DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA ● REG.NO. MCS/067/2018 - 20 RNI REGN. NO. 1543/57 JOURNALISM OF COURAGE FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2020, MUMBAI, LATE CITY, 16 PAGES `5.00, WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 RACE FOR A COVID-19 VACCINE China sees rising India as rival, wants to constrain ties with US: State Dept NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 19 BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY At the site of the encounter near Nagrota, on the outskirts of Jammu city on Thursday. PTI 4 Jaish militants killed; foiled plan to disrupt DDC polls: J&K Police ARUN SHARMA JAMMU, NOVEMBER19 MAHARASHTRA ONE-TIME AMNESTY SCHEME FOR POWER BILL DEFAULTERS PAGE 6 THE JAMMU and Kashmir Police claimed to have foiled a plan to disrupttheDistrictDevelopment Council (DDC) polls in the Union territory, starting November 28, with the killing of four Jaish-eMohammad militants near NagrotaontheoutskirtsofJammu city early Thursday morning. Two police personnel were injured in the three-hour encounter near the Ban toll plaza, onthe Jammu-Srinagar national highway, that involved the CRPF and Army along with police. IGP, Jammu zone, Mukesh Singh, said the four, who are yet tobeidentified,wereontheirway to Kashmir and, going by the quantity of arms and ammuni- tionseizedfromthem,wereplanning"somethingverybig".Eleven AK-47 rifles, three pistols, 29 grenades and other devices includingmobilephonesandmedicines with Pakistani marking CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 10 YRS MORE IN JAIL FOR HAFIZ SAEED PAGE 14 BJP frowns, ‘tainted’ Need to reform banking, JDU leader out 3 days be watchful on trade protectionism: N K Singh after swearing-in Mewalal Choudhary quits as Bihar Minister, says cooperating with probe SANTOSH SINGH & LIZ MATHEW PATNA, NEW DELHI, NOV 19 UNDERATTACKfromopposition parties over corruption allegations against him, JD(U) leader Mewalal Choudhary on Thursday resigned as Bihar Education Minister within an hour of taking charge. Choudhary is facing charges regardingallegeddiscrepancyin the appointment of assistants and scientists during his tenure as Bihar Agriculture University, Sabaur, Vice-Chancellor between2010and2015.Bookedby thepolice,hehadgoneabsconding till he got bail. Sources said the BJP expressed reservations over continuance of Choudhary in the Cabinet. The JD(U), however, maintained that he resigned on his own. Choudhary said, "I am CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 THE CITY Mewalal Choudhary after taking charge on Thursday P7 THE EXPRESS INTERVIEW MANOJ KUMAR JHA RJD LEADER PAGE 3 NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 19 INDIA NEEDS to be watchful of the “transient” tendencies of trade protectionism emerging globally and the geopolitics surroundingtherecenttradegroupings, while keeping in mind that tradecontinuestoremainanimportant engine of growth, said N K Singh, Chairman, Fifteenth Finance Commission.The future of trade policy should become clear from January onwards when the new US government outlines its stance. Speaking at the Express eAdda (detailed transcript to be published next week) organised by The Indian Express Thursday, Singh stressed that a lot more needs to done in the direction of banking and financial sector reforms and it is now the time to moveaheadinprivatisingoneor two state-owned banks. At the e-Adda, Singh was in conversation with Shankar Acharya, economist and former Chief Economic Adviser; Anant Goenka, Executive Director, The Indian Express; and P N K Singh at the Express Adda on Thursday Vaidyanathan Iyer, Executive Editor (National Affairs), The Indian Express. “Whocandisagreethattrade must be an important engine of growth,” Singh said, while responding to a question from Acharya whether some of the CONTINUEDONPAGE4 To stop manual scavenging, Govt to amend law, make mechanised cleaning must AVISHEK G DASTIDAR DRIVE TO ISOLATE ‘SUPER SPREADERS’: MORE TESTS LEAD TO RISE IN COVID CASES AKSHAY KUMAR SENDS LEGAL NOTICE TO YOUTUBER FOR ALLEGING ROLE IN SUSHANT’S DEATH ENS ECONOMIC BUREAU NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 19 AMEND THE Manual Scavenging Act to make mechanised cleaning of sewers and septic tanks mandatory, replace the word “manhole” with “machine-hole” in official usage, set upanational24x7helplinetoreport violations. These are some of the key measures that are being implemented by the Government with an aim to eliminate man- ual scavenging across the country by August 2021, according to senior officials. On Thursday, as part of this initiative, the Government launched a “challenge” for all states to make sewer-cleaning mechanised by April 2021 — if any human needs to enter a sewerlineincaseof unavoidable emergency, proper gear and oxygen tanks, etc., are to be provided. The challenge will offer prize money in various categories totalling Rs 52 crore. “The actual on-groundassessmentof participating cities will be conducted in May 2021 by an independent agency and results will be declared on August 15, 2021,” said DurgaShankerMishra,Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. Official records show that manual scavenging has led to 376 deaths over the past five years, including 110 in 2019 alone — a jump of 61 per cent from 2018. “We have instructed that the CONTINUEDONPAGE4 Schools in Mumbai ready to reopen from Monday, but parents reluctant PAGE 1 ANCHOR ABHA GORADIA MUMBAI, NOVEMBER 19 WITH ONLY four days left for schools and junior colleges across Maharashtra to officially re-open for students from classes IX to XII, several schools in Mumbai will continue to remain shut. Even as the state school education department has released guidelines for reopening of schoolsfromNovember23,phys- A classroom at Hume High school in Nagpada being sanitised on Thursday. Prashant Nadkar ical reopening remains riddled with challenges, said officials. Until Thursday, Matungabased SIES School has received signed consent letters from the parents of only two of the 250 students in Class IX. “We will take a call on November 22 on whether the schoolwillreopenfromMonday. As per government norms, 50 per cent of our teachers will be attendingschool,butparentsare still scared to send children to school, especially in the light of the rising number of cases in Delhi. From our side, we have taken all precautions, but we CONTINUEDONPAGE4 CHINA PERCEIVES a “rising India as a rival” and wants to constrain its strategic partnership with the US, its allies and other democracies,theUSStateDepartmenthas said in a report. It has underlined thatChinaintendstodisplacethe USastheworld'sforemostpower. The Chinese People's Liberation Army, the report said, recently provoked skirmishes along its disputed border with India, which killed dozens on bothsides,andremainsinatense standoff with India's military. The State Department’s reportcomesundertheleadership of Secretary of State Michael R Pompeo who has been critical of Beijing’s aggression in the last few months. In New Delhi last month, Pompeo said that Indian and US leadersandcitizensseewith“increasing clarity” that the Communist Partyof China(CCP) is “no friend to democracy and rule of law”, and that the US would “stand with the people of India to confront threats to their sovereignty and to their liberty". The detailed policy document by the State Department highlights that China is undermining the security, autonomy and economic interests of many nations in the region. “China perceives rising India as a rival and seeks to impel it to accommodate Beijing's ambitions by engaging economically while constraining New Delhi's strategic partnership with the CONTINUEDONPAGE4 Hope for large, vulnerable group; breakthrough immune response KAUNAIN SHERIFF M NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 19 THE OXFORD-ASTRAZENECA Covid-19 vaccine candidate has triggered a robust immune response in older adults in phase 2 clinical trials, demonstrating its potentialusefulnessinprotecting asectionof thepopulationthatis among the most at risk of illness from the novel coronavirus. Preliminary findings publishedinTheLancetmedicaljournal show ChAdOx1 nCov-2019 – technical name for the vaccine candidate developed by scientists at the University of Oxford andtheBritish-Swedishpharma CONTINUEDONPAGE4 E E X P L A I NE D EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE New phase 2 trial results of Oxford vaccine show success in older people Keyto India’s ● Covid fight SUCCESS OF the Oxford AstraZeneca candidate is especially important for India because Serum Institute of India already has 40 million shots ready, and is licensed to manufacture and distribute it in large volumes. Triggering an immune response in the elderly is a significant challenge that the vaccine candidate has overcome. Could seek govt nod in Dec, may cost Rs 500-600: Serum CEO PRABHA RAGHAVAN NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 19 SERUM INSTITUTE of India (SII) will likely apply to India’s top drug regulator next month for emergency approval for limited use of 'Covishield' on frontline workersandtheelderly,theCEO of the Pune-headquartered vaccine manufacturer said at a media summit on Thursday. Covishield is the name in India of the Covid-19 vaccine candidate developed by the CONTINUEDONPAGE4 First signs of ‘herd immunity’ in small population groups in Pune ANURADHA MASCARENHAS PUNE, NOVEMBER 19 IN A first-of-its-kind finding for anyIndian city, anew study conductedin Punehasrevealedthat close to 85 per cent of the peoplewhohadbeenfoundinfected with coronavirus in an earlier serosurvey had developed protective antibodies. In effect, they hadacquiredimmunityfromthe disease. Thelatestfindingistheresult of a follow-up study done in five prabhags (comprising three or four municipal wards each) of Pune where a serosurvey conducted earlier this year, in July and August, had found that, on an average, about 51 per cent of the people had been infected with the virus. Serosurveys, like the ones carriedout in several othercities as well, estimate the extent of the disease spread by detecting antibodies among surveyed populationgroups.However,the presence of antibodies only CONTINUEDONPAGE4