Your Morning Briefing for 12 August 2020

Good morning readers, 

The top stories this morning: Indian and Nepalese officials will meet but it's not over the boundry issue; there are a few upset faces in the Ashok Gehlot camp; and Russia gives regulatory approval for what it claims is the world’s first Covid-19 vaccine.

Big Story

In a sign of thaw in relations between Nepal and India after bilateral ties deteriorated over the Kalapani boundary dispute, the two sides are likely to meet next week to review projects funded by the Indian government. The government has allocated Rs 800 crore in this year’s budget for projects in Nepal.

From The Front Page

The 100-odd MLAs in the Ashok Gehlot camp are said to be unhappy with the way the Congress leadership welcomed Sachin pilot back. Some of them are learnt to have spoken out at the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting in Jaisalmer. Expect fireworks when the two factions attend the next meeting.

A new taxation programme to honour honest tax payers is said to be in the works. The Prime Minister’s Office is learnt to have held several meetings with senior tax officials on faceless assessment and scrutiny of income tax returns.  

"A son is a son until he gets a wife. A daughter is a daughter throughout her life.” These were the words of a Supreme Court bench that held that a daughter in a Hindu Undivided Family will have coparcenary right, or equal right to family property by birth, irrespective of whether her father was alive or not as on September 9, 2005.

Migrant labourers head to Delhi from various parts of Uttar Pradesh. (Photo by Praveen Khanna)

The Pandemic

Russia has approved a Covid vaccine for public use without the final phase of human trials. The vaccine, Sputnik V, has cleared regulatory approvals in record time, raising concerns over its safety and effectiveness. Anyway, it is a long way from being available in India, if at all.

Even as the fatality rate has dropped to less than 2% in India, PM Narendra Modi told the chief ministers of 10 states, which are worst-hit, that containment, contact tracing, and surveillance are the “most effective weapons” in the battle against Covid-19. He urged CMs to lower the death rate to 1% in their states.

In Maharashtra's Ahmednagar, piling up of bodies of 12 people who died of Covid-19 in a hearse van and taking them for funeral, has led to protests from both political leaders and public on the lack of respect shown to the dead.

Beyond Covid-19

A high-level committee on implementation of Clause 6 of the Assam Accord constituted by the Ministry of Home Affairs has said that ‘Assamese people’ should be determined by taking 1951 as a cut-off year. The report was released to the press by four of its members on Tuesday.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Congress leader Sachin Pilot has said he was “saddened, surprised, and hurt” by statements made against him by Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot but kept quiet “to set an example.” “They were scared for their life – most of the MLAs. We felt that by going to Jaipur some of them would have been harassed,” he said.

Thailand students flash a three-fingered salute from the "Hunger Games" movies that has become a symbol of antigovernment defiance.

ICYMI 

• Poet Rahat Indori, who tested positive for Covid-19, died of cardiac arrest at Indore’s Aurobindo Hospital on Tuesday. He was 70.
• The Supreme Court Tuesday reserved its order on Rhea Chakraborty’s plea to transfer to Mumbai the FIR filed in Patna in connection with the Sushant Singh Rajput death case.
• The Grand Alliance in Bihar seems to be inching closer to a seat-sharing deal by working out a “163 plus 80” formula between the RJD and Congress for the upcoming Assembly polls.
• Aaditya Thackeray has objected to the draft Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification 2020 and said that it poses a great threat to the goal of sustainable growth.

And Finally...

In a bid to reach out to students who have no access to the Internet or smartphones during the Covid-19 pandemic, the West Bengal Madrasah Board has asked its affiliate schools to prepare printed assignments every month, which the parents take home when they visit the schools to collect the mid-day meal benefits.

In today's episode of The Three Things, we look at why questions have been raised about the killing of three "militants" in Kashmir.

 Until tomorrow,

Leela Prasad G and Shreyasi Jha