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India will work for prosperity of Maldives: Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Speaker of People's Majlis of  Maldives Mohamed Nasheed

New Delhi (NVI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi today affirmed India’s commitment to continue to work closely with the government of Maldives for a stable, prosperous and peaceful island nation wherein the aspirations of the friendly Maldivian people are fulfilled.

He said engagement between the Parliaments of India and Maldives is a key component of the vibrant relationship between the two contries.

Modi made these remarks while meeting Mohamed Nasheed, Speaker of People’s Majlis of  Maldives, here, according to an official release.

The Prime Minister expressed confidence that the visit of the Maldivian leader will help consolidate bridges of friendship between the two countries.

Nasheed is on a visit to India at the joint invitation of the Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.

Recalling his last visit to Malé in June this year, when he also addressed the People’s Majlis, the Prime Minister lauded the continued strong leadership of Nasheed to the cause of deepening and strengthening democracy in Maldives.

Nasheed thanked the Prime Minister for his continued support for a stronger India-Maldives relationship since the formation of the new Government in The Maldives last year.

He also thanked Modi for the development cooperation initiatives undertaken in The Maldives for the welfare of the Maldivian people.

Nasheed reaffirmed his unwavering support to the ‘India First’ policy of the Government of Maldives and noted that the visit of the Parliamentary delegation will help further strengthen the fraternal bonds and friendly relations between the two countries.

PM congratulates Boris Johnson

New Delhi (NVI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi today congratulated his British counterpart Boris Johnson for securing an overall majority in the United Kingdom general elections.

Taking to twitter, PM Mod said “Many congratulations to PM @BorisJohnson for his return with a thumping majority. I wish him the best and look forward to working together for closer India-UK ties.”

The UK’s ruling Conservatives Party has won a resounding election victory on Friday with 364 seats.

Withdrawal of addl forces from Kashmir begins

By Sameer Ahmad

Srinagar (NVI): In a major development, 14 companies of central paramilitary forces have been withdrawn from Kashmir, with the authorities initiating a process of sending back the additional troops rushed to the Valley five months back in connection with the Centre’s decision to abolish the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.

According to police sources, 14 companies of CRPF, BSF and SSB have been withdrawn from Kashmir Valley and the process is on to withdraw more additional forces.

Each company of a paramilitary force comprises around 100 personnel.

On July 25, the Union Home Ministry had rushed 100 companies (approximately 10,000 personnel) of paramilitary forces to Kashmir valley. Those included 50 from CRPF, 30 from SSB, 10 from BSF and 10 from ITBP.

The urgency of the move was reflected in the Home Ministry’s order which had said that out of 50 companies of CRPF, 9 companies should be pulled out from their deployment for Parliament security during the ongoing session and the Kanwar yatra in Delhi.

The rushing of such a large number of additional forces to Kashmir had triggered panic and curiosity about what was going to happen in the Valley.

While the state administration insisted that the additional deployment was being made in view of intelligence inputs about a major terror strike, the actual purpose became clear when restrictions were imposed in the Valley on the night of August 4/5, on the eve of the Centre’s move to abolish special status of J&K granted under Article 370.

Through a legislative process, the Centre also converted the state of J&K into a Union Territory and created a separate Union Territory of Ladakh.

Govt targets to reduce anaemia by 3% per year

New Delhi (NVI): The government of India has launched the Anemia Mukt Bharat (AMB) strategy under the Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nourishment (POSHAN) Abhiyaan, setting a target to reduce anaemia by 3 per cent per year.

The AMB mission has been launched in view of slow progress in reduction of anaemia cases between 2005 and 2015, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Ashwini Kumar Choubey told the Lok Sabha today.

The Minister said the rate of reduction of anaemia cases in the country from 2005 to 2015 was less than 1 per cent per year.

Under the AMB strategy, the Ministry has adopted the 6x6x6 strategy that implies six age groups, six interventions and six institutional mechanisms.

According to the Minister, the strategy focuses on ensuring supply chain, demand generation and strong monitoring using the dashboard for addressing anemia, both due to nutritional and non-nutritional causes.

India-Japan Summit meet in Assam put off

New Delhi (NVI): Amid widespread violence in Assam over the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), a Summit meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe slated to begin in the state’s capital Guwahati this weekend has been cancelled.

External Affairs Ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar said here today that the two sides have decided to postpone Abe’s visit which was scheduled from December 15-17.

“With reference to the proposed visit of Japanese PM Abe to India, both sides have decided to defer the visit to a mutually-convenient date in the near future,” he tweeted.

Abe was to hold Summit meeting with Modi, which is an annual affair between the two countries since over a decade.

The deferment comes amidst widespread violence in Assam against the CAB, which was passed by Parliament earlier this week.

The controversial legislation, which has since been given assent by President Ram Nath Kovind, provides for granting Indian citizenship to Hindus and other minorities from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Significantly, Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister Abdul Momen and Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan have also cancelled their scheduled visits to India.

Momen was scheduled to visit India from December 12 to 14, mainly for the 6th Indian Ocean Dialogue. He cancelled the visit yesterday, hours before his arrival in India, saying he was required to stay back in Bangladesh for “pressing national events” — the Martyred Intellectuals Day on December 14 and Victory Day on December 16.

Khan was to travel to Meghalaya today at the invitation of Chief Minister Conrad Sangma.

Homage paid to Parl attack martyrs

New Delhi (NVI): Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several other dignitaries today paid homage to the martyrs of the terror attack on Parliament attack on this day in 2001.

Naidu, Modi and several MPs and officials of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha paid floral tributes to the martyrs at Parliament building.

Nine people, including security personnel and Watch-and-Ward staff members, were killed when five terrorists belonging to Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Laskhar-e-Taiba (LeT) outfits attacked the Parliament House complex on December 13, 2001.

All the five attackers were also eliminated in the gunfight between the terrorists and the security personnel.

Navy Chief says Indian armed forces on path of rapid modernisation

New Delhi (NVI): Navy Chief Admiral Karambir Singh has said the Indian armed forces are firmly set on the path of rapid modernisation and indigenisation and asked the industry to tap the opportunities existing in the maritime force, ranging from production to repair, maintenance and upgradation.

“The conditions are right to take us to the next level on Indigenous Defence – Industrial Base evolution chain,” he said while inaugurating a seminar-cum-exhibition on Naval Weapon Systems ‘NAVARMS – 2019’ with the theme ‘Make in India –  Fight Category: Opportunities and Imperatives’.

He said there was enough headroom in the defence sector that should be harnessed if India was to grow into a developed economy.

Admiral Singh said that since weapon system is a complex mix of subsystems with a large array of technologies that go into each one, ranging from metallurgy to composites, propellants and rocket technologies to microwaves, it allows diverse industry elements in a single weapon project.

He exhorted the industry to tap into the wide naval eco-system starting from production to repair, maintenance and upgradation.

The Navy Chief emphasised that rapid advancement of weapon technology is a key challenge which requires cutting edge R&D and speedy production.

The inaugural session of the seminar was attended by more than 300 delegates, including from three Services, Ministry of Defence, DRDO, Indian and international industries and representatives of foreign missions of friendly countries.

In his welcome address, Rear Admiral Sanjay Misra, Director General of Naval Armament Inspection, said he was hopeful of inherent competence of domestic industry and capability being leveraged in expediting indigenous weapon on indigenous platform.

Sensex rises over 250 points, Nifty above 12,000 mark

BSE

Mumbai (NVI): Sensex climbed over 250 points and Nifty traded higher at 12,038 during the early trade today.

The 30-share BSE Sensex after rising 284 points in early session was trading at 244.04 points or 0.60 per cent higher at 40,825.75.

The 50-scrip NSE Nifty trading 66.20 points or 0.55 per cent up at 12,038 in the morning trade session.

Tata Motors emerged as the top gainer with 3.78 per cent rise in the Sensex pack, followed by Vedanta, Yes Bank, Tata Steel, SBI, M&M, Axis Bank and RIL.

On the other hand, Bharti Airtel was the top loser, shedding up to 0.59 per cent. Asian Paints, Kotak Bank, Bajaj Auto and Sun Pharma were also trading in the red.

Meanwhile, the Indian rupee appreciated by 33 paise to 70.50 against the US dollar in early trade.

On Thurday, the Sensex gauge ended 169.14 points, or 0.42 per cent, higher at 40,581.71, while the Nifty settled 61.65 points or 0.52 per cent, up at 11,971.80.

Delhi air quality improves after rain

New Delhi (NVI): Late evening showers yesterday in the National Capital improved the overall air quality in Delhi from ‘severe’ to ‘very poor’ category today.

According to System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) the Air Quality Index (AQI) in the national capital stood at 308 which falls in the ‘very poor’ category.

Further improvement in the AQI is predicted. The AQI is expected in the lower end of the ‘poor’ to the ‘moderate’ category by December 14.

The AQI in the Delhi University was in the ‘very poor’ with the PM2.5 of 322, followed by Dhirpur, PUSA, Lodhi Road and Mathura Road with the recorded PM 2.5 count of 336, 314, 365 and 319 respectively which also falls in the ‘very poor’ category.

While, the AQI in Chandini Chowk was recorded in the ‘severe’ category with PM2.5 of 445.

The neighbouring Noida recorded a PM2.5 of 355 which also falls in the ‘very poor’ category, SAFAR added.

An AQI between 0-50 is considered “good”, 51-100 “satisfactory”, 101-200 “moderate”, 201-300 “poor”, 301-400 “very poor” and 401-500 “severe”. An AQI above 500 falls in the “severe plus” category.

Over 15,000 schools participated in the ongoing Fit India School Week

New Delhi (NVI): Over 15,000 schools from across the country have so far participated in the ongoing Fit India School Week.

The Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports Kiren Rijiju today informed the Lok Sabha that the Fit India School Weeks are being organised to create awareness about fitness among the school going children.

The School Week events in the schools across the country began in November last and will continue throughout December, the Minster said.

“So far 15,000 schools have participated in Fit India school week,” Rijiju, informed the lower house of the Parliament.

  According to the Youth Affairs and Sports Minister, the Government of India has also launched the Fit India School Certificate and a ranking system.

Rijiju informed that the Ministry is working with stakeholders to organise Fit India Cyclothon, Walkathon and Fit India Traditional Games at various places in the next few months.

Besides, the Government has also drawn a list of possible activities for different related ministries for encouraging and spreading Fit India Movement. Efforts are on for early completion of the consultation process, the Minister said.

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