CURRENT AFFAIRS
12 JULY 2020
NATIONAL NEWS:
A) Kashmiris pitch in to charter flights home from Dubai.
While the Vande Bharat Mission has brought home thousands of people stranded abroad, the preference for the elderly, pregnant women and persons with medical emergencies meant that not everyone got a ticket to fly. Two government-run flights brought back many Kashmiris from Dubai to Srinagar on May 22 and June 11. However, over 800 stranded Kashmiris continued to suffer. Scores of companies stopped hiring and started thinning out staff in April, with many Kashmiris losing their jobs. The growing number of distress videos and appeals on social media platforms by jobless youth in Dubai and their families in Kashmir forced the community to work on a novel idea i.e. pooling money and arranging the logistics for charter flights with the financially less stressed buying their own ticket and others being fully or partially funded from the pool. Two such flights, one on June 25 and the other on July 3, have helped around 385 desperate youth and their families escape the Dubai lockdown and the growing unemployment there due to the economic slump induced by the COVID-19 pandemic. A third such flight is scheduled for next week, tentatively July 14. The entire initiative was the brainchild of six Dubai-based employees and businessmen — Kaiser Zargar, Alim Banday, Sajad Wani, Irfan Wani, Sadia Dehlvi and Mr. Peerzada. Their ‘Fly Kashmir Team’ collaborated with Miraj Islamic Art Centre, a carpet company, on the charter flights.
B) UGC to take action if States cancel exams.
As Delhi became the latest State to cancel final year university examinations in defiance of UGC guidelines, both the Centre and the regulatory agency reiterated that guidelines were legally binding on the States and must be followed. As per the UGC Act, State governments cannot take the ln decision contrary to the decision of UGC. Unlike school education, which is on the State list, higher education is on the concurrent list. UGC and AICTE [All India Council for Technical Education] directives have to be implemented. It is not permissible for States to do like this. UGC have the power to take action against this.
C) We are still in a crisis and need a full reset of India-China relations.
On July 11, the former National Security Adviser of India, Shivshankar Menon said that India and China must fully reset ties. He said this by cautioning that any move to allow buffer zones mutual pull-outs and suspending patrols at the LAC sends out the wrong message that both the sides are equally responsible for the aggression. According to him, after this, India-China relations will be reset, as there is no going back on the situation before [the Ladakh stand-off]. What China did this time pressing forward on multiple points along the LAC, then changing the definition of LAC claims, the deaths for the first time since 1975 [in the June 15 Galwan clash] represents a significant change in Chinese behavior. This actually calls into question the whole structure of agreements and confidence building measures that were put in place since 1988, and with the 1993 agreement, which had kept the peace on the border for some time. But this is still a crisis. He is also sure that India-China relations will have to be reset after this.
D) 2 armed infiltrators killed along LoC in Kupwara.
Major General Virender Vats, General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the Army’s Baramulla-based 19 Infantry Division told that the Army on Saturday killed two armed infiltrators along the Line of Control (LoC) in north Kashmir’s Kupwara and warned that Pakistan was trying hard to push more and more militants into the Valley in an attempt to instigate people. Two heavily armed militants were killed in Nowgam sector in Kupwara, owing to the swift and appropriate response by our alert troops on the ground. These militants had used the route through Pakistan Army posts, which clearly indicates that Pakistan is pushing militants into India. The infiltrators were trying to cut the anti-infiltration fence and were dressed in combat fatigues. Two AK-47 rifles, 350 rounds and some electronic switches were spotted at the site. In addition to the food and medicines, around ₹1.5 lakh in Indian and Pakistani currency were also recovered. A search operation is still underway to sanitise the area. The Army did not rule out the possibility of the militants being on a suicide attack mission in the Valley. The counter-infiltration grid in Jammu and Kashmir was “spotting similar infiltration attempts in the Rajouri and Kupwara sectors in the recent past. Pakistan is trying hard to push more and more militants into the Valley, in an attempt to instigate the people, which they have failed to do for long now. Launchpads across the LoC are fully occupied by militants and around 250 to 300 militants are ready to infiltrate. Unlike south Kashmir, the militancy and their narratives were largely discarded by the people and have not got any sort of traction in north Kashmir.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) Amazon revokes ‘ban’ on TikTok in five hours.
On July 11, a mail was sent to the employees of amazon telling them to delete tik tok application from their devices. Later approximately within five hours of this email, the online retailing giant called the ban a mistake. Amazon reported that the mail sent to some of our employees this morning was in error. Right now there is no change in our policies with regard to Tik Tok. The initial internal email, which was sent widely online, told the employees to delete TikTok. The email cited the app’s security risks. After Walmart, Jeff Bejos owned Amazon is the second-largest U.S. private employer. Banning TikTok by amazon could have escalated pressure on the app in a big way, particularly if other companies also did the same. The U.S. military already bans TikTok on the phones of their employees. Mike Pompeo, U.S. Secretary of State said that the US government was certainly looking at banning the app by setting off confused posts as well as jokes by TikTok users.
