A day after the horrific terror attack by Islamic terrorists at a Gurudwara in Shor Bazar area in Kabul, Afghanistan, leaving 28 dead and at least 15 injured, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has now requested the Modi government to fly the Sikh families out of Afghanistan.
Taking to Twitter, Punjab CM urged External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to evacuate the Sikh families from the terror-hit Afghanistan. He requested the Modi government to airlift the Sikh families who are currently in the ‘moment of crisis’.
Dear @DrSJaishankar, there are a large number of Sikh families who want to be flown out of Afghanistan. Request you to get them airlifted at the earliest. In this moment of crisis, it’s our bounden duty to help them.
Ironically, Capt. Amarinder Singh’s request to evacuate persecuted minorities from Islamic countries such as Afghanistan comes despite the fact that he had himself opposed the Modi government’s idea of giving refuge in India to the persecuted minorities of the three neighbouring countries through Citizenship Amendment Act.
After the historic legislation was passed, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh had slammed the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act or CAA calling it against the secular fabric of the country. He said that the ongoing situation in India is similar to the one witnessed in Germany during 1930s under the leadership of Adolf Hitler.
Opposing the act tooth-and-nail, the Punjab Congress government had even passed a resolution against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the state assembly.
However, Punjab CM Singh seems to have now realised the need for the humanitarian law which provides for citizenship to minorities such as Sikhs in Afghanistan who have been persecuted at the hands of Islamic terrorists for years now. He has now sought help from the Modi government for the evacuation of Sikh families stranded in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, pro-Khalistani terrorists have also begged the Indian government seeking evacuation of stranded Sikhs in Afghanistan. Jaswant Singh Thekedar, the founder of pro-Khalistani Dal Khalsa terror organisation, has requested the Indian government to shelter the remaining families of Sikhs and Hindus from Afghanistan.
On Wednesday, armed Islamic terrorists attacked a Gurudwara in Shor Bazar Area of Afghanistan killing at least 28 people and left hundreds injured. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack, however, the possible role of the Tehreek-e-Taliban backed by Pakistan has not been ruled out.
It was later reported that the Islamic State communique had claimed the responsibility for the attack. An Indian identified as Mohammed Sajid Kuthirummal alias ‘Abu Khalid al-Hindi’ from Kerala had reportedly carried out the attack in order to avenge the supposed ‘plight of Muslims in Kashmir’.
In 2016, Mohammed Sajid Kuthirummal had escaped from Kerala to join Islamic terror outfit ISIS. Before he escaped, he was a shopkeeper in Kasargod, Kerala. He had joined ISIS along with 14 others from Kasargod itself. Mohammed Sajid Kuthirummal was wanted by NIA in its 2016 Kasargod ISIS module case and had a red corner notice out against him.
The Varanasi District Administration has served the Janasandesh Time journalist Vijay Vineet with a legal notice for spreading misinformation with his article claiming that members of Musahar community in villages close to Varanasi were eating grass in the wake of lockdown ordered by PM Modi to combat the spread of coronavirus.
A news editor of Jansandesh time, Vijay Vineet had published a report on March 26 about families in Koiripur village (Baragaon block) eking out their existence on grass, accompanied with an image of poor children eating grass. The report was widely shared on social media and by other media outlets and invited criticism of the government.
However, according to the legal notice sent by the District Magistrate, Varanasi, the facts and claims made in the article did not correspond to reality. As per the findings of an investigation in the matter constituted by the DM, the grass which was being consumed by children in Janasandesh’s report was actually “akhri daal”, which according to the notice is usually consumed by the children there and that it was perfectly edible. It is a kind of wild pulse that grows in that area in the fields of wheat. The legal notice also added a picture of Varanasi DM Kaushal Raj Sharma himself consuming the “akhri daal” along with his family members.
Varanasi DM Kaushal Raj Sharma with his son
“It is clear that the reporter associated with Janasandesh Time by describing the consumption of “akhri daal” as grass-eating is a gross attempt by him to cast aspersions on the Musahar community and spread misinformation among the masses at a critical time. I had sent you a Whatsapp message at 1:30 AM denouncing this baseless report but you still went ahead to publish the misleading article on the front page,” the notice signed by Varanasi DM read.
The legal notice ordered the concerned journalist and Janasandesh Time to issue clarification as to on what basis did they publish the report about the alleged grass consumption by the members of Musahar community. The notice asked the news daily to publish a report on March 27, denouncing the article published the previous day, failing which appropriate action will be initiated against them.
While Vijay Vineet was slapped with a legal notice for his false reportage tarnishing a community for its long-standing practise of eating “akhri daal”, there were other media outlets which co-opted Vineet’s article to peddle their anti-government propaganda but are so far unscathed from any legal action ordered against them.
Screenshot of National Herald report
Congress mouthpiece National Herald published the report asserting that Dalit children were forced to eat grass in PM’s constituency. The article stated that the hunger pangs following the lockdown order by PM Modi have forced the Dalit members of the village to eat grasses in sheer desperation.
Screenshot of The Wire report
Another habitual fake news peddler The Wire too picked up on the unfounded news of the Dalit kids eating grass to slake their hunger. Known for being critical towards the government, the article published in the Wire attempted to portray that the Prime Minister’s call for a lockdown has caused massive disruption in the food consumption of the underprivileged, forcing them, especially children, to eat grass amidst severe restrictions.
A police officer named Rajesh Babu has collaborated with a local artist Gowtham and designed a “Coronavirus Helmet” to raise awareness about the deadly Wuhan Coronavirus in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He wanted to persuade people to comply with the nationwide lockdown by understanding the seriousness of the issue.
Speaking to ANI, Inspector Rajesh said, “We had been talking to the public. But, awareness among them is very less. So, we thought of doing something different. We designed a helmet that looks like coronavirus. We thought of doing something which will scare the people and make them stay at home.”
Inspector Rajesh Babu says, “We had been talking to public. But awareness among them is very less. So we thought of doing something different. We designed a helmet that looks like coronavirus. We thought of doing something which will scare the people and make them stay at home.” https://t.co/dG3NCWpUPzpic.twitter.com/wwbkhRrinT
“The public at large is not treating the COVID-19 situation seriously, whereas, the police personnel are working round the clock to ensure people stay at home and do not venture out so that further spread of the disease can be stopped. I came up with the idea and used a broken helmet and papers to prepare this. I have also prepared many placards displaying slogans and handed them over to the police,” Artist Gowtham was quoted as saying.
According to the Police personnel, the Coronavirus helmet has been useful in raising awareness. The distinct approach taken by the cops has appealed to the minds of the commuters. Children after seeing the gear chose to stay at home as well.
This is not the first time when cops resorted to creative measures to make violators comply with the lockdown. In Bareilly district of Uttar Pradesh, cops publicly shamed miscreants, unnecessarily wandering on the streets during the ‘Janata Curfew‘ on Sunday, by making them hold posters that read, “I am the enemy of the society. I would not stay at home.”
A video of Punjab Police dancing to an altered version of the Punjabi folk song, ‘Bari Barsi’ had gone viral on social media. The cops were also seen punishing defaulters of lockdown by making them ‘Murga‘, a form of corporal punishment quite prevalent in the subcontinent.
In a major breakthrough, India has developed its first Wuhan Coronavirus testing kit that delivers result in just two and a half hours as compared to the imported testing kits which take six-seven hours to deliver the results. And moreover, the made-in-India kit will cost Rs 1,200, about a quarter of the Rs 4500 that India pays to import testing kits from abroad.
On Thursday, the first made-in-India coronavirus testing kits reached the markets. Mylab Discovery, in the western city of Pune, is the first Indian firm to get approval to make and sell testing kits for Wuhan Coronavirus. The first batch of 150 kits were shipped by the Mylab to other diagnostic labs in Pune, Mumbai, Delhi, Goa and Bengaluru (Bangalore) this week.
All this was made possible because of the relentless efforts of one virologist Minal Dakhave Bhosale, Mylab’s research and development chief, who delivered on a working test kit, just hours before delivering her baby girl.
Minal boasts 10 years of experience in the diagnostic field, primarily in the area of molecular diagnostics of infectious diseases, diagnostic product development and R&D management functions. Bhosale has the experience of working on the swine flu disease at NIV, Pune, during the 2009 outbreak.
Under Minal Dakhave Bhosale, the coronavirus testing kit called Patho Detect was developed in a record time of six weeks.
Bhosale began work on the programme in February, just days after leaving the hospital with pregnancy complications. “It was an emergency, so I took this on as a challenge. I had to serve my nation,” she said, adding that her team of 10 members worked very hard to make the project a success.
“We started the development process for Covid-19 six weeks ago on an emergency basis looking at the national crisis and need for an indigenous accurate solution for improved management. We have developed a unique formulation for test reagents that increases the catalytic activities of the enzymes, reducing the enzyme unit requirement, resulting in reduced cost”, said the Virologist.
“Our test aims to detect nucleic acid of the virus, based on RT PCR technology, which is very specific for virus detection. The developed test is based on WHO/CDC guidelines and covers specific targets of Covid-19/Sars-CoV-2 where we didn’t observe any mutations during the development process”, she said.
The kit was submitted for evaluation by the National Institute of Virology (NIV) on 18 March. In the evening, Bhosale submitted the proposal to the Indian FDA and the drugs control authority CDSCO for commercial approval. Within an hour of submitting the proposal for FDA approval, she got admitted to a hospital for a c-section and the very next day, Minal delivered her daughter.
The government-run Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), under which NIV operates, approved the testing kit, confirming that Mylab was the only Indian company to achieve 100 per cent results at that time.
Bhosale had to deal with many challenges during the development of the kit like the accurate design of the product, product validation for 100 per cent sensitivity and specificity in a short-time protocol run, but with her and the team’s dedication and perseverance, all of those were overcome.
“If you carry out 10 tests on the same sample, all 10 results should be the same, and we achieved that. Our kit was perfect,” said Bhosale.
In the times to come, Minal Dakhave Bhosale will be remembered for her dedication and contribution to the nation.
First made-in India Covid-19 testing kit:
The first made-in-India test kits hit the Indian markets on Thursday. Minal Bhosale confirmed in an interview with Hindustan Times: “Our kit gives the diagnosis in two and a half hours while the imported testing kits take six-seven hours.”
Mylab Discovery Solutions, the molecular diagnostic company, had received statutory approvals late on Monday from authorities. The firm can manufacture over 15,000 testing kits per day from its facility at Lonavala in Pune district and the same will be boosted to 25,000 kits per day.
Mylab shipped the first batch of 150 to diagnostic labs in Pune, Mumbai, Delhi, Goa and Bengaluru (Bangalore) this week. “Our manufacturing unit is working through the weekend and the next batch will be sent out on Monday,” said Dr Gautam Wankhede, the Mylab’s director for medical affairs.
The firm, which also makes testing kits for HIV and Hepatitis B and C, and other diseases, says it can supply up to 100,000 Covid-19 testing kits a week and can produce up to 200,000 if needed.
In the past few days, India has scaled up testing. Initially, only the state labs were allowed to test for coronavirus, but permission has now been extended to several private labs too.
India is in crisis. The number of people who have tested positive for the Wuhan Coronavirus is now disturbingly close to the 1000 mark. Countries such as the United States, Italy and Spain are now rapidly approaching 1 lakh confirmed cases. Only yesterday, the pandemic claimed over 900 lives in Italy and 300 in the US. We can only shudder at the thought of the nightmare scenario that could unfold in India.
Amid this, you would be pleasantly surprised (and possibly bewildered) to find that some in the media think that India is actually making the war on the virus look “easy.”
So that is the list of 7 states where the war with the virus looks “easy.”
Wait! Maharashtra? Kerala? Punjab? Aren’t these among India’s worst affected states? Didn’t over 300 people escape quarantine in Punjab, endangering everyone? If the battle in these states looks “easy,” how can it add up to a crisis overall?
Ok, there is this canard being spread that India is not testing “enough.” Perhaps it only looks like Maharashtra, Kerala, etc are worst affected, because they did the most tests?
But then, how did Jharkhand make the list? According to the same article, they’ve done just 61 tests so far.
Somebody should explain this discrepancy. If the most affected states and the least affected states, if the states doing maximum tests and the states doing minimum tests are all making the battle look “easy,” how come India is in crisis?
Among the list of achievements of these star Chief Ministers touted in this article :
(1) Chhattisgarh CM getting credit for installing banners of himself across the state. Oh and a tweet by some guy called Sudhir Mishra who thinks Bhupesh Baghel is doing a fantastic job.
(2) Rajasthan CM getting credit for writing a letter to PM Modi.
(3) Puducherry CM getting credit because his police lathicharged some street vendors.
It doesn’t take much to notice that all the star Chief Ministers being praised in this article belong to a certain political camp. This would be fine, if these were normal times.
But in times like this, if Chief Ministers belonging to a certain camp feel like media will not hold them accountable, it takes away their incentive to work effectively. And that makes us much more unsafe at a time when the life of millions of people could be at stake.
This is not just a matter of one article. Consider the ultimate trailblazer when it comes to receiving media praise: the Communist government of Kerala.
Article by Quartz India
By Feb 14, 2020, Kerala had successfully fought and contained the deadly virus. Mission accomplished.
Or not.
Article by TheWeek
On March 5, Kerala won praise for its handling of the Coronavirus pandemic again, this time from the imperial BBC. However, the BBC was slightly less effusive, downgrading Kerala from “successfully fought and contained” to “efficient handling.” Perhaps our former colonial masters were jealous.
As of March 28, cases in Kerala continue to increase rapidly, making it the second most affected state in the country. Despite successfully fighting and containing the virus over a month ago.
Perhaps this would have happened anyway. But there is a valid concern: if the govt of Kerala notices that they are receiving global accolades for the handling of Coronavirus pandemic for free, why would they do anything at all? Did undeserved media praise make the govt of Kerala complacent?
Which is the worst affected state in India? Maharashtra. But imagine this.
Article by The Print
The article quotes about half a dozen people to draw this conclusion. Among them, one Congress Rajya Sabha MP, one ex-aide to Rahul Gandhi and a Congress spokesperson. At least one of the people complained that Aaditya Thackeray is the “true pillar of strength” behind the CM, but is not getting due credit for it.
This is comical. Except that there is nothing funny about the pandemic right now.
Here is the Associate Editor of The Hindu.
Tweet by the Associate Editor of The Hindu.
Now consider this. We have all seen the disturbing images of migrants having at the Delhi/UP border amidst the Coronavirus lockdown, so desperate that they consider walking hundreds of kilometers back to their villages in Uttar Pradesh. Could Arvind Kejriwal, with the resources of the national capital, have done nothing for these unfortunate people instead of leaving it all to Uttar Pradesh?
He just didn’t have an incentive. Because he knew he was getting showered with certificates of appreciation.
When PM Modi came to power in 2014, less than 40% of households in India had access to toilets. Have you ever wondered how this happened? What were our secular and liberal Prime Ministers doing for six decades?
Perhaps they didn’t have the incentive to do anything. Perhaps because they were showered with excessive praise for doing precious little. That’s why we ended up with the collective failure where 60% of households did not have toilet access.
GDP per capita – India vs Pakistan
This is data from the World Bank on per capita GDP of India vs Pakistan. Observe how Pakistan’s green line stays consistently above India’s blue line for decades. Until around 2007, when India finally manages to push its nose ahead.
In other words, 60 years for India to pull ahead of Pakistan in per capita GDP.
How did this happen? Perhaps because media and intellectual class was busy showering praise on ‘secular’ Prime Ministers by quoting one Congress MP, one Nehru-Gandhi family aide and one Congress spokesperson?
When you take away the incentive of political parties to work, they don’t. In decades after independence, India’s secularism could not guarantee even one toilet per family. PM Modi has had to arrange that since 2014.
Now, all of a sudden, we have been plunged into a situation where we might need one ventilator per Indian. It is good that liberals are now asking: what about quality healthcare? Expectations from India are surely growing even faster than the spread of Wuhan Coronavirus. Now we are expected to have a better healthcare system than America, France and UK. It’s been (almost) six years of Modi already. What could be taking so much time?
Very well. The Govt of India should welcome this challenge. And the commitment of the media to keep the Modi govt accountable. At the very least, the Central government needs the states to cooperate. As a matter of basic decency, perhaps the media should try not to take away the incentive of non-BJP Chief Ministers to pitch in and help.
The New York City is clapping and cheering for the doctors and nurses and paramedical staff in their response in fighting the deadly epidemic when the USA is facing a grave health crisis with a sudden surge in the COVID-19 cases across the country. While the medical workers of the same New York City are facing difficulty with long hours and a dire need for protective equipment, the medical staff is fearing for their own safety.
After a sudden surge in COVID-19 patients in New York city, the doctors and nurses are working tirelessly risking their lives on the front lines of the global crisis.
The United States is becoming a new epicenter for epidemic after reporting 100,000 confirmed cases and 1500 death due to COVID-19. What created more fear among the medical staff when a nurse manager named Kious Kelly at Manhattan hospital succumbed to the infection.
A psychiatry resident in a New York hospital citing the shortage of protective equipment for the medical staff said, “It’s abysmal. There’s not enough money, there aren’t enough tests, there’s not enough personal protective equipment for people who are dealing with this — not just the doctors, but nurses, ancillary staff, janitors — everyone in the hospital who are getting huge exposure to the virus.”
He is quarantined at home assuming to be a case in himself.
A former colleague of late Kelly, Diana Torres said that the hospital staff is devastated stating that Kelly paid the ultimate price. She told AFP that the units of the hospital filled to the brim with the COVID-19 patients.
The death of Kelly fumed the netizens who took to social media over inadequate protection equipment including one post showing medical staff wearing garbage bags.
Mount Sinai stated that it was a “grieving reply” over the death of Kelly, but also emphasized that they always provide their staff with critically important PPE.
Dr. Seema Mishra, faculty of the Department of Biochemistry, School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad (UoH) has designed potential vaccine candidates which are called T cell epitopes believed to be working against all the structural and non-structural proteins of novel coronavirus-2(2019-nCoV) for experimental testing. The candidates of the vaccine are small coronaviral peptides, molecules that will be used by cells to trigger an immune response to destroy cells harbouring these viral peptides.
Dr. Seema Mishra has designed these potential epitopes in a way that can be used to vaccinate the entire population by using powerful immunoinformatics approaches with computational software.
Normally, a discovery of vaccine takes an elongated tenure of upto 15 years but the powerful computational tools helped in enlisting these vaccine candidates in a minimal time of about 10 days. A list of potential candidates, which are based on how much effect they will be used by human cells to stop the virus, has been generated. These coronaviral epitopes pose no cross-reactivity to human cells and hence the immune response will be against viral proteins and not human proteins as there are no matches in the human protein pool.
The study states that “that surface (spike) and membrane proteins of nCoV provide with very less number of promiscuous epitopes with high degree of unique epitopes across alleles. This shows that these proteins may be less immunogenic and the vaccination strategy using these proteins may not work at entire population level across continents.”
The results have been disseminated to the scientist community using the ChemRxiv preprint platform for urgent experimental essays.
These are the first such studies on nCoV vaccine design from India exploring whole coronaviral proteome across structural and non-structural proteins that make up the virus.
Still, right now the best defence to prevent nCoV infections is social distancing. Vaccination may take some time due to the need for further work on these candidate epitopes.
The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Friday asked state governments and UTs to prevent a mass exodus of students, migrant agriculture labourers, industrial workers and unorganised sector employees from their workplaces to hometowns amid the ongoing 21-day nationwide lockdown to combat the spread of Wuhan Coronavirus.
In an advisory to all states and Union territories, the MHA said they should also make arrangements for uninterrupted supply of essential commodities to hotels, working women hostels etc so that they continue to live in existing facilities.
The advisory issued by MHA
The states and UTs have also been advised to make these vulnerable groups aware of measures taken by the government, including the provision of free food grains and other essential items through PDS, and streamline the distribution system. This would help prevent avoidable movement of such people, according to the advisory.
The home ministry has also advised the states and UTs to ensure that hotels, rented accommodations, hostels etc., continue to remain functional and delivery of essential items is streamlined, so that students, working women hostel inmates etc., are allowed to continue in existing facilities observing precautions.
While ensuring the supply of essential goods and services, States/UTs are being repeatedly directed to enforce the lockdown strictly and take action against violators under various provisions of law. This is imperative to contain the spread of COVID-19, said the MHA.
The MHA guideline was issued after several cities and states had witnessed a mass exodus of migrant labours to their native places before and after the lockdown was announced. The govt wants to ensure that such people stay in the places where they are currently located, so that they do not spread the virus to more places in case of them are infected.
A PIL was filed in the Supreme Court today, seeking food, water, shelter, medical aid and ‘urgent indulgence to the plight of migrant workers and their families, including women, kids, elders and divyangs, who are walking on foot to their villages. The petition was filed by the apex court lawyer Alakh Alok Srivastava.
A PIL was filed in the Supreme Court today, seeking food, water, shelter, medical aid and ‘urgent indulgence to the plight of migrant workers & their families, including women, kids, elders & divyangs, who are walking on foot to their villages, amid #COVID19 crisis’.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown, which began on the intervening night of March 24 and March 25, to prevent the Wuhan coronavirus from spreading any further.
On Friday, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) which has been closely monitoring the spread of the deadly Wuhan Coronavirus informed that it has manufactured multi-layered N99 masks, bodysuits for health workers, critical-care ventilators and hand sanitisers to fight the pandemic.
DRDO developing body suits for medical staff, five layer N99 masks, hand sanitizer and ventilators to help fight the #CoronaVirushttps://t.co/s2iBo7Balt
A senior DRDO official was quoted as saying, “In the first week of March, the DRDO took a call to enhance efforts to create countermeasures to stop the spread of the disease in India, as by then, the number of affected people in India had crossed 30. The DRDO also started focusing on creating mass supply solutions for critical medical requirements.”
Approximately 4,000 litres of hand sanitiser had been sent to the Armed forces while 1,500 litres had been handed over to the Ministry of Defence. 300 litres had been dispensed to the Parliament whereas 500 litres had been provided to various security establishments and high offices. Hand Sanitisers produced by the DRDO had also been distributed to the Delhi Police at 40 outposts.
DRDO has also produced critical-care ventilators on a large-scale using existing technologies such as breath regulators, and pressure/flow sensors. The government agency is also innovating a multi-patient ventilator that can provide pulmonary support to several patients at one time.
DRDO has also produced N99 masks that comprise of five-layers, including two layers of nanomesh. Besides protective masks, the government agency has also developed a full bodysuit for doctors and other medical staff to protect them from being contaminated by COVID-19. The protective suit is washable and has been found suitable after being widely tested by various other agencies.
With India entering a crucial phase in its fight against the Wuhan Coronavirus, the Indian Railways came up with a remarkably ingenious solution to support the country’s public health system. It has decided to convert its coaches into quarantine wards for the treatment of Coronavirus, (also known as COVID-19) patients. Furthermore, the Indian Railways has also offered to prepare 3 lakh patient beds if the need arises in future.
On Friday, the official Twitter handle of the Indian Railways informed that more than 1,00,000 wagons of essential items had been readied in the wake of the Wuhan Coronavirus outbreak. The essential supplies included the likes of foodgrains, fruits, vegetables, sugar, salt, dairy products, coal and petroleum products. The feat was achieved within 4 days wherein workers toiled 24 hours round the clock.
As India enters the 6th day of total lockdown amidst the coronavirus outbreak, the Central Government has issued a notice to all the state governments, asking them to put a 3-month deferment on electricity bill payments.
In addition, the Union Ministry has issued directives to the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission(CERC) to provide 3-months moratorium to generation and transmission companies, reduce the payment security amount by half for future power purchases and charge no penalty on late payment. This comprises payments by distribution companies to private power plants and transmission projects as well.
In their statement, the central government has said that due to the lockdown, many people are unable to pay their dues to the discoms which are facing, severely affecting their liquidity position and impairing their ability to pay to the generating and transmission companies. The statement added that the generating and transmission companies will continue the supply and transmission of electricity even to discoms which have large outstanding dues.
“In view of the lockdown imposed to blunt the spread of coronavirus pandemic, the whole workforce of the power sector-generation, transmission, distribution and systems operation- are working tirelessly to keep all the homes and establishments lighted,” the statement said.
