The Supreme Court on Monday protected SAD functionary Bikram Singh Majithia from arrest in a drug trafficking case till February 23 and told the Charanjit Singh Channi-led Congress government in Punjab that in a democracy governments must not slap election-eve criminal cases on political opponents to prevent them from contesting.
Covid-19 cases in the third wave of the pandemic have started to fall in seven states and Union territories, while several others were witnessing a slowdown in the surge, weekly numbers reveal. However, deaths from the virus rose in all major states of the country in the week ending Sunday (January 17-23), as compared to the preceding seven days.
Giving emphasis to "bail, not jail" judicial philosophy, the Supreme Court on Monday said no person can be indefinitely kept in jail with an open-ended investigation by probe agencies on a conjectural apprehension that activities of an accused could involve a larger conspiracy which may prove detrimental to national security.
PM Narendra Modi on Sunday unveiled a hologram of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose at India Gate. Emphasising that the hologram of Netaji will soon be replaced by a one cast in stone, the PM said that installation of the “giant statue” close to the National War Museum at India Gate and near Parliament marks a “homage to the hero of freedom by the grateful nation and will keep reminding our instititutions and coming generations the lesson of national duty”.
Omicron is now at the ‘community transmission’ stage in India with hospitalisation and ICU admissions rising, though most cases of the new Covid-19 infections have been mild or asymptomatic, according to genomics consortium Insacog. “Omicron has become dominant in multiple metros where new cases have been rising exponentially,” Insacog noted.
The third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic appears to have peaked in the four largest cities of the country, with the seven-day average of cases showing a clear decline in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai. However, the seven-day average, calculated till Friday, was still rising in the next four biggest cities of Bengaluru, Pune, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad.
Top health experts have not ruled out the possibility of Omicron reinfection, which brings back the focus on Covid-appropriate behaviour and vaccination to check its spread and fatalities. A Maharashtra Covid-19 task force member said, “Reinfection is something that we cannot ignore in Covid, irrespective of the variant. Even if people have recently recovered from Omicron, they cannot take the risk of improper masking or no masking, because reinfection with the variant has not been ruled out.”
The Amar Jawan Jyoti or the “eternal flame” at the iconic India Gate will be extinguished after 50 years on Friday and merged with the flame at the adjoining National War Memorial (NWM) in the run-up to the Republic Day this year.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to recall its month-old orders quashing 27% OBC quota in panchayat polls in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh and said the state election commissions would dereserve OBC seats in all future local body elections across India unless such quota is determined in strict compliance of SC's triple-test guidelines.
In the biggest single-day increase in cases since the beginning of the pandemic, India reported nearly 2.5 lakh fresh infections on Wednesday, over 50,000 higher than the previous day’s count, even as the tally went past the 2-lakh mark for the first time since May 26.
Covid-19 infections continued to surge in the country at a slightly slower rate than seen last week, with over 1.9 lakh fresh cases reported on Tuesday, up 17% from the previous day's tally. Deaths from the virus, although still very low overall, were rising at a faster rate with each passing day.
Pakistan PM Imran Khan on Monday took a Twitter swipe at his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, for his "continuing silence" on the alleged anti-Muslim hate speeches by some speakers at the Dharma Sansad in Uttarakhand's Haridwar last month.
More than one crore health and frontline workers along with some citizens above 60 years of age suffering from comorbidities will be eligible to receive the third dose (Booster) of Covid-vaccines from Monday as India starts administration of ‘precaution dose’ in the high-risk population amid rising Covid-19 cases across the country, an official said.
The minimum support price’s (MSP) tilt in favour of oilseeds has shown results with the acreage of mustard reporting a 23% increase this year, so far, over its sown area in the corresponding period last year. It is expected to increase a bit further as sowing in the ongoing Rabi (winter crop) season continues till the end of this month.
Polling in UP — stretching over seven phases on February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27 and March 3 and 7 — will be followed closely as it has been the mainstay of BJP’s successive Lok Sabha majorities in 2014 and 2019 besides delivering a sweeping verdict for the saffron party in the 2017 state poll. Counting for all the states will be done on March 10.
An official of the Union health ministry said, “The glitch stemmed from CoWIN’s update process and was immediately taken care of.” On December 27, the Centre had said beneficiaries aged between 15 and 18 years could self-register for vaccination through an existing account on CoWIN.
Over a dozen companies, including Hetero, Sun Pharma, Natco and Dr Reddy’s are in the process of rolling out the oral therapy developed by Merck and and its partner, Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, at prices ranging between Rs 1,500 and Rs 2,500 for the complete treatment, sources told TOI.
The meeting was attended by the heads of central intelligence agencies, central armed police forces, intelligence wings of the armed forces, and revenue and financial intelligence agencies. The police chiefs of all states and UTs joined the meeting via video-conferencing.
Vaccination of the 15-18 cohort accounted for around 42% of the total doses administered till 10pm. The highest number of youngsters — over 7.7 lakh — turned up for vaccination in Madhya Pradesh, followed by Gujarat with a footfall of over 5.6 lakh, Andhra Pradesh (4.9 lakh), Karnataka (4.1 lakh) and Rajasthan (3.6 lakh).
Addressing farmers on the New Year’s Day, the PM said, "Many economic indicators are looking better than the pre-Covid19 phase... Our forex reserves have reached record levels. Old recor-ds have also been surpassed in GST collection."
Sarma, who was part of the meeting that decided to constitute a panel to look into Nagaland’s demand, said PM Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah’s approach had been “very positive”. He said tribal militancy in his state was over while a solution to the “conflict” with Paresh Baruah's Ulfa(I) was on the radar.
Rescue teams evacuated the injured to various hospitals. Nine of them at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Narayana Superspecialty Hospital, Kakryal, were discharged during the day, while the rest are undergoing treatment and their condition is said to be stable.
The IGP said security forces knew they were onto something after noticing that the face of one of the three terrorists killed in the cordon-and-search operation at Nowgam Dooru in Anantnag last Thursday matched that of Samir Dar in the police records. He had been initially identified as someone else.
