Navy Chief D K Joshi resigns taking responsibility for submarine accidents

February 26, 2014
New Delhi, Feb 26: Navy Chief Admiral D K Joshi today resigned taking "moral responsibility" over the spate of mishaps involving naval warships in the last seven months.

Joshi, who had about 15 months more left in service, submitted his resignation hours after submarine INS Sindhuratna had a mishap in which seven sailors were taken seriously ill and two officers were missing.

The Defence Ministry immediately accepted his resignation and ordered that Vice Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral R K Dhowan should take over as the Acting Chief till regular Chief is appointed.DK_Joshi

"Taking moral responsibility for the accidents and incidents which have taken place during the past few months, the Chief of Naval Staff Admiral D K Joshi today resigned from the post of Navy Chief," Defence Ministry said.

"The Government has accepted the resignation of Admiral Joshi with immediate effect," it said.

This would be the first time in the last 15 years that a Naval chief has had to leave office in controversial circumstances after Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat was sacked by the NDA Government in 1998 when George Fernandes was the Defence Minister.

Reflecting the gravity of the mishap, Defence Minister A K Antony briefed President Pranab Mukherjee, who is also the Supreme Commander of Armed Forces, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the accident.

There have been 10 reported incidents involving naval assets in the last seven months involving the INS Sindhuratna mishap early today in which two officers are missing and seven sailors were affected severly due to smoke inhalation.

The biggest mishap occured when the INS Sindhurakshak sank inside the Mumbai harbour killing all 18 personnel on board on August 14.

Earlier this month, INS Airavat, an amphibious warfare vessel, ran aground after which the commanding officer was stripped of his command duties.

After the sinking of the INS Sindhurakshak, one of the mishaps involved INS Betwa which was damaged after probably hitting some underwater object.

India's leading minesweeper, the INS Konkan that was undergoing repairs in Vizag, also caught fire and suffered major damage to its interiors. The Pondicherry-class minesweeper was getting a refit at a dry dock when the incident occurred.

The naval headquarters is concerned over the spate of mishaps in the Western Command and had even summoned Western Naval Commander Vice Admiral Shekhar Sinha on the issue.

The Western Command headquarters was damaged when Naval Armament Depot personnel misfired a heavy-calibre gun at it while checking it.

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Agencies
June 19,2020

New Delhi, Jun 19: Delhi minister Satyendar Jain's health has deteriorated further. He is infected with the coronavirus. Jain has also been diagnosed with pneumonia. He is being shifted to an ICU.  According to doctors, Jain is now kept full-time on oxygen support as his oxygen saturation level has dipped.  

Jain was admitted to Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital early Tuesday after running high fever and suffering a sudden drop in oxygen level. The 55-year-old leader's test result came positive on Wednesday evening after a second test. Jain was brought to the hospital and was administered a test for the novel coronavirus infection on Tuesday morning, for which he tested negative. But he still ran fever and showed symptoms, so another test was done after 24 hours of the first.

He will now be shifted Max Hospital in Saket and administered plasma therapy. 

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has also wished for Jain's speedy recovery.

On Thursday, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia took over the charge of health, PWD, power and other departments held by Jain. Jain will remain the cabinet minister without any portfolio in the Arvind Kejriwal government until he recovers. 

On Sunday, Jain attended a high-level meeting on the coronavirus situation in the national capital, chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, which was also attended by Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal, Kejriwal, Sisodia and Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan.

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News Network
February 28,2020

Feb 28: For 30-year-old Shabana Parveen, it was nothing sort of a miracle — giving birth to a healthy baby boy after surviving a brutal attack by a mob who kicked and assaulted her and her husband in northeast Delhi's Karawal Nagar.

Their home set afire by the mob, Ms Parveen's family is now pinning their hopes on the newborn who they called a "miracle baby".

Ms Parveen, her husband, two kids and mother-in-law were sleeping inside the house on Monday night when a mob barged into their house.

Narrating their ordeal, Ms Parveen's mother-in-law Nashima told PTI, "They hurled religious slurs, beat up my son. Some of them even kicked my daughter-in-law in the abdomen...as I went to protect her they came charging at me... We thought we would not survive that night. But with God's grace we somehow managed to escape from the clutches of the rioters."

"We rushed Parveen to a nearby hospital but doctors there asked us to go to Al-hind Hospital where she delivered a baby boy on Wednesday," she added.

Despite having lost their home for over two decades and all belongings, her family has overcome the initial shock and are now overjoyed with the birth of the "miracle baby".

Ms Nashima said she had no clue where the family would go after Ms Parveen was discharged from the hospital.

"It's all gone there. Nothing left. Maybe, we will go to some relative's place and see how we can re-build our life," she said.

Ali, 6, who held his one-day-old brother, caressing his forehead, said, "I will take care of him forever and save him from every ill."

The violence over the amended citizenship law in northeast Delhi has claimed 38 lives so far and left over 200 people injured. Frenzied mobs torched houses, shops, vehicles, a petrol pump and pelted stones at locals and police personnel.

Jaffrabad, Maujpur, Babarpur, Yamuna Vihar, Bhajanpura, Chand Bagh and Shiv Vihar are among the areas mainly affected by the clashes.

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Agencies
February 29,2020

New Delhi, Feb 29: Former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan has said slowdown in growth is due to the current government focussing more on meeting its political and social agenda rather than paying attention to the economy.

India can still reverse its slowing economic growth by paying attention to key issues, he said. "It's a sad story, I think most recently, it is politics," Rajan said in response to a question on what was stopping India's growth which remains below potential.

In an interview to Bloomberg TV, Rajan said unfortunately the current government after a massive election win has "focussed more on fulfilling its political and social agenda rather than paying attention to the economic growth".

"Unfortunately, this drift has continued a pace of slowing growth, which was precipitated initially by some actions the government took such as the demonetisation and a poorly rolled out Goods and Services Tax (GST) reform," Rajan said.

India's GDP growth hit nearly 7-year low of 4.7 per cent in the December quarter, as per official data released on Friday.

The GDP growth for the quarter is the lowest since January-March of 2012-13.

In the interview, which was telecast before the official numbers were released, Rajan said India has not paid sufficient attention to cleaning up the financial sector and unfortunately, that is leading to the slowing growth.

"These are things that they can change if attention is paid to them and appropriate actions are taken," Rajan, Professor of Finance at University of Chicago Booth School of Business, said.

On being asked about the spread of the coronavirus globally and its impact, he said there will certainly be some legacy issues in terms of business rethinking in the global supply chain.

"If it is disrupted anywhere, the entire supply chain is held ransom and companies are going to start rethinking that should we actually have these really spread out global supply chain or to bring them back closer home and how much diversification should we have. Should we have multiple production sites across the world rather than have it focussed primarily in Asia," he said.

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