INDIA TO SET UP GLOBAL SOUTH CENTER OF EXCELLENCE, SAYS PM MODI

underlining that India’s approach in its development partnerships has been “consultative, outcome oriented, demand driven, people-centric, and respectful of the sovereignty of partner countries”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday announced a Global South Center of Excellence, a Global South Science & Technology initiative, a project to provide essential medical supplies and Global South Scholarships for students in developing countries.

The slew of announcements came at the virtual summit on Voice of Global South, which was hosted by India.

Announcing that India will establish a Global South Center of Excellence, he said this institution will undertake research on development solutions or best-practices of any of these countries, which can be scaled and implemented in other members of the Global South.

Stressing that India has made great strides in areas like space technology and nuclear energy, he said, “We will launch a Global South Science & Technology initiative to share our expertise with other developing nations.”

“During the Covid pandemic, India’s Vaccine Maitri initiative supplied made-in-India vaccines to over a 100 nations. I would now like to announce a new Aarogya Maitri project under which India will provide essential medical supplies to any developing country affected by natural disasters or humanitarian crisis,” he said.

Over the past two days, this summit has seen the participation of more than 120 developing countries, the largest-ever virtual gathering of the Global South, the Prime Minister said.

SEEING INFRASTRUCTURE THAT WAS UNIMAGINABLE YEARS AGO: MODI

Prime minister Narendra Modi Friday flagged off the “world’s longest river cruise”, from Varanasi in UP to Dibrugarh in Assam via Bangladesh, saying that the country “is witnessing a level of infrastructure which was unimaginable a few years ago”. He also inaugurated the Tent City in Varanasi and laid foundation stones for schemes worth more than Rs 1,000 crore.

The 51-day, 3,200-km cruise on MV Ganga Vilas was flagged off via video conference by Modi who linked the initiative to a “detailed action plan for developing waterways in big rivers of the country”.

Speaking on the occasion, Modi said, “This decade of the 21st century is a decade of infrastructure transformation in India. India is witnessing a level of infrastructure which was unimaginable a few years ago. From social infrastructure like houses, toilets, hospitals, electricity, water, cooking gas, educational institutes to digital infrastructure to physical connectivity infrastructure like railways, waterways, airways and roads, all these are strong indicators of the rapid growth of India. In all the fields, India is seeing the best and biggest.”

He said that there were only five national waterways in the country in 2014. Now, he said, there are 111 national waterways with about two dozen already operational. Similarly, there has been a three-fold increase in cargo transportation via river waterways from 30 lakh MT eight years ago, he said.

UNCOMFORTABLE POSERS TO NEWS BROADCASTING STANDARDS AUTHORITY

The Supreme Court Friday favoured action against television anchors who act unfairly during debates and sought to know how many times an anchor has been taken off air over a programme.

“How many times have you taken off anchors? Have you dealt with anchors in the way you send a message?”, Justice K M Joseph, heading a two-judge bench, asked Advocate Nisha Bhambani appearing for the News Broadcasting Standards Authority (NBSA) hearing a batch of cases involving allegations of hate speech.

Justice Joseph posed the query when Bhambani said the Authority had taken quick and effective action whenever it receives a complaint regarding a programme aired by any of its members.

Appearing for the govt, Additional Solicitor General K M Nataraj, responding to demands to moderate the content on TV, told the bench, also comprising Justice B V Nagarathna, that there are sufficient check and balances in place.

Justice Joseph responded that “checks and balances are certainly not being advised in a manner which produces result”.

He said anchors sometimes shut down people from expressing their views. “Many of these TV programmes, you don’t allow people to talk on an equal basis. Participants you don’t want to express their views, you will either mute them, or allow the other person to go on the whole time unchallenged”, he said adding “so the point is it is not the right of the broadcaster or the views of the panelist. It is the right of the persons who are viewing it”.

Justice Joseph said he would attribute the conduct of channels to what Adi Sankaracharya had said ‘udaranimitham, bahukritha vesham’ (many things are done for the stomach).

Justice Joseph added that “ultimately” it is the anchor and the editor who control the content and asked, “if the anchor is himself or herself a part of the problem?”

“When you are exercising your constitutional right of freedom of press etc, you should act like you deserve it. Right should be exercised in the proper manner. Otherwise what dignity is left to the nation…”, he added,

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

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UKRAINE'S SOLEDAR TOWN CAPTURED, CLAIMS RUSSIA

Russia said on Friday that its forces had taken control of the salt-mining town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine, claiming to have made its first big battlefield gain after half a year of military setbacks. However, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s eastern military command, Serhiy Cherevatyi, denied that the Russian forces had seized control of Soledar.

Russia's Defence Ministry said its forces had captured the town on Thursday evening. It said this would make it possible to cut off Ukrainian supply routes to the larger town of Bakhmut, to the southwest, and trap the remaining Ukrainian forces there.

Ukraine said on Friday that its forces were still holding out in Soledar after a “hot” night of fighting in what has become one of the bloodiest battlegrounds of the entire war.

COVID CASES IN CHINA TOUCH 900 MILLION, HOSPITALS CROWDED WITH PATIENTS

Some 900 million people in China have been infected with coronavirus as of January 11, according to a study by Peking University, media reports said.

The report estimates that 64 per cent of the country's population has the virus, BBC said.

It ranks Gansu province, where 91 per cent of the people are reported to be infected, at the top, followed by Yunnan (84 per cent) and and Qinghai (80 per cent).

A top Chinese epidemiologist has also warned that cases will surge in rural China over the lunar new year.

China has stopped providing daily Covid statistics since abandoning zero Covid. But hospitals in big cities - where healthcare facilities are better and more easily accessible - have become crowded with Covid patients as the virus has spread through the country, BBC reported.

​BIDEN ON DEFENSIVE AFTER CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS FOUND AT HIS PRIVATE HOME

US President Joe Biden said he is "cooperating fully" after the White House said Thursday that "a small number" of classified documents had been found at his private residence, prompting calls for a congressional investigation into the alleged mishandling of official papers.

The potentially embarrassing discovery for Biden came as authorities investigate a far bigger scandal involving his predecessor Donald Trump.

The documents dating to the Obama-Biden administration were found at Biden's residence in Wilmington, Delaware, after other similar papers were found at a Washington think tank where Biden used to have an office.

Former president Trump hoarded huge numbers of documents at his Florida residence after leaving the White House in 2021, with the FBI carting away some 11,000 papers after serving a search warrant in August.

But the discovery of papers at Biden's house is politically tricky for a president who touts his high ethical standards, and it could also complicate the Trump probe.

"People know I take classified documents and classified material seriously," Biden told reporters Thursday.

"We're cooperating fully (and) completely with the Justice Department's review. As part of that process, my lawyers reviewed other places where documents from my time as vice president were stored, and they finished the review last night. "They discovered a small number of documents with classified markings in storage areas and file cabinets in my home and my personal library. "The Department of Justice was immediately notified... So we're going see all this unfold," he added, declining to take shouted questions from the press.

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LG-KEJRIWAL TUSSLE REFUSES TO DIE DOWN DESPITE ONE-HOUR MEETING

The tussle between Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal refused to die down even after the two met for over an hour on Friday with the latter alleging that according to the 2018 Supreme Court judgement, the LG has no independent decision-making power.

Addressing a press conference after the meeting, Kejriwal alleged that for the last few months, the interference of the lieutenant governor in the elected govt's working has increased day by day.

Kejriwal requested the LG not to “politicise the life and survival of Delhiites", saying it is not a good precedent for the times to come. “My intention behind the meeting was to weed out any personal differences or any misinterpretation or misunderstanding of the Constitution and the subsequent court orders, laws and other statutes,” he said.

Accusing the LG of apparently believing that he has unsurmountable power over Delhi, Kejriwal alleged that the LG said he is the “Administrator of Delhi and he will drive the govt in whatever direction he wants”.

Refuting Kejriwal's claims, a Raj Niwas official said in a statement: "These statements are categorically denied. The CM will also be well advised to function in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, Parliamentary Acts and Supreme Court's judgments and refrain from running down an existing law just because it has been challenged in the Court of Law.”

PEE-GATE SHOCKER: WOMAN PEED ON HERSELF, SAYS ARRESTED EXECUTIVE

A sacked banking executive, accused of urinating on a woman on an Air India flight seven weeks ago in an incident that stoked nationwide outrage, has told a Delhi court that he did not do so and that it was his elderly co-passenger who urinated on herself.

The stunning claim by Shankar Mishra comes in response to a notice by the sessions court on an application by the Delhi Police requesting custody for questioning him. He had been sent to 14-day judicial remand on Saturday by a court that turned down the police's request for custody.

Curiously, during the earlier bail hearing, Mishra's lawyers had made no reference to his latest claim of not urinating on the woman, arguing that his act "was not driven by sexual desire nor aimed at outraging the complainant's modesty".

Mishra’s lawyer Ramesh Gupta also said that the co-passenger (complainant) is a Kathak dancer and around “80% of Kathak dancers have incontinence”.

Padma awardee Kathak dancer Shovana Narayan dismissed the claims and said Mishra is attempting to divert from the fact that he “outraged a woman's modesty”. “I do not agree with it at all, I think it is the weirdest reasoning that has ever been put forth. Any peeing or not peeing is not related to any vocation at all,” Narayan said.

The lawyer earlier told the court that the complainant's seat was blocked, therefore it was not possible for Mishra to reach her. “She was suffering from some disease related to the prostate. It was not him. The seating system was such that no one could go to her seat,” the lawyer reportedly said.

However, the sessions court judge dismissed the lawyer's claim and asked for a diagram of the seating arrangement in the flight.

FILMMAKER ONIR’S SESSION ON QUEER RIGHTS AT BHOPAL LIT FEST GETS ‘CANCELLED’ AFTER ‘PROTEST THREAT’

A panel discussion on queer rights led by filmmaker Onir at the ongoing Bhopal Literature and Art Festival was “cancelled” Friday because the organisers “couldn’t ensure the safety of the filmmaker.”

The fifth edition of the three-day Bhopal Literature and Art Festival began at Bharat Bhavan in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal on Friday. Onir’s session that got dropped was on ‘Making Literature LGBTQ Neutral’ with transgender rights activist Kalki Subramaniam as co-panelist.

Onir, whose debut film My Brother Nikhil (2005) is considered to be an important landmark in the LGBTQIA movement in India, took to social media to express his dismay. “Shocked and Sad that an event I was really looking forward to speaking at had to drop me. Apparently there was a group threatening protest and violence and the police told the organisers that they cannot guarantee my safety. So they cancelled the event. Let me process this…” he said in a Twitter post.

AFTER CCI ORDER ON ANDROID, GOOGLE SAYS IT’S A BLOW FOR DIGITAL ADOPTION

Google has said that the order passed by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) against Android’s operating system policies will result in devices getting expensive in India and lead to proliferation of unchecked apps that will pose threats for individual and national security. The CCI’s order “strikes a blow” at the efforts to accelerate digital adoption in the country, Google said.

The CCI, last year, slapped two penalties on Google in separate cases. One of the fines, worth over Rs 1,300 crore, has been imposed on the company for allegedly “abusing its market dominant position” in multiple categories related to the Android mobile device ecosystem in the country. But, beyond the monetary value of the fine, Google is irked by other requirements the regulator has ordered, which analysts say  could topple the company’s financial viability in the market.

These include conditions that Google should not deny access to its Play Services plugins to “disadvantaged” original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and the licencing of Play Store to OEMs should not be linked to the requirement of pre-installing Google search, Chrome browser, YouTube, Google Maps, Gmail or any other Google application. It has also asked Google not to restrict the ability of app developers to distribute their apps through side-loading — offering their apps outside of Google’s Play Store.

“Predatory apps that expose users to financial fraud, data theft and a number of other dangers abound on the internet, both from India and other countries. While Google holds itself accountable for the apps on Play Store and scans for malware as well compliance with local laws, the same checks may not be in place for apps sideloaded from other sources,” Google said in a blog post Friday. “Unchecked proliferation of such apps on less secure devices can expose vast swathes of Indian users to risk of their data being exposed and pose threats for individual and national security.”

SQUADS ANNOUNCED FOR ODI, T20i SERIES AGAINST NZ, AND FIRST TWO TESTS AGAINST AUSTRALIA

New Zealand will play 3 ODIs followed buy 3 T20is in India, from Jan 18 to Feb 1.

And then, Australia will play 4 Tests, followed by 3 ODIs in India, from Feb 9 to March 22

India’s squad for NZ T20Is: Hardik Pandya (captain), Suryakumar Yadav (vice-captain), Ishan Kishan (w/k), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubman Gill, Deepak Hooda, Rahul Tripathi, Jitesh Sharma (w/k), Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik, Shivam Mavi, Prithvi Shaw, Mukesh Kumar.

India’s squad for NZ ODIs: Rohit Sharma (captain), Hardik Pandya (vice-captain),Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan (w/k), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, KS Bharat (w/k),  Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umran Malik.

India’s squad for first 2 Tests vs Australia: Rohit Sharma (captain), K L Rahul (vice-captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, K S Bharat (w/k), Ishan Kishan (w/k), Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat.

HOCKEY WORLD CUP: INDIA START WITH A 2-0 WIN AGAINST SPAIN

Amit Rohidas effortlessly scored a goal, nutmegged players and kept the Spanish attackers at bay. The India vice-captain could do everything that was asked of him on a night when the team produced a near-perfect defensive performance.

In the 12th minute, Harmanpreet Singh’s drag-flick was blocked by Spain’s first-rusher even before it took proper flight. It was fate – or to his credit, Rohidas’s sense of positioning – that the rebound fell near the India vice-captain and as that happened, the crowd instinctively got on its feet, in anticipation.

Amidst the chaos inside the Spanish ‘D’ with the defenders crowding him, and deafening noise emanating from the stands, Rohidas kept his cool and unleashed a shot so powerful that it went past Spain’s goalkeeper Adrian Rafi even before he could react and almost tore apart the net. Such was the force behind the shot that, even though they were good 20-something feet away and had three layers of protection in front of them, the bunch of fans crammed right behind Spain’s goal reflexively flinched.

The India defender’s record-setting goal – it was the country’s 200th strike at the World Cups – settled the team’s nerves and put them on course for an impressive 2-0 win in their opening match of Pool D.

In the other matches yesterday, the results were as follows:

Pool A - Australia 8-0 France; Argentina 1-0 South Africa

Pool D – England 5-0 Wales

INDICATORS

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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

The hardest part of gaining any new idea is sweeping out the false idea occupying that niche. - Robert Heinlein

OFF TRACK

This was told to me by our neighbour who is a professor, wears thick glasses and whom I never associated with sports of any kind. “The biggest thrill a man can have is when your son takes after you. That happened when my son played for his school cricket team. He really showed me something. He was out on a duck in both the innings and while in the field he missed every ball that came his way. His teammates were throwing things at our car and swearing at us as we drove off.  Gosh, I was proud.”