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 ■ ■ WARANGAL l saturday l january 30, 2021 l `7.00 l PAGES 12 l CITY EDITION Drama at Singhu, Ghazipur peaceful We don’t need lecture on respecting national flag from these people. Majority of farmers who are sitting here have their children fighting in the border for the country ‘Local’ mob clashes with agitators demanding that they vacate the site; police summon 9 leaders E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ New Delhi A day after the police tried to evict farmers from Ghazipur, action on Friday shifted to the Singhu border — the nerve centre of the ongoing protests against the three farm laws — where a group of ‘locals’ clashed with agitators demanding that they vacate it. The Delhi Police and security personnel resorted to lathicharge and launched tear gas shells to control the situation as both sides resorted to stoning and the mob allegedly snatched batons from security forces to attack the protestors. The clashes began after more than 100 locals reached the site with placards and the Tricolour around 1.15 pm and shouted slogans like Jai Shri Ram, Goli Maaro Salon Ko, Desh Ke Ghaddaron ko, Khalisthan Khali Karo, Desh kaUpmaan, National Flag ka Upmaan nahi chalega and Khalistani Bhagao, Singhu Safayee Karo. They alleged damaged tents and other paraphernalia of farmers, which led to retaliation. In the melee, Delhi Police SHO (Alipur) Pradeep Paliwal was injured as a man allegedly attacked him with a sword. “These people carrying national flags who claimed to be local but were paid agents of agencies came with stones and lathis and asked us (farmers) to vacate the highway as we have been sitting , here on dharna for two months. After heated exchange of words, they attacked our tents, pelted stones on us and hit us with lathis,” said Harinder Singh Lalhowal, general secretary of BKU (Lakhowal). In contrast, the UP-Delhi bor- The key takeaways Women empowerment Rising from down under IT boom continues GDP to replicate V-shaped performance Norms relaxation enable IT-BPM of Indian cricket team in Australia to companies to ‘Work from Home’ scale historic heights after a poor start to post growth Bollywood’s Bare Necessity link Tinsel town’s rhetoric on ‘Roti, Kapda Aur Makan’ (Food, clothing and housing) mirrors socio-economic issues of country Saved 1 lakh lives Strong lockdown measures helped restrict cases by 37 lakh, save 1 lakh lives More teeth to redress system Current ombudsman set up is only advisory in nature, rendering it ineffective der at Ghazipur was peaceful, but the crowd swelled in the morning following an emotional appeal by Rakesh Tikait, national spokesperson of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), after his emotional appeal a day earlier. Farmers in batches, small business owners, and social and political activists kept visiting the protest site in droves. From diminishing in size after the Republic Day violence, the numbers began to go up, with encampments now spread about 6 km on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway . Farmers in large numbers on their tractor-trailers from Punjab and Haryana are also moving back towards Singhu and Tikri borders. Earlier in the day, a mahapanchayat of farmers in Muzaffarnagar decided to throw weight behind the BKU. The GIC ground Power point India’s Transmission & Distribution losses are over 20 per cent of generation, twice the world average Promote non-discriminatory practices like pay and career progression to increase female participation rate Agriculture as modern biz Bats for urgent reforms to transform farming into modern business enterprise Upskilling children Vocational courses for skill development of students from classes 9 to 12 Online education a great leveler Online schooling can reduce inequalities in educational outcomes if well-utilised Survey sees V-rebound, growth @ 11% Focus on R&D, Jugaad can take you only so far J aya n ta R o y C h o w d h u r y @ New Delhi India is likely to grow by 11% in the next financial year (FY22), the annual Economic Survey tabled by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Lok Sabha on Friday said, predicting a V-shaped recovery from the sharp 7.7% economic contraction in this pandemichit year. “With the economy’s returning to normalcy brought closer by the initiation of a mega vaccination drive, hopes of a robust recovery in services sector, consumption, and investment have been rekindled,” said the Survey. However, it cautioned it would take at least two years to get back to the prepandemic levels. The Survey, an annual exercise in economic stocktaking and future policy prescriptions, drew lessons from the pandemic to strongly recommend raising healthcare spending from 1% to 2.5-3% of GDP . It indicated that the government would overshoot its fiscal deficit target by a wide mark and may look at increased spending and stimulus measures in the year ahead to push growth. Former member of the PM’s Economic Advisory Coun- B i s m a h M a l i k @ Bengaluru Dr Krishnamurthy Subramanian cil and Chief Economist with Brickwork ratings Dr M Govinda Rao said: “Relaxation in fiscal deficit targets may be necessary, and the government may have to revise the target upwards for the current year in view of the need to augment capital expenditures.” While analysts at Barclays say the fiscal deficit has widened to 7.7% of GDP, Darren Aw, Asia Economist at Capital Economics, calculated it at 8%. This is against a target of 3.5% set in this year’s Budget. Chief Economic Advisor Dr K Subramanian said: “Reforms must go on to enable India to realise its potential growth and erase the adverse impact of the pandemic.” Analysts predict a spate of state-run enterprise privatisations and asset sales in the budget to help fund infrastructure spending the government is likely to have planned. P10 The Indian industry’s growth under trying circumstances has often been attributed to the spirit of jugaad (makeshift solutions). The Economic Survey for the first time war ned against its limitations, saying mere-reliance on jugaad innovation by the private sector instead of adequate spending on Research and Development (R&D) could result in India missing crucial opportunities. On the brighter side, India improved its ranking on the Global Innovation Index (GII), and is now at the 48th position. When it came to competing with the top 10 global economies, India lags behind on the basis of the seven pillars of GII, including knowledge and technology outputs (KTO-27th rank), market sophistication (31st), business sophistication (55th), human capital and research (HCR-60th), institutions (61st), creative output (64th) and infrastructure (75th). near Mahaveer Chowk, where the meeting took place, was jam packed. Hundreds of tractors with the Tricolour and flags of farm unions were parked along city roads, disrupting traffic movement. The mahapanchayat was called by BKU national president Naresh Tikait after the Ghazipur developments. Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Ajit Singh has already announced his support to the BKU and his son Jayant Chaudhary met Tikait at Ghazipur. Meanwhile, the Delhi Police sent notices through WhatsApp messenger app to nine farmer leaders to join the investigation in connection with the violence at Red Fort on January 26. A police team also visited their tents where they pasted the notices, police officials said. mar Reddy said, “The TRS’ covert strategy of fighting with the BJP in the State, while joinTHE Telangana Rashtra Samithi ing hands with it in Delhi, has (TRS) has drawn flak for attend- come to the fore once again. ing President Ram Nath Ko- ‘Galli me kusti, Delhi me dosti’ vind’s address to the has always been TRS’ joint session of Parliapolicy.” Uttam then ment on Friday despite , described the 16 Opposition parties TRS-BJP “tacit underThe TRS’ covert boycotting it in support standing” as a “dark strategy of of the ongoing farmrelationship.” fighting with the BJP in the State, ers’ agitation in Delhi. Bhongir MP Komatwhile joining The TRS has been ireddy Venkat Reddy hands with it in against the new farm said that the Congress laws since they were Delhi, has come to was among the 16 that the fore once enacted by the Centre. boycotted the session. again Stating that the “The TRS has surrenTRS’ decision to at- Uttam Kumar Reddy, dered itself to Prime TPCC president tend the session only Minister Narendra proved that it was Modi. The party is working hand in glove with the scared that the Centre might BJP, the Congress pummelled book it for the `50,000-crore the pink party for not joining corruption it had orchestrated the Opposition in boycotting through Kaleshwaram Lift Irthe address. TPCC president rigation Scheme,” he said. CONTINUED ON P5 and Nalgonda MP N Uttam Ku- Demand to withdraw FIRs against journos Police personnel pin down a farmer (top), who allegedly attacked police Station House Officer (Alipur) Pradeep Paliwal, during clashes between locals and farmers at the Singhu Border in Delhi on Friday; and a man hurls a stone at protesters at Singhu as policemen look on | PTI president defends new farm laws New Delhi: President Ram Nath Kovind on Friday defended the contentious farm laws in his address to Parliament and described the recent Republic Day violence as unfortunate. With the laws put in abeyance on the Supreme Court’s orders, Kovind said the government will abide by the verdict of the highest court of the nation. While he addressed a range of issues, including the tension on the China border, the biggest focus of his speech was on the agriculture sector | P7 With the Noida Police and the Madhya Pradesh Police filing FIRs against Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and senior journalists Rajdeep Sardesai, Mrinal Pande, Zafar Agha, Paresh Nath, Anant Nath and Vinod Jose for misleading tweets/retweets over the Republic Day violence, media bodies, including the Editor’s Guild, demanded their withdrawal, saying it was an attempt to browbeat and intimidate the media. The FIRs were booked under 10 different provisions, including the sedition law TS economy bounces back faster than most others VV B a l a k r i s h n a @ Hyderabad TELANGANA made a V-shaped recovery after Covid19 had adversely impacted its economy and interstate trade. “The recovery in revenue collections was quick in States such as Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, with the value of Eway bills per person hitting previous year’s levels in June,” said the Economic Survey tabled in Parliament on Friday . The survey said that shocks to services-led informal sectors put States like Delhi and Telangana in a vulnerable position raja singh gets 1-yr jail term BJP MLA sentenced by Spl Court in 5-yr-old beef festival dispute P4 MP Revanth’s petition rejected Special ACB court dismissed Cong leader’s plea in cash-forvote case P4 TRS comes under fire for presence at Parl session express news service @ Hyderabad Yudhvir Singh, farmer leader Delhi Police after cordoning off the area outside the Israeli Embassy where the bomb exploded | Parveen Negi blast outside israeli embassy E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ New Delhi A low-intensity blast occurred on the highsecurity posh Abdul Kalam Road near Israel Embassy on Friday evening at a time when the annual Beating Retreat ceremony was underway at Vijay Chowk near Rashtrapati Bhavan, sending security officials in a tizzy Pres. ident Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the three Service Chiefs were attending the ceremony just a few km away from the location of the blast. While no injury or casualty was reported, three cars parked nearby suffered minor damages. Officials in the security establishment said the blast was being probed as an attempted ‘security attack’; Delhi Police called it a ‘mischievous’ bid to create a sensation. P8 VIRUS CONTROL The Economic Survey patted Telangana for its efforts at tackling the pandemic. It said that the State’s strict lockdown measures helped it minimise casualties during the pandemic. But Telangana recovered faster than most States in the country it added. , The Economic Survey also addressed the intensity of interstate variations in the impact of Covid-19. The GVA shock inten- sity — measured as a share in the Gross State Value Added (GSVA) — on the State’s agriculture sector in 2019-20 was 12.9 per cent. The same on mining was 3.1 per cent, manufacturing 13 per cent, construction 4.4 per cent, and services 65.3 per cent. The Economic Survey figures showed that Telangana’s performance was above the national average in several indicators, like the Net State Domestic Product (SDP). However, it fared below the national average in public sector banks (PSB) lending to priority sector. The percentage share of advances to priority sector in total bank credit of PSBs up to March, 2020, was just 28 per cent, whereas the national average was 37 per cent. Survey break-up According to the survey, the growth of Telangana’s Net SDP was 12.7 per cent, and the national average 7.2 per cent; the per capita Net SDP was `2,28,216, as against the national average of `1,34,226. Meanwhile, the growth of per capita Net SDP was 11.6 per cent with the national average being 6.1 CONTINUED ON P5 per cent.