First india ahmedabad edition-10 may 2020

IN GUJARAT
DISTRICT TOTAL TOTAL NEW
CASES DEATHS DEATHS
SAMPLES TESTED
1,01,853
0
NEGATIVE CASES
UNDER EXAMINATION
1,09,650
USA 1,333,374 79,244 +629
SPAIN 262,783 26,478 +179
ITALY 218,268 30,395 +194
UK 215,260 31,587 +346
RUSSIA 198,676 1,827 +104
GERMANY 171,021 7,525 +15
BRAZIL 148,670 10,100 +108
TURKEY 137,115 3,739 +50
IRAN 106,220 6,589 +48
CHINA 82,887 4,633 +3
CANADA 66,783 4,628 +59
BELGIUM 52,596 8,581 +60
COUNTRY TOTAL TOTAL NEW
CASES DEATHS DEATHS
GLOBAL STATE
OF AFFAIRS
WWW.WORLDOMETERS.INFO
LAST UPDATED: MAY 9, 2020, 11:30 PM
CORONA
ALERT
AHMEDABAD l SUNDAY, MAY 10, 2020 l Pages 12 l 3.00 RNI NO. GUJENG/2019/16208 l Vol 1 l Issue No. 164
28°C - 43°C
OUR EDITIONS:
JAIPUR & AHMEDABAD
www.firstindia.co.in
www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/
thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia
instagram.com/thefirstindia
COVID-19
UPDATE
GUJARAT
472
DEATHS
7,797
CONFIRMED CASES
INDIA
62,808
CONFIRMED CASES
2,101
DEATHS
WORLD
2,78,503
DEATHS
40,69,457
CONFIRMED CASES
With 23 dead in 24 hours, Gujarat’s toll climbs closer to 500
First India News
G a n d h i n a g a r :
Ahmedabad’s munici-
pal commissioner Vijay
Nehra has tested nega-
tive for COVID-19, even
as the Jamnagar admin-
istration revoked lock-
down relaxations of-
fered to industries in
the wake of the sudden
spike in case numbers.
In the past 24 hours,
the state has seen 394
new cases and 23
deaths, of which
Ahmedabad account-
ed for 280 new cases
and 20 deaths.
With this, the state
now has 7,797 cases and
adeathtollof 472.Across
the state, 2,091 patients
haverecoveredandbeen
discharged, with 1,107
being discharged in
Ahmedabad; the city’s
tally is now 5,540 with a
death toll of 363.
Jamnagar, which was
in the green zone lat
week, has seen a jump
from five to 23 cases in
just three days, prompt-
ing the district adminis-
tration to review its
strategy. It has restrict-
ed entry into the district
and withdrawn relaxa-
tions given to indus-
tries, which had been
allowed to resume oper-
ation within city limits.
Principal Secretary
(Health) Jayanti Ravi
on Saturday said that
the recovery rate has
improved by 457%
over the past few days.
With the change in
the ICMR guidelines
more people can be
discharged, she said.
Twovideoshavebegun
to gain traction on social
media in Ahmedabad, in
whichprivatedoctorsare
seen criticizing the
Ahmedabad Municipal
Corporation’sdecisionto
issue notices Turn on P6
A boom sprayer disinfects a street outside Dhal ni Pol in Ahmedabad on Saturday as part of the local
civic body’s efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19. —PHOTO BY NANDAN DAVE
 A’bad accounts for 280 of state’s 394
new cases, Vijay Nehra tests negative
 With this, the state now has 7,797
cases and a death toll of 472
RELIEF FROM THE GOVERNMENT
New Delhi: Nixing all rumours cir-
culating around his health, Union
Home Minister Amit Shah on
Saturday, took to Twitter, while
assuring all that he is healthy and
has been working as the country
fights coronavirus crisis. “I am
completely healthy and am not
suffering from any disease,”
Shah tweeted in Hindi.P2
‘TRUMP MAY TEMPORARILY BAN
WORK-BASED VISAS’
Washington: The US is working to temporarily ban the
issuance of some work-based visas like H-1B, popular
among highly-skilled Indian IT professionals, as well as
students visas and work authorisation that accompa-
nies them, amidst the high level of unemployment due
to the coronavirus, according to a media report. The
H-1B is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies
to employ foreign workers from countries like India and
China in speciality occupations that require theoretical
or technical expertise. Turn on P6
MOTHER’S
LOVE
The Mother Earth has been healing itself while
we humans stay locked down in our houses due
to the Coronavirus pandemic. As we celebrated
Mother’s Day today in lockdown, a mother
swan seems to have found some #MeTime with
her cygnets as they happily swim on a pond in
Vacaresti Nature Park, in Romania. —AP
Two Indians arriving
from Gulf test positive
New Delhi: Two Indians
repatriated from the Gulf
as part of an evacuation ex-
ercise to bring home Indi-
ans stranded abroad have
tested positive for the novel
coronavirus. The two new
patients, flown from Dubai
andAbuDhabitoKozhikode
and Kochi respectively, are
among the 363 who landed
in Kerala on special flights
Thursday. With this, the
state has reported two new
cases, besides one recovery,
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vi-
jayan said Saturday.
Ondaythreeof the‘Vande
Bharat Mission’, flights car-
rying Indians from the Gulf
countries, United Kingdom,
Bangladesh and Malaysia
will arrive here on Saturday.
Flights carrying Indian
nationalsarrivingtodayare
bound from Dhaka to Delhi
(arrival at 1500 hours), Ku-
wait to Hyderabad Turn on P6
ICMR TEAMS UP TO DEVELOP
INDIGENOUS COVID-19 VACCINE
New Delhi: ICMR on Saturday said it had part-
nered with Bharat Biotech International Limited to
develop an indigenous vaccine for Covid-19 using
the virus strain isolated at National Institute of
Virology, in Pune. “Work on vaccine development
has been initiated. We will seek fast-track approv-
als to expedite vaccine development, subsequent
animal studies and clinical evaluation,” said ICMR.
New Delhi: Aarogya
Setu, the government’s
mobile application de-
veloped to track COV-
ID-19 patients, has
emerged as a powerful
tool to curb the spread
of coronavirus COV-
ID-19 as it helped alert
authorities about more
than 650 hotspots across
the country and over
300 “emerging hot-
spots” which could have
been missed otherwise.
Since its launch on
April 2 this year, over 96
million people have reg-
isteredwiththeAarogya
Setu health care applica-
tion, which has become
the fastest mobile app to
reach 50 million users
globally and will be one
of the fastest entrant to
the 100 million club.
The Aarogya Setu
has helped the govern-
ment with its twin ob-
jective -- “whom to test”
and “where to test
more” in its battle
against COVID-19.
Speaking to ANI, Niti
AyogCEOAmitabhKant
said: “For instance, in
Maharashtra,theengine
identified over 60 hot-
spots across 18 districts.
Across the nation, the
engine predicted about
130 hotspots at the sub-
post office level between
April 13 to April 20. Lat-
er, these forecasted hot-
spots were declared as
‘real hotspots’ by the Un-
ion Health Ministry
some 3 to 17 days after
being alerted by Aarog-
ya Setu. This way, the
engine helped the gov-
ernment with “whom to
test” and “where to test
more” against the coro-
navirus.” Turn on P6
‘AAROGYA SETU A TOOL
TO HELP CURB COVID-19’A MAJOR BOON!
At least 12,500 users, who downloaded the Aaro-
gya Setu, have detected positive for COVID-19 so
far. The Bluetooth based inter-
action data has led to around
60,000 people being assessed
and alerted at various degrees
of risk which include self-isola-
tion, quarantine and testing.
I AM PERFECTLY HEALTHY, DO NOT
HAVE ANY DISEASE: AMIT SHAH
Indian nationals arrive at Cochin
International Airport on a special
flight under Vande Bharat Mission.
—PHOTO BY ANI
AHMEDABAD 5540 363 20
VADODARA 493 31 0
SURAT 854 38 0
RAJKOT 66 1 0
BHAVNAGAR 94 6 0
ANAND 77 6 0
BHARUCH 28 2 0
GANDHINAGAR 119 5 0
PATAN 24 1 0
PANCHMANHAL 59 4 1
BANASKANTHA 77 3 1
NARMADA 12 0 0
CHOTA UDEPUR 14 0 0
KUTCH 7 1 0
MAHESANA 42 1 0
BOTAD 53 1 0
DAHOD 20 0 0
PORBANDAR 3 0 0
JAMNAGAR 23 2 1
MORBI 1 0 0
SABARKANTHA 17 2 0
ARAVALLI 71 2 0
MAHISAGAR 44 1 0
KHEDA 29 1 0
GIR SOMNATH 4 0 0
VALSAD 6 1 0
TAPI 2 0 0
NAVSARI 8 0 0
DANG 2 0 0
SURENDRANAGAR 1 0 0
DWARKA 4 0 0
JUNAGADH 2 0 0
RAJASTHAN 1 0 0
TOTAL 7797 472 23

NEWSAHMEDABAD | SUNDAY, MAY 10, 2020
02www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
Home Minister Amit Shah. —FILE PHOTO
AMIT SHAH
CLARIFIES ON
RUMOURS
I AM PERFECTLY
HEALTHY, DO NOT
HAVE ANY DISEASE
Aditi Nagar
New Delhi: Nixing all
rumours circulating
around his health,
Union Home Minister
Amit Shah on Satur-
day, took to Twitter,
while assuring all
that he is healthy and
has been working as
the country fights
coronavirus crisis.
“I am completely
healthy and am not suf-
fering from any dis-
ease,” Shah tweeted in
Hindi. In his post, the
Home Minister said
that he had noticed that
over the past few days
some people on social
media had spread ru-
mours about his health.
So much so, he said, that
some had even tweeted
praying for his death.
“The country is
right now fighting a
global epidemic like
corona and as the
home minister of the
country I keep busy
and did not pay atten-
tion to all of this.
When this came to my
notice, I thought let
all these people enjoy
their imaginary
thoughts and this is
why I did not give any
clarification,” Shah
elaborated. On Satur-
day, the Ahmedabad
police nabbed four
men for making the
fake post about Shah’s
illness, viral.
If anything, Shah has
been maintaining a
strict workout and diet
regimen and sources re-
veal that the BJP stal-
wart has lost a few
pounds due to a step he
has consciously taken
for a more healthy life-
style. Fruits and vegeta-
blesformthebasicof his
diet, giving enough time
to the physical well be-
ing as well through yoga
and other practices.
Over the last few
days, rumours had
started doing rounds
on social media that
the Union Home Min-
ister had not been
keeping well, even as
the 55-year-old leader
had been updating his
Twitter handle with
various pictures
showing him attend-
ing meetings wearing
face masks and main-
taining social dis-
tance amid coronavi-
rus pandemic.
Meanwhile, con-
demning rumours
about the ill-health of
Shah, several BJP work-
ers, including party
president JP Nadda, on
Saturday, took to Twit-
ter to express their dis-
pleasure over people
who spread such ru-
mours about Shah.
Meanwhile, they also
supported their Twitter
posts with ‘#HumareP-
yareAmitBhai’ to ex-
press their love for the
Home Minister.
Shah while taking
to Twitter said,
“Lakhs of workers
from my party and
my well-wishers have
expressed their deep
concerns regarding
my health over the
last two days. I cannot
ignore their concern
for me. This is why I
want to clarify today
that I am perfectly
healthy and I do not
have any disease.”
Shah even said ac-
cording to the Hindu
belief, rumours about
one’s health could
strengthen the person
further. “So, I would re-
quest every such person
to give up this meaning-
less talks and let me do
my job and they may go
ahead doing theirs,”
Shah wrote.
Thanking his well-
wishers and BJP
workers for enquir-
ing about his health,
he said that he has
“no hatred towards
those who spread the
rumours”.
He also urged peo-
ple to not spread or
believe in such ru-
mours.
HOME MINISTER AMIT SHAH SAID FOR THE PAST FEW DAYS THERE HAVE BEEN RUMOURS ABOUT
HIS HEALTH ON SOCIAL MEDIA. “SOME EVEN TWEETED PRAYING FOR MY DEATH,” HE SAID
4 DETAINED OVER FAKE TWEET ON HM’S HEALTH
First India News
New Delhi/Ahmedabad:
Ahmedabad Crime Branch on
Saturday detained four persons in
connection with a fake tweet that
claimed Union Home Minister
Amit Shah was in ill health. A
screenshot of the supposed
tweet, which was widely shared
on social media platforms such
as WhatsApp on Friday night,
shocked many, especially those
close to the minister. Hours later,
it was confirmed that the image
was fake and that Shah had not,
in fact, tweeted about his health
on his personal twitter handle.
Special Commissioner Ajay
Tomar on Saturday said that the
cyber cell of the Ahmedabad
Crime Branch—which has been
keeping a close watch on so-
cial media platforms for rumor
mongers—discovered that
someone with the mobile number
9824257461 had created the fake
image and shared it on WhatsApp.
The Crime Branch has de-
tained four persons for question-
ing—two each from Ahmedabad
and Bhavnagar. A case has been
registered under the Information
Technology Act for fraudulently or
dishonestly making use of an elec-
tronic signature, password, or any
other unique identification feature
of any other person. Violators of
these sections face imprisonment
of up to three years are liable to
be fined up to Rs 1 lakh. Another
section, under which the complaint
has been filed, deals with “cheating
by personation by using computer
resource”. Violation invites impris-
onment of up to three years.
Tomar added that the team is
working to capture the kingpin of
the operation. “The investigation is
underway and we are confident that
we will crack the case,” he said.
‘Hesitancy in reporting symptoms primary reason for high mortality’
First India News
Ahmedabad: People
are hesitant about re-
porting COVID-19
symptoms. So, by the
time they are tested,
the infection has
reached an advanced
stage. This, in turn,
causes more fatali-
ties, said AIIMS (All
India Institute of
Medical Sciences) Di-
rector Dr Randeep
Guleria.
He and Dr Manish
Suneja were in the city
on a day’s visit to meet
patients and doctors at
the dedicated COVID-19
facilities at the Civil
Hospital and the Sard-
ar Vallabhbhai Patel
(SVP) Hospital.
Later in the day,
they met with state
health officers led by
Additional Chief Sec-
retary (Revenue and
overseeing Health de-
partment) Pankaj
Kumar and Principal
Secretary (Health)
Jayanti Ravi.
Dr Guleria observed
that people do not come
forward at the first
signs of breathing is-
sues, fever or cold and
cough. He said the hesi-
tance in reporting ear-
ly symptoms has re-
sulted in more fatali-
ties. He appealed peo-
ple to come forward to
get tested at the prima-
ry stage.
He also stated that
Sars-CoV-2 affects
symptomatic and
asymptomatic pa-
tients alike--by reduc-
ing oxygen levels in
the blood--and added
that people should get
tested and isolate
themselves at the ear-
liest as even one posi-
tive person can infect
family members,
close relatives and
neighbours very
quickly.
He appreciated the
treatment given to COV-
ID-19 patients and said
that the same protocols
were being practised in
AIIMS too.
Additional Chief Secretary (Revenue and Overseeing Health) Pankaj Kumar in conversation with
AIIMS director Dr Randeep Guleria and Dr Manish Suneja, during the two-member team’s day-
long visit to Ahmedabad.
AIIMS CHIEF SAYS EARLY
TESTING AND ISOLATION KEY TO
CONTROLLING VIRUS SPREAD
STATE GIVES
RELIEF TO GAS-
BASED UNITS
Smriti Z Irani
@smritiirani
We wish you longevity.
Dr Jitendra Singh
@DrJitendraSingh
Wish you to be healthy
and keep guiding us.
Piyush Goyal
@PiyushGoyal
Some people spread
rumours out of jealousy
arising out of Home
Minister Amit Shah ji’s
popularity.
Jagat Prakash Nadda
@JPNadda
Making ‘inhuman’
comments about
Shah’s health
is extremely
condemnable.
Spreading such
misleading remarks
about anyone’s health
shows the mindset
of people doing so.
I strongly condemn
it and pray to God to
grant them good sense.
Gautam Gambhir
@GautamGambhir
These baseless rumors
against the Hon’ble
Home Minister spread
with malicious intent
show the moral
bankruptcy of his
adversaries. Same
people claim to be flag
bearers of liberalism &
progressive mindset.
Sick!
Kailash Vijayvargiya
@KailashOnline
Spreading such
rumours could be a
‘political ploy’ of those
who are rattled by
Shah’s working style
and decisions.
Nirmala Sitharaman
@nsitharaman
Hopefully, all the
rumour-mongering will
end now.
Syed Shahnawaz
Hussain
@ShahnawazBJP
It’s really shameful how
a handful of people are
spreading rumours
about the health of
India’s Home Minister
Amit Shah. These
people are enemies of
the nation who dislike
leaders devoted to the
motherland.
Prakash Javadekar
@PrakashJavdekar
The comments about
Shah’s health shows
the ‘distorted mindset’
of people making them.
Ravi Shankar Prasad
@rsprasad
Amit Shah Ji you are
safe and sound and
will remain so because
you have to serve Maa
Bharati with courage
and conviction for a
long time.

GUJARATAHMEDABAD | SUNDAY, MAY 10, 2020
Masuma Bharmal Jariwala
Jepur: In a stroke of
ingenuity, a village in
Rajkot district has
formed its own ‘Coro-
na Samiti’. Situated at
60 kilometres from Ra-
jkot, Jepur village is
setting its own exam-
ple of how a place can
remain corona-free by
setting its own param-
eters and guidelines.
This initiative taken
by the villagers will
not only keep the vil-
lage safe from a COV-
ID-19 outbreak, it will
also ease the local gov-
ernment’s burden. A
fine of Rs5,000 has
been determined as
the amount that will
be levied on people
who fail to adhere to
the rules of the lock-
down.
Talking about the
unique initiative,
Jepur’s sarpanch
Chandubhai Makwana
told First India, “We
have formed a 10-mem-
ber ‘Corona Samiti’
mostly comprising the
village youth. The
samiti members have
been issued cards by
the panchayat and
their role is to monitor
movement at various
entry points to ensure
that there is no gather-
ing of four persons or
more in the village.
They are also responsi-
ble for denying entry
to outsiders and taking
care of problems faced
by the villagers during
the lockdown period. A
fine of Rs5,000 will be
slapped on outsiders
including vendors who
forcefully try to enter
the village. The fine
will also be collected
from people who gath-
er in a group of four or
more people in one
place,” he stated.
“One of the first
things we did was to
close all the entry and
exit points of the vil-
lage by blocking them
with huge tree trunks.
The only entry point
near the bus stop has
been kept open. Two
members of the Samiti
keep guard at the main
entry 24 hours to en-
sure not a single out-
sider enters the vil-
lage. Four other mem-
bers keep guard at the
other entry points
which have been
closed. The village has
also made its own dis-
infectant using neem,
tulsi leaves, kapur and
other ingredients,” he
added.
Village ‘Corona Samiti’ keeps outsiders, virus at bay
GRASSROOTS INITIATIVE
Incident allegedly followed suspicion of information about illegal liquor trade being leaked
First India News
Gandhidham: On Sat-
urday afternoon, two
groups from the Koli
and Rajput communi-
ties clashed at the
Hamirsar village of
Kutch district, in which
five people, belonging to
one of the communi-
ties, were killed.
When the Adesar po-
lice station informed
KutchEastcontrolroom
about the incident, the
entire region’s police in-
cluding top brass offi-
cials rushed to the vil-
lage located in Rapar
taluka.
“As per the informa-
tion I have received,
there was a group clash
between the Koli and
Rajput communities
and five people have
been killed. I am on my
way to the village and
willonlybeabletoshare
more information after
I reach ground zero,”
said Subhash Trivedi,
inspector general (IG),
Kutch range.
Kutch (East) superin-
tendent of police (SP)
Parikshita Rathod told
the media, “There was
enmity between the two
groups and they be-
longed to different com-
munities. The accused
Dhama Koli is into the
liquor trade and he sus-
pected that the victim
Akhabhai Umat (Ra-
jput) and his sons were
leaking information
about his liquor trade.
Koli then formed a
group and attacked
Akhabhai and his four
sons with sharp weap-
ons and killed them. He
then fled from the vil-
lage,” she said.
She added that four
people died on the spot
after sustaining fatal
injuries. But, one of
the victims seriously
injured, was rushed to
a hospital, where he
succumbed to his inju-
ries. The deceased have
been identified as Je-
sang Umat, Amra
Umat, Petha Bhavan
Umat, Vela Umat and
Akhabhai Umat.
According to SP
Rathod, at least five
teams have been formed
to catch the absconding
accused. The teams in-
clude personnel from
the local crime branch
and special operations
group and local police.
After reaching the vil-
lage, Rathod also met
with the village and Ra-
jput community leaders
and appealed to them to
maintain peace.
Five killed in clash between
communal groups in Kutch
Police investigate the scene of the clash in Hamirsar village of Kutch’s Rapar taluka.
GRUESOME END
Why aren’t more AMC
hospitals ‘dedicated’?
Gargi Raval
Ahmedabad: The COV-
ID-19 outbreak has
wreaked havoc on the
city, and the adminis-
tration is trying to add
to the existing infra-
structure by setting up
more isolation centres.
The newly appointed
team at the Ahmedabad
Municipal Corporation
(AMC) has upped the
number of hospital
beds for Sars-CoV-2 pa-
tients by adding over
4,000 beds to its arsenal.
It also asked 12 more
private hospitals in-
cluding Global Hospi-
tal, Nidhi Hospital and
Saraswati Hospital to
stay available for COV-
ID-19 patients.
However, a number of
AMC-runhospitalssuch
as VS Hospital, LG Hos-
pital and Shardaben
Hospital have been left
out of the list of dedi-
cated COVID-19 hospi-
tals and care centres.
The 1,500-bed LG Hos-
pital is not on the COV-
ID-19 hospital list. “In
this hospital, at least
500 beds should be re-
served and isolated for
COVID-19 cases. We do
not know why the hos-
pital has not been asked
to pitch in. There were
a few doctors and nurs-
es who had been infect-
ed by Sars-CoV-2 in the
hospital. But now, all of
them have been cured,”
said one of the doctors
at the hospital.
This person added,
“Everyone knows that
most VS staff have been
transferred to SVP but
the infrastructure at VS
can be utilized. A chunk
of beds at Shardaben
Hospital can also be de-
clared part of an isola-
tion ward for COVID-19
patients.”
“VS has already kept
500 beds ready with par-
amedical staff to tend
to patients. I had writ-
ten to the municipal
commissioner regard-
ing the same a month
ago. They should put all
political pressure aside
in a time of crisis such
as this,” said Dinesh
Sharma, leader of the
opposition, AMC.
The dedicated COVID-19 facility at Ahmedabad’s Civil Hospital.
ODD LIST
A sign banning the entry of outsiders to Jepur village.
KEEPING THE PEACE
Police and RAF personnel patrol a street in Ahmedabad’s Shahpur area a day after cops
lobbed tear gas at a mob of stone-pelters. —PHOTO BY HANIF SINDHI
64 jailed for
attacking
police: DGP
Diamonds
worth Rs1K
crore sent to
Hong Kong
Incentivize local businesses not foreigners: Gohil
With cases doubling every 5
days, G’nagar shuts down
First India News
Gandhinagar: A total
of 64 persons have been
j a i l e d
across the
state for 28
different
o f f e n c e s
of attack
on police
personnel,
Director-General of Po-
lice Shivanand Jha on
Saturday announced.
“Those who are spread-
ing rumours on social
media will not be
spared. We are taking
strict action against
those who spread fake
and communal messag-
es on social media. The
police has so far arrest-
ed 64 people in this re-
gard,” said Jha.
The DGP also said
thechaosinAhmedabad
and Surat has been tak-
en care of. However, he
appealed to migrants in
the state to be patient.
“The migrants who
want to return to their
native needs to have
some patience and sup-
port the administration
and don’t get mislead
by any rumours,” he
added.
First India News
Surat: Already touted
as a diamond-hub, the
city of Surat manufac-
tures 8 out of 10 dia-
monds sold in the world.
But, the export of Surti
diamonds could only be
conducted from Mum-
bai and not the Surat
Diamond Bourse until
January this year. Fol-
lowing the recommen-
dations of the Gems and
Jewellery Export Pro-
motion Council, jewel-
lers were allowed to ex-
port diamonds from the
Surat Diamond Bourse
without a bank guaran-
tee. As a result, 85 par-
cels worth Rs1,000 crore
have been exported to
Hong Kong during the
lockdown so far.
The permission
granted in January has
been a major relief for
diamond industrialists
in Surat and Mumbai
duringthelockdown.As
per guidelines, diamond
parcels from Mumbai
arrive at the Surat Dia-
mond Bourse and are
exported to Hong Kong
after customs clearance.
First India News
Ahmedabad: On Fri-
day, the state govern-
ment announced sever-
al lucrative schemes to
lure foreign invest-
ments, especially those
organizations with
units in China. The Gu-
jarat Pradesh Congress
Committee leaders have
criticized this move and
accused the govern-
ment of ignoring local
businessmen, whose
businesses have been
adversely affected by
the lockdown.
“The state govern-
ment has insulted small
and medium-scale busi-
nessmen by granting
free-rein to the upcom-
ing businessmen in the
state. Many schemes
have also been an-
nounced to welcome the
foreign investors,” said
Shaktisinh Gohil.
“Our local businesses
have been affected a lot
due to demonetization,
GST, and novel corona-
virus. But, rather than
providing stimulating
packages to the local
businesses, the state
government is laying
out the red carpet for
outsiders,” he asserted,
adding, “All the rules for
labour and business op-
erations will not liable
on the foreign investors
for 1,200 days, which is
like adding insult to in-
jury on the local busi-
nesses. The foreign in-
vestors will be automat-
ed and won’t generate
employment. Therefore,
I request the local gov-
ernment to provide in-
centives and relief to
local businessmen.”
First India News
Gandhinagar: City
mayor Ritaben Patel on
Saturday announced a
complete shutdown in
the state capital due to
a surge in COVID-19
cases. The shutdown
will be in effect from
6am on May 10 to 6 pm
on May 17. Only stores
selling milk and medi-
cines will be allowed to
operate during the
shutdown.
The move comes after
the case doubling rate
went from 16 days to
five days. The district
crossed the 100-case
mark on Saturday, when
six more cases were re-
ported. Gandhinagar
seems to be now com-
peting with cities such
as Ahmedabad, Va-
dodara and Surat in
terms of high COVID-19
numbers.
The worrying case
doubling rate has stu-
pefied the district ad-
ministration as well as
the state government.
On April 11, there
were 14 positive cases
reported with one
death. Five more posi-
tive cases were added
to the total tally of 30
cases on April 27. That
means that it took a pe-
riod of 16 days for the
number of cases to
double.
On the other hand,
On May 2; five days af-
ter that; 18 positive
cases were reported in
a single day, taking the
total tally to 67. Around
30 cases have been reg-
istered in the next six
days post that.
Shivanand Jha
Shaktisinh Gohil
State capital has
crossed the 100-case
mark with six new
cases being reported

G Vol 1 G Issue No. 164 G 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.
Published at D/302 3rd Floor Plot No. 35 Titanium Square, Scheme No. 2, Thaltej Taluka, Ghatlodiya, Ahmedabad. Editor: Jagdeesh Chandra, responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act
PERSPECTIVEAHMEDABAD | SUNDAY, MAY 10, 2020
Perform your obligatory
duty, because action is indeed
better than inaction.
—Bhagavad Gita
Spiritual
SPEAK
BENGAL-CENTRE
IN FACE-OFF
OVER MIGRANTS
political adversary should be giv-
en no breather. Between Union
Home Minister Amit Shah and
West Bengal Chief Minister
Mamata Banerjee who believes in
this more than the other is difficult to say
but New Delhi and Kolkata both throwing
love punches at one another even in these
times of pandemic. Clearly, there’s more to
their bout than the spread of novel corona-
virus. Relations between Bengal and the
Centre have never been cordial but at pre-
sent they are under severe strain.
The latest round has been triggered by a letter
from Amit Shah saying that by not allowing Sh-
ramik specials Mamata Banerjee was doing an
“injustice” to workers wanting to return to the
state. The BJP government in Gujarat has not
yet solved the issue of stranded migrants want-
ing to leave Surat, however, the Centre has said
that more than two lakh workers have been fa-
cilitated to reach their homes. “But we are not
getting expected support from West Bengal. The
state government of West Bengal is not allowing
trains reaching to West Bengal. This is injustice
with West Bengal migrant labourers. This will
create further hardships for them,” Shah said
in the letter.
West Bengal hit back by accusing the
Home Minister of untruths and holding the
Centre directly responsible for the tragedy
in which 16 migrant labourers were run
over by a goods train. Trinamool Congress
MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar was quoted as
asking, “The Centre is lying. Eight trains
are ready to ferry passengers from Bengal
from different states. It is not right to say
CM Mamata Banerjee is not allowing mi-
grants to come back. Sixteen migrants died
on your watch, will rail minister take re-
sponsibility.”
A stronger riposte to Shah’s letter came from
Mamata’s nephew and senior party leader Ab-
hishek Banerjee who tweeted, “A HM failing to
discharge his duties during this crisis speaks
after weeks of silence, only to mislead people
with bundle of lies! Ironically he’s talking of the
very ppl who’ve been literally left to fate by his
own Govt. Mr @AmitShah prove your fake al-
legations or apologise.”
The Centre can still claim to be driven by
the desire to protect the minorities from
hardships, though the migrants homecom-
ing issue has been such that it has backfired
on the BJP after Sonia firing her salvo of
Congress bearing the expense of the mi-
grants travel. One, however, cannot deny
the fact that there is also a strong political
angle to the face-off because Shah is not
alone in attacking Mamata government.
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Congress Party’s
Leader in the LS, also accused the TMC gov-
ernment of not being keen on bringing back
its labourers stranded in other states.
A row was earlier triggered over the sending
of inter-ministerial teams to some West Bengal
districts allegedly without the state being taken
into confidence. On both the occasions Mama-
ta’s retreat averted a political crisis.
IN-DEPTH
A
ince the SARS-
CoV-2 virus
spread from
China to most
of the world in
February and March, we
have all gradually become
participants in textbook
ethical dilemmas. Above
all, the COVID-19 pandem-
ic has presented overload-
ed health systems with the
huge question of how to
continue caring for pa-
tients in a secure, fair, and
effective way. And, worry-
ingly, the crisis has high-
lighted not only the unpre-
paredness of politicians
and health-care systems,
but also our failure to de-
velop relevant ethical
norms.
As the pandemic spread,
many governments hastily
implemented medical and
social-distancing protocols
that mirrored the Chinese
authorities’ draconian re-
sponse. Until early this
year, richer countries had
been discussing access to
new health-care tools such
as robotics and artificial
intelligence, or how the
state might finance artifi-
cial reproductive technolo-
gies. But in the blink of an
eye, their health systems
surprisingly and unhesi-
tatingly accepted utilitari-
an ethics – not only by per-
forming drastic triage in
intensive-careunits(ICUs),
but also by refusing to offer
a range of other much-
needed medical services.
Ethics textbooks contain
numerous philosophical
dilemmas that call into
question the morality of
always applying a utilitar-
ian calculus to human
lives. One of the most wide-
ly known was devised by
the British philosopher
Philippa Foot, and involves
a runaway trolley rushing
toward five people tied to a
train track. By pulling a
switch, you can divert the
trolley to another track
and save those five lives,
but the trolley will then
kill one person on that
track. What should you do?
Based solely on the
mathematical outcome of
the choice, many will like-
ly consider it right to inter-
vene and sacrifice one hu-
man life in order to save
five others. But in both this
dilemma and in real life,
should we not take other
values into account, too?
After all, the COVID-19
pandemic is presenting
health workers with tragic
situations they have never
experienced before. And if
there are not enough health
workers, ventilators, or
hospital beds, then patients
often will need to be catego-
rized and prioritized to de-
termine who receives (or
does not receive) which
care, and where.
In mid-March, the Ital-
ian Society of Anesthesia,
Analgesia, Resuscitation,
andIntensiveCare(SIAAR-
TI) issued recommenda-
tions for allocating inten-
sive-care treatment of
COVID-19 patients. These
include adhering to the
“first come, first served”
principle in the worst-case
scenario that no more ICU
resources are available.
And in April, the Hungar-
ian Medical Chamber re-
leased a series of mostly
utilitarian triage guide-
lines that focus on saving
more lives and giving pri-
ority to patients with a
higher chance of survival.
Our existing ethical
frameworks were not de-
vised for a pandemic – and
it shows. Over the last few
decades, bioethics has fo-
cused on new technologies,
such as genetic interven-
tion, biobanks, gene-edit-
ing, and artificial reproduc-
tion. Indeed, Europe’s most
comprehensive and legally
binding set of bioethical
norms, the 1997 Oviedo
Convention,prescribesthat
“The interests and welfare
of the human being shall
prevail over the sole inter-
est of society or science.”
FOR FULL REPORT LOG ON TO
WWW.PROJECTSYNDICATE.COM
Bioethics for the coronavirus pandemic
S
As the pandemic
spread, many
governments hastily
implemented
medical and social-
distancing protocols
that mirrored the
Chinese authorities’
draconian response
Top
TWEET
Prakash Javadekar
@PrakashJavdekar
We fought & offered Satyagrah
for media freedom.I was in jail for
13 mnths for removal of press
censorship. We are ensuring
complete media freedom. India
has robust media with 1Lac
journals&400 million readership,
800 TVchannels out of which 200
are News channels. This is freedom
Dharmendra Pradhan
@dpradhanbjp
Interacted with Pravasi Odia
friends residing in the southeast
asian countries through video
conferencing. Discussed the
#Covid19 situation in their
respective countries and efforts
they are taking to slow down the
transmission and prevent further
spread of the virus.
resident Franklin D.
Roosevelt, in his inaugural
address in 1933, said the
only thing to fear was fear
itself. The coronavirus has
health, economic, social, ad-
ministrative, etc. aspects.
There is also the fear aspect.
That is not confined to the
present only. Fear is very
much in the minds of peo-
ple, including doctors, fear
of the pandemic making a
re-appearance after six
months or more. Neither
World War 1 or World War II
had the reach, the coronavi-
rus has.
These wars deadly and hor-
rific did not involve South
America and large parts of Af-
rica. The coronavirus respects
no national boundaries is in-
visible and so unbearable so
far. No fear is worse than the
fear of the unknown, the fear
of nature’s forces which man
can neither channel nor com-
prehend. Overnight it has be-
come intensified and magni-
fied. It is filling our minds with
primordial apprehensions.
Humankind is groping in
the dark in fear. Parents fear
for their children, immi-
grants for the livelihood, the
fear of galloping unemploy-
ment is all too visible in
America, Europe, and other
parts of the globe. Where a
man can find no answer, he
will find fear.
I am 91 years of age, so I do
not fear. But I do for my wife,
my son, my grandsons and my
friends. Will fear be the new
normal. Has a new age being
born. Has medicine failed?
The newspapers devote
most of their pages to the
damage the coronavirus is
inflicting on men, women,
and children. TV is a mixed
blessing. It informs, it also
produces fear in our minds.
What will tomorrow bring?
More fear or hope. Hope for
whom? To those who are living
in a controlled panic. Don’t
panic is the mantra of the med-
icos. But doctors and nurses
are dying of the virus. Is hope
the hope. Does any of us have
an answer?
The lockdown will end af-
ter eight days. Gone will be
social distancing. How will
educational institutions ac-
commodate students when
each has to sit six feet from
the other. Where will space
come for those in the same
class? The same applies to
travel. The air industry the
world over has gone bust. If
it revives, then will passen-
gers sit six feet apart. Take
liquor shops. We saw the
bedlam in Delhi the other
day. When these booze shops
re-open, no one will follow
the six feet rule. Hence, we
are living in a coronavirus
pressure cooker. Damned if
you uncover it, damned if
you don’t.
What about political public
meetings. I have no answer, ex-
cept posing questions. Like eve-
ryone else I eagerly and impa-
tiently await the invention of
the magic vaccine, which will
be available by early next year.
One hundred laboratories are
working night and day to pro-
duce one. I am not a religious
person, but I do believe in Auto
de fe: Belief in fate. Neither
pessimism nor optimism is the
need of the hour. Both are mat-
ters of temperament.
Satish Gujral’s death last
month did not attract the no-
tice it should have. I knew
him for almost forty-five
years. He was among the
great painters of the 20th
century. He was also a gifted
architect. The Belgian Em-
bassy in Chankyapuri is his
creation. He was stone deaf
for the better part of his life.
Then a miraculous opera-
tion restored his hearing. He
was great fun to be with. The
art world has lost a genius.
His wife Kiran is a most re-
markable lady.
I never met Irfan Khan or Ri-
shi Kapoor. The latter’s father
I met several times. He was not
only a superb actor, but he was
also an artist, creative, origi-
nal, who stirred both heart and
mind.
Irfan Khan and Rishi Ka-
poor were both beloved of
cinema audiences. If I re-
member correctly I saw him
in Slumdog Millionaire. He
stole the shows. To my re-
gret, I did not see any of Ri-
shi Kapoor’s films. Both he
and Irfan were men of cour-
age and died like heroes.
In the 1960s Dev Anand pro-
duced and acted in Prem Pu-
jari. I was then working in the
Indira Gandhi office. Dev
Anand came to see me. I had
met him earlier in New York.
He said he wanted the P.M to
see the film. I took him to P.M.
She said to Dev, “Let Natwar
see it first”. I did. She did not..
THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY
THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL
THE ONLY THING WE HAVE
TO FEAR IS FEAR ITSELF
P
Humankind is
groping in the
dark in fear.
Parents fear for
their children,
immigrants for the
livelihood, the fear
of galloping
unemployment is
all too visible in
America, Europe,
and other parts of
the globe. Where a
man can find no
answer, he will
find fear
K NATWAR
SINGH
The author is Former Minister
of External Affairs of India
WHAT WILL
TOMORROW BRING?
MORE FEAR OR
HOPE. HOPE FOR
WHOM? TO THOSE
WHO ARE LIVING IN
A CONTROLLED
PANIC. DON’T PANIC
IS THE MANTRA OF
THE MEDICOS

INDIAAHMEDABAD | SUNDAY, MAY 10, 2020
COVID-19 UPDATE INDIA’S FATALITY RATE CONTINUED TO BE AROUND 3.3%, UNION HEALTH MINISTER DR HARSH VARDHAN SAID
New Delhi: Amid the
coronavirus outbreak
in the country, the Un-
ion Health Minister Dr
Harsh Vardhan said In-
dia does not anticipate
a very worst type of
situations like the de-
veloped nations. How-
ever, he assured that
the Central govern-
ment is prepared for
the worst scenario.
The coronavirus cas-
es in India inched to-
wards 60,000- mark to-
day. The states added
over 3,000 fresh corona-
virus cases for the third
straight day. As India
witnessed a huge spike
in COVID-19 count this
week, the doubling rate
worsens. On Tuesday,
the health ministry re-
ported a doubling rate
of 12 days. The doubling
rate of the novel coro-
navirus infections in
India has reduced to 9.9
days in last one week,
health minister said.
India’s fatality rate
continued to be around
3.3%, he added. As
many as 1,981 people
died due to coronavi-
rus infection in India
since outbreak. West
Bengal recorded the
worst fatality rate in
the country. Out of
1,678 coronavirus pa-
tients, 160 succumbed
to death in the state.
On a brighter side, In-
dia improved its recov-
ery rate. Around 29.9%
of total cases, 17,847 peo-
ple, were cured from in-
fection. —ANI
PREPARED FOR WORST, SAYS HEALTH MINISTER
New Delhi: The Minis-
try of Health and Fam-
ily Welfare (MoHFW)
on Friday released
fresh guidelines and
policy for discharging
the COVID-19 patients.
The new guidelines
had cut short the num-
berof dayspatientsneed
to stay in a COVID facil-
ity or hospital for mild
and moderate cases.
According to the new
guidelines, COVID-19
patients with mild and
moderate cases are to
be discharged after 10
days of symptoms, if
they either show no fe-
ver or the symptoms
subside within three
days. Further, there will
be no need for testing
prior to discharge.
Asregardsthepatients
who are discharged, the
health authorities will
follow up their cases on
14th day through tel-
econference, the Minis-
try said. —ANI
Fresh guidelines for patients: Ministry
New Delhi: Delhi
Health Minister Satyen-
dra Jain on Saturday
said that some data mis-
match was found in few
COVID-19 reports of a
private lab and govern-
ment is looking into it.
“Some data mis-
match was found in 2-3
reports of the lab so we
are getting it checked,”
said Satyandra Jain,
Delhi Health Minister
on being asked about
discrepancies in test re-
ports of a private lab.
He also said that the
government has or-
dered to deliver COV-
ID-19 reports of each
and every case on time.
“The government has
made it mandatory to
deliver the reports
within 24 hours. So,
that immediate action
is taken,” he said.
The ICMR has ex-
panded the list of pri-
vate labs performing
real-time RT-PCR COV-
ID-19 test in the nation-
al capital from eight to
thirteen labs. —ANI
Beijing: A two-week
course of an antiviral
therapy, started within
seven days of experienc-
ing COVID-19 symp-
toms,mayimproveclini-
cal recovery of patients
and reduce their hospi-
talstayduration,accord-
ing to the first ran-
domised trial of this
tripledrugcombination.
The study, published
in the journal The Lan-
cet, involved 127 adults
from six public hospi-
tals in Hong Kong, and
tested the effectiveness
of an antiviral drug
combination in reduc-
ing the load of the
novel coronavirus in
their bodies.
According to re-
searchers from Univer-
sity of Hong Kong,
treatment involving
combination of drugs
interferon beta-1b, plus
the antiviral therapy
lopinavir-ritonavir and
ribavirin, is better at
reducing the viral load
than lopinavir-ritona-
vir alone. —ANI
‘Mismatch in
reports of
pvt lab will
be checked’
‘New antiviral
drug combo
promising to
treat Corona’
Lucknow: Uttar
Pradesh Chief Minister
Yogi Adityanath on Sat-
urday held a COVID-19
review meeting with
chairpersons of 11 com-
mittees.
Earlier on May 7,
Yogi had directed offi-
cials to prepare an ex-
tensive action plan for
the employment of mi-
grants. Addressing a
high-level lockdown re-
view meeting at his of-
ficial residence, Adity-
anath said that details
of industrial units be-
ing run and employ-
ment provided to people
through them should be
documented.—ANI
CM Yogi holds review meet
New Delhi: In yet an-
other escalation of the
war of words between
the Centre and the West
Bengal government,
Union Home Minister
Amit Shah has written
to CM Mamata Baner-
jee alleging that her
regime was not cooper-
ating over migrant
workers’ issue.
In his letter to Mama-
ta, Home Minister stat-
ed that Bengal govt is
not allowing trains car-
rying migrant workers
to reach the state,
which may further cre-
ate hardship for the la-
bourers. In his letter,
Shah said not allowing
trains to reach West
Bengal is “injustice” to
the migrant workers
from the state.
Home Minister said,
“But we are not getting
expected support from
the West Bengal. The
state governmentof West
Bengalisnotallowingthe
trains reaching to West
Bengal. This is injustice
with West Bengal mi-
grant labourers. This
will create further hard-
ship for them,” Shah
wrote in his letter to
TMC chief. —Agencies
SHAH WRITES TO MAMATA
‘WB govt not
allowing trains
reach state’ Amaravati: Former
Andhra CM & TDP
chief N Chandrababu
Naidu wrote a letter to
PM Modi, requesting a
scientific probe into Vi-
zag gas leak incident.
Naidu has asked for
the constitution of a
Scientific Experts’
Committee to enquire
into the gas leakage and
the circumstances that
led to the release of tox-
ic vapours/gases. “The
company claims that
the gas leaked out was
Styrene, however, there
were conflicting reports
of other toxic gases be-
ing present there, it
needs to be investigated
to understand the en-
during health impacts,”
read his letter.
He has requested
that close monitoring
of the ambient air
quality in and around
Visakhapatnam city
must also be done.
“Roping in National
and International
health-experts for
health assessment &
thus taking immediate
and long-term health
measures. This assess-
ment would be helpful
in giving compensa-
tion,” it reads further.
Naidu writes to
PM, requests
scientific probe
VIZAG GAS LEAK INCIDENT
New Delhi: The AAP
government has told
Delhi HC that ade-
quate ration was be-
ing provided to Roh-
ingya families at
three camps in south
and north east parts
of the city during the
coronavirus-induced
lockdown.
The submission was
made by the Delhi gov-
ernment before a
bench of Justices
Manmohan and San-
jeev Narula, which
was hearing a plea
seeking immediate re-
lief for the Rohingya
families at settlements
in Khajuri Khas in
north east Delhi and
in south Delhi.
Delhi government
additional standing
counsel Sanjoy Ghose
and advocate Urvi Mo-
han also told the court
that four hunger cen-
tres were being run
near the settlements
mentioned in the plea.
The bench, howev-
er, noted that the peti-
tioner had not given
any specific particu-
lars of the neglect
faced by these fami-
lies and had only
made general allega-
tions in the represen-
tations sent to
authorities. —PTI
‘Giving ration to Rohingya refugees’
New Delhi: Tighten-
ing the noose around
the Congress-promot-
ed Associated Jour-
nals Limited (AJL),
the ED y said that it
has attached a part of
its assets in Maha-
rashtra’’s Mumbai
amounting to Rs 16
crore in its probe into
the money launder-
ing case.
The ED said that it
attached assets worth
Rs 16.38 crore of a
nine storey building
with two basements
in Mumbai’s Bandra
East belonging to
AJL. It said the attach-
ment order was issued
against AJL & its
chairman Motial Lal
Vora,whoisaRSmem-
ber of Congress. —ANI
New Delhi: CPI(M)
leader Brinda Karat
has approached the
Delhi HC seeking an
early hearing in her
plea for directions to
police to make public
the list of people ar-
rested in connection
with communal vio-
lence in northeast
Delhi in February
this year.
The application for
preponing the date of
hearingPILislikelyto
be listed on May 12.
The main petition,
which has sought that
a list of those arrested
beputupoutsidepolice
stations in the district,
should be updated on a
case-by-case basis. It is
listed for hearing on
June 16. —ANI
ED ATTACHES PROPERTY
OF AJL WORTH `16 CR
BRINDA KARAT MOVES
HC OVER EARLY HEARING
NATIONAL HERALD CASE DELHI VIOLENCE
UP CONG STARTS CHAT PORTAL TO
REACH OUT TO PEOPLE, MIGRANTS
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh
Congress has launched
a chat portal ‘UP Mitra’
to help migrant workers
and common man in the
coronavirus crisis. UP
Congress chief Ajay Ku-
mar Lallu said people can
go to the chat portal and
mention their problems.
“Through this chat portal
problems of common
people will be listed and
the UPCC will help them
as much as possible,”
Lallu said. He said a list
of the problems will be
sent to CM so that the
government also provides
help. People stranded in
various states in the crisis
need help. state unit will
publicize the chat portal
link - https://tinyurl.com/
UPmitra - through social
media, etc.
EX-C’GARH JOGI SUFFERS
CARDIAC ARREST, ON VENTILATOR
Raipur: Former Chhattisgarh CM Ajit Jogi was
rushed to Naraina hospital in Raipur after he
collapsed in his home garden on Saturday. Soon
after, doctors were called and efforts were made
to resuscitate him. Thereafter, he was moved
to the hospital at 12:30 pm. He is said to have
suffered a cardiac arrest. According to medical
bulletin, the 74-year-old leader is on ventilator
support as his breathing is still irregular. Doctors
say his condition is “serious”. His son, Amit Jogi,
also described Jogi’s condition as serious.
DELHI COP RECOVERS FROM
COVID-19, REJOINS DUTY
New Delhi: A Delhi police constable who had
contracted the coronavirus last month, has
recovered from the infection. As per an official re-
lease, the constable was discharged from Apollo
Hospital after he tested negative for the infection
twice in a row. The cop posted at PP Sriniwaspuri
was deployed at Okhla mandi for crowd control
and for maintaining social distancing during the
lockdown. On April 25, he himself was found
COVID-19 positive. After getting discharged, the
constable rejoined duty on Saturday.
TS POLICE TO ROLL OUT AI-BASED
SYSTEM TO TRACK VIOLATERS
Hyderabad: After the govt
of Telangana decided to
slap a fine of Rs 1,000
for not wearing masks at
public places, the police
of Hyderabad City, Cyber-
abad, are all set to track
the violators with the help
of artificial intelligence
(AI). “The enforcement
of the norm through
AI-driven system will
initially be implemented in
Hyderabad City, Cyber-
abad, and Rachakonda
area within the next two
to three days. It will later
be extended to entire Tel-
angana,” Anil Kumar, ACP
said. He said that lever-
aging computer vision &
deep learning techniques
being implemented on
surveillance CCTVs across
the cities is the first of its
kind in India.
IN THE COURTYARD
Raipur: Chhattisgarh
Chief Minister Bhu-
pesh Baghel on Friday
wrote to Prime Min-
ister Narendra Modi
demanding Rs 30,000
crore package for the
state for the upcoming
three months to miti-
gate economic crisis
induced by COVID-19
outbreak. Further, he
has urged the Prime
Minister to release
Rs 10, 000 crores
immediately, out of the
total amount,” read the
letter by Baghel.
Kolkata: Nitaidas
Mukherjee, a 52-year-
old resident of south
Kolkata who trumped
Covid-19 after being
on a ventilator for 38
days, returned home
to a hero’s welcome by
his neighbours.Doc-
tors said that it was a
remarkable feat by the
hospital authorities
and nothing less than
a miracle, because a
Corona patient remain-
ing on a ventilator
for so long has little
chance of survival.
Dr Harsh Vardhan
Medics check a patient who has completed mandatory 14-days
of quarantine before discharge at a hospital in New Delhi.
CM Yogi holds COVID19 review meet with chairpersons of 11 panels.
VIEWPOINT THE INCIDENT
C’GARH CM
SEEKS RS 30,000
CR PACKAGE
KOLKATA MAN,
1ST INDIAN TO
BEAT COVID-19
ITBP STAFF +VE

INDIAAHMEDABAD | SUNDAY, MAY 10, 2020
TWO SUPREME COURT JUDGES
TO RETIRE THIS YEAR
Three Supreme Court vacancies for judges will
emerge this year with retirement of Justice Arun
Kumar Mishra on September 2, 2020 and Justice
R Bhanumathi on July 19, 2020.
WHAT IS THE CADRE STRENGTH OF IFS?
The present Indian Foreign Service cadre strength
stands at approx 850 officers manning around
193 Indian missions and posts abroad and vari-
ous posts in the Home Ministry.
CK MISHRA DUE TO RETIRE IN MAY
Chandra Kishore Mishra, Secretary, Ministry of
Environment, Forest & Climate Change, is retiring
on May 31, 2020. He is a 1983 batch IAS officer
of Bihar cadre.
TENURE OF TDSAT’ CHAIRPERSON
SK SINGH ENDS ON JUNE 30
The tenure of Telecom Disputes Settlement and
Appellate Tribunal Chairperson, Justice Shiva
Kirti Singh is ending on June 30, 2020.
SINGHAL TO RETIRE IN JUNE
LB Singhal is schedule to retire in June this year.
He is a 1986 batch India Trade Service (ITS) of-
ficer and posted as Development Commissioner,
SEZ , Noida.
CALCUTTA HC STILL SHORT
OF 23 PERMANENT JUDGES
The Calcutta High Court still has vacancy for 23
permanent Judges as on May 1, 2020.
10 ITS OFFICERS TRANSFERRED
DOT HAS TRANSFERRED
10 JAG Indian Telecom Service(ITS) officers.
Accordingly, Neelesh Srivastava is going to Bho-
pal,MP LSA , Neeraj Singhal SA Wing , DoT hq,
udhdhi Prakash Meena to join Skill Development
unit at DoT hq, Arvind Kumar Mishra, UP(East)
LSA, Brij Mohan Setia, HP LSA, Ravindra Prasad,
Dierctor(PSU-I), DoT hq,Vikas Agrawal, SP-
PI,DoT Hq, G Sresh Reddy, Hyderabad, AP LSA,
Shaik Mujib Pasha, Hyderabad AP LSA and Robin
Adawal joins at AS Wing DoT hq.
ECI IN SEARCH OF OFFICER
FOR DIRECTOR (DE)
The Election Commission of India (ECI) is in
search of officer for the post of Director (Election
Expenditure) on deputation basis.
IQBAL SINGH CHAHAL IS NEW BMC
COMMISSIONER, MUMBAI
Iqbal Singh Chahal has been appointed as
Commissioner, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corpo-
ration (BMC). He is a 1989 batch Maharashtra
cadre IAS officer.
NIMBALKAR IS NEW PWD SECRETARY
IN MAHARASHTRA
Maharashtra Relief and Rehabilitation Secretary
Kishorraje Nimbalkar has been transferred as
Public Works Department Secretary.
MANOJ SAUNIK IS NEW ADDITIONAL
CS, FINANCE IN MAHARASHTRA
Manoj Saunik has been made Additional CS, Fi-
nance Department, Maharashtra. He was looking
after Public Works and Finance Departments. He
is a1987 batch IAS officer of Maharashtra cadre.
BMC COMMISSIONER. PRAVEEN
PARDESHI MADE ADDL CS UDD
Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)
Commissioner Praveen Pardeshi has been, amidst
fighting a pandemic, transferred as additional CS in
Urban Development department (UDD).He is a
1985 batch IAS officer of Maharashtra cadre.
ARVIND KUMAR IS BACK
TO MADHYA PRADESH
After completion of central deputation period
Arvind Kumar is back to the parent Madhya
Pradesh cadre. He is a 1988 batch IPS officer.
POWERGallery
With 23...
to private practitioners
for not keeping out-pa-
tient departments open.
In rural Ahmed-
abad’s Dholka taluka,
the number of cases
has increased to 39.
So, the district ad-
ministration has de-
clared Dholka town
as a buffer zone and
restricted movement
of people.
A couple from Jun-
agadh who illegally
reached Morbi, which
has no active cases, have
been quaratined by the
administration.Similar-
ly, the Junagadh admin-
istration has also be-
come more strict: 10 Ja-
matis, who entered the
district from Surat with
permission, were given
health check-ups and
put under quarantine.
A 3.5-year-old tod-
dlerdefeatedCOVID-19
in Surat’s Olpad area.
She was discharged
from the hospital, and
received a warm wel-
come home. Two nurs-
ing staff working at the
Surat Municipal Corpo-
ration-run hospital
have been infected and
are under treatment.
Two Indians...
(arrival at 1830 hours),
Muscat to Cochin (arriv-
al at 2050 hours) and
Sharjah to Lucknow (ar-
rival at 2050 hours), Ku-
waittoCochin(arrivalat
2115 hrs), Kuala Lumpur
to Trichy (arrival at 2140
hours), London to Mum-
bai(arrivalat0130hours
on May 10) and Doha to
Cochin (arrival at 0140
hours on May 10). The
flight from Dubai to
Chennai arrived earlier
today in the night.
‘Aarogya Setu...
“The Aarogya Setu App
alerted the government
about more than 650
hotspots across the
country and over 300
emerging hotspots
which could have been
missed otherwise. It
gives accurate forecast
of hotspots and it is also
preventing the origin of
newer hotspots. The en-
gine has generated in-
credible insights and
impact with precise
projections of locality,
direction and velocity
of the spread of infec-
tion,” he said.
The Niti Ayog chief
informed that so far
around 69 million peo-
ple have taken the
self-assessment test, an
adoption rate of more
than 71 per cent, out of
which, over 3.4 million
people have self-de-
clared themselves as
unwell since they were
showing one or more
than three symptoms.
With this, a dedicated
team of over 70 health-
care workers have
reached to people who
displayed two or more
than two symptoms of
COVID-19.
“This is how a dedi-
cated team of more than
70 healthcare workers
have reached out to
about 650,000 people
who showed two or
more symptoms. More
than 16,000 people have
been administered fol-
low-up tele-consultation
by doctors,” he said.
About 8,500 people
have tested from the set
of people assessed as
high-risk and of which
more than 23 per cent
have tested COVID-19
positive so far giving an
extraordinary testing
accuracy.
Theefficacyof testing
recommendedbyAarog-
ya Setu is much higher
than any testing proto-
col anywhere in the
world and it manifolds
higher than the current
overall efficacy of test-
ing in India, Kant said.
The Aarogya Setu
app is available in 12
different languages and
soon it is set to expand
to all 22 scheduled Indi-
an languages, the Niti
Aayog CEO added. —ANI
‘Trump may...
Nearly 500,000 migrant
workers are employed
in the US in the H-1B
status. “The president’s
immigration advisers
are drawing up plans for
a coming executive or-
der,expectedthismonth,
that would ban the issu-
anceof somenewtempo-
rary, work-based visas,”
The Wall Street Journal
reported on Friday.
“Theorderisexpected
to focus on visa catego-
ries including H-1B, de-
signed for highly skilled
workers, and H-2B, for
seasonal migrant work-
ers, as well as student
visas and the work au-
thorization that accom-
panies them, it said.
More than 33 million
Americans have lost
their jobs in the last two
months due to the coro-
navirus pandemic that
has brought the US
economy to a standstill.
IMF and World Bank
have projected a nega-
tive growth rate for the
country. White House
officials say that the US
economy is likely to
grow at negative 15 to 20
per cent in the second
quarter. —ANI
FROM PG 1
New Delhi: Union
Minister for Minori-
ty Affairs Mukhtar
Abbas Naqvi said
here that more than
1,500 Health Care As-
sistants, who have
been trained under
skill development pro-
gramme of Minority
Affairs Ministry, are
assisting in treatment
and well-being of pa-
tients affected by the
coronavirus disease
(COVID-19)
Naqvi said here that
50% of these Health
Care Assistants include
girls who are helping in
the treatment of the vi-
rus-affected patients in
various hospitals and
health care centres
across the country. This
year, more than 2,000
other Health Care As-
sistants will be trained
by the Minority Affairs
Ministry as it is provid-
ing one-year training to
Health Care Assistants
through various health
organisations and re-
puted hospitals of the
country.
Naqvi said that dif-
ferent waqf boards
across the country have
contributed Rs 51 crore
in the Prime Minister
and Chief Minister’s
relief funds for the
COVID-19 pandemic
with the support of
various religious, so-
cial and educational
organisations. Besides,
these waqf boards are
also distributing food
and other essential
commodities among
the needy.
The minister further
said that as many as 16
Haj Houses across the
country have been giv-
en to state governments
for quarantine and iso-
lation facilities for
COVID-19 affected peo-
ple. Various state gov-
ernments are utilising
the facilities at these
Haj Houses according
to their needs.
Naqvi informed that
Aligarh Muslim Uni-
versity has contributed
Rs 1.40 crore in “PM-
CARES” fund. AMU
Medical College has
also arranged around
100 beds for treatment
of the coronavirus-af-
fected patients. —ANI
Minoritiescontributingin
fighting Corona: Naqvi
As many as 16 Haj Houses across the country have been given
to state govts for quarantine facilities, the Union Minister said
Kochi: Woman power
came to the fore as the
massive exercise to
evacuate Indian citi-
zens stranded abroad in
various countries con-
tinued on Saturday
with two flights to Ma-
laysia and Oman being
helmed by women. Two
women-Captain Kavi-
tha Rajkumar and Cap-
tain Bindhu Sebastian-
commanded the Air In-
dia Express flights op-
erated from Tiruchira-
palli and Kochi to Kuala
Lumpur and Muscat
respectively to bring
back Indians stuck
there due to the lock-
down in place to contain
the corona spread. —ANI
New Delhi: HRD Min-
ister Ramesh Pokhri-
yal said that 3,000 CBSE
schools in
the coun-
try have
been se-
lected as
e v a l u a -
tion cen-
tres from
where more than 1.5
crore answer sheets
will be sent for evalua-
tion to teachers. “3,000
CBSE schools have been
selected as evaluation
centres. From these
centres, more than 1.5
cr answer sheets will be
sent for evaluation to
the homes of teachers,”
Pokhriyal said. —ANI
Women power
to the fore in
evacuation
CBSE schools
are evaluation
centres: Min
Chandigarh: Notching
another major success
against Pakistan-spon-
sored narco-terrorism
networks in the coun-
try, the Punjab Police
on Saturday morning,
arrested Ranjeet Singh
@ Rana @ Cheeta, a big
fish in the ISI-con-
trolled network, with
links to Hizbul Mujahi-
deen commander Nai-
koo who was killed by
security forces in Kash-
mir recently.
With more than 10
criminal cases against
him, Ranjeet was one
of the a key links in the
network engaged in
smuggling of large
number of composite
consignments of drugs
and illegal weapons
through the Indo-Pak
border through the le-
gal land route of ICP
Attari and also across
the border fencing on
Indo-Pak border in
Punjab and J&K. He
was also wanted for
bringing in 532 kg of
heroin and 52 kg of
mixed narcotics, worth
over Rs 2700 crores,
from Pakistan in a con-
signment of 600 bags of
rock salt, through Inte-
grated Check Post, At-
tari (Amritsar) on 29th
June, 2019.
AnnouncingRanjeet’s
arrest, along with that
of his brother Gaga-
ndeep @ Bhola, from
Sirsa, Haryana, CMCap-
tain Amarinder Singh
lauded the Punjab Po-
lice for their aggressive
operations against ter-
rorists and drug smug-
glers despite of curfew
to contain the spread of
Covid. —Agencies
Hizbul’s Punjab terror-funding module busted
Ranjeet was one of the a key links in the network engaged in smuggling drugs & illegal weapons.
Kolkata: Accusing Un-
ion Home Minister
Amit Shah of “lying”
in his letter to West
Bengal Chief Minister
Mamata Banerjee on
the issue of return of
migrants, the ruling
Trinamool Congress
on Saturday said that
he should retract or
apologise.
Senior Trinamool
Congress leader Derek
O’’Brien said Shah
never sent any commu-
nication on facilitating
the state administra-
tion to bring back Ben-
gal’’s migrants from
other states.
O’’Brien, Trinamool
chief national spokes-
person and Rajya Sab-
ha MP, said: “I have let-
ters for different states
sent between May 3
and May 7. Shah has
made accusations
against the state gov-
ernment. Everything
that he said is a lie.
Stop doing your divi-
sive politics. You either
retract your letter, or
apologise for what you
have done,” he told the
media through video-
conference.
O’Brien said that he
had got letters from
other states that were
sent by the Union Home
Minister.
“These states are Tel-
egana, Karnataka and
Tamil Nadu to whom
the Ministry of Home
Affairs had sent official
communications so
that they can bring
back their migrant
workers stranded in
other states,” senior
TMC leader O’Brien
said. —Agencies
Shahlyingonmigrants’issue:TMC
Mumbai: The NCP is
likely to field its Maha-
rashtra unit vice presi-
dent Shashikant Shin-
de and another leader
Amol Mitkari as its
candidates for the up-
coming state Legisla-
tive Council election,
party sources said on
Saturday.
The election for the
nine legislative council
seats is due on May 21
and the last date for fil-
ing of nominations is
May 11.
The electoral college
(for the election) is
288-member Maharash-
tra Assembly.
The sources said that
the NCP and ally Shiv
Sena, which have 54 and
56 seats respectively,
will contest two seats
each in the election,
where securing 29 votes
(of MLAs) can see a
candidate sail through.
The Congress (44
MLAs) is in a position
to bag one seat, but is
insisting on consisting
one more seat with the
help of the NCP and
Shiv Sena.
“The NCP has final-
ised the names of for-
mer state minister
Shinde and Mitkari,
who had campaigned
hard for the party in
the Assembly election
held last year,” the
sources said. —Agencies
NCP may field
Shinde, Mitkari
Maha CM Uddhav Thackeray (C) with NCP leader Ramraje Naik
Nimbalkar (R) and Legislative Assembly speaker Nana Patole.
TACKLING TERROR
I humbly request our @PMOIndia Shri.
Narendra Modi ji to intervene in this
matter by talking to the CMs of the
respective states who are not allowing
these people to come back home.
—Sharad Pawar, Nationalist Congress Party leader
THE MOVE

TALKING POINTAHMEDABAD | SUNDAY, MAY 10, 2020
BENEFITS OF
LOCKDOWN
midst all sorts of
speculations go-
ing around that
India’s economy
is on a downslide
because of the COVID-19
lockdown amounting to huge
economic losses, is there any
way through which it can be
said that the lockdown has
also resulted in some bene-
fits? The answer is yes, and
‘Shadow Benefits’ are one
among them. Economists
have this strange but yet very
powerful way of looking at
things from the lens of oppor-
tunity cost and Shadow ben-
efits. Opportunity cost is
based on the concept of ben-
efits foregone while looking
at the cost of undertaking an
activity. For example, while
the benefits of lockdown lie
in the number of COVID-19
cases being averted which
could have been there other-
wise, and consequently re-
sulting into the proportionate
cost on health care, including
extremity from the number
of deaths, the cost of lock-
down is estimated in terms of
economic activities lost and
hardships caused to the poor.
The Shadow benefits arise
from those activities which
are not directly transacted in
the market and hence their
valuation is not easy to ascer-
tain. However, Shadow bene-
fits are generally of tremen-
dous value and they form the
core of what we do and expect
to achieve. For example, in
the absence of our perception
of large ecological benefits
(which are not so easily meas-
urable), very few trees will be
planted. Most often such
goods generate ‘shared value’
and tend to define the quality
of living in present and how
we are likely to live in the fu-
ture. The failure of GDP
(gross domestic product) to
capture all such Shadow ben-
efits makes it an insufficient
and inappropriate measure
of growth, rather measures
that did not include Shadow
benefits tended to create more
problems for humanity. A lot
has been written about GDP
as an insufficient measure of
growth, so much so that a
country like Bhutan has re-
placed GDP with a more holis-
tic measure of growth called
Gross National Happiness
(GNH). Indeed, happiness is
one such ‘Shadow Benefit’
which growth must produce.
Obviously, amidst this lock-
down, the Indian economy
has come to a halt. The indus-
tries have stopped produc-
tion, the movement of goods
and services has hampered
which eventually has put a
detrimental impact on India’s
economic growth. While the
whole world is talking about
the negative side of lock-
down, there is also a positive
side to it. These non-quantifi-
able positive benefits have
been classified as ‘Shadow
Benefits of Lockdown’, as ex-
plained below:
INDIA’S ECONOMY IS ON A DOWNSLIDE BECAUSE OF THE LOCKDOWN AMOUNTING TO HUGE ECONOMIC LOSSES, IS
THERE ANY WAY THROUGH WHICH IT CAN BE SAID THAT THE LOCKDOWN HAS ALSO RESULTED IN SOME BENEFITS?
DR PRABHAT
PANKAJ
Director, Jaipuria Institute
of Management, Jaipur
DR VARUN
CHOTIA
Faculty, Jaipuria Institute
of Management, Jaipur
During normal times, all
the industrial hubs op-
erating in India were con-
tributing to a hazardous
air-pollution level which
was impacting every
citizen’s health. Added to
this, was the high move-
ment of vehicles that peo-
ple would use daily to go
to their workplaces. Now,
because of this lockdown,
the pollution levels have
come down drastically
as production in local in-
dustries has gone down.
Further, almost the whole
of the service industry
in India is working from
home which means no
movement of vehicles
on the streets. This has
also lead to reducing the
pollution levels across
all major cities of India.
As per certain reports,
the Real-Time Air Quality
Index is now classified as
‘good’ in many metro-
politan cities of India,
meaning that air quality
is satisfactory and poses
little or no risk. Reduced
pollution and better air
quality augur well for the
physical as well as mental
health and well-being of
India’s population.
During this lockdown
period, another posi-
tive impact is the reduc-
tion in corruption and
crime in India. Because
of restricted movement,
there is hardly any
scope that exists for any
sort of corruption and
crime.
BENEFITS
Better air quality has con-
siderable economic im-
pacts in terms of reduced
medical costs, increasing
workers’ productivity, and
fewer chances of damage
to soil, crops, forests,
lakes, and rivers. Overall,
the ecological balance
improves, and most
importantly the reduced
carbon emissions help to
tackle the bigger issue of
climate change. One of
the recent studies showed
that the earth’s ozone
layer is healing because
of the overall fall in the
global pollution levels. As
per OECD’s estimation of
outdoor pollution cost, it
may range up to 1% of
global GDP. It looks like
that a 10% reduction in
concentrations of par-
ticulate matter (PM 2.5)
and ground-level ozone
will result in tremendous
welfare gain, which
otherwise could have cost
several millions of dollars
to achieve.
BENEFITS
Fall in corruption and
crime is yet another very
strong Shadow benefit of
lockdown. Studies have
confirmed that the causal-
ity between corruption,
crime, and GDP is highly
negative. Tentatively
speaking, the gain in
GDP due to steep fall
in corruption and crime
could be in several million
dollars. The cost saved
which may have been
required to reduce cor-
ruption and crime to such
a low level would have
really been very large.
Overall, from a holistic
view, all these factors
point to the fact that yes
there is a positive side
too to this lockdown and
all the above discussed
Shadow benefits need to
be considered while the
economic trajectory of
the Indian economy is
being forecasted. Obvi-
ously, being optimistic
and taking into account
the economic value of the
above mentioned Shadow
benefits of this lockdown,
the concerns about a pos-
sible recession should be
discarded. Once the lock-
down period ends, there is
absolutely surety that each
and every citizen of India
shall resume services with
full zeal and compassion,
which shall ultimately lead
to the rebound of the In-
dian economy and result-
ing economic growth. Any
shortfall in GDP percent
growth due to lockdown
will have to be looked
at from GDP + Shadow
Benefits which has the
potentiality of making our
nation much more livable
and lovable.
BENEFITS
Because of social
distancing, people are
spending more time at
home with their respec-
tive families. This is
leading to more affinity
among families, hence
moving towards stronger
‘emotional bonding’, and
the creation of stronger
‘social capital’. The emo-
tional affinity helps to
improve the mental well-
being of citizens and they
tend to be happier. Social
capital as reflected in a
combination of cognitive
and structural factors
such as interpersonal
trust of citizens, good
governance, etc, tends to
affect GDP positively and
reduce inequality.
The feeling of national
solidarity and brother-
hood has been revamped
and this augurs well for
the future of our nation.
Once the lockdown
will be over and the
situation will be back to
normal, then every one
of us would go back
fully charged into our
jobs and add value to
the maximum of our
abilities. The economic
productivity of India is
surely going to get a
major boost at that time.
BENEFITS
Explaining the effect of video
calling on participants, some
researchers found out that
people tend to experience
higher happiness levels after
they see each other. These
studies have been found
quoting that “As soon as it
goes down to just voice, peo-
ple aren’t unhappy, but they
talk for slightly less time, they
laugh less, they are slightly
less happy afterward”. This
shows that happiness levels
increase immensely when
people are working from
home through video calling.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT LESS CORRUPTION AND CRIMEDuring these times of
lockdown, ‘Social
distancing’ is being
promoted in order to
stop the chain of virus
spread. Social dis-
tancing, or physical
distancing, is a set of
non-pharmaceutical
interventions or meas-
ures taken to prevent
the spread of this
contagious disease by
maintaining a physi-
cal distance between
people and reducing the
number of times people
come into close contact
with each other. By
reducing the probability
that a given uninfected
person will come into
physical contact with
an infected person, the
disease transmission
can be suppressed, re-
sulting in fewer deaths.
For this coronavirus
pandemic, the World
Health Organization
(WHO) suggested the
reference to “physi-
cal” as an alternative to
“social”, in keeping with
the notion that it is a
physical distance which
prevents transmission;
people can remain
socially connected via
technology.
Due to the lockdown,
almost everyone
in the service industry
is working from home
(WFH). During WFH,
video calling becomes
one important element
that can’t be ignored.
Each and every one of
us has to communicate
with peers and that is
where video calling and
face to face interaction
through various ap-
plications come into the
picture.
SOCIAL DISTANCING LEADING TO
EMOTIONAL BONDING
WORK FROM HOME AND EFFECTS OF
VIDEO CALLING ON HAPPINESS
A

A Mother is the brick and the
mortar of life. She is the
foundation and also the roof. She
gives us roots of strength and wings to fly.
—Jagdeesh Chandra, CEO & Editor, First India
AHMEDABAD | SUNDAY, MAY 10, 2020www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
08
2NDFRONT
CABINET
EXPANSION
BEFORE MONSOON
Rumors are rife by
sources close to
PMOthatbeforethenext
monsoon session of the
Parliament, PM Modi
could provide a few new
faces to his cabinet. A
major change in bureau-
cracy in the last week of
April is point in this di-
rection. If sources are to
be believed, Bihar CM
NitishKumariscontinu-
ously pressurising Cen-
tre to include JDU in
cabinet. Assembly elec-
tionsarescheduledtooc-
cur at the end of the cur-
rent year and Nitish is
thus hoping to get his
men in the central gov-
ernment. On the other
hand, the recent bureau-
cratic shuffle has also
givenanindicationtothe
ministers that were fly-
ing high. PM Modi has
further increased the
height of the political
sky. For example, more
than Health Minister Dr
Harshvardhan its minis-
try spokesperson Luv
Agarwal and Secretary
PritiSudanwhoareseen
as compared to the min-
ister. Sudan has been
given a three month ex-
tension as well so that
when the new Secretary
takes over, they are pro-
vided a clean slate and
any ‘wrong doing’ re-
garding Corona can be
attributed to former offi-
cial. It is being said that
RajeshBhushan,serving
as OSD in Health and
FamilyWelfareMinistry,
could take Sudan’s spot.
The transfer of Arvind
Kumar Sharma, from
PMO to Secretary
MSME, is touted to be a
move to balance Gadka-
ri’s popularity. Similarly,
another IAS - Giridhar
Aramane - for whom it is
said that he does only
what he feels right and
doesnotlistentoanyone,
has been posted in an-
other ministry handled
by Gadkari. Those who
are hoping to become a
minister have been en-
gaged in ‘Shirshasana’
before the saffron high
command. Jyotiraditya
Scindia, who has been
brought into BJP’s fold
and has been sent to RS,
has good chances of be-
comingaminister.Young
Congress leaders like
Sachin Pilot and Milind
Deora are being lured in.
Rajya Sabha MP from
Madhya Pradesh and
lawyer Vivek Tankha is
also known to have good
relations with BJP. Even
Abhishek Manu Singhvi
has tried to open a route
for himself in BJP by
claiming Madhav Rao
Scindia to be his mentor.
All in all, Modi cabinet’s
nextexpansioncouldsee
faces whose names are
nowhere to be heard.
WHERE IS BJP’S
‘CHANAKYA’?
Hehasaspecialtalent
for riding the waves
of news. He is the only
ministerof Modigovern-
ment who stays in the
news on his own will,
mends the news and
when needed also gives
‘sustenance’ to ‘new
seeds’. During the past
few days, social media
went viral with news re-
lated to Amit Shah’s
health, however putting
an end to all these ru-
mours, Shah was seen
chairing an important
meetingondisasterman-
agement related to Vizag
Gas leak. If sources are
to be believed, Shah has
full knowledge of his po-
litical weight, so these
days he has been in-
volved in bringing his
body weight down.
Sources reveal that he is
exercising for three
hours in this time of
lockdown and has only
fruits and vegetables to
eat. Hence he has lost
weight too. Along with
keeping an eye on Coro-
na, he has focused his
gaze on Rajasthan and
Maharashtratoo.Rumor
mills are rife about
SachinPilotinRajasthan
and Shah has already
played a hand with Raj
Thackeray who is busy
devising a plan to bifur-
cate Shiv Sena. It is be-
lievedthatVivekTankha
from Madhya Pradesh is
also in contact with him
as is Milind Deora from
Maharashtra. Since due
to lockdown, Shah has
notbeenabletogettohis
home in Ahmedabad for
a long time, so he wel-
comed a new member to
his family in the form of
recently born grand-
daughter through video
calling. Interestingly on
Saturday, four muslim
men were arrested by
Ahmedabad police for
spreading a photo-
shopped tweet of Shah
claiming that he was suf-
fering from bone cancer.
Shah took to Twitter to
removeanydoubtsabout
his health and said that
he was hale and hearty.
WILL INDIA BE A
HUB FOR
MANUFACTURING?
There is no one like
Moditohittheballat
the opportune moment.
OnUSPrez’srequest,the
manner in which India
supplied Paracetamol
and HCQ tablets with
open arms, has changed
America’s approach.
Sourcesclaimmorethan
1,000companiesinvolved
in textiles, medical, food
processing, IT, Agro-
productsandmobilesare
seen leaning towards In-
dia. Several big Europe-
an and Japanese compa-
nies, who have been dis-
traught with China, are
looking towards India.
The Indian Missions sit-
uated in several nations
is also working to make
this into a positive devel-
opment by contacting
major corporate heads.
India has contested that
after China, it is biggest
market in South-East
Asia hence those compa-
nies who manufacture
goods in India, can get
them consumed here.
Govt has also asked CMs
to work on the lines to
lure in foreign compa-
nies. States likes Maha-
rashtraandGujarathave
alsobeengivensignalsin
this regard and Gujarat
CM Vijay Rupani have
also signaled that he has
reserved 1,000 hectare
landforthosecompanies
that want to shift their
manufacturing from
China to India. But the
rampantredtapeism,tax
policy, power tarrif and
labour policy is what is
keeping the companies
suspicious and hence In-
dia’s ambition is being
challenged by smaller
countries like Vietnam,
Taiwan and Thailand.
Few days back compa-
nies like Google and Mi-
crosoft shifted their mo-
bilemanufacturingunits
from China to Vietnam
since there is no red ta-
peism. The companies
investing in Vietnam are
askedjusttwoquestions,
first how much are they
investing and secondly
how many jobs will they
becreating?Ontheother
hand the Bhartiya Maz-
door Sangh has said in a
statement that it will not
let India become a hub
for cheap labour. The de-
cision has to be taken by
the India, collectively,
which roadmap we are
going to accept.
The author is a
journalist and political
commentator and views
expressed are his personal
FIRST INDIA SUNDAY SPECIAL
Jyotiraditya Scindia Sachin PilotNaredndra Modi
BY TRIDIB RAMAN
Amit Shah
Gujarat sends
over 2 lakh
people home
in nine days
4.3 intensity
quake jolts
Saurashtra
First India News
Gandhinagar: The Gu-
jarat Government has
facilitated the move-
ment of more than two
lakh migrant workers
since May 1 through
more than 180 Special
Shramik trains in the
country, which is the
highest in the country.
“We started with
just two trains in a
day, and have scaled
up the number to 50
now. We are working
closely with the Rail-
ways and the receiv-
ing states to arrange
for at least 50 special
trains every day for
the next few days,”
Additional Chief Sec-
retary (Labour & Em-
ployment) Vipul
Mittra said. This un-
precedented train
movement in a short
time in such a system-
atic manner “when our
offices are working at
one-third capacity is an
exceptional effort,” he
added.
First India News
Junagadh: An earth-
quake measuring 4.3 on
the Richter Scale hit
Gujarat Saturday after-
noon with tremors be-
ing felt at 3.36 pm, ac-
cording to the National
Center for Seismology.
NCS,thecentralnod-
al agency to monitor
seismic activity, said
the depth was meas-
ured up to 20 km. Mild
jolts were experienced
in Junagadh, Por-
bandar and Gir Som-
nath districts. There
was no news of any
damage till evening.
According to NCS,
normally tremors up to
4 to 4.9 on the Richter
scale could lead to
smashing of windows
and hanging frames
could fall off the walls.
Only last month, na-
tional capital New Del-
hi saw two mild earth-
quakes on two consecu-
tive days measuring 2.7
and 3.5 on the Richter
Scale. On both days, the
epicentre was the capi-
tal city itself.
After Vareli, angry workers clash with police in Hazira too
First India News
Surat: Desperate to go
back to their native plac-
es, hundreds of restless
migrant workers here
on Saturday clashed
with the Gujarat police
and even pelted stones
while the latter tried to
enforce the lockdown.
This is for the second
consecutive day that
such an incident oc-
curred after a similar
violent clash with para-
military forces in
Ahmedabad on Friday.
Morethan500work-
ers employed in indus-
trial units in the Hazi-
ra belt in Surat staged
a protest demanding
that the authorities
send them back to
their hometowns. The
protesters were large-
ly from Bihar and Ut-
tar Pradesh.
Police lobbed tear-
gas shells to disperse
the crowds. Nearly 60
migrant workers were
arrested on the charg-
es of unlawful assem-
bly and rioting. The
police are working on
identifying the rest of
the people who were
involved in organising
the protest.
“We told them that a
large number of work-
ers have (already) been
sent to their home states
by the government, and
similar arrangements
would be made for them
too,” Inspector HR
Brahmbhatt, based at
Ichhapore police sta-
tion, told reporters.
However, the angry
protesters allegedly
did not listen to the
police and pelted
stones at them.
“At around 8 am today,
around 500-1000 people
gathered here demand-
ing they be sent back to
their respective states.
Reasonable force was
used, around 55-60 were
arrested, and around 50-
60 have also been de-
tained,” Surat Joint
Commissioner of Police
DN Patel said.
Earlier in the week,
almost 1,000 migrant
workers staged a protest
in Vareli village on the
outskirts of Surat.
HUNGRY TIDE: RESTLESS
MIGRANTS ATTACK COPS
Patient booked for
rejoicing recovery
First India News
Godhra: The Godhra
police on Saturday
booked a Covid-19 re-
covered man and 10 oth-
ers as also another
group of 50 people for
allegedly gathering to
celebrate his return
from the hospital.
Godhra ‘B’ division po-
lice are investigating
the incident.
The recovered pa-
tient, who is in his
mid-40s, had arrived
back home on May 7
from GMERS hospital
in Gotri of Vadodara
where he had been un-
dergoing treatment for
14 days. The police
said that a group of
men, mostly neigh-
bours and friends of
the patient, gathered
near the Masjid-e-
Abrar in Voharvad
area of the city to
welcome him. Police
initiated a probe
when it learnt about
the gathering and
booked 11 persons
who have been identi-
fied. Fifty others were
also booked for as-
sembling despite pro-
hibitory orders being
in place, in view of
the lockdown, but
they are yet to be
identified.
Migrants once again clash with police in Surat on Saturday.
Paramilitary women patrol streets in PPE kits under scorching
sun in Ahmedabad.
At around 8 am today, around
500-1000 people gathered here de-
manding they be sent back to their
respective states. Reasonable force was used,
around 55-60 were arrested, and around
50-60 have also been detained.
—DN Patel, Surat Joint Commissioner of Police
@ahmedpatel
I request the govt
to constitute a
multimodal agency
under a senior
Cabinet Minister
to oversee relief &
rescue of migrants.
If need be even
support of Armed
Forces must be
sought to solve
this humanitarian
crisis. Clearly the
Railway Ministry
is unable to handle
the problem.
First India News
Surat: Dirty smelly
bathrooms and toilets,
food served in hands, no
place to dry washed
clothes -- welcome to the
corona wards at the Su-
rat Civil Hospital. Small
wonder patients have
started seeking admis-
siontoprivatehospitals.
Ask Covid-19 patient
Ketan Dalal, who has
been shifted to a private
hospital after he com-
plained of the pathetic
states of affairs of the
corona ward.
Dalal’s words are
chilling: “The bath-
roomandtoiletwereso
dirty that I didn’t even
feel like going inside.
Therewerenohooksto
hang clothes inside the
bathroom and I hung
them on the door stop-
per.Theclotheswereto
be washed manually
but there was no ar-
rangementtodrythem
and so we had to dry
them on our bed.”
“In breakfast, we
were served bread or
eggs directly in hands
without a paper dish.
Then a bag of milk was
given without glass. The
patient had to swallow
the milk directly from
the bag. In our ward,
cats were running on
the floor”.
He said this was the
reason he opted to
shift to a private hos-
pital. “Even a normal
person won’t stay
there,” Dalal rued.
Dalal’s is not an iso-
lated case. Nilesh Mis-
try, who recently recov-
ered from Covid-19 and
discharged had a simi-
lar experience. “The
first five days, I was kept
in Civil (Hospital),
which felt like 50 days. I
was then shifted to Sam-
ras Hostel for 15 days. I
must say the Civil’s
bathroomandthebreak-
fast were very bad.”
Civil Hospital Surat.
Cats for companions in corona wards in Surat
We have
12 wards
here. I do
not know in which
ward such an in-
convenience has
occurred. Tell me
in which ward the
problem has aris-
en so that I can in-
vestigate and take
suitable action.
—Preeti Kapadia, Surat
Civil Hospital Superintendent

AHMEDABAD, SUNDAY
MAY 10, 2020
www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia
facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia 09
emember the famous
dialogue of Shashi
Kapoor from ‘Dee-
war’ movie? Yes, the
one where he said
“Mere paas maa
hai”, which ultimate-
ly embodies the significant
meaning of a mother’s exist-
ence in one’s life. The portray-
al of mothers has always been
prominent in Bollywood films
and despite an extra pinch of
drama, Bollywood has more
or less been a part of our lives
and has shaped the way we
express our emotions in real-
ity. Mothers are portrayed in
many roles by Bollywood,
from the emotionally con-
cerned and stressed mother to
the housewife who aptly looks
after the children and home
as her main priorities; how-
ever, over the past decade,
Bollywood’s depiction of a
‘mother’ has seen tremendous
change in terms of the por-
trayal of characters, behav-
ioural perception and the ul-
timate notion of what moth-
ers really are. This, of course,
is a welcoming change be-
cause a mom, in films, is no
longer the person standing at
the doorstep with a ‘puja ki
thali’, waiting endlessly for
her child. They have gone
from long-suffering martyrs
to flawed yet sassy women
who know what they want.
While the essence of love
and affection remain the
same, the tears have lessened
andfriendlinesshasincreased
in the characters of Bolly-
wood mothers. This Mother’s
Day, let’s rewind a little bit
from where it started and how
far we’ve come with the differ-
ent shades of mothers!
The crying and majboor
mother: The image of a sob-
bing Nirupa Roy, clad in white
sari, was a trademark for dec-
ades. The impression is so
deep that her look is remem-
bered even today by all gen-
erations.
The Courageous Moth-
er: Nargis Dutt’s character in
Mother India, where she be-
comes an epitome of strength
when her husband leaves the
house and she is left alone to
take care of her children. An-
other was that of Kirron Kher
in Dostana, who although
with a heavy heart, was ready
to accept her son’s boyfriend.
The Friendly Mother: Then
came Reema Lagoo, with all
the bindi and sindoor, as a
mother in Maine Pyar
Kiya, Hum Aapke Hain
Kaun, Hum Saath
Saath Hain. She
played the charac-
ter of mother-
cum-friend to
her children.
The Ulti-
mate Mom:
Gauri Shin-
de’s ‘Eng-
lish Ving-
lish’, where
Shashi’s char-
acter strives to
learn English to ‘fit
in’ in her teenage
daughter’s world. She
triumphs in the end, sub-
tly underlining important
life lessons.
With films like Mom,
Secret Superstar, Ra. one,
Jazbaa, Helicopter Eela, Paa,
and Dostana, the evolution of
mothers in Bollywood
has certainly been an inter-
esting one and now a mother
is no longer blindly wor-
shipped, but loved and
respected.
CINE-MAA
KARISHMA
GWALANI
Karishma.gwalani
@firstindia.co.in
R
ON THIS MOTHER’S DAY, LET’S WALK DOWN THE MEMORY LANE
WITH CITY FIRST, TO WITNESS AND CELEBRATE THE SIGNIFICANT
TRANSFORMATION IN THE ROLE OF MOTHERS IN INDIAN CINEMA
(Clockwise) Kajol, Kirron Kher,
Vidya Balan and Sridevi
Mother India Deewar
Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! Dostana English Vinglish The Sky Is Pink
Kareena Kapoor Khan

10
WATCH LISTAHMEDABAD | SUNDAY, MAY 10, 2020www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
FACEOFTHEDAY
DIVYA GUPTA, Student
YOUR
DAYHoroscope by
Saurabbh Sachdeva
LEO
JULY 24 - AUGUST 23
You always assume things
without knowing the whole
truth so be all ears. On
professional front, you will
make strong bonds and will break
few. Your spouse is your pillar of
strength and stands by your side no
matter what. Don’t force anyone to go
on a journey with you.
LIBRA
SEPT 24 - OCTOBER 22
You will soon find some
lucrative opportunities as a
result of a successful
business meeting. You are
a person of strong will and thats
whats keeps you fit and energetic.
You may feel desperate to spend time
with your spouse. You may take your
elders on a pilgrimage.
ARIES
MAR 21 - APR 20
You must stand by the
right and condemn any
inappropriate behaviour.
You will be able to
strengthen family ties by your
consistent efforts. Encourage your
kid to choose any stream that they
want to as their future lies in your
hands right now.
SAGITTARIUS
NOV 23 - DEC 22
Avoid spending your money
on things that are just fancy
and are of no use at present.
You may disapprove of any
changes made at home without your
approval. An inherited property could
become your biggest blessing at the
moment. You may come across your
ex lover.
GEMINI
MAY 21 - JUNE 21
You can expect great
returns from your fixed
assets. Be aware of
aggressive pets and avoid
going close to them. On academic
front, you must keep all your
emotions aside and single minded
just focus on studies. You may play
sports on a successful level.
AQUARIUS
JAN 21 - FEB 19
A long term ailment will be
healed and you will feel
relieved. On work front, stop
making excuses and tighten
up your belt to cope up with your
lagging attitude. An elderly member of
the house may give you a once in
million advice which you will never
forget. You may go on a learning trip.
TAURUS
APR 21 - MAY 20
You will feel very
enthusiastic and happy
today. Those is armed
force can expect some
promotion. Newlyweds must try hard
to comfort their partner in the new
home environment. You may take a
very big career decision which will
put you into dilemma.
CAPRICORN
DEC 23 - JAN 20
If you try and adapt good
financial management
skills than you would be
able to save money for
other important needs. Your side
business will start giving your
profits. You must try and control a
family member who unknowingly
could spoil family’s atmosphere.
VIRGO
AUG 24 - SEP 23
You will successfully
manage an ugly situation
at work as you are a pro
who has a even handed
approach. You will be the mediator
responsible for building a strong
relationship between your kids. Get
ready for a competition and head on
without any fear.
CANCER
JUNE 22 - JULY 23
Your transfer and
promotion can be delayed
for a little time but only for
good. You are becoming
more loving and caring which is
resulting into a very happy atmos-
phere at home. On academic front, a
good news wait for some which will
change your life forever.
PISCES
FEB20 - MARCH 20
As a form of investment
you must buy gold coins
or biscuits for the future.
You helped someone in the
past and he/she will return the
favour. Your kid will make you proud
by following your foot steps and
shaping into a capable individual.
You can acquire properties.
SCORPIO
OCT 23 - NOVEMBER 22
You will recover all the
money that you once lost.
On work front, your
seniors will approve of any
change that you want to bring about.
You will share your knowledge and
ideologies with your kids to make
them something. You can expect
some addition to your wealth.
o you like films
that are so wildly
overstuffed with
characters and
subplots that the
finale requires a
child’s life-threat-
ening asthma attack, a ka-
raoke-related injury and a
recalcitrant vending ma-
chine to bring two charac-
ters together at last? Are
you okay with movies that
feature characters who are
unabashedly racist, so long
as they are wacky racists?
Have you lain awake late at
night wondering what Ju-
lia Roberts might look like
if she happened to be sport-
ing Moe Howard’s hairdo?
If so, then “Mother’s Day”
may just be the movie for
you. If not, you should give
the widest berth possible to
this staggeringly incompe-
tent blend of silliness and
schmaltz—a film so awful
that if one were to put up a
list of the great films cele-
brating motherhood, it
would rank considerably
lower than the Gus van
Santversionof “Psycho.”
The characters in-
clude Sandy (Jennifer
Aniston), whose pic-
ture-perfect divorce is
threatened when her for-
mer husband (Timothy
Olyphant) unexpectedly
marries his much-younger
girlfriend Tina (Shay
Mitchell) and tries
to include her in
the lives of
their two
young sons.
She is
friends with
Jessie (Kate
H u d s o n )
and Gabi
(Sarah Chal-
ke), who
have both moved far away
from their trailer trash
parents (Margo Martin-
dale and Robert Pine) and
are both keeping secrets
from them—Jessie is mar-
ried to an Indian man
named Russell (Aasif Man-
dvi) and has a son with him
(named Tanner, yuk yuk
yuk) and Gabi is married
to a woman (Cameron Es-
posito) and has a son with
her as well. Bradley (Jason
Sudeikis) is the hapless fa-
ther to two daughters who
is still reeling from the
death of his wife nearly a
year earlier. Meanwhile,
Kristin (Britt Robertson) is
a young mother who
doesn’t want to marry her
long-time boyfriend (Jack
Whitehall), not because he
is a bad stand-up comedian
but because she has aban-
donment issues stemming
from having been adopted.
Finally, Miranda (Julia
Roberts) is a host of a home
shopping show who has no
family to speak of because
of her career goals, so
there is obviously no way
that she could be connected
with any of the previously
mentioned characters, so
put that thought out of
your mind right now.
In the past, it has been
suggested that Garry Mar-
shall does not make film
for the supposedly refined
palates of critics—he spe-
cializes in broad entertain-
ment for mass audiences
who are not necessarily in
the mood for subtlety and
introspection. This is not
necessarily true—besides
“Valentine’s Day,” He and
the four screenwriters
(three of them newcomers
and the other the scribe of
the deathless “Monster-in-
Law”) have put their heads
together to concoct a script
that juggles far too many
characters and plot lines.
They neglect to include
any moments of genuine
insight about motherhood,
or much of anything else
for that matter.
Instead, we get the usual
hacky jokes (ranging from
the Sudeikis character be-
ing embarrassed when the
tampons he is buying for
his daughter require a
price check, to a fat guy
nicknamed Tiny) and
equally contrived heart-to-
heart moments so sitcom-y
that you’ll be unconscious-
ly reaching for the remote.
These jokes are occasion-
ally interrupted by bits so
insane that you cannot im-
agine what the writers
were thinking when they
were added to the script.
Why would so many
good actors sign up for a
script this dopey? My
guess is that they look
upon these things as the
equivalent of parties
where they can make an
appearance, have some fun
without doing much in the
way of heavy lifting and
get paid a lot of money in
the process. Trust me, they
would have been better
served if Marshall had
just forgone the film en-
tirely and filmed the cast
party. None of the actors
are able to find a way to
rise above the material,
instead just plowing
through in the broadest
manner possible while try-
ing not to look too obvi-
ously embarrassed.
MOTHER’S DAY
D
Source: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/mothers-day-2016

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First india ahmedabad edition-10 may 2020

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