Rains lash parts of Saudi Arabia; severe weather claims 14 lives

New Delhi, Feb 12: The Centre on Wednesday said the NRC data in Assam is safe even though some technical issues were visible and that will be resolved soon.

The Union Home Ministry clarification came in view of reports that data of the final list of the National Register of Citizens has been made offline from its official website.

"The NRC data is safe. Some technical issues are in visibility on cloud. These are being resolved soon," a home ministry spokesperson said.

The data was not available for a couple of days and it created panic in the public, mostly among the people excluded from the list as the rejection certificates were yet to be issued.

NRC State Coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma accepted that the data has been made offline, but refuted the allegation of any "malafide" intent in it.

The cloud service for the huge set of data was provided by IT firm Wipro and their contract was till October 19 last year. However, this was not renewed by the previous coordinator.

So, the data got offline from December 15 after it was suspended by Wipro, Sarma said.

He said the state coordination committee had decided to do necessary formalities in its meeting on January 30 and wrote to the Wipro during the first week of February.

"Once Wipro makes the data live, it will be available for public. We hope people will be able to access it in the next 2-3 days," Sarma said.

The complete detail of exclusion and inclusion of bonafide Indian citizens in the NRC was uploaded on its official website http://www.nrcassam.nic.in after the final list was published on August 31, 2019.

The final NRC was published by excluding 19,06,657 persons. A total of 3,11,21,004 names were included out of 3,30,27,661 applicants.

After the earlier NRC State Coordinator Prateek Hajela relinquished the charge on November 11 following his transfer to home state Madhya Pradesh on a direction from the Supreme Court, Sarma was appointed in his place on November 9.

Riyadh, Jun 20:  Speaking at an exclusive webinar organized by the London Business School’s (LBS) Riyadh Chapter, Saudi Arabia’s first sports minister Prince Abdulaziz Bin Turki Al Faisal proudly reflected back on his nation’s sports achievements over the last few years.

Attended by over 170 people, the highest record set at an LBS webinar, various topics were discussed including the Kingdom’s sports strategy, investment opportunities, role of the media and advantages of hosting international sporting events, among other things.

Saudi Arabia has recently presented itself as one of the major players in the global sports industry thanks to its transformative Vision 2030, which aims to diversify the economy and create a more vibrant society.

Recognizing the importance of the vision, Prince Abdulaziz said: “Vision 2030 is something we all believe in. Everywhere you go within the Kingdom, you feel that people are passionate about the vision and its targets. Sport is part of it, and it has a big role in it.”

At the heart of the newly created Ministry of Sport’s strategy is increasing mass participation across all types of sports and preparing the next generation of elite athletes capable of competing on the international stage.

The ambitious prince asserted, “We want to make sure that we create an ecosystem that is sustainable, creates jobs, income and provides a lot of opportunities for everyone. We are creating academies around the Kingdom for kids to get into sports to make sure we have a base for them to start off from.”

Over 50 questions were addressed during the open and transparent webinar, a reflection of the attitude and culture the prince is creating at the Ministry. He admitted that while Saudi Arabia is a nation bound by a love and passion for sport, until recently sports has been looked at as a tool for entertainment rather than an important industry.

One of his key goals is to shift this mentality. Hosting major sports events has greatly contributed in doing so, he is a strong believer of their long-lasting impact and legacy.

“These events will shed light on enlightening people about certain sports and making sure they get attracted by it and enjoy it. From these events that we hosted, we found out there’s interest for tennis, golf, and boxing.”

“We will continue to host these events to make sure that people enjoy them as entertainment but to also make sure that people are passionate about these sports get to watch them live in the Kingdom and hopefully from that get someone passionate enough to participate,” he explained.

A former professional motorsports racer, Prince Abdulaziz was appointed chairman of the then-General Sports Authority at the start of 2019 after holding the position of vice chairman for the previous two years. Under his leadership, the Ministry of Sport doubled the number of its ever-growing sports federations and invested heavily at the grassroots level.

When asked about the significance of such investments, he said: “We give them [athletes] an opportunity to compete under the name of the Kingdom, to shine and make sure there’s a future for them. Today we look at a holistic view of sports. We use it to change certain mindsets and restrictions within the Kingdom to make sure we can evolve within the industry and complete against leading countries.”

The Riyadh Chapter of the London Business School aims to increase engagement and opportunities for LBS alumni in the Kingdom and to develop stronger ties that help build a better future for the business community.

Co-presidents Majed Al Hugail and Faris Al Shareef expressed their delight in hosting Prince Abdulaziz for the first time by saying: “The webinar was very insightful to the elite group of LBS alumni both locally and internationally. It helped them further understand how the Ministry is reshaping the sports sector as part of Vision 2030.

“The session left many of the attendees with a great sense of appreciation of the Ministry’s support to the community, an area where stronger partnerships can potentially be explored for the country and region’s benefits.”

In line with new progressive government policies, a lot of attention and investment has geared towards the inclusion of women in sports on both the elite and amateur levels.

When asked by an audience member about this matter, the sports leader proudly replied by saying: “We’ve seen an increase of active women participation in sports by about 149% from 2015 till today. Only five years ago, women were not allowed to participate in the street but it’s a completely different ball game today.”

A testament to this great progress is the participation of 22 women’s national teams in competitive regional games across a wide range of sports in recent years, in addition to newly incepted Women’s Football League.

Among the topics discussed during the 1-hour long webinar was the Ministry’s journey towards the privatization of some of its assets.

Highlighting the significant role that the private sector contributes towards future growth and development, the Minister said: “The private sector is a fundamental aspect for the evolution of sports within the Kingdom and anywhere else in the world. We have to make sure that the platform is open for the private sector to come in and play its role in increasing the number of participants and to add the number of clubs within the Kingdom.”

He continued: “It is our role to provide the right regulatory process. Today we are ready with a platform to make sure that we can deliver on this for the private sector and for the public. This will add towards the evolvement and the development of sports within the Kingdom.”

Saudi Arabia’s successful hosting of high-profile sports events attracted thousands of locals and visitors; it now has bigger plans to cement its strong position in the global sports industry. Among these plans include bids for two of the continent’s most sought after competitions, the 2027 AFC Asian Cup and 2030 Asian Games.

When asked about the reason behind them, he was confident in his response highlighting that Saudi Arabia has celebrated multiples trophies and medals in the past, but this is the first time that they’re aiming to host the events.

“It is time to do so. It’s unheard of that you win a competition but don’t host it. Saudi should host these events and we are capable of hosting them as a nation. It is something that our people are very passionate about, they love it and follow it. It will showcase what Saudi can do on the Asian front.”

Prince Abdulaziz recognizes Saudi Arabia’s recent sporting achievements, but he remains humble on his mission to use sports as a tool to tell his country’s story to the world and build a healthier, more vibrant society capable of nurturing athletes who can compete on the elite level for many years to come.

Feb 22: A 20-year-old Chinese woman from Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, travelled 400 miles(675 km) north to Anyang where she infected five relatives, without ever showing signs of infection, Chinese scientists reported on Friday, offering new evidence that the virus can be spread asymptomatically.

The case study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, offered clues about how the coronavirus is spreading, and suggested why it may be difficult to stop.

"Scientists have been asking if you can have this infection and not be ill? The answer is apparently, yes," said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, who was not involved in the study.

China has reported a total of 75,567 cases of the virus known as COVID-19 to the World Health Organization (WHO) including 2,239 deaths, and the virus has already spread to 26 countries and territories outside of mainland China.

Researchers have reported sporadic accounts of individuals without any symptoms spreading the virus. What's different in this study is that it offers a natural lab experiment of sorts, Schaffner said.

"You had this patient from Wuhan where the virus is, travelling to where the virus wasn't. She remained asymptomatic and infected a bunch of family members and you had a group of physicians who immediately seized on the moment and tested everyone."

According to the report by Dr Meiyun Wang of the People's Hospital of Zhengzhou University and colleagues, the woman travelled from Wuhan to Anyang on Jan. 10 and visited several relatives. When they started getting sick, doctors isolated the woman and tested her for coronavirus. Initially, the young woman tested negative for the virus, but a follow-up test was positive.

All five of her relatives developed COVID-19 pneumonia, but as of Feb. 11, the young woman still had not developed any symptoms, her chest CT remained normal and she had no fever, stomach or respiratory symptoms, such as cough or sore throat.

Scientists in the study said if the findings are replicated, "the prevention of COVID-19 infection could prove challenging."

Key questions now, Schaffner said, are how often does this kind of transmission occur and when during the asymptomatic period does a person test positive for the virus.