Category: National

Cast one crore votes to Bharatiya Janata Party we will provide liquor for just Rs 70. If we have more revenue left, then, will provide liquor for just Rs 50: Andhra Pradesh BJP president Somu Veerraju in Vijayawada said yesterday, reported ANI

However, the researchers noted that the exact peak number of cases cannot be estimated accurately with the study as it did not consider the vaccination data of the population.covid
People throng Sadar Bazaar flouting COVID-19 protocols, in New Delhi.

New Delhi, Dec 24: The third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in India may peak by February 3, 2022, claims a modelling study by researchers at Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur.
However, the forecast is based on the assumption that India will follow the trends of rise in cases seen in many countries globally driven by the Omicron variant of coronavirus.
The yet-to-be peer-reviewed study, posted on the preprint repository MedRxiv on December 21, used a statistical tool named the Gaussian Mixture model to forecast the third wave.
In their study, the researchers used data from countries such as the US, UK, Germany, and Russia that are already facing the third COVID-19 wave.

They modelled the daily data of cases in these countries to predict the impact and timeline for the third wave in India.
The study also used the data from the first and second waves in India, considering the number of cases with respect to time.
The model forecasts India’s third wave of COVID-19 to peak in the beginning of February 2022.
“The cases start rising around 15 December 2021 and the peak of the third wave will occur on Thursday, 3 February 2022, they wrote in the research paper.
The authors of the study noted that the conclusions are based on the assumptions that a third wave of COVID-19 may hit the country, and will follow the trends happening around the world.
However, the researchers noted that the exact peak number of cases cannot be estimated accurately with the study as it did not consider the vaccination data of the population.
The research team comprised of Sabara Parshad Rajeshbhai, Subhra Sankar Dhar, and Shalabh, all from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at IIT Kanpur.
The authors noted that the vaccination campaign by the union government is a good initiative but it will take some time to reach “100 per cent efficacy”.
“In many countries like the US, UK, Germany, Russia, the majority of the people have been vaccinated but still they are currently facing the third wave,” the authors explained.
“So, India and other countries have to build up the defences and be prepared for another wave so that it is not as devastating as the earlier ones,” they added.
According to the National COVID-19 Supermodel Committee, the third wave of COVID-19 is expected to peak in early next year but would be milder than the second wave.
The members of the committee said last week that daily caseload in India is expected to increase once Omicron starts displacing Delta as the dominant variant.
India on Friday recorded 122 cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus in a span of 24 hours, the highest so far, pushing its tally in the country to 358.
Overall, the country reported 6,650 fresh COVID-19 cases, increasing the country’s caseload to 3,47,72,626, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said.

In one of the biggest hauls, a team of Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI), Ahmedabad, recovered Rs 177 crore of “unaccounted cash” from the residence of businessman Piyush Jain in Kanpur during a two-day raid on Thursday and Friday. More hidden money is likely to tumble out as some of his properties in Kannauj are still being searched.

The search teams combed 11 premises of Jain and two of his partners — one is a pan masala manufacturer and the other is a transporter. The premises included factory outlets, offices, cold storages and petrol pumps in Kanpur, Mumbai and Gujarat. The raids started simultaneously at 11am.

Officials said tax evasion of more than Rs 3 crore through shell companies was discovered. “Jain took loans in the name of shell companies and has huge foreign transactions,” a source said, adding, “Documents are being scrutinised. SBI officials are helping count the seized money.”

Jain, who is originally from Chhipatti in Kannauj, is known primarily as a perfume merchant. He has around 40 companies, including two in West Asia, and owns a house, head office and a showroom in Mumbai.

Explaining the modus operandi, sources in the department said multiple invoices, all below Rs 50,000 for a truckload, were generated in the name of fake firms to avoid paying GST. They added that 200 fake invoices were found and more than Rs 1 crore was seized from the transporter.

New Delhi:  A cute love story between a Kashmiri model and former Miss Universe has ended in a breakup.Basking in the success of Aarya. Sushmita Sen finally belled the cat and announced a breakup with her Kashmiri boyfriend Rohman Shawl.

Basking in the success of Aarya. Sushmita Sen finally belled the cat and announced a breakup with her Kashmiri boyfriend Rohman Shawl.

Posting a picture with Rohman Shawl, Sushmita wrote that the relationship ended a long ago and that the two “remain friends.”

“We began as friends, we remain friends! The relationship was long over… The love remains,” she said and hashtagged #nomorespeculations, #liveandletlive, #cherishedmemories, #gratitude, #love, and #friendship,” she wrote on Instagram

Sushmita’s post has finally put the lid over rumors that the couple was not on good terms for some time. “I love you guys,” was the parting shot of Aarya star

Rohman Shawl and Sushmita Sen reportedly started dating in 2018. Rohman, a model, has walked the ramp for many top designers. He and Sushmita Sen were frequently pictured together. Even they posted photos of celebrating each other’s festivals.

A single mom to two adopted daughters, Alisah and Renee, Sushmita has crowned Miss Universe in 1994.

She made her Bollywood debut in the 1996 film Dastak. She has featured in films such as `Biwi No 1′, `Do Knot Disturb’, `Main Hoon Na’, `Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya’, Tumko Na Bhool Paayenge’ and `No Problem’. Her eldest daughter, Renee, made her acting debut with a short film this year.

Those making jokes on cows, buffaloes forget livelihood of crores depend on them: PM Modi at Varanasi rally

Chennai, Dec 9: One of the ambulances and a police van, part of the convoy carrying the bodies of the Indian Air Force (IAF) chopper crash victims, met with an accident while on the way from Wellington to Sulur in Tamil Nadu.

Thirteen people, including Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, his wife Madhulika Rawat died in an IAF helicopter crash near Coonoor on Wednesday afternoon.

The bodies were shifted from the Madras Regimental Centre (MRC) in Wellington from the Military Hospital on Thursday morning where Telangana Governor and Puducherry Lt Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, Air Chief Marshal V.R. Chaudhari, senior military officials and others paid last respects to the departed souls.

While the convoy of ambulances and security vehicles were travelling from Wellington to Sulur air base, the axle of a police vehicle broke. The van driver stopped the vehicle and in the process hit a wall on the roadside.

Seven policemen suffered minor injuries and they were shifted to Mettupalayam government hospital.

Some minutes later, one of the ambulances carrying the mortal remains met with a minor accident suffering small damages.

The bodies in the ambulance were shifted to another ambulance and the vehicles proceeded towards Sulur airbase.–(IANS)

He, however said that he did not know that it was General Rawat and could only identify him when the photographs of the late officer came out.

Chennai, Dec 9: A villager, who was among the group of people who first reached the helicopter crash site at Kattari Park in Tamil Nadu’s Coonoor, on Thursday said that Chief of Defence Staff, General Bipin Rawat, was alive when they found him and was asking for water.
Talking to media persons at Coonoor, Sivakumar said: “We reached the spot immediately after the crash and found three people alive and of them, one was asking for water. We didn’t have water but we immediately put the three of them on separate blankets and took them to the Wellington Army hospital.”
He, however said that he did not know that it was General Rawat and could only identify him when the photographs of the late officer came out.
Sivakumar, Krishna Moorthy, and M. Ravikumar were the first people to reach the spot on hearing the crash, only to find the copter burning.

OpIndia

Hours after it was confirmed that Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, his wife and 11 others died in an unfortunate helicopter crash in Tamil Nadu, videos have started doing the rounds claiming the final moments of the ill-fated IAF aircraft. Two such videos showing chopper crashes have appeared on social media.

Along with several social media users, Times Now Marathi tweeted such a video, saying that it is a video from the helicopter crash.

The video showed a Helicopter high in the air catching fire, and then crashing to the ground. While the chopper free falls in the air, several objects, which can be passengers, baggage, or broken parts of the aircraft, are seen separating from the burning chopper and falling to the ground. This footage directly questions the current theory of today’s crash, which said the helicopter hit the ground due to bad weather, as in the video, the video had already caught fire high in the air.

That is because, the video is old, and the chopper in it was shot down by a missile. The incident is from Syria and it happened almost two years ago. The same video can be seen on YouTube posted in February 2020, which says that it is the video of a Mi-17 helicopter shot down in Syria. The video was originally posted on Facebook by anti-government activists, and they were heard shouting Allah Hu Akbar while filming the crash.

According to reports, it was a Russian military transport helicopter, which was shot down near Aleppo in the Idlib province in Syria. It was targeted using MANPADS, a shoulder-fired surface to air missile, by a Turkey-backed rebel group called National Front for Liberation. Three crew members and two officers on board had died in the terror attack, which was one of the worst attacks on Russian forces in Syria.

A second video is also being shared on social media claiming to be from today. In this video, a video is seen crash landing on the ground. However, no fire is seen on the aircraft, while the chopper that crashed today had caught fire and the victims were burnt to death.

The other video is also not from today’s crash where General Rawat and others died, as being claimed by many. It shows an Indian Air Force Mi-17 Helicopter crash landing in Arunachal Pradesh last month.

#WATCH video of the Indian Air Force Mi-17 helicopter that crash-landed near a helipad in Eastern Arunachal Pradesh today with two pilots and three crew members. All of them are safe with minor injuries.

(Source: a local person) pic.twitter.com/cTUbzZRT3J

— ANI (@ANI) November 18, 2021

The incident happened on 18th November 2021 in Eastern Arunachal Pradesh, and fortunately there were no casualties in this accident. Two pilots and three crew members onboard the helicopter were safe with minor injuries.

Therefore, both the videos are not from today’s accident, and they are old. While one is almost 2 years old and is from Syria, the other one is three weeks old and is from Arunachal Pradesh in India.

With inputs from OpIndia

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Kashmir Today staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

General Bipin Rawat, who died in an IAF chopper crash at Coonoor in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday, rose the ranks to become the first ever Chief of Defence Staff of the three services, after serving as the 27th Chief of Army Staff for three years, UNI reported.

General Rawat was commissioned in the Fifth Battalion of Eleven Gorkha Rifles in December 1978, from Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, where he was awarded the ‘Sword of Honour’.

In his career in the Indian Army spanning over four decades, General Rawat commanded an Infantry battalion along the Line of Actual Control in the Eastern Sector; a Rashtriya Rifles Sector and an Infantry Division in the Kashmir Valley, and a Corps in the Eastern theatre and the Southern Command, as per UNI.

An officer with vast experience in high altitude warfare and counter insurgency operations, the General had also served at Indian Military Academy, Dehradun and at Army War College, Mhow.

As a Major, he had commanded a company in Uri, Jammu and Kashmir and as a Colonel, he commanded the 5th battalion of 11 Gorkha Rifles, in the Eastern sector along the Line of Actual Control at Kibithu.

After being promoted as a Brigadier, he commanded 5 Sector of Rashtriya Rifles in Sopore, and later went to command a multinational Brigade in a Chapter VII mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO), where he was twice awarded the Force Commander’s Commendation.

With his promotion as a Major General, Rawat took over as the General Officer Commanding 19th Infantry Division (Uri). As a Lieutenant General, he commanded III Corps, headquartered in Dimapur before taking over the Southern Army in Pune.

He also held staff assignments, including an instructional tenure at the Indian Military Academy (Dehradun), General Staff Officer Grade 2 at the Military Operations Directorate, logistics staff officer of a Re-organised Army Plains Infantry Division (RAPID) in central India, Colonel Military Secretary and Deputy Military Secretary in the Military Secretary’s Branch and Senior Instructor in the Junior Command Wing.

He also served as the Major General General Staff (MGGS) of the Eastern Command.
After being promoted to the Army Commander grade, Rawat assumed the post of General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) Southern Command on January 1, 2016. After a short stint, he assumed the post of Vice Chief of Army Staff on 1 September 2016.

General Rawat had taken over as the 27th Chief of Army Staff on December 31, 2016, months after the surgical strike done in response to an attack on an Army camp in Uri. He also served as 57th and last Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee.
He took charge as India’s first Chief of Defence Staff on January 1, 2020.

Born in Pauri, Uttarakhand, he went to Cambrian Hall School in Dehradun, and St Edward’s School, Shimla. His father Laxman Singh Rawat was from Sainj village of the Pauri Garhwal district and rose to the rank of Lieutenant General in the Indian Army.

An alumnus of Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, the Higher Command & National Defence College Courses, General Rawat had been awarded for gallantry and distinguished service with the Uttam Yudh Seva Medal, Ati Vishisht Seva Medal, Yudh Seva Medal, Sena Medal, Vishisht Seva Medal and COAS Commendation on two occasions and the Army Commander’s Commendation.

He had also attended the Command and General Staff College (CGSC) course at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, US.

Academically inclined, General Rawat had also authored numerous articles on ‘National Security’ and ‘Leadership’, which have been published in various journals and publications. The CDS was also awarded an M Phil in Defence Studies from Madras University, and held a PhD from Chaudhary Charan Singh University.