QBullet: Chandrayaan Snag Due to Helium Leak; Cloud Over Rich Tax
Here’s your latest news round-up for the day.
1. Chandrayaan-2 Launch May Be Put Off for a Few Moons
A leak in the helium bottle of the cryogenic engine of GSLV-MkIII forced ISRO to abort the launch of Chandrayaan-2 early on Monday.
While ISRO confirmed "a technical snag", five sources independently confirmed to TOI that the launch was put off because of a leak in the cryogenic stage.
“After filling liquid oxygen (oxidiser) and liquid hydrogen (fuel), helium was being filled. The procedure is to pressure the helium bottle up to 350 bars and regulate the output to 50 bars. After filling helium, we found the pressure was dropping, indicating there was a leak,” a senior scientist told TOI.
“The team is yet to pinpoint the exact spot of the leak in the gas bottle; there could be multiple leaks,” the scientist said.
(Source: The Times of India)
2. Dissenting Voices in Govt: Surcharge on Rich May Hurt Investment
A section within the central government is of the view that the Budget proposal slapping a higher surcharge on the super rich will effectively discourage new investors and exacerbate the trend of migration of high net worth individuals from India.
The imposition is seen as being in contradiction with the overall theme of the Budget — that of fostering private participation to catalyse a reversal in the sluggish investment sentiment in the country.
A top policy maker in the NDA government, who spoke to The Indian Express on the condition of anonymity, said the surcharge will have the “most deleterious” impact on investments in the country and push out unicorns (new age companies with valuation above $1 billion) and discourage the inflow of high quality human capital that India was just beginning to attract.
(Source: The Indian Express)
3. Karnataka Trust Vote to Be Held on 18 July
Karnataka Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar on Monday announced that the trust vote moved by Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy will be held at 11 am on Thursday, 18 July.
No official business in the legislature will be taken up till Thursday after the BJP announced that it will not take part in anyhouse proceedings as the government is in “minority”.
On Monday, the house proceedings were delayed by over two hours after a business advisory committee (BAC) of the assembly was convened.
At 9 am, the BJP petitioned the speaker to move a no-confidence motion in order to derail any efforts of the Kumaraswamy coalition government to conduct business in the house.
(Source: The Times of India)
4. Dismayed at Delays, SC Seeks Status of All Cases of Child Rape
The Supreme Court on Monday expressed its concern over delay in investigations and trials in cases of child rape despite the existence of a special law to deal with such cases, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (Pocso), which mandates the completion of trials within a year.
A bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi said it was regrettable that in Delhi, out of 172 cases listed for trial since January, only two cases have been disposed of till date.
“If this is the situation in the national capital, one can imagine about the overall position in the rest of the country,” Justice Gogoi remarked during the hearing. The bench was hearing a suo motu case initiated by its registry to tackle the problem of rising number of incidents relating to child rape across the country amid reports that 24,000 such cases have been reported in the first half of the year.
(Source: The Hindustan Times)
5. SC to Hear PIL to Examine ‘Restrictive’ Abortion Law
The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to examine the constitutional validity of certain legal provisions that allow abortion only to save the woman's life or in case of abnormal foetus and allegedly violate women's right to health, "free reproductive choice" and "privacy".
The apex court sought response of the Central government on a PIL of three women who have sought that provisions like sections 3(2) (a) and 3(2) (b) of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, be declared as "void and unconstitutional" as they were violative of their fundamental rights.
(Source: The Times of India)
6. Deported from UAE in Terror Case, 14 Men Flown to Chennai by NIA
Fourteen persons, deported from the United Arab Emirates and apprehended by the National Investigation Agency for suspected association with men linked to an alleged terror outfit, were flown from New Delhi to Chennai on a special flight Monday.
It is learnt that the men were produced before a NIA court which granted their custody to the agency. Sources claimed that the men — they were said to be from Chennai, Tirunelveli, Theni, Nagapattinam and Ramanathapuram — were members of Wahdat-e-Islami Hind, a religious organisation in Tamil Nadu.
They were deported after intelligence agencies received credible inputs that they had been in touch with individuals in Tamil Nadu who have now been placed under arrest by the NIA for suspected links to alleged terror outfit Ansarulla.
(Source: The Indian Express)
7. Govt Panel Floats Digital ID for Health Records, May Link Aadhaar
Outlining a new electronic records system using Aadhaar as an option for identification, a Ministry of Health and Family Welfare committee has recommended the setting up of a National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) to manage “enormous amounts of health data” generated by Ayushman Bharat, the Centre’s flagship health programme.
The NDHM would provide technology to manage and analyse data, and create a system of personal health records and health applications. Central to the “ecosystem” would be a Personal Health Identifier (PHI) to maintain a Personal Health Record (PHR).
(Source: The Indian Express)
8. BJP MLA’s Daughter, Son-in-Law Attacked, Get Security
Ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmaker Rajesh Mishra’s daughter and son-in-law were assaulted on Monday, minutes after the Allahabad high court ordered police protection for the couple days after they sought it saying they feared for their lives because of their intercaste marriage.
Sakshi, 23, and Ajitesh Kumar, 29, were assaulted in the court’s corridor. The police intervened and took the couple to the office of the court’s registrar general. They were later safely escorted out of the court premises.
Police said that there were around 500 people outside the court and some unidentified people from the crowd hit the couple. The attackers were not identified and no arrests were made until late on Monday.
(Source: The Hindustan Times)
9. JNU Guard Clears Exam for Foreign Language Course
When Ramjal Meena first stepped into Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) as a security guard in 2014, he had no clue he will enrol in the same university as a student some day. Last week, the 34-year-old first-generation learner from Rajasthan’s Karauli cracked the JNU entrance examination for admission into BA Russian (Hons).
“What makes JNU different is that people here do not believe in social hierarchy. Everyone — teachers and students — encouraged me; now they congratulate me. I feel like I have become famous overnight,” Meena said.
Son of a daily wager, Meena attended a government school in his village Bhajera. However, he had to discontinue his education later. “The nearest college was 28-30 km away. Moreover, I had to work to help my father too,” he said.
(Source: The Hindustan Times)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)