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What's in a surname: The origins of 'Modi', its caste linksPremium Story
The Indian Express | 21 hours ago | 28-03-2023 | 11:45 am
The Indian Express
21 hours ago | 28-03-2023 | 11:45 am

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who has been unseated from Parliament after his conviction and two-year sentence for defamation triggered Section 8(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, argued before the magistrate’s court in Surat that he had caused no personal damage to the petitioner, BJP MLA Purnesh Modi — and there was, in fact, no specific community called “Modi” in the country.At an election rally in Kolar, Karnataka, on April 13, 2019, Rahul referred to fugitive businessmen Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and asked, “Why do all thieves have the surname Modi?”The next day, Purnesh Modi filed a private complaint before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Surat, accusing Rahul of having defamed everyone with the name Modi.“Any person with the surname Modi across India belongs to the Modi Samaj-Modhvanik community and is found in the whole of Gujarat as a whole, and this community is also present in other states apart from in Gujarat… The accused by insulting the Modi surname of current Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has insulted the 13 crore Modi surnamed people by calling them ‘chor’ for political selfishness,” Purnesh Modi said.Rahul Gandhi’s lawyer Kirit Panwala argued in court that there is no “identifiable and determinate” community called ‘Modi’. “It is Purnesh Modi who terms the Modhvanik community as the ‘Modi’ community; there is [actually] no evidence of it (the ‘Modi’ community). If the ‘Modi’ community comprises 13 crore people, it is not an identifiable and determinate community,” he told The Indian Express.“Only one sentence should not be taken as defamatory. He (Rahul) has not insulted any community. The Modi surname [does not belong to] only the Modhvanik community but also to [people from] other castes. If proper identity is established, [only] then this case is maintainable…here, identity is not established,” Panwala said.Although many people use the surname Modi, it does not denote any specific community or caste. In Gujarat, the Modi surname is used by Hindus, Muslims, and Parsis. There are people with the Modi surname among Vaishnavas (Baniyas), Kharwas (fishermen from Porbandar), and Lohanas (who are a community of traders).Purnesh Modi, the complainant in the Rahul Gandhi case, belongs to the Modhvanik community of Surat, as does Hasmukh Lalwala, who was Purnesh Modi’s lawyer earlier, and Kirit Panwala, counsel for Rahul.Members of the Modhvanik clan worship Modheshwari Mata, whose temple is near the Modhera Sun Temple in Mehsana district. Prime Minister Modi visited the Modheshwari temple in October last year, ahead of the Assembly elections in Gujarat.According to Lalwala, there are around 10 lakh Modhvaniks in Gujarat. They live everywhere in the state, though mainly in North and South Gujarat.No, they don’t. In fact, there is no community or caste by the name “Modi” in the central list of OBCs for reservation in jobs and education.Entry no 23 in the central list of 104 communities of OBCs from Gujarat reads: “Ghanchi (Muslim), Teli, Modh Ghanchi, Teli-Sahu, Teli-Rathod, Teli-Rathore.” All these communities have traditionally engaged in activities related to the extraction and trade of edible oils.Members of these communities who live in Eastern Uttar Pradesh usually use the surname Gupta and often, Modi as well.In the 136 communities from Bihar listed in the central list of OBCs, there is no “Modi”, even though there is a “Teli” (entry no 53 in Bihar’s central list of OBCs). The most prominent BJP leader in Bihar, Sushil Kumar Modi, has filed a separate case of defamation against Rahul.In the list of 68 communities of Rajasthan in the central OBC list, there is “Teli” as the 51st entry, but there is no community listed as “Modi”.Some were in the central list of OBCs from the beginning — when the first central list of OBCs was notified in 1993 after the implementation of the ‘Mandal’ reservations.On October 27, 1999, the Muslim Ghanchi community was added to the central list of OBCs, along with some other similar communities from other states. Subsequently, by a notification dated April 4, 2000, other communities from Gujarat such as “Teli”, “Modh Ganchi”, “Teli Sahu”, “Teli Rathod”, and “Teli Rathore” were added to the central list of OBCs.Thus, the caste to which Prime Minister Modi belongs — Ghanchi — was included in the central list of OBCs almost 18 months before Modi first became Chief Minister of Gujarat (on October 7, 2001).As mentioned above, there are Modis in UP and Bihar.This surname is also widely used by Marwaris, who are from the stock of Agrawals, who are said to belong to Agroha in Hisar, Haryana, and subsequently spread to districts like Mahendragarh of Haryana and Jhunjhunu and Sikar of Rajasthan.The grandfather of former IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi, Rai Bahadur Gujar Mal Modi, moved from Mahendragarh to settle near Meerut, and the town was later renamed as Modinagar.The fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi hails from Gujarat’s Jamnagar, from a community that has been traditionally engaged in the diamond trade.The former chairman of Tata Steel Russi Mody, and the stage and film personality Sohrab Modi, were Parsis from Bombay (Mumbai).

What's in a surname: The origins of 'Modi', its caste linksPremium Story
EPS takes charge as AIADMK gen secy after Madras HC rejects OPS challenge
The Indian Express | 21 hours ago | 28-03-2023 | 11:45 am
The Indian Express
21 hours ago | 28-03-2023 | 11:45 am

Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) Tuesday took charge of AIADMK’s top post after the Madras High Court rejected pleas filed by the O Panneerselvam (OPS) camp against the party’s general council resolutions and general secretary elections.A plea was filed by expelled AIADMK members OPS, Manoj Pandian, R Vaithilingam, and JCD Prabhakar against resolutions of the July 11, 2022 party general council and the conduct of the general secretary election. The HC, however, rejected their applications.Following this, the interim general secretary, EPS, was announced as unanimously elected to the general secretary at the party headquarters by the election authorities concerned, news agency PTI reported.#WATCH | Celebrations at AIADMK headquarters in Chennai after Madras High Court Justice K Kumaresh Babu rejected interim applications by O Paneerselvam & his supporters seeking stay on AIADMK general secretary polls.Edappadi Palaniswami now becomes the party's General… pic.twitter.com/pFG6pbOPsA— ANI (@ANI) March 28, 2023EPS thanked his supporters and celebrations erupted at the party headquarters, soon after.Addressing reporters, AIADMK advocate I S Inbadurai said, “Panneerselvam (and others) filed a plea against the July 11, 2022 resolutions. It has been rejected. This means the general council is valid, its resolutions are valid.”Earlier, the High Court had permitted the AIADMK to go ahead with its election plan for party general secretary post but ordered it to withhold the result announcement till the court order in the original lawsuit.— with PTI inputs

EPS takes charge as AIADMK gen secy after Madras HC rejects OPS challenge
Banking mistake leaves man richer by over Rs 1 lakh — and in jail two years later
The Indian Express | 21 hours ago | 28-03-2023 | 11:45 am
The Indian Express
21 hours ago | 28-03-2023 | 11:45 am

A bank account with over Rs 1 lakh that was ‘mistakenly’ linked to his Aadhaar number two years ago has cost Jeetrai Samant his freedom.The 42-year-old beedi worker, from Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum district, has been arrested by the state police for allegedly withdrawing the money that belonged to a woman, whose bank account was linked to his Aadhaar number erroneously.Samant came to know of the money two years ago, as Covid cast its shadow across the nation, through a Common Service Centre. The centres serve as access points for delivery of essential public services, welfare schemes, etc in rural and remote areas of the country. According to sources familiar with the probe, the CSC also had a bank representative to help withdraw money that a beneficiary might have in his or her account.But the law caught up with Samant last September, when the manager of Jharkhand Rajya Gramin Bank received a complaint from an account holder named Shrimati Laguri regarding money disappearing from her account. The manager wrote to the authorities and, on discovering the error that had taken place, asked Samant to return the money. Since he was unable to do so, an FIR was lodged against him in October under IPC section 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) in the district’s Muffasil police station.Superintendent of Police Ashutosh Shekhar told The Indian Express: “Samant was arrested on March 24. There was a mistake and his Aadhaar got linked to someone else’s account, but he did not return the amount. He allegedly paid a bribe at the CSC point so no one else would get to know. (When police issued a notice about the issue) he wrote a letter to us saying he believed Prime Minister Narendra Modi had sent him money.”Bank manager Manish Kumar told The Indian Express: “Earlier, Bank of India used to sponsor the Gramin Bank, and now SBI does it. So the entire data was merged with SBI in April 2019, and it was during this process that Samant’s Aadhaar number got accidentally linked with someone else’s bank account. The woman did not complain earlier, else we could have stopped it.” He said it was “difficult” to pin blame on a single bank official.A UIDAI official, requesting anonymity, said: “This is clearly the bank’s mistake. The UIDAI has no role in it.”From October to March, Samant received three notices to appear before the police under CrPC section 41 A, under which police can arrest a person without a warrant in case he fails to appear before the court or the police since he is an accused.The Indian Express had spoken to Samant in December, before his arrest. At the time, he claimed: “During the first lockdown, everyone in the village was checking the amount in their Aadhaar-linked account numbers as it was announced that people would receive something. I put my thumb on the reading machine and it showed a balance as Rs 1,12,000. I rushed to the Gramin Bank, but could not find any money having been credited there. When I asked them about it, they told me the government would have sent the amount.”Police have claimed he withdrew Rs 2 lakh.Samant, a father of six children, said he kept withdrawing the money during the lockdown since he was in financial distress and believed it had come from the government.In response to one of the police notices, Samant had written to Superintendent of Police, Chaibasa, Ashutosh Shekhar in December. He claimed: “During the lockdown, there was a talk in the village that the Modi government is giving money in the account. My Aadhaar-based account showed Rs 1 lakh. The bank manager said I could withdraw the money. Now a case has been registered against me. I am not at fault. Without my knowledge, my Aadhaar was linked to someone else’s bank account. For the last two years, the bank did not even inform me.”Sub-inspector Ratu Oraon of Pandrasali observation point told The Indian Express: “After receiving the first notice, Samant did come to the police station, but he did not commit to returning the amount. Obviously there was a mistake when his Aadhaar got linked with Shrimati Laguri’s account number, but it was his moral responsibility not to withdraw the amount.”Asked why the arrest was not made earlier, Oraon said: “This was not an urgent case.”He added that Samant’s account originally had only Rs 650, but he kept withdrawing amounts ranging between Rs 500 and Rs 5,000. “Even during withdrawals, the name of the account holder must have appeared, but he chose to ignore that.”

Banking mistake leaves man richer by over Rs 1 lakh — and in jail two years later
In SC today, disqualification of another MP
The Indian Express | 21 hours ago | 28-03-2023 | 11:45 am
The Indian Express
21 hours ago | 28-03-2023 | 11:45 am

The Supreme Court has listed for hearing on Tuesday (March 28) a petition filed by Lakshadweep MP P P Mohammed Faizal challenging the Lok Sabha Secretariat’s “unlawful action” in failing to withdraw its disqualification notice, more than two months after the Kerala High Court stayed the MP’s conviction and 10-year sentence in an attempt-to-murder case.According to Faizal, a “false case” was registered against him on January 5, 2016 at Androth island police station. While the trial was ongoing, he was elected to Lok Sabha in 2019.On January 11, 2023, Faizal and three others were sentenced to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 1 lakh each by a sessions court in Kavaratti for attempting to murder Mohammed Salih, son-in-law of the late Union Minister P M Sayeed, during the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.On January 13, the Lok Sabha Secretariat notified Faizal’s disqualification under Section 8(3) of The Representation of the People Act, 1951, which provides for immediate disqualification of any “person convicted of any offence and sentenced to imprisonment for not less than two years”. This is the same section under which Rahul Gandhi was disqualified after a Surat magistrate’s court sentenced him to two years in jail for defamation.On January 18, with Faizal’s appeal against the sessions court order still pending before the Kerala High Court, the Election Commission announced a by-election to fill the Lakshadweep seat.On January 25, two days before the scheduled bypoll, the Kerala HC suspended the conviction and 10-year sentence given to Faizal. The EC subsequently announced that it had decided to “withhold” the byelection in Lakshadweep.On January 30, the Union Territory of Lakshadweep challenged the Kerala HC’s decision in the Supreme Court. On February 20, a Bench of Justices K M Joseph and B V Nagarathna refused to stay the HC order and, issuing notice on the UT’s plea, posted the matter for hearing on March 28.In a fresh petition, Faizal has challenged the Lok Sabha Secretariat’s non-withdrawal of the January 13 disqualification notification.The plea contends that the Secretariat’s inaction violates settled law under Section 8 of The Representation of People Act, 1951, under which the disqualification of an MP ceases to operate if their conviction is stayed by an appellate court under Section 389 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.In its ruling in Lok Prahari v Election Commission of India & Ors (2018), a three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court comprising then Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra, Justice A M Khanwilkar (retd), and (now CJI) Justice D Y Chandrachud clarified that a disqualification triggered by a conviction will be reversed if the conviction is stayed by a court.“Once the conviction has been stayed during the pendency of an appeal, the disqualification which operates as a consequence of the conviction cannot take or remain in effect,” the ruling had said.

In SC today, disqualification of another MP
  • Plea in SC challenging automatic disqualification of convicted MPs, MLAs
  • The Indian Express

    A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the constitutional validity of a Section 8(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 which provides for automatic disqualification of a legislator from the Parliament or State assembly upon conviction in a criminal case, Bar and Bench reported.The plea, filed by PhD scholar and social activist Aabha Muralidharan, assumes significance as it comes at a time when Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been disqualified from Lok Sabha after his conviction in a defamation case.Murulidharan said, “Section 8(3) is ultra vires of the Constitution since it curtails free speech of an elected Member of Parliament (MP) or Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) and restrains law makers from freely discharging their duties cast upon them by the voters of their respective constituency. ”According to the petition, Section 8(3) is in contradiction to sub-section (1) of the Section 8, Section 8A, 9, 9A, 10 and 10A and 11 of the 1951 Act. In the petition, Murulidharan said the factors such as nature, gravity, role, moral turpitude and the role of the accused, needed to be examined while considering disqualification under Chapter III of the 1951 Act. He pointed out that the intent of the legislature was to disqualify the elected members who on committing of a heinous offences are convicted by the courts and hence are liable to be disqualified.He also contended that the Lily Thomas judgment of the apex court which struck down Section 8(4), is being misused, reported Bar and Bench.

EPFO fixes 8.15% interest rate for 2022-23: Report
The Indian Express | 21 hours ago | 28-03-2023 | 11:45 am
The Indian Express
21 hours ago | 28-03-2023 | 11:45 am

Retirement fund body EPFO fixed 8.15 per cent rate of interest on employees’ provident fund (EPF) deposits for 2022-23 at its meeting on Tuesday.In March 2022, EPFO had lowered the interest on EPF for 2021-22 to an over four-decade low of 8.1 per cent for its about five crore subscribers, from 8.5 per cent in 2020-21.This was the lowest since 1977-78, when the EPF interest rate stood at 8 per cent.“The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation’s apex decision making body Central Board of Trustees (CBT) has decided to provide 8.15 per cent rate of interest on EPF for 2022-23 at its meeting on Tuesday,” a source said.The 8.5 per cent interest rate on EPF deposits for 2020-21 was decided by CBT in March 2021.After the CBT’s decision, the interest rate on EPF deposits for 2022-23 will be sent to Ministry of Finance for concurrence.After the government’s ratification, the interest rate on EPF for 2022-23 will be credited into accounts of over five crore subscribers of EPFO.EPFO provides the rate of interest only after it is ratified by the government through the finance ministry.In March 2020, EPFO had lowered the interest rate on provident fund deposits to a seven-year low of 8.5 per cent for 2019-20, from 8.65 per cent provided for 2018-19.EPFO had provided 8.65 per cent interest rate to its subscribers in 2016-17 and 8.55 per cent in 2017-18. The rate of interest was slightly higher at 8.8 per cent in 2015-16.The retirement fund body had given 8.75 per cent rate of interest in 2013-14 as well as 2014-15, higher than 8.5 per cent for 2012-13.The rate of interest was 8.25 per cent in 2011-12.

EPFO fixes 8.15% interest rate for 2022-23: Report
25 years after death penalty, school record shows convict was juvenile, SC sets him freePremium Story
The Indian Express | 21 hours ago | 28-03-2023 | 11:45 am
The Indian Express
21 hours ago | 28-03-2023 | 11:45 am

He has been on the death row for about 25 years, after being arrested for murder and sent to Pune’s Yerawada jail. During all those years behind bars, this primary school dropout taught himself Marathi and English, and obtained an MA in Sociology. But for the Supreme Court, what really mattered when setting Niranaram Chaudhary free on Monday was a date from the admissions register of a school in Rajasthan’s Bikaner.The register, from Rajkiya Adarsh Uch Madhyamik Vidyalaya in Jalabsar, showed that Chaudhary had dropped out of Class 3 on May 15, 1989.And so, the apex court ruled that he was a juvenile while being sentenced to death in 1998 with two others for the murder of five members of a family, including a pregnant woman and two children, in a “rarest of the rare” case.On Monday, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justice K M Joseph, directed that Chaudhary “be set free forthwith from the correctional home in which he remains imprisoned, as he has suffered imprisonment for more than 28 years” after his arrest in 1994.Chaudhary’s death sentence had earlier been confirmed by the Bombay High Court and twice by the Supreme Court in 2000. However, abandoned by his family at the time of conviction, Chaudhary’s name and age were incorrectly recorded by the Pune court that awarded him the death penalty. In 2018, with the intervention of Project 39A, a criminal reforms advocacy group based in National Law University, Delhi, Chaudhary moved the Supreme Court again.He also argued that his actual name was Niranaram, which was wrongly recorded by the court as “Narayan”.In January 2019, the Supreme Court had referred the case to the Principal District and Sessions Judge in Pune to decide on Chaudhary’s status as a juvenile at the time of conviction. The inquiry led to the school admissions register in Jalabsar.“Apart from the documents of the school, there is a family card, to which we have referred to earlier. The date of issue of Family Card is 1989 and, in this card, issued by the State Government, Nirana’s age is shown to be 12 years,” the Supreme Court said in its final verdict.“Going by that certificate, his age at the time of commission of offence was 12 years and 6 months. Thus, he was a child/ juvenile on the date of commission of offence for which he has been convicted, in terms of the provisions of the 2015 Act. This shall be deemed to be the true age of Niranaram, who was tried and convicted as Narayan,” the Supreme Court said.Anup Surendranath, director of Project 39A, told The Indian Express that Chaudhary is currently in a jail in Nagpur. “Once the Pune Sessions Court orders his release, the Nagpur prison will set him free,” he said.

25 years after death penalty, school record shows convict was juvenile, SC sets him freePremium Story
  • The SC puts the spotlight on the mode of execution in death penalty casesPremium Story
  • The Indian Express

    Even though the constitutional validity of the death penalty has been upheld by the Supreme Court, there have been persistent constitutional concerns with various aspects of the administration of the death penalty. Recent proceedings in the Supreme Court have, after nearly four decades, put the spotlight on the mode of execution in death penalty cases. It is inevitable that the Supreme Court will move towards the realisation that the concerns with the mode of execution to kill prisoners on death row raise insurmountable constitutional concerns.Death row prisoners in India are executed by hanging and the constitutional validity of hanging was last considered and upheld by the Supreme Court nearly four decades ago in September 1983 (Deena v. Union of India). The Law Commission of India in October 2003 (187th Report) recognised the constitutional impermissibility of death by hanging and recommended that India consider using lethal injections instead. However, the two decades since the 187th LCI Report have seen a series of botched up executions in the US involving lethal injections.Earlier this week, the Supreme Court was called upon to reconsider its September 1983 decision on whether India could continue using hanging for executions. While the petitioner’s claim was that we must move to lethal injection as a humane method of execution, the proceedings raise some fundamental constitutional questions for the administration of the death penalty. The most immediate question is whether there exists any mode of execution that can meet constitutional requirements. It obviously cannot be the position that merely because the death penalty is currently permissible it is then open to the state to use any method of execution. Any mode of execution that the state adopts must be capable of meeting constitutional requirements and that is a burden for the state to discharge.There is now a strong body of evidence establishing that death by hanging is a cruel and barbaric form of execution that violates human dignity. Contrary to the belief of “instantaneous death” by dislocating the cervical vertebrae, documentation of hangings in the US and the UK expose the cruel “lingering” between life and death as they undergo immense suffering due to asphyxiation before dying. Research is replete with instances of snapped ropes, necks that slipped out of nooses, partial or total decapitations, and slow death due to strangulation (instead of having the neck broken). The immediate and the painless nature of death attributed to hanging is an exception rather than the rule. Various courts including the Privy Council, Supreme Court of Uganda and the High Court of Tanzania have relied on the suffering caused by hangings to reject it as a humane method of execution.Like the Law Commission in October 2003, the petitioners in last week’s proceedings seem to be keen to replace death by hanging with lethal injections. However, there is now incontrovertible evidence from the US that executions using lethal injections come with a real and substantial risk of being botched and leading to immense suffering. In fact, a study published by the British Journal of American Legal Studies (2012) that examined 9,000 executions in the US between 1900 to 2010 found that executions using the lethal injection had a higher rate of being botched than any other method. In addition, the Death Penalty Information Center, a non-profit in the US, catalogues 59 different instances of botched executions including 47 by lethal injection. While the US continues to use lethal injection as a mode of execution, the procedure has not been scientifically or medically studied on human beings. Most states rely on a three-drug combination of sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride. While sodium thiopental puts the prisoner to sleep, pancuronium bromide renders the prisoner paralytic and unable to show any pain before potassium chloride causes cardiac arrest. Any suffering that the prisoner goes through as a result of the induced cardiac arrest is masked by the effect of pancuronium bromide.The petitioners in the current instance seem to have approached the court with the intention of wanting to reduce the pain of death row prisoners during executions. However, as Austin Sarat’s thought provoking work on the history of executions in the US has shown us, the conversation about “reducing pain” during executions is really about those viewing executions wanting to see less pain. Historically, societies using the death penalty have moved towards either carrying out executions in private away from the public gaze (like India does in its prisons with very few people witnessing the execution) or towards sanitising executions to make them look clean and without suffering (like the lethal injection executions in the US). However, neither of these options are really concerned with reducing pain for the prisoner and neither can they really achieve that reduction of pain. Society, as a consumer and supporter of the death penalty, does not want to see the immense suffering that is inflicted in killing the death row prisoner. As Sarat powerfully argues, it is almost like society wants to convince itself that it is killing the death row prisoner in a “civilised” way in contrast to the “savage” crime of the prisoner itself. It is now evident that all methods of execution that retentionist countries use inflict tremendous suffering on the death row prisoner.The search for the “least painful method” is ultimately an endeavour in how much cruelty we are willing to tolerate. It is about our collective willingness to inflict cruelty on an individual while wanting to appear otherwise. Instead, it would be better for us to acknowledge that issues surrounding the methods of execution present yet another constitutional crisis point in the administration of the death penalty. Just like the arbitrariness in death penalty sentencing, the discriminatory and disparate impact of the death penalty on marginalised groups, the brutal realities of life on death row, and the mental health consequences of being on death row, the constitutional infirmities with the method of execution is yet another reason to revisit the very administration of the death penalty in India. Over the four decades since the constitutional validity of the death penalty was upheld, it is striking that significant constitutional concerns have emerged over every aspect of its administration without exception.The author is Professor of Law and executive director, Project 39A at National Law University, Delhi. Research support by Namrata Sinha and Lakshmi Menon


Goa Tourism News

H-1B visa: Laid-off workers in US get BQ/B2 cushion
The Indian Express | 4 days ago | 24-03-2023 | 11:45 am
The Indian Express
4 days ago | 24-03-2023 | 11:45 am

Laid-off IT sector employees can continue to stay in the United States even beyond the H-1B time limit of 60 days to find another job, as per an announcement by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).Earlier, it was presumed that H-1B visa-holders get only 60 days after losing their job to either find a new job, have another employer file an H-1B petition on their behalf, or leave the US. While this may be true, all they have to do is shift their H-1B visa status to a B category visa, meant for tourism or business travellers, while they are there, according to USCIS.In fact, the US has this facility for anyone visiting the country on B1 (business) or B2 (tourist) status, the USCIS stated. The clarification is expected to assuage fears of Indian citizens on H-1B visa in the US amid widespread layoffs in the IT sector, which are said to have affected over 1 lakh Indians. In the first quarter of 2023 itself, layoffs — or “workforce reductions” — have been effected by tech giants such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Zoom. Several startups have also announced job cuts across sectors.The USCIS stated, “Many people have asked if they can look for a new job while in B-1 or B-2 status. The answer is, yes.”In a series of tweets, it clarified that “searching for employment and interviewing for a position are permissible B-1 or B-2 activities”.However, it is not permissible to engage in employment on B1/B2 visas. “If you are in B-1 or B-2 status, please remember you may not engage in employment within the domestic labour market (also known as ‘local labour for hire’) while in B-1 status or engage in any employment while in B-2 status,” the USCIS said.Before beginning any new employment, a petition and request for a change of status from B-1 or B-2 to an employment-authorised status must be approved, and the new status must take effect, the US government agency stated. Even those planning to look for employment in the US can use B1/B2 visas. The US recently said that it will process a million non-immigrant visa applications in India in 2023. At present, a thousand interviews are being conducted in India on a daily basis for B1 and B2 visas. The US had also extended interview waivers for B1/B2 cases, in case the applicants have had a US visa before, even if in another category.The embassy and consulates in India have already processed over 2 lakh visa applications so far this year, as per statistics provided by a US Embassy spokesperson in New Delhi.

H-1B visa: Laid-off workers in US get BQ/B2 cushion
Chinese visa for Indian citizens resumes today after a 3-year gap
The Indian Express | 1 week ago | 15-03-2023 | 11:45 am
The Indian Express
1 week ago | 15-03-2023 | 11:45 am

After a three-year hiatus, China has announced the resumption of all types of visas for Indian travellers, including those for tourism purposes. “The Chinese Embassy and Consulates General in India will resume issuing various types of Chinese visas, starting March 15,” it announced Tuesday.With this, China has resumed all types of visas for foreigners, including tourism visas, port visas, and multiple visa-exemption policies, as a move to reopen its borders for the first time after the coronavirus pandemic struck in early 2020. However, inbound travellers have been advised to consult with their local China embassies or consulates for more detailed requirements and procedures.Under its zero-Covid policy, China had imposed strict travel restrictions on international arrivals starting March 28, 2020, to stop the spread of coronavirus disease cases from abroad. In addition to the reduced frequency of international passenger flights, the restrictions included limited visa availability – including a suspension of tourist visas – and strict Covid-19 testing and quarantine requirements before and after arrival in China.However, late last year, the country had shifted from a “zero-Covid” policy to “living with Covid”, with the removal of centralised quarantine for inbound travellers. Gradually, they reopened visa applications for most types of visas, even as visa applications for tourism and medical treatment were still on hold.Now, “with the latest policy adjustment” announced by the embassies across the world – including in Canada, France, Kuwait, Malta, New Zealand, Thailand, the US, and the UAE – these restrictions will finally be removed.In August 2022, the Chinese embassy had resumed services for 10 types of ordinary visas for Indian citizens, including long-term study, business, work, family visits, personal visits, and talent introduction, among others. However, applications for visas to China for travel, medical treatment and other reasons remain suspended.Even as the number of Indian citizens entering China with visas for business visits, family visits are also expected to rise significantly after this move, experts in the travel industry say this may not mean much till direct flights to China are resumed. Currently, China and India are said to be negotiating details for the resumption of direct flights, which were curtailed during the pandemic.

Chinese visa for Indian citizens resumes today after a 3-year gap
Japanese tourist assaulted, robbed of Rs 9 lakh: TMC slams Goa govt for ‘apathy’
Times of India | 1 month ago | 20-02-2023 | 07:39 pm
Times of India
1 month ago | 20-02-2023 | 07:39 pm

PANAJI: The Trinamool Congress Party, on Monday, said the BJP-led Goa government must explain the delay in acting on the Japanese embassy’s advisory and attack on a Japanese tourist.Read AlsoPolice on lookout for ‘fake cops’ who robbed Japanese tourist of Rs 9.5 lakh in GoaMore than a month and a half after a Japanese tourist on holiday in Goa was robbed of nearly Rs 9.5 lakh by two or three persons posing as policemen and threatening to “arrest” him, Goa police are yet to make any arrests in the case.The TMC also demanded that the excise licence issued to a bar within the historic Aguada Fort be withdrawn immediately to preserve its heritage value.“The Goa government must be held accountable for its inaction towards the complaints from the Japanese embassy. We demand an explanation for the BJP government's lack of action and urge them to take immediate measures to address the concerns raised,” said Goa TMC media coordinator Trajano D’Mello.TMC said that chief minister Pramod Sawant’s apathy has led to the overall collapse of administration in the state. A Japanese man was assaulted and more than Rs 9 lakh was stolen from him.“The chief minister, who is also the home minister, did not utter a single word on the incident involving a Japanese tourist who was allegedly assaulted and cheated by someone impersonating as a cop. The tourism minister's silence on the matter is alarming and it raises questions about the government's commitment to upholding the rule of law,” said D’Mello.D’Mello said that Fort Aguada has historical significance and the opening of a bar is unacceptable.“To uphold the heritage value of the Aguada Fort, the government must withdraw the license for the bar without delay. Failure to do so would be a gross disregard for the historical significance of the site and a disservice to those who fought for our freedom,” said D’Mello.

Japanese tourist assaulted, robbed of Rs 9 lakh: TMC slams Goa govt for ‘apathy’
Want to develop Ponda taluka as dev bhoomi for tourism: Goa CM Dayanand Bandodkar
Times of India | 1 month ago | 20-02-2023 | 11:21 am
Times of India
1 month ago | 20-02-2023 | 11:21 am

PANAJI: The state government will renovate the fortress at Farmagudi and a statue of Goa’s first chief minister Dayanand Bandodkar will be installed in the complex, chief minister Pramod Sawant said on Sunday. The Shree Ganesh temple at Farmagudi will also be renovated, he said.Similarly plans are also on the anvil to renovate all other forts in the state, the chief minister said at the state’s official event to celebrate Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Jayanti.He said that Ponda will be the focus of the state’s plans to develop Goa as a spiritual tourism destination.“I will make a budget provision this time to renovate the fortress at Farmagudi, to install a statue of Bhausaheb Bandodkar and to renovate the Shree Ganesh temple of Farmagudi. We will definitely take up this project and we want to develop Ponda taluka as a dev bhoomi from the tourism point of view. To grow spiritual tourism in Goa, Ponda taluka is the ideal place,” Sawant said.He said that to ensure that Goa is not left behind in attaining Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream of a new India, “we are working to establish IT and electronic city, but, along with that, it is equally important to renovate our forts and other such places of historical importance”.“For the first time, we have established a research chair in the name of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj at the Goa University. The government is also working to renovate all forts in the state,” Sawant said, adding that the government is continuously working to see that the values of Shivaji Maharaj are imbibed in children and we will continue to work on it.“By stepping on this land of Gomantak, he had blessed this land. Under Portuguese rule, numerous temples were destroyed and if there was anyone who stopped that rampage, it was Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. It is from Narve in Bicholim with Shree Saptakoteshwar temple that he started the work of rebuilding a temple for the first time. I feel fortunate that I could inaugurate the renovated temple premises recently,” Sawant said.Shivaji Maharaj did not only rule, but worked to see that every person in his kingdom lived in peace and prosperity and with their self-respect intact, the chief minister said.

Want to develop Ponda taluka as dev bhoomi for tourism: Goa CM Dayanand Bandodkar
Nitin Gadkari to look into Bhoma bypass plan
Times of India | 1 month ago | 20-02-2023 | 11:21 am
Times of India
1 month ago | 20-02-2023 | 11:21 am

PANAJI: Union minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari has said that he will look into the request for a bypass road by halting the proposed plan to expand the existing highway passing through Corlim and Bhoma villages of North Goa. Union minister of state for tourism Shripad Naik had written to Gadkari to consider the villagers’ request for a bypass road.“I am in receipt of your letter dated November 11, 2022, requesting that road widening of NH4A through Corlim and Bhoma villages of North Goa be halted in favour of a bypass highway through the neighbouring fallow fields instead,” said Gadkari in his response to Naik. “I am having the matter looked into.” Corlim and Bhoma villagers are opposing the road widening, stating that it will lead to the loss of houses and temples and change the character of the village, which is one of the smallest in Goa.They state that the highway expansion will require the demolition of some important temples in the village. As a major chunk of the village land has already been utilised for an industrial estate, they said that the expansion of the road will further destroy the structure of the village.In October last year, a retired professor, Erwin De Sa, had written to Naik requesting that the proposed work be halted and that the construction of a bypass through the neighbouring fallow fields be considered instead. “I shall be grateful if you kindly look into the request by Professor De Sa and do the needful,” Naik, a resident of Corlim himself, had stated in his representation to Gadkari.The locals have proposed an alternative route of 7km that connects the Kadamba plateau to Kundaim. Not only is this route 2km shorter, but it also avoids human settlement areas and passes through mostly fallow land, according to the villagers.

Nitin Gadkari to look into Bhoma bypass plan

Goa Political News

For pension panel, a red line: Turning clock back on reformsPremium Story
The Indian Express | 21 hours ago | 28-03-2023 | 11:45 am
The Indian Express
21 hours ago | 28-03-2023 | 11:45 am

THE committee under Finance Secretary TV Somanathan, announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman last week, to relook at pension may not recommend a solution where the gains made over two decades are reversed, The Indian Express has learnt.That’s the big-picture sense from conversations with officials who have to balance the imperatives of politics in a pre-poll year and a reform that has withstood the pressures of time — and partisanship.There are options.One, increase the government contribution to the pension corpus of its employees from the current 14 per cent to such a level that the employee can expect 50 per cent of her last drawn basic pay as pension upon retirement.Indeed, one of the models being looked at is the Andhra Pradesh government proposal which has a “guarantee” that employees will get 50 per cent of the last drawn salary as pension.Officials said the government may also explore ways to make good for the increase in payout (dearness relief announced twice every year increases the pension by a certain percentage taking care of the rise in living expenses) as it happens under the old pension scheme (OPS).The NDA lost elections in 2004, the year NPS was implemented. But the Congress carried it forward. After a decade, when NDA returned under Modi, it consolidated the gains. But in 2019, just before elections, NDA hiked government contribution. Now, a fresh review again just ahead of 2024 polls.Whatever the formula that’s worked out, one thing is clear.The committee and its mandate mark a sharp turnaround in the Modi government’s support of the new pension system (NPS) — where contributions are defined, and benefits market-linked — which came into effect in January 2004, just a few months before the Lok Sabha elections.“There was no question of any looking back when the BJP under the leadership of Narendra Modi returned to power. His political conviction in pension reforms and fiscal conservatism meant the NPS was there to stay,” said an official.And yet there was no escaping the politics.In fact, the BJP’s electoral loss in May 2004 may have nothing to do with pension reforms – the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government was convinced of the economic rationale behind the move. But the party’s 10-year loss of power, between 2004 and 2014, is a memory that still stalks North Block.This when, in 2009, BJP’s loss in the Lok Sabha elections had not deterred the Congress from staying the course on pension reforms. With Manmohan Singh at the helm, and P Chidambaram as Finance Minister, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government earnestly implemented the NPS, exhorted states to follow suit, and also introduced a Bill to develop and regulate the pension sector. This was one of the many reforms that earned bipartisan support.There were four good reasons the government reformed the pension sector at the time it did: i) with increasing life spans, pension bills were ballooning, putting to risk future finances of the Centre and states, ii) a safety net for a very small percentage of workforce was being funded ironically by even the poor taxpayer, iii) inter-generational equity – the next generation footing the bill for the previous – presented a difficult-to-ignore moral hazard, and iv) India was at the cusp of a 50-year demographic dividend opportunity beginning 2005-05 with the best working age population ratio (workers or those in the 15-64 age group age/ dependents or those under 15 plus 65 and over).However, after the first five years in power, the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre did not take any chances. Just before Lok Sabha elections in 2019, it increased the employer’s contribution to NPS to 14 per cent of the employee’s basic pay every month from 10 per cent earlier; the employee continued to contribute only 10 per cent of her basic pay.The timing was not lost on those keeping a tab on BJP’s economic thinking; this came into effect from April 1, 2019.Now with just a year to go for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP is acutely aware of an altered economic and social landscape. The straws in the wind have been there for the past couple of years.Low growth that precedes the pandemic, job and income losses during Covid-19, stretched financial resources of people due to medical expenditure, and high inflation – which works like a painful tax on the poor, have highlighted the inadequacy of safety nets for a bulk of the country’s people. The political class cannot be blind to this. To discount the giveaways in recent Budgets by even fiscally prudent states like Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra as an election freebie will be drawing a wrong message.It is in this backdrop that government employees are demanding a return of the old pension scheme. At least five states (Congress-ruled Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh, JMM-led Jharkhand, and Aam Aadmi Party-led Punjab) have done so, having already notified the old pension scheme.The Congress win of the Assembly elections in Himachal, which most attribute to its promise to bring back OPS, has made the BJP leadership anxious. In Maharashtra, protests by state government employees prompted the Eknath Shinde government, whose finance minister is BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis, to set up a committee and address the NPS shortcomings. Some national employee unions continue to protest too, giving calls for rallies demanding restoration of OPS.Then, there is the insider bias. A section of senior IAS bureaucrats – who have the political executive’s ear – feel their juniors who joined service after January 1, 2004, can’t be left to the “mercy” of markets while seniors retire with the assurance of a continuously rising pension kitty.This conversation on NPS has been in the top echelons of power for a while now. Not that the Prime Minister is not aware of these noises around him. But if his preference for fiscal prudence is an indication, he will be happy only with a solution that doesn’t put the future of state finances in jeopardy.

For pension panel, a red line: Turning clock back on reformsPremium Story
Opposition nervous after BJP’s Gujarat, Northeast wins: PM Modi tells BJP MPs
The Indian Express | 21 hours ago | 28-03-2023 | 11:45 am
The Indian Express
21 hours ago | 28-03-2023 | 11:45 am

Amidst deepening tensions between the ruling and Opposition parties, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told his party members on Tuesday morning that they should focus on spreading positive information about the central government’s social security programmes as the Opposition is indulging in a ‘below the belt’ attack against the government after their debacle in the Northeast elections.“The Prime Minister said the Opposition is nervous after the BJP’s impressive performance in the recent elections in the Northeast. They had a similar reaction after BJP’s Gujarat victory too,” said a source who was present in the meeting.“The PM told us that the Opposition will attack us more as they are rattled by the repeated victories of the BJP. The more we win, the harsher will be the attack. Now they are worked up because of our wins in Gujarat and Northeast,” said an MP who was part of the meeting.While the BJP won a simple majority in Tripura, it formed governments in Nagaland and Meghalaya with the NDDP and the NPP, respectively.Sources said PM Modi addressed the BJP MPs for the first time after the budget session resumed on March 13. The budget session has witnessed abrupt adjournments and acrimonious scenes with the Opposition protesting the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi and demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the Adani issue.The Prime Minister was referring to the ongoing tension between the Opposition and the ruling party over Gandhi’s disqualification after being convicted in a defamation case by a Surat court. The Opposition has closed ranks against the government over the issue. Both Houses of Parliament have been disrupted and no major business, except budget formalities, was transacted.The PM is learnt to have told the MPs that the ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ campaign has helped improve the sex ratio in Gujarat and that they should focus on the implementation of social security schemes to win the hearts of people.The BJP MPs were also asked to focus on the 100th episode of Mann Ki Baat next month and the ninth-anniversary celebrations from May 15-June 15, sources said. 

Opposition nervous after BJP’s Gujarat, Northeast wins: PM Modi tells BJP MPs
CM Manohar Lal Khattar orders separate dashboard for HSVP properties
The Indian Express | 21 hours ago | 28-03-2023 | 11:45 am
The Indian Express
21 hours ago | 28-03-2023 | 11:45 am

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Monday directed the officers of Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) to develop a separate dashboard for all the properties of the state’s urban development authority.Details such as property location and owner’s name would be registered in the dashboard, he said. He also directed the officials that the entire record of the HSVP including the documents of the properties should be digitised.The chief minister, who is also the chairman of HSPV, was presiding over the 125th meeting of the authority here, according to an official statement.In the meeting, Khattar gave ex-post facto approval for the construction of multi-storey car parking and commercial complex by Faridabad Smart City Limited on about 4,000 square metre land in Sector-18A of Faridabad.Post facto approval was also given for the issuance of allotment letters of ownership rights to 131 shopkeepers and Antyodaya Market being constructed in place of the Rehri Market; as per the instructions of the Chief Minister, after the incident of fire in the Rehri market of Sector-9, Panchkula last year. Apart from this, pucca shops will be set up as Antyodaya Market in place of Rehri markets in Sectors 7, 11 and 17 of Panchkula.The chief minister said pucca shops should be constructed in the cities where Rehri markets are functioning.On this, HSVP Chief Administrator Ajit Balaji Joshi informed the chief minister that the HSVP has a proposal to set up Antyodaya Market in place of Rehri markets in Gurugram, Faridabad and Karnal.Khattar instructed the officers to constitute a committee to prepare a list of the cities where buildings or any other type of construction or activity has been done on the HSVP’s land or on the land of other departments. It was also apprised in the meeting by the officials that the HSVP has 5,418 residential, 2,688 commercial and 230 institutional properties, out of which 4,804 residential, 2,305 commercial and 205 institutional properties have been sold through e-auction.Khattar said that on the lines of the scheme for setting up cooperative group housing societies for MLAs, employees, journalists and lawyers in Panchkula, permission can be given to set up cooperative group housing societies for former MLAs as well.

CM Manohar Lal Khattar orders separate dashboard for HSVP properties
Karnataka HC cites evidence of son’s role in KSDL affairs to dismiss BJP MLA Madal Virupakshappa’s bail plea
The Indian Express | 21 hours ago | 28-03-2023 | 11:45 am
The Indian Express
21 hours ago | 28-03-2023 | 11:45 am

A single-judge bench of the Karnataka High Court on Monday dismissed the bail plea of BJP MLA Madal Virupakshappa, 72, in a bribery case filed earlier this month by the Karnataka Lokayukta police. The BJP MLA was arrested by the Lokayukta police a few hours after the bail plea was dismissed.The case was filed by the Lokayukta police after the MLA’s son Prashant Madal was caught red-handed on March 2 while allegedly receiving a bribe of Rs 40 lakh from a businessman for awarding a tender for the supply of raw materials to the state-run Karnataka Soaps and Detergents Ltd (KSDL), which was then headed by Virupakshappa.The Lokayukta police told the high court that the KSDL managing director had given a statement which revealed the active participation of Prashant in the tender process at KSDL at the instance of Virupakshappa despite Prashant not being connected to the KSDL and being an employee of another government department.“If the company pays crores of rupees as commission or bribe, one cannot expect good quality raw materials to be supplied and the very process followed by the tender accepting committee of accepting the lowest price and good quality of raw materials will be frustrated,” Justice K Natarajan said in his order.There was no question of Prashant approaching the complainant with a demand for a bribe if there had been no demand from Virupakshappa, the then KSDL chairman, the court said.The single-judge bench of the high court had on March 7 granted anticipatory bail to Virupakshappa on the grounds that there was no mention of the demand or acceptance of bribe by the MLA in the police complaint.On Monday, the bail plea was dismissed after the Lokayukta police produced material to show Virupakshappa’s direct involvement in the bribery and corruption at KSDL, which he headed till March 3. The Lokayukta police also told the court that Virupakshappa needs to be interrogated in police custody since he was evasive in his replies during regular questioning.The MLA’s bail plea was dismissed even as a hearing began in the Supreme Court on an appeal filed by the Lokayukta police against the anticipatory bail order.Businessman Shreyas Kashyap, who is a partner in a firm named Chemixil Corporation, allegedly told the Lokayukta police in February this year that he was asked by Virupakshappa to pay a bribe of Rs 1.2 crore to be cleared for a contract to supply 5,100 kg of Guaiacwood oil, and 29,520 kg of Abbalide, as raw materials to KSDL.Kashyap allegedly struck a deal for payment of a bribe of Rs 81 lakh for the supply contracts by Chemixil Corporation and Delicia Chemicals, with an initial payment of Rs 40 lakh to Prashant. The negotiations for the bribe payments with Prashant were reportedly recorded on a smartwatch camera by the businessman to prove that it was a genuine case of corruption.The Lokayukta police laid a trap on the basis of the businessman’s complaint and Prashant, who is a Karnataka Administrative Services official and the chief accounts officer of the Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage Board, was allegedly caught red-handed by the police on March 2 while accepting an initial bribe amount of Rs 40 lakh.A total amount of Rs 2.02 crore of bribes from KSDL suppliers was found in the possession of Prashant when he was caught at his private office in central Bengaluru while an amount of Rs 6.10 crore was seized from the residence of Virupakshappa, a close associate of former Karnataka BJP CM B S Yediyurappa.The Lokayukta police investigation has found that KSDL awarded contracts for the supply of raw materials at over 50 per cent profit margins to firms run by friends of Prashant.The Lokayukta police have also accused officials of a firm identified as Karnataka Aromas Ltd of paying bribes to the tune of Rs 90 to be given supply contracts by KSDL. Two field employees of Karnataka Aromas Company, Albert Nicola and Gangadhar, are among the six people named in the bribery case against Virupakshappa and Prashant.

Karnataka HC cites evidence of son’s role in KSDL affairs to dismiss BJP MLA Madal Virupakshappa’s bail plea
‘Rahul’s words, Sonia’s sanskar’: Smriti Irani on Youth Congress Prez BC Srinivas’ remarks about her
The Indian Express | 21 hours ago | 28-03-2023 | 11:45 am
The Indian Express
21 hours ago | 28-03-2023 | 11:45 am

Union Minister Smriti Irani on Tuesday  came down heavily on Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi over some controversial remarks about her made by Youth Congress President BC Srinivas during a recent event organised by the Congress.“Shabd Rahul Gandhi ke hain, sanskaar Sonia Gandhi ke hain, bas zuban Yuva Congress ki hai (The words are Rahul Gandhi’s, the values are Sonia Gandhi’s, only the mouth belongs to Youth Congress),” she said.“Shabd Rahul Gandhi ke hain, sanskar Sonia Gandhi ka hain bas zubaan Yuva Congress ki hain” says Union Minister Smriti Irani on the reported “gungi-behri” remark on her by the President of Indian Youth Congress Srinivas BV pic.twitter.com/AIX1CLXfaB— ANI (@ANI) March 28, 2023“I am saying this because he’s not the first Youth Congress chief who is making indecent comments… Jab tak ye do hain, tab tak Congress ka neta jo promotion chaahega, woh is praakar ki abhadra tippiniya karta rahega (Till the time these two are here, any Congress politician who wants a promotion will continue making such indecent comments),” Irani added.The remarks in question were made at the Congress’ ‘Sankalp Satyagraha’ on Sunday (March 26). In a purported video clip of the speech, he can be heard saying in Hindi, “The BJP means inflation. These same people in 2014 used to say that there is inflation witch which has been made to sit… Smriti Irani has become a little mute and deaf. That witch (Daayan)… Inflation witch (Mehengaai Daayan) has been made a darling and made to sit in the bedroom.”Congress has become a cesspool of misogyny , hatred for women especially if she comes from a humble background & defeats an entitled dynastFirst abuse OBC, then courts, then throw papers at Speaker; abuse journalists now abuse women!Time & again, Congress has abused those… pic.twitter.com/8KwU01a9tH— Shehzad Jai Hind (@Shehzad_Ind) March 27, 2023The BJP has come out strongly to attack Srinivas over the clip. Party spokesperson said that Congress has become a “cesspool of misogyny”.“First abuse OBC, then courts, then throw papers at Speaker; abuse journalists now abuse women! Time & again, Congress has abused those who have risen up to the top by strength of their hard work – they called Rashtrapati as Rashtrapatni; they said Draupadi ji has evil mindset; they abused even the mother of PM; they chanted ‘Modi ki Kabr’ khudegi. The words are from BV Srinivas but the soch (thought) is of Rahul Gandhi. Will Priyanka & Sonia ji take action on him? Is this ‘Ladki hoon lad sakti hoon’ or a party of such disgusting misogynists?” he tweeted.Meanwhile, the Youth Congress has reacted strongly to the charges, claiming BJP leaders were sharing a doctored video of he speech made by Srinivas to tarnish his and the party’s image. “It is nothing but a disinformation and fake news campaign initiated by BJP supporters and office bearers,” it said in a statement.

‘Rahul’s words, Sonia’s sanskar’: Smriti Irani on Youth Congress Prez BC Srinivas’ remarks about her

Goa Election News

BJP will form next govt in Goa says PM Modi
Times of India | 1 year ago | 09-03-2022 | 10:48 am
Times of India
1 year ago | 09-03-2022 | 10:48 am

PANAJI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday that the BJP would form the next government in the state, chief minister Pramod Sawant said after briefing the PM over political developments in Goa. The assembly results are scheduled to be declared on Thursday. “Modi told me that BJP will form the government,” Sawant told TOI from Delhi. Modi held the meeting with Sawant to review the political situation in the state. During the discussion, Modi took constituency-wise details about the number of seats BJP will secure in Goa. Sawant provided details to Modi on what the results would be, and how BJP would form the government. “We will form the next government in the state and in case we are short of a majority, independent MLAs will support BJP,” Sawant said. He added that if required, BJP would seek support of MGP. The CM told Modi that BJP is getting around 20 seats, and with the help of independent MLAs, BJP will form the government. Modi also deliberated on the possibilities of forming a coalition government just in case there was a fractured mandate. The meeting also discussed seeking support from independent MLAs or regional parties. All the exit polls on Monday have predicted a hung assembly in Goa. The election is crucial for BJP as well as for Sawant as both are facing anti-incumbency. BJP has contested all 40 assemblies for the first time, and it’s also the party’s first state election in the absence of their strategist, former chief minister Manohar Parrikar. Modi addressed the people of the state during the election campaign and had said “Goa has decided that this wave of development and good governance should not slow down. Under the young leadership of chief minister Pramod Sawant, this journey will continue in the same manner”. Sawant, BJP state president Sadanand Shet Tanavade and BJP’s Goa election in-charge Devendra Fadnavis held a meeting in Mumbai to discuss the formation of the next government. Fadnavis already held a meeting with senior MGP functionary Ramkrishna ‘Sudin’ Dhavalikar over the post-poll alliance. Dhavalikar had told Fadnavis that the MGP-TMC alliance would take a decision after the results. BJP had started approaching independent candidates who are likely to get elected in the assembly election, already hitting the drawing board to strategise how to form the next government.

BJP will form next govt in Goa says PM Modi
IRBs misplaced cartridges recovered from Davorlim
Times of India | 1 year ago | 17-02-2022 | 07:07 am
Times of India
1 year ago | 17-02-2022 | 07:07 am

MARGAO: A bag containing 40 cartridges belonging to the Indian Reserve Batallion (IRB) that proceeded to Uttar Pradesh from Goa for election duty that was found misplaced on Tuesday, was recovered by Margao police on Wednesday from the roadside at Davorlim. Police sources said that about 900 IRB personnel had departed by an UP-bound train from Margao railway station on Tuesday evening. They were ferried to the Margao railway station by buses. However, it was after the train departed from Margao railway station that the “missing” bag containing cartridges came to their notice. The Railway police were soon alerted, who in turn contacted the Margao town police who launched a search exercise on the routes taken by the buses to ferry the IRB personnel to the railway station. The bag was finally recovered from a roadside at Davorlim on Wednesday. Police surmise that the IRB personnel left the bag containing cartridges after alighting from the buses to proceed to the railway station.

IRBs misplaced cartridges recovered from Davorlim
  • Missing live cartridges traced
  • Navhind Times

    Margao: In a major relief, the 40 live cartridges that were in the possession of IRB personnel headed for poll duty in Uttar Pradesh and had gone missing late on Tuesday night, were found in a gutter near Davorlim circle hardly half km away from the Margao railway station platform on Wednesday morning.Ten companies of IRBpolice personnel left by a train for Delhi from where they will travel to Uttar Pradesh. Four boxeswith each containing 10cartridgeshad gone missing. IRBpersonnel Nansekerhad made an application to the Margao police on Tuesday late night in which he had mentioned thatthe live cartridges in his possession had gone missing.He had reported that the cartridges went missing along the ring road between fire station and Davorlim circle. A search operation was conducted by police.Police teamengaged in the search operationhad visited the Konkan railway station area, checked the CCTV footagebesides parkingareaswhere buseshad dropped the IRBstaff, however, the cartridges were not found.However on Wednesday at around 10 a.m.,the four missing boxeswerefound in a gutter by LIB team of policewhich was also pressed into a search operation. It is still a mystery howthe live cartridges reached the gutter. Investigation is in progress. Police havekept the cartridges in custody after conducting legal formalities.


Goa Education News

25 years after death penalty, school record shows convict was juvenile, SC sets him freePremium Story
The Indian Express | 21 hours ago | 28-03-2023 | 11:45 am
The Indian Express
21 hours ago | 28-03-2023 | 11:45 am

He has been on the death row for about 25 years, after being arrested for murder and sent to Pune’s Yerawada jail. During all those years behind bars, this primary school dropout taught himself Marathi and English, and obtained an MA in Sociology. But for the Supreme Court, what really mattered when setting Niranaram Chaudhary free on Monday was a date from the admissions register of a school in Rajasthan’s Bikaner.The register, from Rajkiya Adarsh Uch Madhyamik Vidyalaya in Jalabsar, showed that Chaudhary had dropped out of Class 3 on May 15, 1989.And so, the apex court ruled that he was a juvenile while being sentenced to death in 1998 with two others for the murder of five members of a family, including a pregnant woman and two children, in a “rarest of the rare” case.On Monday, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justice K M Joseph, directed that Chaudhary “be set free forthwith from the correctional home in which he remains imprisoned, as he has suffered imprisonment for more than 28 years” after his arrest in 1994.Chaudhary’s death sentence had earlier been confirmed by the Bombay High Court and twice by the Supreme Court in 2000. However, abandoned by his family at the time of conviction, Chaudhary’s name and age were incorrectly recorded by the Pune court that awarded him the death penalty. In 2018, with the intervention of Project 39A, a criminal reforms advocacy group based in National Law University, Delhi, Chaudhary moved the Supreme Court again.He also argued that his actual name was Niranaram, which was wrongly recorded by the court as “Narayan”.In January 2019, the Supreme Court had referred the case to the Principal District and Sessions Judge in Pune to decide on Chaudhary’s status as a juvenile at the time of conviction. The inquiry led to the school admissions register in Jalabsar.“Apart from the documents of the school, there is a family card, to which we have referred to earlier. The date of issue of Family Card is 1989 and, in this card, issued by the State Government, Nirana’s age is shown to be 12 years,” the Supreme Court said in its final verdict.“Going by that certificate, his age at the time of commission of offence was 12 years and 6 months. Thus, he was a child/ juvenile on the date of commission of offence for which he has been convicted, in terms of the provisions of the 2015 Act. This shall be deemed to be the true age of Niranaram, who was tried and convicted as Narayan,” the Supreme Court said.Anup Surendranath, director of Project 39A, told The Indian Express that Chaudhary is currently in a jail in Nagpur. “Once the Pune Sessions Court orders his release, the Nagpur prison will set him free,” he said.

25 years after death penalty, school record shows convict was juvenile, SC sets him freePremium Story
  • The SC puts the spotlight on the mode of execution in death penalty casesPremium Story
  • The Indian Express

    Even though the constitutional validity of the death penalty has been upheld by the Supreme Court, there have been persistent constitutional concerns with various aspects of the administration of the death penalty. Recent proceedings in the Supreme Court have, after nearly four decades, put the spotlight on the mode of execution in death penalty cases. It is inevitable that the Supreme Court will move towards the realisation that the concerns with the mode of execution to kill prisoners on death row raise insurmountable constitutional concerns.Death row prisoners in India are executed by hanging and the constitutional validity of hanging was last considered and upheld by the Supreme Court nearly four decades ago in September 1983 (Deena v. Union of India). The Law Commission of India in October 2003 (187th Report) recognised the constitutional impermissibility of death by hanging and recommended that India consider using lethal injections instead. However, the two decades since the 187th LCI Report have seen a series of botched up executions in the US involving lethal injections.Earlier this week, the Supreme Court was called upon to reconsider its September 1983 decision on whether India could continue using hanging for executions. While the petitioner’s claim was that we must move to lethal injection as a humane method of execution, the proceedings raise some fundamental constitutional questions for the administration of the death penalty. The most immediate question is whether there exists any mode of execution that can meet constitutional requirements. It obviously cannot be the position that merely because the death penalty is currently permissible it is then open to the state to use any method of execution. Any mode of execution that the state adopts must be capable of meeting constitutional requirements and that is a burden for the state to discharge.There is now a strong body of evidence establishing that death by hanging is a cruel and barbaric form of execution that violates human dignity. Contrary to the belief of “instantaneous death” by dislocating the cervical vertebrae, documentation of hangings in the US and the UK expose the cruel “lingering” between life and death as they undergo immense suffering due to asphyxiation before dying. Research is replete with instances of snapped ropes, necks that slipped out of nooses, partial or total decapitations, and slow death due to strangulation (instead of having the neck broken). The immediate and the painless nature of death attributed to hanging is an exception rather than the rule. Various courts including the Privy Council, Supreme Court of Uganda and the High Court of Tanzania have relied on the suffering caused by hangings to reject it as a humane method of execution.Like the Law Commission in October 2003, the petitioners in last week’s proceedings seem to be keen to replace death by hanging with lethal injections. However, there is now incontrovertible evidence from the US that executions using lethal injections come with a real and substantial risk of being botched and leading to immense suffering. In fact, a study published by the British Journal of American Legal Studies (2012) that examined 9,000 executions in the US between 1900 to 2010 found that executions using the lethal injection had a higher rate of being botched than any other method. In addition, the Death Penalty Information Center, a non-profit in the US, catalogues 59 different instances of botched executions including 47 by lethal injection. While the US continues to use lethal injection as a mode of execution, the procedure has not been scientifically or medically studied on human beings. Most states rely on a three-drug combination of sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride. While sodium thiopental puts the prisoner to sleep, pancuronium bromide renders the prisoner paralytic and unable to show any pain before potassium chloride causes cardiac arrest. Any suffering that the prisoner goes through as a result of the induced cardiac arrest is masked by the effect of pancuronium bromide.The petitioners in the current instance seem to have approached the court with the intention of wanting to reduce the pain of death row prisoners during executions. However, as Austin Sarat’s thought provoking work on the history of executions in the US has shown us, the conversation about “reducing pain” during executions is really about those viewing executions wanting to see less pain. Historically, societies using the death penalty have moved towards either carrying out executions in private away from the public gaze (like India does in its prisons with very few people witnessing the execution) or towards sanitising executions to make them look clean and without suffering (like the lethal injection executions in the US). However, neither of these options are really concerned with reducing pain for the prisoner and neither can they really achieve that reduction of pain. Society, as a consumer and supporter of the death penalty, does not want to see the immense suffering that is inflicted in killing the death row prisoner. As Sarat powerfully argues, it is almost like society wants to convince itself that it is killing the death row prisoner in a “civilised” way in contrast to the “savage” crime of the prisoner itself. It is now evident that all methods of execution that retentionist countries use inflict tremendous suffering on the death row prisoner.The search for the “least painful method” is ultimately an endeavour in how much cruelty we are willing to tolerate. It is about our collective willingness to inflict cruelty on an individual while wanting to appear otherwise. Instead, it would be better for us to acknowledge that issues surrounding the methods of execution present yet another constitutional crisis point in the administration of the death penalty. Just like the arbitrariness in death penalty sentencing, the discriminatory and disparate impact of the death penalty on marginalised groups, the brutal realities of life on death row, and the mental health consequences of being on death row, the constitutional infirmities with the method of execution is yet another reason to revisit the very administration of the death penalty in India. Over the four decades since the constitutional validity of the death penalty was upheld, it is striking that significant constitutional concerns have emerged over every aspect of its administration without exception.The author is Professor of Law and executive director, Project 39A at National Law University, Delhi. Research support by Namrata Sinha and Lakshmi Menon

Can drinking coffee raise blood pressure?
The Indian Express | 21 hours ago | 28-03-2023 | 11:45 am
The Indian Express
21 hours ago | 28-03-2023 | 11:45 am

You may have often been alerted about the stimulant properties of coffee (or equivalent sources of caffeine) in elevating your blood pressure (BP) levels but so far, no clinical study has been able to prove that coffee-drinking is bad for hypertension. Of course, as with all foods and beverages, doctors advise coffee consumption in moderation simply because it does spike blood pressure temporarily before settling down and is, therefore, considered a stressor for those already hypertensive.Explains Dr Balbir Singh, Chairman, Cardiac Sciences, Cardiology, Cardiac, Electrophysiology-Pacemaker, Max Hospitals, “The BP spike is very temporary and then goes down, so one cannot say that coffee-drinking has a significant long-term effect on BP. This is the reason why we advise people to measure their BP for trustworthy readings 30 to 45 minutes after they have had their cup of coffee. It is for the same reason that we advise people not to have coffee before they undertake any intense physical exercise or strenuous activity which can raise your BP. Even then the BP response varies from person to person. Some studies have shown that in habitual coffee drinkers, the spiral effect reduces over time as they develop tolerance to the brew, compared to non-regular drinkers. Why this happens is yet to be pin-pointed. Some researchers believe that caffeine blocks a hormone that widens our arteries. Others attribute the BP spike to coffee spurring the release of extra adrenaline. At the same time, latest research on caffeine, particularly over the last year or so, has focussed on the encouraging effects of antioxidants and flavonoids present in coffee in reducing overall inflammatory markers in the body.”What worries Dr Singh is that all available research on coffee in the West is done with the way the brew is had there, which is black. “So even if research finds no convincing correlation between drinking coffee and hypertension, it would not apply to the coffee-drinking culture in India. We have our coffee with a lot of milk and sugar and that’s harmful for the body at many levels. Latest research says sweeteners too raise the risk of blood clotting, which is worrisome for heart health. But one to two cups of black coffee are not as worrisome. I have black coffee myself,” says he.Given that coffee is a stimulant, a cup increases your BP by five to ten points for a short period of time. Says Dr Udgeath Dhir, Director and Head of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery (CTVS), Fortis Memorial Research Institute, “This is a rise similar to when we exercise. In a two-year study of 45,589 men, between the ages of 40 and 75, which was released last year, researchers of the Harvard Medical School found no link between coffee consumption and the risk of coronary artery disease even in heavy drinkers. While regular coffee was found to be safe, they found a decaf version to be associated with a slightly increased risk of heart disease, though it claimed the link was weak. Studies have found that coffee does not seem to disrupt the heart’s rhythm, even in recent heart attack patients.”The Harvard Medical School last year even published the findings of a study by US and Swiss scientists on 15 volunteers, who didn’t have a high blood pressure and six of whom were just habitual coffee drinkers. According to the study, “The researchers monitored each volunteer’s blood pressure, heart rate and sympathetic nervous system under four conditions: before and after drinking a triple espresso, before and after drinking a decaffeinated triple espresso, before and after receiving 250 mg of caffeine by intravenous injection, and before and after an intravenous placebo (salt solution). A triple espresso caused quite a jolt, and it did jolt blood pressure readings. But although blood caffeine levels rose to a similar degree in all the subjects, not all experienced a rise in blood pressure. In fact, espresso did not boost the pressures of habitual coffee drinkers, though it raised systolic pressure readings on average by 13 mm Hg and diastolic pressures by 7 mm Hg in subjects who were not coffee drinkers. Espresso is strong stuff, but an intravenous slug of caffeine should be even more potent. Indeed, blood caffeine levels rose to the same degree after the caffeine injections and the espresso. But the straight-up caffeine had a much smaller effect on blood pressure than the espresso, boosting systolic blood pressure by an average of just 6 mm Hg. Moreover, the coffee drinkers and the non-drinkers responded similarly to intravenous caffeine.” A review of 34 studies showed that two cups resulted in an average increase of 8 mm Hg and 6 mm Hg in systolic and diastolic blood pressure, respectively.Dr Dhir’s advisory is avoiding coffee before sleep as it could interfere with the restorative process of cell repair. “Coffee is a sleep disruptor. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says 400 milligrams a day of caffeine is generally safe for most people. However, if you are already hypertensive and worry about its spiking effects, no matter how temporary, limit yourself to two cups a day,” he says.Far more important is the way we control blood pressure through moderate physical activity for anything between 30 and 45 minutes five times a week. “A cup or two of coffee won’t harm us but ignoring high blood pressure levels or avoiding lifestyle correction means that the resultant condition could impact your vascular system, damage arteries, affect the aorta and end organs,” warns Dr Dhir.

Can drinking coffee raise blood pressure?
Priyanka Chopra admits she changed her accent ‘every week’ to fit in US, says Nick Jonas changes his accent when he visits India: ‘Gets so annoying’
The Indian Express | 21 hours ago | 28-03-2023 | 11:45 am
The Indian Express
21 hours ago | 28-03-2023 | 11:45 am

Priyanka Chopra first moved to the US when she was only 12 years old and in a recent chat with Dax Shepherd, the actor said that she felt the need to change her accent “every week” because she was trying to fit in. Priyanka said that she felt that she had to “dramatically” change her accent because when she spoke to her peers in school, they wouldn’t understand what she was saying.“I tried a new accent every week, to try to fit in,” she shared and said that this didn’t work for her because she “left America” even before finishing high school.“I felt the need to dramatically change my accent when I was in school because if I said something, the next sentence would be ‘huh? excuse me?’ ‘sorry, what?’ It gets so annoying after a point. You know, people debate this a lot about immigrants who come in and their accents change, it’s basically making it convenient for another person,” she said.Priyanka, who is married to American musician Nick Jonas, said that when Nick travels to India, his accent changes too as he is trying to make it convenient for those around him. “My husband, for example, he is American. When he comes to India, his accent changes. In English, he has a little bit more of an Indian English accent because he is trying to make it more convenient for everyone who hears it a certain way,” she shared.Priyanka Chopra has previously shared that she first moved to the US for school but faced some racism and bullying and ultimately ended up moving back to India to finish her school. “I was living in Bareilly, from there I went straight to Boston and joined school there. I didn’t know how to fit in. Also, I faced some racial issues. Some girls called me ‘browny’ and I was typecast, pointed a finger at for being Indian,” she shared in 2012 at India Today Mind Rocks Youth Summit.

Priyanka Chopra admits she changed her accent ‘every week’ to fit in US, says Nick Jonas changes his accent when he visits India: ‘Gets so annoying’
Giving fallen soldiers’ families their due
The Indian Express | 21 hours ago | 28-03-2023 | 11:45 am
The Indian Express
21 hours ago | 28-03-2023 | 11:45 am

Our brave soldiers serve the nation with commitment and conviction, often leaving their families behind. They sacrifice their lives and it is only because of their “shahadat” (martyrdom) that we are safe in our homes today. It is not enough for the government to just give compensation packages and say that it has fulfilled its duty — rules regarding compensation should also be tweaked with time and on a case-to-case basis.As of July 2022, a total of 307 Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and Assam Rifles (AR) personnel sacrificed their lives in the line of duty in the five preceding years. As many as 156 army men and three IAF personnel were killed in terrorist attacks as well as counter-terror operations in the last five years. In the same period, 819 armed forces personnel committed suicide, with the Army reporting the maximum number of such cases at 642. These figures are an indication of the conditions — including staying away for long from their families — under which our soldiers perform their duties, which often results in mental health issues as well.The recent protests by the widows of Pulwama martyrs in Rajasthan are a grim reminder of the challenges faced by the families of soldiers who have made the supreme sacrifice. It is heart-wrenching to see them struggle to claim the benefits due to them, and running from pillar to post. The government should go out of its way, if needed, and ensure that the rules meant for the welfare of those who survive soldiers should not become a tool for denying them their legitimate demands. The protesting veeranganas (wives of jawans) were detained by the police and treated unjustly. They wanted certain demands to be fulfilled, which would require some amendments in the rules governing the welfare measures meant for families of martyrs.Consider some of the global practices when it comes to the welfare of the families of martyrs: The US provides financial assistance through the police department or local government to help families of fallen officers cover immediate expenses such as funeral costs, housing, and other expenses. The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund provides financial assistance, scholarships, and other support to the families of officers who have died in the line of duty. Similarly, the Fraternal Order of Police provides financial assistance and other support to its members and their families. The UK has schemes like the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme to provide compensation to military personnel who have been injured, are ill or have died as a result of service and War Disablement Pension schemes to provide tax-free financial assistance to military personnel who were disabled in the discharge of their duty.As a country which takes pride in its soldiers, we should listen to the legitimate demands of the veeranganas. The issues they have raised relate to the sentiments of the common man and are above any political considerations.Three major concerns must be addressed. The first is the demand for flexibility in the rules for providing jobs on compassionate grounds. This is a major bone of contention between the government and the veeranganas. The latter have demanded that not just the children of martyrs, but other members of the family, including brothers-in-law, should be given government jobs on compassionate grounds. The government’s argument that if the rules are altered for one case, then the future of all the children of the martyrs will be compromised, is technically sound. If the rules are amended to include distant family relations then they can also be used as a tool to blackmail the widows and pressure them for jobs, shunning them in case they fail to do so.It is argued that if the children are not academically brilliant or are unable to complete their education due to health issues, accidents etc., then having a job reserved for the family will secure the future of the child. The government should be liberal and amend the rules to remove any kind of restriction on the number of children of a martyr who are entitled to jobs on compassionate grounds. One child getting the job and his or her sibling being denied the same is unfair because the loss is equal for both.Second, there is a demand for the construction of multiple statues of martyrs. If other public figures have the privilege of having statues erected in different parts of the country, why can’t we have the same provision for martyrs? The government should amend the rules and a provision can be added that in case of more than one statue, it can involve local bodies like panchayat and municipal administration, local MLAs, NGOs and bhamashah (philanthropists) who can make matching contributions to the extent of 50 per cent for the construction of memorials or statues of martyrs. The government can also utilise corporate social responsibility funds for the same. These statues are not just brick-and-mortar structures, they are symbols of the sacrifice of our martyrs which will inspire the generations to come.Third, a department of welfare for the families of the martyrs, both at the central and state level, should be set up in order to facilitate social security benefits for them. The department should be allocated funds to provide housing grants to the families of the martyrs; marriage grants for their children; financial aid in the form of education, medical care and housing; in addition to offering counselling services to assist them in coping with their loss. By making these additional resources available to the families of those who have been martyred, we can demonstrate our support for them.The department should also work on providing benefits/concessions on utilities, free transportation via air, rail and bus, and benefits for the purchase of prescription medication and other healthcare services to the families of the martyrs. The issue of the welfare of the families of the martyrs is one that goes beyond politics and the solution has to be rooted in a rights-based approach.It is important to bear in mind that these families take pride in their sacrifice. Given the current state of affairs and the apathy of the administration, there is an urgent need for the sensitisation of not only the bureaucracy but also political leaders while dealing with these issues.The writer is Congress MLA from Osian (Rajasthan)

Giving fallen soldiers’ families their due

Goa Covid News

Highest number of fresh Covid-19 cases in 146 days: India logs 1,590 new cases
The Indian Express | 3 days ago | 25-03-2023 | 11:45 am
The Indian Express
3 days ago | 25-03-2023 | 11:45 am

Amid the ongoing surge in Covid cases across the country, India logged 1,590 fresh cases on Friday, the highest in 146 days. With this, India’s tally of active Covid cases has gone up to 8,601, while the total caseload has climbed to 4,47,02,257.According to the Union Health Ministry bulletin, six new deaths were recorded on Friday: three from Maharashtra and one each from Karnataka, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan. India’s Covid death toll has now gone up to 5,30,824.The daily positivity was recorded at 1.33 per cent while the weekly positivity was pegged at 1.23 per cent.The active cases account for 0.02 per cent of the total caseload, while the national Covid-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.79 per cent, the ministry said.The number of people who have recovered from the coronavirus infection has gone up to 4,41,62,832, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.19 per cent.According to the ministry’s website, 220.65 crore doses of anti-Covid vaccines have so far been administered to beneficiaries across the country.(With PTI inputs)

Highest number of fresh Covid-19 cases in 146 days: India logs 1,590 new cases
  • India records 1,300 new Covid infections, active cases now 7,605
  • The Indian Express

    India on Wednesday logged 1,300 new Covid-19 cases — highest in 140 days —-taking the country’s active caseload to 7,605, according to the Union Health Ministry data. With this, the cumulative number of infections rose to 4,46,99, 418. Three persons succumbed to the virus, pushing the country’s toll to 5,30,816. The case fatality rate is 1.19 per cent.The daily positivity rate was pegged at 1.46 per cent, while the weekly positivity was recorded at 1.08 per cent. As many as 4,41,60,99 individuals have recovered from the illness, clocking a national recovery rate of 98.79 per cent.India has so far administered a total of 220.65 crore doses of Covid vaccine as per the ministry’s website. A total of 92.06 crore tests have been conducted including 89,078 in the last 24 hours.With a significant rise in the number of daily cases, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has directed officials to enhance whole genome sequencing of the Covid-19 virus to track newer variants and carry out effective monitoring of influenza-like illnesses and severe acute respiratory infections. He has also urged people to follow respiratory hygiene and Covid-19 appropriate behaviour.  In instructions came at a high-level meeting to review the country’s Covid-19 and influenza situation, where the PM was informed that availability and prices of 20 main Covid drugs, 12 other drugs, 8 buffer drugs and 1 influenza drug are being monitored.Maharashtra on Wednesday recorded 334 fresh Covid-19 cases, 54 more than a day before, and one fatality, the health department said in a bulletin.  In Mumbai, 71 out of 1290 people who took the test were found to be positive. Hence, the test positivity rate stood at 5.5 per cent. There are 361 active cases in Mumbai. While 26 of the patients are in hospital, 10 among them are on oxygen support.With the new cases, the state’s Covid-19 tally rose to 81,40,479 and the death toll to 1,48,430.

  • India Covid update: Slight dip in new cases; 2 deaths reported
  • The Indian Express

    With 699 new cases reported on Wednesday morning, India witnessed a slight dip in fresh cases, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s latest data. The country had logged 918 new cases on Monday.According to the data updated at 8 am, two deaths recorded in Kerala and Odisha increased the mortality toll to 5,30,808.The daily positivity rate was pegged at 0.71 per cent while the weekly positivity was 0.91 per cent. The total Covid case tally was recorded at 4.46 crore (4,46,96,984).According to the ministry, the number of active cases is now 0.01 per cent of all infections, and the national Covid-19 recovery rate is 98.80 per cent.So far, a total of 92.04 crore tests have been conducted with 97,866 being undertaken in the last 24 hours.A total of 4,41,59,617 individuals have recovered from the illness, while the case fatality rate has been reported at 1.19 per cent.On the nation as a whole, 220.65 crore doses of Covid vaccine have been administered so far as per the ministry’s website.With inputs from PTI

  • A single-day spike of 918 Covid-19 cases, 4 deaths in India
  • The Indian Express

    India saw a single-day rise of 918 fresh coronavirus cases, while the active cases rose to 6,350, according to the Union health ministry data updated on Monday.The country’s COVID-19 death toll has increased to 5,30,806, with four latest fatalities — two reported by Rajasthan, one by Karnataka and one death reconciled by Kerala.According to the data updated at 8 am, the daily positivity was recorded at 2.08 per cent while the weekly positivity was pegged at 0.86 per cent.The infection tally stands at 4.46 crore (4,46,96,338).The active cases now comprise 0.01 per cent of the total cases, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 98.8 per cent, according to the health ministry website.A total of 92.03 crore tests for detection of Covid have been conducted so far with 44,225 tests conducted in the last 24 hours.The total number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,41,59,182, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.19 per cent.According to the ministry, 220.65 crore doses of Covid vaccine have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide vaccination drive.

Chinese visa for Indian citizens resumes today after a 3-year gap
The Indian Express | 1 week ago | 15-03-2023 | 11:45 am
The Indian Express
1 week ago | 15-03-2023 | 11:45 am

After a three-year hiatus, China has announced the resumption of all types of visas for Indian travellers, including those for tourism purposes. “The Chinese Embassy and Consulates General in India will resume issuing various types of Chinese visas, starting March 15,” it announced Tuesday.With this, China has resumed all types of visas for foreigners, including tourism visas, port visas, and multiple visa-exemption policies, as a move to reopen its borders for the first time after the coronavirus pandemic struck in early 2020. However, inbound travellers have been advised to consult with their local China embassies or consulates for more detailed requirements and procedures.Under its zero-Covid policy, China had imposed strict travel restrictions on international arrivals starting March 28, 2020, to stop the spread of coronavirus disease cases from abroad. In addition to the reduced frequency of international passenger flights, the restrictions included limited visa availability – including a suspension of tourist visas – and strict Covid-19 testing and quarantine requirements before and after arrival in China.However, late last year, the country had shifted from a “zero-Covid” policy to “living with Covid”, with the removal of centralised quarantine for inbound travellers. Gradually, they reopened visa applications for most types of visas, even as visa applications for tourism and medical treatment were still on hold.Now, “with the latest policy adjustment” announced by the embassies across the world – including in Canada, France, Kuwait, Malta, New Zealand, Thailand, the US, and the UAE – these restrictions will finally be removed.In August 2022, the Chinese embassy had resumed services for 10 types of ordinary visas for Indian citizens, including long-term study, business, work, family visits, personal visits, and talent introduction, among others. However, applications for visas to China for travel, medical treatment and other reasons remain suspended.Even as the number of Indian citizens entering China with visas for business visits, family visits are also expected to rise significantly after this move, experts in the travel industry say this may not mean much till direct flights to China are resumed. Currently, China and India are said to be negotiating details for the resumption of direct flights, which were curtailed during the pandemic.

Chinese visa for Indian citizens resumes today after a 3-year gap
China’s latest source of unrest: Unpaid ‘zero Covid’ workers
The Indian Express | 2 months ago | 17-01-2023 | 02:40 pm
The Indian Express
2 months ago | 17-01-2023 | 02:40 pm

Written by David Pierson, Keith Bradsher and Muyi XiaoAfter China’s abrupt reversal of “zero Covid” restrictions, the nation’s vast machinery of virus surveillance and testing collapsed, even as infections and deaths surged. Now, authorities face another problem: Angry pandemic-control workers demanding wages and jobs.In the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing, hundreds of workers locked in a pay dispute with a Covid test kit manufacturer hurled objects at police officers in riot gear, who held up shields as they retreated. Standing on stocks of inventory, protesters kicked and tossed boxes of rapid antigen tests on to the ground, sending thousands of tests spilling.In the eastern city of Hangzhou, witnesses said several workers climbed on the roof of a test kit factory and threatened to jump to protest unpaid furloughs. And at a separate test manufacturing plant in the city, workers protested for days over a wage dispute.The unrest this month highlights a little-noticed aspect of the social and economic fallout from China’s “zero Covid” policy U-turn. Mass testing was a cornerstone of China’s strategy of isolating the virus before it could spread. But Covid testing of any sort is no longer in high demand. Companies that manufactured test kits and analysed results in a lab are seeing their revenues plummet, leading to layoffs and pay cuts for their workers. One report suggested that mass testing in large cities accounted for about 1.3% of China’s economic output.The consequence has been a new source of turmoil that challenges the ruling Communist Party’s efforts to maintain stability amid high youth unemployment, a flagging economy and an explosion of Covid across the country. China said on Saturday that it had recorded nearly 60,000 fatalities linked to the coronavirus in the month since it lifted “zero Covid,” though experts said the actual death toll was likely much higher.The New York Times visited three Covid test making factories in Hangzhou where workers and residents confirmed that there had been labor protests in recent days. At one plant operated by a firm called Xinyue Biotech, a fire truck, an ambulance and a police van could be seen in the factory yard on Wednesday responding to a worker who had climbed on to the fifth-floor roof and threatened to jump to protest unpaid wages. The shuttered plant had been the scene of days of demonstrations, witnesses near the factory said.The Times also examined videos that have circulated on social media of protests in Hangzhou as well as Chongqing, where workers confronted the police in large numbers.The disputes in Chongqing and Hangzhou could portend more unrest to come. Many among China’s armies of “big whites,” low-level government workers charged with enforcing Covid restrictions and named after their signature white hazmat suits, have been let go, muddying an already volatile labor market.Factories across China are still strapped for cash amid the broader slowdown. Workers have next to no recourse to resolve their grievances other than to lash out, said Li Qiang, founder and executive director of China Labor Watch, a New York-based Chinese labor rights group.“These protests have been very violent because the channels to defend workers’ rights are very limited, while the trust toward the government and laws is low,” Li said. “It demonstrates that if a company ignores workers rights, especially the most vulnerable temporary workers, it will face serious consequences.”In Chongqing, protesters at a test kit manufacturer chanted “Pay me back” as they faced off with lines of police on Jan. 7. It was not immediately clear what sparked the dispute between workers and the test kit manufacturer, Zybio. Videos posted on social media leading up to the protests warned of labor agencies in the area exploiting job seekers by inflating how much work Covid test manufacturers were offering and how much they would pay.The Times verified the location of the Zybio protest videos by matching buildings in videos with online photos and satellite images of the industrial park. One clip showed protesters throwing plastic containers, stools and a traffic cone at police equipped with riot gear. The company did not respond to requests for comment, and several protesters contacted by The Times declined to be interviewed.In Hangzhou, protests flared after workers at the Acon Biotech plant were told at the start of this month they would be furloughed for two weeks because the company’s revenues had dwindled since “zero Covid” measures were dropped.One employee who participated in the protests, who agreed to speak only if not quoted by name given the political sensitivity of labor unrest, said workers were enraged by the furlough because it meant they could not earn money before the Lunar New Year, which starts this weekend.At one point, distraught employees threatened to jump off the roof of a company building. The workers were finally given 3,000 yuan, or roughly $445, apiece a week ago, and the bulk of the workforce then left for the holiday.Many Chinese testing companies had been amassing fortunes during nearly three years of stringent COVID containment measures. But the emergence of the highly transmissible omicron variant made containing the virus all but impossible, and China abandoned the strategy in early December.Even without omicron, China’s strategy of mass testing was proving financially unsustainable. Many local governments — already under significant financial pressure from the slowdown and a dearth of land sales for real estate development — struggled to pay for the millions of free swabs that residents were ordered to take virtually every day.To fund testing and other pandemic controls, money was diverted from public projects in some provinces, while cities cut bonuses for officials and imposed pay cuts on civil servants. Several provinces and municipalities, including Guizhou in China’s southwest, began charging for the tests.Lab testing firms that earlier reaped huge windfalls began reporting that governments were late on payments, leaving them exposed to bad debt. Among them was Dian Diagnostics, a large testing company in Hangzhou, which reported in October that the amount of money it was owed had surged by nearly 80% compared with a year before.Shenzhen Hezi Gene Tech, another fast-growing testing firm, opened six new labs across China in October only to shutter half of them in the last few weeks. It was unclear if the closures were spurred by debt or a lack of business. The company did not respond to a request for comment.“The whole industry has been hit particularly hard with the elimination of mandatory testing in the country. The demand is no longer there,” said Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, who argued that “zero Covid” had been partly prolonged because it served so many business interests.“They made a lot of money working for the government implementing ‘zero Covid,’” Huang said of labs and test manufacturers.Just how disruptive the collapse of testing and all the employment associated with Covid controls will be to China’s economy remains to be seen. The lifting of “zero Covid” will remove constraints on economic activity, and that could spur growth that would overshadow the loss of Covid-related businesses, said Taylor Loeb, a senior economic analyst for Trivium China, a consulting firm.“A lot of these jobs were never going to be long-term, stable employment opportunities,” Loeb said.To many migrant workers, the timing could not be worse. Employees are usually eyeing bonuses and counting their savings in the weeks leading up to Lunar New Year so that they can travel home for the holiday, settle debts and lavish their family and friends with gifts.In Hangzhou, a tense standoff between the police and hundreds of workers at an Alltest Biotech factory devolved into a shoving match Jan. 9, a video showed. Dozens of them were taken away by the police, several eyewitnesses said in interviews.Workers hired by a temporary employment agency on Alltest’s behalf had complained they were being paid less than permanent workers, according to an employee interviewed at the factory gate, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. An employee who answered a phone at Alltest said operations had returned to normal, but declined to provide a name or discuss the unrest.

China’s latest source of unrest: Unpaid ‘zero Covid’ workers
Omicron sub-variant BF.7 found in several Covid-positive samples of int’l passengers: Mansukh Mandaviya
The Indian Express | 2 months ago | 11-01-2023 | 10:40 pm
The Indian Express
2 months ago | 11-01-2023 | 10:40 pm

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Wednesday said the Omicron sub-variant, BF.7, has been found in several of the 200 Covid-positive samples of international air passengers that have so far been genome-sequenced.More than 15 lakh international air passengers have so far been screened and 200 of them have tested positive for COVID-19, Mandaviya said on the sidelines of a book launch.The minister released a book titled “Braving A Viral Storm”, which has been authored by Aashish Chandorkar and Suraj Sudhir, at the Constitution Club here on Wednesday.“The genome-sequencing of the 200 samples showed that the BF.7 variant was present in several passengers. Our vaccines are effective against this sub-variant,” he said.The health ministry had, on January 9, said the sentinel-sequencing of 324 Covid-positive samples lifted from the community between December 29 and January 7 had revealed the presence of all the Omicron variants, such as BA.2 and its sub-lineages including BA.2.75, XBB(37), BQ.1 and BQ.1.1(5), among others.No mortality or rise in transmission was reported in the areas where these variants were detected, the ministry had said in a statement.Besides, XBB(11), BQ.1.1(12) and BF7.4.1(1) were the main variants detected in the positive samples of 50 international passengers that have so far been genome-sequenced

Omicron sub-variant BF.7 found in several Covid-positive samples of int’l passengers: Mansukh Mandaviya