Month: December 2021

Ahead of Assembly elections, Bharatiya Janata Party, Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt) and Amarinder Singh-led Punjab Lok Congress have formed a six member-Committee to decide on seat sharing, informed Punjab BJP in charge Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.

A joint manifesto of the allies is also expected to be unveiled ahead of the polls, he added.
BJP National President JP Nadda, Punjab Lok Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singh, and SAD (Sanyukt) chief Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the national capital, along with Shekhawat, on Monday.

Speaking to reporters here today, Shekhawat said, “Today the party chief of all the 3 parties BJP, Punjab Lok Congress, and SAD (Sanyukt) headed by Dhindsa met. We will fight the election in an alliance. A committee consisting of 2 members from each party will be formed to discuss the issues like seat sharing. There will be a joint manifesto.”

In November, Amarinder Singh resigned from the Congress and announced a new party ‘Punjab Lok congress’ ahead of the Punjab assembly election.

BJP is all set to fight the election in alliance with Punjab Lok Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt). Punjab is scheduled to go for Assembly polls early next year. (ANI)

Terrorists lobbed a grenade towards a security bunker in South Kashmir’s Anantnag district on Monday.

According to Jammu and Kashmir Police, the incident took place in the Arwani area of Bijbehara in Anantnag.
Further details are awaited. (ANI)

The Haryana government’s Cabinet expansion will take place tomorrow, the state Chief Minister’s office (CMO) informed on Monday.

The new ministers of the state cabinet are expected to take oath tomorrow at 4 pm.
“The Haryana cabinet will be expanded on December 28, 2021. The swearing-in ceremony will be held at the Haryana Raj Bhavan at 4 pm,” CMO Haryana tweeted in Hindi.

This is the second expansion of the Manohar Lal Khattar-led government in Haryana. The first cabinet expansion took place on November 14.

In the Haryana Assembly elections in 2019, the BJP emerged as the single-largest party winning 40 seats in the 90-member assembly. Congress finished second with 31 seats. Later, the BJP formed the government with the support of Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), which bagged 10 seats, and some independent MLAs. (ANI)

Healthcare workers and those above the age of 60 and suffering from co-morbidities will be applicable for the ‘precautionary dose’ of coronavirus vaccines from next month only after 9 months of receiving the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to Dr. R S Sharma, Chief Executive officer at National Health Authority.

Dr Sharma, who also heads the functioning of the CoWIN platform in an exclusive interview to ANI on Monday said that the third dose is only applicable after nine months of receiving the second COVID-19 vaccine shot.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on December 25 announced that the country would begin administering ‘precautionary doses’ to those above the age of 60 and suffering from co-morbidities from January 10, next year.

“The process will be exactly the same. When you are more than 60 years of age and you have already been given two doses and if you want to register for the third dose, the gap between the second dose and the day you are registering or the day you are getting the third dose should be more than nine months which is 39 weeks,” said Dr. Sharma.

The CoWIN platform chief Dr. Sharma further explained the requirement of a comorbidity certificate from a registered physician is mandatory for the third shot. “When you are eligible and you register you will be asked whether you suffer from any of the comorbidities which have already been described in the earlier circular by the health ministry. If you say yes I do suffer from comorbidity then you can register and thereafter you can go to the vaccination centre. You have to show your comorbidity certificate given by your registered physician to summarize your problem doctor and thereafter you will be able to get the job so there is nothing different. The rules related to registration are the same and rules related to vaccinations are the same.”

Responding to a question on the COVID pandemic that led to the rapid adoption of technology in the healthcare space Dr Sharma said, “During this period, because of the restrictions of movements, etc, people have adopted digital means of communication. I think the adoption of technology has been the only positive aspect of this pandemic, otherwise, it has been disastrous for all of us. Similarly, digital payments have also increased very significantly. I think, from a digital standpoint, the adoption of digital technologies has seen an acceleration due to this pandemic.”

On the expansion of other government-run healthcare programs like immunization and digitization, Dr. Sharma said, “So the platform will be redeployed, repurposed for universal immunization program, for managing the blood banking ecosystem and probably other programs also, which are similar to this kind of program where there are stakeholders, one is a provider and other is a seeker. And then you know, we want to have coverage, comprehensive coverage, so universal immunization program will be a very good candidate for COVID to be replicated.” (ANI)

After reviewing all applications and data on antiviral pills, the Subject expert committee (SEC) a body under India’s drug regulator will be meeting today for antiviral pill Molnupiravir recommendations, sources told to ANI.

According to the sources, almost 10 pharma companies have completed clinical trials of antiviral pills. The antiviral pill has shown a 30 per cent reduction in hospitalisation and will be useful in the treatment of Covid-19.
The SEC will review the Serum Institute of India’s Covovax, the WHO has recently granted emergency use listening (EUL) to Covovax. The US-based Novovax and Serum Institute of India has already received EUA for these vaccines in the Philippines.

The SEC will also review data of the Corbevax vaccine which is produced by Hyderabad based pharmaceutical firm Biological E. The company has submitted phase-3 trials data of Corbevax and seeking EUA for same.

The centre has already made an advance payment of 1500 crore to reserve 30 crores of Corbevax in August. (ANI)

The Badrinath shrine and Auli in the high altitude areas of Chamoli district in Uttarakhand witnessed fresh snowfall early on Monday morning.

Visuals showed tourists enjoying the fresh spell of snow in the hill station Auli.

At around 5: 30 am on Monday, minus 2.89 degrees Celsius was reported in the hilly areas of Auli.

Meanwhile, the state capital Dehradun reported a minimum temperature of 6 degrees Celsius on Sunday, which is 1 degree less than the normal temperature during this time of the year.

According to IMD’s extended-range forecast, very light to light rain or snowfall is likely to occur at a few to many places during this week and maximum temperatures are likely to remain appreciably below normal to below normal during this week. (ANI)

Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait on Sunday said that farmers do not want an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi adding that they do not want to tarnish his image abroad.

His statement comes days after the Centre repealed the three agricultural laws against which several farmers’ unions had been protesting for nearly a year.
“We do not want the Prime Minister to apologize. We don’t want to tarnish his reputation abroad. If any decision would be taken, it would not be done without the consent of farmers. We honestly cultivate the fields but Delhi did not pay attention to our demands,” the BKU leader said in a tweet (roughly translated from Hindi).

Reacting to Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar’s recent statement over three repealed farm laws, Tikait had said that the remark was intended to deceive farmers and would also humiliate the Prime Minister.

Tomar at an event in Nagpur had said: “We brought the farm laws. Some people did not like it. But the government is not disappointed. We moved a step back and we will move forward again because farmers are India’s backbone and if the backbone is strengthened, the country will become stronger.”

However, the minister later clarified that the Centre has no plan to reintroduce farm laws adding that his statement during a programme was misquoted.

Tikait has threatened to restart agitation if the farm laws are re-introduced by the Centre.

The three farm laws were repealed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 19. These bills were passed during the winter session of Parliament which began on November 23.

The farmers, who had been protesting on the borders of Delhi against the three laws for almost a year, have suspended their agitation and returned to their homes. (ANI)

Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) Ahmedabad has arrested businessman Piyush Jain under Section 67 of the CGST Act and recovered unaccounted cash over Rs 187 crores, raw and finished materials from him.

Earlier on Sunday, DGGI had recovered Rs 10 crore more cash from the factory and residence of Jain, promotor of Odochem Industries of Kannauj district in Uttar Pradesh, official sources told ANI.
The total cash allegedly recovered from Jain reached Rs 187.45 crore. The cash recovered during the search has been seized under the provisions of Section 67 of the CGST Act.

According to official sources, a joint team of DGGI and Local Central GST has recovered Rs 5 crores from Jain’s factory in Kannauj.

Another Rs 5 crore has been recovered from the residence of Jain in Kannauj. According to officials, after Kanpur, they took Jain to his factory and residence in Kannauj which resulted in a cash recovery of Rs 10 crore.

By Sunday morning the agency recovered a total of Rs of 187.45 cr. Another source supervising the search told ANI that DGGI has recovered unaccounted raw material and finished product worth crores.

Unaccounted sandalwood oil, perfumes worth crores have been seized from Jain’s factory. Interrogation of Jain is on and his statement is been recorded.

As per sources, when the DGGI and Local Central GST team reached Jain’s premises on day one of the searches, he ran away and came back after two hours on several calls by investigating officers. (ANI)

India has logged 6,531 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare informed on Monday.

As per the Health Ministry, the country’s active caseload stands at 75,841.
“Active cases constitute 0.22 per cent of the country’s total positive cases, which is lowest since March 2020,” said the Ministry.

Meanwhile, the tally of cases of the new Omicron variant of coronavirus in the country has risen to 578.

The Ministry further informed that as many as 7,141 patients recovered from the virus in the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative tally of recovered patients since the beginning of the pandemic to 3,42,37,495.

Consequently, India’s recovery rate stands at 98.40 per cent, the highest since March 2020.

“India has so far conducted over 67.29 crore cumulative tests,” said the Ministry.

As per the release, the weekly positivity rate at 0.63 per cent remains less than 1 per cent for the last 43 days now. While the daily positivity rate has been reported to be 0.87 per cent.

“The daily positivity rate has remained below 2 per cent for last 84 days,” stated the Ministry. (ANI)

From January 1, children in the age group of 15-18 will be eligible to register on the CoWIN platform.

CoWIN platform chief Dr R S Sharma said: “We’ve added an additional (10th) ID card for registration – the student ID card because some might not have Aadhaar or other identity cards.”
Emphasizing precaution in view of the rise in cases of Omicron variant of COVID-19, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on December 25 announced three major decisions in the fight against the disease including start of vaccination for children in 15-18 age group from coming January 3.

In his address to the nation, the Prime Minister said the government was following scientific advice in the vaccination drive against COVID-19. “Vaccination will start in the country for children aged between 15 to 18 years from January 3, 2022,” he said.

“The government has decided that precautionary dose of vaccine will be started for healthcare and frontline workers starting January 10, 2022. Citizens above 60 years facing co-morbidities, they will have the option of taking precaution dose on the advice of their doctor,” he added.

The Prime Minister said that 61 per cent of the adult population in the country had been given both doses of COVID-19 vaccine while 90 per cent of the adult population has go the first dose. India started the COVID vaccination drive on January 16 this year.

The Prime Minister said that the move to provide vaccination to children in the 15-18 age group is likely to aid in education normalization in schools and will reduce the worry of the parents with school-going children. (ANI)