Author: LokMarg

The 21-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal on Tuesday announced that he has suffered a stress fracture in one of his ribs.

The Spaniard further said that he will be out of action for four to six weeks due to the fracture.

Nadal enjoyed a personal-best start to the season, going 20-0 before suffering his first loss, which came in the Indian Wells final on Sunday against Taylor Fritz.

“Hi everyone, I wanted to let you know that I’m back in Spain and I went straight to see my medical team for tests after the Indian Wells final, which I played in discomfort,” Nadal tweeted in Spanish. “I have a stress fracture in one of my ribs and I will be out for 4 to 6 weeks. It’s not good news and I didn’t expect this. I am devastated and sad because after such a good start to the season I have had.”

“Now is a very important time of the year for me and I had a very good feeling and good results. Well, I have always had that spirit of fighting and overcoming and what I will do is be patient and work hard after my recovery. Once again I would like to thank everyone for their support,” he added.

The lefty has won three titles this season, including his record 21st Grand Slam trophy at the Australian Open. On Monday, he moved up to No. 3 in the ATP Rankings. (ANI)

At least eleven people were killed after a fire broke out in a scrap shop in Hyderabad’s Bhoiguda on Wednesday.

As per Gandhi Nagar Station House Officer (SHO) Mohan Rao, out of the 12 people, one person survived.

“A total of 12 members were inside the scrap shop. Bodies of 11 labourers have been shifted to Gandhi hospital,” he said.

The deceased labourers hail from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the police said.

Rao further informed that although the reason behind the fire is yet to be ascertained, “a short circuit could be the reason for the fire.”

The fire has been doused. “DRF reached the spot to douse the fire,” he added.

The investigation into the matter is underway. (ANI)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with his British counterpart Boris Johnson over phone on Tuesday and the two leaders had a detailed discussion on the situation in Ukraine.

Prime Minister Modi reiterated India’s consistent appeal for cessation of hostilities and a return to the path of dialogue and diplomacy. He emphasized India’s belief in respect for international law and the territorial integrity and sovereignty of all states, as the basis of the contemporary world order.

Russia began its military operations in Ukraine on February 24.

PM Modi and Boris Johnson discussed issues of bilateral interests and agreed on the potential of further deepening cooperation in various areas including trade, technology, investments, defence and security besides people-to-people relations.

According to a PMO statement, PM Modi expressed satisfaction at the positive momentum in the ongoing negotiations on the bilateral Free Trade Agreement.

He also appreciated the progress in implementing the ‘India-UK Roadmap 2030’ adopted during the virtual summit between both leaders last year.

The Prime Minister conveyed his desire to welcome PM Johnson in India at an early date, as per mutual convenience. (ANI)

Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Tuesday that there should be no toll plaza within 60 km on national highways and he will ensure the norms are fully implemented in the next three months.

“I will ensure that there will be only one toll plaza within 60 km and if there’s a second toll plaza, then it will be shut in the next three months,” he said, replying to a discussion in the Lok Sabha on the demands for grants pertaining to his ministry.

Referring to points raised by members, he said people residing near the toll plazas will be able to get passes with the use of Aadhar cards.

Speaking about the infrastructure development projects in Jammu and Kashmir, the minister said that around 1,000 people are working on the Zojila tunnel project at present.

“In Jammu and Kashmir projects worth Rs 7,000 crores are underway. About 1,000 people are working inside the Zojila tunnel at -8 degrees celsius,” Gadkari said.

“Work on Delhi-Amritsar-Katra highway work has begun. By end of this year, we’ll be able to reach Mumbai from Srinagar in 20 hours and the distance between Delhi and Amritsar will be covered in four hours,” he added. (ANI)

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday announced that 35,000 temporary employees of Group C and D will be regularised.

The Punjab CM in a tweet mentioned, “We have decided to make 35,000 temporary employees of Group C and D permanent. I have directed Chief Secretary to end such contractual and outsourcing recruitments.”

He also added that Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had promised the same in the manifesto and hence they are trying to get it implemented at the earliest.

Meanwhile, the AAP ministers took charge of their respective offices at Punjab Civil Secretariat today.

Laljit Singh Bhullar has been given the Transport and Hospital Ministery; Harpal Singh Cheema has been made the Minister for Finance Excise and Taxation; Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer took charge as school Education, Sports and Youth Services and Higher Education Minister and Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, Forests and Wildlife Departments have been allocated to Lal Chand Kataruchak.

Earlier, on March 17, Punjab’s newly-elected MLAs including Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann took oath as members of the Legislative Assembly. The legislators were administered the oath of office and secrecy by Protem Speaker Dr Inderbir Singh Nijjar.

AAP leader and the party’s face for recently held Punjab assembly polls took oath as the Chief Minister of the state on March 16.

AAP recorded a landslide victory in the recently concluded Punjab assembly polls winning 92 seats, sidelining most of its rivals. (ANI)

Foreign Minister of Oman Sayyid Badr Hamad Hamood Al Busaidi is scheduled to arrive in India on Wednesday on a two-day official visit, External Affairs Ministry said today.

This will be the first visit of Sayyid Badr Al Busaidi to India in his capacity as Foreign Minister, according to the MEA.
The Omani foreign minister is arriving on an invitation by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. During his visit, he will meet Jaishankar on March 23 evening and undertake a comprehensive review of the progress made in the bilateral strategic partnership between the two countries.

Both ministers had met last in December in UAE on the sidelines of the Indian Ocean Conference.

The Ministers will also exchange views on recent regional and international developments, added the release.

India and Oman have continued close cooperation during the COVID-19 pandemic and maintained high-level contacts.

India is among Oman’s top trading partners and bilateral trade for the current financial year (FY 2021-2022) so far is almost USD 7.5 billion, read the release.

People-to-people ties is another important facet of the bilateral relationship as Oman is home to approximately 620,000 Indian nationals.

Oman’s Foreign Minister visit coincides with the slew of foreign ministers who visited New Delhi in recent days.

These include Austrian, Greek, UK Foreign Ministers and US diplomats–Victoria Nuland and Donald Lu.

New Delhi had also held a bilateral Air Force exercise in Jodhpur between India and the Oman Air force in February. (ANI)

At the meeting of foreign ministers of Muslim countries in Islamabad, Afghanistan was represented by an Afghan ministry official and not by Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, indicating that all was not well with the leadership of the two countries.

Despite the fact that Islamabad supported the Taliban take over of Afghanistan last year, the absence of Afghan foreign minister at the 48th Council of Foreign Ministers (CFMs) of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation that began here earlier on Tuesday reflects a strain in ties between the two countries.

Afghanistan is being represented at the two-day conference by Foreign Ministry official of the Taliban named Muhammad Akbar Azeemi, Dawn reported.

The Taliban had sent Muttaqi to the extraordinary session of the OIC foreign ministers in Islamabad in December. But his absence this time at OIC is significant.

It is to be noted that Afghanistan is high on the agenda at the Pakistan conference. It is a diplomatic setback for Pakistan that facilitated Taliban’s return to power in Kabul last August and has since been campaigning their cause before the world, seeking foreign aid to meet “urgent humanitarian needs” of Afghanistan whose economy has collapsed.

Muttaqi is a familiar figure in Pakistan where he has lived for over two decades since his government was ousted following the US-led operations in the wake of 9/11. He has also been a frequent visitor trying to troubleshoot issues that crop up between the two neighbours, ranging from tensions on the border to access to the outside world to the sea route via Pakistan.

“There had been a lot of debate over Muttaqi’s participation in the last OIC meet in Islamabad when he was missing in the foreign ministers’ group photo while the Afghan seat had remained vacant. Muttaqi was sitting in the last rows of guests,” Dawn newspaper reported.

Analysts say this is Afghanistan’s ambivalent response to the universal refusal to recognize the new regime.

The world community has been urging the Taliban to form an inclusive government that has a representation of women and ethnic and religious minorities. None of the 57 countries represented at the Conference, including Pakistan, has recognized the Taliban regime.

There is no word if the recognition of the regime, or an assessment of the measures to make Afghanistan’s governance ‘inclusive’ is on the agenda. It is also likely that the Taliban have chosen to keep a low profile at the conference where no major breakthrough is expected.

Also, Kabul may want to play safe vis-a-vis Islamabad which is witnessing a major political crisis, awaiting resolution of its outcome. Prime Minister Imran Khan, a vocal campaigner of the Taliban regime, is under serious challenge with his parliamentary majority under a cloud.

Pakistan’s National Assembly is scheduled to take up an opposition-sponsored no-confidence motion against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Government. (ANI)

Delhi has been declared the most polluted capital in the world in terms of air quality for the fourth year in a row in 2021, reveals a new report which says 35 out of 50 cities with worst air quality were in India.

The World Air Quality Report released Tuesday by Swiss organization IQAir is based on PM2.5 data from 6,475 cities in 117 countries.

The dataset used to generate this report was derived from the IQAir real-time online air quality monitoring platform, which aggregates, validates, calibrates, and harmonizes data from air quality monitoring stations around the globe.

The report said that publicly available air quality monitoring station data continued to increase in 2021. India, New Zealand, and Canada, in particular, saw significant increases.

Air pollution has a massive impact on human health in India. The researchers said, “India was home to 11 of the 15 most polluted cities in Central and South Asia in 2021. Delhi saw a 14.6 per cent increase in PM2.5 concentrations in 2021 with levels rising to 96.4 ug/m3 from 84 ug/m3 in 2020. No cities in India met the WHO air quality guideline of 5 ug/m3. In 2021, 48% of India’s cities exceeded 50 ug/m3, or more than 10 times the WHO guideline.”

Air pollution causes and aggravates many diseases, ranging from asthma to cancer, lung illnesses and heart disease and in this age of COVID-19, researchers have found that exposure to PM2.5 increases both the risk of contracting the virus and of suffering more severe symptoms when infected, including death.

For the increased pollution concentration in Delhi, India, the researchers said the country’s “annual average PM2.5 levels reached 58.1 ug/m3 in 2021, ending a three-year trend of improving air quality. India’s annual PM2.5 averages have now returned to pre-quarantine concentrations measured in 2019.”

The report weighed that major sources of air pollution in India include vehicular emissions, power generation, industrial waste, biomass combustion for cooking, the construction sector, and episodic events like crop burning.

Researchers also found that the air quality improved in China as more than half of the cities in the country included in the report saw lower levels of air pollution when compared to the previous year. (ANI)

Following the violence in Bhirbhum, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs from West Bengal on Tuesday sought Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s intervention over the “rapidly deteriorating law and order situation” in the state.

“With a heavy heart, we are writing to draw your kind attention to the unabated post-poll violence in West Bengal and the rapidly deteriorating law and order situation in the state. Over 50 BJP supporters have been murdered by TMC goons in the state following the 2021 Assembly Elections,” the MPs said in their letter to Shah.

“On March 19, there was an attempt to assassinate Jagannath Sarkar, MP from Ranaghat. Political terrorists backed by the ruling party hurled bombs at him, thankfully he escaped the attack unharmed. On March 15, intraparty rivalry saw the killing of newly elected TMC councillor Anupam Dutta in North 24 Parganas and Congress councillor Tapan Kundu in Purullia,” the letter stated.

Referring to the Birbhum violence, the MPs wrote, “Shockingly, last night 10 people were burnt alive in Rampurhat, Birbhum following the killing of a Panchayat Up-Pradhan in the area. Strong note should be taken of the fact that the Panchayat Up-Pradhan was killed after being attacked by bombs.”

The MPs said that the increasing use of explosives and firearms, points towards terrorists being actively used by TMC to settle political scores and to spread terror among the common citizens.

“We humbly request you to take cognizance of the rapidly deteriorating law and order situation in the state and take appropriate action as required to bring this spate of violence under control. We cannot allow for the lives of our citizens to be put at risk under increasing political terrorism in the state anymore. We will remain grateful for your timely intervention, and strictest of actions against the perpetrators,” urged the BJP MPs.

As many as eight people have been burnt to death in the Rampurhat area of West Bengal’s Birbhum on Tuesday after a mob allegedly set houses on fire following the killing of Trinamool Congress leader Bahadur Shaikh.

Director-General of Police (DGP) West Bengal, Manoj Malviya informed that 11 arrests have been made in the case so far. He further informed that Bahadur Shaikh’s murder was reported last night, an hour after which 7-8 houses nearby had caught fire.

A special investigation team has been formed to investigate the matter. (ANI)

New Zealand reported 20,907 new community cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, said the Ministry of Health in a statement.

Among the new community infections, 4,291 were in the largest city Auckland. The rest of the cases were identified across the nation, including 3,488 in Canterbury, according to the ministry.
In addition, there were 34 new cases of COVID-19 detected at the New Zealand border, said the ministry.

There were 1,016 COVID-19 patients in New Zealand hospitals, including 25 people at the intensive care unit or high dependency unit.

The ministry also reported 15 deaths from COVID-19, taking the total number of publicly reported deaths in the country to 199, it said.

New Zealand has reported 517,495 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.

New Zealand is currently at the highest Red settings under the COVID-19 Protection Framework. At Red settings, face masks become mandatory in many indoor environments and gatherings are limited to 100 people. (ANI/Xinhua)