DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE FRIDAY, JANUARY 15, 2021, NEW DELHI, LATE CITY, 20 PAGES INDIAN ARMY DAY MANN RECUSES HOURS BEFORE FIRST MEETING SCcommitteecracks,keymember optsoutsayingheiswithfarmers Tomar confirms talks with farmer leaders today, with ‘an open mind’ BY UNNY CHANDIGARH, NEW DELHI, JANUARY 14 TWO DAYS after the Supreme Court named him as one of the four members of an expert committee, tasked to listen to grievances of farmers opposed to the new agriculture laws and the views of the government, Bhupinder Singh Mann, president of BKU (Mann) and chairman of All India Kisan CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Delhi survey: 10% kids out of school, 80% homes don’t have computers CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 PM to launch vaccine drive, first list up 77.54 22.46 77.44 22.56 KAUNAIN SHERIFF M >1-5Yrs 0-5Yrs PRIME MINISTER Narendra Modi will launch the start of the Covid-19 vaccination drive Saturday, connectingwith 3,006 vaccination sites across the country via video-conferencing. The Prime Minister’s Office said Modi will address the sites, where over three crore priority groups will be vaccinated over the next few months, at 10.30 am. “Around 100 beneficiaries will be vaccinated at each session site on the inaugural day,” 33.55 18.53 NEW DELHI, JANUARY 14 6-10 11-13 14-15 16-17 Yrs Yrs Yrs Yrs Distributionofpopulation bytypeofchronicillness 36.33 9.17 Respiratory Diabetes disease/asthma 21.75 Cardiac/ hypertension/blood circulatorydisease RAJVIRSINGHGoltasold52quintals of narma/kapas (raw unginnedcotton)overthreepickings fromhisfive-acrelandinJhumba village of Punjab’s Bathinda district. He got the full minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 5,665 per quintal for his medium-long staple fibre crop that was procured by the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) between earlyOctober and mid-December. The 42-year-old is pleased The newly inaugurated genome sequencing laboratory at the IGI Airport in New Delhi on Thursday. Tashi Tobgyal ■ Received/Receiving ■ NotReceived Distributionofout-ofschoolchildren JALANDHAR, JANUARY 14 32.75 Others ‘Next Azhar’ is a 26-yr-old power hitter from Kerala: 100 in 37 balls the government said. Senior Health Ministry officials said the beneficiary list for thefirstdayhasalreadybeenuploaded on the Co-WIN platform. “The vaccination session is from 9 am to 5 pm. Whoever comes till 5 pm will be vaccinated even after 5 pm, just like how it happensinelections,”anofficialsaid. “Since the bulk registration of healthcare workers has already taken place, they need not individually register. States have been told to ensure that the session sites, including the list of vaccinators and beneficiaries, is CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 5HLTKTR TARGET 2021 ALL INDIA CIVIL SERVICES PRELIMS TEST SERIES TEST UPSC POSITIVE Mohammed Azharuddeen THE PLAN 0OMJOF 5FTU 4FSJFT VISHAL MENON NEW DELHI, JANUARY 14 A CRICKET-CRAZY elder brother didn’t give him much of a career option by getting him to change his name from Ajmal to Mohammed Azharuddeen. Moreover, he hailed from Thalangara, that rare town in Kerala on the outskirts of Kasaragod where children prefer to hit the ball with a bat and not kick it. But Azharudden knew he needed to do something special to live up to the expectations of that brother, Kamaruddeen, a “lifelong fan” of Indian batting great Mohammad Azharuddin. Thalangara, too, had high hopes from their “Next Azhar”. On Wednesday, the 26-yearold made his seven brothers, his home town and an entire state proud. He smashed a 37-ball ton during a 54-ball 137 against Mumbai, hitting nine fours and 11sixesinthedomesticT20Syed MushtaqAliTrophygame.Itwas the third-fastest T20 century by an Indian after Rishabh Pant (32 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 4QSFBE PWFS 'JWF .POUIT  .$2 5FTUT 4FDUJPOBM  +BO UP +VOF  5FTUT PG (4 1BQFS  BOE  5FTUT PG (4 1BQFS  4FNJ $PNQSFIFOTJWF  $4"5 BOE $PNQSFIFOTJWF 5FTUT  -VDJE &YQMBOBUJPOT  5FYU BOE 7JEFP "MM *OEJB 3BOLJOH 3FXBSET GPS 5PQ 5XFOUZ 3BOLFST 3FGFSSBM $PEF that the CCI entered the market on time at the season’s start when narma rates were Rs 4,600-4,800/quintal. That’s a view also echoed by Nirmal Singh Tiwana, a farmer from the same village who sold 21 quintals of the crop, grown on two out of his four-acre holding, to the CCI at the Centre’s MSP. And it is not just cotton. Government agencies have procured an all-time high 202.78 lakh tonnes of paddy from Punjab at the MSP of Rs 1,988/quintal for 2020-21. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 NEW DELHI, JANUARY 14 All figures in % 0-1Yrs THE EXIT of Bhupinder Singh Mann has put a question mark on the consultation process. It remains to be seen if the court names a new member to replace him. What also complicates the process is the outright rejection of the panel by farmer unions. ANJU AGNIHOTRI CHABA SHUBHAJIT ROY Status of vaccination 18.92 ■Twolakhchildrenremain“out of school”, including 64,813 due to “financial constraints”. ■ Over six lakh between 0-6 years are outside the net of anganwadis, which cover less than half of Delhi's pregnant women. ■ Over 63% people use buses for commuting, while only 6% dependontheflagshipDelhiMetro. ■Asmanyas42.59%households in the city spend less than Rs10,000permonth,nearly80% do not own computers, and 29% do not have access to tap water within households. Almost all households have toilets. ■ Nearly three-fourth of the population depends on government facilities; of the 2.60% who suffer from chronic illnesses, Adding to the ● confusion Record govt purchases of cotton, paddy from Punjab Special flight from Brazil for 2 million doses OVER 1 CR SURVEYED 78.89 21.11 NEW DELHI, JANUARY 14 29 SOURAV ROY BARMAN E E X P L A I NE D BUSINESS AS USUAL SUKHBIR SIWACH, RAAKHI JAGGA & HARIKISHAN SHARMA `6.00 (`8 BIHAR & RAIPUR, `12 SRINAGAR) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 %FUBJMT BWBJMBCMF PO UIF 8FCTJUF BOE #PPLMFU COURSE FEE - Rs. 6,250/- (Six Thousand Two Hundred and Fifty only) Rs. 5,250/- (Five Thousand Two Hundred and Fifty only) For SRIRAM's Alumni ENROLMENT OPEN 5)04& */5&3&45&% */ 5)& 13&-*.4 5&45 4&3*&4 .": (0 5)306() 5)& &-"#03"5& #00,-&5 0/ 5)& 8*5& "/% &/30- 0/-*/& 03 $0--&$5 5)& )"3% $01: 0' 5)& #00,-&5 '30. 5)& 0-% 3"+*/%&3 /"("3 0''*$& "/% &/30-- 0''-*/& IAS 2022 063 614$ (&/&3"- 456%*&4 $0634&4 '03 *"4  8*-- $0..&/$& '30. .": 45 8&&,  %&5"*-4 8*-- #& "//06/$&% 400/ SRIRAM’s IAS - 35th Year of Service to the Nation 43*3".³4 *"4 508&34  # 164" 30"% #"%" #";""3 ."3(   888 43*3".4*"4 $0. WITH INDIA set to launch its nationwide vaccination drive against Covid Saturday, a specially equipped aircraft from Brazil is expected to land in Mumbai over the weekend to collect2milliondosesof thevaccinetomarkthefirstsuchexport from the country, sources told The Indian Express. The move follows a request from Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in a letter last week to CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 NEW MONOPOLIES: OBJECTIONS WERE OVER-RULED Finance and Niti had raised red flags before Adani’s clean sweep of six airports PRANAV MUKUL & ANIL SASI NEW DELHI, JANUARY 14 BOTH THE FINANCE Ministry andNitiAayoghadputonrecord objections regarding the 2019 airport bidding process, which were over-ruled, clearing the way for a clean sweep of six airports by the Ahmedabad-based Adani Group, records accessed by The Indian Express show. This assumes significance given that on August 31 last year, the Adani Group signed another dealtoacquireacontrollinginterestinthecountry’ssecondlargest airport,inMumbai—theAirports Authority of India cleared that takeover on January 12. Aviation is one sector the Competition Commission of India (see interview) has marked forreviewof marketdominance. From running a private air-strip CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 TAKING OFF 20months Timeperiodofgrowth 8* Airportscontrolledby AdaniGroup 7.90crore Numberofpassengers handled (23.2%ofdomestictraffic) * Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Mangalore, Lucknow, Jaipur, Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram, greenfield Navi Mumbai Last August, Adani Group signed deal to acquire a controlling interest in country’s second largest airport in Mumbai. File Concentration of power in India Inc: Regulator reviews seven key sectors Telecom to pharma, airports to ports: concession agreements to be reviewed PRANAV MUKUL & ANIL SASI P17 NEW DELHI, JANUARY 14 AMID THE unprecedented concentration of power in at least seven core sectors in corporate India, from pharma and telecom to airports and ports, the Competition Commission of India has launched a set of detailedinvestigationson themarket dynamics of each sector. Simultaneously, it has started a review of all model concession agreements — the legal contract thatformsthebasisof thepublicprivate partnership — across four THE EXPRESS INTERVIEW ASHOK KUMAR GUPTA CHAIRPERSON, COMPETITION COMMISSION OF INDIA keyinfrastructuresectors:airports, ports,electricityandrailways. The goal is to ensure that CONTINUED ON PAGE 2