Month: August 2021

Indian wrestler Bajrang Punia might have won bronze in the Tokyo Olympics but the grappler wants to leave no stone unturned in practising and training for future events.

Bajrang, who was India’s flag bearer during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics, on Sunday promised to keep working hard “in order to keep the flag of India high”.
“I would like to thank the people of India for the opportunity to be India’s flag-bearer at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. I promise that I will keep working hard to keep the flag of my country high. Jai Hind,” Bajrang tweeted in Hindi.
Bajrang defeated Kazakhstan’s Daulet Niyazbekov on Saturday by 8-0 in the bronze medal match.

During the closing ceremony, the Indian wrestler entered the stadium holding aloft India’s flag and joined flag-bearers of other national Olympic contingents to mark the end of 17-days of the Games, which saw athletes from over 200 countries participated.

Bajrang along with flag bearers of other countries walked into the centre of the stadium and formed a ring around a dias as the whole area lit up to celebrate the hard work of everyone associated with the Tokyo Olympics.

This year the Games were held with COVID-19 induced restrictions and all sports were played behind closed doors.

About 11,000 athletes from over 200 countries competed in Tokyo Olympics. India recorded its best-ever haul at the Olympics with seven medals (one gold, two silver, and four bronze).
The Olympic Games came to end after a stunning closing ceremony at the Tokyo Olympic Stadium on Sunday. (ANI)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday condemned the attack on Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves of the Caribbean country St Vincent and the Grenadines and said that he will miss his presence at the UNSC Open Debate starting today.

PM Modi also wished for his quick recovery and good health.
“I condemn the ghastly attack on Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Excellency, I wish you quick recovery and good health. We will miss your presence at the UNSC Open Debate on Maritime Security today,” PM Modi said in a tweet.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves received a head injury during a protest in Kingstown and was sent to Barbados for medical examination, Sputnik reported.

PM Modi will chair the high-level open debate on ‘Enhancing Maritime Security – A Case for International Cooperation’ today at United Nations Security Council (UNSC) through video conferencing at 5.30 pm IST.

The debate will focus on ways to effectively counter maritime crime and insecurity and strengthening coordination in the maritime domain. PM Modi would be the first Indian Prime Minister to preside over a UN Security Council Open Debate, according to the Ministry of External Affairs.

The debate is expected to be attended by several Heads of State and Government of member states of the UNSC, and high-level briefers from the UN System and key regional organizations. (ANI)

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the national capital to discuss the Assam-Mizoram border issue.

“The Chief Minister of Assam, @himantabiswa called on PM @narendramodi,” the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) tweeted.
Earlier, the Assam Chief Minister, accompanied by BJP MPs from Assam also met Union Home Minister Amit Shah over the border dispute with the neighboring state Mizoram.

The Chief Minister will meet Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya later today.

However, Assam and Mizoram in a joint statement agreed to take forward the Centre’s initiative of letting neutral forces patrol the disputed areas of the inter-state border for maintaining peace.

Earlier in August, Mizoram Governor Dr Hari Babu Kambhampati met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah to discuss the current border situation and how to diffuse the tensions between the two states.

“It is an unfortunate incident. Union Home Minister Amit Shah is trying to defuse the situation and find a solution. Both the CMs (Assam and Mizoram) reiterated that peace will be restored,” the Governor told ANI.

On July 26, the border dispute between the two states escalated and a fierce gun battle between the forces of the two states resulted in the death of six Assam police personnel and one civilian. At least 50 people were injured in the incident. (ANI)

The territories that have fallen to the Taliban in the past few days in Afghanistan have witnessed horrors from the past. There have been reports of Taliban forces killing civilians and off-duty security personnel as well as bombing homes and assaulting women.

Taliban continues to capture new areas and subsequently impose a regime that intends to take Afghanistan to old days under its rule, which means the non-existence of human values and even death punishment for petty crimes or violations of rules.
Federico Giuliani, writing in an Italian newspaper InsideOver said that Taliban terrorists are trying to impose rigid and suppressive rules based on Sharia laws in the area they have captured recently.

New fatwas (decrees) issued by them forbid women from going out of their homes without male companions while forces men to grow a beard. They also have come up with dowry regulations for girls, said Merajuddin Sharifi, a social activist.

They urged women in a statement to not leave home without a male relative. Taliban insist on trials without evidence,” he said.

There are more sanctions on women. Now, they cannot ride a taxi and be always covered in burqa. Revoking old memories, the Taliban has banned the production and distribution of music or any audio-visual entertainment.

Women are worse affected by the Taliban brutalities. They are being beaten in public and even killed. Innocent Afghani women are being forced into “jihad al-nikah”, in which daughters and wives are forcefully sent to terrorists to serve them sexually, says Giuliani.

Former US president George W Bush has feared that Afghan women and girls are going to “suffer unspeakable harm.” It led him to question the decision to pull out troops, which led to the war-torn country being swallowed by Taliban terrorists. “I think the consequences are going to be unbelievably bad,” he said.

Moreover, many such videos of atrocities by Taliban terrorists are going viral, which also show distressed Afghani people asking for global help, says Giuliani.

The assault on civilians by the Taliban has caused the deaths of hundreds of innocent people including children. Over 900,000 people are reported to have been displaced after the Taliban launched attacks on civilian areas in the past three months, reported InsideOver.

Mohammad Nazar, a resident of Tazarigh village in Kaldar district of Balkh in northern Afghanistan said the Taliban was assisted by foreign terrorists from Pakistan when homes in his village were destroyed.

“Here it was our home. The Taliban, who are the slaves of Pakistan, came here and destroyed our homes, they planted mines here,” he told media.

Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) has reported that as many as 2,957 civilians’ casualties were reported in the first six months of 2021, of which 1,213 deaths were deaths. Taliban was responsible for 48.5 per cent of these civilian casualties.

Now, the UK and the US have accused the Taliban of ‘massacring civilians’ in possible ‘war crimes’ in Spin Boldak, south Afghanistan. Taliban took 900 people out of their homes and shot them to death, reported InsideOver.

“The Taliban’s leadership must be held responsible for the crimes of their fighters. The Taliban massacred dozens of civilians in revenge killings. These murders could constitute war crimes,” the US and the UK embassies said.

The Taliban have captured Takhar province’s capital Taluqan city on Sunday amid US troops’ withdrawal from Afghanistan.

“Key areas in Takhar province’s capital Taluqan city, including the central roundabout, fell to the Taliban today, sources said,” Tolo News tweeted.

This comes after the terror group captured the police headquarters, the governor’s compound and the prison in the Afghan provincial capital Kunduz.

Earlier, the Taliban took control over Jawzjan province’s capital Sheberghan and Nimroz province’s capital Zaranj. (ANI)

Indian javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra feels there are more stories about his life that can be unearthed in the future and his biopic can wait as the Olympic gold medallist vows to focus on upcoming tournaments.

Neeraj Chopra on Saturday scripted history as he threw the javelin to a distance of 87.58m to pick the gold at the Olympics. He began his quest for a medal with a massive throw of 87.03 meters and was leading the pack after the end of the first attempt. He bettered it with the second throw of 87.58m.
While many advocated on social media that Neeraj himself can play in his biopic, the star athlete just wants to focus on his game as of now.

“Don’t know about the biopic. I want my focus to be on the game and after I stop playing these will look good,” said Neeraj in a press conference.

“Then there will be a new story, having said that let me focus on my game too. Till an athlete is active, there should be no biopics and when my playing days are over we can think about that,” he added.

Neeraj on Sunday dedicated his medal at the Tokyo Olympics to track and field legends Milkha Singh and PT Usha.

Milkha Singh, who passed away earlier this year, always had this dream of seeing an athlete win gold medal at the Olympics. Earlier, PT Usha came close to winning a medal at the 1984 Olympics, but she missed out by a whisker.

Explaining the reason behind such a move, Neeraj said, “I have watched a lot of videos of Milkha Singh ji talking about how he wanted someone from our country to go to the Olympics and do what he narrowly missed out on.

“As soon as I won and when the national anthem got played, I remembered that and this wish of his. It’s sad that he is not with us anymore but his dream has been fulfilled. Even PT Usha ma’am had missed out on a medal by a whisker. She would have been happy now,” he added.

Further talking about his next goal, Neeraj said, “I want to celebrate my win as of now, visit my home and if I train properly, I might play a competition later in the year and then focus on Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and world championship.”

India won seven medals in the multi-sporting event, its best-ever performance. In the Tokyo 2020, Bajrang Punia (Bronze), Mirabai Chanu (silver), PV Sindhu (bronze), Lovlina Borgohain (bronze), men’s hockey team ( bronze), and Ravi Kumar Dahiya (silver) have also won medals. (ANI)

As the Tokyo Olympics 2020 came to an end on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded the Indian contingent for showing the best-ever performance at the Games.

India won seven medals in the multi-sporting event, its best-ever performance. In the ongoing Tokyo 2020, Neeraj Chopra (gold), Bajrang Punia (bronze), Mirabai Chanu (silver), PV Sindhu (bronze), Lovlina Borgohain (bronze), men’s hockey team ( bronze), and Ravi Kumar Dahiya (silver) won medals.
“As #Tokyo2020 draws to a close, I would like to congratulate the Indian contingent for their stupendous performance at the games. They personified the best of skill, teamwork, and dedication. Every athlete who represented India is a champion,” tweeted PM Modi.

In another tweet, the Prime Minister said: “The medals India has won has certainly made our nation proud and elated. At the same time, this is the time to keep working to further popularise sports at the grassroots so that new talent emerges and gets the opportunity to represent India in the times to come. #Tokyo2020.”

PM Modi also lauded the Government of Japan for successfully hosting the Tokyo Olympics even when the world continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic.

“A special thank you to the Government and people of Japan, especially Tokyo for hosting the well-organised games. To host it so successfully, in such times, gave out a strong message of resilience. It also demonstrated how sports is a great unifier,” he tweeted.

Neeraj Chopra on Saturday threw the javelin to a distance of 87.58m to pick the gold at the Olympics. He began his quest for a medal with a massive throw of 87.03 meters and was leading the pack after the end of the first attempt. He bettered it with the second throw of 87.58m.

While Neeraj wasn’t able to improve any further, it was enough to get him the coveted medal. He is now the second Indian after Abhinav Bindra to win a gold medal in individual events. (ANI)

Argentina striker Lionel Messi was in tears on Sunday as he attended his final press conference as a Barcelona player to bid farewell to the Spanish club after 21 years.

The maverick striker confirmed the end of his long association with FC Barcelona.
“This is very difficult, I was not prepared for this. Last year I was convinced to leave, but this year we were, my family and I wanted to continue here, in our house,” Goal.com quoted Messi as saying.

“Today I have to say goodbye, I arrived very young at 13 years old, and after 21 years I am leaving with my wife and three children,” he added.

Speaking further, Messi said: “I have no doubts after being away for several years, we will return because I promised my children.”

In what came as one of the biggest news in the football world, Messi left FC Barcelona, earlier this week. As per the club, the reason behind the exit is the financial and structural obstacles.

Despite Barcelona and Lionel Messi having reached an agreement and the clear intention of both parties to sign a new contract on Thursday, this cannot happen because of Spanish LaLiga regulations on player registration as per the club statement.

As a result of this situation, Messi shall not be staying on at FC Barcelona. Both parties deeply regret that the wishes of the player and the club will ultimately not be fulfilled, the statement further said.

“FC Barcelona wholeheartedly expresses its gratitude to the player for his contribution to the aggrandisement of the club and wishes him all the very best for the future in his personal and professional life,” it said as per fcbarcelona.com.

Earlier it was reported Messi was all set to sign a new five-year contract with Spanish club Barcelona. Along with signing a new deal, Messi would also be taking a 50 per cent wage cut, Goal.com had reported.

The report had said Messi agreed to take a cut on his yearly earnings in order to re-sign for Barcelona, and the club would make a formal announcement in the coming weeks.

Messi has spent his entire career with Barcelona after signing on with the club in 2004. His contract expired in June this year, but he was set to sign a new deal with the Catalan side. (ANI)

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has revealed in its study that the combination of Covaxin and Covishield vaccines, the two main vaccines of the COVID-19 vaccination programme, conducted on 18 people, has elicited better safety and immunogenicity results.
The nationwide vaccination program had entered into 4th month when the event of mixed dosing raised considerable anxiety in the public domain with the potential to contributing to vaccine hesitancy. ICMR conducted the current investigation against that backdrop.

In the study, ICMR compared the safety and immunogenicity profile with those individuals who received either Covaxin or Covishield and it showed better results.

The study conducted on individuals in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh in India received Covishield as the first dose followed by inadvertent administration of Covaxin as the second dose at an interval of six weeks.

As per Dr Samiran Panda, Head of Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases, ICMR, “it was like a natural experiment when second time these individuals inoculated with different doses inadvertently.”

He informed that ICMR decided to conduct the study so that people would not get anxiety or vaccine hesitancy. “We went to the place and collected samples of individuals,” said Dr Panda.

A total of 18 participants were in the heterologous group. However, two participants were unwilling and were excluded. Among them, 11 were male, and seven were female with a median age of 62 years.

“A comorbid condition (hypertension) was reported in one (5.5 per cent) individual. In both the homologous groups, 40 individuals were included,” the study said.

“We compared the safety and immunogenicity profile of them against that of individuals receiving either Covishield or Covaxin (n=40 in each group). Lower and similar adverse events following immunization in all three groups underlined the safety of the combination vaccine regime. The immunogenicity profile against Alpha, Beta, and Delta variants in the heterologous group was superior; IgG antibody and neutralising antibody response of the participants was also significantly higher compared to that in the homologous groups,” the study said.

The findings of the study suggest that immunization with a combination of an adenovirus vector platform-based vaccine followed by an inactivated whole virus vaccine was not only safe but also elicited better immunogenicity.

“We did a comparison with heterogeneous group and homologous group, we found better immune response, if somebody gets Covishield first and Covaxin second that it gives better immunity. This is the first study on a combination of Adenovector and whole variant vaccines,” said Dr Panda.

Explaining how the combination of two vaccines work, Dr Sameer Bhati, Public Health Expert, stated that both Covaxin and Covishield are based on two different formulas, where Covaxin contains dead virus of Covid and instructs the immune system to develop a defense against the virus while the Covishield is based on the virus vector formula where a weak virus of the common cold is used to develop immunity against Covid virus.

“Although both vaccines tend to develop the immunity against the same virus. The mixing of two vaccines may be beneficial for the public and may surely result in removing vaccine hesitancy and speed up the vaccination,” he said.

However, Dr Bhati added that more detailed and in-depth research must be done on the limitations, as the study is done merely on 18 participants. “For implementation of the same at the national level, it must be analysed more and in detail keeping in mind the variety of population. Also, a detailed study on follow-up period of 60 to 70 days is also required,” he further said.

However, the Immunization program against COVID-19 in India started with two vaccines– AstraZeneca’s ChAdOx1-nCov-19 (termed Covishield in India) and inactivated whole virion BBV152 (Covaxin). (ANI)