Month: January 2022

Sara Ali Khan, on Saturday morning, visited Ujjain’s famous Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga temple to seek blessings from Lord Shiva. She was accompanied by her mother, Amrita Singh.

Taking to her Instagram handle, Sara shared a series of serene pictures from her spiritual retreat.
The ‘Kedarnath’ actor wore a simple white suit embellished with black coloured block print. On the other hand, Amrita was seen wearing a royal blue coloured traditional suit.

From the first snap where the mother-duo posed in front of the majestic temple with the holy lake in the backdrop, Sara proved that she is spiritually inclined and believes in the power of worshipping.

Sharing the pictures, she wrote, “Maa aur Mahakal #jaimahakal #jaibholenath.”

Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga is a Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Shiva.

For the uninformed, Sara is currently in Madhya Pradesh, shooting for her upcoming film with Vicky Kaushal. (ANI)

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will contest from the Gorakhpur constituency in the upcoming Assembly polls that are scheduled to begin on Feb 10, the BJP said on Saturday while releasing its first list of candidates.

While addressing the press conference, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said, “We are releasing a list of candidates for 57 out of 58 seats in the first phase and for 48 out of 55 in the second phase.”
“Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to contest from Gorakhpur seat. Deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya to contest from Sirathu assembly segment,” he said.

Yogi Adityanath has been the Member of Parliament from the Gorakhpur constituency, Uttar Pradesh, for five consecutive terms since 1998

Earlier, it was reported that the Chief Minister would also contest from Ayodhya. However, this report now stands nullified.

Elections for the 403 assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh will be held in seven phases starting February 10, the Election Commission said.

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.

In the 2017 Assembly elections, the BJP won a landslide victory winning 312 Assembly seats. The party secured a 39.67 per cent vote share in the elections for 403-member Assembly. Samajwadi Party (SP) bagged 47 seats, BSP won 19 while Congress could manage to win only seven seats. (ANI)

Army Chief General MM Naravane, Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari, and Navy Chief Admiral R Hari Kumar on Saturday paid their obeisance at the National War Memorial in Delhi to mark Army Day.

The armed forces chiefs also laid wreaths at the war memorial.

Meanwhile, taking to Twitter, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Ram Nath Kovind extended their greetings on Army day.

“Indian Army personnel serve in hostile terrains and are at the forefront of helping fellow citizens during a humanitarian crisis, including natural disasters. India is proud of the stellar contribution of the Army in Peacekeeping Missions overseas as well,” PM Modi tweeted.

“Greetings to Army personnel and veterans on Army Day. Indian Army has been pivotal in ensuring national security. Our soldiers have displayed professionalism, sacrifice and valour in defending borders and maintaining peace. The nation is grateful for your service. Jai Hind!,” Rashtrapati Bhavan tweeted today.

India celebrates Army Day on January 15 every year to acknowledge the importance of the Indian Army and honour the sacrifices of soldiers. On this day in 1949, Field Marshal Kodandera M Cariappa took over as the Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army from General Francis Bucher, the last British Commander-in-Chief of India. (ANI)

India recorded 2,68,833 fresh COVID-19 cases and 402 fatalities in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Saturday.

The fresh infections are 4,631 more than yesterday. On Friday, India logged 2,64,202 fresh COVID-19 cases.
With the addition of new cases, the total cases of coronavirus in the country rose to 3,68,50,962 including 14,17,820 active cases. Active cases account for 3.85 per cent of the total cases.

Of the total infections reported till date, 6,041 cases of Omicron variant of COVID-19 have been detected so far which is an increase of 5.01 per cent since yesterday.

As many as 16,13,740 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours wherein a daily positivity rate of 16.66 per cent was observed. Further, 70.07 crore total tests to detect the presence of the virus in individuals have been conducted so far in which a weekly positivity rate of 12.84 per cent was observed.

However, the death toll of those infected with the virus reached 4,85,752 with 402 more fatalities, the health ministry said.

Also, 1,22,684 new recoveries were reported in the last 24 hours thereby taking the total tally to 3,49,47,390. The recovery rate is currently at 94.83 per cent.

India has, meanwhile, upscaled its vaccine drive. 156.02 crore vaccine doses have been administered so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive. (ANI)

India is going to celebrate January 16 as “National Start-up Day”, the Prime Minister’s said on Saturday.

“To make the culture of start-ups reach the far-flung parts of the country, it has been decided to celebrate January 16 as “National Start-up Day”, the Prime Minister said while addressing start-ups across the country.
The PM said that 2022 has brought more new opportunities for India’s start-up sector and organizing of Start-Up India Innovation Week is also important in the 75th year of India’s independence.

“In this decade, the decisions being taken by the government for innovation, entrepreneurship and startup ecosystem have three major aspects. Firstly, Entrepreneurship- to free it from beauracratic silos. Secondly, Innovation – Institutional mechanism needs to be developed. Thirdly, Handholding young innovators.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted with over 150 startups on January 15 to boost the startup ecosystem in the country, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said.

Startups from various sectors including Agriculture, Health, Enterprise Systems, Space, Industry 4.0, Security, Fintech, Environment etc are a part of this interaction.

The PMO in a statement said that more than 150 startups have been divided into six working groups based on themes including Growing from Roots; Nudging the DNA; From Local to Global; Technology of Future; Building Champions in Manufacturing and Sustainable Development.

As a part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, a week-long event, “Celebrating Innovation Ecosystem”, is being hosted by DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, from 10 to 16 January 2022. The event marks the 6th anniversary of the launch of the Startup India initiative. (ANI)

Delhiites woke up witnessing a very foggy morning on Saturday as the city’s air quality in the national capital stood at the ‘very poor’ category.

System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) on Saturday morning informed that the national capital recorded an overall air quality index (AQI) at 339.
Lodhi Road recorded an AQI of 310, Airport recorded an AQI of 312, IIT Delhi area recoded an AQI of 319 respectively.

As per the government agencies, an AQI between zero and 50 is considered ‘good’, 51 and 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 and 200 ‘moderate’, 201 and 300 ‘poor’, 301 and 400 ‘very poor’, and 401 and 500 ‘severe’.

Yesterday, Delhi reported an AQI of 312 thereby standing in the very poor category.

The Regional Meteorological Centre in Delhi today morning said that “party cloudy sky with dense fog in the morning and cold day conditions at isolated places” are likely today morning.

Parts of Uttar Pradesh like Moradabad, Lucknow also witnessed fog today, leading to poor visibility. (ANI)

A Bandra court on Friday sent Bulli Bai app case co-accused Shweta Singh and Mayank Rawat into 14-day judicial custody till January 28, confirmed Sandeep Sherkhane, accused Mayank’s lawyer on Friday.

Shweta Singh and Mayank also filed a bail plea in the Bandra Court. Hearing on the case is on Monday (January 17), said Mayank’s lawyer.
Earlier Sweta Singh and Mayank were sent to Mumbai Cyber Cell police custody till January 14. They were arrested from Uttarakhand on January 5.

Sweta Singh was produced before the court on Friday while Mayank Rawat could not, as he tested COVID positive, informed Mumbai Police.

The other co-accused, Vishal Kumar Jha was earlier sent to police custody for 14 days while Niraj Bishnoi and Aumkerashwar Thakur are in Delhi police custody for further investigation.

‘Bulli Bai’ app was on the open-source platform Github which carried images of over 100 Muslim women meant for ‘auctioning’. (ANI)

The national capital witnessed its longest foggy day of the season on Friday, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

The fog also caused a cold day due to low sunlight in the day and a little windy from northwest of 8-12kmph towards noon, IMD said. The maximum temperature in the city dipped to 15.4 degrees Celsius, five notches below normal according to the weather department.

“Today, was the longest foggy day over Delhi for this season. It also caused a cold day due to the absence of sunlight in the day and also a little windy from northwest of 8-12kmph towards noon,” IMD said.

Foggy conditions that reduced visibility in parts of the city in the early hours of the day.

According to IMD, visibility dropped to 50 metres at Delhi’s Palam area at 5:30 am.

Dense to moderate fog is predicted in Delhi for the next four days, the IMD said. (ANI)

Mumbai reported 11,317 new cases of COVID-19 during the last 24 hours.

According to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) bulletin, the total number of cases of the disease in Mumbai has gone up to 9,81,306.

The bulletin said nine people lost their lives due to the virus during the last 24 hours and the death toll has gone up to 16,435. Of the 11,317 new cases, 9,506 cases are asymptomatic. The city has 84,352 active cases.

The bulletin said that 22,073 people recovered from the infection in the last 24 hours taking the total number of recoveries to 8,77,884.

It said 800 people were hospitalised on Friday taking the total hospitalisations to 6,432. There are a total of 38,088 beds in Mumbai. The current bed occupancy rate is 16.80 per cent.

A total of 54,924 samples were tested during the last 24 hours. (ANI)

Due to a decline in the number of samples tested, Delhi witnessed a decline in its daily COVID-19 cases, reporting 24,383 COVID-19 cases during the last 24 hours, said the state government on Friday.

As per the bulletin provided by the health department, the positivity rate for the day mounted to 30.64 per cent. A total of 79,578 samples were tested during the last 24 hours, down from 98,832 samples tested on Thursday.
With this, the total case count of the disease in the national capital has gone up to 16,70,966.

During the last 24 hours, 26,236 people recovered from the infection, taking the total recoveries to 15,53,388.

34 people lost their lives to the deadly virus during the last 24 hours. The death toll in Delhi due to the virus currently stands at 25,305.

There are currently 92,273 active COVID-19 patients in Delhi. Out of these, 64,831 patients are in home isolation. There are currently 27,531 active containment zones across the national capital.

There are currently 2,529 patients in hospitals across Delhi. 83 of these are suspected to be infected with COVID-19 while 2,446 are confirmed to be positive for COVID-19.

Out of 2,446 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 2,128 patients are from Delhi while 318 patients are from outside Delhi. Of these confirmed patients, 815 patients are currently on Oxygen support, 671 on ICU support and 99 are in a critical condition at ventilator support.

As per the bulletin, 83.66 per cent of beds in dedicated COVID-19 hospitals across the national hospitals are vacant with only 2,529 beds out of total 15,478 occupied by the patients.

Similarly, in the COVID-19 care centres, 87.01 per cent beds are empty, with only 601 out of 4,626 beds occupied. In the COVID-19 health centres, 92.41 per cent beds are vacant as only 12 beds out of total 158 beds are occupied by patients.

During the last 24 hours, 1,67,374 COVID-19 vaccination doses were administered. Out of this, 1,00,621 beneficaries received their first dose of the vaccine and 56,944 beneficaries between ages 15-18 years got their first dose of COVID-19 vaccination. During the last 24 hours, 42,464 people received their second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

A total of 4,59,289 beneficaries aged 15-18 years have received their first dose of the vaccination so far.

During the last 24 hours, 24,289 beneficaries received their ‘precaution dose’ of vaccination, taking the total number of beneficaries having received their ‘precaution dose’ to 89,417.

To date, a total of 2,82,39,309 vaccination doses have been administered out of which 1,63,13,888 people have received their first dose of the vaccine while 1,18,36,004 people have received their second dose of the vaccine. (ANI)