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Companies having link with PLA are under watch by Indian government

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Chinese global companies like Huawei, Alibaba and others having a direct or indirect link with the Chinese Army and could face action in India. These cos are among Chinese companies which the government sources claim having links with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

The 7 Chinese companies under the scanner are Xindia Steels, Xinxing Cathay international, China electronic technology group, Huawei, Alibaba, Tencent, SAIC motor corporation. Government sources say that “these companies are under watch and could face potential action”.

Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent are part of China’s military-civil fusion and artificial intelligence projects. Sources pointing to the 2019 report of US-China economic and security review commission said, ”under China’s military-civil fusion policy, government-supported mechanisms, including venture capital (VC) funds…(are used for) leveraging the fruits of civilian innovation for China’s defence sector.”

Alibaba has made investment in Indian start-ups including popular ones like PayTM, Zomato, Big basket, Snapdeal, Xpressbees. Tencent has made mega investments in Indian tech space including $400 million in Ola cabs, $700 million in Flipkart.

SAIC Motor Corporation, a Chinese state-owned automobile company headquartered in Shanghai, sells Sport utility vehicle MG Hector in India. One of the company’s subsidiary is Nanjing Automobile, which was previously a vehicle servicing unit of PLA.

Xinxing Cathay International Group, a metal products manufacturing country, is present in India in various forms including a Joint Venture Xindia Steels Ltd. Employees of China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC) have been convicted of military espionage and it provides technology which is believed to be used for human rights abuses in the restive western province of Xinjiang in China. The company has invested Rs 320 crores in a manufacturing facility in Andhra Pradesh in 2018.

India last month banned 59 Chinese apps, including popular Chinese TikTok app, after a violent face-off at Line Of Actual Control in Eastern Ladakh in which 20 Indian soldiers martyred.

Kerala gold smuggling case: Customs to probe phone calls made to UAE

Over 13 people have been arrested in Kerala gold smuggling case.

Investigation into Thiruvananthapuram airport gold smuggling case has entered a crucial phase with customs gearing up to interrogate all those involved even those who give statement about Swapna Suresh and Sarith Nair.

The customs officials decided to examine all phone calls made by accused.

M. Sivasankar was chairman of KSITIl ( Kerala State Information Technology Infrastructure Limited ) . Where Swapna was an operation manager, the government had further removed Sivasankar as the state IT secretary .

Even phone calls of Sivasankar will be examined to gather more evidence in this sensational case.

Although there is no direct evidence which indicate the involvement of Sivasankar.
Customs has identified the kingpin in the UAE who was behind the smuggling of gold through diplomatic channels to Kerala, sources said.

Customs sources said the person hailed from Muvattupuzha in Ernakulam district and was involved in several other smuggling instances.“He was involved in the smuggling of gold worth Rs 1,200 crore in 2013 to 2015 through Kochi international airport. The gold seized from the diplomatic cargo belonged to that person, who is yet to be named in the FIR. His role came to the fore while questioning the arrested middlemen,” sources said.

Earlier on July 7, at Thiruvananthapuram airport, the Custom officials had seized 30 kg of gold from the diplomatic baggage.The baggage was supposed to have food items . But later Custom officials checked the baggage after getting necessary approval from the ministry of external affairs.

Then the officials took Sarith ( former PRO at UAE consulate) into custody. Further, it was disclosed that Sarith is no longer an employee at the UAE consulate . But still after his dismissal, he continued introducing himself as PRO at UAE consulate.

While Swapna is working at KSIT in their IT department as an operations manager.

The customs officials said that they suspected smuggling syndicate had misused the name of a person who enjoys diplomatic powers.

Another senior Custom official said that the investigation will also look into the role of other employees of consulate.

Donald Trump attack book written by his niece Mary Trump

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Donald Trump strongly criticizes his niece Mary Trump over her book ‘Seldom-Seen niece’. Trump has described his niece as a mess, when she attacks him as a narcissist who was utterly incapable of leading the country.

“Donald is a psychologically deeply damaged man, based on his upbringing and the situation with his parents. He is not going to get better, and he is, without question, going to get worse.”,” she told CNN.

Trump took aim at Marry on Twitter, describing her as the latest in a line of people releasing books about him.

“Next up is Mary Trump, a seldom-seen niece who knows little about me, says untruthful things about my wonderful parents (who couldn’t stand her!) and me, and violated her NDA,” he wrote.

Donald posted a number of tweets attacking Mary Trump over her book about life in the Trump family. In her book she targets the president governing style back to his upbringing.

Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man was released last week after a New York Supreme Court judge lifted an order that had blocked Ms Trump from publicising or distributing her work.


In the book, Ms Trump, a trained psychologist and the President’s only niece, characterises Mr Trump as a narcissist, saying “he meets all nine criteria as outlined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.”

“She also broke the Law by giving out my tax returns. She’s a mess!”

Supreme court submits two reports on Char Dham project

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The Supreme court submitted two different reports to the environment, forest and climate change Ministry.

There is vertical division in the supreme court appointed committee on Char Dham highway project. The issue is related to road width.

The main report was signed by its chairman,environmentalist Ravi Chopra.

While the other four members has favoured “intermediate carriage way of 5.5 metre” citing a road ministry circular of March 2018.
Another report submitted by 16 main members of the Supreme court has recommended road widith of “double lane with paved shoulder” which works out to be 10 meter.

But the final decision will impact at least 150 to kilometre of the 826 km of Char Dham project.

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But Chopra in his report has said, “The majority seems to believe that what it decides is final, even if it violates the law, the Supreme Court and causes irreversible and permanent damage to the Himalayas.”

In Supreme court Final report the other 21 members have said that the panels chairman change the manuscript of few chapters, ignoring that this would discussed and approved in earlier meetings. Also he had redrafted a few chapters.

“So much so, the chairman tried to leave the issue pertaining to road width for decision of the Supreme Court whereas the same was finally decided by majority voting. By such an act the chairman tried to drag the whole matter once again to the Supreme Court by defeating the very purpose of constituting the HPC by the SC,” the report said.

But Chopra’s main report has referred to 2018 road ministry circular which had recommended adopting intermediate carriage way of 5.5 meter for hilly terrains. He said that the circular been available before there would have been any voting. But 13 memner of them are still supporting double lane with paved shoulder.

Chopra said the allegation of undermining the majority vote was unfortunate. “If the majority chooses to tread a path which contradicts the court’s directions and TORs and even ignores MoRTH’s own 2018 circular, I believe that the most judicious way is to leave it to the wisdom of the Supreme Court. That is what I have done.”

Video: House collapses near ITO as Delhi witnesses heavy rainfall for 3 hours

New Delhi: The National capital region, on Sunday morning, received its first heavy rainfall of the season, leaving several parts of the city thrashed. A two-storey house in the slum area of Anna Nagar near ITO Ring Road collapsed as a portion of the road along it cracked-in due to heavy rains.

A video of the incident is going viral on the social media wherein the house can be seen swept in along with the rushing water. As per the reports, no casualty has been recorded so far. People, who shot the video, can be heard asking residents to vacate the building immediately.

Following the incident, the Centralized Accident and Trauma Services(CATS) and fire engines rushed to the spot.

Pushpa, a resident of the slum area in Delhi’s Anna Nagar, told ANI, “The flow of water in the nullah was intense, running water entered a pit which was dug to construct a parking facility, causing severe erosion which led to the collapse of nearby houses. My house vanished as if it never existed.”

According to the Indian Meteorological Department, Delhi received heavy rainfall from 5:30 am to 8:30 am on Sunday. Ridge Road, Lodhi Road, and Safdarjung recorded a rainfall of 8.6 cm, 8.1 cm and 7.5 cm respectively.

Meanwhile, the blame-game after the heavy rains swamped Delhi started with BJP and Congress blaming the ruling party AAP.

Amit Malviya, national in-charge of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) IT cell, tweeted a video of the inundated ITO crossings and wrote: “ITO, one of busiest crossings in Delhi, this morning…Just heard CM Arvind Kejriwal say it is not the time for blame game. Off course, it isn’t. It is perhaps time for Delhiites to swim just to save their lives? The not so lucky ones have died though or lost their homes…”

Coronavirus vaccine update: AIIMS Delhi to start human trials of covaxin from Monday

New Delhi: The All India Institute of Medical Sciences(AIIMS) Ethics Committee has given its approval for carrying out the human clinical trials of India’s potential indigenous covid-19 vaccine, covaxin. The trials will be conducted on 100 volunteers aged between 18 and 55 from Monday at AIIMS Delhi.

“Today, we got approval from AIIMS Ethics Committee for starting the human clinical trial of the indigenously developed Covaxin. We are launching the enrollment process from Monday. We are going to select healthy participants with no comorbidities and without a history of COVID-19. The age group of the study population is 18 to 55 years. This would be a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial,” ANI quoted Dr Sanjay Rai, Professor at the Centre for Community Medicine at AIIMS, as saying.

Covaxin has been developed by Bharat Biotech along with the Indian Council of Medical Research(ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology(NIV). The first phase clinical trial of the vaccine has begun from July 15 on 375 volunteers across the country. The country’s drug regulator has already given a green signal for human trials, after vaccine’s promising results shown on guinea pigs and mice.

AIIMS Delhi has also set up a dedicated email and phone number for the volunteers to register themselves for the trials. Before giving the vaccination, proper health screening of the volunteers will be performed.

Notably, covaxin trials are being carried out at 12 places across the nation. Trials have already started at AIIMS Patna and a few other places.

Bharat Biotech has envisaged to launch the vaccine for public health use by 15th August after completing all the mandatory clinical trials. The company is a worldwide supplier of four billion doses of infections like rotavirus, hepatitis, zika, Japanese encephalitis and others.

Covaxin is one of the seven vaccines that have been developed across the nation to find the cure of novel coronavirus which has claimed hundred of thousands lives worldwide.

Manipur: ADGP shoots himself in head.

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A top police officer in Manipur shot himself in the head in his own office.

Additional Director General of Police ( ADGP ) Arvind Kumar shot himself in Imphal office on Saturday. Arvind Kumar suffered skull damage and a brain injury. Arvind is in charge of law and order in the Manipur Police department.

The incident occurred at 1 pm at Manipur Battalion Campus, where Arvind police office is located.

“Surgery was conducted on him and now he is out of danger. He is responding well to treatment”, said a doctor.

Police said that he shot himself under the chin with his service pistol – bullet exited from his left Temple.

Manipur Chief secretary Dr. J Suresh Babu and DGP L.M Khaute visited hospital to met Arvind.

“He is conscious, responding to whatever the doctors are asking him. He is very lucky to be alive with the nature of injury he sustained,” said Babu.

DGP said, “I had a meeting with Arvind Kumar about two days ago and he was perfectly fine. In fact, he is a fine officer”.

“Kumar is a good police officer. He came back to Manipur after his long stint from Intelligence Bureau. It is a very unfortunate incident and we don’t know yet what could be the reason behind it,” he said.

Arvind Kumar is a 1992 batch IPS officer of the Manipur cadre.
Arvind join the state police department few months back. He was on deputation at Intelligence bureau.

Rajasthan: Floor test likely to happen next week, Ashok Gehlot meets governor.

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Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot met Kalraj Mishra State Governor on Saturday night. Gehlot submitted a list of MLA’s who are in support of him.

He also raised the possibility of a assembly session next week for the Governor to have a trust vote against Sachin Pilot and 18 other MLA’s.

The meeting lasted around 45 minutes at Raj Bhavan. During the meeting Gehlot is understood to have an assembly session till Wednesday.

All the members are not clear but Gehlot have more possibility to win the trial.

“The assembly session will pave the way for stern action against Pilot and his band of rebel MLAs,” a senior party office-bearer said.

According to Times of India, Parliamentary affairs minister Shanti Dhariwal confirmed to TOI that Gehlot submitted a list of MLAs to the governor and that the figure was well above the majority mark of 101 in the 200-member assembly. Congress has 107 MLAs, 19 of whom constitute the rival Pilot camp.

Dhariwal said, “The CM meeting the governor does not mean it is for an assembly session.”
“If the government clears the trust vote now, the law does not permit another one for six months,” he said.

The support of independent legislators will play a vital role for the Government survival.

Coronavirus update: India records highest single day jump in covid-19 cases, fatality rate decreases

New Delhi: India, on Sunday, recorded biggest single day spike in covid-19 of 38,092 cases, taking the total caseload to 1,078782, Health Ministry reported.

According to Health Ministry, the fatality rate in the country is “progressively falling” which is currently at 2.49 percent, making it one of the lowest in the world. The ministry credited coherent management of hospitalised cases for it.

“The CFR is progressively falling and currently, it is 2.49 per cent. India has one of the lowest fatality rates in the world,” the ministry said.

With 542 deaths on Saturday, India has so far reported 26,816 casualties. While 3,73,379 are active patients currently, as many as 6.7 lakh patients have already recovered.

Maharashtra remains the worst affected state as it crossed the three-lakh mark on Saturday with Mumbai alone reporting over 1 lakh positive cases so far.

A few states including Bihar, West Bengal, Assam and Odisha have recorded a surge in coronavirus cases over the past few days. The Union Health Ministry has asked these states to make renewed efforts to curb the transmission of the virus.

According to the worldometer, a total number of 14, 450, 473 covid-19 cases have been reported worldwide. Among these, 8, 634, 808 have recovered while 605, 587 people have lost their lives to the virus.

The coronavirus have affected more than 210 countries across the globe. India remains the third worst effected country by the pandemic, only behind the US and Brazil.

Ram Temple: Prime Minister may attend groundbreaking ceremony.

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Ram Mandir Trust by the direction of Supreme court is about to start construction of temple. The Trust has invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi for groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of temple.
The ceremony will be in Ayodhya either on August 3 or 5 said spokesperson.

On Saturday the trust first firm formal meeting held in Ayodhya and the members decided a possible date for starting construction work of the temple.

The construction earlier was delayed because of coronavirus pandemic.

On February 5, PM Modi had declared the formation of Lord Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust.

Image credit – Janam TV national.

“We have suggested two auspicious dates — August 3 and 5 — for the prime minister’s visit based on calculations of movements of stars and planets,” Mahant Kamal Nayan Das, the spokesperson of Trust’s president Nritya Gopal Das, was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

Supreme court in November 19 ruled that the disputed land in Ayodhya would be given to government run trust for construction of the temple. While 5 acre suitable plot were allotted to Muslim community.

Kameshwar Chaupal, one of the 15 members of the Trust, said construction will start when the Prime Minister deems it fit after considering the situation in the country, on the border and the pandemic.

“The entire country is of the opinion that it the bhoomi pujan should be done by the Prime Minister,” he said.

“Larsen and Toubro is taking samples of soil from a depth of 60 feet below the ground, and based on the report of the sample and strength of the soil, drawings for the foundation of the temple will be made. Where the load will be less i.e. east, the sample will be taken from a depth of 40 feet,”Champat Rai, general secretary of the Trust said.

Deepika Padukone joins Prabhas for Nag Ashwin’s sci-fi project

Mumbai: Deepika Padukone, on Sunday, confirmed that she will be teaming-up with superstar Prabhas for Mahanati director Nag Ashwin’s next project. Sharing the news on her Instagram account, Deepika wrote: “Beyond Thrilled! Cannot wait for what we believe is going to be an incredible journey ahead,” followed by three heart emoticons.

The film is Ashwin’s much-anticipated multilingual science-fiction project. It was officially announced in February on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Vyjayanthi Films.

This is the first time Deepika will be joining forces with the south superstar Prabhas. The film tentatively titled Prabhas 21 will also mark Deepika’s debut in the Telugu cinema and is scheduled to release by the end of next year.

Nag Ashwin also welcomed Deepika and revealed that it took him a lot of time to figure out the perfect lady for the role. Taking to Twitter, he wrote in Telugu which can loosely be translated as, ” We need a Queen who Equals the King. After a lot of thought, we took this decision.”

Meanwhile, Deepika was last seen in Meghna Gulzar directorial Chhapaak. Up next, she will be seen in Kabir Khan’s ’83 which is based on the life of 1983 Cricket World Cup hero, Kapil Dev. The film will see Deepika playing the role of Kapil Dev’s wife Romi Dev.

83 was scheduled to be released on April 20 this year but was postponed indefinitely in the wake of coronavirus pandemic

Centre asks Twitter to disclose impact of global hacking on India

New Delhi: The government of India has issued a notice to Twitter, asking the micro-blogging site to expose the details of recent global hacking that targeted high-profile users. The notice was sent by country’s nodal cyber security agency, CERT-In, which asked twitter to reveal “any possible impact” of the mass hacking incident on Indian users.

According to a report of PTI, CERT-In has also asked Twitter to reveal the information about Indian users who have visited any malicious tweets or links on the platform. They have also inquired whether Twitter have informed the users about the unauthorised access to their accounts.

The centre has also sought information about the method of hacking and the “vulnerability” exposed by the attackers. It has also asked about the actions taken by Twitter into the matter.

Twitter is yet to comment on any possible breach in India. However, in a blog post, it mentioned that necessary steps are being taken against the incident. It further said, “The most important question for people who use Twitter is likely — did the attackers see any of my personal information? For the vast majority of people, we believer the answer is, no.”

On 15 July, a number of Bitcoin-related accounts began tweeting about a bitcoin scam, promising to “give back” to the crypto-currency community by doubling the bitcoin sent to their address.

Then, the apparent scam spread to mainstream celebrity accounts such as Kim Kardashian West, former US President Barack Obama, former US vice-president Joe Biden and official accounts of Apple and Uber.

BCCI to pay 4800 crores to Deccan Charges

Deccan Charges were the part of IPL till 2012.
Deccan Charges were the part of IPL till 2012.

After a major boost when the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) won a legal battle against World Sports Group (WSG), it has suffered a blow as Bombay High Court-appointed arbitrator relinquished an award in support of now-defunct IPL side Deccan Chargers which may see the Indian board having to husk out Rs 4800 crore to Deccan Chronicle Holdings.


What did the officials say?


Meanwhile, the board’s former legal chief released a statement, “One has to secure the amount stated in the arbitrator’s order before appealing against that decision in the court which appointed the arbitrator. It was in 2015 and I said the BCCI should appeal against the appointment of the arbitrator on the grounds of bias. But the BCCI did not listen to me,” said UN Banerjee.


An appeal though is on the cards from the board against the award.”To be honest it has come as a surprise and it would be fascinating to see what the Ld. The arbitrator has relied upon and one can only make a proper assessment only upon reading the order but you can be sure that the BCCI would go in appeal against this award since it does have a very good case,” he pointed.


P. Raghu Raman former Senior Counsel representative of BCCI said: “Now that a binding arbitration award has clearly pointed out the fraudulent conduct of Lalit Modi and others from WSG group, the police complaint given by BCCI to prosecute these persons at least at this stage should be acted upon.” The future of BCCI could resist various facilities and players will be affected in the end.

RCB for life, the Chahal’s way of success

In the 12-year-old history of IPL, very few players have enjoyed as craving and an indestructible bond as Yuzvendra Chahal enjoys with the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Not only for RCB, but he delivered for his nation as well. Chahal made his international debut in 2016 and under the leadership of Virat Kohli, he grew his stem in the Indian cricket team. Sooner, he also became the most dependent spinner in the Virat’s side. His success in the shorter format of the game and strategic bowling efforts helped him to raise bars early in his career.


After his first hands in the international cricket, Chahal took his game a step further when England came visiting in 2017, he took 6 wickets just for 25 runs. His figure six for 25 is still the second-best T20I figure and the best from India. M Chinnaswamy stadium is the second home for Chahal and the English encounter became the witness for Chahal’s bowling graveyard. Later on, he went on performing good for the Indian cricket team and he also became the part of India’s dream run in the 2019 World Cup.

The RCB tale


He might have started his career with the Mumbai Indians but it was with the Royal Challengers Bangalore where he became a star. The club gave him a cult following, eventually opening the doors of Team India for him. Chahal too has been kind in return, producing one after other match-winning performances for the club.


He started his spell with RCB by playing all 14 league games in his first season for RCB. He finished with only 12 wickets but Chahal was nominated for Emerging Player of Year, where Axar Patel was chosen before him. The following two seasons saw Chahal has grown a lot as a player he is mature enough to take his team forward to a winning tale.

Real Madrid wins 34th La Liga title

Real Madrid wins 34th La-Liga Title.
Real Madrid wins 34th La-Liga Title.

La Liga’s ending couldn’t have come at a better time for Real Madrid. In just the seven games before the break brought on by the pandemic, it went out of the Copa del Rey to Real Sociedad, lost the home leg of its Champions League last-16 tie against Manchester City, and dropped seven points in five league games. Crucially, though, it did beat Barcelona 2-0 in El Clasico, a result that went a long way toward its ability to claim La Liga’s title on Thursday with a 2-1 victory over Villarreal.


How does the game go?


Since, past two months, Sergio Ramos has arguably enjoyed the best spell even of his illustrious career. In those 10 games, Madrid has conceded only four goals. Defensively, Madrid looks solid. Goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois again looks assured. Karim Benzema is in a rich vein of goalscoring form. For instance that 2-1 deficit to Man City in the Champions League doesn’t appear nearly as insurmountable as it did at the time.


Atletico Madrid beat Getafe 2-0 away in its penultimate La Liga game on Thursday to continue its relentless run of form. Marcos Llorente put Diego Simeone’s side in front early in the second half before substitute Thomas Partey scored in the 80th minute, sealing Atletico’s seventh win in 10 matches. Therefore, the third-placed Atletico, which had already sealed a top-four finish and qualification for next season’s Champions League, moved on to 69 points after 37 matches, two ahead of fourth-placed Sevilla who drew 0-0 at Real Sociedad.


The strangest thing about the moment Real Madrid clinched its 34th Spanish league title on Thursday wasn’t the computer-generated fans in the stands or the made-for-television crowd but yes they clinched the title at all.