YK MYK WEATHER TODAY MAX 23 C MIN 7 C NARENDRA MODI GOVERNMENT’S FOOD ECONOMY POLICY IS FLAWED OPINION Sky will be clear. URDU WRITER AND CRITIC SHAMSUR RAHMAN FARUQI PASSES AWAY PEOPLE & CINEMA Morning India Rs. 5 RANCHI SATURDAY, 26 DEC, 2020 PG-12, YEAR—10, ISSUE—231 (RNI NO: JHAENG / 2012 / 44137) AT A GLANCE TRP SCAM: MUMBAI POLICE SAY EX-BARC CEO WAS 'MASTERMIND' MUMBAI/PUNE: The Mumbai Police on Friday asserted that ex-BARC CEO Partho Dasgupta who was arrested on Thursday - was the 'mastermind' of the alleged multi-crore rupees TRP scam, unearthed last October. Addressing the media, Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh and other officers said that the former CEO of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) had allegedly conspired to boost the ratings of one new channel by reducing the viewership of its rival channels. The 15th person to be arrested so far in the sensational TRP scam, Dasgupta was nabbed by the Pune Police on Thursday and produced before a Mumbai Court (on Friday) which remanded him to police custody till Dec. 28. BHU TO SOON START COUNTRY'S FIRST 'ATAL STUDY CENTRE' VARANASI: The country's first Centre for Studies, the 'Atal Study Centre', named after Bharat Ratna and late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, is going to be established in Uttar Pradesh's prestigious Banaras Hindu University (BHU). This study centre run by the Faculty of Social Sciences would have detailed study and research programmes related to lives of eminent political personalities of the country. Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Kaushal Kishore Mishra, told IANS, "The Atal Study Centre is being established in the BHU named after Atal Bihari Vajpayee.’ CORONA METER INDIA TOTAL CASES: 1,01,52,104 TOTAL DEATH: 147,167 WORLD TOTAL CASES: 79,864,734 TOTAL DEATH: 1,751,877 Devotees light candles outside a church to mark Christmas celebrations as the strict covid norms was observed during the festival in Ranchi on Friday. Hemant Sutradhar Hafiz Saeed jailed for over 15 yrs PM Modi releases Rs 18k cr to farmers in another case PM-KISAN SCHEME ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani anti-terrorism court has sentenced Hafiz Saeed, the leader of the banned Jamaatud-Dawa (JuD) who mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, to more than 15 years in prison after he was convicted in another case, a media report said on Friday. Verdicts of three cases against Saeed, who been behind bars since last year, have already been pronounced, whereas several others against JuD leaders are pending with the ATCs, according to The Express Tribune report. Besides Saeed, ATC Judge Ijaz Ahmed Buttar also handed down punishments to Hafiz Abdul Salam, Zafar Iqbal, Muhammad Ashraf and Yahya Mujahid to 15 years and six-month imprisonment, whereas a six-month imprisonment was handed down to Hafiz Abdul Rehman Makki, the report quoted details issued by the JuD as saying. Besides the prison terms, all those convicted will also have to pay a fine of 200,000 PKR each, the banned outfit added. The latest verdict came after Saeed and three others were convicted by an ATC on November 19 in two separate terror-financing cases. In the November verdict, the court also forfeited property possessed by Saeed, besides imposing a fine of 110,000 PKR. In September, the Interior Ministry had informed the Senate that the federal government had frozen a total of 964 properties belonging to the JuD and Jaish-eMohammad (JeM). On February 12, Saeed was convicted in the two cases and sent to jail for fiveand-a-half years. Banned by the UN Security Council after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, Saeed faces 23 terror cases in Pakistan alone. NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday released Rs 18,000 crores as the next instalment under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme to over 9 crore farmers. PM Modi also interacted with farmers after the release of Rs 18,000 crores as part of PM Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme. Under the PMKISAN Scheme, a financial benefit of Rs 6,000 per year is provided to the eligible beneficiary farmers, payable in three equal 4-monthly installments of Rs 2000 each through direct benefit transfer. Meanwhile, Union Agricultural Minister Narendra Singh Tomar appealed to the protesting farmers to end their protest and hold talks with the government. "I appeal to the protesting farmers to end their protest and hold talks with the government. I hope they will understand the importance of the new farm laws, and the issue will be resolved soon," Tomar said. Farmers continue their protest at the borders of Delhi against the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020. ‘GOVT READY TO DISCUSS ALL ISSUES WITH FARMERS’ As the farmers' agitation along the borders of Delhi entered its 30th day on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the government is open to hold discussions with the farmers and opposition political parties to iron out the confusion over the newly passed farm laws. Modi said this after transferring more than Rs 18,000 crore to over nine crore beneficiary farmer families as part of the seventh instalment of the PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi Scheme -- a direct transfer scheme for the farmers -- even as the farmers continued to hold fort against his government over the contentious farm laws. MORE ON PG 5 Dry run for Covid vax admin in 4 states next week NEW DELHI: The central government on Friday said that it has planned a dry run for administration of the COVID-19 vaccine in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat and Punjab next week as a step to prep up before the actual thing takes off. According to the Health Ministry, each state will plan the dry run in two districts and preferably in different session type settings, for example, district hospital, urban site, private health facility, rural outreach etc. "This exercise will enable end-to-end mobilisation and testing of COVID-19 vaccination process and check the usage of Co-WIN in field environment," the ministry said in a statement. It would also enable linkages between planning, implementation and reporting mechanisms and identify challenges and guide the way forward prior to actual implementation, including improvements that may be required in the envisaged process. This will also provide a hands-on experience to programme managers at various levels. This two-day activity is planned on December 28 and 29, and will include activities from the necessary data entries in CoWIN to vaccine receipt and allocation to deployment of team members, mock drill of session sites with test beneficiaries to reporting and evening meeting. The dry run will also include testing for cold storage and transportation arrangements for COVID-19 vaccine, management of crowd at the session sites. NINE MORE UK RETURNEES TO TELANGANA TEST COVID POSITIVE HYDERABAD: Nine more returnees from the UK to Telangana have tested positive for Covid-19, taking the total number of infected flyers to 16, a top health official said on Friday. Positive samples of the 16 infected persons have been sent to Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) for genome sequencing to check for the presence of the new variant. Their reports are expected in couple of days. Director of Public Health Dr G. Srinivas Rao said those found infected were kept in special wards in different hospitals. The health authorities also traced 76 contacts of those tested positive. They have been quarantined and their health condition is being monitored closely. The Health Department is on a high alert in the wake of impact of new coronavirus variant in some countries. It is adopting tracing, testing and treatment method to prevent the spread of the virus. Office parties, chai stalls are what people miss about workplace W ith work-fromhome taking over most of our lives in 2020, do people miss going to their workplaces? A WeWork year-end survey reveals that office parties, tea breaks, street food treats, meetings and even their office chairs, top the list of what people missed most about their workspace while hustling from home. The survey was carried out on respondents across levels and industries including IT, Internet, Hospitality, Human Resource, and three major metros -- Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi. The survey was taken by 3,000 plus participants. Here are some of the key insights gathered from the survey that reveal what people missed most about offices and expected trends of how workplaces in 2021 will look like: "Keep calm and drink beer" When asked, "What is the one thing that everyone misses most about the office but won't say out loud", a majority of the respondents agreed that they miss office parties - for the free beer. Among the top responses, about 33 per cent (LinkedIn) of the respondents also said that a break from family drama is sorely missed, and around 23 per cent (Twitter), missed that one glimpse of their office crush when away. "I want my chair back!" Working from home has led us to work from beds, sofas, bean bags or even floors. A majority of the respondents in the survey revealed that they want to go back to work because they want their office chairs back. Also, the satisfaction of uninstalling Zoom and prepping for a one-on-one meeting is what respondents look forward to the most upon their return. "Back to work, back to life" About 60 per cent of the respondents rated the 'lack of company and reduced personal connect with colleagues', distractions during work -- like children, visitors, housework and 'monotony of being in the same environment' as the top reasons to go back to work. "Stuck in traffic, no more an excuse" About 76 per cent of the postpandemic world don't wish to travel more than 5 km to get to work. Workspaces near homes and flexible workplaces are the need of the hour. "Safety and Hygiene is nonnegotiable" Almost two-thirds of the respondents said that strict social distancing norms had a very high likelihood to increase their willingness to go back to the office. An extra cautious and apparent behaviour toward safety and hygiene is what every respondent in the post pandemic world will be indulging in. A WEWORK YEAR-END SURVEY REVEALS THAT OFFICE PARTIES, TEA BREAKS, STREET FOOD TREATS, MEETINGS AND EVEN THEIR OFFICE CHAIRS, TOP THE LIST OF WHAT PEOPLE MISSED MOST ABOUT THEIR WORKSPACE WHILE HUSTLING FROM HOME. "Office lunch time is bae" When asked about the importance of lunch breaks, 33 per cent responded that a typical lunch while working is with colleagues and a side of office gossip. However, if that's what one doesn't choose to indulge in, street food treats during and post work come to the rescue as well. "Miss you everyday, chaiwala bhaiya" More than 40 per cent agree that the one thing they missed about the office but would rather not say it out loud is that they missed their tapri wali chai (local tea stall) "The year 2020 was a massive change not just for the business but for the entire human race globally. It changed how we worked and lived, blurring lines and sense of time. As 2020 was drawing to a close, we decided to lighten up the mood a little and hence we planned this year-end survey to find out in all honesty if and what people miss about their offices. And the survey did reveal some really fascinating and quirky insights. Respondents opened their hearts and their responses have also helped us identify their exact needs from workplaces in 2021. We observed enthusiasm to go back to work in a safe and healthy environment," Vineet Singh, Head of Brand and Marketing at WeWork India signed off.