Month: December 2020

Delighting her fans with an enchanting post, Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty, on Tuesday shared tips for staying healthy.

One of the fittest actors in Bollywood, Shetty leaves no stone unturned to inspire her fans. In her latest Instagram post, the ‘Dhadkan’ star shared a winsome picture of herself in which she is randomly captured flashing her radiant smile.

“A good, hearty laugh boosts the immune system and relieves physical & mental stress, leaving your muscles relaxed for up to 45 minutes thereafter. Laughing freely and heartily has become a privilege in our fast-paced lives,” the caption of the post read.

Emphasising the significance of a ‘good laugher’, the ‘Life In A Metro’ actor suggested her fans to watch a funny movie/video or read something funny if one cannot meet friends or family during the current times.

“Because laughter truly is the best medicine, What’s the one thing that really cracks you up? #ShilpaKaMantra #SwasthRahoMastRaho #mentalhealth #goodhealth #stayhappy #Laugh #LaughterIsTheBestMedicine #behappy,” the actor wrote.

Shetty, who has been on a sabbatical from films, will be soon seen in the Sabbir Khan directorial ‘Nikamma’, along with Shirley Sethia and Abhimanyu Dassani. (ANI)

Impressed by an art piece of him created by a fan, Bollywood actor Sonu Sood on Tuesday posted its picture on social media.

The art, posted on Twitter, features Sood’s face carved on a leaf that is dedicated to him by one of his fans referring to him as his superhero.

To acknowledge the art, the ‘Dabangg’ star re-tweeted his fan’s post and wrote, “Patte patte pe likha hai chapne wale ka naam”(translation: On each leaf is written the name of the printer’s name), with folded hands emoticon.

The post shared by the star gained more than 7,000 likes within a few minutes of being posted. (ANI)

The Delhi Nurses Federation on Tuesday extended support to the ongoing indefinite strike by Delhi’s AIIMS Nurses Union, protesting over redressal of various demands, including that related to the sixth Central Pay Commission.

In wake of the ongoing Nurses Union strike, AIIMS-Delhi decides to outsource the nursing services on a contractual basis. The decision was taken in a meeting attended by Chairman, Director, Deputy Director, senior faculty of the AIIMS administration.

As scores of the nurses are sitting at the hospital premises shouting slogans and holding placards, AIIMS-Delhi has decided to outsource the nursing services on a contractual basis. The decision was taken in a meeting attended by the Chairman, Director, Deputy Director, senior faculty of the AIIMS administration.

The Nurses Union of AIIMS is on an indefinite strike, over their long-pending demands. “Our Union is ready for talks with the administration. We are feeling bad for patients but we’re helpless as our demands haven’t been met. We had given notice for strike a month ago but even then the administration didn’t listen to our demands,” said Harish Kalja President of AIIMS Nurses Union, Delhi.

“There was no need for us to strike. We were busy serving the people. But the government retracted from the demands that were met earlier. None of our demands are new. All of our demands are important. But the demand of 6th Central Pay Commission is of priority,” he added.

On government orders to nurses to join back duty, Kalja said “The citizens of the country are witnessing here that the government is not ready to hold talks with us. This is really unfortunate.”

“It’s hereby directed that AlIMS Delhi should ensure that directions of Delhi High Court are strictly complied with without fail and there should be no cessation or disruption of Nursing functions in AllMS nor such an action aided or abetted,” said R Bhushan, Secretary Ministry of Health

Senior Nursing Officer, Jaishree call on the government to help resolve the issue so that the nurses can get back to work.

“We want the issue to be resolved at the earliest amid this pandemic and want to call off the protest. We gave them information one month ago regarding all this. But the government has not done anything about this. We want the government to give us assures so that we can resolve all this,” Jaishree told ANI. (ANI)

Getting a hands-on experience on cooking amid the homestay, actor Preity Zinta on Tuesday treated fans to the picture of a scrumptious cake baked by her.

The ‘Kal Ho Naa Ho’ star hopped on to Instagram and share a radiant selfie with her binge-worthy delicacy and showcased her perfect cooking skills. In the picture, the ‘Kya Kehna’ star is seen sporting a lemon-yellow top, as she posed in the kitchen.

Embracing her glowing skin and cute dimple on the cheek, the actor looks breathtakingly beautiful as she leaves her luscious locks open in the air.

Zinta captioned the post as, “Cake is the answer no matter the question” and added hashtags #Baking #Lockdown #Stayhome #Staysafe #Ting.”

Celebrity followers including Vaani Kapoor and more than 49 thousand fans liked the post within forty-eight minutes of being posted.

Many of the fans were left in awe of the sweet delicacy and left red heart and fire emoticons.

Of late, the ‘Koi Mil Gaya’ star has been quite active on social media and has been updating fans on her activities by posting pictures and videos.

Earlier, Zinta shared an adorable masked-up selfie with her four-legged friend Gino. (ANI)

Hong Kong is becoming just another Chinese-run communist city, US State Secretary Michael Pompeo said on Monday, adding that the United States has challenged the imprisonment of Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai under the National Security Law.

Jimmy, the 73-year-old Hong Kong media tycoon and advocate for democracy, was denied bail on Saturday, after being charged with the draconian National Security Law.

Lai was handcuffed and chained around the waist while being escorted to court earlier today, South China Morning Post reported.

He is expected to spend the coming four months in detention while police comb through his social media posts and examine his overseas visits to gather evidence.

Calling Jimmy Lai a “true patriot”, Pompeo said: “He cares deeply about the people of Hong Kong, as does our administration. This is another example where General Secretary Xi Jinping broke a promise. He made a 50-year commitment for freedom for the people of Hong Kong and he’s now bashed it. He’s now taken it away with his national security law that caused the imprisonment of Jimmy Lai, who was simply trying to speak about the basic rights for the people of Hong Kong.”

In an interview with Newsmax, Pompeo said the Chinese Communist Party cannot be trusted.

“I fear that Hong Kong is becoming just another Chinese-run communist city, and that’s too bad. It’s inconsistent with what Xi Jinping had promised and it’s another example of the fact that you simply can’t trust with the Chinese Communist Party says. You have to verify every single thing that they assert,” he said.

In August 2020, Jimmy was arrested under the new National Security Law.

The charge stems from comments Lai purportedly made on Twitter and in interviews asking foreign countries to sanction the city.

This comes after a number of former pro-democracy lawmakers were arrested in the month of October over protests after the draconian National Security Law was imposed on the city by Beijing.

The law criminalizes secession, subversion, and collusion with foreign forces and carries with it strict prison terms. It came into effect from July 1.

Several of those disqualified were sitting lawmakers, who were subsequently ejected from the parliament by Beijing overruling constitutional precedent and bypassing Hong Kong’s courts on November 11, sparking the mass resignation of the entire pro-democratic camp. (ANI)

The husband of Video Jockey and popular Tamil TV star Chitra, who was found dead in her hotel room in Nazrathpet last week, was on Tuesday arrested by the Tamil Nadu Police in connection with the abetment to suicide case.

According to the police, Chitra’s husband Hemanth was arrested for allegedly abetting the suicide of her wife.

Chitra, 29, has worked in several Tamil advertisements and has been an anchor in various shows. She rose to fame with her role in the popular Tamil TV show ‘Pandian Stores.’ (ANI)

People associated with several organisations and NGOs took out a procession in Jammu city in support of farmers, on Monday.

Many protestors at the venue shouted slogans saying that they support the farmers’ protest in Delhi. Some of them even called out these farm laws equivalent to ‘black laws’.

A protestor at the venue said, “Our central government has ignored the interests of the farmers. Hence, we all have started protesting to wake the government up.”

“Many farmers are protesting on borders of several states against these farm laws. Yet, it seems that the government is least bothered about the plight of farmers. Our farmers feed the country with food. It has been more than 3 months since these laws have passed. I hope that these black laws get withdrawn immediately”, he added.

Another protestor at the venue said, “We all have gathered here to open up the eyes of our central government and make them realize that these farm laws are harmful to the country and do not favour the interests of the farmers. These farm laws will only favour the interests of large corporate companies and nothing else.”

Another protestor said, “I believe in ‘Jai Jawaan, Jai Kisaan’. Having said that, we all will continue to protest against these farm laws until and unless our demands are met.”

Farmers have been protesting on different borders of the national capital since November 26 against the three newly enacted farm laws- Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

However, the government has held six rounds of talks with farmers’ organisations including the meeting called by Union Home Minister Amit Shah offering changes to the laws and written assurances. (ANI)

The Indian Railways, through its 21 Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs), is organising a mega recruitment drive in three phases starting from Tuesday for filling up about 1.4 lakh vacancies.

The Ministry of Railways, in a release dated December 11, 2020, stated that more than 2.44 crore candidates will be appearing in different cities across the country to participate in the recruitment drive.

According to the official release, the first phase of the exam will commence from December 15 till December 18, 2020, for isolated and ministerial categories. This will be followed by NTPC categories from December 28 to tentatively till March 2021 and the third recruitment for Level-1 from tentatively April 2020 onwards till June end, 2021.

RRBs have made extensive preparations for conducting examinations of this large scale in COVID-19 pandemic times following SOPs as laid down by the government ensuring social distancing, compulsory use of masks, sanitisers, curtailing shifts for conducting exams to only two shifts per day.

“Efforts are being made by RRBs to ensure that as far as possible the candidates are accommodated in their own State so that they can reach their exam centres by undertaking the overnight journey. Female and PWD candidates are accommodated within their home states. However, considering the skewed distribution of candidates area-wise, there will be unavoidable interstate movements. Railways will be running special exam trains to cater to the travel requirements of the candidates, wherever required and feasible. Chief Secretaries of concerned State Governments have also been requested to extend support of local administration to RRBs for conducting CBTs in secure and safe manner ensuring social distancing,” the Indian Railways said.

According to the Indian Railways, candidates will be checked for the temperature at entry using thermo guns.

“Candidates having temperature more than prescribed limits will not be allowed inside the exam venue. Intimation in this regard will also be sent to their registered email and mobile number regarding the rescheduling of such candidates. The exact date of the re-scheduled exam of such candidates will be intimated subsequently. The candidate should use his/her own facemask. Candidate has to produce COVID-19 self-declaration in the prescribed format at the entry and in absence of the same he/she will not be allowed into the exam venue. After each shift the exam centre will be sanitised before starting another shift,” it said.

In order to safeguard the health of the candidates and other personnel involved in the conduct of exams amid COVID-19, the latest instructions, guidelines, and orders issued by the Central and respective State governments concerning COVID 19 will be followed and ensured, the Indian Railways stated. (ANI)

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari has strongly pitched for increasing use of ethanol to reduce dependence on crude oil imports, saying if “ethanol becomes Rs 2 lakh crore economy then Rs 1 lakh crore will go into pockets of farmers”.

In an interview to ANI, he said the increase in the use of ethanol as a biofuel will also lead to a reduction in pollution. He said ethanol will also be produced from farm stubble.

“We exported 60 lakh tonnes of sugar last year and we gave a subsidy of Rs 6,000 crores. We gave the subsidy because sugar prices in Brazil are Rs 22 and prices in India Rs 34. We have 280 lakh tonnes of rice in godowns. There is no place to store it,” he said.

“There is the import of Rs 8 lakh crore crude oil in the country, Instead of this, we want to build Rs 2 lakh crore ethanol economy. At present, it is only Rs 20,000 crores,” he added.

Gadkari said that ethanol is cheaper and there is a need for more production of ethanol to meet the targets of the blending of ethanol with petrol fixed by the government.

“We will make ethanol from rice and maize (makka). We get 380 litres ethanol from a ton of maize while we get 480 litres of ethanol from a ton of rice. The government is ready to buy ethanol. Now we will mix ethanol in diesel, for which, we would need 5,000 crore litres (ethanol),” the minister added.

“Now there are bikes running on ethanol. Farmers will get the benefit. Price of ethanol is Rs 60 per litre where petrol is at Rs 85 per litre. Ethanol is cheaper and is green fuel. If it becomes Rs 2 lakh crore economy then Rs 1 lakh crore will go into pockets of farmers. It has been decided by our government,” he added.

Gadkari said that initiatives for blending ethanol with petrol were taken during the Vajpayee government but got delayed in UPA government and have again be speeded up in the Narendra Modi government.

“Now we are talking about creating Rs 2 lakh crore economy. In the coming time, aeroplanes will run on fuel made from ethanol and the money will go to farmers,” he said.

He said stubble-burning creates the problem of pollution. “But now bio-CNG is being made from stubble. Second-generation ethanol will be made from stubble at an Indian Oil’s project in Panipat. Instead of burning stubble, it will be used for making ethanol. We have brought technology and innovation,” he said. (ANI)