The Indian Panorama

Year: 2022

  • History This Week-January 7 to January 13

    History This Week-January 7 to January 13

    “A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.”-Mahatma Gandhi

    January 7

    January 7, 1714 – A patent was issued for the first typewriter designed by British inventor Henry Mill “for the impressing or transcribing of letters singly or progressively one after another, as in writing.”

    January 7, 1782 – The first U.S. commercial bank opened as the Bank of North America in Philadelphia.

    January 7, 1989 – Emperor Hirohito of Japan died after a long illness. He had ruled for 62 years and was succeeded by his son, Crown Prince Akihito.

    January 7, 1999 – The first presidential impeachment trial in 130 years began as members of the U.S. Senate were sworn in by Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist to decide whether President Clinton should be removed from office. House prosecutors had delivered two articles of impeachment charging Clinton with perjury and obstruction of justice.

    Birthday – Millard Fillmore (1800-1874) the 13th U.S. President was born in a log cabin in Cayuga County, New York. He was a Whig who became president upon the sudden death of Zachary Taylor in 1850 from cholera. Best remembered for signing five bills concerning slavery known as the Compromise of 1850 which temporarily prevented civil war in the U.S. He was not re-nominated by his party.

    January 8

    January 8, 1798 – The 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, preventing lawsuits against a state by anyone from another state or foreign nation.

    January 8, 1815 – The Battle of New Orleans occurred as General Andrew Jackson and American troops defended themselves against a British attack, inflicting over 2,000 casualties. Both sides in this battle were unaware that peace had been declared two weeks earlier with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent ending the War of 1812.

    January 8, 1918 – Amid the ongoing World War in Europe, President Woodrow Wilson proposed his Fourteen Points, calling for a reduction of arms, self-determination for governments, and the creation of a League of Nations, all intended to serve as a basis for resolving the conflict and establishing a lasting peace in Europe.

    Charles de Gaulle 

    January 8, 1959 – Charles de Gaulle took office as the first president of France’s Fifth Republic. De Gaulle had led the Free French government in exile during Nazi occupation. Following the war, he advocated a strong presidency to balance the powerful National Assembly. He was chosen to head the new government following years of political instability in which no French government was able to stay in power for more than a few months. On this day in 1966, he took office for a second term.

    January 8, 1964 – President Lyndon Johnson declared War on Poverty during his State of the Union message before Congress.

    January 8, 1982 – The American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) Company was broken up as a result of an antitrust suit. AT&T gave up 22 local Bell system companies, opening the U.S. telephone system to competition.

    January 8, 1987 – The Dow Jones industrial average first topped the 2,000 mark.

    Birthday – Elvis Presley (1935-1977) was born in Tupelo, Mississippi.

    January 9 

    January 9, 1960 – With the first blast of dynamite, construction work began on the Aswan High Dam across the Nile River in southern Egypt. One third of the project’s billion-dollar cost was underwritten by Soviet Russia. The dam created Lake Nasser, one of the world’s largest reservoirs, at nearly 2,000 square miles and irrigated over 100,000 acres of surrounding desert. The dam was opened in January of 1971 by President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and President Nikolai Podgorny of the Soviet Union.

    Birthday – Richard M. Nixon (1913-1994) the 37th U.S. President, was born in Yorba Linda, California. He served as vice president under Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953-61, then made an unsuccessful run for the presidency, narrowly losing to John F. Kennedy. Nixon ran for governor of California in 1962 and lost. He then told reporters he was leaving politics. However, he re-emerged in 1968 and ran a successful presidential campaign against Hubert Humphrey. He won re-election by a landslide in 1972 but resigned two years later amid impeachment proceedings resulting from the Watergate scandal.

    Birthday – Carrie Lane Chapman (1859-1947) was born in Ripon, Wisconsin. She was the women’s rights pioneer who founded the National League of Women Voters in 1919.

    January 10

    January 10, 1776 – Common Sense, a fifty-page pamphlet by Thomas Paine, was published. It sold over 500,000 copies in America and Europe, influencing, among others, the authors of the Declaration of Independence.

    January 10, 1861 – Florida became the third state to secede from the Union in events leading up to the American Civil War.

    January 10, 1863 – The world’s first underground railway service opened in London, the Metropolitan line between Paddington and Farringdon.

    January 10, 1878 – An Amendment granting women the right to vote was introduced in Congress by Senator A.A. Sargent of California. The amendment didn’t pass until 1920, forty-two years later.

    January 10, 1912 – The flying boat airplane, invented by Glenn Curtiss, made its first flight at Hammondsport, New York.

    January 10, 1920 – The League of Nations officially came into existence with the goal of resolving international disputes, reducing armaments, and preventing future wars. The first Assembly gathered in Geneva ten months later with 41 nations represented. More than 20 nations later joined; however, the U.S. did not join due to a lack of support for the League in Congress.

    January 10, 1922 – Arthur Griffith was elected president of the newly formed Irish Free State.

    January 10, 1946 – The first meeting of the United Nations General Assembly took place in London with delegates from 51 countries. The U.N. superseded its predecessor, the League of Nations.

    January 10, 1984 – The U.S. and Vatican established full diplomatic relations after a break of 116 years.

    January 11

    January 11, 1861 – Alabama seceded from the Union in events leading to up the American Civil War.

    January 11, 1964 – The U.S. Surgeon General declared cigarettes may be hazardous to health, the first such official government report.

    January 11, 1990 – In Lithuania, 200,000 persons demanded political independence from Soviet Russia after Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union, publicly warned that separatism could lead to tragedy. Independence was achieved in September of 1991, three months before the collapse of the Soviet Union itself.

    Birthday – Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804) was born in the British West Indies. He was a founder of the United States who favored a strong central government and co-authored the Federalist Papers, a series of essays in defense of the new Constitution. He was selected by George Washington to be the first Secretary of the Treasury. He died from a gunshot wound received during a duel with Aaron Burr.

    January 12

    January 12, 1879 – In Southern Africa, the Zulu War began between the British and the natives of Zululand, ultimately resulting in the destruction of the Zulu Empire.

    January 12, 1932 – Hattie W. Caraway, a Democrat from Arkansas, was appointed to the U.S. Senate to fill the term of her deceased husband. Later in the year, she became the first woman elected to the Senate.

    January 12, 1990 – Romania outlawed the Communist Party following the overthrow of Dictator Nicolae Ceauescu who had ruled for 24 years.

    January 12, 1991 – Congress authorized President George Bush to use military force against Iraq following its invasion of Kuwait.

    January 12, 1996 – The first joint American-Russian military operation since World War II occurred as Russian troops arrived to aid in peacekeeping efforts in Bosnia.

    January 12, 1999 – President Bill Clinton sent a check for $850,000 to Paula Jones officially ending the sensational sexual harassment legal case that ultimately endangered his presidency. The president withdrew $375,000 from his and Hillary Rodham Clinton’s personal funds and got the remaining $475,000 from an insurance policy. The lawsuit had exposed the president’s affair with Monica Lewinsky and resulted in investigations by Independent Counsel Ken Starr that led to Clinton’s impeachment by the House of Representatives and subsequent trial in the Senate.

    Birthday – John Winthrop (1588-1649) was born in Suffolk, England. In 1630. He joined a group of Puritans emigrating to America and became the first governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, establishing a colony on the peninsula of Shawmut, which became Boston.

    Birthday – Irish orator, politician and philosopher Edmund Burke (1729-1797) was born in Dublin. Best known for his essays and pamphlets including Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents (1770), On American Taxation (1774), On Conciliation with the Colonies (1775) and Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790).

    Birthday – American statesman and patriot John Hancock (1737-1793) was born in Braintree, Massachusetts. He was elected president of the Second Continental Congress in 1775, was the first signer of the Declaration of Independence, and went on to become the first elected governor of Massachusetts.

    January 13

    January 13, 1893 – The British Independent Labor Party was founded with James Keir Hardie as its leader.

    January 13, 1898 – French author Emile Zola published J’Accuse, a letter accusing the French government of a cover-up in the Alfred Dreyfus case. Dreyfus had been convicted of treason for selling military secrets to the Germans and had been sent to Devil’s Island. As a result of Zola’s letter and subsequent trail, Dreyfus was completely vindicated.

    January 13, 1935 – The population of the Saar region bordering France and Germany voted for incorporation into Hitler’s Reich. The 737 square-mile area with its valuable coal deposits had been under French control following Germany’s defeat in World War I.

    January 13, 1990 – Douglas Wilder of Virginia became the first African American governor in the U.S. as he took the oath of office in Richmond.

    Birthday – Author Horatio Alger (1834-1899) was born in Revere, Massachusetts. He wrote over 100 books for boys, many featuring “rags to riches” themes of poor boys triumphing over life’s obstacles.

  • Indian origin Gupta brothers, Zuma misused public money, says report

    Indian origin Gupta brothers, Zuma misused public money, says report

    JOHANNESBURG (TIP): The first report of the much-awaited South African Commission of Inquiry into State Capture has confirmed the influence that former President Jacob Zuma had in supporting the now-defunct newspaper The New Age (TNA) started by the Gupta brothers, who fled the country after looting billions from state enterprises. TNA was started by the three Gupta brothers, Ajay, Atul and Rajesh, originally from Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur, who are now believed to be in self-exile in Dubai as South African authorities seek their extradition to face criminal charges. The report, which was made public on Tuesday evening after President Cyril Ramaphosa received it from Commission chairperson, Acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, also said that Guptas wielded great influence over Zuma.

    (Source: PTI)

  • Indian American Pavan Parikh to succeed Aftab Pureval in Hamilton County

    Indian American Pavan Parikh to succeed Aftab Pureval in Hamilton County

    HAMILTON COUNTY, CINCINNATI (TIP): With Aftab Pureval set to become Cincinnati’s first Indian American mayor on Tuesday, January 4, Pavan Parikh, another attorney of Indian descent has been chosen to succeed him as Hamilton County Clerk of Courts. Democrat Parikh, a former judicial candidate and a judge advocate in the Army Reserve, was unanimously chosen for the job by the Democratic Central Committee on Dec 29, Cincinnati Enquirer reported.

    Fellow democrat Pureval, 38, the son of a Tibetan mother and an Indian father, who won the election in Nov 2021, will create history Jan 4 as Cincinnati’s the first Asian-American Pacific Islander (AAPI) mayor.

    Parikh was chosen because he “is well known in the courthouse, knows the legal system and can win re-election and keep the seat Democratic,” Hamilton County Chairwoman Gwen McFarlin was quoted as saying.

    “He is serious about this position,” she said. “He is not using this position as a steppingstone for higher ground.”

    The Hamilton County Clerk of Court’s duties include maintaining all the court records, overseeing courthouse security for municipal court and processing traffic tickets and passport applications.

    Parikh’s job is up for re-election in Nov 2022. Whoever wins in Nov 2022 will fill out the remainder of Pureval’s term, which ends Jan 5, 2025.

    Pureval won election as Cincinnati, Ohio, mayor, beating city councilman and former mayor David Mann with 66% of the vote.

    When a vacancy occurs in a countywide office, the officeholder’s political party can choose the person to fill the vacancy until an election can be held, the Enquirer said.

    Parikh rallied the crowd after being sworn in.

    “I look forward to getting to work at the courthouse starting probably tomorrow, I’ll be at the courthouse tomorrow, and I look forward to getting to go out in this election,” Parikh was quoted as saying. “We need to keep this seat. We need to make sure all of our judges get elected.”

    Born and raised in Cincinnati, Parikh is a graduate of Princeton High School, Xavier University, and the Saint Louis University School of Law, according to his bio on pavanforjudge.com. He began his legal career in Cincinnati working at the courthouse under Judge Nadine Allen.

    His passion for public service also led him to work as a political staffer on issues of voting rights and the judiciary before being appointed the chief legal counsel for the Ohio Senate Minority Caucus, according to his bio.

    At the statehouse, the Indian American attorney was responsible for monitoring and negotiating legislation on issues from criminal justice reform to voting rights, constitutional law, and ethics.

    As an adjunct professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Law and at Xavier University, Parikh volunteers his time to mentor and educate the next generation of Cincinnati’s leaders.

    He is a Barrister member of the Potter Stewart Inn of Court, a Board member of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Southwest Ohio, the vice-chair of the Cincinnati Bar Association’s Veterans and Military Law Committee and is a regular volunteer with the Ohio Center for Law Related Education. “… the Hamilton County democrats appointed a world-class leader and servant to fill my seat as clerk of courts. Pavan Parikh has the character, experience, and resolve to expand access to justice and bring our courthouse to new heights. It’ll be my honor to partner with you,” Pureval tweeted.

    “In the last few election cycles, the voters have spoken that they wanted change at the courthouse. Under Aftab’s leadership, we have seen how critical the clerk is to achieving meaningful reform,” Parikh, told Spectrum News after his appointment.

    “I believe that I can be of strong service to Hamilton County in this role having worked at the courthouse and leaning on my years of experience as an attorney, Army officer, business executive, educator and civic leader. I look forward to helping make our justice system work better for all of the people of Hamilton County.”

  • Indian American Jeremy Cooney to run for upstate New York senate again

    Indian American Jeremy Cooney to run for upstate New York senate again

    NEW YORK (TIP): Indian American Jeremy Cooney, who made history in 2020 as the first Asian American elected to state senate from upstate New York, says he is going to run for a second term. Democrat Cooney, 40, replaced Joe Robach in the 56th Senate District, which covers parts of Rochester and Brighton.

    “Excited to announce my run for reelection to the New York State Senate! I’m proud of the wins we achieved for my hometown and look forward to continuing to deliver for Rochester’s families,” he tweeted Dec 30.

    Adopted from an orphanage in Kolkata, India and raised by a single mother in the City of Rochester, Cooney now is the first chair of the Senate’s new Upstate Cities Committee, focused on addressing gun violence across New York. “For this campaign, it’s not about one issue,” Cooney told Spectrum News. “We owe it to New Yorkers to address the number of issues they are facing especially coming out of this pandemic.”

    “You can’t have a conversation about violence or gun violence without talking about economic opportunity, without talking about access to mental health in our schools and on the streets,” he said. In his first year of office, Cooney said he has helped increase funding for suburban and city school districts, helped deliver $475 million in construction for city schools and advocated to improve housing security.

    Cooney’s priorities for Rochester include poverty relief, job creation, downtown development, and increased funding for public schools.

    He was included in City & State magazine’s “40 Under 40” list and the “Power of Diversity: Asian 100” powerful leaders list for 2021.

    Cooney also introduced the legislation that would give the same rights to gay, lesbian, and bisexual people, according to Marijuana Moment.

    “When New York State legalized adult-use recreational marijuana, we made a commitment to addressing the discrimination and injustice caused by the War on Drugs,” Cooney told Marijuana Moment.

    “I am proud to introduce legislation to include members of our lesbian, gay and bisexual community for priority licensure in the new adult-use recreational cannabis market,” he said about his efforts on making equity provisions even more inclusive.

    Cooney, according to his official bio is the first state senator in decades to graduate from Rochester City School District (RCSD).

    During his first year in office, Cooney wrote over 50 legislative bills and served as the first chair of the new Cities II Committee, which focuses on upstate cities and those outside NYC.

    Cooney was named co-chair of the Marijuana Task Force for the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative Caucus and he was instrumental in passing landmark legislation to legalize adult-use recreational marijuana, the bio says.

    The final phase of the Rochester School Modernization Project (RSMP), a bill that Cooney sponsored and strongly advocated for, passed after years of delays in the legislature.

    The RSMP will be one of the largest public works projects in Rochester’s history with nearly half a billion dollars going towards updating learning environments for RSCD students.

    Cooney began his career working on Capitol Hill for the late US Congresswoman Louise Slaughter and later served in the role of chief of staff for the City of Rochester under Mayor Lovely Warren.

    Prior to running for public office, Cooney served as the senior director for community relations with Empire State Development (ESD) under then Governor Andrew Cuomo. At ESD, he helped lead public affairs for large-scale economic development projects.

    Cooney is active in Rochester and the Finger Lakes Region. He sits on the Board of Trustees for his alma mater, Hobart & William Smith Colleges, and is a member of the Vestry for Christ Church Rochester (Episcopal).

    An Eagle Scout, he serves as a Vice Chair of the Executive Board for the Boy Scouts of America, Seneca Waterways Council.

    Cooney earned his BA with honors from Hobart College and his JD from Albany Law School. He is married to Dr. Diane Lu, a urologic surgeon at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

  • First Indian American woman elected to municipal office in South Carolina

    First Indian American woman elected to municipal office in South Carolina

    COLUMBIA CITY, SC (TIP): Dr Aditi Srivastava Bussells, a first-generation Indian American immigrant, made history Tuesday as she was sworn in as a Columbia City Council member in South Carolina. Bussells, who won the 7-member council’s at-large seat in November to become the first Indian American woman elected to municipal office in the state, will virtually function as number two. Daniel Rickenmann became the new Mayor of Columbia after taking the oath of office with Bussells and two other council members, Tina Herbert and Joe Taylor. The inauguration took place in the 1700 block of Main Street in Columbia. With their family at their side, the members took the oath of office from two justices from the South Carolina Supreme Court, according to News19.

    First to take her oath, Bussells said Columbia is turning the page on a new chapter and encouraged young people to get involved in local issues. “I was a political outsider. I kept going,” she said. “Why? Our community is worth it. Columbia is worth it. South Carolina is worth it.” Bussells also promised to make informed decisions based on root problems communities are facing.

    Bussells is a public health researcher with Children’s Trust who oversees several state-wide initiatives that support family and child health and well-being.

    She received her PhD in public health at the University of South Carolina. Her spouse Louis Bussells is a frontline worker and army veteran.

    She came out on top of a seven-person field in the November election to take the citywide at-large seat. She ultimately defeated attorney Tyler Bailey in the Nov. 16 runoff.

    “I feel overwhelmed, grateful, and excited. Over 10,000 of you voted for change, to break the status quo and have an independent advocate on city council,” Bussells tweeted after her victory

    “I am so honored to be your next councilwoman. Thank you for making history tonight! #scpol #columbiasc” she wrote. During her campaign, Bussells said she believes that everyone, “regardless of their zip code, deserves to have equal opportunities to thrive.”

    “From knocking on doors to ensure residents complete their Census to providing expert guidance on public health in the city, my goal has always been to ensure our communities have the resources and knowledge they need, and their voices are heard,” she said.

  • Four more Indian Americans nominated to key posts

    Indian Americans in Biden administration number around 50 now

    President Biden has nominated Geeta Rao, Jainey Kumar Bavishi, Arun Venkataraman, and Viquar Ahmad to key posts

    WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): President Joe Biden has nominated four more Indian Americans for key posts, pushing the number of people of Indian descent working in Biden-Harris administration close to a record 50. Geeta Rao Gupta has been named Ambassador at Large for Global Women’s Issues, while Jainey Kumar Bavishi would be Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere. Arun Venkataraman has been nominated to be Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Director General of the US and Foreign Commercial Service, while Viquar Ahmad would serve as Assistant Secretary of Commerce and as Chief Financial Officer at Commerce Department. The White House sent their nominations for confirmation to the Senate Tuesday.

    Gupta, nominee for Ambassador at Large for Global Women’s Issues at the State Department, is currently a Senior Fellow at the United Nations Foundation and Senior Advisor to Co-impact, a global collaborative philanthropy for systems change.

    While at the UN Foundation, Dr. Gupta founded and served as Executive Director of the 3D Program for Girls and Women, according to her official bio. She currently serves as co-chair of the WHO Independent Oversight and Advisory Committee for health emergencies, chairs the Global Advisory Board of WomenLift Health, a new initiative to promote women’s leadership in global health, and serves as a member of the Board of UBS Optimus Foundation and of the Advisory Board of Merck for Mothers.

    She also serves as a Commissioner for the Lancet-SIGHT Commission on Health, Gender Equality and Peace.

    Previously, Dr. Gupta was a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University and also served as co-Chair of the Gender-Based Violence Task Force of the World Bank. Before that, Dr. Gupta served as Deputy Executive Director, Programs at UNICEF. Earlier, she was a senior fellow at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and served as president of the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW).

    Dr. Gupta has served on several boards, including the Global Partnership for Education; Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health; and the MAC AIDS Fund.

    She is the recipient of numerous awards, including InterAction’s Julia Taft Award for Outstanding Leadership, Harvard University’s Anne Roe Award and Washington Business Journal’s “Women Who Mean Business” Award.

    Dr. Gupta was awarded a PhD in Psychology from Bangalore University and a Master of Philosophy and Master of Arts from the University of Delhi in India.

    Jainey Bavishi, nominee for Assistant Secretary for Oceans and Atmosphere at Commerce Department currently serves as the Director of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Climate Resiliency.

    In this role, she leads a cross-disciplinary team that prepares the city for the impacts of climate change through science-based analysis, policy, program, and project development, and capacity building.

    During the Obama Administration, Bavishi served as the Associate Director for Climate Preparedness at the White House Council on Environmental Quality and Director of External Affairs and Senior Policy Advisor at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

    Bavishi also served as the Executive Director of R3ADY Asia-Pacific, focused on enhancing disaster risk reduction and resilience in the Asia-Pacific region, based in Honolulu, Hawaii.

    Previously, she was the Founding Director of the Equity and Inclusion Campaign, a coalition of community-based leaders in the Gulf Coast region that focused on recovery from Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav and Ike, at the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation. Bavishi has a Master’s degree in city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelor’s degree in public policy and cultural anthropology from Duke University.

    Arun Venkataraman, nominee for Assistant Secretary of Commerce, has over 20 years of experience advising companies, international organizations and the US government on international trade issues. He is currently Counselor to the Secretary of Commerce, advising the Department on trade and other international economic matters. Before joining the Biden-Harris Administration, Venkataraman was a Senior Director at Visa, leading global government engagement strategy on a range of international policy issues including digital economy, trade, tax and sanctions.

    He previously served as Trade & Investment Policy Advisor at Steptoe & Johnson LLP, where he counseled multinational firms and other organizations on e-commerce, intellectual property rights, and US and foreign trade policies.

    As the first ever Director of Policy at the Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration under President Barack Obama, Venkataraman helped shape the US government’s responses to critical challenges faced by firms in the US and in markets around the world, including China and India.

    While at the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), he led the development and implementation of US-India trade policy as the Director for India, for which he received the agency’s Kelly Award for outstanding performance and extraordinary leadership.

    Venkataraman also served as Associate General Counsel, representing the United States in litigation before the World Trade Organization and in negotiations on international trade agreements.

    Before joining USTR, Venkataraman was a Legal Officer at the World Trade Organization, advising the organization on a wide range of issues raised in appeals of trade disputes between countries.

    He began his career as a Law Clerk for Judge Jane A. Restani at the US Court of International Trade. Venkataraman holds a JD from Columbia Law School, a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and a BA from Tufts University.

    Viquar Ahmad, nominee for Assistant Secretary of Commerce, has held multiple leadership roles in the US government over the past two decades.

    He served as the Deputy Chief Financial Officer of the US House of Representatives over the past four years; his responsibilities included management of Congress’ operating budget.

    Before returning to the House, Ahmad provided counsel to the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) senior leadership on the budget decision-making, and oversight on a nearly $70 billion budget of its component agencies.

    His leadership enabled DHS to successfully meet response and recovery efforts to catastrophic natural disasters, thwart cybersecurity threats, clean-up the largest maritime oil spill in US history, and recapitalize critical multi-billion-dollar national security assets.

    Previously, he served as a senior aide to the Chairman for the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies.

    In this capacity, he facilitated Congress’ enactment of the largest domestic discretionary spending bills, reflecting priorities outlined by a diverse constituency of stakeholders.

    Ahmad has been recognized with excellence awards, including the US Coast Guard’s Distinguished Public Service Medal.

    He earned a bachelor’s degree with honors from the University of Texas at Austin and a master’s degree in Public Administration from the George Washington University.

    He was awarded an Executive Certificate in Public Leadership from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

         

     

  • Three-day Shaheedi Sabha held at Fatehgarh Sahib

    Three-day Shaheedi Sabha held at Fatehgarh Sahib

    The three-day annual Shaheedi Sabha (Jor Mela) was held in the sacred memory of Guru Gobind Singh’s two younger sons- Zorawar Singh and Fateh Singh, who were buried, alive in a brick wall here. The sabha began with the commencement of an Akhand Path of Sri Guru Granth Sahib at Gurdwara Jyoti Swarup.

    Despite cold weather, on the first day, thousands of the devotees paid their homage to the great martyrs Baba Zorawar Singh, Baba Fateh Singh and their grand mother Mata Gujri at Gurudwara Thanda Burj, where they were prisoned, Gurdwara Fatehgarh Sahib – the place of their martyrdom and Gurdwara Jyoti Saroop where they were cremated.

    They also took holy dip in the holy tanks of the Gurdwaras. The first day of Shaheedi Sabha was observed purely in religious spirits. Dewans were organized in all Gurdwaras. Langars (community kitchens) have been established by the devotees. SGPC has arranged a Deewan where the Sikh preachers, Ragis, Dhadi Jathas will continue to sing devotional songs and give the accounts of Sikh history, and infuse ‘Beer Rus’.

    The first day of Jor Mela was celebrated in all religious spirits; there were exhibitions of paintings of the past times and the belongings of the historical individuals.

    The second day of the Sabha used to have rallies and meetings by the political parties. The political leaders have stopped; they do not want to interrupt the peaceful tribute to heavenly.

    The third day of the Jor Mela saw a Nagar Kirtan, also known as the religious procession, all across the city or the nearby areas of the gurdwara. This procession started from Gurdwara Fatehgarh Sahib to the Gurdwara Jyoti Sarup, and it has a beautifully decorated palki in the middle around which the devotees, the followers and the visitors walk and sing religious songs and poems.

    There is a Guru Ka Langar held at the Sabha, here the villagers’ pool grains, mil, vegetables and fruits for the devotees and organized food for them. It is said that the wealthy and the poor, all come together to organize this langar and help the visitors.

    Sahibzaadas and their supreme sacrifice

    By Dr Jagdeep Kaur Kahlon

    During the month of December, the global Sikh community commemorates the martyrdom of the four youngest Martyrs in human history.

    However, it is very shocking to observe that many Sikhs are busy in celebration and festivities instead of paying homage to the Martyrs.

    The youngest hero of humankind, Sahibzada Fateh Singh ji (1699-1705) who was the youngest of Guru Gobind Singh’s four sons, Sahibzada Zorawar Singh ji (1696-1705) his older brother and Mata Gujar Kaur ji, their grandmother sacrificed their lives for their freedom of faith.

    Sahibzadas Baba Fateh Singh ji & Baba Zoravar Singh ji, snuggle in the warm embrace of their loving grandmother Mata Gujri ji.

    They were held captive in the roofless-tower (Thanda Burj) in the freezing extremities of December, but their strong willpower was evident on their radiant faces, as they showed no signs of any pain or regret at their undaunted decision to uphold the Spirit of Sikhi. The true innocence and infinite purity of these noble souls was visible on their faces.

    Gurdwara Fatehgarh Sahib, situated 5 km north of Sirhind stands as the sad but motivating reminder of the Supreme Sacrifice to uphold human dignity and freedom. This is the site of the execution of the two younger sons of Guru Gobind Singh at the behest of the evil-minded cruel Wazir Khan of Kunjpura, the faujdar of Sirhind. Baba Fateh Singh ji and Baba Zorawar Singh ji set a precedent in Sikh history and perhaps in world history by becoming the youngest known martyrs to sacrifice their lives for ethical values.

    On 26 December, 1705, Baba Fateh Singh ji was cruelly and ruthlessly martyred at Sirhind along with his elder brother, Baba Zorawar Singh ji. He is probably the youngest recorded martyr in history who knowingly and consciously laid down his life at the very tender age of 6 years.

    It is really so very mind-boggling to understand how children of such young age had the infinite fortitude and value to overcome the temptation of remaining alive and to live a lavishly luxurious and comfortable life of royalty because they were offered all of this, by the Mughals, if they abandoned their faith. They were also given the threats of facing a brutal, painful and tragic death entombed within a wall of bricks and mortar, if they refused to accept the offers.

    The young and old salute the supreme sacrifice of the little child heroes, who outright rejected to walk on the easy and cozy path of a life of peace and because their divine mission and purpose of life was to uphold the principles of God who gave freedom and liberty to every soul to live as per one’s own choice and liking. So, the brave young Sahibzaadas bore the brunt of tyranny and endured the intense pain of a torturous physical death. They continue to live an eternal life, as they are immortalized.

  • The world in 2022: Another year of living dangerously

    The world in 2022: Another year of living dangerously

    On the brink of a new year, the world faces a daunting array of challenges: the resurgent Covid-19 pandemic, the climate emergency, the struggle between democracy and authoritarianism, humanitarian crises, mass migration, and trans-national terrorism. There is the risk of new inter-state conflicts, exacerbated by the breakdown of the rules-based international order, and the spread of lethal autonomous weapons. All in all, for most people on Earth – and a handful in space – 2022 will be another year of living dangerously.

    Middle East

    Events in the Middle East will make global headlines again in 2022 – but for positive as well as negative reasons. A cause for optimism is football’s World Cup, which kicks off in Qatar in November. It’s the first time an Arab or a Muslim country has hosted the tournament. It is expected to provide a major fillip for the Gulf region in terms of future business and tourism – and, possibly, more open, progressive forms of governance.

    But the choice of Qatar, overshadowed by allegations of corruption, was controversial from the start. Its human rights record will come under increased scrutiny. Its treatment of low-paid migrant workers is another flashpoint. The Guardian revealed that at least 6,500 workers have died since Qatar got the nod from Fifa in 2010, killed while building seven new stadiums, roads and hotels, and a new airport.

    Concerns will also persist about Qatar’s illiberal attitude to free speech and women’s and LGBTQ+ rights in a country where it remains dangerous to openly criticise the government and where homosexuality is illegal. But analysts suggest most fans will not focus on these issues, which could make Qatar 2022 the most successful example of “sports-washing” to date.

    More familiar subjects will otherwise dominate the regional agenda. Foremost is the question of whether Israel and/or the US will take new military and/or economic steps to curb Iran’s attempts, which Tehran denies, to acquire capability to build nuclear weapons. Israel has been threatening air strikes if slow-moving talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal fail. Even football fans could not ignore a war in the Gulf.

    Attention will focus on Turkey’s authoritarian president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose neo-Islamist AKP party will mark 20 years in power in 2022. Erdogan’s rule has grown increasingly oppressive at home, while his aggressive foreign policy, rows with the EU and US, on-off collusion with Russia over Syria and chronic economic mismanagement could have unpredictable consequences.

    Other hotspots are likely to be Lebanon – tottering on the verge of becoming a failed state like war-torn Yemen – and ever-chaotic Libya. Close attention should also be paid to Palestine, where the unpopular president, Mahmoud Abbas’s postponement of elections, Israeli settler violence and West Bank land-grabs, and the lack of an active peace process all loom large.

    Asia Pacific

    The eyes of the world will be on China at the beginning and the end of the year, and quite possibly in the intervening period as well. The Winter Olympics open in Beijing in February. But the crucial question, for sports fans, of who tops the medals table may be overshadowed by diplomatic boycotts by the US, UK and other countries in protest at China’s serial human rights abuses. They fear the Games may become a Chinese Communist party propaganda exercise.

    The CCP’s 20th national congress, due towards the end of the year, will be the other headline-grabber. President Xi Jinping is hoping to secure an unprecedented third five-year term, which, if achieved, would confirm his position as China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong. There will also be jostling for senior positions in the Politburo and Politburo standing committee. It will not necessarily all go Xi’s way.

    Western analysts differ sharply over how secure Xi’s position truly is. A slowing economy, a debt crisis, an ageing population, huge environmental and climate-related challenges, and US-led attempts to “contain” China by signing up neighbouring countries are all putting pressure on Xi. Yet, as matters stand, 2022 is likely to see ongoing, bullish attempts to expand China’s global economic and geopolitical influence. A military attack on Taiwan, which Xi has vowed to re-conquer by any or all means, could change everything.

    India, China’s biggest regional competitor, may continue to punch below its weight on the world stage. In what could be a symbolically important moment, its total population could soon match or exceed China’s 1.41 billion, according to some estimates. Yet at the same time, Indian birth rates and average family sizes are falling. Not so symbolic, and more dangerous, are unresolved Himalayan border disputes between these two giant neighbours, which led to violence in 2020-21 and reflect a broader deterioration in bilateral relations.

    The popularity of Narendra Modi, India’s authoritarian prime minister, has taken a dive of late, due to the pandemic and a sluggish economy. He was forced into an embarrassing U-turn on farm “reform” and is accused of using terrorism laws to silence critics. His BJP party will try to regain lost ground in a string of state elections in 2022. Modi’s policy of stronger ties with the west, exemplified by the Quad alliance (India, the US, Japan, Australia), will likely be reinforced, adding to China’s discomfort.

    Elsewhere in Asia, violent repression in Myanmar and the desperate plight of the Afghan people following the Taliban takeover will likely provoke more western hand-wringing than concrete action. Afghanistan totters on the brink of disaster. “We’re looking at 23 million people marching towards starvation,” says David Beasley of the World Food Programme. “The next six months are going to be catastrophic.”

    North Korea’s nuclear brinkmanship may bring a showdown as Kim Jong-un’s paranoid regime sends mixed signals about war and peace. The Philippines will elect a new president; the foul-mouthed incumbent, Rodrigo Duterte, is limited to a single term. Unfortunately this is not the case with Scott Morrison, who will seek re-election as Australia’s prime minister.

    Europe

    It will be a critical year for Europe as the EU and national leaders grapple with tense internal and external divisions, the social and economic impact of the unending pandemic, migration and the newly reinforced challenges, post-Cop26, posed by net zero emissions targets.

    More fundamentally, Europe must decide whether it wants to be taken seriously as a global actor, or will surrender its international influence to China, the US and malign regimes such as Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

    The tone may be set by spring elections in France and Hungary, where rightwing populist forces are again pushing divisive agendas. Viktor Orbán, the authoritarian Hungarian leader who has made a mockery of the EU over rule of law, democracy and free speech issues, will face a united opposition for the first time. His fate will be watched closely in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and other EU member states where reactionary far-right parties flourish.

    Emmanuel Macron, the neo-Gaullist centrist who came from nowhere in 2017, will ask French voters for a second term in preference to his avowedly racist, Islamophobic rivals, Marine Le Pen and Éric Zemmour. Polls put him ahead, although he also faces what could be a strong challenge from the centre-right Republicans, whose candidate, Valérie Pécresse, is the first woman to lead the conservatives. With the left in disarray, the election could radicalise France in reactionary ways. Elections are also due in Sweden, Serbia and Austria.

    Germany’s new SPD-led coalition government will come under close scrutiny as it attempts to do things differently after the long years of Angela Merkel’s reign. Despite some conciliatory pledges, friction will be hard to avoid with the European Commission, led by Merkel ally Ursula von der Leyen, and with France and other southern EU members over budgetary policy and debt. France assumes the EU presidency in January and Macron will try to advance his ideas about common defence and security policy – what he calls “strategic autonomy”.

    Macron’s belief that Europe must stand up for itself in a hostile world will be put to the test on a range of fronts, notably Ukraine. Analysts suggest rising Russian military pressure, including a large border troop build-up and a threat to deploy nuclear missiles, could lead to renewed conflict early in the year as Nato hangs back.

    Other trigger issues include Belarus’s weaponising of migration (and the continuing absence of a humane pan-European migration policy) and brewing separatist trouble in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Balkans. The EU is planning a China summit, but there is no consensus over how to balance business and human rights. In isolated, increasingly impoverished Britain, Brexit buyers’ remorse looks certain to intensify.

    Relations with the US, which takes a dim view of European autonomy but appears ambivalent over Ukraine, may prove tense at times. Nato, its credibility damaged post-Afghanistan, faces a difficult year as it seeks a new secretary-general. Smart money says a woman could get the top job for the first time. The former UK prime minister Theresa May has been mentioned – but the French will not want a Brit.

    South America

    The struggle to defeat Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s notorious rightwing president, in national elections due in October looks set to produce an epic battle with international ramifications. Inside Brazil, Bolsonaro has been widely condemned for his lethally negligent handling of the Covid pandemic. Over half a million Brazilians have died, more than in any country bar the US. Beyond Brazil, Bolsonaro is reviled for his climate change denial and the accelerated destruction of the Amazon rainforest.

    Opinion polls show that, should he stand, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the former president who was jailed and then cleared on corruption charges, would easily beat Bolsonaro. But that assumes a fair fight. Concern is growing that American supporters of Donald Trump are coaching the Bolsonaro camp on how to steal an election or mount a coup to overturn the result, as Trump tried and failed to do in Washington a year ago. Fears grow that Trump-style electoral subversion may find more emulators around the world.

    Surveys in Europe suggest support for rightwing populist-nationalist politicians is waning, but that may not be the case in South America, outside Brazil, and other parts of the developing world in 2022. Populism feeds off the gap between corrupt “elites” and so-called “ordinary people”, and in many poorer countries, that gap, measured in wealth and power, is growing. In Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti and Venezuela, supposed champions of the people have become their oppressors, and this phenomenon looks set to continue. In Chile, the presidential election’s first round produced strong support for José Antonio Kast, a hard-right Pinochet apologist, though he was ultimately defeated by Gabriel Boric, a leftist former student leader, who will become the country’s youngest leader after storming to a resounding victory in a run-off.

    Argentina’s president, Alberto Fernández, faces a different kind of problem in what looks like a tough year ahead, after elections in which his Peronists, one of the world’s oldest populist parties, lost their majority in Congress for the first time in nearly 40 years. Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, will face ongoing tensions with the US over trade, drugs and migration from Central America. But at least he no longer has to put up with Trump’s insults – for now.

    North America

    All eyes will be on the campaign for November’s mid-term elections when the Democrats will attempt to fend off a Republican bid to re-take control of the Senate and House of Representatives. The results will inevitably be viewed as a referendum on Joe Biden’s presidency. If the GOP does well in the battleground states, Donald Trump – who still falsely claims to have won the 2020 election – will almost certainly decide to run for a second term in 2024.

    Certain issues will have nationwide resonance: in particular, progress (or otherwise) in stemming the pandemic and ongoing anti-vax resistance; the economy, with prices and interest rates set to rise; and divisive social issues such as migration, race and abortion rights, with the supreme court predicted to overrule or seriously weaken provisions of the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade decision.

    The Democrats’ biggest problem in 2022 may be internal party divisions. The split between so-called progressives and moderates, especially in the Senate, undermined Biden’s signature social care and infrastructure spending bills, which were watered down. Some of the focus will be on Biden himself: whether he will run again in 2024, his age (he will be 80 in November), his mental agility and his ability to deliver his agenda. His mid-December minus-7 approval rating may prove hard to turn around.

    Also under the microscope is Kamala Harris, the vice-president, who is said to be unsettled and under-performing – at least by those with an interest is destabilising the White House. Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary who sought the Democratic nomination in 2020, is a man to watch, as a possible replacement for Harris or even for Biden, should the president settle for one term.

    Concern has grown, meanwhile, over whether the mid-terms will be free and fair, given extraordinary efforts by Republican state legislators to make it harder to vote and even harder for opponents to win gerrymandered congressional districts and precincts with in-built GOP majorities. One survey estimates Republicans will flip at least five House seats thanks to redrawn, absurdly distorted voting maps. This could be enough to assure a Republican House majority before voting even begins.

    Pressure from would-be Central American migrants on the southern US border will likely be a running story in 2022 – a problem Harris, who was tasked with dealing with it, has fumbled so far. She and Biden are accused of continuing Trump’s harsh policies. Belief in Biden’s competence has also been undermined by the chaotic Afghan withdrawal, which felt to many like a Vietnam-scale humiliation.

    Another big foreign policy setback or overseas conflagration – such as a Russian land-grab in Ukraine, direct Chinese aggression against Taiwan or an Israel-Iran conflict – has potential to suck in US forces and wreck Biden’s presidency.

    In Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to push new policy initiatives on affordable childcare and housing after winning re-election in September. But in 2021’s snap election his Liberals attracted the smallest share of the popular vote of any winning party in history, suggesting the Trudeau magic is wearing thin. Disputes swirl over alleged corruption, pandemic management, trade with the US and carbon reduction policy.

    Africa

    As befits this giant continent, some of 2022’s biggest themes will play out across Africa. Among the most striking is the fraught question of whether Africans, still largely unvaccinated, will pay a huge, avoidable price for the developed world’s monopolising of vaccines, its reluctance to distribute surpluses and share patents – and from the pandemic’s myriad, knock-on health and economic impacts.

    This question in turn raises another: will such selfishness rebound on the wealthy north, as former UK prime minister Gordon Brown has repeatedly warned? The sudden spread of Omicron, first identified in South Africa, suggests more Covid variants could emerge in 2022. Yet once again, the response of developed countries may be to focus on domestic protection, not international cooperation. The course of the global pandemic in 2022 – both in terms of the threat to health and economic prosperity – is ultimately unknowable. But in many African countries, with relatively young populations less vulnerable to severe Covid harms, the bigger problem may be the negative impact on management of other diseases.

    It’s estimated 25 million people in Africa will live with HIV-Aids in 2022. Malaria claims almost 400,000 lives in a typical year. Treatment of these diseases, and others such as TB and diabetes, may deteriorate further as a result of Covid-related strains on healthcare systems.

    Replacing the Middle East, Africa has become the new ground zero for international terrorism, at least in the view of many analysts. This trend looks set to continue in 2022. The countries of the Sahel, in particular, have seen an upsurge of radical Islamist groups, mostly home-grown, yet often professing allegiance to global networks such as al-Qaida and Islamic State.

                    Source: Theguardian.com

  • Achievements by Indians on the global scene

    Achievements by Indians on the global scene

    2021 had its share of highs and lows, but what we’re choosing to focus on as the year comes to a close are the Indians who broke barriers and reached significant milestones in their chosen fields. From award-winning graphic novels to sporting glory and the brief window of time where the president of the United States was a woman of Indian origin, here is a round-up of landmark moments that should leave you feeling proud of the individuals that represented us so well—and hopeful that 2022 will lead to bigger and better things.

    Indian illustrator Anand Radhakrishnan won an Eisner Award for the graphic novel Blue in Green

    Widely known as the ‘Oscars of the comic world,’ this year’s Will Eisner Comic Industry Award in the Best Painter/Multimedia Artist category was bagged by 32-year-old Anand Radhakrishnan for his work on British author Ram V’s graphic novel, Blue in Green. The horror-themed visual narrative presents a dark and haunting portrayal of a young musician’s quest for creative genius that threatens to consume him—which Radhakrishnan describes as “jazz meets horror”. His artwork for the book involved a mixed media approach with graphite, ink and acrylic making the skeletal system and digital colour over it. Radhakrishnan shared the award with UK-based colourist John Pearson.

    Sirisha Bandla became the second Indian-born woman to go into space

    Andhra Pradesh native Sirisha Bandla was among six passengers on the Unity 22 spaceflight in July 2021, a historic feat—not only because Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic is the world’s first fully-crewed suborbital test flight, but also because Bandla, an aeronautical engineer, is only the second Indian-born woman to have gone into space. The first was Kalpana Chawla, of whom Bandla said, “I saw in her an exceptional Indian woman doing something I wanted to do,” in a cover interview for Vogue.

    Harnaaz Sandhu was crowned Miss Universe

    21 years after Lara Dutta’s win in 2000, Harnaaz Sandhu brought the Miss Universe crown back to India. The 21-year-old from Chandigarh is also an advocate for women’s rights and empowerment, and has worked with her gynaecologist mother to spread awareness about women’s hygiene at health camps across the country.

    Kamala Harris had a brief taste of the U.S. presidency

    Before heading to a medical check-up that involved sedation, American president Joe Biden transferred presidential powers to Kamala Harris in case of any complications or a worst-case scenario. Although temporary and notional, Harris—owing to her multicultural parentage—became the first-ever woman and the first African-American and Indian-American woman to hold the seat of presidential power in the United States. As Vice President, she is also the first woman to hold the second-highest position of power in the country.

    Indian documentary Writing With Fire made the 2022 Oscar shortlist for Best Documentary Feature

    Delhi-based filmmakers Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh made a documentary that chronicles Dalit women-run newspaper Khabar Lahariya’s ascent as it takes the leap from print to digital. Titled Writing With Fire, the documentary won a slew of awards—including the Special Jury (Impact for Change) and Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival—before being nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 2022 Academy Awards, set to take place in February next year.

    Sunjeev Sahota was longlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize for Fiction

    The British-Indian author’s novel, China Room, was among 13 titles longlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize, alongside authors like Nobel Prize-winner Kazuo Ishiguro and Pultizer prize-winner Richard Powers. The semi-autobiographical book is about three women who are married off to three brothers without any clue of their identity, their acquaintance only limited to conjugal visits in the dark of the night, until one of the sisters grows desperate to know more about her husband. Sahota was previously on this list in 2015 for his book, The Year of the Runaways.

    India bagged three nominations at the International Emmy Awards

    While the Primetime Emmys have been famously criticised for predominantly choosing White winners, its international counterpart, which held its first ceremony in 1973, has evolved to become a more inclusive and diverse platform spotlighting talent outside of the U.S. The nominations for this year’s International Emmys included comedian Vir Das for his Netflix stand-up comedy special, Vir Das: For India, actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui in the Best Performance by an Actor category for his role in Sudhir Mishra’s Serious Men adapted from Manu Joseph’s book of the same name and Ram Madhvani’s crime drama web series, Aarya, on Disney+ Hotstar for Best Drama.

    Indian composer Ricky Kej was nominated for a Grammy

    Indian composer and Grammy winner Ricky Kej was nominated for another Grammy award, this time for his album Divine Tides, with Stewart Copeland of rock band The Police. Kej won his first Grammy for his album Winds of Samsara, which debuted at number one on the US Billboard New Age Albums chart in 2015. Divine Tides is an ode to the natural world and the resilience of humankind and features nine songs and eight music videos, shot in places as diverse as the Himalayas and the forests of Spain. The winners will be announced at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards in January 2022.

  • Indian-Origin people who scaled new heights globally in 2021

    Indian-Origin people who scaled new heights globally in 2021

    As 2021 comes to an end, the world has been abuzz with new developments in Covid-19 pandemic or anything related to it, but there were Indian-origin techies, actors and entrepreneurs who made a lasting impact in their field and rose to fame amid the crisis.

    Parag Agrawal

    The India-origin software engineer, Parag Agrawal, 37, joined the likes of Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai and other top bosses of IBM, Adobe and Palo Alto Networks after he was appointed the CEO of Twitter in December. He has been the Chief Technology Officer since 2017, and had been a confidant of former CEO Jack Dorsey in carrying out strategic initiatives at Twitter. Agrawal was born in Mumbai and studied computer science and engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology. He moved to the US in 2005 and pursued a doctorate in computer science from Standford University. He joined Twitter in 2011 before completing his doctorate and became the key member of the engineering team that oversaw advertising technologies. Agrawal helped Twitter shift to cloud computing services from Amazon and Google to streamline operations.

    Adarsh Gourav

    Adarsh Gourav, 27, rose to fame in ‘The White Tiger’, standing out in the rags-to-riches story against Priyanka Chopra and Rajkummar Rao. He made his character Balram speak through his silences and his eyes expressed anguish and aspirations of a young man of early 2000s. Cannot wait to see him in ‘Extrapolations’ with Meryl Streep and Kit Harington.

    Anupam Tripathi

    The Indian actor was recognised globally in hit Korean dystopian drama ‘Squid Game’ on Netflix. Anupam Tripathi’s passion for acting took him to South Korea and made him bring the best in his Asian character, Ali, in ‘Squid Game’. Ali taught the audience how to face hardships with having a strong belief that “everything’s going to be alright” and hope that will help you tide through unending obstacles. His character was selfless, caring, hard-working, loyal and innocent in the show.

    Jay Chaudhry

    The entrepreneur with a net worth of $16.3 billion, and among the 400 wealthiest Americans, according to Forbes, Jay Chaudhry became the richest Indian American in 2021. He founded Zscaler in 2008, a cloud-based information security firm, and four other companies in the US – AirDefence, a wireless security firm, CoreHarbor, which provides B-2-B e-commerce hosting and management services, Secure IT, a cybersecurity firm, and CipherTrust, the first email security gateway. He and his family owns 42% of the Nasdaq-listed Zscaler. He was born in Himachal Pradesh and went to the US in 1980 to attend the University of Cincinnati. Chaudhry remains a private person and keeps a low profile.

    Harish Patel

    After working in films such as ‘Mr India’, ‘Andaz Apna Apna’ and ‘Ghatak’ among others, Harish Patel is back in the spotlight with Marvel film ‘Eternals’. The actor, who said he always wanted to work in a Marvel film, is essaying the role of Karun. ‘Eternals’ is directed by Oscar-winner Chloe Zhao and also stars Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden, Salma Hayek, Kit Harington, Gemma Chan and others.

    Leena Nair

    With an illustrious career spanning over three decades, Leena will step down from the position of Unilever’s Chief Human Resources Officer, to take on the French Luxury group Chanel’s Global CEO position in January 2022. Nair was the youngest and the first woman Chief HRO at Unilever. An alumnus of XLRI, Leena Nair is one of the few cases of Indian women such as Indra Nooyi and Sonya Syngal becoming CEOs of global giants.

  • Mix of challenges, hope in 2021 COVID-19 fight

    Mix of challenges, hope in 2021 COVID-19 fight

    The global anti-pandemic fight in 2021 was full of twists and turns: a string of new and cunning variants, a yawning immunization gap between high- and low-income nations, and a distractive politicization of origin-tracing have crippled the speedy development of COVID-19 vaccines and the global promotion of inoculation. But there is still hope ahead as long as countries around the world strengthen solidarity and cooperation, adopt science-based COVID-19 policies, and abandon a zero-sum mentality and political bias.

    PANDEMIC STALEMATE

    Global COVID-19 cases and deaths have surpassed 270 million and 5.3 million by Tuesday, up by about 190 million and 3.5 million respectively from the beginning of the year.

    The World Health Organization (WHO)’s COVID-19 dashboard suggested that the number of weekly new cases around the globe bounced back to 5.7 million in early May from 2.4 million in late February, and fell to 2.5 million in mid-June. It then rebounded to 4.5 million in late August, dropped in mid-October to 2.7 million, and is now moving higher again.

    The United States, ranking first over a long period in both caseload and death toll in the global COVID-19 chart, has already reported more than 50 million infections and 800,000 deaths. The country, with the most advanced medical equipment and technologies, has failed the pandemic’s “stress test” and is now suffering another tough winter.

    The emergence of Omicron, an early lifting of lockdowns and low vaccination rates have made Europe the epicenter of this new wave of COVID-19. The situation in Africa is also worrying: Data from the WHO showed that the continent had registered over 256,000 cases for the week ending Dec. 19, up 53 percent from the previous week.

    INTROSPECTION

    “COVID-19 has exposed a broken world that is inequitable, unaccountable, and divided,” the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board, a joint arm of the WHO and the World Bank, said in an October report, citing growing nationalism, geopolitical tensions and deep inequalities as root causes. Perhaps the first lesson drawn from this capricious situation is that it is still too early to turn the pandemic into an endemic disease, and that consistent anti-epidemic measures are urgently needed to avoid a dangerous “pandemic fatigue” of the prolonged public health crisis.

    Some Western countries, like the United States, have already embraced a potential coexistence with COVID-19. Also in the United States, the anti-pandemic fight has been politicized, causing delays or abandonment of anti-pandemic measures. The results were more infections, and the following popping up of highly transmissible variants like Delta and Omicron.

    The pandemic has also exposed the flawed global public health system, in which wealthy nations have not only failed to keep their vaccine promises, but also been starving the developing world of vaccines through vaccine nationalism. Among others, the United States delivered only 25 percent of the vaccines that it had promised by Nov. 25.

    “Vaccine equity is the greatest immediate moral test of our times. It is also a practical necessity,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres tweeted in July. According to University of Oxford-based Our World in Data, as of Tuesday, 56.9 percent of the world population has received at least one does of a COVID-19 vaccine and 8.78 billion doses have been administered globally. However, only 8.1 percent of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose. Besides, it should also be recognized by all that COVID-19 origin-tracing is a serious and complex scientific issue requiring the joint efforts of global experts. For quite some time, the United States has attempted to politicize the issue and scapegoat China for its own pandemic fiasco. Its intelligence community’s so-called origin-tracing report, for instance, has stoked divisions and undermined global anti-pandemic cooperation.

    RIGHT PATH

    Fortunately, the year 2021 was not all doom and gloom. Apart from a record-breaking sprint to develop COVID-19 vaccines, the WHO and regulators worldwide have also been approving the vaccines at top speed. So far, the WHO has issued emergency use listing for several COVID-19 vaccines, including those from China’s Sinopharm and Sinovac.

    Multilateral programs such as COVAX are also playing their due role in promoting global vaccine equity. Official data showed that COVAX has so far shipped over 792 million COVID-19 vaccines to 144 participants. China, as a responsible major country, has supplied over 70 million doses of vaccines and donated 100 million U.S. dollars to this global initiative.

    Adding to the achievements is the good news of new drugs against COVID-19. The first oral antiviral pill molnupiravir to treat COVID-19 was approved by British medicines regulators in early November. The European Medicines Agency issued advice on the emergency use of Pfizer’s COVID-19 pill Paxlovid in mid-December. A key Chinese medicine against COVID-19 has been approved for sale.

    In an interconnected world, no one can win any global crisis alone. The COVID-19 pandemic has once again demonstrated the importance of pushing forward stronger cooperation and unity.

    As a pioneer along this path, China has not hesitated to lend a helping hand to others. It has delivered on its promise to make vaccines a global public good, having provided nearly 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to more than 120 countries and international organizations. In fact, it has offered more doses than any other country in the world.

    China has also launched the Initiative for Belt and Road Partnership on COVID-19 Vaccines Cooperation together with over 30 countries, and conducted joint vaccine production with 19 developing countries.

    Indeed, just as the WHO tweeted Saturday, “to end the COVID-19 pandemic, the world must act together as a team to ensure equitable access to vaccines, treatment & diagnostics.”

                    Source: Xinhua

  • Stars who faded away in 2021

    Stars who faded away in 2021

    With the Covid pandemic unrelenting in its second year, the grim reaper found his way into many famous homes taking away their residents. Untimely demises due to death by suicide to accidents, we bid adieu to notable politicians, artists, celebrities, journalists, who inspired people with their creativity, humanity, and notable works. With 2022 knocking at the door, let’s take a look at the bold and the beautiful who left for us in 2021.

    Archbishop Desmond Tutu

    Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who became popular as South Africa’s anti-apartheid icon, passed away on December 26, 2021. Reportedly, he was battling prostate cancer since the early 1990s and was hospitalised in recent years. He was 90. In 1984, he won the Nobel Peace Prize for combatting white minority rule in South Africa.

    Milkha Singh

    India’s Flying Sikh, Milkha Singh died on June 18, 2021, after a month-long battle against Covid-19. The Padma Shri awardee had lost his wife to the pandemic. He was 91 and is survived by his son and three daughters.

    Rohit Sardana

    Popular Indian television anchor Rohit Sardana succumbed to Covid-19 complications on April 30, 2021. He was 41 and is survived by his wife and 2 daughters.

    Nandu Natekar

    Nandu Natekar, an ace Indian shuttler, was the first Indian to win a title abroad in 1956. He bagged over 100 national and international titles for the nation. He died on July 28, 2021, due to age-related medical complications. He was 88.

    Yashpal Sharma

    Yashpal Sharma, India’s 1983 World Cup hero, died due to a massive heart attack on July 13, 2021. He was 66 and is survived by his wife, a son, and two daughters.

    Sunderlal Bahuguna

    Chipko Movement leader and Indian environmentalist Sunderlal Bahuguna succumbed to the coronavirus on May 21, 2021, at AIIMS, Rishikesh. He was 94.

    Vinod Dua

    Senior Indian journalist Vinod Dua died on December 4, 2021, after a prolonged illness following a Covid-19 infection. He was 67. In 2008, he was honoured by the Padma Shri for Journalism by the Government of India. Like Milkha Singh, Vinod Dua also lost his wife to the pandemic.

    General Bipin Rawat

    The first Chief of Defence Staff of the Indian armed forces, General Bipin Rawat, died on December 8, 2021, in a helicopter crash. Thirteen of the fourteen people boarded on the Mi-17V5 helicopter, including Bipin Rawat’s wife Madhulika Rawat were killed in the crash. The lone survivor passed away in less than a week.

    Barry Harris

    American jazz pianist Barry Harris died on December 8, 2021. He was 91 and passed seven days before his 92nd birthday due to Covid-19 complications. In 2000, Barry was honoured with the American Jazz Hall of Fame for Lifetime Achievements and Contributions to the World of Jazz.

    Dusty Hill

    ZZ Top bassist Dusty Hill passed away on July 28, 2021. He is said to have died in his sleep at his residence in Houston, Texas. He was 72.

    Christopher Plummer

    Renowned Canadian actor and Broadway star Christopher Plummer died on February 5, 2021. He was 91. As per reports, he had complications from a fall. The male lead of the Sound of Music is a world-renowned star.

    Anne Rice

    The Vampire Chronicles fame Anne Rice passed away on December 11, 2021. She was 80. Her novel, Interview With A Vampire, became a popular film that featured Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt.

    Bob Dole

    The Republican Party’s 1996 presidential nominee and a five-term US senator, Bob Dole died on December 5, 2021. He was 98.

    FW de Klerk

    FW de Klerk, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, served South Africa as state president. He passed away on November 11, 2021, due to mesothelioma. He was 85. South Africa’s long walk back from the mindlessness of Apartheid was under his regime but under threat of severe economic sanctions.

    Colin Powell

    The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former US Secretary of State, Colin Powell died due to Covid-19 complications on October 18, 2021. He was 84.

    Donald Rumsfeld

    US Defense Secretary during Iraq War, Donald H. Rumsfeld died on June 29, 2021. He was 88. After losing political support, he resigned in late 2006 and published an autobiography, Known and Unknown and Rumsfeld’s Rules: Leadership Lessons in Business, Politics, War, and Life.

    Prince Philip

    The Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip was the longest-serving royal consort in British history. He died at the age of 99 on April 9, 2021.

    Richard Donner

    American filmmaker Richard Donner died on July 5, 2021, due to cardiopulmonary failure with atherosclerosis.

    Michael Collins

    Michael Collins was the astronaut who flew the Apollo 11 command module Columbia around the Moon in 1969. He was the one who didn’t exit the module, his other famous co-passengers were Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. He died on April 28, 2021, following a long battle against cancer.

    Walter Mondale

    Former Vice President of the United States Walter Mondale passed away on April 19, 2021. He died a natural death.

    Rush Limbaugh

    Renowned American radio personality Rush Hudson Limbaugh died on February 17, 2021. He succumbed to lung cancer at the age of 70.

                    Source: APNlive

  • Disasters that rocked India

    Disasters that rocked India

    While India was already battling with the COVID-19 pandemic this year, climate change-induced natural disasters like floods, cyclones have also been making lives miserable for people in India and sometimes even life-threatening. A flashback at the natural disasters that hit different parts of India this year.

    Tamil Nadu floods

    The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) had predicted heavy rainfall in parts of Tamil Nadu, and it came true from November 1. The flooding was caused by extremely heavy downpours, killing at least 41 people.

    Several red alerts were issued for many areas in Tamil Nadu, including Cuddalore, Sivaganga, Ramanathapuram, Karaikal, Tiruvallur, Chennai, Kanchipuram, Chengalpattu, Viluppuram, and Tiruvannamalai for November 10-11. Over 11,000 were displaced due to the incessant rainfall.

    Maharashtra floods

    Starting on 22 July, Maharashtra saw heavy rainfall in many of its western districts and recorded the highest rainfall in the month of July in 40 years.

    Around 251 people died and over 100 were missing due to floods and landslides in Maharashtra.

    Its neighbouring state Goa also witnessed the worst floods in decades.

    Kerala floods

    Between October 12 and 20, after heavy rains caused rivers to overflow, cutting off towns and villages, 42 people died and 217 houses were destroyed. Out of the 42 people who lost their lives in the floods, five were children.

    Kottayam and Idukki were two of the worst affected districts in the state, where days of heavy rainfall had caused deadly landslides.

    Cyclone Tauktae

    It was a powerful, deadly and damaging tropical cyclone in the Arabian Sea that became the strongest tropical cyclone to make landfall in the Indian state of Gujarat since the 1998 Gujarat cyclone and one of the strongest tropical cyclones to ever affect the west coast of India.

    Started on May 14, the storm displaced over 200,000 people in Gujarat and killed 174 people with 80 people still missing.

    Tauktae brought heavy rainfall and flash floods to areas along the coast of Kerala and Lakshadweep. There were reports of heavy rain in the states of Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra as well.

    Cyclone Yaas

    It was a relatively strong and very damaging tropical cyclone that made landfall in Odisha and brought significant impact to West Bengal in May. Yaas formed from a tropical disturbance that the Indian Meteorological Department first monitored on May 23.

    Around 20 people across India and Bangladesh died due to the cyclone and West Bengal was one of the most impacted states in India due to Yaas, with a loss of approximately $2.76 billion, according to several media reports.

    Cyclone Gulab

    The third storm in India that impacted eastern India, was formed on September 24 in Bay of Bengal. On September 26, Gulab made landfall in India’s Andhra Pradesh, but weakened over land. The storm overall brought heavy rains and strong winds throughout India and the Middle East, killing at least 39 people.

    Over 30,000 individuals were evacuated into safety as a result of the cyclone. This number further increased to 46,075 people as the storm further moved inland.

    Assam earthquake

    On April 28, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake jolted Assam. The quake resulted in two fatalities and at least 12 people were injured. The quake struck at a depth of 34 kilometres and 140 kilometres north of Guwahati.

    The earthquake occurred as a result of oblique-slip faulting at a shallow depth just at the foothills of the Himalayas. Analysis by India’s National Centre for Seismology revealed that the earthquake involved a slip along the Kopili Fault, near the Main Frontal Thrust.

    Uttarakhand floods

    At least 54 people died in various incidents triggered by heavy rains and subsequent flash floods in Uttarakhand in October this year.

    Melting glaciers

    In February, a ferocious flash flood hurtled down a remote Himalayan valley, sweeping away homes, a hydro plant and around 200 people. Only 60 bodies have been found.

    The flash floods in Uttarakhand was due to the collapse of a hanging glacier, initial observations by scientists at the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology suggests. A hanging glacier is a body of ice that breaks off abruptly at the edge of a precipice or steep slope.

    Experts believe the cause was a massive chunk of a glacier — 15 football fields long and five across — breaking off high in the mountains.

    In the Himalayas, about 10,000 glaciers are receding at a rate of 30 to 60 metres (100 to 200 feet) per decade as global temperatures rise. In 2013, a flash flood in the same area killed 6,000 people.

  • Natural disasters that shocked the world in 2021

    Natural disasters that shocked the world in 2021

    Natural disasters kill an average of 60,000 people per year and are responsible for 0.1 per cent of global deaths, according to data. With climate change becoming more and more evident, we bring to you some natural disasters that shook the world in 2021.

    The Canadian heatwave

    A suffocating heatwave in June killed 569 people in the state of British Columbia in Canada’s westernmost province in just a span of five days. At that time, the temperature soared up and the province and the territories were named the “heat dome”. Climate change contributed to this record-shattering heat, the experts said.

    Germany’s cry

    In July, swaths of Germany witnessed the most devastating floods in low-lying towns for the first time in 60 years. Approximately 170 people died when a European country was hit by its worst natural disaster in decades. Infrastructure, phone networks were damaged severely and this led to somewhere around 100,000 people without hydropower and electricity.

    Italy’s rage

    The city of Sicily along with southern Calabria was blazed in August, with firefighters battling more than 500 blazes in the entire region. The temperature soared the highest in Europe, which was believed to be the highest in history. The temperature recorded was 119.8 Fahrenheit or 48.8 degrees Celsius.

    Greece’s destruction

    Wildfires ravaged Greece and it was heavily affected. Evia, the second largest island in the country, was evacuated as more than 580 fires swept through the region. A huge region of natural forests was destroyed, including in the capital of Athens. Fatalities were reported and many were left injured.

    The US storm

    Hurricane Ida hit the US east coast in August during the rainy season and was recorded to be the strongest hurricane that hit the continental US. The storm killed at least 45 people from Maryland to New York, and also left vital infrastructure damaged. More than a million homes were left without power in Mississippi. New Orleans was plugged into a complete blackout.

    Storm Filomena in Spain

    In the first week of January, Spain was hit by one of its deadliest snowstorm since 1971 which killed scores.  The country’s weather agency described it as “exceptional and most likely historic” conditions caused by Storm Filomena.

    At the time, the extreme conditions put four other regions in the centre of the country on alert for days. According to the New York Times, the snowstorm caused damage estimated at about 1.4 billion euros ($1.6bn).

    UK floods

    On January 18, the United Kingdom saw some of its heaviest precipitations in decades. For three consecutive days, Storm Christoph brought significant rain and widespread flooding across the country. Residents evacuated their homes in parts of England, while the snowfall that followed led to travel disruptions and road closures.

    Fiji cyclone

    One of three tropical cyclones which hit Fiji at the end of January one after the other, tropical cyclone Ana killed one person, forced tens of thousands to evacuate and left millions of pounds of damage.

    Greece wildfires

    August began with Greece’s most severe heat wave in decades and turned into one of the country’s most destructive fire seasons.

    Greece’s fire department sent firefighters and aircraft to respond to a blaze that broke out on the country’s second-largest island, Evia.

    The country was scorched by several wildfires earlier this month amid its most severe heat wave in decades.

    The northeastern island of Evia was particularly hard-hit, with a major wildfire burning for more than 10 days in Evia’s north.

  • First flight on mars, touching the sun, webb launch

    First flight on mars, touching the sun, webb launch

    The year 2021 has been one of the busiest years for NASA in low-Earth orbit. The space agency also made progress on its Artemis plans for the Moon, and had a very active year exploring space, studying Earth, and testing technologies for next-generation aircraft. On Christmas day, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful and complex space telescope ever built, lifted off into space to unravel the secrets of the universe.

    Following are some of NASA’s most interesting feats in 2021:

    Solar System And Beyond

    The year 2021 was a remarkable one for NASA in space exploration.

    –              Mars Landing: In February 2021, the Perseverance Rover landed on Mars, and later collected and sampled its first rock core. The sample will be retrieved and returned to Earth by a future mission. The two-year science investigation of Mars’ Jezero Crater is studying the rock and sediment of Jezero’s ancient lakebed and river delta.

    –              TESS Performs Wonders: The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) helped discover a trio of hot worlds in February. The three planets, called TOI451b, TOI451c, and TOI451d, are larger than Earth and are orbiting a much younger version of our Sun.

    –              First Flight on Mars: The ingenuity helicopter became the first aircraft to make a powered controlled flight on another planet. Ingenuity recently completed more than 30 minutes of cumulative flight time. It took its first flight on April 19, and its last flight on December 15.

    –              Creating Oxygen on Another Planet: Perseverance’s Mars Oxygen In Situ Resource Utilization (MOXIE) instrument converted Mars’ thin, carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere into oxygen for the first time, in April.

    –              Lucy Mission: The space agency also sent the first spacecraft to visit Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids.

    –              First Planet Outside Milky Way Discovered: The Chandra X-ray Observatory detected signs of a planet crossing in front of a star outside the Milky Way Galaxy for the first time.

    –              DART Mission: NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission is a first-of-its-kind mission to investigate and demonstrate a method of asteroid deflection by changing an asteroid’s motion in space. The DART spacecraft was launched on November 24, atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base. This was NASA’s first planetary defense test mission.

    –              IXPE Mission: NASA sent a wide array of science missions to space, including the first mission to study the polarisation of X-rays, which is called the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) mission.

    –              Parker Solar Probe’s Marvels: The Parker Solar Probe provided stunning views of Venus during a close flyby. Parker became the first spacecraft in history to touch the Sun, flying through and sampling the environment in the Sun’s upper atmosphere.

    –              James Webb Space Telescope: The NASA James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful space observatory ever built, was launched into space on Christmas day. The $10 space-based infrared observatory is a successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, and the first-of-its-kind. The primary goal of the telescope will be to study galaxy, star, and planet formation in the Universe.

    Webb will cover longer wavelengths of light than Hubble, which will enable the telescope to look further back in time to see the first galaxies that formed in the early Universe.

    Earth Science

    In 2021, NASA continued research in climate and Earth science to show how the planet is changing.

    –              Earth System Observatory: The space agency announced a new Earth System Observatory that will provide important information to guide efforts related to climate change, disaster mitigation, fighting forest fires, and improving real-time agricultural processes, the space agency said on its website.

    –              Landsat 9: Landsat 9, NASA’s ‘New Eye In The Sky’, is a satellite built to monitor Earth’s land surface and resources, and the latest in the Landsat series. The NASA satellite will extend a record of Earth observations spanning five decades.

    It is a joint effort between NASA and the US Geological Survey (USGS).

    The Landsat satellites have provided an unprecedented visual record of Earth’s landscapes, icescapes, and coastal waters, in the form of nine million scenes.

    Humans In Space

    The year 2021 was the 21st continuous year of human presence aboard the International Space Station, and the busiest for human spaceflight at the ISS in a decade.

    –              Crew-1 Mission: The splashdown of the NASA SpaceX Crew-1 mission marked the completion of the first operational commercial crew flight to the station. It was also the first night time launch of a US crew spacecraft, since Apollo 8 in 1968.

    –              Crew-2 Mission: The NASA SpaceX Crew-2 mission is the first commercial crew mission to fly two international partners. The astronauts spent a record 199 days in space.

    –              Inspiration4 Astronauts Launched From NASA’s Kennedy Space Center: In September, four amateur astronauts — Jared Isaacman, Hayley Arceneaux, Chris Sembroski, and Sian Proctor — made history after spending three days in space, as part of the SpaceX Inspiration4 mission, which is the world’s first all-civilian mission to Earth orbit. The four civilians blasted off into space from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida.

    –              Crew-3 Mission: In November, four astronauts arrived at the ISS as part of the NASA SpaceX Crew-3 mission. During the six-months long mission, the astronauts, who are a part of Expedition 66, will perform scientific experiments.

    –              Record Spacewalks Completed: Astronauts and cosmonauts completed 13 spacewalks outside the space station — the most in a year since 2010.

    –              Private Astronaut Missions To ISS: NASA announced the first two private astronaut missions to the ISS. The missions are called Axiom 1 and Axiom 2.

    Moon To Mars

    NASA is targeting launch of Artemis I, an uncrewed flight test of the agency’s powerful Space Launch System (SLS) Rocket, and Orion spacecraft. The Artemis I mission will travel around the Moon in March or April 2021.

    The space agency fuelled the Orion spacecraft and attached it to its launch abort system before stacking it on SLS.

    NASA successfully completed the green run test of the SLS Artemis I core stage at the Stennis Space Center.

    The space agency also performed activities to support the agency’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, including preparations towards future Artemis missions, namely Artemis II and Artemis III.

    NASA successfully completed the green run test of the SLS Artemis I core stage at the Stennis Space Center.

    The space agency also performed activities to support the agency’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, including preparations towards future Artemis missions, namely Artemis II and Artemis III.             Source: ABP Live

  • Vaccine drive, virus resurgence, Omicron & lockdown 2.0

    Vaccine drive, virus resurgence, Omicron & lockdown 2.0

    Pandemic rages amid vaccination

    In 2021 as the vaccines were rolled out across the world, the COVID-19 surge continued unabated as large portions of the world continued to remain unvaccinated. The Omicron variant detected in South Africa last month compounded matters bringing back memories of early 2020 when the world began the lockdown process. Germany witnessed a surge in cases for the past few months even as inoculation continued at rapid pace. Amid the surge, Germany’s leaders limited private New Year’s parties to 10 people and banned spectators from football games to stem Omicron’s spread stopping short of imposing new coronavirus curbs before Christmas.

    From December 28, Germany has  closed nightclubs and dance venues.

    Anti-lockdown protests

    December this year brought a sense of deja vu across the world as a new, heavily mutated COVID-19 variant spread across the globe shutting borders, renewing curbs, and sparking fears for the fight against the nearly two-year-old coronavirus pandemic.

    The Netherlands went into a new lockdown on Sunday for the Christmas holiday period in an attempt to stop the fifth wave of COVID-19 and the strong progress of the Omicron variant. The Netherlands was hit by the worst violence in decades as anti-lockdown protests erupted. Five people were shot when police opened fire in Rotterdam, and riots spread around the country for the next three days last month. In total, 173 people were arrested and at least 12 people injured nationwide.

    Amid the virus surge with Omicron becoming the dominant strain, the World Health Organization warned Europe could witness 2.2 million deaths this winter if current trends continue.

    China battles virus 2 years after

    first reported case

    Nearly two years after China reported the first coronavirus case back in December 31 2019, residents in Xi’an are enduring a near-total city closure to curb a tiny outbreak as China presses on with its zero-Covid strategy ahead of the Winter Olympics.

    The city transformed as all 13 million residents were ordered to stay home: streets emptied, people formed long lines at COVID-19 testing stations, and officials cordoned-off apartment compounds as the historic former capital — a popular destination for international tourists prior to the pandemic was swiftly sealed off after more than 200 COVID-19 cases were detected this month.

    In China, even a single COVID-19 case can prompt stay-at-home orders and strict travel bans.

    Virus in Asia

    Indonesia in Asia was hit with a new wave of the virus as Japan witnessed a surge over the summer even amid the Olympic Games. India was also hit by a devastating second wave in April and May as several cities imposed lockdowns.

    The Japanese government imposed a state of emergency in capital Tokyo and other areas to combat the virus even as athletes across the world competed. The coronavirus pandemic shuttered almost all the resorts and restaurants across Indonesia hitting the country’s economy as hospitals gripped with surging cases.

    According to the UN, the coronavirus pandemic will cost the global tourism sector $2.0 trillion in lost revenue in 2021 with countries like Indonesia which depend heavily on tourism facing the brunt of the pandemic.

    Russia hit with new wave, struggles to vaccinate citizens

    The COVID-19 pandemic continued to rage around the world including Africa. Russia experienced a surge in cases despite the Sputnik V vaccine which was approved by Russian authorities in August last year. Russian authorities have faced a vaccine-sceptic population that has seen just 42 per cent of Russians fully inoculated. Sputnik V has still not been approved by the WHO.

    This month Russia registered its first two cases of the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus in its nationals returning from South Africa. The country has reported more than 9.8 million infections and 282,462 deaths from the virus — the highest toll in Europe.

    Russia’s statistics agency, which counts COVID-19 deaths based on a broader definition, says fatalities passed 520,000 by the end of October.

    Second virus-hit Christmas in Europe

    Europe experienced its second virus-hit Christmas for the second successive year as Europeans grappled with the fifth wave of the virus.

    According to reports, the US remained by far the country with the biggest number of new cases with 184,834 per day on average, an increase of 51 percent.

    Next in line came the United Kingdom with 96,010 cases, an increase of 54 percent and France with 61,274 cases, an increase of 21 percent.

    In regional terms, Europe is currently recording the most cases, with more than three million over the past week, accounting for 58 percent of the world total. On a per capita basis, Denmark remains the country with the biggest number of new cases with 1,472 per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by the UK (990).

    Omicron variant shuts borders globe

    A new, heavily mutated Covid-19 variant spread across the globe on Sunday, shutting borders, renewing curbs, and sparking fears for the fight against the nearly two-year-old coronavirus pandemic.

    Dubbed Omicron, the strain has cast doubt on global efforts to battle the pandemic because of fears that it is highly infectious, forcing countries to reimpose measures many had hoped were a thing of the past.

    Dutch health authorities said they had identified at least 13 cases of Omicron among 61 quarantined passengers who tested positive for coronavirus after arriving from South Africa.

    “The investigation has not yet been completed. The new variant may be found in more test samples,” the National Institute for Public Health warned.

    Despite the alarm, in Austria tens of thousands rallied to protest against the government’s introduction of compulsory vaccination — the first EU country to do so.

    Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg said it was “a minor interference” compared to the alternative for a country with one of the lowest vaccination rates in Western Europe.

    With many European nations, including Germany and France, already bringing back curbs to counter surges in infections, Swiss voters broadly backed a proposed Covid pass law in a referendum on Sunday.

    In Britain, Health Secretary Avid Javid said new Covid rules will be enforced from Tuesday.

    Mask-wearing will again be mandatory in shops and on public transport in England. All passengers arriving in Britain will have to take a PCR test and self-isolate until negative.

    Scientists are racing to determine the threat posed by the heavily mutated strain — particularly whether it can evade existing vaccines. But a long list of countries have already imposed travel restrictions on southern Africa, where it was first detected, including key travel hub Qatar, the United States, Britain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Netherlands.

    Angola became the first southern African country to suspend all flights from its regional neighbours Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa.

  • Delta to Omicron, looking back at Covid-19 journey in 2021

    Delta to Omicron, looking back at Covid-19 journey in 2021

    While people bid adieu to the ‘unlucky 2020’ that was touted to be the cursed and worst year in many decades, and ushered in 2021 with hopes of normalcy, the year proved to be even deadlier and unluckier in terms of mortality and the spread of Covid-19 as India battled a fierce second wave. As vaccination drives across the world threatened the survival of Covid-19, the virus adapted itself to the changing times and created an all-new variant Omicron against which the existing vaccines may possibly be less effective.

    As the year draws to a close, let’s look back at the journey of Covid-19 in 2021 and how it impacted our lives.

    How Delta dashed hopes and caused an intense second wave?

    2021 started on a hopeful note as people’s prayers for a Covid-19 vaccine were answered. In March, vaccination for people above 60 years of age and those over 45 with comorbidities kicked off.

    While the vaccination drive promised to put our Coronavirus worries to rest, the Delta variant giving us no time to think caused the unprecedented second wave in April-May 2021 which made our health infrastructure crumble.

    A virologist says that the second wave acquired the ferocious nature because of the higher transmissibility of the virus and the fact that most of the younger people (18+ group) were not vaccinated at the time.

    Delta variant caused a lot of damage to life and a lot of death because it spread very efficiently, says an expert.(Pixabay)

    “Delta variant caused a lot of damage to life and a lot of death because it spread very efficiently between the people and that’s the scary part because Covid-19 may not be the deadliest diseases we know but if it spreads very efficiently between people, the sheer number of people that get infected are more which means the number of death cases in people is always going to increase. That’s what made Delta such a debilitating wave in India,” says Dr Pavithra Venkatagopalan, Director, Covid Task Force, Awareness, Rotary Club of Madras Next Gen said.

    “If you remember at that time when the Delta variant came most of the younger people were not vaccinated. Our bodies had not prepared the immune response and a lot of people were affected. It was combination of these two factors that made Delta variant deadly,” she adds.

    “The viruses mutate to enhance their survival capability. Delta variant underwent mutation in its spike proteins in a way that it became extremely transmissible, infectious and virulent to cause unprecedented second wave of Covid pandemic in April-May 2021. Delta currently continues to the predominant variant all over the world,” said Dr Manoj Goel, Director, Pulmonology, Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurugram in a written response to our query about the nature of Delta variant.

    When black fungus cases peaked and multiplied people’s worries

    In the middle of the pandemic as Covid-19 patients struggled to recover, the cases of deadly fungal infection mucormycosis or black fungus started peaking.

    The bone-and-tissue-eating fungus affected many organs from lungs, the skin, sinuses, spreading to the eye socket and even brain if left untreated.

    “The mould that causes black fungus is all around us. If you are a healthy individual, your immune system will remove the infection, as part of our physical immune response, but during Covid-19 when your lungs are already affected and the physical ability of preventing black fungus from entering our system is reduced. Also, when you are given oxygen with a lot of moisture, it is a rich environment for black fungus to grow,” says Dr Venkatagopalan.

    “The latter half of the second wave witnessed a new villain with a sudden surge of black fungus, the mucormycycosis, which occurred predominantly due to the bruised immunity caused by Delta virus, use of steroids and possibly due to industrial oxygen used as a desperate measure. The diabetics were the biggest victims of black fungus,” says Dr Goel.

    When India achieved a milestone of administration of 100 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses

    After recovering from second wave, the vaccination drive in India intensified and by October this year the milestone of 100 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses was achieved. Despite the global efforts of vaccinating as many people as possible, even the most developed and medically advanced countries are still struggling to control the pandemic. In many parts of the world, the second wave is still continuing. In India, we continue to have new cases, although much less in number even now.

    The entry of Omicron and the revival of fear

    Omicron the latest variant of concern is under spotlight currently and is said to evade immunity from vaccines. However, experts say vaccination against Covid-19 is still effective in preventing severe disease and death in case of infection or re-infection.

    “The emergence of Omicron which is 2 to 5 times more transmissible and infectious as compared to Delta variant is a real cause of concern. However, the situation is much different now from the time when Delta caused second wave. Majority of adult population has received at least one dose of vaccine, large population has achieved natural immunity due to previous infection, better and more proven treatment strategies have developed, and so far, Omicron is showing mild symptoms. But the possibility of more severe and deadly third wave cannot be ruled out. India is definitely better prepared, but no country can ever be fully prepared,” says Dr Goel.

    Will the pandemic end in 2022 or anytime soon?

    “We have to accept that Covid-19 is in our lives to stay. It will become a virus that we do not worry about on a daily basis when everybody is vaccinated and you know the number of severe infections keep going down. The only solution to accepting this in our lives is to ensure everyone is vaccinated – children, adults, people across the world, so the chances of this virus mutating into something deadly is reduced with every step that we take,” says Dr Venkatagopalan.

    “There is no official prediction from WHO, when this pandemic will come to end. But, definitely this is not going to happen in near future. A large population in the world is still not vaccinated, only handful countries are offering booster dose, covid appropriate behaviour is becoming impractical in routine life and new variants of concerns can emerge anywhere and remain unrecognized because genome sequencing testing are only sparsely available,” says Dr Goel.

                    Source: HT

  • India farmers end year-long stir after government accepts demands

    India farmers end year-long stir after government accepts demands

    The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella organisation of 32 farmer unions, on December 9 decided to call off its year-long protest at New Delhi’s borders against three contentious farm laws which have now been repealed. The protests had begun on November 25 last year, when thousands of farmers — mainly from Punjab and Haryana — marched towards the national capital demanding a complete repeal of the legislations, as part of a “Dilli Chalo” campaign.

    September 17, 2021, marked one year of enactment of the three contentious agriculture laws, which were: Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020; and Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020. The farmers feared the laws would lead to the abolishment of the minimum support price (MSP) guaranteed by the government on select crops, and leave them at the mercy of big corporates.

    After Prime Minister’s historic announcement on November 19 to repeal the laws, both the Houses of Parliament cleared the Farm Laws Repeal Bill, 2021, on November 29.

    A timeline of the farmers’ protest: How it unfolded

    –              June 5, 2020: The Indian government promulgates three Farm Bills: The Farmer’s (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020; and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020. These three Bills push the agricultural sector in India from a Government-run to a private-run sector.

    –              September 14, 2020: Ordinance is brought to Parliament.

    –              September 17, 2020: Ordinance is passed in Lok Sabha.

    –              September 20, 2020: Ordinance is passed in Rajya Sabha by voice vote.

    –              September 24, 2020: Farmers in Punjab announce a three-day rail roko

    –              September 25, 2020: Farmers across India take to the streets in response to a call by the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC).

    –              September 27, 2020: Farm Bills are given presidential assent and notified in the Gazette of India and become Farm Laws.

    –              November 25, 2020: After sporadic protests against the new farm laws, including a nationwide road blockade on November 3, farmers’ unions in Punjab and Haryana gave the call for a ‘Delhi Chalo’ movement. The Delhi Police, however, rejected their request to march to the capital city citing Covid-19 protocols.

    –              November 26, 2020: Farmers marching towards Delhi faced water cannons, tear gas as the police tried to disperse them at Haryana’s Ambala district. Later, police allowed them to enter Delhi for their peaceful protest at Nirankari ground in North-West Delhi.

    –              November 28, 2020: Home Minister Amit Shah offered to hold talks with farmers as soon as they vacate Delhi borders and move to the designated protest site in Burari. However, farmers rejected his offer, demanding to hold the protest at Jantar Mantar.

    –              November 29, 2020: In his Mann Ki Baat programme, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said all political parties had been making promises to the farmers but it was his government that fulfilled their promises.

    –              December 3, 2020: The government held first round of talks with representatives of farmers but the meeting remained inconclusive.

    –              December 5, 2020: The second round of talks between farmers and the Centre also remained inconclusive.

    –              December 8, 2020: Farmers gave a call for Bharat Bandh. Farmers from other states also gave their support to the call.

    –              December 9, 2020: Farmer leaders rejected the Union government’s proposal to amend the three contentious laws and vowed to further intensify their agitation until the laws are repealed.

    –              December 11, 2020: Bharatiya Kisan Union moved the Supreme Court against the three farm laws.

    –              December 13, 2020: Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad alleged hand of ‘tukde tukde’ gang in farmer protests and said the government was open to talks with farmers.

    –              December 16, 2020: The Supreme Court said it may constitute a panel having representatives of the government and farmer unions to end the deadlock over the controversial agriculture laws.

    –              December 21, 2020: Farmers held a one-day hunger strike at all protest sites.

    –              December 30, 2020: Sixth round of talks between government and farmer leaders saw some headway as the Centre agreed to exempt farmers from stubble burning penalty and drop changes in Electricity Amendment Bill, 2020.

    –              January 4, 2021: Seventh round of talks between government and farmer leaders also remained inconclusive with the Centre not agreeing to repeal the farm laws.

    –              January 7, 2021: The Supreme Court agreed to hear petitions challenging the new laws and those against the protests on January 11. This comes even as Attorney General K K Venugopal told the court that talks between farmers and the Centre “may just work”.

    –              January 11, 2021: The Supreme Court rapped the Centre for its handling of the farmers’ protest. The top court said it would constitute a committee headed by a former Chief Justice of India to resolve the deadlock.

    –              January 12, 2021: The Supreme Court stayed the implementation of the three contentious farm laws and set up a four-member committee to make recommendations on the legislations after listening to all stakeholders.

    On the same day, Dalit labour activist Nodeep Kaur was arrested by Sonipat police on charges of attempt to murder, rioting, and assault to deter a public servant from discharge of his duty under the Indian Penal Code, among others. According to the police, Nodeep and her associated attacked a team of police officials that had done to Kundli Industrial area after it heard about the alleged manhandling of management and staff at an industrial unit.

    Kaur, a member of the Mazdoor Adhikar Sangathan, claimed she was “targeted and falsely implicated” in the case as she was successful in generating massive support for the ongoing farmer movement against the Centre’s three new farm laws.

    –              January 26, 2021: On Republic day, thousands of protestors clashed with the police during the tractor parade called by farmer unions on January 26, demanding a repeal of the laws.

    After several protestors from Singhu and Ghazipur changed their route, they marched towards Central Delhi’s ITO and Red Fort, where police resorted to teargas shelling and lathi charge while some farmers vandalised public property and attacked police personnel. At Red Fort, a section of protesters climbed poles and walls and hoisted the Nishan Sahib flag. One protester died in the chaos.

    –              January 28, 2021: Tensions rose at Delhi’s Ghazipur border after the administration in neighbouring UP’s Ghaziabad district issued orders for protesting farmers to vacate the site by night. By evening, as police in anti-riot gear started spreading out at the site, the protesters camped there and their leaders, including BKU’s Rakesh Tikait, said they would not leave.

    –              February 4, 2021: The government slammed “celebrities and others” for their comments in support of farmer protests, calling them “neither accurate nor responsible”. This came after pop icon Rihanna, teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg and lawyer-author Meena Harris, niece of US Vice President Kamala Harris, spoke out on the farmer protests.

    –              February 5, 2021: The cyber-crime cell of the Delhi Police has registered an FIR on charges of “sedition”, “criminal conspiracy” and “promoting hatred” against the creators of a ‘toolkit’ on farmer protests, which was shared by Thunberg. The 18-year-old deleted the original tweet but tweeted a revised toolkit on Wednesday night.

    –              February 6, 2021: Protesting farmers held a nationwide ‘Chakka Jam’, or road blockade, for three hours from 12 noon to 3 pm. While several roads across Punjab and Haryana were blocked during that time, elsewhere the ‘chakka jam’ protest evoked a scattered response.

    –              February 9, 2021: Punjabi actor-turned-activist Deep Sindhu, named an accused in the Republic Day violence case, was arrested by Delhi Police Special Cell on Tuesday morning. He was sent to 7-day police custody later in the evening.

    –              February 14, 2021: The Delhi Police’ arrested 21-year-old climate activist Disha Ravi for allegedly “editing” the toolkit shared by Thunberg.

    –              February 18, 2021: Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), the umbrella body of farmer unions spearheading the agitations last week, called for a nationwide ‘rail roko’ protest. Trains were stopped, cancelled and rerouted in places around the country. However, a spokesperson for the national transporter said there was negligible or minimal impact on railway services due to the ‘rail roko’ agitation. He said majority of the zonal railways reported no incident due to the protest.

    –              February 23, 2021: 22-year-old activist Disha Ravi was granted bail by a sessions court in Delhi.

    –              February 25, 2021: Dalit labour activist Nodeep Kaur was released from prison after she was granted bail by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Kaur’s bail plea came up for hearing before the bench of Justice Avneesh Jhingan.

    –              February 26, 2021: Dalit labour activist Nodeep Kaur was released from prison on Friday after she was granted bail by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

    –              March 05, 2021: The Punjab Vidhan Sabha passed a resolution asking for the unconditional withdrawal of the farm laws in the interest of the farmers and Punjab, and to continue with the existing system of MSP-based government procurement of foodgrains.

    –              March 06, 2021: Farmers complete 100 days at Delhi’s borders.

    –              March 8, 2021: Gunshots are fired near the Singhu border protest site. Nobody is injured.

    –              April 4, 2021: Few tractor trolleys from the Singhu border return to Punjab ahead of the harvesting season. Farmers set up sheds made of bamboo and shade net

    –              April 15, 2021: Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala writesto Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to resume talks with farmers who are protesting at Delhi’s borders, and reach an “amicable conclusion” to the impasse over the farm laws.

    –              April 26, 2021: Deep Sidhu gets second bail.

    –              May 27, 2021: Farmers observed a ‘black day’to mark six months of the agitation, and burned effigies of the government. Though the crowds at the three borders have thinned, farm leaders said that agitation will continue till 2024 if their demands are not met. Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait, during a press conference, also reiterated that farmers will call off the protest only once the three farm laws are repealed.

    –              June 5, 2021: Protesting farmers observe Sampoorn Krantikari Diwas (total revolution day) to mark the first year of the promulgation of the Farm Laws.

    –              June 26, 2021: Farmers march to Delhi to mark seven months of protest against the farm laws. Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) claimed that farmers were detained in states like Haryana, Punjab, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana during the protests.

    –              July 2021:  About 200 protesting farmers started a parallel “Monsoon Session”, Kisan Sansad, near the Parliament House here on Thursday, condemning the three farm laws. Members of Opposition parties staged protests in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue inside the House complex. They urged the Centre to withdraw the farm laws and accept the demands of farmers. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also reached Parliament on a tractor to express solidarity with protesting farmers. Parliament proceedings were adjourned repeatedly as the Opposition cornered the Centre over farm laws among other issues.

    –              August 7, 2021: Leaders of 14 opposition parties met at Parliament House and decided to visit Kisan Sansad at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, where a select group of farmer leaders have been holding a Kisan Sansad (farmers’ parliament) since July 22 to mark seven months of the protests at Delhi’s border points against the laws. Gandhi and the other leaders reiterated that the three controversial laws should be withdrawn. “Today all opposition parties together decided to support the farmers and demand the withdrawal of the three farm laws,” Gandhi said. “We want to give our entire support to all the farmers of the country.”

    –              August 28, 2021: The agitation against farm laws enacted last year returned to the spotlight when Haryana Police cracked down on farmers in Karnal, leaving several injured in a lathicharge at the Bastara toll plaza on the national highway. The farmers were protesting against a BJP meeting on the forthcoming panchayat polls — it was being chaired by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.

    They showed black flags to vehicles carrying BJP leaders and even tried to block their way. But due to heavy police presence, they could not stop the vehicles and kept raising slogans. When they refused to lift the highway blockade, police used force, charging at farmers with lathis and leaving several injured – they were taken to local hospitals by fellow protesters.

    The farmers started the protest demanding Ayush Sinha’s suspension and registration of an FIR against him ever since the lathicharge. A 2018 batch IAS officer, he was caught on camera on August 28, instructing policemen to beat up protesting farmers and not to let anyone breach the security cordon without a “broken head”.

    –              September 5, 2021: Challenging the BJP-led NDA with just months to go for the UP elections, farm leaders driving the movement against the Centre’s new agricultural laws staged a major show of strength in Muzaffarnagar, announcing in front of thousands of farmers their plan to campaign against the ruling party in the state.

    –              September 7 – 9, 2021: Farmers reach Karnal in large numbers and laid siege to the mini-Secretariat. The farmers put forth three primary demands including Rs 25 lakh compensation to the family of Kajal and a government job for his relative, compensation of Rs 2 lakh each for those injured in the lathicharge and registration of a criminal case and stern action against Karnal SDM Ayush Sinha and police personnel responsible for the lathicharge.

    –              September 11, 2021: Bringing to an end the five-day standoff between farmers and the Karnal district administration, the Haryana government agreed to conduct a probe by a retired judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court into the August 28 police lathicharge on farmers at the Bastara toll plaza, and send former Karnal SDM Ayush Sinha on leave till completion of the inquiry. The standoff ended following extensive talks between farmer unions led by Gurnam Singh Chadhuni and the government side led by Additional Chief Secretary Devender Singh. They later held a press conference to announce the agreement.

    –              September 15, 2021: To substantiate its allegation that the Republic Day violence by a section of farm protesters was “a deep-rooted, well-orchestrated conspiracy”, the Delhi Police has cited a “rise” in sale of tractors in Punjab and Haryana between November 2020 and January 2021. The “sale of tractors rises to a considerable extent rapidly in a well-orchestrated conspiracy and with the sole object…to take tractors to Delhi for agitation and protest,” says the chargesheet.

    However, data from the Tractor and Mechanisation Association (TMA), whose figures the Delhi Police has cited, also show a similar high year-on-year sales growth trend across India — at 51.25 per cent in November, 43.09 per cent in December and 46.75 per cent in January.

    –              November 19, 2021: Prime Minister Narendra Modi announces repeal of the farm laws. In an address to the nation, Main aaj deshavaasiyon se kshama maangate hue, sachche man se aur pavitr hraday se kahana chaahata hoon ki shaayad hamaaree tapasya mein hee koee kamee rahee hogee jisake kaaran diye ke prakaash jaisa saty kuchh kisaan bhaiyon ko ham samajha nahin pae. aaj Guru Nanak Dev ji ka pavitra Prakash Parv hai. yah samay kisee ko bhee dosh dene ka nahin hai (Today, while apologising to the countrymen, I want to say with a sincere and pure heart that perhaps there must have been some deficiency in our efforts, due to which we could not explain the truth like the light of the lamp to some farmers).

    –              November 29, 2021: Both the Houses of Parliament clear Farm Laws Repeal Bill, 2021, via voice votes without any discussion.

    –              December 8, 2021: The government sends a draft proposal to the farm unions and said that in light of the concessions proposed — including the unconditional withdrawal of all police cases lodged against protesters during the agitation there was no justification for the agitation to continue and requested the unions to call it off.

    –              December 9, 2021: The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) leaders meet after getting the official proposal from the government and decides to call off its protest at Delhi’s borders.

                    Source: Indianexpress

  • Most significant events in 2021

    One good thing can be said about 2021: it wasn’t as tumultuous as 2020, which put in a claim to be the worst year ever. That, however, may be damning with faint praise. Yes, the past twelve months did bring some good news. Indeed, for a moment in early summer it seemed that COVID-19 was in the rearview mirror. However, it isn’t. And 2021 brought other bad news. So here are my top ten world events in 2021. You may want to read what follows closely. Several of these stories will continue into 2022 and beyond.

    The AUKUS Deal Debuts

    On September 15, President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson jointly announced a new trilateral security partnership named AUKUS. The most significant part of the deal was the U.S. pledge to provide Australia with technology to build eight nuclear-powered (but not nuclear-armed) submarines. The only other country to receive similar access to U.S. technology is the United Kingdom. The statement announcing the pact justified it as necessary to “preserve security and stability in the Indo-Pacific.” Although none of the three leaders mentioned China by name, AUKUS was widely seen as a response to growing Chinese assertiveness. Not surprisingly, Beijing denounced the pact as “extremely irresponsible” and “polarizing.” But China wasn’t the only country unhappy with deal. France fumed because AUKUS terminated a $37 billion agreement it struck with Australia in 2016 to build a dozen diesel-electric powered submarines. As a result, Paris recalled its ambassadors to Canberra and Washington, a move without precedent in bilateral relations with either country.

    Migration Crises Test Rich Countries

    The downturn in international migration flows in 2020 triggered by COVID-19 continued into 2021. That didn’t translate, however, into the end of migration crises. A case in point was the southern U.S. border. By October, the number of people entering the United States illegally had hit 1.7 million over the prior year, the highest number since 1960. COVID-19, economic hardship, and political and natural events—the assassination of Haiti’s president and a subsequent earthquake sent thousands of Haitians abroad—drove the surge. But so too did the expectation that the Biden administration would be more welcoming than the Trump administration. To stem the inflow of migrants the Biden administration continued many of its predecessor’s harsh anti-immigration policies. Where it didn’t, the Supreme Court ordered it to. The European Union saw a 70 percent rise compared to 2020 in the number people entering illegally, with critics arguing that the EU was failing its duty to help migrants. A surge in migrants crossing the English Channel from France triggered a diplomatic row between Paris and London.

    Iran’s Nuclear Program Advances

    The year began with optimism that the Iran nuclear deal might be revived three years after President Donald Trump quit the agreement. Joe Biden came to office calling Trump’s Iran policy a “self-inflicted disaster” and pledging to return to the deal if Iran returned to compliance. Making that happen was easier said than done, however. In February the Biden administration accepted an invitation from the European Union to rejoin negotiations. Diplomatic jockeying between Tehran and Washington delayed the start of talks until April. An explosion at an Iranian nuclear facility in mid-April, likely the result of Israeli sabotage, prompted Iran to announce it had begun enriching uranium to 60 percent, a level that has no civilian use though it is below the threshold required for a weapon. Five more rounds of negotiations took place before Iran’s presidential election in June, which saw hardliner Ebrahim Raisi emerge victorious. He immediately dampened speculation that an agreement was near, saying “that the situation in Iran has changed through the people’s vote.” Negotiations finally resumed in late November, but Iran walked away from the concessions it made in earlier rounds and restated its initial demand that the United States lift all the sanctions the Trump administration imposed. As 2021 came to a close, the talks were on the verge of collapse, with Iran by some estimates just a month away from acquiring weapons-grade uranium and the Biden administration facing the question of what to do should diplomacy fail.

    The Taliban Return to Power

    The U.S. war in Afghanistan ended as it started twenty years earlier: with the Taliban in power. In 2020, President Donald Trump struck a deal with the Taliban that required withdrawing all U.S. troops by May 1, 2021. Two weeks before that deadline, President Joe Biden ordered that a complete U.S. withdrawal be concluded by no later than September 11, 2021—the twentieth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. As the withdrawal proceeded, the Afghanistan national army collapsed and the Taliban overran the country. Kabul fell on August 15, trapping thousands of foreigners in the capital city. The United States launched a massive effort to evacuate stranded Americans by August 31, a deadline set by the Taliban. The U.S. withdrawal ended on August 30, leaving behind more than one hundred U.S. citizens and as many as 300,000 Afghans who may have qualified for expedited U.S. visas. Biden called the withdrawal an “extraordinary success.” Most Americans disagreed and his public approval ratings hit new lows. Allied dignitaries called the withdrawal “imbecilic” and a “debacle” among other things. The United States spent more than $2.3 trillion on Afghanistan over two decades, or roughly $300 million a day for twenty years. More than 2,500 U.S. service members and 4,000 U.S. civilian contractors died in Afghanistan. The number of Afghans who lost their lives likely topped 170,000. Despite claiming to be different, the new Taliban government so far has looked and acted just like the one that horrified the world twenty years ago and a massive humanitarian crisis looms.

    Joe Biden Becomes President

    “America is back.” Joe Biden made that point repeatedly in 2021. He moved quickly upon taking office to fulfill his promise to strengthen relations with America’s allies. He returned the United States to the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization, renewed New START for five years, sought to revive the Iran nuclear deal, and ended U.S. support for offensive military operations in Yemen. These moves away from former President Donald Trump’s America First policies drew applause overseas; initial polls showed a sharp improvement in the U.S. image abroad. As the year progressed, however, many foreign capitals openly wondered just how different, and how sustainable, Biden’s foreign policies were. On critical issues like China and trade, Biden’s policies differed from his predecessor’s more in tone than in substance. Biden also alarmed many allies, especially in Europe, with his penchant for unilateral action. He canceled the Keystone XL pipeline, withdrew from Afghanistan, supported a waiver for intellectual property rights for vaccines, and created AUKUS without significant consultations with critical partners. The bungled Afghanistan withdrawal, the clumsy AUKUS rollout, and the slow pace of announcing ambassadors also raised doubts about the Biden administration’s competence, which had been presumed to be its strength. With Biden’s approval rating sinking at home and the odds improving that Republicans will retake one or both houses of Congress in the 2022 midterm elections, U.S. allies have to entertain the thought that Trump and America First might return to the White House in 2025.

    United States Capitol attack

    On January 6, 2021, a mob of supporters of President Donald Trump attacked the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.[note 1][28] They sought to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election by disrupting the joint session of Congress assembled to count electoral votes that would formalize then President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.  The Capitol Complex was locked down and lawmakers and staff were evacuated, while rioters assaulted law enforcement officers, vandalized property and occupied the building for several hours. Five people died either shortly before, during, or following the event: one was shot by Capitol Police, another died of a drug overdose, and three died of natural causes. Many people were injured, including 138 police officers. Four officers who responded to the attack died by suicide within seven months.

  • TIME’s 100 Most Influential People 2021

    From gold-medallists to Grammy Award-winning musicians, the TIME100 is a snapshot of the world’s most influential people over the last 12 months. The edition is split into six sections: Icons, Titans, Artists, Leaders, Pioneers and Innovators. Here are the 100 most influential people in the world for 2021, as outlined by TIME Magazine.

    Icons

                    Prince Harry & Meghan, The Duke & Duchess of Sussex

                    Naomi Osaka

                    Alexei Navalny

                    Britney Spears

                    Sherrilyn Ifill

                    Dolly Parton

                    Shohei Ohtani

                    Cathy Park Hong

                    Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara

                    Nasrin Sotoudeh

                    Manjusha P. Kulkarni,?Russell Jeung, & Cynthia Choi

                    Muna El-Kurd & Mohammed El-Kurd

                     Titans

                    Simone Biles

                    Tim Cook

                    Shonda Rhimes

                    Timbaland & Swizz Beatz

                    Nikole Hannah-Jones

                    Tom Brady

                    Youn Yuh Jung

                    Allyson Felix

                    Angélique Kidjo

                    Kenneth C. Frazier & Kenneth I.                                Chenault

                    Luiza Trajano

    Pioneers

                    Billie Eilish

                    Ben Crump

                    Adi Utarini

                    Sunisa Lee

                    Felwine Sarr & Bénédicte Savoy

                    Fatih Birol

                    Aurora James

                    Adar Poonawalla

                    Phyllis Omido

                    Frans Timmermans

                    Indyra Mendoza & Claudia                           Spellmant

                    Roger Cox

                    Olimpia Coral?Melo Cruz

                    Dorottya Redai

                    Esther Ze Naw Bamvo & Ei

                 Thinzar Maung

                   Artists

                    Kate Winslet

                    Bad Bunny

                    Chloé Zhao

                    Jason Sudeikis

                    Scarlett Johansson

                    Lil Nas X

                    Jessica B. Harris

                    Bowen Yang

                    Tracee Ellis Ross

                    Mark Bradford

                    N.K. Jemisin

                    Steven Yeun

                    Daniel Kaluuya

                    Omar Sy

                    Barbara Kruger

                    Kane Brown

    Leaders

                    Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

                    Joe Biden

                    Xi Jinping

                    Liz Cheney

                    Kamala Harris

                    Mario Draghi

                    Tucker Carlson

                    Naftali Bennett

                    Stacey Abrams

                    Nayib Bukele

                    Donald Trump

                    Narendra Modi

                    Mahbouba Seraj

                    Joe Manchin

                    Ebrahim Raisi

                    Rochelle Walensky

                    Mamata Banerjee

                    Ron Klain

                    Elisa Loncon Antileo

                    Abdul Ghani Baradar

    Innovators

                    Jensen Huang

                    Elon Musk

                    Adrienne Banfield Norris, Willow                              Smith, & Jada Pinkett Smith

                    Katalin Kariko

                    Mary Barra

                    John Nkengasong

                    MiMi Aung

                    Vitalik Buterin

                    Viya

                    Barney Graham

                    Friederike Otto & Geert Jan van                                Oldenborgh

                    Kengo Kuma

                    Sara Menker

                    Lidia Morawska

                    Source: Manofmany.com

  • The 10 Best Movies of 2021

    The 10 Best Movies of 2021

    If 2020 was a long, dark winter for movie lovers—a season of some terrific pictures, sure, but also a long slog of having no choice but to stream everything at home—2021 has been the exuberant, celebratory spring. Not even just your regular, garden-variety spring, but a full-on Stravinsky-style spring, with crocuses bursting from the earth in symphonic unison, rain showers copiously blessing the fields and trees blossoming from every twig. The reason for this is partly practical, and somewhat predictable: A number of this year’s best movies were completed in 2020 but were held back until they could be released—properly—in theaters. But it’s hard not to think of this bounty as a kind of spiritual reward as well, a celebratory season of light after months of darkness. To that end, please consider this list of 10 of the year’s greatest movies—plus a handful of honorable mentions—to be a roadmap for your viewing pleasure. We’ve all earned it.

    Drive My Car

    In Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s swimmingly gorgeous three-hour drama—adapted from a Haruki Murakami short story—a widowed actor and theater director from Tokyo (Hidetoshi Nishijima) accepts a gig in Hiroshima, mounting a production of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya. A young woman from the country (Toko Miura) has been hired to drive him; their slow-building friendship helps illuminate how lost he really is. Hamaguchi weaves a lustrous story of loss and forgiveness—a gentle nudge of encouragement suggesting that no matter how tired you feel, you can move on in the world.

    The Tragedy of Macbeth

    You may have seen this material a hundred times before. But Joel Coen’s shivery black-and-white rendering—starring Frances McDormand and Denzel Washington as the treacherous, scheming Scots, compelling as a demon’s spell—pulls off that rare feat: it puts you in the shoes of the play’s first audience, as if this 400-year-old play were unfolding anew. Now, as then, it chills to the bone.

    C’mon C’mon

    Joaquin Phoenix gives a funny, finely wrought performance as a childless New York City radio journalist who takes charge of his precocious 9-year-old Los Angeles nephew (Woody Norman) for a few weeks. How does that even sound like a whole movie? But in the hands of writer-director Mike Mills, it’s everything. No one is better at chronicling late 20th and early 21st century family affection, in all its thorny, shimmery beauty.

    The Disciple

    A singer with great drive and discipline (played, with searching openness, by Aditya Modak) strives to make a life for himself in the rarefied and decidedly unlucrative world of Indian classical music—only to be forced to recognize he’s missing the essential spark of genius. Director Chaitanya Tamhane’s luminous, quietly affecting film examines what it means to pursue a dream of art so feverishly that living in the real world takes a backseat.

    Passing

    In this beautifully rendered adaptation of Nella Larsen’s compact, potent 1929 novel, two girlhood friends (played, superbly, by Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga) reconnect as adults, their lives not just intersecting but colliding: both women are Black, but one has chosen to live as white. First-time director Rebecca Hall gives us a deeply thoughtful spin on what we commonly call the American Dream, the ability to make something of ourselves, or to remake ourselves as we wish—a so-called freedom that comes, sometimes, at perilous cost.

    Parallel Mothers

    Penélope Cruz gives a smashing performance as a Madrid woman who becomes a mother in middle age—even as she’s striving to win justice for her great-grandfather, murdered during the Spanish Civil War, his body tossed into a mass grave. Director Pedro Almodóvar uses melodrama to reckon with the painful history of his country, but also to reaffirm an essential truth about motherhood: history is the work of mothers—civilization can’t move on without them.

    The Souvenir Part II

    In English filmmaker Joanna Hogg’s piercingly wistful semiautobiographical film, a young student in 1980s London (Honor Swinton Byrne, in a subtle, captivating performance) tries to make sense of a heartbreaking personal tragedy as she completes her graduate film. With that seemingly simple story, Hogg captures a thousand facets of what it’s like to be a young person eager to make a mark on the world—while also needing desperately to make sense of it all.

    Summer of Soul

    Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s radiant documentary chronicles a star-studded free concert series that took place in a Harlem park during the summer of Woodstock but received far less attention. The Harlem Cultural Festival drew huge crowds, but in the years since, this civil rights–era celebration of pride and music had been largely forgotten—or, perhaps more accurately, simply neglected. Like jewels hidden in plain sight, the film showcases glorious performances from Mahalia Jackson, Stevie Wonder and Nina Simone. At last, the world is ready to take notice.

    The Worst Person in the World

    Danish-Norwegian director Joachim Trier’s staggeringly tender comedy-drama feels like a gift from the gods. On the road to figuring out who she is, Julie (Renate Reinsve, in a performance of marvelous, sturdy delicacy) falls in love first with one man and then another, only to realize she’s more lost than ever. Trier guides this story to a joyous, bittersweet landing—a reminder that we’re all works in progress, unfinished beings whose only imperative is to turn toward the light.

    The Power of the Dog

    In 1920s Montana, a misanthropic rancher (Benedict Cumberbatch) meets a reedy, dreamy teenager (Kodi Smit-McPhee) who arouses his contempt—and more. Jane Campion’s gorgeous, sinewy western, based on Thomas Savage’s 1967 novel, is a movie as big as the open sky—but also one where human emotions are distinctly visible, as fine and sharp as a blade of grass.    Source: Time.com

  • From Ambani to Birla, meet top 10 richest billionaires of India

    From Ambani to Birla, meet top 10 richest billionaires of India

    We all know that wealth does not remain static and specially during the fluctuating industry scenario that we are facing due to the ongoing covid pandemic. But even in this tough situation where market continue to go up and down, India has produced several billionaires who occupy a significant number of slots on the list of wealthiest persons in the world today. And with just a few days left for the year 2021 to end, here is the list of the top 10 richest persons in India as per the Forbes.

    Mukesh Ambani

    With a net worth of $92.7 billion, according to Forbes, the Chairman of Reliance Industries tops the list, yet again. During the lockdown period, Ambani raised $20 billion, by selling one-third of the stake of Jio to investors like Google and Facebook. He has remained at the top place for more than 10 years now.

     Gautam Adani

    The infrastructure tycoon has a net worth of $74.8 billion. Apart from infra, he has business interests in power generation and transmission, edible oil and real estate as well. Interestingly, Adani owns a 74 per cent stake in Mumbai International Airport.

    Shiv Nadar

    With a net worth of $31 billion, the co-founder of HCL ranks third this year. He is a leading philanthropist and has donated more than $662 million to his Shiv Nadar Foundation. His daughter, Roshni Nadar Malhotra, is the current Chairman of HCL Technologies.

    Radhakishan Damani

    Damani has a net worth of $29.4 billion. He owns 214 DMart stores across the country. In 2017, he became India’s retail king after a successful IPO of his supermarket chain Avenue Supermart.

    Cyrus Poonawalla

    The founder of Serum Institute of India, Poonawalla has a net worth of $19 billion. SII is the world’s largest vaccine maker. During and after Covid-19’s second wave, the majority of Indians got vaccinated with Covishield, a product of SII.

    Lakshmi Mittal

    The Chairman of ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel and mining company, Mittal has a net worth of $18.8 billion. He has been frequently featured on the list of richest Indians. In January 2021, Mittal gave the CEO’s position to his son Aditya Mittal.

    Savitri Jindal

    The Richest Indian woman, Jindal has a net worth of $18 billion. She is the Chairperson of Jindal Group, founded by her late husband, Om Prakash Jindal. In 2005, after Jindal’s sudden death, the group got divided among their four sons.

    Uday Kotak

    Founder of Kotak Mahindra Bank, Uday Kotak has a net worth of $16.5 billion. The bank, which is now among the top four private banks in the country, was converted to a bank from a finance firm that Kotak founded in 1985. He was, initially, backed by Anand Mahindra for the bank.

    Pallonji Mistry

    Famous construction and engineering giant Shapoorji Pallonji Group is virtually controlled by Mistry. He has a net worth of $16.4 billion. Interestingly, SP Group also owns the water purifier brand, Eureka Forbes.

    Kumar Birla

    Head of Aditya Birla Group, Birla has a net worth of $15.8 billion. In India, he is also called the ‘Commodity King’. He inherited the empire after the death of his father, Aditya Birla, in 1995.

    Richest people on earth in 2021 : With a net worth of more than $296 billion as of November 27, 2021, Tesla CEO Elon Musk is the richest person in the world, followed by Amazon’s founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos. The businessman has a total net worth of approximately $201 billion.

    LVMH’s Chairman and CEO, Bernard Arnault, is the 3rd-richest person in the world, with approximately $164 billion in current real-time total net worth. Microsoft mogul Bill Gates ranked 4th with a personal wealth of $136 billion, followed by Larry Page with $127 billion.

    RANK    NAME   TOTAL NET WORTH         COUNTRY            INDUSTRY

    1              Elon Musk           $296 billion                          United States    Technology

    2              Jeff Bezos           $201 billion                          United States    Technology

    3              Bernard                $164 billion                          France                  Consumer

                    Arnault

    4              Bill Gates             $136 billion                          United States    Technology

    5              Larry Page           $127 billion                          United States    Technology

    6              Mark                     $124 billion                          United States    Technology

                    Zuckerberg

    7              Sergey Brin         $122 billion                          United States    Technology

    8              Steve Ballmer    $117 billion                          United States    Technology

    9              Larry Ellison        $112 billion                          United States    Technology

    10           Warren Buffett $103 billion                          United States    Diversified

    11           Mukesh               $91.1 billion                        India                      Energy

                    Ambani

    12           Francoise             $90.1 billion                        France                  Consumer

                    Meyers

    13           Gautam Adani   $78.1 billion                        India                      Industrial

    14           Zhong                   $75.1 billion                        China                     Diversified

                    Shanshan

    15           Amancio              $70.5 billion                        Spain                     Retail

                    Ortega

    16           Michael                $70 billion                            United States    Media & Telecom

                    Bloomberg

    17           Jim Walton          $65.0 billion                        United States    Retail

    18           Rob Walton        $64.5 billion                        United States    Retail

    19           Alice Walton       $63.1 billion                        United States    Retail

    20           Phil Knight           $62.9 billion                        United States    Consumer

  • China raises heat on Arunachal Pradesh, names 15 more sites

    China raises heat on Arunachal Pradesh, names 15 more sites

    New Delhi (TIP) : A day after China announced its own standardised names for 15 more places in Arunachal Pradesh, which it claims as “South Tibet”, Delhi reacted sharply and said the state is an integral part of India and “assigning invented names to places… does not alter this fact”.China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs announced Wednesday, Dec 29,  that it had standardised in Chinese characters, and the Tibetan and Roman alphabet, the names of 15 places in Zangnan, the Chinese name for Arunachal Pradesh, the state-run Global Times reported. This is in accordance with regulations on geographical names issued by the State Council, China’s Cabinet, the report said.

    Among the official names of the 15 places, with longitude and latitude, eight are residential areas, four are mountains, two are rivers and one is a mountain pass, the report said. This is the second batch of standardised names of places in Arunachal given by China, after six other places in 2017.

    Responding to China’s latest move, Ministry of External Affairs’ official spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said: “We have seen such reports. This is not the first time China has attempted such a renaming of places in the state of Arunachal Pradesh. China had also sought to assign such names in April 2017. Arunachal Pradesh has always been, and will always be, an integral part of India. Assigning invented names to places in Arunachal Pradesh does not alter this fact.”

    The India-China border dispute covers the 3,488 km long LAC, and Beijing regularly protests visits of top Indian leaders and officials to Arunachal Pradesh to reaffirm its claim.

    The eight residential areas in China’s second batch of names are Sêngkezong and Daglungzong in Cona County of Shannan Prefecture; Mani’gang, Duding and Migpain in Medog County of Nyingchi; Goling and Damba in Zayu County of Nyingchi; and, Mejag in Lhunze County of Shannan Prefecture, the Global Times reported. The four mountains are Wamo Ri, Dêu Ri, Lhünzhub Ri and Kunmingxingzê Feng, it said. The two rivers are Xenyogmo He and Dulain He, and the mountain pass is named Se La, the report said.

    China assigning names of places in Arunachal Pradesh is part of its strategy to reiterate territorial claims with India. In the past, Beijing has always objected to visits by Indian leaders – Presidents, Prime Ministers and senior ministers – to the north-eastern state. In recent months, there are reports of China establishing villages along the Line of Actual Control. The naming is part of the country’s aggressive expansionist approach.

                    Source: Indian Express

  • Rates of type 2 diabetes higher in people with common psychiatric disorders

    Rates of type 2 diabetes higher in people with common psychiatric disorders

    A new study has found that the prevalence of type 2 diabetes (T2D) is elevated in people with a psychiatric disorder compared with the general population. The research has been published in the ‘Diabetologia Journal’. Psychiatric disorders are common, impair the quality of life and are associated with increased mortality rates. This excess mortality is caused in part by more frequent suicides and accidents, but also by an elevated risk of developing physical conditions known to be linked to mental health problems such as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Diabetes is an increasingly common disease throughout the world and estimates suggest that 6 per cent to 9 per cent of the global general population are currently affected. Rates have been rising from 1990 onwards in a trend that is expected to continue for the next 20 years.

    Previous research has found that the prevalence of T2D is higher in people with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and major depression compared to the general population. Despite this, no systematic overview of this research is currently available to examine the possible links between the prevalence of T2D and psychiatric disorders in general.

    The authors conducted an in-depth search of four electronic databases of scientific papers and found 32 systematic reviews based on 245 unique primary studies. There were 11 categories of disorders: schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, substance use disorder, anxiety disorder, eating disorder, intellectual disability, psychosis, sleep disorder, dementia, and a ‘mixed’ group that comprised different types of psychiatric disorders.

    The study found that people with a sleep disorder had the highest rates of T2D with 40 per cent of subjects having the disease while its prevalence among individuals with other psychiatric disorders was 21 per cent (binge eating disorder), 16 per cent (substance use disorder), 14 per cent (anxiety disorders), 11 per cent (bipolar disorder), and 11 per cent (psychosis). Prevalence of T2D was lowest among people with an intellectual disability with 8 per cent of individuals having the disease. In each case, these rates are as high or higher than the 6-9 per cent level of T2D found in the general population.

    The researchers explained that sleep disorders constitute a subgroup of psychiatric disorders and have high comorbidity with several other diseases. In the review, most of the primary studies were conducted among people with additional diseases such as chronic kidney disease.

    Source: ANI

  • WHO warns of ‘tsunami of cases’ with more omicron and delta cases

    The World Health Organization (WHO) has cautioned that the more transmissible Omicron together with the currently circulating Delta variants might lead to “a tsunami of cases,” putting immense pressure on national health systems. Recapping WHO’s response since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday said at a press briefing that he’s “highly concerned that Omicron being more transmissible, circulating at the same time as Delta — is leading to a tsunami of cases.” “This is and will continue to put immense pressure on exhausted health workers and health systems on the brink of collapse and again disrupting lives and livelihoods,” he added, citing the pressure as not only new Covid-19 patients requiring hospitalisation but also a large number of health workers getting sick themselves.

    Tedros reiterated his concern over a recent narrative that Omicron has been causing milder or less severe diseases, Xinhua news agency reported.

    “But we are undermining the other side at the same time — it could be dangerous… we shouldn’t undermine the bad news just focusing on the good news,” he said.

    “We don’t want people to be complacent, saying this is not severe, this is mild. And we have to be very careful in that narrative,” he added.

    According to Mike Ryan, Executive Director of the WHO’s Health Emergencies Program, though Omicron looks like being more transmissible, having a shorter incubation period, and causing a mild disease, it’s based on the largely young population that the variant has been infecting.

    Since the Omicron wave has not been fully established in the broader population, Ryan said he’s “a little nervous to make positive predictions until we see how well the vaccine protection is going to work in the older and more vulnerable populations.” “I think it’s really important over the coming weeks that we keep suppressing transmission of both variants to the minimum that we can,” he added.

                    Source: IANS