The coronavirus pandemic has caused several problems worldwide. One of the biggest problems caused due to COVID 19 is employee termination from their jobs. Due to lockdown imposed by the Government in many economies the businesses have suffered greatly. According to Times report the World Health Organisation(WHO) on March 11,2020 declared COVID 19 a pandemic situation pointing to the over 118,000 cases of the coronavirus illness in over 110 countries and territories around the world and the sustained risk of further global spread. Since then every economy have been suffered badly. The worldwide depression in the economies has resulted in employee termination on a very high scale. The pandemic situation has also affected the demand and supply chain of several products except a few of them who were able to meet the demand with the supply. FMCG’s and medicines were the one’s which had regular demand and supply in the market. The pandemic has caused major losses in travel, automobiles, aviation and hospitality industry. As a result, these industries have faced large number of employee’s termination. Many companies also adopted for pay cuts from their employee’s salary in order to manage the finance of the company. The big market players of aviation industry such as Air India and Air Asia have either terminated their employees on a very large scale or adopted for pay cuts from their existing employee’s salary. The employees of many big aviation companies have challenged their company’s decision regarding the pay cuts and termination of employees in Bombay High court. The corona virus pandemic has majorly impacted the service sector in various economies. This emergency situation called on worldwide has left many people unemployed. The hospitality industry has also experienced high percentage of employee termination because of lack of demand. The Government of India has also taken several steps to re-start the economy again under Atmanirbhar package. According to the reports the trade impact of the coronavirus epidemic for India is estimated to be about $348 million. The country now figures among the top 15 economies that are most affected by the manufacturing slowdown in China, says a UN report. [3] The corona virus pandemic has also resulted in slowdown in the manufacturing industries which lead to high percentage of employee termination. Employee termination in the service sector has led to increased poverty and starvation in an economy. The United States of America has highest ever percentage of unemployment at this time due to corona virus pandemic. The closure in several economies has affected adversely. The Government of India asked the business firms during the lockdown to avoid pay cut or termination of their employees but the government took its decision back after the same was challenged in the Supreme Court. Many private and Government firms and institutions have either used pay cut or termination in order to manage their finances. The employees union is also taking part actively in the cases where the mega firms and companies are terminating their employees.

From the society point of view the employee termination at a very large scale is totally unethical but on the other hand it may be a necessity of a business to terminate the employees in order to balance their economic condition. But however the employee termination on a very large scale would lead to increase in crime rates and poverty in the society. A business is the means which create employment in the society and if the businesses are not financially sound and strong they will never be able to create employment in the society. So in order to create more employment opportunities there must be well established and financially sound firms in the economy. The government should also take certain steps which benefits the businesses and entire society. One such step initiated by the Atmanirbhar package of 20 lakh crores which was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 12, 2020. The objective of the package was to provide relief in the response to COVID19 pandemic and revive the economy. This package majorly focused on Macro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and launched several schemes and benefits in order to restart the businesses and industries. This scheme provided collateral free loans up to Rs 3 lakh core for MSMEs, Tax rebate and loans to have 4 years tenure with moratorium of 12 months on principle of repayment. But the major drawback of this package was that it did not directly focus on service sector. But somehow by giving benefits to MSMEs it focused more on creating employment by helping the small and medium scale businesses to bring the economy back on track. According to me, the idea of government of creating employment in the economy, by helping the MSMEs is really appreciable. This move of the Government would ensure that there are enough job opportunities created in the economy. Many specialists appreciated the government initiatives for creating the employment while the other specialists criticized the package too. The employee termination during COVID 19 not only impacted people economically but also psychologically. Due to unemployment many people are suffering from depression or any other mental disease. This period of lockdown and unemployment has left the people across the entire world in mental trauma. The existing employees have also great amount of pressure on them in regard to their job security and may sometime adapt to unethical practices in order to secure their job and future. The job loss has also created frustration and unpleasant environment in the family. The biggest ever economic crisis faced by major economies has high percentage of employee termination and pay cuts.

The high rate employee termination during COVID 19 is the biggest worry for many economies which has puzzled the task for many governments. The government is also trying hard to revive the things back but it is nevertheless a easy task. Reviving the economy and creating the employment opportunities again according to me is the most difficult task to be carried out in the coming future. Therefore it becomes important for the people to have faith in god and the government and keep their mind set positive.

Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. – Napoleon Hill

Hence the people must believe that there would be a time when everything would be sorted and economy would perform very well till then all have to do is keep their mind set positive and work more on skill development and time management. This will help them to become a better human being when they get back to work or job.

INTRODUCTION

Pandemics normally aren’t merely serious public health concern, rather these trigger disastrous socio-economic and political crises within the infected countries. COVID-19, other than becoming the best threat to global public health of the century, is being considered as an indicator of inequity and deficiency of social advancement. The COVID-19 pandemic is taken into account because the most important global health calamity of the century and therefore the greatest challenge that the humankind faced since the 2nd war. In December 2019, a replacement infectious respiratory illness emerged in Wuhan, Hubei province, China and was named by the globe Health Organization as COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019). A brand new class of corona virus, referred to as SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) has been found to be chargeable for occurrence of this disease. As far because the history of human civilization is worried there are instances of severe outbreaks of diseases caused by variety of viruses. According to the report of the World Health Organization (WHO as of April 18 2020), this outbreak of COVID-19, has affected over 2,164,111 people and killed over 146,198 people in additional than 200 countries throughout the planet. It’s rapidly spread round the world, posing enormous health, economic, environmental and social challenges to the whole human population. The coronavirus outbreak is severely disrupting the worldwide economy. Most the nations are struggling to block the transmission of the disease by testing & treating patients, quarantining suspected persons through contact tracing, restricting large gatherings, maintaining complete or partial lock down etc. This paper describes the impact of COVID-19 on society and global environment, and also the possible ways within which the disease is controlled has also been discussed therein. Global warming has its roots in industrial development, with the massive release of CO2 during the commercial revolution and beyond, finally allowing the physical phenomenon to want place. To some extent COVID-19 outbreak could even be considered as an indirect consequence of world environmental changes. Therefore, healthcare personnel, governments and thus the general public generally must show solidarity and fight shoulder to shoulder for prevention and containment of the pandemic. Within the current paper, the main focus is to spotlight the impacts of COVID-19 on environment & society.

COVID 19 PANDEMIC

After hitting China in January 2020, COVID-19 severely out broke in countries like Republic of Korea, Iran, and Italy in late February and early March, 2020. over 200 countries/regions have reported confirmed COVID-19 cases, including China, Italy, Iran, S. Korea, India, Switzerland, Taiwan, USA, Sweden, Singapore, Sri Lanka, France, Australia, Malaysia, Spain, United Arab Emirates, UK, Nepal, Finland, Netherlands, Japan, Belgium, Russia, Thailand, Philippines, Cambodia, and Germany.

 As far because the number of COVID infected patients is anxious, USA is at the highest of the list followed by Spain. In USA, quite 30,000 people died of this disease. Per the report of the Chinese government and also the WHO, the present outbreak has infected some 84,180 people in China out of which quite 4642 people have died to date as of April 18. The primary case of coronavirus outbreak in India was reported on 30 January 2020 in Kerala’s Trissur district when a student had returned home from Wuhan University in China (Rawat and Mukesh, 2020). The Health Ministry of India has confirmed 14,378 cases of coronavirus infection and 480 deaths within the country thus far on 18.04.2020. On the one hand the very high transmissibility of the virus is answerable for its worldwide spread, the advance and accessibility of international travel & tourism may be a reason for its further worldwide spread on the opposite hand. These varieties of mass gatherings are likely to exaggerate many of the chance factors of COVID-19, and have historically been related to outbreaks of disease both in local and international levels. The emergence and spread of COVID-19 from Asia to the Americas, Africa and therefore the Europe represent a worldwide pandemic threat.

GLOBAL HEALTH

The relationship between human health and disease is neither a brand new concept, nor a replacement subject. The emergence COVID-19 in China at the top of 2019 has caused an oversized global outbreak and could be a major public health issue. This virus is very infectious and may be transmitted through droplets and shut contact. The human to the human spreading of the virus occurs thanks to close contact with an infected person exposed to coughing, sneezing, respiratory droplets or aerosols. These aerosols can penetrate the bod (respiratory system) via inhalation through nose or mouth. The clinical spectrum for people with COVID-19 infection ranges from mild or non-specific signs and symptoms of acute respiratory disease like fever, cough, fatigue, shortness of breath, to severe pneumonia with respiratory failure and septic shock, which are very like other coronavirus diseases (Backer et al., 2020). It’s a matter of great importance to clarify the correlation between COVID-19 and immune-rheumatologic patients. Taking into consideration the short and frantic spread of the epidemic, health of rheumatic patients could be a matter of prime concern. COVID-19 being a disease, damage of the tissues of Lungs is sort of obvious, but there’s report that other organs and tissues may additionally be affected. Since viral shedding in plasma or serum is common in tract infections, there’s an opening of transmission of coronaviruses through the transfusion of labile blood products. COVID-19 may be a major public health concern for the world’s population and could be a leading reason for hospitalization and death, particularly for middle and maturity people within the affected countries.

ECONOMY

But other than this, COVID-19 has severely demobilized the worldwide economy. So as to limit further transmission of the disease within the community, many of the affected countries had decided to undergo complete lock down. Major international flights and also every type of business transports are deferred amid different countries. Thanks to lockdown all domestic flights, railway service (except goods trains), bus, truck, and vehicles transports are suspended with special exemption to those related to essential commodities. In most the COVID-19 stricken countries, entire educational, commercial, sports and spiritual institutions are closed. Industries are suffering plenty as many of those excepting those associated with essential amenities, are closed for a protracted time in many countries. People belonging to the tourism and transportation industry also are facing utmost difficulties. Production level has gone very low. Economy of the many so called powerful countries are now facing the threat of high inflation and increasing unemployment as a results of lack of productivity and excessive). Lockdown will directly affect the GDP of every country within the major economics. For every month there’ll be an approximate loss of twenty-two points in annual GDP growth. In line with World Trade Organization (WTO) and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have indicated COVID-19 pandemic as a major threat because it is the largest threat to global economy right now. A number of the experts are even saying that human civilization has not faced such an unprecedented emergency after the globe War-II.

Global Environment

From the very beginning of civilization, individuals gradually started manipulating the character for its own benefit. So as to satisfy the demand of accelerating population industrialization and urbanization became inevitable, and also the obvious significance was proved to be detrimental on the worldwide environment. Further, environmental concerns include pollution, pollution, global climate change, layer depletion, warming, depletion of well water level, change of biodiversity & ecosystem, arsenic contamination and lots of more. All local and central administrations worldwide have literally put a ban on free movement of their citizens outside their aim order to avoid community transmission the varied religious, cultural, social, scientific, sport, and political mass gathering events like, Hajj, Olympics etc., were cancelled. Various kinds of industries don’t seem to be functioning; all sorts of travels are cancelled.

Thanks to lesser demand of power in industries, use of fossil fuels or conventional energy sources is lowered considerably. Ecosystems are being greatly recovered. In many big cities the inhabitants are experiencing a transparent sky for the primary time in their lives. The pollution level in tourist spots like forests, sea beaches, hill areas etc. is additionally shrinking largely. Layer has been found to own revived to some extent. The pandemic has displayed its consequence side by side on human civilization, within the sense that, on one hand it’s executed worldwide destruction, but created a really positive impact on the globe environment on the opposite hand. 

IMPACT ON POPULATION

Environment change is probably going to possess various impacts on human health. An awfully important factor is rapid human growth, which has been in the midst of enormous economic development and increasing sources of pollution like vehicles and polluting industries. In China, the unstoppable increase in human increment has cause deforestation and therefore the people eat differing types of bats, frogs, snakes, birds, and animals. Revealing exceedingly vulnerable populations to new pathogens by increased human relocation to previously isolated areas may collect infectious diseases. Control of increase is therefore very essential during this regard.

In conclusion, 2019-nCoV infection could also be a disease with low to moderate death rate. Currently, there is not any standard treatment for the disease and supportive treatment was the only real strategy. Although many experimental trials are on the way, the foremost effective we are able to do to prevent a rampant outbreak is stringent infection operation. Clinicians should consider the prospect of 2019-nCoV infection in persons with travel or exposure history with compatible period and presenting symptoms.

The new academic calendar for engineering has been released offically from two unversities JNTUA,JNTUK,the new academic year is going to start from 17 th august 2020,however Cm kcr confirmed JNTUH academic calendar will start from 17 th august 2020

this is year because of covid-19,the academic year will continue in online course until further notices given by central government,the academic calendar has been updated including exams and practicals

The exams of remaining semester are still pending because of supreme court

Is India ready for Digital trade war?

Introduction:

Digital Trade:

Digital trade refers to the trade of goods and services using the internet including the transmission of information and data across borders.

It is a broad concept, which includes not only the sale of consumers products on the internet and the supply on online services, but also data flows that enable global value chains, services that enable smart manufacturing and myriad other platforms and applications.

It also involves digitally enabled but physically delivered trade in goals and services.

Example: Purchasing medicines through an online marketing, or booking a stay in a hotel. Impact of digitalisation on trade.

Digitalisation causes improve in scale, scope and as well as speed of trade. Smaller firms have to deal with so much of difficulties in accordance with the sale, purchase margin and benefit. Digitalisation enables firms to use new and innovative digital tools to overcome barriers to growth, helping facilitate payments, enabling collaboration, avoiding investments in fixed assets through the use of cloud-based services, and using alternative funding mechanisms such as crowd funding. The sale of goods is not only internally within the country but also across the borders.

The new technologies and business models are changing how services are produced and supplied, blurring already grey distinctions between goods and services and modes of delivery and introducing new combinations of goods and services.

Rapid technological developments also facilitate the rise of services in international cross-border trade. Information and communication technology services have formed the backbone of digital trade, providing the necessary network infrastructure and underpinning the digitisation of other type of services.

Why trade war matters to India:

India is not the epicentre of the trade war but nonetheless we do see some impact. It’s less vulnerable but not immune to what’s happening globally.

For instance, if you are to look at US and China share is relatively small as compared to its East Asian Partners. But on the other hand, though India makes about 2 per cent of globally trade still it tracks the global trends quite closely.

Besides China and its other trading partners US has also undertaken Substantive action against India.

•US withdrew India from the GSP mechanism (measured impact) and raised tariffs on steel/aluminium, amongst others.

•India retaliated with counter-tariffs on 16 products (e.g. apples and almonds); US-India in WTO dispute and been negotiating India on the outcome.

•Seeking to reduce India’s sizeable services surplus and tighten labour mobility, particularly on software and off sharing business.

•Besides the impact the trade war is having on the goods, we also see pass-through to the financial markets particularly on the moments of the CNY and it is beginning to matter a lot not only to the regional currencies but also India. To establish the linkage between the INR and the CNY, it has been studied as per to 2015, 2016 the influence of the CNY on INR was relatively small or negligible. But as the years have gone by in the past 3 to 4 years that linkage has grown more strongly.

Trade diversion opportunities:

•Trade diversion from China for goods count for the US.

•FPI and FDI diversion.

•Refocus on export potential by investing in infrastructure, human capital and tax incentives, both for manufactured goods and agricultural products.

•India’s possible inclusion into the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (and by extension, the regional supply chain).

•Geostrategic opportunity in deepen relationship with the US (on immigration, education, and security, in particular).

To substantially benefit from this situation of digital trade war, India requires a strategic approach to convert this opportunity into a major gain.

India needs to focus on becoming a new powerhouse as a global hub for exports, with a major positive impact on competitiveness and job creation.

China’s merchandise exports are almost the same as India’s GDP. EVEN a 10% shift from Chinese export to Indian export would imply over 75% increase in India exports.

For this, India needs to develop strategy and vision for itself and the world to make this reality. Its recent tepid export performance suggests that investment from large global companies is the transformative path for India, provided certain key points kept in mind.

Facts to be considered before the digital trademark:

Negative impact of trade war:

1. India is only one among the alternative countries being considered by major international companies as an investment destination.

E.g. Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Thailand, Vietnam all has relatively easier access to large markets.

• India as the largest domestic market, but the focus of most large firms with major international brands and global presence is on exports and maintaining their global value chains.

• India aspirations to double its export and create job depend on its success to link up effectively with GVCS. As the seventh largest global economy and twentieth largest good exporter, India is not yet a significant presence in GVCS.

• To establish domestic capacity for export hubs and GVCS, strong presence ‘lead firms’ that manage the GVCS become essential.

• To compete with other nation to attract major investment away from china, India needs to emphasise and improve implementations of support policies, with a new flagship programme. It is noteworthy that even china, in these difficult times, is increasing its incentives and project support to attract additional investment.

Even with a trade war, U.S investment in china during January 2019 reportedly doubled, foreign capital china’s hi-tech industry increasing by 41%.

Positive impact of the trade war:

1. The trade war will make India self-dependent.

• At first, the export of many items from India was not possible, but now after tariff hike, India has the edge.

• Though India has been competitive in many products, but there has been lack of production unit. This is an opportunity to expand the production to meet the global requirement, it bee helpful in boosting up India’s infrastructure.

• India has 6-35% concession on duty under Asia Pacific Agreement making Indian exports more desirable.

Conclusion:

Considering the positive and negative impact of the digital trade war, it is not a totally win-win situation for India. But it alternatively gives an opportunity to seize the growing market.

Today was a very historic moment for India. The “Bhumi Pujan” was successfully commenced at Ayodhya, the birthplace of Lord Shri Ram. Finally the wishes of many people were fulfilled today. Are honorable prime Minister Narendra Modi performed the pujaand laid the foundation stone. The first place he visited after landing in Ayodhya was Hanuman garhi where he  offered his prayers to lord Hanuman. After this he went to the ram temple and finally to the place where the “Bhumi Pujan” was conducted.

It was not a very easy route for many people who were closely related to the construction of the Ram Mandir. But the past 70 years have been considerably important in this 472 years of struggle between Babri Masjid and Ram Mandir. In July of 1949, the UP state government attempted to set up the Ram Mandir outside the controversial area but it failed. However in December of the same year they were able to keep the statues of Lord Ram Goddess Sita and Lakshman there. After that in 1989, the foundation stone of Ram Mandir was laid, a little away from the disputed area. On 6 December, 1992 disputed structure was broken down. Due to this communal violence broke out between the Hindu and Muslim populations. In September 2010, a three judge panel of the Allahabad High Court gave the Hindu party land to construct the temple and one third of the disputed land was given to the Muslim party to build up a mosque. But none of the parties accepted this decision. Thus, a petition was filed in the supreme Court against this decision. Find me on 9th November 2019 the supreme court announced its verdict. The verdict read by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi stated daag the controversial land belonged to Lord Ram. It also ordered the central government to create a trust for the same within 3 months. This trust was to have the responsibility for the construction of the Ram Mandir. At the same time the court also ordered to give the Muslim party 5 acre land in Ayodhya for construction of a mosque.

For the ceremony today, water from hundred rivers and the sacred soil from 1000 holy places were brought to Ayodhya. Many noted personalities like the Chief Minister of UP Yogi Adityanath, Governor of UP Anandiben Patel, RSS head Mohan Bhagwat, Yog guru Baba Ramdev and many saints were present. Those who not present virtually attended the event like veteran BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani. This moment an event was celebrated not just by people in India but Indiana across the world. In New York’s Times Square, image of Lord Ram was displayed with people chanting Jai Shri Ram in the background. This is indeed a very historical and proud moment for India.

Mastery by George Leonard

It is the book that will focus from Zen principles to motivate you with martial arts exercises to grasp how the journey would feel like, what it feels like, the path to mastery. And as you realize the direction you ‘re going to get up, you ‘re going to be able to handle the obstacles, you ‘re going to be able to avoid the pits that 90 percent of the other people are going to slip through and that the route becomes inexperienced.

Atomic habits by James clear

This offers an simple and validated way to develop healthy positive behaviors with the least energy and the greatest incentive.One of the main concepts that james claimer said was that you ought to work out what the minimum viodabe habits are, that mens when you want to build a pattern of getting up early and learning early in the morning, seek to do the most difficult stuff first instead of worrying about what the easiest starting point might be, what the least voidable routine is, what is so easy to do ,, you should manage it in just 2 minutes, and from there, keep the your graduation practices just as you graduated in the classroom, or before you get 2 pushups a day to 1000.

The secret to success by Eric Thomas

It is a presentation novel, its punchy, its inspiring, all you have is ET. So it should help you appreciate a successful path that Eric has guided you to go from high school dropout so homeless to an international bestseller. Yet it can also help you appreciate the actions and values that Eric followed to become the guy he is today.

Big magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

Now you realize that becoming a student on the surface seems simpler, but it can be challenging to work. When you sit in the library and watching instagram or some other social network from your camera, how do you keep focused or how do you remain creative? Although Elizabeth goes through the cycle of how terror and imagination you are, and how the two affect yourselves

War of art by Steven pressfield 

In this novel, he talks about the distinction between the amateur part-time player who turns up when they’re frightened like him, and some of you are a part-time player, you test when you’re frightened, you offer a hundred and ten percent when you’re scared,You put your hand up in college as you feel that there is opposition between and like amateurs, or you might use the term procrastination or diversion, but it all applies to the same challenge, so how can we move that these books can help you achieve just this.

Let’s talk on whether you will read this book and let me assure you because it really encourages you a lot in the future. This also gives a huge change to you. And if you respect Eric or either of these authors just hope as you learn, you invest one on one time in the author. But after reading, you can know how much commitment they have put on work on each and every line and inspire them to read.

In this scientific era of many discoveries and inventions, science making the impossible possible with the blink of an eye, there’s no place for superstition. Science and superstitions are poles apart. Yet they are the two sides of the same coin unknown of their interdependence.

Superstitions are self-imposed selfish beliefs, something imaginary yet unimaginable disbelief, or mere beliefs. But science – the most well-known and popular word of this era. Science as is believed to be something realistic which even makes the unreal real; the unachievable achievable.

Science in itself is a sweet beginning and sometimes a bitter ending whereas superstitions have neither beginning nor end; it is complete in itself.

But still, these two unrealistic and realistic, unimaginable and imaginable, never-ending and ever ending concepts are interconnected somewhere beyond the universe by some unpredictable threads of God.  Science completes superstitions in the same way as reasons complete assumptions. Reasons sometimes fail to explain rendering the assumptions to be almost dark and blank. And sometimes baseless reasons succeed in explaining a taboo.

Let’s have a quick look at the following examples:-

1. Eat curd and sugar before heading out                                                   Eating curd and sugar before stepping out for something new and important is considered to be good luck as the consumption of curd has a cooling effect on the stomach and sugar which is added provides instant glucose which makes your work easier and successful. This combination is indispensable for Indians and its consumption was slowly linked to good luck.

2. Don’t wash or cut hairs on certain days                                 Washing or cutting hairs on certain days like on Tuesdays or Thursdays are considered to be bad luck but there’s no truth in this as it was one of the water management practices. And moreover, during those days, barbers got a holiday on those days. So, just to give them a holiday people don’t cut hairs on those days.

3. Swallow tulsi leaves never chew
Tulsi leaves shouldn’t be chewed, it needs to be swallowed. The science behind his is that the tulsi leaves contain a little amount of arsenic. Thus, chewing it directly could result in degradation of enamel.

4. Bathe after attending a funeral ceremony                                               Earlier bathing was necessary after attending a funeral ceremony but today it’s not like earlier as our ancestors didn’t have vaccinations against smallpox, hepatitis and other deadly diseases. So they came up with this ritual of bathing so as to prevent themselves from infection from the dead body.

5. Menstruating women are considered impure and unclean:           In a country like India, it is very prevalent and this gave rise to many other superstitious beliefs. At that time women were not allowed inside the kitchen, temples, mosques, and other religious spots. They are not allowed to perform any household duties. The reason is that at that point of time women are comparatively weak because of a lot of blood loss. So, they are given complete rest. Moreover, ancient stone statues of God maintain a certain equilibrium with the atmosphere and may collapse if any disturbance occurs. As women release a lot of heat during this period, they are not allowed inside the temple since this may cause a disturbance in the natural equilibrium and may result in cracks in the idols.

6. Lizard falling on human is bad luck
It is said to be bad luck but the scientific reasons behind this is that the lizard releases poisonous chemicals from its body in order to protect themselves from enemies and if it falls on human body or food, it is bound to contaminate it. So, bathe is taken after it falls on someone.

7. Using lemons and green chillies to avoid buri nazar                          The nimbhu mirchi tadka is one of the commonly visible superstitions among the society whose use is often encouraged due to the qualities of lemon and chillies as they both are rich in different vitamins Ad create certain acidic odour which helps keep away insects. Thus, our ancestors used this as a symbol during ceremonies which now turned into a tadka.

8. Bats entering the house means death                                                       It is considered to be a bad omen. The real reason behind this superstition is that the bats bring a lot of deadly diseases along with them and when there was no medical facility available during those days, people would die due to rabies, Ebola, Nipah and other illness brought in by the illness.

9. Ghosts residing in peepal trees
This myth continues to prevail even today. But the scientific reason behind this is that the trees use carbon dioxide during the day and releases oxygen but at night, it is the other way round. So, when you sleep under the tree, the excess carbon dioxide level can make you feel heavy in the fist and suffocated which is associated with the feeling of being possessed by some spirits.

10. Throwing coins in fountains and rivers bring good

Most currencies in ancient times were made of copper and by throwing copper coins into rivers, our forefathers apparently ensured that they were consuming pure water. Science has it that copper has antimicrobial property and it can kill 99.9% of infection-causing bacteria. However, today neither do we use copper coins nor do we drink water directly from the river. This belief has brought in more pollution than good luck.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has congratulated all the bright youngsters who have successfully cleared the Civil Services Examination, 2019. 
 
Extending his best wishes, Mr. Modi said, an exciting and satisfying career of public service awaits them. 
 
For those youngsters who did not get the desired result in the Civil Services Examination, Mr. Modi said, he would like to tell them that life is full of several opportunities. 
 
He said, each and everyone of them is hardworking and diligent and wished them the best for their future endeavours.

In Sri Lanka, polling is being held for general elections to elect 225 members for its 16th Parliament with strict health guidelines amidst COVID situation. The voting began at 7 AM in the morning and will continue till 5 PM. An extra hour of polling has been kept in view of COVID situation and social distancing to be kept during the voting process.

The counting of votes will be held tomorrow and results are expected by late evening. Over 7450 candidates are in fray for Parliament seats while around 1.62 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise at around 13 thousand polling booths.

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, former PM Ranil Wickremsinghe and former President Maithripala Sirisena are among the main contestants to enter the Parliament. The elections were postponed twice after the COVID outbreak as Parliament was dissolved in early March, six months before its term ended as President Gotabaya Rajapksa was seeking a clear majority in Parliament for his party. 

Extensive arrangements have been made in wake of COVID outbreak and facemask along with hand sanitization is mandatory at the polling booths. Health authorities have asked voters not to fear coming to the polling stations and said the applying of ink on the fingers would be carried out in a safe manner. Sri Lanka has only around 400 active COVID cases and they will miss the voting.

Vaishno Devi Yatra will resume on August 16 after the Jammu and Kashmir government decided to open religious places in the Union Territory. Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board announced the resumption of the pilgrimage almost four months after it was suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Jammu and Kashmir government has decided to open all religious places across the Union Territory from 16th of this month, a day after Independence Day celebrations.

The Shrine Board said, it will announce its own Standard Operating Procedure later.

The government had suspended the Yatra on May 18 following the outbreak of the pandemic.

Development is taking place at a rapid speed in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh since the two Union Territories were carved out. On 5th of August last year, the Government revoked the special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir  by modifying Article 370 of the Constitution.

During one year period prior to August 5 2019, a total number of 172 locals joined different terrorist groups. After August 5, 2019 till date, recruitment fell by 42 percent from 172 to 100. The total number of terrorists who attempted infiltration from Pakistan occupied Kashmir also decreased by 33 percent.

AIR correspondent reports, there has been a 54 percent reduction of terrorist initiated violence in Jammu and Kashmir. As against 395 incidents prior to 5th August last year, it is 181 post that date till now. Eighty percent of the total 1391 law and order incidents in the past year were reported during the first three months of August, September and October.

The situation improved dramatically as average law and order related incidents fell from 370 per month to the current rate of 28 per month.