First India-Ahmedabad Edition-05 November 2020

SECOND BATCH OF RAFALE ARRIVES The second batch of Rafale jets comprising of four units arrived in India on Wednesday, the Air Force tweeted in the evening.

The jets had covered the 7000odd km flying non-stop from France, the IAF had posted.

OUR EDITIONS: JAIPUR & AHMEDABAD

18°C - 34°C

AHMEDABAD l THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2020 l Pages 12 l 3.00 RNI NO. GUJENG/2019/16208 l Vol 1 l Issue No. 341

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WORLD WATCHES AS TRUMP, BIDEN HEAD FOR A PHOTO FINISH

The outcome now hinge on the results from six swing states where a winner was not yet declared till late night - Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin Washington: Americans woke up on Wednesday not knowing who the next US president would be as votes were still being counted in six key states that could swing the bitterly contested election to Republican incumbent Donald Trump or Democrat Joe Biden.

Fueling fears of a constitutional crisis, Trump prematurely declared victory overnight and threatened to demand the intervention of the Supreme Court to stop votecounting but it continued nonetheless.

“We did win this election,” the 74-year-old president told cheering supporters in the East Room of the White House before the final vote tallies were complete. “This is a fraud on the American public.”

The Biden campaign slammed Trump’s victory claim as “outrageous, unprecedented, and incorrect” and a “naked effort to take away the democratic rights of American citizens.”

“The counting will not stop. It will continue until every duly cast vote is counted,” it said.

Turn to P6

TRUMP DECLARES FALSE VICTORY, GETS SLAMMED BY BIDEN CAMP US President Donald Trump falsely declared victory over Democratic rival Joe Biden early Wednesday with millions of votes still uncounted in a tight race for the White House. Shortly after Biden said he was confident of his win and warned that the counting “could take a while”, Trump appeared at the White House to claim victory and said he would go to the Supreme Court.

Biden camp slammed Trump on announcement

TRUMP ACCUSES BIDEN CAMP OF FRAUD, SAYS WILL MOVE SC US President Donald Trump accused the Joe Biden campaign of election fraud and said he would move the US Supreme Court. Addressing the nation at a little past 2 am on Wednesday local time, Trump said, “We want all voting (read counting) to stop.

The Biden campaign had committed a fraud on the American public. The results have been phenomenal.”

We were going to win this election. Frankly, we did win… Our goal is to ensure the integrity for the good of the country. We want the law to be used in a proper manner. I want to thank the American people for their tremendous support

The counting will not stop. It will continue until every duly cast vote is counted. If president makes good on his threat to go to court to try to prevent proper tabulation of votes, we have legal teams standing by ready to deploy to resist that effort.

Donald Trump, Republican incumbent

Joe Biden, Democrat candidate

Republic TV editor Arnab sent to 14-day I&B ministry constitutes panel judicial custody in suicide abetment case to review TV ratings system Also, FIR against Goswami, wife, son and two others for allegedly assaulting a woman police official during his arrest Mumbai: Republic TV editor Arnab Goswami was arrested by Raigad police on Wednesday in connection with abetment to suicide case filed against him and two others in 2018.

Goswami and two others were sent to 14-day judicial custody by the court late on Wednesday night.

During hearing at a

court in Alibaug, Goswami said he was assaulted by police and sustained injuries on his hand and back.

The magistrate instructed police to take him to a civil surgeon and produce him again following a second medical examination. Earlier in the day, visuals flashed on Republic TV Turn to P6

Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami steps out after hearing from Alibaug court in police van, on Wednesday.

AMIT SHAH @AMIT SHAH Congress and its allies have shamed democracy once again. Blatant misuse of state power against Republic TV & Arnab Goswami is an attack on individual freedom and the 4th pillar of democracy.

It reminds us of the Emergency. This attack on free press must be and WILL BE OPPOSED.

New Delhi: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting headed by Prakash Javadekar ordered the constitution of a committee today to review guidelines on “television rating agencies” in India, ANI reported.

The committee will be headed by Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati.

The panel has been asked to make recommendations for “a robust, transparent and accountable rating system” through changes, if any, in the existing guidelines.

“Based on the operation of the guidelines

I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar

for a few years, there is a need to have a fresh look on the guidelines particularly keeping in view the recent recommendations of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), technological advancements/ inventions to address

the system and further strengthening of the procedures for a credible and transparent rating system, a committee is hereby constituted to study the different aspects of television rating system in India as they have evolved over a period of time,” the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said in a notification.

It said that the committee shall carry out an appraisal of the existing system, examine TRAI recommendations notified from time to time, overall industry scenario Turn to P6

Boiler blast in illegal chemical factory claims 12 in A’bad PM tweets condolences, CM announces ex gratia amount of Rs4 lakh for each of the deceased First India Bureau Ahmedabad: A dozen people--seven men and five women--were killed and 10 injured after a boiler exploded at an illegal chemical factory in Ahmedabad’s Piplaj area on Wednesday.

Prime Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Vijay Rupani were among the national and local

leaders who took to Twitter to express their grief over the loss of life.

Some of the victims of Wednesdays’ incident at a nearby textile godown, which caught fire after the boiler blast at Sahil Enterprises on Pirana-Piplaj Road in the city. The ensuing fire took 26 fire tenders hours to contain. The

NARENDRA MODI @NARENDRAMODI Anguished by the loss of lives due to a fire in a godown in Ahmedabad. Condolences to the bereaved families.

Prayers with the injured. Authorities are providing all possible assistance to the affected.

VIJAY RUPANI @VIJAYRUPANIBJP Deeply saddened by the news of Ahmedabad fire tragedy.

Instructed officials to do needful. My prayers are with all those affected. May those who have been injured recover at the earliest. I pray for the departed souls. Om Shanti.

Rescue operations continued well into the evening on Wednesday.

—PHOTO BY HANIF SINDHI

textile unit was one of nine in the area to be hit by the blast.

Fire officials estimat-

ed that at least 25 people had been trapped in these nine neighbouring units.

The injured were taken to LG Hospital in Maninagar for treatment.

“All the injured who were received at the hospital were attended by concerned departments, i.e., e general surgery and plastic surgery,” said Dr Saurabh Tripati, superintendent of LG Hosptial.

Ahmedabad’s civic chief Mukesh Kumar visited the hospital as well. Prime Minister Modi tweeted: “Anguished by the loss of lives due Turn to P6

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AHMEDABAD | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2020

02

WORK ON SUDA DEVELOPMENTAL PLAN COMMENCES

First India Bureau

HARDIK PATEL

Surat: After the state government gave the nod to the Surat City Development Plan 2035 recently, the process of demarcating land for developmental projects has commenced.

According to the plan, over 2,613 plots of

land have been marked as residential. These areas will be developed in accordance with a proper town planning layout. A consultant has also been appointed for the town planning input. The Surat Urban Development Authority (SUDA) will pay Rs1,750 per hectare for plotting

and measuring around 2,613 hectares of land.

Therefore, a total of Rs45.72 lakh will be invested for the demarcation of different plots in the urban development plan. The proposal for the developmental plan was passed by the Surat civic body standing committee.

CALLS OUT STATE LEADERS ON Shankar Chaudhary REACTION TO ARNAB ARREST re-elected as chairman

Cong working prez recalls his own ‘mistreatment’ at the hands of the BJP govt First India Bureau Ahmedabad: The Congress party’s working president Hardik Patel was quick to shoot back at leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Par ty--including Chief Minister Vijay Rupani--who compared Wednesday’s arrest of TV journalist Arnab Goswami with the Emergency of 1975.

Social media had been flooded with criticism of the Maharashtra government after the Mumbai police arrested Goswami, the owner and editor-inchief of a private news channel, in connection with a 2018 suicide case. Many have called the arrest an attack on the freedom of the media.

In a tweet, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said that the Maharashtra government’s “attack on Goswami” by using police personnel to “forcibly enter” his house was “reprehensible”.

“The Government of Maharashtra has reminded (us) of the dark days of Indira Gandhi, the Congress which followed the dic-

What freedom of speech are you talking about? In Gujarat, when I was asked for our rights, 32 cases were registered against me. I cannot enter Mehsana district, nor can I travel outside Gujarat. Is this not an act of revenge? What about my right to free speech?

—Hardik Patel, working president, Gujarat Congress

tatorship is the same as it was in 1975,” the tweet added.

The Patidar leader countered this by asking, “What freedom of speech are you talking about? In Gujarat, when I was asked for our rights, 32 cases were registered against me. I cannot enter Mehsana district,

nor can I travel outside Gujarat. Is this not an act of revenge? What about my right to free speech?”

He further said that BJP leaders were only concerned with freedom of expression when it came to nonBJP governments.

“They do not utter a single word when the

same happens in BJPrun government, are they feared? You are discriminating and we are being victimized,” he added.

CR Patil, BJP state president had also condemned Goswami’s arrest. “The Maharashtra government attacked Arnab Goswami by sending police to his home.

The Congress, which is part of the government, has been curtailing the rights of journalists for years.

I condemn this act,” he said.

It is to be noted that Dhaval Patel, the editor of a web portal, was arrested in Gujarat and charged with sedition after he wrote a speculative story regarding the change of guard in the state. Goswami has been arrested in a 2018 case in which an architect killed himself and his mother over alleged non-payment of dues

by Goswami’s Republic TV.

The Government of Maharashtra has reminded (us) of the dark days of Indira Gandhi, the Congress which followed the dictatorship is the same as it was in 1975.

—Vijay Rupani, Gujarat Chief Minister

of Banas Dairy board

Banas Chairman Shankar Chaudhary inaugurating a new plant.

First India Bureau Palanpur: The board of directors at the Banaskantha District Milk Producers Union Ltd (Banas Dairy) has unanimously elected Shankar Chaudhary as chairman and Bhavabhai Rabari as vice-chairman. In an interesting twist, Chaudhary’s nomination for the post came from his political arch-rival and Banaskantha Lok Sabha member Parbat Patel.

For a while, there had been rumours that Patel might throw his hat

Bhavabhai Rabari named vice-chairman of Banaskantha District Milk Producers’ Board into the ring. However, he abided by the party line and supported Chaudhary. The other important aspect of this election is that the BJP-leaning panel had a clear majority to control the board and so-unlike in the case of Amul and Sumul--the state government did not appoint its own nominees on board.

—FILE PHOTO

On October 07, all 16 directors including Patel were confirmed to the board uncontested.

Two other major developments stand out in this election: outgoing vice-chairman Mavji Desai did not contest and former Banas Dairy chairman Parthi Bhator withdrew his candidature for the director's post.

By winning this election, Chaudhary has sent a direct message of strength to those within the party in Banaskantha and Patan district that he cannot be underestimated.

By-elections see 60.75% voter turnout First India Bureau

A wheelchair-bound voter gets his hands disinfected before casting his vote in the state byelections, on Tuesday.

—FILE PHOTO

Gandhinagar: The turnout for the state legislative assembly by-elections held in eight constituencies across the state was 60.75%, as per data released by the State Election Commission on Wednesday.

The highest voter turnout of 77.50% was witnessed in Kaprada followed by Dang

(75.01%), Karjan (70.01%), Abdasa (61.82%), Limdi (58.01%), Morbi (52.32%), Gadhada (50.76%) and Dhari (45.79%).

In the 2017 general elections of the state assembly, the combined turnout of these constituencies was 68.75%. Conventionally, by-elections register lower voter turnouts as compared

The final tally was shared by the state election commission on Wednesday to general elections.

However, the turnout in Dang this by-election is two percent higher than the 2017 general elections.

Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic and the

precautions in place for the safety of voters, polling time was extended by two hours for the by-election. The usual timing for voting falls between 8 am and 5 pm but, it was kept open from 7 am to 6 pm. Each voter was offered sanitizer, hand wash and also polyethylene gloves and masks (if not wearing it already) prior to casting their vote.

Notably, all eight

constituencies which conducted bypolls on Tuesday were previously held by Congress MLAs. The byelections were necessitated due to resignations of eight incumbent MLAs, five of whom contested in the bypolls from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The counting of votes will take place on November 10.

GUJARAT AHMEDABAD | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2020

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PIL opposes postponement of civic body & panchayat polls

Petition asks that the High Court quash state election commission’s notification

First India Bureau Ahmedabad: A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the state election commission’s decision to postpone general elections of six municipal corporations, 55 nagarpalikas, 31 district panchayat, 231 taluka panchayats, elections slated to be held in November has been moved in the Gujarat High Court.

The petitioner Sneh Bhavsar through advocate KR Koshti has pleaded the court to direct the state election commission to conduct civic body and panchayat polls at the earliest. “The court should hold the notification issued by the state election commission (EC) as ultra vires to the Constitution. It should set aside and quash the notification,” stated the petition.

Bhavsar’s submission is that the notification postponing elections is “illegal, unreasonable, incompetent and ultra vires to the Constitution of India. It violates article 243-U of the Consti-

tution. The notification is an abuse of power by the state election commission.”

The petition also mentioned that the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the state election commission had the same powers, duties and obligations to conduct, free and fair and unbiased elections. The petitioner further stated that the ECI has gone ahead to conduct elections of legislative assembly and Lok Sabha in the state of Bihar as well as other parts of the

IN-PERSON HEARINGS FROM NOV 23

nation. It questioned the commission’s logic not to hold elections that are due under the constitutional mandate in the state.

The petition also drew the attention of the court to the COVID-19 situation in Bihar

as compared to Gujarat. As per official data, COVID-19 cases in Bihar outnumber the ones reported in Gujarat. Therefore, the PIL asked for grounds to delay civic body and panchayat elections in the state and termed

the move untenable and unreasonable.

It is to be remembered that, announcing the postponement, the secretary of the Election Commission Mahesh Joshi had said: “After assessing the spike in COVID-19 in the state, the commission has decided to postpone the election by three months. The situation will be assessed again in January and then the commission will take a final call on whether to hold elections or to postpone them further.”

03

Seaplane to fly 5 days a week, to get two-day maintenance break First India Bureau Ahmedabad: The seaplane service launched at the Sabarmati River Front in the city by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 31 is yet to be fully operational for passengers.

A few issues with the online ticket booking for the seaplane have been reported. As announced earlier, the service will only be available for five days a week. The seaplane will be taken off the flying roster for two days each week for maintenance.

No flights will be operated on Wednesdays and Thursdays as mandatory maintenance work on the seaplane

The seaplane touches down in Ahmedabad.

will keep it off the skies. This break in service is imperative for the health of the seaplane since it will be in the water for five consecutive days.

The schedule will remain the same until another seaplane is inducted into the service.

On Tuesday, two round

—FILE PHOTO

trip flights were operated from Ahmedabad to Kevadia. The seaplane was packed with 15 passengers during take-off from the Riverfront. However, upon its arrival from Kevadia, home to the Statue of Unity, it was occupied by only 40% of the seats were empty.

HEARTFELT APPEAL

Like many others across the country, the women of the Grover family in Ahmedabad’s Jodhpur area marked the end of the Karva Chauth fast with the rise of the moon on Wednesday. The stringent fast, during which Hindu women do not eat or drink anything all day, is believed to bring long life and good health to their husbands.

—PHOTO BY HANIF SINDHI

Surat cops ask family en route to Gujarat witnesses 975 fresh nCoV natal UP to bring back man’s body cases, discharges 1,022 patients First India Bureau

First India Bureau

Surat: A man’s dead body was recalled by Surat police on its way to Uttar Pradesh after the circumstances of his death were deemed too suspicious. The family members of the deceased identified as Surendra Yadav, 27, had reached Pavagadh when the police called back the ambulance in which the body was being transported.

According to the police report, Surendra died due to health issues when he was returning home from his workplace on Tuesday. However, his brother Mahen-

Police suspect that the deceased, Surendra Yadav, may have been murdered dra Yadav later revealed that the deceased had an argument with a man called Rakesh before he collapsed.

A resident of Gokul Nagar in Bhatar area, Surendra was married with two kids. While returning home after getting off work, he developed difficulty in breathing. He was rushed to New Civil Hospital where he passed away soon after.

His body was sent for

The body had already been released by the New Civil Hospital.

post-mortem but the police handed over the body to Surendra’s family members after recording their statements prior to the autopsy.

It was only after oncall doctor MC Chau-

han spoke with the family that the information about the argument came to light. When the police were informed about it, officers called the ambulance back to Surat for further investigation into the matter.

Gandhinagar: While the number of new COVID-19 cases continues to remain in the triple-digits, Gujarat on Wednesday witnessed 21 more cases than it did on Tuesday, with 975.

The state also discharged as many as 1,022 patients.

On Wednesday, the state conducted 51,572 tests, which revealed 975 new cases. With this, there are currently 12,389 active cases in the state, with 64 patients on ventilator support. So far, as many as 1,60,470 COVID-19 patients have been discharged in the

975 cases, six fatalities take state tally to 1,76,608 cases, toll to 3,740

The state tested 51,572 samples on Wednesday. —FILE PHOTO

state, taking the state’s recovery rate to 90.86%.

Meanwhile, 3,740 patients have died so far according to government records. It is to be noted that the state’s health department does

not count deaths among comorbid patients as COVID-19 deaths.

Of the six patients who succumbed to the virus on Wednesday, three were from Ahmedabad, two in Su-

rat and one in Vadodara.

The highest number of new cases emerged in Surat, followed by Ahmedabad (173). Other cases also emerged in Rajkot (85), Vadodara (111), Mehsana (32), Banaskantha (30), Patan (25), Gandhinagar (39), Jamnagar (16), Narmada (15), Bhavnagar (17), Junagadh (20), Anand (13), Kutch (13), Amreli (13), Aravalli (12), Dahod (12) and Jamnagar (11), among others.

STAYING PUT

‘Do not shift endangered Asiatic lions from Guj to other states’ 

Conservation body, the Save Asiatic Lions Association, has opposed the state government’s proposed plan of moving the big cats across the border to new homes

First India Bureau Gandhinagar: It may not have been officially announced yet, but the state government plans to move a few Asiatic lions to other locations in the country. Opposing the move, the Save Asiatic Lions Association has questioned the state government as well as the state forest department’s capabilities to protect and preserve a few hundred lions inhabiting the state.

They also threatened to launch an agitation if the

government follows through on the move.

Association president Mayank Bhatt and other office-bearers have submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Vijay Rupani to expressed dissent over the transportation of Asiatic lions to anywhere away from the state. In its memo, the association has raised concern about relocating the lions to other states and the subsequent fallout from that.

It also stated that if the big cats are indeed shifted elsewhere, the competency of the state

The lion population in Gujarat has grown manifold from the depleted state it was about a century ago.

forest department as well as the state government would be called into question.

The association also reminded the state that if it is considering relocating the lions due to genetic diversity issues then it should take into consideration the research conducted by scientist Paul Joslin between 1968-71. In his research, Joslin stated, “Analysis of lion feces collected throughout the sanctuary (Gir Forest) showed that about 75% of a lion’s diet was domestic stock, reflecting its great availability. The

study of several hundred kills of domestic stock revealed that catching prey and feeding was difficult. At night, lions ate nothing from 41% of the domestic animals they killed, largely because they were driven away after making kills inside villages.”

The lions of Gir Forest have proved that genetic diversity is essential for the big cats since in-breeding can threaten the existence of the breed. But, over the years, the lion population in Gujarat has grown manifold since the 1900s.

PERSPECTIVE AHMEDABAD | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2020

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IN-DEPTH

TRUMP-BIDEN IN NECK AND NECK ELECTORAL BATTLE

04

COVID-19 PUSHED INDIAN ECONOMY INTO A TAILSPIN

U

S presidential elections are going right down to the wire. Such a nail-biting finish was not expected as pollsters predicted a cakewalk for the Democrats, and that is not happening. Democratic challenger Joe Biden leads 233-213 but has a long way to go for the required 270 electoral votes to be declared a winner. Biden had also polled more popular votes than Trump. As the tabulation of votes from several states still not over, the results can go either way. President Donald Trump, in an unprecedented move, claimed victory even as the counting of votes was yet to be completed makes his intention of not conceding defeat obvious. Biden, on the other hand, asked his voters to be patient. Trump has also threatened to stop counting of votes alleging, without any basis, fraud. His tweet on the issue said, “Last night I was leading, often solidly, in many key States, in almost all instances Democrat-run and controlled.

Then, one by one, they started to magically disappear as surprise ballot dumps were counted. VERY STRANGE, and the ‘pollsters’ got it completely and historically wrong.”

States of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania remain contentious. Trump won these states from Hillary Clinton in 2016 but Biden had a narrow lead in the first two, while Trump was ahead in Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, and Michigan. With mail-in ballots yet to be counted the outcome remains unclear. Biden camp is optimistic about winning these postal ballots. A diffident Trump has already threatened to move the US Supreme Court to stop counting of ballots received after Election Day. Biden’s camp said it will thwart any efforts by Trump’s campaign to go to the Supreme Court to prevent counting. Who’ll be the next President of America thus remains difficult to predict. Other states which will decide the fate of the candidates include Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Maine, Nevada, and North Carolina.

Biden needs to win Nevada and Wisconsin, while Trump’s victory in Pennsylvania will make his journey to the White House easier.

Bookies, meanwhile, are putting their money on Biden expecting him to make it even without Pennsylvania.

Donald Trump has been one of the most controversial and divisive Presidents America has had. From backing white supremacists’ show of strength to condemning Blacks, the hotel developer has divided American society like never before in the recent past.

He has been accused of being a serial liar and his fake news narrative. His dismissive stand on Covid-19 and mask-wearing despite the high number of casualties caused immense harm to the people of America.

For India, Trump ensured that relations between the two countries remained close.

Whether in foreign policy or defence, Trump proved to be a dependable ally. If Trump wins, he and Modi will work to further strengthen the existing ties. Joe Biden’s victory may not mean any change in ties.

Y

With GST revenues crossing Rs 1 lakh crore in October, the first time in this fiscal year, it joined the other broad indicators such as higher demand for loans and rise in auto sales in signaling an economic recovery

ear 2020 will go down in history as the year of volatility, divergence, and optimism. Since the economy was unlocked in June 2020, there has been a significant recovery in various macro and high frequency data points. The sharp divergence across various sectors has been the defining characteristic of performance of equity markets, globally.

The essentials, the technology, and the E-commerce businesses were impacted far lesser compared to the financials, metals, infrastructure, and oil & gas businesses. On the contrary, the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in higher revenues and profits and a better outlook for the technology and healthcare sectors. This has become evident from the YTD performance of the healthcare and technology indices, as they’ve gained by 44% and 36% respectively.

On the other hand, the financials space, the most preferred destination of institutional investors and traders over the years has been adversely impacted due to the pandemic with the PSU banks and private banks declining by more than 20% YTD. This resulted in a total wipe out of Bank Nifty’s outperformance of four years over the Nifty 50 index in just the first half of FY21.

INDIA’S FISCAL DEFICIT IN THE FIRST HALF OF FY21 RISES TO 115% OF TARGET The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted into a severe revenue stress for the government as India’s fiscal deficit soared to 115% of the budgeted estimates in the first half of FY21. With a sharp revenue shortfall, the total expenditure of the government has remained close to similar levels witnessed last year as the central government continues its spending activity to defuse the impact of the pandemic by way of a stimulus package.

The difference between government’s total revenue and expenditure stood at Rs 9.13 lakh crore between the start of FY21, i.e., between April and September. In the same period last financial year, the fiscal deficit was at

is mainly attributed to a spike in automobile sales in October.

92.6% of the budget estimates.

The budget estimates and targets are fixed in February (every year) and could undergo a sharp revision this year due to the unforeseen effects of the pandemic. With the government staying firm to its enhanced gross market borrowing of Rs 12 lakh crore for FY21, the fiscal deficit is expected to exceed 8% of the GDP against the initial expectations of 3.5%.

A spike in revenue collections in the second half of the financial year due to pent-up demand, festive sales, and pick-up in broader economy will be a major factor while revising the deficit projections for FY21, sustenance being the key. With 5 months left for the financial year to close,

government’s ambitious and aggressive disinvestment targets will play a major role in helping the fiscal deficit to ease.

ORGANIC GROWTH IN AUTOMOBILE AND CONSUMER DURABLE SALES HELPS IN HIGHER GST COLLECTION With GST revenues crossing Rs 1 lakh crore in October, the first time in this fiscal year, it joined the other broad indicators such as higher demand for loans and rise in auto sales in signaling an economic recovery.

Apart from the higher sales of consumer durables and smartphones during the festive sales of E-Commerce companies, the surge in GST collection

How does it feel to lose the US presidential election?

T

he American public may not find out who wins the presidential election on November 3 or November 4 or even November 5.

But, at some point, we will learn whether Republican Donald Trump is elected to a second term or if Democrat Joe Biden will be the next United States president.

For the winner of the election, the moment of victory brings unbridled joy and acclamation, applause, laughter, hugs and champagne to celebrate the biggest prize in politics.

This is not so for the loser, who must ultimately accept the responsibility for the defeat.

In my book, The Art of the Political Putdown, I tell the story of Thomas Dewey, the Republican presi

dential candidate in 1948, who was heavily favoured to win the election – only to lose to Harry S Truman, the incumbent.

On election night, according to one story, Dewey, the governor of New York, asked his wife, “How will it feel to sleep with the president of the United States?”

“A high honour,” his wife replied, “and quite frankly, darling, I am looking forward to it.”

But Truman won the election. The next day at breakfast, as the story goes, Dewey’s wife said, “Tell me, Tom, am I going to the White House or is Harry coming here tonight?”

A DISAPPOINTING LETDOWN Losing the presidency is a crushing defeat. The incal-

culable hours of giving speeches, campaigning and fundraising came to naught. The candidate feels like they have disap-

pointed the millions of people who believed in them, who contributed to the campaign, who voted for them and who thought

they were going to win.

The pain associated with losing the presidential election remains for a long time. A dozen

years after George McGovern lost the 1972 presidential election in a landslide to Richard Nixon, he was asked how long it had taken for him to recover. “I will let you know when I get there,” McGovern said.

After losing the 2008 presidential election, John McCain said he slept like a baby: “Sleep two hours, wake up and cry.”

In 2016, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton woke up on Election Day ahead in most of the polls and thought she would become the first woman president. By the time the day was over, those hopes had faded, and by early the next morning, when she called her opponent Donald Trump to concede, those hopes had disappeared entirely.

SOURCE: THE CONVERSATION

WILL THIS UPTICK SUSTAIN? With most industry players witnessing a rise in their wholesale dispatches in October mainly on account of festivities, it will be very early to determine whether this will persist in the long term. Moreover, these being factory dispatches to dealers, the exact number of retail sales is difficult to gauge, but with festivals on and around, especially the upcoming Diwali in November, the retail sales are anticipated to be better than expected.

While India’s urban economy continues to remain under pressure, the good purchasing power of India’s rural markets helped a robust rise in sales of automakers. The industry has seen a significant downturn for last 1.5 years and this could well be demand pull /pent-up appetite from purchases that were postponed.

If the positive trend in automobile sales fails to sustain after December, i.e., after the carmakers clear their inventories for the year, the government would prefer to intervene and tweak the much-demanded GST rate levied on automobiles.

Top

TWEET Dharmendra Pradhan @dpradhanbjp PM Shri @narendramodi approves `1810 crore for 210 MW Luhri hydropower project on river Sutlej in Himachal Pradesh. The decision taken in the #cabinet today is a big gift for the people of Himachal ahead of the festive season.

Ravi Shankar Prasad @rsprasad Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have openly attacked @ narendramodi Govt through motivated charges of attack on institutions yet they are completely silent when their own Govt in Maharashtra is blatantly suppressing freedom of Press.

Textbook case of hypocrisy!

Spiritual SPEAK

Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist. —Proverbs 23:4

Vol 1 Issue No. 341 RNI NO. GUJENG/2019/16208. Printed and published by Anita Hada Sangwan on behalf of First Express Publishers. Printed at Bhaskar Printing Planet Survey No.148P, Changodar-Bavla Highway, Tal. Sanand, Dist. Ahmedabad.

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Bihar Polls: In the final phase of the poll, governance, jobs, migration, price rise, education are discussed enthusiastically

Parties put in last attempt to woo voters Patna: With Bihar having entered the final leg of its three-phased assembly poll, political parties are making last-ditch efforts to woo the electorate. The electoral battle has been intense with all major players promising a caring and efficient government as they raise issues such as unemployment, “jungle raj”, migration, COVID-19, price rise, “kamai, dawai, padhai, sinchai” and recent farm laws.

The two key contestants NDA and the RJDled Mahagathbandhan appear to be working to concerted strategies with the ruling alliance talking in detail of the work done by “double-engine” government in the state and Centre and timebound delivery of welfare measures.

Its leaders are reminding people of “jungle raj of previous RJD governments” in rally after rally.

BJP leaders have been alluding to RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav as the “yuvraj” of “jungle raj”. Tejashwi Yadav

Be EVM or Modi Voting Machine, gathbandhan will win: RaGa

Voters stand in a queue to cast their vote.

is the son of former chief minister Lalu Prasad who could not campaign in the elections as he is in jail in connection with animal husbandry scam.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his rallies, has attacked both Tejashwi Yadav and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi as “double Yuvraj”.

Referring to Congress and Samajwadi Party alliance in Uttar Pradesh and joint roadshows held by Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi in the last assembly elections in Uttar

Pradesh, the Prime Minister said that the BJP had successfully met the challenge posed by “double yuvraj” in that state.

The PM has also been giving local flavour to his speeches by speaking a few sentences in regional dialects and mentioning products associated with different places. Abrogation of Article 370, law against instant triple talaq has also found mention in campaign speeches by BJP leaders. The party has also targeted the opposition alleging that some parties wanted to

—PHOTO BY ANI

delay Ayodhya verdict in the Supreme Court.

With Pakistan Minister Fawad Chaudhry admitting his country’s role in Pulwama attack in the National Assembly, BJP leaders have targeted opposition leaders over their past remarks seeking to link the incident with Lok Sabha elections last year.

The BJP leaders have also made it clear that even if the party wins more seats than JD-U, Nitish Kumar will continue to be the chief minister of the alliance if NDA is voted back to power. —ANI

Araria: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday termed the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) as Modi Voting Machine (MVM).

Addressing a rally here, Gandhi said no matter what machine it is, the "gathbandhan (Grand Alliance of the Congress, RJD and Left parties)" will win this time as the youth of Bihar is angry with the present National Democratic

HELPED MIGRANT LABOURERS Gandhi said that Congress helped migrant labourers when the Centre and Bihar governments "committed atrocities" against them during the COVID-19 lockdown. "When lakhs of labourer brothers and sisters were forced to walk back to their homes in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, the Modi and Nitish government were committing atrocities on them," the Congress leader tweeted in Hindi.

Alliance government, he claimed.

"EVM is not EVM, but MVM -- Modi Voting Machine. But, this

time in Bihar, the youth is angry. So be it EVM or MVM, gathbandhan will win," Gandhi said.

TEJASHWI YADAV CONDEMNS ONION HURLING AT NITISH KUMAR Patna: Bihar opposition's chief ministerial candidate, Tejashwi Yadav, today condemned the hurling of onions at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Madhubani during a public meeting, saying there are other forms of protest

to be used in a democracy.

"I condemn the incident. There are other forms of protest in a democracy like voting. This incident should not have occurred. I don't like this as we fight on issues," Mr Yadav said.

On Tuesday, Onions were thrown at Nitish Kumar when he was campaigning in Madhubani for the state election ending Saturday.

The CM’s security personnel formed a shield around him as he continued his speech. —ANI

Bihar deserves recognition for voting amid COVID-19: Yogi

Katihar: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday said that the people of Bihar deserve recognition as they have come out to vote in this election amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The people of Bihar are worthy of recognition that they have come out to vote in this election amid the COVID-19 pandemic. I have come here to especially appeal to you to exercise your franchise in the third phase of Bihar Polls 2020,” he said.

“When the results of Bihar election come on November 10 then RJD and Congress will be defeated. This election is important for us because the country is with PM Narendra Modi to make India a superpower. On the one hand, there are people who engage in nepotism and corruption.

NDA is in front of you,” he added. —ANI

IN THE COURTYARD Ram temple trust seeks designs for museum, gurukul, gaushala SC upset by pending cases against MPs, MLAs earlier this week.

The trust has sought suggestions and designs from people on a voluntary basis who would like to be associated with the temple for facilities like Pushkarni, Yagya Mandapam, Anushthan Mandapam, Kalyan Mandapam and for the celebration of rituals like Ramjanmotsava, Hanuman Jayanti, Ramcharcha, Sita Vivaha. —ANI

Ayodhya: Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust has sought suggestions and ideas to develop a 70acre campus surrounding Ram Temple in Ayodhya. While temple design, the main structure, being built in traditional Nagara style has been designed by specialist consultants, it is for the facilities surrounding the temple for which Teerth Kshet-

ra Trust has sought suggestions. This has been done after the trust members met and deliberated on the progress of temple construction in Ayodhya

Firecracker case: NGT notices to 18 states, UTs

Singh protests Centre’s 'step motherly' behaviour

New Delhi: National Green Tribunal expanded ambit of hearing cases on pollution by use of firecrackers beyond NCR and issued notices to 18 states and Union Territories. They sought response from Andhra, Assam, Bihar, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, HP, J&K, Jharkhand, Karnataka, MP, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Nagaland, TN, Telangana, Uttarakhand and WB.

New Delhi: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Wednesday led a protest of Congress ministers and MLAs from the state, at Jantar Mantar here, to protest the Centre's "step-motherly treatment" towards it including the continued suspension of Railway goods trains and the nonpayment of GST dues to the state.

Launching a mission

CHHATTISGARH: NEW POLICY FOR INVESTMENT IN STEEL SECTOR Raipur: Chhattisgarh government introduced a new industrial policy to provide a special incentive package for investment in ultramega projects of sponge iron and steel sector.

Region-wise subsidy limit has been increased from 60% to 150% for industries of sponge iron and steel sector and investment incentive of max Rs

500 crore (Rs 1,000 crore for Bastar) will be valid.

The proposed units will have to start production by October 31, 2024, to avail this. Likewise, financial investment incentive will be provided to those new units, which have started commercial production after investing Rs 100 cr in the permanent capital investment fund.

to save farmers of Punjab, the chief minister said that he and other state MLAs had sought to meet President Ram Nath Kovind to bring attention to the challenges Punjab was facing.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday expressed dissatisfaction with cases against legislators and lawmakers remaining pending before courts for long periods of time across the country.

A bench of the apex court, headed by Justice NV Ramana, expressed discontent after being apprised by a lawyer representing the Calcutta High Court that a case as old as more than 35 years is pending against a former legislature in the state of West Bengal.

The top court was hearing a public interest litigation, filed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, seeking orders for expediting criminal cases and setting up special courts to deal with pending cases against sitting and former MPs and MLAs. Earlier in September, the Supreme

DRDO TESTFIRES ADVANCED VERSION OF PINAKA ROCKETS Balasore: An advanced version of the DRDOdeveloped Pinaka rocket was successfully flight tested from Integrated Test Range, Chandipur off the coast of Odisha on Wednesday. A total of six rockets were launched in series. “All the flight articles were tracked by range instruments such as telemetry, radar and Electro-Optical Tracking Systems which confirmed flight performance,” DRDO officials said. The Enhanced version of Pinaka rocket would replace the existing Pinaka Mk-I rockets which are currently under production.

YES BANK CASE: BOMBAY HC REJECTS BAIL PLEAS OF WADHAWANS

Court had asked the Chief Justices of High Courts across the country to head special benches to hear long-pending criminal cases against sitting and former lawmakers. The order had come after the top court was informed that over 4,400 criminal trials against sitting and former lawmakers are pending before courts. —ANI

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday rejected the bail pleas filed by Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan, promoters of Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL), in the Yes Bank fraud case.

A single bench presided over by Justice SV Kotwal had reserved his order on their bail pleas on October 23. The Wadhawan brothers had approached the high court, seeking default bail, claiming

that CBI, the prosecuting agency in the case, had not complied with the procedural requirements under the Code of Criminal Procedure while filing the chargesheet before the special CBI court.

Senior advocate Amit Desai, who appeared for the Wadhawans, had argued that CBI had not complied with the procedure under Section 173 CrPC while submitting its investigation report. —ANI

SSR DEATH CASE: OVER 1L SUSPICIOUS TWITTER ACCOUNTS FOUND Mumbai: A team of cyber experts have found over 1.5 lakh Twitter accounts, almost 80 per cent of which were suspicious in nature as they were majorly making negative tweets/retweets and

comments against the Maharashtra government and Mumbai Police, in connection with actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death case, said state police.

Many of the Twitter accounts, used to spread defamatory

JDU MLC’S PRIMARY MEMBERSHIP SUSPENDED FOR AIDING DAUGHTER Patna: The Janta DalUnited (JDU) has expelled its Member of Legislative Council (MLC) Dinesh Prasad Singh with immediate effect on the charges of helping his daughter and LJP candidate Komal Singh campaign in Gaighat assembly constituency of Muzaffarpur district. Dinesh Prasad Singh, who is also

the husband of the LJP’s Vaishali MP Veena Singh, is facing charges of pressurizing JDU workers in Gaighat constituency to work for Komal Singh, instead of JDU’s official candidate Maheshwar Prasad Yadav. The party, in a letter, informed him of his suspension from the “primary membership of the party.”

contents over the social media platform were bots, fake accounts operated with the help of bots, and from different countries, the police informed. Rajput was found dead at his residence on June 14. —ANI

SC DEFERS AFTER VACATION PLEA AGAINST PM MODI New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday deferred after Diwali vacation the hearing on former BSF constable Tej Bahadur’s plea filed against the election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi constituency in Uttar Pradesh.

A bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad Arvind Bobde, deferred the hearing after allowing the Centre’s appeal for adjourning the case after Diwali vacation. “We will hear it after Diwali vacation,” the bench led

by CJI Bobde said.

Bahadur, who was dismissed from service after he released a video in 2017 complaining about the quality of food served to soldiers, had moved the plea challenging the election of PM Narendra Modi from Varanasi constituency in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. —ANI

KERALA CABINET REVOKES GENERAL CONSENT FOR CBI Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala, another non-BJP ruled state, on Wednesday decided to revoke general consent for CBI in the state. In the future, CBI has to seek prior permission from the Kerala Government for registering any case within the state. Earlier on Monday, after the Central investigative agencies started an investigation into gold smuggling, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan for the first time hit hard against the probe agencies alleging that they were acting beyond their jurisdiction causing a threat to federal system.

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RECOVERY RATE OVER 92 PC, CASE FATALITY RATE AT 1.49 PC

Third wave of COVID-19 cases in Delhi: Kejriwal

A health worker collects a nasal sample from a man at the Sadar Bazar market in Delhi on Wednesday.

New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Wednesday informed that the country’s recovery rate reached 92.09 per cent while the case fatality rate stands at 1.49 per cent.

53,357 patients have recovered and discharged in the last 24 hours, taking the overall recoveries to 76,56,478, according to the Union Health Ministry’s release. 80 per cent of the new recovered cases are observed to be concentrated in 10 States and Union Territories. Kerala is leading with more than 8,000 single day recoveries followed by Karnataka with more than 7,000 recoveries.

On Wednesday, India’s

60% PRE-COVID DOMESTIC FLIGHTS

coronavirus tally crossed 83-lakh mark after new 46,254 infections were reported in the past 24 hours. The coronavirus cases in the country continue to decline further but the overall infections reached 83,13,877 including 5,33,787 active cases.

76 per cent of the new confirmed cases are from 10 States and UTs. Kerala and Delhi have contributed the maximum to the new cases with more than 6,000 cases each, the ministry said. 514 case fatalities have been reported in the past 24 hours.

Military reforms: New pension slabs, change in retirement age New Delhi: In a slew of new reforms related to manpower in the armed forces initiated by Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, the retirement age of officers and jawans from technical branches is proposed to be increased.

As part of the initiatives, the Department of Military Affairs under General Bipin Rawat has also proposed that in order to retain highly-skilled manpower in the defence forces, pension entitlements of the officers taking premature retirement would be revised.

The proposal envisages enhancing the retirement age of Colonels and equivalents in Air Force and Navy to 57 from the existing 54.

Brigadiers and their equivalents are now proposed to retire at the age of 58 from the existing 56 and they

General Bipin Rawat

would get two additional years. Major Generals would retire at the age of 59 from existing 58. The retirement age of Lieutenant Generals would remain at 60 only and has not been touched.

The retirement age for junior commissioned officers and jawans in logistics, technical and medical branch has been increased to 57 years and this would include the EME, ASC and AOC branches of the Indian Army too.

As per the proposed revision in pension for personnel taking premature retirement, men retiring after 20-25 years service would get 50 per cent of entitled pension while it would be 60 per cent for those retiring after 25-30 years service.

Men retiring after 35 years service would be entitled for their full pension.Sources said there would no revision in pension entitlement for personnel to retire due to battle casualties or medical reasons.

Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

But state election officials cautioned that with tens of thousands of ballots outstanding in some states -- millions in others -- the races could shift.

The tight White House race and recriminations evoked memories of the 2000 election between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore.

The Bush vs Gore race, which rested on a handful of votes in Florida, eventually ended up in the Supreme Court, which halted a recount while Bush was ahead.

A deluge of mail-in ballots because of the coronavirus pandemic has slowed down the vote count in some states this year, several of which only began counting mail-in ballots on Tuesday.

Michigan officials, for example, said they hoped to have all of the votes counted by the end of the day while in Pennsylvania officials said it could be several more days.

New Delhi: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said that the recent surge in coronavirus cases in the national capital can be called the “third wave”.

“There has been a rise in COVID-19 cases.

We can call this the third wave of COVID cases here. From September-October, the cases began to decline.

We are monitoring the situation and will take all necessary actions.

There is no dearth of beds in the hospital and medical infrastructure,” he said. The Chief Minister’s remarks came while he was in Hiranki village to inspect the effectiveness of the bio-decomposing process of converting stubble to fertilizer.

“In all farm fields in Delhi, we sprinkled bio decomposer chemical

by PUSA Institute on October 13. Now today

Arvind Kejriwal

all stubble converted into fertilizer. Delhi has given a solution for stubble burning. I hope this would be the last year when we are tolerating air pollution,” Kejriwal said.

“Farmers don’t want to burn stubble. We will also inform the Supreme Court about it.

The state governments should also adopt this solution. In Delhi, it took only Rs 20 lakhs to sprinkle this solution,” he said. The Chief Minister said that a decision regarding the use and sale of firecrackers will be taken soon.

‘Central govt undermining federalism’ New Delhi: Former Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on Wednesday alleged that by introducing the new farm legislation, the central govt was undermining federalism and suppressing the voice of the elected MLAs of Punjab.

Addressing a dharna

by CM Amarinder Singh and Congress MLAs against the Centre’s farm laws at Jantar Mantar in the national capital, he said people of the state will not tolerate any attack on their “pride and turbans”.

“Those who talk of ‘one nation, one market’ are trying to suppress the voice of Punjab and its chief minister. We will not tolerate this.

What justice is this? You are trying to suppress the voice of elected MLAs,” he said.

Sidhu said the central farm laws were “an attack on the federal structure” and against the Constitution of India. Terming the central laws as “black laws”, Navjot Singh Sidhu claimed they are aimed at helping only corporates and not the farmers. “We will not let Ambani and Adani set foot in Punjab and won’t let anyone snatch the rights of farmers,” he said.

MoU between India and Israel on health & medicine

Ram temple trust seeks designs for museum

New Delhi: The Union Cabinet has approved the signing of an MoU between India and Israel for cooperation in the field of health and medicine, according to an official statement issued on Wednesday.

The MoU covers areas of cooperation such as exchange and training of medical doctors.

Ayodhya: Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust has sought suggestions and ideas to develop a 70acre campus surrounding Ram Temple in Ayodhya. While temple design, the main structure, being built in traditional Nagara style has been designed by specialist consultants,

it is for the facilities surrounding the temple for which Teerth Kshetra Trust has sought suggestions.

The trust has sought suggestions and designs from people on a voluntary basis who would like to be associated with the temple for facilities like Pushkarni, Yagya Mandapam.

REVIEW MEETING

06

POWER Gallery KAUN BANEGA ISRO CHAIRMAN ?

S. Somanath is an Indian aerospace engineer and rocket technologist is seniormost person in the Organisation. Insiders, however, rule out this possibility of his taking over the reigns of the ISRO. IRS OFFICER TO JOIN NDMC

Kunal Kashyap, a 2008 batch IRS(C&CE) officer, is all set to join North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) on deputation basis for one year as Addl.

Dy. Commissioner. Presently he is posted in C & E office in Mumbai.

TENURE OF SAROJ KUMAR SADANGI AS CVO, COAL INDIA EXTENDED

The tenure of Saroj Kumar Sadangi as Chief Vigilance Officer, Coal India Limited (CIL), Kolkata has been extended for a period of one year upto July 31, 2022. He is a 1988 batch IRSS officer.

NP PANDEY GIVEN ADDITIONAL CHARGE OF PED (ACCOUNTS), RB

NP Pandey, Additional Member (Budget), Railway Board, has been assigned additional duty of Principal Executive Director (Accounts), Railway Board. He is an Indian Railway Accounts Service (IRAS) officer.

D C PATWARI PROMOTED TO PRCCIT GRADE

D C Patwari has been promoted to the grade of Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax (PrCCIT) on in-situ basis. He is an IRS-IT officer.

MRS SAROJ DESWAL PROMOTED TO PRCCIT GRADE

Mrs Saroj Deswal has been promoted to the grade of Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax (PrCCIT) on in-situ basis. She is an IRS-IT officer.

FOUR IRS-IT OFFICERS GET NEW POSTINGS

Nitin Gupta has been appointed as Pr. CCIT, Nagpur, while Ms Asha Agarwal was posted as Pr. CCIT (NFAC), Delhi and Sanjay Kumar Bharti is CIT (OSD) in the office of Pr. CCIT, Delhi Region.

Besides, Ms Shefali Singh has been appointed as DCIT(OSD), TPL Division, CBDT. R RAMAKRISHNAN EMPANELLED AS JOINT SECRETARY IN GOI

R Ramakrishnan has been empanelled for holding the Joint Secretary and equivalent posts in Government of India. He is a 1998 batch IAS officer of Nagaland cadre.

MS MANISHA SINHA EMPANELLED AS JOINT SECRETARY IN GOI

Ms Manisha Sinha has been empanelled for holding the Joint Secretary and equivalent posts in Government of India. She is a 1992 batch officer of Indian Postal Service.

MS DEEPIAK KACHHAL EMPANELLED AS JOINT SECRETARY IN GOI

Ms Deepika Kachhal has been empanelled for holding the Joint Secretary and equivalent posts in Government of India. She is a 1994 batch IIS officer.

MANJUNATH BHAJANTRI RETURNS TO PARENT CADRE

Manjunath Bhajantri, Private Secretary to former Minister of State for Railways, has been given premature repatriation to his parent cadre. He is a 2011 batch IAS officer of Jharkhand cadre.

SATYENDRA GARG RETURNS TO PARENT CADRE

Satyendra Garg, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), has returned to his parent cadre on completion of central deputation. He is a 1987 batch IPS officer of AGMUT cadre.

IAS Dr Navneet Sehgal held a review meeting of ODOP programme with Additional Chief Secretary, MSME and Departmental Officers of Export Promotion and instructed them to promote atleast one district and one product.

By arrangement with: http:// whispersinthecorridors.com

FROM PG 1 World watches...

“If the president makes good on his threat to go to court to try to prevent the proper tabulation of votes, we have legal teams standing by ready to deploy to resist that effort.”

The outcome appeared to hinge on the results from six states where a winner has not yet been declared -Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

As of 9:00 am (1400 GMT), Biden had a slim lead in Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin while Trump was ahead in

Republic TV... showed Goswami being forced into a police van.

Later, a fresh FIR was registered by Mumbai

Police against Goswami, his wife, son and two others for allegedly assaulting a woman police official during his arrest.

Meanwhile, News Broadcasters Federation (NBF) wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to take notice of harassment of journalists by the hands of local police.

In 2018, an architect and his mother died by suicide over alleged non-payment of dues by Goswami’s Republic TV, a police official said.

In a release, RepublicTV said “Arnab

Goswami’s arrest in the related suicide case has been made as part of a larger vindictive exercise against an independent journalist and an independent news organisation.” The release said the “Anvay Naik suicide case was investigated and closed by a court of law after a closure report by the police noted that no case was made out in April 2019.”

I&B ministry... and addressing the needs of the stakeholders and make recommendations for a robust, transparent and accountable rating system

through changes, if any, in the existing guidelines.

The Centre’s move comes following a row over an alleged TRP scam. The Mumbai Police recently claimed to have busted the Television Rating Points (TRP) scam and arrested at least five people, including news channel employees, in this connection.

As the controversy surrounding the alleged scam grew, the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), which provides TRP data, announced a temporary suspension of weekly

ratings of news channels across languages.

Boiler blast... to a fire in a godown in Ahmedabad.

Condolences to the bereaved families. Prayers with the injured. Authorities are providing all possible assistance to the affected.”

About an hour later, CM Rupani tweeted: Deeply saddened by the news of Ahmedabad fire tragedy. Instructed officials to do needful. My prayers are with all those affected. May those who have been injured recover at the earliest. I pray for the de-

parted souls. Om Shanti.

Meanwhile, the official Twitter handle of the CMO announced an ex-gratia amount of Rs4 lakh to the families of each victim of the mishap and said that the state had deputed two senior officials to investigate the tragedy.”

By evening, an NDRF team also arrived to aid in the rescue operations.

Police sources said the fire took place in the Nanubhai Chemicals estate. The property is believed to belong to Batabhai Bharwad, who had rented the property out to Sahil Enterprises.

TALKING POINT

07

tell REAL FAKE? AHMEDABAD | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2020

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Can you

m o fr

3.2 BILLION IMAGES AND 720,000 HOURS OF VIDEO ARE SHARED ONLINE DAILY. WHEN FACED WITH SUCH A GLUT OF CONTENT, HOW CAN WE KNOW WHAT’S REAL AND WHAT’S NOT?

T

witter over the w e e ke n d “tagged” as manipulated a video showing US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden supposedly forgetting which state he’s in while addressing a crowd. Biden’s “hello Minnesota” greeting contrasted with prominent signage reading “Tampa, Florida” and “Text FL to 30330”.

The Associated Press’s fact check confirmed the signs were added digitally and the original footage was indeed from a Minnesota rally. But by the time the misleading video was removed it already

FULLY & PARTIALLY SYNTHETIC CONTENT CAN BE VERY REALISTIC

had more than one million views, The Guardian reports.

If you use social media, the chances are you see (and forward) some of the more than 3.2 billion images and 720,000 hours of video shared daily. When faced with such a glut of content, how can we know what’s real and what’s not?

While one part of the solution is an increased use of content verification tools, it’s equally important we all boost our digital media literacy. Ultimately, one of the best lines of defence — and the only one you can control — is you.

O

nline, you’ll also find sophisticated “deepfake” videos showing (usually famous) people saying or doing things they never did. Less advanced versions can be created using apps such as Zao and Reface.

A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology created a fake video showing US President Richard Nixon reading lines from a speech crafted in case the 1969 moon landing failed.

Or, if you don’t want to use your photo for a profile picture, you can default to one of several websites offering hundreds of thousands of AI-generated, photorealistic images of people, like these on the right.

SEEING SHOULDN’T ALWAYS BE THE SAME THING AS BELIEVING

M

i s i n fo r m at i o n (when you accidentally share false content) and disinformation (when you intentionally share it) in any medium can erode trust in civil institutions such as news organisations, coalitions and social movements.

However, fake photos and videos are often the most potent.

For those with a vested political interest, creating, sharing and/or editing false

C

images can distract, confuse and manipulate viewers to sow discord and uncertainty (especially in already polarised environments). Posters and platforms can also make money from the sharing of fake, sensationalist content.

Only 11-25% of journalists globally use social media content verification tools, according to the International Centre for Journalists.

2009

WILDFIRE

TOOLS FOR DEBUNKING DIGITAL FAKERY

COULD YOU SPOT A DOCTORED IMAGE?

onsider photo (MLK-1) of Martin Luther King Jr. This altered image clones part of the background over King Jr’s finger, so it looks like he’s flipping off the camera.

It has been shared as genuine on Twitter, Reddit and white supremacist websites.

In the original 1964 photo, King flashed the “V for victory” (MLK-2) sign after learning the US Senate had passed the civil rights bill.

Beyond adding or removing elements, there’s a whole category of photo manipulation in which images are fused together.

Earlier this year, a photo of an armed man (Image: Fox-1) was photoshopped by Fox News, which overlaid the man onto other scenes without disclosing the edits, the Seattle Times reported.

Similarly, the image below was shared thousands of times on social media in January, during Australia’s

MLK-1

or those of us who Fduped don’t want to be by visual mis/

MLK-2

disinformation, there are tools available — although each comes with its own limitations (something we discuss in our recent paper).

Invisible digital watermarking has been proposed as a solution. However, it isn’t widespread and requires buy-in from both content publishers and

distributors.

Reverse image search (such as Google’s) is often free and can be helpful for identifying earlier, potentially more authentic copies of images online. That said, it’s not foolproof because it:  l relies on unedited copies of the media already being online  l doesn’t search the entire web  l doesn’t always allow

filtering by publication time. Some reverse image search services such as TinEye support this function, but Google’s doesn’t.  l returns only exact matches or nearmatches, so it’s not thorough. For instance, editing an image and then flipping its orientation can fool Google into thinking it’s an entirely different one.

MOST RELIABLE TOOLS ARE SOPHISTICATED eanwhile, manual M forensic detection methods for visual mis/

Fox-1

Black Summer bushfires (Image: Wildfire). The AFP’s fact check confirmed it is

not authentic and is actually a combination of several separate photos.

disinformation focus mostly on edits visible to the naked eye, or rely on examining features that aren’t included in every image (such as shadows). They’re also time-consuming, expensive and need specialised expertise.

Still, you can access work in this field by visiting sites such as Snopes.com — which has a growing repository of “fauxtography”.

Computer vision and machine learning also offer relatively advanced

detection capabilities for images and videos. But they too require technical expertise to operate and understand.

Moreover, improving them involves using large volumes of “training data”, but the image repositories used for this usually don’t contain the real-world images seen in the news.

If you use an image verification tool such as the REVEAL project’s image verification assistant, you might need an expert to help interpret the results.

The good news, however, is that before

turning to any of the above tools, there are some simple questions you can ask yourself to potentially figure out whether a photo or video on social media is fake. Think:  l was it originally made for social media?  l how widely and for how long was it circulated?  l what responses did it receive?  l who were the intended audiences?

Quite often, the logical conclusions drawn from the answers will be enough to weed out inauthentic visuals.

2017 Views of the crowds at the inaugurations of former US President Barack Obama in 2009 (top) and President Donald Trump in 2017 (bottam).

—AP

EDITING PIXEL VALUES AND THE (NOT SO) SIMPLE CROP

C

Cropping can greatly alter the context of a photo, too.

We saw this in 2017, when a US government employee edited official pictures of Donald Trump’s inauguration to make the crowd appear bigger, according to The Guardian. The staffer cropped out the empty space “where the crowd ended” for a set of pictures for Trump.

(Images: 2009, 2017) But what about edits that only alter

pixel values such as colour, saturation or contrast?

One historical example illustrates the consequences of this. In 1994, Time magazine’s cover of OJ Simpson considerably “darkened” Simpson in his police mugshot. This added fuel to a case already plagued by racial tension, to which the magazine responded: “No racial implication was intended, by Time or by the artist.” (Image: OJ)

OJ

Peace is a choice in our daily lives, so many choose the daily strife of intolerance for inconsequential issues, much better to accept and move on.

2ND FRONT

—Jagdeesh Chandra, CEO & Editor, First India

AHMEDABAD | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2020

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COVID-19 UPDATE

WORLD

INDIA

08

GUJARAT

1,225,309 4,81,73,631 1,24,276 83,59,702 3,740 1,76,608 DEATHS

MAHARASHTRA 44,548 DEATHS 16,98,198 CASES

CONFIRMED CASES

TAMIL NADU 11,244 DEATHS 7,34,429 CASES

DEATHS

CONFIRMED CASES

KARNATAKA 11,281 DEATHS 8,35,773 CASES

DEATHS

DELHI 6,703 DEATHS 4,09,938 CASES

Landmark Order: Indian parties can pick a foreign arbitrator

CONFIRMED CASES

RAJASTHAN 1,945 DEATHS 2,03,990 CASES

Foreign nationals given Aadhar cards for ` 1,500

Guj HC’s far-reaching judgment on contentious issue of foreign/neutral seat of arbitration Shishir Awasthi Ahmedabad: In a farreaching judgment, the Gujarat High Court stated that Indian entities or parties were entitled to choose a seat of arbitration outside India as a foreign or neutral seat and that this was not against public policy of India.

The Tuesday’s order brings an end to a contentious issue of foreign seat and enforcement of its award for a number of contracts.

The court was hearing arbitration petitions filed by GE Power Conversion India against Ahmedabadbased PASL Wind Solutions over a dispute on the purchase of power converters.

It observed that the applications were in context of a foreign award passed by the Arbitral

‘NOTHING ILLEGAL’

Prakash Marviya (left) and Sagar Ranpara were nabbed for making fake Aadhar Cards.

First India Bureau

—FILE PHOTO

Rajkot: Aadhar card has come to represent the identity of any Indian citizen and several documents are needed to get one. But in Rajkot, the home town of Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, even a foreigner can become an Indian by paying Rs 1,500 to get an Aadhar card without producing a single document.

This was revealed

in a sting operation conducted by a vernacular newspaper.

The Rajkot police on Wednesday detained 2 persons who ran their personal ‘Jan Seva Kendra’ on Raiya road. They have been identified as Prakash Marviya and Sagar Ranpara.

Gandhigram police inspector KA Vala told First India that, “Primary interrogation revealed that they have issued over 50 Aadhar cards to for-

the respondents had argued that under the Indian Contract Act, 2 Indian parties cannot designate a seat outside India. “Two Indian parties cannot be allowed to gain advantage simply by designating a seat abroad in an arbitration that otherwise has no other foreign element. If the parties are allowed to

do so, the purpose of the Arbitration Act will be completely defeated,” the respondent’s counsel had argued.

Justice Biren Vaishnav held that an award that is passed in a foreign seat is a foreign award and may be enforced under Part II of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act.

RAY OF HOPE FOR INS VIRAAT’S REINCARNATION

Lower courts to start work on Nov 23

Cong councillor booked for Macron stickers on road

First India Bureau

First India Bureau

First India Bureau

Mumbai: After sitting over it for long, the Union Government has finally stated that it has no objection if a private firm buys over the historical aircraft carrier INS Viraat to convert it into a museum.

This was after the Bombay High Court on Tuesday asked the Centre to decide on a private firm’s request to hand over the decommissioned aircraft carrier so that the ship could be converted into a museum.

The warship has been awaiting dismantling at the Alang shipbreaking yard in Gujarat. The Centre has conveyed its no-objection if

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday announced that physical functioning of Subordinate Courts would start on November 23, except in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat and Rajkot.

According to an official circular, all subordinate courts except courts at district headquarters of Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot and courts in micro containment zones shall start functioning physically with full working strength. The courts shall take up all categories of cases for hearing on all working days.

Ahmedabad: An Ahmedabad Congress councillor and 6 others have been booked for their alleged involvement in pasting around 150 stickers depicting French President Emmanuel Macron on a road in Juhapura area recently, police said on Wednesday.

Macron has been facing criticism from various Muslim- majority countries over a controversy about the depiction of Prophet Muhammad in cartoons.

Congress councillor Haji Mirza of Maktampura ward is among the 7 persons booked under IPC, Epidemic Diseases Act and Prevention of

Tribunal seated in Zurich, Switzerland, on April 18 last year.

In a dispute resolution clause of the settlement agreement, the 2 parties had mentioned that if no settlement could be reached through negotiations, all disputes shall be referred to and finally resolved by Arbitration in Zurich in ac-

Historical warship INS Viraat.

the petitioner bought it from the bidder, who had purchased it for scrapping.

A petition was filed

by Mumbai-based Envitech Marine Consultants seeking a direction to the Union Defence Ministry to allow it to buy Viraat.

Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Anil

cordance with the Rules of Conciliation and Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce.

The foreign arbitrator had granted the petitioner GE Power Conversion India $40,000 or 2.97 crore in legal costs and expenses with accumulated interests from the respondent.

Objecting the award,

—FILE PHOTO

Singh had said the ship was 67 years old and unused since 2015. The Centre had invited proposals from the States, but there was no response. “The ship was occupying a lot of space and hence it was decided to sell it as scrap,” he said.

Gujarat-based Shree Ram Group won the bid.

First India Bureau Seven persons have been booked for pasting anti-Emmanuel Macron posters in Ahmedabad.

—FILE PHOTO

Damage to Public Property Act, after they were found involved in pasting stickers on the surface of a road on November 1. The police had earlier taken 3 persons under preventive arrest after they were caught pasting the stickers.

“Congress councillor Mirza and six others, including the trio held earlier, were found involved in pasting around 150 stickers depicting the French President,” Vejalpur police station inspector L D Odedara said.

Believe it or not, Guj’s 60% sugarcane child labour not paid First India Bureau Surat: Gujarat accounts for the highest number of tribal children migrating to work in sugarcane fields and they are the largest group of unpaid child labourers among 4 major sugarcane-crushing states in the country.

This has been re-

vealed by a report of The Hague-based Global March Against Child Labour published in September, 2020. The child rights organisation undertook a study of sugarcane workers in Gujarat, Maharashtra Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka.

The report says in Gujarat, 59.2% child work-

Maximum number of child workers in sugarcane fields are from Gujarat.

ers are unpaid, followed

by Maharashtra 42.3%, Uttar Pradesh 36.3%

and Karnataka with 24.7%. As against this, Maharashtra accounts

—FILE PHOTO

for the highest, 27.6%, paid child labourers, followed by Uttar Pradesh

Kutchi origin Republican Antani elected to Ohio State Senate

Niraj Antani

SEVERE EXPLOITATION

Gujarat has most child workers in its sugarcane fields and a majority are not paid: Study

eign nationals, mainly Nepalese, and also to some Indians for Rs 1,500 without asking for any documents for proofs. They generated fake documents on behalf of the applicant.”

“There is also the involvement of a third person, who is said to be forging signatures of a corporator of ward number 13 on letters confirming that those in need of Aadhar cards are Indians,” Vala added.

23.7%, Gujarat 21.5% and Karnataka 17.5%.

“All of the child labourers were the children of cane cutters, mainly engaged in activities such as cutting of cane to the ground level; proper cleaning of the cane and binding of cane which is further loaded on trucks, tractors or bullock carts either arranged by the factory, the contractor or the family itself ”, the report says.

The empirical study

is based on an interaction with 1,433 children aged 6 to 18, and 367 children of up to five years in the 4 states. They work in sugarcane fields of 554 sugar mills mainly in South Gujarat under a state-controlled cooperative system, with a few of them also privately owned. They employ more than 0.45 million farmers and cultivators, with the harvesting process entirely dependent on migrant labourers.

Wa s h i n g t o n : America-born Niraj Antani, a 29-year-old Kutchi Gujarati origin Republican has become the first Indian-American to be elected to the Ohio state Senate.

Antani, currently the State Representative, defeated Mark Fogel of the Democratic Party.

A political science graduate, Antani’s parents came to the US in 1987 from Gujarat in India and settled in Washington township. Later, they moved to Miami.

Antani was elected at the age of 23 to the Ohio House of Representatives in 2014, becoming one of the youngest state lawmakers in the US. In 2015, Niraj was added to Forbes Magazine’s list of the top “30 under 30” people in the U.S. for Law.

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09

AHMEDABAD, THURSDAY NOVEMBER 5, 2020

VIRAT FOR

GAJRAJ SINGH BHATI cityfirst@firstindia.co.in

V

irat the Run Machine Kohli, like many of us have heard this chant from the commentary box of every stadium that has witnessed the masterclass of King Kohli. At every venue he played in the country or overseas, each and every inning has turned the heads. If he did not perform as a batsman, he has contributed as a fielder and if he hasn’t contributed in any of this, then he shows his class as the skipper, making the innings worth watching for the audience. The Delhi born cricketer has gained all the international attention in past few years, making it to the pinnacle of almost everything.

Just an ordinary boy who loves cricket, the Virat Kohli show began when he knocked the doors of success in his domestic career which took him right upto the U-19 World Cup Trophy in 2008.

There has been no stopping since then, the way this cricketer has turned himself from an enthusiast to a lover of this sport, the mature and sincerely dedicated person is visible even in the way he reacts to the knicks of cricket.

Every milestone he has imagined, he has achieved and now India awaits and looks forward to King Kohli’s mega show in upcoming World Cup Trophies. As Virat has already raised the bars of fitness in the squad, the team looks pretty well pumped for the coming season.

City First wishes Virat Kohli a very happy birthday as he turns 32 today. Its been a joy to watch the journey, the way this cricketer has turned himself from an enthusiast to a lover of this sport, the mature and sincerely dedicated person is visible even in the way he reacts to the knicks of cricket!

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10

A CONFLUENCE OF

BRILLIANCE ANU JOSHY

cityfirst@firstindia.co.in

F

ootprints on The Sand’, the fascinating autobiography of Rajeeva Ratna Shah, former Member Secretary of the Planning Commission and the most remarkable civil servant of his era, was the central point of the virtual conversation between three brilliant bureaucrats today at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie. The author himself, along with Sanjeev Chopra IAS, Di-

rector of the Academy and Amitabh Kant IAS, CEO of NITI Aayog discussed at length the interesting and diverse career of a civil servant and the challenges and opportunities that greet him or her in that journey.

The autobiography which was launched by none other than the former President Pranab Mukherjee and the former Union Minister Dr Karan Singh stands apart from the other autobiographies by civil servants in that it is a unique mixture of passion, expertise and knowledge written straightforwardly without any pretenses. Several milestones in the life of Rajeeva Ratna Shah finds mention in the book including authoring UID,

which has now become the world’s largest biometric based unique ID programme. National e-Governance programme, bringing private FM Channels for broadcasting in India, establishment of several institutions such as National School of Smart Governance, CERTIN etc are other interesting episodes that makes the book a truly enriching read.

The conversation was steered by interesting questions by Amitabh Kant and Sanjeev Chopra to the author, which went beyond the realms of the book and made for an absolutely intellectually stimulating discussion.

The audience of more than 200 officer trainees at the academy were treated

Rajeeva Ratna Shah

FA CE OF TH ED AY

to a delightful expose on the life that awaits them and also wise words of wisdom that is the product of the long experience of the three eminent experienced bureaucrats. The trio highlighted the importance of never reducing oneself to being mere yes men but to make service the true essence of

YOUR DAY Horoscope by

Saurabbh Sachdeva

ARIES

TAURUS

GEMINI

CANCER

Take care of the elders in the house in terms of covid precautions. You will manage to make efforts to regain lost ground on the professional or academic front.

Those in love will have a reason to smile. A favourable day is foreseen for those in financial doldrums.

A new path will open up for those who want to embark on a long spiritual journey .

Don’t be hasty in a property deal. Someone will project your image on the social front. Love and concern of spouse will be most touching. A delayed payment may finally be realised.

Making money on the side is possible for those in full time jobs. Exceptional earning is foreseen today for some professionals. Improvement in the condition of those unwell is possible. Homemakers may be tempted to buy an appliance that they wanted to buy for a long time.

Professionals are likely to earn well and add to their list of clients. Good profits are foreseen for those in business. Health remains good, as you manage to regulate your diet well. Your initiative on the romantic front will not go in vain, as positive response is in the pipeline.

MAR 21 - APR 20

APR 21 - MAY 20

MAY 21 - JUNE 21

JUNE 22 - JULY 23

LEO

VIRGO

LIBRA

SCORPIO

Adhering to a fixed routine promises to keep you fit.

You will find your initiatives at work bringing positive results. Previous investments are likely to give you excellent returns.

Domestic chores can burden some, but it will only be a temporary phase.

You are likely to shine like a star.

Travel business owners may decide to try their hand at something new.

Shifting to a new location is indicated for some. You will need to manage time well on the academic front. A love triangle threatens to put some in an awkward situation.

Money will not pose much problem.

Newlyweds can expect a time of their lives, as love overwhelms them.

Religious minded people must procrastinate any plans for pilgrimage for safety sake . Renting out property at an excellent remuneration is foreseen for some house owners.

Practitioners of yoga and meditation can derive immense health benefits.

Pending major tasks are likely to be initiated soon on the home. Travel only if you need to.

Shifting residence to a new location is possible. A satisfactory performance on the academic front is likely.

JULY 24 - AUGUST 23

AUG 24 - SEP 23

SEPT 24 - OCTOBER 22

OCT 23 - NOVEMBER 22

SAGITTARIUS

CAPRICORN

AQUARIUS

PISCES

Outstanding progress foreseen for those who are giving their all to make a business turn profitable.

Some of you can shift to a better accommodation. You are likely to achieve your goal on the academic front. Mutual attraction promises to start a budding romance.

You will get a chance to try something that you weren’t able to because of wrong circumstances. You will need to be more thorough on the academic front as its critical, if you wish to fare well. You may find lover in mood today, so plan something exclusive together.

Today profits in a deal may not be as good as you anticipated but tomorrow will be different in a good way. You will find a great opportunity coming your way on the professional front. Plans for home improvement may be put into action. House owners can expect good rent for premises.

You are likely to make money by showing your financial acumen. Those feeling under the cloud may find a home cure better than prescription medicines. A solid breakthrough on the business front can be expected by some. An interesting guest is likely to come.

NOV 23 - DEC 22

NIHARIKA TIWARI, Content Creator

one’s work. There are no shortcuts to success and even at seemingly glamourless or overlooked places opportunities to excel could be found hidden.

The experience of Kant who shaped Kerala Tourism to what it is today, a globally acclaimed model with the famous tagline God’s Own Country, was

cited as a case in point.

Rajeeva Ratna Shah advised the new civil servants to never let go off their righteousness and forthrightness. The blend of theology and modernity that one can find in his autobiography was also brought into the conversation when he highlighted the importance of ethics and values in one’s day to day life while tracing his own journey from the humble city of Varanasi in northern India to one of the largest cosmopolitan cities of the worldNew York. The conversation highlighted that finding the courage to speak the truth and the conviction to stand unwaveringly by it is crucial for hav-

ing a meaningful journey be it personal or professional.

Before the conversation closed the audience were allowed to have a muchawaited question and answer session. Despite the paucity of time the trio patiently engaged with not only the officer trainees but also several others from diverse backgrounds.

How to take forward the national agenda of Sabka Sath Sabka Vikas, the question of lateral entry to the bureaucracy, Dostoevsky and literature, NITI Ayog’s role and impact on value chain and social returns, the culture shock upon shifting to New York from Varanasi, the art of finding that subtle balance between honesty and political correctness as a writer were all addressed in the Q&A session.

The conversation between the three brilliant minds, both endearing and enriching at the same time made an otherwise unremarkable Sunday afternoon a memorable experience for the new recruits to the service. The trio, all mentor figures and role models for the officer trainees through familiarizing them with ‘Footprints on the Sand’, has positively left lasting footprints in the minds of the young officers.

DEC 23 - JAN 20

JAN 21 - FEB 19

FEB20 - MARCH 20

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AHMEDABAD | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2020

11

The Sweet Wish

RE-RELEASING

A

...her po

st

Prabhas

F

ans of SS Rajamouli’s magnum opus ‘Baahubali,’ have a reason to rejoice as film theatres are all set to re-release the two installments of the franchise.

Filmmaker Karan Johar took to Twitter to share the update along with the posters of the two installments of ‘Baahubali.’ “The magic is set to unravel again! #BaahubaliTheBeginning and #Baahubali2 - The Conclusion, re-releasing soon. #Prabhas@RanaDaggubati,” Johar wrote.

As per the poster, the first installment of the film will rerelease in theatres this Friday, the second installment has been slated for a release next Friday.

—ANI

Kim Kardashian

‘HBD to my Tabdi’ S

BHOOT POLICE

haring a throwback picture from the shoot of ‘Hum Saath Saath Hain,’ filmmaker-choreographer Farah Khan on Wednesday extended birthday greetings to actor Tabu. The ‘Om Shanti Om,’ filmmaker took to Instagram to post the throwback picture that sees her and Tabu posing while sitting on a railing. “Hum Saath Saath Hain! The first time I met her in 1995 at the shooting of Viraasat, and it was as if we were old friends who knew each other since childhood,” she wrote in the caption. “n its bn exactly like that 25yrs later..

Happy birthday my tabdi.. @tabutiful i lov u n I always let u go coz I know ul always cm back #syaaaliiiii,” she added.

—ANI

M

akers of horror-comedy ‘Bhoot Police,’ on Wednesday kickstarted shooting for the film in the hilly city of Dalhousie. Helmed by Pavan Kirpalani, the film stars actors Saif Ali Khan, Arjun Kapoor, Jacqueline Fernandez, Yami Gautam, and Jaaved Jaaferi. As the shoot for the film began, actor Arjun Kapoor took to Instagram to share the official logo and a picture of the clapboard from the sets of the shoot.

“The #NewNormal is Paranormal,” he wrote in the caption.

—ANI

...her post

Staying

FIT

BHAM BHOLLE

T

Tabu; (inset) Farah Khan’s post

B

...still from Laxmii

ollywood star Akshay Kumar on Tuesday dropped an upbeat number ‘Bam Bholle’ from his upcoming horror-thriller ‘Laxmii’. The song which is part a prayer to Lord Shiva and part dance number features Akshay in the fierce avatar of ‘Laxmii’.

The 53-year-old star shared the song on Twitter and wrote, “Brace yourself to witness the fierce avatar of #Laxmii with the song #BamBholle, Song out now!” The three-minute-ninesecond song features Akshay sporting a red saree and long hair, and a lot of dance moves have been incorporated into track, which the actor executed to perfection.

—ANI

merican reality TV star Kim Kardashian on Tuesday shared an adorable throwback picture with her ‘baby Kenny’ and extended wishes to sister Kendall Jenner on her 25th birthday.

The 40-year-old reality TV star shared an adorable picture that showcased younger baby Kendall. In the snap, toddler Jenner is seen sitting on the lap of Kardashian.

“My baby Kenny! I was 16 years old here and you weren’t even a year old. I can’t believe you’re 25 years old now. I always couldn’t wait to see what you would grow up to be like! LOL you were always my baby Kenny doll!” wrote the SKIMS founder as she penned a note and extended heart-warming birthday wishes.

She went on to gush about their now-famous sisters and brother as they have a strong bond while growing up in the limelight. —ANI

PRICELESS

PICTURE M

Amitabh Bachchan’s post

egastar Amitabh Bachchan on Wednesday treated his fans with a collage of a throwback picture and a recent picture of himself with his actor son Abhishek Bachchan.

The 78-year-old actor who is one of the most active senior celebrities on social media, took to Instagram to post the picture and captioned it as, “then .. and then.”

The collage sees a monochrome picture from the childhood days of Abhishek Bachchan.

—ANI

Kangana Ranaut

alking about the gratification that she got from playing the role of political stalwart J Jayalalithaa to perfection in her film ‘Thalaivi,’ actor Kangana Ranaut on Wednesday opened up on her journey of weight management for and after the completion of the film.

“I played the first super humangirl on Indian screen, thanks to my body a rare combination of dainty yet strong looking, in my 30’s I had to gain 20 kgs for Thalaivi n do Bharatnatyam,it left my back severely damaged but no bigger gratification than to play a role to perfection,” she wrote.

“Journey back to my fit body wasn’t easy, I feel good but even in seven months not able to achieve my earlier stamina and agility back and those last 5 kgs arnt budging, there are moments of despair and then my director Vijay sir shows me Thalaivi footage and all seems fine,” she wrote in a separate tweet.

—ANI

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12

KARWA CHAUTH CELEBRATIONS!

RAJ: On the occasion of Karwa Chauth, a special shoot was organised by Shubham Soni, Director of Fashion Karma Management. During the shoot, various styles and attires were showcased.

RAJ: Women from the Pink City during the Karwa Chauth pooja on Wednesday.

UP: Karwa Chauth special designs curated specially for the occasion by fashion designer Usma Hussain, wife of former Bureaucrat IAS Anees Ansari.

Prepping for Diwali

AN APPEAL...

KARISHMA GWALANI

Karishma.gwalani @firstindia.co.in

The Diwali would be different for all of us this Covid.

This year we won’t be going out of Surat and would be buying snacks from small vendors. I encourage silent Diwali so instead, we will be donating the money spent for crackers to the needy people. We are going to worship Goddess Lakshmi on this day, for wealth and prosperity in our lives.

—MITA PATEL

T

Ajay Maken

WHAT’S HAPPENING! RAJ: Minister Pramod Jain Bhaya, In-charge of the Ajmer region took a meeting of Congress Workers in Kekri on Wednesday, youth Congress leader Sagar Sharma was also present during the discussions on the Panchayat Samiti and Jila Parishad elections.

he holiday and the festive season seem to have commenced all around the world because the much-awaited festival of light is here. Diwali, also known as Deepavali, is celebrated across India with great enthusiasm as it symbolises the victory of good over evil. With the COVID-19 outbreak and widespread presence of the disease around the world, festivals and holidays are sure to be different this year. However, the governments and health agencies may issue some sort of guidelines for the prevention of COVID-19 spread during the festivities.

City First talked to a few people from Rajasthan and Gujarat to know how they are prepping for the festival of lights amid the pandemic.

Diwali is a festival of lights! But this time it’s a bit different! Lights, diyas, rangoli and sweets will help people forget the tormenting things we saw during 2020! I am working during Diwali days too as we are launching 2 more sanitary pads units in 2 districts. The aim is to support the livelihood of tribal women. I wish to see positivity around the world.

—DR SONAL ROCHANI, Founder Shakti Foundation

I have already started my preparation for Diwali, along with the shopping of decorative items for the house. While the spirit of the festival is still the same, extra measures have increased. We have decided to celebrate the festival at our home. We are making sure that everything brought in is sanitised.

—KUSUM SEERWANI

The Role of Demand

FOR VACCINES Sagar Sharma also inaugurated the E-Mitra at Jadana village, Kekri Vidhan Sabha, the entire Panchayat Samiti including the Sarpanch were elected unopposed from this village.

RAJ: Online initiative—‘Digital Mapping of Monuments of Rajasthan MapOurRajasthan Competition’ will be launched on the Facebook page of Jawahar, Kala Kendra (JKK) today. The programme is being organised by the Department of Art and Culture, Government of Rajasthan, JKK and Design Cohort in collaboration with India Lost & Found, and will be held from 15 November ‘20 to 15 January ‘21.

RAJ: Actor Avinash Mishra started shooting for his upcoming romantic song ‘Ae Dil Mere’ at Samskara Resort on Wednesday. He mentioned that it is a love story conceptbased song, which is being shot at various beautiful locations in Jaipur.

GUJ: A worker spraying water to clean Jagannath Temple, to prepare for the upcoming Diwali festival in Ahmedabad on Wednesday.

—PHOTO BY HANIF SINDHI

CITY FIRST

F

irst regional workshop on ‘The Role of Demand for Vaccines’ was conducted by IIHMR University, Jaipur recently, as the partial fulfilment of the ongoing online courses on Vaccine Economics for COVID-19 jointly conducted by John Hopkins University School of Public Health, Baltimore, USA and IIHMR University, Jaipur during 17 October to 13 October, 2020. The focus of workshop was to discuss the intricacies about the factors determining demand for vaccines, particularly in the Indian context.

More than 259 participants from around the globe registered for this online course, out of which 41 were from India. The workshop was attended by 23 participants from eminent health and allied organisations including Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, State Ministry, WHO, UNDP, UNICEF, Tata Trust, Clinton Health Access Initiative and IIT Kharagpur. The workshop was chaired by Dr. P. R. Sodani, President, IIHMR University Jaipur. The moderator was Dr Sunil Rajpal, Assistant Professor, IIHMR University, Jaipur.

CITY FIRST

A

rgus Art Club has now become an integral part of Argus Homes after the successful events for three consecutive years.

Alok Shrivastava, CEO of Argus Homes and CEO of Art Club, said that people are struggling for stage with the dream to prove themselves. We endeavour to give platform to those talented artists to show their talent.

This time the entire art festival was witness by Jaipurites as a lot of them took part in it. People got themselves registered in large quantities so that they could go to Argus

Nishi Kumari, Shivani Parihar, Charvi Tanya Dutta, Gaurav Gaur, Kriti Singh and Anjali Sharma

FOLLOWING PROTOCOLS

CITY FIRST

T

he Jaipur auditions of Elite Miss Rajasthan 2020 are going to take super soon, with all precautions and safety measures being followed. Keeping the government guidelines in mind, biosecure bubble, complete sanitization and no mask, no entry rules will be ap-

plied. This was mentioned by the show director Ravi Jhanwar on Wednesday at la Multigrain. Show directors Kunal Sharma, Ayush Vijay, Anup Rathore, Yasheel Pandel, Ravi Jhanwar, Ajit Soni, Anil Bhattar, and JD Maheshwari along with actress Charvi Tanya Dutta, and Elite Miss Rajasthan 2019 winners Shivani Parihar and model Nishi Kumari

were also present.

Three finalists chosen from Udaipur – Vipra Mehta, Aanchal Ajay and Sakshi Jain, and five from Jodhpur – Archana Lodha, Juhi Sesani, Isha Agarwal, Tanu Chaudhary, and Sumitra Godara will take part in the Jaipur auditions. The first round of auditions in Jaipur will be organised on 8 November, at Hotel Hilton. cityfirst@firstindia.co.in

Stage for artists Successful Surgery CITY FIRST

Alok Shrivastava

Homes, which is located on Mahavir Nagar Tonk Road in the heart of Jaipur city, to admire the beauty of Jaipur and at the same time capture every best view in the camera. Homes is an architectural marble in itself, which has taken the great architecture of

Jaipur forward. The famous fire art artist Ajit along with Harish Chandra, Kadir Pathan, Khushboo Muraria, Kavish Meena, and professional photographers Akshay, Naval and Mangalam showcased their live art and great photography, which was appreciated by everyone.

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ahatma Gandhi Hospital Onco Surgeons have performed a complex Breast Cancer Surgery in a young female using newer techniques. The patient was suffering from breast cancer and reached Mahatma Gandhi Hospital where Dr Hemant Malhotra did chemotherapy. Later Onco Surgeons Dr Dinesh Yadav and Dr Sanjay Sharma performed surgery and removed the breast. Finally, Dr Manish Jain, Onco Plastic Surgeon has done Breast Reconstruction Surgery using a lower abdominal graft. cityfirst@firstindia.co.in