INDIA AND CHINA ABSTAIN FROM UNSC RESOLUTION CONDEMNING RUSSIA

Russia vetoed a draft U.N. Security Council resolution on Friday that would have deplored Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, while China, India and UAE abstained from the vote. The remaining 11 council members voted in favor. The draft resolution is now expected to be taken up by the 193-member U.N. General Assembly.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin called on the Ukrainian military to end resistance and turn on their leaders. Speaking at Friday’s Security Council meeting, Putin claimed that most Ukrainian military units are reluctant to engage to the Russian forces. He said the units offering resistance are mostly volunteer battalions made up of right-wing Ukrainian nationalists. However, he did not offer any evidence to support his claims.

Russia’s defence ministry Friday said its forces had captured the strategic Hostomel aerodrome, just 7 km northwest of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, and landed paratroops in the area. More than 200 people were eliminated from the Ukraine special units in the operation, it added. The ministry claimed the Russian military had blocked access to Kyiv from the west, and separatist forces in east Ukraine had attacked Ukrainian army positions with Russian army support. The Russian military said that it will not strike residential areas of Kyiv.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar late Thursday night had telephonic conversations with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, insisting that dialogue and diplomacy are the best way forward to defuse the Ukraine crisis. As Russian troops reached the gates of Kyiv, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called Jaishankar and shared his “assessment” of the situation.

On Friday, Ambassadors of European countries in India got together in New Delhi and expressed solidarity with their Ukrainian counterpart and strongly condemned Russia’s “unprovoked and unjustified” military attack on Ukraine.

PUTIN CALLS KYIV LEADERSHIP ‘GANG OF DRUG ADDICTS’, URGES UKRAINE ARMY TO OVERTHROW LEADERSHIP

Russian President Vladimir Putin Friday called on the Ukrainian army to overthrow the leadership in Kyiv which he termed a “gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis”. In a televised address Friday, Putin urged the Ukrainian military to “take power” in its hands.

“It seems like it will be easier for us to agree with you than this gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis,” he added, referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky who is Jewish.

The Russian president also reiterated his claim that the Kyiv leadership engaged in “genocide” in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.

“We are fighting with nationalist groups that are directly responsible for the genocide of the Donbas and the bloodshed of peaceful civilians in the two republics.”

Russian forces, meanwhile, continued their offensive on Ukraine, with ‘rocket strikes’ hitting the capital Kyiv, while the US and its allies imposed another round of stiff sanctions on Russia.

Thousands of Ukrainians are fleeing war at home by crossing the borders into countries to the west in search of safety as Russia pounded their capital and other cities with airstrikes for a second day.

INDIAN EVACUATION FLIGHTS SET TO BE SENT TO ROMANIA AND HUNGARY TODAY

A day after the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) sent teams to Ukraine’s western borders, the Centre on Friday focussed its efforts on evacuating Indian nationals via flights from Romania and Hungary.

With Ukraine closing its airspace, the government is making arrangements to send Air India flights on Saturday, from Delhi and Mumbai, to Bucharest in Romania and Budapest in Hungary.

India is seeking to evacuate its nationals through Ukraine’s land borders with Hungary, Poland, Slovak Republic and Romania, from where they will be flown home. “The first batch of evacuees from Ukraine reach Romania via Suceava border crossing. Our team at Suceava will now facilitate travel to Bucharest for their onward journey to India,” MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi tweeted on Friday night.

The MEA said on Thursday that its teams had been sent to the Zahony border post in Hungary, Krakowiec land border in Poland, Vysne Nemecke in Slovak Republic, and Suceava land border in Romania.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has spoken to his counterparts in Ukraine, Russia and all these four neighbouring countries.

CONG OFFICIALLY QUIET, LEADERS DEBATE IF CALLING OUT RUSSIA AN OPTION

A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and appealed for an “immediate cessation of violence”, two strands of thought are emerging in the Congress on what New Delhi’s position should be on the war.

While a section of the party believes the government will have to do a fine balancing act, given India’s historical ties with Russia going back to the Nehruvian era, some leaders argue Moscow’s action should be condemned in no uncertain terms.

Some Congress leaders are of the view that India is caught in a bind and will have to do a delicate tightrope walk, keeping principles on one side and pragmatism and its interests on the other.

Anand Sharma, former Minister of State for External Affairs and head of the party’s foreign affairs department, largely echoed the stance taken by the government.

His party colleague Manish Tewari, however, argued that the government should take a clear position and tell Russia that it is in the wrong. “When friends are in the wrong, it is the responsibility of friends to point that out,” he said.

Former diplomat and Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor has argued that India should condemn Russia’s action, as it violates international law and the UN charter.

The Left parties on Friday condemned Russia's military action against Ukraine, but defended Moscow's right to demand security guarantees amid efforts to induct the country it shares a border with into NATO.

COVID DASHBOARD – INDIA

As of 0800 IST / Feb 26

from mohfw.gov.in ,

New Cases on Friday 11,499

Active Cases 1,21,881 (-12,354)

Total Deaths (Deaths Yesterday) 5,13,481 (127)

Total Vaccination: 177.17 Crores (+28,29,582)

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

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US, EUROPE AGREE TO FREEZE ASSETS OF RUSSIA'S VLADIMIR PUTIN, SERGEY LAVROV

With a military intervention in Ukraine off the table, and countries around the world looking to heap more financial punishment on Moscow, the United States, Britain and European Union said they will move to sanction Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

The EU's unanimous decision, part of a broader sanctions package, indicated that Western powers are moving toward unprecedented measures to try to force Putin to stop the brutal invasion of Russia's neighbour and from unleashing a major war in Europe. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also told NATO leaders during a call Friday that Britain would move to impose sanctions against Putin and Lavrov. The EU said it would move to freeze Putin's assets.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Friday indicated the U.S. sanctions will include a travel ban. President Joe Biden, who had previously said sanctions targeting Putin were under consideration, decided to make the move in the last 24 hours after talks with European leaders.

Psaki said the move is intended send "a clear message about the the strength of the opposition to the actions" by the West against President Putin.

Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said the move would be "a unique step in history toward a nuclear power, a country that has a permanent seat on the Security Council, but also shows ... how united we are." It was unclear what the practical impact on the two men would be and how important their assets in the EU were.

The EU and other Western powers like the United States and the United Kingdom have agreed on a slew of sanctions targeting sectors from Russia's banking sector to its oil refineries and defence industry. And just as Russia was making a pincer movement to choke Ukraine and its capital, Kyiv, Western powers were implementing measures aimed at "asphyxiating Russia's economy," in the words of French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.

In a sign of papal anger, Pope Francis went to the Russian Embassy himself to "express his concern about the war," the Vatican said. It was an extraordinary, hands-on gesture, since usually popes receive ambassadors and heads of state in the Vatican. For Francis, the Vatican head of state, to leave the city state and travel a short distance to the Russian Embassy to the Holy See was a sign of his displeasure.

THE REST

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HIJAB ROW: AFTER 11 DAYS OF MARATHON HEARING, KARNATAKA HIGH COURT RESERVES VERDICT

After 11 days of marathon hearing, the Karnataka High Court on Friday reserved its verdict on petitions filed by some Muslim girls challenging ban on wearing hijab in educational institutions in the state on the ground that it’s an essential practice of Islam.

“Heard. Order reserved,” said a Full Bench led by Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, which heard several senior counsel for the petitioners and Karnataka Advocate General Prabhuling Navadgi, besides some advocates representing teachers and College Development Committees having local MLAs as their members.

The Bench asked the parties to file their written submissions, if any.

CBI ARRESTS FORMER NSE OFFICER SUBRAMANIAN OVER IRREGULARITIES

The CBI has arrested former Group Operating Officer (GOO) of the NSE Anand Subramanian from his Chennai residence late last night as part of its probe into irregularities in offering co-location facilities to stock brokers, said officials.

The officials said, before his arrest the CBI sleuths searched his residence and recovered an e-mail which appeared to have been sent by former MD & CEO Chitra Ramakrishna to the “yogi” in “Himalayas”.

With this, the CBI investigators suspect that Subramanian impersonated the “yogi (Sidhha Purush from Himalayas)”.

Last week, CBI officials questioned Chitra Ramakrishna and her predecessor Ravi Narain in the same case. Ramakrishna appointed Subramanian the chief strategic adviser and promoted him as the GOO of NSE with a huge salary package as per the instructions of a “yogi” dwelling in the Himalayas.

EC HAS SEIZED OVER RS. 1000 CRORE WORTH OF DRUGS AND CASH DURING THESE POLLS

If seizures are anything to go by, drugs have emerged as the biggest voter inducement in the ongoing assembly elections in five states with Punjab leading the way as recoveries made by the Election Commission topped Rs 1,000 crore on Friday, latest numbers released by the poll panel showed.

In a statement, the Election Commission said seizures of unexplained cash and other potential inducements have shot up over three times from Rs 299.8 crore during the 2017 elections.

Of the seizures to the tune of Rs 1,018 crore up to Friday, close to Rs 570 crore or 56% was accounted for by drugs with Punjab (Rs 376 crore) on top, followed by Manipur (Rs 143 crore). In Manipur, over 85% of the seizures were drugs, which was three quarters in Punjab, indicating how the use of banned substances was widespread in these parts of the country. In fact, the Centre had cited their rampant use to extend the jurisdiction of BSF in Punjab.

After drugs, cash seemed to be the preferred voter inducement, accounting for nearly 14% of the pie (Rs 140 crore) with Uttar Pradesh being on top with seizures pegged at 91 crore.

The Election Commission sought to attribute the “stupendous” rise in seizures to “comprehensive and advance planning, meticulous follow-ups and active participation of the enforcement agencies”.

ALL CLASSES TILL 12TH IN MUMBAI GO INTO PRE-COVID FORM

For the first time since the March 2020 lockdown, the BMC has permitted all educational institutions from pre-primary to Class 12 in Mumbai to go fully offline from March 2. Only students with comorbidities and chronic diseases will need parental consent to attend physical schools and colleges.

Currently, schools function in the hybrid mode.

According to BMC’s fresh SOP, masks will be mandatory in the class, but not on playgrounds or during school activities.

Allowing relaxation of Covid protocols amid a significant decline in case positivity rate and active cases across the country, the union home ministry on Friday asked all states and UTs to consider allowing congregations for social, sports, religious, political, entertainment and academic purposes, based on local assessments.

SPELL OUT STAND ON BITCOIN: SC TO GOVERNMENT

The Supreme Court on Friday asked Centre to clearly spell out its stand on the legality of bitcoins in the absence of any regulations dealing with cryptocurrencies in India.

“Is it illegal or not…You have to make your stand clear,” a Bench of Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice Surya Kant told Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati during hearing of a case involving 87,000 bitcoins wherein the accused was not cooperating with the investigation despite multiple summonses.

“We will do that My Lords,” Bhati replied during hearing on a plea by an accused in the GainBitcoin scam — which is said to be to the tune of Rs 20,000 crore. Extending the interim protection from arrest given to the accused, the Bench asked him to cooperate with the probe and posted the matter for hearing after four weeks. It also asked the investigating officer to file a status report showing the cooperation extended by the accused.

LIC IPO: BANKERS BUY TIME TO DECIDE ON VALUATIONS AMID MARKET MAYHEM

The turmoil in markets worldwide has put investment bankers in a dilemma over entering into discussions on the pricing of LIC IPO.

Investment bankers said this might not be a good time to gauge investor response, which is critical to determine the demand for the IPO and decide on the kind of valuations the investors will be comfortable with. This is because most foreign investors will prioritise realigning existing portfolios over fresh investments amid the current geopolitical tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

The government was expecting to raise Rs 60,000-65,000 crore by selling a 5 per cent stake via an offer for sale, at a listing valuation of $172 billion. At this scale, LIC would be the third-largest stock in India by market cap.

SHOULD SIDHU FACE HOMICIDE CHARGE AGAIN? SC AGREES TO HEAR PLEA

Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu could be in more trouble with the Supreme Court on Friday agreeing to hear the plea for expanding the ambit of review petition to examine whether he could be punished for offence of culpable homicide instead of causing hurt for which he was held guilty in 2018 and let off with fine.

Although the apex court had earlier said that the review petition against its order in Sidhu’s case would be confined only on the issue whether the quantum of sentence be increased or not, it, however, agreed to hear an application seeking his conviction under IPC Section 299 in a 32-year-old road rage case.

The SC said that it had to deal with the issue of expanding the ambit of the review petition as application has been filed and asked the politician to file response in two weeks. Sidharth Luthra, appearing for the petitioner, contended that the 2018 verdict was erroneous.

LEANDER PAES HELD GUILTY OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AGAINST RHEA PILLAI

A metropolitan magistrate court here has held in its order in a domestic violence case filed by model-actor Rhea Pillai against her former partner, tennis player Leander Paes, that he committed various acts of domestic violence against her.

The court also directed Paes to pay a monthly rent of Rs 50,000 apart from a monthly maintenance of Rs 1 lakh to Pillai if the latter chose to leave their shared residence.

Pillai had approached the court in 2014 seeking relief and protection under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, saying she was in a live-in relationship, akin to marriage, with Paes for eight years.

SC DISMISSES PLEA FOR A STAY ON 'GANGUBAI KATHIAWADI'

Bollywood movie Gangubai Kathiawadi “prima facie, is an artistic expression within the parameters of law”, the Supreme Court has said while dismissing the plea seeking stay on its release.

The Alia Bhatt-starrer, produced by Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Bhansali Production Private Ltd, released in theatres on Friday.

A Bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and J K Maheswari dismissed the plea of Babuji Rawji Shah, who claims to be the adopted son of Gangubai, on whose life the film is purportedly based, against the Bombay High Court’s order declining him various reliefs such as interim stay on the release of the movie.

The top court, which dismissed the petition on Thursday, said that there are no materials disclosed or pleadings to show, even prima facie, that the petitioner was a family member or a near relative of Gangubai.

IOC URGES SPORTS BODIES TO CANCEL EVENTS IN RUSSIA, BELARUS

The International Olympic Committee urged sports bodies Friday to cancel or move all events they plan to hold in Russia and Belarus, and stop using the countries’ flags and national anthems.

The request from the Olympic body came after UEFA moved the Champions League final from St. Petersburg to suburban Paris, and after the governing body of skiing and Formula One pulled upcoming races from Russia.

Russia breached the Olympic Truce by invading Ukraine on Thursday, only four days after the closing ceremony of the Winter Games in Beijing. It was the third Russian breach of the Olympic Truce in the past 14 years. Russia invaded Georgia during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and annexed Crimea shortly after the end of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

The IOC said governing bodies should take the breach of the Olympic Truce by the Russian and Belarussian governments into account and give the safety and security of the athletes absolute priority.

INDICATORS

Sensex 55,858 (+1329), Nifty 16,658 (+410), Trading Value NSE (Rs.crores) 62,483.37

Nasdaq 13,695 (+221) Dow 34,059 (+835), S&P 4,384 (+96)

US$-Rs. 75.12 GBP-Rs. 100.66, Euro-Rs. 84.31, UAE Dhm-Rs.20.44, Can$-Rs. 58.83, Aus$- Rs. 54.12

GBP 0.74 /US$, Euro 0.89 /US$, Jap.Yen 115.44 /US$, Aus$ 1.38 /US$, Sing 1.35 /US$, Bang Taka 84.24 /US$, Can$ 1.27 /US$, Mal Ring 4.19 /US$,

Pak Re 175.70 /US$, Phil Peso 51.27 /US$, Russian Rouble 83.75 /US$, NZ$ 1.48 /US$, Thai Baht 32.46 /US$, Ukraine Hryvnia 29.71 /US$

Bitcoin - USD 39,685

Dollar Index 96.53 Brent Crude 97.93 BDI 2,076

Gold world Spot Price USD/aoz 1,889 India (Rs. per gm 24k/22k) 5,111 / 4,685, Silver (Rs. Per KG) 70,000

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

When I was young, I used to admire intelligent people; as I grow older, I admire kind people. - Abraham Joshua Heschel

OFF TRACK

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