Tag: IES

NATIONAL NEWS 

 

A) Decision on Covaxin nod likely in 4-6 weeks, says WHO

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is likely to take a decision on including Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin in its list of vaccines approved for Emergency Use, within four to six weeks, Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist, WHO said at a webinar organised by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). An Emergency Use Listing (EUL) by the WHO is necessary for a vaccine company to supply vaccines to global facilities such as COVAX or international procurement. So far eight vaccines have got a EUL from the WHO. It is mandatory to supply a complete dossier listing safety, efficacy and manufacturing conditions of the vaccine to the WHO. I understand that Bharat Biotech is in this process and I think a decision on their case is likely in the next four to six weeks, said Swaminathan. The EUL assesses the quality, safety and efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines, as well as risk management plans and programmatic suitability, such as cold chain requirements. The assessment is performed by the product evaluation group, composed by regulatory experts from around the world and a Technical Advisory Group (TAG), in charge of performing the risk-benefit assessment for an independent recommendation on whether a vaccine can be listed for emergency use and, if so, under what conditions. In late May, Bharat Biotech said it has submitted 90% of the data required for the pre-qualification process. Last Saturday, the firm publicised its long-awaited phase-3 trial efficacy data via a non-peer-reviewed pre-print publication, reporting an overall 77.8% efficacy against symptomatic Covid-19 based on analysis involving 25,800 volunteers. The two-dose vaccine was also 93.4% effective against severe disease and 63% protective against asymptomatic Covid-19. Moreover, it was 65% protective against the Delta variant of the coronavirus, the most widespread in India and linked to a rising number of cases in Europe as well as the United States. At Friday’s seminar, Dr. Swaminathan said that it was frustrating that countries were contemplating and testing booster doses for themselves when large parts of the world, especially Africa, hadn’t yet got vaccinated. The target was to have at least 10% of the world fully vaccinated by September and 40% by December. She said that it was unlikely that the world would be sufficiently protected at least until the next year and a half and ‘herd immunity’ was only likely when 80% had been vaccinated. So far only 5% of Indians have been fully vaccinated and only 21.8% have got at least one dose of the vaccine.

B) Opposition fears Cooperation Ministry is bid by Centre to ‘hijack’ cash-rich cooperatives, which fall under ambit of states

A row is about to erupt between the Treasury and Opposition benches in the Monsoon Session of Parliament that is set to start on July 19 over the Ministry of Cooperation formation, which was announced on July 5. The portfolio has been given to Home Minister Amit Shah after Wednesday’s Cabinet expansion. The government said the Ministry will provide a separate administrative, legal and policy framework for strengthening the cooperative movement in the country and do much to streamline the processes for ease of doing business and enable development of Multi-State Co-operative Banks (MSCBs). Significantly, the MSCBs have now been solely taken under the Reserve Bank of India for regulatory purposes. Opposition leaders, however, said the move was to hijack the cooperative movement that currently falls under the State governments. Senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala, who was the former Leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Assembly — a State with a strong cooperative movement — told The Hindu that the move is planned to hijack the cooperative movement. They [the BJP] want total control of the cooperative movement across the country and that’s why they have made Amit Shah in charge of the Ministry. Cooperatives is a State subject under entry 32 of the State list under the Schedule 7 of the Constitution. How can they create a ministry without an Act of Parliament, Chennithala, a sitting lawmaker from Kerala, said. The cooperative model has been a source of political power in States such as Maharashtra, Kerala, Gujarat, parts of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal. And many of these cash rich cooperatives are controlled by Opposition parties such as the Nationalist Congress Party, CPI(M) and the Congress in some of these States. The government is yet to explain the purpose and objective of this Ministry. And the appointment of Shah raises several questions, as it encroaches on a State’s power. Our party will raise this in Parliament, CPI general secretary D. Raja said. On Thursday, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury alleged that the move was taken with an eye on the cash reserves of the cooperative banks.

C) New IT rules: Supreme Court to hear govt.’s transfer plea on July 16

The Supreme Court on Friday listed for July 16 a government petition to transfer the cases challenging the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, from various High Courts to itself. A Bench of Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and Sanjiv Khanna tagged the plea to a pending special leave petition titled ‘Justice for Rights Foundation versus Union of India’. Justice Khanwilkar said the case would be listed before an appropriate Bench on July 16. The government petition is likely to come up before a Bench led by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud. The ‘Justice for Rights Foundation’ case, pending before the Justice Chandrachud-led Bench, primarily concerns the regulation of content shown on over-the-top (OTT) platforms. The Bench has been examining the issue in the backdrop of the new IT Rules. On March 23 last, it stayed all proceedings in High Courts on the issue.

D) J&K will have reserved ST seats for the first time, says delimitation panel 

The Jammu and Kashmir Delimitation Commission on Friday said it would base its final report on the 2011 Census and also take into account the topography, difficult terrain, means of communication and convenience available while delimiting seven additional seats for the 83-member Assembly of the Union Territory (UT), besides granting reservation to the Schedule Tribe (ST) and Schedule Caste (SC) communities. Delimitation is not a mathematical exercise. It must reflect the political aspirations of society bound in a particular geography. Though the population forms the base [for delimitation], the commission shall take into account constituencies’ practicality, geographical compatibility, topography, physical features, means of communication and convenience available, Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra said, after the three-member panel completed its four-day consultation tour of J&K. The earlier delimitation panels did not acknowledge the difficult terrains and people’s difficulties, he pointed out. Chandra clarified that 24 seats reserved for Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) would not be delimited in this process. The commission will also specify the number of seats to be reserved for the SC and the ST in the Legislative Assembly of the UT. It will be for the first time that seats will be reserved for the ST in J&K, he noted. J&K has already seven seats reserved for SC people, mainly in the Kathua-Samba belt in the Jammu region. It will be for the first time that STs, including Bakerwals and Gujjars, will get reservation in this delimitation exercise. The maximum population of Gujjars and Bakwerwals are from the PirPanjal Valley, comprising Poonch and Rajouri districts in the Jammu region. On the process of arriving at a final draft, Chandra said the commission had taken into account the representations made by 290 groups, comprising 800 people. A draft report will be prepared, wherein the suggestions of the associate members will also be taken into account. Thereafter, it will be in the public domain for a consensus. Only after the fresh comments, the final draft will be prepared. Opportunity will be given to people at large to take into account all the views, he stated. Most of J&K’s political parties, during the meetings with the panel, have stressed on immediate restoration of statehood after the new constituencies are delineated by the panel.

E) Won’t compel users to accept new privacy policy, WhatsApp tells Delhi HC

Whatsapp told the Delhi High Court on Friday that till the data protection bill comes into force, it would not compel users to opt for its new privacy policy as it has been put on hold. Whatsapp also clarified before bench of Chief justice D.N. Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh that it would not limit the functionality for users who are not opting for new privacy policy in the meantime. Appearing for the instant messaging platform, Senior Advocate Harish Salve said, We voluntarily agreed to put it (the policy) on hold… we will not compel people to accept. Salve said that Whatsapp would nonetheless continue to display the update to its users. The court is hearing the appeals of Facebook and its firm WhatsApp against the single-judge order refusing to stop the competition regulator CCI’s order directing a probe into WhatsApp’s new privacy policy.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS 

A) ‘Legitimacy aspect’ of who should rule Afghanistan should not be ignored, says Jaishankar

Voicing concern over the spiralling violence in Afghanistan, India said on Friday that the legitimacy aspect of who should rule the war-torn country is of importance and should not be ignored as it called for immediate reduction in violence there. Of course we are concerned at the direction of events in Afghanistan, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said while responding to a question during a joint press conference with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov. His remarks came in the midst of Taliban militants seizing dozens of districts in recent weeks and are now thought to control about a third of the country, ahead of the withdrawal of U.S. and Western troops from Afghanistan by September 11. Under a deal with the Taliban, the U..S and its NATO allies agreed to withdraw all troops in return for a commitment by the militants that they would prevent extremist groups from operating in areas they control. The point right now we stress is that we must see a reduction in violence. Violence cannot be the solution for the situation in Afghanistan, Jaishankar said. At the end of the day, who governs Afghanistan has a legitimacy aspect to it. I think that is something which cannot and should not be ignored, said Jaishankar, who is in Russia on a three-day visit. For more than 30 years, there have been international conferences, there have been groups, there have been formats to discuss how to stabilise and bring about peace in Afghanistan, he said, adding that the reason is because it has proven implications for regional security and regional stability. If we have to seek peace within Afghanistan and around, it’s important for India and Russia to work together to ensure that much of the progress in economic, social terms are maintained. We are committed to an independent, sovereign and democratic Afghanistan, he said. India, a major stakeholder in the peace and stability of Afghanistan, has been supporting a national peace and reconciliation process which is Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-controlled. The U.S. and the Taliban signed a landmark deal in Doha on February 29, 2020 after multiple rounds of negotiations to bring lasting peace in war-torn Afghanistan and allow U.S. troops to return home from America’s longest war.

B) Oil prices firm as U.S. inventories decline.

Oil prices rose for a second day on Friday as data showed a draw in U.S. inventories but were heading for a weekly loss amid uncertainty over global supplies after an OPEC+ impasse. Brent crude oil futures were up 36 cents, or 0.5%, at $74.48 a barrel by 1220 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures were up 54 cents, or 0.7%, at $73.48. Prices on both sides of the Atlantic were on track for a more than 2% weekly drop, dragged down by the collapse of output talks between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies including Russia, together known as OPEC+. U.S. crude and gasoline stocks fell and gasoline demand reached its highest since 2019, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said, signalling increasing strength in the economy. A bullish EIA stock report helped the oil market rebound into the black, said Stephen Brennock of oil broker PVM. Clearly, U.S. oil markets are tight. However, the only way to prevent further losses is for the threat of an OPEC+price war to be contained.

NATIONAL NEWS 

A) SC grants bail to 13 who were in jail for two decades despite proving juvenility.

The Supreme Court on Thursday granted interim bail to 13 prisoners who have languished in Agra Jail over two decades despite proving their juvenility at the time of the commission of the crime. A Bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and V. Ramasubramanian allowed them bail when the government of Uttar Pradesh did not raise any objection. The petition filed through advocate Rishi Malhotra had highlighted the unfortunate and sorry state of affairs in Uttar Pradesh, where many prisoners continued to languish in jail despite proving their claim of juvenility. An accused can raise a claim of juvenility at any stage of a criminal trial or even any time after his conviction and sentence for a crime. If the claim is found true, the court should maintain the conviction, but set aside the sentence and forward the case to the Juvenile Justice Board. A juvenile can be punished only for a maximum period of three years. According to the petition, there were clear and unchallenged rulings from the Juvenile Justice Board declaring the 13 prisoners as juveniles at the time of commission of their crime. Yet no steps have been taken to release them forthwith. The miseries are further compounded by the fact that these petitioners who are languishing in Agra Central Jail have already undergone judicial incarceration for periods ranging from 14 to 22 years, the petition said. Malhotra said they had spent years in hardcore jails among hardcore criminals. This completely negates the purpose and objects of Juvenile Justices Act, the petition said. The petition argued that a delay in raising the ground of juvenility could not be a reason to let them languish behind bars for years. The claim could be raised even at the stage of advanced appeal before the Supreme Court. The delay in raising the claim of juvenility cannot be a ground for rejection of such claim. The claim of juvenility can be raised in appeal even if not pressed before the trial court and can be raised for the first time before the Supreme Court, though not pressed before the trial court and in the appellate court, the petition referred to 2012 judgment of the Supreme Court on the issue.

B) Facebook ought to appear before Delhi House panel: SC

The Supreme Court on Thursday said Facebook ought to appear before the Delhi Legislative Assembly Committee of Peace and Harmony enquiring into the circumstances leading to the February 2020 communal riots. Investigation of a socially complicated problem was within the domain of the legislature, it noted.The judgment pronounced by Justice S.K. Kaul, however, said the committee cannot behave like a prosecution agency trying to probe whether Facebook was innocent or guilty of anything. The court said the committee cannot delve into prohibited zones of law and order and criminal prosecution. These were the domains of the Centre. Besides, courts were already seized of the criminal trials of the accused in the riots. The official representing the social media giant need not respond to questions from the committee on these domains. The court criticised the Delhi government side for its remarks in the Press about Facebook in connection with the riots. The statements made in the Press conference by respondents were hardly conducive to the proceedings before the committee, the court stated in its verdict. The judgment was reserved in February last. The case concerns a petition filed by Facebook India head Ajit Mohan against summons issued to him by the committee. He had challenged the summons and the threat of breach of privilege posed by the panel if he refused to testify about any role played by social media platforms in the events leading up to the riots. The apex court found Mohan’s petition premature. The court agreed with the Delhi Assembly that he had been summoned for his assistance in dealing with a social problem. He had not been subjected to any coercive action. The court also recognised the polarising effect of social media. Mohan had urged the court to recognise his right to silence as a virtue in these noisy times.

C) Twitter appoints India compliance executive, yet to fill other roles to meet IT rules.

Twitter Inc’s India unit has appointed an interim chief compliance officer and said it will soon designate two other executives to comply with the country’s new IT rules, the social media giant said in a court filing on Thursday. The IT rules are aimed at regulating content on social media firms and making them more accountable to legal requests for swift removal of posts and sharing details on the originators of messages. The Centre said in a court filing earlier this week that Twitter no more enjoys liability protection against user-generated content in India as the U.S. microblogging giant has failed to comply with the new rules. The filing came in a case against Twitter by a user who wanted to complain about some allegedly defamatory tweets on the platform, and said the company was not complying with the new IT rules, which became effective end-May and also require the appointment of certain new executives. Twitter will try to fill the nodal contact person’s job on an interim basis within 2 weeks and would appoint an interim grievance officer on or before July 11, the company said in the June 8 filing. It has posted job openings for all three positions and will try to make an offer of employment to resident Indians, as asked by rules, within 8 weeks, Twitter said. The California-based company is setting up a liaison office in India, it aadded Twitter did not respond to a request for comment. Meanwhile, the newly appointed Minister for Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thursday said anyone working in India needs to follow the rules and laws of the country. Vaishnaw, who was inducted into the Cabinet on Wednesday, took charge of his three ministries – Electronics and IT, Communications and Railways, on Thursday. He is a former IAS officer of the 1994-batch and has previously held leadership roles across major global companies such as General Electric. Law of land is supreme, Twitter must follow the rules, the IT Minister said on his first day in the office.

D) Former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh passes away. 

Former Himachal Pradesh chief minister and veteran Congress leader Virbhadra Singh passed away after prolonged illness on Thursday in Shimla. He was 87 years old. The six-time Chief Minister, who had twice recovered from Covid-19 in the past three months and remained under observation at the Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC), was placed on ventilator support after he suffered a cardiac arrest earlier this week. Dr. Janak Raj, Senior Medical Superintendent, IGMC, said Singh passed away following multi-organ failure in the early hours of Thursday. The State government declared three days mourning from July 8 to July 10 as a mark of respect to Singh. He will be cremated at Rampur, his native place, on July 10. Singh was a nine-time MLA was elected to the State Legislative Assembly for the first time in October 1983. He remained Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh from April 8, 1983 to March 5, 1990; December 3, 1993 to March 23, 1998; from March 6, 2003 to December 29, 2007; and from December 25, 2012 to December 26, 2017. He was at present MLA from the Arki Assembly constituency in Solan district. Singh was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1962 and in all, he was a five-time MP.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS 

A) Spectators to be banned from Olympic venues; Tokyo under virus emergency from July 12.

Spectators will be banned from Olympic venues in Tokyo because of a virus state of emergency, Japan’s Olympic minister announced on Thursday, meaning the Games will happen mostly behind closed doors. We reached an agreement on no spectators at venues in Tokyo, Tamayo Marukawa said, after talks involving local and national government officials, organisers and Olympic and Paralympic chiefs. Most Olympic competition will happen in Tokyo, but a few events will be held outside the Japanese capital. Marukawa said that, in other areas, organisers would decide on concrete measures for spectators after discussions with each local governor. The public has already been asked to stay away from the marathon, which is being held in the northern Hokkaido region to beat Tokyo’s summer heat. And large parts of the torch relay traversing the country have also been held behind closed doors because of virus concerns. The spectator decision comes after Japan’s government said on Thursday that Tokyo would be under a virus state of emergency from July 12 to August 22. The measure is much looser than harsh lockdowns seen elsewhere, but comes with infections rising in the capital and concern about the increased prevalence of the Delta variant.

B) Cairn Energy claims order to attach 20 Indian properties in Paris

The Cairn Energy dispute with India over the settlement of a $1.2 billion award from The Hague took a dramatic turn on Thursday, with the company saying it had secured a French court order allowing it to freeze at least 20 Indian properties in Central Paris. However, the government denied all knowledge of the award. It said it had filed an appeal against the tribunal decision of the Permanent Court at The Hague delivered in December 2020. Government is trying to ascertain the facts, and whenever such an order is received, appropriate legal remedies will be taken, in consultation with its Counsels, to protect the interests of India, a Finance Ministry statement said. Earlier, a Cairn Energy spokesperson had told The Hindu that the ball is in India’s court to stop the enforcement proceedings of assets. Our strong preference remains an agreed, amicable settlement with the Government of India to draw this matter to a close, and to that end we have submitted a detailed series of proposals to them since February this year, the spokesperson said in a statement. However, in the absence of such a settlement, Cairn must take all necessary legal actions to protect the interests of its international shareholders, the statement added. According to sources, the award by the Tribunal judiciaire de Paris was the necessary preparatory step to taking ownership of the properties and ensuring all proceeds from the sale of the properties would be accrued to Cairn Energy PLC as part of its efforts to enforce the award from The Hague delivered in December last in Cairn’s favour. While the Paris properties are estimated to yield about $23 million, Cairn sources had told The Hindu that they have identified assets worth about $70 billion in several jurisdictions that they could potentially attach through court orders. Cairn lawyers have registered The Hague award in courts in at least 10 jurisdictions, including the U.S., the U.K., Netherlands, Canada , France, Singapore, Japan, the UAE and even the Cayman Islands. In June, Cairn lawyers had approached the court in the Southern District of New York, making the plea that Air India should be made liable for the outstanding settlement, and said that other state-owned corporations could be targeted as well. The government has until next week to file its challenge in that court. Government has already filed an application on March 22, 2021 to set aside the December 2020 international arbitral award in The Hague Court of Appeal. Government of India will vigorously defend its case in Set Aside proceedings at The Hague, the Finance Ministry asserted on Thursday. Despite the snowballing dispute, both the government and Cairn Energy said they were open to continuing talks over the issue. In December, the three-member tribunal in the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague ruled unanimously against the retrospective tax levied by India on Cairn in 2015, ruling that the tax fell afoul of the bilateral investment pact.

NATIONAL NEWS 

 

A) 43 Ministers take oath following Cabinet expansion

The long anticipated reshuffle and expansion of the Union Cabinet got over today as 43 Ministers took oath at the Rashtrapati Bhawan. This is the first reshuffle in his Council of Ministers by Prime Minister Narendra Modi since he assumed charge for a second term in May 2019. The PM inducted Sarbananda Sonowal, Narayan Rane and Jyotiraditya Scindia as Cabinet ministers while dropping almost a dozen ministers. Modi’s Cabinet now has 78 ministers. Among the new faces in the Cabinet are BJP leaders Bhupendra Yadav and Meenakshi Lekhi, Tamil Nadu BJP President L Murugan, John Barla, a prominent voice from north Bengal, and Shoba Karandlaje, vice-president of the BJP in Karnataka. Meanwhile, earlier in the day, ahead of the Cabinet expansion, several ministers, including many seniors, tendered their resignations to pave way for new faces. The incumbents who resigned include Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan, IT and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, and Information and Broadcasting Minsiter Prakash Javadekar. Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawarchand Gehlot, who has been appointed as Governor of Karnataka, has also resigned. Education Minister Ramesh Pohriyal ‘Nishank’, under whose leadership the National Education Policy was released, has also quit citing health reasons. Mr. Nishank, who tested positive for Covid-19 on April 21, was admitted to AIIMS in June again following post-Covid complications. Union Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda, has stepped down. Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar confirmed to The Hindu that he has also quit. Minister of State for Woman and Child Development Debasree Chaudhuri has also resigned, and so have junior ministers Sanjay Shamrao Dhotre, Pratap Chandra Sarangi, Ratan Lal Kataria and Raosaheb Danve. Asansol MP and Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Babul Supriya has also tendered his resignation.

B) PTI challenges new IT rules in Delhi High Court.

India’s largest news agency, Press Trust Of India (PTI), has approached the Delhi High Court, challenging the 2021 Information Technology (IT) Rules. It said the Central government was attempting to regulate digital news media. A Bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice J.R. Midha issued notice to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting on the petition. The court tagged the plea to be heard along with similar petitions filed by several online news outlets against the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 on August 20. PTI has challenged the constitutional validity of the rules as it purports to regulate publishers of news and current affairs content, particularly digital news portals, by imposing sweeping government oversight and a vaguely worded ‘Code of Ethics’. The plea argued that the IT Rules would usher in an era of surveillance and fear, thereby resulting in self-censorship, which results in abridgment/ violation of Fundamental Rights as enshrined under Part III of the Constitution of India. The rules were notified on February 25, 2021. PTI said the rules enabled the government to virtually dictate content to digital news portals, and squarely violate media freedom. They introduce digital portals with ‘news and current affairs content’ as a specific and targeted class to be subject to regulation by a loose-ranging ‘Code of Ethics’, and to be consummately overseen by Central Government officers, all of which is violative of the Constitution. The news agency observed that the rules went beyond the object and scope of the IT Act, as the content to be regulated by the IT Act, as offences, was limited to sexually explicit material, child pornography, showing private parts of individuals, cyber terrorism, etc. to be prosecuted and tried by normal courts. The petition drew the distinction between news outlets and intermediaries such as social media platforms. Intermediaries were immunised from the consequences of the content hosted by them, and hence they may need to be separately regulated, it stated. PTI, being in the business or practice of news and journalism, was not an intermediary, it said. The Petitioner (PTI) seeks no safe harbour and is not entitled to any safe harbour provisions for the content that it hosts and publishes and it takes full responsibility for the content it publishes, it noted.

C) Former union minister R Kumaramangalam’s wife Kitty murdered at her home in Delhi

Kitty Kumaramangalam, wife of late former Union Minister Rangarajan Kumaramangalam, was murdered in a robbery attempt at her residence in South West Delhi’s Vasant Vihar on Tuesday, July 6, 2021 night. The accused has been arrested, police said. Deputy Commissioner of Police (South West) Ingit Pratap Singh said that the accused has been identified as Raju, 24, who was the victim’s washerman. Police said that the accused visited the house around 9 p.m.. As soon as the domestic help opened the door, she was overpowered and confined in a room. Two men then entered and assaulted Kitty, following which the accused smothered her with a pillow. DCP Singh said that briefcases were found opened at the crime spot. Police said Raju has been arrested and a lookout is on for two of his accomplices. Mr. Singh said that the accused Raju was handed over a bag by his two associates after the robbery and when he opened it, only clothes were found inside. It appears that the two made a fool of him as well, Mr. Singh said, adding that they’re yet to ascertain details because the two are yet to be arrested.

D) Calcutta High Court judge recuses himself from hearing Mamata’s election petition

Calcutta High Court Justice Kaushik Chanda on Wednesday recused himself from hearing West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s election petition on the Nandigram poll results. The matter will now be assigned to a new Bench. The Chief Minister had filed the petition in June, alleging irregularities in the counting process in the Nandigram Assembly election held in 2021. The matter came for hearing before Justice Chanda. Ms. Banerjee had urged the judge to recuse himself from hearing the petition alleging that the judge had links with the BJP. During the hearing, Ms. Banerjee’s counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi had referred to numerous cases where justice Chanda had represented the BJP as a counsel. Justice Chanda, however, imposed a cost of ₹5 lakh on Ms. Banerjee for maligning the image of the judge. Several Trinamool Congress leaders had publicly made statements alleging that Justice Chanda had links with the BJP. The sum of ₹5 lakhs will be set aside for the welfare of Covid-19 victims. Ms. Banerjee lost to BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari in the Nandigram poll with a narrow margin of 1,956 votes.

E) Indemnity issues hold up U.S. vaccine doses donation to India.

More than a month after the U.S. announced the donation of 80 million doses of American-made Covid-19 vaccines to dozens of countries including India, and Vice-President Kamala Harris called Prime Minister Narendra Modi to convey the decision, the vaccines are being held up by regulatory issues over indemnity, Indian and U.S. officials confirmed. According to the officials, the demand by the U.S. companies, including Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson to be granted an indemnity or waiver of liability has yet to be resolved for commercial distribution, which is also holding up the donations from the U.S. Since June 3, the U.S. has already distributed 40 million doses to about 12 countries, including Pakistan and Bangladesh. The delay is not from the U.S. side, an American Embassy spokesperson said to queries about the fact that the shipments are yet to be announced. India has determined that it needs further time to review legal provisions related to accepting vaccine donations. Once India works through its legal process, our donation of vaccines to India will proceed expeditiously. The MEA declined to comment on the issue, directing queries to the Ministry of Health. Health Secretary Bharat Bhushan told The Hindu that the specific provisions of indemnification are still under discussion, indicating that not only are the U.S. vaccine donations on hold for the moment, but also that a cloud of doubt hangs over the delivery of Moderna vaccines, which have already received Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) in India. The first consignment of Moerna vaccines was due to arrive this week. Last month, the U.S. announced the distribution of 80 million doses of American made vaccines as part of its COVID-19 Global Response and Recovery Framework. The countries that have received the U.S. donations so far include South Korea, Mexico, Canada, Brazil, Taiwan, Honduras, Colombia, Pakistan, Peru, Ecuador, Malaysia, & Bangladesh. Other nations like Sri Lanka received the first batch of an expected five million doses of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines that are being funded by the World Bank, while Maldives had earlier received Pfizer vaccines through the international COVAX alliance. Before we can ship doses, each country must complete its own domestic set of operational, regulatory, and legal processes that are specific to each country, the U.S. Embassy spokesperson said, in an explanation of how other countries had received their doses.

F) Legendary actor Dilip Kumar dies at 98 due to prolonged illness

Dilip Kumar, India’s enduring film legend through the decades, died at a Mumbai hospital on Wednesday after prolonged illness, his family and doctors treating him said. He was 98. The actor, known to generations of film-goers as ‘tragedy king’ for his portrayal of the brooding, intense romantic in classics such as Mughal-e-Azam and Devdas, had been admitted to the Hinduja Hospital, a non-Covid-19 facility in Khar, since last Tuesday. He passed away due to prolonged illness at 7.30 a.m., Dr. Jalil Parkar, who had been treating Kumar, told PTI. The Hindi cinema veteran, the last of the golden troika with Raj Kapoor and Dev Anand, was admitted to hospital last month following episodes of breathlessness. He was then diagnosed with bilateral pleural effusion, a build-up of excess fluid between the layers of the pleura outside the lungs, and underwent a successful pleural aspiration procedure. He was discharged after five days only to be admitted to the hospital again. Kumar, born Yousuf Khan and often known as the Nehruvian hero, did his first film, Jwar Bhata, in 1944 and his last, Qila, in 1998, 54 years later. The five-decade career included Mughal-e-Azam, Devdas, Naya Daur, and Ram Aur Shyam, and later, as he graduated to character roles, Shakti and Karma.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

A) Megaship heads out of Suez after Egypt deal. 

Egyptian authorities announced the release on Wednesday of a hulking shipping vessel that had blocked the Suez Canal for nearly a week in March after running aground. The m.v. Ever Given left the canal’s Great Bitter Lake, where it had been held for more than three months amid a financial dispute. The development came after its Japanese owner, Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd ., reached a settlement with canal authorities over a compensation amount following weeks of negotiations and a court stand-off. The settlement deal was signed in a ceremony on Wednesday in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia, after which the vessel was seen sailing to the Mediterranean Sea. The company said the vessel would undergo a dive survey in Egypt’s Mediterranean city of Port Said, before resuming her voyage to the next port where her cargo will be discharged. Officials did not reveal details on the terms of the settlement. At first, the Suez Canal Authority had demanded $916 million in compensation, which was later lowered to $550 million. In addition to the money, local reports said the canal would also receive a tugboat. The money, according to canal authorities, would cover the salvage operation, costs of stalled canal traffic, and lost transit fees for the six days the ship had blocked the crucial waterway.

B) Amnesty, Citizen Lab launch online platform to map the use of Pegasus spyware to target activists, jouwaterway

An online database about the use of the spyware Pegasus was recently launched by the Forensic Architecture, the Amnesty International and the Citizen Lab to document attacks against human rights defenders. In a statement on July 3, Amnesty said the interactive platform — Digital Violence: How the NSO Group Enables State Terror — showed the connections between ‘digital violence’ of Pegasus spyware and the real-world harms lawyers, activists, and other civil society figures face. Amnesty said NSO Group, which makes the spyware, was a major player in the shadowy surveillance company and Pegasus had been used in some of the most insidious digital attacks on human rights activists in the world. The spyware enabled an attacker to get complete access to a person’s phone, including contacts, calls, camera and messages, it said. The investigation reveals the extent to which the digital domain we inhabit has become the new frontier of human rights violations, a site of state surveillance and intimidation that enables physical violations in real space, said Shourideh C. Molavi, Forensic Architecture’s researcher-in-charge. The platform, available at digitalviolence.org, lists out targets of the spyware in India, which include activists Bela Bhatia and Anand Teltumbde. In 2020, Amnesty and Citizen Lab had revealed that the spyware was used on nine human rights defenders who were accused in the Bhima Koregaon case. The spyware campaign…targeted lawyers and activists Nihalsing B. Rathod, Degree Prasad Chouhan, Yug Mohit Choudhary, and Ragini Ahuja; academics Partho Sarothi Ray and P.K. Vijayan, a journalist who prefers to stay anonymous, and a human rights collective – Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group (JAGLAG), received malicious e-mails on the group’s official ID, which is accessed by all of its members, including lawyer Shalini Gera. Another JAGLAG member, Isha Khandelwal also received malicious emails on her personal account, a blog post by Amnesty on June 15, 2020, said

NATIONAL NEWS 

A) Union Cabinet reshuffle likely this week.

The long anticipated reshuffle and expansion of the Union Cabinet is likely to take place this week, according to highly placed sources. The expansion, with 24 slots to fill and multiple ministries held by a single minister to be decoupled, has been talked about for a while now. The reshuffle is most likely to be announced either on July 7 or July 9. Several shoo-ins in the Union Cabinet a leader from north-central India who is owed a ministerial berth as a political quid pro quo, and a leader from eastern India have both cancelled their travel plans and have been asked to be in Delhi on those dates. Sources in the BJP said the Cabinet expansion will also affect the organisational appointments in the party as a senior general secretary of the BJP is expected to get a Cabinet berth. Government sources were largely mum but did say that inductions will be taking into account needs of States going to the polls in next year, including from Uttar Pradesh, where NDA ally Anupriya Patel of the Apna Dal is likely to be inducted. Multiple ministries are currently being handled by one minister or other there are four such clusters of ministries that need to be redistributed and the Cabinet reshuffle exercise is likely to address that issue, said a source. According to the Constitution, the number of ministers in the Union council of ministers cannot exceed more than 15% of total Lok Sabha MPs. This puts the number of ministerial slots empty as of now at 24 — a sizeable number. Whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi will fill the slots in one go or just restrict it to some necessary inclusions like that of Jyotiraditya Scindia who joined the BJP last year and helped topple the Kamal Nath-led Madhya Pradesh government, is yet to be seen. As of now Scindia and former Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal, who gave way to Himanta Biswa Sarma after his government was voted back to power in Assam seem to be the strongest candidates in the list of inclusions.

 

B) Release all 15 Bhima Koragaon case co-accused pending trial: UNHR chief

All 15 co-accused in the Bhima Koregaon case should be released pending trial, said the United Nations Human Rights chief Michelle Bachelet on Tuesday, as she expressed concern over the death of 84-year-old Jesuit priest and tribal activist Stan Swamy in custody. The statement from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), which follows similar concerns from the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders and the European Union (E.U.) Human Rights Chief on Monday, said Bachelet was ‘disturbed’ and ‘saddened’ by the news of Swamy’s death, and called on the Indian government to ensure that no one is detained for exercising their fundamental rights to freedom of expression, of peaceful assembly and of association. High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet and the U.N.’s independent experts have repeatedly raised the cases of Father Stan and 15 other human rights defenders associated with the same events with the government of India over the past three years and urged their release from pre-trial detention, said the statement issued by the OHCHR spokesperson. The High Commissioner has also raised concerns over the use of the UAPA in relation to human rights defenders, a law Father Stan was challenging before Indian courts days before he died, the rights agency said, making a particular mention of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), that allows authorities to detain suspects without charging them, and allows courts to hold them without bail. In light of the continued, severe impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is even more urgent that States, including India, release every person detained without a sufficient legal basis, including those detained simply for expressing critical or dissenting views. This would be in line with the Indian judiciary’s calls to decongest the prisons, the OHCHR statement said. Several international human rights agencies have expressed concern over the custodial death of Swamy and his treatment at the Taloja Jail, where he was kept despite suffering from the debilitating Parkinson’s disease, and was shifted to hospital only on May 29 this year. His interim bail hearing was in progress in the Bombay High Court on Monday when news of his death was announced.

 

C) Opposition writes to President seeking accountability for Stan Swamy’s death

Ten Opposition parties have urged President Ramnath Kovind to act against those responsible for foisting false cases on human rights activist Fr. Stan Swamy for his continued detention in jail and alleged inhuman treatment resulting in his death. The signatories to a letter to the President include Congress president Sonia Gandhi, former Prime Minister and JD(S) leader Deve Gowda, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, his West Bengal and Jharkhand counterparts Mamata Banerjee and Hemant Soren respectively, NCP leader Sharad Pawar, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, NC leader Dr. Farooq Abdullah, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury and his CPI counterpart D. Raja. The Opposition parties said they were writing to express their deep anguish and to express intense grief and outrage at the death of Fr. Swamy, who was jailed last October under the UAPA [Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act] in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case. The 84-year-old Jesuit priest was working with Adivasis in Jharkhand. The Opposition pointed out that he was denied treatment for his various ailments, including Parkinson’s. It was only after a nationwide campaign was conducted that even a sipper to drink liquids was made available to him in jail, they said. Numerous appeals made to shift him out of the overcrowded Taloja jail that had seen a huge rise in Covid-19 cases were not heard and his bail plea too was rejected. It was only on the intervention of the Bombay High Court that he was admitted to a private hospital, where his condition started deteriorating after he contracted Covid-19. And this step came too late, the Opposition alleged. We are urging your immediate intervention as the President of India to direct ‘your government’ to act against those responsible for foisting false cases on him, his continued detention in jail and inhuman treatment. They must be held accountable, the letter said. The Opposition parties urged the government to release forthwith all those jailed in the Bhima Koregaon case and other detenues under ‘politically motivated’ cases misusing draconian laws like UAPA and Sedition.

 

D) Delhi HC gives Twitter two days to come up with timeline for appointing Grievance Officer

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday gave two days’ time to Twitter to come up with a specific timeline for appointing a Grievance Officer in compliance with India’s new Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Ethics Code) Rules 2021. It’s been more than two weeks…If the interim Grievance Officer ran away on June 21, the least Twitter was expected to do was to appoint a fresh officer in these 14 days before the matter came up today, Justice Rekha Palli remarked. Twitter admitted that it was currently not in compliance with the 2021 IT Rules as it was in the process of appointing its Grievance Officer and the Nodal Officer. How long does the process of appointing a Grievance Officer take? If Twitter thinks it can take as much time as it wants in our country, I will not permit that, Justice Palli cautioned the micro-blogging site. Justice Palli directed Twitter’s counsel to come up with a clear picture of the compliance timeline by July 8, the next date of hearing. Otherwise you [Twitter] are in trouble, the judge warned.

 

E) Amarinder meets Sonia amid infighting in Punjab Congress, says her decisions will be acceptable

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday met Congress president Sonia Gandhi at her residence here amid infighting in the state unit, and said whatever decisions she takes on changes in the organisation and the government will be acceptable to him, PTI reported. The meeting was part of the party leadership’s efforts to end factionalism in the poll-bound state. It lasted around 90 minutes and the two leaders discussed governance and political matters. Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi was present during the meeting, along with senior party leader Mallikarjun Kharge, who headed the party panel set up to resolve the in-fighting in the Punjab Congress. The meeting assumed significance as the party high command has been trying to resolve the internal rift in the Punjab unit of the Congress and there is talk of its revamp, with just months to go for the assembly polls. Congress leader and former minister Navjot Singh Sidhu has been at loggerheads with the chief minister, attacking him on issues like the alleged delay in the completion of a probe into the 2015 desecration of Sikh texts and the subsequent police firing on protesters. After his meeting with Sonia Gandhi, Singh told reporters, Whatever decision the Congress president takes, we will implement it in Punjab. The decisions taken by the Congress chief on anything — the party and the government — will be acceptable. He said the party was all geared up for the assembly elections in the state, slated for early next year. Singh’s meeting with Sonia Gandhi came days after Sidhu had met former party chief Rahul Gandhi and general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

 

F) CBSE to make ‘surprise’ inspections, verify schools’ preparation of Class 10, 12 results to ensure there is no bias

CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) officials will conduct surprise inspections of the school committees preparing this year’s Class 10 and 12 results, and will inspect the Rationale document that is meant to ensure that the mark determination process is being done in an objective manner. CBSE’s controller of examinations Sanyam Bhardwaj has written to all regional offices asking them to complete such inspections by July 12. In the letter sent on Tuesday, Dr. Bhardwaj asked senior officers of the CBSE’s regional offices to visit schools under their jurisdiction as a top priority in order to verify the work done by the schools and ensure that the board’s result tabulation policy is being implemented effectively. In order to have actual information of the result work of the schools, it may be ensured that while visiting the schools, no prior intimation be given to the schools and only sudden inspection is carried out, said the letter. The official visiting the school may also sign on documents inspected, especially Rationale documents, it added. The CBSE Tabulation Policy for Class 12 marks gives a lot of discretion to school results committees to assign and even revise marks of individual students in order to ensure they align with the school’s historical performance. In order to reduce the possibility of bias, each panel must include two external members and also record the justification for all its decisions in a Rationale document, Dr. Bhardwaj had told. CBSE officials were being asked to take pictures of all the documents they inspected during their surprise visits and include it in a point-wise report to be submitted to Dr. Bhardwaj by July 12. Schools would be chosen for inspection so that all categories of schools — government, private, Kendriya Vidyalayas and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas — were covered, said the letter.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS 

A) Wreckage of Russian plane found. 

Wreckage from a plane that went missing on Tuesday in Russia’s Far East region of Kamchatka was found. Around 5 km (three miles) away from a runway at an airport on the coast where it was supposed to land, officials said. The plane belonged to a company called Kamchatka Aviation Enterprise and had been in operation since 1982, Russian state news agency Tass reported. The company’s director, Alexei Khabarov, told Interfax that the plane was technically sound before taking off in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. A criminal investigation into the incident has been launched. Kamchatka Aviation Enterprise’s deputy director, Sergei Gorb, said that the plane practically crashed into a sea cliff, which wasn’t supposed to be in its landing trajectory. The plane was on approach for landing when contact was lost about 10 km (six miles) away from Palana’s airport. The head of the local government in Palana, Olga Mokhireva, was aboard the flight, spokespeople of the Kamchatka government said. In 2012, an Antonov An-28 plane belonging to Kamchatka Aviation Enterprise crashed into a mountain while flying from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsk and coming in for a landing in Palana. A total of 14 people were on board and 10 of them were killed. Both pilots, who were among the dead, were found to have alcohol in their blood, Tass reported.

 

B) U.K. court quashes 1972 convictions of 3 black men. 

Appeal court judges in London on Tuesday overturned the convictions of three black men for attempting to rob a corrupt police officer nearly half a century ago. The Court of Appeal cleared the trio following a referral by a criminal cases review commission, and comes just over a year after the acquittals of four men in a similar case. The latest ruling is the third time convictions have been overturned based on the tarnished evidence of discredited British Transport Police officer Detective Sergeant Derek Ridgewell. The three men – all aged between 17 and 20 at the time – and three friends wereaccused of trying to rob Ridgewell in 1972 on the London Underground while travelling from Stockwell station, south London. All bar one of The Stockwell Six were convicted, largely on the word of the corrupt officer, who himself was jailed for seven years and died of a heart attack in prison in 1982. At their trial, the accusedtoldjurorsthat officers, including RidGewell, who had previously served in the South Rhodesian,now Zimbabwean, police force, had lied and subjected them to violence and threats. It is most unfortunate that it has taken nearly 50 years to rectify the injustice, Julian Flaux, one of the three judges to hear the case, said on Tuesday. The two remaining members of the Stockwell Six who were convicted have not yet been traced. Lawyers for the men said it was deeply troubling that it had taken so long for the convictions to be overturned.

NATIONAL NEWS 

A) Adivasi rights activist Fr. Stan Swamy dies in custody

Father Stan Swamy, 84, a Jesuit priest who had campaigned for the democratic and land rights of Jharkhand’s adivasis for over five decades, passed away today at 1.24 p.m in Mumbai. Dr. Ian D’Souza, medical director of the Holy Family Hospital where Fr. Swamy was admitted, told a division bench of Justices S.S. Shinde and N.J. Jamadar of the Bombay High Court that Fr. Swamy had a pulmonary infection, following post-Covid-19 complications in the lungs and pneumonia. He also had Parkinson’s disease. Dr. D’souza said Fr. Swamy had suffered a cardiac arrest on July 4 at 4.30 a.m. He was put on a ventilator, and he never regained consciousness. Senior advocate Mihir Desai, representing Fr. Swamy, said, We have no grievance against the hospital. However, we cannot say the same thing about the National Investigation Agency [NIA] and State authorities. I am seeking judicial custody into this as there was a delay of 10 days in taking him to the hospital from jail. The Bench said, With all humility at our command, this is a shocking news. We passed that order, to take him to the hospital of his choice. We have no words to express our condolences. But since the doctor informed us here, so remaining matter on any other date we will hear. Desai said the NIA did not seek his custody even for a day and he was sent to the Taloja Jail as soon as he was arrested. He requested the court to pass an order to hand over Fr. Swamy’s body to Father Frazer. Fr. Swamy was shifted to the private hospital from the jail on May 29 after being directed by the High Court. He tested positive for Covid-19 on May 30 and suffered lower back pain and bilateral hearing loss among other ailments. He had told the court on May 21, I am eating less and less and my co-accused are worried about me. Only one thing that I would request the judiciary is to consider for interim bail. That is the only request. Political leaders and activists on Monday called for accountability over the death of 84-year-old jesuit priest and tribal rights activist Father Stan Swamy. Congress MP Jairam Ramesh said in a tweet, Who in the apparatus of the Indian state will be held responsible for this tragedy? Make no mistake – it is the Indian state that killed Fr. Stan Swamy, who was such a passionate crusader for social justice. Lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan said, This is nothing less than murder by the State of one of the gentlest & kindest men I have known. Unfortunately our judicial system is also complicit in this.

 

B) Board exams 2022: CBSE divides academic year into two terms, with 50% syllabus each

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Monday announced a special assessment scheme for class 10 and 12 board exams for the next year in view of the Covid-19 pandemic, splitting the academic session into two terms, PTI reported. The board has also announced plans to rationalise the syllabus for the 2021-22 academic session and to make the internal assessment and project work more credible and valid. As per an official order by Joseph Emmanuel, Director (Academic), CBSE, the term one exams will be held in November-December, 2021 while the second term exams will be conducted in March-April, 2022. The syllabus for the academic session 2021-22 will be divided into two terms by following a systematic approach of looking into the interconnectivity of concepts and topics by the Subject Experts, he said. The Board will conduct examinations at the end of each term on the basis of the bifurcated syllabus. This has been done to increase the probability of having a board-conducted classes X and XII examinations at the end of the academic session, he said. The syllabus for the board examination 2021-22 will be rationalised similar to that of the last academic session to be notified in July 2021. Schools will also use alternative academic calendar and inputs from the NCERT on transacting the curriculum. Efforts will be made to make internal assessment, practical, project work more credible and valid as per the guidelines and moderation policy to be announced by the board to ensure fair distribution of marks, he added.

 

C) ‘Distressing’ and ‘shocking’ that people are still tried under Section 66A of IT Act, says SC

The Supreme Court on Monday found it distressing, shocking and terrible that people were still booked and tried under Section 66A of the Information Technology Act even six years after the Supreme Court struck down the provision as unconstitutional and a violation of free speech. Section 66A had prescribed three years’ imprisonment if a social media message caused annoyance or was found grossly offensive. The Supreme Court, in the Shreya Singhal judgment authored by Justice Rohinton F. Nariman in March 2015, had concluded the provision was vague and worded arbitrarily. On Monday, senior advocate Sanjay Parikh and advocate Aparna Bhat, for the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), said the number of cases under Section 66A had actually increased post the judgment. What is going on is terrible, distressing! We will issue notice, Justice Nariman, heading a three-judge Bench also comprising Justices K.M. Joseph and B.R. Gavai, exclaimed. Attorney General K.K. Venugopal pointed out that law books published post the verdict featured the non-existent Section 66A in full. The police officer, while registering a case, looks at only the Section in the main text. The fact that the Section has been struck down is given only as a footnote. Venugopal submitted. And not being Mr. Venugopal, he [police officer] does not read the footnote. Justice Nariman said light-heartedly. But Justice Nariman agreed with Parikh that the state of affairs is shocking. Parikh said the court had to intervene and work out a mechanism to disseminate the Shreya Singhal judgment to every police station and trial court in the country. Yes, we will work out something, Justice Nariman assured. The government was given two weeks to file its reply and the PUCL was given a week to file its rejoinder. The case would be listed for hearing after this.

 

D) Gupkar alliance says it is disappointed with outcome of Delhi meeting with PM Modi

The People’s Alliance for the Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), an amalgam of five political parties of Jammu and Kashmir, on Monday said it was disappointed with the outcome of the meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 24 in New Delhi. All the members of the PAGD have expressed their disappointment at the outcome of the Delhi meeting, especially at the absence of any substantial confidence-building measures (CBMs), such as releasing political and other prisoners from jails, and taking concrete steps to end the siege and atmosphere of suppression that has choked J&K since 2019, Gupkar alliance spokesman M.Y. Tarigami said. He underlined that the CBMs would have initiated the much-needed process of reaching out to the people of Jammu and Kashmir, who were the biggest stakeholders and sufferers of the problem. Hardening its position on the restoration of Statehood, Tarigami said, As far as restoration of Statehood is concerned, it has been BJP’s commitment on the floor of the Parliament and they must honour their word. So, any Assembly election must be held only after restoration of full Statehood for J&K. To this end, the PAGD has decided to reach out to other political parties in J&K, with a view to take a common position on the issue. The PAGD, which held a series of meetings on Sunday, reiterated to fight together to reverse the unconstitutional and unacceptable changes foisted on the people of J&K on 5th August 2019 using all constitutional, legal and political means at its disposal. The PAGD’s struggle for undoing these changes will continue as long as it takes while striving to achieve this objective as early as possible, it said. The alliance’s stand assumes significance as it comes a day ahead of the visit of the J&K Delimitation Commission to the Union Territory to hold meetings with political parties, civil society groups and the officials. Tarigami said the political parties associated with the alliance will take a decision about meeting the delimitation panel at the party level. The Commission, which is arriving on July 6 for a four-day visit, has invited the political parties in the Union Territory, besides the five members, including two MPs from the BJP and three from the NC. It has sought suggestions before redrawing the boundaries of seven new constituencies.

 

E) 12 BJP MLAs suspended from Maharashtra Assembly for 1 year

Twelve BJP MLAs have been suspended from Maharashtra Assembly for one year for ‘abusing’ and ‘misbehaving’ with the presiding officer in chair, both inside and outside the Assembly. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anil Parab presened a resolution to suspend the MLAs and the House passed it on majority vote. The BJP, while boycotting the House, termed it an act to suppress its voice and an attempt to bring down the number of the Opposition. The MLAs, Dr Sanjay Kute, Ashish Shelar, Abhimanyu Pawar, Girish Mahajan, Atul Bhatkhalkar, Harish Pimple, Jaikumar Rawal, Yogesh Sagar, Narayan Kuche, Bunty Bhangdiya, Parag Alvani and Ram Satpute, will be barred from entering the legislative premises for the next 12 months. The ruckus inside the Assembly took place as the tripartite Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government brought a resolution seeking empirical data on OBCs from the Central government. Leader of the Opposition Devendra Fadnavis raised a point of objection before senior Minister Chhagan Bhujbal presented the resolution, claiming the State government did not follow the Supreme Court directions for 15 months, which resulted in the scrapping of political reservation for OBCs. After allowing Fadnavis to speak, Sena MLA Bhaskar Jadhav, who was the presiding officer in the Speakers’ chair, directed Bhujbal to read out the reply and present the resolution. As he denied Fadnavis an opportunity to reply to Bhujbal, agitated BJP MLAs rushed in front of his chair and attacked the mike. They also tried to lift the sceptre in front of the Speaker’s chair. The House was adjourned for 10 minutes after the resolution was passed. It was then adjourned three times for 15 minutes and once for 30 minutes. When I was inside the Deputy Speaker’s chamber, BJP MLAs rushed inside and started abusing me and circled me. Fadnavis was there and he did not stop them, said Jadhav in the Assembly. Only Shelar later apologised to him twice. Fadnavis accepted that there were some heated exchange of unsuitable words as the BJP MLAs were angry. But we apologised later. Suspending Opposition MLAs is an attempt to lessen our numbers, which is an undemocratic act, he claimed. The ruling coalition, however, went ahead with the resolution and subsequently all the 12 MLAs were suspended for a year.

 

F) Use of facial recognition to verify vaccine beneficiaries was without any authorisation

Even though the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) has admitted in a recent RTI query response to the use of facial recognition technology (FRT) for online verification of beneficiaries at vaccination centres, it failed to provide any legislative or legal order that authorised the use of such technology. The MoHFW has also said that no privacy impact assessment of the use of FRT was conducted prior to its deployment. Facial recognition authentication is used as one of the methods for Aadhaar Authentication for online verification of beneficiary prior to Covid-19 vaccination wherein facial template is captured and sent to UIDAI for verification of image of beneficiary, the Ministry said in response to an RTI filed by the not-for-profit Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF). It also stated that no additional procurement has been made for the implementation of FRT-based verification and that a pilot project for such authentication is still under way. However, MoHFW failed to specify any legislative or legal order that authorised the use of FRT nor could they provide copies of any relevant privacy impact assessment, the IFF said, adding that the reply stated that use of FRT for verification of the beneficiaries’ data would be according to the terms furnished in the ‘Verifier & Vaccinator Module User Manual’ included in the CoWin portal. However the manual was not available on the CoWin portal or any open source webpage. The IFF said the government was also unable to provide any information related to the accuracy of the FRT used, any third party assessments which may have been conducted, and the exhaustive list of databases with which the facial recognition technology will be linked in order to identify individuals.

 

G) Twitter failed to comply with new IT Rules: Centre to Delhi High Court

The Central government on Monday informed the Delhi High Court that micro-blogging site Twitter has failed to comply with India’s law regulating tech companies that are rendering their services as ‘intermediaries’. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity), in an affidavit filed before the high court, stated that despite three months time being granted to all Significant Social Media Intermediaries (SSMIs) to comply with the Information Technology (IT) Rules 2021, Twitter has failed to fully comply with the same. Twitter, last week, had informed the high court that the interim Resident Grievance Officer and the interim Nodal Contact Person in India had resigned from their positions in June. The tech giant had stated that it was in the final stages of appointing a replacement, meanwhile the grievances of Indian users are being addressed by the Grievance Officer. The Meity, however, pointed out that as per the details gleaned from Twitter’s website, the grievances from India are currently being handled by its personnel situated in the United States of America which amounts to non-compliance with the IT Rules 2021. In India, Section 79 of the IT Act shields social media platforms or intermediaries such as Twitter from liability for any third party information, data, or communication link made available or hosted by it in certain cases. The Ministry said when an intermediary fails to observe the IT Rules, the intermediary could be liable for any punishment under any law for the time being in force in respect of the offending content. The Ministry stated that the immunity conferred on intermediaries is a conditional immunity subject to the intermediary satisfying the various conditions. The IT Rules, 2021 are the law of the land and Respondent No. 2 (Twitter) is mandatorily required to comply with the same, it added. The Ministry’s affidavit came in response to a petition by advocate Amit Acharya, seeking to appoint a Resident Grievance Officer under Rule 4 of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Ethics Code) Rules 2021. Acharya, in his plea filed through advocates Akash Vajpai and Manish Kumar, had claimed that he wanted to raise grievance against two alleged offensive and objectionable tweets at the Resident Grievance Officer. However the Petitioner was unable to find the contact details of the Resident Grievance Officer on the website of Twitter, he had said.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS 

A) Learn to live with virus, Johnson tells Britons. 

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed on Monday that his government plans to scrap laws requiring face masks and social distancing later this month, though he acknowledged that lifting the restrictions will drive surging coronavirus cases even higher. Mr. Johnson said legal controls will be replaced by personal responsibility when the country moves to the final stage of its lockdown-lifting roadmap. That is scheduled to happen on July 19, though he said a final decision would come on July 12. This means people can throw away masks after months of enforced face-covering, though businesses and transit operators may still require them, and they will still be recommended in some enclosed spaces. Mr. Johnson said he would set out how the country would learn to live with this virus – a major shift in tone from a leader who has previously painted CO. VID-19 as an enemy to be vanquished. I want to stress from the outset that this pandemic is far from over, he said, predicting that cases could hit 50,000 a day by July 19. We must reconcile ourselves, sadly, to more deaths from COVID.

 

B) Israel looks to renew law that keeps out Palestinian spouses.

Israel’s Parliament is set to vote on Monday on whether to renew a temporary law first enacted in 2003 that bars Arab citizens of Israel from extending citizenship or even residency to spouses from the occupied West Bank and Gaza. Critics, including many left-wing and Arab lawmakers, say it’s a racist measure aimed at restricting the growth of Israel’s Arab minority, while supporters say it’s needed for security purposes and to preserve Israel’s Jewish character. The law creates an array of difficulties for Palestinian families that span the wardrawn and largely invisible frontiers separating Israel from east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, territories it seized in the 1967 war that the Palestinians want for a future state. You want your security, it’s no problem, you can check each case by itself, said Taiseer Khatib. His wife of more than 15 years, from the West Bank city of Jenin, must regularly apply for permits to live with him and their three children in Israel. There’s no need for this collective punishment just because you are Palestinian, he said. Israel’s dominant rightwing parties strongly support the law, and it has been renewed every year since being enacted. But Israel’s new government includes opponents of the measure, and the right-wing opposition led by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned it won’t provide the votes needed to renew the law. Ahead of the vote, PM Naftali Bennett called on Mr. Netanyahu to join him in renewing the law. Harming state security for a quarter of a political point is not the right thing to do, he said.

NATIONAL NEWS 

A) Rahul Gandhi, CPI(M) renew calls for JPC probe into Rafale deal

A day after the Congress demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the Rafale deal, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on July 4 put out an online survey asking why the Modi government was not ready for it. Among the choices given by Gandhi to the question were guilty conscience, saving friends, JPC does not want a Rajya Sabha seat, and all the above. Why is the Modi government not ready for a JPC probe? – guilt conscience (sic), saving the friends, JPC does not want a Rajya Sabha seat and all of these are right, he said in Hindi on Twitter, while putting out the survey. Gandhi has been alleging corruption in the Rafale fighter jet deal for long now and had made this as a major poll plank in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, which the Congress lost badly. A French judge has been appointed to lead a highly sensitive judicial probe into suspected corruption and favouritism in the ₹ 59,000 crore Rafale fighter jet deal with India, French investigative website Mediapart has reported. The Congress has demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the Rafale deal, alleging corruption in the purchase of the fighter jets, and said such an investigation is the only way forward to find the truth. The main opposition party had further said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should order the investigation and come clean on the deal. The CPI (M), too, reiterated the demand for a JPC probe. The CPI(M)’s highest body discussed the issue at its meeting on Saturday. The Polit Bureau reiterates its demand raised in September 2018 for the constitution of a Joint Parliamentary Committee to investigate the role of the Prime Minister and the government in this whole episode and establish the truth of the deal, said a statement issued on Sunday. It noted that France’s public prosecution services had ordered an investigation by a French judge into the 2016 deal following a decision by its financial branch. Judicial investigation was formally opened into the Inter-Governmental Agreement on June 14. The statement pointed to a French investigative website’s expose of official papers which allegedly show that Rafale manufacturer Dassault Aviation entered into an agreement with Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group on March 26, 2015, which was 15 days before PM Modi’s announcement of the new deal, which excluded state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. This reconfirms the apprehensions raised by the CPI(M) that PM Modi’s turnaround from the earlier purchase agreement,is mired in deep corruption and money-laundering, said the Polit Bureau’s statement. It also condemned the Essential Defence Services Ordinance, 2021, claiming that it aimed to prohibit legitimate protests in ordnance factories against the naked loot of national assets.

 

B) After Rajouri, drones and unmanned vehicles now banned in Srinagar.

The Jammu and Kashmir administration on July 4 banned the use and possession of drones and other unmanned aerial vehicles in the capital Srinagar, a week after two Indian Air Force personnel were injured in twin drone-driven blasts on the technical airport in Jammu. To secure the aerial space near the vital installations and highly populated areas, it is imperative to discontinue the use of drones in all social and cultural gatherings to eliminate any risk of injury to the life and damage to property, Srinagar District Magistrate Mohammad Aijaz said in an order. Issued under Section 144 of the Cr.PC, it says that the decentralised airspace access has to be regulated in view of recent episodes of misuse of drones posing a threat to security infrastructure as reported by the media and other reliable sources. Keeping in view the security situation apart from concerns of breach of privacy, nuisance and trespass, it is extremely dangerous to let unmanned aerial vehicles to wander around in the skies within the territorial jurisdiction of Srinagar, the order reads. Persons already having drone cameras in their possession were directed to report to the local police station. Moreover, the government departments using drones for mapping, surveys and surveillance in agricultural, environment conservation and disaster mitigation sector shall inform the local police station before undertaking any such activity in public interest, it said. Srinagar has become a second district in Jammu and Kashmir to ban the use and possession of drones. Earlier, the Rajouri administration banned it in the wake of the Jammu attack.

 

C) Will protest every day outside Parliament during monsoon session: Samyukt Kisan Morcha

A group of around 200 farmers will protest against the Centre’s three farm laws in front of Parliament every day during the monsoon session, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) announced on Sunday. The umbrella body of over 40 farmer unions said at a press conference that two days before the session begins, a ‘chetavani patra’ (warning letter) will be given to all the opposition MPs to protest the laws inside the House. We will also ask the opposition MPs on July 17 to raise the issue every day inside the House while we will sit outside in protest. We will tell them to not to benefit the Centre by walking out of a session. Don’t let the session run till the government addresses the issue, farmer leader Gurnam Singh Charuni said. Parliament’s monsoon session is set to begin on July 19. We will be continuously protesting outside Parliament till they hear our demands, Charuni said. He added that five people from each farmer union would be taken to join the protest. The SKM also called for a nationwide protest on July 8 against the rising prices of petrol, diesel and LPG cylinders. It asked people to come out and park their vehicles at state and national highways from 10 a.m. till 12 p.m.. Whatever vehicle you have, tractor, trolley, car, scooter, just bring it to the nearest state or national highway and park it there. But don’t create a traffic jam, he said. He also asked for LPG cylinders to be brought to the protest.

 

D) Pushkar Singh Dhami sworn in as new Uttarakhand CM

Pushkar Singh Dhami was sworn in as the 11th Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, along with a 11-member cabinet, in Dehradun on Sunday. The oath of office was administered on Dhami and his ministers by Governor Baby Rani Maurya at a simple function held on the lawns of the Raj Bhawan in the presence of a host of MPs and MLAs of the ruling BJP and senior government officials. Pushkar Singh Dhami, on July 4, 2021, was sworn-in as the 11th Chief Minister of Uttarakhand.  No new face has been inducted into Dhami’s cabinet, which remains as it was under his predecessor Tirath Singh Rawat. The only difference is that this time, all the ministers are of cabinet rank. The Ministers sworn in on Sunday are Satpal Maharaj, Harak Singh Rawat, Bansidhar Bhagat, Yashpal Arya, Bishan Singh Chufal, Subodh Uniyal, Arvind Pandey, Ganesh Joshi, Dhan Singh Rawat, Rekha Arya and Yatishwaranand. Rekha Arya, Dhan Singh Rawat and Yatishwaranand, who were ministers of state in Tirath Rawat’s cabinet, have been elevated to cabinet rank. Earlier in the day, Dhami met Satpal Maharaj at his residence with a bouquet of flowers amid reports that the senior leader and a few other MLAs of the saffron party were sulking since Saturday as they were not happy with his election as the new leader of the BJP legislature party in Uttarakhand. Dhami later said there was no resentment anywhere. All those said to have been unhappy with the party high command over its choice of the new Chief Minister were present at the swearing-in ceremony and were sworn in as ministers. At 45, Dhami takes over as the youngest Chief Minister of Uttarakhand. A two-time MLA from Khatima in Udham Singh Nagar district, Dhami replaces Tirath Singh Rawat, who resigned on Friday. Dhami is considered to be close to Maharashtra Governor and former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Bhagat Singh Koshyari, who is his political mentor. Dhami takes over the reins of power at a time when Uttarakhand has a few months to go for the Assembly polls, which are due early next year. Dhami is a promising young Thakur leader from the Kumaon region who began his political career with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), in 1990. He was the officer on special duty (OSD) to his political mentor Koshyari when the latter was the chief minister of Uttarakhand. He also served as the president of the BJP’s Uttarakhand Yuva Morcha from 2002 to 2008. An attempt by the saffron party to strike the right caste and regional balance ahead of next year’s Assembly polls is evident in its choice of Dhami as the new chief minister. As State BJP chief Madan Kaushik is a Brahmin from the Garhwal region, having a Thakur leader from Kumaon as the Chief Minister is a clever move aimed at wooing two major sections of the electorate in the two regions of the hill State.

 

D) RLD chief calls Saina Nehwal a ‘sarkari shuttler’ after she congratulates Adityanath on BJP performance in UP local polls

When badminton star Saina Nehwal has congratulated Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on the BJP’s thumping victory in elections to the posts of the district panchayat chief, it prompted a sharp comment from RLD president Jayant Chaudhary, who called her a sarkaari shuttler. In a tweet on Saturday night, Nehwal had said, Hearty congratulations for thumping victory in Zila Panchayat Chairperson election in UP @myogiadityanath sir. Nehwal had joined the BJP ahead of the 2020 Delhi Assembly elections. Reacting to Nehwal’s tweet almost one-and-half-hours later, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) president Chaudhary tweeted, Sarkaari shuttler recognises BJP skill in smashing peoples’ verdict! I think voters need to play a subtle drop shot on celebs trying to influence their decisions! The BJP on Saturday claimed to have swept the elections to the posts of the district panchayat chief even as the SP alleged that the ruling party kidnapped voters and used force to stop them from voting. Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav accused the BJP of making a mockery of the elections, saying it is strange that while most results in the polls for the district panchayat members were in favour of his party, the BJP gained in the contest for the district panchayat chief. Though the panchayat polls in UP are not held on the party symbol and the state Election Commission did not announce the party affiliation of the winning candidates, the BJP claimed that the candidate backed by it won on 67 of 75 posts. The elections for these were held on Saturday.

 

E) Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments

The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 3,05,70,217 with the death toll at 4,02,343. The ongoing second COVID wave presented itself with a lowered mean age of patients, higher percentage of hospitalisations despite lesser comorbidities, and had patients with breathlessness in greater frequency, said a new government study, ‘Clinical profile of hospitalised COVID-19 patients in first and second wave of the pandemic: Insights from an Indian registry-based observational study’. Recently published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research, the study was jointly conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), and the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), using data collected under the National Clinical Registry for Covid-19 (NCRC). Doctors and researchers across the country have expressed concern about the fact that the study found a greater percentage of younger patients being more affected during the second wave and worse, mortality increased for all age groups except in the less-than-20 age group. As per the study, mortality among hospitalised patients increased by 3.1% in the second wave. Also, a higher proportion of patients complained of shortness of breath, developed Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), and required oxygen support and ventilators in the second wave. Sanjeev Dutta, HOD and senior consultant Pediatrics, QRG Health City, Faridabad, speaking about the study which analyses the characteristics of the first wave (April 2020 to Jan 2021) and the second wave (which started around Feb-Mar 2021), said: In both the waves, people above 60 years were mostly affected, but the second wave also affected a significantly younger population under 40 years and many had no comorbid conditions like diabetes, hypertension and diminished immunity status.

 

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

A) Chinese astronauts complete first spacewalk at new station.

Chinese astronauts successfully performed the country’s first tandem spacewalk on Sunday, working for seven hours outside the new Tiangong station in orbit around the Earth. Tiangong’s construction is a major step in China’s ambitious space programme, which has seen the nation land a rover on Mars and send probes to the moon. Three astronauts blasted off last month to become the station’s first crew, where they are to remain for three months in China’s longest crewed mission to date. On Sunday morning, two of them exited the station for around seven hours of work in the first spacewalk at Tiangong, the China Manned Space Agency said. The safe return of astronauts Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo to the Tianhe core module marks the complete success of the first spacewalk in our country’s space station construction, the space agency said. Their tasks involved elevating a panoramic camera outside the Tianhe core module, as well as testing the station’s robotic arm which will be used to transfer future modules around the station, state media said. The astronauts installed foot stops on the robotic arm and, with its support, carried out other assembly work, added the space agency. In a video clip of Mr. Liu leaving the cabin, he exclaimed: Wow, it’s too beautiful out here. Television footage showed the astronauts preparing for the spacewalk by donning gear and conducting health checks while exercising.

 

B) Thousands in Brazil join anti-Bolsonaro protests. 

Thousands of Brazilians took to the streets on Saturday to protest against President Jair Bolsonaro, who faces an investigation over an allegedly corrupt COVID-19 vaccine deal. It was the third day of demonstrations against the government, which is also confronting mounting pressure from a parliamentary inquiry into its handling of the pandemic that has claimed over lives in the country. Lima Mendes, a 47-yearold physician taking part in a Rio de Janeiro protest, squarely blamed the government for the high death toll. This government has killed more than people she said. In its first two months of hearings, the parliamentary panel of inquiry focused on the government’s delays in ordering vaccine supplies. The inquiry took a sudden turn, however, after a Health Ministry official, Luis Ricardo Miranda, said he had faced atypical, excessive pressure to approve the purchase of three million doses of the Indianmade Covaxin vaccine at a cost far higher than for other vaccines.