Archives for 2022

Justice Hemant Gupta dismissed the appeals challenging the HC’s order whereas Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia allowed the appeals.

Justice Dhulia while allowing the appeals and quashing the GO dated February 5 said, “Wearing of hijab is ultimately a matter of her choice. The ratio laid down by SC in Bijoy Emanuel covers the issue. What weighed in my mind was the education of a girl child. A girl child has a lot of difficulties to face. There are other difficulties as well and whether we’re making her life any better by putting restrictions on education.” 

Due to the divergence in opinion, the two-judge bench asked the pleas to be placed before the CJI for constituting an appropriate bench. 

A bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and Sudhanshu Dhulia after an extensive hearing of ten days had reserved a verdict in September 2022. 

The hearing had witnessed a battery of senior lawyers such as Kapil Sibal, Dushyant Dave, Salman Khurshid, Rajeev Dhawan, Sanjay Hegde, Devdutt Kamat arguing against the hijab ban. For the State, submissions were made by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, Karnataka AG Prabhuling Navadgi and ASG KM Nataraj.

On March 15, 2022, the Karnataka HC held that wearing of the hijab was not a part of essential religious practice which could be protected under article 25 (Right to freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion) of the Constitution. The bench further held that the prescription of a uniform dress code in educational institutions was not violative of the fundamental rights of the petitioners.

The HC’s verdict came on the petitions filed by a section of Muslim students from the Government Pre-University Girls College in Udupi. The students had challenged the state’s February 5 decision that did not allow students to wear the hijab, or customary Islamic headscarf, to educational institutions.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday posted the pleas filed by students who had returned from war torn Ukraine seeking permission to continue their medical education in India for November 1, 2022. 

Senior Advocate Rajiv Dutta appearing for the students submitted before a bench led by Justice Hemant Gupta that a meeting had to be conducted wherein has to take decision. 

“We’re waiting something positive may come. They have been informing but nothing is coming through. This is situation where we need their help,” he added. 

Earlier while appreciating centre’s stand of introducing “Academic Mobility Programme” that would give almost 20k Ukraine returnees chance to continue their medical education in alternate universities of other compatible countries, it asked centre to develop a portal specifying requirements such as fees of college, seats available of these universities.

“You can develop a portal, give them the options so that the students can be transferred. We appreciate that India can’t accommodate 20/30k students and they will have to study outside India. It should be transparently available so that they can take up the course. One liasioning officer will go mad. What is the fee, colleges available, how many seats are available and which college,” a bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and Sudhanshu Dhulia said. 

Court suggested this while considering the batch of pleas filed by students who had returned from Ukraine seeking to continue their medical education in India. 

In its response, the Health Ministry had said that Ukraine returnees with “poor merit” could not be allowed to continue their education in India. The Centre had said that they will have to utilise the academic mobility programme proposed by Ukrainian universities that have already been “no objection” by National Medical Commission and Centre. It was also said that the programme would do justice to most of the aggrieved students and also protect the career of nearly 20,000 Indian students who had to be evacuated from war torn country. 

ISLAMABAD:  Pakistan’s health ministry has approved the purchase of over 6 million mosquito nets from India, as the country scrambles to contain the spread of malaria and other vector-borne diseases due to the unprecedented floods, according to a media report on Tuesday.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is using financial resources provided by Global Fund to acquire the nets for Pakistan, Geo.tv report said.

The WHO officials said they are planning to obtain mosquito nets as early as possible and are hopeful that these would be obtained by next month via the Wagah route, the report said.

More than 1,700 people were killed, 33 million displaced and a third of the country was submerged under water in the worst floods to hit Pakistan, brought about by unprecedented rains since mid-June.

In September, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned that a surge in diseases like malaria can cause a “second disaster. Last week, the WHO warned of 2.7 million malaria cases in 32 districts in flood-hit Pakistan by January 2023.

“Malaria is spreading at a rapid pace in 32 flood-affected districts of the country where thousands of children are infected with the mosquito-borne disease,” officials said.

Pakistan’s health ministry had sought permission to procure mosquito nets from India last month, the report said.

The official said they had requested the Global Fund for the arrangement of mosquito nets for the 26 most-affected districts of Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan, where Plasmodium Falciparum cases were reported.

In response, it offered to procure these nets from India if the Pakistan government approved such a move.

Relations between India and Pakistan have been strained over the Kashmir issue and cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan.

Bilateral ties nosedived after India abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution, revoking the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcating the State into two Union Territories on August 5, 2019.

Following India’s decision, Pakistan downgraded diplomatic ties with New Delhi and expelled the Indian envoy. Trade ties between Pakistan and India have largely been frozen since then.

SANIKERE (CHITRADURGA DT): Tuesday was Rahul Gandhi’s day with women — common workaday sorts like teachers, labourers and waste pickers — and interactions with them left the Congress leader impressed. Listening to their daily struggles and domestic issues, he exhorted them to be “lionesses of their homes”.  ADVERTISEMENTAds by 

Lakshmi Devi, a guest teacher in a government school in Kudligi who was born without hands, stunned Rahul with her determination to carve a life for herself. She adapted herself to write with her feet and excelled in studies, and then pursued her DEd. Rahul admitted that he could never have achieved what she had, if he was similarly challenged.

Listening to their viewpoints and wisdom was truly inspiring, he said, and added that he would do his best to address their issues. Rahul interacted with women labourers of MGNREGA, Anganwadi workers, Asha volunteers, waste-pickers and beedi rollers. Kotramma, a MGNREGA worker from Hagari Bommanahalli, explained that work was limited to 100 days per family, and wages fixed at Rs 309 a day. She demanded that the workday cap be raised to 200 days per person, and daily wages to Rs 600, to counter rising prices.
Bhagyamma, an Asha worker in Hulikunta village, said she served as a bridge between the community and healthcare sector. Her earnings were based on an incentive system with no stability, and she not paid on time, she said.

Leela, an Anganwadi worker, said salaries had not been increased in a long time and they had no job security. Jabeena Khanam, a beedi roller from Davanagere, complained that her wages are lower than that fixed by the government. She wanted better living conditions and healthcare and demanded that a Development Board be set up for them.

There was also a long discussion on domestic violence. Almost 80 per cent of the women confessed they were subjected to domestic violence by their drunk husbands. They said they were running their own homes and sending children to school, while their husbands spent their earnings on gambling or alcohol. The women wanted liquor to be banned.  

To this, Rahul proclaimed that they should become lionesses. He stated that women should come together to stop domestic abuse and that banning liquor comes with its own set of problems.

NEW DELHI: India and the UAE discussed a mechanism for carrying out bilateral trade in national currencies on Tuesday. This was among the discussions that took place in the 10th meeting of the India-UAE high-level joint task force on investments

Referring to the ongoing discussions between the Reserve Bank of India and the Central Bank of the UAE on the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) as a common digital payments platform, both sides agreed to continue discussions.

The meeting, held in Mumbai, was co-chaired by Commerce and Industry Minister, Piyush Goyal, and Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Member of the Executive Council of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. “In the previous meeting of the Joint Task Force, we had decided to fast-track negotiations on the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), and we finalised the agreement in unprecedented 88 days. I am sure the discussions we had today on mutually beneficial areas like food security and bilateral trade in national currencies will also see a similar thrust from both sides,” Goyal said. The India-UAE relations are witnessing unprecedented momentum. “We have many opportunities for cooperation and increasing investments, especially in key sectors such as infrastructure and technology, especially fintech,’’ Goyal said.

The Joint task force was established in 2013 to promote trade, investment and economic ties between the UAE and India. This was the first meeting of the Joint Task Force since the signing of the CEPA and unveiling of the Joint UAE-India Vision Statement in February 2022. “Since the previous meeting of the Joint Task Force in October 2021, several significant milestones have been reached that serve to cement the close, growing and strategic relationship between India and the UAE,” said Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Meanwhile, during the course of the meeting, discussions also took place on ways to enhance bilateral investments in key sectors of food security, manufacturing, infrastructure, energy and technology.
The UAE agreed that the Department of Economic Development of Abu Dhabi will explore this area of cooperation with the counterparties in India in order to agree to a mutually beneficial implementation approach. Both sides reviewed the status of the negotiations of the India-UAE Bilateral Investment Treaty. Twelve rounds of negotiations have so far been conducted.

NEW DELHI: Telecom major Jio’s 5G network has shown top median download speed of close to 600 megabit per second, while Bharti Airtel’s network has posted top speed of about 516 mbps, broadband speed research firm Ookla said in a report on Tuesday.

The report, based on the data collected from Speedtest Intelligence, showed 5G speed variation between low double-digits (16.27 Mbps) to 809.

94 Mbps, which the firm said is indication of ongoing network calibration for the 5G service.

While the 5G services were officially launched on October 1, Ookla has taken measurements since June 2022.

“In Delhi, Airtel reached nearly 200 Mbps median download speed at 197. 98 Mbps while Jio almost broke 600 Mbps (598.58 Mbps) in June 2022,” the report said.

This means a two-hour high definition movie which is generally around 6 GB file size can be downloaded in 1 minute 25 seconds and a 4K movie in about 3 minutes at a top speed of 600 mbps.

Bharti Airtel has started rolling out 5G services in eight cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Siliguri, Nagpur and Varanasi.

Jio has started beta trials in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Varanasi. Airtel’s network showed top median speed of 516.57 mbps in Varanasi.

In Kolkata, operators’ median download speeds varied the most since June 2022 — Airtel’s median download speed was 33.83 Mbps compared to Jio’s 482.02 Mbps.

In Mumbai, Airtel reached 271.07 Mbps median download speed as against Jio’s 515.38 Mbps.

In Varanasi, Jio and Airtel achieved closer parity, with Airtel achieving a 5G median download speed at 516.57 Mbps while Jio’s network recorded median download speed of 485.22 Mbps since June 2022.

The 5G services will progressively cover the entire country over the next couple of years — Jio promises to do that by December 2023 and Bharti Airtel by March 2024.

According to the Speedtest Global Index, India ranked 117th in the world for mobile download speed at 13.52 Mbps in August 2022.

The Ookla report said the new 5G results show that 5G speeds are far superior than India’s existing network.

It added that there is a need to approach these early results with caution, and 5G devices are already showing they can achieve much faster speeds, at least under artificial controlled testing circumstances.

Among Speedtest users, Jio recorded the largest increase in 5G-capable devices (67.4 per cent), followed by Airtel (61.6 per cent), and Vi India (56 per cent), the report said.

AHMEDABAD:  Those who have looted India will have to return what they have seized, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday in Gujarat’s Jamkandorna town of Rajkot district. Addressing a rally ahead of the state Assembly polls due this year-end, Modi added that those who don’t respect Sardar Patel should have no place in Gujarat

He also responded to the accusations of the Opposition over misuse of central agencies, saying, “If the government takes action against corrupt people, they defame government institutions. Whatever they have looted has to be returned to this country.”

He added: “If the government acts against the corrupt, a group shouts against us. Should I not act against those involved in looting people? I continue to work despite criticism. I have your blessings.”  The PM also asked BJP workers and supporters to be aware that Congress has stopped abusing him and is “working silently” to capture rural votes. 

“The Congress seems inactive in Gujarat, but it is silently organising group meetings in villages. We need to remain alert even if they do not do rallies, sabhas or press conferences. I know this as it’s being controlled by those who are known to conspire against Gujarat from Delhi,” Modi said. 

He also hit out at being defamed by the Opposition. “They have suddenly gone silent. They have outsourced the contract of creating a ruckus and abusing me to others,” Modi said. “In the last 20 years, those who were against Gujarat left no stone unturned to defame the state. They hurled choicest abuses against me, including calling me ‘Maut ka saudagar’.” He also recalled how his journey started from Rajkot. Modi won his first election as an MLA from Rajkot (west) seat in 2002.