Today News on 17 January 2022

( Updated on 17 January 22 )

1. One of largest and grandest flypasts over Rajpath this Republic Day 

2. Keep PM tour programme strictly confidential, MHA tells States 

3. Restaurant association seeks relaxation of weekend curfew, longer operating hours 

4. Sabarimala ‘chempola’ not antique: ASI report 

5. Davos summit | India's growth in next 25 years will be clean, green, sustainable and reliable: PM Modi 

6. Virat, Darmi and Heena awarded Army Chief Commendation 

7. Statues of Swami Vivekananda to come up in Kumbakonam 

8. 27% seats for OBC in local body polls: Maharashtra moves SC urging recall of direction 

9. Two Indians among 3 killed in Abu Dhabi oil tanker blasts 

10. UGC, AICTE warn against "franchise arrangement" between colleges, Ed-tech companies 

11. Supreme Court upholds tribunal decision to wind up Devas 

12. NIA files supplementary chargesheet in J&K terror conspiracy case 

Vaccination for 12-14 age group likely from March: NTAGI chief

India may begin inoculating children in the 12-14 age group against COVID-19 in March as the 15-17 population is likely to get fully vaccinated by then, N.K. Arora, Chairman of the COVID-19 working group of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI), said on Monday.

Of the estimated 7.4 crore population in the 15-17 age bracket, over 3.45 crore have received the first dose of Covaxin so far and their second dose is due in 28 day

Active participants

“Adolescents in this age group have been actively participating in the inoculation process, and going by this pace of vaccination, the rest of the beneficiaries in the 15-17 age group are likely to be covered with the first dose by January-end and subsequently their second dose is expected to be done by February-end,” he said.

Once the 15-17 age group is covered, he said, the government is likely to take a policy decision for initiating the vaccination drive for the 12-14 age group in March. According to him, there is an estimated 7.5 crore population in the 12-14 age group.

Provisional vaccination reports till 7 a.m. on Monday showed that with more than 39 lakh doses being administered in a span of 24 hours, the cumulative number has exceeded 157.2 crore doses. According to government data, over 3.45 crore first doses have been given to children in the 15-17 years age group so far.

India began administering the “precaution dose”, a third jab of COVID-19 vaccine, to healthcare and frontline workers, including personnel deployed for election duty and those aged 60 and above with co-morbidities, from January 10 amid the country witnessing a spike in coronavirus infections, driven mainly by the Omicron variant of the virus.

One of largest and grandest flypasts over Rajpath this Republic Day

The flypast during the Republic Day parade this year will be one of the “largest and grandest” flypasts that have taken place over Rajpath, an Indian Air Force Spokesperson said on Monday. A total of 75 aircraft will take part in the flypast coinciding with 75 years of Independence with the aviation assets of the Army and Navy joining the IAF.

The parade would end with the ‘Amrit’ formation featuring 17 Jaguar aircraft flying in the shape of ‘75’ to mark 75 years of independence, according to Wg Cdr Indranil Nandi, PRO Western Air Command.

Other major formations include ‘Vinaash’ formation by five Rafale jets, ‘Baaz’ formation featuring one Rafale, two jaguars, two Mig-29s and two SU-30MKI aircraft.

The Navy would also take part in the flypast with a P-8I maritime patrol aircraft and two Mig-29Ks flying in ‘Varuna’ formation. The P-8I and Mig-29Ks had earlier flown over Rajpath in 2015 when then US President Barak Obama was the Chief Guest.

As per practice, the IAF will have a marching contingent, a musical band and a tableau in the Parade. The IAF tableau will showcase Mig-21 and Gnat fighters which took part in the 1971 war, Rafale fighter jet, indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCH), Ashlesha 3D surveillance radar and G-SAT7 communications satellite.

The IAF had won Best Marching contingent awards in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2020. A 120 member IAF band will take part in Beating The Retreat on January 29.

Davos summit | India helping the world deal with pandemic: PM Modi

Best to time invest in the country, the PM tells business leaders in World Economic Forum address

India has given the world a bouquet of democracy and multiculturalism, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his Special Address to the World Economic Forum’s Davos Agenda on Monday. In the virtual address, PM Modi zeroed on to the consumerist tendency of "use and dispose" and argued for changing this trend by launching a global peoples movement.

"We must accept that our lifestyles too are a big challenge for the climate. The throw away culture and consumerism have made climate challenge even more serious. It is very essential that we move from today's take, make, use and dispose economy and move towards a circular economy," said PM Modi referring to the principles of Mission Life that he had presented at the COP26 summit in Glasgow last year. Mr. Modi urged that 'Lifestyle for Environment' is useful for fighting climate challenges and said the world should launch a peoples movement with "3 Ps" — "Pro Planet People".

He also spoke about the values that the Indian democracy has brought to the world which is fighting a pandemic for more than two years.

“India has gifted a beautiful bouquet to the world. This bouquet contains the unbreakable trust of the Indians in democracy. This also contains the temperament and talent of Indians. The multilingual and multicultural environment of India is a great strength of the world. This strength teaches India to work for the world whenever it’s facing a crisis,” the Prime Minister said in his virtual speech.

Mr Modi pitched India as a country that is supporting the world to deal with the pandemic. He said, the doctors and health professionals of India are winning the confidence of the world with their professional excellence.

“Today, India is the third largest pharma producer in the world. In COVID times, we have seen how India following the vision of ‘One Earth, One Health’ is saving crores of lives by giving essential medicines and vaccines to many countries,” he said, adding that India has utilised the period of the pandemic for introducing “reforms”. He said India's actions have placed a major example before the world.

Mr Modi said, India is trying to conclude Free Trade Agreements with many countries in the world and claimed that the spirit of entrepreneurship is at a high among the youth.

“This is the best time to invest in India as big reforms are happening in IT and BPO sectors,” Mr Modi said, adding that more than 50 lakh software developers are working in the country and 10,000 startups have registered in the last six months.

“The digital infrastructure that India developed and adopted in the last few years has turned out to be a major strength for India. The Arogya Setu app used for the tracking of corona infection and the Co-Win portal which is used for vaccination are technological solutions that India is proud of. Bigger countries have taken note of these developments,” the Prime Minister said.

India, he said is committed to reducing interference by the government in business and new areas are emerging for investment. “India has deregulated several sectors like drones, space, geospatial mapping. India has carried out big reforms in the outdated telecom sector,” Mr. Modi said.

Mr Modi claimed that India had about 100 registered startups in 2014 but their numbers have been boosted with the participation of the young entrepreneurs and added, “Today there are more than 60,000 startups in India.”

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