DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2021, PUNE, LATE CITY, 18 PAGES `5.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 FIRST JOINT STATEMENT IN EIGHT YEARS FOLLOWS MONTH-LONG TALKS Ceasefire pact: First thaw in deep India-Pak chill ` 96 per kilo ` 116 per kilo DGMOs reviewed LoC situation in free & cordial atmosphere, says statement KRISHN KAUSHIK NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 25 EXPRESS NETWORK TANDAV:HCREJECTS BAILPLEA,SAYSDUTY TORESPECTOTHER FAITH’SFEELINGS PAGE 12 AFTER ONE of the most active yearsontheLineof Control,with over 4,600 instances of ceasefire violationsbyPakistanrecordedin 2020,IndiaandPakistanissueda joint statement on Thursday to strictlyobserveallagreementson ceasefirealongtheLoCandother sectors, and to address "each other'scoreissuesandconcerns". It was their first joint statement E X P L A I NE D ` 68 per kilo in over eight years. The statement said that the Director Generals of Military Operations(DGMOs)oftheIndian and Pakistani armies had held talksthisweektorenewthepeace process.Itsaidboththecountries agreed to "strict observance of all agreements, understanding and ceasefirealongtheLineofControl and all other sectors with effect from midnight 24/25 February”. Lt General Paramjit Singh Sangha, Deputy Chief of Army E EVEN AS India and Pakistan are not yet talking, the understanding between the DGMOs to stick to ceasefire is a significant thaw, and will bring immediate relief to forces and citizens living on the LoC. It also comes close on the heels of the ratcheting down of heat on the eastern front with China. Govt frames new rules to hold social media, OTT accountable for content SOCIAL MEDIA DIGITAL NEWS ■ Identify ‘first originator’ of content that authorities consider anti-national ■ Follow Press Council of India, Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act norms. ■ Appoint grievance officer, resolve complaints in 15 days ■ Self-regulatory bodies to oversee adherence to Code of Ethics ■ File monthly compliance report on complaints received, action taken ■ I&B Ministry to form panel, oversight mechanism OTT PLATFORMS Ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad, Prakash Javadekar at the press conference in New Delhi on Thursday. Anil Sharma Govt says soft touch curbs will check misuse ■ Self-classify content into five age-based categories: U (universal), U/A 7+ (years), U/A 13+, U/A 16+, and A. BSF personnel in Akhnoor, in J&K on Thursday. ANI ■ Parental locks for any content classified as U/A 13+ or above. ■ Age verification mechanism for content classified as ‘A’ (adult) INDIA AND Pakistan have been holdingback-channeltalksforthe last three months, with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval leading the Indian diplomatic initiativewithPakistan’scivilian-military leadership. Sources said CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 SINCE PANDEMIC BEGAN Need to pay more to newspapers for using Grim milestone for content: INS to Google Pune: Covid cases EXPRESSNEWSSERVICE NEWDELHI,FEBRUARY25 THE INDIAN Newspaper Society wrote to Google on Thursday asking it to compensate Indian newspapers comprehensively for the use of their content, and to share details of its advertising revenues. In a letter to Google India country manager Sanjay Gupta, INS president L Admiloolam said that Google should increase publisher share of advertising revenue to 85%. The first such demand raised of Google in the country, the letter coincided with the Australian Parliament passing a law requiring Google and Facebook to pay media companies for content. The INS letter said newspa- pers employ thousands of journalists on the ground at considerable cost for gathering information, and that this content wasnotjustproprietarybutgave Googleits"authenticityinIndia". In a press release, the INS said, "The Society insisted that Google should increase the publisher share of advertising revenue to 85 per cent, and also ensure more transparency in the revenue reports provided to publishers by Google." The INS said its digital team and Google had been in “engaging” discussions for the past six months. Asked what percentage of Google advertising revenues goes to the publisher in the current system, a member of the INS digital sub-committee that is talking to Google told The Indian Express, CONTINUEDONPAGE2 in city cross 2 lakh AJAY JADHAV PUNE, FEBRUARY 25 OVER 11 months after it registered its first Covid-19 patient in the city on March 9 last year, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) on Thursday registered 2 lakh patients in total, as it continued to witness a surge in new patients since the last two weeks. The PMC reported 766 new patients, taking the tally to 2,00,462 so far. Till date, 4,841 patients have succumbed to the viral infection in the city and the case fatality rate is 2.42 per cent. The active case count has increased to 3,930 and is 1.96 per cent of the total infected so far. On Thursday, the total number of infected patients in the city touched 2 lakh, with 1,91,691 of them recovering, taking the recovery rate to 95.8 per cent. The daily Covid-19 positivity rate has been above 10 per cent from last week while the average positivity rate is 17.88 per cent. To tackle the surge of patients, the PMC has increased its testing capacity to over 7,500 in a day and till now, tested over 11,21,224 residents since the outbreak. For faster identification of patients, the civic body has been using the Rapid Antigen test kit for testing contacts of patients and residents with other serious ailments. CONTINUEDONPAGE2 Rules reflect global trend but sweeping blacklist puts law and order at centre NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 25 PRANAV MUKUL & AASHISH ARYAN THE CENTRE Thursday notified newguidelinesforintermediaries in“softtouchoversight”rules,sayingthesewereneededtoholdsocial media and other companies accountable for “misuse and abuse”.ThesewillrequireBigTech platformstosetupstrongergrievance redressal mechanisms, and appoint executives to coordinate with law enforcement in India. For social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, etc, the guidelines essentially remove the “safe harbour” provided to these companies — it limited NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 25 GOVT & POLITICS NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 25 “more steps” towards peace are likely in the coming weeks, with both sides “engaged” and “cautiously optimistic”. Sources told The Indian ExpressthatwhileDovalhadmet his counterpart Moeed Yusuf, the Special Assistant to Prime Minister ImranKhan onsecurity affairs, in a third country, he had SINGAPORE TO GERMANY: PRIVACY VS CURBS AASHISH ARYAN & PRANAV MUKUL CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 SHUBHAJIT ROY CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ‘FIRMS WELCOME TO DO BUSINESS, BUT MUST FOLLOW LAWS’ COMPLIANCE REPORTS, GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL Back-channels open for 3 months, via Doval, Imran aide and Pak Army chief After Chinaheat ● down THE NOTIFICATION of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021,theGovernment'sfirstmove toregulatesocialmediaplatforms, is,essentially,focusedonregulatingBig Techthrough theprism of tackling law and order. This is an objective broadly aligned to interventions in countriessuchasSingapore,Russiaand Germany.Thisisdistinctfromregulations in, say the European Union,wheretheindividual’spri- BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY vacy is at the centre of policy. These rules come even as a Joint Parliamentary Committee isinthefinalstagesof discussion of a privacy Bill that covers aspects such as the role of social media intermediaries and the reachof BigTechcompanies,and theprivacyaccordedtotheusers on such platforms. Asked why the government hadchosentocomeoutwiththe newguidelinesasthelargerumbrellalawondataprotectionwas pending,aseniorofficialsaidthe rules offered an “overarching architecture” for companies to follow while the law would still have to be passedby Parliament. “There should not be double standards. If an attack is there at CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 POOJA CHAVAN DEATH CASE Top Sena leadership tells Rathod to quit, minister may do so before Budget Session VISHWAS WAGHMODE MUMBAI, FEBRUARY 25 AFTER MGR IMAGE IN BJP VIDEO, KAMARAJ CUTOUT AT PM’S RALLY IN TN PAGE 6 WITH PRESSURE mounting on the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government over the alleged links of Shiv Sena Minister Sanjay Rathod with the death by suicide of a 22-year-old woman in Pune, the top party leadership has conveyed to the minister that he should resign, and he is likely to do so before the Budget Session of the state legislature next week, sources in the Sena said. Sources added that the issue of Rathod’s resignation was discussed when he met Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday. “During the meeting, the CM told him -- 'take a decision yourself rather than waiting for me to act'. It will not look good to dismiss a minister. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ‘22 years too long... always believed I deserve justice, and will get it’ PAGE 1 ANCHOR ALAKASAHANI BHUBANESWAR,FEB25 AFTER YEARS of wait, Anjana Mishrasaysshehadlosthopethat the mastermind behind her gangrape would ever be caught, or thatthe"politicalconspiracy"behind the crime be exposed. But, she never stopped fighting. On February 22, more than Anjana Mishra (left) at a press conference in Gajapati district of Odisha on February 22. ANI twodecadesafterMishra,then29, was assaulted while on her way from Bhubaneswar to Cuttack, prime accused Bibekananda Biswal alias Biban was arrested from Lonavala, Pune, where he was living under an assumed identity.“Twenty-twoyearsistoo longaperiod.Therewastalkofthe accused being dead or having beensentoutofthecountry,”says Mishra, speaking on the phone from her parent's home, adding that she is not done. "It is crucial thattheinvolvementof powerful politicians be exposed. The three accusedassaultedmeattheirbehest... I will get some sort of closure if the conspiracy angle is proved." Mishrawassexuallyassaulted at gunpoint for nearly four hours on January 9, 1999, after the car shewasinwithajournalistfriend was forcibly stopped. Mishra was at the time fighting an attempt-to-rape case against then state advocate general Indrajit Ray, known for his closeness to Chief Minister J B Patnaik. She snubbed multiple CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Pune