Month: December 2020

Congress leader and MP from Wayanad, Rahul Gandhi will not attend the party’s 136th Foundation Day program on December 28 as he will be travelling abroad, the party said on Sunday.

Party general secretary and communication in-charge Randeep Surjewala told ANI today, “Rahul Gandhi is currently travelling on a short personal trip.”

According to sources, Rahul Gandhi left the country on Sunday morning and will be away for few days.

He is travelling amid the ongoing farmers’ agitation against agricultural laws. Gandhi led a delegation which met President Ram Nath Kovind on December 17 and submitted the memorandum along with a purported 2 crore signatures of the farmers against the recently enacted laws.

The Congress MP also did not attend the meeting of Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) leaders to review the party’s performance in the local body elections. The state in-charge Tariq Anwar who is on a tour of Kerala is taking review meeting on the issue.

The All India Congress Committee (AICC) has asked all its state units to observe the party’s foundation day on December 28 through various campaigns including organising ‘Tiranga Yatras’ and running a social media campaign ‘Selfie with Tiranga’.

“December 28 marks the 136th year of the foundation of Indian National Congress (INC). On this day, the PCCs are requested to observe the party foundation day in state and district headquarters and instruct office-bearers, MPs, MLAs/MLCs to participate in the functions,” the AICC said in a press release. (ANI)

India achieved a significant feat in its fight against coronavirus as the daily new caseload dropped below 19,000 after 6 months.

The Union Health Ministry said that the country has scaled a significant peak in the fight against the global pandemic.

18,732 were added to the national tally in the last 24 hours. The newly added cases were 18,653 on July 1, 2020, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s release.

On the other side, 21,430 cases recovered and discharged in the last 24 hours that has led to a net decline of 2,977 from the total active caseload.

India’s total active caseload has fallen to 2.78 lakh (2,78,690) today that is the lowest after 170 days. The total active cases were 2,76,682 on July 10, 2020.

The country’s present active caseload consists of just 2.74 per cent of India’s total positive cases.

The total recovered cases stand at 97,61,538. The gap between recovered cases and active cases, that is steadily increasing, is nearing 95 lakhs and presently stands at 94,82,848.

The difference in the new recoveries outnumbering fresh cases has also improved the Recovery Rate to 95.82 per cent today.

72.37 per cent of the new recovered cases are observed to be concentrated in 10 States/UTs.

Kerala has reported the maximum number of single-day recoveries with 3,782 newly recovered cases. 1,861 people recovered in West Bengal followed by 1,764 in Chhattisgarh.

76.52 per cent of the new cases are concentrated in 10 States and UTs. Kerala reported the highest daily new cases at 3,527. It is followed by Maharashtra with 2,854 new cases.

279 case fatalities have been reported in the past 24 hours. Ten States/UTs account for 75.27 per cent of new deaths. Maharashtra saw the maximum casualties (60). West Bengal and Delhi follow with 33 and 23 daily deaths, respectively. (ANI)

Farmers who are protesting against the new farm laws, are using Nirankari Samagam ground in Burari to grow crops.

“Since we have been sitting idle for a month during protests, we thought of growing onions as we can use it for our daily cooking. We will grow more crops on Burari ground,” said a farmer.

Farmers were seen watering their crops here this morning.

“We have been sitting on a protest here for the past one month, we have nothing else to do. So, we thought of growing onion crops. We will utilize it for our requirements. Till now we have only thought of growing one crop,” said another farmer.

Meanwhile, the farmer unions protesting against the three farm laws on Saturday proposed holding the next round of talks with the government on December 29.

The Samyukt Kisan Morcha, a joint front of almost 40 farmer organisations, wrote a letter to the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare accepting the Centre’s offer for dialogue and proposed December 29 as the next date for the meeting.

The farmer unions also put forth a four-point agenda and asked that the campaign launched by the entire state machinery to defame and malign the farmers’ movement must stop.

As part of the four-point agenda, the joint front of farmer unions asked the government to adopt the modalities for the repeal of the three Central Farm Acts, and make changes in the draft Electricity Amendment Bill 2020 to protect the interests of farmers.

The farmers have been protesting since last month at the Singhu border against the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020. They are demanding the repeal of the three laws.

The farmer unions have held five rounds of talks with the government and attended a meeting called by Union Home Minister Amit Shah. (ANI)

Actor Kangana Ranaut on Sunday showcased her poetic skills again with a new Hindi poem titled “Rakh”, which she posted on social media along with an artistically shot video.

The video that the Queen star shared shows a montage of her recent hiking trip with family. The poem uses “Rakh (ash)” as an analogy to express her willingness to touch the sky even after she dies.

“Wrote a new poem called Rakh got inspired while hiking, do watch when you can,” the ‘Panga’ star captioned the post.

Capturing the beauty of mountains covered with snow, in the 41-second long video Kangana is heard reciting : “meri rakh ko ganga me mat bahaana, har nadi sagar me jaakr milti h. mujhe sagar ki gehraio se dar lagta hai.. mai asman ko chhuna chahti hu.. meri raakh ko pahado pr bikher dena.. jab suraj ugye to mai usey chhu saku.. jb mai tanha hu to chaand se baatein kar saku..meri rakh ko us shitij pe chord dena.”

(Translation: Do not immerse my ashes into the Ganges, every river meets the sea. I am afraid of the depths of the ocean. I want to touch the sky. Spill my ashes on the mountains. When the sun is up I can touch it, when I will be lonely, I can talk to the moon. Give my ashes to that horizon.)

The 33-year-old actor recitation runs as the background score throughout the video. Within minutes of sharing, the video managed to garner more than five lakh views.

The ‘Fashion’ actor, earlier has previously shared such self-written poems like ‘Aasman’ and one on Mother’s Day for her mother. (ANI)

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has extended a ban on Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) for three months, despite the Pakistani officials’ expectations that ban would be lifted.

The EASA on Saturday informed that the PIA that the ban would only be lifted after a safety audit of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), Dawn reported. The EASA had in July suspended the authorisation for PIA to operate flights in the EU member states for six months due to safety concerns.

On Friday, Pakistan Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan had told reporters in Taxila that most concerns of EASA regarding the process of issuing licences to commercial pilots had been addressed and soon the ban imposed on PIA flights in European countries would be lifted.

However, a senior PIA official confirmed to Dawn that PIA had received a disappointing message in response to a request made by the airline.

He said that the national carrier had asked the European agency to give its provisional permission to operate flights to and from European destinations since it had met several conditions.

“We have asked EASA that they can conduct a safety audit of PIA, free from CAA, and in the meantime grant us provisional permission,” he said, adding that in response the agency said it could not issue such a permit.

The EASA letter read: “Regarding the lack of confidence in certification and oversight activities performed by the Pakistani CAA, which was the second aspect that led to the suspension of Third Country Operator Authorisation, the investigation performed by the European Commission and by the ICAO have not yet been concluded.

“Consequently, as all preconditions to lift the suspension are not met and, as an audit will be necessary, the agency decided not to revoke your Third Country Operator Authorisation but to extend the suspension period by additional three months,” it added.

According to the Dawn report, the EASA ban is causing a huge financial loss to PIA and it is also giving an opportunity to foreign airlines to expand their operations.

Earlier this month, British airline Virgin Atlantic launched its direct flight operations for Islamabad and Lahore while British Airways had already expanded its operations from Islamabad to Lahore. (ANI)

Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Sunday urged the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to reveal findings of the investigation of the Sushant Singh Rajput death case at the earliest.

“It has been more than 5 months since the investigation began but CBI has not revealed if actor Sushant Singh Rajput was murdered or he died by suicide. I request CBI to reveal findings of the investigation at the earliest,” Deshmukh said while addressing a press conference here.

Earlier this month, a plea has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking directions to the CBI to submit a status report regarding the progress in the probe related to the death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

The PIL also sought directions to the CBI to complete its investigation in the matter within a period of two months and submit a final report in the court concerned and submit a copy of the final investigation report before this court.

The Supreme Court had, on August 19, directed the CBI to probe the case related to the death of Sushant Singh Rajput putting a stop to the political slugfest between the governments of Maharashtra and Bihar over the case.Bihar Police had registered a case in the matter on the complaint of Rajput’s father and initiated an investigation, which was later referred to the CBI by the Bihar government, a proposal accepted by the Central government.Rajput was found dead at his Mumbai residence on June 14. (ANI)

China, over the past year, has strategically captured the entire supply chain of United States, making it vulnerable and dependent on Beijing, said Lucas Kunce, the national security director at the American Economic Liberties Project.

Kunce told The Hill that the business people who testified during recent congressional hearings on tariffs revealed that the US cannot produce essential products including certain weapons systems and US dollars “without some components or resources coming from China.”

“So China has strategically captured our entire supply chain,” he told The Hill. “And it makes us vulnerable, and it hurts American workers too because we are losing skills that we need to try to get back and we’re losing good-paying jobs.”

Kunce argued that the U.S. economy and the individuals that control it pursue profit and “self-interest above everything else,” which, he claims, China has used to its advantage.

“They figured out that all of the things that we build and create in our industries are controlled by individuals, and these individuals are subject to the profit slave,” he said.

“So if they want to get our industries, our intellectual property, our manufacturing base, anything, all they have to do is make it profitable for those individuals to make the decision to go to China, and they’ll do it,” he added.

Last week, in another major setback to China, the US designated 58 Chinese companies out of 103 companies as foreign entities with military ties thereby restricting export, re-export and transfers with them.

Along with the 58 Chinese companies, the remaining are Russian companies, the US Commerce Department said.

According to a statement from the Commerce Department, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) will amend the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) by adding a new ‘Military End User’ (MEU) List, as well as the first tranche of 103 entities, which includes 58 Chinese and 45 Russian companies.

“This action establishes a new process to designate military end-users on the MEU List to assist exporters in screening their customers for military end-users,” said Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross as quoted by the statement.

Ross said that the department recognizes the importance of leveraging its partnerships with the U.S. and global companies to combat efforts by China and Russia to divert U.S. technology for their destabilizing military programs. (ANI)

Bitcoin, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, has surged past the USD 26,000 level to set an all-time record high, according to trading data.

On Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, Bitcoin was trading at USD 26,286.74, as of 20:45 GMT on Saturday.

According to CoinMarketCap, an aggregator that compiles data from more than 20 brokers, Bitcoin was trading at $26,270.96 as of 20:47 GMT, a rise of 7.36 per cent over the preceding 24 hours.

Experts believe that there is no valid reason behind its popularity other than the enigma around this crypto currency. It is this mystery that often drives users and investors to it.

Mobile or desktop apps are used to create an online wallet for the users, which in turn can connect a Bitcoin exchange to your bank for trading. Apparently, the system seems to be working fine due to a block chain, a continuously growing list of users. (ANI/Sputnik)

The farmer unions protesting against the three farm laws on Saturday said they will hold a “tractor march” from Singhu border on December 30 if the government does not talk of repealing these laws during their proposed talks on December 29.

The farmer unions held a joint press conference at Singhu border on Saturday and proposed holding talks with the government on December 29 at 11 am.

Rajinder Singh of Kirti Kisan Union said that “if the government does not talk of repealing the new farm laws on December 29, we will hold tractor march from Singhu to Tikri to Shahjahanpur (in Alwar district) with hundreds of tractor-trolleys on December 30.”

Darshan Pal, President of Krantikari Kisan Union, also said they will organize “tractor march” from the Singhu border on December 30.

“Toll plazas in Punjab and Haryana will remain permanently open. People are invited to come and celebrate their New Year on January 1, 2021, at Singhu border,” he said.

Addressing the press conference at Singhu border here, Swaraj India president Yogendra Yadav said the government has asked for talks with farmer unions.

“We are making this proposal on the behalf of Sanyukt Kisan Morcha after talking to all organisations that talks between representatives of farmers and the central government should be held on December 29 at 11 am,” he said.

“The first two points in our agenda for talks are – modalities to repeal the three farm laws, and mechanism and procedure to bring a law for providing a legal guarantee on MSP,” Yadav added.

He said there was “letter diplomacy” and the central government has written to them to hold talks.

“Letter diplomacy is going on. We reply to the letters sent by the central government in about two days and the government replies to our letter within hours. Within a few hours of our last letter, Joint Secretary of Agriculture Ministry wrote to us and proposed talks. So, we have decided to go for talks,” he said.

Joint Secretary in Agriculture Ministry Vivek Agarwal had written a letter to farmer unions on December 24 urging them to decide the date and time for the next round of talks.

The farmers have been protesting since last month at Singhu border against Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020. They are demanding the repeal of the three laws.

The farmer unions have held five rounds of talks with the government and attended a meeting called by Union Home Minister Amit Shah. (ANI)