New Delhi, Sep 12: India logged 5,221 new coronavirus infections taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 4,45,00,580, while the active cases dipped to 47,176, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Monday.
The death toll climbed to 5,28,165 with 15 fatalities which includes four deaths reconciled by Kerala, the data updated at 8 am stated.
The active cases comprise 0.11 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has increased to 98.71 per cent, the ministry said.
A decline of 769 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.
India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.
The country crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23 last year. It crossed the four-crore mark on January 25 this year.(Agencies)

Soon after the video of meeting controversial Tamil pastor George Ponnaiah went viral, Congress hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party, alleging that the ruling party at the Centre has been spreading lies adding that its “typical mischief” is an attempt to damage the spirit of ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’.

“It is a completely bogus video. What was said in the conversation has nothing to do with the tweet. We have issued the full text of what was said. It is typical mischievous lies being spread by the BJP to damage the spirit of Bharat Jodo Yatra,” said Jairam Ramesh.

Ramesh slammed BJP for dividing the country and said, “We are trying to unite people and to bring people together because India is being broken because of economic inequality, social polarisation and political centralisation. The BJP divides and Congress unites. BJP believes in uniformity while congress unity. BJP rejects India’s diversity but Congress celebrates India’s diversity.”

He further said that this Bharat Jodo Yatra is like Lord Hanuman which will bring ‘Sanjeevani’ for the revival of the Congress party.

“We are determined that this Bharat Jodo Yarta will be a huge success, it will create the new political culture and it will strengthen the Congress party organisation. India needs a strong vibrant Congress and the Bharat Jodo Yatra is Hanuman to create ‘Sanjeevani’ for Congress,” he added.

Taking to Twitter, Ramesh said that the video bears no relation whatsoever to what is recorded in the audio.

“An atrocious tweet from the BJP hate factory is doing the rounds. It bears no relation whatsoever to what is recorded in the audio. This is typical BJP mischief that has become more desperate after the successful launch of Bharat Jodo Yatra which is evoking such a huge response,” he said in a tweet.

BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla took a swipe at Rahul Gandhi’s meeting with the priest and said that “it is Rahul Gandhi’s Nafrat Jodo Abhiyan” while adding that today they have met a person like George Ponnaiah, the poster boy of Bharat Jodo Yatra-who challenged, threatened Hindus and said inappropriate things about Bharat Mata. Congress has a long history of being anti-Hindu.”

Poonawalla attacked Rahul Gandhi, “George Ponnaiah who met Rahul Gandhi says Jesus is the only God unlike Shakti (& other Hindu Gods)”

He further said, “Earlier he was arrested for his bigotry remark, when he said, “I wear shoes because impurities of Bharat Mata should not contaminate us.”
Poonawalla took a swipe at Rahul Gandhi’s meeting with the priest, saying, “Bharat Jodo with Bharat Todo icons?”

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who is on a 150-day-long Bharat Jodo Yatra, on Friday met a controversial catholic priest George Ponnaiah in the Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu.

A video clip of Rahul Gandhi’s interaction with the Tamil Nadu pastor went viral, in which Rahul Gandhi can be heard asking, “Jesus Christ is a form of God? Is that right?” to which the Tamil Nadu priest George Ponniah replied, “He is the real God.”

Ponniah goes on to say, “God reveals him(self) as a man, a real person…not like Shakti…so we see a human person.”

Ponniah has a history of delivering provocative statements that have landed him in trouble in the past. He was arrested last year in July in Kallikudi, Madurai for allegedly making a ‘hate speech’ against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, DMK Minister and others.
Rahul Gandhi met him at the Muttidichan Parai Church, Puliyoorkurichy where he camped for a morning break on Friday.

Pastor George Ponnaiah was arrested last year in July for his hate speech targeting the Hindu community. He made contentious remarks in a meeting on July 18, 2021, at Arumanai in Tamil Nadu.

Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah are slated to participate in the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of major cooperative institutions of Gujarat on Sunday.

In his day-long visit to his hometown, the Minister will participate in the co-operative symposium– an AGM of major cooperative institutions of Gujarat organised in Amreli city in Gujarat around 11.30 am.

Sources said that the pride of dairy co-operatives and owner of the brand Amul, GCMMF, the apex body of 18 milk unions spread across the state of Gujarat, may also participate in the AGM as the Union Cooperation Minister months ago this year lauded its commitment for strengthening the co-operative movement and empowering women.

Speaking at the AGM, an official said detailed turnover, profits and future plans of the major co-operative institutions in Gujarat are expected to be discussed.

The meet is being organised two days after, the Home Minister chaired a two-day conference of State Cooperation Ministers organised by the Ministry of Cooperation in New Delhi on September 8 to 9 in which deliberations were held on various important themes including – National Cooperation Policy, National Cooperative Database, New Proposed Schemes of Ministry of Cooperation like Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) in every Panchayat, Export of Agro-based and other products, promotion and marketing of Organic Products, expansion of Co-operatives to New Areas.

In the meeting, subjects related to PACS and Model Bye-Laws including PACS Computerization, Action Plan for Revitalization of defunct PACS and Model Bye-Laws of PACS were also discussed along with issues related to Primary Co-operative Societies regarding prioritizing long-term financing, Milk Co-operative Societies and Fish Cooperative Societies in presence of 21 states and Lieutenant Governors of two Union Territories.

After attending the cooperatives’ meeting, as per the current schedule, the Home Minister will go for worship at Lord Somnath temple at 3 pm.

Ahmedabad, Sep 10: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday called for concerted efforts to make India a global centre of research and innovation, and urged state governments to frame modern policies in the fields of science and technology.
Addressing via video link the inaugural session of the Centre-State Science Conclave organised here, Modi said India is going ahead with the mantra of ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan, Jai Vigyan and Jai Anusandhan’.
“We have to work together on various fronts to make India a global centre of research and innovation in this ‘amrit kaal’. We have to take our research in the fields of science and technology to the local level. It is the need of the hour for all the states to give emphasis on innovation to find local solutions to local problems,” he said.
Urging the state governments to frame modern policies related to science, innovation and technology to find solutions to local problems, he stressed the need for more cooperation and collaboration with scientists.“In order to encourage innovation, the state governments should give emphasis on creation of more and more scientific institutions and on simplification of processes. The number of innovation labs should also be increased in the institutions of higher education in the states,” he said.
The prime minister noted that India’s Global Innovation Index ranking improved from 81 in 2015 to 46 due to the efforts of the central government. (Agencies)