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n an address to the nation lateon Saturday evening, PrimeMinister Narendra Modiannounced that childrenbetween 15 and 18 years will bevaccinated from January 3 andbooster doses will be given tohealth and frontline workers andthose above 60 with other healthproblems from January PM said theGovernment has decided to gofor vaccination of childrenafter holding wide-rangingconsultation with scientificadvisers.

2 The PM s announce-ment coincided with the drugregulator s granting approvalfor giving vaccine to childrenabove 12 by. The move has tobe cleared by the also said, "Precautiondoses" will be started for healthcare and front-line workersfrom January over 60 with otherhealth problems will alsoreceive extra doses fromJanuary 10 on their doctor'sadvice, he said. Modi said global experi-ence showed following all pre-ventive measures was a bigweapon to fight Covid."Coronavirus is not Theworld is now talking aboutOmicron. Today is Atal BihariVajpayee's birthday andChristmas, so we decided toannounce this step today," hesaid. Asking the people not topanic in view of the Omicronthreat, the PM said, In India,many people have been foundto be infected with Omicron. Iwould urge all of you not topanic, be careful and to wash hands andmask," he virus is mutatingour self-confidence and pre-paredness is also multiplying,"the PM said and informedthat "country has 1,80000 iso-lation beds, 5 lakh oxygen sup-plied beds, 140000 ICU beds,3000 O2 " to counterany new threat from the said all States havebeen given enough vaccinationdoses and testing kits.

3 Besides,he said "we are at mission-mode in vaccine production".The PM announced soonwe will have nasal vaccine andworld's first DNA vaccine inthe country. Modi said, Thereare different opinions onOmicron Indian scientists areworking on it. The PM said after 11months vaccination experiencein the country "theGovernment today decided thatchildren in the age group of 15to 18 years will be vaccinatedfrom January 3 which willanswer the concerns of theparents of school-going chil-dren".Modi said vaccination inthe country was started onJanuary 16 and till date 141crore doses have been givenwith 61 per cent of adult pop-ulation receiving both of it. Hesaid while 90 per cent adultshave one dose, States likeGoa, Uttarakhand andHimachal Pradesh have 100per cent single dose PM asked people "tonot to give ears to rumoursand fear creating attempts . Itis not yet known which vac-cines will be given to is the second vaccineto be cleared by the drug reg-ulator for those below 18 afterZydus Cadila's needle-freeCovid-19 vaccine has 415 Omicroncases as of today.

4 On Saturday, the DrugController General of India(DCGI) gave Bharat Biotechapproval for emergency useauthorisation of the CovaxinCovid vaccine for children inthe 12-18 years age group$ 5 . # $ ! & # ' Gujarat, Maharashtra andGoa emerged as the topthree States while Delhi stoodnumber one in the list of UnionTerritories (UTs) in the GoodGovernance Index (GGI)2020-21 released by theDepartment of AdministrativeReforms and Public Grievanceson Saturday. Andhra Pradesh toppedlist of States in the Agricultureand Allied Sector whileTelangana was number one inthe Commerce and Industrysector. Uttar Pradesh hassecured top position inCommerce and Industry sectorand also shown increase inSocial Welfare andDevelopment, Judiciary, PublicSafety and citizen Centric topped the com-posite ranking in the 58 indi-cator index followed byMaharashtra and Goa. Gujaratregistered an over 12 per centincrease and Goa registered anearly 25 per cent increase overthe indicators recorded bythese states in the last indexissued in 2019.

5 Gujarat has performedstrongly in economic gover-nance, human resource devel-opment, public infrastructureand utilities, social welfareand development, judiciaryand public safety, whileMaharashtra scored in agri-culture and allied sector,human resource development,public infrastructure and util-ities, social welfare and devel-opment. Goa's showed goodperformance was in agricul-ture and allied sector, com-merce and industry, publicinfrastructure and utilities,economic governance, socialwelfare and development the States have beendivided in four separategroups, Uttar Pradesh rankedat fifth position in Group Bwhich is led by MadhyaPradesh. Uttar Pradesh whichhas shown incrementalgrowth of nearly 9 per centover its 2019 performanceand secured the top positionin the commerce and industrysector, which was one of the 10sectors of good governancethat were covered by Pradesh has regis-tered an per cent improve-ment in the GGI indicators inthe period 2019 to 2021 whichJammu and Kashmir regis-tered an improvement of cent in the same period.

6 ! "# $#% & '& (#$ )# ! '#*+ ! " ,,#$)# '- ' $. #) $/ 0 1 $ 2 3 1$ ,/ 4 . '! ' !# . ('Punjab police on Saturdaysaid it has cracked theLudhiana Court bomb blastcase after zeroing in on theidentity of the deceasedGagandeep Singh (31) ofKhanna, who was recruited inPunjab police as constable anddismissed in August 2019 after385 gm of heroin was recov-ered from his a news con-ference, Punjab DGPS iddharth Chattopadhyayasaid the former State policeHead Constable who waskilled in the Ludhiana districtcourt blast had links withKhalistani elements and terroroutfits, and some Pakistan-based entities could be behindthe incident. He saidGagandeep, who was dis-missed from service in 2019,had gone to the washroom toassemble the bomb and plantit somewhere. He was alone inthe washroom when the bombwent was posted asa "munshi" at a police stationin Khanna, his native city, andwas sacked in connection witha drug-related case,Chattopadhyaya said.

7 ! & # ' As the number of Omicronvariant cases rose to 415on Saturday across the coun-try and more States imposednight curfews and relatedcurbs, the Centre will bedeploying Central teams ofexperts with nodal officers to10 States that have been eitherreporting a rapid surge inOmicron and Covid-19 casesor has a slow vaccinationpace. Curb has been announcedin Uttar Pradesh from 11 pm to5 am, starting Saturday amidgrowing concern over thespread of the Omicron coron-avirus variant. The district administra-tion in Gautam Buddh Nagaron Friday imposed Section 144 CrPC across Noida and GreaterNoida till December 31 aheadof the upcoming festive has also announceda night curfew which will comeinto effect from Sunday,December 26 between 11:30pm and 6 am. However, this curfew willnot be applicable on December31, 2021. According to theorder issued by the UnionHealth Ministry on Saturday,these States are Kerala,Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, WestBengal, Mizoram, Karnataka,Bihar, Jharkhand and Punjab and Uttar Pradeshare in the list where electionsare due in two months time.

8 This comes days after theAllahabad High Court alreadyflagged the Omicron threat,asking the ElectionCommission and PrimeMinister Narendra Modi toconsider postponing polls byone or two months in UttarPradesh and other States. ! " # . $ C*( ! './ ! DThe world's largest and mostpowerful space telescoperocketed away on Saturday on ahigh-stakes quest to beholdlight from the first stars andgalaxies and scour the universefor hints of life. NASA's JamesWebb Space Telescope soaredfrom French Guiana on SouthAmerica's northeastern coast,riding a European Ariane rock-et into the Christmas $10 billion observatoryhurtled toward its destination 1million miles ( million km)away, or more than four timesbeyond the moon. It will take amonth to get there and anotherfive months before its infraredeyes are ready to start scanningthe cosmos. First, the telescope'senormous mirror and sunshieldneed to unfurl; they were fold-ed origami-style to fit into therocket's nose cone.)

9 Otherwise, the observatorywon't be able to peer back intime billion years as antic-ipated, within a mere 100 mil-lion years of the universe-form-ing Big Bang. Administrator Bill Nelson calledWebb is a time machine that willprovide "a better understandingof our universe and our place init: who we are, what we are, thesearch that's eternal . We are going to discoverincredible things that we neverimagined," Nelson said follow-ing liftoff, speaking fromFlorida's Kennedy Space he cautioned: There arestill innumerable things thathave to work and they have towork know that ingreat reward there is great risk."Intended as a successor to theaging Hubble Space Telescope,the long-delayed James Webb isnamed after NASA's adminis-trator during the 1960s. NASA partnered with the Europeanand Canadian space agencies tobuild and launch the new 7-tontelescope, with thousands ofpeople from 29 countries work-ing on it since the the launch falling onChristmas and a global surge inCOVID-19 cases, there werefewer spectators at the FrenchGuiana launch site than expect-ed.

10 Nelson bowed out alongwith a congressional delegationand many contractors whoworked on the the world,astronomers had eagerly wait-ed to see Webb finally takingflight after years of setbacks. !"# $ % & $ " ' ( )% )*)+ , $ - . / - ! )5#') ! ! 5 6 ! ! #$$ $ 1! ! 5" (!' ) $0 ! , $# # $ ( $ ( , 6 " $Bhopal: The Madhya PradeshGovernment on Saturday posted1997-batch Indian AdministrativeService officer Raghvendra Singh asPrincipal Secretary andCommissioner (Public Relations). As per the GeneralAdministration Department order,Singh will also be Managing Director(Madhyam). The bureaucrat has heldseveral crucial posts including that ofCollector, indore . He replacesAdditional Secy Sudam PandharinathKhade who has been reassigned asCommr (Health Services) andController (Food and DrugAdministration). Akash Tripathi -hitherto serving as Commr (HealthServices) - is to assume charge as Secy(Technical Education, SkillDevelopment and Employment).