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Following Amitabh Bacchan and Abishek, Aishwarya Rai and Aradhya also test positive for COVID-19

By
Vaibavi Jayakumar
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Bollywood veteran Amitabh Bacchan and his son Abhishek Bacchan tested positive for coronavirus on Saturday and were admitted to the Nanavati Hospital. Following this, their entire family underwent testing for coronavirus infection. The senior Bacchan had announced this on his Twitter handle.

On Sunday afternoon, Aishwarya Rai and her daughter Aradhya also tested positive for coronavirus. While Amitabh and his son had displayed minor symptoms, the latter two had been asymptomatic. They were then advised to be under home quarantine, and undergo medical services at home. Jaya Bacchan had tested negative for the virus.

Doctors confirmed that Amitabh’s vitals were stable, and that he was responding well to medication. “Total 16 people from the Bachchan family have been tested including guards and maids. Other reports will come tomorrow,” said Suresh Kakani, additional commissioner, BMC. ”Aishwarya and Aaradhya are both asymptomatic, BMC will take written declaration from them if they want to take treatment at home. Or else, they will also be shifted to hospital,” added Kakani. As per BMC, their swab samples were taken yesterday for RT-PCR test. Their positive reports came today.

Following this, celebrities from all over the world tweeted their wishes and prayers for the Bacchan family to get well soon.

(Source: Hindustan Times)

Nearly 1300 test positive for COVID-19 at Indonesian Military Academy

By
Preetika Parashuraman
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As Indonesia is struggling to contain the spread of COVID-19, nearly 1300 people at a military academy were tested positive for COVID-19. 

Initially 30 people were hospitalized with mild symptoms. Then the Indonesian Army Officer Candidate School was asked to strictly adhere to quarantine protocols.

Of the 1,280 confirmed infections, 991 were cadets and the rest were staff and their family members. Most were asymptomatic cases.

The outbreak was first detected when two cadets went to a medical facility after complaining of fever and back pain.

They were tested for COVID-19 and the results were positive. This sparked a mass swab testing at the academy. The academy has about 2000 staff and cadets.

The governor of West Java apologised for the outbreak.

He asked the residents to co-operate and follow social distancing and other prevention measures.

He urged them to specifically restrict movement around the academy until the situation comes back to normalcy.

Indonesia is the hardest-hit country in South-east Asia, with more than 74,000 active cases of Covid-19 and over 3,500 deaths.

The real toll is widely believed to be much higher, owing to the low-scale testing methodology of Indonesia.

The World Health Organisation recently urged Indonesia to do more testing.

Source: AFP

Mysterious devotee leaves gold biscuits at Tirumala temple

By
Vaibavi Jayakumar
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A mystery devotee has left 20 ‘gold biscuits’ at the hundi of the Tirumala Thirupathi Devasthanam Temple, reported a temple official on Sunday. They were said to weigh 2 kg and were found on Saturday, when the officials were counting the day’s collection at the temple.

Singhal, who is an official in the temple trust committee, said that about 2.5 lakh devotees thronged the shrine during the month. Meanwhile, about 67,000 devotees, who had booked tickets online for worship, did not visit the temple for different reasons, including COVID-19 related issues, Singhal said.

The TTD trust runs the centuries-old temple, and the total cash offerings, excluding the gold biscuits, amounted to ₹16.7 crore post the reopening of the temple after the lockdown was released. Around 91 members of the temple trust have been tested positive for coronavirus ever since the reopening of the temple, when 3,569 employees were tested.

Meanwhile, the total coronavirus cases in Andhra Pradesh stands at 25,422, while the death toll is at 292.

(Source: PTI, Livemint)

These grandparents have left netizens gushing with their message to their grandson

By
Vaibavi Jayakumar
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A Twitter user called Matt G has posted a video message that his grandparents had reportedly left on his door cam while he was on vacation. This clip has gone viral and has left netizens in awe.

In the short clip, one can see two elderly people walking towards the door. The grandfather, with a big smile on his face, can be seen looking at the camera and saying, “Hey Matt, we drank all your beer buddy”. The grandmother, on the other hand, while waving at the camera, can be heard saying, “have a wonderful vacation, we love you”. The clip ends with both of them leaving the vicinity.

This clip garnered more than 7 million views, and over a million likes and reshares on Twitter from when it was posted on July 9. This has also invoked a lot of comments from the Twitterati, who can’t stop gushing over it.

(Source: Republic)

Trouble brews for Nepal politics as new Madhesi Party gets approved by poll panel

By
Vaibavi Jayakumar
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The Janata Samajbadi Party (JSPN), which was formed quite recently, got the nod from Nepal’s election commission and got officially registered. This party comprises mainly of Madhesis, people who are of Indian origin. This spells trouble for the country’s political scenario, which is already in a state of turmoil.

The JSPN was formed after the recent merger between the parties Samajbadi Party Nepal and Rashtriya Janata Party Nepal. Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli had been delaying the registration for this party because of the backlash he has been facing in his ruling Nepal Communist Party. Due to this factor, despite the merger having happened in April, the license was issued only on Saturday.

This is because of the fact that, despite their support towards Oli’s decision towards the amendment of Nepal’s map, the new Citizenship Amendment Bill proposed by the Oli government that that would place a threshold of 7 years for foreign women marrying Nepali citizens to get Nepali citizenship, has not sat well with the JSPN.

This new party is expected to cause a paradigm shift in Nepal’s politics, as there is a large amount of backlash against Oli, asking him to step down from his Prime Ministerial position.

Back in 2015, the Madhesis had revolted against Nepal’s constiutional amendment that sought to politically marginalized them by giving them lesser representation in the Parliament. Close to 50 people were killed in those protests and the resulting blockade sent the country in an economic and humanitarian crisis.

(Source:Hindustan Times)

Men accused of running ‘duplicate SBI branch’ arrested

By
Vaibavi Jayakumar
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Three men who had allegedly been running a ‘fake SBI’ branch in Panruti were arrested on Saturday. One of them was Kamal Babu, the son of a retired female bank employee, whose father had died ten years ago.

The police said that these men had been running a duplicate SBI branch in the Panruti Bazaar area, using stolen computers, forged documents, challans, and lockers, amongst other things. They had even created a fake website for the branch. This branch had been operated by Babu, along with A Kumar (42), M Manickam (52), since the lockdown had started, assuming that they wouldn’t get caught.

This came under the radar of the police when an SBI customer had inquired about the newly opened branch to the Branch Manager. This customer had acquired a receipt from the fake branch, which they then showed to the Branch Manager, prompting him to lodge a complaint with the local police.

Following this, the police visited the duplicate branch along with bank officials and were shocked to find the setup to be exactly like the original. Speaking about this, a police official from the Panruti branch said, “Till date, we haven’t received any complaints from customers that they have lost money in this branch. When we enquired, Babu said he never intended to cheat people but wanted to open a bank for himself. However, there has been a lot of transactions between his mother’s account and his aunt’s account. A probe is underway.” An FIR was filed under sections  473, 469, 484, 109 of the Indian Penal Code.

(Source: Business Standard, Indian Express)

11 million saplings to be planted in 2020 under Cauvery Calling

By
The Commune
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“Cauvery Calling is currently running at a project scale, we need to transform this into a movement,” said Sadhguru, Founder, Isha Foundation, speaking at the Rally for Rivers (RfR) Board meeting yesterday. The RfR Board held a virtual meeting to review progress of RfR’s two ongoing projects: Cauvery Calling in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and Waghadi River Revitalization Project in Yavatmal district, in Maharashtra.

Sadhguru said, “I feel the Karnataka government has been exemplary in their support. There has been a phenomenal level of support which is translating into action on the ground.”

The Karnataka State Government will supply 70 lakh trees for the 2020 monsoon planting season through its Krushi Aranya Protsaha Yojane (KAPY) scheme.

The Cauvery Calling team is currently working in 54 Talukas of 9 Cauvery river basin districts in Karnataka along with the Forest Department to promote the KAPY scheme. The partnership involves 480 Cauvery Calling volunteers and 270 state government officers including District Collectors, IFS officers, Forest Range Officers, Joint Directors (Agriculture & Horticulture), and Taluk (Agriculture & Horticulture) Officers.

In Tamil Nadu, Isha Outreach’s nurseries have already produced 23 lakh saplings and are targeting to produce an additional 17 lakh saplings this year through their network of 36 nurseries with an overall target of 40 lakh saplings.

“It’s amazing to see that so much has been achieved during the lockdown. It is truly Isha’s speciality to do these things when even projects that have better support and financial strength are being shelved,” said Board member Mr. Pravesh Sharma, former Agriculture Secretary of Madhya Pradesh and MD of Small Farmers’ Agri-Business Consortium, Government of India.

Despite the pandemic, the project in its first phase of sapling production, has been on track. Mr. Yuri Jain who heads Rally for Rivers informed the Board that the 2020 Cauvery Calling goal of planting 11 million trees will remain unchanged.

Ms. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Executive Chairperson, Biocon Ltd, appreciated “the tremendous assessment and effort” of the RfR team. Mr. B Muthuraman, former Chairperson, Tata Steel, said the teams have done a fantastic job despite all the limitations that we have during COVID times.

Cauvery Calling volunteers have been reaching out through social, digital and print media in a bid to reach millions of farmers.

The RfR Board also reviewed progress of the Waghadi River Revitalization Project (Waghadi Nadi Punarujeevan Prakalp) launched in partnership with the Government of Maharashtra last year.

Isha volunteers have been working in 40 villages along the 54-km stretch of river Waghadi since last year in awareness and community mobilization activities.

The Board comprises Mr. Ravi Singh, CEO and Secretary General, World Wide Fund for Nature-India; Justice Arijit Pasayat, Retired Judge, Supreme Court of India; Dr AS Kiran Kumar, former Chairperson, Indian Space Research Organisation; Ms. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Executive Chairperson, Biocon Ltd, Mr. Shashi Shekhar, former Secretary, Water Resources, Government of India; Mr. Pravesh Sharma, former Agriculture Secretary of Madhya Pradesh and MD of Small Farmers’ Agri-Business Consortium, Government of India,  Mr. B Muthuraman, former Chairperson, Tata Steel; and Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, Confederation of Indian Industries.

Rally for Rivers

Sadhguru launched one of the world’s biggest environmental campaigns, Rally for Rivers in 2017 in which he personally drove across 16 Indian states in a month’s time. The campaign saw the coming together of political leaders, farmers, industrialists, businessmen, students, professionals, media, culminating in the handing over of the draft policy recommendation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

On 6 June 2018, NITI Aayog issued an advisory to all 29 States and Union Territories recommending implementation of the River Revitalization policy.

Cauvery Calling

The Cauvery Calling movement which was launched in September 2019 is a 12-year project with an ambition to empower 50 lakh farmers to plant 242 crore trees on their own farmlands in one-third of the Cauvery river basin area. The movement promotes tree-based agriculture that will incentivise farmers to plant high-value trees for economic gain and simultaneously restore green cover in the denuded Cauvery basin. Farmers will be incentivised to plant native tree species suitable for the land to enable water percolation to the ground.

Cauvery Calling is being implemented by Isha Outreach, which is a member of the world’s foremost conservation body, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It is expected to positively impact food and water security of 84 million people in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

Biden to discuss Kashmir with India if elected

By
Vaibavi Jayakumar
-

Joe Biden’s advisor on foreign affairs Antony Blinken said that the Biden administration could potentially address the Kashmir issue with India, in addition to raising concerns about the CAA-NRC issue. In a dialogue on Thursday with the Hudson Institute, Washington, he also criticized Trump’s administration for its backfire in strategy in the Iran issue. The Biden administration, he said, would avoid “schizophrenic see-saw” of the Trump administration on Iran, which has brought the world to the brink of conflict.

In the conversation, the moderator had raised questions about India’s decisions with regard to the Kashmir issue and asked if the Biden administration will raise these concerns with India.

“We obviously have challenges now and real concerns, for example, about some of the actions the Indian government has taken, particularly in cracking down on freedom of movement and freedom of speech in Kashmir, and about some of the laws on citizenship,” said Blinken while responding to the moderator. He added that the election of Biden as President has now become a ‘likelihood’ more than a  ‘possibility’.

Blinken is the major brain behind the drafting the foreign policy at Biden’s camp. It is to be noted that he is a former deputy national security adviser and deputy secretary of state.

(Source: Dawn)

Congress’ Sachin Pilot flexes muscles, Gehlot govt at risk

By
Vaibavi Jayakumar
-

Rajasthan’s Deputy CM Sachin Pilot arrived in Delhi on Saturday with 25 MLAs in a show-of-strength of sorts, seeking to meet with Congress High-Command. A loyalist of Pilot has said that they were at the NCR to meet Sonia Gandhi regarding the “step-motherly treatment given to them by the Ashok Gehlot government in Rajasthan”.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Gehlot called a late-night meeting of his Ministers at his official residence in Jaipur on Saturday and asked all party MLAs to give a letter of support to him. This was not attended by the dozen MLAs who belong to the Sachin Pilot camp. Notably, Gehlot had only recently accused the BJP of trying to ‘poach its MLAs’. He went on to claim that they had offered his MLAs an amount ranging between Rs 10 to 15 crores, each to select MLAs from his government in an attempt to have them switch parties. Coming out in response to these accusations, the BJP had said that it was in no way responsible for the ‘infighting’ that went on in the Congress camp.

This has raised questions asking if trouble was brewing for the Congress, only months after it lost Jyotiraditya Scindia to the BJP. The differences between Sachin Pilot and the Chief Minister have been surfacing regularly. Last year, after the Lok Sabha elections, Gehlot blamed Pilot for his son’s defeat. “Pilot should take responsibility,” the Chief Minister had said.

Congress leaders like Kapil Sibal and Majeed Memon took to Twitter to express their concerns regarding the same.

(Sources: DNA, Republic, Business Insider)

Ramu Thatha of ₹10 meals fame from Madurai passes away

By
The Commune
-

Ramu S (fondly called Ramu Thatha), of the famous Valli Tiffin Centre near the Anna Bus Stand in Madurai, passed away on July 11, after a prolonged illness due to age. He was 91.

A native of Thirumangalam Villur village, Ramu Thatha ran a food shack near the Madurai Anna Bus Stand for over 50 years. Initially when he started, he served food for 25 paise, and gradually increased to ₹1 and ₹5 over the years to adjust to inflation. For the last few years, he has been feeding hungry stomachs cutting across sections at just ₹10. It was only in 2014 that Ramu increased the price to ₹10 upon compulsion from his customers, the Deccan Chronicle noted.

Poor people who cannot pay are requested to pay atleast ₹2. Some paid nothing at all while if someone offers ₹50 instead of ₹10, he politely declines.  He refrains from accepting payments from senior citizens unless they insist.

Ramu’s Valli Tiffin Centre did not make any special dishes. He served simple and homely meals that had a huge customer base ranging from doctors, medical students, patients and their attendants, labourers, rickshaw pullers, travellers, police and homeless people.  Knowing about him, even people from the United States had come to have a meal served by the humble Thatha. Though located at a place that is dotted with bigger eateries, hundreds would flock around his hole-in-the-wall shop during the afternoon lunch hours between noon and 3:30 PM to eat or take parcels.

His wife Puranathammal passed away in the year 2015 and he has been running the eatery solely ever since with his friend cook. What is more heartening to note is that before her passing away, he had made a promise to his wife that he will not buy ration rice. He used to purchase rice from the open market.

Valli Tiffin Centre opens sharp at 7 AM for its customers. The morning tiffin menu has Idlis, Dosais, Oothappams and Pongal all priced at ₹10, served with Sambar, Tomato and Coconut Chutneys.

Ramu facing poverty early in his childhood ran away from his home at 12 after his mother died. He worked as a waiter in small eateries in various places. At 17, he was inspired by Sage Vallalar whose ideals and emphasis on feeding the poor had a lasting impact on him. He married Purnathammal who was a good cook and settled in Madurai. Ramu and Purnathammal had started off in 1965 by selling Idli and Vadai for 10 paisa each. Purnathammal later started cooking full meals (saapaadu) and sold it for ₹1.25. Over the years, they have had a set of loyal customers and newer ones kept adding as they aged.

Ramu has outlived his two sons and a grandson. With his passing away, Madurai has lost a grandfather with a grand heart.

Source: Dinamalar, The Hindu, Deccan Chronicle

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