Pulwama terror attack: NIA arrests one more accused

In Jammu and Kashmir, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested one more accused – Mohammad Iqbal Rather in connection with last year’s Pulwama terror attack case. Rather is a resident of Futlipura, Charar-e-Shareef in Budgam district. The accused had facilitated the movement of Mohammad Umar Farooq, the Jaishe-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorist and key conspirator in this case. Umar Farooq along with others had assembled the IED used in the attack which claimed the lives of 40 CRPF personnel.

Initial investigations revealed that Iqbal Rather was in constant touch with Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists over secure messaging applications. He was also part of the transportation module of Jaish-e-Mohammed terror outfit.

NIA has arrested 6 persons in this case so far.

Covid-19 recovery rate improves to 60.72 pct in country

Government today said that a total of three lakh 79 thousand 892 people affected with coronavirus have recovered in the country so far. In the past 24 hours, a record 20 thousand 32 people have recovered from Covid-19 and with this the recovery rate has improved to 60.72 per cent.

The Health and Family Welfare Ministry said, 20 thousand 903 new cases of Covid-19 have been reported in the country in the last 24 hours taking the total number of cases to six lakh 25 thousand 544. This is the highest spike in fresh cases since the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic in India. In a single day, 379 deaths have been reported taking the nationwide toll to 18 thousand 213. Presently, the total number of active corona cases in the country is two lakh 27 thousand 439.

Meanwhile, Indian Council of Medical Research, ICMR said that a total of two lakh 41 thousand 576 corona virus tests were conducted by various laboratories in the country in the last 24 hours. This is the highest number of tests conducted by laboratories since the outbreak of the pandemic in India. So far, 92 lakh 97 thousand 749 tests have been conducted.

ICMR is continuously increasing its testing facilities for Covid-19 by giving approval to government and private laboratories. As of now,a total one thousand 74 laboratories across India have been given approval including 775 government laboratories and 299 private laboratory chains. 

ICMR aims to launch indigenous Covid-19 vaccine by August 15

Indian Council of Medical Research, ICMR is planning to launch indigenous Covid-19 vaccine for use by the 15th of August after completion of all clinical trials. ICMR has partnered with Bharat Biotech International Limited to develop this path breaking, Covid-19 vaccine.

ICMR has asked Bharat Biotech to fast track the clinical trial mechanism and ensure that the subject enrolment is initiated by 7th of July.

AIR correspondent reports that this is the first indigenous vaccine being developed in India and one of the top priority projects of the government. The vaccine is derived from a  SARS-COV2 strain isolated by ICMR-National Institute of Virology, Pune. ICMR and Bharat Biotech are jointly working for the pre-clinical as well as clinical development of this vaccine.  

Recently, the Central Drug Standard Control Organisation, the National regulatory body for Indian Pharmaceuticals and medical devices, has granted approval to Bharat Biotech India to conduct human clinical trials for Corona Vaccine called ‘Covaxin’.

PM Modi makes surprise visit to Leh accompanied by CDS Rawat, Army Chief Naravane

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today made a surprise visit to Leh and was briefed by senior officers at a forward position in Nimu amid ongoing tension with China.

The Prime Minister was accompanied by Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat and Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane. He reached Nimu, early morning today and he is presently interacting with Army, Air Force and ITBP personnel. Located at 11,000 feet, this is among the tough terrains, surrounded by Zanskar range and on the banks of the Indus.

At least 162 killed in Myanmar Jade mine collapse

In Myanmar, at least 162 people have been killed in a landslide at a jade mine in northern Kachin province. Myanmar Fire Service Department said that 162 bodies have been recovered from the landslide in Hpakant, the centre of the world’s biggest and most lucrative jade mining industry. Hpakant is a rough and remote area in Kachin state, 950 kilometres north of Myanmar’s biggest city, Yangon. 54 injured people were taken to hospitals. An unknown number of people are feared missing. Emergency workers had to slog through heavy mud to retrieve the bodies.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed deep sadness at the deaths and sent condolences to families of the victims and Myanmar’s government and people.

US President Donald Trump blames Chinese aggression for standoff at India-China border

US president Donald Trump has blamed Chinese aggression for the stand-off at the India-China border. Quoting Mr Trump, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said, China’s aggressive stance along the India-China border fits with a larger pattern of Chinese aggression in other parts of the world. She said, these actions only confirm the true nature of the Chinese Communist Party.

Mr Trump’s remarks come in the backdrop of Chinese actions both internally as well as across the Asian geopolitical theatre in the past few months.

In the past two months, China has passed a repressive national security legislation regarding Hong Kong, eroding its autonomy. Beijing has also stepped up its offensive in the South China Sea against countries such as Vietnam.

The White House statement reflected a shaper position that had been evolving in the US administration, especially by secretary of state Mike Pompeo. Earlier on Wednesday, Mr Pompeo offered full-throated support for the Indian ban on Chinese apps.

Tamil Nadu announces monthly Rs 3,000 stipend for lawyers to overcome financial difficulties

Tamil Nadu government has announced a monthly stipend of 3,000 rupees to junior lawyers for two years to help them overcome financial difficulties. The stipend has been a longstanding demand of the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu. 

AIR correspondent reports, the Tamil Nadu Government is implementing an Advocates Welfare Scheme for more than three decades. Under the scheme, on the demise of the advocates, currently seven lakh rupees each is being given to their families. Now as an additional measure, the young advocates are going to be handed over a monthly dole of three thousand rupees for the next two years.

The government has said in a statement that the help is necessary as it takes three to four years for a fresher to practice as an independent lawyer. Many point out that as courts are not functioning as usual now due to the lockdown, most of the junior advocates are facing difficult situations. During this time, there is the possibility of the young advocates migrating from their profession to other jobs. To support them, the government is bringing in the monthly financial assistance for the young lawyers.

Health Ministry issues revised guidelines for home isolation of very mild, pre-symptomatic, asymptomatic COVID-19 cases

The Health and Family Welfare Ministry has issued revised guidelines for home isolation of very mild, pre-symptomatic, asymptomatic COVID-19 cases. The guidelines have been extended to asymptomatic positive cases along with very mild and pre-symptomatic cases keeping in view the detection of a large number of asymptomatic cases in the country.

In the revised guidelines, the Ministry said, those patients are eligible for home isolation, who are clinically assigned as a very mild, pre-symptomatic, asymptomatic case by the treating medical officer. It states that such cases should have the requisite facility at their residence for self-isolation and also for quarantining the family contacts. The Ministry also said, patients suffering from immune compromised status like HIV, transplant recipients, cancer therapy are not eligible for home isolation. Elderly patients aged more than 60 years and those with co-morbid conditions shall only be allowed home isolation after proper evaluation by the treating medical officer. The Ministry suggested, the caregiver and all close contacts of such cases should take Hydroxychloroquine prophylaxis as prescribed by the medical officer.

In case of developing serious signs or symptoms, the Ministry has advised to seek immediate medical attention. These symptoms are difficulty in breathing, dip in oxygen saturation, persistent pain and pressure in the chest, mental confusion, slurred speech, weakness or numbness in any limb or face and bluish discolorations of lips and face.

The guidelines also state that a patient under home isolation will stand discharged after 10 days of symptom onset and no fever for three days. Thereafter, the patient will be advised to isolate at home and self-monitor their health for further seven days and there is no need for testing after the home isolation period is over.

The Ministry has laid down detailed protocol for monitoring of cases under home isolation. It asked the State and District administration to monitor the health status of those under home isolation by the field staff and surveillance teams on a daily basis. The clinical status of each case shall be recorded by the field staff and all family members and close contacts shall be monitored and tested as per protocol.

Govt clears Defence acquisition worth Rs 38,900 Cr

Defence Acquisition Council ( DAC) in its meeting held yesterday accorded approval for Capital acquisitions of various platforms and equipment required by the Indian Armed Forces. Proposals for an approximate cost of 38900 Crore rupees were approved. The meeting chaired by Defence minister Rajnath Singh focused on indigenous design and development. These approvals include acquisitions from Indian Industry amounting to 31130 Crore rupees.

The equipments are to be manufactured in India involving Indian Defence Industry with participation of several MSMEs as prime tier vendors. The Indigenous content in some of these projects is up to 80 per cent  of the project cost. A large number of these projects have been made possible due to Transfer of Technology by DRDO to the Indigenous Industry. These include Pinaka ammunitions, BMP armament upgrades and Software Defined Radios for the Army, Long Range Land Attack Cruise Missile Systems and Astra Missiles for Navy and Air Force. The cost of these Design and Development proposals is in the range of 20400 crore rupees.

Further, addressing the long felt need of the Indian Air Force to increase its fighter squadrons, the DAC also approved the proposal for procurement of 21 MIG-29 . It also approved upgradation of existing 59 Mig-29 aircraft and procurement of 12 Su-30 MKI aircraft. 

8 Policemen killed in Kanpur..

A group of assailants opened fire on policemen in Bikaru village of Chaubeypur police station area, when the cops were gone there to arrest a history-sheeter Vikas dubey.

Eight policemen including a deputy superintendent, three sub inspectors were killed in encounter firing.

police were there to arrest vikas dubey charged with attempt to murder. At his residence assailants were gathered and opened fire.

Media reports say about Vikas dubey to be head of the village and also a member of Zila Panchayat.

Many policemen were injured in the incident, some of them are critically injured.

Such incidents draw back the society to 10 years when there were ‘gunda raj’. There is no chance of get rid of this sin, they will surely be arrested ne day because it 21st century then thinking what they do so.

Stay safe not from corona but necessarily from all these type of people.

Surviving core of Jupiter-like planet 39 times massive than Earth sighted near the distant star

A planet 39 times huge than the earth is sighted orbiting the distant star located 730 light-years away from Earth at very high speed, and with astronomers determining that it might be the surviving core of an ill-fated planet once perhaps larger than Jupiter- the largest planet in our Solar system that was removed of its gaseous atmosphere.

The planet is called TOI-849b is the largest rocky planet ever discovered and it orbits the star 10 times more rapidly than Earth orbiting the Sun, completing an orbit every 18 hours.

Researchers told that it is the largest rocky planet ever found and in addition to it will provide a great chance to explore interior gas giant like Jupiter the largest planet in our solar system since it would be the first planetary core ever discovered.

“This planet could have been a gas giant like Jupiter, which then lost its outer envelope through some violent evolution. This could be because it collided with another planet towards the end of its formation, or later ventured too close to its host star and was stripped of its atmosphere,” said astronomer David Armstrong of the University of Warwick in England, lead author of the research published in the journal Nature.

He further put back by saying that “An alternative is that the planet got stuck while forming, building up a core but failing to collect the gas we would normally expect”.

The team of researchers has explored that the planet called TOI-849b is orbiting around a star little smaller and cooler than the sun and planet has a diameter of 43,500 less than than the planet Neptune having diameter 49,244 km, of the smallest of four gas planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune but larger than our earth having diameter 12,742 km.

The gas planet consists of a solid core enveloped by a vast atmosphere consisting of mainly hydrogen and helium with a relatively small rocky core and with tracks of water, methane, ammonia, and other hydrogen compounds. Since there is no well-defined surface we can’t land on the gas giant planets. Since the atmosphere gets deeper and deeper as we move toward the core of gas giant planets like Jupiter. Since the rocky planet like Earth and Mars have a simply defined difference between atmosphere and surface but has gas giant does not have well-defined surface. That’s why the exploration of these gas giant planets are difficult.

This planet will provide a great opportunity to explore the interior of the gas giant planets. Since we know that the gas planets are much more than just the gas.

The planet “TOI-849b itself is much more enormous than we expect even gas giant planetary cores to be,” Armstrong said, “and this might imply a new planet formation or evolution pathway which we don’t yet understand.”

Further, they added the planet TOI-849b orbits a star which is 730 light-years away from Earth. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year nearly about 9.5 trillion km. It’s is much closer to the star than the mercury distance from Sun.

Lack of Anonymity in the Digital Age

For a second, close your eyes and imagine this scenario. You are walking into a room full of strangers. You don’t know anyone in this room and, in turn, no one in the room knows you. What you are experiencing as you walk into that room is called anonymity. Anonymity is Greek for ‘no name’ and allows us to try new things or express ideas without being judged, simply because we are hiding our true identity from the world. Don’t get this concept wrong, you are not trying to deceive anybody. Instead, you are going by the name of Anonymous, and people know that it is not your true identity. But anonymity is fast disappearing owing to the advent of the digital age.

anonTalking about online anonymity is like trying to see the world as either black or white, without any shades of grey in it. Today only a hermit could be termed as a totally private person and even then it is not necessary that he or she would be anonymous. For all we know, he or she could be a famous and influential hermit!

Your concern should not be whether or not you are anonymous online. Your concern should be focused on the level of control that you have over your own anonymity. Who you are is defined by the perception of those around you, people who directly or indirectly seek to influence your every word and action. On the internet, you seem to have a black and white stance on things; there is an all or nothing level of control on your privacy and, thus, your anonymity. You cede control of who you are to too many large corporations like Facebook and Google. You trust them to share who you are in a way that you are happy with.

You post your countless pictures, or the selfies as you may call them, with your geotagged locations; you make all your future plans inherently public. You engage in horrible insults knowing full well that the target of your harassment is just one click away from your real name and address. What you forget to realize that it is you who is making his personal information public on your volition.

anon2One could even argue that it’s even detrimental not to divulge at least some information online. But it is privacy fatigue that you have become so dependent on social media which is giving you a lazy attitude toward staying anonymous. Today each of us leaves breadcrumbs that an investigator can very easily use to follow back to us.

Any effort to completely anonymize your activities will be more or less futile but you still can take note of some tips. Keep your devices and accounts password-protected, making a new password for every different account. Get used to blocking and do not feed the trolls. Make good use of your common sense and don’t try to dwell and engage in any provocative material online. If you are going to troll, be constructive instead of being negative. And if you are thinking about responding to a troll, don’t.

Image Courtesy: GOOGLE

Lucifer

Lucifer started on Fox, which canceled it after three seasons. Netflix rescued the series, extending its run by two seasons. While 4-5 seasons is typical length for a successful Netflix series, and Lucifer has produced more episodes than a regular Netflix original series (its seasons vary between 13-26 episodes in length), the drama, starring Ellis, has remained a strong performer on the streaming platform. The talks for more episodes were first reported by TV Line.

At 77 episodes through five seasons, Lucifer is already one of the longest running Netflix original series whose episode count is between veterans Orange Is the New Black and House Of Cards.

Lucifer, based on the comic book characters created by Neil Gaiman for DC’s Vertigo Imprint, Sam Keith and Mike Dringenberg for Vertigo, stars Tom Ellis, Lauren German, Rachael Harris, DB Woodside, Lesley-Ann Brandt, Aimee Garcia, Tricia Helfer, Scarlett Estevez and Kevin Alejandro.

The series follows the charming, charismatic and devilishly handsome Lord of Hell, Lucifer Morningstar (Ellis), helping LAPD detective Chloe Decker (German) take down criminals.

The series focuses on Lucifer Morningstar (Tom Ellis), a beautiful and powerful angel who was cast out of Heaven for betrayal. As the Devil, he gets bored and unhappy as the Lord of Hell for millennia. He resigns his throne in defiance to his father (God) and abandons his kingdom for Los Angeles, where he ends up running his own nightclub called “Lux”. He becomes involved in a murder case with Detective Chloe Decker (Lauren German), and is subsequently invited to be a consultant to the LAPD. Throughout the series, several celestial and demonic threats come to Los Angeles; at the same time, Lucifer and Chloe end up appreciating and being happy with each other.

It is hell of a show!

E-learning ~ Boon or Bane

E-learning, which literally means, ‘electronic’ learning has received a sudden market-boost since the corona virus outbreak. Digitalization has been ongoing for quite some time, but the pandemic seems to have heralded it.

The digital coaching institutes which were earlier restricted to a few brand names, have now grown into a vast network. Many regular educational institutions have switched to e-learning temporarily. But is online learning reliable as a permanent source of knowledge? Are we ready to modernize our system, or is e-learning not a substitute for traditional classrooms? 

Schools offer twin development commitment: Academic and Characteristic. While e-learning modifies the pedagogy and makes learning more visual and digitally enabled, the students somehow miss out on social interactions and collaborative activities. It doesn’t seem to be very convincing on the characteristic development front of a student. Yet, it has an edge over traditional classrooms. There are boons and banes to e-learning.

Anything you need to learn is a search away- The beauty of digital learning is that anyone can learn anything, at any place. There are no boundaries or restrictions. Every curiosity of yours has an answer.  Less resource input and economically feasible –For online learning, a physical set up of a classroom is not required. This makes the platform open for any teacher or even an ordinary person who wishes to teach. With less input cost, the cost of education ultimately lowers.  Certificate and skill courses for better employment opportunities- Digitally you can pursue any course of your interest at any time, regardless of your age. When qualifications become a barrier in your professional life, you can always have a chance to enhance them digitally, even when it’s not possible physically. Flexible study timings-Flexible timings make e-learning accessible for everyone according to their routine, which ensures seamless learning. Real-time interactive classes- Live classes assure a healthy interaction between the tutor and the learner. Any query or confusion could be put up by the student without any embarrassment or fear. Reduced school crimes- Crimes we often hear about like sexual harassment, physical harassment, bullying, and body shaming by seniors, teachers or classmates would be reduced to their minimal. With no physical interaction, it would be almost impossible for these crimes to emerge if the student has the right cyber knowledge.

Social ineffectiveness – When classrooms enter a room and are confined to a mobile screen, the student doesn’t get to interact with anyone physically. Gradually when they move out, they’d realize how the world is more nerve racking than their bedrooms. Social infectiveness would be a major impediment in not only their professional life but also in regular living. Unskilled scholars- As weird as it sounds,  if we enforce a digital system permanently, we’d soon be producing dumb-scholars, with no team working skills, extracurricular abilities, patience and communication skills. That would be like hatching a scholar chick out of his/her house that is in fact a grown up chicken and needs to live like one. Unpunctuality and lethargy- With everything served in their rooms and no one to keep surveillance on, the learners would be rather lethargic and slothful. Their work would be left incomplete and if they do it, it would be done at the eleventh hour. They’d lose the value of knowledge if everything is readily available.

With all these boons and banes, I think we all know what’s best for us!

Try Today or Never!

All self-made successful people have one thing in common. They made the decision to try. I hesitate to say “self-made” since I’m not sure I’ve ever met a truly successful person who wasn’t aware that they had lots of help on their journey to success. But whether they realize they received some help along the way or not that doesn’t change the fact that their success began with a decision to try. One of the factors that prevent many people from trying is they wait until the timing is right to begin. Some of them wait until the timing is perfect. Those folks are likely still waiting.

People who try know that the best time to begin is now. People who try know that the best place to start is from wherever they are. People who try are willing to fail…bigly, if that is what it takes to eventually succeed. People who try have a 100% greater chance at success than those who don’t. If you’re willing to try then craft a plan that gives you the best chance to succeed. Then put the plan into action assuming it will succeed. When it doesn’t then craft another, better plan and put that one into action with the absolute certainty that this time it will work. When it doesn’t then craft another, even better plan and launch yourself into it head first with complete confidence that you cannot fail.

If you’re wondering how many times you should do that, don’t! Just keep doing it until your final best plan actually works. As long as you keep trying you cannot fail. When you finally achieve your full measure of success remember that your success was ultimately due to your decision to try in the first place.

Are you going to TRY?