The total coronavirus cases mounted to 41,13,811, while the death toll climbed to 70,626 with the novel coronavirus virus claiming 1,065 lives in a span of 24 hours in the country, the data updated at 8 am showed.

The COVID-19 case fatality rate due to the coronavirus infection has further declined to 1.72 per cent. There are 8,62,320 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country which comprises 20.96 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23 and it went past 40 lakh on September 5.

According to the ICMR, a cumulative total of 4,88,31,145 samples have been tested up to September 5 with 10,92,654 samples being tested on Saturday.

Of the 1,065 fresh deaths, 312 are from Maharashtra, 128 from Karnataka, 81 from Uttar Pradesh, 71 from Andhra Pradesh, 69 from Punjab, 61 from Tamil Nadu, 58 from West Bengal, 34 from Bihar, 30 from Madhya Pradesh, 25 from Delhi, 22 from Haryana, 19 from Chhattisgarh, 18 each from Puducherry and Uttarakhand, 15 each from Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand.

Fourteen fatalities have been reported from Rajasthan, 11 from Kerala, nine each from Goa and Telangana, eight from Tripura, seven each from Assam and Odisha, four from Himachal Pradesh while Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Manipur and Meghalaya have registered one fatality each.

Of the total 70,626 deaths, Maharashtra has reported the maximum at 26,276 followed by 7,748 in Tamil Nadu, 6,298 in Karnataka, 4,538 in Delhi, 4,347 in Andhra Pradesh, 3,843 in Uttar Pradesh, 3,510 in West Bengal, 3,091 in Gujarat and 1,808 in Punjab.

So far, 1,543 people have died of COVID-19 in Madhya Pradesh, 1,122 in Rajasthan, 886 in Telangana, 781 in Haryana, 770 in Jammu and Kashmir, 735 in Bihar, 538 in Odisha, 462 in Jharkhand, 356 in Chhattisgarh, 352 in Assam, 337 in Kerala and 330 in Uttarakhand.

Puducherry has registered 298 fatalities, Goa 229, Tripura 144, Chandigarh 69, Himachal Pradesh 54, Andaman and Nicobar Islands 50, Manipur 36, Ladakh 35, Meghalaya 15, Nagaland 10, Arunachal Pradesh eight, Sikkim five and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu two.

The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.

“Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research,” the ministry said on its website, adding that State-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.

The post 90,632 COVID-19 cases recorded in India in single day appeared first on The Gulf Indians.

“I have experienced similar ridicule from government officials and ordinary citizens who insist that I speak Hindi during telephone conversations and sometimes face-to-face conversations,” he tweeted.

The unpleasant experience of DMK MP Ms Kanimozhi at Chennai airport is not unusual.

— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) August 10, 2020

If the Centre sincerely considers Hindi and English to be the official languages of India, they should compel all Central Government agencies and employees to speak both languages.

Those who do not speak Hindi, who are selected for Central Government posts, acquire the language very quickly. But he also asked why Hindi speakers who opt for central services could not learn English.

Kanimozhi tweeted on August 9 that a CISF jawan at Chennai airport had asked her if she was Indian because she did not know Hindi and asked her to speak English or Tamil.

Today at the airport a CISF officer asked me if “I am an Indian” when I asked her to speak to me in tamil or English as I did not know Hindi. I would like to know from when being indian is equal to knowing Hindi.#hindiimposition

— Kanimozhi (கனிமொழி) (@KanimozhiDMK) August 9, 2020

Tamil Nadu has a history of opposing the three-language formula with anti-Hindi agitations that took place in Tamil Nadu (formerly Madras State and part of Madras Presidency) during both pre- and post-Independence periods. Those agitations involved several mass protests, riots, student and political movements in Tamil Nadu concerning the official status of Hindi in the state.

The first anti-Hindi imposition agitation was launched in 1937, in opposition to the introduction of compulsory teaching of Hindi in the schools of Madras Presidency by the first Indian National Congress government led by C. Rajagopalachari (Rajaji). This move was immediately opposed by E. V. Ramasamy (Periyar) and the opposition Justice Party. The agitation, which lasted three years, was multi-faceted and involved fasts, conferences, marches, picketing and protests. The government responded with a crackdown resulting in the deaths of two protesters and the arrests of 1,198 persons including women and children. Mandatory Hindi education was later withdrawn by the British Governor of Madras Lord Erskine in February 1940 after the resignation of the Congress Government in 1939.

The adoption of an official language for the Indian Republic was a hotly debated issue during the framing of the Indian Constitution after India’s Independence from the United Kingdom. After an exhaustive and divisive debate, Hindi was adopted as the official language of India with English continuing as an associate official language for a period of fifteen years, after which Hindi would become the sole official language.

The new Constitution came into effect on 26 January 1950. Efforts by the Indian Government to make Hindi the sole official language after 1965 were not acceptable to many non-Hindi Indian states, who wanted the continued use of English.

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), a descendant of Dravidar Kazhagam, led the opposition to Hindi. To allay their fears, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru enacted the Official Languages Act in 1963 to ensure the continuing use of English beyond 1965. The text of the Act did not satisfy the DMK and increased their scepticism that his assurances might not be honoured by future administrations.

The post Chidambaram backs Kanimozhi in language row appeared first on The Gulf Indians.

In a fresh twist to the Tuticorin case, the judicial magistrate has submitted in his report to the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court that CCTV visuals of the ‘interrogation’ of the father-son(Jayaraj and Bennicks) duo, who later died in custody, were erased despite there being ample space in the hard disk. The case has now been transferred to the CB-CID till the CBI takes over to ensure there is no tampering of evidences.

In his report, the Kovilpatti judicial magistrate said that though the hard disks of the cameras installed at the police station had 1TB storage capacity, the data was being erased automatically. “Specifically, the footage after the day of the incident was missing,” said the report.

The judicial magistrate’s report said a woman constable, who was an eye witness to the incident, was initially terrified to reveal the truth but then confirmed that the victims were “repeatedly thrashed by the policemen for the entire night”. The report added that blood stains were visible on the lathis and table inside the station.

Hearing the suo motu petition, the bench comprising justices PN Prakash and B Pugalendhi said the injuries found on the bodies of the deceased and the statements in the judicial magistrate’s report — especially the statement of the woman constable — were enough to alter the case to include Section 302 (for murder) against the Sathankulam policemen. The district collector has been ordered by the court to provide protection to the constable.

The post Tuticorin custodial death: CCTV visuals erased,but constable turns whistle blower appeared first on The Gulf Indians.

Tamil Nadu has grabbed the first position in fish landings with 7.75 lakh tonnes followed by Gujarat (7.49 lakh t), which was holding the first position for a past few years, and Kerala (5.44 lakh t) which retained the third position, according to a study report.
India’s marine fish production registered a marginal increase of 2.1% in 2019 compared to the previous year with the country recording 3.56 million tonnes in total landings from across the coasts during the year, according to the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI).This was revealed in a study report on annual marine fish landings estimates in the country during the last year released here by the CMFRI.
The data showed an unusual feature of a commercially unimportant fish becoming the most landed resource with the red toothed trigger fish (2.74 lakh t) registering a huge increase in the landings across the coasts of the country. Ironically, this fish has little demand in domestic markets and is mostly caught for the purpose of feed mills.
In another major highlight of the data, Indian mackerel, which was in the first spot in 2018, suffered the highest setback with its landings declining by 43 per cent last year.
While the states such as West Bengal (55%), Andhra Pradesh (34%), Odisha (14.5%), Karnataka (11%) and Tamil Nadu (10.4%) recorded increase in the landings, the marine fish catch decreased in Maharashtra (32%), Goa (44%) and Kerala (15.4%) compared to the previous year. The second highest landings in national-level is ribbon fish (2.19 lakh t) followed by penaeid prawns (1.95 lakh t) and non-penaeid prawns (1.80 lakh t).
As many as eight cyclonic storms in and around India of which 6 of them turned out to be severe cyclones (Fani in April, Vayu in June, Hika in September, Kyarr in October, Maha in Oct-Nov and Bulbul in Oct-Nov) affected the fishing calendar days more adversely on the west coast of the country.

Fish production declines in Kerala

Kerala suffered a significant drop of 15.4 per cent in the marine fish landings during the last year with a total landings of 5.44 lakh tonnes. Sharp decline in the catch of oil sardine and Indian mackerel, the two major resources in the state, is the major highlight of Kerala’s landings. While oil sardine dropped to a meagre 44,320 tonnes, the lowest catch in two decades, Indian mackerel (40,554 t) experienced a steep decline of 50 per cent compared to the previous year.
In 2012, the catch of oil sardine in Kerala was 3.9 lakh tonnes. Since then, there was a substantial decrease in the catch every year, but it moved up in 2017. The oil sardine landings again continued to decline for the past two years thanks to the unfavourable changes in ocean environment. After analysing the correlation between the ocean environment and biological cycle of the oil sardine, the CMFRI had forecast in January last year that sardine landing would decline in the year in Kerala waters. The contribution from Kerala towards the overall landings in the country reduced to 15.3 per cent from 18.4 per cent in 2018.
The anchovies group (74.194 t) tops the list of the most landed resources in the state followed by red toothed trigger fish (62,782 t) and penaeid prawns (46,615 t).

Increase in value of fish
The estimate of the value of marine fish landings based on price at landing centres across the country during 2019 was Rs.60,881 crores with 15.6 per cent increase over 2018. The unit price per kg of fish at landing centre rate was Rs. 170.5 (12.2 per cent increase). At the retail level, the estimated value of marine fish was Rs. 92,356 crores (15 per cent increase over 2018). The unit price at the retail market level was Rs. 258.7 (12 per cent increase over 2018). The marketing efficiency determining the producer’s share of the consumers was found to be 66 (0.6 per cent increase over 2018).
In Kerala, the value of marine fish landings based on price at landing centres was Rs. 12,387 crores with an increase of 20.35 per cent over 2018 while it was Rs 17,515 crores in retail level in the state recording nearly 19 per cent increase.
The Fishery Resources Assessment Division of the CMFRI estimated the annual marine fish landings of the country through its online data collection system.

The post India’s marine fish production increases slightly in 2019 appeared first on The Gulf Indians.