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KALABURAGI: The police on Wednesday took into custody a private ambulance driver in connection with raping a Covid-infected woman.
The woman woke up and raised an alarm when Pinto was removing her urine pipe. Her screams woke up other patients in the ward who tried to catch him, but he had escaped.
The Bramhapur police, however, managed to catch hold of Pinto and have registered an attempt to rape case against him. Further investigations are on.
RAIPUR: Former Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh and BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra moved the Bilaspur High Court, seeking to quash an FIR lodged against them. Their counsel Vivek Sharma claimed that the “FIRs were falsely registered against both at the Raipur police station”.
Last month, the Raipur police had registered FIR against Patra and Raman Singh under IPC sections 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 505 (1b,c) (publishing or circulating statements or rumours conducing to public mischief), 469 (commits forgery) and 188 (for flouting orders under Epidemic Diseases Act 1897).
Sambit Patra tweeting a post alleging Congress to have drafted a toolkit to malign the Centre’s image was branded as ‘manipulated media’ by Twitter, leading to Delhi Police landing at its offices as part of probe.
WASHINGTON: The World Bank on Tuesday slashed its 2021-22 GDP growth forecast for the Indian economy to 8.3 per cent from 10.1 per cent estimated in April, saying economic recovery is being hampered by the devastating second wave of coronavirus infections. It projected a 7.5 per cent economic growth in the 2022-23 fiscal (April 2022 to March 2023).
The projected growth compares to the worst ever contraction of 7.3 per cent witnessed in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021 (FY21) and 4 per cent expansion in 2019-20. In April this year, the World Bank had forecast a 10.1 per cent growth in Indian GDP for FY22.
This was higher than 5.4 per cent it had projected in January. But now the projections have been slashed. The multilateral lending agency said India’s GDP is likely to grow by 6.5 per cent in 2023-24.
In its report, the Bank said that the global economy is set to expand by 5.6 per cent in 2021 – its strongest post-recession pace in 80 years. “For India, GDP in fiscal year 2021/22 starting from April 2021 is expected to expand 8.3 per cent,” it said.
It said that activity will benefit from policy support, including higher spending on infrastructure, rural development, and health, and a stronger-than expected recovery in services and manufacturing. “The forecast for FY22 factors in expected economic damage from an enormous second COVID-19 wave and localised mobility restrictions since March 2021,” the report said.
It said that activity is expected to follow the same, yet less pronounced, collapse and recovery seen during the first wave. “The pandemic will undermine consumption and investment as confidence remains depressed and balance sheets damaged. Growth in FY 2022/23 is expected to slow to 7.5 per cent, reflecting lingering impacts of COVID-19 on household, corporate and bank balance sheets; possibly low levels of consumer confidence; and heightened uncertainty on job and income prospects,” it said.
According to the World Bank, in India, the FY 2021/22 budget marked a significant policy shift. The government announced that the health-related spending would more than double and set out a revised medium-term fiscal path intended to address the economic legacy of the pandemic.
Following deteriorating pandemic-related developments, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced further measures to support liquidity provision to micro, small and medium firms, and loosened regulatory requirements on the provisioning for non-performing loans.
“In India, fiscal policy shifted in the FY 2021/22 budget toward higher expenditure targeted at healthcare and infrastructure to boost the post-pandemic recovery. The renewed outbreak, however, may require further targeted policy support to address the health and economic costs,” it added.
On March 31, the World Bank said India’s economy has bounced back amazingly from the COVID-19 pandemic and nationwide lockdown over the last one year, but it is not out of the woods yet.
It had predicted that the country’s real GDP growth for fiscal year 21/22 could range from 7.5 to 12.5 per cent in its latest South Asia Economic Focus report released ahead of the annual Spring meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
In April and May, India struggled with the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic with more than 3,00,000 daily new cases. Hospitals were reeling under a shortage of medical oxygen and beds. In mid-May, new coronavirus cases in India hit a record daily high with 4,12,262 new infections.
On Tuesday, India reported less than one lakh new coronavirus infections after a gap of 63 days, while the daily positivity rate dropped to 4.62 per cent.
A single day rise of 86,498 cases were registered, the lowest in 66 days, taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 2,89,96,473. The COVID-19 death toll climbed to 3,51,309 with 2,123 daily deaths, the lowest in 47 days.
NEW DELHI: India reported 92,596 fresh COVID-19 cases, taking the infection tally to 2,90,89,069, while the number of active cases dropped to 12,31,415, according to the Union Health Ministry’s data updated on Wednesday.
The daily infections remained below one lakh for the second straight day.
The death toll due to COVID-19 reached 3,53,528 after 2,219 more fatalities were reported, the data updated at 8 am showed.
The number of active cases has reduced to 12,31,415, comprising 4.23 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 94.55 per cent.
A net decline of 72,287 cases has been recorded in the COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.
Also, 19,85,967 tests were conducted on Tuesday, taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 37,01,93,563, while the daily positivity rate was recorded at 4.66 per cent.
It has been less than 10 per cent for 16 consecutive days, the ministry said.
The weekly positivity rate was recorded at 5.66 per cent.
Recoveries continue to outnumber daily new cases for 27 consecutive days.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 2,75,04,126, while the case fatality rate has increased to 1.22 per cent, the data stated.
Cumulatively, 23,90,58,360 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered so far under the nationwide vaccination drive in the country.
India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20 lakh-mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16.
It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.
India had crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4.
KOLKATA: West Bengal’s Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari landed in New Delhi on Tuesday to hold meetings with BJP national president JP Nadda and Home Minister Amit Shah amid fears of party imploding in the state.
Cracks are developing in the BJP’s West Bengal unit, with at least five prominent TMC imports to BJP snapping communication lines with the leadership as a precursor to quitting.
On a day Adhikari reached Delhi, more news of widening rift reached the leadership. BJP’s national vice president Mukul Roy skipped an organisational meeting convened by party’s state unit chief Dilip Ghosh. Former TMC minister Rajib Banerjee was among the notable faces missing in the meeting.
While Roy claimed one had informed him about Tuesday’s organisational meeting, Banerjee said he could not attend the meeting as one of his relatives fell sick. Later, in a social media post, Banerjee, without naming Adhikari, said repeated demands of imposing Article 356 in West Bengal would not go down well in Bengal.
Responding to Adhikari’s Delhi visit, the state president said he was not aware of his schedule.
“The statements given by Ghosh on the issue of Adhikari’s Delhi visit and Roy’s comment on the organisational meeting reflect clear division. Though the rift between Ghosh and Roy emerged before the Assembly election, it was brushed under the carpet. However, after its defeat, it has spilled over to public domain,” a senior BJP leader in Kolkata said.
The leader said the BJP’s national leadership is not happy with the post-poll developments in Bengal.
“Five former TMC MLAs have already quit and five are likely to leave. Also, Adhikari was recently booked in a criminal case. These issues might be discussed,” he said.
VARANASI: The Varanasi district administration has formed a committee to probe into the algal spread in Ganga, which has turned green due to the invasion. What is surprising about the panel is that there is not even one river engineering, environmental or phycology (algae related science) expert on it. This despite the fact that Varanasi is home to the premier Banaras Hindu University, whose Department of Botany and School of Biotechnology for years have pioneered phycology research globally.
The algae infestation of the river’s water is not only noticeable in the ancient city, but also upstream in Mirzapur and Prayagraj districts.
“I have been bathing in Ganga since childhood, but do not remember such algae invasion. This is serious and should be probed by scientists and not police or administrative officials,” said 46-year-old Dinesh Shankar Dubey, whose organisation Gangotri Seva Samiti holds the world famous Ganga Arti on Dashwashamedh Ghat.
According to Prof Ashok Kumar, senior phycologist and emeritus professor at the School of Biotechnology, BHU, “This is the first time this is happening. It could be due to Microcystis, but it needs to be probed. The development assumes significance as such algae never bloom in running water. Not only does the origin of the algae need to be studied, but the samples also need to be tested for possible toxicity.”
Importantly, a team of researchers led by Kumar has spent three decades researching algae in the waterbodies of Varanasi, which is also famous for its kunds (ponds). It was a team of researchers led by Kumar that had traced presence of toxic compounds in microcystis algae in two major ponds — Laxmi Kund and Durga Kund — which was poisonous for human and animals. The findings were published in reputable international journals. Meanwhile, a city-based advocate has moved the National Green Tribunal over the issue.
NEW DELHI: The Dominica High Court has adjourned the bail hearing of fugitive diamond merchant Mehul Choksi till June 11, local media reports stated.
The bail hearing took place before high court judge Wynante Adrien-Roberts through video-conferencing on the plea of Choksi’s local legal team comprising Julien Prevost, Wayne Norde, Wayne Marsh and Cara Shillingford-Marsh.
The government side represented by Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Sherma Dalrymple “strongly objected” to Choksi’s plea calling him a flight risk, Dominica News Online reported.
The judge adjourned the matter till June 11, it said.
The high court is also hearing a separate matter of habeas corpus filed by Choksi’s team in which the hearing has also been adjourned.
Choksi had mysteriously gone missing on May 23 from Antigua and Barbuda where he has been staying since 2018 as a citizen.
He was detained in neighbouring island country Dominica for illegal entry after a possible romantic escapade with his rumoured girlfriend.
His lawyers alleged that he was kidnapped from Jolly Harbour in Antigua by policemen looking like Antiguan and Indian and brought to Dominica on a boat.
The businessman was also brought before a Roseau magistrate on the orders of high court judge Bernie Stephenson, hearing the habeas corpus matter, to answer charges of illegal entry where he pleaded not guilty but was denied bail.
CAPE TOWN: In the global race to vaccinate people against COVID-19, Africa is tragically at the back of the pack.
In South Africa, which has the continent’s most robust economy and its biggest coronavirus caseload, just 0.8 per cent of the population is fully vaccinated, according to a worldwide tracker kept by Johns Hopkins University.
And hundreds of thousands of the country’s health workers, many of whom come face-to-face with the virus every day, are still waiting for their shots.
In Nigeria, Africa’s biggest country with more than 200 million people, only 0.1 per cent are fully protected.
Kenya, with 50 million people, is even lower.
Uganda has recalled doses from rural areas because it doesn’t have nearly enough to fight outbreaks in big cities.
Chad didn’t administer its first vaccine shots until this past weekend.
And there are at least five other countries in Africa where not one dose has been put into an arm, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The World Health Organization says the continent of 1.3 billion people is facing a severe shortage of vaccine at the same time a new wave of infections is rising across Africa.
Vaccine shipments into Africa have ground to a “near halt,” WHO said last week.
“It is extremely concerning and at times frustrating,” said Africa CDC Director Dr John Nkengasong, a Cameroonian virologist who is trying to ensure some of the world’s poorest nations get a fair share of vaccines in a marketplace where they can’t possibly compete.
The United States and Britain, in contrast, have fully vaccinated more than 40 per cent of their populations, with higher rates for adults and high-risk people.
Countries in Europe are near or past 20 per cent coverage, and their citizens are starting to think about where their vaccine certificates might take them on their summer vacations.
The US, France and Germany are even offering shots to youngsters, who are at very low risk of serious illness from COVID-19.
Poorer countries had warned as far back as last year of this impending vaccine inequality, fearful that rich nations would hoard doses.
In an interview, Nkengasong called on the leaders of wealthy nations meeting this week at the G-7 summit to share spare vaccines — something the United States has already agreed to do — and avert a “moral catastrophe.”
“I’d like to believe that the G-7 countries, most of them having kept excess doses of vaccines, want to be on the right side of history,” Nkengasong said.
“Distribute those vaccines. We need to actually see these vaccines, not just …promises and goodwill.” Others are not so patient, nor so diplomatic.
“People are dying. Time is against us. This IS INSANE,” South African human rights lawyer Fatima Hasan, an activist for equal access to health care, wrote in a series of text messages.
The Biden administration made its first major move to ease the crisis last week, announcing it would share an initial batch of 25 million spare doses with desperate countries in South and Central America, Asia and Africa.
Nkengasong and his team were in contact with White House officials a day later, he said, with a list of countries where the 5 million doses earmarked for Africa could go to immediately.
Still, the US offer is only a “trickle” of what’s needed, Hasan wrote.
Africa alone is facing a shortfall of around 700 million doses, even after taking into account those secured through WHO’s vaccine program for poorer countries, COVAX, and a deal with Johnson & Johnson, which comes through in August, two long months away.
Uganda just released a batch of 3,000 vaccine doses in the capital, Kampala — a minuscule amount for a city of 2 million — to keep its program barely alive.
There and elsewhere, the fear is that the luck that somehow enabled parts of Africa to escape the worst of previous waves of COVID-19 infections and deaths might not hold this time.
“The first COVID was a joke, but this one is for real. It kills,” said Danstan Nsamba, a taxi driver in Uganda who has lost numerous people he knew to the virus.
In Zimbabwe, Chipo Dzimba embarked on a quest for a vaccine after witnessing COVID-19 deaths in her community.
She walked miles to a church mission hospital, where there were none, and miles again to a district hospital, where nurses also had nothing and told her to go to the region’s main government hospital.
That was too far away.
“I am giving up,” Dzimba said.
“I don’t have the bus fare.” South African health workers faced similar disappointment when they crowded into a parking garage last month, hoping for vaccinations and ignoring in their desperation the social distancing protocols.
Many came away without a shot.
Femada Shamam, who is in charge of a group of old-age homes in the South African city of Durban, has seen only around half of the 1,600 elderly and frail people she looks after vaccinated.
It is six months, almost to the day, since Britain began the global vaccination drive.
“They do feel very despondent and they do feel let down,” Shamam said of her unvaccinated residents, who are experiencing “huge anxiety” as they hunker down in their sealed-off homes 18 months into the outbreak.
Twenty-two of her residents have died of COVID-19.
“It really highlights the biggest problem …the haves and the have-nots,” Shamam said.
As for whether wealthy countries with a surplus of vaccine have gotten the message, Nkengasong said: “I am hopeful, but not necessarily confident.”
LONDON: England’s white-ball skipper Eoin Morgan and wicketkeeper batsman Jos Buttler are under investigation by the country’s cricket board after their alleged racist tweets, mocking Indians, surfaced on the social media.
The posts, in which Buttler and Morgan used the word ‘sir’ to mock the Indians, started doing the rounds on social media after the ECB suspended pacer Ollie Robinson for some of his offensive tweets dating back to 2012-13.
“Screenshots have also been shared of a message by Buttler in which he says ‘I always reply sir no1 else like me like you like me’ and, separately, Morgan includes Buttler in a message which says, ‘Sir you’re my favourite batsman’,” according to a report in the Telegraph.co.uk.
Buttler and Morgan both feature in the Indian Premier League (IPL) with the former playing for the Rajasthan Royals and the latter leading the Kolkata Knight Riders.
“Although there are questions over the precise context of the tweets, they were written at a time when Buttler and Morgan were established England players and have caused offence on social media,” the report added.
The ECB said the matter will be dealt in an appropriate manner.
“Since we were alerted to offensive tweets last week, a number of historical social media posts by other individuals have been questioned publicly as well,” an ECB spokesperson said on Tuesday.
“There is no place for discrimination in our sport, and we are committed to taking relevant and appropriate action where required.
“Given the concerns which have been raised are clearly now broader than a single case, the ECB Board will discuss how we deal with issues over historical social media material in a timely and appropriate manner.
“Each case will be considered on an individual basis, looking at all the facts. We will assess cases with the ECB Board before making further statements.”
A homophobic tweet dating back to 2010 from veteran pacer James Anderson has also emerged.
“For me it’s 10-11 years ago, I’ve certainly changed as a person. And I think that’s the difficulty, things do change, you do make mistakes,” Anderson told the British media.
Anderson, who will become England’s most capped Test player if he plays in the second Test against New Zealand on Thursday, said the squad is anxious about what could come out next.