HOPE PAK TERROR GROUPS DON’T USE AFGHAN SOIL: INDIA AT UNHRC

India on Tuesday spoke about the “grave humanitarian crisis” unfolding in Afghanistan and hoped that the situation does not pose a challenge to its neighbours nor is its territory used by terrorist groups such as Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) to threaten any country. Speaking at the UN Human Rights Council’s (UNHRC) special session on “Serious human rights concerns in Afghanistan”, Indian diplomat Indra Mani Pandey called upon all parties concerned to allow unhindered access to international assistance because “stability in Afghanistan is linked to the peace and security of the region”.

UNHRC chief Michelle Bachelet sought a mechanism to closely monitor Taliban’s actions following credible reports of serious violations by the insurgent group, including summary executions of civilians and Afghan security forces. A fundamental “red line” will be the Taliban’s treatment of women and girls and freedom of self-expression and employment, she added.

MONETISATION WILL CREATE MONOPOLIES, ENSLAVE PEOPLE: RAHUL GANDHI

The Congress on Tuesday said the govt’s decision to monetise Indian assets to raise money would pave the way for enslavement of people by creating monopolies.

Addressing mediapersons here today, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi said, “Indian assets created over 70 years are being sold off. The PM is giving free gifts to select industry friends and launching an assault on the future of the youth. The sale of assets will create monopolies and a day will come when the young people will have no jobs because few business houses that are left will not feel the obligation to create jobs.”

Noting that the Congress is not against privatisation, but against blanket privatisation, Rahul asked why strategic sectors such as the railways and those that are progressing such as the roads and power transmission should be privatised.

“The Congress is not against privatisation, but our policy had some logic. We never privatised strategic sectors. We privatised chronic loss-making entities and ensured monopolies are not created,” Gandhi said, flanked by former Finance Minister P Chidambaram who urged people to debate the development.

Gandhi listed the assets selected for privatisation and said, “I need not say to whom which asset will go. That is evident. The BJP used to say the Congress did nothing for 70 years and here they are selling off everything that was built in 70 years.”

EVACUATION FROM AFGHANISTAN: INDIA BRINGS BACK 78 PEOPLE FROM DUSHANBE

India on Tuesday brought back 78 people, including 25 of its nationals and a number of Afghan Sikhs and Hindus from Dushanbe, a day after they were evacuated from Taliban-besieged Kabul to the Tajik city.

The group along with three copies of the Sikh scripture, Guru Granth Sahib, was airlifted from Kabul to Dushanbe by a military transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force on Monday.

With Tuesday's evacuation, the number of people brought back to Delhi reached over 800 since August 16 when the first group was airlifted from Kabul, a day after the Taliban seized control of the Afghan capital city.

The evacuees were received at the Indira Gandhi International Airport by Union ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and V Muraleedharan. "Blessed to receive & pay obeisance to three holy Swaroop of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji from Kabul to Delhi a short while ago," Puri tweeted.

KERALA TPR RISES TO 18%, GOVT TO RAMP UP TESTS

Kerala govt Tuesday decided to ramp up testing in districts where vaccination is relatively low, amid a constant rise in test positivity rate in the state.

While the test positivity rate (TPR) at the national level is below 3 per cent for the last two months, it has been climbing up in Kerala – it touched 18.04 per cent on Tuesday against 10 per cent a month ago. At 1.59 lakhs, the state has over half of all active cases in the country.

Health Minister Veena George said Kerala aims to ensure first dose of Covid vaccine for all above the age of 18 by the end of September. As on Monday, 67 per cent of the targeted population had received the first dose of vaccine in Kerala.

KEY COVID NUMBERS

Current Active Cases Countrywide: 3,16,211

New Cases in last 24 hours: 51,019

Recovered in last 24 hours: 55,948

Change in no. of Active cases in last 24 hours: -5,666

No. of deaths in last 24 hours (Total Covid Deaths so far): 737 (4,35,788)

Daily Tests (Saturday): 18,40,393

Daily Positivity Rate (Proportion of Positives among total Tested): 0.6%

Percentage of Population Vaccinated (At Least One Dose / Two Doses): 34.2% / 10.0%

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

======================

US WON’T EXTEND PULLOUT DATE; G7 FOR ‘SAFE PASSAGE’ BEYOND AUGUST 31

US President Joe Biden turned down pleas from other G7 leaders for extending the deadline for the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.

A tweet from the White House skipped the deadline extension aspect and said Biden discussed at G7 a continuation of “our close coordination on Afghanistan policy, humanitarian assistance and evacuating citizens and vulnerable Afghans”.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the G7 had agreed on a roadmap for “future engagement with the Taliban, but are currently insisting on ‘safe passage’ beyond the August 31 deadline”.

Sensing US firmness in pulling out, India and Russia have decided to set up a permanent bilateral channel for consultations to discuss Afghanistan. “It is important for the two strategic partners to work together,’’ said an MEA readout of the 45-minute conversation between PM Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Separately, NSA Ajit Doval flagged to his BRICS counterparts, including from Russia and China, cross-border terrorism by groups such as LeT and JeM which enjoy state support and threaten peace and security. Their activities tend to slip under the radar during global talks on terrorism in the region and were flagged by Doval at the virtual meeting of “BRICS High Representatives Responsible for National Security”, which he had hosted.

CIA chief William Burns travelled to Kabul this week for talks with Taliban leader Mullah Baradar, US media reported.

The World Bank has suspended aid to Afghanistan, saying it is "deeply concerned" by the situation there, especially regarding women's rights.

Washington last week announced it would deny the Taliban access to the country's gold and cash reserves, most of which is held overseas.

TALIBAN TO SEND TEAM TO PANJSHIR FOR TALKS

On a tense day around Panjshir Valley when the resistance forces stalled probes by Taliban fighters, reports said its spokesman’s call for peace was being followed up with a delegation that will meet Ahmad Massoud.

The Taliban attempted to enter Panjshir Valley through a pass from the adjoining Badakhshan province but were unable to do so. Major Wazir Akbar, an Afghan army commando who has joined the Panjshir fighters, said the counterattack at Anjuman Pass claimed many victims.

In Kabul, Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid called on “our brothers in Panjshir” for talks while a Taliban leader confirmed that a delegation will “meet with Ahmad Massoud himself and a number of other people who are involved in the Panjshir case.”

Ahmad Massoud, one of the Resistance-2 leaders, has said its forces have adequate stores of ammunition and arms to withstand a Taliban assault.

Panjshir is surrounded by Badakhshan, Takhar and Baghlan provinces, which are under Taliban control.

THE REST

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NARAYAN RANE GETS BAIL AFTER ARREST OVER ‘ANTI-UDDHAV’ BARB

Union minister Narayan Rane was arrested on Tuesday over his controversial remarks against Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, which triggered a political row and protests.

He was granted bail hours later after he cited his health and argued that he was arrested without proper notice on "politically motivated" charges. He was granted bail by a court at Mahad just before midnight.

Rane had said that he would have slapped Thackeray over the latter's ignorance of the year of India's independence. He claimed Thackeray forgot the year of independence during his August 15 address to the people of the state. Thackeray had to check the year of independence with his aides midway during the speech that day, Rane said.

Rane was taken into custody by police in the coastal Ratnagiri district, where he was travelling as part of the Jan Ashirwad Yatra, and taken to the Sangameshwar police station.

On media reportage of his 'imminent arrest' in the case, Rane said -- hours before his arrest -- that he was not a ‘normal' man and cautioned the media against such reportage. “I haven't committed any crime. You should verify and show it on TV or else I will file a case against you (media). Despite not committing any crime, the media is showing speculative news about my 'imminent' arrest. Do you think I am a normal (ordinary) man?” Rane had threatened.

PUNJAB CONG INFIGHTING CONTINUES AS 4 MINISTERS DEMAND CM'S REMOVAL

The power tussle between the camps of Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and state Congress chief Navjot Sidhu intensified on Tuesday with four cabinet ministers and several party legislators openly pitching for the CM's removal, saying he failed to fulfill some key poll promises.

Sidhu too was targeted by a group of Punjab ministers and MLAs, loyal to CM Amarinder Singh, who demanded strong action against his two advisors over their "patently anti-national and pro-Pakistan comments", warning it could cause massive damage to the Congress in the run-up to the Punjab Assembly polls due in less than six months.

On Tuesday, the Punjab chief minister faced an open revolt from the rival camp in the party.

Four ministers -- Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and Charanjit Singh Channi -- and around two dozen legislators met here at the residence of Bajwa, a known detractor of Amarinder Singh. When asked if an attempt was being made to oust the chief minister, Bajwa told reporters it's not an attempt but the demand of people.

MF-LIKE TRUSTS KEY FINANCING TOOL IN MEGA ASSET MONETISATION PUSH

Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvIT) will be a key financing mechanism as the govt kick-starts its ambitious plan to monetise brownfield assets, with a Rs 5,000 crore National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) InvIT issue expected to set the ball rolling.

InvITs for railways and power sector assets are being planned as well — even as a Public Private Partnership (PPP)-based template has also been prepared to monetise assets across sectors including ports, airports, shipping, telecom, warehousing, mining, and gas & petroleum product pipelines.

The Investment Trusts are somewhat like mutual funds, which enable small investors to buy units in the trusts that are listed on the exchanges, and to have a share in the income stream of these vehicles in the form of dividend and unit distribution. The other monetisation approaches are basically user fee-based.

ARMY GETS NEW GRENADES MADE BY PRIVATE INDIAN INDUSTRY

In a first, Economic Explosives Limited (EEL), a Nagpur-based defence manufacturing company, handed over to the Indian Army the first batch of fully indigenously manufactured Multi-Mode Hand Grenades (MMHG) on Tuesday.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh termed the handing over of MMHG a shining example of the increasing collaboration between the public and private sectors and a big step towards self-reliance in defence manufacturing.

“Today is a memorable day in the history of the Indian defence sector. Our private industry is coming of age when it comes to defence production. It is an important milestone not only in the field of defence manufacturing but also in achieving ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ as envisioned by our Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he said.

This is the first instance of ammunition being manufactured by private industry in India.

INDIA MAY BE ENTERING ENDEMIC STAGE OF COVID: WHO CHIEF SCIENTIST

COVID-19 in India may be entering some kind of stage of endemicity where there is low or moderate level of transmission going on, Chief Scientist of the World Health Organisation Dr Soumya Swaminathan said. The endemic stage is when a population learns to live with a virus. It's very different from the epidemic stage when the virus overwhelms a population.

"As far as India is concerned that seems to be what is happening and because of size of India and heterogeneity of population and immunity status in different parts of country in different pockets, it is very very feasible that the situation may continue like this with ups and downs in different parts of the country, particularly where there are more susceptible population, so those groups who were perhaps less affected by first and second waves or those areas with low levels of vaccine coverage we could see peaks and troughs for the next several months," she said.

She said she hopes that by the end of 2022 "we would be in that position that we have achieved vaccine coverage, say 70 per cent, and then countries can get back to normal".

On prevalence of Covid among children, Swaminathan said parents need not panic. "We can take from the sero survey and what we learnt from other countries also that while it is possible that children could get infected and transmit, children luckily have very mild illness most of the time and there is a small percentage that gets sick and get inflammatory complications and few will die but much much less than the adult population...But it is good to prepare... preparing hospitals for paediatric admissions, paediatric intensive care is going to serve our health system in many ways for other illnesses children have but we should not panic about thousands of children crowding into ICUs," she said.

On use of drugs like Remdesivir, HCQ or Ivermectin for treatment, she said as of now, there is no evidence that HCQ or Ivermectin have any role to play in reducing mortality or morbidity in people infected with the virus or actually preventing people from getting infection, so therefore there are no grounds on which recommendations can be made in use of either of these drugs for treatment or prevention. “Drugs like Dexamethasone and Oxygen are the two essential ones that save lives," she added.

SUPREME COURT LAYS DOWN GUIDELINES FOR HIGH COURTS ON BAIL PETITIONS

The Supreme Court on Tuesday laid down guidelines for high courts for deciding bail applications as it quashed the bail granted to a murder accused by the Uttarakhand High Court.

“Considering the overall facts and circumstances, we have held that the high court has committed grave error in releasing the accused on bail,” a Bench led by Justice DY Chandrachud said setting aside the high court’s order. It ordered the accused to surrender.

The Bench — which had on Monday taken strong exception to the Uttarakhand and Allahabad High Courts passing orders for protection from arrest “without application of mind” despite its directions to high courts to use their inherent power sparingly — enumerated several parameters to be considered by high courts for grant of bail.

The top court said high courts needed to consider if there were prima facie or reasonable grounds to believe that the accused has committed the offence; nature and gravity of the accusation; severity of the punishment in the event of conviction; and danger of the accused absconding, if released on bail.

Character, behaviour and standing of accused, including his/her antecedents; likelihood of the offence being repeated; reasonable apprehension of the witnesses being influenced and danger of justice being adversely affected have to be duly considered while deciding bail pleas, it noted.

REVERSE BOMBAY HIGH COURT ‘SKIN CONTACT’ VERDICT IN POCSO CASE: ATTORNEY GENERAL TO SUPREME COURT

Terming as “outrageous” the Bombay High Court’s ruling that sexual assault offences under the POCSO Act weren’t made out if there was no direct “skin-to-skin” contact between the offender and the child, Attorney General KK Venugopal on Tuesday urged the SC to reverse it.

“If tomorrow a person wears a pair of surgical gloves and feels the body of a woman, he won’t be punished for sexual assault as per this judgment…..The judge clearly didn’t see the far-reaching consequences,” Venugopal told a Bench led by Justice UU Lalit.

FEARING CONFLICT, GOVT AGREES TO AIR INDIA EMPLOYEES' MAIN DEMANDS

The central govt has agreed in-principle to Air India employees' main demands. It fears an industrial dissension now could impede the process of privatisation. It has agreed to bear the cost of liquidation loss on account of transfer to the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) from company-owned trusts, inclusion of employees in the central govt health scheme (CGHS), and encashment of leaves.

“The ministerial panel on Air India has agreed to most demands. If required, budgetary support will be provided before transfer of ownership takes place,” said a govt official involved in the process.mSources said the total outgo is projected to be around Rs 250 crore.

“These issues had been snowballing. Had some employees moved court, that could have thrown a spanner in the works. The govt, in fact, is looking to conclude the sale process by the end of this year,” said Department of Investment and Public Asset Management Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey.

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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back, everything is different. - C.S. Lewis

OFF TRACK

Why men aren't allowed to give advice in love columns in magazines

Anonymous:

Hi! I'm a 26 year old married woman with one kid. Last week my husband was off duty and I had to drive alone to work. I left my husband with the maid and my baby at home. I drove for just about 2km from homeand my car engine started to overheat so i had to turn back and get the other car. When I got home I found my husband in bed with our maid. I don't know what to do now. Please help.

Reply by male columnist:

Dear anonymous.

Overheating of engine after such short distance can be caused by problems associated with the carburetor. U need to check your oil and water level in your engine b4 u start your journey. U must also make sure your car is serviced regularly to avoid problems in future. Hope this helped you...!!