Air India Suspends Flights To And From Dubai Till April 21

A delegation led by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar, Rajya Sabha MP Sudhanshu Trivedi and senior party leader Om Pathak met the Election Commission and submitted a memorandum in this regard.

"Sujata Pandian, IAS, Commissioner cum Secretary, Mission Shakti, who is the wife of VK Pandian, also known as V Karthikeyan Pandian, is not only affiliated politically to the BJD, but also indulging in grave misconduct through misuse of authority, government machinery, and man power for influencing voters through 'SVEEP' for electoral gains of the BJD," the BJP leaders wrote in memorandum.  

The BJP leaders alleged that VK Pandian, who also served as the Private Secretary to CM Patnaik for over a decade, wields considerable influence within the state’s administration.

“In November 2023, after taking voluntary retirement from IAS, Pandian joined the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) party. He was subsequently appointed as the chairman of the state’s flagship programme- 5T transformational initiatives with the rank of a Cabinet Minister...His proximity to the Chief Minister as well as the BJD cannot be overemphasized,” the memorandum reads.

"With a view to preserve the unbiased and unblemished reputation of ECI, it would be the fitness of things to relieve Sujata R. Karthikeyan, IAS, from the post of Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Department of Mission Shakti, Government of Odisha and not assigned any public dealing duty till the conclusion of the impending Parliamentary and Assembly Elections in the State of Odisha" it says.

SVEEP is the flagship programme of the Election Commission of India for voter education, spreading voter awareness and promoting voter literacy in the country.

Assembly and Lok Sabha elections will be held simultaneously in Odisha in four phases, starting from Phase one on May 13, Phase two on May 20, Phase three on May 25 and the final Phase on June 1.

The results will be announced on June 4.

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During April 2024, Coal India Limited (CIL) achieved a coal production of 61.78 million tonnes (MT) marking a growth of 7.31 per cent compared to the same period last year when it was 57.57 MT.

Additionally, coal production by captive/others in April 2024 stood at 11.43 MT, reflecting a growth of 12.99 per cent compared to the previous year's production of 10.12 MT.

India's coal dispatches for April 2024 reached 85.10 MT, up 6.07 per cent compared to the same period last year when it was recorded at 80.23 MT.

During April 2024, CIL dispatched 64.26 MT of coal, with a growth of 3.18 per cent compared to the corresponding period of the previous year when it was 62.28 MT.

Additionally, coal dispatch by captive/others in April was recorded at 15.16 MT (Provisional), reflecting a growth of 26.9 per cent from the previous year, which was 11.95 MT. (IANS) 

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The Hyderabad-based company issued a statement amid questions being raised in some quarters over the safety of Covid vaccines after global pharmaceutical manufacturer AstraZeneca admitted that its Covid vaccine Covishield, developed by researchers from Oxford University, can cause a rare side effect of blood clotting and low platelet count after immunisation.

As many as 175 crore doses of Covishield, developed by AstraZeneca and manufactured by Pune-based Serum Institute, were reportedly administered in India.

Bharat Biotech mentioned that Covaxin was the only Covid-19 vaccine in the Indian government’s Covid-19 immunisation programme to have conducted efficacy trials in India.

"Covaxin was evaluated in more than 27,000 subjects as part of its licensure process. It was licensed under restricted use in clinical trial mode, where detailed safety reporting was carried out for several hundred thousand subjects," the vaccine manufacturer said.

The safety of Covaxin was also evaluated by the Ministry of Health.

"Ongoing safety monitoring (pharmacovigilance) was continued throughout the product life cycle of Covaxin. All the above studies and safety follow-up activities have demonstrated an excellent safety record for Covaxin without any vaccine-associated incidents of blood clots, Thrombocytopenia, TTS, VITT, pericarditis, myocarditis, etc.," it said.

"As seasoned innovators and product developers, the Bharat Biotech team was well aware that, while the efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines may be short-lived, the impact on patient safety could last a lifetime. Hence safety is the primary focus for all our vaccines," it added. (IANS) 

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