Google has removed the popular Indian made app that sought to remove Chinese apps like Tik Tok, UC Browser, Alibaba and other Chinese apps from phone. It said that it was removed for violating its Deceptive Behaviour Policy that prohibits software from encouraging or misleading users into removing or disabling third party apps.
The app, developed by Indian based OneTouch AppLabs had hit 50 lakh downloads in just over 2 weeks of its launch. The company had claimed that it was developed only for ‘educational purposes’. The app also had a good reach in Australia where it had topped the tools sections.
Earlier, Google had deleted the Mitron app, considered to be a rival to TikTok. However, Mitron app has a shady background. The source code of the app was purchased by an IIT Roorkee student named Shivank Agarwal from a Pakistan based company called QBoxus which had come out with an app called TicTac similar to TikTok. The TicTac app was rebranded as Mitron without making any changes to the source code. Cybersecurity experts have warned that the app is unsafe as it doesn’t come with an additional firewall.
Both these apps became popular due to the prevailing anti-China sentiment coming in the wake of the Wuhan corona virus and also the recent border skirmishes.
The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday (June 3), gave its approval to several reform measures in the agricultural sector expected to benefit farmers and other stakeholders. Here is the gist of decisions taken:
Amendment to Essential Commodities Act
The Cabinet approved the amendment to Essential Commodities Act that is set to provide a liberalized regulatory environment for farmers. With this amendment, cereals, pulses, oilseeds, edible oils, onion and potatoes will no more be listed under essential commodities. This move has been made with a view attract private investments in cold storages, prevent wastage and modernize of food supply chain.
The government has however provided in the amendment that in situations like war, famine, extraordinary price rise and natural calamity, such agricultural products can be regulated.
The Farming Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, 2020
The Cabinet also approved The Farming Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, 2020. This move is set to give farmers and traders freedom over sale and purchase of agri goods and also better price realization for farmers. The move is also done to promote barrier-free inter-state and intra-state trade and commerce outside the State APMC systems thus paving way for One India, One Agriculture Market.
The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance, 2020
The Cabinet approved the ordinance that will place farmers on a level playing field to engage with processors, aggregators, large retailers, exporters etc. It is set to transfer the risk of market unpredictability from the farmer to the sponsor and also allow for the farmer to access modern technology and better inputs. This is also expected to reduce the intermediaries in food products marketing.
The above measures have been taken with the view of making an ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ and is expected to give a fillip to the rural economy.
Are you a quiz freak? Do you consume news like you consume water? Do you keep a tab on what is happening around you? Then it is time to give some exercise to your neurons.
X Quiz It, a leading knowledge services and quizzing entity based in Chennai comprising of seasoned quizzers is holding an online quizzing event “Newsful” on this Sunday (June 7, 2020) at 9 PM.
X Quiz It hosts tailor-made quiz shows for schools, colleges, B-Schools and other companies. Their questions have been featured in noted TV game shows like The Wall, KBC Tamil etc.
The Commune is the media partner and co-sponsor of the event.
First 3 winners will get a cash prize of ₹500, ₹300 and ₹200 in that order.
Queensland amusement park near Poonamalle in Chennai, that finds itself in news quite often for untoward accidents, has been sitting on the temple lands belonging to Kasi Viswanathar Temple and Sri Venugopalaswamy Temple of Pappanchatram near Poonamalle in Kanchipuram district since its inception. The amusement park owner Selvaraj, popularly known as Oorvasi Selvaraj owing to soap-making business, had taken the land for lease in 1991 under the pretext of carrying out farming activities. However, he had violated the agreement by indulging in commercial activities.
Selvaraj founded Oorvasi Soap Company, Queensland and King’s Engineering College. He was the Vice President of South Chennai branch of Indian National Congress from 1990 to 1997. He was elected MLA from Srivaikuntam constituency in 2006. Back then, he was the third richest MLA in the assembly according to sworn affidavits next only to Karunanidhi and Jalalithaa. He died in 2009. His wife Nalini Selvaraj is prominent Christian evangelist.
The Kasi Viswanathar Temple and Sri Venugopalaswamy temple own 177.7 acres of land. The Queensland amusement park and the St. John’s International Residential School which is a kilometre away from Queensland are sitting on the lands owned by these temples which now remain in ruins while both the amusement park and the schools flourish.
In 2008, the local court ruled to a petition filed by the temple administration that the lessee had violated the lease agreement by indulging in commercial activities. An appeal against the court order was dismissed in 2013. The St. John’s school authorities were also a party to this suit.
In 1983, the Dasaprakash Group sought to buy the lands behind the 10 acres it had bought near the St John’s International Residential School. They had said that they would take the land on lease by paying the HR&CE department. The temple management had opposed the move then and filed a petition at the Madras High Court to which the Court struck down the Dasaprakash deal and ruled that the lands belonged to the temple post which the group sold off the land left the place.
However, the HR&CE department are yet to give the registration document of the temple lands to the temple management. Repeated reminders by temple caretakers have fallen on deaf ears.
The Queensland and St. John’s school had paid the lease rent in the first year to avoid paying taxes. However, they haven’t shed a dime ever since.
Meanwhile both the temples tell a tale of dismay. Swarajya as part of its heritage programme had published an article on the same detailing the poor conditions of the temple and the Gurukkals of the temple. The temple does not even have a compound wall now.
Image Courtese: Swarajya
Plants are growing on the walls and ceiling of the temple. The walls are cracking and wearing away. Both the temples look dark inside with poor lighting.
Quoting the Gurukkals, it was reported that one of them drew a meagre ₹300 per month as salary from HR&CE and 5 years of arrears were still pending. Another Gurukkal gets ₹6000 from a devotee sabha along with ₹1000 as travel allowance. It was reported that there was not even enough income to offer cooked rice as neivedhyam (food offering) to the deity.
The temple earlier had two big mandapams within the premises to conduct marriages and other events. Today, there exists no sign of such big mandapams except for the damaged ruins of it. It is said that Sri Chandrasekhara Saraswathi Swamigal of the Kanchi Mutt used to stay in the temple premises atleast 15 days in a year. Today, goats and cows freely enter and wander around the temple. People come to the temple on days of Pradosham and other important festivals.
St. John’s International School and the Queensland Amusement Park are located on 177.7 acres of land that was originally 1500 acres bought by a zamindar named Venkaiah in the 19th century. He had donated nearly 1000 acres of land where we have the Chembaramkkam Lake today. With the government gobbling the remaining as poromboke land, only 177.7 acres of the land remains which has also been encroached by Queensland and St. John’s School. The people of the area have stayed mum since some of their properties have also been located on temple lands.
The Gurukkals and the temple authorities hope that their efforts to retrieve the lands on which the encroachers now sit and mint money will help the temple have a decent income for poojas and maintenance.
Twitter was on fire on the eve of late leader Kalaignar Karunanidhi’s birthday with both #HBDFatherOfCorruption and #FatherOfModernTamilNadu trending on twitter. However, as the clock struck 12, the former had already raced with netizens oozing out their creativity through memes. An ‘official’ logo was also released to commemorate the occasion. Many of them famously recalled the late former Chief Minister’s reply to the Sarkaria Commission headed by retired Supreme Court Justice Ranjit Singh Sarkaria who had attributed the term ‘scientific corruption’ synonymous with the DMK party and its leaders.
The judge enquiring about the Sugar Scandal had asked Karunanidhi about what happened to the 20000 sugar bags that contained sugar to which pat came the reply “They were eaten by ants.” The appalled judge then asked “what happened to the bags that contained the sugar then?” and Karunanidhi replied “They were eaten by termites”.
The DMK under Karunanidhi is guilty of several other corruption charges and failures. The party was part of the biggest ever corruption case in the history of India – 2G spectrum case. Karunanidhi in order to save his seat, went soft on the UPA government headed by its alliance partner Congress, by organizing lip service protests while thousands of Tamils in Sri Lanka were killed in the civil war in Sri Lanka. He is said to have undertaken the ‘fastest fast’ by starting the fast after breakfast and ending it before lunch.
Netizens have been churning out tweets and memes recalling these. As of 07:30 AM, #HBDFatherOfCorruption crossed more than 151K tweets while #FatherOfModernTamilNadu was trending with 108K tweets. Here is a look at some of them:
Karunanidhi is the only CM who arranged for both his wives to sit in the visitor's gallery of Assembly to enjoy– on the day when Jayalaithaa was assaulted/saree stripped–what a vulgar/sadist man to have lived in TN–Today is #BD:))RT
Karunanidhi was PWD Minister, 27000 bags of sugar went missing from the Govt Gowdons. When judge Sarkariya asked Karunanidhi about the missing Sugar bags
For the past few days, desert locusts have been having a field day quite literally. Swarms of them have plagued the fields eating away crops in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. What are these insects? What has led to their outbreak? What explains the attack this year? What can we do about it? Here is an explainer addressing some of these questions.
What are locusts? How are they different from grasshoppers?
Locusts are large herbivorous insects and are a species of short-horned grasshoppers. Locusts and grasshoppers look similar in appearance but their behaviours are different. Locusts can exist in two different behavioural states – solitary and gregarious. When the population density is low, locusts exhibit solitary behaviour. However, when the population density becomes high, it undergoes physiological and behavioural changes and form large swarms of adult locusts. These swarms are migratory in nature while grasshoppers do not exhibit such behaviours and are mostly solitary in nature.
What are desert locusts?
Desert locust is a species of locust and a periodically swarming short-horned grasshopper. Unlike grasshoppers, it is one of the most devastating migratory pests in the world. They feed on large quantities of green vegetation like crops, pasture, and fodder. They are mostly concentrated in the Horn of Africa part and are found across the Arabian Peninsula, West Asia and a portion of the Indian subcontinent.
Image Source: ReliefWeb
They have the ability to follow the path of greenery and moisture due to their biological radar. However, their migration path follows the prevailing wind direction.
How did they arrive in India?
The desert locusts that have entered parts of India now originated in the Horn of Africa (Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Djibouti where excess rains had triggered breeding of the insect. They crossed the Red sea over to Iran and Pakistan to fulfil their lust for moisture and greenery. Some of them had a stopover at Iran, Pakistan and Baluchistan before where there was another round of breeding. They had reached Pakistan by mid-April.
Image Source: Hindustan Times
With the onset of monsoon in India, swarms of desert locusts have entered from Pakistan to Punjab and have made their way into Rajasthan, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, and few parts of other states like Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh.
Why is it a concern?
The onset of monsoon is followed by the new kharif cropping season when sowing of rice, sugarcane, cotton, sesame and other crops are undertaken. If the swarms are not controlled, it could lead to a huge loss for farmers. Many farmers in Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana have already lost significant portion of their crops to these pests. Large scale destruction of crops by locusts could lead to food shortage.
Will they reach southern part of India?
Experts say that they are less likely to reach southern states like Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh as these states receive rain during the north-east monsoon. Recently, reports of locust species being sighted in plantations in Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu emerged. A member of the Grasshopper Specialist Group of the Species Survival Commission of International Union of Conservation of Nature clarified that these species of spotted coffee grasshopper, Bombay locust and the Crytacanthacris Tartarica, a type of grasshopper, have been mistaken for the swarm of desert locusts.
Coffee LocustBombay Locust
Is this the first time that desert locusts are invading India?
The last time desert locusts wreaked havoc was in 2010. Prior to that, there were 13 locust attacks between 1964 and 1997. There were 5 outbreaks from 1997 to 2010 which were controlled. No major swarms were reported from 2010 to 2018.
Image source: Hindustan Times
In 2019, Gujarat and Rajasthan saw locust invasions destroying nearly 3.5 lakh hectares of cumin, rapeseed and mustard.
What is the link with climate change?
The locusts upsurge can be attributed to the phenomenon of Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), the alternate warming and cooling of western and eastern Indian oceans.
Image Source: phys.org
A positive dipole is when the western part is hotter than the eastern part and negative dipole happens when the eastern part is hotter than the western part. A positive dipole is favourable to India as it brings in good rains. Last year’s positive dipole was very strong leading to an above normal monsoon. It led to the monsoons extending to parts of West Asia, Arabian Peninsula and Horn of Africa. This moisture facilitated the swarming up of desert locusts. The desert locusts have now carried themselves with the monsoon winds now.
Against the backdrop of global warming, stronger positive IODs are set to become more frequent. This could lead to regular locust infestations that could pose serious threat to agriculture and thereby food security.
What can be done?
Desert locusts travel only during day time thereby making them vulnerable at night. The Locus Warning Organization under the Ministry of Agriculture are monitoring and tracking the swarms. Drones are being used to spray insecticides on non-cropped areas. In agricultural areas, a chlorpyrifos is sprayed using drones and tractor mounted sprays. In some areas, the Indian jugaad mind has come out with a solution by playing loud music to ward off swarms.
A DJ setup with loudspeakers in the middle of a field in Uttar Pradesh to fight locust invasion.
The death toll in Mexico has crossed 10,000 as restrictions were released a few days ago. The number of total confirmed cases as of Monday has become 93,000, and the exact number of recorded deaths due to COVID-19 are 10,167.
Latin America is fast becoming the epicentre of this pandemic. In the wake of this, Mexico stands fourth, only next to Brazil, Chile and Peru.
The worst affected states are Mexico City, the state surrounding it and Baja California in the south. The testing rate is far lesser than the ideal rate, and this is a major cause for concern in that region. Experts have warned that the actual toll could be far higher than that showcased by the government.
While most parts of Mexico have been under lockdown since March 23, some industries continued to function, triggering outbursts amongst the workers. The easing of lockdown started on May 18 in regions that were relatively less affected. By June 1, construction activities as well as automobile manufacturing resumed functioning, along with parks at one-third capacity.
Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in a press release on Monday, said, “We have to move towards the new normal because it’s necessary for our national economy, our people’s wellbeing; we need to, little by little, return production, economic, social and cultural activity to normal.” This statement has been facing backlash due to his decision to phase out the lockdown as cases steadily increased.
On May 15, Ramkumar a young graduate belonging to the Scheduled Caste community and a youth wing leader of Dravidar Kazhagam (DK)’s Tiruvannamalai unit was verbally and physically abused by the DMK’s panchayat union leader Karunanidhi. Karunanidhi and his brother Parthasarathy had hurled casteist slurs at Ramkumar and his mother and also beat them with slippers.
Karunanidhi is reported to have said ““How dare you raise your voice and speak against me? [We] should have thrown you guys outside the village a long time back. Since that wasn’t done, you got enough courage to speak up against us is it?”
Ramkumar is later said to have reported the incident at Thachampattu Police Station where his complaint was initially rejected. After a long hiatus, an FIR was registered. Later, Thachampattu Block Councillor Ramanan of the DMK had threatened Ramkumar to withdraw the case.
AIADMK Spokesperson and Vellore Zone IT head has shared on his timeline a testimony of Ramkumar. Here is the English transcript of Ramkumar’s testimony. The video is attached at the end of the article.
“Vanakkam! My name is Mu. Ka. Ramkumar. I am the head of the Dravidar Kazhagam’s student wing unit in Tiruvannamali district. I have done my B.Sc. Biochemistry. I run a lab near Nallorpalayam. On May 15, there happened an incident. Parayampatti panchyat union leader Karunanidhi beat me with slippers. He also hurled casteist slurs at me. It doesn’t seem like a one person attack.. It looks like the entire family was behind it. Prior to this incident, I was attacked when I had gone to relieve myself nearby his fields. I was verbally abused then too. When I had informed this incident to my dad, he too was beaten with slippers. We had filed a case then too. However, we withdrew the case upon his request and also considering that he is a veteran. Now, this is the second time this abuse and attack has happened to me. This is totally condemnable. I belong to the DK and he to the DK’s companion party DMK. However, it is evident that he has a casteist and oppressive mindset. The most important point to note here is that his entire family is behind in attacking us. His brother’s son had claimed that he had been waiting for an opportunity to attack me and take me down. It shows that were expecting me to get into a small trouble to attack me. It pains to see such men in a rationalist party like DMK.”
The Andhra Pradesh government has given a go ahead to let local devotees visit the abode of Lord Venkateswara at the Tirumala hills.
In the first phase, the employees of Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam (TTD), and local devotees will be allowed to have darshan of Lord Venkateshwara.
The temple was shut on March 20 for the first time in history and has remained closed for 67 days ever since the pandemic spread.
Tirumala has been in the green zone since the start of the pandemic however it was closed down as a precautionary measure.
The TTD is putting in place measures to adhere to COVID19 protocol. The temple which witnesses close to a lakh footfalls a day will be restricting the number of devotees per day to 25,000 to 30,000. Thermal scanners are being placed and circles have been marked in places where pilgrims usually stand in queues. Pilgrims will have to wear mask compulsorily.
On May 27, OIL (Oil India Ltd.) had a blowout in Well No.5 at Baghjan Oilfield in the Tinsukia district. Operations to produce gas from a new oil-bearing reservoir at the depth of 3729 metres are the cause. Reports say that there are no fires or any forms of major casualties.
A blowout happens when pressure control systems fail and crude gas gushes uncontrollably.
Operations were suspended and people (almost 4000) were evacuated immediately, who are now sheltered at a nearby school. Efforts are being made to provide food and medical care.
The blowout poses threats to wildlife and aquatic animals as it continues to increase. Previous reports say that a radius of 1km is damp and misted with oil-vapour which in itself is a major flammable risk.
Residents have shown dismay and the All Moran Students’ Union and Assam Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chhatra Parishad want a probe into the incident. They have also demanded to blacklist the outsourced company— M/s John Energy, and to stop the pipeline work from Madhuting to Baghjan over Maguri Beel undertaken by ACI Company. OIL has asked M/s John Energy to show cause.
Meanwhile, the efforts of the crisis management team formed by the PSU to plug the leak, including the continuous pumping of water into the well’s valve to cool the gas have progressed nowhere positively.
As of now, global experts such as Boots and Coots, and Alert and Wild Well Control have been asked to help while the well continues to leak oil.
Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal spoke to Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan and urged him to take immediate remedial measures.
