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The Print indulges in scaremongering, spreads fake news about shortage of polio vaccine in the country

OpIndia Staff
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The Print indulges in scaremongering, spreads fake news about shortage of polio vaccine in the country

On January 24, 2019, The Print published a rather alarming report saying that India doesn’t have polio vaccine for the next round of immunization. The report said that the country is facing acute shortage of polio vaccines, and due to that reason, the Modi government has indefinitely postponed the next polio immunization on February 3. According to The Print, there shortage of both types of vaccines, OPV and IPV ( Oral Poliovirus Vaccine and Inactivated Poliovirus Vaccine, which is given by injection).

The fake report by The Print

The report quotes a letter purportedly written by The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to the states. The report by The Print claims that the letter said, “Due to unavoidable circumstances, it has been decided to postpone the programme for the time being.”

The report said that Indian government is facing shortage of polio vaccine due to shortage of funds, along with lower domestic production and longer testing requirements. It says that there is shortage OPV because government cancelled license of one of the manufacturers as their vaccines were found to be contaminated with type 2 poliovirus, and therefore there is one less manufacturer of the vaccine in the country. For shortage of IPV, the reason given by The Print is that government’s budget fell short by around ₹280 crore due to almost 100% rise in prices. It further added that India has approached Gavi, an international organization involved in vaccination across the world, for funding.

The Print report was soon used by the opposition camp to attack the government.

Congress leader Ahmed Patel tweeted that this is a huge setback to India’s vaccination programme, and government’s failure to allocate substantial funds is the reason behind it.


Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani compared the costs of Statue of Unity and Kumbh Mela with the reported shortage in polio vaccine budget.


Reacting to the report, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare released a clarification at the evening on January 24, saying that the reports of shortage of polio vaccine in India are incorrect. The government clarified that there is no shortage of OPV and IPV in the country.

The press release adds that the required quantity of bivalent Oral Polio Vaccine (bOPV) has already been secured for the polio national immunization days. “Government has not postponed the NID indefinitely, as wrongly reported in the media”, said the release.

The ministry also said that there is neither any shortage of IPV nor any shortage of funds for its procurement, as claimed by The Print. The statement notes that India has already eliminated polio, and the IPV was introduced to maintain the polio-free status per global guidelines, as Polio has not been eliminated from few countries in the world.

The statement by Health ministry

The government also clarified involvement of Gavi, saying that all Gavi eligible countries are extended support for vaccines by the organisation. The government has approached Gavi for partial support in future procurements of IPV after its price rise, as India is eligible for support from the organisation, the ministry informed.

Therefore, the report published by The Print was fake, as the government has clarified that there is no shortage of polio vaccine in the country, and the immunisation programme has not been postponed indefinitely. They have updated their article with the clarification from the ministry, but the fake claims that they have made in the report are still there.

July 31 deadline for finalising the NRC in Assam not to be extended: Supreme Court

OpIndia Staff
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July 31 deadline for finalising the NRC in Assam not to be extended: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has made it clear that the deadline for preparing the final report of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the State of Assam shall be completed by the given deadline of July 31, 2019. The Apex court has asked the authorities to chalk out a plan so that the exercise of the NRC is not affected due to the upcoming general elections.

To make sure that everything is taken care of and there is no shortage of officials, the Chief Secretary of Assam government, Election Commission and the NRC coordinator have been asked by the Supreme Court to hold a meeting to decide how the officials will be accommodated for the two exercises.

The Court has directed the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who is appearing for the State of Assam, to ensure that the meeting is held within seven days. The bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice R F Nariman has asked to be informed of the outcome of the said meeting on the next hearing of the case which is scheduled for February 5.

The NRC is being updated under the direct monitoring of the Supreme Court. The first draft of the NRC was published on during the intervening night of December 31, 2017, containing 1.9 crore names. The second draft was released on July 30, 2018, which had 2.9 crore names.

The Apex court had last year extended the deadline for filing claims and objections from December 15, 2018, to December 31, 2018, on the request of Assam government.

The objective of updating the NRC in the state is to identify people living in the state illegally. In this process, the NRC of 1951 is being updated. According to special provision for Assam under the Citizenship Act, 1955, any person who came to the state before 25 March 1971 will be granted citizenship. Accordingly, only those people’s names are to be included in the final NRC who can prove that they or their earlier generations were residents of the state prior to that date.

OpIndia Evening Dispatch: Thursday, 24th January 2019

OpIndia Staff
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OpIndia Evening Dispatch: Thursday, 24th January 2019

In the hustle and bustle of the day, it is only natural to miss some of the biggest developments that impact the nation. The OpIndia Evening Dispatch will catch you up on the day’s event even if you have been busy thus far.

Here is what made it to news today

1. India Today journalist caught ‘directing’ Congress workers to appear excited about Priyanka Gandhi Vadra

Mausami Singh, a journalist with India Today was seen ‘directing’ and prompting the crowd to create a narrative of excitement after Priyanka Gandhi’s formal entry into politics. The most bizarre part of the event was that the India Today reporter was caught red-handed on the tape while instructing and signalling the Congress workers to chant slogans while in the middle of a live reportage.

2. MUDRA Yojana: The elixir for the MSME sector which is fuelling job growth

Government’s flagship scheme Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana was launched in 2015 and is being perceived as an elixir for the MSME sector, accounting for 90% of total number of enterprises and also 90% of non-agriculture employment whose growth had been hindered due to constraints in access to finance. While it is RBI’s role to caution any emerging trend but a knee-jerk policy reaction is not called for without a valid cost-benefit analysis and a broader perspective.

3. 4th BJP/RSS worker found murdered in Madhya Pradesh in a span of 10 days

In a shocking incident, an RSS worker from Ratlam was found brutally murdered near his field. This is the fourth murder of members belonging to the BJP/RSS in Madhya Pradesh within a span of ten days. There has been an increase in crimes against the BJP leaders in Madhya Pradesh within a month of Congress coming to power.

4. Terrorist turned decorated soldier Lance Naik Nazir Wani to receive Ashoka Chakra

Lance Naik Nazir Wani, who made supreme sacrifice for the country fighting the terrorists in Shopian last year, will be conferred with India’s highest peacetime gallantry award-Ashoka Chakra, posthumously. Lance Naik Nazir Wani was once a militant himself, but he soon realised the futility of the insurgency and joined the Indian counter-insurgency forces in 2004 to fight terrorism in Kashmir.

5. The tragic death of Homi Bhabha and the trend of top Indian scientists dying under mysterious circumstances

On the 24th of January, 53 years ago, Homi Bhabha met a tragic end when Air India Flight 101 crashed near Mont Blanc while he was travelling to Vienna for a conference. Many believe that the crash wasn’t an accident but premeditated assassination carried out by American intelligence agencies to thwart India’s nuclear programme.

Rose Valley scam: Producer and Mamata Banerjee’s close aide Shrikant Mohta arrested by CBI

OpIndia Staff
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Rose Valley scam: Producer and Mamata Banerjee’s close aide Shrikant Mohta arrested by CBI

Chief of Shree Venkatesh Films, Shrikant Mohta, has been arrested by the CBI in connection with the Rose Valley Chit Fund scam and will be produced before the Court tomorrow, ANI has reported. He is likely to be taken to Bhubaneshwar after he was arrested in Kolkata.


The Bengali Film Producer and Distributor was interrogated by the CBI at his offices earlier in the day. He was served a notice by the agency regarding “acceptance of money from Rose Valley”. According to reports, the private security guards of Mohta tried to stop the CBI team from arresting him. CBI was able to arrest Mohta with the help of local police later on.

Shrikant Mohta is close to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Several top leaders of the Trinamool Congress are named in the chit fund scam and facing investigation.

It is alleged that Mohta’s production house was paid Rs 25 crore by Rose Valley for producing 17 films.

Earlier Mohra was in the news for encroaching land of Calcutta Port Trust and building a studio on the land. The Calcutta High Court had ordered his firm to vacate the land after a petition by the port trust.

The investigation into chit fund scams has seen plenty of developments involving high-profile individuals recently. The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is also investigating the matter, had interrogated Trinamool Congress MP Tapas Pal for nine hours on Monday, in relation to the case. ED had asked Pal and his wife to come for questioning. Pal was the director of the film division of the Rose Valley Group.

The CBI has also recently filed a chargesheet against Nalini Chidambaram, wife of former union minister and Congress leader P Chidambaram, in the Saradha chit fund scam.

The Rose Valley Chit Fund was actually a Ponzi scheme in which the entities affiliated to the group collected large sums of money from gullible investors promising them astronomical returns. The Company also allegedly made cross investments in its various sister firms to escape its liability towards its investors. An FIR was registered by the ED against its Chairman and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in 2014. He was later arrested in 2015.

JNU sedition case: Delhi govt issues show cause notice to the bureaucrat who cleared JNU sedition case file

OpIndia Staff
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JNU sedition case: Delhi govt issues show cause notice to the bureaucrat who cleared JNU sedition case file

The Delhi government Principal Secretary AK Mendiratta has landed in trouble after he cleared the file relating to the JNU sedition case. He has been served a show-cause notice by Delhi Law Minister Kailash Gahlot for clearing the file relating to the 2016 JNU sedition case without the approval of the Law Ministry reports Republic TV. The ministry has also written to the Delhi High Court in this respect.

The notice refers to Rule 13 of the transaction of business rules which states that no decision or views can be communicated by any principal secretary without the approval of the minister in charge. The Delhi government had received the charge sheet on January 14 but no action was taken on it.

The 1200 page charge sheet prepared by the Delhi police with painful efforts over 3 years was rejected by the Patiala House Court on January 19 when it was presented before it. The court had asked the Delhi police to get the charge sheet sanctioned by the Delhi government. The Delhi police had revealed before the court that the AAP-led Delhi government did not respond to the charge sheet after it was received by the government.

The charge sheet contains the names of former JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya, Umar Gul, Basharat Ali, Raes Rasool and Khalid Bhat along with Shehla Rashid and the CPI national secretary D Raja’s daughter Aparajita Raja for allegedly shouting anti-national slogans at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi in 2016.

The first request seeking the permission to commence prosecution in the JNU sedition case was submitted by the Delhi police in 2016. And the second request was submitted on Monday (January 21). The unexplained delay by the Delhi government in giving the sanction to the charge sheet is casting a shadow on the intention of the government.

Indian Navy commissions its third air base INS Kohassa in the Andaman and Nicobar islands

OpIndia Staff
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Indian Navy commissions its third air base INS Kohassa in the Andaman and Nicobar islands

In a big boost to enhance maritime security and defend India’s security interest in the region, the Indian Navy is set to open its the third naval air base in the strategic Andaman and Nicobar islands.

According to reports, on Thursday, the Indian Navy has commissioned Naval Air Station (NAS) Shibpur as INS Kohassa making it the third Navy air facility in the Andaman and Nicobar islands to keep eyes on the important sea lanes of communication and strategic points. The Indian Navy will now deploy the INS Kohassa air base for surveillance of Chinese ships and submarines entering the Indian Ocean through the nearby Malacca Straits.


The commissioning of INS Kohassa, situated about 300 km (180 miles) north of the archipelago’s capital Port Blair, will have huge strategic implications for the country as Indian Navy can operate independently in its own air facility which opens up for more surveillance over Indian Ocean region from the Bay of Bengal to Malacca Straits. More than 1,20,000 ships pass through the Indian Ocean each year and nearly 70,000 of them pass through the Malacca Strait alone.

INS Kohassa draws its name from a large white-bellied sea eagle, a bird of prey endemic to the Andamans.

The NAS Shibpur was set up as a Forward Operating Air Base (FOAB) for surveillance in North Andaman and will be renamed as INS Kohassa. Located in the northernmost part of the islands, the airfield holds strategic importance not only for the security of the islands but also for its overall development.

“The facility, the third in the islands, will have a 1,000-metre runway for helicopters and Dornier surveillance aircraft. But eventually, the plan is for the runway to be extended to 3,000 metres to support fighter aircraft and longer-range reconnaissance aircraft,” said navy spokesman Captain D.K. Sharma.

INS Kohassa will become the third Naval Air Base in the region after INS Utkrosh at Port Blair at Veer Savarkar International Airport and INS Baaz at Campbell Bay, while Indian Airforce has an independent air base at Car Nicobar known as Car Nicobar AFS. The Naval air station will also function as a base for joint operation of both military and civil aircraft to implement UDAN scheme of the government.

Strengthening Naval power in the Indian Ocean Region has been a key focus of India after the Modi government came to power.

Production delays by HAL impacting country’s air combat capabilities, IAF informs Govt

OpIndia Staff
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Production delays by HAL impacting country’s air combat capabilities, IAF informs Govt

The Indian Air Force has told the Central government that production delays on the part of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) have seriously impacted the country’s air combat strength, Economics Times has reported. The IAF is particularly concerned with the upgrades to the Mirage 2000 and Jaguar fighter fleets.

The IAF asserted that HAL has not been able to meet delivery schedules pointing to the two to six year delays. It said that it expects the upgraded aircraft to be available only by 2024 now. It was mentioned that as per schedule, 21 upgraded Mirage 2000 jets should have delivered but HAL had managed to deliver only 6 after three production delays.

Related Reading: PAC report slams HAL for delay in projects

The Indian Express has reported that in the next two years, the IAF will be left with only 26 fighter squadrons against the authorization of 42 even if all the scheduled supplies, including the Rafale, are delivered on time. China, in contrast, has 42 and Pakistan has 25.

The number is projected to rise to 30 by 2027 with four more squadrons of LCA Tejas. The contract for these, however, has not been signed yet between the IAF and HAL. However, at current projections, the number of squadrons is expected to fall to 21 by 2037 and 19 by 2042.

Related Reading: HAL falling short in production of Sukhois despite production concessions by Air Force

Moreover, as per Business Standard, HAL is set to outsource production of the indigenously-manufactured Advance Light Helicopter(ALH). Chandrakar Bharti, Joint Secretary, Department of Defence Production is reported to have said that a proposal to select an Indian private company for complete transfer of technology will be made soon.

Recently, a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Parliament led by senior Congress leader Mallikarjuna Kharge had heavily criticised HAL for the production delays. The PAC report had noted that due to delay in induction of new aircraft, IAF was forced to upgrade its existing fighter planes, the total cost for which is more than ₹20,000 crore. Now it is really a matter of concern those upgrades are also getting delayed.

MUDRA Yojana: The elixir for the MSME sector which is fuelling job growth

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MUDRA Yojana: The elixir for the MSME sector which is fuelling job growth

What started with a clarion call from the Prime Minister to understand the ‘energy’ of nation’s entrepreneurial workforce, MUDRA Yojana has ever since been promoting small businesses and fuelling job growth.

Government’s flagship scheme Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana was launched in 2015 and is being perceived as an elixir for the MSME sector, accounting for 90% of total number of enterprises and also 90% of non-agriculture employment whose growth had been hindered due to constraints in access to finance. The scheme provides non-farm loans up to Rs 10 lakh to small entrepreneurs. Considering the latest survey results, around 11 crore people are dependent on self-enterprise or in the MSME space, further underscores the need for financial push and support.

However, skeptics have been, from the very beginning, doubting the efficacy of the scheme and its impact on rising NPAs owing collateral free nature of the loans extended. The recent report on MUDRA loans leading to NPAs up to Rs 11,000 crore, however, needs to be looked from a broader perspective.

Since inception, a total of Rs 7,17,842.16 crore have been disbursed as loans under MUDRA (as per official website). Now considering Rs 11,000 crore NPAs under MUDRA, which is just 1.5 % of the total disbursed amount, a minuscule percentage when compared to the NPA burden from lending to large companies. Also, According to the 2017-18 annual report of PMMY, while gross non-performing assets (NPA) across all sectors in the country crossed 10% in fiscal 2017-18, the NPA level under PMMY was only 5.38% as on March 31, 2018. It would be unjustified and short-sighted to dub the scheme as a failure and tightening its noose and scuttling growth of microenterprises.

Considering RBI report released last year in March, there were 4,387 large borrowers accounting for Rs 8.6 Lakh crore or 90% of NPAs of the banking sector. The entire amount lent under MUDRA is less than that! Touting MUDRA a failure on those accounts is loosely interpreted.

A large number of risk portfolios may be directly interpreted as a higher risk of loans going bad. However, it is important to understand that it is the overall value of money under risk is what is of primary concern to the banking sector.

The scheme has a huge potential of job generation and has been a key instrument for creating livelihoods and jobs for the lowest socio-economic segments of our society today. Not only empowering the loan seeker, but job seekers are also turned into job creators by leading a multiplier impact on the market. As per our research, for every loan disbursed under MUDRA about 1.3 jobs have been generated. On the other hand, huge loans given to large industries employing fully mechanized production methods have less focus on employment. This makes MUDRA an imperative tool for leveraging our demographic dividend and generating employment. A cost-benefit analysis of NPA rise with the huge socio-economic ramifications of unemployment and funding constraints to the MSME sector has to be carried out to take a vantage view of the situation.

Besides, MUDRA is instrumental in weaning small borrowers from private money lenders, lending money at usurious rates. Bringing the unorganized sector under the net and enabling financial flows has been the championing cause of the scheme.

Reports also indicate that even as today up to 40% of MSME funding is through informal channels. However, the sector is moving towards formalization through measures such as demonetization, introduction of GST and digital platform under India Stack along with easy and transparent lending terms under MUDRA. Certain measures such as conducting due diligence on the business plan in absence of collaterals would help in checking small loans going bad. A certain amount of mentorship while extending loans is also important to ensure its viability.

There an element of risk in every lending, but in case of MUDRA, the risk is much lower. It is RBI’s role to caution any emerging trend but a knee-jerk policy reaction is not called for without a valid cost-benefit analysis and a broader perspective.

(This article is written by Vidushi Sahani)

Telangana: After ‘EVM hacking’ fiasco, Congress stoops to a new low, uses derogatory poster to target EC

OpIndia Staff
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Telangana: After ‘EVM hacking’ fiasco, Congress stoops to a new low, uses derogatory poster to target EC

The Congress party in Telangana is drawing severe flak after they displayed an objectionable poster attempting to mock the election commission of India and its officials. According to reports, the poster has drawn serious criticism because not only it hurts the religious sentiments of Hindus but attempts to portray the election commission in a derogatory manner.

Congress’ controversial poster , Courtesy: Times Now

The poster depicts Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi as the Kauravas who are laughing while the Democracy depicted as Draupadi is being assaulted in the ‘Cheer Haran’ episode of Hindu Epic Mahabharata by the officials of the Election Commission. The Election Commission itself has been depicted as the blind and aloof Dhritarashtra.

The poster was reportedly used for call-to protest campaigns. The poster urged Congress workers and supporters to gather in protest at Dharna Chowk near Indira Park in Hyderabad today.

The BJP Telangana unit has stated that the poster by Congress is an insult to Hindus and women. They have also demanded an apology from the Congress party for the poster.

AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi, speaking to the media, has also slammed the party for the insulting imagery and stated that how would they feel if their “Sri Sri 50-year-old Rahul Gandhi” or his sister Priyanka Gandhi are depicted in such a manner. He added further that Congress faced a shameful defeat in the Telangana assembly elections and has resorted to such cartoons.


Congress party has recently suffered a national humiliation after a self-proclaimed ‘hacker’ claimed that he has helped rig the EVMs used in 2014 elections. Both party President Rahul Gandhi and senior leaders had peddled the propaganda. Later, images of senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal being present in the presser of the ‘Hacker’ were released and many questions on the so-called hacker’s claims were raised too. The ECIL also clarified that the concerned ‘hacker’ was never associated with them. The hackers’ claims were all refuted by both media and independent experts.

Congress leaders are known to cry ‘EVM hacking’ excuses whenever they lose an election and their recent stunt in Telangana is also being seen as a similar plea. But this time, the party seems to have created a nasty controversy by using derogatory imagery in its poster.

In the recently concluded assembly elections that were held in 5 states, Congress leaders, despite leading in 3 states, had started complaining about rigged EVMs when the numbers in Telangana started going against them.

Madhya Pradesh Congress government opposes arrest of Pro-Congress troll by Delhi Police

OpIndia Staff
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Madhya Pradesh Congress government opposes arrest of Pro-Congress troll by Delhi Police

The Congress government in Maharashtra has objected to the arrest of pro-Congress troll Abhishek Mishra and has reportedly written to the Delhi Police Commissioner.


Madhya Pradesh Home minister Bala Bachchan said, “If any MP citizen is arrested, the local police is required to be informed.”

“The MP government registered an objection in its letter to Delhi Police Commissioner Wednesday. The state’s Home Department has described the action of Delhi Police as a violation of the Supreme Court directives,” an official from the state public relations team is reported to have said.

In the letter, it was claimed that necessary procedures were not followed during the arrest. The local police were not informed and neither was his family informed of the matter, it was alleged. The Home Department also demanded that action be taken against the concerned officer.

As we had reported earlier, Mishra was arrested by Delhi Police for offensive posts which hurt religious sentiments. He was arrested on Tuesday night by special cyber cell of the Delhi Police from his home in Madhya Pradesh. According to Delhi Police more than 10 laptops have been recovered from him.

Mishra also runs a website ‘viralinIndia.net’ where he spreads pro-Islamist propaganda and fake news. The website not only posts anti-Modi and pro-Islam propaganda but also absolute rubbish, like a post on how one hen gave birth to puppies in Bihar. Over and above that, there are many sexually explicit articles with clickbait-y headlines perhaps to get traffic to the website.

During the run-up to the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, Mishra had ‘temporarily shut down‘ viralinIndia.net as the team was busy ‘covering elections’.

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