MADURAI  THURSDAY  NOVEMBER 19, 2020  `7.00  PAGES 14  LATE CITY EDITION BOEING 737 MAX CAN FLY AGAIN AS U.S. REGULATOR ENDS BAN The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had put in place grounding orders in March 2019 after two deadly crashes CHANGES IN DESIGN, SOFTWARE AND WIRING However, the clearance does not mean the plane can take to the skies immediately. Existing aircraft will need to be modified before going back into service, with changes to their design. Alongside the software and wiring changes, pilots will also need training. The FAA said the design changes will “eliminate what caused the accidents” ■ 346 AIRCRAFT WILL BE 100% SAFE, SAYS FAA ■ A probe into the crashes found that a safety feature which was meant to stop the plane from climbing too fast and stalling had improperly forced the nose of the plane down FAA administrator Steve Dickson said he is “100% confident” in the safety of the plane and that such crashes won’t recur PEOPLE WERE KILLED IN TWO FATAL ACCIDENTS INVOLVING BOEING 737 MAX CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOGGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ WARANGAL ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Its candidate is also 94% effective in people over 65 years of age EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi A BLACK AND WHITE TOUCH With rains set to intensify in southern Tamil Nadu, dark clouds loom over the temple towers of the Meenakshi Amman temple in Madurai on Wednesday | KK SUNDAR MP first grazing pasture for cow cabinet E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Bhopal A day after announcing the introduction of a Bill against ‘love jihad’ in the next session of the Vidhan Sabha, the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday decided to set up perhaps the country’s first ‘cow cabinet’ for the protection and promotion of cows. Announcing the decision, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan tweeted, “It has been decided to constitute a Gau Cabinet (cow cabinet) for cat- tle conservation and promotion. It will comprise animal husbandry, farmers’ welfare, forest, panchayat-rural development, home and revenue departments. The first meeting of the cow cabinet will be held at the cow sanctuary in AgarMalwa district on Gopashthami festival on November 22.” Besides Chouhan, the cow cabinet will include Home Minister Narottam Mishra, Forest Minister Vijay Shah, Agriculture Minister Kamal Patel, Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Mahendra Singh Sisodia and Minister for Animal Husbandry Prem Singh Patel. Six departments will execute the decisions of the gau-cabinet in a coordinated manner, Chouhan stated. Among the objectives are It has been decided to constitute a ‘gau cabinet’ for the protection and fostering of ‘godhan’ (cow and its progeny) in the state - Shivraj Singh Chouhan HC: Schools can now collect 35% more fees EXPRESS READ Pak resorts to heavy shelling in Poonch Jammu: Pakistan’s army violated ceasefire twice on Wednesday and resorted to heavy firing and mortar shelling in forward areas along the Line of Control in Poonch district of J&K, officials said, adding that Indian Army retaliated befittingly H A R I S H M U R A L I @ Chennai THE Madras High Court on Wednesday allowed private schools and colleges in the State to collect 35 per cent of the annual fee for the academic year 2020-21. This will be in addition to the 40 per cent fees already permitted to be collected as ordered by the court. Justice N Anand Venkatesh passed the orders after observing that schools were unlikely to be reopened by the end of this year. The HC, in an order on July 17, had permitted school managements in the State to collect 75 per cent of the fees that was fixed in the previous academic year, for 2020-21. Of this, 40 per cent could be collected as advance fees on or before August 31, and the remaining shall be collected within two months from the date of reopening, the order had said. The court had later extended the deadline for payment of the 40 per cent fees to September 30. The court, now has granted time till February 28, 2021, for parents to pay the fees, in addition to granting liberty to educational institutions to collect it in instalments by issuing an appropriate circular. While passing the orders on a batch of pleas moved by the institutions challenging the State’s order restraining them from demanding fees, the court also directed authorities to conduct inquiries and initiate appropriate action against those institutions that were alleged to have demanded full payment of fees, violatP2 ing the earlier order. marketing products made from cow milk and increasing the use of cow dung cakes. Reacting to the development, the Opposition Congress said it falls short of the BJP’s 2018 pre-poll promise of creating a separate cow ministry. “The same Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who before 2018 Assembly polls had promised to form a separate Cow Ministry and put in place a series of cow sanctuaries and cowsheds is now talking about constituting a Cow Cabinet,” tweeted Congress state president Kamal Nath. LVB depositors’ money safe: RBI administrator While on the way to Salem on Wednesday, Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami stopped his car at Komarapalayam in Namakkal when he saw Sathik Batsha, a person with disability. The man submitted a petition to the CM for a job | EXPRESS ‘Sasikala release won’t have any impact on AIADMK’ EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Coimbatore CHIEF Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Wednesday said that former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s close aide VK Sasikala’s release from Parappana Agrahara Prison in Bengaluru would not have any impact on AIADMK party . Addressing newspersons, Palaniswami said that Sasikala had deposited the fine amount at the court and was expected to be released from the prison. When asked whether Sasikala’s release would have an impact on AIADMK, the Chief Minister replied in the negative. This is the first time that the Chief Minister is commenting about Sasikala’s release and its impact on the State politics. Sasikala is expected to be released from the prison in January as she had paid a fine of `10 crore at a court in Bengaluru. Speaking to reporters at Coimbatore International Airport Palaniswami said that Tamil Nadu is the only state in ‘Tamil Nadu only state opposing NEET’ Palaniswami said that Tamil Nadu is the only state in the country that is opposing NEET. “It is to help the government school students that 7.5% reservation in medical and dental admissions has been introduced. the country that is opposing NEET. “Congress introduced NEET when the DMK was their ally. AIADMK’s stand is that there should not be NEET exam in Tamil Nadu. It is to help the government school students that 7.5 per cent reservation in medical and dental admissions has been introduced. As many as 313 students are expected to benefit from this,” he added. He said that among the 8,41,251 candidates who wrote class 12 examination, 3,44,485 (41 per cent) were government P4 school students. Mumbai: Lakshmi Vilas Bank has enough liquidity to pay back its 20-lakh depositors and will complete the proposed merger with DBS before the deadline, Reserve Bank-appointed administrator said on Wednesday Govt garners `72,480 cr via Vivad Se Vishwas New Delhi: The Centre has got `72,480 cr through direct tax dispute resolution scheme Vivad Se Vishwas, sources said. A total of 45,855 declarations have been filed. The scheme offers immunity from penalty for offences under the I-T Act THE Corona vaccine world just got another shot of excitement as US-based pharma major Pfizer on Wednesday raised its candidate’s efficacy to 95%, up from 90% a week ago, as final results of its phase 3 trials across six countries came in. The other big takeaway was the vaccine’s 94% effectiveness in adults over 65 years, who are among the most vulnerable to the virus. Just a couple of days ago, its competitor Moder na had claimed 94.5% efficacy in its initial phase 3 results. Both biotech firms intend to seek emergency regulatory approval within days. The BNT162b2, the vaccine candidate Pfizer developed along with German partner BioNTech, was reported to be consistent in performance across age and ethnicity demographics without major side effects. A review of the reactogenicity data, which consisted of at Nothing much in it for India The vaccines of Pfizer and Moderna may have little implications for India, as storage and distribution could be a major constraint. In any case, most of the doses to be manufactured till next year by them have been booked by rich nations least 8,000 participants in the phase 2/3 study, showed that the vaccine was well tolerated, with most adverse events resolving shortly after vaccination, the statement added. The adverse effects included headaches and fatigue in about 2% CONGRESS IMPLOSION ADHIR’S TURN TO SAVAGE SIBAL, SAYS HE’S FREE TO LEAVE Sibal was one of 23 leaders who wrote to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi calling for a THE infighting within the functional leadership. After Congress intensified on the Bihar debacle, he reiterWednesday with the party’s ated his demand for an introleader in the Lok Sabha spection on the party’s failAdhir Ranjan Chowdure in elections after hury telling dissentelections. ing leader Kapil Sibal’s sharp comSibal to join another ments triggered a party if he is not war of words among happy with the Conparty leaders. While gress. Choudhury Congress Rajya Sabalso questioned ha MP Vivek Tankha Sibal’s intentions in agreed with Sibal publicly targeting and sought serious the Gandhis after Instead of giving introspection, Rajasthe party’s poor per- sermons sitting than Chief Minister formance in the Bi- in AC rooms, he Ashok Gehlot said (Kapil Sibal) har elections. the comments were “Kapil Sibal could should work on unwarranted and the ground. have raised the iswould demoralise sues inside a party Lecturing others party workers. without doing forum instead of Senior leader Salanything won’t making such embar- help. Only calling man Khurshid, who rassing remarks in for introspection is considered close public. He is a senior to the Gandhi family , without doing leader and has ac- anything on our also hit out at Sibal cess to the party’s own is of no use saying there is no top brass. Those who point in “aimless inare unhappy with the func- trospection” and that leadtioning of the party have the ers who bite nails when the freedom to form a new party party underperforms may o r j o i n o n e , ” s a i d have “no nails to bite” for Chowdhury . future. EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi RIDING HIGH ON QUOTA Medical counselling day 1: Cheers, excitement and some happy tears S I N D U J A J A N E @ Chennai LIKE several others, S Archana, daughter of M Sakthivel and S Revathi, had been burning the midnight oil to crack the NEET, for the past two years. The family’s joy knew no bounds when Archana received her seat allotment order from Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Wednesday . Sakthivel works as a load man and a fruit seller at Nagaiah Kottai in Dindigul. The family, like other daily wagers, struggled hard every day to make their ends meet. To afford medical education for their children was a dream very distant to them. It was then that the State introduced the 7.5 per cent quota in medical courses for government school students, who cleared the NEET. “I never thought I could afford good education for my daughter, forget seeing the doorstep of a government medical college. I don’t know how happy I am today to know that she will one day become a doc, tor,” said Sakthivel, with tears of joy trickling down his cheeks. All the 18 students who were allotted seats under the quota on Wednesday, were NEET repeaters. Revathi, Archana’s mother, is the happiest knowing that she is a proud mother of a to-be doctor. A daily wager, Revathi said: “My daughter had attempted the NEET last year, but couldn’t get a medical seat. This year she secured 262 marks and got the seat only because of the quota.” of the volunteers. In all, the vaccine candidate was trialled on over 41,000 volunteers in the US, Germany, Turkey, South Africa, Brazil and Argentina. Global markets reacted positively though Pfizer-BioNTech , is yet to release detailed data on the study. Also, its results are yet to be analysed by independent experts. The troubling part of maintaining Pfizer’s vaccine at -700C to -800C continues, but the company said it was confident of using the cold-chain infrastructure to distribute the vaccine around the world. Pfizer-BioNTech aim to produce up to 50 million vaccine doses in 2020 and 1.3 billion by 2021-end. In all, 170 confirmed cases of Covid-19 were evaluated from the 28th day after the first shot of BNT162b2. Of them, 162 were in the placebo category while only eight were in the vaccinated group. Ten individuals went on to develop severe disease, nine of whom were in the non-vaccinated group. HUMANE ORDER HC directs admitting Varavara Rao at Nanavati EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Mumbai THE Bombay High Court on Wednesday ordered the Maharashtra government to admit jailed octogenarian poet and activist Varavara Rao for treatment at the private superspecialty Nanavati hospital here at state expense. Rao was arrested in August 2018 in connection with an Elgar Parishad conclave in Pune in December 2017 that turned violent, and is lodged in Navi Mumbai’s Taloja Jail. A division bench comprising justices S S Shinde and Madhav Jamdar said, “Ultim at e ly t h e man is on almost death bed. He needs some treatment. Can the state say no, we will treat him in Taloja? We are only saying transfer him to Nanavati for two weeks. We will further see after two weeks.” It also directed that family members of Rao should be allowed to meet him at the Nanavati hospital, and posted the matter for further hearing on December 3. The court was hearing two cases — a bail application filed by Rao on medical grounds and a writ petition by his wife Hemalata saying his incarceration was a violation of his right to health and life. Citing his medical history, senior advocate Indira Jaising said there was “reasonable apprehension that Rao may die in jail and not even stand trial in the Bhima Koregoan case”. On Tuesday, Jaising had trashed a medical report on Rao submitted by Nanavati hospital’s doctors. Despite his deteriorating condition due to neurological problems and urinary infection coupled with dementia, he was not examined by experts, she said.