Govt steps in to fight with swarm of locusts as several states are under threat

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The government has stepped in to fight with the menace of locust as it has become a great threat for farmers before the sowing of Kharif crops sowing gathers pace.

Amid a wave of locust swarms sweeping across western and northwestern India, the Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare (DAC&FW) has stepped up locust control operations in the affected states of Rajasthan, Punjab, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, said Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare on Wednesday in a statement.

According to the Agriculture Ministry, around 200 Locust Circle Offices (LCO) are conducting survey and control operations in close coordination with the district administration and agriculture field machinery of the affected states. Locust control operations are in full swing in coordination with the state agriculture departments and local administration.

In Rajasthan, 21 districts, in Madhya Pradesh 18 districts, in Punjab one district and in Gujarat 2 districts have undertaken Locust control till now. For effective control of locusts beyond scheduled desert areas, temporary control camps have been established in Ajmer, Chittorgarh and Dausa in Rajasthan; Mandsaur, Ujjain and Shivpuri in Madhya Pradesh and Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh.

As on May 26, control operations against locusts have been done in 47,308 hectares of area in total 303 places in Rajasthan, Punjab, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh by LCOs in coordination with the District Administration and State Agriculture Department, said the statement.

As per the agriculture ministry, 89 fire brigades for pesticide spray; 120 survey vehicles; 47 control vehicles with spray equipment and 810 tractors mounted sprayers have been deployed for effective locust control.

“As of today, there are active swarms of immature locust in Barmer, Jodhpur, Nagaur, Bikaner, Ganganagar, Hanumangarh, Sikar, Jaipur districts in Rajasthan and Satna, Gwalior, Seedhi, Rajgarh, Baitul, Devas, Agar Malwa districts of Madhya Pradesh,” said the agriculture ministry.

‘India’s data centre market to grow in 2020 amid rising digital consumption’

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On the back of various policy initiatives, widening customer base and increasing corporate requirements for data storage, a CBRE report has said that the data center market is set to grow in 2020 with rising demand and supply.

Supporting the growth of data center capacity in India, the report highlighted that markets across Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Pune and NCR are expected to witness supply addition of up to 40 percent in 2020. Out of this, Mumbai currently leads with 41 percent data center capacity, followed by Bengaluru and Delhi where supply is likely to increase by 17 and 16 percent respectively.

“With growing digital consumption patterns such as online gaming, online education, streaming, e-commerce, total internet hits, etc., DC (data centre) operators are expected to see a huge demand for data centre space, thereby scaling up their DC facilities quickly to serve hyper scalers & enterprise clients,” it said.

Commenting on the data centre market in India, Anshuman Magazine, Chairman & CEO – India, South East Asia, Middle East & Africa, CBRE said: “In the era of the fourth industrial revolution, we expect regulatory support to augment the Data Centre demand in India. Policy impetus such as the National E-commerce Policy, Personal Data Protection Bill, proposed policy on Data Centre Parks and digital initiatives by the government will accelerate demand.”

He added that the Covid-19 situation will further propel the next wave of growth in the sector.

CBRE expects that global players are likely to continue to take interest in investing in the country, with a focus on backing leading operators or funding prominent developers to foray into the data centre segment in 2020.

Further, against the backdrop of the COVID-19 situation in India, corporates would be inclined towards investing in the cloud and hybrid IT infrastructure, as operations would move online and employees may need tocontinue to work from home, the report noted.

Covid spread not alarming despite relaxations, says KCR

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Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao on Wednesday said that people should not be scared or feel fearful about coronavirus, as the spread was not on an alarming scale despite relaxations in the lockdown. He, however, said people should be cautious and alert.

He said according to some estimates, positive cases may increase in the country in the next two to three months. “But people should not entertain any fear or anxiety. The government is ready to provide treatment for any number of cases in the state. The required PPE kits, test kits, masks, beds, ventilators, hospitals are all ready,” a statement from the Chief Minister’s Office quoted him as saying at a high-level meeting called by him to review Covid-19 situation.

Medical Officers, experts and state-level committees examining the developments that are taking place on Covid-19 all over the world explained the present situation to the Chief Minister and Ministers.

“The developments world over point out that one should not be scared about the corona issue. According to the studies conducted all over the world and estimates by the World Health Organisation (WHO) despite spread of the virus, the symptoms are not appearing in a majority of people. About 80 percent of those having the virus have no symptoms and they need no treatment.”

They pointed out that only 15 percent of them have Influenza-like symptoms, cold, cough, and difficulty in breathing. People with these Influenza-Like Symptoms (ILI) will recover fast. Only 5 percent of them have Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI). More care should be taken about these patients. A majority of deaths happened in this category. The death rate in the country is 2.86 percent and in Telangana state, it is 2.82 percent. These patients had a history of other ailments.

It was also observed that though there was movement among the people after the relaxations, the virus did not spread rapidly. “This is a good development. In all, it is proved that nobody should entertain fear about Corona. Since there is no medicine and vaccine for Corona, people should be on alert. They should take personal precautions,” the medical officers and experts said.

KCR, as the Chief Minister is popularly known, urged people to take precautions though there was relaxation in the lockdown guidelines. He also asked the medical and health department to be alert. “People who got the virus were asymptomatic. Hence there is no room for any anxiety. But some are having symptoms. We have to provide good medical treatment to them. There is a need to take extra care about patients in serious health condition,” he said.

‘Inhuman beating & madness’: Assaulted Chinese woman’s open letter amid Indo-China faceoff

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Days after a man in Greater Noida beat up a Chinese woman living in a condominium there for allegedly fostering a stray dog which bit his canine, amid an already strained Indo-Chinese relationship, the victim has written an open letter where she described her ordeal.

“I am suffering severe pain in my body due to such inhuman beating and madness,” is how victim Zou Hui, who resides in ATS Green Paradiso, described her plight. She has also attached photos of her injuries which suggest the sheer brutality with which she was assaulted. “If anything unnatural happens to us in the future, the accused man Mr Amarpal Singh should be responsible for it,” she said.

But how did it all start in the first place? Claiming that the police “ignored the real incident”, Zou says she was “compelled” to write the open letter.

According to her, a stray dog which was following her, suddenly attacked another resident’s dog. Following this, “suddenly, the above mentioned Indian man thrashed me from behind at my back with a heavy thick stick more than 10 times”. She added that her hands and hips were injured as a result of the assault. “I was shocked and wasn’t aware why he was cruelly beating me,” she said. Zou claims that society security guard Avneet Bhatti was witness to the alleged assault.

The incident occurred in Greater Noida on a day when China said that it will repatriate its citizens from India as the Covid-19 cases are spiralling. The relationship between the neighboring countries have become even more strained with rising skirmishes over the border.

However, Zou acknowledged that it was other Indian residents who came to her rescue and helped her call the police. She rubbished any suggestion of altercation, between the two.

While the Chinese national accepts she fed the dog, she claims: “It is not the dog issue. Media and the society have falsely reported (it) as an issue pertaining to dogs which is contrary to fact.”

She claims while the accused Amarpal Singh (though police says his name is Amar Pratap Singh) too went to the police station and investigating officer Rekha Chaudhury “assured” her of “justice”, to her horror, she discovered that the man she held responsible for the assault was mentioned as “unknown” in the FIR. She quotes an unnamed police personnel who told her Singh was arrested and presented in front of a magistrate. However, many residents of ATS Paradiso saw him come back to the society by 7.30 pm the same evening, according to Zou.

While she says that the police personnel dealing with her case were “very responsive”, she urged for a “quick and just investigation”, adding that the police must get hold of the CCTV footage of the incident which she says, substantiates her claims.

IANS was the first to report about this incident. Greater Noida Commissioner of Police Rajesh Kumar Singh had told IANS then that the man named Amar Pratap Singh of ATS Paradiso misbehaved with the woman after his dog was bitten by another dog who she used to feed every day.

The incident happened early in the day when the accused took his dog out for a walk. “After his dog was bitten, in a fit of rage, he misbehaved with the Chinese woman.”

The Resident Welfare Association of the society, which Zou claims helped her, refused to comment on the issue.

Grabs of a purported conversation between the residents of the society also confirmed the same. In one of the messages, a woman claimed that the incident happened at 7 a.m. near tower 14 and the victim was beaten badly by the man residing in tower seven. She said that the victim was asked not to feed the dogs inside the society complex and that she abided by it.

Another resident wrote that after the incident, the woman had bruises all over and was crying. She was then given first aid and an ice-pack was also applied on her wounds. However, IANS cannot independently authenticate the message exchanges between the inhabitants of the society.

With the border dispute between India and China at Ladakh region forcing both nations to ask its armed forces to be prepared, this incident of a Chinese national being beaten black and blue, barely a few kilometers from the national capital Delhi, assumes huge significance.

Delhi hotels told to refund half-rent as quarantine period reduced

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The Delhi government on Wednesday directed the hotels providing paid quarantine to those who returned from abroad to refund a week’s balance as the Centre has reduced the period for institutional quarantine.

In an order, Delhi Chief Secretary Vijay Dev directed the district administrations to ensure the amount is refunded.

Dev in his capacity as Chairperson, State Executive Committee, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has issued guidelines for international arrivals, including quarantine arrangements.

“As per these guidelines, a protocol for institutional quarantine has been revised to seven days followed by seven-day home quarantine after medical assessment,” he said.

Indian nationals who were quarantined in hotels after their return from abroad were made to pay in advance for 14 days.

The order said the Centre has directed that since they can now leave for home quarantine after seven days, the amount paid by them for the remaining seven days needs to be refunded to them, which some hotels are refusing.

The order directed “all authorities concerned to ensure that foreign returnees who were quarantined in hotels and paid in advance for 14 days shall be refunded their balance amount without any delay.”

Maha Covid-19 deaths zoom to 105 on Wednesday, cases cross 55K

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Maharashtra on Wednesday notched a new high of 105 Covid-19 deaths, from Tuesday’s previous high of 97 fatalities, with the number of cases shooting above 55,000, health officials said here.

The figures include a whopping 64 deaths in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region alone, besides 2,190 new cases recorded across the state.

This comes to roughly one death every 14 minutes, and an average 91 new cases recorded every hour, in the state.

Maharashtra has been recording 90-plus fatalities and over 2,000 new patients for the past two days consecutively, with the last highest figure of infections being 3,041 cases on May 24.

With 105 fatalities, the state death toll has touched 1,897 and the total number of coronavirus patients increased from 54,758 to 56,948 now.

The Health Department said the state now had 37,125 active cases — swelling by 1,947 over Tuesday’s 35,178.

However, the doubling rate has improved from last week’s 11.5 days to 14.7 days now with a 31.5 percent recovery rate.

Of the total 105 fatalities today, 32 were recorded in Mumbai alone, taking the city deaths up from to 1,097 now, while the number of Covid-19 positive patients here shot up by 1,044 cases to touch 34,018.

Mumbai’s congested Dharavi slum continued to be a major red-hotspot with 18 new cases, taking the total number of infectees to 1,639 and figure of deaths climbing to 61.

Of Mumbai’s 32 deaths, besides one from Gujarat, there were 23 fatalities in Thane (Thane City, Navi Mumbai), 10 in Jalgaon, nine in Pune, eight in Raigad, six in Akola, four in Aurangabad, three each in Nashik and Solapur, two in Satara, and one each in Nagpur, Nandurbar and Palghar.

They comprised 72 men and 33 women, and nearly 63 percent of them suffered from other serious ailments such as diabetes, hypertension, heart problems and asthma.

On the positive side, 964 fully cured patients returned home on Wednesday, taking the number of those discharged to 17,918.

Maharashtra Police recorded one more death of a policeman, taking the total toll to 21, besides the total infectees increased by 75 to touch 1,964, comprising 233 officers and 1,741 personnel.

The MMR continued to cause grave concerns with 1,290 Covid-19 deaths and positive cases shooting to 43,466.

Though trailing a distant second after Mumbai, Pune Division fatalities touched 350, besides 7,688 patients.

The next major area of concern is Nashik Division with 121 deaths and 1,765 positive cases, followed by Aurangabad Division with 58 fatalities and 1,572 cases, and finally Akola Division with 40 deaths and 857 cases.

Latur Division has eight deaths and 284 cases, Kolhapur Division seven deaths and 651 patients, and finally Nagpur Division with 10 deaths and 612 cases.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home-quarantine increased to 582,701 with a high jump of 15,079, and those in institutional quarantine went up to 37,761, a spurt of 2,561.

The state’s containment zones increased from 2,562 to 2,684 on Wednesday and 17,119 health teams have carried out a survey of a population of around 68 lakhs in the state.

Tendulkar reminded of childhood seeing Lara’s son’s batting grip

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West Indies cricket legend Brian Lara shared a video of his son playing cricket with a plastic bat. The West Indies great noted that the way he grips the bat shows that he wants to be a left-handed batsman but the boy is batting right-handed.

“Look at the way he grips the bat, that tells me he wants to be a left-handed batsman,” the former West Indies cricketer said in his caption to the video.

Fellow batting great Sachin Tendulkar then replied to Lara, pointing out that he too held the bat in a similar fashion. He posted the famous photo of him as a toddler holding the bat and placed it alongside a clip from the video Lara had posted.

“@brianlaraofficial I know of another boy who had a similar grip and didn’t do too badly in international cricket,” Sachin captioned his post on Instagram.

Lara reacted to the post saying: “I can see that @sachintendulkar and some of the best bowlers in the world felt that sword! Well I am not interfering then lol. Thanks for the advice. #rightvsleft #legend #mostruns #recordsmen.”

Tendulkar then said that the boy has a bright future considering he is going to learn from the “one of the greatest batsmen in the world.”

Rahul Gandhi questioned the Centre’s plan to control coronavirus

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Congress’s Rahul Gandhi today questioned the Centre’s plan to control coronavirus in the days ahead, pointing out that the infections have been spiraling, defying the expectations of the government. Prime Minster Narendra Modi, he said, had promised that the infections will decline by the end of May, but the numbers clearly show it has not.

Asserting that the nationwide lockdown has “failed” at a virtual media conference this morning, Mr Gandhi said, “What is the Central government’s plan to go forward as the disease is growing exponentially in the country? The four stages of lockdown have not given the result that the Prime Minister expected”.

India is the only country in the world which is relaxing the lockdown when the virus is “exponentially rising”, he added.Mr Gandhi also tweeted his question to the government. His Hindi tweet read: “Two months ago, while announcing the lockdown, the Prime Minister had said that we will gain victory over coronavirus in 21 days. It has been more than 60 days and every day, the number of patients has been rising exponentially. The lockdown has not been able to beat this virus.

On March 26, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the countrywide lockdown for three weeks, 496 people had tested positive for coronavirus, nine patients have died. That figure has now gone up to 1.4 lakh, more than 4,000 people have died.

Since April, the government has been slowly easing the lockdown, with the Prime Minister announcing that the country needs to strike a balance between health and economy. While officially, the current phase of the lockdown extends till May 31, road, rail and air transport have resumed slowly.

“What is the strategy regarding opening India? What precautions will they take to now curb the disease? How will they support migrants? How will they support the state governments and MSMEs?” Mr Gandhi said.

The Centre’s big relief package, announced earlier this month by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, has also fallen far short of expectation, he said.

“The Prime Minister said 10 per cent of the GDP but the reality is that less than 1 per cent of the GDP is being given and mostly in loans. Hardly any cash is being given to people,” he said. The Congress governments in states, which are giving cash to the people, also need support from the Centre, he added.

TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu should go into quarantine

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TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu has been accused of violating the coronavirus lockdown by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy’s YSR Congress Party after he returned to the state from Telangana on Monday by road even as domestic flights were resumed across India. As he reached Amaravati from Hyderabad after two months, the former Andhra Pradesh chief minister was welcomed by a huge crowd of supporters, triggering concerns about social distancing.

Slamming the 70-year-old TDP chief, YSRCP leader Gadikota Srikanth Reddy told news agency ANI: “The whole country is following lockdown till May 31 and everybody is maintaining social distancing and following other guidelines linked to COVID-19. However, Chandrababu Naidu took out a rally from Hyderabad where hundreds gathered, garlanded him without using masks. Being a senior politician how could he do so? He should apologise.”

“Coming from a red zone, he should go into quarantine. Chandrababu Naidu, however, is trying to politicise the situation. He was playing politics through the Zoom app while he was in Hyderabad and suddenly he came in a big convoy. He should be quarantined as he has crossed a state border,” Mr Reddy added.

The TDP chief had gone to Hyderabad on March 22. A nationwide lockdown to tackle the pandemic was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 24.

Security experts have also expressed concern about Mr Naidu violating security protocols. The TPD chief traveled in his black Toyota Fortuner and other vehicles in his convoy were silver grey Tata Safari SUVs. “The target then is easily identifiable (in such a case) and that is not to be done at all,” a former CMO security officer said.

The former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister was given Z-Plus security after he was targeted in an attack at Alipiri in 2003 by People’s War Group, a Maoist outfit.

Mr Naidu is expected to attend his party’s annual conclave- TDP Mahanadu – virtually tomorrow and the day after. He is also expected to travel to Vizag after that to meet those affected by the LG Polymers gas leak incident.

Football could not restart because of the health crisis

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Lyon will challenge the decision to end the Ligue 1 season early because of the coronavirus pandemic before the Council of State, France’s highest administrative court, a club source told AFP on Monday. The club criticised the April 30 ruling made by the French league (LFP) to declare the season over following an announcement by the government that football could not restart because of the health crisis.

Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas also wrote a letter Monday to France’s prime minister and sports minister urging them to reconsider the decision, with the government expected to announce next week a further loosening of the lockdown.

“Could we imagine that 2 June is also a great opportunity to rectify the mistake concerning French football and to allow, with a health protocol used everywhere, a gradual resumption of training and, why not, a resumption of the 2019-20 season over the months of July or August?” Aulas said.

Lyon, who have reached this season’s Champions League last 16, were left seventh in the standings and outside the European qualification places when the season was halted.An administrative court in Paris has already rejected an appeal from the club.

The judge of the Paris administrative court “has logically retained… that the decisions taken by the league’s board of directors on April 30 could only be challenged before the Council of State,” the LFP said in a statement on Friday.

Lyon took objection to the LFP expressing satisfaction at the decision, replying via a statement of their own that “the administrative tribunal did not rule on the merits of the case”.

“It in no way changes the nature and the basis of the action brought” by the club, Lyon said, warning they would take the matter to the Council of State on Monday.

Amiens, who are contesting their relegation to Ligue 2 and whose initial appeal was also turned down last week by the Paris court, indicated their plans to turn to the Council of State as well.

KCR’s vision got a first step with a tribal farmer from Asifabad

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Telangana CM KCR is hell bent on imposing his agenda on farmers on what to cultivate so that there will be a diverse crops in the state. KCR’s vision got a first step with a tribal farmer from Asifabad. This farmer identified as Kendre Balaji and he cultivated apples in his farm located at Dhanora village in Kerameri mandal.-

Balaji who was the winner of Best Farmer Award 2017, started farming apples since four years. He broke the myth that apples can be grown only in cold temperatures and learned that a variety of apples in Himachal Pradesh are cultivated at 40 degrees. He bought about 10 plants of HR-99 variety and when the horticulture department got to know about this, Balaji was supported technically.

The horticulture department also provided another 300 plants for Balaji’s three acres while Hyderabad based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology provided all the assistance in growing the crop.

Now that the apples are fully grown, he has sent a box of Telangana apples to horticulture department and requested them to send them to Telangana CM KCR. Learning about this, KCR is said to have called on Balaji and expressed his willingness to personally meet him.

In a day or two, CM KCR will be able to taste the first grow in Telangana apples. This will also enable KCR to go ahead with his agenda of ‘What farmers should grow when to ensure demand for agriculture produce.’

Corona virus cases in Telangana

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‘Living along’ and ‘co-existing’ with the coronavirus are most heard words in recent times when people and governments are slowly getting back to normalcy. But the rise in coronavirus cases on random days is sending shivers across as there is a fear of seeing a second wave from earlier predictions model and also due to misused relaxations.

Yet again, the number of coronavirus cases recorded on Monday in Telangana is 66, which is higher than the usual average in the state. The new 66 cases and three deaths in the state also alarmed the officials. Out of the cases recorded on Monday, 31 are from GHMC, one from Rangareddy, 18 are foreign returned and 15 are migrant laborers.

72 were discharged from hospital after recovery making the total recoveries to 1164. There are a total of 700 active cases and 56 deaths due to the coronavirus in Telangana state.

Telangana state has so far 1920 coronavirus positive confirmed cases. While transmission links and contact tracing are crucial in tracking the cases, the asymptomatic from the last few weeks are heard to have become major carriers.

Manchu Manoj questions TTD on auctioning the lands.

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Huge criticism is pouring down from all corners on Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanams (TTD) on deciding to auction lands in Tamil Nadu. The main opposition TDP is bluntly opposing this move and now more and more voices are joining.

Hero Manchu Manoj is probably the first celebrity to question the TTD on auctioning the lands. Taking to his Twitter handle, Manoj shared a note which had many questions. “Did Lord Venkateswara asked TTD to sell the properties? It’s TTD that controls everything. The voices of people who chant ‘Govinda Govinda’ have fumbled and all of a sudden why TTD wants to sell the lands?,” asked Manoj.

Lastly Manoj said he is questioning the TTD just only for an explanation and that too being a local boy, out of curiosity he wants to know the real reasons.

This seems interesting and issue of TTD selling lands is gaining a lot of importance and might turn into a storm. It’s high time TTD should rethink its decision. If not the governing body will have to face the music of common man.

Pawan Kalyan’s praise for Telangana’s BJP Chief

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Janasena chief Pawan Kalyan met State BJP’s president Bandi Sanjay yesterday and yet again he made a praising statement tweet for the latter on his Twitter timeline, like he is doing for all BJP leaders these days.

Bandi Sanjay mentioned it a fruitful discussion on current issues with a picture of him meeting Pawan Kalyan and the Janasenani reciprocated the same. But the discussion here started is that Pawan Kalyan’s praise for Telangana’s BJP Chief which he had not done since he shook hands with the national party.

Though Pawan used to get into harsh criticism on TRS biggies right from his party launch meeting, he later turned silent and even stayed away from contesting local elections last time. The Janasena chief recently made several praising statements on Telangana CM KCR for his governance.

With the latest developments from the alliance and Telangana BJP chief meeting him, speculations began that they want to use Pawan’s charm is criticizing the Telangana government and they want him to raise his voice against TRS party in Telangana. When Telangana Congress is struggling with many internal issues, BJP appears to be the only opposition TRS had in Telangana and the party is heard to be thinking of extracting the best with Janasena alliance.

But, the question here is if Pawan Kalyan wants to lock horns with KCR and contradict his own statements of praise for his good bond with BJP. Will he wish to go against KCR in Telangana? If the latest and changing ideologies of Pawan Kalyan are anything to go by, he will be starting to ‘question’ the TRS supreme ‘strongly’ and we all know how KCR handles the criticism from Pawan and BJP.

On the other side, the official statements from Pawan Kalyan and Janasena have been irking the Janasena supporters and his ‘Bhajana’ tweets are being denounced and blasted very badly.

UK PM’s approval rating drops by 20 pts after aide scandal

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UK Prime Minister Boris Johnsons approval rating has dropped 20 points to -1 percent after he refused to sack his chief aide, Dominic Cummings for allegedly breaking of coronavirus lockdown rules.

According to Savanta, a coronavirus data tracker that looks at how the UK population is responding to the pandemic, the Prime Minister’s rating was previously +19 percent just four days ago, the Metro newspaper reported.

It stated that the overall government approval rate is now at -2 percent, having dropped 16 points in a day.

Johnson’s approval rating is now also the lowest of all the individuals examined, with Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s the second-lowest at 4 percent.

Cummings’ rating has not been tracked.

Labour leader Keir Starmer’s approval rating also lifted to 12 percent on Monday, while Chancellor Rishi Sunak dropped from 35 percent four days ago to 20 percent.

Cummings has been accused of breaking lockdown rules he helped make after it emerged he travelled from London to his parents home in Durham when his wife fell ill with suspected coronavirus in March, reports the Metro newspaper.

The Prime Minister’s chief adviser has refused to step down over the allegations, admitting he never considered resigning and he doesn’t regret his actions.

At a press conference on Monday, Johnson admitted he regrets the “confusion and pain” the scandal has caused the British public.

But he said that he believed Cummings acted “legally” and “with integrity”.

Covid-19 corollaries on the dairy sector: CRISIL

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Supply chain disruptions in the early weeks of the nationwide lockdown, and bread-and-butter issues for hotels, restaurants, and cafes, have materially reduced demand for dairy products.

This is despite the supply of most dairy products continuing during the lockdown since they are categorized as essentials.

The shuttering of hotels and dine-ins has also dried up off-take of skimmed milk powder and khoya.

According to a report by CRISIL Research on the state of the dairy industry and supply chains, products that can’t be made at home easily – such as cheese, flavored milk and also khoya – haven’t found their way back to the dining table in the same quantities as before the lockdown.

Demand for ice creams, which usually peaks in summer (accounting for 40 percent of annual sales) has just melted away. Rural areas, which are feeling the income pinch more, seem to be staying off butter and ghee, the report by global analytics firm has said.

To be sure, since the third week of April, supply chains have turned smoother, so the demand for staples such as milk, curd, paneer, and yogurt are expected to see a quick rebound, leading to an on-year expansion in sales, CRISIL said.

The pandemic, however, may sour the business for unorganized dairies because of pervasive contamination fears.

Conversely, as consumers shift, revenues of organized dairies and packaged products should fatten.

Overall, demand for milk and dairy products would be lukewarm in the near term, so prices are unlikely to boil over, according to the report.

Large brands such as Amul and Mother Dairy had already hiked retail milk prices by 4-5 percent last fiscal. They may not serve an encore.

Johnny Depp completes painting after 14 years amid lockdown

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Actor Johnny Depp has finally completed a wine bottle painting that he had started 14 years ago.

Depp took to Instagram, where he shared a photograph of his artwork, which he started in 2006.

He captioned: “It’s odd, the things that we once gave such pure, intense focus and devotion to for months on end. Then suddenly the wind shifts and off we go on a new tack. And for far too long, these earlier interests or passions sadly fall by the wayside and recede into the vast recesses of some hoarder’s crawlspace in the brain cloaked in heaps of the other things that my skull had no room for…until recently.”

The actor shared that he stumbled upon the unfinished painting amid lockdown and wanted to complete the “unfinished business”.

“I found this painting, which I had started in 2006… for 14 years I’d never touched the painting –- the occasional glance, at best. Yet it somehow always lingered in my mind, this piece of unfinished business,” he wrote.

He added: “Even while we are forced to live in the immediate, some strange species of the interrupted passion that has been invested in an object we once focused on awaits our return from far away. I will keep you apprised of the progress! All Love, JD.”

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It’s odd, the things that we once gave such pure, intense focus and devotion to for months on end. Then suddenly the wind shifts and off we go on a new tack. And for far too long, these earlier interests or passions sadly fall by the wayside and recede into the vast recesses of some hoarder’s crawlspace in the brain cloaked in heaps of the other things that my skull had no room for…until recently. I found this painting, which I had started in 2006 … for 14 years I’d never touched the painting – the occasional glance, at best. Yet it somehow always lingered in my mind, this piece of unfinished business. Even while we are forced to live in the immediate, some strange species of the interrupted passion that has been invested in an object we once focused on awaits our return from far away. I will keep you apprised of the progress! All Love, JD

A post shared by Johnny Depp (@johnnydepp) on

Kevin Hart ‘lied’ about extent of car crash injuries

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Actor-comedian Kevin Hart says he lied about the extent of his pain following the horrific car accident last year.

Hart recalled the accident and the extent of it in Joe Rogan’s podcast, reports ew.com.

He was in the passenger seat when he was involved in a car crash in his 1970 Plymouth Barracuda in Los Angeles on September 1 last year. He fractured his spine in three places and had to undergo major surgery.

The comedian said he had “the biggest cry” in his life after coming home from the hospital.

“My biggest cry in life came from the first day that I came home from the hospital because I never had to see that house again. Like there was an option of me never seeing that home again. There was an option of me never walking on that driveway again. There was an option of me never seeing my wife and my kids again,” he said.

Hart felt lucky to be alive after the accident.

“I lied in the hospital because I didn’t want them to know that I was having pain because I thought that they were gonna stop me from letting me continue to try my walks,” he said.

He said by the time he was in the hospital for seven days, he was using a walker and pretending he was using his feet.

“It took two and a half weeks for him to start walking again without the walker,” Hart said, adding that he shouldn’t have done that so early.

“I’m giving the perception that it’s better than what it is, and I had the back brace on.”

His family’s love and support helped him in the recovery.

“My son doubled as a nurse, my daughter doubled as a nurse, (my wife) Eniko doubled as it. My brother came. That’s when the care about what was important really changed … the things that you think are important, you get to looking around at a hospital, almost four walls — none of that s**t that you think is important is in there. It’s one of these people,” he said.

Earlier in an interview with IANS, Hart shared that he found a new meaning to life after the horrific car accident. The actor-comedian said that he realized that nothing in life is guaranteed, and that makes him stay “more present” for his family and friends.

“Life and your perspective change as you grow old,” Hart told IANS when asked how did perspective of life changed for him after the near-fatal car crash.

“As you grow old, you understand and you appreciate…You have a different understanding of what you had before. It makes you (stay) more present with the ones you love, the ones who mean the most from friends to family…You understand that nothing in life is guaranteed. It doesn’t have to be like that… So take every second in,” added the “Jumanji: The Next Level” star.

This day, that year: When Ganguly, Dravid scripted ODI history

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Former India cricketers Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid are regarded among the finest batsmen ever to play the sport and on this very day 21 years ago, the duo had etched their names in history books forever.

Ganguly and Dravid stitched together a mammoth 318-run partnership against Sri Lanka in a group stage match of the 1999 World Cup in Taunton, helping the team register a comprehensive victory.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) remembered their historic feat and posted a picture of the duo on its official Twitter handle, alongside the caption: “Sourav Ganguly (183) and Rahul Dravid (145) registered a mammoth 318-run partnership for the second wicket against SL in the 1999 World Cup. at Taunton.

“This was the first time that a 300-run partnership was witnessed in ODI.”

In the 21st match of the tournament in 1999, Sri Lanka were off to a fine start after opting to field as pacer Chaminda Vaas got rid of opener Sadagopan Ramesh in the first over.

That is when Dravid joined Ganguly in the middle and the duo sent Lankan bowlers on a leather hunt. Ganguly smashed 17 fours and seven towering sixes in his 158-ball innings while Dravid also hit similar number of fours and one maximum in his 129-ball stay at the crease.

The second Indian wicket fell only in the 46th over when Dravid was finally run-out by Muttiah Muralitharan. India lost few wickets in the death overs but the Ganguly-Dravid partnership helped them post 373/6 in allotted 50 overs.

Scoreboard pressure got on to the ‘Islanders’ in the chase as they were bundled out for just 216 in the 43rd over. Robin Singh ended with a five-wicket haul for India as won the match by a huge margin of 157 runs.

Tiger Shroff opens up on his fear of heights

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Bollywood hunk and action hero Tiger Shroff, who mesmerizes with his near-impossible stunts on screen, is scared of heights!

The “War” actor took to social media to talk about his fear of heights. Sharing a slow-motion video where he can be seen jumping high in the air, Tiger wrote: “I always close my eyes whenever I am up there… anybody else scared of heights?”

Fans looded his post with comments like “Flying Tiger” and “Fearless Tiger”.

They also requested him to organize an #AskTiger session on Twitter.