A jeweller for 25 years, Hukumchand Soni would not have imagined in his wildest dreams there would come a time when he will have to sell vegetables to earn a living. But then these are no ordinary times. His shop-counter, which once remained covered with expensive ornaments, is now occupied by green vegetables and the jewellery scale now weighs potatoes and onions. The GP Jewellery Shop in Jaipur’s Ram Nagar has undergone a radical transformation to adapt to the new set of customers who visit it daily. It’s been four days since I started selling vegetables. This is the only…
Author: Our Correspondent
Technologists at the Sree Chitra Triunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST), an autonomous institute under the Department of Science and Technology, Govt of India, have developed two types of nasal and oral swabs and viral transport medium for COVID-19 testing. Chitra EmBed flocked nylon swabs (co-developed with Mallelil Industries Pvt ltd), and Chitra EnMesh, polymeric foam-tipped, lint-free swabs with flexible plastic handles developed by technologists Dr. Lynda V Thomas, Dr. Shyni Velayudhan and Dr. Maya Nandakumar from SCTIMST have both proven efficiency in the adequacy of specimen collection and rapid elution (extracting one material from another by washing…
A federal judge dismissed the United States women’s soccer team’s bid for equal pay, rejecting claims the players had been underpaid in a crushing defeat for the reigning world champions. In a 32-page ruling, Judge Gary Klausner of the US District Court for Central California in Los Angeles tossed the women’s claim of pay discrimination, ruling in favour of the United States Soccer Federation (USSF). Klausner did allow the women’s case for unfair treatment in areas such as travel, housing and medical support to proceed to trial, set for June 16 in Los Angeles. But the judge said the equal…
The gloves came off again today in the long-running letter war between the Bengal Chief Minister and the Bengal Governor, with Mamata Banerjee writing a 13-page, sarcasm-filled letter to Mr Jagdeep Dhankar; it also consists of some annexures but these have not been made public. His last letter to her was 14 pages long. Referring to the Governor’s letter of April 23 and 24, Ms Banerjee said “… communications of such content, tenor and tone… are unprecedented in the annals of constitutional history” and accused Mr Dhankar of using language that “even with maximum restraint, can only be described as…
Reclaiming the top spot in Test cricket has brought smiles back on their faces but Australia coach Justin Langer says beating India in their own den remains the ultimate test and their numero uno status will be put to test when they clash with the Virat Kohli-led team. After a tumultuous transition phase post the ball-tampering scandal, Australia on Friday displaced India as number one side in Test format but Langer is aware that it does not take long for situation to change. “We recognise how fluid these rankings are, but at this time it was certainly nice to put…
Amid coronavirus-induced lockdown, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday deliberated on ways to reform the agriculture sector with emphasis on agriculture marketing, access of farmers to institutional credit and freeing the sector of various restrictions with appropriate backing of laws. Agriculture accounts for 15 per cent of India’s gross domestic product and is a source of livelihood for more than half of the country’s 1.3 billion population. The government has maintained that the country’s farm sector is functioning smoothly despite the COVID-19 lockdown and there will not be much impact on its growth in the current fiscal, unlike other sectors.…
Megastar Amitabh Bachchan penned a heartfelt note reminiscing the moments spent with veteran actor Rishi Kapoor right from his childhood to his leukemia diagnosis. Kapoor died at the age of 67 on Thursday morning after a two year long battle with leukemia at H N Reliance hospital here. Bachchan had broke the news on Twitter, saying, He’s GONE .. ! Rishi Kapoor .. gone .. just passed away .. I am destroyed!” But he soon deleted the tweet. Later in the night, on his blog, Bachchan recalled the time when he first saw Kapoor during a visit to his father,…
Governor Dhankar acces West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of hiding details regarding COVID-19 cases in the state and asked her to come out with actual figures. “Give up ‘COVID-19 data cover up operation’ @MamataOfficial and share it transparently,” Governor Jagdeep Dhankar tweeted today. He said the state’s health bulletin on April 30 put the coronavirus cases at 572 and said there was no update the next day. https://twitter.com/jdhankhar1/status/1256458161768165378?s=20 West Bengal has seen 795 coronavirus cases, including 33 deaths, as of Saturday morning, according to figures from the Union Health Ministry. On Friday too, Mr Dhankar hit out at Ms…
The Karnataka government on Friday issued a show cause notice to an IAS officer over his recent tweet about coronavirus-cured Tablighi Jamaat members donating plasma for treatment of other patients. The officer, Mohammad Mohsin, was in the news last year after the Election Commission suspended him for trying to inspect Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s helicopter during his visit to Odisha in April. He was deployed as a poll observer. “More than 300 Tablighi Heroes are donating their plasma to serve the country in New Delhi only. What about? #Godi Media? They will not show the works of humanity done by…
Delhi Police has started a sedition case against Delhi Minority Commission chairman Zafarul Islam Khan for his provocative remarks on the social media. An FIR was registered even as Khan apologised and removed the controversial post. Delhi Police Special Cell registered the FIR on the complaint of a Vasant Kunj resident. The complaint came to the Lodhi Colony office of the special cell, after the assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Safdarjung Enclave forwarded it. The investigation has been handed over to special cell inspector Praveen Kumar. According to the FIR, the copy of which is with IANS, Khan has been…