ICMR releases 17 dietary guidelines The ICMR said on Wednesday as it released 17 dietary guidelines to meet the requirements of essential nutrients and prevent noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as obesity and diabetes. The National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) under the apex health research body recommended restricting salt intake, using oils and fat in moderation, doing proper exercise, minimising sugar and ultra-processed foods. kalaburagi l thursday l may 09, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Crew stir 90 AI Express flights cancelled, flyers stranded at airports AISHWARYA PRABHAKARAN @ Kochi Thousands of passengers were left stranded at airports across the country on Wednesday after Tata Group-run Air India Express cancelled over 90 flights after 300 senior crew members went on mass sick leave to protest the new employment terms at the airline. The flight disruption is likely to continue for a few days as the protesting employees are firm that their grievances be heard and demands met. K K Vijaykumar of Air India Express Employees’ Union said discontent had been brewing among the cabin crew after the Tata Group took over the airline in January 2022. “The new management reduced the contract period of several cabin crew from five years to one year and reduced salaries by 25-30%,” he said. Reports said the strike caught the airline management unawares as the senior crew members called in sick and switched off their mobiles, leaving the airline no option but to cancel flights. There was chaos in many airports in Kerala besides Delhi and Bengaluru as passengers came to know of cancellations only after they reached the boarding gates. Amrutha, who was to travel from Thiruvananthapuram to Muscat on Tuesday night, said she had to fight with the airline officials for many hours for a rescheduled ticket. An Air India Express spokesperson said the airline is trying to resolve the issue soon. express read SC to pass order on Kejri bail tomorrow New Delhi: The Supreme Court will deliver its order on granting interim bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a money laundering case linked to the alleged excise policy scam on Friday. Justice Sanjiv Khanna on Wednesday said this while hearing a different case. Modi pillories Congress, says people will not tolerate the insult on the basis of skin colour Pitroda quits party post after his foot-in-the-mouth racial analogy P r ee t h a N a i r @ New Delhi Congress loose cannon and chairman of the party’s overseas unit Sam Pitroda stepped down from the post on Wednesday hours after his racial comments in a podcast on how people in the country’s East look like the Chinese and those of the South look like Africans, drew national outrage. Announcing the resignation, C o n g re s s l e a d e r Ja i r a m Ramesh said, “Sam Pitroda has decided to step down as Chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress of his own accord. The Congress President has accepted his decision.” In an interview with a newspaper, Pitroda described India as a diverse country “We have . survived 75 years in a very happy environment where people could live together, leaving aside a few fights here and there. We could hold a country Rahul’s close aide Pitroda was an advisor to former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and has been closely associated with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, accompanying him during his foreign visits together as diverse as India, where people on the East look like Chinese, people on the West look like Arab, people on the North look like White and maybe people on the South look like Africa,” he said. The Congress distanced itself from Pitroda’s remarks, calling it most unfortunate and unacceptable. “The analogies drawn by Sam Pitroda in a podcast to illustrate India’s diversity are most unfortunate and unacceptable. The Indian National Congress completely dissociates itself from these analogies,” said Ramesh. With campaigning in full swing ahead of the fourth phase of polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the BJP’s attack on the Congress citing Pitroda’s analogy and asserted that people will not tolerate the attempt to insult them on the basis of their skin colour. At an election rally in Rajampet in Andhra Pradesh, Modi asked Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin if he would break the DMK’s alli- Three-year degree courses back from this academic year P u r a n C h o u d h a r y @ Bengaluru The state gover nment on Wednesday issued an order stating that it will reintroduce the three-year degree programmes from the academic year 20242025. This is in view of the government scrapping the National Education Policy (NEP 2020) introduced last year. Students will no longer have the option to opt for a fourth year in their degree courses. The State Education Policy (SEP) Commission has also recommended changes in the curriculum structure for threeyear degree programmes and proposed three alternative ‘UG C u r r i c u l u m F r a m ewo rk s (CFW)’. In its interim report, a committee under for mer UGC chairman Sukhdev Thorat explained that the reason for the change in the structure and duration of degree courses is to give equal opportunity to stu- No relief, Revanna sent to B’luru central prison E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e dents from different socio-economic backgrounds. “A four-year degree programme will potentially reduce access to undergraduate education for the poor, socially disadvantaged groups such as Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, women and those from rural areas,” according to the commission. It termed the previous system “a major departure from the past and the major occupies less credit allotment to discipline core when compared to the three major systems. Thus, the preference for the three major systems.” Lack of physical infrastructure and non-availability of facilities and faculty have also been mentioned as the reasons for the unwillingness of the colleges to start the four-year UG programme. The changes will apply to all public universities and affiliated colleges. P5 SSLC results to be out today The Karnataka State Examination and Assessment Board (KSEAB) will declare the SSLC examination results on Thursday at 10.30 am. In all, 8.9 lakh students appeared for the exam held between March 25 and April 6. Students can check their results on karresults.nic. in or kseab. karnataka .gov.in. X post: Nadda, Malviya, BY Vijayendra summoned BJP leaders get notices to appear before the investigating officer within seven days, over a post allegedly showing Congress preferring Muslims in reservation | P4 @ Bengaluru Holenarasipur JDS MLA HD Revanna has been remanded in judicial custody till May 14 in connection with a kidnapping case registered against him by KR Nagar police in Mysuru district. The 66-year-old MLA was sent to Parappana Agrahara Central Prison in the city on Wednesday evening. His UTP (undertrial prisoner) No. is 4567 and he has been put in a quarantine cell. Revanna’s bail petition before the Special Court for Elected Representatives has been posted for hearing on Thursday . A large number of people gathered on the court premises to see the MLA. While stepping out of the court hall, Revanna is said to have wept. He was shifted from the court around 4 pm under tight security . Five inspectors, some junior officers and police personnel attached to the Electronics City Subdivision were deployed on the prison premises. Entry to the prison premises was restricted and even journalists were not allowed. A court official accompanied the police team to hand over the documents of the MLA’s judicial custody to the officer incharge of the prison. SIT officers produced Revanna before the 17th ACMM court on Wednesday after his custody ended. Judge Ravindrakumar B Kattimani remanded the MLA in judicial custody for seven days. Senior lawyer CV Nagesh P4 represented the MLA. Minor boy held for voyeurism in M’luru E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Mangaluru A 17-year-old boy was arrested for allegedly placing a mobile phone in the women’s restroom of the Kasturba Medical College at Bavutagudda in the city on Tuesday. According to Mangaluru North police, the minor boy entered the college in the guise of a patient and allegedly placed the phone in the restroom. Deputy commissioner of police Sidharth Goyal said the matter came to light when some security personnel of the college found the phone ringing inside the restroom. “We are examining the CCTV footage of the college and investigating whether the boy has recorded any videos,” he added. The police have seized the phone and booked a case under Section 354C (voyeurism) of the IPC. The boy was arrested based on the CCTV footage and produced before the Juvenile Justice Board. ance with its ally Congress over the insulting remarks by Pitroda. “A senior leader has exposed the divisive mindset of the Congress. The leader is close to the Gandhi family and is the mentor of the shehzada. His comments are shameful,” said Modi. He also linked the Congress’s opposition to Droupadi Murmu’s presidential bid to its mindset, which saw her as “African” because of her dark skin. In the past, too, Pitroda’s controversial comments had put Congress in tough situations. The party had squirmed after Pitroda endorsed the US model of inheritance tax law for India. Though the Congress dismissed it as his personal opinion, the issue became one of the main narratives for the BJP as it accused the grand old , party of eyeing every citizen’s assets as part of its “redistribution of wealth’’ policy . AstraZeneca pulls out Covid jab Kavita Bajeli-Datti @ New Delhi Days after admitting that its Covishield vaccine can cause blood clots in rare cases, British pharma giant AstraZeneca on Wednesday said it is withdrawing the jab globally citing a fall in demand. “As multiple, variant Covid-19 vaccines have since been developed, there is a surplus of available updated vaccines. This surplus has led to a decline in demand for Vaxzevria, which is no longer being manufactured or supplied,” AstraZeneca said in a statement. AstraZeneca partnered with Oxford University to develop AZD1222 vaccine, which was sold as Covishield in India and Vaxzevria in Europe. A spokesperson for the Punebased Serum Institute, which made the Covishield vaccine, said with India achieving high vaccination rates, coupled with the emergence of new mutant variant strains, the demand for previous vaccines diminished significantly “Consequently we . , have stopped the manufacturing and supply of additional doses of Covishield,” the official said. K Srinath Reddy, honorary distinguished professor at the Public Health Foundation of India, said Covid vaccines have to be judged by their ability to stimulate a protective response against the form of the virus that is currently circulating to prevent serious disease. “The original AstraZeneca vaccine no longer meets those criteria,” he told this newspaper. AstraZeneca is fighting a class-action suit in the UK over claims that its vaccine caused the deaths of several people. The company said the decision to withdraw the jab was purely commercial and denied any link to the lawsuit.
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