Top African leader on shortlist for Rday chief guest, decision soon
NEW DELHI: India may have finalised its chief guest for the next Republic Day, two people familiar with the matter independently said, and it is most likely someone from Africa, perhaps South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. The announcement will probably be made shortly by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself, and perhaps on Twitter, one of the people added, asking not to be identified.
This person said there was a shortlist of four India was working on and that President Donald Trump of the US had never been on it, although verbal, informal invites were extended to him .The White House confirmed recently that President Trump would not be making the trip to India for the January 26 Republic Day parade on account of other commitments, but the first person insisted that a formal invite had never been sent to the US leader.
The chief guest will be a leader of global stature and from an important partner country, this person added.
A second person said, also on condition of anonymity, that the idea was to get someone from a region unrepresented in terms of Republic Day chief guests for the past few years. The chief guests in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 were King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuk of Bhutan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, US President Barack Obama, French President Francois Hollande, UAE Crown Prince Mohhamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and the leaders of the 10 members of the Association of South-east Asian Nations. NEWDELHI: Government agencies warned of a sharp deterioration in Delhi’s air quality from its already ‘very poor’ levels in the coming days after farmers in Punjab and Haryana carried out the highest number of farm fires in a single day, and a drop in temperatures increased the chances of morning fog.
During fog, moisture binds to dust particles, making them heavier and harder to disperse. Forecasters also said that the wind pattern would change to northwest – the direction from which farm fire smoke comes in.
“The concentration of PM2.5 – the ultrafine and more harmful of the particulates — is likely to shoot up over the weekend. Its levels could breach the severe or emergency category. Such conditions are likely to linger till Sunday,” said a scientist with the national capital’s early warning
system, which can forecast levels of pollution two days in advance.
This comes at a time when the region is reeling under the effects of pollution due to widespread, and possibly illegal, use of firecrackers during Diwali. According to figures released by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee on Thursday on Diwali pollution, the concentration of PM2.5 reached nearly 20 times the acceptable of 60μg/m³.
On Friday, the Central Pollution Control Board recommended that bans on construction work across the NCR and the
entry of heavy vehicles into Delhi be extended to Monday. Construction work was banned since November 1 till Saturday while the curbs on trucks came into force on Thursday and was to be in place till Sunday.
Satellites picked up at least 2,100 instances of farm fire in Punjab and Haryana on November 8, the most recorded on a single day. Farm leaders in Punjab had previously predicted more burning would take place, especially around Diwali since they could show it as incidental fires.