tirupati l saturday l march 13, 2021 l `7.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION India reviews Covishield as 10 nations suspend use The Centre is looking into hospitalisation and deaths in people who took the Covid-19 vaccine by AstraZeneca-Oxford University Austria, Denmark report deaths No reason to stop vaccine, says w.h.o. While Austria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Luxembourg have withdrawn the use of one batch of AstraZeneca vaccine, others including Denmark have suspended all batches for two weeks. So far, 22 cases of blood clots have been reported among 3 million people vaccinated in Europe. Austria and Denmark reported one death each due to “severe blood coagulation” ■ “We haven’t found anything of concern with respect to Covishield so far,” said Dr Narendra Arora, advisor to the national panel on Adverse Events Following Immunisation ■ Meanwhile, the World Health Organization said on Friday that there is no reason to stop using AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine 90% of 2.63 crore vaccinations carried out so far in India comprised Covishield 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 CM urges Modi to confer Bharat Ratna on Pingali Grand spectacle unfolds The annual chariot festival of the Srikalahasteeswara Swami was held on Friday, with thousands of devotees and eager visitors witnessing the majestic car making its way through the temple streets `75 lakh aid to Pingali’s daughter The temple was tastefully decorated with a variety of exotic flowers and rich fruits The eye-catching illumination all over the temple and the installation of divine images and cut-outs depicting mythological episodes in the form of serial lighting added to the festive grandeur madhav k Quad decides to make 1 bn jab doses in India Japan, US to fund initiative, Oz to offer logistics support; to be manufactured by this year-end for global outreach Australian PM Scott Morrison and his Japanese counterpart Yoshihide Suga. The Quad grouping, comprising India, Australia, Japan and the US, is seen as a platform to counter the Chinese aggression in the region, especially the South China Sea. This was the first time that the leaders of the Quad countries met. Earlier, the grouping’s foreign ministers had met in Tokyo. “Today’s summit meeting shows that Quad has come of age. It will now remain an important pillar of stability in the region,” Modi said. Announcing the vaccine programme, Biden said, “We are launching a new ambitious joint partnership that is going to boost vaccine manufacturing for the global benefit and will boost vaccination programmes in the Indo-Pacific region. Sources said that the next inperson meeting of the leaders is likely to be held on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in the UK later this year. However, they said, that the US was keen to host the first in-person summit. BJP to contest Tirupati LS bypoll, JSP backs off E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada Announcing that a ‘unanimous’ decision was made by the BJP-Jana Sena alliance to field a leader from saffron party for the Tirupati parliamentary bypoll, Union Minister and State party in-charge V Muraleedharan said the national party’s victory march would begin from Tirupati. The party’s central election committee (CEC) will finalise the candidate, the BJP leader added. “Leading the ‘fight for the people and by the people,’ a BJP’s candidate, backed by Jana Sena will fight Tirupati by-election. A unanimous decision was taken at a meeting attended by Jana Sena chief Pa- Factory output back in negative territory, retail inflation soars E XPR E SS N E WS S E RVIC E @ New Delhi P u s h k a r B a n a k a r @ New Delhi Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday participated in the first-ever Quad Summit meet virtually where a combined initiative to boost India’s vaccine manufacturing capacity was announced even as sources said that the stand-off on the Line of Actual Control against China, too, came up for discussion. Dwelling on the vaccine initiative, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said it will leverage strengths from each of the member countries to achieve the target of manufacturing 1 billion doses by the end of next year. “We will leverage the US’ strength of technology development and India’s strength of manufacturing vaccines. Japan and the US will finance the initiative while Australia will provide logistical support to the programme,” Shringla said. A joint working group has been formed to oversee the implementation of the vaccine programme. Similarly Shring, la said, two more joint working groups have been constituted to work on other important agenda of the Quad like technology and climate change. Earlier, addressing the Summit virtually, Modi said the grouping was a positive extension of the country’s ancient philosophy of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, which regards the world as one family . The meeting was also attended by US President Joe Biden, Double whammy wan Kalyan and BJP State president Somu Veerraju. BJP’s victory march will begin from Tirupati. BJP and Jana Sena Party will expose the shady designs of YSRC and TDP that undermine the beliefs of devotees. These satraps’ self-serving and partisan approach deprived people of Tirupati. Time to put an end to such trends, (sic),” Muraleedharan tweeted. In Hyderabad, Pawan Kalyan, Somu Veerraju, BJP national secretary and State co-incharge Sunil Deodhar, and Jana Sena’s political affairs committee chairman Nadendla Manohar went into a huddle before the announcement was made on Friday Party’s co-incharge . Sunil Deodhar and Somu Veerraju also claimed that the deciP4 sion was unanimous.  Stand-off at LAC The stand-off in Eastern Ladakh along the Line of Actual Control was discussed during the Quad Summit and members had sympathetic views, sources said Force for global good “We are united by... our commitment to a free, open and inclusive IndoPacific. Our agenda today — covering areas like vaccines, climate change and emerging technologies — makes the Quad a force for global good,” Modi said Dashing hopes of a sustained economic recovery in, dustrial production growth slipped back to the negative zone by contracting 1.6% in January And, retail . inflation in February shot up to 5.03% driven by food prices and crude oil. The contraction in Index of Industrial Production (IIP), which measures factory output, comes after a 1.56% growth in December 2020. According to data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation on Friday, the manufacturing sector output contracted 2% in January while the mining output declined 3.7%. Meanwhile, , power generation grew 5.5% in January . The worst performance was witnessed by the capital goods sector, which recorded a contraction of 9.6% during the month under review, followed by a decline of 6.8% in the consumer non-durable section and 0.2% in the consumer durables segment. “We remain circumspect regarding the intensity of the rebound in household consumption immediately after the vaccine rollout widens, as some categories of households may choose to rebuild the savings that they had drained during the lockdown and post-lockdown period,” said Aditi Nayar, Principal Economist, Icra. Meanwhile, food inflation rose steeply to 3.87% in February compared with 1.89% in the previous month. , Inflation in the ‘fuel and light’ category remained elevated at 3.53% during the month. While retail inflation at 5.03% is still below RBI’s upper tolerance level of 6%, experts feel it could make the central bank sit up and take notice. “As we had suspected, perhaps the low point for inflation is behind us for some months to come. From a monetary policy perspective, the rising inflationary risks (fuel prices, demand pressures etc), although still nascent, could trigger some caution from the RBI,” said Sakshi Gupta, senior economist at HDFC Bank. TTD Executive Officer KS Jawahar Reddy said the TTD will soon conduct bhumi puja for the new children’s hospital which will be part of SVIMS super speciality. “The UIC apart from bearing the entire construction cost of `300 crore will take up the operational management also for a few years,’’ he said. The family members expressed immense happiness and gratitude towards Jagan for taking time and recognising the efforts of Pingali Venkaiah. “It was like my grandson coming to my home to see me,’’ Seetha Mahalakshmi said As part of Azadi Ka Amrut Mahotsav celebrations, CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy felicitates Pingali Venkaiah’s daughter Ghantasala Seetha Mahalakshmi at her residence in Macherla, Guntur district on Friday | Express 210 cases AP reported 210 new Covid cases in the past 24 hours ending Friday 9 am. Chittoor topped with 85 cases | P3 CM praises Nikhileshwar, Anasuya friday count in andhra E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Tirumala Bhumi puja will be held soon, says TTD EO CM’s visit overwhelms Pingali’s kin @ Vijayawada ‘Digambara Kavi’ Nikhileswar wins Sahitya Akademi Award Mumbai firm to set up `300 cr children’s hospital in Tirupati MoU signed for `300 crore children’s hospital in Tirupati | Express The CM felicitated Venkaiah’s daughter Ghantasala Seetha Mahalakshmi on the occasion and extended a financial assistance of `75 lakh on behalf of the government to her a bouquet and interacted with her and other family members. Striking an emotional chord Chief Minister YS Jagan Mo- with her and reminiscing the han Reddy Friday urged Prime freedom struggle and the conMinister Narendra Modi to tribution of various freedom confer Bharat Ratna (posthu- fighters, Jagan said it is a matmously) on Pingali Venkaiah, ter of great pride to the State the architect of national flag. that the national flag has been On a day when the Prime Min- designed by Pingali Venkaiah. ister launched the ‘Azadi Ka The family members exAmrut Mahotsav’ celpressed immense hapebrations to mark the piness and gratitude 75 years of Independtowards Jagan for takence of India, Jagan ing time and recogniswrote a letter to Modi ing the efforts of PinFor several seeking Bharat Ratna gali Venkaiah. “It was decades, the on Pingali Venkaiah. like my grandson comuntiring efforts Earlier in the day, ing to my home to see of Venkaiah who the CM felicitated gifted the country me,’’ Seetha Mahalakthe first designs Venkaiah’s daughter shmi told the media. and specimen of Ghantasala Seetha In his letter, Jagan the national Mahalakshmi on the said the decision to flag went occasion and extended celebrate the 75 years unrecognised financial assistance of Independence unCM Jagan in his letter der the leadership of of `75 lakh on behalf to PM Modi of the government to Modi will go a long h e r. J a g a n , a f t e r way in marking the launching the celebramonumental protions by garlanding the statue gramme in the history of of Mahatma Gandhi and Pin- India. gali Venkaiah, visited the resi“During the first meeting of dence of Venkaiah’s daughter National Committee held on Ghantasala Seetha Mahalak- March 8, the guidance and inshmi at Macherla in Guntur sights provided by you regarddistrict. ing the five pillars of celebraThe CM felicitated Seetha tions are enchanting and P4 Mahalakshmi with a shawl and thought-provoking.  E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e In one of the biggest donations to TTD, Mumbai-based Udveg Infrastructure and Consultancy (UIC) Private Limited has come forward to construct a state-of-the-art Children’s Super Speciality Hospital in Tirupati. TTD Executive Officer Dr KS Jawahar Reddy and UIC CEO and MD Sanjay K Singh signed the MoU in the presence of TTD Chairman YV Subba Reddy to set up the children’s hospital in Tirupati. Speaking after signing of the MoU at the Annamaiah Bhavan here, the TTD Chairman said the venture was part of the CM’s vision after bifurcation of united AP to set up Super Speciality Children’s Hospitals in Tirupati, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam. In accordance with the vision of the Chief Minister, the TTD Trust Board resolved for the same. As AP does not have any exclusive hospital to cater to children and Jagan Mohan Reddy proposed to have such state-of-the art P4 facilities in three cities. CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy congratulated renowned poet, translator and writer Nikhileshwar for winning Sahitya Akademi Award2020 for his work Agniswaasa. He also congratulated popular writer Kanneganti Anasuya for winning Bala Sahitya Puraskar 2020 for her short stories Snehithulu E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada Well-known writer Nikhileswar, and one among the six ‘Digambara Kavulu’ has been chosen for the Kendra Sahitya Akademi award-2020 for his anthology of poems Agniswaasa penned in 2017. A poet with a focus on social issues for almost six decades now, Nikhileswar also contributed to English and Hindi languages. Nikhileswar was the founder-secretary of Viplava Rachayitala Sangham (VIRASAM) and was jailed under Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) in 1971 for his revolutionary writings and also participating in civil rights movement. Born as Kumbham Yadav Reddy in Veeravalli village of the present Yadadri Bhongir district in Telangana, he was more popular with his pen name ‘Nikhileswar’. A BA, BEd degree holder from Osmania University he served as , a civilian school teacher in the Army clerk in , Indian Air Force and worked as a sub-editor in Golconda Patrika, a Telugu-language journal and also as a teacher in Keshav Memorial School between 1966 and 1996 as P4 a teacher.  Can’t stay a babu and be EC, rules SC ‘Disturbing’ The top court said it was disturbing to note that a person, while being employed with government, was in charge of EC in Goa eXPR E SS N E WS S E RVIC E @ New Delhi The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that no person government official can be appointed as Election Commissioner as the independence of the EC is sacrosanct under the Constitution. A bench headed by Justice R F Nariman, while pulling up the Goa government for giving law secretary the additional charge of state EC, said, “Henceforth, all state election commission shall be headed by independent persons... If they hold any such office, they have continued on P7 to resign before taking charge of the office.”