BELAGAVI  WEDNESDAY  DECEMBER 30, 2020  `7.00  PAGES 14  LATE CITY EDITION FAMED FRENCH DESIGNER PIERRE CARDIN DIES AT 98 The iconic French fashion designer, who popularised the ‘space age’ style that became common in the 1960s, died on Tuesday HE TRANSFORMED HIS NAME INTO A BRAND A licensing maverick, Cardin’s name embossed thousands of products from wristwatches to bed sheets, and goods bearing his fancy cursive signature were sold at 100,000 outlets worldwide. Fashion was just the start of Cardin’s business empire. He went on to sell eyeglasses, umbrellas, perfume, luggage, linens, furniture, mattresses, skis and coffee pots | P11 ■ 800 INTRODUCED READY-TO-WEAR WOMEN’S LINE ■ ■ In 1959, Cardin became the first designer to introduce a ready-towear women’s line for a broad audience “Fashion is always ridiculous, seen from before or after. But in the moment, its marvellous,” Cardin famously said in a 1970 interview Born into a poor farmer family, Cardin never married or had kids LICENCES IN 140 COUNTRIES WERE IN HIS NAME DURING HIS HEYDAYS 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 3 UK returnees from B’luru test +ve for new virus strain Contacts asked to quarantine themselves; Health Minister says lockdown not required EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Bengaluru JUST when Bengalureans were heaving a sigh of relief with the reduction in daily Covid-19 cases in the city, three returnees from the UK , who are residents of the city have tested positive , for the new strain of SARSCoV2. The Health and Family Welfare media bulletin on Monday says that 27 UK returnees in the state had tested positive for Covid-19 and their samples were sent for genomic sequencing to testing labs. Among the 27, three have been declared positive for the UK variant through genomic testing. Among them are a 35-year-old woman and her sixyear-old daughter from Vasanthapura (Ward 197), and another UK returnee, a 33-year-old male resident of JP Nagar. Bommanahalli Zonal Joint Commissioner Ramakrishna said, “As per our information, the mother and child are doing well. They have two primary contacts and 33 secondary contacts, whose swabs have been taken. We are waiting for their swab results. The symptoms noticed were cough, runny nose and fever.” The mother and daughter are admitted in Victoria Hospital. According to him, all the contacts have been asked to quarantine themselves in the apartments they are staying in. “Regular monitoring by the BBMP health officers is carried out. We have turned the apartment itself into an institutional quarantine facility. All samples have been taken and results are awaited.” Munish Moudgil, in-charge of state Covid war room, also confirmed that the 33-year-old male from JP Nagar is stable P3 and is doing fine. MORE CONTAGIOUS, BUT NOT MORE SEVERE A new variant of the coronavirus has spread rapidly in Britain. According to health experts there, the initial evidence indicates that the new strain is more contagious than older variants, but say that so far, there are no signs that it causes more severe disease. Contagious variant now in India too EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi INDIA on Tuesday joined a list of nations where the highly infectious UK strain of the coronavirus has been detected so far. In all, at least six fliers from Britain have tested positive for that mutant version, the Centre confirmed. They part of the 114 returnees from the UK on or after November 25 who tested positive for Covid-19. Samples of all 114 were subjected to genome sequencing, which was how the contagious UK strain was identified in six patients in three labs — Nimhans, Bengaluru (3), Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad (2) and National Institute of Virology, Pune (1). But CCMB chief Dr Rakesh Mishra later said three samples had tested positive at his lab, two from Telangana and one from Andhra Pradesh. Tamil Nadu sent all its samples to the Pune lab, which found one of them with the UK strain. P9 Council Deputy Chairman found dead on railway track E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Chikkamagaluru/Shivamogga DEPUTY Chairman of the Karnataka Legislative Council, S L Dharme Gowda (62), allegedly committed suicide on a railway track at Gunasagar village between Birur and Kadur around 10 pm on Monday . Sources said that he set out from his farmhouse at Sakarayapatna in a car along with his driver and a police gunman on Monday evening. When they reached near Gunasagar, about 22 km away Gowda , told the driver to wait near the village saying that he would go for a stroll along a nearby railway track. When he did not return for long, the gunman and the driver went looking for him. They found his body cleaved into two pieces on either , side of the railway track, about two furlongs away from where the car was parked. The gunman, the driver and the family then immediately informed the police. According to the police, Dharme Gowda came CONTINUED ON: P4 under a Jan Shatabdi train. YEAR TO REMEMBER FORGET Agonising 2020 Prof R S Deshpande & Khalil Shaha The Indian economy is slated to lose over Rs 40,000 crore due to inactivity in the vibrant economic sectors. The impact of the pandemic was devastating as soon as the year began. (The writers are from ISEC, Bengaluru) DETAILS | P5 Farmers harp on repeal before talks time today H A R P R E E T B A J W A @ Chandigarh ON the eve of the sixth round of talks to resolve the monthlong agrarian agitation, farmer unions on Tuesday wrote to Centre formally accepting its invite for talks the next day, but insisted on exploring a ‘rational solution’ to the issues flagged by them, including modalities to repeal the three contentious farm laws. While farmers had sought a ‘rational solution’ in their let- ter on December 26, Union Agriculture Secretary Sanjay Aggarwal had on December 28 stated the government’s commitment to find a ‘logical resolution’ to all topical issues. The semantics of a ‘rational solution’ is expected to play out when both sides meet on Wednesday. But going by the tone and tenor of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha’s latest letter to Aggarwal, any optimism of an early breakthrough could be totally misplaced. P9 Rajini won’t take political plunge, cites ill health EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Chennai Superstar Rajinikanth announced on Tuesday that he will not be entering politics owing to ill health, and described his recent hospitalisation as a ‘warning from God’. “Only I know the pain behind making this announcement,” 70-year-old Rajinikanth said in a P5 statement.