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India’s copper imports rise by 3.5 times after closure of Sterlite plant in Thoothukudi

By
The Commune
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In a span of two years following the closure of Vedanta Group’s copper smelter in the southern city of Thoothukudi, India’s copper imports have risen by 3.5 times, as per the Government of India.

Minister of Mines and Coal Prahlad Joshi in reply to a parliamentary question said that imports of copper rose to 151, 964 tons in 2019-20.

The Thoothukudi copper smelter, which accounted for around 40% of India’s copper demand, was closed in May 2018 following a police firing on protestors in which 13 people died and 102 were injured. The protest was over an ongoing expansion of the plant.

The smelter had a capacity of 400,000 tons of refined copper per year. Since the closure, the matter is under litigation and currently pending before the Supreme Court.

While protestors have alleged that the copper smelter will cause pollution, Vedanta Group’s Sterlite Copper denies the allegations of environmental violations.

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India’s 2020 WTO proposal to ensure equitable access to medicines and vaccines now sees support

By
The Commune
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India South Africa WTO

India and South Africa have submitted a proposal for waiver from certain provisions of the Trade Related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement for the prevention, treatment and containment of COVID-19, to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) TRIPS Council on 2nd October 2020.

The objective of the proposal is to ensure that the intellectual property rights do not create a hurdle in rapid scale up of manufacturing capacities throughout the globe to meet the objective of equitable, timely and affordable access for all to vaccines, therapeutics and other goods required to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.

After the submission to the TRIPS Council in October 2020, the waiver proposal has now been co-sponsored by fifty seven other WTO members, with many members supporting from the floor. The waiver proposal has also received support from several civil society groups and the World Health Organisation.

(Published from PIB)

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“Railways to save ₹ 41,000 crores over the next ten years”, says Goyal

By
The Commune
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In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha on 24 March, Minister of Railways, Commerce and Industry, and Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Piyush Goyal said that the Indian Railways has unveiled a plan called “Mission 41 K” to save ₹ 41,000 crores over the next ten years.

Indian Railways has saved about ₹19981 Crores in Business As Usual (BAU) mode since November, 2015 to December, 2020, said Goyal.

Indian Railways has also embarked upon a major electrification program to electrify its Broad Gauge (BG) network by December, 2023. A total of 16744 RKM has been electrified during the last three years and the current year up to 28.02.2021, that is, from 2017-18 to 2020-21 (28 February, 2021).

(Published from PIB)

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India might “calibrate” supply schedules of COVID-19 vaccine to other countries

By
The Commune
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India COVID-19 vaccine EU vaccines

As part of its ‘Vaccine Maitri’ initiative, India has exported over 60 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to 76 countries. Most of the vaccine doses exported are that of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

However, according to reports by ANI, India will “calibrate” its supply schedules keeping in mind the domestic requirement. The move comes amid the fast-paced vaccination drive in the country facing off with the rising numbers of COVID-19 cases. Citizens aged over 45 years can avail the vaccination, the Indian government had announced recently.

“Keeping in view domestic requirement of vaccines, India will continue to supply COVID-19 vaccines to partner countries in coming weeks and months in a phased manner. This position remains unchanged. We’ve not imposed any ban on export of vaccines, unlike many other countries”, sources told ANI.

According to a Reuters report, this potential delay in the supply of vaccines has triggered alarm on Thursday, with the head of Africa’s disease control agency describing the continent as “helpless”.

India has promised more than 900 million doses of the vaccine in bilateral commercial deals.

“We remain committed to help the world with vaccines, including through COVAX facility. Given our current manufacturing capacity & requirements, there may be a need to calibrate supply schedules from time to time. All stakeholders would have to cooperate as required”, ANI’s sources added.

The Serum Institute of India and the WHO have previously warned that manufacturers of COVID-19 vaccines face a shortage of raw materials essential for vaccine manufacturing, in part due to a US ban on export of some products.

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“Women’s figures no longer like 8 as they consume milk from foreign cows”, says Dindigul Leoni while campaigning for DMK

By
The Commune
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(Image source: The Logical Indian)

DMK’s candidate and famous orator Dindigul Leoni has been making the news for all the wrong reasons. He recently earned a lot of flak for commenting on the physical figure of today’s women. His distasteful remarks have earned him nothing but trolls and bad comments for his sexist behaviour.

While campaigning for the DMK, he said “women have lost their shape” and “increasingly look like a barrel”. He went on to compare their physical shape to that of cows and said that they were starting to look like them since they have been drinking the milk obtained from foreign imported cows.

This video clip has gone viral on social media and is facing the rage of the netizens due to his insensitive comments and body shaming. In the clip, he is seen to be saying, “Women are now drinking milk from foreign cows, which is the reason behind them putting on extra kilos.” He went on to say that women used to be “thin and their hips would have curves”.

“In a cowshed, people use a milking machine for foreign cows. These days, women drink milk from foreign cows because of which they have put on weight. Those days, a woman’s hip resembled the number 8 [had curves]. When she lifted her child, the little one stayed put on the hip. But now they’ve become like a barrel because of which women cannot carry their children on their hips,” Dindigul Leoni added. The inappropriate hand gestures that accompanied this action added fuel to the fire.

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DMK candidate becomes laughingstock after saying that polling machines should be monitored using ‘jammers’

By
The Commune
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The deadline for accepting petitions for contesting in the assembly elections in Tamil Nadu is over and the final list of candidates has been released by all the parties. On behalf of the district administration, the authorities are carrying out various tasks related to election security in each district.

Electronic voting machines have been sent to each assembly constituency. In light of the same, the DMK has insisted on installing signal jamming equipment in all polling booths in Tamil Nadu. The DMK has vehemently demanded that all polling booths in Tamil Nadu be fitted with jammers.

The party’s leader Kalanidhi Veerasamy has also written a letter to the Election Commission pointing out that the voting machines can be hacked. He added that the ability to hack voting machines has been proven at international seminars. It is noteworthy that Kalanidhi is the son of DMK’s senior leader Arcot Veerasamy.

The funniest part about this petition is that the voting machine is not a network device, and it is an arbitrary tool for recording data. Therefore, a jammer has no effect on its functioning. One wonders how, despite being a doctor, Dr Kalanidhi is unaware of this technicality.

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“Thrust in roadbuilding will provide jobs and sustainable growth of economy”: Nitin Gadkari

By
The Commune
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The Minister of Road Transport and Highways and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Shri Nitin Gadkari today expressed confidence that due to the thrust on the road infrastructure given by the Government, there will be a huge push for demand, providing a solid foundation for the sustainable and inclusive growth and above all creating job opportunities for millions of people of the country.

Addressing the CII’s National Conference on “Road Infrastructure – Creating Demand: Stimulating Growth” today, Shri Gadkari talked about the critical role played by road infrastructure in the economic growth of the country. He said that around 64.5% of the goods and nearly 90% of passenger traffic use the road network to commute. He said that the road infrastructure has a direct and indirect effect on the sustainability of the growth and overall development of the country.

Mentioning the National Infrastructure Pipeline, a first of its kind initiative to provide world-class infrastructure across the country, the Minister said that it has been expanded to cover more than 7,300 projects with a revised investment of ₹111 lakh crore by the year 2025. He said that projects worth ₹44 lakh crore, that is 40%, are under implementation and projects worth ₹34 lakh crore, that is 30%, are at the conceptualisation stage and projects worth ₹22 lakh crore, that is 20%, are under development.

The Minister also informed the gathering that this year, the Government has increased year-on-year infrastructure CapExby 34% to ₹5.54 lakh crore.

Talking about the business-friendly initiatives of the Road Transport and Highways Ministry, Shri Gadkari said that the requirement of EMD (Earnest Money Deposit) has been removed for the bidding of new tenders to enable more industry players to participate in highway construction. Mentioning another path-breaking initiative undertaken by the Government, the Minister said that the Ministry, through NHAI, is planning to raise Rs one lakh crore through monetisation of highway under Toll Operate Transport mode in the next five years.

(Source: PIB)

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New airport inaugurated at Kurnool

By
The Commune
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Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, MoS, I/C, Civil Aviation virtually joined Shri Yeduguri Sandinti Jaganmohan Reddy, Chief Minister, Andhra Pradesh at the  inauguration of the Kurnool Airport, Orvakal, Andhra Pradesh today.  Andhra Pradesh CM attended the inauguration at Kurnool airport along with senior officials and other important stakeholders. Senior officials of the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) & Airport Authority of India (AAI) also attended the event virtually. Kurnool is the 6th airport in Andhra Pradesh to become functional after Kadapa, Visakhapatnam, Tirupati, Rajahmundry & Vijayawada.

The flight operations at Kurnool airport will commence on 28th March 2021 under the Regional Connectivity Scheme – Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik (RCS-UDAN). Direct flight operations to Bangalore, Vishakhapatnam and Chennai will bring the region closer to the major hubs in the South India. These routes were approved by the MoCA under the UDAN 4 bid process last year. The Government of India and the Government of Andhra Pradesh will jointly share the VGF towards the operations on an 80:20 basis. Till date, 56 unserved and underserved airports (including 5 heliports+ 2 water aerodrome) with 325 routes have been operationalised under UDAN across the length and breadth of India.

Kurnool is the judicial capital of Andhra Pradesh and a historical hub of the country. The place is famous for its mighty caves and temples. The city of Kurnool lies on the banks of the Tungabhadra River and, Nallamalas mountain hill range runs parallel. Moreover, Famous tourist spots include Nallamala Forest, Ahobilam, Belum Caves, Mahanandi, Mantralayam, Orvakal, Sangameshwaram, Kethavaram and Kalva Bugga.  This air connectivity will fulfill the aspirations of the people of Kurnool and provide impetus to the local economy and tourism.

(source: PIB)

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I Phone, 100 sovereign gold, ₹1 crore, trip to moon: Independent candidate from Madurai South’s bizarre promises

By
The Commune
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The upcoming elections have seen the most bizarre ways of campaigning as well as election manifestos. Candidates are seeking votes by doing the weirdest of tasks, be it serving tea at a tea stall, making Dosa at a restaurant or tilling a field on a tractor. The weirdest yet is this election manifesto by Thulam Saravanan, an independent candidate from Madurai who is contesting under the ‘dustbin’ symbol.

His election manifesto contains these never-seen-before promises by any candidate ever. He says that, if elected, he would do the following for the citizens of his constituency:

  1. Everyone in the constituency would get an iPhone free of cost
  2. Every household in the constituency would get a 3-storeyed bungalow which would include a swimming pool, a car worth ₹20 lakh, ₹1 crore annually, one small helicopter, a cleaning robot, and a boat to have pleasure rides in the Vaigai river
  3. Every woman who is to get married in his constituency would receive 100 sovereigns of gold
  4. Youngsters with an entrepreneurial spirit in the constituency will be given ₹1 crore to start their own company
  5. Each handicapped person in the constituency would be given ₹10 lakhs
  6. The constituency will get an astronomical research centre, a rocket launchpad, and a 100-day free trip to the moon will be organised for the members of the constituency
  7. A 300ft snow castle will be arranged to maintain a cold temperature around the constituency

Speaking to the press, he said, “For the election expenditure, I’ve taken a loan of ₹20,000 per instalment. I’ve spent ₹10,000 to file my nomination. There are 2,30,000 votes in South Madurai. If 5000 youths contest and win 50 votes each, no party will be able to contest in Tamil Nadu. They will fear the public. I’m contesting in this election to create awareness regarding this.”

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3.5 magnitude earthquake hits Leh

By
The Commune
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Leh earthquake

On Thursday March 25, a 3.5 magnitude earthquake hit Leh in the Union Territory of Ladakh.

This is a developing story. More details are awaited.

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TheCommune
The Commune is a news and views portal focusing on social and political issues of the southern part of India with a focus on Tamil Nadu.
Contact us: thecommune.news@gmail.com
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