Nobel Peace laureate Kailash Satyarthi, known worldwide for his Bachpan Bachao Andolan which is credited for welfare of victims of child trafficking and child labour, on Friday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to give three-month impunity to all employers of child labourers from prosecution or other punitive action. Satyarthi said this should be done by issuing a special notification, if the employer voluntarily releases children confined inside factories, workshops, stone quarries, brick kilns or other workplaces during this period. “It was an ideological and emotional dilemma in such an extraordinary situation. I am saying what I am feeling. They are…
Author: Our Correspondent
NASA engineers have designed a new low-cost high-pressure ventilator tailored specifically to treat COVID-19 patients. The device, called VITAL (Ventilator Intervention Technology Accessible Locally), passed a critical test on April 21 at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York — an epicentre of COVID-19 in the United States, NASA said on Thursday. The device now is under review for an emergency use authorization by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the US space agency said. VITAL is designed to treat patients with milder symptoms, thereby keeping the nation”s limited supply of traditional ventilators available for…
As the number of coronavirus cases in Pakistan has increased to 11,155 with 237 deaths, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) has revealed that 79 per cent of these infections were caused by local transmission. As the nature of the infection has undergone this change, the government has decided to introduce track and trace system under which random testing of people will start in a few days, reports Dawn news. During the first week of the current month, it was being claimed that almost 90 per cent patients were travellers from foreign countries and there were fewer cases caused…
The Taliban has rejected Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s call for a ceasefire amid the coronavirus pandemic, saying that the government’s inattention to “thousands” of prisoners made the President’s appeal “insincere”, it was reported. Amid escalating violence in many parts of the country, Ghani on Thursday appealed to the Taliban for a ceasefire, citing the special conditions of the countrywide spread of the coronavirus. In his message, Ghani called on the Taliban to stop “killing Afghans”, adding that the government will continue helping vulnerable families during the coronavirus crisis in the country. Ghani’s appeal comes as dozens of Afghan security force…
Beijing has denied permission to American scientists to visit Wuhan Institute of Virology or any other part of China to investigate the origin of the novel coronavirus. US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo revealed this on Wednesday while speaking to Fox News about why greater transparency from the Xi Jinping government was required. ”Even today, the Chinese government hasn”t permitted American scientists to go into China, to go into not only the Wuhan lab but wherever it needs to go to learn about this virus, to learn about its origins,” Pompeo told the news channel. Reiterating that the Trump administration…
Pakistan has been running social media propaganda against India using fake Arab, Christian and Hindu identities to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. Security agencies and independent social media users after investigation found that the recent hashtags like Islamophia in India on Twitter, were mostly sourced to bots, trolls and people in Pakistan. The idea was to bombard social media with content to generate anti-Modi sentiment in Gulf countries and create a wedge between India and its allies in the Middle East, sources said. In one of the cases, a Twitter account which was initially @pak_fauj had changed it…
The containment zone tally in the national capital on Thursday reached 92 with two new red zones added in the list. The new red zones are in the South and Shahdara districts. While house number 15 to 101 in Dayanand Vihar has been sealed in Shahdara, in the South district, the entire affected area of Samshi Talab in Mehrauli, including the area around A-3, Lake View Apartments has been sealed.
A policeman, who was abducted by suspected terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir’s Shopian on Thursday evening, has been freed by security forces, sources said. Further details were not available yet. According to sources, Javed Jabbar, who was posted in Srinagar, had gone home on leave in Shopian”s Mingipora, from where he was abducted by the terrorists. As soon as the news was received, rescue operation was initiated and police parties fanned out across south Kashmir to find Jabbar and to nab his abductors. This is not the first time that security men going on leave to their homes in Kashmir…
Equity benchmark Sensex surged over 483 points on Thursday, tracking gains in IT and banking stocks as expectations of another stimulus package from the government enthused investor sentiment. The 30-share index ended 483.53 points or 1.54 per cent higher at 31,863.08. The broader NSE Nifty advanced 126.60 points, or 1.38 per cent, to settle at 9,313.90. Kotak Bank was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rallying over 8 per cent, followed by TCS, Infosys, ICICI Bank, HCL Tech and ONGC. On the other hand, Titan, HUL, PowerGrid, NTPC and Nestle India were among the laggards. Indian markets opened on…
Women Self-Help Groups in Haryana have made over 17 lakh protective face covers and masks, lending a help hand to the administration and NGOs trying to stop the spread of coronavirus. In addition to the face covers and masks, they have prepared nearly 13,000 Personal Protection Equipment kits and 35,000 sanitizers of 100 ml each. Their initiative has not only helped in boosting supply of these items but has also generated income for the SGHs, officials said. There are over 40,000 SGHs in the state. Through the district administration and NGOs these items are provided to various categories of workers…