ONN - Official News Network - More Religion Less Politics

01/10/2021

Reposted from National carrier Air India Limited, which has suffered losses every year since its merger with Indian Airlines in 2007-08 is set to return in hands of its founder Tata Group after 68 years.

A panel of ministers accepted a proposal from officials recommending the salt-to-software conglomerate ahead of an offer from Ajay Singh, promoter of India's airline operator Spicejet Ltd, the report said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has been pushing to sell its entire interest in the loss-making airline, kept aloft by a bailout since 2012. The government loses nearly 200 million rupees every day to run the national carrier, which has accumulated losses of over 700 billion rupees ($9.53 billion), officials have said.

An effort to auction a majority stake almost three years ago drew no bids, forcing the government to ease the terms. It had also extended the deadline multiple times due to the pandemic.

The airline was founded by JRD Tata in 1932 as ‘Tata airline’ and was renamed ‘Air India’ in July 1946. It was in July 1953 that the then-Nehru government forcefully took over a majority stake in the airline from Tata Sons.

01/06/2021

27/05/2021

Haryana Schools likely to reopen from June 1 for classes 9 to 12!

Haryana Government is likely to reopen the schools in the state for students of classes 9 to 12 from June 1. As per the last notice, the summer vacations are till May 31. SOPs have been issued as well.

16/05/2021

An Emotional Speech by the Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו, but at the end it is, "Glory to the God of Israel"

Let's read together:

Mr. Netanyahu said:
Only 70 years ago! The Jews were taken to slaughter like sheep.
🔵 60 years ago!
🔵 no country. No Army.
Seven Arab countries declared war on the small Jewish state, only a few hours after its creation!
🔵 we were 650,000 Jews against the many millions in the Arab world!
There was no strong IDF(Israel Defense Forces).
No powerful air force to save us but only brave Jewish people with nowhere else to go.
🔵Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia all attacked at the same time.
🔵the country that the United Nations gave us was a 65 % desert.
🔵 35 years ago! We fought the three most Powerful armies in the middle east, and we swept them in six days.
We fought against various coalitions of Arab countries, which had modern armies and many Soviet weapons, and we have always beaten them!
Today we have:
🔵 a State (Country)
🔵 an Army,
🔵 a Powerful Air Force,
🔵 A State-of-the-Art Economy with exports worth billions of dollars.
🔵 Intel - Microsoft - ibm & many high-tech companies develop cutting edge products in Israel
🔵 our doctors receive awards for medical research.
🔵 we make the desert bloom, and sell oranges, flowers and vegetables all over the world.
🔵 Israel has sent its own satellites into space!
🔵 three satellites at the same time!
🔵 We are proud to be at the same rank as:
🔵 The United States, which has 250 million inhabitants,
🔵 Russia, which has 200 million inhabitants,
🔵 China, which has 1.3 billion inhabitants;
🔵 Europeans - France, Great Britain, Germany - with 350 million inhabitants.
🔵 the only countries in the world to send objects into space!
🔵 and say that only 60 years ago,
🔵 we were led, ashamed and hopeless, to slaughter!
🔵 we have experienced the smoking ruins of Europe,
🔵 we have won our wars here in Israel with less than nothing
🔵 we built our little "Empire" from nothing.
Who's Hamas to scare me?
🔴 to terrify me?
🔴 you make me laugh!
🔴 Passover was celebrated;
Let's not forget what Passover is:
🔴 we survived Pharaoh,
🔴 we survived the Greeks,
🔴 we survived the Romans,
🔴 we survived the inquisition in Spain,
🔴 we have the pogroms in Russia,
🔴 we survived Hi**er,
🔴 we survived the Germans,
🔴 we survived the Holocaust,
🔴 we survived the armies of seven Arab countries,
🔴 we survived Saddam.
🔴 we will survive the enemies present
Think of any time in human history ⚠
Think about it, for us, the Jewish people,
🔷 the situation has never been better!
🔷 then let's face the world,
Let us remember:
🔶 all nations, empires or cultures
🔶 who once tried to destroy us,
🔶 no longer exist today - while we still live!
🔶 Egypt?
🔶 Babylon?
🔶 the Greeks?
🔶 Alexander of Macedonia?
🔶 The Romans? (does anyone still speak Latin these days? )
🔶 The Third Reich?
And look at us
🔵 The slaves of Egypt,
🔵 The People of Moses
🔵 The Nation of the Bible,
🔵 We are still here,
And Hebrew is still the official language of the State of Israel today:
🚩 from the time of the Bible and now!
🚩 Arabs don't know yet,
🚩 but they will learn that there is a God.
🚩 as long as we keep our identity, we are forever.
So forgive us for not worrying,
🔶 not to cry,
🔶 not to be afraid.
🔶 things are fine here.
🔶 they could certainly get better,
However:
🔴 Don't believe the media,
🔴 they don't tell you alot of good things about Israel
🔴 celebrations continue to take place in Israel,
🔴 people continue to live,
🔴 people keep coming out,
🔴 people continue to see friends.
Some claim our morale is low.
🔵 so what?
Only because we mourn our deaths while our enemies rejoice in the blood shed & war.
🔵 that is why we will win, in the end.
The God of Israel created the Heaven's and the Earth.
The Guardian of Israel never slumbers or sleep! The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Forward this speech to the whole community,
💙 and to people around the world.
💜 they are part of our strength
Share this Post with your family, friends and colleagues 💞

12/05/2021

Incredible India deserves respect!

The world media has been quick to judge India, a fascinating country in all ways, as it currently reels under the pandemic

India is in the middle of the pandemic second wave’s battering, as never seen before. As it battles the alarming spread of the virus, the world media has spared no time in lambasting a country of a whopping 1.4 billion where the sheer numbers make the implementation and success of any public scheme a challenge.

I have been visiting India for over a decade now and have travelled all over the country, especially Tamil Nadu which I consider my “spiritual home”. I have always had the highest respect for the leaders and public officials who are entrusted with the task of running such a diverse and vast country.

Wherever I went, the people greeted me with love and affection, for which I remain in their debt. I can proudly claim that I have seen India up close over the years and that is why my heart bleeds to see it not only in agony at the moment, but also for the bad press that has been hurled at it by those who I am not sure spend any time here to understand India, its people and their myriad challenges.

As a cricketer and lover of the game, I have maintained my association with the sport which has allowed me to come to India to cover the Indian Premier League (IPL). Many of my fellow countrymen have also been playing in the IPL for years. In this context, at a time when the world has been shutting doors on India and lambasting the Government, I thought of sharing my thoughts while in India, to give a perspective not available to those sitting thousands of miles away.

I am not a data person, but some of the figures I gathered from some of the media reports are astonishing. India has already vaccinated over 160 million people (five times the population of Australia) and has been conducting 1.3 million tests a day. The point I am making is not to overlook the sheer vast numbers and the challenges associated with it.

When one conjures up thoughts of India, a singular word comes to mind. Incredible; a word popularised by the Indian Tourism slogan, “Incredible India”. Even now, being caught in the political crossfire of the Scott Morrison Government’s decision to temporarily ban the travel to Australia, nothing has changed my mind about this ancient civilisation.

As of now, this heaving mass of humanity reels in the wake of the pandemic; the new normal replacing various religious festivals, exotic wedding celebrations, bustling streets jampacked with street vendors and livestock, all sadly — like the Morrison Government’s travel policy — temporarily put on hold.

Looking out the window of my room overlooking Bengaluru, a truss has been established; as if a siesta has been called in respect to health authorities’ call to action for our new global anthem: “Isolate, stay home, sanitise your hands, wear your mask, social distance.” A race busily running in the background, in many cases for life itself, as national resources like oxygen and critical medical supplies are being re-routed from manufacturing plants to hospitals and care facilities. The simple truth: The demand for basic medical facilities is making the supply look more like one of Usain Bolt’s competitors.

In short, hectic has been replaced with nervous. One can truly sense the fear and anxiety as India faces off against the challenges of this horrific pandemic. Begging the question, why is an Aussie ex-cricketer away from his beloved country and family at such a critical, even dangerous, time? On the surface is the commercial value for my family, having played and worked on every IPL since its conception in 2008.

It’s true, my remuneration is significant and, yes, it pays my family’s bills. More broadly, however, I have a deep connection to Mother India which docks into my life’s mission: To connect people and organisations on purpose and strategy. My purpose in supporting the IPL this season was to provide a welcome relief to the monotony of extended periods of partial or hard lockdown. Every evening from 6.30 pm, cricket lovers, and let me tell you there are a few, went online or turned on the television to watch their favourite franchise battle.

As a genuine lover of the game since I was four years old, my voice, full of excitement, helps narrate our great game by bringing an authentic positive view to the cricket community. Cricket, as so often throughout history, has been and is the silver lining to our COVID cloud. The cricketers, especially in the IPL, have understandably been soft targets of the media and, because of their contractual obligations, cannot defend themselves.

It makes all the more important for people such as me, who have once been in a similar situation but can now from the outside not only share a “player’s perspective” but also speak up for them. India is a rich civilisation which has very few parallels in the world and, in its hour of need, the least we can do is to appreciate its cultural, regional, linguistic, human development and other complexities before passing any judgement on it.

(The writer is a former Australian cricketer; Board Member, Australia India Council (DFAT) and the Goodwill Ambassador for India, Institute for Australia India Engagement. The views expressed are personal.)