1. Republic Day Parade: Chief guest Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi arrives in Delhi
2. KC-EU plans protest camp in Brussels on India’s Republic Day
3. MEA e-mail server hacked – biggest ever cyber-attack in India
4. ‘Take lessons from icons’: PM Modi during interction with youths
5. ‘Truth has a nasty habit of coming out’: Rahul Gandhi on BBC documentary on PM

What Else

6. An IIT Madras-incubated firm developed an indigenous mobile OS called ‘BharOS’.
7. India invites SCO countries, including Pak, China for Goa foreign ministers’ meet
8. Making IB, RAW reports public a matter of grave concern: Kiren Rijiju on SC Collegium resolutions
9. ‘Punah Sthapan’ project: Now, defense institutes can assess and award Agniveers
10. Reliance Jio True 5G services launched in these 50 cities
11. Fawad Chaudhry ‘arrested from his house’, says PTI
12. Pakistan says power restored, energy minister blames previous govt for ‘largest-ever’ blackouts
13. $500m due with only $4.1b in reserve
14. Exchange companies to remove cap on dollar rate from tomorrow
15. 26 and 14 JITs have been held, but the results are zero, says SHC on missing persons
16. Pentagon planning for Taiwan visit by US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, report says
17. Over 90% of people in Beijing will have had Covid by the end of Jan, HKU study

Republic Day Parade: Chief guest Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi arrives in Delhi

• Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, who has been invited by the Narendra Modi govt to be the chief guest for the R-Day, arrived in Delhi on Tue on a 3-day visit.
• The 68-year-old Arab leader will be accompanied by a high-level delegation that will include 5 ministers and senior officials.
• This is for the first time that the President of Egypt has been invited as the chief guest to India’s Republic Day celebrations.
• The Egyptian president visited India in Oct 2015 to participate in the 3^rd India-Africa Forum Summit which was followed by his state visit in Sept 2016.
• Sisi will be accorded a ceremonial welcome at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Wed ahead of his talks with PM Modi, who will hold wide-ranging talks.
• Following the talks, the two sides are expected to ink half a dozen agreements to boost ties in several areas, people familiar with the matter said. (here)

KC-EU plans protest camp in Brussels on India’s Republic Day

• Kashmir Council Europe (KC-EU) has planned to hold a protest camp on the Indian Republic Day in front of the EU foreign ministry in Brussels at 2 pm on Jan 26^th,.
• Ali Raza Syed said that the Kashmiri people are not ready to compromise on their right to self-determination.
• The KC-EU’s Chairman demanded of New Delhi to give the right of self-determination to the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
• He also called for the international community to intervene to stop human rights violations in occupied Kashmir and play its role in the just resolution of the Kashmir dispute. (here)

MEA e-mail server hacked – biggest ever cyber-attack in India

• In a big threat to national security, the e-mail server of the Ministry of External Affairs was recently hacked.
• Apparently, the hack is the biggest-ever cyber-attack on the country’s national security, which Ministry has also confirmed.
• A hacker, active on the Dark Web, hacked the E-Mail server of the ministry.
• The confidential e.mail IDs and passwords of at least 15 senior officials of the ministry are now available for ‘sale’ on Dark Web.
• The hackers quoted Rs 21.80 Lakhs for full access to the website and Rs 6 Lakhs for confidential e-mail ID data.
• The hackers, who were most probably operating from N Korea claimed that they have access to as much as 25 GB of data from the ministry. (here)

‘Take lessons from icons’: PM Modi during interction with youths

• PM Modi on Mon interacted with youngsters under the ‘know your leader’ initiative to mark the 126^th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in the Parliament’s Central Hall.
• Around 80 young participants from across the country paid floral tributes to Netaji in the Parliament, where only dignitaries were allowed earlier.
• The interaction was conducted at the PM’s residence where the youngsters shared their excitement and discussed various facets of Netaji with PM Modi.
• The PM suggested reading biographies about historic personalities and taking lessons from their life challenges and the way they overcame them.
• Around 31 participants got the opportunity to speak on Netaji’s contribution during floral tributes. (here)

‘Truth has a nasty habit of coming out’: Rahul Gandhi on BBC documentary on PM

• Rahul Gandhi on Tue spoke about the BBC documentary on Gujarat 2002 riots, which has triggered a massive row nationally as well internationally.
• The second part of the two-part documentary – “India: The Modi Question” released in a few hours in the UK, at 9 pm Tue local time.
• In response to a question on the controversy, Gandhi said, …..the truth always comes out. You can ban… you can suppress the press… you can control the institutions,” (here)
• The youth wing of the ruling CPI(M) in Kerala, has announced that they will screen the documentary ‘The Modi Question’ on Tue evening in the state capital.
• The Centre last week directed Twitter and YouTube to block links to the documentary
• MEA was dubbed as a “propaganda material that lacked objectivity and was guided by a colonial mindset”. (here)
• CPJ on Govt’s Move to Block BBC Documentary on Modi, 2002 Riots: Platforms to block a documentary is an attack on the free press that flagrantly contradicts the country’s stated commitment to democratic ideals,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia (here)
• JNU students march towards police station claiming ABVP pelted stones over screening of BBC documentary: JNU students marched towards police station late on Tue night amid claims of stone pelting by ABVP during the screening of a documentary.
• JNU Students Union President Aishe Ghosh alleged that ABVP pelted stones during the screening.
• ABVP denied the allegation and said it was “baseless” (here)

An IIT Madras-incubated firm developed an indigenous mobile OS called ‘BharOS’.

• Union minister Ashwini Vaishaw on Tue warned that many people around the world will bring difficulties in the path of BharOS, while speaking on launch
• A Made-in-India mobile operating system BharOS developed by an IIT Madras-incubated firm.
• “There will be a lot of difficulties and there are many people around the world who will bring difficulties and will not want any such system to be successful…”
• The BharOS can be installed on commercial off-the-shelf handsets.
• Its services are currently being provided to organizations that have stringent privacy and security requirements and whose users handle sensitive information, reported PTI.
• The OS comes with No Default Apps (NDA), which means users will not be forced to use apps that they may not be familiar with or that they may not trust.
• “I have a small suggestion. Name has a very big value. If you add a small ‘a’ here, maybe it will become BharOSa,” he added. (here)

India invites SCO countries, including Pak, China for Goa foreign ministers’ meet

• India has formally sent invites to all the members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization for a foreign ministers’ meeting that will take place in Goa, May 4-5 May.
• This includes invites to the new FM of China Qin Gang and Pakistani Bilawal Bhutto.
• India took over the chairmanship of the 9-member mega grouping in Sept of last year and will be holding key ministerial meetings and the summit this year.
• So far there is no confirmation from the Pakistani side on whether Bilawal will be attending the meeting.
• Ties between the 2 countries remain frozen over the issue of cross-border terrorism from Pakistan even as Islamabad has been calling for the reinstatement of Article 370 for the erstwhile Indian state of J&K as a prerequisite for any talks.
• Add to this, FM Bilawal’s remarks of last month at the UN on PM Modi seem to have cast a shadow on any recovery in ties.
• Additional secretary, I&B on Mon said, “there is only one SCO member country, from which entries have not been received. there has been no response“. (here)
• SCO meetings under India’s Chairmanship: Mar (Transport, Finance ministers, Energy, Sports ministers); April (Culture, Defence ministers); May (Environment, IT, Foreign, Health, Agriculture, Science Ministers). SCO summit on Jun 25^th in Delhi

Making IB, RAW reports public a matter of grave concern: Rijiju on SC Collegium resolutions

• Law Minister Kiren Rijiju on Tue said it was a “matter of grave concern” that certain portions of sensitive reports of the IB and RAW were put in public by the SC.
• He said intelligence agency officials work secretly for the nation, and they would “think twice” in the future if their reports are made public.
• He was replying to questions on some recent SC Collegium resolutions, which contained potions of secret reports on certain names being made public last week.
• The Collegium had reiterated the names to the govt earlier this month while rejecting intelligence inputs. (here)

‘Punah Sthapan’ project: Now, defense institutes can assess and award Agniveers

• All the 19 institutions of the Tri-Services of India and the Army’s 17 directorates have finally been fully affiliated to the Centre’s skilling and academic credit ecosystem under project ‘Punah Sthapan’, ET reported.
• This gives the 19 institutions and 17 directorates the status of an ‘awarding body’ – allowing them to give due credits for the skills a soldier acquires and the training/ courses she/he undertakes as defense personnel. (here)

Reliance Jio True 5G services launched in these 50 cities

• Reliance Jio on Tue announced the largest-ever launch of its True 5G services across 50 cities across 17 States/UTs.
• With this, Jio customers in 184 Indian cities can now enjoy the services of Jio True 5G.
• In a statement by Reliance Jio, the telecom company said that it has become the first and the only operator to launch 5G services in most of these cities.
• The cities of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha, Puducherry, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal. (here)

[NEIGHBORHOOD]

Fawad Chaudhry ‘arrested from his house’, says PTI

• PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry was arrested by the police from his residence in Lahore in the early hours of Wed, party leader Farrukh Habib claimed.
• There is no official police comment on the alleged arrest at the moment, and it is not clear under what charges Chaudhry could have been detained.
• Chaudhry’s arrest comes an hour after he, along with scores of party workers, gathered outside PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s residence in Lahore, claiming the govt had planned to arrest the party chief.
• An official PTI Twitter account also posted a couple of videos, showing a convoy of police vehicles which the party claimed was carrying Chaudhry after his arrest. (here)
• The development comes as a surprise for many.
• The Islamabad police have confirmed the arrest.
• A case against Chaudhary was registered last night at the Kohsar police station in Islamabad on the complaint of the Secretary of the Election Commission. (here)

Pakistan says power restored, energy minister blames previous govt for ‘largest-ever’ blackouts

• Electricity was restored in Pakistan after the nationwide blackout.
• A day after a massive breakdown hit Pakistan, Minister for Energy Khurram Dastgir said on Tue that electricity has been fully restored at grid stations across the country.
• However, major cities, including Karachi, Quetta, and Lahore, remained deprived of power.
• “We learned lessons from yesterday that we need to invest in the distribution system,” Energy Minister Khurram Dastgir told reporters, as per Reuters.
• Dastgir blamed the power outage on a lack of investment in the network.
• “There hasn’t been any investment in improving these systems from the previous govt,” he added.
• Dastgir says probe underway to rule out whether “foreign intervention” caused breakdown; PM Shehbaz offers “sincere regrets” for a prolonged outage.
• Notably, several parts of Pakistan faced a major power breakdown on Mon.
• The power cut was reported in major parts of Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar, and Karachi following a reported fault in transmission lines. (here)

$500m due with only $4.1b in reserve

• Amid a lack of clarity over dates for the visit of the IMF, Pakistan is set to make a $500 million debt repayment to a Chinese bank–the 2^nd in the past 7 days –which may push reserves below $4 billion without any new injection.
• The repayment is scheduled in the next 72 hours – holding onto hopes that, after the holidays, those Chinese institutions to which Pakistan repaid last year will start disbursing loans.
• (Sources) – the govt will return the $500 million loan to the Chinese bank, while another loan – of $300 mn – given by the same bank is maturing in the 4^th week of Feb.
• Over this past weekend, Pakistan made a payment of roughly $328 million guaranteed Chinese debt that the country had taken to set up power plants.
• Pakistan had requested China to roll over this guaranteed debt, but China did not immediately agree.
• After paying back the Chinese guaranteed debt, the foreign exchange reserves slipped to around $4.1 billion and may fall close to $3.5 billion by the end of this week. (here)

Exchange companies to remove cap on dollar rate from tomorrow

• The Exchange Companies Association of Pakistan announced on Tue that it would remove the cap on the US dollar from Jan 25.
• The exchange rate has been primarily hit hard by a steep decline in the central bank’s foreign exchange reserves, which have shrunk to $4.6 billion.
• Currency experts say the rupee has been falling “despite being managed” by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
• Amid a shortage of dollars, the gap between its rates in the interbank and open markets has significantly widened, drastically hurting the economy and diverting remittances.
• Some experts have hinted that the shortage of dollars could cause rationing of petrol and diesel in the next 2-3 months, ultimately hitting the trade and industry. (here)

26 and 14 JITs have been held, but the results are zero, says SHC on recovery of missing persons

• During the hearing of petitions for the recovery of missing persons in the Sindh High Court, the court observed that in some cases, 26 and 14 JITs have been held, but the results are zero. (Jasarat)
• The SHC on Fri ordered relevant authorities to immediately register a case after a citizen goes missing.
• During the hearing, some women broke down in the courtroom, saying that they have been fighting a legal battle for the recovery of their husbands for the past 10 years.
• “Do whatever it takes to find the missing persons and bring them to the court,” the court had ordered police and other agencies. (here)

Pentagon planning for Taiwan visit by US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, report says

• The US Defence Department is preparing for House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy to visit Taiwan later this year, Punchbowl News reported on Mon.
• Punchbowl also said that planning for the trip is in the “early stages”, and that officials in Biden’s administration expect McCarthy to visit sometime in the spring.
• Republicans under McCarthy’s leadership have made countering Beijing a priority, with a select committee on US-China competition established this month.
• Taiwan’s defense has been a key agenda item for Republican congressman Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, McCarthy’s pick to lead the committee. (here)
• Drones could play key role in PLA’s ‘final unification war’ on Taiwan: Chinese military magazine outlines how a PLA attack on the self-ruled island might unfold
• It says drones could be used to ‘assassinate enemy leaders’ and target mobile missile launchers and heavy weaponry
• After launching “the final unification war”, the PLA would seek to “suppress the island of Taiwan in all directions – land, sea, air, space, electricity and the internet”. (here)
• [Till then, they will fight by articles/social media/ info warfare]

Over 90% of people in Beijing will have had Covid by the end of Jan, HKU study estimates

• The reproduction rate of Omicron variant BF.7 was found to have jumped to 3.44 in Novr – meaning a person with the virus could infect 3.44 others
• Researchers say surveillance programs are needed to monitor the spread of the coronavirus and more work should be done to track its transmissibility
• More than 90% of Beijing’s 22 million population will have been infected with the coronavirus by the end of this month.
• About 76% of people in Beijing had contracted Covid-19 as of December 22 and it was expected to reach 92% by Jan 31. (here)