Daily News Dose: Kerala trekker survived a second fall, RSS Muslim wing supports K'taka hijab girl | Feb 10, 2022

Hello listeners, this is your daily dose of news from Onmanorama. I'm your host, Susan Joe Philip

1) Kerala trekker survived a second fall in two days while awaiting rescue

23-year-old R Babu, who was rescued from the rocky Kurumbachi Hill in Malampuzha yesterday, almost 43 hours after he was stuck in a cleft, was favoured by lady Luck twice. It is now revealed that babu survived a second fall and had a miraculous escape as his leg got wedged between another crack.

Babu first fell into the crevice on the 1,000-meter tall hill while climbing down on Monday afternoon. He slipped and fell down but luckily got trapped in the cleft, 400 m down, on the face of the hill. He fell 20ft down from this spot, 34 hours after his first fall. On both the occasions luck favoured him as he didn't plunge down to the ravine 600 ft below.

Babu was rescued by the Indian Army from the hill a little before Wednesday noon.

2) RSS Muslim wing comes in support of the Karnataka girl from viral hijab protest video

In a significant move, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has come out in support of the Karnataka student, Bibi Muskan Khan, who shot to prominence during hijab protests, and said that hijab or 'pardah' is also part of Indian culture.

The RSS Muslim wing – Muslim Rashtriya Manch – has backed Bibi Muskan's plea to wear a hijab and condemned the saffron frenzy surrounding her.

Protests for and against the 'hijab' have been raging in Karnataka after the state government last week issued an order making uniforms prescribed by it or management of private institutions mandatory for students in schools and pre-university colleges.

3) RBI springs a surprise by keeping the lending, borrowing rates unchanged

The Reserve Bank of India's key lending rate was held steady at record lows on Thursday, but it surprised markets by leaving its key deposit rate unchanged against some economists' predictions of a hike to re-align it with short-term money market rates.

The monetary policy committee held the lending rate, or the repo rate, at 4%. The reverse repo rate, or the key borrowing rate, was also kept unchanged at 3.35%.

The MPC voted unanimously to maintain the status quo on the repo rate and by a majority of 5:1 to retain the accommodative policy stance.

4) CBSE will conduct second-term board exam for classes 10, 12 in offline mode from April 26

The Central Board of Secondary Education will conduct second-term board examination for classes 10 and 12 in offline mode from April 26. The theory exams will begin from April 26, 2022. The datesheet for classes 10 and 12 will be released soon.

The pattern of the question papers will be same as that of sample question papers hosted on the board's website.

5) In cricket, the upcoming two-day auction is crutial for S Sreesanth

Kerala pacer S Sreesanth has made it to the final list of 590 players for the India Premier League (IPL) mega auction. The two-day event will be held in Bengaluru during the weekend. The 39-year-old was overlooked for the auction last season. Sreesanth has played 44 IPL games for Kings XI Punjab, Kochi Tuskers Kerala and Rajasthan Royals from 2008 to 2013.

The right-arm fast bowler, who was part of the 2007 T20 World Cup-winning squad and also a member of the Indian team which emerged triumphant in the 2011 ODI World Cup,is a part of the Kerala squad for the upcoming Ranji Trophy.

Despite all the positives it remains to be seen whether there are any takers for Sreesanth in the auction.

6) For today's covid updates, active cases in country decline to 7,90,789

India logged 67,084 new coronavirus infections, taking the country's total tally of COVID-19 cases to 4.24 crore The active cases declined to 7,90,789, according to the Union Health Ministry . The death toll climbed to 5,06,520 with 1,241 fresh fatalities.

That brings us to the end of this episode! Be sure to come back tomorrow. As always, thanks for listening to Daily News Dose.