Farmers fear huge financial losses as unseasonal rains damage crops in Gujarat

AHMEDABAD l SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2020 l Pages 12 l 3.00 RNI NO. GUJENG/2019/16208 l Vol 2 l Issue No. 18
New Delhi/Kolkata:
The tussle between
Mamata Banerjee gov-
ernment and the Centre
over attack on BJP pres-
identJPNadda’sconvoy
escalated further on Fri-
day with the former de-
ciding not to send the
state’s chief secretary
and police chief to New
Delhi in compliance
with Union Home Min-
istry’s summons.
In a letter to Union
Home Secretary Ajay
Bhalla, state chief secre-
tary Alapan Bandopad-
hyay said he had been
directed to request to
“dispense with the pres-
ence of the state offi-
cials”inthemeetingcon-
vened on December 14.
“While further re-
ports are being ob-
tained and compiled,
Turn to P6
New Delhi: The
Bharatiya Kisan Union
(BKU) Friday moved
the Supreme Court
challenging the contro-
versial agriculture
laws, claiming that
these legislations will
make farmers “vulner-
able to corporate
greed”, news agency
ANI reported. Agricul-
ture Minister Narendra
Singh Tomar, on the
other hand, reiterated
that the government is
ready to talk with the
farmers and urged
them to stop agitation
in the “interest of the
common people” and
take the path of discus-
sion. He further said
that the government is
willing to make re-
forms in the laws after
talks, ANI reported.
Meanwhile, two sen-
ior Delhi Police offic-
ers heading security
arrangements at Sin-
ghu border, where
thousands of farmers
have been camping for
two weeks, have tested
positive for Covid-19,
an officer said. Hun-
dreds of police per-
sonnel have been de-
ployed at the Singhu
border point to pre-
vent the protesters
from entering the na-
tional capital.
The Centre on Thurs-
day issued a fresh call
for farmers to end their
agitation Turn to P6
India’s mRNA
vaccine gets
approval for
human trials
New Delhi: An anti-
Coronavirus vaccine be-
ing developed by the
Pune-based company,
Gennova, has become
the first indigenous
mRNAcandidatetohave
received approval to ini-
tiate human clinical tri-
al, a central government
statement has said.
The mRNA vaccines
are different than the
conventional model.
“ThemRNAvaccinesdo
not use the conventional
model to produce im-
mune response. Instead,
mRNA vaccine carries
the molecular instruc-
tions to make the pro-
tein in the body through
a synthetic RNA of the
virus,” the government
said in the statement.
The mRNA vaccines
are considered safe as
they are “non-infec-
tious, non-integrating
in nature, and degraded
by standard cellular
mechanisms”.
The vaccines devel-
opedbyAmericancompa-
nies Pfizer and Moderna,
which are said to have
over 90 percent efficacy,
use the mRNA model.
BJP’s campaign amid
pushback: 100 Press
Confs, 700 Meetings
New Delhi: With no
end to the deadlock be-
tween protesting farm-
ers and the government,
the BJP has planned a
massive campaign
across the country to
promote the controver-
sial farm laws against
which farmers have
been protesting for the
sixteenth straight day.
As part of the big push
from the ruling party
over the next few days,
100 press conferences
and 700 farmers’ meets
have been planned in
700 districts, sources in
the party said.
Cabinet ministers
will also take part in the
communication cam-
paign, BJP sources
said, adding that the
government’s measures
to address the issues
raised by farmers on
the agricultural laws
will also be spelt out
during the outreach.
The BJP will also ad-
dress questions and
concerns people have
about the farm laws,
they said.
Farmers on Wednes-
day turned down the
centre’s written offer of
amendments in farm
laws, and announced a
series of plans to esca-
late their protest. The
next day, Agriculture
Minister Narendra Sin-
gh Tomar urged farm
leaders to consider the
proposals and said he is
ready for further dis-
cussions with them.
“The government is
ready to consider with
an open mind any pro-
vision in the new laws
where farmers have
any issues and we want
to clarify all their ap-
prehensions,” Tomar
had said on Thursday.
“We kept waiting for
suggestions from farm-
ers’ leaders to address
their concerns, but they
are stuck on the repeal
of laws,” he said, while
virtually ruling out
conceding to the key de-
mand of farmers.
Thousands of farm-
ers, who have braved
water cannons, tear gas
and police barricades,
began their protest over
two weeks ago against
the farm laws, aimed at
doing away with mid-
dlemen and allowing
them Turn to P6
The Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) moved the Apex Court challenging the controversial agriculture laws, claiming that these
legislations will make farmers “vulnerable to corporate greed” as Centre reiterated that the govt is ready to talk
Two senior Delhi Police officers heading security arrangements at
Singhu border, where thousands of farmers have been camping
for two weeks, have tested positive for Covid-19.
Women family members of farmers protesting in Delhi, work
in fields in their absence, at Daun Kalan village, in Patiala on
Friday. —PHOTOS BY PTI
Farmers shout slogans during a protest march against Centre’s agri-laws, at Delhi-Meerut Expressway in New Delhi on Friday.
WILL QUIT IF NO
MINIMUM PRICE
FOR FARMERS,
SAYS DUSHYANT
FARMERS TO
‘CHAKKA JAM’
DELHI-JAIPUR
HIGHWAY TODAY
Chandigarh: Haryana’s
Deputy Chief Minister,
Dushyant Chautala, a
key BJP ally, on Friday
promised to resign
from his post if he is
unable to secure the
minimum support
price (MSP) guarantee
for farmers.
Jaipur: A day after
threatening to intensify
the agitation across the
country, the famers on
Friday said they will
block Delhi-Jaipur road
on Saturday. They also
said will stage sit-in
protest in front of DC
offices, houses of BJP
leaders & block Reli-
ance/Adani toll plazas
on December 14.
However, they will not
block the train services
on the day of their
nationwide protest.
A KRANTI IN THE MAKING!
BENGAL TUSSLE DEEPENS
Mamata govt refuses to send chief secretary,
DGP despite summons from Home Ministry
WB GUV DHANKAR URGES
MAMATA TO APOLOGISE
West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankar slammed
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over the attack on
Nadda’s convoy, calling it a “slur on
democratic fabric”. Sharing a video
of Banerjee where she is heard
commenting on the Nadda’s visit
and the incidents that followed,
Dhankhar urged her to “apologeti-
cally” withdraw the remark that
“outrages essence and sublimity
of Bengal’s rich culture”. “I urge
Chief Minister @MamataOf-
ficial to engage in deep
reflection and apologeti-
cally withdraw Turn to P6
Amit Shah may visit
Bengal on Dec 19, 20
Aditi Nagar
New Delhi: Home
Minister Amit Shah is
settovisitWestBengal
once again. Shah is
likely to visit West
Bengal on December
19 and 20, revealed
sourcesintheBharati-
ya Janata Party (BJP).
This will be Home
Minister Shah’s sec-
ondvisittothestatein
the last one and a half
months.“HomeMinis-
terAmitShahislikely
toarriveinthestateon
December 19 and 20,”
an official from the
West Bengal unit of
the BJP told IANS.
“During his two-day
visit, apart from meet-
ing party workers, he
will also interact with
the general public.
The Home Minister’s
visit will again infuse
enthusiasm among
the party workers the
wayitdidthelasttime
he visited the state,”
said the source.
Turn to P6
File pic of the broken windshield of JP Nadda’s convoy vehicle.
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OUR EDITIONS:
JAIPUR, AHMEDABAD
& LUCKNOW
Unseasonal rains damage crops & harvest across the state
First India Bureau
Ahmedabad: Rainfall
in the middle of the
winter season has
turned several places
across the state into hill
stations, with fog, low
visibility and cold, wet
roads. The showers may
have made the air clean-
er in urban areas but, it
has thrown a spanner
in the works for farm-
ers and their crops in
rural pockets.
Standing crops on
hundreds of acres of
land have been dam-
aged and produce al-
ready in the market
yards had also been af-
fected in some areas due
to heavy rainfall. Farm-
ers fear that their win-
ter crops will be ruined
by the unseasonal show-
ers lashing the state.
The state is currently
witnessing unseasonal
rains due to the effect of
a western disturbance.
According to the State
Emergency Operations
Centre (SEOC), over 136
talukas received show-
ers from Thursday on-
wards. Umargam of Val-
sad district received the
highest rainfall record-
ed at 35 mm on Friday.
Gujarat Pradesh Con-
gress Committee
(GPCC) President Amit
Chavda demanded com-
pensation for farmers
to make up their losses
owing to unseasonal
rains. “The showers
have soaked the final
crop planted by the
farmers. Harvest of
groundnut, wheat, cum-
in and chickpeas has
been damaged. The gov-
ernment must conduct
a survey on the damage
and announce appropri-
ate compensation.”
Sudden downpour on
Thursday night swept
away traders’ goods
kept at the Himmatna-
gar market Turn to P6
Farmers cover their crops and cattle fodder to protect them from unseasonal showers near Kasindra
village on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on Friday morning. —PHOTO BY HANIF SINDHI
Farmers fear huge financial losses
if showers continue; Wheat,
groundnut, cotton, chickpea,
cumin among worst-affected
GOINGAGGRO,BKUTAKESSCROUTE

NEWSAHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2020
02www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
The facility will chronicle India’s journey from a British colony to a sovereign nation
MUSEUM AT SOU
TO COMMEMORATE
532
PRINCELY
STATES
First India Bureau
Gandhinagar: In
memory of the 562
princely states that
were integrated into
the Union of India,
Chief Minister Vijay
Rupani on Thursday
announced that a pre-
independence era mu-
seum will be estab-
lished at the Statue of
Unity in Kevadia.
Talking about the
Ironman of India,
Sardar Vallabhbhai Pa-
tel, Rupani said, “Sard-
ar Vallabhbhai Patel
had put in efforts to
convince each royal
family to give up state-
hood and integrate into
one nation. This muse-
um will tell the story of
every such dialogue.”
It will have historical
photographs and
events spanning gen-
erations of people who
had been part of In-
dia’s freedom struggle.
The facility will also
use technological ad-
vancements such as 3D
mapping, projection
and holography, and
audio video controlled
light system to attract
tourists.
Meanwhile, the CM
also e-dedicated the
newly constructed ad-
ministrative building
of the Mandal Bechara-
ji Special Investment
Regional Development
Authority at Hansalpur
in Ahmedabad district.
Built at a cost of Rs5.44
crore, it will cover a to-
tal of nine villages, of
which, eight will be of
the Ahmedabad dis-
trict and one of
Mehsana.
He said, “Our inten-
tion is to boost the Spe-
cial Investment Region
(SIR) sector with devel-
opment facilities by fi-
nalizing town planning
for better roads and
other developmental
projects at a cost of
Rs200 crore.
Not only that, with
new pharmaceutical
parks coming up in An-
kleshwar, Ahmedabad,
among other places,
Gujarat has become the
land of opportunity
when it comes to devel-
opment. It is also a
leading state in provi-
sion of new employ-
ment opportunities,
added Rupani.
The chief minister
also agreed to simplifi-
cation of the revenue
process in the state and
has granted the final
approval to appeal
hearings of land dis-
putes at prant officer
level.
GKSS issues legal notice to state
for ‘illegal’ farmers’ house arrest
First India Bureau
Ahmedabad: The Gu-
jarat Khedut Sangharsh
Samiti (GKSS) has is-
sued legal notice to the
government demand-
ing that farmers not be
stopped from partici-
pating in the ongoing
protests, regarding new
farming laws passed by
the Parliament, near
the national capital. It
also asked the state to
direct local police and
Intelligence Bureau
(IB) personnel not to en-
ter farmer leaders’
houses illegally or with-
out proper written or-
ders.
Citing the example of
the state-wide protests
that occurred on De-
cember 08, it stated that
the government had put
farmer leaders under
house arrest illegally to
keep them from partici-
pating in demonstra-
tions. “If such unlawful
actions do not cease,
farmers will be left with
no option to approach
the high court for pro-
tection of its liberty
and privacy,” stated the
organization.
In the legal notice
sent to state chief min-
ister, state chief secre-
tary and other officials,
GKSS coordinator and
advocate Anandvard-
han Yagnik called for
police action against
people responsible for
house arrest of farmer
leaders and termed it
“illegal, breach of pri-
vacy and liberty as en-
shrined in the Constitu-
tion of India.”
He added, “Although
not a single farmer
leader and their associ-
ates violated Section
144 of the Criminal Pro-
cedure Code warrant-
ing arrest or detention,
therefore, taking refuge
of violation of Section
144 of CrPC in the pre-
sent case does not arise.
And yet, between 9 pm
on December 07 to 10
am on December 08,
Jayesh Patel and
Ramesh Patel of Khed-
ut Samaj Gujarat, Dahy-
abhai Gajera and Arun
Mehta of Gujarat Kisan
Sangh, Pal Ambaliya,
Girdharbhai Vaghela,
Pravin Patodiya and
Chetan Gadhiya of Gu-
jarat Kisan Congress,
were preventively de-
tained, arrested or put
under house arrest up
to 6 pm on December 08
by the state police rep-
resented by Special Op-
erations Group (SOG),
Detection Crime
Branch (DCB) and local
police stations. They
were detained, arrested
or put under house ar-
rest in order to ensure
that those who were ar-
rested did not partici-
pate in the Bharat
Bandh.”
The coordinator also
expressed that the po-
lice did not have the
right to enter the office
or home of any citizen
and intimidate them
and their family mem-
bers. This not only went
against the Right to Pri-
vacy, but also against
the constitutional
rights and principles of
civil liberties as well as
Personal Liberty guar-
anteed under Chapter
III of the Constitution
of India.
NEW RULES
The body
warned that it
may approach
the Gujarat High
Court if the govt
does not initiate
action against
those
responsible
Farmers and their supporters protesting against the three farming laws passed by the Parliament in Ahmedabad. —FILE PHOTO
28K docs go on
strike to oppose
Centre’s move
First India Bureau
Ahmedabad: Doc-
tors of the Indian
Medical Association
(IMA) on Friday
morning staged a
one-day strike
against the central
government’’s deci-
sion to allow Ayur-
veda practitioners to
perform 58 types of
surgeries on eye, ear,
nose, teeth and
throat. More than
28,000 private doctors
from across the state
joined the strike.
Doctors affiliated
to the Ahmedabad
branch of the organi-
zation protested from
6 am to 6 pm. The
strike will not affect
COVID-19 emergency
services as well as
other services such
as emergency, labour
and pathology.
Dr Kamlesh Saini,
Secretary of Indian
Medical Association,
Gujarat Chapter, said
“All types of non-
nCoV services such
as Outpatient De-
partment (OPD),
planned surgeries
were suspended on
Friday.”
Last week, the doc-
tors affiliated with
IMA of Surat and
Ahmedabad had
staged protests too.
They expressed dis-
sent with the Cen-
tre’s decision to al-
low Ayurveda doc-
tors to perform ear,
nose, throat, and den-
tal surgeries along
with general and or-
thopedic surgeries.
The govt recently
allowed Ayurveda
doctors to perform
surgeries
Doctors hold up placards protesting the central govt’s decision outside the AMA office in
Ahmedabad on Friday.

GUJARATAHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2020
Cong councillor protests
against BJP’s corruption
First India Bureau
Vadodara: Not even
the unseasonal rain-
fall in the city de-
terred Ami Rawat, a
Congress councillor
in the Vadodara Mu-
nicipal Corpora-
tion, from staging a
protest against the
corrupt practices of
the Bharatiya Ja-
nata Party in the
civic body. She was
later detained by
the police.
Rawat has alleged
that there have been
several instances of
massive corruption
over the past five
years. Citing an ex-
ample, she said that,
in a project worth
Rs1,880 crore, the cor-
poration has spent
just Rs5.50 crore on
the actual project and
Rs65 lakh towards
wall construction.
She says the VMC has
refused to divulge
any information on
the project expenses.
“I have been trying
to raise the issue with
the general board for
the past eight months,
but the mayor has
consistently avoided
the question,” she
said, sitting in protest
in front of the VMC
building in the city’s
Khanderao Market
area on Friday.
“Since the last five
years, the VMC has
been talking a lot
about a ‘smart city’,
but when questions
are asked about the
projects taken up and
completed under the
smart city project,
the ruling party be-
comes a mute specta-
tor. The ruling party
is misleading the
city’s 20 lakh popula-
tion. It is their duty to
share all informa-
tion,” she alleged.
“The ruling party
has even failed to keep
the promise of curb-
ing street vendors,
since they collect
large amounts of
bribes from street
vendors,” she added.
Hospital stays for COVID-19 treatment will now cost `8,100-`17,500 per day
First India Bureau
Ahmedabad: In a
slight relief to COV-
ID-19 patients who get
admitted to private
hospitals on their own,
the Ahmedabad Mu-
nicipal Corporation
(AMC) has reduced the
ceiling cost for treat-
ment. The civic body
on Friday announced
a 10%-20% decrease in
rates for different
units. This coincides
with a steady decrease
in the number of new
COVID-19 patients
that the state’s health
department has been
registering in the re-
cent past.
The cost of treat-
ment, which previously
varied from Rs9,000 to
Rs21,850 per day, has
now been reduced to
Rs8,100 to Rs17,500.
However, the AMC will
continue to pay private
hospitals as per previ-
ous rate, as the rates for
50% AMC quota beds
remain unchanged.
Rajiv Gupta, the of-
ficer on special duty in
charge of AMC’s efforts
against the novel coro-
navirus, announced in
a press release that the
fall in rates is the result
of active consideration
of the civic body as well
as multiple rounds of
discussion with the
Ahmedabad Hospital
and Nursing Homes As-
sociation and the
Ahmedabad Medical
Association.
The decision to lower
the ceiling of rates for
COVID-19 in the 30 hos-
pitals at which 50% of
the beds are reserved
for patients referred
by AMC came during a
meeting held on Friday.
AMC officials clari-
fied that the new rates
do not include the cost
of medicine, tocilizum-
ab, fees for special doc-
tor’s visits, specialized
lab test, or dialysis, but
they do include break-
fast, two meals, evening
tea, and snacks.
Notably, this is the
second time in six
months that the AMC,
which fixed the rates for
private as well as AMC-
quota beds on June 1,
has revised them.
AMC announces nominal rate
cut for private-quota beds
First India Bureau
Ahmedabad: Weigh-
ing in at just under a
kilo, the daughter of
construction work-
ers has made history
by surviving her
first 54 days. The
baby was born just
28 weeks after her
mother got pregnant,
at a minuscule
weight of 430g—
much lighter than
the previous record-
holder, who survived
a birth weight of
650g. She now weighs
930g, after almost
two months of treat-
ment at the Civil
Hospital in
Ahmedabad’s Asar-
wa area.
The baby’s parents—
Renu and Jitendra An-
jane from Indore in
Madhya Pradesh—dis-
covered they were ex-
pecting in April.
Barely two months
later, Renu, was diag-
nosed with a serious
liver condition. After
making the rounds at
several hospitals in In-
dore, the couple finally
came to Ahmedabad’s
Civil Hospital on the
advice of a relative.
Renu’s health im-
proved after only one
week of treatment.
Breathing a sigh of re-
lief, Renu and Jitendra
decided to move for-
ward with the preg-
nancy. However, after
six and a half months
of the pregnancy,
Renu’s health deterio-
rated once again.
The couple revisited
the Civil Hospital here.
This time, the life of
Renu’s unborn baby
was also at stake. Doc-
tors discovered that
the baby, who is still
barely the size of a bot-
tle of saline, was also
in bad health. Doctors
at the Civil Hospital
then took a tought call
and decided they
would fight for the life
of the baby girl, who
was clinging on with
everything she had.
And so, the child
was born at the weight
of 436g, and a height of
36cm.
The next 54 days
were touch and go, doc-
tors say, adding that
the baby is now stable.
Premature baby born weighing 430g survives after 54 days of treatment
LITTLE FIGHTER
COMBINED EFFORT
Celebratory gunfire
during baraat lands
groom, father in trouble
First India Bureau
Ahmedabad: Normal-
ly, newly married cou-
ples tend to head off
on their honeymoons.
However, in
Ahmedabad, one
groom spend the sec-
ond night after his
wedding in police cus-
tody after a round of
celebratory fire dur-
ing his wedding pro-
cession drew the at-
tention of local police.
ShivaRajput,whowas
married on December
09, had fired a shot using
his father’s licensed
weapon during his
baraat—a clip of which
was circulated on social
media and reached the
city police.
As a result, the Rajput
familyfoundthemselves
in the Odhav police sta-
tion on Thursday.
After confirming vid-
eo of the event, Odhav
police registered a com-
plaint against Shiva Ra-
jput and his father Su-
mantsinghRajputunder
the Arms Act and de-
tained the duo. Father
and son spent Thursday
night in police custody
butwerereleasedonbail
on Friday morning.
“The weapon is not
meanttobeusedtoshow
off, or in public places.
The licence is issued for
personal defence,” a po-
lice officer said.
The city police have
seized the weapon,
whichSumantsinghwill
get back only from the
court after he assures
the court that he will not
use it to show off.
The groom and his father spent Thursday night in police custody.
Child was born after just 6.5 months’
gestation, when her mother’s health
deteriorated, causing complications
VMC councillor Ami Rawat during her protest on Friday.
No physical assault, I did it to myself: ‘Victim’ tells cops
First India Bureau
Surat: In a case that
has local police per-
plexed, a 21-year-old
student apparently
survived three suicide
attempts in a span of
24 hours. However,
the cops—who had
initially assumed she
was assaulted and
filed a complain to
that effect—are not
entirely convinced by
her declaration that
she did, in fact, try to
kill herself.
According to police
sources,thegirlwhowas
found lying severely in-
jured and unconscious
at the base of a residen-
tial building on Wednes-
day night regained con-
sciousness on Thursday
and gave the police a
statement, in which she
said that she took
Rs10,000 from her father
on Wednesday, bought
new clothes and then
tried to commit suicide
by drowning at two of
Surat’s beaches. When
that failed, she attempt-
ed to drink rat poison,
but survived her second
attempt when she vom-
ited out the toxic sub-
stance. Then, she found
a building—Gokuldham
Apartment—with no se-
curity guard and threw
herself off the fourth-
floor terrace.
Thepolicesaythatthe
girl had travelled at least
40-50km during the day
on Wednesday. They say
her statement has sev-
eral contradictions and
that they looking into
the possibility that she
was either coerced or is
mentally unwell.The girl allegedly jumped from the 4th ﬂoor and survived.
Guj sees another day-on-day
fall in number of nCoV cases
First India Bureau
Ahmedabad: In keep-
ing with the trend ob-
served over the past
few days, Gujarat
once again recorded a
drop in the number of
new cases of COV-
ID-19 in a 24-hour
span, the health de-
partment reported on
Friday. With 1,223
new cases, the state
has now seen more
than two lakh cases
of Sars-CoV-2 infec-
tion since March.
Fourteen new fatali-
ties—which occurred in
Ahmedabad (8), Surat
(3), Banaskantha (1),
and Panchmahal (1)—
has taken the total death
toll to 4,148.
There are now 13,627
active cases, with 71 pa-
tients on ventilator sup-
port. The Health and
Family Welfare Depart-
mentof thestategovern-
ment claimed to achieve
a 92.11% recovery rate,
based on the number of
patients discharged.
Ahmedabad had the
highest number (266) of
new cases, while fresh
cases also emerged in
Surat (194), Vadodara
(178), and Rajkot (129),
among others.
RHYTHM OF THE RAIN
A little girl enjoys the unexpected rain in Ahmedabad on Friday morning. —HANIF SINDHI
COVID-19 testing in Ahmedabad. —FILE PHOTO
1,223 cases, 14
fatalities take state
tally to 2,25,304
cases, toll to 4,148

G Vol 2 G Issue No. 18 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-In-Chief: Jagdeesh Chandra. Editor: Anita Hada Sangwan responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act
PERSPECTIVEAHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2020
n early 2020,
Airbnb’s man-
agement an-
nounced that to
address the
slowing growth in sales, it
wanted to scale back ancil-
lary activities and focus on
thecompany’scorestrength
of mid-range and budget
short-term rentals. This
was just before COVID-19
stopped the travel and lei-
sure industry in its tracks.
Against such a bleak
backdrop, it was a surprise
when the company’s CEO
Brian Chesky announced
that the online holiday rent-
al company would go public
inDecember2020–anditdid
just that on December 10.
Shares were originally
priced from US$45-US$50
(£34-£38) per share. This
went up to US$55-US$60 the
day before listing. By the
time of the listing, the final
share price was US$68. The
Initial Public Offering
(IPO) is expected to bring in
fresh cash for the business
of up to US$3 billion, and if
successful, it will increase
the value of Airbnb close to
US$42 billion.
According to details
filed by Airbnb with the US
Securities and Exchange
Commission, the plan is
for the business to raise ad-
ditional capital for funding
future growth.
Typically businesses pre-
fer to launch IPOs during a
phase of sustained econom-
ic growth to gain advantage
of the confidence in the
market. They avoid IPOs
during economic slumps
and catastrophic events:
like World War I and II, the
great recession or a pan-
demic. Going by traditional
corporate finance practice
standards, Airbnb’s deci-
sion to go public was noth-
inglessthanmaverick.And
its timing has attracted ex-
traordinary attention.
AIRBNB’S IPO
DECISION IN A SEA
OF BUSINESS GLOOM
But Airbnb had some stra-
tegic advantages, the first
being its tech-based busi-
ness model. Unlike other
leisure and holiday busi-
nesses – such as hotels and
airlines – Airbnb does not
need to spend large
amounts of money on the
cost associated with the up-
keep of its fixed assets. In-
stead, Airbnb can success-
fully pass on the risk of
such rigid payment obliga-
tions to its “hosts” – the
property owners. It then
retains the profitable parts
of the business for itself
with enough agility to face
systematic disruptions
like Covid-19.
Thecompany’ssecondad-
vantageisthatithasbecome
a well known name in the
word of travel, building a
strongbrandandaloyalcus-
tomer base. If we compare
the sales in the first nine
months of the year for 2019
and 2020, everyone suffered
a drop, but the decrease was
least (in percentage terms)
for Airbnb among all its
close rivals like booking.
com and Expedia.
In addition to its com-
petitive status, ongoing
market changes also cre-
ated confidence for
Airbnb’s IPO. Towards the
end of 2020, markets across
the world started reviving.
South-East Asian, African
and Latin American travel
destinations reopened for
business , as vaccines for
COVID-19wereannounced.
Airbnb also managed to
quieten its critics and
avoid aggravating local
housing regulators. How-
ever, adverse local regula-
tory reactions isn’t specific
to Airbnb. Amazon, Face-
book and Uber have all had
their own stories. Given
the combined bargaining
power of the Silicon Valley
giants, there are limited
chances that any world-
wide systematic regulato-
ry change will happen in
the near future.
SOURCE: THE CONVERSATION
Airbnb going public is a maverick move
I
And do not mix the
truth with falsehood or
conceal the truth while
you know [it]. —Ayat 42
Spiritual
SPEAK
Top
TWEET
Prakash Javadekar
@PrakashJavdekar
Recent independent assessment of
India’s #ClimateAction like the @
UNEP report that said that India’s
emissions grew just 1.4 % in
2019, & the Climate transparency
report stating that India is only
G20 nation that is 2 degree
compliant, establishes that India is
walking the talk.
Ravi Shankar Prasad
@rsprasad
PM-WANI will strengthen
#DigitalIndia mission and will provide
seamless Internet connectivity
through public Wi-Fi hotspots. Wider
Internet coverage will enable students
to access study material online in
urban and rural India.
ow do we make sense of the
past? What lies ahead? Where
are we going?
A question I often ask people
is: have you ever experienced a
yesterday or a tomorrow? You
can remember yesterdays, you
can imagine tomorrows, but
they are only ideas. In your ex-
perience, no such thing has
ever happened. Your experi-
ence of life has always been
right here and now. Your expe-
rience of life is happening in
this very moment. So time is a
human idea. There is no such
thing in this existence.
Time and space are essential
dimensions for physical crea-
tion. But if you touch a dimen-
sion beyond the physical, there
is no such thing as here and
there, now and then. Every-
thingishere.Everythingisnow.
Once you aspire to be spiritu-
al, it means you aspire to go be-
yond the limitations of the
physical. In this pursuit, the
biggest barrier is your resist-
ance to death. This makes you
cling hard to the physical which
renders your efforts to tran-
scend its limitations futile. It’s
like putting your anchor down
and rowing your boat. It will be
just an enormous waste of en-
ergy and life. But once you go
beyond the physical, you find
time and space are merely crea-
tions of your conscious mind.
Physicists today are saying
that a whole process of crea-
tion and destruction is going
on in what is known as the
vacuum states. In this culture,
we have always talked of time
in terms of time cycles. Mod-
ern physicists have been talk-
ing so far about an ever-ex-
panding universe. But now
they’re also saying for the first
time that just as there was a big
bang, it is possible that some-
day there will be a big crunch.
This means that as this uni-
verse expands from something
infinitely small into something
infinitely large, a reverse pro-
cess can happen and bring eve-
rything into the here and now.
This is something mystics
have always known within
themselves, experientially.
When we talk ‘nirvana’, ‘mok-
sha’, ‘shoonya’, this is exactly
what we are saying: this uni-
verse came from nothing and if
you take it through the full cy-
cle then it will once again be-
come absolute nothingness.
Because I am not a slave of hu-
man ideas, I have never been a
slave of time. Only when your
experience of right now is not
enough,youwanttogoelsewhere.
If this moment is big enough,
where would you want to go?
You’d find there is no such thing
as time; there is only eternity.
And yet, I am always on time,
and our programmes at Isha
are always punctual! I see punc-
tuality not as discipline or time
management, but as a matter of
simple decency. Because our
lives are valuable, nobody has a
right to expend somebody else’s
life. So being on time at any cost
is very important to me, some-
times at the risk of my life. I am
very conscious of time when
my eyes are open, but the mo-
ment I close my eyes, I’m com-
pletely timeless.
So where are we all going? If
you have not gone to enough
places, going somewhere is very
exciting. Most people spend
their lives trying to become like
someoneelse.Theconstantcom-
paring and aspiring to be some-
one different, the need to be one
up on somebody, just wastes the
fundamental possibility in a hu-
man being. If you nurture who
you are in the best possible way,
this seed will naturally find its
ultimate possibility.
On a certain day, two little
boys, Johnny and Tommy, were
having their usual argument.
“My father can beat up your
father,” said Johnny. Tommy
said, “My father can beat up
your father.” Johnny said, “No
way, my father will win.” Then
Johnny said, “Okay, but my
mother is better than your
mother.” Tommy paused for a
moment and said: “Maybe
that’s true because even my fa-
ther says so.” Life is going on
like this for most people.
This is why we talk of lib-
eration. If you have not been
around enough, being is excit-
ing. But if you remember the
antiquity your being carries
within itself, then the only
thing that is truly attractive
for you is non-being. When you
are not bound by the physical,
when you simply disappear
into space and time, you tran-
scend their limitations.
Then where do you go? When
all going stops, that’s the end-
game. You don’t go anywhere.
That is the ultimate liberation.
THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY
THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL
H
SADHGURU, ISHA FOUNDATION
Ranked amongst the fifty most influential
people in India, Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic,
visionary and a New York Times bestselling
author Sadhguru has been conferred the Padma
Vibhushan by the Government of India in 2017,
the highest annual civilian award, accorded for
exceptional and distinguished service
THE END OF THE YEAR OFTEN
PROVOKES QUESTIONS ABOUT TIME
Physicists today
are saying that a
whole process of
creation and
destruction is
going on in what
is known as the
vacuum states.
In this culture,
we have always
talked of time in
terms of time
cycles. Modern
physicists have
been talking so
far about an
ever-expanding
universe. But
now they’re also
saying for the
first time that
just as there was
a big bang, it is
possible that
someday there
will be a big
crunch
IF YOU HAVE NOT
GONE TO ENOUGH
PLACES, GOING
SOMEWHERE IS VERY
EXCITING. MOST
PEOPLE SPEND THEIR
LIVES TRYING TO
BECOME LIKE
SOMEONE ELSE
TRINAMOOL AND BJP
CROSS SWORDS AGAIN
hether the attack on Bharatiya Janata
Party President JP Nadda’s car in Kol-
kata was orchestrated by the party itself
or by the Trinamool Congress (TMC)
goons, it must be condemned. West Ben-
gal Governor Jagdeep Dhankar said the “rule of
law has broken down” in the state and asked Chief
Minister Mamata Banerjee to do some “serious
soul-searching”. He stopped short of recommend-
ing Central rule which can be invoked in the event
of a breakdown of law and order. The TMC charged
the governor with behaving like a stooge of a par-
ticular political party and said his conduct was
unbecoming of a governor.
Mamata called it a “nautanki”. “They have no
other work. At times Home minister is here, other
times its Chaddha, Nadda, Fadda, Bhaddha. When
they have no audience they call their workers for
doing nautanki,” she mocked the BJP president.
To further harden its stand on the incident,
the state chief secretary and the director-gener-
al of police politely refused to appear before the
Union home secretary. The two officers had been
summoned by the Centre to explain the situation
that led to the violence and the police’s failure
to prevent it. A combative TMC said that law and
order being a state subject Centre should not in-
terfere.
Things are going to get bitter, but no better than
what they are because violence has become an in-
tegral part of our political culture. A political
party is ready to point a finger at its rivals but
won’t put a leash on its own goons. This culture of
violence must stop.
W
IN-DEPTH
FARMERS’ STIR ENTERS
CRUCIAL PHASE TODAY
s talks with farmers have made no head-
way, the Centre is now preparing to
launch an information offensive to de-
fend the three new laws on agricultural
reforms to the hilt even as it left the
doors open for dialogue. To make it two-pronged,
the other line of attack will be to discredit the
farmers with the allegation that they have allowed
ultra-left elements and “tukde, tukde gang” to take
over their movement. The charge that pro-Khal-
istani elements have infiltrated their ranks has
already been thrown at them. In other words, the
government will resort to a psychological war to
push back the agitators. The strategy to discredit
the protesters is similar to the one used by the
Bharatiya Janata Party members against the crit-
ics of the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act.
Whether the party will unleash its goli maro saal-
on ko gang also on farmers remains to be seen.
On their part farmers have their action plan
ready. Starting December 12 they will block Delhi-
Agra and Jaipur-Delhi highways as they intensify
their agitation. Protests at toll plazas to make them
free and gherao of BJP offices is also part of the
protest plan. It is this phase of the stir and the
government’s response that will decide the fate of
farmers and the new laws.
A faction of the Bharatiya Kisan Union intro-
duced a new element in the action plan by filing a
petition in the Supreme Court challenging the va-
lidity of the three Acts. It is a doubtful move as the
farmers will have to abide by the court’s order.
A

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INDIAAHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2020
RaGaslamsCentreoverfarmers’incomeissue
The Gandhi scion, whose party is against the new farm laws, has been a constant critic of the BJP-led government
FARMERS WILL GO HOME ONCE
CENTRE REPEALS 3 NEW LAWS: BKU
Ghaziabad: With the farmers' protest in and
around Delhi against the recently enacted farm
laws entering 16th day, the Bhartiya Kisan Union
(BKU) on Friday reiterated that the agitation
would not be withdrawn till the three Acts are
repealed. "There is only one way to end the stand-
off between the Centre and the farmers. Both
have to back down. The Centre will have to repeal
the laws and the farmers will go home," said BKU
spokesperson Rakesh Tikait, adding that they
don't want the amendments suggested by the
central government. —ANI
'WILL RESIGN IF UNABLE TO
SECURE MSP FOR FARMERS'
Chandigarh: Haryana Deputy CM and NDA
ally Dushyant Chautala has said he will resign
from his post in the Manohar Lal Khattar gov-
ernment if he doesn’t manage to secure MSP
for the farmers. Chautala has vowed to secure
MSP for the farmers. Jannayak Janta Party
(JJP) leader Dushyant Chautala has said, “Our
party's national president already made it clear
that MSP must be assured to farmers. The
written proposals given by the central govern-
ment yesterday included MSPs. I'll work to
secure MSP to farmers as long as I'm the
Deputy CM. I will resign when I'm unable.”
WILL HOLD JAN SAMPARK, 'CHAUPALS'
TO EDUCATE ON FARM LAWS: BJP
New Delhi: Amid ongoing farmers protest on
Delhi border areas against agri laws, Bharatiya Ja-
nata Party (BJP) has decided to organise series of
measures including press conferences, 'chaupals'
and Jan Sampark, in all the districts of the country
on the issue of the new farm laws from Friday
onwards. As many as 700 press conferences,
hundreds of 'chaupals' and Jan Sampark will be
organised in the coming days. BJP General Secre-
tary discussed the issue through video conferenc-
ing with state 'prabharis' and state president on
Thursday. BJP led government have brought the
laws with the aim to benefit the farmers, but the
party says that farmers have been misguided by
the opposition. Therefore, the party is starting the
programmes to educate and inform farmers about
the benefit of the laws. —ANI
‘Farmers are
right, laws
should be
repealed’
Ludhiana: The new
farm Acts are not in the
interests of farmers
and they should be re-
pealed, said Dr Vardin-
derpal Singh, Principal
Soil Scientist at Depart-
ment of Soil Sciences,
Punjab Agricultural
University (PAU), who
refused an award from
the central government
on Monday.
He was supposed to
receive the award from
Union Chemicals and
Fertilisers Minister D V
Sadananda Gowda at an
event in New Delhi on
Monday.
But when Singh’s
name was announced,
he came on stage but
refused to accept the
award, saying that his
conscience would not
allow it.
“I returned the award
to tell that farmers are
right and these laws
should be repealed...
These laws are not in
the interest of farmers.
Farmers, not only from
Punjab but other parts
of the country as well
are protesting. No one
is listening to them. It is
being said that terror-
ists have come. They
are not terrorists, they
are farmers,” Singh
told ANI. —ANI
Farmers stage a protest against Farm bills at Singhu Border in New Delhi on Friday. —PHOTO BY ANI
New Delhi: Attacking
the Union government
overtheissueof farmin-
comeinthecountry,Con-
gress leader Rahul Gan-
dhi on Friday said that
NDA government wants
the average farmers’ in-
come in the country to
drop down to the level of
income being earned by
farmers in Bihar.
Citing government
data from 2013, the Con-
gress leader tweeted:
“The farmers of the
country want their in-
come to be on par with
farmers of Punjab. The
Modi government
wants the income of all
the farmers of the coun-
try to be as much as the
farmers of Bihar.”
According to the data,
Punjab tops the farm-
ers’ income list while
Bihar is at the bottom.
This remark comes
amid continuing farm-
ers protest on different
borders of the national
capital since November
26againstthethreenew-
ly-enacted farm laws.
Rahul Gandhi, whose
party is against the new
farm laws, has been a
constant critic of the
BJP-led government.
Congress leader on
Wednesday slammed
the Union government
over farmers protest
against the new agricul-
ture laws and termed
the Centre a govern-
ment of ‘lie and loot’.
—ANI
The farmers of the country want their
income to be on par with farmers of Punjab.
The Modi government wants the income of
all the farmers of the country to be as much
as the farmers of Bihar.
—Rahul Gandhi, Congress Leader
THERE IS TOO MUCH
BUREAUCRACY, LAMENTS CHIDU
New Delhi: Taking a
veiled dig at NITI Aayog
CEO Amitabh Kant’s
reported comments on
the issue of democracy,
senior Congress leader P
Chidambaram said there
is too much “bureaucra-
cy” in the country. “There
is too much democracy,
laments a senior bureau-
crat. There is too much
bureaucracy, says an
anguished democrat,”said
Chidambaram. In a series
of tweets, he slammed
the BJP-led UP govern-
ment for making a law
on ‘love jihad’ & asserted
that foundation of a new
Parliament building was
laid on ‘ruins of a liberal
democracy’.”The founda-
tion for a new Parliament
building was laid on ruins
of a liberal democracy.”
CONG IS WEAK, OPPN NEEDS TO
COME TOGETHER, SAYS RAUT
Mumbai: Asserting that the Congress, which leads
the UPA, has become weak now, Shiv Sena leader
Sanjay Raut on Friday suggested the opposition
needs to come together and strengthen the alliance.
“We will be happy if (Nationalist Congress Party chief
Sharad) Pawar sir becomes the UPA chairman. But I
have heard that he refused it. We will support him if
such a proposal comes to the fore officially. Congress
is weak now so the opposition needs to come togeth-
er and strengthen the UPA,” said Raut whose party
was earlier part of the National Democratic Alliance.
PARL TO PAY FLORAL TRIBUTES
TO MARTYRS OF 2001 ATTACK
New Delhi: A function to pay floral tributes to
martyrs who sacrificed their lives during the 2001
terrorist attack on Parliament will be held at the
Parliament House on Sunday, an official state-
ment said on Friday. According to officials, the
function will be held on December 13 at 10:30
am. On December 13, 2001, five heavily-armed
terrorists belonging to terror outfit Lashkar-e-Tai-
ba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), stormed
the Parliament complex in New Delhi and opened
fire indiscriminately.
SENSEX ENDS 139 PTS HIGHER;
NIFTY TOPS 13,550: TRADE GURUS
Mumbai: Equity bench-
mark Sensex ended 139
points higher on Friday
following gains in ICICI
Bank, ITC and NTPC amid
persistent foreign fund
inflows. After touching
its all-time intra-day
high of 46,309.63, the
30-share BSE index
settled 139.13 points up
at 46,099.01, just shy
of its closing record.
Similarly, the broader NSE
Nifty rose 35.55 points to
13,513.85. It hit a lifetime
high of 13,579.35 during
the session. ONGC was
the top gainer, rallying
around 6%, followed by
NTPC, Tata Steel, ICICI
Bank, ITC, Titan and Bajaj
Auto. On the other hand,
Axis Bank, M&M, Tech
Mahindra, Asian Paints
were among the laggards.
SSR DEATH CASE
Mahakal produced
before NDPS court
Mumbai: Reigel Ma-
hakal, an accused in a
drug case related to the
death of actor Sushant
Singh Rajput was taken
out for medical exami-
nation by the Narcotics
Control Bureau (NCB)
on Friday.
Mahakal’s NCB cus-
tody for two days has
ended and he was pro-
duced before Special
NDPS court later for
further remand. He was
arrested on December 9
for allegedly supplying
drugs.
Esplanade Court in
Mumbai on Wednesday
had sent Mahakal to
two-day NCB custody in
connection with a drug
case related to the death
of Sushant Rajput. “He
used to supply drugs to
(another accused) Anuj
Keshwani who further
supplied it to others,”
an official had said.
Earlier, NCB here
had conducted raids at
Milat Nagar, Lokhand-
wala, from where a sub-
stantial quantity of
drugs was recovered.
The NCB had on Sep-
tember 12 conducted
several searches in the
case based on informa-
tion provided by Kes-
hwani who was arrest-
ed after one Kaizan
Ebrahim disclosed his
name. Ebrahim had
said that Keshwani was
his supplier for contra-
bands. —ANI
IN THE COURTYARD
HC notice to Delhi govt on plea against capping cost
New Delhi: Delhi HC
issued a notice to Delhi
government on a peti-
tion against the latter’s
decision to cap the cost
of the reverse
transcription-pol-
ymerase chain
reaction (RT-
PCR) test for COVID-19
at Rs 800.
A single-judge bench
of Justice Navin Chaw-
la asked Delhi govern-
ment to file a reply on
petition filed by the As-
sociation of Practicing
Pathologists. The
bench listed the
matter for fur-
ther hearing on
February 25.
The association,
which filed the plea
through advocate
Neeraj Grover, urged
the court to quash the
Delhi government or-
der saying that it is seri-
ously affecting the
rights of private labora-
tories run by its mem-
bers and causing finan-
cial losses every day.
Delhigovernmenthas
arbitrarily & without
any authority of law
fixed ceiling price on
charges of RT-PCR
basedmoleculartestsfor
COVID-19inDelhibythe
private sector labs,
therebyviolatingseveral
fundamental rights of
members of petitioner
association guaranteed
by the Constitution of
IndiaunderArticle14,19
( 1) (g) and violating the
fundamental rights of
the common man under
Article 21.”While the
costs to labs for doing
RTPCR tests is around
Rs 1,200, the cost for
TRUNAT is around Rs
2000 and the cost for CB-
NAAT tests is around
3500,” the plea said. —ANI
Criminal-politician nexus: SC declines
plea to handover 1993 report
New Delhi: SC declined
to admit a plea seeking
directions to the Central
government to hand
over the 1993 Vohra
Committee report to
various Central agen-
ciesforacomprehensive
probe into the criminal-
politician nexus.
A bench headed by
Justice SK Kaul refused
to admit the plea filed
by advocate Ashwini
Upadhyay. “Look at the
prayers. I hope the
country will be at the
top, I hope the world is
a beautiful place, I hope
every man will live hap-
pily, these are the
prayers! Write a book
on it, not petitions. One
can understand giving a
nudge to Centre but I can-
not encourage petitions
like these. These are all
utopian prayers. PIL must
serve a purpose, one
should understand what
directions can be given.
Plea dismissed as with-
drawn,” the bench said.
RT-PCR
TESTS
SCwon’thearPILonmaking
lawsonbenamiproperties
CIC order on
PM's entourage
details stayed
New Delhi: The Delhi
High Court on Friday
stayed an order by the
Central Information
Commission (CIC) seek-
ing the disclosure of
security apparatus and
the entourage of the
Prime Minister of India
under the Right to In-
formation (RTI) Act.
A bench of Justice
Navin Chawla, while
hearing a petition filed
by IAF , stayed CIC or-
der directing them to
provide information re-
garding Special Flight
Returns & listed matter
for further hearing in
April. “What is the
problem in giving num-
ber of passengers? You
may not give names.
But how does it affect
sovereignty of country
if the number is given,”
the bench asked. —ANI
New Delhi: The SC de-
clined to entertain a
plea seeking directions
to the Central govern-
ment to ascertain the
feasibility of confiscat-
ing black money, bena-
mi properties and dis-
proportionate assets.
A bench headed by
Justice SK Kaul said it
can’t issue a mandamus
for Parliament to create
a law. As the apex court
refused to hear the plea,
the petitioner withdrew
the same. —Agencies

INDIAAHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2020
Going aggro...
and join the next round
of talks. Having reject-
ed the Centre’s propos-
als, the farm leaders
reacted to the new ap-
peal by saying they
would continue their
protests for repeal of
the laws. “We are
against the three laws.
We will block railway
tracks if the Prime
Minister doesn’t listen
to us,” said Boota Sin-
gh, chairperson, BKU
(Dakaunda), which is
part of the stir.
BJP’s campaign...
to sell produce any-
where in the country.
Farmers say the laws
will deprive them of the
minimum prices fixed
by the government and
leave them at the mercy
of corporates. At least
five deaths have been
reported since the pro-
tests began.
Bengal Tussle...
in the circumstances, I
am directed to request
you to kindly dispense
with the presence of the
Stateofficialsinthemeet-
ing, considering that the
State Government is al-
ready addressing this is-
sue with utmost serious-
ness,” he said in the two-
pageletter.The two were
summoned on the basis
of a report West Bengal
Governor Jagdeep
Dhankar sent to the
Centre on Friday morn-
ing about the law and
order situation in the
state. Sources said the
chief secretary and the
DGP of the state have
been asked to be pre-
sent at North Block in
Delhi for a meeting on
state’s law and order
situation on Monday.
WB Guv...
this video comment
that outrages essence
and sublimity of Ben-
gal’s rich culture,” he
tweeted. In the clip
shared by Dhankhar,
Banerjee appears to be
miffed by the top brass
of BJP frequenting the
state ahead of 2021 as-
sembly elections. Mock-
ing Nadda, she says,
“Everyday some
chadda, gadda, fadda,
badda, bhadda… are all
coming together. Only
they will do their pro-
grammes, (so that) no-
body else can. And if on
those days, their events
draw less crowd… they
create such drama to
get featured in the na-
tional news, and say we
did all these…”
Amit Shah...
Before this, home Min-
ister Amit Shah went to
Bengal on a two-day
visit on November 5. At
that time, he had ap-
pealed to party workers
to work towards achiev-
ing the target of win-
ning more than 200
seats in the state. Dur-
ing the last visit, Home
Minister Shah also in-
teracted with public in-
tellectuals and the gen-
eral public to under-
stand the state’s politi-
cal climate.
his time round, the
timing of Shah’s s visit
is particularly signifi-
cant because it comes
just a day after the con-
voy of the party’s na-
tional president J.P. Na-
dda was attacked dur-
ing a visit to Diamond
Harbour on Thursday.
BJP’s West Bengal in-
charge Kailash Vijay-
vargiya also received
injuries in the attack.
With the political tem-
perature in the state ris-
ing in the wake of the
attack on top leaders of
the BJP, political ob-
servers in Bengal are
reading between the
lines about the real pur-
pose of Shah’s forth-
coming visit to Bengal.
Unseasonal rains...
yard in Sabarkantha
district. Grains includ-
ing maize, wheat and
groundnut got soaked
and estimated loss sus-
tained by traders is
Rs25,000 to Rs30,000.
In Ganadevi taluka in
Navsari district, which
is considered to be a
horticultural area, cul-
tivators fear severe
damage to crops includ-
ing chikoo and mango.
Also, cotton procured
from the Cotton Corpo-
ration of India in Nas-
wadi taluka of Chhota
Udepur district has
been drenched. More
than 1,000 bales of cot-
ton have got soaked in
the unseasonal rain.
“The cotton crop has
been affected the worst.
In Rajkot district,
around 40 % cultivation
that takes place is of
cotton. Due to scarcity
of labour owing to the
ongoing pandemic,
around 50% of the cot-
ton crop is standing in
the fields. If rains con-
tinue, it would mean
huge losses for farm-
ers,” said Shantilal Ve-
gad of Dhoraji taluka.
According to sky met
weather forecast, a low-
pressure area is marked
over central and adjoin-
ing southeast Arabian
Sea supported by organ-
izedcycloniccirculation
over the same area.
Therefore, Rajkot, Am-
reli, Veraval, Junagadh,
Bhavnagar,Ahmedabad,
Baroda, Gandhinagar,
Valsad, and Surat are
likely to witness light
showers.
FROM PG 1
GOI TO ENGAGE RETIRED GOVERNMENT
OFFICERS AS CONSULTANTS
Ministry of Corporate Affairs has invited applica-
tions from retired Central Government officers for
engagement as Consultants, initially for a period
of one year.
FIVE IRS (C&CE) OFFICERS TAKE
VOLUNTARY RETIREMENT
Five IRS(C&CE) officers viz. one Jt Commissioner,
one Dy Commissioner and three Asstt. Commis-
sioners have taken Voluntary Retirement. Vipan
Chopra, Jt. Commissioner and Deepaka Dewan,
Dy Commissioner and Asstt Commissioners T L
Vijay Kumar, Hastimal Jain took VR on December
7 while Minguel Miranda, Asstt Commissioner’s
VR is effective from
THREE VACANCIES IN SC TO BE
FILLED UP
Three vacancies of the Supreme Court Judges are
being filled up early next year. Who will make it ?
DUBE TO BE REPATRIATED FROM
PRASAR BHARTI
Consequent upon completion of his tenure, A
P Dubey, presently posted as DDA(Sports) on
deputation at Prasar Bharati will stand repatriated
and relieved from Prasar Bharati with effect from
December 30t, 2020.He was on deputation from
the Ministry of Industries.
DEPUTATION OF POONAM SINGH
EXTENDED
The ACC has approved the proposal of Depart-
ment of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade
for extension of deputation tenure of Ms Poonam
Singh, Director, Comptroller General of Patents,
Design and Trademarks (CGPDTM) for a period
of two years up to May 1, 2023. She is an IOFS
officer of 2002 batch.
PK ARORA APPOINTED WHOLE-TIME
MEMBER, IRDA
Pramod Kumar Arora, Secretary, International
Operations, Life Insurance Corporation of India
(LIC), Mumbai, has been appointed Whole-Time
Member (Actuary) in the Insurance Regulatory
and Development Authority of India (IRDA) for a
period of three years.
SANDEEP POUNDRIK APPOINTED
PRO-TEM DG, CDRI
Sandeep Poundrik, Adviser (Mitigation), MDMA,
MHA, has been appointed Pro-tem DG, Coalition
for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), New
Delhi, till October 7, 2021. He is a 1993 batch IAS
officer of Bihar cadre.
RP MEENA SENT ON DEPUTATION TO
RAJASTHAN GOVT.
Raghubeer Prasad Meena, Chief Mechanical Engi-
neer (CME) (Planning and Freight), Headquarters,
South Western Railway (SWR) has been sent on
deputation to the Government of Rajasthan for
a period of three years. He is an Indian Railway
Service of Mechanical Engineers (IRSME) officer.
GAURAV AHLUWALIA APPOINTED
AMBASSADOR TO ALGERIA
Gaurav Ahluwalia, presently Deputy High Com-
missioner in the High Commission of India, Islam-
abad, has been appointed as the next Ambassador
of India to the People’s Democratic Republic of
Algeria. He is a 2005 batch IFS officer.
VIRENDRA SINGH GETS ADDITIONAL
CHARGE IN RAJASTHAN
Virendra Singh, Commissioner and Special Secre-
tary, Information Technology and Communication,
Rajasthan, will hold the additional charge of Direc-
tor, Civil Aviation Corporation, Jaipur. He is a 2006
batch IAS officer of Maharashtra cadre.
POWERGallery
By arrangement with: http://
whispersinthecorridors.com
Kolkata: West Bengal
Governor Jagdeep
Dhankhar Friday said
he has sent a report to
the Centre in the back-
drop of the violent at-
tack on the convoy of
BJP chief JP Nadda,
and warned CM Mama-
ta Banerjee over the
deteriorating law and
order situation &
warned “not to play
with fire”.
The “non-respon-
sive” stance of the CM
towards the Raj Bha-
wan is an indication
that governance is not
in accordance with the
Constitution. It is the
duty of the governor to
protect the Constitu-
tion, Dhankhar said.
Dhankhar said the
chief minister is also
under constitutional
obligation and has to
act in accordance with
the Constitution. —PTI
FOLLOW CONSTITUTION, DON’T PLAY
WITH FIRE: GOVERNOR WARNS MAMATA
Kolkata: Seven per-
sons were arrested in
West Bengal on Friday
for their alleged in-
volvement in the at-
tack on Bharatiya Ja-
nata Party national
president JP Nadda’s
convoy a day ago, a
senior police officer
said.
Four persons were
arrested from Falta,
and three from Usthi
police station area, both
in South 24 Parganas
district, he told PTI.
All seven of them
were booked under
various sections of the
IPC for rioting, ob-
structing public serv-
ant in discharge of
public functions and
other offences. —PTI
7 held for attack on BJP
president’s convoy in WB
Chennai: Prime Minis-
ter Narendra Modi
hailed famous Tamil
poetandfreedomfighter
Subramanya Bharathi's
vision of independent
and empowered women
& said his government
was inspired by it to en-
sure woman-led devel-
opment. He was virtu-
allyaddressingtheInter-
national Bharathi Festi-
val to mark the 138th an-
niversary of the famous
poet,hailedasMahakavi.
The poet's definition of
progress had a central
role for women and one
of his important vi-
sions "was that of inde-
pendent & empowered
women." The PM said
Bharathiyar, as the poet
is addressed with rever-
ence, wrote that women
should walk with their
held high while looking
people in their eyes.
Centrekeentoensure
women-led devp: PM
New delhi: India’s total
active COVID-caseload
has dropped to 3.63 lakh
(3,63,749) on Friday and
this is the lowest after
146 days. The total ac-
tive cases was 3,58,692
on July 18, according to
data released by the
Health Ministry on Fri-
day. India's total COV-
ID-19 active caseload
has dropped to 3.63 lakh
(3,63,749), the lowest in
146 days, and comprises
just 3.71 per cent of the
total coronavirus infec-
tions, the Union health
ministry said on Friday.
The total active cases
were 3,58,692 on July 18.
"The country has re-
ported a trend of sus-
tained decrease in the
number of active cases.
India's present active
caseload consists of
just 3.71 per cent of In-
dia's total cases," the
ministry said.
It said that 37,528 peo-
ple recovered from
COVID-19 in a span of
24 hours and this led to
a net decline of 8,544
cases from the total ac-
tive caseload. —PTI
INDIA’S COVID-19 CASES DROP TO
LOWEST IN OVER HUNDRED DAYS
With the rising cases in Punjab, state CM Amarinder Singh has
extended night curfew from 10 pm to 5 am till January 1, 2021.
Bengaluru: With the
Karnataka legislative
council getting ad-
journedsinediewithout
taking up the conten-
tious anti-cow slaughter
billpassedbytheAssem-
bly, Chief Minister B S
Yediyurappa on Friday
said, the government
will promulgate an ordi-
nance to bring it into ef-
fect. The Chief Minister
also expressed reserva-
tions about the legisla-
tive council’s Chairman
K Pratapachandra Shet-
ty’s decision to adjourn
sine die “abruptly”, and
saidthatthegovernment
has decided to convene
the house on Tuesday
and also petitioned the
Governor in this regard.
‘Karnataka govt will promulgate
anti-cow slaughter ordinance’
Karnataka CM Yediyurappa worships a cow at his residence in
Bengaluru on Friday, after the state assembly passed the Prevention
of Slaughter & Preservation of Cattle Bill-2020 on Dec 9.
New Delhi:Minister of
Petroleum and Natural
Gas and Steel Shri
Dharmendra Pradhan
today held a telecall
with HE Saad Sherida
Al-Kaabi, Qatar’s Min-
ister of State for Ener-
gy Affairs and Presi-
dent & CEO Qatar Pe-
troleum on promoting
Qatari investments in
the entire energy value
chain in India. Both
sides agreed to further
strengthen cooperation
in the energy sector
and move beyond the
buyer-seller relation-
ship to a comprehen-
sive one, including two-
way investments. Min-
ister Pradhan and Min-
ister Al-Kaabi have
agreed to set up a Task
Force on Energy, repre-
sented by Vice-Presi-
dent of Qatar Petrole-
um and a senior officer
from Petroleum Minis-
try to identify specific
projects in India’s en-
ergy sector for Qatari
investments.
India, Qatar to set up task
force for investment
New Delhi: India said
the military standoff in
eastern Ladakh in the
last 6 months has been
a result of the actions
by China which sought
to effect a ‘unilateral
change’ in the status
along the Line of Actu-
al Control. The com-
ments by External Af-
fairs Ministry Spokes-
person Anurag Srivas-
tava came at a media
briefing when asked
about the fresh com-
ments by the Chinese
foreign ministry blam-
ing India again for the
border situation in east-
ern Ladakh. —PTI
Border standoff
in Ladakh due to
China: India
New Delhi: Indian
Medical Association
(IMA) observed a na-
tionwide no-demonstra-
tion strike on Friday to
oppose the central gov-
ernment’s move to al-
low Ayurveda doctors
to perform surgery.
Dr Rajan Sharma, na-
tional president of
IMA, said that allowing
Ayurveda postgradu-
ates to perform surgery
is a “blatant attempt” to
“corrupt” the health-
care system of the
country. “It takes years
and years to become a
doctor. ” he added. —PTI
‘Cannot permit
Ayurveda doc to
conduct surgery’
‘SHAME THAT CENTRAL FORCES CAN’T PROTECT YOU’
PROTEST IN MUM
Mahua Moitra
Jagdeep Dhankhar
PM Narendra Modi
Dharmendra Pradhan
—PHOTOBYANI

TALKING POINTAHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2020
WHAT AILS CORPORATE
Governance in India?
A combination of disclosure, regulation and enforcement can
improve corporate governance in the country’s public sector
T
he only way to
bring some
sense to the
madness in India’s
public markets is to
give more independ-
ence, power and re-
sources to SEBI. At
the same time, India
must seriously penal-
ize auditors and
boards of companies
for overlooking man-
agement follies. In ad-
dition, the authorities
must incentivize and
protect whistleblow-
ers in a similar man-
ner to developed econ-
omies.
Some argue that
complying with high-
er disclosure require-
ments might be too
costly for smaller com-
panies. That is not
true. Furthermore,
even the top 100 Indian
companies default fre-
quently on mandatory
disclosures. Instead of
reducing require-
ments for disclosures,
India should lower
costs of disclosures
and compliance by us-
ing more technology.
Another way to im-
prove the health of
India’s public markets
is to increase market
participation and
trading volumes. Then
good corporate gov-
ernance would be re-
warded while poor
corporate governance
would be penalized.
Making short-selling a
smoother affair might
make the market deep-
er and more liquid. To
increase depth in cor-
porate bond markets,
India must make last-
ing banking reforms.
This involves privati-
zation and granting
more powers to the
banking regulator.
An unintended con-
sequence of banking
reform might be the
improvement of In-
dia’s infrastructure.
Currently, many state-
owned enterprises in
infrastructure sectors
such as power are mis-
managed because
their bosses are able to
buy time by restruc-
turing their bank
loans. Banking re-
forms will make that
impossible and will
transform this sector
too.
A combination of
disclosure, regula-
tion and enforcement
can improve corpo-
rate governance. Re-
forms can also reduce
conflicts of interests
as well as create the
right incentives and
disincentives for In-
dian companies.
These would inevita-
bly lead to some
short-term backlash,
but the substantial
long-term benefits
are too significant to
be ignored.
Sunil Asnani
M
ost busi-
nesses per-
ish not be-
cause of strong com-
petition or adverse
macroeconomic con-
ditionsbutbecauseof
cracks within. One
such failing is weak
corporate govern-
ance. For publicly
listedcompanies,this
often translates to
controlling share-
holders or “promot-
ers”pursuingpolicies
and practices in their
own interests at the
expense of minority
shareholders.Itturns
out that companies
with such promoters
are at greater risk of
crises and near-death
moments in bad eco-
nomic cycles. Those
companies with bet-
ter governance,
where promoters act
responsibly in the in-
terests of sharehold-
ers, tend to do better
during adversity. In
fact, savvy investors
now treat good corpo-
rategovernanceasan
intangible asset.
This can be best
seen in India’s bank-
ing sector. In general,
private sector banks
have practiced better
governance than
state-owned ones.
Consequently, their
financial and operat-
ing metrics also tell a
story of profitable
growthwithlessasset
quality issues than
their public sector
peers.Nowonderthat
private sector banks
tradeatahighervalu-
ation than public sec-
tor ones.
Higher valuation
puts these banks into
a virtuous growth cy-
cle. They are able to
raise capital cheaply
with less dilution.
This reinforces their
already high return
ratios, which in turn
continue to support a
higher valuation.
This self-perpetuat-
ing cycle has led to
long-term compound-
ing of shareholder
returns. State-owned
peers have fared
much worse.
Despite a large
number of state-
owned banks, the ma-
jorityof creditgrowth
in India is led by pri-
vate sector banks. In
fact, state-owned
banks are struggling
and the government
is forced to merge
them to ensure their
survival. The success
of well-run private
banks demonstrates
howgoodgovernance
can lower a compa-
ny’s cost of capital.
That is not all. The
resultinghighervalu-
ation also gives such
companies immense
pricing power in cor-
porate transactions
and talent manage-
ment, widening their
economic moat.
I
ndia boasts of
the oldest stock
exchange in
Asia, which is also
the region’s largest.
However, corporate
governance in India
still lags behind
many other places
like Singapore or Tai-
wan. India must un-
derstand that good
corporate govern-
ance is the founda-
tion of a lasting busi-
ness. It builds inves-
tor confidence and
has other benefits.
India is short of capi-
tal and needs to earn
investors’ trust. With-
out an infusion of
capital, the Indian
economy will fail to
thrive.
There are multiple
issues that plague
corporate govern-
ance in India. First is
the lack of accounta-
bility among control-
ling shareholders.
For example, promot-
ers get away with ap-
pointing their
friends, ex-employees
and business-school
classmates as inde-
pendent directors
with no one raising
an eyebrow. Often,
statutory auditors
are given only one-
year extensions to
pressurize them to
“comply” with man-
agement demands.
Compliant auditors
tend to persist for too
long, developing far-
too-cozy relation-
ships with the very
people they are sup-
posed to keep an eye
on. With no strong
checks and balances,
promoters are in ef-
fect incentivized to
take advantage of mi-
nority shareholders.
Second is the slow
and selective enforce-
ment by the Securi-
ties and Exchange
Board of India
(SEBI), the country’s
market regulator.
Cases against the
management’s mis-
steps take years to
resolve. SEBI gener-
ally hands out warn-
ings or mild punish-
ments. This could be
because SEBI does
not have enough re-
sources to deal with a
large number of cas-
es, or it could be a
lack of authority or
competence. In cer-
tain cases, promoters
are extremely power-
ful and politically
connected. Given that
regulators are politi-
cal appointees, it is
far from easy for
them to ignore pres-
sure from politicians,
remain impartial,
punish the powerful
and deliver justice.
Third is the fact
that markets do not
punish poorly man-
aged companies for
their misdeeds. India
needs deeper markets
with broader partici-
pation for true price
discovery. Stock mar-
kets must be treated
as marketplaces, not
as forums for votes of
confidence on the
government’s eco-
nomic policies. Be-
cause governments
place too much im-
portance on market
performance, they
have an incentive to
keep them inflated.
Indian corporate
bond markets are
even worse than stock
markets in terms of
participation. They
are really accessible
to only a handful of
companies.
Fourth is the lack
of transparency and
weak disclosure re-
quirements. This fur-
ther perpetuates
weak governance.
The most detailed
yearly disclosures by
Indian companies
are annual reports,
which are often
colorful marketing
decks instead of de-
tailed, factful and in-
sightful documents,
like the 10-Ks in the
US. The quarterly
earnings report for
many companies is
just a one-pager. This
discloses summary
items only without
any breakdown of
details.
Earlier, manufac-
turing companies
were mandated to
disclose operational
details pertaining to
capacity, production
and inventory. A few
years ago, this disclo-
sure requirement
was done away with.
Now, the only time
companies make ad-
equate disclosures
only during their ini-
tial public offerings,
which is a mere one-
time event instead of
an annual exercise.
Multiple Issues Bringing Sense
to the Madness
SOURCE: FAIROBSERVER.COM

For the average minded facts are
irrefutable and for the
intellectual everything is a mere
interpretation.
—Jagdeesh Chandra, CEO & Editor, First India
AHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2020www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
08
2NDFRONT
First India Bureau
Junagadh: Launched
with much fanfare
amid the Covid-19 cri-
sis, the Girnar rope-
way has already fer-
ried at least 1 lakh
visitors in a matter of
6 six weeks.
According to Usha
Breco, the developer of
the ropeway, it has also
announced special
schemes for Covid-19
warriors and defence
personnel.
Under the special
schemes, doctors,
nurses, ambulance
drivers, police, ASHA
workers, medical stu-
dents engaged in Cov-
id-19 work, mediaper-
sons, staff of essen-
tial services such as
power, gas, telecom,
defence personnel,
and their family and
friends can avail of
the two-way ropeway
ride at 40% discount
to the regular fare.
The special offer will
be in force till Decem-
ber 31.
The Girnar ropeway,
claimedtobetheworld’s
longest to a temple, was
inaugurated by Prime
Minister Narendra
Modi on October 24, and
has received very good
response from visitors.
“We are delighted
that we have achieved
another milestone in
our success story by
successfully ferrying
1 lakh guests from
across Gujarat and
India in the Girnar
ropeway in a short
span of time since its
inauguration,” said
Deepak Kaplish, Re-
gional Head-West,
Usha Breco.
“With the Covid-19
situation improving
and travel picking up,
we look forward to serv-
ing more guests and
achieving greater mile-
stones in the future,” he
added.
The company has
taken elaborate meas-
ures to protect pas-
sengers and employ-
ees from the Corona-
virus. Measures in-
clude social distanc-
ing, mandatory use of
masks by employees,
thermal screening at
entry gate, use of
masks by visitors, al-
lowing only 4 passen-
gers in each cabin at a
time, and regular san-
itisation of cabins.
Covid yes, but Girnar ropeway sees 1 lakh visitors in 6 weeks
Ropeway developer announces
special schemes for Covid-19
warriors, defence personnel, me-
dia to mark the milestone
MOUNTAIN VIEW
Inter-ministerial group submits report to junk vehicles here after a meeting with PM Narendra Modi
Shishir Awasthi
New Delhi: The
world’s largest ship
graveyard, Alang,
where ships finally
call to be broken up,
is poised to become
the hub of sorts for
scrapping old vehi-
cles. The Central Gov-
ernment is planning
to dismantle and recy-
cle end-of-life vehicles
at this port town in
Gujarat’s Bhavnagar
district.
An inter-ministerial
panel that is exploring
the possibility of junk-
ing vehicles at Alang,
followingapresentation
made to Prime Minister
Narendra Modi for
drafting a scrapping
policy, is learnt to have
finalised its report.
The government’s
policy managers feel the
plan would maximise
Alang’s recycling poten-
tial and help use the
cheap scrap steel ex-
tracted as an input for
the manufacturing sec-
tor.
The move coincides
with Tata Steel and the
Liberty Group looking
to enter the scrap recy-
cling segment. Tata
Steel has already set up
a recycling plant in
Rohtak, Haryana.
The Ship Recycling
Industries Association
(SRIA) has backed the
plan as this can double
the steel scrap output to
5 million light displace-
ment tonnage (LDT)
from the present 2 mil-
lion LDT.
Light displacement
tonnage refers to the
weight of a ship’s hull,
machinery, equipment
and spares and forms
the basis on which ships
are usually sold for
scrap. The extra scrap
will allow the steel re-
rolling mills in Bhavna-
gar to run for 12-24
hours compared to the
existing eight hours.
The association has
made two suggestions to
overcome the limitation
of the small size of ship
recycling plots. “Every
plot holder should be al-
lotted a backyard plot of
10,000 sq metres at nom-
inal cost on a 99-year
lease,” said an SRIA of-
ficial. “If the backyard
plot is allotted, we will
set up shredders and
other equipment for re-
cycling of vehicles at
our own cost,” he said.
Second, the associa-
tion wants the recy-
cling yards to be con-
verted into an autono-
mous body under the
National Authority
for Recycling of Ships
set up by the Shipping
Ministry. This will
solve the problem of
multiple agencies op-
erating at Alang
which delays finalisa-
tion of issues relating
to the industry, the
SRIA official said.
World’s largest ship graveyard Alang
set to be old vehicle scrapyard also
CORPORATE
INTEREST
Alang shipbreaking yard in Gujarat’s Bhavnagar district. —FILE PHOTO
13 IIT-Gn students
bag prestigious awards
GST team close to busting huge scam
Gujarat police
destroy illicit
liquor of
`88 lakh
First India Bureau
Surat: Continuing its
probe in the multi-
crore input tax credit
scam in Surat, the Di-
rectorate General of
GST Intelligence
(DGGI) has identified
6 more persons to be
involved in it, days af-
ter it zeroed in on 7
others.
The scam involved
raising invoices in the
nameof fakecompanies
and fraudulently claim-
ing input tax credit.
The department has
now revealed the names
Imran, Qadir, Gautam,
Shankar, Siddharth and
a certain Pandey while
investigating the case
of Zaiyad Chakkiwala’s
Vedan Impex firm in
connection with wrong-
fully claiming the input
tax credit, sources said.
Sources said Sid-
dharth used to supply
material to people un-
der a buyback offer
while Pandey helped get
the goods released from
the Mumbai customs
house. Investigation of-
ficials believe that the 6
were part of a gang that
orchestrated the scam.
First India Bureau
Vadodara: The Gujarat
Police have destroyed
illegal liquor worth
around Rs 88 lakh
seized from bootleggers
in Vadodara.
Karanrajsinh Vaghe-
la, Deputy Commission-
er of Police (DCP), Zone
3, Vadodara, said over
33,000 bottles of foreign-
made liquor, seized be-
tween March 2018 and
October 2020 were de-
stroyed by the police.
“We confiscated this
foreign-made liquor
from 2 police stations in
the city between March
2018 and October 2020.
The total cost of the de-
stroyed contraband is
around Rs 88 lakh. We
destroyed this contra-
band with proper pa-
perwork in place,” said
Vaghela.
First India Bureau
Gandhinagar: Thir-
teen Ph.D. scholars
and recent alumni of
the Indian Institute
of Technology, Gan-
dhinagar (IIT-Gn),
have won several
prestigious awards
and fellowships in the
last 2 months.
Rajesh Hadiya, a
Ph.D. scholar from bio-
logical engineering was
selected for the prestig-
ious SERB-CII Prime
Minister’s Fellowship
for his doctoral re-
search.
Six Ph.D. scholars –
Prasanna Kulkarni and
Yogesh Singh from me-
chanical engineering;
Ashish Tiwari, Sachin-
kumar Suthar, and
Kailash Prasad from
electrical engineering;
and Rajes Ghosh from
physics have bagged the
prestigious Prime Min-
ister Research Fellow-
ship (May 2020 cycle).
Two other Ph.D. stu-
dents, Chandan Kumar
Jha from electrical en-
gineering, and Nakshi
Desai from biological
engineering won the
Student Startup Grant
Challenge from the Cen-
tre for Innovation Incu-
bation & Entrepreneur-
ship (CIIE) at IIM
Ahmedabad.
Two other Ph.D.
students, Jaydeeps-
ingh Chavda from
chemistry and Shanti
Shwarup Mahto from
the earth sciences dis-
cipline were selected
for the DST-INSPIRE
Fellowship.
PRIYANKA IN
SAFFRON SAREE!
Uttar Pradesh politics is much more
unpredictable than any Bollywood
potboiler. Congress party which was
virtually on silent mode for quite some
time now, all of a sudden not only vibrated
but in one move got phones of many
influential buzzing. The political corridors
are abuzz with discussions about a cut
out of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra who holds
the reins of party affairs in UP. The cut out
placed at UPCC office has Priyanka Gandhi
Vadra draped in a saffron saree. Now
saffron clothes are the trademark of UP
CM Adityanath so the cut out is becoming
the source of many political theories and
prophecies. All political pundits are trying
to brainstorm the political equations for
2022 from the saffron saree image. Is
Congress trying to cut diamond with
a diamond? Will the strategy of using
saffron as a weapon against ultimate
saffron brand ambassador work?
—Vishal Srivastav
SOZZLED
ADVOCATE!
An advocate, reportedly
in an inebriated state,
vandalised half a dozen
vehicles near the Gujarat
Vidhypeeth at Ashram
Road in Ahmedabad
on Friday. Commuters
thrashed him and later
the police took him in
custody.
— PHOTOS BY
HANIF SINDHI
COVID-19
UPDATE
GUJARAT
4,148
DEATHS
2,25,304
CONFIRMED CASES
RAJASTHAN
2,514 DEATHS 2,88,692 CASES
DELHI
WORLD
15,94,628
DEATHS
7,10,64,142
CONFIRMED CASES
INDIA
98,23,901
CONFIRMED CASES
1,42,593
DEATHS
MAHARASHTRA
48,059 DEATHS 18,72,440 CASES
UTTAR PRADESH
KARNATAKA
11,928 DEATHS 8,99,011 CASES

ne of the top beau-
ty pageants of the
world, Miss Ocean
World 2020 is cur-
rently being or-
ganised with one
of the most tal-
ented and beautiful par-
ticipants on board.
Began on 1 Decem-
ber, this pageant
will go on till 30
December, for
which the grand finale will
be organised virtually.
The official rights for
Miss Ocean World have
been taken for 3 years by
the organizer Yogesh
Mishra from the Fusion
Group in the Pink City. It is
an honor and a proud mo-
ment for the whole country
as Miss Ocean World has
been ranked on #17 all over
the world, by the prestig-
ious Euthopia Models in
the list of World Pageantry.
Due to COVID-19, the or-
ganizer, Yogesh Mishra has
decided to conduct Miss
Ocean World – 1st Edition
virtually, for the face value
activity with the following
six rounds: Intro-
duction Round, Bi-
kini Round, Tal-
ent Round, Na-
tional Costume
Round, Catwalk
Round and Interac-
tion with the Judges
Round, respectively.
The results of Miss
Ocean World 2020 will
be announced virtual-
ly on 30 December.
Later, Miss Ocean
World 2021 will be
conducted on the
ground in India
with a participa-
tion of 40-45
countries from all
over the world.
NEHAL NAYAR
nehal.nayar@firstindia.co.in
THE CURVES
O
Flaunting
During the second round of Miss OceanWorld 2020, all the
participants from across the globe got a bikini photoshoot
done for themselves, to compete for the next round!
AHMEDABAD, SATURDAY
DECEMBER 12, 2020
www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia
facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia 09
United
Kingdom
Spain
TanzaniaFrance
Nigeria
Peru
Uganda
Chile
India

10
ETCAHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2020www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
FACEOFTHEDAY
LARISSA D’SA, Content Creator
LEO
JULY 24 - AUGUST 23
Financial situation improves
as previous investments
start giving returns. You
will be able to achieve
stability in your career. Chances of
contracting a common ailment cannot
be ruled out for some. A family
youngster is likely to bring good
news.
LIBRA
SEPT 24 - OCTOBER 22
You spend well, but you
earn well too, so expect
this happy situation to
persist on the financial
front. Learning the ropes on the
professional front will prove
interesting. Some of you may get a
step closer to coming back in shape.
You will make right moves.
ARIES
MAR 21 - APR 20
Financial worries are likely
to become a thing of the
past, as money comes to
you from various sources.
Something entrusted to you will be
completed with utmost efficiency.
You may seriously consider joining a
gym or starting a fitness regimen.
You will feel really good today.
SAGITTARIUS
NOV 23 - DEC 22
Despite rising expenses, you
will be able to remain fairly
well off financially. You
achieve much on the
professional front today. Your daily
fitness routine will find you fit and
energetic. A family youngster is likely
to add to your prestige by his or her
good showing.
GEMINI
MAY 21 - JUNE 21
You may resolve to come
back in shape and take up
a fitness course. Domestic
commitments can
temporarily put profession on hold.
Getting tied up in professional
matters will give you little time for
family. Time with family will be
satisfying.
AQUARIUS
JAN 21 - FEB 19
Excellent returns from
previous investments and
from immovable property
cannot be ruled out for
some. Your ideas are likely to be much
sought after on the work front. Not
giving in the culinary temptations is
likely to benefit you on the health front.
A family reunion is on the cards.
TAURUS
APR 21 - MAY 20
Good money is likely to be
earned today by
freelancers and
commission agents. Some
of you will need to be careful about
your reputation on the professional
front. A change in lifestyle will make
you feel fit and energetic. You are
likely to add to your assets.
CAPRICORN
DEC 23 - JAN 20
Remaining in control on
the financial front will help
curb wasteful expenditure.
You will be much more at
ease as you find your rhythm at
work. You will take positive steps to
keep fit and healthy. You desire best
of both the worlds – work and family
– and you shall have it.
VIRGO
AUG 24 - SEP 23
Wealth comes to you
through a profitable
venture or inheritance.
Those hunting for a
suitable job are likely to get lucky.
You may start something on the
fitness front. A family member will
give good advice regarding a
professional matter.
CANCER
JUNE 22 - JULY 23
Enrolling for a financial
scheme will be in your
favour, as it promises to
add to your wealth. Take
care on the professional front as
things do not appear to progress as
planned. Stay away from the gossip
mill on the family front as you can
become someone’s target.
PISCES
FEB20 - MARCH 20
Strict self-discipline, where
spending is concerned, will
keep your bank balance
brimming. A decision at
work is likely to favour you. Keeping
pace with fitness buffs is indicated
and promises to keep you in good
health. Some good news awaits you
on the domestic front.
SCORPIO
OCT 23 - NOVEMBER 22
This is an excellent time for
you to invest, as you are
likely to get fantastic
returns. You are set to gain
a position of authority on the
professional front. Good health is
assured as you resolve to shake a
leg. Family life brings immense joy. A
property may be acquired by some.
YOUR
DAYHoroscope by
Saurabbh Sachdeva
n an extraordinary ini-
tiative during the pan-
demic, a young woman
teaches adolescent girls
how to make cloth pads
at home Ganga, a
28-year-old, young wom-
an from Goghra Phala Village in
Dungarpur district of Ra-
jasthan, is determined to ad-
vance of adolescent health and
rights. She has all the makings
of a role model and leader, hav-
ing successfully stood her
ground through numerous chal-
lenges and continued her studies
despite an early marriage.
Ganga is presently working as
a cluster coordinator with Jatan
Sansthan under the FAYA pro-
ject in Dungarpur district. FAYA
(Feminist Adolescents and
Youth-Led Action)
is a program sup-
ported by Popula-
tion Foundation of
India, in partner-
ship with The Young People
Foundation. The program aims
at building the knowledge of
adolescents about their sexual &
reproductive health through the
Comprehensive Adolescent
Health curriculum. Population
Foundation of India with its im-
plementing partner JATAN
reaches more than 2500 adoles-
cents directly in Dungarpur. In
this process of making adoles-
cents aware of their health
rights, coordinators like Ganga
play a crucial role.
As a confident and engaging
facilitator, Ganga routinely edu-
cates adolescent groups and ad-
dresses all their queries related
to sexual and reproductive
health by building
a very strong bond
with them. How-
ever, to come this
far has not been
easy as Ganga herself was ini-
tially a shy and hesitant person.
After participating regularly
in FAYA training focused on Ad-
olescent Health and then deliver-
ing sessions to groups in her
community, she became the con-
fident coordinator that she is
today. She now proactively ad-
dresses the health concerns of
adolescents.
During the COVID-19 imposed
lockdown, when the entire na-
tion had come to a standstill,
adolescent girls and women
faced serious menstrual hygiene
problems due to the non-availa-
bility of sanitary napkins. In
rural areas, the situation was
even worse as the distribution of
sanitary napkins via schools and
Anganwadi centres had come to
a halt because of the lockdown.
Difficult access to distant phar-
macies made it near impossible
for rural residents to procure
sanitary napkins.
Taking all this into account,
Ganga came up with a simple
and sustainable solution and
started training adolescents to
make hygienic sanitary pads
from cloth. While following so-
cial distancing norms, she im-
parted training to adolescent
girls in small groups. The girls
she trained are now self-reliant
in meeting their menstrual
health needs in a crisis. Ganga,
with support from her organiza-
tion, intends to replicate this
initiative in other Gram Pan-
chayats through cluster coordi-
nators under the FAYA project.
Ganga is proud and happy to
provide this long-term, sustain-
able hygiene solution and says,
“Access to sexual and reproduc-
tive health services and informa-
tion is a fundamental right of
adolescents and I, along with
others, will strive and work for it
each day, especially during these
difficult times.”
A GREAT INITIATIVE!
NIKITA SRIVASTAV
cityfirst@firstindia.co.in
I
Ganga

E
mily Blunt recently opened up about her
longtime relationship with husband
John Krasinski, as they just celebrated
their 10th wedding anniversary. The
37-year-old actress discussed how the pandem-
ic has impacted their lives and gushed over
John and his unwavering support.
“Having John’s support is every-
thing because we are each other’s
confidant,” she shared. “That
shared understanding
has really been a
very vital an-
chor for me.”
Emily and
John share two
daughters, Ha-
zel, 6, and Vio-
let, 4. —Agency
T
aylor Swift revealed that she will be releasing a
new album at midnight yesterday, called Ever-
more, which she described as a “sister” album
to her latest release, Folklore. A video for a new song
from the album called “Willow” will arrive along with
the album — Swift will be logging into the YouTube
premiere page to answer questions. The album
continues the working relationships from Folklore,
which includes a contribution from “WB,” William
Broad, a pseudonym that she recently revealed is her
boyfriend, British actor Joe Alwyn. —Agency
G
oing down the memory lane,
actor-singerPriyankaChopra
Jonas on Thursday dug out a
childhood picture of herself
that sees her dressed in an oversized
Indian army uniform.
The 38-year-old actor, whose father
had served in the Indian Army, took
to Instagram to share the picture of
“little Priyanka” dressed in the uni-
form. She penned down a note shar-
ing that the picture is a part of her
upcoming book and also expressed how
her father has always been her “idol.”
“#TBT to little Priyanka. This is a photo
from the album in my upcoming book. I used to
love following my dad around the house dressed in
his Army uniform. I wanted to grow up and be ex-
actly like him. He was my idol,” the ‘Baywatch’
actor wrote. —ANI
ETCwww.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia AHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2020
11
DISASTROUS REMAKE
he film is a horror-
thriller which is a
remake of Director
G.Ashok’s own Telu-
gu- Tamil bilingual
film Bhaagmathie
2018). The story of
the film is about a so-called
honestpoliticianIshwarPras-
ad (Arshad Warsi) whose life
is dedicated to the poor.
Pednekar plays Chanchal
Chauhan, an IAS officer cur-
rentlyinjailforthemurderof
her fiancé. The CBI confines
Chanchal to a haunted palace
inaremotelocationtoextract
information from her about
her former boss, Ishwar Pras-
ad. The interrogation is being
conducted at the behest of
leadingpoliticiansinthestate
to frame Ishwar since his
goodnessismuddyingthewa-
tersforeveryoneelseinpower.
WhentheCBI’sSatakshiGan-
guly (Mahie Gill) questions
Chanchal though, the latter
reiterates what everyone else
says about Ishwar – that he is
agenuinelyniceguywithzero
tolerance for dishonesty.
Chanchal also appears to get
possessed by the spirit of
Queen Durgamati who once
resided in the palace where
she is now being held. In the
end, the plan set by Bhumi to
trapIshawarPrasadturnsout
to be successful.
Inafewscenes,onetendsto
get scared but in my opinion,
alltheactor’sconsiderabletal-
ent is wasted in this film. The
film is not as impactful as the
original Telugu and Tamil
films. Overall, Durgamati
lacks finesse.
KAVITA CHAUHAN
T
DIRECTOR
G.Ashok
CAST & CREW
Bhumi Pednekar, Arshad Warsi,
Mahie Gill, Jisshu Sengupta,
Karan Kapadia, etc.
DURGAMATI:
THE MYTH
RATING:
ELLEN TESTS
POSITIVE
RECOVERED
FROM COVID
REMO SUFFERS
HEART ATTACK
E
llen DeGeneres has been
diagnosed with COVID-19. The
62-year-old, talk show host
released a statement on her Twitter
and wrote, “Fortunately, I’m feeling
fine right now. Anyone who has been
in close contact with me has been
notified, and I am following all proper
CDC guidelines,” Ellen wrote. Ellen
has not said if her partner, Portia de
Rossi, also contracted the virus.
—Agency
A
lmost a week after testing
positive for COVID-19, senior
actor Neetu Kapoor on Friday
recovered and tested negative for the
virus. The health update of the ‘Amar
Akbar Anthony,’ actor was given by
her daughter Riddhima Kapoor Sahni
on Friday through an Instagram post.
“Thank you for all your good wishes
& prayers - My mother has tested
Covid negative today @neetu54,”
she wrote in the caption.
—ANI
C
horeographer and Director
Remo D’Souza on Friday eve-
ning suffered a heart attack and
was admitted at Kokilaben Hospital
in Mumbai. Lizelle, his wife, stated,
“It was a blockage and is currently
in the ICU. The next 24 hours are
extremely important.” Later in the
evening sources revealed that he was
stable. —ANI
N
atalie Portman
recently opened
up about her ex-
perience as a
child actress, and the
many times she was
sexualized by her peers.
The 39-year-old actress
admitted that she has
been afraid at times be-
cause of that.
“Being sexualized as
a child, I think took
away from my own sex-
uality because it made
me afraid and it made
me like the way I could
be safe was to be like,
‘I’m conservative,’ and
‘I’m serious and you
should respect me,’ and
‘I’m smart,’ and ‘don’t
look at me that way.’ ”
She shared. —Agency
Portmanrecalls
feeling‘unsafe’
A
ctor Anushka Sharma on Friday
marked her third wedding anni-
versary with her cricketer hus-
band Virat Kohli with a special
post as the two are all set to welcome
their first child.
The ‘PK,’ actor took to Instagram
to share a warm picture of herself
withKohliandexpressedthatshe
is missing him as he is currently
with the Indian cricket squad in
Australia. The picture sees
Anushka hugging Virat from
behind as the two take a stroll
in the middle of a field.
“3 years of us & very soon,
3 of us Miss you,” she wrote
in the caption.
Earlier in the day, Kohli
had also marked his third an-
niversary with Anushka. —ANI
3 YEARS OF
TOGETHERNESS
MajorThrowback
New Album Release
EMILY BLUNT REVEALS!
Natalie Portman
Bhumi in ‘Durgamati’
Poster of the film
Anushka Sharma
... her post
Priyanka Chopra Jonas
... her post
Emily and John
Taylor Swift
Ellen DeGeneres
Riddhima’s post
Remo D’Souza

12AHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2020www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
CITY BUZZ
CONGRATULATIONS! The Mehendi and Sangeet ceremony of Dr Shikha Sharma, daughter of RK Sharma, BJP, MLA Bilsi, Budaun was held on Thursday at Kohinoor farms,
Noida. She was wed in holy matrimony to Raghvendra on Friday.
EVENTS!
RAJ: The FSIA, Forever Star India Awards created the first
platform for Corona Warriors community. These warriors from
all across the country received certificates for their noble
cause on Friday. The Real Super Hero Awards 2020 was given
only to selected people.
RAJ: Vice-Chancellor
of Mohanlal Sukhadia
University, Professor
Amerika Singh issued
guidelines to all the
affiliated colleges to read
the “Fundamental Duties
of the Constitution” in
every event organised in
the college, which over
time the students once
again have their moral
responsibilities towards the
country and the system.
RAJ: A peacock soaks the winter sun sitting peacefully on the
steps in Rambagh Palace, Jaipur on Friday.
GUJ: Citizens enjoyed cycle rides after non-seasonal rain at
Ahmedabad riverfront on Friday morning.
—PHOTO BY HANIF SINDHI
CONGRATS!
Jagdeesh Chandra greeted senior journalist
Giriraj Agarwal on the wedding of his son
Krishna with Ruchi, daughter of Girish Garg on
Friday at Jaipur and blessed the newly-weds
too for a happy married life.
Jagdeesh Chandra greeted Tara Chand
Jagarwal on the occasion of the wedding of
his daughter Meeta with Bharat, the son of
Dayaram Prajapat on Friday evening at Mahesh
Nagar, Jaipur. Seen here with them is Manoj
Prajapati. He blessed the newly-weds too.
PoetryCompetition
CITY FIRST
T
he children appealed to be
aware of the corona through
poetry in the Digital Baal Mela
on Friday. Eklavya Vyas of
Jodhpur, explained public, not to go
out and to respect the Corona War-
riors. At the same time, Manav
Singh of Jaipur himself became
a Corona Warrior, provided ration
to the people at home and further
urged them to stay at home for safety.
Vedang Srivastava of Jaipur talked
about making people aware of masks
and hand washes. The poetry of Di-
vyansh Jangid and Hemendra Pratap
Singh clearly showed that children of
the new generation are aware.
CITY FIRST
I
n today’s time, science
has made so much
progress that even in
complicated disease,
the life of a patient can
be saved without an op-
eration. There should be
skilled experts just to use
modern techniques.
Gitanjali Medical Col-
lege and Hospital’s Cardi-
ology Department,
with terrific tech-
niques and a team of ex-
perienced doctors, treat-
ed a serious heart patient
with myocardial infarc-
tion ventricular septal
rupture (MIVSR) without
any complications.
Cardiologist Dr
Ramesh Patel said that
when 68-year-old Shara-
bati Devi was brought
here from Churu af-
ter a heart attack,
the heart was failing,
she was breathing
fast and the situation
was very delicate.
Saving
Lives
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!
T
he seedling group an-
nounced Covid- 19 Insur-
ance cover for students
and faculty members on
Friday. Providing a shield
against the dreaded Corona
pandemicandaccidentstomore
than 20000 students under its
fold as well as the entire fac-
ulty under the group. Seed-
linghasinsuredalltobecome
the first school in the state to
take this remarkable step. An-
nouncing the provision of in-
surance cover to all his students and teachers, the CEO and
Director of the group, Dr Sandeep Bakshi stated that this deci-
sion is based on ensuring a healthy and humane work environ-
ment for faculty and for giving a sense of security to the stu-
dents who continue to be “our priority” at all times. —City First
INAUGURATION!CITY FIRST
I
ndia’s leading B2B
Travel & Tourism
Showcase & Con-
clave inaugurated at
B.M Birla Auditorium,
Statue Circle, Jaipur
on Friday.
Delegates, Travel
Agents, Tour Organiz-
ers, Hoteliers, Mem-
bers of National Travel
Associations like AD-
TOI, IATO, TAAI,
OTOAI, RATO, IATTE
and other travel trade
associations, Media
were present on
this occasion.
“The constant
support and interest
from the Travel Indus-
try make it a suc-
cess year after
year. So if you are
planning your dream
holiday or honeymoon
destination, visit our
exhibition,” says Ajay
Gupta, Managing Di-
rector, ITM.
ChristmasfantasylandCITY FIRST
ith the fascinating
belle performance
and dramatic mu-
sic, the children
willbeseendirect-
ing the enchanted
fantasy stories.
The grand event based on
the theme ‘Secret of Eter-
nal Christmas’ will be or-
ganised by The Envelope
today, at Taj Rambagh Pal-
ace, Jaipur. Students from
The Grand Balloon Ballet
School will present a beau-
tiful story to the audience
through their captivating
belle dance at the event.
Sharing about the
preparations for such
a unique program, Jai
Sharma from ‘The En-
velope’ told that “Christ-
mas festival has always
been very special for chil-
dren. Given this, we contin-
ued our much loved Christ-
masfestivalthisyearas
well. Due to the pan-
demic spreading in the
world, all the children
havebeenspendingmostof
their time in the online
world. In such a situation,
thisliveeventwillbeorgan-
ised keeping alive the beau-
tiful Christmas sentiments.
The program will take spe-
cial care of all the security
rules given by the govern-
ment, where social distanc-
ing and masks will keep
mandatory.
W
Jagdeesh Chandra with (from left) Dr Shikha (Bride), Parth Sharma, Ishani with
husband and brother of the bride, IPS Sachin Sharma, SP Chattarpur,
and Veena & Hemant Sharma, News Director, TV9 Bharatvarsh
Brajesh Pathak, Law Minister UP with his wife and
the father of the bride RK Sharma, MLA, BJP
ACS Information, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh, Navneet
Sehgal with Hemant Sharma
Divyansh
ManavKautilya
Hemendra
Vedang
Chairman and Managing Director, ICM Group, Ajay Gupta inaugurated the
India Travel Mart-Jaipur at Birla Auditorium on Friday with delegates and exhibitors

Farmers fear huge financial losses as unseasonal rains damage crops in Gujarat

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Farmers fear huge financial losses as unseasonal rains damage crops in Gujarat