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OVER THE HEDGE by Michael Fry &TLewis CROSSWORD4253 DAYTODAY BYPETERVIDAL

ARIES (Mar 21 -Apr 20) LIBRA (Sep 24 -Oct 23) The fact that If youare confused, Mercuryand Venus it’s because youare areloosely trying toohardto challenging your understand aworld sign should be positive foryour whichiscompletely plans and partnerships, and irrational! Do yourself a amazing gains arepromisedto favour,lie backand letyour Ariens who thrive on dreams carry youtonew challenge. Youmuststickwith lands. Younever know-you practical responsibilities, might come up with some even if your firstinstinct is to utterly brilliant ideas. run away. SCORPIO (Oct 24 -Nov 23) TAURUS (Apr 21 -May 21) Youare still Today’s Moon is inclinedtokeep deeplyfavourable, your feelings to whichisbound to yourself, muchas CALVIN &HOBBES by Bill Watterson help youinalmost youmay wish to brag and anyventure. There’s agolden blusterabout other areas of rule though, and that’s to be as your life. Actually, it would do diplomatic as youpossiblycan. yougood to showoff abit, Travel plans should go well, rather than always being so and youcan afford to indulge humble. Imean, if youdon’t your heart’s desireinlove. blowyour owntrumpet, ACROSS DOWN Don’t hold back. nobody else will. 1They’redevoted to order (5) 2Neglect nothing on ajob (8) 8X-ray unit (8) 3Not onlydon’t come but GEMINI (May22-June 21) SAGITTARIUS (Nov 24 -Dec 22) 9Ismaking acomebackwith prevent others coming Cash plans requirea Aremarkable line- fresh strength (5) (4,4) little extrascrutiny, up of planets 10 It is done wrongly in certain 4Kind of robberymostlikelyto although thereis indicates that career issues (8) occur during rush hours good news on the interests are 11 Trytoput it in writing (5) (4-2) way. If you’reinvolvedinthe becoming moreimportant, 12 Suitable resortfor aspring 5Can turn intoAmerican property market,orotherwise although you’ll have difficulty holiday? (3) fighting formations (5) making large domestic combining existing domestic 16 Rummageabout forsome 6Radiant girlgoes up west (5) purchases, youshould be on commitmentswith new time (6) 7Hangs about and shows asign the right course. But keep a working responsibilities. You 17 Cut down chesty of anger perhaps (5) close eyeonchanging needtobenoticed. But then, complications (6) 12 One side of the coast(3) conditions or youmight be whynot? caught out. 18 Rescue ship of apeculiar kind 13 Presumablypeople don’t MARVIN by Tom Armstrong CAPRICORN (Dec 23 -Jan 20) (3) knowwhen theydoso(3) CANCER (June 22 -July23) Areyou sureyou 23 High church feature 14 Fellowfeeling pity perhaps (8) Youalways tend to want to accept (5) 15 Abel mayget abronze medal makemountains what is on offer, or 24 Ship’s biscuitsnot so easy for (5,3) out of molehills. do youwant to hold the yachtsman (4,4) 19 Price changehas apoint in However, out forthe best?Therecould 25 Impressive sign of temper cookeryinstruction (6) sometimes that is agood thing, be athirdoption, and if you (5) 20 Examine the accuracy of a foronlyifyou exaggeratesmall areextremelyfleetoffootyou 26 Frighten over mistakesand restaurant bill (5) eventswill youconjureupthe mayactually be able to have bloomers (8) 21 Tied as illustrated (5) grand ambitions whichare your cakeand eat it. 27 He is involvedwith anywild 22 Stop working in the stables? necessaryfor atrulyfulfilled Sometimes youget what carnivore (5) (5) life. Alittle imagination can go youdeserve. along way. SolutionsCrossword4252:Across:1Snail’space,6Disc,10Stern,11Stratagem, AQUARIUS (Jan 21-Feb 19) 12Macaroni,13Nitre,15Endmost,17Frights,19Scratch,21Pageant,22Nylon,24 LEO (July24-Aug 23) Youhaveafew Cressets,27Bagatelle,28Crete,29Eats,30Freebooter.Down:1Sash,2Alexander, Financial private fears and 3Linda,4Passout,5Cardiff,7Ingot,8Compensate,9Standing,14Personable,16 conditions still look secret worries, as Ostinato,18Heartbeat,20Heckler,21Precede,23Light,25Secco,26Peer. decidedlypositive youare onlytoo and will continue to aware. Today’s planets do so forsome time. highlight your inner Meanwhile, it will do you insecurity,but give youthe good to checkpractical details chance to overcome your lack JUMBLED WORDS DifficultyLevel5s and uncoverinefficiency. of confidence and lay Instructions Romantic plans take aturn for foundations forthe future. Givenbelowarefourjumbledwords.Solvethejumblestomakeproperwordsandmovethemto TosolveaSudokupuzzle, the better,and youwill soon Alittle couragewill come therespectivesquaresbelow.Selectthelettersintheshadedsquaresandjumblethemtoget everydigitfrom1to9 find that youwereright about in handy. theanswerforthegivenquip. mustappearineachofthe 4266 aparticular person. Theideaofhavinga______isappealing.-RobinWilliams(6,3) PISCES (Feb 20 -Mar 20) nineverticalcolumns,in VIRGO (Aug 24 -Sep 23) Partners seem to eachoftheninehorizontal The Sun, Mercury be in atriumphant 4267 TVAEO AILRDY rowsandineachofthe and Jupiter arenow mood. It isn’t nineboxes. flying through your important whether SUDOKU chartlikeaflockof theyhaveanything to be exotic birds, revealing wisdom, pleasedabout or not. Your EGUST ELMUBJ DifficultyLevel good fortune and pressurefor onlyconcern should be change, although not to put your owndoubtstoone SUDOKU 1s=Veryeasy;2s=Easy; necessarilyinthat order.Let side and be happyfor them. 3s=Medium;4s=Hard; yourself go,and investigate Youmight justfind that they

5s=VeryHard;6s= prospectswhichonce seemed take youmoreseriously SOLUTION

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JUMBLE Y, ARIDL T, GUES E, AT OV UTION: SOL

Gujarat Water Supply &Sewerage Board indianexpress.com Tender Notice No. 15/2020-21 ExecutiveEngineer,P.H. Mechanical Division, GWSSB,2nd Floor, JalBhavan, Adajan Road, Surat -395009, Mo.9978407593 invites online tenders (ID No.431179 &431242) forthe work of Mini Water Supply Scheme with M&R for5years at (1) Narmada and (2) Tapi -two groups amounting to Rs.170.12 and Rs.64.35 fakhs from those who are registered in appropnate class.The interested con- tractors shall have to payrequired tender fee/EMD in prescribed IREL (India) Limited. manners.Further details and amendments made will be available only on website www.nprocure.com. The last date of tender down- loading uploading is dated 09.11.2020 up to 18.00 hrs. For Drinking Water in Rural Area contact help line No. 1916 No. INF-Surat/737/2020 efveefJeoe met®evee/Tender noTice “IREL (India) Limited, RED” invites e-tenders for the following works using Tender NoticeNo.10 of 2020-21 E-Procurement portal of M/s MSTC Limited. On behalf of Governor of Gujarat the On-line Tender are invited by Construction of RCC Silo Dismantling &removal of the Executive Engineer,A'bad Store (R&B) Division, C-Block, Item No. 9 equipments in Attack Plant 3rdFloor,M.S. Building, Nr.VastrapurGovt. Colony, Drive-In IREL/Udyogamandal IREL/Udyogamandal Road,Ahmedabad-380052 fortotal : 1(One) work costing E-Tender (Public)No. /20-21/ ET/48 /20-21/ ET/49 Rs.24.04Lacs from the appropriate Registered Contractors of Transaction FeetoMSTC ` 15,000/- (Excluding GST) ` 3,500/- (Excluding GST) Irrigation and R&B Department of Gujarat State.Tender docu- TDC to IREL ` 1,680/-(Inclusiveoftaxes) ` 1,120/-(Inclusive of taxes) ments can be seen on www.nprocure.com from Dt.22/10/2020. Iarriveataconclusion EMD to IREL ` 3,88,000/- ` 70,000/- Tender documents maybedownloaded upto Dt.05/11/2020 at not an assumption. Tender starting date &time 19/10/2020 –15.00 hrs 19/10/2020 –15.00 hrs 18:00 hrs.and if possible Tenders will be opened On-Line on Tender closing date &time 16/11/2020 –17.00 hrs 16/11/2020 –17.00 hrs Dt.06/11/2020 at 12:00 Hrs at concernoffice.Tenders will not be Tender opening startdate &time 17/11/2020 –10.00 hrs 17/11/2020 –10.00 hrs received through Hand to Hand /Regd.Post. AnyAddition / Inform your opinion with Validity of tender in days 90 90 Alteration /Corrigendum issued by this office till the last date of detailed analysis. efJeJejCe kesÀ efueS JesyemeeFìosKes Fordetails, visit websites http://www.mstce uploading, will have to be considered by the Agency before quot- commerce.com/eprochome/irel, https://eprocure.gov.in, http://irel.co.in. HeefjefMeä ing the rate in the tender.The agency himself will be held respon- /Megef× kesÀJeue JesyemeeFìeW ceW nesmì keÀer peeSieer. Addendum/Corrigendum shall be sible in this matter. hoisted in the websites only. mHeäerkeÀjCe kesÀ efueS Forclariicationcontact 0484 Also,detailed Tender Notice can be seen on 2545199, [email protected] ceW mebHeke&À keÀjW~ www.statetenders.com of Information Dept. website and Office ceneHe´yebOekeÀ SJeb He´Oeeve (DeejF&[er) G.M &HEAD (RED) Notice Board. Interested Contractors are requested to contact per- sonally at above office in working days except public holidays for more information about this Tender Notice. No.INF/ABD/826/2020

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Tender Notice No-26 Year 2020-21 Panchayat (R&B) Division ''IMPORTANT'' District Panchayat-Valsad Whilst care is taken prior to In The Name of Government of Gujarat State the Executive Engineer,Panchayat(R&B) Division Dharampur Road acceptance of advertising Valsad Ph. No.(02632) 253694 Invite Tender through E-ten- copy,itisnot possible to verify dering process forbelowsated work from Eligible approved registered contractor in R&Bdepartment, Government of its contents. The Indian Gujarat, the details of E-tender notice is available on Express (P) Limited cannot be http//www.nprocure.com forfurther Details Please Contact Above Address During office time itcan be visible on held responsible for such www.statetenders.com. contents, nor for any loss or Sr.Name of Work EST AMOUNT damage incurred as aresult of No E.M.D.TENDER FEES &CLASS transactions with companies, 1Constructing of Major Rs.7,67,97,231/- associations or individuals Bridge with Approch on Rs.7,67,980/- Khadki ChavraRoad km Rs.12,000/- advertising in its newspapers 2/4 to 2/6 (Re-invite 3rd time) AA-Class &Sp.Cat. or Publications. We therefore Bridge-I recommend that readers Consider GST rules before tenderingthe rate. Prebid Meeting Date:- 22-10-2020 (Surat Circal Office) make necessary inquiries Tender online submission last date :-28-10-2020 before sending any monies or Sd/- Executive Engineer entering into any agreements Panchayat(R&B) Division with advertisers or otherwise No.INF/Valsad/396/2020 Valsad acting on an advertisement in any manner whatsoever.

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JOURNALISM OF COURAGE MONDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2020, AHMEDABAD, LATE CITY, 16 PAGES SINCE 1932 `4.00, WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM Punjab farm fires FINDINGS OF GOVT COMMITTEE OF EXPERTS send smog signal Indiawentpastpeak to Delhi; hope in inSept,Covidmayrun panchayat action itscoursebyFeb:panel the air.Farmers can be fined ANJUAGNIHOTRICHABA heavilyfor setting their fields on ‘Timelylockdown JALANDHAR,OCTOBER18 fire,but the brothers had de- No explanation, but panel cidedtodoitanyway. flattenedcurve; LATE ON Saturdayafternoon, “Wehad adelayed(kharif) expertsindicate reasons farmer BheeraSingh and his crop due to ashortage of labour sticking to masks, brother walked out to their ad- (because of the Covid-19lock- distancing is key’ jacent fields in Jandiala Guru of down) at the time of sowing in for bothhopeand caution Amritsar district with abox of June. Nowwith just10days left matches. Sowing of the early va- forsowing wheat, we can’t wait AMITABHSINHA Therehas also been no re- riety wheat will begin in the last in queue forastubble manage- GAYA,OCTOBER18 AMITABHSINHA duction in the number of tests, week of October,and the broth- ment machine,” shrugged ACOVID TEST GAYA,OCTOBER18 nor has the disease prevalence ers had onlyalittle morethan a Bheera. “This (burning the stub- THE CORONAVIRUS epidemic in in the population reachedastage week to gettheir fields ready for ble) is the onlyway.” An entrance exam being held forrecruitment to the BSF and CISF,atHumhama near India mayhavealready peaked THE REASONS forthe continu- where'herdimmunity' would the rabi crop. Despiteastatewide ban on Srinagar,Sunday. Over 5,000youth across Kashmir appeared forthe test. Shuaib Masoodi and, if the usageofmasksand ous decline in coronavirus infec- have to be factored in. The use of Soon, the drygolden stubble burning straw, fields have been physical distancing measures tion numbers since last face masks, and physical on the entire15acres ownedby on fire every100-200metresin continue at the current level, the month have notbeen distancing arefar from the brothers wasablaze with Jandiala Guru, Tarsikka, Tarn disease will likely“run its clear.The numbers have being universal. leaping flames, and giant plumes Taran, Khadur Sahib, and Ajnala Redeem your constitutional THEEDITORIAL PAGE course” by Februarynextyear,a fallen sharply–even The government- of thickblacksmokerose high in CONTINUEDONPAGE4 government-appointed com- though travel restric- appointed scientific mittee of scientists has said. tions have eased, eco- committee has notspelt oath: Governor tells Mamata HATHRASANDTHE The committee, headedby nomic and other activi- out the possible reasons TRUTHMACHINE Prof MVidyasagar of IIT ties have resumedand, to alarge forthe decline in coronavirus nance in the state, makepolice BY JINEE LOKANEETA Hyderabad, usedanew model to extent, normalcy has returned. CONTINUEDONPAGE4 EXPRESSNEWSSERVICE and administration politically PAGE 8 map the trajectoryofthe epi- KOLKATA,OCTOBER18 neutral and accountable.” demic in the country. Itskey The Governor’s letter came a finding is that the disease seems WESTBENGALGovernor Jagdeep dayafter Union Home Minister to have peaked in the middle of Learn from Onam surge Dhankhar has said it is “high Amit Shah said in an interview DECISION CONTINUEDONPAGE4 time” Chief MinisterMamata to CNN-News 18 that the de- in Kerala: Harsh Vardhan Banerjee kept her “constitutional mand forPresident’s rule in 2020 DAILYACTIVECASES, oath”. In alettertothe CM on Bengal by BJP workers was“wa- IDEA EXCHANGE Sundayoverthe allegedcustodial jib (just)”, giventhe lawand or- BIHAR PEAKINGAT10.17LAKH KAUNAINSHERIFFM death of aBJP worker,Dhankhar der situation, while adding that &SHAJUPHILIP CHALLENGEISTO said, “Madam Chief Minister, high anyaction by the Centrewould NEWDELHI, time youredeem your constitu- be as per the Constitution. 10,17,754 THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, BUILDANADULT Stubble on fire near Amritsar on Saturday. Rana Simranjit Singh tional oath and enforce rule of Dhankhar said what OCTOBER18 VACCINATION law, ensuredemocratic gover- CONTINUEDONPAGE4 SYSTEM:NILEKANI 7,83,311 REITERATINGTHATpeople PAGE 13 should avoid large gatherings during the festival season that is Khanwadi loses effigy sheen as ‘Ravan waley’ ‘YES, ECONOMIC coming up, Union Health price forits gross negligence” DISTRESS... BUT NOT 26,163 MinisterDrHarsh Vardhan during the week-long festivities POLL ISSUE’ PAGE 11 family from Agra skips Ahmedabad in 35 yrs 17Sept Sundaypointed to Kerala, which to markOnam in the end of FULL COVERAGE, VISIT had controlledthe spread of August. WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM 1-May 17-Oct Covid initiallytobetagged as a During his weeklyinteraction Usuallythis time of the year, model statebut then “paid the CONTINUEDONPAGE4 VAIBHAVJHA Khanwadi, asmall settlement AHMEDABAD,OCTOBER18 with 1,000 households, brims with colourful effigies of Ravana AT KHANWADI, an urban and other Hindu mythological ghettoinRamol of Ahmedabad, demons, often10to12feetin ahouse with the inscription “Ya height. The effigies arethen Allah, Ya Mohammed” looks stuffedwith fire-crackers and deserted, itsgates locked. Afew burnt on Dussehraatdifferent goatsare tiedtothe main gate public venues in Ahmedabad of the whitesingle storey house, and other cities of Gujarat. while inside the boundaywall, Neighbours, resting on their layers of dusthaveenveloped charpoys under the afternoon discardedfurnitureand an old The house of Ali familyinKhanwadi is locked. VaibhavJha sun, lament that their mood has motorcycle is gathering rust. CONTINUEDONPAGE4

BUSINESSASUSUAL

BY UNNY

Grocery store, restaurant, fans: Indian shuttlers play safe in Denmark bubble

SHIVANINAIK MUMBAI,OCTOBER18

THIS BIO-BUBBLE allowedshut- tlers in Odense forthe Denmark Open to step out to agrocery storeorarestaurant —and up to 500spectators inside the com- petition hall. The unique arrangement was what four Indians —Kidambi Srikanth, AjayJayaram, Lakshya Sen and Subhankar Dey—settled intolastweek as badminton cagilyrebootedintoaction. And while it took afew days forthem to adjusttothis newabnormal, some changes servedas constant reminders of the pandemic. Forone, India’s supportstaff struggledtodrawupgame dossiers on opponents. Earlier, theywould fanout around the arena and take notesonpoten- tial opponents’ form and fitness, giventhe main coachwas fo- cusedonthe Indian on court. But this time, theystayedawayfrom thestands forfear of exposureto untestedspectators who CONTINUEDONPAGE4 Ahmedabad WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM 4 THE SECOND PAGE THEINDIANEXPRESS,MONDAY,OCTOBER19,2020

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■ CUSTOMIZABLE ForIndiansstudyinginAmerica,theNovemberelectionsholdacrucialkeyindeterminingtheimmigration Howmuchwill Indian- NEWS EXPERIENCE policiesthatthecountrymighttakeinfuture.Atpresent,Indiansconstitutethesecondlargestgroupof

WEB internationalstudentsintheUSafterChina. Americans matter in Indian Express EXCLUSIVE ★★★★★■4.6 the US elections? ENTERTAINMENT VIDEO NEWEPISODEEVERYDAY ‘WOMEN OF MIRZAPUR MADHUBANI PAINTING In today’s episode, we look at howmuch ARE STRONGER’ WORKSHOP IN DELHI the Indian-American community matters ActorHarshitaGauron The workshop was in the US election—and whether thereisa SCANTHISQRCODETO the second season of orgainsedinDelhi’s Kamala Harris factor. DOWNLOADTHEAPP the webshow Greater Kailash FROMPAGEONE

Harsh Vardhan that “politician Harsh Vardhan SarpanchDev RajofLahri ment, the ruling Trinamool can sayanything”. “But if he Gujjran villageofPathankot dis- accusedhim of singing the on social media, Harsh Vardhan speaksasthe Union Health trict said that theypassedares- BJP tune. alsoacknowledgedthatcommu- Minister, he should sayonlyafter India went past peak in Sept: Panel olution on October 12 aftercon- nity transmission “is expected to learning things precisely. What vincing the villagers, because Indian shuttlers occur,especiallyindenselypop- he said is wrong to the core. If in September,when the number who have been found to be in- We have to be careful. We have position on March 24 has re- therewas no point in passing a troopedinthrough the turnstiles. ulated areas” but “limited to cer- doubt, ask your scientists in of active cases touched10.17 fected wasnearing 75 lakh. seen that therewas asurge in sulted in deaths being around resolution if the farmers were “Usually, we would be at the tain districtsinalimited number ICMR,’’ he posted. Asheel works lakh. This number has been de- “This of course is premised cases in Kerala afterthe Onam one lakh till date,” the commit- notinvested. stadium an hour before and of states”. with the StateSocial Justice clining steadilyfor the last on the assumption that people festival.Thatisalessonwe must teesaid in anote. Similarly,panchayats of vil- watchpotential match-ups as Kerala Health MinisterKK Department, whichisunder month,andthecommitteesug- would continue to take precau- learn from,” he said. Without alockdown, the lages including Balsua (389 acres preparation. The biggestchange Shailaja sought to playdownthe Shailaja, and is one of the mem- gestedthattheactive cases,even tionarymeasures,atleasttothe The committee said that number of infections would under paddy), Sukhalgarh(365 is we couldn't watchothers’ Union Minister's commentson bers of acoreteam advising the if theyrisedueto festivalsorcold same extent that theyare cur- their modelling exercise had have reached140lakh(1.4crore) acres under paddy out of atotal matches as organisers did not “negligence” during Onam, say- Health Department on Covid weather,wereunlikelytosur- rentlydoing.Thisisnoreasonto also shown that the lockdown, in June, the committee said. A 430 acres of land), Bhoa (950 want players and supportstaff to ing he had notcriticisedthe state strategies. pass the figurereachedlast relax, or lowerour guard, espe- particularly itstiming in the latelockdown, in May, would acres under paddy out of 1,250 be anywherenear the specta- but was“alerting other states to Opposition leader Ramesh month. ciallywiththefestivalseasonap- thirdweek of March,had abig have still seen cases reach50 acres), Sultanpur (325 acres), tors,” says India trainer and take steps to avoid gatherings, Chennithala said: “Kerala has Additionally, thecommittee, proaching.Ifwefollowthephys- impact on slowing the disease, lakh in June. “In short, the lock- Govindsar (310 acres) Koghra physio Kiran Challangundla. whichhad happenedinKerala failedinCovid-controlmeasures. whichwas setupbythe ical distancing norms, and use andpreventingcoronavirus-re- down flattenedthe curve,” the (375 acres) have passedresolu- “It’s notclear yethow the during the Onam celebrations”. To artificiallyshowthatthestateis MinistryofScience and face masks, at leastinthe man- lated deaths. committee said. tions aftertaking all farmers into virus behavesindoors. So we However, Kerala'sOpposition effectively managing the situa- Technology afew months ago, ner we aredoing right now, the “Without alockdown, the Also, the committee found confidence. So far, no fire inci- made the safestchoice... (But) sit- parties describedthe Centre's re- tion,allcasesarenot detectedand has projected that by February modelsays thatby Februarywe number of deaths in India thatthe labour migrationthat dent has been observed in these ting in India youmight getbet- marks as a“chargesheet” that the number of testsisnot in- 2021, thenumberof peoplewho would have things under con- would have overwhelmedthe happenedimmediatelyafter villages afterthe resolutions. terangles! Forus, it’s likeaweb- highlighted the “failure” of the creased,”theCongressleadersaid. have been infected with the trol,” said Prof Manindra system, and would have even- the lockdown had “minimal” BlockAgriculture cam —justone angle from one Leftregime. BJP statechief KSurendran said virus at some point in time AgrawalofIIT Kanpur,who is tuallycrossed26lakh fatalities. impactintermsof spreadingthe Development Officer,Pathankot, side in aroom outside the hall,” Responding to aquestion on the Union Minister's statement would notexceed106 lakh (1 partofthe committee. Imposing the lockdown in May infection. “This indicates the Dr Amrik Singh, said: “Thereare he says. howKeralaisinchingtowardsthe wasa“severe setbackfor Kerala” crore6lakh). As on Saturday “The big worry, of course, is would have reduceddeaths to success of quarantine strate- around 50,000 hectares under While onlythree courts were 3-lakhmarkoverallwhilesetting and asked the stategovernment evening, the number of people the upcoming festival season. around10 lakh.Theprompt im- gies,” it said. agri and horticulturecrops in the operational in the early rounds adailyrecordofCovid cases, to seek the Centre’s assistance. district, out of whichpaddy and as matches startedlastTuesday Harsh Vardhan said: “Afterhav- Meanwhile, responding to a basmati aregrown on 27,500 instead of Wednesday, other ing good control over the virus question on West Bengal Chief ‘Ravan waley’ family from Agra skips Ahmedabad hectares, whichproduce around changes became the norm in the during the initial phase of the MinisterMamtaBannerjee's 1.3lakh tonnes of stubble... We tournament that endedSunday. pandemic, the situation has now statementthatthereare instances been dampenedahead of the atleast50-60effigies.However, driventrucksto carrytheeffigies have been asking farmers notto Ashuttle dispenser pushedout worsened. Iwould saythat other of communitytransmissioninthe festiveseasonasthe“Ravanwa- thisisforthefirsttimethatIwill to different cities,” said Barkat burn it.” birds from arubber pipe. The states shouldlearn alessonfrom state, Harsh Vardhan said: “...in ley”, have notcome this year. notbeable to visit Khanwadi,” AliPathan(38),anautorickshaw Should the appeals succeed, chair umpiresat for2-3 matches Kerala’s spurtinCovid-19cases different pocketsacross various “Ravan waley”, as the own- said Ali. driverwho livesinKhanwadi. it would help prevent the release in arow.Line judges were due to negligence during the states, including West Bengal, ers of this house arepopularly At Khanwadi, Shakir Pathan “Severalpeople came to of 2.2 lakh tonnes of harmful masked.Mostsignificantly, Onam season. Iwould also say community transmission of known, is afamilyofeffigy- (50), one of the neighbours, Khanwadi looking forthe fam- gases in the environment, and coaches -- onlyone per player-- that all states needtobecareful Covid-19isexpected to occur es- makers from Agra of Uttar shows the house of Ali that has ilyand returneddisappointed would help farmers save around were all mic-edupsoyou could during the coming festivesea- peciallyindenselypopulated ar- Pradesh who comes to been closedfor ayear.Here- that Ravanwaleywon’t come Rs 5crore that theyspend on fer- hear their instructions. son...This caution mustbeexer- eas. However, this isn't happen- Ahmedabad everyyear forfour movesthe dustoff the main this year,” said Pathan. tilisers suchasnitrogen, phos- Music had been ringing out cisedforthenextthreemonthsat ing across the country; and months during Dussehra. The door and aphone number The coronavirus pandemic phorus and potash, he said. in the early rounds, even during least.” community transmission is lim- familythat has been intothis shows up, with “Ravan waley” has hit the Agra-basedfamily “Weare motivating farmers points. In-stadia sponsor banner Over the last24hours, Kerala ited to certain districtsoccurring professionforthreegenerations inscribed on wood. hardthisyear,asAliputsit.“The to sell their paddy strawtodairy flexeshad Danish product names reported9,016 newcases,second in alimited number of states,” is touted as the biggesteffigy- “WheneverRavan waley salaryfor 35-40 workers itself farmers who can preparefodder on displayinChinese and Korean onlytoMaharashtrawith more Vardhan said. makers in Gujarat. However, come, Iensurethat theyget all runs intoRs5-6 lakh during the out of it. Alarge number of Gujjar -- with an eyeonthe Asian mar- than10,000dailycases.OnFriday, The Centre, incidentally, has breaking atradition of 35 years, the essential items to starttheir festiveseason. Iusedtocharge families areready to use this as ket.And testing followedatime- acentral team wassent to Kerala startedanextensive awareness this year,the familyisnot com- household again. At times, we Rs 1,500-2,000 per foot forthe fodder,” Dr Singh added. line. “Once before we left, then following the surge. campaign forthe “Jan Andolan” ing to Ahmedabad. also assistthe workers in mak- effigy.This profession was Some 90 per cent of panchay- as soon as we entered the hotel “BetweenJanuary30andMay launchedbyPrime Minister Speaking to The Indian AworkerofSharafat Ali ingeffigies.TheentireKhanwadi startedbymygrandfather atsinLudhiana district too, have reception (during the tourna- 3, Kerala reportedjust499 cases NarendraModi forCovid-appro- Express over the phone, 45- (below) poses with an enjoys the festiveseason as the NawabAliwhousedtomakeef- passedresolutions. Over the past ment),” Kiran says. andtwodeaths;andthemajority priatebehaviour in the backdrop year-old Sharafat Ali, the patri- effigy of Ravan. Express area is deckedwith effigies and figies in Old Delhi area during three weeks, Ludhiana has re- Badminton’s resumption has of theconfirmedcaseswere con- of the festiveseason. It has is- arch of effigy-making family we also accompanythe team to Dussehra. Then my father con- ported108 farm fires, while been hardlysmooth afterthe big centrated in Kasaragod and suedadetailedSOP directing from Kiraoli in Agra of Uttar publicvenueswhereeffigiesare tinuedthisprofessioninGujarat Nawanshar has reported15. comeback, Thomas Uber Cup, Kannur districts. Subsequently, states to ensurecompliance Pradesh,says thathewillnotdo burnt.Lastyear,Ihadtheoppor- forwork... around 10 years ago, Severalpanchayats in Jalandhar wasaborteddue to withdrawals. Covid-19cases croppedupin with physical distancing, saniti- anybusiness this year.Every tunity to visit the famous Rajp- he died. Since then, Ihavebeen toohavepassedresolutions Scaling back, the Badminton other districts, due to an increase sation and thermal screening. year during August, Ali with his ath Club of Ahmedabad,” said handlinghiscontactsinGujarat againststubble-burning. WorldFederation managed to inbothinterandintrastate move- twosons-Mohsin and Tohsin, Pathan, showing pictures of ef- but this is forthe firsttime in 35 keep the DenmarkOpen on ment of people because of trade No explanation wifeand mother arrive at his figies made by the artisans that years that we have notearneda Bengal Governor schedule, moreasatrialrun than and tourism. And then the epic numbers. But twoofits mem- house in Khanwadi. Theyalso he had shotonhis cellphone. single penny.” happenedwith Madan Ghorai afull-fledged show. curveofKerala changed com- bers offeredinsightsintowhat bringalong35-40workersfrom MeninKhanwadiaremostly Thefamilyishopefulthatby alias Kalipada, of village Unlikethe IPL or the con- pletely due to Onam festivities could be happening. their villagetoassistthem in ef- making forthree generations. employedinfactories while next year theywill be in Kanakpur in EastMidnapore, stricting bubbles of early across the stateduringthe “A recent case study of figy-making. My latefather,HajiAshraf Ali, womenwork asdomestichelps. Ahmedabad. “My twosons are was"yetanother horrifying in- German football, badminton has months of Augustand AndhraPradesh and Tamil Nadu “I made severalcalls to my cameto Gujaratforthefirsttime Thefestiveseasonandthepres- pursuing collegeeducation in stance of dehumanising torture, easedthe terms of consented September,” Harsh Vardhan said. publishedinthe journal Science clientsinGujarat and some of in 1985. For35years, we have ence of Ravanwaleybrings the UP and theycome with me assault and death in custody". confinement atad. So one could “Onam festival lastedbe- afew weeksago showedthat al- them were willing to give me been making effigies forevents neighbourhodclosereveryyear. everyyear to assistme. "Thereisoutrageatsuchlawless- step out and grab ameal or hop tween August22and September most70per cent of infectedpeo- contract this year but the state atAhmedabad,Surat,Vadodara, “During October-November,I However, Iwould likethem to ness in the stateand outside, and offtoanearbygrocerystore,if 2. During this period, therewere ple were notpassing the disease government did notgiveper- Jamnagar,Bhavnagar, usuallyhelptheRavanwaleyby continue the familyprofession consequent to October 8police the organisers deemeditsafe. hugecongregations across the to others. The virus wasspread- mission. My familyhas been Gandhinagar,Dahod and even transporting the effigy items in andwe willsoonvisitourhouse excesses, Balwinder Singh is al- Stores in Odense neverreally statewherepeople collectedin ing onlythrough asmall setof into the profession of effigy- Kutch... everyseason, we build my autorickshaw. Ihavealso in Khanwadi.” ready aposterboy forblatant hu- crowdupmuch, but in allowing large numbers and obviouslydid people who arereferredtoassu- manright violations in thestate." spectators, afterDenmarktested nottakeadequateprecautions. per-spreaders,” Prof Manindra The police have said that this in other indoor sports like Kerala, whichwas reporting an Agrawal, amember of the com- the averageofficer-goer. see right noware aresult of weather.But thereisaseasonal- public sector banks. Ghorai, aBJP booth vice-presi- handball, the organisers walked averageof2,000dailycasesinthe mittee, told The Indian Express. “Preciselybecause of this rea- those kinds of interactions, ity associated with the spread of Some 1,171cases had been dent, wasinjudicial custody at a athin line of keeping players safe firstweek of September,reached These super-spreaders, Prof son, theyare also likelytoget in- rather than in the closedgroups,” other kinds of viruses and infec- earmarkedfor field visitsafter correctional home, and notinits -- no one testedpositive -- while 4,000 averagedailynew cases Agrawalsaid, have agreater fected early.Ifyou take out the Dr Kang said. tious diseases, and basedonthat firesweredetected in satellite custody,when he died. Ghorai still letting in fans. fortnightly. Whichmeans Kerala chance of getting infected dur- super-spreaders from the equa- “Everything about the trans- experience, it would notentirely images. Atotal 801cases already had been arrested from Maskshavenot been im- startedadding 7,000-8,000 daily ing the early phase of the epi- tion, the reduction in the coron- mission of the virus is depend- beout of place to suggestthat the confirmedbyphysical visitsare Patashpur in EastMedinipur dis- posedoutdoors but the rules are news cases,” he said. demic. “So, it is possible that the avirus numbers does notlook ent on the natureand length of spread of coronavirus might in- likelytoface penalties in aday or trict on September 26 in connec- strict about them in enclosed In response, Kerala Minister super-spreaders have already that surprising,” he said. our interactions with other peo- crease during winter.Wehaveto two. tion with akidnapping. The BJP spaces. "Country-wise tables Shailaja said she had calledthe been infected,and become im- Prof Gagandeep Kang, an ex- ple. And thereisalot that we ei- becareful. Air pollution could be In Haryana, the state has demandedaCBI probeinto were assignedduring breakfast UnionMinisterfollowingreports mune. And as we have seen, very pertoninfectious diseases and ther do notunderstand, or are acause forconcern as well. Bad Pollution Control Boardhas re- his death, whichwas reportedon at the hotel," said AjayJayaram, on his remarks.“He wasanswer- fewamong the others transmit professor at Christian Medical unable to analysebecause of lack air is already abig reason forres- ported1,710 stubble-burning in- October 13. who losttofinalistAnders ing aquestion about the hikein the disease. This could be one College, Vellore, said it wasnot of adequate data. But this decline piratorydiseases, and coron- cidentsuntil October 15 this year, Earlier,onOctober 8, during Antonsen in the firstround. Of Covid cases in Kerala. As festival possible reason forwhat we are unexpected to find that the dis- in numbers in the lastone month avirus can complicatematters against1,072 incidentsinthe cor- ascuffle between BJP workers the four Indian men -- the seasons areahead in other states, seeing right now,”hesaid. ease wasactuallyspreading is notinexplicable. It can be ex- further,” she said. responding period lastyear. and the police at amarch by women chose nottotravel-- he wasalerting other states to Super-spreaders areinfected through averysmall number of plainedifwehavegood data and The impact of the firesin party workers to the statesecre- Srikanth managed to reachthe take steps to avoid gatherings, people who infect alarge num- infected people. Prof Kang, who information,” she said. Farm fires Punjab and Haryana has been tariat Nabanna, the turban of quarterfinals before losing to whichhad happenedinKerala berofothers. The study that is also amemberofthe commit- Prof Agrawalpointedout that blocks of Punjab's Majha belt. visible as asmoky haze over Balwinder Singh, abodyguard WorldNo. 2Chou Tien Chen. during the Onam celebrations. Agrawalreferredto, had relied teethat reportedits findings on the current decline in cases in Satelliteimages from NASA have Delhi-NCR and poor air quality with aleader,had come off. The In fact, soon afterthe pan- We agree with that, the Chief on datafromover85,000 con- Sunday, offeredanother possible India were similar to what many been showing large clusters of index(AQI) numbers. According BJP had accusedthe government demic brokeout as early as Ministerhad earlier stated that firmedinfections in Andhra reason forthe numbers going European countries had experi- farm firesinAmritsar,Patiala, to SAFAR, the MinistryofEarth of hurting religious sentiments. February, the Indians were the gatheringsduringOnamcelebra- Pradesh and Tamil Nadu until down. encedafew months ago. Tarn Taran, and Firozpur in Sciences' air quality monitor, In his letter,the Governor said firstamong athletestotravelto tions,marriagesandprotestshave August1,and nearly 6lakh of “Look,weall have varying de- “Takethe case of Italy, forex- Punjab, and Ambala in Haryana. farm firesaccounted for22per therewas growing resentment the Philippines forthe created complacency in people, their contactswho were identi- grees of contact with people. We ample. Theretoo, the disease The Punjab Remote Sensing cent of the air pollution in the na- among the people over the Badminton Asian Team whicheventuallyled to increase fied and traced. It is the largest mayhave10-15people with prevalence had notbecome so CentreatPunjab Agricultural tional capital on Saturday, and 17 "chaos" in the state. Asking Championship. in cases. The Union Ministerhad suchstudy so far. whom we interact on averyreg- widespread that we could have University,Ludhiana, which per cent on Sunday. Mamatatoensurethat the po- “Masksare important but I onlypointed that out.” The study found that over ular basis, then another largerset begun talking about herdimmu- trackssatelliteimages of stubble- While the Punjab govern- lice and administration were have always insistedonface Speakingto TheIndianExpress 60,000 of the 85,000 confirmed of people whom we might be nity.But the cases had declined burning, has recordedthe most ment’s appeal to farmers and vil- "politicallyneutral" and "ac- shields during travel. Players can lastweek,Shailaja had said that infected individuals never meeting occasionally, and an very sharply. What we aresee- farm firesinfour years this sea- lagepanchayats has so farnot countable", he said, "... sanitise onlyhavewarm beveragesfrom during the lockdown, Kerala had passedonthe infection to others. even largerset with whom we ing now(in Italy) is aresurgence, son. Incidentsare up morethan been successful in curbing farm powercorridors of non-state ac- outside, if theymust. And no flattenedthe graph and the rate On the other hand, averysmall rarely interact. During restric- or asecond wave. But it is not three times over lastyear:the 27- fires, acting on the directions of tors and ensurethat SSA(State half-sleeves, the full body needs wasatits lowest.“But with the number,less than 10 per cent, ac- tions, we would be interacting necessarythat everycountryor dayperiod between September district administrations, pan- Security Advisor) and Principal to becoveredintravel, plus sani- central government opening up counted forover60per cent of mainlywith people within our region has to go through asec- 21 and October 17 has seen 5,552 chayatshavestarted to pass res- Advisor,Internal Security,donot tising hands everyhalf hour.If and allowing trains and flights... secondaryinfections. These were innermostcircle. Whatever in- ond waveofinfections. If we are fires, compared with 1,695 in olutions againststubble-burn- boss over the statutorilystruc- there’s no face shield, theyneed during June to September,Kerala the super-spreaders, eachof fections had to happen in that careful, and tide over the next 2019,1,533in2018, and 3,822 in ing. tured police apparatus, thereby to wear specs or goggles at least,” had9lakhpeoplecomingin.Then whom passedonthe infection to small circle of contactsmight al- fewmonths, we can be hopeful 2017. In Pathankot district, 325 out reducing the DGP and other po- Kiran says. we had Onam and therewas maybe20, 30, 40, or even more ready have happened. Once that of abettersituation next month,” Until Saturday, the Punjab of the 421villagepanchayats lice officials to abject subordina- Besides, the team hasn’t used somerelaxation.Sowe witnessed people. has happened, the numbers are he said. Pollution Control Board(PPCB) have passedwritten resolutions tion andtoinsignificance". the common gym, while anyone arise in cases in August,” she had Prof Agrawalpointed out expected to decline. Forfresh in- Prof Kang said apartfromfes- had imposedanenvironmental againststubble-burning; in Dhankhar also urgedIAS and accessing warm-up areas is said, adding that various protests that the super-spreaders had no fections to take place, people tivals, the approaching winter compensation fine of Rs 25.75 Nawanshahr,resolutions have IPS officials to be"politicallyneu- masked.But Kiran is alittle sur- by Opposition parties also ledto special quality apartfromthe needtostart interacting with the and the resultant increase in air lakh in 961cases, and realisedRs been passedby341 out of 467 tral", saying therecould be con- prisedathow fitmostshuttlers “hugegatherings”. fact that theywereinteracting largersets, or with complete pollution could also be reasons 1.25 lakh from farmers. In 822 panchayats.The resolutions sequences forbeing "in breachof still are. “Theyhavedone ade- However, Kerala Social with morepeople than most strangers, as with co-passengers forconcern. cases, a‘redentry’ had been seem to behaving an impact –in conduct". cent job, everyone wasjusteager Security Mission executive di- others. Avegetable vendor,for in public transport. That has just “Wedonot yetfullyunder- made in land records, whichcan Pathankot,nofirehas been With the Governor's letter to resume,” he says. rector Dr MohammedAsheel example, is likelytointeract begun to happen, and Isuspect stand the correlation of the coro- makeafarmer ineligible forgov- recordedoverthe pastthree justthe latestinalong warof FULLREPORTSON postedonhis Facebook page with manymorepeople than mostofthe infections that we navirus epidemic with cold ernment subsidies or loans from weeks. wordswith the stategovern- www.indianexpress.com

Ahmedabad WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM

THEINDIANEXPRESS,MONDAY,OCTOBER19,2020 ASSEMBLY BYPOLLS 102NOMINATIONS FOUND VALID SO FAR Atotal 102 nominations were found valid forbypolls to eight Gujarat Assembly seats sched- 5 uled forNovember 3, officials said on Sunday. Nomination forms of 33 candidates were re- GUJARAT jected out of atotal 135received in ascrutinycarried out on Saturday, arelease said.

Covid cases CASETRACKER Bookloansharksunder cross 1.6 lakh PLACES CONFIRMED DEATHS NEW CASES Ahmedabad 39,210 1,873 183 in state, over Amreli 2,589 26 19 Anand 1,3061610PASA,DGPtellspolice 1.41 Lrecover Aravalli 677243 Banaskantha 2,509 28 15 cide due to harassment. Aspe- Laundering Actand the Gujarat EXPRESSNEWSSERVICE Bharuch2,692 15 17 EXPRESSNEWSSERVICE cial directive has been issuedby MoneyLenders Act. AHMEDABAD, OCTOBER 18 Bhavnagar 4,5546918AHMEDABAD,OCTOBER18 the office of DGP to take imme- Acrime conference will also diatecognizance of suchinci- be held soon to discuss moreon Botad810 52 CORONAVIRUS CASES in GUJARATDIRECTOR General of dentsand registeroffence (sic)," the strategy to avertusuryprac- Gujarat crossed1.6 lakh on Chhota Udepur 603 35Police Ashish Bhatia has asked thestatement further said. tises, informedthe office of DGP. Sundaywith 1,091fresh cases Dahod 1,80469all police commissionerates and As per the directive,all police Meanwhile, three residents and nine deaths in aday.The Dang 116 district heads across the stateto officers have been told to lodge of BabarainAmreli-- Jasukbhai statetallyisnow 1,60,007 and Devbhoomi 696 57take strict action againstloan Indian Penal Code sections 384, Jumana, Yuvraj Jumana and death toll 3,663. sharks involvedinthe act of 387againstlenders who lend Ramesh Khachar –werear- Dwarka As manyas1,233patients usurybybooking them under moneywithout registration, or rested forallegedly forcing abor- recoveredfromCovid-19across Gandhinagar 4,412 87 46 the stringent Prevention of Anti- above the setlimit of interest rowertosign ablank cheque in the state, taking the total num- Gir Somnath 1,6422011 Social Activities (PASA) Act. rates, arefound seizing proper- exchangeoflendedmoneyand berofrecoveredpatientsto Jamnagar 7,692 35 84 Usuryrefers to the practise of ties of borrowers in exchangeof later threatening him. 1,41,652. Junagadh 3,405 32 32 unethicallyraising moneyby loan amount or found harassing An FIR at Babarapolice sta- While Surat reportedthe charging steep interestrates the borrower. tion booksthe accusedunder Kheda 1,471157 highestnumber of 239 fresh from the borrowerbythe money The police have also been di- IPC sections 384(extortion), 387 cases on Sunday, Ahmedabad Kutch2,453 33 15 lender. rected to appoint teams from the (putting fear or death or griev- had the highestnumber of Mahisagar 1,196134 According to adirective is- local crime branchofdistrict po- ous hurtfor extortion) 506 NCB busts ‘international deaths with five patientssuc- Mehsana 3,408 30 38 suedbyDGP Bhatia to all police lice to collect technical evidence (criminal intimidation) and sec- cumbing to the virus —four Morbi 1,9751811 commissioners and superin- to ensurethat suchloan sharks tions of the Gujarat Money drug racket’, 2arrested from the city and one from ru- tendentsofpolice across Gujarat who have avoidedarresttill now Lenders Act. Narmada 1,130110 ralareas. on Saturday, eachpolice station do notget anticipatorybail or re- The FIR states that the three Fridayand seized1,036 curated With 239 newcases and Navsari 1,30175has been asked to maintain a lief from investigation by court. accusedhad lent Rs 1,20,000 to EXPRESSNEWSSERVICE marijuana worthRs55lakh, said twodeaths, the total cases in Panchmahal 2,707 22 10 recordofthe moneylenders in- The directive also states that Gaurang Kotakwithout registra- MUMBAI,OCTOBER18 to have been sourcedfrom Surat reached33,948 and 814 Patan2,271 42 18 volvedinusury. afterthe arrest of the loan shark, tion on the interestrateof12per Canada.Theaccused,identifiedas deaths. Porbandar 89741 "Recentlythe stategovern- their previous criminal record cent. Gaurang who is achemist THE NARCOTICS ControlBureau ShrimayShah (26), aresident of In Ahmedabad, 183new ment had amendedthe PASA mustbecheckedinorder to by profession wasthen forced to (NCB) claimedtohavebustedan Ahmedabad and who is believed Rajkot 12,255 162107 cases —167 from urban and 16 Actand Gunda Acttoinclude the book them under PASA (under sign ablank cheque by the international drug smuggling to be apeddler,was arrested. from rural areas —werere- Sabarkantha 1,4271120 practise of usuryasanoffence whichaccusedunder trial is lenders. racket with the arrest of twoper- Officials said that the seized ported, taking the district tally Surat 33,948 814239 under whichpeople involvedin transferredtoanother district's “Wehavearrestedthree per- sons, including an Ahmedabad contraband wastobesuppliedin to 39,210 cases and 1,873 Surendranagar 2,1321321 illegallylending moneycan be jail) or under Code of Criminal sons forforcing the victim to sign resident. MumbaiandAhmedabad.Acon- deaths. Vadodarareported119 Tapi 756 62sent to jail under PASA Actprovi- Procedure(CrPC) 110G under blank cheque in exchangeofbor- According to NCBofficials, on sumer,identifiedasOmkar Tupe, newcases and one death, tak- sions. Therehavebeen numer- whichhabitual offenders rowedmoney,”said NirliptRai, atip-offtheyinterceptedaparcel wasalso arrested during araid at Vadodara14,118215 119 ing itstotal cases to 14,118 and ous incidentsofborrowers be- deemed"dangerous and desper- superintendent of police, Amreli. near apostoffice in Lonavala his residence in Navi Mumbai. death toll to 215, so far. Valsad 1,228 83ing chargedsteep interestrates ate" arebooked. In Saurashtra, Rajkot re- Other states 1483 and later threatenedtopay the The directive also states that portedCovid-19cases in three amount or their properties are in circumstances wherethe bor- digit as 107fresh cases were re- Cumulative Total New Cumulative being confiscated by the loan rowercannotreturn the lended portedinaday,while discharge: cases: sharks,” read astatement from moneyand their property is con- Jamagar reported84cases, cases: deaths: the office of DGP Bhatia. fiscated then suchaccused Junagadh 32 and Bhavnagar 1,41,652 1,60,007 1,091 3,663 “As aresult, manyatimes the sharks can be booked under the 18 cases. victim borrowerhad chosen sui- Prevention of Money Man arrested in Surat ayear after he killed his wife

rested in Surat by Thane Police Varachha in Surat and arrested 2019.OnOctober 13,theyleft againstthe man in an FIR filedat EXPRESSNEWSERVICE whereinhewashidingafteracase Ashish who wasabsconding in Surat in their car and reached Vanda police station in Amreli. AHMEDABAD,OCTOBER18 of fraudwas lodged againsthim thefraudcase.However, itwashe- Amreli aday after. Ashish then On Friday, ateam of Thane and his wifeNikitaUkani (31) at re in police remand that Ashish tookhiswifetohisfarmlandathis Police in presence of amagistrate A31-YEAR-OLDmanwasarrested KashimirapolicestationinThane confessedtohavekilledhis wife native villageSelana and the duo exhumedthe skeletonofNikita from Surat on Saturdayalmosta of Maharashtra. The husband- on October 14,2019bythrowing starteddrinking. Later,anargu- from the well in Selana village. year afterheallegedly killedhis wifeduousedtoliveinThanebe- her in awell in Selana villagein mentbrokeoutbetweenthemaf- “The skeletonhas been sent to wife. fore 2019 whereintheywereboo- Amreli. terwhichhethrew Nikitaina Forensic Science Laboratoryand Policesaidtheaccused,Ashish kedunder severalcases of fraud. “Theaccusedandhiswifehad well. The woman dieddue to the accusedwas booked under Ukani,anative of Selanavillagein On October 11,ateam of committedafraudof Rs15 lakhin drowningandAshishleftforSurat IPC section 302 formurder,” said Savarkundla of Amreli, wasar- Thane Police reachedMota Thane and had fledtoSurat in in his car,” read the complaint apolice officer .

BANASKANTHA FORM No. STK -6 PUBLIC NOTICE [Pursuant to sub-section (2) and sub-section (4) of section 248 of the Companies Act, 2013 and rule NPRD condemns 7ofthe Companies (Removal of Names of Companies from the Register of Companies) Rules, 2016] girl’s rape, GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRYOFCORPORATE AFFAIRS murder; tells OFFICE OF THE REGISTRAR OF COMPANIES, GUJARAT ROC BHAVAN, OPP.RUPAL PARK, NARANPURA, AHMEDABAD -380 013. police, admn Public Notice No. :ROC/STK2/380 Date :19/10/2020 HIPOLINLIMITED Reference :Inthe matter of striking off of or removal of names of companies under to be sensitive Section 248 (2) of the CompaniesAct, 2013, of in respect of Companies given in Table “A” :- Regd. Off. A/1/1, NilkanthIndustrial Estate,Sanand Viramgam Highway, 1. Notice is hereby given that the Registrar of Companies had received application from the companies, Nr.IyavaBus Stand, Sanand Via Virochannagar(P. O.)382170. whose names are mentioned below in Table “A” under section 248(2) of the Companies Act, 2013 for removal of its/their name(s) from the register of companies either on the ground that they have failed to CIN :L24240GJ1994PLC021719 EXPRESSNEWSSERVICE commence business within one year of their incorporation or on the ground that the company (ies) E-mail Id:[email protected], [email protected] Website:www.hipolin.com is/are not carrying on any business or operation for aperiod of two immediately preceding financial CASHEWNUT PROCESSING SERVICE th AHMEDABAD,OCTOBER18 years and has/have not made any application within such period for obtaining the status of dormant NOTICE OF THE 27 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING, We are processors of RawCashewnut in Karnataka at company under section 455 of the Companies Act, 2013 or the company have obtained the status of REMOTE E-VOTING INFORMATION AND BOOK CLOSURE ADAY aftera12-year-old differ- dormant company,but it/they do not wish to continue its/their registration as companies and have, Mangaluru -City with excellent Rail, Road & therefore, requested for removal/strike offofits/their names from the register of companies. Notice is herebygiven that the Twenty Seventh Annual General Meeting ("AGM") of the entlyabledgirlwas allegedly AirportConnectivity 2. Accordingly,the Registrar of Companies proposes to remove or strike offthe names of the companies Members of Hipolin Limited will be held on Monday, November 09, 2020 at 2:00 p.m. at the rapedand murdered in avillage mentioned inTable “A” from the Register of Companies. Registered Office of the Companysituated at A1/1 Nilkanth Industrial Estate,Sanand- in Banaskantha, the National 3.Any person objecting to the proposed removal or striking offofname of the companies from the register We offer 2units with 125 Bag of companies may send his/her objection to the office address mentioned here above within thirty days Viramgam Highway,Nr. IyavaBus Stand, Via Virochannagar (P.O.), T.a.: Sanand, Dist.: Platform forthe Rightsofthe Capacity per day from the date of publication of this notice. Ahmedabad-382170 to transact the Business as set out in the Notice of the AGM. Disabled(NPRD) issuedastate- ment on Sundaycondemning Foryour requirements of Raw Cashewnut Processing Electronic copies of the Notice of the 27th AGMand Annual Reportfor the financial year 2019- the incident and calledfor sensi- 20 have been sent to all the Shareholders whose E-mail Ids are registered with Registrar and tivity on behalf of the police and Contact Share Transfer Agent/ DepositoryParticipant(s) on October 17, 2020. The same are also avail- administration in suchcases. 9743443488 /9845251224 able on the website of the Companyatwww.hipolin.com.Notice of AGMand Annual Report have been sent to all Shareholders,other than whose E-mail Ids are not registered, at their reg- On Saturdaymorning, the Email: [email protected] body of ahearing and speechim- istered addresses in the permitted mode.onOctober 14, 2020. paired girlwas found with her Members holding shares whether in physical form or dematerialised form,asonthe cut-off throat slit in afarmland of avil- date of November 02, 2020 maycast their vote electronically on the business set forthinthe lage in Banaskantha afterwhich Notice of the AGMthrough electronic voting system on Central DepositoryServices (India) the police arrested the 24-year- Limited (CDSL) from aplace other than venueofthe AGM("Remote e-Voting"). All the mem- old accused. bers are informed that: “This gruesome crime adds to i. The business set forthinthe Notice of the AGMmay be transacted through voting by elec- the listofsexual assaults, rapes tronic means. and murders of girls and women ii. The remote e-voting shall commence on November 06, 2020(9:00 a.m.) with disabilities that have seen an alarming rise in the recent pe- iii. The remote e-voting shall end on November 08, 2020 (5:00 p.m.) riod. It is strikingly clear from iv.The cut-off date fordetermining the eligibility to vote by electronic means or at the AGM suchcases that the death penalty is November 02, 2020. forsexual assaults, rather than v. E-voting by electronic mode shall not be allowedbeyond 5:00 p.m. IST on November 08, being adeterrent, is onlycon- 2020. tributing to annihilation of the vi. Members voting maynote that: a) The remote e-voting module shall be disabled by CDSL victims. This wasalso verymuch beyond 5:00 p.m. on November 08, 2020 and once vote on aresolution is cast by the in evident in Hathras and member,the member shall not be allowedtochange it subsequently; b) The facility for Balrampur cases in Uttar voting through ballot paper shall be made available at the AGM; c) The members who Pradesh, wherethe victims were have cast their vote by remote e-voting prior to the AGMmay also attend the AGMbut notdisabled. Although the use of shall not be entitled to cast their vote again; and d) Aperson whose name is recorded in bruteforce to incapacitatethe the register of members or in the register of beneficial owners maintained by the deposi- victim is notnew,the leveland tories as on the cut-off date only shall be entitled to avail the facility forremote e-voting or intensity that gets displayedwith voting at the AGMthrough ballot papers. eachnew incident coming to light is perturbing...,” read astate- vii. The Companyhas appointed Mr.Guarang R. Shah, Practicing CompanySecretary ment from NPRD. (Membership No.ACS 38703 and Certificate of Practice No.14446) as the Scrutinizer to “Also worrying is the fact that scrutinizethe e-voting process in afair and transparent manner. in manyofthe cases, the police viii. The Notice of 27th AGMisavailable on the Company's website www.hipolin.com and also and the administration areinsen- on the CDSL's website www.cdslindia.com. sitive to the issues of the disabled ix. In case of queries relating to e-voting, members/ beneficial owners mayrefer to the victims/survivors and areseen as Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) forShareholders and e-voting user manual available attempting to shield the culprits. at the help section of www.evotingindia.com., or write an email to Though cases of sexual assaults [email protected]. againstwomen/girls with dis- Further notice is also given that pursuant to Section 91 of the Companies Act, 2013 read with abilities arebeing reportedona relevant rules made thereunder and Regulation 42 of the SEBI (Listing Obligations and regular basis, unfortunately, the Disclosure Requirements) Regulations,2015, the Register of Members of the Companyand National Crime Records Bureau Share Transfer Books of the Companywill remain closed from Tuesday, November 03, 2020 to does notmaintain disaggregated Monday, November 09, 2020 (both days inclusive) forthe purpose of AGM. dataabout suchviolence...The NPRD calls upon itsaffiliates in For Hipolin Limited, the states to vehementlyprotest Place :Ahmedabad Apexa Panchal Sd/- (G. S. KATE) ASSTT.REGISTRAR OF COMPANIES, AHMEDABAD againstthis gruesome rape and Date :October 17, 2020 CompanySecretary murder (sic),” it added. Ahmedabad WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM 6 GUJARAT THEINDIANEXPRESS,MONDAY,OCTOBER19,2020 2personskilledasunseasonal rainlashesSaurashtra-Kutch

in Jamnagar also. EXPRESSNEWSSERVICE The IMD predicted heavy RAJKOT,AHMEDABAD, rainfall in districtsofBhavnagar, OCTOBER18 Devbhumi Dwarka, Porbandar and KutchonMonday. "Heavy TWOPERSONS were killedafter rain is very likelyatisolated being struckbylightning as un- paces in the districtsof seasonal rain brought by ade- Saurashtra-Kutchnamely pression in Arabian Sea contin- Bhavnagar,Dwarka, Porbandar uedfor the second dayon and Kutch. Light thunderstorm Sundayinparts of Saurashtra with lightning and surface wind and Kutchregions of the state. less than 40 kmph accompanied The Indian Meteorological with light to moderaterain very Department (IMD) predicted likelyatisolated places in all the heavy rain in coastalDevbhumi districtsofSaurashtraand Dwarka, Porbandar,Bhavnagar Kutch," the IMD forecaststated. and KutchdistrictsonMonday. The unseasonal rainfall re- Bharat Ahir,aresident of portedoverSaurashtra, north Dhori villageinBhuj taluka of Gujarat and afew places in south Kutch, diedafter being hit by Gujarat is attributed to adepres- lightning while he wasout graz- Awater-logged section of Yagnik Road in Rajkot city after sion over east-central and ad- ing his cattle on Sunday. Another the city washit by athunderstorm on Sunday. Chirag Chotaliya joining north-eastArabian Sea. woman, identifiedasSavita It is very likelytomovenearly Agechaniyadiedinasimilarway westwardsduring Mondayand when she wasonher wayback and Jamnagar districtson ported from Morbi, Junagadh Tuesdayand weaken gradually home from her agricultural farm Sunday. Rajkot city washit by and Bhavnagar districtstoo and thereafter, the IMD forecastfur- in Mandarki villageofMaliya thunderstorm in the evening. some parts of Kutch. Sihor ther read. taluka of Morbi district, Morbi Rain wasalso reportedfrom taluka of Bhavnagar district too The unseasonal showers PRAYER TIME district disastercontrol room said. Jasdan, Vinchhiyaand waslashedbyrain accompa- come at atime when harvestof Unseasonal rain wasre- Padadhari talukas of Rajkot dis- niedbygusty winds. There groundnut and fodder crops is in Aman prays at Rani Sipri’s Mosque in Old City area of Ahmedabad. Nirmal Harindran portedfromRajkot, Bhavnagar trict. Unseasonal rain wasre- were reports of unseasonal rain progress. Ad ‘promising govt jobs’ lands man in cyber police net

EXPRESS NEWS The accusedput out SERVICE an advertisement in AHMEDABAD, OCTOBER 18 vernacular newspapers AN ADVERTISEMENT offering and chargedregistration contractual “work-from- fees from the applicants home” government jobs to un- employedyouth in the state, publishedinGujarati newspa- According to Ahmedabad pers on October 15,went viral Cyber Crime Cell officials, the on social media later,attracting accused, Sachin Pandya, along the attention of Cyber Crime with Raghuveer Sarvaiyya, Cell of Ahmedabad Police. came up with aplan to put out The advertisement in afakegovernment jobadver- Gujaratioffered 2,520 vacan- tisement in vernacular news- cies in various statedepart- papers and charge registration mentsand claimed, ‘’Gujarat fees from the applicants. The Employment Services is seek- duo also plannedtoconduct ing direct appointment of can- online interviews of applicants didates in the wake of Covid- and charge them moneyat 19 pandemic to work from eachstage. home on acontract basis of Speaking to The Indian 11 months and online applica- Express, JitendraYadav, tions aresought in this Assistant Commissioner of regard.Due to Covid-19, Police, Ahmedabad Cyber Crime thereisshortage of staffso Cell, said, “The advertisement all interviews will be con- offered2,520 vacancies forthe ducted via phone call and fee posts of Business Development and forms aretobesubmitted Officers, Customer Service online. It is essential forcandi- Officers, District Officers, dates to have education from Computer Operators, Writers arecognisedstate or central and DataEntryOperators. The university/instituteand they advertisement went viral on so- mustbeagedbetween 18 to cial media and when we probed 50 years old (sic).” Aweblink it, we found it wasfake. We wasalso mentionedinthe ad- trackedthe account and website vertisement. mentionedinthe ad, and traced Severalsocial media users the IP address of Sachin Pandya. alertedthe cyber crime cell au- The other accused, Raghuveer, thorities on Twitter,asking is absconding and we areprob- them to verify the contentsof ing whether others areinvolved the advertisement. Twodays in the scam.” later,onOctober 17,police Police have booked the two arrested a34-year-old man under Indian Penal Code sec- from Rajkot forallegedly dup- tions 406(criminal breachof ing 4,500persons who fell for trust), 419(cheating by person- the fake advertisement by ation) and 420 (fraud) along collecting Rs 14 lakh as regis- with sections of the tration fees, at Rs 300fromeach Information Technology of them. AmendedAct. Ahmedabad man held for acid attack threats to woman

Police have booked Mansuri EXPRESSNEWSERVICE under Indian penal code sections AHMEDABAD,OCTOBER18 354D (stalking), 323 (assault) 294B (obscenity) and 506(crim- POLICE ARRESTED a40-year-old inal intimidation) and wasar- man forallegedly stalking a23- rested on Sunday. year-old woman and threaten- ing her with acid attackin Man held forrape Kalupur of Ahmedabad on attempt on minor Saturdaynight. According to police, the ac- A28-year-old man wasar- cusedidentifiedasAarif Mansuri rested forallegedly attempting (40), an auto rickshawdriver to rape a12-year-old girlin from Kalupur,was held aftera Ahmedabad. complaint waslodged against According to police, the inci- him forstalking, assaulting dent occurredonOctober 14 and threatening awoman with when the accusedtriedtolure acid attack. the girlbyoffering anoteofRs According to the woman’s 20 when she wasout on the complaint lodged at Kalupur po- street forshopping groceries. lice station on Saturday, the ac- “The accusedthen grabbed cusedhad allegedly been stalk- the child and took her to ase- ing her forthe past15days. cludedplace in the groceryshop “As Iwas returning home on to rape her.However, the child Saturdaynight, he stoppedme managed to flee from the scene near Shaikh Muzalni Polarea, as- and acomplaint waslodged on saulted me and said that he October 16 under Indian Penal would throw acid on my face if I Code sections of attempt to rape didn’t payheedtohis advances. and sections of protection of He has been stalking me forthe children againstsexual offences past15days,” said the com- (POCSO) act,” said an officer at plainant in the FIR. Bopal police station.

Ahmedabad WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM THEINDIANEXPRESS,MONDAY,OCTOBER19,2020 EXPRESS NETWORK 7

MIZO-ASSAM BORDER 5Maoistsshotin TRACKING INDIA’S COVID CURVE Territory row snowballs into violence 230 CASES: RECOVERED:65,97,209 DAYSSINCE 74,94,551 DEATHS:1,14,031 Secretaries of Assam and apprisedthe Prime Minister's startedpelting stones at Mizoram Gadchroli:Police PANDEMIC BEGAN TESTS: 9,42,24,190| DOUBLING RATE: 82.80** ABHISHEKSAHA Mizoram. This is the second such Office and Union Home Ministry police personnel deployednear GUWAHATI,OCTOBER18 disputebetween residentsofthe about the prevailing situation at the border and residentsinthe to the police." twostatesthis month. Saturday's Assam-Mizoram Sonowalalso area. “In turn, Mizoram residents VIVEKDESHPANDE "Our parties arestill search- At leastfour people were injured violence brokeout between resi- spokeoverphone with his mobilisedand went afterthem. NAGPUR,OCTOBER18 ing (the area) and therecould andseveraltemporaryshopsand dentsofLailapur villagein MizoramcounterpartZoramtha- Thereisnoclear line indicating be morecasualties on the Naxal hutswereburnt down in aterri- Assam's Cachar district and resi- ngaand discussedthe issue. the Assam-Mizoram border in IN Amajor encounter with side," Kanwaliyasaid. torydisputebetweenresidentsof dentsoflocalities near Vairengte Sonowalsaid that theremight be some areas. According to an Gadchiroli police, five Naxals, He added, "Wehavealso re- border districtsinAssam and in Mizoram's Kolasib district. differences but all differences agreement between govern- including four women cadres, coveredfiverifles, including an KEYSTATES TOTAL SURGEIN 7-DAYAVG DOUBLING MizoramonSaturdayevening,of- On Sunday, the Mizoram mustbesettledthroughdialogue. mentsofAssam and Mizoram were killedinthe Kosmi- INSAS rifle, from the spot. Alot TOWATCH CASES 24HOURS GROWTH* TIME** ficials said. Theyaddedthat both Cabinetheldanemergencymeet- According to Kolasib Deputy some years ago, status quoshould Kisneli forest at Dhanora of other material wasalso re- stateshadapproachedtheCentre ing over the issue. Chief minister Commissioner HLalthangliana, be maintainedinnoman’s land tehsil on Sundayafternoon, coveredbut details arestill be- ■ Maharashtra 15,86,321 10,259 0.64% 113.16 regarding the issue. Zoramthangatweeted,“Isincerely three people were injured in the in the border area. However, peo- said recentlyappointed ing confirmed." ■ Karnataka 7,58,574 7,184 1.14% 63.25 Apressstatementby Mizoram requesteveryone to maintain violence. “One of them is critical ple from Lailapur brokethe sta- Superintendent of Police Ankit He also said therewas a Home Department said avideo peace and to kindlynot bypass and is under treatment at ahos- tus quoand allegedly constructed ■ Andhra 7,79,146 3,676 0.54% 134.27 Goyal. gathering of about 40 to 50 conference will be held on anyadministrative proceedings.” pital,” Lalthangliana said. some temporaryhuts. People The operation wasled by Naxals at the spot. ■ Tamil Nadu 6,83,486 4,295 0.69% 104.36 Mondaybetween the Union Assam Chief Minister He said the violence brokeout from Mizoram side went and set Additional SP (operations) "Theybelonged to Tipagad ■ Kerala 3,34,228 9,016 2.57% 28.03 Home Secretaryand Chief Sarbananda SonowalonSunday aftersome people from Lailapur fire on them,” he said. Maneesh Kalwaniya, his first Dalam, Platoon 15 and aftertaking charge.Hetold The Company4ofCPI (Maoist)," he *Compounded Daily Growth Rate over last7days**Calculated over 7-daygrowth Indian Express, "The encounter added. CASEFATALITYRATIO POSITIVITYRATE DAILYIN,DAILYOUT startedaround 4pmwhen the With this, the total number 7DAYSEARLIER: 7DAYSEARLIER: DETECTED TODAY C60 commando party of of Naxalcasualties in 18 en- Gadchiroli police wasdoing an counters this year has gone up 1.54 8.12 61,871 area domination exercise in the to nine so far. NOW: NOW: RECOVERED TODAY: area. The firstround of fire Three police personnel have 1.52 7.95 72,614 came from the Naxals. Our men also been killed. Police have re- Deaths as aratio of Positives against Becoming sick vs retaliated.The exchangehap- coveredseven bodies aftersuch positive cases (in %); number tested recovering; more penedfor about 45 minutes, encounters, while twoother indicator of progress (in %); indicator of recoveries for 14 days in averting deaths the spread of disease may signal the peak killing at leastfiveNaxals, deaths have been confirmed DataasonOctober17,releasedbyUnionMinistryofHealth,ICMRandstates.Oftendailynumbers four of them women. The en- from Naxalliteraturerecovered includedatafrompreviousdays.Assuch,trendsbasedondailynumbersareindicative,notdefinitive counter didn't cause anyharm afew months ago. India test-fires naval version of BrahMos

hardwareand softwaresystems SUSHANTKULKARNI were examinedbasedon PUNE,OCTOBER17 BrahMosas‘standoff inputsfromthe user,and against rangeweapon’ morecomplextargets under dif- ANAVAL version of the BrahMos E ferent atmospheric conditions, ● supersoniccruisemissilewassuc- EXPLAINED theyadded. cessfullytest-fired on Sunday CRUISE MISSILES likethe BrahMos areatype of system known as Scientists also said test re- fromtheNavy'sindigenouslybuilt “standoffrangeweapons”, whichare firedfromarangesufficient to sultsand observations were cru- stealthdestroyerINSChennai,hit- allowthe attackertoevade defensive fire from the adversary. These cial inputsnot justfor calibrat- ting atargetinthe Arabian Sea, weapons areinthe arsenal of mostmajor militaries in the world. ing the system but also for said the MinistryofDefence. BrahMos Aerospace wasset up in 1998 with the aim to build such advancement and upgrade. The Themissile hit the target with missiles. The DRDO and Russia’s joint stockcompany, NPO present supersonic version pin-pointaccuracyafterperform- Mashinostroyenia, came together with 50.5 per cent and 49.5 per could reachaspeedof2.8 times ing high-leveland extremely cent stakes. The companynot onlydesign, develops and produces that of sound (2.8 Mach) and hit complexmanoeuvres, the MoD the cruise missile but also handles itsmarketing to other countries. atargetatthe rangeofaround said in itsofficial statement on 450 km, and ahypersonic ver- Sunday. It also said the BrahMos sion of the missile, capable of asthe“primestrikeweapon”will have been in India’s arsenal for from the Defence Research and reaching aspeedof5Machwas ensurethe warship’s “invincibil- long, the weapon system is con- Development Organisation being developed. ity”by engagingnavalsurfacetar- tinuouslyupgradedand updated (DRDO) said in everysuchtestof Defence MinisterRajnath gets atlongrangeandmakingthe with newhardwareand software aspecific variant of the BrahMos, Singh congratulated DRDO, destroyer alethal platform. systems. These upgrades neces- different parameters were exam- BrahMos and the Navy forthe While versions of the missile sitateperiodic tests. Scientists ined. Foreachtest, additional successful launch. GUJARAT ASSEMBLY BYPOLLS Cong accuses Assets of 3Cong turncoats rise BJP of offering inducements to in 3yrs, decrease for another 2 MLAs in Gujarat

nance purchase of ahome in clares immovable assets worth to switch side GOPALKATESHIYA Vadodaraand Rs 32.69 lakh Rs 78.47lakh, whichismore RAJKOT,OCTOBER18 worthofanother loan to pur- than three times higher than PRESSTRUSTOFINDIA chase atruck, the affidavit stated. worthofhis immovable assets NEWDELHI,OCTOBER18 IN THREE years, assets of three Merja,whoisseekingto retain in 2017,whichwas Rs 25 lakh. of the five Congress turncoats the Morbi Assemblyseat as BJP Kakadiya, who waselected DAYS AFTER the BJP fieldedfive who arecontesting the upcom- nominee,hasdeclaredtotalassets MLAfromDhari in 2017 had de- former Congress MLAs in ing Assemblybypolls forthe BJP worthRs2.11 crore. That is more clared total assets worthRs3.38 Gujarat by-polls, the Congress have increased, according to the than double as compared to his croreasaCongress candidatein Sundayaccusedthe saffron affidavitsfiledbythem. totalassetsworthRs93.24lakhhe 2017.Theyincluded81.91 lakh party of luring legislators in the However, assets of the other two had declared three years ago. worthofmovable assets and statethrough monetary or other candidates have decreased. As per his latestaffidavit, Rs2.57crore worthofimmovable inducementsand demandeda While assets of Brijesh Merja, Merja'smovableassets areworth assets.However, in his election af- judicial inquiryintoit. Jitu Chaudharyand AkshayPatel Rs 2crore,morethan three times fidavit filedasaBJP candidatefor CongressspokespersonAbhi- have increased, those of JV higherthanthatof threeyearsago bye-election to Dhari Assembly shek Singhvi cited interviews of Kakadiyaand Pradyumansinh -- Rs 68.86crore.His immovable seat, he has declared total assets threeformerCongressMLAswho Jajeja have gone down. Alll the assets,however, have gonedown worthRs2.86 crore, is wasRs52 switchedovertothe BJP earlier five areseeking re-election from from Rs 24.38 lakh in 2017 to lakh less as compared to the thisyearafterresigningaslegisla- the Assemblyconstituencies Rs10.11 lakh in 2020. Merja and worthofhis assets three years tors, to allegethe BJP had offered theywereelected from as his wifeShilpa, have trebledtheir ago. The drop has mainlybeen them monetary or other induce- Congress candidates in 2017 in bank depositsand investment in reportedinhis movable assets, mentstowoo them to their side. November 3bypolls. The biggest Public Provident Fund to Rs 1.52 whichplungedfrom Rs 81.91lakh Theyhavebeenfieldedbythesaf- jumpinassets has been reported crorefromRs49.39 lakh three in 2017 to Rs 49.08 lakh. fronpartyinGujaratforbypollsto by AkshayPatel,who waselected years ago. Merja, who is afarmer Similarly,Pradyumansinh their respective Assemblyseats. from Karjan in Vadodarain2017. andabusinessmanby profession, Jadeja, who had resignedasMLA Singhvi claimedthat Akshay He had declared assets worth hasnotlistedany vehicleinhisaf- from Abadasa in Kutchdistrict Patel, Pradyumnsinh Jadeja and Rs1.47crore in 2017 but his lat- fidavit but has stated his MLA and joinedBJP in the run upto the JVKakadiya—who had joined estaffidavit filedwith his nomi- salaryashissourceof incomebe- RajyaSabha election this year,has the BJP in June this year afterre- nation papers forthe November sides agricultureand business. showedadecrease in his assets signing from the Congress —had 3bypoll, declares his total assets Moreinterestingly,his latest by Rs4 lakh. Jadeja had declared purportedlyacceptedoncamera to be worthRs5.26 crore. affidavit does notlistcommer- total assets worthRs1.12crore in to have been offeredinduce- AgainstRs76lakh worthof cial premises he had purchased 2017.Theyincludedmovable as- mentsfor switching over. moveable assets in 2017,henow in 2015 and which, he had de- sets worthRs58.99 lakh and Rs “Thelegislature,itisclearfrom has 2.24crore worthofmovable clared in the 2017 affidavit, of be- 53.85 worthofimmovable assets. these proofs, has become apawn, assets.The worthofhis immov- ing Rs9.11 lakh market value at But his affidavit submitted on abusiness plaything forthe BJP, able assets has also jumpedfrom that time. Thursdaydeclares his total assets whichaggressivelyindulgesinthe Rs 71.86 lakh to Rs 3.02 crore. Similarly,assets of Jitu to be worthRs1.08 crore. The 3Ts—Trading, Trafficking and However, his liabilities too, in Chaudhary, the former Congress drop has been reportedinhis Transaction-ing with MLAs and form of bank loans, have in- MLAfromKaprada constituency movable assets whichhavecome legislators,”Singhvisaid.Five of the creasedfromRs13.4 lakh in 2017 in Valsad district, have also in- down to Rs54.93 lakh. eightresigneesfromtheCongress to Rs 1crore in 2020. His son has creasedtoRs1.53 crorefromRs WITHINPUTSFROM have gotticketsforthenearforth- availedRs24.50 lakh loan to fi- 1.19crore. His latestaffidavit de- KAMAALSAIYEDINSURAT coming bypolls, he pointed out. Increased migration from villages to cities augmented pandemic: Gopalkrishna Gandhi

(Padhe Likhe Log), whose pop- “Wehavenegated the rural lum to imbibethese changes in EXPRESSNEWSERVICE ulation is high in urban areas and urban balance. While on the postCovid times. AHMEDABAD,OCTOBER18 wherethe effect of pandemic is one hand doctors, nurses and “It is worrisome that in the highest, areverycallous to- sanitarystaff savedour coun- country exporting grains, peo- THE BIGGESTproblem todayis wardsCovid guidelines,” try, on the other hand the same ple arestarving to death. The the increasing migration from Gandhi said. wasdone by the farmers. The answer to this is local and not villages to cities that has aug- “With urbanisation,the ur- difficulty with whichtheyhave global. It is notrestricted to self mented the Covid pandemic, ban population is constantlyin- providedusbetween Rabi and reliance and food safety, but a said Gopalkrishna Gandhi, creasing andfarmer population Kharif season when the pan- synergy of employment gener- grandson of Mahatma Gandhi. is declining. This imbalance demic wasatits peak,reminds ation, promoting local thus re- Gandhi wasthe chief guest and increase in urban popula- us that the pandemic might go ducing transportation costs on the 101stfoundation dayvir- tion is augmenting the pan- away or reduce but this dispro- and carbon footprints, decen- tual celebration of Gujarat demic. We should acceptthe portion, or the imbalance will tralisation and sustainable,” Vidyapith, foundedbyMahatma faultsinour economic policies continue,” he added. she said. Gandhi on October 18,1920. as we have flouted this propor- The university’s chancellor Similarly,talking about ‘ur- “Though the medical ex- tion and needtobring in neces- Elaben Bhatt said that she ex- japith’, the Chancellor said that perts aredoing their best but as saryreforms in our economic pected Gujarat Vidyapith to be- in coming days,itisGujarat asociety we should ask our- policies. We areresponsible for come ‘rotipith’ and ‘urjapith’ in Vidyapith’s responsibility to in- selvesifweare doing enough. I farmers shifting to cities from the coming future. She also stitutionalise all the steps to- have noticedthat the PLLs agriculture.” hinted at reforming the curricu- wardsenergy conservation.

Ahmedabad WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM

THEINDIANEXPRESS,MONDAY,OCTOBER19,2020 WORDLY WISE Thegovernment onlygives subsidies for nitrogenous fertilisers. With the result, farmers 8 THE EDITORIAL PAGE do not applybalanced fertilisers. —MSSWA MINATHAN Hathras andtruth machine

§ FOUNDED BY § RAMNATH GOENKA Narcoanalysis would inviteapublic/media trial BECAUSETHE TRUTH INVOLVES US ALL whichmanipulates science, favours thedominant

A BEGINNING Jinee Lokaneeta Elected district development councils mustbeafirststepin

kickstarting political process in J&K —not asubstitutefor it THE BRUTAL KILLINGand alleged gangrape coanalysis, lie detectors and brain scans and since it stands in forthe voice of science and of a19-year-oldDalit woman in Hathras, made evidence as aresult of the techniques theexpertclaimed by thegovernment to HE AMENDMENTS TO theJammu&Kashmir Panchayati RajAct to facili- Uttar Pradesh, has renewedattention on inadmissible. The Courtstoppedshortof proclaim truth even as thetechnique is re- tate direct electionstothe second tier of local government,the district de- hownarcoanalysis remains central to polic- striking them down as inherentlyunaccept- jected by the scientific community. velopment council, areevidentlyintendedtokickstart the political process inginIndia. Widespread outrageerupted as ableunderthe right againstself-incrimina- The discussion on narco oftentends to re- in the Union Territory, infuse some guidedpolitical energy intothe post- the policeinitiallyconsidered it acase of tion (Article 20 (3))and right to lifeand lib- inforce the legitimacy of techniques that co- murder and later sought to denythe rape. erty (Article 21)ofthe Indian Constitution. erce information from the bodies of the per- TAugust5,2019environment,especially in the Valley, andpavethe wayfor The Uttar Pradesh government announced The lackofadecisive rejection of narco- sons, sometimes in conjunction with torture all those desirous of findingapoliticalfootholdin“naya”Kashmir.With the holding of on October 2its intent to use narcoanalysis analysis that medical ethics scholar Amar or through aprocess of hypnotic suggestions. Assemblyelections tiedtothe contentious delimitation exercise, and giventhat partici- on the victim’s family, theaccused and neg- Jesani calls pharmacologicaltorturehas al- These testsare by themselvescoercive and pation is uncertain with regional political parties firm on the demand forareturn to state- ligent stateofficials. Narcoanalysis is the use lowedthe spectreofthis technique to haunt oftenusedtoget confessions/information in hood and special status, election to theDDCs will be afirsttestofhow deepthe waters of adrug —sodium pentothal —onaperson different sites of policing in India, in turn the investigative process itself and, likephys- reallyrun. The Centremay calculatethat getting enough people to contestthe DDC elec- to ostensiblyinduce truthwith the help of encouragingcoercedinformation or invol- ical torture, areunreliable. Thus, eachtime tions would help weaken the Gupkar narrative,whichinits thirdreiteration lastweek, forensicpsychologists.The lackofvalidity untary confessions. narcoanalysis is mentionedinahigh-profile and reliabilityofnarcoanalysis is well known, Narcoanalysis (alongside brain scans case, it reactivatesatendency of Indian polic- following the release of PDP chairperson Mehbooba Mufti, resulted in the coming to- though rarely acknowledged. and lie detectors, that Iterm “truth ma- ing to preciselyhighlight techniques that gether of the regional parties as aPeople'sAlliance. The recentlycreated Apni Party, hacked The notificationofthis desiretouse nar- chines” in my book) is represented oftenas forcethe bodytobetrayitself. The popular out from the PDP,has been itching forarole. coanalysis despitedisavowalbythe scien- ascientific solution to policetorture. campaign to challengethe trial courtverdict Individualsinthe mainstream regional parties, especiallythose overlooked fornom- tific community is notjustabout the tech- Reportsofcustodial violence in in the Aarushi-Hemraj case had similarly inations in previous Assemblyelections, mayalsosee the DDCs as acareer opportunity. nique itself. It is symptomatic of the Maharashtra resultedinsenior police offi- highlighted the narco resultsofHemraj’s The BJP is waiting in the wings, too. Earlier,the DDC wasfilledthrough nominations. The investigative practices of Indian policing. cers sending out amemourging the use of friends as away to strengthen their argu- Narcoanalysis functions to createapublic truth machines. The Delhi High Courthas ments, therebycontributing to the relegit- rationalebehind holding direct elections to 14 DDC constituencies in eachdistrict is that spectacle of “truth claiming” in the garb of recentlyasked the Delhi Governmentabout imising of these techniques. being chosen through ademocratic exercise might give candidatesand the DDCs ameas- science, therebyreinforcing the role that co- the lackofnarco test facilityinthe capital The Hathras case, in highlighting narco- ureofcredibility.The initial responses of the NC and PDP have predictablynot been ercedconfessions playinmedia trials and and the suspects aretaken to Ahmedabad analysis, remindsushow confessions/infor- favourable.PDP leader Naeem Akhtar,for instance, has said the move is aimedatdepoliti- the legal system. In the Hathras case, it fur- Asking the victim’sfamily to fornarcoanalysis. Recently, theAam Aadmi mation areoften apartofamedia trial, and cisation by cutting up the UT into“district assemblies”, and to reduceKashmiri political ther victimises the Dalit woman’s familyby undergonarcoanalysis in a PartyGovernment has promisedthe High techniques that enablethe bodytoforcibly aspiration to thesolving of district levelwater-electricity-road problems. publiclycontesting their version. context where Dalit victims Court that arrangementshavebeen made betray itself areviolative of human dignity Popularisedinthe US in the 1920-30s by to setupthisnarco facility,asifitisastate and should bedisallowed. Asking the victim’s Forthe DDC elections to achieve the Centre's manyobjectives, the entireexercise will are often disbelieved is Dr Robert House,the US criminal justice sys- of the arttechnique rather than acoercive familytoundergo narcoanalysis in acontext needtobesubstantiallydifferentfromhowthe2018 panchayatelectionswentdown.Inthat temhad abrief fascination with narcoanaly- primarily meant to contest and unreliablemedico-legalone. where Dalit victims areoften disbelievedis election,candidateswere tooashamedto admittheywerecontesting,andcouldnotappear sis. It wasrejected by theCIA afterexperi- or proclaim their narratives By mentioning the use of narcoanalysis primarilymeant to contestorproclaimtheir in publicbecause theyfeared fortheirlives.Those who won, some of them because they mentsinthe 1950s, and it continues to make publicly as alie — on the accused,the victim’s familyand the narrativespubliclyasalie —victimising them were the onlycontestantsintheirhalqas, did notsurface formonthsafterwards. In many rare appearances. The Indian fascination victimising them once again. police/officials, the UP Government is invit- once again. Saying that police/officials areto panchayat halqas therewerenocandidates and the elections couldnot be held. In the DDC with narcoanalysis beganinthe late1980s ingapublic/media trial whichutilises sci- besubject to thesame technique is reflective Saying that police/officials elections,theNC andPDPwillneedtoconsidertheopportunitycostsof aboycottevenasthey in Ahmedabad, appearedincomplaints to ence in itspopular constructionand will in- of adesiretorestrict thenegligencetoafew the National HumanRightsCommission evitably favour thosewho aredominant in badapples—as opposed to the recognition weigh it againstthe price of participation.Theydonot have an easy choice, but theywould are to be subjecttothe same about lie detectors being usedalongside a technique is reflective of a society.AsDalit feminists have noted, pro- of asystemic injustice,making justice in this do better to engagewiththe political process,evenastheyoppose, argue and debate. The drug in the 1990s, but gainedprominence in visionsofthe Prevention of Atrocities Act case even moreelusive. Centre,too,shouldbeawareofthelimitationsof abonsaidemocracyinJ&K.SriLankaisacauti- the 2000s. Almostall major cases involved desire to restrictthe have to be centralinthe Hathrascase onaryexample of howanelected body withnopowers excepttolay roads and repair the itsuse, including the Aarushi-Hemraj mur- negligence to afew bad against theuppercaste men involvedinthe The writer is Professor in Political Science & drains is notananswer to thepolitical aspirationsthat lie behindthe demand forgreater au- ders in 2008, Mumbai blastcase in 2006, apples —asopposed to the alleged gang rape and thosestate officials International Relations at Drew University. tonomy. Therestoration of statehood to J&K has to be prioritised,and Assemblyelections. Telgi scam case, and Nithari 2005-2006,with recognition of asystemic whowerenegligent in their duty.Whilea She is author of The Truth Machines: videos oftenleaked as “truth”. media trialisalready visible, and medico- Policing, Violence and Scientific In 2010 theIndian SupremeCourtruled injustice,making justice in legal evidence of rape is already subjectto Interrogations in India (UnivofMichigan that consentwas required forthe use of nar- this case even more elusive. manipulation,mention of narco is notable Press, Orient Blackswan, 2020) TINKERING AT MARGINS

Cap on subsidisedfertiliser merelyaddresses issue of its diversion,doesn’t fixreal problem —overusebyfarmers FRUIT OF REFORM T’S OVER Adecade since aso-callednutrient-basedsubsidy(NBS)regimefor fertilisers wasinstituted.Bylinking subsidy to nutrient compositionrather than productsper se,NBS wasexpectedtowean away farmersfromapplying too Newlegal framework forcontract farming benefits farmer,consumer,investor muchureacontaining onlynitrogen. But the actual resultsprove otherwise. IBetween 2009-10and 2019-20,ureaconsumption rose from 26.7 million tonnes (mt) to 33.7 mt. While overall fertiliser consumption increasedfrom53.4 mt to 61.7 mt, Sudhir Sitapati urea’s sharewent up from belowhalf to 54.6 per cent duringthis period.The reason for the worsening fertiliser imbalanceissimple: Since April 2010,the maximum retail price SANTOSH GANAROWNStwo acres of land in the thirdweek of September,farmers could said that he’d happilygivea40 percent dis- (MRP) of urea has been raisedbyhardly11per cent, from Rs 4,830 to Rs 5,360 per tonne. Raigadh in coastalMaharashtra—home of the onlysell to thelocal mandi or agricultural mar- countand still earn Rs 3lakh. He would still The MRPs of other fertilisers —whichweredecontrolled, with the government onlygiv- Alphonso mango. Yethechooses to plant ket. The risk-mitigation methods that “con- make 10 times morethan he makes today. ing aper-tonne subsidy basedontheir nutrient content —havegone up from 2.5 to four cheap rice rather than lucrative mangoes. tractfarming” provide were illegal.The old But his investor,anexpert in mangocultiva- When Iasked himwhy he repliedthat he laws —enacted to protect farmers likeGanar tion withbetteraccess to markets(and times during these 10 years. Since NBS has been implemented onlyinother fertilisers,even would love to plant mangoes. Rice giveshim —ensurethat theynever makeenough doubtless better methods to shoo away mon- as urea remains under pricecontrol, farmers areusing more, notless, of the latter. justRs30,000per acrewhile mangoes would moneytoleave poverty. keys) wouldmakethe full potential of the acre The Narendra Modigovernment mustshouldermuchofthe blame forthis agronomic earn 10 times as much. But he could notaf- Ganar’s sorrowisalso the sorrowofthe —Rsfivelakh. AfterpayingGanarand ac- and environmental disaster. Thebasic MRP of urea hasn’t been revisedatall in itsnearly ford the initial investment of an “elevated consumer since the old laws did notresult in counting forareturn on investment the in- six-and-a-half years. Instead of bringing urea under NBS —whichwould push up itsMRP bund” forthe mangoes, nor survive the five- fruit being available at alow pricefor con- vestor would still be leftwith asurplus. In a closer to Rs 10,000 pertonneatthe current per-kgsubsidy fornitrogen present in other year waiting period forthe trees to yield fruit. sumers. Quitethe opposite. competitive market, theconsumer would get He also added, withahint of schaden- Fruitsare notjustexpensive compared to cheaper mangoes. fertilisers—the Modi government has resorted to tinkeringatthe margins. Thatincludes freude, that his friends who have orchards other carbohydrates in India —A100 Kcal of This is an exampleof“contract-farming” compulsory neem-coating of all urea (from December 2015)and making fertilisersub- complain of wasting almosthalf their man- energy from fruitscosts five times that from —one that would benefit the farmer,the in- sidy payment to companies conditional upon actual sales to farmers beingregisteredon goes since theyare notable to reachthe mar- rice —but theyare also 20 per cent moreex- vestor,and the consumer.Anacreofland point-of-sale machines with retailers afterbiometric authentication (from March 2018). ketsontime. This COVID-filled year wasthe pensivethan eventhe western world. As are- yielding Rs 30,000 starts yielding Rs 5lakh. There’s aplan next, as reportedbythis newspaper,tocap the total number of subsidised worst, as mostmangoes remainedunsold. sult, Indians eat fewerfruitsthan mostothers. But forall these years whywould either Ganar fertiliserbags that anyperson can purchase during an entirecropping season. But these Ganartold me howhesaw pot-belliedmon- BasedonaNIN-ICMR reportof2019, Iesti- or the investorhave agreedtoa“contract” that keys,surroundedbyhalf-eaten mangoes, matethat Indians eat only32grams of fruit a wasnot legallybinding? Ganar could cheat measuresmerelyaddressthe issue of subsidisedfertilisers,especiallyurea, getting di- snoring in his friend’s orchard. His friend dayversusthe recommendedamountof 100 the investor anddecideto sell the mangoes at verted to bulk buyers/traders or even non-agricultural users suchasplywood and animal didn’t find it necessarytoshoo them away grams. And this acutedeficiency in fruitsis full price five years later. The investor could feed makers.Theydon’t fixthe real problem —ofoveruse by farmers themselves. If urea with catapults. muchmorepronouncedamong the poor. cheat Ganar and notbuy the mangoes he fi- is heavilyunder-priced, theywill applythree bags when twoorless would suffice. The biggestproblem the poor in Indiaface This is aparticular tragedybecause fruits nallyproduces. And in ayear of mangoglut, Urea has to come under NBS. Apoliticallyfeasible waytodoitisbyhiking itsMRP to Rs is risk mitigation. Since theydonot have sav- Under the laws that provide the mostbenefit of all food classes — when forced to buy all of Ganar’s mangoes, 10,000—maybeover twoyears —and simultaneouslyreducing the NBS ratesofphospho- ings, theyare reluctanttoundertake eventhe governed India until the theygiveprotection and immunity through howcould the investor have stored it forthe rus,potashandsulphurtomakeother fertiliserscheaperbyRs1,500-2,000per tonne. In the minimallyrisky business that youorIwould. third week of September vitamins and micronutrients. Indians arede- next year,ifmangoes were suddenlylistedun- As aconsequence, theyremainstuckina ficient in Vitamin A, zinc, Vitamin Cand iron. der the Essential Commodities Act(ECA). long run, NBS itself should be replacedbyaflat per-acrecash subsidy that could be usedto povertytrap, growing cheap rice instead of farmerscould only sell to the The lasttwo makeanaemia the number one The three agriculturebills changeall this purchase anyfertiliser.That includesvalue-addedand customisedproductscontaining not valuable mangoes. Policymakers the world local mandi or agricultural public health challengethat India faces. We by providing the legal framework forcon- justother nutrients, but delivering even nitrogen moreefficiently than urea. over have come up withavariety of capitalin- market. Therisk-mitigation have asituationwherehorticultureissaddled tract-farming. This is the essence of the re- vestment and risk mitigation instruments— methods that ‘contract with unviability forthe farmer and unafford- form, notthe circumventing of mandis or the suchasmicro-credit loans —for the poor to ability forthe consumer. ECA. Anditwill benefit everyone —farmers, makemoneywhile protecting them against farming’ provide were illegal. Iasked Ganar, thatifsomeone offeredto industryand consumers. All exceptthe mon- Freeze Frame EPUnny risk.The tragedyofthe Indian farmer —who Theold laws —enacted to invest in amangoorchardinhis land, payhim keys who have grownfat on yearsofanti- constitute40per cent of the countryand an protectfarmerslikeGanar — what he loses in notplanting rice till the quated agricultural policies. even higher percentageofits poor —isthat ensure that they never make mangotrees gave fruit and agreedtobuy all India’s farm laws have prevented these risk- the mangoes that grew on his tree five years Thewriter is an executivedirector Hindustan mitigation instrumentsfromreaching them. enough money to leave later,how muchdiscount wouldhegivehis Unileverand is theCo-Chair of theCII Food Under the laws thatgovernedIndiauntil poverty. benefactor? Without batting an eyelid Ganar Processing Committee. Viewsare personal

OCTOBER 19,1980, FORTY YEARS AGO

ASSAM RESTIVE AGAIN ment wasfirm on the 1971 cut-off date. by professionals alone wasnot enough. He IT WASNOT good on the part of the All referred to the Cultural Revolutionand said Assam StudentsUnion andthe All Assam SINO-INDIAN TIES that because of “the terrible disorder it Gana Sangram Parishad to resume their ag- ASENIOR CHINESEleader says Prime caused”the Chinese economyisinmany itationasthe talkshad notcompletely bro- MinisterIndiraGandhi has “taken aresolute respectsfar more underdevelopedthan kendowncompletely on theforeign na- step to improverelationsand the Chinese India’s. tionals’ issue in Assam, Union Home leadership welcomes this”.Tan ZhenLin, MinisterGiani Zail Singh said. Speaking to vice-chairman of the Standing Committee IRAN WARMS UP TO US newsman at Madras, the Home Minister of the Chinese National People’s Congress IRANIANPRIME MINISTER Mohammad Ali said the government wasready to continue recalledthe friendlyrelations between Rajai said that adecision on the 52 American the talkswith the agitators forwhichthe India and Chinaduring the days of hostageswas notfar offand that Iran be- datewould be announcedsoon. Drawing Jawaharlal Nehru and ruedthat the rela- lievedthat the US had already apologisedfor attention to the cut-offpoint, ZailSingh re- tions had become sour forsometime. In an supporting the deposed Shah. When asked if futed the contention that the government interviewwith the UNI, Tancalledfor more the decision would be takenbeforethe had gone backfurther from itsoriginal frequent contactsbetween Indians and American elections, he said “the moment the stand. He, however, said that the govern- Chinese in various fields. Exchangeofvisits Majlis takesadecision”.

Ahmedabad WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM

THEINDIANEXPRESS,MONDAY,OCTOBER19,2020 WHATTHE OTHERSSAY “Wewill be existing alongside this lethal virus formanymonths to come; the need fornational unityinthe face of its immense social, financial and health 9 THE IDEAS PAGE challenges has never been greater.” —THE OBSERVER How to Make You Wear aMask Socialism &

Theconceptofpublic goods can be experimentallyput to use in the current pandemic forasocial cause the pandemic

Countries moresuccessful in curbingCOVID-19 arewelfarestates, ruledbyleft-of-centreparties. Thereisalessonhere

rapid outburstofthe pandemicbut wasable to contain deaths very quickly. Till date, Germanyreported atotal of 2,47,000 cases Soumya Kanti Ghosh with adeath rate of 108per million cases. Germany’s total expenditureonhealth is about 11 per cent of itsGDP and this is about THERE IS Adirect linkagebetween the RBI one per cent morethanthe averagespent governor’s statement on October 9and the by other countries of the European Union NobelPrize in economics that wasawarded on health.Portugal, whichhas had acoali- to Robert Wilson and Paul Milgrom on Shah Alam Khan tion left-winggovernment forthe lastfew October 12.The statement by the governor years, has containedthe pandemic well. Its that yield curvecontrol and financial mar- democratically-plannedlockdownwas ketstability arepublic goods is astark re- APLEA HAS been filedbeforethe Supreme easedoff earlier than manyother European minder of the treatment of the same in Court, seekingto remove thewords“social- countries. It had atotal of around 58,000 game theory, wheredefection among in- ist” and“secular”fromthe Preamble of the cases with 1,827deaths. This wasinstark dividuals/marketplayers is random, often Constitution.But despite apersistent ero- contrasttonext-door neighbour Spain, resulting in leastpayoffs.Interestingly, sionoverthe lastcouple of decades, both whichwas devastated by the virus causing Wilson and Milgrom arealso proponents principles were central to thetype of repub- 4,80,000cases and 29,194deaths. Portugal’s of game theory. It is an ironythat the ap- lic our political forefathers had imagined. total expenditureonhealth is9.5 per cent of plication of game theoryinmacroeconom- With the embrace of neoliberal policies in itsGDP.Yet another European nation which ics in India is minimaland, thus, it is always the Nineties, socialism waspushed aside. has done well in tackling the pandemic is amatter of great elation wheneverwecan With the ongoing pandemic,however, so- Iceland, with atotal of 2,121cases and 10 find alink. cialism has become relevant notonlyfor deaths. Interestingly,Icelanders voted fora First, alittle titbit from this year’s Nobel India but also the world. As the worldgrap- majority left-wing government in the gen- prize awardineconomics. This is, perhaps, ples to find avaccine forCOVID-19, acloser eral elections in 2017. the fourthinstance of astudent and teacher inspection of the backwash of the pandemic Even amongthe Latin American coun- getting the awardinthe same year.The first reveals that socialistideals have turnedout tries, those who spend moreonhealth have instance wasin2004, whenFinn Kydland to be alife-saver. This needsfurther corrob- performedbetterthan those who arepru- and EdwardPrescott were chosen forthe oration and evaluation. dent in spending on people-centric pro- honour.RobertWilson,besides being the In the neoliberal world, hardlyany grammes. Argentina is aclassic example. winner of the economics Nobelthis year,has countrycan be bracketedasapurelyso- With 40,000 COVID-19cases and 8,00 three Nobel-winning PhD students—Alvin cialistnation. Countries which provide so- deaths, it has faredfar better than mostof E. Roth, Bengt Holmstrom and Paul Milgrom. cialisedmedicine arethe ones whichhave itsneighbours. The countryisruledbythe In economic parlance, public goods are evolvedthe model of whatiscalledawel- Peronists,who subscribetomoreleftist definedasnon-excludable and non-rival- CRSasikumar fare state—the closestcousin of yester- economic policies.Argentina’spopulation rous in nature, suchaslaw enforcement. year’s socialiststate. is comparable in manyrespectstoits Thereisplenty of literatureonthe use of whichoccurs when neither of the agentscan 2017-18, the spread between the overnight The COVID-19pandemic has exposed neighbouring Brazil, whichhas aright- public good in financialmarkets—if agents increase theirpayoffbyunilaterallychang- repo rate and the 10-year G-Sec yieldhad the vulnerability of governments, health- wing government and hasbeen devastated cooperatewell, all players have the opportu- ingtheir actions. Thus thereare four options increasedto169 basispoints in February. Till caremodelsand politicalideologies. Itisthus by the virus, with3.96 million cases and nity to benefit;ifagentsworkinisolation, —bothPlayer1and Player2cooperate, both that time, suchalargespread wasseenonly important to seewhichcountries have done around 1.23 lakh deaths. Venezuela, which all arelikelytosuffer. Hence, all should have Player1and Player2defect, Player1coop- duringafinancial crisis. better in this pandemicbothinterms of has been under socialistregimes forthe last acommon interestinreforms thatwill im- erates while Player2defects, and, lastly, Can we avoidsuchaproblem of defec- COVID-relatedmorbidity and mortality and twodecades, on the other hand,showed provethe system forpublic benefit. Player1defectswhile Player2cooperates. tion? The economist Elinor Ostrom had an the political ideology whichgoverns them. promising outcomes during the current Garrett Hardin’s famous essay, “The The payoff scenarios arehypothesised answer (the onlywoman apartfromEsther It is no rocket science to imagine that pandemic. It reported47,756cases with Tragedyofthe Commons,” publishedin as benefitsaccruing to Player1and Player2 Duflo to have wonaNobel in economics). those nations withgood health infrastruc- only400 deaths. Science magazine in 1968,was the earliest separately, when theyare deciding on either The onlyway groups can avoid such abreak- turewould do better during apandemic. An argument againstthis hypothesis example of this argument. The farmer who of the policy options: Cooperateordefect. down is by adhering to conditionsinthe Having saidthis, the responseand out- would be that it is difficult to comparethe addedanextracow gainedanadvantage Specifically, both of them cooperating can- form of eight coredesign principles. come parameters of the pandemic have Indian situation witheither New Zealand, over other farmers in his village, but it also notbeaNashequilibrium, as both the play- In asimilar vein, the conceptofpublic notshown suchsimple trends. Besides Germany, IcelandorevenArgentinabecause ledtoanovergrazedpasture. ers unilaterallywill always have an incen- goods can be experimentallyput to good use healthcaremanagement,italso involves our population surpasses the combined In the Indian context, letmeprovide an tive to defect because theywill getahigher in the current pandemic forasocial cause. political response and will. populationof thesecountries. Theproblem even earlier example to illustratethe idea of payoff in suchaneventuality.Since the sit- Suppose the government were to frame a The conceptualisation and application withthe supporters of the marketeconomy public goods. One day, Emperor Akbar told uation is the same foreveryone, both the policy of incentivising well-offhouseholds of agood publichealth system,whichisan is that theylay all problems at the doorstep Birbal that he wasplanning to take abath in players will thus ultimatelydefect and re- (say, through acertificationfromthe PM) to important component of anyform of so- of population growth. Kerala, the best per- milk andthat all his ministers should coop- ceive apayoffof0.This is the Nash equilib- co-operateand supportatleastone poor cialism, appears to have had abetterout- formingIndian stateinthe currentpan- erateand getmilk to fill the bathtub. riumfor this game. But this is sub-optimal as In economic parlance,public household. Such incentivesare extremely comeduring the current pandemic. demic, is also the mostdenselypopulated. However, eachministerdecidedthat since both players getzeropayoffs because of un- important as otherwise individual house- Capitalistsystems with privatisedhealth- Concerns of population growth have always milk wascostly, he would getthe water, coordinated behaviour.The bottomline is an goods are defined as non- holds can alwaysdefect unilaterally because carehavefared theworst,despiteagood been partofapopulistagenda in whichthe while the others getmilk.The end result outcome that the regulator will neverwant. excludable and non-rivalrous it givesthem ahigher payoff and thus both health infrastructureintermsofthe avail- population of the poor is the main concern. wasthatall theministers broughtwater. Letusnow extend this analogy to the in nature,suchaslaw could end up defecting. This is aclear exam- ability of state-of-arthealthcaretechnol- We fail to understand that the path to pop- When this experiment wasdone subse- Indian debt markets.The Bank of Japan was, ple of Jan Bhagidhari. ogy.The US is aclassic example of the latter. ulationstabilisation passesthrough the quentlywith proviso of apunishment, perhaps, the firstcentral bank to proclaim enforcement. There is plenty Similarly,wearing masksisaperfect ex- In termsofgood response to the ongo- overall socio-economicdevelopmentof the everyone cooperatedand got milk.Inasim- that the yield curveisapublic good and it is of literature on the use of ample of apublic good, as thereisalwaysa ing pandemic, one countrywhichstands people,andthistheCOVID-19 pandemic has ilar vein, the RBI governor communicated heartening to seethe RBIechothe same. public good in financial proviso that the personnot wearing amask out in the Australasia region is NewZealand. handsomelyrevealed. through the policy that market players In the Indian markets,itiscommon to markets —ifagents could benefit and hence, again, both defect- With around 1,757casesand alow death To conclude,aquickglanceshows that should always be competitive and notcom- find debt marketplayers behaving differ- ing and notwearingmaskscould be an rate of 4.56per millioncases, NewZealand socialismisnot an odd contraptionready to bative so as to getthe best results. Central ently. Forexample, if one setofplayers act cooperate well, all players eventuality.Inthis case, we,however, need has one of the best COVID-19figures in the fallapart.Even in itsmostdeactivated, meta- bankscan onlyact to oversee the market. pro-cyclically, selling government securities have the opportunityto aharsh punishmentfor those notwearing world. The countryisatpresent governed morphosed,desultoryform, it has been a Againstthis background, it is important with the RBI’s monetary policystance, the benefit; if agents work in masks. This is aclear example of Jan Chetna. by the Labour party,which hasleft-of-cen- handy weapon in successfully fighting the to understand howthe breakdown of trust otherset of players act counter-cyclically, isolation, all are likely to Clearly,adhering to JanBhagidhariand treleanings. The totalexpenditure on health COVID-19pandemic. India’s questfor aso- across agentsinthe use of public goods of- buying government securities —sometimes Jan Chetna, as the Prime Ministerhas been as apercentage of theGDP forNew Zealand cialistsystemmay have been waylaid but tenresults in minimal payoffs. Both agents both the players arecombative.While there suffer.The Bank of Japan espousing, requires an intelligent applica- is around 11 per cent. ForIndia, despitehav- socialist principles provide asemblance of have twooptionsbetween them —either is nothing wrong in taking twoway posi- was, perhaps, the first central tion of game theoryinpolicy making. ing “socialism” in itsPreamble, the figureis hope concerningissues pertaining to peo- cooperate or defect. Thus, we effectively tions in the market,the problemarises when bank to proclaim that the adismal one per cent. ples’ health even in acountrylikeours. have four policy options, and eachofthe op- suchbuying/selling faroutstrips selling/buy- yield curve is apublic good The writer,group chief economic advisor, MostEuropean nations that have per- tions will have aparticular benefit/payoff. ing that the RBI would prefer.Thisalsore- StateBankofIndia, is thankful to Sudipta formed well in the current pandemic are The writer is professor, Our endeavour is to find out whichpolicy sultsinayield structurenot in sync with and it is heartening to see the Sarangi and IndranilBhattacharyafor useful thorough welfarestateswith socialisttilts department of orthopaedics, optioncan resultinaNash equilibrium, macrofundamentals. Forexample, during RBI echo the same comments. Viewsare personal or leftcoalitions in power. Germanyhad a All India InstituteofMedical Sciences

Numbers don’t lie LETTERSTOTHE EDITOR CHILDREN SUFFER IDEAS Oppositionnoisecannothidefact: UPgovernmentiscommittedto women’ssafety THIS REFERS TO the editorial,'Children in distress' (IE, October 16). The prolonged ONLINE closure of schools has addedtothe plight Sidharth Nath Singh of studentsfromeconomicallyweaker ONLYINTHE EXPRESS sections.Manyofthem might never THE SAFETYOFwomenhas been the toppri- abduction of women as compared to 2016. of theHathrasincident. later recommendedaCBI probetoensurejus- head backtoschool again. The stategov- ● ABAND-AIDFOR ority of the Uttar Pradesh government ever As compared to 2019,therehas been a In ademocratic setup, we oftencome tice. Now, since the case has been referredfor ernmentshavebeen dragging their feet ABULLETHOLE: since Yogi Adityanath assumed the office as decreaseof27.32 per cent in the incidents across debates about whatshould we expect ahigher probeand is pending in court, the yetagain as the futureofthese hapless VEERAMAHULI chief ministerin2017. The UP government, of rape. The accusedbooked under the forIndia —astable government or astrong truth will come out soon. But it is also imper- children hangs in the balance. under his supervision, has notonlytaken ap- Protection of ChildrenfromSexual Offences Opposition. The answer by anypolitical ative to exposethe evil designsofsome indi- Varun Das, Zirakpur ● ANTI-FARMER,PRO- propriatesteps to protect women from all (POCSO) Acthavebeen givenharsh punish- leader is that we needboth. viduals who have avestedinterestindisturb- CORPORATE: kinds of crimes but has also ensuredstrict ment. As manyasfiveaccused have been Yes, we do needastrong Opposition but ing lawand order in the state. CENTRE’SBURDEN VARUNVERMA punishment to theperpetrators so that po- giventhe death penalty and 193accused certainlynot likethe current lot. Do we need Afterhaving spent manyyears in public tential criminals mend their ways.This ap- have been givenlifeimprisonment, while an Opposition whichismoreinclinedto- life, Ifind no parallel to the actsofirresponsi- THIS REFERS TO the report, ‘Centregives proachboreresultsand ensured that UP led 721havebeen awardedotherpunishments wardsrumour-mongering, has apessimistic bility that the Opposition resortedtointhe in, says will borrowtomakeupfor states’ www.indianexpress.com the wayincontrolling rape and other heinous underthe POCSO Act. approachand adestructive mindsetand divi- Hathras incident.Besides their attempt to GSTshortfall’(IE, October 16). The Centre crimes againstwomen. CM Adityanath’s “zerotolerance” to- sive thought process? No. spur communal flare-up, and caste-basedri- triedtopass the bucktothe states, in- According to the National Crime Records wardscrime is showing results. This can be What we experiencedinthe wake of the ots, the irresponsible approachshown by the fringing on itscommitment to fulfilling Bureau’s reportin2019, the rate of rape gauged from thefact that according to the Hathrasincidentwasmoreshock thanadisap- Opposition is deplorable. The deliberateat- the GSTcompensation. Economic logic FIGHT THE MOB cases in UP was2.8 per one lakh whereas in crime rate per one lakh population, the na- pointment.The manner in whichthe entire tempttocreateatotallywrong perception suggests that the Centre is best posi- 2016 and 2017 theratewas around 4.6 to tional averageis58.8, while UP’s averageis fake narrative wasbuiltto misleadthemasses about anyideology,belief or thought process tionedtoraise additional resources to THIS REFERS TO the article "I'm the 4.0. In 2019,UPranked26th among the to- belowthat at 55.7,with Assam being the is disappointing and unacceptable. This was, is dishonesty if notblasphemy vis-à-vis the bridgethe GSTcompensation gap. unborn baby…" (IE, October 15). I talof36statesand union territories in rape highestat166.StateslikeRajasthan, Madhya in fact, an exploitation of the emotions of mil- wisdom of thepeople of this country. SSPaul, Nadia sharethe writer's sentimentsonthe cases.This dataisavindication of the fact Pradesh,WestBengal, Maharashtraand lions of Indians. The political compulsion and As an age-old dictum says,“Falsehood is gentle, kind and touching advertise- that UP is ahead of other states in terms of Chhattisgarhalso stand above the national desperation of the Opposition can be under- invariably the child of fear in one form or PER CAPITA MESS ment by Tanishq which, unfortu- controlling rape cases. average. Further,according to “Crime in stood but an attempt to pollute thepsycheof another.” This signifies the stateofmind of nately, hadtobewithdrawn. There In the figures in “Crime in India 2018 and India 2019”report,the conviction rate for the masses wasnothingshortofacrime. the Opposition. THIS REFERS TO the editorial, ‘Bestway wasnothing objectionable in the ad- 2019”publishedbythe NCRB,UPranksfar be- crimes againstwomen wasthe highestin Agood governmentisexpected to take Apieceofadvice to the Opposition —be out’ (IE,October 16). So far, the govern- vertisement, whichpromotesunity hindseveralotherstatesinterms of registered UP with 15,579 convictions in 2019,and prompt action in cases of crime against positive and work forthe best interest of the menthasgivencatchy slogansandpunch amongstour diversity —India's cases of crimes. In other words, it is ahead of morethan 55 per cent of the cases registered women. This wasdone in the Hathras case. people, if notthe government in power. Also lines with no tangible outcomes. It is re- biggeststrength. The issue at hand is manystatesintermsof controllingcrime.The forcrimes againstwomen and minors led An FIR waslodgedpromptly and subsequent remember,among the other duties of the grettable that whileweliketobecom- moreominous and reflectsthe in- percentageofregisteredcrimes in UP is 10.92 to the sentencing of the accused, whichisa actionwas also takenand senior district offi- government, one is to insulatethe people paredwithdevelopedeconomies,we are creasingly polarisedsociety that we while the percentageofits population in the hugedeterrent foranti-social elements. cials supervisedthe entire probe. CM from falsepropagandaand thwartthe threat laggingbehind small nations like have become. We have to fight such countryis16.85. Apartfromthis, in 2020 (till Despitethis trackrecord,some political Adityanath has already issueddirectivesto of nefarious rumour-mongering. Bangladeshinper capitaGDP. faceless mobs and notcapitulate. September) UP has beenable to bring about a parties and thosewith an alleged anti-na- act swiftly in casesrelated to women. In this Deepak Singhal, Chennai SubhabrataBasu, Mumbai 42.24per cent reduction in rape cases and tional frame of mind triedtoinstigatecom- case, too, he immediatelyset up aSpecial The writer is Cabinetminister in the about a39per cent reduction in the cases of munal and caste-basedriots on the pretext Investigation Team to probethe incidentand Uttar Pradeshgovernment

Ahmedabad WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM

THEINDIANEXPRESS,MONDAY,OCTOBER19,2020 10 EXPRESS NETWORK Education tech Pawar meets farmers in flood-hit PunjabCabinet firms corner almost areas, says will seek PM help all $100 mn bracket authorisesCM theirlives.Iamconfidenttheywill MANOJMORE overcome this situation,” he said. PUNE,OCTOBER18 Aggrievedfarmers urgedhim foranydecision funds post Covid to ensuretheyget thecompensa- NCPPRESIDENTSharadPawaron tionasearly aspossible.“Weneed mand-supplygap in the educa- Sundaytouredtheflood-hitareas at leastRs25,000 compensation PRANAVMUKUL& tion sector with an estimated ad- of OsmanabadandLaturdistricts. immediatelytocarry out rabi onfarmlaws SANDEEPSINGH ditional requirement of 200,000 Arriving around 10 am at sowing. If the government is go- NEWDELHI,OCTOBER18 schools, 35,000colleges, 700uni- TuljapurinOsmanabaddistrictin ing to conduct panchanamas of versities and 40 million seatsin Marathwadaareaonahelicopter, the damaged farms, it will take at FROM SCHOOL studentsto vocational training centres. Pawarwastednotime in visiting leastsix months... it will be diffi- KANCHANVASDEV working professionals, the pan- However, with increasing flood-ravaged farms in ahandful cultforustosurvive if compensa- CHANDIGARH,OCTOBER18 demic has created alarge ad- Internetpenetration, and apush of villages and interacting with tion is notgiven immediately,”a dressable market forstart-ups in towardsonline education in the farmers. Afterreviewing the situ- farmer said —several others AHEAD OF atwo-dayspecial education tech,ored-tech, which backdrop of Covid, ed-techcom- ation in the district, Pawarsaid echoedthe view. Assemblysession, beginning to- sawasignificant interestfrom panies areexpected to grow fur- heavy rain has wreaked havocin Reactingto Pawar’sannounce- day, to discuss and counter the private equity and venturecapi- ther.According to Telecom thefieldsandthefarmersneeded ment that he would lead adele- three central farm laws,the talistinvestors over the lastsix RegulatoryAuthority of India long-term help. NCPchief Sharad Pawarwith farmers in Osmanabad. Express gation of MPs to the PM, stateBJP Punjab CabinetSundayautho- months. (TRAI) data, India had 734.19 mil- “Farmers have been hit badly chief ChandrakantPatilsaid,“First, risedChief MinisterCapt Congress notdouble-faced: Among the eight funding lion Internetusers as of March by the heavy rain. The damage letthem conduct asurvey of the Amarinder Singh to take anyleg- Punjab CM ahead of special rounds of $100million and above 2020. Arecent reportbyCisco cannotbecompensated in aday. farmers notonlyinOsmanabad Ministerhasalreadyexpressedthe damagedcaused,prepareamem- islative or legal decision he may Assemblysession in Indian start-ups during April- has estimated that India will Thereisneedfor long-term help. district, but in severalparts of viewthatfloodshavecausedheavy orandum and then approachthe deem fitwithout “caring forthe September,fiveinvolveded-tech have morethan 900million However, the stategovernment Maharashtrathe situation is simi- damageinMaharashtra,” he said. Centre. Theyhavenothing ready consequences”. companies likeByju’s, Vedantu, users by 2023. has itslimitations while extend- lar.Iwillpursuetheissuetogethelp StateministerSanjayBansode,MP with them and aretrying to place TheCabinetmeetingwasheld ernmentwasworkingonthisline Unacademyand Eruditus. “Two keyfactors leading to ing financial assistance. We will forfarmers as early as possible. In OmrajeNimbalkarandotherlead- the demand.” afterameeting of the Congress while trying to ensurethat the According to datasourcedfrom the investment in the ed-tech have to approachtheCentralgov- viewofthe enormity of the dam- ers were present. Pravin Darekar,Opposition LegislatureParty (CLP) in which farmersfeelthattheCongressdis- VentureIntelligence, one-third sector arethe availability of tech- ernment forassistance,” Pawar age, the stategovernment alone Interacting with farmers in leader in Legislative Council, said, the MLAs unanimouslystressed pensation is on their side. Several of the $1.5 billion raisedinthese nology to educateand the big de- told reporters. willnotbeabletoshoulderthebur- Loharaand Omerga talukas, “When ShivSena waswith BJP in the needtorejectthe farm laws MLAsalsosuggestedthattheleg- eight investment rounds wasby mand supplymismatchinIndia. Consoling farmers who lost den. We will needhelp from the Pawarsaid,“In1993,thousandsof government, UddhavThackeray even if Centre“dismisses” the islation should notallowany pri- Byju’s. The existing ratio of seatstostu- their entirestanding crop in two Centre. Iwill lead adelegation of liveswerelostinthese areas fol- usedtomakesimilar demands... stategovernment.Sources said vate trader to procurefarmers’ Consider this: dentswho areeager to study is talukas of Tuljapur and Lohara, MPsto meetthePrimeMinisterto lowing an earthquake. People heshouldactimmediatelyrather the during the twomeetings, produce at ratesbelowMSP and ■ Byju’s Classes raised$500 notgoing to accommodateall of Pawarsaid, “The floods have hit discuss the issue... The Prime herebattledsevereoddsto rebuild than wait forpanchamanas.” Cabinetministers as well as the if anyone wascaught doing so, million in tworounds in June and them to colleges and the onlyal- MLAs,askedAmarindernottoshy theyshouldbeimprisonedforone September from investors, in- ternateform of mass education away fromanyconfrontationwith year and finedRs5lakh. cluding TigerGlobal, General is online media and that is gain- BJP slams Cong Centre. In the meetings, Congress Atlantic, SilverLake, DSTGlobal. ing traction,” said Narayanan Sonia: Indian democracy passing “Amid total consensus leaders remindedAmarinder of ■ Unacademyraised$153 Ramaswamy, National Leader -- over Tharoor among Punjab Congress MLAs the stand he took during his pre- million in September from Education and Skill on the needtoreject the farm vious tenureonsharing water SoftBank,IIFL VC,Sequoia Development, KPMG in India. through its most difficult phase remarks on laws outright and notimple- with neighbouring Haryana. “It Capital, General Atlantic, Nexus According to those tracking ment them in the state, Chief wasduring his previous tenure VenturePartners and other in- the segment, abulk of the funds Subsequently, PresidentRamNath MinisterAmarinder Singh on that Punjab had annulledwater vestors. raisedbyed-techcompanies EXPRESSNEWSSERVICE ‘Conspiracy Kovind gave his assent to the Bills. pandemic Sundaycalledfor afrontal attack sharing accords, creating history. ■Higher education platform have gone intomarketing or in- NEWDELHI,OCTOBER18 hatchedto The Opposition ledbythe againstthe legislations, even as He (Amarinder) can do the same Eruditus raised$113million in organic expansion. Lastyear, defeat the Congress,alongwithmanyfarm- management he wasauthorisedbyhis coun- (with the three central farm AugustfromNaspers, Chan Byju’s acquired US-basedlearn- IN Ascathing attackonthe gov- gains of the ers’ organisations, have been vo- cil of ministers to take anyleg- laws),” said aCongress leader, ZuckerbergInitiative,Sequoia ing platform Osmo for$120mil- ernment, Congress president green cal againstthe legislation, claim- islative/legal decision he may adding that the government had Capital and other investors. lion as apartofits plan to expand SoniaGandhionSundaysaidthat revolution’ ing that theywill harm the EXPRESSNEWSSERVICE deem fittoprotect the interests beenworkingontheleadgivenby ■ Remote tutoring start-up globally. This wasfollowedby Indian democracy waspassing interests of farmers and benefit NEWDELHI,OCTOBER18 of the farmers,” said agovern- AICCpresidentSoniaGandhito all Vedantu raised$100million in the biggestdeal in the Indian throughits“mostdifficultphase”. corporates. The government has ment statement. party ruledstatesasking them to JulyfromOmidyar Network, sector with Byju’s acquiring on- Shewasaddressingameeting hoods of crores of farm labour- claimedthe newlawswould in- HITTINGOUT at Congress lead- Asource, privy to the develop- explorelegal provision under TigerGlobal, Coatue line coding platform WhiteHatJr of AICC general secretaries and ers, leasehold farmers, small and crease the income of farmers. ers fortheir criticism of the gov- mentsinthe twomeetings, said, Article254(2)of theConstitution Management and others. for$300million. Byju’s rival state-in-chargespresidedoverby marginal farmers, toiling labour- Onthegovernment’shandling ernment's handling of the pan- “Thenarrative wastofindaway to of India. The provision allows a According to India Brand Unacademyhas also pickedup her.This wasthe firstmeeting of ers and small shopkeepers are of the pandemic, Sonia said the demic in comparison to ensurethat twotypes of mandis statelaw to prevailoveraconflict- Equity Foundation, with more smaller start-ups, including Congress general secretaries and under attack. It is our solemn countrywas pushedintothe neighbouring countries, the rul- (private and government) should ing central lawinsome circum- than 250 million school-going PrepLadder,Kreatryx, CodeChef statein-chargesthat the party duty to join hands to defeat this “abyss”by “sheerineptitude”and ing BJP on Sundayalleged that notexistinthe state. The Centre’s stances. students, thereisahugede- and Mastree. presidentchairedafteramajoror- sinisterconspiracy,” she said. “mismanagement”. the Opposition party’s leaders laws provide forsetting up of pri- TakingadigattheSAD,theCM ganisationalreshufflelastmonth. The Farmers’ Produce Trade The Congress president were demeaning the countryon vatemandis.Theministerswanted said the Congress wasnot “dou- Sonia said the BJP-leddis- and Commerce (Promotion and claimedthat the government international platforms. the CM to ensurethat alegislation blefaced”andhadaclearstandon pensation has attackedthe foun- Facilitation)Bill,2020,theFarmers has simultaneously“demol- Targeting Congress leader is brought through whichPunjab theissue.Hesaidcontrarytowhat BJD woman MP dation of India’s agrarian econ- (Empowerment and Protection) ished” the economy. Rahul Gandhi, BJP spokesperson refuses to allowany private man- the BJP and itsleaders had been omybybringing in “three Agreementof PriceAssuranceand She also accusedthe govern- Sambit Patracalledhim “Rahul distobeset up in state.” claiming, Punjab wasnever con- anti-agricultureblacklaws”. Farm Services Bill, 2020 and the ment of failing to honour even its Lahori”and asked him if he Thesourceaddedthatthegov- sulted on farm legislations. alleges harassment “A conspiracy has been Essential Commodities Constitutional responsibilities, wanted to contestelections in hatchedtodefeat the gains of the (Amendment) Bill, 2020 were re- saying the shareofGST compen- Pakistan. greenrevolution.Lives and liveli- centlypassedbyParliament. sation is being deniedtostates. Patraalso criticisedCongress UP govt will act against by OTV reporters MP Shashi Tharoor forhis re- marks on the handling of the pandemic, accusations of target- those who are threat to ernment.” Nath refers to BJP nominee ing of Muslims in the wake of the EXPRESSNEWSSERVICE Panda had earlier allegedthat Tablighi Jamaat gathering and NEWDELHI,OCTOBER18 the police action wasprompted the treatment metedout to peo- women’s security: CM by anewsreportagainstthe gov- as ‘item’, BJP complains to EC ple of the Northeastinavirtual AGAINSTTHE backdrop of BJP ernment. In aseries of tweets he addresstoLahoreThink Fest. vice-president Baijayant Jay had stated,“Serious allegations aseat reserved forSCcandidates. Addressing reporters, Patra MAULSHREESETH Panda alleging an attackonfree- by activists (with RTIaccessed IRAMSIDDIQUE Soon afterNath made the re- said, “WeinBJP will startcalling LUCKNOW,OCTOBER18 dom of expression afterOdisha aviation documents) that Odisha BHOPAL,OCTOBER18 mark, the BJP approachedthe him Rahul Lahori and hence- Yogi police questionedareporterof CM Naveen Patnaik fakedan Election Commission, calling the forthItoo will address Rahul FACINGHEAToverincidentsof Adityanath OTV, achannel ownedbyhis fam- August31helicopteraerial sur- AMID THE campaigning forthe remarkaninsult to women as Gandhi as Rahul Lahori. Adebut crimes againstwomen in the ily, BJD MP Chandrani Murmu has veyoffloodeddistricts…. bypolls to 28 Assemblyseatsin well as the SC community. rallyfor him has already been state, Uttar Pradesh Chief justifiedthe police action. Reporterwho brokenews…ar- Madhya Pradesh, stateCongress Chief MinisterShivraj Singh done in PakistanbyTharoor.Are MinisterYogi Adityanath on tedondaughters of the village The journalistwas questioned rested…” chief Kamal Nath on Sundaytrig- Chouhan calledNath’s comment yougoing to contestelection in Sundaysaid that his government within the village? This question and his mobile phone seizedin OTVjournalistRamesh Rath geredafurorebyreferring to BJP on Imarti Devi an insult of a Pakistan?” will soon launchaspecial drive poses achallengetoour society, connection with acase relatedto had been pickedupbystate po- leader Imarti Devi as an “item”. daughter and sisterofthe He also alleged that the to take “legal action againstall and everyone has to acceptthis the alleged circulation of amor- lice on October 15 but waslet off The ruling BJP has lodged a Gwalior-Chambal region. Indian National Congress would those who areathreat to challenge),” Adityanath said. phedvideo of Murmu when she afterquestioning and seizureof complaint with the Election Kamal Nath at arallyin Speaking at agathering at soon become PakistanNational women’s security or those in- Appreciating the effortsofa wascontesting the general elec- his mobile phones. Commission over Nath’s remark, Gwalior district. PTI Gwalior region, he said, “Imarti Congress. “Theygiveaticket to dulging in corruption in welfare gram pradhan from Barabanki tion. In an official statement, saying that it insulted the Devi has her rootsinGwalior and Jinnah’s supporter. Iwant to ask, schemes forwomen”. district who told the CM that a In avideo message, the tribal Odisha police have deniedthe al- woman leader.The Congress Chambal and belongs to a whyisitnecessary? Whywould During awebinar on women special meeting is held every MP from Keonjhar said, “I am an legations and said their probeis has, meanwhile, said Nath did item hai... kyaitemhai,” said Nath. Scheduledcaste.She has worked youcry about India in Lahore? security and empowerment, the week in her villagewheremen unmarriedtribal lady and the legitimate. “Therewas an ob- notname the BJP leader. “Suresh Raje and Iwill work hardand risen from being a We have no doubt that Rahul Chief Ministersaid society needs aresensitisedabout women’s is- youngestMPinIndia who has scene morphedviral video of the Addressing agathering in together forthe development of labourer to an MLAand then a Gandhi hates India,” said Patra. to acceptthe challengeofsafety sues, Adityanath said that such been mentallyharassedand tor- youngestMPofthe country DabrainsupportofCongress Gwalior-Chambal region, we minister. Who gave youthe right Patra’s remarks came two of women. “Earlier,thereusedto movesshould be encouraged. tured by OTVreporters and oth- Chandrani Murmu, atribal lady candidateSuresh Raje, the for- will work forthe youth of this re- to insult aperson coming from a days afterUnion ministerand BJP beno suchincidentsastherewas He calledfor installing CCTV ers who viraledamorphed, ob- from Keonjhar whichwas circu- mer CM said Raje is asimple gion and chalk out anew policy humble background?” Out of the MP from Begusarai Giriraj Singh abelief in the villagethat ‘gaon ki cameras and playing bhajans scene video of mine, with the latedwidely. Police arrestedthree man who will carry out develop- forthe farmers,” he said. 28 seatsgoing to bypolls, 16 arein accusedtheCongressof fieldinga beti, sabki beti’(adaughter of the and patriotic songs everymorn- malicious intent to defame, ha- persons including OTVreporter ment work “unlikeher…”. Imarti Devi, statecabinet the Gwalior-Chambal region. “sympathiser of Mohammad Ali villageiseveryone’s daughter). ing and evening on public ad- rass and mentallytortureme.” Simanchal Patrainthe case. Mr “Ye unke jaise nahi hai… kya ministerfor Women and Child Congress spokesperson Jinnah” in the Bihar polls — Aajhum log kahan ja rahe hain? dress systems in the villages. Accusing Panda of interfering Patrawas working under Ramesh hai uska naam”(He is notlikeher, Development, wasone of the 22 NarendraSalujaclaimedthatNath Congress’sJalecandidateMaskoor Kyun gaon ki beti ke sathgaon mein The Education Department in the police investigation, Rath in OTVwhen the incident what is her name),” Nath asked MLAs who resignedinMarch, has nottaken Imarti Devi’s name Usmani wasthe AMU students’ hi atyachar ho raha hai... yeh has been told to startapro- Murmu said, “Afterthis tragic in- happened. During police investi- the crowdwhichrespondedby bringing down the Kamal Nath- in anyofthe speeches he made. union president when the cam- prashna ek sabhya samaj ke gramme to link “shiksha”(edu- cident, the police during investi- gation Simanchal Patrahas stated saying BJP candidateImarti Devi’s ledgovernment in Madhya “He said ‘kyaitemhai ye’and did pus wascaught in acontroversy saamne ek challengehai aur is chu- cation) with “sanskar”(good cul- gation arrested ajunior reporter that it wasunder instructions of name. “You knowher better than Pradesh. She subsequently nottakeImarti Devi’s name. It is overaportraitof Jinnahatthestu- nauti ko hum sabko sweekar karna ture) as partofthe Mission of OTValong with others. The his then boss Mr Ramesh Rath Ido, youpeople should have joinedthe BJP and is nowaparty theBJPwhoisaddingImartiDevi’s dents’ union office whereithas hoga (Whereare we going today? Shakti campaign that was OTVjuniorreporternamed that he forwardedthe obscene warnedmebeforehand... ye kya candidatefor the bypoll in Dabra, name and insulting her,” he said. been hanging fordecades. Whyatrocities arebeing commit- launchedonSaturday, he said. Ramesh Rath as the perpetrator video,” Odisha police said in an of- of the crime. But when the police ficial statement. questionedthe perpetrator of the It claimedthat Patragaveev- crime OTVreporterRamesh Rath idence about the IP address of Indian, Chinese officials attend SCO yoga event yesterday(October 15), OTVand the system in whichitwas their owners Jagi Panda and Jay created and the phone from Panda aretrying to save him by whichitwas forwarded. “Both ForeignCountries(CPAFFC)chair- virtual, officials said. contributionto strengtheningcul- claiming that this is an attackon arewithMrRamesh Rath,” the PRESSTRUSTOFINDIA man Lin Songtian, and Deputy Addressing the gathering on tural cooperation among SCO OTVand itsjournalists by the gov- statement said. BEIJING,OCTOBER18 Chairman of SCOCommittee for Sunday, Misrisaid,“Indiaisanew countries. Ihavebeen greatlyim- GoodNeighbourliness,Friendship member of the SCObut our asso- pressedwith the fervour with SENIOR OFFICIALSfromIndia and Cooperation Cui Li attended ciation with the countries of the whichChinese people across the Human Dignity Day on Pandurang and China as well as diplomats the event. SCOFamilydates backcenturies countrypractice yoga,” he said. from various countries on Diplomatsfromall the SCO and even millennia in some In his address, Norovsaid de- Shastri Athavale birth anniversary Sundaytook partinayoga event countries,includingPakistan,took cases.”HesaidIndiahasassumed spitethe pandemic affecting the organisedbythe Shanghai partinthe cultural eventswhich the Chairmanship of the SCO activities of the SCO, under the foundedand the Swadhyay Cooperation Organisation (SCO), includedademonstration of Council of Heads of Government presidencyof Russia,alot of work EXPRESSNEWSSERVICE Parivarorganisation will observe whichisalso settohold key Chinese martial artTai Chi and this year and is hosting the meet- has been done to implement the NEWDELHI,OCTOBER18 his birth centenary. meetings of the topleaders of cultural eventsofmember coun- ing of SCOpremiers next month. plans and priorities that were The social reformer was the eight-member group. tries besides yoga. “Weare playingaconstructive identifiedfor this year.“In the ab- FOLLOWERS OF Swadhyay awardedthe Ramon Magsaysay The SCOcomprises The SCOeventsare assuming roleinenrichingtheagendaof the sence of regular face-to-face Movement will observeOctober Awardfor Community Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, significanceasthevirtualsummit SCOand manyinitiativespro- meetings, the Organisation’s ac- 19 as Human Dignity Dayin Leadership in 1996, the China,Tajikistan,Uzbekistan,India of the SCOHeads of the Statebe- posedbyIndiainthefieldsof eco- tivitiesquicklyadaptedtothenew memoryofspiritual leader and TempletonPrize forProgress in and Pakistan. ing hostedbyRussia is scheduled SCOSecretary-General Vladimir Norov, in Beijing. PTI nomics and trade, start-ups, realities with the use of newfor- social reformer Pandurang Religion in 1997 and India’s sec- Indian Ambassador to China to be held on November 10 in health care, S&T and culturehave matsand platforms of work,im- Shastri Athavale. ond highestcivilian honour,the Vikram Misri along with SCO whichPrime MinisterNarendra been supportedbySCO mem- portant meetings at the levelof This year,followers of the Padma Vibhushan, in 1999. Secretary-General Vladimir Modi and Chinese President Xi Heads of the Government being Chinese Premier Li Keqiang is bers,” Misri said. “Today’s event is Ministers and heads of keyagen- Swadhyay Movement, which The Human Dignity Daywas Norov, Chinese People's Jinping is settotakepart. hostedbyIndia whichisplanned scheduledtotakepart. It is yetto yetanother indication of yoga’s cies and departmentswereheld Athavale, also known as Dadaji, firstcelebrated in 1990. Association forFriendship with It will be followedbythe SCO to be held on November 30. be decidedifthe meeting will be global appeal. It is apartofIndia's in online format,” he said. Ahmedabad THEINDIANEXPRESS,MONDAY,OCTOBER19,2020 2020 11 DECISION BIHAR

BUSINESSASUSUAL FORMORELOGONTO INDIANEXPRESS.COM/ELECTIONS BY UNNY ‘Economic distress there but pan-India... not apoll ● KEY PLAYERS WHATISM-YFORMULA?

issue; anger has subsided’ ● WHO’S WHERE TODAY SUBHASHINI SHARAD YADAVWILL TEJPRATAPYADAV: BE IN BIHARIGANJ; SUSHIL MODI Aclose Nitish Kumar aide, MinisterSANJAY KUMAR JHA tells DIPANKAR GHOSE THENOTSOBIG WILL BE IN FORBESGANJ, KATIHAR, BROTHER the CM avertedabigger economic crisis, and says skill mapping will createjobs PURNEA

Chief MinisterNitish Kumar has been at So, has the anger subsided? the helm for15years. The Opposition says Yes, the anger has subsided. We neverhad thereisanti-incumbency.Doyou see it? conducted skill mapping before.So, we now BIHAR'SVOTERTURNOUT Idonot thinkso.NitishKumarhaschanged have dataofallthepeoplewhostayedinquar- the narrative of Bihar politics... He raisedex- antine centres. In places likeBettiah VOTERTURNOUT(SEATS) IHerebyDeclare pectations. Fifteen years is along time. Some (Champaran),Supaul,Purnea,Darbhanga,peo- TotalNumber people maythink that moreworkcould have ple aremaking maskswith Mithila paintings 243ofAssembly 82 3317 1 10 1 320 beendonebutwhatwe areseeingonthefield and selling them on Amazon and Flipkart.... Constituencies 22 isdifferent.If theythinkmoreshouldbedone, 38 36 theyalso believe that onlyKumar can do it. Alot of migrants, who were facing VOTERTURNOUT 40 67 60 57 economic difficulties, have now 75 57.33% (in2019) 81 80 The JD(U) leaders, including the CM, often returnedfromwheretheycame. If their 105 56.88%(in2015) compareBihar with what it wasduring earnings fell, will theystill votefor the 2014 LokSabha 2015Assembly 2019LokSabha (RJD chief) Lalu Prasad’s regime (1990- government? 56.26% (in2014) 2005). Isn’t this an admission that the last Economic distress is apan-India problem. ■ Less than 45% ■ 45-50% ■ 50-55% ■ 55-60% five years haven’t been good enough? Iwillnot saythatitdoesnot have an impact. ■ 60-65% ■ 65-70% ■ More than 70% We saythis because this wasnot afield Butlargely,the handling of Covid-19inBihar Source: Election Commission of India whereyou could come and startbatting. This wasdone well. About 22 lakh migrantswere SHREYASISINGH wasahole. What had they(then RJD govern- givenRs1,000each.Peopletrustthatwhenthe BJP candidate, Jamui ment) leftinthe CM talksabout skilling, it will happen. state? Rampant TOTALASSETS corruption, afailed With the BJP seen as propping up the LJP KEY PLAYERS `7.23 CRORE bureaucracy.The in some quarters to push the JD(U) down, Central Public THEEXPRESS areparty cadres finding it difficult to work **Contesting election forthe firsttime WorksDepartment, together on the ground? Old hand, trusted by MOVABLE ASSETS whichmakesbuild- INTERVIEW Barring afew years, the BJP-JD(U) alliance ings in Delhi, used has been theresince 1996. The cadre, leaders WITH `1.57 CRORE to come hereand and workers knoweachother very well. SANJAY KUMAR both Rahul, Ahmed Patel, Assets 2015 2020 buildroads.No con- Whether it is the Prime Minister, or Amit Shah JHA tractorwouldcome, “That (Tej Pratap) has had to changeseat (Union Home Minister), or the BJP party pres- Cashinhand -1.9lakh BIHAR WATER no businessman RESOURCES MINISTER shows their (RJD) corevoteisshifting.” FB ident (J PNadda), theyhaveall said that Nitish Bankbalance -83.48lakh wasleft. Everyday Kumar will lead the election campaign. Seat is Cong choice for Bihar Stocks&bonds -34.16lakh therewas kidnap- distribution is already completedand the VIP OtherInvestment-34.3lakh ping. Youhavetosee from whereKumar pandemic hit, people thought Bihar would be (Vikassheel Insaan Party) and HAM Shaktisinh Gohil Jewellery -- started.Biharisusedtobealaughingstock...In worstaffected.Theythought the migrants (Hindustani Awam Morcha) areour allies. The acaste-basedsocietyliketheoneinBihar,ifhe would return and spread the virus in their vil- people of Biharwillgiveadecisive mandate… Other -4lakh did nothavecommitment, we would notbe lages...Thatnarrative isnotspokenof anymore. The Opposition is notserious. has his task cut TOTAL -1.57cr able to build the Bihari pride. The recovery rate in Bihar is 94%. Testing is out as party amongthehighest.Thepeoplebrokethechain What about (RJD leader) Tejashwi Yadav? IMMOVABLEASSETS But hasn’t Kumar created sub-castesand by staying in quarantine centres. He wasnot thereduring the floods or in-charge for `5.65 CRORE aloyal votebase forhimself? when therewas an illness (the acuteen- Assets 2015 2020 HeisthefirstCMinthecountrytogive50% But what about the economic distress? cephalitis syndrome outbreak in 2019)in state, but there are reservation to women in panchayats.Three Abhijit Banerjee (Nobel laureatefor eco- Muzaffarpur.When the statefaces major is- Agriland -1.15cr elections have happened. Talk to the women nomics) said if direct cash wastransferredto sues, he is neverthere. That one of the broth- manyreasons he Non-agriland -3cr mukhiyas and the zila parishads. Thereisnow people,andif theyspentthatmoney, theecon- ers (Tej Pratap Yadav, Lalu Prasad’s elder son) maybethe man Commercial -50lakh awomen forceinpolitics. Nobody thought omywill startmoving. Kumar transferred has had to changeconstituency shows that Residential -1cr what awoman in Bihar thinksabout politics. Rs 2,000 croreintopeople’s bank accountsin even their corevoteisshifting. forthe job different forms. Old agepension of three Total -5.65cr In the early days of the pandemic, Kumar months waspaid in advance, Rs 1,000 was Is the LJP’s action bothering the JD(U)? *All of the above areinherited assets had said that migrantsshould notreturn giventoeachmigrantandmoneywasallotted Whichway arethe Paswan votes going? Illustration: Suvajit Dey LIABILITIES NIL to Bihar.Was thereanger againstthe forscholarships forgirls. Iamnot saying that Idon’t want to talk about caste.But Ithink government’s stand? theproblemwassolved.Buthewasaware that people in Bihar voteone way. Even in 2010 bearer,hehad been spotted by then prime CRIMINALCASES He neversaid, ‘Don’t come back.’Heonly onlywhen he givesthe money, the economy (Assemblypolls),we (theJD-UandBJP)fought MANOJ CG ministerRajiv Gandhi at anational No pending criminal cases said that theCentrehas made guidelines that will startmoving... Yes, thereiseconomic dis- theelectiontogetherandwon206seatsoutof NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 18 function. no movement should take place... When the tress but the entirecountryisfacing it. 243. That result is amatter of record. He wonthe Bhavnagar South Assembly SHAKTISINH Gohil mayseem an odd seat in Gujarat at the ageof30in1990, and choice as the Congress in-charge of Bihar, became the ministerofstate forhealth at LookingFor: Prashant Kishor particularly giventhe uphill battle the the ageof32under Chief Minister HASHTAG POLITICS party faces in astate whereithas been now Chimanbhai Patel. He wasthen the out of powersince 1990. However, there youngestministerinGujarat’s history. ●Now, Cong’s new poll song He promised ‘Baat Bihar Ki’, is now aretwo things that makethe 60-year-old Twoyears later though, Gohil took uniquelyplacedfor the job: the fact that he everyone by surprise by resigning over the @INCBiharreleased Bole Bihar,Badle making more noise for his silence is aveteran of manypolitical battles against demand foramedical collegefor Sarkar, attacking 15 yearsofJD(U)-BJP, NarendraModi-ledBJP in native Gujarat; Bhavnagar.The medical collegewas allo- with clips of migrant workerswalking THIS WASsupposedtobethe election where JD(U) sees Kishor’s hand in LJP chief Chirag and that he is among the fewCongress cated eventuallyand Gohil wonthe seat back home. TheCongress’sally, Prashant Kishor made his wayfromthe back Paswan’s decision to leave the NDA. leaders considered close to both Ahmed again in 1995. @RJDforIndia,also released asong, room to the frontlines. Appointed straight at Asenior JD(U) leader said Kishor had im- Pateland Rahul Gandhi. Gohil did notcontestthe 1998 election the topasJD(U) vice-president by Nitish pressedupon Chirag that this wasthe last In his over three-decade political career, and lostthe one in 2002 that marked Bhaiya Te jashwi humaar... sukh-dukh Kumar afterthe 2015 polls, election wherethe older gen- it is the firsttime Gohil will be overseeing Modi’s firstelectoral win. In the next elec- mein junta ke saath the election strategisthad eration of socialists would astate election as an AICC pointsman. His tion in 2007,hereturnedtothe Assembly seemedset foranother leap. hold sway in the state, and hand is seen in the hardbargaining by the from Bhavnagar and wasmade the Leader CONGRESS’SSONGGOT5.1K VIEWS, 434 LIKES, 314 RETWEETS IN FOUR HOURS One-and-a-half years hence he should gamble big. Congress to secure70seatsinthe of the Opposition, emerging as one of the later,Kishor is out of favour LJP spokesperson Ashraf Mahagathbandhan, ahugejumpfromthe mostvocal critics of Modi. However, Gohil —and out of sight. After Ansari dismissedthis as afig- 41 the party had contestedinBihar in 2015. lostthe 2012 Assemblyelections, and while LJP president @iChirag Paswan falling out with Nitish, he ment of imagination. Aveteran in Gujarat politics, Gohil first he eventuallyreturnedtothe Assemblyin tweeted,”Idon’t want PM to face any had startedanapolitical fo- Thereare those who say entered the national stagein2014, when aby-election from the Abdasa con- crisis because of me. He should uphold rum called“Baat Bihar Ki”, Kishor’s success lies in picking he wasmade aCongress spokesperson. He stituency,inthe 2017 polls toohecouldn’t coalition dharma. Even if he has to speak promising to develop lead- winning side, and that he has waselevatedasin-charge of Bihar in 2018, win. Since then, Gohil has been focusing on ership from the grass-roots. failedinredeemingpartiesthat givenadditional charge of Delhi earlier this national politics. against me to satisfy Nitish, he should.” But now, the man who were down in the dumps, like year,and made aRajya Sabha MP in June The Congress veteranhad wanted the Meanwhile,his brother-in-law and RJD built his reputation on the Congress and Samajwadi this year. Grand Alliance in Bihar to be broad-based, leader Anil Sadhu took on Chirag forhis adapting disparateparties Partyinthe 2017 UP polls. Yet Oftendescribed as AhmedPatel’s involving parties likeUpendraKushwaha’s “rip my chest,you’ll find Modi” remark. forthe digital age, has not others sayitisfar tooearly to “right-hand man”, Gohil wasthe Congress RashtriyaLok SamataParty (RLSP), Mukesh “I am ashamed of it... Yo ucan rip my even tweetedonthe Bihar polls so far. His ruleKishor out,and arewatching for2025. veteran’s poll agent in the closelyfought Sahani’s Vikassheel Insaan Party(VIP) and chest,you will find Ambedkar,Ram lasttweet wasinJuly, over the Covid scare. Asource close to Kishor deniedhewas out 2017 RajyaSabha election that Patelhad the Left, but could notconvince RJD chief However, Patna is abuzz with reports that of the picture. “Because of Covid we haven’t won, outmanoeuvring the BJP. Tejashwi Yadavabout the utility of the VilasPaswanthere,” he tweeted. Kishor is on the move again, meeting lead- startedthe on-ground partbut digitally Baat Gohil startedhis political career in the RLSP and VIP. (RIGHT) CHIRAG PASWAN GETS HEAD, BEARD SHAVED AS PART OF ARITUAL AFTER HIS FATHER’S DEATH. PTI ers of smaller parties liketheRLSP,after try- Bihar Ki is the biggestpolitical page, with more early 1980s while still in college. In the However, he managed to bring the CPI, ing his luckwith the Mahagathbandhan. The than 20 lakh followers.” mid-1980s, as Youth Congress office- CPM and CPI (M-L) intothe fold. 11 seats for Mukesh ‘Mallah’ Sahani, why BJP is treating him as VIP

community has multiple subcastesand the votes from Khagaria. Despitethe RJD’s vote mayassociatethemselveswith adynamic DEEPTIMANTIWARY VIP has oftenclaimedacommand over al- bank behind him, Sahani had got only27% of Mallah leader,” said asource close to the BJP’s NEWDELHI,OCTOBER18 most10% of the votes. Estimates of various the votes —almostthe same as the RJD when Bihar in-charge DevendraFadnavis. political parties, however, are6-7%. it fought on itsown in 2014. Sources saythe BJP’s indulgence of the IN THE coming Bihar polls, wherethe BJP is Still, in acloselyfought election, the con- The 11 seatsare also testament to Sahani’s VIP also has to do with sending apolitical seen as positioning itself to win moreseats solidation of suchvotes can significantlyim- skills as anegotiator,evenwhile jumping ship messageand expanding itssocial base in than itsallythe JD(U), the party has leftas pactelectionsincertainseats.Nishadvotesare to ship.Beforethe2014 polls,hehadralliedthe Bihar.The BJP has traditionallybeen identi- manyas11seatsfor the Vikassheel Insaan said to be influential in Muzaffarpur,East supportofNishads behind NarendraModi. fied as an upper caste party in the state. Party(VIP). This has leftthe BJP with 110 Champaran, Madhubani, Khagaria, Vaishali However, afterthe BJP’s landslide victory, he Under Amit Shah, the party has been trying seats, againstthe JD(U)’s 115. The reason for andotherNorthBihardistricts.Inthisbelt,the had openedchannels with Nitish, onlytobe- to expand itssocial base by sharing political the BJP’s accommodation of the political voteshareofNishads is said to be over 6%. come the BJP’s “starcampaigner” justbefore space with EBCs. It also cutsintoNitish’s care- greenhorn is the votes the VIP commands. Nishad voters have traditionallyaligned the 2015 Assemblyelections. When the BJP fullyconstituted votebank of multiple non- LedbyBollywood setdecorator from with social justice parties in the post-JP lostthe polls, Sahani had driftedagain and, in Yadavbackwardclasses and his ownimage DarbhangaMukesh Sahani, the VIP came up Movementera.FormerUnionministerCaptain 2019,ayearafterfloatinghisownparty,joined of the undisputed leader of disparateEBCs, onlytwo years ago, even though Sahani has Jai Narayan Prasad Nishad, who passedaway hands with the RJD. With his demand for30 whichhas kept him in powerfor three terms. beenactive since2013.Championingthecause in 2018,represented the Muzaffarpur con- seatsintheAssemblyelectionsrejectedby the At the press conference announcing the of theNishad(Mallah)caste bouquet—Sahani stituencymultipletimesonRJDandJD(U)tick- RJD, he has found his waybacktothe BJP. seatsharingdealwiththeVIP,seniorBJPleader officiallycalls himself “Son of Mallah” —the etsbeforeswitching to the BJP.His son Ajay Deputy CM Sushil Modi with CM Nitish Kumar,atone of their four joint rallies on Sunday. “Weare looking at the VIP as asignificant Sushil Modi underlinedthis: “The BJP has al- partyclaimsconsiderableinfluenceamongthe Nishad fought and wononaBJP ticket from Modi had underlinedBJP’s “respect” forEBCs while announcing seat deal with the VIP. PTI partner.Ithas considerable influence notjust ways respected people from Extremely boatmen and fishermen communities popu- the constituency in the 2019 polls. among Mallahs but also among some other BackwardClasses...ItwastheNDAgovernment lating the riverine beltsofNorth Bihar. Still, giving 11 seatstoaparty that had lost extremelybackwardclasses. In the rural belts that came up with 20% reservation forEBCs in Thereisnorecent official datatoestimate miserablyinthe2019 pollsaspartoftheGrand Muzaffarpur,Khagaria and Madhubani —led ground. Sahani had himself losttothe LJP’s of NorthBihar,Mallahsareseenasanassertive panchayatpollsandtodayover1,600mukhias the strength of Nishad votes in Bihar.The Alliance —the VIP had then contested by the RJD mayappear ceding toomuch MehboobAli Kaisar by amargin of 2.5 lakh caste.Politicallyunrepresented communities in Bihar arefromthese classes.” Ahmedabad WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM

THEINDIANEXPRESS,MONDAY,OCTOBER19,2020 @ieExplained #ExpressExplained 12 If thereare questions of current or contemporaryrelevancethat youwould like E EXPLAINED explained, please [email protected]

EXPLAINED GLOBAL Trump vs Biden:how it affects the world

Howdothe twocandidates forthe WhiteHouse see theworld and the issues of shared global concern —and howdoothercountries of theworld seethe US under Trump? Howshould the rivalrybetween China and Americainvarious spheresbeunderstood?This is Part 2ofathree-partweeklyseries on theUSPresidential election.

guablythe biggest challengewefacefrom ON TRADE,Biden will bring greater con- SURVEY:WORLDLOOKSUPTOU.S.,NOTTRUMP another nation state.” sistency of policy and morecooperation with In sum, whether it is aRepublican admin- other countries. But the persistence of struc- istration or aDemocratic one, we arelooking turaltensions in international trade will pre- TRUMP’SMAJORFOREIGN POLICIES ARE UNPOPULARGLOBALLY at aperiod of profound uncertainty,econom- vent an early reversal of Trumpian unilater- %whoapprove/disapprove ofeachpolicyofUSPresidentTrump ■ Approve ■ Disapprove icallyand strategically.What, however, is re- alism. First, the relative free-trader Biden is RACE FOR vealedbymosteconomic models is that given perhaps moredeeplycommitted than USincreasingtariffsorfeesonimportedgoodsfromotherscountries 18% 68% the hugecosts of economic decoupling,itis Trumptoreversing the decline of American THE WHITE USwithdrawalfrominternationalclimatechangeagreements 14% 66% unlikelythatmostsupplychains (built on ex- industryand the working class —recall the HOUSE tremelycompetitive Chinese manufacturing Biden-Obama bailout of the American car in- BuildingawallontheborderbetweentheUSandMexico 24% 60% capacities) will beable to transitionout of the dustryduringthe great recession. Biden too AllowingfewerimmigrantsintotheUS 34% 55% mainland even within the lifeofthe next has a“Made in America” plan, although he Presidency,inany significant manner. mayrelymoreonsubsidies and preferential USwithdrawalfromtheIrannuclearweaponsagreement 29% 52% Thedangeristhatthisrivalry, this“newcold procurement than on tariffs. America First—and oftenalone —aimedat USnegotiationswithNorthKoreanleaderKimJongUnabout 41% 36% war”, is built on two“myths”: agrowing per- Second, DemocratsshareRepublican providing aquick unilateral fixtodeep and thecountry’snuclearweaponsprogramme ception that American domination is in deep concerns about the Chinese threat and the EXPERT complexproblems that needconsidered decline, and that China has arrivedasachal- perception of China's recourse to unfair trade global solutions. Note:%aremedians based on 33 countries.Don’t knowresponsesnot shown. lenger. Itispreciselythesekindsof mispercep- practices —ranging from stealthyprotection, EXPLAINS The lastfour years have,for instance, wit- tionsthathave historically statesupportand indus- nessedanAmerican unilateral withdrawal UK Netherlands Germany CzechRep. Sweden ledtomajorwarsinthein- trial espionage— which Amitabh Mattoo from the Paris climateaccord, Iran nuclear US IMAGEIS 57 46 39 50 45 ternational system. maymakethe reversal of deal,Intermediate-RangeNuclear Forces Domination or hege- THEEXPERT Trump's tariffs on China From The Indian Express panel Treaty,UNESCO, UN HumanRightsCouncil, GENERALLY monyherereferstothe PROFESSORAMITABH difficult unless China un- ofspecialists, exclusive insight Lithuania WorldHealth Organization (WHO), Open FAVOURABLE 70 overwhelming capacity MATTOO is one of India’s dertakessignificant re- Skies Treaty,and Trans-Pacific Partnership that wasenjoyedbythe leading specialists on for- forms. PART2 GLOBALLY, WITH Poland (TPP), and aweakening of many multilateral France 79 US through the first eign policy.Heisa Third, even with allies institutions and relationships with long- SOME EXCEPTIONS 48 decade afterthe end of Professor at the School of likethe EU,long festering In the lastfour years,PresidentDonald standing allies, including those in Europe. Ukraine the ColdWar to shapethe International Studies, disputes, suchasthe one Trumphas reviewedand, manyargue, All of this has happenedatatime when %whohaveafavourable Italy 73 international system Jawaharlal Nehru on subsidiestoAirbus irretrievablyweakenedthe the worldneeds muchgreater global robust- opinionoftheUS 62 Bulgaria through acombination of University,and Honorary and Boeing, will notbe international commitmentsofthe nessfromacalmer United States, and indeed 57 sanctions, incentives, and Professoratthe Faculty of easilyresolvedwithout United States.Under thecircumstances, manymoremultilateral arrangements even softpower. Arts,University of greater mutual accept- 020406080100 should the American elections matter to (whichare backedbyWashington’s long- Spain Slovakia Hungary Greece Turkey Whilethe US maynot Melbourne. He has spent ance, if notgreater mu- the world, when the US itself seems to be term commitment) on arange of critical is- 52 54 66 54 20 enjoythe same degree of severalsemesters as tual concessions. turning inwards? sues from climatechange to arms control,to unfetteredinfluence, its Visiting Professor at the Finally, theweakening In manyways, the US elections matter trade negotiations to thefightagainstCovid- decline seems to be vastly University of NotreDame of the WTObythe Trump muchmorethan perhaps at anytimesince 19.With Joe Biden,werehetobeelected, we Israel Lebanon exaggerated —and often at SouthBend, Indiana. administration,especially WorldWar II. With just over twoweeks to go, couldsee aslowreturn of the US to itsmore 83 39 so by China’s decision by underminingits dis- andwiththemostrancorouscampaignincon- engaged, multilateral posture, but it would makers.Remember that NEXTMONDAY,OCT26: putesettlement mecha- temporaryhistory,the electionsare gripping take afull term (and more) before we could on almostevery measur- Part3:Whytheelection nism, toohas itsroots in globalattention.We could,asaconsequenceof expect areturntostatus quoante,after the Russia able index, the US, as an matterstoIndia durable US aversion to the result, see agradual renewalofthe inscrutable ferocity of the Trumpyears. 29 economic or military or multilateraldisciplines American global imprimatur,oraspeedy era- Japan technological power, is and the perceivedover- sureofWashington’sinternational footprint. Areweonthe cusp of anew cold war, Canada 68 ahead of China,and is reachbythe WTO 51 India The “promise” of four moreyears of and could we witness astrategic 60 SouthKorea likelytoremain the leader Appellatebody. Trumpisone of the US retreating intoaniso- decoupling between China and the US? Mexico 77 until about 2050. In all these areas, lationistshell, and becoming even less en- HowwouldaTrumporaBiden 36 On the contrary, the Biden mayfind it hardto gagedinternationally. TheUScould also be- administration respond to amore Philippines weaknesses of China are rapidlyroll backTrump’s Brazil Tunisia 80 come moreprotectionist, opportunistic, and belligerent Beijing? 33 Kenya Indonesia oftenunderestimated.In measures and abandon unilateralist in theadvancement of itsnar- The Americanfinancierand advisor to 56 60 42 the erratic behaviour dis- his tactics. But he is likely rowself-interest. Notsurprisingly,Trump’s severalPresidents, BernardBaruch, coined Argentina Nigeria SouthAfrica Australia playedbyXiJinping, Read Part 1ofthis series online to favour agentler,nego- leadership invites very lowlevels of global the term “cold war” to describethe tensions 41 62 50 50 China’s mostauthoritar- https://bit.ly/31e12ir tiated routetoresolution support. The ironyisthat this would happen between the United States and SovietUnion ian leader since Mao, we thatismoreconducive to at atime when the worldneeds amoreglob- afterWorld WarII. But the present-day in- find the abandonmentof building alliances and allyengaged America. ternational system hardlymimics that pe- Deng'sprudent 24-character strategy, preserving institutions. Isolationism is notanew tendency in it- riod;eventhe most parsimonious analysis TRUMP GETS MOST NEGATIVE MARKSAMONG 5 WORLDLEADERS "Conceal your strengths, bide your time". ON CLIMATE CHANGE,acollective action self —the narrative of isolationism is partof would reveal the complexlevelsofinterde- On present evidence, Xi believesthat problemthatneedsimmediateattention,thedif- any101 course on Americanhistory;from pendence that continue to existbetween %whohaveconfidence/noconfidenceineachleadertodotherightthingregardingworldaffairs China’s time has come, and that it needs to ferences between Biden and Trumpseem stark. thefarewell address by George Washington, China and the US. But while the SovietUnion assertitself across the continent and in the BidenwantstoreturntotheParisclimateaccord in September 1976 (“It is our true policy to andthe US neverusedforce againsteach ■ Confidence ■ NoConfidence ■ Don’tknow oceans. China no longer seems sensitive to and move toward netzerocarbon emissions by steer clear of permanent alliance with any other directly, on present evidence thereisa AngelaMerkel 46 29 12 itsreputation being scarredasaWolf 2050, with the interim objective of decarbonis- portion of the foreign world.”) to the7th real possibilityofaclash between Beijingand EmmanuelMarcon 41 36 19 Warrior.The Chinese leadership is ostensi- ing the powersector by 2035. Biden also wants President Andrew Jackson (letthe worldbe, Washington in the Indo-Pacific —today, the blynot recognising deep internal weak- toinvest$2trillioningreenareas,includinginfra- but respond with overwhelming forcetoa centreofeconomic gravity as well as the cra- VladimirPutin 33 57 8 nesses as impedimentstoChina’s assertive- structure, transportation and auto industries, threat), thereisamixed legacy of quarantin- dle of primordial instincts. DonaldTrump 29 64 7 ness externally. An erraticand impetuous Xi, housing and construction practices, naturecon- ing the US from the outside world. What is clear is that American domina- XiJinping 28 43 23 facedwith an impulsive andequallyerratic servationefforts,andworkinenvironmentaljus- It wasthis strand of thinking that pre- tion is being seriouslychallenged,for thefirst Trump, could potentiallygotowar basedon tice, creating one million jobs in the process. vented Woodrow Wilson’s internationalism time since 1990, by another state, China. This Note: Lithuania is excluded from the confidence-in-Donald-Trump calculation due to a processing misperceptions. In contrast, Biden maygive Trumphas emphasisedclean waterand from sustaining itself, and America’sfailure is firmlyand finally the end of the“Endof error. Percentages for confidence in Donald Trump are medians based on 32 countries. All other negotiations and diplomatic engagement a airashis goals and earmarked$38 billion to- to join the League of Nations afterWorld War History”thesis. And China’s assertion is one good chance to arrive at apeacefuloutcome wards“clean waterinfrastructure”. The percentages are medians based on 33 countries. I. Trumphas, of course, customisedisolation- issue on whichBiden and Trumpare closer in even on issues thatseem zerosum. President has remained asceptic on climate Source for all data: Spring 2019 Global Attitudes Survey ism in his ownimage: acombination of vic- their views than is oftenrecognised. While change, and his administration wantsgreater “Trump Ratings Remain Low Around Globe, while views of US stay mostly favorable” timhood, exceptionalism and entitlement; Trumphas publicly beratedBeijing, Biden’s HowdoBiden and Trumpdifferon US production of oil and natural gas. blaming theoutside worldfor all the ills of aide Anthony Blinken has explicitlystated: (Pew Research Center) pressingglobal issues liketrade and the unique United States; and his slogan of “China posesagrowing challenge.It’sar- climatechange? RESEARCHASSISTANCE:POOJAARORA Why Delhi air pollution rises in Oct

burning. Over the years, the System of Air MALLICAJOSHI Quality and Weather Forecasting and NEWDELHI,OCTOBER18 Research (SAFAR) has developedasystemto calculatethe contribution of stubble burn- EVERY YEAR in October, Delhi’sair quality ing to Delhi’s pollution. starts to dip and awar of wordsbreaksout Lastyear,during peak stubbleburning in- among various governments. cidents, itscontribution rose to 40%.Overthe On October 15,when the Air Quality Index last oneweek,itslowlyrosefromaround 2% (AQI) touchedverypoor forthe firsttime this on Tuesdayto22% on Saturday, when the AQI CORONAVIRUS DASHBOARD season, UnionEnvironment MinisterPrakash waspoor.The dayair quality wasinthe very Javadekar said the contribution of stubble poor category,stubble burning’s sharewas at burning wasonly4%that day. In response, 4%,indicating thatavariety of otherfactors, Coronavirus‘molecularscissor’ Delhi ChiefMinister ArvindKejriwal asked if too, areresponsible forthe dip in quality. stubbleburning wasnot the cause,then why The stubbleburning seasonisaround 45 air pollution had risen in the city over the past days long. Air in Delhi, however, remains pol- as atarget of Covid-19 drugs fewdays.Since then, the contribution of stub- luted till February. ble burning to Delhi’s pollution has risen to IN THE novelcoronavirus, cules, calledVIR250 and 22%onSaturday and 17%onSunday. DelhiOctober haze is theresult of manyfactors, someofthem natural. Tashi Tobgyal What arethe other big sourcesofpoor an enzyme calledSARS- VIR251, areveryefficient Air pollution in Delhi and the entireIndo- air quality in winter? CoV-2-PLprofacilitates at blocking the activity of Gangetic Plains is acomplexphenomenon, Dustand vehicularpollutionare the two infection by processing SARS-CoV-2-PLpro, yet dependent on avariety of factors. The firstis storm that originated in Iraq,Saudi Arabia getrid of paddystubble quicklyand at low biggestcauses. Cold, dryweather means dust both viral and human do notcross-react with the input of pollutants, followedbyweather and Kuwait ledtoadrastic dip in Delhi’sair cost.The practicehas becomemorewide- isprevalentintheentireregion,whichhasvery proteins. It stimulates the human enzymes with a and localconditions. quality in acouple of days. spread since 2009, when the governments fewrainy days betweenOctoberandJune.The release of proteins that similar function, re- Along with the changeinwind direction, of Punjab and Haryana passedlawsdelaying IITKanpurstudyfoundthatdustpollutioncon- the virus to needs to PAPER searcher Shaun Olsen, of What aretheseweather factors? the dip in temperatureisalso behindthe in- the sowing of paddy.The objective of this law tributes to 56% of the PM10and PM2.5 load at replicate. In the human the University of Texasat October usuallymarksthewithdrawal of creasedpollution levels. When the temper- wastoconservegroundwater by ensuring 59 tonnes/day, and that vehicular pollution body,itinhibitsmole- CLIP San Antonio, said in a the monsoon in northwestIndia. Duringthis aturedips, it lowers the inversion height, the newsowing cycle would coincide with contributesto20% of PM2.5 in winters. cules that signal the im- statement. season,the prevalent direction of winds is whichisthe layerbeyond whichpollutants themonsoon.This, however, leftverylittle Over the years, governmentshavetaken mune system to attack NEWRESEARCH The US team also easterly.These winds, whichtravelfromover cannotdisperseintothe upperlayer of the time forfarmers to harvestpaddy,clearthe severalsteps to address pollution from vehi- the infection. In anew compared SARS-CoV-2- the BayofBengal, carry moistureand bring atmosphere. The concentration of pollutants fields and sowwheat forthe next cycle. The cles, suchasthe introduction of BS VI fuel, a study publishedinScience Advances, PLpro againstsimilarenzymes from rain to this partofthe country. Once the in the air increases when this happens. easiestway to getrid of it is to setitonfire. push forelectricvehicles, Odd-Even as an American and Polish scientists suggest coronaviruses of recentdecades,SARS- monsoon withdraws, the predominant di- Also, high-speedwinds areveryeffective Over the past11years, the practice has emergency measure, and construction of the that drugsforfighting Covid-19bede- CoV-1 and MERS. By understanding rection of winds changes to north-westerly. at dispersing pollutants, but winters bring a thriveddespiteefforts by the Centreand state Eastern and Western Peripheral signedtoblockthis protein —SARS- similaritiesanddifferencesof theseen- During summers, too, the direction of wind dipin windspeedoverall ascomparedto sum- governments, primarilybecause alternatives Expressways.During the lockdown, this year, CoV-2’s molecular “scissor”. zymes in various coronaviruses, it may is north-westerly and storms carrying dust mers. The combination of these meteorolog- suchasthe happyseeder machine, which Delhi sawamong the cleanestair since com- US scientists solvedthe three-di- be possible to develop inhibitors that arrive from Rajasthan and sometimes ical factors makes the region prone to pollu- helps mulchthe residue, areseenasunavail- pilation of comprehensive records beganin mensional structures of SARS-CoV-2- areeffectiveagainstmultipleviruses, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Accordingtoa tion. Whenfactors suchasfarmfiresand dust able, and money- andtime-consumingby 2015.Italsosaw temperaturesabove aver- PLpro. Using this knowledge,Polish the researchers said. peer-reviewedstudy conductedbyscientists storms areaddedtothealreadyhighbasepol- smaller farmers. ageinSeptember,whichmeant air remained chemists developedtwo molecules Source: University of Texas at at the NationalPhysical Laboratory, 72%of lution levelsin thecity,air qualitydipsfurther. A2015source-apportionment study on cleaner forlonger. that inhibit the enzyme. These mole- San Antonio Delhi’swind in winters comes from the Delhi’sair pollution conducted by IIT-Kanpur With vehiclesbackonthe road, temper- northwest, and the remaining 28% comes What is the role of farm fires? foundthat 17-26%ofall particulatematter aturedipping and stubble burning starting, from the Indo-Gangetic plains.In2017, a Farm fireshavelongbeen an easy wayto in Delhi in winters is because of biomass Delhi’s air is settoget worse.

Ahmedabad

WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM

13 THEINDIANEXPRESS,MONDAY,OCTOBER19,2020 IDEA EXCHANGE Newsmakersinthe Newsroom NANDAN NILEKANI, FORMERCHAIRMANOFTHE UNIQUE IDENTIFICATIONAUTHORITY OF INDIA (UIDAI) ‘ The challenge is we don’t have adult vaccination system... Must build it from scratch for Covid-19

Nilekani explains his three-phase Covid -19vaccination process, says he doesn't see an advertising global giant likeFacebook,Google coming out of India, asserts Indian IT is mor‘ethan “back-end”, and believestechnology will become partofglobal geo-politics.The session wasmoderated by Executive Editor(National Affairs) PVaidyanathan Iyer

PVAIDYANATHAN IYER: What are up whenevertheywant... It is averypow- that Google hastoo muchpower, some of the gaps in our system that erful thing and obviouslyall the necessary Facebookhas toomuchpower. What needtobeplugged before the Covid- safeguards on privacy,security,encryp- is your opinion on this? 19 vaccine arrives? tion needtobefollowed. My viewisthat we have to use tech-

Ican speak forwhat Iamproposing. I nologytohandletechnology.And in some think the vaccination is going to be ahuge PVAIDYANATHAN IYER: The Indian IT sense what we have done in India is ex- mission. We developedthe Aadhaar en- Industryisatleastfour decades old, actlythatbycreatinganeutral ID… like rolment system to do one-and-a-half mil- but we areyet to see aFacebook or a Aadhaar or aUPI platform, whichallows lion enrolmentsaday, andittook five- Google come out of India. In fact, multiple big tech companies and banksto and-a-half years forIndiatoreachabillion someofthe big initiativessuchas participate. We have to democratise ac- people with an Aadhaarnumber.Here, we WHY Aadhaar have been backedbythe cess to identity and payments. Similarly, have to vaccinate theentire population in government. Is it with the account ag- twoyears, whichmeans we have to reach NANDAN NILEKANI because the Indian gregator approach We must divide things. ‘ 1.3billion people in twoyears, and assum- sIndia,and the privatesector is whichempowers ing that it is adual dosevaccine, that’s 2.6 risk-averse? Government funding for people with their billion vaccinations, or 1.3billion vaccina- world,await a If youlook at owndatawhether tions ayear.That’s morethan a100million A Facebook and Google, the vulnerable,private it’s to getloans for credible Covid-19 vaccinations amonth and morethan the bulk of their rev- sector funding fortheir lending or for three million aday.So, this is ascalechal- vaccine,Nilekani has enue is advertising. healthcarerecords, lengethat is unprecedented in our history, The US is afew hun- staff, and philanthropic we have democra- and therefore, thinking throughthe infra- proposed amassive digital dred billion dollar ad- ‘ tiseddatafor every- structureand architectureofdoing that is vertising market. funding forthe rest body. very important. Whichiswhy Ihavebeen platform on the lines of the India is justa$10 bil- recommending that we shoulddesign a Aadhaar model to ensure lion advertising mar- PRANAV MUKUL: A system that can do 10 million vaccinations ket,ofwhichdigital lotofplayers in the aday across the length and breadth of the the administration of the advertising is about $3 billion. Youcan’t industryare trying to look at country, but all unifiedbyacommon dig- vaccine to 1.3bnIndians. build aglobal companyonthose kind of population scale problems in the ital backbone, so that everyperson gets revenues. We should look at the context. If education andhealth sectors. But the same experience and the same infor- TheInfosys co-founder and youwant to build aglobal company, you withoutadataprotection framework, mation is recorded. It is basicallybringing architectofAadhaar needadomestic market on whichyou is thereuncertaintyoverthese population scale approachthat we used build scale and then go out. Chinese com- projects? in Aadhaar to anew issue (vaccination) believes the cost of setting panies suchasAlibaba and Tencent have Laws evolve as things happen. If you whichis, in fact, muchmorecomplicated. look at the Aadhaar story, todaywehave up the infrastructure forthe aprivacy framework because of Aadhaar. PVAIDYANATHAN IYER: Giventhe system willbewell worth it We beganAadhaar in 2009. In 2010,I stateofour public health wrotetothen prime ministerManmohan infrastructure, whichthe Singh saying we needadataprotection government has triedtorampupin and privacy law. And then multiple ver- the pastsix months because of the sions of that lawhappenedand then pandemic,will therebeaneedfor therewas theSupreme Court judg- private sector participation on alarge ment whichsaid that Indians have scale forthe vaccinationmodel that afundamental right to privacy youare proposing? but it could be constrainedin Firstofall, India has aterrific recordin certain situations. Then the vaccination forchildren and pregnant Aadhaar lawwas tested mothers.Wehaveachild immunisation againstthat. So that’s how programme, we have doneagreat job societies evolve. with polio, but we have reallynoexperi- Ithink we areready for ence of adult vaccinationand that is the adataprotection law. And bulk of what we have to do with the Idoknowthat thereisa Covid-19vaccination. In America, forex- lawinParliament. Idon’t ample, flu vaccines areverycommon. knowits status. Ithink About half thepopulation of the US takes we needsomething like aflu vaccine everyyear.Theyhave330 that as we dependmore million people and theydoabout 165mil- on technology and data. lion fluvaccinations, and this year theyare planning 200million flu vaccinations. SANDEEP SINGH: On Theydoitthrough offices, pharmacies or the vaccination doctors. So, theyalready have infrastruc- model that youhave turefor adult vaccination at scale. So for proposed, howdoyou them to roll out aCovid-19vaccine on top see the preparednessof of that is notsodifficult. states on that? Our challengeiswedon’t have an adult Well Iamonlysuggesting thedigital vaccination system at all. We will have to infrastructure.The states can use that, builditfromscratch. If youload the Covid- and so can other marketplayers. So the 19 vaccination on our existing infrastruc- vaccination could be done by state ture, notonlywill it be ahugeoverload, it governments, or it can be done by will end up at apoint whereababyisnot private hospitals, corporates, getting immunisedbecause people re- philanthropists or anybody else. The sponsible forithavebeendiverted key thing is whoeverdoes it, it mustbe forCovid-19. My recommendationisthat Illustration: Suvajit Dey doneinthe same way. It’s making sure we build acompletely newvaccination thatthereisanidentical approach. channel with 200,000people who do vac- cinations. Some of the current people can digital certificatethe firsttime, and after CSR etc. We have to think through the ginning, and it is adual dose vaccine, that’s done this... Our niche in India has been the PVAIDYANATHAN IYER:Asadigital alsoparticipate butwewill have to invest threeweeksorwhatever is the time dura- three models. $10per person. That means$13 billion for creation of public infrastructure, whether player, and as someone who believes in creating anew infrastructure forvacci- tion, yousend areminder by email or Thereare going to be three phases for vaccinating the whole population which it is Aadhaar,UPI, account aggregator, in democratisation of platforms for nation at scale. message forthatpersontocome and get the vaccine. Thefirstphaseisthattherewill will be funded by thegovernment, the pri- FASTag... Theyare all great examples of pop- largerpublic good, what do youmake the vaccine, and then give them a beavaccineshortage. Iassumeit wouldbe vate sectorand philanthropy... It is notgo- ulation-scaleinfrastructure whichhave of suchplatforms being weaponised PVAIDYANATHAN IYER: So can you final certificate. in the firsthalf of 2021. At thispoint thegov- ing to be thatexpensive.Given that we are global replicability.But Idon’t seehow you forspreading hate? What can summarise your proposal forus? If the immunisationisgoingtobelim- ernment will rightfullysay that we will al- looking forlifetoreturn to normal, the can build an advertising global giant from governmentsand tech companies do

My suggestion is that we createaplat- ited,because we don’tknowhow long is locate thevaccine basedonpriority forpeo- costwill be well worthit. But it is nota India. about it? form to do eight-10million vaccinations a the immunity of these vaccines, six plewhoarevulnerable,old,healthworkers, costissue at all. The technology will costa The rootsofitgobacktothe fact daybyauthorisedvaccinators. We will months or twoyears, then youalso need the police... In the second phase youwill fewhundred crores at best. ANIL SASI: TheIndian IT industryhas that the Internetcompanies did not have atraining system to train 200,000 to sendareminder to that person at the have vaccine adequacy,whichmeans you had remarkable success since have anyconsequential liability for

peoplewho will knowhow to vaccinate, endofthat period to come backand get can start bringing in theprivate sector to PVAIDYANTHAN IYER: Do yousee a liberalisation, but in 30 years most what is on their platform because of explain to people the side-effects, they their vaccine refreshed. All this requires startvaccinating. And, in the third phase, shiftinthe global delivery models companies, notjustInfosys, have Section 230ofthe Communication will knowhow to sophisticated tech- by 2022Ibelieve,wewillhaveavaccine postthe been restricted to Decency Actof1996 in the US which makepeople com- nology because surplus... And whatever we design, should pandemic? back-endIT essentially saidthat theywould notbe fortable with the things have to be be designedfor this kind of situation. Also, Thereare two support. Does the liable. In the US, theyare nowlooking ‘ My recommendationiswe ‘ We have to usetechnology vaccination. Only done foroverabillion what Iamproposing is avaccine-agnostic thingsthat aregoing lackofconsumer- at whether theyneedtodosomething certifiedvaccinators build acompletely new people. system, that is Iamnot anticipating which to happen. One is that to handle technology... We end interfaceput about it and bring in some kind of can participatein vaccine will work. mostcompanies are the kind of liabilitiesand perhaps we have to this. There willbea infrastructure with 200,000 PVAIDYANATHAN localising, which have done that in India by products that we think about aframework where networkofpublic people forvaccination at IYER: The costof PVAIDYANATHAN IYER:Has the means theyare hiring creating Aadhaar,UPI... We have on offerat people areresponsible forthe content and private vaccina- vaccination forthe government been in touchwith you local people. You the risk of being on their platforms… Thereisadelicate tion centres. So it scale. Some of thecurrent poor will have to be about taking the proposal forward? would have noticed have to democratise access takenoverby issue between free speech, censorship could be govern- ‘ borne by the Also,iflikeAadhaaryou aregiven the recentlyInfosysan- ‘ Artificial and making surethat we don’t have ment-sponsored, or people canparticipate government. In opportunitytotakechargeofthis nouncedthat they to identity andpayments Intelligence, bad stuffonthe Net. Ithink we needto it could be ahospital suchascenario, project, will youdothat? aregoing to hire machine learning have somerules. Nowwhether the or acorporateora howwill private Idid makeapresentation to aset of 12,000 morepeople and other rules that arebeingproposedare the pharmacy,itdoesn’t players linked with senior officials and theyappreciated the in the US in the next advanced systems right ones, Idon’t know. matter,but all of them use thesame ap- theproject getremuneration? ideas, and hopefullytheywill implement two-three years, on topofthe 13,000they in thefuture? plication technology.There willbeanapp Obviously, alarge partofthe popula- whatever theyfeel is fit. have hired already.Solocal hiringisgoing The IT Industrydoes very,verysophis- RAVISH TIWARI: India’s ban on several on aPCorasmartphone, andone can take tion will have to be vaccinated by the gov- Iamhappy, IaminBengaluru, Iamnot to be abig thing. Secondly, thereisgoing ticated global transformation work,and Chinese apps has fragmentedthe an appointment forvaccination. Iwill give ernment.Itwill be afreevaccine or cov- looking forajob actually... Thereare to be alot of offshoring happening at the it has become a$190billion dollar indus- Internet. Howdoyou see it? my name, do an Aadhaar authentication... ered by something likeanAyushman enough people who actuallyworkedwith same time. So therewill be acombination trybasedonthat work.Ithink we should With the Internetbecomingsuchan The name of the person,the name of the Bharat insurance scheme. Today, thereare me on Aadhaaringovernment,who are of moreoffshoring and local hiring. nottrivialise that. It is notjustback-end. integral partofevery society,the old vaccinator,which vaccine wasused, what 100million families,about 500million nowatSecretarylevel,and perhaps they Also, Indiahas built aB2B business. It is model where therewas oneInternetfor time, date, location, will be recorded. The peoplecovered by AyushmanBharat,so could be ropedinfor this. NIRUPAMA SUBRAMANIAN:The notaB2C business. Yes, automation and the whole worldisnow under threat. information could then be sent in real technicallyall those people could be eligi- Health ID thatisgoingtoberolledout Artificial Intelligence aregoingtodramat- And Ithink youwillsee moreofthis time to acloud location, and it will send ble forfreevaccine from the government. PRABHA RAGHAVAN: Forthe next year will be modelledonthe icallychange the industry, but Indian IT wherecountrieschoosetohavetheir backadigital certificatetome, saying that Butthe private companiesshould payfor infrastructurethat youare proposing, Aadhaar card, and thereare some will respond to that challenge. Even with ownrules…Weare going to seethe Ihavebeenvaccinated.Because in the theirown employees. Idon’t see whythe what sortofinvestment would be concerns about privacy.Does it AI and automation, youstill needtodoa ‘splinternet’, whereevery countryhas Covid-19vaccine system, it is notonlyim- government shouldfund that... We will required? duplicatesome of what Aadhaar is, lotofother things.You need to be con- adifferent system. This is inevitable. portant that Iamvaccinated,itisalso im- have to divide things.Government fund- It is notgoing to costthat much. Look, and is it necessary? stantlymorphing yourself to address new The Chinese, forexample, did notallow portant that youknowthat Iamvacci- ing forthe vulnerable and those already everymonth that we don’t come backto Ithink the proposal is to have aUnique opportunities in the global market. US companies to participateintheir nated.The digital certificatecan then be coveredbygovernment insurance pro- normal, the economyistaking ahit of Digital Health ID, and that is different from economy, and nowthe Americans are shown at ajob interview, airport, railway grammes, private sector funding fortheir hundredsofthousands of crores. The Aadhaar.Itisfor electronic healthrecords. SUNIL JAIN: AUSHouse panelreport retaliating… Technology has become so station, bus stand etc. If it is atwo-dose employees and associates, and perhaps biggestcostactuallywill be the vaccines The whole idea will be to have electronic hassuggestedthatbig technology criticaltonationsthat it is goingto vaccine, then yougenerateaprovisional philanthropic funding forthe rest from themselves. Vaccines cost$3-5 in the be- health records whichthe personcan pull companies have to be broken up — become partofglobal geo-politics.

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THEINDIANEXPRESS,MONDAY,OCTOBER19,2020 MEANWHILE SPACECRAFT TO TRY TO COLLECT ASTEROID SAMPLE After almost twoyearscircling an ancient asteroid hundreds of millionsofmilesaway, a NASA spacecraft on Tuesdaywill attempttodescend to the treacherous, boulder-packedsur- 14 THE WORLD face and snatchahandful of rubble. TheOsiris-Rexmission is looking to bring back at least60 grammes worth of asteroidBennu,the biggestotherworldlyhaul from beyond themoon.

TOPOFTHE WORLD Trumpsetsoutoncampaignblitzin bidtoclosepollinggapwithBiden

President settoholdrallies everyday until Thursday’s debate; both candidates trytowoo early voters

EARLYBALLOTSCAST Aneighbour comforts ahome owner afterher house was FormerBritishPM JARRETTRENSHAW destroyed by shelling in Stepanakert, in the separatistregion Tony Blair OCTOBER18 25.83mn of Nagorno-Karabakh, Saturday. AP US PRESIDENTIAL rivals Donald BRITAIN Trumpand Joe Biden will court ■Thus far, 25.83 million people Armenia &Azerbaijan Blairaccused early voters on Sundayastheir RACE FOR have alreadycastaballotinthe campaigns step up events ahead presidential election, according ofbreaking of their final debatethis week. THEWHITE to theUSElections Project, agree new truce, but it TrumponSunday will head shatteringrecords. quarantinerules to Nevada, abattlegroundstate HOUSE afterUStrip wheremorethan 100,000 vot- ers have already castballots,ac- the November 3presidential Gretchen Whitmer,aDemocrat, falls apart hours later FORMER BRITISH Prime cording to statedata. Trumpwill election, according to theUS severaltimes. He blastedstate MinisterTonyBlair has campaign everyday leading up Elections Project, shattering rules to stop the spread of coro- withdraw the woundedsoldiers been accusedofbreaking to Thursday’s debateinFlorida, records. Muchearly voting is due TrumpatarallyinNortonShores, Michigan, Saturday. AP navirus, calling her “dishonest,” NVARDHOVHANNISYAN from the battlefield. UKCovid-19restrictionsaf- including stops in Arizona and to safetyconcerns about the and made lightofaright-wing &NAILIABAGIROVA “This step ...was categorically terfailing to self-isolate for NorthCarolina, campaign pandemic that has killedmore plot uncoveredbythe FBI to kid- YEREVAN,BAKU,OCTOBER18 rejected by Baku,” the foreign twoweeksfollowing a spokesman TimMurtaugh said. than218,000Americans and in- thelatestfigures from his cam- still win this race, and everyindi- nap her. ministry said. Bakucalledthe two-daytrip to the US, the Biden on Sundayheads to fected 8.1million others. paign showhealso trailsin cationwehaveshows that this “Hopefullyyou’ll be sending ARMENIA AND Azerbaijan ac- statement misinformation. SundayTelegraphreported. NorthCarolina, where1.2 mil- Democratshold asignificant fundraisingastheraceintensifies. thing is going to come down to her packing pretty soon,” Trump cusedeachother on Sundayofvi- The Azeri defence ministry The newspaper said it had lion voters have cast their ballots, advantageinearly voting,largely In amemo sent to donors the wire,” she wrote. said, promptingthe crowdtoyell olatinganew humanitariancease- said: “The enemy firedatthe obtainedpicturesshowing according to statedata. Biden’s drivenbymail balloting. Of the over the weekend, Biden cam- On Saturday, Trumpcam- back “Lockherup!”severaltimes. fire in fighting over the mountain vicinity of the Jabrail city,aswell Blair,who served as PM running mate, Kamala Harris, 10.6 million mail ballots cast, 5.8 paign manager Jen O’Malley paignedinMichigan and Whitmer responded on enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, as the villages of this region... us- from 1997 to 2007,leaving will return to thecampaign trail million have been castby Dillon said the national figures Wisconsin, twobattleground Twitter to thechants. “Thisisex- hours afteritwas agreed. ing mortars and artillery”. It aLondon restaurant 10 on Monday with avisittoFlorida Democrats, according the US aremisleading because must- states he narrowly woninthe actlytherhetoricthathasputme, The truce agreedonSaturday added that the Azeri army“took days afterhis return from to markthatstate’s firstday of Election Project, run by the win states areclose. 2016 election. my family, andothergovernment cameintoforceatmidnight(2000 adequate retaliatorymeasures”. the US lastmonth. The pa- early,in-person voting. University of Florida. “Wecannotbecome compla- At Saturday’s rallyin officials’ livesindanger while we GMT) afteraweek-old Russian- The ministry said thatAzeri per said it understood that Thus far, 25.83 million peo- Trumplags in national and centbecause the very searing Muskegeon, Mich., Trumptar- trytosavethe livesofour fellow brokered ceasefirefailedtohalt militaryunitsdowned Blairappealedto Whitehall ple have already castaballotin battleground opinion polls and truth is thatDonald Trumpcan getedMichigan Governor Americans,”shewrote.REUTERS the worstfighting in the South Armenian Su-25 warplane, officials forspecial dispen- Caucasussincethe1990s.Atleast “whichwas attempting to inflict sation from the Covid-19 750peoplehave beenkilledsince airstrikes on the positions of the rules,buthewasnot issued fighting beganonSept. 27. Azeri armyinJabrail region.” withtheformalexemption At 1010 GMT,theAzeridefence Yerevanswiftlydeniedthat. letter he would have ministrysaid the Aghdam region, OfficialsinNagorno-Karabakh neededtoavoid a14-day adjacent Nagorno-Karabakh, was said Azeriforces hadlaunchedan isolationperiod.REUTERS under Armenianshelling.Itsaid attack on the enclave’s military overnightArmenianmilitaryunits positions and therewerecasual- openedfirefromlarge-caliber ties on both sides. weapons along the border,which Nagorno-Karabakh is a SOUTH AMERICA Armenia denied. mountain territorythat is Boliviansvote IsraeliNSA MeirBen-Shabbat Armenia said the Azeri army internationallyrecognisedas and US TreasurySecretary had firedtwice during the night partofAzerbaijan but popu- inhopeof SteveMnuchin arrive in and usedartilleryand accused lated andgovernedbyethnic politicalstability Muharraq, Bahrain. Reuters Baku of rejecting itsrequestto Armenians. REUTERS BOLIVIANS BEGAN voting on Sundayinapresiden- Israel sends tialelection manyhope UN arms embargoes on can restorestabilitytoa treaty delegation nation that wasplunged Iran expiredespite intoturmoil aftera to Bahrain with fraught and eventually voidedvotelastyear, Trumpaides Washington’s objections leaving the countryinthe hands of an interim pres- ident. Frontrunners in the DANWILLIAMS NASSERKARIMI ED Bigarms election areLuis Arce, MANAMA,OCTOBER18 TEHRAN,OCTOBER18 deals who champions areturn PLAIN E ● unlikely to thesocialistand pro- AN ISRAELIdelegation accompa- FRANCE PAYS TRIBUTE TO KILLED TEACHER ADECADE-LONGUNarms em- EX indigenous policies of for- niedbythe US treasurysecretary bargo on Iran that barred it from mer President Evo arrivedinBahrain on Sundayto Peoplegather at thePlace de la Republique in Paris on Sundaytopay tributetoSamuel Paty,the teacher who wasbeheaded purchasing foreign weapons like ALTHOUGH THE ban on buy- Morales, and Carlos Mesa, formalise nascent relations and on the streetsofthe Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine.FromParis to Lyon, Marseille and Lille large crowds gathered tanksand fighter jets expired ing weapons from abroad has acentristwho served as broadenGulf cooperation that quietly, pausingregularly to applaud, hold minutes of silence or sing the national anthem. Paty,47, waskilledoutside his Sundayasplannedunder itsnu- been lifted, Iran said it won’t president in the early Washington has promotedasan school on Fridaybyan18-year-old attacker. Prosecutors said the attackerwanted to punish the teacher forshowing his clear deal with worldpowers, go on a“buyingspree”and it 2000s. PollsshowArce anti-Iran bulwarkand potential pupilscartoons of the ProphetMohammadinacivics class on freedom of expression earlier thismonth. Reuters despiteobjections from the is unlikelythat the country ahead,but notenough to economicbonanza. United States. willimmediately agreebig avoid arunoff. REUTERS Bahrain followedthe United While insisting it plannedno arms deals with foreign pow- Arab Emirates in agreeing last “buying spree,” Iran in theory ers. Crippling US sanctions BELARUS monthtonormalise ties with Egypt releases can purchase weapons to up- hadalready wreaked havoc Thousands Israel,stunningPalestinians who Thousands defy protest ban grade military armament dating on Iran’s economybeforethe had demandedstatehoodbefore comedian after backtobeforeits 1979 Islamic Covid-19pandemic made marchinMinsk anysuchregionalrapprochement. Revolution and sell itsown lo- thingsevenworse. This will The breakthrough, overseen again in Bangkok, PM seeks talks over 2yrs in jail callyproducedgear abroad. makeitdifficult forIrantobuy TENS OF thousands of by US President DonaldTrump, is TheIslamicRepublicheralded weapons in massive,high- people marched through aforeign policy flourish ahead of Cairo: Egyptian authorities re- theendof thearmsembargo as“a profile deals. It will also find it the streetsofthe his re-election bid next month. REUTERS leasedacomedian, who was momentous dayfor the interna- difficult to sell itsown domes- Belarusian capital Minsk Forthe US allies, it is achance to BANGKOK,OCTOBER18 working forapopular satirical tel- tionalcommunity...indefianceof ticallyproducedweapons to on Sundaytodemand the close ranksonIranmoreovertly. evisionprogramme, aftermore theUSregime’seffort.”TheTrump bolsterits economy, as many resignation of veteran The Israelidelegation,which THOUSANDS OF anti-govern- than twoyears in prison without administration, meanwhile, has countries will avoid trading President Alexander flewonanElAlIsrael Airlines mentprotesters took over keyin- trial, arightslawyersaid Sunday. insisted it has re-invoked allUN withIranfor fear of US finan- Lukashenko, despitea charterflight from TelAviv, was tersections in Bangkok on At aprotestin AttorneyMokhtarMounir sanctions on Iran via aclause in cialretaliation. threat by officials to use accompaniedbyUSTreasury Sunday, defying aban on protests Bangkok on said Shady Abu Zaid wasre- thenucleardealitwithdrew from firearms againstprotest- SecretarySteve Mnuchin. forthe fourth daywith chantsof Sunday. AP leasedfromaCairopolice station in2018,aclaimignoredby therest ers. Belarus, aformer Israeli Prime Minister “down with dictatorship” and lateSaturday, but as part of his of the world. sile system and itsBastian Sovietrepublic closelyal- Benjamin Netanyahu, in public “reform the monarchy”. terms of release mustreporttoa The UN bannedIranfrom coastaldefence missilesystem, liedwith Russia, has been remarks to his cabinet, said the PrimeMinisterPrayuthChan- metrorailsysteminabid to quell givenanoverall number. police station twice aweek. buying major foreign weapons the DIA said. Chinaalso could sell rocked by strikes and delegations would work on co- ocha, aformer juntaleader the overthreemonthsof street action. “The government wantsto His sister, Roula Abu Zaid, in 2010 amid tensions overits Iran arms. weeklystreetprotests operation agreements and“es- protesters seek to oust, is con- “Freeourfriends”,theprotest- talk to find away out together,” confirmedthe news in a nuclear programme. Iran longhas been out- since authorities an- tablishing the peace treaty”. cernedabout the spreading ers calledout as theystood in a Prayuth’s spokesman Anucha Facebook postand shared a The US Defence Intelligence matchedbyUS-backedGulf na- nouncedthatLukashenko, Israel and Bahrain signeda protests andthe government rain, amass of colourful ponchos Burapachaisri told Reuters. He photo of his at home. Agency predicted in 2019 that if tions likeSaudi Arabia and the who has ruledinauthori- “Declaration of Peace, wantstotalk,hisspokesmansaid. andumbrellas.Somehelduppic- did notspecifywithwhomthe Police arrested AbuZaid in the embargo ended, Iran likely United Arab Emirates, which tarian fashion since 1994, Cooperation, and Constructive Demonstrations have per- turesofdetained protestleaders. government hopedtospeak. May2018. He waschargedwith would trytopurchase Russian have purchasedbillions of dollars had securedre-election on Diplomatic and Friendly sisteddespitethearrest of dozens Thai Lawyers forHuman Rights Afterthe arrest of manyof joining an outlawedgroup, aref- Su-30 fighter jets,Yak-130 of advancedAmerican August9with 80% of Relations” at aWhiteHouse cer- of protestersandtheirleaders,the said at least80protesters had the protest leaders, previously erence to the bannedMuslim trainer aircraftand T-90 tanks. weaponry.Inresponse, Tehran votes. REUTERS emonylastmonth, but thatwas useofwater cannon and shut- been arrested sinceOct.13with unknown figures have emerged Brotherhood, and disseminating Tehran also maytry to buy turnedtowarddeveloping locally notaformal treaty. REUTERS downs on muchofBangkok’s 27 still beingheld. Police have not to lead crowds. false news. AP Russia’s S-400anti-aircraftmis- made ballistic missiles. AP

THE UTAH SCHOOL SAW AT LEAST 90 CASES IN 2WEEKS SINCE OPENING,ONE OF THE WORST OUTBREAKS IN ASCHOOL IN THE US ‘Out of Control’: When schools opened in aUScoronavirus hotspot

other parentsfloodedthe board likelyanundercount,sincenotall learningfor all students. of the worst” in the countryand Canyons is also an example KATETAYLOR with messages, and the school studentsand staffwho were ex- Since then, with schools and “unacceptable”. of howthe nation’s 13,000 OCTOBER18 stayed open. Within aweek,the posedorsymptomaticgot tested. colleges open, things have only Yetdespitethe conditions at school districtsare struggling to number of cases had nearly And Corner Canyonwas not worsened, as both the county the startofthe school year, find workable policies in the ab- ON AFridayinmid-September, quadrupled. Ateacher washos- theonlyschool in the district to and Utah have become hotspots. CanyonsSchoolDistricttookonly sence of clearstandards from the SunnyWashington got atext pitalised and put on aventilator. have an outbreak.BySept28, In the twoweeksthat ended modest steps to preventthe virus federal government and many from another mother at her When the boardfinallyclosed Canyons School District, with Thursday, SaltLakeCounty had from spreading in itsbuildings. stategovernments.The result daughter’s high school in an afflu- the school temporarily, 77 stu- roughly33,000 students, had nearly 617cases per 100,000 The statehad mandated that has been apatchworkofpolicies ent suburb of Salt LakeCity,Utah. dentsand staffmembers, includ- temporarilyclosedthree high people. Over the lastweek,Utah studentsandstaffmemberswear varying from statetostate and Threeweeksintotheschool year, ing Washington’s daughter, had schools and amiddle school, had the sixth-highestrateofnew masksinschool, allowing un- oftendistrict to district. thenumber of coronavirus cases tested positive. telling about 8,000 studentsto cases per 100,000 people of any maskedsports practiceandcom- The Centers forDisease at theschool wasrising, and the “We’retalking 30 days in, and learn from home. stateand setanew staterecord petition. But with nearly80per Control and Prevention, which districtwas considering shifting it went completely out of con- The storyofCanyons is an ob- forthe number of people hospi- cent of Canyons studentsopting have facedpressurefromthe to online instruction. The text trol,” Washington said. ject lesson in what can happen talisedwith the virus. forin-person school, the district WhiteHouse to avoid discourag- urgedparentstobeg the school Her daughter’s school, Corner when schools reopen in com- Corner CanyonHigh School in Utah. NYT On Tuesday, Governor Gary seems to have made fewadjust- ing school districtsfromreopen- boardtokeep classrooms open. CanyonHighSchool,experienced munities that arefailing to con- Herbertordered stricter restric- mentstoaccommodatesocialdis- ing, have declinedtoprovide Washington ignored the text one of the biggestcoronavirus tain the virus. In the twoweeks tions on social gatherings and tancinginclassrooms.Thedistrict specific guidance on whatdis- —she thought the school should outbreaksataschoolinUtah,and before the district reopened, Salt levelatwhich someexpertshave twoand ahalf times higher than mask wearing in Salt Lake also did notmakecoronavirus trictsshould do when infections be taking advice from public possiblythe country, with 90 LakeCounty had roughly187 advisedagainsthigh schools the standardWashington State County and otherhard-hit coun- testing partofits reopening plan, rise in aschool or the surround- healthexperts, notparents. But cases within twoweeks—most newcases per 100,000people, a opening in person; thatlevel is uses to recommend distance ties,calling Utah’soutbreak“one leavingthosedecisionsto families. ing community. NYT

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THEINDIANEXPRESS,MONDAY,OCTOBER19,2020 MarketWatch GOLD IMPORTS DOWN 57% IN H1FY21 NewDelhi: Gold imports, whichhaveabearing on the current account deficit,fell 57 per cent to $6.8 billion (around Rs 50,658 crore) during the first half of this fiscal amid aslump in demand 15 ECONOMY PTI due to the Covid-19,showeddatabythe Commerce Ministry.

POLICY WATCH AMONTH SINCE ANNOUNCEMENT, CABLE LAID IN 4,347 VILLAGES OFFICIALSCITE ‘BUDGETARY CONSTRAINTS’ JOB CREATION ‘GharTakFibre’:Slowprogress FinMin turns down Stakeholders still proposaltocut cess divided,govt starts inplantoconnectBiharvillages on crude output governmenthas budgeted in- were non-operational as of Telecommunications(DoT) said. KARUNJITSINGH flows of Rs 16,500crore from oil process to form rules AASHISHARYAN ED Lessonfor October15,whilethestatusof an- “Thefirstcasualty of anycon- NEWDELHI,OCTOBER18 cess forthe current fiscal. NEWDELHI,OCTOBER18 future other 200was unclear. struction work done by stateor Experts notedthat giventhe PLAIN E Inasmanyas13districts—in- privateagenciesisthe cablelaid IN Ablowtodomestic crude oil recovery in the priceofBrent ● planning for labourcodes THE GOVERNMENT’S ambitious EX cluding Jehanabad, Darbhanga, underground.Sincethereisnear- producers, the FinanceMinistry crude, oil-producingcompanies ‘GharTak Fibre’ scheme —which Purnia, Kishanganj, Vaishali, Ara- zerocommunication between has rejected aproposal by the were notexpecting anyrelief on aims to connect all the villages THE LEARNINGS from the ria, Saran and Jamuni —less than various agencies of the stategov- PetroleumMinistrytoreducecess oil cess from the government. AANCHALMAGAZINE VARYING with high-speed internet—isoff implementation of the 25 per cent of the GPs connected ernment itself, mostoftheseca- ondomesticcrudeproduction,ac- An industryanalyst, who did NEWDELHI,OCTOBER18 to aslowstartinpoll-boundBihar, ‘Ghar TakFibre’ scheme in to theinternet under BharatNet bles have been damaged.Now cording to government officials. notwish to be quoted,said that VIEWPOINTS thefirststate thataimsto connect Bihar could alsobeales- phase one were operational. The since thereare no users to com- Currently, alldomesticoilpro- ONGC had in itsanalystcall men- WITH THE government kick- allits45,945villagesbyMarch 31, son forfuture, as the main problems, an official said, plain about the snappedconnec- ducers payanoil cess of 20 per tionedthat it wasnot expecting starting the rule-framing ■Amovetowards governmentdataobtainedbyThe Centreplans to connect all were lackofpowerandrelatedeq- tions,noone ever comes to know cent on all crude oil output. anyfiscalrelief fromtheCentrein process forthe four labour higher short-term Indian Express showed. 6.5 lakh villages to high uipmentfailure,equipmenttheft, if thecableshave beendamaged,” Upstreamcompanieshadsought the current pricing scenario con- codes to enable their imple- and contractual To connect all villages by speedoptical fibreinternet and faulty or lossy leased fibre. the official said. relief on oil cess noting that low sideringthefiscalpressureonthe mentation from April 1next employment and less March 31,thestatewouldneedto over the next 1,000days. “Thereare three main prob- Under the Ghar TakFibre international crude prices had governmentdueto lowrevenues. year,amovetowards higher regulationsare being dig trenches, laycables, and pro- lems.One is thatthe lossy,old ca- scheme, Bihar has to provide at made it difficult forthem to even DebasishMishra, partner at short-term and contractual flaggedas someofthe videconnectivitytoanaverage of blesthatwerelaid under phase leastfivefibre-to-the-home meetoperational expenses. The DeloitteIndia, notedthat the up- employmentand less regula- concerns by some 257villagesdaily,oramonthlyav- ugh the high-speedoptical fibre. one have to be replaced. So far, (FTTH) connections per village, priceofBrentcrudefellto alow of stream oiland gassector needed tions arebeing flagged as ■ Industry, on the erageofover7,500villages. The tender forproviding con- thatwork hasbeendoneinabout whilethereshouldalsobeatleast $19.33per barrel in April on the fiscal relief in the current pricing some of the main concerns. other hand, is citing However, nearly amonthafterthe nectionsand ‘lighting’ up these 4,500grampanchayatsconnec- one WiFi hotspotper village. backoflow demand due to the situation. “Toachieve thePrime On the other hand,the indus- the possibility of a schemewas inaugurated,optical villageshasnotbeenfloatedsofar tedunder phase one. Then the However, as of October 14,only Covid-19pandemic and aprice Minister’s vision of reducing im- tryisciting the possibilityofa shifttowards ease of fibrecable has been laidonlyin and is likelytobefloated onlyin problemof right-of-way inlaying 30,768 FTTH connections had warbetweenoil-producingcoun- portdependency by 10 per cent, shifttowards bigger-sizedes- doing business and a 4,347villages as of October 14,or thefirstweekof November,senior cables from panchayats or blocks beengiven,whileonly2,531WiFi tries. Theprideof Brentcrude has upstream players in India would tablishmentsalongwithease churn in the at the rate of 181villages per day. governmentofficialssaid.Avillage to individual villages. The thirdis hotspots had been installedsofar since recoveredand stabilisedat needfiscalincentivetosurvive the of doingbusinessand amajor labour market “Ourpresentcapacityislaying or agrampanchayat(GP) is con- powerequipment failureand its underBharatNet phaseone. between $40-45 per barrelover pricing situation in the global churn in the labour market as down between80,000-100,000 sidered ‘lit up’ underBharatNet theft,”the official added. The BharatNet project, which thepastthree months. crude market due to Covid.” the favourable outcomes. km of optical fibreper year.To when it consistentlyhas internet Around 42 per cent of 3,660 initiallybegan as theNational “The Finance Ministryhas re- The Centrehas hiked the ex- Labour economists state curity or forsocial security or connect all thevillagesbyMarch connection and users at the end GPs reportedtobenon-opera- Optical FibreNetwork in October jectedtheproposalcitingbudget- cise duty on petrol by Rs 13 per thatthe newlabourcodes— foroccupational safety,” 31,2021, we willneedtolay down to verify the same. Of the 8,745 tional inthestatehadbeenfacing 2011,hasbeendelayedforover92 aryconstraints,” said agovern- litreandondieselby Rs16 perlitre Industrial Relations Code, AmarjeetKaur, the general at least200,000-225,000 km of GPs in Bihar, 5,889 were connec- theseproblems,thedatashowed. monthsnow. Thenew deadlineis ment officialwho did notwish to since the beginningofthe year to Code on Social Security and secretaryoftheAll-IndiaTrade optical fibre, whichisatough tedtothe state’s main internet Whileopticalfibrecablehasbeen setatAugust2021. However, on be quoted. Accordingtothe offi- shoreupflaggingrevenuesdueto Occupational Safety, Health Union Congress (AITUC) said. task,” an official said. grid under BharatNet phase one, laidto connectnearly allthe8,745 August15thisyear,thePMsaidall cial, the proposal sent by the economic slowdown causedby andWorkingConditionsCode Government officials, ho- On September 21,while inau- while the remaining 2,856 were GPs, lackofusers in these areas villagesinthe countrywould be Petroleum Ministryhad pitched the Covid-19pandemic.Central —along with the Code on wever, see fixed-term emplo- guratingthe ‘Ghar TakFibre’ connectedunder phase two. has resulted in minimal or zero connectedto theinternet overthe for2-3 different ratesofoil cess excisedutycurrentlyaccountsfor Wages, approved last year by ymentasagamechanger,and scheme,PrimeMinisterNarendra However, of all the GPs con- follow-upsonrepairandmainte- next 1,000 days,whichmeans from 10-20 per cent basedonthe 45 per cent of the the priceof theParliament,arelikelytore- statethatnocaponfixed-term Modihadsaidall45,945Biharvil- nectedunderphaseone,about60 nance work,anofficial of the thattheprojectisnowlikelytobe prevailing priceofcrude oil in the diesel and 40 per cent of the price sultinahighernumberof jobs, employmentwouldgive abo- lages would be connected thro- percentor3,591 grampanchayats Department of completedonlyby2024. international market.The union of petrol in the national Capital. though precarious and of osttoseasonal employment. lowerquality.Also, the actual “Say, forfestive season, more benefits accruing from an ex- workersareneeded,thenear- INTERVIEW WITH MD &CEO,MAX LIFE INSURANCE pectedincreaseininvestment liertheycouldn’tbefiredlater AMID COVID-19 flows due to therelaxationin on but nowthat will change. ‘Not good to say Covid has complianceandregulationcri- Seasonalemploymentwillget ‘India sees eight IPOsworth teria under the newlabour aboostanditwillmakeahuge Mostactivesectors codesareunlikelytobeimme- difference,” asenior Labour $850 mn in Septquarter’ withtwoIPOslaunched been good for life insurance ... diateandneedtobeseenover Ministryofficialsaid. ineach of at leastthe next five years. The official also told The Eight Indian companies came out with$850 million of IPOs ■ Real estate “The liberalisations provi- Indian Express that concerns in theSeptember quarter and thesecond half of theyear Hospitality dedinthelabourcodeswould about conversion of existing ■ but it has created awareness’ definitelycreateanumber of permanentjobstocontractual could be “significantly better”, an EY report said ■ Construction jobs whichare of lowquality, employmentorretrenchment ■ Technology and PREDOMINANTLYSAVINGS-ORI- 18 months. Also, therehas been a that is, of shortterm, with no willnothappenasmass-scale Numberofinitial public Rise in IPOs in the telecommunications ENTED in India, the lifeinsurance shifttowards selling morenon- employment security,and layoffsstill requiregovern- 12offerings (IPOs) 33%main markets (BSE industryhas seen asudden shift participating kind of offering probablyotherrelatedsecuri- ment permission. recorded September 2019 and NSE); from three in Q3 of focus towardsprotectionnot whichissavings-oriented—guar- tieswillalsobediluted.So,we Industryvoices statethat quarter, worth $651.98 2019 to four in Q3 2020 onlybythe industryplayers but anteedsavings benefit—because willwitness alabour market thegreater flexibility forhir- million also by customers. PRASHANT interest rateshavecome down. inthepost-codescenario,pre- ing and firing willresult in 4: Number of IPOs in the third TRIPATHY, MD and CEO, Max Life Lifeinsurance companies have ponderance of precarious but moreinvestmentsinsectors `6,200 crore: Worth of the quarterof2020, falling from Insurance, told SANDEEP SINGH unique advantageofleveraging rising jobs.And these jobs whichwouldbenefitblueand eight IPOs, at current nine in the year-ago period thatoverthelastsixmonths,there Prashant Tripathy the longer term interestrate. would be designed in such a grey collarworkers.“Lawafter exchange rates has been amassive riseinaware- manner to lowerthe labour lawbasically preventedentre- 872: Number of IPOs across ness and demand forprotection What in the long term? cost. Together,these two, ac- preneurs to look at Indiaasa $602 million: IPO with largest globe so far this year, with: products. He said going forward, So therehas been abig jump Protectionasaneedisbecom- cording to theresearch evi- destination forinvestment. issue size in September ■ 14%rise in total number the industrywill come out with and it is leading to higher levelof ing moreand moreprevalent. dence, will notresultinpro- Overseasinvestmenthasbeen quarter, by Mindspace ■ 43% rise in proceedsat universal protection designs for protection across the industry. I Slowly, regulatoryandotherbod- ductive,benevolenteconomic comingmostlyinwhitecollar Business Park REIT $165.3 billion masses whocan’t afford expen- thinkmovingtowardsprotection ies arerealisingthat protection is outcomes,”XLRIprofessorand economy. But the minuteit sive products.Editedexcerpts: is the right direction. notonlytheneedof thetopofthe labour economistKRShyam wasforjobsforbluecollarand Even in the health insurance strata,itisthe needofeveryone. Sundarsaid. grey collarworkers,alltheen- Why is it important: The EY India IPO Trends Report Q3 2020 noted that Howisthe impact of Covidon space,somestandalonehealthin- Hence, therewill be push to- Incentivesforgreatercon- trepreneurs were very scared under-performance on accountofCovid-19-wasseen in the first half of Source:EY/PTI industrynow? surance companies have seen30 wardsuniversal protection de- tractualandfixed-termempl- to invest intheIndianmarket,” 2020. IPO attraction might continue to allure investors in the primary market Things arebetterthan ex- per cent growth and that tooisa signs —simplifiedproductsthat oymentisaconcernthattrade LohitBhatia,president,Indian after successful IPO subscriptions in recent times pected.InApril and May, the in- reflectionoffear leading to right mayhavesame features but will unions have also flagged.“In Staffing Federation, abody of dustrywas down by around 40 decisions beingmade. It will cre- caterto segments thatcan’tafford theprivate sector,thesecodes staffing companies, said. percent,butthingshave beenim- ateaquantum shiftwithrespect expensive productdesigns.Ithink will help in replacing regular In times of economic un- proving with everypassing to wherethemarket hasbeenand lifeinsurancecompanieswillalso employmentwithfixed-term certainty,especially amid the month and forusthe numbers thereishigherlevelofacceptance slowlystartventuringintohealth. employment.Fixed-termem- pandemic, industryisofthe Strong demand for blue-collar have beenbetterthanthebroader forprotection plan. Equallyfor Thereis(a) committee whichhas ploymentmeanscontractem- viewthat businesses might industry. We have seen4percent providers likeusitwill be much been setuptoreviewthat. Even if ployment and no job security, notbeabletosurvive andthat growth as compared to 11 per easier to convincethe customer. thecommitteedoesn’t(allow)life no situation of continuity of should notbeviewedasan workers, full-time jobs on offer cent decline forprivate sector in If yousee awareness and fear insurance companies to operate job later on. Youdon’t have anti-labouroutcome.“Lifebe- September.Buttheoverallindus- converting intooutcomes, it is in indemnity space, Ithink they rightsofsocialsecurity,cannot comesnormalpostpandemic, demandinsegmentslikedelivery tryiscoming out of it and Iam happening. However, thelevel of willhave theridersspace.Also,be- struggle forwageincrease or then capacities will getuseda SHUBHRATANDON Expertssay 2020 could and healthcaresegmentislikely morehopeful forthe second half. fearhassubsidedquitesignifican- cause of social security concerns, allowance increase. This wh- lotmoreand as the capacities MUMBAI,OCTOBER18 to surpass January2020 levels. As farasclaims areconcerned, tlyoverthelast coupleof months. immediateannuityorannuityre- ole process will lead to more aregoing to be evolving, India end with 1.4million The good news is that nearly while therewas asurge over the Even as numbers areincreasing, latedplanswillbecomeprevalent. contractemployment,casual- willfindabetterdevelopment BUSINESSACTIVITYmaynot have vacancies being filled 80percentof thejobsonofferare lastcouple of months, it not as people realised that mortality While alifeinsurance license all- isationand outsourcing. They in these newlabour codes. recoveredtopre-pandemiclevels forfull-time employment, Pravin alarming.Ialso think thatwehit ismoderateataround1.2percent, owscompaniesto operateinmul- arechangingthelimitforcon- Governmenthasprovidedfor but, at 0.5 million,openings for Agarwala, co-founder and CEO, apeak in September and so the thefearisgoingdownandGoogle tiple zones, but because of legacy tractors from 20 to 50, which greater social security bene- blue collarworkers in the July- could end with1.4 millionvacan- Betterplacesaid.“Thedemand claims toowill settle down. searches aresubsiding. reasons etc, we have operated means, say, in afamilyoffour, fits.”MSUnnikrishnan,chair- September periodwerereason- cies being filled. Datasourced during the festiveseason stems onlyinequity and savings. Ithink eachsupplying48or49work- man, CII National Committee ablystrong.Someof thisrelatesto from Betterplace,atechnology mainlyfromthe retail sector so Fear leadstoincrease in In the pasttherehavebeen thatwillgetexpandedfurtherand ers means no workers under on Industrial Relations said. the upcoming festiveseason but platformformanagingthelifecy- some some of this is fortempo- demand. Howdoyou see SARS and Ebola, but Covid has will become muchsharper. that system willbeprotected Full report on alarge part of this demand is for cle of informal and semi-formal rary jobs. But demand forfull- Covidplaying arole in the hit the waynobody ever either forwages or forjob se- www.indianexpress.com permanentjobs. workforce,shows ninemillionin- time jobs is expected to sustain overall penetrationfor the thought. Howdoyou see this Do youthink thereshould be Expertssay it is likely 2020 terviews have been targeted.The postthe festiveseason.” FE insurance sector? will shape the industryin focus on the retirement Though it is notgoodtosay terms of innovation and aspect too? that Covid has been good forlife customer orientation? We have been lobbying for BRIEFLY insurance, but in the truestsense, Thereare shiftsthataretaking somebitof changearoundregula- Amid rising tensions with US, China it has certainlycreated farhigher place. Some aremoretactical or tion,thetaxtreatmentof annuity, levelofawareness. Historically, short-termand some long-term. we have also made requeston P-notes the industryhas been predomi- Both theregulator andministry treatment of commission with investmentfalls passes lawrestricting sensitive exports nantlysavings-oriented—almost have been very conscious and our ownregulator.Sothereare 95-96percent—butoverthelast driving things thatcater to Covid somestructuralissuesthatwe are NewDelhi: Investmentsvia six months we have seen abig needs. We launchedCovid riders workingthrough.Also,thelevelof participatorynotes(P-notes) trol law, includingthose outside growth in protection part. Last thatcango withourproductsand awareness on these productsis in the Indian capital market ASSOCIATEDPRESS of China, could face criminal year,protectionaccountedfor8.6 where customersgetapartofthe low. My sense is that therehas dropped to Rs 69,821 crore BEIJING,OCTOBER18 charges.Violationsof thelaw,such per cent of ourtotal sales, but in sum assurediftheytestpositive. been supplyside constraintstoo. at September-end. asexportingitemswithoutaper- the firstfivemonths of this year it Irdaihasbeenpushinggeneral So there areissues on all fronts— CHINAHAS passedanew lawre- mit, could result in fines of 5mil- went up to around 15 percent. and lifeInsurance companies to structural, demand and supply stricting sensitive exports to pro- lion yuan ($746,500), or up to 20 Honestly, Ithought it would take come up with Covid plans and sideandasthingsevolve,allof that DLFarmraises tect national security,allowing it times thebusiness value of the il- us 4-5 years to reachthat level. thatisgoing to remain foratleast will startgettingfixed. `2,400crore to reciprocateagainstthe US as legal transaction. tensionsmountbetweenthetwo Thenewlaw addsto thegrow- NewDelhi: DLF’s rental arm over trade and technology. ing uncertainty of Bytedance’s DCCDL has raisedRs2,400 Thelaw, whichwillapply to all deal to sell itsvideoapp TikTok to ‘High incidence of NPAs hinder croredebt from StateBank companies in China, waspassed Exportcontrols under the lawwill applytocivilian, military US firm Oracle Corp. In August, of Indiato refinanceexisting SaturdaybytheNationalPeople’s and nuclear products, as well as goods, technologies and Chinaaddedtechnologiesinclud- debt and to plan expansion. Congress Standing Committee servicesrelated to national security. Reuters ingvoicerecognition,textanalysis monetary policy transmission’ and willtakeeffect on December and content recommendation to 1. Under the law, China can take itslistofregulated exports. of the central bank said. monetary policy transmission ‘Fourbidders “reciprocal measures” toward trolleditemswillbepublished“in plier Huawei, Bytedance’sTikTok President Donald Trumphad PRESSTRUSTOFINDIA The workingpaper alsomade and lowers the loan growth rate,” forDHFL’ countriesorregionsthatabuseex- atimelymanner” in conjunction appandTencent’smessagingapp earlier ordered Bytedance to sell NEWDELHI,OCTOBER18 astrongcase forcapitalinjection said the working paper co-au- portcontrols and threaten itsna- with relevant departments, ac- WeChat on grounds of posing a itsUSoperations of TikTok to an in state-ownedbanks, arguing thored by Silu Muduli and NewDelhi: AdaniGroupand tional security and interests. cording to the law. nationalsecuritythreat,including Americanfirm or face ablockin HIGH INCIDENCE of non-per- that suchamove would increase HarendraBehera,Department of Piramal Enterprises are Exportcontrolsunderthelaw The newlaw allows Beijing to the datatheymay possess from the country. The newexportcon- forming assets (NPAs) in banks thecreditflowtotherealsectorin Economic and Policy Research amongthefourentitiesthat will applytocivilian,militaryand retaliateagainstthe US, whichin operating in the country. trol laws adds to China’s growing actsasamajorroadblockintrans- addition to ensuing smoother (DEPR),RBI.TheRBIsaidtheviews have placedbids forDHFL, nuclearproducts,aswellasgoods, recent monthshas triedtoblock Companies and individuals regulatorytoolkit thatallows it to missionofmonetary policy ac- transmission of monetary policy. expressedinthe paper arethose according to sources. PTI technologies and services related Chinese technology firms suchas who endanger national security take actionagainstcountriessuch tionsof theReserveBank,awork- “Presence of non-performing of authors and notofthe Reserve to national security.Alistofcon- telecommunications gear sup- by breachingthenew exportcon- as the US. ingpaperpreparedby theofficials assets in abank also weakens Bank of India.

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THEINDIANEXPRESS,MONDAY,OCTOBER19,2020 ELAVENIL WINS GOLD AT VIRTUAL MEET World number one Indian Elavenil Va larivan wonagold medal and Shahu Tushar Mane bagged asilver in the SheikhRussel International AirRifle Championship, held virtually on Sunday. In the 60-shot competition in 16 whichshootersfrom six nations participated,including hosts Bangladesh SPORT PTI and India,Elavenil shot amodest 627.5 to come out on top.

BRIEFLY Kings XI beat Narineclearedof Ferguson Locks out Sunrisers Mumbai after suspectaction Kiwispeedster announces his IPL arrivalinstupendous fashion as KKR prevail in Super Over two Super Overs AbuDhabi: KolkataKnight Riders' West Indian spinner Sunil Narine was on Sundaycleared by the Indian SYNOPSIS SYNOPSIS Premier League's suspect bowling ac- Fergie’s time in AbuDhabi, Sublime Rahul outshines MI’s tion committee afterbeing reported despiteDavid’s heroics heavy metalfinish in athriller lastweek.Narine wasreportedfor a suspect action during his team's clash againstKings XI Punjab lastSaturday and another suchinstance could have SANDIPG SHAMIKCHAKRABARTY ledhim to being barredfrombowling OCTOBER18 OCTOBER18 in the league. But, in arelief forthe playeraswell as forhis franchise, the SELDOM HAS afastbowler ever influenced ONE SUPER Over wasnot enough to separate IPL committee found his bowling ac- an IPL game as tellingly as KolkataKnight the twosides. In the firstone, Jasprit Bumrah tion to be clean. Riders’ Lockie Ferguson againstSunrisers tooktwowicketsforMumbaiIndiansandcon- Hyderabad. As if his four astounding overs in cededjustfiveruns. MohammedShami regular time were inadequate, he delivered matchedthe effort to ensureKings XI Punjab Baganfansflout the perfect Super Over to enable his side to stayed alive.Players involvedinthe firstSuper normsduringparade sneak in avictorythat seemeddistant before Over couldn’t take partinthe second. KXIP his intervention. Knight Riders had no hesi- knockedoff the target of 12 with Chris Gayle Kolkata: The victoryparade following tation in letting Ferguson, playing his firstIPL hittingTrentBoultforasixfirstballandMayank the handing over of I-League trophy matchofthe season. bowl the Super Over, Agarwalsealingthedealwithtwoboundaries. to Mohun Bagan on Sundaywit- and he killedthe contestinthree balls. The nessedgross violation of Covid-19 first, agood-length ball at pace, disarrayed Sublime Rahul safetyguidelines as morethan David Warner’s stumps. The second, ashort- In the regulation chase, Agarwaldeparted 50,000frenziedfans were seen cele- of-length ball, wasmiscuedfor abrace. The early.NicholasPooranwasdoneinby aBumrah brating on the city streetswithout third, aslightlyfuller off-cutter,thumped bouncer at acrucial moment. But KL Rahul’s anyvisible sign of social distancing Abdul Samad’s middle stump. The target of sublime55-ball77 kept KXIPinthegame.And norms. The video of parade wasalso three wastoo measlyfor KKR to mess it up. although the excellent Bumrah cleanedup uploadedonthe club's Twitter han- Only Warner seemedcapable of spoiling Rahulwitha149kphyorker,thelatterhaddone dle. Incidentally, Union Sports Ferguson’s dreamyevening, but in the inky justenough to keep his team in the contest. MinisterKiren Rijiju tweetedonthe skies of AbuDhabi, Ferguson’s name was video: "This is that famous festive writteninbold. MI’s heavy metalfinish football frenzy of KolkataIlikethe Even losing early wicketsrepresented an mostabout! ...” Bagan general secre- Fergie’s time opportunity to MI. Their undercooked lower- tary SrinjoyBose said he was"con- In the deafening silence of the Abu Lockie Ferguson celebrates afterdismissing David Warner. BCCI/IPL middle order,Kieron Pollardtobeprecise, got cerned" but to stop the passionate Dhabi's Sheikh ZayedStadium, Ferguson re- THESUPEROVER somebattingminutes.Theteam’stopandmid- fans from thronging the parade "was discoveredhis rhythm. Playing his firstIPL dleorderhave beendoingthejoballthiswhile. notinhis hands". game of the season and onlythe 10th in three chasing 164for victory, when he took out his at the topofthe batting order,Warner hardly SRH: 2/2 On Sunday, Pollardgot 12 balls and scored 34 years, the Kiwi wasalways daunted by the national team captain Kane Williamson. Next struggledinhis newrole. He nearly orches- notout,hittingfoursixes.NathanCoulter-Nile, 0.1: Ferguson bowlsagood length IPL massive crowds in the pre-pandemic over,after apace barrage,hedeceivedPriyam trated acalculated chase, in the face of a in his second matchofthe tournament, re- ball pitching at the middle stump. Zverevendstitlewait, years. “I couldn’t getoverthe noise,” he said Gargwith changeofpace. The side-of-the- proper fast-bowling assault by Ferguson. mainedunbeaten on 24 off12deliveries. Warner misses, gets bowled winsCologneIndoors in an interviewonthe KKR websiterecently. hand off-cutter barelynudged 120kmh, as It wasthe evening he appropriated Together theyadded57runs forthe seventh He offers the logic too: “I think it wasdiffi- the young Indian batsman swipedatthin air. Dhoni, guarding his wicket,running hard, 0.2: Samad hitstowards long-on, wicket without being separated,asMI’s heavy Cologne: Alexander Zverev ended cult to measurefor aKiwi because forthe As muchashis pace and the mastery in keeping the chase alive and bringing it down runs two metalfinish undid the good work of the KXIP his 17-month wait foratitle by BlackCaps, acrowd of 20,000is abig crowd.” changing pace, Ferguson’s accuracy of length the wire. Sunrisers required 18 from the last 0.3: Samad does notread aslower bowlersupfront.Fifty-fourrunsinthelastthree drawing on the pain of his U.S. Open Bereftofacrowd, on arelatively sluggish and line stood out. He mostlypeddledbackof over,bowledbyAndreRussell. When Warner ball, goes foraslog, misses it and overs took the defending champions to 176/6. final defeat to beat Felix Auger- surface, Ferguson’s searing pace washotter length,anglingintotheright-handerandpitch- got the strike, theyneeded16off five.The gets bowled They were 38/3 in the sixth over and 119/6 in Aliassime 6-3, 6-3 and win the than the blazing sun. Manish Pandeywould ing in the corridor.The IPL in the deserthas next three deliveries thundered to the ropes the17th. KXIP lostthe toss but respondedbril- Cologne Indoors on Sunday. Zverev admit. The Sunrisers batsman thought he had been something of an oasis forfastbowlers, in typical Warner fashion. All shoulders and liantly. YoungArshdeepSinghdismissedRohit has had abreakthrough year in sizedupthe deliveryand offeredthe likeliest theout-and-out-ones,andFerguson’srisehas forearms. But offthe lasttwo,hemanaged KKR:3/0 SharmaandIshanKishaninsidethePowerplay. Grand Slam tournamentswith his stroke to avertthe looming danger.Hetriedto further bolsteredthe narrative.His matchfig- justthree, taking the matchtothe Super MohammedShami removedSuryakumar firstsemifinal at the Australian dig out aflat and flaming yorker,dipping and ures -4.3-0-17-5 –tell avivid tale. Over.His side wasbeaten, but the chase shed 0.1: Rashid Khan to Morgan, no run Yadav. ButKrunalPandya’s58-runpartnership Open in Januaryand firstfinal at the tailing intohis off-stump. But even before his another dimension of Warner’s batting. 0.2: Morgansweeps one towards with Quinton de Kock steadiedthe ship forMI. U.S. Open lastmonth, when he lost hands could executethe orders of his body, David’s heroics BRIEF SCORES: KKR 163/5 in 20 overs (S midwicket,runs asingle BRIEF SCORES: Mumbai Indians 176/6 in to Dominic Thiem. Zverev has said the ball had blastedthe off-stump. It might have been by sheer default that Gill 36, EMorgan34, NRana 29; TNatarajan 0.3: Khan to Karthik,dot ball 20 overs (Q de Kock 53; MShami 2/30) lostto he thinksalmostconstantlyabout Pandeywas Ferguson’s thirdwicket of the Warner endedupbatting down the order — 2/40) bt SRK 163/6 in 20 overs (D Warner 47*, KXIP 176/6 in 20 overs (KL Rahul 77;JBumrah 0.4: Googly gets deflected offthigh that final, and he credited it with evening, and he had nearly single-handedly to enable the injured Williamson the free- JBairstow36, KWilliamson 29, LFerguson 3/24) via Super Over guard, batsmen run two. raising his game in Cologne. "I had a pulledhis team backfromthe jaws of acer- dom of Powerplayfield restrictions. For 3/15) via Super Over Super Over 1: KXIP 5/2; MI 5/2 very tough final in NewYorkand, tain defeat. Hyderabad were 58 in six overs, someone who has batted mostofhis career Playing tonight:CSK vs RR, 7.30pm Super Over 2: MI 11/1; KXIP 15/0 the next final Iplayedhere, Iwanted to come out and playmybestten- nis," he said. Barca, Madrid lose ahead of CL openers West Ham come from 3-0 down to

Dortmunddigdeep, cleared across ontothe crossbar.Jaime snatch apoint from Tottenham Bayerncruise ASSOCIATEDPRESS Mataconverted apenalty kickfor Getafe in BARCELONA,OCTOBER18 the 56th minuteafter Frenkie de Jong VanDijktoundergo surgery Berlin: Borussia Dortmund needed fouledDakonam on the edge of the area REUTERS Liverpool centrebackVirgil vanDijk substitutestodig it out of ahole for BARCELONAAND Real Madrid lostfor the while trying to clear aloose ball. "Weknew LONDON,OCTOBER18 has damaged knee ligamentsand is setto a1-0 win againstHoffenheim, firsttime this season againstmodestSpanish it wasgoing to be ahardmatch," Barcelona undergo surgery afterhewas injured in while Bayern Munichhad no such league opposition, increasing the doubtsover midfielder Sergio Busquets said. "We GARETH BALE made his firstappearance for Saturday's Merseyside derbydrawagainst difficulties as it romped to another their stalledattacks ahead of Champions wanted to playatafasterpace, and we Tottenham Hotspur formorethan seven Everton, the Premier League club con- Bundesligarout. Bayern beat League openers and their own"clasico" clash. tried, but once theywent ahead it became years but his return wasovershadowedas firmedonSunday. Arminia Bielefeld 4-1 on Saturday Barcelona had itsfirstdefeat under even tougher.Wehavetokeep working to West Ham United scored three times lateon The Dutchdefender wassubstituted in what seemedattimes likeatrain- Ronald Koeman when it lost1-0 at Getafe on improve. This has juststarted." Barcelona to earn a3-3 draw. early in the game when Evertongoal- ing match, ensuring itsrecordofnot Saturday, right afterMadrid wasbeaten 1-0 hosts Hungarian club Ferencvaros in the With Bale on the substitutes bench, keeper Jordan Pickfordmade areckless losing to apromotedside since 2010 at home by recentlypromotedCadiz. Champions League on Tuesday. Tottenham startedinsensational fashion as challengeinthe box, whichleftLiverpool continues at leastuntil November The star-poweredattacks of the Griezmann's struggles continuedfor an- Son Heung-min scored inside aminuteand manager JuergenKlopp fuming. The club 28, when Stuttgartisnexttochal- European powerhouses appeared shackled other game. France coachDidier Deschamps Harry Kane scored twice as the hosts led3- did notspecify atimescale forhis return. lenge. Both Thomas Muller and by their opponents. While Getafe livedup Lionel Messi during Barca’s defeat. AP said lastweek that he didn't understand why 0after 16 minutes. Welshman Bale, on loan Robert Lewandowski scored twice to itsreputation as one of Spain's topdefen- Koeman playedGriezmann on the right side from Real Madrid, came offthe benchinthe Man Utd beat Newcastle 4-1 forBayern, the latter completing his sive sides by shutting down Barcelona, instead of the middle of attack.Koeman tried 71st minute, but instead of aglorious intro- ManchesterUnited neededalonger pre- feat of scoring againsteachofthe Madrid wassloppyand sluggish againstan Barcelona didn't have manychances, moving Griezmann intoastriker role at duction, West Ham rippedupthe scriptwith seasonto prepareforthecampaignbut4-1win division's 18 teams. The Poland inspired Cadiz that is backinthe topflight but theyweregood ones.Lionel Messi hit Getafe but Griezmann did little to help his astupendous fight back. Fabian Balbuena's overNewcastleUnitedisasignthattheyare fir- star's goals againstBayern forpre- after15seasons. the upright in the 20th and Antoine cause with aglaring miss. He remained 82nd minuteheader and Davinson ingonallcylindersagain,managerOleGunnar vious club Dortmund helpedcon- Sevilla also lostbeforeitvisitsChelsea in Griezmann wasted agreat opportunity on scoreless this season. Sanchez's owngoal gave West Ham hope. Solskjaer said. United recoveredfromanearly vince the Bavarian powerhouse to the Champions League on Tuesday, leaving the half-hour mark. Afterthat, Getafe tight- Zinedine Zidane wasataloss forhis Bale almostscored his side's fourth but West own-goalby LukeShawtowinwithlatestrikes sign him in 2014. Atletico Madrid as the onlyone of Spain's top enedits marking and Barcelona didn't team's performance againstCadiz. Ledby35- Ham's Manuel Lanzini struckawonder-goal fromBrunoFernandes,AaronWan-Bissakaand AGENCIES teams to celebrateavictory. It faces Bayern threaten again until Djene Dakonam al- year-old striker Alvaro Negredo, Cadiz deep in stoppagetime to earn his side an un- MarcusRashfordafterunder-fireskipperHarry MunichonWednesday. mostscored an own-goal latewhen he proved moredangerous than Madrid. likelypoint. Maguirelevelledthe contestat1-1. With one-third representation, the ‘S’ in ISL also means Spain now

Spain is one of the hottestEuropean countries in decision-making, technical abilities apart get(good)playersin2017 thanto getnow.Now MIHIRVASAVDA so theyadaptbetter,”Hyderabad FC’s director Number of Spanish players from being taught to be ‘respectful’. “Weare it’s full of players that want to come.” NEWDELHI,OCTOBER18 of football SujaySharma says. 409 who’veplayedabroad bet- producing ahugeamount of professional Theword spreadintheSpanishfootballcir- The winds of change, as is the case oftenin ween May2019&Sept2020. players and coaches but thereisnot space for cles and players became moreopen to the of- BETWEENMAY2019andSeptember2020,409 Indianfootball,firstblewacrossGoa,wherethis all of them,” Cuadrat, who ledBengaluru to fers. FC Goa’s newsigning, Alberto Noguera, Spanishfootballersplayedoutsidetheircountry. seasonof theISLwillbeheldinabio-secureen- the title in 2018-19, says.“Thereare limited says he decidedtocome to India aftergetting Number of Spanish The largest number of them, 49,headedto vironment. In December 2012,Sporting Clube teams in the firstand second divisions. In the good reviews from former FC Goa left-back players who playinIndia, England.Thesecondmostpopulardestination? de Goa appointed Oscar Bruzon, who worked 38 thirddivision, Segunda B, youcan find many Carlos Pena and Bedia. “Theysaid alot of good making it the second- India.Thirty-eightSpanishplayers,accordingto as an academycoachindifferent Indian cities, professional teams but theygivelow salaries things.Itrustthemandthatwasenoughforme mostpreffered destination for CIES Football Observatory’s Atlas of Migration, astheirmanagerinabidto rescuetheirI-League to players because theydon’t have enough to come,” Noguerasays.“Iknowthereare alot them afterEngland (49players). cametoIndiaduringthisperiod.Thisseason,al- season. Bruzon got with him acouple of moneycoming in.” of Spanish players, so that helpedmetocome mostone-thirdoftheforeignplayersandseven Spanish players, marking afirstinthe Indian Indiaspottedthatgapandbegantoaggres- as well as therewill be better chemistryand out of 11 team managers arefromSpain. league, and theyturnedaround Sporting Number of Spanish sively poachnot justSpanish but even players makeiteasier to getusedtoeverything.” Since the firstseason of the ISL in 2014,84 Clube’s fortunes, notdrasticallybut enough to 84 players who have playedin of other nationalities playing there. Theyhave It’sstilltooearly to judgeiftheplayersfrom players from Spain have playedinthe league earn respect across the board. Bengaluru FC manager Carles Cuadrat the Indian Super League luredqualityplayerslikeFerranCorominas(FC thesecondandthirdtierof Spanishfootballand whichtookoverfromI-Leagueasthecountry’s Little would have Sporting Clubeknown is one of the sevenSpanish coaches in till date, mostamong foreign Goa), Miku, Dimas Delgado (both Bengaluru), thecoachescansubstantiallyraisethestandard premier championship lastyear. backthen that their move,rootedindespera- the Indian Super League this season. players followedbyBrazil (51). Edu Bedia, Igor Angulo (FC Goa), Aridane of India’s domestic league. One waytounder- Chances arethat ateam managed by a tion, would markaparadigm shiftinthe do- Santana(Hyderabad)andVictorGomez(Kerala standtheimpactwillbeby seeinghowwellthe Spaniardwill become champions, notjustbe- mestic game. When the ISL waslaunchedin Blasters), among others. teams fare in the continental competitions – cause theyare moreinnumber and thus auto- 2014,the focus in terms of recruitment shifted years later,thereisalot of respect forthe play- onthesecondandthirdtierof Spanishfootball, Theyhaveplayedunder the likes of Jose ATKMohunBagan(coachedbyAntonioHabas) maticallytiltingtheoddsintheirfavourbutalso to playersfromEuropeandSouthAmerica.And ers who arecoming here.” wheretheycouldgetgoodplayerswithintheir Francisco Molina (ATK) and Alberto Roca and Cuadrat’s Bengaluru will playinthe AFC because that has been the trend. In ISL’s short as Spanish coaches entered the fray,doors Ittookafew yearsto changetheoutlook.As budget.From10inthe firstseason to 24 last (Bengaluru),whogot biggerandbetteroppor- Cup while Juan Ferrando’s FC Goa, who have history,onlytwice have non-Spanish coaches openedfor players from the region. theclubsdidaway withthemarqueesigning– term, the number of players with experience tunitiesbackhomeafterspendingtimeinIndia filledtheir foreign players' quotawith wonthe league –former Italyinternational It took time, however, forthe Spanish pros afamous playerwho waslooking forone last of playinginSpainbegantoincreaseeveryyear. andotherpartsof Asia.Molinaisnowthesport- Spaniards, will become the firstIndian side to Marco Materazzi (2015)and Englishman John to take India seriously. “Some years ago, when paycheckbeforehanging his boots –theybe- This season, exceptChennaiyin and East ing director of Spanish football federation and playinthe AFC Champions League. Gregory(2017-18), both with Chennaiyin. youtalked about Indian football in Spain and ganlookingatyoungplayerswhowere notnec- Bengal(bothwithnon-Spanishcoaches),each Roca,whowasappointedasHyderabad’sman- It is also likelythat before theyget achance It wasn't always likethis. In the pre-ISL era, otherparts of Europe,peopledidnottakeitse- essarilyknown names. “The teams learned teamhasatleastoneplayerwithexperienceof agerthisseason,got acallfromBarcelonaman- to influencetheIndiangame,theclubswillfind whenplayersfromAfricawere insuchhighde- riously. Theythoughtitwasaveryexoticleague howtostreamlineto the(recruitment)process playing in Spain –some likeFCGoa and ager Ronald Koeman to join his coaching staff. newer, cheaper catchment areas, with coun- mand, those who ranfootball clubs half-joked whereyou go when youare old and want to andlookedathowsuccesswasachievedinthe Hyderabad have all six foreigners who have “All these players and coaches have alot of trieslikeArgentinaalreadyontheradarof afew. that Europeans would notbeable to survive in earneasymoney,”says BengaluruFCmanager previous years,” Sharma says. playedthere(eachteam has to followthe ‘6+1’ respect in Spain so noweverybody is thinking, Fornow,though, Indian football’s Spanish the heat, convenientlyignoring the fact that it Carles Cuadrat. “This is the information we got As more and moreSpaniards startedhav- rule, the plus-one being aplayerfromAsia). something is happening in India and theyare connectionremainsfirm.Somuchso,thateven wasdifficult forany playertobeattheir best and in general, people were thinking onlyold ingaprofoundimpactontheirrespective clubs, Cuadrat says atypical playerfromSegunda getting serious about football,” Cuadrat says.“I if ‘S’ in the ISL could well the substituted for during games whichstartedat 3pm. “I believe players go and it’s notreal football. Now, seven the executivesbegan to focus moreand more andSegundaDivisionBwould bewell-trained can definitelysay that it wasmoredifficult to Spain, it won’t feel tooout of place.

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