Heena Sharma Blog

  The rush by India’s states to end lockdowns as new coronavirus infections drop , rather than waiting for vaccination rates to rise, risks triggering fresh restrictions and holding back the nation’s recovery, according to Oxford Economics. “States are easing lockdowns based on lower test positivity rates rather than vaccination progress,” Priyanka Kishore, head of India and South East Asia Economics at Oxford Economics, wrote in a report to clients. “This risky strategy increases the chances of renewed outbreaks that would further delay the recovery.” Provinces including national capital New Delhi have begun reopening amid signs of infections plateauing, causing mobility rates to improve as of mid-June. While that’s likely to foster return of some demand in the near-term, there’s the risk of consumption and business activity suffering going ahead should newer restrictions be placed to control a resurgent virus wave. Read More  

  Veteran singer S P Balasubrahmanyam died in a Chennai hospital on Friday after battling Covid-19 for a month. He was 74. Balasubrahmanyam was admitted to MGM Healthcare for Covid-19 symptoms on August 5. His condition deteriorated eight days later and was moved to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and he was on life support and his condition remained critical.   SPB, as his fans called him, was born into an orthodox Telugu Brahmin family in Andhra Pradesh. He was the second son in a family of three sons and five daughters. His father, S. P. Sambamurthy, was a well-known exponent of traditional art Harikatha and his sister S.P. Sailaja is a former actress-singer in Tollywood. He is survived by daughter Pallavi and son S P B. Charan. Turning point for his career as singer was in 1964, when he won the first prize in a competition organised by Chennai-based Telugu Cultural Organisation. He was picked up by Music director SP Kodandapani who introduced SPB in film music in 19...

Nokia last week suspended operations at a telecom gear manufacturing plant in Sriperumbudur of Tamil Nadu, the company said on Tuesday, after some employees tested positive for Covid-19 . Nokia did not disclose how many workers at the Sriperumbudur plant tested positive, but a source familiar with the matter said they were at least 42. The Finnish firm said it had already implemented measures such as social distancing and changes to canteen facilities. The factory had begun operations in a restricted manner over the past few weeks, Nokia said in a statement, after India eased the world’s biggest lockdown to kick-start its economy which has been pummelled by the shutdown. Read More

Tamil Nadu on Tuesday reported 7 new positive cases of coronavirus (Covid-19) , in people with a history of travel to Kerala and Delhi. As on March 30, the state had 67 positive cases. C Vijayabaskar, Minister for Health and Family Welfare, government of TamilNadu said that the state has 7 new Covid-19 positive cases. The 7 cases include a 43-year-old male who had travelled to Trivandrum, a 28-year old male co-worker of a patient, who had earlier tested positive at Tiruvannamalai MC, three male patients at Vilupuram with a history of travel to Delhi, two male patients at Madurai Rajaji Hospital with a history of travel to Delhi. All patients are in isolation and stable. As of March 30, 2020, Tamil Nadu had tested samples of 2,040 people, of which 1,853 came in negative and 67 tested positive. Of the 67 positive cases, 5 were discharged. Read More

Tamil Nadu has directed schools to declare holiday and also ordered closure of malls, movie theatres in the state’s border Taluks till March 31 amid the coronavirus outbreak . On Sunday chief minister K Palaniswami called for closure of schools for students in LKG to fifth standard across the state. He also asked malls and movie theatres in Theni, Kanyakumari, Coimbatore, Nilgiri, Krishnagiri, Tirunelveli, Tenkasi, Tiruvallur, Vellore, Tirupattur, Ranipet, Erode, Dindigul, Dharmapuri and Virudhunagar districts to remain shut till March 31. Schools in these Taluks are already closed. The CM also ordered setting up of quarantine wards near the airports in the state for passengers with COVID-19 symptoms. To prevent the spread of the virus from neighbouring states, he ordered setting up of monitoring centres and checkposts in the border districts. Read More

With onion prices skyrocketing, traders from Tiruchi wholesale market , which is one of the largest in Tamil Nadu, have imported 30 tonnes of onion. The import has brought down prices to Rs 100 per kg at the market, which caters to five districts. In other parts of the state, prices range from Rs 140-160. According to the traders, there may not be further imports as margins are set declining due to increased arrivals from Perambalur, Tiruchi and Namakkal districts. Major wholesale markets in Tamil Nadu are dependent on onions from Bellary and Nashik, apart from procurement from neighbouring districts, where rains destroyed 75 per cent of crops this year. According to local media reports, the crop is raised on over 8,000 hectares in Perambalur district and on about 4,000 hectares in Tiruchi district. Traders say arrivals from these districts have plunged to 25 bags daily from 500, earlier. Meanwhile, Centre is also importing onions from Egypt, among other nations. The Union...

TNTEU result 2019: The Tamil Nadu Teachers Education University (TNTEU) has withdrawn the TN B Sc result and TN B Ed results from its official website. The varsity had released the results of TNTEU Bachelor of Science (B Sc) exam and TNTEU Bachelor of Education (B Ed) exam on tnteu.ac.in on Tuesday i.e. September 24. The university is expected to announce the TNTEU 2019 results for both TNTEU B Sc and TNTEU B Ed students shortly on its official portal. Students are advised to keep their hall ticket number and registration card ready to access their TNTEU results and keep checking the website of TNTEU for latest updates about TNTEU result 2019. The TNTEU conducted the TNTEU B Sc examination and TNTEU B Ed examination in March, May and June this year. Yesterday, the TNTEU had published a link for TNTEU results 2019. However, the link was found to be non-operational and students were not able to check their TN B Ed Result 2019 and TN B Sc result 2019. Later in the day, the varsi...

As part of the second phase of Lok Sabha elections in the country, polling began on Thursday morning in 38 Parliamentary Constituencies in Tamil Nadu. Sources said the polling process was delayed by at least one hour in a few booths in Tamil Nadu owing to technical glitches in the Electronic Voting Machines. Polling for Parliamentary Constituencies and by-poll for 18 Assembly Constituencies are being held in Tamil Nadu simultaneously. Voting was delayed in various constituencies including Choolaimedu, Guindy, Ashok Nagar, and Virugambakkam among others in Chennai, according to sources. In some booths in Chennai, voters who appeared without booth slips were not allowed to enter, which escalated tension. Polling for the two elections is otherwise going on as normal, with many political leaders, candidates and eminent personalities casting their votes in the morning. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, BJP leader Tamilisai Soundararajan, and former Union Finance ...

The four-day harvest festival of Pongal , is observed in the month of Thai and is being celebrated by Indians across the world, especially in Tamil Nadu. The festival celebrates the harvesting of crops including sugarcane, rice and turmeric and falls around the same time as Lohri and Makar Sankranti in mid-January each year. It is essentially a thanksgiving festival, wherein farmers thank the nature, the Sun God and the farm animals for helping in the productions of crops, while other people thank the farmers for producing the crops. The word 'Pongal' in Tamil means to 'to boil', it is also the name of a sweet dish made out of boiled rice, moong dal, milk and jaggery, which is prepared specially to mark the harvest festival. Tamilians usually celebrate the occasion by making delicate traditional designs known as kolams in their homes with rice powder. The kolams are made to welcome goddess Lakshmi, who is believed to bring wealth, prosperity and happiness...

The Supreme Court on Thursday quashed the Madras High Court directive to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to grant 196 grace marks to students who suffered from the erroneous Tamil translation of 49 questions in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test ( NEET ) for undergraduate medical admissions. "The method adopted by the High Court is manifestly arbitrary and unjustified and cannot be sustained," the top court said in its judgement. The apex court observed that the court has made no attempt to see whether the students have in fact attempted answers to the questions, which were claimed to be imperfectly translated and has proceeded to award the full marks for 49 questions to all candidates who had opted to give the examination in Tamil. The court also directed that from the year 2019-20 onwards the NEET-UG Examination will be conducted by the National Testing Agency and the bilingual examination will be conducted after the question pape...

As many as 15 people, who were borrowers in the Rs 600 million SBI loan scam in Virudhanagar and Theni districts of Tamil Nadu, have died under suspicious circumstances in the last six months, The Times of India reports. Another borrower has gone missing. According to the ToI report, police has confirmed that all those found dead were from Virudhnagar and nearby villages and had loans in their name, however, there has not been a probe into these deaths. All the deceased were workers in a mill owned by one of the accused in the case. Police has registered cases of unnatural deaths under Section 174 of the CrPC. The ToI report has confirmed the names of three of the deceased who are: Mahalingam, Rajagopal and Pandi. Out of these Rajagopal's dead body was found on a road in his neighbourhood, while the rest of the two died at their homes, the police has said. Read Full Article

The incidents took place near Baga and Siquerim beach in north Goa Current Affairs News : Two tourists from Tamil Nadu drowned in separate incidents while clicking selfies in the Arabian Sea near beaches in Goa, the police said today. A group of eight tourists from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu visited the Baga beach in North Goa district on Saturday evening. "Three of the group members went to a rocky stretch in the waters. As they were clicking selfies on their mobile phones, a strong sea wave hit them," Calangute police inspector Jivba Dalvisaid. While two of the group members managed to swim to safety, the third person, identified as Dinesh Kumar Ranganathan (28) from Vellore in Tamil Nadu, drowned in the waters, he said. The body was fished out later. In a similar incident, four tourists from Tamil Nadu went to enjoy at a rocky patch in the waters at Siquerim beach near Fort Aguada in North Goa yesterday morning, Dalvi said. As they were clic...