Oct07,2020:The Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday that it was expecting COVID-19 vaccine supplies to be available from early next year.
Addressing a press conference, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said: “If all goes well, we are looking at vaccine supplies coming in the first quarter of next year. There is a digital platform that is being enhanced to track on real-time basis the vaccine movement, from procurement, storage to distribution and administration.” He added that discussions were under way on the Russian vaccine, Sputnik V.
Balram Bhargava, director-general, Indian Council of Medical Research, said their studies had found no benefit of plasma therapy.
884 Deaths in 24 hours
Dismissing reports of India having reached and crossed its COVID-19 peak, Mr. Bhushan said that with festival season round the corner, this was no time to lower the guard.
Srinagar, Oct 5,2020: Virtual SIM cards pose a new headache for security agencies fighting terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir as their use in the valley has seen an increase among terror groups to connect with their handlers in Pakistan, officials said here.
The penetration of this new technology was found in 2019 when a request was sent to the United States to seek details from a service provider of “virtual SIMs” used by suicide bomber of Jaish-e-Mohammed terror group involved in the Pulwama attack that left 40 CRPF personnel dead.
However, a detailed investigation done by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and other security agencies indicated that over 40 virtual SIM cards were used in the Pulwama attack alone, and there are probably more of them floating in the cyberspace of the valley, the officials said.
It is a fairly new modus operandi wherein terrorists across the border are using “virtual SIM” cards, generated by a service provider from a foreign country. In this technology, the computer generates a telephone number and the user downloads an application of the service provider on their smartphone.
The number is linked to social networking sites like WhatsApp, Facebook, Telegram or Twitter. The verification code for activating the service is generated by these networking sites and received on the smartphone.
The officials said the numbers used were pre-fixed with a country code or Mobile Station International Subscriber Directory Number (MSISDN) number.
They said that, besides telecom companies in the US, Canada, the UK, Israel, numbers of Puerto Rico, a Caribbean island being controlled by the US, are doing the rounds in the market.
Every mobile phone instrument is sent for a detailed forensic analysis to have a thorough check to look for any telltale signs of use of virtual SIM cards, the officials said.
Technology has its pros and cons, and while fighting terrorism, the security agencies have to not only keep up the pace but also move a step ahead of those planning to misuse it, says an official.
The risk of forging identities during purchase of virtual SIM cards also runs high.
During investigation of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, it was found that an amount of USD 229 was wired to Callphonex, via Western Union Money Transfer receipt number 8364307716-0, for activating the Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) used during the strikes.
The money was received from ‘Madina Trading’ located in Brescia in Italy and sender was claimed to be Javed Iqbal, a resident of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
However, after Italian police arrested two Pakistani nationals in 2009, it was alleged that the firm had made nearly 300 transfers in the name of Iqbal, who probably had never set his foot in Italy.
The Italian police, while concluding the probe, had said the Brescia-based company made several transfers using the identity of innocent, unsuspecting persons, whose identity cards or passports might have been stolen.
BRUSSELS ,Oct 3,2020: EU leaders broke a diplomatic deadlock on Friday and imposed sanctions on Belarus after hours of summit talks, assuring Cyprus that the bloc would also punish Turkey if it continues oil and gas drilling in disputed areas of the Mediterranean.
The deal on sanctions against about 40 officials accused of rigging August’s presidential election in Belarus means the EU can make good on a promise to support pro-democracy protesters in Minsk and regain some credibility after weeks of delays.
“The European Union is taking action against those who stand in the way of democracy,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said after fraught discussions among the 27 EU member states that dragged past midnight. “I think that is an important signal.”
While Britain and Canada have imposed sanctions on Minsk to show support for pro-democracy demonstrations there, the impasse in the EU, where decisions are taken by unanimity, has dented the credibility of the bloc’s foreign policy, diplomats say.
Cyprus, one of the EU’s smallest countries, had blocked the action against Belarus for a month, insisting that sanctions also be imposed on its neighbour Turkey for oil and gas exploration along the coast of the Mediterranean island.
Germany pushed back against a tough stand on Turkey, fearing it would disrupt efforts to cool tensions with EU member Greece.
Turkey, both a candidate to join the EU and a member of NATO, has slid towards authoritarianism under President Tayyip Erdogan but remains a strategically located partner that the EU cannot ignore.
In a sign that the diplomatic stand-off is easing at least between Athens and Ankara, NATO announced on Thursday that the two alliance members had set up a “military de-confliction mechanism” to avoid accidental clashes at sea.
‘CLEAR SANCTIONS THREAT’
The compromise struck at the summit that satisfied Cyprus was an agreement to review Turkey’s behaviour in December and impose sanctions then if its “provocations” have not stopped.
“The EU issues a clear threat of sanctions against Turkey should it continue to violate international law,” Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Twitter after the meeting.
European Council President Charles Michel described it as a “double strategy” towards Ankara, offering closer relations on trade and other fronts but holding out the threat of sanctions if it fails to de-escalate tensions in the Mediterranean.
Lucknow, Oct 3,2020: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday suspended Hathras SP Vikrant Vir and four other policemen over the gangrape-murder case of the Dalit woman, a senior official said.
The official said the action has been taken on the basis of a preliminary inquiry report of the SIT.
Besides Vikrant Vir, the other suspended policemen are Circle Officer Ramshabd, Inspector Dinesh Kumar Verma, Sub-Inspector Jagveer Singh and Head Constable Mahesh Pal, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi said.
Shamli SP Vineet Jaiswal has been transferred to Hathras, he said.
Another senior official said the SIT constituted by the chief minister to probe into the case of alleged murder and gangrape submitted its first report on Friday.
The official said besides the suspended policemen, all those connected with the case will have to undergo narco and polygraph tests.
The chief minister had constituted the SIT on Wednesday.
Led by Home Secretary Bhagwan Swarup, it has DIG Chandraprakash and Agra PAC Commandant Poonam as its members. The SIT was asked to submit its report in seven days.
BAKU/YEREVAN,Oct02,2020: The presidents of France, Russia and the United States called on Thursday for an immediate ceasefire between Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian forces around Nagorno-Karabakh, but Turkey said the three big powers should have no role in peace moves.
France, Russia and the United States are co-chairs of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Minsk Group, set up in 1992 to mediate in the decades-old conflict over the mountainous enclave in the South Caucasus.
They appealed for peace as the death toll rose in the heaviest clashes since the 1990s around Nagorno-Karabakh – part of Azerbaijan, but run by its mostly ethnic Armenian inhabitants.
But in a speech to the Turkish parliament just before the three countries’ statement, President Tayyip Erdogan said he opposed their involvement.
He said a lasting ceasefire could be achieved only if “Armenian occupiers” withdrew from Nagorno-Karabakh.
His comments are likely to fuel tension with his NATO allies as fears mount that the conflict could draw in regional powers Russia, which has a military base in majority Christian Armenia, and Turkey, a close ally of mainly Muslim Azerbaijan.
The conflict moved closer to the Armenian capital of Yerevan late Thursday as the government reported four “enemy” drones downed near the city.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on social media that the four drones appeared in Armenian airspace in the provinces of Kotayk and Gegharkunik, and Armenian air defence forces had destroyed them. A Reuters witness in the city saw a glowing object in the sky.
Dozens of people have been reported killed and hundreds wounded since Sunday in fighting that has renewed concern about stability in the South Caucasus, a corridor for pipelines carrying oil and gas to world markets.
NEW DELHI,Oct02,2020:India is open to launching its own mobile app store or expanding an existing one if it receives enough demand from domestic firms for an alternative to Apple and Google platforms, a senior government official said on Thursday.
The country has some 500 million smartphone users, most of whom use Google’s Android platform, but Indian start-ups have criticised the company for policies they say stifle their growth.
SoftBank-backed Paytm, one of India’s leading payments firms, protested against the U.S. tech giant’s decision to remove its app for a few hours last month citing violations of gambling policies.
Alphabet-owned Google also said this week that it will strictly enforce a policy which will levy a 30% commission on payments made within apps on its Android store.
In response to an earlier media report, a senior Indian official told Reuters New Delhi hasn’t received any formal request but was willing to consider developing a mobile platform where apps could be downloaded.
“Before we open one we need to know there will be takers for it,” said the government official, declining to be named as he is not authorised to speak with media.
India already runs a mobile app store that lists over 1200 mainly government-backed applications, but also Paytm, and the government could also consider expanding that instead of starting from scratch, the official added.
India’s technology ministry, Google and Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Google has previously said that fewer than 3% of developers with apps on its Play store sold digital goods over the last 12 months, and nearly 97% comply with its payment system policy.
Nonetheless, several Indian start-up founders are calling for a local app store that doesn’t charge a high service fee.
Poonch (Jammu and Kashmir) , October 1 ,2020: One Indian soldier was killed in an incident of ceasefire violation by Pakistan in Krishna Ghati Sector of Poonch district on Wednesday night, said Defence PRO, Jammu.
Pakistan violated the ceasefire by firing with small arms and intense shelling with mortars along the Line of Control in the Krishna Ghati sector of Jammu and Kashmir around 8.30 pm on Wednesday, during which Lance Naik Karnail Singh lost his life.