July 08,2023:Turkey supports Ukraine’s NATO membership aspirations, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but he also urged for a “return to peace efforts” to end the conflict that has now raged for 500 days since Russia invaded Ukraine last year.
“There is no doubt that Ukraine deserves membership of NATO,” Erdogan told a joint press conference with the Ukrainian president in Istanbul early on Saturday, adding that the two sides should go back to peace talks.
“A fair peace creates no losers,” the Turkish leader said, according to the Reuters news agency.
Zelenskyy thanked Erdogan for his support, which comes ahead of a key NATO summit that is set to start on Tuesday in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Imphal, July7,2023 A Peace Convention convened by ten political parties appealed to restore peace and normalcy in Manipur. Representatives of AAP, AIFB, AITC, CPI, CPI(M), INC, JD(U), NCP, RSP, SS(UBT) attended the convention on Friday at Congress Bhawan, B.T. Road, Imphal.
It expressed sorrow, shock and concern at the loss of lives during the period from May 3, 2023, till today, and the Convention also observed a two-minute silence as a mark of homage to those who had lost their valuable lives in the ongoing violence in Manipur.
The Peace Convention wholeheartedly, expressed gratitude to Rahul Gandhi for his two-day visit to Manipur as a Peace Messenger. The Convention appealed to the Parliamentary team of five MPs of the Left parties, who came to assess the situation in Manipur, to recommend, through Parliament, to the Government of India to take necessary action to restore normalcy, peace and tranquility in Manipur and to urgently resolve the ongoing violence in the state.
The Convention further resolved that the need of the hour is to restore peace and normalcy, bridge the unprecedented divide and heal the wounds of the people, and for this Chief Minister of Manipur, N. Biren Singh should be held fully responsible and has to go. The Convention resolved to strongly condemn the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, for his total silence on Manipur turmoil as he has neither spoken a single word on the situation in Manipur nor appealed for peace and restoration of normalcy in the state as yet in the last 65 days.
July 06,2023:Ten million users signed up for Meta’s newly launched Threads app in its first seven hours, the company’s chief Mark Zuckerberg says.
He pitched the app as a “friendly” rival to Twitter, which was bought by Elon Musk in October.
Experts say Threads could attract Twitter users unhappy with recent changes to the platform.
Threads allows users to post up to 500 characters, and has many features similar to Twitter.
Earlier, Mr Zuckerberg said keeping the platform “friendly… will ultimately be the key to its success”.
But Mr Musk responded: “It is infinitely preferable to be attacked by strangers on Twitter, than indulge in the false happiness of hide-the-pain Instagram.”
When asked on Threads whether the app will be “bigger than Twitter”, Mr Zuckerberg said: “It’ll take some time, but I think there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion+ people on it.
“Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn’t nailed it. Hopefully we will.”
Competitors have criticised the amount of data the app might use. This may include health, financial, and browsing data linked to users’ identities, according to the Apple App Store.
Some users have also expressed concern that it is not possible to delete your Threads profile without deleting the associated Instagram profile. Meta told the BBC: “At this time, you can’t delete your Threads profile without deleting your Instagram account. This is something we’re working on. In the meantime, you can deactivate your Threads profile at any time.
“Deactivating your Threads profile will not deactivate your Instagram account”.
Deactivation will mean your Threads profile, your posts and interactions with others’ posts won’t be visible, the firm added.
Users can download and delete Threads data by visiting their Instagram settings, Meta says.
Threads is now available to download in over 100 countries including the UK, but not yet in the EU because of regulatory concerns.
New Delhi, July 6,2023: The ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment on Wednesday held the eighth meeting of the Central Monitoring Committee to review the implementation of the “Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Rehabilitation Act.
Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, Virendra Kumar, chaired the meeting held at Dr Ambedkar International Centre here.
During the review meeting discussions were held on the mobile app “Swachhata Abhiyaan” to capture the data of insanitary still existing and manual scavengers associated with them. The app can be downloaded free from the Play Store, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment communiqué said.
The Committee noted that anyone can upload information about instances of insanitary existence of insanitary or practice of manual scavenging. The Committee noted with satisfaction that every alleged such instance uploaded on the App over the past three years has been individually investigated and no evidence of the existence of any insanitary or manual scavenging were found, the statement said.
All states and districts have been requested to declare their district free from manual scavenging.
As on date, such confirmation from 520 out of 766 districts in the country has already been received.
The Committee suggested following up with the remaining districts, it said.
New Delhi, July 5,2023: Union Cabinet has approved the draft of Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Bill 2023.
According to official sources, the bill is likely to be tabled during the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament.
The Centre introduced the Personal Data Protection Bill 2019 in Parliament in December 2019. The Bill was sent for consideration to the Joint Committee of Parliament. The Joint Committee, after consultations, submitted a report to the Speaker. In view of the feedback by stakeholders and various agencies, the Bill was withdrawn in August 2022.
On November 18, 2022, the government published a new draft Bill, titled the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2022, and initiated a public consultation on this draft. A comprehensive and detailed consultation was held on this subject.
21,666 comments were received from the public and a series of consultations were held with 46 sector organisations, associations and industry bodies. Comments were also received from 38 ministries/ departments of the Government of India.
The reintroduced draft Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2022 proposed six types of penalties on non-companies to companies. To prevent a personal data breach, a penalty of up to Rs 250 core is being proposed in the draft bill which was put out for public comments.
Besides, failure to notify the Board and affected Data Principals in the event of a personal data breach and non-fulfilment of additional obligations in relation to Children may attract a penalty of up to Rs 200 crore.
Non-fulfilment of additional obligations of Significant Data Fiduciary under sections 11 and 16 of the Act may attract Rs 150 crore and Rs 10 crore fines, respectively.
Lastly, non-compliance with provisions of this Act other than those listed in (1) to (5) and any rule made thereunder will attract penalties up to Rs 50 crore.
Points that emerged in the course of consultations and comments were thoroughly studied and the draft Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2023 was finalised.
The purpose of this Act, the draft said, is to provide for the processing of digital personal data in a manner that recognizes both the right of individuals to protect their personal data and the need to process personal data for lawful purposes.
During the drafting of the Personal Data Protection Bill in 2019, the government said that the entire gamut of principles was widely debated and discussed. These include the rights of individuals, duties of entities processing personal data and regulatory framework, among others.
The first principle of the proposed Bill is that usage of personal data by organisations must be done in a manner that is lawful, fair to the individuals concerned and transparent.
The second principle of purpose limitation is that the personal data is used for the purposes for which it was collected. The third principle of data minimisation is that only those items of personal data required for attaining a specific purpose must be collected.
Among others, personal data should be limited to such duration as is necessary for the stated purpose for which personal data was collected and reasonable safeguards to ensure that there is no unauthorised collection or processing of personal data are some features.
Chennai, July 5,2023: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Wednesday announced that the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft was integrated with the Launch Vehicle Mark-III (LVM3).
The third lunar mission will take place later this month from the spaceport of Sriharikota, where all arrangements for the mission are on in full swing.
The launch will take place from the Second Launch Pad at the SHAR Range. In a tweet, ISRO said “Today, at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, the encapsulated assembly containing Chandrayaan-3 is mated with LVM3.”
The launch window for Chandrayaan-3 is between July 12 and 19. Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface.
It consists of Lander and Rover configuration. The propulsion module will carry the lander and rover configuration till 100 km lunar orbit. The propulsion module has Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) payload to study the spectral and Polari metric measurements of Earth from the lunar orbit.
The Lander payloads are Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) to measure the thermal conductivity and temperature; Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) for measuring the seismicity around the landing site; Langmuir Probe (LP) to estimate the plasma density and its variations.
A passive Laser Retroreflector Array from NASA is accommodated for lunar laser ranging studies.
The Rover payloads are Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) for deriving the elemental composition in the vicinity of landing site.
Chandrayaan-3 consists of an indigenous Lander module (LM), Propulsion Module (PM) and a Rover with an objective of developing and demonstrating new technologies required for Inter planetary missions.
The Lander will have the capability to soft land at a specified lunar site and deploy the Rover which will carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface during the course of its mobility.
The Lander and the Rover have scientific payloads to carry out experiments on the lunar surface. The main function of PM is to carry the LM from launch vehicle injection till final lunar 100 km circular polar orbit and separate the LM from PM.
Apart from this, the Propulsion Module also has one scientific payload as a value addition which will be operated post separation of Lander Module.
ISRO sources said more fuel has been added to the lander, along with new equipment, and also strengthened it. Chandrayaan-3 will be going in the same path as its predecessor, and will also be landing at the same site.
Agartala, July 5,2023: Tripura Council of Ministers in a meeting on Tuesday mandates Permanent Resident of Tripura Certificate (PRTC) for jobs in state governments, PSUs, and government-aided organizations starting from now, sources said on Wednesday.
The BJP government led by former Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb relaxed the provision in 2018 soon after coming to power, which paved the way for a large number of unemployed people to grab government jobs in the state.
Evading PRTC clauses, the first BJP government led by Biplab Kumar Deb held the Joint Recruitment Board Test (JRBT), which allowed candidates from other states to appear for the exams to fill up the posts of Group-C and D categories under the Tripura government.
Thousands of candidates wrote the test for around 5000 posts in various state government departments where candidates from West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, and Haryana were included, which triggered reactions among the local people.
However, after Deb, his successor, Dr Manik Saha, stopped the process of recruitment until the re-incorporation of PRTC clauses in all categories of government jobs.
Finally, on Tuesday, the cabinet decided to provide more opportunities to the people of Tripura, in addition to the other requirements already in force, said the cabinet Spokesperson, Tourism Minister Sushanta Chowdhury, on Wednesday.
July 04,2023:Thailand’s new parliament has convened nearly two months after a progressive opposition party won a stunning election victory, but there is still no clear sign its leader will be able to become prime minister and end nine years of military-dominated rule.
The Move Forward Party’s unexpected election victory in May alarmed the ruling establishment, which regards it as a threat to the status quo and the monarchy. Some senators have already announced their opposition to party leader Pita Limjaroenrat, a 42-year-old Harvard-educated businessman.
The election results showed Move Forward’s progressive agenda resonated with a public weary of nine years of military-controlled rule under Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who as army commander seized power in a 2014 coup and returned as prime minister after a 2019 general election.
But what made Move Forward popular with many voters was what alarmed royalist conservatives.
The party pledged to reform many powerful institutions, including the monarchy and the military, which retain power and influence under a constitution written during Prayuth’s administration.
Political transformation?
While the threats from Move Forward’s ideological foes are clear, what has been less expected are the tensions between it and the biggest partner in its coalition, the Pheu Thai Party.
Move Forward and Pheu Thai have been squabbling over which will get the post of speaker of the House of Representatives, which is supposed to be chosen by the parliament on Tuesday.
“The position of the House speaker is essential because he will determine the agenda of parliament, and so therefore the degree of political transformation,” said Tyrell Haberkorn, a Thai studies scholar at the University of Wisconsin.
The two parties announced a compromise after a meeting on Monday. The coalition will nominate Wan Muhamad Noor Matha, a veteran leader of the Prachachat Party, to be House speaker, and Move Forward and Pheu Thai will each have one deputy speaker.
Pita said the decision was reached to strengthen unity among the coalition’s allies to support his bid to be prime minister. Pita needs 376 votes to secure the post. He currently has 312 and will need 64 more votes from either rival parties or members of a conservative-leaning Senate appointed under military rule.
July 04,2023:China has announced it will restrict exports of rare metals used to manufacture semiconductors due to national security concerns.
Chinese exporters will need approval to send certain gallium and germanium products overseas from August 1 to “preserve security and national interests”, the Ministry of Commerce and China Customs said in guidelines issued on Monday.
The announcement comes as the United States is reportedly considering new curbs on the export of advanced chips to China.
Gallium, which has been designated a critical raw material by the European Union, is used in the production of integrated circuits, LEDs and photovoltaic panels for solar panels.
Germanium is used to make optical fibres and infrared camera lenses.
China accounts for about 80 percent of global production of the rare metals, according to the European Commission.
China and the US have been engaged in a heated geopolitical rivalry in recent years that has seen the sides impose tit-for-tat measures on semiconductors and other key tech sectors.
Washington has blacklisted scores of Chinese companies in a bid to deprive them of access to American chips and other cutting-edge technologies that it says could be used to undermine US national security.
The US has also pushed allied and partner countries to impose restrictions on the Chinese tech industry, with the Netherlands set to introduce new export curbs aimed at China later this year.
Beijing has accused Washington of seeking to throttle Chinese innovation to maintain US supremacy in the tech industry.