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Trump will be accorded ‘memorable welcome’ in India: PM

Trump and Modi (File pic)

New Delhi (NVI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said US President Donald Trump would be accorded a “memorable welcome” when he undertakes his first India visit on February 24 and expressed confidence that the trip would go a long way in further cementing the bilateral friendship.

Trump, to be accompanied by First Lady Melania Trump, will attend official engagements in New Delhi and Ahmedabad and interact with a wide cross-section of Indian society during his two-day trip. He is undertaking the visit at Modi’s invitation.

“Extremely delighted that @POTUS @realDonaldTrump and @FLOTUS will visit India on 24th and 25th February. India will accord a memorable welcome to our esteemed guests. This visit is a very special one and it will go a long way in further cementing India-USA friendship,” the Prime Minister tweeted.

“India and USA share a common commitment to democracy and pluralism. Our nations are cooperating extensively on a wide range of issues. Robust friendship between our nations augurs well not only for our citizens but also for the entire world,” he added.

Modi and Trump, who will be undertaking his first visit to India as the US President, will hold talks on a whole range of issues, covering bilateral matters and regional and international topics of mutual concern.

The issue of terrorism is expected to figure high in the talks, during which the Indian side is expected to draw Trump’s attention to the support being extended to the menace by Pakistan.

The two sides are also expected to deliberate extensively on the defence and security cooperation. The US has already granted ‘Major Defence Partner’ status to India four years back.

External Affairs Ministry yesterday said the global strategic partnership between India and the U.S. is based on trust, shared values, mutual respect and understanding, and marked by warmth and friendship between the peoples of the two countries.

The relationship has further evolved under the leadership of Modi and Donald Trump, with significant progress in all areas including trade, defence, counter-terrorism, energy, coordination on regional and global issues as well as people-to-people ties, it said.

Coronavirus given name COVID-19; death toll soars past 1,100

Representational image

New Delhi (NVI): The new coronavirus, which is spreading and claiming lives across nations, will now be named as COVID-19, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The acronym COVID-19 stands for coronavirus disease 2019, as the illness was first detected towards the end of last year.

“The goal was to avoid stigma,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak, whose epicentre is believed to be China’s Hubei Province, reached a new high today even as Chinese officials said the rate of new infections showed signs of slowing.

The new figures brought the total number of deaths in China to at least 1,113. And the total number of confirmed cases rose to 44,653. Most of the newly reported deaths, 94, occurred in Hubei Province, the heart of the outbreak.

There are 393 positive coronavirus cases outside China, in 24 countries.

The largest outbreak outside China remains in Yokohama, a Japanese port south of Tokyo where a cruise ship has been under tight quarantine for a week now.

Japanese Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said an additional 40 virus cases had been confirmed on board the Diamond Princess as of Wednesday, bringing the total number on board to 175.

Is dog companionship linked with longer life of heart patients?

Representational image

New Delhi (NVI): Dog is a man’s best friend. Accoding to a new research, a dog does not only prove to be just a good friend but it has also been revealed that dog owners live longer and that breeding a dog can be particularly good for heart patients and people living alone.

Doctor Caroline Kremer at MT Sinai Hospital’s University of Toronto Leadership Sinai Center for Diabetes says that we have studied more than 3 million people and the results that have come out are very important.

Kremer and his team said in their results, “Those people who breed dogs have low blood pressure, their cholesterol levels also remain healthy and their stress is also very less in comparison.”

Kremer also added, “Having any pet at home helps you reduce stress and relieve anxiety, depression and loneliness.” However, there are mixed results in this study.

To investigate this, Kremer’s team researched medical literature data dating back to 1950 and found 10 dog breeding studies. They also traced the health data of a total of 38 lakh people in these 10 studies.

According to the study, the risk of death among dog owners decreased by 24% over the next decade compared to those who did not. At the same time, those who were suffering from a heart attack or heart diseases and had a dog, the risk of death was reduced by 65% by the next decade. The total mortality rate of people who lost their lives due to heart causes was reduced by 31% due to dog breeding.

“The increased physical activity of dog breeders played an important role in the cardiovascular benefits,” Kremer said, adding that a dog needs to be taken out for a walk at least three times a day (it increases the physical activity and our heart gets the benefit).

In another study on the same issue, Tove Fall and his team at Uppsala University, Sweden, examined the health of 1,81,696 people suffering from heart attacks and 1,54,617 people suffering from a stroke between 2001 and 2012. They found in the study that the heart attack patients who had a dog reduced their chances of having a second heart attack by 33%. Besides, people living with a dog, partner or child were found to have a lower risk of up to 15 per cent. At the same time, the risk of the second stroke was reduced by 27 per cent in stroke patients living alone. With this, the risk of repeated strokes among dog owners who did not live alone was reduced by 12 per cent.

“We already know that pets make our lives better but it also improves our heart health. It’s a bit surprising,” said the study’s author.

Foreign delegates reach Srinagar

Mubashir Bukhari

Srinagar (NVI): A fresh batch of 25 foreign diplomats reached Kashmir today for assessment of the ground situation in the aftermath of abolition of Article 370.

This is the second batch of foreign diplomats visiting Jammu and Kashmir in the last one month. Earlier, a group of 15 diplomats visited in January.

The delegation, including envoys from Germany, Canada, France and Afghanistan, will be meeting fruit growers in North Kashmir before reaching Srinagar where they are scheduled to meet media representatives, civil society groups and politicians of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said.

The Indian Army will also brief the visiting diplomats on the security situation in Kashmir.

The envoys will spend a night in Srinagar before moving to Jammu tomorrow where they are expected to meet Lieutenant Governor GC Murmu and civil society groups.

The fresh batch of diplomats also includes EU representatives from Poland, Bulgaria and Czech Republic, and their participation assumes significance as the EU Parliament recently initiated to bring a joint draft resolution on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and Kashmir, the vote on which was later deferred.

India’s renewable energy sector seems to be losing steam: Report

New Delhi (NVI): India may find it difficult to meet its own target of 175 GW renewable energy capacity by 2022, even as its total capacity reached almost 86 GW by December 2019, according to a latest report of the think tank Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).

The State of India’s Environment report says that India’s renewable energy (RE) sector seems to be losing steam.

“India has set itself a target of 175 gigawatt (GW) renewable energy capacity by 2022 which is mainly in the form of 100 GW solar (60 GW utility-scale and 40 GW rooftop) and 60 GW wind,” it said.

“But there has been a slowdown in capacity addition and auctions due to emerging risks and unaddressed structural issues,” the report said.

Between 2014 and 2018, the renewable energy sector grew from 2.6 GW to 28 GW which is a cumulative aggregated growth rate of around 18 per cent, it said.

Annual additions to solar capacity have dipped drastically to 6.5 GW in 2018-19, from 9.4 GW in 2017-18.

In wind energy, against a sizable 5.4 GW added in 2016-17, less than 2 GW was added annually in the following two years.

The capacity auctioned to developers has remained almost constant at 2-3 GW. The share of renewable energy in India’s power generation in 2018–19 was 10 per cent, a far cry from the national goal of 40 per cent share by 2030.

This stagnation is due to a combination of factors affecting every aspect from auctions and power purchase agreements (PPAs) to rising costs and payment delays, the report says.

A 25 per cent safeguard duty on import of cells and modules has been imposed, causing commissioning delays and cost increases, it says.

Governments are also hankering for lowest possible tariffs which leads, among other things, to serial cancellation and postponement of bids, the report says.

States are reneging on some existing PPAs in favour of lower tariffs from new projects. Project risks due to inadequate land and power evacuation infrastructure and poor financial health of discoms are worsening the situation.

The slowdown naturally, raises doubts about India’s capability to meet the 175 GW target.

To catch up its own target the country is now required to install 37.8 GW of solar rooftop, 32.1 GW of solar utility and 23.3 GW of wind power capacity in a short span of just two and half years.

While, CSE researchers said that the government must restore the sanctity of auctions by removing arbitrary barriers like ceilings and by refraining from cancellations or postponement of bids.

“New mechanisms should be explored to manage discom risks. Simultaneously, the government should start working on the country’s longer-term energy decarbonisation vision,” researchers added.

Temperature rises in NCR

New Delhi (NVI): Delhi and rest of National Capital Region (NCR) today saw an increase in minimum temperature to 8.2 degrees celsius from 6.0 degrees celsius recorded yesterday.

The maximum temperature today is expected to be around 24.0 degrees celsius, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

The IMD said some isolated parts of north Madhya Pradesh and Odisha will witness cold wave conditions during next 48 hours.

The weatherman has forecast that in Northwest India there will be a fall in temperature by 2 to 4 degrees celsius during next two days, in East India there will be significant change is expected in minimum temperature over next 24 hours.

“In Central India the minimum temperature is expected to rise by 2 to 3 degrees for next three days,” weatherman said.

“No significant change is expected over rest of the country,” it added.

“The shallow to moderate fog is also expected over Northwest India, Odisha, Gangetic West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura during next 2 to 3 days,” it further added.

Hisar in Haryana was today the coldest city in the plains where the minimum temperature was recorded at 5.4 degrees celsius, according to Skymet weather.

In Haryana’s Narnaul, the minimum temperature was recorded at 5.5 degrees celsius.

Fursatganj in Uttar Pradesh and Shahjahanpur in Madhya Pradesh both recorded minimum temperature at 6.2 degrees celsius.

Sikar in Rajasthan and Umaria in Madhya Pradesh recorded 6.5 degrees celsius.

Apart from this, Patiala in Punjab and Rewa in Madhya Pradesh recorded minimum temperature at 6.6 and 6.8 degree celsius respectively.

Datia in Madhya Pradesh and Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh both recorded minimum temperature at 7.2 degrees celsius.

According to the Skymet weather, due to changing wind patterns, the minimum temperature in northern plains is expected to rise by 2-3 degrees celsius during next two to three days.

“This increase in temperature may lead to abatement of cold wave conditions from many parts,” it said.

“The change in the wind pattern can be attributed to the Western Disturbance (WD) which is over Jammu and Kashmir,” it added.

The overall air quality in the national capital today is in “very 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 323 which falls in the “very poor” category.

AAP again sweeps to power in Delhi

New Delhi (NVI) The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) today swept Delhi Assembly elections for the second successive time to retain power in the national capital.
The party, led by Arvind Kejriwal, bagged 62 seats in the 70-member Assembly, just 5 short of its tally in the last Assembly polls in 2015.
The BJP, which is ruling at the Centre with brute majority in Lok Sabha and went all out to win these elections, managed to get only 8 seats. This is, however, 5 more than what it won last time.
The Congress, which ruled the state for 15 straight years till 2013, once again failed to open its account.

Odisha ahead in disaster preparedness: CM

Bhubaneswar (NVI): With a zero casualty approach, Odisha has shown the way
to the rest of the country in the area of disaster preparedness, response and recovery, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said today.

Speaking while inaugurating the second BIMSTEC Disaster Management Exercise-2020 here, Patnaik said since 1891, more than 100 cyclones have affected the state. Super cyclone of 1999 was a watershed moment in disaster management preparations in Odisha.

“We have learnt our lessons well and set up a robust disaster management mechanism. Moreover, Odisha was the first state that had set up its dedicated disaster response Force,” he said.

“The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), other organizations as well as the International media have hailed government efforts for ensuring the level of destruction to a minimum,” he said.

“It is doubly rewarding that the stated theme of the exercise is disaster resilience planning in heritage sites and areas like Puri, Konark and Bhubaneswar which are iconic National & International sites,” he added.

He further said BIMSTEC countries present here have an extraordinary, vast and diverse pool of similar iconic cultural heritage sites, susceptible to various kind of disaster. ‘Gujarat Earthquake of 2001 destroyed 21 federally registered monuments across the Kutch. Similarly, Nepal Earthquake in 2015 did massive destruction across the country. These are the reminders for us,” Patnaik said.

Patnaik further deliberated on the need for restoration of heritage sites that are damaged by natural disasters must for future generation, not only because it is a source of the cultural identity of a local community, but also because it is a driving force of the economy.

“It is important to undertake adequate documentation, proper identification and grading of heritage sites based on the potential risk and other characteristics,” he said.

“We must improve upon early warning dissemination system and capacity building for conservation of cultural heritage sites,” he added.

“This exercise will prove a milestone in safeguarding the cultural heritage sites across the region,” he further added.

Odisha Chief Secretary Asit Kumar Tripathy said Odisha has suffered by maximum numbers of cyclones in the country like 1999 super cyclone, Titli, Bulbul & Fani which caused severe damage in the state. “After 1999 super cyclone, we made all preparation to tackle the disasters,” he said.

“During the super cyclone Fani we evacuated millions of people to the safer locations within 24 hours. Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) with NDRF and other stakeholders have conducted numerous operations in Odisha, Meghalaya and Kerala,” he said.

“The constant practice, Exercise helps to coordinate central & state agencies. When actual crises occur we work in a well-coordinated manner,” he added.

This exercise is being organized by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) from February
11 to 13 , 2020.

Five BIMSTEC countries — Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Nepal — are participating in this exercise. However, Bhutan and Thailand are not participating in the exercise.

The three day long exercise shall consist of inaugural session and Table Top Exercise (TTx) on collapsed structure at Hotel Mayfair, Bhubaneswar on 11th February, 2020,

Tomorrow, Field Training Exercise (FTx) will be held on aquatic disaster response with focus on cultural heritage sites at Ramachandi beach in Puri followed by proceedings of Disaster Management Exercise and Policy Meeting of NDMA and NDMOs among the teams of participating Nations on February 13, 2020.

The objective of this exercise is to test the existing emergency procedures for notification, preparedness and emergency response, during a major earthquake and Flood scenarios.

This exercise shall also provide an opportunity to enhance the co-ordination & co-operation involving multi-agency operations in an earthquake, flooding & storm surge.

The exercise shall also test multi-stakeholders coordination in a disaster scenario involving international, national, state, district and local agencies.

An exercise village has been set up at Ramchandi, Puri where, simulation on aquatic disaster response with special attention to the damage to heritage site will take place as part of the exercise.

This will provide real-time scenarios so that in times of disaster, a proper plan for response & coordination among member nation can be executed in multi-agencies scenarios.

Earlier, in November, 2019 the first phase comprising a Preparatory Meeting and field visit of site selected for FTX during the main exercise, was held in Puri, Odisha.

The exercise will be attended by International observers like United Nations Development Progran (UNDP), International Search And Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG) & The International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM), National observers like Indian National Trust for Art And Cultural Heritage (INTACH) & Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), representatives from various stakeholders viz. India Metrological Deptt. (IMD), National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF), Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Centre Water Commission (CWC), Animal Quarantine and Certification Service (AQCS), Civil Defence, Fire Services, BIMSTEC Secretariat etc.

J&K: 1.5L postgraduates among 2.5L youth register for jobs in 2019

Mubashir Bukhari

Srinagar (NVI) : As many as 2.5 lakh educated unemployed youth including 1.5 lakh postgraduates have registered themselves with different district employment and counseling centers last year in Jammu and Kashmir.

This is precisely because the government’s employment generating schemes  have failed to yield results in Jammu and Kashmir. The number of beneficiaries under these schemes has dropped by 50 percent last year compared to 2018.

Under Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), the jobs generated in the Union Territory in 2019 was 17488 . It is less than 70 per cent of 60232 jobs generated through this scheme in J&K in 2018.

Similarly, the employment generated under Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana‐National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM) has dropped by 50 per cent in 2019. As per the figures, 84 educated youth have been employed under this scheme last year compared to 115 in the year 2018.

Union Ministry for Rural Development’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) has also recorded 50 per cent decline in 2019 compared to 2018. As per the figures, 3.69 crore person days of work were generated under this scheme in 2018 which in 2019 dropped to 1.53 crore person days.

Union Ministry for Labour and Employment document reveals that the unemployment rate in Jammu and Kashmir stands at 5.3 per cent . In Jammu and Kashmir, urban unemployment rate stands at 10.0 per cent while as the rural unemployment   is 4.2 per cent.

Waheed Rehman, 32, a resident of Baramulla district after completing his M.Sc in 2013, struggled for five years to get a job.Facing social stigma coupled with depression, the resident of Baramulla borrowed money to invest in the tourism sector. But due to the uncertain situation he lost all the investment leaving him financially broke.

Left in the lurch, he registered himself with the district employment office hoping to find a government job. “I lost all my investment in tourism business. I registered with district employment office two years ago. But so far no opportunity has come my way,” he said.

Rehman  is one among lakhs of unemployed youth who have registered themselves with different employment offices for jobs.

JK govt reclaims land in Amritsar after 56 years

New Delhi (NVI): The J&K government has wrested the control of a prized piece of land in Punjab’s Amritsar city which was under illegal occupation for nearly 56 years.

The Resident Commission of Jammu & Kashmir Government took over the possession of 20 Kanals of  Land, situated at Daim Gunj, Dhapai Road, Amritsar on February 10, 2020.

The land comprising falling under Khasra Nos: 756 ; 761 ; 780 ; 781 ; 782 & 792, had been under Illegal Occupation since 1964.

A decree in the case was instituted in 2006 by Jammu and Kashmir government but the Execution Petition was initiated in 2017 only which was fast-tracked and followed vigorously during the last one and a half years.

A chunk of land comprising 32 Kanals, situated at Daim Gunj, Dhapaie Road Amritsar and belonging to then the Government of Jammu & Kashmir had been leased out to three different parties for a period of five years, prior to 1964.

The lease was not renewed and the occupants and their descendants continued the possession illegally.

During the last two years, the matter has been taken up on a fast track basis with the High Court and the Lower Court for retrieval of the land.

An application under Section 151 CPC had been filed on behalf of Jammu & Kashmir government before the Lower Court for getting the Warrants of Possession.

The application was decided in favor of J&K Government on 13/12/2019.

With the present action, under Court Orders, on 10th of February, 2020, one chunk of 20 Kanals has been retrieved.

Under the instructions of Principal Resident Commissioner, J&K Government, Dheeraj Gupta, the land was taken over under the supervision of Neeraj Kumar- Additional Resident Commissioner along with Dr. Inderjot Singh, Resident Representative, Chandigarh and Liaison Officer of Court Cases, Government of Jammu & Kashmir and Preeti Sharma, Manager of J&K Properties at Amritsar.

The process for retrieving the remaining 15 Kanals is also under adjudication and shall get settled soon.

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