Archives for 2021

United Nations/Geneva: The new COVID-19 variant B.1.1.529, first detected from South Africa this week, was on Friday designated as a Variant of Concern by the World Health Organisation, which named it Omicron.

A variant of concern is the WHO’s top category of worrying Covid variants.

The WHO said the Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution (TAG-VE), an independent group of experts that periodically monitors and evaluates the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 and assesses if specific mutations and combinations of mutations alter the behaviour of the virus, convened on Friday to assess the B.1.1.529 variant, first reported to the world health body from South Africa on November 24.

“The new #COVID19 virus variant – Omicron – has a large number of mutations, some of which are concerning. This is why we need to speed up our efforts to deliver on #VaccinEquity ASAP and protect the most vulnerable everywhere,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tweeted.

Based on the evidence presented indicative of a detrimental change in COVID-19 epidemiology, the TAG-VE has advised WHO that this variant should be designated as a Variant of Concern, and the WHO has designated B.1.1.529 as a VOC, named Omicron under its Greek-letter system.

“This variant has a large number of mutations, some of which are concerning. Preliminary evidence suggests an increased risk of reinfection with this variant, as compared to other VOCs. The number of cases of this variant appears to be increasing in almost all provinces in South Africa,” the WHO said in a press release.

The variant, first reported to WHO from South Africa on Wednesday, has also been identified in Botswana, Belgium, Hong Kong and Israel.

The WHO has countries to enhance surveillance and sequencing efforts to better understand circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants, submit complete genome sequences and associated metadata to a publicly available database.

Countries are also advised that where capacity exists and in coordination with the international community, they should perform field investigations and laboratory assessments to improve understanding of the potential impacts of the VOC on COVID-19 epidemiology, severity, effectiveness of public health and social measures, diagnostic methods, immune responses, antibody neutralisation, or other relevant characteristics.

“The epidemiological situation in South Africa has been characterised by three distinct peaks in reported cases, the latest of which was predominantly the Delta variant. In recent weeks, infections have increased steeply, coinciding with the detection of B.1.1.529 variant, WHO said, adding that the first known confirmed B.1.1.529 infection was from a specimen collected on November 9.

WHO said current SARS-CoV-2 PCR diagnostics continue to detect this variant. Several labs have indicated that for one widely used PCR test, one of the three target genes is not detected (called S gene dropout or S gene target failure) and this test can therefore be used as marker for this variant, pending sequencing confirmation.

Using this approach, this variant has been detected at faster rates than previous surges in infection, suggesting that this variant may have a growth advantage, the global health organisation said.

WHO added that there are a number of studies underway and the TAG-VE will continue to evaluate this variant. WHO will communicate new findings with the member states and to the public as needed.

Former ACP of Mumbai Police Shamsher Khan Pathan has alleged that former Mumbai top-cop Param Bir Singh had seized Kasab’s phone but didn’t present it during trial or probe.

He also alleged that Mumbai’s ex-top cop Param Bir Singh must have sold the ‘evidence’ to ISIS or used the information for extortion, an ANI report on Friday stated.

According to the report, Pathan has alleged that phone recovered from terrorist Ajmal Kasab by former Mumbai Police chief Param Bir Singh was not presented during the probe or trial and he had filed a complaint in this regard to the current Mumbai police commissioner Hemant Nagrale in July this year.

Kasab was one of ten Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists who came to Mumbai via sea route from Pakistan and carried out a series of coordinated shooting and bombing attacks across the city on November 26, 2011. He was caught and was sentenced to death at Yerwada Central Jail in Pune in 2012. In a letter to the Mumbai Police chief, Pathan said, “During the 26/11 terrorist attacks, Param Bir Singh, the then DIG ATS, confiscated terrorist Ajmal Kasab’s phone, ensuring that phone never appeared during the probe or trial.”
“I wrote a letter regarding this in July this year. He (Param Bir Singh) should be arrested by NIA for the destruction of evidence. He must have sold this recovered evidence to ISIS or may have used the information for extortion,” he was quoted as saying by ANI.

Meanwhile, Ujjwal Nikam, who was a public prosecutor in the case, said, “I don’t have the exact details on this. But I know that Kasab’s phone was not there with us during the trial. So non-presentation of the phone, only investigating officers or people concerned can give a response. I am aware that those 10 attackers were distributed in 5 groups and each group had 1 mobile phone, Kasab’s phone was not with use during the trial.”

Nikam further said, “If the phone was with us as evidence during the trial we could have proven even more facts about his association with his Pakistani handlers.”

Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday announced that the name of Minto Hall, the Old Vidhan Sabha here, would be changed to Kushabhau Thakre Hall after the former BJP national president and enduring stalwart of the saffron party in MP.

Addressing the state BJP’s executive meet here, the CM, speaking in Hindi, said the hall was built with the soil and water of this place, as well as the sweat and toil of people from here, but still carried the name of Minto.

“Thakre is the person who created many stalwarts in the BJP, including former chief ministers Sunderlal Patwa, Kailash Joshi and Virendra Kumar Saklecha as well as Vikram Verma, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Minto Hall will be named after Kushabhau Thakre,” he said amid applause from BJP members.

Speaking on other issues, he said the state government’s ‘Laadli Laxmi’ scheme, which seeks to provide a host of benefits to the girl child, had begun to show results as the sex ratio in MP had improved from 912 females for every 1,000 males to 956 for every 1000 as per the national health survey report.

Hitting out at the Congress for claiming the BJP will change the Constitution, Chouhan said, in fact, it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had started the tradition of celebrating November 26 as ‘Constitution Day’.

The Chouhan government had earlier changed the name of Habibganj station to Rani Kamalapati railway station and renamed Pataalpani railway station near Indore after tribal hero Tantya Bheel.

New Delhi: Former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar lamented on Friday that caste discrimination exists even in the 21st-century India, saying there are two kinds of Hindus in the country, those who can enter a temple and those who cannot.

Presiding over a function here, Kumar, a former diplomat who belongs to the Dalit community, also shared that many people had told her father, Babu Jagjivan Ram, to “leave Hinduism” as he was facing discrimination because of his caste, but “my father had said that he would not and fight against this system from his existing position”.

She said her father used to ask “whether changing a religion could change one’s caste”.

Kumar was speaking at an event held at the Rajendra Bhawan after Rajya Sabha member of the Congress Jairam Ramesh delivered a lecture on his new book, titled “The Light of Asia: The Poem that Defined Buddha”.

“The Light of Asia” is a book written by Sir Edwin Arnold, which was first published in 1879. The book describes the life of Budhha in the form of a narrative poem.

Ramesh said his book is a biography of the poem and in a way, also of the man who looked at the “humanity side” and not the “divinity side of Buddha”. He said his book was an emphasis on that aspect of Buddha too.

“My book also talks of the resolution that was achieved in the Hindu-Buddhist conflict as far as the management of the Mahabodhi Temple in Bihar’s Bodh Gaya is concerned. One of the reasons behind writing this book was also to understand the resolution of a conflict between two religions in the context of Ayodhya,” he said.

Ramesh said many Ambedkarite Buddhists, who are not clergymen but activists, have been saying that if “100 per cent control can be given to Hindus in the Ramjanmabhoomi case, why can’t 100 per cent control be given to Buddhists when it comes to the karmabhoomi of Lord Buddha”.

He said according to a resolution arrived at in the 1950s, it was decided to have equal representation from both the religious communities in the governing body of the Mahabodhi temple, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Later, in response to a question, Ramesh said there is a school of thought that suggests that Saketa, a Buddhist area, existed in and around present-day Ayodhya and a lot of scholarly debate is going on in this connection, “but I have not delved into it in my book”.

The event coincided with the Constitution Day and all the speakers made a reference to the influence of Buddha’s teachings and philosophy on Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar, who had renounced Hinduism and adopted Buddhism.

Ramesh said “Buddha, the human”, had challenged the “Brahminical orthodoxy” and many leaders and social reformers saw that side of Buddha, which was of a revolutionary”, while another school of thought saw just his “spiritual side”. He alleged that Hindus had “appropriated” Buddha for their own interest.

Kumar thanked Ramesh for writing the book, which she said “has helped open a close door” of societal system that has been “suffocating people”.

“We live in the 21st century, have shiny roads, but many people who ride on it are still influenced by the caste system. When will our mind shine? When will we relinquish these caste-driven thoughts…. I tell you, there are two kinds of Hindus, ones who can enter a temple, and those like me who cannot,” she said in an impassioned speech at the event.

“Priests have often asked me about my ‘gotra’ and I have told them that I come from a group that is rejecting casteism. We must understand that ours is a syncretic culture. All of us have imbibed the best from different religions in our life philosophy, that is our legacy,” Kumar said.

The former Lok Sabha speaker asserted that “all of us must be fellow travellers on the road to modernity and be world citizens”.

Rajya Sabha member Manoj Kumar Jha recalled Ambedkar’s contributions as the architect of the Constitution and said, “Buddha’s philosophy of compassion is present in it.”

New Delhi: RJD leader and former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav was admitted to the emergency department of AIIMS, Delhi, on Friday, hospital sources said.

The veteran politician is learnt to be suffering from fever and is drowsy.

His condition is not serious and is stable. His blood samples have been sent for investigations and reports are awaited, a source said.

New Delhi: Congress president Sonia Gandhi will address a public rally here on December 12 as part of her party’s drive against price rise and inflation.

The Congress president and the party have decided to draw the country’s attention to price rise and inflation’ by holding a massive “Mehngai Hatao rally” in Delhi on December 12, AICC general secretary K C Venugopal said.

The rally will be addressed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former party chief Rahul Gandhi and other Congress leaders from across the country.

“It will give a decisive warning to the present Modi Government to stop its loot and reduce the backbreaking prices. We shall continue our struggle until the Modi Government backs down,” he said in a statement.

The Congress leader said “Modi and ‘Mehngai’ have become the bane of people’s lives” and the unprecedented price rise and inflation have demolished the earnings, the household income and budget of every family in the country.

He said the people of India are suffering unbearable cruelty and untold misery on account of the BJP government-driven price rise and inflation.

The budget of every household bleeds, even minimum nutrition suffers and people are finding it difficult to buy and consume day-to-day food articles as also other consumables, he alleged.

“The Modi government remains oblivious to this insurmountable pain and suffering of people. Backed by a section of the electronic media, the only solution offered by Modi government is a divisive religious discourse or sporadic diversionary statements to reset the agenda from fundamental issues affecting the lives of the people,” he said in the statement.

The Congress has been protesting on the issue of price rise and inflation and have called for a check on them.

The Congress leader said the real issues affecting the people of India are the backbreaking prices of petrol, diesel and cooking gas, which have had a spiralling effect on the prices of all foods and other consumable items.

He said every home is affected by the merciless rise in prices of cooking oil, pulses and other food items and it is perhaps for the first time, price of tomato has surpassed the price of petrol and diesel in India.

He also alleged that price of construction material such as cement, iron and steel has seen a rise of nearly 40 per cent to 50 per cent.

New Delhi: Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh have emerged as the poorest states in India, according to Niti Aayog’s first Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) report.

As per the index, 51.91 per cent population of Bihar is poor, followed 42.16 per cent in Jharkhand, 37.79 per cent in Uttar Pradesh. While Madhya Pradesh (36.65 per cent) has been placed fourth in the index, Meghalaya (32.67 per cent) is at the fifth spot.

Kerala (0.71 per cent), Goa (3.76 per cent), Sikkim (3.82 per cent), Tamil Nadu (4.89 per cent) and Punjab (5.59 per cent) have registered the lowest poverty across India and are at the bottom of the index.

Among union territories (UTs), Dadra and Nagar Haveli (27.36 per cent), Jammu & Kashmir, and Ladakh (12.58), Daman & Diu (6.82 per cent) and Chandigarh (5.97 per cent), emerged as the poorest UTs. Puducherry having 1.72 per cent of its population as poor, Lakshadweep (1.82 per cent ), Andaman & Nicobar Islands (4.30 per cent) and Delhi (4.79 per cent) have fared better.

Bihar has the highest number of malnourished people followed by Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

Bihar is also placed at the bottom when it comes to percentage of population deprived of maternal health, percentage of population deprived of years of schooling, school attendance and percentage of population deprived of cooking fuel and electricity.

Uttar Pradesh ranked the lowest in child and adolescent mortality category, followed by Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, while Jharkhand performed the worst when it comes to percentage of population deprived of sanitation, followed by Bihar and Odisha.

According to the report, India’s national MPI measure uses the globally accepted and robust methodology developed by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Importantly, as a measure of multidimensional poverty, it captures multiple and simultaneous deprivation faced by households, it added.

The report said India’s MPI has three equally weighted dimensions, health, education and standard of living – which are represented by 12 indicators namely nutrition, child and adolescent mortality, antenatal care, years of schooling, school attendance, cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing, assets and bank accounts.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) framework, adopted by 193 countries in 2015, has redefined development policies, government priorities, and metrics for measuring development progress across the world.

The SDG framework, with 17 global goals and 169 targets, is significantly wider in scope and scale relative to the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), its predecessor.

Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar in his foreword said, “The development of the National Multidimensional Poverty Index of India is an important contribution towards instituting a public policy tool which monitors multidimensional poverty, informs evidence-based and focused interventions, thereby ensuring that no one is left behind.”

Kumar further said this baseline report of India’s first ever national MPI measure is based on the reference period of 2015-16 of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS).

The national MPI measure has been constructed by utilising 12 key components which cover areas such as health and nutrition, education and standard of living, he said.

The report said the national MPI, an aggregate measure which defines poverty, in simple terms, as the deprivation in crucial and basic parameters of health, education, and living standards, is a significant departure from the way poverty has been understood and conceptualised historically.

“While this report is an indispensable first step in mainstreaming MPI, it is based on a dataset which is five years old. The success of numerous development interventions in the recent past have resulted in progress in key parameters on health, education, and standard of living,” it added.

In early 2020, the Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India, identified 29 global indices to monitor, analyse and evaluate with the aim of improving India’s position in global rankings.

Under this mandate, also known as the Global Indices for Reforms and Growth (GIRG) mandate, Niti Aayog was identified as the nodal agency for the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI).