Covid death toll crosses 8K in Odisha

by Argus News

Bhubaneswar, Sep 1: With 53 more persons dying of Covid-19, the total deaths due to the coronavirus has crossed 8,000 mark in Odisha, the health department said on Wednesday. Now, the Covid death toll in the state stands at 8,022.

As per the data shared by the state health department, the highest deaths of 19 persons were confirmed from Khordha district, followed by six each from Keonjhar and Jagatsinghpur and five each from Puri and Cuttack districts.

Similarly, the government has said that another four persons died due to Covid-19 in Jajpur, two in Kendrapara and one each from Nayagarh, Nabarangpur, Mayurbhanj, Jharsuguda, Bolangir and Angul districts.

"This list does not reflect deaths occurring on a particular day. It gives details of past deaths for which the death audit process has been duly completed and the cause of death has been identified as due to Covid-19," the department said in a tweet.

The State has also reported fresh 719 Covid cases, of which 125 are below 18 years of age. Now, the total Covid-19 positive cases in Odisha surged to 10,08,469. As 9,93,235 persons have recovered from the disease, the positive cases stood at 7,159.

Meanwhile, the new guidelines issued by the state government have come to effect from Wednesday morning 6 a.m. Now the shops and commercial establishments can remain open till 10 p.m. and there will be no weekend shutdown in any part of the State.
(IANS)

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4th T20i: Rinku, Jitesh, Jaiswal Help India To 174/9 Against Australia

by Pabitra Mohan Senapaty

Raipur, Dec 1: A late charge by Rinku Singh, who blasted a 29-ball 46, and Jitesh Sharma, who hammered a 19-ball 35, helped India recover from a mid-innings collapse and scamper to 174/9 in 20 overs against Australia in the fourth T20I of the five-match series here on Friday.

Rinku and Jitesh raised 56 runs for the fifth wicket before India lost a few wickets towards the end of the innings and managed only 174.

After Australia skipper Matthew Wade won the toss and inserted India in to bat first, the hosts raised 50 runs in the sixth over with openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad going great guns at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium here.

In a stadium that was reportedly facing power problems because of allegedly unpair electricity bills, Jaiswal struck six fours and a six in his 28-ball 37 before pacer Aaron Hardie extracted extra bounce with a cross-seam short delivery outside off to have the Indian batter pulling to Ben McDermott, running in from mid-on.

India lost two quick wickets as Shreyas Iyer (8) and Suryakumar Yadav (1) departed, falling victim to Tanveer Sangha and Ben Dwarshuis respectively.

Ruturaj Gaikwad, who struck 32 off 28 balls hitting three fours and a six, was caught by Dwarshuis off Sangha as he attempted to go big over extra cover but edged it to short third man.

India were reduced to 111/4 in the 14th over before Rinku and Jitesh Sharma came together to raise a quick-fire half-century that propped up the Indian innings. Rinku slammed four boundaries and two maximums while Jitesh struck one four and three sixes as they propelled India to 167 before the wicketkeeper batter was out, caught by Travis Head off Dwarshuis.

Trying to raise as many runs as possible, India lost five wickets in the last two overs starting from the fourth ball of the 19th over. Jitesh Sharma (18.4), Axar Patel (18.5) and Rinku Singh (19.1) got out over three consecutive balls spread across two overs while Deepak Chahar (19.3) and Ravi Bishnoi (19.6) also fell in the final over.

For Australia, Ben Dwarshuis claimed 3-40 while Jason Behrendorff (2-32) and Tanveer Sangha (2-30) claimed a couple of wickets apiece.

India will now have to come up with a superb effort with the ball to prevent Australia from levelling the series 2-2 going into the fifth and final T20I at Bengaluru.

Brief scores:

India 174/9 in 20 overs (Rinku Singh 45, Yashasvi Jaiswal (37), Jitesh Sharma 35, Ruturaj Gaikwad 32; Ben Dwarshuis 3-40, Jason Behrendorff 2-32, Tanveer Sangha 2-30) against Australia.

(IANS)

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Musk's X Sees Wave Of Resignations From Sales Team After Giving Bonus: Report

by Pabitra Mohan Senapaty

San Francisco, Dec 1: Elon Musk-run X Corp has witnessed a wave of resignations from the sales team over the past month, media reports said.

According to a report by Claire Atkinson, the sales staff started exiting the company shortly after X gave out bonus checks in November.

The microblogging platform has experienced a wave of resignations from both senior and junior employees, making this a chaotic month for the site and its owner.

According to the report, X is running its headquarters with a skeleton crew and its advertising business is losing money.

Meanwhile, Musk stunned the world when he told advertisers to "go f*** yourself" late on Wednesday after some top companies pulled advertising on his platform over his endorsement of anti-Semitism.

At The New York Times' DealBook Summit, when Andrew Ross Sorkin asked the X owner about pauses in advertising, Musk replied: "Don't advertise."

"You don't want them to advertise?" Sorkin asked him. "If somebody's going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money? Go f*** yourself," Musk said.

Musk's remarks came after he promoted an anti-Semitic post on X last month and faced a storm of criticism. However, he apologised for what he called his "dumbest" ever social media post on Semitism.

Companies that have paused or pulled advertising on X in the last few weeks include Apple, Comcast/NBCUniversal, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, IBM, Paramount Global, Lionsgate and the European Commission.

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Suvendu Adhikari Files RTI Seeking Details Of Recruitment In State Health Services Since 2011

by Pabitra Mohan Senapaty

Kolkata, Dec 1: The leader of opposition in West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, said on Friday that he has filed an application under Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking details of all recruitment made in the state health services since 2011, the year Trinamool Congress came to power by ending Left Front's 34-year rule.

Adhikari said he suspects massive irregularities in the recruitment in state health services, just like the alleged school jobs and municipal recruitment scams, which are being probed by central agencies.

“I have been informed by my reliable sources from within the West Bengal Health Recruitment Board that there have been serious irregularities in the recruitment process since 2011. Transfers are effected according to the whims and fancies of a few influential individuals. In order to get to the bottom of this, I have filed an application under the RTI Act,” Adhikari said.

In the application to the state public information officer of the Health & Family Welfare Department, a copy of which is available with IANS, Adhikari has sought to know the number of people recruited by the department since 2011.

He has also sought the numbers and names in a yearly order along with the categories of positions and designations for which the recruitment were made.

“Kindly provide the name of the hospitals or any other place of work (if applicable) along with the location details where they were initially posted,” the application read.