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1 !" ! # $ %&%$ " ! "# $ ' ' ( ) ( ' % ' " % & ' " * + ,* % ) - " % ./ %.0*!The BJP on Thursdayannounced the names ofcandidates for 59 out of thetotal 70 Assembly constituen-cies of Minister PushkarSingh Dhami has got the partyticket from Khatima con-stituency in the State. Out of the 59 namesannounced, five are womencandidates, said Prahlad Joshi,BJP s election in-charge ofUttarakhand, while addressinga Press Congress rebel likeUmesh Sharma Kau has beenfielded from his traditionalseat of Raipur. He was earlierspeculated to return to theCongress name on the list, seenas surprise, is KunwaraniDevyani Singh, the wife offour-time MLA Kunwar PranavSingh Champion . DevyaniSingh has been named for theKhanpur, a constituency heldby her husband major women can-didates include Sarita Arya,who recently defected fromthe Congress after she wasdenied a ticket.

2 She will fightfrom the Nainital reserved seat. Rekha Arya, the Womanand Child DevelopmentMinister, has been fielded fromthe Someshwar Assembly polling forUttarakhand AssemblyElection will take place in a sin-gle phase on February 14. Thecounting of votes will takeplace on March 10. % ./ %.0*!Prime Minister NarendraModi on Thursday saidthat the country is creating asystem in which there is noplace for discrimination andbuilding a society that standsfirmly on the foundation ofequality and social justice .Delivering the keynoteaddress at the national launchceremony of Azadi Ke AmritMahotsav se Swarnim BharatKe Ore , Modi also flagged offseven initiatives of Sabha Speaker OmBirla, Rajasthan GovernorKalraj Mishra, Rajasthan ChiefMinister Ashok Gehlot, GujaratChief Minister BhupendraPatel, Union Ministers GKishan Reddy, BhupenderYadav, Arjun Ram Meghwal,Parshottam Rupala, andKailash Choudhary wereamong those present on the gathering,the Prime Minister said theprogramme by Brahma KumariSanstha, in the Azadi Ka AmritMahotsav celebration, exem-plifies the feeling, spirit and inspiration for a said that there is no dif-ference between personal aspi-rations and successes on theone hand and national aspira-tions and successes on on Page 2 %.

3 / %.0*!A booster dose of theCovid-19 vaccine success-fully raises antibody levels thatneutralise the Omicron variant,according to laboratory find-ings, published in The from theFrancis Crick Institute and theNational Institute for HealthResearch (NIHR) UCLHB iomedical Research Centrefound that antibodies generat-ed in people who had receivedonly two doses of either theOxford/AstraZeneca vaccineor the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccinewere less able to neutralise theOmicron variant as comparedto the Alpha and Delta also found that anti-body levels dropped off in thefirst three months following thesecond dose but that a third booster dose raised levels ofantibodies that effectively neu-tralise the Omicron people who had receivedthe Pfizer/BioNTech vaccinefor all three doses, antibody lev-els against Omicron after athird dose were similar tothose previously reachedagainst Delta after only twodoses.

4 Overall, antibody levelswere nearly times higheragainst Omicron after threedoses compared to after levels of antibodiesagainst the Omicron variantwere found in people whoreceived two doses of eithervaccine and also reported pre-viously having Covid-19 symp-toms, compared to those whohad not previously had Covid-19 symptoms. Whilst levels of antibodiesalone do not predict vaccineeffectiveness, they are a verygood indicator of protectionagainst severe Covid-19. Thisstudy confirms that three dosesof Covid-19 vaccine are essen-tial to boost antibodies?toquantifiable levels and max-imise the amount of protectionagainst severe disease and have submit-ted their findings to theGenotype-to-PhenotypeNational Virology Consortium(G2P-UK), the New andEmerging Respiratory VirusThreats Advisory Group(NERVTAG) and the JointCommittee on Vaccination andImmunisation (JCVI).

5 The researchers foundXevudy (sotrovimab), a recent-ly-approved synthetic mono-clonal antibody used to preventand treat high risk Covidpatients was able to neutralisethe Omicron on Page 2 % ./ %.0*!In its first judgment incases related to Delhiriots of 2020, a Delhitrial court on Thursdaysentenced Dinesh Yadavto five years in jail forbeing part of a riotousmob that set on fire a 73-year-old woman s housein month,Additional Sessions JudgeVirender Bhat had con-victed him. Yadav hasbeen directed to pay afine of 12,000, saidadvocate Shikha Garg,who had represented himduring the trial. As per the prosecution, Yadav was an active member of theriotous mob and participated in vandalising and putting on firethe house of a woman named Manori on February 25 night. Manori had alleged that a mob of around 150-200 riotersattacked her house when her family was not present and loot-ed all the articles and even the 25-year-old Yadav was arrested on June 8, 2020.

6 Thecourt framed charges against him on August 3, 2021, to whichhe pleaded not guilty and claimed trial. He was convicted onDecember 6. Communal clashes had broken out in northeastDelhi in February 2020, after the violence between theCitizenship (Amendment) Act supporters and its protesters spi-raled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and over 700injured. % ./ %.0*!The Supreme Court onThursday upheld theConstitutional validity of pro-viding twenty-seven per centquota to OBC in NEET AllIndia Quota seats for UG andPG medical courses, saying reservation is not at oddswith merit. The bench led by JusticeDY Chandrachud observedthat merit could not be nar-rowed to the limit of success inopen competitive exams. Themerit of a person was a sumtotal of lived experiences andhis or her struggle to overcomecultural and social setbacks.

7 Merit cannot be reducedto narrow definitions of per-formance in an open compet-itive examination, which onlyprovides formal equality ofopportunities. Current com-petencies are assessed by com-petent examinations but are notreflective of excellence, capa-bility and potential of an indi-vidual, which are also affectedby lived experiences, individualcharacter, etc, said the verdict. Continued on Page 2! " # $ %&&' ( ) * +# ! " # $% ./ %.0*!The Indian Army is in touchwith the People s LiberationArmy (PLA) of China to finda missing youth fromArunachal Pradesh. While some reports saidthe 17-year-old boy wasabducted by the Chinese army,other versions indicated thatthe youth lost his way in thethick jungles and could not belocated so far. Regarding the incident ofthe missing youth namedMiram Taron from ArunachalPradesh, it is informed that onreceipt of the information, theIndian Army immediately con-tacted the PLA through estab-lished mechanism of hotlineinforming that an individual,who was collecting herbs andhunting, has lost his way andcannot be found.

8 Assistancefrom the PLA has been seekingto locate the individual ontheir side and return him as perestablished protocol, sources inthe defence establishment saidhere on ThursdayThe teenager, a native ofZido village in the Upper Siangdistrict, went missing onTuesday. The district authori-ties said the youth along withothers were hunting in theborder area. Earlier on Thursday,Congress leader Rahul Gandhitargeted the Centre over themissing boy. Just a few daysbefore Republic Day, the futureof India is kidnapped by stand with the family ofMiram Taroun and we will notgive up hope, will not give up,won t accept defeat. PM s stu-pid silence is his statement - hedoesn t care! Gandhi , the PLA haddetained five youths inSeptember 2020 from theUpper Subansiri district ofArunachal Pradesh andreleased them after a on Page 2 !

9 " # $ %& % ./ %.0*!The BJP on Thursdayreleased its first list of 34candidates for the upcomingAssembly elections in Goa. Animportant name missing fromthe list is that of former GoaChief Minister ManoharParrikar s son Utpal wanted to contestfrom Panjim but the party hasgiven him two other far Utpal is insistent on con-testing from Panjim Aadmi Party chiefArvind Kejriwal on Thursdaytweeted that Utpal is welcometo join and fight elections on aAAP ticket. Goans feel verysad that the BJP has adopteduse and throw policy evenwith Parrikar family. I havealways respected ManoharParrikar. Utpal is welcome tojoin and fight elections onAAP ticket, Kejriwal close to the Parrikarfamily told news agency ANIthat it is unlikely that Utpal willbudge and agree to contestfrom any other seat as it is moreof a sentimental and emotion-al issue for him than a politi-cal one.

10 In the last one month,several top leaders of the party,including Amit Shah and JPNadda, tried to convince him. The BJP has fieldedScheduled Tribe candidatesfrom three general seats andone Scheduled Caste candidatefrom a general seat in the 40strong Goa party has fielded 11 Other Backward castes candi-dates and nine from the minor-ity community. Six new faces have beenincluded in the Goa ChiefMinister Pramod Sawantwould contest from addressing a Pressconference with BJP generalsecretary Arun Singh, formerMaharashtra Chief MinisterDevendra Fadnavis said theBJP will return to power as ithas brought stability anddevelopment in the said people will rejectother competitors as Congresshas disgraced the State by cor-ruption and the new entrantsTMC is trying to buy politi-cians and the cadre of theMGP with which it has struckan alliance are disenchantedwith it.