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India introduces liberal visa regime for Bangladesh

[email protected] (The Hindu)
December 3, 2012

India-Bangladesh-border

Dhaka, December 3: Living up to the promise made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to remove trade and non-tariff barriers between India and Bangladesh, India has decided to adopt a liberal visa policy for various categories of Bangladesh nationals, as a pro-active step, to promote economic engagement, people-to-people contact, cultural ties and tourism between the two nations.

It was in October this year when both countries agreed during the Home Secretary level talks to hold exclusive meeting to work out procedures and modalities at the earliest. However, India has not waited for joint working group (JWG) to be set up to sort out the liberal visa regime issue and has gone ahead unilaterally to simplify visa procedures for senior citizens, students, businessmen, medical patients and to promote tourism. “There is no formal agreement between India and Bangladesh on the visa regime. As a step towards showing India’s commitment to joining hands with Dhaka in giving a boost to the economic prosperity of Bangladesh and its people, we have decided to adopt a liberal visa regime,’’ India’s Ambassador to Bangladesh, Pankaj Saran told journalists here at the start of the “India Show” organized by Ministry of Commerce and Industry and FICCI. India at present gives nearly 500,000 visas to Bangladesh nationals every year and with a new visa regime in place, this figure is likely to witness a massive hike.

India has already signed a liberal visa regime with its other neighbour – Pakistan — introducing for the first time group tourist and pilgrim visas, multi-city and multi entry visa for businessmen, visa on arrival for senior citizens and other categories. However, the visa regime with Pakistan is yet to be formally implemented in ground.

But in case of Bangladesh, Mr. Saran the India mission in Dhaka has decided to grant liberal visa permits to businessmen, artists and for tourism purposes. “Earlier, businessmen and other categories would get five days visa with single entry condition. This was making it very difficult for even those people who have been dealing with Indian corporate world for the last two to three decades. Now we are granting six month multi entry visa and even longer term visas to various categories including artists from Bangladesh that is going to make things smooth and easy,” he added.

India is also looking to capitalize on medical tourism concept and in view of its strong medical facilities seeking to tap a huge market of citizens of Bangladesh would want to visit the country to seek medical treatment. Then there is another category which seeks to visit India with tourism purpose in mind. Then there is another category which seeks to visit their near and dear ones in west Bengal and other parts of India.

Arvind Mehta, Joint Secretary in Commerce Ministry said his Ministry had been pushing for a liberal visa regime with not only Bangladesh with all the SAARC nations and be partners in their development. “It is a very encouraging development that Indian mission in Dhaka has paved the way for smoother and liberal exchange between the people and economic of the two nations. It will help in promoting Bangladesh as a major investment destination for Indian business houses,” he added.

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News Network
June 26,2020

New Delhi, Jun 26: With the highest single-day spike of 17,296 COVID-19 cases reported in the last 24 hours, India's COVID-19 count reached 4,90,401 on Friday, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).

The country also saw 407 deaths in the last 24 hours, which pushed the death toll to 15,301.

The total number of cases includes 1,89,463 active cases, 2,85,637cured/discharged/migrated cases, as per the MoHFW.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the total number of samples tested up to June 25 is 77,76,228; the number of samples tested on 25 June is 2,15,446.

Maharashtra remains the worst-affected state in the country with 1,47,741 cases. The active cases in the state are 63,357. The number of people cured or discharged stands at 77,453 while the death toll is at 6,931.

Delhi has so far reported 73,780 cases. The active cases in the national capital stood at 26,586. While the cured and discharged numbers stood at 44,765. The death toll in the city is 2,429.

Tamil Nadu has so far reported 70,977. With active cases at 30,067 and the number of cured or discharged at 39,999, while the death toll stood at 911.

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News Network
August 8,2020

Nagpur, Aug 8: "He was a great son and always the first one to help others in need. He sacrificed his life for the country," said Neela Sathe, the mother of late captain DV Sathe, who was flying the Air India flight that crash-landed at Kozhikode airport on Friday, claiming 18 lives.

Indian Army Retired Colonel Vasant Sathe and his wife Neela lost both their sons in line of duty. The couple is originally from Nagpur, Maharashtra.

Speaking to news agency, Neela broke into tears and said, "He was a great son and always the first one to help others in need. 

His teachers still appreciate him. During the Ahmedabad floods, he saved the children of the soldiers by lifting them in his arms. I wish God would have called us instead of him."

"Both our children sacrificed their lives for the country," she added.

Remembering DV Sathe's childhood, Neela talked about every that moment when he made his parents proud.

Neela told with great pride that Captain DV Sathe had received the Sword of Honor and had also won eight medals in the Air Force.

Neela last talked to DV Sathe over phone call a few days ago during which captain told her mother not to go out of the house amid COVID-19 crisis as if something happens to her, he won't be able to bear that.

Vasant, captain's father retired as a colonel after serving in the Army for 30 years, following the footsteps of their father, both his sons joined too the Army.

Their elder son Vikas, was in the Army, and at the age of 22, he was martyred in an accident in Ferozepur in 1981. Their younger son Deepak (DV Sathe), who served as a pilot in Air India after serving in the Indian Air Force, died in the plane crash on Friday.

An Air India Express plane carrying 190 passengers including 10 infants skidded while landing at Karipur Airport in Kozhikode on Friday evening.

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Agencies
April 23,2020

More and more Indians have become better prepared in the last one month, as far as stocking of their ration, medicine or money is concerned, according to the IANS-CVoter COVID-19 Tracker.

With the second leg of the lockdown half way through and Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying it's a long haul, 57.2% respondents said they have less than three weeks of stock while 43.3% said they have a stock that will last beyond that

However, if one breaks into weeks, most respondents said they are prepared for a week's time. 24.5% respondents said they have ration, medicine or money to last a week. This is closely followed by 21.9 % respondents saying they are ready for a month.

Meanwhile, 20.4 % said they are ready for a couple of weeks. There are 15.8 % who said they are ready for more than a month with food, ration and medicine. A tiny 5.6 % said they are ready with three weeks of stock.

However, there is 12.3% who still seem to live on the edge with less than a week's preparation.

But, the biggest takeaway from the IANS-CVoter COVID-19 Tracker is that in the last one month, a massive segment of society realised that the fight is long and the preparation should also be to last that long.

o put things into context, on March 16 when the tracker started, a whopping 77.1% said they have stock to last for less than a week. More than a month later on April 21, that number jumped to just 12.3%, which essentially means, people have become better prepared for a long-hauled lockdown period.

Similarly, on April 21, a sizable 21.9% respondents claimed they are ready with ration and medicine that will last them a month. On March 16, not even one respondent could claim they have a month's stock. In fact till March 22, just ahead of the announcement of the first lockdown, no respondent the IANS-CVoter tracker said that they have a month's preparation.

Similarly, when the tracker started, 9.9% said they simply ‘don't know'. As on April 21, that number is a big zero.

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