CURRENT AFFAIRS
13 February 2021

NATIONAL NEWS:

 

A) Not conceded any territory as result of agreement with China: Govt. 

India on Friday said it has not conceded any territory as a result of the agreement finalised with China for disengagement of troops in Pangong lake areas in eastern Ladakh. Hours after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged that the government had ‘ceded’ Indian territory to the Chinese, the Ministry of Defence issued a strongly-worded statement, saying the effective safeguarding of the country’s national interest and territory in the Eastern Ladakh sector has taken place because the government reposed full faith in the capabilities of the armed forces. Those who doubt the achievements made possible by the sacrifices of our military personnel are actually disrespecting them, the statement said. The Ministry also made certain clarifications in the statement, and said that the assertion that Indian territory is up to Finger 4 is categorically false. The territory of India is as depicted by the map of India and includes more than 43,000 sq km currently under illegal occupation of China since 1962. Even the Line of Actual Control (LAC), as per the Indian perception, is at Finger 8, not at Finger 4. That is why India has persistently maintained the right to patrol up to Finger 8, including in the current understanding with China, the MoD said. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday told Parliament that as per the provision of the agreement, China will pull back its troops to east of Finger 8 areas in the northern bank of Pangong lake while the Indian personnel will be based at their permanent base at Dhan Singh Thapa Post near Finger 3 in the region. India has not conceded any territory as a result of the agreement. On the contrary, it has enforced observance and respect for LAC and prevented any unilateral change in the status quo, it said. The Ministry also asserted that permanent posts of both sides at the north bank of Pangong Tso are longstanding and well-established. On the Indian side, it is Dhan Singh Thapa Post near Finger 3 and on the Chinese side, east of Finger 8, the MoD said, adding the current agreement provides for cessation of forward deployment by both sides and continued deployment at these permanent posts.

B) PM Modi a coward who can’t stand up to China: Rahul Gandhi. 

Earlier in the day, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of cowardice and giving away Indian territory to China. In a press conference today morning, Gandhi told reporters that Indian territory was up to Finger 4 in the Pangong area where the Indian post used to be located but now the government had agreed to move it back to Finger 3. On Thursday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh informed Parliament that Indian and Chinese troops had agreed on disengagement on both sides of Pangong Tso in a phased, coordinated and verified manner.  The Congress leader said it was China that can claim success, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi had handed over a portion of Bharat Mata [Mother India] to them. Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi addressing a press conference, in New Delhi on Friday. Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi addressing a press conference, in New Delhi on Friday. Why has Prime Minister Modi given up Indian territory to the Chinese? This is the question that needs to be answered by him and the Defence Minister, Gandhi said, adding that the Prime Minister was betraying the sacrifices of our Army. It is about absolutely 100% cowardice to give our holy land. The Prime Minister is a coward who cannot stand up to the Chinese. That’s the fact, and he is spitting on the sacrifice of our Army, asserted the animated Congress leader. Lauding the efforts of the armed forces in protecting the borders, he said none in India should be allowed to undermine them.

C) Consent of the family or clan not necessary when two adults agree to marry: SC.

Educated youngsters are showing the way forward to reduce caste and community tensions in India by going in for inter-caste marriages, the Supreme Court said in a judgment. Educated younger boys and girls are choosing their life partners, which is a departure from the earlier norms of society where caste and community played a major role. Possibly, this is the way forward where caste and community tensions will reduce by such intermarriages, a Bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said in a recent verdict. Justice Kaul quoted B.R. Ambedkar’s Annihilation of Caste, in which the ‘Father of the Constitution’ said that he is convinced that the real remedy is intermarriage. Fusion of blood can alone create the feeling of being kith and kin, and unless this feeling of kinship, of being kindred, becomes paramount, the separatist feeling—the feeling of being aliens—created by caste will not vanish. Even as more and more cases challenging religious conversion laws enacted by several States reach the Supreme Court, Justice Kaul observed in the judgment on February 8 that consent of the family or community or clan is not necessary once the two adult individuals agree to enter into a wedlock and that their consent has to be piously given primacy. 

D) Mallikarjun Kharge to be leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha. 

Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge is all set to become the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Rajya Sabha, as incumbent Ghulam Nabi Azad’s term ends on February 15. There has been no official word from the Congress, but it is learnt that the party has informed the Rajya Sabha Secretariat about Azad’s replacement.Former Law Minister and senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid was among the first leaders to congratulate Kharge. Best wishes to Sh @kharge ji for being appointed as Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Khurshid tweeted. Kharge, known to be a Gandhi family loyalist, was the Congress leader in the Lok Sabha between 2014 and 2019. After losing the 2019 Lok Sabha poll, he was brought into the Rajya Sabha in June last year. Senior leader Anand Sharma, who along with Azad came to be identified with the group of 23 dissenters that had sought a revamp of the Congress in a letter to party chief Sonia Gandhi last August, is the Deputy Leader of the Congress in the Rajya Sabha.

E) SC issues notice on plea alleging Twitter is ‘sympathetic to terrorist groups’. 

The Supreme Court on Friday decided to examine a plea that claimed that Twitter is sympathetic to terrorist groups. A Bench led by Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde issued notice to the government and Twitter Communications India Private Limited on a petition by Vinit Goenka, Prabhari – IT and Social Media Vibhag for BJP Delhi Pradesh. Goenka accused platforms such as Twitter of promoting and circulating prohibited content and hate messages. He said there was no mechanism or law to deal with the problem. Respondent 4 (Twitter) is sympathetic to terrorist groups. Global terror groups like ISIS, Al Qaeda and Indian Mujahideen use the platform of Respondent 4 (Twitter) and other social networking platforms to circulate hate speeches because it helps them avoid detection, the petition, filed through advocate Ashwani Kumar Dubey, contended.

 

F) TMC MP Dinesh Trivedi announces resignation from Rajya Sabha. 

TMC MP Dinesh Trivedi announced his resignation from the Rajya Sabha on Friday, saying he feels suffocated in the House as he is unable to do anything for the violence going on in his state, West Bengal. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP said he was unable to bear what was happening in West Bengal. He is grateful to his party that it has sent him here, but now he feel a little suffocated. They are unable to do anything and there is atrocity (going on). His voice of conscience is saying what Swami Vivekananda used to say arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached, Trivedi said, while announcing his resignation from the House. Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh said there is a due process for resigning from the House and asked Trivedi to submit his resignation in writing to the chairman.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

A) Trump’s lawyers all set to rebut impeachment case. 

Lawyers for Donald Trump take the Senate floor later on Friday to rebut the Democratic led impeachment of the former President for inciting insurrection, with Republican lawmakers then widely expected to vote to acquit him. Democratic impeachment managers rested their case on Thursday after two days of often emotional presentations. Now the Republican property tycoon’s lawyers will get a chance to respond. They are expected to make arguments brief, hastening the Senate verdict.  There’s no reason for them to be out there a long time. As he said from the start of this thing, this trial never should have happened, one of the lawyers, David Schoen, told Fox News. The impeachment team charged Mr. Trump with stoking an insurrection after losing reelection to Joe Biden on November 3. According to the case against him, the former President began to lay the groundwork for the riot within weeks of refusing to concede with claims that he had only lost because of mass voter fraud. On January 6 he staged a fiery rally near the White House, calling on the crowd to march on Congress, which was in the process of certifying Mr. Biden’s victory. Impeachment managers insist that Mr. Trump, who has never expressed remorse for his encouragement of the violent crowd, is so dangerous he should be barred from holding office again. But the former President’s lawyers are set to argue that his speech was rhetorical and that he cannot be held responsible for the actions of the mob. They also argue that the trial itself is unconstitutional because Mr. Trump is now out of office, although the Senate has rejected this claim.

B) Slap sanctions on Myanmar, say UN rights envoy and U.S.

The United Nations human rights investigator for Myanmar on Friday urged the UN Security Council to consider imposing punitive sanctions, arms embargoes and travel bans in response to a military coup. The United States, which imposed its own sanctions on Thursday, urged other UN member states to follow suit, in its first remarks to the Human Rights Council since returning to the forum this Special Rapporteur Thomas Andrews said there were growing reports and photographic evidence that Myanmar security forces had used live ammunition against protesters since seizing power almost two weeks Security Council resolutions dealing with similar situations have mandated sanctions, arms embargoes, and travel bans, and calling for judicial action at the International Criminal Court or ad hoc tribunals, he told the Council. The 47-member forum was meeting at the request of Britain and the European Union to consider a resolution calling for the release of ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and for Mr. Andrews and other UN monitors to be allowed to visit. Russian ambassador Gennady Gatilov said human rights issues should be addressed through open dialogue and cooperation. The special session is clearly not conducive to that attempts to whip up hype around the situation in Myanmar need to cease.

C) Former European bank chief Draghi set to be Italy’s new PM. 

With almost all the political parties behind him, Mario Draghi on Friday entered the final leg in his bid to form a new government to lead Italy through the COVID-19 pandemic. The former European Central Bank chief, called in after the outgoing centre-left coalition collapsed, could visit President Sergio Mattarella as early as Friday to be officially named Prime Minister. Mr. Draghi has spent the last nine days assembling a government of national unity to manage the deadly pandemic that hit Italy almost a year ago, triggering a deep recession. After securing the support late Thursday of the last key player, the populist Five Star Movement (MSS), Mr. Draghi has almost all the main parties on board, from leftists to the far. right League. The Draghi government is born, headlined Rome-based daily II Messaggero, while the Corriere Della Sera said, Draghi in the home stretch. However, the 73 year-old economist has shown he is willing to take his time, and could take a few more days to finalise his cabinet. Italy has high hopes for Mr. Draghi, dubbed Super Mario after vowing to do whatever it takes to save the euro single currency in the 2010s debt crisis.

 

CURRENT AFFAIRS
12 February 2021

NATIONAL NEWS:

 

A) Rajnath Singh confirms troops withdrawal at LAC in Ladakh. 

India and China have reached an agreement for disengagement in the Pangong Lake area to cease their forward deployments in a phased, coordinated, and verified manner and it will substantially restore the situation to what it was before the stand-off last year, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh informed the Rajya Sabha on Thursday. The Chinese side will keep its troop presence in the North Bank area to the east of Finger 8. Reciprocally, the Indian troops will be based at their permanent base at Dhan Singh Thapa Post near Finger 3. A similar action would be taken in the South Bank area by both sides, Singh said in a statement. These are mutual and reciprocal steps and any structures that had been built by both sides since April 2020 in both North and South Bank area will be removed and the landforms will be restored, he said. Further, both sides had agreed on a temporary moratorium on military activities in the North Bank, including patrolling in the traditional areas. Patrolling will be resumed only when both sides reach an agreement in diplomatic and military talks that would be held subsequently, Singh added.The implementation of this agreement started on Wednesday in the North and South Bank of the Pangong Lake. He want to assure this House that in these talks they have not conceded anything, Singh said, while stating that there were still some outstanding issues with regard to deployment and patrolling at some other points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh. These will be the focus of further discussions with the Chinese side.

B) Companies like Twitter should follow Indian law: Ravi Shankar Prasad.

Minister for Information Technology and Communications Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday said global social media platforms such as Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook and others were welcome to work, and earn money in India but they should follow the law and the Constitution of India. Replying to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Prasad said his Ministry had flagged Twitter and called out the microblogging site for double standards, adding that freedom of speech was there but Article 19 (2) of the Constitution added reasonable restrictions because of sovereignty and integrity of India. Why is it that when police act in Washington’s Capitol Hill ransacking, a micro-blogging site stands in their support, but when a similar action is taken at Red Fort, our national pride, the platform opposes it? Freedom of speech is there, but with reasonable restrictions. Why double standards? You cannot spread hate messages such as ‘PM Modi massacre of farmers’, Prasad said animatedly. Twitter and the government of India have been at loggerheads over issues related to content removal and freedom of expression.

C) Delhi HC issues notice on plea seeking court-monitored SIT probe into death of farmer on Republic Day. 

The Delhi High Court on Thursday issued a notice seeking the response of the Delhi government and Delhi police on a plea seeking a court-monitored SIT probe into the death of Navreet Singh, a 25-year-old farmer who died after his tractor overturned during the protesting farmers’ tractor rally on Republic Day, PTI reported. The notice, issued also to the Uttar Pradesh government and the Chief Medical Officer of the DistrictHospital at Rampur, where the post mortem was conducted, was in response to a petition by Singh’s grandfather who has claimed that the victim had suffered gunshot injuries to his head. The court directed the Delhi Police to file a status report with regard to the investigation on or before the next date of hearing on February 26. Advocate Vrinda Grover, appearing for the victim’s grandfather, told the court that the way Delhi Police has conducted itself in the matter does not inspire a shred of confidence. She said that the police abandoned all procedures, like carrying out inquest proceedings, conducting a post mortem and lodging of an FIR, as required under the law, even if it was a case of accidental death. She said the police, instead, seized all the CCTV footage from the area, including from cameras which were closest to the incident site, and only selectively released video recorded from far. It also released a statement to the media, on the evening of January 26, saying that the farmer died due to overturning of the tractor without even carrying out a probe, she told the court. It may be recalled that multiple FIRs in different states, alleging sedition and creation of communal disharmony, had been quickly registered against several journalists, including India Today’s Rajdeep Sardesai, over reports that seemed to cast doubt on the police narrative that Singh had died due to injuries caused by his tractor overturning.

D) ‘Four people run this country’, says Rahul Gandhi, in sharp attack on government. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is running the country on a hum do hamare do (we two, ours two) policy, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said in Parliament today. He alleged that this policy has been evident in all of the dispensation’s major policy decisions, be it demonetisation, the implementation of GST, the Covid-19-related lockdown, and most recently, the three agri laws have triggered farmer protests across the country. You all must remember the saying we used for family planning, ‘Hum do, humare do’. This government has given that slogan a new meaning. The country is run by four people. ‘Hum do, aur humaare do,’ Gandhi said, adding that the intent of the three laws are to allow industrialists to buy unlimited quantity of foodgrains and hoard them as much as they want. The farm laws, he said, will not only ruin farmers, but finish the middlemen and have a devastating effect on small shopkeepers and small businessmen. It will be a massive blow to small and medium enterprise, which will destroy India’s rural economy. Gandhi also led his party members and those from the TMC and the DMK to observe a two-minute silence to mourn the death of 194 farmers who have died during the ongoing farmers’ agitation.

E) CAA will be implemented, says Amit Shah in Bengal rally. 

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said the Citizenship (Amendment) Act will be implemented once the vaccination for COVID-19 is completed. They are a party that keeps their promise, Shah said at a gathering largely comprising people from the Matua sect at Thakaurnagar in the North 24 Parganas district. The CAA is an emotive issue for members of the sect of Hindu refugees from Bangladesh who had voted overwhelmingly for the BJP candidate in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The delay in the implementation has been making them restless. They promised citizenship to Matuas in 2018. In 2019 they supported us. In 2020 we brought the CAA in Parliament, Shah said, adding that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been going to town saying the BJP made a false promise. The Covid-19 crisis came. Mamatadidi started saying it is a false promise and that she won’t allow the implementation of the CAA, Shah said. The Home Minister said he wants to promise the people that as soon as the vaccination process is complete, the BJP government will give citizenship to the Matuas. He also accused all the political parties of misleading the minorities by propagating that they will lose citizenship because of the CAA. As Union Home Minister I want to assure people that not a single Muslim brother or sister will lose citizenship because of the CAA, Shah said. He said the CAA is a legislation to give citizenship and not to take it away. Earlier in the day, the Home Minister addressed a rally in Cooch Behar and flagged off party ‘Parivartan’ yatra. Describing the upcoming Assembly polls as ‘historic’, he said Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will be left chanting Jai Shri Ram after the polls.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS 

A) Biden speaks to Xi on phone, highlights concerns about China’s economic practices. 

U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Wednesday evening (Washington time), the first call between the two leaders since Biden assumed office on January 20. Biden highlighted concerns about Beijing’s economic practices, its human rights record, and assertive actions in the region while affirming his priority of preserving a free and open Indo-Pacific, the White House said in a readout of the call. President Biden affirmed his priorities of protecting the American people’s security, prosperity, health, and way of life, and preserving a free and open Indo-Pacific. President Biden underscored his fundamental concerns about Beijing’s coercive and unfair economic practices, crackdown in Hong Kong, human rights abuses in Xinjiang, and increasingly assertive actions in the region, including toward Taiwan, the White House said. Xi, however, is reported to have said that Hong Kong, Taiwan and Xinjiang are matters internal to China, as per China’s state-run Xinhua news agency. China and the U.S. should jointly safeguard peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region, Xi is reported to have said. The Taiwan question and issues relating to Hong Kong, Xinjiang, etc. are China’s internal affairs and concern China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and the U.S. side should respect China’s core interests and act prudently, Xi said, as per Xinhua. The Biden administration is conducting a review of Trump administration’s trade policies on China as well as a review of the impact of Chinese tech companies on U.S. national security. The administration is also, at least for the moment, not going forward with a Trump administration ban on social media app TikTok and its take-over by a U.S. company, according to reports.

B) China pulls BBC World News off air for content ‘violation’

China’s broadcasting regulator announced on Thursday it has pulled BBC World News from the air, saying the channel’s content had seriously violated guidelines for reporting in the country. In a statement, China’s National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) said BBC World News reports about China were found to seriously violate broadcast guidelines, including the requirement that news should be truthful and fair and not harm China’s national interests. The move comes after the BBC aired a report on February 3 detailing harrowing accounts of torture and sexual violence against Uighur women in Chinese camps. The NRTA does not permit the BBC to continue broadcasting in China, and does not accept its new annual application for broadcast, the statement from Beijing said. The BBC said it was disappointed with the move. The BBC is the world’s most trtßted international news broadcaster and reports on stories from around the world fairly, impartially and without fear or favour, a BBC spokesperson said.

CURRENT AFFAIRS
11 February 2021

NATIONAL NEWS:

 

A) Bhima Koregaon case: Key evidence against accused was planted using malware, says digital forensics report.

A report by Arsenal Consulting, a digital forensic analyst from Chelsea, U.S., has debunked the electronic evidence gathered by the investigating agency against 42-year-old Rona Wilson and 15 others arrested in the Bhima Koregaon violence case, including Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Shoma Sen, Sudhir Dhawale, Arun Ferriera, Vernon Gonslaves, Sudha Bharadwaj and P. Varavara Rao. Arsenal Consulting, which was roped in by the American Bar Association to examine the clone copy of the hard disc of Wilson’s computer, has stated that a hacker controlled his computer for a period of 22 months to plant documents, which led to an investigation that supposedly unravelled a Communist Party of India (Maoist) conspiracy to eliminate Prime Minister Narendra Modi in another Rajiv Gandhi type incident. Wilson has filed a writ petition before the Bombay High Court seeking a quashing of the FIR and chargesheet against him in the light of this report. His petition explains how a hacker exploited the IP addresses provided by one ‘Host Sailor’ and used proxy servers to plant a trojan horse NetWire. This initially subjected Wilson to surveillance, and later on, remotely through the malware, delivered various files, including the incriminating correspondence with other accused. It was this correspondence that was used, first by the Pune Police and later by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), as incriminating evidence against the activists, read the petition. This is one of the most serious cases involving evidence-tampering that Arsenal has ever encountered, the report said. It concludes that ten crucial documents, along with various others used to incriminate all the accused in the case, were planted through malware on Wilson’s device by an unknown person.

B) Twitter withholds some accounts after govt. orders, says in a blog that it won’t block media accounts. 

Twitter on Wednesday said in a blog post that it has withheld a portion of accounts which the Indian government had directed it to block for allegedly spreading misinformation about the farmers’ protest. It, however, added that actions were taken only against selected accounts as Twitter did not believe that the government’s orders were consistent with Indian law. Twitter has been served with several separate blocking orders by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India, under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, the company said in a blog. Out of these, two were emergency blocking orders that we temporarily complied with but subsequently restored access to the content in a manner that we believe was consistent with Indian law. Twitter said that since the government had sent it a notice for non-compliance, it wanted to clarify the steps it took to censor harmful content. The platform had unblocked 250 accounts tweeting with an alleged objectionable hashtag on February 1, just hours after withholding them. In a blog post, the micro-blogging platform said it took a range of enforcement measures, including permanent suspension in certain cases, against more than 500 accounts escalated across all Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) orders for clear violations of Twitter rules.

C) Govt responds to Twitter’s blog post on Koo. 

Amid the ongoing tussle between the government and Twitter, Union Ministers and government departments have been setting up accounts on Koo, a made-in-India alternative to Twitter. Union Minister Piyush Goyal, for instance, on Tuesday announced on Twitter that he is now on Koo. Connect with me on this Indian micro-blogging platform for real-time, exciting and exclusive updates. Let us exchange our thoughts and ideas on Koo. Today, in response to the blog post by Twitter, the government said in a post on Koo, Upon the request of Twitter seeking a meeting with the Govt., the Secretary IT was to engage with senior management of Twitter. In this light a blog post published prior to this engagement is unusual. Govt. will share its response soon.

D) Parliamentary proceedings: PM staunchly defends three farm sector laws. 

Replying in Lok Sabha to the discussion on the motion of thanks to the President’s address to the joint sitting of Parliament, Prime Minister Narendra Modi staunchly defended the three contentious farms laws and attacked the Opposition for misleading farmers, saying those who are disrupting the House are doing so as per a well-planned strategy as they are unable to digest that people can see the truth. Through their games, the trust of the people can never be won, he said, amidst protests by the Opposition members. During his over 90-minute address, the Prime Minister slammed the Congress as a divided and confused party for its different stands in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on the debate. Seeking to allay apprehensions on the farm laws, Modi said neither any agriculture ‘mandi’ (market) has shut down after the three laws were enacted nor has the MSP stopped, rather the MSP has only increased, which no one can deny. The Congress walked out of the Lok Sabha as PM Modi explained the government’s stand on the three farm laws. Noting that the kind of investment farming needs was not happening, Modi said there is a need to bring investment and modernise agriculture to empower the sector.  During the discussion the Union Budget, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor asserted that the government has deceived the people. Government has deceived us in terms of health care allocation. FM said the allocation was 137% on the previous year but she didn’t keep her word. Betrayal of our health care workers who worked tirelessly through the pandemic, he said, adding, No relief in tax rates for middle class. As for the poor, young, aspirational, they too have been failed. MGNREGA allocation slashed by 35% at a time of record unemployment levels. Education budget sees a 6% cut. Sainik Schools are in desperate shape. Any dreams Indians had of good days, was cremated at the altar of the disastrous decision of demonetisation.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS 

A) China’s military claims both sides have begun disengagement from Pangong lake. 

China’s military announced on Wednesday that frontline troops from India and China had begun disengaging from the north and south banks of Pangong Lake, where both sides have been locked in a stand-off for months.At the time of writing, the Indian Army was yet to release a statement on the development. The statement from China’s Ministry of Defence said this followed a consensus reached at the last round of talks between Corps Commanders on January 24. People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Senior Colonel Wu Qian, spokesman for the Ministry of Defence, said in a statement issued in Beijing, According to the consensus reached by the ninth round of the commander-level talks between China and India, the frontline units of the Chinese and Indian armed forces on the south and north banks of Pangong Lake started to disengage synchronously in a planned manner. The Indian Army has, however, not yet confirmed the development.

B) India is an important partner in the Indo-Pacific region, says U.S.

Describing India as one of the most important partners ofthe U.S. in the Indo-Pacific region, the Joe Biden administration on Tuesday said it welcomes India’s emergence as a leading global power. India is one of the most important partners in the lndo-Pacific region for us. We welcome India’s emergence as a leading global power and its role as a net security provider in the region, State Department Spokesperson Ned Price told reporters at his daily news conference. Earlier in the day, Secretary of State Tony Blinken spoke with his Indian counterpart, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, for the second time in less than a fortnight, Mr. Price added, During the call, the two leaders reaffirmed the strength ofthe U.SAndia partnership and discussed issues of mutual concern, including the situation in Myanmar. Mr. Blinken expressed concern over the military coup and the importance of the democratic process in Myanmar. Regional developments They also discussed regional developments, including the value of U.S.-India cooperation across the Indo-Pacific. Both sides look forward to expanded regional cooperation, including through the Quad, and to address the challenges related to COVID-19 and climate change, he said. Responding to a question, Mr. Price said the U.S.-India Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership is both broad as well as multifaceted. The U.S., he said, also remains India’s largest and most important trading partner, with the total bilateral trade increasing to $146 billion in 2019. U.S. companies are a large source of India’s foreign direct investment, he added.

C) Trump’s trial begins with footage of siege. 

Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial began on Tuesday with harrowing video footage of his supporters’ assault on Congress, but Republican Senators made clear how difficult it will be to win a conviction. Senators voted 56-44 in favour ofthe constitutionality of the historic trial, rejecting a bid by Mr. Trump’s Iawyers to throw it out on grounds that a former President cannot be tried by lawmakers. The vote, held before the main part of the trial was to get under way on Wednesday, saw six Republicans join all 50 Democrats in the evenly-divided Senate. Despite this modest show of bipartisanship, the result highlighted the nearly impossible task of getting the two-thirds majority requiring 17 Republicans to join the Democrats that would be needed to convict Mr. Trump of inciting insurrection. Earlier, both sides presented their opening cases, with Democrats arguing that Mr. Trump broke his oath in a naked bid to retain power after losing the November election to Joe Biden. If Congress were to just stand completely aside in the face of such an extraordinary crime against the Republic, it would invite future Presidents to use their power without any fear of accountability, Democratic impeachment manager Joe Neguse said. Video from the January 6 mayhem played back inside the Senate packed the biggest punch. Senators watched footage of Mr. Trump’s speech and the crowd’s siege on the Capitol.

CURRENT AFFAIRS
10 February 2021

NATIONAL NEWS:

A) ED raids premises of News Click and its promoters in Delhi on money laundering charges. 

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on February 9 conducted searches on the premises of a Delhi-based news portal and its promoters on charges of alleged money laundering, official sources said. They said the premises of the website, NewsClick, and its promoters in South Delhi’s Saidullajab and some other areas are being searched. The action is being undertaken to collect additional information to probe money laundering charges against the news company and its promoters, the sources said. They said the probe is linked to some suspect foreign funding. The homes of some of Newsclick’s senior management, including human resources head Amit Chakravarty, editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha, and one of the editors, Pranjal, were also raided. Senior journalists such as Abhisar Sharma, Urmilesh Singh, and Paranjoy Guha Thakurta have been regularly hosted by NewsClick. NewsClick is one of the news platforms that has, over the past three months, been relentless in its close coverage of the farmers protests. It is noted for its focus on working class issues, including labour rights issues, and problems faced by sanitation workers.

B) Uttarakhand flood disaster: Toll rises to 31, 175 remain missing. 

The death toll from the Uttarakhand flood disaster rose to 31, with five more bodies being recovered, officials said on Tuesday as multiple agencies raced against time to reach about 30 workers trapped inside a tunnel in a power project site and 175 people remained missing. Two of the bodies were recovered from the debris in Raini village, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) officials said, two days after a portion of the Nanda Devi glacier possibly burst its banks and triggered an avalanche and floods in the Alaknanda river system. The State Emergency Operation Centre said five bodies were found in the morning, taking the death toll to 31, and estimated that 175 people are still missing. With the hours ticking by inexorably, fears escalated about those missing since the disaster struck on Sunday morning, according to officials who stepped up efforts to locate survivors. The missing people include those working at NTPC’s 480 MW Tapovan-Vishnugad project and the 13.2 MW Rishiganga Hydel Project and villagers whose homes nearby were washed away. Teams of the Army, Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) coordinated efforts to rescue about 30 people who were working in a tunnel at the Tapovan-Vishnugad project when the waters came rushing in. The workers are trapped in the 12-ft-high and about 2.5-km-long ‘head race tunnel’ (HRT). Clearing of debris and slush continued the whole night. About 120 metres of the tunnel entrance stretch is now clear, ITBP spokesperson Vivek Kumar Pandey said in Delhi. The height of the accumulated slush has reduced more. ITBP personnel are waiting to enter as soon as any movement deep inside the tunnel is possible, he said. A senior official added that the rescuers have not been able to make any contact with those stuck inside but are hopeful for signs of life.

C) Modi gives a tearful farewell to Azad; Why can’t he shed some tears for farmers, asks TMC. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi broke down several times in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday while reminiscing about his close association with Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, whose term is coming to an end next week. The prime minister was participating in the farewell speech for Leader of Opposition Azad and three other members from Jammu and Kashmir — Nazir Ahmad Laway, Shamsher Singh Manhas, Mir Mohammad Fayaz — whose terms in the Upper House are coming to an end. Modi said it would be difficult for anyone to fill the shoes of Azad as he cared not only about his political affiliation but also about the country and the House. He worry that after Azad whosoever will take over from him will have to fill very big boots because he cared not only about his party but about the country as well as the House. This is not a small thing, this a big thing, Modi said. Commenting on Modi’s tears, Trinamool Congress MP Saugata Roy said that Farmers have been on an agitation. Why can’t the PM withdraw the bill and not stand on ego? He heard PM cried in the other house. Why can’t he shed some tears for farmers?

D) Kashmir will soon have no representation in Rajya Sabha. 

With the retirement of four MPs this month, the erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir, for the first time, will be left with no representation in the Rajya Sabha. The terms of two PDP Rajya Sabha MPs—Nazir Ahmed Laway and Mir Mohammed Fayaz— are ending on February 10 and 15 respectively, while Azad’s term ends on February 15. BJP MP Shamsher Singh Manhas’ term on February 10. Since J&K does not have an elected Assembly yet and elections are on hold, the Union Territory will remain without a voice in the Upper House of Parliament.

E) More than 6 lakh Indians renounced Indian citizenship in the last five years. 

In the years 2015-2019, as many as 6,76,074 Indians renounced Indian citizenship and took up citizenship of other countries, the Ministry of Home Affairs informed the Lok Sabha today. Interestingly, these are also the years that saw the rise of hyper-nationalism as a major force in national politics and culture. A 2018 report by an investment firm had reported that India had lost 23,000 dollar millionaires since 2014, ranking at top in the list of countries seeing an exodus of the well-to-do.

F) SC panel meets agribusinesses for views on farm laws. 

The Supreme Court-appointed panel to examine the three contentious farm reform laws met representatives of 18 agribusinesses on Tuesday, as part of its consultations with stakeholders. It has previously met some farmers’ associations and farmer-producer organisations that were largely in favour of reforms but is yet to meet any of the unions that have been protesting on Delhi’s borders for two and a half months, demanding the repeal of the laws. At its sixth round of consultations on Tuesday, the panel met representatives of Amul, ITC, Suguna Foods and Venkateshwara Hatcheries, as well as industry lobby groups such as the CII and the FICCI. Other stakeholders who gave their views included associations representing seafood exporters, rice millers and exporters, poultry feed makers, grain and pulses trader , cotton mills and traders, and manufacturers of tractors and fertilisers. State-run bodies such as the Food Corporation of India, the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority and the Marine Products Export Development Authority were also asked to give their views on the laws.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS 

A) Biden underscores desire to defend democratic institutions on call with Modi: White House. 

U.S. President Joe Biden discussed his democratic institutions and norms with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as per a White House readout of the call between the two leaders. While the White House said the two leaders talked about a free and open Indo-Pacific, it also said that Biden underscored his desire to defend democratic institutions and norms around the world. He also noted that a shared commitment to democratic values is the bedrock for the U.S.-India relationship. This is suggestive of an added emphasis in the bilateral relationship, relative to the Trump administration, which had focused on the security aspect, driven in large measure by growing Chinese aggression and assertiveness. The language of the readout is significant in the context of the farmers’ protest around Delhi as this has gained visibility in the U.S., with celebrities and members of the U.S. Congress making references to them on social media. The MEA readout of the call said the two leaders, noted that the India-U.S. partnership is firmly anchored in a shared commitment to democratic values and common strategic interests.

B) Coronavirus unlikely to have leaked from Chinese lab, says WHO team.

The coronavirus is unlikely to have leaked from a Chinese lab and is more likely to have jumped to humans from an animal, a World Health Organisation expert said on Tuesday. WHO food safety and animal diseases expert Peter Ben Embarek made the assessment at the end of a visit to the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where a team of scientists is investigating the possible origins of the coronavirus. The first cases were discovered in the city in December 2019. The Wuhan Institute of Virology has collected extensive virus samples, leading to allegations that it may have caused the original outbreak by leaking the virus into the surrounding community. China has strongly rejected that possibility and has promoted other theories that the virus may have originated elsewhere. The team is considering several theories for how the disease first ended up in humans. Their initial findings suggest that the introduction through an intermediary host species is the most likely pathway and one that will require more studies and more specific, targeted research, Embarek said. However, the findings suggest that the laboratory incidents hypothesis is extremely unlikely to explain the introduction of the virus to the human population. Transmission through the trade in frozen products was also a likely possibility, Embarek said. Along with the institute, the WHO team that includes experts from 10 nations has visited hospitals, research institutes, a traditional market tied to the outbreak and other sites on their visit.

CURRENT AFFAIRS
09 February 2021

NATIONAL NEWS:

 

A) Parliament proceedings: PM sees ‘aandolan jeevi’ and a new ‘FDI’

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday coined two terms, ‘aandolan jeevi’ (professional protesters) and ‘Foreign Destructive Ideology’ to lampoon the Opposition and certain protesters and foreign individuals who have tweeted in support of the ongoing farmers’ agitation. While replying to the Motion of Thanks on the President’s address in the Rajya Sabha, Modi said that India was not merely the world’s largest democracy; it was the ‘mother of democracy’. A new kind of FDI had emerged in the country and it was ‘Foreign Destructive Ideology’. They need to be more aware to save the country from such an ideology, he stated. Modi spoke about a new breed of protesters, ‘aandolan-jeevi’, who could be seen at every agitation. These parasites feast on every agitation. When they are not in the front, they operate from behind the curtains, they cannot survive without agitation, he observed. Calling upon everyone to educate the youth about the glorious history of the country, he said that People who suspect India’s democracy, he want to ask them to learn to understand it. Our democracy is not a western institution, it is a human institution. India’s nationalism should be protected from multiple attacks. Recently, international pop star Rihanna shared a news article of the ongoing farmers agitation on Twitter, asking why it wasn’t discussed enough. This prompted an unusual response from the government: it issued a press statement, stating that it was unfortunate to see vested interest groups trying to enforce their agenda on these protests, and derail them.

B) SKM condemns PM’s remarks, calls it an ‘insult to farmer’

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha, which is spearheading the farmer protests, condemned Prime Minister Narendra’s remarks in Parliament on ‘andolan jeevi’. In a press statement, the SKM condemned PM Modi’s insult to farmers and said, Andolans liberated India from the British and therefore we are proud to be ‘andolan jeevi’. The BJP’s predecessors never did ‘andolan’ against the British and were always against andolans. That’s why they are still scared of public movements. Farmer leader Shiv Kumar Kakka, who is a senior member of the SKM, said they are ready for the next round of talks and the government should tell them the date and time of the meeting. They have never refused to hold talks with the government. Whenever it has called us for dialogue, they held discussions with Union ministers. They are ready for talks with them (government), Kakka said.

C) Super Bowl features 30-second TV advertisement on farmers’ protest.

This year’s Super Bowl, a football championship game that is also one of the most-watched events on American television, featured a 30-second commercial on the ongoing farmers’ agitation in India, terming it the largest protest in history. The advertisement was funded by the Sikh community of Fresno, a city in central California, according to a grateful tweet from the Kisan Ekta Morcha handle, which is the official voice of the protesters. The 30-second spot in this year’s Super Bowl cost $5.5 million, and last year’s viewership of the championship was around 100 million. The commercial begins with a quote from Martin Luther King: Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Images from the farmers’ tractor parade and their border camps are overlaid with text alleging human rights violations against protesters. Punjabi music plays as No Farmers, No Food, No Future flashes on the screen. It includes a message from Fresno mayor Jerry Dyer. They want them to know, their brothers and sisters in India, that they stand with them, he says. Fresno has a large Sikh population, as high as 40,000, according to some local reports. Pop music icon Rihanna’s viral tweet on the protests also gets a mention.

D) Uttarakhand glacier disaster: Death toll crosses 15; setbacks to hydel power projects. 

Rescue operations underway at Tapovan Tunnel, after a glacier broke off in Joshimath causing a massive flood in Chamoli, on February 8, 2021.  At least 15 persons have been killed and over 150 are missing after a portion of the Nanda Devi glacier broke off in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district on Sunday, triggering an avalanche and a deluge in the Alaknanda river system. The sudden flood in the middle of the day in the Dhauli Ganga, Rishi Ganga and Alaknanda rivers all intricately linked tributaries of the Ganga triggered widespread panic and large-scale devastation in the high mountain areas. Two power projects – NTPC’s Tapovan-Vishnugad hydel project and the Rishi Ganga Hydel Project were extensively damaged, with scores of labourers trapped in tunnels as the waters came rushing in. The Uttarakhand glacier burst has caused an estimated loss of ₹1,500 crore at the NTPC’s 480 mw Tapovan-Vishnugad hydel project and has put a question mark on its scheduled commissioning in 2023, Union Power Minister R.K. Singh said on Monday. The minister visited Tapovan on Monday to assess the extent of damage at the project site, a day after the glacier burst in Chamoli district. The project was scheduled to be commissioned in 2023. But there is a question mark now on how long it will take to desilt it as lakhs of tonnes of silt is lying at the project site, Singh told reporters in Tapovan. As of now it is difficult to say when we will be able to resume work at the site and when the project will be commissioned, he said. However, the Union Minister ruled out any possibility of the project being scrapped.

E) SC rejects plea for imposition of President’s rule in Uttar Pradesh. 

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a plea to direct the imposition of President’s rule under Article 356 in Uttar Pradesh, saying the lawlessness, especially against women, is higher than in other States. A Bench led by Chief Justice Sharad A. Bobde asked petitioner-in-person, advocate C.R. Jaya Sukin, the basis of his claim and challenged him to produce his research, comparing the crime rate in Uttar Pradesh with other States, on record. The court asked him how the alleged situation in Uttar Pradesh affected his fundamental rights, prompting him to file the petition. The Bench cautioned him saying it would impose heavy costs on him for wasting time. A lot of extra-judicial killings, arbitrary killings are taking place in Uttar Pradesh, Sukin submitted. Have you studied the crime records of other States? Where is your research? Chief Justice Bobde asked the lawyer. Of the total number of crimes in India, more than 30% are in Uttar Pradesh, Sukin claimed. His petition pointed to several incidents in the recent past, including the alleged gangrape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit girl at Hathras in the State. It also highlighted the detention of Dr. Kafeel Khan, the police excesses in the AMU, the name-and-shame banners of the anti-CAA protesters. Sukin said the State was most unsafe for women. According to the National Crime Record Bureau’s Crime in India 2019 report, Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest number of crimes against women. India reported 4,05,861 cases in 2019 and of these, Uttar Pradesh had 59,853 such incidents, the petition said.

F) HC dismisses Navlakha’s appeal challenging rejection of statutory bail.

The Bombay High Court on Monday dismissed the appeal filed by activist Gautam Navlakha from the Taloja Central Jail, challenging the rejection of his statutory bail by the special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on July 12 in the Bhima Koregaon violence case. A division bench of Justices S.S. Shinde and M.S. Karnik was hearing the appeal filed through senior advocate Kapil Sibal on September 9. Sibal had argued that 34 of days of Navlakha’s house arrest were not considered as detention and the NIA did not file its charge sheet within the stipulated period of 90 days as per the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). Hence Navlakha was eligible for default bail. However, senior advocate SV Raju, appearing for the Central agency, contended that the house arrest period could not be counted. Navlakha was a free man as he was neither in custody nor on bail, he had said. The bench had reserved the order on December 16. As per the charge sheet, Navlakha was involved in secret communications with Communist Party of India (Maoist) cadres.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

A) China calls V.K. Singh’s statement on LAC ‘an unwitting confession’

Responding to Union Minister of State for State Transport and Highways V. K. Singh’s comment on Sunday India has transgressed more times than China along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), but the government does not announce it, China’s Foreign Ministry, at a press conference today described it as an unwitting confession. Let me assure you, if China has transgressed 10 times, we must have done it at least 50 times, Singh has said, adding, Today, China is under pressure, since we are sitting at places (along the border), where it does not like. Asked to respond to this comment, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said that this is an unwitting confession by the Indian side. For a long time, the Indian side has conducted frequent acts of trespass in the border area in an attempt tp encroach on China’s territory and constantly created disputes and frictions, which is the root cause of the tensions at the China-India border. We urge the Indian side to follow through on the consensus, agreements, and treaties it reached with China. The Chinese state’s mouth piece Global Times, in an opinion piece published today, was quick to observe that the latest remarks from Singh not only embarrassed India, but also made the U.S. and other Western countries, which have been endorsing India for a long time, look bad. Just a few days ago, Emily J.Horne, spokesperson of the National Security Council, expressed Washington’s concern over Beijing’s pattern of ongoing attempts to intimidate its neighbors in the new U.S. administration’s first response to the China-India border standoff. Yet Singh quickly proved who the real intimidator is.

B) South Africa sets aside 1 million doses of Covishield sent by India; to use Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines instead. 

South Africa has suspended the use of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 shot, Covishield, in its vaccination programme after data showed it gave minimal protection against mild to moderate infection caused by the country’s dominant coronavirus variant. AstraZeneca’s vaccine is produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII) and marketed under the name Covishield. It is one of the two vaccines – the other being Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin – that India is using in its anti-Covid-19 immunisation programme. South Africa had intended to roll out the AstraZeneca shot to healthcare workers soon, after receiving 1 million doses of it from SII. However, it will now offer vaccines developed by Johnson &Johnson and Pfizer in the coming weeks while experts consider how the AstraZeneca shot can be deployed. From next week for the next four weeks, they expect that there will be J&J vaccines, there will be Pfizer vaccines. So what will be available to the health workers will be those vaccines. The AstraZeneca vaccine will remain with them up until the scientists give them clear indications as to what they need to do, South Africa’s Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said.

CURRENT AFFAIRS
08 February 2021

NATIONAL NEWS:

 

A) Nanda Devi glacier burst: Seven bodies recovered. 

Seven bodies have been recovered and more than 125 individuals are missing after a flash flood, reportedly caused by the splintering of a glacier, hit the site of the Rishi Ganga dam on the Rishi Ganga River in Uttarakhand on Sunday. A small hydro project on the Rishiganga river was also swept away. They will give ₹4 lakh as compensation to the families of the dead. Five local persons are reported to have been swept away in the flash flood. Missing persons are about 125 this figure could be more also, informed Uttarakhand Chief Minister T.S. Rawat at a press conference on Sunday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also approved an ex-gratia of ₹2 lakh each from PMNRF for the next of kin of those who have lost their lives due to the tragic avalanche caused by a Glacier breach in Chamoli, Uttrakhand. ₹50,000 would be given to those seriously injured. At least 12 persons have been rescued so far by the ITBP from an open tunnel, according to a senior National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) official. Five NDRF teams, three of which have been air lifted from Hindon in Ghaziabad, are on way to the disaster site and will join rescue operations by late evening.

B) Forces abroad conspiring to tarnish image of Indian tea: PM. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said some forces abroad were conspiring to tarnish the image of Indian tea. The focus of his speech in poll-bound Assam’s Dhekiajuli, a tea-growing area, was on the tea plantation workers, a major chunk of voters that the Bharatiya Janata Party had weaned away from the Congress ahead of the 2016 Assembly election. He want to tell us about a conspiracy hatched to defame the country. The conspirators have not even spared Indian tea. They are saying the image of Indian tea has to be defamed worldwide, systematically, Mr. Modi said. He was addressing a crowd of largely tea plantation workers after remotely inaugurating and laying the foundation stones of a medical college each in eastern Assam’s Biswanath and Charaideo and Assam Mala, an expansive road project. The evidence that they have suggests the forces are seated abroad, ready to launch an attack on India’s tea-based identity, the Prime Minister said. He added the tea plantation workers and every individual who drank tea would seek an explanation from the political parties for maintaining silence on it. But he want to tell the conspirators that the country won’t allow you to succeed, however much you try. The tea workers will win this battle. Those who are conspiring to launch an attack on Indian tea are not strong enough to confront the strength of their tea workers, Mr. Modi said, without naming the forces.

C) Have full faith in judiciary: Faruqui

Stand-up comedian Munawar Faruqui, who has been released from jail after 35 days in a case of allegedly hurting religious sentiments, has said he has full faith in the judiciary and hopes to get justice. Mr. Faruqui was released from the Indore Central Jail late Saturday night after prison authorities checked Friday’s bail order of the Supreme Court order of the Supreme Court on its website, a jail official earlier said. In a brief video message after he was set free, the 32-year-old comedian said that he don’t want to comment (on the case against him) now. But, he have full faith in the judiciary and he is hopeful of getting justice. Arrested for allegedly hurting religious sentiments, Mr. Faruqui was in the jail since January 1. On Friday, the Supreme Court granted him interim bail after the Madhya Pradesh High Court rejected his bail plea on January 28. The Supreme Court also stayed the production warrant issued against Mr. Faruqui by a court in Prayagraj in connection with an FIR lodged there. However, he was released late Saturday night only after a Chief Judicial Magistrate in Indore rang up the jail authorities and asked them to check the Supreme Court’s website for the bail order.

D) Sasikala, Dinakaran trying to incite violence, say AIADMK leaders.

Senior Ministers and AIADMK leaders on Saturday complained to Director General of Police J.K. Tripathy that V.K. Sasikala, aide of former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, and T.T.V. Dhinakaran, general secretary of Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam, were trying to incite violence. Ministers D. Jayakumar, P. Thangamani, C.Ve. Shanmugam and party presidium chairman E. Madhusudhanan were among those who met Mr. Tripathy. On Thursday, they lodged a complaint seeking to prevent Ms. Sasikala from using the AIADMK flag. They have no objection to Ms. Sasikala’s return to the city on February 8. However, T.T.V. Dhinakaran said Ms. Sasikala would travel using the party flag. Mr. Dhinakaran said even if we complain to the DGP or the chiefs of armed forces, no one can prevent them. A few supporters of Ms. Sasikala said they would become 100 human bombs and reach Tamil Nadu, Mr. Shanmugam said on Saturday. Mr. Shanmugam alleged Mr. Dhinakaran issued a major threat, which would cause law and order problems in the State. To incite violence, Ms. Sasikala, Mr. Dhinakaran and their men have hatched a major conspiracy. The AIADMK government has been functioning successfully, he said.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

A) Pope Francis appoints first woman to senior synod post. 

Pope Francis has broken with Catholic tradition to appoint a woman as an undersecretary of the synod of bishops, the first to hold the post with voting rights in a body that studies major questions of doctrine. Frenchwoman Nathalie Becquart is one of the two new undersecretaries named on February 6 to the synod, where she has been a consultant since 2019. The appointment signals the pontiff’s desire for a greater participation of women in the process of discernment and decision-making in the church, said Cardinal Mario Grech, the secretary-general of the synod. During the previous synods, the number of women participating as experts and listeners has increased, he said. With the nomination of Sister Nathalie Becquart and her possibility of participating in voting, a door has opened. The synod is led by bishops and cardinals who have voting rights and also comprises experts who cannot vote, with the next gathering scheduled for autumn 2022. A special synod on the Amazon in 2019 saw 35 female auditors invited to the assembly, but none could vote. The Argentinian-born pope has signalled his wish to reform the synod and have women and laypeople play a greater role in the church.

B) ‘Oxford vaccine less effective against South African variant’. 

The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine fails to prevent mild and moderate cases of the South African coronavirus strain, according to research reported in the Financial Times. But in its study, due to be published on Monday, the pharma group said it could still have an effect on severe disease although there is not yet enough data to make a definitive judgment. None of the 2,000 participants in the trial developed serious symptoms, the FT said, but AstraZeneca said the sample size was too small to make a full determination. They may not be reducing the total number of cases but there is still protection against deaths, hospitalisations and severe disease, said Sarah Gilbert, who led the development of the vaccine with the Oxford Vaccine Group. It could also be some time before they determine its effectiveness for older people in fighting the strain, which is a growing presence in U.K., she said. Researchers are currently working to update the vaccine, and have a version with the South African spike sequence in the works that they would very much like to be ready for the autumn, said Ms. Gilbert.

C) Pope appoints more women to Vatican posts. 

Pope Francis has appointed two women to Vatican posts previously held only by men, in back-to-back moves giving women more empowerment in the male-dominated Holy See. He appointed Nathalie Becquart, a French member of the Xaviere Missionary Sisters, on Saturday as coundersecretary of the Synod of Bishops, a department that prepares major meetings of world bishops held every few years on a different topic. Earlier, the Pope named Italian magistrate Catia Summaria as the first woman Promoter of Justice in the Vatican’s Court of Appeals. Sister Becquart’s position, effectively a joint number two spot, will give her the right to vote in the allmale assemblies, something many women and some bishops have called for. She is 52, relatively young by Vatican standards. Women have participated as observers and consultants in past synods but only synod fathers, including bishops and specially appointed or elected male representatives, could vote on final documents sent to the pope. During a synod in 2018, more than 10,000 people signed a petition demanding that women get the vote. A door has been opened. They will see what other steps could be taken in the future, Cardinal Mario Grech, the synod’s secretary-general, said.