Tag: Narendra Modi

India to help Mongolia mitigate impact of smog

Source: dnaindia.com

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mongolian President Khaltmaagiin Battulga, who met on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum, discussed was on how India can help mitigate the impact of smog in the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar.

The foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale said, “President of Mongolia spoke of the success India is having in mitigating the pollution due to stubble burning of wheat in the winter months”

According to Indian Council of Agricultural Research, there have been 41% decline in burning of crop stubble in 2018 as compared to 2016 in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCR region due to central government measures.

President Battulga will be visiting India later this month and will be touring Delhi, Bodh Gaya and Bengaluru. India is helping the landlocked country build an oil refinery through a line of credit announced during PM Modi’s visit to the country. In 2015, PM Modi became the first Indian Prime Minister to visit the country.

Mongolia, which is landlocked between Russia and China considers India as its “third neighbour” with which it has a spiritual connection.

Five BJP backbones who departed in last one year

Source: afternoonvoice.com

The ruling BJP won landslide victory in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and returned to power for second consecutive term at the Centre. But the party lost five tall leaders in past one year which is irreparable loss.  These five great leaders were Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Manohar Parrikar, Ananth Kumar, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley. The BJP and the entire country will always remember their contributions to the nation.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was born on December 25, 1924, in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh. He died on August 16, 2018, in New Delhi. He served as the prime minister of India thrice.

Vajpayee was first elected to parliament in 1957 as a member of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) which was forerunner of the BJP. In 1977 the BJS joined three other parties to form the Janata Party which led a government that lasted until July 1979. As foreign minister in the Janata government, Vajpayee earned a reputation for improving relations with Pakistan and China. In 1980, following a split in the Janata Party, Vajpayee helped the BJS to reorganise itself as the BJP. In 1992 he was one of the few Hindu leaders to speak out against the destruction of the historic mosque at Ayodhya.

Vajpayee was sworn in as prime minister in May 1996 but was in office only 13 days, after failing to attract support from other parties. In early 1998 he again became prime minister, in elections in which the BJP won a record number of seats, but he was forced to make a shaky alliance with regional parties. In 1999 the BJP increased its seats in parliament and came back to power.

Manohar Parrikar

Former Defence Minister and the four times Chief Minister of Goa, Manohar Parrikar passed away on March 17, 2019, at the age of 63. He was born on December 13, 1955. He was the Chief Minister of Goa since 14 March 2017. Parrikar was battling prolonged illness. He was diagnosed with a pancreatic cancer. A graduate in metallurgical engineering from IIT-Bombay in 1978, he was the first IITian to serve as the legislator of a state.

Parrikar proposed the name of Narendra Modi as the prime ministerial candidate before 2013 BJP parliamentary elections convention in Goa. He served in the National Democratic Alliance government under Prime MinisterNarendra Modi as Defence Minister of India from 2014 to 2017. He was a former member of Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh. Parrikar was the Defence Minister in 2016 when India conducted a surgical strike on terror launch pads across the LoC, days after the terror attack in Uri, Jammu and Kashmir.

Ananth Kumar

Ananth Kumar was Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers. He was born in 1959 in Bangalore. Ananth Kumar was influenced by the RSS from his childhood and joined the ABVP, the BJP’s student wing. During the Emergency, he was imprisoned. He was later elected ABVP’s State Secretary and then its National Secretary in 1985. He joined the BJP and was nominated state president of the BJP Yuva Morcha. He was then made BJP National Secretary in 1996.

In 1996, he was elected from Bangalore South Lok Sabha constituency and has been elected from the same seat six consecutive times. In 1998 he was inducted into the Union Cabinet headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the Minister for Civil Aviation. In 1999, he became a Cabinet minister in the NDA government. He handled various ministries like Tourism, Sports & Youth Affairs, Culture, Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation.

He became the President of the Karnataka state unit of BJP in 2003 and led the BJP to become the single largest party in the Legislative Assembly and won the highest number of the Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka in 2004. In 2004, he was appointed as the National General Secretary of the BJP.

Sushma Swaraj

Sushma Swaraj, a veteran leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and former Minister of External Affairs in the Narendra Modi government in its first term, died on August 6, 2019, following a heart attack. She was 67. She breathed her last in New Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

She was also the Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs from May 26, 2014, to January 7, 2016. She represented Madhya Pradesh’s Vidisha constituency in the 16th Lok Sabha. She had joined the BJS after the Emergency of 1975. Swaraj had won her first election at the age of 25 in 1977 from the Ambala Cantonment Assembly constituency. In July 1977, she had become a Cabinet Minister in the Janata Party Government under Chief Minister Devi Lal. She taken got the position of the state president of Janata Party (Haryana) in 1979. Swaraj was also the Education Minister in the Bharatiya Janata Party–Lok Dal coalition government in Haryana during 1987-1990.

A Cabinet minister in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Swaraj had held the portfolios of Health and Family Welfare, Information and Broadcasting at different junctures. She was the Chief Minister of Delhi from October 13, 1998 to December 3, 1998. In November 2018, Sushma Swaraj had announced that she would not contest the Lok Sabha elections in 2019 due to health reasons.

Arun Jaitley

Arun Jaitley was born on 28 December 1952 in Delhi. Until 2014, Jaitley had never contested any direct elections. That year, he was BJP candidate in Amritsar Lok Sabha constituency, but lost to Amarinder Singh of Congress. Jaitley was selected by newly elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi to be Minister of Finance, Minister for Corporate Affairs and Minister of Defence in his cabinet. With Jaitley as FM, the Modi government was able to take several key economic decisions like demonetisation and GST. In Jaitley’s stewardship, the Modi government merged the railway budget with the general Budget. Moreover, the decision to advance the date of the general budget to February 1 was also taken with Jaitley as FM. GST went under several tax-slab revisions and Jaitley maneuvered them efficiently. He also introduced Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code to resolve the issues with companies that were turning insolvent.

PM Modi fulfilled Vallabhai Patel, Atal Behari Vajpayee’s dream: Goa CM Pramod Sawant

Source: newindianexpress.com

PANAJI: Efforts made by Deendayal Upadhyay, Vallabhbhai Patel, Atal Behari Vajyapee to fulfil the “Ek vidhan, Ek nishan, Ek pradhan” – one country, one constitution, one flag, one head – slogan have now come to fruition during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reign, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said on Thursday.

“There should be no issue in saying that the attempts of Deendayal Upadhyay, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Atal Bihari Vajyapee to fulfil ‘ek vidhan, ek nishan and ek pradhan’ have now been fulfilled,” Sawant said.

The slogan of “Ek desh, ek Vidhan, ek nishan and ek pradhan” – one country, one constitution, one flag, one head – was coined by the BJP ideologue Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee who died in 1953 in a Kashmir jail.

“In this country, if we have ever had ‘ek vidhan, ek nishan and ek pradhan’, it is on August 5, 2019, we have never had this privilege,” Sawant also said, while congratulating Modi for the abrogation of Article 370 and 35A.

“Since 2014, we have a Prime Minister who has given us a better present, and a future in the form of Narendra Modi. The country has achieved its rightful place in the world under his leadership. As a result of this, we have seen that he was once again elected with a full majority,” he said.

“And to pay back that faith, he has abrogated Article 370 and 35A, and for the first time India has received complete Independence. Kashmir has been fully integrated with India now. With the passing of the Triple Talak Bill, he has fulfilled and ensured that everyone has their rights,” Sawant also said.

Jharkhand ensuring last-mile public healthcare delivery

Source: ehealth.eletsonline.com

With healthcare becoming a focus point, as reflected through Narendra Modi Government’s game-changer Ayushman Bharat scheme, the Government of Jharkhand has gone out of its way to evolve the State’s healthcare delivery system, enabling people of all strata of the society better patient care in terms of accessibility and affordability.

One must have vivid memory of last year’s incident when Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the scheme from the soil of Jharkhand, providing much needed succor to poor and vulnerable section of the society. Taking a leaf from the Centre, the Jharkhand Government is taking all measures to improve care delivery system to ensure wellbeing of each and every citizen of the State.

Our latest cover story titled ‘Jharkhand Making Giant Leap to Ensure Inclusive, Affordable Healthcare’ thus touches upon various aspects of this all-important healthcare sector.

It highlights how the State has come a long way since its inception in 2000 and has made tremendous progress in every sectors including healthcare.

Despite having lots of challenges in terms of hilly terrain and a large swathe of tribal population, the State has improved its rank in healthcare index and recent Niti Aayog report vouches for the same. The story encapsulates how the State Government has leveraged Public Private Partnership (PPP) model to fill infrastructural gaps on many fronts.

The latest issue also features insightful interview of Dr Nitin Madan Kulkarni, Secretary, Department of Health, Medical Education & Family Welfare, Government of Jharkhand, who sheds lights on various initiatives of the Government undertaken to improve healthcare delivery to the last mile.

We also have a special feature on Emergency Medical Services which takes into account various aspect of emergency care and its significance in providing immediate care in critical situations.

The magazine has also insightful articles on Public Private Partnership model which plays a pivotal role to resuscitate healthcare infrastructure.

The articles on behalf of Medall, Ziqitza HealthCare, Apollo Tele Health Services, Healthmap, and Tata Motors present comparative accounts of their contribution to bolster patient care across length and breadth of India. With such a bouquet of articles, interviews and stories, we hope this edition will evoke an invaluable response from our esteemed readers.

Bokaro gets double boost for economy

Source: telegraphindia.com

nion minister of petroleum and natural gas and steel Dharmendra Pradhan and chief minister Raghubar Das on Sunday jointly laid the foundation stone of two projects worth Rs 350 crore of Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) in Bokaro, including a Rs 100-crore LPG bottling plant and a Rs 250-crore petroleum, oils and lubricants (POL) depot, during an event held at the Library Ground here.

Pradhan also promised to expand Bokaro Steel and bridge the “distance” between the steel major and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the industrial district.

The LPG bottling project, to come up on 20 acres provided by Jharkhand government to BPCL in a plot of the Bokaro Industrial Area Development Authority at Balidih, would be completed by September 2020. The POL depot, to come up on 77.5 acres at Radhanagar is likely to be ready by 2022.

Jharkhand’s existing 101 LPG distributors currently get supplies from Durgapur and Patna LPG plants. Once the Balidih bottling plant is ready, these distributors and 53 more will get supplies from here.

Right now, there are three supply depots of BPCL in Jharkhand — Dhanbad, Ranchi and Jamshedpur.

Pradhan said: “The two projects will generate employment for 1,000 people.” He also announced investments worth Rs 10,000 crore in Jharkhand for the near future.

Pradhan spoke about the expansion of Bokaro Steel in tune with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plan to increase India’s steel production from the existing 108MT to 300MT by 2030. BSL at present has a capacity of 5.6MT. Pradhan said BSL’s expansion would be carried out on the lines of Jamshedpur (Tata Steel and Tata Motors).

On problems being faced by MSMEs in Bokaro, he said his ministry had taken note of the issue. “I assure you that Bokaro Steel will have to walk along with local industries. Our officials have made enquiries about the distance between BSL and local industries. Major industries like BSL will have to give preference to products of local industries for the area’s development,” he said.

The Telegraph on July 19 and again on August 10 this year had highlighted the problems faced by over 250 MSMEs in Bokaro.

CM Das said that apart from these two projects, 47 investors who had signed MoUs at the global investor summit in Ranchi in 2017 would “invest Rs 4,303 crore on different projects in Bokaro”. “These will provide jobs to more than 20,000 people soon.”

Das added that under PM Ujjwala Yojana, they would distribute second LPG cylinders to 43 lakh women of the state before September 30. Before that, 13 lakh more women will get their first LPG cylinder. At present, 30 lakh women in Jharkhand have one cylinder.

PM Modi denied my plea to accord central status to Patna University: Nitish Kumar

Source: moneycontrol.com

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar lamented that his fervent request for grant of central status to Patna University two years ago was dismissed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi denying the institution much needed help.

He said he is hopeful now that the university will get its due as Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu is present at the programme held to observe the centenary of the library of the varsity.

Later in his address, Naidu said he would talk to Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokriyal and find out if measures could be taken to accord central university status to it.

Had his request been accepted two years ago, the glory of the institute which was once considered “the greatest not just in the country, but the whole of Asia”, could have been restored, said Kumar, an alumnus of the university, referring to its centenary celebrations held in October, 2017.

At that programme two years ago, Kumar said, he had repeatedly requested Modi, who shared the dais with him, “with folded hands” to consider the demand for a central status to the university.

“But my plea was turned down,” Kumar said.

The prime minister, who had spoken afterwards, had dismissed the request stating that the idea of granting central status to universities had become obsolete and Patna University would do better to avail of the opportunities at hand given the government’s thrust on making institutes of higher learning world class.

The development had come barely a couple of months after Kumar returned to the NDA and it had led to opposition parties like Lalu Prasad’s RJD launching a barrage of ridicule on the chief minister.

“That was, however, a different occasion. Today we are here to celebrate the centenary of the library of Patna University,” Kumar said recollecting that the vice president was also present at that programme as the chief guest.

Turning towards Naidu, whom Kumar has known since the days they were cabinet colleagues in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, Kumar said, “Now that you are among us, I hope something would be done to give this university its due. The state government is doing its bit. But had the Centre agreed to take it over, it would have made a world of difference.”

The chief minister said Bihar is the land of scholars like Aryabhatta and Chanakya ancient seats of learning like Nalanda.

“Patna University is not a run of the mill institution. It was established when there were very few modern universities in the country,” he pointed out.

Kuamr said the university would have centres devoted to ecological studies.He also urged students to take interest in social service and “do not lose sight of the role environment plays in our lives if you are interested in politics”.

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna Beneficiaries in Ranchi Rechristen Diyadih Village as ‘Modi Tola’

Source: news18.com

Impressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship programme Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), about 40 beneficiary families have renamed their Diyadih village as ‘Modi tola’ at Icchagarh block of Seraikela-Kharsawan district-105 km south of Ranchi.

According to The Pioneer, Diyadih village is one out of 116 odd villages where around 20,000 people were left homeless due to construction of Chandil Dam of Subarnarekha multipurpose project.

The homeless people displaced from their original habitant were bereft of their houses and agriculture land. However, a few months ago, 40 families of Diyadih village were provided houses under PM Awas Yojana by the Seraikela-Kharsawan district.

Under PM Awas Yojna, each unit of house has two rooms, verandah, kitchen and a toilet.

“Diyadih village is one of displaced village of Subarnarekha multipurpose project. As the government has constructed 40 units of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) scheme, the villagers impressed with the project and expressing their gratitude towards Modijee have renamed the village as Modi Tola,” Vimal Mahto, one of the beneficiaries of PMAY was quoted saying by The Pioneer.

A farmer by profession, Mahto further said they were displaced from their houses around four decades back, many governments visited them but they cared little about their interest. “Few months back that we receive houses PM Awas and the onus goes to PM,” Mahto said.

However, residents of Diyadih village are deprived of infrastructure facilities in the village as they are yet to see power connection at the time when the Jharkhand government is claiming of 100 percent power connection in rural areas.

To fasten Centre and State Government’s development schemes, BJP MLA from Icchagar, Sadhu Charan Mahto recently visited the village and assessed the development projects there. The MLA has promised villagers to provide drinking water through deep boring.

“Work on connecting the village with power map is going on war footing pace with the village going to witness power connection within a month. I have also ensured villagers that a rural road will be constructed in their village,” The Pioneer quoted the BJP MLA saying.

Though the villagers have received houses under PM Awas Scheme, the displaced families are yet to get the promised compensation.

The State Government had approved proposal for construction of 1.60 lakh houses under the Prime Minister Awas Yojana, of which 48,000 houses has been completed. At the same time construction work of 43,822 is underway at war footing pace.

The PM Awas Yojana was introduced in June 2015 is an interest subsidy scheme for purchase/construction/extension/improvement of house to cater economically poor section of society.

Petition filed in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur court against 49 intellectuals who wrote to PM Modi on hate crimes

Source: indiatoday.in

A petition was filed in a Bihar court on Saturday against 49 eminent citizens, who had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on lynching of minorities and hate crimes, seeking slapping of sedition and other charges.

The petition was filed by an advocate before the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate under different sections of the Indian Penal Code, relating to sedition, imputations and assertions prejudicial to national-integration and hurting religious feelings.

Petitioner Sudhir Kumar Ojha has also named actress Kangana Ranaut and directors Madhur Bhandarkar and Vivek Agnihotri, who were among 61 high-profile personalities to counter the letter, as “witnesses”.

Ojha alleged that the 49 signatories to the letter had, by their act, “tarnished the image of the country and undermining the impressive performance of the Prime Minister” and also charged them with “supporting secessionist tendencies”.

The matter is likely to come up for hearing on August 3.

On Tuesday, 49 personalities, including filmmakers Mani Ratnam, Anurag Kashyap, Shyam Benegal and Aparna Sen as well as vocalist Shubha Mudgal and historian Ramchandra Guha, had expressed concern at the number of “religious identity-based hate crimes”.

They also noted that ‘Jai Shri Ram’ has become a provocative war cry with many lynching incidents taking place in its name.

Sixty-one intellectuals, including lyricist Prasoon Joshi and singer Malini Awasthi, responded with a counter statement on Friday against “selective outrage and false narratives”.

“It (the July 23 letter) is aimed at tarnishing India’s international standing and to negatively portray the prime minister’s untiring efforts to effectuate governance on the foundations of positive nationalism and humanism which is the core of Indianness,” the statement read.

Ranchi doc performs 246 surgeries under Ayushman Bharat

Source: dailypioneer.com/

While the State Government is consistently seeking the support of doctors and hospitals in making the ambitious Ayushman Bharat Yojana a success in Jharkhand, a cardiac surgeon in Ranchi has gone out of his way to support Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of providing accessibility of expensive medical facilities to the poor.

Meet 54-year-old Dr Kunal Hazari, MS, MCh, who has successfully completed as many as 246 open heart surgeries in less than a year under the Ayushman Bharat Yojana.

Hazari, the Vice Chairman of Medica Superspecialty Hospital near Booty More, believes that every doctor should be accountable for the health of people living in the country. 

“We are all accountable for the health of our citizens – the government, the hospitals and the doctors,” Hazari said. The 246 surgeries that he performed includes Bypass Grafting, Valve replacements, Tetrology under Ayushman Bharat till now, Dr. Hazari started operating cases under this scheme from October 2018. Since then the graph of patients getting treatment under this scheme has just gone up. Today, out of every 40 patients he operates monthly, at least 35 are covered under this programme.

The scheme provides a cover of Rs 5 lakh per family annually for 10 crore poor and vulnerable families.

The beneficiary under this programme can undertake cashless benefits from public and private hospitals across the country. While Private versus Public Hospitals spark an endless debate in terms of facilities and also the eligibility to cover Ayushman Bharat patients, all the hospitals in the nation are accountable to treat patients under this scheme,said Hazari.

“If you are to provide healthcare facility, all the government hospitals need to be strengthened and equipped. Healthcare of its people is the liability of the Government,”he said.

The system or the chain of procedures for getting covered under the scheme is simple and requires the patients to have a ration card which in turn is needed to generate golden cards —  a facility available at the hospitals.

“The procedure and paper work involved has become so systematic and mechanised that now as doctors we can really focus on treating the patients. It also saves time. Talking about cardiac surgeries, time loss is equivalent to muscle loss,” said Dr Hazari.

The golden cards can be generated within half an hour after producing the ration cards meanwhile the patients can be admitted and the treatment procedures can start, he said.

The hospitals are known to receive funds from the Government within the stipulated time.

“Ayushman Bharat is much simpler for both patients and hospitals compared to the earlier BPL healthcare programme. The simple paperwork, systematic checking of facts post treatment, clearing of payments have all cumulatively built trust among private hospitals and doctors. The trend shows that they are taking it up now,” told Dr Hazari on the current scenario of the programme in the State Capital.

The programme cannot be fully crowned as a success as it has its own set of lacunas. Regularised price slabs for a certain type of medical procedure is one of the major issues that has to be resolved.

“With patients the treatment gets customised according to their body response, one patient can take five days to get discharged while others may take up to 10 days and one price bar cannot accommodate both. We are constantly trying to find solution to this gap,” said Dr Hazari who is also a member of Ayushman Bharat board for the state of Jharkhand.

There is a motion to increase the flexibility of the amount by 10 to 15 per cent.

“The satisfaction I get after treating the needy patients is the prime incentive for being an active force in this scheme by the PM for a healthy nation. Finance always comes secondary,” said Hazari.

The enthusiasm of government, doctors and the public is required for this scheme to be a success, government’s feedback and check system being the major drivers of the movement, he added.

Ranchi local court summons Rahul Gandhi for ‘Modi remark’

Source: hindustantimes.com

A local court in Ranchi on Wednesday summoned Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on September 11 in a case lodged against him for his ‘all Modis are thieves’ remarks at a rally in Jharkhand capital.

Responding to a complaint case, the court of judicial magistrate Vipul Kumar had earlier issued summons notice to Gandhi asking him to appear before court through his lawyer on July 3. Gandhi however didn’t appear on Wednesday leading to postponement of date for next hearing.

While criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address at Ulgulaan Rally in Ranchi on March 2 this year, Gandhi had wondered why names of all thieves end with Modi. He was referring to Nirav Modi and others along with Narendra Modi.

Following Gandhi’s remark, a Ranchi-based lawyer Pramod Modi filed a case against the Congress leader in the Court of Judicial Magistrate Vipul Kumar.

The petitioner alleged that Gandhi, through his remark, had attempted to tarnish the image of entire Modi community. He also annexed newspaper clippings along with his complaint to prove his points.

The petitioner also claimed a compensation of Rs 20 crore for the ‘defamation’ caused to the Modi community.

Seeking an apology from the Congress leader, the petitioner lawyer stated that Gandhi’s comment badly hurt the sentiments of Modi community.