Your Morning Briefing for 03 August 2020 ► Fifth round of talks held amid stalemate in Pangong Tso | India News,The Indian Express

Fifth round of talks held amid stalemate in Pangong Tso | India News,The Indian Express

Good morning readers,  From the announcement of IPL dates, India-China’s fresh efforts to end the border stalemate to some of the top political leaders testing positive for Covid-19, here are all the top stories. From The Front Page Even after a 15-hour discussion last month, there has not been much of a breakthrough in Eastern Ladakh. On Sunday, both the Indian and Chinese military initiated the fifth round of negotiation to resolve the stalemate in the Gogra Post sector and on the north bank of Pangong Tso. It is due to this ongoing tension with the neighbouring country that the BCCI is likely to reconsider the sponsorships linked to Chinese companies for the Indian Premier League in the UAE this time from September 19 to November 10. The decision is also subject to approval from the government. Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput had repeatedly Googled his name a few hours before ending his life. He had also searched the name of his former manager Disha Salian who had committed suicide the previous week, and information about a mental illness, a top police officer overseeing the probe told The Indian Express.

On The Hill: Delhi continues to report low daily case counts of Covid-19, a large number of cyclists and walkers returned to Vijay Chowk on Sunday. (Abhinav Saha)

The Pandemic

While there has been an overall 240 per cent jump in insurance claims for treatment of Covid-19 over the previous month, the number of claims received so far is only 4.08 per cent of the total number of people infected with the virus so far (17.5 lakh cases as on August 1). 

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa and Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit were the three top figures to have been infected with the novel coronavirus on Sunday.

Ever since he took charge as the new Principal Secretary (Health) in Bihar, Pratyaya Amrit told The Indian Express he increased the number of Covid-19 tests from 7,291 on July 1 to 35,619 on August 1 to contain the continuous surge. “We are looking for every possible way to cut down chances of infection,” he said.

Beyond Covid-19

Exclusive: In conversation with The Indian Express, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar is confident that the economy is picking up after the initial setbacks and of greater revenue generation in the coming days. He also explains why it is not right to blame the Tablighi Jamaat for the pandemic.

The Sangh Parivar is now scaling up its supermarkets under the Akshayasree Mission in Kerala. This is in response to the boycott of the BJP’s pro-CAA campaign in January in the Muslim dominated northern districts. 

Before the Ram temple comes up in Ayodhya, the city will get a new temple-like railway station in about two years. For the crores of devotees visiting the site, Railways is redeveloping the station and increased the budget from Rs 80 crore to over Rs 104 crore this year.

Preparations On: Workers clean Ram Ki Paidi, in Ayodhya on Sunday. (PTI)

ICYMI 

• Congress communication department head Randeep Surjewala has requested party leaders to avoid “playing Twitter-Twitter”.
  
• The Madhya Pradesh High Court has asked Railways to consider tweaking the allotment criteria for lower berths to give preference to pregnant women and senior citizens over VVIPs.
  
• With real interest rates turning negative, and erosion in the returns of savers, a large section of bankers say the Reserve Bank of India may adopt a status quo on policy rates in the near future.
  
• Cups, cushions, t-shirts and rakhis designed for Raksha Bandhan with prints such as “Tu toh adopted hai” have outraged the community of adoptive parents and adoption agencies.
• As the toll in Punjab hooch tragedy reached 104 on Sunday, it has emerged that the police were unable to connect the links in supply of illicit liquor that led to the deaths.

And Finally...

Camera-traps used in the latest all-India tiger survey have captured the presence of both dogs and livestock in significant numbers in at least 30 tiger reserves. Experts are now worried about the transmission of various diseases to wildlife even though the Environment Ministry has claimed that they were spotted "away from the core areas."

Delhi Confidential: The stone-laying ceremony for the Ram temple in Ayodhya seems to be becoming an instance of BJP veterans feeling slighted. L K Advani, who led the Ram Janmabhoomi movement in the 1990s, and MM Joshi are among those who are still awaiting an invitation.

In our latest episode of Three Things Podcast, we discuss what what abetment of suicide is, how the law defines it, and how it is proved in a court of law.

Five months after he was removed from the BCCI commentary panel, former cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has written to Board president Sourav Ganguly offering to apologise “if I have offended anyone.” What went wrong between the two? Watch this video to find out.

Until tomorrow,

Liu Chuen Chen and Shreya Baldwa