Tag: motivation

CURRENT AFFAIRS
22 May 2021

NATIONAL NEWS:

A) GST on oxygen concentrators imported for personal use ‘unconstitutional’, says Delhi High Court.

 

The Delhi High Court on Friday held the Government’s action of imposing Goods and Services Tax (GST) on Oxygen concentrators imported for personal use as ‘unconstitutional’ and said persons looking to import oxygen concentrators should furnish an undertaking that the devices won’t be used for commercial purposes. A Bench of Justices Rajiv Shakdher and Talwant Singh held that oxygen concentrators constitute a life-saving device during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and therefore, should be treated on par with life-saving drugs. Oxygen concentrator, on the face of it, is a life-saving device, Justice Shakdher said. In times of war, famine, floods, pandemic, a different approach needs to be adopted. We have also indicated and taken judicial notice of the fact that funds have been allocated for healthcare in this Budget… We would have liked more time to delve into these issues but both of us thought that time is of the essence and waiting too long would take away the meaning of the judgement, the High Court Judge said. Referring to the potential impact of the GST levy on such imports on overall GST collections, Justice Shakdher said that without giving us details as to why this will debilitate the State if tax on such transactions was not collected where individuals import oxygen concentrators for personal use, we have said you have not really discharged the burden. You have to justify it in these situations. The petitioner in the case, a senior citizen whose nephew had shipped him a concentrator as a gift, had challenged a May 1 notification that levied 12% GST on such imports from 28% earlier. He invoked Article 21 of the Constitution which enshrines the fundamental right to life. The court had earlier asked the government to consider temporarily dropping the 12% GST levied on such imports altogether, citing the shortage of oxygen in the second wave of the pandemic. However, the Finance Ministry had turned it down, stating that if the petitioner’s argument about Article 21 is accepted, it will lead to absurd consequences and interpretations, where in citizens will be seeking exemption from Property tax, since housing is an essential facet of Right of Life… or exemption from taxes imposed on several food items since Right to Food has been held by the Supreme Court to be a part of Right of Life under Article 21.

B) Govt asks Twitter to remove ‘manipulated media’ tag from ‘toolkit’-related tweets by BJP leader.

The government has asked Twitter to remove the manipulated media tag for tweets on an alleged ‘Congress toolkit’ to discredit Covid-19 efforts, calling it prejudicial, a clear overreach and unwarranted, sources said today. The official complaint has been spurred by Twitter marking BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra’s tweet as ‘manipulated media’. The Ministry of Electronics and IT, in a strong communication to the global team of Twitter, has objected to the use of the manipulated media tag on certain tweets made by Indian political leaders with reference to a toolkit created to undermine, derail and demean the efforts of the government against Covid-19, sources said. Sambit Patra’s tweet on May 18, shared by several BJP leaders, had screenshots of what he had called a Congress toolkit that aimed to smear Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the government’s handling of Covid-19. The Congress filed FIRs in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan the same day, accusing BJP leaders of sharing a fake toolkit based on forged screenshots. The party yesterday wrote to Twitter urging it to remove tweets by Sambit Patra and other BJP leaders and suspend their accounts permanently for spreading misinformation and unrest in society. Last evening, a manipulated media tag appeared below Patra’s tweet.

C) SC upholds Centre’s notification permitting banks to proceed against personal guarantors under IBC.

The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a government move to initiate proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) against personal guarantors (usually promoters of big business houses) of corporate debtors facing corporate insolvency resolution process. In a judgment which will ring loud and clear across the business community, a Bench of Justices L. Nageswara Rao and S. Ravindra Bhat held that the November 15, 2019 notification of the Centre allowing creditors, usually financial institutions and banks, to move against personal guarantors under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) was legal and valid. The notification of November 15, 2019 invoking IBC against personal guarantors was challenged before several High Courts initially. The Supreme Court had transferred the petitions from the High Courts to itself on the request made by the government. The court had transferred the cases from the High Courts in October last year, saying the IBC was at a nascent stage and the interpretations of the provisions of the Code should be taken up by the apex court to avoid any confusion and to authoritatively settle the law. The concept of ‘guarantee’ is derived from Section 126 of the Indian Contracts Act, 1872. A contract of guarantee is made among the debtor, creditor and guarantor. If the debtor fails to repay the debt to the creditor, the burden falls on the guarantor to pay the amount owed to the lender. The creditor reserves the right to begin insolvency proceedings against the personal guarantor if the latter does not pay. Usually, promoters of big businesses submit personal guarantees to creditors to secure loans and assure repayment.

D) Environmentalist Sunderlal Bahuguna passes away.

Well-known environmentalist and Gandhian Sunderlal Bahuguna has died from Covid-19-related complications at AIIMS in Rishikesh. He was 94. He was admitted to the hospital on May 8 after testing positive for Covid-19. He had been critical since last night with his oxygen level dropping drastically. A pioneer in environmental protection, Bahuguna led the charge against the construction of big dams in the Himalayas in the 1980s. He was fervently opposed to the construction of the Tehri dam. He, along with local women, founded the Chipko movement in the Seventies to prevent the felling of trees in the ecologically sensitive zones. The movement’s success led to the enactment of a law to ban the felling of trees in ecologically sensitive forest lands. He also coined the Chipko slogan, ecology is permanent economy.

E) Sessions Court acquits Tarun Tejpal of rape charges.

The Mapusa District and Sessions Court in Goa on May 21 acquitted former Tehelka editor Tarun Tejpal in a 2013 sexual harassment and rape case filed by his colleague. Tejpal was accused of raping his colleague in an elevator of a five-star hotel. He was arrested on November 30, 2013, by the Goa Crime Branch and was granted bail on July 1, 2014, by the Supreme Court. In February 2014, the Goa Crime Branch filed a 2,846-page chargesheet against Tejpal. Former journalist Tarun Tejpal arrives for the verdict hearing of the sexual assault case in which he is accused of raping a female journalist in the lift of a five-star hotel in Goa in November 2013, at the district court of Mapusa in Goa on May 21, 2021. Tejpal has been acquited of the rape charge. Special judge Kshyama Joshi pronounced the judgment, and the reasons for acquittal will be known in due course of time. On September 29, 2017, the court framed charges against him under various Sections of the Indian Penal Code. The trial commenced in March 2018 but got interrupted due to several factors, one of them being Tejpal seeking a discharge in the case, for which he first moved the sessions court, then the High Court, and later the Supreme Court. In August 2019, the top court declined his plea and ordered that the trial be held in-camera (not open to the public) and be completed in six months. The trial finally began on December 7, 2020, and the survivor was examined and cross-examined for an entire month till January 7, 2021, by physical appearance and through video-conferencing. The trial concluded at the end of February 2021 and, after final arguments were made by both sides, the judgment was reserved. The court was earlier supposed to pronounce the judgment on April 27 but was adjourned to May 12 due to shortage of staff in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. It was again adjourned to May 19 because of Cyclone Tauktae and then to May 21. Public Prosecutor Francisco Tavora said, We are seriously aggrieved and the State will be appealing the judgment.

F) Calcutta HC refers Narada case to a larger bench.

The Calcutta High Court on Friday referred the Narada case to a larger bench and directed that the accused be put under house arrest instead of judicial custody. The division bench of Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Arijit Banerjee directed that the matter be heard before a larger bench since one of the judges thought it was fit to grant interim bail to the four arrested while the other did not. The order stated that the court found that the guidance in this regard given by the Supreme Court on May 12, 2021 in case titled as Gautam Navlakha vs. National Investigation Agency is fully applicable in these cases. As far as interim relief is concerned, while modifying the earlier order dated May 17, 2021, we direct that considering the age and health issues of the accused, three of whom are said to be admitted in hospital, instead of custody in jail, all the accused persons can be put under house arrest in their own homes, the order by the division bench read. The Court also added that during house arrest, while being in home comfort, they shall be entitled to all medical facilities and shall be bound by all applicable restrictions. Any violation thereof can result in recall of this order, the order stated. Four leaders including two Ministers in the West Bengal government Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim, MLA Madan Mitra and former Minister Sovan Chatterjee were arrested by the CBI in connection with Narada sting videos on Monday. The four leaders have been in judicial custody since then.

G) Jaishankar talks of ‘dishonoured commitments’ during Covid-19 pandemic.

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has hinted that countries failed to live by commitments during the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic had prompted countries to become self-seeking, often resorting to a broader definition of national security that disrupted supply chains, he said in a speech at a ‘Future of Asia’ event organised by Nikkei on Thursday. In the past, defence, politics and intelligence drove calculations, with some extrapolation into domains like resources, energy or technology. With some notable exceptions, its demands were balanced out by the requirements of global exchanges, economic efficiency, and perhaps by social habits. These trends, in fact, became stronger as the globalisation mantra took deeper root. The pandemic, however, saw capabilities leveraged, commitments dishonoured, supply chains blocked, logistics disrupted, and shortages created, with all the accompanying anxieties, said Jaishankar, distinguishing the pandemic-era response of nation-states from the usual globalisation-driven concerns. The policy-oriented speech is being interpreted as an admission by the Minister to the problems that India itself is facing in continuing with the Vaccine Maitri project, under which it had promised to deliver vaccines all over the world, and especially to the South Asian partner countries. On Wednesday, Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen called Jaishankar and reminded him that Dhaka did not get the Covishield vaccine from Pune’s Serum Institute of India (SII) despite placing orders. The shortage of vaccine from the SII has created a crisis for the required second round of doses for the recipients. Similar problems have been reported from Nepal, Sri Lanka and African countries that were promised vaccine from the SII.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS 

A) Israel and Hamas both claim victory as fragile ceasefire takes hold.

Israel and Hamas both claimed victory on Friday after their forces ended 11 days of fighting, but a clash between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters in Jerusalem underscored the fragility of the truce, Reuters reported. Egypt, which mediated the pre-dawn end to the worst hostilities between Israelis and Palestinians in years, discussed measures to avoid a resumption of the militant rocket attacks from Gaza on Israel and Israeli strikes on the enclave. The Gaza violence was set off on May 10 in part by Israeli police raids on the al-Aqsa mosque compound and clashes with Palestinians during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Thousands gathered there again for this Friday’s prayers, with many staying on to demonstrate in support of Gaza. Israeli police fired stun grenades towards demonstrators, who threw rocks and petrol bombs at officers, and Palestinian medics said some 20 Palestinians were wounded. The confrontations died down within about an hour, with Israeli police pulling back to the compound’s gates. In Gaza, five more bodies were pulled from the rubble in the densely populated Palestinian enclave, taking the death toll to 243, including 66 children, with more than 1,900 wounded. The Israeli military said an Israeli soldier had been killed as well as 12 civilians; hundreds have been treated for injuries after rocket salvoes that caused panic and sent people as far away as Tel Aviv rushing into shelters.

B) Biden hails truce, says it’s an opportunity towards peace.

President Joe Biden on Thursday hailed the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, saying he sees a genuine opportunity towards the larger goal of building a lasting peace in West Asia. Mr. Biden credited the Egyptian government with playing a crucial role in brokering the ceasefire and said he and top White House aides were intensely involved in an hour by hour effort to stop the bloodletting. He believe the Palestinians and Israelis equally deserve to live safely and securely and enjoy equal measures of freedom, prosperity and democracy, Mr. Biden said. My administration will continue our quiet, relentless diplomacy toward that. The ceasefire was announced one day after Mr. Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a telephone call that he expected significant de-escalation of the fighting by the day’s end, according to the White House. However, Mr. Netanyahu came right back with a public declaration that he was determined to continue the Gaza operation until its objective is achieved. Hours before the ceasefire agreement was reached, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the Israelis had achieved significant military objectives in their strikes intended to degrade Hamas military capabilities and reiterated that Mr. Biden expected the Israelis to start winding down their operations. Mr. Biden, who studiously avoided extensive public comment about the Israeli military strikes, was facing mounting pressure from fellow Democrats to speak out against the Israelis as the death toll climbed in Gaza and tens of thousands of Palestinians were displaced by the aerial bombardment.

CURRENT AFFAIRS
21 May 2021

NATIONAL NEWS:

A) Declare mucormycosis an epidemic, Centre tells states.

The Union government has asked the States to declare mucormycosis, the fungal infection being reported in Covid-19 patients, an epidemic. In a letter to the States, Health and Family Welfare Ministry joint secretary Lav Agarwal said that declaring the black fungus infection seen in Covid-19 patients an epidemic would lead to healthcare facilities screening for it and reporting all such cases to the government. In recent times a new challenge in the form of a fungal infection, namely mucormycosis, has emerged and is reported from many States amongst Covid-19 patients, especially those on steroid therapy and deranged sugar control. This fungal infection is leading to prolonged morbidity and mortality amongst Covid-19 patients, he said. The treatment of the fungal infection required a multi-disciplinary approach that involved eye surgeons, ENT specialists, general surgeons, neurosurgeons and dental maxilo facial surgeons, and the use of Amphotericin B as an anti-fungal medicine, he noted. You are requested to make mucormycosis a notifiable disease under Epidemic Diseases Act 1897, wherein all government and private health facilities and medical colleges will follow guidelines for screening, diagnosis, management of mucormycosis, issued by MoHFW (Gol) and ICMR and make it mandatory for all these facilities to report all suspected and confirmed cases to Health Department through district-level Chief Medical Officer and subsequently to IDSP [Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme] surveillance system, he wrote.

 

B) Govt issues advisory on aerosols, says ventilation essential to reduce Covid-19 transmission indoors.

Aerosols could be carried in the air for up to 10 metres and improving the ventilation of indoor spaces would reduce transmission, a government advisory on stopping the spread of Covid-19 said on Thursday. The advisory, issued by the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, said there was need to remember the simple measures that could reduce the transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Ventilation can decrease the risk of transmission from one infected person to the other. Just as smells can be diluted from the air through opening windows and doors and using exhaust systems, ventilating spaces with improved directional air flow decreases the accumulated viral load in the air, reducing the risk of transmission. Ventilation is a community defense that protects all of us at home or at work, it stated. It recommended adding outdoor air in offices, homes and public spaces. Droplets and aerosols were the key transmission modes of the virus. While droplets fell up to 2 metres from an infected person, aerosols could travel up to 10 metres. Ventilation in hutments could be improved by adding jaali or other simple air outlet, apart from installing exhaust fans. It is advised that jaali/air outlets with exhaust fans are installed by gram panchayats in homes where there is no cross-ventilation, the advisory said. For workplaces, it recommended keeping doors and windows open while air-conditioners were on. Hospitals should ensure that vaccinations were carried out in well-ventilated areas and public transport like buses should keep windows open and use exhaust fans.

 

C) It is insulting that CMs were not are allowed to speak in meeting with PM, says Mamata.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday took strong exception to Chief Ministers not being allowed to speak at a virtual meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It was just a casual, super flop meeting. We, the CMs, felt insulted and humiliated, she told journalists at the State Secretariat after the conclusion of the meeting between the Prime Minister and 10 Chief Ministers. Banerjee said that she thought that she would be allowed to speak and raise issues relating to the Covid-19 pandemic but was shocked and astonished at not being allowed to speak. She also added that she had listed down several points she wanted to raise with Modi. The country is passing through a critical juncture but the Prime Minister’s approach is very casual. They have demolished the federal structure. If the Chief Ministers were not allowed to speak, why were they invited? she asked. Banerjee said that vaccines, medicines, oxygen, remdesivir were not being provided by the Centre, and the States could not procure these from markets because of non-availability. Referring to the slow pace of vaccination, Banerjee said, If States were to accept his [PM’s] formula of vaccination, it will take 10 years to vaccinate people. It was one-way insult, one-way humiliation. No Chief Minister was allowed to speak. Only a few CMs from BJP-ruled States were allowed to speak, she said. Banerjee also asked how many Central teams were sent to Uttar Pradesh when bodies of Covid-19 patients were found floating in river Ganga. She also accused the Centre of indulging in vendetta politics during the time of pandemic.

 

D) Sonia urges PM to give free education to children who lost parents in pandemic.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to provide free education to children who have lost their parents to Covid-19. In a letter to Modi on Thursday, she highlighted the plight of the children who had either lost both the parents or an earning parent during the pandemic. They were left with the trauma of loss and no support towards a stable education or future, she pointed out. Amidst the devastation caused by the pandemic and the heart-wrenching tragedies being faced by affected families, news of young children losing one or both parents to COVID-19 are the most poignant, her letter stated. He is writing to request you to consider providing free education at the Navodaya Vidyalayas to the children who have lost either both parents or an earning parent on account the Covid-19 pandemic. Feel that as a nation, we owe it to them to give them hope for a robust future after the unimaginable tragedy that has befallen them, she wrote. The Navodaya Vidyalayas are CBSE-affiliated, co-educational residential schools in which talented students of Class VI to XII, after clearing a selection test, are offered free education, including text books, school uniforms and hostel facilities. Gandhi described the Navodaya Vidyalayas as among the most significant legacies of her husband, Rajiv Gandhi, and noted that there were as many as 661 such schools across the country. It was his dream [Rajiv Gandhi] to make high-quality modern education accessible and affordable to talented youth, predominantly from rural areas, she said.

 

E) In letter to Twitter, Congress seeks suspension of BJP leaders’ accounts over ‘fake toolkit’ posts.

Days after filing a police complaint against BJP President J P Nadda, Union Minister Smriti Irani, spokesperson Sambit Patra, and party functionary B L Santosh for spreading an alleged ‘fake’ toolkit, the Congress on Thursday formally wrote to Twitter to remove their tweets and permanently suspend their accounts. For the past three days, the Congress and BJP have engaged in a bitter war of words after BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra accused the Congress of preparing a toolkit to destroy Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s image during the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. The BJP alleged that social media volunteers of the Congress were instructed to refer to the mutant virus as ‘Modi Strain’ or the ‘Indian Strain’. The Congress hit back with a police complaint against Patra and other top leaders for allegedly using a forged document to target the Congress. The Opposition party claimed that the letterhead of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) Research Department was forged from an actual document on the Central Vista project to prepare a fake document. As Twitter’s own policy and rules seeks to discourage deceptive/ synthetic/ manipulated media that are likely to cause harm, we humbly request you to immediately remove the tweets contained in Annexure 1, or any other such material on the Twitter platform. Also, you are requested to kindly carry out a detailed probe on the subject-matter and permanently suspend the Twitter accounts of the above named individuals, read the Congress complaint, filed by AICC research department head Rajeev Gowda and social media head Rohan Gupta. Calling it a pre-planned criminal conspiracy, the complaint mentioned that the toolkit was prepared with the clear intent to cause social unrest, communal disharmony in order to fuel hate and escalate violence in various parts of India.

 

F) Govt’s responsibility to preserve records at National Archives, says Culture Minister.

Culture Minister Prahlad Singh Patel said on Thursday that the government was responsible for the records at the National Archives and would continue to store them safely during the Central Vista redevelopment project. Patel told that the historic National Archives building housed all the important records and would not be touched during the revamp, in which the annexe building had been proposed to be demolished and replaced with a new one. Talk of this project is premature. There will be no change to the old building. All the important records are kept in the old building. Besides, it is the government’s responsibility to maintain the archives and it will continue to keep the records safely, he said, when asked about the public outcry against the proposal. The National Archives was shifted from Kolkata to the present building in 1926 and the annexe was added post-Independence. As a part of the Central Vista redevelopment project, the National Archives annexe building was proposed to be replaced with a new building meant for use by researchers, according to the draft Masterplan prepared by the Centre’s consultant for the project, HCP Design, Planning and Management Ltd., in 2019.

 

INTERNATIONAL NEWS 

A) U.S., Russia at odds over military activity in the Arctic.

The Biden administration is leading a campaign against Russian attempts to assert authority over Arctic shipping and reintroduce a military dimension to discussions over international activity in the area. As Russia assumed the rotating chairmanship of the Arctic Council on Thursday, the U.S. rallied members to oppose Moscow’s plans to set maritime rules in the Northern Sea Route, which runs from Norway to Alaska, and its desire to resume military talks within the eight nation bloc. Those talks were suspended in 2014 over Russia’s actions in Ukraine. The effort reflects growing concerns in Washington and among some NATO allies about a surge in Russian military and commercial activity in the region that is rapidly opening up due to the effects of climate change. At a meeting of Arctic Council Foreign Ministers in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the group should maintain its focus on peaceful cooperation on environmental issues, maritime safety and the well-being of indigenous people in the region. Mr. Blinken stressed the importance of upholding effective governance and the rule of law to ensure that the Arctic remains a region free of conflict where countries act responsibly. Several other Foreign Ministers, including those from Canada, Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden, echoed Mr. Blinken’s call to keep the Arctic peaceful and free of conflict.

 

B) World’s largest iceberg breaks off from Antarctica, says ESA.

A huge ice block has broken off from western Antarctica into the Weddell Sea, becoming the largest iceberg in the world and earning the name A-76. It is the latest in a series of large ice blocks to dislodge in a region acutely vulnerable to climate change, although scientists said in this case it appeared to be part of a natural polar cycle. Slightly larger than the Spanish island of Majorca, A-76 had been monitored by scientists since May 13 when it began to separate from the Ronne Ice Shelf, according to the U.S. National Ice Center. The iceberg, measuring around 170 km long and 25 km wide, with an area of 4,320 sq km is now floating in the Weddell Sea. It joins previous world’s largest title holder A-23A — approximately 3,880 sq. km. in size — which has remained in the same area since 1986. A-76 was originally spotted by the British Antarctic Survey and the calving — the term used when an iceberg breaks off — was confirmed using images from the Copernicus satellite, the European Space Agency said. Icebergs form when hunks of ice break off from ice shelves or glaciers and begin to float in open water.

CURRENT AFFAIRS
20 May 2021

NATIONAL NEWS:

 

A) Covid-19 vaccination should be deferred by 3 months after recovery, says government.

Vaccination should be deferred by three months after recovery in individuals having lab test proven SARS-2 COVID-19 illness, the Health Ministry said in a statement issued on Wednesday. SARS-2 COVID-19 patients who have been given anti-SARS-2 monoclonal antibodies or convalescent plasma should also defer vaccination by three months from the date of discharge from the hospital. The statement also recommended Covid-19 vaccination for all lactating women. The second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine should also be delayed by three months for anyone contracting the disease after the first dose. So far, there was no fixed gap for taking a vaccine in such situations. Individual physicians recommended a gap of two or four weeks depending on the condition of the patient. The fresh rules are part of the recommendations by NEGVAC the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 led by NITI Aayog member Dr VK Paul which have been accepted by the Union Health Ministry.

B) Jaishankar intervenes with Singapore over Kejriwal’s remarks on new variant.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal does not speak for India, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar declared on Wednesday after Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan objected to Kejriwal’s claim that a highly infectious variant of Covid-19 that affects children is being transmitted from Singapore. Singapore and India have been solid partners in the fight against Covid-19. Appreciate Singapore’s role as logistics hub and oxygen supplier. Their gesture of deploying military aircraft to help us speaks of our exceptional relationship. However, irresponsible comments from those who should know better can damage long-standing partnerships. So, let me clarify Delhi CM does not speak for India, Jaishankar said, after Singapore summoned Indian envoy to protest Kejriwal’s remarks. In a rather unusual diplomatic gesture, the Ministry of External Affairs announced that the Indian High Commissioner was summoned by the Singapore Government on Wednesday to convey strong objection to Delhi CM’s tweet on ‘Singapore variant.’ The High Commissioner clarified that te Delhi CM had no competence to pronounce on COVID variants or civil aviation policy, said Official Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi. In diplomatic protocol, it is usually the host country that announces if a foreign envoy is summoned to convey displeasure on a certain issue. Singapore’s move came soon after the political leaders in the country objected to Kejriwal’s assertions. Politicians should stick to facts! said Balakrishnan a day after Kejrwal claimed that the strain of the corona virus that is targeting children in Singapore was from there. The Foreign Minister of Singapore was the second to respond to the Delhi leader’s comments. Singapore maintains that the variant found in the country came from India. The Embassy of Singapore in its social media handle had responded to Delhi chief minister’s comment on Tuesday evening. There is no truth whatsoever in the assertions. There is no ‘Singapore variant’. The strain that is prevalent in many of the Covid-19 cases in recent weeks is B.1.617.2 variant, which originated in India. Phylogenetic testing has shown this B.1.617.2 Variant to be associated with several clusters in Singapore, said the Ministry of Health of Singapore in a statement issued on Tuesday.

C) Govt asks Whatsapp to withdraw update to privacy policy.

The Centre has sent a notice to WhatsApp asking it to withdraw a controversial update to its privacy policy and has sought a response within seven days. The government has also warned the Facebook-owned firm that failure to give a satisfactory response may result in steps in consonance with law. The Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), in the notice dated May 18, has told WhatsApp that deferring the May 15 implementation deadline does not absolve it from respecting the values of informational privacy, data security and user choice for Indian users, a Ministry source said. The notice directs WhatsApp to withdraw its Privacy Policy 2021, as the changes and the manner of introducing them undermine the sacrosanct values of informational privacy, data security and user choice for Indian users and harm the rights and interests of Indian citizens. The source added that the Ministry has also highlighted how WhatsApp’s updated privacy policy is a violation of several provisions of existing Indian laws and rules. In fulfilment of its sovereign responsibility to protect the rights and interests of Indian citizens, the Government of India will consider various options available to it under laws in India. The government has given seven days’ time to WhatsApp to respond to this notice and if no satisfactory response is received, necessary steps in consonance with law will be taken, the source said.

D) Narada case hearing to continue on May 20, Kolkata Police register case against CBI.

The hearing at the Calcutta High Court in connection with the Narada case remained inconclusive on Wednesday and will continue on Thursday. The development implies that four heavy weight political leaders, including two Ministers, Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim, and MLA Madan Mitra and former Minister Sovan Chatterjee, arrested by the CBI on Monday, will have to the spend Wednesday night in judicial custody. Three of the four arrested, except Minister Firhad Hakim, were admitted to the State-run SSKM Hospital.  In another development, the Kolkata Police filed a case against CBI personnel under Section 51B of the Disaster Management Act. The case was filed at Gariahat police station in the city for violation of the restrictions imposed during the pandemic while arresting one of the accused. The CBI, along with personnel of central forces, had picked all the accused early on Monday morning from their respective residences. The CBI on Wednesday also filed a transfer petition to move the matter involving Narada case out of West Bengal and also made Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Law Minister Moloy Ghatak and Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee party to the case.

E) Cyclone Tauktae death toll rises to 45; another storm brewing in Bay of Bengal.

As many as 45 people have been killed due to cyclone Tauktae across 12 districts of Gujarat, officials said Wednesday. Fifteen deaths were reported from Amreli district in Saurashtra region, the worst affected in the cyclone. Eight people each were killed in Bhavnagar and Gir Somnath coastal districts, an official of the State Emergency Operation Centre said. While 24 deaths were due to wall collapses during the cyclone, six died after trees fell on them, five each because of house collapse and electrocution, four due to roof collapse, and one died due to a tower collapse, the official said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday undertook an aerial survey of affected areas in Gujarat and adjoining union territory of Diu to assess the devastation caused by Cyclone Tauktae. Modi is in Gujarat to review the situation in the state in the aftermath of cyclone Tauktae. He landed at Bhavnagar from Delhi around noon and proceeded for the aerial survey of Una, Diu, Jafarabad and Mahuva, an official said. Meanwhile, with Cyclone Tauktae yet to entirely abate, a new storm may be in the works, this time in the Bay of Bengal. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said in a statement Wednesday that a low pressure area— a precursor to cyclonic storm — was likely to form in the eastern Bay of Bengal and the Northern Andaman Sea by May 22 (Saturday). It is very likely to intensify gradually into a cyclonic storm during subsequent 72 hours and reach Odisha-West Bengal coast by May 26, according to the statement.

F) Only three teachers on polling duty died of Covid-19, says U.P. govt.

The Uttar Pradesh government has said that only three teachers died of Covid-19 while on duty during the recently-concluded panchayat polls, dismissing the figure of over 1,600 deaths claimed by teacher unions. Satya Prakash, under secretary in the basic education department, Uttar Pradesh, said on Tuesday that so far District Magistrates had provided the State Election Commission (SEC) a list of only three confirmed deaths of teachers. He also appealed to people to not fall for misleading reports not based on facts. The State government’s statement stands in stark contrast to the claim made by the Uttar Pradesh Prathmik Shikshak Sangh, a union for primary teachers. The union earlier this week released a list of 1,621 teachers and staff of the basic education department who allegedly died of Covid-19 after being assigned duty in the panchayat polls and control rooms for the pandemic. The son of a science school teacher, who died of COVID-19, performs final rituals prior to lighting his father’s funeral pyre. Interestingly, the SEC had recently informed the Allahabad High Court that 77 polling officers and agents in 28 districts had died while on polling duty during the panchayat polls. Data from other districts was awaited, the SEC told the court on May 7. It also alleged that despite assurances by the State Chief Secretary on May 1, a day before counting, that unwell teachers and staff would not be asked to be on polling duty, those who were absent due to illness on counting and voting days had faced suspension and salary cuts. Reacting to the State basic education department’s claim of only three deaths, Dinesh Chandra Sharma, president of the Uttar Pradesh Prathmik Shikshak Sangh, said the government statement was insensitive, irresponsible and far from reality. We won’t let them kill the rights of the children of the teachers who died. We will fight for their families at all levels, he said.

G) Vaccine caller tune removed due to shortage: AAP’s Atishi.

Senior AAP leader Atishi on Wednesday claimed that the caller tune asking citizens to get vaccinated has been removed by the Centre due to the shortage of vaccines in the country. The caller tune asking all citizens to come forward and get vaccinated has been removed from all phone networks! So basically the Central Govt has accepted that there are not enough vaccines for everyone and so there is no point in encouraging people for vaccination! she tweeted. Till recently, the caller tune was being played before each call across all networks. These have now become less frequent and only some users are still getting the tune before the call connects. The Central government has been using the caller tune feature since the beginning of the pandemic as means to create awareness among the public. The Department of Telecom, on a request from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, had in March 2020 ordered all telecom firms to make a 30-second audio clip on coronavirus as a caller tune of mobile phone users. The earlier audio clips, voiced by actor Amitabh Bacchan, asked the public to follow Covid-19-appropriate behaviours such as masking up and maintaining physical distance. The latest caller tune was focused on the inoculation drive and asked people to get vaccinated, while assuring them that the vaccines are safe.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS 

A) U.S. to work with COVAX to allocate 80 mn vaccine doses.

The U.S. will work with the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access (COVAX) programme as well as its partners to decide how to allocate the 80 million doses of vaccine it is sending to other countries over the next six weeks. lndia, which is currently the global epicentre of the pandemic, is expected to receive a significant share of these vaccines, but administration officials have not released actual numbers. We’re looking at how we can get maximum coverage, because, I think, as all of you would agree, that demand exists everywhere, Gayle Smith, the U.S.’s Coordinator for Global COVID Response and Health Security, said on a briefing call with reporters on Wednesday. We’re consulting closely with COVAX, which, as you know, is the largest vaccine delivery platform in the world and that is focused on, in particular, low income and low-middle income countries and with our partners , she said. Ms. Smith referred to COVAX as an absolutely critical and the central platform for vaccine allocation. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, on Tuesday, said vaccine allocation decisions would be made based on ‘equity’, in response to a question on whether India would be a recipient of the vaccines. The U.S. has deployed around SIOO million in assistance to India during this current wave of the pandemic. Transparent manner We, of course, will be making decisions based on equity, based on ensuring they are providing these vaccines in a transparent manner with the global community through COVAX and also through direct relationships, Ms. Psaki said. While India could theoretical use some of the vaccines it will produce as part of a Quad (India, the U.S., Australia and Japan) plan to supply at least I billion doses of to the Indo-Pacific by the end of 2022, the actual decisions will be taken based on ground conditions at the time, as per Ms. Smith. Biological E, a Telengana based pharmaceutical company, is collaborating with Johnson & Johnson to produce the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine under the Quad plan. Given the timeline for that production, I think its dispensation will depend to a great extent on the state of play around the world with vaccine coverage. That timeline is fairly extended. So, I think, while in principle those vaccine doses are available for internal use, but also for export to the rest of the world, the final allocation or plan for that will depend on what conditions we’re facing at the time they’re available, Smith said.

B) U.S. to waive sanctions on firm behind Russia’s Nord Stream 2.

The U.S. government will waive sanctions on the company behind Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Europe and its Chief Executive, a Washington source familiar with the plans and Germany’s Foreign Minister said on Wednesday. A U.S. State Department report to be delivered to Congress as early as Wednesday concludes that Nord Stream 2 AG and CEO Matthias Warnig, an ally of Ruse Sian President Vladimir Putin, engaged in sanctionable activity but that it was in the U.S. national interest to waive the sanctions, the source said. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said the administration had waived the sanctions on those two parties but also imposed sanctions on Russian entities and ships linked to Nord Stream 2. We see this as a constructive step. which we are happy to further discuss with our partners in Washington. Mr. Maas said. The administration under Democratic President Joe Biden still opposed the Nord Stream 2 pipeline but felt it was important to send a signal about its commitment to ties with Germany, which were badly damaged under former President Donald Trump.  Russia’s state energy company Gazprom and its western partners are racing to finish the line to take Russian gas to Europe via Germany, under the Baltic Sea. The project, now about 95% complete, would bypass Ukraine, depriving it of lucrative transit fees and potentially undermining its struggle against Russian aggression.

CURRENT AFFAIRS
19 May 2021

NATIONAL NEWS:

 

A) CPI (M) drops high profile ministers from Cabinet positions.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) State committee on Tuesday dropped high-profile Ministers K.K. Shylaja, Kadakampally Surendran and A.C. Modieen from the next Pinarayi Vijayan Cabinet. Instead, it nominated Shylaja as the party’s whip in the next Assembly. Shylaja’s non-inclusion in the Cabinet comes as a surprise for many. The Health Minister had been touted as the face of Kerala’s struggle against the Nipah virus and later Covid-19. Shylaja won with a decisive majority of 60,000 votes from Mattannur in Kannur. She told a television news channel that the party’s decision was paramount. It was a collective recommendation consistent with the CPI(M) line to rotate governmental responsibilities. Predictably, the CPI (M) nominated Politburo member Pinarayi Vijayan as legislature party leader and consequently Chief Minister-designate. The party has included two women legislators in the new Cabinet. They are former Thrissur Mayor R. Bindu and Veena George. Bindu is the wife of CPI (M) acting State secretary A. Vijayaraghavan. The party has proposed M.B. Rajesh as the Speaker candidate. Democratic Youth Federation of India president and Vijayan’s son-in-law Mohammed Riyaz would get a Cabinet berth. Speaker candidate M.B. Rajesh told newspersons that the party paved the way for a new set of party leaders to gain legislative and administrative experience. The new Cabinet, a mix of youth and experience, also reflected Kerala’s social cross-section, said a party spokesperson. The CPI(M) had signalled a generational shift by withdrawing many high-profile Ministers, including Finance Minister Thomas Isaac, Industries Minister E. P. Jayarajan and Public Works Minister G. Sudhakaran, from the electoral arena of the recently concluded assembly polls. Vijayan has also indicated that it would be his final term as Chief Minister. The central leadership of the CPI(M) has refrained from criticising the decision to drop K.K. Shylaja from the Cabinet, putting the onus instead on the State committee. 

B) Live-in relationships morally and socially unacceptable, says Punjab & Haryana HC.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has said live-in-relationships are morally and socially unacceptable, an observation which runs contrary to the Supreme Court stand recognising them, PTI reported. The High Court made the observation while dismissing a petition filed by a runaway couple seeking protection. In their petition, Gulza Kumari (19) and Gurwinder Singh (22) said they were living together and intended to get married shortly. They apprehended danger to their lives from Kumari’s parents. In his May 11 order, Justice H S Madaan said, As a matter of fact, the petitioners in the garb of filing the present petition are seeking seal of approval on their live-in-relationship, which is morally and socially not acceptable and no protection order in the petition can be passed. The petition stands dismissed accordingly, his order said. According to petitioners’ counsel J S Thakur, Singh and Kumari were living together in Tarn Taran district. The woman’s parents in Ludhiana did not approve of their relationship. The couple could not get married as Kumari’s documents, which have details of her age, were in the possession of her family, Thakur added. The Supreme Court has taken a different view on the issue in the past. A three-judge bench of the apex court held in May 2018 that an adult couple had the right to live together even without marriage. It had made this clear while asserting that a 20-year-old Kerala woman, whose marriage had been annulled, could choose whom she wanted to live with. The top court had held that live-in-relationships were now even recognized by the legislature and they had found a place under the provisions of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005.

C) Kejriwal announces free schooling, monthly allowance for children orphaned by Covid-19.

Delhi Chief Minster Arvind Kejriwal on May 18 announced that if a child had lost both parents (one or both due to Covid-19), education will be provided free of cost to them and additionally Rs. 2,500 will be given to them every month till they are 25 years of age. Due to Corona and the lockdown many homes are facing financial difficulties. We have been thinking about a plan on how to help people overcome this difficulty. We have come up with four steps to provide relief during this tough time, he said. We have come up with several steps to provide relief during this tough time, assured Mr. Kejriwal said in a digital address. Screengrab from twitter.com/@ArvindKejriwal. We will give all ration card holders 5kg ration free from Delhi government + 5kg free ration from the Central government. For those without ration cards, Delhi government will give rations if people demand. If someone says they are poor, we will give ration without asking for income proof, he said. For those who have lost lives due to Corona, we will give Rs.50,000 ex-gratia to every family. If the deceased was the earning member of the family, we will give Rs.2,500 pension every month along with the ex-gratia of Rs.50,000. If a child has lost both parents [one or both due to coronavirus], education will be provided free of cost and we will give Rs.2,500 every month till they attain 25 years of age, he said.

D) Journalist in Manipur booked after saying cow urine and cow dung cannot cure Covid-19.

The police in Imphal have booked journalist Kishorchandra Wangkhem and political activist Erendro Leichombam under the National Security Act of 1980 over their Facebook posts allegedly deriding the death of State BJP president S. Tikendra Singh. The duo was arrested on May 13 after the BJP leader succumbed to Covid-19. Referring to his death, both had commented that cow urine and dung were not cures for infection by the virus. Their arrest was based on a complaint filed by Manipur BJP general secretary P. Premananda Meetei and vice-president Usham Deban Singh. An order issued by Imphal West District Magistrate Th. Kirankumar on Monday said Wangkhem be detained under Section 3(2) of National Security Act, 1980, until further orders as and when he is released on bail. The journalist and Leichombam were subsequently booked under NSA, Imphal West’s Superintendent of Police L. Meghachandra Singh said. On Monday, the district’s Chief Judicial Magistrate granted bail to the duo on the execution of a personal recognisance bond of Rs. 50,000 each with a surety bond of a like amount on condition that they will not repeat a similar offence in the future and be available for interrogation by the investigating officer as and when required. Both Wangkhem, 41, and Leichombam, 40, had been arrested twice earlier on charges of sedition and for criticising the government. The latter is the founder of the People’s Resurgence and Justice Alliance, a political party whose candidate in the 2017 Manipur elections included rights activist Irom Sharmila.

E) Prepare a Covid-19 strategy for children now, Rahul Gandhi cautions govt.

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday urged the Narendra Modi government to prepare a Covid-19 protocol for children as they needed to be protected now. In the time to come, children will need protection from Corona. Paediatric services and vaccine-treatment protocols should already be in place. India’s future needs for the present Modi ‘system’ to be shaken out of sleep, Gandhi said on twitter. Even though the overall number of Covid-19 cases have stabilised, with the number of cases coming down in the past few days, experts are warning of a new third wave that can affect children. The Congress leader, who had warned of a Covid-19 tsunami as early as February last year, had also been warning of a third wave because of the slow pace and consistently declining numbers of vaccination due to vaccine shortage. GOI’s disastrous vaccine strategy will ensure a devastating third wave. It can’t be repeated enough — India needs a proper vaccine strategy! Gandhi had said last Saturday.

F) SC seeks response from West Bengal govt on plea seeking CBI/SIT probe into post-poll killings.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought a response from the West Bengal government on a petition seeking a CBI or SIT (Special Investigation Team) probe into the murder of two BJP activists in the violence after the victory of Mamata Banerjee-led All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the Assembly elections. A Vacation Bench of Justices Vineet Saran and B.R. Gavai issued the notice to the government on the joint petition filed by Biswajit Sarkar and Swarnalata Adhikari. Biswajit is the brother of Abhijit Sarkar, one of the two victims. Swarnalata is the widow of Haran Adhikari. They were represented by senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani. The Bench scheduled the next hearing on the issue for May 25. Jethmalani argued that there was total inaction and even subversion of the investigation on the part of the State administration and the police. The murders happened on the same day the Assembly election results were declared. The police stood by idly… The investigation into the crimes needs to be transferred to the CBI or a SIT and requires court monitoring, he submitted.

G) Justice Gavai recuses himself from hearing Param Bir Singh case.

Supreme Court judge Justice B.R. Gavai, one of the two judges on the Vacation Bench scheduled to hear a plea by former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh challenging the internal enquiries instituted against him, recused himself from hearing the case on Tuesday. Singh has moved the Supreme Court alleging that the departmental enquiries against him was part of a conspiracy to frame him for levelling allegations of corruption against Anil Deshmukh, who resigned as Maharashtra Home Minister. He urged the apex court to shift the enquiries to another State. My brother [pointing to Justice Gavai] cannot hear the case, Justice Vineet Saran, the lead judge on the Bench, informed senior advocate Puneet Bali, who appeared for Singh. Justice Gavai also made it clear that he would withdraw from hearing the petition. In that case, we are recording in our order to list the case before another Bench, Justice Saran said.

H) Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments.

The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 2,53,96,581 with the death toll at 2,80,753. Less than 2% of India’s total population has been affected by Covid-19 so far and 98% of the population is still susceptible or vulnerable to the infection, the government said on Tuesday. Despite the high number of cases reported so far, we have been able to contain the spread to under 2% of the population, said Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal. The government said a continued decline has been noted in active cases in the last 15 days. From 17.13% of the total caseload reported on May 3, it has come down to 13.3%, it added. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Tuesday extended the deadline for schools to submit Class X exam results to June 30, citing the Covid-19 pandemic. On May 1, the CBSE had notified a policy for tabulation of Class X results based on internal assessment by schools, with the deadline for submission of marks as June 5. The CBSE had said in the notification that it would declare the results by June 20. On Tuesday, however, the Board extended the deadline for schools to submit the marks to June 30, keeping in view the situation of the pandemic, lockdown in States and safety of teachers and other staff members of affiliated schools.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS 

A) Sri Lanka’s China-backed tax haven clears final hurdle.

A Chinese-funded tax-free enclave billed as Sri Lanka’s answer to Dubai and Singapore cleared the final legal hurdle on Tuesday as the Supreme Court in Colombo ruled it could go ahead with only minor tweaks. The largest single foreign investment in Sri Lanka is one of several massive Asian infrastructure projects funded by China as Beijing increases its regional footprint. Sri Lanka’s top court rejected 19 petitions challenging the Colombo Port City Economic Commission Bill and approved the $1.4 billion project subject to minor amendments which the government immediately said it accepted. Project officials have said they hope the brand new Port City, an area of reclaimed land, will attract billions of dollars for trade, banking and offshore services similar to what is available in Dutni and Singapore, two of its potential competitors. Named the Colombo Port City because of its proximity to Colombo’s main harbour, the sea reclamation carried out with considerable Chinese labour completed in 2019 has doubled the size of Colombo’s financial district by adding 269 hectares. Under the proposed legislation expected to be passed by Parliament, the Port City will be administered by a commission with unprecedented powers to fast track investment approvals. Il transactions within the Port City will be denominated in foreign currency and all salaries earned by any worker will be tax-exempt.

B) Bangladesh arrests scribe under Official Secrets Act.

A journalist in Bangladesh reporting on official corruption was arrested on charges of violating a colonial-era Official Secrets Act which carries a possible death penalty, authorities said on Tuesday. Rozina Islam, a senior reporter for the leading Prothom Alo newspaper, allegedIy used her mobile phone without permission to photograph documents related to government negotiations to buy coronavirus vaccines while she waited in the room of an official involved in the process, according to case documents seen by The Associated Press. Ms. Islam is known for reporting on corruption involving the Ministry of Health and others. Several of her recent stories have drawn attention to the millions of dollars spent procuring health equipment to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. She was held for more than five hours late on Monday in the room of a personal assistant of the secretary of the Ministry of Health, said her sister, Sabina Parvin. Her family said she was physically and mentally harassed while being held. Sensitive documents Ms. Islam was then handed over to police and faces charges under the Penal Code and Official Secrets Act for alleged theft and photographing of sensitive state documents, said Harun-or-Rashid, an Additional Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police. The charges carry a possible death penalty, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said in a statement.

CURRENT AFFAIRS
18 May 2021

NATIONAL NEWS:

A) Trinamool Ministers arrested by CBI in Narada case, get bail.

Four political heavyweights, including two ministers of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) government and a party MLA, were on Monday arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation ( CBI) in the Narada sting operation case and were granted interim bail in the evening. Senior Ministers Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim, TMC MLA Madan Mitra and former Minister and former Kolkata Municipal Corporation mayor who recently quit the BJP, Sovan Chatterjee, were all picked up from their residences in the early hours of the day and brought to the CBI headquarters at Nizam Palace in south Kolkata. The four of them were produced before a virtual city court, where the counsels representing the CBI sought a 14-day judicial custody. The lawyers representing the arrested members said there was no need for custody of any of the accused since the chargesheet has been filed. The defence counsels also said such custodial interrogation is not required in the time of a pandemic. The central investigating agency may also appeal before the higher courts opposing the bail. The Narada tapes, which were allegedly shot sometime in 2014, were made public in 2016, months before the State went to Assembly Polls. The purported videos showed about a dozen TMC leaders, MPs and Ministers accepting cash on camera from an operator of a fictitious company. In March 2017, the Calcutta High Court directed CBI to probe the tapes and the agency filed an FIR against 13 persons in April, 2017, including the four persons arrested today. The main allegation in the case was that the said accused as public servants demanded and accepted illegal gratification to show favour to a private person who was posing as a representative of a fictitious company at the time of transaction and discreetly recording the same, a press statement issued by the CBI said. The CBI also added that all the four arrested were ministers in the State government and sanction was received from competent authorities to prosecute them on May 7, 2021. The arrests triggered dramatic developments and protests across the city, with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee rushing to the CBI office at Nizam Palace. Banerjee was at the CBI office for almost six hours. Some of the lawyers representing those arrested said Banerjee dared the CBI authorities to take her into custody. The TMC described the arrests as political vendetta and questioned why BJP leaders Suvendu Adhikari and Mukul Roy, who were both named in the FIR, had not yet been arrested. Mathew Samuel, who carried out the sting on behalf of the portal Narada News, also asked why Adhikari, now a BJP MLA and leader of the Opposition, had not been quizzed. Meanwhile, hundreds of Trinamool Congress supporters gathered outside the CBI office. Violence erupted, with the TMC supporters throwing stones and bottles at the central forces, who resorted to baton charge. The TMC supporters remained at Nizam Palace till late in the evening and left only after the news of the TMC leaders being granted bail reached them.

B) 1,621 teachers died of Covid-19 during U.P. panchayat polls, says union.

The number of teachers and staff who died of Covid-19 after being assigned duty in the panchayat polls and in Covid-19 control rooms has gone up to 1,621, a union for the primary teachers in Uttar Pradesh claimed on Sunday. The union also alleged that despite assurances by the state chief secretary on May 1, a day before counting, that unwell teachers and staff would not be asked to be on polling duty, those who were absent due to illness on counting and voting days had faced suspension and salary cuts. Uttar Pradesh Prathmik Shikshak Sangh president Dinesh Chandra Sharma said the number of primary education department teachers and staff to die on polling duty during the pandemic had gone up to to 1,621. The union released a list of the 1,621 people. Moreover, he added, many teachers and staff with heart diseases died due to tension and heart attack. As reported on May 2, Covid-19 safety protocols were not followed at the counting centres of the panchayat polls by the district administration, said Sharma. What’s worrying is that even after the so much of loss of life, administrative officials in districts are harassing primary teachers, he said. Basic education department teachers and staff are allowed to work from home but in several districts like Unnao, Rae Bareli, Lucknow, Basti, Banda and Hardoi, they have been assigned duty at Covid-19 control rooms at the cost of their safety, he said. The union demanded that a compensation of Rs.1 crore be provided to the kin of the staff and teachers who died during polling duty. The union also demanded that the government withdraw all punitive action against the teachers and staff absent on polling duty and declare all teachers, including the deceased, as corona warriors. The Allahabad High Court on May 11 had said that the compensation provided to kin of polling officers who died on duty during the panchayat polls due to the deliberate act on the part of the State and the State Election Commission to force them to perform duties in the absence of RTPCR support should be at least Rs.1 crore. The State government had recently told the court that it would provide a compensation of Rs.30 lakh to the family members of the deceased polling officers, including teachers and sikhsa mitras.

C) Petition in SC to stop action against those questioning Centre’s vaccine policy.

A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court to direct the Delhi Police Commissioner to stop the registration of FIRs against persons who have voiced their dissent against the Centre’s vaccination policy and Covid-19 management by pasting posters and brochures in public places. Advocate Pradeep Kumar Yadav said free speech and expression is guaranteed under the Constitution. The Supreme Court in the Shreya Singhal judgment has held that sharing of information on social media is not a criminal offence under the Information Technology Act. The petitioner referred to the fact that the Supreme Court, while hearing the suo motu case on Covid-19 management, had specifically told State authorities to not take penal action against people who seek medical help or vent their grievances about Covid-19 management on social media. Contrary to this, authorities are registering FIRs against the innocent persons over their hate speech against the Hon’ble PM with regard to his official functions over the second wave of COVID-19 crisis and government vaccine policies, the petition said. The petition mentioned the arrest of over 20 people in Delhi in connection with posters against the Prime Minister regarding the vaccination policy.

D) Miniscule risk of developing blood clots after Covishield jab, says Health Ministry.

Adverse Event Following Immunisation (AEFI) data in India showed that there was a minuscule but definitive risk of thromboembolic events after the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine (known as Covishield in India). A statement issued by the Health Ministry on Monday noted that the reporting rate of these events in India is around 0.61/million doses, which is much lower than the four cases/million reported by UK’s regulator Medical and Health Regulatory Authority (MHRA). Germany has reported 10 events per million doses. There were no potential thromboembolic events reported following administration of Covaxin vaccine. Bleeding and clotting cases following Covid-19 vaccination in India are minuscule and in line with the expected number of diagnoses of these conditions in the country, a report submitted by the National AEFI committee to the Health Ministry noted. Since the vaccination drive was initiated, more than 23,000 adverse events were reported through the Co-WIN platform from 684 of the 753 districts of the country. Of these, only 700 cases (9.3 cases/million doses administered) were reported to be serious and severe in nature. The AEFI Committee has completed an in-depth case review of 498 serious and severe events, of which 26 cases have been reported to be potential thromboembolic (formation of a clot in a blood vessel that might also break loose and be carried by the blood stream to plug another vessel) events, following the administration of Covishield vaccine, with a reporting rate of 0.61 cases/ million doses, said the release.

E) TN skips virtual meeting with Union Education Minister.

Representatives from the Tamil Nadu School Education Department chose not to participate in the virtual meeting organised for State Education Secretaries on Monday. Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal had announced that he would be attending the meeting virtually and had outlined the objectives as reviewing the Covid-19 situation, online education and work around the National Education Policy (NEP). The meeting had called for the participation of the Education secretary alone, and not State Ministers of Education. In a letter to the Union Minister sent on Sunday, School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi had said that it would be appropriate only if the Education Department Minister participates along with officials from the Department for such a high-level meeting. He had further said that he was ready to participate and share their views on the implementation of NEP. Chief Minister M.K. Stalin had said that I should take part in it as the Minister of the department and we subsequently wrote to the Centre as well about my participation in the meeting. But there hasn’t been any response, and we chose not to participate, said Anbil Mahesh, speaking at Tiruchi on Monday afternoon. We are not looking to fight with them, but want to be able to participate and put forth our views on the NEP and other issues discussed, he added. The DMK was strongly opposed to the National Education Policy when it came out in 2020 and had demanded it to be withdrawn. Many of our suggestions which we had put forth when the draft NEP was released were not taken into consideration. There are many aspects that need further discussion including the three-language policy, and the NEP also does not say much about how it is going to help underprivileged students or about reservations, Anbil Mahesh said.

F) Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments.

The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 2,51,11,469 with the death toll at 2,76,186. The first batch of the adjunct COVID therapy drug, 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) — developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) along with Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (DRL), Hyderabad — was today released for emergency use. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh formally handed over the drug to Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan. Bihar has lost the highest number of doctors to the second wave of Covid-19 — 69 — followed by Uttar Pradesh (34) and Delhi (27). According to the Indian Medical Association (IMA) registry, 244 deaths have been recorded in the second wave, with the youngest physician who died being Dr. Anas Mijahid, 25, from Delhi. While last year we lost nearly 730 doctors across India, this year in a short period of time we have lost 244 doctors, said IMA president J.A. Jayalal.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS 

A) Gaza’s rockets part of resistance, says collective led by Arundhati Roy, Nayantara Sahgal.

Rockets fired by Palestinians against Israel are part of a resistance which is supported by international law, a group of writers and artistes led by Arundhati Roy and Nayantara Sahgal has declared. In a statement, the collective accused Israeli government of killing Palestinian children and blamed Israeli settlers for illegally trying to snatch Palestinian land. Palestinians in Gaza fired rockets at Israel. The rockets did not start or define the brutality that followed. The rockets came as part of a resistance backed by international law of an illegal occupation, declared the statement from the collective. It said Israeli retaliation with extreme force killed civilians, including children. The collective urged the Egyptian air force to provide a ‘no-fly zone’ above Gaza strip and pointed to the lack of political will in the Arab world to protect the Palestinians. The group, consisting of some of the leading artistes, authors and actors, drew attention to the U.N. General Assembly resolution 1514 of 1960 that supported a decolonisation process.

B) At UN, India supports Palestine, but without getting into specifics.

At the United Nations Security Council on Sunday, India, a non-permanent member, reaffirmed its support for Palestine, but stopped short of making any direct reference to the status of Jerusalem or the future Israel-Palestine borders. Wrapping up his over-4-minute-long speech at the Security Council, T.S. Tirumurti, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN said, In conclusion, India reiterates its strong support for the just Palestinian cause and its unwavering commitment to the two-state solution. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday tweeted the national flags of 25 countries, from the United States to Albania, that he said were resolutely standing with Israel and supporting our right to self defence. India’s flag was not among them. Ambassador Tirumurti’s statement made two things clear. One, he said the violence began in East Jerusalem a week back, referring to the clashes in the Al-Aqsa compound and East Jerusalem’s neighbourhood. This means, India doesn’t see Hamas’s rocket firing on May 10, which followed Israeli forces storming Al-Aqsa Mosque in the morning, as the trigger of the conflict. India has also urged both sides to refrain from attempts to unilaterally change the existing status quo, including in East Jerusalem and its neighbourhood. Here, it is Israel which is trying to unilaterally change the status quo by moving to evict the Palestinian families, and deploying troops to the Al-Aqsa compound. India said the historic status quo at the holy places of Jerusalem, including Haram esh-Sharif/Temple Mount must be respected. So, without naming any country, India has, in effect, called for the eviction process to be stopped and status quo ante to be restored at the Al Aqsa compound.

CURRENT AFFAIRS
17 May 2021

NATIONAL NEWS:

 

A) Centre admits COVID spread to rural areas, issues SOPs.

COVID’s ingress is now being seen in peri-urban, rural and tribal areas as well, the Health Ministry admitted on Sunday, weeks after a rising number of cases have been reported from rural areas of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Gujarat among other States. The Ministry in its document SOP on COVID-19 Containment and Management in Peri-urban, Rural and Tribal areas said there is a need to enable communities, strengthen primary level healthcare infrastructure at all levels to intensify COVID-19 response in these new areas, while continuing to provide other essential health services. The Ministry said with the larger spread of COVID-19 cases, it is important to ensure that these areas are equipped and oriented to manage COVID-19 cases. In every village, active surveillance should be done for influenza-like illness/ severe acute respiratory infections(ILI/SARI) periodically by health workers, noted the Ministry in its latest SOP. The Ministry said that depending upon the intensity of surge and number of cases, as far as feasible, contact tracing should be done as per Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme’s (IDSP’s) guidelines for contact tracing of COVID-19 cases in community settings amid reports of several bodies of suspected COVID-19 victims having been found abandoned and floating in the Ganga. The Ministry has also directed that staff should be trained in performing Rapid Antigen Testing (RAT) and that provision for RAT kits should be made at all public health facilities including sub-centres (SCs)/ Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs) and Primary Health Centres (PHCs). These patients should also be counselled to isolate themselves till test results are available. Those asymptomatic but having history of high-risk exposure to COVID patients (exposure of more than 15 mins without a mask within 6 feet distance) should be advised quarantine and tested as per ICMR protocol, notes the Ministry. The document further notes that on discharge, patients should be counselled for post-COVID management at home and leaflets regarding danger signs (e.g. breathlessness, chest pain, recurrence of fever, low oxygen saturation, etc.), precautions and various respiratory exercises. Patients with other co-morbidities should also be followed up and primary assessment of other co-morbidity (e.g. measuring blood pressure, blood glucose level) should be arranged and any modification treatment, if necessary, should be decided by a primary health centre medical officer, says the document. The Ministry has advocated for use of telemedicine services for providing post-COVID follow-up care.

B) Second batch of Sputnik V arrives.

India on Sunday received the second consignment of Sputnik V, the Russian vaccine that recently joined the country’s arsenal against COVID-19. Second batch of Sputnik V arrives in Hyderabad, India!, the vaccine developers tweeted. Russia’s Ambassador to India Nikolay Kudashev said in a tweet: given the recent launch of the Russian vaccine in the Indian vaccination campaign, this second delivery has become very timely. Describing Sputnik V as a Russian-Indian vaccine, he told news agency ANI we expect that its production in India will be gradually increased up to 850 million doses per year. There are plans to introduce single-dose vaccine soon in India-Sputnik Lite. Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, the marketing partner of Sputnik V in India, tweeted that the consignment that arrived today in Hyderabad contains 60,000 doses of the second dose component of the #SputnikV vaccine. Samples from the consignment will be sent for release to the Central Drugs Laboratory. The first consignment consisting of 1.5 lakh doses that arrived in Hyderabad on May 1 was cleared for use on May 13 by the Central Drugs Laboratory in Kasauli. Samples drawn from all consignments would be sent to the central facility in Himachal Pradesh and the vaccine used on getting clearance. Dr. Reddy’s CEO-API and Services Deepak Sapra said this at a media briefing on May 14, following the soft launch of the vaccine by the company as part of a limited pilot. The first dose was administered in Hyderabad. The maximum retail price of the vaccine is ₹995, including a 5% GST. The company said this was the rate at which it would be supplying the vaccine to the government and private sector.

C) DRDO developed drug to be distributed in Delhi.

An anti-coronavirus drug developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will be launched tomorrow, with Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh distributing around 10,000 doses to some hospitals in Delhi. The drug, called 2-deoxy-D-glucose or 2-DG, was developed by a DRDO lab in collaboration with Hyderabad-based pharma giant, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories. Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), the country’s top drug regulator, has approved the medicine for emergency use. The drug had shown promising results in its phase 2 and phase 3 clinical trials. It was also found to be effective in cutting short the hospital stays of patients and reducing supplemental oxygen dependence.

D) Already booked appointments for Covishielf second dose will remain valid.

The Union health ministry on Sunday clarified that already booked online appointments for second dose of Covishield vaccine will remain valid and the same will not be cancelled on Co-WIN platform. It, however, said requisite changes have now been done in the Co-WIN digital portal, as a result of which further online or on-site appointments will not be possible if the period after first dose date for a beneficiary is less than 84 days. The Centre had on May 13 extended the gap between the first and second doses of Covishield vaccine to 12-16 weeks based on the recommendations by the COVID Working Group chaired by N.K. Arora. The Government of India has communicated this change to states and UTs. The Co-WIN digital portal has also been reconfigured to reflect this extension of interval for two doses of Covishield, manufactured by Serum Institute of India (SII) to 12-16 weeks, the Ministry said. However, there have been reports in a section of the media suggesting that people who had pre-booked their appointments for the second dose in less than 84 days on Co-WIN are being turned back from vaccination centres without getting the second dose of Covishield, it said. Additionally, already booked online appointments for second dose of Covishield will remain valid and are not being cancelled by Co-WIN. Further, the beneficiaries are advised to reschedule their appointments for a later date beyond the 84th day from the date of first dose of vaccination, the Ministry added.

E) ‘Entire globe is a unit’ government says while justifying vaccines export.

The entire globe is a unit during a pandemic. This is how the government justified in the Supreme Court its decision to export vaccines amidst a surging second wave of Covid-19. A page in the Ministry of External Affairs’ website shows that between January and April 2021, India exported 663.698 lakh Made in India Covid-19 vaccine supplies to over 90 countries and UN health workers and peacekeepers. Once an epidemic takes (the) form of a pandemic, its management has to be done keeping the entire globe as (a) unit, a March 11 affidavit of the Health Ministry informed the apex court. The document sheds further light into the much criticised-move to export COVID-19 vaccines. In fact, according to the affidavit, the government reasoned it was not possible to take a country or States-specific approach. The government envisaged vaccine export as part of a global action to vaccination. The Centre reasoned that it was necessary to protect the high-risk population in other countries to break the chain of transmission and minimise chances of import of COVID-19 cases to India. India is not immune to the pandemic till the world at large has contained the disease, the Centre argued. It said the export was limited and done giving highest priority to domestic needs. But this is not all. The government, in the affidavit, gives another dimension to why it exported vaccines and opted for staggered immunisation. It said both were done to avoid disproportionality between the production of COVID-19 vaccines and the country’s available health infrastructure and manpower. Simultaneous vaccination without priority classification would have led to commotion, the Centre told the Supreme Court. The affidavit highlights the need for adequate manpower and sufficient infrastructure to cope with the immunisation drive. The document indicates that the available health infrastructure and manpower may not match up. To illustrate, having received one crore vaccine doses for a particular State or city, the vaccine drive would need sufficient number of medical staff who can administer the vaccines and infrastructure like hospitals, primary health centres, etc. It is needless to mention that manufacturing of vaccine would not be proportionate to the available manpower and infrastructure facilities in the country, the government justified.

F) Rahul Gandhi tweets ‘offending’ poster, dares Delhi Police to ‘Arrest me too’

Challenging the arrests of 24 persons by the Delhi police for posters that surfaced across the city questioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to donate vaccines to neighbouring countries, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi posted the ‘offending’ poster on his Twitter account daring the police to arrest him. All the posters uniformly pose the question: Modiji humare bachon ka vaccine videsh kyon bhej diya? (Why did you send vaccines meant for our children abroad?). Mr Gandhi said, Arrest me too. Nearly six crore doses of vaccines have been sent out to various countries. So far, a little over four crore persons have got both doses in India and 14 crore people have got a single dose as per the latest numbers on the centralised vaccination website CoWin. The persons were arrested under a rarely used law of Prevention of Defacement of Property Act and most of them have been released on bail. Celebrate, India is a free country. There is freedom of speech, except, when you ask a question of the Honourable Prime Minister, senior Congress leader and former Home Minister P. Chidambaram wrote on Twitter. He said the poster asks a simple question and before PM Modi could answer the Delhi police had answered with arrest. Congress Chief Whip in the Rajya Sabha Jairam Ramesh pasted the poster next to his nameplate at his official residence opposite the Lodhi Garden. He said this smacks of a lawless state gone amuck.

G) Plea in SC to use PM-Cares fund for vaccines, oxygen plants.

A plea was filed in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to utilise the PM-CARES fund for immediate procurement of vaccines and establishment of oxygen plants, generators and their installation in 738 district hospitals across the country. The petition, filed by advocate Viplav Sharma, said the government needs to loosen its PM-CARES purse strings and use the money to help common people urgently access medical care and oxygen. These government hospitals are easily accessible at no cost to common people of every district in the country who are desperately seeking medical oxygen as basic life-saving support, the petition said. The petition also asked for a stay on an April 24 notification of the Centre granting exemption on import duty of medical equipment relating to oxygen generation owing to its acute and rising demand. The petition said the exemption has been wrongfully capped for only three months. People may need this equipment for more than that period. Three months’ cap on the exemption period is too short a period from the standpoint of logistics involved in importing this highly sophisticated medical equipment in India by over 300 hospitals, it said. The plea asked the court to issue directions to States and Union Territories to ensure that private and charitable hospitals have actually procured, installed and commissioned medical plants or equipment with essential backup for medical oxygen for COVID-19 patients. The petition said States and UTs should ensure the setting up of electric and other kinds of crematoriums in cities and improve the existing ones. It also sought the preparation of a ‘National Plan’ in consultation with Chief Secretaries and States.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS 

A) Kurz expects to be charged but cleared in perjury case.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz expects to be charged but eventually cleared in an investigation into whether he gave false testimony to a parliamentary commission, he said on Sunday, ruling out the idea of resigning if indicted. The investigation by anticorruption prosecutors, made public, last week poses a stiff political challenge for the conservative Mr. Kurz, 34, who governs in coalition with the Greens. Mr. Kurz has painted himself as the victim of opposition parties trying to trap him into saying something that could be construed as perjury before the commission, which is looking into possible corruption under his previous coalition with the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) which collapsed in 2019. After every word of mine on 58 pages (of testimony) is put on the scale, I certainly expect a criminal complaint, that’s right, he told the Krone newspaper in an interview, adding he had not yet been questioned by prosecutors. But he said he was confident he would be exonerated in the case, which centres on whether he answered truthfully when asked about appointments to state holding company OBAG. He have spoken to numerous lawyers and several university professors. The tenor was always the same: no one can imagine that there will be a conviction here, he told the paper. In a separate interview with the Oesterreich newspaper, he rejected the idea of stepping down if indicted.

B) As U.K. prepares to reopen, B.l.617.2 strain sparks worry.

As England, Scotland and Wales prepares to unlock parts of their economy on Monday, the future roadmap for reopening has been put in doubt over the more transmissible B.1.617.2 strain, or the Indian strain. According to government data, the case numbers of the Indian variant have risen from 520 to 1,313 this week. However, Heath Secretary Matt Hancock expressed confidence that existing vaccines are effective against the new variant. Mr. Hancock said the government had a high degree of confidence that vaccines would stand up to the BI.617.2 variant, following new early data from Oxford University. That means that we can stay on course with our strategy of using the vaccine to deal with the pandemic, he said. The British government has come under criticism from opposition politicians over its decision to put Pakistan and Bangladesh on its red list before India. Mr. Hancock rebuffed the suggestion the decision was influenced by a planned trip by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in April to assist in post-Brexit trade talks. They take these decisions based on the evidence, he said over the visit which was eventually scrapped because of surging COVID-19 cases in India. Indoor hospitality and indoor entertainment such as cinemas, museums and sports venues are to open their doors in most parts of the U.K. for the first time in months on Monday. People and families will also be able to meet with some restrictions in private houses under the new measures. Mr. Hancock said the reopening could go ahead because of the country’s successful vaccination campaign and close monitoring of cases. However, he sounded a note of caution over plans to completely lift restrictions on June 21. We’re in a race between the vaccination programme. And the virus, and this new variant has given the virus some extra legs in that race, but we have a high degree of confidence that the vaccine will overcome, he said. The government’s former chief scientific Adviser said the U.K. now found itself in a perilous movement.  Britain is one of the countries the worst hit with over 127,000 deaths.