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2021-04-30 15:00:07+00:00
🦠 Delhi Governor Anil Baijal tests positive for COVID-19
https://twitter.com/LtGovDelhi/status/1388056768022937602?s=20
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2021-04-30 13:22:17+00:00
Popular Indian journalist and TV news presenter Rohit Sardana passed away on Friday morning, days after testing positive for coronavirus. According to his close friends, he died of a heart attack. He was 39.
On April 24, Sardana tweeted that he had contracted the coronavirus.
https://twitter.com/sardanarohit/status/1385973587874439169?s=20
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2021-04-30 10:52:11+00:00
↪️ Honda halts production at 4 plants in India to redirect oxygen for medical use, reports say
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2021-04-30 09:52:05+00:00
US has issued a Level 4 Travel Health Notice, the highest of its kind issued by the State Department, asking its citizens to leave India "as soon as it is safe to do so" in light of the escalating Covid-19 pandemic
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2021-04-30 09:16:46+00:00
Heartbreaking footage of a 50-year-old resident of the village of Killoyi, Andhra Pradesh, India, has appeared on the web.
The woman died from the coronavirus, and her son Narendra and her son-in-law Ramesh had to be taken to the crematorium, since they could not call an ambulance
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2021-04-30 08:59:01+00:00
📅 India's worst-hit state Maharashtra expects 3rd COVID-19 wave in July or August
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2021-04-30 08:32:07+00:00
🔬 Indian mutant variant of COVID-19 detected in France, authorities say
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2021-04-30 08:12:02+00:00
Shoaib Iqbal, a lawmaker from Delhi's ruling Aam Aadmi Party urged the city's High Court to impose President's rule in the national capital amid the Covid surge (president's rule is the suspension of state government and imposition of direct Union government rule in a state)
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2021-04-30 07:57:10+00:00
#LIVE | Situation outside new Delhi hospital amid record number of COVID-19 cases https://youtu.be/7DlTRiCDERM
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2021-04-30 07:53:11+00:00
📦 Japan to provide India with aid to fight COVID-19 outbreak, foreign ministry says
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2021-04-30 06:06:14+00:00
🚑 India's reports record 386,452 new COVID-19 cases
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2021-04-30 01:42:06+00:00
🌙 Check out the highlights of the night in our latest updates:
🔸 The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) will only hold a symbolic celebration of the 400th Prakash Purab (birth centenary) of the Guru, which will take place from April 29 to May 1.
🔸 The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare revised its recommendations for home isolation to include Covid-19 patients with upper respiratory tract symptoms such as sore throats and persistent coughing, as well as more than 94 percent oxygen saturation in indoor air.
🔸 Indian Ambassador to Russia, Bala Venkatesh Varma on Thursday said that India will start vaccinating its citizens with Russia's Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik V from next month
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2021-04-29 17:40:29+00:00
Youth wing of Indian National Congress releases video showing dead bodies piled up in streets
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2021-04-29 13:49:47+00:00
Amid an unexpected rise in deaths, Delhi’s municipal authorities have decided to create temporary human funeral pyre platforms at a project site, which was originally set to serve as the city’s first municipal dog crematorium.
The decision has come as a step to help out people who are scrambling for space to cremate their Covid-hit loved ones amid a mounting number of deaths.
Spread over a 3.5 acre area, the new crematorium site has yet to come into operation for dogs.
Officials said the decision is intended to create temporary pyre platforms to accommodate additional bodies, than can be cremated in existing infrastructure meant for it.
"We are witnessing over 15-20% rise in daily cremations. People are being given tokens to cremate their loved ones as hundreds of deaths are being reported every day," said a civic body official.
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2021-04-29 12:50:33+00:00
❗️India will start vaccinating citizens with Russia's SputnikV vaccine early in May, envoy to Moscow says
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2021-04-29 12:15:07+00:00
Facebook confirms it mistakenly hid posts with call for Modi’s resignation.
On Wednesday, the social network temporarily hid all posts with the hashtag #ResignModi citing community safety violation. All the posts were restored in course of three hours.
"We temporarily blocked this hashtag by mistake, not because the Indian government asked us to, and have since restored it," Stone said, as quoted by US website on Thursday.
The New York Times reported on Sunday that India's government amid a record spike in COVID-19 cases and the shortage of oxygen in the country's hospitals had requested Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to delete around 100 posts criticising the government and calls for Modi’s resignation.
The government explained this demand by saying that such publications could cause panic and impede the implementation of measures against the pandemic
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2021-04-29 11:24:40+00:00
Driver in India converts three-wheeler into oxygen ambulance to help COVID sufferers.
Moved by pictures and videos showing the devastation wrought throughout India by the latest surge in COVID-19, a car in Bhopal, the capital city of India's state of Madhya Pradesh, has turned his vehicle into a mini-ambulance.
Javed Khan, the car's owner, is offering free rides to COVID-19 patients. He has also equipped his vehicle with an oxygen cylinder, sanitisers and some medicines.
Speaking to local media, Khan said: "People are dying for want of oxygen and most of them are unable to reach the hospital on time. I couldn’t help myself and temporarily fixed an oxygen cylinder in my car."
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2021-04-29 08:30:21+00:00
📦 40 countries to supply oxygen to India: "We are talking about close to 550 oxygen generating plants that are going to come in from different sources from all over the world," Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said.
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2021-04-29 06:35:47+00:00
#LIVE | Situation near Delhi crematorium as COVID-19 infections break records in India https://youtu.be/LzJoOhUngkE
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2021-04-29 05:01:26+00:00
🦠 India sees a record single-day rise of 379,257 COVID cases
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2021-04-29 04:32:53+00:00
According to the Russian Emergencies Ministry, India will receive over 22 tonnes of anti-coronavirus equipment and drugs, including 20 units of oxygen equipment, 75 lung ventilators, 150 medical monitors and 200,000 packages of medicines
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2021-04-29 04:31:54+00:00
❗️Both planes of the Russian Emergencies Ministry with aid for India have landed in New Delhi
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2021-04-29 01:37:39+00:00
🌙 Catch up on our latest updates:
🔸 India has declined assistance offered by the United Nations of its integrated supply chain for COVID19-related material.
🔸 Several parts of Rajasthan are likely to experience heatwave conditions over the next 48 hours with a rise in maximum temperatures, the meteorological department in Jaipur said
🔸 The US is sending supplies worth more than $100 million to India to help it fight a surge of COVID-19 cases
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2021-04-28 17:31:46+00:00
UPDATE | Russia to deliver over 22 tonnes of anti-COVID equipment, drugs to India, Kremlin says
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2021-04-28 14:02:46+00:00
🌳 Delhi’s municipal crematoriums are running out of the wood required for pyres because of the staggering number of coronavirus-related deaths in the city.
The three Delhi Municipal Corporations - North, South and East - which are controlled by the governing Bharatiya Janata Party, have approached the state's Forest Department with a request to provide crematoriums with wood.
Speaking to Sputnik, a senior official said, on condition of anonymity, that before the second wave hit the Indian capital, the largest crematorium of Delhi, the Nigambodh Ghat, needed about 6,000kg to 8,000kg of wood each day. However, since the latest surge, daily demand has risen to between 80,000kg and 90,000kg
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2021-04-28 12:16:15+00:00
Despite alarming reports of the devastation COVID-19 has caused in India, the number of people recovering from the viral disease is also increasing swiftly.
Although about 30 percent of active cases in the country have needed medical intervention, nearly 70 percent of COVID-19 patients have stayed at home in isolation to tackle the virus, India Today has reported.
Sputnik has brought together a number of stories from India about the fight which is being waged by ordinary people in that country against the coronavirus.
READ MORE | https://sptnkne.ws/GdKC
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2021-04-28 11:04:04+00:00
💉 In a bid to contain the second COVID-19 wave in India, earlier this month the central government announced that from 1 May all adults (aged above 18) will be offered the vaccine.
However, several state governments have now said this might not be possible due to jab supply shortages.
The affected states include Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Punjab, and Rajasthan.
On Tuesday evening, Maharashtra State Health Minister Rajesh Tope said, “Availability of the vaccine is a big question. We can spend, but there are limited manufacturers who can supply.”
He also told reporters that he was informed by the Serum Institute of India that the Covishield vax will only be supplied by 20 May, while Maharashtra state is waiting on a reply from Bharat Biotech about vaccine delivery
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2021-04-28 08:19:23+00:00
The aid will include "oxygen concentrators, artificial lung ventilation machines, COVID-19 medication and other necessary medical supplies and medicines"
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2021-04-28 08:18:48+00:00
❗️Russia will send significant batch of medical assistance to India in coming days, Foreign Ministry says
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2021-04-28 06:59:01+00:00
🚑 Indian COVID-19 strain found in at least 17 countries, WHO says
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2021-04-28 06:30:33+00:00
India's COVID death toll crosses 200,000
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2021-04-28 06:28:54+00:00
#LIVE | People queue up for oxygen tanks outside Delhi as COVID-ravaged India breaks record for new cases https://youtu.be/s9ZRdPV_cW0
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2021-04-28 02:37:43+00:00
#URGENT | Magnitude 6.2 earthquake hits Assam in India, EMSC says
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2021-04-28 02:20:12+00:00
😷 Hundreds of Hindu devotees converged at the “Har Ki Pauri”, the main river bank of the Ganges, in India's Haridwar city on Tuesday to mark the last of the four holy dips as part of the Kumbh festivities.
The gathering was allowed by the government of Uttarakhand state despite the fact that India is registering a devastating number of COVID cases each day - more than 300,000 - along with more deaths than are officially being reported by the country’s health ministry.
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2021-04-28 01:39:10+00:00
🌙 Check out the highlights of the night in our latest updates:
🔸 Tamil Nadu government will consider providing economic incentives to private and unorganized sector workers who have lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 lockdown.
🔸 The operation to search for workers missing after an avalanche in Sumna near the India-China border in the Chamoli area continues, so far 15 bodies have been found.
🔸 Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General MM Naravane visited Siachen and Eastern Ladakh and reviewed the operational situation in these sectors
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2021-04-27 15:49:17+00:00
💉❌ UK has no surplus of COVID-19 vaccines to share with India, Downing Street says
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2021-04-27 13:54:57+00:00
🦠 Indian coronavirus strain contains mutations that may be resistant to antibodies, WHO says
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2021-04-27 13:39:58+00:00
Eminent Indian economist Dr Arun Kumar believes that the second COVID wave will “hamper” India’s macro-economic recovery, be it in terms of GDP growth, unemployment rate, or investor and business confidence.
Dr Arun Kumar: India witnessed a dramatic GDP slump last year, and the economy was still in the recovery mode when the second COVID wave hit the country this month.
You have states like Maharashtra and Karnataka imposing lockdowns, thus disrupting national supply chains. The extent of economic damage will only be controlled by how fast we are able to vaccinate the population.
Read the full interview on our website: https://sptnkne.ws/Gdmm
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2021-04-27 12:12:32+00:00
⛑ German aid for India to be delivered in coming days
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2021-04-27 10:39:08+00:00
🤔 US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has expressed concerns over channeling COVID-related supplies to India through the office of PM Modi.
The diplomat says that such an approach could affect the delivery of relief material to states as aid could get held up in New Delhi.
Instead, Washington wants to involve “institutions” based in Indian states.
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2021-04-27 09:32:57+00:00
Former MP and senior Congress leader Karuna Shukla died of COVID-19 at a hospital in Raipur early Tuesday.
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2021-04-27 08:58:51+00:00
🗳 The Election Commission of India banned all kinds of victory campaigns and processions the day of or after the election results are declared on 2 May in a bid to prevent gatherings of massive crowds amid a devastating second wave of the coronavirus
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2021-04-27 08:36:10+00:00
India has been hit hard by the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic in the past several weeks, as the number of cases and deaths has increased dramatically, paralysing the country's healthcare system and forcing people to cremate their dead at mass pyres, as crematoriums are unable to cope with the influx of dead bodies.
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2021-04-27 08:03:09+00:00
🚫✈️ Australia bans flights from India until 15 May due to COVID crisis
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2021-04-27 07:56:17+00:00
#LIVE | Situation in COVID-ravaged Delhi as India sees world's biggest spike in daily cases https://youtu.be/6ShhNTTPd-A
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2021-04-27 01:34:55+00:00
🌙 Catch up on our latest updates:
🔸 Karnataka has announced a two-week lockdown after reporting a record rise of over 34,000 new cases in 24 hours.
🔸 The personal data of more than 20 million Indian users has been uploaded on the dark web for sale including email addresses, phone numbers, and app passwords along with their address and date of birth.
🔸 The High Court of Judicature at Madras directed the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry governments to consider declaring a complete lockdown for two days on May 1 and May 2 in order to ensure the free movement of vehicles involved in the counting of votes on May 2 or emergencies.
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2021-04-26 15:26:05+00:00
The crematoriums in Delhi, running day and night beyond their full capacity, have started making platforms for burning pyres in the parking lots and green belts within their premises.
A cremation ground in the Ghazipur area of Delhi has made room for 20 more pyre platforms in parking lots, while about 10 more platforms were constructed overnight in Delhi's Wazirabad crematorium.
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2021-04-26 14:23:38+00:00
🇨🇭Switzerland adds India to list of high-risk countries amid pandemic crisis
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2021-04-26 13:48:17+00:00
😡 The Madras High Court on Monday slammed the Election Commission of India (ECI) for allowing political parties to hold rallies in states while COVID-19 cases were surging in the country.
"You are the only institution that is responsible for the situation today…", the court said on Monday, adding that no action against political parties holding rallies has been taken "despite every order of the Court".
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2021-04-26 13:27:20+00:00
🦠 At least 52 passengers on Delhi-Hong Kong flight diagnosed with COVID, despite having negative tests before landing
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2021-04-26 11:55:48+00:00
🏏🤝 Australian cricketer Pat Cummins has urged his fellow IPL players, as well as other people, to donate to the Indian 'PM CARES fund' amid the COVID crisis.
https://twitter.com/patcummins30/status/1386624033936969730
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2021-04-26 11:33:10+00:00
🔥 The Indian state of Mizoram has been witnessing a massive forest fire since early Sunday, with flames approaching now residential areas.
The fire is on the verge of reaching the second biggest settlement area, Lunglei.
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2021-04-26 10:18:03+00:00
🇮🇳🤝🇵🇰 Former captain of the Pakistan Cricket Team Shoaib Akhtar sought the support of his fans and the Pakistani government for people in dire need of oxygen in India.
“It is impossible for any government to tackle such a crisis. I appeal from my heart to please help our brothers and sisters, our elders in India in need of oxygen and medicines”, Akhtar said in a video that has gained over 740,000 views on Twitter.
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2021-04-26 09:56:45+00:00
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, an Indian-American business executive, took to Twitter to express how saddened and "heartbroken" he is by the situation in India, which registered 352,991 new COVID-19 cases in a record surge over the past 24 hours.
https://twitter.com/satyanadella/status/1386500849740902403
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2021-04-26 09:42:27+00:00
❗️🦠 Indian state of Karnataka announces curfew amid record-high 34,000 new coronavirus cases
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2021-04-26 08:19:28+00:00
🤔 US Democratic lawmaker Andy Kim has urged the Biden administration to release the stockpiled AstraZeneca vaccines to India, reasoning that New Delhi could use the jabs to inoculate its population because it has yet to be approved in the US https://twitter.com/AndyKimNJ/status/1386475763055140865
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2021-04-26 04:45:39+00:00
🚑 India confirms 352,991 new COVID-19 cases
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2021-04-26 01:23:29+00:00
🌙 Catch up on our latest updates:
🔸 Netherlands bans India flights until May over virus fears.
🔸 Bangladesh shuts land border with India amid virus surge.
🔸 16 critical COVID-19 patients were rescued after a fire broke out in the ICU of a private hospital in Surat, Gujarat, on Sunday night, officials said.
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2021-04-25 16:19:09+00:00
Amid a severe shortage of oxygen in several states in India, including the capital Delhi, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has announced clearing funds to set up 551 oxygen generation plants.
The plants will be established in public health facilities across the country.
“The 551 oxygen plants that will be set up will ensure uninterrupted supply of oxygen to hospitals at district headquarters”, a statement by the PMO reads.
https://twitter.com/narendramodi/status/1386239404646100992
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2021-04-25 15:12:18+00:00
🇮🇳 🤝 🇩🇪 German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday that her government was readying an urgent mission of support for India, which battles a surge in COVID-19 cases.
“Germany stands in solidarity with India and is urgently preparing a mission of support”, she said in a statement.
https://twitter.com/RegSprecher/status/1386274646824308736
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2021-04-25 14:26:14+00:00
⛔️ 🇮🇹 The Italian medical authorities banned entry for people who have been in India in the past two weeks.
Earlier this week, a number of countries, including Germany, Iran and Canada, announced temporary limitations on the passenger traffic with India after a new variant of the coronavirus with triple mutation had been discovered in the West Bengal state.
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2021-04-25 13:18:02+00:00
🧑🏼💻❗️India's Ministry of Information Technology has asked social media platforms to take down at least 100 posts, claiming them to be spreading fake info about the COVID situation in the country.
These posts carried unrelated/old/out of context images/visuals, misinfo about COVID protocols, the Ministry of Electronics & IT sources were quoted by the Indian agency ANI as saying.
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2021-04-25 11:41:21+00:00
🤝 As India is reporting the world’s highest-ever rise in COVID-19 cases, US Secretary of State Blinken on Sunday promised to “rapidly deploy additional support to the people of India”.
COVID-19 vaccine manufacturer Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla had earlier appealed to Biden on Twitter to lift an embargo on raw material exports.
Vaccine production capacity in the country has allegedly been cut in half due to the shortage of raw materials.
https://twitter.com/SecBlinken/status/1386148447179493380
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2021-04-25 10:13:14+00:00
Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has called upon his colleagues and party workers to quit political work for now – and work only towards providing aid to the people as the COVID pandemic batters the country's healthcare system.
https://twitter.com/RahulGandhi/status/1386191688469712896
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2021-04-25 09:14:08+00:00
❗️🦠 India extends COVID lockdown in Delhi amid record outbreak
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2021-04-25 01:23:22+00:00
🌙 Catch up on our latest updates:
🔸 "As a gesture of solidarity," Pakistan has offered support to India in the wake of the current COVID19 surge, said Foreign Minister Qureshi.
🔸 The Punjab government has shut down iron and steel industries to divert oxygen for medical use, amid many hospitals reporting a shortage of oxygen.
🔸 A survey in Mumbai has found that women have more antibodies than men to fight COVID19.
🔸 Five people were arrested in Nagpur for selling Remdesivir on the black market.
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2021-04-24 14:22:23+00:00
✈️ ❗️Germany, Iran limit passenger traffic with India over new COVID-19 mutation
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2021-04-24 13:52:07+00:00
😮 The Delhi High Court on Saturday said any person obstructing the supply of oxygen to Delhi hospitals “will be hanged”.
In the early hours of the morning, the Jaipur Golden Hospital in Delhi lost twenty patients due to a shortage of medical oxygen. Halfway through the day, the Saroj Hospital located in the Rohini area of Delhi asked the relatives of 140 critical patients to look for alternate arrangements after it ran out of medical oxygen to keep patients alive.
India's capital and home to over 30 million residents is the most COVID-affected city in the country, with 24,331 fresh cases and 348 deaths in the last 24 hours.
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2021-04-24 11:55:49+00:00
💉 Struggling to inoculate its 1.3 billion people, India has been asking the US to supply it with raw materials needed to manufacture COVID vaccines as well as jabs stockpiled by the Biden administration.
The US, however, refused to lift a ban on raw materials – due to President Joe Biden invoking the US Defence Production Act. The 1950s-era law prioritises supplies of these raw materials to domestic companies over foreign enterprises.
India’s former Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal says Washington’s inability to provide the materials has created a “wrinkle” in bilateral ties at a critical juncture, adding that the Biden administration has been ignoring the plight of Indians.
“The attitude of the Joe Biden administration is very self-centred and selfish. India has been very generous in exporting and donating vaccines to other countries during the COVID pandemic”, Sibal told Sputnik.
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2021-04-24 10:04:01+00:00
🦠 India confirms over 346,000 new coronavirus cases
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2021-04-24 09:30:05+00:00
The Indian Supreme Court on Saturday swore in its 48th Chief Justice.
NV Ramana took the oath of office in the presence of Indian President Ram Nath Kovind at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in Delhi.
Keeping the critical COVID situation under consideration, India's presidential residence hosted a small swearing-in ceremony.
https://twitter.com/rashtrapatibhvn/status/1385829091371192321
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2021-04-24 01:38:31+00:00
🌙 Catch up on our latest updates:
🔸 The Indian Navy has begun the process of taking 24 naval utility helicopters on lease, which includes during its term all maintenance support ashore, including performance-based logistics and training of air crew.
🔸 The production of Remdesivir injections, used for the treatment of COVID-19 patients and under severe constraint now, will be ramped up to 74 lakh units by next month, the home ministry said.
🔸 Hospitals in India have launched desperate appeals for oxygen as the nation's COVID crisis spirals out of control.
🔸 Four people were arrested for ‘black marketing’ of Remdesivir in Delhi.
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2021-04-23 16:47:06+00:00
🥙 Narendra Modi's government on Friday announced that five kilograms of free food grains will be provided to around 800 million people over the next two months.
Under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PM-GKAY), a welfare scheme for the poor, the government will spend over $3.4 billion on the initiative over May and June.
The distributed grain will include wheat, rice, and lentils.
The move by India’s central government is meant to reassure migrant labourers that they're not being neglected amid rising COVID cases across the country, as millions of people find themselves out of work due to the pandemic throttling the economy
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2021-04-23 12:24:39+00:00
At least 13 COVID-19 patients died after a fire broke out at a private hospital in India's Maharashtra state on Friday morning
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2021-04-23 08:13:08+00:00
🗣 Rahul Gandhi slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's central government over the shortage of oxygen and lack of Intensive Care Unit beds in the country
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2021-04-23 06:10:16+00:00
🚑 India detects record 332,730 new COVID-19 cases
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2021-04-23 01:28:01+00:00
🌙 Catch up on our latest updates:
🔸 Canada is banning all flights from India and Pakistan for 30 days due to the growing wave of COVID-19 cases in that region
🔸 A family in Nagaur district village of Rajasthan hired a helicopter to bring home the first girl born in their household in 35 years.
🔸 30 patients escaped from a COVID-19 care centre in Agartala, Tripura.
🔸 Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren said that his government will provide the COVID-19 vaccine to people above 18 years of age for free.
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2021-04-22 17:14:45+00:00
Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter to urge voters to exercise their rights in West Bengal’s poll-bound regions.
https://twitter.com/narendramodi/status/1385036971416821763?s=20
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2021-04-22 17:14:13+00:00
🗳 India's West Bengal state on Thursday entered into the sixth phase of ongoing assembly elections. Residents of 43 constituencies across four districts --Uttar Dinajpur, Nadia, North 24 Parganas and Purba Bardhaman – are visiting the polling booths to cast their votes despite over 63,000 active COVID cases in the state as well as reports of violent incidents
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2021-04-22 13:16:33+00:00
Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Leaders' Summit on Climate 2021: India and the US are launching the “India-US climate and clean energy Agenda 2030 partnership” to "mobilise investments, demonstrate clean technologies, and enable green collaborations"
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2021-04-22 12:17:04+00:00
🗣 A media advisory sent to senior Indian journalists by the office of Narendra Modi has urged the media to question the federal opposition party Congress over its intense criticism of the government's response to the COVID pandemic.
https://twitter.com/atti_cus/status/1384813822284746757
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2021-04-22 11:24:57+00:00
📌"In 2020, religious freedom conditions in India continued their negative trajectory. The government, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, promoted Hindu nationalist policies resulting in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom," says the report.
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2021-04-22 11:24:34+00:00
The annual US Commission for International Religious Freedom's report has recommended that the US State Department designate India as a "country of particular concern" for violation of religious freedom
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2021-04-22 10:15:16+00:00
✈️ UK's Heathrow Airport has disallowed additional flights from India after 23 April, due to widespread infection situation in the country, British and Indian media reported, citing airport authorities
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2021-04-22 09:23:07+00:00
At least five people were killed and several injured after a passenger train collided with a truck and a motorcycle at a railway crossing in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday morning
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2021-04-22 04:43:26+00:00
🚑 India reports record 314,835 new COVID-19 cases
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2021-04-22 01:05:14+00:00
🌙 Catch up on our latest updates:
🔸 The sixth phase of assembly elections in Bengal will be held today, with 43 assembly seats across four districts up for grabs in this phase of the voting.
🔸 People traveling to Assam from outside states will have to undergo a compulsorily home quarantine for seven days amid the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the state.
🔸 Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Office has urged the media to question the federal opposition party Congress over its intense criticism of the government's response to the COVID pandemic.
🔸 Four people have been killed and 12 others injured in an explosion that hit a parking lot of a hotel in the Pakistani city of Quetta, where the Chinese ambassador was staying.
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2021-04-21 16:48:01+00:00
📺 With elections happening in West Bengal, party leaders have attacked India's only ruling female state chief Mamata Banerjee with sexist remarks, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Sadly, this sort of thing is not uncommon in Indian politics.
For example, Mayawati, the former state chief of Uttar Pradesh, was constantly targeted for her appearance, with politicians calling her “ugly” and “worse than a eunuch.”
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2021-04-21 15:11:29+00:00
🐦 India's Border Security Force paramilitary unit has filed a complaint against an intruding pigeon from Pakistan carrying a "suspicious paper," Punjab state police said on Wednesday, adding that they're seeking legal advice on the matter.
According to the complaint, the pigeon flew into India from Pakistan and perched on the shoulder of Constable Niraj Kumar at Rorawala post, 500 metres from India-Pakistan border on 17 April.
Then the pigeon was then handed over to the police with the complaint.
Speaking to Sputnik, Special Police Superintendent Dhruv Dahiya said the authorities received the complaint but referred the matter to legal experts.
"We are analysing the the number tagged on the pigeon's leg. Security forces have captured pigeons earlier as well in border areas suspecting espionage attempts," Dahiya said, adding that homing pigeons can be used to courier information and the tags can carry coded messages.
The police are reportedly investigating to check if the message is coded.
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2021-04-21 15:07:09+00:00
The BJP leader has also suggested that there's a third hint, too, as he commented on information about the Biden administration sidestepping a question on a US ban on exports of raw materials needed to produce COVID vaccines at the Serum Institute of India.
https://twitter.com/Swamy39/status/1384697863876136960?s=20
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2021-04-21 15:06:38+00:00
🗞 Subramanian Swamy, a parliamentarian from India's ruling party BJP, has suggested that the United States has been sending "dark hints" to the South Asian nation over New Delhi's purchase of the S-400 missile system from Russia.
In a tweet on Wednesday, Swamy said that though all eyes are on the pandemic, there is a need to watch out for "national threats brewing".
Swamy suggested that the recent incident of a US Navy warship entering India's Exclusive Economic Zone waters without prior permission, as well as US placing India on the currency manipulator list are among those "dark hints" that Washington has been giving out to Delhi.
https://twitter.com/Swamy39/status/1384695715830452229?s=20
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2021-04-21 12:55:25+00:00
Jharkhand state Health Minister Banna Gupta had told Sputnik that the state authorities had been waiting for permission from the federal government to import the drug, having identified a drug manufacturer in Bangladesh to fulfil the order.
He cited the letter penned by Jharkhand’s State Chief Hemant Soren to federal Minister Gowda on Sunday, in which the state head sought permission from the federal authorities to import the drug into India.
https://twitter.com/HemantSorenJMM/status/1383831454111584267?s=20
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2021-04-21 12:54:36+00:00
💊 The Indian government on Wednesday reduced the import duty on Remdesivir, a key drug being employed by doctors to manage COVID symptoms, amid a widespread shortage of the medicine as the nation grapples with a virulent second wave.
The federal order reasoned that it was in the “public interest” to reduce the import duty on the Remdesivir injection
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2021-04-21 12:19:06+00:00
👨🏽🚒 Several people have died after a bad leak from an oxygen vessel at a hospital in Nashik, the largest city in India's northern Maharashtra state on Wednesday just when hospital staff were re-filling empty cylinders from the facility.
At the time of writing, there are conflicting reports on exactly how many died: Rajendra Bhaskarrao Shingne, Maharashtra's Food and Drugs minister, has confirmed 11 deaths, according to Indian news agency ANI but Suraj Mandhare - Nashik's district magistrate and collector - said the incident caused 22 hospitalised COVID patients to die.
The accident caused havoc at the Zakir Hussain Hospital. A thick cloud of white gas enveloped the hospital's parking lot, as can be seen in the videos taken at the site and appearing on Twitter.
The fire brigade rushed to the hospital to contain any further damage.
Efforts were still being made to contain the leak late in the afternoon, hence details are sketchy about the cause and amount of oxygen leak remains unclear as of now
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2021-04-21 11:31:16+00:00
Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain also posted oxygen alerts on social media to get the government’s attention.
https://twitter.com/SatyendarJain/status/1384549823685165064?s=20
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2021-04-21 11:30:43+00:00
🏥 Hospitals in Delhi and its neighbouring cities of Gurugram, Ghaziabad, Faridabad, and Noida – that collectively make up the National Capital Region (NCR) – are facing an acute shortage of oxygen amid the latest surge in COVID cases.
After several politicians, including Delhi Chief Arvind Kejriwal, alerted the government about the risks of hospitals running out of oxygen in the NCR, oxygen tankers were sent to some major medical facilities, including the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital in Delhi, among others, on 20 April.
On the same day, Manish Sisodia, deputy state chief of Delhi, revealed that most Delhi hospitals only had enough oxygen for up to 12 hours
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2021-04-21 09:57:15+00:00
💉 Serum Institute of India announces cost of COVISHIELD vaccine for hospitals.
COVISHIELD to cost ₹400 for State Governments & ₹600 for Private Hospitals
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2021-04-21 07:14:57+00:00
🤔 India's main opposition party Congress has come down heavily on Narendra Modi after he addressed the nation, advising states to avoid lockdowns despite the second wave of the novel coronavirus
https://twitter.com/incindia/status/1384549444872380425
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2021-04-21 04:45:46+00:00
🚑 COVID-19: India reports record daily surge of 295,041 cases
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2021-04-21 01:23:36+00:00
🌙 Catch up on our latest updates:
🔸 The Ministry of Railways announced an award of ₹50,000 for Mayur Shelke, a Central Railway employee who saved a six-year-old boy by risking his own life at Vangani station near Mumbai.
🔸 US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that the United States is "very closely" tracking the course of the COVID-19 outbreak in India.
🔸 The UK has invited India to join the G7 Foreign and Development Ministers' meeting group next month, the first in-person summit of the foreign ministers of the Group of Seven countries: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the US and the UK.
🔸 More Indian states have opted for partial-to-full lockdowns, night curfews and other restrictions as the country's new COVID cases keep ramping up.
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2021-04-20 13:41:43+00:00
💉 India's former finance minister Palaniappan Chidambaram has criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi's new vaccine policy announced on Monday, on the grounds that private businesses have been given the power to decide what the price should be of the COVID vaccines that will be given to most of the population.
"By liberalising the vaccine pricing, and by not fixing a price for states at the same rate as it is available to the federal government, the [Modi] government is paving the way to unhealthy price bidding and profiteering," Chidambaram, a senior leader from federal opposition Congress Party, said at a press briefing on Tuesday.
“Nowhere in the world has any government left its vaccination programme to be determined by the vagaries of market forces, and for good reason,” he claimed
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2021-04-20 12:32:25+00:00
India's defence minister Rajnath Singh has called upon the services of the country's defence forces to aid civilians fighting the pandemic.
On Tuesday morning, Singh spoke to Army Chief, General Manoj Mukund Naravane, Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar, and Shri APVS Prasad, the Chief of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), asking them to offer facilities and expertise to civilians during the COVID-19 crisis.
The Ministry of Defence had issued directions to "ensure that cantonment general hospitals maintained by cantonment boards across the country extend all necessary medical assistance and services to patients coming to them for treatment."
The defence minister has also asked Naravane the for army units in various states to contact state administrations to find out what requirements they might have such as the creation of additional capacities to deal with a rising number of patients, according to various Indian news agencies
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2021-04-20 12:17:31+00:00
On Tuesday, India's Supreme Court temporarily halted a lower court order directing the government of the country's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, to impose a lockdown in five cities – Prayagraj, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Lucknow, and Kanpur.
India's Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government, argued before India’s Chief Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde that the multi-city lockdown wasn't the “right approach.”
The court said that it was giving state authorities two weeks to
submit a status report on the steps it’s taken to stem the rising number of COVID infections.
The order was passed by the Allahabad High Court, the top state court, on Monday, as it ruled on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL).
The Uttar Pradesh government refused to accept the state court’s order and decided to approach the nation's Supreme Court
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2021-04-20 11:08:46+00:00
🦠 Only 20 ventilators and 43 ICU beds available in Mumbai, says municipal government
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2021-04-20 10:12:47+00:00
🚑 Two people have died and several others are injured after an overloaded bus carrying migrant workers crashed while travelling along Gwalior Highway in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday.
Speaking to Sputnik, a senior police official requesting anonymity said that the bus was heading to Chhatarpur and Tikamgarh from Delhi and overturned in the Jorasi district of Gwalior.
"The bus was overcrowded as it was carrying around 90 passengers in a 52-seater bus. The rescue operation is still underway," he said, adding that the injured had been rushed to hospital.
He said that several of the injured are in a critical condition. The bus was reportedly overloaded with luggage, which is one possible reason it tipped over
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2021-04-20 09:51:56+00:00
‼️ India's Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tests positive for COVID-19
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2021-04-20 08:38:16+00:00
🤔 British Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said that the vaccines developed by the United Kingdom may be “less effective ” against the COVID strain found in India
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2021-04-20 08:06:42+00:00
"Migrants workers are fleeing to their native villages. In such a situation, it is the responsibility of the central government to deposit money in their bank accounts to help them. But will a government that blames the public for spreading corona take such a helpful step?"
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2021-04-20 08:06:06+00:00
🗣 Rahul Gandhi took a jibe at the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government over a lockdown-driven exodus of internal migrant workers to their home states and suggested the government should support them financially
https://twitter.com/RahulGandhi/status/1384349087940726784
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2021-04-20 04:59:38+00:00
🚑 India registers 259,170 new COVID-19 cases
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2021-04-20 00:44:21+00:00
🌙 Catch up on our latest updates:
🔸 During a phone call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar discussed bilateral and regional issues including Afghanistan, Myanmar, health cooperation and climate change.
🔸 Retailers in Delhi said they have witnessed people anxiously stocking up on processed food, ready to eat and immunity-boosting products at their stores after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced a new six-day lockdown.
🔸 The Indian Army organised a free medical camp for the people of Baramulla in North Kashmir, providing medical check-ups and distributing necessary medicines.
🔸 The International Cricket Council said it is confident the World Test Championship final between India and New Zealand will go ahead as planned in Southampton in June.
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2021-04-19 16:35:42+00:00
💉 India will open up COVID-19 vaccines to everyone over 18 as part of its liberalised and accelerated phase III of the immunisation strategy starting from 1 May, the ministry of health and family welfare said on Monday.
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2021-04-19 14:51:02+00:00
‼️UK bans travel from India amid record case spikes in South Asian nation
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2021-04-19 14:36:51+00:00
🧳 Hundreds of migrant workers along with their families are packing their bags and returning to their native villages or towns from Delhi
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2021-04-19 13:28:06+00:00
Rahul Gandhi, a key leader of India's main opposition party Congress, on Monday accused the Narendra Modi government of jeopardising national security.
Gandhi referred to the recent talks with China as "wasteful".
https://twitter.com/RahulGandhi/status/1384000485657497606
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2021-04-19 11:16:02+00:00
Indian Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan touted the country's COVID vaccination programme as a "matter of pride" for the nation.
He pointed out that India is the only “developing country” to be administering its citizens with two vaccines
https://twitter.com/drharshvardhan/status/1384028878998425607
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2021-04-19 10:22:48+00:00
More and more states in India are demanding national railways to run “Oxygen Express” trains for the transport of liquid medical oxygen (LMO) and oxygen cylinders.
The Indian Railways on Monday began the groundwork for running the new trains.
Oxygen is required by hospitals for treating COVID-19 patients. In the state of Madhya Pradesh, six patients reportedly died in an intensive care unit on Sunday allegedly due to a shortage of oxygen.
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2021-04-19 08:54:38+00:00
#BREAKING: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson cancels India trip over COVID-19 concerns
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2021-04-19 08:50:05+00:00
Kangana Ranaut, a Bollywood actress notorious for her controversial tweets, has once again taken to the micro-blogging platform to share her opinion on the pandemic, calling coronavirus the healer of the Earth
https://twitter.com/KanganaTeam/status/1383804672071192576
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2021-04-19 07:00:18+00:00
#BREAKING: New Delhi to impose a week-long lockdown as COVID-19 cases surge
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2021-04-19 04:45:25+00:00
🚑 India registers daily peak of 273,810 new coronavirus cases
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2021-04-19 01:39:42+00:00
🌙 Check out the highlights of the night in our latest updates:
🔸 Nearly 122 million people were vaccinated in 92 days.
🔸 Due to a shortage of basic public health products in several states, and a sharp increase in COVID-19 infections, the supply of oxygen for industrial purposes has been banned, with the exception of several industries.
🔸 The Jammu and Kashmir administration has ordered the closure of all educational institutions, including colleges and universities, until May 15
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2021-04-18 16:02:33+00:00
Former Assam Chief Minister Bhumidhar Barman died on Sunday evening at the age of 91.
He passed away at a private hospital in Guwahati after a prolonged illness, according to his family.
Barman twice served as the state’s chief minister: in 1996 and 2010, the latter when then-CM Tarun Gogoi went to Mumbai to undergo heart surgery.
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2021-04-18 13:13:37+00:00
😐 Six persons, including the director of a leading pharmaceutical company based in Baddi, the pharma hub of Himachal Pradesh, were arrested for illegally storing and striking a deal for the sale of the antiviral drug Remdesivir in Chandigarh on Sunday.
At least 3,000 Remdesivir injections were seized from the pharmaceutical company, Health Biotech Limited, in Baddi.
The six persons, three of whom were from Kerala, and one each from MP and Delhi were rounded up from a five-star hotel in Sector 17 for questioning, before being arrested. Later, they were remanded in four-day police custody. Gaurav Chawla, director of Health Biotech Limited, Baddi, is among those arrested
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2021-04-18 11:51:40+00:00
😳 India has discontinued a government-backed insurance scheme that promised $67,000 in compensation for families of doctors and other healthcare workers who have died while treating COVID patients, according to a recently surfaced government order.
The federal order comes at a time when a devastating second COVID wave is sweeping the country, which has a population of 1.3 billion. The federal Health Ministry reported a total of 261,500 new infections on Sunday morning, the biggest ever jump to date since the first COVID case was registered on 30 January 2020
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2021-04-18 11:16:37+00:00
❗️Five people were killed after a car fell into a gorge near the village of Garunganga in Uttarakhand, officials said today, adding that the incident occurred late Saturday.
The bodies were recovered this morning from the gorge.
They have been identified as 50-year-old Pratap Naithwal, his son Rajat Naithwal (23), Praveen Naithwal (22), Ganesh Gamswal (29), and Shailendra Hindwal (32).
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2021-04-18 10:14:40+00:00
🛫 ❌ The Labour Party has urged UK PM Boris Johnson to cancel his visit to India due to a new COVID strain there.
"I can't see why the prime minister can't conduct his business via Zoom", Shadow Communities Secretary Steve Reed said, stressing that Johnson should not travel to India at the moment.
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2021-04-18 09:34:18+00:00
Influential American lawmakers and Sikh community leaders have sought a thorough investigation into the mass shooting at a FedEx facility in the US state of Indiana as a potential hate crime. The incident killed eight people, including four Sikhs.
Indian-American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi on Saturday called for investigation into potential anti-Sikh motivations in the incident that took place late Thursday night.
“While the Indianapolis and Sikh communities continue to mourn, and as the rest of our country mourns with them, investigators must also determine if this mass shooting was a hate-motivated attack in addition to serving as another example of the plague of gun violence which has beset our nation”, Krishnamoorthi said.
The four Sikh community members who lost their lives are Amarjeet Kaur Johal, aged 66; Jasvinder Kaur, aged 64; Amarjit Sekhon, aged 48; and Jaswinder Singh, aged 68. Three of the deceased were women
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2021-04-18 08:30:58+00:00
🇮🇳 🇨🇳 China has refused to pull its troops from at least two locations, Hot Springs and Gogra Post, in the ongoing Ladakh border dispute with India.
The report, citing Indian negotiators, said the Chinese officials quipped that "India should be happy with what has been achieved" so far, as they referred to the disengagement between the two militaries along the northern and southern banks of Pangong Tso as well as the Kailash Ranges, two other areas where the armies of the two nuclear-armed neighbours have been engaged in a face-off since last year.
According to the Sunday Express, Beijing expressed its inability to vacate Hot Springs (Patrolling Point 15) and Gogra Post (Patrolling Point 17A), the other disputed areas at the most recent military commander-level meeting on 9 April
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2021-04-18 08:24:17+00:00
😷 Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been facing massive backlash in the country for holding election meetings in the poll-bound state of West Bengal, as the South Asian nation witnessed yet another record surge in COVID infections on Saturday.
India, which this month overtook Brazil as the second-worst hit country during the COVID pandemic, reported a record of 234,000 new COVID infections on Saturday, the most in a single day since the first case was reported on 30 January 2020. Over 1,300 new deaths were recorded on the same day, taking the overall death toll to over 175,000.
Prime Minister Modi's boast that he had never seen so many people at an election meeting, while addressing a rally in Asansol, hasn't gone down well with many people, as they held the PM responsible for contributing to the rise in cases by refusing to suspend the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) campaign despite appeals by opposition parties
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2021-04-18 02:33:49+00:00
🌙 Catch up on our latest updates:
🔸 Delhi police have arrested a 35-year-old man for allegedly passing classified information about the army's deployment to a foreign intelligence agency.
🔸 The absence of masks on railway facilities and on trains can result in a fine of up to 500 ₹.
🔸 RJD Chief Justice Lalu Prasad is expected to be released from jail after Jharkhand High Court granted him bail in the Fodder Scam case.
🔸 Any commercial vehicle, regardless of its age and even before the age of 15, will be phased out of service if it does not pass an automated fitness test after two attempts, according to a draft rule published by the Ministry of Motor Transport.
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2021-04-17 14:32:44+00:00
🦠 Delhi reports 24,000 new COVID-19 cases amid oxygen and medication shortages
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2021-04-17 11:28:14+00:00
As a two-day curfew was imposed on India's capital city to contain the spread of the contagious COVID-19 virus, Delhi wore a deserted look on Saturday.
According to the Delhi government, the weekend curfew, from 10 p.m. on Friday until 5 a.m. (local time) on Monday, is aimed at breaking the chain of spiralling coronavirus infections.
Delhi State Chief Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday appealed to people to adhere to the restrictions.
"There is a curfew in Delhi today and tomorrow due to corona. Please follow it. Together we have to defeat corona", Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi
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2021-04-17 10:45:06+00:00
❗️ The global death toll from the coronavirus has topped a staggering 3 million people amid repeated setbacks in the worldwide vaccination campaign and a deepening crisis in places such as Brazil, India, and France. The world did not record one million deaths until 28 September 2020, but had recorded two million by 21 February 2021, less than five months later. And the latest million was recorded in under two months. The United States, Brazil, and Mexico lead the world when it comes to COVID-19 deaths but India, too, is not far behind as it has been recording daily highs over the last few weeks
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2021-04-17 10:37:25+00:00
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) President Lalu Prasad is likely to be released from jail after being granted bail by the Jharkhand High Court in a case linked to a fodder scam. The case pertains to the fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 3.5 crore from the Dumka treasury by Animal Husbandry Department officials between 1991 and 1996, when Lalu was chief minister of Bihar.
Lalu, 73, who was convicted in four cases related to the fodder scam, has already secured bail in the other three cases
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2021-04-17 10:13:17+00:00
Several people were injured after a violent clash broke out between workers from the Trinamool Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India's West Bengal on Saturday.
Speaking to Sputnik, a senior police official, requesting anonymity revealed that the incident took place in the Shanti Nagar area of Bidhannagar North 24 Parganas district.
“Both TMC and BJP supporters pelted stones at each other following an altercation in front of central forces over allegations of booth rigging. Several people, including some women were injured in the clash”, the officer said.
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2021-04-17 09:03:05+00:00
💪 A team of US scientists, led by an Indian-origin researcher, has identified a set of human genes that fight the SARS-CoV-2 infection, the virus that causes COVID-19.
According to Sumit K. Chanda, professor and director of the Immunity and Pathogenesis Programme at the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, the scientists have gained new insights into how the virus exploits the human cells it invades.
"We are still searching for its Achilles’ heel so that we can develop optimal antivirals", Chanda said in a paper published in the journal Molecular Cell.
Knowing which genes help control viral infections can greatly assist researchers' understanding of factors that affect disease severity and also suggest possible therapeutic options
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2021-04-17 08:27:00+00:00
At least four members of the Sikh community were shot dead in Thursday night's mass shooting at the FedEx facility in Indianapolis, the Indian Embassy in the United States confirmed on Friday night (US time).
"Indianapolis police have identified victims of the shooting incident, which include persons from Indian American Sikh community. Our consulate in Chicago is in touch with local authorities in Indianapolis and community leaders and will render all assistance, as required", it said in a statement, adding that the Indian Embassy is monitoring the situation closely.
Taking to Twitter, India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, expressed shock over the shooting and said that the consulate general in Chicago is in touch with the Indianapolis mayor, as well as community leaders
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2021-04-17 01:51:37+00:00
🌙 Check out the highlights of the night in our latest updates:
🔸 Amid rising Covid cases, the Election Commission has banned all forms of campaigning, including rallies, street games and Nukkad Sabha, from 7pm to 10am in West Bengal.
🔸 American banking giant Citibank announced that it will exit from the consumer banking business in India as part of a global strategy.
🔸 The chief executive officer of the world's biggest vaccine maker, the Serum Institute of India (SII), Adar Poonawalla has urged US President Joe Biden to lift an official ban on raw material exports out of the US.
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2021-04-16 16:17:05+00:00
🚫 The Hajj Committee of India has announced that no Indian Muslim is allowed to go on the annual Hajj, or pilgrimage until they have received both jabs of their vaccine
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2021-04-16 16:04:58+00:00
🚑 Public Health England has recorded 77 cases of the variant officially named B.1.617, which is said to be contributing to a sharp spike of the pandemic in India
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2021-04-16 09:15:18+00:00
Over 3,000 sex workers in Delhi, who reside in the city's 80 brothels, have sought financial assistance for food and basic utilities from the Delhi government. The demand comes days after an overnight curfew was imposed in the city and a day after a weekend lockdown was declared to prevent the COVID-19 virus from spreading.
These people's residence is located on Delhi's Shradha Nand Marg, popularly known as GB Road.
A non-governmental organisation (NGO), the Centre for Holistic Development working for the welfare of sex workers, has written to State Chief Arvind Kejriwal, Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, and chairperson of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority to highlight the ordeal of the sex workers.
"Our clients visit us once they are done with their office-related work and they are free, which is either at night or on the weekend. But, the government has curbed movement making our situation vulnerable", the letter submitted to the Delhi chief's office reads
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2021-04-16 08:23:55+00:00
👌🏻 In a bid to rope in more of Musk's interest in the nation, India's federal Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari has suggested that he begin manufacturing Tesla cars in India citing the "economic viability" of the idea.
Gadkari's suggestion was made during the ongoing sixth edition of the Raisina Dialogue inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this week and is being organised by the Ministry of External Affairs.
While revealing that Tesla already sources several auto components from India, Gadkari said the sooner Musk launches his EV manufacturing in India the better it will be for his company because in the next two years India will have other brands also competing with Tesla's standard offerings.
"I will suggest Tesla that it will be a golden opportunity for them to start a manufacturing facility in India. I suggest that you start manufacturing as early as possible. It will be beneficial for you", Indian media quoted the union transport minister as saying
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2021-04-16 08:05:20+00:00
Taking a dig at the government, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said its strategy to fight the COVID-19 pandemic consisted of imposing a “Tughlaqi lockdown, ringing bells, and singing praises to the Lord”.
The Congress-led opposition has been criticising the government over its handling of the pandemic and vaccination drive, while the federal government has maintained that its timely steps have been instrumental in fighting COVID-19.
In a Hindi-language tweet, Rahul Gandhi said, "The central government's COVID-19 strategy -- Stage 1- Impose a Tughlaqi lockdown, Stage 2- Ring bells, Stage 3- Sing praises to the Lord".
The Congress Party in the past has also compared some of the government's decisions to those taken by Delhi Sultanate ruler Muhammad bin Tughlaq, to allege that they were arbitrary and not well thought out
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2021-04-16 07:47:17+00:00
🌧 The southwest monsoon, which brings more than 75 percent of rainfall to the country, is expected to be normal this year, the India Meteorological Department said on Friday.
The long period average (LPA) rainfall will be 98 percent with an error margin of plus and minus 5 percent, said M Rajeevan, secretary of the Ministry of Earth Sciences.
He released the first long-range forecast for the four-month rainfall period from June to September at a virtual press briefing.
"The monsoon will be 98 percent of the LPA which is normal rainfall. It is really good news for the country and will help India have a good agriculture output", Rajeevan said
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2021-04-16 01:51:23+00:00
🌙 Catch up on our latest updates:
🔸 Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah has triggered a major row with Bangladesh after calling its citizens poor, saying that they were illegally migrating to India for jobs.
🔸 Two tents were completely burned down and farmers believe it was deliberately done by miscreants from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to scare them.
🔸 Chief of the Defense Staff, General Bipin Rawat, denied a long-standing rumor about India's possible acquisition of U.S. F-35 fighter jets, saying at a foreign policy conference that Washington had never offered New Delhi a multi-role combat aircraft.
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2021-04-15 12:39:42+00:00
🗣 "We appeal to domestic and international tourists planning to visit Varanasi to cancel their trip this month because of the unprecedented Covid infections," Varanasi District Magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma said.
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2021-04-15 12:39:14+00:00
🚫 Amid an escalating tide of new COVID cases, the ancient temple town of Varanasi, also known as Banaras, in India’s Uttar Pradesh state has issued an advisory, asking all travellers to cancel their trips to the temple town.
The Varanasi district currently has over 10,000 active infections, making it the third worst-affected city in Uttar Pradesh after state capital Lucknow and Prayagraj city.
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2021-04-15 12:35:53+00:00
😯 Thousands of people in India's Andhra Pradesh celebrated the regional festival Ugadi in their unique traditional way – hurling cow dung cakes at each other.
The dung cakes are made a month ahead of the celebration and thrown as part of a traditional contest
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2021-04-15 11:06:49+00:00
😠 India's federal Home Minister Amit Shah has "hurt" Bangladesh's pride by calling Bangladeshis poor and saying that they migrate to India because there aren't enough jobs in their own country, Bangladesh Prime Minister's advisor Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury told Sputnik.
"Such remarks damage bilateral ties between the two countries, at a time when we are enjoying such warm relations. Mr. Shah’s remarks have definitely hurt our sentiments," said Chowdhury.
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2021-04-15 07:38:52+00:00
🤔 Rahul Gandhi questioned the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government over the state of affairs of the health facilities of the country amid mounting coronavirus cases: "There are no tests, nor beds in the hospital. There are no ventilators, nor oxygen. There is also no vaccine. Just the pretence of a festival. PMCares?"
https://twitter.com/RahulGandhi/status/1382561051619819520
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2021-04-15 06:27:22+00:00
🚤 "We have recovered around 30 kgs of heroin from the boat worth INR 1 billion ($13.69 million) in the international market": The Indian Coast Guard on Thursday apprehended a boat with eight Pakistani nationals close to the International Maritime Boundary Line, officials have revealed
https://twitter.com/IndiaCoastGuard/status/1382515481119117316
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2021-04-15 05:20:55+00:00
🚑 India has registered 200,739 new COVID-19 cases within the past 24 hours, marking the largest daily increase since the start of the outbreak, the national Ministry of Health said
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2021-04-15 04:02:27+00:00
🙅♂️ Large foreign retailers such as Amazon have caused outrage among hundreds of thousands of small businesses, and now they are about to stage a protest. The protest coincides with the annual gathering of sellers of the American e-commerce giant in the country.
Small traders, distributors and traders in India have petitioned the country's courts and antitrust regulator to curb foreign retail giants ahead of a potential overhaul of foreign investment rules.
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2021-04-15 01:30:02+00:00
🌙 Check out our brief summary of some of the latest news:
🔸 The Gisat-1, a high-throughput geostationary communications satellite, is expected to be launched on April 15.
🔸 In Delhi, about 400 people were poisoned with low-quality buckwheat flour; the owner of the store has already been detained.
🔸 320 Covaxin vaccines were stolen from Kanwatia State Hospital in Shastri Nagar.
🔸 Gauhati High Court has upheld the bail order of Assam activist Akhil Gogoi.
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2021-04-14 12:12:15+00:00
Russia's Deputy Ambassador to India Roman Babushkin cautioned that Moscow was against attempts to "politicise" bilateral vaccine cooperation between the two countries: "We adhere to WHO guidelines, which advise against the politicisation of vaccine cooperation. We anticipate the quick approval and quick rollout of the Sputnik V vaccine in India".
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2021-04-14 10:09:30+00:00
#Mumbai: Ever since several Indian cities have declared night curfews and partial lockdowns, hundreds of migrant workers have been rushing to the bus stops and railway stations to return to their hometowns
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2021-04-14 09:33:56+00:00
Bollywood actor Ashutosh Rana tests positive for COVID-19 week after taking first jab of vaccine
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2021-04-14 09:03:46+00:00
Despite a steep surge in COVID-positive cases, thousands of devotees have converged in India's Haridwar city for the third “Shahi Snan” (royal bath) in the sacred water of the Ganges river on Wednesday.
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2021-04-14 06:13:23+00:00
🚑 India registers 184,372 new COVID-19 cases
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2021-04-14 02:42:56+00:00
🦠 The filming of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan's upcoming movie "Pathan," which marks his comeback on the big screen, has reportedly come to a halt after several crew members tested positive for COVID.
According to a report on entertainment news website Pinkvilla, Rukh, who was acting alongside Deepika Padukone, John Abraham, and others in Mumbai, has now gone into quarantine, while all crew members are being tested.
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2021-04-14 01:50:50+00:00
🌙 Check out the highlights of the night in our latest updates:
🔸 New restrictions in Maharashtra include a total ban on visiting institutions and public places for 15 days.
🔸 The 800 Indian Sikhs who arrived to take part in the Vaisakh in the Gurdwara of Panja Sahib Hassan were met with a road blockade by TLP workers.
🔸 Police in Haridwar broke up a terrorist cell of the banned terrorist organization Al-Badr and arrested two active terrorists and three accomplices.
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2021-04-13 15:48:32+00:00
📱 WhatsApp’s controversial privacy policy could result in excessive data collection and "stalking" of buyers for advertising purposes and abusing its dominant position, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) told the Delhi High Court on Tuesday, according to media reports.
Advocate Aman Lekhi, who was representing the CCI before Justice Navin Chawla in the Delhi High Court, said that WhatsApp and Facebook's pleas challenging CCI’s findings were “incompetent and misconceived."
The Delhi High Court directed the CCI to open an investigation into WhatsApp’s new privacy policy on 24 March. At the time, Facebook and WhatsApp contended that when the Delhi High Court, as well as India’s Supreme Court, were looking into the messaging app's privacy policy, the CCI should not have “jumped the gun” and intervened.
For now, the court has reserved its order on the matter
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2021-04-13 13:52:05+00:00
On 11 April, Congress Head Rahul Gandhi also demanded a review into the federal government's decision to go ahead with the exams.
https://twitter.com/RahulGandhi/status/1381195906746228748?s=20
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2021-04-13 13:51:17+00:00
🧑💻 Delhi Chief Arvind Kejriwal has joined the growing chorus of leaders appealing to the federal government to reverse its decision to hold Class 10 and 12 board exams (matric and higher secondary) offline.
The Central Board of Secondary Education, directly under the federal education ministry, has refused to do online assessments and said that students will have to show up in person for the exams, which are scheduled for May.
However, several state governments, including those in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, have postponed board examinations that were set for May and June
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2021-04-13 12:59:02+00:00
On Tuesday, several ambulances carrying COVID-positive patients were lined up outside the Civil Hospital in the Indian city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat state, as seen in videos posted by locals on Twitter. With 1,200 beds, Civil Hospital is the largest facility prepared to deal with the virus in the city.
Summer has officially begun in India and like most of the country, Gujarat is warming up fast. Photos of the ambulance-queue outside the hospital show patients sitting inside the vehicles, some gasping for air, with the doors wide open.
Similar images from outside other hospitals in Gujarat have also been surfacing online for some days now
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2021-04-13 12:07:58+00:00
🦠 Almost 72 hours after testing over 18,000 people at a Hindu gathering during Kumbh Mela celebrations in the city of Haridwar in Uttarakhand state, more than 100 people have tested positive for COVID.
On 11 April, over 280,000 devotees from all over the country attended the second Shahi Snan (Royal Bath) in the Ganges as part of the ongoing festivities.
Images of revellers flouting coronavirus restrictions and taking collective dips in the holy river have been surfacing online for some days now. Journalists working on the ground have also reported that there are no temperature checks in place to monitor possible COVID symptoms among the devotees flocking to the banks of the Ganges.
The news of over 100 people testing positive has created panic.
As of now, the Uttarakhand state government under its newly elected chief Tirath Singh Rawat has not commented on the fresh outbreak
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2021-04-13 10:52:33+00:00
Crematoriums and burial facilities in India are struggling to cope with a spike in deaths due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
Families have been forced to wait roughly two to three hours to cremate their relatives despite facilities working at double capacity following the first wave, according to sources speaking to Bloomberg.
The report added that Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and his administration have been unprepared amid a surge in crowded gatherings, religious pilgrimages and other events. Experts believe the country has also underreported fatalities, namely in rural villages, and have only medically certified 20 to 30 percent of all deaths
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2021-04-13 10:49:05+00:00
Now that the emergency use of the Russian-made Sputnik V vax has bene approved in India, Dr. Guleria, director of All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), New Delhi, explains it's potential impact.
Check out the interview on our website: https://sptnkne.ws/FVuy
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2021-04-13 09:56:44+00:00
On Tuesday, India's West Bengal state chief and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee began her sit-in protest after the Election Commission of India (ECI) imposed a campaigning ban on her for 24 hours.
The ECI on Monday barred Banerjee from campaigning from 8 pm (local time) of 12 April to 8 pm the following day.
The poll panel was unsatisfied with Banerjee’s response after she was flagged for her remarks against the central government and a statement with alleged religious overtones.
On 28 March, Banerjee said: "Who gave so much power to them that the central police are threatening the women without allowing them to cast their votes? I saw the same thing in 2019. I saw the same thing in 2016."
Last week the ECI issued her a notice following her appeal for votes along communal lines, saying that it was a violation of Section 123 of the Representation of the People Act
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2021-04-13 09:06:36+00:00
📝 India’s Drug Controller General has issued permission for Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, specialised in pharmacy, to import Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19 to India for emergency use, the company said.
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2021-04-13 07:29:31+00:00
❗️India reports 161,736 new COVID-19 cases
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2021-04-13 01:30:20+00:00
🌙 Check out our brief summary of some of the latest news:
🔸 The Election Commission banned Mamata Banerjee from campaigning for 24 hours, claiming that the Chief Minister of West Bengal violated the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
🔸 French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian will visit India from April 13-15 to hold talks on strengthening ties on a range of issues, including trade, defense, climate, migration and mobility, education and health in the post - covid world.
🔸 According to police reports in Doda, a driver lost control and a bus fell into a river, killing seven people.
🔸 The Maharashtra government has postponed the exam dates for grades 10 and 12 due to a sharp increase in the number of COVID-19 cases.
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2021-04-12 14:25:23+00:00
Videos and photos of the heavily crowded banks of the Ganges from Haridwar, the city located in India’s Uttarakhand state, are flooding social media, showing little concern for COVID-19 protocols.
People can be seen jostling for space and shoving each other in the huge crowds. India has reported 168,912 positive COVID cases on Monday, meaning its surpassed Brazil to become the second-most affected country globally by the virus. The overall count reached 13.5 million, overtaking Brazil's 13.4 million cases. India is now only behind the United States, which has reported more than 31 million cases.
The number of deaths in the last 24 hours – 904 – was the highest since 18 October in India, taking the total figure to 170,179, official data shows.
Officials in Haridwar told the media that they are struggling to impose safety measures due to the huge crowds..
"The crowd here is surging...the police are continuously appealing to people to maintain social distancing," police official Sanjay Gunjyal told reporters
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2021-04-12 14:23:33+00:00
Thousands of Naga Babas, the ash-smeared naked holy men – alongside seers and hundreds of thousands of others – took a collective ceremonial dip in the sacred Ganges river on Monday in India’s Haridwar city, despite social distancing regulations.
For the Hindu “Kumbh Mela” festival, bathing in the river is an important ritual, which is why massive crowds gathered on its banks. The majority of people weren't wearing masks.
Around 1.7 million people are estimated to have congregated to celebrate the festival as the COVID pandemic grips India
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2021-04-12 13:08:14+00:00
🕊 Former Jammu and Kashmir chief Mehbooba Mufti on Monday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit Pakistan for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit, saying Delhi and Islamabad have to sit down and make decisions on the Kashmir issue.
"We have to leave weapons (behind) and ask both countries to talk. I’m asking them so that world knows this isn’t terrorism. We want our voice to be heard," she said at an event in Srinagar.
Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi recently stated that the country was ready to talk but India would have to create a conducive atmosphere.
"As for talks, Pakistan has never shied away from talks with India and has always maintained the need for a ‘meaningful dialogue' and peaceful resolution of all outstanding disputes, including the Jammu and Kashmir dispute,” he said.
He also added that durable peace, security and development in the region hinge on a peaceful resolution of the long-standing Jammu and Kashmir issue
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2021-04-12 11:30:13+00:00
Kumar also addressed the matter of Kashmiri youth, who are getting radicalised and joining terrorists in the valley.
"We request the parents of the newly-recruited terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir to make continuous appeals to their children to leave the path of violence. We don't want parents to be making appeals to their children (who have joined terrorists groups) when they are trapped in an encounter."
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2021-04-12 11:29:57+00:00
Terrorists are misusing mosques for carrying out attacks in India's Jammu and Kashmir, the union territory's Inspector General of Police (IGP), Vijay Kumar, said on Monday.
Speaking to Sputnik, Kumar revealed that terrorists are taking shelter in mosques and then misusing them to attack the security personnel.
"The shelter inside the mosques gives them a sense of security of not getting caught. I appeal to the public, mosque presidium, civil societies and media to condemn such acts," he said.
The comments from Kumar came days after five terrorists, who took refuge in a mosque in Shopian, were gunned down in an overnight encounter by security forces. The shootout in the apple town of Shopian broke out on Thursday evening in which four security forces personnel were also injured
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2021-04-12 10:39:45+00:00
🦠 India has reported 168,912 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, overtaking Brazil to become the second-most affected country globally. The overall count reached 13.5 million, surpassing the South American nation's 13.4 million cases.
A record surge in COVID-19 cases has left hospitals and labs in many Indian cities swamped with queries and phone calls about RT-PCR tests over the last four days.
They are free in Indian government hospitals and cost $11 (INR 800) in private labs. In India, it generally takes 24 hours to get the results.
But for the past two days people across the country have been complaining about delayed results, while locals in Mumbai and Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur say hospitals have stopped collecting test samples.
Private labs in India say that due to a sudden increase in demands they've been left with no choice but to increase the waiting period for test results.
Meanwhile, most of the private labs are hiring more people to meet the growing demand across the country
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2021-04-12 09:55:48+00:00
#BREAKING | Russia's Sputnik V vaccine approved in India
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2021-04-12 08:07:47+00:00
❗️ India's Subject Expert Committee on COVID-19 will decide on the authorization of the Sputnik V vaccine emergency use later on Monday, sources in the Indian Health Ministry told Sputnik.
According to the sources, SEC will most likely greenlight the Russian-made vaccine.
If approved, Sputnik V will become the third vaccine used in India, alongside home-grown Covaxin and Indian-produced AstraZeneca vaccine — Covieshield
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2021-04-12 07:27:28+00:00
🤔 Around 50 percent of the total staff in India’s Supreme Court have tested positive for coronavirus, local media reported, citing sources.
In a bid to restrict the infection from spreading further, all the hearings scheduled for the Supreme Court have been moved to video conferencing mode until further notice
https://twitter.com/GargiRawat/status/1381451304409559044
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2021-04-12 05:22:10+00:00
❗️India overtakes Brazil as second worst-hit country by COVID-19
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2021-04-12 01:31:34+00:00
🌙 Catch up on our latest updates:
🔸 The Bharatiya Kisan Union leader, Rakesh Tikait, says that farmers protesting the contentious new farm laws are ready to talk if the centre invites them, adding that a dialogue could resume where it had ended on January 22 but that the demands remain unchanged.
🔸 The halted vaccination drive will resume at 62 of the 71 designated private hospitals in Mumbai today, with a new supply of COVID-19 vaccines made available by the Mumbai civic body.
🔸 Guidelines on adverse effects following immunisation (AEFI) are expected to be issued soon and will help doctors and COVID vaccine recipients identify and treat symptoms in serious cases.
🔸 The dead COVID patient's family, reportedly angry due to medical negligence, vandalised the state-run Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital, forcing the hospital staff to run for safety.
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2021-04-11 16:41:18+00:00
❌ India on Sunday banned the export of Remdesivir medication until the COVID-19 situation improves in the country.
“India is witnessing a surge in COVID cases. As of 11 April, there are 1,108,000 active COVID cases and they are steadily increasing. … There is a possible further increase in demand for the Remdesivir injection in the coming days,” the government said in a statement.
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2021-04-11 14:24:21+00:00
India's federal education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal went to an awards ceremony on Sunday organised by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) – a day after authorities in Delhi imposed a ban on public gatherings to check the spread of COVID-19 infections.
India’s federal minister for textiles and women and child development Smriti Irani was also meant to attend the event. However, she pulled out at the “last minute” because of reservations over the present COVID-19 situation, sources at the venue said.
According to the revised rules issued by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), all social, religious, cultural, educational, entertainment, sports and festival-related gatherings have been temporarily banned across the national capital.
Authorities have imposed a ban on the number of people who are allowed to attend a funeral or a wedding reception.
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2021-04-11 13:04:45+00:00
School teachers in Uttar Pradesh's Rampur are demanding to be paid their due salaries within three days. Otherwise they will protest at the office of the District Inspector of Schools (DIOS), media reported Sunday.
Teachers have not received their salaries for the month of March. A technical issue with the Management Information System (MIS) was reportedly cited as being the cause.
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2021-04-11 11:05:20+00:00
Several Indian analysts have condemned the US after one of its warships sailed into Indian waters without “consent” from New Delhi, which is part of a four-nation ‘Quad’ security programme with Australia, Japan and the US. The US has carried out such freedom of navigation operations (FONOPs) against Japan as well.
The US has said its naval destroyer USS John Paul Jones only carried out "innocent passage" through Indian waters, ruling out that the warship had done any military manoeuvres in India's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby issued the clarification at a conference on Saturday, in response to a question on India's diplomatic protest against the incident, which has caused mass outrage in the country.
India’s foreign affairs ministry, in a rare diplomatic protest against Washington DC, said on 9 April that it had conveyed its “concerns” to the Biden administration regarding the passage of the US destroyer
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2021-04-11 10:46:12+00:00
India is all set to add five more vaccines as part of its vaccination programme, with Russia's Sputnik V expected to be given "emergency approval" by the Indian drug regulator in the next 10 days, top government sources have told the news agency ANI.
All five of the vaccine candidates, which also include Johnson & Johnson's vaccine, Novavax, Zydus Cadillac, and Bharat Biotech's intranasal vaccine, will be available for public use by October, as per sources.
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2021-04-11 08:28:05+00:00
💉 Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday kicked off a four-day "Tika Utsav" (vaccine festival) in a bid to encourage vaccination against COVID among the population, calling for community-led initiatives to curb the second wave of coronavirus.
In his appeal to the Indian population, Prime Minister Modi laid out a four-point plan that he said would encourage "social and personal hygiene" in the South Asian nation, which has been facing a virulent second COVID wave
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2021-04-11 08:12:27+00:00
Indian security forces killed three militants in an overnight encounter in Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian district, police said on Sunday morning.
The encounter in the southern Kashmiri district, often known as a hotbed of home-grown militancy, concluded in the morning, even as the search operations to look for other militants were still ongoing.
The police said that they made efforts to make a young, "newly-recruited" militant surrender, but in vain.
It was the second face-off between militants and the security agencies in the district this week. On Thursday, three more terrorists were killed in the same district in another encounter with the forces, which also resulted in one Indian trooper being injured
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2021-04-11 08:10:39+00:00
🇮🇳 🇨🇳 China hopes that India will fulfil all the agreements reached on the Ladakh border issue, the Chinese Ministry of National Defense said after a meeting of senior military commanders.
"We hope that the Indian side will cherish the mitigation of the situation in the border area, will respect the agreements and consensus reached by the military forces of the two countries during previous negotiations", the defence ministry said.
The Indian Defence Ministry said on Saturday that during the 11th corps commander meeting, India and China discussed how to ensure full disengagement of forces along the so-called line of actual control (LAC). The talks took place on Friday at the Chushul-Moldo border meeting point.
China's defence ministry said on Sunday that it expected the Indian side to cooperate in maintaining peace and stability in the border region together
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2021-04-11 01:29:06+00:00
🌙 Catch up on our latest updates:
🔸 Eight people were rescued after a fire broke out in a furniture market in Delhi's Shastri Park in the early hours of Sunday.
🔸 The Delhi government announced new restrictions amid an alarming rise in COVID cases, banning most public gatherings and setting limits for attendance at restaurants, theatres and on public transport.
🔸 The Enforcement Directorate conducted raids in Telangana, including against the son-in-law of the late former state minister Nayani Narsimha Reddy, in connection with a money laundering probe linked to alleged fraud in the IMS and ESIC departments of the state.
🔸 The Gujarat State Election Commission has postponed the elections for the Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation for an indefinite period, due to the sudden rise in COVID cases, an official statement said.
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2021-04-10 16:07:07+00:00
❗️There were clashes outside a polling station in West Bengal's Cooch Behar district this morning. Four people died after a local mob attacked security forces following “a misunderstanding,” the Election Commission said.
According to the panel, the incident happened when CISF security forces were helping a sick boy near the polling booth – but some locals thought they were beating him up.
“Due to the misunderstanding, the agitated mob attacked the CISF personnel detailed at the booth with deadly equipment and some of them even tried to snatch their arms and ammunition,” the Election Commission explained, as quoted by NDTV.
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2021-04-10 13:14:57+00:00
A day after the US defended its Navy asserting its navigational rights within India's exclusive economic zone, without getting New Delhi's permission in advance, a BJP MP, Subramanian Swamy, has mocked his own government.
In his tweet, Subramanian Swamy said the "Modi government is looking pathetic like the Bat of Panchatantra".
Panchatantra is an ancient Indian collection of educational stories for children. The bats in one of the Panchatantra stories symbolise selfishness which saw them changing sides repeatedly to be with the winner in a battle between beasts and birds. The bats were ostracized after the birds and the beasts made peace.
https://twitter.com/Swamy39/status/1380826457887367169
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2021-04-10 12:22:03+00:00
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday sought Home Minister Amit Shah's resignation over the firing by central forces at Sitalkuchi in Cooch Behar, killing four people.
Banerjee, speaking at a public meeting at Baduria in North 24 Parganas, said she would be leaving for Cooch Behar after attending rallies, and would visit the spot where central forces opened fire during polling.
Appealing to people to remain calm, Banerjee alleged that central policemen shot dead people standing in a queue to vote and demanded "Shah should resign" for the incident "which is dastardly, cold-blooded, and unprecedented"
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2021-04-10 11:29:50+00:00
📱In March 2021, the Economic Times reported that Indian government officials had proposed a new technology called alpha-numeric hashes, claiming that it would allow WhatsApp to trace the origins of messages without having to break its encryption technology.
Talking to Sputnik, senior Indian tech policy expert Pranav Bhaskar Tiwari explained why the government shouldn’t push for the technology:
“The solution proposed is old and has been put forth in the Indian context by Dr Kamakoti before the Madras High Court previously. <…> it is a regressive solution that takes the technology decades back to the early 2000s and is proposed without understanding the very nature of the end-to-end encryption protocol used by Signal and WhatsApp”.
Read more: https://sptnkne.ws/FTMe
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2021-04-10 09:38:06+00:00
🦠 Maharashtra, the worst hit Indian state in the second wave of the pandemic, entered a complete weekend lockdown. The state government will decide today if a longer lockdown is to be announced to check the rising number of COVID-19 cases.
On Friday nearly 60,000 new cases of coronavirus were reported in the state.
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2021-04-10 08:22:53+00:00
At least four people were shot dead in West Bengal's Cooch Behar, where voting is happening for nine seats, in the fourth phase of state assembly elections on Saturday.
Indian news agency PTI reported that four people died as the Central Industrial Security Force allegedly opened fire after coming under attack from locals who "attempted to snatch their rifles".
According to NDTV, the Election Commission of India has sought a report into the incident
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2021-04-10 06:43:10+00:00
💉 A prominent leader in Maharashtra and former member of parliament, Raju Shetti, has written to the prime minister, home minister, and health minister that if vaccine supply is not increased for the state of Maharashtra within a week, activists will start stopping vehicles transporting vaccines to other states from the Serum Institute of India.
The Serum Institute of India, the world's largest vaccine manufacturer, which has a target of providing 1 billion doses of the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of 2021, is located in Pune, a city in Maharashtra.
The vaccine shortage has hit the inoculation drive in India as the country is witnessing a second wave of the pandemic
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2021-04-10 06:39:04+00:00
👨🌾 Agricultural organisations will block the KMP (Kundali-Manesar-Palwal) highway in the national capital region (NCR) on Saturday for 24 hours to press for the revocation of the contentious farm laws passed by parliament last year. The farmers’ outfits have said ordinary citizens will be treated well on the highway during the blockade.
The farmers have been camping on Delhi’s borders since November of last year to press for the withdrawal of the three farm laws.
A coalition of organisations said, "On behalf of all the farmers we assure you that during the KMP blockade, common citizens will be treated well and it will be completely peaceful. We urge common citizens to extend their cooperation to the blockade”
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2021-04-10 02:36:54+00:00
As several Indian states report a shortage of COVID vaccines amid a record surge in coronavirus infections this week, the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ‘Vaccine Maitri’ initiative, the ongoing progamme to supply COVID jabs to other countries, is facing sharp criticism in the nation.
Sputnik talked to senior Congress federal lawmaker and former Indian minister Manish Tewari to learn his views on Modi’s ongoing COVID diplomacy.
LEARN MORE https://sptnkne.ws/FT76
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2021-04-10 01:35:23+00:00
🌙 Catch up on our latest updates:
🔸 Private vaccination centres in Mumbai will remain closed until Monday "due to an insufficient supply of the COVID-19 vaccine".
🔸 The Indian Paramilitary Force gets a fully-equipped van to safeguard the country's busiest airport, Indira Gandhi International (IGI)
🔸 The Western Railway will operate 3 additional weekly special trains, between the Bandra Terminus-Barauni Junction and the Subedarganj, Surat-Hatia and Udhna-Chhapra stations.
🔸 At the United Nations Security Council India restated its commitment to engage measures to accelerate and support a democratic transition in Myanmar.
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2021-04-09 16:51:57+00:00
🦠 Because of a major spike in coronavirus cases, the Haryana government on Friday ordered schools to be closed until 30 April for pupils up to Class 8.
Chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar said that the situation would be analysed and all necessary precautions taken.
With 2,872 new positive cases, Haryana recorded the highest spike in coronavirus cases in the past four months on Thursday.
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2021-04-09 15:07:27+00:00
😲 The discovery of a pot full of ancient gold and silver jewellery and an inscription believed to date back to the Kakatiya dynasty on non-cultivable land in Telangana state has triggered a lot of thrill and excitement among locals and archaeologists.
The antique treasure was found in Pembarthy village in Telangana’s Jangaon district by a realtor, Narasimhulu, who was removing boulders to level 11 acres of land.
In a video, which has gone viral, Narasimhulu can be seen digging out a copper pot full of antique jewellery including gold and silver earrings, nose rings, beads, and anklets, among other things.
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2021-04-09 13:41:58+00:00
☹️ Amid a raging second wave of COVID infections, frontline workers of Indian hospitals have been reporting infection with coronavirus. These cases have been reported from the country's top hospitals and these dozens of doctors had been inoculated with the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in January this year.
At least 37 doctors at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in New Delhi have tested positive for Covid-19 this month.
Speaking with Sputnik, the hospital authorities said, "32 of them have mild symptoms and are in home isolation, while five are under treatment at the hospital."
"Those who are admitted in hospital are above age 50 and don't want to stay at home due to personal reasons," Ajay Sehgal, the spokesperson of the hospital, told Sputnik
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2021-04-09 13:03:33+00:00
🛫 India's main opposition Congress Party on Friday launched a scathing attack against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government over the Rafale deal.
The allegation has come against the backdrop of Mediapart’s report, which claimed that the French government had covered up misdeeds in the Rafale deal with India.
Congress Spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said that explosive revelations regarding the Rafale jet deal have shed light on massive corruption, treason, the loss to public exchequer of at least £2.81 billion and a criminal breach of National Security by Narendra Modi's Govt.
https://twitter.com/rssurjewala/status/1380457948917342213
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2021-04-09 12:04:32+00:00
😷 Hundreds of people have been flocking to Mumbai market, flouting COVID-19 precautions, only a day before the two-day lockdown is due to come into effect. And not only has social distancing been largely ignored, many people have also opted to wander around without a face mask.
Only essential services such as vegetable and fruit shops and milk booths are staying open, according to orders issued by the local administration.
Mumbai reported 8,938 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday - a drop from each of the preceding two days when daily new infections exceeded 10,000 - and 23 new deaths, the city council Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said
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2021-04-09 11:09:11+00:00
#BREAKING | Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, dies aged 99, Buckingham Palace says
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2021-04-09 10:40:52+00:00
🎓 Congress Party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Friday said it is irresponsible on the part of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to force students to appear for Board examinations.
She demanded that the exams be either cancelled or rescheduled, in view of the COVID-19 situation in the country.
India has seen over 100,000 cases every day for the past few days. As of Friday morning, the country was reporting almost 132,000 new COVID-19 cases.
https://twitter.com/priyankagandhi/status/1380373086713737217
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2021-04-09 09:31:53+00:00
In an unprecedented move, the US Navy’s seventh fleet has publicly challenged India’s maritime claim in the Arabian Sea by sending the USS John Paul Jones (DDG 53)—guided missile destroyer—inside India’s exclusive economic zone. Referring to its act as consistent with international law, the US Navy says that its destroyer asserted navigational rights and freedoms approximately 130 nautical miles west of the Lakshadweep Islands without requesting India’s prior consent
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2021-04-09 09:20:00+00:00
Seven militants, including terror outfit Ansar Ghazwatul Hind chief Imtiaz Ahmad Shah, were gunned down by security forces in two encounters in Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian and Pulwama districts, Indian police said on Friday.
"Five terrorists have been killed in a Shopian operation, while two others were killed in the encounter at Nowbugh in the Tral area of Pulwama district," a police official said.
Earlier, the Kashmir Zone Police had said that efforts were being made to get two militants hiding inside a mosque in Shopian after an overnight encounter to surrender
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2021-04-09 08:58:24+00:00
🙈 Delhi Police have arrested two men for robbing people with the help of monkeys, officials said on Friday.
Speaking to Sputnik, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Atul Kumar Thakur said the accused - Balwan Nath (26) and Vikram Nath (23) - were nabbed on Thursday for their involvement in robbing a lawyer on 2 March.
During interrogation, the duo confessed to their involvement in the incident along with their associate Ajay who is absconding, the officer said, adding that the accused had caught the monkeys in the Tughlaqabad Fort jungle in Delhi around three months ago.
The two monkeys have been deposited with a Wildlife SOS centre and relevant provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 were added against the accused in the case
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2021-04-09 08:17:32+00:00
India logged over 115,000 COVID infections on Tuesday alone, setting a new record for the nation since the first case was reported on 30 January, 2020. The recent surge in COVID cases comes amid an ongoing government-backed vaccination drive, labelled one the largest in the world.
However, the recent rise in infections has led to many questions, including the effectiveness of the two vaccine candidates, their ability to deal with new COVID-variants from the United Kingdom (UK) as well as the need for another lockdown.
Sputnik talked to Dr. Sanjay Rai, a professor at the Centre for Community Medicine at India’s top hospital, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, and the chief investigator in the ongoing vaccine trials at the government-owned hospital.
LEARN MORE | https://sptnkne.ws/FTe9
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2021-04-09 08:16:16+00:00
👏 Rajasthan's government has taken the pioneering step of launching BHOR (Bhikshuk Orientation and Rehabilitation), a programme to rid first Jaipur and then the state of beggars.
‘Bhor’ in Hindi means dawn. The programme, being run in partnership with NGO Prayas, aims to bring a new dawn by motivating families dependent on begging to acquire various life skills. The Rajasthan Skilling and Livelihood Development Corporation (RSLDC), which is the executing agency for the pilot project, has selected 100 former beggars for special training. Talking about the programme, Niraj K Pawan, Principal Secretary of Labour, Skilling and Rehabilitation in Rajasthan says, "This is a unique programme in the country, started under the guidance of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, to empower the beggars to lead the life of dignity entitled under the Indian Constitution to every individual"
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2021-04-09 07:36:03+00:00
The news of Indian actress Chaitra Kotoor attempting suicide by consuming phenyl at her residence on Thursday has left netizens and celebs shocked.
According to a preliminary police investigation, Chaitra took this drastic step due to troubles in her new married life to businessman Nagarjuna.
Currently, Chaitra is in a local hospital, where her condition is said to be stable
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2021-04-09 07:35:17+00:00
🚢 The US has announced that it has conducted a Freedom of Navigation Operation (FONOP) in Indian waters in the Lakshadweep Islands, leaving the Indian security establishment in a state of surprise, leading to an assessment to ascertain if an operational exercise was actually carried out or if it was just an innocent passage.
The US Navy announced that it had carried a Freedom of Navigation Operation inside India's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) without prior consent.
Reacting to it, a senior government official stated that if it was an innocent passage it's not an issue.
"We don't object to normal transiting but if there has been an operational exercise without informing then [the issue] needs to be taken up," the official said
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2021-04-09 03:27:16+00:00
People in India's Mizoram are responding to the conflict in neighbouring Myanmar by taking a musical route to give aid to distressed refugees.
Charity musical concerts are being organised by independent groups to raise money for supporting the refugees pouring in from the neighboring country.
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2021-04-09 01:16:37+00:00
🌙 Catch up on our latest updates:
🔸 US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry has said that it would be great if India announced a net-zero emission target for 2050, however "that's not an absolute requirement".
🔸 Prime Minister Narendra Modi has discussed the alarming rise in coronavirus cases across the country with chief ministers, listing measures that he said needed to be taken on a "war footing".
🔸 The Enforcement Directorate filed its first charge sheet against former Uttar Pradesh Minister Gayatri Prajapati in a money laundering case.
🔸 India delivered over 100,000 COVID-19 vaccines to the Bangladesh army. The neighboring country's general, Aziz Ahmed, thanked India for its commendable cooperation in helping his country tackle the coronavirus pandemic.
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2021-04-08 16:39:59+00:00
🇮🇳🤝🇨🇳 Indian Army sources have revealed that officials from the Chinese and Indian armies will meet at Chushul in India's Ladakh for the 11th round of military talks.
India has already clarified its position in the previous rounds of talks that the country would agree to de-escalation only if it is "simultaneous" with the other side and mutual security concerns are tackled in areas such as Depsang, Demchok, Gogra and Hot Springs.
Indian foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar pointed out to his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi that a prolongation of the situation is in "neither side's interest".
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2021-04-08 16:17:16+00:00
🛫 An investigation into the $8.7 billion Rafale fighter jet deal to supply the 4.5 generation aircraft to India has shown that Dassault Aviation hired Indian middleman Sushen Gupta to help the company secure the contract.
According to a report published by the French publication Mediapart on Thursday, Gupta, an accused in a previous defence scandal, was hired because of his contacts in the Indian Defence Ministry.
https://twitter.com/SushantSin/status/1380093327677169668
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2021-04-08 14:56:12+00:00
🧑🏼💻Sitaram Yechury, the chief of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M), launched a scathing attack on Narendra Modi's government on Thursday accusing it of selling personal details of Indians to a private firm, Fast Lane Automotive Private Limited.
Yechury, in a series of tweets, attacked Modi's governing Bharatiya Janata Party and alleged that the “personal privacy of all Indians is up for sale”.
https://twitter.com/SitaramYechury/status/1380084260833357827
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2021-04-08 14:06:54+00:00
🤔 A lower court in Jaipur, capital city of the state of Rajasthan, has issued notice to the Federal Ministry of Education and the director of the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) because of the "glorification of Mughal Emperors" in a history textbook for Year 12 (for children between the age of 16 and 18).
The plaintiff, P. C. Bhandari, said that the Year 12 history book "Themes in Indian History" states that Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb paid grants to repair temples that were demolished during the wars.
Bhandari wishes to know under the Right to Information Act (RTI) where the history book is getting its information from.
The petition has sought to ban the controversial part of the history book from being printed. Admitting the complaint, the court has ordered officials of the federal education ministry and NCERT to present their reply by 19 April.
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2021-04-08 11:53:07+00:00
Bollywood filmmaker Santosh Gupta's wife Asmita, 55, and daughter Srishti allegedly committed suicide by setting themselves on fire at their apartment in Mumbai on 5 April, media outlets reported Thursday, citing police.
The neighbours reportedly raised the alarm and called for the fire brigade in the afternoon.
According to Indian news wire PTI, the police informed that the two were immediately taken to the hospital. While Asmita was declared dead on arrival, Srishti had suffered 70 percent burns over her body, and succumbed to her injuries on Tuesday.
According to the investigation, Asmita was compelled to allegedly commit suicide because she suffered from a prolonged kidney ailment. Whereas, the daughter, who was in serious distress over her mother's illness, could not see her in pain and hence, took such a drastic step.
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2021-04-08 11:44:49+00:00
😡 Filmmakers and actors are in uproar on social media over the government’s decision to abolish the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT) with immediate effect.
Calling it a “sad day for cinema”, filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj and many other from the industry have sparked a row and have condemned the decision.
India's Ministry of Law & Justice on 6 April abolished the FCAT, a statutory body to which filmmakers could appeal if they didn't agree with decisions by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC).
Now producers have no choice but to go to the High Court if they wish to air their grievances.
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2021-04-08 10:53:17+00:00
💉 India’s Minister of Health Dr Harsh Vardhan launched a scathing attack on several states which aren't governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — Punjab, Delhi, Maharashtra, Odisha and Rajasthan - in response to the concerns raised by their state governments about vaccine shortages around the country.
Vardhan said that these states' allegations of doses being in short supply was an attempt to “draw attention” from how slow they've been in rolling out vaccines and he urged them not to politicise a critical health issue.
“Doesn’t it seem evident that these states are trying to draw attention from their poor vaccination efforts by just continuously shifting the goal-posts? Politicising such a public health issue is a damning indictment of certain political leaders who should know better,” Vardhan said
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2021-04-08 10:45:07+00:00
💵 India has the third-highest number of billionaires in the world, with 19 new additions during the year 2020, according to the billionaires list released by Forbes.
The report also said the total number of Indian billionaires rose from 102 last year to 140 this year and their combined wealth nearly doubled to $596 billion.
While Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos topped the global list for a fourth year in a row, Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani became the richest person in Asia again and ranked number 10 on the global list
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2021-04-08 10:20:47+00:00
Jemima Goldsmith, the former wife of Pakistani PM Imran Khan has taken to Twitter to slam her ex-husband's recent remarks on how women’s “vulgar” dressing entices men to rape them leading to a rise in such cases.
“’Say to the believing men that they restrain their eyes and guard their private parts’, Quran 24:31. The onus is on men”, Goldsmith posted quoting the holy book of Islam – the Quran.
Her tweet received a wave of support from Twitterians, gaining almost 4K retweets in less than a day.
https://twitter.com/Jemima_Khan/status/1379818333600628736
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2021-04-08 09:45:08+00:00
😷 Owing to the rising cases of coronavirus, the Madhya Pradesh government has decided to put all urban areas under lockdown from 6 p.m. on Friday evening to 6 a.m. on Monday morning.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, talking to reporters on Thursday, said that he has reviewed the coronavirus situation in the state and has decided to place all urban areas under lockdown for two days from 6 p.m. on Friday evening to 6 a.m. on Monday morning. During this time, all urban areas will be completely shut.
A lockdown was enacted in 13 districts of the state on Sundays. Now the government has decided to do a 60-hour lockdown in all urban areas starting Friday
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2021-04-08 08:54:29+00:00
A Delhi High Court judge on Thursday recused herself from hearing separate pleas filed by Facebook and WhatsApp to challenge a Competition Commission of India (CCI) order for an investigation into the messaging app's new privacy policy.
Justice Prathiba M Singh recused herself from hearing the two petitions and directed the registry of the high court to list it before another bench on 12 April, subject to the orders of the chief justice.
Facebook and WhatsApp have challenged the CCI's 24 March order directing a probe into the new privacy policy.
The CCI had also directed that the investigation be completed within 60 day
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2021-04-08 08:04:50+00:00
🔥 The Indian state of Uttarakhand is currently battling 45 active forest fires. The state chief claims to have deployed around 12,000 forest workers, and 1,300 fire crew stations to douse the flames. It has already spread across 67 hectares of land.
Speaking to Sputnik, Dr Jagdish Krishnaswamy, senior researcher at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), a research institute focussing on biodiversity, said, "Every year, fire causes massive loss to the biodiversity of the Himalayan state, and the state government has failed to take any step in this regard".
"There is a lack of winter rains in the state. Normally, the state receives 50 millimetres of snow or rainfall from December to March, but it was only 10 millimetres this year. Due to global warming, the state is receiving less rainfall", says Dr Krishnaswamy.
"All these factors are contributing to dry vegetation which easily results in the spreading of forest fires", he added
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2021-04-08 07:38:59+00:00
😷 Nearly 60 percent of the government vaccination centres in Varanasi, the constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have had to shut down due to a shortage of COVID vaccines.
Of the 66 government-approved vaccination centres in Varanasi, the COVID immunisation drive is only taking place at 25 as the other sites have cited a shortage of coronavirus vaccines.
The district-level vaccine distribution centre in Varanasi, situated in Chaukaghat, has also been shut down.
Shyamji Prasad, a health worker, at the Chaukaghar distribution centre, said that vaccine supply from Lucknow has declined drastically. He added that there is a high demand for vaccines in Varanasi, leading to a shortfall in doses
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2021-04-08 01:13:10+00:00
🌙 Catch up on our latest updates:
🔸 The Pakistan High Commission has issued over 1,100 visas to Sikh pilgrims from India to participate in the annual Baisakhi celebrations, from April 12 to 22.
🔸 The All India Congress Committee boss in charge of West Bengal, Jitin Prasada, on Wednesday announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19.
🔸 The vaccination drive has been temporarily halted in Maharashtra's Panvel, because there are no COVID-19 jabs to deliver, and centers will be reopened when the vaccines are back in stock.
🔸 India's ambassador to UN, TS Tirumurti, said that India has contributed over $1 million to a UN counterterrorism fund, including for Africa.
🔸 A resident of Gurgaon was arrested for allegedly duping people on the pretext of investing in real estate.
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2021-04-07 17:08:19+00:00
🚌 Public transport workers under the umbrella organisation Karnataka State Road Transport Employees League went on strike indefinitely on Wednesday in India's Karnataka state.
They're demanding that the government modify the salary system in line with the Sixth Pay Commission.
Convened by the Union Cabinet of India on 5 October 2006, the Sixth Central Pay Commission is designed to remove pay scale ambiguity in government jobs while guaranteeing a steady salary rise at regular intervals.
Talking to Sputnik on condition of anonymity, an official from Karnataka State Road Transport Employees League said that this issue first came up last December and the state government had asked for three months to make the changes
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2021-04-07 16:09:40+00:00
The Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), an umbrella organisation of farmers in India, has laid the foundation for a "martyrs' memorial" where farmers have been protesting on Delhi's Ghazipur border – the gateway to the state of Uttar Pradesh.
The move is to pay tribute to the farmers who have died during the ongoing protests against the federal government's contentious trio of farm bills.
The union says the soil for the memorial was brought by activists, mostly women, from the villages of the 320 farmers who have died during the demonstrations.
"Many died of heart ailments as they braved extremely cold weather conditions during winters in the farmer camps on Delhi borders. Few succumbed to worsening of diseases they were suffering from before they joined the protests," Dayanand Punia, a farmer leader, told Sputnik
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2021-04-07 13:07:30+00:00
🌾 Commission agents – or middlemen – in the Indian states of Haryana and Punjab – known as country's bread basket – have threatened to boycott buying winter crops ahead of the procurement season that starts on 8 April.
The agents are protesting against the federal and state governments' decision to implement a direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme, which means that money for the purchase of crops will be credited directly into farmers' bank accounts.
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2021-04-07 12:45:48+00:00
🇷🇺🇮🇳 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov concluded his two-day visit to India on Tuesday after talks with his Indian counterpart S. Jaishankar in New Delhi.
The two diplomats addressed the topic of further military cooperation between India and Russia, as well as the Afghan peace process.
Read about the main takeaways from the talks: https://sptnkne.ws/FRCZ
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2021-04-07 11:03:19+00:00
✈️ Public transport workers under the umbrella organisation Karnataka State Road Transport Employees League went on strike indefinitely on Wednesday in India's Karnataka state.
They're demanding that the government modify the salary system in line with the Sixth Pay Commission.
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2021-04-07 09:11:19+00:00
Keyer’s mask had slipped down his nose, catching the attention of the cops, who stopped him and ordered him to go to the police station with them.
When Keyer refused, he was beaten in the middle of a busy market road in Indore – a video of the beating has gone viral on social media.
A child’s voice crying for his “papa (father)” can be heard in the background of the video.
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2021-04-07 09:10:55+00:00
In Indore, a major city in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, a 35-year-old man was severely beaten on the road by two police officers for not wearing a mask properly.
According to media reports, the man, named Krishna Keyer, is an auto-rickshaw driver and was on the way to the hospital to visit his father on the evening of 6 April.
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2021-04-07 06:25:38+00:00
🦢 Around 100 migratory birds have been found dead in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh’s Pong Dam Sanctuary in the last two weeks, confirming a second outbreak of bird flu.
“The National Institute of High-Security Animal Diseases (NIHSAD) in Bhopal has confirmed the presence of H5N8 avian influenza among the samples of the dead birds. This strain is different from the previous outbreak, when H5N1 had been detected among the migratory birds. But both these strains are highly pathogenic,” Chief Wildlife Warden Archana Sharma told reporters.
Speaking with Sputnik, Dr. Sanjeev Nadda, deputy director of animal health and breeding at the Pong Dam Sanctuary, said, “Till Tuesday (6 April) 99 birds have been found dead at the sanctuary. Most of these birds are bar-headed geese.”
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2021-04-07 05:37:58+00:00
🇲🇽 Mexico authorizes emergency use of India's first homegrown coronavirus vaccine Covaxin
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2021-04-07 05:09:58+00:00
🦠 India reports 115,736 new COVID-19 infections
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2021-04-07 01:24:39+00:00
🌙 Catch up on our latest updates:
🔸 The government announced that vaccinations for all ages would not be opened anytime soon, stressing the need to cover the most vulnerable groups amid a surge in COVID cases.
🔸 Uttar Pradesh police bring gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari back to Banda jail after over two years in a Punjab prison.
🔸 During an official visit to New Delhi, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said he did not discuss the issue of US pressure or sanctions on the sale of the S-400 missile system to India, adding that there will be a reciprocal reaction, if Washington puts pressure on any country.
🔸 Amid a sharp rise in coronavirus infections, the Gujarat government has announced a curfew, from 8 pm to 6 am in 20 cities in the state, that will come into force on Wednesday, and last until April 30.
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2021-04-06 12:42:18+00:00
🚓 India's paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force recently received an email containing a death threat against Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh State Chief Yogi Adityanath, a senior police official confirmed to Sputnik.
Read more: https://sptnkne.ws/FR5P
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2021-04-06 12:39:40+00:00
🚫 Delhi announces curfew between 10 PM and 5 AM to tackle 2nd COVID-19 wave
https://twitter.com/Modi_Nama/status/1379317427549265924
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2021-04-06 12:37:37+00:00
Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif tests positive for COVID-19
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2021-04-06 10:48:07+00:00
A video of donkeys carrying electronic voting machines in Tamil Nadu state's Dindigul district has gone viral. Good to see a bunch of asses doing their bit for democracy!
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2021-04-06 10:08:38+00:00
😒 Polling fraud?
Amid the ongoing Phase 3 polls of the 2021 West Bengal Assembly Election on Tuesday, four electronic voting machines and a similar number of voter verifiable paper audit trails were found at the residence of a Trinamool Congress leader in West Bengal's Howrah district
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2021-04-06 04:01:08+00:00
🌀 A mild earthquake of 4.1 magnitude hit north Bengal on Tuesday morning, per the National Center for Seismology, making it the second to hit the region in less than 12 hours.
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2021-04-06 01:20:15+00:00
🌙 Catch up on our latest updates:
🔸 Voting for the third and final phase of the election to the legislative assembly in Assam will be held today, with the fate of 20 MLAs, including eight from the Congress party, five from the BJP, three each from the AIUDF and BPF, and one from AGP to be decided.
🔸 Congress party president Sonia Gandhi on Monday urged Kerala residents to vote for the United Democratic Front alliance in the Assembly election and "defeat the divisive forces who polarise the society, and reject authoritarian leaders".
🔸 Three male motorcyclists were arrested for allegedly opening fire at a college student in outer Delhi's Alipur area.
🔸 A protest over police enforcement of coronavirus restrictions in rural Bangladesh turned violent when demonstrators attacked a police station, with at least three people reportedly shot.
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2021-04-05 17:30:34+00:00
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday arrived in the Indian capital of New Delhi for an official visit, Indian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Arindam Bagchi said.
Last week, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Lavrov's visit will last two days and he’ll hold talks with his Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
The foreign ministers are expected to discuss bilateral relations, cooperation in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, preparations of the upcoming high-level bilateral meeting, and other issues on the regional and global agenda.
Lavrov and Indian officials will also assess Moscow and New Delhi’s joint interaction in the international arena, including at the United Nations, BRICS, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation
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2021-04-05 13:32:21+00:00
Budweiser triggers backlash with Lionel Messi murals painted over iconic street art in Delhi
As part of its latest campaign aimed at inspiring youngsters, Budweiser had a huge mural of football star Lionel Messi painted on a building wall in the iconic Delhi neighbourhood of Hauz Khas Village.
A community of Indian artists have since expressed disappointment because Budweiser's campaign replaced previous artwork on the wall.
The controversy was fuelled when it turned out the murals were painted on the building hosting a primary municipal school.
An Indian urban art initiative called "St+art India" took to Twitter to share the pictures of the HKV walls where the Messi murals replaced the pre-existing animal art "overnight".
"It has taken many years for organisations such as ours to build the street art scene in India. One cannot simply hijack it overnight. What used to be some of our earliest murals in Delhi… have now been turned into billboards for Budweiser overnight"
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2021-04-05 12:13:08+00:00
Thousands of students and owners of life coaching institutes in the Rohtas District of Bihar state took to the streets on Monday to protest against the government’s new lockdown measures, which will see all educational institutions closed from 5 to 11 April.
Demonstrators argued the move was not in the interests of students as they burned tyres and threw stones at police.
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2021-04-05 12:10:52+00:00
Indian warships and aircraft are set to participate in the French-led La Perouse joint naval exercise between the navies of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) member states scheduled to take place from Monday through Wednesday in the Bay of Bengal, India's Defence Ministry said.
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2021-04-05 11:01:22+00:00
🌉 People living in India's Jammu and Kashmir region will be able to travel beyond the state by train after the Chenab Bridge is completed.
On Monday, Northern Railways completed the bridge's main arch.
The bridge will include a 14-metre-wide dual carriageway and a 1.2-metre-wide central verge.
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2021-04-05 10:52:56+00:00
📹 In the video, whose authenticity is yet to be verified, Adityanath can be heard saying the word "Ch**iya" that in Hindi means "idiot" or "f***er", ostensibly to somebody behind the camera
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2021-04-05 10:52:06+00:00
🤬 The state chief of Uttar Pradesh (UP), Yogi Adityanath, on Monday provided a video snippet to the Indian media in which he spoke about the ongoing efforts to encourage more people to get vaccinated against the novel coronavirus.
While the official video clip of the Hindu monk tweeted by Indian news agency ANI is full of heartening motivation for people to get inoculated, a snippet of Adityanath using an obscene Hindi word – probably unsure of whether the camera was on or off – has gone viral on social media.
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2021-04-05 10:23:33+00:00
Maharashtra state's Home Affairs Minister Anil Deshmukh handed in his resignation to State Chief Uddhav Thackeray on Monday.
This comes hours after the Bombay High Court ordered India's top probe agency – the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) – to start a preliminary inquiry into corruption allegations against him.
While hearing the case, the bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice G.S. Kulkarni said the CBI investigation will last 15 days.
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2021-04-05 05:52:41+00:00
Bollywood star Akshay Kumar after testing positive for COVID-19: ‘As a precautionary measure, I have been hospitalised’
https://twitter.com/akshaykumar/status/1378927360272080899
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2021-04-05 05:37:35+00:00
🚑 India detects 103,558 new COVID-19 cases
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2021-04-05 03:36:41+00:00
🇮🇳🤝🇷🇺 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will visit India from April 5 to 6 to prepare the ground for the annual India-Russia summit and discuss issues of bilateral cooperation.
During the visit, Lavrov will discuss preparations for the upcoming summit meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the fight against the pandemic, coordination of actions at such multilateral platforms as the UN, BRICS, where Delhi is chairing this year, and the SCO.
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2021-04-05 01:45:21+00:00
🌙 Catch up on our latest updates:
🔸 Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan said fuel prices could fall further in the near future.
🔸 The Inspector General of Police said that its special operations group has arrested a person who intended to commit a terrorist act.
🔸 The number of cases from COVID in Maharashtra exceeded 100,000 per day.
🔸 It was stated during the International Federation of Indo-Israel Chambers of Commerce (IFIICC) event that trilateral trade between India, Israel and the UAE could reach $110 billion by 2030.
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2021-04-04 15:09:16+00:00
🦠 India's Maharashtra announces night curfews
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2021-04-04 13:08:09+00:00
🐂 West Bengal Chief saved from angry bull at rally.
Chief Minister Banerjee was narrowly saved when an angry bull challenged security personnel at a rally in Howrah. "The bull was just outside the 100-metre security ring and the bull was trying to push into the security cordon guarded by the Chief Minister's personal security guards. As they tried to chase the bull out of the security ring ensuring the safety of the chief minister first, the angry bull started chasing people and this disturbed the discipline of the entire rally," a senior security officer said.
Banerjee was holding the rally in support of the Trinamool Party candidates of Howrah North, Howrah Central and Shibpur assembly constituencies on Saturday.
The incident happened when Banerjee was leading a roadshow in her wheel-chair, from Howrah Kajipara to Sammilani park - a distance of nearly 4 km.
The huge rally, full of Trinamool supporters, local leaders and candidates, was about 200 metres away from its destination when the angry bull arrived.
The incident triggered a security scare, as the chief minister gets Z-plus protection. The Chief Minister was in East Midnapore district to campaign for the upcoming assembly elections in West Bengal and file her nomination document in Haldia.
In response to the incident, the Election Commission removed Vivek Sahay from the post of security director of West Bengal. The commission also removed DM of East Midnapore, Vibhu Goel, and SP Pravin Prakash
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2021-04-04 12:54:49+00:00
In the wake of an alarming spike in COVID-19 cases, Mumbai’s civic body on Sunday said more beds will be made available in medical facilities treating virus patients in the city.
On Saturday, the city reported 9,108 new COVID-19 cases, its record spike in a single day.
"We have operationalised an additional 3,000 beds in dedicated COVID-19 health care centres and dedicated COVID-19 hospitals under the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) in the last seven days," Civic Commissioner I S Chahal said in a statement.
"The number of beds available on our real-time live dashboard for allotment has gone up from 12,906 to 15,971," the official continued. He also said 4,160 new beds were available on Saturday night.
"We are operationalising an additional 3,000 beds (including 400 in ICUs) in the dedicated COVID-19 health care centres and dedicated COVID-19 hospitals in the coming seven days," he added
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2021-04-04 12:52:23+00:00
Bollywood 'action man' Akshay Kumar tests positive for COVID-19
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2021-04-04 12:50:37+00:00
🦠 India registers 93,249 new COVID-19 cases
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2021-04-04 12:33:38+00:00
Dozens more soldiers were also injured in the incident. Images of the funerals of those killed have already surfaced on social media, with many netizens condemning the attack. People are also blaming Prime Minister Narandra Modi's government for their deaths.
The government's anti-Naxal operation was launched from five locations – Tarrem, Usoor and Pamed in Bijapur, and Minpa and Narsapuram in Sukma – and involves 2,000 personnel from the Central Reserve Police Force, its elite unit CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action), the District Reserve Guard, and Special Task Force
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2021-04-04 08:52:25+00:00
Eight security personnel are dead and 21 others are missing after being ambushed by Maoists in the heavily forested state of Chhattisgarh in central India.
The attack occurred on Saturday while over 2,000 security personnel were conducting a major operation the South Bastar forests, which is considered a Maoist stronghold.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Interior Minister Amit Shah have extended their condolences to the families of the victims.
The Maoists, also known as the Naxalites or the Naxals, have been fighting the Indian government since the 1960s. They are far-left radical Communists who support the Maoist ideology and conduct guerrilla warfare while hiding in some of India's densest forests, targeting security forces and government officials
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2021-04-04 03:10:30+00:00
✍️ A complaint was filed with the Election Commission against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The BJP believes that Mamata violated the model code of conduct by "inciting hatred".
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2021-04-04 02:07:37+00:00
🌙 Check out our brief summary of some of the latest news:
🔸 Several farmers protesting against Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar, who came to pay tribute to Rohtak MP Arvind Sharma's father, were injured in a clash with police.
🔸 Himanta Biswa Sarma's earlier ban on running an election campaign was reduced from 48 hours to 24 hours after he apologized to the Election Commission.
🔸 The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (UP STF) has accused journalist Siddique Kappan and 7 others of sedition and conspiracy to incite violence.
🔸 According to police, at least five security personnel were killed, more than two dozen were seriously injured, and some went missing after a three-hour shootout between security forces and Maoists on Saturday in Bijapur Chhattisgarh.
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2021-04-03 14:41:09+00:00
👮 Police in Hoshiarpur district in the state of Punjab have arrested six international/inter-state drug smugglers with their consignment of 8kg of heroin with a street value of about £800,000 ($1.1Mln), media reported Saturday.
Police also seized 20 lakh rupees ($27,260) cash, 5kg of poppy husks, and a Fortuner and Scorpio car.
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2021-04-03 11:57:46+00:00
A gunfight has broken out between security forces and terrorists in India-administered Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian district , officials said on Saturday.
Local media reports said about five militants are believed to be surrounded by security forces.
The skirmish flared up as a joint team consisting of state police and the Indian army cordoned off the forested Chor Ki Gali area and launched a search after receiving specific information about the presence of terrorists in the area
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2021-04-03 11:36:35+00:00
❌ Based on a request by state Chief Electoral Officer Teeka Ram Meena, the Election Commission of India has approved the banning of the customary campaigning finale marked by immense crowds and celebrations on Sunday ahead of the April 6 Assembly polls.
Known as "Kottikalasham" in local parlance, the finale of the open poll campaigning used to be a jamboree in the southern state in which every political party would try to show off their strength by bringing a maximum number of supporters to add colour to the show
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2021-04-03 09:23:39+00:00
😣 The Bangladeshi government on Saturday decided to impose a week-long nationwide lockdown from Monday as COVID-19 cases and have deaths surged across the country.
Road Transport Minister Obaidul Quader made the announcement at a media briefing in Dhaka on Saturday, the Dhaka Tribune reported.
Bangladesh on Friday logged 6,830 new cases of the coronavirus, the highest count in a day, taking the tally of infections to 624,594. The death toll climbed by 50 in 24 hours to 9,155, according to data released by the government
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2021-04-03 08:37:47+00:00
A day after stones were allegedly pelted at the convoy of farmer leader Rakesh Tikait in Rajasthan's Alwar district, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said that "we will take on the Sangh together" and not stop until the farm laws are repealed.
Police in the stone-throwing case have detained a student leader, who the Bhartiya Kisan Union claimed, belonged to Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of the BJP, and accused the party of being behind the attack.
"Their Sangh teaches them to attack, while non-violent satyagraha makes the farmers fearless", Rahul Gandhi said in a tweet
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2021-04-03 08:12:47+00:00
😲 Election authorities in the Indian state of West Bengal have seized 41 pipe bombs (crude bombs) from the state's South 24 Parganas District. The incident occurred late Friday night.
The confiscation of pipe bombs comes as two of the eight phases of assembly elections in West Bengal have been conducted. The third phase will be held on 6 April.
According to the state police, the bombs were recovered following a tip-off that explosives were hidden in the Padmapukur area under the Pranganj Gram Panchayat (village body) in the 148th Bhangor Assembly Constituency
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2021-04-03 04:09:19+00:00
🤰 Ever since Bollywood actress Dia Mirza announced that she is expecting her first child with husband businessman Vaibhav Rekhi, many fellow celebrities and netizens have been overjoyed and showered the happy couple with congratulatory messages.
However, there have been some on social media who have been having a go at her for getting pregnant before marriage, a practice still frowned upon in India.
Dia's pregnancy has prompted a debate over getting pregnant before marriage in Indian society. Many netizens have said it was about time that the stigma around it was removed and it should be normalised.
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2021-04-03 02:58:01+00:00
🛢 India plans to reduce its oil supply from Saudi Arabia by a quarter from 14.8 million barrels to 10.8. At the same time, the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts oil consumption to double, and the cost of imports to triple by 2040.
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2021-04-03 01:34:42+00:00
🌙 Check out the highlights of the night in our latest updates:
🔸 India breaks the world record: the construction of a road with 4 lanes and a length of 2.5 km took only 24 hours.
🔸 On the eve of the final stage of the Assembly elections, the Election Commission issued a ban on the BJP's Himanta Biswa Sarma from campaigning due to open threats against a member of the opposition alliance.
🔸 Mamata Banerjee accused Narendra Modi of trying to control her, as the day before he asked if she would run in the Assembly elections from another constituency.
🔸 A date has been set for the trilateral negotiations in Delhi. France, India, and Australia will meet on April 13 to discuss strengthening maritime security and cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region.
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2021-04-02 14:35:20+00:00
🧐 Screenshots of some affidavits scanned by the banned Chinese app CamScanner and posted on the website of the Election Commission of India have surfaced on Twitter.
CamScanner, which lets users scan physical documents and share the photo as a JPEG or PDF file, was banned in India last year.
Raj Bhagat, a Bengaluru-based environmentalist pointed out a mark that read “Scanned with CamScanner” on an affidavit posted on the website of the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Twitter.
“I was going through some of the affidavits (in Tiruppur district) filed as seen in ECI website. The affidavits were scanned using CamScanner. Isn’t that application banned in India?” Bhagat observed.
https://twitter.com/rajbhagatt/status/1377865308019388416
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2021-04-02 14:29:32+00:00
🦠 Delhi records 3,594 COVID-19 cases over past 24 hours
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2021-04-02 11:53:54+00:00
A parliamentarian from Trinamool Congress, the ruling party in West Bengal which is in the middle of state elections, has urged the district magistrate of East Midnapore to take "every precaution in advance," expressing concerns that "existing communal harmony may be blatantly disrupted."
Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Dibyendu Adhikari’s letter came a day after leaders of his party and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accused each other of booth capturing, especially at Nandigram area, from where State chief Mamata Banerjee is contesting the polls.
In the letter, the TMC leader said: "Considering the present political situation in the area, I personally apprehend that existing communal harmony may be blatantly disrupted... I request you to take precautionary measures in advance."
However, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has dismissed all the charges
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2021-04-02 11:39:44+00:00
🏏 Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar has been hospitalised after he tested positive for coronavirus last week.
Tendulkar decided to go to a hospital “as a matter of abundant precaution”, he wrote in a Friday tweet, adding that he hopes to get back home in a couple of days.
https://twitter.com/sachin_rt/status/1377853111944015873
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2021-04-02 11:03:51+00:00
❗️ The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday ordered a re-vote at a poling station in the state of Assam after political outrage erupted over a gross security lapse involving an active Electronic Voting Machine (EVM).
Hours after the second phase of voting concluded in Assam on Thursday, a private car thought to belong to a BJP leader was found carrying an EVM after votes were cast through the day at a polling station for the Ratabari seat in Assam's Karimganj.
Officers responsible for the transportation of EVMs belonging to the polling station have also been suspended by the Election Commission (EC).
The country's main opposition party Congress accused the federally ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of "looting Electronic Voting Machines" during the ongoing assembly elections
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2021-04-02 10:55:21+00:00
🌺 A new species of flowering plants has been discovered in the Kolhapur district of the Western Ghats, a mountain range located in the state of Maharashtra.
The plant was named after Sharad Pawar, 80, who served as the federal agriculture minister between 2004 and 2014.
Citing Pawar’s “immense contribution to Indian agriculture”, researchers involved in discovering the new flowering plant have named it Argyreia Sharadchandrajii.
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2021-04-02 10:38:19+00:00
😷 Alarmed by the huge spike in coronavirus cases, the Pune administration has announced stringent measures, including a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew starting Friday night for a week, top officials said in Pune on Friday.
All hotels, restaurants, and malls will remain shut for the next seven days, though home delivery of household stuff shall be permitted
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2021-04-02 10:19:57+00:00
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was one of the first leaders to extend Good Friday wishes to people across the country this morning.
According to Christian beliefs, Jesus was crucified on Good Friday. The reason why this day is called "good" is because Christianity believes that by sacrificing his own life, Jesus washed his people of their sins with his blood and rose again three days later on Sunday - which is celebrated as Easter.
In his message, Prime Minister Modi said the day "reminds us about the struggles and sacrifices of Christ"
https://twitter.com/narendramodi/status/1377805348715696135?s=20
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2021-04-02 09:17:02+00:00
🦠 India confirms 81,466 new COVID-19 cases in record daily spike.
The country currently has the third-highest number of COVID-19 cases (12.2 million infected and almost 163,000 deaths), while Mexico has the third-highest death toll in the world – over 203,000 fatalities, with around 2.2 million coronavirus cases.
The US is the most affected nation, with around 30.5 million cases of coronavirus, and the death toll from the pandemic reaching 553,000.
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2021-04-02 02:58:43+00:00
📜 Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to address rallies in Madurai and Kanyakumari today in support of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidates. In addition to Modi, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappaddy K Palaniswamy, Deputy CM O Pannerselvam and other leaders of the NDA will attend the rally, which will be held at Madurai's Amma Thidal Ground.
He will also visit poll-bound Kerala and hold public meetings in Pathanamthitta and Thiruvananthapuram.
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2021-04-02 01:32:51+00:00
🌙 Catch up on our latest updates:
🔸 Many changes to the tax system have come into force since April 1, so it's time to check your tax returns.
🔸 A policeman was killed as a result of the terrorist attack on the residence of senior BJP leader Muhammad Anwar Khan in Srinagar.
🔸 Bangladesh will host a national military exercise from April 4-12, featuring the Indian Army, the Royal Bhutan Army and the Sri Lankan Army.
🔸 Punjab CM Amarinder Singh launched free travel for women on government buses within the state.
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2021-04-01 16:09:24+00:00
Videos posted on social media show that India's streets are a hotbed of robberies, heists and bag-snatching. However, an investigation found that a large number of such crimes were carried out with dummy firearms.
Speaking to Sputnik, a senior Delhi police officer revealed – on condition of anonymity – that the easily available toy guns are not uncommon weapons in the hands of criminals. In Delhi, investigating officers have found at least 14 recorded instances of dummy firearms being used in crime incidents.
"In two of the last four bank robberies reported in Delhi this year, the miscreants used toy guns – in one instance it served as the lone weapon and in the other as a back-up weapon," the officer said.
Read more on our website: https://sptnkne.ws/FNNN
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2021-04-01 14:40:43+00:00
❗️ Five women suffered injuries after falling into a drain in India's Puducherry Union Territory on Thursday, as they were set to participate in a road show for Home Minister Amit Shah before the 6 April assembly polls.
They were standing on a slab covering the drain which collapsed, resulting in the accident.
A video of the incident showing locals and police officials helping the fallen women come out of the drain has surfaced on social media.
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2021-04-01 13:27:56+00:00
👀 In a dramatic turn of events, the Prime Minister Imran Khan-led federal Cabinet has rejected an Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) proposal to import cotton, yarn, and sugar from India.
"The cabinet has deferred the decision and decided not to allow the import of sugar, cotton, and yarn from India till New Delhi restores Article 370 [special status which was revoked in 2019] for Kashmir", Pakistan's Federal Minister for Interior Shiekh Rashid Ahmed said after a meeting.
On Wednesday, the ECC allowed the import of 500,000 metric tonnes of sugar and unspecified quantity of cotton and yarn from India to bridge the nearly three million in shortfalls. Bilateral trade between the two archrivals has been in a suspended state for more than 20 months.
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2021-04-01 12:42:38+00:00
😯 The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday issued a notice to Himanta Biswa Sarma, one of the most powerful leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Assam, for threatening a key regional party leader.
The notice is based on a complaint filed by the Congress Party accusing Sarma of openly threatening Hagrama Mohilary, chairman of the Bodoland People's Front. As per the complaint, "Sarma has gone to the extent of saying that they (i.e. the BJP) will ensure that the anti-terror agency National Investigation Agency (NIA) investigates and implicates Mohilary in a false terror case and that he is sent to jail".
The Bodoland People's Front has influence in at least two dozen assembly constituencies in Assam, and it is believed the party will play a major role in forming a government in the election. The ECI asked Sarma to respond by 5 p.m. local time on 2 April
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2021-04-01 12:37:04+00:00
💉 Seeking to exponentially expand the countrywide anti-coronavirus inoculation drive, the Centre has decided to keep all public and private sector COVID-19 Vaccination Centres (CVCs) operational throughout April, including on listed holidays.
The Centre wrote to all states and union territories on Thursday and asked them to make the necessary arrangements for this, the Union Health Ministry said.
"This step has been taken after detailed deliberations with the states and UTs on 31 March to optimally utilise all COVID-19 Vaccination Centres across the public and private sectors to ensure rapid increase in the pace and coverage of COVID vaccination".
"This decision is in line with the graded and proactive approach employed by the government of India along with the states and UTs for COVID-19 vaccination", the ministry said
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2021-04-01 12:07:16+00:00
🥳 The Delhi-Meerut Expressway has finally been opened to the public. It will reduce the travel time between the two cities from three hours to just 45 minutes.
It was declared operational starting Thursday by Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari, who said the government has fulfilled one of its promises by reducing travel time from Delhi to Meerut.
On the expressway, the speed limit for cars has been set at 100 km per hour. Freight vehicles can also run at a maximum speed of 80 km per hour. The problems of jams and vehicular pollution is also likely to end
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2021-04-01 10:57:30+00:00
😡 India’s decision to deport a 14-year-old Rohingya girl to her native Rakhine state in Myanmar, despite the girl’s parents reportedly being in Bangladesh, has attracted scathingly critical reactions from social media users, who have termed the move “appalling” and “inhuman”.
The teenager is said to have appealed to the Indian Home Ministry against her deportation to Myanmar, as she preferred deportation to neighbouring Bangladesh, where her parents are lodged at a refugee camp.
Her appeal to the Indian authorities was reportedly rejected.
A report in the Indian daily Assam Tribune says the girl is the first Rohingya refugee to be deported back to Myanmar after the 1 February military coup.
https://twitter.com/praxpriya/status/1377516553856446464
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2021-04-01 09:38:15+00:00
🐯 No animal has perished in the wildfire that broke out in the Bandhavgarh National Park in India several days ago, officials said on Thursday, adding that the flames have been brought under control.
The park is known for its large population of royal Bengal tigers.
Speaking to Sputnik, Bandhavgarh National Park Field Director Vincent Rahim said that, according to preliminary information, the grasslands are intact
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2021-04-01 09:35:21+00:00
❗️ Hours before voting began in the Indian state of West Bengal on Thursday, Uttam Dolui, a member of the state's ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC), was allegedly stabbed to death early in the morning in the Paschim Medinipur district.
Police said the 48-year-old was at a club in the village of Keshpur when around 10-15 people purportedly attacked him with sharp weapons. He died on the way to the hospital.
The victim's family alleged that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) "goons" attacked him to create tension in the area
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2021-04-01 09:31:55+00:00
🇮🇳 🇵🇰 Pakistan's Finance Minister Hammad Azhar on Wednesday announced that the government was reversing its August 2019 decision to suspend bilateral trade ties with India, as he revealed that Islamabad would soon start importing cotton and sugar from its neighbour.
The significant announcement marks the continuation of a thaw in relations between the two South Asian neighbours, who have been at loggerheads since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government revoked the semi-autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019. It prompted a retaliatory response from Islamabad.
Bilateral ties continued to remain frosty through the rest of 2019 and 2020, only showing signs of improving last month, when the militaries of both countries signed an accord reaffirming their commitment to adhere to a 2003 ceasefire agreement
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2021-04-01 08:12:03+00:00
👏 The fans of megastar Rajinikanth can't keep calm as the actor will be given the nation's highest film honour, the 51st "Dadasaheb Phalke Award" by the government of India for his contribution to Indian cinema.
The actor, who started out as a bus conductor, made his debut in the 1975 movie "Apoorva Ragangal" and became one of the highest-paid actors in India.
Calling him "one of the greatest actors in the history of Indian cinema", Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar made the announcement and said, "His contribution as an actor, producer, and screenwriter has been iconic
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2021-04-01 06:19:39+00:00
Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday withdrew a federal order on cutting interest rates for small-time savers invested in federal savings schemes, barely 12 hours after a government circular ordered the cut. It was one of the steepest cuts in recent history
https://twitter.com/nsitharaman/status/1377446641356087297?s=20
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2021-04-01 02:53:28+00:00
🚷 150 illegal Rohingya Muslims found living in Jammu city will soon be deported. According to an official spokesman, the process of deportation has been already initiated in Jammu and Kashmir. Now all these illegal immigrants live in special facilities provided specially for them.
The Rohingya refugees are one of the Muslim ethnic minorities in Myanmar that fled to India due to the discriminatory policies of their government. Finding shelter in India, they have increased their population and raised concerns among several political parties and social organizations in Jammu.
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2021-04-01 01:36:04+00:00
🌙 Check out the highlights of the night in our latest updates:
🔸 First India Free Trade Agreement with Mauritius comes into force from April 1
🔸 India ends March with 458 deaths, country’s highest COVID-19 toll in 2021
🔸 In some good news: the third phase of vaccination began in India and will cover the population over the age of 45
🔸 Government cuts interest rates on small savings schemes from April 1
🔸 India’s largest fuel retailer announced reducing the liquefied petroleum gas price.