Budget 2018-19

  India’s focus at the  COP26  Summit will be on the country’s “ambitious” NDC goals for the post-2020 period under the Paris Agreement Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Glasgow on Sunday for the COP26 climate summit and bilateral talks with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the sidelines of the United Nations (UN) meet. “Leaving for Glasgow after a fruitful G20 Summit in Rome. During the Summit, we were able to have elaborate deliberations on issues of global importance such as fighting the pandemic, improving health infrastructure, boosting economic cooperation and furthering innovation,” Modi said on Twitter. The Prime Minister, who flew into Glasgow from the  G20 Summit  in Italy, is scheduled to begin the UK leg of his European tour with a meeting with community leaders and Indologists based in Scotland on Monday morning. He will then proceed for the opening ceremony of the World Leaders’ Summit (WLS) at the 26th Conference of Parties (COP26) to...

  The Taliban’s cruelties are horrendous, but withholding international support and maintaining blanket sanctions will only hurt the long-suffering Afghan people. Afghanistan’s humanitarian situation is spiraling into catastrophe. Millions of Afghans are now facing severe economic stress and food insecurity in the wake of the Taliban’s August takeover, set off by widespread lost income, cash shortages, and rising food costs. Officials with the UN and several foreign governments are warning of an economic collapse and risks of worsening acute malnutrition and outright famine. Surveys by the World Food Program (WFP) reveal over nine in ten Afghan families have insufficient food for daily consumption, half stating they have run out of food at least once in the last two weeks. One in three Afghans is already acutely hungry. Other United Nations reports warn that over 1 million more children could face acute malnutrition in the coming year. One main cause of the crisis is that governmen...

  The UK is reportedly in talks with the Taliban over furthering the evacuation process and securing a safe passage out of Afghanistan for British nationals and Afghans who remain there Afghanistan Crisis : The UK is reportedly in talks with the Taliban over furthering the evacuation process and securing a safe passage out of Afghanistan for British nationals and Afghans who remain there. “The Prime Minister’s special representative for Afghan transition, Simon Gass, has travelled to Doha and is meeting with senior Taliban representatives to underline the importance of safe passage out of Afghanistan for British nationals, and those Afghans who have worked with us over the past 20 years,” the BBC quoted a government spokesman as saying. It comes after a  Taliban  pledge to allow further departures. As per an official statement by the UK government, over 17,000 people had been evacuated by the UK from Afghanistan so far, including over 5,000 UK nationals. Meanwhile, on Tue...

  This could be the first country to give the regulatory green light for the British drugmaker’s vaccine as the British medicine regulator continues to examine data from the trials India is likely to approve Oxford/AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine for emergency use by next week after its local manufacturer submitted additional data sought by authorities, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Tuesday. This could be the first country to give the regulatory green light for the British drugmaker’s vaccine as the British medicine regulator continues to examine data from the trials. India, the world’s biggest vaccine-making country, wants to start inoculating its citizens next month and is also considering emergency use authorisation applications for vaccines made by Pfizer Inc and local company Bharat Biotech. Getting  Corona vaccines  to the world’s second-most populous country with one of the highest infection rates will also be a big step in the battle a...

  Passengers arriving from the United Kingdom (UK) in Mumbai on Tuesday morning have been sent for institutional quarantine in the wake of he new coronavirus strain Passengers arriving from the United Kingdom (UK) in Mumbai on Tuesday morning have been sent for institutional quarantine in the wake of the new coronavirus strain. People who came to receive them said, “Government should have informed us before. Didn’t passengers board flight after being permitted by authorities?” Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner, Iqbal Singh Chahal on Monday said, “No flights to land from UK post 2:30 am. Passengers who have boarded flights will undergo institutional quarantine. Asymptomatic people will be quarantined at hotels while symptomatic passengers will be admitted at GT Hospital.” Flight services from the UK to India have been suspended till December 31 over the spread of a new strain of coronavirus in London and England. On December 20, Prime Minister Boris Johnson infor...

  Saudi Arabia has halted all international flights for a week amid fears over a highly infectious new mutant strain of the novel coronavirus which has been discovered in Britain Saudi Arabia has halted all international flights for a week amid fears over a highly infectious new mutant strain of the novel coronavirus which has been discovered in Britain, an Interior Ministry source has confirmed. The ban, which came into effect on Sunday, also applies to entry of passengers to the Kingdom through land and sea ports, Gulf News quoted the source as saying. “These procedures will be reviewed in light of the developments related to the pandemic, and what is received from the Ministry of Health,” the source said in a statement. Foreign flights that are currently in the Saudi territory will be exempt and will be allowed to leave, the source said. The source further said that the Saudi ban excludes movement of goods, commodities and supply chains from countries where the mutated virus has...