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Mamata Banerjee suggested night-time vigilance, and nodal police officer for every hospital, during her meet with protesting junior doctors in Kolkata. She also said that five people have been arrested so far in NRS hospital incident.

Backtracking on her promise to allow media coverage of the meeting with protesting doctors, Mamata Banerjee on Monday has allowed only ABP Ananda inside the meeting.

The junior doctors on strike at NRS hospital in Kolkata have reached at Nabanna​, the state Secretariat, to meet Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Mamata Banerjee has finally agreed to meet the protesting junior doctors of NRS hospital in Kolkata in the presence of media. Earlier, she had said she was not comfortable with holding the meeting with reporters present, but the protesting doctors were firm on their demand, reported News18.

Dr PK Mitra, the Director of Medical Education of the West Bengal government, has arrived at NRS hospital in Kolkata to meet the junior doctors on protest. Referring to their demand for the presence of national media at the meeting with Mamata Banerjee, he said he had already communicated their stand to the chief minister and “no new conditions can be met now”.

Junior doctors are likely to boycott the 3 pm meeting with Mamata Banerjee even if it is recorded. The protesting doctors doctors in West Bengal specifically want the national media to be present at the meeting.

Several doctors in Goa boycotted work on Monday and held a silent protest march in Panaji. In Maharashtra, over 40,000 doctors boycotted work as part of the IMA’s strike. In Odisha, OPD services were hit, but emergency wards functioned normally.

Mamata Banerjee has agreed to hold a “recorded” meeting with the junior doctors of NRS hospital on strike. The Director of Medical Education said, “The discussion and resolutions taken in this meeting shall be recorded and duly communicated to you.”

Due to the ongoing countrywide doctors’ strike, the government has cancelled the leaves of all doctors employed at Central government hospitals and asked them to return to duty immediately. The Central government doctors have been asked to come back to work to deal with the crisis, reports said.

The junior doctors on strike in West Bengal have rejected Mamata Banerjee’s request for a closed-door meeting at state Secretariat Nabanna. At the general body meeting of junior doctors of Kolkata’s NRS hospital, they decided to not attend the meeting with the chief minister at 3 pm.

The PIL the Supreme Court will hear tomorrow seeks directions to the Union ministries of home affairs and health and the West Bengal administration to depute government-appointed security personnel at all state-run hospitals in India to ensure safety and security of doctors.

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a PIL tomorrow (Tuesday) on the ongoing doctors’ strike across the country. The plea, filed by one Ashok Srivastata, seeks legal protection for doctors against assaults, like the one faced by junior doctors at NRS hospital in Kolkata, which triggered the strike.

The contention between the protesting doctors in West Bengal and Mamata Banerjee is now on the presence of media at the planned meeting. Medicos want the meeting to be held in the presence of media, but the chief minister is “not comfortable” with it.

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) will hold a nationwide protest on Monday against the beating of doctors in West Bengal, said Dr Ranjan Sharma, president of the doctors’ national body, on Sunday.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has instantly approved Rs 1 lakh assistance sought by a person on Twitter for treatment of kidney disease of a boy residing in Korba.
Confirming this, the official sources said here today that a 13-year-old boy Manish Gabhel, son of Dhanendra Gabhel, resident of Budhwari Bazaar (Gandhi Chowk) Korba, is suffering from kidney disease.
A man named Bhupendra Choudhary informed the Chief Minister about the condition of the boy by posting a tweet, requesting for financial assistance to the family of the boy for his treatment.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, also a renowned economist, will be missed in the upcoming Budget session of the Parliament as his nearly 30-year-long tenure as a Rajya Sabha member ended on Friday. Singh, who is credited with keeping India away from the great recession of 2008, would not be present in the Rajya Sabha for the first time since his first election from Assam in 1991 as he could not make up to the Parliament’ upper House due to Congress’ poor strength in the state Assembly.

Congress could not get him re-elected from Assam as it has only 25 MLAs as against 43 first-preference votes needed. The grand old party would have fallen short of five MLAs had it even got the support of 13 legislators of All India United Democratic Front.

The party even cannot send Singh from other states where Rajya Sabha seats are vacant. With the election of BJP’s Kamakhya Prasad Tasa and AGP’s Birender Prasad Baishya’s unopposed election from Assam, a total of nine seats are lying vacant in Odisha (4), Tamil Nadu (1), Bihar (2) and Gujarat (2).

Congress does not have required numbers to secure any Rajya Sabha berths in these states except Gujarat where it is eyeing to grab at least one seat.

Although Singh can be sent to the House from Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan or Punjab, there are no immediate vacancies in these states. The party has the ultimate option to make any other leader resign and get him elected from that seat in order to keep the two-time former Prime Minister in the House. However, party sources maintain that it has not been considered in the party.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s radio programme “Mann Ki Baat” will resume on June 30 at 11:00 am, Narendra Modi said on Saturday.

“30th June, Sunday at 11:00 AM…We will meet once again, thanks to the radio, share joy, positivity and celebrate the collective strength of 130 crore Indians. I am sure you have lots to say for #MannKiBaat. Share it on the NaMo App Open Forum,” Modi tweeted.

Modi is also looking forward to discussing public insights in his upcoming episode of Mann Ki Baat.

“For the #MannKiBaat this month, dial the toll-free number 1800-11-7800 to record your message. You could also write on the MyGov Open Forum and pen your inputs. Looking forward to a great interaction,” he said in another tweet.

Prime Minister has asked everyone to share their thoughts on themes and issues that matter to the public, said the government.

This will be the first Mann ki Baat episode after Modi assumed office for the second time. The first episode of the second season will be broadcasted on All India Radio, on June 30.

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Friday appealed to the doctors protesting in Bengal and across the nation against unsafe work environment to call off their agitation on humanitarian grounds. 

Vardhan appealed to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to not make this sensitive matter a “prestige issue” and said that he will write to her in this regard.”Despite getting beaten so badly, doctors have only asked her (Mamata Banerjee) to provide them with adequate security and also demanded action against the perpetrators of the violence as per the law,” Vardhan said.

“But instead of doing that, she warned them and gave an ultimatum which angered doctors across the country and they proceeded on strike. So if the chief minister acts in a sensitive manner in such a grave scenario, patients across the country will not suffer. I plead to the West Bengal chief minister to not make this an issue of prestige,” he said.

The Congress government in Chhattisgarh has announced free education for students till Class 12 in all government schools in the state. State minister Ravindra Choubey said that the decision will encourage children to join schools in the state. He noted that under the Right to Education Act, every student between the age of six and 14 is entitled to free education and the Congress government’s latest decision is one step ahead towards fulfilling the promise.

With this decision, Chhattisgarh has joined the list of select states in the country which provide free education to children till Class 12. As of now, the state government provides free education to children till Class 8. The decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting, presided over by Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel in Raipur.

CM Baghel took to Twitter to announce the decision. He said that the Congress government is focusing on ‘Nawa Chhattisgarh’ (new Chhattisgarh). During the Assembly elections last year, the Congress had campaigned promising development in the state.

“Under the Right to Education, till Class 8 free education is provided to students and books are provided to them. Now, this facility will be extended to students between Class 9 and 12th,” the decision reads.

The first interaction I had with Narendra Modi – albeit telephonic– was way back in 2006, when I used to work with a news weekly. I used to track the Congress, as my primary beat, but was majorly interested in Modi’s rise and his performance as the “CM cum CEO of Gujarat”.

I didn’t have his mobile number. So, I called on the CM residence number listed on his official website. Without expecting much success, I asked the operator to connect me to the Chief Minister. Lo and behold – CM Modi was on the line! I asked him a few questions but what remained with me was how he defined “secularism”. He said: “Ekam Sat, Vipra Bahudha Vadanti” (Truth is one; sages call it by various names”.)

My team, as also fellow journalists, were surprised by this telephonic chat with CM Modi – then already a rising star, and seen by many as a rightful inheritor of the BJP’s legacy at the Centre. But, then, this was not so surprising, after all. He engaged even with journalists who had vilified him for the riots in the state.

This long distance communication with Modi continued even as I changed jobs. In a job interview with the Edit Head of a news organization (where I eventually joined), I asked – ‘what do you think of Modi’? The answer was – “We don’t believe in his politics, though we don’t have a problem with his economic vision”.

This was the narrative that the mainstream media has grown on – since Modi’s Gujarat days.

Modi, our PM into his second term, has not forgotten this.

So, when the media, as also the Opposition, cry themselves hoarse – “why has PM Modi not addressed a full-fledged Press conference” – it is to be taken with a pinch of salt.

In the run-up to the general elections, Modi gave interviews left, right and centre. His critics, however, said that “most of these interviews were scripted”.

Let’s face it – Delhi’s elites – call them the ‘Khan Market gang’ if you wish to – have still not come to terms with Modi’s ascension to the top post.

Modi, the communicator par excellence, has improvised for India a top-down communication approach, deftly using the social media and other means of mass communications.

The Left-leaning cabal of journalists, who have always enjoyed prominence in Delhi newsrooms, have, thus, been rendered irrelevant. The extinction of the political Left and the near-decimation of the Rahul Gandhi-led Congress have further compounded their woes.

Make no mistake – Narendra Modi is here to stay. He is no Atal Bihari Vajpayee – who liked to model himself around Jawaharlal Nehru.

As journalist Sheela Bhatt has observed –Modi (and even Amit Shah) have been keen students of Indira Gandhi’s brand of nationalism. So, Modi likes to wear his Hindu nationalist image on his sleeves. Not just 2022 (the new India deadline, as the government likes to outline, coinciding with our 75th Independence Day), Modi is likely to come back to power even in 2024.

When BJP general secretary Ram Madhav recently remarked that the BJP will continue to be in power even in 2047, it was not an off-the-cuff remark. Like the “Congress system” of the yore, we have a “BJP system” well and truly entrenched at the centre of India’s polity. As industrialist Gaurav Dalmia remarked, in another context, “BJP, the hegemon,” has arrived.

By Narendra Kumbhat, author of Inside Corporate India

However, Air India even after several years of merger and much financial support from the Government of India is yet to achieve synergy between both the airlines.

Presented here is a case study of the failed merger of Indian Airline with Air India.

To start with, three committees were appointed by the Government of India from time to time to consider the merger of the two airlines, last being the Tata Committee, but all the three committees were against the merger due to various reasons.

Tata committee then recommended a common Chairman with two Managing Directors, each one for Air India and Indian Airlines. They also recommended common maintenance operations and other technical matters to save the cost.

Indian Airlines used to be the market leader on domestic routes till 2007 when it merged into Air India; the incident makes for a case study on how not to merge two entities. Many insist that the 2007 merger was doomed long before the thought of merger due to political reasons.

The then aviation minister Praful Patel might have done so for some dubious reason and his decision of buying 110 new aircrafts was termed by CAG (Controller and Auditor General of India) as a “ recipe for disaster”. No one knows the acquiring of 110 new aircrafts made what strategic sense since Air India did not have the financial health to sustain the expenditure of Rs. 40,000 crore in acquiring these aircrafts. In a book written by Mr. Jitendra Bhargava, ex-employee of the Indian Airlines, the author has blamed the aviation minister, who forced this merger by appointing two external consultants with a mandate to recommend merger of both the airlines. The main reason for merger was to benefit a personal friend of the minister who owned King Fisher airlines and another friend  Naresh Goyal who managed Jet airways, without looking into interest of the national airlines.

With the intent to benefit the private sector airlines, aviation minister Praful Patel even instructed the Indian Airlines to modify their schedule and changed the flight timings from peak hours to non-peak hours and where ever the traffic was high, the size of aircraft was changed to smaller aircraft. The flight planning went hey wire and all profitable routes were cleared up for private airlines.

One of the ex-employees in a private conversation disclosed that foreign airlines also took favors from the minister and saw to it that the Gulf route, which was the most profit-generating route for Air India and Indian Airlines too was handed over to them. The law of bilateral treaty among various countries was overruled in this case.

It was news to me when a friend informed me that now Air India does not fly from Bangalore city to Dubai, a hub of technocrats and industry and the particular route was awarded to Emirates for reasons best known to the civil aviation minister. Similarly Delhi-Singapore sector was also given to private airlines.

Delhi – London slot was given to Jet Airlines since it was indicated that Air India does not have adequate aircrafts. Later Jet sold the very same slot to Etihad of UAE for US$ 80 million without any approval from Air India or the civil aviation ministry.

There are many factors, which have doped the National airlines, and these facts are based on the opinions of various experts including former employees and many top Industrialists of the country.

Since Air India and Indian Airlines were Government companies, aviation ministry has been indirectly interfering in the management of these companies and Aviation Minister was de-facto Chief Boss of both the companies. In 2007 the then Aviation Minister recommended to merge the two companies without discussing the issue with the senior managers or consulting any professional organization to make a case study preceding such a crucial merger. This arbitrary decision of the minister created confusions and in the beginning itself Pilots of the both the airlines went on Strike, which forestalled the airline’s cash making international operations.

A few others point out that Air India has had four chairmen in the last six years and they without biting the bullet on tough decisions did nothing to save the airline. It could be since they knew that if they take such decisions, they will be overruled by the Minister and may even be shunted out.

” How can you think of achieving success with such instability at the top,” asks Kapil Kaul, CEO-South Asia, Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation. Many more experts within the industry concur with the thought and so do other industrialists of the country.

The merger brought together two disparate entities and created a behemoth with 30,517 employees – 214 per plane may be the highest in the world. Moreover, the service qualities of the employees have been extremely poor. Recently it was observed that due to the employee’s delay in reporting on time; many international flights had to take off for their destinations after few hours delay.

The employees of the National airlines do not care to observe discipline since most of their appointments are results of political lobbying. Recently 17 airhostesses were suspended but again the management had to revoke their suspension under the pressure of their political bosses.

I have been globally travelling and have closely observed every modern airline’s operations while noticing the obsessive attention to pare costs by way of buying same type of aircrafts to reduce the maintenance cost. One- way airlines have successfully worked at eliminating such expenses without hurting the service experience.

After the merger, Air India continues with both Boeing and Airbus-made planes: the international operations are run mostly by wide-body Boeing 777 or Dreamliner jets, while domestic routes mostly use A320S. The result: high operations, maintenance, and manpower costs. Most of the aircrafts that were with the Indian Airlines have also been very old and demand high maintenance costs. In addition to this one has to have separate technical staff for each type of aircraft.

Air India was also hurt by the delay in integrating the two airline reservation systems due to commercial reasons as well as getting approval from the International association. A single system makes it easy to sell tickets, join alliances and ink code-share agreements. It took until February 2011 for a common reservation system to come up.

There are airlines that run successfully with two or more aircraft types. But India is a price-sensitive market, and a model built around a single aircraft is not as feasible here.

A 34-year-old man was arrested for allegedly posting an “abusive” comment against Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh Bhupesh Baghel on social media, police said Wednesday.

Lalit Yadav, a resident of Saragaon in Raipur district, was arrested Tuesday on charges of posting an “abusive and derogatory” comment against the Congress Chief Minister on his Facebook page, a senior police official said. A complaint about the post by Yadav, who works in a city hotel, was lodged by a Youth Congress worker, he said.

Yadav’s comment was in response to a Facebook post pertaining to a skywalk being constructed to facilitate movement of pedestrians between Jaistambh Chowk to Shastri Chowk areas in the state capital, the official said.

He was booked under relevant sections of the Information Technology (IT) Act and produced in a local court which sent him in judicial custody, he said. Further investigation is underway, the official added.

The construction of the skywalk started during the previous BJP government. After the Congress came to power in December last year, its government halted the skywalk’s construction. The Baghel government has now has sought public opinion on whether to complete the project or demolish the partially erected structure.