DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE FRIDAY, AUGUST 21, 2020, NEW DELHI, LATE CITY, 16 PAGES SINCE 1932 My mother taught me that service to others gives life purpose and meaning... I know she’s looking down on me from above... committed to values she taught `6.00 (`8 PATNA & RAIPUR, `12 SRINAGAR) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM COURT SETS AUGUST 24 FOR ‘UNCONDITIONAL APOLOGY’ SCurgesrethink,Bhushanstands firm:noapology,mydutytofuture Courtsayssentencewon’tbeactivateduntilreviewdecided ANANTHAKRISHNAN G NEW DELHI, AUGUST 20 V-P CANDIDATE KAMALA HARRIS US senator Kamala Harris accepts the Democratic vice-presidential nomination at the party’s national convention, in Wilmington, Delaware, on Wednesday. Reuters REPORT,PAGE12 29% have antibodies in 2nd Delhi sero survey, up from 23% last month NEW DELHI, AUGUST 20 THE SECOND round of the serologicalsurveyinDelhi,theresults of which were released on Thursday, showed that about 29 percentofthosesurveyedhadthe presence of novel coronavirusspecific antibodies in them. The first round of this exercise,conductedbetweenthelast week of June and first week of July, had detected antibodies in about 23 per cent of the volunteers.Thatmeansthatintheonemonth period between the first and second rounds, the disease spreadtojustaboutanadditional six per cent of the population. This would indicate a very significant slowdown in the spread of the disease in the national capital. Though a slowdownisevidentfromthedropin the reported number of cases as well, the results of the latest sur- E E X P L A I NE D ASTHA SAXENA TRACKING INDIA’S COVID CURVE 171 CASES: DAYS SINCE PANDEMIC BEGAN 28,36,925 RECOVERED: 20,96,664 DEATHS: 53,866 TESTS: 3,26,61,252| DOUBLING RATE: 29.53** Can't let guard ● down WHILE DELHI has seen a relative stabilisation in the detection of new infections and a significant decline in the number of deaths, the fact that around 70% of the population is still vulnerable to infection shows that the Capital can't let its guard down. KEYSTATES TOWATCH SURGEIN 7-DAYAVG DOUBLING 24HOURS GROWTH* RATE** TOTAL CASES ■ Maharashtra 6,28,642 13,165 1.97% 36.51 ■ Tamil Nadu 3,55,449 5,795 1.76% 40.84 ■ Andhra 3,16,003 9,742 3.16% 22.78 ■ Karnataka 2,49,590 8,642 3.48% 20.71 ■ Uttar Pradesh 1,67,510 5,076 3% 24.03 * Compounded Daily Growth Rate over last 7 days ** Calculated over 7-day growth CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 RELATED REPORT PAGE 4 Farooq holds in-person meeting with NC leaders, says all-party meet soon POSITIVITY RATE DAILY IN, DAILY OUT 7 DAYS EARLIER: vey do throw up a surprise because of the extent of the slowdown that would be required to make this possible. Most of the CASE FATALITY RATIO 7 DAYS EARLIER: DETECTED TODAY NOW: NOW: RECOVERED TODAY: Positives against number tested (in %); indicator of the spread of disease Becoming sick vs recovering; more recoveries for 14 days may signal the peak 1.96 1.90 Deaths as a ratio of positive cases (in %); indicator of progress in averting deaths 8.93 8.69 69,652 58,794 DataasonAugust19,releasedbyUnionMinistryofHealth,ICMRandstates.Oftendailynumbersinclude datafrompreviousdays.Assuch,trendsbasedondailynumbersareindicative,notdefinitive BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY CONVICTED OF criminal contempt by the Supreme Court for two of his tweets, Advocate Prashant Bhushan Thursday firmly stood his ground making it clear to the court that he didn’t want to apologise and in this “momentof history,”thiswashis “responsibility to the future.” Thecourt,afterhearingarguments on the quantum of punishment to be awarded to Bhushan, reserved its order and gave him time to apologise. “We have given time to the contemnor to submit unconditional apology, if he so desires. RAKESH SINHA NEW DELHI, AUGUST 20 ON THE day the Supreme Court heard arguments on the sentencingof PrashantBhushan,the advocate it convicted last week for contempt of court over two tweets, former Union Minister, journalist and author Arun Shourie told The Indian Express DAYS AFTER the Jammu and Kashmir administrationtold the High Court that no National Conference (NC) leader was under detention, a group of senior NC leaders met at party president Farooq Abdullah’s Gupkar Road residence on Thursday. This was the first in-person political meeting of the party after mainstream political leaders were detained at the time of the constitutionalchangesof August 5, 2019. An all-party meeting would be convened soon, Farooq Abdullahtoldreporters.“Wewill have a meeting on the Gupkar Declaration; that is our core issue,” he said. A meeting of several political parties in J&K called by Farooq at SOONAFTER the Mumbai Police told Raju Velu's family that he had been lynched by a mob in a robbery attempt, his brother tried accessing CCTV footage from when the incident happened.However,bythen,thepolice had collected the digital videorecordersof CCTVcameras in the Nehru Nagar slum area holding footage of the night of March 29-30. Velu's mother Saira Devendra, who raised her four sons working at a food stall, says they already had their suspicions, because of the injury marks all over Velu's body and what locals had told them. On August 17, the police informed the Bombay High Court that four constables had been MUMBAI, AUGUST 20 Farooq Abdullah in Srinagar on Thursday. Shuaib Masoodi his residence on August 5, a year afterthespecialstatusof theerstwhile state was removed, could nottakeplaceduetorestrictions imposed by the authorities. Mainstream parties had met at the same place on August 4, 2019, and issued the Gupkar Declaration resolving to stay united to protect the special status of J&K. On Thursday, Farooq said he CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ECONOMY DREAM11 SET FOR NEXT FUNDING ROUND, TENCENT’S SHARE TO COME DOWN PAGE 13 WORLD RUSSIAN OPPOSITION LEADER IN COMA AFTER SUSPECTED POISONING PAGE 12 SHUBHAJIT ROY NEW DELHI, AUGUST 20 TALKS BETWEEN Indian and Chinese diplomats Thursday could not achieve a breakthrough to resolve the military standoff along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh, and New Delhi said the two sides will Raju Velu died in March suspended — a month after acknowledging in court that the CCTV footage didn't show any moblynching.WhetherVeluhad succumbedtoinjuriescausedby police beating was a matter of further investigation, it said. The constables, Santosh Desai, Digambar Chauhan, Ankush Palve and Ananda Gaikwad, are alleged to have misled Velu's family. In the complaint registered on March 31, the police had blamed eight unknown people for Velu's death, and later claimed that two had confessed to the crime. They CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Start-up from Kerala village wins govt’s challenge to take on Zoom — and Rs 1 cr PAGE 1 ANCHOR SHAJU PHILIP THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, AUGUST 20 ELEVEN YEARS ago, Joy Sebastian took a leap of faith. He wound up his career as a tech consultant in Kochi and moved to a village near Alappuzha wherethestategovernmenthad set up a 66-acre Info Park. His dream: start an R&D centre for video-conferencing solutions. Thatleaphasnowlandedthe 44-year-old and his company Techgentsia Software Technologies Pvt Ltd on the national centrestage — and a prize of Rs 1 crore. On Thursday, Techgentsia's Vconsolwasnamedaswinnerof the Ministry of Electronics & InformationTechnology'sDigital India “Grand Challenge” that was rolled out on April 12 to de- Joy Sebastian, 44, founder of Techgentsia velop a world class video-conference solution — an Indian equivalent of Zoom in the time of Covid, according to officials. ForSebastian,whohailsfrom Pathirappally, a village near the backwaters and close to the Info Park, the challenge presented an opportunity —to showcase his dreamtotheworld.“Wedecided to develop a product for the country. Now, that dream has materialised,” he says. “IstartedTechgentsiain2009 with a friend, Tony Thomas. We CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Arun Shourie THEEXPRESSINTERVIEW that if the Court is offended by a comment, it must, by law, give the person the opportunity to prove his assertion since truth is a defence. Incidentally, Shourie, along with Bhushan and journalist N Ram, had filed a separate petition before the Supreme Court, challenging the constitutionality of Section 2 (c) (i) of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 which defines criminal contempt if one “scandalises or CONTINUED ON PAGE 6 Request not to punish Bhushan: Venugopal AG speaks up for Bhushan, sought action over his tweets last year ANANTHAKRISHNAN G NEW DELHI, AUGUST 20 ATTORNEY GENERAL K K Venugopal who on Thursday urged the Supreme Court to spare Prashant Bhushan from punishment for contempt over tweets against the judiciary had incidentally moved the court early last year to punish the advocate for posts allegedly "scandalising" the court and “denigrating” his office. A month later, the AG had, however, told the Bench that Bhushan had communicated that it was a “genuine mistake” and he did not want to go ahead withthepetitionnorwantedany punishment for Bhushan. This happened in February CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 LAC: Border mechanism meets, fails to make headway on disengagement SAGAR RAJPUT SRINAGAR, AUGUST 20 Let it be filed by 24.08.2020. In case, apology is submitted, the case to be posted for consideration on the same, on 25.08.2020”, the bench of Justices Arun Mishra, B R Gavai and Krishna Murari ordered. ‘Judgments judges deliver, their conduct, determine public esteem, not a tweet’ Mumbai death: 4 cops suspended, family asks why did they beat him EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE Not likely that I will change my statement: Bhushan “I find it hard to believe that the Court finds my tweet ‘has the effect of destabilising the very foundationofthisimportantpillar of Indian democracy.’ I can only reiterate that these two tweets represented my bonafide beliefs, the expression of which must be permissible in any democracy”, Bhushan said in the statement. Asked if he wanted to reconsider his statements and make any amends, Bhushan told the Bench: “I don't want to reconsider the statement...If your Lordships want to give me time, I welcome. But I don't think it will serve any purpose...It is not very likely that I will change my statement". were classmates from school, and he has now moved to Australia. We have been focusing on R&D in video-conferencing solutions from the beginning,andhaveafewclientsfrom the US, Europe and India for our B2B model.We havegrown over the years, and now employ 65 people,” says Sebastian, who completed his MCA from TKM Collegeof EngineeringinKollam. Developed in three months, Vconsol's USP is security, says CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 “continue to sincerely work towards complete disengagement” of troops. This was the fourth meeting via videoconference of the Working Mechanism for Consultation & Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC) since the standoff began early May. The Chinese reluctance to step back from Pangong Tso, where its troops continue to occupy the ridgeline at Finger 4, and the Gogra-Hot Springs area has stalled the disengagement process despite diplomatic and military talks. Unlike statements of the last three WMCC meetings, there wasnoreferenceto“progress”or “disengagement process” in the Indian statement Thursday. Nor was there any mention of “early and complete disengagement” which was there the last time. Beijing,however,saidit“positively evaluated the progress made in the disengagement of the front-line forces of the two countries” and agreed to “conscientiously implement the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2