Times top10

Lockdown 5.0 with relaxed night curfew begins; India’s PMI manufacturing data for May to be released; Indian Railways to restart train services; Pak SC to hear appeal by Daniel Pearl's parents; Monsoon to make landfall in Kerala

• The Nepal government of Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli on Sunday tabled the constitutional amendment bill that seeks to redraw the country’s map to include the 372-sq km area of Kalapani, a tri-junction between India, Nepal and China, that New Delhi says is part of the state of Uttarakhand. Nepal had on May 20 released a new map depicting Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura within its borders but failed to table the amendment bill in parliament after the opposition Nepali Congress sought more time to discuss the matter.
• The Nepali Congress has now decided to back the amendment, the Kathmandu Post reports; the Congress Central Working Committee on Saturday asked all its lawmakers to vote in favour of the amendment bill. The amendment requires a two-thirds majority in the parliament to be passed; the process could take days. The Nepali Congress has also decided to introduce their own amendment bill on the issue of Madhesi people, Post reports, after holding talks with the two parties representing Madhesi interest, the Samajbadi Party and the Rastriya Janata Party
• India and Nepal share a 1,800km open border that includes areas that are disputed by the countries. The row escalated after India issued a new political map following the reorganisation of J&K in October last year, incorporating Kalapani and Lipulekh on its side of the border. The tension further escalated after India inaugurated a road link on May 8 connecting Lipulekh pass with Kailash Mansarovar route in China. Nepal soon introduced a map of its own. More on the history of the dispute here
• The Madhesi parties have yet not taken a stand on the amendment, say reports. Note: The 2015 Nepal blockade was born of New Delhi’s demand that Nepal makes amendments to address the concerns of the Madhesis and Janjatis.

Meanwhile, India’s military intelligence and Delhi Police's special cell, in a joint operation, apprehended three Pakistan High Commission staffers on espionage charges. Two of them were declared persona non grata by the Indian foreign ministry and were asked to leave the country by Monday morning. The last time India expelled a Pakistani diplomatic staffer was in 2016.

• Picture-perfect launch: Around 12:53 am Sunday IST, the Falcon 9 rocket, developed and owned by SpaceX, launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, marking the first private mission to take humans to the low Earth orbit. The NASA astronauts aboard the Crew Dragon capsule, Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, took a 19-hour ride to the International Space Station (ISS), thus becoming the first Americans launched into space on a US-made rocket from American soil since 2011; the US was reliant on Russian Soyuz rockets in the meantime.
• SpaceX marvel: The mission also saw SpaceX successfully bringing back to the earth is Falcon 9 booster’s first stage — which powers the takeoff — landing it on a drone ship named “I Still Love You” in the Atlantic Ocean. Reusing booster first stage is one of SpaceX’s signature technology, allowing it to quickly redeploy Falcon 9 for future missions while cutting the cost.
• At the space station: A little after 7.45 pm IST Sunday, the Crew Dragon was confirmed to have docked the International Space Station. Astronauts Hurley and Behnken entered the station nearly three hours later after a series of safety checks and pressure stabilising steps. The duo opened the hatch of their spacecraft to join NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner, who have been in orbit since April. Hurley, Behnken and Cassidy will hold a news conference from the station on Monday (11:15 a.m. EDT). The new arrivals will spend up to four months living and working at the station.

Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley (far right, in black) join the the crew at the International Space Station (NASA/AP)

• Did you know? Astronauts Hurley and Behnken were not awake throughout the 19-hour journey to the International Space Station — a full 8-hour sleep was scheduled for the duo. “They'll eat first, then they'll get to sleep,” said NASA Public Affairs Officer Marie Lewis. “That sleep portion of the mission is actually really important because we need them to be really well-rested and comfortable whenever they start doing the approach phases to the International Space Station,” he added.

Clue 1: It is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council
Clue 2: Its home to the second tallest building in the world
Clue 3: It joined the World Trade Organisation in 2011

Scroll down for the answer

With large-scale violence and protests continuing unabated across several US cities, which resembled war zones, over the killing of a black unarmed American George Floyd due a fatal knee-choke applied by a police officer, even the UN was forced to step in, saying it was “dismayed” over the deaths of “unarmed African Americans who have died over the years at the hands of the police”. Protestors say the killing of Floyd is the latest in a long line of such incidents targeting black people unfairly.

• Who’s the victim? Interestingly, the number of white people killed in encounters by the police are nearly double the number of blacks killed in police shootings since 2015. However, as a proportion of their respective population, the share of blacks killed by police in the same period is two and a half times the number of whites, according to an analysis by The Washington Post. According to the 2019 Census, blacks constitute 13.4% of the US population while whites are almost 6 times that number, at 76.5% of the population.

• Who’s the target? A joint study last year by Rutgers, Washington and Michigan universities for deaths due to police violence between 2013 and 2018 found that “black men are about 2.5 times more likely to be killed by police over the life course than are white men”, with 1 in 1,000 black men and boys in the US expected to be killed by the police, the highest among all races. The police in US has also earned notoriety for being too trigger-happy compared to other countries — a study by The Guardian in 2015 found that in the first 24 days of that year, there were more fatal shootings in the US than in the previous 24 years in England and Wales combined, at 59 and 55 respectively.

• Where’s the bias? Ironically, even black police officers — 57% — feel that “these deaths are evidence of a broader problem between police and blacks”, according to a study by Pew Research Centre, compared to just 27% of white officers, while 72% of white officers felt the deaths of black at the hands of police were isolated incidents, compared to 43% of black officers who felt the same. Another study, by the US CDC and the City University of New York for deaths caused by cops across 17 US states found that while “victims were majority white (52%) but disproportionately black (32%) with a fatality rate 2.8 times higher among blacks than whites...black victims were more likely to be unarmed (14.8%) than white (9.4%) or Hispanic (5.8%) victims”.

Meanwhile, the violence that erupted across 30 cities in the wake of protests has led to 25 cities in 16 states imposing a curfew, with the police arresting more than 1,700 people across the country. The attendant looting, typical of violent protests in the US, has led to several companies shutting down their retail stores.

The Supreme Court last week admitted a plea by ousted Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry, whose family owns the Shapoorji Pallonji Group, seeking proportionate representation for his family on the board of Tata Sons. Mistry, who was fired as Tata Sons chairman in 2016, was also stripped of his board seat on the Tata group’s holding company. So why does he want to come back?

• Legacy issue: The Shapoorji Pallonji group holds an 18.37% stake in Tata Sons, in lieu of the $200 million it had lent way back in 1925 to save the steel business — the other major shareholder being Tata Trusts, which controls 68% of Tata Sons. Pallonji’s stake is valued between $14-20 billion of the $111 billion Tata Group. Mistry’s plea for board representation will be heard along with the Tata group’s plea challenging the order by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) that had reinstated Mistry as Tata Sons chairman — an order that was stayed by the apex court earlier this year even as Mistry has asserted he’s not keen on regaining his lost post.
• Power of law: As per the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, minority shareholders, especially those holding at least a 10% stake, may approach a court or a tribunal to challenge any decision taken by the board’s majority members if it feels that the decision is not in the best interests of the shareholders — such as a fair valuation in case of a merger or an acquisition. On the other hand, Shapoorji Pallonji group is saddled with a debt in excess of Rs 30,000 crore and it has been looking to raise funds by pledging part of its Tata Sons shares to raise funds for several of its cash-strapped businesses, especially the construction and realty arm, which has been hit severely by the lockdown. Banks and private lenders, however, aren’t too keen to lend against an illiquid stock — Tata Sons being an unlisted entity — unless they get a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the Tatas.
• First refusal: The Mistrys’ plan to pledge part of their stake with a Canadian investor, Brookfield, to raise $2-2.5 billion has been challenged by the Tata group which claims that as per the Articles of Association (AoA), the right of first refusal rests with Tata Sons and the transfer of Tata Sons shares to a non shareholder is forbidden. In fact, during the NCLAT proceedings last year, Tata Trusts had suggested that Tata Sons consider buying out the Mistrys’ stake. That, however, may not even be required since as per Article 75 of the AoA, Tata Sons can transfer the shareholding of any shareholder without any notice via the nominated directors of Tata Trusts on the Tata Sons board.

The new season of Formula One will commence on July 5 with the Austrian Grand Prix after the government there gave the race the green light. According to Die Motorprofis, an Austrian publication, the safety proposal for the two race weekends has been approved, as well the proposal for a limited number of spectators. Austrian health minister Rudolf Anschober said, “as well as strict hygiene measures, the concept foresees regular testing and health checks for the teams and all of the other employees, and also a concrete medical concept”.

The 2020 season of the F1 was originally scheduled to commence on March 15 with the Australian Grand Prix. Since then the races in Australia, Monaco, France and the Netherlands have been cancelled while those in Bahrain, China, Vietnam, Spain, Azerbaijan and Canada have been postponed. The organisers of F1 still hope to hold 15 to 18 races of the 22 scheduled races.

China. China’s official manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) — an early indicator of the economy — eased to 50.6 in May from 50.8 in April, the National Bureau of Statistics data showed. A PMI above 50 shows expansion. Export orders logged the fifth consecutive month of contraction, with a sub-index standing at 35.3 in May. From the clues: According to Fortune Global 500, the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Agricultural Bank of China are the three largest banks in the world by revenue; Bank of China is the fifth largest, just after JP Morgan Chase of the US. The Shanghai Tower is the second-tallest building in the world.