently, as many as 2380people are in institutionalquarantine. Of the earlierinfected persons, 196 peoplehave been discharged fromvarious hospital after full cure,”a senior official of theBrihanmumbai MunicipalCorporation (BMC) said.

Spread over 240 hectarearea, Dharavi is home to morethan 4 lakh people. Ever sincefirst few cases of Coronaviruswere reported in the early firstweek of April, theBrihanmumbai MunicipalCorporation (BMC) is closelymonitoring the situation inDharavi where the healthauthorities have clamped atotal lockdown.

Hyderabad: The TelanganaGovernment, here on Tuesday,promoted students of classes Ito IX in all schools, includingaided and private unaided, tothe higher classes for academ-ic year 2020-21.

The School EducationDepartment issued the order, asthe state cabinet had decided todo so last month.

No examinations could beconducted for these classesdue to the lockdown that beganon March 22. Chief Minister K.Chandrashekhar Rao had ear-lier announced since there wasno detention system for class-es I-IX in the state, there wasno need to conduct examina-tions and all the students bepromoted to the next classes.

As the SummativeAssessment (SA-2) examina-tions during the academic year2019-20 could not be con-ducted due to the lockdown,the Commissioner of SchoolEducation had requested thegovernment to issue necessaryorders. The Government is yetto take a decision on the annu-al examination of 10th stan-dard, known as the SecondarySchool Certificate (SSC) exam-ination. The SSC examona-tions began on March 19.

IANS

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Aday after killing threeCRPF jawans in

Handwara, unidentified ter-rorists hurled a grenade onCRPF jawans in Pakherporaarea of Budgam injuring sixpeople, including a policemanand a CRPF jawan on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, in Doda dis-trict of Jammu province, armyand J&K police in a joint oper-ation arrested a HizbulMujahideen militant fromVillage Sheikhpura of Gundanatehsil on Monday.

According to police, agrenade attack was reportedfrom Pakherpora area ofBudgam in which one CRPFjawan, a policeman and fourcivilians received injuries.

Official sources said, onSunday, terrorists ran away bylooting service weapons ofCRPF jawans from Wagamarea of Handwara.

In Doda, police identifiedthe arrested militant as TanveerAhmed age 27 years S/o LateJamal Din Malik R/o VillageTantana Tehsil GundanaDistrict Doda. He was associ-ated with Hizbul Mujahideen

Police has also recovered,one Pistol along with 10 roundsof pistol from his possession.

Police spokesman claimed,“Initial interrogation revealedthat he was earlier associatedwith Haroon (terrorist of HMoutfit killed in January) and atpresent with Tahir of Pulwamaand Masood of Doda ( bothactive terrorists of HM inDoda)”.

Bengaluru: Karnataka BJP’sfirebrand Lok Sabha memberShobha Karandlaje alleged thatsome “jehadi” elements havebeen making threatening callsto her from the Gulf region oflate, a party official said onTuesday.

“She (Shobha) has beengetting many unknown callsthrough the internet on herphones, mostly from Gulfcountries like Dubai andMuscat, giving her deaththreats for unspecified rea-sons,” Karandlaje’s spokesmanD Abhishek told IANS.

The threat calls increasedafter May 3 when she wrote aletter to Union Home MinisterAmit Shah, seeking actionagainst an Indian Muslim inKuwait for allegedly attackingan Indian taxi driver in the Gulfcountry for “praising” PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andhis leadership.

“Though she is not worriedabout the threat calls, as shedoes not follow the language inwhich they speak (Urdu orArabic), she has complained tothe police in the state andNew Delhi along with the voicecalls to investigate who havebeen calling her from abroad,”Abhishek said.

A former state minister inthe previous BJP governmentin the southern state (2008-13),Karandlaje is a two-time law-maker from the Udupi-Chickmangalur parliamentaryseat on the state’s west coast.

“As Shobha has been busywith the development woks inher constituency and takingcare of her people during thelockdown in force since March25 to contain the coronavirusspread, the police are investi-gating the case,” said Abishek.

“Action should be taken

against the accused Muslim(Asi Chullikkara) fromRajapuram of Kasargode innorth coastal Kerala for attack-ing, slapping and humiliating aHindu driver Sri Praveen inKuwait recently for praisingModi and posting it on hissocial media platformFacebook,” Karandlaje hadasserted in her letter.

The accused had forcedPraveen, a native of Kerala, wasalso made to apologise forlauding Modi.

“The accused also pres-sured Praveen to admit that anypost appreciating Modi is aninsult to the Muslim commu-nity. A video of the incident hasgone viral,” said Karandlaje inher letter to Shah.

Terming the attack outra-geous, the Chikmagalur con-stituency member said theaccused had to be punished forhis act.

“We must mount pressureon the authorities in Kuwait toextradite Chullikkara andbrought to India for trial,”asserted Karandlaje in the letter. IANS

Thiruvananthapuram: TheKerala High Court on Tuesdayfailed to give a stay on the newordinance of the Kerala gov-ernment which allows it todeduct six days salary of allstate government employeesfor the next five months to tideover the Covid-19 crisis, as itwas cash stressed.

State Finance MinisterThomas Issac welcomed thecourt’s decision and said thosewho went to the court failed tosee the rationale behind ourdecision and it was meant tocreate fissures in the society.

Five different state gov-ernment employees organisa-tions had approached the courtseeking a stay on the ordinance.

The court accepted thepetitions but refused stay theordinance and posted the hear-ing for next month.

The court pointed out thatthe state government has theright to bring out an ordinanceand said that this is only asalary deferment and will bereimbursed.

It was on April 30 thatKerala Governor ArifMohammed Khan signed thenew ordinance, ‘Disaster andPublic Emergency SpecialProvisions Act’.

The Pinarayi Vijayan gov-ernment had last month decid-ed to deduct six days salary ofall its employees for the nextfive months to tide over thefinancial crisis caused byCovid-19.

But pro-opposition staffunions approached the KeralaHigh Court, which stayed itand this forced the Vijayan gov-ernment to bring the new ordi-nance. IANS

Lucknow: As researchers andhealth workers try out newexperiments to stop the spreadof coronavirus across the coun-try, an engineering studentfrom Varanasi has designed an‘anti-COVID-19 robot’ whichwill help security forces bygiving a shock to lockdown vio-lators.

Vishal Patel, a third yearstudent of mechanical engi-neering at the Ashoka Institutein Varanasi, has developed thisrobot that can not only run onshallow water but can alsooperate comfortably on smoothand bumpy surfaces.

Patel, who built the robotunder the supervision of hissenior Shyam Chaurasia, claims that the device is also asecurity shield for police per-sonnel.

It will also help the policeto crack down on those flout-ing the lockdown rules. Thepolice who are at a risk fromcoronavirus infection canmaintain social distancing byoperating through the robots who will monitor the sit-uation.

Vishal claims that the robotwill prove to be a very effectiveweapon in maintaining social

distancing. With a movingcamera, remote and throughthe Internet, this device can befollowed by two-way callingwhile sitting at a police check-point.

Mahadev Pandey, in-charge and scientific officer ofGorakhpur Planetarium toldIANS, “There are many typesof robots developed in thisperiod, but the specialty of thisrobot made in Benaras is thatit can be used even in ruggedplaces and remote areas. It haswheels that allow it to run ona bumpy road in the country-side.” IANS

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Pakistani guns continue toboom along the Line of

Control in Manjakote andBalakote sectors of Rajouri andPoonch in a bid to push largegroups of heavily armed terror-ists,assembled at launch pads.

According to groundreports, Pakistani army resort-ed to unprovoked ceasefireviolation around 8.30 p.m inManjakote sector of Rajouriand after a gap of half an hour,forward areas of Balakote werealso pounded with mortarshells by the Pakistan army.

Jammu based Defencespokesman, Lt-Col DevenderAnand confirmed, “two back toback incidents of ceasefire vio-lations were reported alongthe line of control in Manjakoteand Balakote sectors of Rajouriand Poonch late Mondayevening”.

He said, India army wasgiving befitting reply at boththe places.

Ground reports claimed,Indian army is targeting noto-rious Pakistani posts acrossthe line of control to preventinfiltration of fresh batches ofinfiltrators,camping at theselaunch pads.

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Page 6: 2020/05/06  · er Air India will operate 64 flights between May 7 and 13 to bring back Indians stranded abroad. Those taking the spe-cial flights will be charged around 50,000

For the Americans especially, themost spectacular political event inthe first quarter of 2020 was thesigning of the Afghanistan peacedeal between the US and the

Taliban at Doha and simultaneously, a US-Afghanistan agreement at Kabul. The firstagreement fructified after many nations,including Russia and China, failed to bro-ker one. However imperfect, indeed flawed,for US President Donald Trump, the dealis meant to be a game-changer for his re-election later this year. He will bring back4,000 US soldiers by August and theremaining 12,000 by July 2021.

The International Crisis Group,Brussels, described the agreement as“ambiguous and at places contradictory,leading to confusion.” The anomalies havealready been discussed threadbare. Theagreements have opened two new mech-anisms: Direct military channel betweenthe US military commander at Kabul withthe Taliban at Doha; and a newAfghanistan-Pakistan dialogue facilitatedby America, aimed at border security andending terrorist safe-havens.

Trump was overwhelmed by the agree-ments but acknowledged in response to aquestion that the Taliban could seizepower after the US and Nato forces leaveAfghanistan. “Yes, that is possible…US’commitment to Afghanistan comes with anexpiry date,” he said. The swearing-in of thetwo Afghan Presidents in the same build-ing created its own confusion dynamics butthis time around, US Secretary of State,Mike Pompeo, instead of mediatingbetween them, threatened to cut $1 bil-lion from security funding, not just for thisyear but also next year. The prisoner swap— of 5,000 Taliban for 1,000 Afghan sol-diers — is also stuck on the modalities ofrelease and the Taliban not reducing vio-lence, leading to a comprehensive ceasefire.For the first time, the US mission inAfghanistan has refused to disclose thedetails of ground operations and casualties.But the office of Afghanistan’s NationalSecurity Advisor said that the Taliban hascarried out 2,804 attacks since the peaceagreement was signed on February 29.

The mother of all problems on bothsides, the Taliban and its adversaries, is theCOVID-19 pandemic, which has invadedthe presidential palace, too. The firstCorona case in Afghanistan was detectedat Herat on February 24. On May 4, 3,894positive cases were reported with 400recoveries and 90 deaths. The highest inci-dence of cases is in Herat due to its prox-imity to Iran and several thousand Afghanrefugees are returning home. ACoronavirus task force, led by VicePresident Amrullah Saleh, former head ofNational Directorate of Security, along witha technical team from the National SecurityCouncil attached to it has been established.It is feared that if the pandemic is not con-

tained, it could spread to cen-tral Asia.

India has been relativelyactive in Afghanistan followingthe signing of the peace agree-ments. Its consistency in refus-ing to open the channels withthe Taliban is remarkablyamazing. Foreign Minister SJaishankar likened the US-Taliban deal with a long-await-ed film, Pakeezah, and its 17trailers, employing his emblem-atic phraseology: “We willwatch this space for outcomes.”

Interestingly, India hadstopped short of welcoming theagreements. Instead, theMinistry of External Affairshad noted that the “entire polit-ical spectrum in Afghanistanwelcomed the opportunity forpeace and stability.” Jaishankarhas maintained India’s positionthat the gains of the last 18years must be preserved. NewDelhi was quick to acknowl-edge Afghanistan PresidentAshraf Ghani’s victory in thepresidential elections, over-looking loyal partner AbdullahAbdullah, whose family ourcountry has hosted for severalyears. A deal between Ghaniand Abdullah is in the makingwhere the latter has proposedhis name as Executive PrimeMinister and leader of the talksteam with the Taliban.

For the second time inthree months, Taliban

spokesperson Suhail Shaheensaid that his organisation wouldwant good relations in theneighbourhood on the basis ofmutual interest and respect.“We will never want any for-eign organisation to use theAfghan soil to target anothercountry.” On February 29,Taliban supremo HibatullahAkhundzada said that theIslamic Emirate of Afghanistanbelieves in sound relationswith the world and the region.

The recent attack on aGurudwara in Kabul that killed25 Sikhs whereby it is not clearif the Islamic State of Iraq andthe Levant — KhorasanProvince (ISIS-K) or theHaqqani Network was in theworks, has sent a chilling mes-sage for the future of Pakistan’sInter-Services Intelligence (ISI)operations in Afghanistan tar-getting Indian assets. The arrestof ISIS-K leader, AbdullahOrakzai, a Pakistani national,by the National Directorate ofSecurity (NDS) recently willopen up new trails. The AfghanNational Security Forces(ANSF) has claimed that ISIS-K has been virtually eliminat-ed, including its top leaders, anachievement hailed by Ghani asthe defeat of the ISIS-K. TheTaliban, assisted by US fire-power, apparently played alead role in this victory. Latestthreat assessments prompted

India to withdraw two of itsfour consulates in Afghanistanat Herat and Jalalabad with twoothers in Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif remaining in place.Both these consulates havebeen targetted in the past too— Jalalabad has been attackedfour times since 2007, evenforcing its relocation in 2016.Herat was attacked in 2014 andMazar-e-Sharif in 2013. TheJaish-e-Mohmmad and theLashkar-e-Tayyiba, in concertwith the Haqqanis, wereinvolved in these attacks.

The optimistic inferencedrawn from the US interlocu-tor Zalmay Khalilzad’s recentconversation with Jaishankar,enquiring on the COVID-19pandemic and briefing himon the progress in the agree-ment with the Taliban, thatIndia is now part of the peaceprocess is highly misplaced.Expectations were raised byformer President Hamid Karzaiwhen he said at the RaisinaDialogue in January and morerecently after the Khalilzad-Jaishankar conversation thatIndia should be part of thepeace process. Similarly,Mohammed MasoomStanekzai, head of the Ghani-appointed 21-member talksteam with the Taliban, said ata conference that India shouldbe part of the regional confer-ence on Afghanistan. Pakistan

will never allow India to comeinside the tent. Jaishankarknows it and will be watchingthat space keenly.

After all, the peace deal is atroop extrication agreement,not part of a peace process as thetwo agreements signed at Dohaand Kabul are apparently notinterlinked. Even so, last week,Khalilzad had urged the Talibanto observe peace and suspendoffensive military operationsduring Ramadan as it was anopportunity for humanitarianceasefire, at least till theCoronavirus crisis was over.

The Afghans are unhappythat the Taliban has pledgednot to attack the US and otherforeign forces but is continuingto kill fellow Afghans. With theimplementation of the peacedeal on hold due to its infirmi-ties and COVID-19, India hasits role cut out: To open backchannel with the Taliban; has-ten bridging the gap betweenGhani and Abdullah, vital forthe cohesion of nationalresponse to Taliban; re-deployconsulates at Herat andJalalabad as soon as feasible;and carve out a place in intra-Afghan dialogue.

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

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“All for a drink” (May 5). The con-sumption of alcohol is known tohave serious ill-effects on people’shealth. Its intake in the middle ofa pandemic can prove to becounter-intuitive. As was seen, theopening up of this sector led tomassive crowding. This can defeatthe very purpose of social distanc-ing. But it cannot also be deniedthat the closure of liquor shopswas a gross mistake on the part ofthe Government. Not only has itdepleted State revenues but alsoled to the emergence of black mar-keting. Liquor is an importantsource of revenue for StateGovernments. In times like thesewith the economy shut, they mustnot be deprived of a vital sourceof revenue.

When social distancing isbeing enforced for essential ser-vices, it can be enforced forliquor shops, too. Why can’tliquor be delivered at home?Citizens, too, must learn to con-duct themselves responsibly. Theymust get used to maintainingsocial distancing now.

Mayank KhatriUjjain

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“All for a drink” (May 5). Largecrowds outside liquor vends madefor a bizarre scenario. Peoplewere seen avidly jostling to buyliquor, thus giving the police atough time to manage the

unprecedented rush even as allsocial distancing norms went fora toss. Honestly speaking, theIndian economy has suffered mis-erably ever since the lockdowncame into force. Revenue collec-tions for States, too, have beenbadly affected. At this juncture,when the ruling regime is in theline of fire from the Opposition

for its controversial move, it iscaught in a Catch-22 situation ofchoosing between the health ofthe economy and people’s well-being. Citizens must understandthat the relaxation of the lock-down does not mean a return tonormalcy as life existed before.

Azhar A KhanRampur

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Sir — In the wake of the spreadof Coronavirus, newspapers,which were already in the processof dying, are now finding it dif-ficult to sustain economically.Print runs have been drasticallyreduced because of distributionproblems. Due to a sharp drop inadvertisements, edition sizes, too,have been cut back.

A number of newspapershave either suspended publica-tion, furloughed staff andannounced further cost cuts.Although publishers haveannounced that this is just tem-porary, there’s reason to believesome may be permanent. Theproblem facing them is that theyare unable to find a viable sourceof revenue in the absence of sus-pension of advertisements. For thesake of journalism which is vitalfor society, something needs to bedone. And this isn’t the responsi-bility of the Government alone.All of us must find ways to sup-port this industry.

ShambhaviVia email

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In times of an unprecedented socio-economiccrisis, like the one that has engulfed India andthe world today, it becomes extremely valuable

to draw meaningful insights from programmesaround the globe that have demonstrated positiveimpacts in providing safety nets for the poor andvulnerable. As large portions of the country’s pop-ulation, especially those engaged in the informalsector, lose wages due to the Coronavirus outbreak,the necessity of providing social safety netsbecomes even more evident.

One of the biggest programmes in the worldfor Conditional Cash Transfers (CCT), BolsaFamila of Brazil, has been widely recognised as aninnovative instrument of social policy for redress-ing poverty and inequality. It was initiated in 2003after merging four existing federal programmes,since the previous ones had had a limited impactdue to fragmented efforts. Data systems were notinterlinked and one family could benefit from mul-tiple interventions while another, in more abjectconditions, might receive nothing. A unified cashtransfer programme was hence necessitated. A newMinistry for Social Development and CombatingHunger was created for administering it.

I had the opportunity of gaining valuableinsights into the programme in my capacity asMission Director of the Mission Convergence pro-gramme of the Government of Delhi, which wasexploring good practices for improving the effica-cy of various social welfare-oriented schemes meantfor the poor and vulnerable.

The initial learnings were based on my visit toBrasila in 2008 in response to the invitation for aseminar-cum-awards programme organised by theGovernment of Brazil for knowledge exchange andrecognising innovative practices at local levels. Thesecond visit was facilitated by the World Bank asa study tour in which a number of senior officersfrom the Delhi Government, representing thedepartments of Social Welfare, Food and Supplies,Labour, Information Technology and Revenue, werealso nominated through the Mission Convergenceinitiative.

Significance: Bolsa Familia gained wide accep-tance from the federal Government, States andmunicipalities in Brazil as a coordinated strategyfor social protection. It resulted in integration ofmultiple CCTs at the federal and sub-national level.Beneficiary families were also linked with com-plementary services, resulting in comprehensiveinterventions for social assistance and support ser-vices for labour.

The targetting accuracy of the programmes isdemonstrated by the coverage and its rapid expan-sion. It started from 3.8 million families in 2003 asdrawn from pre-reform programmes and reached11.1 million families (46 million people) in 2006,i.e. a quarter of the population of Brazil and 13 mil-lion by 2010. Near universal coverage of the poorwas attained. Direct cash transfer brought efficien-cy gains with extremely low transaction costs. Only0.4 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product(GDP) was the programme cost, with 97.4 per centbeing actual transfers to beneficiaries.

Programme design: At the core of BolsaFamilia is direct cash transfer to a family so that aminimum level of sustainability is guaranteed topoor households. A fixed amount was provided asunconditional transfer. A variable amount basedon income levels and the number of children wastransferred as CCT with a maximum cap and sub-

ject to compliances like school enrollmentand attendance, immunisation, growthmonitoring visits, pre and anti-natal vis-its of pregnant and lactating mothers andparticipation of families in counsellingprogrammes. Vulnerable groups were alsolinked with services like capacity-enhancement for livelihood, microfi-nance and job placement.

The key programme instrument wasa single registry, ‘Cadastro Unico’, anationwide central database of poorfamilies. The income level for entry to theRegistry was higher than Bolsa famila eli-gibility. The poverty line recognised forthe programme was half the minimumwages. Families identified in extremepoverty level were eligible for a highertransfer amount. Cash was creditedmonthly preferentially to the femalehead of the household through an elec-tronic benefit card managed by Caixa, theFederal Bank of Brazil.

Municipalities play a key role in pro-gramme design as they identify familiesthat are to be enrolled in the Registry,select the priority group for intervention,monitor compliances and link themwith complementary social services inaddition to the Bolsa famila cash trans-fer, which by itself was a very basic levelof income support. Formal agreementswere signed by the federal Governmentwith the municipal bodies. A decen-tralised management index was institut-ed to measure the quality of implemen-tation in various municipalities.

Impact: The programme resulted inrapid reduction of poverty and inequal-ity. Between 2004 and 2014, more than28.6 million Brazilians escaped povertywith 58 per cent of decline in extremepoverty resulting from this programme.A decline in inequality during thisdecade witnessed the Gini Index ofhousehold incomes falling from 0.57 to

0.52. Targetting accuracy is evidencedfrom 73 per cent of benefits going to thepoorest 20 per cent and 94 per cent to thepoorest 40 per cent of the population. AUnited Nations DevelopmentProgramme (UNDP) study reports over80 per cent of benefits going to poor fam-ilies.

The programme also resulted inhigher food consumption and dietarydiversification. Beneficiary familiesengaged with public health systems in amore informed manner, leading to bet-ter utilisation of preventive healthcare ser-vices, especially for children, higherschool attendance, lower dropout ratesand reduction in child labour.

These conditions served as positivereinforcement for social behaviour whichwas also in the interest of the families inconsideration. It contributed to improv-ing psychosocial health, including areduction in suicide rates. Conditionalitybuilt into the programme resulted inincreased enrollment of children.

An improvement in women’s deci-sion-making status and increased accessto the financial system has been report-ed, too. A stronger Centre-local govern-ment collaboration was another interest-ing outcome, enabling a direct relation-ship between citizens and the federalGovernment. Fiscal incentives were use-ful in strengthening such a collaboration.

Shaping a future programme forIndia: Even though Bolsa Famila itself hasseen highs and lows due to changes inmacro-economic conditions and politi-cal commitments, insights from its oper-ations can inform social policies that seekto address challenges like deprivation,hunger and loss of jobs. Besides Bolsafamilia, CCT programmes in general havedemonstrated positive results in improv-ing the lives of people in poverty.

Such cash transfer programmes help

the poor and augment national growthby pumping more money and purchas-ing power into the economy. Linkingtransfers to certain desirable social behav-iours enables the development of a socialcontract between the Government andcitizens. This is useful for improvingdevelopment indicators in the long-term.

At the same time, it has been recog-nised that for such cash transfer pro-grammes to make a substantive differencein the lives of people, a simultaneousinvestment in education, health andinfrastructure is crucial. India already hasthe foundations of a robust service deliv-ery mechanism in place due to policieslike Aadhaar and opening of Jan Dhanaccounts. The country is well-placed tocreate a seamless family income pro-gramme through convergence of existingschemes like construction worker wel-fare schemes, maternity benefits, schol-arships, pensions, the Public DistributionSystem and other social welfare pro-grammes.

As we face complex economic chal-lenges resulting from a global pandem-ic, innovative and tested measures can bevery effective in providing relief to thosedevoid of vital resources to tide over thecrisis. It is imperative that migrants, dailywage labourers, construction workers,landless labourers in rural areas and othervulnerable groups are provided immedi-ate relief. It might be the ideal time forthe Government to consider institutinga nationwide system of social protectionfor the vulnerable population throughimplementation of a comprehensiveCCT.

(The writer is an IAS officer withextensive experience of working for pro-grammes related to social protection andgender equality. Views expressed are per-sonal.)

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Mahatma Gandhi once com-mented, “No perfect democ-racy is possible without per-

fect non-violence at the back of it.”What the Mahatma was referring towas a form of physical violence. Whatwe have witnessed in the past fewweeks has been a case of callous mis-governance. Violence can either bephysical or emotional. Both haverepercussions for the country. Thetreatment meted out to the migrantsstranded across the country is aston-ishing and a cause of worry. Thedichotomy which exists in India’s

response to evacuating citizens hasexposed a degree of inconsistency. Toa large extent, it also illustrates what theModi Government thinks of the citi-zenry of the country. You and I willnever be able to fathom the emotion-al abuse which the Government hasbeen hurling at the migrants for weeksnow. It is heart-wrenching and quiteabhorrent, to say the least.

Let’s first begin with what theGovernment has done well. By decen-tralising its strategy to contain COVID-19, it has managed to contain it.Whether this is temporary or not, onlytime will tell. Next, medical staff, policepersonnel, sanitation workers andpeople from whom we procure essen-tial and non-essential commoditiesshould be commended for their exem-plary service. Who could have imag-ined that we would be able to functionso smoothly during such a turbulentand unsettling period? Local enforce-ment authorities have been gracious intheir conduct and have been reachingout to senior citizens. The Governmentmoved swiftly to implement the

Disaster Management Act and theEpidemic Disease Act. Both helped incurbing the spread of disease. Peoplewere sincere in their efforts to heedmedical protocol and we all acted inconcert to stave off a humanitarian cri-sis. But tough questions still need to beasked. While the efforts of Air India’screw in rescuing Indians scatteredacross the globe is praiseworthy, we stillneglected an important strata of soci-ety. And we did so with abundant apa-thy. By us, I obviously mean theCentre. The Government has no rightto make the already marginalisedworkforce feel mediocre or inferior.

Really, it is farcical. Nothing shortof a mockery. A miscarriage of justice.Does it really take the world’s largestdemocracy, with a reasonably integrat-ed rail infrastructure, close to fiveweeks to announce ‘Shramik Special’trains to mobilise people? Are they notequal citizens of this country? Manymay not cast their vote due to the sheernature of their job which requires themto migrate to urban areas to pursue jobswhich often pay a pittance. I cannot

imagine any country in the worldwhich would treat its own citizens withsuch merciless indifference. Can you?

There is a definition for ‘direct tax’in economics: A compulsory contribu-tion from a person to the Governmentto defray the expenses incurred in thecommon interest of all without refer-ences to the specific benefit con-ferred. In other words, it is compulso-ry to pay the tax if you fall within thetax bracket but the Government is notgoing to promise you anything inreturn. But the recent Air India flightsto bring back Indians has made manylike me dispute the validity of the state-ment. If you are stranded abroad, youare perhaps paying heavy taxes in Indiaand are contributing to the coffers ofthe Government in terms of remit-tances. New Delhi will definitely bailyou out from any part of the world. Butif you are a non-tax payer, you will haveto endure injustice and your fatedepends on the whims and fancies ofthe Government. You see that’s why inthis case there has been a reference tothe specific benefit conferred.

Reports of India sending a 15-member rapid response team toKuwait are encouraging and notewor-thy. The team is going to assist the mid-dle-eastern nation in coordinating itsfight against the pandemic. This movewill certainly bolster ties betweenIndia and Kuwait. Relations betweenthe two are based on the principle ofpluralism and tolerance. That’s a fairapproach in international relations, buthow about emphasising the sameprinciple in the domestic policy appa-ratus? It is only a matter of time beforethe fault lines in India’s schizophrenicapproach are revealed.

This entire narrative has unfortu-nately been polarised by the politici-sation of the ‘fare’ issue. The Congresshas expressed valid concerns for achange and wishes to compensatemigrant labourers for the cost incurredin undertaking the arduous journeyback home. Why were the rich flownback to India free of charge till now,and why are migrant labourers, whoare essentially penniless post the out-break, being asked to pay an 85 per

cent subsidised fare? Accountability isan instrumental aspect of moderndemocracy. Funds are being pouredinto the PM CARES Fund, but why isthe disbursement outside the purviewof the public? Who is going to assumeresponsibility for this distorted publicpolicy? Is the disparity due to the factthat migrants lack a cohesive voice toinfluence New Delhi’s biased policy?Is it because they are not skilled at usingsocial media handles and thus cannotinfluence Modi’s rising popularity?

Maria Montessori, the eminenteducationist after whom the immense-ly popular Montessori system of edu-cation is based, once commented, “Thegreatest step forward in human evo-lution was made when society beganto help the weak and the poor, insteadof oppressing and despising them.” Thepoor in this case have been stripped oftheir privileges. It certainly does notaugur well for the future. Can youimagine what will happen once thelakhs of migrants lose faith in theGovernment and begin to revolt? Theanger is most certainly lurking in the

depths of their heart. No one knowsthe depth of another person’s anguish.We can empathise with these peoplebut never truly understand their frus-tration. Not all stakeholders can ben-efit from democracy. That is a given.Some will always be better off than oth-ers and that is a given. Inequalities willcontinue to persist and the policy pre-scriptions regarding eradicating themwill continue to assume limelight. Indiawas one of the first countries to evac-uate its citizens from across the globe;indeed a commendable move. No oneis debating that. But the profound neg-ligence regarding migrants requiresintrospection on the Government’spart. Why such apathy? Perhaps nexttime Modi addresses the country withhis heartfelt words and oratory, Iknow an emphatic apology to theoppressed is too much to ask for, butperhaps a fleeting reference to the samewith a degree of empathy will mitigatesome of the damage done if not alle-viate it completely.

(The writer is a socio-economiccommentator)

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Raymond Lee had been trav-elling the world by bicycle

for two years when the coron-avirus erupted and he sudden-ly found himself stranded inthe poor West African state ofGuinea.

After cycling throughEurope and then across theSahara, the 33-year-old SouthKorean was in Guinea, headingsouth, when the governmentshut the borders in a bid tocurb the spread of the virus.

“When I was in Guinea thisthing became really serious,”said Lee, a former flight atten-

dant with an easy smile and ashock of long hair.

Now stranded, he wasrepeatedly turned away fromhotels in the seaside capitalConakry, in what Lee describedas a prejudiced reaction to thepandemic. “They didn’t let mein because I am Asian,” he saidby phone, explaining that hewas turned away from seven oreight hotels.

“It was pretty messed up,”he added. “I personally neverexperienced any racism in myentire life, this is the first time”.

In spite of abundant natur-al resources, Guinea is a poorcountry where the fragile health

system is causing concern in theface of the pandemic.

The nation of some 13million people also has one ofthe worst outbreaks in theregion, with about 1,300 con-firmed cases and seven fatali-ties. Lee began asking aroundon the street for a place to stay— only to be swindled by aman who agreed to host himfor 50 euros ($55) a month, butwho vanished after receivingthe money.

With nowhere to stay andliving off savings, he found aroom in an upmarket hotelwhich he could not afford for long.

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Israeli Defence MinisterNaftali Bennett has said that

scientists at the country’s mainbiological research institutehave made a “significant break-through” in developing an anti-body to the novel coronavirus,as the researchers wrapped upthe development phase andmoved to patent and massproduce the potential treat-ment.

Bennett visited the labs ofthe Israel’s Institute forBiological Research (IIBR),supervised by the PrimeMinister’s Office and mandat-ed to develop a vaccine forcoronavirus, in Ness Ziona onMonday and was shown the“antibody that attacks the virusin a monoclonal way and canneutralise it within the bodiesof those ill”, a statement fromhis office said.

The statement said thatthe antibody’s developmenthad been completed and thatthe institute was in the processof patenting the find “and in thenext stage, researchers willapproach international com-panies to produce the antibodyon a commercial scale”.

“I am proud of the institutestaff for this terrific break-through,” Bennett said, adding

that “their creativity and theJewish mind brought aboutthis amazing achievement”.

In March, Israeli dailyHa’aretz, quoting medicalsources, had reported that sci-entists at the institute hadmade a significant break-through in understanding thebiological mechanism andqualities of the virus, includingbetter diagnostic capability,production of antibodies forthose who already have thevirus and development of avaccine.

It was not immediatelyclear if the breakthrough pre-sented to Bennett was in addi-tion to progress that wasreported in late March, and nofurther details were provided.

The statement also did notspecify whether human trialswere conducted.

The IIBR was establishedin 1952 as part of the IsraelDefence Forces’ Science Corps,and later became a civilianorganisation. It is technicallyunder the supervision of thePrime Minister’s Office, but isin close communication withthe Defence Ministry. PrimeMinister Benjamin Netanyahuis said to have ordered the insti-tute to devote resources todevelop a vaccine for Covid-19 on February 1.

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Britain on Tuesday becamethe first country in Europe

to confirm more than 30,000coronavirus deaths and infec-tions rose sharply again inRussia, even as other nationsmade great strides in tamingthe virus. China marked its third week with no newvirus deaths and South Korearestarted its professional base-ball season.

In the US, some statesbegan halting steps to lift thelockdown restrictions beingblamed for throwing millionsout of work and upending theglobal economy even as thou-sands of new U.S. Infectionsand deaths were being report-ed daily.

Britain looks set to surpass

Italy as Europe’s hardest-hitnation. The Government said28,734 people with Covid-19had died in UK. Hospitals,nursing homes and other set-tings while Italy has reported29,079 fatalities. Tallies fromboth are likely to be underes-timates because they onlyinclude people who tested pos-itive and testing was not wide-spread in Italian and Britishnursing homes until recently.

Yet official UK statisticsreleased on Tuesday that takeinto account people who diedwith suspected Covid-19 givea fuller picture and put Britain’scoronavirus toll at more than30,000 dead. The statistics,which go up to April 24, showthat deaths were a third high-er than the Government count.A comparable figure for Italy

was not available.In Russia, the number of

infections rose sharply again,with Moscow reporting morethan 10,000 new cases for threedays in a row.

At the same time, manyEuropean countries that haverelaxed strict lockdowns afternew infections tapered off werewatching their virus numberswarily.

“We know with great cer-tainty that there will be a secondwave -the majority of scientistsis sure of that. And many alsoassume that there will be a third

wave,” Lothar Wieler, the headof Germany’s national diseasecontrol centre, said.

Italy this week allowed 4.4million people to go back towork and eased restrictions onpersonal movement for thefirst time in two months.Scientists on Tuesday warnedlawmakers to prepare for a newwave of infections.

The coming weeks areessentially an “experiment” tosee how the infection curvereacts to the easing of theWest’s first lockdown, the headof infectious diseases at Italy’s

Superior Institute of Healthtold the La Repubblica news-paper.

“We are not out of the epi-demic. We are still in it,” saidDr Giovanni Rezza. “I don’twant people to think there’s nomore risk and we go back tonormal.” Widely seen as a suc-cess story, South Korea report-ed only three new cases of thevirus, its lowest total since Feb.18. Schools will be reopened inphases starting with highschool seniors on May 13, butthe highlight Tuesday was thebaseball season.

No spectators wereallowed. Cheerleaders dancedbeneath rows of empty seatsand umpires wore protectivemasks as one of the world’s firstmajor professional sportsreturned to action in gamesbroadcast to sports fans aroundthe world. The Korea BaseballOrganization also employedother protective measures,including fever screenings forplayers and coaches beforethey entered the stadiums.

China, it’s been three weekssince any new deaths havebeen reported in the countrywhere the pandemic beganlate last year. Just one new caseof infection was confirmed, andfewer than 400 patients are stillbeing treated for Covid-19,health officials said. Otherplaces in the Asia-Pacific regionhave also suppressed outbreaks,including Hong Kong, Taiwan,Vietnam, Thailand, Australiaand New Zealand, which hashad zero new cases for two

days. But experts said India, a

nation of 1.3 billion people, hasyet to see the peak of its out-break.

In Britain, which unlikeother European nationsremains in lockdown, a trialbegan Tuesday of a mobilephone app that authoritieshope will help contain the out-break. The app, which warnspeople if they have been nearan infected individual, is beingtested on the Isle of Wight, offEngland’s southern coast. Thegovernment hopes it can berolled out across the countrylater this month.

UK Prime Minister BorisJohnson plans to soon detail aroute out of a nationwide lock-down that began March 23 andruns through Thursday. Criticssay Johnson’s Conservative gov-ernment responded too slowlywhen Covid-19 began to spread,failed to contain the outbreak bynot widely testing people with

symptoms, then failed to traceand isolate the contacts ofinfected people. Countries thatdid that, including South Koreaand Germany, have recordedmuch lower death rates thanthose that did not.

The British government’schief scientific adviser, PatrickVallance, acknowledgedTuesday that “if we’d managedto ramp up testing capacityquicker it would have beenbeneficial.” In France, scientistsreleased a study saying theymay have identified a possiblecase of the new coronavirusdating back to December -about a month before the firstcases were officially confirmedin Europe.

Outside experts said thestudy, which was done retro-spectively from incompletemedical records, was interest-ing but not conclusive proofthat the virus started spreadingin Europe before previouslybelieved.

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Ateam of US scientists led byUS-based Los Alamos

National Laboratory has iden-tified a new, highly-potentstrain of coronavirus that hasspread globally and is morecontagious than the virus inearly days of the COVID-19pandemic.

Los Alamos NationalLaboratory (Los Alamos orLANL) is a US Department ofEnergy’s national laboratoryinitially organized duringWorld War II for the design of

nuclear weapons.According to the scien-

tists who posted their reportThe 33-page report was post-ed Thursday on prepreint por-tal BioRxiv, which is yet to bepeer-reviewed, the new strainappeared in February inEurope, migrated to the US

East Coast and has been thedominant strain across theworld since mid-March,according to a report in LosAngeles Times on Tuesday.

“In addition to spreadingfaster, it may make people vul-nerable to a second infectionafter a first bout with the dis-

ease,” the authors warned.The mutation affects the

now infamous spikes on theexterior of the coronavirus,which allow it to enter humanrespiratory cells.

The authors said they feltan “urgent need for an earlywarning” so that vaccines man-ufacturers around the worldwill be prepared to take on themore deadly mutated strain.

The new strain’s domi-nance over its predecessorsdemonstrates that it is moreinfectious, though exactly whyis still not known.

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In a worrisome development,15 children in New York,

some of whom had coron-avirus, have recently been hos-pitalised with a mysteriousinflammatory syndrome, withdoctors not yet fully aware ofthe spectrum of the disease.

The New York City HealthDepartment said that childrenaged 2-15 years had been hos-pitalized from April 17- May 1with Kawasaki disease or fea-

tures of toxic shock.While the “full spectrum of

disease is not yet known,” thedepartment said patients withthis syndrome who have beenadmitted to pediatric intensivecare units (PICUs) haverequired cardiac and/or respi-ratory support.

“Only severe cases mayhave been recognised at thistime,” it said.

The children had reportedfever, rash, abdominal pain,vomiting, or diarrhea. Of the

15 children, four had testedpositive for COVID19. Morethan half of the reportedpatients required blood pres-sure support and five requiredmechanical ventilation. Nofatalities have been reportedamong these cases, the depart-ment said.

A report in The New YorkTimes said that according tothe state health commissionerHoward Zucker, officials wereinvestigating the unexplainedsyndrome.

The syndrome has receivedgrowing attention in recentweeks as cases began appearingin European countries hit hardby the coronavirus.

“There are some recentrare descriptions of children insome European countries thathave had this inflammatorysyndrome, which is similar tothe Kawasaki syndrome, but itseems to be very rare,” DrMaria Van Kerkhove, a WorldHealth Organization scientist,said at a news briefing last

week.New York City health com-

missioner Oxiris Barbot said ina statement that “even thoughthe relationship of this syn-drome to Covid-19 is not yetdefined, and not all of thesecases have tested positive forCovid-19 by either DNA test or serology, the clin-ical nature of this virus is suchthat we are asking all providersto contact us immediately ifthey see patients who meet thecriteria we’ve outlined.”

Moscow: The number ofdomestic violence cases inRussia grew 2 1/2 times duringthe lockdown the Governmentordered to stem the spread ofthe coronavirus, Russia’shuman rights ombudswomansaid on Tuesday.

Complaints and reportsmade to Russian non-govern-mental organisations spikedfrom roughly 6,000 in March tomore than 13,000 in April,human rights obmudswomanTatyana Moskalkova said.

“The picture is rather non-optimistic,” the RIA Novostinews agency quoted her as say-ing. Russia imposed a nation-wide lockdown in late March,with authorities in the vastmajority of regions suspendingmost businesses and requiringresidents to stay at home. AP

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China’s most powerful carri-er rocket Long March-5B

made its maiden flight onTuesday, successfully sendingthe trial version of the country’snew-generation manned space-ship and a cargo return capsulefor test into space, the statemedia reported.

The white large rocketblasted off from the WenchangSpace Launch Centre on thecoast of southern China’s islandprovince of Hainan at 6 p.M.(Beijing Time), state-runXinhua news agency reported,citing the China Manned SpaceAgency (CMSA).

About 488 seconds later,the experimental mannedspacecraft with no crew, togeth-

er with the test version of thecargo return capsule, separat-ed with the rocket and enteredthe planned orbit.

The successful flight inau-gurates the “third step” ofChina’s manned space pro-gramme, which is to constructa space station, the CMSA said.Specially developed for China’smanned space program, LongMarch-5B will be mainly used tolaunch the modules of the spacestation, it said. The constructionof China’s space station moves astep closer with the successfulmaiden flight of its new largecarrier rocket, a senior spaceofficial said. The Long March-5B was specially developed tolaunch the space station mod-ules, said Wang Jue, chief direc-tor of the rocket development

team at the China Academy ofLaunch Vehicle Technology(CALT) under the ChinaAerospace Science andTechnology Corporation.

The new rocket, a variant ofChina’s largest carrier rocket,the Long March-5, will helpexpand China’s aerospace activ-ities, said Wang Xiaojun, headof CALT. The Long March-5Bis about 53.7 metres long, witha 5-metre-diameter core stageand four 3.35-metre-diameterboosters. Compared with theLong March-5, the LongMarch-5B has one less corestage but a larger fairing, whichis 20.5 metres long and 5.2metres in diameter, as tall as asix-floor building, and nearlyeight metres longer than thefairing of Long March-5.

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Two of Hong Kong’s formerleaders launched a pro-

Beijing alliance Tuesday touphold China’s “one country,two systems” policy and workto revive the city’s economy fol-lowing months of anti-gov-ernment protests.

The move by former chiefexecutives Tung Chee-hwa andLeung Chun-ying comes aheadof key legislative elections inSeptember.

The ruling pro-BeijingGovernment took a drubbing in district electionsh e l dlast year amid demonstrationscalling for greater democracy.

Tung and Leung said the

new Hong Kong Coalition willsupport employment by creat-ing jobs, providing internshipsand offering volunteer work tofresh graduates. They did notprovide details of how theywould do that.

“We will give full play to‘One Country, Two Systems’and recover our economy, andcontinue to safeguard the ruleof law so that we can achievestability and prosperity in HongKong,” said Tung, who led thecity from 1997 to 2005.

Hong Kong was riven byanti-government protests lastyear against what critics see asgrowing Chinese influence inthe city’s affairs.

The former British colonywas handed back to China in

1997 under the “one-country,two-systems” framework inwhich Hong Kong was givenfreedoms not enjoyed on themainland and promised a highdegree of autonomy over localaffairs for 50 years.

During the protests, hun-dreds of thousands took to thestreets and violent clasheserupted between police andhard-line demonstrators.Among the protesters demandswas the direct election of thecity’s leader, currently picked bya committee.

The launch of the coalitioncomes a day after Hong Kongsaid its economy contracted8.9% year-on-year for the firstthree months of 2020, thelargest decline on record.

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For much of the last twomonths, President Donald

Trump has rarely left thegrounds of the White House ashe’s dealt with the fallout of thecoronavirus pandemic andsought to minimise his ownexposure to the disease.

But that changes Tuesday,when Trump is scheduled totravel to Arizona to visit aHoneywell facility that makesN95 masks in what the presi-dent suggests will mark thereturn to more regular travel.

The trip also means a smallarmy of advisers, logisticalexperts and security staff — acoterie of hundreds thatincludes personnel from theWhite House, DefenseDepartment, Secret Serviceand more — will resume reg-ularly hitting the road again

and taking a measure of risk toassist Trump.

In addition to Tuesday’strip to Honeywell, Trump sayshe will travel soon to Ohio, toNew York in June for the USMilitary Academy graduation,and to South Dakota in July fora holiday fireworks display atMount Rushmore.

Trump said he’s also eagerto get back on the campaigntrail, though he acknowledgedduring a Fox News forumSunday that it might not be ableto hold his signature big-sta-dium rallies until the finalmonths before the November3 election.

“I’ve been at the WhiteHouse now for many months,and I’d like to get out, as muchas I love this. ... Most beautifulhouse in the world,” Trumpsaid in announcing his travelplans.

Tehran: The new coronaviruspandemic has brought backsomething unseen in Iran sinceits 1979 Islamic Revolution: adrive-in movie theatre.

Once decried by revolu-tionaries for allowing too muchprivacy for unmarried youngcouples, a drive-in theatre nowoperates from a parking lotright under Tehran’s iconicMilad tower, showing a film inline with the views of hard-lin-ers. Workers spray disinfectantson cars that line up each nighthere after buying tickets onlinefor what is called the “CinemaMachine” in Farsi. They tuneinto the film’s audio via an FMstation on their car radios.

With stadiums shut andmovie theatres closed, thisparking-lot screening is theonly film being shown in acommunal setting amid thevirus outbreak in Iran, one ofthe world’s worst.

Iran has reported morethan 98,600 cases with over6,200 deaths, though interna-tional and local expertsacknowledge Iran’s toll is like-ly far higher. AP

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Page 9: 2020/05/06  · er Air India will operate 64 flights between May 7 and 13 to bring back Indians stranded abroad. Those taking the spe-cial flights will be charged around 50,000

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Adani Ports and SpecialEconomic Zone Limited

(APSEZ) on Tuesday reported74 per cent decline in consol-idated net profit to �340.21crore for the fourth quarterended March 31.

The company will reduceoperating costs in FY21 and itscapex will be curtailed to�2,000 crore with focus onconserving cash, generatinghigher free cash flow andincreasing the return on capi-tal employed (ROCE) from itsbusiness, it said in a statement.

The country’s largest inte-grated logistics player had

clocked consolidated net prof-it of �1,314.19 crore in the cor-responding period a year ear-lier, the company said in a BSE filing.

Its consolidated totalincome marginally declined to�3,360.17 crore for the fourthquarter as against �3,492.72crore in the year-ago period.

Total expenses during thequarter under review rose to�3,099.18 crore as against�1,840.35 crore.

As a strategy, the companyalways maintained a liquiditycover of 2x. While it is planningto reduce operating costs, thefirm aims to curtail Capex to�2,000 crore for FY21.

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The Indian equity indicespared all the gains made

earlier in the day to settle in thenegative territory, with heavy selling during the lasthour of trade.

According to analysts,investors took to profit book-ing after the indices gained dur-ing most of the trading session.

Heavy selling was wit-nessed in the banking andfinance stocks. The S&P BSEBanking index closed 2.39 percent lower and the Financeindex ended lower by 1.93 percent.

Siddhartha Khemka, Headof Retail Research at MotilalOswal Financial Services said:“Indian equity markets afteropening on a positive noteended in red on the back ofcontinued profit booking.”

The volatitlity index ‘IndiaVIX’ also remained at higherlevels of 43, he said.

Khemka added that earn-ings have already seen a sharp30 per cent downward revisionand market now expects theNifty to deliver another year of

flattish earnings in FY21.“Early results of 4QFY20

earnings season and manage-ment commentaries suggestmore volatility and disruptionin earnings ahead. In the near-term, we expect the marketdirection to depend upon thespread and intensity of COVIDcases, and incremental gov-ernment/ regulatory actionsto restart the economy,” he

said. The BSE Sensex closed at31,453.51, lower by 261.84points or 0.83 per cent from theprevious close of 31,715.35.

It opened at 32,182.90 andtouched an intra-day high of32,264 and a low of 31,403.57.

The Nifty50 on theNational Stock Exchangeclosed at 9,205.60, lower by87.90 points or 0.95 per centfrom the previous close.

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Consumers can expect topay more for auto fuels and

liquor in coming days as moreand more states are expected totarget these for increasing theirrevenue which has been severe-ly hit by Covid-19 outbreak andsubsequent lockdown.

Sources in the Central andState Governments said that asthe two segments (petroleumproducts and liquor) remainoutside the purview of GST, taxes on it could be easi-ly raised by the StateGovernments through a noti-fication.

Taxes on petrol and dieseland liquor comprise almost 40-50 per cent of state revenues.Any increase in taxes on theseitems would boost a state’s cof-fers at a time when over amonth of lockdown hasbrought business activity to astandstill and has consequent-ly affected GST collections ofstate, that in few cases, are esti-mated to fall more than 80-90per cent in April.

“Higher taxes on liquorand petroleum products isbeing seen by states as neces-

sary measure to shore up rev-enues impacted by lockdown.Delhi has raised duty on bothsegments along with AndhraPradesh and few more states. Incoming days, almost all stategovernments are expected toraise taxes on auto fuels andliquor,” said a tax expert whodid not want to be named.

States like Haryana andTamil Nadu have also raisedVAT on petrol and diesel andhave looked at revenue fromliquor segment while otherstates like Maharashtra,Karnataka and West Bengalhad hiked VAT from April 1itself. Since March 16, state-runoil marketing companies havenot increased the basic retailselling price of petrol anddiesel.

Saloni Roy, Senior Director,Deloitte India, said: “As thelockdown was suddenlyannounced and thereafterextended, earnings of stategovernments have been badlyaffected, similar to what busi-nesses are also facing. The eas-ing of lockdown conditionsannouncements made over theweekend have been viewed asa lease of life.”

The State Governments’intent to increase tax petrol anddiesel should be seen in light oftheir rising revenue from thepetroleum sector over theyears.

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GST Network (GSTN) onTuesday said it has devel-

oped a new functionality on theportal through which taxpay-ers can now transfer amountavailable under one head toanother in the electronic cashledger.

Form GST PMT-09 pro-vides flexibility to taxpayers tomake multiple transfers frommore than one head (major orminor) to another head (majoror minor) and helps with theintra-head or inter-head trans-fer of amount available in elec-tronic cash ledger.

Chandigarh: The Multifaceted personalitywearing many hats such as social entrepre-neur, culture conservationist Ravee SinghAhluwalia has been appointed as the Memberof the Punjab State Commission for Protectionof Child Rights (PSCPCR).

Passionately wedded to the cause ofbringing about the social change via theawareness generation, he founded an NGOnamed Patiala Foundation in 2009, the soleaim of implementing innovative ideas to her-ald the society towards a positive change.

It was owing to his absolutely single minded devo-tion that saw Patiala Foundation being accorded the spe-cial consultative status with the Economic and SocialCouncil of the United Nations in 2018.

This was not the only feather in his cap. His inno-vative child educational tool “Children Challan Book “

was adjudged as one of the best practicesand included in the book “Vision ofAntyodaya” unveiled by the Vice PresidentOf India in 2020. His long list of achieve-ments grew still longer when he wasawarded the prestigious Punjab State Awardin the field of Social Service by ChiefMinister Captain Amarinder Singh.

A multifaceted luminary, working withchildren has always been his first love.Associated actively with various issues ofCulture, Heritage conservation, road safe-

ty, he has undertaken various awareness programs in theschools and is an Alliance advocate for Asia for Globalalliance of NGOs for Road safety and is actively work-ing on the Safe School Zone policy and advocating Safe School Vahan Policy amongst other Child rights inthe State.

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Apex sectoral bodyFederation of Associations

in Indian Tourism & Hospitality(FAITH) on Monday doubled itsloss guidance for India’s tourismsector to �10 lakh crore onaccount of impact of Covid-19pandemic. The earlier forecast,which was shared with the gov-ernment in March 2020, had puttourism’s economic value at riskat around �5 lakh crore, FAITHsaid in a statement.

The federation has revisedits guidance given the waytourism supply chains arebreaking down in India acrossall its key inbound, domestic

and outbound markets, itadded.

“We would like to doublethe earlier guidance of Indiantourism economic value at riskfrom �5 lakh crore to �10 lakh crore,” a FAITHspokesperson said.

FAITH said it has sharedthe revision of loss guidancewith an inter-ministerial groupof the government. It hasalready requested help from thegovernment for the survival ofthe tourism and hospitalitysector. For the revival of anydemand in tourism, thetourism supply in India has tofirst remain intact, the state-ment said.

London: British airline Virgin Atlantic said onTuesday it planned to cut 3,150 jobs and wouldmove its flying programme from LondonGatwick to Heathrow airport as it counts thecost of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The spread of the novel coroanvirus has vir-tually brought airports around the globe to astandstill, leaving airlines taking drastic stepsto make savings.

British Airways said last week it could cutas many as 12,000 jobs, over a quarter of its total,and Virgin Atlantic Chief Executive Shai Weisssaid the pandemic was the most devastatingevent in the airline’s history.

Agency

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Union Minister Nitin Gadkari onTuesday said the Government is

considering introducing a policy onimport substitution and urged India Incto upgrade technologically and come upwith cost-effective substitutes to reducethe country’s inward shipment.

The Minister for MSME and RoadTransport and Highways said a policy onimport substitution is being thought ofin the wake of the economic situationcreated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Gadkari said the industry may notbe shut for a long time, and several relax-ations could be given by the end of May.

He urged various stakeholders toconvert knowledge into wealth byimproving quality through innovationsand cutting cost. The minister was

addressing representatives of theAssociation of Lady Entrepreneurs ofIndia, technical service providers andperforming artists from the entertain-ment sector in separate meetings viavideo conferencing.

The minister emphasised that spe-cial focus towards export enhancementis the need of the hour, and necessarypractices shall be adopted to reduce thecost of power, logistics and productionto become competitive in the global mar-ket. Further, he said there is also a needto focus on import substitution toreplace foreign imports with domesticproduction.

Gadkari said the industry shouldfocus more on innovation, entrepre-neurship, science and technology,research skill and experiences to convertthe knowledge into wealth.

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Union Minister Nitin Gadkari hassaid he expects a financial pack-

age to be declared by the governmentfor micro, small and medium enter-prises sector soon.

The MSME sector, which con-tributes 29 per cent to the country’sgrowth and 48 per cent to exports, isa major employment generator.However, the sector is facing a huge cri-sis amid coronavirus pandemic, withmillions of units staring at losses andthe prospect of job cuts as they strug-gle to survive.

“There is serious thinking in thegovernment and we are trying our levelbest. We are consulting all stakehold-ers and...Different departments are

consulting each other... We are tryingour level best to get a good package toMSMEs where the problem is seriousand we are supporting them,” theMSME minister said.

“I am expecting that as early aspossible the package will be declaredby the government,” Gadkari told a TVnews channel.

Besides, he said, a special joint sec-retary has been appointed for coordi-nation with state governments and allforeign companies, who want to investin India.

Gadkari also said the foreign com-panies “will get all type of clearanceswithin 3 months” along with red car-pet treatment, transparency, timebound decision making process andcorruption free system.

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The rupee on Tuesday recov-ered by 10 paise to close at

75.63 against the US currencyon increased risk appetite fol-lowing easing Sino-US tradewar concerns.

The US dollar declinedagainst major Asian currenciesand the euro after a US officialsaid that the country was notplanning any punitive actionagainst China over the han-dling of the coronavirus pan-demic.

Forex traders said therupee is trading in a narrowrange as sustained foreign fundoutflows and concerns overcoronavirus outbreak weighedon the local unit.

At the interbank foreignexchange, the rupee opened at75.62 and finally settled at75.63, registering a rise of 10paise over its previous close.During the day the domesticunit saw an intra-day high of75.50 and a low of 75.72 againstthe US dollar.

On Monday, the rupee hadsettled at 75.73 against the USdollar.

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The BML Munjal University (BMU),a Hero Group initiative, has

launched a virtual masterclass series,titled — When Tomorrow Comes. Themasterclass brings accomplished lead-ers from different walks of life to sharetheir real-life experiences, stories, andlearnings on how to prepare for,embrace and thrive in change.

The masterclass series complementBMU’s focus on transformative learn-ing. Targeted at all students — the uni-versity’s own and otherwise, the seriesaims to provide motivation and the rightmindset to be ready and resilient forwhatever changes, revolutionary or

evolutionary that the future mightthrow their way.

The 60 minute live sessions arebeing held weekly. The first masterclassfeatured Sunil Kant Munjal, Chancellor,BML Munjal University, and was host-ed by Prof Nigam Nuggehalli, Dean,School of Law. Munjal discussed theimportance of adapting to change, theimportance and humility of appreciat-ing other people’s work, and shared howpeople need to lead by example, takecriticism constructively and alwayspossess the desire to learn.

The second episode masterclassdiscussion touched upon the impact ofCOVID-19 on the entertainment indus-try and the changes expected.

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Youva, the youth sta-tionery brand from

the house of NavneetEducation Limited is allset to release three newTVCs around their newbrand tag-line “Think.Create”. Youva throughtheir TVCs aims toenable and inspire cre-ativity and celebrateyoung creators fromvarious walks of life.

The TVCs arebased on different sce-

narios pivoted on thethought young mindsthink differently.

It showcases cre-ation as a force thatresides in every indi-vidual. The films areemotional, nostalgic,endearing and have ahigh quotient thatbrings out the creativi-ty of the child in everyinstant. The innocenceof the child showcaseshow kids have startedto think & executethings differently.

In an unprecedented move, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi announced

that his Government was enforcing a21-day nation-wide lockdown to com-bat the outbreak of Coronavirus. Heassured the public that both the unionand State Governments will ensuresupply of essential goods and servicesso that people can easily stay put intheir houses during the three-weeklockdown.

Nonetheless, the shutting down ofschools, offices and public transporthas significantly disrupted the lives ofcommon people including that of stu-dents. Students at different stages oftheir academic pursuits are finding ithard to keep up with their coursedevelopments even though teachersare offering online classes as well asother types of digital academic assis-tance. With examinations, entrancetests and interviews postponed indef-initely, there is a great amount ofuncertainty among students. However,it is important that both students andfaculty members utilise this time tobrush up their skills, find new avenuesof knowledge and keep themselves pre-pared for a different future.

Research potential colleges/pro-

grammes: While you are at home, youcould do a deep study on colleges andprogrammes you are considering.Scan through each university websiteand understand its requirements sothat you know exactly what you needto do to get admission.

Prepare for standardised tests: Asyou have ample time at home, youshould prepare for the entrance exams.Prepare with the help of mock tests,

or quiz templates to familiarise your-self with the test. Study the test patternthoroughly, as these tests are unlikewhat you have encountered in yourschool or college education.

Draft a winning resume: Take thetime out to prepare a crisp, error-freeand coherently presented resume.While writing your resume, don’tbeat around the bush. Be specific andhonest.

Read: Reading is a good way toabsorb. Don’t restrict your choice ofgenre or author. The more you openyour mind to new books, the richeryour experience will be. See the worldthrough the eyes of eminent writers,and you will gain valuable lessons fromthem. Join a digital library or spendtime at online book clubs to build yourknowledge about books.

Guidelines for faculty members � The faculty members and studentsshould make best use of online teach-ing/learning methods to cover thecourses of this semester. � Members wishing to improve theirtechnical understanding of some sub-ject may pick up a classic textbook onthe subject and read it completely. Forexample, you can pick a book on com-puter networks, signals and systems,communication systems, computerarchitecture, robotics, internet ofthings, artificial intelligence, machinelearning, cognitive systems, cybersecurity and operating systems.� Try doing things that will help inmaking the institute better and inimproving the image of your institute.

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The COVID-19 pandemic hasput the state under completelockdown, which has been

extended further till May 17, 2020.except for the state, coronavirus lock-down has also put a halt to the dreamsof scholars looking forward to seemin JEE Main (April session) followedby JEE Advanced in May.

Before the lockdown, JEE Main(April Session) was scheduled to beconducted on April 5, 7, 9 & 11.Moreover, soon after the extension ofthe lockdown, the National TestingAgency (NTA) reopened the correc-tion window for JEE Main applica-tions. Here, students who haveapplied for April Session can makecorrections. On Tuesday, the HRDminister announced new dates for thesecond session of JEE Main which isfrom July 18 to July 23, 2020. Studentsdon’t have to panic and instead utilisethe given time in boosting theirpreparation. Consider this situationas a blessing in disguise, studentsmust keep calm, stay healthy andinvest quality time in identifyingtheir loopholes & strengthening theirpreparation.

When nothing seems to be underyour control, it’s best to spent time infacing the challenges, evolving yourskills & stepping towards Excellencefor a brighter tomorrow. the necessi-ty of the hour is to remain positive,utilise additional time effectively tochurn out something productive &better. Following points will definitely

facilitate you in utilising the time well:Draft a workable schedule:

When you would like to realise some-thing, the primary thing is to plan outit slow table. Schedule shall be madeduring a way that revision, learningand testing go hand in hand. It alsoallows you to quickly run throughshort notes, formulae & concepts. Giveequal time to every subject & workupon to strengthen the concepts andtheir application by attempting mocktests and past years’ exam papers. In-depth learning is that the mantra thanmemorisation.

Go online for quality teaching:Current scenario has certainly raisedthe importance of technology. Thereare online platforms working gen-uinely to provide a virtual classroomambience with complete notes, expertopinions, online classes, mock tests etcfor optimum preparation. Edfora myPAT powered by knowledge partnerFIITJEE, is one such platform thatenables students to learn effectivelyand the safely from their homes.

Choose 3-tier revision method:Revisiting in time must boost theretention and productivity. Here, a stu-

dent can value more highly to addthree tier method. A subject done ona given day will be revised after threedays so the identical topic will berefreshed at the tip of the week. dur-ing this manner, a student is proba-bly going to induce a robust hold ontopics & subjects.

Conceptual application of keyformulae: Today’s competitive envi-ronment needs one to learn & con-ceptually apply formulae in JEE Maintype questions.

This can be further strengthenedat the time of revision. Students whoconsume plenty of time in solvingquestions can practise and increasetheir speed.

Mock tests: Mock Test is sort ofa practice match that prepares stu-dents for the real match with the cor-rect temperament of the exam. Foraccurate analysis of current pre-paredness, mock test plays a signifi-cant role.

Be relaxed & stay enthused: Foroptimum performance, it’s importantthat your mind & body are in shape.Studying for hours with not taking anybreak in between might not reap

desired results. Frequent breaks arevital for the brain to assimilate, regainthe lost energy and re-energise themind and body for next study session.So, stay calm and determined towardsyour goal.

Time mangement: It must be uti-lized effectively and productively.Wise utilisation of this additional time& working towards getting a decenthold on concepts is that the need ofthe hour.

Accurate Strategy and ProperTime Management are the tools thateach student must use during this cur-rent lockdown and are the stepstowards attaining excellence.Moreover, success depends on theday’s performance. So, one shouldpractise and not waste even one hour.Time to Ace JEE Main 2020 &to fol-low it successfully in JEE Advanced2020 is now.

After attempting January sessionof JEE Main 2020, it’s time to analyseperformance, discover the loopholes,strengthen weak areas & put in opti-mum efforts to deliver the mosteffective.

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Shiksha, a part of Info EdgeLimited, recently surveyed the

“Impact of global COVID-19 lock-downs on study abroad plans ofIndian students” that highlights themoods and preferences of stu-dents who are planning to go for2020 intake and those in the earlystages of their 2021 intake journey.

The survey has been conduct-ed amongst students interested instudying abroad. Amongst thetotal number of survey respon-dents, 72 per cent of respondentsplanned to go in 2020, while 27 percent of respondents planned to goin 2021 or later.

As per the survey report, forthe students who are looking for2020 intake, 46 per cent areextremely concerned about theimpact on jobs and salaries whichseems to suggest that students arealready thinking about long termpotential impacts on their futurejobs and salaries. If this turnsaround, students will revive theiradmission plans. Other dimensionswhere students are extremely con-cerned are personal health, inter-national travel and any futureimpact on stay back periods. Thequality of online education alsoseems to be a cause of worry.Whereas, the concerns for studentswho are planning for 2021 intakeor onwards include personal health,arranging finances, accommoda-tion, impact on jobs & salaries.

While inquiring if the current

situation has impacted their studyabroad plans, amongst studentswho want to go abroad this year,very few students (11 per cent) arestrongly considering canceling theirplans and 41 per cent are stronglyconfirming that they are planningto go and have not changed theirplan.

On the other hand, 50 per centare considering the possibility ofdeferring their plan to future intakeand 76 per cent of students are like-ly to see how the situation evolves.This seems to suggest that if the sit-uation turns around, both studentsand universities have a good chanceof rescuing their intake. A very sim-ilar pattern emerged in the case ofaspirants for 2021 or later. (Note:This question was a multiple choicewhere students can select multipleoptions because the underlyingsituation is changing quite dynam-ically and forced preference takenon a particular day may not holdtrue in future weeks.)

The study also emphasises thata majority of students (61 percent) interested in 2020 intakehave suggested they will defer tofuture intake while 26 per cent haveindicated their willingness to enrollfor online classes. It has beenobserved that Canada & the USAare two countries where thereseems to be a maximum willing-ness to enroll online. However,these are countries that also havea maximum time difference with

India. So when classes are con-ducted during daytime in thesecountries, it will be night in Indiaand this can become an impedi-ment in their uptake.

The survey also focuses on thefact that if the current situation islikely to have an impact on stu-dents who are interested in 2021 orfuture intakes changing their studydestination. It shows that studentswho are interested in Australia aremost likely to change their coun-try preference (69% are likely),while those interested in the UKare least likely to change theircountry preference (only 25 percent are likely).

In this context, Vivek Jain,Chief Business OfficerShiksha.com said: “As we can see,the survey clearly shows a likelychange in student’s choice of thecountry due to the current situa-tion. I expect the number of stu-dents going abroad for higherstudies to see a temporary declineand again increase after the fearssubside. While the global econo-my may get impacted in the shortrun, students going abroad forstudies get impacted by the situa-tion prevailing when they gradu-ate and not when they join thecourse. If the economy sees animprovement next year onwards,students joining the courses thisyear may benefit. My suggestionwill be not to panic and stick toyour long term plans.”

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In the situation where mostof the sectors are at stand-

still in terms of new innova-tions and expansion, lock-down has inadvertently catal-ysed growth for edu-techindustry. Following the grow-ing demands and needs, tech-education player continues tointroduce develop their busi-ness horizon.

From promptly makingof the app at discounted price,grading up the courses toadding the new elements, the

supplementary edu- techplayers are going beyond tobeat the competition duringcrisis.

STEPapp one of theemerging players in the edu –tech has sensed this opportu-nity through the growing fig-ure of users and downloads.STEPapp which is a gamifiedlearning app, has seen anincrease of more than 3 lakhusers from March 15, 2020. Inlast four months, the app hasa total of two million down-loads.

During the lockdown

period, the app has turned outto be a popular solution forstudents to learn Math &Science concepts in a gamifiedformat mapped as per theCBSE, ICSE and SSC boards.

Based a strong populari-ty of the gamified learning for-mat in last few months. Theapp has decided to relaunchthe app by introducing newsubjects. With an effectiveapproach of ArtificialIntelligence, the app will beadding Social Science andlanguage subjects as per theeducation board guidelines.

The newly introducedsubjects will be soon availablefor CBSC board students. Theapp is in process to prepare thecourse for other educationboards as well.

The additional feature ofthe app, such as segregatedtopics of each chapters thatallow students revise andgrasp the concepts easily, sim-plified testing methodology totrack the progress of studentsand dashboard that collectsdata on each subscribed stu-dents will also be added to thenewly introduced subjects.

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In an unprecedented technological development, admissions toall degree programmes (UG & PG) of JGU across all the schools

will be conducted online under the aegis of the Jindal ScholasticAptitude Test (JSAT) administered by Pearson VUE. The excep-tion to this are the five-year law programme of the Jindal GlobalLaw School (JGLS) and the five-year architecture programme atthe Jindal School of Art & Architecture (JSAA).

Candidates from India and around the world can now takethe JSAT exam at their convenience from home starting from May11, 2020. It is the first time in more than 25 years of existence ofPearson’s Virtual University Enterprises (VUE) that an ArtificialIntelligence-enabled, home-proctored online solution has beenmade available in this format. The prospective students seekingadmission to JGU can take the exam at their own conveniencefrom the safety of their homes to complete the admissions processto their chosen programmes in an efficient and timely manner.

“This is a technologically advanced admission solution, whichallows students a seamless new system to complete the admis-sions process into the various courses of their choice. At the coreof JGU’s vision and mission is our aspiration to be a role modelfor excellence in higher education. We aim to promote a globalperspective and provide an enriching, intellectually engaging anddiscovery-based learning environment to our students,” saysProfessor (Dr) C Raj Kumar, Founding Vice Chancellor of JGU.

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The Institute of ManagementStudies IMS Offered Degree

Programs affiliated to CCSUniversity Meerut invites appli-cation for different courses forits 2020 batch. IMS Noida offersunder graduate and post grad-uate programmes in businessmanagement, law, mass com-munication, and informationtechnology.

How to apply: Applicantsseeking admission are requiredto fill a separate applicationform for the same. Applicantscan collect the applicationform, from the institute bypaying �1,000/ for UG cours-es & �1,400/ for PGDM pro-gramme. It can also beobtained by post, throughonline or demand draft facili-ty of �1,050/ for UG courses &�1,450/ for PGDM in favour of

IMS- NOIDA payable at Noida/Delhi.

Admission process:Applications for Academic Year2020-21 is open to applicantswho have passed or will appearfor the qualifying examina-tions under the higher sec-ondary from any recognisedboard of education such asAISSCE/IB/ICSE, or equiva-lents.

All eligible candidates willhave to undergo EntranceExam Campus at Noida whichcomprises of a written test andpersonal interview. All quali-fying candidates will berequired to carry their portfo-lio. Admission is based on themarks obtained in qualifyingexamination and the perfor-mance in written test and per-sonal interview.

Last date to apply: July2020

Page 11: 2020/05/06  · er Air India will operate 64 flights between May 7 and 13 to bring back Indians stranded abroad. Those taking the spe-cial flights will be charged around 50,000

The COVID-19 situation hasput not only the nationunder jeopardy but has also

halted the dreams of numerousaspirants who are preparing forvarious competitive examinations.With the ever increasing numberof students appearing for theNational Eligibility cum EntranceTest (NEET) every year, it has beendeemed as one of the covetedentrance exams held in the coun-try. Owing to the unprecedentedsituation, the dates of the exami-nations have been delayed muchbeyond expectations creatingpanic, pressure on students towork even harder to achieve theirgoal.

At times, due to this pressure,the students are unable to calmtheir nerves during the examina-tion and tend to make careless mis-takes. The students must utilise thistime to keep themselves calm andidentify their loopholes and for-mulate ways to handle them andgain an edge over others.

Here are some powerful tipsthat can help students to strength-en their preparation:

Identify the pattern of mis-takes: No mistake is actually sillyas it affects the grading system. One

must look carefully, scrutinise it tofind a pattern in these mistakes.While practicing previous yearpapers or mock tests, studentsshould carefully evaluate the mis-takes they have made. This wouldhelp them to understand the kindof mistakes they are prone towardsmaking so that it can be avoidedin the final exam. Since mostly stu-dents are writing tests in onlinemode hence it would not be diffi-cult to identify the pattern of mis-takes which they are committingin test papers.

Questions to be read care-fully: It is rightly said that humanbrain has a tendency to see whatit wants to see. Due to anxiety tocomplete the paper in time, stu-dents tend to rush through thequestions, overlooking essentialinformation. As a result, they failto register the key information stat-ed in it. Instead they should vigi-lantly go through the questions andfocus on tricky sentences andwords like not, correct and incor-rect. A thorough and meticulousreading of the questions can helpstudents avoid silly makes andanswer it rightly.

Organisational skills:Managing rough sheets is not only

substantial but also an intimidat-ing task during the exam. However,what is more difficult is to find outand locate which solution belongsto which particular question. Withpaucity of time at the end, studentsstart anxiously searching all thesheets resulting in loss of time.Unorganised rough sheets can,thus, lead to careless which even-tually affects the evaluation process.Students should, therefore, organ-ise their sheets by marking themappropriately. In addition, they cancompartmentalise the sheet withlines. This would reduce the chaosand enable them to refer to therequired solution as and whenrequired and without wasting time.

Pay special attention to theOMR Sheet: One of the mostcommon mistakes that studentsmake during the exam is not pay-ing attention to the OMR sheetand leave the marking of theanswers for the end. Eventually,they are left with no time and endup marking the options incor-rectly. Students are advised todarken the circles properly. Theyshould always fill the OMR sheetsimultaneously while solving thequestion and mark the correctanswer.

Leaving the circles to bemarked with the correct answer atthe end can be detrimental as thetime may get over before studentsare able to fill in the circles. Inaddition, students should alsonote that partially filled or mark-ing multiple circles for the samequestion should be avoided at allcosts. In order to rectify these mis-takes, students are suggested tomake it a point to mark theiranswers on the OMR sheet everytime they solve test papers inoffline mode.

Practice makes an individualperfect: There is no replacementfor hard work. So students shouldpractice as many mock tests andprevious year papers as possible.They should try to create the examenvironment while practicing athome like setting a timer in orderto keep track of their speed. Thiswill help them access how muchtime they take to solve a questionand thereby devise a strategy toimprove it. Competitive exams areall about speed and accuracy andpracticing more and more will helpstudents to reduce the chance ofmistakes.

Integrate a Systematic ExamStrategy: Planning and strategis-

ing is one of the key attributes thatstudents usually fail to keep inmind during the examination.They should aspire towards allo-cating adequate time to the dif-ferent sections of the paper andleave the portion which they arefinding tough for the end. Inaddition, they should keep abreastwith the time so that they are ableto complete the paper on time.Students should also deter fromdedicating too much time to a sin-gle question and diligently worktowards completing the paper ina hassle-free manner by imple-menting a systematic and com-prehensive strategy.

Manage stress levels:Considering the unpredictabilityand the difficulty level of thequestion papers, anxiety is a com-mon trend among students. Thepressure to perform and lack ofconfidence in one's abilities seemto perplex the students. Theyshould, thus, learn stress manage-ment and should know theirstrengths and weaknesses in orderto fight their anxiety. Sipping a lit-tle water and taking deep breadthscan help in overcoming anxietyduring the exam.

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With schools, colleges, universitiesand other educational institu-tions shut due to the lockdown,

students preparing for any kind of examsare confined within the four walls of theirhome. If they need help or guidance, theycan't go out to their coaching/ tuition cen-tres, the services of those they've alreadypaid for. Apart from cities, there are alsostudents in rural areas who used to trav-el long distances to reach their respectivecoaching centres and now, can’t do thesame. So, the question is how do we helpthese students whose life choices/futuredepends on the upcoming competitiveexams?

The situation is not only a challengebut also an opportunity. By ensuring thatstudents’ learning continues uninter-rupted by providing free live classes,EdTech is delivering on the premise ‘edu-cation is a basic right’. The biggest ben-efit that the EdTech industry offers,especially in times like these is a safe, con-venient, study-from-home option. Thisshort term situation is increasing the trustof students and their parents on EdTech.The current situation will result in theincreased acceptance of EdTech as analternative to offline education and even-tually progress to becoming the prima-ry model of education.

There has been a lot of demand foreducational videos, doubt solving andonline classes. A research report in 2019indicated that more than 70% students arewilling to shift online if they can accessonline classes. The report also suggestedthat this percentage is much higheramong tier II and III cities, with 80% ofaspirants preferring online learning.Since 2016, we have seen an uptick in theGoogle search query for doubt solvingand online classes. The fourth largest cat-egory on YouTube, education saw 19.12Bviews in 2019 (a growth of 53% from2018).

Education sector was valued at $100Bin 2016 and is expected to nearly doubleto $180B by the end of 2020. Investors,who are well versed with this sector, havehypothesised that some of the delivery ofeducation will move online. According toa Google-KPMG study, the total annualmarket opportunity for Online Education

could reach $1.96 billion by 2021.The current scenario is somewhat

similar to what demonetisation was fordigital payments. Withdrawal from onemode magnified the opportunity foranother. We are witnessing an increase inthe digital consumption of educationalservices. Currently, the online educationmarket is accelerating faster and can bebigger than $1.96B by 2021.

EdTech companies that provide qual-ity service will be able to tap into thisopportunity. Companies will have to raisethe bar of education services by incor-porating AI, ML on their platforms foran enhanced learning experience. Onlythose who will be sufficiently armed toserve a new wave of students withevolved curriculum needs every yearwhile retaining their existing user-base,will steal the show.

The current pandemic may haveshown us a glimpse of the change in“forced” user behaviour, but we strong-ly believe that the behaviour will be stickyand online teaching will be adopted bymany students and educational institutesin the future. Online education marketwill reach $350B globally by 2025. Indiais likely to join the ranks of US and Chinain the near future.

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The University of EastAnglia invites appli-cations for John

Boyne Scholarship. Theaim of this application is toinspire talented students toconsider pursuing one-yearmaster level studies in cre-ative writing.

Eligibility: Must holdan offer to study in MA cre-ative writing within theschool of Literature, Dramaand Creative Writing atUniversity of East Anglia.Preference is given to thoseover 35; Preference will begiven to applicants whodemonstrate genuine finan-cial need. Submit: Pre-qual-ification degree; Copies ofacademic transcripts andaward; Certificates ofEnglish language proficien-cy; A copy of passport.

AdmissionRequirements: Master pro-gramme is at least a 2:1 in aUK undergraduate degreeor equivalent.

Language require-ment: If English is not yourfirst language, then you canprove your proficiency inthis language through:IELTS of 6.5 overall with aminimum of 5.5 in eachcomponent.

Pearson AcademicEnglish of 58 overall with aminimum of 42 in each

component; TOEFL iBTHow to apply: To

start the application processfor this award, you willneed fill out an onlineapplication form.

Application deadline:The last date to apply isJune 1, 2020.

The programme is opento international studentswho have demonstratedacademic achievement intheir previous studies andwant to apply for a diplomaat QUT in Australia.

Eligibility: The appli-cants who have studiedAustralian curriculum,either in Australia or over-seas, and received anAustralian TertiaryAdmission Rank (ATAR) of74, or higher.

Admission require-ments: Candidates need tocheck out the admissionrequirements page at theuniversity to apply for thisstudy grant.

Language require-ment: Applicants, whosenational language is notEnglish, are suggested todemonstrate the Englishlanguage excellencethrough TOEFL or IELTStest.

How to apply: Takeadmission at theQueensland University ofTechnology.

Application deadline:The last date to apply isOctober 31, 2020.

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Page 12: 2020/05/06  · er Air India will operate 64 flights between May 7 and 13 to bring back Indians stranded abroad. Those taking the spe-cial flights will be charged around 50,000

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Former Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar says heis interested in becoming India's bowling coach

if there is an offer, asserting that he is capable ofgrooming “more aggressive, fast and talkative” pac-ers.

Akhtar expressed his willingness in an interviewon social networking app ‘Helo’.

Asked if he would like to be associated with theIndian bowling unit in future, he responded in thepositive. India’s current bowling is Bharat Arun.

“I will definitely. My job is to spread knowledge.What I have learned is knowledge and I will spreadit,” Akhtar said.

One of the fastest bowlers tohave played the game, he added,“I will produce more aggressive,fast and more talkative bowlersthan the current ones who willtell-off the batsmen in a way thatyou will enjoy a lot.”

He said he has alwayswanted to share his knowl-edge among budding crick-eters and that he islooking to producemore aggressivebowlers.

He alsoadded that hewould like to“coach” IPLf ranchis eK o l k a t aK n i g h tR i d e r s ,for whomhe hasplayed inthe cash-rich T20league’s inaugural edi-tion.

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Badminton will be back in action “as soonas possible” after the coronavirus crisis, the

sport’s chief told AFP, adding that internation-al travel restrictions were complicating the pic-ture.

Badminton, like tennis, golf and othersports with an international circuit, faces majorhurdles after countries introduced an array oftravel bans and quarantine periods to combatCOVID-19.

Thomas Lund said an announcement ona rejigged 2020 calendar was expected soon.But he cautioned that the situation remainedfluid.

“We are gearing up to be ready to startcompetition as soon as possible. This includesformulating a revamped BWF tournament cal-endar for 2020. An announcement on this willbe made shortly,” Lund said.

“But at this point in time, it is difficult topredict when international movement andentry restrictions will be lifted by individualcountries and territories in order to guaranteethat players, their entourage, officials and staffcan participate in tournaments safely.”

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England’s white-ball captain EoinMorgan says his team will have to

make do with limited opportunitiesthat come its way to prepare for thisyear’s T20 World Cup after theCOVID-19 pandemic forced a crick-et shutdown in the country.

The coronaviorus outbreak hasforced the England and Wales CricketBoard (ECB) to suspend professionalgames in the country till July 1 and hasput in doubt Australia’s ODI and T20Itour of England in July.

Morgan feels converting England’sthree-ODI series against Ireland intoa T20 rubber in September will be theirbest chance of getting some practiceahead of T20 World Cup.

“For the last month, everybody hasstruggled to get a sense of what’s pos-sible and what might or might not hap-pen,” he told reporters via Zoom dur-ing the launch of the Abu Dhabi T10.

“We may have to make do. If testswere going on, there would be waysand means we could have meaningfulpractice games in and around thoseIreland games in a similar environ-ment.

“We could have proper oppositionand maybe use the England Lions theretoo to make it as highly competitive aspossible.”

The global health crisis has alsoput under threat the T20 World Cup,which is scheduled to be held fromOctober 18 to November 15 inAustralia.

“If the T20 World Cup goes aheadin the slot that it’s been allocated at themoment, we’ll have certainly played a

limited amount of cricket before then,”Morgan said.

“Given the circumstances we’llhave to see how much cricket we playand the opportunities that land onguys’ laps. They'll have to make themost of them."

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Australian spin legendShane Warne has offered

a unique answer to the ques-tion of how to swing the ballwithout using saliva or resort-ing to tampering in a postCOVID-19 world — makeone side of it heavier to ensurethat it doesn’t need any shin-ing.

Warne feels it can help fastbowlers generate swing evenon flat wickets and perma-nently eradicate ball-tamper-ing.

“Why can’t the ball beweighted on one side so italways swings? It would be likea taped tennis ball or like withthe lawn bowls,” said warne.

There is speculation thatthe use of saliva to shine theball will be stopped to cutdown the risk of the highlycontagious.

Responding to the extra-ordinary situation, Australianmanufacturer Kookaburra hasstarted developing a waxapplicator — which could beready in a month— as analternative to saliva and sweatto help bowlers shine cricketballs in the post COVID-19world.

“I’m not sure you’d wantit to hoop around corners likeWasim and Waqar but it couldswing and give the seamersomething on flat wicketswhen it’s hot and the pitch is

at its flattest on day two, daythree,” Warne said. “It wouldactually be a really good wayto move forward, as you know

no one needs to do anythingto the ball. “You wouldn’thave to worry about anyonetampering with it with bottle

tops, sandpaper, or whatever.It would be a good competi-tion between bat and ball,” headded.

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The Sports Ministry onTuesday told aspirants for

this year’s national sports awardsto e-mail their nominations inview of the lockdown to containthe COVID-19 pandemic as itbegan the process for selecting themultiple honours, including the

prestigious Rajiv Gandhi KhelRatna.

The process, which usuallybegins in April, was pushed tothis month because of the lock-down, which is into its thirdphase and will end on May 17.

“Due to lockdown on accountof outbreak of COVID-19, hardcopies of nominations are not

required to be sent. Scannedcopies of nominations duly signedby the applicant and recom-mending authority may be sentbefore last date of submission,”read a ministry circular.

The last date of filing nomi-nations has been fixed at June 3.

“Nominations received afterlast date will not be entertained.

The Ministry will not be respon-sible for any delay,” the circularstated.

The national sports awardscover multiple aspects.

The athletes are rewardedthrough the Arjuna and KhelRatna, which is the country'shighest sporting honour.

The Droncharya award cov-

ers excellence in coaching, whilethe Dhyan Chand award honourslifetime contributions.

For this year’s Arjuna andKhel Ratna awards, the perfor-mances from January 2016 toDecember 2019 will be taken intoconsideration. As is always thecase, athletes with dope taintwill not be considered.

“Sportspersons who havebeen penalized or against whomenquiry is pending/ongoing foruse of drugs/substances bannedby the World Anti-DopingAgency (WADA) based on asample collected by the NationalAnti-Doping Agency(NADA)...Will not be eligible forthe Award,” the ministry stated.

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The element of competitivenesswill not be lost even if actionunfolds before empty stadiums,

says world’s premier all-rounder BenStokes who wouldn’t mind interna-tional cricket becoming a ‘TV onlysport’ till COVID-19 pandemic isunder control.

Stokes’ opinion was soughtwhether the upcoming England vsWest Indies series at home in emptystadiums will lose its sheen as ECBis contemplating cricket without livespectators for some time.

“I don’t think so. Think about it,we are walking out to represent ourcountry, three lions on our chest andthere is game that we are supposedto win. So whether it is in front ofnobody or like we are used to in-frontof full crowd, I don’t think it’s goingto take that competitive side away,”Stokes told BBC Radio 5 Live.

The England all-rounder howev-er admitted that it will take some timeto adjust to the possible scenario afterbeing used to playing in front ofcapacity crowd.

“Yeah, completely different sce-nario to get our heads around thatthere isn’t going to be the atmosphereor cheering (of supporters) when weplay international games,” said the 28-year-old Stokes, who has played 63Tests, 95 ODIs and 26 T20Is.

For Stokes, cricket on TV for thetime being is the best option.

“We would do anything to get

cricket back on TVs, and people, whofollow and watch. If that meansplaying in-front of nobody then so beit,” he said.

However he maintained thatsafety and well-being of everyoneremains a priority.

“We are still not hundred percentsure when that's going to happen.Everybody’s concern at the momentis safety and well being of everybody,”he said.

“Players and ECB are not goingto push anything until everybody issatisfied, without being having toworry about whether people aregoing to be exposed or put in dan-ger to anything,” England's WorldCup hero said.

“At the end of the day, cricket isjust a sport and its the safety, healthand wellbeing of everybody involved,not just in the team but around crick-et community is important rightnow.”

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The coronavirus pandemic hasnot just forced a suspension

of all sporting events across theglobe, it has also raised questionmarks on the future and whetherthe ICC should look at otheroptions to help the bowlers keepthe shine on the ball rather thanusing saliva or sweat. And DineshKarthik believes that there needsto be a definite balance betweenbat and ball.

“I believe that there should bea fair contest between bat and aball which is missing now a daysespecially in white-ball cricket.But I don’t know if they allow balltampering, where would theyput a stop to it because that willbe really hard. They have tomanage it. To get the ball to swing, you need sweat and saliva.With new ball you use saliva andwhen it grows old you use sweat.But in England they use MurrayMint to the saliva, it helps ball to

swing a lot more. That's why Testcricket in England is so challeng-ing,” he said in the latest episodeof ESPNcricinfo One on One#Workfromhome.

Talking about switching roleswhen playing for India and in theIPL, Karthik said: “With experi-ence comes adaptability. Over aperiod of time what you need tolearn is that as a middle-orderbatsman you should be able to batanywhere between number 3and 7 and sometimes even 8. Thekey is not to get attached to whereyou’re batting but about whichsituation you're walking into andhow can you give your best.

“T20 has evolved in such away that it doesn't matter whetheryou're a 1 down batsman or a 2down batsman. All you need toknow when you walk into thegame is — is it the 8th over or the11th over or the 14th over andthen accordingly react to the sit-uation and use your skill set to doyour best.”

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Dashing England wicket-keeper batsman Jos

Butt ler has said thatMahendra Singh Dhoni hasalways been a big idol andwhile playing in the IndianPremier League (IPL) onelesson for him has been howthe decorated former India

captain manages all the fan-fare and still performs incrunch situations.

“MS Dhoni has alwaysbeen a big idol of mine andchaos is always going aroundhim, people wanting a bit ofhim, the cricket and thenoise.

“....it is such a great les-son to just watch him and

see first hand how to man-age all that thing if you haveto perform at the top leveland perform in those crunchmoment, that certainly hasbeen one of the massivepluses,” Buttler said in aninterview to LancashireCricket with Warren Hegg.

Butt ler plays forRajasthan Royals in the IPL

which is the currently post-poned due to the COVID-19pandemic. The 29-year oldEngland’s limited over vice-captain said the cash-richT20 league has taught himhow to handle pressure.

“It was one of pressuresyou have to learn, especial-ly in India, as an overseesplayers, you are one of the

four in the team and youknow the other four who arenot playing are also world-class players. So you areunder pressure to perform,”he said.

“So that’s been a greatlearning curve. One of thethings I came out with fromthe first IPL is to just learnto deal with the chaos.”

“There is so much goingon off the field, with advertsand stuff that you neverdone before, meet and greetand different things for dif-ferent sponsors and thenthinking about the game allthe time and finding ways toswitch off,”added Buttler whostarted his IPL journey withMumbai Indians.

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Conceding that the risk of athletes los-ing motivation in the ongoing lock-

down is real, the Indian OlympicAssociation (IOA) on Tuesday sought theviews of athletes, coaches and otherstakeholders on how to restart the nation-al camps.

National Sports Federations and StateOlympic Associations have been asked tocollect feedback from the stakeholderssuch as athletes, coaches, support staff,central and state government ministries,match officials and sports administratorson how and when training should resume.

The lockdown has been extended till May17.

The stakeholders are being asked torespond to a questionnaire and the feed-back will be collated and compiled to forma White Paper under IOA PresidentNarinder Batra.

“Training of the athletes was at thepeak when the lockdown was enforcedand the athletes had to stop their trainingat once, although it differs from sport to

sport. The risk of athletes & coaches los-ing motivation is real,” the documentreleased on Tuesday read.

“In the present scenario, we will haveto find out what is the way forward andhow athletes can resume sports activities,training and eventually competitions,” itadded.

Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju has alsospoken about a phased reopening ofnational camps by the end of this month.

The IOA, however, made it clear thatthe resumption of sports will have to beguided by the public health policies laiddown by the central and state govern-ments.

Eighteen National Sports Federations(NSF) and 16 state Olympic associations(SOA) have been asked to send the collat-ed responses from the athletes and otherstakeholders so that a draft White Paper isprepared by May 20.

After that, the remaining NSFs andSOAs have been asked to submit theresponses by May 31 so that a final WhitePaper is ready in June.

“IOA President, Secretary General andChairman Preparation Committee willconsult experts and oversee the compilationof the White Paper as well as ensure effec-tive implementation of the training/com-petition programme and remove hurdles,if any,” the document said.

England have to make do with limitedchances to prepare for T20 WC: Morgan

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