Rajouri, Sep 11: Army officer among two soldiers Injured in an explosion along the Line of Control (LoC) in Rajouri district’s Nowshera sector, officials said on Friday.

They said that an explosion took place at a forward location in Nowshera sector.

“Reportedly a landmine went off when soldiers were busy in patrolling. The injured were immediately removed to Army hospital for advanced treatment,” officials added. (KNT)

New Delhi, Sep 11: India’s armed forces are ready for any eventuality, Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat told the Parliament’s Standing Committee on Defence today, even as tensions between India and China remain high following “provocative behaviour of Chinese frontline troops” along the LAC – Line of Actual Control, which serves as the de factor border between the two countries..

The meeting was attended – for the first time in this Lok Sabha – by Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, who has been a vocal critic of the government over its handling of the China border row.

General Rawat told the committee that the armed forces had taken adequate steps and measures to thwart any attempt by China to further change or alter the status quo along the LAC.

Defences forces are alert and will give a befitting reply to the Chinese in case of any misadventure that takes place along the border, the general further said.

General Rawat’s assertion – he made similar comments earlier this month at the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum – comes a day after Foreign Minister S Jaishankar met his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, in Russia on Thursday to defuse tension after a spike in hostilities along the border.

The government said Jaishankar, among other issues, highlighted India’s “strong concern at the massing of Chinese troops, with equipment, along the LAC”.

After that meeting a joint statement said India and China agreed to de-escalate border tensions and take steps to restore “peace and tranquillity”. Both sides, the statement added, also agreed the situation was not in their best interests and that troops should quickly disengage and ease tensions.

Wang further said he backed enhanced dialogue between troops to resolve “specific issues”.

The immediate task, “to prevent any untoward incident in the future”, is “to ensure a comprehensive disengagement of troops in all the friction areas,” India told China, sources said.

In a fresh flare-up earlier this week, China accused India of crossing the LAC – along the south bank of the Pangong Lake in eastern Ladakh – and firing warning shots in provocative actions.

India said Chinese forces had tried to close in on its positions and fired shots in the air. The Army asserted that Indian soldiers did not cross the LAC or resort to any aggressive means, including firing.

China “has been blatantly violating agreements and carrying out aggressive manoeuvres, while engagement at military, diplomatic and political level is in progress,” said India.

The Indian Army and China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have been locked in a stand-off along the LAC in eastern Ladakh since early May. The following month 20 Indian soldiers died for their nation in a violent attack by Chinese forces in the Galwan region of eastern Ladakh.

New Delhi, Sep 11: Amidst the heightened border standoff with China in eastern Ladakh, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday held a high-level meeting to review the situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

In the meeting, NSA Ajit Doval, Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and the three services chiefs and top Defence Ministry officials were also present.

On the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) foreign ministers meet, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Moscow on Thursday to resolve the border standoff. The meeting lasted for 2 hours 30 minutes.

Both the countries issued a joint statement and asserted that the five-point statement will “guide their approach to the current situation”.

Both countries also agreed that border troops of both sides should continue their dialogue, quickly disengage, maintain proper distance and ease tensions.

The Chinese have occupied Finger 4 to Finger 8 in the north bank of Pangong lake and as part of disengagement, India has repeatedly asked Chinese forces to go on its side of LAC and vacate the area.

India has marked its presence on the south bank of Pangong lake and several dominating heights close to China’s existing positions at Finger 4, north bank of the lake.

A Brigade commanders-level meeting is also underway at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh since 11am.

Azad, Soni dropped from list of AICC general secretaries  

New Delhi, Sep 11: Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Friday reconstituted the Congress Working Committee (CWC) and the Central Election Authority of the party. The party appointed general secretaries and state in-charges of the All India Congress Committee (AICC).

In a major reshuffle, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ambika Soni, Motilal Vohra, Luzenio Falerio and Mallikarjun Kharge were dropped from the list of general secretaries.
Jitin Prasad has been made in-charge of the party in poll-bound West Bengal. Madhusudan Mistry, Rajesh Mishra, Krishna Byre Gowda, S Jothimani and Avinder Singh Lovely were appointed members of the Central Election Authority.
Congress leaders Randeep Surjewala, Jitendra Singh and Ajay Maken were appointed as new general secretaries for Karnataka, Assam and Rajasthan respectively.

Country witnesses record daily jump of 96,551 new cases
Mumbai, Sep 11: Millions of COVID-19 cases may have gone undetected in India earlier this year, a research paper estimates, saying that for every confirmed case in May, there were 82 to 130 infections that were not recorded.

The paper, published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research, estimated that the country had nearly 6.5 million cases as early as May. Total cases stood at more than 180,000 in late May, according to the health ministry.
Infections are growing faster in India than anywhere else in the world, and the health ministry reported another record daily jump of 96,551 new cases on Friday, taking the official total case load to 4.5 million.
The research paper, written by government scientists and other experts and published late on Thursday, said large numbers of cases could have gone under the radar earlier this year because testing was limited to symptomatic patients or states had varying testing rates.

During the period they surveyed, India was conducting around 100,000 tests per day. It has ramped that up to a current more than 1.1 million tests a day.

To determine the range of infections, the researchers looked at the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases on May 3 and May 11, and compared it with the number of individuals who displayed coronavirus antibodies during a nationwide survey conducted in May and early June.

The two dates were chosen so that infected individuals would likely display coronavirus antibodies, which start appearing by the end of the first week after the onset of symptoms, the paper said. The overall ratio of people who had been infected with the virus against the number of confirmed cases was then extrapolated to between 82 and 130.

India’s Covid-19 fatality rate has so far remained relatively low. The health ministry reported 1,209 new deaths on Friday, taking the overall toll to 76,271.

The research paper’s findings were in line with similar surveys conducted by large cities including New Delhi, Mumbai and Pune, which found that a much higher percentage of people were likely infected, compared to the number of confirmed cases.

“India is currently testing 38,285 per million population. Brazil is testing at about double this rate and the US, nearly 8.5 times,” Dr Rajib Dasgupta, a professor of community medicine at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, told Reuters.

Moscow, Sept 11:  Olivier De Schutter, the UN rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, urged the world leaders on Friday to adopt improved social protection measures, as over 170 million people were at risk of falling into poverty due to the coronavirus pandemic-related hardships.

“The economic downturn resulting from the pandemic is unprecedented in times of peace since the Great Depression, he said, adding another 176 million people could fall into poverty when using a poverty baseline of 3.20 USD/day. This is equivalent to an increase in the poverty rate of 2.3 percentage points compared to a no-COVID-19 scenario,” the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a press release that accompanied the report.

De Schutter noted in his report that the World Bank’s $589 billion pledge for social protection in 113 countries would fail to prevent people from falling into poverty since many of the poorest were excluded from the social protection schemes.

“The social safety nets put into place are full of holes. These current measures are generally short-term, the funding is insufficient, and many people will inevitably fall between the cracks,” the UN independent expert said, as cited in the press release.

The expert reiterated his call for stronger social protection measures, guided by human rights principles, to eradicate poverty.

To date, 27.9 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, along with over 905,000 related fatalities, according to the World Health Organization. The pandemic has caused enormous disruption in the global economy, sending millions into poverty.

‘Jan Abhiyan would lay a strong foundation for success of B2V Phase III’

Precious Kashmir News

Srinagar, Sept 11:  “The three week Jan Abhiyan, began here yesterday before the launch of third phase of ambitious Back to Village programme, would be the weeks of progress and prosperity besides prompt public grievances hearing and redressal”, said Principal Secretary PDD and Information, Rohit Kansal, Friday while elaborating on the plan and strategy regarding implementation of this unique initiative of the government.

He said the previous two phases of the programme received tremendous support, cooperation and appreciation of the public who shared their issues and concerns with the administration in a complete cordial and cooperative manner.

Elucidating the broad contours of Phase 3 of B2V programme to be conducted from 2nd to 12th of October, 2020, Principal Secretary informed that the government has decided to launch Jan Abhiyan or Awami Muhim for three weeks before phase 3 of the programme because the people had shared numerous issues, demands and problems in the previous phases and this Abhiyan would take care of those. “This Jan Abhiyan would definitely lay a strong foundation for success of phase III of B2V”, he maintained.

He said the Jan Abhiyan will specially focus on several issues and concerns which were projected before the visiting officers during phase 1 and 2 of B2V.

There would be three steps to be implemented during the Abhiyan, he added. Firstly, on every Wednesday one Youm-e- block would be observed at block level in which all officers of the block will take stock of people’s grievances related to their respective departments and will try to resolve those on the spot besides issuing several certificates to the beneficiaries as per the feasibility. Secondly, everyday in a week except Wednesday and Sunday the DCs and SPs will meet the people from 10:30 am to 11:30 am and will listen to their complaints while other district officers will remain available in their respective offices so that they also listen to public grievances and could solve those. Besides, Divisional Commissioners and IGs will listen to people’s issues and complaints from 10:30 am to 11:30 am on every Tuesday and Thursday, he further informed.

Kansal appealed the people to project and register their issues to the administration for redressal.

“I also appeal my colleagues that it is an opportunity being given to us to come closer to masses and solve their issues and we should optimally utilize it for the larger interest of common people. We all have to put in collective efforts and work in tandem to redress public issues to the maximum. I appeal to the public that this journey of growth and development and problem resolution has to be taken forward with an optimistic mindset and spirit of cooperation to steer Jammu and Kashmir towards peace, progress and prosperity,” he added.

New Delhi, Sep 11: Describing the National Education Policy for 2020 as a means to fulfilling new aspirations and new opportunities of a new India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that NEP will give a new direction to 21st century India.

Addressing the Conclave on “School Education in 21st Century”, under the NEP 2020 through video conference, the PM said, ‘ National Education Policy will give a new direction to 21st century India. We are becoming part of a moment that is laying the foundation for building the future of our country. The new National Education Policy is a means to fulfilling new aspirations, new opportunities of a new India.’

‘Hardly any aspect of our life remained the same in these three decades yet our education system is still running under the old system,’ the PM said.

The NEP 2020 is a result of hard work of people from every region, every sector and every language in the last 3 to 4 years.

He said that the actual work begins now, in implementation of the policy.

He urged the teachers to work together for an effective implementation of the National Education Policy.

The Prime Minister said it is legitimate that many questions arise after the announcement of the Policy and that it is necessary to discuss such issues in this conclave to move forward.

PM Modi expressed happiness that principals and teachers are enthusiastically participating in this discussion to implement the National Education Policy. He said that over 1.5 million suggestions have been received within a week from teachers across the country on implementing the National Education Policy.

Energetic youth are the engines of development of a country but that their development should begin from their childhood. He said that the education of children, the right environment they get, to a large extent determines what the person would become in his future and what his personality would be.

He said the NEP-2020 lays a lot of emphasis on this.

It is in preschool where children begin to understand their senses, their skills better. For this, there is a need for schools and teachers to provide an environment of fun learning, playful learning, activity based learning and discovery based learning to children. He said that as the child progresses, it is very necessary to develop a greater learning spirit, scientific and logical thinking, mathematical thinking and scientific temperament, said the PM.

Poonch, Sep 11:  Army on Friday said that Pakistani Army violated ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district for the second consecutive day and targeted the areas in Manjkote and Balakote.

Officials told KNO that Pak Army violated ceasefire and fired both small arms as well as mortars in areas of Poonch’s Mendhar sub division.

“Manjkote and Balakote areas of Mendhar sub division got affected due to shelling from across with intermittent shelling from across still going on,” officials said.

They informed that two shops suffered partial damages in the shelling.

Army said that Pakistani Army resorted to unprovoked firing and shelling in areas of Mendhar Mankote, which was retaliated befittingly.