Gandhi, Nehru were NRIs, Congress was an NRI movement: Rahul Gandhi

Agencies
September 22, 2017

New York, Sept 22: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi today said that originally Congress was an NRI movement and prominent freedom fighters like Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru were NRIs.

"Mahatma Gandhi was an NRI, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru came back from England, Dr Ambedkar, Maulana Azad, Sardar Patel- these were all NRIs. Every single one of them went to the outside world, saw the outside world, returned to India and used some of the ideas they got and transformed India," he said.

Speaking at an event here on Wednesday organised by the Indian National Overseas Congress (INOC), Gandhi said when an idea is good, India absorbs it quickly and shows how it can be used.

He said that he views India not as a piece of land but as a set of ideas and anybody who has the ideas that make up India is an Indian.

"Some people view India as a geographical construct. They view India as a piece of land. I don't view India as a piece of land. I view India as a set of ideas. So for me, anybody who has the ideas that make up India is an Indian," Gandhi said.

"Ideas take time to travel into India. But, when an idea is good, India understands it very quickly, and uses it and shows the world how it can be used," he added.

Gandhi, who is on a two week visit to the US, said he felt proud of the work done by NRIs in the US.

He said NRIs work in different fields and have tremendous knowledge and understanding.

Citing examples, Gandhi said Verghese Kurien had helped usher in the White Revolution, while Sam Pitroda, who was on the dias, had "single handedly transformed the telecom industry".

"We don't want one Sam Pitroda. We want at least 10-15 Sam Pitrodas to transform India, because there's a lot of work to be done in India," Gandhi said.

The Congress leader also narrated an anecdote about being asked by his father Rajiv Gandhi, who later became Prime Minister, to attend in 1982 a presentation on computers by Pitroda.

Gandhi said he was 12 years old and sat in the room for six hours with his sister and did not quite understand what a computer was as most people did not in 1982.

"And four or five years later, I started to see the result of that presentation."

Gandhi recalled that there were typewriters in the Prime Minister's Office then and there was reluctance to shift to computers despite the keenness of his father and Pitroda.

He said his father and Pitroda convinced the PMO staff that they would replace typewriters with computers only for a month but once it was done, no one wanted to go back to the typewriters.

Gandhi described agriculture "as a strategic asset" and said the country needs to develop a cold chain as 40 per cent of vegetables rot.

He said a very large number of surgeries, including those related to the heart and eye, are carried out in India and the country can become the healthcare centre of the world.

Gandhi said US universities were knowledge networks where information travels within them and they are connected to businesses and economy.

"Our IITs are tremendous institutions but they are not networks. If we connect our IITs to our industries and businesses across the world, they will start to compete with the best businesses in the world. These are things that can be done."

Pitroda, who is chairman of Overseas Congress and spoke before Gandhi, said the Congress leader was "extremely well read, very analytical, sincere, courageous and honest".

He said India was passing through a difficult phase. "Favour to one community over other worries me personally," Pitroda said.

Urging the NRIs to stand up for the right cause, he said Congress "needs help today".

He said NRIs can be "ambassadors for our values" and make a difference.

"We are going to show a new path," Pitroda said and urged people not to spread gossip or lies on social media.

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Agencies
January 11,2020

London, Jan 11: Former cricketer Sachin Tendulkar's famous lap around the Wankhede Stadium after the World Cup 2011 win has been nominated in Laureas's list for the most inspiring sporting event in the last twenty years.

The moment featuring Tendulkar has been described as "Carried on the shoulders by a nation".

On his sixth attempt at the World Cup and with India not having won the competition since 1983, Tendulkar finally became a part of the team that lifted the coveted trophy. Carried on the shoulders of the Indian team, he made a lap of honour, shedding tears of joy after the victory was sealed in his home city.

The 2011 World Cup was also the first time, in which a host nation ended up winning the trophy.

Apart from Tendulkar, England's Andrew Flintoff is the only other cricketer to feature in the list. In 2005, England managed to defeat Australia in an Ashes Test, but Flintoff chose to first shake hands with Brett Lee rather than celebrate with his side.

Matthias Steiner (weightlifting), Natalie du Toit (swimming), Sky Brown (skateboarding), Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee (triathlon), Xia Boyu (mountaineering) have been nominated in the list.

Female tennis stars also feature in the list for coming up with an equal play, equal pay campaign. After pressure from Venus Williams and others, Wimbledon announced that female tennis players would receive prize money equal to the men's.

German international footballer Miroslav Klose was playing for Lazio in Italy's Serie A in 2012 against Napoli when he rose for a ball in the early moments of the game.

The ball came spiraling off his hand and skirted into the back of the net and a goal was awarded. While most players would carry on as if nothing had happened, Klose was honest with the referee and admitted that he handled the ball.

As a result, he also finds a place on the list.

The Laureus Sporting Moment Award celebrates the moments where the sport has unified people in the most extraordinary way.

This campaign has shortlisted 20 sporting stories from the last 20 years that have left their mark on the world.

The winner will be decided on the basis of public voting. It has already started, and the final date to cast the vote is February 16.

Finally, the result will be declared on February 17.
With three knock-out rounds, the top-20 moments will be whittled down to ten then five, with the top-five moments going head-to-head.

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News Network
May 19,2020

Washington, May 19: As the scientists across the world are struggling to develop a vaccine for combating coronavirus, US drugmaker Moderna announced on Monday (local time) that the phase I trial of its Covid-19 vaccine has shown positive early results.

The company is hopeful that it's vaccine could be available to the public as early as January next year. Several firms across the world are in the race to develop a vaccine for the deadly virus which has claimed over 3 lakh lives worldwide.

CNN citing Dr. Tal Zaks, Moderna's chief medical officer reported that "if future studies go well, the company's vaccine could be available to the public as early as January".

"This is absolutely good news and news that we think many have been waiting for for quite some time," Zaks was quoted as saying.

Moderna, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts announced that the vaccine developed neutralising antibodies to the virus at levels reaching or exceeding the levels seen in people who have naturally recovered from Covid-19, reported CNN.

These will be followed by phase 2 trials and phase 3 trials, which Moderna plans to start in July.

President Donald Trump had on Friday said that that the United States will be able to deliver a few hundred million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, under 'Operation Warp Speed', by the end of this year.

"I have very recently seen early data from a clinical trial with a coronavirus vaccine and this data made me feel even more confident that we'll be able to deliver a few hundred million doses of vaccine by the end of 2020 and we will do the best we can," Trump had said at a press conference at the White House on Friday.

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Agencies
April 23,2020

New Delhi, Apr 23: Delhi Police has booked Jamia students Meeran Haider and Safoora Zargar under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in a case related to communal violence in northeast Delhi over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, said a lawyer.

Haider and Zargar, arrested for allegedly hatching a conspiracy to incite the communal riots in February, are in judicial custody. While Zargar is the media coordinator of Jamia Coordination Committee, Haider is a member of the committee.

The police has also booked Jawaharlal Nehru University student leader Umar Khalid under the UAPA in the case, said advocate Akram Khan who is representing Haider in the case.

Haider (35) is a PhD student and the president of RJD youth wing's Delhi unit, while Zargar is an MPhil student of Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) university.

In the FIR, the police has claimed that the communal violence was a "premeditated conspiracy" which was allegedly hatched by Khalid and two others.

The students have also been booked for the offences of sedition, murder, attempt to murder, promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion and rioting.

Khalid had allegedly given provocative speeches at two different places and appealed to the citizens to come out on streets and block the roads during the visit of US President Donald Trump to spread propaganda at international level about how minorities in India are being , the FIR alleged.

In this conspiracy, firearms, petrol bombs, acid bottles and stones were collected at numerous homes, the FIR claimed.

Co-accused Danish was given the responsibility to gather people from two different places to take part in the riots, the police alleged.

Women and children were made to block the roads under the Jafrabad metro station on February 23 to create tension amidst the neighbourhood people, it said.

Over 20 film personalities, including Anurag Kashyap, Vishal Bhardwaj, Mahesh Bhatt and Ratna Pathak Shah, on Sunday had released a statement raising their voice against the arrest of the students and activists by Delhi Police for protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and demanded their release.

Following this, the police had said investigations into the JMI violence and northeast Delhi riot cases were done impartially, and arrests were made after analysis of forensic evidence.

In December last year, the police had allegedly entered the JMI campus after protests over the CAA, being held a few metres away from the varsity, turned violent.

Rajya Sabha MP and RJD leader Manoj Jha had tweeted, "Delhi Police called him for investigation and then received orders from above and arrested Meeran Haider, who has been helping people during the time of coronavirus outbreak."

The Jamia Coordination Committee (JCC), a group comprising students and alumni from the varsity, had condemned the arrest and demanded his immediate release.

"The country is facing a massive health crisis, however, the state machinery is busy harassing and framing student activists in false cases to suppress voices of dissent," they said.

The JCC said Haider was diligently working to provide ration to the needy during the lockdown. Communal clashes had broken out in northeast Delhi on February 24 after violence between citizenship law supporters and protesters spiralled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured.

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