DailyOh! How Indian soldiers fought China in Galwan Valley on October 20 in 1962
China is at it again. After promising to work towards de-escalation of tensions, the Chinese have escalated tension by killing an Indian Army Colonel and two Army jawans in the Galwan Valley of the Ladakh region.
The Galwan sector has been on the Chinese radar since 1962. That’s when the war happened.
Early in the morning of October 20, 1962, Indian posts in the Galwan sector were struck by Chinese forces. India was a new country then and wasn’t prepared to deal with the dragon onslaught. Despite the odds, India offered stiff resistance for the next 24 hours. But our soldiers were outnumbered and lacking in firepower. As many as 36 of the 68 men across various posts in Galwan Valley were martyred. The rest managed to break out of the Chinese stronghold. They joined other Indian positions along across the Shyok-Galwan confluence. Want to know what happened next. Read this.
After the Line of Actual Control (LAC) was drawn in 1993, not much happened — until today. We trust the Indian armed forces to secure the borders. The best way for which is not war, but dialogue. Both sides say they want to keep the dialogue process going.
It is time, however, to look at those fighting the virus that China has unleashed upon the world.
One of those trying to control the spread of the virus in Delhi is Satyendar Jain. And Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain is not in good health. To find out what exactly is ailing him, Jain has been admitted to Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital. Is he Covid-19 positive? Only the test results can confirm that. The test has been done and now results are awaited.
Until the fever came and oxygen levels dropped, Jain had been meeting a lot of high-profile people, including Union Home Minister Amit Shah, to discuss the health of Delhi’s healthcare infrastructure. Jain’s test results would confirm who all need to be isolated or quarantined, but Covid-19 test results could take about 24 to 48 hours.
Soon, however, this waiting time for people could be cut down to as low as 30 minutes. The government’s apex research body, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), has cleared the way for the first rapid antigen-based testing kit for Covid-19. These tests cut down on time to get results because they do not need laboratory examinations of samples.
The antigen test can detect the presence of SARS-CoV-2 only from the swabs collected from your nose. The antigen test seeks to detect the virus rather than the antibodies produced by the body.
Now, India is still to become completely atmanirbhar. So until that happens, the antigen detecting kits developed by the South Korean company S D Biosensor. The good news is Biosensor’s manufacturing unit is in Gurugram’s Manesar.
You may ask what is the difference between RT-PCR test and antigen detection tests since both scan the swabs for the same thing – the virus. RT-PCR tests test both blood and nasal swabs, but the most significant difference between the two is time. RT-PCR test takes a minimum of 2-5 hours including the time taken for sample transportation. Antigen tests can do it in 30 minutes. RT-PCR tests are also laboratory-based, and pressure on laboratories is high so that it is taking days for results to be out.
For now, the antigen detection kit will be used only in containment zones, hotspots and healthcare settings.
An antigen, you can say, is the mother of antibodies. Only their relationship isn’t based on love. Antibodies are produced in the body to take on the antigen because the antigen wants to take on your body. Antigen, our Word Of The Day, is a foreign substance that induces an immune response in the body.
It finds its origin in the French word, antigène, where ‘anti’ means against, and gen means a "thing that produces or causes”. Antigen causes the production of antibodies. But antibodies may not always succeed in defeating the antigen. At least 10,000 people have so far not been able to beat the virus in India even as the number of positive cases has risen to over 3,45,000.
The impact of the virus is being felt all across, even the Oscars. The 93rd Academy Awards will now be held on April 25, 2021.
But this isn’t the first time Oscars are not being held when they were supposed to be held. This is the fourth time. Twice before this, it happened because of an assassination and an attempt at assassination - the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr in 1986 and the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan in 1981. But in 1938, it happened because of a natural disaster. You can say that coronavirus pandemic is also a natural disaster. Many say it is a manmade disaster like many say floods and droughts happen because of what man (also woman, and also those who feel neither like man or woman) does to the environment. The flood of 1938 ravaged Los Angeles, Orange, and riverside counties in southern California. Experts say it was caused due to two Pacific storms around February-March 1938. How much rain rained? One year’s worth of precipitation in just a matter of a few days. Over 115 people died. The loss to economy totalled up to about USD $1.42 billion (about Rs 108 billion or Rs 10,803 crore).
Now, Oscars have been cancelled but a lot is happening online. Things that can’t wait or things that can’t be postponed. You see people can still meet and talk over webcams. Also, they can meet and part. A Delhi couple did just that. They divorced each other over videoconferencing. If technology can unite, it can also divide. The couple may have differed over various issues, but the two consented on signing divorce papers. Now, there was no coming in contact even to sign papers because the two submitted soft copies of their signed statements.
Divorce rates in India are rising and before you blame the western decadence for it, just know that the highest number of divorces ironically happens in world’s honeymoon paradise - Maldives.
According to the United Nations, the average Maldivian woman, by the age of 30, has been divorced three times. The island nation has a divorce rate of 10.97, earning it recognition in the Guinness Book of Records.
Why is it so? It could be one or all of the following working together - the ease of getting a divorce, lack of childcare facilities and an increasing amount of women entering the workforce.
That will be all for today. We hope for the well-being of our soldiers at the border.
Will be back tomorrow with updates on that front.