PM MODI REVIEWS COVID SITUATION

Reviewing the Covid situation amid a surge in cases fuelled by the Omicron variant of the virus, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday called for ensuring adequate health infrastructure at district level and accelerating the vaccination drive for adolescents in mission mode.

Noting that the coronavirus has been evolving continuously, Modi underlined the need for continuous scientific research in testing and vaccines besides pharmacological interventions, including genome sequencing, the PMO said in a statement.

Highlighting the need to ensure effective usage of masks and physical distancing measures as a new normal to control the spread of Covid, Modi called for effective implementation of home isolation for mild and asymptomatic cases and to disseminate the factual information to the community at large.

He said a meeting with chief ministers be convened to discuss state-specific scenarios, best-practices and public health response, the PMO added.

Conveying gratitude for the relentless services provided by healthcare workers in managing the pandemic, he said ensuring precaution dose for them and other frontline workers should be taken up in mission mode, it said.

A presentation was made in the meet to highlight India’s consistent efforts towards the vaccination campaign, with 31 per cent adolescents aged 15-18 years having been administered with the first dose so far within seven days of the start of the drive.

COVID POSITIVES AMONG PARLIAMENT STAFF, AND SC, DELHI HC STAFF AND JUDGES

Nearly 400 staffers working with Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha secretariats and allied services have tested positive for Covid-19 in the last few days, triggering a move to impose restrictions on employees’ attendance.

According to sources, 65 staffers of Rajya Sabha Secretariat, 200 of Lok Sabha Secretariat and 133 of allied services have tested positive for COVID-19 between January 4-8 during regular tests.

The development comes days before the Budget session of Parliament, which usually begins in the end of January.

After the surge in cases among employees, the Rajya Sabha Secretariat has reimposed restrictions on attendance of officials and staffers.

Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu has reviewed the situation and directed that necessary measures be taken to contain the spread of virus among the secretariat officials and staffers ahead of the Budget session.

Four out of 32 Supreme Court judges and 150 of the nearly 3,000 staff members of the apex court have tested positive for the virus. The test reports of several others are awaited.

At the Delhi High Court also, at least four judges and several staff members have tested positive for Covid-19.

PM: VEER BAAL DIWAS IN MEMORY OF GURU GOBING SINGH’S SONS

Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday announced his govt’s decision to mark December 26 as Veer Baal Diwas in memory of the sons of Guru Gobind Singh every year.

Paying rich tribute to the 10th Sikh Guru on the occasion of Parkash Purb yesterday, Modi said, “Today on the auspicious occasion of Parkash Purb of Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji, I am honoured to share that starting this year, December 26 shall be marked as ‘Veer Baal Diwas’. This is a fitting tribute to the courage of the Sahibzadas and their quest for justice.”

A shiromani Akali Dal spokesperson, Dr Daljit Singh Cheema said, “”We appreciate PM’s move to honor sacrifice of Chhote Saahibzaade but the name of the day should be decided after consultation with the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) to do justice with the history behind this unparalleled sacrifice in Sikhism.

Paramvir Singh, professor, department of encyclopedia of Sikhism, Punjabi University, Patiala, said that even though Zorawar Singh and Fateh Singh were aged 9 and 7 respectively at the time of their martyrdom, they are referred to as ‘Baba Zorawar Singh’ and ‘Baba Fateh Singh’ because according to Sikh faith, they were not merely ‘children’. “Their actions and wisdom were beyond their age and hence they are referred to as ‘Babas’, not children. We consider them our revered elders who made supreme sacrifice for Sikh faith so limiting them to the word ‘Baal’ might be objectionable,” he said.

COVID DASHBOARD – INDIA

As of 0800 IST /Jan 910

from mohfw.gov.in ,

New Cases on Sunday 1,79,723

Active Cases 7,23,619 (+1,33,008)

Total Deaths (Deaths Yesterday) 4,83,936 (132)

Total Vaccination: 151.94 Crores (+29,60,975)

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

======================

US SEEKS ANSWERS ON NEED FOR RUSSIA TROOPS IN COUNTRY

US secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Sunday that Washington was seeking answers from Kazakhstan officials on why they needed to call in Russian-led security forces to resolve domestic unrest, and he denounced the govt’s shoot-to-kill order. “We have real questions about why they felt compelled to call this organisation that Russia dominates,” Blinken said in an interview on CNN, adding that Kazakhstan should be able to deal with the protests peacefully. “We’re asking for clarification on that. ”

Russia sent in troops last week and Kazakhstan’s govt authorised the use of deadly force to quell the unrest. “The shoot-tokill order, to the extent it exists, is wrong and should be rescinded,” he said.

SRI LANKA & CHINA BURY THE HATCHET

Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi on Sunday held talks with Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and discussed a host of issues, including promoting tourism, investments and the fight against Covid-19 as the two countries marked the 65th anniversary of diplomatic ties.

Prime Minister Rajapaksa took to Twitter to announce that he had a “very pleasant meeting” with Wang. “Had a very pleasant meeting with the Foreign Min of #China. Discussions centred around the logistics of facilitating the return of the many #lka (Lankan) med students to China. Also discussed were a host of issues inc Tourism, investments, #COVID19SL relief & post Covid preparedness,” he tweeted.

The relationship between the two countries has been under stress in the recent months. China protested against Sri Lanka’s rejection of an organic fertiliser shipment that local farmers and some experts claimed was contaminated. The Sri Lankan commercial high court here blocked payment for it despite top-level interventions by China. The Chinese blacklisted the Sri Lankan state bank for not honouring the payment.

However, on Friday, on the eve of Wang’s visit, the Sri Lanka’s People’s Bank released $6.9 million to the Chinese company.

THE REST

=========

COVID VACCINATION CERTIFICATES IN 5 POLL-BOUND STATES WON’T HAVE PM’S PHOTO

Covid vaccination certificates issued in the five poll-bound states will not have Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s photo since the model code of conduct has come into force there, an official source said. The Union Health Ministry will apply necessary filters on the Co-WIN platform to exclude Modi’s photo from the vaccine certificate, the source said.

“The Health Ministry will apply necessary filters on the CoWIN platform to exclude the picture of the prime minister from the Covid-19 certificates being given to people in these five poll-bound states because of the model code of conduct coming into force,” an official source told PTI.

In March 2021, Health Ministry had taken a similar initiative during the polls held in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Puducherry as suggested by the Election Commission following complaints raised by some political parties.

NOW AN ARREST IN SULLI DEALS APP CASE

Delhi police on Sunday arrested a 25-year-old “IT expert” from Indore on the charge of creating the Sulli Deals app last July that tried to humiliate articulate Muslim women by uploading their pictures and putting them up for a mock auction.

Aumkareshwar Thakur is the first suspect to be arrested in the six-month-old case, which has returned to the spotlight after a copycat app, Bulli Bai, repeated the act against about 100 Muslim women on New Year's Day.

Officers said that Neeraj Bishnoi, a 21-year-old arrested from Jorhat in Assam last week in the Bulli Bai case, had provided the clue that led them to Thakur’s doorstep in Indore.

Both apps were hosted on GitHub, which offers anonymity to creators.

Delhi police’s cyber cell had registered a case about the Sulli Deals app on a complaint last July.

Thakur has admitted that “he was a member of a ‘trad’group on Twitter and the idea to defame and troll Muslim women was shared there”, deputy commissioner of police K.P.S. Malhotra (cyber cell) said in Delhi.

'Trad' are ‘traditional’ and conservative groups. The members seem to have oppressive views — from the caste system to women empowerment. They condemn changes happening around us (in society) and often share texts from scriptures or offensive memes.

BJP WINS CHANDIGARH MAYOR ELECTION

The BJP Saturday won all three top posts — mayor, senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor — in the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, despite winning fewer seats than the closest competitor Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Corporation polls itself, results for which were declared on 27 December.

For the mayor’s election, for which elected councillors cast their votes, BJP candidate Sarabjit Kaur won after one of the AAP votes was held invalid.

But there is more mystery concerning the election of the senior deputy mayor, which, too, the BJP went on to win — suggesting that at least one AAP candidate has changed alliance.

The results of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation polls threw a hung House on December 27, with the AAP winning 14 of the 35 wards in the city and the BJP 12 — down from 20 in the previous election in 2016. The Congress won eight seats, but later, one of its councillors, Harpreet Kaur Babla, joined the BJP. The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) won one ward.

The House has 36 members, including Chandigarh’s BJP Lok Sabha MP Kirron Kher, as an ex-officio member.

Seven Congress councillors and the one SAD councillor abstained from voting Saturday. So, there were 28 members effectively present to vote in the elections for the top three posts in the civic body — 14 from the BJP and 14 from the AAP.

On why the Congress abstained from voting, a senior party functionary said that voting for a BJP candidate would have put the party in a bad light as they are fighting primarily against the BJP nationally. Also, voting for an AAP candidate would have put them in an awkward position too ahead of assembly polls in Punjab, where AAP is the principal opposition.

RELIEF FOR MEDICAL PG ASPIRANTS: NEET-PG COUNSELLING TO START FROM JAN 12

In a much-awaited move on Sunday, the Ministry of Health said the process of counselling for admission to NEET-PG course would start from January 12.

NEET-PG was held on September 11 last after being twice rescheduled and counselling was to start in October after the declaration of results.

The process was stalled over a slew of petitions in the Supreme Court challenging the July 29, 2021 notification of the Govt providing 27 per cent reservation to OBCs and 10 per cent to students from Economically Weaker Sections in the All India Quota Scheme of the Centre for undergraduate and postgraduate medical, dental courses (MBBS/MD/MS/Diploma/BDS/MDS) from academic year 2021-22 onwards.

The petitions challenged the applicability of Rs 8 lakh annual income limit for the EWS beneficiaries while calling for merit based admissions with minimum reservation in medical PG courses.

The Supreme Court on Friday passed an interim order allowing the reservations and said there was an urgent need to commence counselling.

“In accordance with the assurance given to resident doctors by the health ministry and following the Supreme Court orders, The Medical Counselling Committee will commence counselling for NEET-PG admissions from January 12,” health minister Mansukh Mandaviya tweeted.

HOSPITAL INFRASTRUCTURE MAY BE STRESSED IF COVID-19 INFECTIONS RISE FURTHER

India’s hospital infrastructure may be put to test again if the rate of infection rises during the Omicron-led third Covid wave sweeping through the country. So far, the rate of hospitalisation remains low, at 1.5 to 2 per cent — less that two out of 100 people with Covid currently require to be hospitalised.

Ritu Garg, zonal director, Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurugram, compares her experiences of the two waves. In mid-April, her hospital had 80 patients admitted when the case tally in Delhi was 1,500. Now, the hospital has 12 patients with daily cases crossing 15,000 in Delhi.

Mumbai’s civic body, too, pointed to a similar experience. “When Mumbai had a peak of 91,108 cases during the Delta-led second wave last year, 85 per cent of the oxygen beds and 96 per cent of the ICU beds were occupied. This time, 27 per cent of the oxygen beds and about 30 per cent of the ICU beds are occupied, even when the city’s active cases have crossed 91,000,” a civic official said.

Doctors, however, caution that the low hospitalisation at this stage is not a good enough reason to lower your guard, for things may go downhill from here.

INDIA'S EV SECTOR IS TORN BETWEEN SWAPPABLE AND INTEGRATED BATTERIES

An interesting divide is shaping up in the electric vehicle industry. And it’s not about the debate on whether legacy automakers or cash guzzling startups will rule the EV market. It is, rather, a technological conundrum: should EV makers bet on battery swapping technology or integrated charging?

A swappable battery is like an LPG cylinder that is exchanged with the fuel station when the charge is exhausted; an integrated battery set-up requires charging at specific hubs, such as automobiles being refuelled at petrol pumps.

Players in the EV sector are betting on both approaches. In December, Reliance Industries first inked an agreement with the Mahindra group to develop and retail swappable batteries, and then announced that it was looking to acquire UK-based battery maker Faradion for $100 million. While most batteries in the EV space currently use lithium ion, Faradion claims that it has developed a better alternative — a battery that uses sodium ion, which makes it more sustainable, packs in greater energy and is also cheaper.

On the other hand, Hero Electric, owned by Vijay Munjal and Naveen Munjal, has tied up with EV startup SpareIt, which operates a network of electric charging hubs and service centres in six cities. It aims to ramp up its presence to 1,000 charging centres by March.

“There is no one right answer to whether battery swapping or integrated battery charging is the better way. The most important factor is the use-case — any vehicle which is for personal use sits idle 80 per cent of the time, and so, players focussed on this market would prefer electric charging,” says Nakul Kukar, co-founder of EV startup Cell Propulsion.

“EV makers and charging companies that cater to the B2B market — such as e-commerce delivery fleets and light commercial vehicles — will tend to adopt swappable battery technology. These vehicles are idle only for 20 per cent of the time and cannot afford to wait at a charging station for hours to refuel,” he adds.

ANAND MAHINDRA IS IN AWE OF AN ‘INCREDIBLE’ ROAD IN TAMIL NADU

In awe of a phenomenal road with 70 continuous hairpin bends in Tamil Nadu, industrialist Anand Mahindra took to twitter to express his admiration for the engineering marvel. He retweeted a picture shared by Norwegian diplomat and former politician Erik Solheim and wrote, “Erik you keep showing me how little I know about my own country! This is just phenomenal. I want to find out who built this road and then I will only trust my Thar to take me on it!”

Appreciating the aerial shot, Erik captioned it, “Incredible India! One of the most daring mountain roads of India with 70 continuous hairpin bends. Kolli hills road, Namakkal, Tamil Nadu.”

Since the picture caught the attention of Anand Mahindra, the Chairperson of Mahindra and Mahindra, it has accumulated over 13,000 likes and many comments.

TOP SHUTTLERS IN DELHI FOR INDIA OPEN SUPER 500

Despite the looming shadow of a third wave, a doubling of reported cases over the past four days and a weekend curfew, Delhi is about to host the India Open Super 500 tournament with the cream of Indian badminton — P V Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth and Lakshya Sen — expected to compete at the IG Stadium.

Newly crowned men’s singles champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore has already arrived for the January 11-16 meet, where he is seeded fifth.

The top Indonesian doubles pairing of former Olympic medallists Hendra Setiawan and Mohamad Ahsan, as well as top Malaysians Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi, have also flown in for the year’s first World Tour event in which around 220 players are slated to take part.

But with just two days to go, a sense of trepidation prevails as India’s biggest badminton tournament, cancelled over the last two seasons, will not be fully covered by a “bio-secure bubble”. While the international stars and top Indians will be housed in a sanitised tournament hotel, a large number of players who are not in the top 25 in world rankings will be outside this loosely controlled arrangement.

Hosts Badminton Association of India (BAI) have assured that they are “doing everything humanly possible to hold a safe tournament”, and the event had received the go-ahead from the Delhi govt, which was consulted by the world body BWF when taking a call on whether the tournament should go ahead.

ASHES, 4TH TEST – A THRILLING DRAW IN SYDNEY

England's walking wounded defied Australia's pace attack to bat out a dramatic final day of the fourth Ashes Test for a morale-boosting draw at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Sunday.

The hosts still hold an unassailable 3-0 lead heading into the final day-night Test in Hobart but England restored some pride having shown the fight captain Joe Root had asked of them.

Stuart Broad and James Anderson steered England to 270 for nine at the close of play in the evening gloom, well short of the victory target of 388 but a huge turnaround after heavy losses in Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne.

Australia skipper Pat Cummins was unable to use pace in a tense final three overs because of the fading light and his predecessor Steve Smith took his first Test wicket in almost six years to dismiss Jack Leach.

That left Australia needing one wicket in the last two overs but Stuart Broad and Anderson, despite the fielders crowding around them, stood firm to frustrate the home side.

Scores: Australia  416/8 dec and  265/6 dec ; England 294 & 270/9

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Work spares us from three evils: boredom, vice, and need. – Voltaire

OFF TRACK

At a party a young man was asked by a widow to guess her age. 

"You must have some idea," she urged when he hesitated. 

"I have a couple ideas," he admitted with a smile. "The trouble is that I don't know whether to make it ten years younger, because of your looks, or ten years older, because of your intelligence."