Indian man dies in UAE after sending his pregnant wife home for delivery
Dubai: A 28-year-old Indian engineer in Dubai, who supported his pregnant wife to file a petition in the Supreme Court of India for early repatriation from the UAE during the COVID-19 lockdown, has died in his sleep, a month after he sent her home from here, according to a media report on Monday.
Nithin Chandran, who is from Kerala, was under treatment for high blood pressure and a heart condition and is suspected to have died of a heart attack while asleep, his friends told Gulf News.
Chandran and his 27-year-old wife Athira Geetha Sreedharan, who is also a Keralite, were in news after pregnant Sreedharan filed a petition in the Supreme Court of India seeking help to return home for her delivery due in the first week of July, amidst the international travel lockdown imposed by India over the coronavirus pandemic.
Chandran had stayed back in Dubai after sending his wife home on the first day of repatriation from Dubai on May 7 under the Vande Bharat Mission.
"We got to know about this from one of his friends, Praveen, who had moved in to Nithin's apartment just a couple of days as he was alone after Athira went home," said Bibin Jacob, a friend of the deceased.
Though the case she filed had no desired impact, Sreedharan, an electronics and communication engineer with an IT equipment company, had managed to get a ticket on the first repatriation flight from Dubai to Kozhikode after the Consul General of India in Dubai Vipul gave high priority to her as she would not have been able to travel later due to the advanced stage of pregnancy, the report said.
"I am shocked to hear about the demise of Nithin whose wife is pregnant and was among the first one to be repatriated on Vande Bharat Mission," Vipul was quoted as saying by the Dubai-based newspaper.
"Nithin worked a lot for the community, especially arranging blood donation camps and volunteering during COVID situation. I give my sincere condolences to the family and hope that they are able to withstand this big and untimely loss," the official said.
The couple had been active in social service as members of the Blood Donors Kerala-UAE chapter and the youth wing of expat organisation Incas.
"His work had been hectic these days. He even discussed with me about resigning and going back home. But whenever he managed to get some time, he came for food kit distribution. He was one of our main coordinators for blood donation here," said Jacob.
Another friend said Chandran had been a pillar of a volunteering group called Emergency Team International in Kerala and continued to support its mobile blood donation drive during the pandemic.
"He had arranged some people to donate blood in his homwtown even today. He had helped save many lives in Kerala and here. It is very tragic that he died without getting help," the report said.
The body was shifted to Rashid Hospital from his apartment in International City for collecting the sample for COVID-19 test before shifting to the police mortuary, it said.
The coronavirus has infected over 70,00,000 people and killed more than 4,00,000 across the world. The US is the worst affected country with over 1.9 million cases and more than 1,10,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
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Kerala FM calls for unity among communities, refers to US tariffs in Budget speech
Thiruvananthapuram (PTI): The 2026-27 budget speech by Kerala Finance Minister K N Balagopal saw a call for "unity" among the various communities and highlighted global issues like the tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump and the incarceration of the Venezuelan President by him.
Balagopal said that "unity of Keralites" was the greatest treasure and the guarantee for the future growth and prosperity of the state.
It will help to attract foreign tourists, entrepreneurs and capital to our state, he said.
Balagopal said that the government has earmarked Rs 10 crore for a project to analytically record the history of the religious and cultural fraternity of Kerala so that people of "other lands" may also learn about it.
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It will also help to combat against the "highly venomous communal snakes" trying to destroy the unity of Kerala, he said.
"They have tried many times to poison the serenity of life in Kerala. We have so far been able to combat these poisonous elements by creating a defence of love and unity.
"But we have to realise that these venomous snakes spewing religious nationalism are not the ones who quickly admit defeat and retreat. We must see that they are active with new strategies to communally divide, polarise and subjugate the Keralites. The new strategy preached by ‘election experts’ is to stigmatise those who create the defence of public unity against communalism," Balagopal said.
He said that it was by recognising and respecting various religions and cultures that Kerala reached where it is now.
"Even in the legend of Lord Ayyappa and Vavar, there are yarns of religious harmony laced intricately together. This unity and fraternity may be astonishing to the people of many other lands.
"We have to take forward this historic fraternity of Kerala with more strength and spirit. History of the religious and cultural fraternity of Kerala has to be recorded analytically. The government intends to introduce a project for this, an amount of Rs 10 crore is earmarked for it."
Balagopal also referred to the tariff's imposed by Trump and said that his policies have created severe uncertainties in world trade and commerce.
"There is no doubt that this has adversely affected India and Kerala as well. It has also severely affected the export of our marine products," he said.
The minister further said that the central government yielding to Trump’s threats have adversely affected the state’s tax revenue.
"The details of the new free-trade agreement signed by India and the European economic community have not been revealed completely. However, there is a strong concern that this will have a negative impact on our dairy farmers and industries. In order to deal with the situation, we need to be prepared in advance," he said.
Balagopal, referring to the incarceration of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by the US, said the world was "rolling back from the democratic order" and it was quite "apprehensive".
"The incident that the head of a state is being arrested from the President's house by America and incarcerated by violating all international laws was very rare even in the dark eras of colonial rule.
"Such incidents are a warning to us as well. We, the Keralites should unite and move forward for the best interest of the state. We can overcome any crisis if we stand united for the interest of the state. Our history teaches us so. Let us uphold the interest of our state and move forward to the future, together," he said in his budget speech.
