Another year has passed under the shadow of new Corona virus, though there were good occasions to celebrate.
The business community, which was worried over continuous lockdown and heavy restrictions, carried out much better business after withdrawal of the lockdown. The jewellers, garment sellers made most of the opportunity. The automobile dealers had dull period, even during the important festivals, when heavy rush is experienced. Hotel industry, marriage hall owners, cinema theatres were the worst sufferers.
The educational institutions played open and shut game, with most of the time their shutters were down. The teachers worked extra time to plan on-line classes, the students, however, were reluctant in attending these classes. The impact was obvious. As reported a huge quantum of the school children lagged behind in Mathematics, which is considered to be a killer subject in important examinations. The results, however, at school and university levels were high beyond imagination.
The sports activities, which were almost closed at all levels, were opened in 2021 yielding better results. For cricket lovers Indian team’s success in Australia marked the beginning of the year and ended with historical win in South Africa on Centurian Park. India is the first Asian team to win on this ground.
Success in Tokyo Olympics (7 medals) and Paralympics (19 medals) was inspiring for the budding talent in the field. To add to it Malvika Bansod won the BAI Senior National Championship, to register her name for playing with India top players like PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal. Indian junior cricketers (Under-19) have entered finals of Asia Cup.
BJP candidate Chandrashekhar Bawankule emerged victorious in a one-sided election for Legislative Council. Although the result was expected, political moves made the election interesting, particularly when Congress changes its candidate a day before the polling.
Enquiry against former minister Anil Deshmukh in money laundering, his arrest, suspecting involvement of his sons, suspension of former Mumbai Police Commissioner Parambir Singh, arrest of another police officer Sachin Waze made political scene interesting.
Several raids by Enforcement Directorate, CBI and Income Tax departments on political and non-political persons shocked common persons.
Raids in connection with drug trafficking and alleged involvement of Aryan Khan and other prominent persons from film industry was chewed with great interest by the readers. This also followed a spate of levelling allegations against each other by political leaders. Minorities Minister Nawab Malik was prominent among them. Senior officer Sameer Wankhede and his family members were on the receiving end most of the time.
Nagpur, with the entire Nation mourned the accidental death of Gen Bipin Rawat, his wife and 13 other senior military officers in helicopter crash.
The shadow of COVID19 continued to hover over the nation. Vaccination campaign was undertaken in every part and despite hick-ups for a brief period, over one billion doses were administered. The nation also experienced spread of black fungus infection spreading fast. With relaxation in restrictions, people started neglecting the preventive measures even after facing heavy death toll during the second wave. Suddenly new variant Omicron posed a new challenge.
Work from Home became the new trend. Those who could do it saved their jobs, many others either continued working taking risk on their life. Many other, however, lost the jobs. Some of them adopted to new life style, like teachers started selling vegetables, pan shops shifted to sanitizer and mask dispensing. Those related to health services, other essential services, journalists had no alternative than to work. Many of them lost life.
Towards the fag end of the year strike by Resident Doctors and State Transport employees were experienced. Most of them suffered losses during the Corona pandemic and raised their voice for compensating those losses. The strike of State Transport employees is lingering for about two months. Efforts to resolve the issues of Resident Doctors are being made on an urgent basis, in view of fast spread of Omicron across the nation.
May 1- India receives the first batch of Sputnik-V vaccine
India received first batch of Sputnik-V vaccine today. The first batch arrives in Hyderabad from Russia.
Sputnik V through twitter informed that “First batch of #SputnikV vaccine arrives in Hyderabad, India! That’s the same day the country starts mass COVID vaccination drive covering its entire adult population. Let’s jointly defeat this pandemic. Together we are strongerâ€.
July 7- Legendary actor Dilip Kumar passes away at 98
Legendary actor Dilip Kumar passed away. He was 98. The actor was admitted to suburban Khar-based Hinduja Hospital, a non-COVID-19 facility, last week to address age-related ‘medical issues†days after being discharged from the same hospital.
July 24- Tokyo Olympics 2020- Mirabai Chanu wins first silver medal in weightlifting
A proud moment for India as Indian weightlifter Mirabai Chanu wins the country’s first medal in the ongoing Tokyo Olympics She became the first Indian to win a silver medal in weightlifting in the 49 kg category of Women’s Weightlifting event. The 26-year-old lifted 87kg in snatch and 115kg in the Clean and Jerk event and scored a total of 202 during her four successful attempts across the competition.
July 30 Lovlina Borgohain punches her way in semifinal in Tokyo Olympic
The 23-year-old Boxer Lovlina Borgohain secured the second medal for India at the ongoing Tokyo Olympics on Friday. Lovlina, taking part in her first Olympic Games out-punched Chinese Taipei’s Nien-Chin Chen to win the women’s Welter (64-69kg) last 8 bout via a split decision marking her entry in the semi-final at the Tokyo Games. She defeated NC Chen of Chinese Taipei 4-1 in the women’s boxing quarterfinals to assure a second Tokyo Olympic medal for India
July 31- Vandana Katariya first women hockey player to score hat-trick in Tokyo Olympics
The Women in Blue kept their qualification hopes alive with a 4-3 win against South Africa in their Pool A Women’s Hockey match on Saturday, at the ongoing Tokyo Olympics.
Vandana Katariya becomes the first Indian Women’s Hockey Player to score a hat-trick at the Olympics and helped the team to clinch 3 crucial points in the competition.
August 1- PV Sindhu clinch brown, creates history to win two individual Olympic medals
Indian ace shuttler PV Sindhu create history on Sunday as she defeated He Bing Jiao of China to become the first Indian woman to win two individual Olympic medals. Sindhu defeated He Bing Jiao 21-13 and 21-15 in the bronze medal match.
August 2- Indian women’s hockey team creates history at Tokyo Olympics
History was made on Monday during Indian women’s hockey team’s quarterfinal match against Australia as for the first time ever the Indian women’s team entered into the Olympic semifinal. Gurjit Kaur score from a penalty corner in the second quarter was enough for India to advance at the expense of three-time champions and world no.2 Australia. India put a resilient performance throughout the match and successfully defended nine penalty corners in the match.
August 5- Indian men’s Hockey team makes history, beats Germany at Tokyo Olympics
India sealed a 5-4 win against Germany in their men’s hockey bronze medal match at the ongoing Tokyo Olympics on Thursday.
Simranjeet Singh scored two goals for India at the Oi Hockey Stadium, along with Hardik Singh, Harmanpreet Singh and Rupinder Pal Singh also adding their names on the scoresheet. The win also helped the Indian men’s hockey team end their 41-year medal wait at the Olympics.
It is India’s third hockey bronze medal in the history of the Olympics. The other two came in 1968 Mexico City and the 1972 Munich Games.
August 7- India wins first GOLD in Tokyo Olympics 2020
The 23-year-old Neeraj Chopra made the nation proud by winning India’s first Gold medal in the men’s javelin throw final at the ongoing Tokyo Olympics 2020.
India’s biggest gold medal hope was finally achieved on August 7after a gap of twelve years.
This is the first time India won Gold in Javelin throw. He has become the first Indian athlete to win Gold ever. In the finals, he covered his highest of 87.58m (in the second of six attempts). After a hundred years-long wait, India got gold in athletics.
September 2- Actor Sidharth Shukla dies of heart attack
Popular television and film actor Sidharth Shukla, best known for his role in the long running TV show Balika Vadhu and as the winner of Bigg Boss 13, died on Thursday, an official at the Cooper Hospital here said. He was 40.
Sidharth Shukla suffered a massive heart attack in the morning, it is learnt. He is survived by his mother and two sisters. “He was brought dead to the hospital some time ago,†the senior Cooper Hospital official told.
September 3- Tokyo Paralympics: India brings home 19 medals
India has created history at the Tokyo Paralympics, returning home with as many as 19 medals, their best-ever tally in a single edition of the Paralympics by far.
With as many as 5 gold medals, 8 silver medals and 6 bronze medals, finishing inside the top 25 at the Para Games in the Japanese capital.
India’s tally of 19 is also the country’s best at a multi-spot world event, going past the tally of 13 registered at the Summer Youth Olympics in 2018. The record tally in Paralympics comes after the able-bodied athletes scripted history at the Tokyo Olympics, winning 7 medals, their best-ever tally at the Olympics. India finished inside the top 25 in the medal table at the Tokyo Paralympics, going past their previous-best by 15 medals.
Full list of India’s medalists from Tokyo Paralympics
§ Avani Lekhara – Gold – Women’s 10m Air Rifle Standing SH1
§ Pramod Bhagat – Gold – Men’s singles SL3 badminton
§ Krishna Nagar – Gold – Men’s singles SH6
badminton
§ Sumit Antil – Gold – Men’s Javelin Throw F64
§ Manish Narwal – Gold – Mixed 50m Pistol SH1
§ Bhavinaben Patel – Silver – Women’s Singles Class 4 Table Tennis
§ Singhraj – Silver – Mixed 50m Pistol SH1
§ Yogesh Kathuniya – Silver – Men’s Discus F56
§ Nishad Kumar – Silver – Men’s High Jump T47
§ Mariyappan Thangavelu – Silver – Men’s High Jump T63
§ Praveen Kumar – Silver – Men’s High Jump T64
§ Devendra Jhajharia – Silver – Men’s Javelin F46
§ Suhas Yathiraj – Silver – Men’s Singles Badminton SL4
§ Avani Lekhara – Bronze – Women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions SH1
§ Harvinder Singh – Bronze – Men’s Individual
Recurve Archery
§ Sharad Kumar-Bronze – Men’s High Jump T63
Sundar Singh Gurjar-Bronze- Men’s Javelin Throw F46
§ Manoj Sarkar – Bronze – Men’s Singles Badminton SL3
§ Singhraj – Bronze Men’s 10m Air Pistol SH1
Sport-wise tally of India’s medals at Tokyo
Paralympics
Athletics – 8
Shooting – 5
Badminton – 4
Archery – 1
Table Tenni – 1
September 24- Rohini shootout: 3, including gangster Jitender Gogi, killed as gunmen, police exchange fire
Two gunmen dressed as lawyers entered Delhi’s Rohini court and opened fire killing the Capital’s most wanted gangster Jitender Gogi. The police counter-fired in which the two gunmen died inside the court. The incident took place in Rohini court number 207 when Jitendra was presented before the judge. The sudden exchange of fire led to chaos and panic inside the court as it took place at a time when several sessions were going on and many people were present in the court. Gogi, the most wanted gangster in Delhi before Sandeep Kala, was arrested in March 2020.
October 6- WHO recommends groundbreaking malaria vaccine for children at risk
The World Health Organization (WHO) approved widespread use of the RTS,S/AS01 (RTS,S) malaria vaccine among children in sub-Saharan Africa and in other regions with moderate to high P. falciparum malaria transmission. The recommendation was based on results from an ongoing pilot programme in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi that has reached more than 800 000 children since 2019.
October 21- India scripts history, achieved ‘one billion’ Covid vaccine landmark
India has achieved a major milestone in vaccinating their citizens against the deadly Coronavirus.
India achieved a record of ‘one billion’, 100 crore COVID19 vaccinations in less than 10 months. In the last 24 hours 18,454 new cases were registered in the country. Recovery Rate currently at 98.15%; Highest since March 2020
With 17,561 recoveries in the last 24 hours, Total Recoveries to 3,34,95,808.
December 2- India’s first Omicron cases detected in Karnataka
Two men in Karnataka have tested positive for the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, the union health ministry said on Thursday. They are the country’s first cases of the new variant of concern.
December 30- India scripts history with their first-ever win at the Centurion.
The Indian cricket team romped to an impressive 113-run win in the 1st Test, taking a 1-0 lead in the three-match series and kick starting the South African tour on a winning note.