The Indian Weekender - 8th October 2021
Visa news disappoints many
Visa news disappoints many
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08OCTOBER<strong>2021</strong> • VOL 13 ISSUE 31<br />
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Visa news<br />
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<strong>The</strong> <strong>Indian</strong> <strong>Weekender</strong> Friday, <strong>October</strong> 08, <strong>2021</strong><br />
NEW ZEALAND 3<br />
Resident Visa announcement<br />
a big disappointment for many<br />
‘Why were we not included? This is not fair for people who found that studying was the best option to<br />
stay in NZ,’ one of nearly 300 PhD students denied the residency pathway asks. This is first in a series in<br />
which <strong>Indian</strong> <strong>Weekender</strong> looks at the categories that fell through the cracks of the ministry’s new policy.<br />
IWK Exclusive<br />
NAVDEEP KAUR MARWAH<br />
On 30 September <strong>2021</strong>, Immigration<br />
New Zealand (INZ) announced a One-<br />
Off <strong>2021</strong> Resident Visa for migrants in<br />
New Zealand, which could see about 1,65,000<br />
migrants on a fast track to residency.<br />
Most of the migrants have been delighted by<br />
the news and hoping to get their residence in<br />
New Zealand. According to the announcement,<br />
to be eligible for this visa, the applicants must<br />
be onshore on 29 September <strong>2021</strong> on an eligible<br />
visa or have applied for an eligible visa on or<br />
before 29 September <strong>2021</strong> that is later granted.<br />
Apart from that, the applicant needs to meet<br />
one of the following conditions.<br />
• Must have lived in New Zealand for three or<br />
more years (have spent a minimum of 821<br />
days in New Zealand between 29 September<br />
2018 and 29 September <strong>2021</strong> (inclusive) on<br />
29 September <strong>2021</strong>, OR<br />
• Must earn at or above the median wage ($27<br />
per hour), OR<br />
• Must work in a role on a scarce list.<br />
Interestingly, student visa holders, as well as<br />
partnership based work visa holders, are not on<br />
the eligible visa list to apply for this pathway.<br />
While this news has been a dream come true<br />
for many migrants, it has also caused stress,<br />
disappointment and anxiety among many<br />
migrants who are not eligible for this new visa.<br />
Many migrants are feeling abandoned and<br />
ignored as the new announcement overlooked<br />
many other visa categories, which is a large<br />
number of migrants based on different category<br />
visas in New Zealand.<br />
Many of them have spent years in the<br />
country, check one or all the boxes but do not<br />
still qualify because of the category of the visa<br />
they are on. Some have been in the country for<br />
years and have even held essential visas but just<br />
chose to upskill themselves during a pandemic<br />
or some went on partner visas to find more job<br />
opportunities and not get tied to an employer.<br />
A petition, started by Rachel Swann, urging<br />
the Government to expand eligibility for the<br />
<strong>2021</strong> one-off resident visa to include those on<br />
student visas and partnership visas has so far<br />
been signed by some 19,500 people.<br />
“I started the petition due to waking up on<br />
the morning of the announcement and finding<br />
out that despite meeting the criteria we are not<br />
eligible for the one-off visa because our visa<br />
type is not included. (I am a partner of a PhD<br />
student).<br />
My partner switched his visa from essential<br />
skills to study his PhD in late 2020 and early<br />
<strong>2021</strong> I switched to a partner of a Student Visa<br />
for better opportunities. What we are asking for<br />
is simple, we want all visa holders to be eligible<br />
to apply for the one-off residency visa if they<br />
meet one of the criteria laid out.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se are skilled people who have contributed<br />
to the economy and society in New Zealand<br />
who have made choices to better themselves<br />
and have now been excluded as a result.”<br />
<strong>Indian</strong> <strong>Weekender</strong> will publish a series of<br />
articles covering each of these categories who<br />
are currently not eligible for this one-off visa<br />
over the coming weeks.<br />
We start with those migrants who are<br />
currently on a student visa to complete their<br />
PhD or Masters Qualification or qualification<br />
needed in industries such as healthcare. <strong>The</strong>y<br />
are urging that students as well as their families<br />
are an essential part of New Zealand’s economy<br />
and should not be left out from this one-off<br />
resident scheme as they are contributing to the<br />
economy and community, especially during the<br />
pandemic.<br />
One of them is Gaganjot Kaur, who is<br />
doing her PhD in Engineering, Computer<br />
& Mathematical Sciences. Calling this<br />
announcement “disappointing”, she says, “I am<br />
disappointed with this new announcement. It<br />
is an unjust and unwarranted treatment of PhD<br />
candidates. Sadly, I would have been eligible<br />
if I decided not to continue my study towards<br />
a PhD. In that case, I would have a post-study<br />
work visa and would have been eligible for this<br />
residency visa.<br />
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4 NEW ZEALAND<br />
Friday, <strong>October</strong> 08, <strong>2021</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Indian</strong> <strong>Weekender</strong><br />
• Continued from Page 4<br />
“But since I decided I want to get a PhD<br />
so that my future career in NZ is brighter, my<br />
choices have backfired for me and my family.<br />
<strong>The</strong> government quite often claims they<br />
welcome high-skilled migrant workers, and<br />
they want to improve the research reputation<br />
of the country by attracting more high degree<br />
employees, but what they are doing with PhD<br />
visas shows the very opposite. We do not<br />
deserve to receive exclusion.”<br />
She further adds, “PhD students publish<br />
and present research papers in international<br />
conferences and journals where they<br />
represent the NZ universities, which helps in<br />
international academic ranking and recognition<br />
of universities of the country.”<br />
More than 290 PhD holders have signed a<br />
petition addressed to the Immigration Minister,<br />
Mr Kris Faafoi, asking the government to have<br />
residence eligibility under new rules for those<br />
holding student visas to complete their PhD.<br />
Another such story is that a student visa<br />
holder Is that of Jorge J. Castaño, who has<br />
been in NZ for almost five years. Sharing his<br />
story on the Facebook Migrants NZ group he<br />
wrote, “I share the same feeling of frustration<br />
and disappointment. I’m pretty sure all students<br />
have the same feeling.<br />
I came to study, then I worked for three years<br />
in Queenstown as office assistant and customer<br />
services, under an essential worker visa. In<br />
<strong>October</strong> 2020, I moved to Invercargill to study<br />
the Masters of Applied Management.<br />
“[Having studied] so hard for one year,<br />
putting money into the economy, paying taxes,<br />
working even less than 20 hours because<br />
studying demands time, doing my best to build<br />
a life in NZ, and yesterday I woke up knowing<br />
that students were left off from this type of visa.<br />
I am finishing my masters, in four weeks I am<br />
submitting my research project and I am able to<br />
apply for the post study visa.<br />
“Why we were not included? This is not fair<br />
for people who found that studying was the best<br />
option to stay in NZ. We are talented people<br />
that have been excluded, as students we are<br />
getting skills and knowledge to incentivise the<br />
economy and growth of NZ society.”<br />
Visa On<br />
29/09/<strong>2021</strong><br />
Post Study<br />
Visa<br />
Essential Skill<br />
Visa<br />
In NZ 29th<br />
Sept 21<br />
821 Days<br />
in NZ<br />
Raman, another immigrant, is regretting<br />
her decision to take up studies in the<br />
healthcare sector.<br />
“I came to NZ in 2015 on a student visa after<br />
that I got a three-year work visa, which finished<br />
in June <strong>2021</strong>. But since that time I didn’t have<br />
any job offer, I decided to study again and took<br />
admission in a healthcare course.<br />
Now immigration rules have changed and<br />
everyone is eligible who has a work visa and<br />
spent three years in NZ. That’s unfair for<br />
someone like me who too studied to improve<br />
skills. We have already spent around six years<br />
in NZ.”<br />
Even Immigration experts feel that it is<br />
indeed unfair to leave certain visa holder<br />
categories.<br />
Immigration lawyer Aaran Hunt says,<br />
“We’ve seen so many people leave NZ so<br />
we’re glad that a policy was finally released.<br />
However, it shows no evidence of the months<br />
of work the Minister suggests has gone into it.<br />
Obvious choices, such as partners who work in<br />
critical health, have been completely ignored.<br />
“PhD students, a group we want to retain, are<br />
left out while those who completed lower level<br />
studies are included. Those caught offshore,<br />
Earning<br />
Median Wage<br />
($27)<br />
Working<br />
in role of<br />
Scarce list<br />
Full time work<br />
was during 2020<br />
lockdown<br />
due to the government closing the border, get<br />
punished again, including both post-study<br />
work visa holders and those who managed<br />
to return but now can’t fulfil the 821-day<br />
requirement. This policy was either rushed out,<br />
or the Minister didn’t seek the assistance of any<br />
immigration law expert. Likely both.”<br />
Sharing the same sentiment, immigration<br />
lawyer Aaron Martin says, “I do think it unfair<br />
that PhD student visa holders who have the<br />
authority to work full-time and those on the<br />
partnership visa are left out. More importantly,<br />
I think those who may have been here on a<br />
Specific Purpose Work visa should have been<br />
included. Many talented skilled individuals are<br />
holding that type of visa who could provide<br />
significant benefit to New Zealand and stuck<br />
with us through covid.<br />
<strong>Indian</strong> <strong>Weekender</strong> reached out to Immigration<br />
Minister Hon Kris Faafoi’s office to get a<br />
comment on the issue. Just as this issue went<br />
into production, we received the following<br />
response from the Minister’s office:<br />
“<strong>The</strong> eligibility criteria for the <strong>2021</strong><br />
Residence Visa are designed to be broad and<br />
simple. It will be available to over 165,000<br />
migrant workers, which represent a very<br />
Full time<br />
Employment<br />
on 29 Sept 29<br />
NZ<br />
Eligibility<br />
Remarks<br />
Yes Yes No No No No Eligible Not having skill<br />
NZ required<br />
Yes NO Yes No No Yes Eligible<br />
Student Visa Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Not<br />
Eligible<br />
Shifted Visa<br />
to Upskilled<br />
with skills NZ<br />
Require<br />
<strong>The</strong> Group of thses skilled people bring diverse backgrounds and skillsets and immensely contribute to the ethnic cohesion<br />
model of New Zealand. We believe that the very spirit of this "one off resident visa" is getting lost with the exclusion of thses<br />
territory students from getting lost with the exclusion of these students from the pool and creating unnecessary discrimination.<br />
In the presence of all thses facts, we would appreciate it if INZ could review this oversight and issue and addendum to include<br />
we deserved health care students onshore instead of calling same skill set people from off shore and granting them resedency<br />
under CPVV. <strong>The</strong>se people are small in number but carry a huge weight in the productivity and contribution to the nation<br />
in challenging time and the future.<br />
large cross section of migrants. <strong>The</strong> criteria is<br />
focused on people whose primary purpose for<br />
being in New Zealand is to work. This provides<br />
certainty to the vast majority of migrant<br />
workers and businesses, and applies to settled,<br />
skilled and scarce migrant workers, reflecting<br />
their critical part in New Zealand’s economy.<br />
“While student visa holders are not eligible<br />
for the <strong>2021</strong> Resident Visa, they are able to<br />
progress through the normal channels toward<br />
residency which will be open to them, if after<br />
graduation, they wish to continue to work and<br />
live in New Zealand.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re are no plans to broaden the eligibility<br />
criteria for the <strong>2021</strong> Residence Visa as the<br />
normal channels are still available for students<br />
who want to remain in New Zealand after they<br />
complete their studies.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> purpose of the <strong>2021</strong> Residence Visa<br />
is to provide certainty for migrant workers<br />
and businesses who have been playing a<br />
critical role in supporting our economy while<br />
the border remains closed. Policy work in the<br />
future will consider the aspirations of those<br />
people offshore who are wanting to make New<br />
Zealand home, when we are able to begin safely<br />
reducing our border restrictions.”<br />
PM announces Covid-19 vaccine certificate<br />
People wanting to access their record will be able to access it using a My Health account or RealMe.<br />
RADIO NEW ZEALAND<br />
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says<br />
Cabinet has agreed to the use of<br />
vaccine certificates in New Zealand.<br />
New Zealand’s “vaccine passport” is likely to<br />
be a digital Covid-19 vaccination certificate<br />
containing a QR code.<br />
A vaccine certificate is proof that you have<br />
been vaccinated and is now common overseas,<br />
Ardern says.<br />
More details will be shared in<br />
coming weeks, but for now the<br />
certificates will be used as a tool in<br />
high-risk settings including large<br />
events and the government is<br />
consulting on their use in places<br />
like hospitality.<br />
It will not be used for places<br />
like supermarkets or essential<br />
health services. It will be available<br />
either in digital form on smartphones<br />
or can be downloaded and printed out.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y are likely to start being used in<br />
November.<br />
Ardern said “please get vaccinated now,<br />
summer is close. And so to be fully vaccinated<br />
and fully protected and do the things you love,<br />
you need to be vaccinated this month, not in<br />
December”.<br />
<strong>The</strong> best Christmas present to your family<br />
this year would be to get vaccinated, Ardern<br />
said.<br />
Ministry of Health officials Shayne Hunter<br />
(Deputy Director-<br />
General Data and<br />
Digital) and Michael<br />
Dreyer (General Manager,<br />
National Digital Services) said<br />
they would be making access to vaccination<br />
records available “soon”.<br />
Within a few weeks of that - late this month<br />
- test results should be available via the My<br />
Covid Record, and after that the downloadable<br />
certificates will be accessible around November.<br />
People wanting to access their record will be<br />
able to access it using a My Health account or<br />
RealMe. <strong>The</strong>y will be able to create an account<br />
"<br />
That is an area where we are going<br />
to be very cautious and also learn from<br />
overseas<br />
if they do not already have one.<br />
<strong>The</strong> record will show details including<br />
batch number, site, and which arm was used.<br />
Second vaccinations can also be booked<br />
through the system.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re will be an app available for verification,<br />
and it should be able to be used either on a<br />
mobile device, on a website or using printouts.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y say it will be reachable from the current<br />
Covid app, but it is not part of the app because<br />
of privacy settings that are required.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y intend to keep the paper form<br />
available to people who don’t have access to<br />
digital technology.<br />
Ardern says they are also looking at ways<br />
that people can visit a health professional and<br />
have a certificate printed out for them.<br />
Large scale events are likely to make the use<br />
of the certificates mandatory, and while they<br />
may not be mandated in smaller settings those<br />
venues may consider using it themselves. <strong>The</strong><br />
government is still considering its options about<br />
whether the certificates will be mandatory in<br />
some of those gatherings.<br />
“That is an area where we are going<br />
to be very cautious and also learn from<br />
overseas,” Ardern said.<br />
<strong>The</strong> technology was being trialled<br />
and it was being widely used by some<br />
individuals, she said.<br />
<strong>The</strong> government is also still considering<br />
when the certificate will take effect for<br />
individuals who have been vaccinated.<br />
People are considered fully vaccinated after a<br />
second dose but they are not considered fully<br />
immunised until two weeks after they have<br />
had their second dose. Ardern said clear advice<br />
would be supplied about where the certificates<br />
cannot and should not be used.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> best way to guarantee your entry into a<br />
summer festival is to be vaccinated,” she said.<br />
<strong>The</strong> system could in future be adapted to take<br />
account of vaccinations administered overseas,<br />
and certification offered by other countries.<br />
Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson<br />
said mandating vaccinations was doubtful, but<br />
vaccine certificates were likely to be introduced<br />
in the near future.
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Indian</strong> <strong>Weekender</strong> Friday, <strong>October</strong> 08, <strong>2021</strong><br />
NEW ZEALAND 5<br />
More first home buyers looking<br />
to townhouses, apartments<br />
PRITI GARUDE-KASTURE<br />
<strong>The</strong> latest report from property site<br />
realestate.co.nz shows that while<br />
the national average asking price for<br />
houses has gently cooled, Auckland, despite<br />
the tough lockdown, saw a new 14-year record<br />
high, up by 2.6% from August and up 22.5%<br />
when compared to September 2020.<br />
<strong>The</strong> September NZ Property Report<br />
revealed that new listings remain a challenge<br />
throughout the country primarily on the back<br />
of the nationwide lockdown during the month.<br />
Auckland had the biggest gap, with a 57.9%<br />
drop in new listings as agents and sellers were<br />
unable to hold open homes.<br />
In the release, Sarah Wood, CEO of<br />
realestate.co.nz, says it’s difficult to tell what<br />
impact Delta has had on the market.<br />
“It would be easy to assume that a lockdown<br />
would have a major impact on asking prices.<br />
We saw a jump in average asking prices in<br />
Auckland after COVID April 2020, but that<br />
could have been due to a number of factors—<br />
expats coming home, favourable interest rates<br />
and access to lending.”<br />
“What we can certainly expect a lockdown<br />
to affect though, is new property listings.<br />
Agents can’t hold viewings during Level 4<br />
and the restrictions are tight in Level 3,” Sarah<br />
continued.<br />
lifestyle,” said Sarah.<br />
“This month, the average apartment in<br />
New Zealand was priced at about $750,000<br />
according to our data, which poses and<br />
interesting question about what it means for a<br />
home to be affordable. <strong>The</strong>re are certainly many<br />
conversations to be had about futureproofing<br />
the market for our young people.”<br />
Ajay Kumar, Director, Global Finance<br />
Services believes life for the first-time buyer is<br />
about to get tougher.<br />
He says, “<strong>The</strong> reason being the latest decision<br />
taken by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand.<br />
Effective from <strong>October</strong> 1, <strong>2021</strong>, banks are<br />
allowed to give only 10% of the total lending to<br />
first home-buyers.<br />
"Prior to 1st <strong>October</strong>, it was 20% of the total<br />
lending so banks were quite liberal because<br />
they could give more loan. But now that limit<br />
has been reduced to 10%, the amount available<br />
to first home-buyer will be less.”<br />
Encouragement by the Reserve Bank of New<br />
Zealand to buy new homes could also pose a<br />
challenge to the buyer, according to Mr Kumar.<br />
He remarks, “<strong>The</strong>re is a freedom or relaxation<br />
on buying new houses. If you are buying homes<br />
for which CC has been received very recently<br />
or is yet to be received, there is an exemption<br />
from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand where<br />
people are encouraged to buy new houses to<br />
get more construction, more supply. But the<br />
question is where is the supply, where are the<br />
ready houses? Because we know that there is<br />
a building material supply shortage, logistic<br />
problems, labour shortage. So what I’m finding<br />
is that from the month of <strong>October</strong>, the overall<br />
scenario has become difficult for the first home<br />
buyer.” His suggestion to first home-buyers -<br />
plan their income, and expenses carefully.<br />
He recommends, “First home buyers have to<br />
now plan very carefully to be successful to get<br />
a loan from the bank to enable them to buy a<br />
house.<br />
"Every first home buyer must plan - what’s<br />
the size of the house they want to buy, what<br />
will be the likely purchase cost, how much<br />
deposit can they put in, what will be the lending<br />
criteria, how much income will they need,<br />
and if they don’t have the income, they must<br />
reduce their expectation or budget, so that<br />
they qualify, especially for those having less<br />
than 20% deposit."<br />
Gary Bal, Director and Licensee Agent,<br />
Century 21 Local Realty, says that with Level<br />
3, buyer and seller interest has increased.<br />
He says, “Buyer enquiries have gone up<br />
again. Even, during the lockdown, there<br />
were more enquiries because people were<br />
staying at home.<br />
"We find that more people are now coming to<br />
view houses, want to buy them. With owners,<br />
and new listings, I’m seeing the confidence<br />
coming back again because everyone was<br />
waiting for Level 3 to come in so they can go<br />
see houses. <strong>The</strong> confidence is coming back with<br />
the owners.”<br />
With asking prices steadily climbing month<br />
after month and reports of many new builds<br />
selling for higher than their valuation, the<br />
report discovers that many first-home buyers<br />
are looking to townhouses and apartment<br />
dwellings to climb onto the housing ladder.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> lock-up and leave lifestyle is<br />
commonplace in many countries around the<br />
world. Although it’s not the quarter-acre<br />
dream, many European and Asian countries<br />
have turned apartment living into a fantastic<br />
Prateek Malhotra, Loan Market Mortgage<br />
Adviser at Loan Market believes first homebuyers<br />
are turning to apartment because that’s<br />
the only option left for them.<br />
He says, “Most of them would like to buy a<br />
standalone houses but you could say that they<br />
are being forced to look into town houses or<br />
even apartments. Because the reality is that it’s<br />
getting out of hand in terms of the prices.<br />
<strong>The</strong> range is so high that they can’t<br />
really get into that as a first home buyer.<br />
So the only options left for them are<br />
townhouses and apartments.”<br />
"<br />
Most of them<br />
would like to buy a<br />
standalone houses but<br />
you could say that they<br />
are being forced to look<br />
into town houses or even<br />
apartments. Because the<br />
reality is that it’s getting<br />
out of hand in terms of the<br />
prices.<br />
Gary concurs, “<strong>The</strong> problem is that lot of first<br />
home buyers can’t even afford townhouses as<br />
the cost keeps going higher.<br />
Terrace houses that were going sold for $750,<br />
000 to $800, 000 earlier this year, have now gone<br />
up to $ 950, 000.”<br />
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6 NEW ZEALAND<br />
Friday, <strong>October</strong> 08, <strong>2021</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Indian</strong> <strong>Weekender</strong><br />
‘A decision on the<br />
MIQ complaints will<br />
happen pretty soon’:<br />
Ombudsman<br />
‘I understand that the MIQ system has caused anger, concern and distress<br />
among many people... We are currently looking into all the complaints...<br />
We will be sharing some news in a week or two.<br />
IWK Exclusive<br />
NAVDEEP KAUR MARWAH<br />
<strong>Indian</strong> <strong>Weekender</strong> caught up with the Chief<br />
Ombudsman of New Zealand Peter Boshier<br />
to know more about the significance of the<br />
role of Ombudsman, the history, his motivation<br />
and what he is doing about the increasing<br />
complaints against the MIQ system.<br />
Mr Boshier was born and educated in<br />
Gisborne, attended Victoria University of<br />
Wellington and obtained a Bachelor of Laws<br />
with Honours Degree in 1975. In 2004 he was<br />
appointed as the Principal Family Court Judge<br />
of New Zealand and in December 2012, he was<br />
appointed a Law Commissioner. He has been<br />
the Chief Ombudsman of New Zealand since<br />
December 2015.<br />
What is the significance of<br />
this position?<br />
I came here having been a Judge in the<br />
family court. When I was asked by Parliament<br />
to become an Ombudsman, honestly, I knew<br />
very little about the position then. It is one of<br />
three offices of the Parliament and I have a<br />
direct relationship with Parliament.<br />
From a constitutional point of view, it is a<br />
very, very important role, and one that I value<br />
because of the independence that we have to<br />
say what should be said –independent of the<br />
views and wishes of the government of the day.<br />
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How did the role of an Ombudsman come<br />
about and how has it developed over the years?<br />
A long time ago, Scandinavia decided<br />
it would have an Ombudsman’s team. It is<br />
a Scandinavian expression, which means<br />
someone who looks into complaints and<br />
investigates them.<br />
New Zealand became the first country outside<br />
of Scandinavia to develop an Ombudsman team<br />
in the year 1962.<br />
<strong>The</strong> most famous being Sir Guy Powles, the<br />
first Ombudsman of New Zealand who was<br />
appointed on 1 <strong>October</strong> 1962.<br />
Next year, on the 60th anniversary, we plan<br />
to celebrate with a function in Parliament. Sir<br />
Paul started with just a staff of 16, and now my<br />
office has 170 staff. I<br />
t has grown by leaps and bounds. We<br />
encourage people to use us. We want to help<br />
people, and we have got good ability to do so.<br />
A lot of complaints come in. It can be<br />
everything from bullying, noisy neighbours<br />
to immigration, not applying the correct<br />
procedure to process a person’s application.<br />
One can complain against anything that one<br />
feels is disrupting his/her life.<br />
We triage these in the office and give them<br />
a time as quickly as we can. <strong>The</strong> breadth of<br />
work that we do has changed over the years.<br />
Most of our work starts as complaints under the<br />
Ombudsman act.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n we have the official information act,<br />
and that’s when people want to know what<br />
information an agency<br />
holds about something<br />
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- be it Immigration or<br />
Department of Customs.<br />
Let say, for example,<br />
a particular agency of<br />
local government is not<br />
providing them with the<br />
information they need,<br />
they can complain to us.<br />
We are appointed by<br />
Parliament to monitor<br />
the rights of people with<br />
disabilities. Apart from<br />
that, for all those who<br />
are in detention – be it<br />
in prison, mental health<br />
facility, current MIQ<br />
facility or aged care<br />
facility, we are asked<br />
to make sure they are<br />
being treated humanely.<br />
We understand that<br />
many people do not<br />
necessarily know their<br />
rights, they don’t know<br />
what they can ask and<br />
what to accept and that’s<br />
why we are here.<br />
Can you tell us<br />
the process of how a<br />
complaint can be made<br />
to the Ombudsman’s office?<br />
<strong>The</strong> Ombudsman has been a bit too much of<br />
a Wellington institution and hasn’t reached the<br />
four corners of New Zealand, especially<br />
the <strong>Indian</strong> community, Pacific<br />
community and Maori as<br />
much as it should have.<br />
We have a userfriendly<br />
website<br />
which is even<br />
mobile-friendly<br />
to make a<br />
complaint. You<br />
can also ring us<br />
on 0800 802<br />
602 or email<br />
us at info@<br />
ombudsman.<br />
parliament.<br />
nz.<br />
I<br />
understand that the<br />
MIQ system has caused<br />
anger, concern and<br />
distress among many<br />
people who can’t come to<br />
New Zealand. But the fact<br />
is the MIQ will be likely<br />
here there for years. We<br />
are currently looking into<br />
all the complaints. We<br />
know it is an important<br />
matter. We are looking at<br />
the big picture.<br />
We accept complaints in all forms. We<br />
are also available on social media including<br />
Twitter, Facebook and Linkedln. <strong>The</strong>n we<br />
enter the complaint into our case management<br />
system and then allocated it to an investigator.<br />
A case number is assigned, and then we track it<br />
and until we finish it and have a decision on it.<br />
It is important to know that we are free and<br />
that’s different from going to court where one<br />
has to pay a big fee. I want my staff to be more<br />
and more open about the way we communicate<br />
and the language we use. We want us to be<br />
culturally appropriate.<br />
What is your message to people who<br />
are fearful of complaining against an<br />
authority?<br />
<strong>The</strong>re is nothing to fear. We are secret. Every<br />
investigation is done in confidence and secret. I<br />
know people are scared to complain.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y are scared to create a fuss and are<br />
often prepared to accept a decision and not<br />
protest, but we say we are prepared to look<br />
into the case, and if we think you are treated<br />
unfairly, we would try and help you in a way<br />
which doesn’t land you in any trouble. I am<br />
sensitive to the fact that the <strong>Indian</strong> community<br />
might worry about the consequences, and that’s<br />
why I am reaching out. I am trying to be more<br />
available. We believe all communities need to<br />
be treated with equal fairness.<br />
How binding is a decision given by an<br />
Ombudsman?<br />
Under the Ombudsman Act, the decision<br />
is not binding the way it is in court. <strong>The</strong><br />
decisions and recommendations are given<br />
effect to. <strong>The</strong>re is no point in someone coming<br />
to me if my decision is not taken seriously. I<br />
would lose credibility.<br />
If somebody does not obey the decision or<br />
recommendation given by me, they get a letter<br />
telling them off. We are few organisations<br />
that can table our report in Parliament. When<br />
we have an important report it is read in the<br />
Parliament. People don’t like to be exposed<br />
for bad behaviour, and many people would<br />
change. We want to be able to make life better<br />
for others.<br />
What is the thing that keeps<br />
you motivated?<br />
<strong>The</strong>re are 16,000 [people] on average in a<br />
year that wants our help. <strong>The</strong> fact that we can<br />
change their life, it gets me motivated.<br />
<strong>The</strong> office is growing. We are trusted, and<br />
more and more people need us and are reaching<br />
us. In the current scenario, a lot of people have<br />
complaints against the MIQ system. What is<br />
happening with them?<br />
I understand that the MIQ system has caused<br />
anger, concern and distress among many<br />
people who can’t come to New Zealand. But<br />
the fact is the MIQ will be likely here there<br />
for years. We are currently looking into all the<br />
complaints. We know it is an important matter.<br />
We are looking at the big picture. We will be<br />
sharing some news in a week or two.
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Indian</strong> <strong>Weekender</strong> Friday, <strong>October</strong> 08, <strong>2021</strong><br />
NEW ZEALAND 7<br />
"This is where our missing<br />
hospitals are" – Oxfam<br />
Reaction to new exposé of secretive tax havens<br />
IWK BUREAU/ OXFAM<br />
<strong>The</strong> International Consortium of<br />
Investigative Journalists (ICIJ)<br />
published a new report earlier this<br />
week exposing the wealthy individuals and<br />
multinational corporations using tax havens to<br />
avoid paying their fair share of tax.<br />
“This is another shocking exposé of the<br />
oceans of money sloshing around the darkness<br />
of the world’s tax havens that must prompt<br />
immediate action, as has long been promised,”<br />
Susana Ruiz, Oxfam International’s Tax Policy<br />
Lead, said.<br />
“Bravo to the whistle blowers and journalists<br />
for shining a light into this secret parallel<br />
system of capital, one open only to those with<br />
fat amounts of money and the greed to hoard it<br />
all untaxed, and those who facilitate it.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> document dump has shown New<br />
Zealand-registered trusts held nearly $300<br />
million in assets for a Roman Catholic order<br />
caught in an international paedophilia scandal,<br />
according to leaked records contained in the<br />
Pandora Papers.<br />
New Zealand foreign trusts were promoted<br />
to international clients as a way of holding<br />
assets confidentially without paying tax,<br />
in a jurisdiction that did not carry the s<br />
tigma of a tax haven.<br />
Many of these were wound up after<br />
the first such document dump known<br />
Dedicated team for<br />
disabled to access vaccine<br />
NZ GOVERNMENT<br />
A<br />
new<br />
team has been mobilised to support<br />
disabled people to access transport and<br />
get vaccinated in a way that suits their<br />
needs, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris<br />
Hipkins and Disability Issues Minister Carmel<br />
Sepuloni said.<br />
“As part of our plan to give every eligible<br />
person the opportunity to get vaccinated by the<br />
end of the year, we are ensuring it is both easy<br />
and accessible for everyone, including disabled<br />
people,” Chris Hipkins said.<br />
“A 30-strong team has been tasked with<br />
answering calls and questions, assisting<br />
disabled people and their carers to get the<br />
information and support they need. It will not<br />
only help increase vaccination rates among this<br />
group, but keep them and their whānau safer.”<br />
To speak with a support specialist, people<br />
can call the COVID Vaccination Healthline on<br />
0800 28 29 26 for free 8 am – 8 pm Monday to<br />
Friday and ‘push 2’ to speak to one of the team.<br />
“We know that being vaccinated will be one<br />
of our greatest protections against COVID-19,<br />
which is why we need to continue making<br />
every effort to prioritise disabled people in<br />
the vaccination programme,” Carmel Sepuloni<br />
said.<br />
as the Panama Papers a few years ago.<br />
“This is where our missing hospitals are.<br />
This is where the pay-packets sit of all the<br />
extra teachers and firefighters and public<br />
servants we need.<br />
"Whenever a politician or business<br />
leader claims there is ‘no money’ to pay<br />
for climate damage and innovation, for<br />
more and better jobs, for a fair post-COVID<br />
recovery, for more overseas aid, they know<br />
where to look,” Oxfam’s Susana Ruiz said<br />
“I’m encouraged to see the team is already<br />
having a positive impact, supporting over 440<br />
disabled people in the first two weeks since the<br />
team began taking calls.<br />
“Support has included ensuring sites have<br />
mobility assistance in place, arranging sign<br />
language interpreters, providing transport<br />
options, ensuring1737phonecounsellors are<br />
available to support people with needle anxiety,<br />
and other bespoke solutions developed for<br />
individuals alongside District Health Boards.<br />
“This is another step in the right direction as<br />
we continue to remove barriers to vaccinations<br />
for disabled people, and make the vaccination<br />
programme accessible, inclusive and manaenhancing,”<br />
Carmel Sepuloni said.<br />
<strong>The</strong> most visited<br />
<strong>Indian</strong> news website in New Zealand<br />
For online advertising options, email at<br />
sales@indianweekender.co.nz<br />
in a media release from the global charity.<br />
“Tax havens cost governments around the world<br />
$427 billion each year. That is the equivalent of<br />
a nurse’s yearly salary every second of every<br />
hour, every day. Ordinary taxpayers have to<br />
pick up the pieces. Developing countries are<br />
being hardest hit, proportionately.<br />
"Corporations and the wealthiest<br />
individuals that use tax havens are<br />
outcompeting those who don’t. Tax havens<br />
also help crime and corruption to flourish.<br />
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“140 countries are currently participating<br />
in international tax negotiations under the<br />
OECD-G20 umbrella.<br />
"<strong>The</strong>se talks have been ongoing for a decade<br />
but the best they’ve come up with is to suggest<br />
a 15 percent tax bar close to the nominal rates<br />
already offered by Ireland, Switzerland and<br />
Singapore,” she added.<br />
Oxfam has called on governments to end tax<br />
havens by:<br />
Ending tax secrecy on individuals, offshores<br />
and multinational corporations. Set up a public<br />
register on the real owners of bank accounts,<br />
trusts, shell companies and assets. Require<br />
multinational corporations to publicly report<br />
their accounts where they do business, countryby-country.<br />
Increasing the use of automatic exchange,<br />
allowing revenue authorities access to<br />
information they need to track the money.<br />
Ending corporate profit shifting to tax havens<br />
via new rules, and by setting a global minimum<br />
tax under the OECD’s BEPS deal, ideally of<br />
around 25 percent.<br />
Agreeing a global blacklist of tax havens and<br />
taking counter measures, including sanctions,<br />
to limit their use.<br />
Setting a new global agenda on taxing wealth<br />
and capital fairly; addressing tax competition<br />
between countries on high-net-worthindividuals,<br />
either on income or wealth, against<br />
agreed standards.<br />
Oliver Pereira<br />
Financial Adviser<br />
Mob: 021 66 77 92<br />
Email: oliver.pereira@opminsurance.co.nz<br />
For further information about us, please refer to https://www.opminsurance.co.nz<br />
OPM Insurance Services Limited (FSP117285), trading as OPM Insurance Services Limited<br />
holds a licence issued by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) to provide financial advice.
8 NEW ZEALAND<br />
Friday, <strong>October</strong> 08, <strong>2021</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Indian</strong> <strong>Weekender</strong><br />
Experts pick rise in cases following<br />
easing of restrictions<br />
IWK BUREAU/ SCIENCE MEDIA<br />
CENTRE<br />
Aucklanders are to stay in Alert Level 3,<br />
but some restrictions will be eased over<br />
time in a three-step plan, that started<br />
Wednesday this week.<br />
Up to 10 masked people from two<br />
households can mingle outdoors in the first<br />
stage. Early childhood education, recreation,<br />
and small events will also be possible – albeit<br />
with restrictions. <strong>The</strong> second stage will involve<br />
retail and public facilities reopening with rules,<br />
and gatherings limited to 25. In stage three,<br />
gatherings will widen to a 50-person limit and<br />
schools will fully open. Cabinet has signalled it<br />
will review each step weekly before confirming<br />
any move. <strong>The</strong> Science Media Centre asked<br />
experts to respond to this news:<br />
Professor Shaun Hendy, Dept of Physics<br />
and Te Pūnaha Matatini, University<br />
of Auckland:<br />
“This relaxing of restrictions will see<br />
more spread and more COVID cases in the<br />
community over the coming weeks. <strong>The</strong>se<br />
new freedoms should reduce the risk of<br />
superspreading compared to Level 2, but still<br />
open up considerable opportunities for new<br />
spread. <strong>The</strong> government will be hoping that<br />
any growth in cases that result is slow enough<br />
that vaccination can get ahead of the outbreak,<br />
before it puts significant strain on our testing<br />
and tracing system, not to mention our hospitals.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> next steps in the plan, which involve<br />
reopening retail and even some hospitality,<br />
really won’t be safe until the vaccination<br />
programme is very well advanced. This will<br />
probably not be the case until<br />
well into November.<br />
"Until then or unless vaccination take-up<br />
accelerates, Auckland is unlikely to be able to<br />
return to Level 2 and there is a greater risk that<br />
restrictions will be needed in other parts of the<br />
country. <strong>The</strong> best thing we can do now is get<br />
vaccinated or encourage our friends and family<br />
to do so.<br />
“Meeting other families and friends outside<br />
is lower risk, but definitely not zero risk, so it<br />
will be important that people who choose to<br />
do so exercise caution and wear masks. If you<br />
are not vaccinated I would suggest avoiding<br />
meet ups until you’ve at least had your first<br />
shot and if you are meeting friends or family<br />
ask them whether they have had theirs yet.<br />
Monetary stimulus further reduced<br />
RBNZ/ IWK BUREAU<br />
<strong>The</strong> Monetary Policy Committee agreed to increase the<br />
Official Cash Rate (OCR) to 0.50 per cent. Consistent<br />
with their assessment at the time of the August<br />
Statement, it is appropriate to continue reducing the level of<br />
monetary stimulus so as to maintain low inflation and support<br />
maximum sustainable employment.<br />
<strong>The</strong> level of global economic activity has continued to<br />
recover, supported by accommodative monetary and fiscal<br />
settings, and rising vaccination rates enabling a relaxation of<br />
mobility restrictions.<br />
While economic uncertainty remains elevated due to the<br />
prevalent impact of COVID-19, cost pressures are becoming<br />
more persistent and some central banks have started the process<br />
of reducing monetary policy stimulus.<br />
New Zealand’s public health settings are also<br />
evolving as domestic vaccination rates rise. <strong>The</strong> higher<br />
the vaccination rate, the less virus-related disruption<br />
there will be to New Zealand’s economic activity over<br />
Professor Shaun Hendy, Dept of Physics and Te<br />
Pūnaha Matatini, University of Auckland<br />
Dr Dianne Sika-Paotonu, Immunologist, Associate<br />
Dean (Pacific), Head of University of Otago<br />
Wellington Pacific Office, and Senior Lecturer,<br />
Pathology & Molecular Medicine, University of<br />
Otago Wellington<br />
Fully vaccinated people are far less likely to<br />
catch the virus if exposed and less likely to<br />
pass it on, so meet ups of vaccinated people<br />
pose far lower risks. This move really does put<br />
the responsibility for preventing spread in the<br />
hands of the public, so it is vitally important<br />
that everyone does their bit.”<br />
Dr Dion O’Neale, Principal Investigator,<br />
Te Pūnaha Matatini; and Lecturer,<br />
Physics Department, University of<br />
Auckland:<br />
“<strong>The</strong> roadmap looks like a significant increase<br />
of risk for wider transmission, given that there<br />
is still ongoing community transmission with<br />
unlinked cases.<br />
“Preventing spread of COVID in the<br />
community requires two components:<br />
minimising the number of interactions and also<br />
minimising the chance of transmission for those<br />
Dr Dion O’Neale, Principal Investigator, Te Pūnaha<br />
Matatini; and Lecturer, Physics Department,<br />
University of Auckland<br />
interactions that do still occur. Allowing people<br />
to meet up in groups of up to 10 people and<br />
with two households is a significant increase<br />
in the number of interactions and the number<br />
of possible pathways for COVID to spread.<br />
Something that could mitigate this would be<br />
an expectation that people only meet up with<br />
a limited number of households in total, or a<br />
limited number per week.<br />
“Even with people only meeting up in pairs,<br />
this change moves us to a situation where the<br />
Auckland is essentially reconnected from a<br />
contagion point of view.<br />
“Limiting people to meeting outside will<br />
help to reduce the risk of transmission when<br />
people do meet up but that is a case of playing<br />
Russian Roulette with fewer bullets in the gun<br />
as opposed to minimising the number of times<br />
you play it. While the risk of transmission<br />
depends on the exact details of interactions<br />
(e.g. are people talking, eating, wearing masks),<br />
the early days of the NSW Delta outbreak saw<br />
reports of transmission occurring from only<br />
glancing interactions as people moved past<br />
each other.”<br />
“Given that there is still ongoing community<br />
transmission, with new unlinked cases<br />
discovered most days, including from people<br />
who were often unaware that they were<br />
infectious, there seems to be an implicit<br />
assumption in this move that the contact tracing<br />
and targeted public health efforts are sufficient<br />
to completely ring-fence the remaining<br />
community transmission.<br />
Dr Dianne Sika-Paotonu, Immunologist,<br />
Associate Dean (Pacific), Head of<br />
University of Otago Wellington Pacific<br />
Office, and Senior Lecturer, Pathology<br />
coming years.<br />
<strong>The</strong> current COVID-19-related restrictions have not<br />
materially changed the medium-term outlook for inflation and<br />
employment since the August Statement.<br />
Capacity pressures remain evident in the economy,<br />
particularly in the labour market. A broad range of economic<br />
indicators highlight that the New Zealand economy has been<br />
performing strongly in aggregate.<br />
While the economy contracted sharply during the recent<br />
& Molecular Medicine, University of<br />
Otago Wellington:<br />
“How Aotearoa New Zealand responds and<br />
treats the needs of the most vulnerable during<br />
this COVID-19 pandemic, will indeed reveal<br />
our moral compass as a society and define who<br />
we are as a nation for generations to come.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> Auckland roadmap provides an outline<br />
of the individual steps and details involved in<br />
easing restrictions over the next weeks, with<br />
assurance given that ongoing monitoring will<br />
be applied moving forward.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> consequences of any premature<br />
changes such as easing restrictions too quickly<br />
given our vaccination rates at this time, along<br />
with the adverse health impact already seen for<br />
our vulnerable in Aotearoa New Zealand, will<br />
be dire.<br />
“Border controls will require focus as<br />
Delta has continued transmitting through the<br />
community and across borders under current<br />
Alert Level conditions, with unlinked mystery<br />
cases of unknown origin also continuing to<br />
appear under these same restrictions.<br />
“If we are not careful, we will be at serious<br />
risk of allowing our health system to become<br />
overwhelmed, given it was already under strain<br />
and burdened even before the COVID-19<br />
pandemic began.<br />
"One only has to consider the situation in<br />
other countries with their high hospitalisations<br />
and deaths, for a reality check.<br />
“It has been strongly signalled that increased<br />
vaccinations will also be needed to ensure<br />
reduced restrictions.<br />
"High vaccination rates of 90% and beyond,<br />
coupled with the appropriate public health steps<br />
against Delta, will help avoid future higher<br />
alert level lockdown measures – paramount to<br />
keeping everyone safe from COVID-19.<br />
“Accelerated vaccination, testing and<br />
COVID-19 prevention efforts must continue<br />
in a way that reduces barriers and builds<br />
trust for people – with the appropriate and<br />
targeted approaches focused on getting help<br />
and assistance out to those who need it most.<br />
Caution and compassion will be needed moving<br />
forward, as a high degree of risk remains for<br />
all in Aotearoa New Zealand, but especially for<br />
our most vulnerable communities.<br />
“Get vaccinated, get tested, follow the alert<br />
level rules, and reach out to others and help<br />
them do the same – we cannot give up fighting<br />
COVID-19.”<br />
RBNZ raises official cash rate to 0.50 percent<br />
nationwide health-related lockdown, household and business<br />
balance sheet strength, ongoing fiscal policy support, and a<br />
strong terms of trade provide confidence that economic activity<br />
will recover quickly as alert level restrictions ease.<br />
Recent economic indicators support this picture.<br />
However, the Committee is aware that the latest COVID-19<br />
restrictions have badly affected some businesses in Auckland<br />
and a range of service industries more broadly. <strong>The</strong>re will<br />
be longer-term implications for economic activity both<br />
domestically and internationally from the pandemic.<br />
Headline CPI inflation is expected to increase above 4<br />
percent in the near term before returning towards the 2 percent<br />
midpoint over the medium term. <strong>The</strong> near-term rise in inflation<br />
is accentuated by higher oil prices, rising transport costs and<br />
the impact of supply shortfalls.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se immediate relative price shocks risk leading to<br />
more generalised price rises. At this time, measures of core<br />
inflation and medium-term inflation expectations remain<br />
close to 2 percent.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Committee noted that further removal of monetary policy<br />
stimulus is expected over time, with future moves contingent<br />
on the medium-term outlook for inflation and employment.
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Indian</strong> <strong>Weekender</strong> Friday, <strong>October</strong> 08, <strong>2021</strong><br />
NEW ZEALAND 9<br />
Kiwis should prepare to encounter<br />
Covid-19 before Christmas – experts<br />
RADIO NEW ZEALAND<br />
Leading epidemiologists say everyone in<br />
New Zealand should plan to encounter<br />
Covid-19 before Christmas, and they<br />
had better be prepared.<br />
But while Delta is here to stay, one expert<br />
says we should not give up on fighting it<br />
because the consequences would be disastrous.<br />
University of Otago professor Michael<br />
Baker told radio programme Morning Report:<br />
“Basically I think ... all New Zealanders should<br />
plan to encounter this virus in the next couple<br />
of months and act accordingly, and the number<br />
one thing of course is to get vaccinated.”<br />
University of Canterbury Covid-19 modeller<br />
professor Michael Plank also told Morning<br />
Report: “It does look like Delta’s here and it’s<br />
here to stay, but it’s really important that we<br />
don’t just wave the white flag and let it rip,<br />
because that would be disastrous of course.<br />
“Disastrous for the health system. Disastrous<br />
for Māori and Pasifika, who have lower<br />
vaccination rates, you know our essential<br />
workers out in the firing line. And of course<br />
our under 12’s are unprotected so it would be<br />
disastrous on a number of fronts.<br />
“So we really need to do everything we can<br />
to control the spread of the virus and use all<br />
the tools we have in the box to keep the rates<br />
of community transmission as low as possible<br />
while we vaccinate.”<br />
What worried Plank most was if Aotearoa<br />
ended up in a situation with immense pressure<br />
on the health care systems and a struggle to<br />
cope with the impact.<br />
“If you have a health care system that’s<br />
struggling, it means that people with other<br />
health care needs can’t get treatment.<br />
“So yeah, that’s the situation that worries me<br />
Hospitality, retail gutted at ‘steps’<br />
adding to Level 3 uncertainty<br />
IWK BUREAU<br />
Hospitality and retail businesses are<br />
disappointed by the Government’s<br />
decision to keep Auckland at Alert<br />
Level 3 “with the added uncertainty of ‘Steps,’”<br />
the Dairy and Business Owners’ Group says.<br />
“For Auckland businesses, my own included,<br />
that decision represents ‘Alert Level Hotel<br />
California.’ We have been checked in to<br />
Level-3 and may never leave,” says Sunny<br />
Kaushal, Chair of the group.<br />
“What we needed was a date but all we got<br />
instead was more week-by-week uncertainty.<br />
"<br />
If schools can go back on 18<br />
<strong>October</strong>, something you can<br />
bank the house on, why can’t<br />
hospitality businesses reopen?<br />
<strong>The</strong>re’s going to be a lot more<br />
kids in close proximity than<br />
what you’d get seated in a cafe<br />
or in retail shops<br />
“If schools can go back on 18 <strong>October</strong>,<br />
something you can bank the house on, why<br />
can’t hospitality businesses reopen? <strong>The</strong>re’s<br />
going to be a lot more kids in close proximity<br />
than what you’d get seated in a cafe or in retail<br />
shops.”<br />
Kaushal says the move is a public relations<br />
band-aid. “So what can government do to show<br />
they are listening? First, they must move Alert<br />
Level/Step decisions to Sunday making all<br />
future announcements that day and not end of<br />
the most, and I think we need to do everything<br />
we can to try and avoid it.”<br />
Vaccination still the key<br />
Baker said the now-shortened interval<br />
between Pfizer doses was right. <strong>The</strong><br />
government advised people should have three<br />
weeks between doses rather than the earlier<br />
recommended six weeks.<br />
"<br />
Basically I think ... all New<br />
Zealanders should plan<br />
to encounter this virus in the<br />
next couple of months and act<br />
accordingly, and the number<br />
one thing of course is to get<br />
vaccinated<br />
“Basically I think ... all New Zealanders<br />
should plan to encounter this virus in the<br />
next couple of months and act accordingly,<br />
and the number one thing of course is to get<br />
vaccinated,” Baker said.<br />
“We know that means having two doses<br />
plus another two weeks after that to get fully<br />
protected.<br />
play Monday.<br />
If we ever drop down a step, a Sunday<br />
decision would give us a whole extra day to<br />
get rosters and staff, food prep/stock done and<br />
systems set up.<br />
“We also want the Resurgence Support<br />
Payment moved to weekly payment for<br />
businesses unable to open under Alert Level<br />
3 Steps 1 and 2. Owner-operated retail and<br />
hospitality businesses are dying in Auckland.<br />
It has already killed Euro in recent days at just<br />
22 and we<br />
need support now to stop others from sadly<br />
following them.<br />
“We also need government and Auckland<br />
Council to push pause on any new policy that<br />
makes it difficult for us to do business. We just<br />
need a fair go because this has been one small<br />
step for government and a giant leap backward<br />
for retail and hospitality,” Mr Kaushal said.<br />
“For example, if you have your first dose<br />
next week you’d get your second dose three<br />
weeks after that at the start of November, and<br />
you’d be fully protected by mid-November, so<br />
I think that’s really what people should plan to<br />
do, and the trouble is, if you have a six-week<br />
gap between your two doses, that really pushes<br />
that protection right into December, and some<br />
people might miss out at that stage.<br />
“I would say that’s really a very good reason<br />
to go back to the three-week gap.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> gap would not make the vaccine<br />
any less effective.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>re’s marginally less antibodies generated<br />
if it was a three-week interval, but remember,<br />
this is still the recommended interval by the<br />
manufacturer.<br />
“This is what all the trials were done with,<br />
so after your first dose they found that you<br />
had about 50 percent protection against<br />
symptomatic infection.<br />
“After your second dose, it rose to 90 percent<br />
within two days and a week after that 95 percent<br />
protection. So it’s extremely high following the<br />
manufacturer’s standard approach.”<br />
Plank said there was no “magic number” for<br />
Business confidence fails<br />
as Level 2 hopes fade<br />
90 percent businesses support<br />
“No Jab, No Job” policy – but<br />
needs govt to enable<br />
IWK BUREAU/ AUCKLAND<br />
BUSINESS CHAMBER<br />
Business confidence has taken a knock<br />
with over 60 per cent of Auckland<br />
businesses, looking at a more gloomy<br />
six months as hopes of a return to Level 2<br />
diminish by the day.<br />
“Our latest business survey has just 10% of<br />
businesses believing the economy will be better<br />
and a massive 67% saying they believe it will<br />
be worse for them,” says Auckland Business<br />
Chamber CEO Michael Barnett.<br />
<strong>The</strong> survey also showed that under a more<br />
permissive Level 2, 41 per cent of businesses<br />
could climb to full output and another 47 per<br />
cent to 50-75 per cent of operations, a lifesaver<br />
for the enterprises and for sustaining jobs, skills<br />
and revenue to pay overheads and debt.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> results are a stark reminder of the<br />
damage inflicted to financial, health and mental<br />
wellbeing under Level 3 conditions and signal<br />
what can be done under Level 2 conditions to<br />
get on with improving lives, livelihoods and a<br />
better future for the good of all.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> survey, which saw 90 per cent of<br />
respondents support a no jab no job regime but<br />
needs to be enabled by government, showed<br />
that under a more permissive Level 2, 41 per<br />
cent of businesses could climb to full output<br />
and another 47 per cent to 50-75 per cent of<br />
vaccinations.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> more people we get double vaccinated<br />
and provided we can keep case numbers from<br />
getting too high, the more will be able to<br />
progressively loosen restrictions,” he said.<br />
“So we’re still under alert level 3 restrictions<br />
in Auckland at the moment. Once we get<br />
to maybe 70 percent double vaccinated,<br />
we might be able to loosen those and then<br />
progressively loosen them as we get to those<br />
higher coverage rates.<br />
“But we really need to be aiming for very<br />
high vaccination rates.”<br />
Plank said modelling considering the<br />
influence of antiviral drugs might make had not<br />
been looked at.<br />
“But we do know that these antiviral<br />
drugs are very much a second best relative<br />
to the vaccine. It’s far better to be vaccinated<br />
and protected rather than to risk catching<br />
the virus even if you do have an antiviral<br />
treatment available.”<br />
Plank said the increasing number of unlinked<br />
cases showed there was “significant undetected<br />
community transmission”.<br />
“If you can’t find the cases, obviously it<br />
makes it much, much harder to control them,<br />
so yeah … we have to keep an eye on those<br />
mystery cases because we need our contact<br />
tracing system to remain functional to protect<br />
us from those spiralling case numbers and<br />
hospitalisations.”<br />
Testing was crucial and we needed to “up our<br />
game on the testing front”, Plank said.<br />
“We need to also start looking at other options<br />
like more saliva testing and rapid antigen<br />
testing in some circumstances as a complement<br />
to the PCR system and to give us you know<br />
more options and more layers of protection on<br />
the testing front.”<br />
operations, a lifesaver for the enterprises and<br />
for sustaining jobs, skills and revenue to pay<br />
overheads and debt.<br />
“Level 2 will be about recovery of the fittest<br />
and at this point only 27 per cent of respondents<br />
indicated that they would be hiring,” Mr Barnett<br />
said.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> survey results were highly critical of<br />
the perceived lack of government, landlord<br />
and bank financial support to get business<br />
through the hardships and stresses of trying to<br />
stay afloat in an environment where they have<br />
limited or no revenue coming in and were not<br />
part of the decision making process so had<br />
no clarity or certainty of what the next policy<br />
would be,” he said.
10 NEW ZEALAND<br />
Simple Yoga exercises<br />
Friday, <strong>October</strong> 08, <strong>2021</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Indian</strong> <strong>Weekender</strong><br />
AVINASH SEN<br />
Namaste everyone. Hope you’re all able to keep<br />
yourselves healthy and happy in these strange<br />
and turbulent times. Personally I’ve found that<br />
sometimes the best way to deal with stress and anxiety<br />
is to metaphorically ‘turn your brain off.’<br />
But funnily enough, even turning your brain off<br />
requires you to do something. Now everyone has<br />
different way to do that, watching TV, surfing the<br />
internet, reading a book, going for a walk, exercising,<br />
talking to someone, etc. and so on.<br />
A couple of weeks back we discussed Surya<br />
Namaskar (Sun Salutation). In this piece, I’d like to talk<br />
a set of yoga moves that helps me switch my brain off<br />
for a little while. It’s called the Chandra Namaskar, and<br />
anyone can do it.<br />
Small warning, just like any exercise, you should<br />
avoid performing certain yoga poses if you are injured,<br />
ill or suffer from a physical ailment that could be<br />
aggravated by doing these yoga poses. Also, be sure to<br />
practice moderation, too much of anything is harmful<br />
for you.<br />
With that said, let’s get started.<br />
Chandra Namaskar<br />
This yoga exercise consists of 14 simple poses<br />
move your forearms upwards so they form a 90 degree<br />
angle with your upper arms.<br />
Utthita Trikonasana: Straighten your knees, extend<br />
both arms either side to shoulder level and now bend<br />
your torso to the right. Your right hand should be<br />
touching your toes/floor and your left hand should be<br />
extended up to the sky. Make sure your chest is facing<br />
forward, not towards the ground.<br />
Parsvottanasana: Now bring your left arm down and<br />
press your chest, stomach and face with your right thigh<br />
and knee. Extend your left arm and place it next to your<br />
arm till it is touching your toes/the floor.<br />
leg, placing the heel on the ground. Bend your left knee<br />
and balance your body with your left toes.<br />
Tadasana: Stand upright with your feet together,<br />
shoulders back and chin up, perpendicular to your chest.<br />
Anjaneyasana: Now lower your left knee, place<br />
it on the ground and raise your arms up and stretch<br />
backwards till your back and arms make a crescent<br />
shape. No need to strain yourself, just go as much as<br />
you can comfortably.<br />
Anjaneyasana: Place your left foot on the floor, turn<br />
your right knee so that it is facing the ground and lower<br />
it. Raise your arms up and stretch backwards till your<br />
back and arms make a crescent shape.<br />
Parsvottanasana: Straighten your left knee and raise<br />
Utkata Konasana: Raise<br />
while keeping both hands<br />
level. While keeping your f<br />
till your thigh and your shi<br />
Keep your upper arms paral<br />
your forearms upwards so th<br />
with your upper arms.<br />
Urdhva Hastasana: Raise your arms upwards and<br />
outwards and bend your upper body to the right to form<br />
a crescent.<br />
Skandasana: Release your arms and turn your hips and<br />
torso to the left. Extend your left leg, placing your heel<br />
on the floor and balance your body with your right toes<br />
with your knee bent. You place your palms on the floor<br />
to help keep balance.<br />
your hips. Bring both your arms to your left toes/ the<br />
ground; press your chest, stomach and face with your<br />
left thigh and knee.<br />
Now we will be re-doing everything back or<br />
rewinding, from the other side.<br />
Utkata Konasana: Straighten your upper body. Step<br />
and take your feet far apart from each other. Bend your<br />
knees till your thigh and your shin form a 90 degree<br />
angle. Raise your arms to shoulder level, place your<br />
upper arms till they are parallel to the ground and then<br />
Skandasana: Shift your weight and extend your right<br />
Utthita Trikonasana: Leave your left hand on your<br />
toes/floor and raise your right hand to the sky. Make<br />
sure your chest is facing forward.<br />
Urdhva Hastasana: Join y<br />
your arms upwards and ou<br />
body to the left to form a cre
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Indian</strong> <strong>Weekender</strong> Friday, <strong>October</strong> 08, <strong>2021</strong><br />
NEW ZEALAND 11<br />
: Chandra Namaskar<br />
and arms at your sides.<br />
• Lift both your legs up at a 60 degree to 70 degree<br />
angle. Keep your knees straight.<br />
• Now, using your stomach muscles, lift your upper<br />
body off the floor, your waist acting as the pivot.<br />
• Point your fingers towards your legs and straighten<br />
your arms. Look at your feet.<br />
• Hold your breath and stay this position for as long as<br />
possible (a count of ten or more).<br />
• Breath out, reax and lie back down flat, count to 20,<br />
then do the pose again.<br />
• Repeat this process 5 times.<br />
Tadasana: Stand upright with your feet together,<br />
shoulders back and chin up, perpendicular to your chest.<br />
While performing the Chandra Namaskar, try to<br />
hold each pose for five to ten seconds. Do the Chandra<br />
Namaskar five to ten times, but remember not to overdo<br />
it and/or hurt yourself.<br />
Singular poses<br />
Now let’s talk about some poses which can be done<br />
all by themselves and are not necessarily part of a<br />
sequence.<br />
Vrikshasana: This is a yoga exercise makes your<br />
thighs and calves strong and helps with balance and<br />
concentration. This is how you do it:<br />
• Stand up straight, hands at your sides.<br />
• Bend your right knee and place your right heel as<br />
far up your left inner thigh as you can. Don’t strain<br />
yourself though.<br />
• Keep your left leg straight and keep yourself<br />
balanced on one leg.<br />
• Now raise your arms as high up and they can go.<br />
Join your palms together in namaste while keeping<br />
them up.<br />
• While maintaining your balance and keeping<br />
yourself straight, count to twenty.<br />
• Now put your arms and legs down and repeat the<br />
process with your other leg.<br />
• Repeat this process 3 times.<br />
Salabhasana: This pose is great for strengthening your<br />
lower back, and hamstrings. It also helps with your<br />
posture. This is how it’s done:<br />
• Lie down flat on your stomach.<br />
• Breathing normally, lift your head and upper torso<br />
away from the floor.<br />
• Slowly lift both your legs away from the floor too.<br />
• Hold this pose for as long as possible (a count of ten<br />
or more).<br />
• Bring your legs, upper torso and head slowly back<br />
to the ground.<br />
• Repeat this process 3 to 5 times.<br />
• <strong>The</strong>re are different versions of this pose where one<br />
only lifts your upper body or only you legs. Practice<br />
the one you are most comfortable with.<br />
your upper body straight<br />
extended and at shoulder<br />
eet apart, bend your knees<br />
n form a 90 degree angle.<br />
lel to the ground and move<br />
ey form a 90 degree angle<br />
our feet together and raise<br />
twards. Bend your upper<br />
scent.<br />
Anulom-vilom: This is a specific type of controlled<br />
breathing (pranayama); it is also known as alternative<br />
nostril breathing. This breathing exercise is great for<br />
stress reduction. Here’s how it’s done<br />
• Use your right thumb to block your right nostril and<br />
take a deep breath in through your left nostril.<br />
• Now open your right nostril, use your right little or<br />
ring finger to block your left nostril and breathe out<br />
through your right nostril.<br />
• Take deep breath in with your right nostril, open your<br />
left nostril and once again close your right nostril<br />
with your right thumb and breath out with your left<br />
nostril. This is one cycle.<br />
• Repeat this process 20 times.<br />
You do not need to hold your breath during this,<br />
however there is a version of this process where you do<br />
hold your breath.<br />
Uttanapadasana: This pose helps strengthen your legs<br />
and lower abdomen. It is said to also help with digestion<br />
and anxiety. Here’s how it’s done:<br />
• Lie down flat on your back, on the floor, your bed or<br />
a small mat.<br />
• Move your legs and hold straight up till they make a<br />
90-degree angle with your upper body.<br />
• Hold them up for as long as you can (a count of 20<br />
or more).<br />
• Slowly bring your legs back down.<br />
• Repeat this process 5 times.<br />
Naukasana: This pose helps strengthen your core and<br />
back muscles. Here’s how it goes:<br />
• Lie down flat on your back with your feet together<br />
Shavasana: This pose is often used at the end of a yoga<br />
session to relax your muscles. Here’s how it’s done:<br />
• Lie down flat on your back. Relax slowly, letting<br />
your feet fall to the sides, turning your arms outwards<br />
and your palms up.<br />
• Close your eyes and take slow, deep breaths through<br />
your nose. Feel your body relax and the tension seep<br />
away.<br />
• Aim your attention at one part of your body like your<br />
feet and let it relax, then move along to the other<br />
parts.<br />
• Feel the relaxation spread along your calves, your<br />
thighs, hips, back, stomach, chest, hands, arms,<br />
shoulder, neck, face and your head.<br />
• As you do this, your mind scans your body for<br />
muscular tension and consciously relaxes it.<br />
• At the end, break your concentration and allow<br />
yourself to relax normally.<br />
• Remain in this pose for a few minutes.<br />
You may find yourself falling asleep<br />
during this process.<br />
This is normal and nothing to worry about.<br />
Well, yeh hain anth, this is the end of the exercises.<br />
As you can see, these moves are quite simple. As long<br />
as you keep practicing, you should find yourself feeling<br />
better physically and mentally. Just make sure you don’t<br />
strain yourself like I did, I still can’t stand up straight<br />
without some painkillers.<br />
All jokes aside, do be careful and I hope you found<br />
this helpful and I hope you enjoy your new knowledge<br />
as you start your yogic journey. Take care.
Editorial<br />
Clueless as<br />
babes in the<br />
woods<br />
By its continued dithering and slow action on a raft of matters concerning<br />
Covid-19 after it successfully put a lid on it with its swift early action, the<br />
Labour government has squandered the opportunity to capitalise and build on<br />
those impressive gains over the past year.<br />
Every single Covid-19 case that we have had in New Zealand so far, including the<br />
present outbreak of the more infectious delta variant has come in through the rickety<br />
MIQ system and yet there has been no substantial investment – whether in terms of<br />
finances or ideas – in improving that single most important portal of entry into the<br />
country for the virus.<br />
<strong>The</strong> government ignored expert advice on considering building dedicated quarantine<br />
centres away from urban hubs, notably Auckland, where it sent overseas passengers<br />
straight into hotels in the CBD.<br />
Today, we know that is the main reason why we have the country’s biggest economic<br />
engine with its hard-working citizens in lockdown for more than 50 days.<br />
Other countries have had purpose-built facilities built away from crowded, dense<br />
population centres even as the pandemic raged in those countries. We had nearly a<br />
year at Level one when we did nothing of the sort – and continue to do nothing –<br />
instead conjuring up wasteful ideas like a dedicated cycleway across the harbour for<br />
hundreds of millions of dollars only to dump it into the Waitemata – but not before<br />
wasting $51 million on preparing the hare-brained proposal.<br />
Much of that money could have been diverted in these dire times to build dedicated<br />
quarantine facilities and strengthening our second line of defence against Covid –<br />
building more healthcare facilities – what with New Zealand having less than five<br />
ICU beds per 100,000 population, among the lowest in the OECD.<br />
In an ostensible display of misplaced altruism, the government went slow on its<br />
vaccination programme so that other poorer nations could have it, since it had so<br />
brilliantly succeeded in keeping Covid out for so long, becoming a posterchild for the<br />
world to follow in the process.<br />
We now know that behind that smugness is the fact that the government kept<br />
vaccine provider Pfizer waiting for six weeks before the first meeting after Pfizer had<br />
made the approach to finalise vaccine contracts.<br />
As a result, New Zealand has had one of the tardiest rollouts among the world’s<br />
developed nations.<br />
When Delta hit, only twenty percent of Kiwis were vaccinated. Delta caught the<br />
government completely off guard and then it scrambled madly to get doses in urgency.<br />
Had the contracts been signed in time and doses steadily been imported in late 2020<br />
through to mid-<strong>2021</strong>, we would have had most of our population vaccinated before<br />
the arrival of Delta having reached 90 per cent cover by, being able to embrace the<br />
oncoming summer without a worry.<br />
<strong>The</strong> government still does not have a plan out of the pandemic.<br />
Nations worse off on the pandemic scale have set forth clear plans of how they<br />
plan to live with endemic Covid instead of pandemic Covid. Though the Labour<br />
government has all but given up pretensions to stick steadfastly to its much-avowed<br />
total elimination strategy, it has still not come up with firm and clear plans of how<br />
New Zealanders will live with Covid as an endemic.<br />
This has unfortunately led to speculation and a growing sense of despondency<br />
especially among businesses and employers. <strong>The</strong> government’s easy way out has<br />
been to borrow to the hilt to continue paying subsidies.<br />
All that scrambling since Delta has left the government look as clueless as babes<br />
in the wood. With no clear pathway or even a semblance of a plan, New Zealanders’<br />
frustrations are bound to rise, and we are only likely to see more Covid protocol<br />
violations and defiance from growing sections of the public in the coming weeks as<br />
we head toward Christmas.<br />
<strong>The</strong> government needs to rise out of its decision-making paralysis ––now.<br />
Thought of the week<br />
“When one door of happiness closes, another<br />
opens; but often we look so long at the closed<br />
door that we do not see the one which has been<br />
opened for us.” ― Helen Keller<br />
08 <strong>October</strong> <strong>2021</strong> – 14 <strong>October</strong><br />
Fri Sat Sun Mon Tues Wed Thu<br />
On-and-off<br />
rain and<br />
drizzle<br />
22°<br />
15°<br />
On-and-off<br />
rain and<br />
drizzle<br />
19°<br />
13°<br />
This week in New Zealand’s history<br />
<strong>Indian</strong> <strong>Weekender</strong> : Volume 13 Issue 31<br />
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Kiwi Media Publishing Limited - 133A, Level 1, Onehunga Mall, Onehunga, Auckland.<br />
Printed at Horton Media, Auckland<br />
Clouds<br />
and<br />
sun<br />
19°<br />
14°<br />
Clouds<br />
and<br />
sun<br />
20°<br />
14°<br />
9 <strong>October</strong> 1967<br />
First day of ten o'clock closing<br />
Clouds<br />
and<br />
showers<br />
20°<br />
14°<br />
Copyright 2020. Kiwi Media Publishing Limited. All Rights Reserved.<br />
A few<br />
morning<br />
showers<br />
21°<br />
15°<br />
A few<br />
morning<br />
showers<br />
26°<br />
17°<br />
Fifty years of six o’clock closing of pubs had ended two days earlier, after a referendum<br />
convinced the government to change the antiquated licensing law. Introduced as a<br />
‘temporary’ wartime efficiency measure in December 1917, 6 p.m. closing was made permanent<br />
the following year.<br />
10 <strong>October</strong> 1975<br />
Waitangi Tribunal created<br />
<strong>The</strong> Labour government created the Tribunal to hear Māori claims of breaches of the Treaty<br />
of Waitangi. It has evolved ever since, adapting to the demands of claimants, government<br />
and public. <strong>The</strong> Tribunal was created to report on and suggest settlements for contemporary<br />
Māori claims, and to ensure that future legislation was consistent with the treaty.<br />
12 <strong>October</strong> 1917<br />
New Zealand's ‘blackest day’ at Passchendaele<br />
Ever since 1917, Passchendaele has been a byword for the horror of the Great War. In terms<br />
of lives lost in a single day, the failed attack on Bellevue Spur on 12 <strong>October</strong> was probably<br />
the greatest disaster in New Zealand’s history.<br />
12 <strong>October</strong> 1918<br />
Niagara's arrival blamed for flu pandemic<br />
For decades, many people believed that a deadly new influenza virus came to New Zealand<br />
aboard the Royal Mail liner Niagara, which arrived in Auckland from Vancouver and San<br />
Francisco on 12 <strong>October</strong> 1918. This is no longer thought to have been the case. Among the<br />
ship’s passengers were Prime Minister William Massey and his deputy Joseph Ward, who were<br />
returning from Britain. False rumours circulated that Massey had personally rejected quarantine<br />
measures. In fact, he had insisted that he and Ward be treated the same as other passengers.<br />
12 <strong>October</strong> 1996<br />
New Zealanders go to the polls in first MMP election<br />
In the first general election held under the new mixed-member proportional representation<br />
(MMP) voting system, New Zealand voters selected 120 members of Parliament through a<br />
mixture of electorate contests (returning 65 members) and party lists (55 members). <strong>The</strong> MMP<br />
system, which replaced New Zealand’s traditional first-past-the-post voting method, had been<br />
proposed by a Royal Commission on the Electoral System that reported in 1986.
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Indian</strong> <strong>Weekender</strong> Friday, <strong>October</strong> 08, <strong>2021</strong> FIJI 13<br />
‘Register for vaccination’<br />
FIJI TIMES<br />
Parents and guardians of<br />
15 to 17-year-old children<br />
are urged to register for<br />
vaccinations so they can be protected<br />
against COVID-19.<br />
Prime Minister Voreqe<br />
Bainimarama highlighted this issue<br />
while visiting schools that have been<br />
set up as vaccination centres for<br />
children.<br />
He also commended the<br />
commitment and dedication of<br />
civil servants, medical officers and<br />
volunteers who have been manning<br />
the centres ensuring that operations<br />
run smoothly at the various centres.<br />
Mr Bainimarama visited Lami<br />
Convent Primary School, Samabula<br />
Primary School, John Wesley<br />
College, Assemblies of God High<br />
School, Rishikul College and<br />
Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama. Picture: SUPPLIED<br />
Bhawani Dayal Memorial College.<br />
In a Government statement,<br />
parents and guardians wishing to<br />
register their children can do so<br />
through the Vaccine Registry portal<br />
that is on the Fijian Government and<br />
Ministry of Health Facebook pages<br />
or click https://vra.digitalfiji.gov.fj/<br />
aMinorsRegistration/index<br />
Registration requires the birth<br />
registration number, citizenship<br />
certificate number or permit number<br />
from both the parent or guardian<br />
and the child, entered alongside<br />
correlating dates of birth,” the<br />
statement read.<br />
Ministry leans towards digitally driven education<br />
FBC<br />
With the expected reopening<br />
of schools, the Education<br />
Minister says there is a<br />
need for quality teachers with a focus<br />
on digitally driven education.<br />
Premila Kumar emphasized this<br />
during a meeting with New Zealand<br />
High Commissioner to Fiji Jonathan<br />
Curr to deliberate on the direction<br />
of Fiji’s education in relation to the<br />
current scenario.<br />
Kumar says improvements<br />
have been planned for the current<br />
NEW ZEALAND HIGH COMMISSIONER TO FIJI JONATHAN CURR AND EDUCATION<br />
MINISTER, PREMILA KUMAR.<br />
education system.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se include improved curricula<br />
and inclusion of civic and moral<br />
education to equip the children<br />
Indicators used to critically<br />
assess Fiji’s COVID situation<br />
FBC<br />
Fiji is at an acceptable level of<br />
the outbreak as COVID-19<br />
cases continue to decrease in<br />
its severity compared to the initial<br />
start of the second wave of the<br />
pandemic in April.<br />
This was revealed by the<br />
Permanent Secretary for Health<br />
Doctor James Fong, as<br />
positivity rate have been<br />
gradually decreasing on<br />
a daily basis.<br />
Doctor James Fong<br />
says moving forward, the<br />
Ministry will be monitoring<br />
for COVID-19 transmission<br />
and disease and intervening when<br />
cases cross the beyond acceptable<br />
levels.<br />
with the essential life skills in<br />
the development of an informed,<br />
effective, and responsible citizenry.<br />
For the younger ones, Kumar says,<br />
work has been mobilised for a proper<br />
and structured Early Childhood<br />
Education curriculum to strengthen<br />
the foundation of children’s<br />
education.<br />
She says the plans are to align it to<br />
the NZ curriculum and Curr assured<br />
his full support for the intended<br />
improvements.<br />
While the Ministry is having<br />
regular consultations with the<br />
“Given that there is<br />
low cases, it doesn’t<br />
mean that the epidemic<br />
is over. We will be<br />
using the indicators of<br />
positivity rate, admissions,<br />
ICU admissions and deaths”<br />
Dr Fong adds that they have<br />
switched their operation from<br />
mitigation phase to containment<br />
phase.<br />
Ministry of Health on the reopening<br />
of schools, there are indications<br />
that more emphasis will be given to<br />
e-learning platforms.<br />
Kumar says the actual date of<br />
opening will depend on when we<br />
have reached the expected target<br />
of 80% vaccination rate and also<br />
on when classrooms are ready in<br />
accordance to the COVID Safe<br />
Protocol.<br />
She adds they will imminently<br />
await due clearance from the<br />
Ministry of Health for a go ahead<br />
with at least Years 12 and 13.<br />
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IMMIGRATION<br />
MORTGAGE<br />
EVENTS<br />
NEW ZEALAND<br />
Over a ton of colour to be used at<br />
Krishna Holi <strong>2021</strong> event in Kumeu<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Indian</strong> <strong>Weekender</strong> Friday, February 12, <strong>2021</strong> 11<br />
RIZWAN MOHAMMAD<br />
T<br />
he biggest Holi event in the country<br />
on Sunday, February 14 at ISKCON<br />
Temple in Kumeu will put over one<br />
ton of colours for 10,000 visitors to play with<br />
celebrating the annual Hindu festival.<br />
Holi is one of the most popular and widely<br />
celebrated festivals for the <strong>Indian</strong> community<br />
after Diwali that is celebrated by the diaspora<br />
and the adjoining communities across the globe.<br />
<strong>The</strong> annual festival of colour falls on March<br />
28-29 this year, and the religious element of the<br />
festival signifies the triumph of good over evil.<br />
It is observed a the end of winter and advent of<br />
spring month (in the <strong>Indian</strong> subcontinent), and<br />
spiritual part of the festival starts with Holika<br />
Dahan (burning demon Holika) also known as<br />
Chhoti Holi and the following day as Holi.<br />
In its 9th year, Krishna Holi event at the<br />
iconic Hare Krishna Temple in Kumeu, West<br />
Auckland attracts thousands of people from all<br />
walks of life, different ethnicities and faiths to<br />
be a part of a colourful and joyous event.<br />
Speaking with the <strong>Indian</strong> <strong>Weekender</strong>,<br />
Krishna Chandra from the temple said they are<br />
excited to see the festive season of Holi back<br />
after a gloomy year of Covid-19 in the country.<br />
“Holi at the Krishna Temple is one of the<br />
most vibrant events in our calendar- we see<br />
families dressed white clothing visi the temple<br />
and then dance and drench in dry and wet<br />
colours from noon till early evening,” Krishna<br />
Chandra, secretary and spokesperson of Hare<br />
Krishna Temple said.<br />
<strong>The</strong> temple spread over 100 acres start the<br />
free event at 11 a.m. and will have stalls that<br />
distribute at least ten to 12 colours, and there<br />
will also be watercolours for the visitors.<br />
A giant LED screen is also installed on the<br />
stage with a DJ and live music for the attendees<br />
to dance and have fun.<br />
“It’s a family-friendly- tobacco and alcoholfree<br />
event. People of all ages can have fun as<br />
there will be colour stalls, water stations, food<br />
stalls, changing rooms, showering stations for<br />
people drenched in colour,” Mr Chandra said.<br />
He added tha the temple stocks colours to be sanitisers are in place for people, arrangements<br />
used at the festival at least 2-3 years at a time. for children activities, so that everyone gets to<br />
<strong>The</strong> temple will be used over a ton of colour at enjoy the even to its fullest.<br />
the event both in its dry form and with water. “We have volunteers, security to usher<br />
“We have given 200 kgs of colour to fire vehicles to park in the appropriate places,<br />
brigade who will mix it in their water tank manage the oncoming and returning traffic,<br />
and then splash it on the visitors at different and make sure visitors feel comfortable at the<br />
intervals.<br />
event,” Mr Chandra added.<br />
“Since this year’s event coincides with <strong>The</strong> event organisers have appealed the<br />
Valentine’s Day, we have kept valentine theme visitors to come in white dress as colours tend event like previous years will be high octane,<br />
gifts and gift station too at the venue for the to exhibit its vibrancy on white clothing, get full of energy and good vibes,” Mr Chandra<br />
public to celebrate the occasion there,” Mr spare clothing to change after playing with added.<br />
Chandra added.<br />
colour and food and water arrangements have ISKCON Temple is located on 1229<br />
Mr Chandra says all arrangements in been made a the venue.<br />
Coatesville-Riverhead Highway, Kumeu, West<br />
terms of Covid QR Code scanning and hand “Hol is always a fun event and Krishna Holi Auckland, and the event starts at noon to 5 p.m.<br />
Hare Krishna temple to host ‘Saatvik food festival’<br />
RIZWAN MOHAMMAD<br />
T<br />
he Hare Krishna Temple in Kumeu, West Auckland<br />
is hosting its annual food festival event on Saturday,<br />
February 13, for the community.<br />
More than 3000 people are expected to attend the event<br />
where they will be served saatvik vegetarian food, tour the<br />
temple premises and have a relaxing family-fun day.<br />
“Our Hare Krishna Food Festival is very popular amongs the<br />
wider Kiwi community in Auckland, people from all faiths and<br />
ethnicities come to the temple, take a tour of the place knowing<br />
about the deities, the ISKCON establishment, its works for the<br />
community and have snacks and food during the day,” Krishna<br />
Chandra, secretary and spokesperson for Hare Krishna temple<br />
told the <strong>Indian</strong> <strong>Weekender</strong>.<br />
<strong>The</strong> event is said to be quiet, and exhibit a relaxing<br />
environment where people get to meet new people, make<br />
friends, experience the calmness being with nature, have<br />
Saatvik (pure) vegetarian food and have good family day.<br />
“This event is happening just one day before our most<br />
popular Krishna Holi event which is will be loud, full of energy,<br />
playfulness, music and dance,” Mr Chandra added.<br />
<strong>The</strong> events will start at 2 p.m. and end at seven in the evening.<br />
Besides the food festival, Krishna Temple organises lunch<br />
event every Sunday at its premises where 300-400 people<br />
come, chant mantras, meditate, spend some time with nature<br />
and dine with the community members.<br />
“It is a soothing atmosphere at the temple, chanting mantras<br />
with the community, knowing more about the religion, what<br />
can they do a the temple and how can they make a difference in<br />
the community by serving others and the less privileged.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>re are also children’s activities<br />
organised so that they engage themselves<br />
and also have a good time at the temple,” Mr<br />
Chandra said.
14 INDIA<br />
Friday, <strong>October</strong> 08, <strong>2021</strong> <strong>The</strong> <strong>Indian</strong> <strong>Weekender</strong><br />
Cloud hacking: India now 2nd<br />
most targeted nation after US<br />
India now ranks second only to the US in<br />
followed by Malicious Script with 125 per cent<br />
most security threats on Cloud, followed by<br />
and Malware with 47 per cent.<br />
Australia, Canada and Brazil, and malware<br />
Financial services were targeted the most<br />
was the technique used most often in reported<br />
incidents, a new report showed on Monday.<br />
With the shift to a more flexible pandemic<br />
workforce, cyber criminals have introduced<br />
new and updated threats and tactics in<br />
among the reported cloud incidents, followed<br />
by healthcare, manufacturing, retail and<br />
professional services.<br />
"<strong>The</strong> US experienced the most reported<br />
incidents in the second quarter, and Europe saw<br />
campaigns targeting prominent sectors,<br />
the largest increases in reported incidents in Q2<br />
such as government, financial services<br />
with 52 per cent," said the report.<br />
and entertainment.<br />
<strong>The</strong> government was the most targeted sector<br />
in Q2 of <strong>2021</strong> with a 64 per cent increase in<br />
publicly reported cyber incidents, according to<br />
the 'Advanced Threat Research Report: <strong>October</strong><br />
<strong>2021</strong>' by McAfee Enterprise.<br />
"Ransomware has evolved far beyond its<br />
origins, and cybercriminals have become<br />
smarter and quicker to pivot their tactics<br />
alongside a whole host of new bad-actor<br />
schemes," said Raj Samani, McAfee Enterprise<br />
fellow and chief scientist.<br />
"Names such as REvil, Ryuk, Babuk<br />
and DarkSide have permeated into public<br />
consciousness, linked to disruptions of critical<br />
services worldwide," he added.<br />
<strong>The</strong> most targeted sectors by ransomware<br />
in Q2 of <strong>2021</strong> were the government,<br />
followed by telecom, energy, and media and<br />
communications.<br />
Spam showed the highest increase of reported<br />
incidents -- 250 per cent -- from Q1 to Q2 <strong>2021</strong>,<br />
<strong>The</strong> second quarter of <strong>2021</strong> was a vibrant<br />
quarter for ransomware, earning its place as<br />
a high-profile cyber agenda item for the US<br />
administration following the Colonial Pipeline<br />
attack.<br />
"In the second quarter of <strong>2021</strong>, we continued<br />
to see the challenges of shifting cloud security<br />
to accommodate a more flexible pandemic<br />
workforce and an increased workload, which<br />
presented cybercriminals with more potential<br />
exploits and targets," the report mentioned.<br />
UP girls to learn science in the joyful way<br />
Girls enrolled in Kasturba Gandhi Balika<br />
Vidyalaya (KGBV), a residential<br />
chain of schools for socially and<br />
economically weaker sections, will now<br />
learn science through games, stories, and<br />
‘curiosity boxes’.<br />
<strong>The</strong> UP government, in collaboration<br />
with <strong>Indian</strong> Institute of Technology (IIT)<br />
Gandhinagar, has launched a ‘curiosity<br />
programme for teaching science in an<br />
experimental way’.<br />
This is aimed at making 79,000 girls<br />
enrolled in 746 KGBVs proficient in science<br />
as a subject. According to the government<br />
spokesman, a team from IIT-Gandhinagar<br />
will groom 50 teachers as master trainers<br />
through 100 modules prepared on teaching<br />
science in an experiential manner that involves<br />
using interesting toys, activities, stories and<br />
assignments.<br />
Each module is a 5-to-15-minute video<br />
covering different topics from science books<br />
of classes 6 to 8.<br />
<strong>The</strong> videos describe ways of doing an<br />
activity and the science behind it.<br />
Apple iPhone 14 rumoured<br />
to offer 2 TB storage<br />
Apple recently launched iPhone 13 Pro models<br />
with storage options of up to a whopping 1 TB<br />
and now a new report has claimed that the next<br />
flagship series, the iPhone 14 line-up, will come with up<br />
to 2 TB of storage. Apple will adopt QLC flash storage for<br />
next year’s iPhone and that thanks to the newer storage<br />
technology, it will increase capacity to 2 TB, reports<br />
MyDrivers.<br />
According to famed analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, top-tier<br />
“iPhone 14” models will adopt a 1/1.3-inch 48MP CMOS<br />
image sensor for wide-angle camera module duties.<br />
“We believe that the new 2H2022 iPhone may support<br />
direct 48MP output and 12MP (four cells merge output<br />
mode) output simultaneously,” Kuo said in a note to<br />
investors.<br />
“With 12MP output, the CIS pixel size of the new 2H22<br />
iPhone increases to about 2.5 um, which is significantly<br />
larger than the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13, and larger than<br />
existing Android phones, and close to the DSC level,” he<br />
added. <strong>The</strong> company typically concentrates on wide-angle<br />
camera technology first, with the benefits trickling down<br />
to telephoto and ultra-wide angle systems in subsequent<br />
years. <strong>The</strong> sensor could support hybrid-operating modes<br />
to maximise pixel size and capitalise on the hardware’s<br />
light-gathering capabilities.<br />
Under the hood, the upcoming iPhone is expected to<br />
run on iOS 16 and pack a 3,815mAh battery with fastcharging<br />
support.<br />
An integral part of the programme is the<br />
curiosity box, to be provided to each school.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se boxes contain material enabling<br />
teachers to conduct the activity with students<br />
essential for an immersive experience. It will<br />
also help students perform activities on their<br />
own. Additional project director of Sarva<br />
Shiksha Abhiyan Sarita Tiwari said, “<strong>The</strong>re<br />
is a notion that science is not a girls’ subject.<br />
We have decided to take this as a challenge.<br />
Through this programme, we intend to make<br />
students and, more importantly, teachers fall in<br />
love with the subject.”<br />
She added that the idea is to make classes<br />
Make in India drone used to transport Covid vaccines<br />
For the first time, a ‘Make in India’ drone has been used to<br />
transport Covid vaccines over an aerial distance of 15<br />
km, from the Bishnupur district hospital to Loktak lake<br />
in Manipur, for their administration at the PHC, Union Health<br />
Minister Mansukha Mandaviya said on Monday, adding that in a<br />
geographically diversified country like India, drones can be used to<br />
deliver essentials to the last mile.<br />
In an effort to make healthcare accessible to the last citizen of<br />
the country, Mandaviya launched ICMR’s Drone Response and<br />
Outreach in North East (i-Drone) programme on Monday.<br />
This is a delivery model to make sure that life-saving vaccines<br />
reach everyone. <strong>The</strong> actual distance by road between these locations<br />
is 26 km. On Monday, 10 beneficiaries received the first dose while<br />
8 received the second dose at the PHC.<br />
Congratulating the people on this innovative step, Mandaviya<br />
said, “We can use drones to deliver life-saving medicines and<br />
collect blood samples. This technology can also be used in critical<br />
situations. It may prove a game changer in addressing the challenges<br />
in healthcare delivery, particularly health supplies in difficult areas.”<br />
Launching the initiative, which would facilitate vaccine delivery<br />
to the hard-to-reach terrains of the country, the minister said,<br />
“Our immunisation programme for Covid-19 has already<br />
exceeded all expectations. I strongly believe that this<br />
initiative will further help us achieve the highest<br />
possible immunisation coverage for Covid-19.<br />
“Incorporating such drone technologies into<br />
the national programmes would help deliver<br />
other vaccines and medical supplies as quickly as<br />
possible.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> minister also said that under the leadership of<br />
more engaging, provide experiential learning,<br />
foster creativity, spark innovation and focus on<br />
concepts. Students will maintain a notebook<br />
where they pen down their experiences for<br />
each activity, their observations, scientific<br />
understanding and questions. <strong>The</strong>y will also be<br />
given interesting assignments in each module<br />
to think about the concept.<br />
Teachers from all 746 KGBVs will be<br />
trained online thrice a week.<br />
In addition, there will be a residential<br />
workshop of master trainers at IIT-Gandhinagar<br />
after six months of the programme. Physical<br />
workshops will also take place early next year.<br />
"Incorporating<br />
such drone<br />
technologies into the<br />
national programmes<br />
would help deliver other<br />
vaccines and medical<br />
supplies as quickly as<br />
possible.<br />
Over 1.8m <strong>Indian</strong><br />
students to go for<br />
foreign education<br />
by 2024, says<br />
report<br />
As international borders reopen with<br />
the Covid situation easing, studying<br />
abroad is set to grow in the coming<br />
years and according to new forecast, over 18<br />
lakh <strong>Indian</strong> students are set to opt for foreign<br />
colleges and universities by 2024.<br />
While the demand for studying abroad is<br />
increasing and the outflow is also increasing,<br />
student expenditure is soaring and is likely to<br />
touch $75-85 billion by 2024, which will be an<br />
increase of more than 2 times from 2019.<br />
While the sector faced a stunted growth<br />
in 2020-21 as international borders were<br />
closed to combat Covid, it is now expected to<br />
regain momentum as things become normal,<br />
according to the report by Bengaluru-based<br />
market research firm RedSeer.<br />
“We are bullish about this segment’s growth<br />
in the coming years. Our research shows that<br />
the total number of <strong>Indian</strong> students studying<br />
abroad will stand at around 18 lakh by 2024,”<br />
said Abhishek Gupta, engagement manager at<br />
RedSeer.<br />
Nearly 7,00,000 students applied to study<br />
abroad in 2019.<br />
“In 2019 alone, around 420k students<br />
headed out but the total number of applicants<br />
was around 1.7 times. This colossal increase<br />
is due to factors like rise in GDP in the past<br />
two decades leading to more consumption and<br />
awareness about education abroad,” Gupta<br />
mentioned.<br />
<strong>The</strong> growth in the outflow rates had outpaced<br />
domestic student growth by 6 times in 2016-<br />
19 which shows the massive demand that this<br />
segment is witnessing.<br />
“Our research shows that currently, 770k<br />
<strong>Indian</strong> students are studying abroad from 440K<br />
in 2016 which is a 20 per cent growth. On the<br />
other hand, the growth in the domestic region<br />
has been merely 3 per cent when compared to<br />
the demand for education abroad,” the analyst<br />
informed.<br />
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the nation is progressing at a great<br />
pace.<br />
“Today is a historic day, which showed us how technology is<br />
making life easier and bringing social change,” he said.<br />
i-Drone has been designed to overcome challenges by deploying<br />
unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) to remote areas. Currently, the<br />
drone-based delivery project has been granted permission for<br />
implementation in Manipur and Nagaland, as well as Andaman and<br />
Nicobar Islands.<br />
ICMR conducted an initial study in collaboration with <strong>Indian</strong><br />
Institute of Technology, Kanpur, to test the capacity of drones<br />
to carry and transfer vaccines safely.<br />
<strong>The</strong> study was conducted in Manipur, Nagaland and<br />
Andaman and Nicobar Islands. <strong>The</strong>se studies provided<br />
promising results on the basis of which the Ministry<br />
of Civil Aviation, the Directorate General of Civil<br />
Aviation (DGCA) and other regulatory authorities<br />
have granted permission to fly drones beyond the<br />
visual line of sight.
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Indian</strong> <strong>Weekender</strong> Friday, <strong>October</strong> 08, <strong>2021</strong><br />
FEATURES 15<br />
Ingredients<br />
• 3 tsp coconut oil<br />
• 1/4 tsp mustard seeds<br />
• 1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds<br />
• 5-6 curry leaves<br />
• 2 slit green chillies<br />
• 1/2 sliced onion<br />
• 1 tsp coriander powder<br />
• 1/4 tsp mustard powder<br />
• 1/2 chopped tomato<br />
• 2 soaked kokum fruits<br />
• 4 big cubes of any sea fish<br />
• 1/2 cup fish stock<br />
• 1/2 cup coconut milk<br />
• For the tempering:<br />
• 2 tsp coconut oil<br />
• 1/4 tsp ginger juliennes<br />
• 1/4 tsp chopped garlic<br />
• 5-6 curry leaves<br />
• 2 Tbsp chopped shallots<br />
Method<br />
• Heat oil in pan.<br />
• Add mustard seeds, fenugreek<br />
seeds, curry leaves, slit green<br />
Healthy cooking every day<br />
chillies and sliced onions. Saute<br />
till onions turn brown.<br />
• Now add coriander powder,<br />
mustard powder, chopped tomato,<br />
kokum fruits, big cubes of any sea<br />
fish and fish stock.<br />
• Cover and cook for 5 minutes.<br />
• Now remove cover and reduce to<br />
a semi dry consistency.<br />
• Add coconut milk and let simmer<br />
for 2 minutes taking care not to let<br />
the milk come to a boil.Temper<br />
with coconut oil; ginger juliennes,<br />
chopped garlic, curry leave and<br />
chopped shallots.<br />
• Serve hot with appams.<br />
Lighter Takes<br />
& Easy Tips<br />
Popular South <strong>Indian</strong> recipes<br />
Kerala Recipes-Prepare yourself for a culinary journey that canvases everything from exquisite<br />
seafood to ignored vegetables, from coconut milk to crispy curry leaves, from spluttering mustard<br />
seeds to soft and spongy appams. Prepare yourself for a scrumptious ride to 'God's own country'.<br />
Fish Mappas (Fish Curry)<br />
Fish Mappas is a Kerala style curry where fish is cooked<br />
in creamy coconut milk and served with appams<br />
Cheera Thoran Kerala style stir-fry<br />
An authentic Malayali stir fry with spinach,<br />
coconut and mild spices. Absolutely healthy!<br />
Ingredients<br />
• 1 cup chopped spinach<br />
• 2 Tbsp oil<br />
• 1/2 Tbsp mustard seeds<br />
• 2 Tbsp chopped red chillies<br />
• 7 to 8 curry leaves<br />
• 2 Tbsp chopped green chillies<br />
• 1/2 Tbsp turmeric powder<br />
• 1 Tbsp chopped garlic<br />
• 2 Tbsp grated coconut<br />
• Salt to tas<br />
An array of delicious ingredients like kokum fruits, curry leaves and coconut milk is<br />
used to prepare this sumptuous dish of fish curry.<br />
Method<br />
• Heat oil in a pan.<br />
• Add mustard, red chillies and<br />
curry leaves.<br />
• Now add green chillies, turmeric<br />
powder, chopped garlic and<br />
spinach.<br />
• Let the spinach steam, then add<br />
grated coconut.<br />
• Season and cook for a few<br />
minutes.<br />
• Serve garnished with grated<br />
coconut<br />
Kerala mutton stew<br />
About Kerala Mutton Stew Recipe: Succulent chunks of mutton simmered<br />
in delicate southern flavors of coconut milk, curry leaves, cinnamon etc.<br />
Ingredients<br />
• 500 gms cubed mutton (boiled<br />
with 10 gm ginger)<br />
• 100 gms onion, sliced<br />
• 5 gms green chillies (slit)<br />
• 10 gms ginger strips<br />
• 1 tsp pepper corns<br />
• 10 Curry pattas<br />
• 1 coconut, grated<br />
• to taste Salt<br />
• 100 gms oil<br />
• 150 gms cubed potatoes<br />
• 50 gms diced carrot<br />
For sabut garam masala:<br />
• 1 Cinnamon stick<br />
• 4 Cardamoms<br />
• 4 Cloves<br />
Method<br />
• Boil mutton along with ginger.<br />
Set aside.<br />
• Boil potatoes and carrots. Set<br />
Kozhikodan Biryani<br />
Ingredients<br />
• 1 Kg Chicken legs (small pieces)<br />
• 400 gram Rice<br />
• 600 ml Water (the water is 1.5<br />
times more than the quantity of<br />
rice)<br />
• 6 Green cardamoms<br />
• 2 Cinnamon sticks<br />
• 3 Bay leaves<br />
• 3 Javitri<br />
• 10 gram Fennel seeds<br />
• 200 gram Onion<br />
• 80 gram Tomatoes<br />
• 20 gram Green chilli<br />
• 50 gram Ginger<br />
• 50 gram Garlic<br />
• 50 gram Red chilli powder<br />
• 50 gram Coriander<br />
• 30 gram Mint<br />
• 5 gram Turmeric<br />
• to taste Salt<br />
• 15 gram Garam masala<br />
• 60 ml Oil<br />
• 4 Eggs, boiled<br />
• 30 gram Butter<br />
Method<br />
• Pour oil into the pot, add whole<br />
spices into it and stir a while.<br />
• Put crushed onions, julienne of<br />
green chillies and ginger.<br />
• Now add ginger & garlic paste,<br />
aside.<br />
• Extract coconut milk twice.<br />
• Heat oil and saute sabut garam<br />
masala, onion, green chillies,<br />
ginger, curry patta, peppercorns.<br />
• Add boiled mutton, potatoes and<br />
carrot along with second extract<br />
of coconut milk and cook. Add<br />
salt to taste.<br />
Paal Payasam (South <strong>Indian</strong> dessert)<br />
mint, coriander and stir.<br />
• Add turmeric, red chilli and<br />
fennel powder.<br />
• Now add pieces of chicken,<br />
chopped tomatoes, water and<br />
butter.<br />
• When chicken is almost cooked,<br />
add rice and salt.<br />
• Cover and simmer it for a while<br />
till done.<br />
• Cut each egg into four then<br />
garnish on the rice.<br />
Key Ingredients: Chicken legs<br />
(small pieces), Rice, Water (the<br />
water is 1.5 times more than the<br />
quantity of rice), Green cardamoms,<br />
Cinnamon sticks, Bay leaves, Javitri,<br />
Fennel seeds, Onion, Tomatoes,<br />
Green chilli, Ginger, Garlic,<br />
Red chilli powder, Coriander,<br />
Mint, Turmeric, Salt, Garam masala,<br />
Oil, Eggs, Butter<br />
• Stir first extract of coconut milk<br />
just before serving.<br />
• Key Ingredients: cubed mutton<br />
(boiled with 10 gm ginger),<br />
onion, green chillies (slit), ginger<br />
strips, pepper corns, Curry pattas,<br />
coconut, Salt, oil, cubed potatoes,<br />
diced carrot, Cinnamon stick,<br />
Cardamoms, Cloves<br />
delicious, creamy, rice and milk enriched with the goodness of cashews and raisins, paal payasam is a south <strong>Indian</strong> dessert, a version of kheer,<br />
A made on various festivals and celebratory occasions like onam. It is a simple recipe with richness of nuts and goodness of milk.<br />
Ingredients<br />
• 50 gms rice<br />
• 1 litre milk<br />
• 5 gram cardamom powder<br />
• 100 gms sugar<br />
• 50 ml ghee (clarified butter)<br />
• 50 gms cashew nuts<br />
• 25 gms raisins<br />
Method<br />
• Wash and soak the rice for 1/2 an hour.<br />
• Cook the rice in milk until soft.<br />
• Add cardamom powder, sugar and stir until<br />
the sugar is dissolved.<br />
• Heat ghee in a pan and add the cashew nuts.<br />
• When the cashew nuts are slightly golden,<br />
add the raisins and saute for a minute.<br />
• Pour on the rice mixture and serve warm.
16 ENTERTAINMENT<br />
Friday, <strong>October</strong> 08, <strong>2021</strong> <strong>The</strong> <strong>Indian</strong> <strong>Weekender</strong><br />
Most popular movies on Netflix right now<br />
<strong>The</strong> Mitchells vs. <strong>The</strong> Machines<br />
Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are credited<br />
as producers here, but as with Spider-<br />
Man: Into <strong>The</strong> Spider-Verse, their fingerprints<br />
are all over this extremely enjoyable Netflix<br />
animation.<br />
Marriage Story<br />
Marriage Story really is a warts-and-all<br />
piece of filmmaking, with all the horrible<br />
details of divorce – having to look for lawyers,<br />
questioning who gets to keep the child, parents<br />
who seemingly go out of their way to worsen<br />
the situation – being portrayed on screen.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Little Prince<br />
Netflix doesn’t only focus on maturethemed<br />
movies, even though the freedom<br />
from R-ratings gives it plenty of scope for<br />
swearing, violence, and sex. Here you’ll find<br />
a precious little animated movie based on<br />
a French novella from 1943, about a young<br />
lonely girl whose imagination is transported to<br />
another world through magical stories told by<br />
her eccentric neighbor.<br />
Pieces of a Woman<br />
Falling into the movies that make you<br />
cry category, Pieces of a Woman is an<br />
emotional well that'll steep you in melancholy.<br />
Martha's home birth leads to a schism in her<br />
marriage as her life falls to pieces. Known<br />
for its opening 24-minute childbirth one-shot,<br />
this portrait of grief will ultimately take you to<br />
poignant places.<br />
Roma<br />
Alfonso Cuaron's semi-autobiographical<br />
snapshot of the Colonia Roma<br />
neighborhood of Mexico City tells a small<br />
story with staggering prowess. Let Cuaron<br />
steer you through the ups and downs of a livein<br />
housekeeper of a middle-class family.<br />
Happy as Lazzaro<br />
This Italian film has the seal of approval from<br />
Bong Joon-ho, so let's listen to the Oscarwinning<br />
director of Parasite and add it to this<br />
list. Written and directed by Alice Rohrwacher,<br />
Happy as Lazzaro is set in the '70s on a tobacco<br />
farm, where good-hearted young peasant<br />
Lazzaro dutifully works.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Jaws Series<br />
<strong>The</strong> sequels may not live up to the original,<br />
but it'll please the completists among<br />
you that every Jaws movie is now available<br />
to stream on Netflix. You can have a weekend<br />
marathon of all four films—Jaws, Jaws 2, Jaws<br />
3, and Jaws: <strong>The</strong> Revenge—or just skip around<br />
to your favourites.<br />
Nightbooks<br />
In Netflix's new fantasy<br />
film Nightbooks, Jessica Jones star Krysten<br />
Ritter takes a villainous turn as Natacha, a<br />
witch who kidnaps a young horror fan named<br />
Alex (Winslow Fegley). She demands that he<br />
pen a new terrifying tale for her every night,<br />
with the alternative being a prospect that may<br />
be a bit too scary for pint-sized viewers.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Father Who Moves Mountains<br />
father (Adrian Titieni) takes it upon<br />
A himself to use his intelligence training and<br />
contacts to track down his son when he goes<br />
missing in a remote and unforgiving landscape<br />
in this <strong>2021</strong> Romanian/Swedish drama.<br />
Safe House<br />
Ryan Reynolds and Denzel<br />
Washington spar—as a CIA interrogator<br />
and an alleged agency traitor, respectively—<br />
in this 2012 action flick. When the safe<br />
house where Washington's character is being<br />
questioned is attacked, the two go on the run<br />
together.<br />
Most popular movies on Amazon Prime right now<br />
Jennifer's Body<br />
<strong>The</strong> Descent<br />
One Night in Miami<br />
It took a decade and some change, but Jennifer’s Body is<br />
finally being vindicated as a cult classic and ahead-of-its-time<br />
horror-comedy thanks to the power of the internet (and, in all<br />
honesty, the rise of Megan Fox on social media). Which was far,<br />
far too long for this movie to get the credit it deserves. A<br />
<strong>The</strong> Social Network<br />
Before Neil Marshall started directing action-packed episodes<br />
of your genre favs a la Game of Thrones and Westworld, the<br />
filmmaker delivered two of the great monster movies of the 21st<br />
century with Dog Soldiers and <strong>The</strong> Descent, the latter of which<br />
is destined to go down in the books as a horror classic of its time.<br />
Attack the Block<br />
Regina King makes a commanding directorial debut with One<br />
Night in Miami, an understated historical drama set during<br />
a meeting of extraordinary minds, when Malcolm X (Kingsley<br />
Ben-Adir), Muhammad Ali (then Cassius Clay, Eli Goree), Sam<br />
Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.), and Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge) spent a<br />
night in a quiet Florida hotel room.<br />
Coming 2 America<br />
<strong>The</strong> Social Network was already an exceptional, fascinating<br />
film when it arrived in 2010, but in the aftermath of<br />
Cambridge Analytica, “Pivot to Video,” and all the other societychanging<br />
scandals that have plagued Facebook in the decade<br />
since, now it’s an absolutely essential film. And it arguably plays<br />
better, hits harder, and grows ever more impressive with each<br />
passing year.<br />
If you’re looking for an action-packed, high-tension romp<br />
through the streets of South London, set your sights on one<br />
of the best original sci-fi thrillers in recent memory. Starring<br />
John Boyega in an outstanding performance that couldn’t be<br />
more caddy-corner to his best-known role in Star Wars, the<br />
2011 film follows an alien invasion in the streets of South<br />
London, where a local teenage gang rallies to fight back against<br />
ravaging space beasts.<br />
N<br />
early the entire original cast reunites, led by Eddie<br />
Murphy and Arsenio Hall as Prince Akeem and his righthand-man<br />
Semmi, in a slim, but cheerful and vibrant follow-up<br />
that sweeps audiences back to the kingdom of Zamunda (and<br />
of course, back 2 America) for a new take on the fish-out-ofwater<br />
comedy that sees Akeem unite with his unexpected heir<br />
(Jermaine Fowler), while learning how to be a good king.
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Indian</strong> <strong>Weekender</strong> Friday, <strong>October</strong> 08, <strong>2021</strong><br />
FEATURES 17<br />
FASHION AND BEAUTY<br />
Major summer fashion trends<br />
that are already in your closet<br />
You've probably heard by now that throwback looks are resurfacing, and on top of that,<br />
seasonless fashion is on the rise. Classics are reigning supreme, and the spicer, more statementmaking<br />
styles can easily be DIY'd or replicated with a few quick tricks. Take a look at what's worth<br />
re-wearing for the season ahead, and if you're still stumped on how to style these items for modern<br />
day? We've got plenty of summer outfit ideas to inspire you, too.<br />
Scarves<br />
Another piece that can be turned into something<br />
brand new for #ShotGirlSummer? A scarf.<br />
Fasten it around your neck to add flair to your outfit,<br />
use it as a hair accessory, or (if it's long enough, or<br />
can be tucked into a bralette) wrap it around your<br />
body and style it as a top.<br />
How to Wear Scarves For Summer <strong>2021</strong>: Grab a<br />
chain necklace and knot the scarf in the center before<br />
securing it around your neck. <strong>The</strong>n, grab the two<br />
sides of the the scarf, bring down and around your<br />
chest area, and tie it in back. It should now look like<br />
the above top, while making use of old pieces sitting<br />
in your drawer.<br />
Mini Skirts<br />
We'll always have a soft spot in our hearts<br />
for midis and maxis, but with the return<br />
of sexy '00s fashion, we're loving this leggy<br />
look that works for just about any occasion.<br />
How to Wear Mini Skirts For Summer <strong>2021</strong>:<br />
Make your mini feel more understated with an<br />
oversized shirt and 'ugly' sandals, or go full<br />
Y2K with a crocheted halter neck or crop top<br />
- and don't forget your baguette bag and claw<br />
clip!<br />
Puff Sleeves<br />
Puff sleeves refuse to leave our rotation, yet<br />
somehow, they're always whimsical and<br />
fun instead of stale and boring. It's possible<br />
you've already stocked up on voluminous<br />
blanket dresses in 2020, so feel free to break<br />
them out once again.<br />
How to Wear Puff Sleeves For Summer <strong>2021</strong>:<br />
We're feeling fashion's bold, chaotic vibe as of<br />
late, and while big-sleeved tops and dresses can<br />
turn heads all on their own, feel free to get even<br />
more OTT. Add a pair of statement earrings,<br />
opt for lace-up sandals, or even reach for bow<br />
details to turn it full cottagecore.<br />
Straps and Strings<br />
It's time to go full '00s popstar and play around with string<br />
details. If you own a dress that ties at the shoulder, skip the<br />
neat bows and crisscross your straps or tie them to one side<br />
instead. TikTok has even shown us that even a basic cami can<br />
be transformed into anything from a strappy halterneck to a<br />
skirt, and that there are also ways to play around with shoelaces<br />
to create a handful of looks. Plus, you're not imagining things<br />
- the peek-a-boo thong is also having a moment.<br />
How to Wear Straps and Strings For Summer <strong>2021</strong>: Of<br />
course, this trend - especially if you're DIYing it - is all about<br />
experimentation, but you really want it to be the focus of your<br />
ensemble. Don't pair these pieces anything too loud in order<br />
to let your strappy something shine.<br />
Oversized Shirts<br />
Chances are you own fair share of button-downs, which is<br />
good news, since baggy shirts and tees are once again a key<br />
part of the summer rotation. <strong>The</strong>y're essentially the perfect<br />
throw-on-and-go piece: they can be worn with just about any<br />
bottom, work as a swimsuit coverup, and even be layered like<br />
a light sweater.<br />
How to Wear Oversized Shirts For Summer <strong>2021</strong>: Wear<br />
your button-down with Bermuda shorts and slides for a full<br />
relaxed look, or use one to replace your go-to jacket, styling it<br />
over a crop top or sundress when things get chilly.<br />
Crop Tops<br />
Skin is especially in for <strong>2021</strong>, and if you don't already<br />
own backless designs or something with cutouts<br />
(another major trend that's bubbling up), you can go the<br />
belly-baring route - even if it means cutting or knotting<br />
an old tee.<br />
How to Wear Crop Tops For Summer <strong>2021</strong>: Use this<br />
one to balance out bottoms that offer more coverage, such<br />
as Bermudas, bike shorts, and baggy jeans or trousers on<br />
a chilly day. Playing around with different proportions or<br />
fit (loose vs. tight) will create an outfit that's interesting<br />
to look at.<br />
Boots<br />
Despite the fact that boots are typically<br />
considered a fall and winter staple, warm<br />
weather styles are becoming pretty popular.<br />
Even model Irina Shayk is a fan of the summer<br />
boot, and included one in her collaboration with<br />
Tamara Mellon.<br />
How to Wear Boots For Summer <strong>2021</strong>: Use<br />
this shoe as a way to make fancy summer<br />
staples, like sundresses, into an outfit that's<br />
more relaxed. You can even wear your favorite<br />
knee-high pair with the aforementioned mini<br />
skirt, providing a bit of balance.<br />
Large Sunglasses<br />
After a multiple-year run, it seems as if those<br />
teeny tiny, '90s-inspired sunglasses are on<br />
their way out, being replaced with glamorous,<br />
oversized options once again. Go ahead and dig<br />
them out of your collection to enjoy some full<br />
coverage this season.<br />
How to Wear Large Sunglasses For Summer<br />
<strong>2021</strong>: Try your hand at the '70s trend and style<br />
these babies with flares, crochet, and fringe.<br />
You can also wear your oversized shades with<br />
basics, using them as the statement piece in an<br />
otherwise simple outfit.
18 NEW ZEALAND<br />
CROSSWORD FreeDailyCrosswords.com<br />
NO: 88<br />
ACROSS------------,<br />
1) Life of_ (carefree<br />
existence)<br />
6) Flat-bottomed open boat<br />
11) "Shogun" sash<br />
14) Apparently amazed<br />
15) Country of over 1 billion<br />
16) Car tracking digits (abbr.)<br />
17) Gain experience<br />
20) Doubter's outbursts<br />
21) Like most NBA players<br />
22) Calorie-rich pastry<br />
23) 67.5 degrees, on a compass<br />
24) Retail center<br />
25) Fence repairer<br />
26) Bronco catcher<br />
28) Deafening noise<br />
29) Find in a mine<br />
30) Hole in your head<br />
34) Bums of documentaries<br />
35) Provider of wide-angle<br />
shots<br />
KEEP WATCH<br />
37) One way to get the gravy<br />
38) Former or previous<br />
39) Affectionate utterance<br />
40) Cape_ (cottage style)<br />
41) Olympic prize<br />
45) Greyhound alternative<br />
4 7) Crossing the Atlantic<br />
50) Day before a holiday<br />
51) Dutch shoe<br />
52) "_ go bragh"<br />
53) Hai ry jungle creatures<br />
54) Maryland state flowers<br />
57) Be in pain<br />
58) Model of perfection<br />
59) "Beetle Bailey" character<br />
60) "2001" mainframe<br />
61) From Oslo, e.g.<br />
62) More likely<br />
2<strong>8th</strong> February<br />
DOWN<br />
1) "Friends" female<br />
2) Big lizard<br />
3) Woodworker's machines<br />
4) Classic poetry<br />
5) Japanese currency<br />
6) Twine fiber<br />
7) Bell sound<br />
8) Short poem (var.)<br />
9) "Fee_ foe furn"<br />
10) Enrich<br />
11) Goes too far<br />
12) Marsh heron<br />
13) "Psst!" follower<br />
18) Airport stat.<br />
19) Billion years<br />
24) Cow sounds<br />
25) Prefix meaning "one thousandth"<br />
27) Quick cut<br />
28) Attempt to lose weight<br />
31) Prepared Bond's martini<br />
32) Work the bar<br />
33) "<strong>The</strong> Catcher in the _"<br />
34) Santa's seat?<br />
35) Gridiron game<br />
36) Mme. Bovary<br />
37) Hom of Africa nation<br />
39) "Rock the_" (<strong>The</strong> Clash hit)<br />
40) Birch tree spike<br />
42) Make an exit<br />
43) Exact retribution<br />
44) Not as great<br />
46) Legendary elephant eater<br />
4 7) Vicinities<br />
48) Move like a crab<br />
49) Coast Guard officer (abbr.)<br />
52) You right now, theme-wise<br />
53) " ... and make it fast!"<br />
55) Tokyo, long ago<br />
56) Place with a president<br />
ANSWERS CROSSWORD NO: 88<br />
FreeDailyCrosswords.com<br />
ACROSS------------,<br />
1) Life of_ (carefree<br />
existence)<br />
6) Flat-bottomed open boat<br />
11) "Shogun" sash<br />
14) Apparently amazed<br />
15) Country of over 1 billion<br />
16) Car tracking digits (abbr.)<br />
17) Gain experience<br />
20) Doubter's outbursts<br />
21) Like most NBA players<br />
22) Calorie-rich pastry<br />
23) 67.5 degrees, on a compass<br />
24) Retail center<br />
25) Fence repairer<br />
26) Bronco catcher<br />
28) Deafening noise<br />
29) Find in a mine<br />
30) Hole in your head<br />
34) Bums of documentaries<br />
35) Provider of wide-angle<br />
shots<br />
KEEP WATCH<br />
1R 21 3L 4E S y<br />
1A G A<br />
1i: u T<br />
,.. A<br />
N<br />
AB<br />
LA<br />
I L<br />
,.. A L<br />
58<br />
1<br />
37) One way to get the gravy<br />
38) Former or previous<br />
39) Affectionate utterance<br />
40) Cape_ (cottage style)<br />
41) Olympic prize<br />
45) Greyhound alternative<br />
47) Crossing the Atlantic<br />
50) Day before a holiday<br />
51) Dutch shoe<br />
52) "_ go bragh"<br />
53) Hai ry jungle creatures<br />
54) Maryland state flowers<br />
57) Be in pain<br />
58) Model of perfection<br />
59) "Beetle Bailey" character<br />
60) "2001" mainframe<br />
61) From Oslo, e.g.<br />
62) More likely<br />
N<br />
E<br />
-------<br />
D E A<br />
6<br />
N OR s<br />
HITORI NO: 88<br />
I N<br />
T H<br />
T E<br />
E R<br />
N E<br />
s lJ SAN s<br />
5<br />
SARGE<br />
6<br />
hP TE R<br />
2<strong>8th</strong> February<br />
DOWN<br />
1) "Friends" female<br />
2) Big lizard<br />
3) Woodworker's machines<br />
4) Classic poetry<br />
5) Japanese currency<br />
6) Twine fiber<br />
7) Bell sound<br />
8) Short poem (var.)<br />
9) "Fee_ foe furn"<br />
10) Enrich<br />
11) Goes too far<br />
12) Marsh heron<br />
13) "Psst!" follower<br />
18) Airport stat.<br />
19) Billion years<br />
24) Cow sounds<br />
25) Prefix meaning "one thousandth"<br />
27) Quick cut<br />
28) Attempt to lose weight<br />
31) Prepared Bond's martini<br />
32) Work the bar<br />
33) "<strong>The</strong> Catcher in the _"<br />
34) Santa's seat?<br />
35) Gridiron game<br />
36) Mme. Bovary<br />
37) Hom of Africa nation<br />
39) "Rock the_" (<strong>The</strong> Clash hit)<br />
40) Birch tree spike<br />
42) Make an exit<br />
43) Exact retribution<br />
44) Not as great<br />
46) Legendary elephant eater<br />
47) Vicinities<br />
48) Move like a crab<br />
49) Coast Guard officer (abbr.)<br />
52) You right now, theme-wise<br />
53) "... and make it fast!"<br />
55) Tokyo, long ago<br />
56) Place with a president<br />
Eliminate numbers until there are no duplicates in any row or<br />
column. Eliminate numbers by marking them in Black. You are<br />
not allowed to have two Black squares touching horizontally or<br />
vertically (diagonally is ok). Any White square can be reached<br />
from any other (i.e. they are connected).<br />
Friday, <strong>October</strong> 08, <strong>2021</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Indian</strong> <strong>Weekender</strong><br />
SUDOKU SOLUSIONS AND ANSWERS NO: 88<br />
GENERAL KNOWLEDGE<br />
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS<br />
1. Which planet has the most moons?<br />
Saturn<br />
2. What part of a plant conducts<br />
photosynthesis? Leaf<br />
3. How many elements are in the periodic<br />
table? 118<br />
4. Where is the smallest bone in the<br />
human body located? Ear<br />
5. How many hearts does an octopus<br />
have?3<br />
08 <strong>October</strong> to 14 <strong>October</strong> 2921 | By Manisha Koushik<br />
ARIES (MAR 21-APR 20)<br />
A favour from someone will prove a great<br />
help on the academic front. You may remain<br />
in an upbeat mood, as a family youngster<br />
does well. Positive thoughts will keep the<br />
home environment tranquil and peaceful. By<br />
delegating tasks at work, you will be able to<br />
give attention to other pressing things. You may<br />
lend a helping hand to a relation or neighbour in organising a party<br />
or a get together. You remain fit and energetic in this week. Lucky<br />
No.:22 / Lucky Colour: Turquoise<br />
TAURUS (APR 21-MAY 20)<br />
Expect some positive changes in your life, as<br />
your lucky stars burns bright! A windfall can be<br />
expected by some on the financial front. Figure<br />
and physique that you are trying to achieve is<br />
likely to become a reality with regular workouts.<br />
A professional matter will be resolved in your<br />
favour. Meeting people from different walks of<br />
life is indicated. Lover may resent you not being able to spend<br />
more time with him or her. Take things easy. Lucky No.:11 / Lucky<br />
Colour: Lavender<br />
GEMINI (MAY 21-JUN 21)<br />
This is a good time for you to gain lost ground Some<br />
other avenues of making money may open up for<br />
you. You can expect total support of the family in<br />
a new venture. A luxury item is likely to be bought<br />
soon. Your charm is likely to impress someone of<br />
the opposite gender. A laid back attitude towards<br />
work may put you behind schedule. Impulse buying needs to be<br />
curbed to avoid wasteful expenditure. Some of you may need to<br />
shake a leg to remain fit. Lucky No.: 6 / Lucky Colour: Crimson<br />
CANCER (JUN 22-JUL 20)<br />
YYou will find great solace in spirituality and may<br />
even make changes in your lifestyle on this account.<br />
An uneventful week is foreseen which can lead to<br />
boredom. A domestic situation can have you in an<br />
emotional turmoil. Piled up work may take up a lot<br />
of your time. You can be forced to cater to some<br />
unwanted persons and made to accompany them against your will.<br />
Efforts for improving your financial condition will show positive<br />
signs. Lucky No.:17 / Lucky Colour: Navy Blue<br />
6. Who discovered penicillin? Alexander<br />
Fleming<br />
7. Queen Elizabeth II is the longest<br />
reigning monarch of the UK, followed<br />
by Queen Victoria – but who is third?<br />
George III<br />
8. Which two houses were involved in the<br />
War of the Roses? York, Lancaster<br />
9. Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced,<br />
beheaded, survived – who was Henry<br />
VIII’s last wife? Catherine Parr<br />
10. Which year did the European Union<br />
first introduce the Euro as currency?<br />
1999<br />
11. What is the capital of Bulgaria? Sofia<br />
12. What is the capital of New Zealand?<br />
Wellington<br />
13. Beirut is the capital of which country?<br />
Lebanon<br />
14. What is the capital of Canada? Ottawa<br />
Manisha Koushik is a practicing astrologer, tarot card reader, numerologist, vastu and<br />
fengshui consultant based in India with a global presence through the online channels. She is<br />
available for consultations online as well. E-mail her at support@askmanisha.com or contact<br />
at +91-11-26449898 Mobile/Whatsapp: +91-9716145644 • www.askmanisha.com<br />
LEO (JUL21-AUG 20)<br />
This is a good time to spread your wings on the<br />
professional front. You are likely to find yourself<br />
fit and full of energy in this week. Setting priorities<br />
and working on them will keep you in fine fettle<br />
on the academic front. Budgeting expenses will be<br />
a good idea. You will be much in demand on the<br />
social front. Your friends’ circle is set to expand. Romantic front<br />
appears rosy, as you meet an ideal match. Lucky No.:6 / Lucky<br />
Colour: Rosy Brown<br />
VIRGO (AUG 23-SEP 23)<br />
Things begin to look better now, as you develop<br />
a renewed interest on the academic front. You<br />
will be able to catch up on pending work on the<br />
professional front. Arrears are likely to make your<br />
bank balance healthy. You can surprise lover by<br />
revealing your romantic side. A parent may discourage you from<br />
doing something you are eager on. You can get a good bargain<br />
on property if you are persuasive enough. Remain regular in your<br />
workouts. Lucky No.: 5 / Lucky Colour: Sea Green<br />
LIBRA (SEP 24-OCT 23)<br />
You may have to go along with someone, even<br />
though your heart is not there. A soft approach<br />
in handling a subordinate will go a long way<br />
in encouraging a positive relationship. Support<br />
of other members will help ease the burden of<br />
homemakers. You will be able to find the perfect<br />
excuse for bunking office to be with lover! Some of you are likely<br />
to acquire a new skill. Freelancers will be in great demand. Lucky<br />
No.: 1 / Lucky Colour: Orange<br />
SCORPIO (OCT 24-NOV 22)<br />
Making a new beginning will not be as easy as<br />
it appears, but you will succeed. You will be<br />
able to put across your points effectively on the<br />
professional front. Work demands can force some<br />
to neglect family. Spouse may need your help in an<br />
important matter. An argument with lover cannot be<br />
ruled out; avoid it if you can. Those involved in a<br />
legal case will have to strengthen their position. Health may need<br />
care. Lucky No.:2 / Lucky Colour: Peach<br />
15. Hanoi is the capital of which country?<br />
Vietnam<br />
16. What is the capital of Argentina?<br />
Buenos Aries<br />
17. <strong>The</strong> capital of Iceland is? Reykjavik<br />
18. Slovakia’s capital is? Bratislava<br />
19. What’s the capital of Belgium?<br />
Brussels<br />
20. What is the capital of Brazil? Brasilia<br />
SAGITTARIUS (NOV 23-DEC 21)<br />
Keep your cards close to your chest, as it may<br />
matter on the career front. You are likely to come<br />
into big money of which you have no inkling now.<br />
Your expertise will be much in demand and add to<br />
your reputation at work. You are likely to become<br />
a bundle of energy as you tackle both personal and<br />
professional fronts admirably. Togetherness is likely to strengthen<br />
loving bonds as you devote time to family. Lucky No.:3 / Lucky<br />
Colour: Lemon<br />
CAPRICORN (DEC 22-JAN 21)<br />
You will start enjoying professional life and will<br />
manage to impress all. Academically, you remain<br />
on a safe wicket. You may earn a good amount<br />
by selling something at a competitive price. An<br />
opportunity to be with lover is likely to be availed<br />
by some. You may find spouse in romantic mood<br />
in this week. Advertisers and event managers<br />
will have to churn their creative juices for thinking up something<br />
original. Regular routine will keep you in good health. Lucky No.:<br />
22 / Lucky Colour: Grey<br />
AQUARIUS (JAN 22-FEB 19)<br />
You will be happy for someone, who has achieved<br />
his or her academic dreams. A task undertaken<br />
will be completed successfully. Those living<br />
separately from family can expect a spot of leave.<br />
Promised money is likely to materialise sooner<br />
than expected. Good health is assured, as you take<br />
steps to become fit. Having an enjoyable time<br />
with friends is foreseen in this week. Love pulls at the heart strings<br />
and you are likely to make music together with lover. Lucky No.:6<br />
/ Lucky Colour: Golden Brown<br />
PISCES (FEB 20-MAR 20)<br />
This is the right time to initiate something new at<br />
work. You will be able to distinguish yourself on<br />
the professional front. A difficult task can come<br />
your way, but you will be able to complete it to<br />
the satisfaction of all. Domestic front will offer<br />
peace and tranquility. You can become popular in<br />
your social circle. Those looking for love are likely<br />
to find their soul mate. Repayment of loan will pose no problem.<br />
Lucky No.: 22 / Lucky Colour: Dark Slate Grey
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Indian</strong> <strong>Weekender</strong> Friday, <strong>October</strong> 08, <strong>2021</strong><br />
FEATURES 19<br />
Technology<br />
Google to turn on 2-factor authentication<br />
by default for 150mn users<br />
Google has announced that it is planning<br />
to auto-enroll 150 million users into<br />
the company's "two-step verification"<br />
system by the end of this year.<br />
With 2FA/2SV, when entering the password<br />
to open an app the user will receive a text<br />
message on his/her personal device with a<br />
unique one-time code to verify identity and<br />
open the app.<br />
"By the end of <strong>2021</strong>, we plan to auto-enroll<br />
an additional 150 million Google users in 2SV<br />
and require 2 million YouTube creators to turn<br />
it on," the company said in a blog post.<br />
Google says that two-step verification is<br />
"one of the most reliable ways to prevent<br />
unauthorised access to accounts and networks."<br />
<strong>The</strong> search engine giant originally introduced<br />
its effort to auto-enroll users into the two-factor<br />
authentication system back in May.<br />
iOS device owners can use Chrome to<br />
autofill saved passwords in their other apps as<br />
well, and Google says they will soon be able<br />
to use Chrome's password generation tool for<br />
any iOS app.<br />
"We also recognise that today's 2SV options<br />
aren't suitable for everyone, so we are working<br />
on technologies that provide a convenient,<br />
secure authentication experience and reduce<br />
the reliance on passwords in the long-term," the<br />
firm noted.<br />
In addition, Google has also shared the details<br />
of its Inactive Account Manager, which aims to<br />
better protect digital accounts after people stop<br />
using them.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Inactive Account Manager, available<br />
under My Account settings, allow users<br />
determine when an account should be<br />
considered inactive, whom to notify and what<br />
to share when an account is inactive.<br />
Twitch confirms massive data breach<br />
Game-streaming platform Twitch has<br />
appear to show payments made from August<br />
been the victim of a leak, reportedly<br />
or September 2019 to <strong>October</strong> <strong>2021</strong>.<br />
divulging confidential company<br />
Some versions shared online point to well<br />
information and streamers' earnings.<br />
More than 100GB of data was posted online<br />
on Wednesday. <strong>The</strong> documents appear to show<br />
Twitch's top streamers each made millions<br />
of dollars from the Amazon-owned company<br />
in the past two years. Twitch confirmed the<br />
breach and said it was "working with urgency"<br />
to understand the extent of it.<br />
In a statement posted on Twitter, the<br />
company said it would "update the community<br />
as soon as additional information is available".<br />
known streamers, including Dungeons &<br />
Dragons channel CriticalRole, Canadian xQC<br />
and American Summit1g, as being among the<br />
top earners.<br />
But the list of payments, apparently from<br />
Twitch itself, is unlikely to include sponsorship<br />
deals and other off-platform activities - or<br />
account for tax paid on income.<br />
And many, if not all, of these top streamers<br />
are effectively large-scale media operations,<br />
with their own employees and business<br />
Fortnite streamer BBG Calc told<br />
expenses - so the numbers do not represent<br />
BBC News: "<strong>The</strong> earnings list got my<br />
figure 100% correct."<br />
"take-home pay" for those listed, even if<br />
genuine.<br />
Another streamer confirmed to the BBC that<br />
their earnings were "accurate" while a third<br />
person closely linked to a high profile player<br />
said the details were "about right".<br />
Those behind the leak also claimed to have<br />
the source code for the video platform itself.<br />
Top earners<br />
<strong>The</strong> documents, shared in online forums,<br />
Google Korea to<br />
comply with new<br />
law on in-app<br />
payments<br />
Google's Korea head said the company<br />
will follow the country's new law<br />
that restricts app store operators from<br />
forcing their in-app payment systems on<br />
developers.<br />
In August, South Korea's National Assembly<br />
amended the Telecommunications Business<br />
Act barring app market operators from forcing<br />
certain payment systems on mobile content<br />
businesses by abusing their market positions.<br />
App store giants Google and Apple have<br />
been enforcing their own proprietary systems,<br />
which take commissions of up to 30 per cent<br />
from many developers, who have complained<br />
of high fees.<br />
Kim Kyung-hoon, the country's Director for<br />
Google's local unit, said the company would<br />
follow the new law after repeated questioning<br />
by lawmakers during a parliamentary audit<br />
by the Science, ICT, Broadcasting and<br />
Communications Committee, reports Yonhap<br />
news agency.<br />
"While there are areas that are regretful,<br />
we respect the law," Kim said, affirming the<br />
company will change its business model.<br />
In September, the country's<br />
telecommunications regulator said it will<br />
receive specific plans from app market<br />
operators on how they plan to abide by the new<br />
law and will also meet with app developers to<br />
discuss their grievances.
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