International cooperation is answer to COVID challenge- Jaishankar

External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar has  said that international cooperation is the answer to the COVID challenge, be it vaccines, medicines, PPE or oxygen. Addressing the G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting at Matera in Italy on Tuesday, the Minister said, institutional multilateralism has been found wanting. He said, reforms have many forms, but vaccine equity will be the immediate test. He also said, real economy needs decentralised globalisation, including in manufacturing, food and health. He stressed that resilient supply chains must develop in parallel.The Minister also met United Kingdom Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and reviewed the progress of bilateral Road Map. They discussed the state of the world, regional issues, COVID and climate action.

-Uttar Pradesh police have lodged an FIR against two senior officials of Twitter India over the social media platform putting up a distorted map of India. The FIR names Twitter India MD Manish Maheshwari and News Partnerships Head Amrita Tripathi as accused who have been booked under section 505 (2) which deals with public mischief and under IT act. The FIR was lodged at the Khurja Nagar police station in Bulandshahr district yesterday on the basis of a complaint by Praveen Bhati. The map, which showed the Union Territories of Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir outside India, was later removed by twitter.

-Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat visited forward areas along the Line of Actual Control in the Central Sector in Himachal Pradesh along with GOC, Uttar Bharat Area on Tuesday. On arrival at the forward-most post in Sumdoh Sub-Sector, the CDS was briefed on the operational preparedness of our forces towards safeguarding the territorial integrity of the nation. He interacted extensively with the Indian Army, ITBP and GREF personnel deployed in the remote areas and appreciated their state of high morale. He encouraged all ranks to keep up the high state of ness and professionalism displayed by them. Later in the day, General Bipin Rawat visited the Headquarters of Western Command of Indian Army at Chandimandir where he reviewed the operational situation along the Western borders.

-Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. K. Stalin has allocated Rs. 100 crore for procuring liquid oxygen and for the preparedness of the third wave of COVID. In a statement  he said that under the Chief Minister's COVID Relief Fund, he had received Rs. 353 crore.The Chief Minister told that Rs. 41 crore were allocated for procurement of Oxygen cylinders, concentrators and life saving drugs for treatment of Mucormycosis. The statement also said that an amount of Rs. 50 crore was allocated for procurement of RT-PCR kits and also for purchasing Remdesivir medicine. 

-The Centre has expedited capacity of fortification of rice to increase from 15,000 MT to 3.5 lakh MT by incentivising and creating awareness among rice millers. To address anemia and micro-nutrient deficiency in the country, the Department of Food and Public Distribution approved Centrally-sponsored Pilot Scheme on Fortification of Rice and its Distribution under Public Distribution System for a period of three years beginning in 2019-20 with total outlay of 174.64 crore rupees. It is currently implemented in six states. Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh have started distribution of fortified rice under the pilot scheme. Kerala and Odisha are likely to start the distribution shortly. Approximately 1.73 lakh MTs of fortified rice has been distributed till May this year under the pilot scheme. Fortification of rice is a cost-effective and complementary strategy to increase vitamin and mineral content in diets and a step towards nutritional security and to fight anemia and malnutrition in the country. This strategy has a proven track record across many geographies in the world.