Mangaluru: Honest auto driver Pratap Shetty returns gold worth Rs 5 lakh

Bengaluru, May 20: An owner of a hair cutting training salon in the city has given shelter to the jobless IT professionals and migrant workers hailing from north-eastern states and Nepal, in his salon.

Rahul Rai, the owner said, "The moment the lockdown started then I received many complaints from different corners that several persons became jobless and they were thrown out of their rented accommodations."

"They are from different states of the North-east and some of them are from Nepal also. I converted my hair-cutting training salon into a shelter home for them," he added.

A person who got shelter at the salon said, "I lost my job after the lockdown started. I was facing a lot of issues after my landlord had evicted me from my rented accommodation. I spent about a week nearby a lake. I managed to contact Rahul Rai through Facebook and he rescued me along with many others."

Newsroom, Apr 22: Dozens of Tablighi Jamaat members from across the country who have been successfully recovered and have now tested negative for the novel coronavirus have come forward and donate their plasma for the treatment of Covid-19 patients.

The Tablighis from Tamil Nadu were the first to take this decision. According to them, apart from helping the critically ill patients to recover from COVID-19, was to counter the ‘baseless accusations’ that Tablighis were responsible for the spread of the virus following the religious congregation of the sect held at Delhi’s Nizamuddin area last month.

Mohammad Abbas, a thirty-eight year old businessman from Tiruppur was on Sunday discharged from Coimbatore’s ESI hospital. “As soon as I got discharged, I met the district administration officials and the dean of the hospital and told them that they may contact me anytime if they needed me to donate my plasma,” Abbas was quoted as saying by an English daily.

“It has only been one day since I was discharged but I’ve already spoken to others (from the Jamaat) who have recovered and they were all ready to donate,” he added. 

Leader's call

Maulana Saad Kandhalvi, a prominent leader of Tablighi Jamaat, who has been booked by the Delhi Police for holding a religious congregation, too has appealed to coronavirus survivors to donate blood plasma for infected people.

In a letter issued on Tuesday, Saad said most of the members who were quarantined did not have any infection and they tested negative for COVID-19.

"Even from amongst the ones who tested positive for the disease, a majority of them have now undergone treatment and are now cured while I and a few others are still under quarantine.

"It is required that such people who are now cured of this disease should donate blood plasma to others who are still fighting the disease and are under treatment," he said.

He also has urged the followers of the organisation to pray at home in the month of Ramadan instead of going to mosques. 

Plasma therapy

Convalescent Plasma Therapy is an experimental procedure for COVID-19 patients.

In this therapy, the antibodies of a person who has recovered from the virus are taken and transfused into a sick person (having the virus) to help boost the person’s immune system.

The recovered COVID-19 patient’s blood develops antibodies to battle against COVID-19.

Once the blood of the first patient is infused to the second patient, those antibodies will start fighting against the coronavirus in the second person.

The process for donating plasma is similar to donating blood and takes about an hour.

Several countries around the world including the United Kingdom and the United States have also started plasma therapy trials.

In India, several states like Kerala, Gujarat and Punjab have already started using Plasma Therapy for the corona-infected patients.

Bengaluru, Feb 27: The Centre has adopted Prime Minister Narendra Modi's mantra of "Make in India', for India and the world" to build strong defence and security infrastructure in the country, said Defence Minister Rajnath Singh after inaugurating the new Light Combat Helicopter Production Hangar at Helicopter Division in Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) Complex here on Thursday.

According to an official statement, the Defence Minister said in the last five years, India has made significant progress towards manufacturing military equipment indigenously under the 'Make in India' initiative.

Stressing that the defence industry plays a major role in the economic development of the country, Singh lauded the significant contribution of organisations like HAL.

Highlighting the Rs 35,000 crore exports target set for the coming years, he expressed confidence that HAL, through its various platforms, will contribute significantly to achieve this milestone.

According to the statement, Rajnath Singh commended HAL for being the backbone of the Indian Air Force and meeting the requirements of the Armed Forces.

"The HAL has excelled both in operations and finance in the last five years. It has achieved operational clearance on seven platforms, including Light Combat Aircraft and Light Combat Helicopter, and overhauled platforms like Hawk and SU 30 MKI," he said.

He also appreciated that HAL had a turnover of Rs 19,705 crore till March 2019 and it gave shareholders a healthy dividend of 198 per cent.

HAL also apprised the Defence Minister on the progress of the new design and development programme of indigenous Indian Multi-Role Helicopter (IMRH), the statement informed.

The full-scale mock-up was showcased to Rajnath Singh. The IMRH is proposed as a replacement to the existing medium-lift helicopters such as Mi17's, Kamovs and Seakings which will phase out in the next eight to ten years.

LCH is a 5.5-tonne class combat helicopter designed and developed by HAL. It is powered by two Shakti engines and inherits many technical features of the Advanced Light Helicopter. LCH has the distinction of being the first attack helicopter to land in Forward Bases at Siachen, 4,700 mts above sea level with 500kg load.