MOSCOW, Nov.12,2020: Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has held a phone conversation with projected US President-elect Joe Biden, with the latter having reaffirmed the US commitment to support Japan’s claims to the disputed islands of Senkaku.
According to Sputnik news agency, quoting the Kyodo news agency, Suga has also congratulated Biden on the victory in the presidential election, which is disputed by incumbent President Donald Trump.
The leaders have also agreed to coordinate efforts on global challenges, such as fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change.
Both Japan and China have extended territorial claims over the Senkaku Islands (known as the Diaoyu Islands in China). Japan insists on its sovereignty over the islands, effective since 1895, while China points to the 1783 and 1785 Japanese maps designating the islands as Chinese territory.
After World War II, the Senkaku Islands went under the control of the United States and were later passed to Japan, in 1972. Japan believes that China’s sovereignty claims over the islands follow the discovery of valuable minerals in their shelf water in the 1970s. The territorial dispute escalated in 2012, when the Japanese government purchased three of the five islands from the private owner, thus establishing Tokyo’s sovereign ownership.
New Delhi, Nov 12,2020: Amidst heightened border row in eastern Ladakh, India and China are working on process to finalise a plan for phased disengagement and de-escalation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
As per the sources in the government establishment, the process of disengagement and de-escalation would begin from North Bank of Pangong Tso.
The proposal from the Chinese side was discussed during the eighth round of Corps Commander-level talks on November 6.
The proposal includes pulling back their troops and equipment from Finger 4 to Finger 8 on the North Bank, sources said.
“This is still a proposal under discussion and will be taken up at the next round of Corps Commander talks soon. Once agreed upon, it will be done in multiple phases, with on-ground verification after each step,” sources said.
Since the standoff began in early May, China has moved a large number of troops and equipment close to the LAC in addition to the ingress by Chinese troops inside Indian territory at various places in Eastern Ladakh.
On the North Bank, Chinese troops made ingress from Finger 8 up to Finger 4 blocking Indian patrols.
India holds till Finger 4 but claims till Finger 8 as per alignment of the LAC.
After the North Bank, disengagement on the South Bank of Pangong Tso is expected to be taken up, where the two sides have deployed tanks and armoured vehicles in close proximity after tensions went up in August-end. Both were expected to be moved back some distance, the first source said.
The two sides have held several rounds of military and diplomatic talks which hit a stalemate after some initial disengagement.
Nov 12,2020: After an 11-day-long stalemate, Gujjars, demanding reservation in jobs and education, on Wednesday signed an agreement with the Rajasthan government, covering the crucial aspects of backlog posts, ongoing recruitments, withdrawal of criminal cases and rehabilitation of the families of those killed during previous agitations.
The pact was signed with the members of a Cabinet Sub-Committee here after six-hour marathon talks, while Gujjars continued to occupy the Delhi-Mumbai railway track in Bharatpur district. Gujjar leader Vijay Bainsla said the decision on calling off the agitation would be taken after consultation with the community members at the site of the stir.
Gujjar supremo Kirori Singh Bainsla met Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot at his official residence after signing the agreement late in the night. The signatories on behalf of the State government were Energy Minister B.D. Kalla and Ministers of State Tika Ram Jully and Subhash Garg.
According to the six-point pact, a committee will examine the issue of extending 5% reservation under the Most Backward Class (MBC) category in the ongoing recruitments and also study the provisions made in other States. Regular pay scale will be given to 1,252 MBC candidates on the completion of their probation period, while the arrears will be subject to the outcome of some court cases.
Mr. Bainsla told reporters that the important issue of appointments to the backlog posts for the period between 2015 and 2019, when a State law created the MBC category, would be resolved in the spirit of the February 15, 2019 agreement signed at Malarna Dungar. The State government will seek an early disposal of special leave petitions on the quota issue pending in the Supreme Court.
Other subjects dealt with by the agreement included financial assistance of ₹5 lakh and government jobs to the next of kin of Gujjars who died in violence during the earlier agitations, monitoring of withdrawal of cases registered against protesters and an increase in the capacity of MBC girls’ hostel in Jaipur.
Chief Secretary Niranjan Arya, Director-General of Police M.L. Lather and senior officers of the Law and Justice Department were present at the meeting of the 17-member delegation of Gujjars with the Cabinet Sub-Committee at Vidyut Bhavan guest house here.
The talks between Gujjars, who started their agitation on November 1, and Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports Ashok Chandna in Bharatpur and Karauli districts had earlier ended twice without conclusion. The State government had then invited the representatives of Gujjar Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti for negotiations in Jaipur.
The State Assembly had passed the Rajasthan Backward Classes (Reservation of Seats in Educational Institutions in the State and of Appointments and Posts in Services under the State) Amendment Act, 2019, on February 13 last year. The four other nomadic communities given the quota benefit along with the Gujjars were Banjara, Gadia-Lohar, Raika and Gadariya.
Nov 11,2020:The Union Cabinet has approved a production linked incentive (PLI) scheme for 10 key sectors for enhancing India’s manufacturing capabilities and exports.
These sectors include Telecom and Networking Products, Pharmaceutical and Drug, Automobile and Auto components, Textile products and Food products. Briefing reporters after the cabinet meeting today, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said the scheme will make Indian manufacturers globally competitive, attract investment and enhance exports. He said, this will also increase production, export and employment opportunities in the country.
Industry body FICCI has said that the announcement of PLI scheme for ten sectors by the Government today is a major boost for the manufacturing sector. FICCI President Dr Sangita Reddy said, the sectors covered under the PLI scheme are strategic and technology intensive and are also important from the perspective of employment generation in the country. She said, Indian economy offers a huge opportunity for these sectors not just from the domestic market perspective but also to make India an export hub for these products.
New Delhi , November 11,2020: Super-spreading events of COVID-19, in which big crowds with attendees do not take precautions leading to spread of infections on a large scale, must have occurred in Delhi, said All India Institute of Medical Sciences Delhi (AIIMS), Director, Dr Randeep Guleria on Wednesday.
The AIIMS Director said super-spreading might have been the reason behind the recent surge in COVID-19 cases in the national capital after the dip.
“What happens is if in a crowd one does not wear mask, one person who may be asymptomatic and is highly infectious he can spread the disease to a large number of people in the crowd. If they get the disease, they will take it to the area they go to, their own family members, their relatives and they will again spread the disease. So you can have super spreading events, and it is likely that this has happened in Delhi. There were crowds, people did not take precautions and they were super spreading events and this led to an increase in the number of cases,” Guleria told ANI here.
He further said there was a need for everyone in the national capital to be extra cautious and avoid crowds and wear masks at all points of time when they are in areas with a large number of people.
“We are seeing an increasing surge of cases in Delhi, and the numbers are increasing with time. The number of cases had come down to 2,000 from 4,000, and now they are going upwards of 7,000 and up to 8,000 in a day, this is also reflected in increased hospital admissions and to some extent in mortality,” he said.
“There is a need to be extra careful in Delhi, what it means is we need to make sure there is no crowding, people wear masks when they are in markets or functions where there is crowd,” he added.
The AIIMS Director said although avoiding crowds might be difficult, keeping the festive and marriage season in mind, but with the change in temperature, deteriorating air pollution levels there is an increasing need to be more cautious.
He also advised senior citizens and people with co-morbidities to be extra vigilant during this phase.
As per the Union Health Ministry on Wednesday, there are 41,385 active COVID-19 cases in the national capital, while 4,02,854 patients have been cured and discharged so far. Over 7,000 fatalities have been reported due to the disease in the national capital so far.
NEW DELHI,Nov 11,2020: Government will regulate content on video streaming platforms, including global services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Walt Disney’s Hotstar, as part of rules announced this week.
Ministry of information and broadcasting will oversee streaming video content, which was previously unregulated, a brief government circular said on Tuesday, without providing further details.
Earlier this year, more than a dozen local and global streaming services, including Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and Hotstar, had signed a code for self-regulation.
Streaming services have gained traction in India because of the availability of affordable smartphones and cheap mobile data, making the country a battleground for Amazon, Netflix and Disney as they seek to expand outside their home markets.
That growth in streaming services, along with internet advertising, sports and music, is expected to help India’s media and entertainment industry increase 10.1% annually on average to reach $55 billion by 2024, PwC predicts.
News and current affairs content on online media, such as Facebook and Twitter, will also come under the new regulatory regime, the government circular added. Online news was not previously regulated.
Nov 11,2020: Inequality started to rise in India and China substantially in the early 1990s and 2000s, while it was stabilised in China, it continued to rise in India, according to the World Inequality Lab report.
“In China, the top-1 per cent captured eight per cent of national income in 1990 and rose to 14 per cent in 2019, while in India, the corresponding figures are 11 per cent in 1990 and 21 per cent in 2019,” the World Inequality Lab said in the report.
It said while inequality started to rise in India and China substantially in the early 1990s and 2000s, it was stabilised in China but continued to rise in India.
The report added that this suggests that development and higher growth rates do not necessarily mean more inequality in the distribution of growth. “As a matter of fact, national economic policies matter.” In both the countries, inequality increased substantially after the economic liberalisation of the 1980s and 1990s, it said.
The report said communist countries like China and Vietnam display lower inequality levels than non-communist countries like India and Thailand. They still display much higher levels of inequality as compared to the western europe, the least unequal region worldwide, it added.
China and Vietnam also appear to be more unequal than post-communist eastern Europe but somewhat less unequal than post-communist Russia, it said.
According to the report, in the bottom 50 per cent, the population share of India as well as other South Asian economies have been expanding and contrasting to the sharp decline of the Chinese population share in this group.
The World Inequality Lab is the open source for global inequality data, both within countries and between countries.
NAIROBI,Nov 11,2020: Refugees fled to Sudan on Tuesday and the African Union appealed for a ceasefire in a north Ethiopian region where Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is waging a military offensive against local leaders defiant of his authority.
About 2,500 Ethiopians have escaped across the border to Sudan from fighting in the restive Tigray region, with the exodus likely to swell fast, an official said.
Hundreds have died in air strikes and fighting amid fears that Ethiopia could slide into civil war given deep animosity between the Tigrayans and Abiy, who comes from the largest Oromo ethnic group.
With access blocked to Tigray and communications largely down, it was hard to verify the state of the conflict.
State media said federal forces had captured Humera airport, near the borders with Sudan and Eritrea, along with a road leading from the town. The Ethiopian Press Agency posted photos that it said showed federal soldiers, backed by forces from the neighbouring Amhara region, at the airport.
However, Humera residents were going about their lives normally, according to a communications office of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which governs the state of more than 5 million people.
State affiliated broadcaster FANA said Ethiopia had arrested 17 military officers for disrupting communications systems used by federal forces in Tigray, exposing them to potential harm.
Abiy, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, ordered air strikes and sent troops into Tigray last week after accusing the TPLF of attacking a military base. Tigrayans say Abiy’s government oppresses and discriminates against them and behaved autocratically in postponing a national election.
ERITREA ALLEGATION
In a potential major escalation, Tigray leader Debretsion Gebremichael said the Eritrean government of President Isaias Afwerki had sent troops across the border to attack local forces in support of the federal push.
But he gave no proof and Eritrea’s Foreign Minister Osman Saleh Mohammed denied it. “We are not part of the conflict,” he told Reuters.
Eritrea and Ethiopia signed a peace deal two years ago, but Afwerki’s government remains hostile to the Tigrayan leadership after its role in a devastating 1998-2000 war.
Reuters reporters on Monday travelling in Tigray and Amhara saw trucks packed with militia fighters and pickups with mounted machine-guns rushing to the frontline for the federal government.
Warplanes have bombed arms depots and other targets, both sides say, while aid workers and security sources have reported heavy fighting on the ground.
Military and security sources in Amhara, on the side of the federal troops, have spoken of 500 deaths on the Tigrayan side and hundreds also from the national military.
The state-affiliated Fana broadcaster said federal troops had killed 550 Tigrayan “extremists” while another 29 members of local special forces and militia had surrendered.
The AU bloc called for peace talks and an end to hostilities. But Ethiopia said mediation was only possible if military hardware in Tigrayan hands was destroyed, federal officials were freed from custody and regional leaders arrested.
WAR FEARS
The 44-year-old Abiy is Africa’s youngest leader and won his Nobel prize for democratic reforms and for making peace with Eritrea. But his militancy against Tigray has alarmed diplomats and a full-scale war could further damage an economy already reeling from the coronavirus crisis.
A former soldier who once fought alongside Tigrayans against Eritrea, Abiy took over in 2018 after a Tigrayan-led government had dominated politics since rebels from their region toppled Marxist military rule in 1991.
But his attempts to open up a repressive political climate also led to an explosion of ethnic problems, with hundreds killed and hundreds of thousands forced to flee their homes in clashes over the last two years.
Abiy believes he can quell the Tigrayan leadership militarily, diplomats told Reuters, though they are a battle-hardened group from the 1998-2000 war with Eritrea and the defeat of dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991.
TPLF forces and militia allies number up to 250,000 men and possess significant hardware, experts say.
“Operations will cease as soon as the criminal junta is disarmed, legitimate administration in the region restored, and fugitives apprehended & brought to justice — all of them rapidly coming within reach,” Abiy tweeted on Tuesday.
The TPLF has called him “merciless” with air strikes.
Redwan Hussein, spokesman of a newly-established State of Emergency Task Force for the Tigray conflict, said federal soldiers had been forced to retreat over the border to Eritrea before regrouping and returning to fight local forces.
He acknowledged that Tigrayan troops had control of a compound of the Ethiopian military’s powerful Northern Command in Mekelle, the capital of Tigray.
Nov 11,2020:Garrett Grisby of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services griped that the criteria for WHO’s China mission had not been shared with other nations. He complained on November 10 that the World Health Organization (WHO) has not shared enough information about its planned mission to China to investigate the animal origins of the coronavirus.He spoke during a week-long meeting of the UN health agency’s member countries.
The (terms of reference) were not negotiated in a transparent way with all WHO member states, he said via video conference, referring to the mission’s criteria. “Understanding the origins of COVID-19 through a transparent and inclusive investigation is what must be done.” In recent months, a long-planned WHO-led team seeking to investigate the coronavirus’ animal origins in China has stalled.
Nov 11,2020: A stellar performance by the BJP enabled the ruling NDA to attain a simple majority in the Bihar assembly notwithstanding a sharp fall in the tally of the JD(U) headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, according to final results announced early Wednesday.
The ruling coalition won 125 seats in the 243-member state assembly against 110 clinched by the opposition Grand Alliance to pave the way for a fourth successive term for Kumar in office but with diminished clout following a debilitating slide in the number of JD(U) lawmakers that came down to 43 from 71 in 2015.
The BJP, which had contested 110 seats, won 74 while the JD(U) which fought 115, won only 43. With four seats each won by junior allies HAM and VIP, the NDA has 125 seats in its kitty, three more than the number required for a simple majority.
The opposition Grand Alliance fell way short of the magic mark. The total number of seats won by all its five constituents stood at 110. Nonetheless, the RJD emerged as the single largest party in the assembly bagging 75 seats.
Its vote share at 23.03% was also the highest for any single party in the elections.
The Congress managed to win only 19 of the 70 it had contested. The Left parties, though, sprang a surprise winning 16 out of the 29 seats the CPI(ML), the CPI and the CPI(M) had contested.
The performance of CPI(ML) stood out as it won 12 of the 19 seats it contested. The CPI and the CPI(M) won two seats each.
Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM clinched five seats while its alliance partner in Bihar, Mayawati’s BSP, bagged one.
Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party, which pulled out of the NDA and contested nearly 150 seats, managed to win just one.
The winners also included an Independent.
Bihar assembly election results final tally :
NDA: BJP – 74, JD(U) – 43, HAM – 04, VIP – 04
Grand Alliance (Mahagathbandhan): RJD – 75, Congress – 19, CPI(ML) – 12, CPI – 02, CPI(M) – 02
Others: AIMIM – 05, BSP – 01, LJP – 01, Independent – 01
Despite the slump in numbers, Kumar, who was declared the NDA’s chief ministerial candidate by the BJP brass, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief J P Nadda, is set to take over the reins of the government.
Much of Kumar’s plight can be blamed on the damage Chirag Paswan’s LJP inflicted on his JD(U). Down in the dumps with just one MLA, the party spoiled the JD(U)’s chances in at least 30 seats.
JD(U) spokesperson K C Tyagi told PTI in New Delhi that a “sinister” campaign was run against Nitish Kumar as part of a “conspiracy”.
“Apne bhi shamil the aur begane bhi (Our own also harmed us along with the outsiders),” he said, without taking any names.
He, however, expressed confidence that Kumar will become the chief minister again, noting that top BJP leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have made it clear that he will head the government if the ruling NDA retains power.
Bihar BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal voiced similar views in Patna when he said in Patna “the issue has been cleared by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief J P Nadda much before the elections”.
The drastic fall in the number of JD(U) MLAs, however, will likely make the BJP, which hitherto played a second fiddle to Kumar, more assertive, and it may insist on a larger share in the ministerial pie and greater say in governance.
Apart from Kumar’s creditable performance as an administrator, the multiple claimants to Muslim votes, including the Grand Democratic Secular Front (GDSF) comprising Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM, BSP and Upendra Kushwaha’s RLSP worked in NDA’s favour and scuppered the Mahagathbandhan’s chances. Muslim and Yadav voters have for long formed the bedrock of the RJD’s support base.
Owaisi’s AIMIM emerged as a surprise package of the election, winning five seats. The party had gained a foothold winning a seat in a by-election in Bihar earlier, but made significant inroads into the Seemanchanchal region which has a large presence of Muslim voters. Its ally BSP also clinched one seat.
Kumar, who has a clean image and is considered incorruptible, has been credited with ridding the state of the “jungle raj”, as the Lalu-Rabri government of 15 years preceding 2005 is often described by its critics.
The JD(U) leader also earned praise for his impetus on infrastructure development and improving health care system and education.
Besides, Modi’s enduring charisma not only powered the alliance’s victory but also helped the BJP to pre-eminent position in the NDA in Bihar for the first time and cut his former bete noire Nitish Kumar, once considered a secular alternative to him, to size.
The election also saw the coming of age of Tejashwi Yadav, who came across as an indefatigable leader after RJD’s unprecedented drubbing in the Lok Sabha polls last year when it failed to open its account.
The NDA had clinched all but one of the 40 seats in the state, leaving the young leader in torpor and his party demoralised. Tejashwi’s ability to lead the party in the absence of his charismatic father and party supremo Lalu Prasad, who had landed in jail after conviction in fodder scam cases, was called into question.
However, after the assembly elections were announced, he steeled himself for the struggle ahead and almost single handedly brought the five party Grand Alliance surprisingly close to power in a fight where an army of battle hardened veterans were arrayed against him.
A major upshot of the gruelling electoral tussle between the two alliances was the resurgence of Left, which aligned with the RJD-Congress combine after being pushed to the margins in the post-Mandal era politics of Bihar.
The biggest gainer was the CPI-ML, which clinched 12 seats, followed by the CPI and CPI-M (two each). Barring the CPI-ML, which had three seats in the outgoing assembly, none of the Left parties had a presence in the House.
Brothers Tejashwi Yadav and Tej Pratap won the Raghopur and Hasanpur seats with impressive margins of 38,174 and 21,139 votes respectively.
YEREVAN/BAKU ,Nov 10,2020: Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia said they have signed a deal with to end the military conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region after more than a month of bloodshed.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan first announced the signing on social media in the early hours of Tuesday and the Kremlin and Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev later confirmed the news.
“The signed trilateral statement will become a (crucial) point in the settlement of the conflict,” Aliyev said in a televised online meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Putin said Russian peacekeepers would be deployed along the frontline in Nagorno-Karabakh and the corridor between the region and Armenia.
Arayik Harutyunyan, the leader of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, said on Facebook that he gave agreement “to end the war as soon as possible”.
The declaration has followed six weeks of heavy fighting and advancement by the Azerbaijan’s forces. Baku said on Monday it had seized dozens more settlements in Nagorno-Karabakh, a day after proclaiming victory in the battle for the enclave’s strategically positioned second-largest city.
“The decision is made basing on the deep analyses of the combat situation and in discussion with best experts of the field,” Prime Minister Pashinyan said.
“This is not a victory but there is not defeat until you consider yourself defeated. We will never consider ourselves defeated and this shall become a new start of an era of our national unity and rebirth.”
The Nagorno-Karabakh fighting has raised fears of a wider regional war, with Turkey supporting its ally Azerbaijan, while Russia has a defence pact with Armenia and a military base there.
Azerbaijan says it has since Sept. 27 retaken much of the land in and around Nagorno-Karabakh that it lost in a 1991-94 war which killed an estimated 30,000 people and forced many more from their homes. Armenia has denied the extent of Azerbaijan’s territorial gains.
Several thousand people are feared killed in the flare-up of the conflict. Three ceasefires have failed in the past six weeks and Azerbaijan’s superior weaponry and battlefield gains have reduced its incentive to seek a lasting peace deal.
New York, Nov 9 ,2020: Pfizer says an early peek at its vaccine data suggests the shots may be 90 per cent effective at preventing COVID-19, indicating the company is on track later this month to file an emergency use application with U.S. regulators.
Monday’s announcement doesn’t mean a vaccine is imminent: This interim analysis, from an independent data monitoring board, looked at 94 infections recorded so far in a study that has enrolled nearly 44,000 people in the US and five other countries.
Pfizer Inc did not provide any more details about those cases, and cautioned the initial protection rate might change by the time the study ends. Even revealing such early data is highly unusual.
New Delhi, Nov 7 ,2020: Bihar recorded 55.22 per cent voter turnout in final and Phase 3 of the Assembly polls till 1700 hrs, the Election Commission said in a briefing on Saturday.
As per Deputy Election Commissioner Chandra Bhushan Kumar, the figures were real time data and subject to change, as the voting had not ended till the filing of this report.
The 2.35-crore strong electorate will decide the fate of 1,204 candidates.
Elaborate arrangements, as per guidelines of the election commission, were made at all polling stations for the electorate, in wake of pandemic.
Besides polling personnel, security staff were also seen alert advising electorate to follow the guidelines and wear masks while exercising their franchise. Sufficient number of hand gloves sanitizer and other essentials were made available by Election Commission at all booths where polling happened today.