www.thehansindia.com
168 | WEDNESDAY 10 FEBRUARY 2021 | BENGALURU | PAGES 12
WINDOWS
Congress MP Ghulam Nabi Azad
The Proud Indian
RS bids emotional
farewell to Azad
NEW DELHI: Leaders from across
parties bid an emotional farewell
to senior Congress leader Ghulam
Nabi Azad on his retirement from
the Rajya Sabha. Mentioning Pak-
istan in his retirement speech,
Azad, 71, said he was among the
fortunate people who never went
to Pakistan and he felt proud to
be an Indian Muslim. “I am
among those fortunate people
who never went to Pakistan.
When I read about circumstances
in Pakistan, I feel proud to be a
Hindustani Muslim,” Azad said.
Wistron’s plant
likely to resume
production soon
BENGALURU: Apple iPhone-
maker Wistron Corporation is set to
resume operations at its Narasa-
pura plant in Kolar district as the
reconstruction is nearing comple-
tion, official sources said. As global
iPhone demand is on the rise, all-
out efforts are on to get the capac-
ity back on track to fulfil the global
demand, according to company
sources. The plant is likely to scale
up its capacity in four weeks after
operations resume. In December, a
large number of workers at the
Narasapura facility went on a ram-
page allegedly over issues related
to payment of salaries. P3
Senior JD(S) MLC
Basavaraj Horatti
elected Council
Chairman
BENGALURU: Senior JD(S) MLC
Basavaraj Horatti was on Tuesday
elected as the Chairman of the Kar-
nataka Legislative Council, amid
protests by Congress over the pas-
sage of “anti-cow slaughter bill” in
the House. Horatti, a seven-time
MLC, who represents Karnataka
west teachers constituency, was de-
clared "unanimously" elected, as
the opposition Congress that was
protesting from the well of the
house, did not propose the name of
its candidate Naseer Ahmed, during
the election process. - P3
Citizens will spy on citizens online
NEW DELHI
UnTil now, law-enforce-
ment agencies mainly re-
lied on the cyber police to
watch over social media or
address online crime in that
country, but that is chang-
ing now.
in a bid to keep an eye on
the cyber world in a ‘coordi-
nated and comprehensive
manner’, the Union govern-
ment has asked common
people to register as cyber-
crime volunteers to help
H Simultaneously published from Hyderabad | Warangal | Tirupati | Amaravati | Visakhapatnam | Khammam | Kurnool | Delhi | Bengaluru H
RS passes bill to protect
unauthorised colonies
NEW DELHI
THe Upper House of Par-
liament on Tuesday passed
the national Capital Terri-
tory of Delhi laws (Special
Provisions) Second
(Amendment) Bill, 2021 to
regularise unauthorised
colonies in Delhi.
The bill replaces the na-
tional Capital Territory of
Delhi laws (Special Provi-
sions) Second (Amend-
ment) Ordinance, 2020
which was promulgated by
President ram nath
Kovind on December 30,
2020 to extend the validity
of the act of 2011 for a pe-
riod of three years from
january 1, 2021 to Decem-
ber 31, 2023. "1.35 crore
people of Delhi, those living
in unauthorised colonies,
will get their ownership
right," Minister of State of
Housing and Urban Affairs
Hardeep Singh Puri said in
rajya Sabha. The bill pro-
vides protection to certain
forms of unauthorised de-
velopments in Delhi from
punitive action where ade-
quate measures are yet to
be taken. Puri said that ten-
ders have been floated for
"jahan jhuggi Wahan
Makaan".
"Delhi will not only ben-
efit from the improvement
in living conditions of 1.35
crore people but the Cen-
tral Vista project will also
make Delhi one of the finest
cities in the world," Puri
said. The minister said that
the number of 1.35 crore is
AI to resume flight services between Hubballi, Mumbai
HANS NEWS SERVICES
BENGALURU
Air india on Tuesday an-
nounced that it will resume
its flight services between
Hubballi and Mumbai from
February 16. The services
were suspended amid the
Covid-19 pandemic out-
break. According to Air in-
dia (Ai) officials, the Ai air-
bus will fly three days a
week -- Tuesday, Friday and
Saturday.
Air india started operat-
ing an A320 aircraft be-
tween the two cities four
days a week (Monday,
Covid unlikely to have
leaked from China lab
Beijing: Coronavirus is
unlikely to have leaked
from a Chinese lab and is
more likely to have
jumped to humans from
an animal, a World Health
Organization expert said
on Tuesday.
WHO food safety and
animal diseases expert Pe-
ter Ben embarek made the
assessment at the end of a
visit to the central Chinese
city of Wuhan, where a
team of scientists is inves-
tigating the possible ori-
gins of the coronavirus.
CENTRE LAUNCHES PROJECT I4C
check posts against the sov-
ereignty of the nation, on
child and women abuse and
attempts to disturb the law
and order situation.
The project known as in-
dian Cyber Crime Coordi-
nation Centre (i4C) is an
initiative of the Ministry of
Home Affairs. it was started
in militancy-hit jammu
and Kashmir last week
where the police issued a
circular asking citizens to
register themselves as vol-
unteers.
VOL. 1 | NO.
Follow @ /thehansindia |
expected in the next census
later this year. CPi (M) MP
Bikash ranjan said, "is it an
ordinance raj that we are
living in? The bill has such
a laudable purpose but it
has not been executed. Why
has it not been executed
within time is not ex-
plained. The ordinance was
brought in just a day before
the terminal period of the
earlier bill. repeatedly ex-
tension through ordinance
is condemnable." Aam
Aadmi Party MP Sanjay
Singh said that as informed
in the house 40 lakh people
live in slums.
He said that the govern-
ment had promised last
year that people in unau-
Thursday, Friday and Sun-
day) from january 20 last
year. But two months later,
it was forced to suspend it
after Covid-19 outbreak and
emergence of Mumbai as a
virus hotspot.
Sharing the information,
Union Minister of Parlia-
mentary Affairs and Coals
and Mines Pralhad joshi
tweeted, "The Air india has
introduced flights (AirBus)
between Hubballi and
Mumbai 3 days a week ,
every Tuesday, Friday and
Saturday. Flights service
will start from February
16th."
The first cases were dis-
covered in the city in De-
cember 2019.
The Wuhan institute of
Virology has collected ex-
tensive virus samples,
leading to allegations that
it may have caused the
original outbreak by leak-
ing the virus into the
surrounding community.
China has strongly re-
jected that possibility and
has promoted other theo-
ries that the virus
may have originated else-
where.
The volunteers are asked
to keep an eye on posts
which are against the sover-
/thehansindiaweb | /thehansindia | /thehansindia | /thehansindia
thorised colonies will be
given ownership rights and
demanded that it should be
executed now. Before mov-
ing the national Capital
Territory of Delhi laws
(Special Provisions) Second
(Amendment) Bill, 2021,
Puri said the government
would have brought a law
had there been a Winter
Session of Parliament.
"The urgency was that if
we had not enacted in the
interim period, the process
of sealing, demolition, etc
would have started. i am
sure no member of this
House would like Delhi to
be subjected to that kind of
uncertainty and chaos," he
said.
According to the reports,
people from the region of-
ten go to Mumbai for busi-
ness, employment and
other purposes. There was
a huge demand to restart air
service between the two
cities. Meanwhile, online
eignty and integrity of in-
dia, against the defence of
india, against the security
PETROL CROSSES `87
NEW DELHI
PeTrOl and diesel prices
on Tuesday climbed to fresh
highs in the country as rates
were hiked after a three-day
hiatus.
Petrol and diesel prices
were hiked by 35 paise per
litre each, according to price
notifications of state-owned
fuel retailers. The increase
took petrol prices to a fresh
high of rs 87.30 a litre in
Delhi and to rs 93.83 in
Mumbai. Diesel rates rose to
rs 77.48 per litre in the na-
tional capital and to an all-
time high of rs 84.36 in
Mumbai.
Prices were last hiked by
30 paise on February 5.
rates have risen by rs 3.59
per litre in case of petrol and
by rs 3.61 on diesel in 2021.
Brent crude oil price on
Monday rose above USD 60
per barrel for the first time
in more than a year on im-
Sack V K Singh,
says Rahul
New Delhi : Congress leader
Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday de-
manded that Union minister
V K Singh be sacked for his
purported remarks on trans-
gressions at the Line of Ac-
tual Control, and said not re-
moving him would amount to
insult of Indian soldiers.
"Why is a BJP minister
helping China make a case
against India? He should've
been sacked. Not sacking him
means insulting every Indian
Jawan," he said on Twitter.
bookings for this service are
yet to commence. Hubballi
airport is the third busiest
in the State. Currently,
Hubballi is connected by air
to 12 cities in the country
and an average of 1,500 pas-
sengers use it each day.
of the state, against friendly
relations with foreign
states, content aimed at dis-
turbing public order, dis-
turbing communal har-
mony and child sex abuse
material.
A spokesperson of
jammu and Kashmir police
said that any indian citizen
can get associated with this
programme by registering
in any of three categories of
cyber volunteers — Cyber
Volunteer Unlawful Con-
tent Flagger, Cyber Aware-
proving demand outlook
amid the global rollout of
COViD-19 vaccines. last
week, Mukesh Kumar
Surana, head of india's
third-largest fuel retailer
Hindustan Petroleum Cor-
poration ltd (HPCl), said
that a sudden spike in inter-
national oil prices because of
a perception of mismatch in
Gadkari: Road mishaps more serious
than Covid with 415 deaths daily
NEW DELHI
TERMING the road accidents
scenario in India "much serious
than COVID-19 pandemic",
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on
Tuesday said more than 40,000
kms of highways have been
brought under safety audit to
check deficiencies causing ac-
cidents.
It is a sordid state of affairs
that Indian roads witness 415
deaths per day in accidents,
the highest in the world, and
losses amount to 3.14 per cent
of the GDP, Road Transport and
Highways Minister Gadkari
said. India accounts for the
highest road accidents globally,
with 1.5 lakh people being
killed and more 3.5 lakh crip-
pled annually.
"Seventy per cent deaths are
in the working age group of 18
to 45 years old. There are 415
deaths per day in road acci-
dents in India. I would say this
scenario is very much serious
than COVID-19 pandemic and it
is becoming an alarming situa-
tion for us year on year. "Unfor-
tunately we stand at position 1
in the road accidents in the
world, ahead of US and China.
Being transport minister, I am
sensible and serious for the
ness Promoter and Cyber
expert.
While the first category
will help identify illegal and
unlawful online content
like child pornography,
rape, gang rape, terrorism,
radicalisation, anti-na-
tional activities etc, the sec-
ond category will help cre-
ate awareness about
cybercrime among citizens,
including vulnerable
groups like women, chil-
dren, the elderly, rural pop-
ulation, etc.
demand and supply as well
as a cut in production by
Saudi was fuelling the retail
price hikes. He had said that
only 25-30 per cent of the re-
tail pump rates are depend-
ent on cost and the rest are
central and state taxes.
"We probably have no
choice but to pass on the
variation (in benchmark
subject," Gadkari said. He was
speaking after inaugurating a
webinar series by road safety
body IRF's India chapter on
'Road safety challenges in India
and Preparation of an Action
plan'.
Stating that road safety audit
during different stages of de-
velopment appears to be the
most suitable way to correct all
deficiencies causing accidents,
the minister said more than
40,000 kms of highways have
been brought under auditing.
"The road safety institutes
like IRF along with engineering
colleges and IITs can help the
New labour codes to
allow 4-day week!
HANS NEWS SERVICE|
NEW DELHI
eMPlOyeeS will now
be able to opt for four-
day week as the Union
labour Ministry has de-
cided to allow compa-
nies to offer flexibility
clause by incorporating
changes in the labour
codes.
According to labour
Secretary
Apurva
Chandra,
many com-
panies are
interested
in providing
a four-day
work shift.
"We have
tried to give flexibility
in working days. it is
entirely possible that
some employers may
want to provide a five-
day week. We have also
come across employers
who said they are keen
to provide a four-day
working week," Chan-
dra said,
He clarified that com-
panies can't increase
the workings hours be-
yond the mandated 48-
hour limit for the week.
cost) to the consumer," he
had said. "The government
has taxation handle." Also
last week, Oil Minister Dhar-
mendra Pradhan told the
rajya Sabha in a written re-
ply to a question that excise
duty levied by the central
government makes up for rs
32.98 per litre of the price of
petrol in Delhi and sales tax
or VAT of the state govern-
ment constitutes rs 19.55.
For diesel, the central excise
adds up to rs 31.83 and VAT
to rs 10.99, he had said.
Besides, the price includes
a dealer commission of a
minimum rs 2.6 per litre on
petrol and rs 2 on diesel. re-
tail petrol rates have risen by
rs 17.71 per litre since mid-
March 2020 after the gov-
ernment raised taxes by a
record margin to mop up
gains arising from fall in in-
ternational oil prices. Diesel
rates have gone up by rs
15.19.
government in road safety au-
dits. Each engineering college
can be given about 300-500 km
of road stretch for road safety
audit with some financial aid.
Third-party road safety audits
will help in finding engineering
faults and correcting them," he
said.
Underlining that 'prevention
is always better than cure', the
minister lashed out at people
behind faulty detailed project
reports (DPRs) and sought col-
laboration from the Interna-
tional Road Federation (IRF)
and other bodies for vetting
these in a fortnight's time.
Companies enabling
four-day workweek will
have to provide three
days of consecutive hol-
idays after that, said
Chandra. Companies
will have the flexibility
to either allow four, five
or six-day workweek, he
said, adding that com-
panies and employees
must agree to the four-
day week schedule.
He said
unions would
oppose the
move only if
companies
don't allow
employees a
three-day
consecutive
leave. no-
tably, the Centre had
passed four labour
codes in Parliament in
September 2020, fol-
lowing draft rules for-
mulated in December.
The government re-
ceived comments con-
cerning these rules in
january.
Chandra has said the
ministry is giving final
touches to the labour
rules and that states are
also coming with the
draft of their own rules.
2 NAMMA BENGALURU
CS urged to have footpaths built
in city, save lives of pedestrians
HANS NEWS SERVICES
BENGALURU
AS Bengaluru's footpaths have
been the forgotten aspect of the
road infrastructure and as many
as 270 lives have been lost over
the past two years due to the ab-
sence of pedestrian pathways, ac-
tivists including members of Cit-
izens for Bengaluru (CfB),
submitted a memorandum to
Karnataka Chief Secretary Ravi
Aster launches China’s loss India’s gain: Homegrown
dedicated women and apps grab 40% market share
children care hospital
BENGALURU
ASTeR DM healthcare has
launched its 49-bed dedicated
'Women and Children Care hos-
pital' at Whitefield here.
It includes 14-bed Neonatal
Intensive Care Unit and a seven-
bed Paediatric Intensive Care
Unit, Aster hospitals said in a
statement on Tuesday.
Chief executive Officer of
Aster India, harish Pillai said the
hospital is the Phase 1 part of its
350-bed Aster Whitefield proj-
ect.
Most sought-after job that pays to sleep is back
EARN RS 10L AND BE THE BEST SLEEP INTERN!
BENGALURU
eVeR heard of a job that pays to
sleep? We bet you have, after
Bengaluru-based sleep and home
solutions company, Wakefit.co,
created a viral sensation with its
Sleep Internship initiative in
2020.
A year later, the world has
faced a pandemic, and sleep has
somehow taken a backseat again
amidst the stress, health risks,
and career turbulences.
Wakefit.co is here to bring the fo-
cus back on sleep and make
sleeping glamorous again.
The D2C sleep and home solu-
tions brand is back with its Sleep
Internship program and Season
2 promises to be bigger and bet-
ter than its hugely popular
maiden season.
With 1.75 lakh applications in
the first season, the Wakefit Sleep
Internship created waves across
the globe and received interest
from over 30 countries.
Applicants shared their love
for sleep through videos, text
Kumar on Thursday, urging him
to address the issue. About 90 cit-
izens including students who or-
ganised a 1.6 km ‘loop walk’ from
Seshadripuram evening Degree
College through the Seshadripu-
ram Main Road and back on Sat-
urday, could barely spot a foot-
path.
Citizens for Bengaluru (CfB)
members, including Tara Krish-
naswamy, Umesh Babu, Sreeni-
vasa Road and Chitra Venkatesh
While the entire Aster White-
field project envisages a total in-
vestment of Rs 200 crore, this
phase 1 has been established at
an investment of Rs 25 crore, Pil-
lai said.
"Aster is also looking at fur-
ther expansion of our Kolhapur
hospital in Maharashtra called
Aster Aadhar, wherein we are
adding extra 60 beds to the ex-
isting bed capacity of 180 and
also includes a new comprehen-
sive Oncology Block. The invest-
ment for this expansion is Rs 35
crore,” Pillai said. PTI
messages, customized songs,
dance routines, and poems, as
they sought to land their
#DreamJob. Getting paid Rs 1
lakh to sleep was simply an add-
on, most applicants gushed.
"The success of last year's sleep
internship took all of us by sur-
prise. It was amazing to see peo-
ple so passionate about an activ-
ity that has been ignored for so
long. We had people come in py-
jamas and slippers for the final
interview round - that's how
deeply they cared about getting
their dream job!" said Sajni Mas-
of Kumara Park RWA submitted
citizens demands for a systemic
approach to the chronic and per-
vasive woes in Bengaluru.
According to the reports, the
letter requested the Chief Secre-
tary's Office, to appoint zonal
pedestrian safety special com-
missioners for each of the eight
zones (currently) and one city-
level commissioner for pedes-
trian safety. They also demanded
mandatory monthly co-ordina-
BENGALURU
The ban on hundreds of Chinese
apps helped domestic apps lever-
age the opportunity especially in
the second half of 2020, domi-
nating the total app installs in the
country with 40 per cent market
share, a report said on Tuesday.
The report titled "State of App
Marketing" by AppsFlyer, the
global attribution leader,
analysed 7.3 billion installs that
were recorded in India from Jan-
uary 1 to November 30, 2020, in-
cluding 4,519 apps covering en-
tertainment, finance, shopping,
gaming, travel, news, food and
drink and utility verticals.
The data also includes 933 bil-
lion app opens and 3.0 billion re-
marketing conversions.
“While Chinese apps have
slipped in terms of overall mar-
ket share (29 per cent), Indian
apps leveraged this opportunity
by dominating the install volume
(40 per cent) in the country," said
Sanjay Trisal, Country Manager,
AppsFlyer India.
The country has seen a surge
in homegrown apps after the ban
on Chinese apps, like ShareChat,
Josh, Moj, Mitron, Chingari, Ro-
poso, Trell and more.
The overall mobile usage in-
creased, and semi-urban areas
emerged as the hub for mobile
usage in India, giving rise to an
ideal opportunity to reach
younger digital consumers. The
overall findings showed an in-
turlal, who is the head of Content
at Wakefit.co and was instrumen-
tal in putting together one of
2020's most viral campaigns.
This year, selected sleep in-
terns will not only earn Rs 1 lakh
but the pool of interns will get to
compete with each other too, for
a grand prize of Rs 10 lakh. Of
course, the chance to win brag-
ging rights to be called 'India's
Sleep Champion' is an added in-
centive.
Close to 80,000 applicants
have already thrown in their hats
to compete this year and be a
tion meetings led by these com-
missioners between
BBMP/BWSSB/BeSCOM/Smart
City/UDD/DUlT and Traffic Po-
lice.
According to reports, Ben-
galuru’s total road network, in-
cluding major, arterial, sub-arte-
rial and ward roads, is estimated
to be more than 13,000 kilome-
tres. But only half of them have
footpaths of varied qualities. The
National Crime Records Bureau
crease in India's app installs with
38.5 per cent of market share,
beating China and the US in
2020. Uttar Pradesh led the mar-
ket in non-organic installs (NOI)
at 12.10 per cent, leaving behind
Maharashtra at 11.49 per cent
due to the impact of lockdown.
“Owing to the availability of
cheaper mobile data and hand-
sets, the tier 2, 3, and 4 cities saw
a rise in mobile usage in gaming,
finance, and entertainment,” the
report said.
Foreign apps from Israel, the
United States, Russia, and Ger-
many made further inroads into
this rapidly growing market and
are in line to challenge China,”
Trisal noted.
“Regional content is a key
byproduct of this trend, and it
will be the next big pivot for app
marketers.”
entertainment vertical en-
joyed the fastest time to first pur-
Sleep Intern. Sandeep Balan,
Partner (Branded Content) at
Spring Marketing Capital, who
collaborated in bringing this ini-
tiative to life, is excited to see
what this year holds.
"When we conceptualised the
Sleep Internship last year and put
it out there, a lot of applicants
were unsure of how this will un-
fold and even had doubts if this
internship was for real! This year,
applicants have a ready pool of
information to help them create
a winning entry. And the incen-
tive is not just about the money.
We want people to take pride in
being called India's best and most
dedicated sleeper. We want India
to wake up to the power of sleep-
ing and help in our sleep move-
ment."
The contenders who clear the
rigorous selection process in Sea-
son 2 will have to turn up to work
every night in the comfort of your
home for a deep, uninterrupted
sleep of 9 hours for 100 consecu-
tive nights. each of the interns
will be provided with a state-of-
the-art Wakefit.co mattress and
a sophisticated sleep tracker.
They will also get to participate
(NCRB) data puts Bengaluru on
top of the list of 89 cities for
pedestrian deaths (272) in 2019,
whereas, in the previous year, the
city stood second with 276 fatal-
ities.
Activists complain that main
roads in residential areas have al-
ready turned into sub-arterial
roads over the years due to
swelling vehicle density. They ac-
cuse officials of losing touch with
ground reality.
chase, often converting the user
within the first 10 minutes.
"Shopping events and promo-
tions made for a significant rise
in in-app purchases, and relaxed
COVID-19 restrictions helped
support the spike as well,” the re-
port mentioned.
Overall, 50 percent of all app
uninstalls happen within the day
of installation.
"Uninstall rates increased as
compared to last year -- this in-
sight paves the way for marketers
to launch their remarketing cam-
paigns," the report said.
The report found that while
spend and reduced marketing
budgets led to lower fraud rates
across all apps, improved preven-
tive measures also contributed
to the decline in mobile frauds.
"Fraud will remain a serious
issue and will come back in 2021
as soon as the marketing budgets
recover," it said. IANS
in various sleep-related chal-
lenges as part of the internship
to emerge as India's most pas-
sionate sleeper. As part of its sci-
entific approach to sleep, the
company will also facilitate coun-
selling sessions with sleep ex-
perts, fitness experts, home decor
specialists, etc. for the interns.
Talking about the unique in-
ternship program, Chaitanya Ra-
malingegowda, Director and Co-
founder, Wakefit.co, said, "We
have brought back the Sleep In-
ternship in its second season, to
remind people to not relegate
sleep to the bottom of their pri-
ority list. We aim to drive home
the message that sleeping is a se-
rious job. Just like any other job,
it can be both, satisfying and re-
warding, when done right. The
extraordinary response to our
Sleep Internship program in
2020 has encouraged us to take
forward this important conver-
sation with season 2."
Wakefit.co's sleep internship
microsite features last year's win-
ning interns, their hilarious in-
terviews with our celebrity
judges, and a profile capturing
their love for sleep. IANS
BENGALURU WEDNESDAY 10 FEBRUARY 2021
Need to create
awareness about
oral health in rural
areas stressed
HANS NEWS SERVICES
BENGALURU
heAlTh and Medical edu-
cation Minister Dr K.Sud-
hakar on Tuesday stressed
the need for creating aware-
ness among rural people
about dental health.
Speaking to the media on
the occasion of International
Dentists Day at Rajiv Gandhi
University of health Sci-
ences in Bengaluru, he said
that people in several coun-
tries go for dental check-up
at least twice a year. But in
rural areas in India people
visit the dentist only when
the pain gets terrible. “There
is a lack of awareness regard-
ing dental care in India, we
Aditya Virwani, COO, Embassy Group, receiving the certificate of
appreciation from Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa on Tuesday for
contributing towards the implementation of Modular and Mobile ICU at K C
General Hospital, Malleswaram, Bengaluru
Edtech startup
Newton School raises
$ 5 million funds
HANS NEWS SERVICES
BENGALURU
BeNGAlURU-BASeD ed-tech
startup, Newton School, has
raised USD 5M Series A round
of financing, led by RTP Global.
The funding round saw partici-
pation from existing investors
Nexus Venture Partners,
Prophetic Ventures and Unacad-
emy co-founders Gaurav Mun-
jal, Roman Saini and hemesh
Singh. Flipkart’s CeO Kalyan
Krishnamoorthy, CReD’s Kunal
Shah, Freshworks’ Girish Math-
rubootham, Udaan’s Sujeet Ku-
mar and Razorpay founders
harshil Mathur & Shashank Ku-
mar along with a slew of angels
also participated in the round.
Founded in 2019 by serial en-
trepreneurs and college friends
Nishant Chandra and Siddharth
Maheshwari, Newton School is
an edtech platform that enables
people to be highly skilled soft-
ware developers and get into a
tech career in top companies and
start-ups. Newton School’s 6
months long cohort-based
course includes 1000 plus hours
of coding, 50 plus hours of soft
skills training, live projects, and
mentorship oversight - designed
by reverse engineering industry
requirements and taught by in-
dustry professionals.
According to Nishant Chan-
dra, Co-Founder, Newton
School, “On one side you have a
million plus college graduates
every year with low single digit
employability rate and on the
other side there are thousands
of companies struggling to find
talent. We aim to bridge this
massive gap through Newton
School’s personalized learning
platform. We are building an on-
line academy and solving the
deep problem of employability
of graduates.”
The start-up is regarded as a
market leader in the space with
its students hired by more than
100 companies ranging from top
start-ups like Zomato, Unacad-
emy, Nykaa, Affle to large MNCs
like Publicis Sapient, Thought-
works, Motorola, Nutanix. New-
need to create awareness
about this especially in rural
areas,” the minister said.
"Rural people are still us-
ing charcoal powder. We have
very low dental treatment
costs compared to other
countries. People should
make use of this to keep their
dental health in good condi-
tion," Sudhakar further said
adding that Indian medicine
system is the oldest in the
world. “The practices
adopted such great ancient
Indian traditional ayurvedic
doctors as Charaka, Kanada,
etc., are still relevant today. I
am happy that senior Dentist
Dr.S.Ramachandra is hon-
oured at this event.”
ton School receives tens of thou-
sands of applications for every
cohort, and has rapidly grown 10
times its students intake in a
year with its latest cohort having
300 plus students. With an aim
to bridge the gender gap in the
workforce, it recently launched
a woman-led all women tech
program to help women re-enter
the workforce, equipped with in-
dustry ready skills.
Newton School has a unique
fee model where students are re-
quired to pay zero fees upfront
and only start paying once they
get into a job. “Our fee model al-
lows people to cross financial
and location barriers thus de-
mocratising access to software
development learning.
We have a student whose fa-
ther is an autorickshaw driver
and lost all their livelihood due
to Covid. he now is a software
developer in one of top edtech
startups and is taking care of his
family now,” added Siddharth
Maheshwari, Co-Founder, New-
ton School
Kirill Kozhevnikov, partner at
RTP Global, commented, “engi-
neering education spend in In-
dia alone is 10 billion USD but
the net outcome is low employ-
ability rates. Newton School is
bridging this massive gap
through its product centric per-
sonalised platform.
In a world where increasing
skills matter much more than
degrees, Newton School is in a
prime position to not just tap
into this huge market but also to
create a massive impact on the
lives of millions of students by
providing them access to high
quality industry oriented educa-
tion.”
Already profitable, the com-
pany plans to help companies
hire a qualified and job-ready
workforce of 10,000+ people,
which is larger than all top col-
leges combined, in 2021 alone.
Additionally the capital will be
used to expand the team and to
develop products utilising Arti-
ficial Intelligence (AI) to stream-
line and personalise the learning
journey of each student.
BENGALURU WEDNESDAY 10 FEBRUARY 2021 NAMMA BENGALURU 3

iPhone plant Wistron to resume JD(S) MLC Basavaraj Horatti

operations in State soon
HANS NEWS SERVICE
BENGALURU
APPLe iPhone manufacturing
plant run by Taiwanese manufac-
turer Wistron at Narasapura in
Kolar district, is set to resume op-
erations. The facility was shut in
December last year in the wake
of workers’ unrest. It is learnt
that Wistron is ready to resume
operations as the State govern-
ment has assured the firm that it
is ready to extend all cooperation.
In a statement released by
Wistron on Tuesday, it said "For
the past eight weeks, teams
across Apple, along with inde-
pendent auditors, have been
working with Wistron to make
sure that necessary systems and
processes are in place at their
Narasapura facility. A compre-
hensive set of corrective actions
has now been completed and
Wistron has restructured their
recruiting team and enhanced
training and support for workers.
As Wistron begins the process of
hiring team members and
restarting their operations,
everyone at the facility will un-
dergo a new training program to
ensure they understand their
rights and how they can raise any
concerns. Apple employees and
independent auditors will re-
main on site to validate that the
new processes are effective.”
The company sources confirm
that Wistron will be delivering
enhanced training programmes
for all workers as management
has put in place a new system for
workers to get information and
raise any concerns they may
have, anonymously. "We are ded-
icated to ensuring that workers
are protected and treated with
dignity and respect. Wistron re-
mains on probation and we will
monitor their progress closely,”
the statement added.
Wistron was allegedly guilty of
violating several labour laws
leading to violence and subse-
quent removal of its vice Presi-
dent (innovation business group)
of Wistron Infocomm Manufac-
turing India, vincent Lee as part
of disciplinary action. The com-
pany has also set up a 24-hour
grievance helpline as a corrective
measure. As a fallout of the same,
Apple had also demoted Wistron
to probationary status for violat-
ing its ‘Supplier Code of Con-
duct’.
According to reports, over
4,000 employees on contract
went on a rampage over non-pay-
ment of their wages. The com-
pany had sacked its vice presi-
dent overseeing its business in
India, as it admitted that some
workers were not paid correctly
or on time, and offered an apol-
ogy.
According to reliable sources,
a large-scale rehiring after exten-
sive background checks by police
is now underway. As global
iPhone demand is on the rise, all-
out efforts are on to get the ca-
pacity back on track to fulfil the
global demand, they said.
The plant is likely to scale up
its capacity in four weeks after
operations resume.
The company has invested
about rs 2,000 crore in the plant
to roll out about 4 lakh iPhone 7
handsets per annum and second-
generation iPhone Se devices.
Of nearly 10,000 workers,
around 1,340 are permanent and
8,500 on contract, hired through
six firms.
Following the violence, Apple
placed Wistron on probation af-
ter finding fault with the com-
pany over payment delays in Oc-
tober and November.
elected Council Chairman
BENGALURU
SeNIOr JD(S) MLC Basavaraj
Horatti was on Tuesday elected
as the Chairman of the Karnataka
Legislative Council, amid protests
by Congress over the passage of
"anti cow slaughterbill" in the
House.
Horatti, a seven time MLC, who
represents Karnataka west teach-
ers constituency, was declared
"unanimously" elected, as the op-
position Congress that was
protesting from the well of the
house, did not propose the name
of its candidate Naseer Ahmed,
during the election process.
Horatti(74) armed with Bach-
elor of Arts and Master of Physical
education qualification, began his
career as a physical education
teacher in Hubballi.
He has been a member of the
Council for nearly 40 years now,
starting from 1980.
He had served as the Chairman
(acting) of the Council from June
22 to December 12, 2018.
As the House met for the day,
Congress legislators trooped into
the well of the House against the
passage of the Karnataka Preven-
tion of Slaughter and Preserva-
tion of Cattle Bill in the council in
a "hurry" through a voice vote,
and alleged that it was despite
them demanding for division of
votes.
raising the issue as Deputy
Chairman M K Pranesh was
about to start today's business,
Congress MLC Naseer Ahmed
said the passage of the bill on
Monday despite us seeking for di-
vision was against the rules.
Several Congress MLCs includ-
ing M Narayanaswamy, B K
Hariprasad too joined, insisting
that they sought for division, and
demanded a ruling from the
Chair.
However, defending the pas-
sageof the bill, Home, Law and
Parliamentary Affairs Minister
Basavaraj Bommai said it was
passed as per rules and no one
sought a division, as he pointed
out that all Congress MLCs were
in the well when the bill was get-
ting passed.
"There is nothing in the records
too."
The Deputy Chairman said he
will get the records and examine
them, as he asked Congress legis-
lators to go back to their seats and
allow the House to function and
cooperate during the Chairman
election process.
Despite this, Congress MLCs
insisted that the Chair examine
the CCTv and television camera
footage first and adjourn the
house for some time.
"First a ruling should be given
on this, subsequently the Chair-
man election can be taken up,"
Narayanaswamy said.
As the Congress MLCs contin-
ued with their protest from the
well, the Deputy Chairman took
up the Chairman's election
process. After JD(S) MLCs pro-
posed Horatti's name for the
Chairman post, Congress legisla-
tors did not turn up at their seats
to propose their candidate Naseer
Ahmed's name.
Following this the Deputy
Chairman declared that Basavaraj
Horatti has been elected as the
Chairman of the Legislative
Council "unanimously".
Both Horatti, supported by
JD(S) and BJP, and Congress'
Naseer Ahmed had filed their
nominations on Monday.
The election was necessitated
following the resignation of Con-
gress'K Prathapachandra Shetty
as the Chairman on February 4 to
preempt a no-confidence motion
against him by the ruling BJP, and
JD(S) extending support to it.
Horratti's election was certain
as BJP and JD(S) had joined
hands for the Council Chairman
and Deputy Chairman post.
As per the arrangement BJP
MLC M K Pranesh was on Janu-
ary 29 elected as the Deputy
Chairman with the backing of
JD(S), and now the ruling party
returned the favour by supporting
the regional party nominee, Hor-
atti.
According to JD(S) sources,
party supremo H D Deve Gowda
had earlier even spoken to BJP
national President JP Nadda
seeking support for Horatti.
BJP sources said the party
agreed to support Horatti as
Chairman instead of seeking the
post for itself in return for JD(S)'
support in its move to oust Shetty
and passage of certain key bills.
The earlier move by both par-
ties in December to remove Con-
gress' Shetty as Chairman was not
successful as their notice of no-
confidence was rejected on tech-
nical grounds.
The House had witnessed high
drama that day with the BJP-
JD(S) and Congress members
hurling abuses and pushing each
other.
Amid the ruckus on December
15, the then Deputy Chairman
Dharme Gowda, who is now no
more, was even pulled down from
the Chair.
Currently the ruling BJP is the
single largest party in the Council
with 31 seats, followed by Con-
gress with 29, JD(S) 13 (including
Horatti), one independent and
one vacant (due to death of
Dharme Gowda). PTI

Nigerian
held, drugs
worth `10L
seized
HANS NEWS SERVICES
BENGALURU
A Nigerian national was arrested
on Tuesday for allegedly trying
to peddle drugs worth rs 10 lakh
in the city by the police attached
to the Central Crime Branch.
The 40-year-old accused is said
to have been living in Maragon-
danahalli in the city for many
days and built a network with a
few locals to peddle drugs.
"In recent days drug peddling
activities are under the scanner
of the Crime Branch. We received
information about the accused
ordering drugs through the dark
net. Our officials kept track of
their movement before arresting
them based on confirmed infor-
mation," a senior police official
said. A complaint has been regis-
tered at ramamurthy Nagar po-
lice station and the accused was
interrogated to extract informa-
tion about his contacts and the
source of the drugs. Police said
that drugs worth 10 lakh, a car
and cell phones were seized from
the accused.
TRIBUTE TO PT RAVI SHANKAR:
MUSICAL CONCERT ON FEB 21
HANS NEWS SERVICES|
BENGALURU
THe finale of “ravi Shankar @100: India’s
Global Musician”, the centennial exhibition
on Pandit ravi Shankar, specially curated by
The Indian Music experience Mu-
seum (IMe), an initiative of the
Brigade Group, will be held on
February 21 with tribute con-
certs at IMe’s open-air sound
garden by leading Hindustani
musicians of Bangalore -
flautist Pravin God-
khindi, vocalist
Sangeeta Katti
and sitarist
Anupama Bhagwat, who will all play ragas and
compositions created by and popularized by
the maestro.
entry to the concert is open to all and Covid
protocols will be followed. While the exhibition
will close on February 21, three of Pandit ravi
Shankar’s musical instruments will have a per-
manent home at IMe. IMe is an institutional
affiliate of the GrAMMY Museum®, LA and
is the winner of the TripAdvisor Travellers
Choice award for 2020.
Commenting on the event, Manasi
Prasad, Museum Director of IMe, said
“We are grateful that three of Pandit ravi
Shankar’s musical instruments,
namely his sitar, surbahar and tan-
pura have been donated to the
museum for permanent display
at the Hall of Fame, along with
his concert attire. This gesture
endorses our museum’s commitment to deep-
ening the understanding and appreciation of
Indian music among young people."
The centennial exhibition is organised with
the support of the ravi Shankar Foundation.
On display are Pandit ravi Shankar’s Bharat
ratna Award, Grammy Award, ramon
Magsaysay Award, Polar Music Prize, his mu-
sical instruments, costumes and photographs
among other memorabilia.
“Pandit ravi Shankar was a truly interna- MLCs greet Basavaraj Horatti of JD (S) on being elected Chairman of Legislative
tional artiste, at the same time firmly rooted Council in Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru on Tuesday
in the Hindustani music tradition. We hope
that our interpretation of his life will inspire
people to engage more deeply with Indian clas-
sical music. We are excited that people can ac-
tually walk into our museum and witness the
exhibits on display, first hand. We urge the pub-
lic not to miss this opportunity to experience
the life of the highly decorated Pandit ravi
Shankar,” Manasi Prasad further
added.
The exhibition also features lis-
tening stations and interactives, sup-
ported by interpretive graphic pan-
els, that chronicle the life and work
of the celebrated artist. A special fea-
ture is an ‘experience zone’ with
sound design by GrAMMY® award
winner ricky Kej. As the legacy of
the year-long exhibition, an online
virtual exhibition on ravi Shankar Congress workers during a protest against the central government over the fuel
will be unveiled shortly. price hike in Bengaluru on Tuesday

CM celebrates passage Overwhelming response to horticulture fair on day 2

of anti-cow slaughter HANS NEWS SERVICES
BENGALURU
necessary information to the
general public and the farmers
about horticulture crops, fruits

bill, worships ‘go mata’ Over 8000 people and farmers

BENGALURU
CHIeF Minister B.S. Yediyu-
rappa on Tuesday offered spe-
cial prayers to cows here to cel-
ebrate the passage of the
contentious anti-cow slaughter
bill in the Legislative Council.
Flanked by his cabinet col-
leagues, including Animal Hus-
bandry Minister Prabhu
Chauhan and Home Minister
Basavaraj Bommai, the CM put
vermilion and turmeric powder
on the forehead of the 'go mata'
and showered 'akshat' and flow-
ers on them, at his residence
here.
After garlanding the cattle,
Yediyurappa offered them raw
rice, lentils and banana.
One of the flagship bills of
the BJP government as prom-
ised in the party's election
manifesto, the Karnataka Pre-
vention of Slaughter and
Preservation of Cattle Bill got
stuck in the Legislative Council
after getting passed in the As-
sembly.
As Deputy Chairman M.K.
Pranesh took up the matter in
the Council on Monday, the
Congress and JD(S) trooped in
the well of the house and
started raising slogans.
Amid din and strong opposi-
tion by the opposition, Pranesh
announced that the bill was
passed.
Karnataka is among the se-
lect States in the country which
has tough provisions against
those transporting, smuggling
and slaughtering cows and buf-
faloes below the age of 12.
Under the new law, slaughter
of cattle would lead to impris-
onment of up to seven years
and a fine ranging from rs
50,000 to rs 5 lakh.
Congress and the JD(S) have
been opposed to the bill saying
it intends to target the minori-
ties.
They alleged that the BJP
was not aware of the ground re-
alities as there are many cob-
blers dependent on the hides.
PTI
visited the National Horticulture
Fair (NHF) 2021 on second day
on Tuesday, held at Indian Insti-
tute of Horticultural research
(IIHr) situated in Hesarghatta
here.
According to sources in NHF,
by Tuesday afternoon, nearly
6,000 people visited the exhibi-
tion and another two to three
thousand were expected to arrive
by the end of the day.
Dr M.r. Dinesh, Director,
IIHr said, “People response was
overwhelming. They visited our
live demonstrations at field and
stalls. Our scientists at field gave
and flowers developed by the
IIHr.”
Officials deputed at the regis-
tration counter had herculean
task managing the crowd. They
allowed the public inside after
conducting Covid -19 protocol.
Farmers visited live demon-
stration sites, received first-hand
information on IIHr horticul-
ture crops. They were left per-
plexed by new varieties of tomato,
bottle gourd, ridge gourd and
pumpkin and new verities of
flower at demonstration sites.
Farmers were seen gathering
information from IIHr scientists
on cultivation of horticulture
crops and enquired about seeds Pradesh. ICAr scientists from farmers. IIHr showcased the live
developed by IIHr. across the country attended the demonstrations to the farmers
IIHr released new varieties of session through online and an- about its verities of horticulture
tomato, Arka Abhed, Arka Tulasi swered the queries of the farm- crops and success stories of the
Chilly, Arka Sangam, Water- ers. farmers.
melon and other crops. Questions taken from the IIHr Director Dr M.r.Dinesh,
On the second day, technical farmers prior to NHF were sent IIHr principal scientists Dr Anil
session was organized for farm- to the scientists and experts in Kumar Nair, Dr rajive Kumar, Dr
ers of Jammu and Kashmir, ra- horticulture crops. Through on- Anjanikumar Jha were presented
jastan, Hariyana and Uttar line, answers were given to the at the technical session.
4 NAMMA BENGALURU BENGALURU WEDNESDAY 10 FEBRUARY 2021

Kangana compares herself Unfinished: Priyanka recalls

being advised ‘a boob job’
to Meryl Streep, Gal Gadot
A
ctress Kangana Ranaut on
Tuesday declared she has
raw talent like Oscar win-
ning-actress Meryl Streep, and
skilled action capabilities and
glamour like actress Gal Gadot.
She also stated that she is
"open for debate if anyone can
show me more range and bril-
liance of craft than me by any
other actress on this planet".
The actress made her assertion
sharing several images from her
upcoming films, "Thalaivi" and
"Dhaakad". The photographs
show Kangana's physical trans-
formation, when she gained
weight for her role in "Thalaivi"

and shed the extra kilos for the
action film "Dhaakad".
"Massive transformation alert,
The kind of range I display as a
performer no other actress on
this globe has that right now, I
have raw talent like Meryl Streep
for layered character depictions
but I can also do skilled action
and glamour like Gal Gadot
#Thalaivi #Dhaakad," she wrote.
"I am open for debate if anyone
can show me more range and bril-
liance of craft than me by any
other actress on this planet I
promise to give up my arrogance,
until then I can surely afford the
luxury of pride #Thalaivi
#Dhaakad," she added.
When one user wrote "Kangana
and Meryl Streep in one breath?
BLASPHEMY. Kangana is
nowhere close to Meryl and can
never be. Why is Kangana so
pompous?", the actress wondered
why many "worship white people".
"I honestly want to know why
do we worship white people? For-
get their budgets and our age gap,
tell me about just acting can she
do Thalaivi and Dhaakad? Queen
and Tanu? Fashion and Panga?
Kaya and Datto? Answer is she
can't, then why not emerge from
the deep rooted complex?," Kan-
gana shared.
"Thalaivi" is a biopic of late
Tamil politician J. Jayalalithaa.
The bilingual movie will trace the
journey of the late leader from sil-
ver screen to politics. It is di-
rected by AL Vijay, and also stars
Arvind Swami, Prakash Raj, Mad-
hoo and Bhagyashree.
"Dhaakad" is a spy thriller in
which Kangana will play the role
of Agent Agni, while Arjun Ram-
pal will be seen as the antagonist
in the film. Arjun's character is
named Rudraveer. The film is di-
rected by Razneesh Razy Ghai,
and slated to release on October
1, 2021. IANS
A
ctress Priyanka Chopra
says she had been advised
in her early days to get a
boob job done if she wanted to be-
come an actress in Bollywood. The
38-year-old actress, who was
crowned Miss World in 2000, has
recalled the incident in her auto-
biography Unfinished.
Priyanka shared that the first
person she met suggested that she
should fix her 'proportions', and
her then-manager agreed with the
idea. "After a few minutes of small
talk, the director/producer told
me to stand up and twirl for him.
I did. He stared at me long and
hard, assessing me, and then sug-
gested that I get a boob job, fix my
jaw, and add a little more cushion-
ing to my butt," she wrote in the
book.
"If I wanted to be an actress, he
said, ‘I'd need to have my propor-
tions fixed', and he knew a great
doctor in LA he could send me to.
My then-manager voiced his
agreement with the assessment,"
she added.
The actress continued: "I left
the director/producer's office feel-
ing stunned and small. Was he
right that I couldn't be successful
unless I had so many body parts
'fixed'? I thought of how individ-
uals in the media and others in the
industry had referred to me as
'dusky' and 'different-looking',
and I wondered if I was cut out for
this business after all."
Recalling the situation she
found herself in, Priyanka told
metro.co.uk: "It's so normalised
that it doesn't come up in conver-
sation. I talked about a movie that
I walked out of because of how I
was spoken to by the director. It
was early in my career, but I never
told him why I walked out."
She added: "I never had the
courage to stand up for myself,
and actually admit it. Because I
heard so often, ‘Don't be a nui-
sance, you're new in the industry,
you don't want to have a reputa-
tion that you cause trouble or
you're not easy to work with'.
"Now on the other side of 35. I
know that's a normalised thing
that girls hear so often. I fell for it
too, even though I consider myself
a forward-thinking, smart girl. I
learned from that over time, but
at that time, I was terrified. Yes I
faced that then, I faced that like
everybody else when you're in pa-
triarchal industries, which ours
has been for a very long time," she
added. IANS

Jacqueline spends Bikini beauty Alia Bhatt

soaks up in Maldives
an hour doing
house chores B ollywood actress Alia Bhatt on
Tuesday shared a stunning
Instagram picture in a hot pink
bikini, posing with best friends Anushka
and Akansha Ranjan Kapoor.
"Heal, learn, grow, love," Alia wrote as
the caption.
The actress is currently vacationing in
the Maldives with her sister Shaheen
Bhatt, close friend and actress Akansha
Ranjan Kapoor and her sister Anushka
Ranjan Kapoor.
Alia's upcoming projects include Sanjay
Leela Bhansali's "Gangubai Kathiawadi", a
film reportedly revolving around the life of
a brothel owner and matriarch.
She is also a part of SS Rajamouli's
"RRR", co-starring Ram Charan, Jr NTR and
Ajay Devgn. Her other big upcoming
release is Ayan Mukerji's "Brahmastra",
where Alia shares screen space with
rumoured beau Ranbir Kapoor. The film
also stars Amitabh Bachchan, Mouni Roy
and Telugu superstar Nagarjuna. IANS

Diana Penty to
B
ollywood star Jacque- thoughts," she reveals.

line Fernandez, who
recently moved house,
admits she indulges in house-
hold chores, too, in between
her hectix professional sched-
ule. "I spend an hour doing
the house chores -- from look-
ing into groceries to cleaning
the house and looking into the
food menu," she tells IANS.
"Living independently does
give freedom but brings in a
lot of challenges along with it.
You need to have the right bal-
ance of personal and profes-
sional life," she adds.
If maintaining a physically
healthy routine amid the
grind of Bollywood is a chal-
lenge, and the actress has her
way to manage with that bit.
"I maintain a journal which
I write in the morning that
helps me channelise my
make Malayalam
She says her day starts
early. "I am definitely a morn-
ing person and I prefer to
start my day early as it gives
me enough time for myself
before the work commit-
ments begin. (I love) Starting
the day with yoga and then my
debut opposite
bulletproof coffee which helps
me to stay energized through
the day," she says.
The actress made her Bol-
Dulquer Salmaan
A
lywood debut with Aladin in ctress Diana Penty an- ginnings! Super excited to join
2009. She later went on to do nounced her debut in @dqsalmaan, @rosshanandr-
films such as Housefull Malayalam films on In- rews and the whole crew on
(2010), Murder 2 (2011), stagram on Tuesday. She will be this new journey - my first
Dishoom, Judwaa 2 (2017), seen alongside actor Dulquer Malayalam film! Looking for-
Brothers (2015), Kick (2014) Salmaan in an untitled film di- ward to the ride. "
and Race 3 (2018). rected by Rosshan Andrrews. Diana will also be seen in
Jacqueline has multiple The film is produced by Dul- "Shiddat: Journey Beyond
films lined up. She will be seen quer Salmaan. Other details are Love", a love story, along with
in Bachchan Pandey, Kick 2, still under wraps. Radhika Madan, Sunny
Bhoot Police and Cirkus in the Diana wrote with along with Kaushal and Mohit Raina.
coming months. IANS a picture: "Cheers to new be- IANS

‘Bombay Begums’ to release on Women's Day Adnan Sami's epic throwback

T
he web series, Bombay Begums
will release on March 8, on the oc-
casion of International Women's
Day. The show casts Pooja Bhatt, Sha-
hana Goswam, Amruta Subhash and
Rahul Bose in pivotal roles, and is cre-
ated and directed by Alankrita Shrivas-
tava of Lipstick Under My Burkha fame.
The series touches upon themes of
ambition, desire, struggle for power
and vulnerability through the stories of
five modern Indian women in Mumbai.
Said Shrivastava: "'Bombay Begums'
is a story about Indian women that I
hope women in India and across the
world will connect with.
"The series explores the complex
journey of working Indian women who
are ambitious for power and success,
but have many other battles to fight
too. It's the story of their daily hustle,
the story of their dreams - sometimes
buried, sometimes fulfilled," she added.
moment with Gabbar Singh
S
"It's the story of glass ceilings shat- inger Adnan Sami on Monday shared a throwback
tered, and also of the hearts broken in with late actor Amjad Khan on his Instagram
the process. I have tried to create a page. In the throwback picture, a young Adnan is
world that reflects the realities of urban seen standing nervously along with his brother Janaid
working women. I hope audiences re- Sami Khan, getting a picture clicked with Amjad Khan.
late to the characters and find pieces of The caption of the picture does a spin on a popular
their own journey reflected in the dialogue of Khan as Gabbar Singh in the 1975 superhit,
story," Shrivastava continued. "Sholay".
"I am excited and proud that 'Bom- "Sardar...Do Bhai Thay!!" wrote Adnan, tagging the
bay Begums' is coming on the occasion post with #adnansami #bollywood #sholay #amjad-
of International Women's Day," she khan #gabbar #gabbarsingh #junaidsami #junaid-
added. samikhan.
The series also features Plabita Adnan Sami often shares memorable throwbacks
Borthakur and Aadhya Anand along from his childhood days, taking the fans down memory
with Vivek Gomber and Danish Husain lane. A while back, he had posted a picture of singers
in important roles. It is slated to release Noor Jahan, Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle to-
on Netflix. gether.
BENGALURU WEDNESDAY 10 FEBRUARY 2021
New party by Sharmila in TS
keeps Oppn on tenterhooks
HANS NEWS SERVICE
HYDERABAD
WHo is behind the proposed
party of YS Sharmila in Telan-
gana? is the question that has be-
come a hot topic of discussion
among the political circles in the
State on Tuesday. While opposi-
tion parties alleged that chief
Minister K chandrashekar Rao
was behind the proposed move,
the TRS leaders have kept mum
owing to their leader’s diktat.
The Telangana BJP has alleged
that this was a move by K chan-
drashekar Rao to save his post.
“congress senior leader KVP Ra-
machandra Rao has entered the
scene to save K chandrashekar
Rao by making Sharmila float a
party. Definitely the new party of
Sharmila is in the direction of
KcR and thoughts of KVP,” BJP
leader NVSS Prabhakar.
Similarly, Telangana congress
working president A Revanth
Reddy alleged that Sharmila was
an arrow shot by the chief Min-
ister. He said people of the state
might not accept Sharmila. “KcR
shot the arrow only to dent the
chances of congress party.
Sharmila should first clear her
stand on Pulichintala, Pothired-
dypadu and Sangameshwaram
Podu farmers stage protest
HANS NEWS SERVICE
MAHABUBABAD
ARouND 60 tribal farmers
squatted on the road near bus
station centre in Gudur on Tues-
day, in protest against the high-
handedness of the forest offi-
cials, who prevented them from
podu cultivation on 63 acres in
line Thanda under Gudur man-
dal.
Banoth Parvathi, one of the
protestors, attempted suicide by
consuming pesticide and later
jumping into agriculture well.
it all started when the forest
officials tried to construct
trenches after demarcating the
forest land boundaries. The vil-
Podu farmers staging a protest on the road near bus station centre in Gudur on
Tuesday
TSHRC comes to the rescue of elderly woman
HANS NEWS SERVICE
KOTHAGUDEM
TelANGANA State Human
Rights commission (TSHRc)
has come to the assistance of an
elderly woman in the district,
whose name was removed from
her ration card.
The woman, Boda lakshmi
(70), native of Duginepalli vil-
lage of Pinapaka mandal in the
district, has submitted a peti-
tion to the commission com-
‘Academic standards plunging’ Bring land grabbers in Huzurnagar
HANS NEWS SERVICE
WARANGAL
AcADeMic standards have
plunged to a new low since the TRS
government took over the reins of
Telangana, Aicc Secretary and
former MP Madhu Yashki Goud
said, speaking at the NSui urban
district meeting here on Tuesday.
Referring to the growing unem-
ployment, he criticised both the
centre and State for their failure
to fulfill their election promise to
fill vacancies in the government
service.
There are three lakh odd vacant
posts at the State and 12 crore
posts at the central level, Goud
said, accusing the TRS and the BJP
of deceiving unemployed youth.
“in Telangana, there are 10 lakh
unemployed youth. But there was
no effort to create jobs or to fill the
vacant posts,” he said. on the other
hand, academic standards con-
tinue to plunge in the State, Goud
said, reminding the TRS govern-
“KCR shot the arrow only to dent the While BJP and
chances of Congress party. Sharmila Congress say
before starting her party in
Telangana. Why KcR is not talk-
ing about the party of Sharmila?
He is helping Sharmila start the
political outfit only to split the
anti-government votes,” said Re-
vanth Reddy.
Meanwhile, the TRS leaders
are maintaining stoic silence over
the proposed party as they have
been asked to refrain from mak-
ing any comments. Further, the
lagers stated that they have been
practicing podu for about eight
decades and opposed the forest
officials’ move. The protestors
said that they have been receiv-
ing financial assistance provided
by the State government under
Rythu Bandhu for the said land.
The protestors demanded po-
lice to register a case against for-
est officials. Ravi, one of the pro-
testors, said that they will not
allow the authorities snatches
their land, and are ready to sac-
rifice their lives for the cause.
Sub-inspector Satish prom-
ised to take the issue to the no-
tice of the higher officials and
urged the protestors to call off
their protest.
plaining that her name was re-
moved from the ration card a
few months ago.
She submitted the petition
with the help of an RTi activist,
Manideep Nallapu of edulla
Bayyaram village in the mandal.
in her petition, she stated
that despite several complaints
to the local tahsildar, the issue
was not addressed.
Responding to her petition,
the commission has directed
Tahsildar Pinapaka to investi-
AICC Secretary and former MP Madhu Yashki Goud and Warangal DCC president Naini
Rajender Reddy giving away mementoes to NSUI leaders in Warangal on Tuesday
ment’s promise of KG to PG free
education.
He demanded the government
to appoint vice-chancellors to all
the universities besides filling
teaching and non-teaching staff.
He alleged that chief Minister
K chandrashekar Rao bowed to
BJP-led central government to
should first clear her stand on
Pulichintala, Pothireddypadu and move to dent
Sangameshwaram before starting the growing
her party in Telangana. He (KCR)
prospects of
is helping Sharmila start the
political outfit only to split the
anti-government votes,” says
Revanth Reddy, TPCC
working
president remain mute
social media team of the party
also ensured that there are no
talks about the proposed political
outfit.
if Sharmila was unhappy with
her brother, she should have
formed a party in AP. She will not
even secure deposit in Telangana,
said Dileep Konatham, director
of Telangana Digital Media, in a
tweet, which he later deleted.
However, the political analysts
PEACOCK
FOUND DEAD
HANS NEWS SERVICE
JANGAON
A peacock was found dead on
the suburbs of Jangaon town
on Tuesday. The residents,
who found the dead bird near
St Mary's High School early
in the morning, informed the
forest officials.
According to Jangaon For-
est Range officer D Shankar,
the peacock, which struck in
the traps placed by the locals,
died. He said that efforts are
on to nab the poachers with
the help of ccTV footage
available in the nearby vicin-
ity. it’s learnt that a group of
poachers were moving in the
region to poach the wild
boards and birds by placing
traps. The officials warned
the locals not to support the
poachers and told them to in-
form forest department if
they come across any such
incident.
it may be mentioned here
that the national bird pea-
cock is protected under Sec-
tion 51 (1-A) of the Wildlife
Protection Act 1972. Hunting
and killing of the bird is pro-
hibited.
gate the matter and take neces-
sary action within three
months of the receipt of the or-
der, which the concerned par-
ties received a couple of days
ago.
Boda lakshmi was issued a
ration card a few years ago
along with the names of her two
children, but for reasons un-
known her name was deleted
depriving her of her quota of
food items given through ration
shop.
protect himself from corruption
charges.
NSui Telangana in-charge
Naveed Khan, State president Bal-
moor Venkat, Warangal Dcc pres-
ident Naini Rajender Reddy, sen-
ior leaders eV Srinivas Rao and B
Srinivas Rao were among others
present.
TELANGANA
it’s a KCR
opposition
parties in
State, TRS
leaders
owing to their
leader’s
diktat
opine that this was a game plan
by the political strategist
Prashant Kishor to stop the
growth of the saffron party in the
two Telugu-speaking States.
Based on his advice, Andhra
Pradesh chief Minister YS Jagan
Mohan Reddy along with his
Telangana counterpart could
have made this plan to counter
the BJP growth in the State, said
a political analyst.
BC Welfare Minister Gangula Kamalakar speaking at a press meet at Mee-Seva centre in Karimnagar on Tuesday
‘KCR to Telangana, like Gandhi to nation’
HANS NEWS SERVICE
KARIMNAGAR
PeoPle of Bc community were
treated like slaves before Telan-
gana State formation but now
they are living with self-respect,
stated Bc Welfare Minister Gan-
gula Kamalakar while speaking at
a press meet at Mee-Seva centre
here on Tuesday.
The Minister informed that Bc
community building is being con-
structed at Kokapet in Hyderabad
with crores of rupees following
chief Minister K chandrashekar
Rao’s orders. if BJP leaders are
committed for the welfare of Bc
community, then saffron party
MPs Bandi Sanjay Kumar and
Dharmapuri Aravind along with
Bc leaders must go to Delhi and
Boda Lakshmi
to book, demands State BJP chief
Bandi Sanjay seeks withdrawal of cases filed against tribals
HANS NEWS SERVICE
HYDERABAD
TelANGANA BJP chief Bandi
Sanjay Kumar on Tuesday
sought clarification from chief
Minister K chandrashekar Rao
in the wake of his proposed
tour to Nagarjunasagar Assem-
bly constituency in Nalgonda
district.
in a statement released here
on Tuesday, he demanded the
TRS chief to tender an apology
for trampling upon the rights of
tribals in the Sagar Assembly
constituency. He said that
thousands of acres of land be-
longing to tribals in Gurram-
bodu Thanda under Huzurna-
gar Assembly segment has been
UTTAM SEEKS DESIGNATED
FUNDS FOR LOCAL BODIES
Nalgonda MP and TPCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy participating in the briefing & interactive session by
Chairman N K Singh & members of 15th Finance Commission in Parliament New Delhi on Tuesday. During the
briefing of MPs of all parties, Uttam Kumar Reddy pleaded that State governments should immediately transfer
the designated funds to local bodies and asked the governments not to impose their own conditions on spending
of Finance Commission funds by sarpanches. He also said reckless & indiscriminate borrowing by Telangana
government will result in State getting into debt trap
Transport Minister condoles death of his PA’s mother
HANS NEWS SERVICE
KHAMMAM
TRANSPoRT Minister
Puvvada Ajay Kumar has
condoled the death of the
demand Prime Minister Naren-
dra Modi to set up separate Bc
Welfare Ministry at the centre,
he challenged.
Kamalamar reminded that it
was cM KcR, who added 17 oBc
castes into Bc category. Since BJP
is in power at the centre, its lead-
ers also must exert pressure on
the government for providing
reservations in both the Houses,
he pointed out. ‘The State govern-
ment is allotting Rs 9,000 crore
for Bc scholarships but the cen-
tre is sanctioning Rs 500 crore
only.’
The State government had es-
tablished as many as 261 Gurukul
Schools in just five years of its rul-
ing and provided education to
about 1.1 lakh students. Steps will
also be taken for allowing parents
Financial assistance for injured artist
HANS NEWS SERVICE
MAHBUBNAGAR
NoTeD philanthropist and so-
cial worker Pawan Kumar Yadav
extended Rs 20,000 financial
assistance to an artist, who was
severely injured in an accident.
The injured artist Janardhan,
resident of Tatikonda village of
Devarkadra mandal, is a theatre
artist. Recently he met with an
accident and lost his livelihood,
besides he has to bear the bur-
den of treatment costs. After
illegally occupied by the big in-
dustrialists and investors.
He further alleged that lands
assigned to tribals have been
taken away in the name of plan-
tation programmes and have
been acquired for other gov-
ernment projects without pay-
ing full compensation. Further,
mother of his personal as-
sistant (PA) ch Kiran Ku-
mar.
The Minister visited Ki-
ran Kumar's residence at
Sri Nagar colony on Tues-
to pay fees for four months only
for their wards studying in
schools and colleges.
Telangana is the only State,
which is sanctioning Kalayana
lakshmi cheques to the women
of weaker sections, after under-
standing their problems unlike
any other State in the country and
the credit for this goes to KcR, he
stated.
“There is no opposition within
the party against to cM KcR. Just
like Mahatma Gandhi for the na-
tion, KcR is for Telangana. What-
ever KcR says, is like a law for all
the party workers,” he an-
nounced. As KcR already an-
nounced that there is no question
of changing party leadership, we
cannot give any statement on this
issue, he clarified.
learning about his plight, Pawan
Kumar visited Janardhan’s
house on Tuesday and gave him
Rs 20,000 for his treatment.
Pawan Kumar said that the-
atre artists are already facing
many problems due to lack of
employment. ‘As a gesture of
humanity, it is our duty to res-
cue and support them,’ he
stated.
Palamuru Art Theatre Secre-
tary Krishna thanked Pawan
Kumar for his financial help to
the injured artist.
they were sent to jails foisting
false cases whenever they ques-
tioned the same, he said. The
BJP State chief cited how tribal
lands were taken away for the
Haritha Haram programme in
the chandapet mandal of Dev-
erakonda Assembly segment
near Nagarjunasagar. He de-
manded an assurance to deliver
justice to tribals who lost their
lands.
He alleged that the State gov-
ernment has failed to imple-
ment the order of the State
High court which upheld the
lands in an extent of 6,000
acres assigned to tribals af-
fected due to displacement un-
der the Nagarjunasagar project.
However, the ruling party lead-
5
day and paid homage to
PA's mother ch Damayanti.
He even carried the bier
along with the family mem-
bers during the funeral
procession.
21 copper wire
thieves arrested
HANS NEWS SERVICE
KOTHAGUDEM
Police have arrested 21 of-
fenders, who have been stealing
copper wire from different con-
struction sites in the district.
SP Sunil Dutt, speaking to the
media here on Tuesday, in-
formed that thieves were steal-
ing copper wire from the con-
struction sites of Sitarama lift
irrigation project, Guptha
Power infrastructure limited
and Pennar Solar Private lim-
ited in the district.
Following a tip off, police
team comprising ccS, Koth-
agudem, two-town and Julur-
pad cis and Annapureddypalli
Sub-inspector have conducted
vehicle inspections at Anna-
pureddypalli. The team caught
the offenders, who confessed to
their crimes during interroga-
tion. The SP informed that the
offenders have revealed that
they formed a gang to steal cop-
per wire under the leadership
of a scrap contractor at Sccl,
Godishela Venkateshwarlu of
chaman Basti in Kothagudem.
The offenders further in-
formed that they used to sell
stolen material to logu Satya-
narayana and Gorla Naresh at
Paloncha and to Venkatesh-
warlu in Hyderabad. cops re-
covered Rs 17.20 lakh property,
including 13 quintals of copper
wire worth Rs 8 lakh and Rs
9.20 lakh cash from the posses-
sion of the offenders. in all, 25
persons were involved in the
case and four others involved
in the case were yet to be ar-
rested. An auto rickshaw and a
mini cargo carrier were also
seized.
SP Dutt appreciated the po-
lice team for nabbing the of-
fenders. Bhadrachalam ASP Vi-
neeth G, ccS inspector l
Adinarayana and two-town in-
spector B Satyanarayana were
present.
ers have encroached the lands
located under the Huzurnagar
Assembly segment, he alleged.
He demanded action against
the government and revenue
officials who have stalled the
survey of forest lands in an ex-
tent of 6,200 acres. He ques-
tioned the need for police pro-
tection to an iron shed
constructed in Survey No 540
in Gurrambodu Tanda and
sought action against the police
official for lathi-charge and
false cases on tribals.
He demanded the chief Min-
ister to institute a comprehen-
sive inquiry into land grabbing
in Huzurnagar Assembly seg-
ment and bring those responsi-
ble to book.
6 EDIT BENGALURU WEDNESDAY 10 FEBRUARY 2021

Will retail investors lap up G-Secs?

of this exemption, ’New MSME borrowers’ shall be de-
fined as those MSME borrowers who have not availed
of any credit facilities from the banking system as of
January 1.

E NCOURAGING retail participation in the Govern-

ment securities (G-Secs) market has been a focus
area of the central government and RBI, of late. Keep-
ing it in view, a host of initiatives like the introduction
of non-competitive bidding in primary auctions, per-
mitting stock exchanges to act as aggregators/facilita-
tors for retail investors and allowing odd-lot segment
in the NDS-OM secondary market have already been
taken in the past.
It was in this context that the Reserve Bank of India
(RBI), in its bi-monthly review of annual monetary
policy last week, decided to provide retail investors ac-
cess to the online trading of the government primary
securities market along with the facility to open their
gilt securities account on its portal. the idea is to in-
crease retail participation in the gilt market, which is
normally flooded by institutional investors. Still, lots
of confusions persist about its modalities. Normally,
government securities have lot sizes over Rs 1 crore
something that warrants further simplification to en-
sure retail participation. RBI is currently working out
on the details of the facility to be issued separately.
Further, this move is expected to help apex bank to
raise requisite funds to meet the central government’s
borrowing target for the next fiscal.
But debt mutual funds, EtFs, and fixed deposits con-
tinued to be a better option for retail investors. So, it is
to be seen whether retail investors will lap up G-Secs.
If it works out well, then it will potentially help increase
the country’s financial savings to 21.4 per cent of GDP
for FY21 from merely 7.9 per cent in Q1FY20.
Apart from revealing its plans to allow retail in-
vestors into G-Secs, RBI also came out with a new step
to incentivise new credit flow to MSME borrowers. Un-
der this, commercial banks will be allowed to deduct
credit disbursed to ‘new MSME borrowers’ from their
NDtLs (net demand and time liabilities) for the cal-
culation of CRR (cash reserve ratio). For the purpose
the exemption will be available only for exposures
up to Rs 25 lakh per borrower (for credit extended up
to the fortnight ending October 1, 2021. Besides, the
exemption will be applied for a period of one year from
the date of origination of the loan or the tenure of the
loan, whichever is earlier. Still, it will provide a cushion
to the lenders to increase their advance books, rather
than parking their idle money with RBI. More credit
disbursement will mean more economic activity which
will ultimately help grow the country’s economy.
Furthermore, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das main-
tained that India’s economy would move only in one
direction now and ‘that is upwards’.the apex bank pro-
jected a GDP growth rate of 10.5 per cent for the next
financial year while revising retail inflation outlook to
5.2 per cent for the current quarter and to five per cent
A BUDGET OF
ASPIRATIONS
in the first half of next financial year i.e. FY22. Overall,
the steps taken by RBI in the last week’s policy are
likely to spur economic growth.

TARUN CHUGH

CCP has digitised its dictatorship t HE first Budget of this decade comes at a time when our nation is
commemorating the 75th year of Indian independence, 60 years
of Goa’s accession to India, 50 years of 1971 India- Pakistan War, Eighth
census of Independent India (also the first digital census), India’s turn
at the BRICS Presidency, Chandrayaan-3 Mission and celebration of
BINAY KUMAR SINGH the border without approval. It Haridwar Maha Kumbh. Under this scenario in the post Covid era,
also mandates web based busi- India has a vital role to play as an Asian economy in the new economic

H
AVING unveiled its am-
bition of emerging as
the top Artificial Intel-
ligence (AI) superpower by
2030, the Chinese Communist
Party (CCP) has taken rapid
strides in digitising every con-
ceivable sphere of its activity, so
much so even its dictatorial
form of governance. With CCP
ideology pervading the state-run
and data driven Chinese econ-
omy, it is but natural that giant
Chinese tech companies and
foreign companies with signifi-
cant presence in China, have
been arm twisted by CCP into
sharing sensitive consumer
data. this helps the CCP to
maintain an eagle eye vigil on its
1.4 billion citizenry through in-
stallation of a humongous num-
ber of surveillance devices
throughout the country, imple-
mentation of the dubious Social
Credit System and using digital
media to indoctrinate people to
its ideology while crushing any
form of dissent within the coun-
try. the story of CCP's transfor-
mation from a traditionally re-
pressive dictatorship since
inception to the digital dictator-
ship of President Xi Jinping
needs careful study, especially
to safeguard nations from the
pitfalls of the CCP's irredentist
ambitions.
Historically in 1949, Mao Ze-
dong had proclaimed the foun-
dation of the People's Republic
of China (PRC), a single party
state controlled by the Commu-
nist Party of China (CPC). He re-
mained in power till his death in
1976, during which he slowly
consolidated his control
through suppression of land-
lords, targeting political oppo-
nents and capitalists with the
'three-anti' and 'Five-anti' cam-
paigns, enforcing his vision of a
planned economy, purging
rightists within the CPC and
bringing in the infamous 'Cul-
tural Revolution' to remove
counter-revolutionary elements
in a violent 10-year class strug-
gle. While Chairman Mao set
China on the path of growth and
industrialisation, his regime will
always be remembered as being
'autocratic' and 'totalitarian' and
it had a terrible dark side, of
bringing about mass repression
and millions of deaths through
starvation, persecution, prison
labour and mass executions.
Fast forwarding to more re-
cent times, Xi's rise from being
the Party Chief of the Zhejiang
province of the Communist
Party from 2002-2007 to his ap-
pointment as Vice President in
2008 to elevation as President
in 2012, has been meteoric. By
2013, in true dictatorial style, Xi
acquired all three leadership
Xi's rise from being the Party Chief of the
Zhejiang province of the Communist Party
from 2002-2007 to his appointment as
Vice President in 2008 to elevation as
President in 2012, has been meteoric. By
2013, in true dictatorial style, Xi acquired
all three leadership roles in China -- Gen-
eral Secretary of the Communist Party of
China, Chairman of the Central Military
Commission and President of the People's
Republic of China
roles in China -- General Secre-
tary of the Communist Party of
China, Chairman of the Central
Military Commission and Pres-
ident of the People's Republic of
China. the first major policy in-
troduced by Xi in 2013 was a far
reaching anti-corruption policy
against high ranking officials
and local civil servants. What re-
ally cemented his dictatorship
was promulgation of CCP's offi-
cial Political doctrine in 2018
called 'Xi Jinping thought',
which strengthened power at
three levels namely, the nation,
the CCP and Xi himself. If that
was not enough, the National
People's Congress (NPC) on De-
cember 26, 2020, amended the
National Defence Law (NDL)
expanding the power of its
armed forces headed by Xi to
mobilise military and civilian re-
sources to defend its national in-
terests both at home and abroad.
'Disruption' and protection of
'development interests' has
been added as grounds for mo-
bilising and deploying troops
and reserve forces. Such sweep-
ing powers with a life long
tenure give Xi a dictator's
stature which even surpasses
the Dictatorship of Chairman
Mao.
In his first year as President,
Xi announced the CCP's ambi-
tious One Belt One Road
(OBOR) Project, only to rename
it as the Belt and Road Initiative
(BRI) a few years later based on
feedback from participating
countries that the term OBOR
sounded too authoritarian. the
vision articulated by the CCP for
the more inclusive sounding
BRI was to undertake infra-
structure development and in-
vestment in over 70 countries
across the continents of Asia,
Africa and Europe with likely in-
vestment of about $1.3 trillion
over the next 10 years. this was
followed in 2017 by the release
of Xi's 'New Generation Artifi-
cial Intelligence Development
Plan', which outlines develop-
ment of a domestic AI industry
worth $150 billion in the next
few years and to emerge as the
leading AI power by 2030. Such
is the importance accorded to AI
by the CCP, that it has also been
included as a national priority
in the 'Xi Jinping thought'.
therefore, the CCP's quest of
achieving world dominance in
AI perfectly complements the
BRI. China has already invested
about $22 billion in the semi-
conductor industry which
makes chips to power AI sys-
tems. It is predicted that China's
share in the AI market is likely
to expand to about $50 billion
by 2022 with raw material
sourced from BRI countries.
In reality, AI has given rise to
intensified societal surveillance
and a clampdown on free ex-
pression. A shocking and chill-
ing use of AI has been to quell
the Uyghur-Han Chinese
clashes in the north western au-
tonomous Xinjiang province,
which has caused widespread
unrest. the CCP has used AI to
incarcerate without trial over
one million Uyghurs and other
Muslim minority ethnic groups
in 're-education camps' also re-
ferred to as Vocational Educa-
tion and training Centers, much
like those in existence during
Chairman Mao's 'Cultural Rev-
olution'. Surveillance cameras,
Facial Recognition software etc.
have effectively been used to
segregate, track and restrict the
freedom of the turkish Muslim
minority in Xinjiang.
the same AI tools are also
used to monitor the lives of in-
nocent Chinese citizens through
data mining of giant companies.
CCP's intelligence agencies reg-
ularly use the data processing
capabilities of private compa-
nies such as Alibaba, tencents,
Huawei, Bytedance, Baidu, ZtE
etc. to derive actionable
intelligence in quick time.
this arrangement obviates du-
plication of expensive data-pro-
cessing functions by CCP's In-
telligence agencies. CCP has
given legitimacy to this practice
by enacting the Internet Secu-
rity Law in 2017, which man-
dates all data collected in China
to be stored within the country
and bans transfer of data across
nesses to share data which may
affect the 'security of the nation',
which grossly violates privacy of
individuals. the Social Credit
System introduced by CCP os-
tensibly aims to standardise the
assessment of economic and so-
cial reputation of citizens and
businesses. It goes without say-
ing that the Social Credit System
would reward pro-CCP activi-
ties and restrict the freedom to
travel and also social liberties of
the so called dissenting voices.
It is due to this digital totalism
that despite poor handling of the
Covid-19 pandemic by the CCP
administration, only highly sani-
tised reports came out from
China.
the CCP Dictatorship has not
restricted itself to using these
'virtues' of Digital Authoritari-
anism on its own citizens. two
recent global examples of ad-
verse effects of Chinese AI sys-
tems can be seen in Zimbabwe
and the Philippines. In Zim-
babwe, Hikvision's facial recog-
nition technology has been used
for border security purposes and
for creation of surveillance cam-
eras enabled smart cities. the
Chinese firm CloudWalk tech-
nology, sanctioned by the US
government for its human rights
abuse against the Uyghur com-
munity, has also developed a fa-
cial recognition system for the
Zimbabwean government. Sim-
ilarly, the Philippines launched
the 'Safe Philippines' project at
Manila under which about
12000 surveillance cameras us-
ing AI tools would be installed
in partnership with the Chinese
companies Huewei and CItCC,
with an amount of about US $
400 Million borrowed from the
CCP government. today, it is es-
timated that at least 18 countries
are developing mass surveil-
lance systems with CCP's assis-
tance. Embracing the CCP AI
Model could well mean the end
of democracy and the rise of dic-
tatorship in these countries.
One can only imagine the
enormous destructive potential
of the debt trap scheme of BRI
coupled with the sinister facet
of CCP AI dominance. We thus
have a brilliantly conceived for-
mula for modern day colonisa-
tion of weak democracies
through Digital
Dictatorship...and all this
achieved without having to fire
a single gunshot let alone fight a
war!!! the only counter to this
is to develop a democratic digital
model which will, while enhanc-
ing security, still preserve the
privacy and human rights of in-
dividuals and safeguard the sov-
ereignty of nations.
(Binay Kumar Singh is an
author and columnist)
order.
the Union Budget 2021-22 along with the mini-budgets, Pradhan
Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana and the AatmaNirbhar Bharat packages,
presented by the Finance Minister to stabilise the economy during the
critical pandemic period has prepared our country in the right direction.
Under the guidance of our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, the
Budget addresses the imperative of resetting of priorities and identifies
the emergence of opportunities by devoting an “all-inclusive budget”
as a guide to “self-reliant India”.
the development of any nation depends on the transportation net-
works and the ways in which they are being maintained. the same
holds true for the development of a huge and populous nation like
India. One of the most crucial announcements was with regard to in-
frastructure development projects across various States and union ter-
ritories. For connecting the areas and maintaining smooth flow of
traffic, the construction of new and developed roads are a must. the
infrastructure projects are not just connectivity specific, like the pro-
posed highway works and up-gradation of existing 675- km long
Kolkata-Siliguri highway across the state of West Bengal, but are also
employment opportunities
The Union Budget has generators.
provisioned `30,757 crore Further, as the Union ter-
for Jammu and Kashmir, the ritories receive 100 per cent
funding from the central gov-
highest among the Union ernment long stalled projects
Territories. The are being revived and new
announcement of maiden welfare projects are being im-
plemented. Also, the Union
gas pipeline in Jammu and Budget has provisioned
Kashmir has further `30,757 crore for Jammu and
rekindled hopes for the Kashmir, the highest among
the Union territories. the an-
revival of the project which nouncement of maiden gas
due to paucity of fund and pipeline in Jammu and Kash-
lack of administrative push mir has further rekindled
hopes for the revival of the
showed no progress for a project which due to paucity
decade. This gas pipeline of fund and lack of adminis-
project will create base for trative push showed no
progress for a decade. this gas
increased beneficiary pipeline project will create
coverage under the Ujjwala base for increased beneficiary
Yojana as well as decrease coverage under the Ujjwala
Yojana as well as decrease car-
carbon footprints by bon footprints by increasing
increasing utilisation of clean utilisation of clean fuel for
fuel for cooking purpose cooking purpose.
this connectivity upgrada-
tion also envisions the development of modern fishing harbours and
fish landing centres along the banks of rivers and waterways. the gov-
ernment has provisioned to develop five major fishing harbours – Kochi,
Chennai, Visakhapatnam, Paradip, and Petuaghat –as hubs of economic
activity. the development of fishing harbours would help in exploitation
of rich fishing grounds, create adequate infrastructure facilities for op-
eration of mechanised fishing vessels, mitigate navigation hazards, save
fishermen life and fishing vessels from the rough sea, handle fish and
crustacean in hygienic conditions, thereby enhance the export earnings.
the first-ever paperless Budget 2021 deliberated on the sharp focus
on boosting the Start-up ecosystem in the country, with the objective
of encouraging economic activity and fostering growth. It is imperative
to note here that recently 11 Indian start-ups managed to bag the uni-
corn tag in a pandemic year as they crossed the 1 billion valuation mark.
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji while congratulating the nation
on this achievement underscored that the start-ups are changing the
demographic characteristics of today’s business. Further, start-ups
played a major role in ensuring availability of sanitisers, PPE kits and
related supply chains, played a sterling role in meeting local needs like
grocery, medicine delivery at doorstep, transportation of frontline
workers and online study material.
thus, appreciated their spirit of finding opportunity in adversity,
the Budget provided further boost to start-up investments in the coun-
try by extending the eligibility for claiming tax holidays for start-ups
along with the capital gains exemption for investment in start-ups till
March 31, 2022 to incentivise funding. this will encourage many start-
ups to engaged and explore more sectors of growth such as harnessing
clean energy and power infrastructure maintenance, use artificial in-
telligence to promote the efficient use of energy and reducing the cost
of the consumers.
Shri Narendra Modi ji ushered in a wave of behavioural change
among the people with the launch of ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’. the

LETTERS such natural calamities are occuring? this requires se-

rious introspection and scientific studies and analysis.
At the same time, looking at another angle, some ob-
servations appear not irrelevant. Nation bestowed by
God, provided huge resources to harness for the welfare
and wellbeing of humanity at large. But what are we are
doing? Nature is misused and abused.
this aspect requires introspection and to apply the
correct remedies. God is being forgotten. His teachings
are conveniently ignored. Moral values and morality
have taken the back seat. It seems people have no fear of
God, no love for God.
God advised us to acquire- Daiva Preeti ( Love for God)
and Paapa Bheeti (Fear of sins). Further for the pros-
perity of any nation, the index level of national character
need to be as high as possible. to achieve this all con-
cerned and who matter most have extraordinary and
A tragedy of Himalayan special responsibilities.
Y G Krishna Swamy, Rajahmundry
proportions
not at all related to them or they don't know even the al-
pha and beta of the issue. Yet, they try their level best to
disturb the law and order situation in the society. Our
PM Modi has rightly used the term 'Andolanjivi' to refer
to them. the government should initiate stern actions
against such traitors (this term aptly suits them).
Venkata Seshasai Deevi, Narasaraopet
Good move by PM
I t is good that the Prime Minister appealed to the
protesting farmers to initiate talks to resolve the three
farmer laws issue. It is equally good that the farmer lead-
ers responded to PM's invitation for talks positively.
(End stir, hold talks: PM. Feb. 9) Now that there is a con-
ducive atmosphere for discussions, both Government
and the agitating farmer leaders should think afresh. lis-
ten to each other’s point of view, and discuss the problem
without digging the past.
this meeting should be the last and final one to resolve
pandemic made ‘Swachhta’ an integral lifestyle practice and increased
community participation to further the achievement of key govern-
ment initiatives, especially in urban areas. For further Swachhta of
urban India, the government in its budget outlay increased focus on
complete faecal sludge management and waste water treatment,
source segregation of garbage, reduction in single-use plastic, reduc-
tion in air pollution by effectively managing waste from construc-
tion-and-demolition activities and bio-remediation of all legacy dump
sites. the Urban Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0 is being implemented
with a total financial allocation of `1,41,678 crores over a period of
five years from 2021-2026.
Amidst a global pandemic, India’s overall allocation for health and
well-being increased by 137 per cent in the financial year 2021-22,
thus boosting capacity of health-care system to detect and cure new
and emerging disease in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. In
this regard the government while underscoring the importance of
strengthening the healthcare infrastructure launched PM Aatmanirb-
har Swasth Bharat Yojana with an outlay of about `64,180 crore over
6 year. the scheme will concentrate on bridging the heath infrastruc-
ture gaps at the village, block and panchayat level and integrate them
with the centralised healthcare facilities.

I t is very unfortunate that Uttarakhand glacier burst

that occurred on 7th Feb 2021 resulted in the death
/missing of about 200 persons in that area. this figure
is likely to go up in the final count. In addition to the
huge loss of human lives, due to different reasons, two
hydel projects were damaged and some houses were
badly affected; resulting in huge loss to the nation. Why
Rent-a-cause activists abound
all the issues related to the three farmer laws and end
the stalemate once for all. In short this is Now or Never
today India has indigenously manufactured vaccine and has begun
medically safeguarding not only her own citizens against Covid-19, but
I N our country, of late, it has become a profession for
some people to poke their nose in each and every issue.
Let it be a religious issue, political issue, academic issue,
situation for both the parties.
G V N Murthy, Hyderabad
also those of 100 or more countries under its Vaccine Maitri outreach.
Our nation has strengthened its ethos of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’
while turning a crisis into an opportunity of being ‘self-reliance’ and
farmers' issue, they at once jump into action and start thehansreader@gmail.com also presented a Budget with an eye on future growth trajectory.
making loud hues and cries. In some instances, they are (The author is National General Secretary, Bharatiya Janata Party)
BENGALURU wEDNESDAy 10 FEBRUARy 2021
Kurnool records 83.58% polling
2,68,567 voters out of
total 3,21,312 exercise
their franchise to elect
142 sarpanches
collector and sP say
no untoward incidents
reported even
in faction-ridden villages
HANS NEWS SERVICE
KURNOOL
tHE first phase of polling passed
off peacefully with no untoward
incidents, said district collector g
Veera pandiyan. He addressed the
media along with superintendent
of police (Sp) Dr Fakkeerappa
Kaginelli at the collectorate here
on tuesday.
WOMAN CANDIDATE STAGES
PROTEST WITH PETROL
HANS NEWS SERVICE
KURNOOL
tENSE situation prevailed at Yagan-
tipalli polling station in Banagana-
palle constituency as an independent
sarpanch aspirant, Bandi Vijayalak-
shmi, staged a protest with petrol bot-
tle in hand over withdrawal of her
nomination with forged signature by
unidentified persons. polling will be
held for the gram panchayat in the
second phase.
According to information, Bandi
Vijayalakshmi of Yagantipalli village
filed nomination for sarpanch post as
an independent candidate. on Feb-
ruary 8, monday, she went to the
polling station to collect certificate of
symbol allotted to her. But to her as-
tonishment, her nomination was
withdrawn. Vehemently denying she
Polling held smoothly in Kadapa barring minor incidents
HANS NEWS SERVICE
KADAPA
ExcEpt a few stray incidents,
elections held for 155 village
panchayats and 1,058 wards in 14
mandals in the first phase on
tuesday were by and large
peaceful in the district. tension
prevailed at Badripalle village of
PANCHAYAT POLLS PHASE-1
Chittoor district records
polling percentage of 79.33
Voters in a queue line at a polling station at Kammapalli village in Ramachandrapuram mandal in Chittoor district on Tuesday
HANS NEWS SERVICE
TIRUPATI
tHE phase-1 panchayat elec-
tions were held in a smooth man-
ner in chittoor district, native
district of panchayat Raj minis-
ter p Ramachandra Reddy, on
tuesday.
meanwhile, Deputy chief
minister K Narayana Swamy and
his wife cast their votes at
padirikuppam panchayat of
Karveti Nagar mandal of chit-
toor district. till 2.30 pm, total
percentage of votes polled was
79.33%.
District administration has
conducted elections for 342 pan-
chayats in 20 mandals of the dis-
trict. police deployed more than
4,500 police personnel for elec-
tion bandobast across the chit-
toor division where the phase -1
panchayat polls were conducted.
Women were seen in large
numbers waiting outside the
polling stations in villages to ex-
District Collector G Veera Pandiyan addressing a press conference in Kurnool on Tuesday.
SP Dr Fakkeerappa Kaginelli is also seen.
Veera pandian said in the first
phase, of the total 193 gram
panchayat, 52 were declared
unanimous. the polling was
withdrew her candidature, she de-
manded the officials show her with-
drawal form. When they showed the
form with her signature, she said the
signature was forged.
Upset by the development Vijay-
alakshmi immediately staged a
protest on monday evening at the
polling station. Again on tuesday, she
resumed her protest with petrol bot-
tle in hand demanding reinstatement
of her candidature. on ‘withdrawal’
of only independent candidate from
the contest, authorities on monday
declared the remaining candidate as
unanimous winner.
on tuesday, some other women
from the village also reached the spot
in support of Vijayalakshmi and par-
ticipated at the protest triggering
tense situation in the area.
As the situation deteriorated, Ba-
chapadu mandal following
supporters of YSR congress and
the tDp entering into heat
exchanges over deployment of
election booth agents. the polling
process was disrupted for some
time. However, normalcy was
restored after the police arrived at
the spot. In Nelaturu village of
Duvvuru mandal, police have
Polling held for 342
Panchayats in 20 mandals
4,500 Police Personnel
dePloyed on security duty
ercise their franchise. In many
villages, youth specially women
came forward to cast their votes
early.
By 8.30 am, polling percentage
recorded was 14 %. Later at 12.30
pm, the polling percentage went
up to 67 % and by 2.30 pm it was
79.33 %.
chittoor Sp S SenthilKumar
and tirupati Urban Sp ch
Venkata Appala Naidu continu-
ously reviewed the security
arrangements at polling booths
through online webcasting.
After 3 pm, the polling officials
started the counting process in
the same panchayats to declare
the ward members.
At the counting centres, police
conducted to 142 gram panchayats
in which 2,68,567 voters out of the
total 3,21,312 exercised their
franchise in a peaceful manner. A
says her nomination as
independent sarpanch
candidate of yagantipalli
gram panchayat was
withdrawn by someone with
forged signature
Women of village join her
in protest sparking tension
in the village
Police pacify the agitators as
nandyal sub-collector takes
up the matter
naganapalle police rushed to the spot
and tried to pacify the agitating
women. During the process a heated
argument took place between the po-
lice and the villagers. However, after
a great effort, police were able to pla-
cate the agitators.
recovered gold ornaments (90
nose studs) from a section of
people while there were
distributing them in the village to
woo the voters.
In Kamalapuram, police seized
unaccounted cash of Rs 10 lakh
from the motorcycle of one SK
Syed Umar at the election check-
post on bypass road.
bandobust was set up by chittoor
police and District collector
Harinarayan.
the collector inspected the
polling centres at chillapalli and
thimapalli of gudipala mandal
as well as at a few polling stations
in chittoor rural mandal on
tuesday and enquired about the
progress of polling with the staff.
In addition, Urban Sp ch
Venkata Appala Naidu visited Rc
puram and Vadamalapeta man-
dal villages to inspect the polling
centres.
Similarly, DLpo o Ruparani
closely watched the voting trend
and polling procedure at 117
polling stations which were iden-
tified as most problematic.
AP
total of 83.58 percent polling was
registered by the end of voting.
the collector said it was a good
development that such a large
number of people had turned out to
vote following covid norms.
thanking the district level officials
for making the voting process a
grand success, he said they the
same spirit would continue until
the deputy sarpanch election was
completed.
Sp Dr Fakkeerappa Kaginelli
said 12 mandals witnessed the polls
in the first phase without any
incidents. He said no untoward
incident was reported in faction-
ridden villages.
He made it clear that no victory
celebrations by taking out rallies,
bursting crackers, beating drums
and others were strictly prohibited.
If anyone violates the norms, they
would be taken to task, the Sp said.
FAPCCI to
conduct six-day
entrepreneurship
development
programme
HANS NEWS SERVICE
VIJAYAWADA
FEDERAtIoN of Andhra
pradesh chambers of com-
merce and Industry is conduct-
ing an Entrepreneurship De-
velopment programme (EDp)
of six days duration from Feb-
ruary 15, with an aim of training
women and youth in the essen-
tials of conceiving, planning,
initiating and launching an eco-
nomic activity or an enterprise
successfully, says Shaik Sa-
habuddin, programme coordi-
nator of the FApccI.
In a statement here on
tuesday, he said that the EDp
is a structured training pro-
gramme of six days offline of
daily three hours with an ob-
jective to promote small en-
terprise by tapping the talents
of potential entrepreneurs
through training. the pro-
gramme which would be held
at central Excise colony, at
gunadala here also aims to
convert jobseekers into job-
creators through science and
technology interventions.
Peaceful polling in Kavali division
HANS NEWS SERVICE
NELLORE
tHE first phase polling in the Kavali division
has been peaceful with around 80 pc of polling
recorded by 3.30 pm on tuesday. there has been
no violence reported anywhere in the division.
However,t polls were boycotted in some wards
of Sambhunipalem in Allur mandal. polls were
conducted for 137 sarpanch posts and 1,024 ward
members. Now, officials started counting in var-
ious mandals.
the tDp leaders alleged that the police offi-
cials in Allur mandal threatened the leaders
from the opposition. they charged that Sub In-
spector had thrashed the polling agents and
tDp leaders at North Amuluru.
Senior leader Somireddy chandramohan
Reddy demanded Sp Bhaskar Bhushan to initi-
ate action against the official for acting as ‘ruling
party agent.’ they lodged a complaint with the
SEc against the SI.
polling was completed by 3.30 pm and the of-
ficials distributed slips to the people who
reached the polling stations by the time to en-
able them to cast their votes. collector KVN
chakradhar Babu, Joint collectors N prabhakar
Reddy, mN Harendira prasad, and election ob-
server p Basant Kumar visited various polling
stations in Allur, Dagadarthi, Bogole, Kavali, Jal-
adanki and Kaligiri.
the district administration closely observed
CAMPUS SELECTION
As many as 26 students from Balaji College of Pharmacy, Anantapur, got selected for medical coding jobs at Omega Health Care, Bengaluru, in the campus interviews held at the
college on Monday
7
Rathasapthami on Feb 19
HANS NEWS SERVICE lord malayappa tha Vahanam (1-2 pm),
TIRUMALA swamy will ride on chakrasnanam (2 pm-3 pm),
Kalpavruksha Vahanam (4
AS part of Surya Jayanti cel-
seven Vahanams on pm to 5 pm), Sarvabhhupala
ebrations, the ttD is organ- the festival day Vahanam (6 pm-7pm) and
ising Rathasapthami, which chandraprabha Vahanam
the predawn rituals
is popularly known as mini (8-9 pm).
or Upa Brahmotsavams at
will be held, but the In view of Rathasapthami
tirumala on February 19. arjitha sevas have fete, the ttD cancelled all
on the auspicious day, the been cancelled on the Arjitha Sevas being per-
processional deity Sri the occasion formed at the shrine includ-
malayappa Swamy will be ing Kalyanotsavam, Arjita
taken in procession atop lowed by other vahanams. Brahmotsavam, Unjal seva
seven vahanams, commenc- the schedule of the seven and Sahasra Deepalankara
ing His celestial and majes- Vahana Sevas is: seva on February 19.
tic ride on Surya prabha Va- Suryaprabha vahanam However, the predawn rit-
hanam in the form of (5.30-8.00 am), chinna Se- uals - the Suprabata Seva
Suryanarayana murthy be- sha Vahana (9-10 and tomala Seva will be held
tween 5.30 am and 8 am am),garuda Vahana Seva (11 in Ekantham following the
along four mada streets, fol- am to 12 noon), Hanuman- age old temple tradition.
Incident-free polling in
Kadiri division
Voters waiting in queue line at a polling centre at Patnam village in Kadiri revenue division in the first phase
panchayat elections in Anantapur district on Friday
HANS NEWS SERVICE
members in 1714 panchayats are said to be
ANANTAPUR
unanimously elected in the absence of rival
poLLINg for 169 gram panchayats and 983 candidates.
wards in the Kadiri revenue division was in- In all, 5,696 polling personnel worked in
cident-free and peaceful, thanks to the fool- the first phase of the panchayat polls. District
proof arrangements made by the district ad- collector and Election officer gandham
ministration and the police. the division chandrudu meanwhile visited several
recorded a polling percentage of 82.03. the polling stations since morning including Nal-
turnout of voters in the panchayats was lamada polling centre in Nallamada mandal
fairly good with the exception of those voters and interacted with voters to know whether
who are outside the district on migration in they experienced any hassles for voting.
search of work and better avenues.
polling commenced at 6.30 am in the
He also met the migrant labour who re-
turned to their village to cast their vote and
morning and ended by 3.30 pm. Although congratulated them for taking trouble to
the voting was dull in the first and second reach their native village just to vote.
hours due to cold weather, the turnout He told the media at the village that the
picked-up after 8 am. Each voter has cast arrangements for the panchayat polls were
two votes one for the ward member and an- voter and employee-friendly and that was the
other for the sarpanch. reason why the voter turnout was quite high.
As many as 726 candidats are in the fray He said that DWAmA officials contacted mi-
for 169 sarpanch posts in the 12 mandals in grant labourers for participating in the voting
the Kadiri revenue division. According to un- and made transport arrangements for their
confirmed sources, as many as 715 ward arrival in time.
Medical officials
told to monitor
the polling procedure through the monitoring
and control room arranged at the collectorate.
Webcasting has been attached to the control
high-risk pregnancy
room for observing the polling process and iden-
cases in EG
tification of any lapses.
members of the Red cross Kavali visited vari-
ous polling stations and guided the voters to fol-
low covid guidelines while casting their votes.
HANS NEWS SERVICE
KAKINADA
they helped the elderly and differently-abled
persons reach the polling centres with the help AmoNg the 5,125 pregnant
of wheelchairs. At many places, thermal scan- women tested in East go-
ners were used for checking the health status of davari, 656 have been found to
the voters and they were provided with sanitis- be at high-risk, said Dr KVS
ers. goureswar Rao, District med-
officials started the counting process in many ical and Health officer
villages at 4 pm after the completion of polling. (DmHo). He inspected cHcs,
District collector chakradhar Babu informed pHcs and government hospi-
that they would announce results of the ward tals in the district on tuesday.
members first and then the results of the gowreswar Rao reviewed the
sarpanches. Subsequently, the election for vice- implementation of pradhan
sarpanches would be held. mantri Surakshit matritva
Further, officials are getting ready for the sec- Abhiyan (pmSmA) scheme.
ond phase of polls in Atmakur division on Feb- He said that a safe delivery
ruary 13. Ballot papers, ink, and other stationery calendar for both the mother
have been shifted to the mandals for their distri- and child should be prepared
bution to the polling stations. officials con- and implemented by the med-
ducted verification of nominations in gudur and ical officers of primary Health
Naidupet divisions on tuesday and the people centres. As many as 9 gynae-
whose nominations have been rejected can sub- cologists from government
mit their appeals on Wednesday. the polling hospitals and pg medical stu-
percentage recorded in Kaligiri mandal is 81.89 dents offered their services for
pc and Bogole 78.59 pc. conducting these tests.
8 AP bengaluru wednesday 10 February 2021

AGRI REVIEW
SEC told to hold back its
‘Protect farmers from cheating’ e-Watch app till Feb 17
CM tells officials to
coordinate with police in
setting up special police
stations to protect farmers
Directs them to make
arrangements for setting up
crop insurance company
HANS NEWS SERVICE
AMARAVATI
CHIEF Minister YS Jagan Mo-
han Reddy instructed the officials
to ensure that various laws
brought for the benefit of farmers
were implemented strictly.
During a review on agriculture
activities at his camp office here
on Tuesday, the Chief Minister
said asked the officials to take
steps to support farmers and en-
sure they were not cheated and
also to plan for setting up special
police stations for farmers.
He said the police department
should coordinate with agricul-
tural department in this regard.
awareness should be created
among tenant farmers under Po-
lambadi programme on cultiva-
tor rights acts and also that they
would not have any problem with
crop cultivator rights card and
the posters with this information
Chief Minister y s Jagan Mohan reddy reviewing agriculture, amul project and Janata bazaars with officials at his camp office in
Tadepalli on Tuesday
should be displayed in Rythu
Bharosa Kendras (RBKs).
The Chief Minister said hoard-
ings should be placed at RBKs,
village clinics and village secre-
tariats with details of services be-
ing provided under them so that
awareness could be created
among people on it.
He asked them to take steps on
setting up of insurance company
on behalf of the government for
crop insurance and a special offi-
cer should be appointed for it.
The Chief Minister told the of-
ficials to take steps for the pay-
ment of insurance premium for
Kharif 2020–21. He also directed
release the first tranche of Rythu
Bharosa Scheme in May.
Special focus should be laid on
organic farming and the crops
should be purchased under
RBKs, he said adding that regular
monitoring should be done on
the same.
The message that millers
should come directly to RBKs to
buy the crop, should be strongly
conveyed, the Chief Minister
said.
He also reviewed aP amul
Project and setting up of aqua
hubs, fund pooling and setting up
of multi-purpose facility centres.
The Chief Minister discussed
Janata Bazaars and proposals to
setup them in an area of 500 sqft
to 5,000 sqft.
It was decided to set up a
Janata Bazaar for a population of
5,000 in first phase and buildings
should be constructed for them.
The Chief Minister said quality
items should be available in
Janata Bazaars at prices lower
than in open market. He said
farmers should get minimum
support price for their items and
the same should be made avail-
able to consumers at lower prices
benefitting both farmers and
consumers.
agriculture Mission vice-
chairman M V S Nagi Reddy, agri-
culture special chief secretary
Poonam Malakondaiah, market-
ing and co-operation department
special secretary Y Madhusudan
Reddy, agriculture marketing
commissioner P S Pradyumna,
aP DDC MD ahmad Babu and
others were present.
HANS NEWS SERVICE
AMARAVATI
THE andhra Pradesh High
Court adjourned the matter of
usage e-Watch app launched by
State Election Commission for
monitoring panchayat elections
to February 17 stating that the
app developed by the SEC can-
not be used until the security
certificate is obtained while di-
recting the SEC to reply to the
queries raised by the aP Tech-
nology Services (aPTS) which
is tasked with certifying the app.
The public interest litigation
(PIL) relation to the e-Watch
app was taken up by the High
Court on Tuesday. Matter was
heard by the bench comprising
Chief Justice arup Kumar
goswami and Justice Praveen
Kumar
On behalf of the state govern-
ment, C Suman submitted that
based on the request made by
the SEC, the aPTS conducted
preliminary tests and a report
had been sent to the SEC on
flaws and the security concerns
found in the app. The most glar-
ing security concern was that
the source code of the aP social
welfare department was used in
Govt counsel informs the High Court that AP Technology
Services which is asked to issue technical clearance to the
app is yet to receive many clarifications from the SEC
SEC advocate submits that the commission is ready
to use ECI’s ‘C-Vigil’ or the State govt’s ‘e-Nigha’, but the
latter is not working
the development of the e-Watch if it is allowed to do so. He fur-
app. He also told the court that ther said that the app developed
the SEC had not produced any by the state government, e-
document to show that the so- nigha, was not working.
cial welfare department had When the court enquired as
consented to use its source code to whether the state govern-
for developing the e-Watch app. ment has any objection if the
If no permission was given, the app developed by the state is
app would be vulnerable to se- used by the SEC, the govern-
curity breach. ment counsel Suman said he
SEC counsel submitted to the had no instructions on the sta-
court that the commission was tus of the app developed by the
willing to use the services of the state but the state will not have
e-Vigil app developed by the any objection if the SEC wants
Election Commission of India to use it. The case

Vijayasai expresses regret LIFTING STAY ON AMARAVATI S.I.T. PROBE

over remarks against V-P Apex court to hear plea on March 5
NEW DELHI
YSRCP Rajya Sabha member V
Vijayasai Reddy on Tuesday ex-
pressed regret for the com-
ments he made against the Ra-
jya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah
Naidu, saying he never intended
to cast any aspersions on the
Chair and had uttered them in
a state of anguish. Vijayasai
Reddy on Monday sought ex-
punging of certain comments
made by a TDP MP K Ravindra
Kumar a few days ago. He went
on to make the objectionable
comments when Chairman M
Venkaiah Naidu asked him to
give a notice for examination.
"I never intended to bring any
disrepute or make the chair dys-
functional sir. I am no one to
make the chairman of Rajya
Sabha dysfunctional,” he said in
the House on Tuesday. He said
he was in a state of anguish when
he made those comments on
Monday and now wishes to take
back his words. “I sincerely re-
gret my comments made yester-
day. They were unintended and
made on a spur of anguish. I had
become emotional," he said. “I
had no intention to hurt the
chair or cast aspersions on the
The YSRCP member on
Monday cast aspersions
on the Rajya Sabha
Chairman during
proceedings
Venkaiah Naidu expresses
pain over the comments
saying they are intended
to make the Chair
‘dysfunctional’
On being ‘requested’ by
Parliamentary Affairs
Minister, Vijayasai on
Tuesday expresses regrets
over the remarks saying it
will not be repeated
chair. I, therefore, regret it once
against and assure you sir it will
not be repeated again." after Vi-
jayasai Reddy expressed regret,
Naidu said “the issue is closed.”
Earlier, when the House met
for the day, Parliamentary affairs
minister Pralhad Joshi said
Monday’s episode was con-
demnable. “We have all respect
and regard for you, especially for
the Chair,” he told Naidu.
“Whatever happened is unac-
ceptable. Throwing aspersions
on the Chair is not at all ac-
cepted. This is very commend-
able.” The minister requested
the YSRCP member to apologise.
On Monday, Vijayasai had ig-
nored Naidu’s plea for writing to
him on the remarks that he had
found objectionable in the TDP
MP’s submission a few days
back. He had continued to speak
despite his mike being turned off
and the Chair ordering that
nothing would go on record.
During this time, Vijayasai cast
aspersions on the Chair. “You
are saying the chairman is bi-
ased,” Naidu had remarked on
Monday. Naidu had said such
comments were made to make
the chairman “dysfunctional”
and he felt “really sad”. “But I
will not be cowed down by this
sort of effort to make the chair-
man dysfunctional,” he had said.
NEW DELHI
THE Supreme Court on Tuesday
said it would hear on March 5 a
plea filed by the Andhra Pradesh
government challenging the High
Court order which stayed SIT probe
into alleged irregularities in land
deals in Amaravati Capital Region
during the previous TDP regime of
N Chandrababu Naidu.
The apex court said it would also
hear on March 5 the separate peti-
tion filed by the state government
against another High Court order in
a matter which relates to alleged il-
legal land transactions during shift-
ing of the state capital to Amara-
vati. These petitions came up for
hearing before a bench comprising
Justices Ashok Bhushan and R S
Reddy. The AP High Court on Sep-
tember 16 last year had granted a
stay on the actions of the Special
Investigation Team (SIT) consti-
tuted by Chief Minister Y S Jagan
Mohan Reddy-led government to
conduct a comprehensive probe
into various irregularities, particu-
larly the land deals in the Amara-
vati Capital Region.
The top court had on November 5
agreed to hear the state’s plea
challenging the High Court order
and had sought responses includ-
ing from two TDP leaders, Varla Ra-
a bench comprising Justices
ashok bhushan and r s reddy
will also hear another plea by
the state govt against the aP
High Court order which
restrained the media from
publishing details of FIr
regarding alleged irregularities
in land deals during shifting of
capital to amaravati
On sIT probe stay, the apex court asks Varla ramaiah and
alapati rajendra Prasad, on whose plea the inquiry was
stayed, to file their replies in two weeks, saying the rejoinder
be filed within one week thereafter.
maiah and Alapati Rajendra Prasad,
a former minister, on whose peti-
tions the High Court had stayed the
probe initiated by the SIT. When the
plea against the High Court's Sep-
tember 16 last year order came up
for hearing on Tuesday, the top
court granted last opportunity to
the respondents to file their replies
within two weeks and said that re-
joinder be filed within one week
thereafter.
Separately, the AP government
has also moved the apex court
against the September 15 last year
order of the state High Court which
had restrained the media from pub-
lishing news regarding an FIR
lodged in connection with alleged
irregularities in land transactions in
Amaravati. The top court had on
November 25 last year stayed the
High Court direction restraining the
media from publishing news re-
garding the FIR.
The apex court had also said that
the HC shall not decide till January
last week the pending matter
which relates to the alleged illegal
land transactions during shifting of
the state capital to Amaravati. Dur-
ing the hearing in the apex court
earlier, the counsel appearing for
Andhra Pradesh government had
said that the HC had erred in stay-
ing the operation of SIT as it was a
policy decision to look into the al-
leged irregularities committed in
the land deals in Amaravati after
state’s bifurcation into Andhra
Pradesh and Telangana.
The Jagan Mohan Reddy govern-
ment had constituted the 10-mem-
ber SIT, headed by a Deputy Inspec-
tor General of Police rank IPS
officer, to conduct a comprehen-
sive investigation into various al-
leged irregularities, particularly the
land deals in the Amaravati Capital
Region, during the previous Chan-
drababu Naidu regime. The report
of a Cabinet Sub-Committee on the
procedural, legal and financial ir-
regularities and fraudulent transac-
tions concerned with various proj-
ects, including the issues related to
land in the CRDA region will form
the basis for the SIT probe, the gov-
ernment had said. Challenging the
state governments order, the TDP
leaders had contended before the
High Court that constitution of SIT
was “arbitrary, illegal, without ju-
risdiction and unconstitutional”
and consequently sought that it be
set aside. (PTI)

Naidu warns Japan-AP discuss infrastructure

IS STEEL PLANT SALE JUSTIFIED?
I
t is
evident
that the
Central
government has
already decided to
privatise VSP at any cost. As a result,
many employees may also lose jobs. At
this juncture, a State-wide agitation is to
be considered involving all political
parties to dissuade the Union government.
M Devarajulu Naidu, Controller,
APSRTC, Chittoor
T here will
be many
disadvan-
tages to the state
and employees of
Vizag steel plant if
the plant is handed over to the private
parties. There is a scope that steel prices may
go up if the plant goes into private hands and
the consumers have to shell out high prices.
Employees will have no job security under
private managements. We got the Vizag steel
plant after a prolonged struggle. I strongly
advocate that it should be run by the
government only and demand the Union
government to drop the proposal.
N Narasimha Murthy,
teacher, Vijayawada
against harassment
of BCs by the govt financing, skill development
t is a
I
complete
ly wrong
HANS NEWS SERVICE
AMARAVATI
Japan Consul General
in Chennai meets CM,
decision to TDP national president N Chandrababu holds discussion on
privatise RINL in Naidu on Tuesday warned of serious conse- investments
quences if the ruling YSRCP leaders contin-
Visakhapatnam. Industries Minister
ued to target and harass the Backward
The plant has been a major source of Classes (BC) leaders as part of their political Goutham Reddy and
employment for thousands of families. If suppression. He repeated his allegation that senior officials explain
all these revenue generating industries false cases were foisted on K atchannaidu
and he was arrested. Naidu spoke to atchan- potential avenues for
are privatised in the state, then there
naidu on the phone after he was released on collaboration in the
would be no scope for industrial growth bail on Tuesday.
and livelihood security for the people.
State to Masayuki Taga
addressing a teleconference with party
HANS NEWS SERVICE
YV Ramana Kumar, leaders here, Chandrababu Naidu said that
the ministers and ruling party MLas were AMARAVATI
businessman, resorting to arm twisting tactics by causing
Nellore illegal detentions of the rival candidates and Taga Masayuki, consul gen-
their supporters. The police force was acting eral of Japan in Chennai who
in favour of the YSRCP-supported candi- is on a two-day visit to the
dates in the home minister’s assembly con- state, called on Chief Minis-
stituency, he said. ter Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy
I
t is very
sad that
instead of
The TDP chief decried the arrest of
garikapadu sarpanch candidate’s husband
Sunil Kumar and mandal TDP president in
and discussed the avenues
for collaboration between
andhra Pradesh and Japan.
Japan Consul General in Chennai, Taga Masayuki, calls on Chief Minister
Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy at CM camp office in Tadepalli on Tuesday
the guntur district. Demanding that the ar- Opportunities in infra-
expanding and rested TDP leaders should be immediately structure financing, partner- infrastructure and logistics for Japanese investors in the
developing the released to ensure a free and fair election, ship with Japan for skill de- advantage, aP can be a con- focus sectors such as elec-
Vizag steel plant, he said authorities should take stringent ac- velopment were discussed. duit for Japanese companies tronics, automobiles, pharma
tion against the errant police officials. Industries minister Meka- to venture in to South asian and textiles and food pro-
the Central government has proposed the
He enquired from the party leaders from pati goutham Reddy chaired markets. Minister explained cessing.
disinvestment. I insist that the plant
different parts of the state about the the round-table with senior the Japanese official the Taga has informed that
should not be privatised. There will no job progress of the polling in the first phase pan- officials from the govern- planned concept cities in the Japanese Institute of
security to the employees and the costly chayat elections. Naidu said that the State ment of andhra Pradesh to anantapur, Tirupati, and Manufacturing in Sri City is
Election Commission should take action apprise Taga of the potential Visakhapatnam and invited a model which can be repli-
lands of the steel plant. I demand that the
against the officials who did not publish the avenues for collaboration in Japanese companies to part- cated with the help of gov-
Union government take initiative to
final lists of contesting candidates in the andhra Pradesh. ner with the state for their ernment of Japan for the
develop the plant instead of giving it to panchayat polls in the Tamballapalli assem- The minister emphasised development. cause of excellence in manu-
the private parties. bly segment. He alleged that violations were that the focus of the govern- The presentation made by facturing.
made by MPDO Diwakar Reddy, SI Saha ment is to attract long term J V N Subramanyam, CEO, Special chief secretary, in-
D Srinivas,
Devi, MLa relative Bhanu and his Pa He- investors in to the state and aP Economic Development dustries Karikal Valaven,
private employee, Vijayawada manth Kumar. additional police forces Japan is an important coun- Board, focused on the steps ITE&C principal secretary g
should be deployed in Tamballapalli for en- try for the industrial partner- taken to reduce cost of doing Jayalakshmi and others were
suring a peaceful election. ships. With its long coast line, business and the potential present.
 BENGALURU WEdNEsdAy 10 fEBRUARy 2021

TWEET PATROL
MADHURI DIXIT NENE
@MADHURIDIXIT
I had the opportunity of working with #Rajiv
Kapoor in the film PremGranth. It was a difficult
subject which he handled with great maturity
though it was his first film. Remembering the
wonderful moments we shared. My heartfelt
condolences to the Kapoor family. RIP

Kurti styling tips for tall girls

KURTIS ARE LOVED BY EVERY INDIAN GIRL, AND BECAUSE THERE
VERSATILITY THEY ARE GAINING POPULARITY ABROAD AS WELL
PUJA GUPTA look unique and trendy. But, sometimes find- the many styles gaining popularity some-
ing the most suitable designs depending on times one can get it wrong. Each design suits

B e it a casual outfit or a beautiful dress for

a special occasion, one always wants to
our body type can be tedious. Kurtis are
loved by every Indian girl, and because of
a particular body type and many times tall
girls find it hard to pick the right kurti.

Anuj Mundra, Chairman & MD, Jaipurkurti.com shares a few tips and styles to help select a look:

Asymmetric Thigh length kurta - For

a proportionate torso
kurta - Flaunt
Thigh length kurtis are a
the hemline tall girl’s best friend. They el-
evate your look by making
To make a the torso proportionate,
statement which the short kurta
nothing can beat fails to do. You can High

STEPS TO
an asymmetric style them in dif- slit kurta -
kurti. The ferent ways, Best for every
amazing hemline some of the best occasion
are with skinny If you are looking
gives it a modern for a kurta that is a
jeans, palazzo
touch. One can pants, a perfect fit for every
pair it with skinny occasion, it would be

MORE EFFECTIVE
sharara, or
denims or even with a a high slit kurta.
leggings for a patiala shal- These are best to
casual outing in war. highlight your height
as well as your long
style. legs. Pair it with skin
tight denims or

PARENTING
trousers for a
boost in
confidence.
Waste tie - An amazing
styling accessory

B
ringing up youngsters is
perhaps the most trou-
blesome and remunerat-
ing occupations on the planet,
and for which you may feel less
arranged.
Be flexible and willing to
adjust your parenting style
If you often feel "let down"
by your child's behaviour, per-
haps you have unrealistic ex-
pectations. Parents who think
in "shoulds" (for example, "My
kid should be potty-trained by
now") might find it helpful to
read up on the matter or to
talk to other parents or child
development specialists.
Kids' environments have an
effect on their behaviour, so
you might be able to change
that behaviour by changing the
environment. If you find your-
self constantly saying "no" to
your 2-year-old, look for ways
to alter your surroundings so
that fewer things are off-lim-
its. This will cause less frustra-
tion for both of you.
As your child changes, you'll
gradually have to change your
parenting style. Chances are,
what works with your child
now won't work as well in a
year or two.
Teens tend to look less to
their parents and more to their
peers for role models. But con-
tinue to provide guidance, en-
couragement, and appropriate
discipline while allowing your
Blurb: Kids' environments have an effect on
their behaviour, so you might be able to
change that behaviour by changing the
environment. If you find yourself constantly
saying "no" to your 2-year-old, look for
ways to alter your surroundings so that
fewer things are off-limits. This will cause
less frustration for both of you
teen to earn more independ-
ence. And seize every available
moment to make a connection!
Show that your love is
unconditional
As a parent, you're responsi-
ble for correcting and guiding
your kids. But how you express
your corrective guidance
makes all the difference in how
a child receives it.
When you have to confront
your child, avoid blaming, criti-
cising, or fault-finding, which
undermine self-esteem and can
lead to resentment. Instead,
strive to nurture and encour-
age, even when disciplining
your kids. Make sure they know
that although you want and ex-
pect better next time, your love
is there no matter what.
Know your own needs and
limitations as a parent
Face it — you are an imper-
fect parent. You have strengths
When it comes to
accessories, a tie around
the waist can be perfect
for beautiful day kurtis.
These can be used to
create a curve or flaunt
your beautiful waste line.
If you want to try
something different then
this is your go to style.
and weaknesses as a family
leader. Recognize your abili-
ties — "I am loving and dedi-
cated." Vow to work on your
weaknesses — "I need to be
more consistent with disci-
pline." Try to have realistic ex-
pectations for yourself, your
spouse, and your kids. You
don't have to have all the an-
swers — be forgiving of your-
self.
And try to make parenting a
manageable job. Focus on the
areas that need the most atten-
tion rather than trying to ad- Long kurta - Just
dress everything all at once. made for you
Admit it when you're burned Maxi type kurtis, commonly
out. Take time out from par- known as the long kurti as well,
comes in long sleeves are a match Jacket/shrug - A perfect
enting to do things that will styling partner
made in heaven for tall girls. While
make you happy as a person
choosing one, ensure that you go for When it comes to being stylish, a
(or as a couple).
long styles as they will help in jacket or a shrug are the best
Focusing on your needs does highlighting your height as well as
not make you selfish. It simply options. Choose some vibrant
gorgeous legs in the best colours to create a perfect contrast.
means you care about your possible way.
own well-being, which is an-
other important value to
model for your children.

l CROSSWORD l SUDOKU NEWS ROUNDUP

Across
1 Himalayan guide (6)
5 Employ (3)
8 Discharge (4)
9 Eyeliner powder (4)
10 A political exile -
"regime" anagram ? (6)
11 Bring into play (9)
13 Pod vegetables (4)
15 Electrically charged
atom (3)
16 Greek philosopher (5)
17 Receded (5)
34 Eggs (3) Shilpa Shetty: Everyone you meet is
35 Aslant (6) fighting a battle you know nothing about
Down B ollywood actress Shilpa Shetty Kundra on Tuesday suggested
that we should always be kind to whoever we come across in life
because we are unaware of their battles and struggles.
1 Cleans with a broom (6) "Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about.
2 Tomb inscriptions (8) Be kind, always!" Shilpa wrote in an Instagram post.
She continued: "There's so much we experience... so much that
3 Persian fairy (4) happens in our daily lives. But, we put on a brave front, continue to
fight our battles, and move ahead. Not many know what we're going
4 Agreeableness (7)
through; likewise, we may also not know what someone else is go-
5 Driving reversal (1-4) ing through."
"The loss of a
6 Barely managed (4) loved one, the stress
7 Dense growth of shrubs at work, the pres-
sures of life, or any
(7) kind of personal is-
12 Additionally (3) sues can wreak
havoc with a per-
14 Thick piece (4)
SOLUTION TO FEBRUARY 9

son's mind. The best

SOLUTION TO FEBRUARY 9

20 "Tea" in India (3) way to maintain

18 Bird's bill (4)
22 Consume (3) peace & harmony is
19 Noisy uproar - blatant by being kind to
23 Military fur hat (5) publicity (8) everyone we meet.
Be humble, under-
24 Deadly (5) 20 Superficial (7) standing, patient,
26 Mongrel (3) 21 North Indian state (7) and accepting. You
never know who
27 Ku Klux __ ? (4) 24 Enjoyment (3) may need it.
Have you ever experienced an unexpected, kind gesture when
28 Pen name (9) 25 Fallacious (6) you needed it the most? Let us know in the comments," she added.
31 Writer (6) 26 Spain's ____ del Sol (5) Shilpa keeps sharing life lessons for her social media followers.
The actress recently suggested that we should not blindly believe or
32 Being dry (4) 29 Loosen (4) be influenced by all that we see on social media.
33 Chinese dynasty (4) 30 Attacks and robs (4) The actress is set to make a comeback to films after 13 years with
the films 'Hungama 2' and 'Nikamma'.
10 NATION BENGALURU WEDNESDAY 10 FEBRUARY 2021

Army dogs to sniff out Covid-19 on basis of urine, sweat samples

Scientifically, it is evident that affected body tissues release unique volatile metabolic biomarkers which are used as
disease signatures for detection by the dogs. More than 3,000 samples have been screened so far by these dogs
SUMIT KUMAR SINGH based in Meerut, told IANS that Indian Army undertook biomarkers emanating from urine and sweat samples of screened so far by these dogs over there," he said.
NEW DELHI trials for detection of Covid-19 using the army dogs in positive patients. Scientifically, it is evident that af- Keeping in mind the success of trial, around eight
controlled conditions after seeing the global trend of fected body tissues release unique volatile metabolic more dogs have been incorporated in training for Covid-
INDIAN Army has trained canines to detect Covid-19 using medical detection dogs for various diseases like biomarkers which are used as disease signatures for 19 virus detection. In India, it is the first time the olfac-
virus for a quick and a real time situation for easier cancer, malaria, diabetes, Parkinson's disease and oth- detection of disease by the medical detection dogs. tory capability of canines have been exploited to detect
movements of troops. These canines -- 'Chippiparai' ers. There after a concerted effort was made to train an The sensitivity and specificity of both the dogs ob- tissues infected with pathogens releasing volatile meta-
and 'Cocker Spaniel' -- have been deployed at transit indigenous breed of dog 'Chippiparai' and a 'Cocker tained from screening of 279 urine and 267 sweat sam- bolic biomarkers. "The effort will turn out to be the part
camps of the force in Delhi and Chandigarh. Spaniel' to detect the volatilome of Covid-19 disease ples during the initial trial procedure was found to be of detectable disease signatures, thereby paving the
The Cocker Spaniel is two-years-old and is named from urine and sweat samples of positive cases by com- very high. After the training, the dogs were first de- way forward for real time detection of various medical
Casper, and Chippiparai is one-year-old and is named parative method. "Positive and suspected samples were ployed at a Transit Camp in Delhi for screening of tran- diseases by use of trained medical detection dogs," the
Jaya. Till date, 22 samples have been found positive by obtained from the Military Hospital, Meerut Cantt and sients and a total of 806 were screened during their de- officer said. He also said that currently various coun-
the Covid-19 detection dogs after screening around Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Subharti Medical College, ployment here. Further, both dogs were deployed in the tries like Britain, Finland, Russia, France, the UAE, Ger-
3,806 troops at both the places. Meerut for the purpose of training," Lieutenant Colonel transit camp in Chandigarh. They were used for screen- many, Lebanon have started training dogs for Covid-19
Explaining how all it started, Lieutenant Colonel Surinder Saini said. ing of transients moving to operational areas through detection by screening passengers at the airports and
Surinder Saini, Instructor at Remount Veterinary Corps These two dogs were successfully trained on specific the transit camp. "More than 3,000 samples have been railway stations.

Punjab MPs demand repeal of farm laws

Private Members’ Bill soon

SC panel holds consultations with ITC and Amul
‘203 MPs in LS, 64 in RS are farmers by profession’
NEW DELHI
CONGRESS' Lok Sabha member Manish Tewari on
Tuesday said that the party MPs from Punjab have
decided to bring private members' Bills in Parlia-
ment to seek the repeal of three new central farm
laws opposed by the farmers.
Tewari said: "Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke
on the farm laws in the Rajya Sabha on Monday but
no farmers is willing to believe him. We have no al-
ternative, so we decided to adopt this path."
The Congress MPs will meet Lok Sabha Speaker
Om Birla and request him to allow discussion on the
Bills submitted to the Lok Sabha Secretariat.
The Congress leader said that they will also
meet the Rajya Sabha Chair on the issue. Another
Congress MP Praneet Kaur, who is the wife of
Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, said that they
stood by their demand for the repeal of these laws.
The Punjab MPs appealed to other members of
Parliament to initiate such Bills on the farm laws.
Congress MP Jasbir Singh Gill said: "Those MPs
who have written their profession as agriculture
should bring in private member's Bills."
Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu said: "There are
203 MPs in the Lok Sabha and 64 in the Rajya Sabha
who have shown agriculture as their profession. So,
we appeal to them to help with these private mem-
ber's Bills by coming out of partisan politics."
The Supreme Court-appointed committee on
farms laws issue on Tuesday said it held consulta-
tions with agro-processing industries including ITC
and Amul on the legislations.
Sachin urged to tweet
in support of farmers
AMID the ongoing debates over Sachin Tendulkar's
tweets over farmers issues, the Aam Aadmi Party
(AAP) has urged the cricket legend to tweet in
favour of the agitating farmers. In an open letter to
the legendry batsman, AAP National Executive Mem-
ber and Mumbai Prabhari, Preeti Sharma Menon Actor Deep Sidhu (centre), accused in the violence on Republic Day during a farmers' tractor rally, arrested by Delhi Police
wrote, "You are India's pride. This nation of 1.3 bil- special cell in New Delhi on Tuesday
lion people has prayed for you, wept for you, and re-
joiced in your success. In this country where Cricket
is a religion, you are God for us. I am certain, as our
Bharat Ratna and a MP your heart must want to bat
Sidhu held, police gets 7-day custody
for all multitudinous hued people of this country NEW DELHI of thousands of farmers broke barriers to storm the na-
who have worshipped you," Menon also endorsed tional capital on January 26, their tractor parade to high-
Swabhimani Shetkari Saghtana worker Ranjeet Ba- A Delhi court Tuesday sent actor-activist Deep Sidhu to light their demands dissolving into unprecedented
gal's request to the Sachin to tweet in support of the 7-day police custody in connection with the Red Fort vi- scenes of anarchy as they fought with police, over-
farmers against the farm laws. "So I, a humble citi- olence on the Republic Day during farmers' tractor pa- turned vehicles and delivered a national insult hoisting
zen, request you to heed the appeal of Ranjeet rade against the Centre's three new agri laws. a religious flag from the ramparts of the Red Fort, a priv-
Bagel, a farmers son, who travelled all the way from Metropolitan Magistrate Prigya Gupta sent Sidhu to ilege reserved for India's tricolour.
Solapur to your door. He came from Pandharpur, the the custody after the police alleged he was one of the Thousands of protesting farmers who reached ITO
'DevNagri' where all us Maharashtrians go for a pil- main instigators of the violent incidents at the Red Fort. from the Ghazipur border clashed with police. Many of
grimage, on a pilgrimage to Bandra, Mumbai where Sidhu's counsel, however, claimed he had nothing to do them driving tractors reached the Red Fort and entered
his God Sachin Tendulkar resides with a simple with the violence and was at the wrong place at the the monument, where the religious flag was also
prayer - a tweet in support of our Anndaatas, the wrong time. The police had announced a cash reward of hoisted. Over 500 police personnel were injured and one
farmers who are protesting against the Farm Laws Rs 1 lakh for information leading to Sidhu's arrest. Tens protestors died.
that will rob them off their livelihood."

SC stays arrest
of Tharoor,
Shahnawaz in ‘Vaccinating Covid-19
Sardesai
Nitish Cabinet recovered patients
NEW DELHI

The Supreme Court Tuesday

stayed the arrest of Congress MP
PATNA

THE much awaited expansion of the Nitish Kumar cabinet in Bihar

Shashi Tharoor and six journalists
including Rajdeep Sardesai in con-
nection with FIRs lodged against
them for their allegedly "mislead-
ing" tweets on the violence during
the farmers' tractor rally here on the
Republic Day. A bench headed by
Chief Justice S A Bobde issued no-
tices and sought responses from the
Centre and others on the peti-
tions filed by Tharoor, Sardesai
and journalists Mrinal Pande, Zafar
Agha, Paresh Nath, Vinod K Jose
and Anant Nath. When the
bench said it was issuing notice in
the matter, senior lawyer Kapil
Sibal, appearing for Tharoor, said
that no coercive action be taken
against them in the meantime.
“Nothing is going to happen.
Where is the danger,” said the
bench, also comprising Justices A S
Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian.
Sibal objected to the observation of
the bench that nothing would hap-
pen to the petitioners in the mean-
time, saying Solicitor General Tuh-
sar Mehta is appearing for Delhi
Police and the cops of other states
might “knock at my doors and arrest
me in the meantime”.
"Kindly protect us in the mean-
while," Sibal said, prompting the
bench to ask the law officer whether
the police was planning to arrest
Tharoor and others. Mehta said that
“horrendous” tweets were made.
took place on Tuesday with the induction of 17 members, including
a wasteful exercise’ NEW DELHI
Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, the high-profile Muslim face of the BJP.
The expansion turned out to be a message for ally BJP, which INDIA has vaccinated over six million healthcare workers within 24 days.
had been out to grab the dominant position in the alliance after its Interestingly, health experts and virologists say that vaccinating a person who
big win in last year's assembly elections. has already recovered from Covid-19 is a wasteful exercise as antibodies devel-
Of the 17 ministers in- oped naturally are better and last longer than the ones developed with the help
ducted, the BJP got nine of vaccines. They believe that vaccines should be preserved for those who need
berths, the Chief Minister's it most and they base their arguments on two basic scientific observations.
Janata Dal United, eight. But Firstly, very few cases of Covid-19 re-
the BJP's numerical advan-
Court orders to recover the money from those who infections have been reported across
tage -- in the assembly and the globe. Secondly, scientific evidence
the government -- was lost burnt the temple so that they may learn a lesson regarding some respiratory viral dis-
as all the important depart- eases such as chicken pox and influenza
ments, like Home, Personnel,
Education, Rural Develop-
ment, Rural Works, Water Re-
Rebuild vandalised suggest that natural antibodies work
better than artificial ones acquired
through a vaccine.
sources, remained with the
JD(U).
The BJP now has 16 minis-
Hindu temple: Pak SC Noted epidemiologist Dr Jayaprakash
Muliyil says, just 44 cases of Covid-19
re-infections have been reported glob-
ters with 22 portfolios ISLAMABAD ple, The Express Tribune reported. ally, which confirms that natural anti-
among them. The JDU has 13 During the proceedings, Justice Gulzar bodies provide long-lasting protection.
ministers with 21 portfolios. A berth each has gone to Jitan Ram PAKISTAN'S Supreme Court has ordered said, "Inform us if any recovery or arrest Meanwhile, as far as influenza is con-
Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha and the Vikassheel Insaan the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government to has been made on the temple issue in cerned, Dr Muliyil is of the view that
Party. immediately start rebuilding a century- Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa?" In January, the natural antibodies provide better immu-
The expansion had been hanging since last year's assembly old Hindu temple that was vandalised by apex court had ordered the provincial nity when compared to vaccines be-
polls in the state as the BJP was having trouble finalizing the a mob in the province, and submit a government to recover the money for the cause influenza viruses constantly
names of its candidates. timeline for its completion. construction of the temple from those change and mutate.
The BJP, which was the junior partner in the state, had taken the The attack on the temple in Terri vil- who had burnt it. Evacuee Trust Property “So, you have to create a new vaccine because of the high mutation rate,” he
role of the big brother after its spectacular results in the election lage in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Karak dis- Board lawyer Ikram Chaudhry apprised said adding that at present Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes Covid-19 infection,
following the solo contest by Chirag Paswan's Lok Janashakti trict by members of radical Jamiat the bench that no recovery has been has shown a very low mutation rate, which is good for vaccine development. Dr
Party. The LJP had cut into the votes of Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal Ulema-e-Islam party (Fazal ur Rehman made so far on the temple issue, the pa- Sanjay Rai, President, Indian Public Health Association (IPHA), says that current
United, pushing it down from 71 seats to 43. It also gave the upper group) in December drew strong con- per said. scientific studies on Covid-19 show that natural immunity lasts very long and so
hand to the BJP, which won 74 seats. The JDU had squarely blamed demnation from human rights activists "The government had approved Rs Covid-recovered population should be excluded from the current vaccination
the LJP for its poor performance. and the minority Hindu community lead- 30.41 million for the reconstruction of the drive. “As India is very close to herd immunity, we should not waste taxpayers’
The JD(U) gave preference to experienced hands though there ers, prompting the apex court to order its temple," Chaudhry informed the bench. money on inoculating those people who have already recovered from Covid-19,”
were also a handful of debutants, including Zama Khan who got reconstruction last month. A three-judge Justice Ijazul Ahsan said that the court Dr Rai, who is also one of the principal investigators of a vaccine clinical trial,
elected on a BSP ticket but joined the party recently, and Inde- apex court bench, headed by Chief Jus- had ordered to recover the money from said. He seconds Dr Muliyil and says that scientific evidence states that the hu-
pendent MLA Sumit Singh who has pledged full support to the tice Gulzar Ahmed, heard the suo motu those who burnt the temple so that they man body produces long lasting antibodies against all such viruses which spread
chief minister. case regarding the burning of the tem- could learn a lesson. through respiration such as smallpox, measles and influenza.

Boost to small agricultural fields

IIT researchers develop solar-powered pest control system
NEW DELHI spraying, and also to reduce drudgery to the op- wheeler trolley," said hifjur Raheman, professor sprayers are used, while manually operated knap-
erator and dependency on fossil fuels for carrying at IIT Kharagpur. "As compared to conventional sack sprayer is used for smaller tracts. This im-

A team of researchers at the Indian Institute of

Technology (IIT) Kharagpur has developed
an energy-efficient pest controlling device for
smaller agricultural tracts owned by marginal
farmers.
The team has built a self-propelled boom-type
sprayer that can be operated using solar energy
while safely guided through the crops in smaller
tracts of land.
According to the team, which has also filed a
patent, the semi-automated device is aimed at in-
creasing field capacity and uniformity in liquid
out spraying in cropped areas. "The system com-
prises a propelling unit fitted with a liquid storage
tank, a DC motor operated pump to pressurise the
knapsack sprayers, the developed sprayer has a
higher field capacity and more uniformity of spray-
ing with less drudgery to the operator. It can be
pacts the efficiency of spraying as it depends on
the skill of the operator, leading to non-uniformity
in spraying.
liquid to be sprayed. easily operated in the field using solar energy with Further, it requires intensive labour capacity
Multiple numbers of spray nozzles are mounted a maximum speed of 2 km/hr and can cover a and operation time. Using tractor-mounted
on a boom fitted to the front of the machine to width of 1.5 metres at a time with a field efficiency sprayers in smaller tracts on the other hand would
cover wider width at a time. of 81 pc, thus saving time, human involvement and make the crops prone to damages due to their
"A set of solar-powered battery acts as the power chemicals," he added. higher turning radius. "Also, it leads to wastage of
source of the DC motor to propel the spraying unit Raheman explained that prevention of pests chemicals due to lower control on automated
as well as for running the pump. Unlike a knapsack and diseases during different growth stages of spraying. Not to mention the environmental pol-
sprayer, the liquid storage tank is of bigger capac- crops is an important process to increase its yield. lution due to the fuel emissions from the tractor,"
ity, and it is carried on a solar-powered three- "For larger tracts of farmlands, tractor-mounted he said.
 TODAY’S QUOTE LOSS FOREX (buy rates in `)
US Dollar 77.26 South
10% of LIC IPO for policyholders Dhanlaxmi Bank Q3 net plunges 44%
It has been proposed to have a reservation on a competitive dhanlaxmi Bank on Tuesday registered 44.5 per cent Euro 92.66 African Rand 5.67
basis, to an extent of up to 10 per cent of the issue size, in favour dip in net profit to rs 11.81 crore in the third quarter
ended december 2020 on muted retail business even UAE Dirham 21.83 Hong Kong Dollar 10.81
of life insurance policyholders of lIC. The government will
remain the majority shareholder and will continue to retain as bad loan ratio declined. The bank's net profit was rs
21.28 crore in the year-ago period. The total income Thai Baht 2.8 Japanese Yen 0.8
management control safeguarding the interest of policyholders. was almost flat at rs 286.21 crore during Q2.
– Anurag Thakur, Union Minister British Pound 104.46 New Zealand Dollar 55.32
Australian Dollar 59.08 Saudi Riyal 21.36
Canadian Dollar 60.11 Swedish Krona 10.04
Swiss Franc 84.85 Singapore Dollar 57.64

Bengaluru Wednesday 10 feBruary 2021

biz briefs FOREIGN INVESTORS Banks unions call

for 2-day strike Markets snap
Housing.com,
Propdial in pact Amazon-Ambani from March 15
NEW DELHI 6-session rally
over profit taking
Housing.com has announced a THE United Forum of Bank

spat tests patience

partnership with gurugram-
based property and rental
management technology com-
pany, Propdial. This tie-up will
help Housing.com to offer
property management support
to its clients who are looking to
opt for property management
services ranging from renting,
leasing to tenant background
verification to rental agree-
ment and rent collection, bill
payment. “This partnership is
another landmark the com-
pany has achieved to service
its clients in a more holistic
manner. This tie-up will be par-
ticularly beneficial for our nrI
homeowner clients, who find
it difficult to manage their
properties from abroad,” said
Mani rangarajan, group COO,
Housing.com, PropTiger.com
and Makaan.com.
Sharp unveils
new printer
sharp, an Indian subsidiary of
sharp Corporation, announced
the launch of a compact smart
color multifunctional printer,
BP-30C25Z, for office use. The
C-Cube IT is the smallest busi-
ness copier of its kind and has
been specially designed for
sMe, education, healthcare,
BfsI, legal and corporate seg-
ments. The product offers print
speed of 25 pages per minute
in color and black/white with a
built-in 100 sheet reversing sin-
gle pass feeder that makes
sharing information quick and
simple. shinji Minatogawa,
Managing director, sharp Busi-
ness systems (India) Pvt ltd,
said: “during these challenging
UPMANYU TRIVEDI
THE tussle between two of the
world’s richest men - Jeff Bezos and
Mukesh Ambani - to dominate in-
dia’s estimated $1 trillion retail mar-
ket is testing foreign investor pa-
tience with flip-flopping court
rulings. This week saw new devel-
opments in Amazon.com inc.’s legal
battle to block Ambani’s Reliance
industries Ltd. from acquiring Fu-
ture Retail Ltd.’s assets, in what
would be the country’s largest retail-
sector deal. Last week, a single judge
at delhi High Court restrained Fu-
ture Group firms from selling their
assets. On Monday, a set of judges at
the court overruled that decision.
Amazon can appeal the latest ruling
in the country’s Supreme Court.
The keenly watched case may set
an important legal precedent for in-
vestors on whether emergency de-
cisions by foreign arbitrators are
valid in india. Amazon had peti-
tioned indian courts with an order
from an emergency arbitration
court in Singapore that barred Fu-
ture Retail from making a deal with
Reliance. it could also help overseas
investors judge the validity of agree-
ments in india, which the World
Bank has ranked among the bottom
15 per cent of countries in terms of
enforcing contracts, worse than
Venezuela, Syria and Senegal.
“not giving effect to a foreign ar-
bitration award undermines india’s
already floundering reputation as a
good place to invest and do business
Unions (UFBU), an umbrella
body of nine unions, on Tuesday
gave a call for a two-day strike
from March 15 to protest against
the proposed privatisation of two
Sensex dips 19 points, Nifty slips 6 points;
state-owned lenders. Mahindra & Mahindra stock shines
in the Union Budget pre-
sented last week, Finance Minis- MUMBAI ing the weakness seen in the Euro-
ter nirmala Sitharaman an- pean market and outflows in equity
nounced the privatisation of two SnAPPinG their six-session win- mutual funds. Most of the sectors
Public Sector Banks (PSBs) as ning streak, equity benchmarks ended hitting rough weather with
part of its disinvestment plan. Sensex and nifty ended marginally auto, pharma and media stocks be-
The government has already pri- lower on Tuesday following fag-end ing the worst affected.
vatised idBi Bank by selling its profit-booking in iT, FMCG, fi- "However, banking and finance
majority stake in the lender to nance and auto stocks. stocks were in positive territory. US
LiC in 2019 and merged 14 public After rallying 487 points to touch markets remained firm on hopes of
sector banks in the last four its lifetime intra-day high of the additional stimulus package and
years. it has been decided to op- 51,835.86, the 30-share BSE Sensex swifter economic recovery contin-
pose the government's decision pared all gains to end 19.69 points ued to maintain optimism," said
to privatise banks during the or 0.04 per cent lower at 51,329.08. Vinod nair, Head of Research at
in,” said Bharat Chugh, a while its 5.6 per cent meeting of UFBU held on Tues- Similarly, the broader nSE nifty Geojit Financial Services. BSE auto,
former civil judge in The 2025 dollar bonds day, All india Bank Employees slipped 6.50 points or 0.04 per cent realty, FMCG, metal, healthcare
delhi and now a keenly watched rose 5.9 cents on Association (AiBEA) general sec- to 15,109.30. it touched a record and iT indices ended in the red,
lawyer practicing case may set an the dollar, and retary C H Venkatachalam said. peak of 15,257.10 during the day. while consumer durables, telecom,
in india’s top are now set for "The meeting discussed the M&M was the top drag in the Sen- capital goods, finance and bankex
important legal
court. Speedy
enforcement of precedent for investors
their biggest
rise since Jan.
various announcements made in
the budget of the central govern-
sex pack, shedding 3.62 per cent,
followed by Bajaj Finance, iTC, Sun
finished with gains. Broader BSE
midcap and smallcap indices
contracts and on whether 21, to 83.54 ment regarding reform measures Pharma, Bajaj Auto, Bajaj Finserv slipped up to 0.26 per cent.
foreign arbitra- emergency decisions by cents as of like privatisation of idBi Bank and TCS. On the other hand, Asian Global equities were mixed as in-
tion rulings are noon in Hong and two PSBs, setting up of bad Paints, OnGC, Titan, L&T, Axis vestors monitored progress of the
important for
foreign arbitrators Kong, according bank, disinvestment in LiC, pri- Bank and UltraTech Cement were $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill in
overseas investors are valid in India to Bloomberg- vatisation of one general insur- among the gainers, climbing up to the US. Elsewhere in Asia, bourses
when assessing the at- compiled prices. The ance company, allowing Fdi in 3.70 per cent. "The market in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo
tractiveness of an invest- rulings in Amazon’s case insurance sector up to 74 per failed to hold on to its up- ended with gains, while Seoul
ment destination, he said. come after two big foreign ar- cent, aggressive disinvestment ward rally to close flat closed lower. Stock exchanges in
Spokespeople at Reliance indus- bitration awards against india. in and sale of public sector under- due to heavy selling to- Europe were trading on a negative
tries, Amazon’s local unit and Future September, an international arbitra- takings, etc," he said. The meet- wards the close, note in mid-session deals. Mean-
Group weren’t able to comment im- tion tribunal said india acted un- ing observed that all these meas- mirror- while, the global oil benchmark
mediately on the latest ruling. Fu- fairly in a $3 billion tax dispute with ures are retrograde and hence Brent crude was trading 0.40 per
ture Retail’s lawyers have argued in Vodafone Group Plc and in another need to be opposed, he added. Af- cent higher at $60.94 per barrel.
court that the deal is their only ruling ordered india to return $1.2 ter deliberations, it was decided The rupee gained 10 paise to set-
chance to avoid bankruptcy and save billion to Cairn Energy Plc for a sim- to give the call for a two-day- tle at 72.87 against the US dol-
jobs. ilar failure. india has challenged the March 15 and March 16 - strike lar on Tuesday on the back
Future Retail’s shares climbed as Vodafone ruling in Singapore, in- against the government's moves, of sustained foreign fund
much as 10 per cent to Rs 80.5 in dia’s federal government informed AiBOC general secretary inflows and a weak Amer-
Mumbai, the most since november, Parliament on Monday. (Bloomberg) Soumya datta said. ican currency overseas.

times, sharp’s contribution to
business continuity in India is
to be in the forefront in helping
make office communications
easier”.
Forevermark’s
new collection
forevermark unveiled its
Bridal Collection crafted with
timeless and beautiful
forevermark diamonds. Keep-
ing the spirit of Valentine’s day
in mind, a unique social media
contest #MakeaVow is
launched on facebook mes-
senger. all you need to do is
send forevermark your vows
along with a photograph of
you and your loved one that
best tells the story of your
beautiful relationship and win
an exclusive gift hamper while
you get featured by forever-
mark. sachin Jain, Managing
director, de Beers India, said:
“The Bridal Collection is repre-
sentative of the personal ex-
pression of modern women.
The collection includes soli-
taire rings with minimalistic
designs and extraordinary de-
tailing. The uniqueness lies in
its versatility as it can be
adorned at various occasions.”
AdiGroup’s new
Adani Ports Q3 net HCL Tech is set for high growth
zooms to `1,576 cr
NEW DELHI
AdAni Ports and Special Eco-
nomic Zone Limited (APSEZ) on
Tuesday reported a 16.22 per cent
increase in its consolidated profit
to Rs 1,576.53 crore for the third
quarter ended on december 31,
2020.
The country's largest integrated
logistics player had clocked a con-
solidated profit of Rs 1,356.43
crore in the corresponding period
a year earlier, the company said in
a regulatory filing to the BSE.
its total consolidated income
increased to Rs 4,274.79 crore for
the third quarter, as against Rs
3,830.43 crore in the year-ago pe-
riod. The company's total ex-
penses during the quarter under
review increased to Rs 2,258.62
crore, compared to Rs 2,091.40
crore in the year-ago period.
Karan Adani, Chief Executive
Officer and Whole Time director
of APSEZ said,
"The strong and lasting recov-
ery at APSEZ has been the corner-
stone of our journey in the recent
past. it's a proven certitude that
our business now operates closer
to a pure-play utility. Our portfolio
of assets, increasing market share
in india, and preeminence of our
network with leadership positions
have an unparalleled value propo-
sition."
He said the team at APSEZ con-
tinues to innovate and establish
operational excellence as the key
differentiator, thus improving
margins. "For instance, at KPCL,
which was acquired in October, we
have improved the EBidTA mar-
gin from 55 per cent to 71 per cent.
APSEZ is well on course to achieve
500 MMT (metric million tonne)
of cargo throughput by FY25," he
said.
IT major steadily closing gap with its bigger peers like Infosys
DEBASIS MOHAPATRA
BENGALURU
HCL Technologies is steadily clos-
ing the gap with its bigger peers as
the company crossed the $10 bil-
lion revenue mark in the calendar
year 2020. Experts believe that the
iT services firm is likely to clock
higher growth in coming quarters
as its product and platform busi-
ness gained momentum.
“digital transformation is bene-
fitting all software services compa-
nies due to higher spending by en-
terprises. Apart from this factor,
HCL Technologies has slightly dif-
ferentiated its service offerings by
betting on product and platform
business. As the product business
gains momentum, we believe that
the company will return to indus-
try-leading growth rate in the com-
ing years,” said Sanjeev Hota, Head
of Research at Mumbai-based bro-
kerage firm, Sharekhan by BnP
Paribas.
HCL Technologies acquired se-
lect iBM software products in 2018
for $1.8 billion in its bid to push its
product and platform business.
Management of the company had
said that around $650 million of
annual revenue would accrue to its
turnover post this deal. “The iT
firm has already achieved $650
million annual revenue milestone
from this acquisition and the port-
folio is growing strongly as seen in
recent quarters. in the future, the
company will be able to cross-sale
these products to other clients,”
Hota of Sharekhan said.
The noida-headquartered com-
pany posted revenue of $7.5 billion
in the first nine months of the cur-
rent financial year FY21. Taking
into account the revenue guidance
given for the fourth quarter (Janu-
ary-March), the iT services firm is
expected to cross the $10 billion
revenue mark in the current finan-
cial year. its bigger peer infosys
clocked revenue of $9.95 billion in
the first nine months of the current
financial year. Considering its rev-
enue growth guidance, the Ben-
galuru-headquartered firm is ex-
pected to end FY21 with around
$14 billion of annual revenue.
Experts said though both com-
panies are growing strongly, HCL
Technologies can close the gap with
infosys in revenue terms if its
‘products and platform’ business
sees strong momentum.
Drop in LIC's biz
caps industry
growth at 8%
MUMBAI
A massive 45 per cent plunge in
Life insurance Corporation's
(LiC) individual annual pre-
mium equivalent (APE) in Jan-
uary capped the industry growth
at 8 per cent for the month, ac-
cording to a report.
industry leader LiC saw its in-
dividual APE growth plummet
to 45 per cent, due to a massively
high base of 99 per cent growth
in January 2020. Yet, at 8 per
cent, individual APE for the life
insurance industry in January is
higher than the 3 per cent it had
managed to grow in december
and 7 per cent decline in novem-
ber 2020, as per report by Kotak
Securities. However, this pick-
up in individual business indi-
cates a gradual increase in de-
mand for Ulips, which has been
the bane of the industry for quite
sometime, said the report. Mod-
eration in growth of protection
business from peak levels seems
to have been arrested, as indi-
vidual non-single sum assured
to individual non-single pre-
mium for private players was 25
times in January.

edu platform
london-based business con-
glomerate adigroup in associ-
ation with sV group initiated a
new chapter in the education
segment by launching ed4all, a
digital formal education plat-
form, with singular focus to
eliminate education inequali-
ties by powering every individ-
ual with formal education. as a
first step the company is set to
bridge educational inequalities
in K12 by introducing BleaP, a
digital formal school education
product supported by artificial
intelligence and machine
learning with content, delivery
and device packaged together,
at extremely low cost. It is
powered by Microsoft and de-
livered on flipkart and Jio plat-
forms. sanjay Viswanathan,
Chairman adigroup and co-
founder, ed4all, said, “This is a
new and exciting chapter in
the journey of ed4all. I loved
the name ed4all because it
meant education for all, the
most crucial element of a living
human’s life that makes them
empowered.”
No proposal to
raise excise duty
on cigarettes,
‘bidis’: Govt
NEW DELHI
THE Centre informed the Rajya
Sabha on Tuesday that there was
no proposal to raise the excise duty
on cigarettes, ‘bidis’ and smokeless
tobacco. in a written reply to a
question, Minister of State for Fi-
nance Anurag Thakur said that
there was no recommendation by
the GST Council to raise the Goods
and Services Tax (GST) on these
tobacco products.
"The GST rates on goods are
fixed on the basis of GST Council
recommendations. At present,
there is no such recommendation.
Also, there is no proposal to in-
crease the excise duty on such
products," Thakur said. Finance
Ministry data showed that the
overall GST collection from these
products, including cess, during FY
2019-20 was Rs 53,540 crore and
excise collection Rs 1,610 crore.
MSME parks set to boost industrial growth in VZM
KOPPARA GANDHI
ViZiAnAGARAM district being
close to Visakhapatnam, the indus-
trial hub and one headquarters for
several large industries, offers big op-
portunity for industrial growth.
MSME parks have been identified
in all the nine assembly constituen-
cies in an area of 735.96 acres. Out of
which three MSME parks are under
active implementation at Marupalli
of Gajapathinagaram mandal, Kan-
divalasa of Pusapatirega mandal and
Balighattam of Kothavalasa mandal
with in area of 273.16 acre.
A total of 15 entrepreneurs from
the district entered into an agree-
ment with the State government in
January three years ago to set up in-
dustries with an estimated invest-
ment of Rs 1,100.24 crore. These in-
dustries would create employment
for 4,527 people. Only four of the
proposed 15 units are operational
now. They are Vijayanagaram Wheat
Products Pvt Ltd., north East infra-
structure Pvt Ltd., danica Aqua Ex-
ports Pvt Ltd., Talli Suvarna Foods
with an investment of Rs 78 crore are
in operation. These units, which pro-
vide employment to 978 people, are
under active implementation.
These units undertake cashew
processing, soya products prepara-
tion, wheat flour making and fish
processing. Even tourism projects
are likely to come up near Tatipudi
reservoir, which is en-route to
‘Andhra Kashmir’ Araku valley.
PatanjaliAyurved Ltd has been al-
lotted 172.84 acres of land in Chi-
naraopalli village of Kothavalasa
mandal in 2017.
A growth centre was established
at Bobbili in 1994 in 1,100 acres to
promote industries. All basic ameni-
ties such as water, power, road and
telecommunication connections
Kotakki of RB Puram mandal,
V
Mushidipalli of S.Kota mandal,
BIZZ TAKE I
Z
I
Tekkali of nellimerla mandal and
Marupalli of Gajapathinagaram
A mandal by APiiC.
N
A The district does not have a single
G unit run under either Union govern-
A ment or State government. But there
R is a huge scope for setting up of
On various investment A tourism based industries because of
opportunities in districts M
the proximity of the district to the
airport and even the proposed inter-
ANDHRA PRADESH national airport coming up in this
district.
have been provided at the growth The district has huge tracts of gov-
centre. ernment land to be allotted to either
As many as 510 plots have been iT companies or agri based firms at
handed over to various industrialists subsidised rates. Vizianagaram town
to run their units. A mango jelly clus- is well connected with rail and road
ter is proposed to establish at Bobbili facility, enabling ease of travel to any
in 50 acres. corner to the country.
A vast land bank to the tune of There is scope for the iT and some
1,315.18 acres is identified for devel- small scale industries in sea food sec-
opment of industrial parks at Kon- tor as the district is adjacent to
gavanipalem of Bhogapuram man- Visakhapatnam port and tourism
dal, Katakapalli, Chinaraopalli, sector has a tremendous scope here
Pedaraopalli of Kothavalasa mandal, as the district has long seacoast.
12 SPORTS benGaluru WeDneSDaY 10 FebruarY 2021

INDIA BITE DUST AT HOME CHENNAI

LeFT-arm spinner Jack Leach (four wickets) and vet-

Leach, Anderson star in England’s 227-run win;
eran speedster James anderson (three wickets) on
Tuesday bowled england to a massive 227-run win on Visitors take 1-0 lead in four-match Test series
the fifth and final day of the first Test here, and take a 1-
0 lead in the four-match series. ben stokes taking one scalp each.
Chasing an extremely difficult target of 420 runs on Leach was the pick of the england bowlers in the sec-
a crumbling and dusty Ma Chidambaram stadium
pitch, India in their second innings were bundled
out for 192 in 58.1 overs in the second session on
ond innings as he returned with figures of 4/72 in the
25 overs he bowled. He was ably supported by anderson
who scalped three wickets, conceding just 17 runs in
the fifth and final day. his 11 overs. dominic bess, ben stokes and Jofra archer
Having set India a 420-run target to picked one wicket each.
win, england bowled a listless India earlier, england had scored 578 runs in their first
out for 192 in 58.1 overs, with 29- innings in reply to which India posted 337, thus con-
year Leach taking four for 76 and
anderson bagging three for 17. all
five bowlers took wickets,
ceding a lead of 241. The visitors were then bundled
out for 178 to set a 420-run target for the Indian team.
This was India's first Test defeat at home since 2017
with fast bowler Jofra when they had suffered a 333-run loss against australia
archer, off-spinner in Pune. after that, they played 14 Tests in between,
England's dominic bess, registering win in 11 while three matches ended in a
bowler Jack and pacer draw.
Leach in action This was India's fourth Test defeat against england at
during the 5th and the Chepauk, first after 1985 when the visitors registered
final day of first Test win under david Gower's captaincy. before this Test
against India at MA match, India had faced england in 60 matches at home,
Chidambaram Stadium
registering win in 19, losing 13 and drawing 28.
in Chennai on Tuesday.
Overall, India and england have competed in 123
Tests, out of which India have won 27, england 47
while 49 matches have ended in a draw.
(Below) England's fast earlier on the fifth and final day on Tuesday,
bowler James Anderson India resumed their chase at 39/1 but lost
celebrates after claiming Cheteshwar Pujara early as he was caught
the wicket of Indian in the slips against Leach, after scoring 15
batsman Rishabh Pant runs off the 38 ball he faced.
shubman Gill (50) and skipper Virat
Kohli then shared a 34-run stand and tried
to steady the ship. However, just after
reaching his third Test fifty, Gill was
bowled by a ripper from an-
derson.
SCOREBOARD
England 1st Innings 578 all out
India 1st Innings 337
England 2nd Innings: 178
India 2nd innings: (Overnight 39/1)
Rohit Sharma b J Leach----------------------12
Shubman Gill b J Anderson ----------------50
C Pujara c Stokes b J Leach ----------------15
Virat Kohli b B Stokes ------------------------72
Ajinkya Rahane b J Anderson ----------------0
Rishabh Pant c Root b J Anderson --------11
Washington Sundar c Buttler b D Bess ----0
R Ashwin c Buttler b J Leach ----------------9
Shahbaz Nadeem c Burns b J Leach--------0
Ishant Sharma not out ------------------------5
Jasprit Bumrah c Buttler b J Archer --------4
Extras (B-8, LB-5, NB-1)----------------------14
Total: (all out in 58.1 overs) ----------192
Fall of Wickets: 1-25, 2-58, 3-92, 4-92, 5-110,
6-117, 7-171, 8-179, 9-179
Bowling: Jofra Archer 9.1-4-23-1, Jack Leach 26-
4-76-4, James Anderson 11-4-17-3, Dominic
Bess 8-0-50-1, Ben Stokes 4-1-13-1.
after the lunch break, ashwin -- after sharing a 54-
run partnership with Kohli -- got out after scoring nine
runs while attempting a square cut against Leach, leav-
ing India reeling at 171/7. Kohli, who was fighting the
lone battle with the lower order, then got out bowled
to a stokes delivery that kept low and disturbed the
wood. shahbaz Nadeem and Jasprit bumrah got out
after scoring 0 and 4 while Ishant sharma remained
not out at 5. The two teams will now face other in the
second Test beginning saturday at the same venue in
England keep WTC
final hopes alive,
India slip to 4th
DUBAI
ENGLAND's 227-run win over India in the first Test of the ongoing four-
Test series has kept their hopes alive of making the World Test Cham-
pionship final scheduled to be held in London in June.
The victory at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Tuesday
lifted England to first place on the points table with 70.2 percentage
points. They've improved their chances of securing one of the three se-
ries results -- 3-1, 3-0 or 4-0 -- that would help them qualify for the final.
New Zealand have already qualified for the final winning 70 per cent
of their matches (with no other series scheduled) while India and Aus-
tralia remain in contention for the other place along with England.
India, who have slipped to fourth position with 68.3 percentage
points, cannot afford another loss in the four-match series and will be
looking to win at least two of the remaining three games to secure a 2-
1 or 3-1 result and a place in the final. Australia will get to feature in a
Trans-Tasman summit clash if the India-England series is drawn or if
England win 1-0, 2-1 or 2-0.
Pakistan's 2-0 home win over South Africa sees them finish the se-
ries in fifth position with 43.3 percentage points, while South Africa
slip to sixth position with 30 percentage points. West Indies are sev-
enth with 23.8 percentage points after their epic victory in the first Test
against Bangladesh, who are last on the table and yet to win a point.
We wanted to bowlers. We knew from the outset it

front of spectators. (IaNs)
It (wicket) was flat and slow.
The quality of balls honestly
take India's
was going to be a good wicket. The
first partnership got us going. At dif-
win out of the ferent stages, guys came in and
contributed. That's got to be the

Vice-captain ajinkya rahane
once again failed to perform with the
bat as he got out in the same over against
anderson, thus leaving India in a precarious
situation. rahane, who had scored just one in
the first innings, went back to the dressing
room without troubling the scorers.
rishabh Pant, India's batting hero in the
first innings, scored 11 off 19 before he became
the third scalp of anderson. Washington sun-
dar, the next batsman in, also couldn't stay long
and got out for a duck against dom bess. ashwin
then faced some blows on his body but made sure
that he didn't give his wicket away as India went
into Lunch needing 276 runs with just four wickets
in hand.
wasn't something that we
were pleased to see because
that has been the issue in the
past as well. Just for the ball to get
destroyed in 60 overs is not something
that you experience as a Test side and
it is not something any Test side could
be prepared for. That was the reality of
the first two days. But having said that,
it is no excuse. England played better
than us, they deserved it (to win)
—Virat Kohli
equation: Root
CHENNAI: England skipper Joe
Root on Tuesday defended team's
approach in their second innings,
stating they wanted to take In-
dia's win out of the equation in
the first Test which the visitors
eventually won by 227 runs here.
"It was a crucial toss but from
that point we had to follow
through and make the most of a
very good wicket. We did that
very well," said Root speaking af-
ter the match.
"To take 20 wickets in alien condi-
tions is a brilliant job from the
way - if we're going to win out here,
someone has to do that. Fortunately
it was me this week," he added.
"We know that India are going
to come back hard at us. The idea
was to get to 400. It didn't quite
materialise like that. But having
spent some time out there, I
knew the wicket had changed
drastically and knew it was going
to change again," said Root while
talking about England's approach
in their second innings.
"We wanted to take India's win
out of the equation. As a bowling
group we didn't want to worry
about the run rate," he added.

Dedeepya through
in AITA singles, doubles
HANS NEWS SERVICE
HYDERABAD
Hyderabad’s upcoming young talent y.sai dedeepya entered into the singles
prequarters and doubles quarters of the all India Tennis association (aITa) rs 1
lakh women’s tennis tournament being held in Chennai on Tuesday.
dedeepya made it to the pre-quarters by defeating ananya of Tamil Nadu in
straight sets during the first round clash with the scoreline reading 6-4, 6-4. she
will now take on sharanya shetty of Maharashtra in a second round faceoff with
an eye on the quarterfinals.
In the doubles, dedeepya along with her partner Pooja Ingale of Maharashtra
sent the duo of anushya and Harini of Tamil Nadu packing with an hands down
6-1,6-2 win in the pre-quarters. dedeepya-Pooja pair will clashed with sai samhita
and shrichandrak Tentu of Tamil Nadu.

Jamshedpur, Chennaiyin desperate Nadal, Barty advance in

for win to stay in playoff race
BAMBOLIM (GOA)
JaMsHedPur FC will be look-
ing to strengthen
their credentials to
make it to the playoffs
of Indian super
League (IsL) season when they
face Chennaiyin FC at the GMC
stadium on Wednesday.
Jamshedpur are placed sev-
enth on the IsL table on 18 points,
five points behind 4th-placed Hy-
RESULT
Bengaluru FC lose to
ATK Mohun Bagan 0-2
ISL STANDINGS
CLUB M W
Mumbai City FC ..............16
ATK Mohun Bagan ..........16
FC Goa ..............................16
Hyderabad FC ..................16
NorthEast United FC ......16
Bengaluru FC ..................17
Jamshedpur FC ..............16
Chennaiyin FC ................16
SC East Bengal ................16
Kerala Blasters FC ..........16
Odisha FC ........................15
derabad FC. Chennaiyin, mean-
while are placed 8th and trail
Jamshedpur by a point. Chen-
naiyin have been hurt by their
misfiring attack with the goalless
draw against bengaluru in their
last match being the ninth time
they have failed to score this sea-
son -- the most by any team.
Now, they find themselves in
desperate need of results if they
aspire to reach the playoffs for the
second straight time.
TODAY’S MATCH
Chennaiyin FC vs Jamshedpur FC
at GMC Stadium Bambolim 7.30pm
D L GF GA GD PTS
....10 ........4 ......2 ........25 ......11 ....14......34
....10 ........3 ......3 ........22 ......10 ....12......33
......5 ........8 ......3 ........24 ......19 ......5......23
......5 ........8 ......3 ........20 ......16 ......4......23
......5 ........8 ......3 ........21 ......20 ......1......23
......4 ........7 ......6 ........19 ......21......-2......19
......4 ........6 ......6 ........15 ......19......-4......18
......3 ........8 ......5 ........11 ......16......-5......17
......3 ........7 ......6 ........14 ......21......-7......16
......3 ........6 ......7 ........20 ......27......-7......15
......1 ........5 ......9 ........14 ......25....-11........8
straight sets at Aus Open
Melbourne: Facing a break point late in the third
set, rafael nadal sprinted to his left and hit a running,
around-the-post forehand that landed just inside the
line. the lingering back soreness that bothered the 20-
time major champion ahead of the australian open
wasn't going to stop him from finishing his first-round
match as quickly as he could. laslo Djere, ranked 56th,
shrugged, his head dropped and he no doubt won-
dered what more he needed to do to win a point.
he'd had three break points when nadal was serving
for the second set, and didn't get close to cashing in
one. he'll next play american qualifier Michael Mmoh,
who outlasted Viktor troicki 7-6 (3) 6-7 (3) 3-6 7-6 (3)
7-5. While nadal has been slowly building into the
tournament, russia's atP Cup-winning teammates
have been on a roll. Fourth-seeded Daniil Medvedev
extended his winning streak to 15 matches with a 6-2
6-2 6-4 win over Vasek Pospisil and seventh-seeded
andrey rublev beat Yannick hanfmann 6-3 6-3 6-4.
While Sofia Kenin struggled with nerves in her first
match as a defending champion at a Grand Slam tour-
nament before beating 133rd-ranked wild-card entry
Maddison inglis 7-5 6-4, top-ranked ash barty domi-
nated in her first Grand Slam match in more than a
year, dropping only 10 points in a 6-0 6-0 rout of
Danka Kovinic. barty lost to Kenin in the semifinals last
year and then skipped the uS open and her title de-
fense at the French open because she stayed in aus-
tralia during the CoViD-19 pandemic. after her 44-
minute opener on rod laver arena, barty said she'd
missed tennis "every single day" during her time away
from the sport. "the competitor in me missed what
this is all about," she said. (aP)