New Delhi, Jul 18: Textiles Minister Smriti Irani was today given the additional charge of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry after M Venkaiah Naidu resigned from the Cabinet to contest the vice-presidential poll.
The portfolio of urban development, which too was with Naidu, was given to Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, the PMO said.
The BJP had yesterday decided to field Naidu as NDA's candidate for the post of vice president.
Kolkata, Jan 15: The arrows of Mahabharata's Arjuna had atomic power, claimed West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, drawing sharp criticism from academicians, even as he joined a long list of politicians who have in recent years given bizarre interpretations linking mythology with science.
Speaking at the 45th Eastern India Science Fair and 19th Science and Engineering Fair on Tuesday, Dhankhar also claimed that flying objects existed during the period of Ramayana.
"It is said that the plane was invented in 1910 or 1911, but if we delve into our old scriptures we will see in Ramayana, we had 'uran khatola' (aircraft)," he said.
"Sanjaya narrated the entire war of Mahabharata (to Dhitarasthra) not from TV. The arrows of Arjuna in Mahabharata had atomic power in it," Dhankhar said, asserting that the world can no longer afford to ignore India.
According to Sanskrit epic Mahabharata, Sanjay, even after staying away from the battlefield, had narrated what was happening there to Dhritarashtra, who was blind.
Dhankhar, who has been in news for clashes with the Mamata Banerjee government ever since he assumed office in July last year, joins politicians such as Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Deb and UP deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma to give odd interpretations of mythology.
While Deb had claimed that the internet existed during Mahabharata, Sharma suggested that godess Sita was a test tube baby.
Recently, Puducherry Lt Governor Kiran Bedi was trolled online for sharing a doctored video that claimed, "NASA recorded sound of sun -- Sun chants Om".
Indologist Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri said governors appointed by the BJP government at the Centre are delving into everything and behave "as if they are know-alls".
"They fail to understand one thing that great writers have very strong power of imagination," Bhaduri said.
Scientist Sandip Chakraborty said such comments only hurt the scientific progress in India at the global forum.
"The ancient writers described all these things based on their imagination. It is true that India made a lot of progress during the ancient period, but such comments only damages the progress made by our scientific community," he said.
New Delhi, May 29: More than 38,000 doctors, including those retired from the Armed Forces Medical Services, have volunteered to help the government in its fight against COVID-19 pandemic, a senior official said on Friday.
On March 25, the government had made an appeal to doctors, including the retired ones, to come forward and join the efforts to fight the pandemic.
"38,162 volunteer doctors, including retired government, Armed Forces Medical Services, public sector undertaking or private doctors have signed up with the government to battle COVID-19 pandemic," the official said.
The official further said Niti Aayog has sent a list of names of these doctors to Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
In a statement posted on Niti Aayog's website on March 25, the government had said those who wish to contribute to this noble mission may register themselves through a link provided on the Aayog's website.
"The Government of India requests for volunteer doctors who are fit and willing to be available for providing their services in the public health facilities and the training hospitals in the near future.
"We appeal to such doctors to come forward at this hour of need. You could also be a retired government, Armed Forces Medical Services, public sector undertaking or a private doctor," the statement had said.
It had noted that in case the outbreak leads to a high number of infected individuals, India's public health facilities will face tremendous load to take care of a large number of patients.
Many countries, including the US, Italy, the UK and Vietnam, had also urged retired health workers to come back to work amid the pandemic.
The number of COVID-19 cases in India has climbed to 1,65,799, making it the world's ninth worst-hit country by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Health Ministry on Friday said the death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 4,706 in the country.
New Delhi, Jan 7: The Delhi Police has filed an FIR against JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh and 19 others for allegedly attacking security guards and vandalising the server room of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on January 4.
The police registered the FIR on January 5.
In the complaint filed by the JNU administration, the University alleged that the accused were involved in physical violence and pushed the women guards, verbally abused them and threatened them of dire consequences if they opened the lock of university's communication and information (CIS) office.
"They illegally trespassed the University property with the criminal intention to damage the public property. They damaged servers and made it dysfunctional. They also damaged fiber optic power supplies and broke the biometric systems inside the room," the University officials alleged.
This incident allegedly occurred a day before Aishe Ghosh, other JNU students and teachers were attacked by a masked mob inside the campus.
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We better prepare another list of those who got killed by saffron terrorists and send it to President of India.
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