Pranab Mukherjee too valuable for Congress to be made President?

May 4, 2012
Pranab-Mukherjee200x230New Delhi, May 4: The Congress's dilemma over whether to sponsor Pranab Mukherjee in the race for Rashtrapati Bhavan was out in the open on Thursday when a party spokesperson hurriedly withdrew her comment about the veteran finance minister's indispensability for the government.

The spokesperson, Renuka Chaudhary, kicked up a virtual storm when she told reporters, "It will never be easy to leave Pranabda. He is such a valuable person for us in the party. His contribution to the party cannot be even measured. For him, it will not seem to be fair but he has such an active political mind. He is too involved and knows politics so well."

A gushing Chaudhary went on to call Mukherjee a valuable guide, in what was almost universally interpreted as signalling the Congress's reluctance to spare its chief troubleshooter for a non-political sinecure.

The lavish commentary, however, was immediately rolled back, with Chaudhary taking pains to emphasize that her genuine expression of admiration for Mukherjee's skills had been misunderstood and twisted out of context.

When asked about the "confusion" over names doing the rounds, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi said, "There is no confusion. Have patience. There is still time." Although stating the obvious, the remark could have served to reassure that nobody has been ruled out yet as a candidate.

Chaudhary's retraction came amid indications of the finance minister's unhappiness over what he saw as an attempt to indulge him into withdrawing his claim for the top constitutional job.

Tired of being passed over for the prized trophies, starting from prime ministership to the stewardship of the home ministry, Mukherjee is learnt to have made it clear to the leadership that he would like to retreat to the sidelines rather than put up with career stagnation.

Sources said the finance minister reacted to Chaudhary's lavish prose by making it clear that he was not amused. "He saw it as an attempt to spoil his chances," acknowledged a senior Congress source.

Mukherjee is locked in a dead heat with Vice-President Hamid Ansari for Congress endorsement for Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The Congress has been unable to take a call. It is appreciative of Mukherjee's hurt as well as of the need to assuage it but the party fears that the departure of the UPA's principal firefighter will leave the government vulnerable. There are also worries that the prime minister, now at the fag end of a surprisingly long tenure and sure of not heading UPA-3, may start disengaging from Sonia Gandhi's political project just when the Congress chief is hoping for a fresh burst of energy before the 2014 polls.

The bind was underlined once again on Thursday evening when Sonia refrained from spelling out the party's choice when she discussed presidential elections with Trinamool boss and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

At the official Congress briefing, spokesman Rashid Alvi said he could not comment on candidates since the consultations were still underway but added that Renuka Chaudhary was correct in saying that "Mukherjee is important for party, parliament and government".

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News Network
March 3,2020

New Delhi, Mar 3: A day after two new cases of novel coronavirus that included one from Delhi were reported, the Health Ministry on Tuesday said six cases with "high-viral load" were detected during sample testing in Agra and these people have been kept in isolation. The six people had come in contact with a 45-year-old patient from Delhi, whose case came to light on Monday, and they include his family members.

According to government sources, the man, who is a resident of Mayur Vihar, had visited them in Agra.

The six have been kept in isolation at Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi and their samples are being sent to NIV, Pune for confirmation.

Contact tracing of the people who came in contact with the six is simultaneously being done through the Integrated Disease Surveillance Program (IDSP) network, the ministry said in a statement.

Sources said the patient from Mayur Vihar was shifted to a quarantine ward at Safdarjung Hospital on Sunday night.

His other family members have been asked to stay alert and look out for symptoms. One accountant, who came in contact with the man and some of his family members, was also quarantined, they said.

India on Monday reported two new cases of the novel coronavirus, one from Delhi and another one from Hyderabad. The government has stepped up its efforts to detect and check the infection which has killed 2,912 people in China.

On Monday, Rajasthan Health Minister Raghu Sharma had said that an Italian tourist tested positive for coronavirus in Jaipur.

The first sample collected from him on February 29 tested negative but his condition deteriorated, so a second sample was collected which tested positive on Monday, the minister said, adding, "Since there is a variation in the reports, the samples have been sent to the NIV, Pune for testing".

India had earlier reported three cases from Kerala, including two medical students from Wuhan in China, the epicentre of the deadly novel coronavirus. They had self-reported on their return to the country and tested positive for the infection. They were discharged from hospitals last month following recovery.

The infected person from Delhi had travelled to Italy, while the other patient who tested positive for the COVID-19 infection is from Telangana and had recently travelled to Dubai.

Both the patients had self-reported after they developed symptoms.

"They tested positive. They are stable and being closely monitored," ministry said on Monday.

The government has asked people to avoid non-essential travel to Iran, Italy, South Korea and Singapore and said India was in discussions with authorities in Iran and Italy, two countries badly affected by the infection, to evacuate Indians there.

The novel coronavirus or COVID-19, which originated in China, has spread to over 60 countries.

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News Network
May 12,2020

New Delhi, May 12: A total of 12 special evacuation flights from across the globe will bring home stranded Indians on the sixth day of 'Vande Bharat Mission' on Tuesday.

The special flights include Air India flight from Manila to Ahmedabad, London to Hyderabad, Newark-Mumbai-Ahmedabad, AI flight from Singapore to Delhi, AI flight from Dhaka to Srinagar, Dammam to Kochi, Kuala Lumpur to Mumbai, Manila to Delhi, Muscat to Chennai, Dubai to Kannur, Dubai to Mangalore and Singapore-Bengaluru-Kochi.

Amidst the coronavirus pandemic, India is conducting 'Vande Bharat' Mission -- its biggest ever repatriation exercise since independence -- to bring back stranded Indians from abroad, including from the US, the UAE and the UK.

On the fifth day of Vande Bharat Mission, as many as 1,667 Indian nationals were repatriated from different countries in eight special flights.

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News Network
May 7,2020

New Delhi, May 7: Food ordering and delivery platform Swiggy on Thursday said its co-founder and CTO Rahul Jaimini will move away from active role in the company during the month to pursue another entrepreneurial venture.

Jaimini will be joining Pesto Tech, a career accelerator start-up, as their co-founder, Swiggy said in a statement.

He will continue to be a shareholder and board member of Swiggy, it added.

Functions currently led by Rahul, including platform engineering, analytics, IT and labs, will be realigned to Dale Vaz, Head of Engineering and Data Science, who has been with the company for close to two years, the statement said.

"Technology was crucial to what we set out to build when we started Swiggy. Nandan (Reddy) and I could not have asked for a better partner to handle this aspect of the company," Swiggy co-founder and CEO Sriharsha Majety said.

It was Rahul's immense passion to 'build for the billions' that drove technological innovations that set Swiggy apart as we grew phenomenally over the years, he added.

"Working with technology that has large scale impact is what excites me, and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to do just this at Swiggy and grow tremendously over the years," Jaimini said.

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