By Animesh Deb and Venkatachari Jagannathan

New Delhi/Chennai, Jan 3 (SocialNews.XYZ) After facing a body blow due to pandemic, the real estate sector seems to have come out of the woods lately and the growth momentum in the realty space is expected to continue in 2022.

Among various segments, residential space saw a huge uptick in 2021.

"The year 2021 was a watershed moment for India's real estate sector. Even when the going was tough, the sector not only remained resilient but also emerged stronger than expected," said Ramesh Nair, CEO, India and Managing Director, Market Development, Asia at Colliers, a global real estate consultancy.

The consultancy expects 2022 to be even better for the realty sector, even if it is marred by the new Covid-19 variant - Omicron.

"We have now learned to live with uncertainty. Gross absorption in 2022 should be about 15-20 per cent higher than this year as occupier confidence is back in the market," Nair said.

The residential segment has witnessed green shoots of recovery and is expected to gain further momentum in 2022.

"The residential segment is expected to reach pre-Covid quarterly sales volumes in 2022 and given the strong momentum may also match the pre-demonetization quarterly sales in the latter half of 2022," said Samantak Das, Chief Economist and Head of Research and REIS (India) at real estate consultancy firm JLL.

Besides, industrial and warehousing are expected to strengthen in 2022 aided by strong business fundamentals.

Further, investment in life sciences and data centres businesses are also gaining traction.

"New projects are coming up. One of the trends is that people are going in for bigger apartments than what they earlier had following the work-from-home norm since the Covid-19 pandemic struck India in 2020," said T.Chitty Babu, Chairman and CEO, Akshaya.

"Earlier people had spent most part of their day in the office or college or school. And when home turned into office, college and school they found their existing dwelling small and are now upgrading."

On the manpower utilisation post Covid-19-led lockdowns, Babu said with migrant workers going back to their native places, the real estate players have learnt to carry on with their project with lesser hands.

Furthermore, in 2022, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad are expected to lead India's residential real estate recovery, said online real estate seller Housing.com.

Notably, home purchases have picked on the back of record low home loan interest rates and higher affordability driven by stable real estate prices.

"... the tier-II cities like Surat, Jaipur and Patna are the ones that have recorded the highest increase in online property search volume in 2021," Housing.com said in a statement.

In recent times, retail demand has skyrocketed and changed the pattern from investor to end-user driven market.

"Some pockets that witnessed infrastructural announcements in 2021, like the area around Noida International Airport, will be on the radar of investors and buyers. The trend of bigger and smart homes, luxury features, and increased demand for plots that started in 2021 will carry forward to 2022," said Manoj Gaur, CMD, Gaurs Group and Vice President - North, CREDAI National.

Segment-wise, the office space sector is expected to perform better in 2022. It is likely to clock a 30-35 per cent growth YoY.

Especially, the data centre business is moving northwards. With increasing talks of data protection and safety measures, investments in data centres are going to give a structural push to the real estate industry.

"...rollout of 5G, ever-rising digital usage, increasing footprint of global data centre operators and cloud players would usher in another high growth year for the Indian data centre industry in 2022," JLL said.

After two long years of working from home, the trend of working from offices too is expected to pick up in 2022.

"...as office resumption picks up, it is expected to translate into healthy traction in new leasing activity, as the underlying demand potential from occupiers, who are mainly IT or ITES and global MNC companies, is estimated to remain strong," rating agency ICRA said.

According to Nitin Gupta - President- Sales, Marketing, CRM (Head) at Mantra Properties and Developers: "Lately IT sector in India has been into aggressive hiring, which will play an important role in income."

"This has led to increased demand in commercial space, this has led towards increased requirement for boutique offices creating a flexible environment. Hence this will lead to increased demand for commercial spaces."

For residential space, Gupta expects a rise of eight-to-ten per cent in capital value in the year 2022.

Furthermore, commercial spaces such as retail malls have witnessed a faster recovery in cash flows after the second wave, compared to the recovery after the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, driven by faster relaxation in the restrictions and improved vaccination coverage.

Cyrus Mody, Managing Partner at Viceroy Properties said home sales and new launches are showing improvement which in turn indicates a turnaround in the real estate sector after undergoing dramatic structural changes followed by severe lockdowns during the two Covid-19 outbreaks.

"The stamp duty benefit announced by the government of Maharashtra encouraged fence sitters to invest in residential real estate resulting in historic sales numbers," he added.

In a bid to provide a boost to the realty sector, the Maharashtra government reportedly reduced the stamp duty on property registrations during September to December in 2020 and January to March in 2021.

The other thing in which people have now become more aware is about green and sustainable buildings.

"The Covid-19 has created awareness about green buildings. India is the second largest market for us with about 3,800 projects participating and about 2,500 projects getting 'LEED' certified," said P.Gopalakrishnan, Managing Director, Asia Pacific & Middle East Markets, US Green Building Council.

According to Gopalakrishnan, the participating projects include new buildings under construction as well as existing buildings that are carrying necessary additions, modifications to get certified.

Gopalakrishnan said, educational institutions, hotels, office buildings and others are also now looking at green certification.

(Animesh Deb can be contacted at animesh.d@ians.in, and Jagannathan Venkatachari at v.jagannathan@ians.in)

Source: IANS

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By Avinash Kr Atish

New Delhi, Jan 3 (SocialNews.XYZ) With the addition of two new teams -- Lucknow and Ahmedabad, the Indian Premier League (IPL) will now be a 10-team affair and the 2022 edition of the cash-rich league promises to be bigger, better and more exciting than ever before.

The word 'exciting' naturally comes to everybody's mind when someone talks about 'new' things in life or in general. Likewise, the two new franchises will completely change the dynamics of the IPL. The RPSG Group has picked Lucknow as their home base with a winning bid of whopping Rs 7,090 crore while Irelia Company Pte Ltd (CVC Capital Partners) opted for Ahmedabad with a bid of Rs 5,625 crore.

With the addition of two teams, the organisers decided to conduct a mega auction in order to give equal opportunity to every team to pick players of their choice and build a strong side. Before that, all the eight existing franchises were given the opportunity to retain players.

With a total salary cap of Rs 90 crore available at the mega auction for each team, the eight franchises were eligible to retain up to 4 players with a maximum of 3 Indians, 2 overseas players and 2 uncapped Indians and they already have exercised their rights. On the other hand, the new franchises have been asked to retain a maximum of three players and they are busy with back-channel negotiations with star players.

Meanwhile, Sanjiv Goenka's RPSG group, which bought the Lucknow team, was immediately given a Letter of Intent by the BCCI and they have already announced their star-studded support staff. However, the CVC issue lingered after questions were raised over its alleged investment in betting companies outside India.

The BCCI had consulted experts on the dispute surrounding CVC Capital's acquisition of the Ahmedabad franchise. The board has received and adopted a report on the issue from Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan, a retired judge of the Supreme Court, who headed a three-member independent external panel. As per Cricbuzz report, the Radhakrishnan panel has cleared the American company's participation in the league and an announcement is expected soon in the matter.

Overall, things are looking sorted and an exciting season of T20 cricket awaits Indian cricket fans. A look into things which will make IPL 2022, bigger and better than ever before.

Mega Auction:

The IPL mega-auction will be a two-day affair, on February 12 and 13, and will be held in Bengaluru ahead of the 2022 season. It will not only decide the fate of players but the auction will also dictate how teams shape up going forward.

It is often said that half of the battle in IPL is generally won on the auction day itself. The players which one franchise decides to pick clearly plays a major role in building the strength of the side. Almost five teams are also searching for their potential captains, so IPL 2022 is likely to be a high-octane affair.

Notably, it could well be the last mega auction that the BCCI might conduct as the majority of participants, including the franchises, agree that the idea of having a big auction after every three years is no longer a great deal. Franchises are of the belief that the trend has clearly gone past its sell-by date, and are not in favour of losing their players whom they have nurtured over the years, in bunch.

New format:

As against 60 games and eight teams hitherto, the league, in its 15th edition, will have 10 teams and 74 games in all. Though, it's not official yet but the BCCI has discussed internally the length of the season and it will be for over 60 days.

Each team will have 14 league games with the current format of seven home and away games each retained, however, in all likelihood it will revert to the group system. IPL 2022 is likely to replicate the model used in the 2011 season, which also featured 10 teams, and had teams split into two groups.

The new format will change things drastically for the franchises and it will present a new challenge, forcing them to adopt new game plans and ideas against their opponents.

IPL's return to India:

The full season of 2020 and a half season of 2021 IPL were staged in UAE due to the Covid-19 situation in India. But, during his speech in Chennai, where CSK celebrated their fourth IPL win a few months ago, BCCI secretary Jay Shah had announced that IPL will be returning to India.

However, the present Omicron threat has forced BCCI to think over their decision and the board is likely to hold a meeting with IPL team owners to discuss the alternate plans of conducting the 2022 season of the lucrative league.

It is learnt that the option of going back to UAE, apparently, is off the drawing board. The organisers are also exploring the idea of holding the whole tournament just in Mumbai and Pune or in the Gujarat cities of Ahmedabad, Baroda and Rajkot if the Covid/Omicron situation worsens. IPL generally starts in April so the board will take a final based on the Covid-19 situation in the country at that time.

Rise of new stars:

'Talent meets opportunity' is the tagline of IPL and the cash-rich league has justified it over the years with some young prospects.

Every IPL season throws up new trends, a subtle evolution of T20 cricket and most importantly new Indian talent. The likes of Devdutt Padikkal, Ravi Bishnoi, Yashwavi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Kartik Tyagi, Umran Malik and others have shown their skill and spark in the last couple of IPL seasons.

The scouts of teams also must have kept a keen eye on the star performers of 2021-22 Vijay Hazare Trophy and the recently concluded U-19 Asia Cup as well. More often, talents found in these tournaments make big names for themselves through IPL and this season they are set to do the same.

Source: IANS

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By Mohammed Shafeeq

Hyderabad, Jan 2 (SocialNews.XYZ) From being confined to seven Assembly seats in its traditional stronghold of Hyderabad to now eyeing 100 seats in Uttar Pradesh, the AIMIM has come a long way during the last eight years.

The ensuing Assembly elections in India's biggest state will be crucial for not just the BJP, Samajwadi Party and other key players but will decide the course for Asaduddin Owaisi-led party in the national polity.

Unfazed by the criticism from all non-BJP parties, who brand him a "vote-cutter", Owaisi is going all out to emerge as a kingmaker in the politically significant state.

The 52-year-old, who in recent times has emerged as the most recognisable Muslim leader in the country, is travelling extensively in Uttar Pradesh to address rallies attracting huge crowds.

Known for his excellent oratory skills, the MP from Hyderabad is heard slamming all his opponents from the BJP to the SP and countering Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and SP leader Akhilesh Yadav with his tongue-in-cheek remarks.

At a rally in Sharanpur two days ago, Owaisi came out with his abbreviation of Yogi "Raj" in Uttar Pradesh. According to him, "Raj" stands for "Rishwat" (corruption), "Apradh" (crimes), and "Jatiwad" (Casteism). He was responding to Amit Shah using the "NIZAM" acronym, using the names of Muslim leaders of the SP, the BSP, and the Congress to target the SP rule.

This was also seen as a taunt aimed at Owaisi as the latter comes from erstwhile Hyderabad State, whose Asaf Jahi rulers were referred as Nizam.

"Hum kisi ka qarza baqi nahi rakhtey," Owaisi said amid loud cheers at the well-attended rally.

Political analysts say the Lincoln's Inn-educated lawyer has succeeded in reaching out to his target audience in the Hindi belt with equal ease.

His message is clear. Uttar Pradesh's 19 per cent Muslims need their own political strength, leadership, and participation so that they get their due rights and there should be an end to discrimination and repression the community is being subjected to.

This is not the first time All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) is testing its political fortunes in Uttar Pradesh.

In 2017, the party had contested 38 of 403 seats but drew a blank. It polled about two lakh votes in the seats it contested and only four of its candidates could save their deposits.

However, Owaisi believes that in these five years, his party has become stronger and he is now confident of bagging a big chunk.

Like in Maharashtra and Bihar, the AIMIM is keen to have alliance with smaller parties. However, its efforts have not succeeded so far.

Owaisi was trying for an alliance with BJP ally-turned rebel Suhaildev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief Om Prakash Rajbhar but the latter struck alliance with the Samajwadi Party.

AIMIM leaders say even if alliance with any other party does not materialise, they are in a position to go alone.

The year 2021 has not been very good for AIMIM in its attempts to expand the base as it failed to open the account in both West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.

In West Bengal, AIMIM contested seven seats. It went alone as the efforts to reach an alliance with Indian Secular Front (ISF) failed. In Tamil Nadu, it fielded candidates in three constituencies under an alliance with T.T.V. Dhinakaran-led AMMK.

Aware of the huge challenge it faces in having a pan-India presence, the AIMIM never felt disheartened by the electoral reverses. "Despite defeats in some states, we continue to work there to strengthen the organisation and overcome our shortcomings," a leader said.

This strategy worked in Bihar and the party hopes that it will be able to repeat this in Uttar Pradesh.

The party had contested six seats in the 2015 Bihar Assembly elections - all in the Seemanchal region, which has a significant Muslim population. However, all six candidates lost, with only one managing to save his deposit.

However, five years later, the AIMIM succeeded in Bihar. In 2020 elections, it won five of the 20 seats it contested. It was a huge achievement for the party as this was the second biggest number of seats after Telangana, where it has seven seats.

This had come a year after the party failed in its maiden attempt to have a foothold in Jharkhand. It contested 16 of the 81 seats in Jharkhand Assembly elections, but failed to win any.

Till 2013, the AIMIM was confined to its traditional stronghold of Hyderabad. Barring a few seats in some urban local bodies in parts of Telangana, Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka, the party had no presence outside Hyderabad.

The year 2014 saw the party making a serious bid to expand by contesting Maharashtra Assembly elections. It fielded 24 candidates in the 288-member Assembly and made an impressive debut by winning two seats. The party started dreaming big and expanded the base by constituting units in different states.

The AIMIM, however, came under attack from the Congress and most of the other non-BJP parties for dividing secular votes. Many termed it the "B-team" of the BJP.

However, Owaisi remained unfazed. He dismissed the allegation and questioned the other parties as to what they had done for Muslims in return for their support.

Sporting Hyderabadi sherwani and a skull-cap, Owaisi became the voice and face of Muslim community. Participating in the prime time debates on television, he defended his party's efforts to expand its base and argued that there is nothing wrong in Muslims fighting the democratic battle to get the rights which the Constitution has guaranteed them.

The year 2019 saw AIMIM receiving a big boost. The party, which had just one Lok Sabha seat (Hyderabad) for the last 35 years, captured the Aurangabad seat in Maharashtra. It also succeeded in retaining its tally of two seats in the Maharashtra Assembly.

Established in 1928 with the aim to keep then Hyderabad State independent, the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) was banned after the state's merger with the Indian Union in 1948.

However, in 1958 it was revived with a new constitution by Moulana Abdul Wahid Owaisi, grandfather of Asaduddin Owaisi, to champion the cause of Muslims. He named it the AIMIM.

The party claims that its biggest achievement was to give a political platform and an identity to the community passing through turbulent times after 'police action' - the operation by Indian Army in 1948 against the Hyderabad State to force it to merge with the Indian Union

Often branded as communal by its critics, the AIMIM, however, claims to represent the interests of not just Muslims but all socially and economically backward classes of society.

Starting from winning a couple of municipal wards in the old city in the 1960s, the party consolidated its base and went on to capture Assembly seats. In the 1980s, it had five seats in the then 294-member Assembly of undivided Andhra Pradesh.

Under Asaduddin Owaisi's father Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi, the AIMIM became a dominant political force. Salahuddin Owaisi represented Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat from 1984 till 2004 when he made way for his elder son due to ill-health.

Asaduddin Owaisi, who has never lost an election, further strengthened the party after taking over as its President following the death of his father in 2008, and under him the party emerged on the national political scene.

In 2009, the AIMIM won seven assembly seats in Hyderabad, which was its best-ever performance and it continued to hold the seats in Telangana state which was carved out in 2014.

The AIMIM claims to be the only party in India to develop a chain of educational institutions including medical and engineering colleges and state-of-the-art hospitals offering services to the poor at subsidised rates.

Source: IANS

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By Nivedita Khandekar

New Delhi, Jan 2 (SocialNews.XYZ) Two global platforms - UNFCCC COP and UNSC - witnessed India's prowess as not just good negotiators for safeguarding her own interest but also for the global south. In a way, what India has been advocating all along vis-a-vis climate change, came to fruition in November and December 2021.

"Year 2021 saw a steady stream of UN-backed reports reinforcing a stark message: man-made climate change is an urgent and even existential threat to life on Earth. Will the international community's efforts to tackle the crisis, as seen at the Conference of Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Conference (UNFCCC), result in meaningful action?" said the UN release on the last day of 2021.

In November, at Glasgow, the UK, the last day of the COP was when India - ably led by Union Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav - insisted on the use of the term 'phase down' coal instead of 'phase out' in the Glasgow Climate Pact that 190 plus nations agreed to.

It was necessary insertion as the rich nations, the principal polluters and high energy consumers, wanted just the coal to phase out leaving other energy sources in the fossil fuel basket untouched. It would have meant that poorer countries that are dependent on coal will have to forsake it at the same time that richer countries do but sans the option of oil and gas as they have.

It is not that India only preached but not practiced, unlike much of the western world that may have cleaned up their air but have an energy-intensive lifestyle leading to highest per capita energy consumption.

Offering a new mantra and raising its pledge for combating climate change, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced at the COP26 that India will target a net zero goal by the year 2070 and aim at increasing its non-fossil fuel energy to 500 GW in its energy mix by 2030.

Terming it as 'Panchamrut Ki Saugat' - India's contribution to climate action called as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), Modi had said, India will reduce its carbon intensity by 45 per cent by 2030 starting with reducing projected carbon emission from now till 2030 by 1 billion tonnes and committed to have renewable energy component of 50 per cent by 2030.

Modi gave a new mantra for sustainable development through sustainable lifestyle, LIFE - 'Lifestyle for Environment' which, he said, can be a mass movement wherein instead of mindless and destructive consumption, there should be mindful and deliberate utilization.

The other platform was not a regular climate change related but the prestigious United Nations Security Council (UNSC) where in December, India - with support of Russia and China - shot down a proposal to "Integrating Climate-Related Security Risk into Conflict-Prevention Strategies."

While stressing that India is "second to none" in addressing climate action and climate justice, India stated that the Council is not the place to discuss either issue. "Today's attempt to link climate with security obfuscates a lack of progress on critical issues under the UNFCC process. The text would constitute a step backward from collective resolve to combat climate change," India's permanent representative at the UN had said and also made it clear that "including climate change within the UN Security Council's mandate would exclude most developing countries from discussions."

Unlike the UNFCCC - which works on consensus and gives equal weightage to each and every country that is party to it - the UNSC is dominated by rich nations. Therefore, India putting its foot down came as a godsent for the global south - comprising mostly poorer and developing countries from South Asia, Africa and Southern America.

Having done all that, India now has the onus to put into domestic actions whatever it has said on global platforms. Much is left to be done for the poorest of the poor that is inevitably the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

India is committed to green energy as it acknowledges that the solution to climate related problems is within the renewable energy. India has already committed to its expansion. "India will be carrying out the promises that the Prime Minister made at the COP. Our programmes such as railways on renewable energy, cutting down on carbon emission and increasing share of renewables in the energy mix are on track but at the same time we also believe that the developed countries need to enhance climate finance and technology transfer," Yadav told IANS.

Resilient infrastructure, adaptation, agriculture and afforestation are focus areas with Nagar Vans (City Forests) function as carbon sinks in view of increasing urbanization and outside, maintenance of wetlands/Ramsar Sites in rural areas, increasing forest cover for mitigation are few others focus areas for the Ministry.

But going beyond this, Yadav brought in clarity on the regular conflict between his Ministry and that of Tribal Affairs as he said, "We believe that we cannot save our forests without public participation. Livelihood of the local community, sustainability of the local flora and fauna and protection of the wildlife are all interdependent, not independent. So, we move ahead with Samagrata (comprehensiveness). Our ideology too believes in Samagrata and not in separatism."

(Nivedita Khandekar can be reached at nivedita.k@ians.in )

Source: IANS

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By Chetan Sharma

New Delhi, Jan 2 (SocialNews.XYZ) The 2021 was nothing short of a movie blockbuster year for Venkatesh Iyer - he took Kolkata Knight Riders to IPL final, made his India debut, and last month dedicated his brilliant ton to superstar Rajinikanth.

The young man doesn't want to change anything and stick to the same "process" in his cricketing journey in 2022.

An MBA in Finance, Iyer - is a big fan of Rajinikanth, admirer of Alastair Cook and his favourite batter is Sourav Ganguly. Notably, they all are left handers and Venkatesh's liking is quite understandable, since the 27-year-old stylish all-rounder, too, is a southpaw.

He has a DP (Display Picture on WhatsApp) of Kaala - Rajinikanth's character in a movie named Kaala and he displayed his love for the legendary actor, last year as well, by dedicating his sensational century to Rajinikanth on Thalaivar's 71st birthday during the 2021-22 Vijay Hazare Trophy.

When IANS enquired about the reason for it, the humble boy replied, "Oh, I am a big fan of Rajini sir."

It seems the cricketer has adapted Rajini's style in his batting as well and the way he hammered bowlers in the IPL 2021, while playing for KKR in the UAE, was the glimpse of it.

The young star may have an aggressive approach in the field, but off it, he is very calm. Asked about his new year thoughts, he answered in a stylish way: "Just another year where I've to keep sticking to my process".

Following Venkatesh's stunning show in IPL 2021, the all-rounder has gone on to make his international debut for India.

He was part of the Indian T20 team against New Zealand and played all three matches. And now, the all-rounder has been named in India's 18-member squad for the upcoming three-match ODI series in South Africa.

The Madhya Pradesh cricketer will hope to make an impression with both bat and ball in the upcoming series.

"I am extremely happy. Obviously if you are a part of your country's team that's something to be happy about. I look at it as an opportunity to go and perform. I first informed this news (ODI selection) to my family and they were extremely happy. They blessed me and then they asked me to again concentrate and focus on my game to go and do well for the country.

"I think it is a journey that I have always wanted to have you know being consistent. Not just in one format of the game but across formats. So obviously it is very pleasing and I look to make this a prolonged run and not the short one," Venkatesh told IANS.

Asked if his strength is batting or bowling, the all-rounder said, "I think as an all-rounder it's important for me to contribute in both the departments so I won't pick one. I want to perform equally in both departments of the game."

So which position would you want to bat? Venkatesh said, "As a professional cricketer, you have to be flexible. You need to be ready to bat at any position. Irrespective of whichever team you are playing for. So, I have trained my mind accordingly wherever I get to bat in whichever role, I look to do well there and contribute in whatever way possible. I am not looking as you know something rigid."

"When it comes to the role, I am ready for any role the team management asks me to do. That's what I am focusing on."

Asked what all he has learnt till now during your interactions with seniors like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni, the KKR cricketer said, "With my interactions with these greats, I think I have got to pick their brains, on how they approach any big game... for that matter any game representing your country."

Source: IANS

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By Ajai Masand

New Delhi, Jan 2 (SocialNews.XYZ) The churning caused by the Covid-19 pandemic saw thousands of sporting events getting affected globally, not even sparing the grandest of all events, the Tokyo Olympic Games, which were postponed by a year.

The instability created by the virus -- and its variants -- continues to cast a grim shadow on the New Year with several sporting events, such as the Ashes and the Australian Open, to name a few, walking a tightrope as they balance the aspirations of athletes and their safety against the deadly virus.

As 2022 unfolds and the sporting arenas across the world find innovative ways to keep the virus in check, India will look to put its best foot forward in one of the most challenging years for the athletes. Every four years, expectations rise with back-to-back multi-discipline sporting showpieces -- the Commonwealth and Asian Games -- scheduled in the second half of the year.

India has traditionally done well in the two quadrennial events, even though it has yet to match the prowess of powerhouses such as China, Japan and South Korea in the Asian Games, and England and Australia in the Commonwealth Games.

But the country's athletes' performance at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games gives hope that India is trying its best to bridge the gap slowly but steadily.

While the magnitude of the task to keep athletes safe in bio-bubbles across the country and prepare them for the quadrennial sporting extravaganzas will test the government's intent, the athletes' enthusiasm and the urge to go the distance to win medals will certainly see India finish a few notches higher than previous editions in the two sporting extravaganzas.

Of late, there has never been a dull moment when Indian athletes have competed in the two events. While some have brought medals, others have bowed out with their heads held high. Boxer Vijender Singh's power-packed performance at the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games, L. Sarita Devi's tears of dejection after losing her bout at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon and javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra's sterling throws at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games, and countless other performances are all part of Indian sporting folklore. Some more of those heroic feats will become a part of India's sporting history this year.

The Asian Games in Hangzhou, China in September this year will serve as a crucial test on how India's preparations are going for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. Expectations will soar again and the likes of Neeraj Chopra, hockey stalwarts Manpreet Singh and Rani Rampal and the young shooters, such as Saurabh Chaudhary and Manu Bhaker, will be expected to bring home medals aplenty from the biggest continental sporting showpiece.

The Tokyo Olympic Games were a huge dampener for the shooters as they kept firing blanks, but the Asian Games could well revive their sagging morale. They will get a chance to compete with the best in the business.

The 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang saw Indian shooters come up with their best ever performance, finishing with nine medals (2 gold, 4 silver and three bronze). They were only third behind China (15 medals) and South Korea (12). While Saurabh Chaudhary won gold in his maiden Asian Games, there were several other Indian shooters who missed medals by wafer-thin margins and it's only natural that they would want to bridge that miniscule gap to earn glory.

India's medals tally in Jakarta too was heartening. With a record 69 medals in the Indonesian capital city, which later became the template for India's best-ever haul of seven medals (1 gold, 2 silver 4 bronze) at the Olympics, the country can hope to breach the 80-medal mark in Hangzhou.

From 56 medals at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, India's tally jumped to 69 in Jakarta four years later, and going by the amount of resources being pumped in by the government, Hangzhou could see Indian sport turn the corner.

The smell of competition at the Asian level has been irresistible for Indian athletes over the years. If it was pistol shooter Jaspal Rana who raised his game to an altogether different level at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, or a Ronjan Sodhi who 'double trapped' gold at the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games, or a Jitu Rai whose efforts in 2014 lit up the faces at the Incheon Asian Games, there will be more than a just handful of faces who would want to cover themselves in glory at Hangzhou.

Not to forget the Indian men and women's hockey teams which would be itching to have a go at gold in the continental event and qualify directly for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Every time the Indian hockey team takes the field, expectations of a gold medal rise, but inconsistency has been their bane. The men's team won bronze in 2010 Guangzhou, but four years later they were the champions. Four years down the line, in Jakarta 2018, they were again fighting for bronze.

However, the positive vibes emerging from the Indian camp and their performance in Tokyo, where they ended a four-decade-long drought by securing bronze, shows the side is hitting the stride.

The Commonwealth Games are next only to the Asian Games in terms of the Indian government's priority and there is no better event than the CWG to fine-tune for the Asian Games.

India slipped marginally at the CWG after a number of shooting events were reduced at the 2018 edition held at Gold Coast, Australia. The Birmingham 2022 organisers then dealt a body blow by removing shooting sport from the CWG curriculum. With India's top medal-grossing sports discipline being shelved, the onus will be on athletes, shuttlers, wrestlers, weightlifter, table tennis players and boxers to push the tally up.

With a haul of 66 medals -- 26 of them gold - India had finished third on the medals table in Gold Coast. But with seven of those gold medals coming in shooting, it's anybody's guess how badly India has been affected by the Birmingham 2022 organisers' decision.

Indian athletes showed a never-before-seen spirit as they faced the challenges posed by the pandemic before the 2020 Olympics. They stuck together for months in national camps, with the only target being to do well in Tokyo. The situation hasn't changed much. The aspirations, too, one hopes, haven't changed either.

Source: IANS

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Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 2 (SocialNews.XYZ) Kerala, which faced back-to-back floods, landslides, Covid, Nipah virus, and Ockhi cyclone since 2018, is having high hopes from 2022 as several projects are lined up and youngsters in large numbers are entering into start-up ventures.

After Congress leader and sitting legislator P.T. Thomas passed away on December 22, 2021, battling cancer at CMC Vellore, Trikkakara assembly seat is lying vacant.

The first major challenge for the political class will be an election on this Congress turf. The election has to be held before June 2022 and many senior Congress leaders are eyeing the seat. Uma, wife of Thomas is also a probable candidate for the election.

However, the Left Front that has wrested many seats from the Congress and UDF in the recent bypoll is hoping that it would wrest Trikkakara from the Congress as well.

Given the huge mass participation at the funeral of Thomas, Congress has high hopes of retaining the seat while Left Front led by CPI (Marxist) is hoping that in the absence of Thomas, it has a chance to win the seat.

Another major political development in the offing in Kerala is end of the Rajya Sabha term of senior Congress leader and former defence minister A.K. Antony.

Antony's term will come to an end in April 2022 and given the present strength in the assembly, of the three vacancies, LDF can win two and UDF one seat. While Antony has openly said in several interactions that he will not seek re-election and will settle in Kerala.

Political analyst Roy Mathew, while speaking to IANS said: "You can't predict what is in the mind of a leader like A.K. Antony who can spring a surprise by seeking a re-election and if he throws his hat in the ring, that means he is the candidate and we can't rule out that possibility."

Tourism in Kerala is expected to get a boost under the leadership of Minister for Tourism Mohammed Riyas, who is also the son-in-law of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

Riyas, who is in-charge of PWD, has thrown open the rooms of PWD rest houses to the general public at a nominal rate, thus earning revenue.

Riyas has already issued a new project 'Caravan Tourism which is expected to grab a special place in the global tourism map like the house boat tourism that had brought laurels to the state.

The state is also planning film tourism by promoting certain spots that had become popular after being depicted in Bollywood movies like Athirapally waterfalls, Bekal fort, Kovalam lighthouse, Munnar, and other destinations. In effect, Kerala is trying to piggy-ride on the popularity of movies to lure domestic tourists in large numbers through the season.

The FIFA World Cup is scheduled to take place in Qatar from November 21 to December 18 and the soccer-crazy population of the state has already booked tickets to see a live performance of legends like Leonel Messy, Napier, and other greats of the football world.

With a huge expatriate population of Malayalees in the Middle East, this World Cup would probably be the first with a predominant Keralite population in the galleries.

The major controversy plaguing the state is the Semi High-speed rail or K-rail that has become a bone of contention between the ruling class and the opposition with the BJP that is ruling the Central government also opposing the project.

With a proposal of more than 1,00,000 crore project, the naysayers are of the opinion that this project would be a white elephant meant only to make fast bucks by the ruling class.

The greens also opposed the project, saying that it would lead to more destruction of wetlands and boring of hills will lead to a further imbalance of the fragile ecosystem of the state. They have advanced apprehensions that this would lead to landslips in the future.

The flagship project of Vizhinjam International Container Transshipment Terminal will not be commissioned in 2022 as the Adani ports have requested the state government for more time and will be commissioned in early 2023 while almost all the remaining work will be completed by 2022. The first international vessel is expected to reach the transshipment project on March 23, 2023.

The first All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) is likely to commence construction at Kinalur in Kozhikode and the Wayanad Government Medical college is also expected to kickstart construction in 2022 in the hill district of Kerala with a predominantly tribal population and lacking health infrastructure.

Information Technology has been a driving force for the highly educated state since the mid-1990s and the state is planning more technoparks in both the government and private sectors to increase production.

Interestingly, pandemic period also witnessed huge growth in the IT sector while all the other sectors had taken a back seat and this exactly is the reason why the government is keen to promote the sector.

The Thiruvananthapuram Technopark, the first park in the country is in an expansion mode and the Phase III of the park is likely to be completed in November 2022 with almost all the space already being filled before the work is completed.

TCS, Tech Mahindra, and IBM are also setting up major infrastructure in the state by the end of 2022.

Agriculture sector that has been on a backburner in state is looking up with several Farm Producer Cooperatives coming up in all areas of the state with the support of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), and many of these Farm cooperatives are involved in making value-added products from tapioca, banana and jack fruit and is earning export revenue.

The Balaramapuram handloom which has been a traditional weaving cluster of the state is also looking up with the Hollywood fashion designer Sanjana John making a documentary and promising the weavers that she would display their product at the Oscar award-winning function. Union Minister of State for External affairs V. Muraleedharan, who hails from Kerala, had taken the initiative in this regard.

While Covid and its new variant Omicron are a cause of worry to the people and the authorities, the state is well poised to move ahead with more vaccinations to older people and children alike.

Source: IANS

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By Venkatachari Jagannathan

Chennai, Jan 2 (SocialNews.XYZ) A new chairman for the sectoral regulator, review of the existing regulations, consolidation of the players, focus on profitability, larger companies reaping the benefit of investments in technology, upward revision in the third party motor insurance policy are some of the 2022 forecasts by the senior officials of Indian general insurance industry.

Officials also said it will be interesting to see how digital insurance companies will be able to scale up their business this year.

It is going to be more than seven months since the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) is without a Chairman. There are many old regulations that need to be reviewed, senior industry officials told IANS not wanting to be quoted.

"It has been two decades since the opening up of the insurance industry. While during earlier phases the emphasis was on growth, the industry will move towards consolidation as it matures as companies also start looking at profitability and not only growth numbers," Gopal Balachandran, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Risk Officer, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Ltd told IANS.

In August 2020, ICICI Lombard announced the acquisition of the general insurance business of Bharti Axa General Insurance by way of a demerger.

In September 2021, the IRDAI granted the final approval for the deal and ICICI Lombard expects to realise the synergy benefits over the next two years.

Pointing out that the general insurance industry being price sensitive, the economies of scale of the players will be another advantage that may bolster the mergers and acquisitions (M&A).

The price war at the market place has made some companies needing capital infusion and this may also trigger M&A, he said.

Large general insurers like ICICI Lombard are expected to derive operational efficiency owing to the investments made in the digital tranformation and strengthening of the distribution channel.

Balanchandran said it will be interesting to see how the digital insurance companies -- those who sell policies only online -- log the accelerated growth rates in 2022.

Industry officials expressed optimism about the economy picking up and the increased Covid-19 vaccinations are good signs for the general insurers.

"Again we will watch out for how the pandemic pans out given the recent uncertainty caused by variant Omicron. Covid-19 has affected the majority of people to some extent. However, its long term impact is still uncertain," Balachandran said.

"With the introduction of a new variant -- Omicron, it will be difficult to say anything with certainty. However, this will surely make people more risk averse and positively move towards protection. People will be wise in selecting a health insurance that offers wide coverage and evaluating their existing policies considering the changing protection requirements," Rakesh Jain, CEO, Reliance General Insurance told IANS.

On the regulatory changes that the industry expects Balachandran said: aceDigital innovation, corporate governance and enhanced public disclosures are also gaining significance from regulatory perspective."

As regards 2021, Jain termed it as challenging owing to the impacts of Covid-19 and several natural calamities.

"On one hand, we witnessed growth in the health insurance segment with heightened awareness in 2021. Due to covid and its claim payoffs by industry, the health infrastructure across the country has been undergoing a great deal of improvement which is a very positive growth indicator," Jain told IANS.

According to him, the motor insurance segment saw a drastic fall in premium collection during the first two quarters but saw a pick-up until the supply side issues with private vehicles due to chip shortage.

"Insurance uptake for electric vehicles was considerably satisfying. Commercial vehicle insurance segment has also seen good growth backed by huge demand in the e-commerce sector for enabling supply chain," Jain said.

Industry officials are hoping for a premium hike in the third party insurance segment saying that it has not been increased for the past two years.

Nearly 40 per cent of the general insurance business is from the motor insurance vertical and a major portion of that from third party risk cover, insurers are not enthusiastic about any changes resulting in lower premium and investment income.

However as per the study made by the Insurance Information Bureau of India (IIB), the general insurers are not incurring any huge losses.

In fact, owing to the lock down during the first wave, the third party motor insurance claims came down drastically for the insurers.

In its annual report on motor insurance for the fiscal 2018-19, the IIB said a sum of Rs 35,519 crore of motor claims towards vehicle damage (Rs 18,262 crore) and third party liability (Rs 14,257 crore) were settled during 2018-19, while the gross underwritten premium was Rs 64,522.35 crore.

According to the report, the average settlement amount for death claims during fiscal 2018-19 was Rs 9,01,207 and for injury claims it was Rs 2,51,094.

"The motor third party loss rates differ from state to state. It is time to have rates for different states so that the pricing is right," a CEO of a private insurer had told IANS.

Officials said the IRDAI should allow the insurers to innovate and devise new policies.

"The policy wordings are defined. The core product remains the same without any flexibility," a top official of a private insurer said.

(Venkatachari Jagannathan can be contacted at v.jagannathan@ians.in)

Source: IANS

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By Vikas Datta

As the New Year begins, let us take a tour of seven political/geopolitical hotspots that seem certain to figure in the headlines across the coming months, amid Covid. As the Kingston Trio once sang: "What nature doesn't do to us will be done by our fellow man" ('Merry Little Minuet')

The US

The relief that followed Joe Biden's triumph over Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential polls was dissipated by the January 6, 2021, storming of the US Capitol. While the resulting outrage could have eclipsed the political career of anyone, Trump not only emerged unscathed through another unprecedented impeachment, but continues to hold a stranglehold over the Republican Party.

With Biden floundering amid the Covid catastrophe, and his key legislative agenda torpedoed by his own party's holdouts, and the rightward drift of the Supreme Court, the coming midterm elections - which impinge on how the rest of his Presidency - will pan out, makes sure US remains top in the news.

Russia-Ukraine

Relations between Russia and Ukraine have not been the best ever since the Soviet Union's collapse, but nose-dived since 2014 since Ukraine's Euromaidan protests, the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych, and the Russian takeover of Crimea as well as support to two border regions flouting Kyiv's authority. While tensions have simmered since then, trouble broke out in early 2021 in wake of a massive NATO exercise on virtually the Russian border. Since then, there have been reports of Russian troop concentrations on the border, with Western powers alleging Moscow's plans to invade Ukraine.

While most European countries and the US threaten crippling sanctions over any "invasion" of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has continued to warn that inducting the neighbouring country into NATO would be a "red line" for his country, which has historically been wary of adversaries close to its borders. There are attempts to cool down the situation - the recent call between Biden and Putin - but the crisis seems set to fester.

The Middle East

There has hardly been any time since the end of the Second World War that the Middle East has not figured in the headlines, and rarely for the right reason. Even now, in the wake of leadership changes in Israel and Iran, a subdued IS presence, a drawdown in the Syrian conflict, and the general stagnation, the region is far from stable with the promise of the Arab Spring having long dissipated.

The crisis in Lebanon where people are straitened circumstances and credibility of political leadership is at the lowest, the political turmoil in Tunisia - the epicentre of the Arab Spring and regarded as one of the brightest prospects for the region, the Israel-Palestine issue - where violent clashes are never far- off, and above all, the Iranian nuclear deal and the ongoing negotiations of reviving it, will ensure world attention is not far from the region.

Brazil

The biggest country in South America, Brazil borders nine of the continent's 11 other sovereign nations, plays a key role in regional and global affairs, and with its (severely threatened) Amazon rainforest ("lungs of the world"), contributes to the world's environmental health. Given all this, its politics can impinge on the continent, the hemisphere and the world.

With Presidential elections due in October 2022, populist incumbent Jair Bolsanaro, whose victory in 2018 was among the consequences of the backlash against globalisation, had a tumultuous term and attracted much flak over his handling of the Covid crisis and the economy, is vying for re-election, However, with his popularity ratings currently at his lowest, and a packed field, including popular predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is back in the fray after being absolved of corruption charges, the coming electoral contest will gain keen interest once the configurations are confirmed.

Myanmar

Among the handful of nations to see military upstage civilian governments in 2021, but the only one in Asia, Myanmar's military coup and the consequent bloody crackdown on protests will ensure that the Southeast Asian nation keeps figuring in the news, situated as it is in the Indo-Pacific area which is the focus for influence between neighbours India, China as well as on a wider level, between Beijing and the US and its allies/aligned powers, including India.

Afghanistan

Afghanistan was among the biggest geopolitical developments of 2021 as its foreign (chiefly US)-backed government steadily lost ground and ultimately crumbled without a fight to the Taliban militia despite two decades of Western financial and military support.

The beleaguered country will remain in the focus amid its mounting humanitarian crisis, the rollback of its social progress, the contest between Taliban and the IS' local offshoot, and the apprehension of its domestic developments affecting the already far from stable Pakistan, India's Kashmir, and the Central Asian nations.

France

Germany has already seen a transition from centre-right to a centre-left government, but it is the April Presidential election in France, the other key archstone of the European Union, that will see impinge on the future course of the continent - beset as it is with political and economic divisions between members, the "Russian threat" and the challenge of illegal immigration, as well as global politics.

President Emmanuel Macron is yet to formally announce that he will seek a second term though he is widely expected to, while long-time aspirant Marine Le Pen of the far right has already announced she will contest despite her 2012 and 2017 losses, and some more right and far-right candidates have thrown their hat in the ring. The outcome will be keenly watched to see how the political winds are blowing.

There may be other hotspots, but there are also three issues which dominated politics almost everywhere in 2021 and loom large this year too - our relationship with our planet, our technology, and with our political leaders.

(Vikas Datta can be contacted at vikas.d at ians.in)

Source: IANS

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By Avinash Prabhakar

New Delhi, Jan 2 (SocialNews.XYZ) After the Covid-led unprecedented crisis, the Indian healthcare industry is undergoing a major transformation. The Covid pandemic has brought the inadequacies and pitfalls of Indias healthcare system to the light. At the same time, the pandemic has also opened up the way for the digital intervention in the healthcare systems which are supposed to alter the healthcare landscape in 2022.

The Covid-19 pandemic has reinforced the health sector's importance and the need to strengthen efforts. The oxygen-crisis led devastation which India witnessed during the second Covid surge has shown that the nation needs to be better prepared for the health emergencies.

The old schools of healthcare system need a technological push to provide accessible health services to all. The 2021 Global Health Security Index says "all countries remain dangerously unprepared for future epidemic and pandemic threats, including threats potentially more devastating than Covid-19".

It measures the capacities of 195 countries to prepare for epidemic and pandemic. The GHS Index assesses countries across six categories -- prevention, detection and reporting, rapid response, health system, compliance with international norms and risk environment.

Among 195 nations, India ranks overall at 66 with a score of 42.8 and a decline of 0.8 points since 2019 in the GHS index. The study underlines that India has improved in detection and reporting category, but there has been no enhancement of its prevention protocols, health system or rapid response processes. The study says that although countries built new capacities during the Covid pandemic, many of them are temporary.

India scores 29.7, slightly above the global average at 28.4 out of 100 in the prevention category. The detection and reporting category that shows major gaps in the reporting capacities for epidemics of potential international concern, India scores 43.5, 11 points above the global average.

India scores 30.3 in the rapid response category which is below the global average of 37.6. India scores 15 points above the global average in the Health Category system at 46.1 and ranks 56 in the list. India scores at 47.2 and ranks 92 in the Commitments to improving national capacity, financing and global norms category.

However, in the risk environment category, India scores slightly above the global average in this category at 60.2 and ranks 73 in the list.

India's preparation for third Covid wave

The new Covid variant Omicron-led third Covid wave is knocking India's door. However, the government has prepared a plan to establish a PSA plant in each district hospital.

"The PSA plants are being established in each district hospitals, especially in far-flung areas, enabling the hospitals to become self-sufficient in the generation of oxygen for their needs and reducing the burden on the medical oxygen supply grid across the country," said Dr Bharti Pravin Pawar in the Rajya Sabha during the last session.

She said that the online digital solutions 'Oxygen Demand Aggregation system (ODAS)' and 'Oxygen Digital Tracking System (ODTS)' have been developed to ascertain the demand for medical oxygen from all medical facilities and to track their transportation.

A Covid Drugs Management Cell (CDMC) has been set up in the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) to oversee the management of smooth supply of drugs used in Covid-19 management, she added in her reply on the question of whether the data on Covid-19 deaths is being used by Government to prepare medical infrastructure for efficient management of the possible third wave in the Rajya Sabha.

The Centre is also planning to identify and train at least one 'Oxygen Steward' in each district across the country ahead of rising Omicron scare. The initiative aims to empower all healthcare workers engaged in Oxygen management and administration with the essential knowledge and skills to ensure rational utilization and avoid any wastage of medical Oxygen, especially in resource constraint settings.

On the contrary, the recently released fourth edition of the State Health Index of NITI Aayog says that nearly half the states and UTs did not reach the halfway mark in the Composite Overall Index Score, and despite good performance, even the top ranking states and UTs could benefit from further improvements.

As per the report only five larger states and two smaller states showed good Overall Performance and continued to improve on their Health Index Score from the Base Year (2018-19) to Reference Year (2019-20).

Ways Ahead in 2022

According to the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society's 'Future of Healthcare Report', around 80 per cent of healthcare systems are aiming to increase their investment in digital healthcare tools in the coming five years.

The healthcare industry in India is projected to reach $372 billion by 2022 according to a report from Invest India. The hospital industry, which accounts for 80 per cent of the healthcare industry in India, is forecast to increase to $132.84 billion by FY22 from $61.79 billion in FY17 at a CAGR of 16-17 per cent.

With overburdened hospitals, personalized homecare is likely to grow in the 2022 as India continues to be amid the Covid pandemic. Meanwhile, the government is also planning to increase public health spending to 2.5 per cent of the country's GDP by 2025.

(Avinash Prabhakar can be reached at Avinash.p@ians.in)

Source: IANS

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By Avinash Prabhakar

New Delhi, Jan 1 (SocialNews.XYZ) India's Ayush industry is expanding globally and its market size has grown significantly during the last two years of the Covid pandemic as the domestic trends re-established the traditional system of medicine, nearer mainstream medicines. But can it, and especially, its major constituent ayurveda, capture a bigger share in the global wellness market?

Ayush, which combines ayurveda, yoga, unani, siddha - all indigenous to India and among the world's oldest healthcare systems - and homeopathy, touts a holistic approach to health,

Ayurveda, central to the Ayush, is among the world's oldest traditional medical practice, but is beyond it, stressing the requirement of healthy and natural lifestyle, and an organic interconnectedness among body, mind, and spirit.

The approach of Ayush systems which aims at immunity promoting interventions as an effective, safer, accessible, and affordable way is the reason for their increased use globally during the pandemic.

India's AYUSH has reported tremendous growth in the last few years because of growing global and domestic demand, enabled by research and development in the sector. According to a report from Ayush Ministry, with a turnover of $18.1 billion, the market size of the Indian AYUSH industry, as a whole, has grown by 17 per cent during 2014-2020.

Among its different product segments, plant derivatives experienced 21 per cent growth in the same period, followed by nutraceuticals (20.5 per cent), pharmaceuticals (15.8 per cent), plant extracts 14.7 per cent and herbal plants (14.3 per cent) as per the report.

The Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) report titled 'AYUSH Sector in India: Prospects and Challenges', says that in terms of the global share, India has grown faster in the AYUSH market as compared to the world and accounts for about 2.8 per cent of the market, which is likely to hold even though disruptions in production are not ruled out.

"According to the RIS report, the market size of AYUSH in India has registered a growth of 17 per cent between 2014 and 2020. Despite the global slowdown in economic activity in 2020, the market for AYUSH is estimated to reach $23.3 billion in 2022. Research and research in the Ayush sector is also being promoted with more comprehensive results to be revealed soon," said the ministry's media advisor, Sanjay Dev.

The Indian Medicines Pharmaceutical Corporation Ltd (IMPCL), the public sector manufacturing unit of the Ayush Ministry, has recorded a turnover of Rs 164.33 crore (tentative) for financial year 2020-21. This is the highest in the company's history and an all-time high profit of approximately Rs 12 crore is reported for the year.

In 2019-20, the company's revenue was Rs 97 crore, as per the ministry.

Ayurveda sector in India has registered 17 per cent growth which is consistent with the growth trajectory of the global ayurveda Industry. As estimated by the International Market Analysis Research and Consulting Group, the ayurveda market is expected to grow by around 15 per cent during 2020-2025. The study has estimated the global market size of the herbal sector which was estimated at $657.5 billion in 2020 and is likely to touch $746.9 billion by 2022.

According to the Data Bridge Market Research study, the global herbal medicinal market is expected to reach $426.43 billion by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 5.34 per cent during 2021-2028. Available market research on herbal and ayurveda medicine sector says that ayurveda constitutes a small portion of the total herbal market, but its growth potential is much higher.

The global traditional and complementary medicine market has been valued at around $360 billion. However, only a minor share of that market gos to ayurveda, between $7.2 billion-$9.6 billion.

The rising interest in ayurveda showcases potential of Indian medicine systems to be a global leader with a proper strategic vision and operational efficiency in the sector.

(Avinash Prabhakar can be reached at Avinash.p@ians.in)

Source: IANS

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By Avinash Kr Atish

New Delhi, Jan 1 (SocialNews.XYZ) The year 2022 presents a golden opportunity to the Mithali Raj-led Indian women's cricket team to leave behind the narrative of 'yet so close yet so far' and script a memorable and historic tale of success with a title win in the ICC Womens ODI World Cup, to be held in New Zealand from March 4 to April 3.

Having tasted defeat by just nine runs in the final of the 2017 World Cup against England, India went on to reach the T20 World Cup decider in 2020. However, once again they faltered at the last hurdle, losing to a strong Australian side at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) by 85 runs.

In 2022, the Women in Blue will be looking to go one step further and claim their first ICC trophy.

The year gone by wasn't the kindest for the women's cricket team as they lost ODI series to South Africa (1-4), England (1-2) and Australia (1-2) -- the latter two as part of the multi-format series. However, what's clear is that at their best, India are good enough to beat anyone, having ended Australia's four-year and 26-match winning streak in the ODI series in their backyard last year.

The upcoming 50-over World Cup could also be the 'swansong' for veterans Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami, who have been giving their services to Indian cricket for over two decades now. And they will definitely try to finish their respective careers on a high.

While skipper Mithali and seamer Jhulan will be key to India's success at the World Cup in New Zealand, the veteran duo will need plenty of support from India's rising stars like Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia, Richa Ghosh and Sneh Rana, among others.

On the other hand, the likes of Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur, Shikha Pandey, Punam Raut, Deepti Sharma, Rajeshwari Gaekwad and Jemimah Rodrigues also have enough experience of international cricket, which will be crucial in the challenging conditions of New Zealand. The team will also play five ODIs against hosts New Zealand in February, which will be an ideal preparation for the mega event.

Overall, India have a good mix of youth and experience, and when they open their World Cup campaign against Pakistan on March 6 at Tauranga, they will be one of the title contenders in the quadrennial event.

England and Australia have been India's nemesis in the ICC events, but as they say, "If it doesn't challenge you it doesn't change you," and the Mitali Raj-led side will look to change their fate and grab their first ICC silverware.

Meanwhile, 2022 could also bring a much-awaited good news for women's cricket in India, i.e, a women's IPL. There has been a growing chorus for organising a full-fledged women's IPL and talking about the same, BCCI Secretary Jay Shah recently stated that the board is working on a plan to organise the event in the near future.

"The women's T20 Challenge has drawn huge interest among the fans which is an encouraging sign. We all want a league like IPL for our women cricketers, but it is not just about putting together three or four teams and announcing the launch of a women's IPL," Shah said.

"There are a lot of factors that come into play like a dedicated window, availability of international stars and bilateral commitments of member boards, to name a few. We are exploring all our options and working towards organising a similar league for our female players in future," he added.

A World Cup title in New Zealand and the women's IPL could be the icing on the cake for women's cricket in India in 2022.

Source: IANS

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By Venkatachari Jagannathan

Chennai, Jan 1 (SocialNews.XYZ) A disciplined underwriting of risks by proper segmentation largely compelled by reinsurers, reduced Covid-19 intensity owing to vaccination programme -- adults and in the 15-18 groups -- and increased awareness about insurance protection, retirement planning are going to be the business drivers for life insurers in 2022, said senior industry officials.

The year is also expected to see one of the Asian life insurance giant Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) tapping the market with an initial public offer (IPO).

Industry officials told IANS that no more life insurers can act like a broker -- accepting premium from the policyholders and passing on the risk and premium to the reinsurers.

At the marketplace, the reinsurers are tightening their business acceptance norms from the primary life insurers, the life insurance industry is expected to see proper customer segmentation and mortality differentiation happening.

"Already life reinsurers are cutting down their exposure levels and increasing their premium rates in the case of term insurance insisting on the primary insurers to put their skin in the game," a senior official of a life insurer told IANS.

According to officials, Covid-19 pandemic and the related death claims turned out to be a convenient tool for life insurers to blame the reinsurers for rate increase in the term insurance policies.

Reinsurers started focusing on term insurance policies underwritten by life insurers from 2018 onwards.

The life insurers designed their term insurance product targeting a certain segment with a certain risk profile and signed up reinsurance agreements with reinsurers.

Later the term insurance policies were sold to all kinds of people and life insurers started settling the claims on the comfort that they will get reimbursed from their reinsurers ringing alarm bells in the latter.

When reinsurers started to raise red flags, Covid-19 and reinsurers became the scapegoats for the life insurers to shift the blame for the premium increase while remaining silent on their portfolio performance.

Queried about the rationale for premium rate hike by the life insurers, Niraj Shah, Chief Financial Officer, HDFC Life Insurance Company Ltd told IANS: "Protection prices in India are a lot lower than some of the developed countries with superior healthcare facilities and higher life expectancy. Historical price hikes in India have been lower than inflation growth."

"We should expect pricing and underwriting norms to evolve in line with expanding geographical and demographic coverage over time. Increase in protection prices is a result of the above mentioned factors," he said.

Continuing further he added: "Additionally, we continue to refine our underwriting practices, deploy new technologies such as deep learning underwriting models and engage with our reinsurance partners to offer relevant protection solutions to our customers on the individual and group platforms."

The insurers are hoping Covid-19 and Omicron related claims to come down as the government has announced vaccination programme for those in the 15-18 age group.

"However, we remain watchful and are closely monitoring our claims trend as well as the adequacy of mortality reserves on a regular basis. Our strategy for FY2022-23 will be similar to last year -- take a balanced and calibrated approach. We will measure ourselves on both, in absolute terms against our own performance in previous years and on a relative basis against the market," Shah said.

Be that as it may, one of the major expectations in 2022 is the IPO by LIC.

The government said the IPO will be during the last quarter of FY 2021-22 and the big question is will it happen is also the big question.

Meanwhile, the year that went by saw HDFC Life Insurance acquired Exide Life Insurance Company Ltd for Rs.6,687 crore which raised the question on the market potential for life insurance in India.

"We see this transaction as an opportunity to scale up our proprietary business in a meaningful way. We do believe that life insurance is a structural multi decade opportunity where the ability to innovate and leverage scale benefits will determine success," Shah said.

While the Indian market is said to offer good potential for growth, bulk of the policy sales are happening through banks who are the corporate agents of life insurers.

The life for life insurers not having banks as corporate agents is tough. For example, Exide Life did not have a major nationalised/private bank as its corporate agent, but several cooperative banks in this role.

There are banks that have floated life insurance companies and distribute their products.

"Perhaps IRDAI should issue only an insurance broking licence to banks and not the corporate agency licence. This may make the banks sell policies of several life insurers," a senior industry official said.

(Venkatachari Jagannathan can be contacted at v.jagannathan@ians.in)

Source: IANS

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New Delhi, Jan 1 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Congress, which secured the highest vote share in the Chandigarh municipal polls, will be fighting for its existence in the 2022 Delhi municipal polls.

Delhi municipal polls are like 'straw' for the Congress which can help the grand-old-party strengthen its foundation and make future strategy.

Delhi Congress chief Anil Kumar said: "Even today, the Congress stands with its ideology. In a contest, one wins while another loses. On this basis, the party is weak but on the basis of ideology, Congress is the biggest party of the country. I have faith on my ideology, leaders and party workers."

"The Congress has helped people during the pandemic. Helping people despite facing defeat...We are working on the agenda of our party veterans and 2022 will not be only good for us but for Delhiites too.

"If we talk about vote share, in the Chandigarh Municipal polls, Congress is number one. Congress has bagged 29.79 per cent votes, the BJP 29.30 per cent while AAP 27.08 per cent.
This time the Congress has bagged eight seats while in 2016 municipal polls, it had bagged four, though then the corporation used to have 26 seats instead of 35," he added.

In the 2017 Delhi Municipal polls, the BJP had bagged the highest number of votes -- 38.59 per cent votes in East Delhi, 35.96 per cent in North Delhi and 35.88 per cent votes in South Delhi.

AAP had bagged highest number of votes 27.98 per cent in North Delhi Municipal Corporation, Congress secured highest 22.74 per cent votes in East Delhi.

Delhi Congress media committee chairman Anil Bhawdwaj said: "2022 will be the year of change, because as people of Delhi have got only fake promises, inflation, unemployment and disease. Delhi is a place which gives employment to people coming from hundreds of kilometres far away."

"The development which was done during Sheila Dikshit ji's tenure has stopped. People have seen that in the past 15 years, corporation has become synonymous to corruption.
Last time, the BJP changed the candidates. If they were performing well, then what was the need for the change?" Bhardwaj asked.

He further said:" Congress has seen many ups and downs, but it has emerged stronger. Congress will perform well in the municipal polls as people are tired of the BJP and the AAP.

In the 2017 Municipal polls, the BJP had bagged absolute majority securing 181 seats, the AAP stood second with 48 seats, Congress 30 while other 11.

Talking about Delhi Congress situation, former minister Dr Kiran Walia said: "I am saddened to see Delhi's plight. The AAP and the BJP are adept at campaigning. I have worked in close coordination in the Sheila Dikshit government. We never campaigned then."

"Many MLAs wanted campaigning during opening of new schools but Sheila ji said that till three schools are set up, campaigning will not be held. She did not want extra expenditure. Had there been no metro and buses, what would have happened to Delhi? she asked.

Earlier, in the Delhi municipal corporation bypolls, of the five wards, AAP won four, while Congress bagged one.

But Congress leaders said that since party's vote percentage has increased in the bypolls, it is likely to get benefitted in the municipal polls.

As municipal polls are nearing, Councillors have also started switching parties. Recently, the Congress received a big jolt when party councillor in North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) Mukesh Goel joined the Aam Aadmi Party.

It's not only Congress councillors who have have hopped to other parties, few AAP councillors have also switched to the Congress.

In 2012, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) was divided into three -- North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), South Delhi Municial Corporation (SDMC) and East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC).

After this exercise, the 2012 municipal polls witnessed a tough contest between the BJP and the Congress.

Of the 272 seats, the BJP had bagged 138 seats, the Congress 77, the BSP 13 while others secured 41.

Source: IANS

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By Niharika Raina

New Delhi, Jan 1 (SocialNews.XYZ) Cricket in 2021 was anything but hectic. Bio-bubbles and quarantine sounded like everyday words while the action on-field was electrifying and saw two teams, Australia and New Zealand, take the silverware for the first time in Test Championship and Men's T20 World Cup.

2022 promises two chances of clinching silverware in men's cricket. First of them comes in January when the West Indies will play host to the Men's U19 Cricket World Cup. Bangladesh, the winners of the 2020 edition, are placed in Group A alongside England, Canada and United Arab Emirates (UAE). India, who were the runners-up last time, are in Group C alongside Ireland, South Africa and Uganda. Expect Yash Dhull and Co. to do well in the tournament after winning the U19 Asia Cup in Dubai.

Roughly ten months from the U19 World Cup comes another edition of the Men's T20 World Cup in Australia, just a year after the UAE and Oman jointly hosted the mega event. Aaron Finch and his men will step on their home field as defending champions after completing the only missing piece left in Australia's glittering cupboard.

England, under Eoin Morgan, will be eyeing to fulfil their dream of holding two white-ball World Cup trophies at the same time while India, after a disappointing campaign, will be looking to prove a point. For India men's side, after an epic 2021 in Test cricket, one of the first targets will be to clinch a maiden Test series win in South Africa.

Leading 1-0 after winning at Centurion, India will be striving to put up a winning show in Johannesburg and Cape Town. After the three-match series, an ODI series of as many matches come with a new captain in KL Rahul and vice-captain in Jasprit Bumrah. A white-ball series against West Indies and two Tests followed by three T20Is against Sri Lanka at home follow quickly. If all goes well, then one can see Afghanistan facing India in an ODI series for the first time.

Then comes the question of where the Indian Premier League (IPL), with two new teams from Lucknow and Ahmedabad, will take place? After the devastating second wave of Covid-19 stopped the cash-rich league in May, it was shifted to the UAE, where it was completed. Hosting of the IPL in India needs sensible planning, especially with India having a surge in Omicron cases. Should the BCCI be doubtful of hosting the tournament in India, it may look towards UAE, yet again.

After the IPL bandwagon, comes another hectic schedule for Indian cricket. Five T20Is against South Africa at home are followed by a trip to England. There, India will be looking to win the rescheduled fifth Test at Edgbaston to complete a series win in England apart from three ODIs and T20Is. One can expect dates for India's future tours to West Indies, Asia Cup in Pakistan, Australia and Sri Lanka coming to the country later in the year.

Outside India, England's future as a Test team will be keenly looked at after conceding the Ashes in just 12 days and people questioning the systems for technique, developing first-class cricketers and how County Championship should happen. Overall, 2022 in men's cricket will be a very hectic year and if Covid-19 effect goes down, expect bio-bubbles and quarantine to go.

Source: IANS

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By Nivedita Khandekar

New Delhi, Jan 1 (SocialNews.XYZ) More the things change, the more they remain the same, is an old adage applicable to anything and everything, including the government, irrespective of the party in power.

In 2011, it was Anna Andolan that had captured the popular imagination of the whole nation. In 2021, it was the farmers' protest that had dominated the discourse even in the pandemic induced lockdown year.

In April 2011, social activist Anna Hazare had embarked on a fast unto death demanding passing of the Jan Lokpal Bill. Sensing the popularity of Team Anna, the government agreed for a joint drafting committee; it was formed in April 2011 itself. Few meetings later, when the Ramdev Baba episode at the Ramlila Maidan took place in June, Team Anna members stopped going to the meetings.

The Bill was passed in Parliament in December 2013, the same month when Arvind Kejriwal, having parted his ways with Hazare, had formed a party, contested, and won the Delhi Assembly elections.

Much water had flown below the bridge, the government at the Centre had changed when Hazare in March 2018 declared to resume his battle for Jan Lokpal Bill. The NDA government brought in an amendment and passed the Bill in both the Houses soon. Since then, nobody has even heard of the Lokpal, in whichever avatar the Bill was passed.
Even when the farmers' agitation started in 2020, it was the year 2021 that saw the fruition of their agitation in all respects. The Modi government relented to their demands and in December first week, the three contentious farm Bills were repealed.The farmers were promised that a committee would be formed to discuss the Minimum Support Price (MSP). But more than a month after the Prime Minister's announcement, there is no word about it. And that is where the similarities between the Lokpal and three laws begin.

So what happens to the MSP committee?

The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) on December 9 declared to suspend their 15-month long agitation that had started to protest the three contentious farm laws passed in 2020. The agitation continued even after the three laws -- the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 and Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill 2020 -- were repealed by Parliament as the farmers' stuck to their demands vis-a-vis legal backing for minimum support price (MSP) for all farmers being the prime demand after repeal of the three laws.

Manisha Priyam, a political analyst based in Delhi, said, "When the protest is at its peak, the government is bound to listen to the people, albeit unwillingly. But after some time, once things go away from the public eye or glare, things change.

In 2011, Pranab Mukherjee had called a special session, a 'Sense of House' resolution was passed. It was given that much importance. Today, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is in power itself, but we all know the fate of Lokpal.

It remains to be seen what this government does with the MSP committee. "But what I believe is that the agrarian distrust issue is very important and significant. If the government does not take it up seriously, then, the future will not be easy on this matter. Because it is now a matter of livelihood. The government will have to respond on this matter."

Nagender Sharma, former journalist and legal affairs analyst, who was also the Delhi Chief Minister's Advisor. Observing that the government now is a different one and the farmers have already won a critical battle, he said, "Chances of outcome of this Committee are very high because farmers are coming on the back of a victory."
Priyam added, "Anna Andolan was about political accountability, which is still vague. Here concrete issues of lives of people are involved. I think there will be some kind of binding on the government."

But then, what will stop the government from going back? Pat came her reply: "What stops the people from coming back on the streets?"

Farmers' next step

Indeed, that is a point of debate as to what will the government do next? Whether or not it will abide by its promises.

Earlier in December last week, Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Narendra Tomar had said at Nagpur, "We had moved a step back and then moved forward (on farm laws). Farmers are the backbone of India."

When it was perceived that the government wants to bring back the three laws, Tomar clarified that there is no proposal or plan yet. That would be discussed when the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) will be meeting again to check what all the government has done since the farmers wrapped up their tents from around Delhi's borders.

When asked about the government bringing back the Bills again, Rakesh Tikait, prominent farm leaders, told IANS on phone, "We will see as and when it happens. Why ask about it now?"

He, however, sounded a lot more cautious about the Committee on MSP. "No names have been sought as yet. Nothing heard from the government. Nothing heard from the government about (withdrawing) cases in Delhi too."

"January 15, we have the SKM meeting. We will see then," Tikait said.

Source: IANS

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By Rohit Vaid

New Delhi, Jan 1 (SocialNews.XYZ) Competition is expected to soar in India's aviation sector during 2022, as new players enter the industry along with deeper penetration of air transport in hinterland.

Accordingly, a new airline as well as more privately operated airports are expected to increase competition in the sector which has faced the brunt of the ongoing pandemic.

Besides, expanding regional and intra-regional presence will continue to widen the scope of the industry.

Moreover, passengers will gain from increased competition, Centre from divesting airport assets and the workforce from more professional opportunities in the aviation sector.

In terms of airlines, in 2021, Jet Airways and Air India found new owners.

"The cherry on the cake was the launch of Akasa Air underpinning the future prospects of this sector in India," said Jagannarayan Padmanabhan, Director and Practice Leader, Transport & Logistics, CRISIL Infrastructure Advisory.

"Competition will continue to be strong across the airlines, it's important that the sector learns from the previous misadventures of undercutting prices to gain or maintain volumes."

In the medium term, the sector's growth is expected to come from the tier 2 and tier 3 cities for which it is necessary to augment capacity as well as open up new regional airports.

"While Covid-19 has led to uncertainties in the airport sector, the established regulatory framework as well as the growth potential in the Indian market over a long term would continue to attract private developers," said Vishal Kotecha, Director, India Ratings and Research.

Notably, there have not been any bids in the airport space over the last two years, however, 2019 saw a significant number of bids in the airport sector with Adani Group winning six airports, GMR and Zurich airports being awarded with one airport each.

"There was a significant interest seen from both domestic as well as international players in these bids," said Kotecha.

Under the National Monetisation Pipeline, the Centre plans to divest brownfield assets such as airports, thereby increasing competition in this sector.

At least 25 additional airports have been identified for monetisation in the next three years.

Furthermore, there has been increased focus on increasing regional connectivity.

In terms of the RCS-UDAN scheme, 948 valid routes have been awarded.

Out of which, 395 routes connecting 63 unserved and underserved airports including six heliports and two water aerodromes have been operationalised.

As per data, under UDAN 4.1, 168 routes were awarded during the year.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation has set a target of operationalising as many as 100 unserved and underserved airports and starting at least 1,000 RCS routes by 2024.

"Expect the target of operationalising 100 airports under UDAN by 2026, with a delay of two years from revised schedule (of 2024 from earlier 2019)," said Rajeshwar Burla, Vice President and Group Head, Corporate Ratings, ICRA.

"The weak credit profile of some of the domestic airlines is expected to have an impact on the existing routes under UDAN scheme, particularly for smaller airlines given the stretched liquidity position, low utilisation in some of the routes and this will also impact future bidding of routes under the scheme."

Burla attributed the slow progress of UDAN implementation to delayed upgradation of infrastructure and readiness of airports, lack of adequate right of way including insufficient runway lengths at some of the RCS airports and delays in securing necessary regulatory approvals.

Additionally, Suman Chowdhury, Chief Analytical Officer, Acuite Ratings & Research said: "As of 2020, there were 153 operational airports in India which is poised to grow to by another 20-30 by 2030."

"AAI has a capital expenditure programme of Rs 25,000 crore over the next 4-5 years for the development of new domestic airports as well as the expansion and upgradation of the existing ones."

In addition, Chowdhury said the private sector is increasingly participating in the development and expansion of the international airports in the country to cater to the potential incoming business and leisure traffic.

(Rohit Vaid can be contacted at rohit.v@ians.in)

Source: IANS

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By Archana Sharma

Jaipur, Jan 1 (SocialNews.XYZ) The year 2021 was full of challenges for former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje who wasted no time to turn them into opportunities and started her religious yatras to different temples in the state.

Raje's posters were removed from the BJP office in the state capital. She also remained absent from campaigning during bypolls held in three places, namely Vallabhnagar, Dhariyawad and Rajsamand. Her absence and staying away from party happenings became the burning topic in the state politics.

She neither showed up during campaigning nor marked her presence in significant party meetings.

In fact, a parallel team was being run under 'Team Vasundhara Raje 2023'. It released a list of its own district presidents in the state.

Further, during the second wave of Covid, while the BJP ran 'Seva hi Sangathan' campaign, the Raje team ran 'Vasundhara Jan Rasoi' where food was served to the needy.

When her daughter-in-law was unwell and admitted to a renowned hospital in Gurugram, Raje and her followers were seen conducting special prayers.

She continued her religious yatras in different parts of the state (often referred to as political yatras) which undoubtedly attracted a good crowd.

She started her visits in the state to sacred places and paid homage to party workers and their relatives who passed away, attracting good gatherings. Her loyalists made all efforts to make these visits successful to give the message to the party that she is still there in the hearts of the people of the state.

Meanwhile, by the end of the year, Raje followers were left shocked to see their favourite leader missing from the dias of a mammoth Rajput rally organised in Jaipur in which all Rajput stalwarts were seen, including Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Jaipur princess Diya Kumari but not her.

While a few leaders confirmed to IANS that Raje was not invited to the rally, others said that she did not come despite being invited.

A few leaders confirmed that a strong message was given to the party via the rally that Raje should not be the CM face, while others remained mum when being asked about the same.

Meanwhile, the BJP office-bearers confirmed that it was for the first time that Vasundhara Raje was not on the stage of this Kshatriya rally, which was attended by around 4-5 lakh Rajputs.

What went wrong in all these years as Raje, who was involved in rallies and programmes of the Kshatriya Yuva Sangh in the past and had participated in rallies of Kshatriya Yuvak Sangh in Jaipur in 2008 and in Jodhpur in 2017, was missing in this rally remains an unanswered question.

Has the queen, who once referred to herself as the daughter of Rajput, lost her charm among the warrior lobby or is she still ruling their hearts? Let's wait for the coming year, says a BJP worker.

Source: IANS

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By Mohammed Shafeeq

Hyderabad, Dec 31 (SocialNews.XYZ) As 2021 draws to a close with the threat of a third wave of Covid-19 looming on in the new year, the plans of information technology companies for a partial return to office by the middle of 2022 may be delayed and the year is likely to see a hybrid model, a mix of both Work from Home and Work from Office.

At a time when parts of the country are witnessing a spike in Covid cases and new variant Omicron spreading fast, the IT/ITES companies in this key tech hub are on a wait and watch mode.

According to Hyderabad Software Enterprises Association (HYSEA), the apex body of IT/ITES companies in Hyderabad, the strategy of the companies could change as the situation unfolds.

"The industry is on a wait and watch mode at this stage as the impact of Omicron variant is yet to be completely understood and becomes more predictable," HYESA president Bharani K. Aroll told IANS.

With the experts not ruling out new variants in the days to come, the IT companies are keeping their fingers crossed.

"It has become evident that the Covid is not going away soon and such variants may keep mutating as we step in 2022 . Therefore vaccination and following Covid protocols issued by the government are very important to prevent and control the spread," said Aroll.

According to him, as of now, the IT companies have not changed their original plans on return to office strategy. "However, the plans could change as the situation with the new variant evolves. The prediction is to see at least 40 per cent on an average return to office by April 2022, if the situation does not get worse," he added.

Industry observers say many companies are likely to follow Hybrid model, a mix of both Work From Home (WFH) and Work From Office (WFO) during 2022. The employees may be asked to work three days from the office and two days from home and each company may come up with its own model based on its working days and requirements.

Before the recent surge in cases and emergence of Omicron, five per cent of employees of large companies were working from the office. In the mid-size and small companies, around 30 and 70 per cent employees respectively were working from the office.

An overwhelming majority of over 6 lakh IT workforce in Hyderabad has been working from home since March 2020 when the pandemic broke out.

Based on a survey by HYSEA in August, 2021, it was estimated that by the end of March 2022, 79 per cent of companies will have anywhere from 30 per cent to 90 per cent employees WFO. It translates to minimum 2 lakh and maximum 5 lakh employees back in offices by March 2022.

Murali Bollu, CEO, ZenQ, a software testing company, pointed out that prior to the emergence of the Omicron variant, IT companies were planning to ask employees to return to office after the Sankranthi festival in a phased manner. Due to Omicron concerns, these plans are being put on hold until March 2022.

"Since Covid, more IT work is being outsourced to India -- partly due to an increase in the momentum of companies adopting digital transformation across the industries globally, and partly due to the great resignation phenomenon. This has caused higher demand for skilled resources in India by all IT companies including startups, IT majors, MNCs and GCCs and resulted in higher salaries and higher attrition. Having gotten used to the comforts and flexibility that the work from home offers, existing and new employees are demanding more work from home flexibility than was existent prior to Covid," said Murali

"Going forward, more than the virus related concerns, higher attrition and recruitment worries will play a bigger role in companies' decision on 'work from home'. Most IT companies are gearing to operate in a hybrid model to accommodate the changing mindset and aspirations to attract and retain employees," he added.

After the end of the second wave, the IT department of Telangana in July had requested the management of the companies to reopen offices as the livelihood of lakhs of people like cab drivers and food vendors are dependent on the sector.

The health department also urged the management of IT companies in September to resume work from the office. However, this did not yield the desired result as the majority of the big employers raised concerns that reopening of offices might lead to a third wave.

Satyanarayana Mathala, President of Telangana Facilities Management Council (TFMC), believes that 2022 is a way forward to open offices with following Covid protocol.

TFMC, the apex body of the facilities professionals who manage the premises of IT work places, is working to create awareness among IT/ITES companies on mandatory vaccination procedures.

"Currently most of the offices are running with 20 per cent to 30 per cent capacity who are all fully vaccinated with both doses. In the coming months many companies are creating a long term plan to get the booster vaccination program as part of the back to office initiative. Many companies will follow the hybrid model for the year 2022. Based on the local virus spread and government norms, the companies will keep changing the working models," said Satyanarayana.

He is of the view that a booster dose will help companies welcome back about half of their employees to office. "The nine month duration from the day of last dose taken will be updated to all the employees. Many companies are using AI application to track the vaccination program and update employees on a regular basis which will help us to complete their third dose program, by this it will help all companies to welcome employees back to office with 40 per cent to 50 per cent of staff," Satynarayana explained.

"In my view the Work from Home is here to stay in what I call the Co-Covid world. The variants like Delta, Omicron and what is already emerging Demicron now. The extent may vary but most organisations especially IT will find their own version of WFH. The variants may be there for a number of days, locations and models of engagement. It's not just WFH but the world is moving to 'Anything from Home'. More and more innovations will move in that direction as we look at 2022 and beyond," said Viiveck Verma, Founder, Upsurge Global and President, Society for Advancement of Human Endeavour (SAHE)

According to HYSEA survey, 70 per cent of the companies feel that hybrid will be the future work model. As many as 37 per cent companies prefer hybrid model (WFH+WFO) based on rotation while 33 per cent are for hybrid model with partial week WFH and partial week WFO.

Source: IANS

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New Delhi, Dec 31 (SocialNews.XYZ) Seven is the number of medals won by Indian athletes in the Tokyo Olympics, the largest-ever tally in an Olympics, including the javelin gold by the new poster boy Neeraj Chopra, as per IANS-CVoter Issues That Dominated India 2021.

If you are a cynic, you might say New Zealand with a population of 5 million won 20 medals or that Australia with a population of just above 30 million won 68 medals.

Now that India has decisively won the first test against South Africa in their home turf, cricket crazy fans of India seem to be back to their old tricks. There is a danger that not much will be heard about athletics and other sports till the next Olympics if and when India manages to cross the current record tally of seven medals.

But the tally symbolically reflects a deep behavioural change in India, with cricket not the only possible option for families when their children express a desire to pursue a career in sports.

Pioneers like Vijay Amritraj in tennis, Prakash Padukone in badminton and Vishwanathan Anand in chess had already triggered a mini revolution of sorts by creating a new generation of champion players in these fields.

But now that revolution is spreading far and wide. Live telecasts and sponsors with deep pockets have ensured that even hitherto talked about but largely ignored and neglected sports like Kabaddi are getting their due share.

This is not to forget the Herculean efforts made by the central government and some state governments to encourage sports in a positive and sustainable way. A sporting culture takes a generation or two to develop. The good news is that it has already started happening now.

Source: IANS

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By Archana Sharma

Jaipur, Dec 31 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Rajasthan Congress saw it all in the year 2021 -- a face-off between Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and former deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot. When the party seemed to be headed for a split, the Congress high command managed a truce, and Gehlot and Sachin finally were able to strike a balance which was reflected in the cabinet expansion in the state.

Those leaders who were removed from the state cabinet during the rebellion were inducted again, which sent a strong message to the workers that the high command had lent ears to Pilot's demands.

As Gehlot convinced Pilot with his balancing equations, the latter was seen smiling later at the dinner hosted at the Chief Minister's residence a day before the national rally against inflation was organised in Jaipur.

After a few days, Pilot sang the Bollywood song 'Jeena Yahan Marna Yahan' in a private programme.

The political pandits decoded the message being given via the song and hinted that Pilot is here to stay.

In fact, even the Congress workers from the Gehlot camp whispered through political corridors that Pilot, without position and post, is continuing to win millions of hearts and he is here to stay for a long time.

While Gehlot was seen celebrating the third anniversary of his government with inaugurations and foundation laying of 3,700 development works in just two days, Pilot was seen busy with visits across the state and outside the state with leaders of party high command.

His videos can be seen trending as he smashed records in safa-tying, in making a high jump to stand on his vehicle and a wave for his followers and his singing the 'Jeena Yahan Marna Yahan' continues to be discussed across the corridors, in political and non-political lobbies.

His bungalow can be seen bustling with crowds who visit him from different corners of the state and nation.

The party high command also knows that Pilot rules many hearts across the nation and hence is being sent to Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and southern states too for campaigning.

So, while the 2021 saw the turmoil and truce in the Congress in 2021, will it bring in something new and exciting for Pilot in the year 2022, is one of most frequently asked questions among the political circles in Rajasthan.

Source: IANS

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BY VISHAL GULATI

New Delhi, Dec 31 (SocialNews.XYZ) 2021 is a wrap despite a year scarred by the pandemic and vagaries of extreme weather, fueled by climate change, that not only grappled the developing but also plagued much of the developed world, this year helped lay the groundwork for a global shift toward sustainable development and a more equitable society in 2022.

The buzzword for 2021 was net-zero in climate policy as countries struggled to pull together long-term economic strategies.

The latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) signalled a "code red" for humanity, according to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

For India, it was the whirlwind year for climate crisis with bouts of extreme rain and flooding with exceptionally temperamental monsoons, besides wildfires in North America, floods in China, across Europe and parts of Africa, and heatwaves in Siberia

The planet can't wait.

Keeping this urgency in forefront, Britain, the host to the just concluded UN Climate Change Conference named COP26 in Glasgow after a year of delay owing to the pandemic, negotiated tough with governments and businesses of nearly 200 nations to increase climate ambition and take immediate action to help halve global emissions in the next decade and reach net-zero emissions by mid-century in order to create a more sustainable world.

So what about life moves forward from the 2021 Glasgow Climate Pact, a 'fragile win' amongst all the parties at COP26 to have to halve emissions and shift to a nature-positive economy by 2030 on the path to reaching net zero by 2040 with a commitment to phase down unabated coal power and phase out inefficient fossil subsidies, to COP27 that will take place in Egypt in November 2022.

Despite Europe set its all-time record for the hottest summer in 2021, the roadmap for 2022 is the world's most pressing questions:

How to accelerate the energy transition and build more resilient communities? Will net-zero climate commitments become more credible by making meaningful investments into climate action? What will happen to the bold commitments to end deforestation, the surge in electric vehicles, and much more?

The big question is: Will they deliver?

The powerful words from Sir David Attenborough say, "It is why it will be so important for countries to follow through in 2022 on the commitments to climate action they made at COP26".

Climate veterans told IANS a transition to a carbon-free economy is impossible without transforming the way globe generates its energy.

Though the world still mostly reliant on fossil fuels to power lives, in the past decade solar and wind power alone have grown from 1.7 per cent of global electricity generation to around 8.7 per cent.

This upward trend is expected to continue in 2022 and beyond.

"A net-zero future is possible, but first we need to flip a mental switch to truly understand that we can stop the climate crisis if we try," says Nobel laureate Al Gore.

However, many world leaders were left disappointed by finance negotiations held in Glasgow with no commitment to give $100bn a year to developing countries as pledged in 2009.

Bhutan, representing the group of Least Developed Countries (LDC), lamented that public statements made by countries often differ to what is heard at the negotiations.

"We came to Glasgow with high expectations. We need strong commitments to ensure the survival of the billion people living in the LDCs in the future", said the country's representative on 'adaptation day'.

The annual UN Climate Change Conference (COP27), expected to take place in Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt in 2022, is expected to see more access of adaptation finance as annual costs in developing countries alone are estimated at $70 billion.

According to the UNEP, this figure is expected to reach $140-300 billion in 2030 and $280-500 billion in 2050. An increase in financing will be critical for countries to meet their adaptation goals.

With the urgency for adaptation in the developing world, the next UN climate negations are expected to advance the climate talks, mobilize action, and provide a significant opportunity to look at the impacts of climate change in Africa.

A newly-released report by the World Meteorological Organization and partners, the State of the Climate in Africa 2020, warned of the continent's disproportionate vulnerability, estimating that by 2030, up to 118 million extremely poor Africans will be exposed to drought, floods and extreme heat.

With 2021 full of climate effort, what needs to be done in 2022 to keep holding governments to account in 2022?

The world needs a catalytic shift toward climate action with a cut in greenhouse gas emissions, ending fossil fuel subsidies and new fossil fuel projects, cutting methane, the second largest contributor to global warming, stopping deforestation and finance must be the golden thread for climate diplomacy.

(Vishal Gulati can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)

Source: IANS

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By Nivedita Khandekar

New Delhi, Dec 31 (SocialNews.XYZ) The launch of Samudrayaan, India's manned scientific submersible under its ambitious Rs 4,077 crore Deep Ocean Mission was the hallmark of the Ministry of Earth Sciences' (MoES) work in the year 2021.

The Deep Ocean Mission is a resolute plan to explore and harness the deep-oceanic resources and support the 'Blue Economy Initiatives' of the Central government with the MoES being the nodal Ministry implementing this multi-institutional ambitious mission.

The best part is that the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is helping to build a specialised sphere for the manned mission to reach 6,000 metres deep into the ocean.

On a trial basis on November 5, the autonomous National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT under the MoES, developed and tested a 'personnel sphere' for a manned submersible system for 500 metre water depth rating. Now, a Titanium alloy personnel sphere for manned submersible system for 6,000 metre water depth rating, is under development in association with the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram.

The MoES is looking at 2022 as a step closer to the Samudrayaan as this will be the basic building block for the Mission where scientists sort out the nitty-gritties regarding a programme that less than 10 countries across the globe carry out.

"India has planned to send a manned mission to space and to the bottom of the ocean at the same time - roughly, 2024," Minister for Earth Sciences, Dr Jitendra Singh had recently told media persons.

One of the many aims of the Deep Ocean Mission is to study the sea surface temperatures and then also study deep ocean thermal vents, all that can have a bearing on the changing climatic conditions.

Apart from looking at and within the ocean, the MoES also has a primary weather forecaster, i.e. the India Meteorological Department (IMD). There have been significant improvements in forecasting accuracy with respect to severe weather events, including tropical cyclones, heavy rainfall, fog, heat wave, cold wave, thunderstorms.

"In general, there has been a 20 to 40 per cent improvement in forecast accuracy of severe weather events in the recent five years (2016-2020) as compared to previous five years (2011-15). The annual average track forecast errors in 2021 have been 60 km, 93 km and 164 km, respectively, for 24, 48 and 72 hours (probability of getting an accurate forecast so many hours before the actual cyclone landfall) against the past five-year average error of 77, 117 and 159 kms based on data of 2016-2020," data from MoES showed.

Accurate and timely prediction of tropical cyclones Tauktae, Yaas, Gulab and Shaheen helped the respective district administrations, and the disaster management authorities save thousands of precious lives.

There were also the occasional hiccups when the IMD's forecasts were off the mark. Two examples from 2021 are the forecast for arrival of monsoon in the national capital (in June-July) and the very latest, the extremely heavy rainfall in Chennai and three surrounding districts on December 30.

Three Doppler Weather Radars were commissioned at Mukteshwar (Uttarakhand); Kufri and Shimla (Himachal Pradesh); and Jammu. A Dual-polarimetric C-band Doppler Weather Radar was commissioned in the above facility recently for detailed precipitation process studies in the core monsoon zone.

Meanwhile, an official from the MoES said the work for seismic micro-zonation of four cities, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Coimbatore, and Mangalore, is at an advanced stage of completion and work related to eight more cities (Patna, Meerut, Amritsar, Agra, Varanasi, Lucknow, Kanpur and Dhanbad) has been started and various Geophysical & Geotechnical surveys are in progress.

And among the most exciting yet least talked about is India's scientific expeditions to Antarctica.

The 40th Indian Scientific Expedition to Antarctica (40-ISEA) was flagged off from Goa in January while the 41st expedition was flagged off in November. The November team has two major programmes.

"The first programme encompasses geological exploration of the Amery ice shelf at Bharati station. This will help explore the link between India and Antarctica in the past," a statement from the Ministry said, adding: "The second programme involves reconnaissance surveys and preparatory work for drilling of 500 metres of ice core near Maitri in collaboration with the British Antarctic Survey and the Norwegian Polar Institute. It will help in improving the understanding of Antarctic climate, westerly winds, sea-ice and greenhouse gases from a single climate archive for the past 10,000 years."

"All programmes of the Ministry are currently aligned with the Samudrayaan launch proposed in 2024. Year 2021 was when the countdown began towards the same and the years 2022 and 2023 would be building on that to reach the goal in 2024," a scientist from one of the institutions said.

Source: IANS

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By V.D. Satheesan

(V.D. Satheesan is the Leader of Opposition in the Kerala Legislative Assembly and a five-time Congress MLA from the Paravur Assembly constituency in Ernakulam district. The views are personal)

Source: IANS

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By Chetan Sharma

New Delhi, Dec 31 (SocialNews.XYZ) 'Fortune favours the brave'. 'No pain, no gain'. In August this year, when Ravi Dahiya and Bajrang Punia returned from Tokyo Olympics, they were welcomed with such banners at the IGI airport. Both grapplers made India proud in Tokyo and also proved what athletes can do to win an Olympic medal.

Punia's bronze medal bout at the Tokyo Olympics is still a topic of discussion among the Indian wrestling fraternity. The coaches share the courageous tale with their pupils at the 'akhadas'.

The scenes of an injured Bajrang removing his knee strap and then going all out in the bronze medal playoff will be remembered for years to come. He was a gold medal prospect, but managed to win a bronze. However, his courage earned him more respect among the masses.

The same goes for Ravi Dahiya, who bagged a silver after losing a hard-fought battle in the final. However, the most inspiring part of his story was about his remarkable comeback in the semis.

The Indian grappler was trailing 2-9 when Kazakh wrestler Nurislam Sanayev effected a few 'fitley' (leg lace) moves to pull ahead but as the clock ticked away, Dahiya regrouped and got hold of his rival with a double leg attack that resulted in a victory by fall.

Tokyo has given new hopes to Indian wrestling.

The wrestling future looks bright as some young grapplers have shown their talent and capability in many events. Though they failed to win medals in the Olympics, the likes of Anshu Malik, Sarita More and Sonam Malik have great calibre and can make India proud in future events.

Grapplers have already started their preparation and there is a good talent pool at the national level which if nurtured well, can do wonders in 2022.

Wrestling has been one of India's biggest strengths at the Olympic Games in the last couple of editions. The country has won at least one medal in wrestling in every Olympic Games since Beijing 2008.

With Tokyo 2020 now a past, it is time for Indian wrestlers to turn their focus towards several upcoming competitions in 2022.

The next event now would be -- if Omicron doesn't play the spoilsport -- the wrestling ranking series. It is the event through which wrestlers are able to improve their world rankings. Three ranking series tournaments are scheduled to take place between February and June 2022. The venues for the tournaments are yet to be announced.

This year, there were two ranking series competitions -- the Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series in Rome and the Poland Open in Warsaw.

In Rome, Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat pocketed gold, whereas Sarita Mor won a silver. In Warsaw, Vinesh Phogat once again won gold while Ravi Kumar Dahiya brought home a silver.

Then there would be the Senior Asian Wrestling Championships 2022, which is likely to take place in April in Kazakhstan. After that, there will be the Cadet World Wrestling Championship 2022, which helps in witnessing the budding wrestlers of the world.

Wrestlers in the age group of 15-17 are eligible to participate in this event. At the 2021 edition in Budapest, Hungary, the Indian wrestling contingent had a brilliant outing as it bagged 13 medals, including five gold. The 2022 edition may take place from July 25-31 in Rome.

The Commonwealth Games 2022 will take place in Birmingham between July 28 and August 8. The previous edition in 2018 at Gold Coast was a memorable one for Indian wrestling. India finished on top of the medal tally, with five gold, three silver, and four bronze.

Another big event of the year would be the Asian Games. The 19th edition of the Asian Games will take place in Hangzhou, China, from September 10-25. Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat will be the defending champions in their respective events.

Source: IANS

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By Sujit Chakraborty

Guwahati, Dec 31 (SocialNews.XYZ) Decades-old inter-state boundary disputes and militancy problems are expected to make a significant headway in 2022, while work for India's first international multi-modal logistic park (MMLP) at Jogighopa in western Assam would witness a considerable progress in the new year leading to a big boost to the connectivity with the neighbouring countries.

Ministers, officials, experts and economists are optimistic that the crucial issues of Assam, including the long pending inter-state boundary disputes, are likely to achieve a vital outcome in 2022 as these issues have seen progress being made since 2020 with all the stakeholders working together with seriousness.

Sushanta Talukdar, a renowned political commentator in the Northeast region and writer, said: "The concerned Northeastern states, specially Assam have taken joint efforts and already held a series of meetings in 2020 to resolve their inter-state boundary disputes. The Central government already asked the Northeastern states to mutually settle the boundary disputes through bilateral talks."

"The MMLP at Jogighopa is expected to achieve a major change in connectivity with the neighbouring countries leading to boost trade, tourism and people-to-people relations. The ambitious project would be a game changer not only for Assam but also for the other Northeastern states," Talukdar, the editor of multilingual online portal 'Nezine', told IANS.

The MMLP at Jogighopa with an initial investment of Rs 693.97 crore and an overall investment of Rs 3,000 is scheduled to be completed by 2023. The MMLP at Jogighopa being made by state-owned National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited, will provide direct air, road, rail and waterways connectivity to the people and is being developed under the ambitious Bharatmala Pariyojana of the Government of India.

Assam, which shares borders with six other Northeastern states -- Nagaland (512.1 km), Arunachal Pradesh (804.1 km), Manipur (204.1 km), Mizoram (164.6 km), Tripura (46.3 km) and Meghalaya (884.9 km) -- has boundary disputes at least with four Northeastern states -- Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, besides Mizoram.

The state's border dispute cases with Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh are before the Supreme Court, but there are no cases on the inter-state disputes with Meghalaya and Mizoram. According to the Government of India documents, of the seven inter-state border disputes in the country, four are in the Northeastern region and these include Assam-Arunachal Pradesh, Assam-Nagaland, Assam-Meghalaya and Assam-Mizoram.

The worst-ever violence along the Assam-Mizoram border on July 26 left six Assam Police personnel dead and nearly 100 civilians and security personnel of the two neighbouring states injured.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who already held separate meetings with his counterparts of Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh to resolve the border disputes, said that in the New Year the long-pending border issues would be resolved to a large extent.

"I have held several meetings with Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma. Assam and Meghalaya would resolve the six of the 12 inter-state border disputes before January 15. I have also recently held separate meetings in New Delhi with Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio and Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah and discussed the ways and means to resolve their border issues amicably," Sarma added.

Renowned economist and writer, Apurba Kumar Dey is hopeful that the decades-old insurgency problem would get a big headway in the New Year as at least three major militant outfits -- United Liberation Front of Asom-Independent (ULFA-I), Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) and Dimasa National Liberation Army (DNLA) are in a peace mode.

"If the ULFA-I and other militant outfits in Assam come to the negotiation table and held peace talks with the government, it would facilitate negotiations with the other militant outfits of the Northeastern states, including Manipur and Nagaland," Dey told IANS.

While a large number of KLO and DNLA cadres have surrendered to the government after declaring the ceasefire, the outlawed outfit ULFA-I had announced a unilateral ceasefire for three months on May 15 immediately after the new BJP-led government headed by Assam Chief Minister had assumed charge on May 10.

The ULFA-I headed by self-styled Commander-in-Chief Paresh Barua extended their ceasefire for three times since May 15. Himanta Biswa Sarma, who repeatedly urged the militant outfits of the Northeast region to talk with the government about their issues, if any, said that he has been given full responsibility (by Union Home Minister Amit Shah) to start the preliminary talks with the ULFA-I. A back channel talks between the Assam government and ULFA-I are on, the Assam Chief Minister added.

More than a thousand militants belonging to different outfits in Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) and the three hill districts -- Dima Hasao, Karbi Anglong and West Karbi Anglong -- surrendered to the government with their arms.

Assam has taken a massive crusade against the illegal drug menace. Former senior police officer and security expert, Pranab Saikia said that drugs and arms worth crores of rupees are smuggled from Myanmar through the Mizoram and Manipur borders ferried through Assam.

"The Assam government in association with the central and state security forces has taken concerted and coordinated efforts to prevent the illegal transportation and trade of drugs. If the drugs smuggling from Myanmar and their transit route through Assam can be stopped, then the drug menace in the Northeastern region would be tamed to a large extent," Pranab Saikia told IANS.

The Assam Police earlier in December held a meeting in Guwahati with top officials of the Narcotics Control Bureau and security officials of the Northeastern states as well as senior officials of Central Paramilitary forces to finalise the ways and means to curb the illegal drug trade.

The Assam Chief Minister said that the drugs smuggled into India originate from Pakistan, and from across the borders along the Northeastern states from Myanmar. To make the people aware about the drug menace, seized drugs worth Rs 170 crore were burnt publicly in Karbi Anglong, Golaghat, Hojai and Nagaon districts of Assam recently.

The Assam Police have so far seized drugs worth nearly Rs 250 crore in separate incidents since May and arrested nearly 2,100 drug peddlers.

(Sujit Chakraborty can be contacted at sujit.c@ians.in)

Source: IANS

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By Ashis Ray

London, Dec 31 (SocialNews.XYZ) Europe is unlikely to be in 2022 what it was in 2021. The empress of the continent - Angela Merkel - after 16 uninterrupted years as Germany's chancellor - stepped down from her position in December, as pre-announced.

Without her leadership, her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) lost the general elections in September. This ushered in a coalition government spearheaded by the Social Democratic Party (SPD), with Olaf Sholtz as her successor.

Germany is the economic powerhouse of Europe. Over this key industrialised nation, Merkel, the first woman to occupy the post of chancellor, governed with equanimity, efficiency and fairness, which many of her opponents found difficult to fathom.

Indeed, as head of a right-of-centre party, she undertook the extraordinary step of welcoming 800,000 refugees from Syria. Her own party was uncomfortable with this; but her compassion prevailed, so much so that she was re-elected even after this in 2017, albeit by a lesser margin.

The final four years of her innings as head of the government witnessed the unusual but not unprecedented phenomenon of a grand alliance of the left and the right, with SPD sharing power with her. In fact, Sholtz was the finance minister in that government.

Merkel will maintain an office in central Berlin, the German capital, and may not retire altogether. A role as elder stateswoman cannot be ruled out.

She told a prominent news agency: "I can see myself regularly speaking out about the connection between our prosperity, research and innovation, but I am sure I won't be doing any scientific work (a reference to her previous career as a chemist)."

Sholtz is described as a male version of Merkel. Low profile and un-abrasive, he quietly gets on with the job - very much in the German character, if one discounts the aberration of one Adolf Hitler in the 1930s and 1940s.

Following in Merkel's footsteps, Sholtz embarked on his first foreign trip to France, which with Germany constitute the controllers of the European Union (EU).

Sholtz backs enhanced EU integration and upgraded European sovereignty, which tally with French President Emmanual Macron's views. But their immediate challenge is to counter Russian President Vladimir Putin's raised rhetoric on defence and security in eastern Europe, not to mention consider a response if Moscow escalates gas supplies to China at the expense of western Europe. Already, energy prices in the EU are going through the roof.

While Christian Lindner of the Free Democrats holds the finance portfolio, for the first time in German history, the foreign, interior and defence ministries are headed by women - in a bold statement of gender equality.

Nancy Faesar of SPD is interior minister. Christine Lembrecht, also of SPD, is defence minister. And Annalena Baerbock of the Green Party, who speaks fluent English, is the foreign minister.

There is expectation of broad continuity in Germany's foreign policy under the new 'traffic lights' (red of SPD, green of the Green Party and yellow of Free Democrats) administration.

Politico magazine wrote: "One of Baerbock's challenges will be to put a Green imprint on foreign policy, where her party has taken a tougher line (than the CDU-SPD government) on China and Russia."

She being a firm human rights advocate, her stance on recent attacks on Christians and Muslims in India is being keenly watched.

Macron faces his country's electorate in April in a re-election bid. Coincidentally, the last four months of his current term will coincide with France's presidency of the EU Council in the six-month rotating system for holding this post.

In effect, in the New Year, Macron will not merely be intensifying his campaign for a second term - which in French politics sometimes tends to get nationalistic - but also guide the destiny of the EU, which is a diplomatic role. It will be interesting to see how he walks the tight rope.

Xenophobic racism, immigration and Covid-19 are likely to dominate the French election campaign. Recent opinion polls signify that the Far Right could be slightly fading in voters' esteem, which might strengthen the right-of-centre Gaullists' candidate Valerie Pecresse. Le Monde reckoned Macron played 'the card of empathy' with the electorate in an interview on the widely watch TV channel TF1.

The EU got off to a slow start in terms of vaccinating its people against Covid-19. But it has ended the year comfortably placed under the leadership of the European Commission (administrative wing of the union) President Ursula von der Leyen. But in addition to tensions with Russia, her problems include tackling constitutional conflicts with member states like Poland and Hungary, differences with Turkey and carving out a new nuclear deal with Iran.

Source: IANS

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By P. Raghu Ram

The concept of visiting the 'Family doctor' before a patient sees a Specialist is the standard practice in the UK. In Britain, the General Practitioner (GP) is the principal treating doctor who is able to manage most minor issues sensibly based on evidence and refer patients to Specialist Centres only when needed.

The NHS model of providing universal primary health care through public-private partnership (PPP) may be appropriate for adaptation in the Indian context. The three primary elements of primary care that have a bearing on improving healthcare outcomes are:

Preventive care (such as vaccination, Screening, measuring blood pressure)

Care of chronic disease (Most of the chronic illness can be managed effectively outside hospital)

Diagnostic triage and control of hospital referral (effective primary care sorts the serious from the non-serious by speedy and accurate diagnosis, directs hospital referrals to the most appropriate speciality and ensures that expensive hospital resources are expended on those who will benefit most).

India has about 8,00,000 medical doctors of which about 6,00,000 are GPs. But more than three quarters of these are in urban centers which make up only about 20 per cent of India's population. Access to a doctor in urban India is about the same as it would be on average in the US. However, the ratio of GPs to patients outside these metro areas is about 1 GP for every 7,500 patients on average and as low as 1 for every 25,000 people in more remote areas.

General Practitioners must be "gatekeepers" of our healthcare system. They should be the first point of contact for patients for any sickness or preventive visit.

India must invest in training GPs in addition to popularising and sensitising young impressionable students who have joined MBBS Course about the Family Medicine concept. Furthermore, Primary Healthcare infrastructure in rural India (where more than 70 per cent of our population resides) must be strengthened so that more patients are served locally by GPs, thus obviating the arduous & time consuming task of travelling long distances for assessment / treatment.

Although India leads the world in digital technologies, that advantage is missing in its clinics, particularly in rural India. It is time we brought technological breakthroughs into primary care.

It is my heartfelt desire that the Government of India and powers that be initiate concrete and implementable measures to ensure that the 'Family Doctor' concept is revived. We, as a country, must switch from the doctrine of practising the more aggressive "Americanised Medicine" to "British Medicine", which is far more conservative and evidence-based. An important component of the Hippocratic oath is to "keep the good of the patient as the highest priority" and this landmark step would pave the path in this direction by ensuring well controlled uniform effective healthcare to the citizenry.

(The writer is an eminent breast cancer surgeon, Padma Shri awardee and Director, KIMS-Ushalakshmi Centre for Breast Diseases, Hyderabad)

Source: IANS

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Lucknow, Dec 30 (SocialNews.XYZ) Swelling crowds, enthused cadres, increasing ground support and a cleverly stitched up alliance may seem a perfect recipe for elections for the Samajwadi Party, but this picture perfect cannot hide the challenges that Akhilesh Yadav faces in the 2022 polls.

For the first time in his two-decade long political career, Akhilesh is leading a campaign single-handedly with almost no back-up mechanism in the party.

Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav is conspicuous by his absence from the campaign and his health issues may not permit him to address more than one or two meetings.

In 2012, when Akhilesh led his party to a comfortable majority, he was firmly backed by his father, while he travelled across the state.

Mulayam would carefully chart his programme, identify leaders who would accompany him and also decide on issues that had to be addressed in different regions.

This time, Akhilesh is the sole campaigner and star attraction of his party and this naturally adds to the challenge and the burden.

Since he took over as the party president in 2017, Akhilesh has not allowed second rung leadership in the party to develop and, today, he runs a one-man army with not even his cousins taking part in the political exercise.

The Samajwadi Party also lacks mature leaders who can deal with situations in the absence of Akhilesh.

Party veterans have either passed away -- like Beni Prasad Varma, Bhagwati Singh -- or are completely side-lined.

The BJP, on the other hand, has a galaxy of campaigners that simultaneously hold fort. On any given day -- as elections draw close -- there are, at least, six BJP leaders addressing meetings in the state.

Another challenge that Akhilesh faces is to rein in overzealous party workers. Buoyed up by the people's response in Akhilesh's rallies, the untamed cadres often go overboard leading to major embarrassments for the party.

For instance, a group of party workers in Kanpur were arrested on Wednesday for attempting to create ruckus during the Prime Minister's visit on Tuesday. As the BJP underlined the incident as an example of 'SP's goondaism', Akhilesh was compelled to expel the five party workers.

Akhilesh also faces the challenge of striking a perfect balance between his Muslim and Hindu supporters.

The BJP has forced him to abandon the policy of Muslim appeasement -- or at least, not be vocal about it -- and peddle soft Hindutva.

As Akhilesh cautiously moves ahead, trying to balance the two ideologies, his Muslim leaders tend to act as irritants.

For instance, the recent statements made by SP MPs Shafiqur -- Rehman Barq and S.T. Hasan, embarrassed the SP to such an extent that Akhilesh was forced to disassociate himself from his own MPs.

Meanwhile, as the time for ticket distribution draws near, Akhilesh will also face a situation when he will have to handle discontent within his own party.

Seats that are given away to multiple allies, will leave the SP workers on these seats simmering with anger. The party could face internal sabotage and it will be testing time for Akhilesh to deal with the situation because the SP leaders have been working for five years in their respective constituencies to contest elections.

Akhilesh has never dabbled in coalition politics and his new allies like Om Prakash Rajbhar, are known to drive a hard bargain in politics. How he keeps all his allies in good humour, remains to be seen.

Another problem that Akhilesh has is his inaccessibility. He mostly remains unavailable to party workers and also the media and no one in the party is authorised to take a call on his behalf.

Unlike Akhilesh, Mulayam Singh Yadav -- despite his advancing years, still picks up the phone on random basis and talks to senior journalists and party workers, especially old timers.

It is this that keeps still Mulayam clued into ground realities and also tuned in to emerging situations.

Source: IANS

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By Arul Louis

New York, Dec 30 (SocialNews.XYZ) The US and the presidency of Joe Biden lurched from crisis to crisis in 2021 and political and health uncertainties cloud the year ahead.

The nation faced a crisis of democracy; surges in the Covid-19 pandemic; a chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan dimming its global perception; a challenge from China to its status as the premier superpower; a crisis of illegal immigration at the border with Mexico; electoral reverses for Biden's Democratic Party; and a legislative logjam, but amid them, all ties with India continued to grow.

And next year, the outcomes of the mid-term elections on which the control of Congress hinges are an open question because of the history of the President's party losing and Democratic Party setbacks in state elections this year.

After this year dawned, the supporters of defeated President Donald Trump rioted, violently forcing their way into the citadel of US democracy, the Capitol, disrupting the formalisation of his election by Congress, leaving at least five people dead and a nation shaken.

The riot that followed a rally by a defiant Trump refusing to concede his defeat, which he continues adamantly, was seen as a threat to US democracy never seen probably since the mid-19th century Civil War and its polarisation haunted American politics.

The Democrats then tried unsuccessfully to impeach Trump a second time.

In a reaffirmation of democracy, two weeks later alongside Kamala Harris was sworn in as Vice President setting milestones as the first woman, the first Indian-American and the first person of African-American to hold the office.

Soon, the administration of Harris and Biden faced a surge in Covid-19 cases and scrambled to provide vaccinations to battle the pandemic.

Through the year, Covid-19 overshadowed all aspects of life in the US - as everywhere in the world - with another surge in August driven by the Delta variant and the Omicron variant posing a possible new threat as the year was setting.

In the first flush of governance, Biden managed to get through a splintered Congress his $1.9 trillion rescue package for a Covid-19-ravaged nation, and later a $1.2 trillion legislation for building up the nation's infrastructure but at the end of the year, the Congressional logjam blocked his more ambitious bill to expand social programmes.

The opposition came from members of Biden's own party that has slender majorities in Congress because of its price tag even after whittling down to the $2 billion range given the inflation rate of 6.8 per cent, the highest since 1982.

That was also a personal setback for Indian American Pramila Jayapal, who heads the leftist Congressional Progressive Caucus, who pushed for the bill and even made compromises in hopes of getting reluctant centrists of her Democratic Party to back it.

A Democratic plan to revamp "voting rights" - through measures that would make no sense elsewhere in the world like banning photo IDs for voters - was also in the limbo and Harris who was put in charge of it has not been able to get it through Congress.

Curbing the record-setting levels of illegal immigration, another task Harris had been entrusted with, also floundered with hundreds of thousands surging through the southern border with Mexico drawn by perceptions of the Democratic Party as lenient on border controls.

Grappling with these almost impossible tasks, Harris's popularity has dimmed with a recent Gallup poll showing a disapproval rate of 54 per cent, up from the 42 per cent range when she took office.

Her office is also in turmoil with several of her key staffers quitting while questions arise over her style of leadership and her political future.

Biden has said he plans to run for re-election in 2024, when he would be almost 82 years old -- if his health holds.

But questions persist over whether he would - and, if he didn't, would Harris inherit the mantle and go on to win the election?

The mid-term elections coming up next year cast a shadow on these ambitions.

In a warning about the possibility of a change in political direction, Republican Glenn Youngkin gained an upset victory in the governor's election in Virginia where Biden had won in the presidential elections a year ago.

And in New Jersey, another state considered a Democratic Party stronghold, Democratic Governor Phil Murphy eked out a narrow win.

On the Republican side, Trump is continuing to sow confusion by hinting at running for another term in 2024.

That uncertainty makes it harder for other Republicans to openly gear up to fight for the party nomination.

Among those who are actively - though behind the scenes - aiming for the Republican nomination is Nikki Haley, the first Indian American to be a member of the cabinet and a former governor of Southern Carolina state.

The chaotic pullout of US troops from Afghanistan ceding control to the Taliban after a 20-year war was a point of pivot at the global level.

The fall of Kabul to the Taliban, whom the US had defeated and chased out of the city, without any resistance from the Washington-backed military, was a shock and it led to harrowing scenes of tens of thousands of US employees and supporters trying to get out while an ill-prepared US scrambled to meet the challenge.

The scenes of disarray in Kabul and the quick Taliban takeover dented the US image and gave an edge to China and Russia in the region - and, of course, Pakistan.

Those events forced Biden to turn his attention to also this side of Asia after the Indo-Pacific had been the the focus of his foreign policy.

However, the interest in the Indo-Pacific where India has emerged as a key player has not flagged because of his recognition of China's challenge after he became president.

Biden convened the first summit of the Quad, the group of India, the US, Japan and Australia, as the four strengthened their cooperation moving steadily into a regional role of multilateral assistance while reaffirming their commitment to securing the region where China is aggressively asserting itself with conflicts from the Himalayas to the South China Sea.

In West Asia, a tentative step was taken for another Quad when India's External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Foreign Ministers Yair Lapid of Israel and Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed of the United Arab Emirates met in October with an agenda of regional cooperation.

Contrary to expectations by some in the US and in India that Biden would shun Modi over alleged human rights issues, there was cordiality and closeness dictated by the geopolitical challenges.

And this was despite the close relationship - verging on the electoral - that Modi had forged with Trump. Modi too executed a swift pivot to Biden.

During Modi's September visit, Harris tried for the benefit of some of her admirers in the US and India to deliver a coded sermon on democracy.

Modi in turn boycotted the session of Quad summit that she presided over.

Indian-Americans continued to make their mark in the US.

Biden and Harris have appointed over 20 Indian-Americans to key posts in the administration, including Vivek Murthy as Surgeon General, Vanita Gupta as Associate Attorney General and Gautam Raghavan as the head of the White House Office of Personnel.

Neera Tanden, who was nominated to the powerful post of the director of the Office of Management and Budget, had to drop out because she had offended key senators of both parties with coarse attacks.

In the corporate world, Parag Agarwal became the CEO of Twitter, the ubiquitous social media that has arguably become the main platform for political discourse.

Bioinformatics scientist Mihir Metkar was recognised as the primary contributor to the development of Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine.

Akilan Sankaran won the top prize in the nation's leading science competition for middle schoolers with a computer programme using "antiprime numbers" that can accelerate everyday processes.

Three of the four winners at the next level were also of Indian-origin, as were 15 of the 30 finalists from around the country.

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed @arulouis)

Source: IANS

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By Nivedita Khandekar

New Delhi, Dec 30 (SocialNews.XYZ) After focusing on housing, toilets, cooking gas, etc., in the first term, the Modi government in its second term decided to focus attention on ensuring that each rural household in the country gets piped drinking water at their doorstep: The Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) launched with a motto 'Har Ghar Jal' in August 2019 aims to provide potable tap water at every doorstep in the country by 2024.

Government data showed that in 2019, only 3.23 crore (i.e. just 17 per cent) out of 19.22 crore rural households had tap water connections. The Jal Shakti Ministry set out the ambitious target of providing functional household tap connection (FHTC) to the remaining 16 crore (83 per cent) households by 2024.

"Reduction in drudgery of women and girls, improvement in 'quality of life', enhancement of 'ease of living', and dignity of life to rural communities," were some of the lofty aims that Modi listed out that day and often repeated by Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.

The government claims that the Jal Jeevan Mission is being implemented in a decentralised manner following the 'bottom-up' approach, wherein the local village community, especially women, play a key role starting from planning to implementation and from management to operation & maintenance. 'Village Water & Sanitation Committee' / 'Pani Samiti' have been formed and women are also being trained to conduct water quality testing using Field Test Kits (FTKs).

"As on December 25, 8.70 crore (45.32 per cent) rural households from more than 1.29 lakh villages in 83 districts are receiving tap water supply. Goa, Telangana, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Puducherry and Haryana have become 'Har Ghar Jal' states/ UTs, i.e., 100 per cent rural households to have taps," them Ministry data showed.

Problems on the ground

However, not all is hunky-dory; issues galore at implementation level. The truly remote areas that are otherwise also outside the radar of administration are still waiting. In some, the focus is on raising infrastructure for the scheme without much thought to the location/site.

Case in point Anuppur, the tribal dominated Shahdol and Umariya districts in eastern Madhya Pradesh. Around here, the JJM has reached only to those areas that are easily accessible by motorable roads.

Santosh Shukla from Shahdol's Satguru Mission, an NGO working in the field of rural development, gives the example of a tribal hamlet atop a hill, Dongariya Tola, about a 100 kms from the district headquarters, Anuppur, is where people climb up and down the hills to fetch drinking water even today. "Where the officials can go or take people to showcase, the taps have reached only those areas. The real needy people are still waiting," he said.

Many other places, its implementation is like any other government scheme. At several places taps don't yield water; at some places only the pipeline has been laid but no taps are there, and at some other places the taps are there, the pipelines are there but the tank from which these will get water has no connection to the source, Shukla said.

Madhya Pradesh has chosen 2023 to achieve the 100 per cent target. As on date, according to the JJM dashboard, of the 1,22,27,914 households in Madhya Pradesh, as many as 45,10,061 (36 per cent) have tap water connections.

Similar is the problem in remote tribal areas of Arunachal Pradesh, which too has almost 2/3rd of mountainous area. Longding and surrounding areas in eastern Arunachal Pradesh are hilly habitations that are parched for six months of a year. Lines of plastic drums dot the sides of the lanes with people complaining that there is no fixed time for the tankers.

Said a government official from the area, on conditions of anonymity, "The springs that supply water in the mountain areas are all drying up fast. The villages along the rivers and rivulets still have some or the other hope, but places such as Longding, do not even fall in that category. Many residents take their clothes once a week to a riverbank that is about six kms away by road. Hygiene is a big issue."

Same model for water scarce and water excess areas?

Hygienic conditions due to lack of water are a matter of concern and so are due to excessive waters, i.e., floods. In places such as flood prone Bihar, especially north Bihar, where in most years it floods at least twice for long durations during monsoon, just focusing on getting the infrastructure would not help.

The Bihar state government had already been running the 'Har Ghar Nal Ka Jal' scheme in 2016. The Modi government's JJM is largely based on that, of course, with certain tweaks / customisation, with a tagline 'Har Ghar Jal'.

Eklavya Prasad of Megh Pyne Abhiyan, an NGO working in the water sector in that state, draws a parallel to the great learnings from the toilet building exercise carried out under the Swachcha Bharat Abhiyan in Bihar. "During the flood times, these toilets were either washed away completely or remained inaccessible due to flooding. The toilet construction should have been done keeping in mind the recurring disasters and also the fact that the facility should not just survive (the disaster) but also provide service in disaster time," Prasad said.

This learning could have been helpful for the entire eastern belt, starting from eastern Uttar Pradesh, north Bihar, north Bengal, central Bengal, south Bengal and almost the entire Assam.

"I have not seen any system that is disaster resilient," he said, adding, "They talk of people's behavioural change, equally important is for the government to change its behaviour and look at things differently.

It is not that the government has not given a thought to these things. The main theme is, "assured tap water supply to every home in every village for the next 30-40 years." There is an emphasis on the quality of water. Places that have arsenic or fluroide or some such contaminant, those are duly provided RO-based filters with specifications supposed to be displayed. The JJM also talks of hundreds of partnerships that have made it a 'Jan Andolan', including 8.50 lakh trained women for water quality testing and 3.35 lakh village action plans prepared by villagers; committees.

Major concern for Himalayan states

Among the Himalayan states and UTs, Ladakh is amongst the states to catch up fast with the Mission objectives. The UT witnesses minus 30 temperature at night in peak winters and for almost all other normal times, the day time temperature runs somewhere between zero to minus five. The public taps are never shut in this cold desert as running water does not freeze. The tanks atop the houses or hotels are wrapped to keep the cold away. And overall water availability and usage has restrictions because of the freezing cold temperatures.

Now with thermal coated pipes, the taps reaching one home at a time, several villages are becoming 'Har Ghar Jal' villages.

While Ladakh, as yet, does not have a problem of water sources going dry, other Himalayan states such as Uttarakhand or Himachal Pradesh are already facing lots of problems owing to the overall water availability near the habitations.

Bringing in the mountain perspective -- water scarcity hotspots, changing developmental paradigm and erratic rainfall pattern -- that matter most, Vishal Singh of NGO Centre for Ecological Development and Research (CEDAR) from Uttarakhand, asserted this scheme will be successful in the mountains, only when the sources are secure.

"There is a need to focus more on source sustainability. Nature based solutions --retain, recharge, release -- are necessary rather than engineering solutions," he said.

He, however, offered a point to ponder: "There is no incentive for saving water. The whole talk is about bringing water to the doorstep of the people, which is understandable. But long term sustainability needs to be regenerative and the government has offered no incentive whatsoever for people who save water and thus lessen the demand pressure."

(Nivedita Khandekar can be reached at nivedita.k@ians.in)

Source: IANS

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By Arun Lakshman

Puducherry, Dec 30 (SocialNews.XYZ) The union territory (UT) of Puducherry, which elected a National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government for the first time in its history is now expecting good development projects to move ahead with the Center's support.

Puducherry Chief Minister N. Rangasamy, who has the experience of having ruled the UT earlier also, is a tough bargainer and the central BJP leadership was not able to place one of its leaders as the Deputy Chief Minister of the UT even though it had put in immense pressure for the same.

However, sources in the BJP at Puducherry told IANS that the central leadership, for the time being, dose not want to upset Rangasamy and his All India NR Congress (AINRC) that is leading the coalition with the BJP and will continue with this combination.

The Central government has already sanctioned more than Rs 360 crore worth projects for the UT in health, education and infrastructure and the Chief Minister had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union Home Minister Amit Shah to consider the proposals put forward by the UT government.

The Union government has already announced 105 projects in Puducherry at a cost of Rs 822 crore.

N. Rangasamy while speaking to media in Puducherry said that the Prime Minister has assured of all help to the UT.

Recently a delegation of the Puducherry government led by Public Works Department Minister, K. Lakshminarayanan met Bruno Bosle, India country Head of Agence Francaise De Development (AFD), the French agency for garnering support to a comprehensive drinking water project of Rs 523 crore and the French agency has agreed to support the project for another two-year time.

Lakshminarayanan while speaking to IANS said, "The present comprehensive drinking water project supported by the AFD is set to expire in June 2022 and after our meeting, they have agreed to extend it till June 2024 and that's a major achievement."

The Minister said that it was a soft loan at the rate of 1.5 per cent interest to be repaid in 15-years' time.

The high totally dissolved salts (TDS) in the borewells of the UT are making them unfit for drinking and new borewells have to be dug in the rural areas while closing down the borewells with high TDS levels, he added.

The government is in the process of establishing a project implementation agency at the earliest for overseeing the work and according to current estimates, 50 fresh borewells would be dug in river beds in the rural areas of the UT.

K. Lakshminarayanan said, "Moreover we will be also installing more RO plants to increase the water supply and desalination plants have also been proposed under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) 2.0 programme. All this would lead to the drinking water issues in the territory being addressed positively with drinking water available to the whole of the population."

The Puducherry Chief Minister has urged the Central government to provide Rs 150 crore for setting up a new 500-bed hospital for infectious or epidemic diseases in the Union Territory.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has already assured N. Rangasamy that the amount would be sanctioned soon and the state is expecting the clearance in the 2022 Union budget.

The state government has also applied for Rs 225 crore support for developing the present airport to cater to larger aircraft. The state has also pitched in for a water aerodrome to promote seaplane operations in the UT.

Another landmark project that would be coming up in the UT would be the film city project and theme park on a 100-acre site at Manapat beach. The project is conceived and to be implemented in a PPP model.

The Power Finance Corporation Company Ltd (PFCCL) had furnished a proposal under the smart metering project to implement the project on total expenditure model at an estimated cost of Rs 282 crore to all the existing consumer base of 4.04 lakh customers.

This proposal of the PFCCL was presented to the Puducherry government which has resent it to the Union government for approval and funding support. The Chief Minister said that the project will ensure 100 per cent collection efficiency and reduce the aggregate technical and commercial losses.

The UT is also actively campaigning with the Central government for a minor port under the Sagaramala scheme. The territory is also expecting an increase of 10 per cent of the central funding every year after the NDA government has come to power.

Source: IANS

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By Santosh Kumar Pathak

New Delhi, Dec 29 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Department of Posts under the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology is working expeditiously on a plan to open 4,903 new branches of post offices in 90 Left Wing Extremism affected districts in the country.

In a statement, the Department of Posts said that in the first phase, so far 1,789 branches have been opened and the remaining 3,114 new post office branches will also be started by the end of March, 2022.

The government has already sanctioned posts of Gramin Dak Sevak, Postmaster and Assistant Postmaster for these 3,114 new post offices to be opened in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh. The concerned circles have been directed to make these post offices operational by the end of March, 2022.

Listing the achievements during the year 2021, the postal department said that the Postman mobile app has already been launched for 1.43 lakh post offices including 98,454 in rural areas. A record number of 47.5 crore real time delivery status queries of speed post were recorded from January to October, 2021 through this app.

Along with this, the postal department also installed GPS system in about 1,263 working mail motor service vehicles across the country.

Exhorting people to connect through social media, the department said that India Post is one of the first departments of the government to start its own social media accounts. So far, the department has more than 308,400 followers on Facebook, 323,800 on Twitter, 9800 on Instagram and 204900 on Ku. Videos related to the Department of Posts and its various schemes are being uploaded continuously on YouTube as well.

The department is also working expeditiously to redress the grievances of the people through social media. The social media cell of the department now works for 16 hours instead of 8 and according to government data, in the year 2021 from January 1 to November 15, a total of 2,39,133 complaints were registered through social media, out of which 2,37,187 were redressed. The redressal was done within the stipulated time period and the complaint resolution percentage was 99.2.

Detailing other achievements of 2021, the Department of Posts said that it has signed multilateral agreements with 120 countries for faster customs clearance. A total of 1.67 crore new accounts were opened and transactions of around Rs 8.19 lakh crore took place in Core Banking Service of Post Offices. A total of 2.26 crore Sukanya Samriddhi accounts were opened by the Department since the inception of the scheme till October, 2021, while 86 per cent of the total Sukanya Samriddhi accounts in the country have been opened through post offices only. From January 2021 to October 2021, a total of 13,352 Post Office Aadhaar Centres processed more than 1.49 crore applications for Aadhaar enrolment or update.

Giving the department's revenue figures, it said that 'Speed Post' earned Rs 1,413.34 crore during the period from January 2021 to October 2021. Under an agreement with LIC, the Department of Posts earns more than Rs 100 crore per annum for the work of printing more than 2 crore policy bonds, sending it by speed post and delivering it to the right place.

Under the agreement with the Election Commission for delivery of Voter I-Cards through Speed Post across the country, in the first phase, the Election Commission will give 6-7 crore Voter ID cards for delivery through Speed Post to the Department of Posts which will earn an income of about Rs 100 crore in a year.

Source: IANS

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By Rohit Vaid

Mumbai, Dec 29 (SocialNews.XYZ) With uncertainties facing Indias equity markets next year, top analysts have termed sectors such as FMCG, pharma and IT services, along with real estate, power, infra, and telecom as 'safe and satisfying investment options in 2022.

Factors such as growth potential, price as well as evolving economic recovery have made these sectors more attractive than others.

"Given the uncertainties, one can focus more on defensives (FMCG, pharma, IT services) till there is more clarity on economic growth and inflation across the globe. This is despite the fact that defensives may not be cheap," said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities.

"In case the markets continue to underperform, these sectors may provide downside protection as they may fall less than the market or other sectors," he said.

According to Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, strong outlook sectors like pharma have undergone decent consolidation.

"Similarly, FMCG and telecom look good. Long-term outlook of IT is robust and has undergone a phase of time correction. New growth and theme sectors like renewables, electronics, textiles, and chemicals look good on a long-term basis, which are settling from high valuations," Nair said

Besides, other sectors such as real estate, power, infra, capital goods and banking will be eyed keenly by the investors.

"If I talk about the real estate sector, there is a turnaround story after 10 years of underperformance where the last five years were very painful due to demonetisation, NBFC crisis, RERA etc., but things are looking very bright now thanks to low-interest rates, stamp duty cuts, supportive government policies and consolidation in the industry due to RERA," said Sunil Nyati, Managing Director at Swastika Investmart.

"Similarly, power, infra and capital goods are coming out of 14 years of 'Vanvas', and the market has started celebration for this, which is likely to continue for the next couple of years because there is valuation comfort as well as strong growth outlook," Nyati added.

On the other hand, financials, auto, metals and aviation stocks might lose favour in the coming year.

"Markets around the world are already trading at all-time high, and most of the economies are trying to reach the pre-Covid levels. So, one can avoid auto sectors, as all over the world, the auto industry is struggling with chip shortage and supply may not meet the demand till the second half of 2022 or first half of 2023," said Gaurav Garg, Head of Research, CapitalVia Global Research.

"Second is the aviation sector, which is still struggling to make a comeback, especially with many countries still imposing bans on other countries, which may be witnessed until there is a clarity on the new mutation," Garg added.

Jasani pointed out that over-owned sectors like financials, auto, metals, among others, may keep underperforming for some time even as investors re-weight their portfolios in favour of emerging or safer stocks.

(Rohit Vaid can be contacted at rohit.v@ians.in)

Source: IANS

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By Md Waquar Haider

New Delhi, Dec 29 (SocialNews.XYZ) Smartphones have evolved substantially in the last decade to meet the changing demands and expectations of the consumers. With the current momentum, foldable smartphones are set to witness a massive 638 per cent jump in sales in India in 2021, and are expected to touch a record 3 lakh units sales in 2022.

The foldable smartphone revenues are expected to grow by 60 per cent next year, translating to Rs 3,200 crore for the industry that will include Samsung and a few more original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) which are expected to launch their foldable smartphones in 2022, according to data provided by market research firm Techarc.

"In the luxe category (above Rs 50,000), the intent of purchase is not just utility but it's also about statement. Foldable smartphones make the right balance of utility and style in the luxe segment and definitely increase the return on investment for the segment," Faisal Kawoosa, founder and chief analyst, Techarc, told IANS.

Samsung is the only OEM offering commercially available foldable smartphones for the past three years. It launched the third generation Samsung Galaxy Z Fold as well as Samsung Galaxy Z Flip in 2021. Both have seen good response from the market, though the foldable form factor sells more than the flip form factor.

Now, smartphone manufacturer OPPO has unveiled its first foldable phone, 'Find N'.

According to Tasleem Arif, Vice President and Head of R&D at OPPO India, smartphone technology has entered an era of limitless innovation with folding phones.

"Previously, the focus of smartphone evolution was on the display panel; however, in an age where everyone has a phone with the same features, manufacturers are finding a way to break through the bottleneck of smartphone displays," said Arif.

India's ever-growing community of tech enthusiasts is also actively experiencing and talking about new form factors like rollable and foldable, he added.

In 2022, one can see the launch of at least a few innovative foldable phones. Apart from Samsung, Huawei and OPPO, Apple is also reportedly working on a foldable iPhone.

"Recent industry reports indicate that foldable smartphone shipments will grow 10 times by 2023. Dual-purpose smartphones are expected to expand their customer base in India, especially among the millennials," said Anku Jain, Managing Director, MediaTek India.

Consumers in the premium smartphone segment look at their smartphones as lifestyle statements.

"They seek to be seen with the latest and best tech, including foldables. This shift in consumer mindset is primarily driven by the mainstreaming of foldable form factors, mainly in terms of device durability, water resistance and more affordable pricing," said Prabhu Ram, Head-Industry Intelligence Group, CMR.

"In 2022 and beyond, with new market players entering the fray with their foldable phones, we believe the premium smartphone segment in India will witness a boom," Ram told IANS.

OEMs are now trying to create something new to intrigue the customers constantly.

"With this, many key smartphone players are also planning to launch foldable phones backed by the latest technologies in the near future. Smartphones are a part of the high-end competition, and the future of foldable smartphones looks great, not just in India but globally," said Sanjay Gupta, VP, Managing Director, NXP Semiconductors.

(Md Waquar Haider can be reached at waquar.h@ians.in)

Source: IANS

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