HYDERABAD, THURSDAY JANUARY 7, 2021; PAGES 12 `3

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Current Weather ConditionsUpdated January 6 , 2021 5:00 PM

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TODAY

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Cabinet nod for

India-Japan pact on

skilled worker sector

8

Adhering to ‘Decency,

dignity and decorum’

in politics

2

Central leadershipwill decide on cabinet expansion, says BSY

5

DEMOCRATS WIN FIRST GEORGIARUNOFF, CONTROL OF SENATE IN REACH

UP WOMAN GANG-RAPED, KILLED;‘SHOCK BY EXCESSIVE BLEEDING’

‘LONG KEPT SECRET’: TOP ISRO SCIENTISTSAYS HE WAS POISONED 3 YEARS AGO

CANCEL 100% MOVIE THEATRE OCCUPANCYDECISION, CENTRE TELLS TAMIL NADU

Joe Biden's Democratic Party took a giantstep Wednesday towards seizing control

of the US Senate as they won the first oftwo Georgia run-offs, hours beforeCongress was set to certify the president-elect's victory over Donald Trump. ReverendRaphael Warnock's victory, projected bymultiple US networks overnight, capped agrueling nine-week runoff campaign andputs Georgia's other knife-edge race in thespotlight for its potential to impact thebalance of power in Washington. "I promiseyou this tonight: I am going to the Senate to work for all of Georgia,"Warnock said in a livestream to supporters.

A50-year-old woman was gangraped andmurdered allegedly by three men

including a priest and his two disciples onSunday night in western Uttar Pradesh'sBudaun district. Two men have been arrestedand a case has been registered against them,police said. Images from the woman's villagehome taken on Monday morning, show herbody laid out on a cot, surrounded by familymembers and other villagers. A yellow sheetcovering her lower body appears to besoaked in blood and one of her legs appearsbroken and bent at the foot. "They brought her on their own in avehicle. She was dead when they left her here.

Atop ISRO scientist on Tuesday claimed hewas poisoned more than three years ago.

Tapan Misra alleged he was poisoned withdeadly arsenic trioxide on May 23, 2017,

during a promotion interview at Indian SpaceResearch Organisation (ISRO) headquartersin Bengaluru. "Fatal dose was probablymixed" with chutney along with Dosa, insnacks after lunch, he said. Mr Misra ispresently working as Senior Advisor at ISROand is superannuating at the end of thismonth. He had earlier served as Director ofAhmedabad-based Space Application Centre of Indian SpaceResearch Organisation (ISRO).

Hundred per cent occupancy in movietheatres cannot be allowed yet, the Union

home ministry told Tamil Nadu today. TheAIADMK government, which lifted therestrictions on movie theatres last week, wastold to scrap its order making that allowance.The Union home ministry has so far allowed 50per cent occupancy in movie theatres outsidecontainment zones as part of the phased unlockprocess. Giving that reminder to the state, aletter from the Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla saidthe MHA has extended those guidelines tillJanuary 31. "State/UT governments shall not dilute these guidelines... inany manner and shall strictly enforce the same," the letter read.

Fear of bird flu outbreakgrips Andhra, Telangana

VENKAT RAM REDDY LAKKADIn HYDERABAD

Following reports that "hun-dreds of birds were founddead" on Wednesday inTenali, fear of the outbreak ofavian influenza has grippedthe Telugu States; even as sixother states are under highalert, including Kerala andHaryana, where the Centrehas deployed multi-discipli-nary teams in the affectedareas.

Hyd records 481% growth in new residential projectsPNS n HYDERABAD

New residential launches inHyderabad grew by a massive481 per cent Quarter-on-Quarter (QoQ) in Q4 2020,leading to a 4 per cent Year-on-Year (YoY) growth in the totalH2 2020 launches.

Launches in Hyderabad hadtaken a significant hit in Q2and Q3 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the subse-quent lockdown, recordingonly 42 per cent and 37 percent respectively, of the 2019quarterly average. By Q4 2020,with sales also picking upmomentum, launches revived,suggests Knight Frank's latestresearch report.

Hyderabad's residential mar-ket launches stood at 8,404home units in H2 2020 and12,826 home units in the year

2020. The city recorded sales of5,260 home units in H2 2020and 10,042 home units in theyear 2020. Residential home

sales in Hyderabad wererecorded at 5,260 units in H22020. In Q4 2020, sales jumpedup by 127 per cent, as com-

pared to Q3 2020, according toKnight Frank.

The share of Rs sub-50 lakhticket size sales in total H2 2020sales increased from 15 percent in H2 2019 to 24 per centin H2 2020. This increase indi-cates the growth of the afford-able housing segment in amarket where the buyer pref-erence has always beenstronger for the Rs 50 lakh-Rs1 crore segment.

Supported by festive seasonpromotions, multi-decade lowhome loan interest rates, soft-er residential prices, and high-er income savings, Q4 2020sales grew by 127 per centQoQ.

PM-CARES FUND

Telangana gets five oxygen plantsPNS n HYDERABAD

Giving a boost to healthcareunder public institutions,Telangana has been sanc-tioned five medical oxygengeneration plants under thePrime Minister's CitizenAssistance and Relief inEmergency Situations (PMCARES) Fund Trust. The fiveplants sanctioned forTelangana are part of the 162such facilities being estab-lished across the country inpublic healthcare institutions,

involving a total expenditureof Rs 201.58 crore.

The procurement will be

done by the Central MedicalSupply Store (CMSS), anautonomous body of the Union

Ministry of Health and FamilyWelfare. The 162 plants, witha total capacity of 154.19 met-ric tonnes, will be installed in32 States and UTs across thecountry.

The total project cost is Rs.137.33 crore involving supplyand commissioning of theplants, apart from the manage-ment fee of CMSS and aroundRs. 64.25 crore towards com-prehensive annual mainte-nance contract.

‘No diversion of WGLSmart City funds’PNS n HYDERABAD

Responding to insinuations of'diversion' of central funds andallegations that the TS govern-ment had not released a singlepaise from its share for theWarangal Smart City project,Municipal Administration andUrban DevelopmentDepartment principal secretaryArvind Kumar said onWednesday "100% funds asreleased from Government ofIndia had been released toWarangal under Smart Citiesproject" and "there was nodiversion of funds whatsoever".

Ex-minister held in kidnap casePNS n HYDERABAD

In derring-do of the tinsel townvariant, a gang, allegedly actingat the behest of a former APminister, masqueraded asincome tax officials and kid-napped three real-estate busi-nessmen related to TS ChiefMinister K Chandrasekhar Raoon Tuesday evening, and, whentheir game was up, thanks toswift action by the police, left thehostages at Kokapet area andfled the scene in the wee hourson Wednesday.

Bhuma Akhila Priya, theformer minister believed to bebehind the abduction, has beenarrested in connection withthe sensational kidnap case. Herhusband, Bhargava Rao,allegedly involved in the crime,is absconding. Their accompliceand former TDP member AVSubba Reddy has also beenarrested.

According to investigationsso far, at around 7:20 pm onTuesday, around 10 members,

dressed in formals, entered anapartment in Manovikas Nagarhere claiming to be 'taxmen'.They told the residents that theyhad come to conduct 'raids' andeven showed them a 'searchwarrant' and ID cards to lendcredibility to their operation.After holding the men aside,they moved the women andyoungsters into a room in thehouse. They then started 'ques-tioning' three brothers viz.

Praveen, Naveen and Sunil inthe vestibule. The family mem-bers who were locked inside theroom were tricked to thinkingthat the men were questioningthe three members.

Hyderabad City Police Commissioner AnjaniKumar addressing a press conference to givedetails of the kidnapping case and (inset)former AP minister Bhuma Akhila Priya, whohas been arrested.

Hyd's residentialmarket launches stoodat 8,404 home units inH2 2020 and 12,826home units in the year2020. The city recordedsales of 5,260 homeunits in H2 2020 and10,042 home units inthe year 2020

‘No trace in Telangana’T

here are no traces of bird flu inTelangana and people need not panic,

state Animal Husbandry Minister TSrinivas Yadav said on Wednesday, asauthorities launched preventivemeasures. Yadav, who held a meetingwith officials on the preventive measuresto be taken with regard to bird flu, saidCentral government officials haveannounced having found bird flu only inRajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala andHimachal Pradesh as of now.

Centre deploysteams in Kerala,Hry; MP banschicken imports

PNS n NEW DELHI

Three people were on Mondayarrested here for allegedlydefrauding the government tothe tune of Rs 67.76 crore bycreating non-existent firms,officials of Medchal CentralGST Commissionerate said.

Cases of fake invoices andevasion of GST were bookedagainst the three who creatednon-existent firms and issuedinvoices without supplyinggoods and allegedly facilitatedfraudulent availing of input taxcredit (ITC) by over 200 differ-ent firms/companies, the offi-cials said.

By this, the three defraudedthe government of revenue to

the tune of Rs 67.76 crore, apress release from the MedchalCommissionerate said.

Further investigationsrevealed that the trio had cre-ated 11 bogus firms either intheir names or in the names ofdifferent individuals by allur-ing them with monthly pay-ments, and taking registra-

tions in the name of suchindividuals, the release said.

The three were aided by anauditor, who helped them inobtaining multiple GST regis-trations, arranging input billsfrom bogus firms, maintainingall records including GSTreturns, it said.

‘One nation oneelection' need ofcountry: BhupenderPNS n NEW DELHI

BJP general secre-tary BhupenderY a d a vWednesday said'one nation oneelection' is notjust a matter ofdebate but theneed of thecountry, arguingfrequent polls ham-per development worksand involve a lot of expendi-ture.

Speaking at a webinar onthe issue organised by theparty, he said one election --

a reference to simultaneouspolls for Lok Sabha,

state assembliesand local bodies

-- will speed updevelopmentworks instates andacross thec o u n t r y ,

according to astatement.The roots of

democracy in thecountry will remain as strongif elections are held once infive years, Yadav added.

Air, roadtraffic hit inJK, hailstonesin DelhiPNS n NEW DELHI

Parts of north India wit-nessed snowfall or rain onWednesday affecting air androad traffic in Jammu andKashmir, while the nationalcapital woke up to the pitter-patter of hailstones as thecity's spell of wet weatherentered its fourth day.

The India MeteorologicalDepartment, however, saiddry weather is expected overentire Northwest India fromThursday, but dense to verydense fog is very likely inmany pockets of the regiondue to favourable weatherconditions.

While Jammu and Kashmirreceived rain and snow,Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh,Uttarakhand, Lakshadweep,Haryana, Punjab, Chandigarhand Delhi witnessed rain orthundershower at most placesduring the 24 hours ending at8.30 am Wednesday.

"We had 28 arriving flightsand 28 outgoing flights andall of them were cancelled,"said a Srinagar airport offi-cial, citing snowfall and poorvisibility.

An official of the trafficcontrol room in Jammu said,"No traffic was allowed on theJammu-Srinagar NationalHighway due to accumula-tion of snow and landslides atmany places."

ShapoorjiPallonji emergesas lowest bidder

CENTRAL VISTA

PNS n NEW DELHI

Infrastructure firm ShapoorjiPallonji and Company Limitedhas emerged as the lowest bid-der for the Rajpath redevelop-ment project quoting Rs 477.08crore, which is 4.99% less thanthe estimated cost, according toCPWD's bid documents.

Tata Projects quoted thesecond-lowest bid amountof Rs 488.78 crore for theCentral Vista Avenue/Rajpathredevelopment project beingexecuted under the govern-ment's Rs 13,500 cr CentralVista revamp project.

Parl panel recommends 89changes for Data Bill: LekhiPNS n NEW DELHI

A parliamentary committeeexamining the Personal DataProtection Bill has recom-mended 89 amendments tothe proposed legislation,including changing its titleand schedule, the panel'schairperson Meenakshi Lekhisaid on Wednesday.

The draft of the bill,approved by the Cabinet inDecember 2019, proposes toput restriction on use of per-sonal data without explicitconsent of citizens.

Proposing a penalty of up toRs 15 crore and up to three-yearjail term for company execu-tives for violating privacynorms, the bill was introducedin the Lok Sabha in Februarylast year.

Three held for defraudinggovt of over Rs 65 crore

By this, the threedefrauded the govt ofrevenue to the tune of Rs67.76 cr, a press releasefrom the MedchalCommissionerate said

n Migratory birds' movement from northern states to south to be tracked

n 1,300 rapid force teams to monitor the situation

n Animal Husbandry and Forest departments launch joint operation

2 2

22 2

2 2 2

22

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NEW DELHI: The Centre onWednesday deployed multi-disciplinary teams in bird flu-affected areas of Kerala andHaryana, while MadhyaPradesh, where crows havedied due to the influenza,banned the entry of chickenconsignments from southernstates for 10 days as aprecautionary measure.

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EGG

RATES

` 52, 370 (10 gm)

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GOLD

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(IN HYDERABAD)

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | JANUARY 7, 2021 hyderabad 02

Recently, Vice-PresidentM Venkaiah Naidu saidthat ‘Decency, Dignity

and Decorum’ are the threeingredients of democracy andthey are upheld only throughadherence to ‘Debate, Discussand Decide’.

Any sane person will agreethat for a democracy to bevibrant and functional, lead-ers across and above the partyline should adhere to decen-cy, dignity and decorum,especially when they speak inpublic and when they refer totheir political rivals.

Unfortunately, some leadersappear to have either forgetthis cardinal principle or arenot aware of it while makingstatements in public. Thistrend seems to be catching up,of late, especially in Telangana.

In the recent past, soonafter the Dubbak by-poll andlater during and after theGHMC polls, the state chief ofa national party has been

continuously spitting venomagainst the Chief Minister ina language that is crossing alllimits of decency. He is per-sonally attacking the CM andmembers of his family invery filthy, unparliamentaryand highly unbecoming lan-guage, which is not expectedof anyone, more so a politicalleader.

In our country, there havebeen umpteen instances ofsome young leaders beingreprimanded by their ownparty leadership for losingtheir cool and using offensivelanguage against their rivals.For instance, in 1977 after theEmergency and the first evernon-Congress government,the then Union MinisterGeorge Fernandez came toHyderabad and addressedpublic meetings. As was hiswont, he went hammer andtongs against the then oppo-sition leader Indira Gandhidescribing her as a ‘perenni-

al liar’. When it was reportedto the then Prime MinisterMorarji Desai, he called upFernandez and told him toavoid using such phrases.Morarji Desai advised him toreframe his words as ‘MrsGandhi seldom speaks truth’.Such was the way politicsused to be in those days.

A couple of months ago,when other opposition lead-ers poked fun at PrimeMinister Narendra Modi forasking people to light a can-dle and beat utensils, KCR

condemned such acts sayingthat the PM should not becriticised in such a manner.He even asked the DGP tobook cases against thosemocking the PM. LikeMorarji, KCR is an exception.

The opposition leader nowin question in Telangana hasthe habit of using choicest epi-thets against KCR. He usesexpressions such as: ‘We willnot leave him (KCR) even ifhe prostrates before our partyleadership. We will send himand his family members to jail

even if he tries to please ournational leaders’.

His language and abuses areoften putting his own partyleaders to embarrassment.This person should learn fromsome past and present stal-wart leaders from his ownparty. Interestingly even thenational leadership of that

person is conspicuously silenton his utterances.

When PV Narasimha Raowas the PM, the then Leaderof the Opposition Atal BehariVajpayee used to criticise theGovernment day in and dayout, but with respect anddecency. It was PV who as PMhad deputed Vajpayee tospeak on the Kashmir issue atthe UN to everyone’s surprise.That was how mutual respectamong politicians prevailed.

However, criticism was notuncommon even then. As anOpposition MP, Vajpayeeused to criticise Nehru’s gov-ernment inside and outsideParliament.

During the Janata govern-ment, Vajpayee took strongobjection to Nehru’s portraitbeing removed from theMinistry of External Affairsand had it returned. Suchwas the mutual respect theruling and opposition hadthen. It also speaks a lot about

their personality.We have seen the informal

practice of the Prime Ministeror Chief Ministers conveningall-party meetings to discussvery important issues or poli-cies of the government. Thisis to build consensus on deci-sions taken by the govern-ment for the public good.

All those who witnessed theLegislature sessions of undi-vided Andhra Pradesh oftenexperienced the treasurybenches discussing with theOpposition members thequestions and answers to betabled in the House. This wasto make sure that the answersto the question tabled hadadequate and truthful infor-mation for the public.

Coming back to the oppo-sition leader in question, evenin undivided AP and after theformation of Telangana State,no political leader hadstooped to his level. He seemsto believe that use of filthy and

unparliamentary languageattracts the people. Peoplemay get attracted to filthy lan-guage, but it will not makehim a mass leader in the longrun.

If the leadership’s behaviouris decent, cultured and withsome ethical standards, theparty too is respected by thepeople. Filthy language onlyserves as free entertainment.

When TN Seshan was theCEC, he made it a punishableoffence.

But who can teach these‘fly-by-night operators’ in pol-itics to behave properly? Ifonly their party seniors caninduce some manners, cultureand decency, then there maybe some change.

It’s high time our countryredefines what isParliamentary language andwhat is unparliamentary one.

(With inputs from VJM Divakar)

VANAM JWALA

NARASIMHA RAO

CHIEF PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICER

OF CHIEF MINISTER OF TELANGANA

A couple of months ago, when otheropposition leaders poked fun at PMfor asking people to light a candleand beat utensils, KCR condemnedsuch acts saying that the PM shouldnot be criticised in such a manner. Heeven asked the DGP to book casesagainst those mocking the PM

Adhering to ‘Decency, dignity and decorum’ in politics

Continued from Page 1

The strong growth momentumof residential prices duringearlier years was stalled thisyear by the impact of the pan-demic on both sales andlaunches. As a result, theweighted average prices at thecity level have receded to the2019 levels with a near 0 per

cent YoY increase in 2020.In terms of geography, West

Hyderabad continued toaccount for the highest share inlaunches, as well as sales, owingto its proximity to theInformation Technology (IT)business districts. Further,HMR-Central micro marketlaunches grew by 397 per centYoY in 2020, whereas its 2020

sales were relatively less affect-ed at 19 per cent YoY.

Samson Arthur, BranchDirector-Hyderabad, KnightFrank India said, "Recognisedamongst the most affordablemetropolitan cities, Hyderabad'sresidential market saw aremarkable turnaround in H2 ofthe pandemic intervened year of2020. Ready inventory moved

briskly encouraging developersto announce new launches,which met with very encourag-ing response."

"Pandemic also gave oppor-tunity for citizens to appreciatethe city's focus on infrastruc-ture, social order, and ease ofliving. With work opportuni-ties remaining positive, thehome segment of Hyderabad's

realty promises to be equallyattractive for both end usersand developers," he added.

The spurt in launches, cou-pled with the relatively mutedsales volume, has caused theunsold inventory numbers torise to 7,180 units in H2 2020and the quarters to sell (QTS)to scale up to 2.2 quarters in H22020.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Only 5.28 per cent of schoolshave opened so far in thecountry as 81.24 per cent ofthem will partially open byJanuary 2021, finds a survey-based study.

The study gives insight intothe schooling system of Indiafollowing the Covid outbreak.

The study reveals that thefee collection has taken thebiggest hit with 17.06 percent of schools reporting nocollection' this year. 59.74 percent of schools furtherclaimed that their inflow wasless than 40 per cent in 2020.The decreased revenues nat-urally disrupted the staff andsalary management with 26.49per cent accepting to havereduced workforce while36.43 per cent claimed salaryreductions. However, a major-

ity of schools stood firmlywith their employees despiteharsh economic conditions.

A key takeaway of the studywas that there is a marked

improvement in nearly allareas now. For instance, morethan two-third of schools arenow conducting online class-es, whereas, only 40.05 per

cent schools had been doingso till October.

Such factors, including eco-nomic indicators and jobprospects, are expected to

enhance further in the near-term.

Speaking on the findings,Sandeep Wirkhare, CEO ofISFC said, "It is to state theobvious that 2020 was a yearunlike any other. We saw par-adigm-changing disruptionsacross the horizontal marketwith digital approachesreplacing the conventionalones. Schools were perhapsone of the worst-hit segmentsas they largely rely on theirphysical infrastructure.

The academic loss of stu-dents along with schools' ownfinancial shortfall was limitedto an extent by conductingonline classes, a trend thatcontinues to grow. Now, when2020 comes to a close, it'sgood to know that nearly allindicators are encouraging andthere are green shoots ofrevival."

26% schools have downsized staff

Hyd records 481% growth in new residential projects

Fear of bird flu outbreakgrips Andhra, TelanganaContinued from Page 1

However, the state govern-ments of Telangana and APstated on Wednesday that therewere "no traces of bird flu" intheir respective states so farand that the officials of forestsand animal husbandry depart-ments were "closely monitor-ing the situation".

Joint teams, comprising offi-cials from the AnimalHusbandry Department andthe Forest Department, havebeen constituted to monitorthe situation and to take pre-ventive measures to containbird flu in the Telugu States.

Since the winter seasonattracts a large number ofmigrant birds from the north-ern region of the Himalayas tosouthern states, it was decid-ed to track the movement ofmigratory birds. These birdsnest and breed in water bod-ies. Since these birds travelover long distances crossingseveral states, it is essential tokeep track of these birds at thenesting and breeding sites.

Principal chief conservatorof forests R Shobha conveneda meeting with departmentofficials in all districts onWednesday to take stock ofbird flu situation in the state.

The Curator, Nehru ZooPark and the officers in chargeof Kakatiya Zoo, Warangal,Manjeera Bird Sanctuary,Sangareddy, Pakhal WildlifeSanctuary including Pakhallake, Siwaram WL Sanctuary,Kinnerasani WL Sanctuaryincluding Kinnerasani lake,

have been instructed to consti-tute Rapid Response Teams forconducting at patrolling inareas where migratory birdscongregate. Similar directionshave been given to all the cir-cle heads and division heads.

The field officers have beeninstructed to collect the carcass-es of birds detected during thisperiod, pack them safely, andsend them to veterinary science

laboratories for analysing andidentifying cause of death.

The Forest Department hasrequested the general publicalso to be alert during this peri-od and if any dead bird isnoticed, information is to bepassed on to the WildlifeCrime Control cell at AranyaBhavan, Hyderabad (toll freeno. 18004255364), which func-tions round the clock.

Centre deploys...Continued from Page 1

Thousands of chickens andducks were culled in twodistricts of Kerala to containthe spread of the H5N8 avianinfluenza strain and Rajasthanreported that bird flu wasdetected in Swai Madhopur,after Jhalawar, Kota, Baranand Jaipur districts.Punjab was the latest afterTamil Nadu and Karnataka toput its officials on alert andHimachal Pradesh startedrandom sampling of poultryaround a wetland, where3,000 migratory birds havedied since December 28.Bird flu outbreak has beenreported at 12 epicentres inKerala, Rajasthan, MadhyaPradesh and HimachalPradesh, and advisories havebeen issued to contain furtherspread of the infection inpoultry ducks, crows andmigratory birds, the Unionfisheries, animal husbandryand dairying ministry said.

‘No trace in TS’Continued from Page 1

He said 1,300 rapid responseteams are continuouslymonitoring the situation andtaking steps to prevent theoccurrence of bird flu,according to an officialrelease. Samples from 276poultry have been tested, hesaid, adding that tofficials ofthe Animal Husbandrydepartment are organisinghealth camps and providingsuggestions to the poultryindustry. Meanwhile, the stateforest department hasinitiated various measures toprevent bird flu and to reportall cases of death of birds onthe ground. The curator ofNehru Zoo Park here and theofficers of zoos and birdsanctuaries in the state havebeen directed to constituteRapid Response Teams forconducting patrolling in areaswhere migratory birdscongregate, a forestdepartment release said.

Ex-minister held in kidnap caseContinued from Page 1

Meanwhile, a neighbour cameinside the apartment. Sensingsuspicious activity (and notraids, as the residents weregiven to understand), he alert-ed the police through Dial 100at around 8:20 PM. TheBowenpally Police rushed tothe spot and started enquiry.Later, top officials, includingHyderabad CP Anjani Kumarand DCP North Zone Kalme-shwar Shingenavar, reachedthe spot. Immediately, 15 poli-ce teams were formed to fanout and crack the case.

Clueless about where toshift the abducted personsand out of fear of being caughtby the police, the accused leftthe three abducted persons atKokapet area under theNarsing Police Station limits at3:30 am on Wednesday.

Anjani Kumar said that thepolice monitored the mobilephones of the victims, which,when switched on, indicatedthe exact tower location. Thus,the victims were brought safe-ly to their residence.

Revealing details of thearrests, Anjani Kumar said:"Under the leadership ofKalmeshwar Shingenavar, Smt.Bhuma Akhila Priya was taken

into custody from her resi-dence in Kukatpally at around11:20 am on Wednesday andan arrest memo was issued toher at around 12:40 PM. Shewas further sent for medicalexamination and subsequent-ly sent to judicial custody.Remaining accused personsare found absconding. Effortsare being made to arrest theabsconding accused persons."

Based on a complaint fromKatakaneni Manish (22),nephew of the victims, thepolice booked a case undersections 419, 341, 342, 452,506, 365 IPC r/w 149 IPC andinvestigation is under way.LAND DISPUTE

One of the victims, KPraveen Kumar, is the owner ofa piece of land admeasuring 47-00 acres in Sy.No.80/D inHafeezpet. Kumar has given apart of the land to accommo-date labour quarters on rentalbasis. Presently many workingpeople are living in the labourquarters. At present, a cricketacademy is also functioning inthe land. The rest is open land.

Anjani Kumar said: "Theprobe into the cases revealedthat the land was purchased in2016 by one of the victims --Praveen. The land, which wasin some dispute, has been

mediated by A.V Subba Reddy,along with former MLABhuma Nagi Reddy(died)."

Further investigationsrevealed that an MoU wasexecuted. After the death ofBhuma Nagi Reddy, his daugh-ter Akila Priya approachedPraveen for a share in the land.When Praveen stated that hehad completed the transactionwith A.V Subba Reddy andrequested her to approachhim, she started threateninghim.

"Settling for the share in theland Akhila Priya and herhusband hatched a conspiracyand kidnapped the victims vizPraveen, Naveen and Sunil,with the assistance of theirhenchmen," said AnjaniKumar.

Earlier a case was regis-tered at the Miyapur PoliceStation under the CyberabadPolice on Praveen Kumar'scomplaint that A.V.SubbaReddy, Amruth Goud, VijayKrishna, Ayub, Mujeeb,Zaheer, along with some anti-social elements trespassed intothe land and threatened thesecurity persons and one Faiz,who is supervising cricketacademy, to vacate the site.

Following this, a case wasregistered against the accused.

Three held for defrauding govt...Continued from Page 1

During the investigations,it was noticed that the fakeinvoice trading took placeagainst payment of 9 percent/10 per cent commissionin cash. It was also revealedthat the recipient firms of thefake bills were paying the

invoice amounts in regularbanking channels to thebogus f irms which hadissued fake bills and amountswere being paid back tothem by withdrawing cashfrom their account bydeducting their commission,the release said.

Air, road...Continued from Page 1

South Kashmir's Kulgamdistrict received highestsnowfall with five to six feetof snow accumulated atsome places. Anantnag dis-trict has also received heavysnowfall. This also led topower supply disruptionsin many areas across the val-ley.

Incessant downpour hasthrown life out of gear for thelast three days in Jammuwith the city reporting 50.1mm rainfall in a 24-hourperiod ending Wednesdaymorning, its second-highestfor the month of January in20 years, Meteorologicaldepartment officials said.

In Delhi, meanwhile, peo-ple woke up to the rumbles ofthunder and the sound ofhailstones hitting rooftopsand windows as the cityreceived rainfall for thefourth consecutive day.

‘No diversion of ...Continued from Page 1

In a statement, the principalsecretary said that the GOIlaunched SMART CITYMission in June 2015 andGWMC (Greater WarangalMunicipal Corporation) wasincluded in the list of SMARTCITIES in May 2016. Thetotal funds released by theCentre for Warangal SmartCity project is Rs 196.40 crore,which the state governmenthas transferred to GWMCcompletely.

Giving the breakdown, hesaid the government trans-ferred Rs 2.50 crore in 2016-17, Rs 32 crore in 2017-18 andRs 161 crore in 2020-21 toGWMC.

Outlining the progress ofWarangal Smart City works,

Arvind said 63 works worthRs 1,029 crore were taken up,of which works worth Rs46.67 crore had been complet-ed till date. Funds amountingto Rs 40.67 crore had beenutilised for the purpose.'More than sufficient funds'were available with theWarangal Corporation tomeet the expenditure forongoing works up to May,2021 under the project, hestated.

According to Arvind, whilesufficient funds were madeavailable to Warangal, therehave been initial delays inundertaking the actual works.Besides, issues like land acqui-sition, preparation of DetailedProject Reports (DPRs) havetaken their time as in the caseof any major projects.

Telangana gets...Continued from Page 1

Director of Public Health Dr GSrinivasa Rao said onWednesday: "These plants willnot only help meet the demandfor oxygen during the ongoingpandemic, but will alsostrengthen our public healthsystem in the long term."

Since August last, when casesof Covid infections were at itspeak in Telangana, the Stategovernment has made con-certed effort to establish oxygenfacilities at tertiary govern-ment hospitals and established

huge capacity liquid oxygentanks within the premises atTIMS, Gachibowli. Such med-ical gas tanks are already avail-able at Gandhi Hospital andNIMS.

Similar oxygen facilities willbe established in several gov-ernment hospitals, includingMGM Hospital in Warangal,District Hospital in King Koti,Sarojini Devi Eye Hospital inMehdipatnam, OsmaniaGeneral Hospital in Afzalgunj,Fever Hospital in Nallakuntaand the Chest Hospital inErragadda.

Parl panel recommends 89...Continued from Page 1

Later, it was referred to theJoint Committee of Parliamentheaded by BJP MP Lekhi.

"The process of writing thereport on the bill has begun.Eighty-nine amendments havebeen suggested by the panel,including changing its titleand schedule," Lekhi told PTI.

The bill was drafted follow-

ing a Supreme Court judge-ment in August 2017 thatdeclared 'Right to Privacy' afundamental right. The needfor a strong personal data pro-tection regime was furtherhighlighted by the apex courtin its judgement in September2018 in which it held Aadhaaras a constitutionally validscheme but struck down someprovisions in the Aadhaar Act.

‘One nation one...Continued from Page 1

Citing an example, he said themodel code of conduct, dur-ing which a government can-not announce a new develop-ment or policy programme, isimposed for 6 months eachwhen LS and assembly pollsare held in UP, and this hap-pens during the local bodypolls as well. This leads to theissue of elections overshadow-ing governance, he said.

Shapoorji Pallonji...Continued from Page 1

An official said that the his-toric Rajpath will go for rede-velopment work soon afterhosting the Republic Dayparade. The work may becompleted before the 2022Republic Day parade. TheRajpath redevelopment projectincludes large scale stone work,construction of underpasses,and horticulture work, theofficial said.

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | JANUARY 7, 2021hyderabad 03

The University of Hyderabad(UoH) School of MedicalSciences and the Fernandez

Foundation, Hyderabad havebeen identified as partners by theprincipal investigator, Prof. SooDowne of University of CentralLancashire (UCLan), UK as partof the prestigious Bill andMelinda Gates FoundationResearch grant on appropriate use of Caesarean Section. In thisglobally networked initiative, the UoH is with WHO-Geneva andpartners in Brazil and Canada to implement an innovative projectcalled Re-JUDGE. The project looks at "reducing rates of non-medically indicated caesarean sections through an open accessmulti-media evidence and behaviour change programme for lawyersand judges". This competitive project was one of the five worldwideprojects out of 120 applicants to receive an $80,000 Bill andMelinda Gates Research Grant award. UCLan's Research inChildbirth and Health group (ReaCH) led by Prof Soo Downe,Professor of Midwifery Studies, was one of only five teamsworldwide to be awarded the funding under the Foundation's 'GrandChallenges' research themes related to appropriate use of CaesareanSection in low and middle-income settings.

UoH to be partner in Bill, MelindaGates Foundation Research grant

CITY LIGHTS

In view of theswearing-in-ceremony of Justice

Hima Kohli, ChiefJustice of High Court ofTelangana, at RajBhavan, on Thursday at11.30 am, the trafficpolice has issued atraffic advisory. As theRaj Bhavan road fromMonappa Island (Rajiv Gandhi statue) to VV statue junction isexpected to witness traffic congestion from 10 am to 1 pm, thetraffic will be diverted or stopped at Monappa Island and VV statuejunction, Punjagutta-Raj Bhavan quarters road will be closed forgeneral traffic on both sides during this period. For parking ofvehicles at Raj Bhavan, the traffic police has earmarked at Gate No-III to Administrative Block for the vehicles of Judges, MsP, MsLAand MsLC, at Dilkusha Guest House for media vehicles, MMTSparking lot for other VIP vehicles and vehicles of governmentdignitaries. The Metro Residency to NASR School and Lake View toVV statue junction, will have single line parking, the police said.

TS HC Chief Justice swearing-intoday; traffic curbs at Raj Bhavan

Relatives of 67-year-oldVenkata Swamy Bogoju, aresident of

Vankateshwara enclave,Upparpally, who was declaredas brain dead by doctors, havedecided to donate his organsunder the State-run Jeevandanorgan donation initiative.OnJanuary 4, Venkata Swamycollapsed in his house aftercomplaining of giddiness. Close relatives immediately shifted him toa local private hospital for emergency care and on the same daythey shifted him to Yashoda Hospital, Somajiguda for tertiarycare.After 28 hours of intensive treatment and several attempts atreviving Venkata Swamy, the attending team of neuro-physiciansdeclared him as brain dead due to internal bleeding in the brain.Thegrief counsellors of the hospital and Jeevandan counselled thefamily members of the deceased, who agreed to donate the organs.The consent to donate the organs was given by Venakata Swamy'swife Padma Bogoju and his son Ratnakar Babu.The Jeevandanauthorities appreciated the family members for donating the organsfor the noble cause. The surgeons retrieved the donor liver andbased on the Jeevandan sub-committee guidelines, sent the donororgan to other transplant centres.

PNS n HYDERABAD

The city has earned the dis-tinction of having the secondhighest number of closed-circuit television (CCTV)cameras in the world afterChennai.

In fact, there are 480 CCTVcameras in the city for everyone square km and 30 cam-eras for every 1,000 people.

To attract more and moreinvestments to the city, ChiefMinister K ChandrasekharRao tried to build the safe cityimage for the city after com-ing to power in 2014.

The state government andthe police department tookinstallation of CCTV camerasat various places in the city asa matter of prestige. Theytook steps to install CCTVcameras in the city on the linesof the CCTV network inLondon. The Telangana Policeranked number one in ensur-ing the installation of CCTVcameras. The police have alsoacquired special software tomonitor footage from thou-sands of CCTV camerasinstalled across the city.

Against the police depart-ment's target to have 10 lakh

CCTV cameras across thestate, so far 6.65 lakh havebeen installed, including99,095 in 2020 alone, saysDGP M Mahender Reddyexuding confidence of reach-ing the target soon. With thehelp of the CCTV camerasnetwork in the city, as manyas 4,490 cases were solved.

Quantity-wise, the num-ber of CCTV cameras aremore in Hyderabad compared

to those in Chennai. However,the total area of Chennai isonly 426 square km as againstHyderabad's 625 square kmarea. On the basis of the num-ber of CCTV cameras forevery square km, Chennairanked number one andHyderabad ranked second.

Meanwhile, Hyderabad CityPolice Commissioner AnjaniKumar on Wednesday saidthat the CCTV cameras play

a vital role in containing thecrime, and this fact is provenon many occasions.

Speaking after inauguratingthe CCTV Camera ControlRoom at Sri VenkateshwaraBuilding Society Committeein MLA Colony at BanjaraHills here, the PoliceCommissioner said now-a-days more than 50 per cent ofthe crime that's happening inthe city is controlled by CCTV

cameras.One CCTV camera is equal

to a hundred policemen, heexplained and advised all thecolonies and societies to set upCCTV cameras in their resi-dential areas.

Anjani Kumar said that thecameras set up by the'Brihaspati TechnologyCompany' are very advanced.

Society President Siddaiahsaid, "MLA's colony is nowcompletely safe as with Rs 55lakh a total of 125 surveillancecameras were set up in roadNo. 7 and 8."

Any crime and violationthat happens around will beknown immediately to thesociety office and the BanjaraHills Police Station, he added.

Brihaspati TechnologiesPrivate Limited ManagingDirector Rajasekhar Papolusaid, we have fixed 119 normalfixed cameras and 6 advancedAutomatic Number PlateRecognition (ANPR) cam-eras and the backup can betaken even after a month.

All the CCTV cameras werealso connected to the controlroom in the Colony SocietyOffice and the Banjara HillsPolice Station.

City has second largest CCTV network CCTV cameras play vital role in containing crime, says Hyderabad Police Commissioner

PNS n HYDERABAD

Issue of birth and death cer-tificates has remained sus-pended for the past one weekdue to technical issues.Therefore, the GreaterHyderabad MunicipalCorporation (GHMC) isunderstood to have stoppedthe issue of these certificates.

On one hand, the civic bodyclaims to have been providingexcellent IT-enabled services tothe people of the city, whosepopulation is about one crore,and on the other, it is not ableto implement its citizen's char-ter properly.

The GHMC has claimed tointroduce new software in thefirst week of January for issueof the certificates. When theofficials were questioned aboutthe cause of suspension of theissue of these certificates, theyattribute it to the networkproblems surfaced in theCenter for Good Governanceand Mee Seva Directorateoffices.

The Medical and Healthofficials say that they havebeen holding negotiations withthe CGG and Mee SevaDirectorates to resolve the

problem. The birth certificatesare needed while applying forpassports, LIC policies, admis-sions in schools and collegesand trade related transactions.If the applicant is no more,death certificates should besubmitted in banks and otherrelevant places to claim bene-

fits by family members. Daily, the GHMC receives

500 applications seeking issueof birth certificates and 120applications seeking death cer-tificates.

The issue of these certificateshas been paralysed because ofthe technical problem.

Network glitch halts issuanceof birth and death certificates

PNS n HYDERABAD

After a delay of more than ayear, second phase of T-Hub,India's largest technology incu-bator, is set to become opera-tional in the next couple ofmonths.

The swanky building of T-Hub 2.0 with 3.5 lakh squarefeet is nearing completion.Coming up near MindspaceJunction in the heart of HitecCity at a cost of Rs 276 crore,the facility will house morethan 1,500 startups. Whenoperational, this will be thelargest incubation centre inthe world, said officials.

Backed by Telangana gov-ernment, the facility for inno-vation and entrepreneurship is

expected to give further boostto the startup and innovationculture in this technology hub.

The building was originallyscheduled to be ready in the

second half of 2019. The workwas delayed due to various fac-tors and Covid led to delay ofanother year.

T-Hub as the startup catalyst

was established in November2015. It is a public privatepartnership between the stategovernment and three pre-mier academic institutes -International Institute ofInformation Technology-Hyderabad (IIIT-H), IndianSchool of Business (ISB) andNational Academy of LegalStudies and Research (NAL-SAR) University of Law.

Housed in a 70,000 squarefeet space called CatalysT with-in IIIT-H campus, it trans-formed as the largest and thebest technology incubator inthe country. The facility rentsout office and meeting space,and offers services such asconnections with mentors andinvestors, to startup companies.

It hosts entrepreneurs, ven-ture capitalists, investors, men-tors and advisors. Several peo-ple from top academic insti-tutes have taken mentor's role.

Over the last five years, T-Hub helped more than 1,120startups garner about Rs 1,800crore as investment and pro-vided employment to over2,500 people, minister forinformation technology K. T.Rama Rao said recently.

He pointed out the numberof startup companies at T-Hub increased from 400 to over2000. He also revealed that itencouraged 400 companies tolaunch corporate innovations.

Rama Rao, the brain behindT-Hub, invited corporate lead-ers like Microsoft CEO Satya

Nadella, Adobe Systems CEOShantanu Narayen, chairmanof Biocon Kiran MazumdarShaw to volunteer as mentorsand address the startup andyoung entrepreneurs.

According to Ravi Narayan,CEO of T-Hub, it has designedand delivered over 75 innova-tion programmes, enabled star-tups go-to-market, got cus-tomers, raised funds andempowered corporations tobuild a culture of innovationand create impact. The startupinnovation team through itsflagship programme, Lab32,has helped startups such asChitmonks, Drink Prime andPulse raise funding. It is adoptthree-pronged approach topropel T-Hub to the next level.

T-Hub 2.0 gearing up to open as largest incubation centre

With the open gym

facilities set up by the

Greater Hyderabad

Municipal Corporation

(GHMC) in its parks in the

city yielding good

response and patronage

from the citizens, the

Hyderabad Metropolitan

Development Authority

(HMDA) too is

contemplating similar

facilities in parks under its

jurisdiction

MANY TAKERS

FOR OPEN

GYMS

When the officials were questionedabout the delay in issuance of thecertificates, they attributed it tonetwork problems that surfaced inCGG and Mee Seva offices

PNS n HYDERABAD

The number of Covid activecases in Telangana droppedbelow 5,000 on Wednesday asthe state continued to see ahealthy recovery rate.

A total of 472 people recov-ered from the virus, during thelast 24 hours, taking the cumu-lative number of recoveries to2,81,872.

The recovery rate rose to97.73 per cent against than thenational average of 96.3 percent. The number of activecases in the state dropped fur-ther to 4,982 including 2,748who are in home or institu-tional isolation. According todirector of public health andfamily welfare, new 417 caseswere reported during last 24hours, pushing the tally to2,88,410. Two persons suc-cumbed to the virus during thelast 24 hours, taking the deathtoll to 1,556.

The fatality rate remained0.53 per cent against thenational average of 1.4 percent. Officials said 44.96 percent of the deaths occurred dueto Covid while 55.04 per centhad comorbidities.

For a fifth consecutive day,Greater Hyderabad recordedless than 100 new Covid cases.The state capital logged 82 newcases during the last 24 hours.

Rangareddy district report-ed 34 cases, followed by

Medchal Malkajgiri (32),Karimnagar (24), Sangareddy(19), Warangal Urban (13).

A total of 43,318 Covid testswere conducted across thestate. While government-runlaboratories conducted 38,280tests, the remaining 5,038 sam-ples were tested in privatelabs. There are 19 govern-ment-run laboratories, 56 pri-vate laboratories and 1076Rapid Antigen test centres inthe state.

PNS n HYDERABAD

A 30-year-old man has beenconvicted for 20 years impris-onment by the special co-urt for dealing POCSOcases holding him guiltyin sexual assault on anine-year-old minor girlon Wednesday.

He has also been finedrupees 10,000, failing to paywhich he will have to under-go another six months ofimprisonment. The accusedKamal Bhan used to work aswatchman at Sujatha HighSchool, where the victim wasstudying Class III.

During the interval andlunch hours, the accused usedto take her to the cellar of theschool building and used totouch her inappropriately by

closing her mouth. Theaccused molested the minorgirl while she was waiting forauto after the school hours.

The matter came tolight when the victiminformed her motherabout the ordeal. Thevictim's mother lodged a

complaint with Abidspolice, who booked a POCSOcase and started investigation.Later, the accused was arrest-ed and sent to judicial custody.

Investigation revealed thatthe accused violated her.

On Wednesday, the judgefor POCSO court Prema Lathaafter going through all the evi-dences, convicted the accusedafter holding them guilty forthe offences punishable underthe POCSO Act and awarded20 years imprisonment.

Man gets jail term for molesting 9-year-old

Covid cases dip below 5,000

PNS n HYDERABAD

Moved by the plight of a 75-year-old woman, TelanganaGovernor Tamilisai Soundar-arajan on Wednesday hosteda lunch for her at Raj Bhavan.

Bandipelli Rajamma, whohails from Laxminarayana-puram village in Palakurthimandal of Jangaon, has adependent son, who is also adifferently-abled person.

The woman, who belongsto a poor Dalit family, washomeless and was living onthe streets and sleeping underthe trees. She has witnessed aseries of tragedies in her life,including losing her daughter-in-law and granddaughter forwant of medical help at thehour of need. The Governorwas particularly anguishedto know that the agedwoman's granddaughter diedof snak-ebite and she couldnot get any medical inter-vention like anti-venom injec-tions or other necessary med-ical care at that time.Soundararajan gave a call tomake all necessary medical

facilities, anti venom injectio-ns, medical kits and trainedpersonnel available in all ruralprimary health centres toprevent unfortunate deathsdue to snakebite or othercomplications.

"Especially, the poor andother economically andsocially underprivileged sec-tions should not be denied ofthe necessary medical facili-ties and care in rural areas.Their economic or socialbackwardness should notcome in the way of them get-ting proper medical carewhen needed in rural areas,"the Governor said. The agedwoman moved to tears onbeing invited to lunch at RajBhavan by the Governor.

Soundararjan also extend-ed a financial help of Rs50,000 to the needy womanand supplied provisions suf-ficient for two to threemonths.

She instructed the districtbranch of the IRCS and thelocal administration to lookafter the woman and herdependent son’s wellbeing.

Tamilisai hosts lunch for distressed woman

PNS n HYDERABAD

Three shops were raided bythe Commissioner's TaskForce (South) police atMirchowk and Kalapatheron Wednesday and 59 bun-dles of synthetic manja wasseized by them.

Acting on information, theTask Force team under thesupervision of SRaghavendra, Inspector TaskForce south team, raided oneshop at Gulzar Houz and twoshops at Kalapather. Theowners were found selling thebanned synthetic thread(Chinese manja) to the cus-tomers. The government hadbanned the sale of theChinese manja.

Three persons who wereselling the synthetic threadwere caught and handed overto the local police for furtheraction.

Chinese manja seized, 3 held

Relatives of 67-yr-old brain dead man donate his organs

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | JANUARY 7, 2021 hyderabad 04

PNS n KAMAREDDY

Ignoring Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao's sugges-tions to take good care ofwoman conductors and throw-ing the rules to winds, womanconductors in Kamareddy RTCdepot have been assignedduties to work late in the nightup to 10 to 11 pm. In fact, theduty of woman conductorsshould end by 8 pm.

In Kamareddy RTC depot,there are 140 buses and of thetotal, 600 employees, 70 arewoman conductors. Duties arebeing assigned to them by apromotee woman conductor tothe surprise of all.

Knowing pretty well thatbuses plying on Gundaram,Nizamsagar, Ramayampet andother routes will return to thedepot after 10 pm, woman con-ductors are being assignedduties to work in bus servicesplying on these routes.

By the time, the conductorsdeposit the cash with RTCauthorities and return home itwould become late in the night.

Women conductors are afraidof returning to their homes atsuch odd hours.

Expressing their dissatisfac-tion, the woman conductorssay that they were returninghome at midnight.

They are unable to takegood care of the family mem-bers and not able to take foodat right time. Adding to their

problems, their family mem-bers have been expressing theirimpatience over the late nightduties.

Hitherto, the trade unionsused to come to the rescue ofworkers in case of any issues.However, last year, the ChiefMinister, in the place of tradeunions, constituted workerswelfare committees, rendering

the trade unions ineffective. Therefore, the officials have

been functioning according totheir whims and fancies asthere is none to plead onbehalf of the workers to renderthem justice.

Family members of womanconductors urge the districtofficials to take suitable mea-sures to solve the problem.

Women conductors in TSresent late night duties

They are unableto take care ofthe familymembers andnot able to takefood at righttime. Adding totheir problems,their familymembers havebeen expressingimpatience overnight duties

PNS n WARANGAL

Ever since P Promod Kumarwas appointed as the Warangalcity police commissioner, dis-ciplinary action initiatedagainst some of the officials inthe past six months hasbecome hot topic in thedepartment.

To cleanse the police depart-ment, the commissioner ofpolice focussed on initiatingdisciplinary action againstsome of the officials involvedin land settlements and othershady deals.

After conducting a compre-hensive inquiry, he has beentaking departmental action.

In the process, severalInspectors and Sub-Inspectorshave been suspended, whilesome others have been trans-ferred. A DCP and ACP havebeen transferred to elsewhere.

The police personnel andofficials have been curious tofind out who is going to beaxed next.

In a latest development onMonday, Kakatiya Universitycampus PS station house offi-cer David Raju was attached toarmed reserve headquarters.Orders have been issued in this

regard by the Commissioner ofPolice.

The CP appointed cybercrime inspector JanardhanReddy in the place of DavidRaju. Three SHOs, four SIs, sixconstables and head constableshave been axed so far.

Similarly, three personnelhave been transferred initiat-ing disciplinary action againstthem. The commissioner ofpolice also took serious view ofABVP activists obstructingthe convoys of Minister forPanchayat Raj Dayakar Raoand government chief whip

Vinay Bhaskar when they wentto Kakatiya University Campuson Sunday last to pay tributesto Savitribai Phule.

The CP also took view oftension prevailing on the cam-pus. The intelligence depart-ment is accused of failing toassess the situation before-hand.

The police top officials andelected representatives werereported to have expressedtheir displeasure over the fail-ure of police officials in avoid-ing such embarrassing situa-tions for the leaders.

Warangal CP suspends erringofficials to cleanse department

PNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana's tower density is0.71 per thousand populationagainst the national average of0.42 per cent, Chief SecretarySomesh Kumar said onWednesday while presidingover the second meeting of theState Broadband Committee.

The National Broadbandmission has set the tower den-sity target of 1.7 by 2024.

Kumar informed that thegovernment is committed forthe fiberisation of Base StationTowers (BTS) and extend nec-essary support for the bettercommunicational coverage inthe state.

The state is having 35 per

cent of fiberisation of BTS atpresent and will reach the tar-get of 70 per cent set byNational Broadband Mission.The chief secretary assured

representations from electric-ity and Panchayat Raj depart-ments to sort out the issues.

Telangana currently has24,961 towers and the balance

target is 34,902 towers.Necessary approvals will begiven for 109 sites pending forthe erection of towers. Thegovernment will pay special

focus on 140 uncovered grampanchayats, Somesh Kumarsaid.

Sunil Sharma, principal sec-retary, transport and buildingsdepartment, Jayesh Ranjan,principal secretary, informa-tion technology, electronicsand communication depart-ment, JV Raja Reddy, advisor,DOT-LSA Unit, Hyderabad, GSuresh Reddy, Director (Rural),DOT-LSA Unit, SujayKarampuri, Director(Electronics) ITE&C Dept.,Cmdr Dr J Jena, DDG, CellularOperators Association of India,TR Dua, DDG, Tower &Infrastructure ProviderAssociation attended the meet-ing.

State’s tower density higher than national average

PNS n MULUG

Jayashankar BhupalapalliDistrict Collector KrishnaAditya has asked theBhupalapalli and Mulug dis-tricts' task force committeeofficials to make foolproofarrangements for conductingthe dry run of Covid vaccina-tion in the district fromJanuary 8. Addressing a reviewmeeting held here onWednesday, he asked the com-mittee members to take stepsto administer vaccines to thefrontline workers - employeesof government hospitals inMulug and Bhupalapalli, whoworked hard to save peoplefrom the virus, as part of thedry run to be held on Friday.

He asked the authorities tomaintain physical distance andimplement other guidelines

while administering the vac-cines during the dry run.

The Collector asked them toensure that the hospital sur-roundings were sanitised and

bio-wastes should be disposedof carefully after administeringthe vaccine.

He asked the woman andchild welfare department, pan-

chayat raj, education, medicaland health departments toextend necessary support forconducting the dry run.

Asking the police officials tomake necessary securityarrangements, he directed theelectricity department officialsuninterrupted power supply tostore the vaccine in vaccinecooling points. EturunagaramITDA project officer Hanu-manth K Zendage, Mulug dis-trict additional collectorAdarsha Surabhi, Mulugu andJayashankar Bhupalapalli dis-trict medical and health offi-cials Dr Appayya, Dr SudharSingh, DDW Sridevi, CDPOSwati, District PanchayatOfficer Sudhir Kumar, districteducational officer Abdul,District SC development offi-cer Sunita and others were pre-sent at the meeting.

Arrangements on for vaccine dry run

PNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana AgricultureMinister Singireddy NiranjanReddy has said that the stategovernment will take steps toproduce electricity from thewastes of the fruits and vegeta-bles in the state.

Singireddy Niranjan Reddywho participated in the AgrosBoard meeting which washeld here on Wednesday saidthat a detailed study will beconducted after visitingAndhra Pradesh where it isrunning successfully with thecollaboration of MahindraCompany.

Stating that a committeewill visit the units in Indore,

Madhya Pradesh, Tirupati,Adoni and Piduguralla inAndhra Pradesh, SingireddyNiranjan Reddy said the gov-ernment would take a decisionafter the committee report.

Singireddy Niranjan Reddystated that the Governmentwas encouraging vegetablecultivation in the state. ChiefMinister K ChandrasekharRao's aspiration is that afarmer becomes a king, hesaid.

Stating that the farmers arelosing with the traditionalagriculture, SingireddyNiranjan Reddy said the gov-ernment was encouragingfarmers towards modern agri-culture.

‘Will produce electricity from veggie wastes'

PNS n HYDERABAD

AICC Spokesperson Dr SravanDasoju on Wednesday criti-cised Telangana Chief MinisterK Chandrasekhar Rao for notkeeping his promise that thegovernment would continuedistribution of flood relieffunds till the relief reaches thelast flood victim in Hyderabad.

However, no such activity ofdistributing relief to the vic-tims is visible even after amonth after the announce-ment, he lamented. Sravandemanded that the govern-ment set a deadline for com-pleting the distribution of reliefto the flood victims

In the wake of receivingnotices from the TelanganaHigh Court, the government,must immediately disclose thedivision-wise and ward-wiselist of beneficiaries who werebenefited and eligible benefi-ciaries who are yet to receivethe benefits, he asked.

He said that the CM ReliefFund (CMRF) is public moneyand there must be transparen-cy and accountability in spend-ing such funds.

"I thank Telangana HighCourt for accepting my letteras Public Interest Litigation(PIL) on widespread irregular-

ities that took place in distri-bution of flood relief funds inHyderabad," Dr Sravan Dasojusaid.

Sravan had written a letter tothe Chief Justice of TelanganaHigh Court on November 02,2020 and brought to his noticethe massive irregularities thattook place in distribution offlood relief funds inHyderabad.

"Instead of distributing thepromised relief amount of Rs10,000 through cheques toidentified beneficiaries, cash isbeing distributed arbitrarily. Inmany cases, only Rs 2,000 to Rs3,000 were distributed. Insteadof GHMC or government offi-cials, TRS leaders are distrib-

uting the relief funds," he saidin the letter.

Sravan alleged that the TRSgovernment and the ChiefMinister have betrayed theinnocent Hyderabadis whosuffered due to incessant rainsin October.

"The TRS party has illegal-ly utilised the public money forthe political purpose of win-ning GHMC elections. Sincethe elections are over, the gov-ernment and the ChiefMinister have completelyignored the plight of flood vic-tims of Hyderabad. I hopewith the intervention of HighCourt, justice will be done tothe original beneficiaries," DrSravan Dasoju said.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana Governor Dr.Tamilisai Soundararajan hasappreciated and handed over acheque for Rs 80,000 to Sub-Inspector Gandrathi Satish.

The Governor was highlyappreciative of his initiative inraising an amount of Rs 1.6 lakh,which also included his person-al contribution of Rs 80,000, toconstruct a house for a poorDalit woman, BandipelliRajamma ofLaxminarayanapuram villagein Palakurthy mandal ofJangaon district.

After coming to know abouthis work, the Governor invitedthe Satish, who is presentlyworking as SI at PalakurthyPolice Station, to the Raj Bhavanand handed over the cheque forRs 80,000 which he had con-tributed for the construction ofa house to Rajamma. Surprisedby the noble gesture of the

Governor, the Sub-Inspectorstated that it was one of the bestmoments of his life to get appre-ciation from the Governor.

The Governor also handedover a special appreciation let-ter to the SI applauding his goodinitiative in constructing a housefor the 75-year-old Rajammaand her differently-abled son.The Governor stated that hisgesture would inspire others andtake up some noble works tohelp the needy.

Sravan alleges misdeeds indistribution of flood relief

PNS n HYDERABAD

The closing date of 'All IndiaEssay Contest on Scienceand Technology' has beenextended till January 18,2021, Prof. GA Rama Rao,Principal, School of Sciencesaid in a press release onWednesday.

Schools of Science andTechnology, GITAM is invit-ing entries from Intermediatestudents from across thecountry for the contest.

The topics are- Life duringCovid-19, Online Teaching:Benefits and limitations andSocial Ethics, Morals andValues. Handwritten manu-scripts are to be scanned andsent to essaygitam@gitam.in.A maximum of 30 essays willbe selected and their authorswill be invited to give presen-tation online in the first weekof February 2021.

The winner of first prizewill get a cash reward of Rs20,000, second prize Rs15,000, third prize Rs10,000and the consolation cashreward of Rs 2,000 to all thosewho make oral presentation.

Governor handsover a chequefor Rs 80,000 toS-I Satish whohelped a poorDalit womanconstruct herhouse

All India essaywriting contestextended tillJanuary 18th

Palakurthy S-I plays good samaritan, getspat from Governor

RAJESH JAIN NIDARKAR

n HYDERABAD

The kidnapping of three per-sons from the city, who are saidto be very close to the ChiefMinister of Telangana, hascreated sensation in Telugustates as several political lead-ers and prominent business-men are stated to be involvedbehind the kidnap incident.

The arrest of former APMinister Akhila Priya isfuelling many doubts and sus-picions in the minds of thepublic.

The kidnap was engineeredas part of encroachment ofland in Hafizpet area of thecity. The Hafizpet landencroachment seems to havethe blessings of several VIPsfrom Telugu states, as revealedby the preliminary investiga-tion of the police.

Though the informationabout the people behind themurky deal have been kept aclosely guarded secret so far,owners of several real estatefirms with direct and indirectlinks to the murky affair areunder psychosis predictingthat authorities will blow theircover.

Therefore, they are learnt tohave reportedly consulting

political bigwigs to save theirskin.

According to informationreaching here, the owner of areal estate firm based in coastalAndhra Pradesh is behind theHafizpet land grabbing inci-dent. The police found that theincident triggered engineeringof a kidnap of three personsfrom the city as a realtor setsights on the valuable land.

In undivided AP, Kurnooldistrict political leaders wereindulged in real estate businesson the outskirts of the city. Thelatest incident of kidnapping islikely to expose the illegalland deals carried out in thestate capital with the help of thepolitical bigwigs in the govern-ment. Experts put the marketvalue of 40-acre landencroached at Rs 320 crore.

The Government ofTelangana has extended coop-eration to the investigationinto the whole affair.

The investigators have alsofocussed on illegal registrationscarried out using fake docu-ments and on apartment com-plexes and villas built byencroaching hundreds of acresof government and wakf lands.

In Hyderabad of Nizamperiod, the city and its sur-rounds used to have thousands

of acres of lands under the con-trol of Wakf Board.

For want of proper docu-ments, some unscrupulousrealtors grabbed lands by cre-ating fake documents and con-verted the wakf lands intoprivate property. They soldthe lands and earned thou-sands of crores.

The kidnap incident is send-ing shivers down the spines ofrealtors for the fear that the inci-dent could expose their mis-deeds. At the behest of elders ingovernments of Telugu states,deeper investigation has beguninto the incident, suggestingpossibility of bringing moreirregularities to light. There isa huge list of land irregularitiesperpetrated since several yearsbehind the kidnapping inci-dent, as revealed by the prelim-inary investigation into the inci-dent.

Former hockey playerPravin Rao's family memberswere kidnapped. Pravin Rao,his brothers Navin Rao andSunil Rao were kidnappedfrom their home in the city.

In fact, they are distant rel-atives to Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao.

Acting on the orders of theCM, the police traced the kid-nappers within a few hours.

Kidnap sends shivers downthe spine of realtors

Officials protectgovt land fromencroachment PNS n HYDERABAD

Revenue officials of Shaikpetmandal saved 411 squareyards of land worth Rs 8crore in Banjara Hills fromencroachment.

An unscrupulous persongrabbed valuable governmentland and raised a compoundwall over a period of time.The officials who visited thesite found that the person didnot have any documents per-taining to the land. When thetahsildar surveyed the land, itis learnt that the landbelonged to the government.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana Chief Minister KChandrashekhar Rao onWednesday agreed for PRP(Performance related pay)payment and sanctioned Rs111 crore for the year 2018-19to state-owned Singareni min-ing officials.

As many as 2,500 officialsare working in Singareni andeach official would receiveapproximately one lakh rupeesto 5 lakh rupees as PRP.

In a statement, Singareniofficials extended thanks tothe Chief Minister andSingareni Chairman andManaging Director N Sridhar.

Sridhar also thanked theChief Minister and announcedthat PRP would be paid to theofficials in the month ofFebruary.

He said that due to the affin-ity towards Singareni workers,the Chief Minister has agreedto a profit bonus which hasbeen increasing every year.Similarly, he has extended hissupport towards the officialstoo and agreed for PRP pay-ment just like in Coal India.

Every year, Coal India

Company pays PLRS(Performance linked rewardscheme) to its workers in thename of Diwali bonus.Similarly, Telangana ChiefMinister has also agreed to payDiwali bonus along with aprofit bonus to the workersevery year.

In the year 2019-20, TheCM agreed for a profit bonusof 28 per cent which is 278crores, Diwali bonus of 261crore, total amounting to Rs539 crore.

Each employee got approx-imately Rs 1,60,000 this yearincluding both the bonuses.

But the officials do not getDeepavali bonus (PLRS) likethe workers.

Instead of this, the centralheavy industries Ministrydecided in 2007 to give PRP(Performance related pay).

As per this the officialsworking in 230 heavy indus-tries in the country receivePRP from 2007 based on theirperformance.

Though Coal India imple-mented this from 2007, PRPwas never given to Singareniemployees till Telangana Statewas formed.

2.5K Singareniofficials to get PRPin February

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | JANUARY 7, 2021 nation 05

PNS n BENGALURU

Karnataka Chief Minister B SYediyurappa on Wednesdaysaid the BJP central leadershipwill take a call on the muchawaited cabinet expan-sion, amid renewedbuzz about theexcercise wherenew aspirantshave thrown theirhats into the ring.The statement ofthe chief ministeramid speculationsthat the cabinet expan-sion or reshuffle was likely thismonth, is seen as an indicationof the process getting furtherdelayed. "Regarding cabinetexpansion, central leaders (ofBJP) will take a decision.Someone (aspirant) mighthave given a statement... whyshould I make a promise?Naturally whoever has tobecome (a minister) they willbecome," Yediyurappa toldreporters in response to aquestion about promising cab-

inet berths.Some ministerial aspirants

have thrown their hat into thering, making no secret of theirwish amid speculations thatthe cabinet process was likely

this month though thepolitical circles

have been abuzzover the matterfor quite sometime. BJPMLC RShankar had

on Tuesday metYediyurappa and

later claimed theexpansion would happen in

2-3 days and that he will bemade a Minister.

However, reacting toShankar's claims, ChiefMinister's political secretaryand MLA M P Renukacharyahad clarified that no discus-sion has taken place on theexpansion or reshuffle yet,and the party national gener-al secretary (Arun Singh) hasinstructed them to wait for theright time.

Central leadershipwill decide on cabinetexpansion, says BSY

PNS n NEW DELHI

The BJP said on Wednesdaythat people have rejected theopposition's politics of "liesand hypocrisy", as it cited therecent Karnataka gram pan-chayat poll results to assertthat voters have put their faithin Prime Minister NarendraModi's development agen-da. Addressing a press con-ference here, BJP spokesper-son and Rajya Sabha memberRajeev Chandrasekharalleged that opposition par-ties have been trying to incitegroups of citizens as hereferred to farmers' protestagainst three agri laws andalso the earlier agitationagainst the Citizenship(Amendment) Act.

Noting that he is speakingin the context of a string ofelections in the southernstate, he said the BJP has beenwinning them, be it assemblybypolls or MLC elections orthe recent rural body polls.

This "overwhelming" man-date in favour of the BJPagainst some opposition par-ties' politics of "lies andhypocrisy" shows people'strust in the leadership ofModi and Chief Minister B SYediyurappa, he said.

BJP: Peoplerejectedopposition's liesand hypocrisy'

Women trainingto drive tractor asfarmers preparefor protest PNS n CHANDIGARH

Several rural women inHaryana's Jind district arereceiving training to drivetractors for taking part in a‘tractor parade' in the nation-al capital on January 26against the three new farmlaws.

The farmers protestingagainst the legislations hadannounced on January 2 thatif their demands remainedunmet they would take out a'tractor parade' towards DelhiOn January 26, when thecountry would be celebratingits Republic Day.

Women hailing from threevillages -- Safa Kheri,Khatkar, Pallwan -- in Jindare learning to steer the trac-tor wheel. "Around 200women are being impartedtraining to drive tractors,"Sikim Nain Sheokant, thepresident of Jind-based KisanEkta Mahila Manch said overthe phone. She said thoughsome of the women can drivetractors in the fields for farmoperations, they do not haveexperience of road driving.

"We want women to drivetractors on highway onJanuary 26 without any help,"she said.

PNS n NEW DELHI

A man has beenarrested for thrash-ing a calf in Mand-awali and leavingthe animal writh-ing in pain onWednesday. ACCTV footage hasbeen doing the ro-unds on social me-dia and the policehas identified theman as KamalSingh, a residentof the locality.

Delhi manarrested forhitting calf

Maha Congress chiefreplacement? AICC in-charge consults leadersPNS n MUMBAI

All India CongressCommittee (AICC) in-chargeof Maharashtra H K Patil hasheld discussions with seniorstate party leaders over a pos-sible replacement for stateCongress chief BalasahebThorat, in keeping with the its'one person-one post' formu-la.

Thorat is currently theMaharashtra PradeshCongress Committee presi-dent as well the revenue min-ister in the state's Maha VikasAghadi (MVA) government.He is also the CongressLegislature Party (CLP)leader.

Patil, who is on a two-dayvisit to Mumbai, held discus-sions with senior MaharashtraCongress leader and former

chief minister PrithvirajChavan on Tuesday night atSahaydri guest house hereand later with Thorat overrevamping of the state partyunit.

Besides, state PWDMinister Ashok Chavan metPatil on Wednesday morning.

Congress sources said dis-cussions pertained to the pre-sent situation of the party andmeasures to be taken for itsrevival.

"It looks like the 'one man-one post' formula will beimplemented. Thorat had theoption of continuing as statepresident or minister in theMVA government," a sourcesaid.

"But, he (Thorat) hasexpressed his desire to give upthe organisational post," thesource said.

Pakistan’s overall criminaljustice system on terrorismis a creaking sham, not justowing to the complicity of

the politico-military-clergy triad butalso due to the compromised natureof the two essentials of any crimi-nal justice system, i.e. prosecutionand the judiciary. Despite variousAnti-Terrorism Acts (ATAs), Anti-Terrorism Courts (ATCs) and evenmore grandiloquent NationalAction Plan (NAP) — the convic-tion rates in terror cases in Pakistanremain abysmally low, if at all theconvictions take place. The judicia-ry has historically been an integralpart of the Pakistani establish-ment’s machinations as exemplifiedin the mid-50s when Chief JusticeMuhammad Munir had propound-ed the “doctrine of necessity” tolegalise General Ayub Khan’s extra-legal takeover of the country by sug-gesting that “which is otherwise notlawful is made lawful by necessity”.But the fickle nature of intrigues andinter-institutional one-upmanshipcan result in the judiciary taking onthe politicians and Generals also —not necessarily to uphold the law butpursuant to their own institution-al turf wars. A special court tryingthe former Pakistan Army chief andPresident, Pervez Musharraf, hadstunningly announced for him thedeath penalty by majority votes(which was later overturned); and,more recently, the Pakistani ChiefJustice had rejected a petitioner’slast-minute withdrawal plea thathad initially challenged the exten-sion of the Pakistan Army chief ’stenure. It was followed by a tensethree-day drama which kept thepoliticos and the Generals on thetenterhooks. The wheels-within-wheels of manipulation and vestedinterests by all the competing armsof governance have ensured the per-petuation of the rot that facilitates“terror nurseries”.

Pakistan is precariously poisedto potentially get “blacklisted” forsupporting and financing terror andis under constant review by thewatchdog agency, the FinancialAction Task Force (FATF). But a fewweeks ago, the Sindh High Courthad set aside the provincialGovernment’s detention orders per-taining to the four terrorists held forthe abduction and gruesome mur-der of US journalist Daniel Pearl.The horrifying case of the journal-ist’s decapitation had shocked theconscience of the internationalcommunity but the provincial courtdeclared it “null and void” and notwarranting “any sort of detention”.The acting Attorney-General of theUS, Jeffrey Rosen, indignantly

remarked that the “separate judi-cial rulings reversing convictionand ordering release are anaffront to terrorism victimseverywhere”, and the family of thejournalist called it a “travesty ofjustice”. For its part, India is wellversed with the Pakistani judicialsystem as a similar fate wasbestowed upon the likes of HafizSaeed, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhviand the other masterminds of theMumbai 26/11 carnage who areoften “detained”, “kept underhouse arrest” and even “sen-tenced” to appease the interna-tional community and keep theFATF proceedings from reachingharsh and punitive action, but areable to indulge in their nefariousactivities nonetheless.

Intelligence sources hadnamed the terror and Sunni-supremacist organisation,Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, as being oneof the key participants in theDaniel Pearl murder case. Thedilly-dallying, obsequiousnessand the long rope afforded by thecourts to such organisationsensure that they continue tothrive irrespective of their crimes.The complicated history of thePakistani military and its intelli-gence agency, the Inter-ServicesIntelligence (ISI), in nurturingand supporting such outfits fromtime to time has always ensuredthat there are crucial “contacts”and “sympathisers” within themilitary and the additional pusil-lanimity by other levers like thejudiciary, completely enfeeblingthe anti-terror commitmentsthat exist only in name.Unsurprisingly, last week, the

same Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and ISIL(ISIS) cadres were said to havekilled 11 Hazara Shia coal min-ers after abducting them, tying uptheir hands and shooting them incold blood — another statisticwas added to Pakistan’s bloodysocietal violence that isunmatched in its brutality, andapparent acquiescence andleniency from the Government’sside, at the same time.

To add insult to injury in thelamentable circus that besetsPakistan, Minister for HumanRights Shireen Mazari inconceiv-ably said: “India-funded terror-ists in Balochistan are gettingmore desperate as developmentcomes to the province!” The real-ity of the supposed “develop-ment” in the region barely masksthe fact that the persecuted ShiaHazara community, from whichthese miners had come, is hud-dled in two heavily guardedghettos in Quetta and surround-ed by high walls and barbed wire,after hundreds of them werekilled in sectarian violence overthe past couple of decades. Forthe religious minorities and the“deemed minorities” like Shias,Ahmediyas and several others,justice is a far cry.

Even if the odd individualwishes to stand up for justice andfor upholding the constitutionalprovisions, the societal regressionthat envelops the Pakistani judi-cial system is all-pervasive andpowerful, as was seen when theproud murderer Mumtaz Qadri(who had killed Punjab GovernorSalman Taseer in broad daylight)was showered with rose petals bythe resident lawyers when heattended court. The judge whofinally gave Qadri the death sen-tence had to face an impromptustrike by the District BarAssociation, had his office van-dalised and was forced into exileout of the country, fearing for hislife. Further, the witness protec-tion programmes in Pakistan arecompletely ineffective as “influ-ential” bodies routinely and

brazenly ensure intimidationand retractions, and people aresimply too scared to testify.

The patent sophistry ofascribing the booming terrornetwork in Pakistan onto the so-called “non-State actors” is abogey that has lost all credibili-ty. No such apparatus or ecosys-tem can survive for so long withsuch impunity despite so manyActs, laws and military exercis-es aimed at “uprooting terror” —unless the elements of the law-makers (politicos), law enforcers(police/paramilitary), military,religio-social leaders and thejudiciary themselves are hand inglove with the perpetrators.Indeed, many a time these terrorelements also turn onto their one-time benefactors to settle scoresand, therefore, the disentangle-ment of the murky terror wiringsis not very obvious, linear or sim-ple, given the multiplicity of theindividual and institutional cross-support afforded to them fromtime to time. Therefore, PakistanPrime Minister Imran Khan’sunconvincing posturing as the“victim of terror” is akin to cry-ing wolf as the Frankensteinianreality convinces nobody. Thequartet of Pakistan’s military-politicians-clergy-judiciary cannever come clean or abort theirinter-linkages with such ele-ments. But they will do well toremember that the slippery slopeof terror spares absolutely no one.

(The writer, a military veteran, is a former Lt Governorof Andaman & Nicobar Islandsand Puducherry. The viewsexpressed are personal.)

The new decade has not begun on a good notefor India. Anyone who followed what the healthexperts and virologists had been predicting about

the path the pandemic would take must have beenmentally prepared for the fact that the Coronaviruswould continue to haunt humanity at least till the win-ter of 2021. However, with the start of a new yearand in spite of a new, mutated strain of theCoronavirus wreaking havoc which made even theBritish Prime Minister cancel his India visit, peoplehad hoped to put the nightmarish experience of 2020behind them. But now New Delhi has another, emerg-ing worry on its hands. At least four States —Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and

Rajasthan — have reported confirmed bird flu cases. Thankfully, already in fightingmode due to the pandemic, the Government sounded an alert with speed and the healthauthorities have stepped up efforts to contain the spread of the flu’s H5N8 strain.Karnataka and Tamil Nadu too are on their toes as thousands of ducks have died inthe neighbouring Kerala. Similarly, Haryana, where over four lakh poultry birds per-ished at Panchkula farms in the past 10 days, and Jammu and Kashmir are alert andtaking evasive action. Though there have been no reported cases of transmission tohumans despite the disease being zoonotic, health authorities are not taking any chancesas the avian flu’s mortality rate is 30-50 per cent as against the casualty rate of COVID-19, which is pegged at 0.31 per cent. But even if the nation is able to avoid humaninfections, the avian flu will be a body blow to the domestic poultry and meat indus-try as bird flu viruses can infect both birds and animals. As it is, the poultry industrysuffered the most on account of rumours during the pandemic and chicken sales inIndia dipped to over 50 per cent in 2020 and the prices fell by 70 per cent. The saleshad started to pick up only towards the end of the year as COVID fatigue set in.

Now, the fresh outbreak will sound the death knell not just for thousands of birds;it will make it difficult for the industry to survive. We are already seeing its effects asthe slaughter, sale, purchase and export of any poultry birds, fish and related productshave been banned in Kangra district, marked as the epicentre of the infection in Himachal.In Kerala, around 24,000 birds, mostly ducks, were culled and more States are expect-ed to follow suit. But one good thing is that India has learnt many vital lessons from theCOVID outbreak and the Government and health authorities are now putting these togood use. As many as 12 epicentres in the affected States have been identified and theCentre has issued an advisory apart from setting up a control room in Delhi. In Indore,the health department has begun door-to-door medical check-ups of people living inareas where hundreds of crows were found dead. Such quick, coordinated and con-certed action by all stakeholders, including the Centre and States, would have been unthink-able a year ago. Yes, the pandemic did ruin our economy and resulted in major socio-economic trauma but every dark cloud has a silver lining. And the bright side for Indiais a ramped-up healthcare infrastructure, lessons in speedy response to a health emer-gency, quick identification of hotspots, testing, quarantining and evasive action.

There is no doubt that China has been stained byits mishandling of the Wuhan contagion and theworld had to pay a huge price for its wilful sup-

pression of facts that led to the pandemic of our life-time. And though it has been trying to buy back good-will by supplying vaccines and medical kits to theneedy and affected countries, its rigidity against theglobal probe into the origins of the virus is provingcounter-productive. Porosity has to work both waysbut China is adamant about the denial of its role inthe spread of COVID-19, claiming it was as much avictim as everyone else. The problem is that the more

it tries to disown its part in exacerbating matters, the more the trust deficit piles upagainst its “Health Silk Route”, a diplomatic initiative to heal the world and, thus, silencethe critics. Now even the World Health Organisation, which came under fire for buy-ing into China’s story in the initial days of the outbreak, is “very disappointed” withit. That’s because China has still not cleared the entry of a team of international expertstasked with investigating the origins of the virus. But China sees the mission as partof yet another global shaming effort and this stand-offish approach is certainly notdoing anything to obviate its complicity in hiding the scale of the pandemic.

Its seemingly altruistic effort to offer test kits earlier and the vaccine now has clear-ly backfired. With the First World and even its allies like Turkey rejecting the faulty testkits, it had hoped to dump its vaccines on lesser developed countries. But with domes-tic scepticism over them and little or no information available about their safety or effi-cacy vis-à-vis Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, even its neighboursare wary of picking them up. Besides, the conditional nature of the deals has put evenASEAN nations on the back foot, with China demanding that they withdraw supportto a demand for a global probe into the origins of the virus. So, some of these nationshave ended up sealing deals with the Western pharma majors. Suspected of hege-monistic designs by nations it had debt-trapped, they are even going cold on its much-touted Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), seemingly a strategic cooperation but practical-ly an economic slavery of sorts. So China is betting big on healthcare dependence,not only to deflect the negativity against it but to boost the market for its science andbio-tech sectors. Its desperation can be gauged from the fact that its controlled mediais publishing images of normal life with concerts, parties and celebrations to showhow it has tamed the pandemic. But reports of cluster outbreaks demolish such plant-ed narratives. Despite the unease of nations, China is continuing to accelerate its pro-duction line of vaccines and supplying millions of doses in lesser time than the otherpharma majors so that even countries not keen on sourcing from it are bound to doso. It has already signed deals with Malaysia and the Philippines, hoping that it wouldprevent them from talking against Beijing’s expansionist ambitions. China is cleverlyusing its vaccine as a bait to push its agenda. In fact, its “health first” is just an umbrel-la approach to spread wings across the greatest constituency it can mine for its use,the public health systems of various nations. A Hong Kong-based brokerage firm hasestimated that if China can capture just 15 per cent of the market in the middle andlow-income countries, it would net around $2.8 billion in vaccine sales and commandthe global health economy. In fact, China’s vaccine push could help it revive its infra-structure invasion in other nations, which has clearly been hit by the pandemic. It’sbelieved that it has already got E-commerce giant Alibaba to build warehouses in Ethiopiaand Dubai that will serve as vaccine distribution hubs for Africa and the Middle East.And that it is already building vaccine production facilities in countries like Brazil, Moroccoand Indonesia which have participated in trials, too. But the question is will it be ableto negotiate its image through such deals while being allergic to global scrutiny? Forthe world has seen through much of China’s designs and is unlikely to be taken in byPresident Xi Jinping’s new agenda of building a “community of common health”.

China's vaccine gambitP A P E R W I T H P A S S I O N

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op nionHYDERABAD | THURSDAY | JANUARY 7, 2021

06

Clipping an outbreak

Xi Jinping hopes that his ‘Health Silk Road' can justifyhis refusal for a WHO-led probe into the pandemic

The bird flu is no good news but India seems to be putting to good use the lessons learnt during the COVID pandemic

Pakistan's sophistryIts terror-conducive justice system, backed by the machinations of thepolitico-military-clergy triad, is a hoax. The country had better be prudent

BHOPINDER SINGH

PAKISTAN ISPRECARIOUSLY

POISED TOPOTENTIALLY GET

‘BLACKLISTED’ FORSUPPORTING AND

FINANCING TERRORAND IS UNDER

CONSTANT REVIEWBY THE FATF

Give up, Trump!Sir — The 45th US PresidentDonald Trump’s adamancy togive up his office despite havinglost to his political rival JosephBiden comes across as a bizarrechallenge to the very ideals, val-ues, norms and standards theworld’s oldest democracy standsfor. Joe Biden’s oath-taking cer-emony, scheduled for January 20,remains just a fait accompli now.

That the outgoing USPresident’s defeat seems to benot going down well with himis evident from his desperateattempt to overturn the publicverdict in the recently-heldpresidential election, given therecent revelations about a phonecall that he made to theSecretary of State in Georgia thathe would “fight like hell” to holdon to the presidency.

At the end of the day, bothPresident-elect Joe Biden andVice President-elect KamalaHarris have jointly beenentrusted with a major respon-sibility to uphold the unity ofthe US which seems to besharply divided in ‘Blue’ and‘Red’ States. The world is close-ly observing.

Azhar A KhanRampur

Let the stalemate end Sir — The seventh round oftalks between farmers and theCentral Government have failedand the next round of talks isslated for January 8. The Centreis dragging the issue and does-n’t seem to be interested in real-ly solving the problem.

The demands of thousandsof farmers who are protesting in

severe cold and rain at Delhi’sborders cannot be ignored insuch an apathetic manner. Thefarmers are adamant on theirdemands for the repeal of threenew farm laws and a legal guar-antee on the Minimum SupportPrice (MSP) but the PrimeMinister Narendra Modi-ledNDA Government is in nomood to concede to their

demands. Keeping in view thelarge section of people from allwalks of life supporting theagrarian protest, theGovernment must take it seri-ously and resolve to end thestalemate, else it would prove tobe counterproductive for theincumbent regime.

Bhagwan ThadaniMumbai

Boost new enterprisesSir — The entrepreneurship inthe fields of livestock and fish-eries has proved to be a game-changer for the rural economy.Livestock contributes hand-somely to the income of smallfarm families and provides self-employment to millions of peo-ple, especially the villagers. Ithas contributed significantly tothe empowerment of women byincreasing their income. Insteadof migrating to cities foremployment, the youth musttake to livestock farming.

The Government shoulddo advance research andencourage farmers to adopt anintegrated farming approach. Apublic-private partnership forsustainable livestock rearingshould also be promoted, not tomention the need to haveadvance technological inter-vention and increase in marketconnectivity and processingchain. The Centre, along withthe State Governments, shouldframe a comprehensive policyfor the same.

Dr Satywan Saurabh Hisar

Govt must allay apprehensions on Central Vista

This refers to the editorial ‘SC nod to makeover’(January 6). The Supreme Court’s nod to the con-troversial Central Vista redevelopment project

clears the way for the construction of a new Parliamentbuilding envisaged to be ready by August 2022, whenthe nation will celebrate its 75th Independence Day.

Now that the project has been approved, the Centreneeds to reach out to leaders across the political spec-trum and be mindful of their apprehensions. The ground-breaking ceremony held last month was boycotted bythe Opposition and frowned upon by the apex court.

The project’s proponents must take adequate mea-sures to allay the fears of environmentalists who allegethat the project is detrimental to the flora and fauna. Thetop court said that the Government will have to takeapprovals from the Heritage Conservation Committeeand municipal authorities before starting the construction.

The Central Vista project aims for an integratedadministrative block and synergised functioning of ministries spread across 47 buildings in the region.

The Government claims that the new structure

would save crores of rupees which are paid as rent forthe offices by the exchequer. It also claims that the newbuilding will not face issues like inadequate space, struc-tural weaknesses and so on. That may sound logical butbuilding an edifice for a forum meant for informed dis-cussion and debate while giving these very considera-tions the go-by is a false start.

N Sadhasiva ReddyBengaluru

Send yyour ffeedback tto:letterstopioneer@gmail.com

Rohit Sharma will open theinnings for India in the thirdTest against Australia whichbegins at the Sydney CricketGround (SCG) on Thursday.

Indian cricket captain

Ajinkya Rahane

L E T T E R S T O TT H E E D I T O R

There are some films that aremade only for the big screen.There are a few films of minethat are going to be releasedthis year, so I hope audienceswatch those films in theatres.

ActorAnil Kapoor

The 444-km Kochi-Mangalurunatural gas pipeline commis-sioned on Tuesday wouldbenefit industrial, commercialentities and households inKarnataka's coastal districts.

Karnataka CM BS Yediyurappa

I am very disappointed thatChina has not yet finalisedthe permissions for ourteam's arrivals, given thattwo members have alreadybegun their journey.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

S O U N D B I T E

A case for Mount Sikdar

DON'T PAY US FOR MOTHERING OUR OWN. WE DON'T

NEED A SALARY FOR BEING THE QUEENS OF OUR

OWN LITTLE KINGDOM, OUR HOME.

—ACTOR

KANGANA RANAUT

IT'S ABOUT RECOGNISING THE VALUE OF UNPAID

WORK AND ENSURING A BASIC INCOME TO EVERY

WOMAN. I'D LIKE ALL TO BE EMPOWERED LIKE YOU.

—CONGRESS LEADER

SHASHI THAROOR

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

All of us are aware from the days of our child-hood that the highest mountain peak in theworld is Mount Everest and it was named

after George Everest. It was only much later thatone came to know that Sir George Everest was theSurveyor-General of India and the peak was sonamed as he had “discovered” it to be the highestin the world. As the Surveyor-General he had hisoffices at Dehradun and used to stay in Mussoorie.He left India in 1843, almost 200 years ago, but hishouse in Mussoorie is still being preserved and isnow a place of tourist interest.

The truth, however, is somewhat different. Itis indeed a fact that Sir George Everest was theSurveyor-General of India from 1830 to 1843, butit is also a fact that during his tenure, MountEverest, as we know it today, was known only aspeak XV. Everest had neither initiated the processof measuring the height of this peak, nor was heinstrumental in its naming, which was done muchlater, long after he had proceeded to England, toenjoy his retirement after 1843.

Located on the border of Nepal and Tibet,peak XV was worshipped as a holy place byTibetans, who called it Chomolungma, the moth-er goddess of the world. In Nepal this peak isknown as Sagarmatha, meaning the peak of theheavens. Even these days this peak is addressed byits traditional names both in Tibet and Nepal, whilewe have followed what was given to us by the Britishi.e. Mount Everest. In fact the name Everest wasgiven by Colonel Sir Andrew Waugh of BengalEngineers, who succeeded Everest as the Surveyor-General of India from 1844 to 1861. The circum-stances under which peak XV was named as MountEverest are rather peculiar and reveal a very biasedhandling of the matter so that the entire credit wentto the British officers of the East India Company.

Going through the historical records of theSurvey of India Volume IV, 1830 to 1843, pertain-ing to the tenure of Everest, one can at a glanceobserve that he had shown no interest in peak XVduring this time in office. It was his successorAndrew Waugh, who made the official announce-ment of peak XV being the highest-known peakof the world in 1856. The measurements had ofcourse been initiated much earlier and finalised byour own Radhanath Sikdar.

Recognising the work of the brilliant mathe-matician Radhanath Sikdar, the Government ofIndia issued a postage stamp in his honour in 2004.However, his work is of such great importance thatissuing a postage stamp and then forgetting abouthim does not do justice to him or his contribution.Ironically, it was Everest, who recruited Sikdar inthe Great Trigonometrical Survey and becameextremely fond of him. Volume IV of the HistoricalRecords of the Survey of India, pertaining to histenure, has the following mention about Sikdar.

“Radhanath is high in favour with everybody,and universally beloved in the GT Survey. You willnot know him for the same person when you seehim again, for he is no longer a puny stripling, buta hardy, energetic young man, ready to undergoany fatigue and acquire a practical knowledge ofall parts of his profession...

“There are few of my instruments which hecannot manage; and none of my computations ofwhich he is not thoroughly master… Eventuallyhe will furnish a convincing proof that the apti-tude of your countrymen for the practical, as wellas the theoretical, parts of mathematics is in no wise

inferior to that of Europeans.”“Of the qualifications of the young

man himself I cannot speak too highly.In his mathematical attainments there arefew in India, whether European orNative, who can at all compete with him,and…even in Europe those attainmentswould rank very high.”

Later, on account of a special tech-nique developed by Sikdar for accuratecomputation of heights and distancesthrough spherical trigonometry, he vir-tually became indispensable to theorganisation and rose to become theChief Computer in the office of theSurveyor-General of India. In that posi-tion he moved from Dehradun toKolkata in 1849. As to why AndrewWaugh gave the name Everest, eventhough he had left the scene long ago, isan interesting piece of history.

Had Sidney Gerald Burrard, a laterSurveyor-General of India, not acknowl-edged the good work of Sikdar througha research paper published in 1904 in thescientific journal Nature, these factswould not have come to light. He pub-lished in detail various steps taken for themeasurement of peak XV.

This, in a way, also exposed themachinations of Waugh, who had triedhis level best to take credit away fromSikdar. It is human nature that, in casesomething important is achieved, onetries to take or give credit to someone butin this case Waugh specifically men-tioned that Sikdar had nothing to do withthis work, indicating his bias.

Later, he could be seen placatingSikdar by telling him that he should behappy that the peak had been namedafter his mentor. Waugh also gave theadditional charge of the IndianMeteorological Department to Sikdar,raising his salary to `600 per month,

which was unheard for an Indian in thosedays. Clearly all these efforts were to keephim happy but away from the core of thesurvey work.

Burrard’s publication in Naturespecifically mentions that the ChiefComputer (who was Sikdar) fromKolkata (then Calcutta) had informedWaugh in 1852 that the peak designat-ed XV had been found to be higher thanany other highest measured peak in theworld at that time.

The raw data from theodolites takenfrom seven observation stations at Jirol,Mirzapur, Janjpati, Ladiva, Haripur,Minai and Doom Dongi was collected atthe trigonometrical survey at Kolkata.This was processed by Sikdar who thenconveyed to Waugh that peak XV hadbeen measured at 29,002 feet taking themean value of all the observations.Considering that the scientific instru-mentation available at that time was onlyof a rudimentary nature, the level of accu-racy reached was almost 100 per cent andthis figure has not undergone any majorchange despite the current state of tech-nological progress.

Significantly, after years of debate,China and Nepal recently agreed on aprecise elevation for Mount Everest. Thenew agreed height of 29,031 feet wasannounced at a virtual ceremony. Sucha minuscule change in the height of thepeak despite the sophisticated technol-ogy used is a great proof of Sikdar’s excel-lence.

Correspondence between Waughand Sikdar reveals that Waugh did pri-vately acknowledge the achievement ofSikdar, but did not recognise his work onrecord and in public. In his letter datedAugust 25, 1856, Waugh wrote to Sikdarthat he was glad to hear that naming thepeak as Everest had given the latter a lot

of satisfaction. Thus it is clear that thename Everest was given to ensure thatSikdar, who could have been the right-ful claimant for credit, did not object ashe was extremely fond of Everest whohad recruited him in service. This infor-mation would have remained obscure,but for the research paper of Burrard in1904. Later, Professor Meghnad Sahaacknowledged this feat in 1938 by giv-ing Sikdar full credit. Earlier KennethMason in 1928 had recognised his workas also John Keay in his book, The GreatArc.

Changing the name of MountEverest to Mount Sikdar Everest will per-haps do full justice to Sikdar and give himworldwide recognition which was legit-imately his due, long time ago. We do nothave to seek anybody’s approval for sucha change as the rationale is well-docu-mented. Even if the world continues tocall it Everest, in India, we could still callit Sikdar Everest.

On several occasions, achievementsof Indian scientists have not been recog-nised. For instance, Sir JC Bose couldhave got the Nobel Prize for Physics orat least shared it with Marconi for hiswork on the wireless and radio.

SN Bose could have got the NobelPrize way back in 1932 for his work withEinstein on the Bose-Einstein conden-sate but at least he was recognised,though belatedly by the naming of theGod particle, Higgs-Boson after him.Naming Everest as Sikdar Everest wouldbe a recognition of a scientist whose workhas stood the test of time. Besides itwould also justifiably add to our nation-al pride.

(The writer is a former PoliceCommissioner and ex-Governor ofUttarakhand. The views expressed are per-sonal.)

Changing the name of Mount Everest to Mount Sikdar Everest will perhaps do fulljustice to Radhanath and give him global recognition which was his legitimate due

07F I R S T C O L U M N

Assange issafe, for now

GWYNNE DYER

America had worked hard to get around naturalBritish reluctance to extradite a non-American,

non-resident to the US, for a political crime

KK PAUL

WE DO NOT HAVE

TO SEEK ANYBODY’SAPPROVAL FOR SUCH A CHANGE

AS THE RATIONALE

IS WELL-DOCUMENTED.

EVEN IF THE

WORLD CONTINUES

TO CALL IT EVEREST,

IN INDIA, WE COULD

STILL CALL IT SIKDAR

EVEREST

Recently, a British judge finally rejected America’s attemptto extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and jail himforever (or at least for 175 years in a high-security “super-

max” prison) on the grounds that he is, as US President-elect JoeBiden once called him, a “high-tech terrorist.”

The vindictiveness of the American security establishmenttowards whistle-blowers is awesome to behold. The AmericanGovernment had worked quite hard to get around natural Britishreluctance to extradite a non-American, non-resident to the US,for a political crime. Washington always tried to assure Londonthat Assange’s sentence would “probably” be only four to six years(but there was no guarantee that it wouldn’t turn out to be 10 timesthat once he was on American soil).

The US prosecutors too, tried to make their desire to get theirhands on Assange look non-political by charging him with a civilcrime (conspiring to hack into a Pentagon computer network) butif extradited to the US, he also faces 17 charges under the EspionageAct for soliciting and publishing confidential information.

Chelsea Manning, the former US Army Intelligence analystwho gave WikiLeaks that spectacular dump of 7,25,000 classi-fied cables from American embassies a decade ago, was jailedagain for eight months in 2019-20 in an attempt to force her toincriminate Assange. (She had already served four years of a 35-year sentence before being pardoned by Obama in 2016.)

To her credit, Manning held out under huge pressure, accu-mulating $1,000 fines for each day she refused to talk and wasfinally released in March 2020 after attempting suicide. The finesstill stand, however, and she is now a bankrupt activist who owesthe US Government a whopping $2,56,000.

Vindictive is definitely the word for the US Government andJudge Vanessa Baraitser at the Old Bailey (Central Criminal Court)in London had to work quite hard to thwart America’s campaignto get its hands on Assange. Thankfully, she found a way in theend. She ruled that while the American prosecutors had met thelegal criteria for Assange to be extradited to the US for trial, theirrequest was denied because the US authorities could not preventhim from attempting to take his own life. He has effectively beenin solitary confinement for the last eight years and his psycho-logical state is too shaky to survive back in solitary (as he cer-tainly would be) in a US prison.

Assange now goes back to Belmarsh prison in London andback to solitary confinement because the COVID pandemic is rag-ing at Belmarsh. But his application for bail will probably be grant-ed later this week. He’s not completely out of the woods yet, sincethe US Government undoubtedly will appeal. However, JudgeBaraitser probably based her decision on health groundsbecause a higher court would be less likely to reverse it. In themeantime, Assange could be at home for the first time ever withhis partner (whom he met while taking political asylum in theEcuadorian Embassy) and his two young sons.

The road of the whistle-blower is long and lonely. EdwardSnowden, who alerted the world about the scale of the US’ glob-al electronic surveillance operation in 2013, is still in exile in Russia.But such people are among the few protections we have againstthe misdeeds of the overweening security State. Daniel Ellsberg,celebrated for his theft and publication of the Pentagon Papersdetailing the US Government’s crimes in Vietnam, put it best: “TheAmerican public needed urgently to know what was being doneroutinely in their name. And there was no other way to learn itthan by unauthorised disclosure.”

Julian Assange is firmly in that tradition. His accusers trotout the usual allegation that the confidential material he publishedendangered people’s lives, but if that were true you would cer-tainly have heard those people’s names and details by now.

His revelations about the US military’s misdeeds in Iraq wereas valuable as Ellsberg’s about Vietnam. Few who saw it will everforget the video in which the crew of a US Apache helicopter overBaghdad machine-guns innocent civilians, while saying things like“Oh yeah, look at those dead bastards” and “It’s their fault forbringing their kids into battle.”

There are aspects of Assange’s private life that still cast ashadow, like two charges of sexual assault (now dropped) againstwomen in Sweden. But it is also the case that serious attemptswere being made to discredit Assange and WikiLeaks even beforethe famous 2010 dump of the US embassy cables. And in anycase his professional behaviour has nothing to do with his pri-vate life, even if any misdemeanour cannot be condoned. So, asthe UK court gives the beleaguered whistle-blower a breather fornow, take a moment to honour Julian Assange and ChelseaManning. These hounded, unsung heroes have earned it.

(Gwynne Dyer’s new book is ‘Growing Pains: The Future ofDemocracy and Work.’ The views expressed are personal.)

The rapidly spreading new strainof the COVID-19 virus indi-cates that the fight against the

pandemic and its fallouts is far fromover. The UK has announced a com-plete lockdown until mid-February inorder to cut the spiralling infectionrate, while India is also witnessing asudden spurt in cases of the new strainin various States. These develop-ments are bound to take a heavy tollon an already beleaguered economy.However, humanity has not lost hopeand believes that the global economywill bounce back.

The socio-economic destructionin the wake of the COVID-19 pan-

demic brought the Indian economyto its knees. Unemployment rosesharply from 6.7 per cent in March2020 to 26 per cent in April 2020. Thistranslates to nearly 140 million peo-ple losing their jobs in a shockinglyshort span of time. The same periodalso witnessed a fall in business activ-ity from 82 per cent to 44 per cent,eventually followed by the largest-everGross Domestic Product (GDP) con-traction of minus 24 per cent in theFirst Quarter of the Financial Year2020-21.

In fact, India suffered a stagger-ing loss of ̀ 32,000 crore per day dur-ing the first 21 days of the lockdown.These tremendous economic revers-es need the intervention of innovativemeasures such as an increased focuson marginally leveraged areas such asthe ‘Blue Economy.’

The World Bank defines theBlue Economy as sustainable use ofthe global oceanic resources for eco-nomic growth, improved livelihoodsand for sustaining a healthy oceanecosystem. Originally coined byBelgian economist Gunter Pauli in

2010, the term ‘Blue Economy’ holdstremendous environmental and eco-nomic relevance for the Indian econ-omy which holds fifth position in theworld.

Judicious development of theBlue Economy is critical for thecountry’s efforts to revive its crippledfiscal health. This sector will not onlyhelp resurrect the comatose economybut can also lead to sustainablegrowth in the coming decade andbeyond. With many traditional sec-tors currently stagnated and boggeddown in the recession, India urgent-ly needs an eco-friendly and long-term sector whose economic poten-tial has not yet been fully realised.

The oceans abutting India’s near-ly 7,000-km-long coastline have thecapacity to provide just what thenation needs. According to theMinistry of Earth Sciences, current-ly the Blue Economy in India com-prises just 4.1 per cent of the GDP,which demonstrates the need to scaleup this sector.

India already has robust tradition-al oceanic activities such as fisheries,

tourism, maritime transport and soon. For the Blue Economy, theGovernment can increase its focus oncertain emerging areas such as mar-itime renewable energy, seabed extrac-tive activities, marine biotechnologyand bioprospecting. Of all theavenues, bioprospecting is the mostexciting because it has the potentialto become a long-term economicresource as it involves eco-friendlyexploration and harnessing of plantand animal species from which med-icinal drugs, biochemicals and other

commercially valuable material can beobtained. With a sea of opportunitieswaiting to be tapped, the BlueEconomy can prove to be the nextlevel of growth for India but at thesame time, we need to exerciseextreme caution in order to ensurethat any harm to the environment orthe delicate marine biodiversity is notonly predicted beforehand but alsoavoided properly. For instance, bio-prospecting can sometimes causeoverharvesting of individual specieswhich leads to their extinction. It caus-

es immense damage to the environ-ment as the role of any particularspecies in the ecosystem cannot bereplicated by any other breed. TheGovernment must also ensure that theprivate sector enterprises engaged inthe Blue Economy abide by strictnorms and regulations for safeguard-ing the marine ecosystem. Only thenwe will be able to have environmen-tally responsible economic growth forour nation.

As a first step towards leveragingthe oceans for responsible economicgrowth, India needs to up the explo-rative extent of the oceans under itspurview. This area definitely needsimprovement. Furthermore, theachievements and potential of BlueEconomy-related activities mostly gounreported which results in lessawareness among the citizens andinvestors regarding its potentiality.Therefore, it does not attract privatesector enterprises or investments andthese conditions are detrimental to itsdevelopment and growth.

The Blue Economy can turn theproverbial economic page for India as

it entails multiple socio-economicbenefits. It can not only help in liveli-hood generation, providing energysecurity and improving the health andprosperity of coastal communities butcan also increase the ecologicalresilience of the oceans surroundingIndia. If piloted properly, the BlueEconomic development drive willhelp India achieve its SustainableDevelopment Goals by 2030 andalso pave the way for marine sectorservices to assist the Indian economyto become a $10 trillion one by 2030.But careful planning and implemen-tation are needed for these goals to beachieved. Oceans constitute over 70per cent of the Earth’s surface and iftheir vast resources are harnessed witha sense of responsibility and duerespect for the environment, they canprovide infinite assets for our econ-omy. India is gifted with abundantoceanic resources making it possibleto power the country’s future with theaid of the Blue Economy.

(The writer is an environmentaljournalist. The views expressed are

personal.)

The Blue Economy can dispel economic bluesWith many traditional industries currently stagnated, India urgently needs an eco-friendly sector whose economic potential has not yet been fully realised

KOTA SRIRAJ

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | JANUARY 7, 2021

www.dailypioneer.com analysis

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | JANUARY 7, 2021 Money 08

MONEY MATTERS

Kia Motors on Wednesday said ithas come up with a new

corporate logo and global brandslogan signifying its transformationand all-new brand purpose. The

introduction of the new logo represents the South Koreanautomaker's ambitions to establish a leadership position in the futuremobility industry by revamping nearly all facets of its business, KiaMotors said in a statement. "Kia's new logo represents thecompany's commitment to becoming an icon for change andinnovation," said Kia Motors President and CEO Ho Sung Song. Theautomotive industry is experiencing a period of rapid transformation,and Kia is proactively shaping and adapting to these changes, headded. "Our new logo represents our desire to inspire customers astheir mobility needs evolve, and for our employees to rise to thechallenges we face in a fast-changing industry," Song noted.

Domestic telecom gear makerHFCL on Wednesday said it has

completed the shipment of one lakhWi-Fi products made indigenouslyand now plans to expand its globalfootprint. The company said it isenhancing readiness to serve 5G

network requirements as well. "HFCL has completed one lakh units'shipment of a wireless networking portfolio comprising Wi-Fi accesspoints and Point to Point Unlicensed Band Radios to its customers.HFCL has been able to achieve this key milestone in less than a year ofcommencing production," HFCL said in a statement. HFCL said theentire product portfolio has been conceptualized, designed, developedand manufactured by HFCL in India complying with global pecificationsand all these products are being sold under the brand name IO.

JK Tyre will supply its UX Royaleradial tyres to Hyundai Motor

India for the top-end variants ofSouth Korean car maker's compactSUV Creta under an exclusivepartnership, according to a

statement released on Wednesday. The tyre is capable of givingsuperior ride comfort with crisp handling and low noise even at allspeeds, JK Tyre said in the statement. "We are proud to furtherstrengthen our partnership with Hyundai India for Creta. Throughthis collaboration, we aim to provide supreme-quality tyres withcutting-edge features," said JK Tyre and Industries Technical DirectorV K Misra. The company's best-in-class technologies in radial tyresand testing mechanism will ensure safety of customers driving Cretain multiple terrains, he said.

JK Tyre to supply UX Royaleradial tyres to Hyundai

Kia Motors unveils new logo, global brand slogan

San Francisco InternationalAirport has welcomed the

decision of India's nationalflag carrier Air India to flythe first-ever non-stopflights between SanFrancisco and Bengaluru tocater to the growing

demand of passengers.Beginning January 9, Air India will operatetwo non-stop flights per week to Kempegowda International Airportin Bangalore, departing on Saturday and Tuesday. The return flightfrom Bangalore arrives on Mondays and Thursdays, the airport saidin a statement. Air India will operate the flights using state-of-the-artBoeing 777-200LR long-range aircraft equipped with 238 seats,comprising 8 First Class, 35 Business Class, and 195 Economy Classseats. “We are truly honored to be the first airport in the UnitedStates to offer non-stop flights to Bangalore,” said Airport DirectorIvar C Satero. “This service links two great centers of technology andinnovation and strengthens the cherished sister city relationshipbetween San Francisco and Bangalore. We thank Air India for theirstrong commitment to San Francisco since 2015, and for this latestservice,” it said. “To cater to the growing demand of passengers, AirIndia is spreading its wings further in the United States with thelaunch of its first-ever non-stop services between the two IT hubs,San Francisco and Bengaluru,” said Air India Commercial DirectorMeenakshi Mallik. This will be a gateway providing connectivity toother points in South India.

HFCL ships 1L indigenouslymade Wi-Fi products

San Francisco welcomes first non-stop AI flights

PNS n NEW DELHI

Diversified business entity ITCLtd on Wednesday said it hasset a target to meet 100 per centof purchased grid electricityrequirements from renewablesources by 2030 as part of itsSustainability 2.0 Vision.

Currently, ITC meets over 40per cent of its electrical ener-gy requirement through renew-able sources like wind, solar,and biomass.

Under its Sustainability 2.0Vision, ITC aims to meet 100per cent of electrical energyneeds from renewable sourcesby 2030 and is also planning toinvest further in strengthening

its renewable energy portfolioin order to contribute mean-ingfully to the fight against cli-mate change, the companysaid in a statement.

Besides investing in newrenewable energy assets, thecompany said it also aims toachieve a 50 per cent reductionin specific emission and 30 percent reduction in specific ener-gy consumption by 2030 overa 2014-15 baseline.

"Such efforts in decarbonis-ing energy consumptionthrough low-carbon energysolutions will be met throughlarge-scale digitalisation andR&D initiatives, cross-sectoralcollaborations and partner-

ships," it added.Commenting on the compa-

ny's green ambitions, ITC LtdGroup Head –R&D,

Sustainability and ProjectsSanjiv Rangrass said,"Sincemaking sustainability a coreobjective in all business oper-

ations two decades ago, wehave worked on a low carbongrowth plan, in which expand-ing our renewable energy port-folio is our top priority."

To pursue continuousimprovement in energy andemission related performance,we have taken up specific ener-gy and Greenhouse Gas emis-sion reduction targets.

The results of our 360-degree sustainability initiativesare manifest in the company'sdecade-long achievementseven as our businesses expandrapidly together with the cre-ation of six million sustainablelivelihoods."

ITC said its current renew-

ables portfolio consists of 138MW of wind power plantsand 14 MW of solar plants witharound 53 MW of additionalsolar capacity under execution.

"Projects are also underwayin the area of other sources ofrenewable energy like solarboiler or biomass boilers," itadded.

At present, the companysaid it uses renewable energyacross 20 factories, nine hotelsand six office buildings span-ning states such as Telangana,Tamil Nadu, Karnataka,Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh,Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh,Delhi, Bihar, Haryana, WestBengal, and Punjab.

ITC targets 100 pc electricity from renewable sources

PNS n MUMBAI

Snapping its 10-session risingstreak, equity benchmarkSensex tumbled 264 points onWednesday as investorsbooked profits in RelianceIndustries as well as IT, financeand FMCG stocks amid mixedglobal cues.

However, a recovering rupeeand sustained foreign fundinflows restricted the fall,traders said.

After touching its recordintra-day high of 48,616.66 inearly trade, the 30-share BSEindex pared all gains to end263.72 points or 0.54 per centlower at 48,174.06.

Similarly, the broader NSENifty fell 53.25 points or 0.38per cent to 14,146.25. Ittouched a record peak of14,244.15 during the day.

ITC was the top laggard inthe Sensex pack, shedding2.86 per cent, followed byReliance Industries, BajajFinance, Axis Bank, HCL Techand HUL.

On the other hand,PowerGrid, Bharti Airtel,ONGC, UltraTech Cementand ICICI Bank were amongthe gainers, spurting up to 4.34per cent.

Global equities were mixedas investors monitored a keyelection in Georgia which cangive Democrats control of the

US Senate. A favourable outcome for

Democrats will enablePresident-elect Joe Biden to goahead with his plans of morestimulus and infrastructurespending, but can also result inhigher corporate taxes andincreased regulation.

"Market is experiencingvolatility due to weak Asianmarket and profit bookingowing to rich valuation.Banking stocks are supportive,led by good loan growth datafor Q3FY21, announced by keyprivate banks.

"In the near-term, trend ofthe broad market will dependa lot on FII inflows whilestock specific actions will bebased on Q3 result, which isabout to pick up," said VinodNair, Head of Research atGeojit Financial Services.

BSE energy, FMCG, IT, teck

and auto indices fell up to 2 percent, while utilities, metal,telecom, basic materials andpower indices rose up to 2.19per cent.

In the broader markets, theBSE midcap index rose 0.39per cent, while the smallcapgauge slipped 0.14 per cent.

India's services sector activ-ity expanded at a slower pacein December as rate of growthin sales eased to a three-monthlow and staff hiring came to ahalt amid weak business opti-mism, a monthly survey saidon Wednesday.

The seasonally adjustedIndia Services BusinessActivity Index fell from 53.7 inNovember to 52.3 inDecember. Elsewhere in Asia,bourses in Shanghai and HongKong ended on a positive note,while Tokyo and Seoul were inthe red.

Sensex snaps 10-sessionwinning run, skids 264 pts

PNS n NEW DELHI

Disruptions caused by theCOVID-19 pandemic contin-ued to impact cargo movementin India with thermal coalimports at 12 major portsdeclining 16.43 per cent year-on-year to 55.16 million tonnesin April-December 2020 peri-od, according to ports' bodyIPA.

Coking coal handlingdropped by 12.13 per cent to36.96 MT during the April-December period of the cur-rent fiscal.

Coal volumes at the 12major ports declined for theninth straight month inDecember 2020, as per theIndian Ports Association (IPA).

These ports had handled66 MT of thermal coal and 42

MT of coking coal in April-December period of the previ-ous financial year.

Thermal coal is the mainstayof India's energy programme as70 per cent of power genera-tion is dependent on the dryfuel while coking coal is usedmainly for making steel.

India is the third-largestproducer of coal after Chinaand the US. It has 299 billion

tonnes of resources and 123billion tonnes of provenreserves, which may last forover 100 years.

In the wake of the pandem-ic, sharp declines were also wit-nessed in handling of contain-ers, coal and POL (Petroleum,Oil and Lubricant), amongother commodities.

India has 12 major portsunder the control of the cen-

tral government -- Deendayal(erstwhile Kandla), Mumbai,JNPT, Mormugao, NewMangalore, Cochin, Chennai,Kamarajar (earlier Ennore), VO Chidambarnar,Visakhapatnam, Paradip andKolkata (including Haldia).

These ports handle about 61per cent of the country's totalcargo traffic. They handled705 MT of cargo last fiscal.

Adversely impacted by thepandemic, these 12 ports wit-nessed a considerable declinein cargo traffic for the eighthstraight month in November.

Recently, Shipping MinisterMansukh Mandaviya said thecargo traffic at 12 major portsdeclined considerably fromMarch 2020 onwards due tothe adverse impact of the pan-demic.

Thermal coal imports at major ports fall 16 pc to 55 MT in Apr-Dec period: IPA

Gold slips Rs 71; silverrises Rs 156PNS n NEW DELHI

Gold prices in the nationalcapital fell Rs 71 to Rs 51,125per 10 grams on Wednesdayamid rupee appreciation,according to HDFC Securit-ies. In the previous trade, theprecious metal had closed theday at Rs 51,196 per 10 grams.

Silver, however, gained Rs156 to Rs 70,082 per kg ascompared with Rs 69,926per kg in the previous day.

The rupee opened on a flatnote and appreciated 3 paiseto 73.14 against the US dol-lar in opening trade onWednesday. In the interna-tional market, both gold andsilver were trading flat atUSD 1,949 per ounce and sil-ver at USD 27.54 per ounce,respectively.

Tata Motorsbrings backSafari asflagship SUVPNS n NEW DELHI

Tata Motors on Wednesdaysaid it is bringing back itsiconic brand 'Safari' with itsupcoming flagship SUV,which is code-named as theGravitas.

Tata Safari introducedIndia to the SUV lifestyle, andglamourised the segment inthe country for other playersto follow, the auto major saidin a statement. "In its newavatar, the Safari will appealto the socially active, funloving customers who seekout unique experiences andadventure... We are confidentthat the launch of the Safariwill once again re-energisethe market, amplifying its cultstatus," he said.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Agri-tech firm CropIn onWednesday said it has raisedUSD 20 million from inve-stors including ABC WorldAsia to expand business.

CropIn, which is an artifi-cial intelligence and data-led agri-tech organisation,has raised $ 20 million in aSeries C funding round led byprivate equity fund ABCWorld Asia. Existinginvestors Chiratae Ventures,Invested Develo-pment andAnkur Capital also participat-ed in this funding round.Other new inv-estors in thisround include CDC Groupand Kris Gopalakrishnan'sfamily office.

"CropIn will use this cap-ital infusion to focus on itsglobal expansion, while con-tinuing to innovate on itsmachine learning-based pre-dictive analytics platform,SmartRisk to furtherstrengthen its artificial intel-ligence capabilities," the state-ment said.

CropIn raises USD 20 mn from investors toexpand business

NBFCs may see 7-9% growth inAUM next fiscal: IcraPNS n MUMBAI

Non-banking finance compa-nies (NBFCs) are likely to seea 7-9 per cent growth in theirasset under management(AUM) in FY2022 but accessto funding would be crucialfor them to have a sustainedimprovement, says a report.

Icra Ratings in a reportsaid NBFCs would require anadditional funding lines ofabout Rs 1.9-2.2 lakh crore,apart from the refinance of theexisting lines, to achieve a 7-9 per cent growth in AUM inFY2022.

The agency did a surveyacross non-banks, involvingabout 60 entities, whichtogether account for over 50per cent of the sectoral AUMand about 23 investors.

"Non-banks AUM growthwould revive in FY2022 toabout 7-9 per cent vis a vis aflattish performance in thecurrent fiscal," the agency said

in the report. The segment's AUM had

registered a growth at a CAGRof 16 per cent over the periodMarch 2016-March 2020.

The agency's vice-president,sector head A M Karthik said,"Growth in FY2022 is envis-aged to be driven by theimprovement in demand fromall the key target segments visa vis current fiscal, which wasimpacted by the COVID-19lockdown.

Some of the key segmentswhich would bolster growthinclude gold loans, homeloans, personal credit, ruralfinance and microfinance.Growth in the vehicle finance(commercial vehicle, passen-ger vehicle), business loansincluding loan against proper-ty and other commercial lend-ing segments, which are close-ly linked to the economicactivities are expected to takelonger to register a reasonablerevival, he said.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce major Udaan onWednesday said it has raisedUSD 280 million (about Rs2,048 crore) in funding fromexisting and new investors,including Lightspeed VenturePartners and Tencent.

Existing investors of Udaan- Lightspeed Venture Partners,DST Global, GGV Capital,Altimeter Capital, and Tencent- participated in the latestfunding exercise, in addition totwo new investors -Octahedron Capital andMoonstone Capital, a state-ment said.

With the latest capital infu-sion, Udaan has raised USD1.15 billion in total till date.While the company did notdisclose the details aroundvaluation, sources said the val-uation has crossed USD 3 bil-lion post this transaction.

The latest capital infusion isadditional financing to thecompany's series D round.Udaan had announced raising

USD 585 million in series Dfunding round in October2019 from a clutch of investors,including China's Tencent.

"The financing highlightsthe immense potential of theIndian b2b eCommerce mar-ket and market-fit of Udaan'sbusiness model to the Indiantrade market. The additionalfunds will be deployed towardscontinued market creation ofB2B e-commerce in India,reaching out to more andmore small businesses acrossthe country and bringing ben-efits of e-commerce to them,"the statement said. Some of thekey areas of investment will betowards the continued expan-sion of selection of products

and categories available onUdaan, furthering user expe-rience, enhancing technologyplatform, expanding SMEfinancing capabilities and rein-forcement of the supply-chaininfrastructure, the statementsaid.

Founded in 2016, Benga-luru-based Udaan operatesacross categories, includinglifestyle, electronics, home andkitchen, staples, and vegetables,FMCG, pharma, toys and gen-eral merchandise. It enablessmall manufacturers, farmersand brands to market and selltheir products across the coun-try. Its network connects over3 million B2B users in 900cities to over 25,000 sellers.

Udaan raises $280 mn in fundingfrom Lightspeed Venture Partners

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Union Cabinet onWednesday approved thesigning of a Memorandum ofCooperation between Indiaand Japan on a basic frame-work for partnership for prop-er operation of the system per-taining to "specified skilledworker".

The present Memorandumof Cooperation would set aninstitutional mechanism forpartnership and cooperationbetween India and Japan onsending and accepting skilled

Indian workers, who havequalified the required skilland Japanese language test, towork in 14 specified sectors inJapan, an official statementsaid.

These Indian workerswould be granted a new sta-tus of residence of "SpecifiedSkilled Worker" by theJapanese government.

"The Union Cabinet,chaired by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, has approvedthe signing of theMemorandum of Cooperationbetween the government of

India and Government ofJapan, on a Basic Frameworkfor Partnership for ProperOperation of the SystemPertaining to 'Specified SkilledWorker'," the statement said.

Under this MoC, a JointWorking Group will be set upto follow up on its implemen-tation.

The MoC would enhancepeople-to -people contacts,foster mobility of workersand skilled professionals fromIndia to Japan.

Skilled Indian workersfrom fourteen sectors viz.

nursing care, building clean-ing, material processingindustry, industrial machin-ery manufacturing industry,electric and electronic infor-mation related industry,construction, shipbuildingand ship-related industry,automobile maintenance,aviation, lodging, agricul-ture, fisheries, food andbeverages manufacturingindustry and food serviceindust r y, would haveenhanced job opportunitiesto work in Japan, the state-ment said.

Bidding forspectrumauction to startfrom March 1:DoT noticePNS n NEW DELHI

Bidding for t he s ix t hround of spectrum auctionfor radiowaves worth Rs3.92 lakh crore will startfrom March 1, accordingto a notice issued by thegove r n me nt onWednesday.

The Union Cabinet hadapproved a proposal for theauction of 2,251.25Megahertz (MHz) of spec-trum worth Rs 3.92 lakhcrore at the base price onDecember 17, 2020.

The Department ofTelecom (DoT) has fixedJanuary 12 for the pre-bidconference and last date forseeking clarification to thenotice on January 28.

Telecom operators willneed to submit their applica-tion by February 5 for partic-ipation in the auction.

The final list of the bidderswill be declared on February24 and bids for spectrum infrequency bands of 700 MHz,800Mhz, 900 Mhz, 2100Mhz, 2300 Mhz and 2500MHz is scheduled to startfrom March 1, according tothe notice.

Cabinet nod for India-Japanpact on skilled worker sector

Once people start living with the pandemic,with masks, sanitisers, and socialdistancing becoming common,the first to be addressed hasto be education —covering students, andeducators. As thissector has come to astandstill, a team ofyoungsters inHyderabad hasdecided to do allthey can to helpteachers, writes The Pioneer's RACHEL

DAMMALA.The grouptalks aboutthedimensionsof the crisis,their research,Covid-19’s effecton schools,students,andmore

t wasin themonthof maythat a

city-based sci-ence foundation

that works for chil-dren, suggested, follow-

ing an independent sur-vey along with local groups

of school leaders and civilsociety organisations, that the

academic year would see severaldropouts, most from budget private

schools in Telangana. As expected, the impact of school clo-

sure has left thousands of teachers in the cityjobless, penniless. Teachers from budget pri-vate schools lost their jobs and are under con-fusion and a state of hopelessness with the

uncertainty of the situation of schools everreopening. Nearly, 52% of the state of Telangana

are budget private schools, which caters to themost marginalised section of the community that

mostly ranges from daily wage earners to contractworkers. Since most parents are neither able to pay the

school nor afford a device for online classes, the fees of the schoolhave taken a major hit due to which the teachers from these schools

have not been getting salaries for the last 10 months, which is bread andbutter for all the teachers from this community.

But the youth in the city, upon learning about the distress, took it uponthemselves, to give it back to the teachers who taught them life and love.Unable to cater to basic needs, rent, and medical needs, these youngstersare working to help teachers who are clueless about the current state ofthings and need support both morally and financially.

Abhijit Biswas and his team at Bharat Dekho, after having helped scoresof migrant labourers in the city during and after the lockdown, decided to

work on this unrecognised segment of society — teachers. After having spo-ken to several children, they realised it was a chain — of teachers not receiving

salaries and parents being unable to afford education. That’s when the team ofyoungsters began their research in October 2020. “We identified 220 teachers in 30 different schools. Our ongoing ground research

is helping us understand the depth of the situation. We have already spoken to 15teachers from a school in Yakutpura area in Hyderabad. Certain organisations, like the

Boomerang Foundation, supported us with funds and ration distribution for these teachers.We are working to providing a one-time essential goods support to all the teachers in these

schools, and hope to do more,” Abhijit shares. Since October, they have been speaking to several teach-ers, and have also been documenting them on their website.The team is a group of young passionate citizens who strongly believe in conscious, constructive, creative, and collaborative

civic engagement towards building a more, responsible, and caring community. “We believe in engaging with everyonethrough dialogue and art in creating a community that takes ownership to solve their individual and collective problems,”they say. If you wish you help these teachers reverse the current educational crisis, support their work by donating or spread-ing word. Learn more about their work at http://www.bharatdekho.org/

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ThursdayJanuary 7, 2021

I

The art of bon-sai cultivationdates back athousand yearswhen the orien-

tal gardening scene beganexperimenting with artis-tically formed trees andplants. It began, andremains, as an art formfocusing on the aestheticpossibilities of cultivation.It is said to give the culti-vator a sense of peace andpatience.

P.V. Govind Raj, theowner of Eshwari’s BonsaiNursery, has been cultivat-ing the artistic trees forover three decades now. “Ifell in love with bonsai in1988, when my brotherand I went to see nurseriesin Bombay. After a lot oftrial and error, we had tolearn a lot by ourselves.From then, we started sell-ing bonsai, teaching gen-uinely interested peoplethe art of bonsai, andslowly even worked on afew bonsai gardens inHyderabad, Vizag, andKakinada.” Lucky arethose who find their pas-sions and have the meansto do great things withwhat they love. GovindRaj is one of those fewpeople who create art andbeautify cities while enjoy-ing the process himself. “Ihad worked for 15 years asa medical representative, Iquit my job to pursue

bonsai full-time.” He nowholds a Guinness WorldRecord in KishkindhaMoolika Bonsai Garden.

He talks about the

amount of effort that goesinto the successful cultiva-tion of a healthy bonsai.“There are different stagesof Bonsai, some people

like doing the basic level,and some are interested inadvanced techniques.Depending on the person’sinterests, they’ll have to

pay more attention.”Dispelling some myths, ormaybe just informing theuninitiated public aboutthe art, he says, “Bonsaisare also normal trees,they’re no different fromregular trees except fortheir size. A seed from abonsai tree will grow intoa normal-sized tree. Inthis sense, the art of bon-sai is all about cultivatinga bonsai from a normalseed and not one fromanother bonsai. We arenot genetically modifyingany healthy plant, we onlydevelop plants to grow ina particular way.”

The main beauty ofbonsai art is the replica-tion of an ecosystem inminiature. As Govind Rajcalls it, it is “nature inminiature.” The bonsaitrees bear fruit and arehealthy despite beingmuch smaller than othertrees. The aesthetic plea-sure and the patience itrequires to achieve a satis-factory result is whatmakes people love the art.It is a fascinating mix ofthe beauty of nature meet-ing man’s patience anddetermination. “We’re tak-ing a scene from natureand replicating it in asmaller setting, especiallynow that greenery is get-ting harder to find in thecity,” he concludes.

When thinking ofbonsai, mostpeople picturetiny trees thattake a lot of

effort andtime. Whilethat image is

based onreality, bonsai lovers tell usthat growing a bonsai treemight not be as difficult aswe think! Guinness WorldRecord holder Govind Raj,popular in the bonsai worldfor his aesthetic designs,talks to The Pioneer'sSHREYA SRIKONDAabout the miniature art, andbeautifying cities, amongother things.

t the age of 17,Archie Singh, atranswoman,came out inpublic and

talked about her identity.“I wanted to be the truestversion of me, I didn’twant to pretend to besomeone else anymore,”she said in an interview.Five years later, as sherepresents India in MissInternational Trans in2021 in Colombia, shestill hears phrases like,“But you’re not a realwoman” all the time!

The determinedwoman says she will notlet these comments stopher from reaching hergoals. She said, “I am awoman, and I’m trans butI’m equally a woman. Myofficial government IDrecognises me as awoman, and I have hadgender-reassignmentsurgery, I keep telling

them,” as she recalled thediscrimination she faces.

Archie grew up inDelhi in a middle-classfamily and always knewthat she was a woman.She said, “From schooldays, I knew I was not aman. My parents wereinitially taken aback butI’m glad they supportedme when I came out.”Modelling has alwaysbeen something shewanted to do.

There was no lookingback for Archie after shestarted her career inmodelling. She won MissTrans India, became anambassador for a brand,and has been a showstopper for many fashionshows. She says she hopesher story inspires manyyoung people. “I want toeducate as many peopleas I can about breakingfree from gender norms,”she hopes.

“You’re not areal woman,”they told meeducators

I

T

Bonsai cultivation

Lending a helping hand to

gets a little easier

ollywood actor-singerHilary Duff recently tookher social media handle toshare details of her holi-days and she also revealed

about her trip to the hospital onChristmas. She said that she devel-oped a painful eye infection fromtaking too many coronavirus testswhile filming for her TV series,Younger. The former Disney startook to Instagram on Monday toshare details of her holidays andopened up about her trip to thehospital on Christmas.

“Then my eye started to lookweird…..and hurt….a lot. So…took a little trip to the emergencyroom. I got an eye infection fromall the Covid tests at work….cuz

you know, 2020 and all,” Duffwrote. “PS…. My eye is fine, need-ed antibiotics,” she added.Duff hadannounced in November that shewas in quarantine after Covid-19exposure.The Lizzie McGuire staris currently pregnant withher third child. Sheshares son LucaCruz Comrie,eight, with ex-husband MikeComrie, anddaughterBanksViolet Bair,two, withhusbandMatthewKoma.

fter the mas-sive success ofhis first sin-gle,Unbelievable,Tiger Shroff is

back with his second sin-gle, Casanova. Tigershared the first look ofthe song on his socialmedia, and sent his fansto a meltdown.Unbelievable too went onto become a chartbuster,and was even featured inthe Billboard Globalchart.

Ecstatic to share aboutCasanova, Tiger sharedthe first look on hissocial media and cap-tioned it as, “Excited toshare the first look of mysecond single that I’vesung and it’s your loveand support that hasgiven me the courage todo this again. Hope you

guys like what’s com-ing.”(sic)

With his sculptedabs and mesmerisingsmile, Tiger looks allthings dreamy, sameas Unbelievable.Surely, Casanova toowill be same and shat-ter all records thatUnbelievable made.

Directed by PunitMalhotra, Casanova iscomposed by Avitesh,and is bankrolled byQyuki and Tiger. Themusic producer of thesong is TrakFormaz, withthe DOP being Santha.

Other than this,Tiger will be nextseen in SajidNadiadwala’sHeropanti 2,along withJackkyBhagnani’sGanpath.

10

a

Hyderabad Thursday January 7, 2021what’s brewing?

Rules

ARCHIE

GARFIELD

SUDOKU

REALITY CHECK SPEED BUMP CROSSWORD

GINGER MEGGS

NANCY

l Each row and column cancontain each number (1 to 9)exactly once.

l The sum of all numbers inany row or column mustequal 45.

Yesterday’s solution

CALVIN AND HOBBES

FUN

fter being arrested and releasedon bail by the Narcotics ControlBureau (NCB) on drug-relatedcharges in the Sushant SinghRajput case, Rhea Chakraborty is

all set to return to the silver screen withChehre. Director Rumi Jaffery, who recent-ly opened up about the actress to a newsportal, believes that the worst is behindher. The filmmaker is confident that shewill get through this phase. According tohim, Rhea is a talented artist and will beready to bounce back.Talking aboutBollywood being divided on Rhea’s case,Rumi reportedly said that people drewtheir own conclusions on the matter.According to him, we should wait for thejudiciary to give its verdict and Rheashould also get a fair trial. The filmmaker

also stated that he has the highest regardfor those who supported her then. Beforethe tragic demise of Sushant Singh Rajput,Rumi was working on a film withthe late actor and Rhea as thelead pair. Shedding somelight on the project, thefilmmaker reportedly saidthat they were sup-posed to start thefilm by mid-2020.However, Rumiadded that the yearwas so terrible that heis not thinking of thefilm anymore.

Chehre also starsAmitabh Bachchan and EmraanHashmi in the lead role.

Tiger Shroffannounces secondsingle Casanova

Tanya Roberts: Bond girl and That 70's Show star, dies at 65

ctor Tanya Roberts, bestknown for James Bondmovie A View to a Kill andTV series That '70s Show,has died at the age of 65

after it was prematurely reported bymany publications that she had diedon Sunday night. Roberts’ representative, Mike Pingel,on Tuesday confirmed to Variety thatshe died Monday night due to a uri-nary tract infection that spread toher kidney, gallbladder, liver andbloodstream.

Pingle, however, had mistakenlytold many outlets the actor, who wasundergoing treatment at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, had passed onSunday after Roberts’ partner LanceO’Brien presumed she had died.

The representative later retractedhis statement while adding her con-dition was “not looking good”.

The actor took her dogs for a walkon Christmas Eve and collapsedupon returning home. She was puton a ventilator after being hospi-

talised, but never recovered. Robertswas not ill in the days leading up toher death, the publication furtherstated.

Born as Victoria Leigh Blum,Roberts had a career modelling andappearing in television advertise-ments before turning to acting in1975 with the horror movie ForcedEntry.

In 1980, she was chosen to replaceactor Shelley Hack in the fifth seasonof the detective show Charlies Angels.

Roberts played Julie Rogers, a street-wise fighter who used her fists morethan her gun on the ABC series.

Roberts also starred in films likeRacquet (1977), The Beastmaster(1982), and Sheena: Queen of theJungle (1984).

Roberts later landed her mostmemorable role in the 1985 JamesBond film A View to a Kill. The film,which was Roger Moore’s last outingas Agent 007 James Bond, sawRoberts play Stacey Sutton, anAmerican geologist who becomes atarget of villain Max Zorin(Christopher Walken).

From 1998 to 2004, Roberts playedMidge Pinciotti, the lovable but dim-witted mother of the red-hairedtomboy Donna Pinciotti (LauraPrepon) on the television sitcomThat '70s Show. She left the show in2001 to care for her terminally illhusband but briefly reprised her rolein 2004. Her last on-screen appear-ance was in 2005 in the TV seriesBarbershop.

a

h

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Rumi Jaffery supports Rhea Chakraborty as she returns with Chehre

Hilary Duff: Multiple Covid tests gave me eye infection

Maddy hits back at user for calling him alcoholic and druggie

adhavan has slammed anetizen on social mediafor labeling him a drugaddict and alcoholic.

It all began withBollywood actor Amit Sadh tweet-ing a beautiful photograph of him-self clicked together with Madhavan,expressing his love for “Maddy sir”.

Commenting on the actor’s tweet,a user wrote: “Maddy was once myheartthrob But Now It’s so disheart-ening to see Madhavan ruining hisbrilliant career, health and lifebehind alcohol and narco drugs.

While he entered b-wood inRHTDM, he was fresh as a blossom-ing bud. Now look at him, his face &eyes, They speak it all..!”

Madhavan slammed the troll,described as a doctor. The actorwrote: “Oh .. So that’s your diag-noses ? I am worried for YOURpatients. May be you need a Docsappointment.”

On the work front, Madhavanrecently unveiled the trailer of hisnext film Maara. The Tamil filmcasts the actor as an artist namedMaara, and it also features Southactress Shraddha Srinath. Directedby Dhilip Kumar, Maara will streamon Amazon Prime Video in Tamil,from January 8.

rt directorSureshSelvarajan’s workon creating thetemple town setfor Acharya at

Kokapet, Hyderabad hasbeen much talked about inthe industry circles for thepast couple of months andon Wednesday, megastarChiranjeevi, the film’slead star, posted a audiostatement on Twitter, rav-ing the work. “It is thebiggest temple town evererected in India and isspread over 20 acres. As apart of it, the GaliGopuram has beendesigned magnificently,engraving minutedetails. It is an exem-plary work of art direc-tion. I loved it, capturedit in my camera andshared it with you,” hesaid. He added that theset work has given hima feeling of being insidea real temple town andcredit for it should goto art director Suresh,Koratala Siva, who

visualized it and for producersNiranjan Reddy and RamCharan who pooled inresources. He congratulatedthem and expressed his confi-dence that the audience willget a feel of joy and pleasurewhile watching it on screen.

A socio-political entertainerdirected by hit machineKoratala Siva, Acharya is

rumoured to be set in thebackdrop of EndowmentsDepartment and the stepmoth-er treatment it has been metedout over the years. Chiru, whois playing the role of an ex-naxalite, is said to be complet-ing his portions by January 10.Koratala is planning to com-mence portions involvingCharan after Sankranti.

ilmmaker PuriJagannadh,who has chosento remain inMumbai eversince the first

lockdown wasannounced in March,has returned toHyderabad finally. Andguess what? He quicklyjumped into work.According to a source,he has started partici-pating in a TV showPudami Sakshiga, whichexplains the importanceof nature. As a part ofthe show, he will beinteracting withTelangana IT minis-ter KTR,MP

Santosh and environ-mental scientists today.The programme will beaired on a prominentnews network towardsthe month-end.

Meanwhile, work onPuri’s untitled next,which was stopped dueto the pandemic, willresume from January 20.Portions of the film willalso be shot abroadinvolving fighters fromacross the world. Being

made in Telugu andHindi simultaneously,the film is a joint pro-duction venturebetween Karan Johar,

Apoorva Mehta, PuriJagannadh and CharmeeKaur. While AnanyaPandey is the leadinglady, the likes of RamyaKrishna, Ronit Roy, Ali,Vishu Reddy and GetupSreenu round off thesupporting cast.

11

Hyderabad Thursday January 7, 2021 tollywood

NAGARAJ GOUD

It didn’t take much time for NelaTicket girl Malvika Sharma to boardRam-starrer Red after she received atext from producer Sravanthi RaviKishore enquiring if she was in town, inthe second half of 2019, for a scriptnarration. She knew she had to sign theproject after director Kishore Tirumalapitched her story. “As it’s a perfor-mance-oriented role, Kishore sir want-ed me to do an audition. I gave a looktest first and then enacted a scene fromthe script. I was given the part soonafter,” she recalls.

The actress is cast opposite stylishRam in the film, which is the officialremake of Tamil hit Thadam. An inves-tigative thriller peppered with familyemotions and romance, the film nar-rates the confusion that arises among afew cops when they find out that theone accused in the murder of a young-ster has a look-alike. Malvika watchedonly parts of the original, keen on hertake not getting influenced. “Kishore sirgave me a proper explanation about therole, helping me to get a picture of it inmy head. It was a well-written, strongand well-defined part and in manyways different from the original. Also,the role was unlike what I played in mymaiden film, where I was just myself,”she points out.

She admits to be more scared thistime than what she was on Nela Ticket.“It was a new experience this time as Iwas playing a character for the firsttime. For my first film, I didn’t know

anything from how I would look onthe screen to my performance

but for the second film, Ididn’t have any excuse

as I needed tobe per-

fect. After watching my first film per-formance, I noticed that my lip-syncwas not spot on. So for the second film,I didn’t want people to feel that she issome Mumbai girl who is speaking inTelugu. And it is the reason why I hireda Telugu tutor and rehearsed my lines.The makers didn’t ask me to do so but Ifelt the need to do it,” she informs.

The first two days on the sets espe-cially, Malvika insists, were tough as shewas doing a Telugu film after 18months. “But Kishore sir was verypatient with me. He was so precise withhis instructions that it would help anyactor. It was an amazing experienceworking with him. He would alwaysaddress me after my character nameMahima just in case if I go out of thezone of the character,” the actress noteswith a sheepish grin.

Red release apart, the actress hasanother reason to smile as she got thelicense to get into the bar council ofIndia on Tuesday. “I will be giving myall India bar exam this month afterwhich I will get another license whichwill help me enroll in the High Court.I’m excited about it. I love both actingand the law professions and workingtowards them comes naturally to me. Infact, I’m good at multitasking. While Iwas shooting for Red in Goa, I had totravel to Mumbai to give an exam. Iwould read in the flight to prepare formy exam,” the actress, who wants to bea criminal lawyer, says, adding that shedecided to pursue law after the death ofher lawyer grandfather. “My dad want-ed me to do CA or other things but Iwas adamant on studying law. So, hetold me that I have to take care of myeducational expenses. That is how I gotinto films.”

As far as her next assignments areconcerned, she reveals that she hassomething coming up in the Tamilindustry whereas she is hearing scripts

in Telugu.

Balancing movies and law comes naturally to me:

Malvika

he makers of Aranya, spearheaded by RanaDaggubati and Vishnu Vishal, onWednesday announced that it will now openin cinema halls on March 26. “Welcomingthe New Year and the new normal, we areexcited to bring #HaathiMereSaathi,#Aranya, and #Kaadan on 26th March, in a

theatre near you,” posted Rana on Twitter.To rewind a bit, the film, after witnessing multi-

ple production delays, was slotted for an April bigscreen rollout last year before the pandemic forcedthe makers to defer it indefinitely. Last October, themakers issued a statement, saying that it will releaseduring Sankranti (2021) but it wasn’t meant to be.

Peppered with a lot of action, the film, directedby Prabhu Solomon, tells the story of a mahout(played by Rana) who fights for the jungle, the ani-mals, and against society. The issue of deforestationand a wall which is being made in the middle of thejungle which breaks nature and the elephant corri-dor is highlighted in particular.

Backed by Eros International, the VFX of Aranyahas been done by Prana Studios, the studio behindHollywood biggies, such as Life Of Pi and Thor, andthe Bollywood film Detective Bymokesh Bakshi.

Another postponement for Aranya

Puri back in Hyd; beginsshoot for a TV show

Chiru in awe of Acharya’stemple town set

M

t

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f

AFP n CHRISTCHURCH

Towering paceman KyleJamieson completed an 11-

wicket match haul onWednesday as New Zealandthrashed Pakistan in the secondTest to become the world’stop-ranked team.

Jamieson was nearunplayable in Pakistan’s secondinnings in Christchurch, finish-ing with 6/48 to go with his5/69 in the first innings, asPakistan were all out for 186during day four’s final sessionto give New Zealand victory byan innings and 176 runs.

The win, which saw themsweep the series 2-0, also con-firmed New Zealand had over-taken Australia as the world’snumber one Test side.

Pakistan resumed the dayat eight for one, needing to batfor the better part of two daysto salvage a draw but they werenever in the hunt.

Trent Boult captured thefirst wicket when he had night-watchman Mohammad Abbasout for three in the fifth overand after that the day wasmainly about Jamieson, whorecorded his best match perfor-

mance.Although he is the junior

member of a pace attack head-ed by higher-ranked veterans

Tim Southee and Boult, the 26-year-old has rapidly advancedto playing a senior role.

In his sixth Test after mak-

ing his debut against India 10months ago, Jamieson hastaken 36 wickets at a stunning13.27 average and with four

five-wicket hauls to his credit.After Abbas departed,

Abid Ali and Azhar Ali lookedto be laying the ground workfor a solid third-wicket standand moved the score to 46when the 2.3 metre (6ft 8in)Jamieson went to work andremoved Abid Ali for 26.

After using his height tocreate extra bounce and forceAbid Ali on to the back foot,Jamieson whipped up a fullerdelivery and the batsman’sattempt to switch to a drive wassliced to backward point wheresubstitute Will Young took aone-handed, diving catch.

In a potent middle session,Jamieson had Haris Sohail andAzhar Ali caught behind, andbowled Pakistan captainMohammad Rizwan as hemoved through his repertoire.

Sohail did not get his feetmoving as he poked at a risingdelivery on 15 and was caughtbehind.

sport 12HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | JANUARY 7, 2021

PTI n SYDNEY

Having touched nadir and zenith ina span of 10 days, AjinkyaRahane’s India will look to start

afresh against Australia with the big-hit-ting Rohit Sharma’s presence adding anew dimension to what promises to bean enthralling third Test starting here onThursday.

The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG),despite being witness to some extraordi-nary batting performances from thetouring Indian sides over the years, hasnot exactly been a happy hunting ground

with six defeats. The lone win came agood 42 years back.

If Rahane’s side can go 2-1 up andensure the retention of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, it will be one of thefinest hours in the history of Indian crick-et. Making it even more special is the factthat the side has been without twoworld class performers and a senior paceragainst a nearly full-strength Australianteam.

Seldom has an Australian battingunit, that boasts of a player of SteveSmith’s calibre, looked so circumspectand literally intimidated by an Indian

bowling unit, which isn’t operating at full-strength.

Pacer Navdeep Saini will make hisdebut here, replacing Umesh Yadav whowent home following an injury.

The pressure is understandable asAustralia are literally pushing a 70 percent fit David Warner out there in themiddle to combat fire with fire even ashis statements make it clear that he is notat all comfortable with the idea.

And in this backdrop, enter RohitSharma, whose last couple of monthshave been loads of off-field drama.

First it was his absence from the ini-tial part of the tour due to a hamstringinjury sustained while playing the IPL.

Then his subsequent quarantine fortwo weeks in a Sydney apartment.

And when he finally united with histeammates, an excited fan inside aMelbourne restaurant led to an inquiryagainst him and four other teammates forwhat was called by the local media, apotential bio-security breach.

But the white-ball legend has learnt

the art of being unfazed, which was evi-dent from his intense net session onTuesday when he was comfortably facingthe first team bowlers like RavichandranAshwin.

His mere presence has added springin the strides of the team and the young-sters in this current set-up swear by him,the reason he replaced Cheteshwar Pujaraas vice-captain after just one Test.

The Sydney track has traditionallyfavoured the batsmen as Sunil Gavaskar,Ravi Shastri, Sachin Tendulkar and evenPujara and Rishabh Pant, who got cen-turies here during last tour, will vouch for.

If Rohit and Shubman Gill can givethe team a good start, the under-pressurePujara will be much more relieved whileplaying his own defensive game.

Rahane, after one of his more copy-book hundreds constructed in adversityduring the last game, will enter the arenawith more confidence while facing theAustralian quartet of Mitchell Starc,Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and

Nathan Lyon.KL Rahul’s injury has given Hanuma

Vihari one more chance despite hisreturns being as underwhelming asMayank Agarwal, who has been forcedto make way for Rohit.

But it is Australia’s wobbly battingthat will again be put to test by Ashwinon a track, that has traditionally helpedspinners.

With 10 wickets and a new-foundconfidence, Ashwin has won both on andoff-field battle against opposition’s keyplayers such as Smith and MarnusLabuschagne.

It’s not just the wickets that he hasscalped but the manner in which theintelligent Chennai engineer has man-aged to create doubts in the minds ofworld class batters is worth its weight ingold.

As much as Australia needs Smith tobe back in form, they would also needsomeone like Travis Head to deliver as hehas failed to get a hang of both pace and

spin.Jasprit Bumrah, who is still some

games short of 20 Tests, will be leadingthe pace attack and is expected to showthe way with his bagful of tricks.

Whether it’s Siraj or Saini, whoevershares the new ball will have their taskcut out as they aim to match the higheststandards set by the likes of MohammedShami and Ishant Sharma.

SQUADSAustralia: David Warner, Matthew Wade,Will Pucovski, Marnus Labuschagne,Steve Smith, Travis Head, CameronGreen, Tim Paine (captain and wk),Nathan Lyon, Pat Cummins, MitchellStarc, Josh Hazzlewood, Marcus Harris,Mitchell Swepson, Michael NeserIndia (XI): Rohit Sharma, ShubmanGill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane(captain), Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant(wk), Ravindra Jadeja, RavichandranAshwin, Mohammed Siraj, JaspritBumrah, Navdeep Saini.

PTI n SYDNEY

David Warner’s mere pres-ence makes Australia a

better side and fills the other 10on the park with exuberanceand energy, skipper Tim Painegushed on Wednesday as theopener looks set for return toTest cricket when the thirdmatch against India beginshere Thursday.

Warner missed a lot ofaction since India arrived as hesustained a groin injury duringthe second ODI.

He is still not hundredpercent fit but Paine’s eulogiesbore a testimony to team’s des-peration to get their openerback in the wake of their bat-ting unit’s flop show in three ofthe four innings so far.

“Hopefully, if he gets in andgets away, that puts pressureback on opposition right away.Regardless of whom we areplaying, we are a better teamwhen David Warner is in thatteam from the runs he scoresor the energy he brings into thegroup,” Paine said.

“He protects our middle-order a bit with Marnus

(Labuschagne) and Steve com-ing in. Other guys comingwhen bowlers are a bit tired, it’san advantage. So David has gota huge role for us,” his skippersaid even as the senior openeris battling against time to getcloser to full fitness.

There were multiple adjec-tives used by Paine in praise ofWarner, who is an enforcer,who can lift the other playerswith his impact performance.

“David has been awesome.Fills the guys with lot of con-fidence, He is a player you lovehaving on your side. Always gotplenty to say, really energetic,professional and I have alwaysloved playing with him,” Painecouldn’t stop raving about theman, who was hated by hiscountrymen after his role in theball tampering scandal.

However, Paine refused tobelieve that Australia’s batting

formula had gone for a tossduring the first two games inWarner’s absence.

“I don’t think so as battingformula is very individual. Youdefinitely want to bat longperiods of time but how you doit is up to the player.

“David is known as a dash-ing opening batter but if theconditions are not favourablehe’s got to respect that. Inshort, he likes to be aggressiveand no doubt about that but hehas got great hand-eye skillsand he can often score quick-er than others,” the glovesmansaid.

While Paine said that theywon’t be naming the squadimmediately, he did dropenough hints about young WillPucovski making his debuthaving recovered from concus-sion suffered during a warm-upgame against India A.

“Will has been fantastic aswell. He has been out of thebubble for a couple of weeks.He is fresh and batting well inthe nets, looks ready to go if heis called upon,” said Paine,confirming that if he plays, hewill open the batting.

AP n LONDON

Jose Mourinho reached hisfirst final as Tottenham man-

ager after Son Heung-min andMoussa Sissoko clinched a 2-0victory over Brentford in theLeague Cup.

But he will have to wait 110days before Tottenham conteststhe final against either of theManchester clubs, with Cityplaying United in the othersemifinal on Wednesday.

Second-division teamBrentford knocked out fourPremier League sides to reachthe semifinals, but giftedTottenham an opening goal inthe 12th minute when Sissokowas left unmarked for a header.

But Tottenham took untilthe 70th minute to extend itslead when Son lifted the ball intothe net after Harry Kane andTanguy Ndombele combinedfor the breakaway.

Brentford, which had beendenied an equalizer when aVAR review spotted— througha forensic examination offootage — that Ivan Toney wasmarginally offside with his kneebefore scoring.

The west London club fin-

ished with 10 men after JoshDasilva’s high studs-up challengeleft Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg witha gash on his left shin.

And Mourinho, who wonthe League Cup three timesacross spells in charge of Chelseaand Manchester United, willhave a chance to deliverTottenham’s first trophy sincewinning the competition in2008. The song Spurs are on theirway to Wembley was played onthe final whistle at Tottenham’sempty stadium. The final hasbeen pushed from February toApril 25 in the hope that fans

will be allowed in — unlike anysporting event now in the coun-try. A return to Wembley will befamiliar for Tottenham, whichused the north London stadiumas a temporary home from 2017to 2019 while its new stadiumwas being built.

But Spurs haven’t contesteda final there since losing to aChelsea side managed byMourinho in 2015 in the LeagueCup.

This is the only trophyTottenham has won — also in1999 — since lifting the FA Cupin 1991.

PTI n NEW DELHI

The entire Indian badmintoncontingent cleared the

Covid-19 test on Wednesdayand is set to begin trainingahead of the Yonex ThailandOpen, starting next week.

The Indian team, part of theGreen Zone, consisting of playersand all stakeholders such asumpires, line judges, personnelfrom BWF, Badminton Associationof Thailand, medical staff, and TVproduction crew, were tested afterarrival in Bangkok.

The Asia leg in Bangkokconsists of two Super 1000events — Yonex Thailand Open(Jan 12-17) and Toyota ThailandOpen (Jan 19-24) followed bythe $1,500,000 HSBC BWFWorld Tour Finals (Jan 27-31).“The Asian Leg in Bangkokreceived a boost with all 824 par-ticipants in the Green Zonequarantine bubble testing neg-ative for Covid-19,” BWF said ina statement. “Players are nowcleared for training under strictsafety protocols.”

The Indian team, compris-ing Olympic hopefuls PVSindhu, Saina Nehwal and B Sai

Praneeth, have been allottedtraining timings. The playersalso had their first gym sessionin the afternoon. “Indian Teamwill be resuming their trainingfrom today, the Gym timingsallotted are from 2-3pm and thetraining time is 7-8PM,” BAImedia tweeted. The players willalso now have access to physioin their rooms but they will haveto take prior appointment as partof the protocols in place.

MINIONS PULL OUTIndonesia’s men’s doubles top

seeds have been forced to pull outafter one of them, Kevin SanjayaSukamuljo, tested positive forcoronavirus, the BWF said. Thewithdrawal of Sukamuljo andMarcus Fernaldi Gideon, affec-tionately known as the Minions,is the latest loss for badminton’srestart tournament, which isalready missing the star-studdedChinese and Japanese teams.Sukamuljo developed coronavirussymptoms last month includinga loss of taste and smell and a mildflu, according to the BWF web-site. After testing positive he hasbeen recovering in isolation at hishome.

Colombo: The England cricketteam all passed coronavirus testsafter all-rounder Moeen Ali wasfound to have Covid-19 and havebeen cleared to start restrictedtraining in Sri Lanka onWednesday, a spokesman said.Moeen was found to have thecoronavirus shortly after thesquad arrived in Sri Lanka onSunday and has been put in iso-lation in a hotel away from theother players.

The result was an early blowto preparations for the two Testsin Sri Lanka that start in Galle onJanuary 14. But the plans in thesecure bubble in Hambantota inthe south of the island are now

largely back on track. “Goodnews from the camp all PCRtests from yesterday are negativeexcept for Moeen Ali, and we canstart controlled training thisafternoon,” said an Englandspokesman.

Chris Woakes, who hadbeen a close contact of Moeen,tested negative but will contin-ue to isolate in his room. Thetourists must undergo a thirdtest on Thursday.

Sri Lanka have just finisheda tour in South Africa wherethey lost two Tests and are dueto return home on Friday. Theywill also have to go into a biose-cure bubble. AFP

London: Arsenal’s out-of-favour German midfielderMesut Ozil is in advancedtalks to join Istanbul clubFenerbahce, Turkish mediareported on Wednesday.

Ozil is expected to sign athree and a half year deal withthe 19-time Turkish champi-ons, the privately-owned DHAnews agency reported.

The reports came after the32-year-old, a World Cup win-ner with Germany in 2014,fanned speculation by tweetinga photograph of himself inIstanbul with the words: “Thiscity ... #throwback #Istanbul.”

Sports daily Fanatikreported that Fenerbahcechairman Ali Koc and teamdirector Emre Belozoglu flewto London to persuade theplayer, who is of Turkish ori-gin, to make the move.

Other reports on Tuesdaysaid Ozil was in talks withMLS side DC United. AFP

India ready to change Sydney scriptAshwin’s knack for learning new things, Jadeja’simproved batting massive for us: RahanePTI n SYDNEY

The ever inquisitiveRavichandran Ashwin,

who has a knack for learningnew things, and much-improved batsman RavindraJadeja have stood out for Indiain the first two Tests againstAustralia, skipper AjinkyaRahane said on Wednesday.

While Ashwin is current-ly leading the wicket-takers’chart with 10 scalps, Jadeja’shalf-century and the hundredplus stand with skipperRahane in the second Testformed the cornerstone ofIndia’s eight-wicket win inMelbourne.

Asked about the hallmarkof Ashwin’s greatness, Rahanesaid, “He is always looking tolearn new things. He has goodskills but is always looking tolearn new things, and that’swhat makes Ashwin great.”

The captain couldn’t be

more happier with the TamilNadu tweaker’s success.

“I hope that he continuesfor next two Test matchesand do the job for us,” saidRahane.

If Ashwin’s improvisa-tion has impressedRahane, he is mightypleased with Jadeja’s Testmatch application whichadds the necessary bal-ance the team hasoften lacked.

“As a bats-man RavindraJadeja hasimproved a lotand that is a mas-sive point as ateam’s perspec-tive,” Rahane said.

“When you know thatyour number seven cancontribute with the bat,that becomes really easyfor you to actually getthat (decent) total

and obviously in the field, youhave seen him taking somebrilliant catches.

“So yes his addition inthe team helped us a lot

and he has been really fan-tastic and it is really greatfor us,” he said.

Happy with RohitSharma’s addition to

the playing XI, theskipper informedhat his deputy hashad some sevento eight net ses-sions as he gearsup for his firstTest in 13

months.“He is

batting reallywell in thenets. He hashad goodseven-eightsessions. Hecame to

M e l b o u r n e ,

started his practise straightaway when our Test match gotover,” Rahane said making itclear that Rohit will open theinnings.

The SCG wicket aids spin-ners and that’s why Rahanedoesn’t want his team to takechances while facing NathanLyon.

“Yes, we have good spin-ners but Nathan Lyon is theirquality spinner, who has donewell here, so we don’t want totake anybody lightly,” he said.

While signing off, Rahanewith a note of caution remind-ed one and all that Melbourneis history now.

“As I said earlier, whatev-er happened in Melbourne itis history now. Australia is avery good team, especiallywhen playing in Australia.They are a dangerous teamand we respect that. We justwant to be in the moment andstart well tomorrow.”

3rd Test. Day 1Live from 5:00am IST

SONY TEN 1, 3 & SIX

Team P W L D W%Australia 108 60 28 20 64.81India 12 1 5 6 33.33

HIGHEST INNINGS TOTALSInd 705-7 dec in 187.3 overs 2003-04

Aus 659-4 dec in 163 overs 2011-12TOP SCORESInd 241* Sachin Tendulkar 2003-04Aus 329* Michael Clarke 2011-12BEST BOWLING (INNINGS)Ind 8-141 Anil Kumble 2003-04Aus 5-48 Glenn McGrath 1999-00

Season Result

1947-48 Match drawn

1967-68 Australia won by 144 runs

1977-78 India won by an innings & 2 runs

1980-81 Australia won by an innings & 4 runs

1985-86 Match drawn

1991-92 Match drawn

1999-00 Australia won by an innings & 141 runs

2003-04 Match drawn

2007-08 Australia won by 122 runs

2011-12 Australia won an innings & 68 runs

2014-15 Match drawn

2018-19 Match drawn

Faisel FFeatures

IINNDDIIAA-AAUUSSTTRRAALLIIAA AATT SSCCGG

RESULTS OF INDIA-AAUS TESTS

We’re always better teamwhen Warner plays: Paine

Eng-SL series set to go ahead

Ozil in talks tojoin Fenerbahce

Kiwis climb to No 1 rankingNZ beat Pak by an innings & 176 runs in the 2nd Test to win series

India team to start training,get access to physio

Spurs reach League Cup final