The Indian Army extended a helping hand to three Chinese citizens who lost their way in Plateau area of North Sikkim at an altitude of 17,500 feet.

Realising danger to the lives of the Chinese citizens which included two men and one woman in sub zero temperatures, the soldiers of Indian Army immediately reached out and provided medical assistance including oxygen, food and warm clothes to protect them from the vagaries of extreme altitude and harsh climatic conditions.

The Indian troops also gave them appropriate guidance to reach their destination after which they moved back. The Chinese citizens expressed their gratitude to India and the Indian Army for their prompt assistance.

As a landmark achievement in Space missions, Indian Astronomers have discovered one of the farthest Star galaxies in the universe.

Speaking about the achievement, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said, it is a matter of pride that India’s first Multi-Wavelength Space Observatory “AstroSat” has detected extreme-UV light from a galaxy located 9.3 billion light-years away from Earth. The galaxy called AUDFs01 was discovered by a team of Astronomers led by Dr Kanak Saha from the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics(IUCAA) Pune.

The importance and uniqueness of this original discovery can be made out from the fact that it has been reported in the leading international journal “Nature Astronomy” published from Britain. India’s AstroSat/UVIT was able to achieve this unique feat because the background noise in the UVIT detector is much less than one on the Hubble Space Telescope of US based NASA.

Dr Jitendra Singh has congratulated India’s Space Scientists for once again proving to the world that India’s capability in Space technology has risen to a distinguished level from where our scientists are now offering cues and giving leads to the Space scientists in other parts of the world. According to Professor ShyamTandon, the excellent spatial resolution and high sensitivity is a tribute to the hard work of the UVIT core team of scientists for over a decade.

According to Director of Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) Dr Somak Ray Chaudhury, this discovery is a very important clue to how the dark ages of the Universe ended and there was light in the Universe. We need to know when this started, but it has been very hard to find the earliest sources of light, he said.

Pertinent to mention that India’s first Space Observatory AstroSat, which has made this discovery, was launched by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) on September 28, 2015 during the first term of the Modi Government. It was developed by a team led by ShyamTandon, Ex Emeritus Professor, IUCAA with the full support of ISRO.

The Union Cabinet condoled the sad demise of Pranab Mukherjee, former President of India. Cabinet also observed silence for two minutes in the memory of PranabMukherjee.

The Cabinet today passed the following resolution:

“The Cabinet expresses profound sorrow at the sad demise of Shri Pranab Mukherjee, former President of India.

In his passing away, the country has lost a distinguished leader and an outstanding parliamentarian.

Shri Pranab Mukherjee, 13th President of India was a man of unparalleled experience in governance who served as Union Foreign, Defence, Commerce and Finance Minister.

Born on December 11, 1935 in the small village of Mirati in Birbhum District of West Bengal, Shri Mukherjee acquired a Master’s degree in History and Political Science as well as a degree in Law from the University of Kolkata. He then embarked on his professional life as a college teacher and journalist. Inspired by his father’s contribution to the national movement, Shri Mukherjee started his full time public life following his election to Rajya Sabha in 1969.

Shri Mukherjee served as Deputy Minister, Industry; Shipping and Transport, Steel and Industry and Minister of State for Finance during 1973-75. He assumed office as Finance Minister of India for the first time in 1982 and was Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha from 1980 to 1985. He became Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission from 1991 to 1996; concurrently Minister for Commerce from 1993 to 1995 and Minister of External Affairs from 1995 to 1996; Minister of Defence from 2004 to 2006. He again served as Minister of External Affairs from 2006 to 2009 and Minister of Finance from 2009 to 2012. He was Leader of House in Lok Sabha from 2004 to 2012.

Shri Pranab Mukherjee assumed office of the President of India on July 25, 2012 and served his full term of five years. As President, Shri Mukherjee lent dignity to the high office and brought to bear his scholarly and humanitarian outlook on national and international affairs.

A prolific reader, Shri Mukherjee has authored several books on the Indian Economy and on Nation Building. The many awards and honours conferred on him include the Best Parliamentarian Award in 1997, Padma Vibhusan in 2008 and India’s highest civilian award Bharat Ratna in 2019.

Shri Mukherjee has left his imprint on our national life. In his death the country has lost a distinguished national leader, accomplished Parliamentarian and a tall statesman.

The Cabinet records its deep appreciation of the services of Shri Pranab Mukherjee to the nation and extends its heartfelt condolences to the members of his bereaved family on behalf of the Government and the entire nation.”

B S Yediyurappa, Chief Minister of Karnataka and Shri Suresh C. Angadi, Minister of State of Railways today flagged off first ever Roll On Roll Off (RORO) service of South Western Railway from Nelamangla (near Bengaluru) to Bale (near Solapur).

Speaking on the occasion, Shri B S Yediyurappa, Chief Minister of Karnataka said, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi is emphasizing on Multimodal connectivity. APMC Markets in the region offer tremendous scope for RORO. He congratulated Suresh C. Angadi, Minister of State of Railways for taking lead in the initiative and assured full cooperation from State Government.

Speaking on the occasion, Suresh C. Angadi, Minister of State of Railways said, Multimodal connectivity is dream of Prime Minister. Thousands of trucks plying between Bengaluru and Solapur. With RORO travel time will be just 17 hours. This is trial run that got delayed due to COVID. Kisan Rail started to help farmers-agricultural produce can be transported across the country. The RORO service will bring faster development in the region.

RORO is a concept of carrying road vehicles loaded with various commodities, on open flat railway wagons. PM ,in his recent Independence day speech ,has envisaged multimodal connectivity to take India to next level of development. RORO services are combination of best features of road and rail transports in the sense that they offer door to door service with minimal handling transported by fat and direct rail link . Road transport has advantage of door to door delivery of goods. However, increasing traffic on roads is leading to congestion and delays to passenger vehicles. This will cause unsafe travel conditions. Also, delays at interstate check posts due to inspection of various documents, etc. contribute to increased travel time.

On the other hand, Railways provide hassle free and environmentally friendly transport to medium to large quantum of freight. Rail transport is most fuel efficient of all means of transport and is much safer than road. RORO is a multimodal delivery model with many advantages. Faster movement of goods and essentials, reducing Time taken by trucks to reach destinations due to traffic congestion in between cities. Reduces congestion on the roads. Saves precious fuel. Reduces carbon footprint. Relief to crew of truck as it avoids long distance driving. No hassles of check posts/toll gates etc. Seamless Inter-operability between roadways & railways-Inter-modal transport on existing track. Ensuring uninterrupted supply of essential commodities.

Free time for loading/ unloading is 3 hours Ro-RO will be reckoning force in “vocal for local” –Will boost our local MSME units by encouraging piecemeal /decentralized loading through trucks. RO-RO will help government initiatives like “operation green” to stabalize prices of TOP(tomato,potato and Onion). Provides link between agriculture producing regions and agro consumption centres. Ensures farmers get the right market and right price for their produce. Connects and Balances the commodity deficient and surplus markets. RO-ROtrain services were first introduced in Indian Railways on Konkan Railways in 1999, and are running successfully since then.

Punjab National Bank Ltd. (PNB) has informed the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) which spearheaded the corporate governance litigation in a foreign jurisdictional Court, that it has received $ 3.25 million (equivalent of Rs. 24.33 crore) as the first tranche of recoveries. Upon liquidation of the debtors’ assets by the US Chapter 11 Trustee, a sum of $ 11.04 million (equivalent of Rs. 82.66 crore) is available for distribution to unsecured creditors including PNB. Further recovery therefrom is subject to other expenses and settlement of claims of other claimants.

The maiden repatriation of $ 3.25 million is an unprecedented achievement of the Government of India, Ministry of Corporate Affairs in its fight against corporate fraud in overseas territory. The Ministry also has initiated proceedings for disgorgement of monies from the perpetrators, i.e., the entities promoted or controlled by Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi.

Punjab National Bank Ltd.in 2018 informed the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India that three companies promoted by Nirav Modi, namely M/s. Firestar Diamond, Inc., M/s. A. Jaffee, Inc. and M/s. Fantasy, Inc., had filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection in the Southern District of New York, United States of America. PNB requested the Ministry of Corporate Affairs to support and join the bankruptcy proceedings in New York, USA in order to help PNB realize its claims in the debtors’ assets.

The US Bankruptcy Court of Southern District of New York, by its Order dated July 26, 2018 recognized the claims of PNB in the proceeds of sale of assets of the properties of the debtor companies. It also authorized PNB to issue subpoenas to compel the examination of Nirav Modi, Mihir Bhansali and Rakhi Bhansali under oath.

Subsequently, on August 24, 2018, the Examiner appointed by the New York Bankruptcy Court submitted his report. The Report explains the modus operandi of the fraud, and the manner in which the US-based employees of the debtors participated in the fraud. One prominent feature of the fraud was the apparent façade of independent companies, which were, in reality, entities promoted and/or controlled by Nirav Modi, that engaged in ‘round-tripping’ of the diamonds amongst themselves.

Coordinated, graded and pro-active management of COVID-19 by the Union and State/UT governments has ensured the national Case Fatality Rate (CFR) is on the slide. It currently stands at 2.04%.

As part of the continuous process of review and handholding of States/UTs for collaborative management of COVID-19, two high level virtual meetings were chaired by Rajesh Bhushan, Health Secretary on 7th and 8th August to engage with the States reporting with high case load and higher CFR than the national average, in order to advise and support them on efforts to prevent and reduce mortality due to COVID-19.

Meeting focused on 13 districts concentrated in eight States/UT. These are Kamrup Metro in Assam, Patna in Bihar, Ranchi in Jharkhand, Alappuzha and Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, Ganjam in Odisha, Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, 24 Paraganas North, Hooghly, Howrah, Kolkata and Maldah in West Bengal and Delhi. These districts account for nearly 9% of India’s active cases and about 14% of COVID deaths.

They also report low tests per million and high confirmation percentage. A surge has been observed in the daily new cases in four districts viz. Kamrup Metro in Assam, Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, Thiruvananthapuram and Alappuzha in Kerala. Principal Secretary (Health) and MD (NHM) from the eight States along with district surveillance officers, district collectors, commissioners of the municipal corporation, Chief Medical Officers, and Medical Superintendent of Medical Colleges participated in the virtual meeting.

Several issues critical to reducing case fatality rate were discussed during the meeting. The States were advised to address the issues of low lab utilisation i.e. less than 100 tests per day for RT-PCR and 10 for others; low tests per million population; decrease in absolute tests from last week; delay in test results; and high confirmation percentage among the health care workers. They were advised to ensure timely referral and hospitalization in view of reports from some districts of patients dying within 48 hrs of admission.

States were directed to ensure unavailability of ambulances with zero tolerance for refusal. The need to ensure monitoring asymptomatic cases under home isolation with special focus on physical visits/phone consultation on daily basis was underscored. States were asked to ensure a timely assessment and make advance preparedness for infrastructure viz. ICU beds, oxygen supply etc., based on the prevailing case load and the estimated growth rate.

It was reiterated that AIIMS, New Delhi is holding virtual sessions twice very week on Tuesdays and Fridays where a specialist team of doctors provides guidance on effective clinical management of COVID-19 patients in the ICUs of different State hospitals through tele/video consultation, to reduce the case fatality rate. The State authorities were advised to ensure that State Centers of Excellence other hospitals participate in these VCs regularly to improve clinical practices.

The States were advised to follow all Ministry protocols for effective management of containment and buffer zones along with seamless patient and clinical management of patients with special focus on critical cases. Another major area highlighted was that of preventable deaths by strict surveillance among high-risk population like people with co-morbidities, pregnant women, the elderly and children.

The Union Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the government is working closely with RBI on the debt restructuring demand of the industry keeping in mind the adverse effects caused by Kovid – 19. Addressing the National Executive Committee Meeting (NECM ) of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) , Sitharaman said , ‘The focus is on rescheduling. The Finance Ministry is actively working with the RBI on this. Theoretically, the idea that rescheduling may be necessary is being considered. ‘

Regarding the comprehensive deliberations on the reform measures being announced by the government, Mrs Sitharaman said , ‘ Every step being announced is taken only after extensive consultation with the stakeholders and within the government , so that it To ensure that any step does not fail simply because we have not made the necessary related changes. We have taken all these steps to ensure that its impact is seen at the ground level. ‘

Addressing the concerns expressed by the members of FICCI on the difficulties faced by MSMEs in availing loans under the ‘Emergency Credit Guarantee Scheme’ announced by the Government , Sitharaman said , ‘Loans to MSMEs falling under the Bank Emergency Credit Facility Can not refuse to give. If refused , he should be informed of such cases. I will look into it. ‘

On FICCI’s suggestion to set up a ‘Development Finance Institute’ to meet the credit related demands being made by the industry , the Finance Minister said , ‘ Development Finance Institute is under progress. The format would be like , in this regard, we will know soon. Stressing the need for reciprocity in trade deals, Sitharaman said , ‘ We are being asked to make reciprocity arrangements with the countries with which we have opened our markets. Reciprocity is a very important point or issue in our trade negotiations. The Finance Minister said that the decision to reduce GST rates on healthcare and other products will be taken by the GST Council.

Sitharaman said that the Finance Ministry is working closely with the RBI on the demand for extension or rescheduling of the hospitality sector . He said , ‘I understand the demand for extension or rescheduling of the hospitality sector very well. We are working closely with the RBI on this. ‘

FICCI Chairperson Dr. Sangeeta Reddy praised the government’s proactive approach in dealing with this situation. Dr. Reddy said , “Though there are signs of improvement or improvement, but to maintain this improvement in the operational parameters of the business people, constant support from the government will be required. Cooperation is needed especially to strengthen the market demand and to increase the general demand. ‘

Uday Shankar, Senior Vice President, FICCI, proposed the vote of thanks and said that his Chamber will work closely with the Government to reduce the challenges facing the industry.

Union Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi today said that commitment of the Government is “Politic Empowerment and not Political Exploitation”. Several “bold and big reforms” are a reflection of our honest and effective efforts which have delivered better results, he said.

Naqvi was addressing Muslim women from across the country through virtual conference along with Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani on the occasion of “Muslim Women Rights Day”. Manjit Singh Rai, Vice-Chairperson, National Commission for Minoritieswas also present at the event. 

Naqvi said that 1st August is a day which made Muslim women free from social evil of Triple Talaq. 1st August has been recorded in the country’s history as Muslim Women Rights Day. 1st August will remain as a golden moment of Indian democracy and Parliamentary history.
Naqvi said that the law which makes social evil of Triple Talaq a criminal offence has strengthened self-reliance, self-respect and self-confidence of the Muslim women of the country.

He said that the Government has ensured gender equality and strengthened constitutional, fundamental and democratic rights of the Muslim women by bringing law against the cruel social evil of Triple Talaq. Naqvi said that Triple Talaq or Talaq-a-Biddat was neither Islamic nor legal. Despite of the fact, the social evil of Triple Talaq was given political patronage by Merchants of Votes
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Naqvi said that the law against social evil of Triple Talaq could have been passed in 1986 when the Supreme Court had given historic judgement in the Shahbano Case. The Congress had absolute majority in Parliament with more than 400 out of 545 Lok Sabha Members and more than 159 out of 245 Members in the Rajya Sabha. But the then Rajiv Gandhi Government used its strength in the Parliament to make the Supreme Court judgement ineffective and deprive the Muslim women of their constitutional and fundamental rights, he pointed out.

Naqvi said that several Muslim-majority nations of the world had declared Triple Talaq as illegal and un-Islamic much earlier. Egypt was the first Muslim nation which abolished this social evil in 1929. Sudan in 1929, Pakistan in 1956, Bangladesh in 1972, Iraq in 1959, Syria in 1953, Malaysia in 1969 had abolished the practice of Triple Talaq. Besides, countries such as Cyprus, Jordan, Algeria, Iran, Brunei, Morocco, Qatar, UAE also ended this social evil many years ago. But Muslim women in India struggled for decades to get freedom from this cruel social evil.

The Minister said that the Government made the law against Triple Talaq to make effective the Supreme Court’s judgement. One year has passed since the law against Triple Talaq was passed and there is a decline of about 82 per cent in Triple Talaq cases thereafter. If any such case was reported, the law has taken action.
 
Speaking on the occasion, Union Law and Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad asked why did it take India 70 years to bring a law against triple talaq and pointed out that it is a law for women’s rights and self-respect. He said that he will work towards suggestions to make Muslim women digitally literate.

Smriti Irani, in her address, said the passage of the Triple Talaq Bill is a victory for millions of Muslim women and called it a true testimony to ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas’.
On the occasion, the ministers addressed Muslim women from different states of the country through virtual conference. About 50,000 Muslim women from various places across the country including Uttam Nagar and Batla House in New Delhi, Greater Noida, Lucknow and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, Jaipur in Rajasthan, Mumbai in Maharashtra, Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, Krishnagiri in Tamil Nadu, Hyderabad etc joined the virtual conference.
 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi reviewed the implementation of PM-SVANidhi Scheme of Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs earlier today. It was informed over 2.6 lakh applications have been received, over 64,000 have been sanctioned and over 5,500 have been disbursed.  He expressed satisfaction on use of end-to-end IT solution through a web-portal and mobile App for administration of the Scheme to ensure transparency, accountability and speed. 

While noting that the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs is working on a complete IT solution including mobile application for seamless implementation of the scheme, Prime Minister said that the scheme design should incentive use of end-to-end digital transactions by the street vendors. This should cover the entire gamut of their business – from procurement of raw material to collection of sale proceeds. Appropriate incentives and trainings should be conducted for this purpose. Use of digital payments would also help build a credit profile for the street vendor helping them in future financial needs.

Prime Minister said that the scheme should not be just seen from the perspective for extending loans to street vendors. It should also be seen as a part of an outreach to the street vendors for their holistic development and economic upliftment. One step in this direction would be by capturing their entire socio-economic details to facilitate necessary policy interventions. 

Such data could also be used by different Ministries of Government of India to benefit them under various Schemes for which they are eligible, on priority. These include housing under PMAY-U, cooking gas under Ujjawala, electricity under Saubhagya, health under Ayushman Bharat, skilling under DAY-NULM, Bank account under Jan Dhan etc. 
 
Background
Government of India has launched PM SVANidhi Scheme to facilitate collateral free working capital loan upto Rs.10,000/- of one-year tenure, to approximately, 50 lakh street vendors, to resume their businesses.  Incentives in the form of interest subsidy (@ 7% per annum) and cash back (upto Rs.1,200/- per annum) are being provided to promote good repayment behaviour and digital transactions respectively. The interest subsidy effectively works out to 30 % of the entire interest burden for a loan of Rs. 10,000 @ 24 % annual interest.

Therefore, in effect the vendor does not pay any interest, rather gets a subsidy on the loan amount if he repays in time and uses digital transactions for all receipts and payments. The scheme entails enhanced next tranche of loan on early or timely repayment.  Loan processing has begun since July 02, 2020 through an IT platform “PM SVANidhi” with Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), which is the implementing agency for the scheme administration.