View Articles

The Indian Navy has recently decided to give top priority to building a fleet of nuclear submarines, armed with nuclear-tipped Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBMs) and build a fleet of six such attack submarines. At present the only India-made nuclear sub is INS Arihant. Another submarine leased from Russia for ten years in 2012 (INS Chkara II) will have to be returned soon.

With worst ever surge of COVID-19 in India, 3.55 lakh new cases and 2807 deaths on April 25, reaching the new global highs, is also generating unprecedented high level of coronavirus waste for any country in the world. It may soon pose worst additional threat to the country. India thus needs a simultaneous plan for disposing of the overload in the safest way possible. A sharp increase in additional packaging needs for delivery of goods for ensuring safety from the pandemic may also become problematic in near future.

India’s economy seems to be going out of control under the pressure of the virulent expansion of Covid-19. What else can explain the rapid fall in industrial production and massive jump of wholesale and retail prices in the last three months? Partial lockdowns are back in various states. More areas are being brought under ‘containment zones’. A situation of ‘medical emergency’ has unsettled everyone’s mind. Lately, the daily Covid infection count covers around 350,000 people, a world record. Jobless and homeless migrant workers are once again rushing back home from seriously virus-hit states such as Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat and Punjab. The transportation system, both local and inter-state, is showing the signs of a major breakdown as the virus expansion continues to worsen. Several international airlines and airports have temporarily ‘blocked’ India. Domestic airlines have cut down services for want of passengers. Some political parties in West Bengal hold the on-going election campaign responsible for the viral spike in the state. But, that may be only partly true. Most states showing more rapid coronavirus expansion are outside the current assembly election schedule.

There was sudden and motivated surge in reported cases of suspected infection of the corona virus in mid March two weeks before the year end to the lock down imposed on March 24, 2020 from the mid night. Many critics of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year for resorting to such an extreme measure even before the impact of corona pandemic was discernible in India were now suggesting another long spell of the lock down until danger of the pandemic subsides completely. But bitter experience of the long spell of stoppage of all public and private economic and professional activities and strangle hold over the social and cultural exchanges or a year long duration made NaMo not to go in for second spell of the lock down.

New Delhi: Hockey India on Saturday mourned the death of former international umpire Suresh Kumar Thakur.

Hospitals are overwhelmed across India. Neither there are beds available in hospitals for patients, nor is space available in crematorium or graveyards. Patients and bodies are making long queues to be admitted. There is acute shortage of medicines, oxygen, healthcare personnel and resources to dispose of the dead. The hell of India seems to have been created in which we have been witnessing the horrifying daily records of new patients and deaths, which reached a new peak of 3.46 lakhs cases of new COVID-19 infection and over 2624 deaths in a single day. If RBI assessment is to be relied upon, this second wave will be at its peak sometime at the end of third week of May. India may soon find bodies strewn on the streets.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the covid situation getting worse, the Kerala Government has imposed stricter restrictions, even as it came down heavily on the Centre’s vaccination policy which it feels is fundamentally flawed and highly discriminatory.

The elections in Assam were completed on April 6 and the results will be out on May 2 — as elections are still not over in neighbouring West Bengal. The people of the state — and also the country — are anxiously waiting for the results.

The Supreme Court’s latest move in taking up suo moto cognisance of the dangerous Covid situation, particularly in the crisis related to the availability of life-supporting oxygen in hospitals across the country, has created a storm for procedural breaches. Retiring Chief Justice S A Bobde has been criticised for his ‘parting shot’ for undermining the importance of the high courts, many of which have already been deliberating on the problem. But undoubtedly, being blamed for an uncharacteristically aggressive stand by the court under the leadership of Chief Justice Bobde, is much better than being criticised for a completely callous response by the same court under his own guardianship when weary migrant workers travelling on foot for thousands of kilometres fell asleep on railway tracks and run over by approaching trains and the court blamed it on ‘fake news’. That will remain as a blot on the apex court forever, and will not be crossed out by the subsequent proactive actions by the court in trying to bring relief to the most wronged section of the population: the migrant workers.

As a preventive measure against the Covid 19 in India, the Indian government imposed a nationwide 21-day lockdown on March 23, 2020, restricting the movement of its entire population of 1.38 billion. The nationwide lockdown continued until May 3, after which it was extended with conditional relaxations until May 31. The economy slowly started reverting with Unlock 1.0 being announced on June 1. Today, almost a year later, COVID-19 vaccines are being rolled out across the nation. Nearly 105 million Indians have been vaccinated so far. Priorities for vaccination in India have been based on occupation, age and health conditions. Being a dynamic community with no specific definitions based on any criteria, migrants have been dropped from the priority list for vaccination. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared “Teeka Utsav” from April 11-14 across the nation’s healthcare centres, apartment complexes, residential colonies, traditional halls, workplaces and more, the focus group for vaccinations were individuals over the age of 45, not migrants. Even when the economy thrives on the value of their essential services, why are migrants being kept off the priority list?