Dr. Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, also known as APJ Abdul Kalam, was an Indian scientist, visionary leader, and well-known figure. Investigate the life and achievements of this amazing person who left an everlasting effect on the nation and beyond.
From Humble Beginnings: Early Life and Education
Abdul Kalam’s journey began modestly, in a small hamlet in Tamil Nadu, India. Discover his formative years and the tenacity that spurred him to academic achievement and a career in aerospace engineering.
The Missile Man of India: Pioneering India’s Space and Defense Programs
Because of his important contributions to India’s missile and space projects, Abdul Kalam got the nickname “The Missile Man.” Discover his pivotal responsibilities in the successful creation of indigenous ballistic missiles and satellite launch vehicles, which boosted India’s strategic capabilities.
The Visionary Scientist: Bridging Science and Society
Aside from his technical accomplishments, Abdul Kalam was a fervent believer in the use of science and technology to benefit society. Examine his attempts to instill a scientific mindset in India’s youth and to foster innovation as a means of addressing societal concerns.
Wings of Fire: The Autobiography of APJ Abdul Kalam
“Wings of Fire” is Dr. Kalam’s autobiography, and it contains details about his life, views, and experiences. Explore the pages of this uplifting book, which tells the narrative of a man who dared to dream and achieved greatness despite all difficulties.
For Qatar, Rubin’s firm helped facilitate meetings with government officials and provide PR assistance, first representing them in 2021. The firm also subcontracts out work to a progressive Florida-based communications firm, Edge Communications. The decision to renew the contract with Rubin, Turnbull and Associates gave the Middle Eastern nation continued access to one of the Republican Party’s most powerful and ascendant officials. Under the contract, which was filed with the Department of Justice, Rubin’s firm, which also counts a former DeSantis staffer among its ranks, is charged with government relations, communications, and public affairs “to advance the mutual interests of Florida and the State of Qatar.”
Rubin, whose clients include the cruise company Carnival (Florida had sued the CDC over rules for cruises), Google, and Southwest Airlines, did not return a request for comment. He’s been an established figure of the state’s GOP politics, having been a longtime friend and adviser to Florida Sen. Rick Scott. Rubin and his wife also served as co-chairs of DeSantis’ first gubernatorial inauguration in 2019. Beyond Rubin, Heather Turnbull, the managing partner at Rubin, Turnbull and Associates, also served on the inaugural host committee.
Foreign governments — like businesses or advocacy groups — have long turned to well-connected operatives and advisers as a way to push their interests before the government. Now, as the Florida governor emerges as the most viable GOP presidential alternative to former President Donald Trump, foreign entities are maneuvering to make sure that they had a line into his camp.
While in Congress, DeSantis was an outspoken critic of Qatar, signing onto an inquiry regarding enforcement of Qatari-owned Al Jazeera under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. He also wrote on Twitter that he pressed the Qatari ambassador to the U.S. about the country’s “support for Iran and for the Muslim Brotherhood.”
In a statement, Qatar’s embassy maintained that the renewal of Rubin’s contract was simply a routine administrative matter and the timing was unrelated to the DeSantis presidential announcement or “any other political considerations.”
“The Embassy works with advisors in many parts of the United States as part of its diplomatic outreach mission,” the spokesperson, Ali Al-Ansari, said in an email. “Qatar’s principal interests in Florida involve expansion of bilateral trade and investment. Rubin, Turnbull assists the Embassy in promoting those interests.”
A spokesperson for DeSantis did not return requests for comment.
On April 12, the government of Japan inked a deal with the firm of Brian Ballard, a Florida lobbyist considered part of DeSantis’ inner circle. Ballard served as a co-chair of DeSantis’ inauguration earlier this year. His firm also represents Liberia, Guatemala, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (and represented Qatar years ago).
Less than two weeks later, DeSantis and his wife Casey DeSantis visited Japan, where he met with Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Japan’s Foreign Ministry released its own statements touting the visit.
In an interview, Ballard maintained that his work for Japan is bipartisan and for both Florida and Washington. He noted that DeSantis’ trip was already scheduled when his firm was brought on. However, a partner at the firm, Adrian Lukis, who served as DeSantis’ chief of staff, joined DeSantis on the trade mission, Ballard said. Lukis is a registered agent of Japan.
Ballard did not recall any government inquiring about DeSantis and said his firm recently interviewed with a “large country” that did not ask about DeSantis in the hiring process (he declined to name the country). But, Ballard conceded, there could be more business opportunities to come when a Republican nominee emerges.
“When there’s nominees in place, it probably is a very smart thing for forward thinking governments to do,” he said of foreign administrations hiring lobbyists to help them understand candidates for office.
Ballard has been through this cycle before. He began lobbying Washington at the beginning of Trump’s presidency, cashing in on his connections to Trump, who had few formal Washington ties or former staff who had spread out among the K Street crowd.
Ballard was among a small number of Trump-connected lobbyists who saw a boost in business years ago at the dawn of his presidency. After President Joe Biden won office in 2020, it fueled a similar rush of hirings. In fact, theGROUP DC — the firm where Joe Biden’s former director of legislative affairs Sudafi Henry is managing partner — registered to represent the Embassy of Japan in April, just days before the president announced his reelection campaign.
Guardrails exist to prevent foreign interference in U.S. elections, including a ban on foreign nationals giving to campaigns. The Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, compels lobbyists for foreign governments to make some of the details of their work public. Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort pleaded guilty for failing to register his work for the Ukrainian government under FARA, but he was ultimately pardoned by Trump.
More recently, the presidential campaign of Republican entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy employed consultants of the Saudi-funded LIV Golf. The campaign terminated those consultants after they filed as foreign agents.
The DeSantis orbit includes individuals who had previously worked on behalf of foreign entities but have, they said, since given up those clients.
Among those on that list is David Reaboi, a conservative personality who DeSantis’ team actively tried to recruit into his corner. His team hosted Reaboi and other influencers for an excursion that stopped at the governor’s office and mansion last year.
Reaboi has been registered as an agent of the Hungarian embassy since 2020. More recently, he has become a prolific pro-DeSantis commentator. However, he maintained to POLITICO that he has not done any work for Hungary since 2021, and even when he traveled to the country for CPAC about a year and a half ago, he had no contacts with government officials. Reaboi said he did not realize he had to file with the Department of Justice to terminate the relationship but he would do so.
Although she no longer represents the client, last year, DeSantis’ rapid response director Christina Pushaw back-registered as an agent of a Georgian and Ukrainian politician — Mikheil Saakashvili — for work between 2018 and 2020. Pushaw did so after being contacted by the Justice Department.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
In recent years, Georgetown and the Maryland Jesuits became an early example of an institution attempting to atone for its past in the slave trade. In 2019, the school announced it would provide preferential admissions to descendants of enslaved people, and its Jesuit operators announced millions in funding for racial reconciliation and education programs.
It’s uncertain whether last week’s Supreme Court decision overturning race-conscious affirmative action in college admissions will affect Georgetown’s program for descendants of enslaved people. Georgetown president John J. DeGioia wrote in a statement that the university was “deeply disappointed” in the decision, and that the university will“remain committed to our efforts to recruit, enroll, and support students from all backgrounds.”
As the college system braces for the fallout of that Supreme Court decision — and amid a simmering cultural debate about how, or even whether, to teach the kind of history Swarns has unearthed in schools — we had a wide-ranging discussion about book bans, the history of the Catholic Church (and her own connection to it) and the future of campus diversity.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Naranjo: Obviously the Catholic Church is not the only institution involved in slavery in the U.S. Do you think all institutions with a history of enslaving people have a duty to provide a full accounting of their involvement in doing so?
Swarns: You’re absolutely right. My book is about the Catholic Church and Georgetown University and their roots in slavery, but they are far from alone. Slavery drove the growth of many of our contemporary institutions — universities, religious institutions, banks, insurance companies. Many of those institutions are grappling with this history and I think it’s really important and urgent for them to do that work. I think it helps us understand more clearly how slavery shaped Americans, many American families and many of the institutions that are around us today. So to me, this is critical work.
Naranjo: I understand you are Catholic yourself. Has your personal relationship with the church been affected during your research?
Swarns: I had been writing about slavery and the legacy of slavery, and so I stumbled across the story in this book about the Catholic Church and Georgetown. But it just so happened that I also happen to be a Black, practicing Catholic, and when I first heard about this slave sale that prominent Catholic priests organized to help save Georgetown University, I was flabbergasted. I had never known that Catholic priests had participated in the American slave trade. I had never heard of Catholic priests enslaving people. I was really astounded, and I’ve been doing this research, going through archival records of the buying and selling of people by Catholic priests to sustain and help the church expand, even as I am going to Mass and doing all of that. And so it has been an interesting time for me because of that.
One of the things, though, that has been fascinating is that, as I tracked some of the people who had been enslaved and sold by the church, I learned that many of them — even after the Civil War, even after they were free people — they remained in the church that had betrayed them and sold them. And they remained in the church because they felt that the priests, the white sinful men who had sold them who had done these things, did not own this church. The church — God, the Holy Spirit, the Son — they did not control that. And their faith that had sustained them through all of this difficult period of enslavement continued to sustain them. And not only that, many of these individuals became lay leaders and some even became religious leaders in the church and worked to make the church more reflective of and responsive to Black Catholics and more true to its universal ideals. And so, in a strange way, learning that history, learning about these people and their endurance and their resilience and their commitment to their faith has been really inspiring to me. So, I’m still practicing, I’m still going to Mass.
Naranjo: As you note in the book, Catholicism in the U.S. has often been perceived as a Northern religion. And you show us how that’s not necessarily the case. But what do you think its role in enslaving people means for conversations about culpability and reparations, given that many people view slavery as a Southern thing?
Swarns: I think that explains a bit of the disconnect for people. Many of us as Americans view the Catholic Church as a Northern church, as an immigrant church. Growing up in New York City, that’s certainly the church that I knew. The truth is that the Catholic Church established its foothold in the British colonies and in the early United States and in Maryland, which was a slaveholding state and relied on slavery to help build the very underpinnings of the church. So the nation’s first Catholic institution of higher learning, Georgetown, first archdiocese, the first cathedral, priests who operated a plantation and enslaved and sold people established the first seminary. So this was foundational to the emergence of the Catholic Church in the United States, but it’s history that I certainly didn’t know and most Catholics don’t know. And most Americans don’t know.
In terms of grappling with this history, the institutions have taken a number of steps. Georgetown and the Jesuit order priests, who were the priests who established the early Catholic Church in the United States, they’ve apologized for their participation in slavery and the slave trade. Georgetown has offered preference in admissions to descendants of people who were enslaved by the church, and it’s created a fund — a $400,000 fund — which they’ve committed to raising annually to fund projects that will benefit descendants. They’ve also renamed buildings and created an institute to study slavery.
The Jesuits, for their part, partnered with descendants to create a foundation and committed to raising $100 million toward racial reconciliation projects and projects that would benefit descendants. So those are the steps that have been taken so far by the institutions that I write about in my book.
Descendants, I think, have different feelings about whether or not this is adequate, whether or not more should be done. Most of the people that I speak to believe that these are good first steps, but that more needs to be done.
Naranjo: In your reporting process, did you experience any pushback into looking into a history that maybe some would like to have forgotten?
Swarns: In this instance, I was dealing with institutions that were trying to be transparent and trying to address this history. For both institutions, I would say there are more records that I wish I had that I don’t have. And that’s often what we journalists encounter. And part of the challenge, frankly, beyond institutional willingness or unwillingness, is just the marginalization of enslaved people during our history. Enslaved people were barred by law and practice from learning to read and write. So the records that would give great insight into their lives, letters and journals that historians and writers used to document the lives of other people, say, in the 1800s, are really, really, really, really scarce. And so that’s an enormous challenge for anyone trying to unearth the lives of enslaved people.
Naranjo: I was reading the book last week, after the Supreme Court struck down race-based affirmative action in college admissions. Years before that, Georgetown had embarked on this process and, as noted in the book, implemented a program for preferential admission for descendants of people enslaved by its Jesuit founders. What responsibilities do you think institutions with similar histories of enslaving people have to descendants?
Swarns: Universities all across the country are obviously grappling with the implications of the Supreme Court’s affirmative action decision. More than 90 universities have already identified historic ties to slavery and have committed to addressing that history. There’s actually a consortium of universities studying slavery. And what the Supreme Court decision means for them and for their efforts, I think, remains uncertain.
Georgetown issued a statement last week like many universities did, saying that they remain committed to ensuring diversity on campus and valuing diversity. How this will all play out — I mean, I think we’re all going to have to wait and see. In terms of the responsibilities for universities that have identified their roots in slavery? I’m a journalist, so to me, I think it’s so important to document this history. To search in the archives, to make materials available and easily available to families to identify descendants. And to reach out and to work with descendants. I’m a journalist, I’m not a policymaker, and so there will be others who can hammer out what policies institutions feel are best and what policies that the descendants, if there are any identified, feel would be best. But for me as a journalist and as a professor, I feel the urgency of documenting this history and making sure that it is known. And collaborating with descendant communities, when those communities are identified, in terms of deciding on policies and programs.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
SRINAGAR: District Magistrate Poonch, Yasin M Choudhary has ordered an inquiry into the allegations of poor blacktopping work on two roads in the Poonch district.
Quoting an official, KNO reported that there were allegations of poor blacktopping on Chandak to Sathra and Bus stand Mandi to Shri Baba Budha Amarnath temple.
He said that the inquiry officer has been asked to submit a detailed inquiry report within fifteen days for further necessary action.
Locals had alleged that both these roads were blacktopped last year only and have turned dilapidated within less than a year allegedly due to poor quality work.
Additional District Development Commissioner Poonch, Malikzada Sheraz ul Haq has been appointed as inquiry officer and has been asked to submit a detailed inquiry report within 15 days.
Hyderabad: The Cyberabad police department has an accumulation of 820 abandoned / unclaimed automobiles of all sorts and makes, which are housed at the Moinabad PS Grounds in the Cyberabad Commissionerate in Hyderabad.
It is proposed that these cars be sold at public auction in accordance with Sections 6 (2) and 7 of the Cyberabad (Metropolitan area) Police Act, 2004, and Sections 40 and 41 of the Hyderabad City Police Act.
Anyone with an objection or ownership/hypothecation interest in any of these vehicles may file an application with the Commissioner of Police, Cyberabad Commissionerate, and claim the vehicle within 6 months of notification, after which the vehicles will be auctioned.
Vehicle details are accessible from N. Vishnu, MTO-2, Reserve Inspector Of Police, Cyberabad, cell no. 9490517317, and on the Cyberabad Police official website, www.cyberabadpolice.gov.in.
Srinagar, May 9: In order to avoid and stop theft incidents, police in Srinagar have advised people not to abandon their houses and refrain from keeping valuables in the house.
In some areas of Srinagar city, people claimed that thieves broke into their houses and looted cash and valuables when they were out to attend a marriage function.
To prevent such theft, police have advised people to safeguard their valuables and don’t keep cash and other valuables in the house when nobody remains present in the house.
A top police official told the news agency Kashmir News Trust that anti-social elements especially burglars keep an eye on those houses which remain locked and where family members go out to attend any function.
“It’s our responsibility to advise people to safeguard their valuables as a preventive measure,” he said adding that people should avail of the facilities of bank lockers, ATMs, debit and credit cards.
The official said that a slight negligence on their part will cost them their hard-earned money and ornaments.
He said people should help the police by cooperating to prevent thefts, especially those that occur during the day.
“People can keep a minimum amount at home since all banks provide facilities such as ATM’s and net banking which can be used for any transaction or transfers. They are reliable and convenient. Also, jewelry must be kept safe in the bank and only those required for daily use can be kept at home,” the official said adding that people should inform the concerned police station if they find suspects roaming in their areas. [KNT]
Abu Dhabi: An evacuation plane carrying 178 nationals from seven countries arrived in the UAE this afternoon from Sudan, which has experienced clashes since mid-April.
The plane carried the most vulnerable groups of the sick, children, the elderly, and women, as the UAE has placed them at the top of its priorities. Among those evacuated onboard the flight was a Sudanese child who was injured in ongoing clashes in Sudan and was transferred to Sheikh Khalifa Medical City in Abu Dhabi to receive the necessary medical care.
مقابلة مع مواطنة سودانية من ضيوف #دبي “وجدنا كل الترحاب في بلدنا الثاني في الإمارات ونشعر أننا في بلدنا هنا، وندعو أن تقف الحرب في السودان وأن يعود العالقين والنازحين” pic.twitter.com/oPVFmpkFGH
— Dubai Media Office (@DXBMediaOffice) May 7, 2023
In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MoFAIC) confirmed the success of the UAE evacuation operation as part of the country’s humanitarian efforts and commitment to strengthening international cooperation and solidarity. The Ministry underscored the continuation of the UAE’s humanitarian approach based on protecting civilians and extending a helping hand to countries in times of need.
The Ministry affirmed the UAE’s commitment to working with its partners and the international community to achieve all that serves the interests of the Sudanese people, stressing the importance of intensifying efforts aimed at a ceasefire, a return to the political framework and dialogue, and advancing in the transitional phase to reach the desired political stability and security in Sudan.
The UAE continues to provide services to various nationals during their evacuation and stay in the city of Port Sudan. Moreover, the UAE hosts hundreds of nationals from approximately 24 different nationalities evacuated to the UAE over five flights since 29th April, providing all necessary care services while they are in the UAE prior to returning to their home countries.
Ankara: With less than a week left for presidential and parliamentary elections in Turkiye, the country’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a mass rally in Istanbul on Sunday with at least 1.7 million people attending, Turkish News Agency Anadolu reported.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan hailed the massive crowd of people at the Istanbul rally and recalled his government’s achievements over the last 21 years.
The Turkish leader said his government had tripled the national income over the past 21 years, News Agency Anadolu reported.
İstanbul’umuzun 39 ilçesinden, her bir köşesinden Atatürk Havalimanı Millet Bahçesi’ne akın eden, sokaklara, yollara, caddelere sığmayan tüm kardeşlerime şükranlarımı sunuyorum. #Teşekkürlerİstanbul! 🇹🇷 pic.twitter.com/GJWdeOEPAc
“In 21 years, we have provided jobs and food to 21 million people added to our population. We built 10.5 million new houses in 21 years and provided families home,” he added.
He criticized the Turkish opposition over their inimical rhetoric on homegrown drones and combat drones and pledged to further enhance the country’s defence industry, News Agency Anadolu reported.
On energy, Erdogan recalled the billions of dollars worth of natural gas and oil reserves discovered in the Black Sea and Turkiye’s southern Gabar area that have been put at the disposal of the Turkish nation.
Erdogan also said his government is implementing the “Great Istanbul Tunnel Project,” which he said “will be the third tube to run through beneath the Sea of Marmara.”
“We are preparing Istanbul for the Century of Turkiye, and Istanbul will be the locomotive for the rise of the Century of Turkiye,” he added.
The elections in Turkiye will take place on May 14. On the presidential ballot, voters will choose between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, seeking reelection, leading opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu, Muharrem Ince, and Sinan Ogan, News Agency Anadolu reported.
Meanwhile, 24 political parties and 151 independent candidates are vying for seats in the 600-member Turkish parliament.
14 Mayıs’a giden yolda en büyük kucaklaşmamızı Atatürk Havalimanı Millet Bahçesi’nde gerçekleştirmemiz elbette tesadüf değildi. Dün İstanbul bir başka güzel, bir başka muhteşemdi.… pic.twitter.com/75FSiQTHSD
Hyderabad: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Mayawati on Sunday announced that party’s Telangana unit President and former IPS officer R.S. Praveen Kumar will be the chief ministerial candidate of the party.
Addressing a public meeting here, she declared that if the BSP is voted to power in Telangana, Praveen Kumar will be the Chief Minister.
She said after taking voluntary retirement from the Indian Police Service (IPS), he had been working with missionary zeal to strengthen the party in Telangana. She hoped that he would take very good care of people like the BSP did in Uttar Pradesh when it was in power.
Mayawati appealed to people to bring her party to power in Telangana in the elections scheduled in next few months and also give the most number of Lok Sabha seats from the state to the BSP in the elections to be held next year.
She said if SCs, STs, OBCs, Muslims and other minorities and other weaker sections want a life of dignity and want to liberate themselves from oppression, they should bring the BSP to power.
Taking a dig at Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao for his call for amending the Constitution, the BSP leader urged people to throw Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) out of power. She said the government which is talking of changing the Constitution drafted by Babasaheb Ambedkar, should be thrown out of power.
Mayawati did not agree that BSP is weakening in Uttar Pradesh. “You may be wondering why the BSP is weakening in Uttar Pradesh but it is not weakening. As long as elections were held with ballot paper, our party grew in popularity but when EVMs were introduced, we lost our votes due to manipulation in EVMs,” she claimed.
The BSP leader also alleged that in states where the BJP is growing strong, conspiracies are being hatched to split the votes of Dalits and weaker sections by floating smaller parties.
Mayawati also took potshots at Chief Minister KCR for trying to copy BSP to promise land for Dalits. “He promised 3 acres of free land but did not implement it,” she said.
She also alleged that for the sake of votes, KCR named the State Secretariat after Babasaheb Ambedkar government building and installed his tallest statue.
She recalled that when Telangana people were fighting for their own state, the BSP was the first party to raise its voice in Parliament in their support and it also supported the Bill brought in Parliament for creation of the state.
Mayawati said that the weaker sections, Dalits, tribals, backward, youth and unemployed in Telangana were hit by irregularities in recruitment. She alleged that the state government is trying to suppress the voice raised against these irregularities.
The BSP leader also questioned the silence of Chief Minister over the release of a convict in the murder of slain Dalit IAS officer G. Krishnaiah.
She was referring to the release ofAformer MP Anand Mohan Singh by the Bihar government.
The gangster-turned-politician, who had instigated the bureaucrat’s lynching in 1994 and was sentenced life imprisonment, was recently released from jail after Bihar government tweaked the rules.
Mayawati said BSP raised its voice against the release of the convict and demanded justice for the family of the slain officer.
Imphal: Army drones and helicopters kept a close watch on Manipur on Sunday as curfew was relaxed in some parts of the Northeastern state, which was rocked by ethnic violence over the last few days, officials said.
So far, 23,000 people have been rescued from the violence-hit areas and were moved to military garrisons, they said.
Personnel of the Army and Assam Rifles held flag marches as life started crawling back to somewhat normal, but the tension was palpable. Sources said around 10,000 security personnel have been deployed in the state, which has been on the boil since Wednesday.
Governor Anusuiya Uikey chaired a meeting with Security Advisor Kuldip Singh and Operational Commander Ashutosh Sinha.
At the meeting, the two officers shared their suggestions with the governor to resolve the crisis, said a statement issued by the Raj Bhavan.
Uikey advised the officers that arrangements be made for the safe return of the people who are in relief camps at present, it said.
The clashes broke out after a ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ was organised in the ten hill districts of the state to protest against the Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status, leading to the deaths of at least 54 people.
Meiteis account for about 53 per cent of Manipur’s population and live mostly in the Imphal valley. Tribals — Nagas and Kukis — constitute another 40 per cent of the population and live in the hill districts.
In Hyderabad, Union Minister for the Development of North Eastern Region G Kishan Reddy told PTI that the Centre was ready for talks with the warring groups in Manipur and resolve their issues.
“Please come forward to solve the issues in a peaceful manner. The government is ready. You have seen the farmers’ issue. When it was peaceful, we tried to convince them. As the issue was not resolved, we agreed to their demand, and those bills (three farm laws) were withdrawn. So, the government is not adamant,” he said.
He stressed that people’s welfare was the government’s main agenda, urging the different groups to come forward for talks.
Reddy said the government will take care of those who suffered losses due to violence, and order a comprehensive inquiry into the incident.
“If they have any problem, it is the responsibility of the state and central governments to resolve it. We should all maintain restraint. We should resolve the issues through discussions, and not through violence. Nothing can be achieved through violence,” he added.
As the situation was improving, the state Home Department directed the district magistrates and deputy commissioners to relax the curfew in parts of their districts from 1 pm to 3 pm every day, according to a notification.
The restrictions were relaxed in Churachandpur, which was the epicentre of the violence, from 7 am to 10 am on Sunday to allow people buy essential items such as food and medicines.
On Monday, the curfew will be relaxed in Imphal West district from 5 am to 8 pm.
“Imphal City is area where major markets, shops, godown, business entities, etc. are located which provides various essential items which will not only cater to the needs of the District population but also to the needs of the entire State (sic),” said the notification, reasoning the relaxation.
Over the last 24 hours, the Army significantly enhanced surveillance efforts through unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and helicopters within the Imphal Valley, a defence statement said in the morning.
Meanwhile, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) took various measures to help passengers at the Imphal airport, while the airlines have waived rescheduling and cancellation charges for flights operating here.
A total of 10,531 passengers have travelled via the Imphal airport, which handled 108 flights in the last few days.
Different states also continued rescuing their people from the state.
Andhra Pradesh rescued more than 100 students, while Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde said 22 students from the state were stuck in Manipur and arrangements were being made to bring them back home.
Tripura rescued 208 of its students and Nagaland evacuated 676 people from the violence-hit state. Sikkim also rescued 128 students.
