Chidambaram to present India's 82nd budget, personal 8th

February 27, 2013

peeceeNew Delhi, Feb 27: Finance Minister P. Chidambaram was set to present India's 82nd national budget in the Lok Sabha Thursday that will be the eighth such personal exercise for him -- two short of the record of 10 set by former Prime Minister Morarji Desai.

Since independence in August 1947, the country has seen a total of 25 ministers hold the finance portfolio. It has also seen 81 budgets -- 65 normal annual budgets, 12 interim budgets and four special-occasion budgetary measures, also called mini-budgets.

Among them, Morarji Desai presented eight normal and two interim budgets, which had taken his tally to a record 10 -- this remains unchallenged so far. Thursday will see Chidambaram equal the eight-budget track record of his predecessor, Pranab Mukherjee, who is now president.

Chidambaram, thus, will surpass Yashwant Sinha, Y.B. Chavan and C.D. Deshmukh who all presented seven budgets each. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the country's fourth finance minister T.T. Krishnamachari have presented six budgets each.

The next in line in terms of number of budgets presented are R. Venkataraman and H.M. Patel with three Budgets each, while Jaswant Singh, V.P. Singh, C.

Subramaniam, John Mathai and R.K. Shanmukham Chetty have two each to their credit.

Among those who have presented one budget each all as prime ministers holding additional charge of the finance portfolio are Jawaharlal Nehru, his daughter Indira Gandhi and his grandson Rajiv Gandhi.

These apart, Charan Singh, N.D. Tiwari, Madhu Dandavate, S.B. Chavan and Sachindra Chaudhuri have also presented one budget each.

Among the 25 finance ministers since independence, the tenures of two leaders holding the finance portfolio -- Inder Kumar Gujral and Hemvati Nandan Bahugana -- did not afford them the pleasure of presenting a national budget.

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Agencies
May 27,2020

Global health experts on Wednesday said novel coronavirus is here to stay for more than a year and called for aggressive testing to prevent its spread.

In an interaction with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, health experts Professor Ashish Jha and Professor Johan Giesecke talked about the COVID-19 pandemic as part of the series being aired on Congress social media channels.

While Jha exuded confidence that a vaccine will be available in a year's time, Prof Giesecke said India should practice a lockdown that is as 'soft' as possible, as a severe lockdown will ruin its economy very quickly.

"When the economy is opened up after lockdown, you have to create confidence among people," Harvard health expert Ashish Jha told Gandhi.

Jha is a professor of Global Health at TH Chan School of Public Health and Director, Harvard Global Health institute.

He said coronavirus is a '12-18 months' problem and the world is not going to be free of this till 2021.

The expert also called for the need for aggressive testing strategy for high-risk areas.

Gandhi, while interacting with the experts, said life is going to change post COVID-19.

"If 9/11 was a new chapter, this will be a new book," he remarked.

Professor Johan Giesecke, former chief scientist, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said India should have a 'soft lockdown'.

"The situation that India is in, I think, you should have a soft lockdown, as soft as possible," he said.

"I think for India, you will ruin your economy very quickly if you have a severe lockdown. It is better, skip the lockdown, take care of the old and the frail...," he noted.

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News Network
June 24,2020

New Delhi, Jun 24: With the highest single-day spike of 15,968 cases and 465 deaths in the last 24 hours, India's COVID-19 count reached 4,56,183 on Wednesday.

According to the latest update by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), 14,476 deaths have been recorded due to the infection so far in the country.

The count includes 1,83,022 active cases, and 2,58,685 cured/discharged/migrated patients.

Maharashtra with 1,39,010 confirmed cases remains the worst-affected by the infection so far in the country. The state's count includes 62,848 active, 69,631 cured, discharged patients while 6,531 deaths have been reported due to the infection so far.

Meanwhile, the national capital's confirmed coronavirus cases reached 66,602.

2,301 deaths have been reported in Delhi due to the infection so far.

Tamil Nadu has reported 64,603 cases so far with the death toll reaching 833.

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News Network
August 7,2020

Kozhikode: An Air India Express flight from Dubai with 190 people on board overshot the Kozhikode tabletop runway on landing there today. The Boeing 737 “fell off” the runway into the valley, broke into two causing death and devastation. 

According to reports, around 20 people were dead including two pilots.

An Air India spokesperson said: “Air India Express flight IX 1344 operated by Boeing 737 aircraft from Dubai to Calicut overshot the runway at Kozhikode at 7.41 pm Friday. No fire reported at the time of landing. There are 174 passengers, 10 infants, two pilots and five cabin crew on board. Rescue operations are on and passengers are being taken to hospital for medical care. We will soon share the update in this regard.”

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is probing this accident. “Prima facie, the aircraft landed beyond the touchdown point and fell into a valley. It has broken into two. We suspect some casualties. More information is awaited,” said a senior DGCA official.

Taking to twitter, defence minister Rajnath Singh wrote: “Devastating news from Kozhikode, Kerala. I am deeply anguished by the loss of lives due to an accident carrying several passengers on Air India flight. In this hour of grief, my thoughts are with the bereaved families. I pray for the speedy recovery of the injured.”

Foreign minister S Jaishankar tweeted: “Deeply distressed to hear about the Air India Express tragedy at Kozhikode. Prayers are with the bereaved families and those injured. We are ascertaining further details.”

While, senior BJP leader from Kerala K J Alphons tweeted: “Second tragedy of the day in Kerala: Air India Express skids off the run way at Kozhikode, front portion splits , pilot dies and lots of passengers injured . All passengers evacuated. Very lucky the aircraft didn’t catch fire.”

More details are awaited.

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