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J&K: 12 districts among PMGSY top performing 30 in country

Srinagar (NVI): In a significant achievement, 12 districts of Jammu and Kashmir have figured in the list of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) top performing 30 districts of the country.

An official spokesman said that the districts which have achieved this distinction include Doda, Udhampur, Anantnag, Rajouri, Baramulla, Budgam, Kupwara, Reasi, Kathua, Pulwama, Shopian and Kulgam.

“The authorities have expressed optimism that other remaining districts would also work hard to achieve this rare distinction of being the best performing districts under implementation of PMGSY programme,” the spokesman said.

-ARK

Global stability, shared security, innovative growth to be theme for BRICS Summit

New Delhi (NVI): ‘Global stability’, ‘shared security’ and ‘innovative growth’ will be the central theme of the sixth BRICS Parliamentary Forum, to be held under the Russian chairmanship this year, via video conference on November 17.

According to the Chairman of the State Duma (Lower House) of the Russian Federation Viacheslav Volodin, who will chair the Forum, “Russia will propose to discuss with the colleagues, members of the parliaments of the BRICS countries, issues of strengthening of the key international institutions such as the UN and the World Health Organization. Issues of building a system of international relations on the principles of mutual respect and respect for sovereignty will be also discussed at the meeting.”

The Forum participants also plan to discuss issues of improving the standards and quality of life of citizens of the BRICS countries, preparing legislative initiatives to improve the health care systems, issues of social protection and economic recovery in the pandemic conditions, as well as the further development of parliamentary cooperation within the BRICS. The heads of the BRICS parliamentary delegations (Russia, Brazil, India, China, South Africa) will address the Forum participants.

The outcome statement is also planned to be adopted at the end of the meeting, as per an official release.

Interestingly, this year, the BRICS summit is taking place amid the Covid-19 pandemic and the India-China face-off in Ladakh. That means PM Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping will be face-to-face at the virtual summit scheduled to take place next month.

This comes when External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh have participated in meetings with their Chinese counterparts in Moscow this year.

PM Modi and Xi Jinping are going to be interacting virtually at the BRICS summit on November 17.

The BRICS summit was earlier scheduled for July along with the meeting of Shanghai Corporation Organisation (SCO) in July in St Petersburg, but due to the global pandemic, that meeting had to be postponed.

It is pertinent to mention here that Russia has played a vital role in facilitating meetings between defence ministers of India and China both on the sidelines of SCO meeting and S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Moscow.

-ARK

India, US to hold 2+2 Ministerial dialogue on Oct 27

New Delhi (NVI): India and the US will hold their third 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue here on October 27 with an aim of taking the bilateral strategic relationship forward amidst China’s increasing territorial aggression as reflected by its action on the Ladakh border.

The Dialogue involves Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defence of the two countries.

External Affairs Ministry announced here today that US Secretary of State Michael R Pompeo and Secretary of Defence Mark T Esper will be visiting India on October 26-27 to participate in the Dialogue.

The Indian side will be represented by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar.

The first 2+2 Ministerial dialogue was held in New Delhi in September 2018 and the second took place in Washington in 2019.

The agenda for the third Dialogue will cover all bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual interest, the External Affairs Ministry said.

Besides the bilateral issues, the talks are expected to cover China’s growing territorial aggression, which is reflected by its actions on the Ladakh border with India and in South China Sea.

The Foreign Ministers of India and the US met recently, along with their counterparts from Japan and Australia, in Tokyo under the banner of Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or Quad.

The Quad is an informal association and the US is keen to formalise and regularise it so that there are modalities for cooperation and interoperability among its members for dealing with global challenges.

“It is our view that with the passage of time, the Quad should become more regularised and, at some point, formalised as well, as we really begin to understand what the parameters of this cooperation are and how we can regularise it,” US Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun said on Tuesday.

He said such regularisation would bolster cooperation within the Quad and with other countries in the Indo-Pacific, especially if there is a framework for dealing with crises, irrespective of whether they are natural disasters or economic and security issues.

“What you want to do is have a certain modality of cooperation, interoperability and understanding [of] the respective strengths that each partner can bring in facing any number of global challenges,” Beigun said.

Biegun said the US currently has “no designed policy for Quad expansion” and it isn’t “advocating for Quad-plus” though it has mutual defence agreements with partners in the Indo-Pacific region such as Australia, Japan, South Korea and Thailand.

The Quad member countries – India, the US, Australia and Japan — will be holding military drills called ‘Malabar Exercise’ in November.

Quad was floated in 2007 but it remained dormant till its revival in 2017, after which it gained significance in view of increasing aggressiveness by China.

The grouping was elevated to the ministerial level in September last year and India on Monday formally invited Australia to join the Malabar naval exercise conducted annually with the US and Japan.

Biegun said the Quad remains a “somewhat undefined entity” and it was premature to talk about expanding it. However, there is a “natural affinity” among numerous nations in the Indo-Pacific and an opportunity for close engagement with partners in South Asia such as Bangladesh, he added.

“We’re not necessarily advocating for Quad-plus but rather a continuation and regularisation of the Quad with an eventual goal of understanding how it could be best formalised and then also welcoming cooperation with any country in the Indo-Pacific that’s committed to defending a free and open Indo-Pacific,” he said.

Telangana floods: Centre to send five-member inter-ministerial team

New Delhi (NVI): The Union Home Ministry today said that the Centre has constituted a five-member inter-ministerial team to have an on-the-spot assessment of the damages caused by the recent rainfall and consequential floods in Telangana.

The Team will commence its two-day visit from 22nd October.

Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy gave information in this regard at a press conference today. The five-member Central team would carry out a detailed investigation of the rain-ravaged regions in the state, he said while addressing the press conference in Delhi.

Telangana floods have wreaked havoc in the state destroying lives and properties. The Centre has also announced a compensation of Rs 4 lakh to the kin of victims who lost their lives due to rain and flood-related incidents in the state.

Apart from that, a compensation of Rs 2 lakh will be given to those who suffered permanent disability and Rs 12,700 to those who have been injured in rain-related incidents. The families that have lost their household things would also be compensated for Rs 3,800.

During the press briefing, MoS G Kishan Reddy also announced that the Centre would assess crop damages in Telangana, and would later reimburse the costs to the state government’s State Disaster Relief Fund.

-ARK

IIT Kharagpur’s COVIRAP diagnostic test gets ICMR nod

New Delhi (NVI): ‘COVIRAP’, a diagnostic machine developed by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur researchers, has been successfully validated for its efficacy in Covid-19 detection by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

COVIRAP is a cuboid-shaped portable testing device that can deliver results in an hour, making it an effective tool to scale up Covid-19 screening in peripheral and rural areas.

After rigorous testing with patient samples by an authorized ICMR laboratory, adhering to their strict guidelines, ICMR has now granted certification for this Covid-19 Diagnostic Test.

This test has been designed to be fairly easy to conduct and affordable as well.

This new testing method implements a highly reliable and accurate molecular diagnostic procedure that can be conducted in an ultra-low-cost portable device unit developed by the research team of IIT Kharagpur. The test results are rendered via a custom-made mobile application for dissemination without requiring manual interpretation.

Addressing a Virtual Press Conference today to announce this major development in the nation’s fight against COVID-19, the Union Minister of Education Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank said, “I am glad the researchers from IIT Kharagpur have achieved the goal of Atmanirbhar Bharat through this medical technology innovation.”

“This would go on impacting the lives of many in rural India as the device is portable and can be operated on a very low energy supply. Minimally trained rural youth can operate this device,” he added.

The minister added that the innovation has made “high-quality and accurate COVID testing affordable for the common people with a testing cost of around Rs 500 which can further be reduced through government intervention.

Javadekar added, “As informed by IIT Kharagpur, this machine can be developed at a cost of less than Rs 10,000 with minimal infrastructural requirement making the technology affordable to common people. The testing process in this new machine is completed within an hour.”

Speaking about this test, Prof VK Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur, said, “This is indeed one of the greatest contributions in the history of medical science, particularly in the area of virology, and is well set to replace PCR-based tests to a large extent.”

“We collected 200 positive and negative samples. After blind labelling, they were tested in a real time RT-PCR machine and COVIRAP. Although we were initially sceptical about the outcome, when we compared the test results, we found the machine to be very accurate. The temperature controlled COVIRAP showed 94 per cent sensitivity and 96 per cent specificity.”

The novel diagnostic test has been subjected to rigorous testing protocols as per the ICMR guidelines, at ICMR-NICED, an institute authorised by ICMR.

-CHK

Cabinet approves adoption of J&K Panchayati Raj Act

New Delhi (NVI): The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, today approved the adoption of the Jammu and Kashmir Panchayati Raj Act, 1989.

Briefing the press after the Cabinet meeting, Union minister Prakash Javadekar said the move will help establish all the three tiers of grassroots-level democracy in Jammu and Kashmir like in other parts of the country.

The three-tier system was not available in Jammu and Kashmir in the “pre-370 period”, Javadekar said, referring to Article 370 of the Constitution that was abrogated last year.

The article gave special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

The promise made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Jammu and Kashmir and Home Minister Amit Shah in Parliament now stands redeemed, Javadekar added.

“Now, there will be early elections, and the power to manage the local bodies will go to people. Locally elected representatives will be able to do district and block level planning, and implement welfare schemes,” he noted.

This will help the people of the Union Territory to elect their representatives at the village, block and district levels, he said.

-CHK

115 Taliban killed by Afghan forces, 39 others wounded in last 24 hrs

Afghanistan
Afghan troops moving towards border amid high tensions with Pakistan.

New Delhi (NVI): Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defence today said that 115 Taliban terrorists have been killed and 39 others wounded in clashes with Afghan security forces in several provinces in the last 24 hours.

The Afghan MoD said that there Taliban terrorists were killed in retaliatory attacks as they targeted Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) in at least 26 provinces in the country. A large number of arms and ammunition recovered from them was also destroyed, it said.

“115 Taliban have been killed and 39 others wounded during the last 24 hours. Also, a large amount of their ammunition and weapons have been destroyed. These Taliban were killed and wounded as a result of reciprocal attacks in 26 provinces after they attacked ANDSF positions,” the Afghan Ministry said in a statement.

Among those killed in injured, 18 Taliban were killed and 12 others wounded after they attacked ANDSF checkpoints in Nawa district of Helmand province last night.

In another attack today, a suicide attacker riding in a car bomb was identified and killed before he could target Afghan National Army (ANA) base in Shahwali Kot district of Kandahar province, the Afghan Defence Ministry said.

Earlier this month, massive clashes were reported from Helmand, particularly its capital Lashkar Gah, causing heavy casualties and forcing thousands of people to flee the province.

The Taliban attacks come even as representatives of the Afghan government and the Taliban are holding intra-Afghan negotiations in Qatari capital Doha, with an aim of ending the decades-long war.

-ARK

USAID provides additional $5 mn to help India fight Covid-19

US Agency for International Development (USAID)

New Delhi (NVI): The United States government, through its US Agency for International Development (USAID), today announced two new awards of USD 5 million as continuing support to India’s COVID-19 response.

These new awards were given to Catalyst Management Service’s COVID Action Collaborative (CAC) and the Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence (Wadhwani AI), the US embassy said in a release.

US Ambassador to India, Kenneth I Juster while speaking at the announcement of awards said, “The United States is pleased to support innovative programs and cutting-edge technologies to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 in India.”

“These awards are another example of American generosity and our commitment to assist each country in combating this pandemic,” he added.

The two-year partnership of USD 3 million with CAC will benefit over 10 million neglected and vulnerable individuals affected by COVID-19 in the country.

It will strengthen the capacity of 100 local organizations, 10 local governments and 15 associations of healthcare providers, small retailers, and street vendors, and will link them with government and private sector resources.

CAC will also provide a platform for industry and development partners to join forces to support COVID-19 mitigation efforts in the country and also to coordinate with other ongoing USAID activities that are addressing the impact of the pandemic and reaching vulnerable populations, the release said.

The US aid agency also awarded USD 2 million to the non-profit research institute Wadhwani AI to develop tools, using mathematical modeling techniques and digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning.

These tools will forecast COVID-19 disease patterns, estimate resources needed, and plan interventions.

This increases the total financial assistance provided by the USAID to India for supporting its efforts against the virus to USD 13 million, the release said.

However, the US government continues to demonstrate global leadership in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

-RJV

PM Modi holds talks with S Korea Prez

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South Korea President Moon Jae-in.

New Delhi (NVI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi today held a telephonic conversation with President of the Republic of Korea (ROK), Moon Jae-in, and discussed a variety of issues including the Special Strategic Partnership which offers immense promise in the post-COVID world.

The two leaders reviewed important global developments including the progress of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, the ongoing diversification of international value chains, the need to preserve a transparent, development-oriented and rules-based global trading order, a Prime Minister’s Office release said.

They also discussed the important role of the World Trade Organisation, the release added.

Both of them agreed to remain in touch to further discuss these issues and to accelerate bilateral cooperation in all areas.

PM Modi also took to twitter in this regard and wrote, “Spoke to my friend, President @moonriver365 today on a variety of issues, including the immense promise that the India-ROK Special Strategic Partnership offers in the post-COVID world. @TheBlueHouseENG.”

-CHK

Cabinet approves MoU with Nigeria on outer space cooperation

Representational image

New Delhi (NVI): The Union Cabinet today approved Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between India and Nigeria on cooperation in the exploration and uses of outer space for peaceful purposes.

The decision was taken in the Union Cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The MoU was signed between Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) at Bengaluru in June this year and by National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) of Nigeria at Abuja on August 13, an official statement said.

This shall enable potential interest areas of cooperation such as remote sensing of the earth satellite communication, satellite-based navigation, and Space science end planetary exploration, use of spacecraft, launch vehicles, space systems and ground systems.

The practical applications of space technology including geospatial tools, techniques and other areas of cooperation are also to be determined by the signatories, the statement added.

Under the MoU, a joint Working Group will be set up comprising members from Department of Space (DOS) or ISRO and NASRDA of Nigeria, which will further work out the plan of action including the time-frame and the means of implementation

It will also provide impetus to explore newer research activities and application possibilities in the field of remote sensing of the earth, satellite communication, satellite navigation, space science and exploration of outer space.

Moreover, the signatories intend that the mutually decided programmes will be performed on a cooperative basis and funding arrangements for such activities will be decided upon by the signatories mutually on a case by case basis.

The financing of joint activities carried out pursuant to this MoU will be provided by the signatories in accordance with the laws and regulations of respective signatories and subject to the availability of funds allocated for these purposes, the statement further read.

Furthermore, the cooperation with the government of Nigeria through this MoU would lead to develop a joint activity in the field of application of space technologies for the benefit of humanity. All sections and regions of the country will also get benefited.

-RJV

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