Junior Digest

Jun 30, 2021: Covaxin, developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), effectively neutralises both Alpha and Delta variants of coronavirus, revealed the studies recently conducted by the US’ National Institute of Health (NIH). Two studies were carried out wherein blood serum from people who had received Covaxin was collected and examined. The results suggest that the vaccine generates antibodies that effectively neutralise the B.1.1.7 (Alpha) and B.1.617 (Delta) variants of SARS-CoV-2, first identified in the UK and India, respectively, said NIH, the top American health research institute, in its press release.

New York [US], June 29,2021: A UN report published on Monday highlighted that migrants smuggled across borders are often subjected to extreme violence, torture, rape and kidnapping, whether in transit or in captivity, but authorities take little action to address these offences.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime’s (UNODC) report focuses on transit routes in West and North Africa, the Mediterranean Sea, and Central America. It also examines the differing types of violence inflicted on men and women, and presents factors and motivations behind abuse committed during smuggling operations, UN News reported.
“Our research showed that violence is used by the smugglers or other perpetrators as a form of punishment, intimidation or coercion, and often inflicted with no apparent reason,” said Morgane Nicot, who coordinated the development of the report.

“We found that male migrants are primarily subjected to forced labour and physical violence while women are more exposed to sexual violence, leading to unwanted pregnancies and abortions. All genders can suffer from inhuman and degrading treatment.”
Migrant smuggling is a profitable criminal activity, UNODC said, with desperate people paying to cross borders to escape natural disaster, conflict or persecution, or to seek employment, education or the chance to reunite with family members.
“This is why we decided to conduct such necessary research,” Nicot said. “Our study also analyses how law enforcement officials respond to cases of aggravated smuggling and highlights how challenging it is to prosecute such crimes.”
The report found violence is widespread on certain smuggling routes, but there is little evidence that such crimes lead to investigations or legal proceedings, especially in the transit countries where the offences are committed.
“The violence that migrants experience during a smuggling venture is not always recorded or there is insufficient evidence to influence the severity of the sentences pronounced by national courts against smugglers,” Nicot explained.

New Delhi, Jun 29,2021: The government on Monday announced a fiscal package of Rs 6,28,993 crore to provide a relief to people and businesses and support economic recovery amid COVID-19 pandemic.

Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman at a press conference announced a set of 8 measures pertaining to growth, exports and employees.

They include a Rs 50,000 crore coverage for the health sector, aimed at upgrading the medical infrastructure.

‘We are announcing about eight economic relief measures, of which four are absolutely new and one is specific to health infrastructure,’ she said.

She announced Rs 1.1 lakh crore loan guarantee scheme for COVID-19 affected sectors of this Rs 50,000 crore coverage for the health sector, aimed at upscaling medical infrastructure targeting underserved areas and Rs 60,000 crore for other sectors.

Ms Sitharaman announced an additional 1.5 lakh crore for Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme.

She further announced a new Credit Guarantee Scheme to facilitate loans to 25 lakh persons through Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs).

‘Under Credit Guarantee Scheme, which is a new scheme, 25 lakh people to be benefitted. Loan to be given to the smallest borrowers by Microfinance Institutions,” the minister said.

The interest rate under the new scheme will be two per cent below the RBI prescribed rate, with a loan duration of three years. “New loans, stressed borrowers except NPAs will be covered,” she underlined.

The scheme also aims to reach the smallest of the small borrowers in the hinterland, including in small towns.

To revive one of the most affected tourism sectors, Ms Sitaraman announced financial support to more than 11,000 registered tourist guides or travel and tourism stakeholders.

Under new Loan Guarantee Scheme for COVID Affected Sectors, working capital or personal loans will be provided to people in the tourism sector to discharge liabilities and restart businesses impacted due to COVID-19.

‘Working capital or personal loans will be provided with a 100 per cent guarantee to people in the tourism sector. No processing charges, waiver of prepayment charges,’ she said.

In another announcement, first five lakh tourists will be given visas free of charge. “Benefit will be available only once per tourist. The scheme will be applicable till March 31, 2022, or till 5 lakh visas are issued, whichever is earlier,’ the Union Finance Minister said.

Over employment, Ms Sitaraman announced the extension of Atmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana from June 30, 2021, to March 31, 2022.

‘Since October 2020, about 21.42 lakh beneficiaries of 79,577 establishments have been benefitted from the scheme,’ the Union Finance Minister said. Providing more support to the health sector, Ms Sitaraman allotted Rs 23,220 crore more for public health.

‘Rs 23,220 crore for public health, with a sharp focus on child and pediatric care. It will include HR augmentation to rope in medical students, nurses; strengthening of infra like ICU beds, ambulances, O2 supply, equipment, medicines,’ she said.

Union Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur, who was also present in the press conference, announced Rs 15,000 crore subsidy on protein-based fertilizer for farmers.

Detailing the other expenditure, Mr Thakur said the financial expenditure on the free distribution of ration to poor people this year will be Rs 93,869 crore while the total money spent on Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana will be Rs 2,27,841 crore.

Washington [US], June 30,2021: The United States could complete its troop withdrawal from Afghanistan within days, according to US officials. This makes the current week a critical one for President Joe Biden’s campaign to end America’s longest war even as US military officials warn the country could devolve into civil war.
A defense official insisted to CNN on Tuesday that the number of US troops in Afghanistan for embassy protection and airport security would not exceed 650 for now. “This week could be a critical week in the withdrawal and end of the retrograde process,” he said.
As many as 1,000 US troops could remain in the country after the formal withdrawal to assist in securing the US Embassy in Kabul and the city’s airport, a senior administration official told CNN, and it is now unclear how long North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) troops will remain.
A formal conclusion this week to the US military withdrawal, or retrograde, would mark an astonishingly quick end to a process that Biden initiated in April when he ordered the military to leave by September 11.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the US withdrawal will not necessarily mean the end of NATO’s Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan, despite NATO’s decision in April to start and complete its own troop drawdown within a few months.
“It is my understanding with the completion of the retrograde of US forces, retrograde, withdrawal, of US forces from Afghanistan, with accepting, of course, whatever is left behind to protect our diplomatic presence, that that does not necessarily mean the end of Resolute Support,” Kirby told reporters on Tuesday.
US officials say there were some 2,500 US troops in Afghanistan, plus hundreds of additional special forces who are not publicly acknowledged when Biden made his decision in April to withdraw them.

This comes in the middle of a surge in violence as the Taliban has increased its activities since the start of the US-led forces pull out on May 1.
As the Taliban have taken control of several districts across the country, US intelligence assessments have suggested the country’s civilian government could fall to the militant group within months of US forces withdrawing.
The top US general there, Austin Miller, warned Tuesday that the worsening violence could lead to civil war, CNN reported citing news reports.
Biden acknowledged the growing challenges last Friday during a visit from President Ashraf Ghani, noting the “senseless violence” and saying, “It’s going to be very difficult,” but he is not rethinking his plans to withdraw US troops, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday
According to the New York Times, US officials expect the entire withdrawal of their forces from the country will be completed in less than a week by the July 4 national holiday.
As deadly clashes in Afghanistan continue to intensify, hundreds of more civilians have taken up arms against the Taliban in support of the government forces in several Afghan provinces.
People in over ten Afghan districts have taken up arms against the Taliban in just a week following the back-to-back fall of dozens of districts to the group.
Meanwhile, Biden has announced a series of measures to provide assistance to the South Asian country amid troop withdrawal, including donating three million doses of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine to the people of Afghanistan through the COVAX facility.
Additionally, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is also supporting Afghan efforts to respond to the critical shortfalls in oxygen and medical ventilation support by providing emergency and structural assistance.

Jun 25,2021: On the 46th anniversary of the imposition of Emergency, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 25 said those “dark days” can never be forgotten and called for taking a pledge to strengthen India’s democratic spirit and live up to the values enshrined in the Constitution.

“This is how Congress trampled over our democratic ethos. We remember all those greats who resisted the Emergency and protected Indian democracy,” he tweeted, along with a link to an Instagram post about what was banned during the period by the then Congress government.

“The dark days of Emergency can never be forgotten. The period from 1975 to 1977 witnessed a systematic destruction of institutions. Let us pledge to do everything possible to strengthen India’s democratic spirit, and live up to the values enshrined in our Constitution.” he said.
Other senior BJP leaders also hit out at the Congress with Home Minister Amit Shah saying the Congress “murdered” democracy on this day in 1975 for its lust and arrogance of power. “Emergency was imposed to trample on voices that were raised against a family,” he said, calling it a dark chapter in India’s democracy. BJP president J.P. Nadda paid tributes to those who fought against the Emergency.

The Emergency was imposed by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi for a period of 21 months between 1975 and 1977, when curbs were imposed on fundamental rights of people.

Jun 29,2021: China’s ruling Communist Party celebrates its 100th anniversary this week.

Falling birth rates and a rapidly ageing population spell trouble for China’s future economic growth.

Income inequality, regional economic divides, and wide gaps in opportunity between rural and urban citizens were issues highlighted by China’s President Xi Jinping in a late January speech as pressing matters the nation must tackle to reach what he called an era of “common prosperity” in the coming years.

China’s leaders steer clear of the phrase “middle-income trap” – a condition where a country fails to reach a higher, more developed status – but that’s where the country could end up if leaders fail to address those fissures.

Xi’s remedies – better income distribution, education, social security, affordable medical care, housing, elderly care, child support, and quality employment; also mentioned in the same speech – are many of the same wants as most working families and youths.

Current structural and political barriers, however, may be too formidable to deliver those policies unless deeper reforms are implemented beyond piecemeal efforts such as lifting restrictions on the number of children families can have or trying to mandate less homework for school-age children.

They will be expensive and will likely need the country’s most wealthy to pay heavier tax rates, either through property taxes or capital gains taxes. But implementing such policies is fraught with peril. Do it too fast and could lead to capital flight, problems in the white-hot property market and financial system disturbances that do more harm than good.
Income inequality, regional economic divides, and wide gaps in opportunity between rural and urban citizens were issues highlighted by China’s President Xi Jinping in a late January speech [File: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg]

And there are other structural barriers. The country’s hukou system ties social benefits to a family’s rural or urban hometown, and the overemphasis on the gaokao – standardised exams – determine whether students can advance to university and achieve higher rates of economic success.

Growing pressures on parents and students over the past decade have increased the necessity to reform these systems as incomes have stagnated and social mobility has ossified.

That shift has given rise to much-discussed social conditions in recent months: tangping – or lying flat – an action of making as little effort as possible to get by, and its partner philosophy of “involution” – a feeling of despair or burnout, particularly among those involved in the 996 working culture, working from 9am to 9pm six days a week.

Sun Liping, a professor of sociology at Tsinghua University, recently wrote on his WeChat account that these conditions are affecting mostly younger middle-class and white-collar workers whose hopes have plateaued. Even after all their efforts to study hard and work hard, they feel they’ve reached a point where there’s no possibility to advance higher and more danger of falling back down.

So there’s little desire for more, or even any children, with housing prices so high in many cities, and with parents who are retiring much earlier than most workers around the world to support. Any extra cost has the potential of knocking them off that plateau.
This is a great change from the years following the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and early 1970s, and China’s reform and opening-up period, when the opportunities for families to change their social status through hard work and education were much greater, primarily since the starting point was so low for nearly everyone.

“Over time, a new elite formed and developed vested interests,” Imogen Page-Jarrett, a research analyst based in Beijing for The Economist Intelligence Unit, told Al Jazeera. “The threshold for people from lower-income backgrounds to move up in society became much higher.”

Liang Jianzhang, chairman and co-founder of the booking site Trip.com, has recently argued that China needs to deeply reform the gaokao system, vastly increase education expenditures and attempt to achieve universal college education for all of its youth to meet the needs of a more complex, innovative economy of the future.
Potential fixes creating more problems

The latest efforts to address some of the pressures facing China’s parents and youth have met with lacklustre response and sometimes satirical backlash.

After the government announced that married couples would be allowed to have up to three children, in an effort to boost birth rates, remarks appeared on social media highlighting that the policy shift did nothing to address the soaring costs of raising kids, or the financial burden of taking care of elderly parents.

Other government policies in the pipeline, like proposals for potentially banning online and offline courses during summer holidays, weekends and other non-school periods in places like Beijing and Shanghai, only set in motion other potential problems.

The idea, in theory, is to release pressure on kids and give them a real break from school so they do not end up burned out by the time they reach adulthood.

“I think one of the interesting things about a lot of these changes at the moment is that every force has an equal and opposite reaction,” said Julian Fisher, co-founder of consultancy Venture Education in Beijing. “When you’re pushing on learning centres, you’re pushing on a multibillion-dollar industry, and that impacts human resources and society in the sense that people are hired [for these tutoring jobs].”
Fisher noted that this could also leave many families in the lurch, particularly when both parents work and may not have access to childcare other than education centres. “What are they going to do with their kids during the summer?” he asked, questioning what would happen if the government bans online and offline courses.

“Layoffs of tutors and teachers are likely if the new rules prohibit training on weekends and in summer and winter holidays as training institutions could see a significant drop in revenue, so they may lay off staff and teachers to cut costs,” Flora Zhu, director of corporate research at Fitch Ratings in Beijing, told Al Jazeera.

“In fact, online training institutions, which rely heavily on marketing to attract students, have already [been laying off staff] following the government’s stricter regulations on [allowable advertising for] training institutions.”

As China’s leadership becomes more nationalistic, increased restrictions on foreign involvement, ownership and teaching materials aimed at preschool to secondary school students in the past few months have also had an impact.

“Due to the political importance that Chinese leaders place on education, however, there are risks that these regulations foreshadow further restrictions on foreign participation in China’s education sector,” Alexander Chipman Koty, an analyst for consultancy Dezan Shira & Associates, told Al Jazeera.

Some of this is the opposite of reforms needed in the education sector, and what parents actually desire for children in terms of greater opportunity, which has led many of them to tap into online and offline courses outside of regular class time.

According to Page-Jarrett, China needs more private sector and foreign involvement that would push schools to improve and innovate and provide schooling for the more complex economy of the future, not less.

“Rote learning still features heavily in the education system and that for a time kind of worked when China needed a generation of engineers,” Page-Jarrett said. “Now what China needs is a workforce that can innovate. The education system needs to develop students’ crucial thinking skills.”
No lying flat when you’re already below …

The need for education expenditures and reforms is even more apparent for rural students and parents in China, who are fast falling behind their urban peers who have more opportunities and benefits just because of their urban residency status.

“The gap in the quality of education in rural areas became larger, not necessarily because education became worse in rural areas, but because it became better and more competitive in urban areas,” Page-Jarrett said. “For a low-income family it’s extremely difficult to get into a top-tier university and they might only be able to get into second- or third-tier one.”

For Scott Rozelle, a development economist and a co-director of the Rural Education Action Program at Stanford University, the whole “lying flat” issue is fully an urban problem.

“When you have a rural hukou, nobody ‘lies flat’,” he told Al Jazeera. “It is the exact opposite problem. There is no money for weekend or night classes. No one can afford to take anything for granted. Life and living is day to day. There are no opportunities with such poor schooling and healthcare.”

China has big plans for rural areas with a rural revitalisation programme, but so far this has mainly focused on rural infrastructure and agriculture improvements, and not tackled schools or rural social mobility.

While there has been some relaxation of hukou policies that allow for greater movement between rural and urban areas in some parts of the country, most of these efforts are tied to “talent acquisition” programmes – urban areas that want to attract the best and brightest, leaving the least educated on the outside looking in.

What is at stake in the failure to address these systemic challenges could become China’s Achilles heel. Social immobility and income inequality will increase social frictions, economic stagnation, and an eventual settling into the middle-income trap that China’s leaders would like to avoid, but usually fail to mention in words.

Jun 29,2021:China’s CoronaVac vaccine is safe and effective to use in children as young as three, new research has shown.

In a study of 550 young people, two doses of the vaccine were found to generate a strong antibody response among children and adolescents aged 3-17 years.

More than 96 per cent of children who received two doses of the vaccine – manufactured by Sinovac – developed antibodies against Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.

Most adverse reactions were mild or moderate, with pain at the injection site the most commonly reported symptom, the researchers said.

The findings, published in The Lancet, further underpin the safety profile of the Covid jabs, and follow recent calls from scientists to widely vaccinate children and adolescents.

A number of leading experts told The Independent that the move to inoculate 12 to 17-year-olds would help to better control and reduce transmission rates, protect adolescents from severe infection and long Covid, and could also lessen the need to roll out booster jabs.

The CoronaVac vaccine has already been approved for emergency use in China among 3-year-olds. Israel, France and the US have meanwhile started using the Pfizer vaccine for children aged over 12, but, in the UK, health officials are awaiting further data on the safety profile of the jab and rates of post-Covid syndromes in adolescents.

Children and adolescents with Covid-19 usually have mild or asymptomatic infections compared with adults; however, a small number may still be at risk of severe illness,” said Qiang Gao, of Sinovac Life Sciences.

“They can also transmit the virus to others, making it vital to test the safety and effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines in younger age groups.
Most watched

“Our finding that CoronaVac was well tolerated and induced strong immune responses is very encouraging, and suggests that further studies in other regions, involving larger, multi-ethnic populations, could provide valuable data to inform immunisation strategies involving children and adolescents.”

The 550 trial participants were recruited into the study between 31 October and 30 December 2020. Children were given varying vaccine doses of different strength to test immune response and side effects.

Based on their results, the authors recommend two 3 microgram doses of the vaccine for children and adolescents aged 3-17 years.

The authors acknowledge some limitations to their study. T-cell responses – which are responsible for seeking out and killing infected cells – were not assessed.

Professor Bin Cao, of the China-Japan Friendship Hospital, said children must be vaccinated in all populations to ensure that herd immunity can be reached against the new and emerging Covid variants.

Bhubaneswar (Odisha), June 30,2021: Odisha Government on Tuesday sought modification in provisions of Draft Indian Ports Bill-2021 to address the concerns of Coastal States.
In this regard, Odisha, Commerce and Transportation Minister Padmanabha Behera wrote to Union Minister, Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Mansukh Mandaviya.
The letter by Behera read, “My State is in the process of constituting the Odisha State Maritime Board. The Bill for it is now with the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, now awaiting the assent of the President of India, after being passed by the Odisha Legislative Assembly in February 2021. There is no provision in the Indian Ports Bill, 2021′ to include a State Maritime Board which is constituted at a later date by a State enactment. A provision is required to be made for the same.”
As per the letter, the inclusion of matters relating to safety and security of ports, prevention and containment of pollution of ports, compliances with the country’s obligation under the maritime treaties and international instruments to which our country is a party in the draft Bill are most welcome in our national interest.
At present, Behera in the letter stated that the authority to make regulations for non-major ports for most subjects is the State Maritime Boards/ State Governments of coastal States. The Union Government through the Maritime States Development Council (MSDC) seeks to appropriate this authority of the State through the proposed Bill. “We object to this proposed appropriation of State authority by the Union Government. The proposed provision instead of making India a strong maritime nation, through its centralization of authority, will stunt the growth of port-led development in the nation. Also, this proposal is against the very spirit of cooperative federalism and empowerment of States”, read the letter.
“The MSDC has been in existence as a notified advisory body since 1997, focusing on integrated planning and development of ports & inland waterways. The draft Bill proposes to give it a statutory status. While we welcome this step, MSDC should only comprise of Ministers of coastal States and Union Minister for PSW similar to that of GST council. The concerned officials of the Union Government and coastal State Governments may be made invitees to MSDC. The draft Bill mandates centralization of many routine functions to MSDC like conducting enquiry, deciding tariff structure etc. which will be very limiting and less efficient. MSDC’s role should continue to be recommendatory and advisory as before”, read the letter.
Behera in the letter to Union Minister Mansukh L. Mandaviya requested that important Bills are not hastened and proper deliberations are done with stakeholding States to bring in more effectiveness to this important legislation, which can make India a true powerhouse amongst the maritime nations of the world.
In view of the above, Odisha Minister requested Union Minister Mandaviya’s personal intervention in the matter so that the draft Bill is modified to address the concern of the coastal States.

New Delhi, June 29,2021: After the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) handed over the probe of the Jammu Air Force station attack case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and has reregistered an FIR under various sections.
According to a press release, the FIR has been registered under sections 3 and 4 of Explosive Substances Act, 1908, sections 13, 16, 18 and 23 of the UA (P) Act, 1967 and sections 307, 120B of IPC, 1860.
The case relates to an explosion that occurred inside the premises of the Air Force Station, Satwari campus, Jammu on June 27 and a subsequent blast, after about 6 minutes carried out by drones in a well-planned conspiracy that led to the injury to two Air Force personnel and damaged the office buildings.

While NIA has been working with other agencies since immediately after the incident, pursuant to reregistration of the case, requisite actions as per law, for expeditious investigation of the case have been initiated.

Palghar (Maharashtra) [India], June 29 (ANI): With the aim to empower and provide more opportunities, an NGO in Vasai of Maharashtra’s Palghar district opened a school that provides free education to transgender people.
The school was started after the transgender community in Vaisai expressed that they had very little access to education and very few were willing to teach them.
The founder and chairperson of the NGO, Rekha Tripathi, said she strongly believed that everyone should have equal access to education, regardless of their gender.
About 25 adults and a few children have been admitted to the school so far.
“A few years back, a transgender person explained to me that several people from this community were facing problems in getting jobs as they did not have access to even basic education. Social stigma paired with poor economic conditions have contributed to this issue,” Tripathi told ANI on Monday.
She added, “Irrespective of their gender, everyone should be given equal access to education and opportunities. About 25 adults and a few children have taken admission to the school so far.”

Jun 30,2021: The Spanish government on Tuesday approved the draft of a bill to allow anyone over the age of 14 to change gender legally without a medical diagnosis or hormone therapy, the Equality Ministry said.
The draft bill, which will go to a public hearing before another reading in the cabinet and a vote in the lower house of parliament, removes the requirement for two years of hormone therapy and a psychological assessment to switch gender in official records.
“This is an historic day after more than 15 years without any legislative progress,” Equality Minister Irene Montero told a news conference.
“We send a strong message for the protection of LGBTI people,” she said, referring to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex community.
The “self-ID” draft bill sets age limits, with 14- to 16-year-olds needing parental approval, after parliament’s rejection in May of a proposal from a group of political parties to give children total freedom to legal gender recognition.
Activists and families of transgender children say the draft bill does not go far enough, while some feminist associations oppose it.
It puts Spain at the centre of Europe’s debate about the rights of LGBT people. European Union leaders last week confronted Hungary’s prime minister over its new anti-LGBT law.
With the draft bill, which also bans LGBT conversion therapies, Spain is set to join two dozen countries aiming to decouple gender choice from medical procedures and would become the largest European country to introduce self-identification.
If approved, trans people will be able to declare their gender by filling in a form at a registry office and then confirming the decision three months later.
The draft bill is part of a political agreement signed between Spain’s Socialist Party (PSOE) and its left-wing junior coalition partner Unidas Podemos. The deal has taken months of negotiations due to the conflicting positions of the two governing parties.
Protests
Saida Garcia of the Euforia non-governmental organisation, which supports transgender children, said the bill failed to accommodate people aged 12 and 13, who require court approval for the process, and younger children who are excluded.
“It’s not true self-determination if there are age limits,” she said, adding there was also no provision for non-binary people, who do not identify as male or female, or non-Spanish residents.

Aida Chacon Martinez, the mother of a non-binary teenager, said: “Waiting until you’re 14 to be recognised for who you are is very hard.”

A collective of about 50 feminist groups said it opposed the bill. “These legal reforms are regressive and it is essential to stop them in order not to lose the protection of the specific rights against gender-based oppression,” said the Confluencia Feminista federation in a statement.

New Delhi, Jun 29,2021: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday evening met Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and discussed the security situation following an unprecedented drone attack at the Jammu air base on Sunday, the sources in the security set up said here.

During a high level security meeting, discussions were held on futuristic challenges in the defence sector and equipping our forces with modern equipment,” the sources further said, adding that a comprehensive “Drone Policy’ is soon formulated to prevent Jammu air base attack like security challenges in future.

Before going to the meeting the Defence Minister was briefed by the top brass of the Air Force today on Drones and how to formulate a policy on them.

The security forces will be provided with modern equipment to meet the challenge of the weaponised terror drones in days to come, the sources further said.

The meeting was held under the backdrop of Drone attack on Jammu air base on the Sunday morning and also two similar flying objects were sighted in the Kaluchak military area on Monday.

The Defence Minister, who was on the three day tour of Ladakh, also briefed the Prime Minister about the security situation in the Ladakh and Jammu Air force station.

During wee hours on Sunday, the Indian Air Force’s Jammu station was hit by the two drone attacks causing minor injury to IAF personnel.

Sunday’s attack took place shortly before Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Army Chief General MM Naravane’s scheduled visit to Ladakh to review India’s operational readiness in the backdrop of the ongoing stand-off with China.

The National Investigation Agency has taken over the probe to the terror attack which appeared to be the handiwork of Pakistan based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba.

New Delhi, June 30,2021: The Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro food processing Enterprises (PMFME) Scheme under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan completed one year on Tuesday, said the Ministry of Food Processing Industries.
“The centrally sponsored Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro food processing Enterprises (PMFME) Scheme, launched under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, to enhance the competitiveness of existing individual micro-enterprises in the unorganized segment of the food processing industry and promote formalization of the sector, marks the completion of its one year”, read the release by the Ministry.
Launched on June 29, 2020, the PMFME Scheme is currently being implemented in 35 States and Union Territories. The online portal for the application of the PMFME Scheme was made live on January 25, 2021. More than 9000 individual beneficiaries have registered on the portal, out of which more than 3500 applications have been successfully submitted under the scheme.
Under the One District One Product (ODOP) component of the PMFME Scheme, the Ministry of Food Processing Industries approved ODOP for 707 districts for 35 States and UTs, including 137 unique products as per the recommendations received by States/UTs.
The GIS ODOP digital map of India has been launched to provide details of ODOP products of all the States and UTs. The digital map also has indicators for Tribal, SC, ST, and aspirational districts. It will enable stakeholders to make concerted efforts for its value chain development.
Under the PMFME Scheme, the Ministry signed three joint letters with the Ministry of Rural Development, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
The Ministry of Food Processing Industries has signed six Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), the Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED), the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd. (NAFED), National Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation (NSFDC), and Rural Self Employment Training Institutes (RSETI).

An agreement has been signed with the Union Bank of India as the Nodal Bank of the scheme and MoUs with 11 banks as official lending partners for the PMFME Scheme.
Under the Capacity Building component of the PMFME Scheme, the National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management (NIFTEM) and the Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology (IIFPT) have been performing a key role in providing training and research support to selected enterprises/groups/clusters in partnership with the State Level Technical Institutions. The training of 371 Master Trainers has been conducted under the Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP) & various food domains.
NIFTEM & IIFPT have prepared training modules on 137 ODOPs which include 175 Presentations, 157 Videos, 166 DPRs, and 177 Course Content/Handbooks. Training of 469 District Level Trainers has been conducted in 18 States/UTs and in progress in other States. 491 District Resource Persons have been appointed across 302 districts.
Under the scheme, 54 Common Incubation Centres have been approved in the 17 States and UTs like Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, J&K, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Sikkim, Andaman & Nicobar, Andhra Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Odisha, and Uttarakhand. The Ministry of Food Processing Industries in collaboration with the IIFPT has developed an online portal for submission of Common Incubation Centre proposals and an online common incubation centre map for the facilitation of details of incubation centres across the country.
The component under PMFME for providing seed capital to SHGs is being implemented with the support of the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) and its network of State Rural Livelihood Mission (SRLMs) operating at the state level. The PMFME Scheme envisages financial support of Rs. 40,000 for working capital and purchase of small tools for each member of SHGs engaged in food processing activities. To date, NRLM has recommended 43,086 SHG members to State Nodal Agencies (SNA) for an amount of Rs 123.54 crore SNA has approved the seed capital of 8040 members and disbursed the amount of Rs 25.25 crore to SRLM.
Under the scheme, MoUs have been signed with NAFED and TRIFED to take up the marketing and branding support for 10 products each. NAFED has selected products like Pineapple, Millet based products, Coriander, Makhana, Honey, Ragi, Bakery, Isabgol, Turmeric, and Cherry for branding and marketing support. TRIFED has selected products like Honey, Tamarind, Spices, Amla, Pulses/Grains/Millets, Custard Apple, Wild Mushroom, Cashew, Black Rice, and Wild Apple under the scheme.
All the 35 participating States and UTs have constituted/ identified their respective State Nodal Agencies, State Level Approval Committees, District Level Committees, and State Level Technical Institutions. Moreover, a call centre has been established at NIFTEM to address queries and guide the stakeholders of the Scheme.
The Ministry of Food Processing Industries in collaboration with States/UTs and Agricultural Universities is conducting nationwide promotion and publicity of the PMFME Scheme to sensitize the stakeholders via radio, print media, offline workshops, webinars, regional language brochures/booklets, outdoor publicity, and over digital media via website, apps and social media platforms. The PMFME Scheme monthly e-newsletter is being sent to more than 5 lakh stakeholders. The PMFME Podcast series has been launched to interact with Agri-business incubators, industry experts, and startups.
To commemorate 75 years of India’s Independence, under the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav initiative, the Ministry of Food Processing Industries is conducting 75 Unique One District One Product (ODOP) webinars/offline workshops across the country in collaboration with States/UTs, NIFTEM, and IIFPT. A weekly series of success stories titled “Kahaani Sukshma Udyamon Ki” has been launched to bring 75 stories of existing micro food processing enterprises.

New Delhi , June 29,2021: Noting that the world is witnessing a dangerous and worrying trend of an increase in the number of children being recruited and involved in terrorism-related activities, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla on Monday said there is need for a more coordinated approach in implementing the child protection and counter-terrorism agendas.
He said there must be greater accountability and sincere efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice by governments from whose territory such entities operate.
Addressing the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) high-level open debate on children and armed conflict on Monday evening through video conferencing, Shringla said COVID-19 pandemic has further negatively impacted children in situations of armed conflict, including by hampering their access to education, health and social services.
“It has made them susceptible to grave violations, particularly through recruitment and abduction. It is, therefore, important that states keep child protection concerns at the core of their pandemic response measures and recovery plans,” he said.
Shringla said the scale and severity of violations perpetrated against children in armed conflict remain on the rise.
He said national governments have the primary responsibility for protecting the rights of the child as mandated by the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
” We are witnessing a dangerous and worrying trend in global terrorism and that is an increase in the number of children that are being recruited and involved in terrorism-related activities. Terror groups take advantage of the fact that children are the most susceptible to manipulation. School closures due to the pandemic have provided an even greater opportunity to these terrorist groups to target children, including through online avenues, for radicalization and indoctrination in violent extremist ideologies.
“We believe that there is a need for a more coordinated approach in implementing the child protection and counter-terrorism agendas. States need to demonstrate greater political will to hold the perpetrators of terrorism and their sponsors to account, and to fulfil the Council’s child protection obligations,” he said.
The Foreign Secretary also called for ending impunity for all actors responsible for inciting and perpetrating grave violations against children.

“There must be greater accountability and sincere efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice by governments from whose territory such entities operate. Close cooperation between the UN and its Member States concerned is critical for developing an effective and sustainable policy for repatriation and reintegration of children affected by armed conflict.”
He expressed concern that the report includes situations that are not of armed conflict.
“Despite the Council’s clear mandate, we note with concern that the Secretary General’s report includes situations that are not situations of armed conflict or threats to the maintenance of international peace and security. We must be cautious as attempts to selectively expand the mandate politicizes the agenda, diverting attention from real threats to international peace and security and to children in armed conflict.”
Shringla said states should adopt an inclusive approach to provide protection to child victims during the rehabilitation and reintegration process in post-conflict situations.
“We encourage Member States to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict and to adopt robust legal frameworks for protection and promotion of child rights. The aim should not be merely protecting children from child-related crimes but also to provide them with holistic development opportunities, including free and compulsory education.”
He said assistance to national governments for capacity building and strengthening legal and operational tools for child protection is vital.
“The monitoring and reporting mechanism of the UN should ensure continuous involvement of and close cooperation with the Member States concerned, including ensuring the veracity and reliability of data collection.”
Referring to India’s experience in UN peacekeeping over the decades, he said there is a need to have sufficient resources and a requisite number of child protection advisers in peacekeeping missions for the effective implementation of child protection programmes.
“The Council may consider incorporating adequate child protection provisions and capacities in all relevant mandates of UN peacekeeping operations.”
Shringla said engagement of the UN, particularly the office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, with parties engaged in armed conflict has resulted in the release of 12,643 children over the last year.
“This positive trend must continue,” he said, adding that India is firmly committed to supporting the UN in its endeavours to protect children in situations of armed conflict.

Balasore, Jun 29,2021: The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on Monday successfully flight-tested a New Generation Nuclear-Capable Ballistic Missile Agni Prime from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island off Odisha coast.

DRDO sources said the new nuclear-capable Agni Prime missile, a new generation advanced variant of the Agni class of missiles and fully made up of composite material, was successfully test-fired at 1055 hours.

The missile followed textbook trajectory, meeting all mission objectives with a high level of accuracy.

Agni P is a new generation advanced variant of the Agni class of missiles. It is a canisterised missile with a range capability between 1,000 and 2,000 km can carry a payload of around 1,000 kg or a nuclear warhead.

The two-stage and solid-fuelled missile will be guided by inertial navigation systems based on advanced ring-laser gyroscopes.

Both stages have composite rocket motors and guidance systems are equipped with electromechanical actuators.

The missile could be fired from both road and rail-mobile launchers. It weighs less than that of the previous variant due to the integration of new technologies.

Washington, Jun 30,2021: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and US Treasury Secretary Janet L Yellen spoke on the phone and discussed global minimum tax.

“Secretary of the Treasury Janet L Yellen spoke with Finance Minister of India Nirmala Sitharaman. Secretary Yellen discussed that the United States and India have a shared interest in implementing a robust global minimum tax,” the Department of Treasury said in a statement on Tuesday.

During the telephonic conversation, the Secretary stressed the importance of partnership with India in the G20 and OECD to seize a once-in-a-generation opportunity to remake the international tax system to help the global economy thrive, the statement added.

London [UK], June 29,2021: Amid the global shortage of the COVID-19 vaccines, a study conducted by Oxford University has found out that alternating doses of the AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines generate robust immune responses against the coronavirus.
According to the study, ‘mixed’ schedules of these vaccines induced high concentrations of antibodies against the SARS-CoV2 spike IgG protein when doses were administered four weeks apart.
This study, published on the Lancet pre-print server, means all possible vaccination schedules involving the Oxford-AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines could potentially be used against COVID-19.
“The Com-COV study has evaluated ‘mix and match’ combinations of the Oxford and Pfizer vaccines to see to what extent these vaccines can be used interchangeably, potentially allowing flexibility in the UK and global vaccine roll-out,” said Professor Matthew Snape, Associate Professor in Paediatrics and Vaccinology at the University of Oxford, and Chief Investigator on the trial.
“The results show that when given at a four-week interval both mixed schedules induce an immune response that is above the threshold set by the standard schedule of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.”
Professor Snape said these results are an invaluable guide to the use of mixed dose schedules, but the interval of four weeks studied here is shorter than the eight to 12-week schedule most commonly used for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
Meanwhile, UK Deputy Chief Medical Officer Professor Jonathan Van-Tam said: ‘Today’s data are a vital step forward, showing a mixed schedule gives people protective immunity against COVID-19 after four weeks.”
“Our non-mixed (homologous) vaccination programme has already saved tens of thousands of lives across the UK but we now know mixing doses could provide us with even greater flexibility for a booster programme, while also supporting countries which have further to go with their vaccine rollouts and who may be experiencing supply difficulties.”
The University of Oxford is leading the Com-COV study, run by the National Immunisation Schedule Evaluation Consortium (NISEC).
This UK government funding study aims to evaluate the feasibility of using a different vaccine for the initial ‘prime’ vaccination to the follow-up ‘booster’ vaccination.

Jun 30,2021: The Supreme Court on Wednesday pulled up the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), of which the Prime Minister is the ex officio chairperson, for “failing to perform its duty” to recommend ex gratia assistance for families of those who lost their loved ones to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The National Authority [NDMA] failed to perform its duty,” the Supreme Court held.
A Bench led by Justice Ashok Bhushan gave the NDMA six weeks to frame the guidelines for fixing the ex gratia meant for these families. The court, however, left it to the “wisdom” of the NDMA to fix the amount of ex gratia. The PIL petitioners, advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal and Reepak Kansal, had asked for a payment of ₹4 lakh each to the families of the COVID-19 dead.
“Not proper for the court to ask government to pay a particular amount,” the court said.

The judgment, pronounced by Justice M.R. Shah on the Bench, held that the government could not excuse itself of its duty to pay ex gratia by saying that such payments would entail huge expenditure.

The court pointed to Section 12 of the Disaster Management Act of 2005 and said the term ‘minimum standards of relief’ mentioned in the provision included payment of ex gratia.

Justice Shah dismissed Solicitor General Tushar Mehta’s submission that Section 12 was merely “recommendatory” and not mandatory. Instead, the court drew the government’s attention to the word “shall” used in Section 12 and said this made the payment of ex gratia to victims’ families a “mandatory and statutory duty”.

The court, in this regard, said Section 12 (iii) held that “the National Authority shall recommend guidelines for the minimum standards of relief to be provided to persons affected by disaster, which shall include ex gratia assistance on account of loss of life…”

Death certificates

The court, meanwhile, directed that death certificates of COVID-19 patients should show the “exact cause of death”. As regards insurance and social security claims of those affected by COVID-19, the court ordered the Union of India to take “appropriate steps” in compliance with the 15th Finance Commission Report.

In its last hearing on July 21, before reserving the case for judgment, the Supreme Court had asked the government whether it had taken a positive “decision” to not pay ex gratia to the families of those who died of the virus.

“Is there any decision taken that there is no need to pay ex gratia? Is there a decision or is it a case of ‘no decision’ ?” Justice Bhushan had asked Mr. Mehta.

“Where is the decision that there is no need for ex gratia?” Justice Shah had also enquired.

Justice Shah even asked whether the government, by maintaining that COVID-19 was not a “one-time disaster”, inferring that the Disaster Management Act would not apply to the pandemic.

The questions from the Bench had come even as the Centre clarified that it had money for ex gratia aid, but the focus now was on utilising funds for food, medical care, oxygen, vaccination and to pump up the economy.

“But if they do have the money, why should they not comply with their statutory obligation under Section 12 of the Disaster Management Act to provide ex gratia assistance to COVID victims?” senior advocate S.B. Upadhyay, for the petitioners, had demanded.

The government had itself declared COVID-19 a national disaster, he had submitted.

The petitioners had also highlighted a 2015 notification which required the government to pay an ex gratia of ₹4 lakh each to victims’ families under Section 12. The Centre could not cite financial constraints to elude its statutory duty to pay compensation now, Mr. Upadhyay had contended.