LEAD

On the eve of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first meeting with the political leadership of Jammu and Kashmir since abrogation of special status to the erstwhile state, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday held a meeting with senior party leaders, including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, to finalise the party's stand at the meeting.

While Congress leaders said former J&K chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, J&K Congress chief Ghulam Ahmed Mir and former deputy CM Tara Chand will attend the meeting with an “open mind”, as the government has not circulated any agenda, it is learnt that they will focus on restoration of full statehood for J&K.

The party’s representatives are unlikely to demand restoration of Article 370, it is learnt.

India gave out a record 8.3 million vaccine doses on Monday under a federal campaign to inoculate all adults for free after weeks of criticism that a chaotic rollout had worsened a second wave that killed hundreds of thousands.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the government would buy 75% of all vaccines from drug makers and distribute them for free to states, which along with private hospitals had earlier been buying shots for people aged 18-45.

India`s previous record of 4.5 million doses was on April 5, followed by a sharp decline with average daily inoculation falling below 3 million.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has been holding review meetings to assess the performance of ministries, on Sunday held another round of high-level meetings with his senior ministers.

Sources said Modi held meetings with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Sunday.

BJP General Secretary (Organisation) B L Santhosh was also present.

There is no official word on the issues discussed among the leaders.

New Delhi: If Covid-appropriate behaviour is not followed and crowding not prevented, the next wave of the viral infection can strike the country in the next six to eight weeks, AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria warned on Saturday. Until a sizeable number of the population are vaccinated, Covid-appropriate behaviour needs to be followed aggressively, he said and stressed on the need for stricter surveillance and area-specific lockdowns in case of a significant surge.

Guleria reiterated that till now, there is no evidence to suggest that children will be affected more in the next wave of the infection. Earlier, India's epidemiologists had indicated that a third wave of COVID-19 is inevitable and is likely to start from September-October. India was hit severely by a brutal second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in April and May, claiming a massive number of lives daily, with shortage in oxygen supply at various hospitals adding to the woes.

Indian representatives of microblogging platform Twitter appeared before the parliamentary panel chaired by Congress' Shashi Tharoor to discuss the issue of its guidelines and the misuse of its platform. During the deposition, Twitter India's public policy manager Shagufta Kamran and legal counsel Ayushi Kapoor represented Twitter before the panel.

During the meeting, the panel asked the company, if it follows the law or the land, to which a representative responded saying, "We follow our own policies," a news agency reported.