Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday launched the PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission and Release of Operational Guidelines in Varanasi. The PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission will be one of the largest pan-India schemes for strengthening healthcare infrastructure across the country. It will be in addition to the National Health Mission, according to the PMO.

Prime Minister Modi slammed previous governments at the Centre and said that the health infrastructure of the nation was not given attention for a long period of time after Independence. PM Modi said, “For a long time after Independence, not much attention was paid to health and healthcare facilities. People who governed the nation for years never bothered to invest in healthcare infrastructure.” “They kept the healthcare system devoid of facilities instead of facilitating its development,” said the Prime Minister. “Villages either did not have hospitals or no doctors in hospitals. Block hospitals did not have testing facilities; if test reports came in, there was doubt on its results.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi further said, “In its fight against coronavirus pandemic, the nation has achieved a major milestone of administering 100 crore vaccine doses. With the blessings of Baba Vishwanath, Maa Ganga and the trust of the people of Kashi, the campaign of ‘Sabko vaccine, muft vaccine’ is going ahead successfully.” “The present Central government and the state government understand the pain of the poor, downtrodden, oppressed and backward class people. We are working day and night to improve health facilities in the country,” he added.

With more and more medical colleges coming up, India will have more doctors in the next 10-12 years than it has had in the past over 70 years since Independence, said Prime Minister Modi.

The objective of PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission is to fill critical gaps in public health infrastructure, especially in critical care facilities and primary care in both urban and rural areas. It will provide support for 17,788 rural Health and Wellness Centres in 10 High Focus States. Further, 11,024 urban Health and Wellness Centres will be established in all the States.

Critical care services will be available in all the districts of the country with more than 5 lakh population, through Exclusive Critical Care Hospital Blocks, while the remaining districts will be covered through referral services, it said.

People will have access to a full range of diagnostic services in the Public Healthcare system through a network of laboratories across the country. Integrated Public Health Labs will be set up in all the districts. Under the PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission, a National Institution for One Health, four New National Institutes for Virology, a Regional Research Platform for WHO South-East Asia Region, nine Biosafety Level III laboratories, five New Regional National Centre for Disease Control will be set up. PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission targets to build an IT enabled disease surveillance system by developing a network of surveillance laboratories at block, district, regional and national levels, in Metropolitan areas. Integrated Health Information Portal will be expanded to all States/UTs to connect all public health labs.

PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission also aims at the operationalisation of 17 new Public Health Units and strengthening 33 existing Public Health Units at Points of Entry, for effectively detecting, investigating, preventing, and combating Public Health Emergencies and Disease Outbreaks. It will also work towards building up a trained frontline health workforce to respond to any public health emergency.

On the last day of his three-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir, Union Home Minister Amit Shah removed the bulletproof glass shield that was erected at the podium at Sher-i-Kashmir International Convention Centre, before starting his address. Shah then started his speech by stating that he had removed the shield because he wanted to speak to the people of J&K without any hindrance.

“I was taunted, condemned. Today I want to speak to you frankly, which is why there is no bulletproof shield or security here. Farooq Sahab (referring to NCP leader and former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah) has suggested that I speak with Pakistan, but I will speak to the youth and people of the Valley,” Shah said.

Before this, Shah went to the home of a local Kashmir resident and had tea with him. Shah, who was accompanied by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, then dialled his number from the local resident’s mobile handset and asked him to save his number and call him anytime he needed any help.

Shah also did an extensive review of the security scenario in the region while interacting with officials of various concerned departments. All these steps are being seen as part of confidence building measures (CBMs) in the state as the government moves towards conducting Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, an announcement of which is likely to be made by the Election Commission of India (ECI) soon after Shah returns to Delhi.

Earlier in the day, Shah, donning a traditional pheeran, offered prayers at the Kheer Bhawani temple in Ganderbal district. This was Shah’s maiden visit to J&K following the abrogation of Article 370 and comes amidst the sudden spurt in killing of migrants by Pakistan-backed terror groups. At least 11 non-local migrants have been killed in such attacks in the last one month.

Official sources said that 5,000 additional troops have been sent to Kashmir to protect citizens and installations from terror groups. Twenty-five companies each of BSF and CRPF are being moved to Kashmir in view of the deteriorating situation in the valley. The last time the BSP was deployed in the valley was in February 2019 before the scrapping of Article 370.

Akanksha Singh, Dance Content Creator, recently joined us for a fun conversation as part of our special series of NewsX Influencer A-list. In the exclusive interview, she opened up about what brought her into the world of dancing and much more. Read excerpts:

When asked what brought her into the world of dancing and creating content, she said, “I have always been very fond of dance, but especially during the pandemic last year in March 2020, I just wanted to do something constructive with my time and involve my children also. It just happened by chance that I came across these shuffling videos on TikTok. I got very curious as to how it could be done actually, so I just started doing them. It was so amazing because of the positive impact it started having on my body as well as making me stress free. All in all, it was very positive. I got into it and I never got out of it then really.”

Speaking about the moment she started calling herself as a dance influencer and inspirer, she said, “I have no idea what I was doing when I started out. It took a lot of courage to put up dance videos on Instagram. I had a very small community at that time like 400 followers or so, you know, it was all my close friends. I thought I could share a little bit with them, just to motivate everybody to be active and not to very stressed during the pandemic and do something constructive with their time. This pause that life gave us, that god had given us, was to make the most constructive use of it. When I went viral, people started saying you are so inspiring and you have made me go back to dance, you have made me go back to my workouts, you have made me start working out. I am a mother of two. A woman came up to tell me that even I am a mother of two and I left dancing, I left painting, I left my working out, I’ve never taken out time for myself because for us women, we tend to put our families first, we tend to put our children first, everything is about them. She also took time to spoke about how she handles society judgement on following her passion.”

“I was doing the same thing, I was putting my family before myself any time. It was all about them. My kids school time, my husband’s office time, my in-law’s meal times and certain requirements here and there. By the time it came to me, I was too tired. It took a very conscious effort for me to actually start taking out time for myself first in the morning, take care of my exercise and make a routine for myself,” she added. 

Harini Nilakantan, Dance Content Creator, recently joined NewsX for a fun conversation as part of NewsX Influencer A-List. In the interview, she opens about her classical roots and how she combines modern temporary dance with classical journey. Read excerpts:

Speaking about her classical roots and how long has she been practicing, she said, “I started at the age of four under guru Shrimati Sujatha Raghuvendra, when we were living in Bangalore. We had to move to Pune around 2005, that’s when I switched gurus but I kept learning it.”

Talking about how Bharatnatyam can be performed as modern dance and the fusion of both, she said, “I have been thinking about it for a long time. It started when I first came to the States. I was about 14 and there was a talent show. we had to present something like singing, dancing whatever, just a jolly thing in high school. I noticed that all of them whenever they talked about dance, they only spoke about Ballet as classical. I was like no, when I say Indian classical dance, I don’t mean ballet/ I mean Bharatnatyam. To start with, it is a temple art form. It was done by Devraj. They said “Oh so, no one does it anymore.” I responded that that’s not true. We still do it. I thought I need to show them rather than just talk about it.”

When asked how she represents Indian culture properly and suitably, she responded, “I am studying museum and exhibition studies for my masters. This involves representation in, what you can call a museum. A colonial artefact in museums in the states, at least in western museums. When it comes to South Asian art and representations, usually either just statues or ancient artefacts that have been acquired or taken or bequeathed through a lot of colonial trade and does not really have any context to why it is here. For example, the Met museum had some pieces of jewellery from South Asia and South India specifically. It was like a Jalan Nagam, some nut, some bangles and you would see this everyday in Sokra jewellers back home in India in a dance performance or a bridal journey, but there’s no context to why this was there, even if they gave the context.”

She added, “It was really at a superficial and surface level and doesn’t really talk about the art history, where its come from. Like the tombstone, we call the text box in the museum at tombstone. It wasn’t really well-informed and the labelling I was just not happy with. The more I did research, the more I spent times in museums. When I saw South Asian art, why is it always either ancient art and it’s always the same type of ancient art statues temple statues Buddha, Ganesha’s, Nataraja’s nothing else. South Asia is not just India, South Asia is a lot of countries.”

Toshiba Home Appliances has announced festival delight for its customers with the launch of ‘FreshBeginningMatters’ campaign.

Commenting on the exciting offers, Pranab Mohanty, Vice President & Business Head, Toshiba Home Appliances Business, said, “As the uncertain times fade away, it is time to turn over a new leaf together. Celebrating the festival of lights, we are delighted to provide exciting offers and promotions for our entire Toshiba Appliances to let your family enjoy a brighter tomorrow. Our festive campaign #FreshBeginningMatters aims to make home appliances purchase more rewarding for our customers, bringing the much-needed joy during these times.”

“Even while navigating through the pandemic, we were able to achieve over 50% growth year-to-date in comparison to last year. This growth reflects the remarkable trust in Toshiba home appliances that we have cultivated amongst our customers and channel partners”, added Mohanty.

South India-based legacy brand, Kankatala Sarees, known as the ‘Queen of Sarees’, launched its first retail outlet in Delhi and the 13th in the country. The store will house handpicked handloom marvels from 50 major weaving clusters of India. Kankatala, rooted in South India for more than seven decades ,has its major presence in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and now has expanded to North India.

The Delhi store was unveiled recently by renowned actress Karisma Kapoor, who was seen in an authentic Kanchipuram Silk marvel from Kankatala and looked stunning as always. The inauguration was done in the presence of Mallikharjuna Rao Kankatala, Chairman & Managing Director, Kankatala Sarees, along with the entire Kankatala Family including the third-generation Directors Arvind, Bharat, and Anirudh Kankatala.

Kankatala is one of the oldest saree brands, which already has a presence in Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Rajahmundry, Vijayawada, and has represented the age-old weaving techniques for over 78 years. The brand has always been known for pioneering trends in its market and has been growing steadily.

“We have spent three generations representing authentic handlooms in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and to the Indian diaspora. Our journey started in 1942, in the lanes of Vizag where our founder and my father, Appalaraju Kankatala sold handloom sarees on a bicycle. From the modest lanes of Vizag to the Capital of India, the 78 years’ journey has been marvellous. We are glad to launch our 13th exclusive retail outlet in Delhi. We wish to receive the same love from the people of Delhi as we have been receiving from other parts of the country,” said Mallikharjuna Rao Kankatala, Chairman & Managing Director, Kankatala.

“With a vision to revive the charm of Indian handloom in India, we are planning to expand to other cities such as Mumbai, Ahmedabad, and Kolkata. We are also looking at going international in the near future. All these stores will be company-owned-company-operated as we do not want to lose our uniqueness of the handpicked products and the personalised touch that we give to our valued customers,” added Mallikharjuna.

The much-elated Chief Guest Karisma Kapoor said, “It is a pleasure for me to launch the very first store in North India of a brand which has a 78-year-old legacy behind it. I was amazed to know that from the year 1943 till date, every Handloom saree is personally handpicked by a family member of Kankatala themselves. The variety of handloom sarees that I saw here is breathtaking.”

Designed for the comfort of Queens of Kankatala, the interior of the Delhi store is contemporary and classy. The store will house handpicked handloom marvels from 50 major weaving clusters of India starting from Rs 5000 and going up to Rs 5 lakh and above, making it a one-stop saree destination for every budget, occasion, and style.

The store will host authentic handwoven marvels that are one-of-a-kind, including signature Kanchipuram, Banarasi, Patola, Ikat, Paithani, Kota, Uppada, Khadi, Jamdani, Organza, Kalamkari, Gadwal, Tussar, and many more.