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We will pick up where we left off: Jaishankar on Indo-US ties under Biden administration

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We will pick up where we left off: Jaishankar on Indo-US ties under Biden administration

New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday exuded confidence that ties between India and the US will expand further under Joe Biden’s administration, noting that he was part of the period when bilateral relations underwent a radical transformation.

“As vice president, we dealt with him. I happened to be the ambassador during the last phase of the Obama administration. We’d known him earlier when he was in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as the ranking Democratic member and then as the chairman,” Jaishankar said.

The external affairs minister was speaking at an online discussion organized by leading think-tank Gateway House.

“He (Biden) is very much part of this period when Indo-American relations underwent a radical transformation, which I reasonably date back to (Bill) Clinton’s visit,” Jaishankar said.

Jaishankar said President-elect Biden is not a stranger” to India or to the relationship between the two countries.

“I am very confident that we will pick up where we left off, we have done that over the last four administrations.

“I think that will be the case as well here and I also say that because within the American politics, it’s not just that we deal with the administration of the day, we also tend to deal with the Congress,” Jaishankar said.

“American politics by its nature has very strong elements of bipartisanship,” he said.

Subordinate courts can proceed with matter on absence of advocate/litigant Delhi HC

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Subordinate courts can proceed with matter on absence of advocate/litigant: Delhi HC

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court Tuesday modified its earlier direction and made it clear that from now if an advocate or litigant stays away from the virtual proceedings after being intimated about the case, the concerned subordinate court can proceed in the matter depending on the urgency of circumstances.

In an administrative order, the high court said it has reviewed its August 15 office order by which it was directed that the courts subordinate to it shall not pass any adverse order in non-urgent or routine matters where the concerned advocate or litigant is unable to join the proceedings through video conferencing, till the time the physical functioning of the courts is resumed.

The courts are conducting proceedings through video conferencing in a restricted manner since March to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The matter has been reviewed by this court and the aforesaid direction (of August 15) stands modified to the extent that if an advocate/ litigant stays away from the virtual proceedings after being intimated that a case would be taken up on a particular date, it be left to the discretion of the concerned court to proceed further in the matter, depending on the urgency and/ or other attending circumstances, the order said.

COVID-19 Update in India 89-lakh mark with 38,617 new infections

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NEW DELHI: India’s COVID-19 caseload went past 89 lakh, while the number of people who have recuperated from the disease crossed 83 lakh pushing the national recovery rate to 93.52 per cent, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday.

The total coronavirus cases mounted to 89,12,907 with  38,617 infections being reported in a day while the death toll climbed to 1,30,993 with 474 new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed.

The number of active cases remained below 5 lakh for the eighth consecutive day.

There are 4,46,805 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country as on date which comprises 5.01 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

The total recoveries have surged to 83,35,109 pushing the national recovery rate to 93.52 per cent, while the COVID-19 case fatality rate stands at 1.47 per cent.

India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23 and 40 lakh on September 5.

It went past 50 lakh on September 16, 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11 and crossed 80 lakh on October 29.

According to the ICMR, a cumulative total of more than 12.74 crore samples have been tested up to November 17 with   9,37,279 samples being tested on Tuesday.

The 474 new fatalities include 99 from Delhi, 68 from Maharashtra, 52 from West Bengal, 30 from Punjab, 27 from Kerala and 25 from Haryana.

A total of 1,30,993 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 46,102 from Maharashtra followed by 11,557 from Karnataka, 11,513 from Tamil Nadu, 7,812 from Delhi, 7,766 from West Bengal, 7,412 from Uttar Pradesh, 6,890 from Andhra Pradesh, 4,510 from Punjab and 3,815 from Gujarat.

The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.

Containing COVID-19, improving economy, maritime security: Joe Biden’s priority list for Indo-US ties

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WASHINGTON: US President-elect Joe Biden has said that he looks forward to working closely with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on shared global challenges, including containing COVID-19, launching the global economic recovery and maintaining a secure and prosperous Indo-Pacific region, according to his transition.

This was the first interaction between the two leaders after Democrat Biden defeated incumbent Republican president Donald Trump in the November 3 US presidential election.

According to the Biden-Harris Transition, ‘the president-elect noted that he looks forward to working closely with the prime minister on shared global challenges, including containing COVID-19 and defending against future health crises, tackling the threat of climate change, launching the global economic recovery, strengthening democracy at home and abroad, and maintaining a secure and prosperous Indo-Pacific region’.

Biden thanked Modi for his congratulations and “expressed his desire to strengthen and expand the US-India strategic partnership alongside the first vice president of South Asian descent,” said a readout of the call.

Earlier on Tuesday, Modi said in a tweet that he “spoke to US President-elect Joe Biden on phone to congratulate him. We reiterated our firm commitment to the Indo-US strategic partnership and discussed our shared priorities and concerns — COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and cooperation in the Indo-Pacific Region”.

The prime minister also conveyed his congratulations to US Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

“Her success is a matter of great pride and inspiration for members of the vibrant Indian-American community, who are a tremendous source of strength for Indo-US relations,” Modi said.

Harris, the daughter of an Indian immigrant from Chennai, has created history by becoming the first Black American woman to be elected as the country’s Vice President.

While Indian-origin politicians have been elected as heads of the state in various parts of the world in the last several decades, from Mauritius to Fiji, Harris, 56, as the vice president of the United States would be the most powerful politician ever.

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), in a statement on Tuesday, said that Modi congratulated Biden on his election, describing it as a testament to the strength and resilience of democratic traditions in the United States.

The prime minister warmly recalled his earlier interactions with Biden, including during his official visits to the US in 2014 and 2016, it said.

Biden is known to be a strong proponent of closer India-US ties since his days as a senator in the 1970s and played a key role in getting the approval of the Senate for the bilateral civil nuclear deal in 2008.

In the midst of hectic negotiations between the two countries to conclude the civil nuclear deal, Biden was a critical ally of India in the Senate.

The deal had laid a strong foundation for the deepening of ties between the two leading democracies of the world.

The strategic and defence ties between India and the US witnessed major expansion during Barack Obama’s presidency and Biden, as the vice president, had played a key role in it.

In his campaign documents, Biden spoke about his vision for the US-India partnership as well as on standing with India in facing threats in the region.

Biden also had separate congratulatory calls with leaders in Chile, Israel and South Africa.

Normalcy may return by winter 2021, says Covid-19 vaccine co-creator

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Prof Ugur Sahin said he was confident the vaccine would reduce transmission between people as well as stop symptoms developing in someone who has had the vaccine.

Pfizer vaccine

LONDON: Normalcy from the Covid era can only be expected by next year’s winter as any Covid vaccine will take to show its effect and will not immediately reduce the number of infections, as per the co-developer of Pfizer’s vaccine, media reports said.

A new Covid vaccine’s impact will work significantly over the summer and life should be back to normal by next winter, Prof Ugur Sahin, co-founder of BioNTech, whose vaccine candidate has proved to prevent over 90 per cent people from getting Covid-19, as per preliminary reports. The Pfizer-BioNTech is one of the 11 vaccines in their final tests.

This winter would still be hard, he said in an interview on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.

Sahin said he was confident the vaccine would reduce transmission between people as well as stop symptoms developing in someone who has had the vaccine, though not as high as the test results but still “maybe 50 per cent”.

He said as everything continued to go well, he said, the vaccine would begin to be delivered at the “end of this year, beginning of next year”.

The goal was to deliver more than 300 million doses worldwide by next April, he said on the BBC show, which “could allow us to only start to make an impact” and the bigger impact would happen later only.

“Summer will help us because the infection rate will go down in the summer and what is absolutely essential is that we get a high vaccination rate until or before autumn/winter next year,” he stressed.

Asked if the vaccine was as effective in older people as it is in younger people, he said he expected to have a better idea in the next three weeks.

He said it was not yet known how long immunity would last after the vaccine’s second shot is administered.

Sahin also said the “key side effects” of the vaccine seen so far were a mild to moderate pain in the injection site for a few days, while some participants had a mild to moderate fever over a similar period.

Pollution levels deteriorate in NCR

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The air quality deteriorated to ‘severe’ category in Ghaziabad, Noida, Greater Noida, Faridabad and Gurugram in the National Capital Region (NCR) on Sunday. 

Air Pollution

The air quality deteriorated to ‘severe’ category in Ghaziabad, Noida, Greater Noida, Faridabad and Gurugram in the National Capital Region (NCR) on Sunday. The concentration of major air pollutants PM 2.5 and PM 10 remained high in the five immediate neighbours of Delhi, according to the air quality index (AQI) maintained by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). 

According to the index, an AQI between zero and 50 is considered ‘good’, 51 and 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 and 200 ‘moderate’, 201 and 300 ‘poor’, 301 and 400 ‘very poor’, and 401 and 500 ‘severe’. The AQI in Faridabad (426) and Gurugram (424) was in the ‘severe’ category, while the average 24-hour AQI at 4 pm on Sunday was 448 in Ghaziabad, 441 in Noida, 417 in Greater Noida, according to the CPCB’s Sameer app. On Saturday, the average AQI was 456 in Ghaziabad, 425 in Noida, 394 in Greater Noida, 378 in Faridabad and 358 in Gurugram.

On Sunday, PM 2.5 and PM 10 were the prominent pollutants in Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad, Faridabad and Gurgaon, according to the Central Pollution Control Board. The CPCB states that an AQI in the ‘very poor’ category may cause respiratory illness on prolonged exposure, while air quality in the ‘severe’ zone affects even healthy people and seriously impacts those with existing diseases.

Woman dies in acid attack, boyfriend arrested in Maharashtra’s Beed

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The incident took place on Saturday, the police official said, adding that the reason behind the attack was not yet known.

AURANGABAD:A woman has died after her boyfriend allegedly threw acid on her and tried to set her ablaze in Maharashtra’s Beed district, a police official said on Sunday.

accused has been arrested and directions have been issued to try the case in a fast track court”.

Night that the accused, identified as Avinash Rajure (25), has been nabbed in Nanded.

The incident took place on Saturday, the police official said, adding that the reason behind the attack was not yet known.

The woman, originally hailing from Shelgaon in Nanded district, was travelling from Pune to her native place along with the accused, he said.

They took a halt at a lonely spot at Yalamb Ghat in Beed where the accused allegedly attacked the woman with acid and later tried set her on fire by dousing her in petrol, another official from Neknur police station in Beed said.

The accused then fled from the spot, he said.

The woman was later taken to a hospital where she died, the official said.

The victim’s age was not specified by police.

“The incident took place around 3 am on Saturday and the police came to know about it in the afternoon. We took her to a hospital around 2 pm,” the official said.

“We took a statement of the woman on Saturday, but she didn’t tell anything about why she was attacked. She later died. A police team is going to the hospital to get further information,” the official said.

The Nanded police have also been alerted and teams have been sent out to nab the accused, he said.

A case has been registered Indian Penal Code Sections section 326A (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by use of acid ,etc) and 307 (attempt to murder), the official said.

Places of worship to re-open from today in Maharashtra

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Places of worship geared up to re-open in Maharashtra from Monday with all SOPs in place for devotees visiting them amidst the Covid pandemic.

MUMBAI: Places of worship geared up to re-open in Maharashtra from Monday with all SOPs in place for devotees visiting them amidst the Covid pandemic. As per the Standard Operating Procedures  released by the Maharashtra government, religious places located out of COVID-19 containment zones will be allowed to remain open as per the timings decided by authorities, and devotees will be allowed inside in a staggered manner.

Face masks will be mandatory for devotees along with social distancing protocols. Earlier this year, all major organisers of the state’s biggest festival Ganeshotsav cancelled their celebrations and even the iconic Mohammed Ali Road street-food market remained shut during Ramzan due to Covid.

Sai Baba Temple in Shirdi, Dadgusheth Halwai Ganpati Temple in Pune are among the places of worship that will be opened for the people. “Devotees won’t be allowed to offer elaborate prayers. Only ‘darshan’ with COVID protocols permissible,” said a temple trust member of the Dadgusheth Ganpati temple. 

Similarly, the Shirdi Trust will only allow 6,000 devotees per day. Devotees can apply online for the ‘darshan’ besides the usual tokens from the counter. People above the age of 65 year and children below 10 will not be allowed entry, the Shirdi trust said.

Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government’s decision to reopen places of religious worship was neither a victory nor defeat of anybody. “The SOPs drafted by the government need to be followed strictly. There is no need to take credit. It was God’s will that people stay at home, and now it is God’s will that places of worship reopen with precautions,” Raut said. The BJP and various socio-religious outfits had been demanding that the government reopens places of worship for the devotees. 

COVID-19 India Update 30,548 fresh cases, 435 deaths

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There are 4,65,478 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country as on date which comprise 5.26 per cent of the total caseload.

NEW DELHI: India’s COVID-19 caseload mounted to 88,45,127 with 30,548 infections being reported in a day, while the number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 82,49,579, according to data updated by the Union health ministry on Monday.

The coronavirus death toll climbed to 1,30,070 with 435 new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed.

The number of active cases remained below 5 lakh for the sixth consecutive day.

There are 4,65,478 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country as on date which comprise 5.26 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

The total number of recoveries has surged to 82,49,579, pushing the national recovery rate to 93.27 per cent.

The COVID-19 case fatality rate stands at 1.47 per cent.

India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23 and 40 lakh on September 5.

It went past 50 lakh on September 16, 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11 and crossed 80 lakh on October 29.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a total of 12,56,98,525 samples had been tested till November 15 with 8,61,706 being tested on Sunday.

The 435 new fatalities include 95 from Delhi, 60 from Maharashtra, 51 from West Bengal, 30 from Punjab, and 21 each from Karnataka and Kerala.

The total 1,30,070 deaths reported so far in the country include 45,974 from Maharashtra, followed by 11,529 from Karnataka, 11,478 from Tamil Nadu, 7,661 from West Bengal, 7,614 from Delhi, 7,372 from Uttar Pradesh, 6,868 from Andhra Pradesh, 4,458 from Punjab and 3,803 from Gujarat.

The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.

“Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research,” the ministry said on its website, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.

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