01-15 February 2020 The Asian Independent

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Vol : 04 : #36 01-02-2020 to 15-02-2020

China coronavirus cases rise to 7,800,

WHO declares health EMERGENCY

Beijing, The World Health Organization

(WHO) has declared the new coronavirus outbreak

a global health emergency after the death toll in

China rose to 170 , with more than 7,800 cases

confirmed in almost 20 countries. “The main reason

for this declaration is not because of what is

happening in China, but because of what is happening

in other countries,” WHO Director-General

Tedros Adhanom posted on Twitter, Efe news

reported. “Let me be clear: this declaration is not a

vote of no confidence in China. On the contrary,

WHO continues to have confidence in China’s

capacity to control the outbreak.”

A group of 15 experts announced the global

alert almost one week after its first declaration

when the organization assured the outbreak had not

reached the status of a global epidemic.

Over 12,000 suspected cases have been detected

– which means they have symptoms, but it has

not yet been confirmed whether or not they have

contracted the coronavirus – and about 82,000 people

have been in contact with patients and remain

under medical observation. Most of the new cases

and deaths have been registered in the province of

Hubei, home to Wuhan, where the outbreak originated

and which has been on lockdown since last

week. Hubei is suffering from a “severe shortage”

of medical supplies to face the disease, said its

governor, Wang Xiaodong. According to state

broadcaster CGTN, Wang held a press conference

Wednesday night in which he stressed the seriousness

of the outbreak in Huanggang city, which has

been on lockdown since last week, and promised

that the regional government would not allow the

city to become a “second Wuhan.”

Public television quoted a city hospital worker

as saying medical supplies there only provide for a

day’s work but they were almost sold out and there

was nowhere to buy them. The worker added that

some doctors were wearing raincoats and putting

disposable rubbish bags on their feet for protection.

Meanwhile, Russia, which so far has not reported

any cases of coronavirus, has closed its eastern

border with China. Prime Minister Mikhail

Mishustin said the measure had already come into

effect to prevent the spread of the virus, which has

already been detected in every Chinese province,

including Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang and Jilin,

which run along the more than 4,000-kilometer

eastern frontier. The virus was detected in the

Philippines and India for the first time since the

outbreak. An Indian overseas student at the

University of Wuhan was currently in isolation in

the southern state of Kerala, India’s health ministry

said, adding that he was stable and being closely

monitored. Meanwhile a 38-year-old woman from

Wuhan tested positive for the coronavirus at a hospital

in the Philippines, where authorities were carrying

out tests on 29 other possible cases.Also, US

Health authorities confirmed Thursday the first

case of “local” transmission of the Wuhan virus in

the country. A woman in Chicago that got sick in

Wuhan passed it on to someone who lives with her.

A Japanese government-chartered flight with 210

Japanese nationals on board arrived Thursday in

Tokyo from Wuhan as part of the operation to

evacuate hundreds of its citizens.

Singapore also airlifted 92 citizens from Wuhan

on Thursday on a commercial Scoot airline flight,

which landed at Changi Airport in the morning.

Evacuees will undergo a medical examination and

Patient in Chandigarh tested negative for coronavirus

Chandigarh, A 28-year-old man with a

travel history to China who was kept

under observation at an isolation ward of

the PGI here has been tested negative for

coronavirus, the hospital said on

Wednesday. “His throat swab was sent to

the National Institute of Virology in Pune

and has tested negative for the novel

coronavirus,” the PGI said in a statement.

He is stable and would be discharged

soon, the statement added.

The patient, belonging to Mohali in

Punjab, was the lone suspected case in

the PGI. He was hospitalised with high

grade fever and headache on January 27.

must remain in isolation for 14 days. Thailand has

a commercial aircraft on standby waiting for

Chinese authorities to give the go-ahead, while

Indonesia is also preparing to evacuate its citizens.

New Zealand’s government said Thursday it is

also arranging for a charter flight to Wuhan with

the capacity for 300 passengers to evacuate its

nationals, as well as Pacific Island and Australian

citizens, subject to China’s approval. The United

Kingdom’s government confirmed it would evacuate

150 British nationals from Wuhan on Friday.

They will share a plane with 20 Spaniards and 30

other passengers. Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary,

told the press: “The safety and security of

British nationals is our top priority. Our embassy in

Beijing and consular teams remain in close contact

with British nationals in the region to ensure they

have the latest information they need.” British

authorities previously said that those returning on

the specially-chartered flights would be held in

quarantine for 14 days.Turkey began the evacuation

of 35 of its citizens from Wuhan Thursday as

well as 10 people from neighboring Azerbaijan.

Vietnam’s National Administration of Tourism

announced the country on Wednesday temporarily

stopped receiving tourists from areas in China with

confirmed outbreaks and was restricting the movements

of Chinese tourists and those who have been

to outbreak areas who are already in the country.

The Chinese Football Association on Thursday

said it was suspending until further notice all

domestic competitions, including the top-tier

Chinese Super League. The new season was scheduled

to kick off on Feb. 22. Outside of China, Hong

Kong Macau and Taiwan, other countries with confirmed

cases include Thailand, Singapore,

Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, South Korea, Japan,

Nepal, Sri Lanka, Canada, United Arab Emirates,

Finland, Australia (two new cases reported

Thursday), France and Germany. There have been

no deaths recorded outside of China. The symptoms

of the new coronavirus, provisionally designated by

the WHO as 2019-nCoV, are similar to those of

cold but may be accompanied by fever and fatigue,

dry cough and dyspnea (shortness of breath).

FIRST

CORONAVIRUS

cases confirmed

in UK

London : The UK on Friday confirmed the

country's first cases of the deadly novel coronavirus

after two people were tested positive for

the disease. Chris Whitty, the chief medical

officer for England, said that the patients were

both members of the same family and were

receiving specialist National Health Services

(NHS) care, the BBC reported. "The NHS is

extremely well-prepared and used to managing

infections and we are already working rapidly

to identify any contacts the patients had, to prevent

further spread," Whitty said. "We have

been preparing for UK cases of novel coronavirus

and we have robust infection control

measures in place to respond immediately."

Whitty said the UK was working closely

with the World Health Organization and the

international community as the outbreak in

China develops "to ensure we are ready for all

eventualities", the BBC added. No more

details were released about the patients' idenitity

or where they were being treated. As of

Friday, China's National health Commission

confirmed the death of least 213 people in the

country, mostly in Hubei, the epicentre of the

outbreak, with 9,692 infected.

There have been 98 cases of the virus in

another 18 countries, including the US. The

WHO on Thursday declared the outbreak as a

global health emergency. Outside of China,

Macau, Hong Kong and Taiwan, other countries

with confirmed cases include Thailand,

Japan, Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, South

Korea, the US, France, Germany, United Arab

Emirates, Canada, Italy, Vietnam, Cambodia,

Finland, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the

Philippines. However, there were no deaths

reported outside of China.

2

01-02-2020 to 15-02-2020 ASIA

www.theasianindependent.co.uk

Maha 'moral brigade' assaults couple, molests woman

Jalna (Maharashtra) :

Four members of a self-proclaimed

'moral brigade' this

week assaulted a young college-going

couple and molested

the woman at an isolated

spot on the outskirts of

Godegaon, officials said here

on Friday. The police have

identified all the accused and

nabbed two of them from Jalna

district, said a top official.

The incident, which happened

on January 29, came to

the fore after a private TV

channel got hold of a video shot

by one of the accused, prompting

the police to take action in

the matter that sparked outrage

among leaders across political

parties. "We have arrested two

New Delhi : The Enforcement

Directorate (ED) has attached movable

and immovable properties of

Assadullah Biswas worth Rs 4.67

crore in connection with its probe

into fake currency case.

The ED in a statement said that

the agency attached movable and

immovable properties consisting of

balance in bank accounts, vehicles,

construction equipment, several

lands and a residential flat totalling

Rs 4.67 crore

under the provisions

of the

Prevention of

M o n e y

Laundering

Act, 2002 in

fake Indian

currency case.

The ED has

registered a

case of money

laundering against Biswas and others

on the basis of FIR registered by

NIA under Unlawful Activities

(Prevention) Act, 1967 in the fake

notes case.

The ED claimed that during

investigation, 34 FIRs and 27 charge

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Editor-in-chief

Columnists

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Harminder K. Bhogal

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persons, including one minor.

A search is on to trace the

remaining two accused," Jalna

Superintendent of Police

Chaitanya Siriprolu told IANS.

He said the victims are college

students in their teens. The four

accused forcibly posed themselves

to be a self-proclaimed

moral brigade though they are

reportedly not affiliated to any

such groups or political party.

Siriprolu said that the couple

did not lodge any police complaint,

but the police have

recorded their statement, and

two teams have launched a hunt

for the other two accused who

are absconding. The accused

have been identified as Atish A.

Khandare, Sushil S. Wagh,

ED attaches properties worth

Rs 4.6 cr in fake currency case

sheets, one prosecution complaint

against Biswas and others were

obtained from various law enforcement

agencies like NIA, NCB and

Malda Police wherein, it was

observed that the accused was

involved in serious criminal activities

and cases were registered

against him. "Investigation under

PMLA revealed that Biswas and his

associates had indulged in various

criminal activities for a period of

over two

decades

and generated

huge

proceeds of

crime," it

said. The

ED said

that Biswas

used to

work like a

mafia in the

area and despite a number of cases

against him, he continued to indulge

in criminal activities as he was in

possession of huge proceeds of

crime and continues to enjoy it and

has further used them to further

expand his activities.

Karbari R. Wagh and Krishna

C. Wagh -- who shot the entire

video at an unidentified location.

The video shows the four

including one wielding a 'lathi'

approaching the young unidentified

couple, roughing them

up, pushing, pulling, punching,

New Delhi : As the coronavirus

scare runs across the world

with one confirmed case in India,

Hindu Mahasabha has proposed

bizarre treatment for the dreaded

virus infection.

Swami Chakrapani Maharaj,

president of Hindu Mahasabha,

on Friday said cow urine and

cow dung can be used for treating

novel coronavirus disease.

He also said that a special yagna

will be performed to "kill the

novel coronavirus and end its

effects on the world".

"Consuming cow urine and cow

dung will stop the effect of infectious

coronavirus. A person who

chants Om Namah Shivay and

applies cow dung on body, will

be saved. A special yagna ritual

will soon be performed to kill

coronavirus," said Chakrapani. The World Health

Organization (WHO) has declared the new coronavirus outbreak

a global health emergency after the death toll in

China rose to 213 on Friday, with 9,692 confirmed cases in

the country's 31 provincial-level regions.

An Air India flight service will evacuate Indians stuck in

SpiceJet data breach affects

1.2 million passengers

New Delhi : A data breach has hit one of

India's largest privately-held carriers, SpiceJet,

affecting 1.2 million passengers in the country.

Security researchers who first revealed the data

breach told TechCrunch that they gained access

to the carrier's systems by brute-forcing the system's

easily guessable

password.

In a statement,

SpiceJet said: "At

SpiceJet, safety and security

of our fliers' data is

sacrosanct. Our systems

are fully capable and

always up to date to

secure the fliers' data

which is a continuous process. We undertake

every possible measure to safeguard and protect

this data and ensure that the privacy is maintained

at the highest and safest level".

The private information of more than 1.2 million

passengers were contained on an unencrypted

database backup file of SpiceJet's systems,

according to the report.

The details that the security researchers got

access to as part of what they described as their

"ethical hacking" efforts included the passenger's

name, their phone number,

email address and

their date of birth.

Acording to the security

researchers, the database

was easily accessible to

everyone who knew

where to look. Despite

alerting SpiceJet about

the data base, the

researchers said they did not receive a meaningful

response from the carrier. This led them to

alert the Indian Computer Emergency Response

Team (CERT-In). The aviation major, however,

did not confirm CERT-In's findings.

grabbing the girl's shirt collar

and forcing her away from the

boy, abusing and threatening to

summon her parents.

The boy and girl were seen

pleading with them, calling the

lathi-wielder as 'Dada' (elder

brother), seeking forgiveness

and asking to be released from

their clutches.

Bharatiya Janata Party's

Union Minister of State

Raosaheb Patil-Danve, who

hails from Jalna, took serious

note of the incident in Delhi

and requested Maharashtra

government to take stringent

action against the offenders.

Chief Minister Uddhav

Thackeray discussed the issue

with Home Minister Anil

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Deshmukh and directed that

action be taken in the incident

that took place around 425 km

north-east of Mumbai.

Nationalist Congress Party senior

Minister Chhagan Bhujbal,

NCP MP Supriya Sule,

Congress spokesperson Sachin

Sawant, Shiv Sena Minister

Dada Bhuse, and Maharashtra

State Women's Commission

Chairperson Chitra Wagh of

BJP have flayed the incident

and urged the government not

to spare the accused.

The incident sent shock

waves in state education circles

and college campuses with students

urging the government to

ensure their safety and protection.

HINDU MAHASABHA suggests

bizarre treatment for coronavirus

the city Wuhan due to the outbreak of the virus.

The new virus, which is of the same genre as SARS which

broke out in 2003, was first reported in the WHO Disease

Outbreak news on January 5, 2020.

It has progressively spread across many countries from its

epicentre in Wuhan.

Govt loses 23 paise on each Re

of taxpayer money used in PSBs

New Delhi : Each rupee of taxpayers' money invested by the

government in NPA-heavy public sector banks as equity are resulting

in a loss of 23 paise. "Over Rs 4,30,000 crore of taxpayer

money is invested as Government's equity in PSBs. In 2019, every

rupee of taxpayer money invested in PSBs, on average, lost 23

paise," the Economic Survey 2020 said. Compared to this, every

rupee of investor money invested in "New Private Banks" (NPBs)

- banks licensed after India's 1991 liberalisation - on average,

gained 9.6 paise. This means PSBs are far more inefficient compared

to private banks and hence they need to catch up fast.

"As PSBs and NPBs operate in the same domestic market, there

is a case for enhancing the efficiency of PSBs," the Survey, tabled

in Parliament on Friday, said. As PSBs account for 70 per cent of

the market share in Indian banking, the onus of supporting the

Indian economy and fostering its economic development falls on

them. However, in 2019, PSBs' collective losses - largely due to

bad loans - amounted to over Rs 66,000 crore, or nearly double of

the nation's budgetary allocation for education. The PSBs account

for 85 per cent of reported bank frauds while their gross non-performing

assets (NPAs) equal Rs 7.4 lakh crore which is more than

150 per cent of the total infrastructure spend in 2019. "The market-to-book

ratio, which indicates the quality of a bank's governance,

is 0.8 as on 20th January, 2020 for PSBs while that of the

average NPB is close to 4," the Economic Survey said.


ASIA

01-02-2020 to 15-02-2020

3

Growth in rail passenger, freight

transport; dip in accidents: Survey

New Delhi : The Indian Railways saw an

increase in ferrying passengers by 1.85 per cent

and also registered a growth of 5.34 per cent in

transporting freight in 2018-19, while the consequential

train accidents decreased to 41 as compared

to 59 on the previous year, the Economic

Survey 2019-20 said on Friday.

The survey was tabled in Parliament by

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. As per the

pre-Budget survey, during the year 2018-19,

Indian Railways carried 120 crore tonnes of

freight and 840 crore passengers making it the

world's largest passenger carrier and fourth

largest freight carrier. "Revenue earning freight

loading by railways during 2018-19 was 12,215

lakh tonnes as against 11,596 lakh tonnes during

2017-18, registering an increase of 5.34 per

cent," the survey said. "Passengers originating

was 84,390 lakh in 2018-19 as compared to

82,858 lakh in 2017-18, registering an increase of

1.85 per cent in 2018-19 over the previous year,"

it said. The survey also highlighted that during

2018-19, consequential train accidents decreased

from 73 to 59 in comparison with the corresponding

period of the previous year. "In the year

2019-20 (April-October 2019), 41 consequential

train accidents have occurred," it said. The category-wise

break-up of consequential train accidents

shows that the incident of train collisions

No evidence of misestimation of

India's GDP growth: Eco Survey

New Delhi : Amid questions

around data quality and claims by

former CEA Arvind Subramanian

that India's GDP may be overestimated,

the Economic Survey 2020

has said that concerns of inflated

growth rate are unfounded. "The

models that incorrectly over-estimate

GDP growth by 2.7 per cent

for India post-2011 also mis-estimate

GDP growth over the same

time period for 51 other countries

out of 95 countries in the sample,"

the Survey said. "Several advanced

economies such as the UK,

Germany and Singapore turn out to

have their GDPs misestimated

when the econometric model is

incompletely specified," it noted.

The Survey said that concerns of a

misestimated Indian GDP are unsubstantiated

by the data and are thus

unfounded. Triggering controversy

on the accuracy of GDP figures, former

Chief Economic Advisor Arvind

Subramanian had in June last year

wrote in a paper that India's economic

growth was overestimated by 2.5

per cent per year between FY12 and

FY17. This was the result of change

has come down to three in the year 2019-20 (up

to October 2019) in Indian Railways and the

incidents of derailment have decreased from 78

in 2016-17 to 46 in the year 2018-19 to 29 up to

October 2019. Even the accidents at the

in methodology for calculating GDP,

the economist had said.

"Official estimates place annual

average GDP growth between 2011-

12 and 2016-17 at about 7 per cent.

We estimate that actual growth may

have been about 4.5 per cent with a

95 per cent confidence interval of

3.5 to 5.5 per cent," Subramanian

had said. Subramanian had quit

from the post of CEA before completing

his term. The Economic

Survey authored by his successor

Krishnamurthy Subramanian said

that cross-country comparisons are

fraught with risks of incorrect inference

due to various confounding

factors that stem from such inherent

differences. "As a result, crosscountry

analysis has to be carefully

undertaken so that correlation is distinguished

from causality," the

Survey said. It noted that the base

year of the GDP Series was revised

from 2004-05 to 2011-12 and

released on January 30, 2015 after

the adaptation of sources and methods

in line with the System of

National Accounts (SNA) 2008 of

the United Nations.

unmanned level crossing accidents fell to zero in

October 2019 as compared to 20 in 2016-17, 10

in 2017-18, and three in 2018-19. The report also

highlighted the number of fire incidents in the

Indian Railways increased to seven by October

Just 15-min exercise

can make you win

Fortnite like a champ

Toronto : In great news for gamers, daily exercise in

the gym or park will boost your performance levels

while playing Fortnite or League of Legends (LoL),

regardless of fitness levels and emotional response to

exercise, researchers have found.

Time spent playing video games is often seen as time

stolen from physical activities. Researchers were surprised

that most participants in the first-of-its-kind study

benefited from the effects of exercise as video gamers. "It

was striking to see that those participants who were not in

exceptionally good shape or were not particularly crazy

about exercise also improved their video game skill level

after the single bout of exercise," said neuroscientist Dr

Marc Roig from the School of Physical and Occupational

Therapy at McGill University. "Video gamers could

potentially integrate exercise into their training routines

not only to enhance their video game performance but

also to benefit from the well-known effects of exercise on

physical and cognitive health," Roig said in a paper published

in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports &

Exercise. The researchers showed that as little as 15 minutes

of intense cardiovascular exercise, performed immediately

before playing a video game, improved the performance

of the popular online video game "League of

Legends" (LoL). A group of young individuals were asked

to either perform intense cardiovascular exercise, or rest,

immediately before playing the same customized mission

in LoL. Their performance in the video game was

observed and documented and found to improve after

exercise in comparison with rest.

The results challenge the earlier view that video gaming

and physical activity are antagonistic activities. "It

would also be interesting to look into potential underlying

mechanisms and whether multiple exercise sessions

would have summative effects on video gaming skills,"

the authors wrote. The latest statistics show that there are

2.3 billion video game players in the world and this number

is expected to increase to 2.7 billion by 2021. Online

video game platforms such as League of Legends or

Fortnite have 67 and 78.3 million players monthly,

respectively. Several studies have shown that increased

screen time, including video gaming is associated with

low levels of physical activity and that video gamers who

exceed screen-time limits are at greater risk of experiencing

health issues associated to physical inactivity.

2019 as compared to total six incidents of fire in

2018-19. About the cleanliness in the national

transporter, the survey pointed out that the railways

has launched special cleanliness campaigns

under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan Since October 2,

2014. "The railways has been holding regular

intensive campaigns since then with the sole

objective to achieve significant and sustainable

improvements in cleanliness standards," it said.

The survey said it has installed bio-toilets in over

2.26 lakh passenger coaches, mechanised cleaning

of stations also grew to 940 stations up to

October 31, 2019, as compared to 890 stations in

2018-19 while plastic bottle crushing machines

installed at 215 stations up to October 31, 2019 as

compared to 128 stations in 2018-19.

The railways also increased the amount for the

cleanliness of stations drive to Rs 643 up to

October 31, 2019 as compared to 643 crore in

2018-19. The report further highlighted that the

railways has identified 1,253 stations for development

under Adarsh Station Scheme and are

planned to be developed by 2019-20. "A dedicated

special purpose vehicle -- Indian Railway

Station Development Corporation (IRSDC)

Limited -- has been set up to carry out modernization

of railway stations, which is working on

modernization of many stations on public private

partnership mode," it added.

2 Indian sailors

dead in tanker blast

off UAE coast

Dubai : Two Indian sailors were killed and several others were

reported missing after a Panamanian-flagged tanker caught fire off

the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) coast, the government here

announced.

The UAE Federal Authority for Land and Maritime Transport

said efforts were to trace the missing persons, whose nationalities

were not known, the Khaleej Times reported on Friday.

The Authority said the fire, which broke out on board the tanker

21 miles off the UAE coast on Wednesday night, was quickly

brought under control by firefighters. "Rescue and emergency

response teams provided relief to the crew after they received a

distress call and rescued the tanker's crew," the Authority said in a

statement on Thursday. According to sources, the tanker had

around 55 people on board, including 12 crew members at the time

of the accident. Two Indians perished in the fire while two others

were reported to be critical. Another 10 were said to be missing,

the sources added.

However, Khaleej Times did not independently verify the information

and an official response was awaited.

4

01-02-2020 to 15-02-2020 ASIA


Pakistan halts flights

to and from China

Islamabad : Pakistan on Friday halted

flights to and from China with immediate

effect, as the death toll from the

coronavirus outbreak in China rose to

213, prompting the WHO to declare it as

a global health emergency.

"All direct flight operations between

Pakistan and China are to be stalled on an

immediate basis initially till February 2,"

The Express Tribune quoted a notification

issued by the Civil Aviation Authority as

saying. The decision, it added, was subject

Pakistan and China but it had decided

to suspend flight operations. On

Thursday, Special Assistant to Prime

Minister on Health Zafar Mirza

announced that the government had

decided not to repatriate Pakistani citizens

stranded in China in accordance

with the recommendations of the

WHO. A day earlier, Mirza had

announced that up to four Pakistani

students in China were diagnosed

with the coronavirus.

to "subsequent review". The develop-

A large proportion of the

ment comes after flag carrier Pakistan

Pakistanis living in China were students

of which over 500 students

International Airlines (PIA) on Thursday

decided to suspend flights to Beijing until Abdul Sattar Khokhar told Dawn news that were based in the central city of Wuhan, the

February 2. Senior Joint Secretary of aviation PIA had been operating two flights between epicentre of the virus.

Sun's surface seen in remarkable new detail

London : The never-before-seen images

of the Sun's turbulent surface have been

released by astronomers in the US. The

Daniel K Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) on

Hawaii has released pictures that show features

as small as 30km across the sun, reported

the BBC. This is remarkable when set

against the scale of our star, which has a

diameter of about 1.4 million km and is 149

million km from Earth. The cell-like structures

are roughly the size of the US state of

Texas. They are convecting masses of hot,

Shami is the best fast bowler

in the world : Akhtar

New Delhi : Jasprit Bumrah

might be considered one of the

best in the business at present,

but former Pakistan pacer

Shoaib Akhtar believes that it is

Mohammed Shami who is best

fast bowler in the world at present.

Akhtar not only praised the

Indian pacer for his brilliant

show in the third T20I against

New Zealand, but also said that

Shami uses his experience really

well in tough situations.

"Shami is a very clever

bowler. He is the find of India

and he is the best fast bowler in

the world. Whatever situation

you put him in, he always

excels, whether it's a world cup

or a T20 in New Zealand, he's a

very very smart fast bowler.

When he got to know that yorkers

won't work, he immediately

switched to length balls and

bouncers," Akhtar said on his

Youtube channel.

"When Taylor hit Shami for

a six in the first ball, I thought

the match was over but that's

where the experience of Shami

came into play. He realized

there was little bit of dew

which will help the ball skid if

he hits the length."

New Zealand needed 9 runs

off the last six balls when Virat

Kohli handed the ball to Shami

and even though Ross Taylor

started the over with a six, the

excited gas, or plasma. The bright centres are

where this solar material is rising; the surrounding

dark lanes are where plasma is cooling

and sinking. The DKIST is a brand new

facility positioned atop Haleakala, a 3,000mhigh

volcano on the Hawaiian island of Maui.

Its 4m primary mirror is the world's largest

for a solar telescope. The telescope will be

used to study the Sun's workings. Scientists

want fresh insights on its dynamic behaviour

in the hope that they can forecast better its

energetic outbursts - - what is often referred

pacer kept cool and came back

to dismiss him off the last ball

to tie the game.

"Taylor hit me a lot through

the midwicket region in my last

match but unfortunately he

dragged the same shot onto his

stumps on the last ball. But

credit to Shami," Akhtar pointed.

In fact, India's limited-overs

deputy Rohit Sharma also credited

Shami for bringing the

team back into the game after a

master-class from Kane

Williamson had almost seen the

Kiwis stroll home.

"I think Shami's last over

was crucial, and actually that

got us the victory. Not my two

sixes. It was Shami's over

where we defended nine runs.

It's not easy with the dew,"

Rohit had said.

"The wicket settling in nicely

and two set batsmen out

there as well... One batsman

was batting on 95 and their

most experienced player was at

the other end. Hats off to Shami

to bowl that over and get us

back into the game and into the

Super Over."

to as "space weather". Colossal emissions of

charged particles and entrained magnetic

fields have been known to damage satellites

at the Earth, to harm astronauts, degrade

radio communications, and even to knock

power grids offline. DKIST is a complement

to the Solar Orbiter (SolO) space observatory

which is being launched next week from

Cape Canaveral in Florida. This joint

European-US probe will take pictures of the

Sun from the closest ever vantage point from

just 42 million km from the surface.

Indian-Americans to hold Satyagraha

in Washington on Feb 1

Washington : Indian-American community

members in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan

area have planned to hold a sit-in Satyagraha in

front of Mahatma Gandhi statue at the Indian

Embassy in the US capital on February 1.

Marking Gandhi's January 30 death anniversary,

the event organized by policy advocacy

group Young India encourages participants to

remember the 'Father of the Nation's' non-violent

protests in the wake of current political

atmosphere in India, the American Bazaar said

in a report. Talking about the silent ‘Gandhi

Remembrance' sit-in at the Gandhi statue in the

embassy premises, Rohit Tripathi, one of the

organisers, told the American Bazaar on

Thursday: "We are calling it a Satyagraha

because we are emphasizing that, as Gandhi

said, your means are as important as your end.

"We are focused on a methodology. A methodology

of soul force that incorporates our innate

beliefs and commitment to non-violence - in

word and deed. Just like the non-violent

responses to the latest string of legislative action

in India." Regarding the message they want to

send through the sit-in, Tripathi said: "The message

is that mass participation can only be

achieved through non-violence."


NEWS

01-02-2020 to 15-02-2020

5

IIW celebrates Indian Republic Day

PROUD OF ROOTS!

This Sunday, the 26th of January

2020 marked the 71st Anniversary of

India's Republic Day. On this very

day, India's Constitution came into

force in the year 1950, which marked

the country's transition towards

becoming an independent republic

nation. Amongst several other grand

Indian Republic Day celebrations held

all over the Globe commemorating

this event, Inspiring Indian

Woman(IIW), a Not for Profit organisation,

based in UK, lead the Republic

Day Celebrations in Harrow, Greater

London. The "Hum

AurHumariBhasha" event was held at

the splendid premises of Zoroastrian

Centre, Harrow. Chief Guest of the

celebration wasHis Worshipful Mayor

Cllr Nitin Parekh, Guest of

HonoursHonourable MP Harrow East

Padmshree Bob Blackman, Minister

of coordination from High

Commission of India Mr Manmeet

Singh Narang, various other special

guests were Cllr Bandana Chopra

from Hounslow, Cllr Anjana Patel

from Harrow, Cllr Dr Anwara Ali (

Conservative candidate from Harrow

west in last election), Cllr Ramji

Chauhan, Cllr Krishna Kumar, Mr

Sardar Singh ( President and Director

Hounslow Chamber ), Mr

KuldipShekhawat ( Director MA TV ),

Mr KuhaKumaran ( Conservative

campaigner ), Mrs SonooMalkani

(Community Leader and Chair of

Harrow InterFaith) , Mr

MadhavTurumella ( Business man and

Philanthropist, Sanskrit Scholar ), and

Mr Manji Kara ( Social activists ), Mr

Ravi Bhanot ( Businessman and

Philanthropist ), Ms Anita Ruparelia (

Executive Member from Brent Indian

Association), Mr Vilas Kelkar, Ms

SulochanaSethi Founder 'Vedicaa',

Solicitors Ms Shalini Bhargava and Dr

Renu Raj, Former Beauty queen and

writer Rachnaa Jain amongst other

local dignitaries gracing the event

with their presence.

The entire Indian Diaspora also

felicitated Honourable MP Padmshree

Bob Blackman being awarded the

highest civilian Honour the

Padmashree by the Indian

Government with a standing ovation

and shawls. It was a moment of

immense joy and pride.

India's cultural unity and diversity

was exemplified in various creative

and outstanding performances that

were showcased in this event. Some of

the Program highlights included

Fancy Dress by children of all ages,

Yoga performance by Indira & Dr

VishwanathSharma, Kathak Dance

Recitals,, Mile Sur MeraTumhara

dance by SaranyaPatil& Group,

Vandemataram medley by Smrithi,

Sashwath&PavithraVenkatesh, Bhajan

by BhajaGovindham Group, Singing

& Dancing Medley by Indradhanush

Kids namely Riddhi Mittal, Shreya

Paul, RishikaMazumdar andArushi

Yadav, Yoga Fusion Dance-Thematic

Dance presentation by

VarshaBalsubramaniam and group-

Dhrithi, Sowmya, Thaathvi, Varshini,

Harshith,Adithi, Shivani, Vivaan,

Ritu's Dance studioShruthikannan -

Priyam Bharatham, NishthaChezian,

MishikaaVivekanandhan - Jai ho ,

Rohit - Senthamizhnaadu Tamil patriotic

song, Tanvi and Stuti group -

Deshrangila and Dheem ta dhare,

VarshaBalasubramanian, Ishasapre ,

Ashirajain, Shreya Avhad, Alisha

Srivatsava,SnigdhaThaman,Elsa D

souza, Vihaan Kumar with

Bhaarathumko, KrishaMakwana- A

Vatan e mere Vatan from Raazi ,

Shrivarshini , Avaya &Gayathri -

RamachanrayaJanaka with

Bharatnatyam, Anika sharma- Naino

wale neMahi Raval,Aditi, Shikha -

Patriotic mash up dance Bollywood

, Neha and Sree- Made in India,

Lakshitha dance - kalyokoodpadyo,

Baani, Juhi, Ashwika, Prisha, Suvitra,

Ananya from Priya Group, Jasmine

Sarkar, Mahi Raval , Mansi Raval

withChak de India, Shriya,

Shrivarshini, Kairavi -a Medley,

Vanshika Gupta - Hum hongekamyab,

Sunny B Lalitchandra - national

Anthem and many more delightful

performances by children and adults

of all ages. The Grand Finale 'Indian

Potpourri' was presented by

PriyaKhushwaha of VishwamKathak

Kendra Group.

IIW has been instrumental in celebrating

India's Republic Day celebrations

in Harrow since 2016. The

event has grown by leaps and

bounds, and has received astounding

response and adulation from the public

in and around Harrow. Almost 100

children had registered for this grand

celebration and each and every participant

was given a certificate and

chocolate. Being Leprosy Day as

well, 'LEPRA CHARITY' representative

also spoke about their work

and had set up a table. The IIW team

led by PavithraVenkatesh did a commendable

job handing all the organising,

handling queries as well as

smooth registration. Congratulations

to the others in the IIW Team;

ShitalKamkar,KomalGaneriwala,

NituSaxena, Nilanjana Paul,

Priyanka Verma, SeemaKhandelwal,

Kuldeep Kaur Gill,

HeenaZala,Gayatri, Pooja Nikhil

Patel, Srividya, Devina Rishi and

VaishaliNagpal. The entire programme

was compered by Darshana

Shah and Swati Patel who kept the

audience engaged. Many women

entrepreneurs had set up their stalls

too. Photographs Credit- Mr C K

Naidu The event's purpose was to

instil love for the motherland

amongst the British (Indian) Kids,

which it successfully fulfilled.

Here's looking forward to many

more such unforgettable and magnificent

celebrations bringing together the

Indian Diaspora based in the UK.

- Gayatri Shenoy

6 01-02-2020 to 15-02-2020 ASIA


Bahujan movement’s must build counter cultural alternatives

as per vision of Baba Saheb Ambedkar – Phule – Periyar.

Minister Smriti Irani yesterday participated in a

marriage programme in Deoria. It was a combined

marriage in which about 340 couples got married.

BJP’s big leaders and ministers were present

except for the chief minister. Smriti Irani said that

now BJP MPs, MLAs, DMs and other officers are

giving invite for the marriage ceremony of the

daughters of the poor. One need not be amused

here. The marriage of the girls is the biggest ceremony

for a family in India and politicians have

found the best way to ‘reach’ the communities

through this. Whether there is any developmental

work or not, whether new employment are generated

or not, people are not bothered but if a neta

participate and offer some money for the marriage

of your female ward then he or she is the ‘greatest’.

Yesterday, Ministry of culture in Delhi said that it

want a vision document for 2024 and that festivals

like Karwachauth, Bhaiyadooj and Rakhi Bandhan

will be placed as ‘India’s heritage at the UNESCO. I

thought may be they can also place Sati, a special

‘love’ of a woman to her husband as she does not

‘really’ ‘want’ to live with any one else and in

Rajasthan we still have glorification for her. Political

leaders across the spectrum cant condemn it. A ‘brahmin’

‘secular’ like Prabhash Joshi and his Jansatta

openly supported it and so was Vijaya Raje Scindia.

So what is the difference now. Those were the

days when people would just not fight too much or

defend it ‘ideologically’. Today, the brahmanical

elite has justification for everything including

Manusmriti and they have contempt for the others

even a majority of the children of these elite enjoy

‘western luxuries’ of democracy and freedom.

If anybody has any doubt then please try to

understand the ‘chronology’. The inter-caste marriages

will be resisted and it will be only done

through love marriages. The inter caste or inter

religious marriages will be opposed because they

will then dilute the ‘purity’ of the caste which is

more important than the religion itself. They cant

openly deny ‘inter-caste’ marriages hence they created

a new term ‘love jehad’ to suit the interest of

every one. So, a few of us might be upset with the

leaders and their fulminations but most of the public

in our societies love that and dont want to cross

the caste boundaries. We dream that these will be

broken but the work is going on to keep them intact

as that will be the only to keep brahmanical hegemony

over culture and knowledge.

And the ‘garibs’ are happy with this ‘charity’ to

give it to his daughter during the marriage. So our

campaign against dowry dilute and is nullified

when the government

itself is giving

and this in

Sharjeel Imam must

be shot dead in

public: BJP MLA

Lucknow : Controversial BJP legislator Sangeet Som said on

Friday that people like Sharjeel Imam, who talk about "breaking

India", should be "shot

dead publicly".

Som, who is an accused

in a riot case himself, said:

"The women sitting on

protests have no work, a

probe is needed to find out

the source of funding of

these protests. As far as

people like Sharjeel Imam,

who talk of breaking India,

are concerned, such people

should be shot dead publicly."

Imam, a JNU student is

in police custody following

his controversial remark

about "cutting off Assam" from India. Som's statement came in the

context of anti-CAA protests at Delhi's Shaheen Bagh and

Lucknow's Clock Tower, where hundreds of women have been

staging a sit-in against the new citizenship law for over a month.

On Thursday, women in Aligarh also joined in by sitting on an

indefinite dharna at Eidgah, even as the police booked 250 of them

for unlawful assembly. The MLA's reaction came a day after a gunwielding

man opened fire on protesters near Jamia Millia Islamia,

injuring a student. Som, who is not new to controversies, had earlier

called Owaisi an agent of Pakistan for opposing the Citizenship

(Amendment) Bill in Parliament. He also attacked the Congress

over the issue, saying that both the Congress and Owaisi ‘should go

to Pakistan'. "Both Congress and Owaisi will have to go to Pakistan

if they do not change their attitude especially when a Bill is being

introduced for the welfare of our country... "The Congress and

Owaisi eat and breathe in our country but they speak on the political

and diplomatic line that suits Pakistan," he had said.

Som is known for his extreme views and is an accused in the

2013 Muzaffarnagar riots.

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

social and human rights activist

equal marriage ceremony has now officials participating

in it. Now, the next neta or the government

will never do away with it and the only thing they

will do it is to increase the amount or change the

name according to the first families of their political

ideologies. This is terrible. Netas are not

Periyar who changed the marriage culture in

Tamilnadu and brought the whole issue of self

respect. Our marriages have nothing to do with self

respect or equality of girls. They are just a social

gathering of the parents of the boys and the girls

and now BJP is using that socialisation for its benefits

as gifts had photographs of Modi, Yogi, Smriti

and all. Cant these gifts be given in a more sober

way. Do we give gifts in the similar way in our

homes or families, with our photographs which

look as charity and not as a gift.

Today, we are witnessing that Air

India is being sold, BPL is sold,

BSNL is on its way out. Everything

that has sound infrastructure and

huge possibilities is being sold to

cronies. Railways is privatised clandestinely

and the ministers say that

it is not government’s job to run

hotels and companies. I was just thinking that what

is government’s job. It does not want to create job.

it is selling our assets. It does not want to own

Railways and Airlines so what the work for the

loyal officers Give it a thought dear friends.

Government want to withdraw from everywhere

and then perhaps the only work for the governments

will be to ‘distribute’ wedding cards and

organises weddings in masses. It will serve multiple

agendas. One, the money ‘should’ only be

given to those who get married through ‘rishta’ and

parents sanctions who will not dare to cross their

caste boundaries and it suits the interests of those

in power that every caste remain in their own ghettos.

Then, we continue to impose new festivals like

Karwachauth which was not heard in Poorvanchal

or Bihar are becoming popular hear. In fact, new

initiative can be launched where Minister should

invite women to join ‘Karwachauth’ festivals and I

can bet they will have thousands of women coming.

You will not need ‘developmental’ agenda and

work as netas, mantris and people are happy in

their festivals and tyohars all the years. India is the

most suited country for non developmental agenda,

yes, all in the name of culture as it help maintain

status quo and isolate and ostracise the changemakers.

Who need them now when the government

is taking over the cultural guardians of the people.

Unfortunately, those who could have challenged

this cultural hegemony of the brahmanical castes

are not even read and follow Periyar or Dr Baba

Saheb Ambedkar honestly. I have always said that

India need a cultural revolution and it can only

happen when we understand how political hegemony

is maintained through cultural hegemony.

The cow belt netas are not ready for this and want

to acquire the hegemonic symbolism to be relevant

in politics and not to challenge them. The need for

a Bahujan cultural revolution is more than ever at

this moment but will our political and intellectual

class rise upto the occasion ?

48 hours after slapping

code, IIT-Bombay

on the BACK FOOT

Mumbai : After a huge furore

the 15-point circular of the IITover

its 15-point 'Code of Conduct'

Bombay shocked the academic

(CoC) of January 28 cautioning

fraternity by asking the students to

students to keep off "anti-national

keep off 'any anti-national, antisocial,

and/or any other undesir-

and anti-social" activities, the

Indian Institute of Technology,

able activities without qualifying

Bombay (IIT-Bombay) administration

went on the back foot and

uting leaflets/pamphlets, speeches,

the same, barred posters or distrib-

attempted a damage control. In a

plays, music or any such activity

late Thursday statement, it said:

that disturbed the peaceful hostel

"IIT-Bombay wishes to clarify that

environment.

(it) is not against any peaceful

The IIT-Bombay has been in

expression of opinion in an individual

capacity. The Institute is

of months as there have been sev-

the limelight since the past couple

strictly apolitical in its views and

eral demonstrations opposing/supporting

the CAA-NRC-NPR, supporting the

does not endorse any political ideology." centres of academic excellence in the country,

with a purpose to produce high-quality agitations in the Jamia Millia Islamia,

However, any student is free to express

his/her opinion in the individual capacity, as research and manpower for the benefit of Jawaharlal Nehru University, Aligarh

per rights and responsibilities enshrined in the citizens and the country.

Muslim University and thousands of students

took out a unique Tiranga Rally carry-

the Constitution, the IIT-Bombay said. Justifying the circular, the IIT-Bombay

It reiterated that the January 28 circular said that the CoC is signed by the students ing a 1,000-feet long Tricolour on January

was "standard and existing rules for hostels at the time of joining the institute, and provided

links of the document for Mumbai in the 17 hostels, the January 28 order was

26. With 11,000 students studying or living

assimilated from all IITs and was sent to all

students to remind them to abide by the and IIT-Madras hostels.

seen in the light of a collective called 'IITrules,

not disturb peaceful academic atmosphere

within the hostels and academic Party's Youth Wing chief Amol Matele has ent groups -- Ambedkar-Periyar-Phule Study

Meanwhile, the Nationalist Congress Bombay for Justice' comprising four differ-

areas." The IIT-Bombay added that the circular

was sent "in consultation with the immediately revoke the January 28 circular, Students Collective and Charchavedi --

written to the IIT-Bombay authorities to Circle, Northeast Collective, Ambedkar

Student Council" which comprises of elected

student representatives. It added that the issued a statement on Friday supporting the with their counterparts in other universities

while Students for Change of IIT-BHU which organise regular protests in solidarity

IIT-Bombay is recognised as one of the top IIT-Bombay fraternity. Among other things, around the country.


ASIA

01-02-2020 to 15-02-2020

7

AMBEDKAR – IS THE

ICON OF INDIA

Since the BJP has pushed enforcement

of the CAA, NPR and NRC and

this in return, has unified the minorities.

The BJP classes the Hindus as the

majority and the rest as the minorities.

The Muslims and the other minority

groups are grouping together to form

solidarity. The closeness has come so

close that the Muslim brotherhood has

also taken Dr. Ambedkar on board. It is

quite amazing to note that the Hindus

are trying hard to implement

Manusmirity to defuse the creditability

of Dr Ambedkar and instead the

Muslim mothers and sisters are proudly

displaying his posters.

The women from all walks of life

have now come to realise that the rights

they have got today are because of Dr

Ambedkar. When Dr Ambedkar was

alive he had to face a lot of hatred

because of his caste. He fought to outlaw

the caste system and brought pride

and dignity for the women who failed

to get any recognition through

Manusmirity. He drafted the Indian

Constitution and it replaced the

Manusmirity. It brought sigh of relief

for the women. It opened doors to progression

for them. It gave them new

life. Today the Muslim mothers and sisters

by displaying Dr Ambedkar posters

are showing that the era of hatred is

gone. One should be respected for his

ability and not to his origin. The idea of

the Hindu dominance is not acceptable

in modern India because the new generation

firmly believes that all the

mankind are same.

The Hindu intellectuals of that time

could not draft the Indian Constitution

so Dr. Ambedkar had to complete it.

The modern generation has come to

know about this and for them Dr

Ambedkar has now become an ICON

figure. Mr. Modi and Mr. Amit Shah are

good leaders but Dr. Ambedkar is well

beyond them. His name will live forever

for drafting and presenting the

Indian Constitution where the others

have failed.

SardarValab Bhai Patel refused to

accept Dr Ambedkar’s resignation

because he knew that no one else had

capability to finalise the Indian

Constitution. He will always be

remembered for drafting it in a manner

that has benefitted all regardless of

caste, culture, creed and gender.

Displaying of the Banners by the

Muslim mothers and the sisters is a big

credit to Dr Ambedkar sahib. Whatever

the BJP brings upfront is based on a

well worked strategy. Firstly they

cause confusion and under the screen of

confusion they fulfil their requirements.

Let us take two incidents and they are

life loss in Pulwama and imposing of

the Act 144 in Kashmir.

What surrounds around these two

incidents has made people cautious

about the BJP movements. The trust of

people towards this Government has

been damaged. It seems that to

impose Hindu Rashtra they will go to

any length. Mr Amit Shah’s firmness

in establishing of the CAA

should not be taken lightly. Now

let us take a look at the first incident

of Pulwama, where forty soldiers

have lost their lives due to an error of

the security forces. They failed to pick

the car that waited on the road for nearly

an hour for arrival of the convoy.

Should they have picked this motor

then this would not have happened.

This was raised with Mr. Amit Shah and

his answer was that our Security Forces

are highly trained and how and why this

has happened will be looked into. The

matter was shelved but now Mr

Davinder Singh’s arrest

with the couple of the

M. Teji

Hizbul terrorists has come

to light. Has Mr Davinder

Singh anything to do with the incident

in Pulwama? The Government is keeping

quiet about it. His arrest has started

an inquiry by NIA and whether the truth

will prevail, we will have to wait and

see. The second incident is that the

Amarnath Yatra was suddenly stopped

with the explanation that A Gun on the

top of the mountain has come to notice

waiting ready to be fired at the Yatris.

To gain confidence of the public a gun

was shown on the TV channels.

This instigated sending of a large

number of the soldiers to Kashmir.

Once satisfactory number of soldiers

was stationed in Kashmir, then without

any notice and in the darkness of the

night Act 144 was declared.

The members of the ruling party

were locked in their own homes and

India claimed Kashmir as it’s territory.

The nature attached to these two incidents

has made people much wiser to

how the BJP is operating. Following

these two incidents then the CAA –

NPR – NRC were put forward. From

the past two experiences the public

could read within the lines that this was

being done to spread Hindu Rashtra in

India so they decided to demonstrate

against it.

The demonstrations have spread all

around India. The people want to keep

Indian Constitution and they totally

refute this idea of Manusmirity because

it has caused division and has spread

hate in the past and will do the same

again. Finally, if Brahmin Hindus want

to claim that they are the true inhabitants

of India then they will have to

change worldwide literature because it

declares that they have come and settled

in India.

Today the world wants to know

who the true inhabitants of India are.

Several members of the British

Parliament have also expressed their

concern about CAA – NPR – NRC. In

opposition, the demonstrations

throughout the world are taking place.

Jai Bharat – Jai Bheem

8 01-02-2020 to 15-02-2020 ASIA


66% Indians find it tough to

manage their daily expenses

New Delhi : The common man is

now feeling the heat of price rise and

overall economic slowdown as an

IANS-CVoter survey shows that 65.8

per cent respondents are saying they

are currently facing difficulty in managing

their daily expenses.

The pre-Budget survey comes as a

crude reality and a reflection of the

current economic indicators on the

ground, as wages have stagnated

while prices of essentials, including

food items, have surged in the past

few months. Not to forget, unemployment

rate released last year shows that

it is at a 45-year high. Interestingly,

the sentiment was at the same level as

in 2014, in the UPA era. About 65.9

per cent people then had said that they

were unable to manage their expenses.

The mood of the people now, however,

is subdued in comparison to 2015,

when around 46.1 per cent people felt

that they were feeling the pressure to

manage their daily expenses. But even

in 2015, the majority view remained

the same as now.

What is worrisome is that the outlook

for the current year shows a substantial

jump in negativity. This shows

that people are not seeing any

improvement in their quality of life in

2020 as they remain negative about

the prospect of the economy and their

well-being.

The survey shows that 30 per cent

of the respondents feel that although

expenses have gone up, they are still

manageable. This number is a big

drop from 2019 when over 45 per cent

felt that they would be able to manage

their expenses despite economic headwinds.

Another 2.1 per cent people,

although a miniscule segment, said

that their expenditures have declined

and the same number of respondents

did not have an opinion on the matter.

According to official data, retail inflation

in December touched a 65-month

high of 7.35 per cent due to massive

rise in food prices. Another question

posed to the 4,292 respondents

showed about 43.7 per cent of them

saying that despite income remaining

the same, expenditures have gone up,

while the heat was more on another

28.7 per cent as their income declined

as expenditure rose. The survey

comes as an eye-opener for the government

ahead of the Union Budget

scheduled on February 1. As the economy

has slowed down significantly,

with the GDP for the July-September

quarter touching a six-year low of 4.5

per cent, there have been demand for

giving a push to consumer sentiments.

Lower personal income tax has also

been demanded, in line with the government's

recent announcement of

corporate tax cut. Reduction in personal

tax would be a major factor in

enhancing people's disposable

income.

The survey was carried out in 11

national languages across all states

and Union Territories in the third and

fourth week of January 2020.

Sun's surface seen

in remarkable

new detail

London : The never-before-seen images of

the Sun's turbulent surface have been released

by astronomers in the US.

The Daniel K Inouye Solar Telescope

(DKIST) on Hawaii has released pictures that

show features as small as 30km across the sun,

reported the BBC.

This is remarkable when set against the scale

of our star, which has a diameter of about 1.4

million km and is 149 million km from Earth.

The cell-like structures are roughly the size of

the US state of Texas. They are convecting

masses of hot, excited gas, or plasma. The bright

centres are where this solar material is rising;

the surrounding dark lanes are where plasma is

cooling and sinking. The DKIST is a brand new

facility positioned atop Haleakala, a 3,000mhigh

volcano on the Hawaiian island of Maui. Its

4m primary mirror is the world's largest for a

solar telescope. The telescope will be used to

study the Sun's workings. Scientists want fresh

insights on its dynamic behaviour in the hope

that they can forecast better its energetic outbursts

- - what is often referred to as "space

weather". Colossal emissions of charged particles

and entrained magnetic fields have been

known to damage satellites at the Earth, to harm

astronauts, degrade radio communications, and

even to knock power grids offline.

DKIST is a complement to the Solar Orbiter

(SolO) space observatory which is being

launched next week from Cape Canaveral in

Florida.

This joint European-US probe will take pictures

of the Sun from the closest ever vantage

point from just 42 million km from the surface.

The constitutional institutions have to stand

up and show some spine to protect India

A terrorist fires at the peaceful

protesters in Delhi as police

watch silently, injuring a student

from Jamia Millia Islamia.

Protests have been organised all

over the country to mark the

martyrdom of Gandhi who was

murdered by Pandit Nathu Ram

Godse, the first terrorist of independent

India. We might differ

with Gandhi on his various

approaches and need not to

agree but but none can deny his

pivotal role in the freedom of

our country and uniting people

against hatred.

Today, the sympathisers of

Godse are in power but they cant

'disown' Gandhi and the reasons

are obvious. They cant even

claim to be a Godsewaallah

except for the some Hindu

Mahasabha 'warriors' who dont

believe in our Republic and celebrate

Gandhi's murder as their

victory and denigrate Gandhi

and hold him responsible for

India's partition. No action has

ever been taken against any of

these 'deshbhakts' who refuse to

celebrate our Republic day and

openly eulogiging Godse. Even

BJP's spokespersons have not

condemn Godse act. Whatever

they do, it is a reality that the

murder of Gandhi made him

immortal and more relevant.

What is happening today is

serious and has the blessings of

the ruling leaders in Delhi.

Demonise the dissenters or protesters,

intimidate them, vilify

them, find a link, provoke them

to say something, show your

'bahaduri' in the presence of

police by abusing and accusing

the people protesting.

There was a time when journalists

used to be part of the

protests. They would report

more of the people's side and

their issues. Today, they have

become part of state propaganda

and 'original' fake-news agents.

Now, they dont report but they

incite violence, create false narrative

and victimise the victims.

Look at the events in Delhi.

Today when the young man who

fired at unarmed protesters, the

Republic TV reporter was live

reporting that anti CAA protesters

brandishing guns and firing. If

any one call these liars as news

channels then I can only laugh at

them. Calling them journalist is a

disgrace. It will happen. Media

today is just distorting information

and on war with people. A

few days back, two other fake

news peddlers 'joined' hand and

'visited' Shaheen Bagh in police

presence but could do nothing as

people did not want to speak to

them. They reported back : people

are afraid of speaking to them

as they will get exposed. To

harass the opposition and all

those who differ with the current

regime, these paid trolls shove

their mikes over unwanted people

in the name of freedom and the

champion of this kind of hooliganism

is Arnab Goswami and

his Republic TV. They are now

told to shout at the opposition,

call name to them, accuse and

abuse them. So this is new 'journalism'

with the blessings from

Nagpur. Everyday, an issue is created

and a 'murga' or 'bakara' has

to be found for slaughtering

in their studios

where the paid

'experts' will mock and

provide their 'expertise'.

In in the past, people used to

wait for newspapers, editorials

and special articles whenever

such things happened and

despite all our complaints, media

was ethical and saner but after

1990 and its Ayodhya campaign,

media became Hindutva media

abusing all the opponents or

Ram Mandir campaign. Post

2014, Hindutva Media has

become Manuwadi media

spreading fake news and hatred.

What they are promoting is

'depression'. I am afraid, what

can you expect of these youngsters

who have no idea of what

India is and who feel one community

or person

as a threat. The



continuous justification

of violence and portrayal

of opposition as anti national and

leaving all those foul mouths

unaccountable who have been

inciting violence and calling for

'goli maro saalo ko', the

manuwadi media has exposed

itself. So an Anurag Thakur or a

Pravesh Verma, Giriraj Kishor,

Aditya Nath, Sambit Patra, or

their followers in the manuwadi

media can speak anything and

can get away with it but if the

other respond then they face the

tyranny. If the reporters or editors

speak like this or play the distorted

news which can threaten

peace and animosity among the

communities and endanger unity

and integrity of the country then

they are anti national and criminals.

They violate the law of the

land. They are the real tukde

tudke gang. More the politicians

it is the media which has fallen as

it continue to legitimise the

crooked foul mouth politicians of

the ruling party and ask questions

from the opposition.

We have not seen any police

FIR on any of the foul mouth

ministers who incite violence.

Election Commission's banning

is just an eyewash as it does not

do anything. In a country,

where police is using sedition

laws against children just for

participating in a play that

question CAA, where people

are often charged with sedition

laws just for saying a thing or

allegedly saying something

without proper investigation of

some one's past antecedents but

where those who kills a police

officer on duty, are honorably

released, where police does not

act when the student call for

action or when a terrorist fires at

them. Look at ANI report just a

short while ago, saying that this

terrorist is a minor. How did they

get the copy of his high school

certificate so fast ? Should he be

exonerated or let off without

cases filed against him. What is

Delhi police doing now ?

The image of the Delhi police

was never that low as it is today.

I can understand that police are

under tremendous strain particularly

when the ruling party is

determined to play the polarisation

game but then police also

need to look at the broader picture.

They are uniformed and not

a private militia of any political

party. They need to act according

to the Constitution and act

against all forms of activities

that divide us. India will never

be stronger if we have politicians

with petty minds and criminal

intent who want to ostracise

one community or pitch one

against other. Our constitutional

forefathers did the hardest work

to unite us and made the

Common Minimum Programme

for us which is the Constitution

of India. We expect our institutions

to show some spine and

stand up for what is constitutional

as that only will be national

and nothing else.

www.theasianindependent.co.uk ASIA 01-02-2020 to 15-02-2020 9

Demolition of caste system essential for

the survival of democracy in India

The grand parade and military might

reflected at the Rajpath on the Republic

day are over. The sarkari programme

always look without any heart. It is

more on presenting your military power

as used to happen in the erstwhile

Communist countries. Russia still has

it, China has it and so many others but

democracies if they are true, dont hold

these parades and show of strength.

Anyway, it was essential for India to

feel good and proud of this. All over the

country, Republic Day is basically a

‘sarkari’ programme with President, the

governors taking salute, march past and

show of military power. Perhaps, in the

heart and minds of the old years that a

country is powerful because of its

armed forces. So, the entire nationality

discourse now revolve around the

armed forces and not the human being.

Even the armed forces, who hail from

the common men and women of this

country know it well that what they

need is respect and solidarity for the

millions of those fighting and defending

our borders at the extremely

adverse circumstances.

What is important about this

Republic day is that the people have

snatched the public spaces and first

time in Indian history, we are actually

having more faith in the Constitution,

its preamble and our republican values.

The visuals of Shaheen Bagh where the

dashing dadis along with courageous

mothers of Rohit Vemula and Najeeb

hoisted the national flag in front of a

massive public actually fade any big

celebrations of Republic Day. What a

sight ? These are people, without any

security gazette and no tamasha of

‘power’ assemble and repose their faith

in the constitution. The visuals make us

proud of Indian who have now taken

over their republic and its values. The

people are not merely those of Shaheen

Bagh or Okhla or Muslims but they are

coming every day from nook and corners

of the country to express their solidarity

with the hope of the country.

Any visit to this site right from Jamia

Millia Islamia to Shaheen Bagh give us

so much of knowledge and understanding

of what India’s youth particularly

those from the Muslim community

think of and what is their idea of India.

This is more than heartwarming that a

huge number of these youth are the

young girls and women. The visit to

this area is an eye opener and can definitely

enhance the understanding of the

political crisis and the crisis of credibility

of the top leadership of the ruling

party. These are Indians, argumentative

one who share their ideas and thoughts

through creative means and it must be

appreciated.

And we know how the power work

in the 21st century digital age. There is

a completely casteist media with deep

rooted brahmanical prejudicers who

have already decided to play to the gallerias

of the ruling party and make all

those who disagree with the government

and its leadership as anti national

or urban naxal. Now as far as they are

reporting, one should not have any concern

but what has happened today is

that they are not only cooking up stories

but deliberately pushing people into

aggression so that a police action

become inevitable. Look at the mischief

maker Chaurasia who was standing

in front of the crowd and asking all

those frivolous questions. Can a media

person provoke people while reporting

from crowd and if the people ask him or

her to leave then they give the argument

that they belong to the press. You have

a right to report but you have not got

impunity to speak whatever from the

place of a protest. It was clear that

Chaursia and others are only going

there to deliberately create violence and

then report from the chaos and anarchy.

Terming a whole lot of people, who

have been sitting there for over a

month, facing the chilled cold of Delhi,

with their children, many of them still

being breast fed, the likes of Chaurasia

only wish to strengthen the prejudices

against Muslims and all those who are

opposing CAA and NRC. Media watch

dogs have become useless these days as

the ruling party has created multiple

‘spokespersons’ and want to see your

lung power. The fact is that people can

‘identify’ these ‘patrakars’ from the

names on their ‘mike’ and their ‘I’

cards.

And it is not that there is one



Shaheen Bagh. There are so many.

Political parties have taken a back seat

as it is youth driven protest and they are

learning. Good that in Kerala too political

parties are just participating and not

‘dominating’ the discourse. Let these

protest provide us a young leadership.

Let the youth learn and lead. Dont

allow the para-troopers who want to use

this opportunity. It is heartening to see

the 650 kilometer long human chain in

Kerala against this. People are reading

Preamble. Faiz would

never have imagined that

his poetry which is a classic

would become a roar to

protect democracy in

India. Now, hum dekhenge

is travelling across the

country and being translated

in so many languages, right from

Kannada, Malayalam, Bhojpuri and so

many. It has become the voice of the

protest.

These protests have a shown us the

way that it is the constitution which

alone will protect us but I am still afraid

that we still have not made constitutional

morality as our social morality,

our cultural morality. Right now, we are

seeking refuge in the constitution

because we know it alone will protect

us but the real strength of these protests

and learning will be when each one of

us will say that now onwards, we leave

our religious moralities in our home, we

agree to disagree in a democratic way..

will India leave the caste supremacy ?

Will this meetings result in annihiliation

of caste, the dream which Baba

Saheb had for all of us when he envisioned

the idea of India, a prabuddha

bharat, an enlightened India where we

respect individuals and their choices,

dont kill our children just because they

love to some one not from their community,

where we have right to speech

and we are not frightened by criticism,

where we do not kill people for eating

food of their choice. Will we be able to

shed our contradictions ?

Will the Hindus, Muslims,

Christians and others make the constitution

their most ‘holy’ book or after the

battle is over, we all go into our shells

and start doing what we are best at..

back to believing in our caste superiority

and not allow any dissenting voices

in our communities, not allow women

speak up openly or walk openly in the

name of customs and traditions.

If Ambedkar is our hero, if Bhagat

Singh is our hero then we must be prepared

to challenge the historical wrong

and question the religious morality

along with religious texts and scriptures.

An India of the dreams of

Ambedkar Phule-Periyar-Bhagat Singh

can only happen when our religious

leadership is just at the back, when our

youth question wrong, where women

are allowed to participate in public life,

where the mind is absolutely free from

fear and the head is held high, as Tagore

said in his immortal words. Let us work

towards that India where the leadership

is a collective and represent the vast

and diverse communities that we have

and people do not live in deep rooted

caste prejudices.

These protests have brought back the

spirit of our combined efforts to protect

the idea of a secular socialist republic

of India. The youth, the women have

given us hope with inspiring struggle

and fight, let us more forward now to

democratise our society and cultural

spaces as political democracy will

never succeed as long as we have caste

supremacist dominating our social and

cultural spaces. Demolition of caste

system, therefore, become more important

for survival of our democracy and

for that all the oppressed from various

structures of caste, class, religion, gender,

region must join hand and spread

their outreach beyond their immediate

identities.

Vidya Bhushan Rawat is a social

and human rights activist. He blogs

at www.manukhsi.blogspot.com

twitter @freetohumanity

Email: vbrawat@gmail.com

10 01-02-2020 to 15-02-2020 ASIA


UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

participates in the

Republic Day celebrations of India

Coinciding with India’s

Republic Day celebrations

which falls on January 26 of

each year, UAE has lighted up

its most important landmarks in

the various emirates with the

colors of the Indian flag, as the

UAE capital Abu Dhabi lighted

up the Sheikh Zayed Bridge with

the colors of the Indian flag as

well as the Al Ain city of the capital

Abu Dhabi also lighted up its

main building with the colors of

the Indian flag. The most important

landmarks of the Emirate of

Dubai were decorated with the

colors of the Indian flag, as the

Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest

tower, was lighted up with the

colors of the Indian flag, as participating

the Indian side in its

celebrations, which had a positive

impact for the Indian community

exceeding three million

Indians residing in UAE,

expressing the depth of the relations

that bind the two countries,

which rose up to the level of

strategic partnership in all fields.

His Highness Sheikh Khalifa

bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President

of the United Arab Emirates, has

sent a message of congratulations

to the President of the

Republic of India. His Highness

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid

Al Maktoum, Vice President and

Prime Minister of the UAE and

Ruler of Dubai, and His

Highness Sheikh Mohammed

bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown

Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy

Supreme Commander of the

UAE Armed Forces, have also

sent similar messages of congratulations

to the President of

the Republic of India and the

Prime Minister. In addition, His

Excellency the UAE

Ambassador to India Dr. Ahmed

Al-Banna attended the Republic

Day celebrations of India and

witnessed the parade of the

Indian forces. HE the

Ambassador also attended the

reception organized by the

President of India and the Prime

Minister on this occasion.

In the economic field, the

trade relations between the two

countries are witnessing remarkable

growth and development, as

UAE is the third trade partner of

India after China and the United

States of America. The bilateral

trade between the two countries

is expected to reach up to 100

billion dollars in 2020. During

August 2019, His Highness

Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed

Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of

Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme

Commander of the Armed

Forces, conferred the ‘Order of

Zayed’ on the Indian Prime

Minister Narendra Modi in

recognition of his role in

strengthening ties of friendship

and cooperation between the two

countries.

The Zayed award is the highest

medal awarded by the UAE

leaders to the leaders and heads

of states. Occasion of the 150th

birth anniversary of Mahatma

Gandhi a postage stamp was

issued, in addition to the inauguration

of the Zayed Gandhi

Digital Museum, as an initiative

to strengthen relations and cultural

heritage between the two

countries.

PNB fraud: Nirav Modi custody

in UK extended till Feb 27

London : Fugitive diamantaire

Magistrates’ Court

fugitive diamantaire Enforcement Directorate and

Nirav Modi, who is wanted which was presided

will remain in judi-

the Central Bureau of

by Indian authorities in the Rs

13,500 crore Punjab National

Bank (PNB) scam appeared

before a UK court on Thursday

through videolink from his

London prison and was further

over by Judge David

Robinson, who told

the businessman that

his case is proceeding

in accordance

with the directions

cial custody pending

a full extradition trial

scheduled and must

appear for call-over

hearings until the

case management for

Investigation after the PNB

alleged that they cheated it of Rs

13,500 crore with the involvement

of some bank employees.

The ED has filed a chargesheet

against Choksi in a Prevention

remanded in custody till for a final hearing

the trial starts from of Money Laundering Act Court

February 27.

on May 11. His

May. Nirav Modi was in Mumbai. India is currently

Nirav Modi, who was arrested

from Holborn here on March

19 and is fighting extradition

proceedings since then was

called for routine “call-over”

extradition trial is scheduled for

five days starting May 11, with

the case management hearings

in the case set to begin once all

the evidence has been handed in

proclaimed by a special PMLA

court as a ‘fugitive economic

offender’ on December 5 last

year. Modi and his uncle Mehul

Choksi of the Geetanjali Group

making efforts to extradite

Nirav Modi from the UK and

his uncle Choksi from Antigua

and Barbuda where he is now a

citizen, to come and face the

hearing at Westminster to the court for the trial. The are being investigated by the law here.

STEVENSON LEADS CALL

TO ‘SAVE THE TOWERS’

A Wolverhampton MP has

urged the Labour-led city council

to save its outdoor education

centre in North Wales, as it

emerged that essential repairs to

the main building remain unfinished.

Jane Stevenson, MP for

Wolverhampton North East, has

written to council leader Ian

Brookfield after she received

correspondence from concerned

parents and teachers in her constituency

regarding the current

state of the Towers Outdoor

Education Centre in Snowdonia.

The centre has been open since

1961, and every years hundreds

of schoolchildren travel there to

take part in a variety of outdoor

activities. However, scheduled

repairs to the main building were

not completed last year due to

unforeseen structural

problems, and it remains

out of use. Ms Stevenson

says that this has affected

schoolchildren across her

constituency, with the

centre fully booked up to

this Summer. She says

some schools are fearful

about the possibility that

the centre may close

entirely and are considering

cancelling bookings.

In her letter to Cllr

Brookfield, Ms

Stevenson describes the

situation as “unacceptable”

and has demanded

an explanation from the

council. She writes: “The

Towers has a fantastic

reputation for providing a

unique experience to

Wolverhampton’s

schoolchildren, teaching

them skills and instilling

confidence and selfbelief

so that they can go

on to succeed in later life. I know

many of my constituents will be

saddened to see the future of this

valuable asset in question.”

She goes on to say: “I share

the concerns of my constituents,

and I therefore urge you to keep

the Towers open and ensure that

all necessary repairs are carried

out to allow schoolchildren

across Wolverhampton to continue

to benefit from the courses

it offers.

I know that the provision of

youth services for young people

in Wolverhampton is a top priority

for you. It would therefore be

deeply disappointing if the

council does not agree to carry

out the repairs.” A decision on

the future of the Towers is

expected to be taken by the

Council’s Cabinet in February.

715-C Parkfield Road

Wolverhampton, WV4 6EE

Tel. 1902 681 655

TM

Sky Digital Channel 0205

24 hour Entertainment

On Sky, On-Line, On Mobiles

Studio : 01902 457875

Reception : 01902 450533


ASIA

01-02-2020 to 15-02-2020

11

Protesters throng Delhi Police HQ to condemn Jamia firing

A mother's love :

ANIMALS have

feelings too!

New Delhi : There is nothing like a mother's love, and

moms in the animal kingdom are no exception as well.

Recently, a post shared by an IFS officer Parveen Kaswan

shows a momma camel covering her baby's neck in a winter

morning just like a blanket.

The post's caption read: "Momma blanket. In deserts, if

days are hot then nights can be cold also, especially in winter

morning. But Mother knows what to do !!"

As the post went viral, Twitterati fell in love with the

"Momma blanket". A user wrote: "Mother knows all n

Mother Nature knows even what no one can know and

hence every species is born with some special feature for

such climates." "Another wrote: "It may be hot or cold one

is never far away from the mother's hold.The warmest blanket

ever created !!!!" A post read: "Bhagwan sab jagah nahi

ho sakte hai isiliye Maa ko banaya hai (God cannot be

everywhere so he created a mother) and it's true for the

entire animal kingdom... beautiful pic." Another person

remarked: "A neck for every climate..."

Penn Conservative councillor

Paul Singh has welcomed the

installation of new play equipment

at the Windsor Avenue

Playing Fields in his ward.

The equipment is being funded

by so-called “Section 106

monies” that the council has

received from a nearby residential

development on the site of

the former Warstones Inn.

Local residents were asked

for their views on what the new

equipment should include during

a three-week public consultation

in May 2019. Cllr Singh said:

New Delhi : A large number of protesters,

mostly students, gathered outside the Delhi

Police Headquarters on Thursday night to voice

their anguish against the attack on a student near

the Jamia Millia Islamia during an anti-CAA

protest earlier in the day. The large gathering

outside the Delhi Police Headquarters, mostly

comprising Jamia students, alleged that the

police were hand in glove with the ruling

Bharatiya Janata Party. They also alleged that the

police were "mere spectators" when the assailant

opened fire on the protesters near Jamia.

During the day, a youth opened fire with a

country-made .315 bore pistol just when Jamia

students were about to start a march protesting

the new citizenship law from Jamia Millia

Islamia to Rajghat. It left a journalism student,

Shadab, with injuries on arm. The policemen,

COUNCILLOR WELCOMES

NEW EQUIPMENT

AT POPULAR PLAYGROUND

“This refurbishment of the play

equipment at the Windsor

Avenue Playing Fields is long

overdue, so I am delighted it is

finally happening. Local schools

and residents have been involved

in shaping the plans for the new

equipment, which is being funded

by money received from a

nearby residential development.

“Facilities such as play areas

are vitally important for the

health and wellbeing of our children,

and I know that many families

in the area will be pleased to

see this new equipment being

installed.”

Local resident Steph Haynes,

whose children grew up using

the Windsor Avenue Playing

Fields, said: “I am delighted to

see the play equipment at

Windsor Avenue being replaced

with new equipment. This will

make a huge difference to children

and families in Penn.

Having decent quality facilities

like this is so important in making

the area a family-friendly

place to live. I would like to

thank Cllr Singh for his help in

making this happen.”

who were watching the march passively, overpowered

the assailant. Before opening fire, the

assailant had shouted, "If you people want to

stay in India then you will have to say 'Vande

Mataram'." He also shouted 'Deta hu tumhe

azadi' (Let me give you freedom).

He then shouted 'Jai Shri Ram' and opened

fire, said a protester. The Crime Branch of Delhi

Police has been handed over the probe into the

incident. According to sources, the decision was

taken after Union Home Minister Amit Shah

intervened and spoke with Delhi Police

Commissioner Amulya Patnaik. "I talked to

Delhi Police Commissioner over Delhi firing

incident and directed him to take strict action,"

Shah tweeted. An FIR under the Arms Act and a

case of attempt to murder have been registered

against the youth.

Bullet fired at

anti-CAA

march, one hurt;

suspect held

New Delhi : A student of Jamia Millia

Islamia was injured after an unidentified

man opened fire at the anti-CAA march

conducted by Jamia Coordination

Committee. The attacker was apprehended

by the police and the victim was admitted

to a hospital.

According to witnesses, an unidentifed

man was seen raising religious slogans

before he opened fire with a countrymade

pistol at the anti-CAA rally. "He was

shouting 'deta hu tumhe azadi' ('I will give

you freedom') and opposed our march. He

later shouted 'Jai Shri Ram' and opened

fire," a protestor said.

According to an official, the bullet hit a

Journalism student of Jamia, identified as

Shadab, in the arm. He was taken to nearby

private hospital. The identity of the

accused has not been made public.

On kanshi TV

channel 772.

SATURDAY at

6 :00 pm

SUNDAY at

6 :00 pm

Ambedkarites News and Views

by

BUDDHIST INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Mob : 07411 251 804, 07847 307 059

12 01-02-2020 to 15-02-2020 BUSINESS


Despite 'Make in India' push,

India still a laggard: Survey

New Delhi : Despite 'Make in

India' and 'Digital India' initiatives,

India is still nowhere to be seen when

it comes to becoming a major hub for

producing final assembly of range of

products called Network Products

(NP), the Economic Survey 2019-20

said on Friday.

Stressing on to make India an

assembly centre for telecom handsets,

the survey advised the government to

adopt the Chinese formula to produce

more components for consumer electronics

locally and become a world

power.

Large countries like Japan and

China, which have survived in the

market for longer periods of time, took

off with an expansion of assembledend

products (AEP) while parts and

components (P&C) followed suit.

"The most recent entrants, Thailand

and Vietnam, have taken off with an

expansion of AEP exports while P&C

is following suit. For India, P&C has

recorded some growth in recent years

while AEP, with exceptions such as

passenger cars and telecom handsets,

has declined," the survey mentioned.

Despite being a "laggard", India has

huge potential to emerge as a major

hub for final assembly for Network

Products (NP), said the survey.

The global value chains (GVCs) for

consumer electronics are controlled by

SL's GDP estimated to

grow over 4% in 2020

Colombo : Sri Lanka's GDP is expected

to grow over 4 per cent in 2020, the country's

Central Bank said on Friday.

Central Bank Deputy Governor Nandala

Weerasinghe said the current forecast of 4

per cent GDP growth was based on broad

macro-economic projections, reports

Xinhua news agency.

Sri Lanka was projected to grow around

2.7 to 2.8 per cent in 2019 after the rupee

collapsed from 153 to 182 to the US dollar,

generating an

output shock and

credit contraction.

Meanwhile,

the Monetary

Board of the

Central Bank has

also decided to

relax monetary

policies and reduce policy interest rates

aiming to boost economic growth and stabilize

inflation at mid-single digit levels,

reports the Colombo Page newspaper.

"The Board arrived at this decision following

a careful analysis of current and

expected developments in the domestic

economy and the financial market as well as

the global economy," the Bank said.

leading brands such as Apple,

Samsung, Sony etc. within "producer

driven" networks.

In general, these products are not

produced from start to finish within a

given country; instead, countries specialize

in particular tasks or stages of

the good's production sequence.

Labour-abundant countries, like

Two-day strike hits banking

services in northeast

Guwahati/Agartala, Jan 31 (IANS) Banking

services were badly affected in the northeastern

states on Friday as most of the major banks

remained closed due to a nation-wide employees'

strike.

Leaders of the striking employees claimed

that the response of the two-day bank strike is

very good in all the eight northeastern states,

including Assam

and Sikkim.

The striking

employees were

protesting the

"anti-people

banking reforms"

and demanded 20

per cent pay hike,

5-day work in a

week, improvement

in pension

and family pension

schemes.

Over 80,000 bank

employees of

nationalised

banks in the eight northeastern states took part in

the strike. United Forum of Bank Unions

(UFBU) leader Jawaharlal Dey said that the

UFBU had been demanding scraping of new

pension scheme, equal wage for equal work for

contract employees and business correspondents.

The employees of various Regional Rural Banks

also took part in the agitations while the employees

of the State Cooperative Banks are not participating

in the strike. A large number of the

China, specialize in low skilled

labour-intensive stages of production

such as assembly while the richer

countries specialize in capital and

skill-intensive stages such as R&D.

"Among the late entrants, China seems

to have reached the inflection point of

"inverted V" while Thailand and

Vietnam are on the rising part of the

curve. The take-off process in NP

exports may be beginning in India,"

the survey noted.

In 2018, India toppled Vietnam to

become the second largest manufacturer

of mobile phones globally following

China with a world share of 11

per cent.

"India could manufacture around

ATMs were also closed, creating problems for

the people.

The UFBU, the umbrella organisation of nine

employees' unions had called the strike after its

talks with the Indian Banks Association in New

Delhi failed.

"The bank strike is not in the interest of the

employees alone... the agitation is to protest policies

of the central government

and to protect

the Indian banks from

so called reforms,"

Dey said.

The banking

employees have also

been protesting the

outsourcing of noncore

activities by the

authorities.

Government and foreign

exchange transactions

were also affected

due to the shutdown.

Protest demonstrations

were also

held in front of the bank branches in many cities

across the northeastern region by the striking

employees.

The UFBU leader Dey claimed that the

responses of the bank shutdown in most of the

northeastern states are very good.

Tripura government official Nandan Sarkar

said that just before the pay day, banking transactions

might hit the withdrawing of salaries of

lakhs of employees.

1.25 billion handsets across various

segments by 2025, firing up an industry

worth around $230 billion," suggested

the survey.

Currently, nearly 12 per cent semiknocked

down (SKD) components are

being sourced locally while rest of the

88 per cent come from China, Taiwan,

Vietnam and Japan - with China being

the biggest supplier. "Between 2013

and 2017, while India's import of telecom

handsets declined from $4.47 billion

to $3.31 billion that of telecom

parts increased steadily from $1.34

billion to $9.41 billion," the survey

noted. "At the same time exports of

telecom handset increased significantly

during the last three years. This pattern

is consistent with the emergence

of India as an assembly centre for telecom

handsets," it added. India had to

import $13 billion worth of components

in 2018, according to

Counterpoint Research.

Not many high-value components

are being sourced from India. As a

result, local value addition in India

was at 17 per cent during 2018.

"This helped the country save $2.5

billion in forex but increased assembly

operations in India which led to

imports of mobile phone components

going up to $13 billion," said Tarun

Pathak, Associate Director,

Counterpoint Research.

CHINA model of

labour-intensive

industries key to job

creation: Survey

New Delhi : Given Indias comparative advantage in

labour-intensive activities, traditional unskilled labourintensive

industries such as textiles, footwear, toys and

assembly hubs should be focused upon for job creation in

the country, the Economic Survey said on Friday. India

has huge potential to emerge as a major hub for final

assembly in a range of products, referred to as "network

products" (NP), the survey said. The experience of countries

that have achieved rapid and sustained export

growth, according to the Economic Survey, suggests that

India can reap rich dividends by adopting policies aimed

at strengthening its involvement in the export market for

NP. Citing example of China, the survey said that

"Labour abundant countries, like China, specialize in low

skilled labour-intensive stages of production such as

assembly while the richer countries specialise in capital

and skill-intensive stages such as R&D". "Thus, the lead

firms retain skill and knowledge-intensive stages of production

in high-income headquarters (e.g., the US, EU

and Japan) but locate assembly related activities in low

wage countries (e.g., China and Vietnam)," it added.


HEALTH

01-02-2020 to 15-02-2020

13

62mn WOMEN'S lives can be saved

from CERVICAL CANCER by 2120

New York : Timely screening and

vaccination once or twice in a woman's

lifetime can help avert 74 million cases

and 62 million cervical cancer deaths

over the next century, and reduce deaths

by a third by 2030, two new studies

published in The Lancet have predicted.

The studies quantify, for the first

time, how many cervical cancer cases

could be averted and how many

women's lives could be saved in 78 lowincome

and lower-middle income countries

(LMICs), if proposed measures --

proposed in the WHO's draft strategy

towards eliminating cervical cancer --

are implemented. A research paper published

in the Lancet Global Health in

December last year said that India

recorded the highest estimated number

of cervical cancer deaths in 2018 --

97,000 cases and 60,000 deaths.

"For the first time, we've estimated

how many new cases of cervical cancer

could be averted if WHO's triple intervention

strategy is rolled out and when

elimination could be achieved" said

Professor Marc Brisson from Laval

University, Canada, who co-led both the

new studies. "Results suggest that to

eliminate cervical cancer by the end of

the century, it will be necessary to

achieve both high HPV vaccination

coverage and high uptake of screening,

especially in countries with the highest

rates of the disease," Brisson said.

The first study modelled the progress

that could be made towards eliminating

new cervical cancer cases by introducing

or increasing HPV vaccination coverage,

or by combining high levels of

vaccination with cervical screening

once, or twice, in a woman's lifetime.

The second study included cancer

treatment in its models alongside other

variables, and analysed the impact of

vaccination, screening and treatment on

reducing deaths. The authors, however,

caution that this can only be achieved

with considerable international financial

and political commitment, in order to

Coronavirus enters

Web, users hacked

with malicious files

New Delhi : Taking advantage of

people's curiosity about the mysterious

coronavirus that has become the talking

point across the globe, cyber criminals

have started deploying malicious files

on people's computers in the guise of

providing information and safety tips

often happens with popular media topics

then we expect that this tendency may

grow," Kaspersky malware analyst

Anton Ivanov said in a statement. "As

people continue to be worried for their

health, we may see more and more malware

hidden inside fake documents

about the coronavirus, security about the coronavirus being spread,"

researchers warned on Friday.

The researchers from cybersecurity

Ivanov said.

The World Health Organization

firm Kaspersky have detected such (WHO) has declared the Novel

malicious files which were masked

under the guise of pdf, mp4 and docx

files about the coronavirus. The names

of files imply that they contain video

instructions on how to stay protected

from the virus, updates on the threat and

even virus detection procedures.

In fact, these files contained a range

of threats from Trojans to worms which

are capable of destroying, blocking,

modifying or copying data, as well as

interfering with the operation of computers

or computer networks.

"The coronavirus, which is being

Coronavirus outbreaka global health

emergency after the death toll in China

increased to 213 on Friday, with 9,692

confirmed in the country's 31 provincial-level

regions.

Nearly 100 confirmed cases have

been reported from 18 countries, outside

China. To avoid falling victim to malicious

programmes pretending to be

exclusive content, people should try to

avoid suspicious links, promising exclusive

content and refer to official sources

for trustworthy and legitimate information,

Kaspersky recommended. "Look at

widely discussed as a major news story, the downloaded file extension.

has already been used as bait by cybercriminals.

So far we have seen only 10

unique files, but as this sort of activity

Documents and video files should not

have been made either .exe or .lnk formats,"

it added.

scale up vaccination, cervical screening

and cancer treatment

The first of the current studies

focused on whether and by when it

might be feasible to eliminate cervical

cancer cases in low-income and lowermiddle

income countries according to

different scenarios and different definitions

of elimination.

The scenarios modelled were HPV

vaccination of girls, vaccination combined

with screening of women aged 35,

and vaccination combined with screening

twice in a woman's lifetime.

The results predict that vaccination

alone could reduce the number of cervical

cancer cases by 89 per cent over the

next century, averting 60 million cases

in LMICs. However, countries with an

incidence today of more than 25 cases

per 100,000 women could not eliminate

the disease with HPV vaccination alone,

using WHO's proposed threshold of cervical

cancer elimination (four or fewer

cases per 100,000 women).

For the second modelling study, the

authors analysed the impact of all three

elements of the WHO triple strategy on

deaths from cervical cancer, modelling

the impact of scaling up cancer treatment

as well as vaccination and screening.

In 2020, there will be an estimated

13 deaths from cervical cancer per

100,000 women in LMICs. By 2030, the

triple strategy could avert around

300,000 deaths, a reduction of 34 per

cent. "By 2070, it could avert 14.6 million

deaths, reducing mortality by 92

per cent, compared to a reduction of 62

per cent (4.8 million deaths) with vaccination

alone. By 2120, the triple strategy

could avert 62 million deaths, reducing

mortality by 99 per cent, compared

to 90 per cent (45.8 million deaths) with

vaccination alone," said the study.

According to Karen Canfell from

Cancer Council NSW and the

University of Sydney, Australia, "in just

10 years, it's possible to reduce deaths

from the disease by a third and, over the

next century, more than 60 million

women's lives could be saved. This

would represent an enormous gain in

terms of both quality of life and lives

saved". The findings are set to be presented

at the WHO Executive Board at

its next meeting from February 3-8.

Vegetarian diet linked to lower

risk of urinary tract infections

Taipei : Researchers have revealed

that a vegetarian diet may be associated

with a lower risk of urinary tract infections

(UTIs). UTIs are usually caused

by the gut bacteria, such as E. coli,

which enter the urinary tract through

the urethra and affect the kidneys and

bladder, said the study researchers from

Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation

in Taiwan.

Previous research has shown that

meat is a major reservoir for E. coli

strains known to cause UTIs, but it is

unknown whether avoiding meat

reduces the risk of UTIs.

For the findings, published in the

journal Scientific Reports, the research

team assessed the incidence of UTIs in

9,724 Buddhists in Taiwan, who participated

in the Tzu Chi Vegetarian Study,

a study investigating the role of a vegetarian

diet on health outcomes in

Taiwanese Buddhists. The researchers

found that the overall risk of UTIs was

16 per cent lower in vegetarians than in

non-vegetarians. According to the

study, of the 3,040 vegetarians in the

study, 217 developed a UTI compared

to 444 UTI cases in 6,684 non-vegetarians

studied. The reduced UTI risk

associated with a vegetarian diet was

greater in men than women, although

overall UTI risk for men was 79 per

cent lower than for women, regardless

of diet, the research added.

The study suggests that by not eating

common sources of E. coli, such as

poultry and pork, vegetarians may

avoid ingesting E. coli that may cause

UTIs. The researchers also propose that

the higher fibre diet of many vegetarians

may prevent the growth of E. coli in

the gut and decrease UTI risk by making

the intestine more acidic.

Further study with identification of

pathogens from urine culture is needed

to clarify the relationship among UTI

risk, pathogens, and vegetarian diet, the

researchers said.

24×7 hotlines for foreigners

in Hubei amid coronavirus outbreak

Wuhan, Hubei, the epicentre of

novel coronavirus outbreak, has

launched 24-hour hotlines for foreigners

in the central Chinese province on

epidemic prevention and control,

Hubei Provincial Foreign Affairs

Office said. The hotline of Hubei

Provincial Foreign Affairs Office is

027-87122256 (24-hour), Xinhua

reported. The hotlines of foreign affairs

offices in major cities of the province

are available at the website of the

Hubei Provincial Foreign Affairs

Office, namely www.fohb.gov.cn.

Hotlines for overseas students in

Hubei and hotlines for overseas tour

groups in Hubei are also available on

the website.

14 01-02-2020 to 15-02-2020 HEALTH


Early menopause increases health

PROBLEMS AFTER 60 : Study

Sydney : Women who experience

premature menopause are

almost three times more likely to

develop multiple, chronic medical

problems in their 60s, says a new

study. It is known already that premature

menopause, occurring at

the age of 40 or younger, is linked

to a number of individual medical

problems in later life, such as cardiovascular

disease and diabetes.

However, there is little information

about whether there is also an

association between the time of

natural menopause and the development

of multiple medical conditions

known as multimorbidity.

For the findings, published in the

journal Human Reproduction,

researchers at the University of

Queensland followed more than

5,000 women aged 45 to 50 from

1996 until 2016. "We found that

71 per cent of women with premature

menopause had developed

multimorbidity by the age of 60

compared with 55 per cent of

women who experienced

menopause at the age of 50-51,"

said study researcher Xiaolin Xu

from Zhejiang University in

China.

"In addition, 45 per cent of

women with premature

menopause had developed multimorbidity

in their 60s compared

with 40 per cent of women who

experienced menopause at the

age of 50-51," Xu added. The

women responded to the first

survey in 1996 and then

answered questionnaires every

three years (apart from a twoyear

interval between the first

and second survey) until 2016.

The women reported whether

they had been diagnosed with or

treated for any of 11 health problems

in the past three years: diabetes,

high blood pressure, heart

disease, stroke, arthritis, osteoporosis,

asthma, chronic obstructive

pulmonary disease, depression,

anxiety or breast cancer.

Women were considered to have

multimorbidity if they had two

or more of these conditions.

During the 20 years of followup,

2.3 per cent of women experienced

premature menopause

and 55 per cent developed multimorbidity.

Compared with women who

experienced menopause at the

age of 50-51 years, women with

premature menopause were

twice as likely to develop multimorbidity

by the age of 60, and

three times as likely to develop

multimorbidity from the age of

60 onwards. "Our findings indicate

that multimorbidity is common

in mid-aged and early-elderly

women," said Indian-origin

researcher and study senior

author Gita Mishra. "We also

found that premature menopause

is associated with a higher incidence

of individual chronic conditions,"

Xu added.

5 health tests for

every WOMAN

Stay on track: Seven

ways to stick to your

fitness resolution

With a brand new year most of us contemplate on our flawed

decisions and make resolutions to do better in the coming year.

Studies suggest that many resolutions are broken within the very

first month of the year, while several others give up as the year

ends due to irregular working patterns or low will power or even

lack of perseverance. Amaresh Ojha, CEO and Founder, Gympik

suggest few ways that might help one to stick to their fitness resolution.

Self-awareness: Keep a regular check on your growth cycle

and constantly observe and read what can help you improve, in

terms of both your health and wellness. Maintain a daily journal:

Maintain a workout journal to record each workout you do. It is

interesting to look back when you see the progress you’ve made.

Don’t skip breakfast: You must not skip breakfast as it is the first

meal of the day and it helps in breaking your overnight fast. If you

skip your breakfast, you add to this fast which might affect your

metabolism. So, make it a habit to have breakfast within two hours

of waking up. Don’t beat yourself up: You may skip a yoga or cardio

session once in a blue moon, which won’t make much of a difference.

But if you skip them for days this will disrupt your healthy

lifestyle and you will notice strength losses. In order to return your

body to pre-holiday levels, begin with 10 to 12 minutes of cardio

at a normal intensity. Then gradually, add time. Eat at regular intervals:

Once you disrupt your eating patterns, it is difficult to get

back to the rhythm. So, eat as per your diet but at regular intervals

so that you do not gain or lose weight in an unhealthy way.

Use health monitoring/fitness apps: Use fitness and weight

monitoring apps to have a better understanding of your fitness journey.

Install your favourite fitness app and keep track. Exercise

wherever and whenever: Do not restrict yourself to gyms. Walk a

few extra miles, do household chores like cooking or mopping to

burn a substantial amount of calories.

Indian women often tend to put their own

needs on the backburner, preferring to tend

to home and family first. However, the fastchanging

lifestyle and juggling career with

bringing up children sooner or later begins

to take a toll on their health. Many common

health problems in women can be prevented

or effectively tackled by undergoing testing

for the following five health tests.

Anaemia : Anaemia is the most common

blood disorder. Women are especially at risk

of iron-deficiency anaemia because of blood

loss from their periods. The normal haemoglobin

level for women is 12 gram per decilitre

(g/dlL). All women should get tested for

anaemia at least once a year. The test will

look for the size and colour of red blood

cells, haematocrit, haemoglobin and ferritin

levels.

Mammograms and breast exams : All

prevention tests in women start early, and so

is the case for the exam to check for breast

cancer. A manual exam where a doctor tests

for lumps and abnormalities is recommended

starting around age 20 up to until 40

years. A mammogram is a screening test for

breast cancer and involves applying moderate

compression to the breasts so that X-ray

images can be captured.

Calcium deficiency : As women get

older, they become more prone to osteoporosis

(reduced density and quality of bone). A

good healthy diet is enough to provide all the

calcium that our body needs. Women should

undergo a blood test once a year to check for

levels of calcium, albumin and ionized or

free calcium. Sustained low calcium levels

of below 8.8 mg/dL may confirm calcium

deficiency disease.

Pap smears and pelvic exams : Women

should start undergoing these exams every

year from the age of 21, or even

earlier if they are sexually active.

This is important to reduce their

risk of cervical cancer, which is

the second leading cause of death

in women due to cancer. A pelvic

exam will generally include an

external visual exam to check for

abnormalities. A pap smear test is

conducted to examine cervical

cells and check for any abnormal

growth in the uterus and the

cervix.

Vitamin D deficiency : Researchers have

linked vitamin D deficiency with increased

risk of poor bone health and depression in

women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

(PCOS). Symptoms include bone pain, muscle

weakness and fatigue.


1 out of 2 children in India do

not have healthy BMI: Survey

New Delhi : One out of two

children in India do not have a

healthy Body Mass Index

(BMI), reveals a study. The

10th Annual Health Survey

(AHS) by Sportz Village shows

children poor fitness levels

across India. The nationwide

survey has covered 1,49,833

children in the age groups of

seven years to 17 years from

364 schools across 250 cities

and towns. The survey assessed

the children on different fitness

parameters of Body Mass

Index (BMI), Aerobic capacity,

anaerobic capacity, Abdominal

or Core strength, Flexibility,

Upper body strength and

Lower body strength. The number

of children with healthy

levels of Aerobic capacity,

Upper body strength and

Lower body strength is also

low. However, the number of

children with healthy levels of

abdominal strength and Sprint

capacity have increased in

comparison to last year.

Key findings

-1 in 2 children do not have

healthy BMI.

-1 in 2 children do not have the

adequate Upper body

strength.


adequate Lower body

strength.


desired abdominal strength.

-1 in 3 children do not possess

the desired Flexibility.


desired Aerobic capacity.

-1 in 3 children do not possess

the desired anaerobic

capacity.

-Fitness levels comparative

analysis: Girls versus boys

-The survey reveals that boys

have slightly better BMI

than girls.

The boys also have better upper

body strength and flexibility.

The girls, on the other hand,

have fared better than boys in

Lower body strength and aerobic

capacity. The health levels

of boys and girls in the remaining

parameters i.e. abdominal

strength (84 per cent healthy)

and anaerobic capacity (66 per

cent healthy) were the same.

HEALTH

Words of wisdom, for

the ‘digital junkies’

Eyecare tips if you look at screens all day

All things digital rule, and

most people these days are

glued to a screen for several

hours a day, slowly eroding

away their precious eyesight.

Whether at home, at the

office, or even while travelling,

it is almost hard to imagine

life without mobile

screens, computer screens and

the television! For corporate

professionals, both their professional

and social life often

involves staring intently at a

screen. For these reasons, a

lot of computer users today

are developing ‘digital eye

strain’ or ‘computer vision

syndrome’ and experience

symptoms such as eye strain, headaches,

dry eyes and blurred vision, says Dr.

Mahmood Husein, Head of the Ophthalmic

Department, Saifee Hospital.

“If you spend a lot of time looking at a

screen and have started to experience any

of these symptoms, the first thing to do is

to reduce your screen time.” He further

shares a few tips to take better care of your

eyes: 1Place the screen at least 20 inches

away from you. Ideally, the computer

screen should be between 20-40 inches

away. If it is too close or too distant, it may

cause you to sit in an awkward position.

2Ensure that the screen is not too bright.

When your screen is very bright, you are

exposed to more ‘blue light’. This type of

light can harm the eyes and affect vision.

Instead, ensure that the room is well lit.

Reduce the brightness of your screen and

add a glare filter if possible. Also, reduce

the colour temperature of your display in

order to reduce the amount

of blue light emitted by the

monitor. 3Use a separate

pair of computer glasses if

necessary. Some people

who do not need glasses

for everyday use may benefit

from using glasses

specifically prescribed for

computer use.

4Take a break and look

away from your screen.

Follow the 20:20:20 rule

to reduce eye strain: every

20 minutes, look at an

object about 20 feet away

for 20 seconds. This

change in focus helps relax

the eye muscles. 5Keep

your eyes refreshed. When you stare at a

screen, you tend to blink less, which tires

and dries the eyes. This, coupled with the

air-conditioning, may result in the eyes

becoming very dry. To avoid this, take a

break every couple of hours to splash some

cold water on the eyes. Remember to blink

more often to keep the eyes lubricated.

Cooling drops also help. If you still experience

any vision troubles, visit an ophthalmologist

at the earliest.

Chicago,

January 26 A study

of Northwestern

University (NU)

found that bacteria

living in household

dust can spread

antibiotic resistance

genes, and the

researchers believe

these genes could

potentially spread

to pathogens, making

infections more

difficult to treat.

Bacteria can share

many different

types of genes as

long as the genes

have mobile segments

of DNA.

NU researchers

were the first to find that antibiotic resistance

genes in dust microbes have mobile capabilities,

the Xinhua news agency reported. “We observed

living bacteria have transferable antibiotic resistance

genes,” said Erica Hartmann, an assistant

professor of environmental engineering in NU’s

McCormick School of Engineering. Although it

is rare for pathogens to live in indoor dust, they

can hitchhike into homes and mingle with existing

bacteria.

“A nonpathogen can use horizontal gene

transfer to give antibiotic resistance genes to a

01-02-2020 to 15-02-2020

15

NEW T-CELLS OFFER

‘one-size-fits-all’ cancer therapy

London : Researchers at Cardiff University have discovered

a new type of killer T-cell

that offers hope of a

"one-size-fits-all" cancer

therapy. These T-cells

were shown, in the lab, to

kill lung, skin, blood,

colon, breast, bone,

prostate, ovarian, kidney

and cervical cancer cells,

while ignoring healthy

cells. T-cell therapies for

cancer - where immune cells are removed, modified and returned

to the patient's blood to seek and destroy cancer cells - are the latest

paradigm in cancer treatments. The most widely-used therapy,

known as CAR-T, is personalised to each patient but targets

only a few types of cancers and has not been successful for solid

tumours. Cardiff researchers have now discovered T-cells

equipped with a new type of T-cell receptor (TCR) which recognises

and kills most human cancer types, while ignoring healthy

cells. According to researchers, it was "highly unusual" to find a

TCR with such broad cancer specificity and this raised the

prospect of "universal" cancer therapy. "We hope this new TCR

may provide us with a different route to target and destroy a wide

range of cancers in all individuals," said Professor Andrew

Sewell, lead author on the study and an expert in T-cells from

Cardiff University's School of Medicine.

This TCR recognises a molecule present on the surface of a

wide range of cancer cells as well as in many of the body's normal

cells but, remarkably, is able to distinguish between healthy

cells and cancerous ones, killing only the latter. The study, published

in Nature Immunology, describes a unique TCR that can

recognise many types of cancer via a single HLA-like molecule

called MR1. Unlike HLA, MR1 does not vary in the human population

- meaning it is a hugely attractive new target for

immunotherapies. The researchers said it offers "exciting opportunities

for pan-cancer, pan-population" immunotherapies not

previously thought possible. "Cancer-targeting via MR1-restricted

T-cells is an exciting new frontier - it raises the prospect of a

one-size-fits-all' cancer treatment; a single type of T-cell that

could be capable of destroying many different types of cancers

across the population," elaborated Sewell.

Indoor dust bacteria have

transferrable antibiotic

RESISTANCE GENES

pathogen,” Hartmann explained.

“Then the pathogen becomes antibiotic resistant.”

“Microbes share genes when they get

stressed out,” Hartmann said. “They aren’t

equipped to handle the stress, so they share

genetic elements with a microbe that might be

better equipped.” Hartmann recommends dusting

with a damp cloth instead of using antimicrobial

solutions, which can make bacteria more

resistant to antibiotics.

The study was published Thursday in the journal

PLOS Pathogens.

16 01-02-2020 to 15-02-2020 ENTERTAINMENT


AKSHAY KUMAR SHOOTS for

Discovery in Karnataka’s Bandipur

Bengaluru, Leading Bollywood

actor Akshay Kumar filmed a

Discovery channel programme with

Bear Grylls in Karnataka’s

Bandipur Tiger Reserve on

Thursday, an official said.

“Yes, Akshay Kumar shot for a

day in Bandipur on Thursday for a

Discovery channel programme,”

Chief Wildlife Warden Sanjay

Mohan told IANS. The Discovery

channel had sought permission for

shooting between January 28 and

January 30. The actual shooting

with the actors, Rajinikanth and

Kumar, was only for one day each

on Tuesday and Thursday.

“The Discovery team had come

to my office. We told them they

would have to follow the rules

strictly. If they fail to abide by the

norms, we will cancel the shooting,”

said Mohan. The permission is

Dia Mirza trolled for breaking down

at Jaipur Literature Festival

Environmentalist and actress Dia Mirza

has become a victim of social media trolls

after she broke down at the latest edition of

the Jaipur Literature Festival while speaking

about climate change. A video is doing

the rounds on the Internet in which the

‘Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein’ actress is seen

weeping profusely. “Don’t hold back from

being an empath. Don’t be afraid of shedding

your tears..feel it..feel the full extent

of everything. It is good...it gives us

strength...this is not a performance,” Dia

said. She also refused to use a paper napkin

offered by someone at a panel discussion.

However, Dia’s words did not go down

well with a section of netizens. They even

trolled her by comparing her to teen environmental

activist Greta Thunberg.

“Meet Dia Mirza - Our Desi Sasti Greta

Thunberg,” a user tweeted. Another one

commented: “She should stuff her nostrils

with wet cotton for five minutes. The earth

could do with five minutes more oxygen.”

One user even called her “dramebaaz”. Not

only this, a slew of Twitter users reminded

her how the Hyderabad Metropolitan

Water Supply and Sewerage Board had

issued a notice to her allegedly for not paying

water taxes a few years ago. “If you are

planning to be future environmentalist, use

a lot of water, don’t pay the bill, so that

after a few years you can cry on TV saying

you don’t use paper,” a user said.

When asked why she cried during the

session, Dia shared that it was basketball

legend Kobe Bryant’s death which made

her emotional. “My day started really well

yesterday. At around 3 (early morning),

this news alert came on my phone for a

very big player, NBA player who I followed

for a while. His chopper crashing in

California disturbed me. It really upset me.

There are different things that upset us on

different days, but we take care of ourselves.

I was overwhelmed because my

blood pressure was low,” Dia added.

SRK: I’m Muslim, my wife Hindu, my kids are Hindustan

Mumbai, A video of Bollywood

actor Shah Rukh Khan went viral o

n Sunday, where the actor is seen

expressing his views on religion.

The actor said these words on the set

of a show, reports timesofindia.com.

He said: “Humne koi Hindu-

Musalman ki baat hi nahi ki. Meri

biwi Hindu hai, mai Musalman

hoon. Aur mere jo bacche hain, wo

Hindustan hain. Jab wo school gae

to school me wo bharna padta hai ki

religion kya hai. To jab meri beti

choti thi, usne aa ke pucha bhi

mujhse ek baar, ‘papa hum ka un se

religion ke hain?’ Maine usme ye

likha ki hum Indian hi hain y aar, koi

religion nahi hai. Aur hona bhi nahi

chahiye. (There is no such thing as

Hindu-Muslim between is. My wife

is Hindu and I am Muslim, my kids

are Indian. When they went to

school, we had to fill in the religion

section. My daughter asked me

awhat is our religion?’ and I wrote

that we are Indian, we have no other

religion and that shouldn’t happen

either).”

needed from the Ministry of

Environment and Forests (MoEF),

the National Tiger Conservation

Authority (NTCA) and others.

The Bandipur Tiger Reserve, an

874 sq km national park, was

formed by integrating forest areas

of erstwhile Venugopala Wildlife

Park, which was established in

1941, and was later enlarged to its

current size in the Chamarajanagar

district, about 220 km southwest of

Bengaluru. The tiger reserve lists 28

species of mammals, including

Royal Bengal tiger, Asian elephant,

leopard, bonnet macaque, Indian

pipistrelle and barking deer.

However, a forest official was

unhappy with the channel for not

recognising the department’s role in

nurturing the forest. “I told them

you must include information in the

programme and show how the forest

guards are working tirelessly to

save the forest,” said the official.

The forest department’s efforts

might be part of script to be used by

host Grylls in his piece to camera or

some other form. According to the

official, the Discovery should not

just use Indian forests for shooting

programmes but also to recognise

the Indian efforts for their conservation.

Bandipur Tiger Reserve Director

T. Balachandra said the channel

paid Rs 10 lakh for four days of

shooting. The forest department

didn’t charge Discovery anything

more than the usual fees, Mohan

said.

Meanwhile, Discovery India

spokesperson Samir didn’t share

how it would integrate the forest

department’s message when IANS

contacted him.

Rasika Dugal to feature in

Anshuman Jha’s directorial debut

Mumbai, Actors Rasika Dugal and Parambrata have joined the

ensemble cast of Anshuman

Jha’s directorial debut

“Lord Curzon Ki Haveli”.

Writtten by Bikas Mishra,

the film is a black comedy

thriller. It already stars

Arjun Mathur and

Tannishtha Chatterjee in the

lead roles. Talking about

the movie’s cast, Anshuman

said: “I am thankful to have

landed actors who are so

exemplary at their craft.

Each of them fit the part

and it’s going to be a fun

experience shooting with

them as a maker, for a

change, having worked

with them as co-actors earlier. ” I know having such a good cast

makes my job a little easier but I have the additional responsibility

of living up to each of their standards. But this screenplay by

Bikas Mishra is a unique one and I am stoked to tell this tale.”

“Lord Curzon Ki Haveli” is expected to go on floors in

February in London.

‘Karn Sangini’ actress Ravneet

Kaur in ‘Naati Pinky…’

Mumbai, “Karn Sangini” actress Ravneet Kaur will be seen in

the new TV show “Naati

Pinky Ki Lambi Love

Story”.

Ravneet will be

essaying the role of a

fashion designer named

Medha in the show that

revolves around the life

of a girl named Pinky.

Pinky, who is short in

height, is on a hunt to

find a perfect match for

herself.

“I am super excited

and happy to be a part of

this show. Such unique concepts are very few and I have always

wanted to be a part of such a show,” said Ravneet.

“Medha is young, bold, energetic, independent and today’s girl.

She is crazy about her work as well as for Gagan. It will be really

interesting when she, Gagan and Pinky come across,” she added.

“Naati Pinky Ki Lambi Love Story” also features Riya Shukla,

Puneet Choksey and Dheeraj Rai.


Priyanka goes

beige & satin for

pre-Grammy bash

ENTERTAINMENT

Reewa Rathod shares her experience of

working with Gulzar on first solo album

Mumbai, Roopkumar Rathod’s daughter Reewa

Rathod feels she is finally living her dream. The

singer-composer has come up with her first solo

album, “Saaya Tere Ishq Ka”, the lyrics of which

have been penned by legendary poet-lyricist

Gulzar.

“I have always been a dreamer. I didnt know

what life had in store for me. I still can’t believe

that it all happened so fast. I am working with

Gulzar sahab now. It’s like a dream come true

for me,” Reewa told IANS. Sharing her experience

of collaborating with her ‘mentor’, the

singer-composer further said: “Gulzar sahab

is my mentor. He helped me find hope within

myself and believe in myself. This

album was possible because he believed in

me and my music. He has been like a

guiding light for me throughout this journey.

Working with him completely transformed

the makeup of my mind.”

She added: “His lyrics are obviously

not easy to compose on and I don’t have

that much of experience because I am still

very young. He calls me his youngest composer

and has mentioned that in one of his

books also. I have learnt so many things

from his poetry and composing on his

lyrics have been a dream journey for me.”

Reewa’s first solo album “Saaya Tere Ishq

Ka” has a total of five songs, all of which have been

penned by Gulzar.

Talking about the album, Reewa expressed: “I

have always wanted to sing and tell stories through

my music to people and make them happy. That’s

what I have tried to do through this album.

Sometimes it is hard to be yourself in this world of

fakeness. People just want to be glam and out there

but this album is what I am all about. It’s some

thing more than just an album. I have tried to

explore my creativity to the fullest through this

album and I believe that when you smile, the world

smiles back at you.”

The singer also shared a valuable piece of advice

given to her by Gulzar which she always tries to

follow in life. “A piece of advice from him which I

always remember is, don’t ever rush into things

unless you are a hundred per cent sure about it.

Creativity should not be rushed just for fame. You

should live with your music and hear them every

day. If after three weeks, you still feel the same

spark within yourself, if you still feel the same

magic, then you are on the right path,” said Reewa,

adding, “That’s why I took two years to finish

working on this album.”

Even though Roopkumar Rathod is a popular

name in Bollywood’s music scene, his daughter

Reewa said that she is happy creating independent

music for the time being.

When TAAPSEE PANNU

twisted molester’s finger

01-02-2020 to 15-02-2020

17

'Naagin' actor Zuber

K. Khan gifts new

house to parents

Mumbai : "Naagin 3" actor Zuber K.

Khan has bought a house in Mumbai for his

parents. "I always wanted to buy a house

from my own earned money and gift it to my

parents. I have always idolised them and

their constant support, encouragement and

blessings have made me what I am today.

They have done so much for me and this is a

small thing that I can do for them," Zuber

said about his new house located in Malad.

Talking about the house, Zuber shared: "I

had seen a couple of houses before but it didn't

give me that kick. The one that I have

bought had the perfect vibe. And being a

filmy person in reality, I have kept the entire

feel of the home similar. I have taken care of

small details that will make my parents also

happy, keeping up with the contemporary

style." Zuber has featured in TV shows like

"Kasam Tere Pyaar Ki" and "Manmohini",

as well as movies including "Dosti Ke Side

Effects". His web film, "Mirror", was

launched recently. He is currently gearing up

for the release of his films "Haunted Hills"

and "Dhadke Dil Baar Baar".

SC relief for

Anuradha Paudwal

Los Angeles, Priyanka Chopra isn’t hitting

the headlines as a nominee or winner at

the Grammys, so she decided to get a bit of

the spotlight with her innate style quotient.

At a pre-Grammy bash, she opted for a look

was styled by Mimi Cutrell. Her wardrobe

comprised a beige Nicolas Jebran-designed

satin gown that was slit waist down, with a

short train at the back. The halter-neck

attire was tied at the nape of her neck, leaving

the back bare, reports pinkvilla.com.

Priyanka accessorised her gown with a

Stuart Weitzman pointed heels of matching

shade and Bulgari earrings. She completed

the look with kohl-lined eyes with goldtinted

lids and browned-up lips.

Mumbai, Actress Taapsee Pannu

has recounted an incident when a man

tried to touch her from behind.

“We used to go to the Gurudwara

during Gurpurab and I remember

there used to be stalls next to it that

served food to people outside. The

place used to be crowded in such a

way that people would always end up

bumping into each other. I had awkward

experiences before this incident

as well. But this time, I had an intuition

that something like this would

happen as I am going into that kind of

crowd. I was mentally prepared for it

until I felt a man trying to touch my

backside. That’s when I realised that

this has happened again,” Taapsee

shared while having a conversation

with Kareena Kapoor Khan on the

latter’s show “What Women Want 2”.

Taapsee was brave enough to

defend herself and she give that man

a hard lesson. “This was followed by

an instant reaction. I grabbed his finger

twisted it and moved fast from

Los Angeles : Singer Selena Gomez has revealed

that she experienced "emotional abuse" while dating

former beau and pop singer Justin Bieber. In an interview

with the portal NPR, Gomez discussed her ups

and downs while being in relationship with Bieber,

and their split in March 2018, reports cnn.com. She

said: "I've found the strength in it," she said. "It's

dangerous to stay in a victim mentality. And I'm not

being disrespectful, I do feel I was a victim to certain

abuse." When asked if she specifically meant "emotional

abuse", she replied saying "Yes." She continued:

"I had to find a way to understand it as an adult.

And I had to understand the choices I was making.

As much as I definitely don't want to spend the rest

of my life talking about this, I am really proud that I

can say I feel the strongest I've ever felt and I've

found a way to just walk through it with as much

grace as possible." Gomez shared that her song "Lose

you to love me" was about the pain of getting over

that area.” she added. The episode,

featuring Taapsee, will air on on

104.8 Ishq FM.

Selena Gomez felt 'emotionally abused' while dating singer Justin Bieber

their split.

"I'm very proud of it," she said of the song. She

added: "It has a different meaning to me now from

when I wrote it. I felt I didn't get a respectful closure,

and I had accepted that, but I know I needed some

way to just say a few things that I wish I had said."

But it wasn't all bad with Bieber. Gomez said: "It's

not a hateful song; it's a song that is saying—I had

something beautiful and I would never deny that it

wasn't that. It was very difficult and I'm happy it's

over. And I felt like this was a great way to just say,

you know, it's done, and I understand that, and I

respect that, and now here I am stepping into a whole

other chapter." Gomez and Bieber were first linked in

2011. After years of on-and-off relationship with

Gomez, Bieber announced his engagement with

Hailey Baldwin and got hitched in September 2018.

Gomez says her new album, "Rare", is in response to

people trying to control the story of her life.

New Delhi, The Supreme Court on

Thursday stayed proceedings initiated in a

Thiruvananthapuram court by a 45-yearold

woman, claiming to be the daughter of

renowned singer Anuradha Paudwal, who

is a recipient of the Padma Shri and the

National Film Award, was married to

music composer Arun Paudwal.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S.A.

Bobde and comprising Justices B.R. Gavai

and Surya Kant issued notice to the

woman on a plea filed by Paudwal, who

moved the top court seeking direction to

transfer the case from the

Thiruvananthapuram court to Mumbai.

The woman in a Thiruvananthapuram

family court claimed the couple was her

biological parents, which has been denied

by Paudwals. The woman had filed the

case in Thiruvananthapuram family court

demanding compensation Rs 50 crore

from Anuradha Paudwal and her husband

and 1/4th share of their assets and properties.

The family court admitted the case

and summoned the couple, who moved the

top court seeking transfer of the case to

Mumbai. The family court has also asked

the Paudwal and her two children to

appear before it on January 27.

Karmala Modex, a city resident, had

claimed Paudwal had handed her over to

her foster parents — Ponnachan and Agnes

— in 1974 citing a busy schedule and also

that she was not inclined to raise the child

then. Modex’s lawyer had said they contacted

Paudwal before filing the case, but

she did not respond.

18 01-02-2020 to 15-02-2020 ENTERTAINMENT


PAYAL Ghosh exudes

elegance in classy gown

Mumbai : Actress Payal Ghosh looked elegant

and classy when she stepped out for an

event in a gown.

Payal looked ravishing in a red gown at

Times Food Awards in Hyderabad recently. She

looked stunning in the bright attire, and added

some bling with earrings keeping the make-up

subtle. Earlier this month, the actress gave a

glimpse to her holiday at Ko Samui in

Thailand, and her vacation pictures were proof

of that. From trying out different dishes to

clicking pictures on the beaches, Payal's

Instagram feed was full of Thai images.

"It was a sudden plan. I love the place and

it's my second trip here. I am a complete water

baby and the beaches here offer a variety of

water sports as well. The food here is amazing.

I would probably try and get a tan for myself as

well. I am not that big a party freak but the

party scene here is super cool," Payal said at

that time. Payal made her Bollywood debut

with "Patel Ki Punjabi Shaadi", opposite Vir

Das in 2017.

SONAM and Rhea

Kapoor promote the

colours of Los Angeles

Mumbai : Actress Sonam Kapoor Ahuja

and her film producer sister Rhea Kapoor have

joined hands with Los Angeles Tourism for a

campaign showcasing the citys phenomenal

cultural, culinary, shopping and wellness offerings

through the eyes of siblings.

"There is an outdoor vibe and so much

emphasis on health, fitness, and good food.

There is something for everybody," Sonam

said. The multi-part series follows the siblings

as they explore the diverse neighborhoods of

Los Angeles. From shopping on famed Abbot

Kinney in Venice and at the ROW DTLA

(Downtown L.A.), to dining at world class

restaurants, the sisters experienced their

favourite parts of the city together.

"LA's become like a second home to us. It's

just everything that I like about the States rolled

into one package with sunshine and good

weather around it," said Rhea. The campaign

also captures them taking in spectacular sights

at Hotel Erwin's rooftop, discovering the tastes

of L.A. at the Original Farmers Market, and

indulging themselves at the luxurious Ciel Spa

at the SLS Hotel, a Luxury Collection Hotel,

Beverly Hills. Don Skeoch, Chief Marketing

Officer for Los Angeles Tourism & Convention

Board said: "There is a natural affinity between

Los Angeles and India thanks to our shared love

of film. We wanted to utilise this campaign to

build on that affinity and show prospective

Indian travellers the diverse options they have

to eat, play and shop in L.A. through the eyes of

our mutual friends, Sonam and Rhea Kapoor."

Malala biopic director gets

fatwa by Muslim cleric for

‘disrespecting the Quran’

'Thappad' trailer a 'tight

slap' on 'Kabir Singh'

maker's face: Tweeple

Mumbai : The trailer of filmmaker Anubhav

Sinhas upcoming movie "Thappad" is out now,

and netizens couldn't help but call it a "tight slap"

on "Kabir Singh" director

Sandeep Reddy Vanga's face.

After the slap scene in his

blockbuster film "Kabir

Singh" became talk of the

town, Vanga had said: "When

you are deeply in love and

deeply connected with a

woman, and vice versa,

there's a lot of honesty in it. If

you don't have that physical

demonstration... you don't

have the liberty of slapping

each other, then I don't see

anything there." His comments

didn't go down well

with a lot of people. That was

last year but netizens got

reminded of the whole controversy

after watching the trailer of "Thappad".

One wrote: "#Thappad is a tight slap on Sandeep

Reddy Vanga's face." Another wrote: "#Thappad

#ThappadTrailer Is this "Thappad" on the face of

Sandeep Reddy Vanga? Kabir Singh? Literally in

a scene the character says 1 line (Sarcastically)

New Delhi : Director

HE Amjad Khan's film

"Gul Makai", based on

Pakistani education

activist and Nobel

Laureate Malala

Yousafzai is set to release

soon, and the filmmaker

has received a fatwa from

a Noida-based Muslim

cleric for disrespecting

the Quran. Khan shared

that he has been getting

many death threats since

he started the film, and

now a Noida-based cleric

has an issue with his film's

poster. "Ab fatwa lag gaya hai

(now a fatwa has been issued)

by a person from Noida. There

is a poster that has Malala holding

a book and standing next to

a blast, and he thinks it is the

Quran. He thinks we haven't

shown respect to the holy book.

He called me a kafir," Khan told

which Vanga told, Looks promising, Obviously

Taapsee Anubhav coming together once again

with a thought provoking story." Another wrote:

"#KabirSingh #arjunreddy slap

scene gave a whole plot idea to

#Thappad

makers

#ThappadTrailer

#TapseePannu." One more netizen

wrote: "@taapsee &

#Thappad Movie deserves more

recognition than the so called

Kabir Singh! We don't need

Movies like Kabir Singh in

today's Times. Make way y'all

for this refreshing change which

is much needed Today."

Taking to her social media,

actress Taapsee Pannu shared:

"Haan bas EK THAPPAD .....

par nahi maar sakta! #Thappad

#ThappadTrailer @anubhavsinha

@itsBhushanKumar

@pavailkgulati @deespeak @GeetikaVidya."

The trailer captures the journey of a woman, role

essayed by Taapsee who fights for justice after a

domestic violence attack by her husband.

"Thappad", produced by Anubhav Sinha and

Bhushan Kumar, will release on February 28.

Richa Chadha speaks on pay disparity in Bollywood

New Delhi : Actress Richa

Chadha as spoken on pay disparity

in the Hindi film industry

and said that the day all

actors are able to bring in

equal business at the boxoffice,

the problem will cease

to exist. "I for one have not

had that kind of experience

with respect to pay parity in

Bollywood because I feel the

industry rewards your boxoffice

prowess. It's really the

number of bums you put on the

IANS here. "I am trying

to have a word with

him so that I can

explain to him that it's

an English book,"

Khan added.

What about a

police case?

"You have to report,

which I have done. I

would say he hasn't

been able to understand

things. I am making

a film on peace. If I

file a police case then

police will bring him

in, and then why am I even making

the film?" he asked. The

film, starring Reem Shaikh, Atul

Kulkarni and Divya Dutta, is set

to hit the screens on January 31.

seats. I think the day people

start commanding a higher

box-office (they will get higher

pay). The day people are

able to bring business is the

day it will be fine and there

will be no problem. You will

get what you ask for," Richa

told IANS.

The actress was recently

seen in the Kangana Ranautstarrer

"Panga", which has collected

Rs 21.36 crore at the

box-office in a week since

Sanjeeda Shaikh in black

& white outfit sets

netizens’ hearts racing

Mumbai, Actress Sanjeeda Shaikh’s latest

photo in a black and white outfit has

caught attention of many, including actor

Meherzan Mazda’s. The ‘Baghban’ actress

has posted her photo with a black heart emoji

on Instagram and comments section is full of

hearts. “Nisha Aur Uske Cousins” actor

MeherzanA also commented: “Ufff”.

Meanwhile, she is in news as her marriage

has reportedly hit a rough patch.

“Sanjeeda and Aamir (Ali) are not staying

together since sometime. They are having

issues,” a source had told spotboye.com earlier

this month. The two actors had tied the

knot in 2012. The former ‘Kya Dill Mein

Hai’ co-stars have also appeared in music

videos together.

Bigg Boss 13:

Rashami fans never felt

Arhaan was her type

Mumbai, Some fans and wellwishers of

Rashami Desai are happy as she has realised

housemate Arhaan Khan is not her type on

“Bigg Boss” season 13.

” #RashamiDesai REVEALS Arhaan

Khan is NOT her type.happy for u @ImR

ashamiDesai at last u heard what I said long

back to you..remember I am your brother

and I can’t c u in any trouble God Bless.

#BigBoss13 #Arhaa nKhan you selfish man

stay away from her now or I fuck your happiness,a

tweeted a user named @waahhiidalikhan.

It seems some friends had always

warned her against him.

“I just can’t forget that night when u

bought him to our ann iversary party . I told

u very same night he is not the right man for

u . To day I thank God u understood what I

mean ,” added @waahhiidalikhan.

release. A lot has been said

about Kangana being a difficult

star to work with, but

Richa begs to differ.

"I usually get along with

everyone and if someone gets

along with me, I am confident

enough to believe that something

is wrong with them

because I literally make

friends on every project. I

think we shared a very professional

and cordial relationship,"

she said.


New Delhi : Although majority of

Indians think their jobs would be automated

in the next 10 years, 84 per cent hope to

retain their jobs, supported by their skills,

according to a report by World Economic

Forum (WEF) and Ipsos.

India tops the list in terms of expectation

of jobs automation, as around 71 per

cent respondents expect their jobs to be

automated. Saudi Arabia comes second

with 56 per cent respondents expecting

jobs getting automated, and in China 55

per cent respondents feel the same.

Interestingly, 84 per cent of urban Indians

polled are confident of keeping their jobs,

using the skills they possess. The survey

also shows across all markets, Indians are

most confident, followed by the

Netherlands (83 per cent) and the US (82

per cent), the report said.

The markets least confident of holding

onto their jobs in the face of automation,

include Japan (23 per cent), South Korea

(33 per cent) and Russia (50 per cent).

Commenting on the survey, Parijat

Chakraborty of Ipsos India said, Indian

job market is hierarchy driven, promotions

are skills and performance-led. Indians

realise while automation is likely they

know it will act as an enabler to improve

TECHNOLOGY

Indians see automation, but

hopeful of keeping jobs

India tops traffic congestion

index with 4 cities in top ten

New Delhi, India has topped

the TomTom Traffic Index 2019

with 4 of its cities amongst the

10 most congested cities globally.

Bengaluru (71%), Mumbai

(65%),Pune (59%) and New

Delhi (56%) ranks 1st, 4th, 5th

and 8th respectively. The other

global cities featured amongst

the top 10 include Manila from

the Philippines, Bogota from

Colombia, Moscow from

Russia; Lima from Peru,

Istanbul from Turkey, and

Jakarta from Indonesia.

Location technology specialist

TomTom has released the

results of the TomTom Traffic

Index, a report detailing the traffic

situation in 416 cities in 57

countries.

New Delhi takes the 8th spot

this year with 56% congestion

level (extra travel time stuck in

traffic).On an average,Delhiites

driving during peak hours spend

an extra 190 hours, i.e., 7 days,

22 hours in traffic each year. The

city s heaviest congestion (81%)

was recorded on October 23,

2019, while its lowest congestion

(6%) was recorded on

March 21, 2019. The TomTom

Traffic Index 2019 indicates that

the congestion level in Delhi has

reduced by 2% compared to

TomTom Traffic Index 2018.

Bengaluru takes the top spot

this year with drivers in the

southern Indian city expecting

to spend an average of 71%

extra travel time stuck in traffic.

On an average,people in

Bengaluu driving during peak

hours, spend an extra 243 hours,

i.e., 10 days, 3 hours in traffic

each year. Mumbaikars driving

during peak hours spend an

extra 209 hours, i.e., 8 days, 17

hours in traffic each year. On an

average,those in Pune driving

during peak hours spend an

extra 193 hours, i.e., 8 days, 1

hour in traffic each year. Traffic

congestion has increased globally

during the last decade,

andA239 cities (57%)TomTom

included in the new Traffic

Index report had increased congestion

levels between 2018 and

2019, with only 63 cities showing

measurable decreases. This

global increase in congestion,

despite being an indicator of a

strong economy, also costs

economies billions.

efficiencies in deliverability; human intellect,

skill-sets and capital will still be needed

to get the job done.

01-02-2020 to 15-02-2020

19

Ola to launch services in

London on February 10

New Delhi : Indian cab hailing

major Ola on Friday

announced it will launch its

operations in London on

February 10 with over 20,000

registered drivers.

The ride hailing platform will

be fully operational from day

one, with over 20,000 drivers

having registered on the platform

since it began onboarding a

month ago.

"The overwhelmingly positive

reception to Ola since

launching in the UK in 2018

illustrates the significant demand

from drivers, riders and communities.

We are working closely

Google shows safety tips when

people search ’coronavirus’

New Delhi : With the novel coronavirus outbreak grabbing the

attention of people

worldwide, Google is

now showing safety

tips to people when

they search "coronavirus".

Google is

using resources from

the World Health

Organization to show people the safety tips and news and updates

about the mysterious virus.

"Today we launched an SOS Alert w/ @WHO, to make

resources about #coronavirus easily accessible. When people

search for related info on @Google, they’ll find the alert atop results

page w/ direct access to safety tips, info, resources & Twitter

updates from WHO," Google said in a statement on Friday.

In a bid to support coronavirus relief efforts in China, Google’s

philanthropic arm, Google.org, also announced a $250,000 direct

grant to the Chinese Red Cross.

"To help support relief efforts, @Googleorg issued a $250,000

direct grant to the Chinese Red Cross. Additionally we launched an

internal campaign inviting Googlers to donate. So far,

http://Google.org and Googlers have raised over $800K USD

(3.5M rmb)," Google said. The World Health Organization (WHO)

has declared the new coronavirus outbreak a global health emergency

after the death toll in China increased to 213 on Friday, with

9,692 cases confirmed in the country’s 31 provincial-level regions.

As 98 confirmed cases were reported from 18 countries, outside

China, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the

WHO, told the media on Thursday night: "I am declaring a public

health emergency of international concern over the global outbreak

of 2019nCoV, not because of what is happening in China, but

because of what is happening in other countries."

with drivers to build a high quality

and reliable service for

Londoners," Simon Smith, Head

of Ola International, said in a

statement. "Launching in

London is a major milestone for

us and we are keen to offer a first

class experience for all our customers."

The company aims to

offer a differentiated experience

on the platform with features

such as 24x7 helplines for drivers

and customers and an in-app

emergency button, while providing

the best quality of service

through its large network of

drivers across the city of

London. Ola’s passengers will

benefit £25 worth of ride credit

for signing up in the first week

after the launch, the company

added. Ola, operating in the UK

since 2018, obtained the licence

to operate in London in 2019.

The firm has expanded rapidly

throughout the UK since its

launch and will now operate

across 28 local authorities. Cities

including Birmingham,

Coventry and Warwick have

seen more than double-digit

growth in rides in the last quarter.

To date, Ola has provided

over 3 million rides with more

than 11,000 drivers already operating

on the platform in the UK.

20 01-02-2020 to 15-02-2020 TECHNOLOGY


NASA bids farewell to Spitzer telescope

Miami : NASA has said

goodbye to the Spitzer space

telescope after 16 years of service

using infrared light to

unveil otherwise invisible features

of the universe, including

seven planets the size of Earth

around the star Trappist-1.

“It’s quite amazing when

you lay out everything that

Spitzer has done in its lifetime,

from detecting asteroids in our

solar system no larger than a

stretch limousine to learning

about some of the most distant

galaxies we know of,” said

Spitzer project scientist

Michael Werner in a NASA

statement on Thursday.

Spitzer, which was sent into

orbit and began astronomical

observations in 2003, is one of

the powerful telescopes exploring

things beyond the range of

the human eye, examining electromagnetic

radiation of various

wavelengths, just like the

Hubble, Compton and Chandra

telescopes do, Efe news reported.

This ‘scope focuses on

infrared light, which can reveal

different characteristics of the

universe from normal “visible”

light, including objects that are

too cold to emit visible light

such as exoplanets, brown

dwarfs – star-like bodies with

insufficient mass to actually

shine – or the cold material that

is present between the stars.

Infrared light – which is

merely what we commonly

know as “heat” – is invisible to

the human eye, but some of its

waves can pass through clouds,

gases and dust that are opaque

to visible light.

“Spitzer taught us how

important infrared light is to

understanding our universe,

both in our own cosmic neighbourhood

and as far away as

the most distant galaxies,” said

the director of astrophysics at

Tokyo prosecutors get fresh

arrest warrant for Ghosn

Tokyo, Tokyo prosecutors have obtained a fresh arrest warrant for former

Nissan Motor Co. chief Carlos Ghosn for violating Japan’s immigration

law by fleeing Japan while on bail, a

media report quoted sources close to the

matter on Thursday. Ghosn, who holds

Brazilian, French and Lebanese nationality,

on December 29 jumped bail and fled

Japan for Lebanon via Turkey, to escape

what he called the “rigged Japanese judicial

system”, Xinhua reported. Ghosn fled

Japan in breach of his bail conditions and

under dramatic circumstances, possibly

hiding in a large case used to carry musical

equipment and departing on a private jet from Kansai International Airport

in Osaka Prefecture. Prosecutors and police here have been trying to determine

exactly how Ghosn managed to fund and carry out the costly escape

while under strict bail conditions. Justice Minister Masako Mori has maintained

the 65-year old ex-auto tycoon left the country illegally.

Japan and Lebanon have no extradition treaty, meaning Ghosn, first

arrested on November 19, 2018, and facing charges of under-reporting his

remuneration in Nissan’s securities reports and misusing company funds,

cannot be handed over to Japan to face trail without Lebanon agreeing.

Google launches short-form

video app TANGI

San Francisco, Google has joined the race to launch short-video making

apps with unveiling Tangi which is focued on creativity and Do It

Yourself (DIY) space. The app is a product from Google’s in-house incubator

titled Area 120. The company is launching Tangi initially on the web

and iOS that allows creative types to share how-to videos. Unlike TikTok,

Tangi wants people to learn new things.

“We only focus on DIY and creativity content.

Our platform’s goal is to help people

learn to craft, cook and create with quick

one-minute videos,” said Tangi Founder

Coco Mao in a blog post on Wednesday.

“We’ve been working with creators who already make these kinds of

videos, so that Tangi can become a place where they have a voice to inspire

other makers,” he added. The users can also share a re-creation of things

tried out with Tangi’s “Try It” feature, which helps build a community

between creators and their fans. One of our most recreated videos is making

guacamole in the avocado shell.

After the success of TikTok, there has been a race to launch short-video

apps. Dom Hofmann, the co-founder of the now defunct six-second video

platform Vine, has also announced the release of its successor called Byte.

Byte has an uncanny resemblance with almost everything that made Vine

unique. To take on TikTok’s growing popularity, Facebook-owned

Instagram has launched a new video-music remix feature called “Reels”.

“Reels” will let users make 15-second video clips set to music and share

them as Stories. In November last year, Facebook quietly released a standalone

app called “Lasso” to compete with TikTok.

NASA Headquarters, Paul

Hertz, in a statement. “The

advances we make across many

areas in astrophysics in the

future will be because of

Spitzer’s extraordinary legacy.”

The Tarantula Nebula was

one of the first celestial objects

that the Spitzer telescope

observed, a region of space

where one of the most-studied

stars in the universe – one

San Francisco, A data breach

has hit Wawa, an East Coastbased

convenience store and gas

station, as hackers broke into

over 850 Wawa stores and potentially

exposed 30 million sets of

payment records including those

from Asian countries — making

it largest payment card breaches

of all time.

According to cybersecurity

firm Gemini Advisory, information

from the Wawa hacking

emerged on the Dark Web this

week at the Joker’s Stash marketplace,

one of the largest and most

notorious dark web marketplaces

for buying stolen payment card data.

Gemini determined that the point of

compromise for the breach titled BIG-

BADABOOM-III is Wawa, the East

Coast-based convenience store and gas

station.

The company first discovered the

breach on December 10, 2019.

“Major breaches of this type often

have low demand in the dark web. This

may be due to the breached merchant’s

public statement or to security

researchers’ quick identification of the

called 1987A – exploded as a

supernova in 1987 with the

brightness of 100 million Suns,

although because it is located

168,000 light years away from

Earth (about one million trillion

miles) it was too faint for

humans to see without a telescope.

Spitzer’s original astronomical

mission was extended

five times, after it exhausted its

store of coolant – specifically

liquid helium – in 2009. The

coolant was used to chill the

telescope’s 33.5-inch main mirror

to within five degrees of

absolute zero, about minus 450

degrees Fahrenheit. The mirror

needed to be that cold to be

able to pick up faint infrared

radiation from deep space that

cannot be detected from the

ground. However, since the telescope

is so far from the Sun,

NASA experts were able to

keep using the space-based telescope

and its retirement had

point of compromise,” said Gemini.

However, Joker’s Stash uses the

media coverage of major breaches such

as these to bolster their credibility as

the most notorious vendor of compromised

payment cards. The full data collection

includes 30 million US records

across more than 40 states, as well as

over one million non-US records from

more than 100 different countries,

claimed Gemini.

It is similar to Residence Depot’s

2014 breach exposing 50 million

prospects’ information or to Goal’s

been planned for 2018, when

the James Webb Space

Telescope was to be launched,

although that mission was

delayed and Spitzer’s service

life was prolonged.

The James Webb orbiting

telescope will also be used to

observe space in the infrared

spectrum starting in March

2021, although a recent report

by the US Government

Accountability Office said that

it is highly probable that its

launch will be delayed for

“technical” reasons.

NASA is planning to reveal

the newly established launch

date for the James Webb telescope

in the spring of 2020,

according to the report. In

2018, NASA earmarked $9.7

billion for the construction and

launch of that telescope, some

$828 million more than had

been budgeted in 2011 for the

project.

Hackers selling data of 30mn payment

cards used at 850 US stores

New Delhi : Faceboook on

Sunday faced major outage in

the UK, the US and parts of

Europe and Asia as users were

not able to access News Feed

and Notifications. The outage

monitor website Down

Detector reported more than

4,000 reports from users, saying

they faced issues with News

Feed and Notifications features on the

social networking giant. The server status

page on Facebook said: “We are

currently experiencing degraded performance

across the entire platform,

resulting in increased request response

2013 breach exposing 40

million units of fee card

information, the

researchers noted.

Wawa said it is responding

to reports that hacked

information from its customers’

credit cards may be

being sold on the dark web.

Based on Gemini’s analysis,

the initial set of bases

linked to “BIGBAD-

ABOOM-III” consisted of

nearly 100,000 records.

While the majority of those

records were from US

banks and were linked to

US-based cardholders, some records

also linked to cardholders from Latin

America, Europe, and several Asian

countries.

“Non-US-based cardholders likely

fell victim to this breach when travelling

to the United States and transacting

with Wawa gas stations during the period

of exposure,” said the report.

The median price of US-issued

records from this breach is currently

$17, with some of the international

records priced as high as $210 per card.

Facebook down due to ‘degraded

performance’ across the world

time. Our team is aware of the issue

and is working on a solution”.

The users flooded Twitter, saying

they can’t see the popular News Feed.

“When Facebook goes down, I

always go to Twitter to check if it’s not

just me,” tweeted one user.

“All my Facebook notifications

have gone. Has anyone else experienced

the same?” tweeted another.

Other than a ‘degraded performance’,

Facebook was yet to issue a

statement whether the outage was fixed.


NEWS

01-02-2020 to 15-02-2020

21

Sabarimala : SC disappointed over

no consensus on legal questions

New Delhi : The Supreme

Court on Thursday expressed

disappointment over the lack of

consensus on framing of legal

questions vis-a-vis discrimination

faced by women over entry

to religious places, including

Kerala's Sabarimala Temple.

Chief Justice SA Bobde's

observations came after Solicitor

General Tushar Mehta submitted

that as per court directions at an

earlier hearing, a meeting of

lawyers connected with the case

could not finalise the common

legal questions for further examination

by a nine-judge

Constitution bench.

Mehta told the apex court:

"We could not finalise the common

questions for consideration.

The top court may consider

framing questions (under these

circumstances)."

The court then asked Mehta

to place before it the issues discussed

in the lawyers' meeting.

A bench headed by Justice

Bobde had this week

said that a nine-judge

bench would wrap up all

arguments within 10

days and deal with legal

questions essential to

the case. The court has

expressed its unwillingness

to grant extension

beyond 10 days.

On Thursday, many

senior lawyers involved

in the case had urged the

court to frame the

issues.

The Chief Justice

said that the judges concerned

will finalise and

crystallise the issues

over the weekend,

which will then be heard

by the nine-judge bench. "There

is no other way; we will work on

the weekend and sit on Monday,

and after that we should start,"

said the Chief Justice while

emphasising the importance of

beginning the hearing on the

Sabarimala order review plea.

The apex court also cited the

Kashmir matters pending before

it.

"They first decided the

Internet issue (restoration of

Internet in Kashmir) while the

main matter (abrogation of

Article 370 of the Constitution)

is still pending," the court said

when a probable clash of hearings

on the Sabarimala issue

and other cases in progress

before other Constitution

benches was pointed out.

"We want to decide it

(Sabarimala) for the purpose

of laying down the

correct law. It was given

priority, but something

happened. We have

enough problems of our

own; we decide the best

course," said the Chief

Justice. The court also

proposed a conference of

all nine judges on the

bench.

One of the senior counsels

said that a majority of

lawyers would argue on

certain propositions and

that suggestions could not

intervene in matters of

religion.

The lawyers cited the case of

a Parsi woman who was not

allowed to attend her father's

funeral since she had married a

Hindu and as per Parsi religion

she cannot enter the Tower of

Silence. There was also the issue

of genital mutilation of a sevenyear-old

girl from the Dawoodi

Bohra community.

The next hearing has been

scheduled for Monday.

In November, a five-judge

bench headed by then Chief

Justice Ranjan Gogoi, instead of

deciding the review plea of the

Sabarimala judgment allowing

entry for women of all ages into

the temple, framed seven questions

and referred the same to a

seven-judge bench. The questions

included whether "essential

religious practices" would come

under the ambit of constitutional

protection under Article 26 (freedom

to manage religious affairs)

of the Constitution.

Chief Justice Bobde had

explained that the court would

only examine the propositions of

law raised about religious practices

believed to be essential to

various religions, and it will not

go into the individual facts of the

petitions.

NIA moves COURT

seeking TRANSFER of

Koregaon-Bhima case

Pune/Mumbai : The National

Investigation Agency (NIA) has moved a

Special Court seeking transfer of the Elgar

Parishad-Koregaon-Bhima case to a Special

NIA Court in Mumbai, on Thursday, officials

said. The NIA submitted its plea on

Wednesday, five days after the Centre had

transferred the investigations into the Elgar

Parishad and the Koregaon-Bhima case from

Pune Police to the NIA.

The Pune Special Court Additional

Sessions Judge S.R. Navander has posted the

NIA plea for hearing on February 3.

The development came two days after a

three-member NIA team visited the Pune

Police and sought the transfer of all records,

papers and the case proceedings.

Declining its request, the Pune Police said

they would hand over the case to the NIA

only after getting written orders from

Maharashtra Director General of Police.

The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government

has said it will take a final decision in a

couple of days on a letter received from the

Centre vis-a-vis the transfer of the case from

the Pune Police to the NIA.

"We have received the letter today. It is

with the Law & Judiciary Department. After

the legal advice is received, it will be discussed

with Chief Minister Uddhav

Thackeray," Home Minister Anil Deshmukh

told mediapersons.

The state government has already discussed

the matter with state Advocate-

General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni this week.

While the Shiv Sena, Nationalist

Congress Party and Congress have slammed

the Centre's move to transfer the case abruptly

to the NIA without the consent of the state

government as "unconstitutional",

Thackeray earlier this week held a meeting

with the state top police brass to discuss the

issue. Demanding a probe into the manner in

which the Pune Police had investigated the

case, NCP leader Sharad Pawar has said the

Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party is scared

that its skeletons will come out in a fresh

look at the case.

Senior minister Nawab Malik has labeled

the Elgar Parishad-Koregaon-Bhima case as

"totally fabricated" intended to malign intellectuals,

Dalit and human rights activists by

charging them with harbouring Maoistsand

branding them as "urban Naxalites".

The case pertains to the December 31,

2017, Elgar Parishad in Pune, and the caste

riots next day on January 1, 2018 in

Koregaon-Bhima which left one dead, followed

by the police swoop on over a dozen

activists across India in June and August

2018 on charges of anti-national activities,

planning to create political disturbances and

wage a war against India, conspiring to

assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi

and overthrowing the government.

Congressmen join hands, outline

India's borders to protest CAA

Thiruvananthapuram : Even as Rahul Gandhi led a Congress

march in Wayanad against the CAA, Congress workers and supporters

held hands to map India's borders in 12 of the 14 districts of

Kerala on Thursday evening to register their protest.

Congress workers rallied in playgrounds in their respective areas

and stood holding hands to outline India's borders and also took a

pledge to defend the Constitution.

In Wayanad, Rahul Gandhi led thousands of people on a two-km

'Save the Constitution March', before addressing a public rally where

he dubbed Prime Minister Narendra Modi as ignorant, a liar and even

compared him to Mahatma Gandhi's assassin Nathuram Godse.

In Kozhikode district, the opposition party called off its plan to

form a human map due to the demise of former state minister AM

Kamalam, 96. In Thiruvanathapuram, Congress Working Committee

member A.K. Antony led party workers in registering their protest

over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and asserted that his party

will continue to step up its opposition to the amended law.

The Congress move comes in the wake of a 700-km-long human

chain formed by Communist Party of India-Marxist supporters in

Kerala last Sunday. Over seven million people are reported to have

stood along the National Highway from Kasargode in north Kerala to

the southern tip in the state capital district.The Congress has organised

a series of protests at the state level against the CAA.

22 01-02-2020 to 15-02-2020 WORLD


Build up new AMBEDKARITE to lead the new age of

knowledge and information for an enlightened media

Today mark the centenary of

the publication of 'Mook-

Nayak', founded by Baba

Saheb Ambedkar. Exactly on

January 31st, 1920, Baba

Saheb Ambedkar launched this

fortnightly to give voice to the

voiceless as reflected in its

name. I wont go into much

research of this as many scholarly

articles of already

appeared on it commemorating

a century of it. It is important to

reflect on the influence Baba

Saheb Ambedkar on media in

India. Whether it was there or

what is that we can safely call

an Ambedkarite media. People

may differ but I write based on

my experiences and interactions

with whole lot of

Ambedkarites and those who

were part of Baba Saheb's mission.

I feel extremely proud

that I could interact and learn a

lot from intellectual giants

Bhagwan Das ji, NG UKe

Saheb, L R Balley, V T

Rajshekar, J V Pawar, Raja

Dhale, Vijay Surwade and

many more who had been regularly

writing and contributing

in different forms to strengthen

mission Ambedkarism and its

intellectual ethos. There are

hundreds other unknown soldiers

of the movement who in

different nooks and corners of

the country started various

journals and periodicals to

spread it in their impact

domains and areas.

Photographs and quotes of

Baba Saheb Ambekar today are

visible in every protest and

Dharanas everywhere. His bitter

opponents both the

Congress and BJP quotes him.

The left forces which portrayed

him 'constitutionalist' and too

narrow 'caste' focused are quoting

him but the things were not

the similar when Dr Ambedkar

started his journey. We were a

country in owe with Gandhi as

he represented the Savarna

power of India even when he

played patron saint for

Muslims too. No 'manustream'

media would focus on

Ambedkar's work and thought.

All his life, Baba Saheb fought

not with Gandhi or Gandhians

but dishonest brahmanical

intellectual class too which felt

threatened and had no keen

interest that his thought and

vision reach to people of India

but then mission Ambedkarism

was carried forward by his dedicated

followers who started

publishing periodicals and

magazines everywhere and it is

because of their work and dedication

Ambedkarites today are

one of the most enlightened and

intellectual class. It is these

dedicated icons who took

immense pain to make the literature

available to us.

Today, we have a hugely

powerful Ambedkarite opinion

making class, a majority of

who, would not like to get

legitimised or justified by the

brahmanical intellectual of

media yet many of those who

are active and visible on social

media have gained their way to

the manustream media. The

difference is that in the yesteryears,

no brahmanical intellectual

had the capacity to publish

the roar of a L R Balley or

Bhagwan Das or V T Rajshekar

or Raja Dhale. Today, they

have started publishing the new

young which is a good sign but

for me, I would still appreciate

and respect those more who

dont care for the brahmanical

mainstream media and continue

to do their work of spreading

Ambedkarite enlightenment

through their own network. It is

a fact that Ambedkarism has

the most potent weapon against

brahmanism and it has survived

despite India's power elite

never wanted it but that was the

power of the movement, which

never got any good 'press' or

review by the 'nationalists' who

always blamed Ambedkarites

as Casteists.

Today, in the one hundred

years of Mook Nayak, important

is to continue with

autonomous publications. Let

more flower bloom and young

Ambedkarites take charge of

new media, use social media

and engage in constructive

debate. Dr Ambedkar was an

intellectual giant who responded

to various issues confronting

the nation. We need to use his

basic tools to respond to current

crisis that we face today. Reach

more and more groups diverse

from your own and make

alliances with common minimum

programmes without

undermining the basic identity

of Ambedkarism. The real fight

against the brahmanical caste

hegemonists or fascists in India

can only come through an

inclusive and diverse coalition

of Ambedkarite Bahujans with

Ambedkarism playing the lead

role of coordinating these

diverse groups but in a collective

leadership.



It is essential to understand

that Baba Saheb Ambedkar

paid great emphasis on interacting

with his people and

through his media. He could

also have written in these

manuwadi media of his time

but he preferred his own publications

so that his view remain

undiluted and unadulterated.

Also important that he changed

his strategies through time to

time so Mook Nayak to

Bahishkrit Bharat, ultimately

reached to 'Prabuddh Bharat'

which was his vision for an

enlightened India as he knew

well that without providing an

alternative to brahmanism you

can not really liberate people

and for that it was essential to

continue the intellectual dialogue

with people.

Today's leadership actually

dont want intellectual debate.

Most of them hate and never

felt that a professional media

was required which could give

its professional guidance by

inviting community intellectuals,

silent activists, grassroots

workers to write and not merely

report or produce all the

garbage of party reporting or

neta bhakti. Intellectuals need

to come beyond the bhakti as

baba saheb said categorically

why 'bhakti' in politics is way

towards disaster. Through

media leaders give their vision

and people interact with them.

More than that they listen their

own critique but today criticism

is not liked and brahmanical

media will not critique

Bahujan leadership for the

point of the community interest

but its own interest and therefore

such media was needed

which could warn leaders of

their

faults

a n d

n o t

become their propaganda tool

as it never help in the long run.

Media can also be used in creating

new young leaders but for

that all need long term strategy.

While we salute all those

known and unknow

Ambedkarites who carried forwarded

the legacy of Dr Baba

Saheb Ambedkar's journalism,

it must continue its work

unmindful of whether other

appreciate it or not. Your real

power is not the brahmanical

acknowledgement but in awakening

the masses and making

their issues public. The manustream

media today is distorting

facts, hiding them and vilifying

dissenters. It is important therefore,

we support and participate

with all such forces who have

stood with people for their

human rights, social justice and

raised their issues and provided

space for all kind of discussions.

In the 21st century, Dr Baba

Saheb Ambedkar's philosophy

will play the real 'liberation

theology' for all the oppressed

people and if we want that this

philosophy is not distorted then

it is essential we keep safe the

legacy of all those who dedicated

their life to spread Baba

Saheb's 'Prabuddha Bharat'

mission. Ambedkarite media is

not reporting cut and paste

from the manuwadi media but

essentially a constructive ideological

alternative of the hierarchical

varna system, a complete

annihilation of which is necessary

for a stronger and democratic

India. No Manuwadi

media would be interested in

annihilation of caste as it is

only possible through

Ambedkarite media but for that

we all will have to learn to listen

to even disagreements and

try forge coalition with all.

Ambedkarite media can be an

individual enterprise but will

have to work in close association

with the community and

should not only raise their

issues but work towards creating

new young writers, photographers,

cartoonists, reporters

and editors. The task is tough

but nothing is impossible and

will ultimately benefit the

nation enormously where

Media is 'exclusive' domain of

two or three jaatis.

In the 100 years of celebration

of Mook-Nayak, our main

goal should be to break the

hegemony of the these exploiting

castes and classes in our

knowledge and information

system so that brahmanical

exploitation is exposed, people

get justice and rule of law is

restored. We have seen the dirt

and filth that manustream

media has unleashed on us and

to counter this we need an

enlightened media and better

analysis of the current situation.

Ambedkarites can do that,

and if they do so, it will be the

best tribute to Baba Saheb

Ambedkar.


WORLD

01-02-2020 to 15-02-2020

23

It is time for INDIAN INSTITUTIONS to

stand up and act to protect democracy

A ‘journalist’ was ‘manhandled’

when reporting from Shaheen Bagh and

then he said that he could have been

‘mob lynched’ there. Thankfully, he

remember the word otherwise they paid

slaves had forgotten the terms and

always blamed the victims. The new

trend in India started with mob lynching

was to accuse the victim and justify the

killing and make the accuse killers as

the ‘mass leaders’, many of who are

now part of Union Cabinet and Uttar

Pradesh cabinet.

The fact is instant publicity and

legitimacy by media has allowed the

criminals and thugs to claim to be leaders.

You speak anything and media is

gladly and overwhelmingly ready to

provide their bite your honorable platform

then we have to think seriously

whether they can really be called journalists.

When your platforms become

an ‘adda’ of tirade against Muslims,

Dalits and all those who believe in secular

liberal values then you speak

against constitution and people will

respond you when the time come. A

true media is the place to raise the voice

of the people in democracies and not

become the voice of powerful and

‘steno’ of the government to just

‘inform’ public about the press releases

and demonise those who disagree.

A few days back, The Wire put

online an interview of Naseeruddin

Shah and as usual Shah was candid in

his views and spoke about his film

industry function. Ofcourse, he should

have been a big more careful about his

remark of terming Anupam Kher, a

clown because clowns and jokers are far

superior to crooked fellows playing victim

card all the time. Why should

Naseer be blamed for foul mouthing. If

you follow Anupam Kher for the last six

years, he is one of the most foul

mouthed and over hyped actors of the

Bombai cinema and stand nowhere to

Naseer and Om Puri.

But what happened after that is more

astonishing. A governor whose political

work is not known to any one except

that he was the husband of a late BJP

politician another hyped leader, send a

series of tweets telling Naseeruddin

Shah that nobody bothered when he

married outside his marriage and that

he was ungrateful as the country gave

so much to him. The ‘loudspeakers’

started debating the issue. To be candid,

I did not like Naseeruddin Shah’s language

but then this is the new trend

when one provocation lead to other and

then there is no control as the Sanghis

in the media are ready to build a ‘new

narrative’ like ungrateful. So the nation

must be grateful to ‘mahan’ netas and

artists of BJP that they are here to lead

while every Muslim achiever must be

grateful to the country. This is how the

narratives are created.

The saddest part is that those in

responsible position are using the most

irresponsible language. So ‘azadi’

becoming the sedition and Shaheen

Bagh becomes Pakistan and rest

as Hindustan. Of course, the

cunning foxes in the media have

now left India as Bharat and are

using Hindustan as Bharat is a bad

word. The term being used are deliberate

to ‘justify’ Hindustan for Hindus

when Pakistan was meant for Muslims.

The problem with these rogues is that

they dont understand why Bangladesh

came into being if religion was the only

criteria but then when the reporter is

there to not question anything and allow

you to go unquestioned such things happened.

It is not the freedom of expression, it

is time when we dont allow such abusive

words into our discourse though

‘clown’ definitely does not come under

that category but it depends on who are

you are speaking against. Slowly, the

debate between two individuals has

been cleverly converted into a Hindu

Muslim debate reminding everyone

else how ‘great’ and ‘tolerant’ Hindus

are and you must be ‘thankful’ to them

for being ‘successful’. So, no Muslim

should question Indian government,

they should not question police

brutalities or speak up against the

‘laws’ but a Sawarna who migrate



to UK, US or any other part of

Europe want to be lead the nation

in just three four years, want to enjoy

all the liberties and freedom there and

but back home want to throw away people

who have been living here for centuries.

If Naseeruddin Shah’s criticism

of Anupam Kher was simple like any

other citizen then there was no issue

and I will stand with Anupam Kher but

when the whole issue is trivialized into

a Hindu Muslim issue which term

Naseeruddin Shah as publicity seeker

and must atone for his fulmination as

India or Hindus now looking synonymous,

then I must stand with

Naseeruddin Shah as he simply spoke

as an Indian. He is powerful enough to

defend himself but those who are hiding

in silence are actually part of the

sinister campaigning which want to

silence critical voices.

The issue has reached at the level

that all are losing their credibility particularly

the media which is

using this ‘kabaddi’ for its

own TRPs but moreso

exposing its Hindutva

agenda. The fact is the masters

are still unhappy with

them as they want no fare

game but pure surrender.

They want media to vilify

all others who speak sanity or criticise

the government and its misdeeds. Public

is equally watching and they too are victim

of noise. So if Arnab Goswami or

others like him think they can shout out

the opponents, the people also know

that their public place can respond to

what they speak in their studios thumping

their chest and charging everyone

else either anti national or paid worker.

If these people can be called journalists

then India has lost it. I am sorry to say,

it vitiate the entire atmosphere. But I

will again say that the response to them

is not through their language but our

language. Saner voices must not get

tempt to short term publicity to legitimise

these foul mouths. You can never

win an ideological war through street

hooliganism.

A recent interview of Justice

Markenday Katju virtually abusing former

Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi is only

vulgar. Ranjan Gogoi came from the

same system which also selected Katju

for the highest court. Now, media and

we all enjoy according to our taste and

who said what but that is where the

arguments disappear and become useless.

It is time for all of us including in

the media to mind our languages. Dont

give legitimacy to the goons masquerading

as politicians.

Our media failed in nailing them and

political parties are ready to embrace

them. When the top leadership of parties

actually give them ticket and media just

lick their feet, it is unambiguous message

to all that we dont care. Since our

institutions have failed we have likes of

those who are making these statement

and yet remained free threatening and

abusing others.

Why to blame Kapil Mishra or

Tejinder Bagga when they know it well

that what they speak and noise they

make, ‘pay’ politically’, when a terror

accused can become MP and people are

ready to defeat a former chief minister

who is known for delivering, then we

must realise that things have been damaged

beyond control and it is time for

India’s institutions to assert and act otherwise

we are in a deeper chaos as The

Economist suggest. The down fall of

our institutions has actually endangered

democracy in India and it is time for

them to stand up and act.

Work begins on Chandrayaan-3 mission: ISRO

Bengaluru : In its second

attempt to soft-land on the moon,

India began working on its third

lunar mission -- Chandrayaan-3 --

which is scheduled for launch in

early 2021, a top space official said

on Wednesday.

"We have started working on

our third lunar mission to land an

unmanned spacecraft near the

moon's south pole. The project

work has gained momentum to

launch the lander and rover by

early 2021," Indian Space

Research Organisation (ISRO)

Chairman K. Sivan said at a space

event here. On January 1, Sivan

told the media here that the government

had approved the ambitious

mission for soft-landing of a

spacecraft and a rover near the

moon's south pole in the later part

of 2020 or early 2021.

India's maiden attempt to softland

at the designated spot on the

moon failed on September 7, 2019,

when Chandrayaan-2's Vikram

spacecraft crash-landed due to a

velocity glitch.

"As Chandrayaan-3 will have

only a lander and rover, the lunar

spacecraft will cost Rs 610 crore,

including Rs 360 crore for the

launch rocket," said Sivan on the

margins of a symposium on

"Human Spaceflight and

Exploration - Present Challenges

and Future Trends".

The space agency spent Rs 960

crore on the Chandrayaan-2 mission,

whose Orbiter is circling

around the moon at about 100 km

from the lunar surface in an elliptical

motion since August 20 last.

On India's maiden manned mission

'Gaganyaan', Sivan said that

four Indian Air Force (IAF) pilots

selected with three of them as crew

would soon visit Russia for training.

"Gaganyaan will be a historic

mission for the country as three

Indian astronauts will fly in a space

module designed and developed

indigenously," asserted Sivan, a

rocket specialist.

Former IAF Wing Commander

Rakesh Sharma was the first Indian

to fly in space onboard the Russian

Soyuz-11 mission on April 2, 1984.

On return from Russia, the IAF

quartet will undergo module-specific

training at the space agency's

human space flight centre in this

tech city where critical technologies

for space missions are being

developed.

"The four pilots will be trained

in our crew and service module to

operate it for simulations. Three of

them will be finally selected for the

7-day space mission in the earth's

lower orbit," Sivan said.

Asserting that the manned mission

was not a one-off feat or exercise

to send a human being into

space, the ISRO Chairman said:

"Gaganyaan is not just about sending

a man into space but creating

opportunities for national and

overseas collaborations with other

space-faring nations. "Scientific

discoveries, economic development,

education, technology development

and inspiring youths are

the common goals for all nations.

Human space flight programme

provides an ideal platform to meet

such objectives."

24 01-02-2020 to 15-02-2020 WORLD


RTI amendment erodes

Commissioners' freedom, says

Ramesh; SC notice to govt

New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Friday

issued notice on a plea filed by senior Congress

leader Jairam Ramesh contending that the

amendment to the RTI Act violates the object of

the parent statue, by curbing independence of

Information Commissioners, and also infringes

fundamental right to information guaranteed

under the Constitution.

The Right to Information (Amendment) Act

2 gives power to the government to prescribe

tenure, allowances and salary of Information

Commissioners, and run contrary to the statement

of objects and reasons (SOR) of the RTI

Act, 2005, he said.

"The decision of the Central government is

binding upon the Information Commissioners.

This allows unbridled and uncanalised discretionary

power to the Central Government that

jeopardises the independence of Information

Commissioners," said the plea filed by Ramesh,

who is also a Rajya Sabha member. The plea,

filed through advocate Sunil Fernandes, also

contends that assuming the RTI Amendment

Act merely delegated rule-making power to the

Central government without thwarting the independence

of Information Commissioners, "its

accompanying RTI Rules complete the destruction

of the independence of Information

Commissioners."

A bench headed by Justice D.Y.

Chandrachud and comprising Justice K.M.

Joseph issued notice to the Centre and asked it

to respond within four weeks. The plea cited

Rule 22 of the amended RTI Act, which

empowers the Centre with the discretionary

"power to relax" the applicability of the provisions

of RTI Rules for any class or category of

persons in the Central Information Commission

(CIC) and State Information Commission

(SIC). This is an alarming concern about the

government's potential to invoke excessive

powers to determine selective tenures, terms

and conditions for different Chief and

Information Commissioner at the time of

appointment, as per its whims and fancies, the

petition said. Citing rule 23, it said: "Under this

rule, the final interpreter of all the rules rests

with the Central government. This grants the

Central government excessive power over governing

the salaries, allowances and service conditions

of Information Commissioners."

Ramesh contended the Amendment Act

altered the architecture of independence of

Information Commissioners -- it altered the

erstwhile fixed tenure of 5 years of the Central

Information Commissioners, granted absolute

power to Centre to prescribe the salaries,

allowances, and terms and conditions of service

of the Central Information Commissioners, and

explicitly granted rule making power to Centre

over fixing the tenure, salaries and service conditions

of Information Commissioners.

The petition also contends the RTI

Amendment Act and its accompanying rules

collectively "abrogate the independence of

Information Commissioners." The petition

claims the tenure of Information

Commissioners is subject to the will of the

Centre. Ramesh urged the top court to pass

appropriate order or direction to declare and set

aside the Right to Information Amendment Act,

2019 and its accompanying Right to

Information (Term of Office, Salaries,

Allowances and Other Terms and Conditions of

Service) Rules, 2019 as ultra vires to the aims

and objects of the RTI Act, 2005 and the

Constitution.

BJP planning 'big

disturbance' on Feb 2

in Delhi: AAP leader

New Delhi : Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha

MP Sanjay Singh on Friday claimed that the BJP

was planning some "big disturbance" on February

2 at Shaheen Bagh and Jamia Millia Islamia -- the

epicentre of the anti-CAA protests in Delhi --

ahead of the February 8 Assembly polls.

"(Union Home Minister) Amit Shah is behind

all this. First, he encourages a BJP Minister to

deliver hate speech and then violence breaks. A

man walks openly with a gun in public and opens

fire. "Shah is controlling Delhi Police's hand. Law

and order has gone from bad to worse after Shah

took over as the Home Minister. Now, they plan to

do something big on February 2 at Shaheen Bagh

and JMI. I wish to warn the people and the

Election Commission," the AAP leader told the

media here. "I have proof. A lot of messages and

videos are doing the rounds on WhatsApp," Singh

claimed, adding that he would submit the "evidence"

to the Election Commission.

He claimed that the BJP leadership is "losing

temper" because that party is set to lose the

Assembly elections in Delhi and so they want to

"postpone elections". Delhi will hold the

Assembly polls on February 8.

B. Murli, Mrinal named

EC's Special Observers

for DELHI POLLS

New Delhi : The Election

Commission on Friday said it

has appointed former IRS official

B. Murli Kumar as Special

Expenditure Observer and

retired IPS official Mrinal

Kanti Das as Special Police

Observer for the February 8

Delhi Assembly polls.

The poll panel took the decision

after the review meeting

with civil and police officials.

Murli Kumar is a former

Indian Revenue Service (IRS)

of the 1983 batch while Das is

a retired Indian Police Service

(IPS) officer of 1977 batch.

As Special Expenditure

Observer, the EC said, Kumar,

in consultation with the Chief

Electoral Officer, Delhi, will be

supervising and monitoring the

work being done by the electoral

machinery and ensure that

stringent and effective enforcement

action is undertaken

based on intelligence inputs

and complaints received

through C-VIGIL,

Voter Helpline 1950

against all

persons/entities trying

to induce voters

by distributing cash,

liquor and freebies.

Similarly, the

Commission said,

Das as the Special

Police Observer is

assigned to oversee

the deployment and

other security-related

issues. Das, who

retired as Director

General of Manipur

Police, was also

deputed earlier as

Special Police Observer for

Tripura and Mizoram during

the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections

and also the recently held

Jharkhand Assembly elections.

Given his past experience in

the Investigation Wing of

Income Tax Department,

Kumar was also appointed

Special Expenditure Observer

for Vellore parliamentary constituency

in Tamil Nadu and for

the recent Assembly elections

in Maharashtra and Jharkhand.

01-15 February 2020 The Asian Independent

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