ADVANCED VERSION OF BRAHMOS MISSILE TEST-FIRED

India on Tuesday successfully test-fired a naval variant of the advanced supersonic BrahMos cruise missile from a stealth guided-missile destroyer of the Indian Navy.

“Advanced sea to sea variant of BrahMos Supersonic Cruise missile was tested from INS Visakhapatnam today. Missile hit the designated target ship precisely,” the DRDO tweeted.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said the successful launch of the missile reconfirmed the robustness of the Indian Navy’s “mission readiness”.

BrahMos Aerospace, an India-Russian joint venture, produces the supersonic cruise missile that can be launched from submarines, ships, aircraft, or from land platforms. BrahMos missile flies at a speed of 2.8 Mach or almost three times the speed of sound.

DRDO yesterday also successfully flight tested the Man-Portable Anti-Tank Guided Missile (MPATGM). The indigenously developed MPATGM is a low weight, “fire and forget” missile.

“The Defence Research and Development Organisation successfully flight tested the final deliverable configuration of Man-Portable Anti-Tank Guided Missile (MPATGM) on January 11,” the defence ministry said. “The missile impacted the designated target and destroyed it. The final impact event was captured on camera and the test has validated the minimum range successfully,” it said.

ONE YEAR SUSPENSION OF MLAs FROM ASSEMBLY ‘WORSE THAN EXPULSION’: SC

Terming the suspension of 12 BJP MLAs from Maharashtra Legislative Assembly for a year as “worse than expulsion”, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said it created a constitutional void as the constituencies concerned remained unrepresented in the House. “We will accept the arguments of Mr (Siddharth) Bhatnagar that this decision is worse than expulsion. This suspension for one year is worse than expulsion. The consequences are so dreadful,” a Bench led by Justice A M Khanwilkar said, endorsing the argument of the counsel representing some of the petitioners.

Noting that there was a statutory obligation to fill in a seat within six months, the Bench said, “You can’t create a constitutional void…a hiatus situation for the constituency.” The one-year suspension was not about punishing the member, but the constituency as a whole, it noted.

The House has power to suspend a member but not for a period of beyond 59 days, the top court said while hearing petitions filed by 12 BJP MLAs against their one-year suspension from the assembly for allegedly misbehaving with the presiding officer.

Twelve BJP MLAs were suspended from the Assembly for a year after the Maharashtra Government accused them of misbehaving with Presiding Officer Bhaskar Jadhav in the Speaker’s chamber on the first day of the monsoon session on July 5 last year.

Referring to Article 190 (4) of the Constitution, it said if for a period of 60 days, a member of a House, without its permission, was absent from all meeting, the House may declare his or her seat vacant. “In the facts of the present case, we will say enough is enough in two pages. We don’t have to elaborate much about this case,” it said.

The Bench posted the matter for further hearing on January 18 after Maharashtra counsel said he would get back to the court.

VODAFONE IDEA CONVERTS AGR DUES INTO EQUITY, GOVT TO OWN 35.8%

Vodafone Idea on Tuesday informed the exchanges it would be opting for the government’s offer of paying interest for the 4 years of deferment on the spectrum instalments and adjusted gross revenue dues by way of conversion into equity of the net present value of such interest amount. It also said that on conversion of the said interest to equity, the government would own 35.8 per cent of the total outstanding shares of the company.

In the telecom reforms approved by the Union Cabinet in September last year, one of the major decisions that was aimed at providing immediate relief to debt-laden companies such as Vi, was the decision to provide a four-year moratorium on payment of all dues arising due to the Supreme Court’s September 1, 2020, judgment on adjusted gross revenue (AGR).

This meant that telecom companies could opt to pay the principal, the interest, and all other penalties, as decided by the top court, after four years, instead of paying it then. The government had also given all the telcos a one-time opportunity to convert the interest on this deferred payment into equity at the end of the four year period.

By another resolution, the current promoters of the company have also agreed to amend the shareholder agreement and have brought down the minimum qualifying shareholding threshold from 21 per cent to 13 per cent. This means that both Vodafone Group and Aditya Birla Group will continue to hold rights to make important decisions about the company, such as appointment of directors and other key officials, among others. The government will continue to remain the largest shareholder without the ability to exercise executive rights.

COVID DASHBOARD – INDIA

As of 0800 IST /Jan 12

from mohfw.gov.in ,

New Cases on Tuesday 1,94,720

Active Cases 9,55,319 (1,33,873)

Total Deaths (Deaths Yesterday) 4,84,655 (165)

Total Vaccination: 153.80 Crores (+85,26,240)

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

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TOO SOON TO TREAT COVID LIKE FLU, MAY NEED TO UPDATE VAX: WHO

The Omicronvariant is on track to infect more than half of Europeans, but it should not yet be seen as a flulike endemic illness, the WHO said on Tuesday. Meanwhile, a technical body of the UN health agency said on Tuesday that current Covid-19 vaccines may need to be reworked to ensure they are effective against Omicron and future variants.

Europe saw more than 7 million newly-reported cases in the first week of 2022, more than doubling over a two-week period, WHO’s Europe director Hans Kluge told a news briefing. “At this rate, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation forecasts that more than 50% of the population in the region will be infected with Omicron in the next 6-8 weeks,” Kluge said, referring to a research centre at the University of Washington.

On Monday, Spain’s PM Pedro Sanchez said it may be time to change how it tracks Covid-19’s evolution to instead use a method similar to flu, because its lethality has fallen. That would imply treating the virus as an endemic illness, rather than a pandemic, without recording every case and without testing all people presenting symptoms.

But that is “a way off ”, WHO’s senior emergency officer for Europe, Catherine Smallwood, said at the briefing, adding endemicity requires a stable and predictable transmission.

US WORRIED OVER CHINA BULLYING INDIA, OTHER NEIGHBOURS: WHITE HOUSE

The United States is concerned by China's attempt to 'intimidate' its neighbours, including India, as Washington believes that Beijing's behaviour in the region and around the world could be 'destabilising', the White House has said, asserting that America will continue to stand with its partners.

The remarks of White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki came ahead of the 14th round of military-level talks between India and China on the 20-month row in eastern Ladakh.

Asked about China's aggressive behaviour on its border with India and if the topic came during America's talks with China or Washington sending any message to Beijing on this, Psaki, during her daily news conference on Monday, said that the US continues to closely monitor the situation along the India-China border.

"We continue to support dialogue and peaceful resolution of these border disputes," she said. "We've been pretty clear how we view Beijing's behaviour in the region and around the world. We believe it can be destabilising. And we're concerned by the People's Republic of China's attempt to intimidate its neighbours. "We'll continue to stand with our partners on that," Psaki asserted.

THE REST

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CHANNI NUDGES CONGRESS TO NAME CANDIDATE FOR CM, WITH A HINT: HE IS QUITE POPULAR

Signalling more trouble for the Congress ahead of the elections in Punjab, where the party faces infighting, Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi said on Tuesday that the party “should announce” its chief ministerial candidate. “Whenever the party has not announced the CM candidate, it has lost,” he said.

“When the party declared its CM candidate during the 2017 elections, it won. Before that, when it did not declare the candidate, it lost. Whenever the party has not announced the CM candidate, it has lost. So the party should announce it,” he said.

He went to say that he was a popular leader and people waved at him and broke barricades to meet him. Channi, however, refused to comment when asked who should be the CM candidate. He said the party would decide that.

Channi’s statement comes at a time when the Congress has made it clear that it will not declare its CM candidate ahead of the Assembly elections.

Till a few days ago, Punjab PCC chief Navjot Singh Sidhu was also pushing the party high command to announce the CM candidate. Sidhu has indicated that he should be declared the CM candidate, saying he has an agenda for Punjab and a roadmap to implement it. He has also said that the AAP lost the 2017 elections because it did not have a CM candidate.

A PTI report also quoted Sidhu as saying that the people of Punjab would choose the CM, not the party high command. Responding to a question, he was quoted as saying: “Who told you that the high command will make the CM? … People of Punjab will elect MLAs and people of Punjab too will make the CM.”

BJP JOLTED ON UP POLL EVE: MINISTER SWAMI PRASAD MAURYA QUITS, JOINS SP

In a severe pre-election setback to the ruling BJP in Uttar Pradesh, state minister and senior leader Swami Prasad Maurya resigned from the cabinet and joined the Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party.

In a Twitter post, Maurya, a tall OBC leader representing the numerically dominant Kushwahas, Maurya said on Tuesday that he tried his best to work for the welfare of people in UP despite ideological differences with the BJP. “But I am now resigning from the UP cabinet in the wake of severe discrimination and neglect of the poor, farmers, marginalised, unemployed in the state,” Maurya said in his resignation letter to Governor Anandi Ben Patel.

Maurya’s entry will help SP reach out to Kushwahas, a dominant OBC caste in the state. SP does not have any tall Kushwaha leader in its fold.

Maurya was earlier been the leader of opposition in the state assembly as a BSP MLA. He had quit for BJP ahead of the 2017 state polls - He was the Minister of Labour, Employment, and Coordination in Yogi govt.

Soon after Maurya’s resignation yesterday, three more MLAs, Roshan Lal Verma (Shahjahanpur), Brijesh Prajapati (Tindwari) and Bhagwati Sagar (Bilhaur), also tendered their resignations. 

NEW COVID-19 CASES DROP IN MUMBAI FOR FOURTH DAY

Mumbai reported 11,647 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, a drop of 2,001 from the previous day and fourth straight day of downward trend, taking the tally to 9,39,867, while two more patients succumbed to the infection, the BMC said..

This was the fourth day in a row when the city has witnessed a dip in daily COVID-19 infections.

The metropolis has reported 2,001 fewer cases than Monday despite 2,855 more COVID-19 tests carried out in the last 24 hours.

A day before, Mumbai had reported 13,648 COVID-19 cases on the back of 59,342 tests, and also five fatalities.

The coronavirus positivity rate in the financial capital also dipped to 18.75 per cent from over 23 per cent a day ago.

Mumbai reported its highest-ever 20,971 new cases on January 7 (Friday) and since then the number of daily infections has been declining. Mumbai had reported 20,318 on Saturday last, 19,474 on Sunday and 13,648 on Monday.

The highest daily case count during the second wave was 11,163, recorded on April 4, 2021.

Out of the 11,647 new cases, 83 per cent cases, or 9,667, are asymptomatic, and only 851 patients have been admitted to hospitals, while just 76 are on oxygen support, said the BMC bulletin.

‘HAVE 50 NATIONS GOT IT WRONG?’ DELHI HC ASKS AS IT LOOKS INTO IPC EXCEPTION FOR MARITAL RAPE

The Delhi High Court Tuesday said “jurisdiction after jurisdiction” in the world has held that “merely because you are married, it is not enough to say [rape] is not an offence”. Hearing a batch of petitions challenging the exception for marital rape in the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Justice Rajiv Shakdher asked, “Have 50 countries got it wrong?”

The petitions, filed by two NGOs, RIT Foundation and All India Democratic Women’s Association, and two individuals, have asked the court to read down the exception to marital rape in Indian criminal law. A 2017 case, in which a 27-year-old woman alleged that she was raped by her husband, has also been tagged with the petitions.

Section 375 of the IPC defines rape and the concept of consent but also says that these conditions do not apply in the case of married couples. “Sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is not rape,” the exception reads.

In a 2017 judgment, the Supreme Court wrote down this exception and changed the age of consent to 18 for a married woman. However, that case dealt exclusively with cases of child marriage, and not with the wider issue of marital rape.

The current petitions before the division bench of Justice Rajiv Shakdher and Justice C. Hari Shankar plead that the marital rape exception violates several rights enshrined within the Constitution, including the right to equality before the law (Article 14) and the right to life and personal liberty (Article 21).

Representing the State of Delhi in this tagged matter, advocate Nandita Rao argued vehemently that the exception does indeed withstand constitutional scrutiny. According to her, the exception does not violate Article 21 since the woman is free to file a complaint under other provisions of the law, such as Section 326 (grievous hurt), Section 377 (unnatural sexual offences), and Section 498A (cruelty).

Justice Shakdher, however, dismissed Rao’s submissions and said the question before the court was not whether the woman had other legal avenues available her, but whether the exception violated constitutional guarantees. “I find it difficult to appreciate that the offence affects an unmarried woman’s dignity but does not affect a married woman’s dignity,” Shakdher noted, adding that an unmarried woman above the age of 18 is not directed to “go and file under other sections” when she alleges rape.

JAWED HABIB APPEARS BEFORE NCW, APOLOGISES FOR SPITTING ON WOMAN'S HEAD

Popular hairstylist Jawed Habib appeared before the National Commission for Women on Tuesday and submitted a written apology for spitting on a woman's head while styling her hair, stating he didn't intend to hurt or disrespect anyone.

The NCW, in a tweet, said it has directed him to make sure that such a thing is not repeated. "NCW had earlier written to Director General of Police, Uttar Pradesh, to take action in the matter," the women's body tweeted.

In a video, Habib was purportedly seen spitting on the woman's hair while she sits with her back to him and is heard saying "if there is a scarcity of water, then use saliva".

People can be heard laughing and applauding in the video, which has gone viral infuriating netizens. The incident took place in Muzzafarnagar.

DEAR SAINA...: ACTOR SIDDHARTH ISSUES APOLOGY OVER 'RUDE JOKE'

Actor Siddharth on Tuesday issued a public apology after facing heat for his "rude joke" that he wrote in response to a tweet by badminton player Saina Nehwal.

In an apology letter posted on Twitter, Siddharth wrote, "Dear Saina, I want to apologise to you for my rude joke that I wrote as a response to a tweet of yours a few days ago. I may disagree with you on many things, but even my disappointment or anger when I read your tweet, cannot justify my tone and words. I know I have more grace in me than that. As for the jokeif a joke needs to be explained, then it wasn't a very good joke to begin with. Sorry about a joke that didn't land."

"I, however, must insist my word play and humour had none of the malicious intent that so many people from all quarters have attributed to it. I am a staunch feminist ally and I assure there was no gender implied in my tweet and certainly no intent to attack you as a woman. I hope we can put this behind us and that you will accept my letter. You will always be my Champion. Honestly, Siddharth," it added.

CAPE TOWN TEST, DAY 1: INDIA CHOOSE TO BAT AND FOLD UP FOR 223

India skipper Virat Kohli was a picture of patience and perseverance while scoring a well-crafted 79, but South Africa gained the upper hand by bowling out the visitors for an underwhelming 223 on Day 1 of the series-deciding third and final Test, in Cape Town, on Tuesday.

At 141 for 4 at tea, India looked good for a 250-plus first innings score before losing six wickets for 82 runs in the final session.

Kohli (79 off 201 balls), back to lead the side after missing the second Test due to back spasm, worked extremely hard for his first half-century of the series – his was the ninth wicket to fall.

Cheteshwar Pujara (43) was the other batter who came with up a substantial contribution.

Lead South Africa pacer Kagiso Rabada, playing his 50th Test, was the standout bowler of the day and ended up with four wickets for 73 runs from 22 overs. Tall left-arm pacer Marco Jansen picked up three wickets.

India got the important wicket of South African skipper Dean Elgar (3) towards close of play, Jasprit Bumrah having him caught at first slip. At stumps, the hosts were 17 for 1 off eight overs.

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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop. – Confucius

OFF TRACK

Harry was finally a groom and was very excited about his upcoming marriage.

He was on his way out of the office when his boss came over to him with an outstretched hand, "Congratulations Harry! I just wanted to tell you I've been married for twenty-two years, and I am sure that you will always remember this day with the fondest of memories, as the happiest day of your life."

"But sir", said Harry, a little bit confused, "I'm not getting married until tomorrow!"

"Yeah, I know," said his boss.