New Delhi: Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandavya has said that the Drugs Controller General of India has given urgent approval to Sputnik single-dose vaccine in the country. Mandavya said on Twitter that this is the ninth covid vaccine in the country. He said it would further strengthen the country’s collective fight against the epidemic.

Meanwhile, schools in various state and union territories across the country were reopened today amid a drop in covid cases. Schools were opened in Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, and Delhi.

In the first phase, classes nine to 12 will work offline and online. Classes from Nursery to Grade VIII as the second phase will resume on the 14th of this month. There will be completely offline classes in colleges and institutions of higher learning. Gymnasiums and swimming pools will be open from today. All government and private offices will be fully operational. Restaurants can hold up to 50 percent of the capacity.
Admission will be from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. The bars will be open from 12 noon to 11 pm, with 50 percent of the people admitted. The night curfew was imposed from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Bishwa Sharma on Monday said that Assam would lift all restrictions on covid from February 15 as the epidemic situation has improved due to the declining number of cases.

The school board exams, municipal elections, and by-elections to the Majuli Assembly constituency will be held in the next two months, Sharma told a news conference. Students appearing for the board exam should be vaccinated with both doses, he said.

New Delhi: The results of ICSE, ISC first-term board examination for Classes 10 and 12 has been announced. Results are available on the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) website.

The ICSE exams were held between November 29 and December 16 last year. The ISC exams were held between November 22 and December 20.

The exams were conducted offline. This time the examination was divided into two for the academic year. Due to covid not being able to appear for the exam last year, this time it was rescheduled for two terms.

Mumbai: India’s Nightingale, Lata Mangeshkar dies at 92. She was on a ventilator at a private hospital in Mumbai for a long time due to covid. Lata Mangeshkar was admitted to the hospital on January 11 due to a covid infection. And later diagnosed with pneumonia.

Lata Mangeshkar, who entered the film industry at the age of thirteen, has sung over 30,000 songs in various Indian languages. Lata Mangeshkar is described as the ‘Nightingale of India’. The singer has bagged the Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, and Dada Saheb Phalke Awards.

Lata Mangeshkar was born on September 28, 1929, in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, the eldest of five children of Pandit Dinanath Mangeshkar and Sivanthira. Famous singer Asha Bhosle is her younger sister. The other siblings are music director Hridayanath Mangeshkar, singer and music director Meena Khadikar, and singer Usha Mangeshkar.

As a child, Lata Mangeshkar acted in a play through her father. She has won the National Award for Best Singer three times. In 2001, the country honored her with the Bharat Ratna. In 1989, he won the Dadasaheb Phalke Award. She has been awarded the Legion of Honor, a civilian honor by the French Government.

New Delhi: The National Medical Commission (NMC) has issued guidelines for fixing the fees for 50 percent seats in MBBS and medical PG courses in private medical colleges.

The National Medical Commission has issued guidelines fixing the equivalent fee for government medical colleges for 50 percent seats in MBBS and PG courses in private medical institutions and universities.

Admission to these seats will be based on rank in the entrance examination. In the remaining seats, the state fee regulatory authorities will determine the fees based on the three-year operating costs of the institutions.

The guideline states that the fees for 50 seats in private medical colleges and deemed universities should be equal to the fees in government medical colleges in the state or union territory.

This will benefit the students who get admission to the government quota. If the government quota is less than 50 percent of the total seats, the exemption should be given based on merit. No capitation fee of any kind is allowed. The guideline also states that fees should be determined based on the operating costs of the institution.

Expenses including salaries can also be included in the operating expenses. At the same time, the guideline says that medical education should not be commercialized and no head fee should be charged. The guideline was prepared based on recommendations made by a committee of experts based on recommendations received from the public and educators.

The NMC said in its recommendations that most colleges had to suspend physical classes during the last financial year due to the covid-19 pandemic. “Hostel maintenance, mess costs, and other costs directly related to students were reduced.

On the other hand, hospital operating costs, salaries, and overtime allowances have increased, so the NMC recommended that the State Fees Regulatory Authority consider the average audited financial results for the past three years with appropriate inflation adjustment.

Srinagar: A Pakistani national was shot dead by Indian troops while trying to smuggle drugs across the Jammu and Kashmir border. Three Pakistani drug traffickers have been shot dead by the Border Security Force (BSF). The incident took place in the Samba sector around 2.30 am on Sunday. 36 packets of heroin were seized from them. The drug traffickers were reportedly killed in a firing following the Border Security Force’s move to remove the drug traffickers.