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The Narcotics Control Bureau Mumbai Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede's tenure ends today, 31 December. Wankhede, a 2008-batch IRS officer had been on deputation with the NCB since September 2020. As he bids adieu to the NCB, here's a look at his tenure, which was marked with a series of controversies, including his public spat with Nationalist Congress Party leader Nawab Malik. Please read: Sameer Wankhede, top NCB officer behind Mumbai cruise drugs bust, has Bollywood connection of his own Aryan Khan arrest and drug investigation No case garnered as much attention as the arrest of Aryan Khan, the son of Shah Rukh Khan, in the drug raid. The case brought a lot of attention to Sameer Wankhede. It was him and his team that allegedly recovered drugs during a raid on a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast in October, following which Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan was arrested with seven others. During the course of the investigation, several allegations were le...

Countries are going into fresh curfews and restrictions are coming back again amid fresh surges under the shadow of the Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus. Public authorities everywhere are worried about health systems buckling under a load of severe cases, something that the likes of India especially can ill afford after the second wave in the middle of 2021 showed the kind of devastation that can occur if cases shoot up all of a sudden. But some have sought comfort in the theory that Omicron, even if more transmissible, causes a milder infection than the Delta variant. The view that the immune system — prepped via either recovery from infection, or vaccination — can tackle the new variant has found support in a South African study that credits T-cells with putting up a robust defence against Omicron. But what are T cells? What Has The Study Found? Researchers in South Africa, which was the first to report the emergence of a new variant with an unprecedented number of mutatio...

Tamil Nadu has had a very wet year and on the last day of 2021, the situation was no different as parts of Chennai and surrounding districts experienced very heavy rainfall , throwing life out of gear. The sudden heavy rains on Thursday left three people dead and several others stranded on arterial roads as a result of traffic congestion. After the downpour started to intensify, the India Meteorological Department issued a red alert warning to Chennai, Tiruvallur, Kanchipuram, and Chengalpattu districts. Take a look at the times when the city and the state experienced very heavy showers. December floods Parts of Chennai witnessed heavy rains on Thursday, 30 December. Popular weather blogger Pradeep John said that the rainfall was unprecedented with many areas like Nungambakkam, Mambalam and MRC Nagar receiving over 100 mm in a short span of time. Mylapore crosses 200 mm. One of the craziest spells of lifeime. Chennai City (Nunga) beats 2015 annual rainfall More clouds blooming ...

The fortunes of a country, organisation or team are often intertwined with that of the leader. The two are difficult to separate. By all counts, 2021 was one of the most trying years for India in a long time. For the prime minister, the de-facto CEO of the nation, too it was a tough year when nothing seemed to be going right. When we exited 2020, after the holocaust of COVID-19, we thought the worst was behind us. Little did we anticipate what 2021 had in store. But, looking back, if one were to draw up a “balanced score-card” shorn of bias and prejudice, India has fared well in comparison to the rest of the world. Therefore, it is also not surprising that, at the end of the day, Narendra Modi’s own ratings remain higher than his peers across the world — much to the frustration of his detractors both in politics and the civil society. However, this piece is not intended to be yet another Modi-Shah Nama. The more important question at this point is what we can expect in the year ahead ...

December 2021 witnessed the most horrific helicopter crash which claimed the life of the nation’s first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Bipin Rawat, alongside others. The last two months also saw growing terrorist incidents in the North East, including an ambush on an army convoy that claimed the life of a Commanding Officer of Assam Rifles, Colonel Viplav Tripathi, his family and four others. The ambush in Nagaland’s Mon district which resulted in 14 dead in early December only proved that peace in the North East is still some distance away and tactical errors could alienate society. These could also lead to increased demands for the abolition of AFSPA, which could push back gains made over the last few decades. In Jammu and Kashmir, while security forces achieve success regularly and the ceasefire continues to hold, targeting of innocents and unarmed police personnel continues. Protests during encounters to support trapped terrorists have almost ended. Infiltration has witnes...

Samsung will be continuing to seed its stable One UI 4 update to more of its devices. According to a report, the latest ones on the list to get the new update are the first-gen Galaxy Fold and Galaxy Note 10 series in both its 4G and 5G trims. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/3Hn6bY3

Tesla is recalling more than 475,000 of its Model 3 and Model S electric cars to address rear-view camera and trunk issues that increase the risk of crashing, the US road safety regulator said. from Gadgets 360

Heavy to very heavy rains pounded Chennai and the suburbs on Thursday, inundating roads and subways and three persons were killed in rain-related incidents. Three persons (two women and a boy) died of electrocution, Minister for Revenue and Disaster Management, KKSSR Ramachandran said. It was a repeat of scenes witnessed last month as motorists struggled to manoeuvre their vehicles on flooded roads and subways while showers led to traffic congestion in the city and suburbs. 😱😨 Shame on DMK Govt. #ChennaiRain #அட்டை_கத்தி_ஸ்டாலின் pic.twitter.com/IcYFoK8vbv — Ram Kashyap Rao (@SaketRam10) December 30, 2021 The intense spell may turn out to be one of the heaviest witnessed in recent years, while police said three subways were closed and in view of inundation and traffic moved at a snail's pace in at least 14 arterial city thoroughfares. Greater Chennai Corporation said that over 145 pumps were used to de-clog inundated locations. Metrorail authorities said services we...

Tesla is recalling more than 475,000 of its Model 3 and Model S electric cars to address rear-view camera and trunk issues that increase the risk of crashing, the US road safety regulator said. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/32NL02v

On Tuesday, while dedicating to the nation 24 new bridges and three new roads built by the Border Roads Organization in areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, Union defence minister Rajnath Singh said “in today’s uncertain environment, the possibility of any kind of conflict cannot be ruled out.”  His reference to China wasn’t to be missed. These infrastructural developments are mostly girding India’s border regions with Beijing. One of these roads, the Chisumle-Demchok Road in eastern Ladakh, the world’s highest motorable road, is built at an altitude of more than 19,000 feet. The Chinese have built so-called “civilian settlements” in the disputed region over which India also claims sovereign control, and Demchok has seen frequent clashes between troops in the past. In this regard, Singh’s pointed remarks are worth noting: “Infrastructure development in border areas also strengthens our strategic capabilities. As we mo...

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What can we say about 2021! The year gave us some moments that have changed the world for good, some for the better and some for the worse. As we turn the page of the calendar and make new resolutions (which shall be broken in no time at all), here's a look back at all the big stories that made 2021 the year it was. From Aryan Khan's arrest to the Uttarakhand floods, to Mamata Banerjee's resounding victory in Bengal, to the Punjab Congress drama, it's been a year we won't forget. While it may seem hard to believe that all this happened in 365 days, here’s our take, letter by letter, on everyone and everything that defined this year. A — Aryan Khan In October, Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan was arrested in connection to a drug bust aboard a cruise ship off the coast of Mumbai. The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) arrested him and he had to spend almost three weeks in Mumbai's Arthur Road jail. He was released on bail on 28 October. Please read: What Ary...