INDIAN, CHINESE TROOPS COMPLETE DISENGAGEMENT AT MOST LOCATIONS OF BORDER,

CLAIMS BEIJING

Four days after New Delhi announced that India and China had agreed on

"early and complete disengagement" along the LAC in Ladakh, Beijing Tuesday

said border troops of both countries "have disengaged in most localities"

following close communication via military and diplomatic channels.

There was no official confirmation or response from either the Indian

government or the Indian Army to the Chinese Foreign Ministry's statement

ahead of the fifth round of talks, likely later this week, between Corps

Commanders of the two armies.

The Chinese reluctance to step back from Pangong Tso has stalled the

disengagement process and it is likely to be the focus of talks between the

Corps Commanders.

In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said:

"Recently China and India have held frequent communication via diplomatic

and military channels, with four rounds of commander-level talks and three

meetings under the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on

China-India Border Affairs."

"As border troops have disengaged in most localities, the situation on the

ground is deescalating and the temperature is coming down. Currently the two

sides are actively preparing for the fifth round of commander-level talks to

resolve outstanding issues on the ground. We hope the Indian side will work

towards the same goal with China, implement the two sides' consensus and

jointly uphold peace and tranquility along the border."

RAJASTHAN CABINET STICKS TO ITS DEMAND FOR HOLDING STATE ASSEMBLY SESSION

The Rajasthan Cabinet on Tuesday discussed the points raised by Governor

Kalraj Mishra for calling the state assembly session and said it is sticking

to its demand for holding the session from July 31.

Transport Minister Pratap Singh said a discussion was held for the reply to

be sent regarding the three points raised by the governor.

"The Cabinet wants the assembly session from July 31. The proposal which was

sent earlier for calling the session is our legal right and we are sending

it again to the governor," he told reporters.

"The governor's questions are simple and we discussed their reply. He has no

right to be raising queries yet we are giving the reply," he said.

Singh also said that the government wants no confrontation with the governor

and hoped Mishra will now accept the cabinet proposal for calling the

session.

"We want permission to call the assembly session which is our right. We do

not want any confrontation with the governor. If he does not accept this

now, then it is clear that there is no Constitution in the country," he

said.

Targeting the BJP, the minister said: "They want to topple the state

government and have made it a prestige issue," he said. After Rajasthan, the

minister said the party wants to target West Bengal, Maharashtra and

Chhattisgarh.

NEGOTIATE POLITICAL SETTLEMENT OF SYL DISPUTE, SC TELLS PUNJAB, HARYANA

The Supreme Court yesterday asked the Chief Ministers of Punjab and Haryana

to attempt a negotiated settlement of the Sutlej-Yamuna link (SYL) canal

issue that has defied any solution for decades despite several rounds of

litigation.

A Bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra said talks should be held between the

two states at the highest political level. Stating that the Centre had been

trying to facilitate talks between the two sides, Attorney General KK

Venugopal requested the top court to give more time for the purpose.

The Bench - which wanted the two states to clearly tell it if they could

solve it through negotiations or not - indicated the matter would be taken

up in the third week of August.

Punjab has been demanding a negotiated settlement between the two states

with the help of the Centre, while Haryana maintains it can't be made to

wait indefinitely despite having a decree in its favour. The Union Jal

Shakti Ministry has already convened several meetings - attended by chief

secretaries of the two states - which remained inconclusive.

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

(Indian data from covid19india / and World Data from

worldometers.info/coronavirus/ )

Total Cases 15,31,712 (+49,632) / 1,68,93,293 (+2,49,226)

Total Deaths 34,224 (+776) / 6,63,465 (+6,915)

Total Recovered 9,88,770 (+35,581) / 1,04,56,371 (+2,24,321)

Active Cases 5,08,718 (+13,275) / 57,73,457 (+17,990)

TOP IMPACTED NATIONS SO FAR: (AND SOME OF INDIA'S NEIGHBOURS)

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

Cases

1 USA 44,98,343 / 1,52,320 /

21,85,894 / 21,60,129

2 Brazil 24,84,649 / 88,634 /

17,21,560 / 6,74,455

3 India 15,32,135 / 34,224 /

9,88,770 / 5,09,141

4 Russia 8,23,515 / 13,504 /

6,12,217 / 1,97,794

5 South Africa 4,59,761 / 7,257 /

2,87,313 / 1,65,191

6 Mexico 4,02,697 / 44,876 /

2,61,457 / 96,364

7 Peru 3,95,005 / 18,612 /

2,76,452 / 99,941

8 Chile 3,49,800 / 9,240 /

3,22,332 / 18,228

9 Spain 3,27,690 / 28,436 / N/A

/ N/A

10 UK 3,00,692 / 45,878 / N/A

/ N/A

11 Iran 2,96,273 / 16,147 /

2,57,019 / 23,107

12 Pakistan 2,75,225 / 5,865 /

2,42,436 / 26,924

16 Bangladesh 2,29,185 / 3,000 /

1,27,414 / 98,771

115 Sri Lanka 2,810 / 11 /

2,296 / 503

TOP IMPACTED INDIAN STATES SO FAR

State / Confirmed Cases / Active Case / Recovered /

Deceased

Maharashtra 3,91,440 / 1,44,694 /

2,32,277 / 14,165

Tamil Nadu 2,27,688 / 57,073 / 1,66,956

/ 3,659

Delhi 1,32,275 / 10,887 / 1,17,507

/ 3,881

Andhra Pradesh 1,10,297 / 56,527 /

52,622 / 1,148

Karnataka 1,07,001 / 64,431 / 40,504

/ 2,057

Uttar Pradesh 73,951 / 27,934 / 44,520 /

1,497

West Bengal 62,964 / 19,493 / 42,022 /

1,449

Gujarat 57,982 / 13,100 / 42,514 / 2,368

Telangana 57,142 / 13,753 / 42,909 /

480

Bihar 43,591 / 14,101 / 29,220 / 269

Rajasthan 38,636 / 10,675 / 27,317 /

644

Assam 34,948 / 8,238 / 26,619 / 88

Haryana 32,876 / 6,712 / 25,758 /

406

Madhya Pradesh 29,217 / 8,044 / 20,343 /

830

Odisha 28,107 / 9,857 / 18,061 / 189

Kerala 20,895 / 10,093 / 10,724 / 68

Jammu and Kashmir 18,879 / 7,661 / 10,885 /

333

Punjab 14,378 / 4,290 / 9,752 / 336

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

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

TRUMP BACKS HCQ AGAIN

President Donald Trump, in a marked shift from the more measured approach

he's taken toward the virus in recent days, took to Twitter to promote

hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for Covid-19, the disease caused by the

virus. In a White House briefing, Trump defended his decision to promote a

viral video of a group of doctors promoting the use of the drug Monday, even

though his own administration withdrew emergency authorization for its use

against the coronavirus.

"I think they're very respected doctors," Trump said, adding they believed

in the drug. "There was a woman who was spectacular in her statements about

it." The doctors, members of a group called America's Frontline Doctors,

took part in an event organized by Tea Party Patriots Action, a dark money

group that has helped fund a pro-Trump political action committee.

Scientific studies have shown hydroxychloroquine can do more harm than good

when used to treat symptoms of Covid-19.

Trump, his son Donald Trump Jr, and others shared video of the event on

Facebook and Twitter, prompting both companies to step in and remove the

content as part of an aggressive push to keep the sites free of potentially

harmful information about the virus - though not before more than 17 million

people had seen one version of the video circulating on the web.

CHINA HALTS HONG KONG EXTRADITION PACTS WITH CANADA, AUSTRALIA, U.K.

China announced the suspension on Tuesday of Hong Kong's extradition

treaties with Canada, Australia and Britain in a tit-for-tat move following

similar decisions by those countries over a controversial new security law.

Western nations have angered Beijing over their responses to the law imposed

on Hong Kong which they see as an erosion of the civil liberties and human

rights the city has enjoyed since its handover from Britain in 1997.

Canada, Britain and Australia are part of the "Five Eyes" intelligence

alliance. The other members are New Zealand, which suspended its extradition

treaty with Hong Kong earlier on Tuesday, and the United States, which has

signalled it is preparing to do the same.

"The wrong action of Canada, Australia and the U.K. in politicising judicial

cooperation with Hong Kong has seriously hurt the basis of judicial

cooperation," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin at a regular press

briefing.

THE REST

========

MUMBAI SERO-SURVEY: 57% RESPONDENTS IN SLUMS EXPOSED TO CORONAVIRUS,16% IN

RESIDENTIAL SOCIETIES

A sero-survey conducted by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation on 6,936

people from three wards found that 57 per cent respondents in slums had been

exposed to and developed antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 virus, as opposed to

16 per cent in residential societies.

Overall, the survey found that 40 per cent had had the infection.

Despite the high exposure in slums, the survey found that fatalities had not

been high. "This could be due to multiple factors. We have to look at

demography, and low fatality rate could also be due to a possible higher

percentage of younger population in slums," said Dr Ullas Kolthur Seetharam,

from Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), who was part of the

study.

None of the nearly 7,000 people tested had taken a RT-PCR test for Covid-19,

which means either they were aysmptomatically infected, or they may not have

had serious enough symptoms to suspect they had caught the infection.

OPEN-DOOR R&D TO HELP BRING COVID VACCINE EARLY TO INDIA

As "vaccine nationalism" grips countries conducting trials, India may be in

a happy position of being able to use the developments for its own

population as it has adopted a more open policy.

The government has encouraged foreign participation at each of the three

stages of testing-preventive (keeping the virus from entering the cells),

anti-viral (preventing Covid from replicating) and curative (minimising the

internal damage). This, after learning from the experience of the 2009

'Swine Flu' pandemic when rich countries bought up nearly all the stocks and

parted with 10 per cent after a global hue and cry.

It is in line with the approach of partnership with all that the Government

approved the entry of Oxford University and AstraZeneca for partnerships in

antivirals, it has also enthusiastically welcomed an Israeli initiative to

develop a 30-second testing kit.

Besides four major drug MNCs located in the US and EU, India's Serum

Institute can undertake mass manufacture of quality-controlled active

ingredients. Panacea Biotech, Shanta Biotech and Biological E Limited also

have large production capacities.

At present, over 160 vaccines are in various stages of development of which

25 candidate vaccines are undergoing human trials. Of them, Zydus, Gennova

Biopharmaceuticals and Bharat Biotech (with Serum Institute) are doing the

development in India. This means that Indians will get some piece of the

action once the vaccines are declared developed and safe enough for mass

production.

There are already early signs of countries trying to safeguard supplies for

their own populations. The US has announced a $ 10 billion "Operation Warp

Speed" that will scale up vaccine production, but only for its citizens.

RECOVERY SIGNS ARE VISIBLE, REMOVE UNCERTAINTIES OVER MINI LOCKDOWNS: CII

Industry body Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Tuesday batted for

removing uncertainties associated with imposing 'mini' lockdowns so that

businesses can function smoothly. It said there were early signs of economic

recovery and it was important to build on them.

To ensure that supply chains function seamlessly across state and district

boundaries, containment zones should be limited to small areas, said

Chandrajit Banerjee, director-general, CII. It is important to reduce

uncertainties regarding restrictions to aid recovery, he said. "Corporates

are unable to plan beyond a horizon of a few weeks, affecting all

operations," he added.

"Consumer-facing industries, such as staple-based FMCG, are likely to grow

at 15-20 per cent in FY21, primarily on account of an increase in in-house

consumption of food and greater demand for sanitation and hygiene products,"

said Banerjee. In contrast, sectors such as aviation, hotels, and commercial

vehicles are still very stressed, he added.

The construction sector, which has a large employment multiplier impact on

the economy, is bouncing back, too, with most construction sites resuming

operations. Commercial real estate is holding up on lease renewals, though

new leases are not being signed.

On the services side, the information technology sector is expected to grow

at about 0-5 per cent in FY21. Companies in this sector are well capitalised

with no layoffs expected. While growth in health sector is likely to be

flat, the crisis has expedited digital health servicing, which otherwise

would have taken a few years to actualise, said Banerjee.

AIR FORCE SHOWS RAFALES RE-FUELLING MID-AIR ON WAY HOME

In photos posted by the Indian Air Force on Twitter, India's first batch of

Rafale fighter jets are seen re-fuelling mid-air from a French Air Force

tanker before their scheduled stopover at the Al-Dhafra air base in the

United Arab Emirates.

The jets built by Dassault Aviation - and piloted by officers from the

Indian Air Force - took off from Merignac in southwest France, the company

said in a statement.

By Wednesday, after a 7,000-km journey with the UAE pit-stop, they should be

at the Ambala air base in Haryana.

They are accompanied by two A330 Phoenix MRTT refuelling planes from the

French Air Force.

Delivery of the Rafale jets - 36 of which were ordered by India in September

2016 - officially began in October but the planes stayed in France for

training of the pilots and mechanics. Delivery should be complete by 2022.

SUSHANT SINGH RAJPUT'S FAMILY FILES FIR AGAINST ACTOR RHEA CHAKRABORTY

The family of Sushant Singh Rajput, who was found dead at his Mumbai

apartment last month, has lodged an FIR against his friend and fellow actor

Rhea Chakraborty and five others at the Rajiv Nagar police station in Patna.

The FIR was lodged on Saturday under IPC Sections 306 (abetment of suicide),

341 (wrongful restraint), 342 (wrongful confinement), 380 (theft), 406

(criminal breach of trust), and 420 (cheating). Patna Central Inspector

General of Police Sanjay Singh confirmed the FIR against Chakraborty.

A four-member team of the Patna Police has left for Mumbai to investigate

the matter. "We have already spoken to Mumbai Police to seek their

cooperation," said an officer.

Several Bihar politicians including RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and LJP

leader Chirag Paswan have been demanding a probe into Rajput's death.

On Monday, the Mumbai Police had recorded the statement of film director

Mahesh Bhatt as part of its investigation into the death of actor Sushant

Singh Rajput. The police is set to record the statement of film producer and

director Karan Johar later this week.

NIFTY BANK: 9 YEARS OF OUTPERFORMANCE WIPED IN 4 MONTHS DUE TO PANDEMIC

For nearly a decade, banks, especially private sector lenders, were the

perfect stocks for investors and fund managers to pick to beat benchmark

indices and generate alpha returns in their portfolios. The Covid-19

pandemic has ended this as years of outperformance by banking stocks has

been wiped off over the past four months.

The Nifty Bank Index has fallen 32 per cent since January, and continues to

lag behind the broader market. Over the same period, NSE Nifty is down just

8.2 per cent. Banking stocks have also lagged in the market recovery since

the March 24 lows. The banking index has risen 36 per cent from its 52-week

low touched on March 24, as against a 50 per cent jump in the benchmark

Nifty50 index during the period.

Compare this with the Nifty Bank index's performance over the years. It

nearly tripled between 2011 and the end of 2019, compared with the benchmark

index, which doubled.

Analysts attribute this fall to investors' fears about a rise in NPAs

because of Covid-19 and the lockdown. "The six-month moratorium on loan

servicing granted by the RBI has created doubt in investors' minds about

banks' asset quality. This is weighing down banking stocks," says Shailendra

Kumar, head of research at Narnolia Securities.

AMITABH BACHCHAN RESPONDS TO TWITTER TROLLS

Even Amitabh Bachchan, revered by millions, has haters - and surprisingly,

his chosen weapon is to counter hate with hate. In an extraordinary blog

post written from Nanavati Hospital - Big B is being treated for COVID-19 -

the 77-year-old star revealed that he receives messages from trolls saying

he should die of the virus. Big B's response to these unnamed haters is

vitriolic, quite out of character for someone whose public interactions are

generally noted for dignity. "Hey Mr Anonymous, you do not even write your

father's name because you do not know who fathered you," Amitabh Bachchan

wrote in his blog addressed to his trolls.

If that isn't eye-popping enough, Big B issued a threat to unleash his "90+

million followers" globally - his 'EF' or extended family, as he calls his

fans, would become an "extermination family," Amitabh Bachchan wrote, ending

his post with a death threat: "All I shall say to them is thok do saale ko".

ENGLAND DEFEAT WINDIES TO REGAIN WISDEN TROPHY

Chris Woakes and Stuart Broad starred with the ball in hand for England as

they defeated West Indies in the third and final Test to regain the Wisden

Trophy here at the Emirates Old Trafford.

England won the third Test of the three-match series by 269 runs on the

final day of the match to take the series 2-1.

Woakes and Broad scalped five and four wickets respectively.

Windies had won the first Test, but they lost the second and third Tests.

Scores: England 369 and 226 for 2 (declared) beat West Indies 197 and 129

INDICATORS

Sensex 38,493 (+558), Nifty 11,300 (+169), Trading Value NSE ,(Rs.crores)

60,291

Nasdaq 10,402 (-134) Dow 26,379 (-205), S&P 3,218 (-21)

US$-Rs. 74.59 GBP-Rs. 96.22, Euro-Rs. 87.49, UAE Dhm-Rs.20.30, Can$-Rs.

55.78, Aus$- Rs. 53.33

GBP 0.77 /US$, Euro 0.85 /US$, Jap.Yen 105.25/US$, Aus$ 1.39 /US$, Sing 1.37

/US$, Bang Taka 83.16 /US$, Can$ 1.33 /US$, Mal Ring 4.24 /US$,

Pak Re 166.30 /US$, Phil Peso 49.16 /US$, Russian Rouble 72.12 /US$, NZ$

1.50 /US$, Thai Baht 31.45 /US$, Ukraine Hryvnia 27.55 /US$, Norway NOK 9.11

/US$

Bitcoin - USD 10,937

Dollar Index 93.66 Brent Crude 43.30 BDI 1,264

Gold world Spot Price USD/aoz 1,948 India (Rs. per gm 24k/22k) 5,177 / 5,077

Silver (Rs. Per KG) 64,710

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Not being yourself is the worst form of self-disrespect. - Mokokoma

Mokhonoana

OFF TRACK

If "CHEMISTRY" students start making films, the names would like:

Tera acid mera base,

Rang de Benzene,

Hamara beaker apke pas hai,

Life in a Hetero,

Laga apron me daag,

3 test tubes,

Ajab Estimation ka gajab result,

Munna bhai HCL,

Mr. Ketone,

Jab we experiment