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Army Chief visits Siachen, promises full support to troops there

Indian troops at Siachen Glacier. (File pic)

New Delhi (NVI): Just over a week after taking over as Army Chief, General Manoj Mukund Naravane visited Siachen today and promised full support to the troops deployed at the highest and coldest battlefield in the world.

This was his first visit to any forward post after taking charge as the country’s 28th Army Chief on December 31.  He succeeded General Bipin Rawat, who has been made the country’s first Chief of Defence Staff.

While complimenting soldiers for their tenacity and high morale despite the extreme challenges posed by inclement weather, difficult terrain and super high altitude conditions, the Army Chief said that the entire Nation is proud of the soldiers who are deployed in Siachen, defending the territorial integrity of India.

He exhorted them to continue to discharge their duties with the same enthusiasm and zeal and also assured them the full support of the country as well as the Army, in carrying out their duties.

During the visit, Gen Naravane laid a wreath at Siachen War Memorial at the base camp and paid homage to the martyrs.

The visit was primarily aimed at boosting morale of the troops deployed at the Siachen glacier and serving the nation in extremely hostile conditions.

PM meets economists, business leaders

New Delhi (NVI): Ahead of the Union Budget on February 1, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today held discussion and brainstorming session with various senior economists, private equity, venture capitalists and business leaders on how to achieve the target of 5 trillion dollar economy in India.

Speaking at the meeting which was held at NITI AAYOG here, the Prime Minister said he was happy that the open discussion brought to forefront the experience of people on the ground and those working in their respective fields.

“This would enhance the synergy between policy makers and various stakeholders,” he said.

The idea of 5 trillion dollar economy is not a sudden development and but is based on deep understanding of the strengths of the country,” Modi said.

“The strong absorbent capacity of Indian economy shows the strength of basic fundamentals of the Indian economy and its capacity to bounce back,” he added.

Prime Minister said that the sectors like Tourism, Urban Development, Infrastructure and Agri based Industry have a great potential to taking forward the economy and for employment generation.

“The open discussions and brainstorming in such forums lead to a healthy debate and understanding of the issues,” he said.

Prime Minister said that this would also foster a positive mood and “can do” spirit in the society.

PDP leaders defend meeting with LG

By Mubashir Bukhari

Srinagar (NVI): Leaders of People’s Democratic Party (PDP), whose chief Mehbooba Mufti is under detention for last 5 months, have defended their meeting with Jammu and Kashmir Lt Governor G C Murmu, saying they had talked about key issues like the demands for release of political detainees and  restoration of statehood.

Led by two expelled leaders Mohommad Altaf Bukhari  and Ghulam Hassan Mir, six PDP leaders who met Murmu two days back were Mohammad Dilawar Mir, Zaffar Iqbal, Javed Hussain Beig, Noor Mohamamd Sheikh, Choudhary Qamar Hussain and Raja Manzoor Ahmad.

“We talked about the release of political detainees. If asking for restoration of statehood, protection of land and job rights, revival of tourism is wrong, then we are ready to bear any consequences,” said Dilawar Mir, who was Horticulture Minister in PDP-Congress government.

“We will wholeheartedly accept the decision.  Kashmir is currently reeling under deep crisis. Someone has to step in to ensure peace and progress,” he said.

Mir said it was his party’s prerogative to take a call on their act.

He dispelled “rumours” about forming a new political party or third front.  “There is nothing like that. It was just a meeting and should be viewed like that only,” he said.

Coming in support of expelled leader Altaf Bukhari, Mir took on the party leadership for allegedly not giving him (Bukhari) a chance to explain his position. “He was arbitrarily removed from the party without giving him a chance to present his view point,” he said.

Another former PDP legislator Noor Muhammad Sheikh said there is nothing wrong in talking to administration for welfare of people. “We didn’t receive any communication from our party leadership. Our party will have no objection over our meeting with Lieutenant Governor,” he said.

Sources said PDP is “unhappy” with its six leaders for joining their expelled colleagues to meet Lt Governor even as the party chief continues to be under detention since August.

PDP spokesperson Firdous Tak, however, said it was the party leadership’s prerogative to decide about it. “I haven’t received any communication from the party as yet,” he said.

Visakhapatnam to host Intl Naval event MILAN 2020 in March

File photo.

Visakhapatnam is gearing up to host International Naval Event ‘MILAN’ in March this year, a multilateral naval exercise aimed to enhance professional interaction between friendly foreign navies.

The ‘City of Destiny’ had successfully hosted the International Fleet Review (IFR) in Feb 2016.

For the upcoming mega event, preparations were reviewed at the Eastern Naval Command (ENC) by Vice Admiral SN Ghormade, Chief of Staff ENC, Tuesday. The review meeting saw healthy participation from civil administrators and stakeholder organisations. Those of attended the meeting were apprised of the planned activities for the mega exercise.

Vice Admiral SN Ghormade has solicited support and cooperation from the City Administration, Civic Bodies, Police Department and PSUs in co-hosting the multinational Naval event, as was done during IFR in 2016.

Nodal officers from the Navy and the attendees representing stakeholder organisations have also made site visits to various venues to draw out time-bound action plans.

MILAN 2020 is aimed at enhancing professional interaction between friendly foreign navies and learn from each other’s strengths and best practices in the maritime domain. The naval exercise has been themed as ‘Synergy Across the Seas’. It would provide an excellent opportunity for Operational Commanders of friendly foreign navies to interact with each other in areas of mutual interest.

Of the 41 navies invited, confirmations from over 30 navies have been received towards their participation in MILAN 2020.

15 foreign envoys on visit to see situation in J&K 

Srinagar/New Delhi (NVI): Delhi-based envoys of 15 foreign countries, including the US, reached Srinagar today to see the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, which has been under sharp international focus because of continued restrictions on internet and detention of political leaders.

Soon after their arrival here, the diplomats were briefed by Srinagar-based Army Corps Commander Lt Gen K J S Dhillon about the security situation in Kashmir and cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan, which continues to hamper peace and process of normalisation.

They also met some political leaders.

In Delhi, External Affairs Ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar said the objective of the visit was that the envoys should see first hand the efforts made by the government to normalise situation in J&K.

A similar visit can be organised in future, including for envoys of the European Union, he said.

The envoys of the EU wanted to visit in a group which could not be accommodated.

The two-day visit takes place five months after the Centre abolished special status of Jammu and Kashmir granted under Article 370 and bifurcated the state into two Union Territories – Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory and Ladakh Union Territory.

Besides the US, the envoys belong to countries like South Korea, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Maldives, Morocco, Fiji, Norway, Philippines, Argentina, Peru, Niger, Nigeria, Togo & Guyana.

The diplomats, who arrived here by a special flight, were received by top officials from the UT.

After their visit to Srinagar, they will travel to Jammu.

They will meet Lt Governor G C Murmu and some members of the civil society.

Over a month back, a delegation of 23 Members of European Parliament also visited Jammu and Kashmir on a trip which was organised by Delhi-based think tank  International Institute for Non-Aligned Studies.

Ever since the Modi government took the controversial decision of abolishing special status of J&K and imposed restrictions here in August, it has come under sharp criticism and there have been critical commentaries, particularly in the western media, over the curbs.

“The programme was drawn up keeping in mind the threat posed by terrorism and taking adequate precautions for security,” the MEA spokesman said.
“The visit was organized following requests from some envoys based in Delhi to undertake a visit to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.  Our consistent position has been that any visit to the Union Territory of J&K by foreign dignitaries will be based on assessment by local administration on the prevailing security situation,” he added.

 

Delhi temperature dips again 

New Delhi (NVI): Delhi again witnessed chill today as the minimum temperature dropped to 8.4 degrees celsius from 12.5 degree celsius recorded yesterday due to rain which lashed some parts of the national capital yesterday.

The maximum temperature  today is expected to be around 15.0 degrees celsius, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

The weatherman stated that the temperature is expected to dip further over the next three to four days.

Meanwhile, the overall air quality in the national capital today remained in the “poor” category.

According to System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR),the Air Quality Index (AQI) in the national capital stood at  211 which falls in the  “poor” category.

The worst affected areas are Dhirpur, Delhi University, Chandni Chowk, Pusa, Lodhi Road, Mathura Road, IGI Terminal 3 and the neighbouring Noida.

 

Northern Army Commander meets top Chinese military leader

Udhampur (NVI): Northern Army Commander Lt General Ranbir Singh today met Chinese Peoples Liberation Army Ground Forces Commander General Han Weiguo in Beijing and discussed issues having strategic ramifications, including regional security environment, joint training and measures to enhance peace and tranquility along the borders.

Gen Singh is on a five-day visit to China aimed at cementing ties between the militaries of the two countries.

This is the second-ever such visit of Northern Army Commander General Ranbir Singh to China, earlier being in 2015.

The trip is to achieve the twin aims of high level military co-operation and stabilizing the sensitive borders of both the countries.

The Indian military delegation will visit vital military and civil establishments in Beijing, Chengdu, Urumqi and Shanghai to exchange views on measures for furthering peace and tranquility.

The visit comes close on the heels of Joint Military Exercise ‘Hand-in Hand 2019’ recently held between the two Nations in the eastern theatre in Meghalaya.

There has been a marked increase in mutual co-ordination between both the armies and a will to foster friendly relations between them.

Reliance Jio launches free voice and videocalls over Wi-Fi

Mumbai (NVI): Reliance Jio today announced the launch of nation-wide voice and video over Wi-Fi service to further reinforce its customer-obsession and offer the best products and experience to its consumers.

“Jio has been testing this service over the past few months, to provide a robust experience to every customer at launch,” the company said in a statement.

Jio Wi-Fi Calling will be enabled pan-India between January 7 and 16, 2020.

“In Jio Wi-Fi calling services customers can use any Wi-Fi network and customer can also make video over Wi-Fi calls,” an official statement said.

“To provide an enhanced voice and video-calling experience in Jio Wi-Fi-calling the voice and video calls will seamlessly switch-over between VoLTE and Wi-Fi,” statement said.

“The Jio Wi-Fi calling works on the largest ecosystem of handsets and all of this services will not charge any additional cost to the customers,” statement added.

While speaking at the launch of this service,Jio Director Akash Ambani said “At Jio, we are constantly innovating to enhance customer experience or solve their problems.”

“At this juncture, when an average Jio consumer uses over 900 minutes of voice calls every month, and at a growing base of consumers, the launch of Jio Wi-Fi Calling will further enhance every Jio consumer’s voice-calling experience, which is already a benchmark for the industry with India’s-first all VoLTE network,” he added.

To enable about Jio Wi-Fi Calling system a step-by-step guide has been made available on Jio.com/wificalling.

2019 second hottest year, past decade warmest in history: EU

Climate Vulnerability Assessment
Representative Pic of climate change or global warming

New Delhi (NVI): The year 2019 was the second hottest year on record and the past decade was the warmest in history, European Union’s climate monitoring service said today.

Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), the climate change service for EU, on Wednesday released data showing that worldwide temperatures last year were second only to 2016. The temperatures recorded last year were boosted by an exceptionally strong El Nino weather event, the report said.

“Globally, December was 0.7°C warmer than the 1981-2010 average, one of the two warmest in our record. In Europe it was the warmest December in our record, at 3.2°C above average,” EU’s Climate Change Service tweeted Wednesday.

The five warmest years in record have all occurred in the last five years and the period of 2010-2019 was the hottest decade since records began, C3S said.

The climate monitor also said that atmospheric carbon concentrations continued to rise in 2019.

India also witnessed the global rise in temperatures in the last year as well as the past decade. On Monday, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) released a statement on the climate change in India in 2019. It said that despite recording the second coldest December in 118 years, 2019 was the seventh warmest year on record since 1901.

December was bitterly cold with the mean maximum temperature for the month being only 18.76 degrees Celsius, which made it the second coldest since 1901. The previous coldest December was recorded in 1997 when the mean maximum temperature was only 17.3 degrees Celsius.

Cabinet approves MoC with BMGF on cooperation in Health

New Delhi (NVI): The Union Cabinet today gave its ex-post-facto approval to the Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) between India and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) on cooperation in the field of health.

The MoC was signed between the Department of Health & Family Welfare (DOHFW), Government of India and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) on November, 2019 during the visit of Bill Gates, co-chairman and trustee of BMGF to Delhi.

The MoC is aimed to reduce maternal, neonatal and child morbidity and mortality, improve key nutrition outcomes, by improving the reach, coverage and quality of essential primary health, immunization and nutrition services.

It is also aimed at strengthening health systems, including aspects such as budget utilization, management and skills of human resources for health, digital health, strengthening supply chains and monitoring systems.

This MoC will increase the basket of choice and quality for family planning methods, specially for reversible methods, and increase access amongst younger women.

It will also reduce the burden of select infectious diseases [TB, Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL), Lymphatic Filariasis(LF)].

A Program Action Committee (PAC) will be set up to further elaborate the details of cooperation and to oversee the implementation of this Memorandum of Cooperation.

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