| | 5 THINGS FIRST | PM Modi to address India Ideas Summit of US-India Business Council; Top IAF brass to discuss India-China border situation; Human trials of Covid-19 vaccine, Covaxin, to start at Bhubaneswar; 61 new Rajya Sabha MPs to take oath; SC to take up contempt proceedings against advocate Prashant Bhushan and Twitter India | |
| | 1. July's 600,000+ caseload trumps all months put together |  | - India has recorded more Covid-19 cases in July so far than in all previous months put together. The month's count crossed 600,000 on Tuesday, going past the cumulative caseload of 590,000 recorded in the country till June 30. The death toll for July also topped 11,000, accounting for nearly 40% of all fatalities since the pandemic’s outbreak in India. There were 670 deaths on Tuesday, taking the total to 28,723. India now has the seventh highest Covid-19 toll in the world, having gone past Spain’s count of 28,422 fatalities.
- The country reported 38,444 new cases, the second-highest single-day tally so far after the 40,000-plus count on Sunday, as per data collated from state governments. With this, India’s Covid caseload rose to over 1.19 million, with 750,000 patients discharged so far and 410,000 active cases.
- Also, there will be no Amarnath Yatra this year, in the wake of the Covid crisis in Jammu & Kashmir. This was decided on Tuesday by the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board headed by Lt Governor GC Murmu. The board decided to facilitate live and virtual darshan of the morning and evening aartis. The yatra was supposed to have begun on Tuesday and ended on August 3.
- And hours before the weeklong lockdown imposed in Bengaluru Urban and Rural districts comes to an end at 5:00 am on Wednesday, the Karnataka state government decided not to extend it further. Chief minister BS Yediyurappa said on Tuesday there would be no more lockdowns in the state. “Lockdown is not the solution for controlling the spread of the pandemic,” he added. “Resource mobilisation is equally important for a government to function. People need to get back to work since the economy is also very important.”
- Finally, in a letter to states, the director general of health services has made it clear that the use of “valved respirator N-95 mask” is detrimental to the measures adopted for preventing the spread of coronavirus, as it does not prevent the virus from escaping out of the mask. Health ministry's officer on special duty Rajesh Bhushan reiterated on Tuesday that “if asymptomatic person is wearing a valved N-95 mask, then the propensity of that person infecting others exists”.
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| | 2. Delhi sero-survey suggests higher share of infection |  | - A serological survey conducted in Delhi between June 27 and July 10 has shown a 23.48% prevalence of Immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies, the union ministry of health said on Tuesday, suggesting a higher proportion of the city’s population had been infected with the coronavirus. As per ministry’s official data, 123,747 cases of infection were confirmed in Delhi as on Tuesday; 23.48% prevalence suggests over 4.7 million would have actually been exposed to the virus.
- The sero-survey was conducted using the antibody tests, which detects the presence of the antibodies that the immune system creates to fight the infection, rather than the virus itself like the RT-PCR test, the gold standard used as the diagnostic test. Though antibody tests could yield false positives (by detecting antibodies created in response to other family of coronaviruses) or false negatives (when tests are conducted before the body has created antibodies), such easy-to-conduct, rapid tests are an effective tool to detect undetected spread of the virus in a population. India used ELISA type antibody tests for the survey.
- The findings indicate “a large number of infected persons remain asymptomatic”, the ministry said in a statement. But the ministry also posited the result as a success of the containment measures. “Nearly six months into the epidemic, only 23.48 per cent of the people are affected in Delhi, which has several pockets of dense population,” the statement read.
- As a corollary this means a large majority of Delhites (nearly 77%) have yet to be infected. Delhi has over the past few days seen a reduction in the number of daily cases. But Tuesday’s findings show, if social distancing and other preventive measures such as use of masks, is not maintained, the numbers could rise in the future. “Therefore, containment measures need to continue with the same rigour. Physical distancing, use of face mask/cover, hand hygiene must be followed strictly,” the ministry said.
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| | 3. Law checkmates lawmakers in Rajasthan |  | - Courting respite: The Rajasthan High Court directed the state assembly Speaker not to take any action against the rebel Congress MLAs, including Sachin Pilot till July 24 — the former state PCC chief and state deputy CM along with 18 MLAs had filed a writ petition in the high court challenging the disqualification notice issued by the Speaker C P Joshi. The notice was issued after Pilot and his band of MLAs refused to attend two consecutive Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meetings last week, despite a whip to the effect being issued. According to Pilot, a whip can only be issued if the assembly is in session. Later, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot called a cabinet meeting at his residence, ostensibly to discuss the state's Covid-19 and financial situation. However, according to a TOI report, the cabinet may call for a special session of the state assembly to nix alleged moves by the Opposition to topple the government. The report added that the government may consider bringing in a bill to seek Assembly approval for its Rajasthan Epidemic Diseases Ordinance 2020 which would mean issuing a whip to all its MLAs — making it mandatory for the rebels to either attend or face disqualification.
- Party mode: The order by the high court, which will deliver its verdict on Pilot’s petition on Friday, came even as Gehlot held a CLP meeting Jaipur’s Fairmont hotel, where a majority of the Congress MLAs have been holed up in order to prevent any defections or poaching by the Pilot camp. The CLP meeting — the third such within a span of seven days — commenced at 11 am on Tuesday morning with the state CM asking the MLAs to “stand firm like a rock”. Gehlot claims the support of over 115 MLAs, more than 100 of whom are from the Congress alone. Pilot, on the other hand, claims support of 18 MLAs, who, if disqualified, will bring down the effective strength of the 200-member assembly, thereby reducing the majority mark — currently 101 — needed by Gehlot to win the floor test.
- Back-channels: With Pilot publicly stating that he wasn’t joining the BJP, despite perceptions to the contrary, senior Congress leaders have called for a rapprochement between the warring factions. Former Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid has called for a ‘face-saving’ deal that would allow both Pilot and Gehlot to co-exist in the party. That, however, may be easier said than done given the flurry of accusations levelled by the duo against each as also the use of intemperate language.
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| | 4. IPL 2020 travels to Dubai |  | - The 2020 edition of the IPL will be played in the UAE, Brijesh Patel, the IPL Governing Council chairman, confirmed on Tuesday. And Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah will be the three main venues. He said that a formal announcement on the matter would be made when the body meets next.
- However, the dates for the tournament were not confirmed. But as reported earlier by TOI, the BCCI has penciled in the window between September 26 and November 8 (44 days in total) for the thirteenth edition, comprising 60 matches. (Originally, it was to be held from March 29 onwards this year.) This after the ICC, on Monday, formally postponed the T20 World Cup in Australia, originally scheduled in October-November, by a year due to the pandemic.
- Speaking to Gulf News, Patel explained the rationale behind choosing the UAE after realising the inevitability about shifting the tournament abroad in view of the spiralling outbreak of the coronavirus in the country. “The clincher for us was that the UAE has a great infrastructure there — from the venues to practice facilities. There is a wide selection of hotels and most importantly, they know our expectations as they have hosted the event once in 2014,” he said.
- Asked about whether the tournament would be played behind closed doors, Patel told ESPNCricinfo that "depends on the UAE government".
- The next step for the BCCI is to host the governing council meeting and take formal permission from the government to stage the tournament abroad. “The governing council meeting is expected to take place within a week. There will be discussions on the scheduling of the tournament and we will also look at the operational aspect,” Patel told Gulf News.
- The franchisees had already been working on their plans for the IPL. With the majority of the Indian players not having access to grounds amid the pandemic, teams will need at least three to four weeks to get them match ready. Foreign players will fly in directly to the UAE from their respective countries.
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| | NEWS IN CLUES | | 5. Which planet has the longest day in our solar system? | - Clue 1: Like Uranus, it rotates in retrograde — the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east.
- Clue 2: It was the first planet beyond Earth visited by a spacecraft (Mariner 2 in 1962), and the first to be successfully landed on (by Venera 7 in 1970).
- Clue 3: It is the second-brightest natural object in the night sky after the Moon.
Scroll below for answer | |
| | 6. The controversial road to Char Dham |  | - A committee: A high-powered committee was appointed by the Supreme Court last year to assess the environmental and sociological impact of the Char Dham highway project to connect four pilgrimage sites in Uttarakhand — Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath — with an all-weather road.
- The concern: That was after an NGO petitioned the apex court, after the National Green Tribunal gave its conditional approval "in view of larger public interest", saying the project would cause an irreversible damage to regional ecology.
- A view: Two expert members of the committee have now flagged serious issues over the widening of the 900-km road to 10 metres uniformly and termed it "a Himalayan blunder". Though a "minority view", it is part of the "main report" submitted to the Centre.
- A short-cut: The experts have raised concerns over the Centre's decision to divide the entire stretch to 53 smaller projects to avoid conducting environment impact assessment (EIA) study despite the hills being contiguous. Each divided stretch is less than 100 km as norms make it mandatory for linear projects of more than 100 km to go for EIA study.
- The irony: The prime minister had announced the Rs 12,000 crore project as a “tribute to the victims of the 2013 Kedarnath floods” in which around 6,000 people lost their lives, but environmentalists have said that the project could lead to more such disasters.
- The managers: The Uttarakhand High Court on Tuesday dismissed two writ petitions, challenging the constitutional validity of a 2019 law which handed over the management of 51 temples in the state to a board constituted by the state government. Earlier, temple committees managed the affairs of these temples. The court cited examples of Vaishnodevi temple in Jammu and Kashmir, Jagannath temple in Odisha and Lord Venkateshwara temple in Andhra Pradesh that are also administered by boards. On the contention that the law covers not one but many temples, the court said the Somnath Trust also manages Somnath temple and 64 other temples. The chief minister being the ex-officio chairman of the board also has precedence in the J&K governor as chairman of the Vaishnodevi temple, the court said.
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| | 7. Rajiv Gandhi assassination convict Nalini attempts suicide? |  | - Nalini Sriharan, one of the seven convicts in the former PM Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, threatened to kill herself in prison on Monday night after being accused of harassing another convict. The 55-year-old has been in the Vellore Special Prison for Women for more than 28 years.
- Threatened to? Now, officials said Nalini had been harassing her fellow inmate, another life convict. The inmate then complained to the prison officials, following which her cell was changed. A warden conducted an inquiry with Nalini, during which she refused to cooperate and threatened to commit suicide if the inmate’s cell was changed. “The warden and other prison officials immediately stepped out of her cell, ensuring that she did not attempt suicide,” a senior police officer told TOI.
- Attempted to? However, the version from her lawyer P Pugalenthi, as told to news agency ANI, goes: "At 8:30 pm, the jailer went to Nalini's cell and enquired about the complaint. During the inquiry, a quarrel took place between the jailer and Nalini. She got upset and attempted to commit suicide.” Some officials said Nalini tried to "strangulate herself" using her saree during questioning, he claimed.
- "She has served the last 30 years in prison and never attempted to take such steps. This is not believable. I think the jail officials had tortured her," said Pugalenthi, calling for an inquiry. Claiming that Nalini's life is in danger, the lawyer said he had requested jail authorities and Tamil Nadu chief minister E Palanisamy to transfer her to Chennai’s Puzhal prison.
- Last year, Nalini was granted parole for a month for her daughter Harithra's wedding. Her daughter studies medicine in the UK. Recently, she had requested a court to allow her to make WhatsApp calls to her family in the UK and Sri Lanka. But jail officials told the court that overseas calls are not allowed for convicts and only the Centre can decide.
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| | 8. EU agrees $2.1 trillion deal to rescue economy |  | - After four days of wrangling and angry public statements, leaders of the European Union Tuesday grudgingly agreed on an unprecedented 1.8 trillion euro ($2.1 trillion) seven-year spending budget and coronavirus recovery fund. Under the deal agreed upon by the 27 member nations, the EU will commit a 750 billion-euro coronavirus fund, partly based on common borrowing, to be sent as loans and grants to the hardest-hit countries. 390 billion euros of this will be in loans (to be repaid) and the rest as grants.
- The EU had to hold their longest summit to mollify the wealthy northern nations led by the Netherlands, which was reluctant to agree on a common debt. The Dutch opposition caused a clash with Italy; separately Hungarian PM accused the Dutch PM of “hating” his country over a “rule of law” clause. Economists say a common debt programme was essential for Italy, Spain and Greece, who already had high national debts. But at last, intense negotiations led by Germany and France salvaged a deal, though one with a smaller share of grants than earlier planned.
- “When Germany and France stand together, they can’t do everything. But if they don’t stand together, nothing is possible,” French president Emmanuel Macron said. “I think it’s a very important message to the rest of Europe, but also beyond Europe, that this very special entity, this very special construct of 27 member states of the European Union... is actually able to act together and has proven that it is able to act together,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said. The deal has to be now ratified by the parliaments of the member nations, and later the European Parliament.
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| | 9. Intelligence report damns UK govt for pussyfooting over Russia |  | - Naked truth: A heavily redacted report by UK’s Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament, submitted on Tuesday, has severely indicted successive governments for being too soft on Russia, despite clear evidence of Moscow having meddled in the UK’s democratic processes — including the Brexit referendum and the Scottish referendum. In fact, the committee laid bare the government’s soft-pedalling by mentioning in the report that it “was asked to redact mention of Russia as a perpetrator of cyber attacks”.
- Back story: Apart from the assassination of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in 2006 by radiation poisoning and a botched assassination attempt using bio-chemical weapons of another ex-Russian spy, Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in March 2018, the report says that the UK’s ‘open-arm’ policy of welcoming Russian oligarchs and their money created a situation where “a number of Members of the House of Lords have business interests linked to Russia, or work directly for major Russian companies linked to the Russian state”. Note: Unlike members of the House of Commons, who are required by law to disclose any individual payments in excess of £100, members of the House of Lords have no such restrictions.
- Politics of report: The report, which alleges that the UK government took its “eye off the ball”, was itself delayed — it was scheduled to have been published last year but was rescheduled due to the elections, with opposition parties alleging a cover-up by UK PM Boris Johnson, who denied the report’s findings that his “government had badly underestimated the Russian threat”. The Russian Foreign Ministry has called the report’s findings “Russophobia” — interestingly, the report notes that the Russian foreign policy is “fed by paranoia”.
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| | | BEFORE YOU GO | | 10. It’s Uber vs British drivers. But also more than that |  | British drivers are going against Uber in two different cases of note, and they could have repercussions beyond the islands. - All hail the algorithm? A group of British drivers has initiated a legal challenge against Uber’s subsidiary in the Netherlands, where the US firm’s European headquarters is based, seeking access to data and workings of the company’s proprietary algorithm. Their argument? The algorithm scores them on parameters like late arrival, attitude and behaviour, assigns them their rides. This, they argue, is performance monitoring at work — you know, how a regular employer would do. But Uber doesn’t see itself as an employer or the drivers and employees. So they are suing Uber for gaining greater transparency. And they are relying on Europe’s GDPR rules that covers automated decision-making and scoring and monitoring by employers. You can guess if Uber would want its proprietary algorithms to be handed over for inspection.
- Work, work, work... but not workers: Uber has taken a five-year battle with British drivers to the UK Supreme Court, asking it to overturn a 2018 appeals court ruling that said drivers are workers, and entitled to workers’ rights including the national minimum wage and paid holiday. Hearing of that case began on Tuesday. This is among the many legal challenges Uber and its gig economy model is facing in the world. California also wants Uber (and Lyft) to reclassify drivers as workers; it filed a lawsuit against the companies in May.
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| | Answer to NEWS IN CLUES | Venus. Scientists have identified 37 volcanic structures on the planet that appear to have been recently active — and probably still are today — painting the picture of a geologically dynamic planet and not a dormant world as long thought. The research focussed on ring-like structures called coronae, caused by an upwelling of hot rock from deep within the planet’s interior, and provided compelling evidence of widespread recent tectonic and magma activity on Venus’s surface, researchers have said. (Our sister planet completes one rotation every 243 Earth days. Its day lasts longer than its orbit.) | |
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| Written by: Rakesh Rai, Judhajit Basu, Sumil Sudhakaran, Tejeesh N.S. Behl
Research: Rajesh Sharma
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