LAC STANDOFF: MAJ GEN-LEVEL OFFICIALS TO MEET AGAIN, 'SOME PULL-BACK' OF

TROOPS BY BOTH SIDES

Senior military commanders of India and China are scheduled to meet again at

Ladakh today over the existing stand-off along the Line of Actual Control

(LAC) even as reports have emerged that troops of either side have pulled

back marginally from existing positions at two locations.

News agencies quoting un-named military sources said troops on either side

have pulled back by some 2 km at multiple points - Galwan and Gogra, Hot

Springs.

A Major General who heads the 3 Division of the Indian Army shall be meeting

his Chinese counterpart today, to chalk out a further strategy.

Countering criticism that the PLA intrusions took the Army by surprise, the

sources claimed "there has not been any Intelligence failure" and that the

"Indian Army has stopped the PLA quickly and strongly." They claimed the

army "has matched (the PLA) in terms of men and machinery at every

location." "The Indian side has conveyed that construction will not stop,

including on the DSDBO road, as it is well within the Indian boundary," they

said. Denying that any heads would roll, the sources expressed full

satisfaction with the way the Leh corps commander and the northern army

commander had handled the intrusions.

In a statement of resolve, they said the Army "is fully prepared for a long

and permanent deployment if the PLA does not retreat." Portraying a coherent

Indian military-political response, the sources stated: "All three services,

the chief of defence staff, the national security advisor, the defence

minister and the ministry of external affairs are coordinating well amongst

themselves."

PARLIAMENT EXPLORES OPTIONS TO HOLD MONSOON SESSION

Efforts to hold the monsoon session of Parliament continued with the

presiding officers of both the Houses on Tuesday directing officials to

explore virtual participation and other options, including limiting

attendance of members in person.

With logistics of space coming in the way of holding a session where members

can be seated by following the norm of social distancing, Rajya Sabha

Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla asked the

Secretaries General to examine in detail various aspects.

The presiding officers directed the top officials to work on virtual

participation of members in the proceedings of both the Houses. The idea is

to utilise the maximum capacity available to enable such virtual

participation, feasibility of enabling participation of members as per the

Rules of Business of both the Houses, other technical issues etc.

MIGRANT WORKERS MUST BE SENT HOME IN 15 DAYS, SAYS SUPREME COURT

States and Union territories received a time-bound mandate on Tuesday from

the Supreme Court to ensure the return of all migrant workers stranded by

the post-coronavirus lockdown to their home states within a fortnight and to

inform the apex court within the same deadline about welfare programmes,

including job opportunities, they plan to offer the returnees.

To mitigate the plight faced by the migrants, the Supreme Court asked states

and Union territories to identify migrant workers who have returned at the

district and block levels and prepare an inventory of the vocational skills

they possess and their employment history.

In addition, they were asked to set up counselling centres to provide the

workers information on welfare schemes and employment avenues that are open

to them; they will also have to advise workers who want to go back to where

they were employed.

KEJRIWAL TESTS NEGATIVE, JYOTIRADITYA POSITIVE; A MUMBAI OFFICIAL SUCCUMBS

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has tested negative for COVID-19, an

official said on Tuesday.

The official said the 51-year-old AAP supremo underwent the test for

coronavirus Tuesday morning. Kejriwal had gone into self-quarantine on

Sunday after he developed a sore throat and fever. The fever has subsided

and he is now feeling well, the official said.

BJP leader Jyotiraditya Scindia has tested positive for Covid-19 and

admitted to Max Hospital, Saket, on Monday.

Recently, BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra was admitted to Medanta

Hospital in Gurugram after showing symptoms of Covid-19. He has recovered

and was back on TV screen yesterday.

A 55-year-old Deputy Municipal Commissioner of the Brihanmumbai Municipal

Corporation (BMC) who had tested positive for coronavirus died on Tuesday,

sources in the civic body said.

The commissioner, who was attached to the water supply project department,

is the first high-ranking BMC official who has died after contracting the

viral infection.

He had tested positive only the day before.

COVID-19 DASHBOARD - (Nos. IN INDIA / Nos. WORLDWIDE)

(Indian data from covid19india / and World Data from

worldometers.info/coronavirus/ )

Total Cases 2,74,765 (+8,852) / 73,18,131 (+1,24,143)

Total Deaths 7,719 (+246) / 4,13,648 (+5,020)

Total Recovered 1,34,166 (+5,070) / 36,02,601 (+67,110)

Active Cases 1,32,880 (+3,536) / 33,01,882 (+52,013)

Serious / Critical Cases - N.A. / 54,023 (+226)

Top impacted nations so far: (And some of India's Neighbours)

Country, Total Cases / Total Deaths / Recovered Cases / Active

Cases

1 USA 20,45,549 / 1,14,148 /

7,88,862 / 11,42,539

2 Brazil 7,42,084 / 38,497 /

3,25,602 / 3,77,985

3 Russia 4,85,253 / 6,142 /

2,42,397 / 2,36,714

4 UK 2,89,140 / 40,883 / N/A

/ N/A

5 Spain 2,89,046 / 27,136 / N/A

/ N/A

6 India 2,76,146 / 7,750 /

1,34,670 / 1,33,726

7 Italy 2,35,561 / 34,043 /

1,68,646 / 32,872

8 Peru 2,03,736 / 5,738 /

92,929 / 1,05,069

9 Germany 1,86,516 / 8,831 /

1,70,200 / 7,485

10 Iran 1,75,927 / 8,425 /

1,38,457 / 29,045

11 Turkey 1,72,114 / 4,729 /

1,44,598 / 22,787

16 Pakistan 1,08,317 / 2,172 /

35,018 / 71,127

20 Bangladesh 71,675 / 975 / 15,337

/ 55,363

99 Sri Lanka 1,859 / 11 /

1,057 / 791

Top 18 impacted Indian States so far: (Total No. of Confirmed case / No. Of

Deaths)

State / Confirmed Cases / Active Case / Recovered /

Deceased

Maharashtra 90,787 / 44,859 / 42,639 /

3,289

Tamil Nadu 34,914 / 16,282 / 18,325 /

307

Delhi 29,943 / 17,712 / 11,357 / 874

Gujarat 21,044 / 5,358 / 14,373 / 1,313

Uttar Pradesh 11,335 / 4,365 / 6,669 /

301

Rajasthan 11,245 / 2,662 / 8,328 /

255

Madhya Pradesh 9,849 / 2,700 / 6,729

/ 420

West Bengal 8,985 / 4,950 / 3,620 /

415

Karnataka 5,921 / 3,248 / 2,605 /

66

Bihar 5,455 / 2,652 / 2,770 / 33

Haryana 5,209 / 3,357 / 1,807 /

45

Andhra Pradesh 5,029 / 2,177 / 2,775

/ 77

Jammu and Kashmir 4,346 / 2,792 / 1,506 /

48

Telangana 3,920 / 2,030 / 1,742 /

148

Odisha 3,140 / 996 / 2,133 / 11

Assam 3,051 / 1,945 / 1,098 / 5

Punjab 2,719 / 497 / 2,167 / 55

Kerala 2,097 / 1,232 / 848 / 17

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

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

WHO CLARIFIES COMMENTS ON SPREAD OF COVID-19 FROM ASYMPTOMATIC PERSONS

A top World Health Organization official clarified on Tuesday that

scientists have not determined yet how frequently people with asymptomatic

cases of Covid-19 pass the disease on to others, a day after suggesting that

such spread is "very rare."

The clarification comes after the WHO's original comments incited strong

pushback from outside public health experts, who suggested the agency had

erred, or at least miscommunicated, when it said people who didn't show

symptoms were unlikely to spread the virus.

Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's technical lead on the Covid-19 pandemic, made

it very clear Tuesday that the actual rates of asymptomatic transmission

aren't yet known. "The majority of transmission that we know about is that

people who have symptoms transmit the virus to other people through

infectious droplets," Van Kerkhove said. "But there are a subset of people

who don't develop symptoms, and to truly understand how many people don't

have symptoms, we don't actually have that answer yet."

US FORMALLY IN RECESSION

President Donald Trump faces a new obstacle to his case for re-election --

the U.S. is now officially in recession.

The "recession" label, made official on Monday, cements the pain that many

voters are already feeling from the economy -- and will feed into their

choice in November for who will be able to steer the economy back.

For Trump, the recession declaration came on the first weekday after the May

jobs report showed 2.5 million jobs were created and the unemployment rate

declined when it was expected to jump. On Friday he touted the numbers as a

sign of "the greatest comeback in American history."

KIM JONG UN RAISES PRESSURE ON SOUTH KOREA TO SPLIT WITH TRUMP

Both North Korea and left-leaning supporters of South Korean President Moon

Jae-in want him to restore economic ties broken by security tensions. But

pleasing them would mean angering US President Donald Trump.

On Tuesday, North Korea said it was closing down communication links set up

two years ago between Moon and Kim Jong Un, jeopardizing the South Korean

leader's 2017 campaign promise to move the heavily armed rivals toward a

permanent peace. It's bad timing for Moon: His ruling bloc secured a

historic supermajority in National Assembly elections in April, boosting

calls within his Democratic Party to mend ties with North Korea.

The problem for Moon is that he doesn't have much he can offer North Korea

without prompting a blowup from the Trump administration, which has

repeatedly rejected South Korea's calls for sanctions relief. The US has

refused to relax United Nations penalties and other measures against the

regime without greater commitments on arms reduction from Kim.

THE REST

========

DELHI COVID CASES MAY HIT 550K BY JULY END: MANISH SISODIA

The capital is likely to have 550,000 coronavirus cases by the end of July

based on the current doubling rate of infection, Delhi deputy CM Manish

Sisodia said on Tuesday, predicting a surge in demand for hospital beds to

80,000.

"Till June 15, there will be 44,000 Covid-19 cases and we would need 6,600

beds. We would hit one lakh cases and would require 15,000 beds by June 30.

Till July 15, the cases would reach 2.5 lakh and we would require 33,000

beds and till July 31, there will be 5.5 lakh cases and we would need 80,000

beds," Sisodia said after a meeting of the state disaster management

authority chaired by Delhi lieutenant general Anil Baijal. The Delhi

government's bid to restrict admissions to state-run and private hospitals

in the capital for residents had been revoked by Baijal on Monday.

Delhi has 8,575 dedicated Covid-19 beds, out of which 4,413 are occupied,

according to the Delhi government, which said 4,162 are vacant. It's not

clear whether this includes the 20% beds that the Delhi government had asked

private hospitals and clinics to set aside for coronavirus patients.

Out of a total 512 ventilators that are available, 248 were in use on June

8, according to state data.

CHALLENGE FOR US IS SUPPLY CHAIN RATHER THAN DEMAND: MARUTI

Maruti Suzuki, the country's largest carmaker, expects demand for its

passenger cars to outstrip supply in the months of June and July as it faces

challenges in ramping up production amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

"We will not be able to assemble more than 30-40 per cent of what is normal

production in June. So we will have no problem in selling what we make," R C

Bhargava, chairman of Maruti Suzuki.

Bhargava said Maruti was only an assembler of cars and depended on each of

the 370-380 vendors and tier 2 and tier 3 suppliers to provide components.

"If they cannot produce the requisite components, if they are facing labour

or logistics issues, or are still in restricted zones, we cannot increase

our production. The big challenge for us is supply chain rather than

demand," he added.

HOW FAST CAN CORONAVIRUS SPREAD VIA HOSPITAL SURFACES?

A new study has aimed to simulate how SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes

Covid-19, may spread across surfaces in a hospital. For safety, the

researchers did not use the SARS-CoV-2 virus but artificially replicated a

section of DNA from a plant-infecting virus, which cannot infect humans,

then added it to a millilitre of water at a similar concentration to

SARS-CoV-2 copies found in infected patients' respiratory samples.

The result: the virus DNA left on a hospital bed rail was found in nearly

half of all sites sampled across a ward within 10 hours and persisted for at

least five days. The study, by University College London and Great Ormond

Street Hospital (GOSH), is published as a letter in the Journal of Hospital

Infection.

Researchers placed the water containing the DNA on the hand rail in an

isolation room - that is, a room for higher-risk or infected patients - and

then sampled 44 sites across a hospital ward over the following five days.

They found that after 10 hours, the surrogate genetic material had spread to

41% of sites sampled across the hospital ward, from bed rails to door

handles to arm rests in a waiting room to children's toys and books in a

play area. This increased to 59% of sites after three days, falling to 41%

on the fifth day.

The highest proportion of sites that tested positive for the surrogate came

from the immediate bedspace area - including a nearby room with several

other beds - and clinical areas such as treatment rooms. On day three, 86%

of sampled sites in clinical areas tested positive, while on day four, 60%

of sampled sites in the immediate bedspace area tested positive.

One caveat to the study is that, while it shows how quickly a virus can

spread if left on a surface, it cannot determine how likely it is that a

person would be infected.

IIT BOMBAY IS INDIA'S TOP UNIVERSITY, SAYS 2021 GLOBAL RANKING

The Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, is India's highest ranked

university among top 200 global universities, with Indian Institute of

Science, Bengaluru, and IIT Delhi also figuring in the 200-bracket,

according to the QS World University Rankings.

The rankings for 2021 are based on six indicators: academic reputation,

employer reputation, citations per faculty, faculty/student ratio,

international faculty ratio and international student ratio, compilers of

the rankings said.

IIT Bombay is ranked 172nd, while IISc is 185th and IIT Delhi 193rd.

Overall, 21 Indian higher education institutions figure in the top 1000.

India's best research university is IISc, which received a perfect 100/100

on the 'citations per faculty' indicator.

Other IITs in the top 500 are: Madras (275), Kharagpur (314), Kanpur (350),

Roorkee (383) and Guwahati (470).

TWITTER BRINGS FLEETS TO INDIA, FOR 'THOSE UNCOMFORTABLE WITH PUBLIC TWEETS'

As part of its constant endeavour to make it possible for people "to have

conversations in new ways with less pressure and more control", Twitter has

started testing Fleets in India.

Fleets are a new way to start conversations from your fleeting thoughts.

Fleets disappear after 24 hours and don't get Retweets, Likes, or public

replies. Similar to Tweets, Fleets are text-first, but you can also add

videos or photos. If you want to reply to a Fleet, tap on it to send a

Direct Message or emoji, and continue the conversation in your DMs. Your

followers can see your Fleets at the top of their home timeline. And anyone

who can see your full profile can find your Fleets there. If you have open

DMs, anyone can react to your Fleets. If you have protected Tweets, only

people who follow you can see your Fleets at the top of their timeline or by

clicking on your profile photo.

According to Twitter's group product manager Mo Al Adham: "Twitter is where

people go to see and talk about what's happening. But, some people tell us

that they're uncomfortable to tweet because tweets are public, feel

permanent, and have public counts (Retweets and Likes). There's also the

feeling that a good tweet has to have a lot of likes, RTs, and replies. We

want to make it possible for people to have conversations in new ways with

less pressure and more control, beyond tweets and Direct Messages."

ICC CONFIRMS COVID-19 SUBSTITUTES AND SALIVA BAN ON INTERIM BASIS

The ICC on Tuesday announced interim changes to playing regulations which

include Covid-19 substitutes for Test cricket and a ban on the use of saliva

to shine the ball among others. However, the subs for COVID-19 will not be

allowed in ODIs and T20Is.

In a statement released on its website, the ICC wrote: "Teams will be

allowed to replace players displaying symptoms of COVID-19 during a Test

match. In line with concussion replacements, the Match Referee will approve

the nearest like-for-like replacement."

On the ban on applying saliva to the ball, it said: "Players will not be

permitted to use saliva to shine the ball. If a player does apply saliva to

the ball, the umpires will manage the situation with some leniency during an

initial period of adjustment for the players, but subsequent instances will

result in the team receiving a warning."

"A team can be issued up to two warnings per innings but repeated use of

saliva on the ball will result in a 5-run penalty to the batting side.

Whenever saliva is applied to the ball, the umpires will be instructed to

clean the ball before play recommenced."

ICC has also done away with neutral umpires in all international games. "The

requirement to appoint neutral match officials will be temporarily removed

from the playing conditions for all international formats owing to the

current logistical challenges with international travel. The ICC will be

able to appoint locally based match officials from the Emirates ICC Elite

Panel of Match Officials and the Emirates ICC International Panel of Match

Officials," the cricket's governing body added.

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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position

falls, your ego goes with it. - Colin Powell

OFF TRACK

Morris was a very successful marketing director. Sadly, his wife Shirley

dies. At the cemetery, Morris's friends and family are appalled to see that

the headstone reads:

"Here lies Shirley, wife of Morris, MCIM, Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing

and Marketing Director of Quality Marketing Services Ltd."

Morris was standing in front of Shirley's grave reading the headstone when

he suddenly burst into tears. His brother says to him, "It's so distasteful.

It's right that you should cry, someone pulling a cheap stunt like this on

Shirley's headstone."

Through his tears, Morris sobs, "You don't understand. They left out my

phone number."