Mangaluru, Apr 25: Heavy rain lashed Mangaluru and surrounding areas on Saturday, providing the people respite from the sweltering heat, which they have been experiencing for the last few weeks.
The rain, which started around 10.30 pm on Friday, lashed heavily after 2 am. Later, there was drizzle for sometime before it stopped raining around 8 am.
People were seen walking towards the market to purchase essential commodities holding an umbrella and wearing a raincoat.
Mar 5: The government on Thursday asserted that there is no shortage of raw ingredients or medicines in the country as it has taken various initiatives to tackle the challenge posed by the coronavirus outbreak.
All initiatives are also being taken to ensure that there is no impact of the disease in India, Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers D V Sadananda Gowda said.
"There is no shortage of any APIs in the country. We have sufficient APIs (active pharmaceutical ingredients) and medicines in the country," he said.
Gowda was addressing the 5th international exhibition and conference on the pharmaceutical and medical industry organised by the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Gujarat government and industry chamber Ficci here.
For another three months there is no shortage for undertaking production in the pharma sector, he added.
"Our government has taken all initiatives to ensure that as far as our country is concerned the coronavirus should be stopped, and there is no hazard as far as this issue is concerned," Gowda reiterated.
Coronavirus is a challenge and "we should make all efforts that need to be taken..., " he added.
On Tuesday, India, the world's largest maker of generic drugs, restricted the export of common medicines such as paracetamol and 25 other pharmaceutical ingredients and drugs made from them, as it looks to prevent shortages amid concerns of the coronavirus outbreak turning into a pandemic.
Besides over-the-counter painkiller and fever reducer paracetamol, drugs restricted for exports included common antibiotics metronidazole, and those used to treat bacterial and other infections as well as Vitamin B1 and B12 ingredients.
A notification by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) had said the export of 26 active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and formulations would require licence.
The euphoria over the claim that around 3,000 tonnes of gold reserves, worth Rs 12 trillion, have been discovered in Uttar Pradesh’s Sonbhadra district could not last even 24 hours, with the Geological Survey of India (GSI) clarifying on Saturday there had been no such discovery.
The GSI, headquartered in Kolkata, rebutted the claims of the Uttar Pradesh Directorate of Geology and Mining (UPDGM), and said “miscommunication” must have led to the wrong reporting of facts.
M Sridhar, director general of the GSI, said nobody in the agency gave any such data. He said 52,806 tonnes of gold ore was found in Sonbhadra district during the exploration work in 1998-2000. From this reserve, only 160 kg of gold can be extracted.
“There must have been some miscommunication of facts because of which the gold ore deposits have been overestimated. We have written a letter to Uttar Pradesh (UPDGM), stating the facts. The GSI has not estimated such kind of vast resource of gold deposits in Sonbhadra,” Sridhar said.
ALSO READ: 2,900-tonne gold mine found in Sonbhadra, 4 times that of India's reserves
The UPDGM had said on Friday that gold deposits were found in Son Pahadi and Hardi areas of the district. Sridhar said while gold ore was found in the area during the GSI’s exploration work in 1998-2000, it had told the state government about the discovery in November last year.
Under the new regulation, which came into effect from 2015, the GSI has to inform the state government when ore deposits are discovered. Earlier, no such action was mandatory. In its report, the GSI estimated that only 3.03 gm of gold can be extracted from a tonne of ore. It also clarified that even the extraction amount was tentative and could not be established for certain.
Moreover, Sridhar said the deposits were spread across only 0.5 sq km in forest land, which made the mining of ore economically unviable. “When there are several mines nearby, we can club it into a block and then it makes sense to mine the ore. But in this case, the deposits are too small to make it viable for any company to mine it,” he said. The GSI usually prioritises its exploration work based on the needs of the Centre. While strategic minerals like tin, cobalt, lithium, beryllium, germanium, gallium, indium, tantalum, niobium, selenium, and bismuth are atop the list in GSI exploration, gold is another commodity on its priority list.
According to the World Gold Council, India has reserves of 630 tonnes of gold.
Newsroom, Feb 2: American business magnate Bill Gates has congratulated her daughter Jennifer Gates after she announced her engagement to her Muslim boyfriend Nayel Nassar.
“I am completely thrilled! Congratulations, @jenniferkgates and @nayelnassar”, commented the Microsoft boss to her daughter’s surprise Instagram story.
The proposal took place on a ski getaway. "Nayel Nassar, you are one of a kind. Absolutely swept me off my feet this past weekend, surprising me in the most meaningful location over one of our many shared passions," she wrote on Instagram. The pair does have one very significant shared passion - horses.
Nassar, 29, is a showjumper. Gates, 23, has famously grown up an equestrian, and has even competed against Steve Jobs' daughter.
In October, Nassar helped Egypt qualify for Tokyo 2020 - Egypt's first Olympic equestrian qualification in 60 years. He has been jumping since he was 10 years old and has the accolades to show for it - he has taken first place in a number of notable competitions, including the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup.
Nassar was born in Chicago to Egyptian parents and spent many of his formative years in Kuwait, where his well-to-do parents run an architecture and design firm, according to People. He is fluent in English, Arabic, and French.
He moved back to the US in 2009 and graduated from Stanford with an economics degree in 2013 - later, he supported Gates at her own Stanford graduation in 2018.
The couple received well wishes from many notable personalities on each of their Instagram posts, including comments from Bill and Melinda Gates, Georgina Bloomberg, and Eve Jobs.
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