DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 2020, NEW DELHI, LATE CITY, 16 PAGES SINCE 1932 `6.00 (`8 PATNA & RAIPUR, `12 SRINAGAR) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM Top court says states can make categories in SCs, STs for deprived NEW DELHI, AUGUST 27 AFIVE-judgeConstitutionBench of the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that states can sub-classifythelist of Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), and Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBCs), to provide preferential treatment to the especially deprived among them “to achieve the real purpose of reservation”. “The State's obligation is to undertake the emancipation of CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 59-member Andamans tribe reports Covid, alert in UT RAVIK BHATTACHARYA KOLKATA, AUGUST 27 NINECASESofCovid-19havebeen recorded among the Great Andamanese tribe, setting off alarm bells in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands administration. A Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG), the Great Andamanese now number only 59. While five of the coronavirus patients have recovered, the othersaredoingwell,theofficialssaid. Whatisworryingtheauthorities is that the four new cases have been discovered in the remote Strait Island where the tribe is based. On Friday, a special community health officer will be reaching the island to keep a close watch on the tribe, as well as other PVTGs like the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 GSTduesstuck, statestoldto borrowviaRBI E E X P L A I NE D ANANTHAKRISHNAN G COMPENSATION SHORTFALL Purpose is justice for ● all: Court WHEN QUOTAS create inequalities within beneficiary castes themselves, the state must ensure that resources and opportunities are redistributed and reallocated so that the purpose of the constitutional mandate of equal justice to all is fulfilled, the court said. Rs 2.35 lakh cr deficit in share, some states protest, Centre says will help PREPARING PARLIAMENT AANCHAL MAGAZINE Vice-President and Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu at a rehearsal on Thursday for the Parliament session which is expected to begin from September 14. Renuka Puri REFERRING TO the Covid pandemic as an 'Act of God' that will resultinacontractionoftheeconomyinthecurrentfiscal,Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that in the 41st meeting of theGoodsandServicesTax(GST) Council Thursday, states were presentedwithtwooptionstoresolve the contentious issue of compensation shortfall estimated to be Rs 2.35 lakh crore. State finance ministers, who in the meeting insisted on the borrowing to be done by the Centre to make up for revenue shortfall,latersaidtherewaslack of clarity regarding the proposals that were brought towards NEW DELHI, AUGUST 27 Sonia sends a message JEE exam prep: 10 lakh masks and to Cong dissenters, gloves, 6,600 litres of sanitiser delivers House snub RITIKA CHOPRA NEW DELHI, AUGUST 27 MANOJ C G TENLAKHmasks,10lakhpairsof gloves,1,300infraredthermometerguns,6,600litresofhandsanitiserandanequalamountof disinfectant liquid, 6,600 sponges, 3,300 spray bottles and 3,300 NEW DELHI, AUGUST 27 DAYS AFTER 23 senior Congress leaders wrote to her asking for major changes in the party organisation, Sonia Gandhi delivered a snub to the dissenters in both Houses of Parliament. In Lok Sabha, two-term MP Gaurav Gogoi was appointed deputy to legislature party leaderAdhirRanjanChowdhury, and Ludhiana MP Ravneet Singh Bittu was appointed Whip. Anandpur Sahib MP Manish Tewari,whowasoneof thedissidents,wasignored.Eventhough Tewaritooisatwo-termMP,heis muchmoreseniortoGogoiinthe party—havingbeenpresidentof the NSUI and Youth Congress, and a former Union Minister. Gogoi new deputy leader, LS; Venugopal in panel for RS In Rajya Sabha, where the senior-mostof the23dissidents, Ghulam Nabi Azad, is the party's leader, AICC general secretary (Organisation)KCVenugopalhas been made part of a new fivememberdecision-makinggroup. Both Venugopal and Gogoi are considered close to former Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Bittu, the MP from CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 cleaning staff — all at an additional cost of almost Rs 13 crore. This is the blueprint being adopted by the National Testing Agency(NTA)at660testsitesfor JEE (Main), the first nationallevelentranceexaminationsince the Covid outbreak. Although various state governments have joined the cho- rustodeferthetestscitinghealth concerns,theCentrehasdecided to go ahead with JEE (Main) and NEET as planned, saying that a year would be lost otherwise and future admissions affected. JEE (Main), an online exam for engineering aspirants, is scheduled to be held from CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 LAC crisis: Jaishankar, Wang Yi likely to discuss steps in Moscow next month SHUBHAJIT ROY NEW DELHI, AUGUST 27 AT A time when India and China arelockedinamilitarystandoffin easternLadakh,NewDelhiisconsidering sending External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to Russia next month, around September Jaishankar has received invite for an SCO meeting 9-11,wherehewillhaveachance tomeetChineseForeignMinister Wang Yi and discuss steps to re- solve the border crisis, The Indian Express has learnt. Should this work out, it will be their first in-person meeting CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ARMY PREPARES FOR OCT WHEN WEATHER IMPROVES PAGE 6 BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY theendof thefive-hourmeeting. They also termed the move to make a distinction in the revenue shortfall on account of GST CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Govt blames Covid, but payment stalled year ago AANCHAL MAGAZINE NEW DELHI, AUGUST 27 WHILE THE CENTRE Thursday chose to pin much of the blame forthedelaysonGSTcompensation payments to the slowdown inflicted by the pandemic, the delays preceded the Covid-19 shock by almost a year – when payments due for August- September 2019 got delayed. Since then, all subsequent payouts have seen cascading delays. The economic slowdown, whichhasbeenunderwayforalmost three years now, began to adversely impact GST revenue collections in August last year. Sequentially, the GDP growth rate slowed from 5.2 per cent in April-June2019to4.4per centin CONTINUED ON PAGE 2