˘ ˇ ˆ...13 hours ago · thing to cheer them up. The Centre has allowed activities in the...

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After a marathon video con-ference that lasted more

than four hours, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andthe Chief Ministers on Saturdayagreed to extend lockdown inthe country for two more weeksbeyond April 14 with a possi-ble relaxation for agriculture,migrant and daily wagers.

Maharashtra and WestBengal Chief Ministers sepa-rately announced extension oflockdown in their States tillApril 30. Odisha and PunjabChief Ministers have alreadyannounced the continuation oflockdown in their respectiveStates.

The Prime Minister, whoheld the video conference withthe Chief Ministers to firm upa decision on extending lock-down to contain any surge inthe coronavirus cases, agreedwith them that it was importantto “balance lives with the liveli-hood”.

After the video confer-ence, Maharashtra ChiefMinister Uddhav Thackerayannounced his decision toextend the lockdown in the

State till April 30. “Maharashtrawill continue to be lockeddown till April 30. The Statewill show the way to the coun-try even in these tough times,”he said.

West Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee also said theState would extend the lock-down till the end of the monthand added that educationalinstitutions will remain shut inthe State till June 10. “The PMhas officially decided to extendlockdown till April 30, we willnot differ,” she said. “We willalso extend it till April 30 andreview closer to that date.”

Both Odisha and PunjabGovernments have alreadyextended the lockdown in theirStates till the end of the month.

Modi discussed with theChief Ministers exit-plan whichsources said would be “gradual”or in a phased-manner. Withthe harvest season ahead, theagriculturists along with thedaily wagers and migrant work-ers may be given some leeway.

Modi suggested specificmeasures for agriculture andallied sector, including modi-fication in Agriculture ProduceMarket Committee (APMC)

laws, to facilitate sale of farmproduce. Fisheries zone willalso be given relaxation duringthe extension of lockdown afterApril 14.

The Prime Minister gave anew mantra of “Jaan bhi, jahanbhi” by improvising the popu-lar saying “ Jaan hain to jahanhain.”

Modi said “next two orthree weeks are crucial”towards the effective contain-ment of the virus which in last24 hours has registered a sharprise of 1,035 cases and 40deaths in the country.

The Prime Minister saidthe efforts made by the Centreand the States have definitelyhelped reduce the impact ofCovid-19 but since the situa-tion is rapidly evolving, a con-stant vigil is of paramountimportance. “ Team work is keyto facing the challenge”, hesaid.

It is expected that thePrime Minister may addressthe nation in a day or two anddetail his views on the exten-sion of the lockdown.

While speaking to ChiefMinisters, Modi pointed to theimportance of Arogya Setu

App saying it is essential tool incountry’s fight against Covid-19 and can subsequently act ase-pass to facilitate travel.

While focusing on socialdistancing which remains themain weapon to battle out thecoronavirus, the PrimeMinister condemned attacks onhealth professionals and inci-dents of misbehaviour withstudents from North-East andKashmir.

Giving a strong warningagainst black-marketing and

hoarding, he assured the CMsthat the country has enoughsupplies of essential medicines.He talked about strengtheninghealthcare infrastructure andreaching out to patientsthrough tele-medicines.

This was the third interac-tion of the Prime Ministerwith the Chief Ministers afterthose held on April 2 andMarch 20.

The Prime Minister was ofopinion that the crisis is anopportunity to become self-

reliant and turn the countryinto a “powerhouse”.

All the CMs sought thePrime Minister to extend thelockdown saying that an earlyending of it could impact thegains made in last three-weeks in containing thespread of coronavirus in thecountry.

The interaction was alsoattended by Union Home,Defence and Health Ministersand Principal Secretary andCabinet Secretary.

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The Centre on Saturdayclaimed that without lock-

down and containment mea-sures, the country would havewitnessed 8.2 lakh Covid-19cases by April 15. The figure ofpositive cases would have goneup to 1.2 lakh with contain-ment measures and no lock-down.

The country is in the thirdweek of the world’s biggestever lockdown involving 1.3billion people with nearly 8,000Covid-19 cases. The virus haskilled over 239 people fromacross the country withMaharashtra topping the list ofworst-hit (1,666 cases) and110 fatality.

Talking to reporters hereat a Press brief ing, Lav

Agarwal, Joint Secretary,Union Health Ministry, reit-erated importance of follow-ing social distancing mea-sures and containment strate-gies which he said were likea social vaccination that canhelp the countr y f romspreading the disease.

“Without these steps,Covid-19 cases could have reg-istered a 41 per cent cumula-tive increase to 8.2 lakh casesby April 15. With contain-ment measures and no lock-

down, it could have gone up to1.2 lakh till April 15,” saidAgarwal, citing a statisticalmodel to capture the project-ed cases.

He cited example of Agrasaying it has emerged as thefinest example in best practicesin cluster management, wherea smart city control room wasconverted into a war room tofight the outbreak of coron-avirus from a person who hadreturned from Italy onFebruary 25.

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With 1,035 new Covid-19cases and 40 deaths in the

past 24 hours, the Governmentis preparing for an exigency. Ithas marked a total of 586 hos-pitals as dedicated Covid-19hospitals having capacity ofover one lakh isolation bedsand 11,500 ICU beds.

Similarly, the IndianRailways is transforming up to20,000 old coaches into emer-gency care units that can bedeployed to remote and hard-hit areas experiencing a short-age of hospital beds.

Emphasising that Indiahas been deploying a gradedresponse to fight coronavirusoutbreak, Union HealthMinistry Joint Secretary LavAgarwal said on Saturday, “Atleast 1,00,000 isolation bedsand 11,500 ICU beds havebeen reserved for Covid-19patients across the country.Also, 587 dedicated Covid-19hospitals have been ear-marked at Central and the

State levels.“PPEs, ventilators and

other critical medical suppliesare being ensured by the Centreto States. The containmentaction plan, contact tracingand other planning are beingensured,” Agarwal said whiletalking to reporters here.

While the Government haschalked out three-tier plan tocategorise the patients depend-ing on the severity of theirinfections, private hospitalsacross India have been asked todesignate dedicated wings totreat the affected patients, pre-pare for sample collection, dis-charge patients who are stableand divide medical staff intotwo groups so that even if onegroup gets infected, the othercan work.

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The authorities in nationalCapital have increased vigil

in the Walled City’s ChandniMahal after three coronavirusdeaths were reported in lastthree days.

Taking the first step, onFriday the Delhi Governmenthad sealed the area to controlspread of Covid-19 after 102people, including foreignerswho had attended TablighiJamaat meet in March, wereevacuated from mosques, inthe area earlier this week and52 of them were tested posi-tive.

According to officials, sofar out of 903 cases reported tillFriday more than 450 arelinked to Tablighi Jamaat whileacross the country the gather-ing has been linked to more

than 1,000 coronavirus cases.They were isolated at a

quarantine centre in GulabhiBagh, 8km from the locality.

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Parents of a commando offi-cer awarded with Shaurya

Chakra for gallantry had todrive more than 2,100 kmfrom New Delhi to Bengalaruto attend his cremation thereon Saturday as red tapebetween Defence and HomeMinistries did not permit themto travel in a service aircraft.This happened despite clear-ance by Defence MinisterRajnath Singh, who alone canonly authorise airlift for a civil-ian in a military plane.

The di l ly-dal lyingbetween the two departmentsthat forced the 70-plus griev-ing duo to drive all the wayfrom New Delhi to Bengalaruhas led to outrage amongstthe veterans. They gave ventto their feelings on the socialmedia with former ArmyChief General VP Maliktweeting

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��#��.�&��%��%��%��+� ��%�%%��/��.�.�.�+&�0�� Lucknow: A City Magistrateand two cops were injuredwhen locals attacked a districtadministration team whichhad had gone to seal a hotspotnear Jali Kothi in Delhigatearea of Meerut on Saturday.Four people, including animam, have been arrested forthe attack.

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Adistrict administrationreport has affirmed that as

many as 47 staffers includingthe senior officials have con-tracted Covid-19.

These infected personsinclude senior officials includ-ing Principal Secretary PallaviJain Govil who was laterremoved, Health Director JVijay Kumar, Addl DirectorKailash Bundela, JointDirector Upendra Dubey,Addl Director Dr VeenaSinha, Dy Directors PramodGoyal, Dr Ruby Khan, DrSaurabh Purohit , DrHimanshu Jayaswar andDirector Dr Ranjana Gupta.

Others who contractedinfection included technicalstaff, computer operator, peons,a gunman and others. Some ofthe kin of these staffers toohave contracted infection.

Taking cognisance of

media reports and a tweetfrom Rajya Sabha memberVivek Tankha about top Healthofficials making a mockery ofCovid-19 protocol after con-tracting infection, the MP

Human Rights Commission(MPHRC) had served a noticeto Chief Secretary Iqbal SinghBains seeking details of positiveHealth staffer and details oftheir hospital admission, daysago.

The letter forwarded bydistrict collector to MPHRC onApril 10 claimed that all the 47staffers after testing positive forcovid19 were hospitalised andkept in isolation.

The staffers were in con-stant touch of the officials who

tested positive, affirmed thereport.

The district administra-tion has clarified that all theprescribed guidelines were fol-lowed in treatment in thesestaffers and there is no proof ofthese officials being guilty ofany negligence.

To add, there are close to50 officials and 250 employeesin Health directorate based atSatpura Bhawan in Bhopal.

It was widely alleged thatHealth officers after testingpositive weren’t hospitalisedimmediately and it was onlyafter an intervention fromsenior Government officialsthat they were shifted to hos-pitals from their isolations.

MPHRC PRO affirmedthat the district administra-tion reply was received at8.47 pm on Friday and thecommission was studying theinformation and would reactto it in due time.

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The year 2020 will be engraved in ourminds for decades to come. The

COVID-19 villain has managed to do theimpossible — it has brought shooting ofshows to a complete stand still. Thismeans that the viewers have nothing newto watch. In such a scenario, manypeople are taking about the good oldshows that used to keep them captivated.The Gen Z also wants to know whatmade these classics so good that theirparents still talk about them even thoughit has been years since they went off air.

Just like Doordarshan has broughtback shows like Ramayan, a few otherchannels are also geared up for the re-run of some iconic shows in order tomaintain the daily dose of fun, laughterand thrill.

While Star Bharat is back with thelaugh-riot — Sarabhai vs Sarabhai andKhichdi, from April 13 between 10 amand 12 pm, Zee TV is no less and HumPaanch is back too from tomorrow —Monday April 13, 2020. The re-telecastsignifies how these shows are still indemand.

Ashok Saraf who played AnandMathur in Hum Paanch says that the onlyreason that these shows have always beenin demand is because they are stillrelevant.

“The sole reason that these iconicshows have been so popular is becauseof the fact that they were and still arerelevant to the audience and hence, theyare making a comeback on TV. I believeHum Paanch is relevant to the audienceeven today. This is because the makerswere such visionaries that they createda show in a manner that the audiencecould relate to it at any given point oftime. It is a show that was written so well,inculcating such minute details andevery episode depicting something new,that it never failed to surprise theviewers. A new issue was addressed everysingle time and they were also dealt withinnovative solutions. This made it standout. As humans, our problems haveremained more or less the same, we justdeal with them differently. The showdepicts exactly that, with hilariouslyaccurate comic timing,” he tells you.

He tells you that everyone on the setsused to listen to him since he was theeldest. “To be honest, everyday felt likea rollercoaster ride on the sets, it was somuch fun. I miss those days and since Iwas the eldest, I remember everyoneused to listen to me. We all worked likeone big family,” Saraf recalls.

He adds that the pace of comedyshows has changed over years andbecome extremely fast. “These dayspeople don’t pay much heed to the script.

I fail to understand how they takesomething so essential, so lightly. As hardit is to write a comedy, at the end of theday, a good script is the backbone of it.Improvisation is obviously a necessity,but a good script can do wonders. Thecomedy scene today is very different, orif I may say, fast as compared to what weused to do back in the day. Moreover, TVthese days doesn’t really make comedyshows anymore either. Today, the dailysoaps are dominated by the saas-bahudrama, may be because audience alsolikes it, but I feel comedy will always havea special place. Also, today’s comedyshows are more of reality shows,” he says.

Sumeet Raghavan who played DrSahil Sarabhai in Sarabhai vs Sarabhaiagrees with Saraf and says that he iswaiting for the re-run of Buniyaad andHum Log.

“All these shows have a special placein the hearts of the people. We havegrown up watching these shows thereforethere’s a different connect with them orfor that matter with the charactersSarabhai vs Sarabhai came in 2004. Theshow is still evergreen. While theseshows are available on digital platformsthere’s a different feeling of watching itwith your family on TV and eveneagerly waiting for it to come. Thisfeeling can’t be replaced. It has anostalgic value. It is a great step takenby the channels to re-telecast theseshows,” he says.

�What is your role in Jag Jaanani MaaVaishnodevi — Kahani Matarani Ki

I play grown up Maa Vaishno Deviin the show. The story unfolds asVaishnavi realises her powers that of agoddess. She goes on a journey tobecome the universal Mother, where shemakes sure that all the sins arediminished in the world. She strives toend paap (the evil in the world) and notthe paapi (the sinner). �What brings you to the show?

I am glad that I am playing MaaVaishno Devi in the show. Well there’sa saying: You don’t choose a character,character chooses you. Somethingsimilar happened with me as well. I havealways been a bhakt of Maa VaishnoDevi. And getting an opportunity toplay a character as such is a meet ofdestiny. When I was approached for thecharacter I didn’t give it a secondthought. I immediately said yes. This isnot just a character. This is somethingpeople worship. �What preparations did you have todo?

The show has already completedmore than 100 episodes. The characterhas already been built in the mind ofour audience. Maisha Dixit who playedyounger Vaishno Devi in the show hasdone an amazing job to hook theaudience with her striking acting skills.Now, to play an older version of MaaVaishno Devi in the show, I take it as abig challenge. I have always made surethat I give my best when it comes toplaying such roles. The viewers don’tjust see you as a character but as a divineperson whom they have a godly connectwith. To get into the nook of thecharacter I researched a lot by readingbooks. I spent some time with Maishatoo trying to get those minute details

which I can use in my character.�What kind of rapot do your sharewith your co-actors?

People in the show have alreadybeen working with each other since thebeginning. I have entered recently in theshow. But all of my co-actors have madeit easy for me. We have gelled well andare having a fun time workingtogether.�What is your takeon the trend ofmy t h o l o g i c a lshows?

I believethat there is alot to learnfrom Indianmythology interms of wit,strength andlife lessons thatwill help yougrow as a person.More than that,these mythologiesform our roots. Theseshows not just entertain theviewers but also educate them about ourvalues and culture. Like for this show, wehave made the story relevant to today’syouth as it’s very important for them tounderstand our core values.Today, notmany people like to read about themythology, so these shows are a mediumto showcase our roots in an entertainingway. This is what I like the most aboutthis trend.�What kind of fitness regime do youfollow?

First things first. My take on fitnessis everyone should understand theirbody type and then identify and followa particular pattern of fitness. Oneshould be healthy only then the person

can be fit. And it goes foreveryone as generallypeople are careless abouttheir fitness and they feelonly actors need to be fit, butit’s wrong. All of us should beequally careful about our health andalways be fit so that during hard

times like these we don’t have tobe scared much. Exercise

boosts our immunityand a balanced

healthy dietplan will keepus in goodhealth always.I follow abalanced dietmore thanworking outas I get very

less time to goto gym, but I

prefer doingyoga daily.

�What do you dowhen not acting?

I love travelling anddancing. This is something thatI do to refresh my mind. Aperson needs to take a breakout of his/ her busy schedule.These are the things that Ido to rejuvenate andreenergise myself.� What are yourupcoming projects?

As of now, myfocus is only on JagJaanani MaaVaishnodevi —Kahani Matarani Ki.No plans for future,completely committed to my show.

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Some moments are not just moments,those are precious memories that one

cherishes forever in their life. Recently,Ishita Ganguly went back in time andshared a nostalgic moment with Govindaon the stage. The actor who is essayingthe role of Maa Kali in the show JagJaanani Maa Vaishno Devi — KahaniMata Rani Ki is making the best use ofquarantine. She has been in constanttouch with her fans on Instagram and ismotivating people during these difficultdays.

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Chief Minister Shivraj SinghChouhan has said that

every possible effort should bemade in the State to save everypatient infected with coron-avirus in the State. Workintensely on the strategy tosave patients.

All the infected areas of theState have been completelysealed. It should be strictlyadhered to, so that the coronainfection does not spread toother areas. Special precautionsshould be taken in this task.

No one should starve inany place in the state; thereshould be food grains andfood arrangement for all.Chouhan was reviewing thestatus of Corona and arrange-ments with senior officials atMantralaya through video con-

ferencing. The Chief Secretary Shri

Iqbal Singh Bains, AdditionalChief Secretary Health ShriMohammad Suleman and allconcerned senior officials werepresent at the meeting.TheChief Minister Chouhandirected that the help of socialservice organizations, publicrepresentatives, religious lead-ers and others should be takenin corona related activities.

They will assist in thefunctioning of the adminis-tration. Let’s all work togetherto defeat Corona in the state tomake Madhya Pradesh amodel state of India.

Additional Chief SecretaryHealth Mohammad Sulemaninformed that corona relatedmedical supplies is available insufficient quantity in the state.Seven testing labs are function-ing in the state, with a capacityof more than 1000 tests per day.

By next week it will reach1,200 daily. After distribution,the number of testing kits avail-able in the Bhopal store is 6000,the number of PPE kits is 3280,

the number of N-95 masks is9500 and the number of three-layer masks is 97000. four lakhtwenty thousand 500 hydroxy-chloroquine tablets are availablein the state, he added. Duringthe review, it was informedthat there is a Corona infectionin 20 districts of the State.

The total number of coro-na patients in the state is 453,of which 36 have died. Thereare 229 corona infectedpatients in Indore district, 9 inJabalpur, 124 in Bhopal, 12 inUjjain, 2 in Gwalior, 2 inShivpuri, 14 in Khargone, 12 inMorena, 2 in Chhindwara, 14in Badwani, 13 in Vidisha, 01in Betul, 06 in Hoshangabad.one each in Sheopur andRaisen, 03 in Dewas, one inDhar, 4 in Khandwa, one inSagar and one in Shajapur.

It was informed that 28dedicated hospitals have beenset up in the state for the treat-ment of corona. In addition, 87hospitals and 540 COVID CareCenters are constantly workingon corona related check upsand treatment.

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In this time of lockdown,many educational institu-

tions are extending their help.The Institute of CompanySecretaries of India contributedto the efforts of theGovernment of India to fightthe biggest epidemic of mod-ern times.

The institute has con-tributed a sum of 5.25 croremaking a humble contributionto the PM Care Fund. In this,5 crore, different institutionshave collected �25 lakh fromtheir fund and �25 lakh fromtheir employees and companysecretary members.

Keeping in mind themantra of "Together we can,together we will", CS Ashish

Garg, President of the Instituteof Company Secretaries ofIndia said, the institute hasgiven its staff, members Andhas left no stone unturned inmaking a relevant plan for thestudents.

The institute through itsonline support system andsocial media handles has beencontinuously establishing coor-dination and cooperation for itsmembers and students.

Acknowledging the con-tinuous efforts made by variousstakeholders of ICSI, CS AshishGarg stated that "We sincerelyappreciate all our members,students, staff and other stake-holders for supporting us onthis occasion. We will contin-ue to do the same in future. Wewill continue our cooperation.

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ShareChat, Indian socialmedia platform,

announced Saturday thesetting aside of INR 50million in ad-credits on itsplatform for an extensiveoutreach campaign of theAarogya Setu app.

Aarogya Setu is amobile application devel-oped by the Governmentled by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi with anobjective to offer infor-mation and proactivelyreach out to and informusers of the app regardingrisks, best practices and rele-vant advisories pertaining tothe containment of COVID-19.

Over the next few days,ShareChat will extensivelypromote the Aaragya Setu

application across its 60+ mil-lion active users in 15 differ-ent languages and help sur-face details about the app to

users of the platform. This latest effort is in

addition to the various ini-tiatives that have been under-taken in the past few weekswhich include ensuring thatverified information surfacesto the top of our trending

feed, priority fact checking of

COVID-19 related content inover 13 languages and the

promotion of content byvarious law enforcementand government accountson the platform. Berges YMalu, Director - PublicPolicy, ShareChat said,“As an Indian start-up, weare proud to be a part ofthis important outreachcampaign for theAarogya Setu app.

We commend theef fort by the PrimeMinister towards rapidly

building a platform that offersinformation regarding symp-toms, best practices and rel-evant advisories pertaining tothe containment of COVID-19. We hope this initiativewould help increase the adop-tion of the app.”

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Prime Minister NarendraModi has called upon the

Chief Ministers of all theStates to be committed indealing with the corona crisis.In a video conference with theChief Ministers, he assuredvictory over the corona crisisand also gave creative sug-gestions. Modi said that thecoming three-four weeks willbe very important. We have tobe prepared for both expect-ed or challenging situations.

He assured the states thathe himself would stand withthem in the war againstCorona with full force. Modiexpressed confidence thatIndia will definitely emerge asa winner in this terrible cri-sis. He urged the farmers,hard working labourers andother sections not to loseheart in any adverse situationand be patient. The PrimeMinister assured that we mustwin under every circum-stance. Chief Minister ShivrajSingh Chouhan said in the

video conference that we arefortunate to have ShriNarendra Modi as the PrimeMinister in this hour of crisis.

Shri Modi’s will power,foresight and faith in thecommon people is sure tohelp us over the crisis ofCorona. Chouhan said that onthe call of the Prime Minister,the whole country is deter-mined to fight the disaster ofCorona.

The Chief Minister saidthat the common man has

great faith in the PrimeMinister. It is the support ofthe common people in thisdifficult time.

He said that Modi has lefta mark of his personality notonly in his country but in thewhole world. The ChiefMinister said that we are for-tunate to have the opportu-nity to work with Modi.

Chouhan said that peopleare seen working with a senseof social service getting inspi-ration from the PrimeMinister even in a countrythat is facing disaster. ChiefMinister Chouhan informedthat capacity of testing kits isbeing increased in MadhyaPradesh.

An amount of Rs 120crores has been releasedunder Social Security Schemeand National Health Mission.

He said that there is noshortage of funds to fightCovid-19. The Chief Ministersaid that adequate funds havealso been received in PMCare Fund and CM ReliefFund.

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During the lockdown, on-screen technology for pro-

fessional and personal life isbeing widely used among thecity's start ups, entrepreneurs,business owners and manage-ment experts.

Using Zoom webinar tech-nology these professionals areattending lectures, group dis-cussions, interactions and pre-sentations to learning how tomanage their businesses duringlockdown.

Confederation of IndianIndustries (CII), Young Indiansand AIC-RNTU have alreadyorganised two such live ses-sions in which more than 225entrepreneurs participated.According to SiddharthChaturvedi, chair, CII, Bhopal,said that even though the lock-down has stopped the outdoormovements, which is necessary,

video platforms like Zoom

are helping us to utilize lock-down period to learn and solvebusiness issues. We haverecently conducted two learn-ing sessions in which morethan 225 people participated ineach session. In the first livesession, held on April 3, from4 to 5.30 pm, Professor SatyajitMajumdar of Tata Institute ofSocial Sciences, Mumbai, gavetips on business strategy dur-ing crisis.

Chaturvedi furtherinformed that the second livesession was held on April 10,which was addressed by notedfinancial expert and charteredaccountant Dr Anil Lamba.

The theme of the sessionwas Romancing the BalanceSheet, in which he gave infor-mation about the problemsrelated to accountancy andfinancial management. About234 members participated inthis session and got theirqueries resolved.

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After the complete lock-down, various citizens are

helping the daily wages work-ers. On Saturday, tbe volunteersof Bhojpuri Ekta Manch dis-tributed food packets to thedaily wage workers. The vol-unteers of Bhojpuri Ekta Manchhelped as many as 100 familiesand also spread awarenessabout COVID 19.

They also told them aboutthe precautions to be taken toprevent COVID 19.Chairperson of Bhojpuri EktaManch Kunwar Prasad said thatin collaboration with theBhojpuri Samaj and the officebearers, 100 families of poor des-titute daily laborers inGandhinagar and rural settle-ments, Municipality by Bhojpuri

Ekta Manch Bhopal In collabo-ration with the employees ofCorporation Bhopal, specialsupport was distributed forration materials. The group tookup the initiative and distributedfood packets in different areas ofthe city on Saturday.With thenationwide lockdown, manyfamilies are facing the issue offood storage. Various organisa-tions are working to reach out tothe poor families.

Around 50 t0 100 foodpackages reached in variousparts of Bhopal. The volunteersincluding Bharat BhushanKumar, Manoj Srivastava, Shiva,Mukesh Singh, Kumar, SanjaySrivastava, Subhash Sinha,Ramesh Shakya Ramesh Singhand others also helped in variouslocalities of the series will con-tinue to do so in Bhopal.

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At a time when the countryis facing a great crisis due

to the Corona pandemic,National InnovationFoundation India (NIF), anautonomous institute underthe Department of Science andTechnology, Govt. of India hascome up with a call invitinginnovative citizens to partici-pate in its Challenge Covid-19Competition.

All interested innovatorscan participate with their cre-ative ideas and innovations forproblems or issues like reduc-ing transmission of Coronavirus through original creativeideas, innovations, which cansupplement the efforts of thegovernment in slowing or elim-inating the spread further.

Innovative ideas caninclude activities like sanitisingone’s hands, body, home items,and home, public places wher-ever required more interesting

and effective, supply and dis-tribution of essential items topeople specially the elderly liv-ing alone, ideas for the door-to-door supply of essential prod-ucts and services which oblit-erate the need to move out ofthe home.

Professor AshutoshSharma, Secretary, Departmentof Science and Technology said,"NIF is a rather unique institu-

tion with a strong focus andexperience in scouting andfacilitating inclusive and grass-roots innovations driven bycitizens.

The initiative beinglaunched will not only createawareness, but will intimatelyengage a wide cross-section ofsociety with diverse back-grounds in providing andimplementing solutions.

"The selected technologicalideas and innovations will besupported for incubation anddissemination.

The details of ideas andinnovations may be sent [email protected] anfhttp://nif.org.in/challenge-covid-19-competitionwithcomplete details about the per-son (Name, Age, Education,Occupation, Address, ContactNumber, Email) and detailsabout the idea/ innovation(including photo and video, ifany). The selected ideas will beannounced on March 31.

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A52-ye ar-old far mer,whose bike was hit by a

speeding car near Berasiamain road on April 8, dieddur ing t re at ment onSaturday. The errant driverhas been arrested by thepolice.

According to police, thedece as ed ident i f i ed asMahendra Singh Solanki ofGada Kalan village was mov-ing on his bike towards ahospital when he was hit bya speeding car near Berasiapolice station area. He wastaken to hospital where hedied during treatment onSaturday.

The deceased along withhis family moved to Narelavillage in Berasia where hehad his farms.

The accident took placewhile he was heading towarda hospital on bike where hiswife was undergoing treat-ment. During the investiga-tion police fouays back his

wife was admitted to LBShospital. On April 8 around3 in the afternoon he washeading toward the hospitalto look after his ailing wifebut before he could reachhospital he met accident.

In t he acc identMahendra sustained seriousinjuries in head and otherbody parts.

He was bleeding pro-fusely and in the criticalcondition he was undergo-ing treatment and suc-c umb e d to de at h onSaturday.

The deceased was under-going treatment at a privatehospital in Karond. Thepolice was informed and onthe receipt a police teamreached the spot and start-ed investigation.

The body was sent forthe post mortem. After pre-liminary investigation policehave registered a case undersection 304 A of IPC andstarted further investiga-tion.

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One of the four miscreantswho pelted stones and

slapped with NationalSecurity Act (NSA) for attack-ing two women doctors in thecity recently and were lodgedin Jabalpur jail, has testedposit ive for covid19 onSaturday.

Javed Khan was amongpersons who had attackedtwo woman doctors on dutyin Taatpatti Bakhal area ofIndore recently. After theadministration slapped himwith NSA along with threeothers, Khan was sent toJabalpur jail with his associ-ates.

A test report received byjail administration in Jabalpuron Saturday which confirmedthat Javed Khan has con-tracted corona infection.

Panicked jail officers imme-diately shifted the ailinginmate to an isolation ward inthe hospital within the jailcampus.

After one of the fouraccused reached Jabalpur, oneof them had fallen ill and allthe four were shifted to jailhospital and samples werecollected from them for tests.The rest of the three testednegative and have been shift-

ed to their barracks. Thepolicemen who had broughtthe four accused to Jabalpurjail from Indore too havebeen asked to shift to quar-antine as a precautionarymeasure.

The jail authorities inJabalpur are also planning totest those inmates who werepresent in the barrack withthe one who tested positive.

With the prisoner testingpositive, total number ofcorona positive cases inJabalpur has reached ten. Fiveof these patients have beendischarged after recoveringcompletely.

The Taatpatti Bakhal areaof Indore where the stone-pelting had taken place hasremained a covid19 hotspotwith locals reporting positivefor the virus in herds in thelast few days.

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Crime branch Bhopal policehave arrested a Ashoka

Garden resident for postingprovoking and offensive con-tent; accused has posted con-tent over Facebook ID violat-ing the orders issued for pre-venting circulation of deroga-tory and objectionable mes-sages on various social plat-forms.

In the action taken thecrime branch registered a crim-inal case against a man forallegedly posting messagesinciting communal hatredwhich could disturb communalfabric.

The ASP (Crime Branch)Nischal Jharia said that soonafter the information was pro-vided to police crime branchacted swiftly and nabbed theaccused who is identified as

Sadiq Ali of Ashoka Garden. Acase under section 188 and 505(2) IPC and Section 54 of theDisaster Management Act,2005, has been registered.Police have recovered hismobile phone used for upload-ing inciting content.

Meanwhile, In order toprevent the spread of coronainfection, during the lock-down, orders have been issuedby District Magistrate andCollector Bhopal under Section144ipc for the prevention ofobjectionable comments andcontent on social media underSection 144.

District Collector TarunPithode issued orders andwarned that swift and strictlegal action would be takenagainst the persons violatingorders and anyone trying todisturb peace and communalharmony would not be barred.

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Ramtekri region in Mandsaurhas been sealed completely

after a 22-year-old girl was test-ed positive for Coronavirus whilea 52-year-old man in Ratlam wastested positive for Coronavirus.

The regions which were freefrom the pandemic reportedtheir first case and taking pre-cautionary action district col-lector sealed the areas where thecases have been reported.

In Mandsaur girl lives in Golintersection has travelled fromPune and after she was testedpositive Ramtekari, MeghdootNagar and Gol intersection of thecity were declared as cantonmentareas and curfew was imposed inthe city.

From Ratlam the first casewas of a 52-year-old business-man who is resident ofMochipura in Ratlam.

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Residents of HimachalPradesh within and out-

side the State may use helplinenumbers issued by theGovernment during the peri-od of the lockdown due toCOVID-19 in case of anydistress, Chief Minister JaiRam Thakur said here onSaturday.

The CM said a StateControl Room for Covid-19pandemic management hasbeen set up.

The State Governmenthas set up dedicated helplinenumbers 0177-2622204,0177-2629688, 0177-2629939and toll free numbers 1070and 1077, which are opera-tional round the clock, hesaid.

Besides, helpline num-bers 0177-2626076 and 0177-2626077 – operational from 8am to 10 pm every day – havebeen set up to assist people ofHimachal Pradesh living inother states.

The Chief Minister said

people stranded in otherStates are being providedfacilities of shelter, food andmedical emergencies.

Most of the cases arebeing resolved by coordinat-ing with other state govern-ments, he added.

Helpline numbers 0177-2626076 and 0177-2626077and toll free number 1070 arealso being used by peoplestranded in different parts ofHimachal Pradesh for therequirement of medicines,Thakur added.

Toll free number 1077has been set up in disastercontrol rooms in all districts,he said, adding that the num-

ber is operational round theclock and can be called fromany mobile or landline num-ber for any kind of assistance.

Helpline numbers set upin Chandigarh for people ofHimachal Pradesh are 0172-5000103, 0172-5000104,8146313167 and 9988898009,the Chief Minister said.

The helpline numbers setup in Delhi are 011-23711964,011-23716574 and 011-24105386, which can be con-tacted from 10 am to 5 pm,

and helpline numbers011-23716124-25, 26 and 27,011-24105386-87 and 88 canbe contacted from 5 pm to 10am, he added.

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In line with the CentralGovernment’s Standard

Operating Procedures (SOPs)for making transit arrange-ments for foreign nationalstranded in India, PunjabGovernment facilitated thereturn of 825 such persons,including NRIs, to theirrespective countries betweenMarch 31 and April 9

DGP Dinkar Gupta onSaturday said a Committee ofsenior police officers com-prising of ADGP (Law &Order) Ishwar Singh andAIG/Cyber Crime InderbirSingh has been involved inthe facilitation the return offoreign nationals, strandedin Punjab, back to theirrespective countries.

In many cases, such facil-itation and coordination hashad to be carried out at thesenior most levels with theMEA to get the necessaryapprovals in time for thescheduled flights.

The Government of Indiahad decided that the requestsreceived from foreign coun-tries would be examined on acase- to-case basis by theUnion Ministry of ExternalAffairs.

As per the protocols forthis, after endorsement ofrequests by the Ministry ofExternal Affairs, the char-tered f lights were to bearranged by the foreignGovernments concerned inconsultation with the Union

Ministry of Civil Aviation,said the DGP.

Gupta said these foreignnaionals included 28 fromFinland, 86 from Denmark,43 from Sweden, 50 fromNorway, 14 from Latvia, 6 cit-izens from Japan and twocitizens each from Russia,Slovenia, Czech Republic andBelarus and one fromUzbekistan.

In addition, 170 citizensof Canada and 273 of USAwere also facilitated for evac-uation from the state. Next inline are British nationals forwhich the Brit ishGovernment is arrangingrepatriation flights from

Amritsar andChandigarh. Apart fromthese, 15 citizens from SouthKorea, 33 from Malaysia, 17from Spain, 7 f romSwitzerland, 4 each fromTaiwan and Mexico, 9 fromNetherlands and 57 fromSingapore were also safelysent back to their countries.

All foreign nationals areto be screened for Covid-19symptoms and only thosewho are asymptomatic forCovid-19 are being allowed toleave the State. In the case ofsymptomatic person(s), thefuture course of treatment isfollowed, as per the standardhealth protocols.

Local transportat ionarrangements from the placeof stay of the foreign nation-als to the point of embarka-tion is arranged by the localEmbassy or Consulate of therespect ive foreignGovernment,

while the transit pass formovement of the vehicledeployed for movement of theforeign nationals is issued bythe State Government con-cerned.

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To contain Covid-19 cases,Haryana Chief Minister

Manohar Lal Khattar onSaturday said four districts ofthe State, including Gurgaon,which have reported the max-imum number of cases, will bedeclared red zones, meaningstricter restrictions will beplaced in the areas to check thespread of the virus.

The four districts --Gurgaon, Faridabad, Nuh andPalwal -- account for more than100 cases out of the over 160cases reported in the state.Many areas in these districtshave already been declaredcontainment zones.

After interacting withPrime Minister Narendra Modiduring a video conference,Khattar said in a televisedaddress this evening that theindications from the meetingwere that the lockdown is set toincrease by two weeks.

It emerged during themeeting of chief ministers thatareas should be categoriseddepending on the severity ofthe spread, he said.

Khattar, who had urgedpeople to wear a mask when-ever they step out of theirhome, said now it is a must andthey should make it a habit justlike we wear clothes.

About Haryana, he said, theState will be divided into threecategories the worst affectedwill be declared a red zone.Gurgaon, Faridabad, Nuh andPalwal are in that category.

The remaining 18 districtswill be divided into two cate-gories vulnerable areas inorange category, where coron-avirus cases are fewer thanworst-affectedareas. The thirdcategory will be of areas withminimum impact of coron-avirus, he said.

The lockdown, however,will continue in all three cate-gories. The restrictions couldbe milder in areas with mini-mally affected by the virus foreconomic activities, he said.

Khattar said all ChiefMinisters gave their sugges-tions to the Prime Minister andmost of them said the nation-wide lockdown should be con-tinued beyond April 14. A for-mal announcement will be

made by the Prime Ministerbut all of us should be prepared,he said.

Khattar said the CMs saidincreasing the lockdown canhelp contain the spread of thevirus and the Prime Ministerstressed the focus now is on'jaan bhi, jahan bhi'. Khattarsaid it was pointed out duringthe meeting that the econom-ic activities have come to a haltand to keep these suspendedfor a long time is difficult forany Nation or State. If thelockdown is extended, thePrime Minister has indicatedthat some arrangements will bemade so that small enterpris-es can restart. He said CMsalso raised the issues related tothe farmers.

Social distancing plancommittees will be formed,which will work at the village,block,district, city level andwill decide which industry canbe allowed to run. Movementof raw material and finishedgoods will be allowed, he said.

To ensure there is nocrowding when people go outto buy essentials items likevegetables, it has been decided

to increase the duration forwhich such stores can open.

He said banks have beenasked to work out an arrange-ment so that customers canrequest a 'token' over phone toreduce crowding at bankbranches.

To provide healthcare facil-ities at doorsteps includingmedicines, the number ofmobile dispensaries will beincreased from 250 to 500, hesaid.

CHIEF SECRETARYDIRECTS OFFICERS ONMEDICAL FACILITIES

Haryana Chief SecretaryKeshni Anand Arora onSaturday directed the officers

concerned to ensure that thegeneral public is not deprivedof basic medical facilities andto start facilities of mobileclinics for which HaryanaRoadways buses will be used.

Presiding over a meeting ofDeputy Commissioners of thestate during the CrisisCoordination Committeethrough video conferencing,she held discussions with thenodal officers regarding med-ical preparedness regardingCovid-19 at the meeting.

The Chief Secretary direct-ed the officers to ensure thatcrowds should not gather at theprocurement centres and forthis a detailed strategy shouldbe put in place and that the

guidelines should be followedstrictly. She directed the DeputyCommissioners to personallyinspect the procurement cen-tres to ensure that all thearrangements are in place. Shealso said that it should beensured that the movement ofcombines and harvestersshould not be restricted sothat the harvesting is not hin-dered.

During the meeting,Additional Chief Secretary,Haryana Agriculture andFarmers Welfare Department,Sanjeev Kaushal said specialmechanisms have been put inplace in order to avoid rush atthe centers. He said that detailsregarding which farmer will goto which mandi and on whatday will be communicated tothem through SMS and a list ofthe same will be given to thePanchayats of the villages inorder to streamline the pro-curement process.

He shared that a Standarddesign for purchase centreshas been prepared and desig-nated seating plan of staff,Arthiyas, labourers has beenmade and every Deputy

Commissioner has been direct-ed to keep a check that thesame is being implemented ineach centre.

Kaushal said the entry andexit points of the procurementcentres will be monitored close-ly and only those with uniqueIDs and gate passes will beallowed to enter. He said thatan instruction booklet will begiven to the Marketing Boardemployees, Arthiyas, procure-ment agencies, labourers, andfarmers to help them navigatethe procurement processsmoothly. He said that sincethe number of procurementcentres have been increasedthis year the employees of pro-curement agencies will fallshort for which the employeesof other departments will bedeployed to ensure efficientprocurement.

BIO-METRIC NOT TO BEINSISTED FOR PENSION

Giving a relief to the pen-sioners covered under varioussocial security schemes, whoare unable to withdraw theirpension through biometric orvoucher till June 30, Haryana

Government has decided not tostop their pension.

Minister of State for SocialJustice and Empowerment, O.P.Yadav said presently it ismandatory that beneficiariescovered under various schemeslike old age honor allowance,widow pension, Ladli pensionand Divyang pension have towithdraw their pensionthrough biometric or vouch-er at least once in three monthsbut if they fail to do the samethen the pension amount issent back to the departmentthrough bank or post office andthen the department stops thepension benefit of that benefi-ciary and he has to reapply forthe pension after one year.

He said due to the ongoinglockdown due to Covid-19outbreak across the countryand pensioners were facingtrouble to withdraw their pen-sion through vouchers by goingto banks. He said that keepingin view the present circum-stances, the Government hasdecided that the pension of thebeneficiaries who are unable towithdraw their pension will notbe stopped till June 30.

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The number of Covid-19cases in Haryana rose to

165 on Saturday as three morepeople tested positive for thedisease in Faridabad, Palwaland Hisar districts, state healthdepartment's bulletin said.

Palwal and Faridabad areamong the state's worst affect-ed districts. One case each wasreported from Palwal,Faridabad and Hisar, taking thetotal number of coronaviruscases in Haryana to 165, thehealth department said.

Of these 165, 22 patientshave been discharged and twohave died. The number ofactive Covid-19 cases in thestate stands at 141, it said. Asmany as 3,663 samples havebeen tested so far, out of which2,472 have tested negative.However, reports of 1,026 sam-ples are awaited. Among thecoronavirus patients inHaryana, 10 are foreign nation-als and 64 are people fromother states of the country,according to the bulletin.

The worst affected dis-

tricts in the state are Nuh (38),Gurugram (32), Palwal (29)and Faridabad (29).Containment orders have beenissued by concerned deputycommissioners for 140 vil-lages, including 104 bufferzones, in Nuh; 52 villages,including 36 buffer zones, inPalwal; 13 containment zonesin Faridabad; and nine villagesor colonies in Gurugram.

Health Minister Anil Vijhas maintained that the spikein the number of coronaviruscases in Haryana is due to anumber of Tablighi Jamaatmembers testing positive for

the infection. Earlier, he hadsaid that over 100 TablighiJamaat members in the statehave tested positive for Covid-19.

Vij had said that thoseTablighi Jamaat members whohad failed to report to theauthorities till 5 pm on April 8would be booked under law.

After this, police bookedsix members of the group inYamunanagar and Palwal forfailing to disclose that they hadattended the Tablighi Jamaatcongregation in Delhi' 'sNizamuddin last month.

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Three fresh cases ofCoronavirus were reported

in Jharkhand on Saturday, tak-ing the total count of COVID-19 positive patients (active) inthe State to 16, health officialssaid. Hazaribag, Ranchi andKoderma reported one freshcase each on Saturday.

The number of activeCoronavirus patients in Ranchion Saturday reached eight –allfrom Hindpiri, health officialssaid.

The locality has emerged asa hotspot of the virus in theState capital after the first caseof COVID-19 was reportedfrom the densely-populatedlocality on March 31. AMalaysian woman, who stayedat Hindpiri after attending theTablighi Jamaat congregation inNew Delhi, is said to be the firstcarrier of the virus inJharkhand.

Meanwhile, a 12-year-oldgirl from Hindpiri, undergoingtreatment at the Isolation Wardof Rajendra Institute of MedicalSciences (RIMS) died onSaturday, hospital authorities

said. The girl, a Coronavirussuspect, was also sufferingfrom a Kidney disease andwas on dialysis, they added.Her sample was collected forCOVID-19 test on Friday, andthe results are awaited.

"Three fresh cases ofCoronavirus were reported onSaturday – one each fromRanchi, Hazaribag andKoderma," said HealthSecretary Nitin MadanKulkarni. "All the cases inRanchi are concentrated inHindpiri so far," he added.

By Friday, cases were onlyreported from Ranchi,Hazaribag and Bokaro.However, the entry of the virusin Koderma has swung thehealth officials of the districtinto action. Koderma DeputyCommissioner RameshGholap, however,

said that the suspect whotested positive on Saturday isoriginally a resident of Giridihdistrict, but is undergoing treat-ment in Koderma. Sourcessaid that he returned fromMumbai on March 23 and vol-unteered for screening. Hissamples were collected on April

6. The number of cases inJharkhand has skyrocketedfrom only four on Tuesday to13 on Thursday and 16 onSaturday. With eight activepatients, Ranchi tops the list ofJharkhand cities with COVID-19 cases.

By now, five cases havebeen reported from Bokaro,two from Hazaribag and onefrom Koderma. A 75-year-old

Bokaro man, who tested posi-tive for COVID-19, died onThursday. According to areport released by the NationalHealth Mission (NHM) onSaturday, Jharkhand has bynow collected samples of 1912COVID-19 suspects, and 1529of them have tested negative.

Over 1.16 lakh people wereput in home quarantine here,while more than 15,000 were

kept in quarantine centres, itadded.

There are only two testingcentres for Coronavirus inJharkhand –one at RIMS andthe other at Mahatma GandhiMemorial Hospital inJamshedpur. On Saturday, theGovernment collected sam-ples of 231 suspects, the reportsaid, adding that the test resultsof 366 suspects are awaited.

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Chief Minister HemantSoren today urged the

Centre to provide special finan-cial aid to Jharkhand in the pre-sent crisis situation. During ameeting with Prime MinisterNarendra Modi through videoconferencing today the CMrequested the PM to take stepsfor payment of dues fromPublic Sector Units, payment ofGR grants and increasingMGNREGA wage to Rs 300.

The CM said, “We under-stand that the CentralGovernment is also under eco-nomic pressure, but being atribal and Dalit communitydominated State, we expectthat the Central Governmentwill understand the pain andsuffering of these sections.Necessary financial assistanceshould be made available to theState of Jharkhand so that thelives and livelihoods of thesepoor can be protected,” hesaid.

“The State government'seconomic situation is underpressure due to the lockdown.Our own revenue sources haveclosed. Desired funds are alsonot being received from theCentre. Dues are not being paidto the State Government by thePublic Sector Enterprises of theGovernment of India,” he saidurging PM to take initiative tomake payment of outstandingdues of CCL, BCCL, SAIL etcat the earliest.

Soren requested that thelimit for obtaining loans by theState government fixed to 3 percent of GSDP should beincreased to 5 per cent so thatthe possible deficit in revenuecan be met to some extent.

The CM said that there isa provision of GR grant of Rs60 per adult in the Relief Code.He requested the PM thataccording to the Relief Code,every adult citizen is paid GRat the rate of Rs 60 per day at

the time of disaster but theacceptance of payment of thisamount in respect of COVID-19 was not received from theGovernment of India. It istherefore requested that in thishour of disaster, paymentshould be approved in accor-dance with GR grant, he urged.

Soren said that Jharkhandhas the lowest MGNREGAwage rate in the country. Heurged the PM that the MNRE-GA wage rate should beincreased to Rs 300 inJharkhand. “After the lock-down is over, about five and ahalf lakh workers are expectedto return to Jharkhand. Aftertheir return to Jharkhand, theState government will needhelp from the Central govern-ment to quarantine them andprovide employment.

In this regard, I requestthat we should provide techni-cal support from institutionslike Para Military forces forconstruction of adequate num-ber of tents and toilets. Thelimit of the working day pre-scribed under MGNREGAshould be increased so that theworkers can be providedemployment,” he said.

The CM apprised the PMthat the State government hasrequested to provide 300 ven-tilators, 10,000 testing kits and1 lakh rapid testing kits from

ICMR / Government of IndiaPublic Sector Undertaking, butit has not yet been received. Herequested the PM, taking thisinto consideration, to make theabove materials available.

Soren said that milk pro-ducers and vegetable growingfarmers in the State have comeunder severe economic crisisdue to the lockdown. The CMtold the PM that the State gov-ernment is working on twodimensions of the Corona epi-demic. The first dimension issocial security and the seconddimension is the protection oflife.

He said that the govern-ment has started work on socialsecurity and are providing hotfood and dry ration in almostall the houses by arrangingkitchens at every panchayatlevel in the State.

The CM further said that 3testing centers are functioningin the State, in which 1681 testshave been done so far, out ofwhich 17 people have beenfound to be Corona positive.

Two hospitals in Ranchihave been declared as COVIDhospitals, in which about 160beds have been arranged. Hesaid one and a half lakh labour-ers have come to Jharkhandfrom other states and afterscreening them they have beenkept in quarantine.

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The Ordnance Factory Board(OFB) has come up with a

cost-effective solution for isolationwards with the manufacture oftwo-bed tents with medical equip-ment for screening, isolation andquarantine. These special tentscan be used for medical emer-gency, medical screening, hospitaltriage and quarantine purposes.These tents with floor area of 9.55square metres are made up ofwaterproof fabric, mild steel andaluminium alloy.

These tents can be set up inany place & terrain and help in cre-ating additional facilities otherthan those in conventional hospi-tals within a short period of time.Ordnance Equipment Factory,Kanpur has manufactured thesetents. Fifty such tents have beensent to Government of ArunachalPradesh.

Moreover, Opto ElectronicsFactory, Dehradun, a unit ofOrdnance Factory Board, hasdonated 2,500 bottles (100 mleach) of hand sanitisers and 1,000face masks to the Governor,Uttarakhand, on April 6, 2020.Cordite Factory Aruvankadu,another unit of OFB, handed over100 litres of sanitisers to theNilgiris District Police authoritiesin Tamil Nadu on April 08 whileHigh Explosives Factory (HEF) inPune despatched the first batch of2,500 litres sanitisers to M/s HLL,Belgavi on April 9.

Also, Ordnance FactoryAmbajhari (OFAJ) Nagpur has

developed fumigation chamberfor the purpose of sanitisation. Itis fully portable and can be shift-ed with ease. It is installed at themain entrance of OFAJ Hospital.Ordnance Factory Dehradunhanded over indigenously madepedal-operated handwashing sys-tem fitted with soap dispenser tothe police authorities on April 7.Ordnance Factory Dehu Road,Pune distributed food kits amongstlabourers at Dehugaon village onApril 6.

Two units of OFB namely theSmall Arms Factory (SAF) Kanpurin Uttar Pradesh (UP) and theHeavy Vehicle Factory (HVF)Avadi in Tamil Nadu (TN) havebeen granted accreditation by theNational Accreditation Board forTesting and CalibrationLaboratories (NABL) for con-ducting the ‘Test for BloodPenetration Resistance’ as the testequipment manufactured by themmet the ASTM F 1670:2003 andISO 16603:2004 standards.

The equipment was devel-oped by a number of OrdnanceFactories in a competitive missionmode in a record time of a fort-night.

The basic principle of the testis to expose the fabric, used as araw material to manufacture cov-eralls to ‘synthetic blood’ at dif-ferent pressure levels for specifiedperiods of time. The test is essen-tially required to facilitate bulkmanufacture of coveralls by man-ufacturers all over the country inlarge numbers for health workersand first responders dealing with

patients aff licted with theCoronavirus (COVID-19).

Hitherto, this test was availableonly with South India TextileResearch Association (SITRA),Coimbatore in the entire countryand testing of the fabric for man-ufacture of coveralls had emergedas a critical bottleneck especiallyduring the nationwide lockdownand in the absence of logistics.

With the latest development,another test facility has been cre-ated in South India and the firstsuch facility has been establishedin north India. This will not onlyenable the OFB to ramp up pro-

duction of coveralls in the cloth-ing factories, four of which are inUP and one in TN, but will alsoenable other agencies engaged inthe manufacture of coveralls toavail this crucial testing facility

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Adelay in receiving mechan-ical ventilation— the device

that becomes the deciderbetween life and death-— hasbeen a major reason for death ofthe majority of the Covid-19patients, a study has found.

Ventilators’ shortage isendemic in the developing coun-tries, including India.

The study, which assessedthe clinical characteristics ofpatients with novel coronavirusinfection in China, noted thatonly about one-fifth of patients

who died of COVID-19 receivedinvasive mechanical ventilationand further aggressive respira-tory support prior to death.Covid-19 can lead to severelower respiratory tract infec-

tion, which means patients oftenneed ventilator support.

The research, published inthe Journal of the AmericanMedical Association, assesseddata obtained from 21 hospitalsin Wuhan, China, about thedemographic, comorbidity andrespiratory support provided to168 patients who died ofCOVID-19 between January 21and 30.

According to the scientists,including those from ZhongdaHospital, Southeast University inChina, while all patients receivedoxygen therapy during theirhospital stay, 46 patients onlyreceived nasal or face mask oxy-gen before they died.

About one-third of patients,they said received high-flownasal oxygen therapy, and 72patients received non-invasiveventilation.

The study noted that only 34patients were intubated andreceived invasive mechanicalventilation.

Based on these findings, thescientists believe that manypatients had delayed intubation.So far over one lakh people havedied across the world.

They said several reasonsmay explain this low proportion.First, the study said somepatients with critically low lev-els of oxygen in the blood did nothave other symptoms, such asshortness of breath or dyspnea.

The lack of enough invasivemechanical ventilators was alsoan important reason preventing

patients from receiving intuba-tion, the researchers said.

Third, they said, a medicalteam which is not dominated byintensivists may not receive crit-ical care training and may beuncertain on the timing forwhen a patient requires intuba-tion.

The study also validatedearlier findings that hypertensionis the most common chroniccomorbidity among patientswho died.

Based on earlier studies, thescientists said the novel coron-avirus infects the lungs throughthe angiotensin-convertingenzyme II receptor.

However, they said furtherresearch is needed to find themechanism of COVID-19,adding that clinical studies arealso needed to confirm whetherangiotensin-converting enzymeinhibitors and angiotensin recep-tor blockers could be beneficialfor patients with COVID-19.

Noting the limitations of thestudy, the scientists said the dataanalysed were from patientswho died during late January2019, and they may not be rep-resentative of later cases ofCOVID-19.

According to Johns HopkinsUniversity, the demand for ven-tilator can be as high as 1 millionin the country. Current avail-ability in India is estimated tohave between 30,000 and 50,000ventilators. It says, the US hasabout 1,60,000 ventilators and isrunning short in most places.

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In the relentless fight against thecoronavirus pandemic, more

than 2,000 National Cadet Corps(NCC) cadets are now assisting thecivil administration in variousStates and nearly 50,000 morecadets are on the standby if thenational effort has to be ramped upin the coming days. This apart,more than 5,000 ex-servicemen arealso pitching in the endeavour.

Giving details of the deploy-ment of the NCC cadets, defenceministry officials said here onSaturday the cadets above the ageof 18 are working shoulder toshoulder with civil, defence andpolice personnel in 12 States. Themaximum deployment of the

cadets is in Tamil Nadu.As the lockdown continues,

more and more states are in theprocess of requisitioning NCCcadets for various tasks.Headquarters Directorate GeneralNCC is monitoring the number ofcadets volunteering for the cause.Around 50,000 cadets have so farvolunteered to contribute in‘Exercise NCC Yogdaan’.

Volunteer NCC cadets above18 years and from Senior Division(For boy cadets) and Senior Wing(For girl cadets) are being employedfor these duties. The cadets are vol-untarily contributing to the cause.It is ensured that the cadets aretrained and properly briefed aboutthe tasks before being deployed.

The State machinery is ensur-

ing that all the cadets are provid-ed with proper safety equipmentlike masks and gloves during theirdeployment. The cadets are beingemployed under the supervision ofOfficers and Junior CommissionedOfficers to ensure safety and secu-rity of the cadets. They are notbeing employed in areas which aresealed or are earmarked as hotspotsby the respective StateGovernments.

The cadets are deployed forvarious duties like, traffic man-agement, supply chain manage-ment, preparation and packagingof food items, distribution of foodand essential items, queue man-agement, social distancing, man-ning control centres and CCTVcontrol rooms. Apart from this,

NCC cadets are sensitising the pub-lic against COVID-19 by sendingmessages on social media platformslike Twitter, Instagram andWhatsApp, etc.

The NCC is 14-lakh strong andhas a reach throughout the coun-try, with its 17 directorates cover allthe 29 states and nine union terri-tories. These directorates are fur-ther divided into 99 groups and 826units, thus ensuring availability ofcadets to the district administrationin all the states. As the instructionshave reached various district head-quarters, to utilise the cadets forlogistics and supply chain man-agement duties, the district admin-istration is seeking their support, byrequisitioning them from the NCCdirectorates.

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Amid the prevailing gloomdue to the coronavirus pan-

demic, fish lovers have some-thing to cheer them up. TheCentre has allowed activities inthe fisheries sector, includingthe sale of fish by exempting itfrom the lockdown rules.

“The 5th addendumexempts from lockdown restric-tions the operations of theFishing (Marine)/AquacultureIndustry, including feeding andmaintenance, harvesting, pro-cessing, packaging, cold chain,sale and marketing; hatcheries,feed plants, commercial aquar-ia, movement of fish/shrimpand fish products, fish seed/feedand workers for all these activ-

ities,” the Ministry of HomeAffairs (MHA) said in a state-ment on Friday.

Briefing the media onSaturday, Ministry of HomeAffairs spokesperson PunyaSalil Srivastava said that districtauthorities would oversee thefunctioning of the activities inthe marine, aqua culture andsale of fish in the markets.Social distancing norms shouldbe maintained in the marketsand States and District admin-istrations will organise andmonitor.”

For the past few days, allChief Ministers from coastalstates were demanding theexemptions citing the plight ofcrores fishermen communitiesand fishing industry’s troubles

due to the lockdown for the past18 days.

They pointed out thatCovid-19 has not yet affected

the coastal zones till date.In Assam, the Kamrup dis-

trict administration has alloweda door-to-door sale of fish to the

residents but banned its sale inthe open market.

The Fisheries sector is saidto provide livelihood to around

1.6 crore people in the countryand seafood exports brought in$6.7 billion to the country’sexchequer in 2018-19.

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After Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s sugges-

tion for agriculture and alliedsector, including modificationof Agriculture Produce MarketCommittee (APMC) Act tofacilitate sale of farm produce,the Ministry of Agriculture hasasked the States to suspend cer-tain provisions of their respec-tive APMC Laws to allow farm-ers to sell their harvest frommultiple locations and to anybuyer. Any relaxation in theprovisions of the Act will haveto be done through state gov-ernments. The APMC Actempowers state governments tospecify market areas - operat-ed and regulated by marketcommittees - where farmersbring their produce for sale.

Top sources said that themove is aimed at encouragingsocial distancing and also end-ing farmer distress during theongoing lockdown to fight thecoronavirus disease, with dis-rupted supply chains forcingmany producers to destroytheir harvests.

During an interaction withchief ministers of all States and

Union Territories, PM Modihas suggested that direct mar-keting for farm produce can beincentivised to prevent crowd-ing in mandis, for which modelAPMC laws should bereformed swiftly. Such stepswill help farmers sell productsat their doorstep. He also sug-gested that direct marketing forfarm produce can be incen-tivised to prevent crowding inmandis, for which modelAPMC laws should bereformed swiftly. Such stepswill help farmers sell productsat their doorstep.

The APMC Act regulatesbuying and selling of farmproduce in about 5000 mandisor markets across the country.

Any relaxation in the provi-sions of the Act will have to bedone through state govern-ments. The APMC Actempowers state governments tospecify market areas - operat-ed and regulated by marketcommittees - where farmersbring their produce for sale.

Farmers in many stateshave been forced to dump per-ishable harvest due to lack ofbuyers, which has alsodepressed farm gate prices.Most farmers in northern andcentral India are in the middleof harvesting the biggest win-ter staple, wheat. The govern-ment has kept over 300,000trucks ready to ferry harvestsunder the aegis of the nation-

al agriculture markets, anonline trading platform thathas been updated to meet theneeds of farmers during thelockdown.

Officials of agricultureministry also informed thatRailways introduced 67 routesfor running 236 ParcelSpecials(out of which 171 aretime table parcel trains) to

supply essential commoditiesincluding perishable horticul-tural produce, agriculturalinputs, milk and dairy productsat fast speed which will facili-tate farmers/FPOs/traders andcompanies for continuity ofsupply chain across the coun-try.

According to the ministry,the Central Insecticide Board& Registration Committee(CIB&RC) through VirtualPrivate Network (VPN) haveissued 33 Nos. of Import per-mits for import of more than1.25 lakh metric tons of variouschemicals. 189 certificates forexports have also been issuedto facilitate exports of pesti-cides. 1263 certificates of reg-istration have been issued invarious categories to facilitateindigenous manufacturing ofpesticides.

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Congress Chief Ministers onSaturday demanded finan-

cial support from the Centreduring a video conferencemeeting with Prime MinisterNarendra Modi convened todiscuss the future strategy ofthe Covid-19 lockdown. ButPuducherry CM VNarayanasamy alleged thatthe PM refused to respond onthe issue.

He said the CMs talkedabout lack of funds in thestate. Not only the Congress-ruled States but even otherChief Ministers conveyed toPrime Minister that they don’thave the sufficient funds tomeet the expenditures in theirStates, he maintained.

“The Prime Ministershould give the package to allthe States, increase their FRBM and also give moratori-um on the debts and also give

additional funds, for which the Prime Minister did not respond,” Naranswamy said.

On another question thatthe Centre says corporatewouldn’t be allowed to con-tribute their CSR funds toChief Minister’s relief fund,Narayanasamy said on behalf ofhis counterparts: “In fact, Iwrote to the Prime Minster, thisissue was raised in the meeting.The PM Cares for which themoney is being paid by the cor-porate, why not to the ChiefMinister’s relief fund, for whichthere was no reply from thePM. But we are going to write to the Prime Minister andthe corporate would like tocontribute money for the ChiefMinister’s Relief Fund. It shouldnot be prevented by the CentralGovernment, when they areallowing the foreign countriesto contribute for the spendingthe money for Coronavirustreatment, why not the corpo-

rate.”Ahead of Modi’s meeting

with the chief ministers, formerFinance Minister PChidambaram had urged thoseof the Congress-ruled to unan-imously demand for transfer ofcash to every poor family.

He said the poor have losttheir jobs,exhausted their sav-ings and now standing in linesto get free food. Chidambaramsaid remonetising the poorwould cost only Rs 65,000crore, which is economicallyviable.

Congress Chief Ministerswho participated in the PMmeeting were AmarinderSingh, Ashok Gehlot, BhupeshBaghel, V Narayanasami.

Chidambaram had alsourged Congress alliance chief Ministers UddhavThackeray, Hemant Soren andE Palaniswani to tell the primeminister that just as lives areimportant, livelihood of thepoor is important.

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court Bar Associationappealed to Chief Justice of India SA Bobde and hiscompanion judges on Saturday to cancel the sum-mer vacation this year and treat it as a working peri-od in the larger interest of litigants and justice.

The lawyers’ body said now that restrictions arelikely to continue after the first phase of coronaviruslockdown ends on April 14, the CJI and the com-panion judges should take more proactive steps tomitigate the distress of litigants. It also urged thejudges to take measures to gradually restore the fullfunctioning of the top court.

Accordingly, the Executive Council resolves toappeal to the CJI and his companion judges to can-cel the summer vacation and treat the period “asworking of the Supreme Court of India”, the resolu-tion passed unanimously by the bar association said.

It said it is “deeply concerned” about the distresscaused to litigants because of the restricted func-tioning of the courts throughout the country– firstdue to Holi recess and then due to the nationwidelockdown, which necessitated very limited hearingof only urgent matters through video link.

The SCBA resolves that all lawyers practising inthe Supreme Court will give up the summer vaca-tion scheduled from May16 till July 5 and make them-selves available for work, the association said.

It demanded that the temporary video-confer-ence facilities be improved for live-streaming of courtproceedings using an efficient multi-user platformsuch as those being used by the Council of Ministersand government officials.

“It is only if all contesting lawyers, instructingAdvocates in Record, and litigants can have simul-taneous access to the video-conference proceedings,that the same can become an effective system for con-ducting full-fledged court proceedings at par withthose which our judicial system requires should nor-mally be conducted in open courtrooms,” thelawyers’ body said, adding, that its PresidentDushyant Dave should bring this resolution to thenotice of the Chief Justice of India.

The bar association said it fully supports therestrictions, which were unavoidable in the unprece-dented situation faced by all in the first phase of thelockdown. On Saturday, advocate Ashok Arora, sec-retary of SCBA said the CJI will review the func-tioning of the apex court every three-four days in con-sultation with other judges and officials of the HealthMinistry.

He said the demand from bar leaders and otherbodies that summer vacation this year be preponedcan wait for a while and till then status quo is to bemaintained.

“I spoke to Chief Justice of India on April 10 at12noon and was informed that he was going to reviewthe situation after every 3/4 days after consulting theother Judges and health ministry. Till then status quo.So better, we wait for a while,”Arora said. Meanwhile,senior advocate Dinesh Goswami has written to theCJI, requesting suspension of summer vacation. Thetop court on March 23 virtually went into the lock-down to prevent the spread of coronavirus and sus-pended for indefinite period the entry of advocatesand other staff in the high-security zone on the basisof their proximity cards. On April 9, the Delhi Highcourt decided to suspend the summer vacation thisyear, previously scheduled from June 1 to 30. The highcourt also cancelled the summer break of subordi-nate courts in June this year. PTI

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The Centre and WestBengal Government

locked horns on Saturday.The MHA shot off a letter tothe Mamata Banaerjee dis-pensation over the “gradualdilution” of lockdown rules inthe State by allowing reli-gious gatherings in mosquesand ruling party TMC to dis-tribute food to large gather-ings besides permitting flower,sweet and pan shops to openin many areas.

In the letter to the StateChief Secretary and DGP, theUnion Home Ministryexpressed displeasure overthe violation of lockdownrules and asked them to stopit immediately. The MHAalso sought an action takenreport from them.

The Home Ministry’s let-ter was shot to the State soonafter Chief Minister MamataBanerjee took up the allegedabuse of power by GovernorJagdeep Dhankhar in hervideo conference meetingwith Prime Minister NarendraModi.

“Corona is a deadly dis-ease a dangerous virus and nota communal virus and sothey should refrain from com-munalising the issue,”Banerjee said in an apparentreference to the letter.

Later in the evening, theGovernor came out with avideo message in social mediaappealing people of the stateto keep lockdown and socialdistancing norms to prevent

the spread of Covid-19 pandemic.

“As per further reportsreceived from security agen-cies, gradual dilution of lock-down has been reported fromWest Bengal with an increasein the number of exceptionsbeing provided by the StateGovernment. For instance,shops relating to non-essentialitems have been allowed tofunction. There is no regula-tion in vegetable, fish andmutton markets where peoplehave been thronging in com-plete violation of social dis-tancing norms,” said theMinistry of Home Affairs (MHA).

It pinpointed the hugecrowds in Kolkata’sRajabazaar, Nakel Danga,Topsia, Metiaburz,Gardenreach, Ikbalpur andManiktala. Incidentally, thestated areas are minority-dominated pockets— including large slums— ofKolkata.

In the strongly-wordedletter, the MHA pointed outthat Narkel Danga is alreadywitnessing more Covid-19cases. The MHA said, “It hasbeen reported that police havebeen allowing religious con-gregations. Free ration hasbeen distributed not throughthe institutional delivery sys-tem but by political leaders.This may have resulted inspread of Covid-19 infec-tions.”

The Home Ministry saidsuch activities are in violationof the Central government’sorders issued from time totime under the DisasterManagement Act, 2005, andare liable for penal actionunder the Act.

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The Union Home Ministry on Saturday wrote to the ChiefSecretaries and police chiefs of the States to provide securi-

ty to doctors and other health workers. The Ministry said thatthe hospital staffers and doctors must be given security duringtheir visits to the homes of quarantined patients and screeningof patients. The Ministry reminded that the Supreme Court onApril 8 passed necessary orders to give protection to all healthworkers, who in line of their duty have been attacked and assault-ed in several States.

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Union Ministers and officers from the rank of JointSecretary and above will start working from the offices from

Monday in what is being seen as a move to ensure the wheelsof Government machinery continue to roll on. According toofficials, the Prime Minister’s Office on Saturday directed thatother officers will start working from offices on rotation basis.The functioning of Ministers and senior officers will be strict-ly adhered to the norms of social distancing and visitors willnot be allowed for time being.

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Afghanistan on Saturdayturned down Pakistans

request to handover AslamFarooqi, leader of the IslamicState of Khorasan Province(ISKP), an affiliate of the ISISterror group, a media reportsaid.

The Pakistan ForeignOffice had made the demand ofhanding over Farooqi to itsenvoy in the Afghanistan onThursday, said The ExpressTribune.

It emphasised thatIslamabad had been expressingits concerns over the activitiesof the ISKP, which were clear-ly detrimental to Pakistan.

But turning down therequest on Saturday, theAfghan Foreign Ministry saidFarooqi was involved in thekilling of hundreds of Afghans,therefore, he should be triedunder the law of the country,The Express Tribune reported.

The Ministry further saidthat Afghanistan and Pakistanhave no extradition treaty andKabul was under no obligationto hand over the ISKP chief.

On April 4, Afghanistan’sintelligence agency, theNational Directorate ofSecurity (NDS), announcedthat they had arrested Farooqi, whose real name isAbdullah Orakzai, in Kandaharprovince.

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The Indonesian AnakKrakatau volcano erupted

expelling ash and plumes ofsmoke that travelled more than 500 metres high,local authorities report on Saturday.

The Centre forVolcanology and GeologicalDisaster Mitigation (PVMBG)said the volcano, one of thecountry’s most active, erupted twice on Friday nightfor a total of 40 minutes,reports Efe news.

“PVMBG monitoringshows that the eruption con-tinued until Saturday morningat 5:44 WIB [Western

Indonesian Time],” AgusWibowo, head of the NationalDisaster Mitigation Agency(BNPB) said in a statement onSaturday.

Authorities said they wereclosely monitoring the vol-cano which is located on anuninhabited island in theSunda Strait.

On December 22 2018, astrong eruption caused a land-slide that triggered a tsunamikilling hundreds of people who were spending theChristmas holidays on thecoasts of Java and Sumatra.

At least 439 people diedand more than 7,200 wereinjured, according to officialfigures.

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Saudi Crown Prince Mohammedbin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al

Saud and Russian President Vladimir Putin have reviewed effortsto stabilize the energy markets, theSaudi Press Agency reported on Saturday.

In a telephone call, both sidesstressed the importance of the coop-eration of all producing countries to support the growth ofthe global economy, reports Xinhuanews agency.

In a joint phone call on Friday,Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz AlSaud, US President Donald Trumpand Putin reviewed efforts in thelight of the OPEC+ meeting and theimportance of joint cooperation to

stabilise energy markets in order to support the growth ofglobal economy.

The phone call was made afterthe ninth Extraordinary OPEC andnon-OPEC Ministerial Meeting thatwas held via webinar on Thursday.

In the meeting, the OPEC andnon-OPEC oil-producing countries,except Mexico agreed to cut theiroverall crude oil production, so theagreement is valid per the approvalof Mexico.

They plan to cut their overallproduction by 10 million barrels perday for two months starting from May 1.

Mexico’s contribution representsa 5.5 per cent reduction in its oil pro-duction, less than the 23 per cent thathad been requested by OPEC.

London: Breweries from across the UK were com-ing together to “buy the NHS (National HealthService) a pint” to recognise its contribution duringthe coronavirus pandemic, a media report said.

At least 10 companies were so far taking part inthe nationwide initiative, which allows drinkers to ‘Paya Pint Forward’ for health workers, who can thenclaim their reward in person once the COVID-19lockdown was over, the Metro newspaper said in thereport on Friday.

Each brewery has created an option to donate 5pounds to NHS workers in their online stores, whichwill later be redeemable in pint form in pubs and tap-rooms.

The co-founder of one company involved, SamMcMeekin from Gipsy Hill Brewery, told the Metronewspaper: “As small, independent brewing busi-nesses, we don’t have an abundance of PPE or rawmaterials to donate, and feel we can’t do much to helpexcept keep providing beers to all of you. IANS

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The coronavirus pandemicthat has crippled big-box

retailers and mom and popshops worldwide may be mak-ing a dent in illicit business, too.

In Chicago, one ofAmerica’s most violent cities,drug arrests have plummeted42% in the weeks since the cityshut down, compared with thesame period last year. Part ofthat decrease, some criminallawyers say, is that drug deal-ers have no choice but to waitout the economic slump.

“The feedback I’m gettingis that they aren’t able to move,to sell anything anywhere,”said Joseph Lopez, a criminallawyer in Chicago who repre-sents reputed drug dealers.

Overall, Chicago’s crimedeclined 10% after the pandemicstruck, a trend playing out glob-ally as cities report stunningcrime drops in the weeks sincemeasures were put into place toslow the spread of the virus.Even among regions that havethe highest levels of violence out-side a war zone, fewer people arebeing killed and fewer rob-beries are taking place.

Still, law enforcement offi-cials worry about a surge ofunreported domestic violence,and what happens when restric-tions lift — or go on too long.

It’s rare for a city to see adouble-digit drop in crime,even over a much longer peri-od. During New York City’s1990s crime decline, one of the

biggest turnarounds inAmerican history, crimedropped about 40% over threeyears. That makes the drop-offsoccurring now — in a periodof just a couple of weeks —even more seismic.

Across Latin America,crime is down to levels unseenin decades.

“Killings are down, and thegangsters aren’t harassing somuch,’’ Eduardo Perdomo, a 47-year-old construction worker,said while getting off a bus inSan Salvador. “I think they’reafraid of catching the virus, andthey aren’t going out.’’

El Salvador reported anaverage of two killings a day lastmonth, down from a peak of600 a day a few years ago.

Much of the decrease hastaken place because of toughersecurity policies and gangtruces. But the imposition ofnear-total limits on movement

is likely driving it down further,according to analysts andnational statistics.

In Peru, where crime levelsfell 84% last month, Lima mor-tician Raúl González usually hasas many as 15 bodies a day —many are homicide victims.This week he napped on abench after six hours without aclient. “There are almost nokillings or car accidents thesedays,’’ González said.

In South Africa, policereported a stunning declineduring their first week of lock-down measures. Police MinisterBheki Cele said reported rapeswere down from 700 to 101over the same period last year.Serious assault cases plummet-ed from 2,673 to 456, and mur-ders fell from 326 to 94.

The US virus epicentre inNew York saw major crimes —murder, rape, robbery, bur-glary, assault, grand larceny and

car theft — decrease by 12%from February to March. In LosAngeles, 2020 key crimes sta-tistics were consistent with lastyear’s figures until the week ofMarch 15, when they droppedby 30%.

“There’s a lot fewer oppor-tunities for criminals to takeadvantage of,” said JoeGiacalone, a former New YorkPolice Department sergeantwho now teaches at John JayCollege of Criminal Justice.“Most burglars, they wait foryou to leave the house.”

Policing has also changedin the face of the pandemic.Officers are increasingly gettingsick; the NYPD, the country’slargest department with morethan 36,000 officers, has morethan 7,000 officers out andmore than 2,000 diagnosedwith COVID-19.

And U.S. authorities saythey’re issuing citations insteadof making low-level arrests,policing social distancing andputting detectives into patrolcars — which could, in turn,bring down crime rates.

While departments areunlikely to announce they’vebacked off policing certaincrimes, “that’s going to be thecase,” said Bowling Green StateUniversity criminologist PhilipStinson. “In many respects,over the next weeks, they’rereally in survival mode,” he said.

But while narcotics arrestsare down, drug sales continue,with dealers likely forced tochange their strategies, saidRodney Phillips, a former gangmember in Chicago who nowworks as a conflict mediator inthe city.

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Shipment of anti-malarialdrug hydroxychloroquine

to the US is likely to start nextweek, a leading pharma indus-try body has said.

Hydroxychloroquine isbeing touted as game changerin fight against COVID-19pandemic

“The shipments of hydrox-ychloroquine to the US are like-ly to start next week. Indianpharma companies are com-mitted to meet both, domesticand export commitments,”Indian Pharmaceutical AllianceSecretary General SudarshanJain said.

This is in line with India’srole as pharmacy of the world,he added.

India manufactures 70 percent of the world’s supply ofhydroxychloroquine.

Companies like ZydusCadila and IPCA are the majormanufacturers of hydroxy-chloroquine in the country,Jain said.

The Indian pharmaceuticalindustry earlier this week hassaid there is enough stock ofhydroxychloroquine in thecountry and drug firms areready to ramp up the production to meet domes-tic as well as export require-ments.

New Delhi: Taking note ofrestrictions imposed on move-ment of people during thelockdown, India Posts onSaturday extended the last dateof paying premium for postallife insurance and rural postallife insurance till June 30.

The postal department saidthere is complete lockdownacross the country in view of thethreat posed by the outbreak ofcoronavirus governments haveissued several advisories andimposed restrictions on themovement of general public.

“As a measure of conve-nience to all the PLI / RPLI cus-tomers, Directorate of PostalLife Insurance has given anextension of period for pay-ment of their due premium ofMarch 2020, April 2020 andMay 2020 upto June 30, 2020without charging any penal-ty/default fee,” the Departmentof Post said in a statement.PTI

New Delhi: Northern Railways all divisions and workshops areworking 24x7 to fight against Covid-19. In its continuation effortsto fight against Covid-19, apart from running of freight trainsto ensure supply of essential goods to different parts of coun-try, Northern Railway’s life-saving efforts yields manufacturingof 3,779 liters hand sanitiser, 20,256 face masks, 621 coverall and540 coaches converted into isolation wards till April 11.

Northern railway is fully committed to save the life of peo-ples and to manufacture the above essential items and conver-sion of coaches into isolation wards.

New Delhi: The Government on Saturday said Indian Railwaysis running special trains to transport perishable food items andseeds across the country for ensuring availability of these prod-ucts during the lockdown.

“Indian Railways has identified 67 routes (134 trains) forParcel Special Trains since the start of the lockdown for perish-able commodities including fruits, vegetables, milk and dairyproducts and seeds for agriculture purpose,” the agriculture min-istry said in a statement.

Till 1il, 62 routes have been notified and 171 time-tabled trainsare being run on these routes. The special trains have beenplanned to connect all the major cities of the country. PTI

New Delhi: Jute is the important cash crop in India which sup-ports livelihood of 5 million people of the country and earn for-eign exchange of Rs 2,500 crore annually through export. Thesowing of jute crop is in full swing in different jute growing Stateslike West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha and Assam.

The lockdown declared by the Government in order to pre-vent spread of deadly Covid-19 virus has been coincided withsowing period of jute and allied fibres and normal sowing andfarming operation are getting hampered. PTI

New Delhi: Ceragem India, aglobal healthcare specialisedcompany in the country, joinedthe ongoing fight against thenovel coronavirus pandemicand donated �20 lakh in PM-CARES fund.

Ceragem, a Korea-basedcompany was established in1998, developed the world’sfirst automatic thermal prod-uct. It has been expanded to 70countries including India, USA,and China for about 22 years.

In India, Ceragem wasestablished in 2005 and cur-rently, it has 530 centres oper-ating across the country.Ceragem is a company whichsatisfies customers.

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More than 30 crore poorpeople have received

�28,256 crore financial assis-tance under Pradhan MantriGarib Kalyan Yojanaannounced by Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman last monthto protect them from theimpact of 21-day nationwidelockdown. As part of �1.70 lakhcrore relief package, theGovernment announced freefoodgrains and cash doles towomen and poor senior citizensand farmers to mitigate hard-ship faced due to the lockdown.

“More than 30 cr benefi-ciaries have been directly givensupport through Direct BenefitTransfer amounting to �28,256crore under#PradhanMantriGribKalyanPackage,” a tweet from theFinance Ministry said.

Of the total disbursement,�13,855 crore have gonetowards payment of firstinstallment of PM-KISAN.Under the scheme, nearly 6.93crore out of 8 crore identifiedbeneficiaries got �2,000 direct-

ly in their account. As many as19.86 crore women Jan Dhanaccount holders received �500each in their account. Thetotal disbursement under thehead was 9,930 crore, it said.

The National SocialAssistance Programme (NSAP)disbursed about �1400 crore toabout 2.82 crore old age person,widow and disabled person, theministry added. Each benefi-ciary received an ex-gratia cashof �1,000 under the scheme.

As many as 2.16 crore con-struction workers receivedfinancial support from theBuilding and ConstructionWorlers’ Fund managed bystate governments. Under this�3,066 crore were given tobeneficiaries. The Government,under the Pradhan MantriGarib Kalyan Ann Yojana, is inthe process of releasing 12million MT of food grain dur-ing April-June.

“It will provide for 80 crorepeople @5 kg per head permonth at no cost. Free rationshave already reached 2 crorebeneficiaries,” the Ministry saidin another tweet.

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Liquor manufacturing asso-ciation CIBAC has urged

Commerce Minister PiyushGoyal to allow phase-wiseopening of the alcoholic bev-erages industry as the sectormay face financial difficultiesand job losses due to the lock-down on account of Covid-19pandemic.

In its letter to theCommerce Minister, theConfederation of IndianAlcoholic Beverage Companies(CIABC) said that since thelockdown was ordered, allwholesale and retail trade hasbeen closed.

“We seek an urgent phase-wise opening of the alcoholicbeverage industry in conformi-ty with COVID-19 preventionguidelines,” the letter said, addingthat trucks are stranded, distri-bution warehouses are lockedwith stock and retail shops aresitting on unsold stock.

“The industry which con-tributes almost Rs 2-lakh croresby way of various taxes, sus-tains livelihood of nearly 40lakh farmers, and employsnearly 20 lakh people directlyand indirectly is in dire straits,”CIABC Director GeneralVinod Giri said.

He also demanded exten-sion of excise year for three

months till June 30 and onlinesale of liquor.

“What has compoundedthe problems for alcoholic bev-erage industry is the fact thatexcise policy for many statescome to an end on March 31.Prior to that date, there are sev-eral statutory requirementsthat ought to be met by com-panies for them to keep conti-nuity of operations,” he said.

He added that a prolongedshut down of industry will notonly have a huge economic coston companies, it may alsoforce lakhs of workers intojoblessness.

“Shops should be asked toenrol for home delivery

through online applications.Government may charge a fee,this being an addition tolicense. Each qualifying shopshould be given 3-4 move-ment passes for home deliverypersonnel. Customers mayplace order online on overphone, along with an ID proofestablishing age. Governmentmay limit amount of liquordelivered or frequency of deliv-ery as it deems fit,” he noted.

Giri said that since socialdistancing will be new normalgoing forward, the govern-ment should consider institu-tionalising home delivery as aseparate channel administeredonline.

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The government may soonannounce more steps —

like cheaper working capitaland lower tariff — for powerdiscoms to ensure uninter-rupted electricity supply duringthe lockdown to containCOVID-19.

“The Power Ministry isworking on a proposal to pro-

vide relief to discom to keepthem afloat during the lock-down, especially when thedemand is low and their billscollections is negligible,”according to a source.

The power demand hascame down by almost onethird during the lockdown.

The demand met wasdown by about 29 per cent at121.38 GW on April 10 com-

pared to 170.52 GW on the same day last year.

The demand was downmainly due to lower require-ments from industry and statepower distribution companies(discoms).

The peak power demandmet is the actual highest ener-gy supply during the day acrossthe country.

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Top oil producers struggledto finalise production cuts

during a virtual summit held byG20 energy ministers onFriday, despite US PresidentDonald Trump’s mediationefforts to end a standoff withMexico. The final G20 com-munique appeared to glossover simmering divisions overenergy policy, making no men-tion of output cuts and pledg-ing simply to ensure oil “mar-ket stability” amid the coron-avirus pandemic.

Mexico was the lone hold-out in a record OPEC-ledagreement reached a day ear-lier that would see outputslashed by 10 million barrelsper day in May and June fol-lowed by a gradual reduction incuts until April 2022.

The standoff had castdoubt on efforts to bolster oilprices, pushed to near two-decade lows by the demand-sapping pandemic and a Saudi-Russia price war that rattledglobal markets. The subse-quent G20 meeting — hostedby Riyadh — was expected toseal the deal more widely withnon-OPEC countries in thegroup including Mexico, theUnited States and Canada.

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With warmer weatherbeckoning, Italians are

straining against a strict lock-down to halt the coronavirusthat is just now showing signsof ebbing at the end of fiveweeks of mass isolation.

Italy was the first Westerndemocracy to be hit by thevirus, and it has suffered themost deaths of any nation:nearly 19,000. Now it is likelyto set an example of how to liftbroad restrictions that haveimposed the harshest peace-time limits on personal free-dom and shut down allnonessential industry.

Right now, schools areclosed and children are not per-mitted to play in parks. Walksoutdoors are limited to a dis-tance of 200 meters (yards) andany excursion not strictly amatter of necessity risks heftyfines.

The official line is patiencewith measures that have shownsuccess in slowing the virusspread, until there is a cleardecline in the number of newcases. Still, officials have begungrappling with the question ofhow to manage social distanc-ing on mass transit, re-openordinary commerce andrelaunch manufacturing with-out risking another peak.

The so-called Phase II isbeing described as a cautiousreopening, as society continuesto live alongside the virus untila vaccine can be developed,

perhaps in 12 to 18 months. “We obviously don’t want

to delude ourselves that every-thing will change,’’ PremierGiuseppe Conte told Italiansthis week.

On Friday, Conte extend-ed the nationwide lockdownthrough May 3. That includesall nonessential industry, afterwhich, “I hope we can startagain with caution and gradu-ally — but restart,’’ he said.

A technical committeeadvising the government isworking to expand testing forCOVID-19, the disease causedby the virus. to get a better pic-ture of how widespread it is inItaly before measures can beeased. Preparations are alsounderway to launch a mobileapp that will allow people toknow if they have been nearanyone who is positive, some-thing that is expected to take atleast a month.

‘’With this you can allowpeople to have more freedomof movement,’’ said WalterRicciardi, a public health expertand member of the WorldHealth Organization boardadvising the Italian govern-ment.

The technology for theapp already exists but author-ities were working on technicaldetails on how to deploy it.

Experts in Italy are coor-dinating with their Europeanpartners so the tracking can beapplied across borders, whichhave been de facto closed bythe virus.

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The United States becamethe first country to report

more than 2,000 coronavirusdeaths in a single day, markinga grim milestone as billionsaround the world celebratedthe Easter holiday weekendunder lockdown from home.

The global death toll fromthe virus surged past 1,06,000 onFriday, with the United Statesquickly becoming the epicentreof the pandemic that firstemerged in China late last year.Europe has so far shouldered themajority of all deaths and infec-tions -- though there were signsof hope the curve could bestarting to flatten in some of thehardest-hit countries.

On Friday, the UnitedStates reported 2,108 newdeaths, the highest daily toll outof any country since the out-break was first reported in thecentral Chinese city of Wuhanin December. With more thanhalf a million reported infec-tions, the United States alreadyhas more coronavirus casesthan anywhere else in theworld. The global infectionrate now stands at more than1.7 million, though with manycountries only testing the mostserious cases the numbers arelikely far higher.

But President DonaldTrump said with the US infec-tion trajectory “near the peak”and social distancing workingwell, he was considering waysto re-open the world’s biggesteconomy as soon as possible.

He acknowledged the riskof higher death tolls if busi-

nesses restart too soon -- afterthe World Health Organizationon Friday cautioned countriesagainst lifting lockdown mea-sures too quickly.

“But you know what?Staying at home leads to deathalso,” Trump added, pointing tothe massive economic sufferingfor millions of Americans.

It is unclear when that willbe possible, with New YorkGovernor Andrew Cuomo say-ing millions in the state — thehardest hit in the US — will haveto be tested before it can reopen.Easter weekend kicked off innear-empty churches aroundthe world as parishionersremained locked in their homes.

Pope Francis was due tolivestream his Easter Vigil froman empty St Peter’s Basilica laterSaturday, after he presided over

an empty Good Friday Serviceto kick off the holiday weekend.

The pontiff was praised by Italy’s PrimeMinister for his “gesture ofresponsibility” to observeEaster in private.

“We will remember thisspring as the one in which, forthe first time in history, thepope presided over the gener-al audiences and conducted theAngelus (prayer) by livestream,”Giuseppe Conte wrote in Italy’sCatholic daily Avvenire.

“His words, although spo-ken far from Saint Peter’sSquare, which was wrapped inan unreal silence, have reachedeveryone.” Worshippers inRome stocked up on traditionalEaster cakes ahead of the week-end, some piling them ontoscooters outside of grocery

stores, eager to maintain partsof the holiday tradition evenfrom home.

Across Europe, govern-ment urged citizens to stayhome for the weekend, fearingpeople would flock outdoors toenjoy warm weather or flee toholiday homes.

France deployed some160,000 gendarmes to patrolbusy roads, while Lithuania setup road blocks to prevent trav-ellers from leaving cities.

And Turkey announcedwith little warning Friday thata 48-hour lockdown orderwould be in place in dozens ofcities, including Ankara andIstanbul, as its virus death tollcrept past 1,000.

Shoppers crowded super-markets in Istanbul late Fridayin a rush to stock up on sup-

plies before the curfew startedat midnight. The World HealthOrganization has warned thatprematurely easing lockdownmeasures — as has started incentral China where to virusfirst emerged — could spark adangerous return of the disease.

“Lifting restrictions tooquickly could lead to a deadlyresurgence,” WHO chief TedrosAdhanom Ghebreyesus warnedFriday. Some countries, espe-cially in Asia, are worried abouta possible second wave of infec-tions imported from travellersas life creeps back to normal.

But Governments areunder pressure to strike a bal-ance between keeping peoplesafe and keeping already bat-tered economies stable. Andwhile President Trump hasdiscussed a rapid return to eco-nomic stability, the US gov-ernment’s top infectious diseasespecialist Anthony Fauci saidthat despite signs of progress,“this is not the time... To bepulling back at all” on socialdistancing efforts.

The pandemic has shakenthe global economy, and theInternational Monetary Fund— which has $1 trillion in lend-ing capacity — said it wasresponding to calls from 90countries for emergencyfinancing.

It said this week the worldnow faces the worst downturnsince the Great Depression ofthe 1930s. G20 energy minis-ters, meanwhile, pledged towork together to ensure oilmarket stability after major oil producers agreed tocut output.

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Pakistan said on Saturdaythat it will take a decision

on whether to extend the ongo-ing nationwide lockdown orease restrictions on Monday, asthe number of coronaviruspatients rose to 4,970.

Speaking at a Press con-ference here, Planning andDevelopment Minister AsadUmar said that Prime MinisterImran Khan will take a decisionafter his meeting with theNational CoordinationCommittee on COVID-19,

comprising senior officials ofall provinces and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

“We will make a nationaldecision on the lockdown,”said Umar. He also said that thecountry would suffer aboutRs1,400-1,500 billion shortfallin revenues due to the nation-wide shutdown.

Prime Minister’s Advisoron Health Dr Zafar Mirza saidthat Pakistan had lower num-ber of cases than projected butpeople should not relax and fol-low the restrictions. “It will bea mistake to relax,” he said.

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British Home Secretary PritiPatel on Saturday warned

the UK public to continue tofollow the strict social dis-tancing as the death toll fromcoronavirus rose by 917 to hita total of 9,875.

The senior Indian-originCabinet minister, who led thedaily Downing Street briefing,said that a majority of thepopulation have been followingthe Government’s stay-at-homeguidance but there was a smallminority who should be awarethat the police forces have thepowers they require to imposethe lockdown measures.

“We have given the policepowers to enforce the necessarymeasures we have put in place,including through enforce-ment fines. “If you don’t playyour part... Our selfless police

will be unafraid to act. You willbe endangering the lives ofyour own family, friends andloved ones,” she said, addingthat the police forces would befollowing the UK’s overarching“policing by consent” doctrinewhen striking a balancebetween force and commonsense.

The minister also unveileda new set of measures to com-bat domestic and child abuse,including a 2 million poundsfund to enhance online supportservices and helplines, as shehighlighted a new set of chal-lenges being faced by the coun-try’s security services duringthe lockdown imposed to curbthe spread of the deadly virus.

Meanwhile, British PrimeMinister Boris Johnson, whotested positive for coronavirus,is on the road to recovery at aLondon hospital ward, taking

short walks, Downing Streetsaid on Saturday. It alsoemerged on Saturday that puz-

zles, sudoku and films arekeeping the UK Prime Ministeroccupied.

Madrid: Spain registered a fallin its daily death toll from thenew coronavirus for a thirdconsecutive day on Saturdaywith 510 people dying, theGovernment said.

It was the smallest dailyincrease since March 23 inSpain, which is suffering one ofthe worst COVID-19 outbreaksin the world.

The update for the last 24hours raised the country’s over-all number of fatalities to16,353 and the number of con-firmed cases another 4,800 to161,852.

Masks will be handed outat metro and train stationsfrom Monday as some compa-nies re-open after a two-week“hibernation” period, the healthminister said Friday. AFP

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China’s health authorities onSaturday asked the public

to strengthen protective mea-sures and avoid gatheringsafter a number of cluster infec-tions of the coronavirus werereported in some parts of thecountry, sparking concernsabout the re-emergence of thevicious virus.

All localities should inten-sify screenings and detection ofCovid-19 cases, targeting keyplaces and groups with highrisks of infection, in order to

minimise the risk of an epidemicrebound, Mi Feng, a spokesper-son for the National HealthCommission (NHC) said.

Noting that cluster infec-tions have been reported insome parts of the country, Miurged the public to strengthenprotective measures and avoidgatherings, the state-runXinhua news agency reportedon Saturday.

Concerns about the secondwave of coronavirus cases grewas hundreds of Chinese citizensreturned from abroad, includ-ing from countries hit hard by

the coronavirus.On Saturday, China report-

ed 46 new coronavirus cases,including four local and 34asymptomatic infections, whilethree more people died due tothe global pandemic, taking thedeath toll in the country to3,339.

According to the NHC,the Chinese mainland report-ed a total of 1,183 importedcases as of Friday. Of them, 449have been discharged fromhospitals after recovery, and734 are being treated with 37 insevere condition.

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The doubting thomases“should be careful” aboutwhat they wish for as there

is no second coming for a once-in-a-generation player likeMahendra Singh Dhoni if peo-ple “push him into retirement”,former England captain NasserHussain said on Saturday.

Hussain, one of the mostrespected voices in world crick-et feels that the soon-to-be 39year old former India captainstill has a lot to offer in Indiancricket.

“Once Dhoni is gone, thereis no getting him back. There aresome legends of the game, appre-ciating while around, becausethey are once-in-a-generationcricketer and don’t push him intoretirement too early. Only Dhoniknows his mental state and in theend the selectors select and play-ers turn up when asked to,” 52-year-old Hussain told Star Sportson its new show CricketConnected.

Dhoni last played for Indiain the World Cup semi-finalagainst New Zealand in July.Since then he hasn’t played anycompetitive cricket with formerlegends like Sunil Gavaskar andKapil Dev making it clear that it’sgetting increasingly difficult for

the Jharkhand dasher to make aninternational return anytimesoon after such prolonged sab-batical.

But Hussain, who ledEngland from 1999-2003, feelsotherwise.

“Is MS Dhoni still goodenough to get in the Indianside? It is as simple as that. Thatshould apply for anyone acrossthe board. What I have seen ofDhoni, I still think MS Dhonihas a huge amount to offer forIndian cricket,” he said.

However one of England’sshrewdest captains admitted thatDhoni did err on a couple ofoccasions during World Cupwhere he couldn’t force the paceof the innings.

While Hussain’s commentsdidn’t specify which match hewas talking about but it is in alllikelihood the games againstWest Indies and England wherehe failed to force the pace of theIndian innings.

“Yes, its been one or twooccasions where he (MSD) got itwrong in run chases, there wasa World Cup game in Englandwhere he sort of blocked at theend for some unknown reason,but in general MS Dhoni is stilla really good talent and be care-ful what you wish for,” elaborat-ed Hussain.

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Australian all-rounder Shane Watson saidthat the ability to trust players and keep faith

in them is what sets Chennai Super Kings apartfrom other franchises. Watson had won the IndianPremier League title in the inaugural season withthe Rajasthan Royals and a decade later, he wonit again with CSK in 2018.

“You can go for 10 games not scoring runsand still get picked. Last season, thank you to MSDhoni and Stephen Fleming for keeping the faith,”he said in an Instagram Live session on CSK’s han-dle.

“Every other franchise would have been ‘Youare gone. Thank you for coming, but you are sit-ting and you are running the drinks’,” he said.

He smashed 117 off 57 balls in an innings thatincluded 11 fours and eight sixes in the 2018 finalagainst Sunrisers Hyderabad to almost single-handedly take CSK to victory. He almost repeat-ed the heroics the next year against MumbaiIndians, scoring 80 off 59 but CSK fell incredi-bly short of MI’s total of 149.

Watson had experienced a lean run in theearly part of that season but started firingtowards the latter stages.

“Through that period, unfortunately I felt likeI was batting well but I was just not scoring runsand that kept going on and on. At some stage Iwas feeling after a couple of games that they aregoing to have to move me on, but they didn’t,” saidWatson.

“And then when things turned around,which I knew it would at some stage, I thankedMS and Fleming for keeping the faith, and theysaid there was never any doubt,” he said.

“And that’s phenomenal. That made me feel10-foot tall. That’s the power of amazing leader-ship. To know when to stick with people youbelieve in, and that’s amazing for me. And I amforever indebted to those guys.”

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Australia’s unprecedented homeTest series defeat to India in

2018-19 served as a “wake-up call” forJustin Langer, who reckons the serieswill prove as the defining moment ofhis coaching career.

Langer was appointed as theAustralian coach in May 2018, follow-ing the infamous ball tamperingscandal that saw skipper Steve Smithand his deputy David Warner slappedwith year-long bans.

Without their star batsmen, theAustralian side struggled to maintainits high rate of success with Langer atthe helm.

The men from Down Under tast-

ed their first Test series loss toIndia on home turf. ViratKohli’s men handed thema 2-1 defeat.

“That was a massive wake-up call and a really tough timein my life,” Langer was quoted assaying by the AustralianAssociated Press.

“I’ve got no doubt in 10years’ time, I will lookback on that periodand it will be the mak-ing of my coachingcareer.”

The 49-year-old compared itto another diffi-cult phase of his

life, when he was dropped asa player at the start of 2001Ashes.

Used to playing atnumber three, Langer was

picked to open the inningswith Mathew Hayden later in

the series which served as aturning point for him.

Langer’s career wasrechristened as he

became thecountry’s mostsuccessful open-er, scoring 16 ofhis 23 Test cen-turies.

“In 2001when I got

dropped from the Australian team at31 years of age I thought that was theend. That was the making of me as acricketer and a person. It was amaz-ing what lessons you can learn inadversity,” he said.

The former opener believes dif-ficult situations are opportunities tolearn lessons of life and shouldn’t besquandered.

“In adversity, like in the great cri-sis we are going through right now(with the coronavirus). Like the cri-sis of the Australian cricket teamwhen sandpaper on the ball, in adver-sity never waste it.”

“Because great lessons come fromthem and if you grasp them you willbe a better person.”

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The Wisden while naming the Five Cricketersof the Year in 2019 gave Indias ODI deputy

Rohit Sharma a miss and it came as a huge sur-prise because Rohit hit five hundreds in the 2019World Cup and former India batsman VVSLaxman has said the same, calling the move ashocker.

Speaking on Rohit Sharma not featuring inWisden Cricketers of the Year list, Laxman said onStar Sports show Cricket Connected: “I think any-one who follows the game of cricket will be sur-prised and shocked not to see Rohit Sharma’s namein those five players list. The Ashes is an impor-tant series, the World Cup is bigger than Ashes. Andsomeone who has scored five hundred; rememberthe first hundred was on a tough wicket inSouthampton against South Africa and none of theother batsmen got runs. And he played anotherimportant knock against Pakistan. I am reallyshocked and surprised, and every cricketer will beshocked and surprised by this announcement fromWisden.” England’s Ben Stokes and Ellyse Perry ofAustralia were on Wednesday named the LeadingCricketers of 2019 by Wisden Almanack.

Across the 2019 calendar, Stokes hit 821 Testruns at 45, including an Ashes hundred at Lord’s,and 719 in ODIs at almost 60.

Along with Perry, Wisden named PatCummins, Marnus Labuschagne, Jofra Archer andSimon Harmer as the Five Cricketers of the Year.

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The coronavirus-forced lock-down is now getting into

India spinner YuzvendraChahal’s nerves, so much so thathe says he can do with stayingaway from home for three yearsonce it is lifted.

“I will get lock-downed frommy home, I will not come backto my home. I can’t take thisanymore, can’t stay at home forlonger now. These days of stay-ing at home will suffice for thenext three years now,” premierspinner Yuzvendra Chahal saidduring a chat with a televisioncricket presenter.

India leg-spinner Chahal,who plays for Royal ChallengersBangalore in the IPL, is strug-gling to come to terms with thelack of activity.

“I will live in a nearby hotelbut will not stay at home, that’sit for me now, can’t bear any-more lockdown days.”

In the absence of sportingaction, Chahal has been busy onsocial media platforms.

“I am going to the ground,I really want to bowl. Whenthere is a lot of cricket to play wesay ‘there is so much going on’but we start missing it whenthere is no action.

“I miss bowling, I am whatI am because of cricket only. Iwill surely go and bowl at leasta ball on the day lockdown getsover,” he said.

� �� RavichandranAshwin is a prolific performerbut former Australia chinamanbowler Brad Hogg feels thatNathan Lyon has upstaged theIndian tweaker as the best off-spinner in longest format.

Just like most internationalplayers are doing during lock-down, the 49-year-old Hogg,who played 7 Tests and 123ODIs for Australia, had a TwitterQ&A session for cricket lovers.

When asked whom among

Ashwin and Lyon does he con-sider better in Test cricket, Hoggreplied: “I feel Lyon has taken themantle from Ashwin over thelast year just as the best off spin-

ner, but I love the way both con-tinue to improve there gamesand not be complacent wherethey are at. #hoggytime,” Hoggtweeted.

Probably Hogg drew hisconclusion from the fact thatAshwin hasn’t had great overseassuccess as compared to Lyon,who has got wickets in all con-ditions. Ashwin has so far taken365 wickets from 71 Tests whileLyon has 390 wickets from 96Tests. PTI

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The 13th edition of the IndianPremier League was set to be

a testing ground for former skip-per MS Dhoni. While some felthe was past his prime, headcoach Ravi Shastri had made itclear that the IPL will decideDhoni’s fate along with someothers who were vying for a spotin the team for the Twenty20World Cup at the end of the year.

Speaking on Star Sports’show Cricket Connected ,Srikkanth said: “I am not goingto be diplomatic. I am talkingabout if I was the chairman of theselection committee, what wouldI do. If the IPL does not happenthen his chances are very, verybleak. Because straightaway, inmy opinion, KL Rahul will be thewicketkeeper-batsman. RishabhPant, I still think he might be abit of a doubt, but I believe thatRishabh Pant is highly talented.

“So, I wouldn’t mind takinghim along with the squad, butdefinitely, if the IPL doesn’t hap-pen, then Dhoni will have a dif-ficult time getting back into the

team for the T20 World Cup.Let’s be very honest about it. Heis absolutely fit, he is a legend, heis brilliant. I am a great fan ofDhoni myself. But the questionis for the World Cup team. Soyou’ll have to put the Indianteam first and then the individ-uals.”

Meanwhile GautamGambhir has backed formerIndia star all-rounder YuvrajSingh claim that there is notenough role models in the cur-rent Indian team besides ViratKohli and Rohit Sharma, addingthat the line of respect for seniorshas become thin.

“I agree with Yuvraj thatthere is a dearth of role modelsin the Indian team currently, likein the 2000s, we had Dravid,Kumble, Laxman, Sourav andSachin to guide the team. It isimportant to have senior playersaround you who can help youwhen you're going through arough patch. Right now, I don’tthink there are enough seniors inthe Indian camp, who will setaside their self-interest to helpyoungsters,” he said.

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Former England skipperturned pundit Michael

Atherton visited Pakistan dur-ing the Pakistan Super Leagueand the former opener believesthat while it was indeed sadthat cricket returned to thecountry after a long hiatus dueto security issues, the turn outduring the PSL was also a pos-itive sign as the country gearsup to host more internationalcricket in the future.

“Well, you only have tolook around: the crowds,enthusiasm and packed hous-es for every game. Importantly,all these foreign players willnow know that it is safe hereand they will be able to takethat message to the playersfrom their own countries.

“I was at the hotel andthere were about eight to nine

English players like MoeenAli, Ravi Bopara, Tom Banton,Lewis Gregory, Liam Dawsonand they were all saying howmuch they’ve enjoyed the com-petition, the tournament’s stan-dard has been great and theyfeel perfectly safe here. So, thismessage will get passed backand that will encourage moreand more players and teams tocome,” he told the PCB’s mediateam during an interview.

Commenting on thePakistan team which has overthe years produced greats,Atherton said: “When I playedagainst them, they had somegreat bowlers in particular.The last attack that I playedagainst on my tour here of2000, they had Wasim andWaqar (Younis) then Mushtaq(Ahmed) and Saqlain(Mushtaq). Now you have gotfour great match-winning

bowlers there.“Pakistan, of course, have

produced great batsmen, but Ithink in recent times, thestrength and depth of theirbowling and particularly thekind of wicket-taking bowlers— pace bowlers and mysteryspinners — have set themapart.

“I don’t know why Pakistanparticularly produces greatbowlers. I suspect it has some-thing to do with the relativelack of infrastructure. In orderto produce lots and lots of greatbatsmen, you’ve got to havefacilities and infrastructure andcoaches and a very formal sys-tem, but I think bowlers canspring and emerge from any-where and that’s probably whyPakistan produce so many.”

Asked about Pakistan’supcoming tour of England inthe summer, Atherton said

that he is looking forward toseeing the likes of Babar Azamshine in conditions which won’tbe easy.

“It should be terrific. It’s abig summer for England. Itwon’t be as big as the last sum-mer because that was theWorld Cup and the Ashes,which are always slightly differ-ent. But, this year, we’ve gotPakistan and West Indies com-ing. Pakistan have a very goodrecord against England inrecent years in England.

“They’re always a valuableteam to come and they getgood support from the crowds.The cricket should be good andhighly competitive. We’re look-ing forward to seeing Pakistanin England this summer. BabarAzam looks a fabulous playerto me. He looks so skillful andthe game looks so easy to himat times.

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Have you lost track of whatday of the lockdown is ittoday? Or are you keeping acount? In times when thereappears to be no immediate

solution to tackling Coronavirus, except forphysical distancing, have you wondered what isour biggest challenge today? The answer reallyis a no brainer. We just need to ensure that wefollow whatever it takes to avoid a pandemicthat has wreaked havoc all over the world fromspreading. So how does one stay safe ? Is thereeven a way? Well clearly information is the key.Thankfully, a few things have beensubstantiated by now. So it is only safe to followwhat is known and understood.

First of which, without doubt, is the factthat social distancing or staying away fromother humans is the best known way to avoidinfection. Simple solution for that is to stay putin your homes to stay safe. That’s the mantrathat needs to be taken very seriously — chant itand practice it, strictly. After all your life maydepend on it.

Secondly, soap and water are our first lineof defence. And a very effective one at that. Sowash your hands obsessively and don’t beembarrassed about getting obsessive abouthygiene. Washing with the soap is found to beeven more effective than using a sanitiser. Thevirus is a self-assembled nanoparticle and theweakest link is the lipid bi-layer. When youwash your hands with soap it dissolves the fattymembrane and the virus falls apart thusbecoming “inactive”. So please wash your handsand keep washing them!

Third, and equally important, is to eat cleanand right, Our body is under assault from adeadly virus. And if there is one thing one mustdo right, it is to begin eating clean. There areenough red flags about processed foods toconvince anyone who values their health, to gooff them. And this holds true specially now,when we need to give the body all the helppossible to avoid and fight the virus. Eatingclean is truly the most effective way to go, togive our body a fighting chance.

Clean eating means cutting down onprocessed foods and eating only real foods. Sofocus on local produce — fresh fruits andvegetables, legumes, nuts and seeds and wholegrains, keep an eye on sodium, and cut downon sugar, and meat consumption. And just stopeating out of packets, cans and tins. This willalso help to keep the weight in check.

Another benefit you can score during thistime is that you be able to break your addictionto processed foods. All processed foods aredesigned to be addictive, to attack the rewardcentre of the brain, and not really to provideyou nutrition. So be careful, take a good look atwhat you are eating, and start pruning the toxicfoods from your diet. Understandably, a blanketban is not possible, and not even needed, just abit of pruning will go a long way in taking to

healthyhabits.Watch closely both theportions and the frequency of the processedfoods that you consume. Make a rule, forinstance, to consume no more than oneprocessed food item a day. That should be agood start.

Fourth, boost your immunity. Strongimmunity helps. It could well be the differencebetween you catching the infection or not, andif you do catch it, then in deciding the severityof the symptoms and your pace of recovery. Athriving immunity is, in fact, your best ally inthese trying times. It is the body’s ability toprotect itself from foreign invaders like viruses,disease and infection. It is a system thatconstantly patrols our body to detect anddestroy infectious microbes.

Since we can’t just depend on the naturalimmunity that we are born with, speciallybecause we keep devaluing it due to our toxiclifestyle, it is important to keep optimising itsfunction — all the time, and specially now withthe threat of coronavirus on our heads.

We must take this crisis as a wake up call tobegin working on our immunity proactively. Toshare a food list that would help you boost yourimmunity, people who eat the most fruit andvegetables have the healthiest lung function.Our lungs need all the support as this organ isthe biggest casualty in this pandemic. Theconnect is due to vitamins C and E that thisfood group delivers in plenty — both areknown immunity boosters and thus help wardoff flu. Here’s a list of easy, inexpensive foodsthat you need to include regularly in your dietto boost your immunity:● Amla: This humble, inexpensive food isactually the richest natural source of vitamin C.It is a powerful antioxidant and due to itsantibacterial and astringent properties, it helpsto fight against various infections, thus, makingthe immune system strong. ● Flaxseeds: These have always been reveredand for good reason. They contain alpha-linolenic acid, omega-3 fatty acid andphytoestrogens called lignans — all theseingredients are important for an efficientimmune system.● Lemons: Lemons are the ideal food forrestoring acid alkali balance. It helps maintainthe body’s internal “climate” at a pH whichsupports healthy bacteria instead of the virusesand harmful bacteria which thrive in moreacidic environment. Get lemons and makesome lemonade everyday.● Carrots: Bugs Bunny rarely came down withthe flu, and for good reason. Carrots, his foodof choice, contain loads of beta carotene, which

gets convertedinto vitamin A in the body, apowerful nutrient that boosts theproduction of infection-fightingnatural killer cells and T cells. Carrots alsodeliver vitamin B6 which boosts the productionof antibodies. Gajar ka halwa anyone!● Barley: This grain, that has all butdisappeared from our kitchens, needs to make acomeback. First because it contains beta-glucan,a fibre with potent immunity boostingproperties and second because it delivers thedifficult to score trace mineral selenium thathas a powerful positive effect on our immunesystem.● Chickpeas: Time to bring back khatte choleon the menu. That’s because chickpeas deliver alot of antioxidants and mineral zinc that helpsto control inflammation in your body.● Garlic: Swallowing a clove, or two of crushedgarlic every morning was a norm earlier, andfor good reason. Garlic stimulates the activity of“natural killer cells” and thus helps destroyviral-infected cells. Garlic also contains sulfurwhich assists the body with zinc absorption.● Sweet potato: There’s a reason whyshakarkandi ki chaat was so popular. Sweetpotato is high in vitamin C, which is a brilliantantioxidant and also delivers a lot of vitamin A,an ace immunity-boosting vitamin. In fact, onemedium sweet potato provides your body withthe complete recommended daily allowance ofvitamin A and then some.● Mushroom: This food was probably not partof your traditional food platter, but it makessense to include it now. This is one of the rarefood sources of vitamin D, a vitamin essentialfor good immunity. Plus it helps increase theproduction of cytokines in the body, the cellsthat help fight off infection, and containspolysaccharides, compounds that support ourimmune system.

Back to the pointers, fifth don’t forget yourmood. It is important to understand that eatinghealthy is important not only for our physicalhealth, but our psychological well being as well.The best foods for our mental health aregenerally the healthiest foods. Just follow thesesteps, and you would be good: ● Focus on complex carbohydrates, found infruit, vegetables, whole grains and lentils. Thesenourish our body and mind, as they releaseenergy slowly and help to stabilise our mood. ● Eat foods high in vitamins A, B, C, D and E,as well as the minerals — iron, zinc andselenium. Get in enough B vitamins, found ingreen vegetables like broccoli and spinach,beans, bananas, eggs, poultry, fish and beetroot,as they are needed for the functioning of thehappiness chemicals, serotonin and dopamine.Their deficiency is in fact linked to depression. ● Care for your gut. The state of our gut has animpact on our mood and how we behave.Score prebiotics and probiotics, throughfermented foods to cut inflammation, and stay

happier. ● Do onecalmingactivity everyday — gardening,cooking, pickling,solving puzzles, craft,sewing, meditating,reading that pile of bookson your bedside.

Sixth, sleep. Yes, it’s important. Just like ourschedules for eating, working and exercising, itis important to follow a regular sleep routine. Itcan help keep you calm, in a better mood andwith more stamina, plus help maintain a senseof normality. By the way, sufficient sleep doesn’tjust allow your body to recuperate, it alsoboosts the immune system. During the slow-wave sleep phase, neurotransmitters arereleased and the immune system springs intoaction. Sleep deprivation during this time canaffect your health negatively, seething you canafford these days.

Seventh exercise every day. Exercise makesus feel good and is also linked to better sleepand reduced stress and anxiety. Agreed youcan’t move out and all the gyms are closed, butthere lots that one can do at home. For instance,you can:● Walk in the house. Break that up into three10 minute sections — 10 minutes in themorning, 10 in the afternoon, and 10 in theevening. There are online classes being offeredfor everything — yoga, pilates, dance teachers— some for free. Look them up and follow.● Walk up and down the stairs in your home,or in your building.● Do some shadow boxing, or jumping jacks, orsit-ups, or push-ups.● Play hide and seek with your children.● Do gardening● Housework — moping, cleaning, washingclothes etc are good workouts too.

Eighth, maintain social connection. Nowmore than ever, we need our friends — even ifwe can’t really go meet them. Social interactionsdon’t have to be face to face to be meaningful.The need of the hour is to invent and pursuenew ways social connectivity. Meet up throughvideo calls — you could organise a virtualdinner via apps like Zoom, Google Hangouts,or take a friend on a virtual walk or do ahousebound activity together, like craft ordrawing.

The writer is a Delhi-based weight manage-ment consultant, nutritionist and author of Don’t

Diet! 50 Habits of Thin People and UltimateGrandmother Hacks

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The threat from the tiniest of the creations of natureshows where homo sapiens stand in the scheme ofthings of the mighty universe. Pushed to the wall inside

the homes, the haughty humanity seems to be at its wits endtrying to tone down its ambitions of conquering the sun, themoon, the stars and the oceans. Once again, we learn thebasic lesson that survival of humanity is a formidable chal-lenge that economic prosperity may not help in fighting. Butagainst this backdrop comes an important realisation thatwhat our ancestors practiced during the ages which we lostin history and complacence made much more sense thanwhat we thought, inebriated by the power of modern sci-ence. As the pleasant and mild Namaste becomes the normreplacing a hot and vigorous handshake, we understand theimportance of social distancing. The present scenario takesme back more than 5 decades in the time machine when mymother had quarantined me after the infection from chick-en pox virus and those painful and itchy eruptions had madelife miserable. I was lodged in a room where only my moth-er would enter and give whatever was required. No outsiderwas allowed to visit the house nor anyone from the housewould leave station. It made little sense to me as I had start-ed studying everyday science in my standard 6 class. But myQuarantine was religiously followed in the name of GoddessShitala and no chappals were allowed. My clothes would betaken and dipped in boiled water. The treatment, thoughlargely palliative would involve warm water in which Neemleaves ware soaked to wash my face and body, and a fewbranches of thin Neem twigs with new leaves to brush andfan the rashes that had erupted. It all appeared so archaic.But I was given no option. The other regular feature of thosedays was that just in the beginning of first month of the Hinducalendar, the chaitra month, for the first 7 days we were allmade to drink a few spoonful of juice of Neem leaves whichwas too bitter to consume. Again no option. Of course tocounter bitterness we were given a few small pieces of sugarcandy or jaggery. Similarly, there were many such practicesthat appeared meaningless but were religiously followed. Onething was always emphasised. The religious significance ofthose practices that made us adhere to them. As modern sci-ence now explains the significance of many of those prac-tices we come to realise that our ancestors, too, had wisdomand scientific temper. It was our attitude towards those prac-tices and the assumptions ingrained in our minds that Westwas best led to dismissing our traditional knowledge as triv-ial. But we need to revisit the treasure trove of our tradition-al knowledge and use them scientifically. Traditional knowl-edge and modern scientific information need not be two dis-crete bodies of knowledge but a Continuum for the benefitof humanity. We need to understand, as we struggle to buyhand sanitisers, that the potash alum the village barber usedas after shave was quite effective and cheap. Similarly, theeveryday practice of lighting lamps at dusk, with camphorpieces, also had a scientific basis. The rituals which we prac-tice were not just rituals. They had meaning. It is time to reca-pitulate what has been gradually obliterated from our mem-ories as a result of interventionist informational onslaught.

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Have you wondered about whythe world is in such a mess rightnow? Why has the climate

change become such a burning issue?Why has plastic become such a men-ace? Why are powerful nations compet-ing with one another rather than co-operating? The answer is that perhapsthey are trying to become bigger thanothers. Let us examine this issue usingan example that will shed light on thisquestion. Heady after the success of afew films, an upcoming actress beganaccepting whatever films were offeredto her. She became ambitious andwanted to be the biggest star. Some ofthese films were doomed to fail. Surely,her health suffered but she ignored thewarning signs and continued till therewas a serious breakdown. Her filmcareer was ruined by her ambition torace to the top.

Unfortunately for all those who aretrying to become big, there are readytraps opening up. A small soul will eter-nally remain small, a brief period of feel-ing big does not last long. We see themighty getting humbled on a regularbasis. Why don’t we try to become bet-ter or simply good, which will help allof us? What is wrong in doing that?Bigger does not help anyone, betterdoes; good does.

Similar is the problem of becomingcontrollers. It is a natural tendency forhuman beings. We try to control eventsand we are unable to do so in the ulti-mate sense. Couple of examples willhelp here too. Silver has been a targetfor many investors; they have tried topurchase large stocks of the preciousmetal, and have hoped to manipulate itsprice to their advantage. Time and againthey have failed in their attempts. Onthe other hand, Bill Gates has chosento serve the humanity in a sincere way

and has succeeded beyond belief. Intoday’s virus affected world, who is ableto control the situation? Big leaders areeither themselves stricken or are cryingin public regarding their helplessness.Sooner we realise the reality of oursevere limitations, being small souls,better for everyone that will be. God isthe only controller and will remain theonly one. Have you ever wondered whyso few people genuinely take God’s shel-ter? Because they want to control and,therefore, endlessly keep on thinkingabout different matters hoping to con-trol.

This brings me to the third majorfault of us, we humans wish to beabsolutely independent. Being indepen-dent as far as maintaining self goes isfine, because one should, but when wedon’t wish to accept God’s position, weare in serious trouble like right now.Why is social distancing necessary intoday’s troubled time? Why not contin-ue to do what pleases us as we weredoing. Why submit to lock downs? Whyeven Presidents and Prime Ministers aresubmitting to restrictions on what theycan do and they shouldn’t? The same

reality applies here also. God is the oneand only independent entity and wisepersons take His shelter. In theBhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna has stat-ed very forcefully this fact. In case any-one wants peace, etc. he or she must takeGod’s shelter, otherwise they be readyto suffer, just as humanity is sufferingpresently.

God has given us a wake up call. Wehave become godless and damaging thevery nature, which sustains us. We havebecome too addicted to sense pleasures.We are in a self-destruct mode. We mustchange our attitude. A small soul cannever either become big or become con-troller or absolutely independent. Godoccupies that position. We, small souls,should accept this reality. It is never toolate. God gives ample opportunities toreform ourselves. As a small soul, ourhope to exist well in this impermanentmiserable world (9.33) is to take God’sshelter. (18.62) I have personally real-ized this truth and am beginning to reapsome of its benefits. Please take advan-tage of God’s instructions.5��

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There is a lot of turmoil in theworld right now. Television,newspapers, magazines,blogs, the internet, smart-phones, tablets, and all

other devices, are buzzing with break-ing news about the catastrophe that weare dealing with today. It’s hard to gothrough any social media withouthearing of the suffering that people areundergoing around the world.

�� The news seems to be filled with

the tragedies being faced by the world.We are continually hearing of existingand impending financial and econom-ic calamity. The stock markets havecrashed. The very thought of healthdanger to us and our close ones is caus-ing immense worry and anxiety.

A lot of us have started believingthat life brings nothing but sorrows.People facing these challenges accuselife of bringing only suffering. Is thatall life is but a series of disasters strungtogether? Is there any cure for the sor-rows of life?

��There is a place of safety where

you can find refuge from the sorrowsof life. There is a life raft to make itsafely through the stormy seas of life.You can sail away from the sorrows oflife to attain the happiness that is your

birthright. There is a place you can goto relax far away from the sadness andsuffering. You can renew your spiritsand come in contact with a place freefrom sorrows.

Where can you find that place freeof sorrows? That place free of sorrowsis within you. It is a place where youcan connect with the peace of yoursoul. You can find relief from the suf-ferings of life. You can find the peacewithin you by sitting in meditation.

In meditation, you have a periodof time during which you are not bom-barded with news of the sorrows of theworld. It is a concentrated time whenyou can focus on your soul, on thespiritual treasures within. Immersedwithin, you are filled with peace andjoys.

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In meditation, you can experiencecalm and bliss. You realise that with-in you is a place where there is no painand suffering. Meditation can help youawaken to the realisation that yourexistence is more than the outer worldin which your body and mind under-go suffering. You have a spiritual sidewhich is connected to the peace andhappiness within you.

When you emerge from medita-tion, you see the world in a differentlight. You know that the outer sorrows

of life are temporary. They will pass.When you see for yourself that thereis a place of peace and joy within, youare strengthened with fortitude to passthrough the difficult times knowingthat happiness is accessible to youwithin.

Through meditation you can findrelief from the sorrows of life. Whilethe wheel of life keeps spinning, youcan take some moments to jump offthe wheel to enjoy relief during thetime you meditate. You can enjoy a fewminutes, a half hour, or an hour or two,free from breaking news of the world’ssufferings. You will get a boost to helpyou soar above the realm of suffering,in order to experience realms free ofpain and sorrow.

��

These are stressful and confusingtimes for many of us. Fear and anxi-ety can be overwhelming and causestrong emotions in people. Daily lifeis disrupted completely for everyoneacross the globe. People are feelinguncertain about what could happen inthe coming weeks. Feelings of anxiety,uncertainty and fear are very commontoday. People are worried about theirown health and the health of theirloved ones. How can we deal with allour fears under the current circum-stances?

We need to learn that our empow-ered soul is the one who is really fac-ing our challenges. If we connect withour empowered soul, we will overcomeall fears and gain a lasting sense ofpeace and security. Our empoweredsoul, being one with God, is there forus. It is there to help us through thechallenges of life. We just need to sitin silence and experience our empow-ered soul.

��Meditation is the process by which

we take our attention away from theworld outside and focus it within our-selves. In doing so, we defocus from theturmoil of our surroundings and con-nect with our soul which is a part ofGod, source of all love and all joy. Wecannot put an end to life’s challenges.We have no control over the outer uni-verse. There is a lot happening in theworld currently that might not be with-in our control. But there is somethingthat is within our control. Amidst theuncertainty and ambiguity, we can con-trol our attitude. What we can do is facethese challenges with a sense of fear-lessness so that we are not incapacitat-ed by fear and despair. What we cando is take a break from constantly read-ing, watching or listening to news sto-ries, including social media and spendtime in meditation and experiencingour empowered soul. This is the timefor us to be positive, and to spread pos-itivity around us.

The upliftment we receive inmeditation stays with us throughoutthe day. This may not change the outersuffering of the world, but we are ableto spend some time daily in a place ofjoy and positivity that we can spreadto others. Our own spirits are lifted andwe can then make others feel good.When we realise there is a place freeof sorrows within, we can help othersto access that place too. We see lifefrom a different angle.

��Through meditation we will also

realise that all things are transient inlife. This knowledge can help usmaintain a sense of balance when weface the highs and lows of life. We canstay at an even keel through thestorms and sunny days of life by find-ing a calm center. We can reach thisstill point through meditation.

So let us not forget that the cur-rent situation that we are facing is tem-porary. We will get through this. If wesit in silence and remember God daily,we will not be troubled by this tem-porary phase of life. We will find a stillcenter, filled with peace and balance,which will provide us with permanenthappiness despite the outer variationsof life.

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Character and resilience of a humanspirit is truly tested in tough times.Those who capitulate in the face of

adversity become dispirited and there arealso those who tap into something deepdown and rise above the difficulties. In onevoice, they decide to be tougher than thetoughest times and rise above to realisetheir destiny. How do they do it? It is notbecause they are biologically or geneticallydifferent. What is different is their mentalconditioning and the will to win.

The reason some people give up tooeasily is that they either indulge in self-pityand paint themselves as victims or they justdon’t feel that their cause is worth fightingfor and so they choose the easy route of giv-ing up. Truth is that your dreams, yourhopes and your right to live a meaningfullife is always worth a fight. The moot pointhowever remains — how does one get the

strength to keep on going when nothing isworking out. As the author of the recentlyreleased bestselling novel titled Dhruv —Love Story of an Alchemist, which is an odeto everyone who has survived throughtough times, I believe that three things helpus immensely in bouncing back fromabysmal depths. Let’s be honest when we arehit by adversity in our gut, it pains and itpains hard. I suggest we should initiallyaccept the pain for what it is but we shouldbe quick to re-group ourselves and startpreparing for a bounce back.

The first approach that always helps ishaving gratitude. Stepping back and count-ing your blessings gives us immensestrength in bouncing back. As long as one’shealth is intact, gratitude is the key toimmense mental strength and it fires up ourspirit to soaring heights. It is the secret drugthat makes one fearless in the face of testing

times. As for the proverbial question ofglass half-full or half empty, I would alwaysbe grateful for it being half-full and be total-ly pumped up to make it completely full.

The second step that helps one bounceback is abandoning the fear of failure. Thetruth is that most of us are too afraid of fail-ure, too afraid of being labeled foolish ordumb. This fear never really allows us toexpress ourselves in a free-flowing manner.It is like driving a car with the hand-brakeon. Have you ever wondered why certainsports teams always choke under pressure ?Well the reason behind it is that they are tooover-awed by the occasion. Even when theyare in a winning position, the fear of losingcontinues to lurk in their minds. We have toabandon this fear of failure. There is a rea-son why Lord Krishna told Arjun on thebattle-field that ‘Karma’ (action) belongs tohim whereas the fruits of the action belongto the lord. This basic understanding of thefact that all we have control over is oureffort, instills in us a fearlessness. Itstrengthens our mind to a point where weare so consumed by the process that we stopthinking about the result.

The third approach is the one that cata-pults you to a league of the extraordinary. Icall it — loving the grind! Those whoaccomplish great tasks in life are the oneswho can take both the bouquets as well asthe brickbats with equal grace. They love thecrests as well as the troughs cause mostimportantly they love the game of life. Everyadversity for them is an opportunity to riseabove to the next level. They push the enve-lope, they are pumped up all the time andwhen the hovering dark clouds of adversitypass by, they shine like the stars above.

These hustlers keep hanging in thereduring the toughest times cause they knowthat the darkest nights produce the brighteststars!2�� '��

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China is on its own course.This year it is completing

the 71st year of itsIndependence. From MaoZedong to Xi Jinping, Chinahas travelled a long distance.Dispelling fears among theworld powers that its rise isabsolutely peaceful. Despite itsdomestic problems and mount-ing global challenges, the coun-try’s communist leadership hasbeen able to make friends andallies and keep the enemies atbay so far. However, its neigh-bours in the Asian continentand the rest of the world viewChina with suspicion.

China is working hard toensconce herself in a desiredglobal order so that dominantpowers, like the US, find it dif-ficult to drag her away.Following the teachings of SunTsu, the veteran Chinese warstrategist, Taoist philosopherand general of the 6th centuryBCE, the successive Chineseleaders have been able to over-come troubles since its birth asan Independent nation onOctober 1, 1949.

Mao Zedong, known pop-ularly as “Chairman Mao” whoruled China from 1949 to1976, established a Communistregime and ruled the countrywith iron fists. Marking a starkcontrast from the then existingCommunist regime in theUSSR which was purely basedon the teachings of Karl Marxand Vladimir Lenin, Mao pro-claimed his brand of socialismas “socialism with Chinesecharacteristics”. But then inreality, this socialism was noneother than a kind of socialismthat reflected Marxism-Leninism adapted to theChinese circumstances.

During Mao’s “Great LeapForward” from 1958-1962, asmany as 45 million peopledied from his failed attempt toconvert small family firms tocommunes while pushing theminto steel production at thesame time. And another disas-ter that Mao heralded was the“Cultural Revolution” from1966 to 1976. What Mao didwas another blot on the mod-ern Chinese history. He indeedsurpassed the record of thecountry’s first emperor QuinShi Huang, who buried 460scholars alive thinking them asthreats to his power.

However Mao’s campaignto eradicate both cultural relicsand the traditionalism theybring and academic intellectu-alism led to the killing of near-ly 46,000 scholars. And thiseventually brought downindustrial production by 14 percent in 1967. Though Mao eraended with more of chaos andinternal disorder, China hadmade its unique mark in thecomity of nations.

By 1979, Deng Xiaopingadopted the historic “OpenDoor Policy” which spear-headed the process to bring ina real economic miracle in thecountry. However the biggestirony was that the CommunistChina could not find its mira-cle within the tenets of its veryown trilogy of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, but finallyrediscovered it in the heart ofcapitalism only. The Chinaadvocates boastfully say thatthe country’s success comesfrom an effective hybridisationof both capitalism and social-ism. And it’s not simply China’staste of capitalism. For exam-ple, the hallmark of suchhybridisation could be direct-ly pointed out at the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) thatsingle-handedly dominated thecountry’s economy in thebeginning, but then their roleswere gradually reduced in suc-cessive years. Strikingly, theSOEs once again have receivedthe same treatment now underthe Xi regime.

What exactly operates inChina is that sovereign helppreferential financing, andlarge subsidies normally offera big boost to Chinese firms incomparison to firms in othercountries. With the coming ofXi in 2012, China has main-tained a 6 per cent plus GDPgrowth. What critics say isthat he has done it at the costof massive debt. Under histutelage, the building of ghostcities and roads have continuedin the name of expandinginfrastructure facilities andincreasing employment oppor-tunities. His regime has allowedselect companies to remain as

defaulters under his very noseeven as he is raging a waragainst corruption, misman-agement and nepotism. At thisjuncture, the Western econo-mists come to realise thatChina’s state- owned enter-prises could easily devour badloans the way it can’t bethought of in a market econo-my. Many analysts believe thatChinese banks may have tentimes more bad loans than theyactually report in public and tothe outside world.

The ongoing trade warbetween the US and Chinarevolves around many keyissues. But initially PresidentDonald Trump was reallyunhappy about the fact thatAmerican export to China wasmore than $540 billion where-as China to the US was $120billion per annum in 2018. Butthis trade war includes range ofother controversial issues suchas theft of intellectual proper-ty rights to state subsidies.Around the same time, thecontroversy around the tech-nologies made by Huawei, aChinese software giant came tothe forefront of trade tensionsbetween America and China.

The US suspicion regard-ing Huawei predated the cur-rent trade dispute but the legalbattle around the arrest of thecompany’s chief financial offi-cer Meng Wenzhou added thetensions between Trump andXi. The main controversybehind the Huawei is that itsfounder, and current CEO,Ren Zhengfei, was previouslyan officer in the People’sLiberation Army (PLA).

And many companies andGovernments who normallymistrust the ChineseGovernment and its enterpris-es veer around the idea that theHuawei’s huge database of cus-tomers may be used by Beijingfor espionage network.

The first of such espionagecharges came out in 2012.Then a US Congressional panelconcluded that both theHuawei and ZTE Corporation,a rival Chinese telecom com-pany, could pose a securitythreat to the country. And itwas followed by the UK,Australia, New Zealand, etc, byexcluding Huawei and the ZTEfrom their 5G network.

Today it has been realisedthat the 5G network developedby China with at least its threetelecom giants is 20 timesfaster than 4G network. The 5Gnetwork can enable better con-nectivity among all kinds ofdevices starting from smart-phones to driverless cars. Onthe other hand, the 5G networkdeveloped mostly privately andregulated by the federal andstate agencies in the US hasbeen allowed to play a muchsmaller role than the Chineseones. These all have added tothe growing business warbetween the US and China. Itmay be a conspiracy on thepart of the WesternGovernments and tradingcompanies to pull down aChinese company that is fasttaking both their businessspace and network.

The Covid-19, a Chineseoriginated epidemic from theheart of its wet market inWuhan, has taken a deadly tollacross the world. Today manyin the West and around theworld are simply branding thisnew virus as a kind of “bio-logical weapon” launched byChina to put the rest, especiallythe US and Europe, behind.

Some of the China scepticsare labelling this disease as anew type of “Red War” or“Red Threat” released by theCommunist leadership inBeijing to teach the world a les-son. It is alleged that China hasfought the Third World Wareven without fighting a singlebullet. How has this dreadedvirus challenged the scientificinventions and discoveries thathave failed to stop its assault onthe mankind around theworld? Is it not unbelievablethat despite the world fastturning out to be a graveyard,China is opening up theWuhan wet market and busi-ness activities across the Hubeiprovince? Surely, scientificresearch and technology caneasily find a solution soon forCovid-19.

China’s fast opening of theWuhan province seems littlemysterious when the wholeworld is grappling with the fearof a virus originated in that cityonly. It means China musthave made a new drug to con-trol the virus and hence restart-

ing its business and allowingpeople to come out. If it is so,Beijing must come out openlyand help the rest of humanityto stop this menace. If it is notdoing this, there must be someulterior motive behind thespread of the virus. Only time,adequate scientific researchand smart intelligence couldestablish the fact in due courseof time.

Keeping these in mind,today it is uncertain whetherChina’s rise will be absolutelypeaceful. In fact, it can’t bejudged solely by its rhetoric orits politically framed narrativesreleased by the CommunistParty. When we go by the tra-ditional liberal and conserva-tive frameworks offered byglobal experts, what we gath-er from them is that a countrywill be willing to use peacefulmeans to resolve any conflictsituation provided it is in thenational interest of the nation.

But then history does notbear any single route for anation to become a dominantpower with a peaceful rise. Andherein the rise of China cer-tainly raises some pertinentquestions as to its real inten-tions while engaging the rest ofthe world. While echoing thepostulations of American the-orist Hans J Morgenthau, onecan safely say that it is very nat-ural that a new rising powerwill definitely challenge the sta-tus quo. And this will lead tothe rise of the new power lesspeaceful unless there is somekind of balance of power totame the new one. Whileadvancing his thesis for a fiercepower struggle between the sta-tus quo and the new power, hestrongly rejects the liberal the-sis that advances in education,culture, and technologiesenhance the prospects forpeace and stability. But theo-rists such as Samuel PHuntington believe that it is notthe power trajectory but therecould be an obvious clash withChina from cultural perspec-tives.

Huntington argues that“China’s history, culture, tradi-tions, size, economicdynamism and self-image allimpel it to assume a hegemonicposition in East Asia. Thisgoal is a natural result of its

rapid economic development.All other major powers, Britainand France, Germany andJapan, the United States and theSoviet Union, have engaged inoutward expansion, assertion,and imperialism coincidentalwith or immediately followingthe years in which it wentthrough rapid industrialisa-tion and economic growth.No reason exists to think thatthe acquisition of economicand military power will nothave comparable effects onChina”. This indicates thatChina will have a directencounter with the West orwith the rest of the establisheddominant powers in interna-tional politics.

Hu Jintao, the predecessorof Xi, advocated for “peacefulrise” and “peaceful develop-ment”. But many internationalobservers remained puzzledas to whether this was a tacti-cal or strategic move in thattime or for future.

Also it was broadly dis-cussed around the worldwhether such a strategy isgoing to last or to be changedas per the global and regionalsituation demands.

Alongside, many scepticsargued that when Chinaobtains primacy in the globalaffairs, will it continue to seekreciprocal relationships withother dominant powers andmaintain a benign position inthe Asian continent.

But when we analysetoday’s China and its leader-ship, we could visualise two dif-ferent situations: first, the advo-cates of a revisionist China orChina threat theory clearlypoints out that China willobviously try to alter the exist-ing global order and its rulebook as to suit its owndemands.

And in fact, this was doneby the major powers in thepast. During the time of Hu,China was more or less non-aggressive and today underXi, the country is fast appear-ing to take a more dominantrule, taking the advantage ofthe decline of the US and theEU’s roles at major global plat-forms and circumstances.

That’s why many of theseChina threat theorists under-lined the point that the coun-

try’s current strategy seemsbenign and calm. But itremains unclear the coursethat China will follow if its cur-rent “peace and development”strategy fails to succeed.

When we flip through thepages of history, what we expe-rience is more of a pessimisticscenario of China’s rise. In2006, John Mearsheimer, in hisseminal article in the “CurrentHistory” rightly highlightedthat China’s rise would not bepeaceful. It is very much evi-dent from the policies andstrategies adopted by Xi sincethe time he took over from Huin 2012.

He has rightly moved fromthe earlier strategy of peacefulrise to his grand “ChinaDream” wherein he aspire hisnation to be simply a globe-trotter very much like him.

China has re-emerged forquite some time when theworld has witnessed almost thedownfall of the liberal order.Many say the West has experi-enced in many of its countriesthe rise of the illiberal order.And around the same time, theEurozone is facing a debilitat-ing financial crisis accompa-nied by a looming Brexit crisis.

Undoubtedly, China hasfilled this gap. Its doom as pre-dicted by many liberal theoristswith its entry into the era ofmarket economy has not so farcome true. Rather China andits Communist leadership haveadequately placed its socialistsystem in tandem with thecountry’s capitalist expansion.

Sadly, with Xi, the countryhas seen an extraordinary levelof animosity not only with itsneighbours but also with themajor powers of the world. Heand his regime as dubbed cor-rectly as a reincarnation of“Chairman Mao” is simplybrewing infighting within theParty and chaos around theoverseas territories of Chinasuch as Hong Kong, Taiwan,South China Sea, East ChinaSea and most prominently,within the country in therestive province of Xinxiang.

His truly authoritarianstyle of functioning and mak-ing him the President for lifei.e. lifting the two years presi-dential terms is indicating thereturn of a Mao-era.

His over-ambitious OneBelt One Road (OBOR), ChinaPakistan Economic Corridor(CPEC) and rapid encircling ofIndia in and around the IndianOcean are simply starting newgreat game in the continent.High investments in Maldives,Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh,Myanmar, and finally makingPakistan an all-weather friendcan be regarded as the begin-ning of a new war theatre in thesub-continent.

China’s rise or re-emer-gence can be laced with highprobability of big falls for sure.The threat of a Red China aspropagated by the West duringthe Cold War era cannot bebrushed aside. Its journey frompeaceful rise to peaceful devel-opment is today viewed withapprehension in many quarters.

Its money, muscle powerand authoritarian leadership alltogether have given what it hasachieved today. Its attempt toexpand beyond borders cancreate insecurity not only foritself but also for the rest of theworld.

If China is strictly follow-ing what Sun Tsu said manycenturies back: “the supremeart of war is to subdue theenemy without fighting and allwarfare is based on decep-tion”, it would certainly lose therare chance of leading worldonce and for all. At this Covid-19 moment, China must comeout transparent so that theglobal community can reposefaith in its leadership.

Truly speaking, by thebeginning of the last decade ofthe 20th century, Wilsonianismseemed triumphant becausethe Russophobia and theCommunist ideological traphad been overcome by the cre-dentials of liberal democracy.

But then, with the start ofthe 21st century, when welargely encounter a downfall ofthe liberal order, an Asianorder under the leadership ofChina (though many in Asiawill simply reject Beijing’s men-torship) could have shown anew path to the internationalcommunity. It seems Chinamay rightly lose the same.

(The writer is an expert oninternational affairs)

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Nobody, not even doctors wereaware of coronavirus before ittrapped the whole world into its

fold. Only after pandemic broke out thatthe medical scientists have begun theirresearch to find the right medicine andvaccine to checkmate this menace infuture. So remains true about astrologersalso. None could foresee this pandemic. Icould just see possibility of mass deathfrom eclipse chart of December 26, 2019.Now we are trying to analyse data relat-ing to pandemics in earlier times to fig-ure out planetary alignment pointing topossibility of such pandemics. Majorpandemic broke out every 100 years —1720, 1820, 1920, and now in 2020. Inbetween also, pandemic broke out onvarious occasions, already discussed inone of my earlier issues.

In course of the study, it came outthat the distant planets — Uranus, Pluto,and Neptune — play a very importantrole in so far as catastrophic events oflarge dimension are concerned.Unfortunately, most of Indian astrologersdon’t pay any attention to these planets.Fact, however, remains that but for tak-ing them into consideration, it would notbe possible to explain unusual happen-

ings of large scale. In fact, ever sinceUranus, in course of its periodic motion,entered Aries sign in April 2017, I havebeen wondering its probable implicationsin world matters during its seven years ofstay there. For, earlier during Uranus’stransit through Aries sign, have beenmarked with major issues confrontingthe world. Bear in mind, when astrologi-cal chart of the world is drawn, Ariessign is taken as lagna, as it is the firsthouse of natural zodiac.

From 1933 to 1940, Uranus wasthere in Aries. Second world war hap-pened during this period which tookabout 16 million valuable lives. In theprocess world economy was devastated.It took years to bring back the economyon rails. Period from 1849 to 1856 ismarked with Taiping rebellion in China,which cost more than 10 million lives.Second British Burma war took placeduring this period. Crimean war hap-pened. Period from 1765 to 1773 ismarked with American revolution. Nowwe are faced with the present pandemic.It is nothing short of a world war like sit-uation. During world wars, apart fromthe major players in the war theatre,about 20 to 30 countries would have

directly or indirectly been affected. Thepresent pandemic has overtaken theentire world.

Having said that, let me make itclear, Uranus alone can’t play that big adevil. Other planets carrying negativeimplications have to join hand. In thisrespect, Pluto is believed to be mostlethal. Saturn, Mars, Rahu, and Ketuforming adverse alignment further addon killing propensity. During allunprecedented events, the chart drawn atthe time of major eclipse during the year,Pluto has been found to be either withJupiter, Saturn, or Ketu.

During 1720 pandemic, Pluto wasthere with Jupiter and Uranus. In 1820,Pluto was with Saturn, another death sig-nifying planet. In 1920, Pluto was oppo-site Mars in the death indicating 8thhouse, which was ill-disposed off toUranus. The Sun and Moon were placedadverse to mischievous Neptune. Duringeclipse that happened on December 26,2019, Pluto, Jupiter, Saturn, and Ketuwere together on the eclipse axis. Theresult is there to see. More than a millionpeople have already been found infected.The death toll too has been mountingevery day. The economic recession there-of needs no elaboration. So, we need tokeep a watch on the movement of the

distant planets to figure out their futureimplications in the world and over ourcountry.

I am afraid, the impact of Uranuswon’t be over even after this pandemic isbrought under control. It has still to stayin Aries for another four years.Meanwhile, Saturn and Pluto are there inCapricorn sign. Jupiter too is there for awhile but will be soon back to Sagittariussign. Once again, Jupiter will enterCapricorn in November this year. So,during next year, Saturn will be degree-wise placed square to Uranus (an adverseplacement sometime in 2021. At somepoint of time, Mars may also join handswith them. Such planetary alignmentagain points to possibility of a difficultsituation, in what way, time ahead willspeak. So, we can’t afford to be compla-cent. The purpose of this deliberation isnot to scare you. It is, however, the needof hour to consolidate ourselves as muchas would be possible, so that we are wellprepared to take on the challenges aheadin strength.

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