Woman officer leads guard of honour for Obama at Rashtrapati Bhavan

January 25, 2015

Obama honoured

New Delhi, Jan 25: Wing Commander Puja Thakur led the ceremonial guard of honour for US President Barack Obama at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Sunday.

Wing Commander Thakur walked Obama for the inspection of the tri-service guard of honour. This comes as 'nari shakti' (woman power) is the theme for Republic Day parade this year where Obama is the chief guest.

This Jan 26 will also be the first time when women contingents of the army, air force and navy will walk down the Rajpath.

"It is a great honour and we are so grateful for your extraordinary hospitality," Obama said after the ceremony, where he was given a ceremonial Guard of Honour and a 21-gun salute.

The US President was received at the gates of Rashtrapati Bhavan by a cavalcade of the President's Bodyguards dressed in bright red with contrasting blue turbans.

Forming a ring around his Cadillac 'the Beast', the guards escorted him to the central area of the red-sand forecourt of the estate.

The precinct of Rashtrapati Bhavan was decked up for the visiting Head of the State, who will be the first US President to be the Chief Guest at the Republic Day function tomorrow.

The entire stretch from his hotel to the Rashtrapati Bhavan was swarming with security personnel and snipers positioned at roof tops who provided an unassailable ring of security around him.

Upon his arrival at the forecourt, Obama was received by the President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He was escorted to the stage as the national anthems of the United States and India played in the background.

Soon after the Guard of Honour, Obama was escorted to a canopy where the President, the Prime Minister along with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Defence Minister

Manohar Parrikar, Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu, Power Minister Piyush Goyal and Lt Governor of Delhi Najeeb Jung received him. Mukherjee introduced Obama to the Cabinet Ministers and other dignitaries.

Following the ceremonially welcome, Obama headed to the Rajghat to pay homage to Mahatma Gandhi.

He was accompanied by union Minister Piyush Goyal. Obama observed a moment of silence, and took a 'parikrama' around the memorial. He placed a huge wreath and the paid floral tributes at the memorial

Obama honoured1

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
June 30,2020

Mumbai, Jun 30: Senior Congress leader and former Union minister Prithviraj Chavan on Tuesday demanded a ban on NaMo app alleging that it was violating privacy of Indians.

The former Maharashtra chief minister also alleged that the NaMo app, the official mobile phone application of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, surreptitiously changes the privacy settings and sends data to third party companies in the US.

"Its good that Modi government is protecting privacy of 130 crore Indians by banning 59 Chinese apps. The NaMo app also violates privacy of Indians by accessing 22 data points, surreptitiously changing the privacy settings and sending data to third party companies in the US," Chavan tweeted.

India on Monday banned 59 apps with Chinese links, including hugely popular TikTok and UC Browser, saying they were prejudicial to sovereignty, integrity and security of the country.

The move came against the backdrop of the border stand-off with China and recent clash in Galwan Valley in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
June 27,2020

New Delhi, Jun 27: Fuel prices were hiked by the oil marketing companies for the 21st day in a row on Saturday. Petrol and diesel will now cost Rs 80.38/litre and Rs 80.40/litre respectively in the national capital.

The price of petrol is increased by Rs 0.25 per litre while that of diesel by Rs 0.21 per litre.
Rates differ from state to state depending on the incidence of value-added tax (VAT).

Notably, oil marketing companies have been adjusting retail rates in line with costs after an 82-day break from rate revision amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. These firms on June 7 restarted revising prices in line with costs.

The Congress party had called the increase in the price of petrol and diesel 'unjust', 'thoughtless' and demanded from the Central government to roll back increase with immediate effect and pass on the benefit of low oil prices directly to the citizens of this country.
In an official statement, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) had said that no government should levy and impose such unacceptable strain on its people.

Before the nation entered the lockdown, the average price of petrol and diesel in Delhi was Rs 69.60 per litre and Rs 62.30 per litre respectively.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
July 24,2020

New Delhi, Jul 24: Telecom companies lost 82.3 lakh subscribers during the COVID-19 lockdown period of April, data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Friday showed.

As per the reports received from 342 operators in April, TRAI said the number of broadband subscribers decreased from 68.7 crore at the end of March to 67.6 crore at the end of April with a monthly decline rate of 1.64 per cent.

Top five service providers constituted 98.98 per cent market share of total broadband subscribers with Reliance Jio Infocomm (38.9 crore), Bharti Airtel (14.4 crore), Vodafone Idea (11.1 crore), BSNL (2.1 crore) and Atria Convergence (16 lakh).

The number of overall telephone subscribers decreased from 117.7 crore at the end of March to 116.9 crore at the end of April, showing a monthly decline rate of 0.72 per cent.

The TRAI said total wireless subscribers (2G, 3G and 4G) decreased from 115.7 crore at the end of March to 115 crore at the end of April, thereby registering a monthly decline rate of 0.71 per cent.

Wireless subscription in urban areas decreased from 63.8 crore to 62.9 crore but increased in rural areas from 51.9 crore to 52 crore. Monthly growth rates of urban and rural wireless subscription were minus 1.42 per cent and 0.16 per cent respectively.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.