The one-horned rhino appears to have strayed into Assam’s poll rhetoric. Assam has an estimated 2,640 rhinos in four protected areas. About 2,400 of them in the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve (KNPTR) have become an issue for 23.19 lakh voters, more specifically for more than 3 lakh voters across six Assembly constituencies that straddle the World Heritage Site. Among the achievements that the BJP has listed is having checked rhino poaching in the State. Records with the State Forest Department say poaching has reduced by 86% in the last three years. From Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the…
Author: Mike Harrison
As several countries grapple with the second wave of COVID-19, almost half of global CEOs surveyed have said they did not expect to see a return to ‘normal’ until 2022.As per the findings of the 2021 KPMG CEO Outlook Pulse Survey, 45% of global top honchos executives said ‘normal’ course of business would not return until sometime in 2022, as opposed to 31% who anticipated this would happen later this year. Of those surveyed, 24% said their business model had been changed forever by the pandemic. Conducted by KPMG in February and March, the study asked 500 global CEOs about…
Infections in south stay steady, with about 2,000 cases added in Kerala, Karnataka; Telangana, A.P. incidence at over 400 The incidence of COVID-19 infection on Tuesday showed a high for the present year in Andhra Pradesh at 492 cases, besides 1,985 cases in Kerala, 2,010 in Karnataka and 412 in Telangana, the latter as of Monday. Kerala added 10 deaths from the virus from the past few days’ fatalities. Karnataka Health Minister K. Sudhakar denied any vaccine shortage and said the State would get four lakh doses from the Centre by a special flight on Wednesday, and 12.5 lakh by…
At least 15 people have been killed in a massive fire that ripped through a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh, while at least 400 remain missing, the UN refugee agency said on Tuesday.“It is massive, it is devastating,” said UNHCR’s Johannes Van der Klaauw, who joined a Geneva briefing virtually from Dhaka, Bangladesh. “We still have 400 people unaccounted for, maybe somewhere in the rubble,” he said.He said the UNHCR had reports of more than 550 people injured and about 45,000 displaced.Thousands are homelessBangladeshi officials are investigating the cause of the blaze even as officials, aid workers and families sift…
Military regime calls anti-coup protesters ‘insurgents holding weapons’ and vows to end ‘anarchy’ Myanmar’s junta on Tuesday defended its seven-week crackdown that has left more than 260 democracy protesters dead, insisting it would not tolerate “anarchy”.The junta has unleashed deadly violence as it struggles to quell nationwide protests against the February 1 ousting of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.In a news conference in the capital Naypyidaw, junta spokesman Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun put the death toll lower at 164.“I am sad because these violent terrorist people who died are our nationals,” he said.The streets of towns and cities…
Non-profit group Oxfam India on Tuesday said India had scored low on labour rights performance, unemployment and inequality in wages in its Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index 2020, a day after Labour Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar told the Lok Sabha that the ranking and methodology lacked clarity.Asked about India being ranked 151 out of 158 countries in terms of workers’ rights, Mr. Gangwar said on Monday that the ranking had not taken into account provisions under the new labour law codes.Responding to the Minister’s statement as reported in The Hindu, Oxfam India’s lead specialist against inequality Anjela Taneja said in…
Just after the recent conclusion of a hectic Graduates’ MLC polls, and brief celebrations over Pay Revision Commission (PRC) announcement by the Telangana government, Nalgonda district officials are up for another election.Starting Tuesday, the model code of conduct for the byelection for the Nagarjunasagar Assembly constituency seat, after the death of sitting TRS legislator Nomula Narsimhaiah, has come into effect.The gazette notification published by the Election Commission of India fixed April 17 as the polling date and May 2 as the counting date. The election will be conducted through EVMs and voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT).Tuesday was also the first…
China and Russia have rejected U.S. calls for “a rules-based order” – a call endorsed by the Quad summit China and Russia have proposed setting up a new “regional security dialogue platform” to address security concerns of countries in the region, as their foreign ministers hit out at the United States for “forming small circles to seek bloc confrontation”.The proposal came following a meeting between Foreign Minister Wang Yi of China and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in the southern Chinese city of Guilin, and days after the March 19 U.S.-China summit in Alaska and the March 12 leaders’ summit…
With this, table-topper India’s gold medal haul at the ongoing event went up to seven Indian shooters Ganemat Sekhon and Angad Vir Singh Bajwa bagged the skeet mixed team gold medal, extending the home contingent’s dominance at the ISSF World Cup in New Delhi on March 23.Ganemat and Angad, who had topped the qualification with a score of 141, produced another good show beating the Kazakh pair of Olga Panarina and Alexandr Yechshenko 33-29 in the gold medal showdown.With this, table-topper India’s gold medal haul at the ongoing event went up to seven.Another Indian pair of Parinaaz Dhaliwal and Mairaj…
The Gauhati High Court has directed the Assam government to create a separate wing at the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) for the transgender community. The court also asked the Central government to issue a list of benefits for transgenders under the Ayushman Bharat scheme. The order of a division bench on Monday followed a hearing on a petition filed by Swati Bidhan Baruah, a transgender rights activist and the first transgender judge in the northeast, when the Ayushman Bharat scheme was being rolled out in Assam. ‘Landmark order’“I approached the court after I saw the transgender community excluded…