LEAD

With Delhi reporting a spike in COVID-19 cases and the positivity rate touching nearly 20 per cent, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Tuesday said people who have taken the booster dose of vaccines are safer from the coronavirus infection than others.

On a day when the city reported 917 new cases and 3 deaths in the last 24 hours, Sisodia held a meeting with senior officers of the Health Department and district magistrates to step up vaccination. The surging cases have also seen increased hospitalisations, prompting fresh appeals by authorities to wear masks and observe COVID-19 precautions.

PM Narendra Modi, leading the celebrations for 75 years of Independence today, set the people a series of goals for the next 25 years. India, he said, must become a developed nation before it marks the Centenary of Independence.

"We are thankful to Bapu, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Babasaheb Ambedkar, Veer Savarkar who gave their lives for country's independence," PM Modi said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi lead the Independence Day celebrations from the ramparts of the historic Red Fort in New Delhi. The prime minister, who will unfurl the National Flag and deliver the customary ‘Address to the Nation’ for the ninth consecutive time, is also expected to make a number of health-related announcements. According to a report on a leading news portal, PM Modi may announce projects under the “Heal in India” and “Heal by India” mission, which is likely to include a plan to abolish sickle cell disease by 2047.

official sources as saying that Modi’s speech from the Red Fort on August 15 might also mention the expansion of the National Health Mission under a new name, “PM Samagra Swasthya Mission,” and the inclusion of the Quadrivalent Human Papillomavirus vaccine (qHPV) against cervical cancer in the National Immunization Programme. The medical infrastructure at 37 institutions in 12 states will be improved as part of the “Heal in India” campaign, which aims to establish the nation as a major destination for wellness and medical travel, the report quoted its sources.

Tejashwi Yadav, Bihar's new Deputy Chief Minister, today described Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's return to the “socialist family” as a “slap in the face of the BJP”. He said the BJP's attempt to “intimidate or buy out” regional parties is aimed at “finishing off the politics of backward classes and Dalits”, because most such parties represent such sections of society.

The RJD leader cited his father Lalu Prasad Yadav's old ties with Nitish Kumar, who revived the JDU-RJD-Congress ‘Mahagathbandhan' (Grand Alliance) after dumping the BJP earlier this week. “In Bihar, all parties against the BJP are now on the same side. Nitish-ji made the right decision at the right time. This will happen across India now,” Yadav said, speaking in Hindi.

India has expressed its concern over the reports of shelling near the fuel storage facility of Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in Ukraine, calling for mutual restraint as the Russian military operations entered nearly six months, while addressing a UNSC briefing. India's statement came after Ukraine accused Russia of shelling the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) again on Thursday. "India expresses its concern over the reports of shelling near the spent fuel storage facility of the Zaporizhya Nuclear Power Plant. We call for mutual restraint so as not to endanger the safety and security of nuclear facilities," ANI quoted India`s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ruchira Kamboj as saying.