New Delhi, Sep 30,2021: India on Thursday rejected Beijing’s second attempt within a week to put the blame on New Delhi for the border disturbances, saying it had no basis in facts, and added that it was China’s amassing of a large number of troops on the border and their provocative behaviour and unilateral attempts to alter status quo that led to the deadly skirmish last year.
“We had already made our position clear a few days back that we reject such statements which have no basis in facts,” the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said.
“It was the amassing of large number of troops by the Chinese side, their provocative behaviour and unilateral attempts to alter status quo in contravention of all our bilateral agreements that resulted in serious disturbance of peace and tranquility along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh,” he said.
“China continues to deploy large number of troops and armaments in the border areas. It was in response to Chinese actions, that our armed forces had to make appropriate counter deployments in these areas to ensure that India’s security interests are fully protected.
“As emphasized by EAM in his meeting with Chinese FM earlier this month, it is our expectation that the Chinese side will work towards early resolution of the remaining issues along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh while fully abiding by bilateral agreements and protocols,” he said.
The response was to the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying saying on Wednesday that India has “long pursued a ‘forward policy’ and illegally crossed the LAC to encroach on China’s territory, which is the root cause of the China-India border tension. China opposes any arms race in the disputed border areas for the purpose of competition over control,” she said.
On September 24 too, India had rejected China’s attempts to put the blame for the Galwan Valley incident of last year on New Delhi,.
During his bilateral meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on September 16 on the sidelines of the SCO summit in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had conveyed that it is necessary to ensure progress in resolution of the remaining issues on the border in eastern Ladakh in order to restore peace and tranquillity along the LAC and noted that this has been an essential basis for progress in the bilateral ties.
The EAM had emphasized that the two sides should work towards early resolution of the remaining issues along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh while fully abiding by the bilateral agreements and protocols.
Amritsar (Punjab), September 30 ,2021: Punjab Students’ Union and Naujawan Bharat Sabha on Tuesday started an indefinite protest against the facelift of the historic Jallianwala Bagh.
Hardeep Kaur, a protester of the Punjab Students’ Union said that the protest will continue until they restore the historical monument back to its original form.
“Changing the outlook of the historic monument also changes the narrative of history; It had only one gate previously, now it has two. For the ones visiting it for the first time will question that if there were two doors, why did people jump into the well instead,” she said.
Alleging a political agenda, she added, “After the face-lift, the entry looks like people are going to a fair. A lotus, the symbol of BJP, has also been placed on the door. Why not use any other flower? The names of Muslims who died here have been cut off. Why? Is it an agenda?”
Adding to it, Ranbir Singh Randhawa a protester of Punjab Students’ Union said, “The look has been changed entirely. When you enter, there are statues of people dancing. The place does not feel like it has seen a struggle like the one it did. The well has also been covered.”
Further, he alleged, “The struggle at the Jallianwala Bagh was an Anti-imperialist one but the BJP has turned it to a nationalist one. When they present it like that, they show that the Muslims were anti-national. They have tried to change the narrative of the history of Punjab, but the youth here won’t allow it.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated the renovated complex of Jallianwala Bagh Smarak to the nation through video conferencing on August 28.
As per the PMO, four Museum galleries have been created through adaptive reuse of redundant and underutilised buildings. The galleries showcase the historical value of events that unfolded in Punjab during that period, with the fusion of audio-visual technology, including projection mapping and 3D representation, as well as art and sculptural installations.
A ‘Sound and Light’ show has also been set up to display the events that happened on April 13, 1919.
Multiple development initiatives have been undertaken at the complex. Elaborate heritage restoration works have been carried out in sync with the local architectural style of Punjab. The Shaheedi well has been repaired and restored with a redefined superstructure. The heart of the Bagh, the flame monument, has been repaired and restored, the water body rejuvenated as a lily pond, and the pathways made broader for better navigability.
The Jallianwala Bagh massacre took place on April 13, 1919, when troops of the British Indian Army, under the command of Colonel Reginald Dyer, fired machine guns into a crowd of unarmed protesters and pilgrims who had gathered in Jallianwala Bagh in Punjab’s Amritsar on the occasion of Baisakhi.
The crowd had assembled peacefully at the venue to condemn the arrest of two national leaders — Satya Pal and Saifuddin Kitchlew — when they were fired at indiscriminately by General Dyer and his men.
Quito, Sep 30,2021: Clashes between criminal groups in a prison in the Ecuadorian city of Guayaquil have left 116 people dead and about 80 injured, President Guillermo Lasso said.
The clashes in Guayaquil’s Litoral prison erupted after reports about shooting and explosions in the facility as well as the evacuation of staff. Police say automatic rifles and grenades were used during the clashes.
“According to the latest information, 116 people have died and about 80 more injured. All these people were inmates, no employees have been injured,” Lasso said at a press conference on late Wednesday.
Lasso declared a 60-day state of emergency in the national penitentiary system after consultations with senior officials.
Conflicts between criminal groups and drug cartels in Ecuadorian prisons take place regularly, leaving multiple casualties.
Pyongyang, Sep 29 ,2021: The North Korean Academy of National Defense Science has test-fired the Hwasong-8 hypersonic missile, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) confirmed.
Earlier, the test launch of the Hwasong-8 missile was reported by South Korean news agency Yonhap on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, the Joint Chiefs of Staff of South Korea said the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea had fired an unidentified projectile towards the Sea of Japan.
September 28,2021: School for children in many nations has been going on for more than a month, and fears that the Delta coronavirus variant would derail personal learning have largely proved unfounded.
In a dozen countries with high vaccination rates in Asia, Europe and the United States, case rates, which rose in August, have mostly fallen back, according to local data and officials.
The jury is aware of how much this is due to seasonal factors in the midst of a global decline in cases, and how much it is linked to vaccinations and other preventive measures. Public health experts say they will continue to look for signs of an increase in cases as winter approaches.
“In the United States, school transmission is higher in places with low adult vaccination and no mitigation, but in general, schools have remained open,” said Monica Gandhi, a professor of medicine at the University of California San Francisco Medical School. “It’s going better than expected.”
Cases among children rose nearly seven times in August, but peaked in the week ending Sept. 2, according to data from the American Academy of Pediatrics. But only about 2% of U.S. schools have closed temporarily due to COVID-19 outbreaks, according to research firm Burbio, which tracks school closures.
Children represent the largest shard of the unvaccinated in most affluent countries, either because shots for their age groups have only just begun or have not yet been approved.
August’s summer travel-related infections and boost in test-related cases have faded, say public health experts, and rising vaccinations, mitigation measures in schools and a larger drop in community cases are helping.
There are exceptions. In Singapore, cases among children have been on the rise throughout September, and in Japan, Tokyo schools are changing students in the classroom.
But in Scandinavia, Scotland, Germany, France, South Korea and the United States, cases are falling, despite fears that the more transmissible Delta variant would drive up infections.
Sweden, where schools have been largely open during the whole pandemic, saw an initial increase in COVID -19 infections among children after the summer holidays, but cases are now at a low level – both among children and the wider population.
In Norway, cases rose to a daily record of 1,785 after the first two weeks of school, before falling by 60% from last week.
“We expect the current downward trend to continue for a few weeks and then level off at a low level, at least for a few months. Then there is uncertainty about the winter season,” says Preben Aavitsland, chief physician at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health , told Reuters via email.
Aavitsland said everything from parties to music lessons drove teenage cases up in August.
Britain has seen some increase in cases at schools that opened early, but it has not spread to the wider population, said Neil Ferguson, an epidemiologist at Imperial College London.
In Scotland, schools reopened in mid-August and positive test results rose to record numbers by the end of the month.
In the week ending Sept. 3, about 1 in 20 children ages 3, 8, 13 and 16 were estimated to have COVID-19, compared with 1 in 45 in the wider population, according to government data. But cases among those under 19s have dropped every week since.
While cases began to rise in Scotland before schools opened, there appears to be some level of transfer at schools, Rowland Kao, an epidemiologist at the University of Edinburgh, told Reuters via email.
“It is very difficult to separate societal transfer related to schools for transmission in schools. However, clusters of cases in individual classrooms do not appear to be very high, suggesting that it is at least a mixture of both, ”Kao said.
UNITED STATES
In the United States, the number of child cases has grown as a percentage of total cases, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
“Schools simply reflect what is going on in the surrounding community, and in most cases you have less transmission than in the surrounding community due to mitigation measures,” said Dr. Sean O’Leary, a pediatrician at the University of Colorado.
In Kentucky, for example, 45 of the state’s 171 school districts have closed at least once since the school year began in August, according to Joshua Shoulta, a spokesman for the Kentucky School Boards Association.
Cases per 100,000 people in Kentucky are falling, but still among the highest in the country, and just over 50% of the population is fully vaccinated. State school districts were already struggling with staff shortages before COVID-19 cases and quarantines, Shoulta said. State legislators met in a special session last week where lawmakers gave local school staff more autonomy to implement COVID-19 protocols.
“What we know now and the tools we have in relation to where we were at this point last year make it a slightly different ball game,” Shoulta said.
A school district in Texas is struggling with less than half of the substitute teachers it needs. Brent Hawkins, superintendent of the Livingston (TX) Independent School District, said the district was forced to close for Labor Day week after more than 10% of the 600 members received COVID-19.
Hawkins said Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision to prevent school districts from claiming masks drives much of the increase in cases. Livingston recorded more positive cases among students and teachers in the first weeks of school than during last year, he said. Nearly 7% of the district’s approximately 4,000 students or nearly 300 children had been infected by mid-September.
“For a couple of weeks, we had people like myself and other administrators in the classrooms substituting teaching,” Hawkins said.
Meanwhile, California is nearly nine times the size of Kentucky, with a population of about 40 million. With masks, ventilation, and high vaccination rates, school districts in San Francisco and Los Angeles reported zero to few cases in their first few weeks. The state, according to Burbio, has had less than half the number of school or district closures like Kentucky.
Reporting by Alistair Smount in London, Richard Lough in Paris, Ludwig Burger in Germany, Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago, Joseph Ax and Michael Erman in New York, Gwladys Fouche in Oslo, Johan Ahlander in Stockholm, Rocky Swift in Tokyo, Lin Chen in Singapore and Stine Jacobsen in Copenhagen Editing by Michele Gershberg, Caroline Humer and Mark Potter
New Delhi, Sep 27: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday launched Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission and pushed for enhancing the use of telemedicine to connect hospitals digitally, provide a unique digital health ID to people and maintain their health records.
Lauding the digital infrastructure created over recent years, the Prime Minister, through video conferencing, said, “Digital infrastructure is delivering ‘Ration to Prashasan’ to the common Indian in a fast and transparent manner.”
With 130 crore Aadhaar cards, 118 crore mobile subscribers, around 80 crore internet users and about 43 crore Jan Dhan bank accounts, India has the biggest “connected infrastructure” in the world, he said.
Modi said the Arogya Setu app has helped in preventing the spread of corona infections. He also lauded CoWIN app for its role in making India achieve a record administration of about 90 crore vaccine doses so far.
He said there has been an unprecedented expansion of telemedicine during Covid-19 pandemic and about 125 crores remote consultations have been completed through e-Sanjeevani till now.
“This facility has connected thousands of people, who are living in far-flung parts of the country, every day with doctors of big hospitals in cities while sitting at home,” Modi said.
He said Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY has so far covered more than 2 crore people, who availed the facility of free treatment under this scheme, adding that half of beneficiaries of this scheme are women.
As healthcare expenditure a major factor for pushing people into poverty, the Prime Minister said, “these healthcare solutions are a big investment in the present and future of the country.”
“These healthcare solutions are a big investment in the present and future of the country,” he said.
He said the newly launched mission would connect digital health solutions of hospitals across the country and also provide a unique health ID to people.
“Ayushman Bharat – Digital Mission, will now connect the digital health solutions of hospitals across the country with each other. The mission will not only make the processes of hospitals simplified but also will increase ease of living. Every citizen will now get a digital health ID and their health record will be digitally protected,” he said.
While stressing on a holistic and inclusive approach towards health, he said India is working on a health model that would stress on preventive healthcare and easy, affordable and accessible treatment for diseases.
Talking about the health reforms undertaken in the country, he said the numbers of doctors and paramedical staff has increased over the years, and a comprehensive network of AIIMS and other modern health institutions is being established across the country.
He said work is going on for establishing at least one medical college for every three Lok Sabha constituencies.
The network of primary health centre and wellness centres across villages is being strengthened, he said, adding “More than 80,000 such centres have already been operationalised.”
The pilot project of Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission had been announced by the Prime Minister from the ramparts of Red Fort on August 15 last year. Currently, Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission is being implemented in pilot phase in six Union Territories.
The nationwide rollout of Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission coincides with third anniversary of Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana.
According to officials, the Mission will create a seamless online platform by providing a wide range of data, information and infrastructure services related to healthcare.
The key components of Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission include a health ID for every citizen that will also work as their health account, to which personal health records can be linked and viewed with the help of a mobile application.
The Mission will create interoperability within the digital health ecosystem, similar to the role played by the Unified Payments Interface in revolutionising payments, said government officials.
New Delhi, Sep 27: Transport was affected and several institutions remained closed in parts of the country as a call for a Bharat Bandh was given by Samyukt Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of farmer groups that are protesting against the new farm laws.
The Bharat Bandh, the call for which was given on September 5 at a farmers’ Mahapanchayat in Muzaffarnagar, has been called against the Farm Laws, as a part of the agitations that have now been going on for over a year.
The call has also received support from several political parties including the Congress, Samajwadi Party, TDP, JD(S), Shiv Sena, NCP, DMK, YSRCP, JMM, RJD, Swaraj India and left parties including CPI-M, CPI, and CPI-ML (Lib).
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi supported the Bharat Bandh and said, “Farmers’ non-violent satyagraha is intact even today but the exploitative government does not like this and that is why today is Bharat Bandh.”
The Samyukt Kisan Morcha, in a statement called the support to the Bandh ‘unprecedented’, and said the call got extensive support in Punjab, Haryana, Kerala, Bihar, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh.
In the national capital Delhi, where farmers have been camping at the borders since November last year against the Farm Laws, farmers blocked roads close to the protest sites at Singhu border, and Ghazipur border. Police meanwhile shut the road near the Red Fort, and some metro stations were also closed. A protest was held at Jantar Mantar by the trade-unions which remained peaceful.
In Bihar, the call for the Bandh was supported by all Opposition parties including the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Congress, and Left parties. Several roads were blocked and trains were stopped. Protestors took to streets in capital Patna, and in other districts as well. Crucial Gandhi Bridge close to Patna was also blocked by protesters from RJD.
In Uttar Pradesh, where the call for this shut down was given from Muzaffarnagar, extra security was deployed ahead of the Bandh. Impact of the call was higher in the western part of the state where several mahapanchayats of the farmers have been held over the last year.
The farmers’ agitation has also emerged as an issue for the upcoming polls, set to be held next year.
Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav said his party is standing with the farmers.
In Andhra Pradesh, the call, supported by the TDP led state government, evoked good response. The bandh was complete and peaceful in Coastal districts in the state, police said.
Road and rail traffic was disrupted in both Punjab and Haryana as farmers blocked national highways, state highways, link roads and railway tracks at various places. Reports said a complete shutdown was observed at several places in Punjab, which has been the epicenter of the farmers’ protests.
In Kerala, both ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) and Opposition Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) extended their support to the agitation. The LDF called for a state-wide hartal in support of the Bandh. In view of the strike, Kerala University postponed all the examinations scheduled to held on Monday. All emergency and essential services including Ambulance services were exempted from the shut down.
In Tamil Nadu, even though ruling DMK and allies supported the Bandh, normal life remained unaffected and the Bandh evoked little response. While protests were held at several locations, including rail and road blocks, buses plied as usual, shops and commercial establishments remained open, and schools and
colleges functioned normally across the state.
In West Bengal, protests were held, but normal life remained largely unaffected, and shops and commercial establishments remained open. In Maharashtra, ruling alliance of Shive Sena, Congress and NCP supported the Bandh. In Tripura, shops remained shut and streets were empty in capital Agaratala.
The call for the Bandh was given to mark one year of President Ram Nath Kovind’s assent to the three Farm Laws.
Chennai, Sep 26: Union Minister of State for I and B, Fisheries,
Animal Husbandry and dairying L Murugan on Sunday said India was the
fourth largest marine products exporting nation in the world, constituting
about 17-18 per cent from India.
Addressing the concluding ceremony of ‘VanijyaSaptah-Trade and Commerce
Week’ here, he said to boost the marine sector, the Union Government has
launched the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) at an estimated
investment of Rs 20,050 crores.
The scheme envisages enhancing fisheries exports to Rs one lakh crores by
2024-25 from Rs 46,662 crores, he said and urged the youth and the people
of Tamil Nadu to make good use of this scheme.
The Minister said recognizing the potential in seaweed farming in transforming
the lives of coastal communities, SHGs and women, the first Multipurpose
Seaweed Park in India was established in Tamil Nadu.
Asserting that Tamil Nadu has all the ingredients to be a top export hub,
Mr Murugan urged the industry to grab this opportunity, increase the range
of the products, diversify the export destination, step up the value ladder
and never compromise with the quality of the product.
”The product which is exported, not just carries the name of the brand, but
also carries with it the reputation of Tamil Nadu and India is also associated
with it”, he added.
The Minister said that Reform, Perform and Transform is the new mantra. The
Atmanirbhar Bharat is the vision and Vocal For Local is the action point under
the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He said following the footsteps of freedom fighter V.O.Chidambaram Pillai, whose
150th birth anniversary is being celebrated, Mr Modi announced Aatmanirbhar
Bharat and Vocal For Local during the 75th year of Indian Independence.
New sectors are being identified and promoted for their export potential. Local
region-specific products, textiles, toys having the flavour of the region, are promoted
to find a global market, he said.
Hyderabad, Sep 26: The landfall process of the Cyclonic Storm ‘Gulab’ (pronounced as ‘Gul-Aab’) has commenced on Sunday evening, Ministry of Earth Sciences, India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
In a bulletin, it said as per the latest Meteorological observations, the cloud bands have touched the coastal regions and thus the landfall process has commenced over North Coastal Andhra Pradesh and adjoining South Coastal Odisha.
The bulletin said the Cyclonic Storm, at 1730 hours lay centered over Northwest and Adjoining Westcentral Bay of Bengal near Latitude 18.4°North and Longitude 84.6°East , about 50 KM East-Northeast of Kalingapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and 105 km Southsouth east of Gopalapur in Odisha.
The system is lying close to the Coast and the Centre is about 30 KM to the east of the expected landfall point, the bulletin added.
Sept 25,2021:The dispute between Myanmar’s military rulers and the civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi that they ousted about who should represent the country at the United Nations hasn’t been resolved. But what appears virtually certain is that neither will speak at the General Assembly’s annual meeting of world leaders.
Myanmar was scheduled to be one of the final speakers at the six-day gathering on the afternoon of September 27. But U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric on September 24 said, “At this point, Myanmar is not speaking.”
Sept 25,2021:Two Canadian citizens who were detained by Beijing for almost three years have left Chinese airspace and will arrive back in Canada early on Saturday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.
Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were picked up in December 2018 on charges of espionage, shortly after Canadian authorities arrested Huawei Technologies Co Ltd Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou on a US warrant.
Shortly before Trudeau spoke, Canadian media reported that Meng flew back to China after reaching a deal with US authorities.
Both Kovrig and Spavor were put on trial in March of this year.
In August, Spavor was sentenced to 11 years in prison, while there had been no decision in Kovrig’s case.
Their families at the beginning of September led hundreds of supporters marching 7,000 steps through the Canadian capital – the same number Kovrig said in letters to his family he walked in his small cell every day – to bring attention to their detention.
Representatives of 26 countries had also gathered outside the building in Beijing where his closed-door trial was held in March.
Sept 25,2021:Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou has reached an agreement with US prosecutors to end the bank fraud case against her, officials said. The move allows her to leave Canada, relieving a point of tension between China and the United States.
Meng Wanzhou reportedly boarded an unscheduled Air China 777 flight that departed Vancouver International Airport on Friday afternoon.
The years-long extradition drama has been a central source of discord in increasingly rocky ties between Beijing and Washington, with Chinese officials signaling that the case needed to be dropped to help end a diplomatic stalemate between the world’s top two powers.
The deal also opens US President Joe Biden up to criticism from China hawks in Washington who argue his administration is capitulating to China and one of its top companies at the centre of a global technology rivalry between the two countries.
Meng was arrested at Vancouver International Airport in December 2018 on a US warrant, and was indicted on bank and wire fraud charges for allegedly misleading HSBC in 2013 about the telecommunications equipment giant’s business dealings in Iran.
Her arrest sparked a diplomatic storm and drew Canada into the fray when China arrested two Canadians, a businessman and a former diplomat, shortly after Meng was taken into custody.
Beijing has denied publicly that the arrests are linked.
The agreement pertains only to Meng, and the US Justice Department said it is preparing for trial against Huawei and looks forward to proving its case in court.
A spokeswoman for Huawei declined to comment.