1) India, Russia Sign Deal for Two Nuclear Reactors at Kudankulam
Prime Minister Narendra Modi held wide-ranging talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday with the highlight of their engagement being the conclusion of the general framework agreement and credit protocol for two additional nuclear reactors at Kudankulam.
Moscow had been pushing India to sign the agreement for the past eight months, with Russia’s deputy PM Dmitry Rogozin specifically taking up the issue with Modi, as first reported by TOI on 17 May, in a meeting ahead of the summit.
Russian officials described the conclusion of the agreement as the biggest takeaway from the summit.
Apart from the agreement for Kudankulam 5 and 6 reactor units, the two countries signed four other agreements.
Source: The Times of India
2) Will Continue to Militarily Dominate LoC, Says Arun Jaitley
India will continue to militarily "dominate" the line of control (LoC) like it has been doing for the last few weeks, Union defence minister Arun Jaitley said on Thursday while accusing Pakistan of scuttling all attempts to create a conducive environment for bilateral peace talks.
The iron-fisted warning to Pakistan was reinforced by virtually the entire brass of the 1.3 million strong Army, including General Bipin Rawat, chiefs of the seven Army commands and the director-general of military operations, among others, who converged in Srinagar on Thursday for a two-day session to discuss the operational situation and strategy for the western front.
Jaitley's blunt assertion came amid unverified reports of five more Pakistan army soldiers being killed in "retaliatory fire assaults" by the Indian Army across the Poonch and Naushera sectors along the LoC on Thursday morning.
Source: The Times of India
3) Two Hizbul Mujahideen Militants Killed in Sopore
Two Hizbul Mujahideen militants who were behind a grenade attack on Wednesday were killed in a counter-militancy operation in north Kashmir’s Sopore on Thursday morning.
A police spokesman said Aijaz Ahmad Mir and Basharat Ahmad Sheikh, residents of Sopore, were hiding in the house of Khazir Mohammad Mir.
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The house was cordoned off by a joint party of the police, the Army and the CRPF at around 2:45 am. During a search operation, the militants opened fire. Both the militants were killed in retaliatory fire.Spokesperson
Two AK-47 rifles and five magazines were recovered from their possession.
Source: The Hindu
4) Farmers’ Strike in Maharashtra Turns Violent, Food Supplies Hit
Farmers in at least seven districts of Maharashtra stopped and vandalized vehicles carrying farm produce to cities starting Thursday morning on the first day of an agitation called by various farmers’ organisations demanding higher prices for their produce and a debt waiver.
Vehicles carrying vegetables, fruits, milk, poultry products and meat to cities like Mumbai, Pune, Nashik and Aurangabad bore the brunt of their ire.
The districts which witnessed farmers’ protests include Ahmednagar, Nashik, Kolhapur, Sangli, Solapur, Nanded and Jalgaon. These districts are the main suppliers of vegetables, fruits, milk, poultry products, and meat to western Maharashtra, Mumbai, Marathwada and north Maharashtra.
Source: Livemint
5) Paris Deal Not Tough Enough on India, China, says Trump
Announcing US withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement, President Donald Trump said the deal was not tough enough on other countries like India and China. The president added, “India will be allowed to double its coal production by 2020,”. He also mentioned that the European nations are also allowed to do the same.
The Paris Climate agreement aims at protecting the planet from the rising threats of climate changes. The president said, “In order to fulfill my solemn duty to protect America, the United States will withdraw from the Paris climate accord.”
He said the other countries got monetary aid from the United States and that the deal was not monetarily beneficial to the country as it cost them a lot of jobs. He called the Paris agreement a “self-inflicted major economic wound.”
He said America was committed to protection of environment but the onus had to be borne by all participating countries equally.
Source: Indian Express
6) CBSE Awarded up to 11 Extra Marks in Class XII
Ordered by the court to restore moderation of marks in Class XII this year, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) seems to have gone way beyond reasonable limits of the policy while awarding marks.
Up to 11 extra marks were given in accountancy, 10 in mathematics and eight each in physics and chemistry.
This is apart from set-wise moderated marks awarded due to difference in difficulty level and other discrepancies. The spiking of marks, evidently done in anticipation of other boards doing the same, is bound to reopen the moderation debate.
One expert called it “not moderation, but competitive inflation” of marks. Others said such spiking of marks was putting an otherwise progressive policy (moderation) under a cloud, with all education boards getting into competitive mode.
CBSE also gave up to 10 marks as grace for candidates who failed to get qualifying marks.
Source: The Times of India
7) AAP Declares its Own Hackathon, Blames Note Ban for Economic Dip
Weeks after the Election Commission announced a day-long hackathon of Electronic Voting Machines, the Aam Aadmi Party on Thursday declared that it too would come up with a similar challenge.
Addressing a presser in New Delhi, engineer-turned politician, Saurabh Bhardwaj, criticised the Election Commission for disallowing the option to open EVMs during it’s upcoming hackathon.
AAP leader Saurabh Bhardwaj said:
The Election Commission is ready to provide. EVMs, but will not allow them to be opened. It has challenged hackers to use a combination of buttons to tamper with EVMs.
Read the full story on The Quint.
8) Gau Rakshak Group Mistakes Student for Journalist, Stab Him for Not Clicking Pictures of Protest
Members of a cow vigilante group stabbed a college student multiple times for not taking photographs of their protest after mistaking him for a journalist in Gohana town of Haryana’s Sonepat district on Thursday.
The BA second-year student, Shivam, is battling for life at Apollo Hospital in New Delhi.
The Gau Raksha Seva Dal held a protest demanding sedition charges against Congress workers in Kerala who slaughtered a cow in public last Saturday to defy new Central rules that no cattle can be sold or bought in animal markets for slaughter.
The gau rakshaks thought Shivam was a photographer and asked him to take photographs of them handing a memorandum to district officials.
The student allegedly refused, which triggered an argument, but bystanders pacified the protesters. The gau rakshaks followed him after the protest, accosted him in a market, and stabbed his stomach and chest with knives, police said.
Source: Hindustan Times
9) After Ruby Rai, Another Bihar Topper Caught on Wrong Foot
Last year, Ruby Rai said “prodigal science” is about cooking and this time too, Bihar’s Class XII topper in humanities struggled to explain the basics of music, one of his subjects. Controversies continue to dodge the state’s Class XII toppers.
Ganesh Kumar, who topped Class XII boards in humanities stream, stumbled over queries posed by the media on music, in which he scored 65 out of 70 in practicals.
Kumar in an interview to a TV news channel said singer Lata Mangeshkar is known as ‘Maithili Kokila’, a title bestowed on folk singer Sharda Sinha, who is from Samastipur, where his school is situated.
He seemed to have a difficult time explaining what is ‘sur’, ‘taal’ and ‘matra’, considered the basics of music.
Source: Indian Express
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