Month: January 2021

By Ajit K Dubey

Asserting that the made in India light combat aircraft Tejas is far better and advanced than the Chinese-Pakistani JF-17 fighter jets, Air Force chief RKS Bhadauria on Thursday said the latest Indian jet would be better equipped to carry out Balakot-type airstrikes.

In an interaction with ANI, the Air Chief said the 83 indigenous fighter jets to be inducted into the force would also be equipped with homegrown weapons such as the Astra beyond visual range air to air missiles and other standoff weapons.

“Indian aircraft Tejas is far better and advanced than the Chinese and Pakistan joint venture JF-17 fighter,” Bhadauria said when asked to compare the Indian fighter with the JF-17.

To a query on whether the Tejas would be able to carry out Balakot-type airstrikes, the Air Chief said: “In terms of strike capability, it will have the capability of a standoff weapon which will be even beyond the capability we used that time.”

Noting the approval of the largest indigenous defence procurement deal to buy 83 LCA Tejas, Air Chief Bhadauria said that the deal is a huge step for IAF capability building, adding that the current strength of the two squadron plan of LCA will now increase to six.

“Order of 83 aircraft is huge. When this kind of order takes shape in the next 8-9 years, the entire ecosystem will get set up. For military aviation, it will be a big step. It will make a big base for fighter aircraft production, maintenance and support,” IAF Chief told ANI.

“It is a huge step for IAF capability building. It is also a big boost to our indigenous industry. It is also a big recognition of our designers. It is a huge step for Indian Air Force and for the country,” he added.

On the possible deployment of the newly procured aircraft, he said, “The 83 aircraft will look after four squadrons. The current strength of the two squadron plan of LCA will now increase to six. Essentially the deployment will be frontline.”

On Wednesday, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the largest indigenous defence procurement deal worth about Rs 48,000 crores to buy 83 LCA Tejas Mark1A fighter jets.

The deal to be signed in the next few days with HAL would strengthen the Indian Air Force’s fleet of homegrown fighter jet ‘LCA-Tejas’ and overall combat capability.

“The CCS chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi today approved the largest indigenous defence procurement deal worth about Rs 48,000 crores to strengthen IAF’s fleet of homegrown fighter jet ‘LCA-Tejas’. This deal will be a game-changer for self-reliance in the Indian defence manufacturing,” Defence Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted.

The deal would be a major boost for the IAF and help it to arrest the fall in the number of its fighter aircraft squadrons.

Light Combat Aircraft Mk-1A variant is an indigenously designed, developed and manufactured state-of-the-art modern 4+ generation fighter aircraft.

It is the first “Buy (Indian-Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured)” category procurement of combat aircraft with an indigenous content of 50 per cent which will progressively reach 60 per cent by the end of the programme. (ANI)

Indian singer Adnan Sami treated fans to a never-seen-before throwback picture of the legendary trio Lata Mangeshkar, Noor Jehan, and Asha Bhosle on Thursday.

Taking the picture on his social media accounts, the Bollywood playback singer wrote, “What an Iconic & Historic Photo! #LataMangeshkar #NoorJehan #AshaBhosle” with shining heart emoticons.

The post shared by Sami has been trending over social media as it captures the three queens of melody in one frame. The snap gives a flashback of young ‘nightingale of India’ Lata Mangeshkar with her singing maestro sister Asha Bhosle and late megastar Noor Jehan who is proclaimed as ‘Mallika e Tarannum’.

Noor Jehan was one of the earliest and most acclaimed stars of Hindi cinema. However, she later relocated to Pakistan after the partition.

Lata Mangeshkar has often reminisced about her fondness for Jehan in her interviews. Both the songstresses met each other during the 1945 drama film ‘Badi Maa’. Mangeshkar had a small acting role, with her younger sister Asha Bhosle, alongside Noor Jehan. (ANI)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is like to interact with healthcare workers who would receive the COVID-19 vaccine shot on January 16, when the nationwide vaccination drive against the virus will be launched.

At least 60 hospitals across the country including the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi have been directed to prepare for video conferencing facility at their respective hospitals.

“The Health Ministry has given instructions to be ready with the video conferencing facility. Around 100 healthcare beneficiaries would receive the vaccine shot against coronavirus here at AIIMS. It includes- faculty, resident doctors, nurses, and paramedics staff,” a senior doctor from AIIMS told ANI on anonymity.

“We have created a vaccination centre at the new OPD block on the 8th floor at EHS OPD. All the 100 beneficiaries will receive a text message on their mobile phone about the details of their vaccination a day prior to the immunisation,” he added.

The Centre has planned to vaccinate around 3 lakhs healthcare workers at 2,934 session sites on the first day of the inoculation.

Two COVID-19 vaccines — Covishield and Covaxin — have been given emergency use authorisation after a high-level meeting going through established safety and immunogenicity through a well prescribed regulatory process.

These vaccines may cost in the range of Rs 200 to Rs 295 in India.

Earlier in the day, the Union Health Ministry said that the initial procurement of 1.65 crore doses of Covishield and Covaxin vaccines have been allocated to all States and Union Territories according to the proportion of their healthcare workers’ database.

The Ministry said that an initial lot of supply of vaccine doses and would be continuously replenished in the weeks to come.

According to the Health Ministry, the States and Union Territories have also been advised to increase the number of vaccination session sites that would be operational every day in a progressive manner as the vaccination process stabilizes.

India reported 16,946 new COVID-19 cases and 198 deaths in the last 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry said on Thursday. The overall caseload in the country has reached 1,05,12,093, including 2,13,603 active cases.

With 17,652 discharges in the last 24 hours, the cumulative recoveries reached 1,01,46,763. The death toll has gone up to 1,51,727. (ANI)

Bhupinder Singh Mann, the National President of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Mann) and Chairman of the All India Kisan Coordination Committee (AIKCC), on Thursday recused himself from the 4-member committee constituted by the Supreme Court to resolve the impasse between farmers and the Centre over the new farm laws.

This comes a day before the Central government is scheduled to hold the next round of talks with farmers’ unions in New Delhi on Friday.

Former Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab, Mann said he is “thankful” to the top court for nominating him in the committee but would “sacrifice” any position offered to him so as “not to compromise the interests of farmers”.

“As a farmer myself and Union leader, in view of the prevailing sentiments and apprehensions amongst the farm unions and the public in general, I am ready to sacrifice my position offered or given to me so as not to compromise the interests of Punjab and farmers of the country, I am recusing myself from the committee and I will always stand with my farmers and Punjab,” Mann said in a statement.

Sharing the statement, BKU tweeted, “S. Bhupinder Singh Mann Ex MP and National President of BKU and Chairman of All India Kisan Coordination Committee has recused himself from the 4 member committee constituted by Hon’ble Supreme Court.”

The Supreme Court had on Tuesday stayed the implementation of three farms laws until further orders and appointed a four-member committee to resolve the dispute between agitating farmer unions and the Centre over the three new farm laws.

The apex court had formed a 4-member panel comprising agricultural economist Ashok Gulati, BKU national president Bhupinder Singh Mann, Pramod Kumar Joshi- Director, South Asia, International Food Policy Research Institute and Shetkari Sanghatana president Anil Ghanwat to solicit the views of farmers and the Union government.

The committee has been directed to hold a dialogue with farmers and submit its recommendations pertaining to the farm laws within two months from the date of its first sitting. However, the leaders of farmers’ unions had rejected the committee, saying their members were already in favour of farm laws.

Farmers have been protesting at different borders of the national capital since November 26, 2020, against the three newly enacted farm laws – 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. (ANI)

The targeted killings of 11 Hazaras coalminers in Mach on January 3 have brought an unpalatable fact to light: Pakistan is suffering the consequences of a deliberate policy of inciting, financing, training and equipping terrorists and jihadis.

Targeted killings of Hazaras is part of an ongoing ideological war perpetrated by Pakistani Sunni fanatics against Shiite minorities, a brutal campaign that runs the risk of retaliation from neighbouring Iran, reported Asia Times.

The fact that since the 1980s Sunni jihadist terrorists continue to wage such campaigns shows that the Pakistani state has, despite repeated counterclaims, largely failed to eliminate the jihadi networks.

Moreover, it is clear that the use of religious ideology to resist the Soviet communists have now become a monster that has become impossible to control and is now targeting the religious minorities of Pakistan.

Salman Rafi Sheikh writing for Asia Times opined that the brutal killing of 11 Hazara Shiites by Sunni militant group shows terrorism is alive and well in Imran Khan’s Pakistan.

Many organisations have since then emerged in Pakistan which act as sectarian death squads targeting religious and other minorities across the country.

Lashkar-e-Jhangavi (LeJ), a Punjab-based Sunni supremacist jihadi group claimed responsibility for the recent killings. They have been continuously targeting the Hazaras. In 2013, LeJ launched multiple bombings in the Pakistan city of Quetta that killed over 200 Hazaras. They also claimed responsibility for the 2016 bombing of a Quetta-based police training centre, killing 61 cadets and army officers, among them ethnic Hazaras, reported Asia Times.

Hazaras, who number somewhere between 600,000 and 900,000 in Pakistan, are largely based in Quetta. They are also an oppressed minority in neighboring Afghanistan. Some 500,000 Hazaras live in Iran, where many have fled persecution in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Hazaras have been continuously oppressed in Pakistan and this is not the first protest by them in Pakistan. In 2018, a Hazara sit-in was staged in response to nine killings of their community members between March and May of that year.

Most militant and terror incidents in Pakistan are reflexively blamed on an “Indian conspiracy”, said Salman. Prime Minister Imran Khan was quick to allege an “Indian hand” in the recent killings.

Taking note of the situation, Salman put the blame on the Pakistani government for its failure to uproot the jihadi infrastructure it established in the 1980s, despite the banning of some 77 different militant outfits.

This is due largely due to the state’s own docile and at times deliberate negligence in protecting religious and sectarian minorities. This is particularly evident in the state’s behaviour in Balochistan and its capital of Quetta, where most of the attacks on the Hazara have taken place, opined Salman.

Anti-Shiite jihadist groups active in the city have not confined their attacks to religious and sectarian minorities, but have also targeted progressive and other politically active groups. In 2016, after a suicide bombing that killed over 70 people including dozens of lawyers in Quetta’s Sandeman Hospital, the Supreme Court of Pakistan established an inquiry commission into the attack’s causes, reported Asia Times.

Later, the commission found a combination of factors, including state negligence (rather than foreign involvement) and poor functioning anti-terrorism institutions including the Ministry of Religious Affairs and provincial police forces, contributed to the lethal assault. It also found the powerful Interior Ministry had failed to curb and was even complicit with militant organisations and their leadership.

The Pakistan state, instead of working to curb such attacks before they happened, was more focused on co-opting the terror groups that perpetuate them, said the report.

The Imran Khan regime’s limp response to the latest killings shows that the state – instead of guaranteeing security – has receded even further in the face of blatant terrorism.

The inability and unwillingness of state actors to uproot the jihadi infrastructure is not only hurting Pakistan’s efforts to curb militancy and jihad but has also kept the nation on a key international terror-financing blacklist, reported Asia Times. (ANI)

By Joymala Bagchi

As many as 850 cases of bird deaths due to avian influenza have been reported in the national capital, Delhi’s Animal Husbandry Department said in New Delhi on Thursday.

As per official data, till 10 am on Thursday, the Animal Husbandry Department has received 468 more “complaints related to bird flu”.

The department has further deployed 11 surveillance teams who are working to reach at the spot to collect samples from where complaints are made.

Speaking to ANI, Rakesh Singh, Director, Animal Husbandry Department, Delhi, said his department has directed people not to touch the dead birds with bare hands, and in absence of proper gears, they must wrap their hands with a polythene bag.

“We are getting reports from across Delhi and just from specific areas. We are getting reports of bird mortality in fewer numbers from overall Delhi, however, numbers of crow mortality is more,” said Singh.

He informed that a total of 46 samples were sent for testing on Monday and Tuesday, but added that no samples went for testing on Wednesday.

“A minimum of 72 hours is required for confirmation of bird flu. Animal Husbandry Department is collecting samples from every spots the news of bird mortality are being reported. Samples are being sent either to Jalandhar or Bhopal for confirmation,” he added.

Avian influenza, a viral infection caused deaths of thousands of birds across the country raising a concern especially in Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Kerala.

North Delhi Municipal Corporation, as well as South Delhi Municipal Corporation, had put a ban on sale, purchase, processing and packaging of chicken across their jurisdiction from immediate effect.

The national capital government has issued an order asking local eateries and restaurants to curtail on serving chicken and egg preparations following the bird flu outbreak that have been reported in several states in India. (ANI)

As President Donald Trump created history by becoming the only US president to be impeached twice, a source on Wednesday (local time) said the outgoing President is now in self-pity mode.

“He’s in self-pity mode,” the source told CNN.

CNN reported that the view among many close to Trump is “his actions led to here, no one else,” adding, “he instigated a mob to charge on the Capitol building to stop de-certification (of the Electoral College votes that certified President-elect Joe Biden as the winner of the election), he’s not going to find a lot of sympathetic Republicans.”

Trump allies in and out of the White House “publicly defended him” and sent out talking points throughout the impeachment proceeding during the last impeachment effort (in 2020). However, Trump was left to fend for himself at the White House, releasing a statement first given to Fox News denouncing further violence, followed by a five-minute video.

“He’s by himself, not a lot of people to bounce ideas off of, whenever that happens he goes to his worst instincts. Now that Twitter isn’t available God only knows what the outlet will be,” the source said.

Earlier it was reported that among the evidence the FBI is examining are indications that some participants at the Trump rally at the Ellipse, outside the White House, left the event early, perhaps to retrieve items to be used in the assault on the Capitol.

On January 6, a group of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol to protest legislators confirming electoral slates from battleground US states they thought were invalid.

Trump had made a speech among thousands of supporters earlier that day reiterated his claim a massive voter fraud had robbed his election victory and encouraged supporters to maintain support to “stop the steal.”

Five people died in the riot, including one police officer as well as one Air Force veteran and Trump supporter who was shot dead by police. (ANI)

Passenger vehicle sales jumped 13.6 per cent in December to 2.52 lakh units as compared to 2.22 lakh in the year-ago period, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) said on Thursday.

Two-wheeler sales witnessed a muted growth of 7.4 per cent to 11.2 lakh units as compared to 10.5 lakh units in December 2019.

However, three-wheeler sales skidded by 58.8 per cent to 22,126 units last month as compared to 53,795 units in the same period.

On the other hand, total production of passenger vehicles in December 2020 was 19 lakh units as against 17.5 lakh in December 2019, marking a growth of 9 per cent.

SIAM President Kenichi Ayukawa said the market situation is dynamic and uncertain. The industry is facing a shortage of semiconductors, steel and shipping containers.

“If we look at the cumulative numbers of nine-month period from April to December 2020, it shows that sales of all segments are still behind by many years,” he said.

There is also an impact of price increase of steel, logistics and other raw materials. “The industry is working hard to get back to better volumes and better business health while ensuring safety and well-being of people across the whole value chain,” said Ayukawa.

Passenger vehicle sales totalled 17.7 lakh units in April to December 2020 as compared to 21.1 lakh units in April to December 2019, down 16 per cent.

Commercial vehicles sales dipped 37.2 per cent to 3.58 lakh units as compared to 5.7 lakh units in the same period.

Three-wheeler sales plunged by 74.2 per cent to 1.3 lakh units in April to December 2020 as compared to 5.07 lakh units year-on-year while two-wheeler sales totalled 1.07 crore units versus 1.39 crore, down 22.6 per cent. (ANI)

The United States has announced a ban on the entry of cotton and tomato products from China’s Xinjiang region amid allegations that detainee or prison labour from Uyghurs went into making them, according to the US Customs and Border Protection.

“Effective January 13 at all US ports of entry, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will detain cotton products and tomato products produced in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region,” read a statement from the agency.

The CBP ban, also known as a Withhold Release Order (WRO) was imposed following the emergence of reports indicating that the products were manufactured using forced labour from detained Uyghurs.

The products banned include apparel, textiles, tomato seeds, canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, and other goods made with cotton and tomatoes.

Mark A. Morgan, CBP Acting Commissioner, said, “CBP will not tolerate the Chinese government’s exploitation of modern slavery to import goods into the United States below fair market value.”

He further said that the imports of products using forced labour “hurt American businesses that respect human rights and also expose unsuspecting consumers to unethical purchases.”

“Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will not tolerate forced labour of any kind in US supply chains. We will continue to protect the American people and investigate credible allegations of forced labour, we will prevent goods made by forced labour from entering our country, and we demand the Chinese close their camps and stop their human rights violations,” said Ken Cuccinelli, Acting DHS Deputy Secretary, while responding to the ban.

According to the statement, this is the fourth WRO that CBP has issued since the beginning of Fiscal Year 2021, and the second on products originating in Xinjiang.

The credible reports have stated that more than one million people, are or have been, detained in what is being called “political re-education” centres, in the largest mass incarceration of an ethnic minority population in the world today.

China has been rebuked globally for cracking down on Uyghur Muslims by sending them to mass detention camps, interfering in their religious activities and sending members of the community to undergo some form of forcible re-education or indoctrination.

Beijing, on the other hand, has vehemently denied that it is engaged in human rights abuses against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang while reports from journalists, NGOs and former detainees have surfaced, highlighting the Chinese Communist Party’s brutal crackdown on the ethnic community, according to a report.

Genocide is a serious crime under international law and the US government has adopted the term on rare occasions only after extensive documentation. Some experts said reports of mass surveillance, torture, arbitrary detentions and forced detentions employed by China against Uyghurs amount to “demographic genocide”. (ANI)