PM IN UZBEKISTAN FOR SCO MEET, BILATERALS LINED UP WITH RUSSIAN, IRANIAN PRESIDENTS

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold bilaterals with the Russian, Iranian and Uzbek Presidents, besides attending the summit meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) on Friday during a compact 24-hour visit to Samarkand.

PM Modi reached Samarkand in Uzbekistan late Thursday evening, being perhaps the only SCO leader to skip the ceremonials that included a boat ride through a bedecked city and a gala dinner. On arrival, he was received by Uzbekistan PM Abdulla Aripov.

India expects the discussions to cover topical regional and international issues, the regional security situation, strengthening of connectivity and trade enhancement, said Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra at the pre-departure meeting. But an organisation whose several participants are either in conflict situation or have serious border disagreements, of interest will be the bilaterals, especially if PM Modi will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping or Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif, who has arrived in Samarkand along with his Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. Russian and Iranian media have confirmed that Vladimir Putin and Ebrahim Raisi have meetings lined up with PM Modi in the short window on Thursday.

Kwatra said the centricity of Central Asian countries is an important pillar of the SCO. “India’s regional interests in the SCO are associated with cooperation with the member countries, cooperation with the five countries of Central Asia within those member countries. We believe that it is not central to any one country but to the region,” he observed.

India will also be the only country to stay away from endorsing the reference to China’s Belt and Road Initiative which is expected to be mentioned in the SCO’s Samarkand Declaration.

BHARAT JODO YATRA STARTED TO BREAK GOVT'S SILENCE ON INFLATION: CONGRESS

The Congress on Thursday targeted the Centre over the wholesale price-based inflation remaining in double digits for 17 months, saying the Bharat Jodo Yatra had been started to break the government's silence on inflation.

The wholesale price-based inflation eased to an 11-month low of 12.41 per cent in August, on softening in prices of manufactured and fuel products, even as food items remained expensive.

"Why is the Modi government silent on back-breaking inflation?" Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said in a tweet in Hindi.

"Bharat Jodo Yatra has been started to break this silence," he said and shared a media report on the wholesale price-based inflation being in double digits for 17 months.

After traversing 150 kilometres since it commenced on September 7 from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu, the Congress' Bharat Jodo Yatra has taken a rest day on Thursday in Kollam district of Kerala before resuming the march on September 16.

GN AZAD CALLS FOR AN END GUN CULTURE IN KASHMIR

Ghulam Nabi Azad, who held a series of public meetings in Jammu and Kashmir before the launch of his party today, made an appeal to terrorists asking them to give up arms as it only brings destruction and miseries to people.

A terrorist propaganda arm has issued death threat against Mr Azad and termed him a traitor who is acting on the behest of BJP.

"My request to those who have picked up the gun, mind you, this gun is not a solution. Gun only brings destruction and miseries," said Mr Azad. “I don't want more bloodshed and more dead bodies of young people. A defeatist country (he was referring to Pakistan) that couldn't set its own house in order is hell bent on causing destruction of our state and country.”

Mr Azad is repeatedly telling his supporters that it is not possible to restore Article 370 that was revoked by the central government in August 2019.

"I have two ways to win elections and become a big leader. One is to tell you that Kashmir will get freedom. No, it can't get. Did you get it in last 75 years?" asked Mr Azad.

"I can promise autonomy; many elections have been fought on it. I can also talk about self-rule, some elections have also been fought on this slogan. These are tried and tested slogans. Should I raise such slogans?" he said.

Regional parties have opposed Mr Azad's remarks on Article 370. PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti has accused him of snatching hope from the people.

JHARKHAND CM URGES GOVERNOR TO CLEAR AIR ON EC OPINION

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Thursday said he called on Governor Ramesh Bais and urged him to clear the confusion prevailing in the state for the last three weeks over his continuation as an MLA in an office of profit case.

The opposition BJP was using this “atmosphere of uncertainty” to destabilise a democratically elected government by trying to poach MLAs, Soren claimed.

“Provide a copy of the decision of the Election Commission and provide an opportunity for reasonable hearing at the earliest so that the atmosphere of uncertainty, which is dangerous for healthy democracy, can be removed soon,” Soren said in a letter that he handed over to the Governor.

Following a petition by the BJP seeking Soren’s disqualification from the Assembly in an office of profit case, the EC had sent its decision to the state Governor on August 25, sparking a political crisis in the state. Though the EC’s decision has not yet been made official, there is a buzz that the poll panel has recommended the chief minister’s disqualification as an MLA.

COVID DASHBOARD – INDIA

As of 0800 IST / Sep 15

from mohfw.gov.in ,

New Cases on Wednesday 6,402

Active Cases 43,802 (+640)

Total Deaths (Deaths Yesterday) 5,28,250 (14)

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

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XI MEETS PUTIN, RAISES CONCERNS OVER WAR IN UKRAINE

In what is seen as the first sign of China's exasperation over Russia's Ukraine war, Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday raised 'questions and concerns' over the conflict in his meeting in Samarkand with Russian President Vladimir Putin who thanked Beijing for its 'balanced position' on the crisis.

This is perhaps for the first time in over six months of Russia's Ukraine war, China, which remained a steadfast ally of Moscow and declined to condemn the invasion, aired its concerns over Putin's move.

"We highly value the balanced position of our Chinese friends when it comes to the Ukraine crisis," Putin said in his opening remarks at the meeting. "We understand your questions and concerns about this. During today's meeting, we will of course explain our position," he was quoted as saying.

Putin said the Russian-Chinese international cooperation can be considered a paragon. "The foreign policy tandem of Moscow and Beijing plays a key role in ensuring global and regional stability," he was quoted as saying by Russia's state-owned Tass news agency.

EVEN FRIENDLY COUNTRIES NOW LOOK AT PAK AS BEGGARS: SHARIF

PM Shehbaz Sharif has presented a bleak picture of Pakistan’s dwindling economy, regretting that even friendly countries had started looking at the country as one that was always begging for money. “Today, when we go to any friendly country or make a phone call, they think that we have come (to them) to beg for money,” Dawn news quoted the PM as saying in an address on Wednesday. Sharif said that even small economies have surpassed Pakistan, “and we have been wandering for the past 75 years carrying a begging bowl”.

THE REST

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KARNATAKA LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL PASSES ANTI-CONVERSION BILL

The Karnataka Legislative Council Thursday passed the contentious anti-conversion Bill tabled by the state’s BJP government amid objections by the Congress and JD(S).

The Karnataka Right to Freedom of Religion Bill had been cleared by the Assembly on December 23, 2021 but was not introduced in the Upper House as the BJP lacked a clear majority at the time.

On Thursday, the Bill was introduced during the Monsoon Session with the BJP now enjoying a clear majority of 41 members in the 75-member Council. The Congress has 26 members and the JD(S) has eight.

“If there has to be conversions then let it be as per a law and that is the intention behind the Bill. There is no intention to take away anybody’s right or violate Article 25 of the Constitution [which guarantees the right to practice and propagate religion],” Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said. “We want to maintain law and order and prevent a kind of a religious war.”

The Leader of the Opposition in the Council, B K Hariprasad of the Congress, said people tend to convert to escape oppression and that the Freedom of Religion is an integral part of the Constitution. “Without conversions the Lingayat and Veerashaiva faith could not have emerged in the 12th century,” Hariprasad said.

The Bill will now be taken up again today by the Assembly for final legislation.

CBI MUST ARREST ME WITHIN 4 DAYS IF ‘STING’ SHARED BY BJP HAS ANY TRUTH: SISODIA

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Thursday asked the BJP to share the purported sting featuring an accused in the excise policy case with the CBI and dared the probe agency to arrest him if the allegations are true.

He said if the CBI does not arrest him within four days, it will be accepted that the purported sting video is “yet another lie” and part of the conspiracy “hatched at the offices of the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi” to topple the Arvind Kejriwal-led government in Delhi.

Sidodia also demanded that the Prime Minister extend an apology accepting that it was wrong for his office to indulge in hatching such conspiracies if the CBI fails to arrest him till Monday based on the allegations made in the “so-called sting”.

The BJP showed the sting at a press conference in which a person linked to liquor trade is claiming that the Kejriwal government deliberately kept smaller players out of its “tailor-made” excise policy, now scrapped, to help a few persons monopolise the market. Kejriwal has no moral right to continue as chief minister, the party said.

6 HELD FOR DALIT SISTERS' RAPE, MURDER IN LAKHIMPUR KHERI

Six men were arrested on Thursday in connection with the alleged rape and murder of two teenage Dalit sisters who were found hanging from a tree in sugarcane field in Lakhimpur Kheri, police said.

Police sources said the post-mortem report revealed that the girls, aged 15 and 17, were raped and then strangled. The bodies were found hanging about a kilometre away from their home on Wednesday.

The Opposition has slammed the state's BJP-led government over law and order, with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday saying, 'Women's safety cannot be expected from those facilitating the release of rapists and welcoming them.' The former Congress chief was apparently referring to the release of 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gangrape after the BJP-led Gujarat government allowed it under its remission policy.

Lakhimpur Kheri Superintendent of Police (SP) Sanjiv Suman told reporters that according to the preliminary probe the girls had left their home on Wednesday afternoon with two of the accused, Junaid and Sohail. "Junaid and Sohail have confessed to strangling the girls after raping them," Suman said. He said both were in a relationship with the two sisters, who insisted on marriage, after which they were strangled.

PROHIBITION A COMPLETE FAILURE, HAVE ASKED NITISH KUMAR TO REVIEW IT: PRASHANT KISHOR

Election strategist-turned-activist Prashant Kishor on Thursday claimed to have told Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar that the state’s much-touted liquor prohibition drive has been a “complete failure”, and in need of a “review”.

“I am amused to read reports that I met the CM, secretly, in the thick of night. Our meeting took place on Tuesday, around 4.30 pm. Our common friend Pavan Varma had arranged the meeting,” he said, a day after Kumar acknowledged having met the IPAC founder.

Kishor said that agencies responsible for investigation and prosecution are now busy enforcing the liquor ban, which has taken a toll on law and order.

“Prohibition has been a complete failure, existing only on paper because of rampant corruption. Women, in whose name the drastic measure was taken, are the worst sufferers as they have to do the leg work when their menfolk end up behind bars for flouting the law,” said the former JD(U) vice-president. “I told this to the CM as well, while sharing my experiences of the last few months that I have spent touring Bihar. I said the measure must be reviewed (‘punarvichaar’) without being treated as a matter of ‘aham’ (ego),” Kishor said.

SC SAYS LIFE CONVICTS WHO HAVE COMPLETED 10 YEARS OF JAIL TERM SHOULD BE RELEASED ON BAIL

The Supreme Court Thursday said that convicts who have completed 10 years of their life sentence and whose appeals would not be heard in the near future by the High Court should be enlarged on bail unless there exist cogent reasons to deny the relief.

The top court said it needs to keep the objective of decongesting the jails in mind in the case of convicts, whose appeals have been pending for years against conviction and are not likely to be heard in the near future by the high courts due to pendency of cases.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Abhay S Oka was hearing a batch of pleas of convicts sentenced to life terms seeking bail on the ground that their appeals are pending for years before different high courts and are not likely to be heard in near future due to huge pendency of cases clogging the judicial system.

The bench said its endeavour is two-fold—first, convicts having undergone more than 10 years imprisonment unless there exist cogent reasons to deny them the relief, they should be enlarged on bail, secondly, identification of cases where convicts have completed 14 years of custody, in which event, a case can be referred to the government for considering premature release within a fixed time period irrespective of pendency of their appeals.

UKRAINE-RETURNED STUDENTS CAN'T BE ACCOMMODATED IN INDIAN MEDICAL COLLEGES: CENTRE TELLS SC

The Centre on Thursday told the Supreme Court that Indian medical students forced to return from Ukraine due to the Russia-Ukraine war can’t be given admission to Indian medical colleges in the absence of any provision in the National Medical Commission Act allowing such accommodation.

Allowing such relaxation will hamper the standards of medical education in India, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said in an affidavit filed in the top court.

The affidavit has been filed in response to petitions filed by Indian medical students evacuated from Ukraine seeking permission to continue their further studies in India.

Maintaining that the petitioner students went to foreign countries due to poor NEET ranking and affordability, the Centre said allowing poor merit students in premier medical colleges in India can lead to further litigation.

EIGHT CHEETAHS ON THEIR WAY FROM NAMIBIA TO INDIA

A specially customised B747 jumbo jet has arrived in the Namibian capital of Windhoek to bring eight cheetahs to India’s Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh where they will be re-introduced after the wild cats faced extinction in the 1950s.

Eight cheetahs, including five female and three male, will be brought to Jaipur in Rajasthan on September 17 in the cargo aircraft as part of an inter-continental translocation project. They will then be flown from Jaipur to their new home—Kuno National Park in the Sheopur district of Madhya Pradesh—in helicopters.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will release these cheetahs into the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh on his birthday on September 17.

Starting in the 1970s, the efforts of the Indian government to re-establish the species in its historical ranges in the country led to the signing of a pact with Namibia, which donated the first eight individuals to launch the Cheetah reintroduction programme on July 20 this year.

NEW MOBILE BANKING VIRUS PROWLING IN INDIAN CYBERSPACE

A new mobile banking 'Trojan' virus -- SOVA -- which can stealthily encrypt an Android phone for ransom and is hard to uninstall is targeting Indian customers, the country's federal cyber security agency said in its latest advisory.

The virus has upgraded to its fifth version after it was first detected in the Indian cyberspace in July, it said.

"It has been reported to CERT-In that Indian banking customers are being targeted by a new type of mobile banking malware campaign using SOVA Android Trojan. The first version of this malware appeared for sale in underground markets in September 2021 with the ability to harvest user names and passwords via key logging, stealing cookies and adding false overlays to a range of apps," the advisory said.

The latest version of this malware, according to the advisory, hides itself within fake Android applications that show up with the logo of a few famous legitimate apps to deceive users into installing them. "This malware captures the credentials when users log into their net banking apps and access bank accounts," the advisory said.

END OF AN ERA: ROGER FEDERER ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT

Swiss tennis great Roger Federer announced his retirement from the sport on Thursday, saying next week's Laver Cup will be his final ATP tournament.

"As many of you know, the past three years have presented me with challenges in the form of injuries and surgeries. I've worked hard to return to full competitive form. But I also know my body's capacities and limits, and its message to me lately has been dear. I am 41 years old," Federer announced on his social media handles.

"I have played more than 1,500 matches over 24 years. Tennis has treated me more generously than I ever would have dreamt, and now I must recognize when it is time to end my competitive career.

Federer, who dominated men's tennis after winning his first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon in 2003, has been troubled by injuries in recent years.

Federer won a record eight Wimbledon titles, claimed five US Open titles, six Australian crowns and a single French Open achieved in 2009 to complete his career Slam.

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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Wise sayings often fall on barren ground; but a kind word is never thrown away. - Sir Arthur Helps

OFF TRACK

Ques: Why does it take more than a million sperms to Fertilize one Egg?

Ans:

1) Female Ego...Rejection without Reason!

2) Male Ego... Won't Ask For Directions!