Khandwa (Madhya Pradesh), Jul 26: The first punishment in the Vyavsayik Pariksha Mandal or Vyapam scam has come, with a court in this Madhya Pradesh town sentencing two accused of fraud to five-year jail terms, an official said on Saturday.
Khandwa's Superintendent of Police M.S. Sikarwar said that the district court sentenced the two - Arun Kumar and Devendra Kaushal - in a case relating to the state Pre-Medical Test in 2004.
Further details of the judgment were not immediately available.
New Delhi, Aug 2: The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Sunday issued fresh guidelines for international passengers coming to India amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The new guidelines will be implemented from 12:01 am on August 8.
The ministry has also asked all passengers to submit a self-declaration form online at least 72 hours before travel.
"All travellers should submit self-declaration form on the on the online portal (www.newdelhiairport.in) at least 72hours before the scheduled travel," the guidelines said.
It also said that those coming to India must give an undertaking that they would undergo mandatory quarantine for 14 days as prescribed by the government. "They should also give an undertaking on the portal that they would undergo mandatory quarantine for 14 days i.e. 7 days paid institutional quarantine at their own cost, followed by 7 days isolation at home with self-monitoring of health," it added.
Giving exemptions in some cases, the guidelines mentioned, "Only for compelling reasons/cases of human distress such as pregnancy, death in the family. Serious illness and parent (s) with children of 10 years or below, home quarantine may be permitted for 14 days."
"If they wish to seek such exemption, they shall apply to the online portal at least 72 hours before boarding. The decision taken by the government as communicated on the online portal will be final," it said further.
The guidelines further said that travellers could request for exemption from institutional quarantine by submitting a negative RT-PCR test report on arrival.
"This test should have been conducted within 96 hours prior to undertaking the journey. The test report should be uploaded on the portal for consideration," it added.
Passengers have also been asked to download the Aarogya Setu app on their mobile phones.
New Delhi, Jan 30: In a major shift of strategy ahead of the Delhi assembly polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to rope in its senior leaders for massive public rallies.
Its star campaigners like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP chief JP Nadda, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and other union ministers would now be addressing massive public rallies in addition to ongoing neighbourhood meetings.
"The big rallies would begin from February 1. While 'Nukkad' meetings will take place till the last day of campaigning, there would be big rallies of the top leadership of the party, " informed a senior party leader.
Sources said the BJP has changed its strategy after the success of its grassroots contact programme as the party wants to consolidate its gains.
"As part of the reworked strategy the BJP has asked its various Mandals to organise public meetings of 10,000-15,000 people in each assembly segment to reach out to the masses," sources added.
While there are two planned for Prime Minister Modi, two have been planned for JDU chief and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar along with Nadda and Amit Shah. Yogi Aadityanath too would be addressing 12 rallies.
The party is leaving no stone unturned to secure massive gains, which it feels can be converted to victory in the forthcoming polls.
Party sources feel that the relentless campaigning under the guidance of Amit Shah and Nadda has ensured that the morale of party cadre is at an all-time high.
"The neighbourhood meetings have ensured that we have been able to make the people of Delhi aware of the lack of work under the Arvind Kejriwal led Aam Aadmi Party government. They have also been apprised about the anti-national views of the opponents and we think that this is expected to turn the polls into our favour," sources added.
Delhi is scheduled for assembly polls on February 8 and the results for the 70 constituencies will be declared on February 11.
As part of the new strategy, senior leaders like JP Nadda, Amit Shah, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, ministers like Rajnath Singh and Smriti Irani would be holding public rallies in various parts of the city. Several other chief ministers from various BJP ruled states are also expected to be roped in for the campaign.
The strategy for reach out to the masses is an attempt at weakening the hold of AAP on Delhi. With positive feedback coming after the success of the neighbourhood meetings in the past week, the BJP is now looking to increase its potential reach with polls just days away.
Till now the party had deployed 70 union ministers to hold at least one public meeting and one 'padayatra' each as part of the campaign.
New Delhi, Mar 12: The coronavirus pandemic could deal a crippling blow to the Indian travel and tourism industry, specially with the government suspending all visas, with the economic impact being assessed to run into thousands of crores of rupees. According to industry chamber CII, this is the one of the worst crises ever to hit the Indian tourism industry impacting all its geographical segments - inbound, outbound and domestic, almost all tourism verticals - leisure , adventure, heritage, MICE, cruise, corporate and niche segments.
The whole tourism value chain across hotels, travel agents, tour operations, destinations, restaurants, family entertainment venues and air, land and sea transportation have been hit.
In an impact assessment of the coronavirus pandemic, CII Tourism Committee said inbound foreign tourism of over USD 28 billion in value terms accounts for an average 60-65 per cent between October to March.
"As the news of the virus started picking up from November, the percentage of cancellations started going up in this segment exponentially and is reaching a peak of almost 80 per cent now in March in many Indian locations. The value at risk from this segment will be in multiples of tens of thousands of crores," the CII assessment report said.
With India cancelling all visas, the chamber said the impact "will be worse".
It further said,"The forward bookings for the inbound season of October 2020-March 2021 which should have started picking are all muted. These are showing highly discouraging signs with cancellations of important global travel marts which are marketplaces for contracting for the next season."
It further said there are reports of large scale forward cancellations from NRI segment from developed markets, which account for over 60 per cent during April to September inbound visits.
"Unless the progression of the virus stops, almost the entire value for the remainder of 2020 season is at risk," the report added.
ANAROCK Property Consultants Chairman Anuj Puri said India's hospitality sector will definitely be impacted by the announcement of a global pandemic, and the mounting numbers of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country.
"The cancellation of visas for foreigners as well as the strong advice issued to Indians to refrain from unnecessary travel will have a marked effect. This is the most unsettling healthcare crisis in recent times and hotel bookings will go south," he added.
On Indians being advised to refrain from unnecessary travel, as per the CII report almost 28 million plus Indians are estimated to have travelled outside in 2019 and there were almost 1.8 billion domestic tourist footfalls.
The holiday season of Indians -- those travelling within the country and outside -- is heavy in April-July, October and December.
"The December holiday season of 2019 took an estimated hit of almost 40-50 per cent, the holiday season of April to July 2020 is likely to take a humongous hit which could be as high as 80-100 per cent, unless there is positive news of the progression of virus decreasing," the CII assessment report said.
There are advanced cancellations and highly reduced forward booking pipelines for the holiday season. Only corporates are flying and that too only on highly essential same day travel. Most of the MNCs are advising work from home, stifling travel, it added.
On suspension of visas, MakeMyTrip Group CEO Rajesh Magow told ,"The period between February till the end of March is typically a lean period because of exam season but we are seeing a demand slowdown for the upcoming summer holiday season especially for international travel. The situation remains dynamic making it hard to quantify the actual impact on our business and industry at large."
He further said,"The decision by the government will have an impact on inbound and outbound international travel. So far there are no restrictions or advisories issued for domestic travel."
VFS Global Regional Group COO - South Asia, Middle East and North Africa, Americas Vinay Malhotra said,"While it is too early to comment on the impact of coronavirus on visa application trends, so far, our visa application processes in India continue on schedule as per the mandates of our client governments."
He also said the company is exploring steps to assuage concerns of people about visiting busy public areas due to the nature of the virus by considering discounted rates on courier return services for visa customers who want to avoid returning to the visa centres to pick up their passports.
Besides, he said,"We are also contemplating lower fees for our Visa at your doorstep service, for those customers who are requesting an alternative to visiting the centres to submit visa applications."
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