Asserting that the world stands at a transformative moment, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar has said that a dispassionate scrutiny and reform of all multilateral entities were needed to make them purpose-built for the current times and representative of this century.
 
Addressing a virtual ministerial meeting of Alliance for Multilateralism yesterday, Dr Jaishankar said, it is an empirical fact that every process and institution must evolve to meet the needs of its time. He said, no institution, howsoever important, can remain frozen at the moment of its foundation.
 
The Minister said, this is why India continue to call for reformed multilateralism – one that is relevant for the age in which we live, not when this architecture was erected. He said, our Alliance must stand for a dynamic multilateralism, for a purposeful reform of existing structures, which must continue to serve the international community even more in this complex and uncertain time.
 
Dr Jaishankar said, the world is facing a two-pronged attack of a pandemic and misinformation going viral. He said, in other words, this is an era of both a health crisis and an infodemic.
 
The Minister said, the pandemic has devastated the globalised economic system, apart from taking a toll of over 4 lakh lives and it has fundamentally affected the way people live, work, travel and indeed, relate to each other. He said, suspicion of human interaction is fuelled, more often than not, by fake news, wrong information and targetted disinformation.
 
Dr Jaishankar asserted that the way forward to address both the challenges is similar and said that there is a need to strengthen the belief in scientific approaches. He said, we must set aside politics and focus on facts-whether it is the effort to dispassionately analyse the causes and drivers of the current coronavirus pandemic, or to assess what changes our multilateral health mechanisms need to implement to improve preparations for a future pandemic.
 
Dr Jaishankar said, the Resolution adopted at the World Health Assembly last month is an opportunity to use facts and science to assess our response to this pandemic and take those lessons to prepare better for the future. The Minister said, as Chair of the WHO Executive Board, India is ready to work towards these goals.
 
He said, there is a need to restore the faith in meaningful and equal partnerships. Dr Jaishankar said, trust, partnership and cooperation draw people, societies and countries together especially during crises, particularly when fake news and disease engender isolationism and unilateralism. He said, in this context, India is pleased to be part of cross-regional group presenting a Statement on the ongoing ‘Infodemic’ in the context of COVID-19 at the UN.
 
The “Alliance for Multilateralism” launched by the French and German foreign ministers is an informal network of countries united in their conviction that a rules-based multilateral order is the only reliable guarantee for international stability and peace.

India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said that Southwest Monsoon has covered the entire country. The normal date for Monsoon to cover entire country is 8th July. IMD said, the Monsoon this year covered the entire country 12 days prior to normal date.
 
In the recent past, such early coverage of Monsoon over the entire country occurred in 2013 when it covered the entire country on 16th June 2013. The early advance over the central and northwest India was facilitated by formation of a low pressure area over Bay of Bengal which moved west-northwestwards and another cyclonic circulation over central India.
 
IMD said, Monsoon has further advanced into remaining parts of Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab. During past 24 hours, there has been fairly widespread rainfall activity over West Rajasthan and adjoining Punjab and Haryana.
 

The serological survey in Delhi will begin today and it will be carried out jointly by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and Delhi Government. Training of all the concerned survey teams was completed on Thursday.
 
AIR correspondent reports that this survey will be conducted in all the districts of Delhi to understand the proportion of population exposed to corona infection.
 
Two age categorizations have been set to conduct the survey, one is for below 18 years of age group and another for above 18 years.
 
Depending upon the level of sero-prevalence of infection, appropriate public health interventions can be planned and implemented for prevention and control of the disease.
 
As per the Indian Council of Medical Research, periodic sero-surveys are useful to guide the policy makers to conduct surveys in high risk areas or vulnerable population who have been infected in the past and has now recovered.
 
The survey will involve collection of blood samples from randomly selected individuals. Blood samples will be collected for detecting IgG antibodies and it would be conducted using an IgG ELISA kit

Government has said that the recovered cases of COVID-19 has exceeded the active cases by more than 96 thousand. Health Ministry said, the graded, pre-emptive and pro-active steps taken by the Centre along with the States and Union territories for prevention, containment and management of COVID-19 are showing encouraging results.
 
During the last 24 hours, a total of 13 thousand 940 COVID-19 patients have been cured, taking the cumulative figure to two lakh 85 thousand 636.
 
The Ministry said, the recovery rate of COVID-19 patients has reached 58.24 per cent. Presently, there are over one lakh 89 thousand active cases and all are under active medical supervision.
 
The Ministry said, ICMR has inducted 11 new labs in the last 24 hours. India now has one thousand 16 diagnostic labs dedicated to COVID-19. This includes 737 in the government sector and 279 private labs.
 
The numbers of samples tested every day continues to steadily grow. During the past 24 hours, over two lakh 15 thousand tests have been conducted in the labs. The total number of samples tested is over 77 lakh.

India has warned China that trying to alter the status quo on the ground by resorting to force will damage the peace that existed on the border areas. In an interview to a news agency, India’s ambassador to China Vikram Misri said that Chinese attempt to alter status quo can also have “ripples and repercussions” in the broader bilateral relationship. He said that actions taken by the Chinese forces on the ground have damaged “considerable trust” in the bilateral relationship and demanded that Beijing stop its activities in eastern Ladakh.
 
Mr Misri said, it is entirely the responsibility of the Chinese side to take a careful view of the relations and to decide which direction the ties should move. He said, maintenance of peace and tranquillity on the border is essential for progress in the rest of bilateral relationship between India and China.
 
Indian envoy said Chinese side needs to stop creating obstruction and hindrances in the normal patrolling patterns of the Indian troops. He also rubbished China’s claim of sovereignty over Galwan Valley in Ladakh as “completely untenable”, and asserted that these kinds of exaggerated claims are not going to help the situation.
 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that Aatma Nirbhar Uttar Pradesh Rojgar Abhiyan will providing employment opportunities to migrant workers and promote local entrepreneurship. Mr Modi yesterday inaugurated Aatma Nirbhar Uttar Pradesh Rojgar Abhiyan through video conferencing.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Modi said that UP will benefit immensely from clusters of industries being created to promote such local products across the country under the AatmaNirbhar Rojgar Abhiyan.

Prime Minister said that everyone will be able to surpass the difficulties owing to the COVID-19 Pandemic. He stressed that until a vaccine is found, maintaining Do Gaj ki Doori, covering the face with the mask are the best precautions.

PM expressed satisfaction in the manner in which Uttar Pradesh has turned the disaster into an opportunity, the way people were engaged during this pandemic. He said that other states will also get to learn a lot from ‘AatmaNirbhar Uttar Pradesh Rojgar Abhiyan’ and will be inspired by it.

The PM lauded the courage and wisdom shown by Uttar Pradesh, when Corona is in such a major crisis in the world. He said that the way the state succeeded and the way it handled the situation is unprecedented and is praiseworthy.

Mr Modi praised the contribution of doctors, parameds, sanitation staff, police, ASHAs, Anganwadi workers, banks and post offices, transport services and workers in UP.

The Prime Minister lauded the Government of UP making efforts to bring back the migrant labour belonging to the state, by facilitating hundreds of Shramik Express Trains.

He said that more than 30 lakh migrant labor from all over the country returned to their villages in UP in the last few weeks.

The Prime Minister said that the Chief Minister of UP understood the seriousness of the situation and his government worked on a war footing in view of this situation.

The Prime Minister praised the UP government for their unprecedented work in ensuring that the poor don’t go hungry. He said the UP Government acted very promptly in providing free rations to the poor and the migrant labor under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana.

This was provided for those even without ration cards. He said that in addition to this, about 5 thousand crore rupees were also directly transferred to the Jan Dhan account of 75 Lakh poor women of Uttar Pradesh.

In India, the cases of COVID 19 crosses 5 million till now. This is not a good news for all of us. In Maharashtra only 5,000 cases are reported yesterday. It means that this virus is now spreading very vigrousoly. It ‘s a bad sign for our country. We really need to stop it , otherwise this virus can be cmed into fourth phase, which will really destructive for us.

The state and central both government are trying hard to stop the spreading of this virus. But it’s really not working. The whole Unlocking Phase creates this hazardous condition for all of us. But there is not any choice for government other than this. Everyone is now living in a very dangerous environment. And any silly mistake is now dangerous for all of us.

There is no need need to be panic right now and the need is to wear mask outside the home and maintain the social distance. And the most important wash or sanitize your hands at 2 hour interval regularly. And try to be in discipline . A single mistake can make you a patient of this pandemic virus. And we should pray for making the vaccine of this virus as soon as possible….

In a country like India where already 1 in 5 Indians suffer from depression, this coronavirus pandemic is pushing our country into a mental health crisis.

According to WHO estimates, around 8,00,000 people commit suicide every year in the world. India alone accounts for approximately 30 percent of the world’s deaths resulting from suicide. In 2013, suicide claimed the lives of more than a quarter of a million Indians. That’s five times greater than all global deaths due to war and natural disasters combined.

According to the reports published by World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2018, India is the most depressed country in the world followed by China and USA with highest suicide rate in the South East Asia and by the end of 2020 about 20% of Indian population will suffer from mental illness.

In a large population of approximately 130 crore about 6.5% of Indians suffer from mental illness and because of the stigma attached to it only 10 – 20% of the people with mental illness seek help in India and the rest are forced to suffer in silence.

In a country where mental health budget is 0.05% of total health budget, 21 people die of every 1,00,000 people and 2,83,500 deaths due to suicide take place every year. We have highest number of teenage suicide rates globally. According to data compiled by NCRB every hour one student commit suicide in India, with about 28 such suicides reported daily. Nearly 10,159 students died by suicide in 2018 increasing from 9905 in 2017.

Suicide is one of India’s biggest silent killers and this pandemic is making situation worse for our country. According to an article by Economic Times published on May 5, 2020 about 300 people died due to suicide. 80 of them killed themselves due to loneliness and fear of being tested positive for the virus.

Devastation caused by this pandemic not only include death due to the virus but also loss of jobs, loss of homes, loss of business, pay cuts and the biggest recession of economy.

It is very obvious that this virus isn’t going to leave us soon and social distancing will continue to be a norm in most parts of the world for a long period of time which will place people at greater risk because many won’t find anyone to share their feelings with and many will not be able to take their medications.

The suicides taking place in our country is a wake up call for us to end stigmas attached to mental illness in our country and to take immediate actions to save our loved ones from this epidemic. This pandemic will hit those suffering from mental illness a little harder and we should make sure that they receive support from family members, friends, community, mental health professionals because they are in much need of all this.

One thing we should get straight is that each one of us goes through some mental problems at some point in our life and having a mental problem is not a sin so we should try our best to lift up each other during that phase of life so that they don’t feel alone during this tough time.

Unemployment has become a very serious issue in India because of the growing population and demand for jobs. Moreover, if we neglect this problem then it will have an adverse impact on the whole economy and will become the reason for the doom of the nation. Whenever there is high degree of employment rate the production improves thereby increasing the standard of living.

High unemployment rate in a country leads to social and economic problems in the community as a whole. Economic problems result in less production of goods and services, less distribution of income, fall in GDP rate etc. Individuals cannot meet their financial obligations on time and getting high stress which leads to problems like ill-health, premature death, suicides etc. High unemployment causes less consumption of goods and services and less tax payments results in higher government borrowing requirements. A large portion of the population is engaged in the agricultural sector and the sector only provides employment in harvest or plantation time. Apart from this, increase in poverty, an increase in crime rate, exploitation of labor, political instability, mental health, and loss of skills adversely impact our economy. The other factors include population growth, slow economic growth, seasonal occupation, slow growth of the economic sector, and fall in the cottage industry. In addition, the biggest reason of unemployment in India is its vast population which demands a large number of jobs every year which the government and authorities are unable to provide. As a result, all this will eventually lead to the demise of the nation. The various types of unemployment include disguised unemployment, seasonal unemployment, open unemployment, technological unemployment, structural unemployment, cyclic unemployment, educated unemployment, underemployment, frictional unemployment, chronic unemployment, and casual unemployment.

Causes for unemployment include advancement in technology ( as the technology keeps advancing , companies look for employees having the latest technical skills) , recession ( financial crisis in one country can affect the other countries economy due to globalization) , changes in the global markets ( the economy of a country is adversely affected when its exports are down the line due to changes in global markets, and increase in price which leads to massive loss in terms of production and companies are unable to pay on time hence increasing the rate of unemployment) , job dissatisfaction by many employees ( when employers pay less attention to the performance of employee, it leads to lack of interest and desire to work and unemployment becomes inevitable, as employees deliberately loose their jobs)

Unemployment has now become such a dangerous economic. Social and political problem that it has endangered the security of the country. The law and order situation in the country has also been affected. Hence, the government has to take measures to curb the problem.The government has taken necessary steps to solve this significant issue. Several policies have been made to reduce the unemployment problem in the economy. The Government is planning to expand capital projects like new roads, constructions of new hospitals and major infrastructural projects which can become a platform in creation for more jobs and increases income generation to the economy. Also several initiatives have been launched such as  IRDP (Integrated Rural Development Programme), NRY (Nehru Rozgar Yojana), Drought Prone area program, PMGSY (Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana), Employment Guarantee Scheme etc. Moreover, the government is spending on irrigation, farms, and roads, etc. Steps to reduce unemployment include population control, more small- medium enterprises, good education system and improvement in agriculture. Necessary steps are to be taken by the government in increasing the productivity for the overall development of the country and reducing the unemployment problem in the economy .