Message of the Ambassador

Ram Nath Kovind

President of IndiaNarendra Modi

Prime Minister of India

Dr. Deepak Mittal,

Ambassador of India

IT gives me immense pleasure to extend warm greetings and felicitations to the fellow India

citizens residing in the State of Qatar on the occasion of the 74th Independence Day of India.

I take this opportunity to also thank and express our deep appre-ciation to the Amir of the State of Qatar His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and the Gov-ernment of the State of Qatar for their continued patronage and sup-port to the Indian community living here.

India and Qatar enjoy very close, friendly and multifaceted relations. These are marked by very close and personal bonds of friend-ship between the leadership of the two countries. Regular high level bilateral exchanges have provided impetus to the our relations that are based on strong foundations of long standing cultural and people to people ties. The Indian community in Qatar has provided a solid bedrock in building these relations. I would like to thank and congratulate them for their continued hardwork with sincerity and dedication. Their professionalism conduct and law abiding nature is widely acknowledge and appreciated. It was a moment of pride to hear His Highness Amir’s very positive words for the Indian com-munity and their contribution in building Qatar when I presented by credentials a few days ago.

The Independence Day is a moment to rejoice and remember the free-dom fighters who contributed to the Indian freedom struggle. It is also a time to rededicate ourselves to the cause of continued development of our nation, work for building upon the idea of New India, and strengthen multifaceted partnership between India and Qatar.

Since our Independence we have made significant strides in achieving self sustenance in food production, becoming a economic power house and engine of growth in the world, breaking new frontiers in science and technology includ-ing space, atomic energy, information technology. Today, India has emerged as the start-up hub in the world. We are at the forefront of healthcare research and proven ourselves to be a dependable partner in global supply chain. In the past few years, India has made great gains in the areas of total financial inclu-sion, record housing and infra-construction, Ease of Doing Business, and bold tax reforms.

Over the past few months, we have all witnessed new and unprece-dented challenges posed by global pandemic. No part of the world has remained unaffected. Amidst one of the most trying times, India and its 1.3 billion citizens have demonstrated the resolve that we retain the ability to overcome challenges and convert them into opportunities. There is wide-spread appreciation of the leadership demonstrated by India in building regional and global partnerships for the benefit of the mankind. India not only worked to meet its domestic requirements, it also acted as responsible stakeholder in global health supply chains by ensuring timely access to essen-tial medicines and medical items to over 150 countries. TURN ON PAGE 4

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ACTING MANAGING EDITORMohammed Salim Mohamed

SUPPLEMENT COORDINATORMuhammad Shammas

COVER DESIGNJanish Edappattu

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFDr. Khalid Mubarak Al-Shafi

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India has accumulated the world’s fifth-largest foreign exchange reserves at more than $500 billion, making it a bright spot in an otherwise dismal

economy. The reserves were bolstered by a rare current-account surplus in the first quarter, a return of inflows into the

local stock market and foreign direct investment, including into a unit of Reli-ance Industries Ltd, India’s largest com-pany by revenue. That allowed the cen-tral bank to mop up close to $25 billion in foreign exchange to add to its reserves in the quarter through June, according

Some cheer for Indian economy

Message of the Ambassador

to analysts such as Anubhuti Sahay, chief India economist at Standard Chartered Plc in Mumbai.

A strong reserve buffer is a cushion against market volatility, and gives for-eign investors and credit rating compa-nies added comfort that the government can meet its debt obligations despite a deteriorating fiscal outlook and the econ-omy’s first likely contraction in more than four decades.

The following five charts take a deeper look at India’s external finances:

Bigger Pile: The level of reserves is enough to cover 13 months of imports and is equivalent to nearly a fifth of the country’s gross domestic product. It’s also the fifth-largest in the world after China, Japan, Switzerland and Russia, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Falling Imports: India’s trade gap nar-rowed to a 13-year low in May, as imports declined faster than exports. While the contraction reduces the need for dollars to fund purchases for now, it does high-light a worrying trend — that demand in the economy has been hit hard amid one of the world’s strictest pandemic lock-downs. As a growing and emerging mar-ket economy, India needs to import capi-tal goods and machinery to keep its indus-trial sector humming. Cheaper oil also helped lower the import bill.

On Balance: India’s current account, the broadest measure of trade in goods and services, is likely to remain in surplus in the April-June period, but a recovery in imports might tilt the balance for the full year. “Improvement in economic activ-ity over next few quarters is likely to push the current account back into deficit,” said Standard Chartered’s Sahay. “Lower com-modity prices and weak global demand

are likely to negatively affect remittances inflows and services exports, weighing further on the current account balance.”

Capital Flows: After outflows in March amid a global market sell-off, foreign investment into Indian stocks have picked up in the past two months as risk appe-tite returned. In addition, inflows have increased with the sale of stakes in blue-chip companies like Reliance, which divested from its Jio digital plat-form, and Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd.

Net FDI flows made up 51.7% of total capital flows in the year ended March 31, according to Deutsche Bank AG. “We expect similar trend in FY21 as well, with net FDI flows likely to account for nearly 65% of total capital inflows,” said Kaushik Das, chief India economist at Deutsche Bank in Mumbai.

External Debt: Data from the central bank show India’s external debt rose to $558.5 billion as of March 2020 from $474.4 billion five years ago. While the level has gone up, the ratio of foreign exchange reserves to overall debt has also risen to 85.5% from 72% in 2015.

The level of debt that foreigners are likely to hold, including sovereign bonds, is likely to go up as India works to open its debt market to non-residents. The country is aiming for a 7% weighting in indexes tracked by global investors, with an inclu-sion likely to attract billions of dollars.

Bloomberg

Prime Minister of India H E Shri Narendra Modi has launched a campaign for Aatma Nirabhar Bharat. It is about India contributing to the global revival and rejuvenation. As Prime Minister said, it would be “revival with care, revival with compassion, revival which is sustainable.” This merges the domestic production and consumption with the global supply chains. The Indians living around the world, including in Qatar, would have a significant role to play.

I would like to express deep appreciation for the Indian community in Qatar, who came together and worked tire-lessly to extend support to those in need at these times. I also would like to express our gratitude towards the Gov-ernment of the State of Qatar whose support helped us to

facilitate the return of stranded Indians.India attaches high priority and importance to fur-

ther strengthening our relations with the State of Qatar. We have strong partnership in energy sector which we would endeavour to develop into a comprehensive part-nership in a mutually beneficial manner. Our bilateral trade has seen significant growth in recent years. We would be working to give it more depth and diversity. The pursuit of mutually beneficial collaborations and investments in infrastructure, information technology, food security, energy security, tourism, defence, health-care, education would be further hastened. Last year, we had a very successful year of Indian culture in Qatar. We look forward to enhance contacts and connectivity between our people, develop synergies and harness the

full potential of our bilateral cooperation in coming years. The Indian Embassy remains committed to continue to

work for welfare and well-being of the Indian community in Qatar. Our outreach to the community and interface, espe-cially to the blue collar workers, will continue to be expanded.

In conclusion, I would like to convey that me and my family deeply appreciate the affection and support given to us as we moved to Qatar recently. We will return this in equal measure.

I once again congratulate all members of the Indian community on the 74th Independence Day and am confi-dent that you would continue to make positive contributions towards the development, progress and prosperity of our host country, and for further strengthening the bonds of friendship between India and Qatar.

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The Centre lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying his message at the India Global Week 2020

was ‘strong and clear’. Taking to micro-blogging site

Twitter, External Affairs Minister (EAM) Dr. S Jaishankar (pictured)

said that Atma Nirbhar Bharat merges domestic production and consumption with global supply chains. He added that it’s not about being self-contained or being closed to the world rather being self-sustaining and self-generating.

“Strong & clear message to the world today by PM Naren-dra Modi at IGW 2020. Atma Nir-bhar Bharat merges domestic production & consumption with global supply chains. It is not about being self-contained or being closed to the world. It is about being self-sustaining & self-generating,” tweeted Jaishankar.

PM Modi said that India will play a leading role in the global revival. Delivering the inaugural address on Day 1 of the event via virtual conference, the PM said: “In these times, it is natural to talk about revival. It is equally natural to link global revival and India. There is faith that the story of global revival will have India playing a leading role.”

PM Modi highlighted two

factors for India’s contribution to the global revival. The first is Indian talent and the second being India’s ability to “reform and rejuvenate”. “World over, you have seen the contribution of India’s talent-force. Who can forget the Indian tech industry and tech professionals! They have been showing the way for decades. India is a power-house of talent that is eager to

contribute. Indians are natural reformers! History has shown that India has overcome every challenge, be it social or eco-nomic,” the PM added.

PM Modi said that the gov-ernment is committed in its resolve to bring the economic growth back to track. “On the one hand, India is fighting a strong battle against the global pandemic. With an increased focus on people’s health, we are equally focussed on the health of the economy,” PM Modi said.

He added, “When India talks of revival it is: Revival with care, Revival with compassion, Revival which is sustainable- both for the environment and the econ-omy.” He said that in the last six years, India has made great gains in areas such as: total financial inclusion, record hous-ing and infra construction, Ease of Doing Business, bold tax reforms including the GST.

“Indians have the spirit to achieve what is believed to be impossible. No wonder that in India, we are already seeing green-shoots when it comes to economic recovery,” he said. The PM further said that India remains one of the most open economies in the world. “We are laying a red carpet for all global companies to come and estab-lish their presence in India. Very few countries will offer the kind of opportunities India does today,” he added.

PM Modi praised India’s Pharma industry for the role it has played during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The pandemic has once again shown that India’s Pharma industry is an asset not just for India but for the entire world. It has played a leading role in reducing the cost of medicines especially for developing coun-tries,” PM Modi said.

Atma Nirbhar Bharat is being self-sustaining and self-generating: EAM Dr. S Jaishankar

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The government has launched a new initiative ‘SWADES’ to conduct a skill mapping exercise of the Indian citi-zens returning from overseas under

the ‘Vande Bharat Mission’. SWADES (Skilled Workers Arrival Database for Employment Support) is aimed at mak-ing the best of skilled workforce return-ing to the country due to the ongoing pandemic.

“This is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Min-istry of External Affairs, which aims to cre-ate a database of qualified citizens based on their skill-sets and experience to tap into and fulfil the demand of Indian and foreign companies,” an official statement said

The collected information will be shared with the companies for suitable placement opportunities in the country. The returning citizens are required to fill up an online SWADES Skills Card. The card will facilitate a strategic framework to pro-vide the returning citizens with suitable employment opportunities through dis-cussions with key stakeholders including state governments, industry associations and employers.

Commenting on the collaboration, Mahendra Nath Pandey, Union Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneur-ship, said: “These are testing times and it is crucial that the entire country comes together and supports the Centre in its efforts to address the challenges posed by the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.” He said the data collected through SWADES Skill Card will help the citizens with job prospects and bridge the demand-supply gap.

“The spread of COVID-19 across the globe has had a significant economic impact with thousands of workers losing their jobs and hundreds of companies shutting down globally. Many of our citi-zens returning to the country through the Vande Bharat Mission of the Government of India may be facing uncertainty regard-ing their future employment opportuni-ties,” the statement said.

It said lakhs of citizens have registered at the various Indian missions requesting to return to the country and so far, more than 57,000 people have already returned to the country.

Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs, commented: “In view of the global emergency caused by the

unprecedented spread of the Novel Coro-navirus, we are committed to providing every possible support to our citizens stranded abroad and the challenges they are facing due to job losses. We shall actively promote the SWADES Skill Card initiative through our Embassies/ High Commissions/Consulates across different countries. The initiative will help in deploy-ment of returning Indian workforce matching their skill sets.”

The online form has been created to gather the required details of the return-ing citizens. The form contains details such as details related to the work sector, job title, employment, years of experience. A toll-free call centre facility has also been set up to support the citizens for any que-

ries related to filling the form.“The SWADES Skill Form (online) was

made live on May 30, 2020, and has gar-nered around 7,000 registrations till 3rd June 2020 (2pm). Amongst the data gath-ered so far, the top countries from where the citizens are returning are Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, UAE and Saudi Arabia,” the statement said.

As per the skill mapping, these citizens had been primarily employed in sectors such as oil and gas, construction, tourism and hospitality, automotive and aviation The data also suggests that the states which have shown highest returning labour are Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharash-tra, Karnataka and Telangana, said the official statement.

Recent Investments (April-July, 2020) 1. Company: Google Investment

Amount: $10bn2. Walmart

Investment Amount: $1.2bn3. Foxconn (Apple Inc. Supplier)

Investment Amount: $1bn.4. Facebook

Investment Amount: The world’s larg-est social media company invests $5.7bn in India’s Reliance Jio Platforms. It is Face-book’s biggest single investment in another company.

5. Qualcomm Ventures

Investment Amount: $97m.6. Thomson Investment

Amount: $142.8m.7. We Work Global

Investment Amount: $100m.8. Hitachi

Investment Amount: $15.9m.

9. Kia Motors

Investment Amount: $54m.10. Saudi Arabia’s PIF

Investment Amount: $1.6bn.11. Hyundai Mobis

Investment: Hyundai Mobis expands its technical centre in India to strengthen software development of future vehicles. Through this expansion, the company aims to strengthen its R&D activities in India, particularly software development for autonomous vehicles.

12. SGS

Investment: SGS is Amazon’s trusted partner in quality packaging and is one of the world’s leading inspection, verifi-cation, testing and certification company. The company opens its first accreditation testing lab in India along with labs in other parts of the world which are Cestas in Bordeaux, France and Appleton in the US.

13. Axtria

Investment: Axtria, a global leader in cloud software and data analytics for the life sciences commercial business, further expands its presence in India and opens its first delivery centre in south India.

The big data analytics and cloud soft-ware giant is creating new employment opportunities to meet increasing market demand in India.

14. f5

Investment: f5, a company providing solutions to App based platforms, opens its first centre in India. After successful launches in Sydney, Australia, and Hong Kong, it opens its first centre in India.

15. Tsuzuki

Investment: Tsuzuki one of the lead-ing Japanese electronics company, opens a brandnew plant at Reliance’s Model Eco-nomic Township in Jhajjar, Haryana, India.

16. Samsung

Investment: The South Korean giant now has started manufacturing their entire range of 18 smartwatches in India. The company which has its largest smart-phone manufacturing facility in Noida, has also launched a new 4G-enabled smart-watch that will be manufactured locally.

India emerges as the most favourable destination even in a pandemic

SWADES scheme: India to conduct skill mapping of returning citizensThis scheme has been launched under SWADES (Skilled Workers

Arrival Database for Employment Support) to conduct skill mapping

of citizens returning from overseas under Vande Bharat Mission to

create a database of qualified citizens which can be referred to by

Indian and foreign companies.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai on July 13 announced an investment of Rs75,000 crore (approximately $10bn) into India over the next

five to seven years through the ‘Google for India Digitization Fund’. The major investment is significant as it has come in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic and multinational compa-nies look across the world for alternative investment destinations.

Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi had also inter-acted with Google CEO, earlier on July 13, and discussed the range of subjects like data security, new work culture in coro-navirus times and cyber safety.

Sundar Pichai said the investment will be made through a mix of partnerships, equity investments, and operational infra-structure in ecosystem investments.

While talking about the technological growth in India, he added that when he was young, every piece of technology brought new opportunities to learn and grow and he always had to wait for it to

arrive from someplace else. But today people in India don’t have to wait for tech-nology to come to them. A whole new generation of technologies is happening in India first.

Sundar Pichai along with the Union Min-ister Ravi Shankar Prasad attended the sixth annual edition of Google for India. He added that the invest-ment is a reflection of our confidence in the future of India and its digital economy.

Google Investment will focus on four areas important to India’s digitization:

information to every Indian in their own language

that are deeply relevant to India’s unique needs

-tinue on digital transformation.

-ficial Intelligence for social good in areas like education, health, and agriculture.

Google to invest $10bn to boost digital economy

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Healthcare has become one of India’s largest sector, both in terms of revenue and employ-ment. Healthcare comprises

hospitals, medical devices, clinical trials, outsourcing, telemedicine, medical tour-ism, health insurance and medical equip-ment. The Indian healthcare sector is growing at a brisk pace due to its strengthening coverage, services and increasing expenditure by public as well private players.

Indian healthcare delivery system is categorised into two major components

- public and private. The Government, i.e. public healthcare system, comprises lim-ited secondary and tertiary care institutions in key cities and focuses on providing basic healthcare facilities in the form of primary healthcare centres (PHCs) in rural areas. The private sector provides majority of second-ary, tertiary, and quaternary care institu-tions with major concentration in metros and tier I and tier II cities.

India’s competitive advantage lies in its large pool of well-trained medical pro-fessionals. India is also cost competitive compared to its peers in Asia and West-ern countries. The cost of surgery in India is about one-tenth of that in the US or Western Europe. India ranks 145 among 195 countries in terms of quality and accessibility of healthcare.

MARKET SIZE

The healthcare market can increase three-fold to Rs8.6 trillion ($133.44bn) by 2022.

Indian medical tourism market is grow-ing at 18 percent y-o-y and is expected to reach $9bn by 2020. There is a significant scope for enhancing healthcare services considering that healthcare spending as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is rising. The Government’s expendi-ture on healthcare sector has grown to 1.6 percent of the GDP in FY20BE from 1.3 per-cent in FY16.

Health insurance is gaining momen-tum in India. Gross direct premium income underwritten by health insurance grew 17.16 per cent y-o-y to Rs 51,637.84 crore ($7.39bn) in FY20.

INVESTMENT

Hospitals and diagnostic centers attracted Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) worth $6.72bn between April 2000 and March 2020, according to the data released by Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). Some of the recent investments in the Indian healthcare industry are as follows:

In May 2020, Jubilant Generics Ltd

entered into a non-exclusive licencing agreement with US-based Gilead Sciences Inc to manufacture and sell the potential COVID-19 drug Remdesivir in 127 coun-tries, including India.

In May 2020, Carlyle Group acquired 74 percent stake in animal health focused pharmaceutical company, SeQuent Sci-entific Ltd, for about Rs 1,580 crore (US$224.15m).

In April 2020, first COVID-19 sample col-lection mobile lab of the country, namely ‘Mobile BSL-3 VRDL Lab’, was launched, which can process more than 1,000 sam-ples in a day and enhance country’s capa-bilities in fighting COVID-19.

The value of merger and acquisition (M&A) deals across hospitals jumped by a record 155 percent to Rs 7,615 crore (US$ 1.09bn) in FY19.

In August 2019, Microsoft India and Apollo Hospitals Group entered in agree-ment to set up a National Clinical Coordi-nation Committee for AI-powered Cardi-ovascular Disease Risk Score API.

In January 2019, National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) approved Tri-County Premier Hearing Services Inc’s planned to acquire Bhilai Scan and Research Pvt Ltd (BSR) Diagnostics Ltd for Rs 67 crore (US$ 9.29m).

India and Cuba signed a memoran-dum of understanding (MoU) to increase cooperation in the areas of health and medicine, according to Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

Fortis Healthcare approved the de-merger of its hospital business with Mani-pal Hospital Enterprises. TPG and Dr Ran-jan Pal could invest Rs 3,900 crore (US$ 602.41m) in Manipal Hospital Enterprise.

GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES

Some of the major initiatives taken by the Government of India to promote Indian healthcare industry are as follows:

In Union Budget 2020-21, Rs 35,600 crore (US$ 5.09bn) has been allocated for nutrition-related programmes.

The Government has announced Rs 69,000 crore (US$ 9.87bn) outlay for the health sector that is inclusive of Rs 6,400 crore (US$ 915.72 million) for PMJAY in Union Budget 2020-21.

The Government of India aims to increase healthcare spending to three percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2022.

In February 2019, the Government of India established a new All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at Manethi, District Rewari, Haryana at a cost of Rs 1,299 crore (US$ 180.04m).

The Union Cabinet approved setting up of National Nutrition Mission (NNM) with a threeyear budget of Rs 9,046 crore (US$ 1.29bn) to monitor, supervise, fix tar-gets and guide the nutrition related inter-ventions across ministries.

On September 23, 2018, Government of India launched Pradhan Mantri Jan Aro-gya Yojana (PMJAY), to provide health insurance worth Rs 500,000 (US$ 7,124.54) to over 100 million families every year.

In August 2018, the Government of India approved Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Mission as a centrally sponsored scheme contributed by both center and state Government at a ratio of 60:40 for all States, 90:10 for hilly Northeastern States and 60:40 for Union Territories with legislature. The center will contribute 100 per cent for Union Territories without legislature.

The Government of India launched Mission Indradhanush with an aim of improving coverage of immunisation in the country. It aimed to achieve atleast 90 per cent immunisation coverage by December 2018 and cover unvaccinated and partially vaccinated children in rural and urban areas of India.

ACHIEVEMENTS

Following are the achievements of the Government:

As of July 2019, around 125.7 million families enrolled as beneficiaries under Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY). The scheme enrolled 16,085 hospitals, including 8,059 private hospitals and 7,980 public hospitals. It included 19 AYUSH pack-ages in the treatment scheme.

As of September 2019, about 50 lakh people received free treatment under the Ayushman Bharat - Pradhan Mantri Jan

Arogya Yojana. The number medical colleges in India

increased to 529 in FY19 from 381 in FY13.According to Sample Registration Sys-

tem Bulletin-2016, India has registered a 26.9 per cent reduction in Maternal Mor-tality Ratio (MMR) since 2013.

ROAD AHEAD

India is a land full of opportunities for players in the medical devices industry. The country has also become one of the leading destinations for high-end diag-nostic services with tremendous capital investment for advanced diagnostic facil-ities, thus catering to a greater propor-tion of population. Besides, Indian medi-cal service consumers have become more conscious towards their healthcare upkeep.

Indian healthcare sector is much diver-sified and is full of opportunities in every segment, which includes providers, pay-ers, and medical technology. With the increase in the competition, businesses are looking to explore for the latest dynamics and trends which will have pos-itive impact on their business. The hospi-tal industry in India is forecast to increase to Rs 8.6 trillion (US$ 132.84 billion) by FY22 from Rs 4 trillion (US$ 61.79 billion) in FY17 at a CAGR of 16-17 per cent.

The Government of India is planning to increase public health spending to 2.5 per cent of the country’s GDP by 2025.

India’s competitive advantage also lies in the increased success rate of Indian companies in getting Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) approvals. India also offers vast opportunities in R&D as well as medical tourism.

To sum up, there are vast opportuni-ties for investment in healthcare infra-structure in both urban and rural India.

Healthcare Industry

The ban on TikTok is proving to be a ‘demonetisation moment’ for desi social apps like Chingari. Its co-founder Sumit Ghosh has had sleep-

less nights ever since the government banned 59 Chinese apps, including Tik-Tok. He is trying to find ways to equip the app so that it can handle the unprece-dented and sudden spike in traffic. Chin-gari is adding up to 600,000 users per hour, crossing a total user base of 7.5 million.

Ghosh said the app has a creation tool, which is as good as TikTok’s, hence a lot of influencers are moving to their platform. The idea behind starting Chingari, he says, is not to build a TikTok clone but to posi-tion itself as a super app for India like WeChat. “We just wanted to penetrate the market with short videos, which have already taken off in India. We are now work-ing on live streaming and chat functions, which will be rolled out soon,” said Ghosh.

The app, which also has a news fea-ture, is hoping to close a Series-A round of funding next week. Chingari has a reward point feature in which every time a content creator uploads a video, he earns points that can be encashed later through partner UPI platforms.

Experts say top content creators and influencers make between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 5 lakh per post on platforms like Tik-Tok, and such influencers can have at least four deals a month.

Sequoia-funded vlogging platform Trell has witnessed over 1 million downloads since the imposition of bans on the Chinese apps, while it has on-boarded nearly 150,000 content creators. The app’s users can share or view experiences and reviews in categories such as cooking, movie reviews, beauty, and skincare through videos of not more than five minutes.

“Content creators are going through disruption in terms of survival as the Chi-nese platforms, brand collaborations, and followers have vanished,” said Pulkit Agar-wal, cofounder, Trell. “We are working on a crowd-sourced repository of content creators, who have been affected, as they are trying their best to migrate followers to other platforms.”

The database of these content creators in India will be made public, and brands or other apps can get in touch with them. This is similar to a database created for laid-off employees, Agarwal added.

Inmobi-backed Roposo, which has wit-nessed 10 million downloads within 24 hours of the ban, is enhancing features

Chingari to Trell: Desi apps upbeat after India’s digital strike on China

Sudden rush to grab users

Chingari is working on live streaming and chat to be rolled out soonUserbase: 7.5 millionRoposo is adding new filters and edit-ing toolsUserbase: Nearly 100 million Trell is creating a crowd-sourced repository of content creatorsUserbase: 30 millionShareChat may work on product improvisation to increase user stickiness Userbase: 150 million

on its camera stack in terms of getting new filters and editing fitness start-ups for hosting Roposo on their platforms for marketing and contests,” said Mayank Bhangadia, founder, Roposo.

Unlike the Chinese apps, on Roposo, content creators receive a coin every time a user views their content that can be later exchanged for money.

Twitter-backed ShareChat claims to have recorded 500,000 downloads every hour to cross over 15 million downloads since the ban was announced. With this sudden growth, the company might work on product improvisation to increase user stickiness. The company is already play-ing with the idea of a TikTok like short video app called Moj, which is tailormade for Indian internet users. The app has seen over 10,000 downloads so far.

ShareChat, which had shared a con-frontational past with ByteDance, the owner of TikTok and Helo leading to court battles, has already seen more than 100,000 posts supporting the govern-ment’s move towards banning Chinese applications. “We invite creators across India to ShareChat and take part in the endless possibilities it offers. ShareChat plans to provide a fun and exciting expe-rience to creators promoting talent across the country,” said Farid Ahsan, chief oper-ating officer and co-founder, ShareChat.

Another homegrown app Khabri, which provides audio content to users, is giving monetary incentives to users through its Creators Programme at various levels. The app has seen a jump of 80 per cent in daily downloads after the ban on Chinese apps by Indian authorities.

While the Indian alternatives are see-ing a huge surge in usage, experts believe their dream run could be short-lived if the government decides to overturn the ban.

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Cartosat-3: India’s Earth observation

satellite launched successfully

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) launched Cartosat-3 satellite on November 27, 2019. The Cartosat-3 satel-lite was launched with help of PSLV-C47 from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota. PSLV-C47 was also carrying 13 American satellites to space. ISRO has cre-ated history for with launching of this sat-ellite as it is capable to take closest photo-graphs of any object from the space.

Cartosat-3 is equipped with high-res-olution imaging capacity. Cartosat-3 is a remote sensing or earth observational sat-ellite. This satellite will also help in moni-toring India’s borders and natural disas-ters. It will be placed in an orbit of 509 km at an inclination of 97.5 degrees.

Chandrayaan-2: Vikram couldn’t

land on the Moon but found unbroken

The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter found lying tilted on the surface of the Moon. Vikram Lander was crashed on the surface of the Moon about 500 meters away from its planned landing site.

According to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), the lander ‘Vikram’ was moving towards the south pole of the moon and was just a few sec-onds away from touching its surface when it lost contact with the ground when it was 2.1 km above the Moon.

Chandrayaan-2’s orbiter was placed about 100 km above the moon. The orbiter has eight payloads, three landers and two rovers. The orbiter will keep cir-cling the moon for a year. It will also take thermal images of the moon with the help of a high-resolution camera and will send it to ISRO’s mission control room on earth.

Gaganyaan Mission: Potential astro-

nauts to get training in Russia

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is gearing up for Gaganyaan Mis-sion after Chandrayaan-2. ISRO has been engaged in preparations on a war foot-ing note for its ambitious mission Gagan-yaan. This will be the first manned space mission of ISRO which is proposed to be launched by 2022.

The age limit for the selection of astro-nauts for Mission Gaganyaan was set at 30 years, but no one from this age group could clear the preliminary examination. After that, the age limit was increased to 41 years. At present, life support system, health moni-toring system and aircraft support system are being finalized in the spacecraft. In 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced about the Mission Gaganyaan from the ram-parts of the Red Fort.

ISRO to launch own space station by

2030

ISRO has decided to start work on a plan to establish India’s space station after the Gaganyaan mission. India will send astronauts to space for the first time by 2022 under the Gaganyaan mission. After that, by 2030, the space station will be prepared to launch. ISRO chief K Sivan said that our space station will be smaller than previous ones. We will launch a mod-ule. It will be used in the microgravity experiment. It will weigh about 20 tons.

ISRO will send this proposal for gov-ernment’s consent. It will take 5 to 7 years for completion. The US and Russia built the International Space Station (ISS) in 1998 as a joint project. China has launched two space stations Tiangong-1 and Tian-gong-2. International Space Station (ISS) is situated 400 kilometer above the Earth.

Govt approves the continuation of

GSLV Phase-4 programme

GSLV Program - Phase 4 will provide the capability to launch two-tonne satel-lites for geoimaging, navigation, data relay communication and space science. The fourth phase includes five GSLV flights during the period 2021-24. This mission will require a total fund of Rs.2729.13 crore, which includes 5 GSLV vehicles, increase in required facilities, program management and launch campaign costs.

It will help in critical satellite naviga-tion services, Indian manned space flight program and data relay communication-related satellites in relation to the next Mars mission. This will also ensure to con-tinue production at the domestic level. The GSLV continuation program was approved in 2003 and two phases have been completed. The third phase is in progress and expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2020-21.

ISRO launches ‘Young Scientists

Programme’ for students

The Indian Space Research Organiza-tion (ISRO) has started a special program called “Young Scientist Program” (Yuvika) for school children from this year. The objective of this program is mainly to impart basic knowledge on space tech-nology, space science and space applica-tions to the youth with the intention of arousing their interest in the emerging fields of space activities.

The selection of children will be done on the basis of their educational perform-ance and non-academic activities. Selec-tion of children from rural areas will be preferred in this program. ISRO Chairman K Sivan said, “Students will be taken to

the ISRO and Bengaluru facility centres. Apart from this, they will also be taken to the launch centre and lab of Sriharikota. Students will also be given the opportu-nity to make small satellites.

ISRO successfully launched elec-

tronic intelligence satellite ‘Emisat’

ISRO launched the electronic intelli-gence satellite, EMISAT, with the help of Indian Rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehi-cle (PSLV). EMISAT was launched for the Defense Research Development Organiza-tion (DRDO). EMISAT is also very important to keep an eye on movement at border. Its main objective is to monitor electronic or any kind of human activity on the border. Also, this satellite will monitor radar and sensors on the border.

This satellite will not only observe elec-tronic but also human activities across the border area. Earlier, ISRO launched Mic-rosat R for DRDO.

Communication Satellite GSAT-31

launched from French Guiana

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) successfully launched its 40th com-munication satellite GSAT-31 from the Space Center of French Guiana on Feb-ruary 5, 2019. According to the informa-tion released by ISRO, the age of the

satellite is 15 years. This satellite will help in operational services for some satellites inside the orbit and increase the capac-ity of Ku-band transponders in geosta-tionary orbit.

The satellite weighing 2,535 kg was launched from Kourou Launch Base in Guiana Space Center (CSG) via rocket Ari-ane-5 (VA 247). GSAT-31 will be used in VSAT networks, television uplinks, digital satellite news gathering, DTH television services, and cellular back hall connectiv-ity and among other services.

Human Space Flight Centre for

Gaganyaan Mission

ISRO has established India’s first human space flight centre at Bangalore. This centre will launch the first human space mission by the end of 2022. This human mission will include one women astronaut. The first unmanned mission will be sent in December 2020 and the second mission will be sent in 2022.

Human Space Flight Centre (HSFC) was inaugurated at Bangalore. S. Unnikrishnan is the founder-director of HSFC. Union Cabinet has already approved a budget of Rs. 9023 cr for this project. This centre will be responsible for the implementation of Gaganyaan project.

ISRO launched world’s smallest

Kalam SAT, Microsat-R satellites

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has placed the world’s lightest sat-ellite – Kalam SAT V2 in the Earth’s orbit. Along with this, the imaging satellite Micro-sat-R has also been sent into space. Both these satellites were launched through PSLV 44 launch vehicle from Satish Dha-wan Space Center in Sriharikota.

Kalam SAT was created by Space Kids India, a Chennai-based space education firm. This satellite will be used as a com-munication satellite of ham radio trans-mission (amateur radio transmission). Ham radio transmission refers to a form of wireless communication that is used in non-professional activities.

DRDO successfully tests-fires Astra

Missile

India successfully test-fired a short-range air-to-air missile Astra. The range of this missile is 25 to 40km. The weapon was tested using a booster engine. The missile was developed by the Defense Research Development Organization (DRDO).

The missile was developed keeping in mind the three-tier defence system for metropolitan cities after the 9/11 terror-ist attacks on America. India has now developed a state-of-the-art short-ranged missile after Russia and USA.

Science & Technology achievements in 2019

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REPUBLIC DAY CELEBRATIONS: The Ambas-sador hoisted National Flag to celebrate 71st Republic Day of India at the premises of the Embassy. Students from Indian schools sang national anthem and patriotic songs. The event was attended by over 700 people. A reception for the same was hosted by the Ambassador on 28th January, 2020 at Sheraton Hotel, Doha. The event was attended by H E Dr. Mohammed bin Abdulwahid Al Hamadi, Minis-ter of Education and Higher Education, H E Yusuf Bin Mohammed Al Uthman Fakhru, Minister of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs, H E Ibrahim Yusuf Fakhru, Director, Pro-tocol, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, members of the diplomatic corps and by over 800 mem-

bers of the expatriate and Indian commu-nity in Qatar.

More than 200 people benefited from a medical camp organised by Kerala expa-triate forum Adoor Association in Doha, recently. The camp was organised on the occasion of the 71st Republic Day of India, with the support of Aster Medical Centre in Doha. Indian Embassy First Secretary, Labour & Community Welfare, SRH Fahmi inaugurated the camp. Noted Indian film-maker Adoor Gopalakrishnan, who was in Doha for a short visit, paid a visit to the medical camp. He lauded the humanitar-ian services rendered by Indian expatriate associations for low-income workers.

Events by the Embassy

India’s Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas meets

Minister of State for Energy Affairs (January 28):

H E Saad bin Sherida Al Kaabi, the Minister of State for Energy Affairs, held talks in New Delhi with Dhar-mendra Pradhan, the Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Minister of Steel, India. Discussions during the meeting dealt with cooperation between Qatar and India in the energy field and means to enhance it. The discussions included separate meetings with Sanjiv Singh, the Chairman of the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), and Dr. Ashutosh Karnatak, the Chairman of the Gas Author-ity of India Limited (GAIL). Qatargas supplied a commis-sioning LNG cargo on the Q-Flex LNG vessel, Murwab to India’s newest LNG receiving terminal, Mundra on January 22, on the west coast of India.

Meeting of Qatar and Indian Industrial Security Agencies (Febru-

ary 2): A joint meeting of General Directorate of Industrial Security, Ministry of Interior, Qatar and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) in the Republic of India was held on February 2, 2020, at the Ministry of Interior. The meeting was chaired by LieutenantColonel Khalifa Mohamed Al-Attiyah, Director General of Industrial Security at the Ministry of Interior, while the delegation of the Indian Central Industrial Security Force was chaired by M A Ganapathy, Special Direc-tor-General, CISF, India.

The meeting focused on facilitating exchange of experiences in protecting oil installations between the two sides and exploring together the latest technologies in the field of securing vital installations.

Indian ministers holds talks with Defence Minister (February

4): Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held delegation-level talks with Qatar’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Defence Affairs H E Khalid bin Mohamed Al Attiyah during their visit to India on February 4 and discussed ways of ramping up India’s bilateral defence co operation with the two countries the two ministers reiterated their commitment to strengthen the bilateral defence cooperation, including defence industry relationship. The visiting minister inspected the Tri-Service Guard of Honour before his bilateral meeting.

The Qatari delegation also visited the DefExpo held in Uttar Pradesh’s capital Lucknow between February 5-9.

India-Qatar bilateral meetings

Qatar, India discuss air transport

ties (February 16): Pradeep Singh Kharola, Secretary of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India met H E Abdulla bin Nasser Turki Al Subaey, President of the Civil Avia-tion Authority and Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive H E Akbar Al Baker. During the meeting, they dis-cussed means of enhancing coop-eration in the field of air transport between the two countries. Air India started thrice-weekly operations on the Mumbai—Doha sector using the

state-of-the-art Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft with effect from February 21. Effective March 19, 2020 — Indian no-frills airline, GoAir strengthened its presence in the Gulf by launching new daily direct flight between Mumbai-Doha

India witnesses Afghan peace deal in Doha (Febru-

ary 29): India’s Ambassador to Qatar P Kumaran represented the country at the signing of the landmark peace. It was for the first time India officially attend an event involving the Tali-ban. Diplomats from a number of countries including Pakistan, Turkey and Indonesia were present during signing of the deal which marks end of the United States’’ war in Afghanistan since 2001.

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India at Doha Jewellery & Watches Exhibi-

tion (DJWE) 2020: For or the second consec-utive year, an Indian pavilion organised by the Gems & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), in collaboration with the Embassy of India, Qatar, was a part of the prestigious Doha Jewellery & Watches Exhibition (DJWE) 2020, held at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Centre (DECC) from February 24 to 29. The India Pavilion was inaugurated by DJWE brand ambassador and Bollywood star Sonam Kapoor in the presence of the Indian Ambassador P. Kumaran. The Indian pavilion featured 27 exhibitors and showcase a complete range of products including studded jewellery with stones like rubies, emeralds, sapphires and pearls; plain and handmade jewellery.

India–Qatar Trade meets

Qatar at Indus Food 2020 (February 1): A delegation led by the Indian Business and Professionals Council (IBPC Qatar) participated in the Indus Food 2020. A gala awards function was organised as part of the Indus Food 2020. IBPC Qatar was awarded as the Global Alliance Partner by the Trade Promotion Council of India. The del-egation of more than 17 Qatar-based companies includ-ing leading names like Ali Bin Ali received the award on behalf of IBPC Qatar from Mohit Singla, Chairman, Trade

Promotion Council of India. The Qatar delegation has also participated in the India-GCC busi-ness-to-business (B2B) conference and discussed ways of increasing the bilateral trade in the food and beverages sector with leading food suppliers and exporters from India.

Indians celebrate Qatar National Sport Day: Thousands of Indian expatri-ates celebrated the Qatar National Sport Day with great zeal by participating in programmes at Al Wakra Sports Club and Qatar Sports Club to mark the day. Indian Sports Centre, an apex body under the aegis of the Embassy of India in Qatar, organ-ised various sports activities at Asian Town. Indian Ambas-sador to Qatar P Kumaran played cricket with ISC officials and celebrated the Qatar National Sport Day. Tug of war competitions were organised for men at Asian Town, Industrial Area, mostly involving Indian workers.

Out of the 12 participating teams, Sports Association Kerala (SAK) Qatar emerged the winner and Doha Warriors were the runners-up. Indian Olym-pian Tintu Luka attended the other mega Indian community event organised by Kerala expatriate forum Chaliyar Doha at Al Wakra Sports Club. Luca inau-gurated the Sports Fest and released the Chaliyar Doha Sports Fest supple-ment handing it over to CM Haris, director of Secura Developers Pvt Ltd. Luka also accepted the guard of honor at the march past which was attended by 24 Panchayaths. More than 3,000 people gathered at the QSC to witness the concluding and prize distribution ceremony and cultural and musical perform-ances by prominent local artists and children. Also, about 300 people attended the Sports Day event organised by Kerala expatriate forum Enamakkal Ket-tungal Welfare Association (EKWA) at the American Academy School in Doha.

Other events

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International Yoga Day 2020: THE Science India Forum (SIF) Qatar, under the aegis of the Embassy of India, along with six major Indian community organisations, celebrated the International Yoga Day 2020 recently. The online event, which was coordinated by SIFQ and sup-ported by the Embassy of India, was held with support from Maharash-tra Mandal Qatar, Maharashtra Professional Forum, North Indian’s Asso-ciation, Rajasthan Parivar Qatar, Bharathi – an Indian Association of Al Khor Community and Samanvayam. Diligent planning and collaboration led to the participation of over 400 people, including 145 families.

Since its inception in 2015, International Yoga Day has entered its sixth year. This year, the theme was ‘Yoga at Home and Yoga with Fam-ily’ and was aptly displayed by all of the families who participated online. The event started with a message from the Indian Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi and was aired via live broadcast over social media channels. Following the Common Yoga Protocol issued by the Government of India’s AYUSH Ministry, the session was ingeniously conducted by Yoga Trainer Ashish Gahlawat (Embassy of India-Qatar). The attendees were delighted to take part in the event as it enhanced their knowledge of this ancient physical, mental and spiritual practice in India. With the extensive support of the Embassy of India, SIF-Qatar along with the var-ious community organisations was able to conduct the 6th International Yoga Day online successfully.

Also, the 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum (QOSM) held a live virtual yoga session on Sunday (June 21) to mark the International Yoga Day, catering for Qatar Museums (QM) Culture Pass members. In Qatar, 3-2-1 partnered with ‘Classtap’ to organise a live yoga routine, teaching basic poses, stretches and breathing exercises led by one of its instruc-tors on Instagram (321qosm). Indian schools like Noble International School (NIS) and DPS-MIS marked the 6th World Yoga Day by hosting 2-day online session adhering to the theme ‘Yoga at Home and Yoga with Family’. It is worth mentioning that given the current pandemic, the benefits offered by Yoga have become especially important for immu-nity enhancement and as a stress reliever.

Other events by the Embassy

The Department of Bio-technology under the Ministry of Science and Technology has cleared

the Genome India Project. It is a gene-mapping project involving 20 leading institutions including the Indian Institute of Science in Ben-galuru and a few Indian Institute of Technology. The project is said to be among the most significant of its kind in the world because of its scale and the diversity it would bring to genetic studies.

KEY POINTS

The first stage of the project will look at samples of 10,000 persons from all over the country to form a grid that will enable the develop-ment of a reference genome.

The Centre for Brain Research, which is an autonomous institute in the IISc, Bengaluru, will serve as the nodal point of the project.

SIGNIFICANCE:

The diverse genetic pool of India will be mapped and it will help in making personalised medicine. Today, the goal of personalized med-icine is to utilize information about

a person’s genes, including his or her nucleotide sequence, to make drugs better and safer.

It will be a hard task considering the population diversity and the dis-ease burden of complex disorders like diabetes, mental health, etc but once the genetic basis is ready it will be possible and easy to take action before the onset of a disease.

Mapping of India’s genetic land-scape is critical for next-generation medicine, agriculture and for biodi-versity management. The Govern-ment of India got inspiration from the Human Genome Project.

HUMAN GENOME PROJECT

It was an international research effort to determine the sequence of the human genome and iden-tify the genes that it contains.

It was a 13-year-long, publicly funded project that ended in 2003.

The HGP has revealed that there are probably about 20,500 human genes. This information can be thought of as the basic set of inheritable “instructions” for the development and function of a human being.

Genome India Project approved