| | 5 THINGS FIRST | In the SC: hearings on migrant labourers, Central Vista plan & Tabhlighi Jamaat foreigners; Rajasthan high court verdict on MLAs’ disqualification; L K Advani in CBI court for Babri Masjid demolition case; England vs West Indies, 3rd Test, Manchester, Day 1; Beijing reopens cinemas with 30% seating | |
| | 1. Taking stock of the India-China dispute |  | - More weapons: India is to enhance its combat capabilities by equipping the delivery-awaited Rafale jets with Hammer missiles. An order for the procurement of the air-to-ground missiles is being processed under the emergency powers. Built by France’s Sagem (Safran group), these missiles have a range of about 60 km; a Rafale can hold up to six Hammer missiles. Note: The first five of the 36 Rafale jets are slated to touch down at the Ambala airbase on July 29.
- More fighter jets: Earlier this month, the government approved the purchase of fighter jets (21 MiG-29 and 12 Su-30 MKI), indigenous missile systems and radars, worth Rs 38,900 crore. During his trip to Moscow, defence minister Rajnath Singh had also pushed for early delivery of assault rifles and ammunition.
- More freedom: The central government has earlier granted emergency financial powers to the three services to procure equipment worth up to Rs 500 crore.
- Greater resolve: Rajnath Singh on Wednesday told top commanders of the Indian Air Force to be ready for “any eventuality” at short notice. Singh said “the nation’s resolve to defend its sovereignty stands firm on the faith its people have in its capability of its armed forces”, the ministry spokesperson said.
- But over in Ladakh, People’s Liberation Army (PLA) refuses to retreat at the Gogra-Hot Springs area, despite an agreement to disengage. PLA has also intruded at Depsang Plains and Pangong Tso. At the Galwan Valley, a temporary buffer zone has been created, but it also means India is, for now, not patrolling areas it had before the standoff.
- At Pangong Tso, PLA has reportedly moved back only from the face-off site at the “base” of ‘Finger-4’ to ‘Finger-5, but continues to occupy the ridge-line, the Times of India had reported. India considers Finger 8 as its LAC. At the Depsang Plains, the PLA continues to block Indian soldiers' access to their traditional “Patrolling Points” 10, 11, 12 and 13.
- Meanwhile Bhutan’s embassy in Delhi said the Himalayan kingdom will discuss with China “all disputed areas”. This comes after China recently, for the first time, laid claim over the Sakteng forest sanctuary in eastern Bhutan. The significance? Sakteng borders Arunachal Pradesh, not China. In response, New Delhi is “wooing” Bhutan with trade and connectivity.
- And talks? India and China are likely to hold talks under the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on border affairs on Friday. But expectations are tempered; India's ministry of external affairs Thursday reiterated it would “not accept any unilateral attempts to change the status quo”.
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| | 2. In Rajasthan court battle, it’s advantage Pilot... for now |  | - A plea denied: Rajasthan assembly speaker CP Joshi failed to get relief from the Supreme Court on his plea that the Rajasthan high court cannot interdict the disqualification proceedings against 19 dissident Congress MLAs, including sacked deputy CM Sachin Pilot, that he has taken up under anti-defection law. The HC had on July 21 asked him to defer the proceedings till July 24, when it decides on the petition of the rebel MLAs challenging the disqualification notices.
- A new layer added: The apex court allowed the HC to pronounce the order but said that it would be subject to the outcome of the petition before it.
- A question of law: The speaker’s lawyer told SC that courts could only intervene when the speaker takes a decision to suspend or disqualify a member of the House. He referred to a top court verdict of 1992 in which it was held that courts can't intervene in disqualification proceedings undertaken by the speaker under Tenth Schedule to the Constitution.
- A matter of democracy: "It is an important question relating to the future of democracy — whether dissenting views could be silenced through disqualification proceedings initiated by the speaker. This needs to be decided ... let this matter be heard at length," the SC bench observed adding that it will begin day-to-day hearing of the two issues — high court's jurisdiction and silencing of dissent by disqualification — on July 27. Note: The same SC bench is hearing a suo moto criminal contempt case against advocate Prashant Bhushan over his tweets.
- Centre’s fight too? The dissident MLAs on Thursday also moved an application before the HC to include the Union government in the list of respondents on ground that Tenth Schedule's constitutional validity was under challenge and therefore, the Centre was a necessary party now.
- What if? The Ashok Gehlot government has a narrow lead in the 200-member assembly. If the HC allows the speaker to disqualify the rebels, the majority mark in the assembly will come down, making it easier for Gehlot to win a trust vote. If the rebels get to vote against the Congress government without being disqualified (defying the whip will lead to disqualification later but their vote will be counted), it may turn into a tough fight for the Congress.
- Time matters too: While Gehlot has claimed that he has the numbers, the longer the court cases drag, more time Pilot gets to win over a few more MLAs.
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| | 3. India’s fatality count now the sixth highest in the world |  | - More than France: With a single-day high of 750 fatalities on Thursday, India’s cumulative death toll from the pandemic rose to 30,172 — the sixth highest in the world, just above France. The number confirmed cases, too, is rising fast, with a record 48,285 new cases reported on the day; over the past two days nearly 95,000 new cases were confirmed. In the last seven days, India has recorded over 5,000 deaths. By contrast, it had taken 10 days for fatality count to rise from 20,000 to 25,000, and 11 days from 15,000 to 20,000.
- There’s good news in Delhi, though: The positivity rate (number of confirmed cases in 100 tests) has fallen to 5.7% on Thursday. Only 1,041 of 18,226 samples tested returned positive in 24 hours. AIIMS director Randeep Guleria told TOI that if this trend holds for a few more days, it can be conclusively said the outbreak has been controlled in the capital city.
- India and Israel will work together on a technology that hopes to detect Covid-19 in under 30 seconds by using artificial intelligence to analyse voice, breathalyser and isothermal readings. The technology will be tested in India, and if successful, be manufactured here. A team of scientists from Israel’s Defence Research and Development is expected to arrive in India in the coming week, and will work with an Indian team headed by the Prime Minister’s principal scientific adviser, K Vijayaraghavan, at AIIMS, Delhi, for about two weeks.
- Dani Gold, head of the Directorate of Defence Research and Development, Israeli ministry of defence, said there was “comprehensive research cooperation between the DDRD and India’s PSA”. The Israeli embassy in Delhi said, “A special planned flight from Tel Aviv to New Delhi is set to carry a high ranking MOD R&D team which has been working with India’s chief scientist and DRDO to develop rapid testing for Covid-19 in under 30 seconds. Merging Israeli technology with Indian development and production capabilities aims to allow a swift resumption of normal life alongside the virus.”
- Polls deferred: The Election Commission has deferred the conduct of by-elections to Valmiki Nagar parliamentary constituency in Bihar and seven assembly seats across five states in view of the “extraordinary circumstances peculiar to these constituencies”.
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| | 4. Centre grants permanent commission to women army officers |  | - The Ministry of Defence issued the formal government sanction letter for grant of permanent commission to women officers in the Indian Army on Thursday, paving the way for empowering women officers to shoulder larger roles in the 1.3 million-strong force. The order specifies grant of permanent commission to Short Service Commissioned (SSC) women officers in all 10 streams — army air defence, signals, engineers, army aviation, electronics and mechanical engineers, army service corps, army ordnance corps, and intelligence corps in addition to the existing streams of judge and advocate general and army educational corps. “Their Selection Board will be scheduled as soon as all affected SSC women officers exercise their option and complete requisite documentation,” pointed out Army Spokesperson Col Aman Anand.
- Now, while male SSC officers could opt for permanent commission at the end of 10 years of service, this option was not available to women officers — who make up a miniscule 4% of the total strength of commissioned officers in the Army. They were, thus, kept out of any command appointment, and could not qualify for government pension, which starts only after 20 years of service as an officer.
- Last November, the apex court had directed the Army to take a decision on permanent commission to eight women army officers, who had approached the apex court in 2010, against the bar on their absorption in the armed forces. The case was first filed in the Delhi High Court by the women officers in 2003, and had received a favourable order in 2010. But the order was never implemented and was challenged in the SC by the government.
- But in a landmark verdict in February this year, the SC had directed that women army officers be granted permanent commission and command postings, rejecting the Centre's stand of their physiological limitations as being based on "sex stereotypes" and "gender discrimination against women".
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| | | 6. And now, China’s Mars probe blasts off |  | - China launched its most ambitious Mars mission yet on Thursday in a bold attempt to join the US in successfully landing a spacecraft on the Red Planet. A Long March-5 carrier rocket took off around 12:40 pm (1010 IST) from Hainan Island, south of China's mainland. Launch commander Zhang Xueyu announced that the rocket was flying normally about 45 minutes later. “The Mars rover has accurately entered the scheduled orbit,” he said in brief remarks shown live on state broadcaster CCTV.
- This isn't China's first attempt at Mars. A previous mission with Russia in 2011 ended prematurely as the launch failed. Now, Beijing is trying on its own. It also is fast-tracking, launching both an orbiter and rover on the same mission instead of stringing them out.
- Tianwen-1 (or ‘quest for heavenly truth’) is expected to slip into Mars’ orbit in February and a landing would then be attempted in April or May. If all goes well, the 240 kg golf cart-sized, solar-powered rover is expected to operate for about three months — looking for underground water, if it's present, as well as evidence of possible ancient life — and the orbiter for two years.
- China's secretive space programme has developed rapidly in recent decades. Yang Liwei became the first Chinese astronaut in 2003, and last year, Chang'e-4 became the first spacecraft from any country to land on the far side of the Moon.
- Only the US has successfully landed a spacecraft on Martian soil, doing it eight times since 1976. (NASA's InSight and Curiosity rovers still operate today.) In fact, it is aiming to launch Perseverance, its most sophisticated Mars rover ever, next week. This after UAE’s Al Aman orbiter blasted off on a rocket from Japan on Monday.
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| | 7. How long before you get a green card? 195 years! |  | - Long term planning: An Indian applicant for a US Green Card may have to wait 195 years for a decision, Republican Senator from Utah, Mike Lee, told the Senate urging it to come out with a legislative resolution to end the backlog.
- Discriminatory? While the source of the 195-year claim is unclear, it’s not as dramatic as it seems, if one goes by the findings of a report brought out by the Cato Institute’s Centre for Global Liberty and Prosperity earlier this year. According to the report, Indians, who form a bulk of the backlog green card applicants — 75%, or 780,579 — stand to suffer the most due to the delay in processing, with the average wait time for the highly educated and skilled workers category being 89 years. In fact, even after taking into account the fact that 205,665 of these applicants will die waiting, the wait time will still be 63 years. For someone who applied for a green card in the last fiscal, the earliest possible time when the application will be processed is between 2055-58.
- Cost of wait: It’s not just the skilled workers among Indians, who incidentally are the highest paid of the green card applicants, at more than $120,000 annually, who stand to lose out. Most of them, over 92%, who are in the queue for a green card, are already in the US on a work visa, which is employer dependent — meaning if the employer closes the business, these workers, as also their families, including children, lose their spot in the backlog queue and have to return home as they can not be unemployed at any time nor can they start a business of their own. Lee was speaking on the Lee-Durbin agreement, co-authored by Senator Dick Durbin, that seeks not only to allow immigrant workers to switch jobs without losing their immigrant status but also protects minor children of such immigrants, who stand to be deported if their parents don’t get a green card by the time they are 21 years of age.
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| | 8. Microsoft is not so benign, says Slack |  | - Europe’s ever-widening antitrust probes into large technology companies have largely stepped over Microsoft — until now. Slack, the workplace messaging platform, on Wednesday filed an antitrust complaint against Microsoft at the European Union, alleging the US giant is unfairly bundling its messaging and video conferencing service, Teams, with its suite of Office products. Europe’s antitrust probes have so far focused on Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple, but Slack has turned the clock back on Microsoft — the original tech monopoly in its heydays.
- Since its debut in 2013, Slack has been a big success in offices big and small, bringing the convenience and familiarity of chat applications to workplace communications, and fostering a collaborative — and sometimes intrusive — work culture. Traditional giants with large corporate clientele responded by launching or upgrading their own communication platforms — Teams for Microsoft and Hangouts for Google. (Even Facebook dipped its toes with its Workplace app — know anyone using it?). Slack is now alleging, by bundling Teams with Office suite, Microsoft is taking advantage of its market dominance. With work from home becoming the norm post-pandemic, communication tools have become the lifeline for many offices, making it a lucrative business. Don’t be surprised if Zoom gets into the lawsuit act.
- In Italy, meanwhile, antitrust officials raided the offices of Apple and Amazon after local retailers alleged the companies were unfairly curbing the sale of Beats headphones by retailers not part of the official reseller programme. Beats, a maker of hugely popular and fashionable audio products, was acquired by Apple for $3 billion in 2014.
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| | | 9. Unlucky 13? Well, certainly not for RIL |  | - Reliance Industries became the first Indian company to enter the ranks of top 50 most valuable companies in the world, as its share price crossed the Rs 2,050 mark on Thursday, giving the oil-to-telecom major a market cap of over Rs 13.06 lakh crore ($174.34 billion). In the process, it also became the first Indian company to cross the Rs 13 lakh crore mark in market cap. It is now more valuable than Chevron and Unilever, whose market cap stood at $169.97 billion and $135.18 billion respectively.
- RIL’s total value now places it at 48th position in the list of 50 most valuable companies, which is headed by Saudi Aramco, at $1.7 trillion. Incidentally, Saudi Aramco is currently in talks with RIL for a stake purchase in the latter’s oil business. If one adds the market cap of RIL’s partly paid shares, the Mukesh Ambani-controlled company’s total market cap rises to Rs 13.56 lakh crore. The company’s market cap has more than doubled since the last week of March, when its share price hit a yearly low of Rs 867. It has also propelled Ambani to the 6th rank on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, with a net worth of $75.6 billion (Rs 5.66 lakh crore). The company’s shares closed at Rs 2,060.65 on Thursday on the BSE.
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| | BEFORE YOU GO | | 10. Liverpool get their trophy, delirious fans break pandemic rules |  | Newly crowned Premier League champions Liverpool got their hands on the trophy after a 5-3 win over Chelsea late on Wednesday, sparking delirium outside the stadium. Liverpool were confirmed the title for the first time since 1990 with seven games to spare following Manchester City's loss to Chelsea last week. That had sparked a night of wild celebrations on the city’s streets despite fears of mass gatherings setting off another spike in coronavirus infections. And emotions got the better of the fans on Wednesday night, too, with thousands defying warnings not to gather outside the Anfield stadium. The Merseyside Police arrested nine persons after issuing a dispersal zone around Anfield, the BBC reports. Nine arrests were made on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly, drink and drug driving, affray and assault. The club said in a statement it was "disappointed" with the scenes outside Anfield overnight and with supporters who "did not heed the celebrate at home advice". | |
| | Answer to NEWS IN CLUES |
Sushant Singh Rajput. The late actor’s final film Dil Bechara starts streaming from today. The premiere on Disney+ Hotstar in India and on Hotstar in the US, UK and Canada for subscribers and non-subscribers is scheduled at 7:30 pm. An adaptation of John Green’s bestseller Fault in Our Stars, it follows the story of cancer patient Kizzie (Sanjana Sanghi) who meets cancer survivor Manny (Rajput) at a support group. | |
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| Written by: Rakesh Rai, Judhajit Basu, Sumil Sudhakaran, Tejeesh N.S. Behl
Research: Rajesh Sharma
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