The Rajasthan government has decided to impose night curfew in 8 cities starting tonight to contain the recent spike in the number of Covid cases. Night curfew will be imposed in Ajmer, Bhilwara, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kota, Udaipur, Sagwara and Kushalgarh from 11 in the night to 5 in the morning. Markets will remain closed in all the urban bodies of the state after 10 pm today. The decision was taken in a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.
 
The government has also made it mandatory for people visiting the state to carry an RT-PCR COVID negative report not older than 72 hours from March 25. Those without a negative test report will have to remain in quarantine for 15 days. The system of mini-containment zones will also be implemented again. Wherever there are more than five positive cases, that cluster or apartment will be declared as a contention zone. Curbs have also been imposed on maximum attendance at weddings and funerals.
 
A maximum of 200 people will be allowed to attend a wedding ceremony and only 20 people can attend a funeral. Primary schools in the state will remain closed till further orders. In the classes above primary and in colleges, educational activities will be conducted with the COVID-19 protocol. Not more than 50 per cent of the students should be present in the class at a time. 

Government has said that more than 67.5 lakh people have been brought back from around the world under the Vande Bharat mission so far. India commenced one of the world’s largest evacuation operations from 7th May last year to bring back stranded Indians from abroad. Initially, Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express played a key role in the operations.
 
Afterwards, other air carriers were allowed to take part in the programme. Besides, aerial evacuation, ships were also used to bring back Indian citizens. In a tweet, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Puri said, Vande Bharat is not just a mission that brought back stranded and distressed citizens but it is also a Mission of hope and happiness.
 
He added that the Mission has let Indian people know that they will not be left behind by the government even in the most testing times. A total of 8,587 people returned to India on Saturday under the Vande Bharat Mission.

Today is the last day for withdrawal of candidature for assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry. The single-phase polling will be held in these states and Union Territories on 6th April. Today is also the last date for withdrawal of candidature for the third phase of assembly elections in West Bengal and Assam. While assembly elections in West Bengal will be held in eight phases, Assam will witness three phase polling.

Campaigning has intensified in all poll bound states and Union Territories.  In Assam, the star campaigners of various political parties are criss crossing the state to woo the voters. Senior BJP leader and Union Home Minister, Amit Shah will hold a series of election rallies in Assam today. BJP President, JP Nadda is also likely to hold rallies in Dibrugarh, Zorhat and Biswanath today.

Senior BJP leader and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari is likely to visit Puducherry for campaigning. He is expected to hold the road show. In Puducherry, 382 nominations were found valid after scrutiny. In Tamil Nadu, a total of 4469 nominations were found valid, while 2700 were rejected following scrutiny. The final list of candidates for 234 assembly constituencies will be released today. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will virtually launch Jal Shakti Abhiyan : Catch the Rain campaign on the occasion of World Water Day today. The theme of the campaign is ‘Catch the rain, where it falls, when it falls’. In the presence of the Prime Minister, the signing of historic Memorandum of Agreement between the Minister of Jal Shakti and the Chief Ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh to implement the Ken Betwa Link Project will also take place. This is the first project of the National Perspective Plan for interlinking of rivers.

This project involves transfer of water from the Ken to the Betwa River through the construction of Daudhan Dam and a canal linking the two rivers. It will provide annual irrigation of 10.62 lakh hactare, drinking water supply to about 62 lakh people and also generate 103 Mega Watt of hydropower. The Project will be of immense benefit to the water starved region of Bundelkhand, especially to the districts of Panna, Tikamgarh, Chhatarpur, Sagar, Damoh, Datia, Vidisha, Shivpuri and Raisen of Madhya Pradesh and Banda, Mahoba, Jhansi and Lalitpur of Uttar Pradesh.

It will pave the way for more interlinking of river projects to ensure that scarcity of water does not become an inhibitor for development in the country. The campaign will be undertaken across the country in both rural and urban areas. It will be implemented from today till 30th November – the pre-monsoon and monsoon period in the country. It will be launched as a Jan Andolan to take water conservation at grass-root level through people’s participation.

The campaign is intended to nudge all stakeholders to create rainwater harvesting structures suitable to the climatic conditions and subsoil strata, to ensure proper storage of rainwater. After the event, Gram Sabhas will be held in all Gram Panchayats of each district, except in the poll bound states to discuss issues related to water and water conservation. Gram Sabhas will also take Jal Shapath for water conservation.

Indian Embassy in Beijing started India@75 celebrations with belated Vishwa Hindi Diwas celebrations yesterday which was attended by the Chinese students studying Hindi in different Chinese universities, their Hindi teachers and members of the Indian community in Beijing.

Ambassador Vikram Misri read Prime Minister’s message on Vishwa Hindi Diwas. He said that Hindi is one of the top spoken languages in the world and Vishwa Hindi Diwas is an occasion to promote Hindi and celebrate its popularity at global level.

A video celebrating India’s achievements since Independence was played on the occasion to celebrate the 75 years of India’s Independence – “Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav”. AIR Correspondent in Beijing reports that the celebrations of 75 years of India’s independence – Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav could not have got a better start when Chinese academicians and students joined embassy officials and Indian community to celebrate Vishwa Hindi Diwas.

Chinese teachers and students termed Hindi as an important medium to understand India’s culture and emphasised on its role in building bridges between India and China.

Professor Jiang Jingkui, a renowned Chinese authority on Hindi language and spearheading the efforts to promote and popularize Hindi in China told Prasar Bharati, Beijing that efforts are underway to establish 4 more national level centres for studies related to India, specially Hindi by the end of this year in addition to existing two centres at Peking University and Shenchen University.

At present, around 500 Chinese students are studying hindi in around 17 universities in China. The Indian community, students from Peking University and Chinese friends presented cultural performances in Hindi language highlighting the role of language in enhancing people-to-people exchanges.

National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has brought 80 plus medicines under Price Regulation. NPPA has fixed the price of 81 medicines including off-patent anti-diabetic drugs allowing due benefits of patent expiry to the patients. 

NPPA has fixed the Retail Price of Insulin Human Injection, 200IU/ml and 70 per cent Isophane Insulin Human Suspension 30 per cent Insulin Human Injection 200IU/ml for M/s Wockhardt Ltd at 106.65 rupees per ml each excluding GST and Prasugrel Hydrochloride 10 mg as film-coated Aspirin 75 mg as enteric-coated Capsule’for M/s Torrent Pharmaceuticals Ltd. at 20.16 rupees per Capsule excluding GST with effect from 17th March 2021. 

Both the medicines were being sold at MRP of 132.50 rupees per ml and at 27.26 rupees per capsule. With this price regulation, NPPA has re-assured availability of medicines at fair prices to public at large.

NPPA had granted price exemption for above-mentioned formulations to the companies under Para 32 of the Drug Prices Control Order (DPCO), 2013 for a period of five years due to new drug delivery system developed through indigenous Research and Development. Price regulation was not applicable during the exemption period. NPPA in its meeting on 10th of this month decided to regulate the price of these formulations as per provisions of DPCO, 2013 as the exemption period has been over.

This has resulted in reduction of the prices of Insulin Human Injection, 200IU/ml and 70 per cent Isophane Insulin Human Suspension 30 per cent Insulin Human Injection 200IU/ml’, causing sizeable reduction over the existing prices. Now, these medicines have become more affordable to the public.

NPPA also fixed retail price of 76 new drugs in the meeting dated 10th of this month to be launched by existing manufacturers including off-patent Anti-diabetic drugs allowing due benefit of patent expiry to the patients.

In addition, NPPA fixed ceiling price of 2 scheduled formulation namely Povidone Iodine 7.5 per cent Scrub an anti-infective formulation and Levo-Thyroxine 37.5 mg tablet used for treatment of Thyroid related diseases, causing considerable reduction to their present prices.

Revision in existing ceiling prices of scheduled formulations based on the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) was also approved by the Authority. The revised prices will be effective from next month.

Maharashtra chief minister’s office has informed that it is authenticating the unsigned letter said to be sent by Former Mumbai Police Commissioner Parambir Singh. In a statement, CMO has informed that today, it has received an unsigned letter with the name of Param Bir Singh at 4.37 PM. It was sent from email ID paramirs3@gmail.com. But Parambir singh has given parimbirs@hotmail.com as a personal email ID for the list of IPS officers. Hence email ID is being checked and home department is trying to contact Param Bir singh.

AIR correspondent reports that sources have said that the letter said to be sent by Singh is addressed to the Chief Minister and copied to the Deputy Chief Minister, Additional Chief Secretary of Home ministry and Principal Secretary of the Governor of Maharashtra. Letter claims that, Home minister has given target to collect 100 Crores a month to Sachin Waze, former head of Crime Intelligence Unit and recently suspended API of Mumbai Police.

The Said letter also contains some messages exchanged between Parambir Singh and ACP Sanjay Patil, Social Service Branch. In a letter it is also claimed that  Parambir singh has already pointed out several misdeeds and malpractices being indulged into by Home minister to Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister and NCP chief Sharad Pawar. Letter also claims that the Home minister desired a case of abetment of suicide to be registered at Mumbai in a death case of Dadra & Nagar Haveli MP Mohan Delkar.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) will now investigate the death case of Mansukh Hiren. The NIA spokesperson has said that, Home ministry has issued an order in this regard.

At present, Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad is investigating the case. Mansukh Hiren is reported to be the owner of an explosive-laden vehicle found outside the house of Industrialist Mukesh Ambani. He was found dead in Thane creek on the 5th of March. 

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has said that Rapid Antigen Testing for Covid-19 infections will be done at a random at crowded places in Mumbai in the wake of the surge in Covid-19 cases in the city.

The tests will be done at malls, railway stations, bus depots, markets, tourist places, and government offices. BMC also said, if a citizen refuses to get tested, they will be booked under Epidemic Act.

On Friday, India’s financial capital logged the highest spike of 3,062 new COVID-19 cases taking its caseload to 3,55,897.

Currently, Mumbai has 34 containment zones in slums and chawls and 305 sealed buildings where COVID-19 cases have been found.

More than four crore 36 lakh doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in the country so far. These include over 77 lakh  Health Care Workers who have taken the first dose, over 48 lakh Health Care Workers who have taken the 2nd dose, over 80 lakh Front Line Workers with 1st dose and over 25 lakh Front Line Workers with 2nd dose.

Over 1.69 crore beneficiaries more than 60 years old and over 35 lakh beneficiaries aged 45 and above with specific co-morbidities have been vaccinated so far.

Yesterday, over 16.12 lakh vaccine doses were inoculated under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive.

Meanwhile, the country’s COVID-19 recovery rate stands at 96.12 per cent with a total recovery of 23 thousand 653 patients within 24 hours.

The Health Ministry said more than one crore 11 lakh people have already recovered from this disease. However, the active caseload is continuously rising in the country due to a sudden spike in the cases reported from various States.

India’s Badminton Queen PV Sindhu defeated Japanese Akane Yamaguchi in Women’s Singles quarter-finals to book her place in the semi-finals of the All England Open. Sindhu came back brilliantly after losing the first set 16-21. In a nail-biting event, Sindhu kept her composure and won the last 2 sets 21-16 and 21-19. She will now face Pornpawee Chochuwong from Thailand today.
 
Earlier, Lakshya Sen was knocked out in the quarter-finals of the Men’s Singles after losing to Netherlands’ Mark Caljouw.

Nepal has given emergency authorisation to India’s COVID-19 vaccine COVAXIN. It has become the third country to approve the shot, developed by Bharat Biotech and a state research institute.

The vaccine was approved for emergency use in India in January and Zimbabwe cleared it early this month.
 
Nepal’s Department of Drug Administration said, conditional permission has been granted for emergency use authorisation. The Himalayan country has already received more than 2.3 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from India, including one million doses as a gift.
 
The latest approval comes as authorities in Nepal said they were suspending their vaccination campaign because of a lack of supply. Nepal has reported 275,750 cases and 3,016 deaths so far, according to government data.
 
Bharat Biotech says it has received interest in COVAXIN from 40 countries. It has sought or is in the process of seeking emergency approvals in Brazil, the Philippines and Thailand.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd J Austin met with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval last night. In a tweet today, Mr. Austin said, the breadth of collaboration between United States and India reflects the significance of major defense partnership. He added that both the countries are working together to address the most pressing challenges faced by Indo-Pacific region.

Central Bureau of Investigation has conducted nationwide joint surprise checks at premises of Central government Department and Organisations in more than 25 States and Union Territories.
 
The joint surprise checks were conducted in the premises of around 30 Departments and Organizations of the Government of India. These joint surprise checks were conducted to unearth any wrong-doing at places which are prone to corruptible practices while rendering services or implementing projects of the Government of India, at the cutting edge level.
 
Various cities and towns where the surprise checks were conducted include Shillong, Agartala,  Guwahati,  Imphal, Agra, Allahabad, Ahmedabad,  Gandhi Nagar, Goa,  Coimbatore, Manali, Mumbai, Howrah,  Delhi, Bangalore; Hyderabad; Jaipur,  Vishakhapatnam,  Patna, Ranchi,  Dhanbad and Cochin.
 
The Departments where surprise checks were conducted by the CBI include Food Corporation of India, Railways, BSNL, GST, Postal Department, CSD Godown, North Coal Fields Ltd, Indian Oil Corporation, CPWD and Military Engineering Service.

Political parties have intensified campaigning in poll bounds states and Union Territory. Senior BJP leader and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in West Bengal and Assam today and tomorrow. He will address rallies in Kharagpur in West Bengal and Chabua in Assam today. In a tweet, Mr Modi said, in his speeches he will elaborate on BJP’s development agenda. He said, it is clear that both states West Bengal and Assam want to elect NDA in the upcoming polls.