NEW DELHI: Delhi’s R-value, which indicates the spread of COVID-19, was recorded at 2.1 this week, implying that every infected person is infecting two others in the national capital, according to an analysis by IIT-Madras.

The preliminary analysis by computational modelling was done by IIT-Madras’ Department of Mathematics and Centre of Excellence for Computational Mathematics and Data Science headed by Prof Neelesh S Upadhye and Prof S Sundar.

India’s R-value, at present, stands at 1.3, the analysis found.

Asked if it can be deduced that this is the beginning of the fourth wave of COVID-19 in Delhi, Dr Jayant Jha, Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics, IIT-Madras, said it would be too early to declare an onset of another wave.

“We can only say right now that every person is affecting two others…. but we need to wait a bit to declare onset… we don’t know about the immunity status and whether the people who got affected during the third wave in January are getting affected or not again,” he told PTI.

For other metro cities — Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, Jha said the number of cases are too low to ascertain a trend.

Delhi is witnessing an uptick in the number of COVID-19 cases.

The city logged 1,042 fresh Covid cases with a positivity rate of 4.64 per cent on Friday.

The Omicron sub-lineage BA.2.12 has been detected in a majority of the samples sequenced from Delhi in the first fortnight of April and it could be behind the recent surge in COVID-19 cases in the city, sources said on Thursday.

However, an Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) source has claimed that Omicron variant derivative BA.2.12.1 has also been found in a few samples in Delhi which is said to be contributing to the recent rise in cases in the US.

But officials have not confirmed that it indeed was found in some samples in Delhi.

An official source said, “New sub-variants BA.2.12 (52 per cent samples) and BA.2.10 (11 per cent samples) are showing high transmission and have been found in over 60 per cent of the total samples from Delhi sequenced recently.”

New Delhi: A “propagandist” newspaper distributed on board the Bangalore-Chennai Shatabdi Express has snowballed into a controversy, drawing political reactions and prompting the IRCTC to initiate an enquiry in the matter.

The IRCTC has admitted that the paper — “The Aryavarth Express” — was “unauthorised”.

The matter was raised by passenger Gopika Bakshi, a gender justice campaigner, on Twitter.

“This morning I boarded the Bangalore-Chennai Shatabdi Express only to be greeted by this blatantly propagandist publication on every other seat – The Aryavarth Express. Had never even heard of it. How is @IRCTCofficial allowing this?” Bakshi wrote on the microblogging site on Friday.

Congress MP B Manickam Tagore also questioned how such a newspaper found its way on board a train.

“Will Hon’ble Rail minister order an inquiry into it? Whether it’s the proved policy of the @RailMinIndia to allow propaganda material in the Shatabdi express? Will write and raise the issue in Loksabha.#IndiaAgainstHate,” he tweeted.

Another Congress MP, Karti Chidambaram, also questioned how such a newspaper got into the list of the publications subscribed by the IRCTC.

Sources said the IRCTC, the ticketing-and-catering arm of the railways, has approved Deccan Herald and one other local paper as the two publications to be distributed on board trains in the region. These newspapers are distributed on board by IRCTC licensees.

“We have ordered an enquiry into this and action will be taken against those found responsible. This paper is not among the IRCTC-approved publications,” IRCTC spokesperson Anand Jha said.

The divisional railway manager, Chennai said an enquiry in the matter is being conducted by the DRM Bangalore.

“The latest update is that DRM Bangalore is investigating the issue on how an unauthorised newspaper found its way into the train. We like to inform everyone that the train belongs to Bengaluru division and the incident happened there. We are sure they would take appropriate action,” he said in a tweet.

In a tweet later, IRCTC said the newspaper in question was found inside the regular, approved newspapers as an insert.

“The newspaper vendor has been strictly advised to avoid any such inserts in future. Onboard monitoring staff will keep a strict vigil of the same. The licensee of the train has also been counselled,” it said.

In a reply to the IRCTC tweet, Bakshi countered the claim made by the rail subsidiary, saying “it was not an insert – it was on my seat when I boarded. Deccan Herald was on the next seat”.

Niti Aayog VC Rajiv Kumar

New Delhi: Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar has stepped down, sources said.

The reason behind his move could not be immediately ascertained.

Kumar, an eminent economist, took over as vice chairman of Niti Aayog in August 2017 after the then VC Arvind Panagariya exited the government think-tank to return to academics.

Kumar holds a DPhil in economics from Oxford University and a PhD from Lucknow University. He was also a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR).

Mumbai: Jos Buttler smashed his third century in the ongoing IPL to power Rajasthan Royals to the highest team total of the season, 222 for 2, against Delhi Capitals here on Friday.

Buttler, enjoying the form of his life, smashed 116 off 65 balls with the help of nine boundaries and as many hits over the fence to lay the foundation of the imposing total in the company of Devdutt Padikkal, who hit 54 off 35 balls with seven fours and two sixes.

DC skipper Rishabh Pant’s decision to field first backfired big time as the duo of Buttler and Padikkal struck 155 runs in 15.5 overs for the opening stand.

After reaching 50 in 6.5 overs, the duo opened up. Buttler started slowly before picking up the pace and dealt mostly in fours and sixes against the DC spin duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel to bring up his fifty in 36 balls.

It was raining fours and sixes for both Buttler and Padikkal as both the batters played confidently to deny success to DC bowlers.

Buttler looked in ominous form and was particularly severe on Yadav, hitting the off-spinner for two sixes and one four to pick up 18 runs from the 13th over.

DC’s spin attack cut a sorry figure as Axar and Kuldeep too leaked runs with Buttler and Padikkal going hammer and tongs.

Padikkal brought up his fifty in 31 balls with a boundary, cutting Axar behind square on the off side.

High on confidence after two centuries in the ongoing edition of the IPL, Buttler continued his onslaught, smacking in-form Kuldeep Yadav for two maximums in consecutive balls and a four in the 15th over.

Power-hitting was at its best display as Buttler, in particular, treated all the DC bowlers with disdain.

Padikkal soon perished, caught plumb in front of the wicket by Khaleel Ahmed in the 116th over as DC got their first breakthrough, albeit late in the innings.

Buttler finally got out in the penultimate over, holing out to David Warner at long-on off Mutafizur Rahman.

Towards the end, skipper Sanju Samson (46 not out off 19 balls) played a little cameo to help RR cross the 200-run mark and register the highest score of the season.

Brief Scores:

Rajasthan Royals: 222 for 2 in 20 overs (Jos Buttler 116, Devdutt Padikkal 54, Sanju Samson 46 not out; Khaleel Ahmed 1/47, Mustafizur Rahman 1/43).

New Delhi: Saudi Arabia has informed India that pilgrims will be able to travel to that country for Haj this year and the Indian quota has been fixed at 79,237 pilgrims due to Covid limitations, Ministry of Minority Affairs officials said on Friday.

The Saudi government has also told the Indian side that only those aged below 65 will be able to travel for Haj this year, they said.

Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said all preparations are in order for the pilgrimage and interviews for those deputed for Haj duty have also been completed.

RT-PCR test and two doses of vaccination are required by Saudi Arabia and all preparations have been made to facilitate the pilgrims, officials said.

This will be the first time since the outbreak of the Covid pandemic that pilgrims from India will travel to Saudi Arabia for Haj.

The Saudi side has informed India that the quota this year will be 79,237 pilgrims, officials said.

Out of these, 56,601 pilgrims will go through the Haj Committee of India while 22,636 will go through Haj Group Organizers.

In 2019, Saudi Arabia had increased India’s Haj quota by 25,000, taking the number of pilgrims from the country who can perform Haj to 2 lakh.

But because of the Covid restrictions and limitations, the quota of countries was reduced by Saudi Arabia, officials said.

There will be 10 embarkation points instead of the 21 in pre-Covid times. These are Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Guwahati, Srinagar, Bengaluru and Kochi.

Officials said this year over 5,000 women will be going for Haj without Mehram (male companion).

Digital Health Card, ‘E-MASIHA’ health facility and “E-luggage pre-tagging”, providing all information regarding accommodation and transportation in Mecca-Madina, will be provided to all the Haj pilgrims.

Arrangements for special training on Covid protocols as well as health and hygiene have been made in India and Saudi Arabia for the Haj pilgrims, officials said.

BHOPAL:  A Madhya Pradesh Police team which went to Uttar Pradesh capital Lucknow on Thursday in search of Sahara Group head Subroto Roy and others, including his wife Swapna Roy, for executing a non-bailable warrant (NBW) in 14 cases of cheating, breach of trust and criminal conspiracy, will have to return empty-handed.

According to additional SP  Kamal Maurya, a team led by Datia Kotwali in-charge Devendra Sharma conducted searches at the Sahara India Group’s premises in the Sahara Estate and the Sahara India Tower in Lucknow, but couldn’t find any of the eight accused, including the Roy couple, in the cases.

Subsequently, the MP Police pasted the summons at both properties, asking the accused to be present personally with desired documents at the Datia Kotwali police station of MP’s Datia district on May 5.
The Sahara Group head, his wife and six other directors of the group are accused in 14 cases of alleged chit fund fraud. More than 2,000 investors of Datia district had reportedly lost money in the fraud. 

These cases were registered at the Datia Kotwali and Badoni police stations of Datia district in 2020, 2021 and 2022 and a local court in Datia issued NBW against the accused, after the notices issued by police asking them to cooperate in investigations met with no response. According to Datia police sources, the alleged cheating and fraud of the 2000-plus investors is worth over Rs 10 crore.