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Agatha Sangma skips third event in 10 days to avoid medi

June 30, 2012
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New Delhi, June 30: For the third time in 10 days, Minister of State for Rural Development Agatha Sangma skipped an event Saturday, apparently to avoid media scrutiny on her father, P.A. Sangma, contesting the presidential election as a candidate of the BJP and some other opposition parties.

Agatha Sangma was to inaugurate a conference, "Seeking our collective peace; The Northeast India Diaspora looks into solutions for peace and development in the region" Saturday morning but dropped out at the last minute.

"She had confirmed and reconfirmed her attendance. Then she told me she couldn't come because of a religious ceremony in Tura (in Arunachal Pradesh). I told her she should issue a statement. She has done so, so I won't circulate that here," Binalakshmi Nepram, founder of the Manipur Women Gun Survivors Network, one of the organisers of the conference, told IANS.

On Thursday, Agatha Sangma was missing from the large retinue that accompanied the senior Sangma to Parliament House to file his papers for the July 19 presidential elections.

A week before that, she had skipped a meeting of her Nationalist Congress Party which was to take a view on Sangma's candidature. P.A. Sangma had spared the NCP the blushes by resigning from the party soon after the BJP and other opposition parties like the AIADMK and the Biju Janata Dal.

Questions have, however, been raised on Agatha Sangma's continuance in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government. One view is that given the current political churn, the ruling Congress, for the moment, would not like to alienate the northeast by asking her to quit.

The elder Sangma has said his daughter was "mature enough" to decide about her political future on her own.

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News Network
April 26,2020

New Delhi, Apr 26: Medical services at Babu Jagjivan Ram Hospital in Jahangirpuri area have been closed and the hospital is being sanitised after 44 staff members including doctors were tested positive for COVID-19, Delhi Health Department said on Saturday.

"Total 44 staff members including doctors at Babu Jagjivan Ram Hospital in Jahangirpuri area of Delhi have tested positive for COVID-19. Test reports of other staff members are awaited. Hospital's medical services have been closed and the hospital is being sanitized," Delhi Health Department said.

Earlier today, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain informed that there are 2,625 coronavirus cases in Delhi, out of which 111 were reported yesterday.

The total number of active cases in the national capital stands at 1,518 while 869 people have recovered so far, the minister further informed. There have been 54 deaths in the national capital, as per the Union Health Ministry.

A total of 26,496 confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported in India, including 19,868 active cases, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Sunday.

824 people have lost their lives due to the infection in the country.

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News Network
January 29,2020

Mumbai, Jan 29: Unfazed by his suspension from flying on Tuesday, stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra on Wednesday claimed that he once again approached television journalist Arnab Goswami, who he said was his co-passenger on a flight from Lucknow, for an "honest discussion" but was turned away.

Kamra tweeted in the morning that "Arnab Goswami was again travelling in his flight while returning from Lucknow". "I again asked him politely if he wants to have a honest discussion he with his verbal arrogant hand jester he asked me to move away & I did that (sic)," he tweeted.

The comedian was suspended from flying by IndiGo and Air India on Tuesday after he allegedly heckled Goswami aboard a Mumbai-Lucknow plane and posted a video clip on his Twitter handle.

While IndiGo suspended Kamra from flying with it for a period of six months, Air India banned him until further notice.

In a statement released on Twitter after he posted the video, Kamra said he did "exactly what Republic TV journalists do to people in their private/public spaces". Kamra stated he had not done anything criminal by allegedly heckling Goswami.

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Agencies
July 30,2020

New Delhi, Jul 30: India's gold demand in 2020 is expected to fall to the lowest level in 26 years with domestic bullion prices hitting a record high and as falling disposable incomes could curtail retail purchases, the World Gold Council (WGC) said on Thursday.

Lower demand by the world's second-biggest bullion consumer could limit a rally in global prices, which hit a record high earlier this month, although it could also reduce India's trade deficit and support the ailing rupee.

"Fast rising gold prices could act as headwinds," said Somasundaram PR, the managing director of WGC's Indian operations.

Local gold futures have jumped 35% so far this year after rising a quarter in 2019.

India's gold consumption in the first half of 2020 plunged 56% on-year to 165.6 tonnes. Meanwhile, the coronavirus-triggered lockdown also slashed demand by 70% in the June quarter to 63.7 tonnes, the lowest in more than a decade, the WGC said in a report published on Thursday.

Millions of Indians have lost their jobs or taken a pay cut after the country imposed a lockdown on its 1.3 billion people to curb the spread of the virus that has infected more than 1.5 million Indians.

Consumption is generally high during the June quarter due to weddings and key festivals such as Akshaya Tritiya, but lockdown restrictions kept shoppers indoors this year.

The weak demand in the first half could drag down India's gold consumption in 2020 to the lowest since 1994, when demand stood at 415 tonnes, Somasundaram said, adding that it is still difficult to provide an estimate for full-year demand as the coronavirus crisis is still unfolding.

"Indian demand has previously jumped as much as 300 tonnes in a quarter. Latent demand could come out in the second half," Somasundaram said.

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