0830 HRS

Morning News 02.01.2021

THE HEADLINES,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi to lay foundation stone of permanent campus of IIM
Sambalpur in Odisha this morning.
Nationwide dry run for Covid-19 vaccination to be conducted today.
Covid-19 recovery rate improves to 96.08 per cent in the country.
Centre extends Disability Compensation to all serving employees, if they get disabled in
line of duty.
GST collections touch all time high of over one lakh crore rupees in December.
And, Government decides to resume flights between India and UK from 8th of January.
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As the nation fights the COVID-19 pandemic, we begin with a message of precaution to stay safe and
protected by following these three simple steps --

· Wear a face mask.

And now, the news:

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone of the permanent campus of IIM
Sambalpur in Odisha at 11 AM today through video conferencing.

Odisha Governor Professor Ganeshi Lal, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Union Education Minister
Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Pratap Chandra Sarangi will
be present on the occasion. The ceremony will be virtually attended by over 5,000 invitees including
officials, industry leaders, academicians and students, alumni and faculty of IIM Sambalpur.

IIM Sambalpur is the first IIM to implement the idea of flipped classroom where the basic concepts
are learnt in digital mode and experiential learning takes place in the class, through live projects from
the industry. The Institute also outscored all other IIMs in terms of highest gender diversity with 49
percent girl students in MBA 2019-21 batch and 43 percent in MBA 2020-22 batch.

Odisha government has provided 200 acres of land for the construction of the proposed campus. The
Ministry of Education has extended administrative support and granted financial aid of over 400
crore rupees for the project. More from our Odisha correspondent:-

"The permanent campus will add more teeth to the management institute to deliver the desired
academic products. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a tweet has already said the India is proud
of the rich contribution of IIMs to national progress. Union Minister Pratap Chandra Sarangi who
will also be present on the occasion has said that the permanent campus of IIM Sambalpur will
create a positive impact in Odisha through its outstanding project based courses. Sating that it's a
big day for Odisha he said while the institute has already outperformed other IIMs in India in
terms of gender diversity and inclusivity, the traditional weavers of iconic Sambalpuri clothes will
also benefit from the constructive windows facilitated by IIM Sambalpur. Girish Chandra Dash
AIR News Bhubaneswar."

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A nationwide dry run for Covid-19 vaccination will be conducted today. Dry run is essentially a
practice session where a sample number of beneficiaries will go through a mock immunisation
process. The exercise is aimed at testing the preparedness for the vaccine rollout. Today's dry run
will be conducted across all States and Union Territories. Each State and Union Territory has been
asked to conduct the dry run at minimum three session sites. Apart from the staff of the designated
vaccination centres, the dry run will see the participation of a select group of health care workers as
test vaccine beneficiaries. Each centre will identify 25 test beneficiaries for the dry run.

The mock drill will ensure that phase 1 of Covid-19 vaccination goes without any glitch. The dry run
will test linkages between planning and implementation and to identify the challenges. The dry run
will also test Co-WIN application, developed specifically for Covid-19 vaccination drive, in a field
environment.

Health Minister Harsh Vardhan chaired a high-level meeting yesterday to review preparedness for the
dry run. Speaking at the function, Dr. Harsh Vardhan said, the purpose of the dry run is to identify
the problems which can be rectified in the earlier stage.

Head of the COVID Task Force and NITI Aayog Member Dr VK Paul said that the dry run of
vaccination is important to ascertain the preparedness and operational functioning of COWIN under
actual circumstances.

States are also augmenting the state helpline 104 which will be used in addition to 1075 for any
vaccine related query. Call centre executives have been given an orientation and capacity building
training.

A two-day trial run was earlier conducted on December 28 and 29 in four states - Assam, Andhra
Pradesh, Punjab and Gujarat. The planned operations and the laid-out mechanisms for the drive was
successful then. Health and Family Welfare Ministry said all states expressed satisfaction in terms of
the operational approach and use of IT platform to ensure transparency and effective monitoring of
vaccination processes expected to cover a large number of people across the country.

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Uttar Pradesh government has appealed to the people not to pay heed to rumours related to new strain
of Covid-19. Till date, only two patients in state have been diagnosed with this new strain of
coronavirus. State government will also test its covid vaccination preparedness in a dry run today at 6
places. More from our Lucknow correspondent:

"Additional Chief Secretary health of state Amit Mohan Prasad informed that today state
government will conduct dry run of COVID vaccination at 6 centres in Lucknow while on January
5th it will be done in the entire state. He said that government is making all arrangements for the
vaccination, which includes expansion of covid chain storage and installation of cctv cameras at
vaccination centres and places of vaccine storage. He said that the state health departmentl has
begun testing all people coming from the UK after December 9 for the new strain of the virus and
there is no need to panic. Till date more than 2500 persons who had returned from UK recently
have been tested and only two of them were found positive with the new strain of coronavirus.
Meanwhile fresh cases of covid-19 has father come down to 871 in last 24 hours in state and the
recovery rate has gone up to 96.21 percent. SUSHIL CHANDRA TIWARI, AIR NEWS,
LUCKNOW."

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In Madhya Pradesh, the dry run for Covid vaccination will take place at 3 hospitals in the state
capital today. More from our Bhopal Correspondent:

"State Immunization Officer, Dr. Santosh Shukla informed that the dry Run will take place at 3
centres which includes Gandhi Nagar health centre, L.N. Medical College, Kolar and Govindpura
health centre from 9 am to 11 am. 25 health workers will arrive for the vaccination at each of
these centres. Team of 5 vaccine officers will be available at all the three centres. Representatives
from WHO and UNICEF will also remain present as external monitors. Health commissioner Dr
Sanjay Goyal informed that all proper arrangements of vaccination are in place as per prescribed
protocol. Pooja P. Vardhan, AIR News, Bhopal."

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The country's COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 96.08 per cent as more than 23 thousand
COVID patients recovered during the last 24 hours. Health Ministry said, the total number of
recoveries has gone up to over 98 lakh 83 thousand. The actual caseload currently comprises only
2.47 per cent of the total positive cases. Presently, the total number of active cases in the country is
around two lakh 54 thousand.

During the past 24 hours, 20 thousand 36 new cases were reported taking the total number of positive
cases in the country to over one crore two lakh. The Ministry said, currently, India’s Case Fatality
Rate is 1.45 per cent, which is one of the lowest globally. During the last 24 hours, 256 deaths were
reported taking the toll to one lakh 48 thousand 994.

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Delhi reported 585 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours taking the total count to 6,25,954.
The metropolis reported 717 recoveries and 21 deaths yesterday. Total recoveries in the national
capital are 6,10,039. The death toll has gone up to 10,557 while the city has 5,358 active cases.

The cumulative positivity rate is 7.16 per cent while the case death rate is 1.69 per cent.

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In Bihar, COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 97.57 per cent. This is 1.49 per cent more than
the national average. The number of active cases in the state is continuously declining. Currently,
four thousand 765 patients are undergoing treatment at various hospitals. Two lakh 47 thousand 89
patients have so far recovered from the infection in the state.

Over one lakh 5 thousand corona tests were carried out during the past 24 hours. Over one crore 84
lakh corona tests have been conducted in the state so far.

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Gujarat has recorded 734 new cases of Covid-19 during the last 24 hours. The recovery rate has
further improved to 94.32 percent. More from our Ahmedabad correspondent:

"The total number of Covid19 cases detected so far in Gujarat has reached up to 2 lakh 45
thousand 772. Out of these, 2 lakh 31 thousand 800 patients recovered. 907 patients recovered
during the last 24 hours. More than 97 lakh 6 thousand tests have been carried out in the state till
date. Maximum 158 new cases reported from Ahmedabad, while Surat recorded 122 new cases. At
present total active cases in the state are 9663, out of which 64 patients are on ventilator. 3 patients
died yesterday taking the total deaths due to Covid19 up to 4309. Yogesh Pandya, AIR News,
Ahmedabad."

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Karnataka reported 877 new Covid-19 positive cases during the last 24 hours. At the same time
1084 people cured from the disease and discharged from various hospitals in the State. At present
11,058 covid patients are undergoing treatment across the State among them 189 are in ICU. Six
covid patients lost their life and the total number of fatalities have increased to 12,096. More from
our Bengaluru correspondent:

"A dry run of Covid -19 vaccination for frontline warriors will commence today in five districts
in the state. Bengaluru Urban, Mysuru, Belagavi, Shivamogga and Kaluburagi districts are chosen
for the dry run. In Bengaluru Urban three primary healthcare centers have been identified and in
the remaining four districts the dry run will be conducted in Primary Health Centers, Taluk
Hospitals and the district hospitals. The dry run is conducted to see the feasibility of the system
before the actual vaccination starts. R.MURTHY, AIR NEWS BENGALURU."

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Union Government has decided that flights between India and UK will resume from 8th of January.
Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri in a tweet said that operations of flights till 23rd of
January will be restricted to 15 flights per week each for carriers of the two countries to and from
Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad only.
The government had extended the temporary suspension of flights to and from the UK till 7th
January 2021. India had earlier banned UK flights on 23rd of December till 31st of December 2020.

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Centre has decided to extend Disability Compensation to all serving employees, if they get disabled
in the line of duty while performing their service and are retained in service in spite of such
disablement. This was announced by Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions
Jitendra Singh yesterday. He said, the move will particularly provide a huge relief to young Central
Armed Police Force (CAPF) personnel like CRPF, BSF and CISF since disability in performance of
duties is generally reported in their case due to constraints of job requirement as well as hostile or
difficult work-environment.

Dr Singh said, Narendra Modi Government is making all efforts to simplify the rules and to do away
with discriminatory clauses. The ultimate objective of all these new initiatives is to provide ease of
living for the government servants even after they have superannuated and become pensioners or
family pensioners or elder citizens.

In another employee-friendly decision, the Ministry of Personnel recently did away with minimum
qualifying service of 10 years for pension, Accordingly, the rule was amended to provide Invalid
Pension at 50 per cent of the last pay, even if the employee had not completed minimum qualifying
service of 10 years.

In addition to these, in yet another reform in the Pension Rules, a decision was also taken to amend
the rule and provide pension at enhanced rate to the family of an employee who died during service
before completing the requisite service of minimum seven years. As a result, now the family pension
of 50 per cent of the last pay is also admissible to the family of employees who die even before
completing seven years of service.

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More than 800 academics belonging to various Universities and Institutions have signed petition
lauding the progaressive farm laws enacted by the Central Government. They said that they strongly
believe in the government's assurance to the farmers to protect the farmers' livelihoods and it will not
take the food from their plate. They said that the government is firmly committed to delivering the
principle of minimum government, maximum governance. They said, they stand in solidarity with
both the government and the farmers and salute their intense efforts.

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Government continues to procure Kharif crops at MSP from farmers as per existing Minimum
Support Price schemes. Over 487.92 lakh metric tonne of paddy has been procured so far, which is
24.93 percent more than the corresponding period last year. Out of the total purchase of 487.92 lakh
metric tonne, Punjab alone has contributed 202.77 LMT which is 41.55 percent of total procurement.
About 62.28 lakh farmers have already benefitted from the ongoing Kharif crop procurement with
MSP value of over 92,120 Crore rupees.

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GST Revenue collection for last month has been recorded to be an all time high since the
implementation of the Goods and Services Tax in the country. The gross GST revenue collected in
the month of December 2020 is 1 lakh 15 thousand 174 crore rupees. The revenue collected is 12 per
cent higher than the GST revenues in the corresponding period the last financial year. The December
2020 revenues are significantly higher than the November's revenues which was nearly 1 lakh 4
thousand 963 crore rupees.

Finance Ministry has informed that this is the highest growth in monthly revenues since the last 21
months. It said, this has been due to the combined effect of the rapid economic recovery post
pandemic and the nation-wide drive against GST evaders and fake bills alongwith many systemic
changes introduced recently.
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In our Special Series Year ender-2020 today we bring you a report on Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat.
After coming to power in 2014, Narendra Modi Government has given a special focus on
strengthening Unity and Integrity of the country. The initiative Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat was
announced by Prime Minister Modi on 31st October, 2015 on the occasion of the 140th birth
anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

Speaking at an event Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that India's unparalleled diversity is our
pride.

Our correspondent has more on this story:-

"Through this innovative measure, the knowledge of the culture, traditions and practices of
different states and UTs are leading to an enhanced understanding and bonding between the states,
thereby strengthening the unity and integrity of India. Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat programme
aims to enhance interaction and promote mutual understanding between people of different states
and Union Territories through the concept of state and UT pairing. The states carry out activities
to promote a sustained and structured cultural connect in the areas of language learning, culture,
traditions and music, tourism and cuisines, sports and sharing of best practices. There is no
country like India, quite as diverse, multi-lingual and multi-cultural, yet bound together by the
ancient bounds of shared traditions, culture and values. Such bonds are being strengthened
through Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat. WITH Naseem Naqvi, ANUPAM MISHRA, AIR News,
Delhi."

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Rashtrapati Bhavan Museum Complex, which was closed for public viewing due to COVID-19 since
13th of March last year will re-open from 5th of January. It will open on all days except on Monday
and government holidays. Visitors can book their slots online by visiting websites -
presidentofindia.nic.in or rashtrapatisachivalaya.gov.in or rbmuseum.gov.in.

A nominal registration charges of 50 rupees per visitor will be levied as earlier. On the spot
booking facility, which was previously available, is temporarily suspended. In order to maintain the
social distancing norms, four pre-booked time slots have been fixed between 9:30 am to 11 am,
11:30 am to 1 pm, 1:30 pm to 3 pm and 3:30 pm to 5 pm with a maximum limit of 25 visitors per
slot. During the tour, visitors have to follow COVID protocols such as wearing of mask, maintaining
social distance, install Aarogya Setu app. People vulnerable to the COVID-19 are discouraged for the
tour.

Rashtrapati Bhavan Museum Complex is an event based story telling Museum which showcases the
exquisite and invaluable artifacts symbolizing art, culture, heritage and history.

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India has said, its Embassy in Beijing has repeatedly taken up the cases of MV Jag Anand and MV
Anastasia with the Chinese side, requesting that the ships be allowed to dock and the crew be allowed
to be changed. In response to a media query on status of the two ships, External Affairs Ministry
Spokesman Anurag Srivastava said, MV Jag Anand is on anchorage near Jingtang port in Hebei
province of China with 23 Indian nationals as crew on board. Another vessel, MV Anastasia, which
has 16 Indian nationals as its crew, is on anchorage near Caofeidian port in China.

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The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has said that it will delist three Chinese companies to
comply with a US executive order that imposed restrictions on companies that were identified as
affiliated with the Chinese military. The process to delist three companies - China Mobile, China
Telecom and China Unicom Hong Kong have started.

These companies are involved in civilian and military production with money from US investors.

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Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has said that the cross-strait relations with China was no longer
just the matter between the two sides of Taiwan Strait but the whole international community.

Speaking on the repeated intrusion of China's People's Liberation Army into Taiwan territory, she
said that Taipei will uphold its principles only if Beijing wants to resolve differences in a peaceful
manner.

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India and Pakistan have exchanged, through diplomatic channels, the lists of civilian prisoners and
fishermen in their custody. This is in keeping with the provisions of the 2008 Agreement under which
such lists are exchanged every year on 1st of January and 1st July. India handed over lists of 263
Pakistan civilian prisoners and 77 fishermen in India's custody to Pakistan. Similarly, Pakistan has
shared lists of 49 civilian prisoners and 270 fishermen in its custody, who are Indians or believed-to-
be Indians.

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People living in north India are likely to get much-needed respite from the biting cold as India
Meteorological Department has forecast a significant rise in temperature tomorrow. IMD said,
temperatures are likely to increase gradually by three to five degree Celsius in Punjab, Haryana,
Chandigarh, Delhi, western Uttar Pradesh and northern Rajasthan during the next three days.
However, there is also a likelihood of heavy snow and rainfall in Jammu and Kashmir next week.

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Now, let us take a look at the weather forecast for today.

In Srinagar the sky will be mainly clear and becoming partly cloudy towards afternoon or evening.
Temperature will hover between minus five degree and seven degrees Celsius.

In Jammu, the minimum temperature was four degree Celsius while maximum will be 16 degrees.
The city will have mainly clear sky.

Leh will have mainly clear sky. The minimum temperature was minus 15 degree Celsius while the
maximum will be minus one degrees.

Gilgit will have partly cloudy sky. The temperature will hover between minus three degrees to 9
degree Celsius.

Muzafarrabad will have mainly clear sky, becoming partly cloudy towards afternoon or evening.
The temperature will move between one to 15 degree Celsius.

In Dehradun, the temperature will hover between five and 21 degree Celsius. The city will have
partly cloudy sky with possibility of development of thunder lightning.

Chandigarh will have generally cloudy sky with one or two spells of rain or thundershowers. The
temperature is likely to hover from seven to 18 degree Celsius.

In Hyderabad, the minimum temperature was 16 degree Celsius while the maximum will be 28
degrees. The city witnessed fog/mist in the morning and is expected to have partly cloudy sky later.

Ahmedabad will have clear sky. The minimum temperature was 17 degree Celsius while maximum
will be 25 degrees.

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NEWSPAPER HEADLINES:

Beginning the new year on an optimistic note most newspapers have headlined their front pages
with the promising news of the clearance of the Covishield vaccine for India. "Happy Vaccine
Year", exults Hindustan Times. "Happy New Year: Expert Panel clears Oxford vaccine for
India", reports The Times of India. The Economic Times reports" New Year, New hope: SEC
Okays SII Vaccine".
The economic recovery gaining ground has also been highlighted prominently by the
newspapers. The Business Standard reports, "GST mop-up at record High-surges to rupees 1.5
trillion in December". The Economic Times adds "Economists see strong GDP Rebound in
2021- calendar year growth pegged at 7.7-9.2 percent; business sentiment may remain uneven".
The Times of India reports on its front page that the Army has created a human rights cell
headed by a Major General for "Greater transparency and probity", in its functioning in areas
like Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast.
And finally, the Financial Express informs "Microsofts says "Solar Winds" hackers accessed
its source code", which is the underlying set of instructions that run a piece of software or
operating system.

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