Month: January 2022

It’s been three months since Suriya’s ‘Jai Bhim’ had released, and it’s still making headlines for one reason or another.

The latest news is that a scene from the film along with the director’s story narrative has been featured on the official YouTube channel of the Oscars.
Directed by TJ Gnanavel, ‘Jai Bhim’ is a hard-hitting courtroom drama about the fight for the oppressed and caste-based discrimination. The film features Suriya in the role of real-life lawyer Chandru, who dedicated his life fighting for the oppressed without charging a single penny.

And in the Oscars’ video, Gnanavel can be seen discussing how the story narrative was formed and executed.

After seeing a glimpse of Suriya’s movie in the Oscars’ video, fans took to social media to express their happiness.

“Jai Bhim is going places. Whatta news,” a social media user tweeted.

“Pride of Indian cinema, Suriya,” another one wrote.

For the unversed, ‘Jai Bhim’ also entered the Golden Globes 2022 as a nomination under the category of Best Non-English Language Film. (ANI)

The Union Health Ministry has not yet taken any decision on COVID-19 vaccination for children in the age bracket of 12-14 years, official sources told ANI.

As India has inoculated over 3.5 crore first doses of the Covaxin vaccine in the age group of 15-18 years, it is expected that the first phase of the vaccination drive for this age group will be completed by the end of this month.
However, there is no official statement on when the vaccination for children who fall between the age group of 12-14 years is going to be started in the country.

According to the experts, adolescents in the age group of 15-18 years are actively participating in the inoculation process.

On Monday, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya congratulated all the teenagers, between the age group of 15 to 18 years, who have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

“Amazing enthusiasm among young India for COVID-19 vaccination over 3.5 crore children between the 15-18 age group have received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, since January 3. Congratulations to all my young friends who have got vaccinated,” the health minister tweeted.

The country began vaccinating children between the age of 15-18 years from January 3, 2022, onwards, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the announcement on December 25 last year.

Notably, Dr NK Arora, Chairman of COVID-19 working group of NTAGI, said that looking at the current pace of the vaccination, India may begin inoculating children in the age group of 12-14 years in March.

About 46 per cent of adolescents aged 15-18 years have received their first dose in less than two weeks after vaccines were rolled out for them. (ANI)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will virtually interact with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers in his parliamentary constituency Varanasi, in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday.

This will be PM Modis’ first political interaction involving party workers since the Election Commission (EC) announced the schedule for the Assembly polls to five states, including Uttar Pradesh.
The interaction will take place via video conferencing as the Election Commission of India (ECI) has suspended all physical rallies till January 22 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

As per the party’s Uttar Pradesh unit, the interaction will begin at 11 am.

He will give a victory mantra to the party workers for the upcoming Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh and will direct them to inform people about the welfare schemes implemented by the party here, sources said.

“With the Godlike workers of BJP, a dialogue of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will be held on January 18th at 11:00 am. Share your thoughts and suggestions. To download the NAMO App, dial 1800 2090 920. #BJP4UP,” the Official Twitter account of Bharatiya Janata Party, Uttar Pradesh tweeted today.

Further, sources also informed that the top leadership has started the preparations at the district level so that the maximum number of people can get connected.

Elections for the 403 Assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh will be held in seven phases starting February 10. The polling in Uttar Pradesh will be held on February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27 and March 3 and 7 in seven phases.

The counting of votes will take place on March 10. (ANI)

India on Tuesday witnessed a dip in daily COVID-19 infections as the country reported 2,38,018 fresh cases in the last 24 hours, as per the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The new infections were 20,071 less than that reported on Monday.
With the addition of new infections, the country’s active caseload mounted to 17,36,628, which is 4.62 per cent of the total cases reported so far.

The daily positivity rate is at 14.43 per cent while the weekly positivity rate is 14.92 per cent.

A total of 8,891 cases of Omicron variant of COVID-19 have been detected so far. The ministry said that there is an increase of 8.31 per cent in Omicron cases since yesterday.

With 1,57,421 recoveries in the last 24 hours, the cumulative recoveries mounted to 3,53,94,882. Consequently, the recovery rate is at 94.09 per cent.

However, 310 people succumbed to the infection in the last 24 hours thereby taking the death toll to 4,86,761.

In the last 24 hours, 16,49,143 tests were conducted to detect the presence of the virus. Since the onset of the pandemic, the country has conducted 70.54 crore tests so far.

Meanwhile, in the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination drive, over 158.04 crore vaccine doses have been administered till date. Notably, India’s vaccination drive completed its one year on Sunday. (ANI)

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Bhagwant Mann has been named as the party’s chief ministerial candidate for the upcoming Punjab Assembly polls, said party’s National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday.

“Aam Aadmi Party Lok Sabha MP from Sangrur constituency in Punjab Bhagwant Mann will be the party’s chief ministerial candidate for the upcoming Assembly elections,” Kejriwal said while addressing a press conference here.
AAP had last week released a phone number asking people to give names of their preferred Chief Ministerial candidate for the party in Punjab. The AAP has said that it received nearly 22 lakh responses on the number.

Calling Mann as his “younger brother”, Kejriwal said that of the total responses, 93.3 per cent wanted Bahgwant Mann to the party’s Chief Ministerial candidate.

Bhagwant Mann is currently an MP from Sangrur Lok Sabha seat of Punjab.

Born in Satoj village of Sangrur in 1973, Mann started his career as a comedian. He began his political career in 2011 with the Punjab Peoples Party, which is led by Manpreet Singh Badal. In 2012, he fought the elections from the Lehragaga constituency but lost.

Later, he joined the Aam Aadmi Party in 2014 and contested election from the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat. His importance in the Punjab politics increased when he defeated veteran leader of Punjab Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, who was then a part of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).

Mann has been elected to the Punjab Lok Sabha seat of Sangrur for two terms in a row since 2014.

Mann, a celebrity-turned-politician, gained popularity from his satires in TV show ‘Jugnu Mast Mast’. He also featured in several other comedy shows.

In the 2017 Punjab Assembly polls, Congress won 77 seats in the 117-member House, whereas Shiromani Akali Dal could win only 18 seats. On the other hand, AAP emerged as the second-largest party with 20 seats.

Assembly elections in Punjab will be held on February 20. The counting of votes will be done on March 10. (ANI)

After receiving inputs from multiple agencies on the suspected terror attack on Republic Day events in the national capital, the security of Rajpath has been doubled and re-verification of Central Vista workers has been ordered.

A senior Delhi police officer said that after the recent recovery of an IED from Ghazipur flower market on January 14 and on receiving inputs regarding a terror attack on Republic Day, additional security personnel have been deployed round the clock in Rajpath and India Gate.
A team of the Ministry of Defence, Intelligence Bureau, Delhi Police and other Intelligence agencies visited the parade route and India Gate on Monday and reviewed security measures.

They briefed the Delhi Police regarding additional security measures that need to be put in place before Republic Day.

“We have ordered re-verification of construction workers at Central Vista, bomb disposal squad and dog squad sweeping the entire area thrice a day. The deployment of security personnel to be same 24*7 till Republic Day,” he added.

Earlier, additional security measures were put in place from January 20 onwards but keeping in mind the threat perception this year the additional security measures have been put in place from January 15 onwards.

On January 14, an IED that contained a timer device with Ammonium Nitrate and RDX was recovered from Delhi’s Ghazipur Flower Market. (ANI)

Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya on Monday informed that over 3.5 crore children between the 15-18 age group have received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine so far in the country, since January 3, the commencement of vaccination drive for the age group.

Taking to Twitter, Mandaviya said, “Amazing enthusiasm among Young India for COVID-19 vaccination. Over 3.5 crore children between the 15-18 Age group have received 1st dose of COVID-19 vaccine, since 3rd January. Congratulations to all my young friends who have got vaccinated.”
As per the Union Health Ministry, with the administration of more than 39 lakh (39,46,348) vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, India’s COVID-19 vaccination coverage has exceeded 157.20 Cr (1,57,20,41,825) as per provisional reports till 7 am today. (ANI)

Delhi on Monday witnessed a decline in COVID cases and logged 12,527 new infections in the last 24 hours.

With this, the positivity rate in the national capital stands at 27.99 per cent, while the active cases also declined to 83,982.
As per the health department bulletin, 24 deaths were also reported in the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative Covid death tally of Delhi to 25,387.

Further, the health department informed that there are 68,275 COVID patients in home isolation presently.

Meanwhile, as 18,340 patients recover from the virus in the last 24 hours, the recovery rate in the national capital touches 93.65 per cent, taking the total number of COVID recoveries to 16,13,128.

During the last 24 hours, 23,577 people COVID-19 vaccination doses were administered, out of which 8,248 beneficiaries of the 15-18 age group were vaccinated.

As many as 44,762 COVID tests were also conducted in Delhi, including 39,767 RT PCR tests. (ANI)