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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday underlined the importance of precaution in his last “Mann ki Baat” broadcast of the year, urging people to remain vigilant against Covid-19 while noting that the virus was spreading in several countries.
Modi said that many people were on vacation or would go on one during Christmas and New Year, and advised them to follow protocols such as wearing masks and washing hands to ensure their celebrations were not dampened by the virus.
The Centre has stepped up measures, with cases on the rise particularly in China where the lifting of its zero-Covid policy has caused an outbreak. Modi has also chaired meetings and his government has written to the states to put in place adequate measures to deal with any spurt.
The PM said the outgoing year, 2022, had been inspirational to India in many ways.
India carved out a special place for itself in the world with its incredible vaccination doses of over 220 crore and the country becoming the fifth largest global economy, he said.
Modi also cited a Tata Memorial Centre’s research to assert that the country’s traditional methods like yoga and ayurveda were now standing up to the touchstone of evidence-based medicine of the modern era. Intensive research done by this centre had revealed that yoga was very effective for breast cancer patients, he said, noting that it is the first such study.
Lauding India’s feats in 2022, he said it attained the status of the world’s fifth largest economy, achieved the record-surpassing “incredible” figure of 220 crore Covid vaccine doses and crossed the “magical” export number of $400 billion.
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The country adopted and lived its resolution of “self-reliant India” and welcomed its first indigenous aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, while it also attained glory in space, drone and defence sectors in the year, he added.
Modi said, “In 2022, the strength of people of the country, their cooperation, their resolve, their vast success was of such magnitude that it would be difficult to include all of those in ‘Mann Ki Baat’.
2022 has indeed been very inspiring and wonderful in many ways.” India completed the 75th anniversary of its Independence in 2022 and “Amrit Kaal” also commenced as the country gained a new momentum, he asserted.
Even in the field of sports, be it the Commonwealth Games or the performance of the Indian women’s hockey team, our youth had shown tremendous potential, the PM said.
Extending the spirit of “Ek Bharat-Shreshtha Bharat” (one India, great India), many events were organised, he said,
citing the Madhavpur Mela in Gujarat and the Kashi-Tamil Sangamam in Varanasi.
“Who can forget the ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’ campaign organised in the month of August,” he said, adding that over six crore people posted selfies with the tricolour.
With India getting the presidency of the G-20 group, he said, the country had to take the enthusiasm around it to new heights and make this a mass movement in 2023.
Noting that India has eradicated diseases such as smallpox, polio and “Guinea worm”, he said the country was also near eliminating the disease of kala azar.
Till recently, it was affecting 50 districts across four states but is now confined to only four districts of Bihar and Jharkhand, he said.
With his government making cleaning the Ganges, a sacred river long marred by high level of pollution, one of its centrepiece initiatives under “Namami Gange” after coming to power in 2014, he said it was a matter of pride that this programme had been included by the United Nations among the world’s top 10 measures to restore the ecosystem.
In the broadcast, Modi greeted people on Christmas and for the upcoming New Year, and also paid tributes to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on his birth anniversary.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
