1. Xi Jinping, PM Modi Start Talks – Vast Space, Hope to Take Ties to a New Level
In a rare acknowledgement of India’s role in global affairs, Chinese President Xi Jinping Friday said the influence of India and China was increasing steadily in the region and the world, and that there was “vast space” and a “bright future” for bilateral cooperation.
In remarks after two hours of conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the first day of their “informal summit” in Wuhan, Xi expressed hope that they will reach a “common, new and important understanding that will help take our relationship to the next level”.
Officials from both sides indicated that they were working on a new framework, described as a “modus vivendi” or arrangement to bridge the strategic trust deficit.
(Source: The Indian Express)
2. SC Stays Kathua Gangrape and Murder Case Trial Till 7 May
The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the trial in the Kathua gangrape and murder case while agreeing to examine the plea of the minor victim’s father seeking transfer of trial presently pending in Jammu and Kashmir to Chandigarh. The court also agreed to hear the plea of the accused to transfer the probe to the CBI.
Hearing the transfer plea filed by the father of the eight-year-old victim, who belongs to the nomadic Bakarwal community, a bench of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and Justices DY Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra wondered how the court in Kathua could hear the matter when the apex court was seized of the it.
The bench posted the matter for hearing next on 7 May. The Friday hearing saw heated exchanges between senior advocate Indira Jaising, who appeared for the victim’s father, and advocate Harvinder Chaudhary representing the accused.
(Source: The Indian Express)
3. One Language, One Nation, One Blood, We Should be One: Kim Jong Un
The leaders of North and South Korea agreed on Friday to work to remove all nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula and, within the year, pursue talks with the United States to declare an official end to the Korean War, which ravaged the peninsula from 1950 to 1953.
At a historic summit meeting, the first time a North Korean leader had ever set foot in the South, the leaders vowed to negotiate a treaty to replace a truce that has kept an uneasy peace on the divided Korean Peninsula for more than six decades, while ridding it of nuclear weapons.
A peace treaty has been one of the incentives North Korea has demanded in return for dismantling its nuclear program.
(Source: The Times of India)
4. CJI Dipak Misra Calls Collegium Next Week on Return of Justice Joseph File
The five-member Collegium is likely to meet next Wednesday to consider the government’s decision to return the name of Justice KM Joseph, Chief Justice of Uttarakhand High Court, for elevation to the Supreme Court.
Sources told The Indian Express that Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra decided next Wednesday as the day for the meeting of the Collegium and indicated it to other members on Friday. The Supreme Court will reopen on Tuesday after the weekend and Buddha Purnima on Monday.
No formal agenda for the Collegium meeting has been circulated so far but it is widely expected to be about the reconsideration of Justice Joseph’s name for elevation to the Supreme Court.
(Source: The Indian Express)
5. Telangana’s Anudeep Tops UPSC Exam, DU Grad Anu Kumari 2nd
Telangana’s Durishetty Anudeep, who belongs to the OBC category, topped the Civil Services Examination of 2017, the results of which were declared by the Union Public Service Commission on Friday. Delhi University science graduate Anu Kumari secured the second spot while Saumya Sharma, who has a hearing impairment, was placed 9th overall among 990 successful candidates.
Anudeep is an engineering (electronics & instrumentation) graduate from BITS, Pilani. Anu Kumari, the topper among the women candidates, graduated with honours in physics from Hindu College and did an MBA from IMT, Nagpur.
Among the 990 successful candidates, 240 are women, and among the top 25 candidates, eight are women.
(Source: The Times of India)
6. 10 Million Jobs in Five Years, Says Congress
Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday released a please-all party manifesto for the 12 May Karnataka assembly elections, promising sops ranging from free smartphones and laptops for students to 24-hour rural power supply, and improvements in irrigation, water infrastructure and housing for farmers.
The party promised to create 10 million jobs in five years, give free smartphones to all college students between 18 and 23 years old, set apart ₹1.25 trillion for irrigation projects and to provide one super speciality hospital for every three districts. A statutory commission would be set up to ensure basic livelihood for farmers and farm workers, it said.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
7. 8 More Maoists Killed; 47 in a Week
Less than a week after security forces gunned down 39 Maoists in Gadchiroli, elite Greyhound commandos crossed the Chhattisgarh border and shot dead eight rebels in a forest region of Bijapur on Friday.
Six of those killed are women. The dead haven’t been identified yet but going by the fact that six rocket launchers were seized, security forces believe there may have hit a key squad of the rebels.
Special director general of Police Durgesh Madhav Awasthi told reporters in Raipur that Chhattisgarh police and CRPF assisted the Greyhounds in the gunbattle. The security forces did not suffer any casualties.
(Source: The Times of India)
8. Setback for Mallya: UK Court Admits Most Evidence
The Westminster Magistrate’s Court on Friday admitted documents submitted by Indian authorities to substantiate the case of financial misconduct against businessman Vijay Mallya as evidence, with the judge describing a note on the conspiracy angle submitted by New Delhi as “very helpful”.
Chief magistrate Emma Arbuthnot, hearing New Delhi’s request to extradite Mallya, set 11 July for what is likely to be the final hearing in the high-profile case and extended Mallya’s £650,000 bail till then.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
9. 2,000 Junior Doctors Go on Strike at AIIMS, Patients Hit
The counters for registering new patients for out-patient clinics were closed on Friday morning at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) as nearly 2,000 junior doctors went on strike.
An indefinite strike was called on Thursday to demand the suspension of a senior professor in the department of ophthalmology for slapping a resident doctor.
Only patients who had been receiving treatment at AIIMS were taken in for their follow-up consultation.
“Only the consultants and the research faculty were manning the OPDs ( out-patient departments) and the wards and ICUs (intensive care units), hence the out-patient services had to be restricted,” said a doctor from the hospital on condition of anonymity.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
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