NATIONAL NEWS
Mechanism to induct women cadets into NDA will be ready in May 2022, Defence Ministry tells Supreme Court.
The government has informed the Supreme Court that it proposes to have the ‘mechanism’ to induct women cadets into the National Defence Academy (NDA) for entry into the Armed Forces to be ready in May 2022. The Ministry of Defence told the court in an affidavit that the Union Public Services Commission (UPSC) would include women in its NDA exam notification expected to be published in May, 2022. The government, in line with its commitment, hereby places on record the clear and categorical stand that the women candidates shall be considered for entry in the three defence services, in the existing streams, through the National Defence Academy… Entrance examination for entry into NDA are held twice in a year. The government proposes to have the necessary mechanism in place by May, 2022, i.e., the time by which UPSC is required to publish the first notification of 2022, for entrance exam for entry to NDA, a short affidavit by the Ministry said. With this, the path is clear for women to train along with men at the NDA, considered a male bastion. After the Supreme Court judgment last year, which led to permanent commission for women officers, this is the second time that the court has nudged the Armed Forces towards gender equality.
India’s religious makeup has remained stable since 1951, says Pew Center study
The religious composition of India’s population since Partition has remained largely stable, with both Hindus and Muslims, the two largest religious groups, showing not only a marked decline but also a convergence in fertility rates, according to a new study published by Pew Research Center, a non-profit based in Washington DC. The study, based on data sourced from India’s decennial census and the National Family Health Survey (NHFS), looked at the three main factors that are known to cause changes in religious composition of populations, fertility rate, migration, and conversions. With regard to fertility rates, the study found that Muslims, who had the highest fertility rate, also had the sharpest decline in fertility rates. From 1992 to 2015, the total fertility rates of Muslims declined from 4.4 to 2.6, while that of Hindus declined from 3.3 to 2.1, indicating that the gaps in childbearing between India’s religious groups are much smaller than they used to be. In percentage terms, between 1951 and 2011, Muslims grew by 4.4 percentage points to 14.2% of the population, while Hindus declined by 4.3 points to 79.8%. But all the six major religious groups — Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jains – have grown in absolute numbers. The sole exception to this trend are Parsis, whose number halved between 1951 and 2011, from 110,000 to 60,000. Interestingly, out of India’s total population of 1,200 million, about 8 million did not belong to any of the six major religious groups. Within this category, mostly comprising adivasi people, the largest grouping was of Sarnas (nearly 5 million adherents), followed by Gond (1 milliion) and sari Dharma (510,000). With regard to migration as a driver of change in religious makeup, the study says that since the 1950s, migration has had only a modest impact on India’s religious composition. More than 99% of people who live in India were also born in India, and migrants leaving India outnumber immigrants three-to-one, with Muslims more likely than Hindus to leave India, while immigrants into India from Muslim-majority counties are disproportionately Hindu. Religious conversion has also had a negligible impact on India’s overall composition, with 98% of Indian adults still identifying with the religion in which they were raised.
600 more workers to be deployed at Central Vista Avenue to speed up project
Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday said 600 more workers would join the Central Vista Avenue redevelopment project, which was expected to be completed before the Republic Day Parade in 2022. Puri, who visited the site on Tuesday to review the work, said he was confident that the project would be ready in time for the R-Day parade next year. 3,400 workers working day & night on site to compensate for the time lost due to rains. 600 more workers will be added to the workforce in a week. (sic), Puri said in a tweet. As part of the Central Vista revamp project, the Central Vista Avenue redevelopment was started earlier this year. It includes new public amenities for visitors, new landscaping of the India Gate lawns and development of infrastructure for the annual parade.
Raj Kundra walks out of Mumbai jail after bail in pornographic films case
Businessman Raj Kundra today walked out of a Mumbai jail, a day after a magistrate court in Mumbai granted bail to the key accused in a pornographic films case in which he was arrested two months ago. Kundra was released from the Arthur Road jail shortly after 11.30 a.m., a jail official said. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate S.B. Bhajipale on September 20 allowed Kundra’s bail application on furnishing a bond of ₹50,000. Kundra’s associate and co-accused Ryan Thorpe, who was arrested along with him on July 19, was also granted bail by the court in the case pertaining to alleged creation of pornographic films and publishing them through some apps. The 46-year-old businessman was lodged in Arthur Road Jail in central Mumbai under judicial custody. Kundra, the husband of Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty, was arrested by the Mumbai police’s crime branch after being booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Information Technology Act and the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act. Kundra moved a bail plea before the metropolitan magistrate court on Saturday, days after the police filed a supplementary charge-sheet in the case. In the plea, filed through advocate Prashant Patil, Kundra claimed there was not even an iota of evidence till date with the prosecution that would connect the app ‘Hotshots’, used in the alleged porn films racket, with an offence under law. As per the probe agency, the ‘Hotshots’ app was being used by accused persons for uploading and streaming obscene content. The businessman claimed there was no evidence of him being actively involved in creation of alleged questionable porn content. Kundra alleged he was falsely implicated, was not even named in the FIR and was dragged by the respondent (police) in the case. The businessman claimed in the plea that he is being made a scapegoat for reasons best known to investigators.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
U.N. chief Antonio Guterres urges U.S.-China dialogue, warns of divisions at UNGA
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday urged the United States and China to engage in dialogue, warning of an increasingly divided world. I fear our world is creeping towards two different sets of economic, trade, financial and technology rules, two divergent approaches in the development of artificial intelligence — and ultimately two different military and geopolitical strategies, Guterres said as he opened the annual UN General Assembly. This is a recipe for trouble. It would be far less predictable than the Cold War. To restore trust and inspire hope, we need cooperation, he said. We need dialogue. We need understanding. The summit will feature the first speech to the world body by U.S. President Joe Biden, who has described a rising and authoritarian China as the paramount challenge of the 21st century. Chinese President Xi Jinping is also set to address the United Nations but by video in light of COVID-19 restrictions. Guterres said that divisions between the two powers set back efforts on other key priorities including reversing coups. Since February, militaries have seized control both in Myanmar and Guinea and Afghanistan’s Western-backed government collapsed to the Taliban. We are also seeing an explosion in seizures of power by force. Military coups are back. The lack of unity among the international community does not help, Guterres said. Geopolitical divisions are undermining international cooperation and limiting the capacity of the Security Council to take the necessary decisions.
India considers ‘reciprocal’ steps to U.K.’s quarantine rules
India could impose reciprocal measures on the United Kingdom if London maintained the current quarantine policy that subjected Indian travellers irrespective of vaccination status to a quarantine period lasting 10 days, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said here on Tuesday. There was an option of mutual recognition of vaccination certificates, he noted at a press briefing. The comments came hours after External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar met his British counterpart Liz Truss in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. The UK government on September 17, relaxed pandemic restrictions on travel into England. The External Affairs Minister has raised this issue strongly with his counterpart, the new Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, and I am told that certain assurances have been given that this issue would be resolved. And as you saw, the Minister has said this issue should be resolved at the earliest possible to mutual satisfaction. We have also offered some of our partner countries the option of mutual recognition of vaccination certificates or vaccine certification. But these are reciprocal measures. I think if obviously, as we go along, we will have to see how it goes. If we don’t get satisfaction, we would be well within our rights to impose reciprocal measures, Shringla observed. He indicated that the U.K.’s policy to impose 10 days quarantine on people vaccinated with Covishield did reveal a gap in that country’s policy regarding vaccines made in India. The basic issue is that here is a vaccine — Covishield — which is a licensed product of a U.K. company, manufactured in India. Of which we have supplied five million doses to the U.K., at the request of the U.K. We understand this has been used in their National Health System and therefore, non-recognition of Covishield is a discriminatory policy, he stated. This policy hurt Indian nationals travelling to the U.K., he pointed out. Earlier, Jaishankar remarked he had taken up the matter with Truss and urged early resolution of the issue in mutual interest. It was also learnt that the recognition of Covishield of the SII is not an issue for the U.K. and the real problem is the vaccine certificate, which is stuck on procedural and technical matters related to the healthcare database of the U.K. Earlier, a British High Commission spokesperson said, We are engaging with the Government of India to explore how we could expand U.K. recognition of vaccine certification to people vaccinated by a relevant public health body in India.
PM Modi, French President Emmanuel Macron discuss Indo-Pacific co-operation
French President Emmanuel Macron discussed on Tuesday co-operating over the Indo-Pacific region with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as France deals with the fallout from Australia’s cancellation of a $40 billion French submarine order. The two leaders held a phone conversation on Tuesday, said a statement from Macron’s office, during which they also discussed issues such as the crisis in Afghanistan. Last week, France recalled its ambassadors from the United States and Australia after Australia cancelled its previous nuclear submarine deal with France. Australia said last week that it would scrap an earlier 2016 deal with France’s Naval Group to build a fleet of conventional submarines, and would instead build at least eight nuclear-powered submarines with U.S. and British technology after striking a trilateral security partnership. France called it a stab in the back. China in turn denounced a new Indo-Pacific security alliance between the United States, Britain and Australia, warning of an intensified arms race in the region.
