ABOUT THE FIRST SHOT FIRED AT LAC IN 45 YEARS

In a first instance since 1975, shots have been fired along the LAC - 45

years ago, an Assam Rifles patrol was ambushed by the Chinese in Tulung La

in Arunachal Pradesh.

Army sources said Indian troops at Mukpari, one of the heights they occupied

a week ago in the Chushul sector, foiled a Chinese attempt to reach the top

of the hill feature Monday evening.

Until Tuesday evening, Indian and Chinese troops continued to be in the

general area of the standoff site, a few hundred metres separating them.

Located west of Spanggur Tso and north-west of Rezang La, the Mukpari

heights, a senior Army officer said, provide significant tactical

domination, offering a commanding view of the terrain and Chinese positions

including its garrison in Moldo. From the heights in the area, troops can

keep an eye on the Spanggur Gap, a mountain pass which the Chinese used in

the 1962 war to try and push towards Chushul.

On Monday evening, Indian troops at Mukpari noticed a group of 30-40 Chinese

soldiers, armed with machetes, steel rods and other objects, trying to climb

the hill from their side of the LAC.

The Indian troops at the heights, Army sources said, cautioned the Chinese

that it would be dangerous if they were to come close. They were told to

turn back. While the Chinese troops were returning, one among them fired

shots in the air, sources said. In a statement, the Indian Army rejected

Chinese allegations that Indian troops fired any shots.

"At no stage has the Indian Army transgressed across the LAC or resorted to

use of any aggressive means, including firing," the Army said. It said while

India is "committed to disengagement and de-escalating the situation on the

LAC, China continues to undertake provocative activities to escalate" the

situation. The Army accused the PLA of "blatantly violating agreements and

carrying out aggressive manoeuvres, while engagement at military, diplomatic

and political level is in progress".

New Delhi's assessment, as of now, is that Beijing is "rattled" after a

series of pre-emptive steps by Indian troops along the LAC on the south bank

of Pangong Tso since August 29-30.

New Delhi and Beijing were working the diplomatic hotlines to dial down the

tension ahead of the proposed meeting in Moscow between External Affairs

Minister S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart, State Councillor and

Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Diplomats in Delhi and Beijing were in touch with

each other since Monday evening.

RUSSIA SEEKS INDIA HELP FOR SPUTNIK PH 3 TRIALS, MANUFACTURE

The centre confirmed on Tuesday that the Sputnik V vaccine - cleared by

Russian regulators for public use - could be either manufactured in India in

partnership with domestic companies, or its Phase 3 clinical trials could be

conducted in multiple Indian sites. Dr V K Paul, Member, NITI Aayog and

co-chair, National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19, said

Russia has "sought help on (these) two counts", and three Indian companies

have expressed interest in partnering with the Moscow-based Gamaleya

Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology.

"The Russian vaccine has been under consideration. The Russian government

approached India through appropriate channels and sought help on two counts.

One, to consider manufacturing through our network of companies that are

well known for manufacturing vaccines of high quality, and of a size, volume

and capacity which 12q2is perhaps the very best in the world. The intent

was: can this vaccine be manufactured by Indian companies when the scale-up

takes place. This is the first part of the request for partnership," said Dr

Paul.

Russia's second request is to hold larger Phase 3 trials in India. "The

Russians have done Phase 1 and 2, (the results) were published in the Lancet

last week; if need be, Phase 3 studies, or any bridging studies, be

conducted in India. Which means regulatory processes and finding a suitable

partner for conducting the trial. This is the second part of the request,"

he said.

According to the official Sputnik V website, run by sovereign wealth fund

Russian Direct Investment Fund, Moscow plans to conduct Phase 3 clinical

trials in many countries, including Saudi Arabia, UAE, Brazil and the

Philippines. The production of the vaccine is expected to start this month.

JAISHANKAR MEETS IRAN COUNTERPART, DISCUSSES CHABAHAR, AFGHANISTAN

Two days after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh met his counterpart in Iran,

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday flew to Tehran and met

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and is reported to have discussed the

Chabahar port project and the situation in Afghanistan.

Jaishankar, who was on his way to Moscow for the Shanghai Cooperation

Organisation Foreign Ministers' meeting on Monday, made a "technical halt"

for refuelling the special aircraft.

Two back-to-back high-level ministerial visits from India to Iran, sources

said, signals Delhi's commitment to ties with Tehran at a difficult time

like this.

The visit comes in the backdrop of strained ties between the US and Iran,

and China trying to grab the strategic space in sanctions-hit Iran.

New Delhi is committed to the Chabahar project, and it is also exempted from

the US sanctions, under a special waiver from the US administration led by

President Donald Trump.

But, New Delhi - which is watching the US elections closely - will assess

the geopolitical situation and take the next steps possibly by the end of

the year when the US elections take place.

If Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden wins the US elections, the

threat of sanctions will in all likelihood evaporate.

Also, India is deeply invested in Afghanistan, and the rise of Taliban into

power worries both Delhi and Tehran. Both India and Iran are on the same

page when it comes to power-sharing in Afghanistan. So, Delhi has exchanged

notes with Tehran with these two ministerial meetings in a span of two days.

CENTRE SOFTENS STAND ON GST DUES TO STATES

On a day that saw several Opposition-ruled states remaining adamant on being

compensated for the entire GST shortfall, the Centre said it will be made

good.

The assurance about "full compensation" would imply that the portion

ascribed to "hand of God" will also be transferred to the states.

The Centre's assurance came after at least nine states rejected the two

options offered by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and sought an

early meeting of the GST Council. Those states that were the first to accept

one of the two options were criticised by their political rivals for

allegedly allowing themselves to be shortchanged by the Centre.

Punjab, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Puducherry Kerala, West Bengal,

Telangana and Delhi have opposed both the options while Karnataka, Assam and

Bihar were among the first to choose the first of the two options offered by

Sitharaman to compensate states for Rs 2.35-lakh crore in GST dues.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

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

'KAMALA BECOMING PRESIDENT WOULD BE INSULT TO US'

US President Donald Trump attacked the Democratic Vice President nominee

Kamala Harris saying, "people don't like her" and it would be "an insult" to

the US if she becomes the president.

"It's very simple to remember -- if Biden wins, China wins, it is as simple

as that. You have a situation where we build the greatest economy in the

history of the world and we were forced to close it because the China plague

came in and now we have opened it (the economy)," Trump said at a rally in

North Carolina.

"People don't like her (US Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala

Harris)--nobody likes her. She can never be the first woman president of the

US. It will be an insult to our country," he added.

He further said that "it was clear" why China and the "rioters" want Biden

to win because "they know his policies will be the downfall of America".

Trump further said that he views the trade deal with China "much

differently" now than he did before. "We signed a great trade deal (with

China) but the ink was not dry when the plague (COVID-19) came in so I view

that trade deal much differently than I did before," he said.

G7 FOREIGN MINISTERS CONDEMN NAVALNY'S 'CONFIRMED POISONING'

The Group of Seven foreign ministers on Tuesday condemned the "confirmed

poisoning" of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny in the strongest terms,

according to a statement released by the U.S. State Department.

"We, the G7 foreign ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the

United Kingdom and the United States of America and the High Representative

of the European Union, are united in condemning, in the strongest possible

terms, the confirmed poisoning of Alexei Navalny," said the statement.

Navalny, who is being treated in a Berlin hospital, was airlifted to Germany

after falling ill on a Russian domestic flight last month. Germany says he

was poisoned with a Soviet-style Novichok nerve agent in an attempt to

murder him; Russia has said it has seen no evidence that Navalny was

poisoned.

Germany briefed the G7, which the United States is chairing this year, on

its determination that Navalny "is the victim of an attack with a chemical

nerve-agent of the 'Novichok' group, a substance developed by Russia," the

G7 statement said.

"Any use of chemical weapons, anywhere, anytime, by anybody, under any

circumstances whatsoever, is unacceptable and contravenes the international

norms prohibiting the use of such weapons," the statement added, calling on

Russia establish who was responsible "for this abhorrent poisoning attack."

"We will continue to monitor closely how Russia responds to international

calls for an explanation of the hideous poisoning of Mr. Navalny," it said.

THE REST

========

CHINA CONFIRMS 'FINDING' FIVE MISSING YOUTHS

After claiming to have no knowledge about the whereabouts of five Arunachal

youths, who were reportedly picked up by the People's Liberation Army (PLA)

along the border, China today confirmed they were with them.

The five teenagers had accompanied Army personnel as hired porters to the

border in Lacho area of Upper Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh when

they were picked up by the PLA while returning to their village.

"China's PLA has responded to the hotline message sent by Indian Army. They

have confirmed the missing youths have been found by their side. Further

modalities to hand them over to our authority are being worked out," tweeted

Union Minister Kiren Rijiju.

SCHOOLS ALLOWED TO REOPEN FOR CLASSES 9-12 FROM SEP 21, WITH RIDERS

Metro services across the country have resumed as part of Unlock 4, since

being suspended in March due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

From September 21, also as part of Unlock 4, schools, too, will partially

reopen, albeit only for classes 9-12.

Only schools outside containment zones will reopen, and only those staff

members and students, who live outside containment zones, will be allowed to

attend.

Students can visit schools on a voluntary basis, to take guidance from

teachers. Also, they will have to take written permission from their parents

for the visit.

Student-teacher interaction will take place in a staggered manner.

These SOPs are in addition to specific measures that will be taken when

schools allow students to come for guidance purpose.

BIHAR ALLIANCES: ALL EYES ON CHIRAG PASWAN

Even as the LJP and JD(U) exchanged jibes on Tuesday, the grand alliance

partners signalled that they were open to accommodating the LJP and asked

party president Chirag Paswan to "not tolerate insult" in the NDA.

This comes a day after the LJP decided to put up a list of 143 names for the

Bihar Assembly elections and authorise Chirag to take a final call on

whether to contest the elections under leadership of Chief Minister and

JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar. Chirag is likely to take the final call in a week.

JD(U) spokesperson K C Tyagi said: "It is the LJP that keeps saying it has

no alliance with us. I would say in reaction that technically we never had

any alliance with LJP right from 1998 Lok Sabha election to 2005 and 2010

Assembly elections. LJP not accepting Nitish as NDA leader in Bihar is

defying Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former BJP president Amit Shah and

current BJP president J P Nadda, who have said on many occasions that Bihar

Assembly polls would be fought under Nitish's leadership."

A Congress leader said: "The election will become very interesting if there

is a three-way contest. Caste calculations will be revisited if LJP walks

out of NDA. Grand Alliance can also accommodate Chirag. If Chirag leaves

NDA, its social arithmetic will fall flat."

RHEA CHAKRABORTY ARRESTED BY NCB, IN JUDICIAL CUSTODY TILL SEPT 22

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Tuesday arrested actress Rhea

Chakraborty in a drugs case related to the death of actor Sushant Singh

Rajput. Later in the day, her bail plea was rejected by a magistrate court

and she was sent to judicial custody till September 22. She is likely to

appeal before the sessions court today.

Rhea is the tenth person to be arrested in the case, after her brother

Showik, Rajput's former cook Dipesh Sawant and former housekeeper Samuel

Miranda, among others.

The NCB said they placed Rhea under arrest based on WhatsApp chats and the

statements of the other accused. "We arrested her, which means we have

enough evidence. Since we have already questioned her in the past few days,

we don't need to interrogate her any more," said Deputy DG Mutha Ashok Jain.

Calling her arrest a "travesty of justice", Rhea's lawyer Satish Maneshinde

said in a statement: "Three central agencies hounding a single Woman just

because she was in love with a drug addict and was suffering from mental

health issues for several years."

#METOO: DELAY IN DISCLOSING MJ AKBAR'S ACTION ON LACK OF LAW, RAMANI TELLS

COURT

Journalist Priya Ramani told a Delhi court on Tuesday that she disclosed the

alleged sexual harassment by former Union minister MJ Akbar around 25 years

later because back then there was "a vacuum in law and there was no platform

either".

Senior advocate Rebecca John said that Ramani's tweets were based on her own

experience with Akbar. "Her experience is the fulcrum on which good faith

rests. It is validated subsequently by the combined experience of multiple

women making similar allegations," John said, adding that many spoke before

her tweet while many spoke later. She said Ramani made the allegations in

October 2018 since there was an "avalanche" taking place in India during the

global #MeToo movement and that she felt "compelled to speak" after she saw

several women, who had worked under Akbar between 1993-2011, speaking out

against him.

RPF DISRUPTS SOFTWARE USE FOR CORNERING CONFIRMED RAILWAY TICKETS

The Railway Protection Force has disrupted the use of illegal software 'Real

Mango' for cornering confirmed train reservation during the coronavirus

pandemic and made 50 arrests in an investigation spanning West Bengal,

Assam, Bihar and Gujarat, RPF DG Arun Kumar said Tuesday.

In the course of systematic unravelling of the working of the illegal

software, it has been found that it bypasses captcha, synchronises bank OTP

with the help of a mobile app and feeds it to the requisite form to book

tickets automatically. It also auto-fills the passenger and payment details

in the forms, he said.

"The software logs in to the IRCTC website through multiple IRCTC Ids. The

illegal software is sold through a five-tiered structure with the system

admin receiving payment in bitcoins," the Director General, Railway

Protection Force (RPF), said at a press briefing.

Field units of RPF have been able to apprehend 50 people so far.

RELIANCE JIO PLANS TO ROLL OUT 100 MILLION LOW-COST PHONES BY DECEMBER

Reliance Jio is looking at a plan to outsource and manufacture over 100

million low-cost smartphones, to be built on the Google Android platform.

These phones, which will be bundled with data packs, could be launched in

December or early next year, sources in the know said. It's a key ingredient

of Jio's strategy to make India a "2G-mukt Bharat", they said.

According to some leading vendors, the company has held talks with them to

manufacture the phones in India. Currently, there is enough capacity within

the country to manufacture them with home-grown firms like Lava and global

players like Foxconn and Wistron.

AT CRITICAL TIME, INDIAN-ORIGIN SA CRICKET BOSS TAKES STRIKE

Facing a financial crunch and allegations of racial discrimination from its

players, Cricket South Africa (CSA) has turned to Kugandrie Govender, the

great granddaughter of an Indian farmer who migrated from Madras to Durban

in the late 1800s to work on sugarcane plantations.

The 46-year-old public relations and marketing management graduate was

recently appointed acting chief executive officer (CEO) of CSA after her

predecessor resigned before the end of his term.

The mother of two teenage daughters says she never thought she would reach

this far "even in a million years" when, as a 22-year-old, she succeeded in

convincing her textile mill worker parents to allow her to buy a one-way

plane ticket from Durban to Johannesburg.

She has her hands full in the new job, working up to 17 hours a day. CSA has

been in turmoil since July, when former fast bowling star black sporting

icon Makhaya Ntini spoke about being "forever lonely" during his playing

days when Graeme Smith, the current director of cricket, was captain.

Another black pacer, Lungi Ngidi, was criticised by some former players for

supporting the Black Lives Matter movement.

INDICATORS

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49571.14

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55.90, Aus$- Rs. 53.34

GBP 0.76 /US$, Euro 0.84 /US$, Jap.Yen 106.13 /US$, Aus$ 1.37 /US$, Sing

1.36 /US$, Bang Taka 83.32 /US$, Can$ 1.31 /US$, Mal Ring 4.16 /US$,

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1.50 /US$, Thai Baht 31.36 /US$, Ukraine Hryvnia 27.60 /US$, Norway NOK 9.03

/US$

Bitcoin - USD 10,016

Dollar Index 93.50 Brent Crude 39.58 BDI 1,349

Gold world Spot Price USD/aoz 1,928 India (Rs. per gm 24k/22k) 5,055 / 4,955

Silver (Rs. Per KG) 68,110

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

If you get up in the morning and think the future is going to be better, it

is a bright day. Otherwise, it's not. - Elon Musk

OFF TRACK

The teacher had just finished reading a story to the Fifth-grade class. She

decided to check the student's knowledge of some of the vocabulary that had

been used.

"Who knows what the word 'adolescent' means?" she asked.

Out of the entire class of 30, not one child raised a hand.

After a few more silent moments, she decided to give them a hint:

"Adolescent - it's something all of you are, and I am not."

Finally Little Johnny tentatively raised his hand, and in a very soft voice

said, "Virgins?