Livelihood scheme for Covid affected launched in Manipur

54 athletes will represent India and compete in 9 sports disciplines at Tokyo Paralympics scheduled to be held between 24 August and 5 September 2021. The disciplines include Archery, Athletics Track and Field, Badminton, Swimming, Weightlifting among others. This is the biggest-ever contingent India has sent to any Paralympics. Sports Ministry said, all 54 athletes are part of Target Olympic Podium Scheme TOPS scheme. Bhavina Patel and Sonalben Patel will participate in the Para Table Tennis Women’s singles Wheelchair Class 4 category and the Women’s singles Wheelchair Class 3 category. They are also pairing up for the Women’s Doubles event. Aruna Tanwar is sole Para Taekwondo representative at the Paralympic Games from India. She will participate in the Women’s under 49 kg K44 category. In Para Powerlifting, Jai Deep and Sakina Khatun will represent the country. Sakina will participate in the women’s up to 50 kg category. Jai Deep will participate in the Men’s up to 65 kg category.

-Finance Ministry has summoned Infosys MD and CEO, Salil Parekh on Monday to explain why even after 2.5 months since the launch of the new Income Tax e-filing portal, glitches in it have not been resolved. He has been asked to explain it to Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman. In a tweet, Income Tax Department said, in fact, since Saturday the portal itself is not available.

-In the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, the Chhari Mubarak of Swami Amarnathji was taken to the holy Cave in Kashmir Himalayas on Sunday morning for performing pooja archana and other rituals on the occasion of Shravan Purnima. The annual pilgrimage to the Amarnathji Shrine had been cancelled for this year also in view of coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic. The Shrine Board of Swami Amarnathji had arranged the Live Telecast and Virtual Darshan of the morning and evening Aarti’s from the holy cave shrine and other traditional rituals also continued as per the practices of the pilgrimage.In addition, the obeisances were paid by Kashmiri Pandits at “Chota Amarnath” known as first darshan of Swami Amarnathji pilgrimage, which is situated in Thajwaeri village of Bijbehara area in Anantnag district of south Kashmir.Only a Selected number of Sadhus accompanied the Holy Mace due to the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic this year while as the yatra for the general public had been cancelled. The Annual Amarnathji pilgrimage for this year has subsequently came to an end on Sunday.

-In Manipur, the Chief Minister’s COVID-19 Affected Livelihood Support Scheme was launched to provide assistance to those who had severely affected the COVID-19 pandemic in the State. The scheme was launched on Sunday by Chief Minister N. Biren Singh in a function held at Imphal. While speaking in the launching event, the Chief Minister maintained that the State Government had been working sincerely with an aim to uplift the poor and weaker sections of the State. The Government is for the people and is always ready to serve them. Biren further stated that the Chief Minister’s COVID-19 Affected Livelihood Support Scheme was introduced considering economic dislocations, which had severely affected the livelihood of a large percentage of the population leading to an inability to maintain a basic minimum standard of living. Asking to avail the scheme, he appealed to the public to be sincere and to abstain from making any false document to get the benefit, while applying for any schemes or scholarships so that the benefit could reach the targeted and eligible beneficiaries.

-The COVID situation in Bangladesh continues to show improvement with the daily death toll remaining below 200 for the tenth consecutive day on Sunday. The sample positivity rate also continued to decline. It stood at 15.16 percent on Sunday down from 32.55  percent on 24 July.According to the latest COVID by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), Bangladesh recorded 139 deaths and 4804 new cases of COVID 19 in the country on Sunday. The death toll has gone up to 25282 and the total number of infections to more than 14.61 lakh though the number of active cases has come down to 72,848 from a high of over 1.5 lakh on 22 July. The COVID vaccination in the country is continuing with 16.66 million people receiving their first dose.  More than 6.57 million people have received both the doses of the vaccine.