The Asian Star April 10 2021

Happy Vaisakhi

www.theasianstar.com Vol 20 - Issue 10 India surpasses US to become fastest Covid-19 vaccinating country India has surpassed the US to become the fastest Covid-19 vaccinating country in the world with an average daily rate of 30,93,861 vaccine doses, the Union Health Ministry said on Wednesday. The cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has crossed 8.70 crore.

Cumulatively, 8,70,77,474 vaccine doses have been administered through 13,32,130 sessions, as per the provisional report till 7 am. These include 89,63,724 health care workers (HCWs) who have taken the 1st dose and 53,94,913 HCWs who have taken the 2nd dose, 97,36,629 frontline workers (FLWs) who have received the 1st dose, 43,12,826 FLWs who have taken the 2nd Continued on page 7

India, Canada may explore possibility of inking mini trade deal this month India and Canada may come back to the negotiating table later this month after a gap of almost four years to explore the possibility of signing a mini trade deal. The two sides have been negotiating a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) since 2010 with the latest round of negotiations held in August 2017. “We have held several rounds of virtual discussions with the Canadian side since June last year.

In October, a bilateral meeting was held to explore the option of an early harvest or interim agreement. In this regard, a scoping paper has been shared with Canadian side.

Saturday, April 10, 2021

BC’s top doctor refuses to shut down schools amid Covid-19 Dr. Bonnie Henry says she has no plans to shutdown B.C. schools despite a persistent surge of new cases of COVID-19. Thousands of school exposures have been reported since the start of the school year. “We’ve talked about that we’ve been in touch with our counterparts in the Ministry of Education, with the superintendents with the school districts, and principals and teachers,” said Henry on Tuesday. The hardest hit district has been Surrey, where transmission

within the community has been the highest. Henry says her team has been working with Surrey Schools and officials revamped COVID-19 safety plans over spring break.

She didn’t give specifics on what some of those changes were, but noted some teachers have been immunized. Surrey teachers in the hardest hit schools were moved to the front of the vaccine queue last month, but not everyone Continued on page 10

Hospital doctors sound the alarm as BC’s ICUs start to fill up with young, seriously ill COVID patients Dr. Gerald Da Roza says its discouraging to watch Royal Columbian Hospital’s intensive care unit filling with younger, sicker COVID-19 patients just as vaccination programs ramp up.

“Before the variant part hit, I think a lot of us were on an upswing in terms of our optimism, you know we were turning the corner,” said Da

Roza, head of medicine at Royal Columbian.

However, the “third wave” of COVID-19 infections with thousands of new cases diagnosed over the Easter weekend, means more people are ending up in hospitals and admissions are straining critical-care staff.

Continued on page 7

Canada could have avoided the deadly third wave but politics got in the way For months, Canada was (somewhat) heralded for its swift and sweeping pandemic response: lockdowns and stay-at-home orders were triggered right away; Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced relatively generous financial aid for people out of work, students, and businesses; and the U.S.-Canada border was shut to all non-essential travel.

Ontario issues stay-at-home order & declares 3rd state of emergency The Ontario government has declared the province’s third state of emergency amid the COVID-19 pandemic and is issuing a provincewide stay-at-home order effective on Thursday at 12:01 a.m. The order will remain in effect for four weeks and means residents must stay home except for essential reasons, including going grocery shopping, to pick up prescription medication, access health-care, going to work when it cannot be done remotely, and exercising close to home.

Premier Doug Ford made the announcement during a press conference Wednesday afternoon. “We just need to hunker down

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right now, we need to limit mobility … I know this is tough on businesses, but I promise we will continue to have your backs.” The government is limiting most non-essential retail businesses to curbside pickup only.

Big-box stores will be restricted to selling essential items only for people shopping in-person. Schools and child care will remain open for in-person operations other than in areas where local medical officers have ordered their closure.

Canada even secured the largest vaccine portfolio in the world, purchasing enough doses to vaccinate each citizen five times over.

But now, Canadians are currently in the thick of a worsening and deadly third wave, with the country surpassing more than a million total Covid-19 cases this week and its largest provinces reporting thousands of new cases

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OPINION

Saturday, April 10, 2021

WHO’s skepticism of China too late If only World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had been as skeptical about China’s claims about COVID-19 at the start of the pandemic, as he is now. Who knows how many lives could have been saved globally, including in Canada?

Last week Tedros — widely criticized from the start of the pandemic for being too trusting about what China was telling the world about COVID-19 — appeared to have had enough.

He said China’s lack of cooperation with the

WHO’s scientific mission to Wuhan in January — a year after the outbreak was first detected there — meant the WHO could not rule out the possibility COVID-19 leaked out of the Wuhan Institute of Virology. That was surprising because the WHO’s own report of its scientific mission to Wuhan — under the close eye of China’s authorities who denied it access to important raw data — said this was the least likely explanation for how COVID-19 originated.

But Tedros, after reviewing that report, said only further investigation by independent experts returning to China and given full access to scientific data, could rule out the possibility COVID-19 escaped from a lab, which China has always denied.

The larger concern is that finding the original source of the pandemic — initially thought to have been a live animal market in Wuhan, but with evidence now suggesting the outbreak may have started earlier — is crucial to understanding the outbreak and preparing for future ones.

Given China’s obsession with secrecy — at the start of the pandemic it arrested and threatened doctors who were accurately telling the world COVID-19 was spreading by human transmission — we may never find the true origins of the deadly coronavirus.

We do know that during the crucial first weeks of the pandemic, when it might have been possible to contain it within China, its dictators were minimizing the seriousness of the outbreak and insisting there was little or no evidence of human transmission.

That led the WHO to underestimate the threat of COVID-19 early on, which led to the world underestimating it, including Canada.

We all know the terrible result.

So it’s good Tedros is now skeptical about information coming out of China about COVID-19. Except it’s a year too late.

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India reports highest daily spike with over 126,000 new Covid-19 cases India registered a record single-day spike of 1,26,789 new Covid cases, pushing its infection tally to 1,29,28,574, while the number of active cases also went upwards to breach the nine lakh-mark again, Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday showed. The death toll due to the disease in the country increased to 1,66,862, with 685 new fatalities being reported in a day, according to the data updated at 8 am.

Registering a steady increase for the 29th day in row, the count of active cases has gone up to 9,10,319, which is 7.04 per cent of the total infections, while the country’s recovery rate has further dropped to 91.67 per cent, it stated. The active Covid caseload in the country was recorded at its lowest of 1,35,926 on February 12, comprising 1.25 per cent of the total infections. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,18,51,393, while the case fatality rate has further dropped to 1.29 per cent, the data stated. According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, 25,26,77,379 samples have been tested for Covid in the

country so far, including 12,37,781 on Wednesday. The new fatalities include 322 from Maharashtra, 62 from Punjab, 53 from Chhattisgarh, 40 from Uttar Pradesh, 35 from Karnataka, 22 from Gujarat, 20 from Delhi, 17 from Tamil

Nadu, 16 from Kerala, 13 from Madhya Pradesh, 12 from Rajasthan and 11 each from Andhra Pradesh and Haryana. A total of 1,66,862 deaths due to the disease have been reported so far in the country.

This includes 56,652 fatalities from Maharashtra, 12,821 from Tamil Nadu, 12,731 from Karnataka, 11,133 from Delhi, 10,363 from West Bengal, 8,964 from Uttar Pradesh, 7,278 from Punjab and 7,262 from Andhra Pradesh.

Former Vancouver archbishop ordered to face questions in sex abuse case An elderly former archbishop has been ordered to be examined for discovery in preparation for yet another trial concerning alleged abuse connected to the Catholic church in B.C. Archbishop Emeritus Adam Exner, 91, is compelled to be questioned as a witness in a civil case filed by a man who says he was subjected to sexual and physical abuse while he was a teenage student at the Seminary of Christ the King in Mission, according to a ruling from a B.C. Supreme Court judge. Mark O’Neill alleges Exner is vicariously liable for abuse he suffered, arguing the archbishop failed to take action to deal with the known risk caused by the Benedictine brothers and others he has

named in his lawsuit, Justice Warren Milman wrote. Exner has been held responsible for sexual abuse by a priest in the past in his role as Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Kamloops. The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Vancouver opposed O’Neill’s application to have Exner called as a witness, saying Exner’s advanced age and poor health should exclude him. But O’Neill’s lawyer pointed out that Exner was well enough to testify in October 2019 in connection with the sexual misconduct of a former Kamloops priest, and said there’s nothing in a report filed by his doctor that suggests he is incompetent to testify.

Calls grow for greater Covid-19 transparency in BC Experts from various fields are adding their voices to the growing chorus of demands for more information on B.C.’s pandemic policy-making process. Even the most ardent of rule-followers is growing weary after more than a year of sacrifices and restrictions, so experts say explanations and transparency with information could bolster morale and improve trust in health officials.

University of Toronto epidemiology professor David Fisman said he’s troubled by what he called “asymmetrical information” from the provincial government. “You can’t, in British Columbia, have five million decision makers,” Fisman said. “Public health, at the end of the day, have to make some hard calls.

BC’s Covid-19 crisis deepens BC’s Covid-19 crisis has worsened with a big jump in active cases, in variants of concern and in people in intensive care, while only a small part of the population has been vaccinated.

The provincial health officer released figures on Monday showing a jump of almost 1,000 active cases of the disease each day over the past few days, with 8,490 people now sick. The number of

people in intensive care grew by almost 20 per cent over the same period to 96 as 916 variant cases appeared. Henry also reported that while 806,118 people in B.C. had received one of the three available vaccines, only 87,472 had been fully immunized with two shots, or less than two per cent of B.C.’s population.

BC announces record-breaking 1,293 new Covid-19 cases B.C. announces record-breaking 1,293 new COVID-19 cases, 2 deaths.

B.C. has recorded 1,293 new COVID-19 cases, breaking a previously held single-day record. Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry also announced on Thursday that the province will no longer be sequencing all positive COVID-19 cases to determine whether they are variants of concern, and instead will be assuming that all positive cases are a highly infectious variant. Henry said existing health measures remain the same regardless of what strain someone is infected with — but emphasized the need for everyone in B.C. to follow current restrictions on gatherings. “It is not OK to have friends and family over right now. It is not OK to go on a weekend getaway. That is not essential — nor is your ski trip just because you have a pass. It

is not OK to have a wedding, a birthday. All of these need to be postponed for now,” she said.

Henry also announced a new workplace closure order that will allow WorkSafeBC to operate under the Public Health Act. When three or more employees at a workplace test positive for COVID-19, it will be closed down for 10 days. Essential workplaces like police departments, fire stations and grocery stores are exempt. Schools are also exempt from the new regulations. Two additional people have died in the province, for a total of 1,493 COVID-related deaths in B.C. There are currently 336 people in hospital, with 101 in critical care. “What we have seen is a noticeable increase in transmission in B.C. — and I don’t need to tell you that,” she said, adding the spread is fuelled by social gatherings that then spread into workplaces.

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Bank regulator proposes higher mortgage stress test level Bank regulator proposes higher mortgage stress test level, making it harder to qualify for home loan. Canada’s top banking regulator is proposing to raise the mortgage stress test level to 5.25 per cent or two percentage points above the market rate, whichever is higher. That’s a hike from 4.79 per cent, which is the current average posted rate at Canada’s biggest lenders.

Thursday’s change by the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) means borrowers will need to prove that their finances can pay for the loan at that higher rate, regardless of what a lender is willing to lend them. This would make it harder to qualify for a home loan, shrinking the pool of qualified borrowers and ultimately bringing down some of the upward pressure on house prices in the country.The regulator says it is seeking submissions from stakeholders about its proposal until May 7th, before the new rules

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would be put into place for uninsured loans as of June 1. - Bank of Canada plans to keep interest rate near zero until 2023.

Known colloquially as the “stress test,” the rules came into force in early 2018 and had the effect of cooling down what was at the time an overheated property market — although after they were announced in late 2017, there was a flurry of last-minute buying by people trying to get in before they would be locked out of buying.

Once they were in place in early 2018, the frenzy died down. While there are a number of different facets to the rules, officially known as the B-20 Guidelines, they boil down to essentially one principle: would-be home buyers would have their finances tested to see if they could cover their mortgage payments should rates rise much higher than they were at the time they signed up for the mortgage.

Saturday, April 10, 2021

India surpasses US to become fastest Covid-19 vaccinating country From page 1 FLWs who have taken the 2nd dose. Besides, 3,53,75,953 and 10,00,787 beneficiaries more than 60 years old have been administered the 1st and 2nd dose respectively while 2,18,60,709 and 4,31,933 beneficiaries aged 45 to 60 were given the 1st and 2nd dose respectively.

More than 33 lakh vaccination doses were administered in the last 24 hours. As on Day-81 of the vaccination drive (6th April), 33,37,601 vaccine doses were given. Out of which, 30,08,087 beneficiaries were vaccinated across 41,396 sessions for 1st dose and 3,29,514 beneficiaries received 2nd dose of vaccine.

India’s daily new cases continue to rise and 1,15,736 new cases were registered in a span of 24 hours. Eight states including Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala have shown a rise in the COVID daily new cases accounting for 80.70 per cent of the new cases reported in a day.

Hospital doctors sound the alarm as BC’s ICUs start to fill up with young patients “It is discouraging for those of us involved in this sort of care of COVID patients and putting so much effort into it, that if you see a situation where people are flouting the rules, or just ignoring them. It’s a bit demoralizing,” Da Roza said.

The workload hasn’t hit a point the hospital can’t handle, but Royal Columbian is at a “pressure point where we’re using a lot of our resources” to care for younger patients, with numbers rising steadily over the past couple of weeks.

“The reports I have this morning are that our ward cohort of COVID patients is kind of at the highest that we’ve seen in the past year,” Da Roza said. Independent health modellers estimate B.C.’s ICUs could hit capacity by mid-May unless there are tougher restrictions to change in the trajectory of new COVID-19 infections.

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$50M grant program announced for BC businesses affected by Covid-19 ‘circuit breaker’ A $50-million relief package is coming for 14,000 B.C. restaurants, bars, gyms and other businesses hit hard by the March 30 tightening of COVID-19 provincial health orders.

Dubbed the Circuit Breaker Business Relief Grant, the program will give affected businesses a one-time cash infusion of $1,000 to $10,000 to help with expenses such as rent, insurance and employee wages.

It can also be used to cover unexpected losses that resulted from the sudden shutdown, like the spoiling of food.

“The latest circuit breaker has been particularly hard on small business,” said Ravi Kahlon, minister of jobs, economic recovery and innovation.

“I can’t imagine the stress and pressure businesses are feeling today.”

Kahlon said businesses not in compliance with the new health orders are not eligible for the program.

On March 30, the province imposed a three-week “circuit breaker,” introducing sweeping new restrictions on indoor dining in restaurants, group fitness activities and worship services in an attempt to slow spiking COVID-19 infections.

All food and liquor-serving premises were asked to pivot to takeout or delivery service. Indoor dining was suspended but patios were allowed to remain open.

Indoor, adult group fitness activities were suspended and gyms and fitness centres restricted to individual or one-on-one activities.

Kahlon said the grant is open to eligible businesses of any size that have been in operation since Feb. 1.

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Saturday, April 10, 2021 Surrey mom with Covid-19 in critical care after emergency C-Section A Surrey woman hospitalized due to COVID-19 was able to record a voice memo for her newborn daughter right before she was put into an induced coma and taken into critical care last month. Her husband plays it for their baby every day while he prays that his wife will recover. Shaheena Flores-Patel and her husband Ely are both essential workers in their 30s and contracted the virus in early March. Shaheena, a nurse, was seven months pregnant at the time.

It says that on March 9 Ely, an electrician, drove his wife to the hospital because she was struggling to breathe. She was immediately admitted to the ICU. According to a GoFundMe, the couple is believed to have become infected

at work. Two days later — when she was 33 weeks pregnant — doctors decided they needed to deliver the baby. “Shaheena was awake and was able to get a three-second glimpse of her new daughter, Aaliyah, before her premie was taken to the NICU,” the online fundraiser says.

For 10 days, Shaheena remained in the ICU, eagerly anticipating meeting her daughter. But then her condition deteriorated.

“Her body was unable to continue to fight on its own. She was taken to the Critical Care Unit at Royal Columbian Hospital and put in an induced coma, ventilator, and bypass machine,” the GoFundMe says.

Highly contagious Covid-19 variants rapidly spreading in BC Cases of a Covid-19 variant associated with Brazil have multiplied exponentially in BC, with 737 infections of the strain that is believed to be more contagious than two others.

There were only 14 cases of the P1 variant on March 10, but quick transmission recently forced the closure of the Whistler-Blackcomb ski resort and is also present in other areas. The variant associated with the United Kingdom

now represents two thousand and 771 cases while 51 cases of the one linked to South Africa have been diagnosed among a total of three thousand and 559 cases in the province. Health Minister Adrian Dix says he expects variants of concern to eventually replace less transmissible strains, similar to what’s happening in other jurisdictions.

BC’s top doctor refuses to shut down schools amid Covid-19 surge From page 1 was immunized. The program to inoculate front-line workers with the AstraZeneca vaccine has been put on hold over concerns about rare blood clots in people under the age of 55. Meantime, Toronto is shutting down its schools beginning Wednesday for the next two weeks in an effort to reduce transmission. Ontario is already in the midst of a month-long province-wide shutdown to combat rising COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.

The province reported more than 3,000 new cases yesterday.

“We’ve seen in Ontario that now it’s about a 60 per cent of all of the new cases are with the B.1.1.7 strain in Ontario. We’re probably a month or so behind Ontario and getting there,” said Henry. Despite that, she doesn’t believe closing schools is the solution. “What we have also learned is that we see cases go up when children are not in school and that is often because they have other unstructured time and that children need school, we know that it is a safe place for them.”

Victoria police seek two suspects after Chabad Centre tagged with anti-Semitic graffiti Police in Victoria are looking for suspects after the Chabad Centre for Jewish Life and Learning was vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti on Tuesday.

Staff at the centre called the Victoria Police Department on Tuesday when they found the graffiti on the building in the 2900-block of Glasgow Street.

Staff cleaned the messages away. Two suspects were captured on surveillance video tagging the centre, police said in a statement.

Police did not provide details about what was tagged on the building, but did confirm hate crimes investigators are involved.

They also did not provide descriptions of the suspects, but released two stills from surveillance footage.

Anyone who recognizes the suspects is asked to contact Victoria police at (250) 995-7654 extension 1.

Saturday, April 10, 2021

Canada has new ways to pressure Washington over softwood lumber duties: ambassador Much of Canada is in the grips of a worsening third wave as COVID-19 vaccinations slowly ramp up, and experts say the spread of more contagious coronavirus variants is throwing gasoline on an already-raging fire.

“We have a lot of virus moving around the country and escalating very, very quickly,” said Jason Kindrachuk, an assistant professor of viral pathogenesis at the University of Manitoba and Canada Research Chair of emerging viruses.

“Vaccinations are certainly starting to pick up, but we’re nowhere near where we need to be to get this thing under control.”

More than 15,000 cases of the more transmissible and potentially more deadly variants have been reported across Canada to date, with more than 90 per cent of those being the B117 variant first identified in the United Kingdom.

But the P1 variant first discovered in Brazil is also on the rise in Canada, with cases doubling in the past week to close to 1,000 — mostly in British Columbia, Ontario and Alberta.

And the B1351 variant first found in South Africa is also picking up steam, with over 150 cases identified in Quebec, more than 70 in Ontario and over 50 in B.C. as of Tuesday.

But experts say Canada’s slow vaccine roll out has failed to keep up with the exponential rise in variants in the third wave and the premature loosening of restrictions has led to an increase in hospitalizations and deaths — even in younger Canadians.

The P1 COVID-19 variant, first seen in Brazil, is creating a big problem for health officials because of how quickly it spreads. Currently concentrated in the Vancouver area, modelling shows it could spread out of control by late April. 2:06 “People were hoping that we could get to the finish line and get everyone vaccinated without having to deal with another wave and unfortunately that doesn’t seem to be the case,” said Dr. Leyla Asadi, an infectious diseases physician at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.

Immigrant from France fails Quebec’s French test for newcomers “If I failed it, when I’m French, I can understand how someone who is Mexican, who doesn’t speak French, could fail,” said truck driver Yohan Flaman.

Yohan Flaman, 39, a truck driver from Limoges, France, who came to Quebec in 2018 under the Quebec Experience Program, wasn’t too nervous about taking the French test set by the department of Immigration, Francization and Integration. Immigrant from France fails Quebec’s French test for newcomers After all, he’d spoken only French his entire

life — aside from a smattering of English picked up in school and on long-haul trucking jobs to the United States. But much to his surprise, when he took the test more than a year ago, he flunked. “If I failed it, when I’m French, I can understand how someone who is Mexican, who doesn’t speak French, could fail,” he said in an interview Sunday.

Flaman noted when he first arrived in Quebec, he had passed the test for his professional Quebec driver’s licence entirely in French.

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Vaisakhi Special

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The Significance of Khalsa

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he collective body of allinitiated Sikhs represented by the five beloved-ones and can be called the Guru Panth, the embodiment of the Guru and the final temporal Guru/leader of the Sikhs. The word Khalsa translates to “Sovereign/Free”. Another interpretation is that of being “Pure/Genuine.” The Khalsa was inaugurated on March 30, 1699, by Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh Guru. From then on the temporal leadership of the Sikhs was passed on to the Khalsa with the bestowed title of “Guru Panth” and spiritual leadership was passed on to the Guru Granth Sahib with the Khalsa being responsible for all executive, military and civil authority in the Sikh society. The Khalsa is also called the nation of the Sikhs.

The Sikhs of the Khalsa can be identified with the given Five Ks and titles ofSingh

and Kaur, granted after the disciple has been baptized into the order of the Khalsa. The tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh at an event that coincided with the Vaisakhi day (of the new lunar month Baisakh Samvat 1756) created the Khalsa in the year 1699 A.D at Kesgarh, in Anandpur Sahib ordained that every Sikh becomes Amritdhari “Having taken Amrit]” and follow the Five Ks; which are not merely symbols but display commitment to the philosophy of Guru Nanak Dev like a uniform of an organization.

A Sikh male at being initiated into the Khalsa is titled Singh meaning “Lion” and

a female is entitled Kaur meaning “Princess”. From then on they are commonly referred to as Amritdhari (having taken Amrit). The Khalsa is considered the pinnacle of Sikhism. The Khalsa is expected to perform no ritual and to believe in no

superstition of any kind but only believe in one God who is the Master and the Protector of all, the only Creator and Destroyer.

The usual interpretation of the Khalsa is made as “Pure” as in the following statement: (“pure/devoted”) word khālisa[h] is the recognition of every Sikh that follows the discipline and text from the Guru Granth Sahib.

There is also another word from Arabic which is pronounced as “Khalsa” and is adapted in Punjabi / English / Hindi and many other languages. So, there are two different words in Arabic: (Khalsa) and (Khalisa) Furthermore, there is a word in Persian meaning “pure” and pronounced as “Khalis”. A reader of Urdu can testify the “Khalis” in the Persian script and language as described below.

“Khalsa” is also used for a property which belongs to the emperor directly.

Premier John Premier John Horgan Horgan and an nd your yo y our ur M MLAs LA LAs As wish wiiish w ssh h you you ou and and nd you y your ourr fa o ou ffamily miilly m yaH Happy app ap py yV Vaisakhi. ais a ai isa sakh khi. khi Than Th T Thank hank ank y an you yo ou fo for or lo llooking ook okin okin iing ng after aft a af ftteer eea each acch h other oth o theerr a th and nd d celebrating cel ce cel eeleb leb ebrati ebra b ati ting tin ti ng n g Vaisakhi Vai aisa a iisa ssa a akh khi k kh hi safely safe safe sa feelly ly at at home hom ho mee this tth his hi h is year. yea ye yea arr.

BC GOV’T COVID-19 RESOURCES: gov.bc.ca/gov/content/covid-19/translation/pun

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HAPPY VAISAKHI VAISAKHI DIYAN LAKH LAKH VADHAIYAN

RANDEEP S. SARAI

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The Significance of Khalsa From page 1 The official language in the Mughal era was Persian and Persian language contains a word “Khalis” which directly translates to “Pure” in English. This may give a new meaning to the word “Khalsa”. On these grounds and as per writings of the Guru Gobind Singh, the father of the Khalsa, wherein the great Guru describes the Khalsa as army of the timeless-being, it is evident that Khalsa means timelesssovereign.

In Sikh tradition, the word Khalsa first appears in a hukmanama (order) by Guru Hargobind (the sixth Guru) which refers to asangat as “Guru ka khalsa” (“Guru’s Khalsa”). It also appears in a letter by Guru Tegh Bahadur (the ninth Guru), in the same sense.

Although the early Mughal emperors had peaceful relations with the Sikh Gurus, the Sikhs started facing religious persecution during the reign of Jahangir.

Persecution against the Sikhs continued until the creation of the Sikh Kingdom in 1799. Guru Arjan Dev, the fifth Guru, was arrested and executed by Emperor Jahangir in 1606. The following Guru,Guru Hargobind formally militarized the Sikhs and emphasized the complementary nature of the temporal power and spiritual power.[12] In 1675, Guru Tegh Bahadur, the ninth Guru of the Sikhs was executed by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb for saving the religious rights of Hindus. In 1699, his son and the tenth Guru, Gobind Singh sent hukmanamas(letters of authority) to his followers throughout the Indian sub-

continent, asking them to gather at Anandpur Sahib on March 30, 1699, the day of Vaisakhi (the annualharvest festival).

Guru Gobind Singh addressed the congregation from the entryway of a tent pitched on a hill (now called Kesgarh Sahib). He drew his sword and asked for a volunteer who was willing to sacrifice his head. No one answered his first call, nor the second call, but on the third invitation, a person called Daya Ram (later known as Bhai Daya Singh) came forward and offered his head to the Guru. Guru Gobind Singh took the volunteer inside the tent, and emerged shortly, with blood dripping from his sword. He then demanded another head.

One more volunteer came forward, and entered the tent with him. The Guru again emerged with blood on his sword. This happened three more times. Then the five volunteers came out of the tent unharmed.

These five, who were willing to sacrifice their lives for their Guru, were called Panj Piare (“the five beloved ones”).[13] These five volunteers were : Daya Ram (Bhai Daya Singh), Dharam Das (Bhai Dharam Singh), Himmat Rai (Bhai Himmat Singh), Mohkam Chand (Bhai Mohkam Singh), and Sahib Chand (Bhai Sahib Singh).

Guru Gobind Singh then took an iron bowl and poured some water in it. Sahib Devan (later Mata Sahib Kaur) added some sugar crystals to the water, and the Guru stirred this mixture with a doubleedged sword whilst reciting the Five Banis.

OUR KIDS AND THEIR TEACHERS: S:

WORTH T INV INVESTING N IN N

A message from the Surrey Teachers’ Association

L A K H L A K H VA D H A I YA N !

Happy Vaisakhi! from the BC Liberal Caucus

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Federal gov’t should hike GST, abandon $100B stimulus plans as COVID-19 spending mounts: report The Liberal government should abandon most of its $100-billion stimulus plans and increase GST as a way to recoup massive COVID-19 spending levels, according to a new report that says Canada is in need of a considerable fiscal reset.

The C.D. Howe Institute, a Toronto-based think tank, laid out a long list of recommendations for Ottawa’s upcoming budget, and warned about a “bleak outlook” for Canada should the government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau neglect to correct course. Among the proposals are a two per cent hike in the federal Goods and Services Tax (GST), a reversal of the expansion of employment insurance. , and a reduction in corporate tax rates, among other things. It also calls on Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland to abandon up to $100 billion in additional stimulus funds — promised in her fiscal update last year — as it is likely to

add on to the debt burden while providing little economic benefit, according to the report.

“The 2020 Fall Economic Statement contained little to enhance Canada’s growth prospects and much to raise anxiety about mounting debt and exposure to adverse events, notably rising interest rates,” the report said.

The C.D. Howe recommendations come as Freeland prepares to table her first budget as finance minister April 19. Some economists and other observers have been pressuring Ottawa to back away from some of its more ambitious spending programs, saying the federal government is at risk of over prioritizing its social agenda while its fiscal outlook remains opaque.

The federal government scrapped its main fiscal anchor — previously measured as total debt as a percentage of GDP — at the beginning of the pandemic.

High case counts have B.C. health minister bracing for impact on hospitals Provincial hospitals are prepared to receive higher numbers of COVID-19 patients, Health Minister Adrian Dix said Wednesday, not that he is comfortable with the situation.

“We’re both prepared for it and very concerned about it,” Dix said, considering that B.C.’s experience is that five per cent of people who contract COVID-19 wind up in hospital. “Obviously, if we keep seeing high case loads, it’s just by definition, five per cent of 1,000 (cases in a day) is more than five per cent of 750, so we’ve got to be prepared and we will be prepared for more hospitalizations.”

Dix spoke Wednesday in response to the alarm raised by physicians about a discouraging increase in numbers of COVID-19 patients reaching their ICUs, which is beginning to stress the overall system.

On Wednesday, Dix and provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry reported that 330 COVID-19 patients were in hospital, an increase of two from Tuesday, with 105 in ICU, a jump of nine from Tuesday. For Dr. Gerald Da Roza, head of medicine at Royal Columbian Hospital, rising case counts have been a demoralizing turn of events just when more substantial supplies of COVID-19 vaccines have begun to arrive.

And while hospitals aren’t hitting overall ICU capacity, Da Roza said there is a more limited capacity for the highest level of respiratory care known as extra corporeal membrane oxygenation or ECMO. It’s a treatment that isn’t available in every ICU, in the Lower Mainland only Royal Columbian, Vancouver General and St. Paul’s hospitals offer it.

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Saturday, April 10, 2021

Former Hong Kong lawmaker Dennis Kwok & family flee to Canada Former opposition lawmaker Dennis Kwok has left Hong Kong for Canada with his family, reports say, joining the growing list of activists who have fled amid deteriorating political freedoms in the city.

According to HK01, the 42-year-old flew to London at the end of November, shortly after he and three other lawmakers were disqualified from the Legislative Council for supporting Hong Kong independence and lobbying foreign governments, authorities claimed.

Kwok then arrived in Canada, Oriental Daily reported, where his wife and children joined him in February.

A barrister by trade, Kwok won a seat in the Legislative Council in 2012 as a

representative of the legal sector constituency.

He was among the founding members of Civic Party, a pro-democracy party that has fielded a number of politicians to the Legislative Council.

The disqualification of Kwok and three other legislators was a pivotal moment for the anti-government movement, triggering the collective resignation of the city’s prodemocracy lawmakers and leaving the legislation without an effective opposition.

After he was unseated, Kwok announced that he would be quitting politics, citing the pressure that his family has faced over the past few months.

“Parliamentary politics has become obsolete and I have to let young people decide how to move forward,” Kwok said in an interview with NowTV, adding that he had no regrets.

Former BC Liberal cabinet ministers to testify at money laundering inquiry A commission of inquiry into money laundering in British Columbia is adding former and current cabinet ministers to its witness list.

On its website, the Cullen commission says former premier Christy Clark is among those scheduled to testify later this month.

Former B.C. Liberal cabinet ministers Rich Coleman, Michael de Jong and Kash Heed will also testify, along with Shirley Bond, the party’s interim leader who served as Clark’s public safety minister and attorney general.

The commission says Attorney

General David Eby will testify as well.

They are expected to testify from April 19 to 30.

The B.C. government appointed Supreme Court Justice Austin Cullen in May 2019 to lead the public inquiry into money laundering after three reports outlined how hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal cash affected B.C.’s real estate, luxury vehicle and gaming sectors.

The province granted the commission an extension in March to produce its final report, which is now due on Dec. 15.

BC announces three-week “circuit breaker” emergency restrictions as Covid-19 cases surge Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced the new restrictions at a press conference this afternoon.

BC health officials report 2,518 new Covid-19 cases, six more deaths since Friday The three-week restrictions come into effect from midnight tonight and will be in place until April 19, 2021.

The restrictions include the following: Restaurants, bars, and pubs, all food and

liquor-serving premises must be take-out only, except for patios. Those who dine on patios must do so with their immediate households only;Indoor, adult group fitness activities of any kind are paused in gyms, fitness studios, and dance studios; Indoor worship religious services are suspended, despite last week’s announcement that they would be permitted over the next six weeks.

B.C.’s lack of COVID-19 social media messaging leading to uninformed youth: experts Health communications researchers say B.C. has dropped the ball when it comes to social media messaging, and that may be one of the reasons younger Canadians do not see critical information.

Dr. Heidi Tworek is the associate professor of history and public policy at UBC. She says she’s surprised the province hasn’t done more to

keep young people on social media informed.

“If we don’t engage in as many channels as we can to reach people with clear and consistent communications, we’re leaving half of a really important tool on the table,” Tworek says. So far, the province doesn’t seem to have an account on the exceedingly popular TikTok app.

BC Liberals call on John Horgan to release a clear plan for mental health support Press release

As the pandemic continues to take a heavy toll on British Columbians’ mental health, the BC Liberals are calling on the provincial government to provide a clear plan for more mental health supports in the upcoming Throne Speech and 2021 Budget.

“The anxiety and stress that many British Columbians are feeling are real,” said Trevor Halford, BC Liberal Mental Health and Addictions Critic. “This government needs to urgently commit more funds to mental health supports and we’re calling on John Horgan to provide a plan that clearly lays out how increased funding will be used to provide desperately needed support for British

Columbians. People need real support that provides relief, not an online hub that doesn’t provide much more than a telephone number on how they can maybe get help. People need to know that if they call, they will get actual help.”

The Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions’ latest offering is an inadequate hub that collates existing resources but doesn’t provide any actual support to those who need it.

A barrier for many people, particularly working mothers who have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic, is the cost of counselling and the lack of resources throughout the province.

LOCAL / NATIONAL

Saturday, April 10, 2021

Metro Vancouver real estate frenzy stressful for buyers … and sellers, realtors say Lower Mainland housing sales smashed records in March, but some realtors said they are starting to see buyer fatigue as bidding wars push prices way over asking.

Greater Vancouver home sales showed no signs of slowing with March sales hitting 5,708, up by more than 53 per cent from February and 126 per cent over March 2020.

It’s a record high and is 72 per cent above the 10-year March average. The Fraser Valley also experienced a record for March with 3,329 sales. There is still unprecedented demand, said real estate agent Paul Toffoli.

“It varies, but sellers’ expectations are that they

are going to get record prices for their properties, and for the most part, that is happening,” he said.

An Angus Reid Institute survey released Wednesday includes a housing pain index that gauges how “boiling housing markets” are affecting those who want to buy.

Of those surveyed in Vancouver, 26 per cent fell into the index’s “miserable” category, those who would like to buy, but can’t afford it. This number was lower than the 31 per cent in Calgary, 28 per cent in Edmonton and 31 per cent in Halifax as “the housing crunch is now spread across the country.” Still, Vancouver real estate agents say aggressive bidding

15

A person under 50 is dying of Covid-19 in Ontario ICUs every 2.8 days, doctor says A Toronto critical care doctor says that Ontario’s stay-athome order does not address the root cause of COVID-19 hospitalizations—adding that in the third wave of the pandemic, a person under the age of 50 is dying on average every 2.8 days.

Dr. Michael Warner, medical director of critical care at Michael Garron Hospital, shared the Critical Care Services Ontario data on social media Wednesday just hours

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“I’ve been able to share some patient stories, which I think have been helpful in connecting the numbers to real lives, but some people do want numbers to frame how they view the situation,” Warner said in a video statement. According to Warner, in the first wave of the pandemic a patient under the age of 50 died in one of Ontario’s ICUs every six days.

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Saturday, April 10, 2021 Indians paying a huge price for wrong policies of Modi govt: Chidamabaram

Former Finance Minister P. Chidamabaram, in a series of tweets on Wednesday, claimed that Indians are paying a “huge price for the wrong policies” of the Narendra Modi government and said universal vaccination a priority as a “grave catastrophe” awaits the country.

In a separate tweet, party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra

pointed out if the BJP can announce free vaccination in election manifesto, then the government should now prioritise universal vaccination.

“IMA [Indian Medical Association] has called for universal vaccination.

Several CMs have demanded universal vaccination.

Mumbai Police issues new Covid-19 lockdown curbs In order to check novel coronavirus spread in the city, Mumbai Police on Wednesday updated the Covid-19 lockdown guidelines with fresh set of restrictions, especially with the focus on movement of people in public areas and transport while exempting those involved in essential services.

The new guidelines are in addition to the

ongoing strict Covid-19 measures which include state-wide night curfew and weekend lockdown announced by the Maharashtra government on last Sunday. In a series of tweets, Mumbai Police highlighted all the updates lockdown guidlines that will be followed till end of April to curb spread of the virus.

INDIA

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India, Russia firm on S-400 missiles deal, Moscow now eyes arms unit under ‘Make in India’ Despite pressure from the US, India and Russia Tuesday decided to further deepen their defence cooperation, with Moscow planning to set up a manufacturing unit producing Russian arms under the ‘Make in India’ initiative.

This was decided during a bilateral meeting between External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Delhi. Lavrov was on a hurricane tour to India and left for Islamabad later in the day.

“We discussed prospective and additional manufacturing of Russian military equipment in India within the concept ‘Make in India’ … We are going to deepen our military and technical cooperation,” Lavrov said at a press conference jointly with Jaishankar.

On the issue of India buying S-400 missiles from Moscow, Lavrov said he “did not sense”

any change in stance by New Delhi, indicating that the deal will be going through seamlessly.

This comes at a time when the Joe Biden administration has taken a hard stance against Russia as it has decided to continue with the Donald Trump-era policy of imposing Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) on those countries that buy armaments from America’s foes.

The $5.2 billion S-400 air defence system deal between India and Russia has become a major cause of consternation between New Delhi and Washington. India has already apprised the US of the fact that the deal was finalised before CAATSA came into being in 2017.

“Here I didn’t see any changes from our Indian partners and friends… We didn’t

Congress seeks probe into Rafale deal after French media claim bribes were paid he Congress on Monday demanded an independent probe into the Rs 60,000 crore Rafale jet deal after a section of the French media citing the national anti-graft agency claimed 1 million Euro commissions in the same.

Addressing reporters here, Congress media head Randeep Surjewala also asked the government whether or not it was in order that a ban be placed on Rafale makers Dassault for paying bribes and also a case registered.

“India’s biggest defence deal of 36 Rafale fighter aircraft from France’s Dassault

Aviation is a sordid saga of loss to public exchequer, squandering of national interests and violation of Defence Procurement Procedure. The devastating sensational revelations in the last evening report of French News portal Mediapart.fr have now revealed the existence of middleman, payment of commission and red flags raised by the French Anti-Corruption Agency – AFA.” Surjewala cited the news report that alleged payment of 1.1 million euro bribes to Indian firm Defsys Solutions

Maharashtra home minister resigns after High Court orders CBI probe The 16-month-old Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra suffered the first jolt on Monday with Home Minister Anil Deshmukh sending his resignation to Chief

Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

Deshmukh, member of the NCP in the three party ruling alliance with Shiv Sena and Congress, resigned hours after the Bombay High Court ordered the CBI to hold preliminary enquiry into former Mumbai police chief Param Bir Singh’s allegations against Deshmukh running an extortion wing.

Singh in his petition to the Supreme Court had earlier alleged that Deshmukh was pressuring cops, including disgraced Sanjay Waze, to collect Rs 100 crore monthly extortion charges from bars and restaurants.

Indian Rupee tumbles on worries RBI’s bond plan The Indian rupee tumbled by the most in almost two years, with some analysts saying the central bank’s formal plan to buy bonds will add to a liquidity glut.

The rupee dropped 1.6%, the biggest fall since August 2019, to close at 74.5650 per dollar. The central bank said Wednesday it will buy one trillion rupees ($14 billion) of bonds in the secondary market this quarter, in addition to its existing liquidity operations.

“A defined primary liquidity infusion via the bond program is de-facto a secondary QE of RBI,” said Madhavi Arora, economist at Emkay Global Financial Services Ltd. “This will imply massive narrow money growth and primary liquidity which is clearly going to put depreciation pressure on INR.” Indian currency falls to lowest since Nov. on RBI policy, lockdown worries The unwinding of carry trades by offshore traders and dividend payout by a corporate also hurt the rupee, according to two Mumbai-based traders who didn’t want to be identified as they aren’t authorized to comment publicly. The central bank wasn’t also seen stepping in to prevent the fall, they said.

The loss on Wednesday has turned the rupee into Asia’s worst performer for the month. A surge in virus infections is also rekindling concerns the authorities may bring back stricter and wider lockdowns.

India’s richest state Maharashtra, that houses the financial hub Mumbai, has ordered company employees to work from home and has also shut shopping malls.

John Kerry meets PM Modi as India eyes net zero target US Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry meets with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. John Kerry’s visit comes ahead of a meeting of leaders from 40 nations from April 22-23, organized by US President Joe Biden, that aims to galvanize efforts to commit to more ambitious climate change mitigation targets. Kerry said the US would support India’s climate plans and facilitate access to green technologies and finance, while Modi acknowledged that such cooperation would result in faster deployment of clean technologies. India is the world’s third-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases.

FIJI

Saturday, April 10, 2021

Punjab Mohali worst-hit district in Covid-19 spike In the ongoing second Covid-19 wave, Mohali district seems to be the worst affected as in the last one month the district has reported around 8,500 cases.

Between March 6 and April 6, the state reported 69,709 cases and 1,306 deaths, with around 12 per cent cases and 6 per cent deaths from Mohali district only.

Mohali is followed by Jalandhar, which reported 7,685 cases and 235 deaths, and

Amritsar (6,605 cases and 122 deaths).

Hoshiarpur reported 6,446 cases and 212 deaths. Doaba, though relatively a small region, has witnessed worst spike as it has maximum concentration of NRI population.

Besides, Ludhiana, the largest district in the state, has reported 5,950 cases and 146 deaths in the same period. On Wednesday, the state reported 2,997 cases and 63 deaths.

Punjab bans political gatherings, extends night curfew amid Covid-19 surge To check the surge in Covid cases in Punjab, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Wednesday ordered a total ban on political gatherings and extended the night curfew from 9 pm to 5 am in all districts of the state. The restrictions will remain effective till April 30. Violators, be it political leaders, will be booked under the id i Disaster Management Act and Epidemic

Diseases Act, he stressed.

As part of the fresh curbs, the maximum gathering at funerals and weddings has been reduced to 50 people indoors and 100 outdoors. Schools and regular colleges, except for medical and nursing institutes, will also remain closed till April 30. Wearing masks has been made mandatory for all government employees while in office.

Smuggler shot near Indo-Pak border, 2 AK-47 rifles and heroin seized Police gunned down a Pakistani smuggler near the India-Pakistan border.

In a joint operation, 22 packets of heroin, weighing approximately 22 kg, two AK-47 rifles, four magazines and 45 live cartridges, along with a mobile phone, a plastic pipe and Rs 210 in Pakistani currency were recovered.

The operation was led by Amritsar (rural) SSP Dhruv Dahiya, who acted on a tip-off. He constituted a team comprising Deputy Superintendent of

Police (detective) Gurinderpal Singh Nagra and Assistant Superintendent of Police, Majitha, Abhimanyu Rana, which coordinated with the BSF to lay the siege that was carried out successfully.

The Indian smugglers who were supposed to receive the consignment from their Pakistani counterparts have been identified to be linked with Jagdish Bhura and Jaspal Singh of Gatti Rajoke village in Gurdaspur district.

Pakistan Jemima Goldsmith slams ex-husband Imran Khan over his controversial remarks about women The recent statement by the Pakistani premier Imran Khan about the increasing rape and sexual cases in the country has sparked uproar not within the country but also from across the globe. To add more to his criticism, his former wife Jemima Goldsmith has also slammed him over his rape remarks. In a response to Khan’s comments, Jemima did not

mince words and blasted her former husband for stating that it is the women’s dress and vulgarity that has given rise to rape cases.

“Say to the believing men that they restrain their eyes and guard their private parts.”

Quran 24:31. The onus is on men”, maintained Jemima, citing a verse from the Holy Quran.

Pakistan’s changing idea of national security These are stirring times in Islamabad, where the rich and the powerful gathered for the first-ever Islamabad Security Dialogue (ISD) on March 17-18. In Pakistan, the rich and the powerful are either politicians, businessmen or those in khaki, or even all three. And since it is they who run the country, what they say usually matters. The Dialogue was inaugurated by Prime Minister Imran Khan, while the keynote address was delivered by army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa. Of the two, it’s obvious who one would listen to. And it was quite something.

The ISD was organised by the National Security Division, a body originally set up under Nawaz Sharif to serve as the secretariat of the Cabinet Committee on National Security

which replaced the Defence Committee of the Cabinet. Later called the National Security Committee, it was notified as the ‘principal decision-making body on national security’ in a move quite unlike the advisory role such bodies have in most countries. That it included the service chiefs hardly needs to be said.

At present, the division is headed by a secretary-level officer. An added post in national security bureaucracy is in the form of a special adviser to the PM, Moeed Yusuf, an academic from the US, who has been in the news for possible backchannel talks with India.

It is this division which seems to have initiated the ISD, together with five leading think-tanks of the country.

FIFA suspends Pakistan, Chad football federations FIFA has suspended the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) due to third-party interference and also the Chadian Football Association (FTFA) due to government interference, soccer’s global governing body said on Wednesday. FIFA said in a

statement the decision to suspend the PFF was prompted by the recent “hostile takeover” of its headquarters in Lahore by a group of protesters and an alleged decision by certain individuals to remove the FIFA-appointed normalisation committee of the PFF.

374 new infections and 4 more Covid-19 casualties in Sindh Covid-19 claims four more livesand 374 infectrions in Sindh. Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said that 9,411 samples were tested which detected 374 cases. He added that so far 3,360,861 tests have been conducted against which 267,611 cases were diagnosed, of them 96 percent or 257,176

patients have recovered, including 163 overnight.

Chief Minister said that currently 5,915 patients were under treatment; of them 5,596 were in home isolation, 10 at isolation centres and 309 at different hospitals.

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PM and his wife are the first to receive AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama and his wife, Mary have received their first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine today.

Bainimarama says these vaccines are more than a shot in the arm, they are an injection of hope.

He says being vaccinated is their duty to keep our loved ones safe and set Fiji on a path to recovery.

The Prime Minister says these vaccines are safe, effective and backed by the miracle of modern medicine.

Damning human rights repots on Fiji is factual in nature – US Embassador US Embassy’s Chargé d’Affaires to Fiji, Tony Greubel has today maintained that the US State Department’s 2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices in Fiji are factual in nature however the Director of the Fiji Human Rights and Anti Discrimination Commission, Ashwin Raj says the US report contains factual inaccuracies and has a scant interpretation of the law.

When questioned by Fijivillage if the US consulted the Human Rights Commission while compiling the report, Greubel says the country reports do not reach legal conclusions, rank countries, or draw comparisons across them and they do not attempt to catalog every human rights incident, nor are these reports an effort by the US government to judge others.

Police deny FTUC march permit application due to Covid-19 pandemic Police have denied permit application for the Fiji Trades Union Congress to march and hold a rally in Suva on 1st May. FTUC National Secretary, Felix Anthony says no written reason was given.

Anthony says the reason given verbally was that there was concern about the COVID-19 pandemic.

He says they do not believe this

excuse as sports and other recreational activities continue in the country.

Anthony claims this is purely a political decision and this is the sixth occasion where a permit to march has been denied.

He says they condemn this decision to deny workers their fundamental right to assembly and to protest.

Concerns raised about videos circulating of the horrific accident at Naviyago Bridge People have raised concerns about videos circulating online of the horrific road accident at Naviyago Bridge in Lautoka on Saturday.

The video shows an accident victim in a state of severe distress.

Police say they have yet to receive a complaint from the family of the victim or anyone else with regards to the circulation of the videos.

Meanwhile, two men remain admitted at the Lautoka Hospital while another passenger was discharged on Tuesday.

A fourth passenger who was also travelling with them was treated and sent home earlier.

Police say they were travelling in a vehicle driven by a 38-year-old man.

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Saturday, April 10, 2021

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Education, financial sectors should be focus areas for revenue expenditure - says IMF’s Gita Gopinath The IMF projected an impressive 12.5 per cent growth rate for India in 2021, stronger than that of China, the only major economy to have a positive growth rate last year during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Washingtonbased global financial institution, in its annual World Economic Outlook ahead of the annual Spring meeting with the World Bank, said the Indian economy is

expected to grow by 6.9 per cent in 2022.

Notably in 2020, India’s economy contracted by a record eight per cent, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said as it projected an impressive 12.5 per cent growth rate for the country in 2021. Gita Gopinath, chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, on Wednesday expressed her approval of India’s current fiscal stance.

New Zealand suspends entry for travellers from India due to high Covid-19 cases New Zealand has for the first time imposed a temporary ban on travellers coming from India, including its citizens, from April 11 to 28 due to a surge in COVID-19 cases among visitors to this country, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Thursday. The travel restriction comes after New Zealand recorded 23 new positive

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coronavirus cases in managed isolation on Thursday, of which 17 came from India, Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield was quoted as saying by media reports. While arrivals from India had triggered the risk assessment, Prime Minister Ardern said the government would be looking at risks posed by other COVID-19 hotspot countries.

Suspended police officer blames former Maharashtra Chief Minister Suspended police officer Sachin Hindurao Vaze claimed that former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh had demanded Rs 2 crore from him to continue his service in the Mumbai police and alleged another minister Anil Parab asked

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Transport Minister Parab rejected the allegations made by Waze, saying they were incorrect and aimed at maligning his image, and expressed readiness to face any probe.

India surpasses US to become fastest Covid vaccinating country, says health ministry India has surpassed the US to become the fastest COVID-19 vaccinating country in the world with an average daily rate of 30,93,861 vaccine doses, the Union Health Ministry said on Wednesday.

The cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered

in the country has crossed 8.70 crore.

Cumulatively, 8,70,77,474 vaccine doses have been administered through 13,32,130 sessions, as per the provisional report till 7 am.

These include 89,63,724 health care workers (HCWs) who have taken the 1st dose.

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