Prime Minister Narendra Modi will unveil a grand statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose near India Gate in the national capital on Thursday.

The jet black granite statue, with a height of 28 ft. will be placed under the Canopy near India Gate. The statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, which will be unveiled by the Prime Minister, will be installed in the same place where a hologram statue of Netaji was unveiled earlier this year on Parakram Diwas (January 23) by him to mark the 125th birth anniversary of Netaji.

According to an official statement, the grand statue of Netaji being unveiled has been carved from a monolithic block of granite weighing 280 MT. After 26,000 man-hours of intense artistic endeavour, the granite monolith was chiselled to produce a statue weighing 65 MT. The statue is completely hand sculpted using traditional techniques and modern tools. The team of sculptors for executing the statue was led by Arun Yogiraj.

“The 28 feet tall towering statue of Netaji is one of the tallest, realistic, monolithic, handmade sculptures in India. The PM had on 21st January 2022 assured that a grand statue of Netaji made of granite will be installed at India Gate as a symbol of the nation’s indebtedness to him,” said the statement.

A 100 feet long truck with 140 wheels was specially designed for this monolithic granite stone to travel the 1,665 km from Khammam in Telangana to New Delhi.

The Prime Minister’s arrival at the canopy for the unveiling of the statue of Netaji will be heralded with traditional Manipuri Shankh Vadayam and Kerala’s traditional Panch Vadayam and Chanda. The unveiling of the statue of Netaji would be accompanied by the tune of Kadam Kadam Badhaye jaa, the traditional INA song, informed the statement.

“To demonstrate the spirit of Ek Bharat – Shrestra Bharat and Unity in Diversity a cultural festival by 500 dancers drawn from all parts of the country, would be showcased on the Kartvya Path. A glimpse of the same would be shown to the Prime Minster on the step Amphitheatre near India Gate by around 30 artists who will perform tribal folk art forms such as Sambalpuri, Panthi, Kalbelia, Kargam and dummy horse with live music by Nashik Dhol Pathik Tasha and Drums. Mangalgaan penned by Padma Bhushan Pt. Shrikrishna Ratanjankarji on the auspicious occasion of the 1st Independence Day of India in 1947 is being presented by Pt. SuhasVashi along with a team of singers and musicians. Ashish Keskar will be the music director for the presentation,” it said.

The festival at Kartvya path (earlier Raj Path) would commence at 08.45 PM on Thursday after the main function and will also continue on September 9, 10, and 11 from 7.00 pm to 9.00 pm.

A special 10-minute Drone Show on Netaji’s life would be projected at India Gate at 08.00 pm on September 9, 10, and 11. Both the cultural festival and the drone show would be open to public with free entry.

NEW DELHI, Sept 7:
India saw a single day rise of 5,379 coronavirus infections, taking the tally of COVID-19 cases to 4,44,72,241, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated today.
Active Covid cases have declined to 50,594, while the death toll has climbed to 5,28,057 with 27 fatalities, including 11 deaths reconciled by Kerala, the data updated at 8 am showed.
The active cases comprises 0.11 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has increased to 98.70 per cent, the health ministry said.
A decline of 1,742 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.
The daily positivity rate was recorded at 1.67 per cent and the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 2 per cent, according to the health ministry.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,38,93,590, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.19 per cent.
According to the ministry, 213.91 crore doses of Covid vaccines have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive.
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.

India is keen on strengthening its partnership with Russia on Arctic subjects as there is immense scope for cooperation in the field of energy between the two countries, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday virtually at the 7th Eastern Economic Forum being held in Vlady-Vostok.

“India is keen to strengthen its partnership with Russia on Arctic subjects. There is immense scope for cooperation in the field of energy. Along with energy, India has also made significant investments in the Russian Far East in the fields of pharma and diamonds,” PM Modi said in his virtual address.

Highlighting the thirty years of the establishment of the Consulate of India in Vladivostok and the fact that India was the first country to open a consulate in the city, PM Modi said that India has also made significant investments in the Russian Far East in the fields of pharma and diamonds along with energy.

In 2019, PM Modi participated in the economic forum in person and announced the “Act Far-East” policy of India as a result of which India’s cooperation with the Russian Far East has increased in various fields.

The Eastern Economic Forum was established in 2015 and has become a primary platform of international cooperation for the development of the Russian far-East.

On the ongoing war in Ukraine, the Prime Minister said that in today’s globalized world, events in one part of the world create an impact on the whole world. The Ukraine conflict and the COVID pandemic have had a major impact on global supply chains following which foodgrains, fertilizer, and fuel shortages became a major concern for developing countries.

“From the very beginning of the Ukraine conflict, we have emphasized the need to adopt the path of diplomacy and dialogue. We support all peaceful efforts to end this conflict,” PM Modi said while he thanked the Russian President for inviting him to the forum.

The year 2022 marks both 75 years of India’s Independence and the 75th Anniversary of the Russian-Indian diplomatic relations, which were established in April 1947.

The multidimensional cooperation between India-Russia is one of the world’s most elaborate ones with regular meetings of the two intergovernmental commissions, sector-wise ministerial, security advisors’ and senior officials dialogue, foreign office consultations and coordination in the global arena.

NEW DELHI, Sept 7: In a special council meeting on Wednesday, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) passed a resolution to rename Rajpath and Central Vista Lawns to Kartavya Path, said Union Minister, and NDMC member, Meenakshi Lekhi.
Ms. Lekhi added that the change came into effect “immediately” after the council’s meeting.
NDMC officials said that the stretch from Netaji Statue at India Gate to Rashtrapati Bhavan will now be known as “Kartavya Path”.
A senior official at Central Public Works Department (CPWD) said that vinyl films will be pasted on signages in 14 locations, highlighting the renaming.
“The work will be completed before the inauguration of the revamped Central Vista Avenue, which is scheduled for tomorrow,” said the senior CPWD official.
Referring to the renaming of the iconic stretch, Ms. Lekhi said that the name “Rajpath” reflected a “colonial mindset”, which had to be done away with since “India adopted a democratic system after independence”.

According to NDMC officials, a request for the renaming was received in a letter, dated September 1, from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. (Agencies)

New Delhi, September 7: Justice DY Chandrachud on Wednesday said that the Constitution bench headed by him will be a “green bench” and asked the lawyers not to submit any papers or physical documents.
“We will keep this a completely green bench so there would be no papers. Please don’t carry papers,” said Justice Chandrachud to the lawyers.
When an advocate expressed difficulty in using technology, Justice Chandrachud said that officials of the Supreme Court Registry and IT cell court officials are willing to train lawyers on Saturdays on how to use technology to present arguments.
Justice MR Shah also comprising the bench told the advocate, “We also got training, someday you have to start”.
“The Secretary-General and the IT Cell head are masters of technology, they said that they are willing to train the seniors on how to use technology on Saturdays,” Justice Chandrachud added.
The bench then directed the Registry to scan paper books and make them available to the bench and the parties.
The observation of the bench came while hearing a dispute between the Delhi government and the Centre over control of administrative services in the national capital.
The other three cases listed before the Constitution bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, MR Shah, Krishna Murari, Hima Kohli and PS Narasimha are related to the Maharashtra political crisis dispute, the validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, and the validity of extending the benefit of reservation and nomination in Legislative Assembly under Article 334 beyond the original period of operation, which is 10 years. (Agencies)

The Minister of Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal launched the US Startup SETU – Supporting Entrepreneurs in Transformation and Upskilling programme in the Bay Area of San Francisco.

The initiative would connect start-ups in India to US-based investors and start-up ecosystem leaders with mentorship and assistance in various areas including funding, market access and commercialization.

“One of the key takeaways is that the Bay Area is very bullish on India, very excited about the potential that India, Indians and Indian startups and Indian businesses have to offer. Very excited about the talent available in India. They see huge potential in the large market that India is, 1.3 billion aspirational Indians,” said Goyal.

He added, “There were suggestions about mentorship. We’ve launched the SETU programme where we are looking at supporting entrepreneurs through transformation and upskilling intiatives. We’re also looking at a programme that the startup advisory council had initiated in India in which mentorship is being initiated particularly in tier-2, tier-3 and tier-4 towns and remote areas. Lot of good suggestions have been brought to the table.”

SETU is designed to break the geographical barriers between mentors based in US that are willing to invest in entrepreneurship and sunrise startups in India.

The interaction will be supported through the mentorship portal under the Startup India initiative MAARG, or the (Mentorship, Advisory, Assistance, Resilience, and Growth) program, which is a single-stop solution finder for startups in India.

Besides, the portal has been developed with the idea to be accessible from every corner of the country to connect with a mentor.

“A mentor will offer human intelligence in guiding the startups. It may be noted that till date, more than 200 mentors have been successfully onboarded on MAARG across the globe,” said Ministry of Commerce & Industry in a press statement.

The core functions of MAARG are to improve ease of access, use Artificial Intelligence for Matchmaking, schedule meetings virtually, host masterclasses, provide a custom dashboard for relevant information, analytics, features, etc., host cohort-based programs that will allow startup ecosystem enablers to be become a part of the program and enable outcome driven activities.

It is estimated that about 90% of the start-ups and more than half of the well-funded startups fail in their early days. Lack of experience in handling the business is a key issue, and founders require the right guidance for taking a decision and moral support.

MAARG is inviting applications from Mentors across the world. Till date, more than 200 mentors have been on-boared on MAARG across the globe.