Four persons, including 3 ONGC employees, died when a Pawan Hans helicopter with two pilots and seven others onboard fell into the Arabian Sea about 50 nautical miles from the Mumbai coast.
The helicopter managed to stay afloat with the help of the attached floaters for some time, helping rescuers pull out all the nine people, a company official said.
Four of them were unconscious and were airlifted in a Navy chopper to a hospital in Mumbai, where they were declared dead, he added.
India recorded 11,793 new coronavirus infections, pushing the country’s tally to 4,34,18,839 while the active cases rose to 96,700 the Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday.
The death toll climbed to 5,25,047 with 27 new fatalities, data updated at 8 am by the ministry stated.
The active Covid cases comprise 0.22 % of the total infections. The national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.57 % the health ministry said.
An increase of 2,280 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 case count in a span of 24 hours, it said.
The daily positivity rate was recorded at 2.49 % while the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 3.36 % the ministry said.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,27,97,092 while the case fatality rate was 1.21 %
According to the ministry, 197.31 crore doses of vaccine have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 inoculation drive.
India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 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, 2020. The country crossed the grim milestone of two crore cases on May 4, 2021, three crore cases on June 23 and four crore cases on January 25, 2022.
The 27 new fatalities included 13 from Kerala, five from Maharashtra, three each from Delhi and Punjab and one each from Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram and Uttarakhand.
Justice Satish Chandra Sharma on Tuesday took oath as the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court here.
Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena administered the oath to Justice Sharma at a ceremony in the Raj Niwas, the L-G’s secretariat.
Justice Sharma had earlier served as the Chief Justice of the Telangana High Court.
The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear on “re-opening day itself” a plea alleging a rising number of attacks on Christian institutions and priests across the country and seeking the implementation of earlier apex court guidelines to curb hate crimes.
On an average, 45 to 50 violent attacks take place against Christian institutions and priests every month throughout the country, senior advocate Colin Gonsalves said. In May this year itself, 57 cases of violence and attacks on Christian institutions and priests took place, he added.
What you are saying is unfortunate, if it is happening. What we can ensure is that your matter is listed on the re-opening day itself,” a vacation bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and J B Pardiwala said when Gonsalves mentioned the plea and sought its listing for urgent hearing.
The relief sought included the implementation of the guidelines issued in the Tehseen Poonawala judgement in which nodal officers were to be appointed to take note of hate crimes and register FIRs across the nation.
The bench directed the apex court registry to list the petition on re-opening of the courts after summer vacation on July 11.
In 2018, the apex court had come out with a slew of guidelines for the Centre and states. These included fast-tracked trials, victim compensation, deterrent punishment and disciplinary action against lax law-enforcing officials. The court said offences such as hate crimes, cow vigilantism and lynching incidents should be nipped in the bud.
The states shall designate a senior police officer not below the rank of police superintendent as nodal officer in each district, it had said, adding that these officers will set up a task force to be assisted by one DSP-rank officer for taking measures to prevent mob violence and lynching.
The state governments shall immediately identify districts, sub-divisions and villages where instances of lynching and mob violence have been reported in the recent past, the court had said.
Opposition presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha on Monday filed his nomination papers for the July 18 election, with a host of leaders including Rahul Gandhi, Sharad Pawar, Akhilesh Yadav and Farooq Abdullah accompanying him.
Significantly, TRS leader K T Rama Rao, the son of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was also present when Sinha filed his papers.
However, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha was not represented as Jharkhand’s ruling party is yet to decide on whom to support in the presidential poll.
Sinha handed over four sets of nomination papers to Rajya Sabha Secretary General P C Mody, who is the returning officer for the presidential election.
After filing the nomination papers, Sinha paid homage to Mahatma Gandhi and B R Ambedkar at their statues inside Parliament complex.
Sinha, a former bureaucrat and a union minister during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, was decided as the joint candidate for the presidential election on June 21 at a meeting of several opposition leaders.
He is likely to launch his campaign from June 28 from Chennai in Tamil Nadu and will cover the southern states of Kerala and Karnataka as well during his first round of campaigning.
Top opposition leaders including NCP supremo Pawar, Congress leaders Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Jairam Ramesh and Rajasthan Chief minister Ashok Gehlot, TMC’s Abhishek Banerjee and Saugata Roy, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, DMK’s Tiruchi Siva and A Raja, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief minister Farooq Abdullah, CPI-M’ Sitaram Yechury and CPI’s D Raja, were also present.
Rashtriya Lok Dal’s Jayant Chaudhary, Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Misa Bharti, Revolutionary Socialist Party’s N K Premchandran and Indian Union Muslim League’s Mohammed Bashir and NCP’s Praful Patel were also present.
NDA nominee Droupadi Murmu filed her nomination papers last week.
Assam’s flood situation is showing signs of improvement with the water level of most rivers maintaining a receding trend while over 22 lakh remain affected across the state, officials said on Monday.
However, the situation in Silchar, headquarter town of Cachar district, remained grim as several areas are still waterlogged, officials said.
The toll in the state has increased to 126 after five deaths were reported on Sunday while two others had gone missing.
The total number of affected people declined to 22.21 lakh in 28 districts on Sunday while the figure was 25.10 lakh on the previous day, according to a bulletin issued by the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA).
The rivers Kopili, Barak and Kushiara are flowing above the danger level.
In Silchar town, which is submerged for over a week, efforts are on to provide relief to those areas where the administration is yet to reach by air to drop packets with food, drinking water and other essential items by Indian Air Force helicopters.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is monitoring and conducting a survey to prepare a flood map of Silchar town so as to identify the extent of damage in different areas and help in taking measures to mitigate the damage in future, Cachar Deputy Commissioner Keerthi Jalli said.
The District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), UNICEF and OXFAM, an international charitable organisation, have started operating boat-mounted water treatment units to drinking water to the people in need within Silchar and its peripheral areas, she added.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma visited and reviewed Silchar twice within two days on Sunday and reviewed the relief and rescue operations in the town.
Silchar has been severely affected as water gushed in, following a breach in the dyke at Betkundi, allegedly by miscreants, and Sarma alleged that the flood in the town is “man made”.
The state government has transported 3575 food packets to Silchar from Guwahati and Jorhat.
Meanwhile, 2,542 villages under 75 revenue circles across the state remain affected by the current wave of floods while 2,17,413 people have taken shelter in 564 relief camps, the ASDMA said in a bulletin.
Large scale erosion was also reported from Bongaigaon, Charaideo, Chirang, Hailakandi, Morigaon, Sonitpur, South Salmara and Udalguri, it added.
Jammu and Kashmir Police arrested a terrorist from Doda district and seized arms and ammunition from his possession in Jammu and Kashmir’s Doda district.
A police statement said the militant, who was identified as Fareed Ahmed of Koti village, was tasked by Pakistan-based handlers to attack policemen in the district.
Security has been heightened in the union territory in the run up to the annual Amarnath yatra which is scheduled to start from June 30.
The militant was arrested when a police party at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Doda town on Sunday night intercepted a man and during his search found that he was carrying arms and ammunition. police statement said.
One Chinese pistol, two magazines, 14 live cartridges and one mobile phone was seized from his possession, police said.
Police are investigating the matter. An FIR under relevant sections of law has been registered at police station Doda.
The Indian direct selling industry maintained its 12th place in global rankings with retail sales of over USD 3.25 billion in 2021, a report released by the Washington DC based World Federation of Direct Selling Associations (WFDSA) said.
India, besides, having an estimated a retail size of sales of over 3259 million also registered the highest CAGR of over 15.70 percent, over the last three years, among the top 15 direct selling countries. The country, despite of the challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, has shown to be resilient and sustainable and could realise an annualised growth of nearly 7.7 percent, the highest amongst the countries having estimated retail sales over USD 3 Billion, highlights the report.
Reports indicate that India, while at 12th place in the global rankings, placed 6th in the Asia Pacific region, while the top five positions are held by Korea, China, Japan, Malaysia and Taiwan. The United States continues to lead the list in the global direct selling industry with a 23 percent share, with sales of USD 42.67 Billion. Korea overtook Germany for second place, while the latter slid to third place. China, which ranked second in 2020, tumbles to fourth place due to COVID-19 and some other unrelated events. Japan, Malaysia, Brazil, Mexico, France, Taiwan and Canada are in the other top places above India respectively.
Overall, the global direct selling industry has reported a marginal growth of 1.5 percent to reach to the level of USD186.10 Billion in 2021.
In a statement, the Indian Direct Selling Association (IDSA) said that with a CAGR of 15.7% over the past three years, the highest among the top 15 direct selling countries, India’s direct selling market is growing steadily and potentially inherited to set a strong momentum in future and likely place itself in the top five international markets in next decade.
“Despite the extreme adverse business environment posed by the COVID19 pandemic, the Indian direct selling industry, except for the minor blips at first, has shown resilience and sustainability. The CAGR of 15.7 percent and the Year-On-Year growth rate of 7.7 percent, reaffirms the industry’s commitment to further heights while protecting the consumer interests and those of the direct sellers who have relentlessly sweated out to contribute to attain the mark,” said IDSA Chairman, Rajat Banerji.
Bollywood star Alia Bhatt on Monday announced that she and actor-husband Ranbir Kapoor will soon welcome their first child.
Alia, 29, took to Instagram to share the news as she posted a picture from an ultrasound session at a hospital with Kapoor, 39.
“Our baby…. coming soon,” the “Gangubai Kathiawadi” star captioned the photo.
The couple, who got married in an intimate ceremony in April this year, is also set to share screen space for the first time in “Brahmastra: Part One Shiva”, scheduled to be released on September 9.
At a press conference for his upcoming film “Shamshera” last week, Ranbir said he couldn’t have asked for a better life partner than Alia.
“It is a very big year for me. It is a great year for me, I got married, it is a beautiful thing that has happened in my life… My life with Alia is the best,” he said.
The couple’s family, including veteran actors Neetu Kapoor and Soni Razdan as well as Riddhima Kapoor Sahni, showered them with love and blessings post the announcement.
Neetu Kapoor, who was filming for a reality show here on Monday, was congratulated by the paparazzi present on the set, to which she replied with a big smile and “Thank you”.
“My babies are having a baby. I love you both so much,” Ranbir’s sister Riddhima Kapoor Sahni wrote on Instagram Stories alongside the couple’s photograph.
Alia’s mother Soni Razdan shared her daughter’s post on her Instagram Stories, calling it the “best news ever”.
“Our cup runneth over,” she wrote.
Father Mahesh Bhatt told ETimes, “My baby is going to have a baby! I am so happy for Ranbir and Alia. May our tribe’ increase. And now I have to prepare for the most important role of my life: The role of a Grandfather. This is going to be a grand debut.”
On the work front, Alia will be next seen in Karan Johar’s directorial venture “Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani” and “Darlings”, which marks her debut as a producer. She also shot for her Hollywood debut “Heart Of Stone” in London recently.
Ranbir is gearing up for the release of Yash Raj Films’ “Shamshera”. The actor will also be seen in Luv Ranjan’s untitled movie and Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s “Animal”.
The Enforcement Director has summoned Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Tuesday for questioning in a money laundering probe linked to the re-development of a Mumbai ‘chawl’, officials said.
The Rajya Sabha MP has been asked to depose before the federal agency at its office in south Mumbai on June 28 and record his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they said.
The development comes as the Shiv Sena party battles rebellion from a group of its MLAs, putting a question mark on the future of Maharashtra’s Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.
The ED in April provisionally attached assets worth more than Rs 11.15 crore of Raut’s wife Varsha Raut and two of his associates as part of this investigation.
