Curtains come down on 52nd IFFI in Goa

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan has written to all States and Union Territories over the Omicron variant of COVID19, asking them to enforce intensive containment and active surveillance measures and also increase coverage of vaccination. The Centre said, it is essential that the disease surveillance network in the country is geared up for rigorous follow up of all international travelers from all countries especially countries designated as "At-Risk". Centre asked States and Union Territories to review this at their level and strictly ensure the protocol provided by Union Health Ministry including testing on disembarkation of international travelers coming from "At Risk" Countries and sending all positive samples for genome sequencing to INSACOG Labs in a prompt manner. The Centre also asked States and Union Territories to operationalise ample testing infrastructure to tackle any surge due to this mutated virus. lt observed that the overall testing, as well as the proportion of RT-PCR tests, have declined in some States. States have been asked to strengthen the testing infrastructure and strictly implement the testing guidelines. They have been asked to keep a close check on the emerging trend of cases and the positivity in an area and quickly delineate hotspots for effective containment. The letter stated that States should aim at achieving a positivity rate below 5 percent while focusing on increasing the number of tests and share of RT-PCR tests to aid in early identification. 

-The 52nd edition of IFFI drew to a close on Sunday. Speaking at the occasion Minister of the Information and Broadcasting said that the festival is a celebration of storytelling and filmmaking. He said that this edition of IFFI was one of many firsts. For the first time the BRICS film festival was hosted, OTT platforms participated and 75 creative young minds of cinema were felicitated at IFFI. Some of the most glittering names from Indian cinema including Madhuri Dixit, Manoj Bajpayee and Randhir Kapoor were in attendance at the closing ceremony. The coveted Golden peacock for the best film went to the movie ring wandering by director masakazu kanyeko. The silver peacock for the best actor male went to Jitendra Joshi for the film Godavari. The award in the female category went to Angela Molina from Paraguay. The Special Jury award went to actor Renata carvalho from Brazil for the film the first fallen and to the film Godavari. The Special jury mention went to Roman Vasyanov for the film the dorm. Sukhwinder Singh dazzled the audience with a scintillating performance.

-President Ram Nath Kovind attended the Ganga Aarti at Parmarth Niketan Ghat in Rishikesh Sunday evening during his two-day visit to Uttarakhand. His wife Smt. Savita Kovind, Uttarakhand Governor Gurmeet Singh and Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami were also present on the occasion. Our Correspondent reports that Ganga Aarti at Parmarth Niketan Ghat at sunset is very famous and thousands of devotees from all over the world come to attend this aarti every day. After attending the Ganga aarti, the President described it as a heart-touching moment. The President said that MAA Ganga is the identity of India and without her India is incomplete. He said that both MAA Ganga and India are complementary to each other.

-Mumbai taximen’s union has threatened to go on strike if they are not allowed to hike fair. The union has said that in the last two months the price of CNG has been raised thrice which is not affordable to taximen. At present,  the rate of CNG is 61 Rupees 50 paise per kilo. This hike is a big setback to taximen. So, the taximen have threatened to agitate if they are not allowed to raise the fair by a minimum of five rupees.

-In the Kanpur cricket test, Chasing a target of 284 runs, New Zealand were four for the loss of one wicket at stumps on Day four. Opener Will Young departed early in the third over bowled by Ashwin Ramchandran scoring only two runs. Tom Latham and William Somerville were at the crease. Earlier India declared their second innings at 234  for seven. With a first-innings lead of 49 runs, Team India set a challenging target of 284 runs for the visitors. New Zealand bowlers have been at their best since morning as they removed five Indian batters on the day. For India, Shreyas Iyer who scored an impressive ton in the first innings scored a responsible knock of 65 runs.