CURRENT AFFAIRS
16 January 2021
NATIONAL NEWS:
A) No breakthrough in Centre-farm union talks.
The ninth round of talks between the Centre and farmers unions on Friday failed to break the impasse over the demand to repeal the three contentious farm reform laws. Its main achievement was to establish that these direct dialogues will continue, in parallel with the Supreme Court-appointed panel’s proceedings on the same issue. In fact, the date for the tenth round of talks was set for January 19, the same day as the court-appointed panel is likely to hold its own first meeting. The protesting farm unions have refused to participate in the proceedings of the court-appointed committee, but were apprehensive that the Centre would use the court’s order as an excuse to end the direct negotiation process. However, it has now been agreed that this process will continue. A solution can emerge from the Centre’s talks with farmers as well as from the court-appointed panel’s deliberations, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar told journalists after the meeting. He emphasized that the Centre is fully committed to the Supreme Court’s order and will present its perspective to the court-appointed panel when invited to do so. He accepted that the unions wish to continue their own dialogue with the government alone, but emphasized the court is the supreme authority in the country, and that its panel would also work in the interests of farmers’ welfare. Earlier, the farmer unions also raised allegations of government intimidation and harassment against their movement and its supporters. The Haryana government has filed FIRs against protestors there, while the National Intelligence Agency, which comes under the Union Home Ministry, has been interrogating Punjab transporters who provide logistics support to the transporters, said Rakesh Tikait, who heads one faction of the Bharatiya Kisan Union. On their side, the unions explicitly clarified that their movement has nothing to do with the Sikhs for Justice organization, which has been making inflammatory statements.
B) Supreme Court to hear farmers’ protests case on Monday.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the farmers’ protests case on Monday amid media reports that one of the four members of its expert committee, set up on January 12 to negotiate between the government and farmers, has recused himself. The case list on January 18 shows that the court is to pass orders/directions on a plea by the government to injunct protesters from holding tractor marches to disrupt the Republic Day celebrations on January 26. There is also a change in the composition of judges on the Bench sitting on Monday. The Bench, though still headed by Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde, would have Justices L. Nageswara Rao and Vineet Saran as puisne judges. The Bench, on January 12, when it had stayed the implementation of the three farm laws and formed the committee, had Justices A.S. Bopanna and V. Ramasubramanian accompany the CJI. The Supreme Court has agreed to examine a plea made by the Centre seeking an injunction order against any proposed tractor, trolley or vehicle march or any other kind of protest by farmers to disrupt the Republic Day events. The Supreme Court has agreed to examine a plea made by the Centre seeking an injunction order against any proposed tractor, trolley or vehicle march or any other kind of protest by farmers to disrupt the Republic Day events. It is to be seen whether the court on Monday would take note of the recusal of Bhupinder Singh Mann, National President, Bhartiya Kisan Union and All India Kisan Coordination Committee, from the expert panel. The committee is supposed to start work in 10 days and submit a report in two months. However, the stated objective of the Monday hearing is to address the Centre’s apprehension about protesters disrupting the Republic Day ceremonies. It has come to the knowledge of the security agencies through various sources that a small group of protesting individuals/organisations have planned to carry out a tractor/trolley/vehicle march on Republic Day. The proposed march is slated to disturb and disrupt the August celebrations of the nation on Republic Day and would be bound to create a massive law and order situation, the government application has said.
C) WhatsApp chats between Arnab Goswami and ex-BARC CEO leaked.
Transcripts of WhatsApp conversations between Republic TV’s editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami and Partho Dasgupta, the former CEO of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), which were part of a supplementary charge sheet filed by the Mumbai Police in the TRP-fixing case, were leaked today and were trending on social media. The transcripts of the WhatsApp messages intercepted via Dasgupta’s phone, running into more than 1,000 pages, show many instances of him asking Goswami to reach out to the government on his behalf. In one such instance, April 4, 2019, just days before the general elections, Dasgupta asked Goswami to stall the Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRAI)’s proposal to make the BARC’s viewing data public instead of just supplying them to the channels. Dasgupta tells Goswami that if the data is made public, many channels could be blacked out by Multi System Operators (MSOs) and Local Cable Operators (LCOs). With public data MSOs and LCOs will push you guys for more carriage, Dasgupta says. At this, Goswami assures him that when the BJP government returns to power after the 2019 elections, the TRAI won’t have teeth. He also asks Dasgupta to send him points on how these reforms could politically hurt the government. There are also many instances in the transcripts that show Goswami boasting about his proximity to the PMO and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, with him detailing his visits to Delhi to meet various ministers. There is another instance where he says that all the ministers are with them. Goswami also complains about other news channels getting better ratings than his and Dasgupta assures him that necessary steps will be taken to clean the data. Posting a screenshot of the chats, senior Supreme Court lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan tweeted that these are a few snapshots of the damning leaked WhatsApp chats between BARC CEO & #ArnabGoswami. They show many conspiracies & unprecedented access to power in this govt; gross abuse of his media & his position as power broker. In any Rule of law country, he would be in jail for long.
D) Indian scientists divided over nod for Covaxin.
While 3,000 sites across India are all set to vaccinate 300 million high-risk individuals, beginning with healthcare workers from January 16, scientists and doctors are divided over the restricted use approval granted to the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, a Covid-19 vaccine. In a tweet on January 14, the Health Ministry said both Covishield and Covaxin, approved for restricted use by the Indian regulator, are safe. The Health Ministry released a statement made by four-dozen scientists and doctors in India who collectively assure the safety of both the vaccines. After Gagandeep Kang, Professor of Microbiology at CMC Vellore, told The Hindu that she will not take Covaxin in the absence of efficacy data, 12 other scientists, including Partha P. Majumder from the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics, Kalyani, have issued a statement asking for efficacy data before vaccination. While acknowledging the safety and the promising immunogenicity data of Covaxin, they said: It is imperative that relevant data from the larger Phase-3 trial become available before administering the vaccine to large numbers of people. Providing a vaccine without adequate efficacy data can lead to a false sense of security among vaccine recipients. They also added a greater degree of transparency prior to the start of the vaccination programme is essential. This is especially true for Covaxin, for which phase-3 safety and efficacy data are not yet available.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) Mounting pressure on China, U.S. blacklists Xiaomi, CNOOC.
The U.S. government has blacklisted Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp. and China’s third-largest national oil company for alleged military links, heaping pressure on Beijing in President Donald Trump’s last week in office. The Department of Defense added nine companies to its list of Chinese firms with military links, including Xiaomi and state-owned plane manufacturer Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China (Comac). U.S. investors will have to divest their stakes in Chinese companies on the military list by November this year, according to an executive order signed by Mr. Trump last November. Xiaomi did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Apple Inc. as the world’s No. 3 smartphone maker by sales in the third quarter of 2020, according to data by Gartner. Separately, the Commerce Department put China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) on the entity list, an economic blacklist that forbids U.S. firms from exporting or transferring technology with the companies named unless permission has been obtained from the U.S. government. The move comes after about 60 Chinese companies were added to the list in December, including drone maker DJI and semiconductor firm SMIC. CNOOC has been involved in offshore drilling in the disputed waters South China Sea, where Beijing has overlapping territorial claims with other countries including Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Taiwan, and Malaysia. China’s reckless and belligerent actions in the South China Sea and its aggressive push to acquire sensitive intellectual property and technology for its militarization efforts are a threat to U.S. national security and the security of the international community, U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said. CNOOC acts as a bully for the People’s Liberation Army to intimidate China’s neighbours, he added.
B) After U.S., Russia pulls out of Open Skies treaty.
Russia announced on Friday it was pulling out of the Open Skies treaty, saying that the pact, which allows unarmed surveillance flights over member countries, had been seriously compromised by the withdrawal of the United States. The move, announced by Russia’s Foreign Ministry, comes days before U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s January 20 inauguration amid fears of a burgeoning arms race. Moscow’s last major nuclear arms pact with Washington is set to expire next month. The United States left the Open Skies arms control and verification treaty in November, accusing Russia of violating it, something Moscow denied. Russia said in a statement that Moscow had made specific proposals to other members to mitigate against the impact of the U.S. exit but that those proposals were not backed by Washington’s allies. Moscow will formally notify other member states about its exit once it has completed unspecified withdrawal procedures at home, it said. The exit process usually takes months to be finalised. Sharing of intelligence Russia has raised concerns that despite leaving the treaty Washington could potentially retain access to overflight intelligence gathered by allies who remain members in the treaty. The Kommersant newspaper reported earlier that Moscow had tried to get guarantees from other countries that they would not share such intelligence with the U.S. but had not been given any assurances. Arms control tensions have been rising between Moscow and Washington and New START, their last remaining major nuclear arms control treaty, is set to expire in February. Mr. Biden has said he’s keen to renew it but it remains unclear for how long.
