Author: Shivali Varshney, Vidhyarthi Darpan

NATIONAL NEWS 

Lakhimpur Kheri: Police file case against Priyanka Vadra; Sharad Pawar likens incident to Jallianwala Bagh massacre

The Uttar Pradesh Police has booked Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and ten other people under sections related to preventive custody due to apprehension of breach of peace, officials said on Tuesday, as party leaders questioned her detention beyond 24 hours without an FIR. The case under Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) sections 144,151, 107, 116 (all related to preventive detention due to apprehension of breach of peace) has also been registered against Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu and party leader Deependra Hooda, the officials said. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who has been detained in Uttar Pradesh’s Sitapur while speaks to the media virtually. These are preventive sections. Once we get assurance that there would not be a violation of peace by them, these sections will be removed, Sitapur Sub-divisional Magistrate Pyare Lal Maurya said. They all are kept in detention in the guest house of the 2nd battalion of Provincial Armed Constabulary, he said. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other party leaders were detained on Monday when they were going to meet the victims of the violence that erupted during a farmers’ protest in Lakhimpur Kheri a day earlier. Eight people were killed as violence erupted during a farmers’ protest, claiming the lives of both farmers and BJP workers ahead of a visit to Lakhimpur by Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya. Meanwhile, Vadra on Tuesday, in a video message to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, played out a 25-second viral video of Sunday’s incident at Lakhimpuri Kheri and asked why the government had not acted against those responsible. This video shows the son of a minister in your government crushing the farmers under his car. Watch this video and tell the country why this minister has not been sacked and his son has still not been arrested? asked Vadra in the video that she posted on her Twitter handle. You have arrested Opposition leaders like me without any order or warrant. I want to know why this man is still free? she added, referring to Ashish Mishra, son of Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Mishra Teni. Vadra said that while the Prime Minister presided over a Azad ki Amrit Mahotsav function in Lucknow, he should remember that the farmers got freedom for the country and even now, their sons defended the nation’s borders. For several months now, the farmers are trying to raise their voice and you are negating it. I request you to come to Lakhimpur. Listen to the pain of those who got us our freedom, our annadatas [food providers], the soul of the nation. It is your duty to protect them, the Constitutional duty and your responsibility towards the Constitution, she added. Several Congress leaders, including P. Chidambaram, questioned Vadra’s detention, describing it as totally illegal and unconstitutional. In a statement, Chidambaram said on Tuesday the facts and circumstances concerning Vadra’s detention in Sitapur conclusively establish that there is no rule of law in U.P.

Varun Gandhi shares video of SUV mowing down farmers, becomes first BJP MP to demand arrest of culprits

BJP MP Varun Gandhi on Tuesday shared a video clip purportedly showing an SUV mowing down farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri, and demanded that police immediately identify and arrest those involved in the incident, PTI reported. This video of vehicles deliberately crushing farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri will shake anyone’s soul. Police should take cognisance of the video, identify the owners of these vehicles and their occupants, identify others involved in the incident and immediately arrest them, Gandhi said. While the BJP has officially maintained a guarded silence over the matter, with the Uttar Pradesh government assuring a thorough probe, Varun Gandhi has been vocal in empathising with the farmers.

Sharad Pawar likens Lakhimpur Kheri incident to Jallianwala Bagh massacre

Chastising the BJP-led Centre for its blatant misuse of power over the Lakhimpur Kheri incident, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday likened the episode to the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre. The manner in which the farmers were attacked revealed the true face of the Central Government. I strongly condemn this incident…The farmers have every right to protest, and they were agitating peacefully in Lakhimpur Kheri. Do not abuse power in this manner just because you [BJP] hold it in your hands at this moment, Pawar warned the BJP Governments at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh. Speaking in New Delhi, the NCP chief demanded that a probe be conducted by a sitting Supreme Court judge for the truth to come out. He lashed out at both the Centre and the U.P. Government for their sheer insensitivity in handling the incident. The Uttar Pradesh Government has created a situation similar to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and it will have to pay its price one day…this Government cannot succeed by strangling voices of the farmers. You [BJP Governments in U.P. and the Centre] will get a fitting response not only from the farmers in Uttar Pradesh but from all over the country, said the former Union Agriculture Minister. The NCP chief said he had heard the U.P. Government was ready to get the incident probed by a retired judge but want the probe to be conducted by a sitting Supreme Court judge which would bring out the truth of the matter. Remarking that the protesting farmers were not alone and that the entire country stood behind them, Pawar slammed the U.P. Government for thwarting the Opposition leaders in their attempts to visit the families of the deceased and offer them condolences. Opposition parties across the political spectrum on slammed the BJP and demanded a judicial inquiry into the incident.

Delegation of five TMC MPs eludes police, meets families of Lakhimpur Kheri victims

A five-member delegation of the Trinamool Congress managed to sneak into Lakhimpur Kheri on Tuesday and meet the families of farmers killed when vehicles in Union Minister Ajay Kumar Mishra’s convoy allegedly ran amok. Rajya Sabha MP Dola Sen, who was part of the delegation, said it was shameful that in the 75th year of India’s Independence, the MPs and MLAs, who are meant to uphold the law, were brazenly committing murders and getting away with it. A delegation from the Trinamool Congress met the family members of the victims of the Lakhimpur violence in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday. Sen, along with her Rajya Sabha colleagues Abir Ranjan Biswas and Sushmita Dev and Lok Sabha MPs Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and Protima Mandal spent 14-hours on the road from Delhi to reach Lakhimpur Kheri on Monday night. At various checkposts en route where they were stopped, they escaped police scrutiny by posing as tourists. They stayed the night at Lakhimpur Kheri avoiding detection. Early on Tuesday, they managed to visit the homes of 20-year-old Lovpreet Singh and 60-year-old Nachattar Singh. Justice is all that the families are demanding. Their mouths can’t be shut down by compensations. They want immediate arrest of MOS Home Ajay Mishra Teni and his son Ashish Mishra, whose culpability in the incident has been proven beyond doubt, Sen told The Hindu. It was only when the TMC delegation was leaving Nachattar Singh’s home, that the police discovered them. Sen said the police misbehaved with them and tried to obstruct their way as they left the village. It is shameful, she said, that elected representatives of the country are barred without any valid reasons from visiting parts of Uttar Pradesh. The BJP MPs and MLAs are getting away with brazen murders under the Narendra Modi regime. What can be more shameful and shocking than this? And let us not forget that this is happening when the country is celebrating 75th year of Independence, Sen said.

Medical education has become a business, notes SC, pulls up govt for last minute changes to NEET-SS pattern

The Supreme Court on Tuesday said the tragedy of medical education in the country was that it had become a business. The observation from a Bench led by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud came while the court pulled up the government and the National Board of Examinations (NBE) for making last-minute changes to the pattern of the National Eligibility-cum- Entrance Test- Super Specialty (NEET-SS) 2021. The court wondered whether the 11th hour changes were a move to facilitate the filling of the seats in private medical colleges. Justice Chandrachud remarked, The impression we get is medical education has become a business, and medical regulation has also become a business. That is the tragedy of medical education in this country. The court noted that questions under the revised pattern were wholly from General Medicine, which was a feeder category. The earlier pattern had 60% of the questions coming from the student’s chosen field of speciality and the rest from the feeder category. The court reasoned that this sudden change was meant to favour General Medicine, in which the largest pool of students were found, to fill the seats. For 12 super specialities, 100% questions are from General Medicine. The entire examination is going to be only be on General Medicine. The logic seems to be, General Medicine is the largest pool, and tap them to fill the seats. That seems to be the idea, the Bench noted. In an earlier hearing, the court lashed out at the government, saying that young doctors cannot be left to the mercy of insensitive bureaucrats and cannot be treated like football. The court surmised that private institutions benefited with the change in exam pattern. It remarked that since seats in government colleges never lay vacant, it must be for their private counterparts that the pattern was altered. The interest of students is far higher than that of the institutions, it said. Arguments will continue on Wednesday.

Gujarat riots: Supreme Court to hear plea of Zakia Jafri against SIT’s clean chit to Modi on October 26

The Supreme Court today said it would hear on October 26 a plea filed by Zakia Jafri, the wife of slain Congress leader Ehsan Jafri, challenging the Special Investigation Team (SIT) clean chit to Narendra Modi, who was the Gujarat Chief Minister during the 2002 riots in the state. A Bench headed by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar made it clear that no request for further adjournment at the instance of the petitioner (Zakia Jafri) will be entertained on future dates. At the request of the petitioner, hearing is deferred till October 26, said the Bench, also comprising justices Dinesh Maheshwari and C.T. Ravikumar. It is made clear that no request for further adjournment at the instance of the petitioner on any count will be entertained on future dates, said the Bench, which granted liberty to the petitioner to file additional compilation in the matter. At the outset, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Zakia Jafri, said this matter has suddenly come up and there are about 23,000 pages of record and they would circulate a convenience compilation. The Bench said the matter was notified well in advance. No my lords, it was suddenly notified on Friday, Sibal said, adding, it was adjourned in April this year and because of the pandemic, it did not come up. He requested the Bench to list the matter on a fixed date. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the request on the ground of convenience compilation is being raised for the last one-and-a-half year. There is no notice issued, there is no stay, my friend cannot possibly object, Sibal said. However, the Bench observed, Mr. Sibal, we think that Mr. Solicitor General was very considerate in saying only one-and-a-half year. The matter is pending from 2018. In April this year, the apex court had said that the matter would be listed after two weeks as the petitioner had circulated a letter seeking adjournment in the case. Zakia Jafri’s counsel had earlier told the top court that notice needs to be issued in the plea as it relates to an alleged larger conspiracy from February 27, 2002, to May 2002. Ehsan Jafri, the former MP, was among the 68 people killed at Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002, a day after the S-6 Coach of the Sabarmati Express was burnt at Godhra killing 59 people and triggering riots in Gujarat. On February 8, 2012, the SIT had filed a closure report giving a clean chit to Modi, now the Prime Minister, and 63 others, including senior government officials, saying there was no prosecutable evidence against them. Zakia Jafri had filed a petition in the apex court in 2018 challenging the Gujarat High Court’s October 5, 2017 order rejecting her plea against the decision of the SIT. The plea also maintained that after the SIT gave a clean chit in its closure report before a trial judge, Zakia Jafri filed a protest petition which was dismissed by the magistrate without considering substantiated merits.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS 

Nobel physics prize goes to three for climate discoveries

The Nobel Prize for physics has been awarded to scientists from Japan, Germany and Italy. Syukuro Manabe (90) and Klaus Hasselmann (89) were cited for their work in the physical modeling of Earth’s climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming. The second half of the prize was awarded to Giorgio Parisi (73) for the discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scales. The panel said Manabe and Hasselmann laid the foundation of our knowledge of the Earth’s climate and how humanity influences it. Starting in the 1960s, Manabe demonstrated how increases in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would increase global temperatures, laying the foundations for current climate models. About a decade later, Hasselmann created a model that linked weather and climate, helping explain why climate models can be reliable despite the seemingly chaotic nature of the weather. He also developed ways to look for specific signs of human influence on the climate. Parisi built a deep physical and mathematical model that made it possible to understand complex systems in fields as different as mathematics, biology, neuroscience and machine learning. After the announcement, Parisi said that it’s very urgent that we take very strong decisions and move at a very strong pace in tackling climate change. It’s clear for future generations that we have to act now, he added. The winners were announced on October 5 by Goran Hansson, secretary-general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Last year, the prize went to American Andrea Ghez, Roger Penrose of Britain and Reinhard Genzel of Germany for their research into black holes. Over the coming days prizes will also be awarded for outstanding work in the fields of chemistry, literature, peace and economics.

Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa asks anti-graft commission to probe people named in.

Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa said revelations made in the Pandora Papers must be investigated and the government members should not prevent such an impartial inquiry from being conducted. Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Wednesday gave a one-month deadline to the country’s anti-graft commission to investigate the people accused of maintaining offshore accounts in the unprecedented leak of financial documents known as the Pandora Papers. Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa told Parliament that revelations made in the Pandora Papers must be investigated and the government members should not prevent such an impartial inquiry from being conducted. The President this morning asked the Bribery and Corruption Commission to investigate all Sri Lankans mentioned in the Pandora Papers and their transactions and report to him within a month, President Rajapaksa’s spokesman Kingsly Rathnayake said. The move came a day after the Opposition raised the issue in Parliament following Rajapaksa’s niece Nirupama Rajapaksa and her husband Thirukumar Nadesan’s mention in the Pandora Papers. The government disowned them and claimed that the couple had no political links with the current SLPP coalition and all transactions mentioned in the Pandora Papers were those done before the SLPP’s assuming government office. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) this month claimed it obtained the trove of more than 11.9 million confidential files to find secret financial dealings of many super-rich. More than 600 reporters from around the world, belonging to 150 media organisations spanning 117 countries, participated in the research for two years for the Pandora Papers, which contain 11.9 million files containing 2.94 terabytes worth of confidential information. The leak uncovers the financial secrets of more leaders and public officials than the Panama Papers did and reportedly provides more than twice as much information about the ownership of offshore companies. The Pandora Papers investigation is bigger in size and revelations about politicians and public officials are also far more than what has previously come to public attention.

 

NATIONAL NEWS 

Lakhimpur Kheri incident: SKM writes to President seeking action, Congress seeks dismissal of MoS Ajay Mishra, arrest of his son

The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) has written to President Ram Nath Kovind demanding action against the killing of farmers at Lakhmipur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday afternoon, allegedly by being run over by vehicles in a Union Minister’s convoy. Farm unions protesting in front of district collectors’ offices in various parts of the country on Monday, between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., were expected to submit copies of this letter to the President via district officials. The SKM’s demands were outlined in the letter, calling for Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Kumar Mishra to be immediately dismissed from his post and a case filed against him for inciting violence and spreading communal hatred. It urged that Mishra’s son and others associated with the attack be booked under Section 302 (murder) and arrested immediately, and that the investigation be carried out by a Special Investigation Team under the supervision of the Supreme Court. The letter alleged that the involvement of Mishra’s son and his associates in the murderous attack showed a deep conspiracy of Uttar Pradesh and Central governments. It pointed to earlier inflammatory and derogatory speeches against farmers by Mishra, as well as statements by Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar inciting party workers to take up lathis against farmers, and claimed that this was the context in which the Lakhimpur Kheri incident took place. The SKM has also called for Khattar to be sacked. It is clear from these incidents that these persons sitting in constitutional posts are using their positions for planned violence against ‘annadatas’ doing peaceful agitation. This is a crime as per the laws of the country, against the Constitution and the country, said the letter. In a related development, the Uttar Pradesh government on Monday announced that a retired High Court judge will probe the Lakhimpur Kheri violence and that it will give ₹45 lakh compensation to the families of the four farmers killed in the incident. The government will also give ₹10 lakh to those injured in the violence, said Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Awanish Awasthi. An agreement has been reached with the farmers. The government will give ₹45 lakh to the family members of the four farmers who were killed in the violence on Sunday. Besides, one member from their families will be given a government job at the local level, he said. The government will give ₹10 lakh to the injured and get the incident probed by a retired High Court judge, he said. Meanwhile, the Congress on Monday demanded the immediate dismissal of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra and the arrest of his son, who has been named in an FIR by the Uttar Pradesh Police. The party also demanded enhanced compensation of ₹1 crore for each of the farmers killed and sought immediate release of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who the leaders alleged has been illegally detained by the Uttar Pradesh Police. The Congress said it would hold protests outside the offices of all district magistrates across the country on Tuesday to protest against the incident. The Congress leaders protested outside UP Bhawan in the national capital and staged agitations elsewhere in the nation.

 

SC to decide whether the right to protest is an ‘absolute right’

The Supreme Court on Monday lashed out at farmers’ organisations for continuing with the protests against the Centre’s agricultural laws, saying that when the agitation snowballed into violence as in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri, where eight people were killed, nobody takes rresponsibility When such incidents happen, causing deaths, loss to property and damage, nobody takes responsibility, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar observed. Attorney General K.K. Venugopal described the Lakhimpur Kheri violence on Sunday an unfortunate incident. The top law officer for the government said the court should make it very clear that protests should not continue when the challenge against the farm laws were in the highest court of the country. No more unfortunate incidents like this should take place… The protests must stop, Venugopal, supported by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, submitted. But how can there be protests when the matter is sub judice here? Why are there protests when the laws have been kept in abeyance? It is intriguing, there is no Act in place at the moment. The Act is stayed. The government has assured it will not give effect to it… So what is this protest for, Justice Khanwilkar, flanked by Justice C.T. Ravikumar on the Bench, asked Kisan Mahapanchayat, a farmers’ organisation. The farmers’ body wanted to sit on a ‘satyagraha’ at the Jantar Mantar in protest. Justice Khanwilkar said the farm laws were passed by the Parliament. The government is also bound by the laws passed by the Parliament… We are on principle here, once you go to court, how can the same party say that matter is before court, nevertheless I will still protest, the judge observed. The court, in its order, decided to frame legal questions in the issue. The Bench said it would first decide whether the right to protest was an absolute right. The court said it would decide whether farmers’ bodies could resort to protests on a subject — the legality of three farm laws — which was already sub judice. First we will decide these legal questions and then we will examine your question [whether permission can be granted to sit on ‘satyagraha’ at the Jantar Mantar], Justice Khanwilkar addressed Kisan Mahapanchayat. The Supreme Court fixed the case for final hearing on the two legal questions on October 21. It ordered the transfer of a case filed by Kisan Mahapanchayat in Rajasthan High Court on the same issue to itself. The Bench asked the Centre to file a consolidated counter-affidavit.

 

Government promises probe into ‘Pandora Papers’ leak

The government has promised an investigation into the revelations in the ‘Pandora Papers’ and assured appropriate action in such cases as per law, the Finance Ministry said in a statement on Monday evening. Stating that only ‘a few Indians’ have been named in the papers so far, the Ministry said investigations in cases of Pandora Papers leaks appearing in the media will be monitored through a multi-agency group. Anil Ambani, Vinod Adani, Jackie Shroff, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Niira Radia, Sachin Tendulkar and Satish Sharma, are among the 300 Indians mentioned in the list so far. The government will also proactively engage with foreign jurisdictions for obtaining information in respect of relevant taxpayers and entities, the Ministry said, adding that India is part of an Inter-Governmental Group that ensures ‘collaboration and experience sharing to effectively address tax risks associated with such leaks’. The multi-agency group headed by the Central Board of Direct Taxes chairman, with representatives from the Enforcement Directorate, the Financial Intelligence Unit and the Reserve Bank of India, will keep a tab of the phased disclosures from the Pandora Papers indicated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) website, the Ministry said. The website of ICIJ suggests that information will be released in phases and structured data connected to the Pandora Papers investigation will be released only in the days to come on its Offshore Leaks Database. It may be noted that following earlier similar such leaks in the form of ICIJ, HSBC, Panama Papers and Paradise Papers, the Government has already enacted the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015 with an aim to curb black money, or undisclosed foreign assets and income by imposing suitable tax and penalty on such income, the Ministry said. Undisclosed credits of approximately ₹20,352 crore have been detected in the investigations carried out in the Panama and Paradise Papers by September 15. Rights group Oxfam India has called for immediate action by authorities and abolishing tax havens following the expose of the Pandora Papers. Tax havens cost governments around the world $427 billion each year. Developing countries are being hardest hit, proportionately. Corporations and the wealthiest individuals that use tax havens are out-competing those who don’t. Tax havens also help crime and corruption to flourish, Oxfam India CEO Amitabh Behar said. Abolishing tax havens can go a long way towards ensuring that governments actually have the access to tax revenue they need to fund quality public expenditure, he added. Many of the people whose names figure on the list have rejected financial misdoings. Among others, Biocon chief Mazumdar-Shaw on Monday said her hubsand’s offshore trust was bonafide and legitimate.

 

Stalin writes to 12 CMs to join hands against NEET, restore primacy of state govts in administering education

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Monday wrote to his counterparts of 12 States — Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Jharkhand, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Telangana, West Bengal and Goa — on the need to put up a united effort to restore the primacy of State governments in administering the education sector, as envisaged in the Constitution. He recalled a resolution adopted against the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) in the Assembly. Our considered position has always been that the move by the Union Government to introduce NEET goes against the spirit of federalism and violates the constitutional balance of power by curbing the rights of the State governments to decide on the method of admission in the medical institutions founded, established, and run by them, the letter said. Stalin enclosed the report submitted by Justice AK Rajan Committee, which was appointed by the State government to study whether the NEET-based admission process has affected the socially backward students in the past few years. The Committee was also requested to suggest alternative admission procedures which would benefit all students, the feasibility of implementing such alternatives, and the legal steps to be undertaken to implement such fair and equitable methods. Based on the recommendation of the Committee, the Tamil Nadu State Assembly recently passed an Act called Tamil Nadu Admission to Undergraduate Medical Degree Courses Act, 2021. We consider that the State governments need to assert their constitutional right and position in deciding the method of admission to their higher educational institutions he said. Stalin urged his counterparts to extend their support to ensure that the students of the respective States, especially those hailing from rural areas and marginalised sections of the society are not put to hardship in obtaining admissions to higher educational institutions. We need to put up a united effort to restore the primacy of State Governments in administering the education sector, as envisaged in our Constitution, the letter said.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS 

U.S. scientists David Julius, Ardem Patapoutian get Medicine Nobel for discovery of temperature, touch receptors

Two U.S.-based scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine on October 4 for their discovery of the receptors that allow humans to feel temperature and touch. David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian focused their work on the field of somatosensation, that is, the ability of specialised organs such as eyes, ears and skin to see, hear and feel. This really unlocks one of the secrets of nature, said Thomas Perlmann, secretary-general of the Nobel Committee, in announcing the winners. It’s actually something that is crucial for our survival, so it’s a very important and profound discovery. The committee said Julius, 65, used capsaicin, the active component in chilli peppers, to identify the nerve sensors that allow the skin to respond to heat. Patapoutian found separate pressure-sensitive sensors in cells that respond to mechanical stimulation, it said. The pair shared the prestigious Kavli Award for Neuroscience last year. Imagine that you’re walking barefoot across a field on this summer’s morning, said Patrik Ernfors of the Nobel Committee. You can feel the warmth of the sun, the coolness of the morning dew, a caressing summer breeze, and the fine texture of blades of grass underneath your feet. These impressions of temperature, touch and movement are feelings relying on somatosensation. Such information continuously flows from the skin and other deep tissues and connects us with the external and internal world. It is also essential for tasks that we perform effortlessly and without much thought, said Ernfors. Perlmann said he managed to get hold of both of the winners before the announcement. I only had a few minutes to talk to them, but they were incredibly happy, he said. And as far as I could tell they were very surprised and a little bit shocked, maybe. Last year’s prize went to three scientists who discovered the liver-ravaging hepatitis C virus, a breakthrough that led to cures for the deadly disease and tests to keep the scourge from spreading though blood banks. The prestigious award comes with a gold medal and 10 million Swedish kronor (over $1.14 million). The prize is the first to be awarded this year. The other prizes are for outstanding work in the fields of physics, chemistry, literature, peace and economics.

 

Australia won’t welcome international tourists until 2022

The Australian Tourism Export Council, which represents a sector that made $33 billion a year from international tourists before the pandemic, wants international visitors to return by March. International tourists won’t be welcomed back to Australia until next year, with the return of skilled migrants and students given higher priority, the Prime Minister said on October 5. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia was expected to reach the vaccination benchmark on October 5 at which the country could begin to open up — 80% of the population aged 16 and older having a second shot. Last week, he outlined plans to allow vaccinated citizens and permanent residents to fly overseas from November for the first time since an extraordinarily tough travel ban took effect in March last year. But Mr. Morrison on October 5 said that after Australians, the next priority would be skilled migrants and international students entering Australia before tourists. Australian immigration has been at its lowest since World War II because of pandemic restrictions. The pandemic has also had a disastrous effect on Australian universities that rely heavily on fees paid by international students. The education sector fears that students will enroll in other countries unless Australia opens its border to them soon. The next priorities are skilled migrants that are very important for the country and who are double vaccinated, as well as students who are coming and returning to Australia for their studies, Mr. Morrison told Seven Network television. The Australian Tourism Export Council, which represents a sector that made $33 billion a year from international tourists before the pandemic, wants international visitors to return by March. Australia is racing to inoculate its population as an outbreak of the more contagious delta variant that began in Sydney in June continues to spread. Victoria State on October 5 reported a national record 1,763 new local infections. Australia’s second-most populous State also reported four COVID-19 deaths. The previous national record of 1,599 infections in 24 hours was set by New South Wales when its outbreak peaked on September 10. Hospitalizations peaked in Australia’s most populous State in mid-September. New South Wales leads the other States in vaccination rates and Sydney’s airport is expected to be the first to reopen to vaccinated travelers.

 

NATIONAL NEWS 

Two protesting farmers killed after being run over by car driven by Union Minister’s son, allege farmer bodies

Farmer bodies on Sunday claimed that two farmers protesting against BJP leaders were killed and several others were injured after they were run over by a car that allegedly was part of a convoy of Union minister of state for home affairs and BJP MP Ajay Kumar Mishra in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri district. Farmers in Tikonia area of Kheri had lined up on the roads with black flags to protest against the visit of Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya to the district. The Samyukta Kisan Morcha, a body of farmers protesting against the three new farm laws, said a third farmer died after being shot and the car was driven by the MP’s son Ashish. The claims could not be independently verified yet and UP police are yet to comment on the incident or casualties. Following the incident, angry farmers set on fire and vandalised vehicles of the BJP leader and staged further protests as the area remained tense. Senior officials from Lucknow as well as farmer leaders rushed to the spot. Official statements from the police and the BJP leaders accused by the farmers for the incident are still awaited. Mishra told a Hindi news channel in a phone interview that the driver of his car, which was going to receive Maurya at the helipad, was injured and died after being struck by a stone. The driver then lost control of the car, causing the accident, he told News1 India channel. Mishra, also known as Teni, said he had invited Maurya as the chief guest at the annual wrestling event held in his village in the district, the Ambika Prasad Mishra Smriti Kushti Pratiyogita. The car was going to receive the Deputy CM from the helipad, said Mishra. Someone pelted a stone at the driver, he lost consciousness and died. He lost control of the car which caused an accident…some people were injured in the incident and some lost their lives, the minister and two-time MP said. The SKM said three farmers were killed and around 10, including SKM leader Tajinder Singh Virk, were seriously injured in the incident. SKM leader Darshan Pal said farmers had planned to gherao a helipad to prevent UP Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya from landing. After the protests, the farmers were going back when three cars in the convoy of Mishra ran over the farmers, he alleged.

Mamata Banerjee wins Bhabanipur bypoll with record margin of over 58,000 votes 

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee won the Bhabanipur Assembly bypoll on Sunday by a record margin of 58,832 votes against her nearest rival Priyanka Tibrewal of the BJP. This victory makes Banerjee a member of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly and will allow her to continue as Chief Minister of West Bengal. She had contested the Assembly poll from Nandigram and lost to BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari by a margin of 1,956 votes. She was unanimously elected Chief Minister by the Trinamool Congress legislature party in May 2021. The numbers of voters at Bhabanipur are relatively less and about 1.15 lakh votes were polled this time. This time we have won by a margin of 58,832 votes, Banerjee told media persons outside her residence. The Chief Minister said the results would provide her encouragement to work more for the people of the State. Banerjee had represented Bhabanipur seat in 2011 and 2016. In the 2021 Assembly poll, Trinamool Congress candidate Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay had defeated BJP Rudranil Ghosh by a margin of 28,790 votes. In 2011, the TMC chairperson had won Bhabanipur with a margin of over 54,000 votes. Highlighting that the margin of victory had surpassed all previous records, the Chief Minister said that in every ward of the constituency she had won on this occasion. She said that about 46 % of the electorate of the constituency were non-Bengali, and they also overwhelmingly voted for her. The BJP fielded Tibrewal, who secured about 25,000 votes. Elections to Bhabanipur and two other constituencies, Jangipur and Samserganj, were held on September 30. TMC candidate Amirul Islam won Samserganj by a margin of 26,379 votes by defeating his nearest rival, a Congress candidate from the seat. At  Jangipur Assembly polls, TMC’s Jakir Hussain defeated the BJP candidate by a margin over 92,480 votes. With these victories, the TMC has increased its tally in the West Bengal Assembly to 219.  TMC had won 213 seats in the Assembly polls but its MLA from Bhabanipur had resigned. Four legislators of the BJP had defected to TMC and three won the by polls on Sunday, taking the tally to 219. The Trinamool Congress chairperson also announced candidates for bypolls for three of the four seats that are scheduled in the first week of October. Chattopadhyay, who had resigned from Bhabanipur to allow the Chief Minister to contest the bypolls, will contest from Khardah seat in North 24 Parganas, and Udayan Guha will contest from Dinhata in Cooch Behar district. The TMC has nominated Braj Kishor Goswami from Sanntipur. The BJP has won Dinhata and Santipur in the 2021 Assembly polls, but two sitting MPs, Nisith Pramanik and Jaganath Sarkar, did not take oath as MLAs from the respective constituencies.

New DGP after consulting Sidhu: Channi 

Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Sunday said that a new Director General of Police (DGP) would be appointed soon in consultation with the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief Navjot Singh Sidhu and other ministers. His comments came hours after Sidhu had tweeted that DGP Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota and Advocate General (AG) Amar Preet Singh Deol must be replaced as their appointments are like rubbing salt on the wounds of the victims of the sacrilege issue. Sidhu’s latest tweet comes just days after Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi reached out to him for a compromise after he sprang a surprise by resigning as the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief to protest against these appointments. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a government programme to announce debt waiver for farm labourers and landless farmers, the Chief Minister said, as mandated by law, the State government has already forwarded the names of all senior police officers with 30 years of experience to the Centre. Now, it is awaiting the Centre’s clearance to a panel of three names from which the new DGP would be appointed, a statement from the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said. The name would be finalised after consultation with Sidhu, and all the ministers and MLAs, the CMO statement added. Channi also told reporters that a coordination committee has been constituted for better coordination between the government and the PCC. Earlier, in the day, Sidhu had tweeted that not replacing the DGP and the Advocate General would leave the Congress with no face. Demand for Justice in sacrilege cases and for arrest of main culprits behind the drug trade brought our Govt in 2017 & Due to his failure, People removed the last CM. Now, AG/DG appointments rub salt on wounds of victims, they must be replaced or we will have No face, Sidhu tweeted. In an attempt to placate him, the Channi government appointed R.S. Bains as Special Public Prosecutor to handle all the sacrilege-related cases. However, Sidhu, whose status as the PCC chief is still not clear as he has not formally withdrawn his resignation, seemed to harden his stance a day after his tweet that he would stand by the Gandhis, post or no post. Will uphold principles of Gandhi Ji & Shastri Ji … Post or No Post will stand by @RahulGandhi & @priyankagandhi ! Let all negative forces try to defeat me, but with every ounce of positive energy will make Punjab win, Punjabiyat (Universal Brotherhood) win & every punjabi win !! he had tweeted on Saturday. The cricketer-turned-politician, who has made the Bargari sacrilege issue the main poll plank ahead of next year’s Assembly polls, wants the DGP and AG changed for their roles, respectively, in the sacrilege issue. His objection to Deol is that he defended the former Punjab police chief Sumedh Singh Saini, an accused in the Behbal Kalan police firing case of 2015. Sahota has earned Sidhu’s ire as the head of a Special Investigation Team on the sacrilege issue that reportedly gave the Badals a clean chit.

Cruise ship drugs party: NCB arrests Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan 

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Sunday arrested Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, in connection with the seizure of banned drugs onboard a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast. Aryan Khan would be produced before a metropolitan magistrate’s court shortly. Advocate Satish Maneshinde would be representing Aryan Khan in court. Aryan Khan has been booked under various sections of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) for possession and consumption of banned substances. He and seven others were detained late Saturday night by NCB sleuths after they raided the cruise ship on its way from Mumbai to Goa.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS 

Google removes 93,550 content pieces in August in India, shows compliance report 

Google received 35,191 complaints from users and removed 93,550 pieces of content based on those complaints in the month of August, the tech giant said in its monthly transparency report. In addition to reports from users, Google also removed 651,933 pieces of content in August as a result of automated detection. Google had received 36,934 complaints from users and removed 95,680 pieces of content based on those complaints in July. It had removed 5,76,892 pieces of content in July as a result of automated detection. The U.S.-based company has made these disclosures as part of compliance with India’s IT rules that came into force on May 26. Google, in its latest report, said it had received 35,191 complaints in August from individual users located in India via designated mechanisms, and the number of removal actions as a result of user complaints stood at 93,550. These complaints relate to third-party content that is believed to violate local laws or personal rights on Google’s significant social media intermediaries (SSMI) platforms, the report said. Some requests may allege infringement of intellectual property rights, while others claim violation of local laws prohibiting types of content on grounds such as defamation. When we receive complaints regarding content on our platforms, we assess them carefully, it added. The content removal was done under several categories, including copyright (92,750), trademark (721), counterfeit (32), circumvention (19), court order (12), graphic sexual content (12) and other legal requests (4). Google explained that a single complaint may specify multiple items that potentially relate to the same or different pieces of content, and each unique URL in a specific complaint is considered an individual item that is removed. Google said in addition to reports from users, the company invests heavily in fighting harmful content online and using technology to detect and remove it from its platforms. This includes using automated detection processes for some of our products to prevent the dissemination of harmful content such as child sexual abuse material and violent extremist content. Under the new IT rules, large digital platforms with over 5 million users will have to publish periodic compliance reports every month, mentioning the details of complaints received and action taken thereon. The report needs to also include the number of specific communication links or parts of the information that the intermediary has removed or disabled access to in pursuance of any proactive monitoring conducted using automated tools. Recently, Facebook and WhatsApp also released their compliance reports for the month of August. Facebook said it had actioned about 31.7 million content pieces across 10 violation categories proactively during August in the country, while its photo-sharing platform Instagram took action against about 2.2 million pieces across nine categories during the same period proactively. In its report, WhatsApp said it had banned over two million accounts in India, while 420 grievance reports were received by the messaging platform in the month of August.

 

Shringla visits Trincomalee oil tank farm, key India-Sri Lanka economic partnership link.

Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla on Sunday visited the World War II-era oil storage facility in the strategically advantaged port district of Trincomalee in Sri Lanka’s east coast, which has been a key bilateral economic partnership link for decades. The Trincomalee Harbour, one of the deepest natural harbours in the world, was developed by the British during the World War II. Since 2003, the Lanka IOC, (LIOC) the Sri Lankan subsidiary of India’s oil major Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), has the leasing rights to 99 tanks at the facility for a period of 35 years for an annual payment of $100,000. According to the Indian High Commission, the LIOC briefed Foreign Secretary Shringla about the developments undertaken at the tank farm and the possibilities for further strengthening India and Sri Lanka energy partnership to enhance Sri Lanka’s energy security. The Indian mission also tweeted pictures of Shringla at the Trincomalee oil tank farm. Foreign Secretary @harshvshringla was happy to be with LIOC for the launch of LIOC’s new product – ‘Servo Pride ALT 15W-40’ during the visit, it said in a tweet. His visit to the site assumes significance as oil sector trade unions in Sri Lanka have demanded that tanks be brought under the control of the state fuel entity Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC). As per the agreement, the IOC was also given one-third share of the Sri Lankan government entity, Petroleum Storage Limited. However, the CPC trade unions had been pressing for the takeover of the tanks. Initially, the CPC wanted to develop 25 of the tanks by investing USD 25-30 million. The CPC maintains that it will allow them to strengthen their oil storage and distribution in the north and eastern provinces while allowing stock maintenance to suffice 2-3 months. Shringla arrived in Sri Lanka on Saturday on a four-day visit during which he will meet the top leadership, including President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, and review the bilateral ties between India and the island nation

 NATIONAL NEWS 

Prices of petrol, diesel and cooking gas soar again

The price of petrol in Delhi rose to its highest ever level of ₹102.14 a litre and to ₹108.19 in Mumbai, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers, making it the fourth time the government has effected a price hike, which is sure to have a cascading effect on the prices of other essential commodities. Petrol and diesel prices soared high across the country on Saturday after rates were hiked again by 25 paise and 30 paise a litre, respectively. The CNG price too was hiked by Rs 2.28 per kg and that of cooking gas by Rs 2.10 in Delhi. Along with petrol price hike, Diesel rates touched a record high of ₹90.47 in Delhi and ₹98.16 a litre in Mumbai. The price hike follows international oil prices soaring to near three-year high as global output disruptions forced energy companies to draw more crude oil out of their stockpiles. The fourth increase in its rates this week has sent petrol prices above ₹100 in most major cities of the country. Similarly, the seventh increase in prices in nine days has shot up diesel rates above ₹100 mark in several cities in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) resumed daily price revisions on September 24 after international oil prices neared a three-year high. Global benchmark Brent crude is trading above $78 per barrel. India is dependent on imports to meet nearly 85% of its oil needs and so benchmarks local fuel rates to international oil prices.

Uncle and nephew cannot use the same party symbol, says EC

The Election Commission stepped into the uncle and nephew feud of the Lok Janshakti Party by passing an order that both factions of the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), led by Union Minister Pashupati Kumar Paras and Lok Sabha MP Chirag Paswan, would not be allowed to use the party’s name or symbol for the upcoming Bihar Assembly by-polls. The interim order would cover the period of the by-elections to Kusheshwar Asthan and Tarapur Assembly constituencies and continue till the EC makes a final determination of the dispute, the order said. The two sides had staked claim to the LJP name and symbol, but with the last date for nominations of candidates for the by-polls being October 8, the EC said that the time available is not adequate to ensure the due process. Paswan had in his oral submission on October 1 sought a decision before October 8, the order said. The elections were announced on September 28 and polling is scheduled for October 30.  The EC said …in order to place both the rival groups on even keel and to protect their rights and interests, and going by the past precedence, both groups would not be permitted to use the LJP name and bungalow symbol, which is reserved for the party in Bihar. The two groups could choose names of their own and pick symbols from the list of available symbols notified by the EC, the EC said. The groups were asked to submit the names and three choices of symbols by Monday afternoon. In addition, they were asked to submit documents supporting their claim to represent the party by November 5. After the death of LJP founder Ram Vilas Paswan last year, his son, Chirag Paswan, and his brother, Paras, both staked claim to the party leadership.  Paras wrote to the EC on June 14 claiming to be the LJP leader in Parliament, the order stated. Chirag Paswan informed the EC in a series of letters about the party suspending five MPs, including Paras. Chirag Paswan reiterated his claim of being the party president on September 10, the EC said.  

Government clears seven names as HC judges

Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana on Saturday said the government has so far cleared seven of the 106 names recommended as High Court judges by the Supreme Court Collegium since May. Of the nine new Chief Justices of various High Courts suggested by the Collegium to the government from May, the latter has cleared one. Since May, my team so far has recommended appointment of 106 Judges and nine new Chief Justices to various High Courts. The government has cleared seven names out of the 106 judges and one out of the nine Chief Justices, so far. I expect that the government will clear the rest of the names very soon, Chief Justice Ramana said. The CJI, however, remarked that Law Minister Kiren Rijiju has agreed to process the rest of the names in a short while. Chief Justice Ramana was speaking at the inaugural function of the six-week ‘The Pan India Legal Awareness and Outreach Campaign’ organised by the National Legal Services Authority. The CJI’s speech was made in the presence of President Ram Nath Kovind,  Rijiju and Supreme Court judges and Collegium members Justices U.U. Lalit and A.M. Khanwilkar. The CJI said the appointments, as they come through from the government side, would take care of the issues of pendency in the High Courts to some extent. I seek the cooperation and support of the government to enable access to justice and to strengthen democracy, Chief Justice Ramana said. The CJI said the endeavour of the nation should be to carry the flag of justice to its remotest corner and to the weakest person. Chief Justice Ramana said inclusive growth can only be attained through equal and inclusive access to justice. Unequal access to justice leads to greater gaps in social fabric. Apart from pendency, vacancies and piling up of thousands of cases, the pandemic has exposed some deep-rooted problems in society. Lack of health care, eviction from home and uncertainty about one’s next meal — all these overflow from absence of justice, Chief Justice Ramana said. President Kovind commended the legal service authorities for reaching out to the poorest in the country. He emphasised the need to have more women lawyers participating in legal aid services to bring legal relief to more women. As a country, our aim is to graduate from ‘women development’ to ‘women-led development’. Therefore, increasing the number of women in National Legal Services Institutions is as important as reaching out to the largest possible number of women beneficiaries, the President said. The CJI said socio-economic growth would be impossible to achieve without equal access to justice.

Baghel firmly in saddle

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel was appointed as senior observer for Congress ahead of the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, settling once for all the question of  Baghel’s continuation in the Chief Minister’s chair.  State Health Minister TS Singh Deo had staked claim for the CM’s post invoking a promise made in 2018 by then party president Rahul Gandhi agreeing to a rotational tenure between him and Baghel. As per the arrangement, the Chief Minister’s post was supposed to go to him on June 18, the halfway mark of five-year tenure of the government. That is unlikely to happen any time now. The appointment of Baghel as senior observer is not entirely unexpected for the CM had played an active role as a senior observer ahead of the Assam Assembly elections. His close associate Rajesh Tiwari was appointed as the AICC secretary in the State assisting general secretary in-charge Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Baghel’s political advisor Vinod Verma has also been stationed in U.P. for more than one month now.  The Congress needs an OBC face, specifically a Kurmi leader. Baghel fits in that role. His appointment sends a clear message that the party values him, a senior leader close to Baghel said.  The timing of the appointment is equally significant for Team Baghel. On August 27, at the end of a four-hour long meeting with former party president Rahul Gandhi, Baghel had announced that Mr. Gandhi would be visiting Chhattisgarh. His impending visit had started to be seen as a stock taking exercise to weigh in on the question of Baghel vs Mr. Singh Deo. The fact that the appointment comes before his visit clearly shows the trust he and the leadership bestows on the Chief Minister, the leader said.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS 

India, China militaries may hold talks next week, says Naravane

India and China may be having their 13th round of senior military commander level talks next week to resolve the boundary stand-off at eastern Ladakh, Chief of the Army Staff Gen M M Naravane said on Saturday, after asserting that China enhanced their troop presence along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). We’re hopeful of having the 13th round of (Corps Commander level) talks in the second week of October and reaching a consensus on how disengagement will take place, Gen Naravane said in an interview to news agnecy ANI after taking stock of the Army’s operational preparedness on the ground. The Army Chief noted an increase in the People’s Liberation Army’s presence along the disputed boundary but observed that India matched them in equal strength. Chinese (troops) have been deployed in considerable numbers all across eastern Ladakh and northern front right up to our Eastern Command. Definitely there has been an increase in their deployment in the forward areas, which remains a matter of concern for us, he said. But we are monitoring all their developments. Based on whatever inputs we get we are carrying out matching developments in terms of infrastructure. At the moment, we are quite well poised to meet any eventuality. Each side has currently deployed 50,000-60,000 troops in areas close to the LAC. Since April 2020, the Indian and PLA troops have engaged in a sensitive face off at several locations at eastern Ladakh including the Galwan valley that witnessed a brutal hand-to-hand combat between the two sides leading to the death of 20 Indian soldiers and a large number of Chinese troops. After long negotiations over months, the two sides mutually withdrew front line troops from the northern and the southern banks of Pangong Tso as well as from the face-off point at Gogra Post. But the stand-off remained unresolved in other locations along the LAC. Asked about the disengagement through bilateral talks, Gen Naravane said: By and by, all friction points will get resolved. I am of the firm opinion that we can resolve our differences through dialogue. I am hopeful we will be able to achieve results. Meanwhile, to improve its firepower, the Indian Army deployed the K-9 Vajra made-in-India howitzers in eastern Ladakh. More than 100 such guns have been inducted in the Army and there are plans to buy more. We have inducted an entire regiment and it adds to our firepower, Gen Naravane said. The Army also deployed light weight M-777 howitzers in the eastern sector of the LAC. The Army Chief also attended an event in which India’s largest flag, covering an area of 33,750 sq ft and weighing 1,400 kg, was unfurled atop a high mountain overlooking the Leh valley to commemorate Gandhi Jayanti and the 75th anniversary of India’s independence.

 

Gandhi Museum inaugurated at Noakhali in Bangladesh

On the occasion of the 152 birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the renovated Gandhi Museum was inaugurated at the historic Gandhi Ashram Trust at Noakhali in Bangladesh. The inauguration was done by the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh Dr A K Abdul Momen, Law Minister Advocate Anisul Huq and High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh Vikram Doraiswami. The renovation of the Museum housed inside the Gandhi Ashram campus has been supported by India. The guests visited the Gandhi Memorial Museum and appreciated the unique display of memorabilia and artefacts related to Mahatma Gandhi. A seminar on the theme of Ahimsa, Satyagraha and the Mahatma – Revisited was also organised to commemorate the International Day of Non-Violence and the 152nd Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi at Gandhi Ashram, Noakhali as part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations. The event was also attended by former Minister for Cultural Affairs, Asaduzzaman Noor, MP, Aroma Dutta, MP, Tuomo Poutiainen, interim UN Resident Coordinator and ILO Country Director among other dignitaries. A large number of common people from the nearby areas participated enthusiastically in the programme. Speaking at the occasion, High Commissioner Vikram Doraiswami said that Gandhiji’s life and his message holds relevance even today. He recalled the remarks made by Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina during a UN event organized to commemorate 150 years of Mahatma Gandhi in 2019. She had said that Gandhiji’s love for common people and ideals of non-violence contributed to shaping Bangabandhu’s vision of struggle against oppression and tyranny perpetrated by the then regime of Pakistan. Foreign Minister Dr. A K Abdul Momen recalled the influence of Mahatma Gandhi on Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. He highlighted the continuing relevance of Gandhi’s principles of truth, non-violence, communal harmony and his deep environmental concern. A dance drama based on Rabindranath Tagore’s Chandalika was specially presented by Spandan Cultural Center from Dhaka on the occasion. Mahatma Gandhi had visited Noakhali in 1946-47. He toured hundreds of villages during his four month stay in Noakhali to establish peace in the area which was suffering communal violence in those days. Gandhi Ashram Trust was established to propagate the Gandhian ideals of peace, non-violence and communal harmony.

NATIONAL NEWS 

CJI for forming special panels led by HC CJs to probe plaints against ‘atrocities’ by police, bureaucracy

Chief Justice of India (CJI) N.V. Ramana said he was in favour of forming standing committees headed by the Chief Justices of the High Courts to investigate complaints received from the common man of atrocities committed by the bureaucracy, especially police officers, in the country. The CJI’s oral observation comes even as police officers are in the spotlight for committing serious crimes. Recently, police officers in Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh have been accused of causing the death of a businessman during a raid in a hotel. In Tamil Nadu, the CBI had charge-sheeted nine policemen for the custodial deaths of the father-son duo, P. Jayaraj and J. Benicks. There have been instances in which district administration officers were recorded on video physically manhandling citizens during the lockdown. We are very disturbed by what the bureaucracy, particularly police officers, are doing… I was in favour of forming standing committees led by Chief Justices of High Courts to look into complaints of atrocities committed by bureaucrats, especially police officers, in this country, Chief Justice Ramana said in court. The observation came when the court was reserving judgment on petitions filed by suspended Additional Director General of Police Gurjinder Pal Singh in Chhattisgarh. He had sought protection from arrest in various criminal cases, including sedition, extortion and criminal intimidation, arraigned against him by the current government. The court recently made oral observations in the case about how police officers act with impunity with one government but have to pay back with interest when there is a regime change. It had, in an earlier instance, wondered at the plight of police officers caught between rival political parties who come to power one after the other. The Bench had highlighted how police officers become targets of political vendetta, stating that it was a sad state of affairs. The CJI said orally, When a political party is in power, police officers side with a particular party. Then when a new party comes into power, the government initiates action against those officials. The court stated that this new trend needed to be checked in its tracks. The court had granted Singh protection from arrest in the sedition case. Senior lawyers F.S. Nariman and Vikas Singh appeared for him and the State government was represented by senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Rakesh Dwivedi. Cases of sedition and other offences were lodged against Singh by the Congress-led Chhattisgarh government.

Farmers strangulating New Delhi with protests against farm laws, says Supreme Court 

The Supreme Court on Friday accused farmers of strangulating the city [New Delhi] with their protest against farm laws. A Bench led by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar was hearing a petition filed by Kisan Mahapanchayat, a farmers’ body, for a direction to the Delhi Police to permit them to go on ‘satyagraha’ at the iconic Jantar Mantar in the heart of the national capital. On one hand, you have been strangulating the entire city and blocking highways… now you want to enter the city and protest here? Justice Khanwilkar lashed out at the farmers’ body. The Bench asked why the farmers’ organisations continued with protests even after the laws were under challenge or sub judice in the Supreme Court. Are you then protesting against the judiciary? Once you have approached the court, let the law take its own course… But, instead, you continue with the protests and block the national highways… You have to trust us, Justice Khanwilkar, flanked by Justice C.T. Ravikumar, chided the farmers’ organisation. Justice Khanwilkar asked the farmers whether they had taken the permission of citizens who live near the protest sites on the national highways and public roads. Have you taken permission of the citizens living nearby? There is a right to protest, but there is a right to use public roads and free movement… You are even obstructing defence personnel’s movement. You block trains and then say you are protesting peacefully. There is no point in continuing to protest once you have come to the court, Justice Khanwilkar said. The Mahapanchayat’s counsel, advocate Ajay Choudhary, said the police had blocked the highways and not the farmers. The farmers only stressed on their right to protest peacefully. The Bench directed the petitioner to serve an advance copy of their petition to the Attorney-General and listed the case for Monday. The court also ordered the organisation to file an affidavit declaring they are not part of the protest being carried out, blocking the highways. Kisan Mahapanchayat has argued that the patently discriminatory, arbitrary and unreasonable action of the Delhi Police in preventing it from holding peaceful, unarmed and non-violent Satyagraha at a designated place in Jantar Mantar is in violation of basic democratic rights enunciated as fundamental rights under the Constitution.

Amarinder Singh, Harish Rawat in war of words as Congress crisis continues 

Amid the ongoing crises in the Congress party’s Punjab unit, the party’s State affairs in-charge Harish Rawat and former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Friday were embroiled in a war of words. After Rawat accused Capt. (retd.) Amarinder of failing to keep his promises on important issues and insisted that the latter was never humiliated in the Congress, the former chief minister rejected the claims, saying they were clearly prompted by the pathetic situation the party now found itself in Punjab after being on a winning spree for four and a half years. Three weeks before stepping down as CM, I had offered my resignation to Sonia Gandhi but she had asked me to continue, said Capt. Amarinder, adding that the humiliating manner in which he was pushed into resigning just hours before the CLP meeting that was clearly convened to oust him, was a matter of public record. The world saw the humiliation and the insult heaped on me, and yet Rawat is making claims to the contrary, he said, adding If this was not humiliation then what was it? The ex-CM of Punjab recalled that Rawat himself had publicly stated after meeting him that he was satisfied by his government’s track record on the 2017 poll promises. In fact, the Congress in-charge of Punjab had categorically stated, as recently as September 1, that the 2022 elections would be fought under his (Captain Amarinder’s) leadership and the high command had no intention of replacing him, he pointed out. So how can he now claim that the party leadership was dissatisfied with me, and if they were, then why did he deliberately keep me in the dark all this time? he said. On Rawat’s remarks that he [Capt. Amarinder] seemed to be under pressure, the former Chief Minister said the only pressure he had been under for the past few months was that of his own loyalty to the Congress, because of which he continued to tolerate insult after insult.

GoM to decide on winning bidder for Air India 

A Group of Ministers (GoM) led by Union Home Minister Amit Shah will meet soon to take a decision on the winning bidder for Air India, a top government official said. Air India Specific Alternative Mechanism [AISAM] will meet soon to decide, the official told The Hindu. AISAM is the name given to the GoM headed by Shah. It includes Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia. The statement means that while a decision has been taken on who has bagged Air India by the Committee of Secretaries, it is yet to be approved by the GoM. Earlier this month, Tata Sons and a grouping led by SpiceJet’s Ajay Singh placed their financial bids for Air India. The government will divest its 100% stake in Air India, Air India Express, and a 50% stake in ground handling company AISATS. The bids for the national carrier are being sought at enterprise value instead of equity value as the government had changed the bidding parameter for Air India. As per the plan, 15% of the total enterprise value will have to be paid upfront in cash to the government and the rest will be used to reduce the debt burden on the airline.

Process of renunciation of Indian citizenship simplified 

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has simplified the process for Indians who want to renounce their citizenship. Provisions have been made for applicants to upload documents online, with an upper limit of 60 days for the renunciation process to be completed. Over 6.7 lakh Indians renounced their citizenship between 2015-19, the Lok Sabha was informed in February. In 2018, the MHA revised the Form XXII under the Citizenship Rules for declaration of renunciation of citizenship, which for the first time included a column on circumstances/reasons due to which applicant intends to acquire foreign citizenship and renounce Indian citizenship. An official familiar with the subject said there was no sudden surge in the number of applications to renounce citizenship but the online process has been initiated to check fraudulent documents and reduce the compliance burden. As many as 1,41,656 Indians renounced their citizenship in the year 2015, while in the years 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, the numbers stood at 1,44,942, 1,27,905, 1,25,130 and 1,36,441, respectively. The Ministry issued new guidelines on September 16 stating that the form, after being filled online, has to be downloaded, signed and submitted at the District Magistrate’s office, if the applicant is in India, or at the nearest Indian mission, if she or he is in a foreign country. The applicant will also be interviewed by the DM before the certificate is issued, the Ministry said. Other than the passport, the applicant also needs to submit proof of address and proof of payment of fee. The Ministry stated that once a copy of the form had been received, the entire process for issuance of renunciation certificate would take 60 days after verification of documents. According to the 2009 Citizenship Rules, the fee to renounce citizenship for an applicant in India is ₹5,000, and for someone applying through an Indian mission in a foreign country is ₹7,000. The guidelines said that when a person ceases to be a citizen of India under Section 8(1) of Citizenship Act, 1955, every minor child of that person shall thereupon ceases to be a citizen of India. The minor child may, however, within one year of attaining full age apply to resume Indian citizenship. The guidelines are not clear if minors would also lose citizenship if only one of the parents gives up her/his Indian citizenship.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS 

India slaps tit-for-tat travel curbs on U.K. nationals 

India on Friday imposed reciprocal quarantine measures on citizens of the United Kingdom. Sources said the new regulations will enforce a 10-day quarantine on all British nationals in the way that the UK currently enforces similar quarantine measures on fully vaccinated Indian nationals. The new measures will come into effect from October 4, indicating that India-UK negotiations over the latter’s 10-day mandatory quarantine requirement have broken down. Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla had first mentioned the possibility of imposing reciprocal measures on September 21 as the UK had not relaxed the quarantine requirement till then. According to the new regulations, all British nationals arriving in India from the UK, irrespective of their vaccination status, will have to undertake pre-departure COVID-19 RT-PCR test within 72 hours before travel, followed by similar tests upon arrival at the Indian airport which is to be followed by another RTPCR test on the 8th day after arrival in India. That apart, the British travellers to India will have to be in mandatory quarantine at home or in the destination address for 10 days after arrival in India. The deepening dispute regarding vaccination certificates and the quarantine period has cast a shadow on expected high level visits from London to India. Sources explained that the move will not affect the Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) staying in the UK with permits but is likely to affect PIOs and OCI-card holders as they may be citizens of the UK. The new measures have been imposed though there is no tourist traffic from the UK to India at the moment as New Delhi has not resumed issuing tourist visas. However, it is understood that the Indian move is being perceived as unexpected by the British side which had witnessed some positive progress in the dialogue over relaxing the UK’s quarantine requirement for Indian citizens. Informed Indian sources have, however, told The Hindu that the UK can make the necessary adjustments in its policy by October 4. The Indian announcement comes days after the UK recognised Covishield vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India but retained the 10-day quarantine period for fully vaccinated travellers from India, which intensified the rift between the two sides. The UK had moved India from the ‘Red List’ to the ‘Amber List’ on August 8, reopening tourist visas for Indian travellers but maintained that the 10-day quarantine period would remain in place. British sources had earlier said that there were no issues related to the Covishield vaccine but there are technical difficulties that were preventing the UK from connecting with the Indian side, which is a requirement for verifying vaccination certificates.

 

India, US to set up joint working group on defence industrial security

As Chinese and Russian cyber-spies increase snooping via the internet to pick up American defence secrets, including stealth and long-range unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology, the US and Indian defence industrial establishments are developing joint protocols to block any leakage of classified information from their communications. To formalise and refine their joint security protocols, Washington and New Delhi held a five-day Industrial Security Agreement (ISA) summit that began on Monday and ended on Friday in the national capital. The summit was led by Designated Security Authorities (DSAs) from both sides. The Indian DSA is Anurag Bajpai from the Ministry of Defense (MoD), while the American DSA is David Paul Bagnati. The two sides reached an In principle agreement to establish an Indo-US Industrial Security Joint Working Group, said an Indian MoD statement on Friday. The Group is to meet regularly to align policies for defence industries to collaborate on critical defence technologies, it said. The US-India framework for industrial technology security began with an agreement termed General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA), which was signed on January 17, 2002 between the Indian and US defence ministers of that time, George Fernandes and Donald Rumsfeld. GSOMIA 2002 prescribes security standards and protocols for safeguarding information shared by the Pentagon with India’s defence ministry; and by US defence firms with Indian defence public sector undertakings (DPSUs). However, GSOMIA does not cover the exchange of classified information with Indian private industry. Washington wanted this covered too, given New Delhi’s emphasis on the proposed strategic partnership (SP) model of procurement. The SP model involves the manufacture of defence equipment by Indian private firms, using technology supplied by American original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). For this, Washington asked New Delhi to sign an annexure to GSOMIA 2000, which would cover the Indian private sector. That agreement, called the Industrial Security Agreement (ISA), was signed in December 2019. Now that is being taken further. During the summit, both sides agreed in principle to establish the Indo-US Industrial Security Joint Working Group. This group will meet periodically to align the policies and procedures expeditiously that will allow the (two countries’) defence industries to collaborate on cutting edge defence technologies, stated the Indian MoD on Friday. The DSAs also visited selected Indian defence industries to prepare for setting up a roadmap. GSOMIA 2000 is not a public document. It is one of four agreements – initially termed foundational agreements by Washington, but subsequently toned down to enabling agreements – that US legislation requires for facilitating deeper defence cooperation with India. A second agreement, the Logistic Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) that facilitates mutual logistical inter-dependence, was signed in 2016 and the Communications Compatibility and Security Arrangement (COMCASA) in 2018. The last of the four — the so-called Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) for Geospatial Intelligence – was signed last October. This allows India’s military to access a range of US topographical, nautical and aeronautical data that enables more accurate missile and long-range unmanned airborne vehicle guidance and targeting.

NATIONAL NEWS 

I’m leaving Congress but not joining BJP, says Amarinder

Former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Thursday made it clear that he would be leaving the Congress party as he felt ‘humiliated’ by the leadership that had replaced him with Charanjeet Singh Channi. He more or less ruled out joining the BJP as well, despite his much-talked about meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday evening. I will resign will not stay in the party, he said in a statement released by his team, and clarified that he was still thinking through his options in the interest of Punjab and its security. I will not be treated in this humiliating manner…I will not take such insults, his statement quoted him as saying, adding that his principles and beliefs do not allow him to stay in the Congress. Singh met National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Thursday morning, where he said he talked about the security situation in the sensitive border State. My experience showed that the people of Punjab tend to vote for a single party/fora, irrespective of the number of parties in the fray. Misgovernance in Punjab would give Pakistan the opportunity to create trouble in the State and in the country, he said, adding that his meeting with Doval was centred on this theme. The long-running farmers’ protest against the three contentious farm laws were issues that he discussed with Shah and tangentially with Doval, as the agitation with no end to the confrontation was inimical to the security of the State. Singh said those undermining the growing Pakistani threat in Punjab were playing into the hands of anti-India forces by being in denial mode, a direct hit at Congress leader Navjyot Singh Sidhu. They [Pak-backed elements] are killing our soldiers every day. They are pushing weapons into the State through drones. How can we overlook such dangers? In his visit to Delhi, which he had said was to just collect his things from Kapurthala House (the official home for the Punjab Chief Minister in Delhi) and hand it over to his successor, Singh managed to delineate his political plans quite clearly. The prospects of Singh floating his own party and even walking away with some Congress MLAs who owe him loyalty seem open. His rhetoric and campaign will rest on not just a narrative of being humiliated by the Congress, but also high nationalism and concern for issues regarding farmers, and most of all, the need to have a stable government that can guarantee security at the borders. The BJP, on its part keen to end its confrontation with farmers’ groups, especially in Haryana and Punjab where its party workers are facing hostility, is eager to press Singh into finding a solution out of the maze of this issue. Singh’s anti-Pakistan, nationalistic credentials also make him a good fit in the BJP’s ideological calculus. For his own party, the Congress, which he is set to exit, Singh had some home truths: Senior Congressmen are the thinkers but they are being sidelined. He condemned the attack on former Union Minister Kapil Sibal’s residence by Youth Congress workers for what he termed choosing to express views that were not palatable to the party leadership. AICC Treasurer Pawan Bansal said, Capt. Amarinder Singh’s assertion that he had been humiliated is not correct. The fact is that most of the 74 Congress MLAs did not want him as CM, yet the party continued with him and only repeatedly requested that he should respect party MLAs’ sentiments regarding Bargari sacrilege, electricity costs, and sand mafia. He failed to act. It was only then that he was asked to resign.

SC asks govt to ensure farmers’ groups are made parties in case The Supreme Court on Thursday said the government had to take the initiative to ensure that organisations of farmers, who are blocking the Capital’s arterial border roads with Uttar Pradesh and Haryana against the Central agricultural laws, were made parties in efforts to resolve the nearly year-old impasse. A Bench led by Justice S.K. Kaul stated that the issue could be resolved either through Parliament debates or in the judicial forum, but the blocking of highways and inconveniencing of commuters cannot go on perpetually. The court was hearing a petition filed by Noida resident Monica Agarwal, who highlighted that the blocks caused by the protests had turned her daily commute between Noida and Delhi a nightmare. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta noted that farmers were refusing to participate in talks before a high-level committee. Sections of highways have become inaccessible due to their protests. He suggested that farmers’ organisations be made parties in the current petition. The court urged the government to take the initiative to make them parties rather than depend on Agarwal and other private citizens. Justice Kaul observed, How will they know which organisations have to be made parties? The Bench asked the government to file an application seeking permission to implead farmers’ bodies in the case. The court listed the case on Monday. The court had consistently taken a nuanced stand on the issue, saying farmers have the right to protest but their agitation should not hinder traffic or public movement. It had pointed out that the solution to end the farmer-government impasse over the three agriculture laws lay with the government. Protesting farmers have been camping on the outskirts of the Capital for over a year. Recently, U.P. and Haryana filed affidavits in the court that said despite sincere efforts, farmers were not relenting.

Supreme Court adjourns Jayalalithaa death inquiry case 

The Supreme Court on Thursday scheduled for October 20 a case concerning the Justice (retired) A. Arumughaswamy Commission of Inquiry into the death of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa in 2016. A Bench of Justices S. Abdul Nazeer and Krishna Murari adjourned the hearing after senior advocate Aryama Sundaram, who appears for Apollo Hospitals where Jayalalithaa died, cited a personal difficulty. Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, for the Tamil Nadu government, raised strong objection to the adjournment. However, the court agreed to hear the case after the Dussera holidays. In the previous hearing, the Inquiry Commission had said that only four witnesses remain to be examined and the panel should be allowed to complete its work and place its fact-finding report before the State Legislative Assembly. In 2019, the court had stayed the inquiry into the death of J. Jayalalithaa after Apollo Hospitals alleged that the Commission, instead of conducting an impartial inquiry, had transformed itself into an adversary. The proceedings before the Commission were stayed by the Supreme Court in April 2019 on the basis of a plea by Apollo Hospitals that the inquiry panel’s functioning was replete with bias. Only four witnesses are left to examine. A fact-finding inquiry report should be presented in the House. The House will then decide… 155 witnesses have been examined… only four more. The inquiry has been pending since 2017, the panel had submitted. In 2019, the court had stayed the inquiry after Apollo Hospitals alleged that the Commission, instead of conducting an impartial inquiry, had transformed itself into an adversary. Sundaram had argued for the hospital that the proceedings before the inquiry panel was causing grave prejudice to the hospital’s reputation. Tamil Nadu had, in 2019, urged the court to not stay the Commission proceedings. However, the Bench had refused to oblige the State and proceeded to freeze the inquiry. The State had appointed the inquiry commission headed by Justice Arumughaswamy, a retired Madras High Court judge, on September 25, 2017. The Commission’s reference was to examine the circumstances which led to the hospitalisation of Jayalalithaa on September 22, 2016 and the nature of treatment given in order to determine the cause of hospitalisation.

Tamil prisoners file Fundamental Rights petition in Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court 

As many as eight Tamil prisoners in Sri Lanka’s Anuradhapura prison on Thursday petitioned the country’s Supreme Court, seeking relief after a ‘gun-wielding’ Prisons Minister allegedly threatened them a fortnight ago. The prisoners stated that they fear for their lives, asking to be transferred to a prison in the Tamil-majority Northern Province. Jaffna parliamentarian and senior lawyer M.A. Sumanthiran will appear for them in the case, media reports said. On September 15, Lohan Ratwatte, who was State Minister of Prison Management and Prisoners’ Rehabilitation, stepped down from the portfolio amid enormous pressure, after allegations of him asking Tamil prisoners to kneel, threatening them at gunpoint, surfaced. Ratwatte is still a junior Minister in the Rajapaksa administration, overseeing the Gem and Jewellery portfolio, although government critics have demanded that he be sacked from all positions, citing the reported incident that sparked much public outrage. In their petition, the prisoners accused the Minister of asking the detainees to stand in a semi-circle and ordered them to kneel before him. He then started to abuse them in Sinhala saying that His Excellency the President had given him all the power in relation to PTA prisoners and that he could either release them or shoot them dead. He had a pistol in his hand and appeared to be intoxicated, the petition stated. The Minister’s office earlier denied any wrongdoing on his part. The eight Tamil men — who have sought relief from the Supreme Court through Colombo-based lawyer Moahan Balendra — are in remand following their arrest under Sri Lanka’s infamous Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). Rights activists and Tamil political leaders have for long demanded repeal of the PTA, pointing to different governments’ tendency to use the law to target dissidents or arbitrarily detain terrorism suspects for long periods without trial. Soon after the violent incident in the prison complex — allegedly involving the Prisons Minister — was reported in the media, the country’s Human Rights Commission started a suo motu investigation. International human rights watchdogs were swift to condemn the Minister’s actions. Human Rights Watch said the incident reflected the disregard for human rights that prevails under the administration of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and in particular the vulnerable position of people held under the PTA.

Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments 

The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 3,37,62,154 with the death toll at 4,48,294. Around 69% of the country’s adult population has received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 25% has taken both doses, the government said on Thursday. It also said that increased population density raises chances of COVID-19 spread and it will be prudent to avoid non-essential travel and observe festivity at low key. The government said that 64.1% doses of COVID-19 vaccine has been administered in vaccination centres in rural areas and 35% in urban areas. A total of 67.4 lakh doses (approximately 0.88%) have been administered at vaccination centres not tagged as rural or urban, it said. It said that 59.66% of the total COVID-19 cases last week were reported from Kerala and the state has over one lakh active cases. The government also stressed that the number of COVID-19 tests has not reduced and 15 to 16 lakh tests are being done every day in the country.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS 

India, Australia agree to conclude free trade agreement by 2022-end. 

India and Australia on Thursday agreed to conclude the long-pending free trade agreement by the end of 2022 and an early harvest trade deal by as early as December. The decision to expedite negotiations for India-Australia Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) between the two countries was taken at a meeting between Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and Australian Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment Dan Tehan. We have agreed on aggressive timelines (for concluding the trade pact), Goyal told reporters at a press conference held jointly with Tehan. India and Australia have decided to conclude an interim agreement or early harvest trade deal by December end. Under the early harvest agreement duties on certain selected items will be reduced. The two sides have decided to have an exchange of offers regarding the proposed CECA agreement by October. The final trade deal, which has been pending for the past several years, will, however, be concluded by 2022-end. This is like a T-20 match, that is why such aggressive timelines. The spirit of this partnership is that both India and Australia work in the same team for a win-win for each other, said Goyal. India-Australia bilateral trade has exceeded AUD 24 billion last year. The proposed trade agreement would cover trade in goods and services, and investment, among others. What we have agreed today is to make sure that we will conclude a free trade agreement between Australia and India by the end of 2022. Now, this Free Trade Agreement will include an interim agreement, which we will seek to finalise by Christmas. It will be consistent with Article 24 of the WTO, and it will cover goods, services, investment, we will begin discussing government procurement energy and resources, logistics and transport, standards, rules of origin and we have agreed to exchange offers by the end of October. Now, this is extraordinarily ambitious, Tehan said. Goyal said that both India and Australia have a very positive interest in expanding trade, which could be kick-started or which could be implemented in the interim, while the contours of the final agreement may take a little longer period of time. The interim agreement or the early harvest deal, he said, will cover areas of immediate interest, you could call them the low hanging fruits. On a question whether past discussions will be taken into account while finalising the CEPA, Goyal said, What has been discussed in the past will always be there before us and help us speed up our negotiations. We will, however, bring in a fresh perspective to the talks. The visiting minister said the current trade between the two countries does not reflect the true extent of the economic partnership. He said that if the trade agreement is reached by 2022, then you would see over the years to come that trading relationship double, and it will double in all areas because the complementarity between our economies is so great.

N Korea Test-Fires Newly Developed Anti-Aircraft Missile

North Korea said Friday it had test-fired a newly developed anti-aircraft missile in the fourth round of weapons firings in recent weeks, even as it pushes to reopen dormant communication channels with South Korea in a small reconciliation step. In September, North Korea resumed its first missile tests in six months but still offered conditional talks with Seoul in what some experts say is an attempt to extract concessions in its nuclear diplomacy with the U.S. Earlier this week, North Korea leader Kim Jong Un expressed his willingness to restore communication hotlines with South Korea in coming days to promote peace on the Korean Peninsula. The Korean Central News Agency said the anti-aircraft missile test is of very practical significance in studying and developing various prospective anti-aircraft missile system. It said the test was aimed at confirming the practicality of operation of the launcher, radar and battle command vehicle as well as the combat performance of the missile. South Korea, Japan and the United States typically publicly confirm North Korean missile launches soon after they occur, but did not do so for Thursday’s test, indicating it may not have been a major weapons test. While Kim said he intended to reopen inter-Korean hotlines during his speech at parliament, he also shrugged off U.S. offers for dialogue as a cunning concealment of its hostility against the North. He also reiterated the North’s demands that South Korea abandon a double-dealing attitude over the North’s missile tests if Seoul wants to see the resumption of talks and major cooperation steps. South Korea has said it would prepare for the restoration of the hotlines, which it called necessary to discuss and resolve many pending issues. The cross-border phone and fax lines have been largely dormant for more than a year. Some experts say North Korea wants South Korea to persuade the United States to ease punishing economic international sanctions on it. Other say North Korea is pressuring South Korea not to criticize its ballistic missile tests, which are banned by U.N. Security Council resolutions, as part of its quest to be recognized internationally as a nuclear power. North Korea also recently has test-fired a new hypersonic missile, a newly developed cruise missile and a ballistic missile launched from a train. South Korea’s military assessed the hypersonic missile to be at an early stage of development, but experts say the two previous missile tests displayed the North’s ability to attack targets in South Korea and Japan, both key U.S. allies that host U.S. troops. The North’s recent tests were in line with Kim Jong Un’s earlier vows to introduce sophisticated weapons and enlarge his nuclear arsenal to defend itself against U.S. hostility — a reference to U.S.-led sanctions on the North and regular military drills between Washington and Seoul that North Korea believes are an invasion rehearsal.