25-12-2020

FriDAY, DeCeMBer 25, 2020
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The 43rd Annual General Meeting of Sonali Paper & Board Mills Ltd. held in the morning
through Digital Platform recently. The Chairman of the Company Mohammed Younus presided
over the Meeting. All Directors were present in the meeting. The Shareholders joined the
Meeting virtually. The Shareholders have been approved 5% Cash & 10% (Stock) Dividend for
the financial year 2019-2020.
Photo: Courtesy
After catastrophic year, Bollywood
hopes for a 2021 comeback
BANGALORE: The dancers stopped
strutting on Bollywood film sets this
year as the Indian film industry struggled
to find any spring in its step during
a disastrous 2020, repots BSS.
The annus horribilis for the world's
most prolific movie industry began with
the heartbreaking deaths in April within
36 hours of luminaries Irrfan Khan and
Rishi Kapoor.
Others to pass away included composer
Wajid Khan, who died from the
coronavirus at 42, director Basu
Chatterjee, Bollywood's first female
choreographer Saroj Khan, and S.P.
Balasubrahmanyam, singer of an estimated
40,000 film songs.
But it was the suicide in June of 34-
year-old star Sushant Singh Rajput that
had the widest repercussions.
India's sensationalist TV news channels
- eager to cast the film industry as a
den of iniquity - accused Rajput's former
girlfriend, actress Rhea
Chakraborty, of driving him to his death
with black magic and cannabis.
The 28-year-old, who denies any
wrongdoing, spent months in custody
for allegedly buying drugs for Rajput,
while stars such as Deepika Padukone
were hauled in for questioning as the
investigation escalated.
"It has been a terrible year," actress
Swara Bhasker told AFP.
"The slander campaign by some sections
of the media against the film
industry has been horrendous."
Virus restrictions meanwhile forced
producers to hit pause on shootings,
putting thousands of livelihoods at risk
in Hindi-language Bollywood as well as
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India's other regional film industries.
From "spot boys" running errands on
set to "junior artistes" eking out a living
as extras, the sector relies on a huge
army of low-paid workers.
"The loss of employment and income
has been devastating for so many,"
Bhasker said.Productions have tentatively
resumed, but pandemic restrictions
forbid them from shooting the
elaborate musical sequences that are a
hallmark of Hindi movies.
This point was brought home in a
social media post in August by superstar
Amitabh Bachchan - who this year
spent weeks in hospital with the coronavirus
- describing a film set as "a sea of
blue PPE", or personal protective equipment.
Cinemas were shut for months and
although they re-opened in October,
virus-wary viewers are staying away,
and some theatres are wondering if the
crowds will ever return.
A trip to the cinema has traditionally
been hugely popular in India, ranging
from $1 tickets at single-screen theatres
to air-conditioned multiplexes offering
seat-side biryani and hot fudge sundaes.
New releases have ground to a halt,
with many producers preferring to
screen their films directly on streaming
platforms that boomed as the pandemic
forced millions into lockdown.
But Bachchan's actor son Abhishek,
whose crime caper "Ludo" went straight
to Netflix last month, told AFP that the
silver screen experience "cannot be
duplicated".
"We love our outings to the theatre;
we love watching our films on the screen
while eating a nice tub of popcorn, our
samosas and cold drinks and going with
our friends and family," he said.
"I absolutely see theatres making a
comeback and I really hope they do."
But he acknowledged that the immediate
outlook appeared hazy.
Although Hollywood has mooted the
idea of showing films simultaneously in
cinemas and on digital platforms, with
Warner Bros planning to do so with all
its 2021 releases, its Indian counterparts
have no such plans.
Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, who is
starring in "AK vs AK", a black comedy
out on Netflix this week, told AFP:
"There are certain films that must be
seen projected onto the big screen."
"Filmmakers create content based on
where their work will be seen… You
have to know what size of screen your
film is going to be seen on, and studios
and distributors must fulfil that promise,"
he said.
The casualties are already piling up.
A string of beloved single-screen cinemas
have downed their shutters and
many others are contemplating closure,
film trade analyst Komal Nahta told
AFP.
"It is going to be catastrophic," he
said. And although shoots have
resumed, every week throws up new
cases of stars testing positive for coronavirus,
forcing productions to shut
down.But as vaccine efforts pick up
pace, and with eagerly-awaited films
like "83" and "Sooryavanshi" tipped for
release in cinemas next year, observers
are betting on a boisterous, Bollywoodstyle
comeback.
White House
proposes new $916
bn stimulus plan to
break deadlock
WASHINGTON: The White
House unveiled a $916 billion
stimulus proposal on
Tuesday in a final dash to
break a months-long logjam
over new aid for the coronavirus-stricken
US economy
before President Donald
Trump leaves office in
January, reports BSS.
Treasury Secretary Steven
Mnuchin announced the
plan, which he said includes
"money for state and local
governments and robust liability
protections for businesses,
schools and universities."
Those elements have been
key sticking points in negotiations
between Democratic
and Republican lawmakers.
The proposal comes weeks
before Trump is set to hand
over power to President-elect
Joe Biden and a new
Congress takes office, and as
the country struggles with
the world's worst Covid-19
outbreak that has caused the
worst economic downturn in
a century.
Johnson jets
in to Brussels
in bid to save
Brexit deal
LONDON: Prime Minister
Boris Johnson was Brusselsbound
on Wednesday, with
Britain's fading hopes for a
post-Brexit trade deal hanging
on crisis talks with EU
chief Ursula von der Leyen,
reports BSS.
Johnson's dash back to the
city where once he made his
name as an EU-bashing
newspaper reporter marks
the last chance of a breakthrough
before Britain leaves
the EU single market.
Talks are blocked over the
issue of fair competition, with
Britain refusing to accept a
mechanism to allow the EU
to retaliate swiftly if the UK
business regulations change
in ways that put European
firms at a disadvantage.
EU negotiator Michel
Barnier and his UK counterpart
David Frost have narrowed
the gaps over eight
months of talks, but London
insists it will reclaim full sovereignty
at the end of the year
after half-a-century of close
economic integration.
If Britain leaves the EU single
market in three weeks
without a follow-on trade
deal the delays that travellers
and freight will face at its borders
with the European
Union will be compounded
by import tariffs that will
drive up prices.
EU-UK poised to announce
post-Brexit trade deal
BRUSSELS: Britain and the
European Union were
expected to announce a
Christmas Eve trade deal
Thursday after ten months
of Brexit talks dragged out
over yet another late night
session, repots BSS.
The two sides had hoped
to unveil the accord on
Wednesday, and the front
pages of several British
newspapers already proclaimed
victory for Prime
Minister Boris Johnson.
But EU member states had
a number of questions about
the text and cross-Channel
diplomacy continued
through the night, with
Johnson and Commission
chief Ursula von der Leyen
expected to announce a
breakthrough shortly after
dawn.
An EU source told AFP
that "if all goes well" the two
leaders should talk by phone
at 0700 GMT to seal the
agreement.
"It will hopefully be an
early start tomorrow morning,"
European Commission
spokesman Eric Mamer
tweeted just after midnight,
advising reporters and
diplomats alike to grab some
sleep as the finishing touches
were applied.
Several hours earlier,
European officials had confidently
told journalists:
"We are in the final phase."
But diplomatic sources
said member states, in particular
France, had wanted
to the Commission to go
back to the British camp to
seek specific guarantees on
parts of the accord.
The British pound and
Asian markets were rising
on the expectation of a deal,
and a French government
source said UK negotiators
had made "huge concessions"
on fisheries - the key
sticking point as the clock
ticks down to Britain's
departure.
The last-gasp deal, if it is
confirmed, would come just
days before Britain is set to
leave the EU's single market
at the end of the year, sparing
the two sides from trade
tariffs.
A deal - which would still
need to be translated and
tidied up by lawyers - could
be approved provisionally
before the cut-off date and
then scrutinised by EU lawmakers
in the new year to
avoid a cliff-edge.
One million vaccinated
as US eyes return to
normal next summer
WASHINGTON: More than a million
Americans have received the first dose of their
Covid-19 vaccines, a senior official said
Wednesday, as the US eyes a return to normal
by next summer, repots BSS.
The news comes as the winter surge in cases
rages across the country, where the virus has
claimed more than 320,000 lives and is on
course to be the third leading cause of death in
the year.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) Director Robert Redfield said jurisdictions
had logged the first million shots with his
agency since the biggest immunization drive in
US history kicked off on December 14.
Some three million doses of the Pfizer-
BioNTech vaccine were rolled out last week, and
the official goal for this week was two million
more Pfizer doses, and six million from
Moderna.
Moncef Slaoui, chief advisor of the government's
Operation Warp Speed, said the objective
of injecting 20 million people this month
was "unlikely to be met," adding that a delay was
beginning to emerge between doses being distributed
to sites and the shots being administered.
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But he remained confident of being able to
inoculate 100 million people in the first quarter
of 2021, and another 100 million by the second
quarter. If the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines proceeds
smoothly, it might be possible to achieve
widespread population immunity in the United
States by next summer, top scientist Anthony
Fauci has said.
In an interview with WebMD posted
Wednesday, the infectious disease official suggested
people could host weddings as early as
June or July.
Fauci said he believed priority populations -
such as nursing home residents, health care
workers, critical workers, the elderly and people
at high risk - should receive their shots by
March or early April.
"We could start in April doing what I call
'open season' on vaccinations - namely anybody
in the general population who wants to
get vaccinated will get vaccinated."
He continued: "By the time we get into the
middle or end of the summer, I believe we will
have, if we do it correctly, we could have 70 to
85 percent of the population vaccinated.
"When that occurs, there will be an umbrella
of protection over the entire country."
Facebook bans Australian
celebrity chef over virus
misinformation
SYDNEY : Facebook has banned Australian
celebrity chef and conspiracy theorist Pete
Evans for repeatedly spreading misinformation
about the coronavirus, repots BSS.
With more than a million social media followers,
Evans had been an influential promoter
of conspiracy theories about the pandemic
and vaccines.
Facebook said Thursday it would not "allow
anyone to share misinformation about Covid-
19 that could lead to imminent physical harm"
or falsehoods about Covid-19 vaccines.
"We have clear policies against this type of
content and we've removed Chef Pete Evans'
Facebook Page for repeated violations of these
policies," the company said in a statement.
The former chef's page on Instagram - a
Facebook-owned platform - with 278,000
followers is still active, however, and includes
posts that encourage Sydney residents to defy
public health officials and refuse to get tested
for the virus.
Australia's largest city is currently battling
to contain a cluster of more 100 cases that
ended months of low community transmission.
Evans said on Instagram Thursday that he
was glad to be "one of the catalysts for a conversation"
about freedom of speech and
described the science around the pandemic
as "BS".
Facebook has previously banned some high
profile accounts that peddled misinformation
and hate speech, most notably those of conspiracist
Alex Jones and far-right figure Milo
Yiannopoulos.