LAC ROW: 12TH ROUND OF SINO-INDIA MILITARY TALKS TODAY

After a gap of over three and a half months, India and China will hold next round of high-level military talks today with a focus on making some forward movement in the disengagement process in the remaining friction points in eastern Ladakh.

The fresh round of talks is taking place over two weeks after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar firmly conveyed to his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi that the prolongation of the existing situation in eastern Ladakh was visibly impacting the bilateral ties in a "negative manner". The two foreign ministers had held a one-hour bilateral meeting on the sidelines of a conclave of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Tajik capital city Dushanbe on July 14.

AS OPP DIGS IN HEELS ON PEGASUS, GOVT MAY CURTAIL HOUSE SESSION

With the Pegasus row disrupting Parliament for the ninth straight day, there is speculation that the govt is “seriously considering the curtailment of the Monsoon Session”. The session, which began on July 19, was to go on until August 13.

While the Opposition has been insisting on a full-fledged debate on the Pegasus spyware issue, the govt’s stand has been that it is ready to discuss anything but that. The govt, terms it a non issue.

Despite the din in Lok Sabha ever since the Pegasus row broke out on July 18, the eve of the Monsoon session, the govt has passed five Bills in the Lower House.

THAROOR, BJP MP SPAR OVER PARL PANEL MEETING ON SNOOPING

The parliamentary standing committee on information technology saw a battle of letters play out with its head Shashi Tharoor urging Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to take action over ministry officials' "last-minute refusal" to attend a meeting of the panel and BJP MP Nishikant Dubey shooting off a missive to Birla calling for the Congress leader's removal as the panel's chairperson.

Dubey in his letter, also alleged that Tharoor is known for his "eccentric nature" as well as "acute psychological disorder and disorientation", while the Congress leader later tweeted, without naming anyone, that he doesn't want to respond to "uncouth and obnoxious comments" and cited a quote from Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw -- "I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it."

In his letter to the speaker, Tharoor said the action of representatives of three ministries constitutes "breach of parliamentary privilege and contempt of the House".

Dubey, who is a member of the panel, urged the speaker not to take any cognizance of Tharoor's letter. The BJP MP urged Birla to "initiate urgent action and dismiss" Tharoor from the parliamentary standing committee on information technology's chairmanship, saying otherwise he will continue to raise "irrelevant issues".

ASSAM BEHAVING LIKE ‘BIG DADDY’, CREATING DISTURBANCE VIA BLOCKADE: MIZORAM

Assam is behaving like a “big daddy”, with the attitude of an “aggressor” that led to this week’s violent boundary clash and an economic blockade later, Mizoram Deputy Chief Minister Tawnluia said yesterday.

The comment came as anger brewed in both the states after the clash in which six Assam Police personnel died.

Mizoram called its boundary committee meeting Friday to clarify its position on the dispute, while Assam sent its police to question Mizoram MP K. Vanlalvena in New Delhi in connection with the violence.

“This is not the first time Assam has intruded into our territory… It has repeatedly enforced an economic blockade to punish Mizo people. How will our people survive in this blockade?” Tawnluia said, adding that Assam isn’t behaving like a “brother”. According to him, Assam is enforcing a blockade on NH-306 and other roads connecting Mizoram with the rest of India. Moreover, he accused the state of damaging railway lines at the Bairabi railhead in Mizoram.

KEY COVID NUMBERS

Current Active Cases Countrywide: 4,02,884

New Cases in last 24 hours: 41,481

Recovered in last 24 hours: 37,314

Change in no. of Active cases in last 24 hours: +3,569

No. of deaths in last 24 hours (Total Covid Deaths so far): 598 (4,23,842)

Daily Tests (Wednesday): 20,20,950

Daily Positivity Rate (Proportion of Positives among total Tested): 2.2%

Percentage of Population Vaccinated (At Least One Dose / Two Doses): 26.7% / 7.5%

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

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TWO CREW KILLED IN ATTACK ON ISRAELI-MANAGED TANKER OFF OMAN

Two crew members, a Briton and a Romanian, were killed when a petroleum products tanker managed by Israeli-owned Zodiac Maritime came under attack on Thursday off Oman’s coast, the company said on Friday.

London-based Zodiac said on its website that the attack in the Arabian Sea on Mercer Street, a Liberian-flagged Japanese-owned ship, was still being investigated.

The US Navy rushed to the scene following the attack and was escorting the tanker to a safe harbor, a London-based ship management company said Friday.

The assault represented the worst-known maritime violence so far in regional attacks on shipping since 2019. The US, Israel and others have blamed the attacks on Iran amid the unraveling of Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers.

Earlier on Friday, it had described the incident as suspected piracy but the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), which provides maritime security information, says it was not piracy. “Details of the incident are still being established and an investigation into the incident is currently underway. We continue to work closely with the UKMTO and other relevant authorities,” said Zodiac, which is owned by the wealthy Israeli Ofer family.

It said it was “not aware of harm to any other personnel” than the British and Romanian crew members who were killed.

The UKMTO said the vessel was about 152 nautical miles (280 km) northeast of the Omani port of Duqm when it was attacked. It gave no more details on the type of vessel, any cargo, to whom it belonged or about possible casualties.

DELTA VARIANT MAY SPREAD AS EASILY AS CHICKENPOX: REPORTS

The Delta variant of the coronavirus may cause more severe illness than all other known versions of the virus and spread as easily as chickenpox, media reports quoting an internal document from the United States health authority said.

The document from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outlines unpublished data that shows fully vaccinated people might spread the Delta variant, first identified in India, at the same rate as unvaccinated people, reports said.

Dr Rochelle P Walensky, the director of the CDC, acknowledged on Tuesday that vaccinated people with so-called breakthrough infections of the Delta variant carry just as much virus in the nose and throat as unvaccinated people and may spread it just as readily. The Delta variant is more transmissible than the viruses that cause MERS, SARS, Ebola, the common cold, the seasonal flu and smallpox, and it is as contagious as chickenpox, according to the document.

The Delta variant -- originally known as B.1.617.2 -- might cause more severe disease. The immediate next step for the agency is to “acknowledge the war has changed,” the document said.

The document's tone reflects alarm among CDC scientists about Delta's spread across the country.

The agency is expected to publish additional data on the deadly variant on Friday. “The CDC. is very concerned with the data coming in that Delta is a very serious threat that requires action now,” the official said.

There are roughly 35,000 symptomatic infections per week among 162 million vaccinated Americans, according to data collected by the CDC as of July 24 that was cited in the internal presentation. But the agency does not track all mild or asymptomatic infections, so the actual incidence may be higher.

Infection with the Delta variant produces virus amounts in the airways that are tenfold higher than what is seen in people infected with the Alpha variant, which is also highly contagious, the document noted. The amount of virus in a person infected with Delta is a thousandfold more than what is seen in people infected with the original version of the virus, according to one recent study.

PEGASUS MEANT ONLY FOR FIGHTING CRIME, TERROR: ISRAEL DEFENCE MINISTER

Israeli surveillance software company NSO Group has temporarily blocked several govt clients around the world from using its Pegasus spyware as the company investigates its possible misuse, Washington-based non-profit media outlet NPR reported.

This follows raids on some NSO offices by Israeli govt agencies “to begin assessing” security breach allegations against the company’s Pegasus spyware.

Meanwhile, French authorities have found traces of Pegasus on phones of several French targets.

The Israel govt is said to be forming a special team to manage the Pegasus fallout, even as defence minister Benny Gantz said Israel was ‘studying’ reports about the alleged misuse of the software. “We approve the exports only to govts and only for lawful use to prevent crime and terrorism,” he said.

NSO says it has 60 customers in 40 countries, all of them intelligence agencies, law enforcement bodies and militaries. It says that in recent years, before the media reports, it blocked its software from five govtal agencies, including two in the past year, after finding evidence of misuse.

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CPM-CPI WILLING TO SUPPORT TMC TO FIGHT BJP

After Communist Party of India-Marxist, Left alliance partner CPI is willing to support any party or platform that challenges Bharatiya Janata Party, which it considers its main adversary, a top leader of the party's West Bengal unit said on Friday.

The development came just days after West Bengal Left Front chairman and CPI-M Politburo member Biman Bose in a change of stance had said the party is ready to join hands with Trinamool Congress to fight the BJP at the national level.

"Our central and state leadership had resolved during our last party congress that the CPI will support any party or coalition that treats BJP as the main threat and wants to overthrow it. It does not matter if in this endeavour we have to join hands with the Congress or any other regional party like the TMC," CPI state secretary Swapan Banerjee told PTI.

"But joining hands with TMC at the national level does not mean we will dilute our fight against it at the state level. But we have to accept the fact that BJP is the biggest danger the country is facing right now," he said.

The CPIM-led Left Front, Congress and the newly formed Indian Secular Front had cobbled an alliance and contested the state assembly election this year and had declared that both TMC and BJP are their principal enemies. But for the first time since Independence, both Left Front and Congress failed to even open their account in the state assembly while ISF could manage to win just one seat.

INDIA AHEAD OF US, CHINA IN DIGITAL TRANSACTIONS

India is head and shoulders above the US and China - the two biggest economies in the world - when it comes to digital transactions, claimed IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. In a tweet on Friday, Vaishnaw posted that India recorded 25.4 billion digital transactions in 2020. This is 1.6 times compared to 15.7 billion digital transactions in China and over 21 times the 1.2 billion transactions seen in the US.

As per the RBI– Digital Payments Index (RBI-DPI), digital transactions have been growing leaps and bounds. As per the central bank, the index stood at 270.59 in March 2021 as against 207.84 for March 2020 and 153.47 in March 2019. It takes March 2018 as its base period, marking the score for the index at 100.

A RECORD 70,000 GET MORE THAN 95% IN CBSE CLASS 12

With almost all students clearing Class 12 through the CBSE’s alternate assessment policy, the highest score bracket of 95% and above is fuller than ever — over 70,000 students have received these top marks in the results declared on Friday.

At 99.37%, the pass percentage is over 10 percentage points higher than last year’s 88.78%.

Numbers from the past two years of those in the 95%-plus category are illustrative of the big jump in scores this year, when the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic forced exams to be called off and students had to be assessed internally by schools.

With a record pass percentage of 99.37% and 70,000 students scoring 95% and above, the focus now shifts to college admissions. Admissions to Delhi University, which has roughly 70,000 seats and which traditionally sees very high cut-offs, is expected to be even more competitive this year.

In 2019, 17,693 or 1.47% of all candidates scored 95% and above. In 2020, when the CBSE adopted an alternative marking scheme as the Board exams were interrupted by the onset of the pandemic, there was a sharp increase in the number of students scoring 95% and above — 38,686 students, or 3.24% of all candidates, were in this top bracket. This year, the numbers have swelled to an all-time high of 5.37%. That is, 70,004 of the total 13,04,561 students have scored 95% and above.

TOKYO OLYMPICS: LOVLINA SURE OF A BRONZE, HAS A SHOT AT GOING FURTHER

Debutant boxer Lovlina Borgohain (69kg) provided the spark that India's Olympic campaign desperately needed with a medal-clinching quarter-final victory, while ace shuttler P V Sindhu re-asserted her status as one of badminton's greats by romping into the semi-finals.

India’s hockey teams too tasted success, the men, having sealed a place in the quarter-finals, beat Japan to finish second in Pool A, and the women kept their hopes of advancing alive with a 1-0 victory over Ireland.

Lovelina Borgohain ended the nation's long wait for a second medal after Mirabai Chanu's silver after defeating Chen Nien-chin in a split decision and making into the semis. The 22-year-old boxer from Assam defeated her Chinese Taipei opponent, former World Champion Nien-Chin Chen convincingly by 4-1 to storm into the semifinals.

From Assam’s Golghar district's remote village Bara Mukhia to Tokyo, Lovelina has punched her way through an age-old patriarchy and the fiercest opponents in the ring. She is only the third Indian boxer after Mary Kom and Vijender Singh to secure a boxing medal for India at the Olympics. “Emphatic win for the entire contingent. After Mary Kom’s loss, the morale was low but Lovlina’s medal has injected us with a new energy,” India’s women’s boxing coach Ali Qamar said.

SENSATIONAL SINDHU ENTERS SEMIS AT TOKYO OLYMPICS

Reigning World champion P V Sindhu kept alive her medal hopes by reaching the semi-finals of the women's singles with a straight-game win over World No. 5 Japanese Akane Yamaguchi in Tokyo on Friday.

The 26-year-old Indian, who won a silver in the 2016 Rio Olympics, defended brilliantly and rode on her attacking all-round game to outclass the fourth seeded Yamaguchi 21-13, 22-20 in a 56-minute quarter-final clash at the Musashino Forest Plaza in Tokyo.

Sindhu will next face second seed Chinese Taipei's Tai Tzu Ying, who edged out Thailand's Ratchanok Inthanon 14-21, 21-18, 21-18 in another quarter-final match. World No 1 Tai Tzu, whom coach Park Tae-sang considers as Sindhu's biggest rival, has an overwhelming 13-7 advantage against the Indian. Sindhu, who has lost to Tai Tzu in last three occasions, however, has managed to outwit the Taiwanese shuttler in important events such as the 2016 Rio Games, 2019 World Championships and 2018 World Tour Finals.

China's Chen Yu Fei and He Bing Jiao are the other two semi-finalists.

INDIAN MEN'S HOCKEY TEAM FACE GREAT BRITAIN IN QUARTER-FINAL

Eight-time champions India will take on Great Britain in the quarter-final of the Tokyo Olympics men's hockey tournament on Sunday while 2004 champions Australia will meet the Netherlands in the biggest clash of the last-eight stage.

Argentina will play Germany in another quarterfinal while Belgium will meet Spain in the last quarterfinal on Sunday.

On Friday, India defeated Japan 5-3 in their final league game -- their third successive win in the group stage -- to finish second behind Australia, who were held 1-1 by Spain on Friday.

India had 12 points from four wins and a solitary defeat while Australia topped the pool with 13 points from four wins and a draw.

Reigning Olympic Champions Argentina secured third place in the six-team Pool A with seven points after a 4-1 win against New Zealand. Spain took the last quarterfinal spot from this Pool, finishing with five points following their draw with Australia. New Zealand and Japan finished fifth and sixth, with four and one point respectively.

DJOKOVIC INCONSOLABLE AFTER GOLDEN SLAM DREAM ENDS

Novak Djokovic was inconsolable following his surprise loss to Germany's Alexander Zverev at the Tokyo Games on Friday, saying he was finding it hard to stay positive after his bid to become the first man to complete the Golden Slam came to an end.

The Serbian was unexpectedly beaten 1-6, 6-3, 6-1 by fifth-ranked Zverev, quashing his hopes of winning an Olympic singles gold medal, the only major honour missing from his long list of accolades.

The world number one had arrived in Tokyo gunning for the Golden Slam, triumphing at the Australian Open, Roland Garros and Wimbledon in 2021.

BEN STOKES TAKES 'INDEFINITE BREAK' FOR MENTAL WELLBEING

England all-rounder Ben Stokes has taken an indefinite break from all cricket with immediate effect to prioritise his mental wellbeing and continue his recovery from an injury to his left index finger, the country's cricket board (ECB) said on Friday.

Stokes, 30, has withdrawn from England's Test squad for next week's Test series against India.

The ECB said it fully supported his decision and it would "continue to help him during this period away from the game".

India are set to play 5 Tests in England with matches startiing on Aug 4, 12, 25, Sept 2 & 10 respectively.

INDICATORS

Sensex 52,587 (-66), Nifty 15,763 (-15), Trading Value NSE (Rs.crores) 76758.25

Nasdaq 14,673 (-106) Dow 34,953 (-149), S&P 4,395 (-24)

US$-Rs. 74.19 GBP-Rs. 103.37, Euro-Rs. 88.11, UAE Dhm-Rs.20.19, Can$-Rs. 59.54, Aus$- Rs. 54.65

GBP 0.71 /US$, Euro 0.84 /US$, Jap.Yen 109.62 /US$, Aus$ 1.35 /US$, Sing 1.35 /US$, Bang Taka 83.29 /US$, Can$ 1.24 /US$, Mal Ring 4.22 /US$,

Pak Re 161.61 /US$, Phil Peso 50.03 /US$, Russian Rouble 73.10 /US$, NZ$ 1.43 /US$, Thai Baht 32.85 /US$, Ukraine Hryvnia 26.60 /US$

Bitcoin - USD 42,118

Dollar Index 92.09 Brent Crude 76.33 BDI 3,292

Gold world Spot Price USD/aoz 1,813 India (Rs. per gm 24k/22k) 4,839 / 4,739, Silver (Rs. Per KG) 73,200

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Every fool knows you can’t touch the stars but it doesn’t stop a wise man from trying – Harry Anderson

OFF TRACK

Teacher: "Who were the first human beings?"      

Student: "Adam and Eve."      

Teacher: "And what religion was this Adam and Eve?"      

Student: "Communist, of course."      

Teacher: "Why do you think so?"      

Student: "Easy, they had no roof over their heads, no clothes to wear, and only one apple between them, yet they still called it paradise!"