Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Lok Sabha during the second part of the budget session of Parliament, in New Delhi on Monday, March 14, 2022. (PTI)

Opposition left puzzled as BJP MPs chant ‘Modi, Modi, Modi’ as PM enters Lok Sabha

The BJP’s victory in the Assembly elections has obviously left the party MPs jubilant and they are not hiding their enthusiasm. During the Lok Sabha meeting on Monday, Speaker Om Birla welcomed the Austrian parliamentary delegation, which was seated in the room. As he was speaking, Prime Minister Narendra Modi entered the house. Aligarh MP Satish Kumar Gautam stood up and started banging on the desk congratulating the Prime Minister. Soon, the other BJP MPs joined him and they started chanting “Modi, Modi, Modi”, leaving the opposition puzzled. The President had to stop for the choir to finish to continue his welcome speech.

Ukraine crisis: Opposition urges government to ensure students complete classes

Raising concerns about the future of students who have returned from war-stricken Ukraine, MPs on Monday called on the government to ensure facilities for students to complete their courses without imposing a financial burden on them. The government assured MPs that it would “consider making the necessary arrangements”.

At the Rajya Sabha, President M Venkaiah Naidu said the government would make a statement on the situation in Ukraine as well as developments regarding Indian students.

Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, while responding to a question posed by Congressman Gaurav Gogoi, said the government will consider what measures can be taken for students who have been brought back from Ukraine under the Operation Ganga, so they can complete their education

Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman were among those who attended the meeting.

In the days following the start of the war on February 24, the majority of Indian diplomats left the Ukrainian capital of Kiev for Lviv, a city located a short distance from the Ukrainian-Polish border. But the Indian embassy in Kyiv remained functional, with a few officials stationed to coordinate with the Ukrainian authorities the evacuation of Indians from the country.

But with Russian attacks moving west into Ukraine – including a early Sunday airstrike on a military airbase near Lviv which killed 35 people – the Indian government has now decided to move its base from there to Poland.

In a statement issued on Sunday, the Foreign Ministry said: “In view of the rapidly deteriorating security situation in Ukraine, including attacks in the west of the country, it has been decided that the Embassy of India in Ukraine will be temporarily transferred to Poland.” The situation will be reassessed in light of developments, he added.

It is learned that the recent incident of an Indian cruise missile accidentally landing in Pakistan was also discussed at the SCC meeting.

Officials who were part of the meeting included National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba, Principal Secretary to Prime Minister PK Mishra, Defense Secretary Ajay Kumar and Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla .

The Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement that the SCC meeting was aimed at “reviewing India’s security preparedness and the prevailing global scenario in the context of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine”.

The Prime Minister “was briefed on the latest developments and various aspects of India’s security preparedness in the border areas as well as in the maritime and air domain”. This language also indicated that the issue of the accidental landing of the Indian missile in Pakistan was also discussed.

He said Modi was “also briefed on the latest developments in Ukraine, including details of Operation Ganga to evacuate Indian nationals, as well as some citizens of India’s neighboring countries, from Ukraine.” The Prime Minister ordered that “all possible efforts be made to bring back the mortal remains of Naveen Shekharappa, who died in Kharkiv”.

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Shekharappa, a 21-year-old medical student, was killed in the early days of the war after going out to buy supplies, but was caught in the shelling.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, India’s main concern has been to evacuate the more than 22,000 Indian nationals, mostly students, who were stranded in various cities across Ukraine.

However, another concern within the establishment is the supply of weapon systems and spare parts for Indian weapons as a large proportion of them are of Soviet or Russian origin. A week ago, Defense Minister Singh met with the three service chiefs to review the situation, vis-à-vis pending Russian arms imports, delivery and stockpiles of replacement and maintenance of existing weapons of Russian origin.

As defense establishment officials have assured the armed forces have had spare parts for more than six months, with several countries imposing sanctions on Russia, fear is that it will become more difficult for India to ensure a regular supply of spare parts.

From fighter jets, tanks and submarines to air defense systems, frigates and guns, more than 60% of the weapons available to the Indian armed forces are of Russian origin. Many weapons also have Ukrainian components, including missiles and gas turbines for warships.

India has already signed deals worth more than US$12 billion with Russia for the delivery of major weapons in the coming years. In the short term, the Indian and Russian sides have assured that the delivery of four of the five S400 Triumf air defense units that India purchased in 2018 will continue as planned. There might be some delay, but that too is unlikely.

Apart from this, India is awaiting delivery of two Talwar class frigates from Russia, for which Ukraine had supplied the gas turbines. Ukraine was also supposed to supply gas turbines for two other frigates of this type, which will however be built in India.

India is also taking two nuclear ballistic submarines on lease from Russia – Chakra 3 and Chakra 4 – the first of which is expected to arrive in 2025.

All these projects could be jeopardized under the threat of sanctions. Although the United States has been lenient with India in imposing sanctions under its 2017 Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), but in the changing global situation, there are fears that the United States United are not so tolerant while India continues to buy sophisticated weapons products from Russia.

As India tries to expand its base for arms purchases, Russia has for decades been India’s largest defense exporter, and India has bought arms from it for over $35 billion. dollars over the past 20 years.

While most members of India’s defense establishment have no doubts about Russia’s ability to deliver the weapons or supply spare parts, how to pay them around global sanctions will be tricky. As the West tries to isolate Russia, cutting it off from the global SWIFT system, and most Western banks are closing their operations in Russia, the Reserve Bank of India has asked Indian banks to explore other avenues to make payments to Russia.

However, officials within the defense establishment argue that it is still too early to say what kinds of problems Indian forces may face in the long term as a result of the conflict and sanctions. But the situation has once again highlighted India’s dependence on Russia for its weapons.

The poll results are also an endorsement of Prime Minister Modi’s comments he made at one of his rallies when he attributed the success of Operation Ganga to India’s rise to power over the World Scene.

New Delhi: The four out of five election result for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) can be attributed to some extent to the steadfast, determined and extraordinary global reach of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which led to “India’s substantial rise ” on the global platform. The surge of saffron in most states that have recently gone to the polls suggests that Prime Minister Modi’s “masterstrokes” on the foreign policy front have struck a chord with voters.
As he addressed party workers after the election victory at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi on Thursday, what Prime Minister Modi said was, in fact, a confirmation of how voters endorsed diplomatic positions that his government has taken from time to time. Referring to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, Prime Minister Modi said on Thursday, “India’s many needs are related to the countries concerned, but she is on the side of peace and hopes that all problems will be solved through dialogue”. He added, “In this uncertain environment of upheaval, the people of India, especially states like Uttar Pradesh, have shown their foresight.” “The way voters gave their mandate for stable governments in these polls means that democracy runs through the veins of Indians,” he added.
Prime Minister Modi’s message was loud and clear to the global community as well as Indian politicians who questioned his government’s stance on the conflict in Ukraine. The BJP’s massive mandate in the UP and other states is the people’s response to those who question India’s Ukrainian position. The poll results are also an endorsement of Prime Minister Modi’s comments he made at one of his rallies when he attributed the success of Operation Ganga – an evacuation mission in Ukraine – to the rise in power of India on the world stage. What created a positive impact of Prime Minister Modi’s diplomacy among the people of the contending states was that the President of Ukraine and other world leaders asked him to persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop the war . The fact that Putin continued to brief Prime Minister Modi on the conflict situation “reinforced the belief in the strength of his leadership on the world stage”. Even diplomats from the Department of External Affairs (MEA) analyze how the government’s diplomatic positions have been well received by voters. “Prime Minister Modi not bowing to pressure from Quad members over India’s stance on Ukraine was appreciated even by his political opponents,” a diplomat told the Sunday Guardian.
While expressing satisfaction with law and order, development and other issues in UP, voters in the more remote parts of the state have publicly appreciated Prime Minister Modi’s bold foreign policy moves. What is interesting for diplomats is how the current dispensation’s foreign policy has impacted domestic electoral politics. “That major powers such as the US, UK, Germany, France and Italy are coming to India was the perception of the voters. These countries are unable to bully us today with Modi as prime minister,” a foreign service official says. Prime Minister Modi’s surgical strike on Pakistan continues to thrill voters. “People attributed to the aggressive diplomacy of the Modi government that Pakistan continues to be on the FATF gray list,” the sources said.
China being under enormous pressure due to Prime Minister Modi’s diplomatic offensive was another reason cited by some for supporting the BJP. “Some voters were of the view that India’s pressure and the foreign minister’s tough rhetoric forced China to come to the dialogue table,” a source said.
What has also dominated public discourse is that Prime Minister Modi has been named the most popular leader in the world with an approval rating of 71% of India’s adult population. A US-based global leader endorsement tracker, Morning Consult had released this result. Among the 13 leaders surveyed by the research firm, PM Modi tops the list with 71%. US President Joe Biden and Canadian Justin Trudeau were far behind him. “It was another certificate of Prime Minister Modi’s international image,” a diplomat said.
“Needless to say, India’s international standing has improved tremendously over the past seven years,” a diplomat said. “Although the members of the Quad, including the almighty United States, criticize Russia, India has continued to take a different stance due to the determination of Prime Minister Modi,” he adds. He insisted that India wants peace which can only be achieved through dialogue.
Voters also recalled how the global community praised Prime Minister Modi’s vaccination policy in what was another great global achievement of his government.
Moreover, Prime Minister Modi’s outspoken comments during his Independence Day speech at Red Fort were remembered by UP voters when he said, “India is fighting with great courage against the double challenge of terrorism and expansionism, and does not hesitate to make difficult decisions. “He said that by carrying out surgical and airstrikes, the country was sending the message of a ‘New India’.
“This was welcomed by voters in Uttar Pradesh as the ‘New India’ refrain cemented Prime Minister Modi’s image of being a strong leader,” sources said. It is undeniable that the huge public reaction to Prime Minister Modi’s foreign policy initiatives aimed at containing China’s “enemies” from Pakistan to the Taliban has also boosted the energy levels of BJP workers and leaders. BJP MP Hema Malini was so quick to take advantage when she declared to thunderous applause at a rally that everyone in the world wanted PM Modi to stop the Russian-Ukrainian war .

Nicolas Osbert is convinced that when it comes to promoting the concept of handwashing, two years of the COVID-19 pandemic have achieved what UNICEF, WHO and development agencies have not been able to do in two decades. .

Osbert should know. He is the Water, Sanitation, Hygiene (WASH) Program Manager at UNICEF India and has 20 years of experience with WASH and public health programs in Africa, Latin America and Asia-Pacific.

According to the Joint WASH Surveillance Program report released by UNICEF and WHO in July 2021, COVID-19 has highlighted the value of good hand hygiene. At the start of the pandemic, three in 10 people worldwide lacked facilities at home to wash their hands with soap and water.

According to the UNICEF and WHO report, some 818 million children worldwide lack basic handwashing facilities in their schools, putting them at increased risk of COVID-19. 19 and other communicable diseases. Of these children, more than a third (275 million) came from South Asia.

However, the report states that between 2015 and 2020, the global population with safely managed drinking water at home increased from 70% to 74%; safely managed sanitation services increased from 47% to 54%; and handwashing facilities with soap and water increased from 67% to 71%.

In South Asia, in 2020, 80% of the Pakistani population had basic hygiene facilities, including household handwashing facilities with soap and water. India followed with 68% while Nepal recorded 62% and Bangladesh 58%, according to UNICEF-WHO.

The rate of improvement in basic handwashing practices between 2015 and 2020 was highest in Bangladesh at 3.33%. Next come Pakistan with 3.15%, Nepal with 1.37% and India with 0.10%. Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh are also in a list of 13 countries that have increased overall hygiene by five percentage points during this period.

In 2016, according to a survey by the WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia (SEARO), only 44% of schools in Bangladesh had basic handwashing services with soap and water. The situation in Indonesia, which falls under the SEARO region, was worse with only 42% while India had 55%.

Even by 2020, nearly 60% of schools in Indonesia still lack functional handwashing stations equipped with soap and water.

India recorded much better progress for the same year. More than 90% of schools in India already had basic handwashing facilities, up from just 36.3% in 2013, according to the Ministry of Human Resource Development’s Unified District Education Information System .

As COVID-19 spread across India in March 2020, UNICEF launched a program to secure WASH services for at-risk, low-capacity and vulnerable communities in South Asia’s largest country with a population of nearly 1.4 billion. The program focused on frequent handwashing with soap and water – identified as a key measure to prevent COVID-19 transmission – although it could not be continued in schools because they were closed.

“WASH teams have closely coordinated with the central Jal Shakti Ministry, the Ministry of Human Resource Development and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, to promote school WASH programs by supporting their policies and efforts to advocacy as well as their implementation,” said Osbert. “We have also worked with development partners, who have provided millions of bars of soap, and with provincial governments in 15 states to promote handwashing.”

WASH programs are also closely linked to India’s Swacch Bharat mission launched in October 2014 to ensure clean water for households and provide sustainable sanitation as well as solid and liquid waste management, including plastic waste and sewage. .

“It helped that the Swacch Bharat Mission-Grameen (a public behavior change initiative) and the Jal Jeevan Mission (to provide every household with a tap), were favorite projects of Prime Minister Narendra (Modi) aimed at ensuring the access to safe sanitation and water through empowered communities,” Anushree Mishra, a communications and advocacy specialist involved in the WASH program, told SciDev.Net.

“Simple hand washing with soap and water has been shown to be more effective than vaccination in preventing the spread of not only COVID-19, but also the pathogens responsible for diarrheal disease and respiratory disease,” explains Osbert. “The other benefit of handwashing is that it helps prevent the development of microbial resistance due to reduced antibiotic use.”

“Our strategy moving forward is to build on the massive wave of public health created by the pandemic to work more systematically with government ministries and departments involved in health and education,” Osbert said.

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Provided by SciDev.Net

Soaring gasoline prices are stoking inflation and causing headaches for governments and central banks around the world. In countries where elections are approaching, they are an additional headwind for incumbents.

While the midterm elections in the United States in November are the best example of the influence of fuel prices on the political sphere, the upcoming votes in Asia could also be affected. Voting is already underway in Indian state elections and South Korea is holding a presidential poll in early March. There are also Australian general elections and a contest for the upper house in Japan in the coming months.

Oil’s relentless march to triple digits has already prompted political action from incumbents. India cut retail sales taxes on petrol and diesel in November and there has been an unofficial price freeze since. South Korea imposed a temporary 20% cut in fuel taxes from October to April, which could be extended, while Japan subsidizes refiners to make fuel.

According to Sonal Varma, chief economist for India and Asia ex-Japan at Nomura Holdings Inc., governments in economies where wage levels lag behind inflation are the most vulnerable to an induced policy reaction. by gasoline.

“If a country has low-income growth and high inflation, then that becomes a double whammy, and then that could have both economic and political repercussions,” she said. This is of particular concern in Asia, given that all major economies in the region are net importers of oil, Varma said.

Australian retail gasoline is up 80% since early May 2020, while in Japan it has risen 37% as oil recovers from the depths of the pandemic. In India, major state-owned fuel retailers are expected to raise prices sharply after elections ending next month.

Voters there head to the polls in elections that run until early March in five states, including Uttar Pradesh, the largest state with more than 200 million people. Inflation, which breached the central bank’s 6% tolerance limit in January, signals a tough challenge for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. Rural wages have not kept pace, rising just 3.31% in December from a year earlier, according to data from Bloomberg Economics.

South Korea elects a new president on March 9. Incumbent President Moon Jae-In is barred from seeking re-election, and polls indicate a tight race between his party and opposition candidates. Average wages rose 4% last year, while year-on-year inflation was 3.6% in January, so price gains may not play as big a role in the vote as elsewhere.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison is due to call a general election before the end of May and polls show he could face a crushing loss. Consumer confidence has taken a hit as households battle soaring petrol prices, with the Reserve Bank of Australia forecasting core inflation to top 3%. Average salary levels increased by 2.2% in the third quarter of 2021 compared to the previous year, according to data from the statistics office.

In Japan, more than half of the seats in the upper house are up for grabs in a vote in July, which could affect Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s chances of staying in office. Inflation expectations among households are at their highest since 2008, while average monthly cash incomes fell slightly in December from a year earlier. Kishida said on Thursday that other policies aimed at mitigating the effect of high oil prices on households were being discussed.

The growing political focus on trying to lower oil prices represents a move away from commitments made at the COP26 meeting late last year to accelerate efforts to phase out fossil fuel consumption. Rising oil prices are swelling the coffers – and influence – of Saudi Arabia and Russia, and reinvigorating an industry that was moving toward cleaner energy sources.

“High fuel prices have been a persistent issue in the global inflationary environment since 2021,” said Vandana Hari, founder of Vanda Insights, an oil market analysis provider in Singapore. “Of all categories of consumer goods, fuel prices are a particularly politically sensitive issue.”

An Indian delegation left for Namibia on Thursday to discuss the logistics of relocating the cheetahs with the Namibian government, according to people familiar with the development.

The team, made up of representatives from the National Tiger Conservation Authority, the Ministry of Environment, the Wildlife Institute of India and the Madhya Pradesh government, will identify suitable cheetahs to begin the health screening process and quarantine them for travel to India. The cheetahs will eventually be moved to Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh.

“We cannot say how long this process will take. We have to sort out the logistics first,” said a senior NTCA official, who asked not to be named.

“The objective of the project is to establish a viable cheetah metapopulation in India that enables the cheetah to fulfill its functional role as a top predator and provide space for the expansion of the cheetah into its historical range, thereby contributing to its global conservation efforts,” said a note shared by the NTCA.

Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav is also expected to join the talks when he visits Africa in March, a second official added.

“A team of experts is leaving this morning for Namibia to finalize the arrangements for the transfer of 8 to 10 cheetahs to Kuno National Park in MP. An initiative launched in 2010 is finally bearing fruit. I wish them the best!” tweeted Jairam Ramesh, the leader of Congress and a former environment minister, during which the plan was drawn up.

“As is evident, the introduction of the cheetah is not just a species recovery program, but an effort to restore ecosystems with a lost element that has played an important role in their evolutionary history, enabling ecosystems to provide services to their full potential and utilize the cheetah as an umbrella species for biodiversity conservation of grasslands, savannahs and open forest systems,” the NTCA note adds.

Some experts have criticized the cheetah reintroduction plan for depriving the lions of suitable habitat.

“The introduction of African cheetahs into Kuno National Park will further delay the translocation of the Asiatic lion, which will lead to increased risks for the last surviving wild lion population in Asia. Billions of rupees have been spent by the Indian government and the state of Madhya Pradesh to prepare Kuno to welcome the lions.Nine years after the 2013 SC order on the transfer of lions to Kuno, the lions have not yet been transferred and the plans to introduce African cheetahs The committee of experts appointed by the Supreme Court in 2013 to advise the government on the translocation of lions, of which I am a member, has not met since December 2016. At our last meeting in Kuno , everyone except the Gujarat state government officials firmly stated that Kuno was ready to receive the lions.But neither the Union government nor the Gujarat state government have taken concrete steps to relocate lions,” said Ravi Chellam, CEO of the Metastring Foundation and member of the Biodiversity Collaborative.

According to the “Action Plan for the Introduction of Cheetah in India” released by the Ministry of Environment during the 19th meeting of the National Tiger Conservation Authority last month, a cohort of about 12 to 14 cheetahs will be imported from South Africa or Namibia and each of them will be equipped with a satellite-GPS-very high frequency radio collar.

Union Environment Minister Yadav said in a January 5 statement, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keen on the protection and conservation of seven big cats…Cheetahs numbering 50 on a period of five years will be introduced in various parks”.

International transport will be done either by commercial airline or chartered flight, after which the wildcats will be transported to Kuno Palpur National Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradesh. Officials who attended the meeting said the cheetah, the world’s fastest land animal, was due to be reintroduced to the country in November 2021, but the plan was derailed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. “The lineage and condition of the animals must be checked in the host country to ensure that they do not come from an excessively inbred herd and that they belong to the ideal age group, in order to conform to the needs of a founding population,” said the more than 300-page plan.

NEW DELHI- The collective spirit of 1.3 billion Indians played a key role in achieving this remarkable feat of 1.6 billion vaccinations against COVID-19 – a new milestone. In less than a year, India has administered over 1.6 billion doses of vaccine, which is a living example of its resilience and steadfast determination.

It also reflects India’s growing self-reliance while displaying the indomitable spirit in sustaining a nationwide vaccination campaign which began in January 2021 and has reached this milestone of 1.6 billion. vaccine doses in less than a year. India, with a booming population, felt the urgent need to rise to the occasion and they did it together.

“1.5 billion doses of vaccines, that too in less than a year. This is a huge number in terms of statistics. This is nothing short of a surprise to most major countries in the world. It is also a symbol of the capacity of India’s 1.3 billion citizens.

“For India, it is the symbol of a new will that has the courage to do everything to make the impossible possible. It is a symbol of trust for India. It is a symbol of autonomy. It is a symbol of self pride. Today I congratulate all compatriots on this occasion,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.

As long as the disease is there, there is no need to be complacent. Since the disease does not discriminate, there should be no bias in vaccination either.

Currently, over 90% of the eligible adult population of India has received at least one dose of the vaccine. The vaccine, introduced for adolescents aged 15 to 17, protected more than 20 million children in just one week.

India has developed local vaccines in just nine months and is on track to provide vaccine protection to 100% of its eligible population. The country has launched the “Free vaccine for all” campaign.

Without prejudice or prejudice, the vaccine was administered to all sections of society. Popular participation remained key to the success of the vaccination campaign.

But achieving this feat was easier said than done. When the biggest pandemic of the century hit India, several doubts were cast about its ability to handle the situation.

Also, questions have been raised about India’s ingenuity in buying so many vaccines from other countries. But massive public participation became the basis of the vaccination campaign and its success.

A collective image from India’s vaccination campaign tells the saga of courageous resilience. People have braved various unfavorable situations and gone for the jabs against COVID-19. In some places nurses traveled to remote desert areas on camels, in some places Asha workers continued the vaccination campaign despite landslides.

The vaccination campaign sent a strong message to the world about the perseverance and resilience of ordinary citizens. In the difficult geographical conditions of a diverse country, public dialogue and public participation have become the basis of the largest vaccination campaign in the world.

Scientific methods and innovative approaches played a crucial role. The CoWin platform made in India has facilitated registration for vaccination. The vaccination milestone was the result of everyone’s hard work.

Asha’s doctors, health workers and workers have gone to great lengths to reach people in every district and village, often in remote areas.

India had administered 1 billion vaccinations by October 2021. World leaders have praised India for reaching this crucial milestone. The Indian Prime Minister congratulated the 1.3 billion Indians, the country’s scientific community, doctors, nurses and everyone associated with the campaign.

India’s new milestone in vaccination against COVID-19 reflects its growing self-reliance. This is an opportunity to show gratitude to doctors, nurses and health workers for their selfless service. It is also an opportunity to recognize the meritorious services of our scientists and workers engaged in the production of vaccines. It celebrates the painstaking efforts of Asha and Anganwadi workers.

The free-for-all vaccination campaign was a resounding success. Har Ghar Dastak gave it a new impetus through the door-to-door vaccination campaign.

It is not only a colossal vaccination campaign in terms of high vaccination doses administered, but also a living testimony to the success of Indian indigenous vaccine and efficient manpower.

In its fight against COVID-19, India has been guided by the two mottos “Jaan Hai Toh Jahan Hai” and “Jaan Shi Jahan Shi”, which have acted as its cardinal principles in shaping future strategy.

Modi encouraged companies making vaccines. All support was extended to these companies and as a result two vaccines – Covishield and Covaxin – were developed locally in record time. Even before the start of the vaccination campaign, health workers had been trained for this purpose.

The Omicron variant spreads faster than all older variants. It has so far proven to be more contagious than expected. Health experts are assessing the situation, the government is also not neglecting anything in the preparations.

Modi is constantly reviewing the situation amid the third wave of COVID-19. In a meeting with State/UT Ministers/Chief Administrators on January 13, he discussed the availability of beds and oxygen in hospitals, besides the pace of vaccination.

During the meeting, Modi stressed the need to intensify the Har Ghar Dastak campaign to achieve the goal of 100% vaccination at the earliest, and also stressed the need to tackle any misinformation about vaccines or wearing masks.

He said: “India’s battle against the biggest pandemic in 100 years has now entered its third year. Hard work is our only means and victory is the only option. We, the 1.3 billion people of India, will surely emerge victorious from the coronavirus through our efforts. — Agencies

The central government recently announced plans to reintroduce the cheetah to the country, nearly 75 years after the big cat went extinct in India. Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav on Wednesday launched an action plan that will bring the fastest land mammal back to India over the next five years.

“The cheetah that went extinct in independent India is about to return,” Yadav said.

What is the plan?

Speaking at the 19th meeting of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), Yadav said the government will bring back 50 cheetahs over the next five years to form a founder population as part of the plan to reintroduce the species into India.

While the plan was due to launch in 2021 and reintroduce cheetahs to Madhya Pradesh, the plan had to be postponed due to the overwhelming constraints introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic.

As part of the action plan to reintroduce the animal to the country, cohorts of around ten cheetahs will be introduced to several sites surveyed at the same time. Cheetahs will be imported from Namibia or South Africa, two nations that are home to significant numbers of big cats.

“An existing coalition of wild males will be selected while the selected females will also be known to each other to the extent possible,” says the action plan.

“The lineage and condition of the animals should be checked in the host country to ensure that they do not come from an excessively inbred stock and that they belong to the ideal age group, in order to conform to the needs of a founding population, ”he added.

The central government, the Ministry of the Environment and the Cheetah task force will work together to form a framework for collaboration with the Namibian and South African governments through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The 10 potential reintroduction sites studied are located in the five states of central India, although Kuno Palpur National Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradesh is expected to be where the first cohort will arrive there. The KNP park was prioritized for its suitable habitat as well as the presence of a population of prey large enough to support the animals.

How did cheetahs become extinct in India?

Many may not know that the cheetah was declared de facto extinct in India as early as 1951-1952, although rare sightings of a few rare wild specimens took place until 1970. People still call a number of cats covered with rosettes, like the leopard, like the Cheeta, a word which itself is derived from the Sanskrit word Chitraka (“spotted”).

But the animal, whose range once stretched from the Arabian Peninsula to the vast jungle of eastern India, has been driven to extinction in almost all of its habitat. Today, the Asian cheetah is only found in Iran, numbering less than a hundred. The majority of the world’s cheetah population is found in southern and eastern Africa, where the African cheetah is found in countries like South Africa and Namibia.

Cheetahs numbered in the thousands in India, with the animal officially known as the Indian cheetah until its extinction in the country. Mughal Emperor Akbar alone is said to have a menagerie of over 9,000 cheetahs.

The animal is extremely easy to tame, compared to other non-domesticated predators, and was used for hunting prey, a sport called “racing.” The animal was a popular part of many royal courts in India and other parts of Asia where it was found. But another trait of the cheetah was that it was impossible to breed in captivity. There was only one successful attempt to breed a cheetah in captivity until the 20th century, an event recorded by Emperor Jahangir in 1613 in the book Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri.

As the number of cheetahs declined due to the high number of cheetahs collected from the wild, the animal was also eventually brought to extinction with the advent of the widespread hunting brought to India during the time of the British Raj.

While the government has officially declared that the animal has become extinct due to desertification, experts suggest the animal had plenty of habitats and prey to survive if it was not hunted to extinction. .

Previous attempts

This plan is not the only effort by India to reintroduce the majestic animal to the country. In the 1970s, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi asked the Environment Ministry to write a formal request to the Shah of Iran to import some of the Asian cheetahs present in the country.

But while Iran’s response has been positive, the plan came to naught with the declaration of emergency in India and the overthrow of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in ​​Iran.

While the government is now reintroducing African cheetahs to the country, distinct from the Asian cheetah, many cheetah conservatives are enthusiastic about bringing the endangered animal to sustainable population levels.

(Edited by : Jomy Jos Pullokaran)

The bad news is that three years after Sri Lanka was forced to cede the port of Hambantota to China on a 99-year lease due to a loan default, media reports that Uganda’s airport d ‘Entebbe may soon go down the Hambantota route for the same reason. However, the good news is that even though China has taken control of its operations, the port of Gwadar is still in Pakistan’s possession. [atleast on papers] and with a friendship “sweeter than honey”, in between, no need to worry about Islamabad [or so it presently seems].

The bad news for Pakistan is that not only has its current liabilities exceeded Rs. $ 50 trillion [which exceeds the country’s GDP], but the International Monetary Fund [IMF] also rejected Islamabad’s claim that taking loans from the central bank to finance its operations was its constitutional right. Still, the good news is that Saudi Arabia came to Islamabad’s rescue by granting it a US $ 2 billion one-year loan as well as a US $ 1.2 billion oil loan on a deal. deferred facility.

That Saudi Arabia granted this loan at an interest rate of 4% [which is one-fourth times higher than the previous loans] doesn’t seem to bother cash-strapped Islamabad, nor does the clause that if Riyadh demands prepayment, Islamabad should repay that loan within 72 hours. Such a demanding and humiliating clause has probably never been invoked before by the House of Saud when granting loans to another country.

But then, right now, Islamabad cannot be a “choice”.

Normally, any indebted country would think twice before taking out a loan with a ’72 hours’ refund clause, but then Islamabad is an exception. Prime Minister Imran Khan considers this loan to be “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s latest generous gesture reaffirms the all-weather friendship between the two states.” He also knows that if Riyadh asks for an early repayment [like they recently did], he can always bet on another “Friend of all times” Beijing to bail out Pakistan, as happened when Riyadh asked for an early repayment.

Many Pakistanis believe that Beijing’s munificence comes from its “sweeter than honey” relationship with Islamabad. They also believe that Beijing has been a true friend and has helped Islamabad by providing loans under the bilateral currency exchange agreement, which is not required to be on its books and therefore does not appear in Pakistan’s external debt figures. However, there are others who do not think so. As the loans taken out under the currency swap arrangement are not reflected in the books as outstanding loans, this does not give an accurate indication of Pakistan’s actual debt position and therefore indirectly encourages them. blind borrowing.

This is exactly what an eight-year-old report published in the Pakistani journal International forum [“Money out of nowhere: SBP utilises Chinese currency swap agreement to shore up reserves,” 30 May 2013] had mentioned. An official speaking on condition of anonymity warned that the “Using China’s trade finance facility should not be seen as helping from a friendly country. It is a loan that Pakistan will have to repay. So those who claim that by granting unrestricted loans under the currency swap deal, Beijing is pushing Islamabad into an inextricable debt trap, are not wrong!

With Riyadh specifically listing “sovereign default” [failure
of Islamabad to repay its external debts] as one of the reasons for invoking the “72 hour repayment” clause, it is evident that the apprehensions that Islamabad will not repay its loan are not mere speculation, but a distinct possibility. However, Islamabad has rejected repeated warnings issued by renowned international organizations and think tanks with established non-partisan credentials.

So, with Beijing serving as the proverbial goose that lays the golden eggs, it’s business as usual for Islamabad. It was ironic that in 2020, when Prime Minister Imran Khan asked rich countries on the one hand to consider a “Global Debt Relief Initiative” saying, “We don’t have the money to spend on health services that are already overwhelmed and to prevent people from starving to death ”, on the other hand, his government approved a huge 11.9% increase in Pakistan’s defense budget.

National security is of paramount and non-negotiable importance. So while defense spending cannot be drastically reduced, it still can be. With pro-Pakistan Taliban regime in Kabul and ceasefire along the Line of Control [LoC] as well as the international border with India, there has been a marked reduction in the perception of threat to Pakistan. Moreover, due to Sino-Indian border tensions and reinvigorated Sino-Pakistani bonhomie, the chances of Indian belligerence on its Western Front appear unlikely.

So, while the overall threat analysis does not justify an 11.9% increase in defense spending, Rawalpindi’s excessive obsession with matching India’s military capability is the primary reason it consumes fuel. lion’s share of Pakistan’s national budget. For example, on November 25, Pakistan fired its Shaheen-1A surface-to-surface ballistic missile and the reason given was “”revalidate certain design and technical parameters of the weapon system ”.

Ballistic missiles cost a fortune, and as Pakistan faces an unprecedented financial crisis, “revalidation” is certainly a non-essential luxury. But then, since India had tested its Agni -5 intercontinental missile at the end of October, it was obvious that Rawalpindi would follow suit. Likewise, as the Pakistani Prime Minister announces that “Our biggest problem is that we don’t have enough money to run our country, which forces us to borrow loans” The Pakistani military is still in the process of reaching a $ 1.5 billion deal with Turkey for the purchase of 30 Turkish-made T129 Atak helicopters.

In 2019, Rawalpindi announced a “Voluntary reduction of the defense budget” saying that it would not be at the cost of “Defense and security” and assured the nation that the Pakistani army “will maintain [an] potential for effective response to all threats. However, this announcement was clearly meant to get on the good books of the IMF and far from the reality, as Pakistan’s defense spending has consistently shifted north afterwards. This has made pragmatists question whether the Pakistani armed forces are sure that they can effectively manage national defense with a budget cut, so why the perpetual increase every year?

For the uninitiated, the Pakistani military has a phenomenal private financial empire and in 2016, while answering a question raised by the Pakistani People’s Party [PPP] Senator Farhatullah Babar and Federal Defense Minister Khwaja Asif responded by revealing that around 50 business entities were operated by the Pakistani armed forces. These include virtually everything under the sun, be it stud farms, sugar factories, shoe, wool and clothing dealers, restaurants and wedding halls, insurance, petroleum, cement, fertilizers, power generation and, believe it or not, even a bank!

Famous Pakistani analyst Ayesha Siddiqa [author of Military Inc: Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy], fixed the net worth of business assets held by the Pakistani armed forces at around US $ 20 billion on a conservative scale.

Surprisingly, the same army that so graciously voluntarily recommended a “Reduction of the defense budget”, is unwilling to help ease the country’s budget woes by handing over all or part of its for-profit non-military businesses to the government. On the contrary, Rawalpindi cared so much about protecting and expanding his business empire, that the other day, observing that “What the colonels and the majors want, happens ”, Pakistan Chief Justice Judge Gulzar Ahmed sarcastically asked Defense Secretary Lt. Gen. Mian Mohammad Hilal Hussain (retired) – “Were wedding halls, cinemas and housing companies built? [by Pakistan Army] for defense purposes? “

Could there be a more dishonorable observation about the cadre of officers in a country’s armed forces?