12
U nion Home Ministry on Sunday diluted the norms for “lockdown 4” which has been extended till May 31 by allowing States to operate buses and passenger vehicles while sticking to others existing restrictions, including wear- ing of masks in public places. The States are also now empowered to designate con- tainment and buffer zones depending upon cases of Covid-19 in a particular area. In these zones only essen- tial services will be allowed while in rest of the areas all business and economic move- ments will go on with social distancing norms, according to the new guidelines issued by the Home Ministry. The night curfew will remain in place from 7 pm to 7 am. According to the latest guidelines, air passenger ser- vices and metro train services will remain shut till May 31. The States were asked to allow all inter-State movement of passenger vehicles and buses with mutual consent. The inter-State movement of all cargo vehicles and empty cargo vehicles will take place without any interruption. States are empowered to decide the definition of pas- senger vehicles ranging from taxis, Uber-Ola kind cabs, auto rickshaws, cycle rickshaws and decide on limiting the number of passengers, including in buses. Changing the earlier rules in certain areas on mandatory downloading of Arogya Setu App, the MHA said employers have to use “best effort ser- vices” on employees and dis- trict administration to advice the people on downloading the App. The Centre has changed the mind on this regard after critics of the App threatened to move the court against the “illegal” ordering of downloading the App citing privacy rules. The containment zones will be decided by the States in considering the health data on Covid-19 pandemic of partic- ular areas. The Centre has asked the States to take all tracing, sur- veillance of Covid-19 patients in the designated containment zones and asked to ensure delivery of responsibilities of district authorities. However, the MHA said across India people above age of 65, pregnant persons and kids below 10 years must be advised to stay home except for essential needs. The school, col- leges and universities will con- tinue to be shut. Consumption of alcohol, smoking, paan chewing in public places is banned across the country. All restaurants are allowed to operate their kitchen services and engage in home delivery of food items. Restaurants and canteens are only allowed to operate in full-fledged manner at railway stations, hospitals and government offices. Cinema halls, shopping malls, gyms, bars will contin- ue to be shut till May 31, while sports complexes and stadia are allowed to operate without spectators. All social, political, reli- gious gathering not allowed and religious paces will be closed for public till further notice. Religious places are closed for public but are allowed to continue their rituals. As many as 50 persons will be allowed for marriage and 20 persons allowed for funeral functions, said the MHA. T he Covid-19 crisis deep- ened further in Maharashtra on Sunday as 63 more persons succumbed to the pandemic and an all-time day’s record 2,347 people test- ed positive, taking the total number of deaths to 1,198 and infected cases to 33,053 in the State. The country’s overall count of confirmed cases stood at 95,639 with 3,025 deaths. As many as 4,990 new cases and 141 deaths were reported on Sunday Of the 63 deaths, Mumbai accounted for 38 deaths, while there were nine deaths in Pune, six in Aurangabad, three each in Solapur and Raigad and one each in Thane district, Pancel city, Latur and Aurangabad city. Of the dead, 44 were men while 19 were women. Thirty four were aged over 60 years, 22 were from the age group 40 to 59 years and 7 were aged below 40 years. “41 out of 63 patients (65%) had high-risk co-mor- bidities such as diabetes, hyper- tension, heart disease,” a State health bulletin said. On a day when the total number of deaths mounted to 1,198 in Maharashtra, the total number of infected cases jumped 33,053. The authorities pegged the total number of active cases at 24,161. With 38 deaths and 1,571 new cases, the death toll mounted to 734 and infected cases to 20,150 in Mumbai. After Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu recorded 639 fresh cases on Sunday, taking the tally of total infected persons in the State to 11,224. As many as 79 deaths have been registered in the State including five deaths on Sunday. Gujarat on Sunday record- ed 391 new Covid-19 cases and 34 deaths, taking the total case count to 11,380 and the num- ber of fatalities to 659. Of them, Ahmedabad recorded 276 new cases with 31 deaths. Madhya Pradesh reported 187 new infections, total rises to 4,977, according to a bulletin issued by the State health department. The State also reported five deaths, pushing toll to 248. Uttar Pradesh reported 206 new cases for an overall count of 4,464 cases. Simultaneously, a total of 191 patients were discharged from hospitals, taking the total number of recovered patients to 4,499 so far, she said. M igrant workers went on rampage at several places on Uttar Pradesh border after the Yogi Government imposed strict restriction on their move- ment on foot or by any mode of transport to check road mishaps. Big crowds of migrants and long queues of vehicles were witnessed at road blocks put up by the authorities to stop the migrants. The arrangements made by the State Government to ferry back the migrants to their State of origin turned out to be inadequate in view of their huge numbers leading to tough time for the local authorities to handle the situ- ation. Besides, rising tempera- ture also created problems. I n yet another case of Indian airspace violation by China, its helicopters intruded into the Indian territory in Himachal Pradesh last month at least on two occasions before returning to their bases across the Line of Actual Control (LAC). The border has also seen two incidents of face-off earli- er this month in Sikkim and Ladakh respectively when sol- diers from both sides were engaged in fisticuffs leading to injury of some from both sides. On the transgression by air, a Chinese helicopters entered Indian airspace in Lahaul-Spiti on April 11 and then on April 20. Local authorities said the helicopter came at least eight to ten kilometres inside Himachal and flew back after sometime. The State had seen similar air- space violations some years ago too. The last village in India, where the latest helicopter intrusion took place, had wit- nessed enhanced Chinese army activities in 2017 also when the 73-day stand-off between India and China was on in Doklam in Sikkim. Since then, the Chinese have improved its infrastruc- ture across the LAC besides increasing helicopter flying, sources said on Sunday. A n Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) posted at Rashtrapati Bhawan has tested positive for the coronavirus after which five police men have been quarantined. The 58-year-old ACP was posted at Rashtrapati Bhawan Police Lines, away from the Rashtrapati Bhawan core area which comprises the residential premises of the President. The ACP was tested and isolated on May 13. Five other personnel who came in contact with him too have been quar- antined as a precautionary measure, police officials said. “We were informed about his reports today. He has test- ed positive for the virus but he is asymptomatic. He was in iso- lation since May 13 and has been admitted to a private hospital,” a senior police officer said. E ven as India grapples with rapidly spreading novel coronavirus disease Covid-19, another natural threat looms over the east coast of the coun- try. Several coastal districts of Odisha and parts of West Bengal are on high alert as cyclone Amphan (pronounced as UM-PUN) intensified into a severe cyclonic storm over the Bay of Bengal on Sunday, rais- ing the likelihood of heavy rainfall with high-speed wind. It is likely to cross West Bengal-Bangladesh coasts between Sagar Islands in West Bengal and Hatiya islands in Bangladesh between after- noon and evening of May 20 as a very severe cyclonic storm. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said cyclone Amphan is likely to make landfall in between Sagar Islands (West Bengal) and Hatiya Islands (Bangladesh) during the afternoon/evening of May 20 as a very severe cyclonic storm. It lay centred about 980 km south of Paradip in Odisha, 1,130 km south-southwest of Digha in West Bengal and 1,250 km south-southwest of Khepupara in Bangladesh. A mid a spurt in coronavirus positive cases, the Goa Government on Sunday decid- ed to charge 2,000 for Covid- 19 testing per person entering the State. The State Executive Committee (SEC), led by State Chief Secretary Parimal Rai, is responsible for overseeing the Covid management and relief work in the State. During a meeting held on Sunday, the committee took stock of the Covid situation in the State, where the number of positive cases has gone up to 16. “After the recent positive cases emerging amongst the travellers, the SEC decided that the practice of testing every person entering Goa needs to continue,” said a Government spokesperson. W hile the Central Government on Sunday extended lockdown for two more weeks till May 31 with certain dilution of curbs, the Delhi Government on Sunday said it will announce its detailed plans based on Centre’s guidelines for lock- down on Monday. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the Centre’s guidelines are largely in line with the proposal sent by the Delhi Government based on suggestions of Delhiites. “We have always been say- ing that we all will now have to learn to live with corona. We used the last two months lockdown period to prepare ourselves for dealing with corona by improving neces- sary logistics and health infra- structure. We do expect a slight increase in cases when the economy reopens and Delhi is prepared to deal with it,” Kejriwal said. Meanwhile, if officials in the Delhi Government are to be believed, popular shop- ping destinations like Khan Market, Chandni Chowk and Karol Bagh can open. “Market places have now been allowed to open, howev- er, operation of malls and cin- emas continues to be banned,” the official said. T he Government on Sunday raised the allocation for job creation under MGNREGS by 40,000 crore and suspend- ed new bankruptcy filings on loan defaults for one year to ease the pain for the industry hit by Covid-19. The other measures announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman focused on the consolidation of PSUs and making the envi- ronment conducive for the pri- vate companies to boost ease of doing business. The Centre has acceded to the request of the States and increased borrowing limit from 3 per cent of gross State domes- tic product (GSDP) to 5 per cent for 2020 subject to some conditions. In the fifth and final tranche of the economic stim- ulus package, the Finance Minister raised allocation for the employment guarantee scheme by 40,000 crore over and above the 61,000 crore budgeted earlier to provide employment to migrant work- ers moving back to their States. The FM said this will help generate nearly 300 crore per- son-days in total. S harpening its attack on the Centre over the mega eco- nomic package announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week and its subse- quent detailing by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the Congress on Sunday alleged that if the last five days’ announcements were exam- ined then their total worth is only 3.22 lakh crore. Former Congress Minister Anand Sharma said the announcements made by the Finance Minister didn’t add up to 20 lakh crore as announced by PM Modi on May 12. He was ready to debate with the FM on his claim, he said. Sharma pointed out that 3.22 lakh crore is only 1.6 per cent of India’s GDP and not 10 per cent as claimed by Modi. “I’m questioning the Finance Minister, disputing PM and challenging the Government to disprove me on numbers; ready for debate with FM Sitharaman,” the senior Congress leader said at AICC video Press confer- ence.

˘ˇˆ ˆ - The Pioneer · Religious places are closed for public but are allowed to continue their rituals. As many as 50 persons will be allowed for marriage and 20 persons allowed

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Page 1: ˘ˇˆ ˆ - The Pioneer · Religious places are closed for public but are allowed to continue their rituals. As many as 50 persons will be allowed for marriage and 20 persons allowed

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Union Home Ministry onSunday diluted the norms

for “lockdown 4” which hasbeen extended till May 31 byallowing States to operate busesand passenger vehicles whilesticking to others existingrestrictions, including wear-ing of masks in public places.The States are also nowempowered to designate con-tainment and buffer zonesdepending upon cases ofCovid-19 in a particular area.

In these zones only essen-tial services will be allowedwhile in rest of the areas allbusiness and economic move-ments will go on with socialdistancing norms, according tothe new guidelines issued bythe Home Ministry.

The night curfew willremain in place from 7 pm to

7 am. According to the latest

guidelines, air passenger ser-vices and metro train serviceswill remain shut till May 31.The States were asked to allowall inter-State movement ofpassenger vehicles and buseswith mutual consent. Theinter-State movement of allcargo vehicles and empty cargovehicles will take place withoutany interruption.

States are empowered todecide the definition of pas-senger vehicles ranging fromtaxis, Uber-Ola kind cabs, auto

rickshaws, cycle rickshaws anddecide on limiting the numberof passengers, including inbuses.

Changing the earlier rulesin certain areas on mandatorydownloading of Arogya SetuApp, the MHA said employershave to use “best effort ser-vices” on employees and dis-trict administration to advicethe people on downloadingthe App. The Centre haschanged the mind on thisregard after critics of the Appthreatened to move the courtagainst the “illegal” ordering of

downloading the App citingprivacy rules.

The containment zoneswill be decided by the States inconsidering the health data onCovid-19 pandemic of partic-ular areas.

The Centre has asked theStates to take all tracing, sur-veillance of Covid-19 patientsin the designated containmentzones and asked to ensuredelivery of responsibilities ofdistrict authorities.

However, the MHA saidacross India people above ageof 65, pregnant persons and

kids below 10 years must beadvised to stay home except foressential needs. The school, col-leges and universities will con-tinue to be shut. Consumptionof alcohol, smoking, paanchewing in public places isbanned across the country.

All restaurants are allowedto operate their kitchen servicesand engage in home delivery offood items. Restaurants andcanteens are only allowed tooperate in full-fledged mannerat railway stations, hospitalsand government offices.

Cinema halls, shopping

malls, gyms, bars will contin-ue to be shut till May 31, whilesports complexes and stadia areallowed to operate withoutspectators.

All social, political, reli-gious gathering not allowedand religious paces will beclosed for public till furthernotice.

Religious places are closedfor public but are allowed tocontinue their rituals. As manyas 50 persons will be allowedfor marriage and 20 personsallowed for funeral functions,said the MHA.

���� )12�$13�4

The Covid-19 crisis deep-ened further in

Maharashtra on Sunday as 63more persons succumbed tothe pandemic and an all-timeday’s record 2,347 people test-ed positive, taking the totalnumber of deaths to 1,198 andinfected cases to 33,053 in theState. The country’s overallcount of confirmed cases stoodat 95,639 with 3,025 deaths. Asmany as 4,990 new cases and141 deaths were reported onSunday

Of the 63 deaths, Mumbaiaccounted for 38 deaths, whilethere were nine deaths in Pune,six in Aurangabad, three eachin Solapur and Raigad andone each in Thane district,Pancel city, Latur andAurangabad city.

Of the dead, 44 were menwhile 19 were women. Thirtyfour were aged over 60 years, 22were from the age group 40 to59 years and 7 were aged below40 years. “41 out of 63 patients

(65%) had high-risk co-mor-bidities such as diabetes, hyper-tension, heart disease,” a Statehealth bulletin said.

On a day when the totalnumber of deaths mounted to1,198 in Maharashtra, the totalnumber of infected casesjumped 33,053. The authoritiespegged the total number ofactive cases at 24,161.

With 38 deaths and 1,571new cases, the death tollmounted to 734 and infectedcases to 20,150 in Mumbai.

After Maharashtra, TamilNadu recorded 639 fresh caseson Sunday, taking the tally oftotal infected persons in theState to 11,224.

As many as 79 deaths havebeen registered in the Stateincluding five deaths onSunday.

Gujarat on Sunday record-ed 391 new Covid-19 cases and34 deaths, taking the total casecount to 11,380 and the num-ber of fatalities to 659. Ofthem, Ahmedabad recorded

276 new cases with 31 deaths.Madhya Pradesh reported

187 new infections, total risesto 4,977, according to a bulletinissued by the State healthdepartment. The State alsoreported five deaths, pushingtoll to 248. Uttar Pradeshreported 206 new cases for anoverall count of 4,464 cases.

Simultaneously, a total of191 patients were dischargedfrom hospitals, taking the totalnumber of recovered patientsto 4,499 so far, she said.

�������������35,')#2

Migrant workers went onrampage at several places

on Uttar Pradesh border afterthe Yogi Government imposedstrict restriction on their move-ment on foot or by any modeof transport to check roadmishaps.

Big crowds of migrantsand long queues of vehicleswere witnessed at road blocksput up by the authorities to stopthe migrants.

The arrangements madeby the State Government toferry back the migrants totheir State of origin turned outto be inadequate in view oftheir huge numbers leading totough time for the localauthorities to handle the situ-ation.

Besides, rising tempera-ture also created problems.

���� )12�$13�4

In yet another case of Indianairspace violation by China,

its helicopters intruded into theIndian territory in HimachalPradesh last month at least ontwo occasions before returningto their bases across the Line ofActual Control (LAC).

The border has also seentwo incidents of face-off earli-er this month in Sikkim andLadakh respectively when sol-diers from both sides wereengaged in fisticuffs leading toinjury of some from both sides.

On the transgression by air,a Chinese helicopters enteredIndian airspace in Lahaul-Spition April 11 and then on April20. Local authorities said the

helicopter came at least eight toten kilometres inside Himachaland flew back after sometime.The State had seen similar air-space violations some yearsago too.

The last village in India,where the latest helicopterintrusion took place, had wit-nessed enhanced Chinese armyactivities in 2017 also when the73-day stand-off between Indiaand China was on in Doklamin Sikkim.

Since then, the Chinesehave improved its infrastruc-ture across the LAC besidesincreasing helicopter flying,sources said on Sunday.

���� )12�$13�4

An Assistant Commissionerof Police (ACP) posted at

Rashtrapati Bhawan has testedpositive for the coronavirusafter which five police menhave been quarantined.

The 58-year-old ACP wasposted at Rashtrapati BhawanPolice Lines, away from theRashtrapati Bhawan core areawhich comprises the residentialpremises of the President.

The ACP was tested andisolated on May 13. Five otherpersonnel who came in contactwith him too have been quar-antined as a precautionarymeasure, police officials said.

“We were informed abouthis reports today. He has test-ed positive for the virus but heis asymptomatic. He was in iso-lation since May 13 and hasbeen admitted to a privatehospital,” a senior police officersaid.

���� )12�$13�4

Even as India grapples withrapidly spreading novel

coronavirus disease Covid-19,another natural threat loomsover the east coast of the coun-try. Several coastal districts ofOdisha and parts of WestBengal are on high alert ascyclone Amphan (pronouncedas UM-PUN) intensified into asevere cyclonic storm over theBay of Bengal on Sunday, rais-ing the likelihood of heavyrainfall with high-speed wind.

It is likely to cross WestBengal-Bangladesh coastsbetween Sagar Islands in WestBengal and Hatiya islands inBangladesh between after-noon and evening of May 20as a very severe cyclonicstorm.

The India MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD) saidcyclone Amphan is likely tomake landfall in between SagarIslands (West Bengal) andHatiya Islands (Bangladesh)during the afternoon/eveningof May 20 as a very severecyclonic storm.

It lay centred about 980 kmsouth of Paradip in Odisha,1,130 km south-southwest ofDigha in West Bengal and1,250 km south-southwest ofKhepupara in Bangladesh.

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Amid a spurt in coronaviruspositive cases, the Goa

Government on Sunday decid-ed to charge �2,000 for Covid-19 testing per person enteringthe State.

The State ExecutiveCommittee (SEC), led by StateChief Secretary Parimal Rai, isresponsible for overseeing theCovid management and reliefwork in the State.

During a meeting held onSunday, the committee tookstock of the Covid situation inthe State, where the number ofpositive cases has gone up to16.

“After the recent positivecases emerging amongst thetravellers, the SEC decidedthat the practice of testingevery person entering Goaneeds to continue,” said aGovernment spokesperson.

������������� ��������������������������������������������

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While the CentralGovernment on Sunday

extended lockdown for twomore weeks till May 31 withcertain dilution of curbs, theDelhi Government on Sundaysaid it will announce itsdetailed plans based onCentre’s guidelines for lock-down on Monday.

Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal said the Centre’sguidelines are largely in linewith the proposal sent by theDelhi Government based onsuggestions of Delhiites.

“We have always been say-ing that we all will now haveto learn to live with corona.

We used the last two monthslockdown period to prepareourselves for dealing withcorona by improving neces-sary logistics and health infra-structure. We do expect aslight increase in cases whenthe economy reopens andDelhi is prepared to deal withit,” Kejriwal said.

Meanwhile, if officials inthe Delhi Government are tobe believed, popular shop-ping destinations like KhanMarket, Chandni Chowk andKarol Bagh can open.

“Market places have nowbeen allowed to open, howev-er, operation of malls and cin-emas continues to be banned,”the official said.

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The Government on Sundayraised the allocation for

job creation under MGNREGSby �40,000 crore and suspend-ed new bankruptcy filings onloan defaults for one year toease the pain for the industryhit by Covid-19.

The other measuresannounced by FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanfocused on the consolidation ofPSUs and making the envi-

ronment conducive for the pri-vate companies to boost ease ofdoing business.

The Centre has acceded tothe request of the States andincreased borrowing limit from3 per cent of gross State domes-tic product (GSDP) to 5 percent for 2020 subject to someconditions.

In the fifth and finaltranche of the economic stim-

ulus package, the FinanceMinister raised allocation forthe employment guaranteescheme by �40,000 crore overand above the �61,000 crorebudgeted earlier to provideemployment to migrant work-ers moving back to theirStates.

The FM said this will helpgenerate nearly 300 crore per-son-days in total.

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Sharpening its attack on theCentre over the mega eco-

nomic package announced byPrime Minister NarendraModi last week and its subse-quent detailing by FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharaman,the Congress on Sundayalleged that if the last five days’announcements were exam-ined then their total worth isonly �3.22 lakh crore.

Former CongressMinister Anand Sharma saidthe announcements made bythe Finance Minister didn’tadd up to �20 lakh crore asannounced by PM Modi onMay 12. He was ready todebate with the FM on hisclaim, he said.

Sharma pointed out that�3.22 lakh crore is only 1.6 percent of India’s GDP and not 10per cent as claimed by Modi.

“I’m questioning theFinance Minister, disputingPM and challenging theGovernment to disprove meon numbers; ready for debatewith FM Sitharaman,” thesenior Congress leader said atAICC video Press confer-ence.

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Continuing to scale up itsprotective and welfare

measures for its personnel onCOVID-19 frontline duty,Punjab Police has added anoth-er 20 district quarantine cen-tres, notified by theDepartment of Health andFamily Welfare, for its person-nel in the past one week, tak-ing the total number of suchcentres to 78.

The move came even aseight of the 16 COVID-19positive cops in the State weredischarged after full recoveryfrom hospitals on Sunday.

Giving details on the quar-antined police personnel, thestate DGP Dinkar Gupta onSunday DGP said that a total of190 cops from District Police(110) and Armed Police (80)are currently in quarantine atdistrict quarantine centres setup by the Department, after

coming in contact with infect-ed persons while on duty.

Another 90 district policepersonnel and 69 Armed policepersonnel are under homequarantine, taking the totalnumber of cops now in quar-antine to 349, from the earlier615, of whom 266 had com-pleted the mandatory quaran-tine period.

To ensure strict adherencewith all protocols and uncom-promising care for the well-being of cops at the quarantinecentres, close coordination ismaintained with police nodalofficers of the districts and doc-tors, said the DGP.

The welfare wing receivesinformation from the nodalofficers regarding healthupdates on quarantined per-sonnel every day, while advi-sories issued by theDepartment of Health ofPunjab and WHO regardingCOVID-19 is circulated to all

the quarantined cops.Similar care is taken with

respect to those in home quar-antine, and the availability ofmedical officers is ensured formonitoring their health forany symptoms through thepolice nodal officers of the dis-tricts.

“An analysis of quaran-tined police personnel andthose tested positive revealedthat 16 cops had to undergoquarantine as they are prima-ry contacts of the police offi-

cials tested positive, while 150cops are primary contacts ofaccused persons who werebrought for interrogation andhad thereafter tested COVID-19 positive,” he added.

Another 118 cops had to bequarantined as they weredeployed on duty to bringback pilgrims from HazurSahib, workers from Jaisalmer(Rajasthan), escort students toJawahar Navodaya Sadan, trav-el to Jammu and Kashmir todrop stranded children andlabour, and escort studentsfrom Kota (Rajasthan).

In addition, 54 were quar-antined in Mansa district asthey were primary contacts ofCOVID-19 positive cops whowere performing duty in thecontainment zone ofBuddladah, Mansa, while 11 inLudhiana were quarantined asthey came in contact with thebody of a person suspected tohave died of infection.

A Whatsapp group of theCOVID-19 positive cops underisolation in hospitals has beencreated with ADGP Welfare VNeeraja, who’s coordinatingand supervising the entireeffort for the Punjab Police,AIG (Welfare), the Rangesupervisory officers and thenodal officers as members tokeep in touch with them direct-ly.

Meanwhile, the welfarewing has, as per the DGP’sdirections, written to all dis-tricts and Armed police unitsto with draw police personnelwho are suffering from chron-ic medical problems like BP,diabetes and other respirato-ry problems from frontlineduties, and also those above 55years of age and sufferingfrom chronic medical prob-lems, based on the informa-tion of 2019 annual medicalexamination of the police per-sonnel.

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Chief Minister HemantSoren on Sunday

announced an ex-gratia of �4lakh each to the families of 11migrant workers fromJharkhand who lost their livesin Auraiya road mishap inUttar Pradesh, a press com-muniqué from the ChieMinister’s office said. Soren alsoannounced a compensation of�50,000 to each of theJharkhandi migrants who sus-tained injuries in the incident.

At least 24 migrant labour-ers were killed and 36 othersinjured when a speeding mini-truck climbed over a stationarytruck trolley in Auraiya earlyon Saturday, police officialssaid. Sources said that at least11 migrant workers fromJharkhand died in the mishap.

The Chief Minister alsocriticized the UP Governmentfor sending the bodies ofmigrants by a truck toJharkhand. “Sending the bod-

ies by a truck is disrespectful.“I have directed the concernedofficials to arrange for medicaltreatment of all the migrantworkers who have sustainedinjuries in the incident oncethey enter Jharkhand border,”said Soren.

Innumerable people havebeen walking home from bigcities after being laid offbecause of the lockdown tocontain the spread of the

Coronavirus since late March.Several thousand workers wereleft without work across citiesand towns in India when thelockdown was announced onMarch 24, resulting in the firstwave of workers going back totheir villages.

Earlier, around a dozenmigrant workers were run overby a train while they wereresting on a railway track,news reports said.

The Chief Minister alsopraised the efforts of the districtadministration in Ranchi andcongratulated the team here forcontaining the spread of thevirus to a large extent. Thenumber of active Covid-19cases reduced considerable inRanchi – the only red zone inJharkhand—in the past coupleof weeks. “Ranchi has set anexample. We are extremelythankful to our doctors andother Covid-19 worriers,” hesaid.

While Ranchi tops in thenumber of cases and accountsfor nearly 50 per cent of thecases in State, it is also the dis-trict that has reported highestnumber of patients survivingthe infection. Out of the 108COVID-19 survivors in State,82 are from Ranchi, said aNational Health Mission(NHM) report.

The first case of COVID-19 in Jharkhand was reportedfrom Hindpiri in Ranchi onMarch 31. Since then, the local-

ity emerged as a hotspot of theviral infection, officials said.

A 22-year-old Malaysianwoman, who attended theTablighi Jamaat congregation inNew Delhi, is said to be the firstcarrier of the virus in the local-ity. She was apprehended alongwith 17 other foreign nationalsfrom the locality in March. Twoof them –the Malaysian womanand a man from Trinidad– test-ed positive, health officialssaid. Later, both of them test-ed negative, they added.Thenumber of containment zonesin Jharkhand has also increasedfrom 33 to 63 in the course ofa fortnight. Health officialssaid that 25 red zones havebeen identified across thecountry, and passengers trav-eling to Jharkhand from thesezones will be put inGovernment quarantine fortests.

Ranchi, being the only citywith a fully-operational airport,is likely to receive most of thesepassengers, sources said.

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Bokaro district administra-tion has put around 90

migrant labourers in quaran-tine, after they returned toGomia and Nawadih fromMumbai – a red zone.

On Saturday, all 90 migrantworkers returned fromMumbai were screened and 17of them were sent to Hurlungand Chatrochatti PanchyatQuarantine Center, 9 Chutte, 4Hosir, 5 Lodhi and 5 of themwere sent to Pachmo PanchyatQuarantine Center, informedDr H Barla in-charge GomiaCHC.

While 50 migrant workerswere quarantined at Surhi,Parasbani and PokhariaPanchyaat after screening atNawadih CHC

Earlier out of 99 migrants,also rushed from Mumbai, 40

among them were tested neg-ative for COVID-19 infectionswere sent to in-home quaran-tine. They were at Pitts MordenSchool Quarantine Center,informed an official of the dis-trict health department.

Meanwhile, 18 workerswho rushed to Bermo formHyderabad and Mumbai werealso sent to quarantine atPanchyat Bhawan center. OnFriday surveillance teams of thedistrict health department con-ducted search and identifiedover 800 new migrants werescreened and sent in-homequarantine, informed A K

Pathak Civil Surgeon Bokaro.Also, 23 migrant labourers

sent to home quarantine afterscanning and examination bythe medical team at BalikaMiddle School, Petarwar.Among them, 5 workers are ofNawadih block and 18 of themare from Chandrapura blockrespectively, he said. “At least 40migrants were screened atcommunity Health CenterBermo, 85 at Chandankiyari, 4at Chas, 243 at Gomia, 256 atNawadih, 52 Jaridih, 41Kasmar, 25 at Paterwar and 137at Sadar Hospital on Friday andsent in-home quarantine,” headded.

About 15,156 migrantswere rushed in the districtsince after the coronavirus out-break out of them, 4808 are in-home quarantine while 325are still in institutional quar-antine, he said.

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With 23 fresh Coronaviruscases in Haryana on

Sunday, the total tally nowstood at 910.

The state has so far report-ed 14 Coronavirus related fatal-ities.

Out of 23 fresh cases, 11were reported from Gurugram,4 from Rohtak, 3 fromFaridabad, 2 from Panipat andone each from Sirsa, Karnaland Mahendragarh, accordingto the State HealthDepartment’s evening bulletin.

The total active COVID-19patients in the state are 334while 562 patients have beencured and discharged fromhospitals, as per the State’shealth bulletin.

The worst-affected districts

of the state with the maximumnumber of positive cases areGurugram with 204 cases,Faridabad with 147 cases andSonepat with 134 cases. Asmany as 78029 samples havebeen tested so far, of which72494 have tested negative.However, the report of 4625samples is awaited, the bulletinstated.

The COVID-19 positiverate stood at 1.24 percent,

recovery rate at 61.75 percentand doubling rate ofCoronavirus cases at 13 days onSunday in Haryana.

A spokesman of the StateGovernment said that theDepartment of Ayush has dis-tributed immunity boostingmedicines to more than 1.5lakh persons (sanitation work-ers, health workers, police per-sonnel, senior citizens, PRIsetc.) in Haryana.

More than 46.98 lakh per-sons have already downloadedAarogya Setu App in Haryana.Currently, Haryana has 27984bedded quarantine facilities indedicated COVID CareCenters and 11107 beds areavailable in dedicated COVIDhospitals and in dedicatedCOVID Health Centers, thespokesman added.

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Punjab, it seems, is on roadto recovery. Sample this:

With just 563 active cases outof the total 1,964 positive casesreported till date across thestate, Punjab’s recovery ratehas touched 70 per cent.

The state recorded thesteep rise in the recovery rate,by about six times, in justthree days — from 12 percenton May 14 (Thursday) to 69.55percent on May 17 (Sunday).Attribute it to the Centre’s new“relaxed” discharge policy orhard work, as many as 1569patients have recovered andsent back home in the pastthree days in Punjab.

Till May 14, Punjab’s recov-ery rate was just 12 percent, or11.52 percent to be precise with1,680 active cases, and only 223patients cured and dischargedout of the total 1,935 positivecases across the state. Thesame has now reached 70 per-cent with 1,366 patientsemerged victorious in theirbattle against the deadly virus.

The recovery rate dependson a number of factors includ-

ing the flow of patient, deathrate, number of cases requiringhospitalization, the quality ofcare, and discharge policies,among others.

The Union HealthMinistry, past week, had releas-es a “revised” discharge policyfor COVID-19 patients, notingthat similar move was initiat-ed by several other countries.As per the revised policy, thedischarge protocol varieddepending on the severity ofthe disease.

Being a CentralGovernment policy, the stateauthorities are bound to imple-ment it, and put into force fromFriday last with the respectivedistricts started to dischargepatients under the new policy.

On Friday (May 15), thefirst batch of 508 asymptomaticpatients walked out of state’shospitals from all districts withmaximum 108 fromGurdaspur, 81 from TarnTaran, 79 in Jalandhar, 65 inAmritsar, 51 in Sangrur, 46 inMoga, 35 in Mohali, 21 inBathinda, 11 in Ludhiana,among others. A day later, onSaturday (May 16), 952 were

discharged with maximum 261from Amritsar.

On Sunday, another 109COVID patients recovered andsent back home. Among them,18 are from Jalandhar, 36 fromMuktsar, 34 from Faridkot, 11from Bathinda, and five eachfrom Patiala and Ropar —leaving just 563 active cases inthe state till date.

Sharing, via a tweet, the“improved” recovery rate anddoubling rate of 49 days, TheChief Minister Capt AmarinderSingh, “We’ve slowed spread of#Covid19, but we still need towork hard”.

Punjab’s doubling rate hasimproved steadily over the last11 days from past three days tomore than to 1.5 months (45days).

Even as The Pioneer triedto get in touch with some doc-tors and health experts work-ing on the frontline, they main-tained that the new “relaxed”policy to discharge the patientswith mild symptoms may provedangerous. However, no onewas ready to comment on therecord.

A senior doctor, working

with the State HealthDepartment, maintained that itwould be hard to keep thesepatients under check, whetherthey are following all protocolsof home isolation.

On the other hand, a seniorgovernment official, requestinganonymity, submitted thatthose who are being dischargedare giving us an affidavit thatthey would follow all rulesand in case of violation, we canagainst them.

“The civil surgeons areresponsible to keep a check onthem. We have also asked themto download COVA app whichwould help us keep a track ontheir movements,” said theofficial.

Among those discharged,majority are the ‘stranded’Punjabis, who have returned toPunjab from other states, espe-cially the pilgrims fromGurdwara Hazur Sahib atNanded in Maharashtra.

The state had witnessed amassive jump in its cases fol-lowing the return of thou-sands of Punjabis to their homestate, who were stranded inother states in the wake of

nationwide lockdown.As per the official com-

munication regarding RevisedDischarge Policy, “The mild,very mild, symptomatic, pre-symptomatic, asymptomaticcases can be discharged fromisolation health facility withouttesting, provided they have areasymptomatic (no fever,breathlessness) for more thanthree days.”

It added that all close con-tacts of home quarantined per-sons will take hydroxychloro-quine as per the protocol andas prescribed by the treatingMedical Officer.

Thus, the patients, whowere being discharged in sucha large number, are not beingtested before being allowed togo.

The policy stated,“Discharging without test, thepatient should be clinicallyassessed for the resolution ofsymptoms by the treatingMedical Officer”.

The treating medical offi-cer will certify that the patientis symptom-free as per guide-lines and fit for home isolation.Further, the patient will give an

undertaking for self-isolation toensure the availability of ade-quate facilities for isolation.

In addition, the patientswould also have to downloadCOVA app and keep it active atall times. Besides, a communi-cation link between the care-giver and hospital will also beestablished for the entire dura-tion of home isolation.

That was not all! The newpolicy mandated the asympto-matic returnees from otherstates to remain quarantined attheir homes instead of gov-ernment quarantine as wascase in the old policy.

“Persons returning fromother states should be screenedfor symptoms. Asymptomaticpersons may be sent for homequarantine for 14 days.Symptomatic persons shouldbe taken to isolation centersand tested for COVID-19 withRT-PCR. If test is negative, theycan be discharged after symp-toms subside. If positive, therevised discharged policy to befollowed.”

Under the new policy, theasymptomatic persons and

those tested negative forCOVID-19 in government-run quarantine centers will

also be sent to their homes withinstructions for home quaran-tine for total of 14 days.

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Financial resources will beavailable for the States and

migrant labourers returningto their villages will get employ-ment following the announce-ments made by the UnionFinance Minister NirmalaSitharaman on Sunday.

Stating this, the ChiefMinister Trivendra SinghRawat said that the provisionsannounced will strengthen thehealth infrastructure at thegrassroots and a new chapter ofquality digital education willalso begin. Rawat thankedPrime Minister Narendra Modiand Sitharaman for all theannouncements.

The CM said, “TheCentral Government is doingall that can be done in the pre-sent circumstances. Multi-faceted steps have been taken

under the �20 lakh crore spe-cial economic packageannounced by the PM.

Along with providing

relief to the affected people,broad-based reforms are alsobeing undertaken to pave theway for a self-reliant India.

We had requested that theloan limit for states beincreased.

We thank the PM and theUnion Finance minister forapproving this request. Healthand wellness centres have beenmajor points of the state’shealth policy.

Now, we will find it moreconvenient to establish healthand wellness centres. Further,by making �40,000 crore addi-tional allocation for MNREGA,employment opportunities willincrease considerably in vil-lages. This will particularlybenefit the labourers returningto their villages.”

Rawat further said that thehealth infrastructure will bestrengthened by increasingpublic expenditure in thehealth sector. While healthresearch will be encouraged,investment in grassroot health

institutions will also increase.Establishment of contagiousdisease hospitals and publichealth laboratories at the dis-trict and block level will enableextension of the health systemto the villages.

Stating that technology dri-ven education has been accord-ed prominence, the CM saidthat quality education will beavailable on the digital platformunder the Diksha Yojana forschool education under thePM E-Vidya initiative.

One class, one channel is amajor step. Further, the Centrehas stepped up ease of doingbusiness. This will help theindustrial sector rise from thecurrent difficult conditions.

The new public sectorenterprises policy will improvework efficiency while alsoenhancing employment andproduction.

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Welcoming the finaltranche of Centre's �20

lakh crore economic packageannounced by the UnionFinance Minister NirmalaSitharaman, Haryana ChiefMinister Manohar Lal onSunday expressed his specialgratitude towards PrimeMinister Narendra Modi forincreasing borrowing limits ofstates from 3 percent of GrossState Domestic Product(GSDP) to 5 per cent in 2020-21, thereby giving extraresource to the StateGovernment.

In a statement issued here,Manohar Lal said that thisdecision would certainly give amajor boost to the efforts made

by Haryana Government andhelp in expeditiously achievingthe targets envisaged for vari-ous sectors that have beenimpacted due to COVID-19.

While thanking PrimeMinister for making importantannouncements related to theeducation sector, he said thatCentre's initiative of technolo-gy-driven education throughDIKSHA. PM e-VIDYA pro-gramme for multi-mode accessto digital or online educationwould not only help lakhs ofstudents studying in Haryana,who are unable to attend theirschools amid COVID-19 crisisbut would undoubtedly bene-fit many aspiring childrenacross the country.

He said that Haryana hasalready taken many steps in

promoting technology-driveneducation as since April 15,new classes for more than 52lakh students have been start-ed through cable and DTHchannels under the distanceeducation program to ensurethat students of Governmentand private schools in Haryanado not suffer academic loss.

The Chief Minister alsopraised Centre's new initiative‘MANODARPAN’ to extendpsycho-social support to stu-dents, teachers and families formental health and emotionalwell-being.

He thanked the CentralGovernment for announcingan additional � 40,000 crore toMGNREGA scheme as it willsurely help in generation of jobsin rural areas.

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Page 3: ˘ˇˆ ˆ - The Pioneer · Religious places are closed for public but are allowed to continue their rituals. As many as 50 persons will be allowed for marriage and 20 persons allowed

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Amid spread of contagion ofCovid-19, the state health

department is gearing up tomeet the challenge fromdengue. Last year the vectorborne disease had affectedmore than 10,500 persons inUttarakhand and had takenmany lives.

In Dehradun district alone,the health department report-

ed 4,991 patients with sixdeaths.

As dengue season startswith the summers and lasts tillonset of the winters, the statehealth department which atpresent is engaged in a grimbattle with the Covid-19 wantsthat the dengue should not

assume epidemic proportionsthis year.

The director general ofstate health services, Dr AmitaUpreti has already issued twoadvisories to the districts onpreparedness for dengue. Thestate nodal officer of IntegratedDisease SurveillanceProgramme, Dr Pankaj toldThe Pioneer that the depart-ment has started an awarenessprogramme for the disease.He said that the departmenthas increased its testing capac-ity for dengue this year. DrPankaj said that a video con-ferencing session would soonbe organised with the district

officials. The district vectorborne diseases officer ofDehradun, Subhash Joshi saidthat all hospitals have beenasked to keep the departmentinformed about the cases ofdengue. He said that the hos-pitals have been asked torefrain from rapid testing tech-nique and adhere to EnzymeLinked Immuno Sorbent Assay(ELISA) test for confirmationof the disease. Joshi addedthat the health workers havebeen asked to keep an eye ondengue prone areas.

Dengue is a viral infectionspread by the mosquito AedesAezypti popularly known as

Tiger Mosquito. The symp-toms of the disease are persis-tent high fever, rashes,headache and pain in the joints.In the acute cases the plateletsnumber decrease drastically

which may prove fatal for thepatient. In Uttarakhand thedisease is more prevalent inDehradun, Haridwar, Nainitaland Udham Singh Nagar dis-tricts.

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The Dehradun chief munic-ipal health officer Dr

Kailash Joshi said thatMunicipal Corporation ofDehradun (MCD) can assistpeople in selling plastic wasteif they will segregate it fromtheir garbage at their homes.He stated that half of the issuesthat the corporation has to faceduring garbage dumping willbe resolved if the residentialand non-residential bodiesbegin to segregate and managethe generated waste at theirown place.

In an interaction with ThePioneer, Joshi said that thegarbage collected by MCDmainly comprises wet garbagealong with the plastic waste.“Such garbage causes foul smellbesides making the dumpingprocess difficult in the wastemanagement plant.

Since a large percentage ofwaste comes from commercial

bodies, they can make thecompost of their biodegradablewaste and can use it in theirgarden while sending the plas-tic materials for recycling,” hestated.

If people begin to wiselysegregate the garbage, it willhelp the public and the envi-ronment, opined Dr Joshi.

He mentioned that lastyear MCD held a campaign ofplastic waste segregation inschools. The same year, MCDsold about 22 quintals of plas-tic waste to Public WorksDepartment (PWD).

If locals begin to segregateplastic waste from their dailygarbage, MCD will even hire anagency that can collect plasticwaste from their homes andpay them for it.

Talking about the chal-lenges MCD has to face due toCovid-19 pandemic, Joshi said“Some projects like the processof tender for cleaning drainsgot delayed.

Since the health section ofthe corporation has been oper-ational even during the lock-down, there is nothing muchthat got hindered due to thepandemic.” Though, the cor-

poration is regularly sanitisingthe city, locals are consistentlyapproaching MCD to sanitisetheir houses and refusing themregularly is a challenge too."When we sanitise residential

areas, we make sure to spraydisinfectant over the main gateand at the front of the housewhere generally people touchand pass through.

Sterilising over one lakh

houses on a regular basis is notpossible. Besides, excessivesanitisation with such chemi-cals damages our environmenttoo.

It is useless to sanitise

again and again unless there areany positive Covid-19 cases inor around the area," said DrJoshi. In the past, MCD hadseveral dispensaries for thelocals to receive affordabletreatment and medicine butnow most of them are non-functional. Explaining aboutthis, Dr Joshi said that there aresufficient hospitals in everypart of Dehradun exceptPremnagar, where one can getaffordable treatment and med-icines, so such dispensariesare irrelevant. For now, thereare only two functional dis-pensaries one of which is locat-ed at Gandhi Road and anoth-er one near Chakrata Road, heinformed.Sanitation workersare playing a vital role duringthe lockdown by maintainingcleanliness in the city while alsofacing the risk of contagion.Talking about this, Dr Joshiinformed that MCD has madea system for it.

If any of sanitation work-

er gets sick or shows any othersymptoms, they will contacttheir respective supervisorswho will get them examinedimmediately and provide themproper medical treatment inthe hospital.

He also admits that novelcoronavirus has made morelocals aware about hygiene andsanitation of their surround-ings. Speaking about the learn-ing experience for MCD fromthe Covid-19 pandemic, hesaid that this pandemic taughteveryone how important regu-lar sterilisation and cleanli-ness of public places is.

It is crucial to sanitise theplaces like electricity and waterbill payment offices, ATMbooths and banks where there isthe maximum risk of infectiondue to the transaction of money.Every ward is provided with suf-ficient disinfectant and equip-ment for fogging and sanitisationas the malaria and dengue sea-son is approaching too, he added.

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The Pradesh CongressCommittee (PCC) presi-

dent, Pritam Singh hasexpressed concern over thesudden spurt in number ofCovid-19 cases during pastone week in Uttarakhand. Hesaid that the State Governmentshould make better arrange-ments for quarantine of thereturning migrants in the vil-lages. Singh said that the man-ner in which the migrantshave returned back to the state,the number of Covid-19 posi-tive cases is also witnessing inspike. He added that migrantsare welcome to come back totheir homes but improper test-ing and quarantine arrange-ments done by the State Govthas generated grave concern.Singh said that similar situationprevails in every village ofstate as proper drinking water,sanitizers, masks and otherarrangements are not there inquarantine centres.

The general secretary ofUttarakhand Congress, VijaySaraswat said that the care-lessness shown by the StateGovt in quarantining peoplecould prove costly for the state.He added that it believed thatthe number of Covid-19 casesin the state could increasedrastically. He said that byproviding only �10,000 toVillage Pradhans, proper quar-antine for the returningmigrants is not possible.

The vice president of

Uttarakhand Congress,Dhirendra Pratap expressedgrief on the death of womanquarantined in a school atReva village of the Rikhnikhalblock of Pauri.

He said that the quarantinecentres opened in the schoolsare proving to be death traps.The Congress leaders demand-ed that the task of opening andmanaging these quarantinecentres should be handed overto the SDMs and Tehsildar con-cerned.

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The toll of the novelCoronavirus (Covid-19) in

Uttarakhand increased to 92 onSunday with the State healthdepartment reporting one caseof the disease. This 27 year oldpatient reported fromRishikesh town of Dehradundistrict had returned on May 14from Mumbai was in Homequarantine. He was working asa receptionist in a five star hotelin Mumbai and when some ofhis fellow workers were report-ed positive for the disease hewent to the All India Instituteof Medical Sciences (AIIMS),Rishikesh for testing onSaturday. On Sunday, his sam-ple was tested positive. Thehealth authorities are now trac-ing his contact history.

Following the sudden spurtin the number of cases of thedisease, the state health depart-ment has issued an appeal that

all those who have travelledfrom outside the state mustobserve necessary quarantineas mandated. During the homequarantine they should remainin a separate room. It is perti-nent to mention here that dur-ing last one week alone the 24cases of the disease have beenreported and all of them haveeither travelled from outside

the state or have got the virusfrom getting into contact withthese people.

Meanwhile, Haridwar theonly district in Uttarakhandlisted under red zone becamefree from active cases of diseaseon Sunday.

The only active patient ofthe disease was dischargedfrom Mela hospital of Haridwar

following his complete recov-ery on the day.

The additional secretary,state health department, YugalKishore Pant said reports of 326samples were found negativefor the disease on Sunday whileone were found positive.

He added that reports of951 samples are still awaited bythe department. On Saturday,

a total of 549 samples were col-lected for COVID -19 testing.The authorities have so fartaken swab samples of 13212suspected patients for COVID-19 test. Out of the total sam-ples taken, 0.81 percent sampleshave been found positive forthe disease. On Sunday the rateof recovery from the COVID-19 in the state further dippedto 56.52 percent. Incidentallythe rate was about 67 percentfew days ago.

A total of 1472458 peoplehave so far downloaded the‘Aaroggya Setu App’ on theirsmart phones.

The state now has 39 activecases in the state withDehradun district at top of thetable with 16 active cases. TheUdham Singh Nagar districtnow has 15 active cases whileNainital has five active cases.Uttarkashi, Almora and Pauridistricts have one active caseeach.

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With the seventh Covid-19 positive patient

recovering and being dis-charged from hospital,Haridwar district became freeof Covid-19 on Sunday. Theseventh positive case was dis-charged from the isolationcentre at the Mela hospitalafter his second sample reportcame negative.

Haridwar Chief MedicalOfficer Dr Saroj Naithani saidthat so far seven positiveCovid-19 cases had beenadmitted in the district, out ofwhich six patients had recov-

ered earlier and returned totheir homes. The seventhpatient was discharged onSunday. From the stage oftracing and till the stage ofrecovery, every doctor andmedical staff who have worked

hard are now very happy.The seventh patient after

recovering thanked the teamof doctors who treated him.He further appealed to thepeople who left the hospitalnot to run away and immedi-ately inform the doctors ifthere are any suspicious symp-toms. Talking to The Pioneer,Dr Naithani said that allCovid-19 patients in the dis-trict recovering is a happymoment but stressed that pre-cautions must be observed.The challenges are still there.People returning from otherstates and districts pose achallenge, she added.

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The process of migrantsreturning to Uttarakhand

continued on Sunday. So far,about 2.23 lakh people haveregistered to return and out ofthese 98,840 had returned toUttarakhand till Saturday. OnSunday, a Shramik special trainfrom Ahmedabad arrived inLalkuan with about 1,200 peo-ple hailing from various partsof the Kumaon region. The

administration had arrangedabout 60 buses to ferry thereturning migrants back totheir home districts after ther-mal screening and other nec-essary formalities.

The train which departedabout an hour later than sched-uled from Ahmedabad arrivedabout three hours late atLalkuan at about 8 PM.However, all the returningmigrants were happy at return-ing to their native state. In

another development, approvalhas been received in principlefor sending 1,400 persons bytrain from Haridwar to WestBengal.

Meanwhile, more than37,000 people have registeredonline for travelling fromUttarakhand to other states.Till Saturday, 20,855 haddeparted from Uttarakhandfor other states. Within thestate, 77,598 people have gonefrom one district to another.

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The number of people usingdigital payment mode has

increased during the lock-down. Due to the fear of theinfection of Covid-19, localsare opting for cashless trans-action whenever possible.According to a SahastradharaRoad grocery store ownerRitupal Garg, "I ask every per-son who shops here to pay methrough their cards or onlinewallets.

Earlier, the digital transactionwas only about 30 to 35 per

cent. But now more than 60per cent people pay methrough cards or apps, whilethe remaining use cash. I keepthe cash received from thecustomers in a separate boxand spray sanitiser over themoney and then open it after24 hours. I cannot shut mybusiness but I can avoid touch-ing the cash for at least one day.It might do nothing, but it isthe best I can do to sterilise thepaper currency and coins."

A Raipur Road shopkeep-er Trilok Varma said that his

customers prefer to paythrough digital money walletsthan cash but it does causesome problems too."Sometimes digital paymenttakes time to reflect in yourbank account. Due to this, acustomer has to wait for thetransaction confirmation. Itconsumes the time of seller too.I tell them that I do not have

any issue with cash paymentbut most of them refuse to payin cash stating that they do nothave enough cash. There hasbeen about 30 per cent increasein digital transaction in myshop this month," addedVarma

According to anothershopkeeper Yogesh Yadav, peo-ple are choosing cashless trans-

actions because they do notwant to go to ATMs and standin line and face more infectionrisk.

However, many store own-ers opined that people are notwillingly paying through digi-tal payment modes. Accordingto them, people are payingbecause of compulsion andhelplessness. "I understand that

some people might want con-tactless transaction and deliv-eries. But many of them do itbecause they have no otheroptions. Several people stillprefer paying in cash but theydo not have time to withdrawmoney due to the limitedaccess to ATMs.

They are still not com-fortable with digital transac-tion, especially the old people,"said local store ownerMohammad Zaid.

However, the percentageof people paying digitally hasnot increased much yet insmaller shops. "Only abouttwo or three people paythrough card or apps out ofabout 30 people in a day. Manypeople still find it difficult totrust cashless transaction.

They prefer to pay and getpaid in cash. Some peoplehave enough money in theirbank account and have smart-phones too but they call me atnight to recharge theirmobile number and then payme the next day," said PritamSingh, a local store owner nearKarnpur.

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Page 4: ˘ˇˆ ˆ - The Pioneer · Religious places are closed for public but are allowed to continue their rituals. As many as 50 persons will be allowed for marriage and 20 persons allowed

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Even as the country wit-nessed a massive surge of

around 5,000 Covid-19 caseson Sunday, at least eight Statesand Union Territories -Arunachal Pradesh,Chandigarh, Ladakh,Meghalaya, Mizoram,Puducherry, the Andamanand Nicobar Islands andDadra and Nagar Haveli –didnot report any case ofCoronavirus in the last 24 hrs.

Sikkim, Nagaland,Daman and Diu, andLakshadweep have notreported any case till now,Union Health Minister HarshVardhan said in a statementhere.

With India entering thefourth phase of the nation-wide lockdown from Monday,Vardhan said that our policy,perseverance coupled withaggressive and early mea-sures have shown encourag-ing results.

He said that while Indiasees a gets accustomed to a"new normal", following sim-ple hygiene measures likewashing hands with soap frequently or using alcohol-based sanitisers, not spittingin public, sanitizing one'sworkplace, using face coversin public places are a must.

"Physical distancing is themost potent social vaccine

available to us and hence it isadvisable to ensure 'Do Gaz kiDoori' (two-years distance)while interacting with othersand to limit social gatheringsby opting virtual gatherings,"he said while people advisingto travel only when it isabsolutely necessary and notto visit crowded places tolimit the exposure to thevirus.

Due precautions, safehandling of food can help pre-vent the spread of COVID-19,the minister said as he point-ed out that the doubling time of coronavirusinfection in India hasimproved to 13.6 days in thelast three days from 11.5 inthe past 14 days.

The fatality rate is downto 3.1 per cent and the recov-ery rate has improved to 37.5per cent, he said.

The Minister said coron-avirus cases in India reachedthe 80,000 mark in 106 dayswhile developed nations suchas the UK, Italy, Spain,Germany and the US took 44-66 days to reach that mark.

"Also as of Saturday, 3.1per cent of the active COVID-19 patients are in the ICU,0.45 per cent are on ventila-tors and 2.7 per cent on oxy-gen support.”

Elaborating on the healthinfrastructure preparedness,Vardhan said “916 dedicatedCOVID-19 hospitals with1,80,473 beds - 1,61,169 iso-lation and 19,304 ICU - and2,044 dedicated health centreswith 1,28,304 beds (1,17,775isolation beds and 10,529ICU beds) along with 9,536quarantine centres and 6,309care centres with 5,64,632beds are now available in thecountry.”

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Older age, being male andunderlying conditions

such as cardiovascular dis-eases are already known riskfactors associated for Covid-19.But now, the scientists haveidentified, deprivation, living ina densely populated area, eth-nicity, obesity, and chronickidney disease as also likelyrisks associated with theCoronavirus. These observa-tions have been published inThe Lancet Infectious Diseasesjournal.

Moreover, previous studieshave focused on the risk ofsevere COVID-19 in hospitalcases; this new study, however,identifies risk factors for test-ing positive for COVID-19using electronic health recorddata from General

Practitioners .Older age, being male,

deprivation, living in a dense-ly populated area, ethnicity,obesity, and chronic kidney dis-ease (CKD) are seven factorsassociated with a positive testfor COVID-19, according toresults from 3,802 people test-ed for SARS-CoV-2 (including587 positive tests) in the UK.

The study holds impor-tance in the context of Indiatoo where a large number ofcases have started pouringfrom slum areas like Dharavi inMumbai which are heavilypopulated. Dharavi has alreadyreported over 1,200 positivecases so far. Covid-19 positivecases are being reported fromother slums too from variousStates. Moreover, India has alarge number of people suffer-ing with CKD.

Study author ProfessorSimon de Lusignan from theUniversity of Oxford, andDirector of the Royal Collegeof GPs Surveillance Centre,UK, said: "While clear trendshave emerged from hospitaldata for the people with severesymptoms, the risk of infectionamong the general populationremains a grey area. It's impor-tant to know which groups inthe wider community are mostat risk of infection so that wecan better understand SARS-CoV-2 transmission and howto prevent new cases."

The authors noted thatother socio-economic factors,which were not measured inthis study, may also be linkedwith SARS-CoV-2 infection,such as employment in highrisk jobs, education, income,and differences in access to

healthcare and testing amongethnic groups. Furtherresearch is needed to under-stand these associations.

Professor de Lusignansaid: "This result does notindicate that smoking protectsagainst infection, and thereare many potential alternativeexplanations - such as smok-ing hampering the sensitivityof the SARS-CoV-2 test, orpeople who smoke beingmore likely to have an ongo-ing cough so being more like-ly to be tested despite not hav-ing the virus.

“As well as the well-doc-umented harms to overallhealth from smoking, there ispotential for smoking toincrease the severity ofCOVID-19 disease, and soour findings should not beused to conclude that smok-

ing prevents SARS-CoV-2infection, or to encourageongoing smoking."

The authors analyseddata from 587 people withpositive results and 3,215with negative results, collat-ed by GP pract ices inEngland who are part of theRoyal College of GeneralPractitioners Research andSurveillance Centre primarycare network.

Among adults, those aged40 to 64 years were at thegreatest risk of testing posi-tive for SARS-CoV-2 (18.5per cent tested positive, 243out of 1,316 people), com-pared with children aged upto 17 years (4.6 per cent, 23of 499). Among 1,612 men,18.4 per cent (296) testedpositive, compared with 13.3per cent (291/2,190) of

women, said the study fund-ed by Wellcome Trust.

There was a large differ-ence between people living inthe most and least deprivedareas too as well in urban vsrural areas. Co-author DrGayatri Amirthalingam, fromPublic Health England, said:"With each day that passesour knowledge of COVID-19improves.

This analysis of primarycare outcomes of individualstesting positive for virus is animportant contribution toour wider understanding ofhow COVID-19 is affectingpeople of different demo-graphic groups.”

The authors suggestedthat a larger population sur-vey is urgently needed toconfirm which groups aremost at risk.

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In the fight againstCoronavirus pandemic that

has affected more than 4.6million people, it is the indige-nous population worldwidethat is being ignored eventhough it may be especially vul-nerable to Covid-19, accordingto a research published in TheLancet.

The authors noted thatthey are largely excluded frommost national or regional

efforts to curb the spread of thedisease.

According to the WorldBank, over 370 million indige-nous people inhabit over 90countries, in both rural andurban areas. India is home toabout 700 tribal groups with apopulation of 104 million, asper 2011 census. These indige-nous people constitute the sec-ond largest tribal population inthe world after Africa.

Even in high-incomecountries, indigenous groups

like the Navajo have been hithard by Covid-19, with percapita infection rates rivalingthose of New York and NewJersey.

To address this, a team ofanthropologists, physicians andtribal leaders has developed astrategy for mitigating theimpact of Covid-19 amongthe Tsimane, an indigenouspopulation in the BolivianAmazon.

Led by University ofCalifornia-Santa Barbara’s

Michael Gurven and HillardKaplan of Chapman University,their plan brings together rel-evant stakeholders to best serveTsmane interests.

"They hope to provide ageneral template that can beapplied to other indigenousgroups, and to promote awider discussion on how toadapt strategies to local cir-cumstances, with the goal ofminimizing harm to indige-nous populations due to theSARS-CoV-2 pandemic," said

the study.While every individual

around the world is vulnera-ble to Covid-19 because it isnew and no one has developedany immunity, many indige-nous communities are at addi-tional risk because of wide-spread respiratory illness,including prior history oftuberculosis, bronchitis andlower respiratory tract infec-tions and compromisedimmune function.

Though health clinics may

be present in rural areas,access and resources such asmedication, portable oxygenand other treatments may bevery limited.

The potential for highermortality among infectedindividuals makes Covid-19more salient for indigenouspopulations, Gurven noted,for reasons different fromthose typically considered.

The authors hope theirpaper will serve to affect pol-icy and call for action.

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In an open letter to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi and

Union Housing and UrbanAffairs Minister Hardeep SinghPuri, as many as 60 retiredbureaucrats, including formerambassadors and secretaries,have expressed grave concernabout the Central VistaRedevelopment project cur-rently planned in the mosticonic heritage precinct of NewDelhi and urged them to stopthe project.

Congress president SoniaGandhi and other oppositionparties have earlier asked PMModi to scrap the project in thewake of the coronavirus pan-demic.

“The redevelopmentplanned will, moreover, causesevere environmental dam-age. In the post Covid-19 sce-nario, when enormous fundsare required for strengtheningthe public health system, toprovide sustenance to peopleand to rebuild the economy,taking up a proposal toredesign the entire CentralVista at a cost of at least Rs20000 crores, a figure likely toescalate significantly, seemsparticularly irresponsible. Itseems like Nero fiddling whileRome burns”, the letter read.

The former bureaucratssaid that this project needs tobe stopped forthwith for themultiple and complex rea-sons. “We appeal to the gov-ernment to see the fallacy ingoing ahead with this projectand to issue the necessarynotifications forthwith to stopthe work from going ahead,”

they said in the letter.“The Central Vista area

hasbeen accorded Grade 1heritage status under theextant Unified Building ByeLaws of Delhi. Constructionand redesign on the scaleplanned in the redevelopmentproject will significantly affectthe heritage nature of thisprecinct, and destroy it irrev-ocably. Constructing a largenumber of multi-storeyedoffice buildings, with base-ments, in this open area willcreate congestion and irre-versibly change and damagethe environment. Delhialready suffers from enor-mous environmental pollu-tion”, the letter read.

“A premise on which theredevelopment of CentralVista is based, appears to bethe necessity to concentrateoff ices of the CentralGovernment in one place.This is against the basic tenetsof the Master Plan of Delhiwhich stipulates that no newoffices should be built in NewDelhi and that efforts should

be made to decongest it. It isalso out of sync with themaxim of ‘less government,more governance’, which thepresent government had in itsmanifesto”.

The letter further states’ itis sad to note that approvals ofempowered supervisory bod-ies like the EnvironmentalAssessment Committee of theMinistry of Environment andthe Central Vista Committeehave been pushed through ingreat haste at meetings con-vened at short notice while thecountry is in lockdown due tothe Covid 19 epidemic, anddespite the absence of privatemembers who expressed theirinability to attend and advisedwaiting till the nation returnedto normalcy’.

The open letter was writ-ten by former bureaucratsincluding Julio Ribeiro, AftabSeth, Ashok Kumar Sharma,Jawahar Sircar, MadhuBhaduri, K.P. Fabian, SushilDubey, Harsh Mander, MeenaGupta and TishyarakshitChatterjee.

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The Supreme Court will hearall cases via video and

audio links between May 18and June 19, and has scaled upits '1881' helpline to assistadvocates and litigants in e-fil-ing and virtual hearing, accord-ing to a standard operating pro-cedure (SoP) released onSunday amid the coronavirus-triggered lockdown.

The fresh SoP assumedsignificance as the apex court,which has been hearing onlyurgent cases through video-conferencing during the lock-down, decided on May 15 topostpone its summer vacationby five weeks and declaredthat it would remain function-al from May 18 to June 19.

Issuing the fresh SoP, theapex court said for the first time

in the Registry, '1881' helplinenumber will remain function-al from 10 AM to 5 PM undersupervision of senior officers toprovide instant solutions toquery of advocate and litigantsabout e-filing and other issues"In order to contain the spreadof coronavirus (COVID-19),considering the prevailing sit-uation, and taking into accountthe suggestions received fromvarious quarters and the guide-lines issued by the Governmentof India and Government ofNCT of Delhi from time totime, the Chief Justice of Indiahas been pleased to direct theconstitution of the bench(es) tohear matters in the comingweeks since the Virtual Courtswill be functioning from May18, 2020 to June 19, 2020 (bothdays inclusive), that is, duringthe earlier notified summer

vacations through video con-ferencing/ tele-conferencingmode only,” the top court said.

The communication fur-ther said, "The proceedings byvideo-conference should notbe recorded/stored or broad-cast, in any manner whatso-ever, asrecording/copying/storingand/or broadcasting, by anymeans, of the hearings andproceedings before the apexcourt are expressly prohibited.”

The fresh matters lying inthe pool which could not belisted due to the pandemichave been scheduled to be list-ed before the virtual court forhearing during the period, itsaid.

"Once the pool of freshmatters is exhausted, mattersbelonging to Short Categories,which are ready for listing, will

be listed before the court forhearing. In addition to thefresh matters and short cate-gory matters, such other mat-ters shall also be listed forhearing, as may be directed,”it said.

It further said that thetiming of sitting of the virtu-al courts will be notified in therespective causelists whichwill be published well inadvance.

"The Advocate-on-Recordor the parties in person shouldspecify as to whether he/shewould link to the Benchthrough their own computeror would prefer to avail thefacility for video-conferencingin the Supreme Court premis-es,” the SoP said.

It, however, noted desktop,laptop, tablet computers pro-vide stable connectivity for a

video-conference, whereas sig-nal drop/incoming call onmobile devices can delinksuch devices from an ongoingvideo-conference disruptingsuch video-conferencing.

"It may be further notedthat smooth functioning of thevideo-conference is squarelydependent upon and subject tothe connectivity (signal-strength/bandwidth) availableat the end of the remoteuser(s), and hence it is expect-ed that any party joining avideo-conference hearing shallensure robust connectivityand bandwidth are available attheir end – in this regard, par-ties may use broadband con-nection of minimum 2mbps/dedicated 4G data con-nection, and may also ensurethat no other device or appli-cation

is connected to or usingthe bandwidth when the hear-ing by video-conferencing

is progressing on theirVidyo-enabled computer.”

The parties are f irstrequired to file the peti-tion/miscellaneous applica-tion, preferably through the e-filing mode available on thetop court's website and uponcompletion of al l the formalities, and its due regis-tration they are permitted tosend separately the signed andverified mentioning-applica-tion containing a synopsis ofurgency not exceeding onepage, said the apex court in itsfresh SoP.

It directed the parties toremember to keep their micro-phone on “mute” at all times,except when the Benchrequires them to make sub-

missions as there is the possi-bility of the microphone catch-ing audio feed from the speak-ers and creating “echo/noise-disturbance” would becomevery high and may disturb thevideo-conference.

“During hearing throughvideo-conferencing, the par-ties may kindly keep in mindthat they are participating incourt proceedings, and henceit is expected that they wouldnot resort to any indecorousconduct or dress or comment,”said the circular.

It also said that theRegistry may call any partyupon publication of the cause-list, to test the device or itsconnectivity, and every suchparty is required to cooperatewith the staff/official and abideby the instructions given, sothat the hearing by video-

conference may be smoothlyconducted.

The new circular hassuperseded the previous SoPson e-filing and mentioningwhich were issued on March23, 26 and April 17.

The apex court, sinceMarch 25, has been holdingcourts through video confer-encing due to the nationwidelockdown to contain thespread of coronavirus(COVID-19) and had sus-pended the entry of advo-cates and other staff into thehigh security zone on thebasis of their proximity cards,till further orders.

During the lockdown, thebenches usually assemble atthe residences of the judgesand the lawyers are allowed tojoin the video-conferencingfrom their homes or offices.

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Henceforth, if you enter thededicated lane with a

FASTag but which is invalid ornon-functional, then you willbe charged double the toll feeapplicable to the category ofyour vehicle.

So far, prior to this newrule, the user of a vehicle hadto pay twice on the fee plaza‘only’ if the vehicle didn't carrythe FASTag and entered in thededicated tag lane.

The Ministry of RoadTransport and Highwaysbrought in this amendmentthrough a notification on May15.

“If a vehicle which is notfitted with FASTag or the vehi-cle is without a valid or func-tional FASTag, enters into“FASTag lane” of the Fee plazas,then they shall pay a feeequivalent to two times of thefee applicable to that categoryof vehicles,” the amendment inthe National Highways Fee(Determination of Rates andCollection) Rules stated.

The Government hadmade FASTags mandatoryfrom December 15, 2019.

A total of 1.68 croreFASTags have been issuedacross the country till thebeginning of May 2020.FASTag employs RadioFrequency Identification(RFID) technology for makingtoll payments on national high-ways directly from the prepaidor savings account linked to it.

A prepaid tag, fixed onvehicles' windscreen, allowsautomated deduction of tollcharges, and lets any vehiclepass through a toll plaza withzero human contact.

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The Delhi Gymkhana Club'smanagement has ques-

tioned the maintainability ofthe Centre's petition filedbefore the NCLT saying it"smacks of malafides". Theprincipal bench of the NationalCompany Law Tribunal(NCLT) is presently hearing thematter. It was heard throughvideo conferencing last weekand the tribunal would con-tinue the hearing on Mondayas well.

Terming the CorporateAffairs Ministry's petition as"completely misconceived,misplaced and not maintain-able,” the club in its affidavitalso said it was a private clubformed for the use of its mem-bers and there is no element ofpublic interest that wasinvolved. The ministry hasalleged "fraudulent and ram-pant mismanagement" by theclub's general committee andsought to take over the man-agement control under section241 and 242 of the CompaniesAct, 2003.

"What is equally disturbingis the manner in which thepetitioner has sought to movethis petition, namely ex-parte,without service of an advancecopy upon the answeringrespondent. This act itselfsmacks of malafides as indeed,does the petition itself," theclub's petition said. It alsonoted that present membershipis "neither heritable nor trans-ferable" as it is a company lim-ited by guarantee.

In its petition, the govern-ment has alleged that the prac-tice of hereditary successionmode of membership termingit as "parivaar-vaad" (nepo-tism) and "minimal adher-ence to the democratic ethicalpractice".

According to the club,"existence of public interest isa condition precedent forinvoking under section 241and in the absence of publicinterest the question of any-thing prejudicial thereto doesnot arise" and another condi-tion precedent for maintainingsuch a petition is grounds ofwinding up must exist, whichis also not in the present peti-tion.

"Admittedly, there beingno public interest in the pre-sent matter within the mean-ing of Section 241 (2) thepetition must be dismissedwith costs; given the apparentlegal malice in the petition," itsaid. The club has also alleged

that complaint from a formerministry official arose as it"resisted pressure to give himmembership".

Noting that the club veri-ly believes that the person wasa high-ranking member in theministry, the petition said,"harassment that the club hasbeen facing from theDepartment of CorporateAffairs harps back to thatepisode". "Their grievance islimited towards the revision ofregistration fee and not theimposition or the power toimpose a registration fee.Needless to say these are facilearguments raised by disgrun-tled applicants," it said.

On April 24, the NCLThad issued notices to the cluband its general committeemanaging the affairs, over theministry's petition seekingmanagement control of thefacility. Among others, theministry has "fraudulent andrampant mismanagement" bythe general committee.

Moreover, in connectionwith election of membership,the club has always followedthe traditional procedure asper the past practice and thereis no violation of its article ofassociation (AoA), it said in thereply affidavit.

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Congress General SecretaryPriyanka Gandhi Vadra on

Sunday urged Uttar PradeshChief Minister Yogi Adityanathto allow the party ferry migrantlabourers back home in busesarranged by it and kept ready atthe State border.

She made the appeal in avideo message posted onTwitter, a day after 24 migrantworkers were killed and 36injured when a trailer rammedinto a stationary truck, both car-rying passengers, on a highwaynear Auraiya in Uttar Pradesh.

"Respected chief minister, Iam requesting you, this is notthe time for politics. Our busesare standing at the border.Thousands of labourers andmigrants are walking towardstheir homes without food orwater and after fighting alltroubles. Let us help them. Givepermission to our buses," shesaid.

In another tweet, she said,"Our buses are standing at theborder. Thousands of nation-builders workers and migrantsare walking in the sun. Give per-mission Yogi Adityanath ji. Letus help our brothers and sisters."

She also put out a video ofthe buses standing at UttarPradesh border ready for plying.

The Congress leadersincluding former party chiefRahul Gandhi have been forquite some time seeking per-mission to ply their buses totransport migrant labourers totheir homes.

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Page 5: ˘ˇˆ ˆ - The Pioneer · Religious places are closed for public but are allowed to continue their rituals. As many as 50 persons will be allowed for marriage and 20 persons allowed

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Even before the indigenous-ly designed and developed

Light Combat Aircraft (TEJAS)became fully operational andproved its capability, a spin offtechnology derived from thefighter aircraft has started sav-ing many lives in India. Thishas come at a time when thecountry was facing shortage ofquality critical care medicalventilators in Intensive CareUnits in its hospitals.

An air delivery system(ADS) developed by the DefenseResearch and DevelopmentOrganization (DRDO) for thepilots of the LCA turned out tobe the life saver for thousands ofcoronavirus patients. But the endresult is the culmination ofyears long painstaking researchundertaken by various institu-tions like PSG College ofTechnology, Pricol (aCoimbatore based engineeringmanufacturer ) and Skanray, aBangalore based healthcare tech-nology company.

Dr Jagadish J Hiremath, amedical doctor with dreams ofmaking CCMV available to thepoor section of the societyplayed a crucial role of thebridge between the engineeringand medical fraternities andthe end result turned out to bea win-win situation for all.

An ordinary CCMV wouldcost anything between Rs 10lakh and Rs 15 lakh. Then thereis the high maintenance cost ofthe instrument which could bedone only by professional engi-neers. “But the CCMVdesigned and built by Skanray

making use of the BharatElectricals Ltd (BEL) technol-ogy succeeded in bringingdown the cost considerably.This ventilator costs less thana lakh rupees. It’s a robust ven-tilator system and the post-pro-duction clinical trials areunderway. The initial resultsare encouraging and we willsoon transform the same intoa super intelligent ventilator,”said Dr Hiremath speaking toThe Pioneer over telephoneeven as he was evaluating theperformance of the machine inthe ICU of his research clinic.

He said India was 100years behind the technology ofthe CCMV when the researchin the field began in 2010.“Now we have narrowed downthe technical difference to just20 years. In another five years,we will have our own superintelligent ventilator,” said DrHiremath, a MD in anesthesi-ology with specialisation incardiac transplant anesthesia.

The success story of theindigenously developed CCMVcomes immediately after theoffer by US President Trumpthat he would offer ventilatorsto India in this hour of crisis.“Skanray has the capability tomanufacture 30,000 CCMVper month as on date. Thoughthe system is not a completeone like the products manu-factured in foreign countries,these ventilators meet all ourrequirements and in the courseof time, we can equip all pri-mary health centres in thecountry with these easy tooperate and maintain CCMVs,”said Dr Hiremath.

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Union Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman’s ‘eco-

nomic package 5.0’ seems tohave failed to fascinate theBengal political circle, includ-ing the Trinamool Congressand the Left, which slammedthe Centre’s strategy of “mak-ing money out of a calamity.”

Hitting New Delhi hard forrefusing to transfer cash to StateGovernments who are at the

forefront of fighting the coro-na crisis senior TrinamoolCongress leader and MPSaugato Roy on Sunday said“the States were expecting toget some money in their handsor at least into the hands of thecommon people who are suf-fering… but the UnionGovernment refused to do so.

“Instead of giving grantsthe Centre is expanding thescope of loans by announcingloan worth Rs 4.4 lakh crorewhich will further increase theburden of debt on the States.

“Let alone the StateGovernments which are fight-

ing the pandemic from theforefront we did not even hearanything from the Governmentabout increasing the purchas-ing power of the poor and peo-ple who are migrating back totheir villages hungry andimpoverished. We expectedcash transfer directly into theirpockets which too did nothappen…

“For the street vendors too,the Centre has announced loanschemes instead of reachingrelief directly into their hands.In the present situation whowill risk taking loan and start-ing a business when there is no

buyer in sight?” he said adding“the announcements made bythe Finance Minister are noth-ing new. These schemes hadalready been discussed earlier.

“In the present context wecan only say that theGovernment is not providingrelief but it is doing business inthe difficult times.”

CPI(M)’s Md Salim tooslammed the Centre forremaining “insensitive to thepeople’s plight of the people.“We needed immediate relieffor those lakhs of poor peopledisplaced and starving underthe impact of the corona pan-

demic and not some distantplans aimed at selling the entireresources of the country to therich foreigners. What theCentre has announced is any-thing but a package,” he said.

Bengal BJP president DilipGhosh however reacted sharplysaying the “State Governmentis unhappy because it has notbeen given cash to misappro-priate. The TMC governmentwanted money in its hands sothat they could get cut moneyout of them. But the Centrewants the money to go straightinto the hands of the people. Soit has decided against transfer-

ring money to the StateGovernment.”

He also attacked the TMCand the earlier Left Front forallowing hundreds of industriesto flee the State forcing the localworking force to migrate toother regions. “Why have theworkers been forced to migrateto distant regions ofMaharashtra, Gujarat or SouthIndia. This because of thefaulty policies of the Left and theTMC Governments” he said.

Elsewhere senior BJPleader Kailash Vijaybargiyaalso slammed the TMCGovernment for “playing with

the corona situation when theyshould have helped the peoplesurvive. The TMC will have topay very dearly in the nextyear’s municipal elections formishandling the pandemic sit-uation and taking partialapproach in providing relief tothe people of the State.”

Meanwhile, Bengal saw 101new corona cases in the State tak-ing the total number of infectionsto 2677. However the activecases remained at 1480, govern-ment sources said. 238 peoplehad died due to the disease. Thisinclude the 72 deaths that hap-pened due to comorbidity.

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Having not yet arrested thecontinued spike in the

number of deaths and infectedcases in major cities likeMumbai and Pune, theMaharashtra government onSunday extended the lock-down till May 31, with apromise to resort to phase-wiserelaxations and issue orders oflifting the lockdown in certainparts of the State.

Official sources said in theevening that the state govern-ment would in likelihood issuenew guidelines for the

Lockdown-4 on Monday. Invoking the Epidemic Act,

1807, the Disaster ManagementAct, 2005, the orders issued bythe Revenue, DisasterManagement, Relief andRehabilitation department issuedon May 2, 3, 5,, 11 and 15 andthe MHA’s order issued on May1 and 11, State chief SecretaryAjoy Mehta issued a new order,“providing additional humanresources to the Home depart-ment for assisting police per-sonnel towards the containmentof Covid-19 in the State”.

Among other things, theMaharashtra government said

in its order that it was satisfiedthat the state was threatenedwith the spread of Covid-19virus and “therefore to takeemergency measures to preventand contain the spread of virus”the Government felt that it wasexpedient to extend the lock-down in the entire state ofMaharashtra “further till themidnight of May 31”.

As part of its decision toextend the lockdown till May31, the State Government “shallstrictly implement the guide-lines issued earlier from totime”. “The calibrated phasewise relaxation /lifting of lock-

down orders will be notified indue course,” the StateGovernment order said.

Going by the indicationsgiven by Maharashtra chief min-ister Uddhav Thackeray earlier,the Maharashtra government islikely to enforce the lockdownstrictly in the red zones of thestate, especially the containmentareas in Mumbai MetropolitanRegion, Pune MetropolitanRegion and areas likeAurangabad when it announcesthe relaxed guidelines onMonday. However, the StateGovernment may announcemore relaxations for the green

and orange zones in the state. Indicating the plans to

extend the lockdown beyond,Maharashtra chief ministerUddhav Thackeray had onFriday ruled the possibility ofreopening of intra-district bor-ders in the state after May 17.

After reviewing the coron-avirus situation in the state withthe ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi(MVA) colleagues in the state,the chief minister had said:“Without reopening the intra-district borders, we will have totake all precautions whilepreparing road map for thelockdown-4 beginning on May

18. The Coronavirus crisis isnot over yet in the state. We willhave to seek the help of doctorsand members of Task Force indealing with the situation in thePost-May 18 period”.

In an interaction held earli-er with the divisional commis-sioners and district collectorsacross the state through videoconferencing, Uddhav had said:“We will have to draw a delicatebalance between the healthemergency and the economicemergency. That’s why we willhave to start the industrial activ-ities in the state. We will have toextreme care in areas where we

will resume industrial activities.In Green Zones, movement ofvehicles can start within districtseven while taking necessary pre-cautions”. “Come what may, thedistrict collectors will have toenforce lockdown norms strict-ly in containment zones acrossthe state so as to ensure that thepandemic does not spread out-side these zones,” the CM said.

The CM had advised theofficers on ground that whilerelaxing lockdown, they wouldtake care to see that they wouldnot open the intra-district bor-ders in the state. “This is essen-tial because that a lot of migra-

tion is taking place and youhave to take medical precau-tions to ensure against thespread of the pandemic,”Uddhav had told the revenueheads across the state.

“We have succeeded incontaining the spread of pan-demic during April. But, nowin May, we have been told thatthe number of infected caseswill increase in a big way. It isextremely essential that webreak the chain of the spread ofCovid-19. At the same, we willhave to deal with monsoon-related epidemics and ail-ments,” he said.

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The Union territory ofJammu & Kashmir on

Sunday marched ahead ofKarnataka as it recorded 62fresh cases of coronavirus andreported one more death, tak-ing the total tally of cases to1,183. So far 13 deaths due tocovid-19 have been reportedacross Jammu and Kashmir.

The sudden spike in freshcases have been attributed toaggressive testing of strandedpassengers arriving from dif-ferent destinations via rail routeand road link. So far 54,866stranded passengers haveentered Jammu and Kashmirvia Lakhanpur road link.Besides, 11,456 passengers havereached through Covid specialtrains at Jammu andUdhampur railway stations.

According to media bul-letin on Novel Coronavirus,“62 new positive cases weredetected on Sunday, 16 fromJammu division and 46 fromKashmir division”. 33 patientswere discharged from differenthospitals taking the total tallyof recovered cases to 575.

“Out of 1183 cases, 595 areactive positive. 509 cases areactive positive in Kashmir and86 in Jammu division”.According to the media bulletin,the highest number of 28 caseswere reported from Kulgamfollowed by 15 from Anantnag.Deputy commissioner,Anantnag, Bashir Ahmad Darsaid, “as many as 600 samples ofpregnant ladies were taken, outof which 12 patients turned outto be positive on saturday. Headded, so far 5,000 tests wereconducted across 11 Red Zonesof the district to contain thespread of coronavirus.

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The total number of Covid-19 triggered deaths rose to

56 on Sunday, even as 44 morepeople tested positive forCoronavirus taking the total number of infected casesto 1,242.

As it lived up to its reputa-tion of being a hotspot —description that it had earnedin the very first week of the out-break of the pandemic in thefirst week of April, Dharavirecorded 44 more new positive

cases on Sunday.On Sunday, the authorities

added three more deaths to thetotal tally of death in Dharaviwhere there have so far been 56deaths. “The three deaths thatwe have added to the totaldeath tally in this slum hadhappened earlier. But, theywere reported late to the local ward office,” a seniorBrihanmumbai MunicipalCorporation (BMC) official said.

With 44 new infected cases,the total number of infectedcases in Asia’s largest slum hasmounted to 1,242.

A maximum of six infect-ed cases were reported fromMatunga Labour Camp, whilefour cases were recorded in 90

feet road area. There werethree new cases inKalayanwadi, while two con-firmed cases were reportedfrom Kunchikurve Nagar,Jasmine Mill road andKumbharwada.

Matunga Labour campfrom where six positive caseswere reported on Sunday fourinfected cases had been report-ed on Wednesday last, hasbeen the worst-hit area inDharavi.

On Tuesday, eight infectedcases had been recorded inMatunga Labour camp. OnMonday, this area had regis-tered eight cases. There was aseventeen- year-old among theeight newly infected persons onthat day. Six positive cases had

been reported from MatungaLabour camp on Sunday.

Dharavi, which is spreadover 240 hectare area, is hometo more than 4 lakh people.This slum has been one ofmajor cause of concern for theBrihanmumbai MunicipalCorporation (BMC), ever sincethe first couple deaths andinfected cases were reportedfrom this slum in the firstweek of April.

In an effort to devise waysto arrest the rapid spread ofpandemic in this slum,Mumbai’s new MunicipalCommissioner Iqbal SinghChahal had visited this slumand took stock of the situationhours after he assumed theoffice on Saturday last.

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The Covid-19 crisis deep-ened further in

Maharashtra on Sunday, as 63more persons succumbed tothe pandemic and an all-timeday’s record 2,347 people test-ed positive for Coronavirus,taking the total number ofdeaths to 1,198 and infectedcases to 33,053 in the State.

Belying the hopes nursedby the health authorities aboutthe early flattening of Covid-19curse, the pandemic began todisplay its ferocious face, asCoronavirus claimed as many63 persons — which is the sec-ond day’s death tally after 67

deaths were reported onSaturday — and left a stagger-ing 2,347 infected.

Of the 63 deaths, Mumbaiaccounted for 38 deaths, whilethere were nine deaths in Pune,six in Aurangabad, three eachin Solapur and Raigad andone each in Thane district,Pancel city, Latur andAurangabad city.

Of the dead, 44 were menwhile 19 were women. Thirtyfour were aged over 60 years, 22were from the age group 40 to59 years and 7 were aged below40 years. “Forty one out of 63patients (65%) had high-risk co-morbidities such as diabetes,hypertension, heart disease,” a

State health bulletin said.On a day when the total

number of deaths mounted to1,198 in Maharashtra, the totalnumber of infected cases jumped33,053. The authorities peggedthe total number of active casesin the State at 24,161.

With 38 deaths and 1,571new cases, the total number ofdeaths mounted to 734 andinfected cases to 20,150 inMumbai. According to theCovid-19 portal analysis, 679laboratory tests were conduct-ed per day in March in theState. In the first fifteen days ofMay, this has increased to8,628 lab tests per day.

It is evident that there has

been a 13-fold increase in thelaboratory tests compared toMarch 2020. In India, 1630 lab-oratory tests per 10 lakh pop-ulation are done currently.

In Maharashtra, 2,137 lab-oratory tests per 10 lakh pop-ulation are being conducted.

There are 1,688 active con-tainment zones in the state cur-rently. Total 14,972 surveillancesquads worked on Sunday acrossthe State and surveillance of63.83 lakh population was done.As many as 7,688 patients havebeen discharged till date after fullrecovery. Currently, 3,48,508people are in home quarantineand 17,638 people are in insti-tutional quarantine.

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Close on the heels of elimi-nating top Hizbul

Mujahideen commander,Reyaz Naikoo in Pulwama, ajoint team of security forcesSunday morning eliminatedanother dreaded terrorist TahirBhat in a five hour long oper-ation in Khotra village of Dodadistrict.

According to police, TahirBhat was a close associate ofpresent OperationalCommander of HM outfitSaifullah, alias, Dr Saif and was

assigned the task of ‘Revival ofTerrorism’ in erstwhile Dodadistrict by recruiting moreyouth from there.

Police claimed by elimi-nating Tahir Bhat an attempt ofpro-Pakistan terror outfit torevive activities in Doda hasbeen nipped. The designs of theHM to target SF Convoy andCamps has also been thwarted.

According to policespokesman, Tahir Bhat was anIED expert and his name hadalso figured in killing of RSSfunctionary ChanderkantSharma and his PSO inKishtwar in April 2019.

“Tahir had also attemptedto trigger an IED blast on theJammu Srinagar National

Highway on March 30, 2019near Banihal to target CRPFconvoy, police spokesman saidin a press statement.

Tahir was close associate ofHizbul MujahideenCommander Haroon Abbas,who was neutralised earlierthis year in January.

According to MukeshSingh, Inspector General ofPolice, Jammu range, “ on sat-urday late night a specificinformation was receivedregarding the presence of a topHM commander Tahir Ahmed Bhat of Pulwama in thevillage Khotra in Tehsil anddistrict Doda”.

“An operation waslaunched and the village was

cordoned off by the joint teamsof security forces early Sundaymorning . During the ongoingsearch, terrorists hiding in ahouse opened indiscriminatefire on the security forces. In theencounter that followed, TahirAhmed Bhat was killed and anAK 47 Rifle and Magazinehave been recovered”.

IG, Mukesh Singh said,Tahir Ahmed Bhat joined terroroutfit HM early last year (2019).His name has figured in the fab-rication of IED which wasexploded near a CRPF convoyat Banihal in March 2019.

Singh said, he was giventhe task of recruiting youthand reviving HM activities inthe erstwhile Doda district.

Singh confirmed reportsthat Tahir was also a part ofgroup of HM terrorists whokilled RSS activist ChanderkantSharma and his PSO in April2019 . The same AK 47 Riflewhich was taken away that timehas been recovered after theencounter on Sunday.

Police spokesman said,“Tahir was involved in CaseFIR No. 36/2020 U/S20,38,UAPA 121 RPC P/SKakpora , Case FIR No33/2019 U/S 364,302, RPC P/SAwantipora , Case FIR No37/2019 U/S 307,RPC 7/27 A.Act, 16,18,20, ULAP Act P/SLitter and Case FIR No45/2019 U/S 364,302,RPC7/27 A.Act P/S Shopian”

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Page 6: ˘ˇˆ ˆ - The Pioneer · Religious places are closed for public but are allowed to continue their rituals. As many as 50 persons will be allowed for marriage and 20 persons allowed

In Mahabharata, when Ashwatthamalearnt that Duryodhana was strickendown against all laws of chivalry, hisanger swelled like the sea. He took anoath of vengeance against the Pandavas,

whom he blamed for foul conduct. He killedthe sons of the Pandavas by setting their tentablaze at night. The grieving Pandavas,along with Shri Krishna, started searching forhim. Ultimately, they found him hiding inSage Vyasa’s ashram. Cornered thus,Ashwatthama quietly took up a blade of grassto convert it into a deadly weapon. He chargedit with the mantra of “destruction” and aimedthe Brahmastra towards the Pandavas. Inretaliation, Arjun used his Brahmastra.Meanwhile, Rishi Vyasa was asked by ShriKrishna to stop this collision as he was awareof the apocalyptic capacities of these weaponsfor humanity. He ordered both to bring backtheir armoury. Arjun obeyed. Not knowinghow to “bring back” the weapon to its source,Ashwatthama expressed his inability to con-trol it. Swayed by vengeance, he decided todestroy the race of the Pandavas by divert-ing his Brahmastra to the womb of Uttara,who was pregnant with the son ofAbhimanyu. This later brought him the curseof Shri Krishna, who hollowed his foreheadand cursed him with immortality.

Technology and its dilemmas aren’t newto India. The aforementioned instance is onesuch which explains the strong philosophi-cal synergies between technology and its user.Technology in the hand of a user lacking wis-dom and moral perseverance has resulted inthe destruction of humanity. In India, it hasalways been imagined as a tool for the bet-terment of humankind. China’s attempt tocontain the novel Coronavirus through an appwas lauded whereas a group of neo-Ludditescast aspersions when India developed theAarogya Setu app for the same purpose.Ironically, many cast aspersions on the mostvulnerable platforms such as Zoom andFacebook, conveniently forgetting aboutFacebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s publicapology and, of course, algorithm manipu-lations done by Cambridge Analytica.

While both China and India developedan app, the fundamental philosophy of bothnations was different. One cannot, however,ignore the syncretism between technologyand philosophy. Whether man or algo-rithm, it all condenses to the “philosophicalchoices,” especially in times of crisis. In a post-COVID society, we will not only witness anever-increasing authority of algorithms butalso a rising confrontation between man andmachine, all based on philosophical dilem-mas. Last month, The Guardian reported areport titled, “Hertfordshire hospital forcedto consider who should be refused oxygen.”The decision taken by healthcare profession-als must have been based on the philosoph-ical discourse of that nation. A few years fromnow, with the ever-increasing scope ofArtificial Intelligence (AI) and machinelearning, imagine a robot designed by tech-nocrats. How will it be programmed? Whowould it refuse to provide oxygen to? Whatwill be the moral grounding of technology?

Can this decision be taken with-out thoughtful deliberations onmorals, ethics, philosophy of anation? Consider the followingcases on how the moral philos-ophy of a nation can have a directbearing on technology.

When the Titanic sank, thepoignant moment illustrated the“choice” made between the eliteand the destitute. It was decidedto save the lifeboats for the for-mer and leave the latter to theirfate. More recently, the “choice”made by Italy and Iran withregard to who should be provid-ed with a ventilator was based onphilosophical groundings of thatnation. Whereas the US madethe “choice” to delay the lock-down due to Coronavirus, India,despite being more vulnerable tosocio-economic and politicalshocks, decided to make a“choice” in favour of society.The choice made by Mao’s Chinaduring the infamous experimentin social engineering, the GreatLeap Forward, came at theexpense of millions of lives. Onthe other hand, India’s “choice” tosave even separatist leaders dur-ing flood relief operations inKashmir illustrates its philosophy,which ranks all lives as equal. All“choices” are based on the strongphilosophical underpinnings ofthe nation. While both Arjun andAshwatthama held equally pow-erful technology, what madeShri Krishna curse Ashwatthamawas the “choice” he made.

Nevertheless, debates around“morality” and “technology”aren’t new. There have been twoschools of thought. The instru-mental vision of technologyresulting from the neutralitythesis focusses on the ill-effects

and can be attributed to its users,not technology per se. Thinkerssuch as Heidegger and criticalsociologist Habermas wentahead, claiming that the functionof any technology to a greatcapacity depends on how andwhy it has been conceptualised.Later, this theory embraced tech-nology from the broader con-struct of political, social, econom-ic and cultural realms. In the early1980s, American novelistThomas Pynchon said, “It’s okaynot to be a Luddite.” Today, hewould have wondered, “Is iteven possible to be one?” A post-pandemic society will be enter-ing a new age of disruption.Whether in healthcare, social-cultural, academia or the eco-nomic sector, unimaginablefacets of technology will have tobe routinised. Such a develop-ment will pave space for nationsto reconsider their technologicaldevelopment map.

One cannot also ignore thedominance of private corpora-tions in the current technologi-cal race. Such domination canalso be put as “lack of involve-ment of society or state” in thetechnological race. But why doesit become imperative to counter-balance market monopoly overtechnology by augmenting tech-nological capacities of both soci-ety and State? A simple answerto this would be the philosophythat each follows. While marketsusually couch their decisionsbased on utilitarian benefits, notalways resulting in favour ofhumanity, social institutions pri-marily focus on social cohesionand development.

Consider the famousGrimshaw vs Ford Motor Co

case (1981). People were killeddue to explosions in a FordPinto car, the reason for whichwas attributed to a defective cardesign. What was shocking wasthat Ford had prior knowledgeabout the defect but remainedinert as the cost of recalling andrepairing the car would havebeen much more than theamount likely to be spent by it inlawsuits and accidents. The“choice” made by Ford convert-ed a human life as a mere statis-tical tool. The “choice” was basedon the cost-benefit analysisgrounded on the famous “utili-tarian” philosophy given byJeremy Bentham. This bringsforth three questions. First,despite the altruistic use of tech-nology by many private corpo-rations, isn’t there a need tocounter-balance institutions thatuse “technology for society?”Second, for how long can tech-nology and philosophy be placedin watertight compartments?Third, if we attempt to createsuch synergies, will we again apethe West for insights on techno-logical dilemmas or reflect onindigenous schools of thought toresolve conflicts?

Amid the COVID pandem-ic, when the entire world hasembraced Indian philosophicalconstructs, we can lead inthoughtful technologicaladvancements. While philoso-phers, sages, ascetics in ourcountry deliberated on suchdilemmas for centuries, the engi-neers, technocrats and tech giantsare looking for immediateanswers. Thus, philosophy fortechnology has become moreimportant than ever. Yet, the edu-cation system today is slow to

augment technical educationwith philosophical reflections. Infact, the easy imitation of theWest has usurped the space forphilosophical discussions, whichonce were intrinsic to the indige-nous educational system in India.Post-colonial interventions, theIndian education system, whichinitially was run by society, wasusurped by the market as anextension. The result of suchannexation has defined tech-nology as a product of marketsand not society.

The world is undergoingthe biggest social experimentright now. Unaware of the con-trolled variables, we are trying tograph patterns amid chaos. Yearsof technological artefacts arelying almost dormant. Onlywithin a span of 15 days, coun-tries, which used to take pride incutting-edge healthcare tech-nologies, gasped out of exasper-ation. It just took 15 days of amicrobe-ridden pandemic tohammer our egos. Modern manmay boast about his admirablesuccess in communication tech-nologies and brag about Tesla’scyber trucks or the plans tocolonise Mars but it will just takea radioactive leak with a subse-quent power outage to makeeven our Neanderthal brotherslaugh at us.

While primitive technologiessuch as wheel, needle or scissorswere based on belief and philos-ophy of human progress, mod-ern technological advancementslack social validation. What rea-sons can be contributed to suchtechnological redundancy?Somewhere from primitive tomodern man, our philosophicalunderpinnings have changed;the dissonance between technol-ogy, man, society and nature hasbecome cacophonous.

Social institutions are work-ing in vacuum and silos, leadingto technological advancementwithout philosophical moorings.IITs, NITs and IIMs have risen tothe occasion during the pandem-ic but these elite institutes justcomprise a mere three per centof our students. Therefore, post-COVID-19 questions, such ashow the application of technol-ogy will influence social justiceand equality, should come to thefore. Technical education con-fronts “the real acid test” of howknowledge can handle techno-logical disruptions, social issuesand other problems. Technocratsshould consider asking: Cantechnology help achieve socialjustice? Can it help a tribal fam-ily get its ration? Can it help for-est dwellers conserve the forestsbetter? Can it ensure the securi-ty of a Scheduled Caste girl liv-ing at a remote location? This canbe done by formalising interlink-ages between technology andphilosophy.

(The writer is a researchscholar, Malaviya NationalInstitute of Technology)

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Swadeshi vs Make In India”(May 15). In our premise of ahigh potential for domestic con-sumption by a large middle class,Indian exports receive attentiononly in bursts.

Competitive exports alonegive the impetus for quality, costreduction and innovation toembellish brand India. China’spredominance in exports wasentirely due to a dedicated andholistic policy — be it finance,skill development, worker hous-ing or welfare.

While MSMEs account forover 50 per cent of all transac-tions, we have failed to addresstheir primary concern over fundflows. Financial infrastructuresupport continues to be conser-vative. We tend to tailor ourstimulus to the big industrieswithout ensuring a trickle-downeffect to the last in the chain, theMSMEs.

Deviating from its faultless“big leap” and by thinking small,China focussed on industrialgrowth. It adopted an industry-led module that suited polynomi-al growth for the small and medi-

um enterprise. Such foresightplayed a critical role in China’sastonishing leap in industrialdevelopment within two decades.We must be pragmatic, too.

R NarayananNavi Mumbai

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Sir — The Government’s propos-al for a “One nation, one ration”card is a well-conceived idea thatis worth implementation. But the

scope of this idea has to be expand-ed beyond just the migrant work-ers and even for the period beyondthe COVID crisis. One of the crit-ical factors that would impact thecountrywide rollout of this initia-tive is studying, recording and reg-

ularly updating labour migrationpatterns. As contemplated, allother States/Union Territories mustintegrate to ensure inter-Stateportability. Further, the rationcard must be trilingual and notbilingual because all those whoknow Hindi may not be knowingEnglish and vice versa. The prob-lem may also arise with a gap indemand and supply. This needs tobe addressed. A suitable mecha-nism must be devised to ensuresupply does not fall short ofdemand.

KV SeetharamaiahHassan

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Sir — It is heartbreaking thatpatients with serious illnessesother than COVID-19 are havinga tough time getting treated dur-ing the pandemic. How do weensure that everyone gets atten-tion? This is one of the key con-cerns that the Centre and the StateGovernments must addresstogether.

Sritoma MukherjeeVia email

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The world is now in the grip of the COVID-19pandemic. The last most dangerous outbreakthat occurred was the 1918-1919 influenza

pandemic, almost 100 years ago, that reportedly orig-inated in the US and which coincided with WorldWar-I. According to a report prepared by America’sNational Academies of Sciences, Engineering, andMedicine, entitled Global Health and the Future Roleof the United States, the influenza outbreak took placein three waves. It infected one-third of the global pop-ulation and claimed 50-70 million lives. The situa-tion at that time was unmanageable partly becauseof the devastation caused by World War-I. However,this time, the contagion did not precede, coincidewith or follow any war. Even so, the world has lost3,09,047 lives and the numbers are expected to growin times to come. However, the panic and econom-ic devastation caused by the pandemic are unprece-dented and the very legitimacy of the State has beenput to test. In one line, the world is forced to facean uncertain future.

What is evident in all of this is that the crisiscould not be thwarted due to structural deficienciesin the health governance systems and overall pub-lic management. And, as it appears, no seriousthought was given by policymakers around theworld, including India, to deal with pandemics, evenas in the beginning of the 21st century itself, just inthe last 20 years, the world has seen the occurrenceof many outbreaks, such as SARS, H1N1, Ebola andthe Zika virus. They claimed lives at an unprecedent-ed scale and led to enormous economic losses.

Urbanisation, pandemics and risk society:Pandemics or “crowd diseases” are likely to grow innumber and impact, with more urbanisation,choked urban slum settlements, narrow streets androads, loss in biodiversity and heedless exploitationof natural resources, especially water. In his bookGuns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond argues thata small population size does not help epidemic dis-eases evolve of their own. He stresses, “In contrast,the crowd diseases…could have arisen only with thebuild-up of large, dense human populations. Thatbuild-up began with the rise of agriculture, startingabout 10,000 years ago and then accelerated with therise of cities starting several thousand years ago.”With the increase in urbanisation and populations,more cities will be added to the existing ones, open-ing up the possibility of more pandemic outbreaks.The United Nations’ revised World UrbanisationProspects, 2018 report, projects that by 2050, a whop-ping 68 per cent of the world’s population would livein urban areas. By 2030 alone, the world is project-ed to have 43 megacities, most of them in develop-ing regions. These projections show that the urban-isation juggernaut is unstoppable and in turn is like-ly to act as a catalyst in the spread of pandemics.

With the future prospects of pandemics andhealth risks being high, we have no option but toreorganise ourselves and learn to deal with theunfolding “risk society”, a natural offshoot of the so-called modernity-propelled development and pro-duction processes. The renowned German sociol-ogist Ulrich Beck has called this phenomenon“reflexive modernisation.”

In his book, Risk Society: Towards a NewModernity, Beck writes, “In the overlap and com-petition between the problems of class, industrial andmarket society on one side and those of the risk soci-ety on the other, the logic of wealth production

always wins…and for that very reason therisk society is ultimately victorious.” Hefurther adds, “The race between percep-tible wealth and imperceptible risks can-not be won by the latter. The visible can-not compete with the invisible. Paradoxdecrees that for that very reason the invis-ible risks win the race.”

The emergence of risk society isinescapable, thanks to reflexive moderni-sation. To face it, there has to be a shift inpolicy focus from a wealth distributionsociety to a risk society. Beck apprises us,“We do not yet live in a risk society, butwe also no longer live only within the dis-tribution conflicts of scarcity societies. Tothe extent that this transition occurs, therewill be a real transformation of societywhich will lead us out of the previousmodes of thought and action.”

Poverty and pandemics: Shift in pol-icy focus from a wealth distribution soci-ety to a risk society is not that easy in India,a former British colony, which retains itscolonial legacy to a large extent. The typ-ical syndrome that most of the formerEuropean colonies still suffer from.German sociologist Robert Michels hastermed this syndrome “iron law of oli-garchy.” In their book, Why Nations Fail,Daron Acemoglu and James Robinsonsummarise the iron law of oligarchy say-ing that in essence “new leaders over-throwing old ones with promises of rad-ical changes bring nothing but more of thesame.”

Another syndrome that India suffersfrom is the new absolutism — that is, com-munism. In its post-Independence avatar,India tilted towards the communist Sovietsystem, thus allowing structural space tothe communist ideals in the governancesystem. The authors of Why Nations Failhave rightly pointed out, “It is impossibleto understand many of the poorest regions

of the world at the end of the 20th cen-tury without understanding the newabsolutism of the 20th century:Communism…Beyond the human suffer-ing and carnage, the communist regimesall set up various types of extractive insti-tutions…”

The syndromes of the iron law of oli-garchy and new absolutism tend to cre-ate extractive institutions begetting thevicious circle of poverty and provecounter-productive to the efforts to pushthe policy focus towards risk society. Foreconomic justice and poverty reductionby redistribution of the nation’s wealth takecentrestage in policy priorities. This is notto suggest that there exists a binaryopposition between the wealth redistrib-ution society and risk society. What isintended here is that the process of tran-sition from a wealth redistribution soci-ety to a risk society needs to be expedit-ed by eliminating poverty and makingsociety just and egalitarian.

Thus, the challenge before the newleadership in India is to do away with thenew absolutism thought process and theprevalence of the iron law of oligarchyingrained in our political and economicsystem. The extractive institutions needto be weeded out.

Universal Basic Income: Povertyreduction still remains a Herculean taskfor policymakers in India. Althoughsince Independence, a slew of policy mea-sures has been undertaken by variousGovernments to reform the economy andenhance its outcome with an aim to takemore people out of the poverty trap, it isstill miles to go. So what do we do in sucha scenario? What are the choices we areleft with? Though there cannot be a sub-stitute for a poverty-free society inabsolute terms, increase in social securi-ty net and implementation of Universal

Basic Income (UBI) can provide a kind ofa defensive wall in the fight against pan-demics, natural hazards and any otherunwarranted risks.

A whole chapter was dedicated onUBI in the Economic Survey, 2016-17which states, “…UBI is a powerful ideawhose time even if not ripe for implemen-tation is ripe for serious discussion.” Butsince this was given a miss in the UnionBudget that followed the EconomicSurvey, the idea failed to generate “seri-ous” discussion on its utility and practi-cality. Clearly, the UBI at least ensures aminimum income guarantee for benefi-ciaries. The implementation of UBI willplace extra burden on the exchequer butthere are definitely ways to implement itin a limited manner just to begin with.Given the tight fiscal space that India has,it may not be prudent to commit the UBIto everyone, just to prove its universality.In his article, Out of my mind: Income foreveryone, economist Meghnad Desai sug-gested: “The allowance (UBI) should bepaid to women only. They constitutealmost half the population. Many cannotearn as they have to look after their fam-ilies. When they work for wages, they areunderpaid. The criterion cannot begamed. It would revolutionise Indian soci-ety.”

If we have UBI, the need for womenand children to migrate in search of workwill get reduced. In the wake of pandemics,people, especially migrant labourers andwithin that bracket, women and children,will not have to march, hungry, thirsty andbarefoot, hundreds of kilometres towardstheir home States, as happened recentlysoon after the lockdown was announcedby the Government. They will have a fight-ing chance at a life of dignity and inde-pendence.

(The writer is a policy commentator)

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Last month, Tariq Jamil, a promi-nent evangelist, was roundly crit-icised for insinuating that the

deadly COVID-19 pandemic wasbecause of the misdeeds of “immod-est women.” Over the years, Jamil hasgathered a significant following amongsegments of the country’s urban mid-dle classes and also Pakistan’s sportingand showbiz circles. He had been invit-ed by Prime Minister Imran Khan tospeak during a telethon raising moneyto address the economic challengesposed by the pandemic in Pakistan.The event was broadcast live by a pri-vate TV channel.

Many of Jamil’s middle-class fansfind his soft-spoken demeanour

endearing, even though, of and on,some of his statements do raise a feweyebrows. Nevertheless, as a commen-tator on Twitter said, “It was only amatter of time when this likeablepreacher would end up sounding likeany other self-appointed scion ofmorality.” What I understand from thisis that the nearer one gets to certainpoints of power, the more likely it isfor him/her to lose their bearings in abid to please patrons. Especially if thesepoints of power include a Governmentthat seemingly measures loyalty withvaried degrees of sycophancy exhib-ited by its patrons or a fickle media thatis as quick to kick one off the pedestalas it is to put them there.

Jamil himself understands wellwhere his traction lies. It is in the wayhe has positioned himself: As some-one who does not unsettle middle-classsensibilities and ideas of morality,unlike preachers such as KhadimHussain Rizvi. That’s why, withindays of making his controversial state-ment, Jamil offered an apology. Manyof his fans belonging to the entertain-ment industry and some TV anchorsalmost immediately launched an attack

on those who criticised him. EvenShireen Mazari, the current FederalMinister of Human Rights wasn’tspared; she had denounced Jamil forblaming female immodesty for the out-break of the Coronavirus. The irony isthat Mazari belongs to the sameGovernment whose PM not onlyinvited Jamil to his telethon, butremained silent during his tirade.

Another interesting bit to comeout of the debate was a sudden reali-sation of a somewhat not-so-suddenphenomenon: There is an increasingnumber of show business personalitiesfrom India and Pakistan who are oftenquick to defend decisions or statementswhich — in another little ironic twist— do not bode well for their profes-sions.

In this is a terrific opportunity foranthropologists or even psychologiststo study a phenomenon which somebelieve is pregnant with conceptssuch as the “cult mindset” and the so-called Stockholm Syndrome.Nevertheless, Jamil is wise enough torealise that many of his less excitable,or less knee-jerk, middle-class admir-ers were taken aback by what he said;

they thought he was “different”.Therefore, an apology became neces-sary and, no matter what the motivebehind it, it should be commended.

So what is a preacher to say intimes of natural calamities and pan-demics? The best they can do is leada collective prayer and ask theAlmighty to give relief to those whoare suffering. It is a comforting exer-cise that is entirely spiritual in nature.

But as often happens, a majorityof preachers make it their job toexplain the reasons behind naturalcalamities. Be it an earthquake, a floodor a pandemic, the reasons providedare always centred around obscenity,immodesty and so on. And womenremain a constant.

According to a report in a July1967 edition of Dawn, a group ofpreachers was quoted as saying that thedamaging monsoon rains in Karachithat year were due to the Ayub Khanregime’s “secular policies” and “ram-pant sale of alcoholic beverages in thecity.” From then on, until 1977, whennewspapers again carried similarquotes during that year’s devastatingmonsoon rains in the city, the fact is,

such “explanations” got very little col-umn space.

The practice of inviting clerics onTV and asking them to explain thecause of a natural calamity was firstintroduced in the 1980s during the Ziadictatorship. This practice then con-tinued unabated. After the 2005 earth-quake in the country’s northernregions, private TV channels wereflooded with preachers blaming theearthquake on “the culture of obscen-ity that Pervez Musharraf ’sGovernment had been promoting”.

Preachers who are asked why anatural calamity took place often feelpressured to say something that is pop-ulist in tone. Just praying for safety andrelief, they believe, will not get themany traction. However, there is a less-er-known concept in Islamic theolo-gy through which they can still standout, without sounding misogynistic,reactionary or ill-informed.

Islamic scholar Javed AhmadGhamidi used this concept recentlywhen he was asked to comment onJamil’s statement. Ghamidi, a respect-ed theologian who, interestingly, hasa following within the same socio-eco-

nomic class that Jamil derives hisadmirers from, said that it was silly toattribute social causes to naturalcalamities. He then added that floods,earthquakes and pandemics were allnatural occurrences of a system thatGod has engineered. Scientists, too,understand these calamities as natur-al events due to the manner in whichthe universe operates.

By saying this, Ghamidi was rein-vigorating an idea that was first con-ceptualised by the great 19th-centuryMuslim scholar Sir Syed AhmadKhan, who is often appreciated asbeing the pioneer of “Muslim mod-ernism” in South Asia. Like his con-temporaries in Egypt, Turkey and Iran,Khan produced scholarship whichattempted to find a place for Islam inthe context of modernity and sciencethat was sweeping the world at thetime. He was of the view that, sinceIslam was inherently progressive andrational, it was highly compatiblewith science. One way he tried todemonstrate this was through a con-cept he called “naicari.” He coined thisUrdu term from the English wordnature. In an essay for the 2019

Cambridge anthology on Sir SyedAhmed Khan, Professor of HistoryDavid Lelyveld writes that, “To Khan,the universe and our world were runby an ingenious system constructed byGod and that natural phenomenon,both benign or otherwise, is part ofGod’s creation.”

To Khan, biology, physics andchemistry were the best ways tounderstand how nature works and,thus, fully appreciate the genius ofGod’s creation. In one of his essays onNaicari, Khan writes that anythingwhich contradicts the laws of naturecannot be part of Islam’s sacred texts,because these laws were designed byGod. Therefore, according to him, thecause and explanation of a natural phe-nomenon need to be compatible withthe laws of nature set in motion byGod.

So what Ghamidi did was indi-rectly suggest that pandemics andother calamities were part and parcelof how nature works, and nature iswhat God created. Therefore, anexplanation that is outside this contextshould be taken with a pinch of salt.

(Courtesy: Dawn)

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Afghan President AshrafGhani and political rival

Abdullah Abdullah have signeda power-sharing agreementtwo months after both declaredthemselves the winner of lastSeptember’s presidential elec-tion. Ghani spokesman SediqSediqqi tweeted Sunday that apolitical deal between Ghaniand Abdullah had been signedin which Ghani would remainpresident of the war-tornnation. The deal calls forAbdullah to lead the country’sNational Reconciliation HighCouncil and some members ofAbdullah’s team would beincluded in Ghani’s Cabinet.

The ReconciliationCouncil has been given theauthority to handle andapprove all affairs related toAfghanistan’s peace process.

Omed Maisam, aspokesman for Abdullah’s team,confirmed an agreement hadbeen signed at the presidentialpalace. “A technical team willwork on the implementation ofthe agreement and details willbe shared later,” he said.

Afghanistan has been inpolitical disarray since thecountry’s election commissionin December announced Ghani

had won the Sept. 28 electionwith more than 50% of thevote. Abdullah had receivedmore than 39% of the vote,according to the election com-mission, but he and theElections ComplaintCommission charged wide-spread voting irregularities.

Ghani and Abdullah bothdeclared themselves presidentin parallel inauguration cere-monies in March. They havebeen locked in a power strug-gle since then and the discordprompted the Trump admin-istration to announce it wouldcut $1 billion in assistance toAfghanistan if the two weren’table to work out their differ-ences. A peace agreementbetween the U.S. and theTaliban signed Feb. 29 calls forUS and NATO troops to leave Afghanistan. It was seenat the time as Afghanistan’s best chance at peace in decadesof war.

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Joe Biden has longed to winthe White House for more

than three decades. If he final-ly makes it there afterNovember’s election, he’salready talking about leaving.

In an effort to ease con-cerns about his age, the 77-year-old presumptiveDemocratic nominee has saidhe wouldn’t seek reelection ifhis mental or physical healthdeclined. He has also referredto himself as a “transition candidate,” acting as a bridge toa younger generation of leadership.

Biden is rarely known forsticking to a script, and thecomments are evidence of hiscandid style. But they’re alsocontributing to intense specu-lation about who is best positioned to lead theparty after him.

“We do have a longerbench as Democrats, a youngerbench in terms of elected lead-ership all across the country,”said Democratic strategist L.

Joy Williams, chairwoman ofHigher Heights PAC, which isdedicated to electing morewomen to national andstatewide offices.

Biden has not ruled outrunning for a second term, inpart because such an explicit pledge wouldimmediately render him a lameduck in Washington, wherepolitical capital will be needed to manage the coron-avirus recovery.

But the question of hislong-term prospects loomsover his candidacy, especially ashe considers his options for vicepresident.

While someone likeElizabeth Warren could broad-en Biden’s appeal among pro-gressives, the 70-year-oldMassachusetts senator would-n’t be the face of a new gener-ation many in the party areseeking. That might be anadvantage for younger con-tenders, such as California Sen.Kamala Harris, 55, orMinnesota Sen. AmyKlobuchar, 59.

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Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuon Sunday announced that a new govern-

ment led by him will be sworn-in with apledge of Israeli sovereignty over the WestBank to “write another glorified chapter in thehistory of Zionism”.

On Wednesday, Netanyahu, 70,announced that he has succeeded in forminga unity Government in letters sent toPresident Reuven Rivlin, and Blue and Whiteparty Chairman Benny Gantz, who wastemporarily serving as the speaker of Knesset(Israeli Parliament).

“It’s time to apply the Israeli law and writeanother glorified chapter in the history ofZionism,” Netanyahu, who last year in Julybecame Israel’s longest serving Prime Ministersurpassing David Ben-Gurion, said ahead ofthe swearing-in.

The Government was to be sworn-in onThursday but internal squabbles in the rul-ing Likud party over ministerial claims post-poned it. The new Government, whichaccording to the coalition agreement, will seeGantz replace Netanyahu as Prime Ministerafter 18 months on November 17, 2021, as theper power-sharing deal.

Netanyahu would then acquire the titleof “Alternate Prime Minister”, something thatGantz would now enjoy while also being theDefence Minister.

Jerusalem: China’sambassador to Israel,Du Wei, was founddead at his residenceon the outskirts of TelAviv on Sunday, thepolice said.

The 57-year-oldenvoy, who hadarrived in Israel inmid-February, wasfound dead in hishome in Herzliya,north of the city,spokesman MickyRosenfeld told AFP,adding that policewere investigating.

Du’s wife and son were not with himin Israel. The Chinese Foreign Ministrysaid it would only comment when it had“solid” information.

Israeli police and forensics teamscould be seen at the residence, a prop-erty guarded by a low wall and shadedby a leafy garden, AFP reporters said.

Du had previously served as ambas-sador to Ukraine, according to his biog-raphy on the embassy’s website.

The Haaretz daily said initial reportssaid staff had found Du dead in his bedand that there were no signs of violence.

It quoted Israel’s emergency medicalservice Magen David Adom as saying thecause of death appeared to be a cardiacincident. A spokesman for the medical

service would not provide any officialinformation. Du had undergone a 14-dayhome quarantine on arrival in Israelbecause of the new coronavirus outbreak,according to an interview with localmedia in May.

On April 2, Israel Hayom, the top-cir-culation Hebrew newspaper, published aneditorial by Du on the theme that“Collaboration is the Cure for the Virus”.China and Israel, a strong US ally, haveboosted cooperation in the high-tech andother sectors, leading Washington tourge Israel to limit Chinese investment inits strategic sectors. Chinese embassyspokesman Wang Yongjun in a recentJerusalem Post commentary rejectedthe claim and called Sino-Israeli coop-eration a “win-win” situation. AFP

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It’s been a Ramadan unlikeany other for Abdourahmane

Sall, far from the mosque dur-ing the Muslim holy month ascoronavirus cases mount. Withonly a little over a week left, hedecided joining thousands ofothers in tradition was worththe risk after authoritiesallowed prayers to resume.

Men formed orderly linesoutside the Massalikul Jinaanmosque in Dakar as they wait-ed to receive hand sanitizerbefore entering while uni-formed police watched onnearby. Inside, some 2,000 menset their prayer mats 1.5 metersapart while 3,000 others spreadout into the courtyard of WestAfrica’s largest mosque.

“We are being careful but tobe honest we cannot escape the

virus,” said Sall, a 58-year-oldtailor in a flowing orange tunicand face mask made of thickfabric. “If we abide by the pre-cautions that health officials tellus, then God will protect us.”

The WHO has warned thatas many as 190,000 Africanscould die from the coronavirusin the first year of the pandem-ic, and countless more fromother diseases as the conti-nent’s limited medical resourcesare stretched even further.

But across West Africa,countries are finding it increas-ingly difficult to keep mosquesclosed during Ramadan even asconfirmed virus cases mountand testing remains limited.The holy month is already a timeof heightened spiritual devotionfor Muslims, and many sayprayer is now more importantthan ever.

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Spraying disinfectant on thestreets, as practised in some

countries, does not eliminatethe coronavirus and even posesa health risk, the World HealthOrganization (WHO) warnedon Saturday.

In a document on cleaningand disinfecting surfaces aspart of the response to thevirus, the WHO says sprayingcan be ineffective. “Spraying orfumigation of outdoor spaces,such as streets or marketplaces,

is... Not recommended to killthe Covid-19 virus or otherpathogens because disinfec-tant is inactivated by dirt anddebris,” explains the WHO.

“Even in the absence oforganic matter, chemical spray-

ing is unlikely to adequatelycover all surfaces for the dura-tion of the required contacttime needed to inactivatepathogens.” The WHO saidthat streets and pavements arenot considered as “reservoirs of

infection” of Covid-19, addingthat spraying disinfectants,even outside, can be “danger-ous for human health”.

The document also stress-es that spraying individualswith disinfectants is “not rec-

ommended under any cir-cumstances”.

“This could be physicallyand psychologically harmfuland would not reduce aninfected person’s ability tospread the virus throughdroplets or contact,” said thedocument.

Spraying chlorine or othertoxic chemicals on people cancause eye and skin irritation,bronchospasm and gastroin-testinal effects, it adds.

The organisation is alsowarning against the systematic

spraying and fumigating of dis-infectants on to surfaces inindoor spaces, citing a study thathas shown it to be ineffectiveoutside direct spraying areas.

“If disinfectants are to beapplied, this should be donewith a cloth or wipe that has been soaked in disinfec-tant,” it said.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus,the cause of the pandemic thathas killed more than 3,00,000people worldwide since itsappearance in late December inChina, can attach itself to sur-

faces and objects.However, no precise infor-

mation is currently available forthe period during which theviruses remain infectious onthe various surfaces.

Studies have shown thatthe virus can stay on severaltypes of surfaces for severaldays. However, these maxi-mum durations are only theo-retical because they are record-ed under laboratory condi-tions and should be “inter-preted with caution” in the real-world environment.

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Tests on hamsters reveal thewidespread use of face-

masks reduces transmission ofthe deadly coronavirus, a teamof leading experts in HongKong said on Sunday.

The research by theUniversity of Hong Kong issome of the first to specifical-ly investigate whether maskscan stop symptomatic andasymptomatic COVID-19 car-riers from infecting others.

Led by Professor YuenKwok-yung, one of the world’stop coronavirus experts, theteam placed hamsters that wereartificially infected with the dis-ease next to healthy animals.

Surgical masks were placedbetween the two cages with airflow travelling from the infect-ed animals to the healthy ones.

The researchers foundnon-contact transmission ofthe virus could be reduced bymore than 60 percent when themasks were used.

Two thirds of the healthyhamsters were infected withina week if no masks wereapplied.

The infection rate plungedto just over 15 per cent whensurgical masks were put on thecage of the infected animalsand by about 35 per cent when

placed on the cage with thehealthy hamsters.

Those that did becomeinfected were also found tohave less of the virus withintheir bodies than those infect-ed without a mask.

“It’s very clear that theeffect of masking the infected,especially when they areasymptomatic — or sympto-matic — it’s much more impor-tant than anything else,” Yuentold reporters on Sunday.

“It also explained why uni-versal masking is importantbecause we now have knownthat a large number of thoseinfected have no symptom.”

Yuen was one of the micro-biologists who discovered theSARS virus — a predecessor ofthe current coronavirus - whenit emerged in 2003, killing some300 people in Hong Kong.

Armed with knowledgefrom that fight, he advisedHong Kongers early in the cur-rent pandemic to adopt uni-versal masking, somethingembraced by the city’s residents.

At the time the WorldHealth Organisation and manyother foreign health authoritiesdismissed using masks widelyamong the public, saying theyshould instead go to frontlinemedical workers.

Four months after its first

COVID-19 case was detected,Hong Kong has largely man-aged to contain the disease withjust over 1,000 infections andfour deaths.

Experts have credited wide-spread mask use as well as effi-cient testing, tracing and treat-ment in the city of 7.5 millionfor the relatively low numbers.

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For the second time in aweek, former US President

Barack Obama has made aveiled attack on his successorDonald Trump’s handling ofthe coronavirus crisis, sayingthe pandemic that had shownthat many officials “aren’t evenpretending to be in charge.”

Obama criticised the han-dling of the coronavirus pan-demic without mentioningPresident Trump, a Republican,by name, just a week after privately criticising theadministration’s response tothe Covid-19.

The total death toll in theUS due to the coronavirusnow stands at over 88,000,

which is the highest anywherein the world.

The country has over 1.46million cases of confirmedCovid-19 infections.

In his speech to graduatesfrom several dozen historical-ly black colleges and universi-ties, Obama said the COVID-19 outbreak had exposed fail-ings in the country’s leadership.

“This pandemic has fully,finally torn back the curtain onthe idea that so many of thefolks in charge know whatthey’re doing. A lot of themaren’t even pretending to be incharge,” Obama, a Democrat,said during a virtual commencement address forhistorically black colleges anduniversities.

PTI n Berlin

Researchers have devel-oped a computer model toevaluate the effectiveness ofinterventions aimed at pre-venting the Covid-19 pan-demic’s spread, an advancethat may help public healthexperts determine scenariosfor upcoming weeks.

The scientists, includingthose from the University ofGottingen in Germanyanalysed German Covid-19case numbers with respect topast containment measures,and derived scenarios for thecoming weeks.

Their findings, publishedin the journal Science, mayprovide ways to derive insightsabout how well the measures tocontain the pandemic haveworked in recent weeks, and

how things will continue in thecoming weeks.

In the study, the scientistssimulated the course of theCovid-19 pandemic inGermany since mid-March.

Their model calculationsrelated the gradually increasingrestrictions of public life inMarch to the development ofCovid-19 case numbers.

In particular, the studyexamined the effect of threepackages of interventions inGermany in March — the can-cellation of major public eventsaround March 8, the closure ofeducational institutions andmany shops on March 16, andthe extensive contact ban onMarch 22. The scientists com-bined data on the temporalcourse of the Covid-19 newinfections with a disease trans-mission model.

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Beijing has done away withthe guideline that residents

should wear masks while onoutdoors, the first city in Chinaand perhaps in the world to doso in the midst of the Covid-19pandemic, signalling that thecoronavirus is under control inthe Chinese capital.

After months of wearingmasks to prevent virus infec-tion risks, people can nowbreathe freely outside withouta mask in Beijing, state-runChina Daily reported, citing thenew guidelines announced bythe Beijing Centre for DiseasePrevention and Control onSunday.

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China’s health authority hasofficially included damage

to a number of internal organsas among the potential effectsof the novel coronavirus,expanding medical insurancecoverage for patients as thelong-term toll of the diseaseemerges.

China’s National HealthCommission (NHC) in itsguidelines on Covid-19 sur-vivors said some recoveredpatients would require treat-ment for lung and heart damage, for movementproblems from muscle loss, aswell as for psychological dis-orders.

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The Modi Government mayhave touted a mega �21

lakh crore stimulus package todeal with the fallout ofCOVID-19 outbreak on theeconomy but the actual bud-getary outgo is just �2.02 lakhcrore or less than 10 per centof the total package, expertssaid on Sunday.

“The overall stimuluspackage amounted to�20,97,053 crore, that is, near-ly 10 per cent of FY21 GDP.However, it is to be financedonly to a limited extent by addi-tional budgetary resourceswhich amount to 10 per cent of

the overall package,” EY said inits comment on the packageannounced by FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharaman.

It said about 5 per cent ofthe package was already pro-vided in the budget for 2020-21 fiscal. The balance of 85 percent relates primarily to liq-uidity easing measures by theReserve Bank of India (RBI),credit line by banks and sup-port to shadow banks.

EY said out of the nearly�21 lakh crore package, �8.01lakh crore is on account of liq-uidity enhancing measurestaken by the RBI sinceFebruary.

Additional outgo for the

Centre from dole out of freefoodgrain and cooking gas topoor and some cash to seniorcitizens, disabled and poorwomen, as per announcementin March, would be �80,000crore, it said.

The five tranches of stim-ulus that Sitharamanannounced since May 13totalled an additional outgo of�1.22 lakh crore on plans suchas enhanced outlay for employ-ment guarantee scheme andfree foodgrain and subsidisedhousing for migrant workers.

The other items on stim-ulus were for banks and finan-cial institutions to lend more tosmall businesses and provide

support to shadow banks and electricity distributioncompanies.

DK Srivastava, Chief PolicyAdvisor, EY India said: “Thefinal picture of central govern-ment’s COVID-related stimu-lus package at the conclusion ofthe fifth tranche of FinanceMinister’s announcement sumsto �20.97 lakh crores, whichamounts to 9.8 per cent ofFY21 GDP.” “Only about 10 percent of this stimulus can betraced as direct additional bud-getary cost to the central exche-quer,” he said. “Nearly 5 percent of the stimulus relates toalready budgeted expenditures.The rest of the stimulus pri-

marily pertains to RBI’s liq-uidity enhancement measures,government’s credit guaranteeprograms and insuranceschemes.”

In addition to the stimulusamount, a number of structuralreforms have also beenannounced which may have afar-reaching efficiency-aug-menting impact. Most of theserelate to the supply side of theeconomy, EY said.

“However, one importantdemand component wasbrought in by the enhancementof the budgeted MGNREGAallocation of �61,500 crores inFY21 by �40,000 crores.Together, these add to about

0.5% of GDP which is a sub-stantive amount to supportrural demand and agricultur-al prices,” he said.

EY said State Governmentswould welcome the enhance-ment of their borrowing limitfrom 3 per cent to 5 per cent oftheir respective state GDPs.

“But not many of themmay avail of the entire incre-mental amount due to the like-lihood of a tangible increase inthe borrowing cost because ofthe large gap that appears to beemerging between the totalpublic sector borrowingrequirement (PSBR) and the

available resources,” Srivastavasaid. With the enhanced bor-rowing programme of the cen-tre and states and the borrow-ing requirement of the publicsector enterprises, the totalpublic sector borrowingrequirement is considered to beabout 14 % of GDP in FY21.

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The Retailers’ Associationof India (RAI) on Sunday

expressed disappointment withthe ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ eco-nomic stimulus saying emer-gent issues facing retailers havenot been addressed.

The retail industry bodyalso said that with “no incomeand zero support from the

government”, retailers are star-ing at closure of businesses thatwould jeopardise livelihoodsand jobs of 46 million directemployees, out of which 20million work in non-essentialretail. “The steps taken underthe Atmanirbhar Bharat eco-nomic stimulus will help thecountry in the long term butthe emergent issues facing theretail industry have not beenaddressed,” RAI ChiefExecutive Officer KumarRajagopnoalan said in a state-ment.

The retail industry, whichcontributes around 40 per centto India’s consumption and 10

per cent to India’s gross domes-tic product, is severely stressed,he added.”What retailers need-ed was wage support; morato-rium for payment of principaland interests and support in theform of working capital. This iscritical for retail to survive,”Rajagopalan said.

He asserted that someearlier measures announcedas part of the �20-lakh croreeconomic package by FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharaman,such as reduction in TDS ratesfor payments or 2 per centreduction each in the EPF con-tribution of both the employ-er and employee.

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The stimulus packageannounced by the

Government for different sec-tors and the new definition forMSMEs will give huge boost toindustry, Union Minister NitinGadkari said on Sunday.

Addressing a meeting withrepresentatives of BusinessNetwork International andMM Activ Sci-TechCommunications via videoconferencing, the Minister forMSME and Road Transportand Highways sought sugges-tions for effective implemen-tation of the Fund of Fundsannounced as part of the pack-age for MSMEs. There is needto explore agro and fishingMSME sector, Gadkari said ina statement. He said that all thestakeholders, including gov-ernment, are facing challengesdue to COVID-19. He urgedthe industry to maintain apositive attitude during thesedifficult times to tide over thepresent crisis as negativity isnot in anybody’s interest.Recalling that Japan govern-ment has offered special pack-age to its industries for taking

out Japanese investments fromChina and move elsewhere, theminister opined that it is angood opportunity for India,which should be grabbed.

He also said that work hasalready started on New Delhi -Mumbai Green Expressway,which passes through rural,tribal and backward areas.This,he stressed, is an opportunity forindustry to make future invest-ments in industrial clusters,logistics parks equipped withstate-of-art technology alongthe way passing through rural,tribal and less developed areas.

Stating that there is a needto work on decentralisation ofindustries from metro/bigcities, he said focus should beon rural, tribal and backwardareas of the country.The Minister outlined thatspecial focus towards exportenhancement is the need of thehour and necessary practicesshould be adopted to reducepower, logistics and productioncosts to become competitive inthe global market.

He cited an example thatby introducing vehicle scrap-page policy, production costcan be reduced.

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The Indian equity market’smovement this week will

hinge on coronavirus-relateddevelopments such as lock-down 4.0 specifics and newinfections trend, besides quar-terly earnings, analysts said.

In addition, experts said,domestic bourses will take cuesfrom global peers which havebeen reeling from fears of a sec-ond wave of COVID-19 insome countries. Market willalso assess the effectiveness ofthe Govt’s mega �20-lakh crorestimulus package that, ana-lysts believe, would be criticalfor the revival of the economy.

The first of the five tranches of the mega stim-ulus, unveiled by FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanlast Wednesday, had failed to enthuse the market onThursday.

“Government has made itclear that it will introduce themeasures in tranches, but exe-cution is key and that will befollowed by the markets.Markets will also be driven bythe rate of infections, lockdown4.0 norms and any stock spe-cific earnings commentary inthe ongoingresults season,” saidVinod Nair, Head of Researchat Geojit Financial Services.

Ajit Mishra, VP-Research,Religare Broking Ltd, said, “Itseems like markets are awaitingfurther details (of stimuluspackage) before making anyreaction and we may see thepossible response on Mondayi.e. May 18.”

The Government in itsfirst four tranches of the stim-ulus package focussed on cred-it line to small businesses andnew fund creations to be shoul-dered by banks and financialinstitutions with very littleextra budget spending.

In the last set of measures,the finance minister on Sundayannounced plans to privatisePSUs in non-strategic sectorsand suspend loan default-trig-gered bankruptcy filings forone year, and also gave a �40,000 crore hike in allocationfor the rural employment guar-antee scheme to provide jobs tomigrant workers.

“Now market would againfocus on global cues, may con-tinue to remain under pressure.There is also fear of a secondwave of pandemic spread andextended period of economicslowdown. Further, the earn-ings season so far suggest morevolatility and disruption,”Siddhartha Khemka, Head —Retail Research, Motilal OswalFinancial Services Ltd, said.

���� �5�/�4

New stimulus measuresunveiled by Finance

Minister Nirmala Sitharamanon Sunday will cost �40,000crore, taking the actual fiscalimpact of all the stepsannounced over the past fewdays to �1.50 lakh crore or 0.75 per cent of the GDP, areport said.

PM Narendra Modi hadannounced a relief package of�20 lakh crore or about 10 percent or GDP last week.However, many of the mea-sures unveiled have been in theform of moves like loan guar-antees which do not entail animmediate fiscal cost. Earlieron Sun, Sitharaman announcedthe fifth and final tranche of theGovt’s stimulus package torevive the coronavirus-hiteconomy. She said the stimuluspackage includes the �8.01lakh crore of liquidity beingmade available by the RBI.

“We estimate that theactual fiscal impact on thebudget will be only �1.5 lakhcrore (0.75 per cent of GDP),based on our calculations andassumptions made during theseries of announcements,”Barclays’ Chief IndiaEconomist Rahul Bajoria said.The Centre will be able to keep

its fiscal deficit at 6 per cent ofGDP for FY21 after imple-menting the stimulusannouncements, as against thebudgeted 3.5 per cent, he said.The only measure with a fiscalimpact among thoseannounced on Sunday was a �40,000 crore hit due to themoves on upping the works tobe carried out under theemployee guarantee scheme,Bajoria said in a note. Theother move to allow bond rais-ing activities by states up to 5per cent of the respective GSDPwill lead to additional issuancesof �4.28 lakh crore.

“This increase is linked tostates adhering to materialreforms in public distributionsystems, ease of doing business,power distribution and urbanbody revenue sharing,” it said.The States’ increase in bor-rowing will be the same as theone announced by the Centrea fortnight ago, it added.

However, the consolidatedfiscal deficit, which includesboth the Centre and states, willrise to 12 per cent of GDP asagainst the earlier expectationof 8 per cent. Apart from this,there is a possibility that statesmay resort to off balance sheetborrowings to reduce their fis-cal deficit of up to 1 per cent ofthe national GDP, it said.

���� )12�$13�4

Credit Guarantee Schemeworth �3-lakh crore for

MSMEs, announced as part of�20 lakh crore economic pack-age, is likely to become opera-tional later this week.

The �3 lakh crore collat-eral-free loans for small busi-nesses will be offered by banksat attractive rate of 9.25 percent, a senior official of a pub-lic sector bank told PTI.

Currently, rate of intereston loans given by banks toMSME sector varies from �9.5per cent to 17 per cent, depend-ing on the risk perception.

At the same time, the offi-cial said, interest rate will becapped at 14 per cent for the loans provided by non-banking finance companies(NBFCs).

After approval from thegovernment, the scheme isexpected to be launched laterduring the week.

To provide relief to thesmall business, FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanon May 13 as part of first

tranche of� 20 lakh crore com-prehensive economic packageannounced an additional work-ing capital finance of 20 percent of the outstanding creditas on February 29, 2020, in theform of a term loan at a con-cessional rate of interest will beprovided.

This will be available tounits with up to �25 crore out-standing and turnover of up to�100 crore whose accounts arestandard.

The units will not have toprovide any guarantee or col-lateral of their own, she hadsaid, adding the amount will be100 per cent guaranteed by thecentral Government providinga total liquidity of �3 lakh croreto more than 45 lakh micro,small and medium enterprises(MSMEs).

Under the scheme, loanswill have a 4 year tenor withmoratorium of 12 months onthe principal repayment.

The last date for availingthe scheme has been fixed asOctober 31, 2020.

MSME sector is consideredas the backbone of country’seconomy as the sector con-tributes over 28 per cent of theGDP and more than 40 percent of exports, while creatingemployment for about 11 crorepeople, second highest afteragriculture.

���� )12�$13�4

Reliance Industries onSunday announced the sale

of 1.34 per cent stake in its dig-ital unit to global equity firmGeneral Atlantic for �6,598.38crore, the fourth deal in lessthan four weeks that will injecta combined �67,194.75 crore inthe oil-to-telecom conglom-erate to help it pare debt.

“This investment valuesJio Platforms at an equity valueof �4.91 lakh crore and anenterprise value of �5.16 lakhcrore. General Atlantic’s invest-ment will translate into a 1.34per cent equity stake in JioPlatforms on a fully dilutedbasis,” the company said in astatement.

The deal follows Facebookpicking up a 9.99 per cent stakein the firm that houses India’syoungest but largest telecomfirm on April 22 for �43,574crore. Within days of that deal,Silver Lake - the world’s largesttech investor - bought a 1.15per cent stake in Jio Platformsfor �5,665.75 crore. On May 8,US-based Vista Equity Partnersbought 2.32 per cent stake in

Jio Platforms for �11,367 crore.“With this investment, Jio

Platforms has raised �67,194.75 crore from leadingtechnology investors, includingFacebook, Silver Lake, VistaEquity Partners and GeneralAtlantic in less than fourweeks,” the statement said.Strategic and financial investorsare to form 20 per cent of JioPlatforms. Between the fourdeals, Reliance has sold 14.8 percent of Jio Platforms and moresuch investments are likely innear future.

Ambani, 63, chairman andmanaging director of Reliance,had in August last year set a tar-get of March 2021, to make hisconglomerate net debt-free.But thanks to the Facebookdeal, a �53,125 crore rightsissue, private equity invest-ments, and more stake sale tocompanies such as SaudiAramco, the target is likely tobe achieved by December.

At the end of March quar-ter, Reliance had an outstand-ing debt of �3,36,294 crore andcash in hand of �1,75,259 crore.After adjusting cash, the netdebt came to �1,61,035 crore.

Of the outstanding debt,�2,62,000 cr is on Reliancebooks and �23,000 cr is withJio. Jio Platforms, a wholly-owned subsidiary of RIL, is anext-generation technologycompany. Reliance JioInfocomm Ltd, with 388 mil-lion mobile subscribers, willcontinue to be a wholly-ownedsubsidiary of Jio Platforms.General Atlantic is a leadingglobal growth equity firm witha 40-year track record of invest-ing in the technology, con-

sumer, financial services andhealthcare sectors. It has alongstanding tradition of back-ing disruptive entrepreneursand companies around theworld, including Airbnb,Alibaba, Ant Financial, Box,ByteDance, Facebook, Slack,Snapchat, Uber and other glob-al technology leaders.

Mukesh Ambani,Chairman and ManagingDirector of Reliance Industries,said, “I have known GeneralAtlantic for several decades

and greatly admired it for itsbelief in India’s huge growthpotential. We are excited toleverage General Atlantic’sproven global expertise andstrategic insights across 40years of technology investingfor the benefit of Jio”.

Bill Ford, Chief ExecutiveOfficer of General Atlantic,said that as long-term backersof global technology leadersand visionary entrepreneurs,GA could not be more excitedabout investing in Jio.

“We share Mukesh’s con-viction that digital connectiv-ity has the potential to signif-icantly accelerate the Indianeconomy and drive growthacross the country. GeneralAtlantic has a long track recordworking alongside founders toscale disruptive businesses, asJio is doing at the forefront ofthe digital revolution in India,”Ford said.

Akash Ambani, Director ofReliance Jio, said: “We aredelighted that a renownedglobal investor like GeneralAtlantic is partnering with usin our journey to digitallyempower India and Indians”.

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The Government’sannouncement of privatis-

ing discoms in UTs will buildconfidence among larger statesto take similar move, expertshave said.

Unveiling the fourthtranche of the �20 lakh crorestimulus package, the FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanon Saturday announced a slewof measures for the power sec-tor, which included privatisa-tion of power distribution com-panies (discoms) in UTs, atariff policy, installation ofsmart meters, among others.

Sambitosh Mohapatra,Partner – Power and Utilities,PwC India said “Power distri-bution in UTs to be privatisedis an exciting step ahead. It willassist in generating private sec-tor appetite amongst Indianand international investors,various PPP models will betested and it will also provideconfidence to larger states andutilities to undertake privati-sation based on improvements

achieved here”.Imaan Javan, Director,

Suntuity Renewable EnergyIndia, said the measures willbenefit consumers directly. Thestandard of service will nowhave to be maintained by dis-coms or they will face penalty.

“Smart prepaid meters willallow transparency for con-sumers and also helpDISCOMs reduce AT&C loss-es and ensures billing accura-cy which leaves no scope forhuman errors. These measuresshould be implemented at theearliest,” Javan said.

Rajesh Ivaturi, Partner –Power & Utilities sector, EYIndia, said, “The Direct BenefitTransfer (DBT) of subsidies toconsumers by the StateGovernment would relievesome of the financial burden onthe DISCOMs and privatisa-tion of distribution sectorwould bring in significant effi-ciency gains, the states toomust take a cue and extend thisto all key metros so that thequality of power supply goes upsignificantly”.

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Furthering the agenda ofease of doing business in

the country, Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman onSunday announced a slew ofrelaxation measures, includ-ing lower penalties for alldefaults for small compa-nies, one-person companies,producer companies andstart ups.

The Government willalso take steps towards cre-ating additional and spe-cialised benches of theNational Company LawAppellate Tribunal (NCLAT).This has been under consid-eration for some time now.

In yet another movetowards fuller capital accountconvertibility, theGovernment has thrownopen the doors for the Indianpublic companies to directlylist their shares abroad andaccess a larger pool of capi-tal.

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Union Minister forAgriculture and Farmers

Welfare Narendra SinghTomar on Sunday welcomedthe 65 per cent increase inMGNREGS allocations toprovide jobs to migrantlabourers returning to theirhomes in rural areas amid thecoronavirus crisis.

He also expressed his grat-itude in this regard to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andUnion Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman, who hadearlier announced an addi-tional Rs 40,000 crore under

the Mahatma GandhiNational Rural EmploymentGuarantee Scheme (MGN-REGS).

�61,500 crore has beenallocated under the MGN-REGS in the 2020-21 fiscal.The new allocation is addi-tional.

“The Narendra ModiGovernment is taking fullcare of villages, poor andfarmers.

The additional allocationwill help the rural labourers bygenerating 300 crore mandays of work. The migrantsreturning home will thus ben-efit,” Tomar said.

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Nearly 5 per cent of the � 21lakh crore stimulus pack-

age announced by FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanover five tranches to deal withthe COVID-19 crisis relates toalready budgeted expenditures,a report said. Onlyabout 10 per cent of this stim-ulus can be traced as directadditional budgetary cost tothe central exchequer.

Nearly 5 per cent of the stim-ulus relates to already bud-

geted expenditures, EY IndiaChief Policy Advisor D KSrivastava said. The restof the stimulus primarily per-tains to RBI’s liquidityenhancement measures, gov-ernment’s credit guarantee pro-grams and insurance schemes,he said.

“In addition to the stimulusamount, a number of struc-

tural reforms have also beenannounced which may have a

far-reaching efficiency-aug-menting impact. Most of theserelate to the supply side of theeconomy,” he added.He further said the StateGovernments would welcomethe enhancement of their bor-rowing limit from 3 per cent to5 per cent of their respectiveGSDPs, but not many of themmay avail of the entire incre-mental amount.

This is due to the likeli-hood of a tangible increase inborrowing cost because of thelarge gap that appears to beemerging between the totalpublic sector borrowingrequirement (PSBR) and theavailable resources, he said.Meanwhile, Barclays said theactual fiscal impact of thestimulus measures would be �1.50 lakh crore or 0.75 per centof the GDP.

“We estimate that the actu-al fiscal impact on the budgetwill be only Rs 1.5 lakh crore(0.75 per cent of GDP), based

on our calculations andassumptions made during theseries of announcements,”Barclays’ Chief IndiaEconomist Rahul Bajoria said.

On direct listing of com-panies overseas, KPMGPartner Sai Venkateshwaransaid it was earlier recom-mended by a Sebi committee,and will now become a realitywith these proposed reforms.“In the current and postCOVID-19 economic envi-ronment, many of our largeand new age companies willneed access to deeper pools ofcapital, at the right valuationsand in a market with their rel-evant peer group,”Venkateshwaran said.

Several companiesthat adopt new disruptive busi-ness models and are geared upfor the post COVID-19 reali-ty will see significant growthand will find this overseas list-ing avenue to be quite attrac-tive, he added.

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����������A four-star general begrudgingly teams up with an

eccentric scientist to get the US military’s newest agency— Space Force — ready for lift-off. Starring Steve Carell,John Malkovich and Ben Schwartz, the thriller seriesreleases on Netflix on May 29.

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Backed by a full band and a ready wit, actor Ben Plattopens up a very personal songbook onstage — numbers fromhis debut LP, Sing to Me Instead. The Netflix documentaryreleases on May 20.

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Success certainly finds a way toenter our lives irrespective of the

circumstances. Well, filmmakerPrashant Nair, who directed twoepisodes of Amazon Prime Originalseries Made in Heaven, found it againwith his recent film, Tryst WithDestiny. Though the film couldn’t bepremiered at the Tribeca FilmFestival 2020 in April, as scheduled,due to COVID-19 outbreak, it wasjudged by an online jury and won theaward for Best Screenplay.

Wondering what’s the story?Well, for Prashant, it was not even anofficial project. He says, “I wanted towork on something that was a bitbolder and allowed me to exploresome of the things that frustrated meabout the country at the time. I actu-ally wrote it for myself. I neverthought anyone would produce it.Before tossing it in the back of adrawer, I thought I’d send it toManish Mundra (producer), so thatI had no regrets.” Well, two days later,Prashant received a call from him,saying, “Let’s do it!” and off theywent. “Manish tends to make hugedecisions like that very much oninstinct,” he adds.

Named after and inspired by thelandmark Independence Day speechby country’s first Prime Minister,Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the film isa triptych, which narrates three dif-ferent stories of inequality in society— wealth, caste and gender. It pre-sents three characters who struggleto find a control over their destiniesin contemporary India — a billion-aire who learns money can’t buyeverything; a lower-caste couple inpursuit of building a new life; and acorrupt cop who finds himself far

outside the pale of law attempting tosecure the apartment of his partner’sneeds. It’s conceptualised on the linesof Nehru’s words, “There is no rest-ing for any of us until we make allthe citizens of India what destinyintended them to be.” Talking aboutwhy he chose the theme and the title,he says, “In the speech, Nehrutalked about the goals for the newly-formed nation. And hence, the filmexplores how far we have come as asociety vis-à-vis those goals but in aplayful way.”

So how far have we as a coun-try actually come to realising our‘Tryst with Destiny’ as a nation since1947? “I think this is something I’dideally like the viewers to questionat the end of the film. To each his orher own answer. And for me, the ideaof India has never been more in jeop-ardy than it is today,” he laments.

A fun fact? Incidentally,Prashant’s first child was born onNovember 14, (Nehru’s birthday),while he was working on the film.

The triptych, he says, was orig-inally conceived as four stories butfound its way to three, which, toPrashant, “felt right” as each onelightly emphasises a particular colourof our national flag — saffron,white, green — and also deals withthe three “classes” — upper, middleand lower.

Discrimination and inequalityaren’t a new subject around whichfilms revolve. So what is the newthing that this film offers? For him,“this isn’t a heavy narration,” ratherit conveys its message through darkhumour and sarcasm woven withsome loving stories, car crashes, rob-beries, arson, fist fights and dancing.“And the way everything is connect-ed is a bit unusual. I feel, the Tribecajury awarded the screenplay becauseof its originality, so we’re hoping thatthe audience feels the same,” adds he.

Continuing with the discus-sion, the filmmaker feels that shut-down due to COVID-19 is certain-ly a great disadvantage for films thisyear, however, the Tribeca awardturned it around for him by givingit the recognition it would have oth-erwise gained. He says, “Everythinghas come to a halt. There are a lot offilms that finished shoots or produc-tion or were close to being finishedbut now their future is uncertain. Wedon’t know how the theatrical mar-ket will be like when things resume.Perhaps, only the OTTs are doingwell and are hungry for new content.I feel, the Tribeca award was a hugeblessing for our film as it has gener-ated interest in it. Now we hope wecan have an actual physical premiereof the film soon.”

Manish says, “This year has beentough on everyone, hence, this pos-itive news means a lot for people likeus whose passion lies in art and cin-ema. We’re happy Tryst with Destinyis getting recognised on an interna-tional platform.”

This isn’t the first time Prashant’sfilms have received an internation-al accolade. His 2015 directorial,

Umrika (translated as America) wonthe World Cinema DramaticAudience Award at 2015 SundanceFilm Festival. The film showcasedhow a small village in India hearstales of life in America through let-ters sent home by one of its residents.Given that Prashant has resided invarious countries across the world,it would have certainly taken inspi-ration from some of his life’sinstances. He agrees and says, “Yes,very much! As an Indian kid grow-ing up abroad, I had always beenconfronted by ridiculous stereo-types and questions about ‘exotic’India. I wanted to turn that aroundand portray America through stereo-types and clichés as a place equallyexotic. I mean, what is more exotic— Thanksgiving or Holi? In someways, I made Umrika for the inter-national audience, especiallyEuropean and American, which isironic because it ended up releasing,getting a lot of recognition there butnever had a proper release in India.”

Prashant’s other works like Delhiin a Day and the episode of Made inHeaven (A Marriage of Convenience),which showcased the marriage of anNRI guy with a local girl in Ludhiana— have revolved around social hier-archy, gender and individuals fromdifferent walks of life struggling tosecure a better future for themselves.And so it seems to be a subject thatPrashant has explored extensively invarious ways. He agrees and says,“Yes, it’s a theme I keep coming backto somehow. I guess I just find theextent of the inequality outrageous.The pursuit of wealth at the expenseof others bothers me. If there’s any-thing this outbreak should’ve shownus is that a society is best judged byhow it treats its least fortunate.”

Well, having said that, there’s anew theme climbing into his port-folio of films — historic drama. Thefilmmaker is currently working ona web series that revolves around the1997 Uphaar Cinema tragedy —Trial by Fire. So what led to this newventure? He tells us that it was hisfriend, “Sidharth Jain of Story Ink,”who introduced him to the epony-mous book written by Neelam andShekhar Krishnamoorthy — Trial byFire: The Tragic Tale of the UphaarFire Tragedy — who lost their twochildren in the fire. He says, “I wasquite moved by it. Apart from beinga harrowing story of their personalloss, I also felt it was quite importantas it dealt with subjects I feel are inte-gral to progress. We are in the earlystages of research but I am very excit-ed to tell this story.”

Imagine a contemporary office or amodern home, and what comes tomind, immediately, are steel and

chrome facades, the application of AI sothat the lights are switched on anddimmed automatically and the ACs areturned up and down according to thenumber of people, temperature and timeof the day. Did you say ACs? That is oneappliance that we have begun to take forgranted over the years. But then like allaspects of our lives, this too is bound tobe affected by the Coronavirus. Therehave been assertions floating aroundthat it assists the spread fuelled by thefact that in Wuhan, one family visitinga restaurant spread it to two more whohappened to be at the place at the sametime.

Dr Rajesh Kumar Gupta, Additionaldirector, Pulmonology and CriticalCare, Fortis, Noida, says, “If you lookback eight to 10 years, we used to getviral infections in winter. But now theycan be seen throughout the year.Doctors believe that this spike is due tothe recirculated air in public spaces. Ifthere aren’t adequate filters, the possi-bility of infection goes up. In a smallerspace, like a bus or an aircraft, the prob-lem is likely to multiply.”

And it is not just some doctors whoare ringing the alarm bells. HimanshuAgarwal, Founder and CEO, MagnetoCleanTech, a company, which developsadvanced technologies to tackle theproblem of poor indoor air quality indeveloping nations, says, “One of themost common misconceptions is that

air conditioners purify the air whilecooling it. However, existing ones arenot equipped to do so. They only recy-cle the air in the room by absorbing itand releasing cooler air. Centralised ACsin large indoor spaces are not sufficientto eliminate viruses or other air pollu-tants. In fact, they only increase the riskof transmission as several people breathein the same air that is being recirculat-ed in an enclosed space. A majority ofthese air conditioning units might be oldand contain insufficient filtration toeliminate microbes in the air.”

Gurmeet Singh, Chairman andManaging Director, Johnson Controls-Hitachi Air Conditioning India Ltd,debunks the assertion and says, “Thestudies till date are not suggesting that

the virus is airborne. It is propagatedthrough coughing, sneezing and attimes, speaking to an infected person,as the droplets travel a distance of twometres and settle on the surface. Hence,room air conditioners do not pose anyadditional risk of virus spread.”

Mike Chen, General Manager, TCLIndia, concurs with him. He says con-trary to contributing to the spread, ACscan be beneficial at times. “When itcomes to maintaining balanced roomtemperature, relative humidity and ven-tilation, ACs can further strengthenhuman resistance to infections.” He,however, does add certain guidelineswhile using both residential and cen-tralised ACs to be doubly sure. Theseinclude setting the temperature between

24°C and 30°C for stand-alone split andwindow ACs used at home. “It is alsocrucial to keep the room ventilated,whenever the device is not in use,” saysChen. This is obviously not possible inoffices with fixed windows.

However, the problem is not acutewhen it comes to the ACs using newertechnology, which are equipped withhepa filters that trap not only dust butvirus as well. The newer ones aredesigned to prevent the accumulation ofdust and impede the growth of microbessuch as spores, viruses and fungi — thuskeeping the indoor air pure and clean.

The atmosphere in an individualhome where there are only a few peo-ple and that of an office, hospital, cin-ema hall or for that matter any publicspace is far-removed. Dr Ravi ShekharJha, HOD & Sr Consultant,Pulmonology, Fortis Escorts Hospital,Faridabad, says, “There are two-threethings that we need to keep in mindwhile dealing with bigger set-ups likehospitals. The drainage of ACs called theAir Handling Unit of an isolation wardshould be separate from that of the restof the hospital. It needs to maintain neg-ative pressure so that the air does notcirculate inside.” Even before the out-break of Coronavirus, most hospitals didhave an isolation ward to deal withinfectious diseases adhering to thisnorm. Dr Jha says that the possibility oftransmission through the re-circulatedair is miniscule as the virus does not sur-vive in the air for too long.

But there is always the possibility of

hitherto undetected patients walkinginto the common area and infecting oth-ers as the centralised AC is common. DrPK Mangla, Senior ConsultantMoolchand Medcity, Delhi, talks abouta different aspect of the spread when hesays, “Whether it is a hospital or arestaurant and there is an asymptomaticpatient, you wouldn’t be aware that s/heis a carrier. The risk of anyone catchingthe virus is always there when you comein close proximity with the person as thevirus is very contagious.”

To avoid that, the health measuresthat we have been hearing since thebeginning of the outbreak are empha-sised upon. Dr Jha says, “In a hospital,extra precautions are advised. Everypatient walking in, irrespective ofwhether s/he is COVID-19 positive ornot, should wear masks, maintain socialdistancing and wash hands.”

Singh says that central air condition-ing systems used in offices and othercommercial applications are well-ven-tilated. “A standard central air condi-tioning system design includes amechanical ventilation-cum-filtrationsystem that draws in adequate fresh air.A central air conditioning system alsomaintains Relative Humidity between 40 to 70 per cent which is ideal foravoiding the propagation of theCOVID-19 virus,” he says.

Moreover, there are certain normsfor operating centralised ACs in publicareas. Dr Gupta says, “There are clearregulations, which say that the airshould be changed 12 times every hour.In fact, the more frequent it is the bet-ter is the air quality. In a hot country,it is not possible to do without ACs. Ourbuildings too are constructed in a man-ner to accommodate central cooling.Good filters and frequent air changescan tide over any doubts that peoplemight have about AC usage.”

Chen too lists out the precautionsthat can be taken to prevent the spreadof not just COVID-19 but other virus-es and bacteria in public spaces. “Forpublic spaces with centralised ACs, inorder to avoid mixing of contaminatedair with fresh air, exhaust ventilation sys-tems in restrooms should be kept oper-ational 24x7 to avoid virus transmission.Besides, cleaning the air filters more fre-quently is more important than ever tocontain the spread of the virus.”

So the jury verdict is that while theACs are safe — they are so, only withadequate precautions in place.

�������������������� ��Hannah Gadsby returns for her second special and

digs deep into the complexities of popularity, identity andher most unusual dog park encounter. The Netflixcomedy special releases on May 26.

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Alot has been spoken aboutearth’s energy imbalance in

the last few years. However,with the climate change phe-nomena becoming increasinglyapparent in the rising tempera-tures, melting of the Arctic seaice, extreme weather events,heat waves, floods, droughts,storms, hurricanes and so on, itcan be clearly said that the earthhas been thrown out of balance.In layman’s language, it can besaid that earth is sick, but it’s notclear as to how bad the fever is.Like a patient in a hospital, theearth’s vital parametres are beingclosely monitored by climate sci-entists. Satellites track the shrink-ing of glaciers, weather stationsmaintain rainfall readings, buoysmeasure deep ocean tempera-tures while aircrafts monitorthe levels of atmospheric gases.

Climate change and globalwarming are sometimes thoughtof as things that will happen inthe future. But scientists arefinding increasing evidence thatthe planet is transforming now— and that people must take alarge share of the blame for thisphenomena. They furtherexplain that excessive carbonemissions through industrial,vehicular pollution, use of CFCsand plundering of forests andnatural resources have depletedthe ozone layer. This has trappedmore and more of solar radia-tions inside the earth’s atmos-phere. As a result, the earth isheating up which has begun totrigger a chain of naturalupheavals like floods, earth-quakes, tsunamis, and land slidesin the recent times.

We are aware that nature hasserved man from the beginningof human life on this planet.Hence, one cannot imaginehuman existence without thesupport of nature. Like a caringmother, nature gives us food thatnourishes and sustains our bod-ies as also water that cleanses andgives us life. It provides fresh airto supply us with oxygen, whichis vital to keep bodily functionsgoing. It provides materials too— from hay, firewood and tim-ber to rubber, gum, minerals andcountless other things— thathave made our lives so easier.

When one thinks about howmuch humanity is still served bynature inspite of man’s degrada-tion that has brought about thephenomenon of climate change,one begins to wonder how mar-vellous nature must have been inits original, unpolluted state.Descriptions made in scripturesabout the Golden Age speak oftime when the land yielded foodwithout the peasants having totoil as today. Trees yielded abun-dant fruits while crop diseaseand famine were unheard of.Agriculture at that time did notrequire heavy investment interms of labour or inputs such asfertilisers, pesticides or herbi-cides. Nor was it dependent onirrigation systems, since the soil

was fertile and produced boun-tiful harvests, and all the waterrequired was provided by rains,which never failed. Even humanbodies, which are made of thefive elements, were perfect in thatage and hence, disease, deformi-ty and debility were unknown tohumans of that time. So then,what caused man to descendfrom such a period of bliss to thepresent times of natural chaos?When man fell from divinevirtues and came under theinfluence of lust, anger, greed,attachment and ego, his relation-ship with himself, with othersand with nature changed. Insteadof revering her as an everbestowing mother, he started toexploit her to meet his insatiabledesires. Now, when she can takeno more, nature is revoltingthrough such calamities causingmassive loss to life and proper-ty resulting in great human suf-fering.

Years of research by environ-mental scientists have proventhat human consciousness playsa very vital role in shaping theenvironment. The point to benoted here is that human natureinfluences and creates externalnature or the environment. Theenvironmental pollution thatwe see today is actually seededin mental pollution. This alsomeans that if humans return totheir original nature of peace,purity and love, the environmentwould automatically get restoredto its original harmony. But forthis transition to take place, agreat cleansing process needs tobe set in motion. Taking cuefrom the world scenario, it ishigh time that humans endeav-our to connect themselves totheir original nature of purityand peace. This would helpthem in treating others and theenvironment with love and dig-nity and make them obedient tonatural laws. However, if humanscontinue with their present ways,nature will take it upon itself toset things right and restore theplanet’s ecological balance. It willbring earth back to its original,pure and bountiful state, onceagain ushering in the GoldenAge, where man and nature willexist in complete harmony. Butdo we really need mother natureto turn so furious? Can’t we showsome affection towards ourmother who has given us somuch? Just think about it.

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On March 24, the governmentannounced a 21-day nation-wide lockdown in order to

combat COVID-19 which wasextended thrice subsequently. Thisunprecedented move left migrantworkers across the states suddenlyunemployed, creating fear and panicamong them. So they started walk-ing towards their villages carryingluggage overhead and children intheir arms. According to a WorldBank Report, the lockdown impact-ed the livelihoods of nearly 40 mil-lion internal migrants of the coun-try.

Among the affected, there aremany who were stuck away from themainland on the Island of Andamanand Nicobar. A native of 24Paragana district in the easternIndian state of West Bengal, JakirHussain Pasha alias Rasheed hasbeen working as a daily wage labour-er on the island for the last coupleof years. The 45-year-old had trav-elled thousands of miles in search oflivelihood opportunities to supporta family of three in his hometown.Skilled in masonry, Rasheed wasable to earn approximately `1,000daily, which was enough to supporthis stay in the island and sustain hisfamily members.

The announcement of the com-plete lockdown changed his lifeand also of thousands of othermigrant labourers, in the AndamanIslands, who were solely dependenton a daily wage.

The very first week saw migrantworkers walking towards their hous-es, but for the ones like Rasheed,surrounded by the sea all around —even that was not an option.

With bare minimum ration athome, the labourers somehow man-aged a week without any income.Most of them used diesel for cook-ing but the closure of petrol pumpsin the islands made their conditioneven more miserable. Helpless andhungry, the labourers were forced tobeg. They started venturing out tothe nearby colonies with their chil-dren and would ask for any help thatthe residents could provide. Manyhad tears in their eyes, as this wasthe first time that instead of work,they were asking for food.“We havenever begged in our lives,” saidRasheed in a wavering voice.

It was here that eight young vol-

unteers came to the rescue ofmigrants and proved to be a bless-ing for the helpless and hungry.Hundreds lined up with their facescovered, adhering to the govern-ment’s instructions of using masksto collect food from them. “The vol-unteers have come as angels to sup-port us” said labourers with foldedhands, adding, “When these young-sters saw us begging, they decidedto collect provisions from peopleand serve cooked food to us. Theyare continuing to do so twice a day.We have no words to thank them.”

After the report on the situationof migrant labourers was publishedin newspapers, government officialsled by the Member of Parliament ofAndaman & Nicobar Islands,Kuldeep Rai Sharma had rushed tothe spot to take a stock of the situ-ation. Ration was donated by himwhile the names and other details ofthe labourers were collected by theofficials. But after the initial support,

the ration supply dried up. However,the youth volunteers did not flag andcontinued to support the strandedworkers through individual contri-

butions from the society while thelabourers eagerly waited to returnhome.

After almost a month, on May

1, the Andaman and Nicobar Islandsadministration announced that theywould arrange special ships betweenPort Blair and Chennai to ferrystranded migrant workers, students,pilgrims and tourists. However, noships or aircrafts materialised tillMay 14. While the migrants contin-ue to remain on the islands, there arehundreds of islanders who arestranded in Chennai, Kolkata andother states, since the lockdown,waiting for the AndamanAdministration to take a call. Therehave been several requests made bythe public, political leaders, studentsand migrant workers to arrange fortransportation but nothing hasmaterialised as yet. In the name oftransportation, only medicines, PPE,few critically ill patients and somedead bodies were the only luckyones to be transported.

(The author is the editor ofAndaman Chronicle.)

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Yoga takes away each per-ception of the ever-chang-

ing material world whilehelping us find peace andbliss deep within us. Acrossthe world, the concepts ofIndian philosophy are beingaccepted by people, throughyoga. It is the path towardsknowledge, which begins withthe physical dimension. Alot of people in differentcountries have found it easi-er to go back to the Indianroots, through yoga. It is likea wedge which introducesdeep knowledge beginningwith the physical dimensionsof asanas. We gain controlover our body, breath, emo-tions and mind to gradually

awaken our knowledge ofunity (the meaning of yoga isto unify).

There are four paths of

yoga: karma yoga, the path ofselfless actions in the world;bhakti yoga, the path of los-ing one’s ego by surrendering

and devoting oneself; rajayoga, the path of pranayamaand the asanas, leading tomeditation; and gnana yoga,

the path to salvation throughknowledge.

Tulku Sherdor, New York,Director, Blazing WisdomInstitute says in an interview:“Whether you are a Tibetanor an Indian or an Americanor from some other place,everyone’s mind functions ina similar manner. We all seekhappiness and avoid suffering,this is universal. Therefore,anything which is universaldiscovers the actual, reliable,s c i e nt i f i c a l ly - ve r i f i ab l esources of happiness and suf-fering.

This is where Buddhaand other saints proved them-selves to be great scientists asthey understood the univer-sal feelings in such a way thatthey transmitted and sharedtheir knowledge with othersso that everyone realised thesame things.

We still hope that at theend of this road there wouldbe some final and perfectpayoff. For instance, if wehave delicious food whetherits nutritious or not, at theend you will be satisfied. Butthe problem here is, we

haven’t figured out how tostop or when to stop or lookin a different direction andthis is what yoga is here for.”b

In another interview inthe film, Dr Ananda Balayogiwho is a yoga expert and doc-tor from Puducherry says:“If you start becoming con-tent with whatever you havein life, you will suddenlyrealise that you have the bestpartner, children and home.You become the best versionof yourself and your life willbe amazing.”

In the next interviewPadma Bhushan awardee DrDavid Frawley, Santa Fe, USA,yoga and Ayurveda expertsays, “Yoga helps us discoverourselves. It wants us to knowourselves in such a way thatwe do not rely upon the inter-pretations or opinions of oth-ers but can know our realitiesourselves.

The Vedic philosophyteaches us that the entire cre-ation is born out of ananda orbliss. The overflowing of bliss,peace, delight and the powerof consciousness, manifestsitself as the universe.

It also teaches us to awak-en happiness so that we findit in our own self and every-thing around us and not lookfor it externally.”

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Former Pakistan captain Younis Khan feelsBabar Azam cannot be compared to Virat

Kohli just yet as he still has a long way to go.Babar, 25, was recently appointed as PakistanODI captain. He was already the T20 skipperof the side.

While 31-year-old Kohli iswidely regarded asthe current bestbatsmen in theworld across for-mats, Babar hasbeen hailed bycommentatorsand experts as thenext big thing inbatting.

“You see,Kohli - who is now31 and at the peakof his career - hasbeen in interna-tional cricket forover a decade and has proved himself in all con-ditions. The 70 international centuries that hehas scored is a testimony to his class and abil-ities,” Younis was quoted as saying by Gulf News.

“Babar, on the other hand, made his inter-national debut barely five years back. He alreadyhas 16 centuries under his belt and shows verygood averages in both Tests and ODIs, but itwill be unfair to start comparing the two rightnow. If you have to, compare Babar five years(from now) with the dominance that Kohli isshowing in his game today,” he added.

Younis further said Babar's eagerness tolearn will take him far.

“Babar made his debut during the last twoto three years of my career and I was reallyimpressed by his humility. I have always felt thatthe more humble you are, you can achieve big-ger goals in your life,” he said.

“It’s a young team that he has to lead,though there could be a few players senior inage to him. He has to be protective about theteam and take it forward,” he advised.

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With cricket’s finances tak-ing a hit due to the

COVID-19 pandemic, NewZealand all-rounder JimmyNeesham says they will have to“adapt” to playing before emptystadiums to save the sport fromfinancial ruin.

Cricket boards of Englandand Australia, which drive thesport's economy along withIndia, are fearing they could facea severe financial crisis due topostponement of events leading

to slashing of revenues.Elite-level cricketing action

looks unlikely to resume any-time soon and the T20 WorldCup, scheduled for Octoberand November, is under a cloudof uncertainty.

“If the situation is that theonly way to play cricket isbehind closed doors then Ithink it is something that wehave to adapt to as players,”Neesham told ESPNcricinfo.

Both Cricket Australia andEngland & Wales Cricket Boardhave felt the strain after the pan-

demic brought all cricket activ-ities to a grinding halt.

Considering the extraordi-nary situation, the 29-year-oldNeesahm said, “The reality isthat it is a huge financial chal-lenge for a lot of cricket boardsto still run without any revenuecoming in from games.

“So obviously we want to tryand keep the sport in as good astate as it can be in. If that meansplaying games behind closeddoors, the guys just need to suckit up and get it done.”

The New Zealander, howev-

er, added nothing can beat play-ing in front of fans.

“Certainly all things consid-ered you would rather havefans in the ground. It adds a lotto the game and to the specta-cle. But you want to adapt to thesituation that is given to you,” hesaid.

The pandemic, which orig-inated in the Chinese city ofWuhan in Hubei province, hasled to either cancellation orpostponement of all sportingevents worldwide, including theTokyo Olympics.

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Mike Hesson, RoyalChallengers Banglore’s

director of cricket operations,is still hopeful of the IPL tak-ing place this year despite theCOVID-19 pandemic, and saidhis franchise will be readywhen it happens.

The IPL, which was orig-inally scheduled to be heldfrom March 29 to May 24, wasindefinitely postponed by theBCCI due to the outbreak ofthe novel coronavirus in Indiaand subsequent lockdownannounced by the govern-ment.

“We’re still really hopefulthat things will evolve andthere will be an IPL this year

and if it happens, then I canassure you that RCB will beready,” an optimistic Hessonsaid on Star Sports show‘Cricket Connected’.

Hesson, who has former-ly coached New Zealand, saidthat things were rightly put onhold in view of the unprece-dented health crisis.

“We were obviously a weekaway from coming into camp,like everybody else, feelingwell advanced in terms of ourplanning.

“Quite rightfully, every-thing has been put on hold andeverybody is going about theirwork. There are obviouslyother priorities at the momentthat people are focussing on,”added the 45-year-old.

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Former Australia captain Mark Taylor feelseventually this year’s ICC T20 World Cup

would be postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, opening the doors for BCCIto host lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL)in that time slot.

The ICC T20 World Cup, scheduled tobe held in Australia from October 18 toNovember 15, is shrouded in uncertaintyeven as some sporting action has begun withstrict guidelines in place. Taylor said if post-poned IPL is held, the travel will be a play-er’s individual responsibility and not hisnational Board’s.

“I think that’s the most likely scenario(postponement of T20 World Cup) because15 teams planning to come to Australiabetween October and November, 45 match-es over a proposed seven venues, nationaltravel is going to extremely difficult in theworld we are living in,” Taylor said.

“14 days isolation before that makes iteven harder. More than likely that event isnot going ahead. So if the ICC decides topostpone the event that will open the doorfor the BCCI to say that we will have our IPLis India which actually puts the onus back onindividuals then rather than nations movingwhole teams over to a certain country.”

The 55-year-old former opener said if theIPL is favoured over T20 World Cup, it opensup serious negotiation opportunities forCricket Australia with BCCI for the already-planned series Down Under.

“So that is certainly a possibility or prob-ability. Cricket Australia will obviously wantthe T20 World Cup but at the same time willbe working hard with India that if their play-ers go there for IPL, they will want India tocome to Australia for our summer of crick-et next year,” Taylor said.

“Cricket in a way is fortunate with thetiming. They have now got some time to dosome planning. I have no doubt that CA willnow be thinking about IPL and not T20World Cup. They want India in this coun-try. That’s what they want and they are alreadytalking about Adelaide Oval as a hub.”

Asked if it’s feasible to host the entireseries in one venue, he said: “I think it is, ifyou have to pick one state you probably pickAdelaide. They have got a hotel attached tothe ground.”

The Indian cricket team is scheduled totour Australia from October 2020 to January2021 for a full series that includes four Testmatches as part of the World Test C’shipsbesides three ODIs and as many T20Is.

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Asian Games medal winners Ankita Raina andDivij Sharan are set to be nominated for the

Arjuna award by the national tennis federation,which plans to send former Davis Cup coachNandan Bal’s name for the Dhyan Chand honour.

The 27-year-old Ankita had won a women’ssingles Bronze medal at the 2018 edition of theAsian Games and also dished out a strong perfor-mance in the Fed Cup, where she played a key rolein India’s qualification to the World Group play-offs for the first time.

Delhi-lad Sharan had won gold medal in themen’s doubles event in Jakarta along with compa-triot Rohan Bopanna. He also became India’s topdoubles player in October 2019 before Bopannatook back the position.

The 34-year-old also won two ATP titles in the2019 season — Tata Open Maharashtra in Punewith Bopanna and at St. Petersburg with IgorZelenay.

“They are eligible and most deserving this yearfor the Arjuna honour. We will recommend theirnomination,” All India Tennis Association (AITA)Secretary General Hironmoy Chatterjee told PTI.

Ankita grabbed the spotlight with her grittyperformance during the 2018 Fed Cup where sheremained unbeaten in singles.

Since then she has become India’s best singlesplayer on the WTA and ITF circuit, winning sixUSD 25k level titles and also achieved a career-bestsingles rank of 160 in March this year.

At this year’s Fed Cup, Ankita played eightmatches in five days, winning two singles and threecrucial doubles games with the seasoned SaniaMirza to help India qualify for the play-offs for thefirst time.

Bopanna was the last tennis player to get theArjuna award in 2018.

The AITA is still deliberating whether Bal'sapplication be sent for Dronacharya award orDhyan Chand award, which is meant to honourlifetime contributions.

“We are contemplating which category is bet-ter-suited for Nandan,” said Chatterjee.

However, reliable sources in the All IndiaTennis Association (AITA) told PTI that Bal’sapplication will be sent for the Dhyan Chand hon-our.

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The Pakistan Cricket Board has agreedto a Test and T20 tour of the coro-

navirus-ravaged England in July but willnot force players to agree for the assign-ment should they have reservationsowing to the pandemic.

PCB chief executive Wasim Khantold a news channel that Pakistan hasagreed “in principle” to the tour compris-ing three Tests and three T20Internationals.

“We had a very detailed and com-prehensive discussion with the ECB onFriday regarding the tour and PCB hasnow agreed in principle to send ourcricket team to England in July,” Wasimsaid.

During the discussions with theEnglish board held via video link onFriday, it was agreed that Pakistanwould play the matches behind closeddoors at grounds which have hotelsinside the ground. But players won't bemade to go against their wishes.

“If a player doesn’t want to go, we

will accept their decision and take no dis-ciplinary action,” Khan said, adding,however, that based on his information,

every player wants to join the tour.Khan said 25 players will travel to

England on four chartered flights in the

first week of July and the players will beput in quarantine.

"Manchester and Southampton willbe the likely venues for the Test seriesand the ECB will announce a third venuesoon," Khan said.

"Bio-secure arrangements will bemade by the host country and medicalstaff will remain with our team through-out the tour. We will test all our playersand regular temperature checks will beensured. It's very important that crick-et is revived during these challengingtimes," he added.

Khan said he will brief Test captainAzhar Ali and ODI and T20 captainBabar Azam on the tour next week,adding that all players will be briefedfully on England's preparations for thetour.

He also said clearance would besought from the government beforegoing on tour.

The England and Wales CricketBoard is struggling to overcome a finan-cial crisis with the cricket season on holddue to the coronavirus pandemic.

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Ace former India batsman YuvrajSingh on Sunday expressed his

desire to coach, saying he can workon players’ mindset especially in lim-ited-overs cricket which he hasbossed for close to decades.

“I will probably start with that(coaching). I am more keen oncoaching than doing commentary,”Yuvraj told former England batsmanKevin Pietersen during an InstagramLive chat.

“I have more insight in limited-overs cricket and I can share myknowledge with players coming tobat at No.4, 5, 6 as to what sort ofmindset they should have,” said the38-year old who has helped Indiawin the 2007 T20 and 2011 ODIWorld Cups with stellar perfor-mances.

Yuvraj called time on his illus-trious career last year. The dashingleft-hander had previously said thecurrent Indian team needs a psy-chologist who can take care of themental side of players.

“I will probably start by being a

mentor and then if it goes wellmaybe full time coaching,” saidYuvraj.

Pietersen, who is now into com-mentary, asked Yuvraj to join him.

“I thought I will take a break fora year. Play certain tournamentswhich makes sense. I will join youguys and learn commentary first.Not sure how I will do as a commen-

tator. So I will learn from you guys,”said Yuvraj, smiling.

He said he is happily spendingtime with family at the moment andhopefully will become a father soon.

“I am now spending time withfamily. I spent a lot of time on thepark. Hopefully become a father andthen come back on the park (coach-ing or commentary).”

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Bo r u s s i aMonchengladbachresumed their

Bundesliga campaign inimpressive fashion, AlassanePlea and Marcus Thuraminspiring a 3-1 win atEintracht Frankfurt that liftsthem above RB Leipzig.

Earlier on theBundesliga’s first day backfollowing the coronavirus-enforced hiatus, JulianNagelsmann’s Leipzig wereheld to a 1-1 draw byFreiburg - and Gladbachtook full advantage, lookingevery bit Champions Leaguehopefuls.

The hosts failed to evenkeep Gladbach at bay for afull minute as Plea put thevisitors in front, whileThuram - a key playerbefore the suspension inproceedings - knocked inhis seventh in the league thisseason soon after.

Substitute Andre Silvapulled one back for thehosts late one, but RamyBensebaini had alreadyeffectively secured a com-fortable win for MarcoRose's side with a penalty.

Frankfurt had sufferedthree successive Bundesligadefeats prior to the break,and within 34 seconds of

kick-off that run lookeddestined to continue - Pleafinding the bottom-left cor-ner despite being unbal-anced after a one-two withJonas Hofmann.

It was 2-0 just six min-utes later as Bensebainiturned cleverly in the boxand squeezed the ball acrossthe face of goal for Thuramto tap in.

Filip Kostic appearedthe Frankfurt player mostlikely to instigate a revival,but his wicked 24th-minutefree-kick was pushed awayby Yann Sommer, whoseonly other first-half savekept out Almamy Toure'stame effort from a tightangle just before the interval.

Adi Hutter introducedSilva for the ineffectiveDjibril Sow at half-timeand Frankfurt had a littlemore presence in attack asa result, though not to theextent that Gladbach's leadever looked under threat.

The visitors added athird through the livelyBensebaini, who convertedfrom the spot after BreelEmbolo was barged over byEvan Ndicka.

Silva grabbed a well-taken consolation with nineminutes to go, though itfailed to inspire a come-back.

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Ankita, Sharan nominated for Arjuna award

Too early to compareAzam & Kohli: Khan