China’s President Xi Jinping skipping this week’s G20 summit in New Delhi was nothing out of the ordinary and will not affect negotiations, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Wednesday.
Jaishankar says Xi skipping summit has nothing to do with India
He added that the leader had skipped summits in the past and Mr Xi doing so had nothing to do with India.
The Sept 9-10 summit of leaders of the world’s richest countries is being held in the context of a “very turbulent” global environment and expectations from G20 to find solutions to some of the world’s pressing problems are “very high”, he told the ANI news agency.
Journalists charged with misrepresentation
Police in Manipur have filed criminal charges against four journalists, accusing them of misrepresenting facts in a report about the violent clashes between two ethnic groups earlier this year.
The Editors Guild Of India report was assessing how coverage of violence in the state was being conducted. The report, released this month, stated that there “are clear indications that the leadership of the state became partisan during the conflict”.
Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh on Monday accused the journalists of trying to “provoke clashes” with the report.
The Editors Guild urged the government to drop the case.
India’s Russian oil import benefits world economy
India’s imports of Russian crude is a win-win situation for the world economy, according to India’s No. 1 oil company, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation.
“By importing from Russia, India helped the global economy by freeing up some oil on the Gulf for other countries – particularly Europe – to source, so it was kind of a win-win situation,” executive director K.C. Ramesh, executive director of ONGC said at the annual APPEC energy conference held by S&P Global Insights in Singapore.
Court leaves Stalin to decide on Balaji’s ministerial role
The Madras High Court on Tuesday observed that Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader V. Senthil Balaji continuing in the Tamil Nadu cabinet as minister without portfolio did not “augur well with the principles of Constitutional ethos on goodness, good governance and purity in administration”.
A bench of Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice PD Audikesavalu “advised” Chief Minister MK Stalin to take a decision on Balaji continuing to be a minister despite his arrest in a money-laundering case and subsequent remand to judicial custody. But the Court did not pass any directions for removal of Balaji.
ISRO suggests use of AI technologies to prevent ragging
A team from Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has suggested that artificial intelligence technologies like video analytics and target fixing are ideal to prevent ragging at Jadavpur University in Kolkata.
ISRO was consulted for a solution following the death of a freshman at the students’ hostel on Aug 10.
On Tuesday, an internal probe committee suggested the immediate suspension of four students over the incident and that a police report be made against six former students of the university who were at the hostel at the time of the incident.
Over 100 buildings in Gurugram have no permit for lifts
Lifts are running illegally in more than 100 buildings in Gurugram, a city near New Delhi, as no-objection certificates have not been obtained from the department concerned.
This was revealed during an inspection by the Electrical Inspector’s Department of Registration. According to officials, there was registration of lifts for only 200 buildings in the last eight months.
Action will be taken against the errant building owners.
Air India, IndiGo let passengers change itinerary during summit
Air India and IndiGo have offered a one-time waiver of applicable charges if passengers holding tickets to New Delhi from Sept 8 to 11 wish to change the date of travel or flight due to enhanced security restrictions in New Delhi for the upcoming G20 Summit.
“Customers are being offered the option of rescheduling or cancelling their flights with refunds. Passengers have been advanced notice about flight cancellations and schedule changes,” IndiGo announced on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Air India offered a one-time waiver of applicable charges to its passengers holding confirmed tickets to fly to or from Delhi between Sept 7 and 11, if they wish to change their date of travel or flight.
Man nabbed for attempting to smuggle pythons
Customs officials at Chennai airport arrested a man on Tuesday for attempting to smuggle in 12 pythons that were concealed in his luggage.
He had arrived from Bangkok and was behaving in a suspicious manner. He was produced before a local court and was remanded to a 14-day judicial custody.
Blind elephant, rescued in 2021, dies in hospital
Nina, the 62-year-old elephant rescued from its abusive owner, died due to multi-organ failure on Tuesday in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh.
Nina was commercially exploited for six decades before it was rescued by Wildlife SOS in June 2021 and kept at the Elephant Hospital in Mathura.
Punjab road accident victims to get free treatment within 48 hours
The Punjab government will provide free treatment to all road accident victims within 48 hours as part of its Farishtey scheme, Health Minister Balbir Singh said on Tuesday.
“The ‘golden hour’ is the first crucial hour after a road accident, during which critical care can increase the victim’s chances of survival,” he said.
Under the scheme, anyone who takes a road accident victim to a hospital for treatment will be honoured and rewarded with Rs2,000 ($33).
Rajasthan woman allegedly paraded naked by husband
The National Human Rights Commission has issued a notice to the Rajasthan government and the state’s police chief following an incident of a pregnant woman who was allegedly stripped naked and paraded in a village in Pratapgarh district by her husband, officials said.
The Commission on Monday also said that it would like to know about the health status of the woman and compensation, if any, provided to her by the administration.
The 21-year-old tribal woman was allegedly mistreated after she was found with another man in a nearby village.
Bengaluru man says move to Hyderabad makes economic sense
A software engineer’s recent post on X is going viral after he shared his experience of moving from Bengaluru to Hyderabad.
Mr Prudhvi Reddy claimed he saved Rs40,000 ($656) a month by the move and that a family can live comfortably on that amount.
Netizens are divided over the issue, either agreeing with his views or saying it “doesn’t seem to add up”.
