Unable to stomach the country’s rapid growth, anti-India forces are conspiring to inflict losses on strategic and critical installations in a bid to weaken its economy, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said.

Mr. Singh said India is counted among one of the biggest ‘Emerging Economies’ in the world and the country is poised to become a $7 trillion economy in the next five to eight years from the present $2 trillion.

“I am confident about it. India’s reputation has also increased in the international community. Anti-India forces are not able to digest these trends and they want to damage India’s important strategic and sensitive installations,” he said after reviewing the passing out parade of Assistant Commandants and Sub-Inspectors of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), at the National Industrial Security Academy (NISA).

“They (anti-India forces) will make continuous attempts to weaken India from economic and strategic point of view. And hence, you (CISF) need to face this challenge and I am hopeful you will emerge victorious,” Mr. Singh said.

Noting that terrorism is a big threat not only to India but to the whole world, the Minister said terror attacks have a long term impact on people.

“Anti-national forces are constantly keeping an eye on India and we need to give them a befitting reply. Such forces will make all out efforts to decimate India and there are no two opinions on this.”

Mr. Singh wondered why such forces resort to terror strikes on a peace-loving country like India, which is the only country that propagated the spirit of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ (the entire world is a family).

“I am fully confident, that our para-military forces, our armed forces and CISF personnel have gained enough core competence to fight terrorism. I have full confidence that in case terrorists plan to attack any important strategic installation in the country you will foil their designs,” he said.

The Minister also said ‘Cyber Terrorism’ is an upcoming challenge wherein attackers use digital routes to target important installations. “I have been told the CISF personnel are imparted advanced training to tackle this menace.”

As many as 151 infants died in different hospitals here between April and July, reflecting a grim infant and child health care situation in Odisha which recently reported an alarming rate of deaths of newborns in Cuttack and Kandhamal.

The official statistics show the abysmal state of child health care in Kendrapara, which is the home district of state Health Minister Atanu Sabysachi Nayak, where several posts of paediatricians were lying vacant.

“While 22 neo-natal death cases of babies less than 28-days old were reported, 34 infant deaths were registered during April-July period. During the said period, 95 cases of babies dying during child-birth were recorded. All these cases were registered in government-run health institutions,” a district health official said.

“What has made matters worse is the vacancies of paediatricians posts in the government-run hospitals,” the senior official said.

Statistics of past four months show an average of nearly 38 newborns dying every month. Altogether 5,615 institutional deliveries were conducted during the period, the official said adding 128 infants were born at home since past four months.

Poor health infrastructure of child and maternity care are principally attributed to rise in cases of neo-natal and infants deaths, the official said.

The district accounts for 54 primary health centres, seven community health centres and 204 sub-centres while the district headquarters hospital at Kendrapara is the premier referral hospital.

As many as 11 posts of paediatric specialists have fallen vacant across the district while there are instances of health centre running without doctors. Pharmacists and paramedics run the heath service network in most places, the official added.

In a shocking incident, a Bengaluru man, killed three children aged 4, 6 and 8 so that he could marry their mother.

The man identified as ‘Faheem Baig’, an electrician by profession, was arrested by police on Monday.

Baig has confessed to killing the kids.

On August 27, Baig picked the kids from their school and later dropped them in a manhole that was overflowing with sewage.

Baig’s family was opposed to his plan of getting married to the woman having three children.

The woman has been identified as Nagina Begum. She stays in KG Halli area.

Begum’s children Sultan, 4, Afreen, 6, and Afnan, 8, were killed on August 27. She has confessed to having an affair with Baig.

Begum’s husband had left her a year ago.

IAS and IPS officers may lose their job if they overstay on foreign assignments for more than a month without permission, as per the new rules being finalised by the government.

The move comes after it came to the notice that some bureaucrats were not reporting back to India after completion of their foreign postings. Few of them were also proceeding on unauthorised leave soon after completing their tenure abroad.

If an officer of all India service–Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Forest Service (IFoS), remains unauthorisedly absent after the sanctioned period of leave, study leave or tenure of foreign assignment, there shall be a one month waiting period, as per the draft rules.

After that, the state government concerned under whose cadre the officer hails from, shall issue a show cause notice, thereby giving him an opportunity to explain his case.

Thereafter, if the officer does not return to duty, the state government concerned shall initiate proceedings of deemed resignation and forward a proposal to the Centre for effecting it within next two months, it said.

In case the state government fails to comply with these instructions, the central government shall initiate proceedings of deemed resignation on its own, the draft rules formed by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said.

As per existing rules, no officer of the three all India services shall be granted leave of any kind for a continuous period exceeding five years.

Also, an officer shall be deemed to have resigned from service if he is absent without authorisation for a period exceeding one year from the date of expiry of sanctioned leave or continues on foreign assignment beyond the period approved by the central government.

The DoPT has sent the new draft rules for comments to chief secretaries of state governments and union territories.