The Evening Wrap: Cyclone forces Chennai airport closure

The Hindu Newsletter - Here are the latest updates and the big news stories to follow today [The Hindu Logo]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Youtube]( [Linkedin]( [Instagram]( Wednesday 25, November 2020 [alt_text]( The Evening Wrap [Here are the biggest news stories of the day]( [alt_text]( Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. We hope you are staying safe. As Nivar intensifies, Chennai suspends airport and metro services The severe cyclonic storm ‘Nivar’ is likely to intensify further into a very severe cyclonic storm during the next 12 hours. It is expected to cross the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry coasts between Karaikal and Mamallapuram during midnight of November 25 and early hours of November 26, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The Tamil Nadu government has announced a public holiday in 16 districts, including Chennai, on Thursday, November 26. [Chennai airport will remain shut]( from 7 p.m. on Wednesday till 7 a.m. on Thursday due to the cyclone. All international, domestic and cargo services remain suspended. This decision follows the afternoon update announcing the cancellation of 12 departures and arrivals from and to Chennai airport. Flights cancelled include those to Kannur, Kozhikode, Vijayawada, Tiruchi, Thoothukudi, Bengaluru, Mangalore and Hubli. Metro rail services, too, have been suspended from 8 p.m. today. Services will resume tomorrow depending on the weather conditions. Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel passes away Rajya Sabha member and senior Congress leader [Ahmed Patel died on Wednesday]( after a prolonged battle with complications arising out of a Covid-19 infection. He was 71. Patel had contracted the virus more than a month-and-a-half ago, on October 1, and was treated at a private hospital in Faridabad before being shifted to Gurugram’s Medanta Medicity after his condition deteriorated. Popularly known as ‘Ahmed Bhai’ or ‘AP’ in political circles, Patel, who served as the powerful political secretary to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, was the [quintessential backroom strategist]( during the 10-year-rule of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA). Though he was never a part of the Manmohan Singh Cabinet, Patel was the crisis manager who firmly remained in the background and was known for his loyalty to the Gandhis. Patel served as a key link not just between the Congress and its allies but also between the party and Singh’s government. His ability to reach out to corporate as well as political leaders prompted the former party chief Rahul Gandhi, who was not known to share a great relationship with Patel, to bring him back as the party’s treasurer in August 2018. Poshan Abhiyan: Server snag hits tracking of nutritional interventions A massive portal developed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), which is used by the Centre as well as most States to record and monitor delivery of services to children and mothers across nearly seven lakh anganwadis, has been [down for nearly three months](, several State governments have confirmed. The snag is a big setback at a time when it is critical to intensify efforts to identify mothers and children in need of nutritional interventions due to rising levels of hunger and poverty. The software had been developed under the Poshan Abhiyaan scheme approved by the Cabinet in 2017. ['Poshan Abhiyaan', the NDA government’s flagship programme to improve nutritional outcomes for children, pregnant women and lactating mothers was launched in 2018 with specific targets to be achieved by 2022. Representational image]'Poshan Abhiyaan', the NDA government’s flagship programme to improve nutritional outcomes for children, pregnant women and lactating mothers was launched in 2018 with specific targets to be achieved by 2022. Representational image "The ICDS-CAS server is down and we have written to the Central government to rectify it. It has been down for almost two months and we have requested for it to be rectified. But we continue to deliver dry rations to the beneficiaries,” Kavitha Ramu, Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Chief for Tamil Nadu, told The Hindu. Poshan Abhiyaan’s Integrated Child Development Services Common Application Software (ICDS-CAS) is a web and mobile-phone based application to improve service delivery and program management. The application facilitates Anganwadi workers (AWWs) in their daily tasks, helps supervisors to assess and provide feedback to the workers, and helps other program officials to track service delivery and take informed decisions. The server issue appears to have surfaced after the government insisted that the BMGF and its collaborator, US-based DIMAAGI, host India’s public data in India, leading to issues in managing capacity to anchor such vast quantities of data. India has a total 14 lakh anganwadis and nearly 10 crore ICDS beneficiaries. “Children are already extremely vulnerable with respect to their health and nutrition due to the impact of disruptions in services. Now, if the news is correct about the ICDS-CAS being down for three months, it is a further avoidable disaster. Poshan Abhiyan is exerting a strong centralisation as well as push for technology-driven, data centric interventions. But this is precisely what the risks are with centralised approaches,” said Dr Vandana Prasad, Joint Convenor of People’s Health Movement India and a member of the Steering Committee of the Right to Food Campaign. Farmers begin march to Delhi from Ambala Thousands of [farmers from Ambala began a march towards Delhi]( on Wednesday afternoon in response to a call by several farmers’ groups for “Dilli Chalo” on November 26. Haryana Police has set up barriers and diversions in the bordering districts on the highways leading to Delhi to prevent the agitating farmers from reaching the national capital. Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) member Balkar Singh said thousands of farmers started a march towards Delhi in tractors and trolleys from a food grains market near Ambala in the afternoon and broke the barriers put by the police to reach Shahbad. He claimed that the police used water cannons to stop the farmers. Singh said the farmers were scheduled to reach Rajiv Gandhi Education City in Sonipat around midnight before entering Delhi. [ Farmers begin their march towards Delhi from Haryana's Ambala in response to the call for ] Farmers begin their march towards Delhi from Haryana's Ambala in response to the call for "Dilli Chalo" on November 25, 2020. Photo: Special Arrangement Earlier, there were reports of arrests and detentions of farmer leaders from several parts of Haryana amid the continued crackdown for the second day in a row. In a related development, the Delhi Police reiterated that all requests from farmer organisations for protest permits on Thursday and Friday have been rejected, and warned that legal action would be taken if gatherings took place in Delhi amid the coronavirus pandemic. Amaravati land scam case: SC stays A.P. High Court’s gag order to media The Supreme Court on Wednesday [stayed an interim direction of the Andhra Pradesh High Court to gag the media]( from reporting on an FIR registered on the alleged “illegal purchase” of land in Amaravati. A three-judge Bench, led by Justice Ashok Bhushan, gave four weeks to former State Additional Advocate General and first respondent, Dammalapati Srinivas, to file his response. Srinivas is named in the FIR. Others named include the relatives of a sitting Supreme Court judge. The FIR shows offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act, criminal breach of trust, and cheating under the Indian Penal Code. The allegations include abuse of official positions in the State, sharing of privileged information, and causing loss to the public exchequer during the previous Telugu Desam Party regime. The High Court had passed the gag order within hours of the registration of the FIR on September 15. It stayed the investigation and barred the State from taking any coercive action against the persons named in the FIR. The order was based on a writ petition filed by Srinivas. The Jaganmohan Reddy government had appealed to the Supreme Court. The Bench issued notice and posted the appeal for hearing in the last week of January 2021. China slams India’s ban on 43 more apps China on Wednesday said [it “firmly opposes” India’s “use of national security as an excuse”](. It was reacting to New Delhi’s November 24 decision to ban 43 Chinese apps, which followed similar measures announced in June and September that barred 177 mostly Chinese apps amid continuing tensions along the border. “India should immediately correct its discriminatory approach and avoid causing further damage to bilateral cooperation,” said Zhao Lijian, spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry. A separate statement from the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi on Wednesday said China “firmly oppose[s] the Indian side’s repeated use of ‘national security’ as an excuse to prohibit some mobile apps with Chinese background.” Cabinet approves amalgamation of Lakshmi Vilas Bank and DBS India The Union Cabinet on Wednesday [approved the amalgamation of Lakshmi Vilas Bank with DBS India](. The Centre had imposed a one-month moratorium on the Karur-based lender, temporarily capping withdrawals at ₹25,000. The RBI had proposed a draft scheme of amalgamation that entailed the Indian unit of Singapore’s DBS Bank taking over the capital-starved bank. [ The Union Cabinet on November 25, 2020 approved the merger of Lakshmi Vilas Bank with DBIL, providing comfort to 20 lakh customers of the bank which was put under the moratorium. ] The Union Cabinet on November 25, 2020 approved the merger of Lakshmi Vilas Bank with DBIL, providing comfort to 20 lakh customers of the bank which was put under the moratorium. The jobs of the 400 employees will be secure and the depositers will also be protected, said Union Minister Prakash Javadekar, during a press meet in New Delhi on Wednesday. “Twenty lakh depositers and ₹20,000 crore of deposits are secure,” he added. RBI has been told to act against those who brought the bank to the brink of closure. Liability will be fixed and those who have made mistakes will be punished, he said. Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments The [number of coronavirus cases reported from India]( stood at 92,52,426 at the time of writing this newsletter, with the death toll at 1,35,057. Amid the grim Covid-19 situation in the Delhi-National Capital Region and apprehensions of a second wave in Punjab, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Wednesday ordered a series of fresh restrictions in the State, including re-imposition of night curfew in all towns and cities with effect from December 1. The curbs, which will shall be reviewed on December 15, will allow all hotels, restaurants and marriage venues to remain open till 9.30 p.m. Night curfew will remain in force from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., Singh said. In Brief: [ A still from the Malayalam film ‘Jallikattu’ ] A still from the Malayalam film ‘Jallikattu’ Malayalam film Jallikattu, directed by Lijo Jose Pellissery, has been [selected as India’s official entry for the Best International Feature Film category for the 93rd Academy Awards](. Jallikattu is the third Malayalam film after Guru (1997) and Adaminte Makan Abu (2011) to be chosen as the country’s official entry for the Oscars. The selection was made by a fourteen-member committee of the Film Federation of India, from a shortlist of 26 films. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. Today's Top Picks [alt_text]( [Hackers can turn vacuum cleaners into spying devices, NUS researchers say]( [alt_text]( [Microsoft Flight Simulator gets new airports, visual enhancements in U.S. update]( [alt_text]( [Indian-origin New Zealand MP takes the oath in Sanskrit]( [alt_text]( [Google’s ‘Verse by Verse’ can help you write poetry]( You are receiving this email because you are a user of [thehindu.com]( If you do not wish to receive any such emails, [unsubscribe here.](mailto:rm-0b485f23bf2f90kauhrxfebysa8hk6y@newsalert.thehindu.com?subject=Unsubscribe&body=You will be unsubscribed from our mailing list.) To ensure you continue to receive emails from The Hindu in your inbox, please add newsletters.th@newsalert.thehindu.com to your contact. 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