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PM dials Mozambique Prez Nyusi

New Delhi (NVI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi today had a telephonic conversation with President of Mozambique Filipe Jacinto Nyusi and the two leaders discussed the challenges posed in both countries by the continuing COVID-19 pandemic.

PM Modi conveyed India’s willingness to support Mozambique’s efforts during the health crisis, including through provision of essential medicines and equipment, the PMO said in a statement.

President Nyusi expressed his appreciation for the close cooperation between both countries in the field of healthcare and pharmaceutical supplies, it added.

The two leaders also discussed other important topics including Indian investments and development projects in Mozambique. Pm Modi recognised Mozambique as an important pillar of India’s overall partnership with Africa, noting the large commitments made by Indian companies to the coal and natural gas sectors of Mozambique.

Both the leaders expressed satisfaction about the growing bilateral cooperation in defence and security. Prime Minister Modi shared President Nyusi’s concern about the incidents of terrorism in northern Mozambique, and offered all possible support, including through capacity building of Mozambican police and security forces.

He also conveyed his special thanks for the efforts being made by Mozambican authorities to ensure the security and safety of the Indian and Indian-origin community in Mozambique.

The PM also tweeted after calling the Mozambique leader: “Had an excellent talk with H.E. Filipe Nyusi, President of Mozambique on COVID-19 situation. I assured him of India’s continued support to Mozambique, including medical assistance to combat COVID-19.”

India asks Pakistan to vacate Gilgit-Baltistan

(Source: Twitter)

New Delhi (NVI): Vandalism and defacement of centuries-old Indian Buddhist heritage in Gilgit-Baltistan has earned the wrath of India, which asked Pakistan today to immediately vacate these illegally-occupied territories where people are being subjected to gross violation of political, economic and cultural rights.

External Affairs Ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava said India has sought immediate access for Indian experts to the area in order to restore and preserve this invaluable archaeological heritage which has been defaced.

“We have conveyed our strong concern at reports of vandalism, defacement and destruction of invaluable Indian Buddhist heritage located in so called “Gilgit-Baltistan” area of the Indian territory under illegal and forcible occupation of Pakistan,” Srivastava said.

He said it was a matter of grave concern that the Buddhist symbols are being destroyed and the religious and cultural rights and freedoms are being trampled with impunity in the Indian territories under illegal occupation of Pakistan.

“Egregious activities of this nature which display contempt for the ancient civilizational and cultural heritage are highly condemnable,” he said.

“We have once again called upon Pakistan to immediately vacate all illegally occupied territories and end gross violation of political, economic and cultural rights of people living there,” the MEA spokesman said.

His comment came in the wake of reports about defacement and vandalism of Buddhist architecture in Gilgit-Baltistan, including destruction of inscriptions.

Kashmiri traders demand special package to revive business

Abid Bashir

Srinagar (NVI): The leading trade bodies in Kashmir held a joint press conference here today and asked Centre for a special financial package to revive business and economy in the Union Territory, saying the industry and traders in the region have suffered since August last year and now the Covid lockdown has added to their woes.

The Centre had revoked Article 370 last year which gave special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

The representatives of at least 30 major trade organisations in the UT today said they felt ignored in the recently announced Rs 20 lakh crore special economic package. Sheikh Ashiq Hussain, President of Kashmir Chamber Commerce and Industries (KCCI) while addressing a joint presser at SKICC here, said that the traders who have suffered immensely in the past several decades in Kashmir demand measures for the revival of their businesses.

“The only aim to hold a joint presser today is to raise our voice for the business fraternity across the Valley which has suffered huge losses due to the situation that gripped the Valley from time to time,” he said. “In the past two decades, Kashmir alone has witnessed 3000 days of shutdown resulting in the huge looses to the business fraternity,” Hussain said.

He said that in particular, their business has suffered a dent since last ten months. “We have met the Union Home Minister and Union Finance minister and MoS PMO regarding the losses faced by the traders. We have brought into their notice about the challenges being faced by the business community in Kashmir,” he said.

He said that business in Kashmir has received another major jolt in the form of COVID pandemic in Jammu and Kashmir.

“Our businesses friends in India have raised voice over the losses suffered by them. The government later announced a package for the people who got affected,” he said. “We have been excluded from the package as the package was announced for those only who have suffered losses in last two months. But, the businessmen in Kashmir are facing the losses from last ten months.”

Iqbal Ahmad, Kashmir Economic Alliance (KEA) Vice-Chairman while talking to the media men said the Valley has witnessed 3000 days of lockdown in over two decades. “Whenever the valley witnessed lockdown, the business fraternity got badly affected. Since 1999, Kashmir has witnessed 3000 days of lockdown. Despite witnessing such a situation, none of the traders here become Vijay Mallya or Nirav Modi. The Kashmiri’s trader who has borrowed money from the banks here is repaying the amount in installments and on time,” he said, adding that “We do deserve the package.”

“We have approached the State governments in past, they heard us; many packages were given in the past. I will not deny that but when Rs 8000 Crore was announced for Jammu and Kashmir after floods, a meager amount was given to the business community here,” he said.

Among the representatives of over 30 trade bodies who were present on the occasion include Kashmir Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCC&I), Kashmir Traders & Manufacturing Federation (KTMF), Kashmir Economic Alliance (KEA), Federation Chamber of Industries Kashmir (FCIK), PHD Chamber of Commerce (Kashmir Chapter) and Kashmir Hotel & Restaurant Owners Federation (KHAROF).

Evacuation exercise highlights Kashmiris are spread all over India 

Srinagar (NVI): It is generally perceived that Kashmiri Muslims hate India and don’t want to live with India. This perception, fuelled by Pakistan and its proxies in Kashmir, has been smashed recently, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic.

After the deadly pandemic struck and a nationwide lockdown was announced from March 25, it came to light that Kashmiris have been living in all corners of the country, and that too in large numbers. They have been quietly studying or earning their livelihood through business etc, across the country, including in Nagpur, which houses the headquarters of RSS.

These details came to the fore during the exercise initiated by the Jammu and Kashmir government, with the help of central government, to evacuate the residents of the Union Territory stranded at various places in the country. As of today, 1,07,970 such people were evacuated by road and special trains.

It is significant to mention here that the central government went out of its way to run extra special trains to ferry stranded residents of Jammu and Kashmir to their home in the Union Territory, even while thousands of their counterparts from states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar had to hitch rides on trucks or even walk on foot for hundreds of kilometers in the absence of adequate number of trains and buses.

As per the official data, the administrations of Jammu and Kashmir districts have received 41 special trains at Jammu and Udhampur railway stations from different states and UTs, so far, with about 32,649 stranded passengers while about 75,321 persons have been evacuated by the government by road via the Lakhanpur border with Punjab.

As per the detailed break-up, 21 trains have reached Jammu with a total of 17,009 stranded passengers belonging to different districts while 15,640 passengers have reached Udhampur in 20 special trains, so far.

As per the official communiqué, of the 75,321 returnees evacuated through Lakhanpur, 19507 were brought from Punjab, 22,113 from Himachal Pardesh, 25 from Andhra Pradesh, 7054 from Delhi, 1411 from Gujarat, 3362 from Rajasthan, 4374 from Haryana, 162 from Chhattisgarh, 3640 from Uttarakhand,  4742 from Uttar Pradesh, 64 from Odisha, 268 from Assam and 1199 from Madhya Pradesh, 88 from Dehradun, 1437 from Chandigarh, 698 from Telangana, 122 from Karnataka, 23 from Tamilnadu, 52 from Chennai, 325 from Bihar, 166 from West Bengal, 113 from Jharkhand, 3 from Goa and 3271 from other states and UTs.

Nearly 4000 J&K residents, including over 1200 students, were evacuated from Maharashtra by Shramik special trains. The process to evacuate J&K residents from Maharashtra by Shramik Special Trains began formally on May 14 with first such train ferrying around 1000 people from Nagpur to J&K. The train carried J&K residents stranded in Nagpur and adjoining districts of Akola, Wardha, Aurangabad, Yavatmal, Amrawati, Raigad, Gondia, Nashik, Washim, Bhandara, Phalgar, Buldana, Akola and Latur, according to official data.

It was followed by another Shramik Special Train carrying 1000 J&K residents, including 500 students, from Pune on May 19. The train carried J&K residents stranded in Pune and adjoining districts of Satara, Kolhapur, Ahmednagar, Solapur, Dhule, Nanded, Buldana and Jalgaon.

Another 700 J&K residents, including 100 students, were brought from Thane railway station by Shramik Special train on May 22. The train carried J&K residents who were stranded in Navi Mumbai, Raigad and other adjoining areas.

One more Shramik train brought around 600 stranded persons of J&K, including 200 students, from Bandra Terminus, Mumbai on May 23. The train carried the J&K residents, who were mostly stranded in two key districts of Mumbai city and Mumbai suburban.

These stranded persons evacuated by Special Trains included patients, students, traders, handicraft vendors, labourers, private security guards and employees from banks, private sector and the government.

By May 24, the total number of J&K residents evacuated from Maharashtra, along with  Kerala and Goa in the south-western region by seven Shramik Special Trains, was around 6000 including around 1300 students.

In this region, around 800 J&K residents including 35 students, were evacuated by Special Shramik Train from Kerala on May 20. Similarly, around 1800 J&K residents, including 17 students were evacuated by 2 Special Shramik Trains from Goa on May 10 & 12.

The evacuation process is continuing and more such people are expected to be ferried home from various parts of India.

Bangladesh COVID-19 tally rises to 55,000; 746 dead

Bangladesh lockdown

New Delhi (NVI): Bangladesh reported spike in coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours with the detection of 2,695 new cases, taking the total number of confirmed cases to 55,140.

The country also recorded a total of 37 death due to the novel coronavirus during this period, raising the death tally to 746, according to United News of Bangladesh.

So far, a total of 11,590 people have recovered from the deadly contagion, after 470 more patients made recovery.

Against the total number of detected cases, the recovery rate is 21.02 per cent and the mortality rate is 1.35 percent in country.

So far, a total of 5,333 policemen have been infected with coronavirus across the country while being on duty.

Centre relaxes visa restrictions, permits select categories of foreigners

New Delhi (NVI): The Government has relaxed visa and travel restrictions for certain categories of foreign nationals who need to come to India, as part of its efforts to bring the country out of coronavirus lockdown in phases with ‘Unlock 1’ strategy.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in a statement today said that it has been decided to permit the following categories of foreign nationals to come to India:

  • Foreign businessmen coming to India on a Business visa (other than on B-3 visa for sports) in non-scheduled commercial/ chartered flights.
  • Foreign Healthcare professionals, health researchers, engineers and technicians for technical work at Indian health sector facilities, including laboratories and factories. This is subject to a letter of invitation from a recognized and registered healthcare facility, registered pharmaceutical company or accredited University in India.
  • Foreign Engineering, Managerial, Design or other Specialists travelling to India on behalf of foreign business entities located in India. This includes all manufacturing units, design units, software and IT units as well as financial sector companies (banking and non-banking financial sector firms).
  • Foreign Technical specialists and engineers travelling for installation, repair and maintenance of foreign-origin machinery and equipment facilities in India, on the invitation of a registered Indian business entity. These could be for equipment installation, or is under warranty, or for after-sales servicing or repair on commercial terms.

The Ministry said that these categories of foreign nationals would have to obtain a fresh Business visa or Employment visa, as applicable, from the Indian Missions/ Posts abroad.

“Foreign nationals holding a valid long term multiple entry Business visa [other than B-3 visa for sports] issued by the Indian Missions/ Posts abroad would have to get the Business visa re-validated from the Indian Mission/ Post concerned.   Such foreign nationals would not be permitted to travel to India on the strength of any electronic visa obtained earlier,” it added.

Coronavirus cases in Pakistan surpass 80,000 mark

New Delhi (NVI): Pakistan is witnessing a sharp surge in the number of positive coronavirus cases as nearly 3,000 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours, taking the overall tally to 80,463 with at least 1,688 fatalities recorded so far.

Looking at the breakdown of cases, Sindh province has reported 31,086 coronavirus cases, highest among all the provinces, while Punjab has 29,489 positive cases.

On the other hand, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has recorded 10,027 cases, Balochistan is at 4,514, Gilgit-Baltistan at 779, Islamabad at 3,188 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is at 284 cases so far, according to Geo News.

So far, 28,923 people have fully recovered from the deadly contagion in the country.

In addition to this, Pakistan has more than 100 labs that can conduct over 30,000 tests per day and the number of daily tests will be gradually increased to the maximum level, according to the media reports.

COVID cases in Afghanistan climb to 17,267, death toll at 294

New Delhi (NVI): The total number of coronavirus cases in Afghanistan now stands at 17,267, with 294 deaths due to the pandemic, according to Afghan media reports.

At least 758 new cases of COVID-19 and 24 deaths have been reported in Afganistan in the last 24 hours.

According to country’s Ministry of Public Health, 1,323 suspected cases were tested, out of which 758 cases were tested coronavirus positive.

Kabul, once again led the provinces as the hotspot for COVID-19 positive cases, reporting 332 cases in a single day.

In addition, 216 positive cases were reported in Herat, 54 in Kandahar, 52 in Balkh, 48 in Jawzjan, 19 in Logar, 11 in Faryab, 11in Kunar, 5 in Badakhshan, 5 in Nuristan, 3 in Nangarhar and 2 in Samangan.

At present, 42,273 samples have been tested for COVID-19 in the country, ministry said.

So far, 1,522 people have cured from virus and discharged.

Apart from this, two Afghan officials have died of coronavirus in Kunduz Province today morning. Fahim Qarluq the district governor for Qala-e-Zal and General Rashid Bashir, police Chief of the Province.

Nepal reports 201 new coronavirus cases, total climbs to 2,300

New Delhi (NVI): Nepal reported 201 new cases of coronavirus today, taking the national tally to 2,300, according to local media reports.

The country’s Ministry of Health and Population said, among the newly infected, 179 are males and 22 females.

Of the infected, one person from Dhankuta, two from Morang, one from Jhapa, one from Atharai of Tehrathum and one from Sunsari tested positive.

Similarly, one person from Saptari, two people from Taplejung, one person from Jhapa, one person from Panchthar and 7 people from Sunsari have also tested positive in the test conducted in Dharan.

In the laboratory test at Narayani Hospital, the reports of seven people from Parsa have come positive. Likewise, coronavirus infection has been found in one person from Dailekh and two people from Salyan in tests at Surkhet laboratory.

While in a test conducted at Seti Hospital has found coronavirus infection in three people in Kailali and two in Doti.

In another test conducted at the Provincial Laboratory in Rupandehi showed coronavirus infection in 67 people in Kapilvastu, two in Palpa and 26 in Rupandehi.

Apart from this, nine people from Mahottari have tested positive in a laboratory test in Janakpur.

Additionally, the infection has been found in six people of Dailekh and seven people of Kalikot in a test at the Karnali Institute of Health Sciences; Five people from Dang, two from Pyuthan and one from Salyan have also tested positive at the Rapti Institute of Health Sciences.

One person came positive in Dhanusha, two in Kapilvastu, three in Kathmandu, eight in Nawalparasi, 11 in Rautahat, one in Rupandehi, 15 in Sarlahi and one in Sindhupalchowk.

At present, 64 of the 77 districts and all the Provinces have witnessed the transmission of COVID-19 virus.

With this, 2,130 males and 170 females have been infected with the virus across the country, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, one more person, who tested positive for the coronavirus infection, has passed away. With this, Nepal’s COVID-19 related death toll stands at nine.

So far, 12 people have been discharged following recovery, which means the total recovery cases stand at 278 across the country.

Oceans could heat up at 7 times their current rate after 2050: Study

New Delhi (NVI): A new study has suggested that the rate of climate change in deep parts of the oceans could accelerate to seven times their current rate after 2050, reports The Guardian.

According to the study, the depths of the oceans are heating up more slowly than the surface and the air, but that will undergo a dramatic shift in the second half of the century.

The study has been published in the journal Nature Climate Change. It has shown that different parts of the ocean undergo change at different rates as the extra heat from increasing levels of greenhouse gases moved through the vast ocean depths, making it increasingly tricky for marine life to adapt.

The findings point towards grim prospects for marine life after looking at a metric called climate velocity. The climate velocity measures the speed and direction a species shifts as their habitat warms, according to Sky News.

Isaac Brito-Morales, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Queensland in Australia, and his team of scientists used data from 11 different climate models to predict what the rest of the 21st century will look like.

Brito-Morales and his team looked at the past 50 years of data and projections for future greenhouse gas emissions.

“This allowed us to compare climate velocity in four ocean depth zones — assessing in which zones biodiversity could shift their distribution the most in response to climate change,” said Brito-Morales, in a University of Queensland statement.

In the study, the researchers looked at future rates of change in three different scenarios, one where emissions start to fall, another where they start to fall by the middle of this century, and a third where emissions continued to rise up to 2100.

The study found “a rapid acceleration of climate change exposure throughout the water column” in the second half of the century, as The Guardian reported.

Professor Jorge García Molinos, a climate ecologist at Hokkaido University’s Arctic Research Center in Japan, and a co-author of the study told The Guardian, “Our results suggest that deep sea biodiversity is likely to be at greater risk because they are adapted to much more stable thermal environments.”

Ocean water surfaces are experiencing climate velocity about twice the rate of the lower regions, so far. Due to this, life in the depths of the ocean has been less affected as compared to coral which are much closer to the surface of the water.

Marine life such as tuna are extremely vulnerable to any slight changes in ocean temeperatures as fish in the depths of the ocean are accustomed to a highly stable environment, The Guardian reported.

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