CURRENT AFFAIRS
17 September 2020
NATIONAL NEWS:
A) Delhi riots case: Police submit a 20,000-page charge sheet.
Nearly 7 months after communal violence gripped the north-eastern parts of the capital city, the Delhi Police have filed a 20,000-page charge sheet. 15 persons have reportedly been named as accused in the charge sheet, this was said by a Delhi police officer on the evening of 16 September. A team of the special cell of the Delhi Police submitted the charge sheet in a Delhi court. A total of 20 persons have been arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. A supplementary charge sheet will reportedly be filed against student leader Umar Khalid, who was arrested on Sunday, and against activist Sharjeel Imam. The 15 named accused are Taahir Hussain, Mohd Parvez Ahmed, Mohd Illyas, Saifi Khalid, Ishrat Jahan, Miran Haider, Safoora Zargar, Asif Iqbal Tanha, Shahab Ahmed, Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita, Tasleem Ahmed, Salem Malik, Mohd Saleem Khan, and Athar Khan. A total of 745 witnesses have recorded their statements. Civil rights groups have been critical of the Delhi police for a biased investigation, a charge that the Delhi police have denied.
B) MSPs will stay, assures BJP president J.P. Nadda.
With long-term ally Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) opposing 3 Bills related to agriculture, including the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill cleared by the Lok Sabha on 15 September, BJP president J.P. Nadda hastened to dispel misgivings, saying the Minimum Support Prices (MSP) will remain, notwithstanding the fact that the Bills seek to deregulate the sector. J.P. Nadda on 16 August said that the 3 Bills related to agriculture introduced by the Modi government in Parliament will boost production and help farmers get better prices for the produce. Underscoring that farmers were at the core of the government’s policies, he said all the 3 farm sector Bills were far-sighted and would boost agriculture production. When asked about the MSP, he asserted that it would continue to be in operation. Farmers’ groups in Punjab and Haryana have been protesting against the Bills, which they fear will deregulate the sector without an adequate safety net for small and marginal farmers.
C) Meanwhile, Punjab CM warns of unrest if Agri Bills passed.
Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on 16 September led a Congress delegation to submit a memorandum to Governor V.P. Singh Badnore, seeking his intervention for non-pursuance of the agriculture-related Bills by the Centre in Parliament. He cautioned that the enactment of the legislation would lead to unrest in Punjab, which was already at the receiving end of Pakistan’s concerted efforts to foment trouble. Singh said he told the Governor that any move to tinker with the present procurement system, and that too at a time of nation-wide crisis, may deepen social unrest among the farmers of the State. These Bills, one of which has already been passed in the Lok Sabha on 15 August, are against the national interest, and particularly detrimental to Punjab where the majority of the farmers tilled less than 5 acres and would be the worst hit, he said. Hoping that the Centre will not get the other two passed in Parliament, he said the Centre had failed to take the interest of the farmers into account and instead took a stand in favor of corporate houses.
D) CBI court to pronounce verdict on Babri Masjid demolition case on Sept 30
A special CBI court is scheduled to pronounce its verdict on the Babri mosque demolition case on September 30. All the accused, including senior BJP leaders L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Kalyan Singh, and Uma Bharti have been asked to be present in court. The 16th-century mosque in Ayodhya was demolished by Kar sevaks on December 6, 1992. The Special CBI court framed charges of criminal conspiracy in the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya against Advani and several others, most of them linked to the Sangh Parivar, in 2017. The Supreme Court had used its extraordinary constitutional powers under Article 142 to restore the criminal conspiracy charges framed against Advani and others in 2017, overruling the Allahabad High Court judgment dropping the charges. In 2010, the Allahabad HC had upheld a special CBI court’s decision in 2001 to drop the conspiracy charges against Advani and others.
E) COVID Watch: Numbers and Developments
The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 50,97,030 with the death toll at 83,072. 35 military personnel have died due to Covid-19 so far, including 32 from the Army and three from the Air Force, the Parliament was informed on 16 September. The number of Covid-19 cases in Army, Navy, and Air Force are 16,758, 1,365, and 1,716 respectively, the Government said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha. The Delhi High Court on 16 August suggested that the AAP government increase the RT-PCR test capacity to the maximum possible in order to detect Covid-19 infections, as Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) were only 60% accurate. The High Court asked an expert committee to convene a meeting on a priority basis to consider the extent to which the capacity of testing by RT-PCR should be ramped up. At present, the sanctioned strength is 14,000 per day in Delhi. The High Court expressed concern over the continuous rise in Covid-19 cases, with nearly 4,500 new infections reported on 15 September.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) RDIF has tied up with Dr. Reddy’s for clinical trials and distribution of Sputnik V.
Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) V.G. Somani has given permission to the Serum Institute of India (SII) to resume clinical trials of the Oxford Covid-19 vaccine candidate in the country. He revoked the earlier order suspending any new recruitment for Phase II and Phase III trials. The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) has tied up with pharma major Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories for clinical trials as well as the distribution of its Sputnik V vaccine in India. It intends to supply 100 million doses of the vaccine to Dr. Reddy’s. Deliveries could potentially begin in late 2020, subject to the successful completion of trials and registration of the vaccine by regulatory authorities in the country. The Sputnik V vaccine, according to the RDIF, is based on the human adenoviral vector platform. RDIF CEO Kirill Dmitriev said the platform of human adenoviral vectors, which is the core of the Russian vaccine, has been tested in more than 250 clinical studies over decades and has been found safe with no potential negative long-term consequences. Dr. Reddy’s managing director G.V.Prasad said the Phase I and II clinical trials of the vaccine have shown promising results.
B) Youtube tests a new rival to Tik Tok in India.
On 14 September, YouTube has begun testing a TikTok rival in India. It said that it would refine its short video format and roll it out in more countries in the coming months. YouTube Shorts made its debut as TikTok pursues a partnership with Oracle that it hopes will save it from being shut-down in the U.S. by President Donald Trump. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has confirmed a bid from Oracle concerning TikTok’s American operations, after the video-sharing app’s parent, ByteDance, rejected a proposal from Microsoft. It however remains unclear whether the venture would pass muster with Washington regulators. YouTube vice president of product management said that Shorts is a new short-form video experience for creators and artists who want to shoot short, catchy videos using nothing but their mobile phones.
C) Scientists detect possible signs of alien life in Venus’s clouds
Data from the Magellan spacecraft and Pioneer Venus Orbiter of NASA is used in an undated composite image of the planet Venus. Data from the Magellan spacecraft and Pioneer Venus Orbiter of NASA is used in an undated composite image of the planet Venus. Scientists said that they have detected, a gas called phosphine, in the harshly acidic clouds of Venus, which indicates that there might be microbes living in the inhospitable neighbor of Earth. The researchers did not discover actual life forms, phosphine is produced by bacteria thriving in oxygen-starved environments. The existence of extraterrestrial life has long been a central question in science. Researchers have used probes and telescopes to seek biosignatures indirect signs of life on other planets and moons in our solar system and beyond.
