PM SECURITY BREACH: SC FORMS NEW PROBE PANEL

With the Punjab government opposed to the Centre’s committee and seeking an “independent” probe into the security breach during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the state on January 5, the Supreme Court decided Monday to set up a committee headed by one of its former judges to inquire into the matter.

It also questioned the Centre on the show-cause notices served to Punjab officers, and called it “totally self-contradictory”.

Earlier, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, urged the bench to allow the Centre’s committee to continue with its inquiry and place a report before the court. But this was opposed by Punjab Advocate General D S Patwalia who said the state had “no hope” in the Centre’s committee and urged the court to constitute an “independent committee”.

Mehta said since there is concern that the show-cause notices seek to pre-empt the outcome, the Centre can assure it will not take any action regarding the notices till its committee examines the issue and places a report before the court.

But the bench then came up with the suggestion of a committee under one of its former judges.

Meanwhile, at least 15 lawyers have said that they received calls from a UK number- reportedly belonging to the banned outfit Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) - taking responsibility for the blockade.

"I received a call from a UK number which said that they would take responsibility for the blockade the motorcade of the PM. The caller said that SC should not be hearing the matter when they did not find a single culprit responsible for the killing of Sikhs in 1984," one of the lawyers who received the call, said.

14TH MILITARY MEETING WITH CHINA: INDIA HOPES FOR CONSTRUCTIVE DIALOGUE

India is looking towards a constructive dialogue in the upcoming 14th round of military discussions with China on Wednesday. On Monday, sources in the security establishment said that the Indian side is “looking forward to constructive dialogue to resolve the balance [remaining] friction areas”.

This will be the 14th Senior Highest Military Commander Level (SHMCL) meeting to resolve the standoff in eastern Ladakh, now on for more than 21 months.

The meeting between the Corps Commanders will take place on the Chinese side of the Chushul-Moldo Border Personnel Meeting (BPM) point. This will be the first time that Lt Gen Anindya Sengupta will lead the Indian delegation.

Lt Gen Sengupta, who took over from Lt Gen P G K Menon as the commander of the Leh-based XIV ‘Fire and Fury’ Corps last week, was part of the 13th meeting in October as well — Lt Gen Menon had then led the Indian delegation.

The last meeting had ended without a breakthrough, even though India had been hopeful of reaching an agreement on disengagement from Patrolling Point (PP) 15 in Hot Springs. Each side has a platoon-sized strength of soldiers in the area. Apart from PP15, there are two more outstanding issues in eastern Ladakh.

In Depsang Plains, Chinese troops are blocking Indian soldiers from accessing their traditional patrolling limits at PP10, PP11, PP11A, PP12 and PP13. The area is close to India’s strategically significant Daulat Beg Oldi near Karakoram Pass in the north.

In Demchok, some so-called civilians from China have pitched tents on the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control, and are refusing to vacate.

Till now, the two militaries have disengaged from PP14 in Galwan Valley, north bank of Pangong Tso, heights of Kailash Range in the Chushul sub-sector, and PP17A near Gogra Post. Both sides have more than 50,000 troops each in the region, along with additional air defence assets, artillery, missiles, tanks and other military equipment.

COVID CASES SET TO CROSS 4 LAKH HIGH, BUT HOSPITALISATION LOW; TESTING NORMS RELAXED

India reported a 28-fold surge in Covid cases over the past fortnight but there are indications from the national capital that, at current levels, the number of hospitalisations logged is far lesser than what was recorded during the peak of the second wave in April last year, according to senior government officials.

A senior official said that while the daily case count in Delhi of about 20,000 last April matches the latest numbers, the level of hospitalisations is just about “one-fourth to one-fifth” of that month.

Last year, the daily count in Delhi crossed 20,000 cases on April 17, and was at 28,395 on April 20 and 22,933 on April 25. On Sunday, the capital’s case count was 22,751, dipping to 19,166 cases Monday.

On December 27, 2021, India’s case count was 6,358, which surged to 1.79 lakh on January 9.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), meanwhile, revised its testing norms to facilitate early detection of symptomatic cases. It recommended that asymptomatic individuals in community settings, individuals undertaking inter-state domestic travel and contacts of patients, unless identified as high-risk based on age or comorbidity, do not need Covid testing. It specified, however, that the advisory is “generic in nature and may be modified as per discretion of the state health authorities”.

According to Government officials, the case-count peak will cross the 4-lakh mark this time — it had hit a daily peak of 4.14 lakh on May 6, 2021 — but the Government is prepared to handle the rising numbers with increased hospital beds and oxygen supply.

As of January 8, infections appear to have spread rapidly across India. The number of districts reporting a weekly case positivity rate of more than 5 per cent has increased from 21 in the week ending December 25, 2021, to 202 in the week ending January 8 — a 10-fold increase in two weeks.

While Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Noida and Gurgaon are among the cities of concern, there are at least 40 districts across 13 states and UTs where positivity is more than 5 per cent and which have reported a 10-fold increase in positivity. These districts are in Jharkhand, Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Assam, MP and UP.

The ICMR, meanwhile, also recommended that patients discharged from a Covid facility as per policy don’t need to be tested.

More than 9 lakh healthcare and frontline workers, and 60-plus citizens with comorbidities received their third Covid jab on Monday.

COVID DASHBOARD – INDIA

As of 0800 IST /Jan 11

from mohfw.gov.in ,

New Cases on Monday 1,68,063

Active Cases 8,21,446 (+97,827)

Total Deaths (Deaths Yesterday) 4,84,213 (263)

Total Vaccination: 152.89 Crores (+92,07,700)

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

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DJOKOVIC WINS APPEAL TO STAY IN AUSTRALIA;BUT GAME NOT OVER YET

World tennis No. 1 Novak Djokovic was back in practice hours after winning a court challenge to remain in Australia on Monday, thanking the judge who released him from immigration detention and saying he remained focused on his bid for a record 21st Grand Slam win in Melbourne.

The fight over his medical exemption from COVID-19 vaccination may not be over, however, as the Australian government said it was still considering another move to deport him.

"I am pleased and grateful that the judge overturned my visa cancellation," Djokovic wrote on Twitter , where he posted a photograph of himself on court at the Rod Laver Arena at Melbourne Park. "Despite all that has happened I want to stay and try to compete at the Australian Open." Earlier Judge Anthony Kelly had ruled the federal government's decision last week to revoke the Serbian tennis star's visa amid was "unreasonable" and ordered his release.

A spokesman for Immigration Minister Alex Hawke said he was considering using his broad discretionary powers he is given by Australia's Migration Act to again revoke Djokovic's visa. Such a move could include a three-year ban on re-entering Australia. "The minister is currently considering the matter and the process remains ongoing," the spokesman said.

Judge Kelly said Djokovic had sought and received the required medical exemption from COVID-19 vaccination on the basis that he had contracted the virus last month. He had presented evidence of this before he travelled to Melbourne and when he landed on Wednesday evening. "What more could this man have done?" Kelly said.

Kelly's ruling did not directly address the issue of whether the exemption on the grounds of an infection in the past six months was valid, which the government had disputed.

PUTIN SAYS RUSSIAN TROOPS WILL STAY TO FINISH JOB IN KAZAKHSTAN

President Vladimir Putin of Russia said on Monday that recent unrest in Kazakhstan had been caused by “destructive internal and external forces” and that more than 2,000 troops his country had sent as “peacekeepers” would leave only once their mission was complete. Putin said the troops would remain “for a limited time period. ” But he did not give any deadline for a withdrawal, saying that they would stay as long as President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan “considers it necessary,” raising the possibility they could be in the country indefinitely.

Putin’s comments, made at a meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a body equivalent to Nato that includes six countries from the former Soviet Union, were his first since unrest engulfed Kazakhstan last week. The Russian president said the unrest was indicative of foreign attempts to intervene in a region the Kremlin sees as its sphere of influence, and compared recent events to the protests in Ukraine that led to the ouster of the country’s proRussian president in 2014. Those protests also helped precipitate Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Putin said that the Collective Security Treaty Organization, widely seen as Russian-dominated, would not allow any “colour revolutions,” a term that has been used for the pro-democracy movements that swept many countries of the former Soviet Union.

Tokayev told the same alliance meeting that he had weathered “an attempted coup d’état,” one in which “armed militants” had sought to use protests as a pretext.

THE REST

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DAILY COVID TALLY DROPS SHARPLY IN MUMBAI, BUT IT COULD BE SUNDAY EFFECT

Mumbai on Monday witnessed a sharp dip of 30 per cent in fresh Covid cases as the daily tally in the city fell from 19,474 on Sunday to 13,468. It also registered a decline in the test positivity rate at 23 per cent on Monday as compared to 28.5 per cent on Sunday, indicating initial signs of plateauing. This is the third day in running that the total cases in Mumbai have shown a decline.

The trend was seen across the state as Maharashtra too recorded a substantial drop in cases with only 33,470 fresh cases registered on Monday. The state had registered 44,388 new cases on Sunday. While some experts are hopeful that the low numbers were reflective of a probable plateauing of cases in the city, another section believes that the low numbers are due to the “Sunday effect” when testings are fewer and RT-PCR reports come after 24 hours.

Since January 7, Mumbai has been recording a steady decline in cases. On January 7, the city recorded 20,971 daily cases which dropped to 20,318 on January 8. The next day, it dropped further to 19,474. While on Monday, it dropped exponentially to 13,648 cases by recording a 30 per cent plunge.

The large drop in fresh Covid cases on Monday also corresponds with a drop in testing numbers compared to that of the previous days. On January 7, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) conducted 72,442 tests, recording a 29 per cent Test Positivity Rate (TPR). On January 8, a total of 71,019 tests were conducted with 28.6 per cent TPR. The testing dropped further to 68,249 on January 9 and recorded a 28.5 per cent TPR. On January 10, the testing dropped further by 13 per cent with only 59,242 tests. It recorded a 23 per cent TPR.

Dr Satish Pawar, the Directorate of Health Service, said many people are using antigen kits at home for testing, leading to many cases going unreported.

KERALA GOVERNOR ARIF MOHAMMED KHAN SLAMS V-C FOR DEFYING HIS DIRECTION

Continuing his run-ins with the Pinarayi Vijayan government, Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan on Monday criticised Kerala University vice-chancellor V P Mahadevan Pillai’s reluctance to consider his recommendation for conferring an honorary DLitt on President Ram Nath Kovind, and said that “someone seems to have given him (Pillai) the instructions”.

Pillai’s reluctance to place the Governor’s recommendation before the Syndicate was one of the reasons behind the stand-off between the state government and Khan. Last month, Khan had written to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, stating that he wants to step down as chancellor of state universities due to “continuous political interference” in universities, and “erosion of their autonomy”.

Leader of Opposition in Kerala Assembly V D Satheesan said Khan and the government has insulted the President’s office. “The Governor should have taken stringent action against illegal actions of the government and the university,” he said.

ACTOR SIDDHARTH CALLED OUT FOR SEXIST TWEET AT SAINA NEHWAL

Badminton ace Saina Nehwal on Monday said it was 'not nice' to see actor Siddharth's unsavoury remark after she expressed concerns on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent security breach and he could have used 'better words' to comment on the matter.

Reacting to Modi's security breach during his visit to Punjab, Saina had tweeted, "No nation can claim itself to be safe if the security of its own PM gets compromised. I condemn, in the strongest words possible, the cowardly attack on PM Modi by anrachists."

In response to this, Siddharth had tweeted, "Subtle cock champion of the world…Thank God we have protectors of India (sic)."

The Rang De Basanti actor has been slammed by netizens for his comment on Nehwal. Following this Tweet, several social media users called him out for his sexism. The National Commission for Women has also asked Twitter India to 'immediately' block the actor's account.

Siddharth said that 'nothing disrespectful was intended'. "'COCK & BULL' That's the reference. Reading otherwise is unfair and leading! Nothing disrespectful was intended, said or insinuated. Period," he tweeted.

IN FIRST, US SURGEONS TRANSPLANT PIG HEART INTO HUMAN PATIENT

In a medical first, doctors transplanted a pig heart into a patient in a last-ditch effort to save his life and a Maryland hospital said Monday that he’s doing well three days after the highly experimental surgery.

While it’s too soon to know if the operation really will work, it marks a step in the decades-long quest to one day use animal organs for life-saving transplants. Doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center say the transplant showed that a heart from a genetically modified animal can function in the human body without immediate rejection.

The patient, David Bennett, 57, knew there was no guarantee the experiment would work but he was dying, ineligible for a human heart transplant and had no other option, his son told The Associated Press.

There’s a huge shortage of human organs donated for transplant, driving scientists to try to figure out how to use animal organs instead. Last year, there were just over 3,800 heart transplants in the U.S., a record number, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, which oversees the nation’s transplant system.

VIRAT KOHLI RETURNS AS INDIA HUNT FOR FIRST SERIES WIN IN S AFRICA

After India's dominance in Centurion to South Africa's fightback in Johannesburg, this series is now set for a decider in Cape Town. Despite South Africa's strong record against India at home, they came into this series on the back of two years of turmoil (which started when they last visited India in 2019) and there were predictions of the visitors not only winning a first series in this country but sweeping it 3-0. India still have the opportunity to achieve the former; South African resolve has ensured the latter is off the table.

India will still go into this contest as slight favourites, having stormed through fortresses in Australia, England and most recently, at the Centurion. They couldn't protect their unbeaten record in Johannesburg but may see this as a time for breaking new ground. Newlands (Cape Town) is the place for it though India haven't ever won at this venue.

Having missed the second Test against South Africa in Johannesburg with back spasms, Virat Kohli is set to return for this Test today. He will most likely take the place of Vihari - who batted solidly in both innings in Johannesburg, scoring 60 runs while being dismissed once. Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane may have felt some pressure after low scores in the first innings, but they brought all their skill and experience to a tricky situation in the second innings, both scoring half-centuries while stitching a counterattacking third-wicket stand of 111.

Transitions happen, but they can't be forced. That's Kohli's view, at a time when their three middle-order mainstays, himself included, are all 33, and have all endured prolonged lean patches even as younger contenders such as Hanuma Vihari and Shreyas Iyer knock ominously on the door. "I obviously cannot pinpoint when we will have a talk about transition," Kohli said, when asked whether the team management had had any conversations about a longer-term transition in the middle order. "I think the game itself pans out in a way where transitions happen naturally, so it cannot be forced by individuals, I feel.

"And if you look at the last Test, both Jinks and Pujara, the way they batted in the second innings, that experience is obviously priceless for us, and especially in series like these where you know these guys have done the job in the past and when you are playing overseas, in tough conditions, these guys will always step up with impact performances.

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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. - Maya Angelou

OFF TRACK

Just before the funeral services, the undertaker came up to the very elderly widow and asked, "How old was your husband?"

"98," she replied, "Two years older than me."

"So, you're 96," the undertaker commented.

She responded, "Hardly worth going back home, is it?"