President Kovind to visit Greece, Suriname, Cuba
New Delhi, June 12: President Ram Nath Kovind will embark on an eight-day, three-nation tour from June 16 that will see him going to Greece, Suriname and Cuba, it was announced on Tuesday.
Briefing the media here, Subrata Bhattacharjee, Joint Secretary, Central Europe, in the External Affairs Ministry, said that Kovind will reach Greece on June 16 at the invitation of Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulus.
He will hold a meeting with Pavlopoulus as well as with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Leader of the Opposition Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Kovind will also meet Indian and Greek CEOs and deliver a speech on "India and Europe in a Changing World" at the Hellenic Foundation for Europe and Foreign Policy, a leading Greek think tank.
According to Bhattacharjee, India-Greece bilateral trade stands at $530 million and some Indian companies are also present in the infrastructure, pharmaceutical and steel sectors in that central European nation.
With Greece being home to a 12,000-strong Indian diaspora, Kovind will also interact with members of the community.
From Greece, Kovind will leave for Suriname on June 19 in what will be the first ever visit by an Indian head of state to the South American nation.
Partha Satpathy, Joint Secretary (Latin America and Caribbean), said that Kovind's visits to Suriname and Cuba are a reflection of New Delhi giving more importance from this year to ties with Latin America.
Last month, Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu visited Guatemala, Panama and Peru.
While in Suriname at the invitation of President Desi Bouterse, following official talks, some agreements are expected to be signed, including on health and information technology. India will offer some lines of credit as part of development assistance.
With 37 per cent of Suriname's population being people of Indian origin, Kovind will also lay the foundation of a Vivekananda Cultural Centre.
Most of these Indian-origin people are descendants of indentured labour brought to work in sugarcane plantations, the first batch of whom arrived in 1873.
On June 21, Kovind will participate in activities as part of the International Yoga Day.
From Suriname, he and his delegation will leave for Cuba which again will be the first ever presidential visit from India to the Caribbean island country.
Satpathy said that both India and Cuba are important partners in the global South-South cooperation.
He said that Kovind will interact with Cuba's new leadership under President Miguel Diaz-Canel.
Four agreements are expected to be signed, including in the areas of biotechnology and traditional and alternative systems of medicine.
Kovind will conclude his visit on June 23.
According to Press Secretary to the President Ashok Malik, this will be Kovind's fourth and last foreign visit in the first year of his presidency. In all, he will have visited 10 countries.
During the visit, the President will be accompanied by Minister of State for Steel Vishnu Deo Sai, two members of the Lok Sabha, Dinesh Kashyap and Nityanand Rai, and senior officials.
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Jhansi fire: Nurse's heroic efforts helped save over dozen babies
Lucknow/Jhansi (UP), Nov 17: Nurse Megha James was on duty when the fire broke out at the Jhansi hospital and she threw herself headlong into the rescue efforts, playing a hero's role by saving several babies.
Even when her salwar got burned, she refused to give up and was able to evacuate 14-15 babies with others' help.
"I had gone to take a syringe to give an injection to a child. When I came back, I saw that the (oxygen) concentrator had caught fire. I called the ward boy, who came with the fire extinguisher and tried to put it out. But by then, the fire had spread," James said.
Ten babies perished in a fire that broke out at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical College in Jhansi Friday night.
Faced with an enormous blaze, James's mind worked with a frenetic speed, to the extent she cared little about burning herself.
"My chappal caught fire and I burned my foot. Then my salwar caught fire. I removed my salwar and discarded it. At that time, my mind was virtually not working," she told PTI Videos.
James just wore another salwar and went back to the rescue operation.
"There was a lot of smoke, and once the lights went out, we could not see anything. The entire staff brought out at least 14-15 children. There were 11 beds in the ward with 23-24 babies," she said.
Had the lights not gone out they could have saved more children, James said. "It all happened very suddenly. None of us had expected it."
Assistant Nursing Superintendent Nalini Sood praised James's valour and recounted bits from how the rescue operation was carried out.
"The hospital staff broke the glasses of the NICU ward to evacuate the babies. It was then Nurse Megha's salwar caught fire. Instead of caring for her safety, she stayed there to rescue the babies and handed them over to people outside," she said.
Sood said James is currently undergoing treatment at the same medical college. She said she did not know the extent of her burns.
"The rescued babies were shifted to a ward very close to the NICU ward… When I recall the scene, I feel like crying," she said.
Dr Anshul Jain, the head of the anaesthesiology department at the medical college, explained the standard rescue operation and claimed the hospital followed the protocol to the T.
"In the triage process during an ICU evacuation, the policy is to evacuate less-affected patients first. The rationale behind this approach is that patients requiring minimal support can be relocated quickly, enabling a larger number of evacuations to be completed in a shorter time.
"In contrast, patients on ventilators or requiring high oxygen support demand more time and resources for evacuation," he said.
"This principle was successfully implemented in Jhansi, playing a significant role in saving many lives," Jain said.
A newborn rescued from the fire died due to illness on Sunday, Jhansi District Magistrate Avinash Kumar said.
