BENGALURU  TUESDAY  FEBRUARY 16, 2021  `7.00  PAGES 24  LATE CITY EDITION WHOLESALE PRICE INDEX FOR JAN TOUCHES 2.03% An uptick in demand for manufactured items after resumption in economic activities in September last pushing prices up, say data MANUFACTURED ITEMS INFLATION AT 5.13% ANALYSTS EXPECT BIG WPI JUMP IN FY21 Inflation in manufactured items, accounting for 65% weight in WPI, stood at 5.13% compared to 4.24% in Dec. This grouping comprises 22 bands, of which 18 like furniture, motor vehicles, machinery saw prices rising. Data show prices of food items dropped in Jan at (-) 2.8% while prices of nonfood articles rose by 4.16%. Together, they account for 20% weight in WPI ■ ■ Fuel and power index (15% weight) contracted 4.78% in January Analysts say a deeper disinflation in primary food articles helped cushion the impact of the sharp rise in core inflation, but warned headline WPI inflation will record large upticks over the course of the next few months and hover around 5-5.5 per cent in FY2021 4.06% JAN’s RETAIL INFLATION BASED ON THE CPI. A DROP OF 0.53% OVER DECEMBER 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 AFTER DISHA, TOOLKIT HEAT ON TWO MORE ACTIVISTS Covid -ve report must for those coming to Bengaluru from Kerala positive will be isolated or @Bengaluru shifted to health centres as need be and contact tracing THOSE coming in to Bengalu- will also be strengthened,” he ru from Kerala should carry a said after holding a meeting negative Covid-19 RTPCR test with all officials from BBMP’s report, without which action health division and special will be taken against commissioners. them under the DisasThe meeting was ter Management Act, held after 40 students warned BBMP Comin Manjushri College At least 141 missioner N Manjuand 56 people in an centres and natha Prasad here on apartment complex in 200 teams Monday . Bommanahalli zone have been Asking BBMP marwere tested positive. created, shals to tighten their He said that a meetincluding the vigil, he directed all ing will be held with 341 testing BBMP officials to work RWAs soon and more teams that closely with resident exist. Testing precautionary measwelfare associations ures will be taken. will be increased (RWAs) to manage On the vaccination to at least Covid cases. He redrive, he said that of quested RWAs to keep 34,000 a day the identified 2.43 lakh a close watch on Covid frontline workers, N Manjunatha cases and to report 93,000 have been inocuPrasad, BBMP them to the authorities lated. He appealed to Commissioner at the earliest. those who have not “Aggressive testing taken the jab to do so needs to start again as cases before February 25. The secare rising. At least 141 centres ond dosage of vaccines for and 200 teams have been cre- those who have already taken ated, including the 341 testing the first jab will be held in teams that already exist. Test- March. He directed officials to ing will be increased to at start preparing the list of benleast 34,000 a day which is now eficiaries for the third phase , at 20,000- 22,000. Whoever tests of the vaccination drive. Police claim Nikita and Disha edited document created by Shantanu EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE SC gives Kappan 5-day bail THE Supreme Court on Monday laid down a set of conditions while granting a 5-day interim bail to journalist Siddique Kappan to meet his ailing mother (90). A bench headed by the CJI ordered him not to give any interview to any media platfor m. He was told only to meet his relatives and doctors. The conditions were set after the solicitor general argued he might use the bail period to get support. Kappan was arrested in October while going to Hathras to report on the alleged gang-rape and death of a Dalit woman. ENS Panchayat prez at 88, she shows the way G SUBHASH CHANDRA @ Chitradurga AT 5 am every day, this 88-year-old president of Chikka Yammiganuru gram panchayat sets out to inspect the works in the village, listens to people’s problems, and then visits her arecanut grove. Fondly called ‘ jji’ (grandA ma in Kannada), her main aim is to provide quality drinking water to Chikka Yammiganuru, Chikkanakatte, Kodagavalli, Kodagavalli Hattti, Kotehalu, Hosahalli and Aynahalli villages having a population of 7,500. She also gives importance to education, health, sanitation and lighting in these villages. Age is just a number for her. Drakshayanamma said, ‘I am not aged. I have seen life ... will draw on my experiences to take the village on the path P7 of development.” G AYAT H R I M A N I A N D S U D H I R S U R YA W A N S H I @ New Delhi/Mumbai ALL-ROUND APPLAUSE FOR ASHWIN BAD START KOHLI-TY KNOCK On a pitch that came under criticism after England were bowled out for 134 in the first innings, India wanted to make a statement by batting long enough on Day 3. However, they ended up losing five wickets inside the first session With Jack Leach and Moeen Ali finding enough purchase off the pitch, batting was by no means easy. Batsmen found it hard to negotiate the turn and bounce. But Virat Kohli displayed quality by playing late and stretching forward in order to defend ASHWIN’S DAY OUT The moment he walked in to bat, Ashwin meant business. He swept the spinners, used his feet against them and scored briskly. After scoring fifty, he quietly went about building the innings in the company of the tail. He scored 106 off 148 balls S TA R I N G A T T H E I N E V I TA B L E England need a miracle in the remaining two days to get something out of the contest. Chasing 482 for victory, the visitors were reeling at 53/3 in the second innings, needing 429 more runs for an improbable win | P19 EXPRESS READ 3 more bodies found in Tapovan tunnel WhatsApp gets SC notice over privacy Nigerian is WTO’s 1st woman head Tapovan: Three more bodies were recovered on Monday from the floodravaged Tapovan tunnel, taking the toll in the glacial disaster in Uttarakhand to 53. Over 150 people are still missing, officials said. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre and WhatsApp to reply to a fresh plea alleging lower standards of privacy for Indians in comparison to European users. Geneva: Nigerian economist Ngozi OkonjoIweala was on Monday appointed as the first female and first African head of the World Trade Organization, at a special general meeting. EVEN as the arrest of Bengaluru student-activist Disha Ravi in connection with Greta Thunberg toolkit case has sparked an outrage, Delhi Police are searching for two other persons, Mumbai-based lawyer Nikita Jacob and environment activist Shantanu Muluk, against whom non-bailable warrants have been obtained. The two moved Bombay High Court for transit anticipatory bail on Monday , a day after a Delhi court remanded Disha in fiveday police custody. Jacob and Muluk, who is based in Delhi but hails from Maharashtra, have been identified by the Delhi Police as creators of the ‘toolkit’ document, along with Disha. According to the police, both Jacob and Muluk are absconding. However, in her plea filed in the Bombay High Court, Jacob expressed apprehension that she may be arrested “due to political vendetta and a media trial” and sought transit anticipatory bail for four weeks. She also sought interim protection from any coercive steps by the police. Muluk filed a plea seeking similar relief in the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court. According to Delhi’s Joint Commissioner of Police (Cyber Cell) Prem Nath, initial investigation revealed that Muluk’s email account was the owner of the toolkit that was uploaded and later deleted by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, while t h e o t h e r s we r e i t s editors. All three — Disha, Muluk and Jacob — have been booked for sedition, creat- ing disharmony and illwill against the Government of India. Briefing the media, the JCP said a Canada-based woman named Puneet connects all the accused with “proKhalistan” Poetic Justice Foundation’ (PJF). The police said that on January 11, Jacob and Muluk attended a Zoom meeting organised by PJF in which the modalities of the protests were worked out. The toolkit was created based on that discussion. Disha later shared the toolkit with Greta Thunberg over Telegram messenger. An enthusiastic protester Toolkit has ISI link: Cops A vocal feminist, a vegan, an animal lover, a climate activist and an inspiring individual, 21-year-old Disha Ravi, who has been arrested by the Delhi Police, wants to create a world where everyone is treated equally, say her friends. Coming from a family with a history of farming, the farmer protests in Delhi hit home for her. She only wished to help farmers get their voices heard and could not have had any ulterior motives whatsoever, says one of her close friends. Most of the climate activists in Bengaluru know her as she organised and took part in every protest, her friends said. P4 Delhi Police on Monday said that Disha and lawyer activist Nikita Jacob were the editors of the first Toolkit Google document, which was “accidentally” tweeted by Greta Thunberg. The email account allegedly created by another activist, Shantanu, is the owner of this document, they said. The toolkit, allegedly put together by the trio on the instructions of pro-Khalistani group Poetic Justice Foundation, mentioned Peter Friedrich, an alleged close associate of Bhajan Singh (BS) Bhinder alias Iqbal Chowdhary and proponent of Pakistan’s ISI Kashmir Khalistan (K2) desk. P4