Covid-19 Update : Nadia records highest single-day spike of 95 suspected cases, 35 positive cases

Covid-19 Update : Nadia records highest single-day spike of 95 suspected cases, 35 positive cases 

There are 73 active cases in the district and 39 persons are admitted in the Glocal hospital while 34 persons are admitted in the SNR Carnival, Kalyani. The number of containment zone has been increased to 65 from 60 due to the new surge of Covid-19 cases.

   

              

Biswabrata Goswami

Hummingbird News

KRISHNAGAR, 18 JULY: Nadia witnessed its highest single-day spike with 95 Covid-19 suspected cases recorded on Saturday. Among the suspected cases, 35 persons including two doctors from Krishnagar tested Covid-19 positive while the test reports of others have not been reached to the district health department yet. With this, the total number of novel coronavirus cases in the district stood at 434.

According to the district health report, there are 6265 suspected cases till on Saturday while the total number of patients released stand at 6125. A total number of 140 suspected patients are admitted in the isolation centers till today.

There are 73 active cases in the district and 39 persons are admitted in the Glocal hospital while 34 persons are admitted in the SNR Carnival, Kalyani. The number of containment zone has been increased to 65 from 60 due to the new surge of Covid-19 cases.

HOME DEPARTMENT - GOVT. OF WEST BENGAL

@HomeBengal

As on today, out of 14,709 active COVID cases in WB, only 662 patients are in serious category,1250 are moderate. That means only1912 patients need to be in hospital in entire http://State.Rest 12,796 are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic(87%) and so no need to panic(1/2)

9:23 AM · Jul 18, 2020·Twitter Web App

Among the Covid-19 positive cases, one person tested positive from Birnagar municipality, 11 from Chakdah, seven from Chakdah municipality, two from Haringhata municipality, seven from Kalyani municipality, two from Krishnaganj, one each from Krishnagar municipality, Nabadwip, Ranaghat municipality, Ranaghat-II and Santipur municipality.  

A sense of panic gripped the medical community here, after two prominent doctors tested Covid-19 positive. Contact tracing and precautions are now being implemented with all the medical professionals including doctors and hospitals, they have come in contact with.

It is hearsay that many doctors may again stop their private practices till the situation is improved.

Local residents, who already face adverse situation while getting treatments in the hospitals for non-Covid ailments since the beginning of the pandemic situation, fear that it will create acute situation if the doctors stop private practices.

Meanwhile, the district administration and police have started campaigning to aware people about the prevailing situation urging people to wear masks every time when they will come out from their house and maintain social distances.  

East Midnapore girl tops among girls in WBBSE, ranks third in the merit list, scores 98.57%

East Midnapore girl tops among girls in WBBSE, ranks third in the merit list, scores 98.57%

 “I want to pursue higher education with science. In future I want to be a psychologist. My favourite subject is biology while my parents are teachers of Geography subject”.

                      

               

Biswabrata Goswami

Hummingbird News

MIDNAPORE, 15 JULY: Bringing laurels for East Midnapore, Debasmita Mahapatra, a student of Bhabanichak High School in East Midnapore, scored 98.57% marks in West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE), becoming top scorer among girls across West Bengal.

She scored 690 marks out of 700 and ranked third in the merit list published by the board today.

Daughter of teacher-parents, an elated and composed Debasmita said, “I always thought of grabbing a spot in a select band of merit holders, but never thought of becoming one of the toppers in our state. I owe it to my parents, teachers, relatives and friends who have been my support systems all through.”

Her scores stood at 99 in Bengali, 99 in English, 100 in Mathematics, 98 in Physical Science, 98 in Life Science, 97 in History and 99 in Geography.

While speaking to The Statesman, Debasmita said, “I used to study for seven to eight hours every day and during the exam days, I never used to put pressure on me. Basically, I used to read my books when I wished. There was no fixed time to read”.

She said, “I want to pursue higher education with science. In future I want to be a psychologist. My favourite subject is biology while my parents are teachers of Geography subject”.  

Debasmita studied in the school where her mother, Swapna Mahapatra is a Geography teacher. Her father, Debashis Mahapatra is also a Geography teacher of Banamalichatta High School.

“I had private tutors for all subjects except Geography. I used to study Geography at my parents. They helped me a lot to focus on my studies. Beside my studies, I like to read story books,” Debasmita said.

Her mother, Swapna Mahapatra said, “I am very happy and I congratulate all who have helped her a lot in getting such a success in the exam”.

Her father, Debashis Mahapatra said, “She was very sincere to her studies and her success speaks volumes of her sincerity and hard work”.

The former headmaster of Banamalichatta High School, Mahmud Hossain felicitated her and he said, “Debasmita is a very sincere student from childhood and we are all happy for her brilliant result. She has glorified the school as well as the district.”

East Midnapore district in south Bengal registered the highest pass percentage with 96.59%, followed by West Midnapore with 92.16% and Kolkata in the third place with 91.07%. Out of the 84 students who ranked between 1 and 10, none are from Kolkata-based schools.

With 86.34% declared pass, West Bengal Board recorded the highest pass percentage till date, in the Class X results declared on Wednesday.

Around 10.03 lakh students had appeared for the exam this year. In 2019, 86.07% of the students passed in the West Bengal board Class X examinations.

Toppers of the class X board examination in West Bengal have been advised by the board authorities to avoid felicitation programs due to the pandemic. 

“Those of you who have done well will receive many invitations to attend felicitation programs. This is a very joyful moment for you. But because of the Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing crisis it is better to avoid such programs. Try to stay indoors as much as possible. Talk over phone and stay well,” said Kalyanmoy Ganguly, president of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Examination, which conducts the Madhyamik examination.

ICAR-CRIJAF achieves breakthrough in jute retting

ICAR-CRIJAF achieves breakthrough in jute retting

Genome sequencing also confirms that retting bacteria degrades pectin, hemicellulose and other non-cellulosic materials, non-harmful for fibre. The bacterial strains are also non-toxic and thus the retting water with microbial strains can successfully be used for irrigation purpose. 

       

 Biswabrata Goswami

 Hummingbird News

KRISHNAGAR, 14 JULY:  Although India is the largest producer of raw jute and jute goods, the quality of the fibres in the international market was deemed not up to the mark. The latest breakthrough by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, ICAR and Central Research Institute for Jute and Allied Fibres, CRIJAF, Barrackpore will help improve fibre quality by adopting jute retting with free flowing water, in situ retting tank based farming with a microbial consortium ‘CRIJAF SONA’.

The scientists of ICAR – CRIJAF have decoded the genome sequences of jute retting microbes by high throughput genome sequencing. The in-depth genomic analysis significantly revealed three different species of Bacillus constitute the consortium strains.

Genome sequencing also confirms that retting bacteria degrades pectin, hemicellulose and other non-cellulosic materials, non-harmful for fibre. The bacterial strains are also non-toxic and thus the retting water with microbial strains can successfully be used for irrigation purpose. 

The sequence data has been submitted to the National Centre for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database of NIH, USA.

“India today earns about Rs 2200 crores per annum through jute goods export because of bio-deragdibility and ecofriendly nature of this versatile natural fibre. However, to be suitable for high valued diversified products, the quality of fibre needs further improvement through evolvling better varieties and efficient retting process. Besides the genetic background of the jute varieties, the quality of the fibre largely depends on retting process adopted by the farmers,” said Dr. Gouranga Kar, Director of ICAR-CRIJAF, Barrackore 

According to ICAR, this year starting from the sowing period, initially there was a setback in jute farming due to outbreak of CORONA disease. Also AMPHAN  cyclone wrecked a havoc on standing jute crop in the third week of May, 2020.

Despite COVID outbreak and Amphan cyclone, there is a good standing crop in the field because of concerted efforts of ICAR-CRIJAF and other stakeholders like National Jute Board, Jute Corporation of India.etc. Now harvesting and retting have started and there is a need to adopt the technology of improved retting, so that best quality fibre is obtained.

Owing to its popularity, in last three years alone, 1428 MT of CRIJAF SONA worth Rs.7.85 crore was sold to 3.6 lakh farmers covering more than 50,000 ha area in different jute growing states of the country. The farmersmust use this product to improve fibre quality and to make it internationally competetive through improved retting. Use of ‘CRIJAF SONA, during retting improves the fibre quality by 1-2 grades, reduces duration of retting by 7 days and also reduces retting water requirement by 75%.

While congratulating the team of scientists, Dr Gouranga Kar, Director expressed that such breakthrough is first of its kind in jute and is confident that these breakthrough findings will help the scientists to improve the microbial retting formulation for better efficiency and resilience. 

The genes for degrading pectin, hemicelluloses and other non-cellulosic materials can be altered for enhanced retting efficiency and shortening the retting duration with minimal water usage. Thus, this breakthrough will facilitate to produce high quality jute fiber by farming community which will fetch higher income in the market.

The findings of the genome sequence research are recently published in high impact factor journal Scientific Reports from the Nature Publishing group.

Courtesy: Images from ICAR and iNET.

Krishnagar girl scores 99.2 % in ICSE, becomes one of the top scorers across West Bengal

Krishnagar girl scores 99.2 % in ICSE, becomes one of the top scorers across West Bengal

 “I always thought of grabbing a spot in a select band of merit holders, but never thought of becoming one of the toppers in our state. I owe it to my parents, teachers, relatives and friends who have been my support systems all through.”    

                

 Biswabrata Goswami

 Hummingbird News

KRISHNAGAR, 13 JULY: Bringing laurels for Bengal, Sohini Halder, a student of Bishop Morrow School in Krishnagar, Nadia scored 99.2 percent marks in ICSE exam, becoming one of the top scorers across West Bengal.

She scored 496 out of 500 with full marks in English Literature, Mathematics, History-Civics, Geography, Physics, Biology and Computer Applications.

Daughter of teacher-parents, an elated and composed Sohini, said, “I always thought of grabbing a spot in a select band of merit holders, but never thought of becoming one of the toppers in our state. I owe it to my parents, teachers, relatives and friends who have been my support systems all through.”    

Sohini said she solved a lot of papers and that experience brought her success. She has never been to any coaching class as she solved previous year’s question papers consistently, which gave her confidence to fetch good results.

Her scores stood at 93 in English Language, 95 in Bengali, 98 in Chemistry and 100 each in English Literature, Mathematics, History and Civics, Geography, Physics, Biology and Computer Applications.

In West Bengal, 99.09 per cent of Class 10 students cleared the exam, while the pass percentage was 97.58 per cent for Class 12 students. Total 37,258 students from 382 ICSE schools took part in the ICSE examination, out of which 36,920 were successful. The CISCE said 25,058 students from 270 schools appeared in the ISC examination, of whom 24,453 were successful.

However, the board did not publish a merit list for the two exams because of the exceptional circumstances that saw both the ISC and ICSE examinations results being declared without pending examinations being held due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee congratulated the successful students.

“Congratulations to the batch of 2020 ICSE and ISC students successful this year. May the trauma you faced serve as a lesson for further success in your lives. Applaud teachers and parents for bearing with the situation. Do well. May all your dreams come true,” Banerjee tweeted.

While speaking to Hummingbird News, Sohini said, “I used to study for five to six hours every day and during the exam days, I never used to put pressure on me. I always focused on my self-studies besides private tuition.”

“I want to be an engineer in future because I love to read science. Beside my studies, I like to sing and read story books. I hide my story books under my bookshelf because I really like to read story books”, Sohini said.

Sohini’s father Susanta Halder, a teacher of Krishnagar Collegiate School said, “She has been a diligent student and her success speaks volumes of her sincerity and hard work”.

Her mother, Soma Halder, who is also a teacher of Aranghata Girls' High School, said, “I am very happy and I congratulate all who have helped her a lot in getting such a success in the exam”.   

Ranaghat boy in Nadia emerges as one of the toppers in Bengal in ICSE, scores 99 percent

Ranaghat boy in Nadia emerges as one of the toppers in Bengal in ICSE, scores 99 percent 

Son of a reputed doctor of Ranaghat block rural hospital, Dr Sudipta Sarkar, Subhadip had been consistent in his studies throughout the year and he said, “I was confident of scoring above 95 per cent marks, but I was surprised at my 99 percent score”.  

            

Biswabrata Goswami

Hummingbird News

KRISHNAGAR, 12 JULY: Subhadip Sarkar, a student of Convent of Jesus and Mary, Ranaghat in Nadia, emerged as one of the top scorers in West Bengal with 99 percent.

Son of a reputed doctor of Ranaghat block rural hospital, Dr Sudipta Sarkar, Subhadip had been consistent in his studies throughout the year and he said, “I was confident of scoring above 95 per cent marks, but I was surprised at my 99 percent score”.                       

Students from West Bengal put up a good show in the ICSE (class X) and ISC (class XII) examinations, the results of which were announced on Friday by the Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE).

In West Bengal, 99.09 per cent of Class X students cleared the exam, while the pass percentage was 97.58 per cent for Class XII students. Total 37,258 students from 382 ICSE schools took part in the ICSE examination, out of which 36,920 were successful. The CISCE said 25,058 students from 270 schools appeared in the ISC examination, of whom 24,453 were successful.

Subhadip has obtained – English Language-91, English Literature – 100, Bengali – 95, History and Civics – 100, Geography – 100, Mathematics – 100, Physics – 99, Chemistry – 99 Biology – 100 and Computer application – 100. He scored 495 out of 500.

Subhadip said he was thankful to his parents, family members, school teachers and private tutors who helped him to focus on his studies. “Even my school friends also motivated me to give attention to my studies. This is not my sole credit. Hard work of my teachers and parents also put forth to achieve my success”, he said.

Subhadip said, “I used to study for seven to eight hours during the exam days and otherwise I was regular in studies the whole year. I had private tutors for three subjects and they have helped me immensely in preparing best”.

He also said, “In the pre-board exam, I got around 94 %, but in the final I scored 99 %. This was my beyond expectation”.

However, he was satisfied with his score as he never took tension for the exams and prepared for it with his own pace.”

Besides his studies, Subhadip loves music and plays musical instrument synthesizer. “I prefer to study biological science and I want to be a doctor in future”, ecstatic Subhadip said.

His father Dr Sudipta Sarkar said, “I expected that he would do a good result. But, he will score 99 percent, I never imagined.”

Subhadip's mother, Sukla Sarkar, a housewife said, “I am very happy and I have asked him to keep his studies maintaining this level in future.”

Belda girl tops West Midnapore in ICSE, scores 98.6%

Belda girl tops West Midnapore in ICSE, scores 98.6%

Rhymi said: “I used to study for 10 hours during the exam days and otherwise I was regular in    studies the whole year. I had private tutors for all my subjects and they have helped me immense in preparing best.”

Biswabrata Goswami

Hummingbird News

MIDNAPORE, 11 JULY: At a time when students of rail town –Kharagpur came out with flying colours in ICSE, ISC exams, the result of which were announced on Friday afternoon by the Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), New Delhi, Belda English Medium School girl Rhymi Mitra bagged the first spot in West Midnapore scoring 98.6% marks in ICSE.

The toppers in other prominent schools in Kharagpur have scored – 98.4% from St. Agnes School, 98.2% from Vidyasagar Sishu Niketan and 95.8% from Railway Mixed School.

Daughter of a nationalized bank employee Subrata Kumar Mitra, Rhymi had been consistent in studies all throughout the year and didn’t rush into things just before the exam.

“I did not lay down special plans for the board exam but was always attentive in class and would ask the teachers when in doubt,” ecstatic Rhymi said.

Rhymi has obtained –English Literature-100, English Language-92, Bengali-96, Mathematics-98, Physics-99, Chemistry-98, Biology-100, History-100, Geography-100 and Home Science-100.

Rhymi said, she was thankful to her parents and teachers who provided her with an environment in which she managed to study without any stress. Besides, she also likes studying the stories of Rabindranath Tagore, Bankimchandra and Saradendu. 

While sharing her key strategy, she said; “One should always manage time while attempting the question paper and try to attempt all questions.”

She said, “In the pre-board exam, I got around 96%, but in the final I scored 98.6%. This was my beyond expectation”.

However, she was satisfied with her score as she never took tension for the exams and prepared for it at her own pace.”

Rhymi said: “I used to study for 10 hours during the exam days and otherwise I was regular in studies the whole year. I had private tutors for all my subjects and they have helped me immense in preparing best.”

Rhymi’s father said, “She wasn’t expecting to be among the toppers, but her teachers believed that she would excel in the exams.”

Rhymi’s mother Anima Mitra, who is a primary school teacher, also helped her a lot to concentrate on her studies.