YK MYK FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL POLL IS A ONE-SIDED CULTURAL WAR OPINION Rs. 5 RANCHI SATURDAY, 1 JANUARY, 2022 PG-12, YEAR—11, ISSUE—234 (RNI NO: JHAENG / 2012 / 44137) U19 ASIA CUP FINAL: INDIA REGISTER NINE-WICKET WIN OVER SL NATION Morning India PLEASANT WEATHER TO PREVAIL DURING NEW YEAR CELEBRATIONS Medical staff of a hospital wearing PPE suits wishes people a safe New Year 2022, in Bengaluru on Friday. SURGE IN COVID-19 CASES PLAY SPOILSPORT IN NEW YEAR CELEBRATIONS State Govt to increase testing to 1 lakh per day SANJAY SAHAY RANCHI: State government on Friday stopped short of imposing fresh restrictions to curb Covid pandemic but appealed that people should celebrate the New Year while observing the preventive norms including social distancing, mask wearing and hygiene. Chief Minister (CM) Hemant Soren on Friday held a high level meeting to review the steep rise in Covid cases in state. He sought information regarding the increase in cases in past week and expressed concern over the situation. He instructed the officials to increase the daily testing from the current 35,000 per day to one lakh per day. He stated that adequate steps must be taken to check rapid rise in cases in Hazaribag and Bokaro districts where the positivity rates is high. The CM asked the officials AT A GLANCE COMPETITION COMM ORDERS PROBE AGAINST APPLE NEW DELHI: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Friday ordered a detailed probe against technology major Apple for alleged unfair business practices with respect to its App Store. In a 20-page order, the watchdog said that Apple's App Store is the only channel for app developers to distribute their apps to iOS consumers which is preinstalled on every iPhone and iPad. "Further, third party app stores are not allowed to be listed on Apple's App Store as the developer guidelines as well as agreement prohibits app developers from offering such services... these restrictions imposed by Apple forecloses the market for app stores for iOS for potential app distributors," the order said. According to the CCI, this prima facie results in denial of market access for the potential app distributors/app store developers. CORONA METER INDIA TOTAL CASES: 34,808,886 TOTAL DEATHS: 480,592 WORLD TOTAL CASES: 283,374,722 TOTAL DEATHS: 5,434,143 CM Hemant Soren during a meeting to review preparedness in the wake of surge in Covid-19 cases in Jharkhand, in Ranchi on Friday. to ensure 100 percent vaccination of all adult persons by January 15. He said that at least first doze should be administered to all persons. He asked the officials to keep watch over the New Year gatherings at waterfalls, picnic spots, temples and other places and strictly enforce the Covid norms. He said that Covid test drive should be carried out at all the crowded places. He said the health department must ensure that there is no shortage of oxygen bed, ventilators, intensive care unit beds and normal beds in the hospitals. He appealed to people to wear face mask and observe social distancing under all circumstances. He advised that people should avoid the public gathering during New Year celebrations. He stated that people must understand the impact of new variant and save themselves and their relatives. He said that all of us would fight this pandemic and win. The CM would review the situation next week and take concrete steps after assessing various aspects of the pandemic. Several issues including status of PSA oxygen plants and early establishment of genome sequencing machine were discussed in the meeting. Health minister Banna Gupta, chief secretary Sukhdeo Singh, additional CS Arun Singh, principal secretary to CM Rajiv Arun Ekka, secretary to the CM Vinay Chaubey, secretary disaster management Amitabh Kaushal and managing director of Jharkhand Medical Corporation Nancy Sahay were present in the meeting. RANCHI: Weather is likely to remain dry and pleasant for the next five days as the impact of western disturbance has ended, said that meteorological department. It said that light to medium fog would be witnessed during the morning adding it would be followed by clear sky. The minimum temperature, which increased during the cloudy condition recently, would register a fall by three to four degrees centigrade in the coming days. Ranchi city registered a minimum temperarure of 11.2 degree centigrade and a maximum of 21.5 degree centigrade. Light rainfall occurred at a few places with Daltonganj registering a maximum of 3.8 mm. Meanwhile, the IMD has predicted extremely heavy rains in one or two areas of Tamil Nadu's Nagapattinam district in the next couple of days. 8 core industrial sectors post 3.1 pc growth in Nov NEW DELHI: Eight core industrial sectors that include, coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity, posted a growth of 3.1 per cent in November year-on-year, the government data showed on Friday. For the period AprilNovember 2021, the growth of the eight core industrial sectors stands at 13.7 per cent over the corresponding period of last year, "The combined Index of Eight Core Industries stood at 131.7 in November 2021,which increased by 3.1 per cent (provisional) as compared to the Index of November 2020. The production of Coal, Natural Gas, Refinery Products, Fertilizers, Steel and Electricity industries increased in November 2021 over the corresponding period of last year," Ministry of Commerce and Industry said. The final growth rate of the Index of Eight Core Industries for August 2021 is revised upward to 12.2 per cent from its provisional level 11.6 per cent announced earlier. GST HIKE ON TEXTILES PUT ON HOLD: FM NEW DELHI: Heeding to demands made by several states, the GST Council on Friday put on hold a decision to hike the tax rate on textiles to 12 per cent from 5 per cent, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said. The panel, the highest decision-making body for indirect taxes, met under emergency provisions after states made a request for deferring the January 1 hike. SURGE IN COVID19 CASES AS OMICRON STARTED REPLACING DELTA VARIANT RANCHI: With the Union Health Ministry noting a surge in COVID-19 cases across the country, official sources have said that the reason behind the spike is the Omicron variant which has started replacing its predecessor Delta in India and the world. As per the sources, Omicron variant infections account for around 80 per cent of COVID-19 cases detected among international travellers. Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has been holding a review meeting daily over the COVID-19 situation since November 25 with all officials and public health experts. "The trend of an increasing number of COVID-19 cases shows that it is due to Omicron, which is replacing Delta in India and globally as well," official sources told ANI. However, most of the patients infected with Omicron are asymptomatic.