Vice Admiral SN Ghormade, AVSM, NM assumes charge as Vice Chief of the Naval Staff

 

Vice Admiral SN Ghormade, AVSM, NM assumes charge as Vice Chief of the Naval Staff

Posted On: 31 JUL 2021 1:06PM by PIB Delhi

Vice Admiral SN Ghormade, AVSM, NM has assumed charge as the Vice Chief of Naval Staff from Vice Admiral G Ashok Kumar, PVSM, AVSM, VSM, ADC at a formal ceremony held this morning at South Block, New Delhi. Vice Admiral G Ashok Kumar is retiring today after glorious service of 39 years.

Vice Admiral SN Ghormade is an alumni of the National Defence Academy (NDA), Khadakwasla, Naval Staff College at the United States Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island, and the Naval War College, Mumbai. The Flag Officer was commissioned in the Indian Navy on 01 Jan 1984 and is a Navigation and Direction specialist. The Flag Officer has had extensive operational tenures onboard frontline warships of the Indian Navy. During his career spanning over 37 years, he has been through a myriad of operational and staff appointments. His important operational appointments include Commands of Guided Missile Frigate INS Brahmaputra, Submarine Rescue Vessel INS Nireekshak, and Minesweeper INS Alleppey, and Second-in-Command of Guided Missile Frigate INS Ganga. INS Nireekshak was awarded the Unit Citation for the first time during his command.

His important staff appointments ashore include Assistant Chief of Personnel (Human Resources Development), Principal Director of Personnel, Director Naval Plans and Joint Director Naval Plans at Naval Headquarters as separate assignments, Director (Military Affairs) at the Ministry of External Affairs (Disarmament & International Security Affairs), Local Workup Team (West), and Instructor at the Navigation Direction School and the National Defence Academy. The officer also held the coveted appointments of Flag Officer Commanding Karnataka Naval Area and Flag Officer Commanding Maharashtra Naval Area.

In the rank of Vice Admiral he has held the challenging and coveted appointments of Director General Naval Operations, Chief of Staff Eastern Naval Command and Controller Personnel Services. The Flag Officer was holding the tri-service appointment of Deputy Chief (Operations & Training) at Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff prior taking over the present appointment as Vice Chief of the Naval Staff at IHQ MoD(N).

The Flag officer was awarded the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal on 26 Jan 17 and Nausena Medal in 2007 by the President of India, and Commendation by the Chief of the Naval Staff in 2000.

He has succeeded Vice Admiral G Ashok Kumar who retires after more than 39 years of illustrious service on 31 Jul 21. During his tenure as VCNS, the Navy saw an increase in budget allocation with 100% utilisation of allocated budget with impetus on capital acquisition. He proactively pushed for adopting ‘AtmaNirbhar Bharat’ Mission with Navy allocating more than 2/3rd of capital procurement from indigenous sources, 39 out of 41 ships and submarines for Indian Navy are being constructed in Indian Shipyards. The first ever procurement case under the Strategic Partnership Model for Project 75(I) was successfully progressed for issuance of RFP during his tenure. Many other instances of technological advancements, capability enhancements and research and development projects with DRDO and DPSU were progressed during his illustrious tenure.

Vice Admiral SN Ghormade, AVSM, NM assumes charge as Vice Chief of the Naval Staff







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Centre Reviews COVID-19 Situation in 10 States showing an Upsurge in COVID Cases and Positivity

 

Centre Reviews COVID-19 Situation in 10 States showing an Upsurge in COVID Cases and Positivity

Centre Reviews COVID-19 Situation in 10 States showing an Upsurge in COVID Cases and Positivity




In districts with more than 10% positivity, strict restrictions advised to prevent crowds and intermingling of people

Testing to be ramped up along with Vaccination Saturation in Targeted Districts for vulnerable groups

2nd Vaccine Dose coverage to be given priority

Effective and Regular Monitoring of Home Isolated persons to prevent spread of infection

Encourage Private Hospitals to set up Oxygen PSA Plants

Posted On: 31 JUL 2021 2:33PM by PIB Delhi

Shri Rajesh Bhushan, Union Health Secretary chaired a high-level meeting today to review the COVID-19 situation in 10 states of Kerala, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Assam, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Andhra Pradesh and Manipur. The public health measures taken for surveillance, containment and management of COVID19 by the health authorities in these states were also reviewed. These States are either reporting a rise in new daily COVID cases or a rise in positivity. Dr Balram Bhargava, DG ICMR and Secretary (DHR) was also present. Principal Secretary (Health), Mission Director (NHM), State Surveillance Officer of all these states participated in the review meeting.

Union Secretary for Health and Family Welfare underlined the critical COVID control and management strategies as below:

  1. All districts reporting positivity rate more than 10% in the last few weeks need to consider strict restrictions to prevent/curtail movement of people, formation of crowds and intermingling of people to prevent spread of infection. It was forcefully underlined that any laxity at this stage will result in deterioration of the situation in these districts.
  2. More than 80% active cases in these states are reported to be in home isolation. There is need to effectively and strictly monitor these cases so that they are not intermingling and circulating in their neighborhoods, community, village, mohalla, ward etc., and spreading the infection.
  3. The people in home isolation should be effectively monitored in such a manner to ensure that those who require hospitalization are seamlessly transferred for timely clinical treatment. Detailed SOPs covering various facets of effective clinical management of COVID19 patients in hospitals have been earlier shared with the States for prompt shifting and effective hospital management.
  4. States also to focus on those districts where the positivity rate is less than 10%, so as to protect these districts and the populations by focusing on saturation of vaccination in these districts. Union Health Ministry provides advance visibility on a fortnightly basis to enable the states to plan their vaccination schedules in an effective manner. States were again informed that this quantum of vaccine doses indicates the minimum possible allocation by the Centre to the States; quantum  more than this is usually delivered by the Union Health Ministry to States based on their consumption.
  5. In the last two months, the Union Government has been supporting States by providing oxygen concentrators, oxygen cylinders and PSA plants. In addition to this, States are using their own resources to put up PSA plants in government hospitals. States were advised to direct private hospitals to put up hospital-based PSA plants. States have been advised earlier regarding this in the past two months. Provisions under the Clinical Establishment Act enable States to issue such direction to the private hospitals. For states which have already issued such directions, they were advised to review the status and facilitate the private hospitals further.

DG, ICMR warned against any complacency with around 40,000 cases being reported daily since the preceding weeks. Highlighting the fact that 46 districts are showing more than 10% positivity while another 53 districts are showing a positivity between 5%-10%, he urged the States to ramp up their testing. States have been advised to conduct their own state level sero-surveys for district-wise disease prevalence data, as the national level sero-prevalence survey was heterogeneous in nature, in collaboration with ICMR to ensure the same sturdy protocols of survey. He advised the States to ramp up vaccination in the 60+ and 45-60 age categories as evidence shows near 80% of the mortality is from these vulnerable age-groups. Regarding enforcement measures, he advised the State authorities for avoiding all non-essential travel and to discourage all large gatherings of crowds.

Through a detailed presentation, a granular analysis of the highly affected districts (Districts of Concern) in these states, COVID-19 Vaccination Coverage, Status of Ventilators, PSA Plants, Oxygen Cylinders and Concentrators along with some key statistics was presented.

States were asked to use the INSACOG laboratory network for genomic surveillance to screen International Travelers (for the entry of new variants/mutants in India from other countries), monitor ongoing surveillance through Sentinel Sites (RT-PCR labs or secondary & tertiary care hospitals managing COVID cases) and surge surveillance.

States were advised to:

  • Undertake intensive containment and active surveillance in clusters reporting higher cases.
  • Define containment zones, based on mapping of cases and contacts traced.
  • Undertake regular reviews and follow-up for implementation of ECRP-II with a focus on augmentation of existing health infrastructure particularly in rural areas and paediatric cases.
  • Report death count as per ICMR guidelines.
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LT GEN TARUN KUMAR CHAWLA TAKES OVER AS DIRECTOR GENERAL OF ARTILLERY

 

LT GEN TARUN KUMAR CHAWLA TAKES OVER AS DIRECTOR GENERAL OF ARTILLERY

Posted On: 31 JUL 2021 2:22PM by PIB Delhi
LT GEN TARUN KUMAR CHAWLA TAKES OVER AS DIRECTOR GENERAL OF ARTILLERY

Lt Gen Tarun Kumar Chawla, AVSM will assume the appointment of the Director General of Artillery on 01 August 2021. He takes over the appointment from Lt Gen K Ravi Prasad, PVSM, VSM who superannuated on 31 July 2021 after completing thirty nine years of distinguished service in the Army.

The General officer is an alumnus of St Thomas High School, Dehradun and National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla. He was commissioned into a Field Regiment of Artillery in June 1984 and has served across a wide spectrum of terrain profiles and tenanted a host of command, staff and instructional appointments. He commanded an Artillery Regiment both in the Western and Eastern sectors. He has commanded an Artillery Brigade on the Line of Control and later an Artillery Division in the Western Theatre.

An alumnus of the Defence Services Staff College Wellington, College of Defence Management Secunderabad and National Defence College New Delhi, he has held prestigious staff appointments at the Military Secretary branch, erstwhile Perspective (now Strategic) Planning directorate, Infantry Division in the Northern sector and finally at the Financial Planning branch, where he was the Director General. He has been an instructor in the School of Artillery Deolali and College of Defence Management Secunderabad, apart from tenanting a staff appointment at the Defence Services Staff College Wellington.

The General officer served as a Military Observer at the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL). His civil qualifications include dual Master degree in Defence & Strategic Studies and Weapon Systems and a Master of Philosophy degree in Defence and Strategic Studies.

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