Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina gave away the highest civilian award of Bangladesh ‘Swadhinta Puraskar 2021’ also known as Independence Award to nine individuals and a research organisation on Thursday.

She handed over the award at her official residence Ganabandhan in Dhaka.The Independence Award is conferred on people or organisations for their outstanding contribution to the Liberation War of Bangladesh, Science and Technology, literature and Culture among others.

The award for the year 2021 included four posthumous awards given to AKM Bazlur Rahman, Shaheed Ahsanullah Master, Brigadier General Khurshid Uddin Ahmed, and Akhtaruzzaman Chowdhury Babu for their contribution to independence and the War of Liberation.
Dr. Mrinmoy Guha Neogi received the honour for his contribution to Science and Technology while Mohadeb Saha was bestowed with the award for his contribution to the field of literature. Ataur Rahman and Gazi Mazharul Anwar got the award for Culture and Prof. M Amjad Hossain for Social Work.

Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY), a Central Sector Scheme, was announced in August 2003 to address imbalances in availability of tertiary care hospitals and improve medical education in the country.

The scheme received a fresh impetus to fulfil Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of quality medical education in the underserved States, and many new All India Institutes of Medical Sciences are being set up under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana. So far setting up of 22 new AIIMS has been approved under the scheme, out of which six AIIMS at Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Jodhpur, Patna, Raipur and Rishikesh are already fully functional. In another seven AIIMS, OPD facility and MBBS classes have started while in five more institutes only MBBS classes has started.

These regional AIIMS, set up or being set up under PMSSY, have played a very significant role in management of COVID since the beginning of the pandemic early last year. Their contribution becomes significant when seen in the light of the fact that they serve areas where the health infrastructure was weak.

Senior BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma was sworn in as the new Chief Minister of Assam today. Governor Prof. Jagdish Mukhi administered him the oath of office. Along with Mr. Sarma 13 ministers also took oath today. 10 ministers from the BJP, while 2 ministers from Asom Gana Parishad and 1 from UPPL are included in the Himanta Biswa Sarma ministry.
 
State BJP President Ranjeet Kumar Dass, Asom Gana Parishad Atul Bora and Working President Keshab Mahanta, senior BJP leaders Chandra Mohan Patowary, Parimal Suklabaidya and Pijush Hazarika took oath as ministers. BJP legislators Bimal Borah, Ashok Singhal ,Ranuj Pegu are some of the new faces included in the ministry. National President of BJP J P Nadda, Union ministers Jitendra Singh, several Chief Ministers of North East and former Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal attended the oath taking ceremony.
 
Mr. Sarma who is representing Jalukbari assembly constituency, joined the BJP in 2015. Prior to  joining the BJP, he held several important portfolios in the Tarun Gogoi led Congress government. A writer and sports administrator, Shri Sarma is also holding the post of Convenor of the North East Democratic Alliance, NEDA. 

In tennis, World number six Alexander Zverev beat Matteo Berrettini to clinch his second Madrid Open title.
 
After beating top-seeded Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals and fourth-ranked Dominic Thiem in the semifinals, Zverev rallied to defeat Italian world number 10 Berrettini 6-7 (8), 6-4, 6-3 in the final.
 
In the men’s doubles final, Marcel Granollers of Spain and Horacio Zeballos of Argentina defeated Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic of Croatia 1-6, 6-3, 10-8, claiming the doubles title yesterday.
 
Earlier, Aryna Sabalenka turned the tables on world No. 1 Ashleigh Barty to win the women’s title. The world number seven Belarus's Sabalenka beat Australian player 6-0, 3-6, 6-4.

India is the fastest country globally to administer 17 crore COVID vaccine doses.  It has taken 114 days to achieve this coverage while China took 119 days and USA 115 days for reaching the same landmark. 

Over 17 crore one lakh vaccine doses have been administered so far in the country.  In the last 24 hours, more than 6.8 lakh vaccination doses were administered in the country.

Over 20 lakh 31 thousand beneficiaries in the age group of 18 to 44 years have been administered the first jab so far since the third phase of the largest vaccination drive kick-started from 1st of this month.
 
The Center is taking several steps to provide relief to the people during this pandemic. It is ensuring that the global aid is being expeditiously delivered to States and UTs through fast custom clearances, and use of air and road.

So far, 6,738 Oxygen Concentrators, 3,856 Oxygen Cylinders, 16 Oxygen Generation Plants, 4,668 ventilators, Bi-PAP and more than three lakh Remdesivir vials received as part of global aid to India have been delivered and dispatched to States and UTs to augment and supplement their infrastructure. 

The State of Assam presented their Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) Annual Action Plan today via video conference with details of the plan for the financial year 2021-22 as well as a saturation plan for the whole State to provide tap water connection to every rural household.

Assam has 63.35 lakh rural households, out of which 6.67 lakh (10.75%) are getting tap water supply. The State plans to achieve total saturation by the year 2024. Assam plans to provide 20.63 lakh household tap water connections and saturation of 2 districts in 2021-22. In 2020-2021, the State provided 4.76 lakh tap connections in rural areas. At present, the State has 256 ‘HarGharJal’ villages, and piped water supply is available to 7,897 Schools and 1,582 Anganwadi centres. State has been urged to ensure piped water supply in schools and AWCS at the earliest.

The extensive exercise of finalizing the Annual Action Plan (AAP) of States/ UTs under Jal Jeevan Mission is done by a national committee chaired by the Secretary, Department of Drinking Water & Sanitation, members from different Central Ministries/ Departments and NITI Aayog. Thereafter, funds are released throughout the year based on the progress and expenditure incurred. The detailed planning exercise is undertaken to help the State to achieve the goal of ‘HarGharJal’.

A UN-led global immunization strategy was unveiled yesterday to reach more than 50 million children who have missed lifesaving jabs against measles and other diseases because of COVID-19 disruption.

WHO, along with UNICEF and the vaccine alliance Gavi, said their new global strategy has the potential to save 50 million lives within less than a decade.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, to avoid multiple outbreaks of life-threatening diseases like measles, yellow fever and diphtheria, it must be ensured that routine vaccination services are protected in every country in the world.

A WHO survey showed more than one third of countries were still seeing disruptions to their routine immunisation services. The joint statement said, around 60 mass vaccination campaigns were currently postponed in 50 countries, putting 228 million people, mostly children, at risk of diseases such as measles and polio.

The Ingenuity Mars helicopter of NASA has made yet another successful flight on the red planet. NASA said it flew faster and farther on Sunday, April 25 than in any tests it went through on Earth. The third flight of the helicopter was recorded by the US Space Agency’s Perseverance rover on Mars.

The drone sized chopper rose to a height of 16 feet at 12.33 p.m. local Mars time and flew for 80 seconds covering 164 feet distance at the speed of 2 metres per second before coming back to its take-off spot.

The project’s programme executive for Ingenuity Mars Helicopter said the third flight was what they planned for, and yet it was nothing short of amazing.

The Ingenuity team has been pushing the helicopter’s limits by adding instructions to capture more photos of its own - including from the colour camera, which captured its first images on Flight Two. The helicopter’s black-and-white navigation camera, meanwhile, tracks surface features below, and this flight put the onboard processing of these images to the test.

In the Archery World Cup, Indian women's recurve team including Deepika Kumari, Ankita Bhakat and Komalika Bari won a gold medal in Guatemala yesterday. Indian trio shot 27 to edge out their Mexican rivals by one point and claim their first World Cup team gold after seven years.

This is Deepika's fifth World Cup stage event team gold medal. In another match, the Indian mixed recurve team of Atanu Das and Ankita Bhakat won the bronze medal after a 6-2 victory over USA.

In view of the Curfew  imposed w.e.f. 10 PM today i.e. 19th April 2021 till 5AM on 26 April 2021 by the Govt. for the containment of Covid-19 in NCT Delhi, Metro services on the network during this period will be available as per following details:-

1. Services during morning (8 AM to 10 AM) and evening (5 PM to 7 PM) peak hours across the network will be available with a headway (frequency) of 30 minutes.

2. For rest of the hours of the day, services across the network will be available with a frequency of 60 min only.

Metro services during this period can be availed only by the exempted category of people as per the latest govt. order on production of the valid IDs.

During this period, travel will be allowed only upto 50% seating capacity in the Metro. In addition, no standing passenger shall be allowed during the travel.