Newsletter 22 January

Sino-Indian Standoff:

China defends setting up ‘Arunachal’ hamlet

China defended construction of a village, which according to reports based on satellite images put out by US-based imaging firm “Planet Labs” is allegedly in Arunachal Pradesh, calling it a matter of sovereignty and insisting that it never recognized the “illegally established” Indian state.
“First, I’d like to tell you that China’s position on the east sector of the China-India boundary, or Zangnan (the southern part of China’s Tibet), is consistent and clear. We have never recognized the so-called Arunachal Pradesh illegally established on the Chinese territory,” said the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying.
The official was responding to a query about the construction of the dwelling units.

'Desert Knight' shows ability of IAF pilots to quickly adapt to new fighter jets: CDS Gen Rawat

Observing that the Indo-French war games have showcased the ability of Indian Air Force pilots to quickly adapt to new combat aircraft fleets like the Rafales, Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat on Thu said the Indian Air Force is in league with top air forces in the world.
Having flown in an Airbus-330 Multirole Tanker Transport Aircraft at the exercise venue, the senior most defense officer in the country said he was impressed with the way Indian pilots could quickly learn and refuel from the French aircraft over Indian skies during the war games.
India and France have fielded a number of fighter jets in the exercise which include Rafales of two sides besides Mirages and the Sukhois of the IAF.

DRDO’s successful flight test of Smart Anti Airfield Weapon

DRDO has successfully conducted captive and release trial of indigenously developed Smart Anti-Airfield Weapon (SAAW) from Hawk-i of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited off the Odisha coast on Jan 21.
This was the 9^th successful mission of SAAW conducted by DRDO till now. It was a text book launch, which met all mission objectives.
SAAW is indigenously designed and developed by DRDO’s Research Centre Imarat (RCI) Hyderabad.
The telemetry and tracking systems installed at Interim Test Range (ITR), Balasore captured all the mission events.
This is 125 Kg class smart weapon, capable of engaging ground enemy airfield assets such as radars, bunkers, taxi tracks, and runways etc. up to a range of 100 kms.
The high precision guided bomb is light weight as compared to weapon system of the same class.

Chinese fin-tech lenders under ED scanner; Razorpay, Paytm told to stop processing lenders’ transactions

The Centre has turned its lens on several Chinese fintech lenders such as SnapIt Loan, Bubble Loan, Go Cash and Flip Cash as a move to check data compromise from dubious fintechs such as personal loan apps.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Criminal Investigation Departments (CID) of various state police forces are reportedly poised to launch investigations against over two dozen Chinese lending companies.
Further, the investigative agencies have instructed payment gateways such as Razorpay and Paytm to stop processing their transactions and payments and issued notice to cancel the accounts of several Chinese backed fintech entities.
These companies are also being questioned about the reasons behind opening accounts for such dubious firms,” the publication quoted an official aware of the matter as saying.
He went on add that payment gateways made a big mistake as they hurriedly opened accounts for these Chinese entities to generate more cash flows, and they have to do carry out the know-your-customer (KYC) exercise to find the money trail.
There has been no action or investigation against Razorpay in this regard. Razorpay has already banned 300-400 apps in the last three month.

Strategically important Ujh hydroelectric project in J&K gets forest panel nod

The Ujh Multipurpose Hydro Electric Project in Jammu and Kashmir, a project of strategic importance, has got the green nod from the environment ministry’s forest advisory committee (FAC) according to the minutes of FAC meeting published earlier in the week.
The project will involve the loss of about 680 ha of forest land and over 200,000 trees according to project documents on Environment Ministry’s Parivesh website.
The Ujh multipurpose project in Kathua district has been envisaged to utilize water from Ujh, a tributary of Ravi, which is one of the 3 eastern rivers of Indus Basin system.
The irrigation benefits will comprise annual irrigation to area of 31,380ha, besides providing 18.92 million m³ (MCM) of drinking water supply to the region.
This project will ameliorate the agricultural and power sectors in the otherwise barren Kandi area.
It will also be a boon in the dry Kandi belt which is reeling under the peril of impending water crisis during dry season and also reduce the miseries of floods in the monsoons,” FAC stated in its minutes.
The project will involve the displacement of around 8,648 persons and the gross area under submergence is likely to be 34.50 km²

At UN meet, India questioned Pakistan over Hindu temple's vandalism

India on Thu slammed Pakistan over the vandalism of a Hindu temple that was set ablaze by a mob of hundreds in Dec last year in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of the neighboring country.
As the United Nations adopted a resolution, “Promoting a culture of peace and tolerance to safeguard religious sites”, India stressed that religious and cultural heritage sites remained vulnerable to terror acts and destruction in the “world of growing terrorism, violent extremism, radicalization and intolerance.”

Kamala Harris as US VP further cements importance of India-US ties: White House

The relationship between India and the United States has been further cemented with Kamala Harris becoming the Vice-President of the United States, the White House said.
The new White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Thu (local time) said that President Joe Biden respects and values the “long bipartisan relationship” between Washington and New Delhi and looks forward to “a continuation of that”.

An Indian experts tweeted “Biden’s CIA Chief William Burns: 1.Modi “embraced a more confident role for India on world stage & revitalization of its domestic modernization” 2.Trump and Modi are “part of the problem in a world where democracies are busy undoing themselves”. India, beware of US interventionism.”

India begins Covid-19 vaccine exports to Brazil, Saudi Arabia

India will begin commercial shipments of Covid-19 vaccines to Brazil and Morocco today, followed by Saudi Arabia and South Africa, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi attempts to burnish his credentials as a key global leader.

Narcotics Control Bureau arrests two Sri Lankan nationals in major operation

NCB has conducted a major operation culminating in the arrest of 2 Sri Lankan nationals who were allegedly key players of an international drug trafficking syndicate having links in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Australia.
The accused, identified as M.M.M. Nawas and Mohamed Afnas, had been operating from Chennai under assumed identities.
“They were controlling mid-sea pick-up and delivery of narcotic drugs from Pakistani and Iranian vessels,” said the agency spokesperson, K.P.S. Malhotra.
They had fled Sri Lanka following a crackdown by the enforcement agencies there.
“Both Nawas and Afnas hold important positions in the multinational heroin smuggling syndicate.
It is also believed that there is an Interpol Red Notice issued by Sri Lankan Govt against Nawas,” NCB said.
Acting on an NCB tip-off on the syndicate, the Sri Lankan authorities had recently seized 100 kg heroin.
“6 crew members, all Sri Lankan nationals, were arrested in this connection and they are in judicial custody now,” said the NCB officer, adding that Nawas and Afnas were arrested after a 2-month-long probe.
“Golden Crescent”, the largest opium cultivation and heroin production region of the world, comprising Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan, has two main transit points for the processed heroin in the island nations of Sri Lanka and Maldives.
The NCB said it was in constant touch with international agencies like the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the International Narcotics Control Board, besides the Australian Federal Police, US Drug Enforcement Agency and the Police Narcotics Bureau of Sri Lanka, during the probe.

Narcotics Control Bureau, on Thu, arrested one more member of Chinku Pathan’s gang from Dongri area of Mumbai and recovered MD drug. A diary of Pathan has been recovered, in which names of 20 drug peddlers are mentioned. The money earned from drug sale was being used in anti-national activities. Information gathered about gangster Chinku Pathan’s activities will be shared with ED and NIA. The investigation is underway to ascertain whether Pathan is associated with Dawood.

Kozhikode Maoist case: NIA conducts searches at two locations in Kerala

An investigation in the case has revealed that the duo was instrumental in recruiting the accused Allan Shuaib and Thwaha Fasal as members of the banned outfit.

Shivamogga explosion: Bomb squads en route to ascertain damage

A truck carrying explosives detonated near a quarry in Hunasodu near Abbalagere village in Shivamogga, about 300km from Bengaluru late Thu night.
Police and other authorities have sealed off the area and are awaiting the arrival of Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS) to make further assessments.
At outset it seems lot of quantity of dynamite has exploded there & there’s been some negligence by the quarry owner & the operators.
Police have already arrested the quarry owner & the dynamite supplier. Probe is on: Karnataka Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai, on blast
Compensation & other such factors will be decided by the CM. Preliminary information says there’re 7 deaths. But further information only after full clearing of area: Minister said.

CWC passed a resolution on farmers; also to thank scientists and appeal to people to come forward for COVID vaccination

Congress Working Committee has decided that there will be an elected Congress President by June 2021: KC Venugopal, which announced previously, as may hold organizational elections between May 15 and May 30
The party is also looking at a possible window in Feb to hold the internal polls. Party functionaries said that a long gap between the assembly polls and the organizational elections is required so that the assembly campaign doesn’t suffer.
Four states—Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal and Assam—and the Union Territory of Puducherry are due for assembly elections in April-May this year.
The Congress is out of power in all four states except in Puducherry.
CWC passed a resolution on farmers; also, to thank scientists and appeal to people to come forward for COVID vaccination.
Verbal Spat between Ashok Gehlot and Anand Sharma in the CWC meet tells the Infight is far from over. G-23 (who have written letter to interim President Sonia Gandhi) insists Elections should be held for CWC & CEC also along with the President’s Election

India totally self-reliant in terms of Covid-19 vaccines: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Fri interacted with beneficiaries and vaccinators who received the Covid-19 vaccine during the first phase of the vaccination drive from Varanasi and thanked them for instilling confidence in people regarding India’s vaccination program.

Bharat Biotech's Covaxin led to enhanced immune responses, says Lancet

The study on 375 participants across the country says the doses, administered 14 days apart during the trial, were well tolerated and led to tolerable safety outcomes and enhanced immune responses.

Farmers Protest

Stalemate persists as farmers reject Centre’s proposal

In a tense start to the 11^th round of talks on Fri, Central Ministers expressed their unhappiness that the unions first told the media about their decision to reject the proposal to suspend the 3 farm laws, instead of first informing the Govt directly.
According to several union leaders and Govt sources, the Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar then asked the unions to reconsider their decision and discuss it again among themselves. The unions met separately, and again decided to stick to their stance.

Guterres saddened by loss of life in fire at Serum Institute: UN

Five men died after a fire broke out in a 5-storeyed under-construction building in the Serum Institute of India’s Manjari premises in Pune on Thu.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is saddened by the loss of life in a fire at the Serum Institute of India facility in Pune and hopes that the incident is fully investigated, his spokesperson has said.
Officials release statement citing financial losses due to fire; says, ‘production of ROTA vaccine affected’.
Accidental death case has been registered; Pune Police to probe.

NEIGHBORHOOD/ WORLD

Pak to observe ‘Kashmir Solidarity Day’ on Feb 5

Pakistan announces yet another propaganda ‘Kashmir Solidarity Day’ on Feb 5 to instigate violence in Kashmir. Indian security agencies keeping a close watch. Pakistan FM puts onus of talks on India.

Kashmiri’s struggling for their birthright to self-determination: APHC-Pak Radio

In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the Social Peace Forum, a unit of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference has said that the Kashmiri people are struggling for their birthright to self-determination as India has illegally occupied their motherland.
The JKSPF Chairman, Devinder Singh Behl said during an awareness campaign in Jammu that India is using cheap tactics to suppress the Kashmiris liberation movement.
JKSPF Chairman said that Kashmiris would continue their struggle till the Kashmir dispute was resolved in accordance with the UN resolutions and urged the international community to play its role in settling the dispute according to the aspirations of the Kashmiris and UN resolutions.