LT GENERALS TO LEAD MILITARY TALKS ON LADAKH

Stepping up efforts to de-escalate the situation along the Line of Actual

Control (LAC) in Ladakh, India and China will start a fresh round of

military talks on June 6, bringing senior commanders to the table.

Army sources indicated this even as Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said he

had been informed about the talks, and that the Chinese presence along the

LAC was in "achhi khasi sankhya" (sizeable numbers).

The next meeting, sources said, will be between Lt General-level officers

from both sides, with the Indian delegation being led by the Corps Commander

of the Leh-based XIV Corps. Rajnath Singh told News18 TV: "In today's

situation, military talks are going on, and possibly on June 6, talks are

going to happen at the level of senior military officers. I spoke to the

(Army) chief and others today, and they have informed me."

By bringing Generals to the table, India and China are indicating their

willingness to agree to disengage. The situation in Ladakh is different from

Doklam, and a lot depends on how Generals on the ground and diplomats

working the lines with Beijing negotiate an agreement to de-escalate.

On the situation in Ladakh, Singh said the problem stems from the different

LAC claims of the two sides. "The recent incident, it is true, the Chinese

on the border. their claim is up to a particular point and India's claim is

up to a particular point. And due to this, there has been disagreement. And

the Chinese have come in sizeable numbers (achhi khasi sankhya). But

whatever needs to be done, India has also done," he said.

Singh said India and China "have a mechanism to solve the problem and we are

working as per that mechanism. What can be better if it can be resolved

through talks. Be assured."

TRUMP CALLS MODI, INVITES HIM TO NEXT G7 SUMMIT

In a departure from precedent, New Delhi Tuesday said US President Donald

Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed the "situation on the

India-China border".

The Ministry of External Affairs, in a statement, said the border situation

figured in the phone conversation between the two leaders when Trump called

up Modi, two days after he said he would like to include India in the

expanded G7.

Inviting Modi to the next G7 Summit to be held in the US, he conveyed his

desire to "expand the ambit of the grouping beyond the existing membership,

to include other important countries including India".

Last week, Trump claimed he had spoken to Modi about the India-China border,

but sources in New Delhi said there had been "no recent contact" between the

two leaders. In a tweet earlier, he had called the LAC situation a "raging

border dispute".

Tuesday's phone call was their first conversation in the backdrop of the

tensions along the LAC. It followed the call between US Secretary of Defense

Mark Esper and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh last week.

This Indo-US exchange at the highest level comes amid a bruising war of

words between Washington and Beijing on a range of issues - from Hong Kong's

autonomy to Taiwan, origins of the Covid-19 virus to South China Sea

tensions and a trade war.

Referring to talks on the G7 expansion proposal, the MEA said: "Prime

Minister Modi commended President Trump for his creative and far-sighted

approach, acknowledging the fact that such an expanded forum would be in

keeping with the emerging realities of the post-COVID world. The Prime

Minister said that India would be happy to work with the US and other

countries to ensure the success of the proposed Summit."

The two leaders, the MEA said, also "exchanged views on other topical

issues, such as the COVID-19 situation in the two countries, the situation

on the India-China border, and the need for reforms in the World Health

Organisation".

Following the phone call, Modi, in a tweet, said: "Had a warm and productive

conversation with my friend President @realDonaldTrump. We discussed his

plans for the US Presidency of G-7, the COVID-19 pandemic, and many other

issues. The richness and depth of India-US consultations will remain an

important pillar of the post-COVID global architecture."

MODI ADDRESSES CII, CONFIDENT OF GETTING GROWTH BACK

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday expressed confidence that India

would revert to the high economic growth path if industrialists took

advantage of the Rs 20-lakh crore fiscal support package and the opening up

of several strategic sectors.

"All possibilities are open. All opportunities are waiting for you," he said

while laying out the Government's economic roadmap at the Annual Session of

the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

The Indian economy is ready for take-off for a growth-oriented future, he

said while combating criticism about reforms being random and scattered.

"The reforms are systematic, planned, integrated, interconnected and

futuristic. For us, reforms mean the courage to take a decision and take it

to its logical conclusion,'' the PM said, while offering to carry out more

radical reforms to enlarge the space for the private sector to operate.

"But it is now your responsibility to ensure that trust, quality and

competiveness are all associated with products that are manufactured in

India,'' he said while explaining that the end goal of Atma Nirbhar Bharat

was to invest in robust, local supply chains that strengthen India's share

in global supply chains.

COVID-19 DASHBOARD - (Nos. IN INDIA / Nos. WORLDWIDE)

(Indian data from covid19india / and World Data from

worldometers.info/coronavirus/ )

Total Cases 2,07,180 (+8,821) / 64,51,966 (+85,769)

Total Deaths 5,829 (+221) / 3,82,479 (+5,042)

Total Recovered 1,00,285 (+4,531) / 30,66,678 (+1,63,073)

Active Cases 1,01,066 (+4,069) / 30,02,809 (-82,346)

Serious / Critical Cases - N.A. / 54,528 (+1,125)

Top impacted nations so far: (And some of India's Neighbours)

Country, Total Cases / Total Deaths / Recovered Cases / Active

Cases

1 USA 18,81,205 / 1,08,059 /

6,45,974 / 11,27,172

2 Brazil 5,58,237 / 31,309 /

2,53,570 / 2,73,358

3 Russia 4,23,741 / 5,037 /

1,86,985 / 2,31,719

4 Spain 2,87,012 / 27,127 / N/A

/ N/A

5 UK 2,77,985 / 39,369 / N/A

/ N/A

6 Italy 2,33,515 / 33,530 /

1,60,092 / 39,893

7 India 2,07,191 / 5,829 /

1,00,285 / 1,01,077

8 Germany 1,84,091 / 8,674 /

1,66,400 / 9,017

9 Peru 1,74,884 / 4,767 /

69,257 / 1,00,860

10 Turkey 1,65,555 / 4,585 /

1,29,921 / 31,049

11 Iran 1,57,562 / 7,942 /

1,23,077 / 26,543

12 France 1,51,325 / 28,940 / 68,812

/ 53,573

18 Pakistan 80,463 / 1,688 / 28,923

/ 49,852

21 Bangladesh 52,445 / 709 / 11,120

/ 40,616

99 Sri Lanka 1,683 / 11 / 823

/ 849

Top 18 impacted Indian States so far: (Total No. of Confirmed case / No. Of

Deaths)

State / Confirmed Cases / Active Case / Recovered /

Deceased

Maharashtra 72,300 / 38,502 / 31,333 /

2,465

Tamil Nadu 24,586 / 10,680 / 13,706 /

200

Delhi 22,132 / 12,333 / 9,243 / 556

Gujarat 17,632 / 4,646 / 11,894 / 1,092

Rajasthan 9,373 / 2,735 / 6,435 /

203

Uttar Pradesh 8,729 / 3,324 / 5,176 /

229

Madhya Pradesh 8,420 / 2,835 / 5,221

/ 364

West Bengal 6,168 / 3,423 / 2,410 /

335

Bihar 4,096 / 2,269 / 1,803 / 24

Karnataka 3,796 / 2,339 / 1,403 /

52

Andhra Pradesh 3,791 / 1,313 / 2,414

/ 64

Telangana 2,891 / 1,273 / 1,526 /

92

Jammu and Kashmir 2,718 / 1,732 / 953 /

33

Haryana 2,652 / 1,560 / 1,069 /

23

Punjab 2,342 / 279 / 2,017 / 46

Odisha 2,245 / 911 / 1,325 / 9

Assam 1,562 / 1,217 / 338 / 4

Kerala 1,413 / 774 / 627 / 12

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

======================

EVIDENCE BEGINS TO EMERGE THAT CHINA DELAYED INFORMATION ON CORONAVIRUS

Throughout January, the World Health Organization publicly praised China for

what it called a speedy response to the new coronavirus and thanked the

Chinese government for sharing the genetic map of the virus "immediately."

But in fact, Chinese officials sat on releasing the genetic map, or genome,

of the deadly virus for over a week after multiple government labs had fully

decoded it, not sharing details key to designing tests, drugs and vaccines.

That strict controls on information and competition within the Chinese

public health system were largely to blame, has been found from internal

documents, emails and dozens of interviews.

Although WHO continued to publicly commend China, the recordings obtained by

the AP show they were concerned China was not sharing enough information to

assess the risk posed by the new virus, costing the world valuable time.

The story behind the early response to the pandemic comes at a time when the

U.N. health agency is under siege. U.S. President Trump cut ties with WHO on

Friday, after blasting the agency for allegedly colluding with China to hide

the extent of the epidemic. Chinese President Xi Jinping said China has

always provided information to WHO and the world "in a most timely fashion."

MARK ZUCKERBERG UNDER FIRE OVER INFLAMMATORY TRUMP POSTS

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees on Tuesday that he stood by his

decision not to challenge inflammatory posts by U.S. President Donald Trump,

refusing to give ground a day after staff members staged a rare public

protest.

A group of Facebook employees - nearly all of them working at home due to

the coronavirus pandemic - walked off the job on Monday. They complained the

company should have acted against Mr. Trump's posts containing the phrase

"when the looting starts, the shooting starts".

Zuckerberg told employees on a video chat that Facebook had conducted a

thorough review and was right to leave the posts unchallenged, a company

spokeswoman said.

On Friday, Twitter Inc affixed a warning label to a Trump tweet about

widespread protests over the death of a black man in Minnesota that included

the phrase "when the looting starts, the shooting starts."

Facebook declined to act on the same message, and Zuckerberg sought to

distance his company from the fight between the president and Twitter. He

maintained that while he found Trump's remarks "deeply offensive," they did

not violate company policy against incitements to violence.

Meanwhile, American religious leaders on Tuesday castigated Donald Trump for

posing in front of a church holding a Bible after peaceful protesters were

violently cleared from the surrounding area. "It was traumatic and deeply

offensive, in the sense that something sacred was being misused for a

political gesture," Washington's Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde said on

public radio station NPR.

The Republican billionaire, whose supporters include many evangelical

Christians, used "the symbolic power of our sacred text, holding it in his

hand as if it was a vindication of his positions and his authority," she

said.

THE REST

========

CYCLONE NISARGA LIKELY TO MAKE LANDFALL NEAR MUMBAI TODAY

With Cyclone 'Nisarga' expected to make landfall close to Alibag, just over

100 km south of Mumbai in Maharashtra's Raigad district, on Wednesday

afternoon, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday took stock of the

situation and spoke with chief ministers of Maharashtra and Gujarat,

assuring them of all help from the Centre.

Mumbai, Thane, Palghar, Raigad, Dhule, Nandurbar and Nashik districts of

Maharashtra are on red alert, with the Met department forecasting the

"possibility of extremely heavy rain at isolated places".

The IMD has issued a storm surge warning in the sea off Mumbai, with

consequential flooding on land. "Storm surge of 1-2 meters above

astronomical tide is very likely to inundate low-lying areas of Mumbai

during the time of landfall," it stated.

COVID TEST SHOULD TRACK VIRAL LOAD TOO, SAYS NEW ICMR STUDY

Only seven per cent of coronavirus samples have a "high viral load" -

meaning these people would, on average, transmit the infection to 6.25 other

people.The vast majority (84%) have a low infectiousness, transmitting to

only 0.8 persons on average. Nine per cent have a moderate viral load.

Viral load refers to the quantity of a virus in an organism and is a

reflection of how quickly the virus is replicating.

These are new findings by ICMR's National Institute of Occupational Health

(NIOH), Ahmedabad, based on a study of over 1,000 samples collected in the

state in April and May.

This assumes significance given that many who test positive are

asymptomatic.

Said a top official of the institute: "With the burden we are seeing in

Gujarat, we should test for viral load and quarantine the 'super-spreaders'.

We have observed that viral load is a very strong determining factor. Few

people spread most infections and most people spread very few infections -

this has been observed in our study."

One indicator of viral load is "Ct value" or cycle threshold.

RT-PCR tests for Covid use fluorescent signals to detect nucleic acids. Ct

value is the number of cycles required in the machine for the fluorescent

signalling to cross the base level of the machine. A low value, therefore,

means a high viral load and vice versa. RT-PCR results as of now give

positive and negatives but it can also report the Ct (cycle threshold)

value. With that value, one can identify high, moderate, or low viral load.

It is automatically given in the RT-PCR test anyway.

According to the health ministry's analysis, of the total deaths so far, 50%

were aged over 60 years, and 73% had co-morbidities.

On India being ranked alongside other countries in terms of its Covid-19

numbers, Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said: "It is not a fair

comparison to say we are in such and such position. You have to take into

account the population of those countries and our population."

DEBATE OVER A HOMOEOPATHY DRUG

A homoeopathic drug, Arsenicum album 30, has become a subject of debate

after several states recommended it for prophylactic (preventive) use

against Covid-19. This was after the Ministry of AYUSH listed the drug among

"preventive and prophylactic simple remedies" against Covid-19.

The debate stems from the fact that there is no scientific evidence that the

drug works against Covid-19, a fact stressed not only by medical scientists

but also by some homoeopathic practitioners themselves.

Arsenicum album 30 has been recommended by the state governments in

Rajasthan, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. While the

Maharashtra government is yet to take a formal decision, Mumbai civic

authorities have been distributing the drug to high-risk populations in at

least two wards. The Haryana prisons department and Mumbai police too are

also distributing the drug to prisoners and officers respectively.

With no clinical trial or large-scale study having been undertaken anywhere

to scientifically validate the use of Arsenicum album 30 as a preventive

medication, the massive demand has worried some homeopaths, too.

JESSICA MURDER CONVICT MANU WALKS OUT OF TIHAR

More than 21 years after killing Jessica Lall in cold blood for her refusal

to serve him liquor, former Union minister Venod Sharma's son Siddharth

Vashishtha, alias Manu Sharma, walked free from Tihar Jail today on the

basis of his "good conduct". "He was released on the recommendations of the

Sentence Reviewing Board. The entire process has been carried out," said

Director General (Prisons) Sandeep Goel.

Manu, 43, was one of the 19 convicts released after Delhi Lt Governor Anil

Baijal accepted the board's recommendations.

The Delhi High Court had awarded him life imprisonment in December 2006 for

the killing. He has spent almost 17 years in the jail, prison sources said,

adding his sentence was to end in 2023.

HAVE HIM CONVICTED, FORGIVE HIM AND MOVE ON.

Sabrina Lal, who fought a long legal battle to bring her sister Jessica

Lal's killer to book, plans to start a foundation in the memory of her

sister and help women in similar situations get justice. She says she has

forgiven her sister's killer, Manu Sharma. "I really do not have anything to

say. I am not feeling anything. I feel numb. The only thing I hope and pray

to God is that he never thinks of repeating that mistake again," Sabrina

said yesterday.

She had in 2018 written to the jail authorities that she had no objection to

Sharma's release.

"You have to forgive. If you hold on to hate and revenge, you cannot move

on. Forgiveness is something you have to feel. You can never forget, but you

need to forgive at some point," she says.

Sabrina became a beacon of hope for many in their quest for justice when the

circumstances looked hostile. "We are thinking of opening Jessica Lal

Foundation where we want to help women, empower them and do something

meaningful and help other people in the same situation," she says.

'MITRON' APP GETS TAKEN DOWN FROM PLAY STORE

Several attempts have been made in the past to bring in the patriotic or

swadeshi angle to sell products, solutions or services in India, but few

have seen the kind of success that the little-over-a-month-old short video

app, 'Mitron' saw, before it was finally taken down from the Google Play

Store on Tuesday.

With over 5 million downloads since its launch in April, the developers or

owners of the app managed to leverage two things quite clearly - naming the

app 'Mitron', a term made popular by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is

perceived as a champion of nationalism, and the need to find an alternative

to Chinese TikTok.

Though it was reported that the team behind the app was led by an IITian

named Shivank Aggarwal, subsequent attempts to trace the said person drew a

blank. The team went by the name of ShopKiller and maintained that it was

working in stealth mode.

The Google Play Store has a "Spam and Minimum Functionality Policy" and can

take down apps, among other things, for repetitive content. Examples of

violations include "Copying content from other apps without adding any

original content or value" and "Creating multiple apps with highly similar

functionality, content, and user experience".

INDICATORS

Sensex 33,825 (+522), Nifty 9,979 (+153), Trading Value NSE ,(Rs.crores)

60,555

Nasdaq 9,608 (+56) Dow 25,742 (+268), S&P 3,081 (+25)

US$-Rs. 74.87 GBP-Rs. 93.83, Euro-Rs. 83.53, UAE Dhm-Rs.20.38, Can$-Rs.

55.34, Aus$- Rs. 51.26

GBP 0.79 /US$, Euro 0.89 /US$, Jap.Yen 108.15 /US$, Aus$ 1.46 /US$, Sing

1.40 /US$, Bang Taka 83.30 /US$, Can$ 1.35 /US$, Mal Ring 4.28 /US$,

Pak Re 163.48 /US$, Phil Peso 50.20 /US$, Russian Rouble 68.82 /US$, NZ$

1.58 /US$, Thai Baht 31.52 /US$, Ukraine Hryvnia 26.55 /US$, Norway NOK 9.57

/US$

Bitcoin - USD 9,506

Dollar Index 97.47 Brent Crude 38.89 BDI 520

Gold world Spot Price USD/aoz 1,729 India (Rs. per gm 24k/22k) 4,695 / 4,595

Silver (Rs. Per KG) 50,160

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Be civil to all, sociable to many, familiar with few, friend to one, enemy

to none. - Benjamin Franklin

OFF TRACK

It was very crowded and noise in this Restaurant and this blond girl asks

the waiter where the restroom was.

He says, "I can't hear you!"

So she gets close to his ear and asks again, "Can you please tell me where

the ladies room is?"

And he replies, "On the other side!"

So she turns around and gets close to his other ear, and asks, "Can you

please tell me where the ladies room is, please!"