Latest News: Import embargo on 101 defence items; 9 killed in fire at Covid facility

Rajnath Singh releases the list of 101 Defence items facing import embargo

Union Minister Rajnath Singh announced that the Ministry of Defence has prepared a list of 101 items for which there would be an embargo on the import beyond the timeline indicated against them. He said that the decision will offer a great opportunity to the Indian defence industry to manufacture the items in the negative list by using their own design and development capabilities or adopting the technologies designed & developed by DRDO to meet the requirements of the Armed Forces. In a series of tweets, the Defence Minister said that MoD has bifurcated the capital procurement budget for 2020-21 between domestic and foreign capital procurement routes and a separate budget head has been created with an outlay of nearly Rs 52,000 crore for domestic capital procurement in the current financial year.

Read the full story here

9 killed as fire breaks out at Covid Facility in Vijaywada

A total of nine COVID-19 patients lost their lives after a massive fire broke in a hotel transformed into coronavirus facility in Vijaywada, Andhra Pradesh. The building, previously a hotel called Swarna Palace, was converted into a facility for 50 asymptomatic patients last month. The fire was doused with the help of four fire tenders and 33 people, including 10 staff members, were rescued from the spot. The rescued patients have been moved to the Metropolitan Hotel COVID-19 Care Centre.

"The incident took place around 5 am. Around 22 patients are being treated in hospital. We are evacuating the entire building. The reason of fire appears to be a short circuit, as per the preliminary report, but we will have to ascertain," said Krishna DC Mohammad Imtiaz.

Read the full story here

Rhea's brother Showik leaves ED office after 18-hour marathon interrogation

Enforcement Directorate grilled Rhea Chakraborty's brother for more than 18 hours while looking into the financial angle of Sushant Singh Rajput's death case. Rhea's brother Showik Chakraborty went to the ED office at 12.30pm on August 8 left the Mumbai's Ballard Pier office of the central agency at 6.40am on August 9. ED had already interrogated Rhea and her former business manager Shruti Modi, her CA Ritesh Shah for over nine hours. According to the sources, both Rhea and Showik were asked to provide information on their bank accounts and details of the companies that were allegedly formed using Sushant Singh Rajput's money. 

Read the full story here

PM Modi to inaugurate Chennai-Port Blair submarine cable

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to inaugurate the submarine Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) connecting Chennai and Port Blair via video conference on August 10. The submarine cable will also connect Port Blair to Swaraj Dweep (Havelock) island, Little Andaman, Car Nicobar, Great Nicobar, Kamorta, Long Island, and Rangat. It will enable the delivery of faster and more reliable mobile and landline telecom services to Andaman and Nicobar Islands, on par with other parts of India. The submarine OFC link will deliver bandwidth of 2 x 200 Gigabits per second (Gbps) between Chennai and Port Blair, and 2 x 100 Gbps between Port Blair and the other islands.

"The provision of reliable, robust, and high-speed telecom and Broadband facilities in these Islands will be a landmark achievement from the viewpoint of consumers, as well as for strategic and governance reasons. 4G mobile services, which were constrained due to limited backhaul bandwidth provided via satellite will also see a major improvement" the release said.

Read the full story here

India records 64,399 new cases in 24 Hrs, tally reaches 21.53 Lakh

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare announced that India witnessed a record single-day spike of 64,399 new coronavirus cases on August 8, taking the total case tally past 21 lakh-mark. The country recorded over 60,000 new COVID-19 cases for the third consecutive day. As many as 861 people lost their lives to the contagious disease, taking the total coronavirus-related death toll to 43,379. India has now over 628,000 active coronavirus cases and the total number of recovered patients is approaching 15 lakh mark.

Get the Live updates here