MANGALURU  SATURDAY  MARCH 20, 2021  `7.00  PAGES 14  CITY EDITION FLYING MAY COST MORE AS GOVT LIFTS BASE FARE BAND ATF PRICE RISE IS THE REASON, SAYS PURI “There has been a continuous rise in price of ATF, so it has been decided to increase the lower fare band keeping the upper fare band unchanged,” Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri tweeted on Friday. DGCA had on May 21, 2020, announced seven bands of ticket pricing based on flight duration. The first band was for flights that don’t take more than 40 minutes The Centre has extended domestic fare bands brought in May 2020 till April-end, but decided to hike the lower fares by 5% ■ 100% SECOND HIKE IN OVER A MONTH ■ ■ The lower limit for the first band was `2,000, which will now change to 2,100 while the ceiling will remain at `6,000 This is the second time the government has raised fare limits for domestic airlines. The first hike was in February this year No. of flights airlines can fly remains 80% of their pre-Covid levels FLIGHT OPERATIONS WILL BE ALLOWED WHEN DAILY PASSENGER TRAFFIC CROSSES 3.5 LAKH 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 HOUSEHOLD SAVINGS WANE, BORROWINGS SPIKE IN Q2 Health Minister says tough measures may be necessary to control the sudden surge in cases 21 19  Flow of financial assets  Flow of financial liabilities  Financial savings E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Bengaluru 10.4 9.8 Q1 FY20 Q2 FY20 Q3 FY20 Q4 FY20 2.55 2.72 1.3 0.80 0.78 7.7 8.1 11.4 9.8 10.6 15.1 15.8 (% of GDP) Q1 FY21 Q2 FY21 Source: RBI MAHA SEES HIGHEST DAILY SPIKE: P10 Centre seeks Delhi HC bar on WhatsApp’s new privacy policy EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi THE Centre on Friday urged the Delhi High Court to restrain Facebook-owned WhatsApp from implementing its new privacy policy and terms of service that are to take effect from May 15. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology made the submission in its affidavit filed in response to a petition challenging WhatsApp’s new privacy policy . Under the new policy, users can either accept it or exit the app, but cannot opt not to share their data with other Facebookowned or third party apps. A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jasmeet Singh listed the matter for further hearing on April 20. The affidavit said India’s IT Rules impose a host of obligations on a company on the security of the data. “Notably, the Rules require a body corporate who collects, stores or otherwise deals with data to issue a privacy policy providing for certain safeguards, in addition to imposing various other obligations. The impugned privacy policy violates the 2011 Rules,” it said. REIGN OF FEAR ENDS Forest personnel inspect the carcass of a large tiger, which was found near the Nagarahole Tiger Reserve on Friday morning. The big cat is believed to be the same elusive beast which killed three people and injured one in Kodagu district over the last few weeks | EXPRESS | REPORT: P7 EXPRESS READ CD-gate: SIT grills Jarkiholi for 3 hours Bengaluru: A day after TV journalist Naresh Gowda released a video statement, the SIT on Friday questioned BJP leader Ramesh Jarkiholi in connection to the CD-gate. This is the second time that the former water resources minister is appearing before the SIT for questioning. “We had issued a summons to Ramesh Jarkiholi to appear before the investigating officer, and he was questioned for about three hours,” said a senior official | P5 US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin arrives in India on 3-day visit New Delhi: Beginning his three-day India visit, US Defence Secretary Lloyd J Austin on Friday said the Indo-US cooperation reflected the significance of “major defence partnership” as they work together to address challenges facing the Indo-Pacific | P9 Should rules apply to world leaders on platform, Twitter asks public New Delhi: Twitter has sought public opinion on whether world leaders should be subject to the same set of rules as others on the platform, and appropriate action in case of violation by them. Twitter said it wants its policies to remain relevant to the ever-changing nature of political discourse. 36 days after death, individual tests Covid +ve A J I T H M S @ Mysuru AT a time when Covid-19 cases are rising again in the state, a curious case of an individual from Mysuru district testing positive for the disease a full 36 days after the person had died, has baffled the scientific community . The individual had tested positive for Covid-19 at the HD Kote taluk hospital in September last year and was diagnosed as a moderately severe case. Doctors there had advised the person to approach the district hospital in Mysuru for further treatment, but the patient had returned home. Later, when the health officials did a follow-up, it emerged that the person had committed suicide and was buried by the family members who were unaware of the condition. Since it was a case of suicide, the police exhumed the body 16 days later and an autopsy was conducted. The samples reached the Covid-19 testing lab of CFTRI after another 20 days. To the surprise of the doctors and scientists, the samples tested positive for the disease 36 days after the death of the per- son. The team included doctors from the Mysore district Covid-19 hospital, Mysore Medical College and Research Institute as well as scientists from CSIRCentral Food Technology Research Institute. The case has now emerged as a major finding and has been presented as a scientific paper in medRxiv database by Dr Maheshwara Prasad of Mysuru District hospital, the designated Covid-19 hospital, and Dr P V Ravindra, in-charge coordinator of the CFTRI Covid-19 testing centre, along with Dr S A Nachappa of CFTRI, Dr S H Byrappa of MMCRI and others. CONTINUED ON: P5 The body was decomposed, but the tests were positive for Covid-19 even 36 after days the burial Dr P V Ravindra, in-charge coordinator of the CFTRI Covid-19 testing centre DIPPING RECOVERY 97.78 97.72 97.64 97.53 97.46 RATE IN % MARCH 15 MARCH 16 MARCH 17 MARCH 18 MARCH 19 MARCH 19 MARCH 16 MARCH 17 MARCH 18 MARCH 19 MARCH 18 B’luru reported 1,037 new cases for the first time this year. MARCH 17 1,587 MARCH 16 1,135 1,275 MARCH 15 1,488 8,860 9,428 10,228 11,359 12,067 UPWARD CURVE AGAIN D A I LY A D D I T I O N S KARNATAKA may soon see night curfew or a partial lockdown kind of scenario if people do not strictly follow Covid-19 protocols and the number of cases continue to rise in the state. While bracing for a second Covid-19 wave, the State Government is closely monitoring the rising number of cases. For three days in a row, the state’s daily caseload has been in excess of 1,000, with Bengaluru Urban district contributing the highest number. Speaking to TNIE, Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar warned that the government may be forced to implement night curfew and felt that it would not be possible to control the pandemic without imposing curbs.”We have not yet taken any decision on night curfew, but we are not far from it. There is a fast-changing trend of Covid-19 cases in Bengaluru and some pockets of Karnataka,” he noted. “As Health Minister, I am concerned. Without any curbs, it will be impossible to control the situation. Citizens should have some civic responsibility and follow Covid-appropriate behaviour, or the government will have to take some steps and get them to follow the rules,” Sudhakar said. “Some activities will be curbed and we will decide on those soon. During the second wave, other countries too took certain measures,” he added. RISING ACTIVE CASES LIABILITIES SWELL, SAVINGS EBB 4 THE financial distress caused by pay cuts and job losses during the pandemic may have forced Indian households to dip into their savings and borrow more to meet expenses. According to RBI data released on Friday, households’ financial savings rate dropped to 10.4% of the GDP in the July-September 2020 quarter compared with 21% in the preceding quarter, the central bank’s preliminary estimates on household savings. While the drop appears drastic on a sequential basis, a savings rate at 10.4% is still higher than 9.8% recorded in the year-ago period. The report said Indian households appeared to be slowly going back to their pre-Covid spending habits as consumption switched from an ‘essentials only’ pattern to discretionary spending with the gradual reopening of the economy . While the report notes the change is driven by an increase in household bor- rowings from banks and non-banking financial companies, experts say the drastic drop in income may have accentuated the process. It gives more credence to economists’ prediction that households are still maintaining consumption despite job losses and low income levels. Rising food prices in the midst of widespread economic pain could also force households to dip into their savings. According to RBI, household financial savings have moderated despite an increase in savings in the form of deposits as borrowings from banks and NBFCs have picked up. On the assets side, there was a notable fall in household savings in the form of currency — to 0.4% of GDP in Q2 from 5.3% in Q1. Similarly household in, vestment in MF products declined to 0.3% from 1.7%, while savings in the form of insurance products moderated to 3% from 3.2% in Q1. Meanwhile, a Pew Research report said the Indian middle class has shrunk to 6.6 crore from 9.9 crore. P12 1.81 S E S A S E N @ New Delhi MASK UP, FOLLOW COVID NORMS, OR BE READY FOR RESTRICTIONS No curbs on cinema halls: CM Without any curbs, it will be impossible to control the situation. Citizens should have some civic responsibility and follow Covidappropriate behaviour, or the government will have to take some steps and get them to follow the rules Dr K Sudhakar Health Minister EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Bengaluru CHIEF Minister B S Yediyurappa on Friday said there is no proposal before the government to impose any restrictions on cinema halls even as he tried to allay concerns of the film industry over the possibility of imposing curbs. This came after Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Commissioner N Manjunatha Prasad said a proposal had been submitted to the government to restrict cinema hall occupancy to 50 per cent in view of the surge in cases. In a tweet, the CM said, “There is no proposal before the government to restrict seating to 50 per cent capacity in cinema halls. Audiences and theatre owners must abide by all the necessary precautions and cooperate with the government to contain the spread of the coronavirus.” CONTINUED ON: P5