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NIA carries out raids at 14 locations in Kashmir, chargesheets three

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NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday conducted searches at several locations in the Kashmir Valley and Jammu in a case related to militant activities by various militant organisations. According to the statement issued by NIA, the agency conducted searches at 14 locations in Kulgam, Pulwama, Anantnag, Sopore & Jammu.

According to the NIA spokesperson, the case pertains to the criminal conspiracy for carrying out terrorists & subversive activities hatched by the cadres and OGWs of various proscribed organizations and their affiliates and off-shoots, operating under various pseudo names, at the behest of their Pakistani handlers. “They are involved in carrying out attacks by using cyber-space in J&K, targeting minorities, security personnel and spreading communal disharmony,” the spokesperson said. Meanwhile the NIA on Friday filed a chargesheet against three people accused in a case of terror-funding through cross-LoC trade. The case was registered suo-moto on December 16, 2016.

Passengers from hotspot nations to need Covid -ve papers to fly

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NEW DELHI: Starting next week, India will make Covid-19 negative reports mandatory for international arrivals from countries reporting a spike in cases so as to further minimise ingress of any new variant of the bug into the country.

“In the next one week, selected countries will be identified where the caseload is higher,” Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said in a TV interview on Friday. “People from there who come to India will have to upload their Covid-19 RTPCR reports,” he added.Countries reporting a surge in Covid-19 cases include China, the US, Japan, Korea, France, Greece and Italy.

On Thursday, the health ministry had announced new travel guidelines for international arrivals, which included 2% random Covid tests of passengers from hotspot countries. A day later, the ministry advised states to be alert in view of the upcoming Christmas and New Year festivities and directed them to strengthen surveillance, ramp up testing, and ensure the wearing of masks, especially in crowded spaces, including indoors.

Mandaviya held a Covid review meeting with state health ministers and asked them to ensure hospital infrastructure is ready to meet any eventuality. He directed them to carry out mock drills in hospitals to check their preparedness. “Need to collectively reinvigorate the system and remove any sense of complacency and fatigue,” he said and requested them to expedite testing.

India’s first nasal Covid vaccine is ready for use
India’s first intranasal Covid vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech has been approved by the Union Health Ministry as a booster dose and will be available on the CoWIN platform from today

Bengaluru MLAs want unused government vehicles to be scrapped

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BELAGAVI: An interesting debate was held, particularly among the Bengaluru MLAs in the Assembly, over disposing of old government vehicles parked in front of offices in the state. Calling attention of the House on the issue on Friday, MLA B Harshavardhan said parking of unused vehicles in front of offices and the roadside creates space constraints, especially in cities.

He urged the government to declare them as scrap and generate income for the state exchequer by selling them. Several members echoed the same sentiment and some of them said the vehicles stocked in the police stations create congestion and affect smooth vehicular movement.

They urged the government to identify 5-10 acres of land on the city outskirts to dispose of such vehicles. Even, Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri said such vehicles should be sold, before being turned into scrap.

In reply, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J C Madhu Swamy said the government was framing a scrapping policy in line with the Central policy. However, for sale of unused government vehicles, there was a set procedure and as far as vehicles in front of police stations, it is for the court to decide.

Sania Mirza to pair up with World No 11 Anna Danilina for Australian Open 2023

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Sania Mirza and Anna Danilina

NEW DELHI: India’s ace tennis star Sania Mirza will pair up with Kazakhstan’s Anna Danilina to compete at the Australian Open 2023, which will begin on January 16.

For the first Grand Slam of 2023, the Indian tennis player will partner with the World number 11 in the world, according to Imran Mirza, the tennis star’s father and coach.

However, Sania Mirza’s participation in the Australian Open’s mixed doubles competition has not yet been confirmed.

Sania ranked number 25 in the world in the WTA doubles rankings, had intended to give up playing competitive tennis after the 2022 season, but later changed her mind.

The Indian tennis player is presently competing in the World Tennis League, which is taking place in Dubai.

Former number 1 in the world in women’s doubles, Sania Mirza, reached the finals of the WTA 500 Charleston Open and the WTA 250 Strasbourg Open in 2022. She participated in six other women’s doubles semifinals in addition to two finals.

An achievement of Sania for the year was reaching the Wimbledon 2022 mixed doubles semifinals with her Croatian partner Mate Pavic. Saina, 36, made her first Grand Slam semifinal appearance in five years.

Sania has won two Australian Open championships in her career, one in women’s doubles with Martina Navratilova and the other in mixed doubles with Mahesh Bhupathi in 2009.

At the Australian Open 2022, Sania Mirza paired with Nadiia Kichenok in women’s doubles and was knocked out in the first round. She teamed up with USA’s Rajeev Ram in the mixed doubles and made it to the quarter-finals.

BJP’s politics of religion will be its undoing: HDK

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HD Kumaraswamy (Photo | Shriram BN, EPS)

BENGALURU: The battle for politically important Mandya is going to be intense in the 2023 Assembly elections. This is one of the few districts where the fight is usually between JDS and Congress.

Yet on Friday, senior JDS leader H D Kumaraswamy chose to target BJP, which received a negligible number of votes in all the seven constituencies in the 2018 elections.

Saying that BJP is doing politics in the name of religion, he alleged that the ruling party does not want development. It only uses people by making them emotional, but voters will not fall prey to BJP’s antics. BJP’s politics of religion will be its undoing, he added.

On Panchamasalis seeking 2A reservation, he said a comprehensive study should be conducted on their educational, economical and cultural status and their everyday earnings before deciding on the quota category. Kumaraswamy’s attack on BJP comes in the backdrop of BJP MLC CP Yogeshwara criticising JDS recently. Yogeshwara is likely to contest against the former CM again in the coming polls.

KR Pet in Mandya district is another constituency where JDS will face a serious challenge from BJP. This time, JDS is going all out to consolidate its position in the sugarcane belt and good turnouts at its Pancharatna Yatra have only made the party confident.

2023 Karnataka Assembly polls: Congress to shortlist up to three candidates in each seat

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Congress flag. (File photo)

BENGALURU:  Winnability, seniority in the party, the capacity to mobilise resources required for elections, and popularity in the constituency will be major criteria for shortlisting Congress candidates for the 2023 Assembly polls

The Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) has started the process of shortlisting candidates from among ticket aspirants, who have submitted applications.KPCC president DK Shivakumar has constituted committees that will visit all the districts to shortlist 1-3 candidates and send the list to the state party unit.Committee members have been informed to only consider candidates who enjoy the confidence of the local population and give priority to youngsters and women, who have a chance of winning the elections.

Shivakumar said the committee members should look at all the applications in their respective districts, assess their strengths and weaknesses, and finalise unanimous candidates after holding consultations with all leaders. In case of any differences among the aspirants, the committee members have been told to take the assistance of KPCC and AICC leaders to resolve the issue.

He also directed the committee members not to hold meetings at residences of leaders and not to allow any recordings. They have also been directed against issuing any statements to the media about the discussions during the meetings. The candidates involved in any anti-social activities or communal acts will not be considered. The committee members have been directed to start holding meetings immediately and send the shortlisted names to KPCC before January 1, 2023.

Meanwhile, former Union minister Margaret Alva will be in-charge of the committee that will look into the applications and shortlist the candidates in Bengaluru City Central, former CM M Veerappa Moily will head the committee in Kolar, and former Union minister KH Muniyappa in Tumakuru.

No Covid surge in India due to new variants, says India’s top virologist Dr Gagandeep Kang

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NEW DELHI: Amid rising Covid-19 cases globally, especially in China, India’s top virologist Dr Gagandeep Kang said on Friday that India is doing fine as both Omcricon sub-variants XBB and BF.7, which have been in India for a while, have not driven an upsurge.

“At the moment, India is doing fine. We have a few cases, we have had the XBB & BF.7 for a while, and they have not driven an upsurge in India. In the absence of an even more highly infectious variant, I do not expect a surge,” she said in a series of tweets, in which she addressed various concerns and fears, from the situation in China, and India, booster doses, wearing of masks and travel plans.

“But will we be able to detect a new variant or a surge? We have ample sequencing capacity & if sequencing is done in real-time, we absolutely can. When hospitals begin to see severe cases, we will know. Need to & can understand & measure both the virus & the disease,” she added.

The professor of the Department of Gastrointestinal Sciences at the Christian Medical College in Vellore said, “in India.., we already have XBB and BF.7 (the two being hyped as new monsters). They are, like all Omicron sub-variants, very good at infecting people because they escape the immune response that prevents infection, but is not causing more severe disease than delta.”Both Omicron sub-variants XBB and BF.7 are driving the Covid surge globally.

Her long-chain tweets came when the Indian government has stepped up its surveillance in the wake of a Covid surge globally, especially in China, where BF.7 is driving the hike in cases, with viral videos of hospitals and crematoriums overwhelmed by the pressure.  “Does all of the hype mean that the threat to India is high? Our population is vaccinated with the primary series, & has had high rates of infection (90% estimated). Most conditions were during Omicron, & this gives us hybrid immunity,” she said.

With the health ministry announcing that they will be conducting random testing of two per cent of international travellers from Saturday, Dr Kang said, “it has little value.” “Randomly increasing testing has little value. Testing incoming travellers needs a risk-based framework, but X% sampling also means that you accept that every incoming case will not be detected. In other words, increasing testing needs a strategic approach.”

Sonia Gandhi joins Bharat Jodo Yatra in Delhi

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Congress MP Rahul Gandhi

NEW DELHI: Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi joined the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Delhi on Saturday and walked with Rahul Gandhi for a short distance.

This is the second time the former Congress president has joined the yatra that began in September last year from Kanyakumari. She had earlier taken part in the march in October when it was in Karnataka.

Sonia Gandhi, wearing a face mask, walked with her son Rahul Gandhi and daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for a few minutes before the yatra reached the Ashram Chowk here for the morning halt.

The yatra entered Delhi from Haryana Saturday morning and was accorded a warm welcome at the Badarpur border by party leaders and workers.

Traffic snarls were reported from parts of Delhi as the march made its way through the national capital.

The yatra will halt near the Red Fort in the evening.

Chinese city of Qingdao seeing half a million Covid cases a day: Local health chief

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BEIJING: Half a million people in a single Chinese city are being infected with Covid-19 every day, a senior health official has said, in a rare and quickly censored acknowledgement that the country’s wave of infections is not being reflected in official statistics.

China this month has rapidly dismantled key pillars of its zero-Covid strategy, doing away with snap lockdowns, lengthy quarantines and travel curbs in a jarring reversal of its hallmark containment strategy.

Cities across the country have struggled to cope as surging infections have emptied pharmacy shelves, filled hospital wards and appeared to cause backlogs at crematoriums and funeral homes.

But the end of strict testing mandates has made caseloads virtually impossible to track, while authorities have narrowed the medical definition of a Covid death in a move experts have said will suppress the number of fatalities attributable to the virus.

A news outlet operated by the ruling Communist Party in Qingdao on Friday reported the municipal health chief as saying that the eastern city was seeing “between 490,000 and 530,000” new Covid cases a day.

The coastal city of around 10 million people was “in a period of rapid transmission ahead of an approaching peak”, Bo Tao reportedly said, adding that the infection rate would accelerate by another 10 per cent over the weekend.

The report was shared by several other news outlets but appeared to have been edited by Saturday morning to remove the case figures.

China’s National Health Commission said Saturday that 4,103 new domestic infections were recorded nationwide the previous day, with no new deaths.

In Shandong, the province where Qingdao is located, authorities officially logged just 31 new domestic cases.

China’s government keeps a tight leash on the country’s media, with legions of online censors on hand to scrub out content deemed politically sensitive.

Most government-run publications have downplayed the severity of the country’s exit wave, instead depicting the policy reversal as logical and controlled.

But some outlets have hinted at shortages of medicine and hospitals under strain, though estimates of actual case numbers remain rare.

The government of eastern Jiangxi province said in a Friday social media post that 80 per cent of its population — equivalent to around 36 million people — would be infected by March.

More than 18,000 Covid patients had been admitted to major medical institutions in the province in the two weeks up to Thursday, including nearly 500 severe cases but no deaths, the statement said.

Crypto could cause next financial crisis: RBI governor

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Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das.

MUMBAI: India’s central bank governor warned Wednesday that cryptocurrency markets risked causing the next global financial crisis, saying the recent collapse of FTX was proof of the sector’s “inherent risks”

The comments close out a challenging year for India’s millions of crypto owners, who are already reeling from a global market collapse and steep domestic taxes.

“Unlike any other product, our main concern about crypto is that it doesn’t have any underlying (value) whatsoever,” Reserve Bank of India governor Shaktikanta Das said at an industry event.

“Our view is that it should be prohibited because … if you try to regulate it and allow it to grow, please mark my words: the next financial crisis will come from private cryptocurrencies.”

Cryptocurrencies have been under the scrutiny of Indian regulators since first entering the local market nearly a decade ago, with a rise in fraudulent transactions leading to a central bank ban in 2018.

India’s Supreme Court lifted the restrictions two years later and the market surged, backed by burgeoning local trading platforms and glitzy celebrity endorsements.

But the introduction of a 30 percent tax on profits from trading “private currencies” this year has resulted in trading volumes shrinking to a tenth of their previous size.

A sharp fall in the prices of leading tokens like bitcoin — dubbed a “crypto winter” — has wiped out more than $2 trillion from their global market value since its peak of $3 trillion in November 2021, further spooking traders.

The sudden collapse of FTX — a cryptocurrency exchange worth $32 billion before it filed for bankruptcy last month — and US fraud charges against its one-time billionaire founder Sam Bankman-Fried has intensified scrutiny of the sector.

Das said the fall in crypto prices and recent developments around FTX validated his long-held view that cryptocurrencies have “huge inherent risks for our macroeconomic and financial stability”.

The Reserve Bank of India this year introduced its own digital rupee based on blockchain technology, intended to bring down the costs of commercial transactions as the Indian economy becomes less reliant on paper currency.

Last month, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for increased regulation of private currencies to stamp out terror funding.

Modi also said last year that bitcoin presented a risk to younger generations and could “spoil our youth” if it ended up “in the wrong hands”.

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