SHILLONG, Jan 4: Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju on Monday expressed optimism that the National Games, the calendar of which was affected by COVID-19 pandemic, will be held this year in Goa and in Meghalaya next year.
He assured full help and support from his ministry.
The Union Sports Minister admitted that the calendar for the games was in jeopardy due to COVID-19 and that theinfrastructure was also affected.
Dates are becoming a problem. Goa missed the chance last year because of COVID-19. Hopefully this year Goa could host the games, Rijiju told PTI at the sidelines of a program here.
Next year Meghalaya can (possibly) hold it. The chief minister is really giving his effort and time for the games, he said.
“I will do what is necessary to promote sports in NE, the union minister assured. (PTI)
Rijiju expresses optimism on holding of National Games
Cricket Australia rejects reports of India seeking change of venue for Brisbane Test
SYDNEY, Jan 4: Cricket Australia chief executive Nick Hockley on Monday dismissed reports that the Indian team is reluctant to play the fourth Test in Brisbane because of stricter quarantine rules there.
Hockley said the Indian cricket board was “fully across (and) supportive” of quarantine requirements in Queensland.
“We speak to our counterparts at the BCCI daily,” he told reporters here.
“We’ve had nothing formal from the BCCI to suggest anything other than they’re supportive. Both teams have wanted to play the schedule as we’ve set out,” he asserted.
The third Test in the four-match series is scheduled to be played at the Sydney Cricket Ground from Thursday. The series is locked at 1-1 right now.
The fourth game is due from January 15 at the Gabba.
The Australian media has claimed that the Brisbane Test is in jeopardy because of the tourists’ reluctance to travel there in view of harder quarantine rules, having already served one upon entering Australia in November.
The reports, citing unnamed sources, claimed that the Indian team wanted the fourth Test to be also held in Sydney.
Queensland has closed its borders for people travelling from New South Wales, of which Sydney is the capital, due to the rising cases of COVID-19 in the city and surrounding areas.
Both the Indian and Australian teams travelled to Sydney on Monday after all their players and support staff returned negative in latest round of COVID-19 tests.
Hockley’s statement came two days after five Indian players — vice-captain Rohit Sharma, opener Shubman Gill, stumper Rishabh Pant, pacer Navdeep Saini and batsman Prithvi Shaw — were placed in isolation for an alleged breach of bio-security protocols.
Cricket Australia, in a media release, said it is probing the matter jointly with the BCCI after a video of the players at an indoor restaurant was posted by a fan, who identified himself as Navaldeep Singh on Twitter.
Earlier in the day, Australia’s leading spinner Nathan Lyon had called on players from both teams to “get out there and play the game” instead of worrying over things that are beyond their control.
“I am not really worried about what’s being reported, it is for us to worry about what we can control and the information that we are receiving from the people at Cricket Australia and the medical people,” Lyon had said.
“It is just about us making sure that we are very well prepared for the Sydney Test, everyone keeps talking about the Gabba Test.
“But there is a massive Test match in just couple of days at the SCG and that is where our focus is 100 per cent at the moment,” the veteran off-spinner added. (PTI)
YCET organizes quiz competition
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 4: Striking a new chord in the overall development programme for the upcoming engineers, Computer Science and Engineering Department of Yogananda College of Engineering and Technology (YCET) organized an international level quiz competition virtually on ‘Computer Organization and Architecture.”
More than 350 students registered themselves for the event from different States and Union Territories of India as well as from abroad. Out of the 350 students, 245 students appeared in the quiz wherein 65 students scored more than 60 percent marks.
Sixty one students from YCET, 46 students from other colleges of J&K including 28 from Baba Ghulam Shah University, two from MIET, seven from GCET and nine from Government Polytechnic College for Women Jammu were among the participants.
E-certificates were awarded to all the participants who scored more than 60 percent marks.
The event was organised to test knowledge of young engineers in the field, so that they expand beyond the scopes of their regular curriculum. The competition was a grand success and attracted large energetic participation of the students.
The quiz was conducted by Er Ayushi Gupta, Assistant Professor of CSE/IT Department, whereas the final year students including Vinit Sharma, Akshit Verma, Ritik Gupta, Purvai Gupta, and Varuni were coordinators of the event.
NYKS organises Youth Parliament Festival
Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 4: Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS) Jammu -Kashmir and Ladakh, Ministry of Youth affairs and Sports in coordination with NSS organized virtually State Level Youth Parliament Festival 2021, today.
About 44 participants hailing from Youth Clubs and Mahila Mandal, affiliated with NYKS and NSS from 20 districts of J&K UT and two districts of Ladakh UT participated.
The festival was inaugurated by Shamsher Singh Manhas, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha. While addressing the participants through virtual mode, he stated that the Prime Minister of India shared the idea of youth during his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ address on December 31, 2017. “The first National Youth Festival was organized in January-February 2019 wherein Prime Minister of India had addressed the youth,” Member Parliament said.
Bikram Singh Gill, State Director Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan J&K and Ladakh informed that District Level Youth Parliaments were organized at Jammu, Srinagar and Udhampur on December 28 and 29 respectively on selected five topics including Climate Change is a bigger threat than COVID-19, Greening the Indian Economy, Harnessing the power of women, Supercharging Youth for a New India and Building a start-up innovation, eco system in India.
Gill also informed that the 1st and 2nd winners of the District level and 1st, 2nd and 3rd winners at State level will participate in National Youth Parliament, New Delhi on January 12 and 13 wherein three best speakers will be awarded with Rs 2 lakh, 1.50 lakh and 1 lakh respectively.
Sheikh Yamina from Srinagar stood first, whereas Srishti Koul of Jammu bagged 2nd rank and Nayeeda Choudhary of secured 3rd rank in state level event.
Prof Gharu Ram Bhagat, DDC Member, Musavir Ahmed (KAS) NSS Programme Coordinator, Kashmir University, Srinagar, Dr Hema Gandotra, Assistant Professor, Shalini Rana Assistant Prof and HoD English GCoE Jammu, Reecha Gupta (Artist), Ram Paul Dogra, Journalist and social activist, Dr Ghulam Jeelani Zargar were among jury members of the event.
Coronavirus vaccine to cost $3-4 to Govt; $6-8 in pvt mkt: Serum
NEW DELHI, Jan 4:
Coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford will cost USD 3-4 per shot (Rs 219-292) to the government and will be priced at double that rate in private market ones such sales open up, said the CEO of its Indian manufacturer on Monday.
Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, has a licence to produce the shot and has already manufactured close to 50 million doses.
Its CEO Adar Poonawalla told PTI that the company will start selling the Covishield to the Indian government and GAVI countries in the first stage, followed by the private market.
Indian drug regulator on Sunday approved Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin for restricted emergency use in the country.
“We want the vaccine to be affordable and accessible to all. The government of India will receive it at a far more affordable price of USD 3-4, since they will be buying in a larger volume,” he said.
Poonawalla, who had taken a huge gamble once the pandemic began to unfold by overhauling Serum’s assembly line and “sacrificing” products that were to be destined for Europe and America in anticipation of a COVID-19 vaccine, said the priority supplies will go to India and the GAVI (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization) nations.
Only after meeting their requirements, “the private market will open up where the pricing would be USD 6-8 per done,” he said.
Serum will have 100 million doses in a month, and will possibly double it by April.
The Government has indicated that it may need 300 million doses before July 2021, with frontline health workers and the elderly given priority.
Poonawalla said Serum was in touch with the government for the vaccine’s procurement.
“Initially, we will supply 50 million doses and we will get more confirmations over the course of the next few days,” he added.
After the regulator’s nod, Serum expects formalities to be completed in the next 7 to 10 days for the rollout to begin.
When asked if the SII has been barred by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) not to export the vaccine till vulnerable populations in India are protected, Poonawalla said: “We will start exporting the vaccine post the government’s approval and talks are going on”.
“Our priority list will see us cater to the Indian market first, then the COVAX countries. Optimistically, by March-April we should have permissions in place,” he added.
When asked if the company was negotiating bilateral agreements with other countries too for the vaccine, Poonawalla said: “We have bilateral partnerships with nations like Bangladesh, Myanmar, Morocco, etc”.
On the efficacy of Covishield, he noted that the company has proven in its trials that it has a 100 per cent efficacy on hospitalisation, implying that there were zero hospitalisations found in the people who took the vaccine globally.
“The efficacy results of the vaccine are quite high if it is administered in 2-doses within a gap of 2 – 3months,” Poonawalla said. (PTI)
Williamson’s 112 helps NZ cut Pakistan’s lead in 2nd Test
CHRISTCHURCH, Jan 4: Kane Williamson posted his third century in consecutive matches this summer and shared an unbroken 215-run partnership with Henry Nicholls which steered New Zealand close to a first-innings lead over Pakistan on the second day of the second cricket Test.
Williamson followed his innings of 251 in the first Test against the West Indies and 129 in the first Test against Pakistan with an unbeaten 112 on Monday as New Zealand reached 286-3 by stumps in reply to Pakistan’s 297.
Nicholls ended the day 89 not out, following his 174 in the second Test against the West Indies and his 56 in the first Test against Pakistan.
Williamson’s century was his 24th in Tests and again came at a crucial time for New Zealand as it played under the pressure of Pakistan’s impressive first innings total, achieved as it batted first after losing the toss.
New Zealand lost three wickets on either side of lunch — Tom Latham (33) and Tom Blundell (16) after a 52-run opening partnership and Ross Taylor (12) early in the second session when it was in trouble at 71-3.
Williamson and Nicholls batted slowly, cautiously through the middle session to re-establish the innings, adding only 79 runs and grafting the first 50 runs of their partnership from 105 balls.
The New Zealand run rate dropped to around 2.6 during the session as Pakistan’s bowlers kept up an accurate attack.
But Williamson accelerated as tea approached, taking a series of boundaries close to the interval and keeping up the tempo into the evening session as the aging ball made the Pakistan attack less threatening.
He went from 78 to 94 with four boundaries from the 60th over bowled by Naseem Shah; moved on to 95 with a single, to 99 with a pulled four from Faheem Ashraf and then to his century with a further boundary from Faheem.
Williamson’s half century had taken almost three hours and 105 deliveries; he went on to his century in 239 minutes from 140 balls, adding the second 50 from 35 deliveries in an hour.
Pakistan was helpless as Williamson and New Zealand’s total mounted and as they watched their first-innings total almost eclipsed.
The Hagley Oval pitch was troubling for batsmen on the first day and for most of the first two sessions Monday. There was enough pace and bounce, enough lateral movement both in the air and off the pitch to make batting a little precarious.
Pakistan overcame that on day one with innings of 93 from Azhar Ali, 61 from Mohammad Rizwan and 48 from Faheem which gave it a total close to 300 which was impressive in the conditions.
Latham and Blundell gave New Zealand a solid start but the testing nature of the pitch was still evident with the loss of quick wickets around lunch.
Blundell was trapped lbw by Faheem and Latham’s was an extraordinary dismissal: he edged into the slip cordon where Shan Masood at second slip defected the ball to Haris Sohail at first who held a reflex catch.
Masood needed no assistance with the catch which removed Taylor from the bowling of Mohammad Abbas.
Nicholls had some luck as he built his innings. On 3 he edged a ball from Shaheen Afridi to Rizwan behind the stumps and was walking when the television umpire called the no-ball which granted the New Zealander a fortunate reprieve. At 86 he was dropped by Rizwan off Afridi in the second over of the second new ball.
In between, Nicholls passed 2,000 test runs but he ended the day limping after sustaining a calf muscle injury.
Williamson had fewer anxious moments, mainly due often to his ability to leave the ball late outside off stump, his soft hands which reduced the danger of catches at slip or gully and his recognition that driving wasn’t cautious on a pitch which still offered some late movement from the seam. (AP)
We should be mentally prepared for several challenges on way to Olympics: Manpreet
NEW DELHI, Jan 4: Keeping the fast-evolving COVID-19 situation in mind, Indian men’s hockey team captain Manpreet Singh says his side will need to be “mentally prepared” for the several obstacles it might face on its way to the Tokyo Olympics.
Pushed back by a year due to the pandemic, the quadrennial sporting extravaganza is slated to be held in July-August.
“The biggest learning from last year was to not let external factors affect our goal. There could be many uncertainties but we need to only worry about what’s within our control and that is to work towards being our best.
“There could be several challenges leading up to the Olympic Games this year and we need to be mentally prepared for it,” Manpreet said, putting things into perspective.
With only 200 days to go for the Olympics, Manpreet and Rani, the women’s team skipper, believe the players in respective core groups will have to give their 100 per cent to be able to achieve their goals in Tokyo.
“The next 200 days is going to be the most important period of our lives. Each one of us have to give our 100 per cent in training and in competition if we want to see ourselves make the Indian Team for Tokyo,” stated the midfielder.
Rani agreed that in the next few months the players will need to up their game in all aspects.
“In the previous national camp which lasted over four months, we have really worked hard to reach the level we were previously at. In the next few months, our focus will be on improving further in all aspects of the game.
“Our competitions this year will show us where we stand and what needs to be improved. From here on, each one of us have to work on being the best,” said Rani, a Khel Ratna awardee.
She stated that players should not take their place in the team for granted and they will have to showcase that they are indeed the best to make the cut.
“I look forward to good competition within the team as it brings out the best in us. Another thing we need to focus on is our mental fitness and also take care of our bodies in the lead up to the Games to avoid injuries,” Rani stated. (PTI)
Police directed to supply charge sheet to accused well within time
NEW DELHI, Jan 4:
Taking note of delays in trial of north-east Delhi riots cases, a court here has directed the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) to issue directions to investigating officers to supply copies of the charge sheets to the accused well within time.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Dinesh Kumar passed the directions after several accused in at least three cases related to the riots submitted that they have not received the charge sheet despite the court’s orders.
The court also issued notice to the investigating officers (IOs) concerned to explain as to why the copies of the charge sheets were not supplied to the accused through jail superintendent as directed.
It said the reply should be forwarded by the Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP).
“It has been noticed that the IOs of various cases are not supplying the copies to the accused persons despite directions of the court within time which is resulting in delay in committal of various cases to the sessions court for further proceedings in the matter. Therefore, copy of this order be sent to DCP, north-east to issue a direction to IOs in all the police stations to supply the copy of charge sheet to the accused persons well within time before next date of hearing.
“In the meantime, IO of the present case is directed to supply the copy of charge sheet to the accused through Jail Superintendent concerned before next date of hearing. He shall file the report of compliance in the court on next date of hearing,” the court said in its order passed on December 24.
The court has put up the matters for further hearing on January 7.
Communal violence had broken out in north-east Delhi on February 24 last year after clashes between the Citizenship (Amendment) Act supporters and its protesters spiralled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured. (PTI)
Rain, strong winds improve Delhi’s air quality to ‘moderate’ category
NEW DELHI, Jan 4:
Delhi’s air quality improved significantly to the “moderate” category on Monday morning owing to rain and strong winds.
A Government forecasting agency said the air quality is likely to improve further to the “satisfactory” category.
The national capital’s air quality index (AQI) was 148 at 10 am. The 24-hour average AQI was 354 on Sunday and 443 on Saturday.
An AQI between zero and 50 is considered “good”, 51 and 100 “satisfactory”, 101 and 200 “moderate”, 201 and 300 “poor”, 301 and 400 “very poor”, and 401 and 500 “severe”.
Officials at the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said intense rains lashed Delhi and winds gusting up to 30 kmph swept the city on Sunday under the influence of a strong Western Disturbance affecting northwest India, dispersing pollutants.
The Safdarjung Observatory recorded 39.9 mm rainfall between 8:30 am on Saturday to 2:30 pm on Sunday.
More rain is likely on Monday. The maximum wind speed will be around 30 kmph, the IMD said.
The central government’s Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi said the AQI is likely to remain “moderate” to “satisfactory” on Monday and Tuesday.
It said the city’s ventilation index — a product of mixing depth and average wind speed — would be 5,000 m2/s on Monday and Tuesday.
Mixing depth is the vertical height at which pollutants are suspended in the air. It reduces on cold days with calm wind speed.
A ventilation index lower than 6,000 sqm/second, with the average wind speed less than 10 kmph, is unfavourable for the dispersal of pollutants. (PTI)
Anil Jain flags off ‘High Performance Training Camp’ for junior boys
NEW DELHI, Jan 4:The All India Tennis Association (AITA) President Anil Jain on Monday flagged off the ‘High Performance Training Camp’ for junior boys at the R K Khanna Tennis Stadium here.
A total of 21 AITA-ranked junior players have joined the three-day camp, which will end on Wednesday. They will go through mental and physical conditioning apart from fine-tuning of tennis skills.
The camp will be headed by national coach Zeeshan Ali, who will be assisted by former players Ashutosh Singh and Saurabh Singh.
“The AITA endeavours to bring life back into tennis through a ‘Return to Tennis’ styled project which includes ‘High-Performance Training Camps’ for top-ranked players on the AITA Junior circuit,” AITA said in a media release.
Also present at the event were AITA Vice President Anil Khanna and Delhi Lawn Tennis Association (DLTA) President Rohit Rajpal.
“It is a new year and a fresh start of Tennis activities in the country under the ‘New Normal’ environment during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Jain.
“It is our vision to conduct more camps in future and eventually select the talented tennis players to join the ‘National Tennis Centre’ where we would try to further improve their different aspects of the sport like skills, game strategy, strength, conditioning, diet and nutrition along with sports science and psychology,” he added.
Jain said the goal of these camps is to develop “Super 30s” in each category.
“The goal is to develop the Super 30s in each category and make our presence felt strongly on the International tennis arena,” he added. (PTI)