SC PULLS UP CENTRE FOR EVASIVE, NONSENSICAL TABLIGHI AFFIDAVIT
The Supreme Court Thursday said freedom of speech and expression is the most
abused right in recent times.
A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde, which was hearing pleas of Jamiat
Ulama I Hind and others alleging that a section of media was spreading
communal hatred over Tablighi Jamaat congregation during the onset of
COVID-19 pandemic, pulled up the Centre for its "evasive" and "brazen"
affidavit on the issue.
Freedom of speech and expression is the most abused right in recent times,
the apex court said.
The bench observed this when senior advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for
Jamaat, said the Centre in its affidavit has stated that petitioners are
trying to muzzle freedom of speech and expression.
The bench was irked over the fact that instead of secretary of the
Information and Broadcasting Ministry, an additional secretary filed the
affidavit which contained unnecessary and nonsensical averments with regard
to media reporting in Tablighi Jamaat issue.
The apex court sought an affidavit from the I&B secretary with details of
steps taken in the past to
UNION MINISTER RAM VILAS PASWAN PASSES AWAY
Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan, one of the most prominent Dalit leaders of
the country, died on Thursday at the age of 74, his son Chirag Paswan said.
The Lok Janshakti Party founder and Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and
Public Distribution was admitted to a private hospital in New Delhi for
several weeks and had recently undergone a heart operation.
He was a minister in central governments headed by parties of contrasting
ideological persuasions, ranging from the Janata Dal to the Congress and the
BJP, since 1989.
THERE IS A FREE MEDIA IN INDIA: MEA ON CHINESE EMBASSYS TAIWAN GUIDELINES
TO JOURNALISTS
India on Thursday took oblique potshots at China over the guidelines issued
by its embassy here to the Indian media to not violate New Delhis
One-China policy ahead of the national day of Taiwan, saying there is a
free media in this country.
There is a free media in India that reports on issues as it sees fit,
External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said at a media
briefing.
The spokesperson said this when asked for comments about a letter sent to
journalists by the Chinese embassy that called for honouring the One-China
policy.
All countries that have diplomatic relations with China should firmly
honour their commitment to the One-China policy, which is also the
long-standing official position of the Indian government, the letter dated
October 7 said. We hope Indian media can stick to Indian governments
position on Taiwan question and do not violate the One-China principle, it
said.
The letter was issued in the wake of advertisements issued by the Taiwan
government in a couple of leading newspapers in India ahead of Taiwans
national day on October 10.
REPUBLIC TV IN THE DOCK OVER TRP MANIPULATION; ARNAB GOSWAMI HITS BACK
In a sensational revelation, the Mumbai Police claimed to have busted a
major fraud of manipulating TRP (Television Rating Point) data by at least
three TV channels and nabbed two persons, Commissioner of Police Param Bir
Singh said here on Thursday.
The channels allegedly indulging in the fraudulent activities include
Republic TV, Fakt Marathi and Box Cinema, and the action follows a complaint
registered by the Crime Branch recently.
Singh said the owners of the 3 channels involved in the alleged scam have
been charged with criminal breach of trust and cheating for 'fixing data'.
"While 2 channels owners are arrested, the police will question the Republic
TV owners/directors soon. Nobody will be spared and stringent action will be
taken," Singh warned.
Hitting back at the Mumbai Police, Republic TV's Editor-in-Chief Arnab
Goswami said it was an attempt to target the channel for its coverage of the
Maharashtra government. Threatening to slap a criminal defamation case
against Singh, he accused the police chief of making "false allegations"
against the Republic TV because the channel had questioned him in the
investigations of the Sushant Singh Rajput case.
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
======================
KAMALA HARRIS AND MIKE PENCE DEBATE
Senator Kamala Harris condemned the Trump administrations handling of the
pandemic as the worst failure in U.S. government history, but evaded answers
on the Democrats positions on the environment and the Supreme Court.
The American people have witnessed what is the greatest failure of any
presidential administration in the history of our country, the California
Democrat said of Trumps response to the coronavirus outbreak.
This administration has forfeited their right to re-election, she said in
the running mates only debate of the campaign.
Vice President Mike Pence endorsed the whole of President Donald Trumps
response to the virus. From the very first day, President Donald Trump has
put the health of America first, Pence said.
He later insisted that Harris explain Joe Bidens plans to raise taxes and
his position on the Green New Deal, a plan to fight climate change that
Republicans say would be economically destructive. He also demanded to know
whether she and Biden planned to pack the Supreme Court with additional
justices, a question the Biden campaign has consistently refused to answer.
More taxes, more regulation, banning fracking, abolishing fossil fuel,
crushing American energy and economic surrender to China is a prescription
for economic decline, Pence said of Bidens plans.
Pence too declined to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if Trump loses,
insisting that their ticket is on course to win, and hewing to the
presidents line that any adverse verdict will be because of dubious
ballots. Polls are now showing Trump-Pence ticket is down by as much as 15
points nationwide. Even Trumps favoured Rasmussen poll puts Democrats ahead
by 12.
AMERICAN POET LOUISE GLUCK WINS 2020 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE
American poet Louise Glück won the Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday for
her candid and uncompromising work, which looks unflinchingly and with
biting humor at loss and trauma, especially in family life.
She joins a handful of American poets who have received the prize, which has
been dominated by novelists since the first award in 1901. She is also one
of the few women honored the 16th female Nobel Literature laureate.
The Nobel Committee praised Glück for her unmistakable poetic voice that
with austere beauty makes individual existence universal," in a citation
read by Mats Malm, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, at the
award announcement in Stockholm.
Glück's poetry collections include Descending Figure, Ararat and The
Triumph of Achilles, which was published in 1985 and won the National Book
Critics Circle Award.
FRANCE COURT PAVES WAY FOR PUBLISHERS TO MAKE GOOGLE PAY FOR CONTENT
Google must open talks with publishers in France about paying to use their
content, an appeals court confirmed on Thursday, paving the way for an
industry-wide deal in the country.
The ruling may reverberate outside France, as it compels Google to sit down
with publishers and news agencies to find a way to remunerate them under the
neighbouring right enshrined in revamped EU copyright rules, which allows
publishers to demand a fee from online platforms for showing news snippets.
It differs from last weeks pledge by Alphabets Google to pay $1 billion to
publishers globally for their news over the next three years, because the
French arrangement would involve finding a sustainable methodology to
remunerate publishers and news agencies for news.
Googles vehicle to remunerate news publishers, dubbed Google News Showcase,
is set to launch in Germany, where it has signed up German newspapers
including Der Spiegel, Stern, Die Zeith, and in Brazil with Folha de
S.Paulo, Band and Infobae.
THE REST
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INDIA'S GDP EXPECTED TO CONTRACT BY 9.6 PER CENT THIS FISCAL: WORLD BANK
The World Bank on Thursday said that India's GDP is expected to contract by
9.6 per cent this fiscal which is reflective of the national lockdown and
the income shock experienced by households and firms due to the COVID-19
pandemic, noting that the country's economic situation is much worse than
ever seen before.
The Washington-based global lender, in its latest South Asia Economic Focus
report ahead of the annual meeting of the World Bank and International
Monetary Fund, forecasts a sharper than expected economic slump across the
region, with regional growth expected to contract by 7.7 per cent in 2020,
after topping six per cent annually in the past five years.
In the report, the World Bank said that the spread of the coronavirus and
containment measures have severely disrupted supply and demand conditions in
India.
HATHRAS ACCUSED CLAIM INNOCENCE, POINT A FINGER AT VICTIMS FAMILY
All four accused in the Hathras incident have written a letter to the
Superintendent Police, Vineet Jaiswal, claiming that they are innocent. In
the hand-written letter, the four accused -- Sandeep, Ramu, Ravi and
Lavkush, have admitted that they were friendly with the victim and would
often talk to her on phone.
They said that the girl's family was not happy with their friendship. They
further said that none of them were at the spot where the girl was beaten.
On the day of the incident, the accused admitted to have met the girl but
said that they left the place when her mother and brother objected.
They said that they later came to know that the girl had been beaten by her
mother and brother for meeting the accused. The accused have stated that
they have been wrongly framed by the girl's family and sought justice in the
matter.
AS OTHER CHANNELS TAKE POTSHOTS, ARNAB CALLS THEM OUT
A war broke out between Indian TV news channels Thursday afternoon, after
Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh announced that his department was
probing allegations of fixing television viewership ratings against
Republic TV and two other channels .
Soon, NDTV 24×7, Times Now, India Today, CNN News18 and ABP News went hammer
and tongs after Republic TV, its Hindi sister channel Republic Bharat, and
Arnab Goswami, the groups chairman, editor-in-chief and majority
shareholder.
Goswami also responded in kind, calling out the 2-3 channels that are
instigating this and saying people are watching you, beware of their
judgment. And for any of those channels who are getting cheap thrills
today, I am going to carry out a criminal defamation against those channels
who are participating in the lie, he added.
India Todays News Director Rahul Kanwal said the viewership data that
indicated Republic TV and Republic Bharat as the leading news channels in
English and Hindi respectively did not make any sense. India Today TV also
ran the hashtag #RepublicCheatsBharat and headlines such as Republic rigged
ratings and Cash for News TRP scandal.
Amid coverage of the Sushant Singh Rajput case and the alleged gang-rape and
murder of a 20-year old Dalit woman in Hathras, India Today and Republic TV,
in particular, have been at each others throats. The naming and shaming,
as India Todays Consulting Editor Rajdeep Sardesai called it, had gone
public Monday when he slammed Republic TV for its coverage of the Rajput
case. Sardesai said, (Goswami) targeted me during my Rhea Chakraborty
interview, and more, but today Im going to say Arnab Goswami, you run a
banana republic channel.
In a targeted response, Goswami Tuesday said, As someone who is building
Indias largest news network from scratch, I have no problem if someone who
is decaying, or someone who is decaying and defunct, wants to take my name
to gain one days relevance.
6 MPs SEEK KERALA JOURNALISTS RELEASE
Six MPs, five of whom are from Kerala, have written to PM Narendra Modi and
home minister Amit Shah seeking their intervention to secure the release of
Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan, arrested in UP on sedition and terror
charges when he was on his way to meet the Hathras victims family. In
separate letters, Rajya Sabha MPs Binoy Viswam and PV Abdul Wahab, and Lok
Sabha MPs Benny Behanan, PK Kunhalikutty, ET Mohammed Basheer and K
Navaskanu wrote about the arbitrary arrest and asked the PM and home
minister to uphold freedom of press and individual liberties.
IMA QUESTIONS CENTRES AYUSH PROTOCOLS
The Indian Medical Association, the umbrella body of allopathy
practitioners, on Thursday questioned the governments recently issued Ayush
protocol for COVID care asking how many union ministers had used these
protocols for COVID19 treatment so far.
In a strong poser to Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Thursday, IMA chief
Rajan Sharma asked, How many of your ministerial colleagues have so far
made the informed choice of getting treated under these Ayush protocols?
IMA also asked the Health Minister what was stopping the Centre from handing
over COVID care and treatment to AYUSH Ministry if theres evidence that
alternative medicine system helped disease management.
Are the proponents of AYUSH claims and Health Minister prepared to subject
themselves as volunteers to an independent prospective Double Blind Control
Study in prevention and treatment of Covid through these protocols? Health
Minister should come clean on our posers. If he doesnt come clean, he is
inflicting a fraud on the nation and gullible patients by calling placebos
as drugs, IMA Chief Rajan Sharma said three days after the AYUSH protocol
for COVID care was issued.
6% DROP IN SO2 EMISSION, BUT INDIA STILL TOP POLLUTER
India has recorded a 6% decline in emission of hazardous sulphur dioxide in
2019 compared to 2018 - the first decline in four years. But by contributing
21% of global anthropogenic emissions of SO2, India continues to be at the
top in the list of big emitters for the fifth year in a row. The overall SO2
emissions fell for all the top three big emitters - India, Russia and China
for only the second time on record. The declining trend continues, so far,
even in 2020 thanks to a 10% drop in consumption of coal during the
January-August period.
Releasing these findings on Thursday, the Centre for Research on Energy and
Clean Air (CREA) and Greenpeace India attributed the decline in Indias SO2
emission to the countrys stride towards renewable energy and less
consumption of coal.
SENSEX BACK AT 40K AFTER 7 MONTHS
The Sensex on Thursday managed to nearly reach the same level seen in late
February this year, just before the global pandemic started to impact Indian
markets. Within a month of closing a tad above the 40k mark on February 25,
the benchmark index had lost about 15,000 points or 40% to sink below
26k in intra-day trades on March 24.
However, despite a never-seen-before slide in the economy due to one of the
strictest lockdowns in the world, the sensex has since rallied. On Thursday,
it again closed above the 40k mark again at 40,183. Reliance Industries on
the back of a series of investments in its two major subsidiaries Jio in
telecom and Reliance Retail in organised retailing led the gainers.
Software stocks and select auto stocks also added to this recovery, while
banks & financial services stocks continue to lag.
FRENCH OPEN: IGA SWIATEK AND SOFIA KENIN TO MEET IN FINAL
Since they both lost in the opening round in Rome, at their only clay-court
tournament before the French Open, Sofia Kenin and Iga Swiatek have taken
radically different paths to their unexpected places in Saturdays final.
Kenin, the 21-year-old American who won the Australian Open in February, has
had to scrap and improvise to avert defeat, fighting and drop-shotting
through four matches that lasted three sets.
Yesterday, She blunted Petra Kvitovas easy power and read the angles of her
game like a mathematician, frequently taking a quick step in just the right
direction and repeatedly winning the exchanges that mattered most in a 6-4,
7-5, semifinal victory.
Swiatek, an unseeded 19-year-old from Poland, has not had to dig nearly so
deep. Instead, she been a force of nature, constructing points and
demolishing the opposition without losing a set, or more than five games in
any match. Out of nowhere in this unusual Grand Slam tournament, no one has
come close to finding a solution to Swiateks compact blend of offense and
defense.
Not the No. 1 seed and former champion Simona Halep, whom Swiatek crushed,
6-1, 6-2, in the fourth round. Not the qualifier Nadia Podoroska, whom
Swiatek routed, 6-2, 6-1, in a semifinal that lasted little more than an
hour on Thursday.
IPL: SUNRISERS HYDERABAD SCORE A 69-RUN WIN OVER KINGS XI PUNJAB
Jonny Bairstow shone with the bat with a 97-run knock before star
leg-spinner Rashid Khan snared three wickets in an impressive bowling
display to guide Sunrisers Hyderabad to a comfortable 69-run win over Kings
XI Punjab in Dubai yesterday.
Bairstow and captain David Warner (52) took the opposition bowlers to the
cleaners with a 160-run opening stand as SRH scored an imposing 201 for six
after opting to bat, even though KXIP made a brilliant comeback by taking
six wickets in the final five overs.
The England wicketkeeper batsman hit seven fours and six sixes during his
55-ball knock, while Warner consumed 40 balls for his 52 to set up SRH's
third win from six matches.
KXIP made amends of their woeful death overs bowling by conceding just 41
runs in the last five overs and taking six wickets in the process with
leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi (3/29) triggering the collapse but that could not
stop SRH from crossing the 200-run mark.
Chasing a stiff target of 202, KXIP were all out for 132 in 16.5 overs to
slump to their fifth defeat -- and fourth on the trot -- in six matches to
remain at the bottom of the points table.
Sunrisers Hyderabad now have 3 wins from their 6 matches so far.
INDICATORS
Sensex 40,183 (+304), Nifty 11,835 (+96), Trading Value NSE ,(Rs.crores)
61,532.02
Nasdaq 11,421 (+56) Dow 28,426 (+122), S&P 3,447 (+27)
US$-Rs. 73.17 GBP-Rs. 94.61, Euro-Rs. 86.05, UAE Dhm-Rs.19.91, Can$-Rs.
55.30, Aus$- Rs. 52.36
GBP 0.77 /US$, Euro 0.85 /US$, Jap.Yen 105.99 /US$, Aus$ 1.39 /US$, Sing
1.35 /US$, Bang Taka 83.26 /US$, Can$ 1.32 /US$, Mal Ring 4.15 /US$,
Pak Re 163.20 /US$, Phil Peso 48.40 /US$, Russian Rouble 77.64 /US$, NZ$
1.51 /US$, Thai Baht 31.15 /US$, Ukraine Hryvnia 28.05 /US$, Norway NOK 9.27
/US$
Bitcoin - USD 10,907
Dollar Index 93.48 Brent Crude 43.14 BDI 1,970
Gold world Spot Price USD/aoz 1,909 India (Rs. per gm 24k/22k) 5,046 / 4,946
Silver (Rs. Per KG) 60,210
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Each man should frame life so that at some future hour fact and his dreaming
meet. - Victor Hugo
OFF TRACK
The supervisor had enough of his unit abusing their allotted break time. In
an effort to clarify his position, he posted a sign on the bulletin board:
"Starting immediately, your 15-minute breaks are being cut from a half-hour
to 20 minutes."
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