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Lucknow: The Awadhe Warriors will look to bounce back to form when they take on the Mumbai Rockets on the final day of their home leg at the Star Sports Premier Badminton League 2020 at the Babu Banarasi Das Badminton Academy here in Lucknow tomorrow.

Has regionalism run its limit in Assam? Four explosions on Republic day 2020 after a prolonged spell of relative peace and stability certainly breathed new life into the question in Assam’s context. The secessionist wing of the ULFA, which operates from abroad, has claimed responsibility. But even without the ULFA’s explosive intervention, fresh questions had arisen about the relevance of regional parties like the AGP after the recent NRC updating exercise.

The Republic Day symbolized aspirational metamorphosis of India, into a sovereign, democratic republic as the Constitution proclaimed. It conjured up images of Indian people who were self-governing, who decided to give themselves a democratic republic. Two more words “secular and socialist” were added to this already lofty phrase, paradoxically during the Emergency that spelt the first significant jolt to the concept of democratic republicanism. People welcome them as they were drowned in the moralistic deluge of the constitutional debates. Both these words were taken to spell the spirit of the constitution and perhaps, therefore, were not felt necessary to be explicitly mentioned.

Mr Chen was having cough and running temperatures. The family member mistook the symptoms for any other ordinary viral fever, until the time he started complaining about breathing difficulties when he got admitted in a hospital. Mr. Chen died on 22nd January from pneumonia and acute respiratory disorder. The cause of death is a new trait of virus, currently named as coronavirus (2019-nCoV) which has its origin in the Hubei Province of China. As on 26th January, at least 2000 cases of coronavirus are reported and at least 56 people have died. The number is on the rise with every passing day. As a precautionary measure, China has locked down Wuhan (the capital city of Hubei) by putting travel restrictions on around 20.5 million people. Unfortunately, cases of coronavirus are also getting reported from far-off places such as Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Europe, and Australia. During 2002-2003, outbreak of the SARS virus affected 8098 people and resulted in 774 deaths.

It isn’t only the economic slump which is a cause of concern, there is also reason to be worried about how India’s diplomatic ties with countries far and near are deteriorating.

Going by the government’s annual spending trend, the size of the 2020-21 union budget scheduled to be presented in Parliament on February 1 may be close to Rs. 31,00,000 crore. The large expenditure budget is unavoidable despite the grim picture on the revenue front during the current financial year, mainly because of the economic slowdown and lower revenue generation. It is to be seen how much of such total spending for the next fiscal is on account of plan expenditure or on capital account. The budget must specify the plan expenditure for the next year. That is vital for economic growth. The projection of a futuristic expenditure budget on capital account is okay though it is unlikely to pep up immediately the confidence of industry and consumers. Such an announcement during the 2019-20 budget presentation failed to arrest economic slowdown for the year. Any fiscal deficit on account of annual plan expenditure to create mid- or long-term economic asset is welcome. However, it is time to compress the non-plan expenditure or on the revenue account. This is possible as also highly desirable. The 2020-21 Budget could specify the amount proposed to be saved by compressing the size of the government and cutting down administrative expenditure. Precious public sector assets should not be sold to fund the government’s growing non-plan expenditure. The current trend in this respect looks rather ominous for the future.

Auckland: After getting off to a good start in the New Zealand Tour with a 4-0 win against the New Zealand Development squad in their first match, the Indian Women's Hockey Team lost 1-2 to hosts in a hard-fought match here today.

With the decision of the Union Cabinet on December 24, 2019, restructuring of the Railway Board in the Ministry of Railways has begun amidst apprehensions of downsizing of Indian Railways on corporate lines and in tune with the emerging globalization of the country’s economy and market forces. Accordingly, eight-member Railway Board is being halved to four-member Board with the Chairman redesignated as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Indian Railways, merger of eight civil services cadres, largely belonging to diverse engineering and technological services, financial and operational cadres into a single whole to be called Indian Railways Management Service (IRMS) through single examinations by the UPSC and the cadre of Railway Protection Force being redesignated as Indian Railways Security Service. With such decisions now under implementation, deck is now clear for corporatization of the railways on private lines.

Kozhikode: Home side Gokulam Kerala FC notched up a solitary goal victory over former champions Churchill Brothers FC of Goa in a Hero I-League clash, thanks to a first-half Marcus Joseph strike at the EMS Corporation Stadium in Kozhikode, Kerala, on Sunday evening.

Lucknow: With her array of smashes, world champion PV Sindhu guided Hyderabad Hunters to their first win as they beat Awadhe Warriors at the Star Sports Premier Badminton League 2020 at the Babu Banarasi Das Badminton Academy here today. In a flawless display by the former champions, Sourabh Verma and the mixed doubles pair of Sikki Reddy and Vladimir Ivanov performed brilliantly to fetch wins for the Hunters.