India

Chennai, Sep 2 (IANS) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin will be meeting his Kerala counterpart Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday in Thiruvananthapuram.

The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister is reaching Kerala to participate in the South Indian Chief Ministers' conference, also being attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

The discussions between the two Chief Ministers will be mainly centred around Siruvani and Mullaperiyar water sharing issues.

Located inside deep forests in Palakkad district of Kerala, the Siruvani dam is a major source of drinking water for the people of Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu.

Notably, after the 2019 floods in Kerala, the state water resources department has been maintaining water levels below the Full Reservoir Level (FRL). The Kerala irrigation department has been maintaining the water level of Siruvani dam at 44 ft since 2019 instead of 49.5 ft which is the water level agreed between Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

Lowering of water level by five feet will lead to a shortage of 122.05 mcft (million cubic feet) which is 19 per cent of the storage capacity of the dam.

The Water level in Siruvani dam has gone up following incessant rains in the catchment areas of the dam and on Thursday the water level touched 43.5 ft and Coimbatore receives 101.4 MLD of water from Siruvani. However once the water level touches 44 ft, the water will be discharged.

Sources in the Tamil Nadu Water Resources Department told IANS that the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister will take this matter up with his Kerala counterpart and try to convince him of the necessity of maintaining the FRL of Siruvani dam so that drinking water for Coimbatore is not affected.

Mullaperiyar dam issue which is again a contentious one between Kerala and Tamil Nadu will also come for discussion during the meeting between the two Chief Ministers.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 2 (IANS) An Udaipur-bound IndiGo flight returned to the Delhi airport due to a technical snag, a DGCA official confirmed.

The official said that the aircraft was grounded after it returned to Delhi on Thursday due to engine vibrations and a probe into is underway.

"IndiGo Airbus flight 6E-6264 from Delhi to Udaipur had returned to Delhi due to a technical snag. All passengers were accommodated on another aircraft which operated to Udaipur. We regret the inconvenience caused to the passengers," an airline spokesperson said.

Also on Thursday, a SpiceJet B737 flight operating from Delhi to Nashik returned to the national capital after the crew experienced a malfunction with the autopilot system.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 2 (IANS) A deputy legal advisor with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) allegedly committed suicide at his south Delhi residence on Thursday, police said.

The deceased was identified as Jitendra Kumar, 48.

A senior police official said that they got a call at the Defence Colony police station at around 6.45 a.m. about a man found hanging, and a crime team, along with forensic mobile team, reached the spot.

"Kumar was posted as deputy legal advisor in the CBI. He was found hanging at his house in Hudco Place. He originally belonged to district Mandi in Himachal Pradesh. A suicide note was also found in which it was written that nobody was responsible for his death," the official said.

His wife Jyoti lives in Mandi and brother Rajender in Chandigarh. The Delhi Police also shared the information with senior officers of the CBI who came on the spot.A

"No foul play was found. The body of the deceased was shifted to mortuary. The postmortem will be conducted tomorrow (Friday)," the official said.

--IANS
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Kochi, Sep 1 (IANS) Ahead of Onam, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday launched various projects of Kochi Metro and the railways worth Rs 4,500 crores in Kerala.

These include commissioning and also foundation stone laying of various projects which will hugely improve connectivity in the state.

The Prime Minister flagged off the extension of the first phase of Kochi Metro and laid the foundation stone for its phase 2.

Then, there were five different projects of the Indian Railways.

"These projects will speed up the ease of living and also ease of doing business. The road map for development of the country in the next 25 years is beginning in Kerala from today. The Unified Metropolitan Authority which comprises of the metro, the water metro, and the bus service in Kochi is going to be multi-model connectivity which will see faster transportation, lesser pollution, and lesser traffic congestion," said Modi.

He then pointed out that steps will begin as part of these developments to convert three railway stations -- two in Kochi and one in Kollam - in Kerala to match the facilities one sees in airports.

He also recalled that the Centre by now has invested Rs 1 lakh crore in various infrastructure projects in Kerala which includes Rs 55,000 crore, six-lane NH 66 which is the lifeline of the state and pointed out that connectivity will boost tourism and trade in the state.

Soon after arriving at Kochi in the evening, Modi addressed a meeting of his BJP workers and from there he visited Sri Adi Shankara Janma Bhoomi Kshetram, the birth place of Adi Shankaracharaya at the Kalady village, near the airport.

After the inauguration of the rail infrastructure projects, he took part in the core committee meeting of top state-level BJP leaders.

On Friday, he will commission indigenously-designed and built aircraft carrier INS Vikrant, the largest warship to be built in India, in the Indian Navy.

--IANS
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London, Sep 1 (IANS) Vaccinated people who were infected by the earlier Omicron subvariants have four times greater protection than vaccinated people who were not infected against the new variants like BA.5, finds a new study.

The study indicates that previous infection in vaccinated people (the so-called hybrid immunity) continues to confer immunity for the variants that are known for their ability to evade the immune response.

"Vaccinated people who were infected by Omicron sub variants BA.1 and BA.2 have a protection against infection with subvariant BA.5, in circulation since June, about four times greater than vaccinated people who were not infected at any time," said lead author Luis Graca from the University of Lisbon.

"Infections in 2020 and 2021 that occurred through infection with earlier variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus (ancestral lineage, Alpha and Delta variants) also confer protection against infection for the more recent Omicron variant, although this protection is not as high as that of individuals infected with the BA.1 and BA.2 variants, at the beginning of 2022," Graca added.

For the study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine journal, the team accessed the registry of Covid-19 cases at Portugal's national level.

"We used the Portuguese national registry of Covid-19 cases to obtain information on all cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections in the population over 12 years of age residing in Portugal," the researchers said.

"The virus variant of each infection was determined considering the date of infection and the dominant variant at that time. We considered the infections caused by the first variants of Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 together," they added.

--IANS
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Chennai, Sep 1 (IANS) Heavy rainfall lashed Chennai and its surrounding areas on Thursday leaving several low-lying areas in the state capital inundated.

The rainfall, which commenced at 12 p.m., is continuing unabated and has thrown normal life out of gear.

The IMD has predicted heavy to very heavy rainfall in many parts of Tamil Nadu for the next four to five days. It has also predicted heavy rainfall in Tamil Nadu and parts of Puducherry including Mahe.

The district administrations of Nagapattinam, Tiruvarur, Myladuthurai and Tanjavur have declared holidays for all educational institutions following heavy to very heavy rainfall.

The Greater Chennai Police and the State Disaster Response Force are geared up for any eventuality.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 1 (IANS) The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has declared a Rs 25 lakh reward on underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.

The probe agency said that whosoever will provide information to it about Dawood shall be rewarded.

The NIA has also declared a reward of Rs 20 lakh on Chhota Shakeel and Rs 15 lakh reward on Anis Abrahim, aides of Dawood.

"NIA has declared reward of Rs 15 lakh each on Dawood's other aides Javed Chikna and Tiger Memon, wanted accused in Mumbai serial blasts," said an official.

The NIA has said that Dawood is funding terror outfits to carry out terror-related activities across India.

The probe agency said that Dawood is working with LeT and Jaish-e-Mohammed, the international terrorist organisations.

In February, the NIA had lodged a fresh case against Dawood.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 1 (IANS) Bharti Airtel on Thursday launched a new Cloud portfolio to offer specialised products for multiple business segments, as the company plnas to roll out 5G services in the country.

The new cloud offerings will fall under Edge Cloud Portfolio and will include Edge content delivery network (CDN).

Airtel Cloud's Edge CDN accelerates web and video content delivery by using its edge network to bring content as close to users as possible.

This reduces latency, costs and load on servers making it easier for enterprises to focus on app performance for OTT, ed-tech, gaming and healthcare sectors.

"Airtel has three key strengths to offer a differentiated set of cloud offerings – we have 12 large data centres and 120+ edge locations. We also have a network with comprehensive coverage across the country and to most locations across the globe," said Ajay Chitkara, Director and CEO, Airtel Business.

Airtel is currently working with two of the largest OTT companies in India and others on this platform.

"With 5G around the corner, businesses will leverage the low latency, high bandwidth and high device density of the 5G spectrum to solve critical problems using edge computing," said Chitkara.

Airtel said it will utilise Edge Cloud applicationd eveloper Qwilt's 'Open Edge Cloud' solution for deployment.

"Our edge architecture provides a new economic model for streaming delivery, in which Airtel Cloud's Edge CDN plays a central role in the end-to-end value chain," said Alon Maor, CEO, Qwilt.

Airtel recently became the first company to test a captive private network at the Bosch facility in Bengaluru. Airtel is also rolling out its Edge compute service to customers.

The company said there will be many targeted cloud solutions coming in for specific industry requrements soon.

--IANS
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Kochi, Sep 1 (IANS) While looking into a divorce petition filed by a man who has been separated from his wife since 2018, the Kerala High Court observed that the state was once famous for its well-knit family ties.

"But the present trend seems to break the nuptial tie on flimsy or selfish reasons, or for extra-marital relationships, even unmindful of their children. The wails and screams coming out of disturbed and destroyed families are liable to shake the conscience of the society as a whole. When warring couples, deserted children and desperate divorcees occupy the majority of our population, no doubt it will adversely affect the tranquillity of our social life, and our society will have a stunted growth," the division bench of Justices Muhamed Mustaque and Sophy Thomas observed.

They went on to point out that these days, the younger generation think that marriage is an evil that could be avoided to enjoy life without any liabilities or obligations.

"They would expand the word 'wife' as 'worry invited forever' substituting the old concept of 'wise investment forever'. The consumer culture of 'use and throw' seems to have influenced our matrimonial relationships also," added the judges.

Another remark that came was that live-in-relationships are on the rise.

"The law and religion consider marriage as an institution by itself and parties to the marriage are not permitted to walk away from that relationship unilaterally, unless and until they satisfy the legal requirements to dissolve their marriage through a court of law or in accordance with the personal law which govern them. Mere quarrels, ordinary wear and tear of matrimonial relationships or casual outburst of some emotional feelings cannot be treated as cruelties warranting a divorce," the Justices further said.

Dismissing the petition, the division bench pointed out that from the facts of the case on hand, it is obvious that the "unholy alliance" of the husband with some other lady has caused some disturbances in the family life of the appellant and respondent, which they were sailing smoothly with their three girl children.

The couple came to know one another while they were working in Delhi in 2006. They tied the knot in 2009.

Till 2017, their relationship was fine, after which things started going haywire and the husband first approached the Family Court in Alappuzha seeking divorce.

When the Alappuzha court dismissed his petition, he moved the High Court.

--IANS
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Dubai, Sep 1 (IANS) India's star cricketer Virat Kohli hailed stylish batter, Suryakumar Yadav, for a "special knock" against Hong Kong in the ongoing Asia Cup on Wednesday.

Suryakumar Yadav's stylish 68 not out and Kohli's unbeaten 59, helped India secure a spot in to the Super Four round of Asia Cup 2022 after defeating Hong Kong by 40 runs here at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.

Following Suryakumar's blistering knock, Kohli made a sweet gesture as he bowed down to the batter after the innings.

After India's win, Kohli again appreciated Suryakumar as he posted a picture with 'SKY' on homegrown social media, Koo app.

"Good win today. A special knock by SKY. We'll keep going," Kohli said on the Koo app.

Meanwhile, Suryakumar was totally flabbergasted by Kohli's gesture on the field.

"It was a very heartwarming gesture. I never saw something like that. I was looking at him and I was like, "why isn't he going ahead?" Then I came to him and urged him to walk together. He is so experienced," said Suryakumar.

India opener KL Rahul scored 36 off 39 balls, however, his two impeccable sixes showed that he isn't in bad touch as of now.

KL Rahul also posted his picture on the Koo app after India's win.

India outplayed Hong Kong in all departments and also became the second team to qualify for the Super four.

Sri Lanka and Bangladesh will today lock horns in the Group B match and the winner will secure a spot in the super four stage.

Pakistan and Hong Kong will meet for the same scenario on Friday. The super Four round of the Asia Cup 2022 will begin from Saturday.


--IANS
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