India intends to deploy the Russian S-400 missile defense system by June 2022

HT Daily News Wrap

Hardik Patel resigned from Congress and is believed to be prepping to join BJP ahead of Gujarat elections, SC granted bail to Indrani Mukerjea, who is facing trial for the murder of her 25-year-old daughter Sheena Bora in 2012, By June 2022 India intends to deploy the S-400 missile defense system received from Russia and other top news in this bulletin.
Patidar leader Hardik Patel, who joined the Congress a little over three years ago, on Wednesday resigned from the party and is believed to be prepping to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of state elections in Gujarat later this year. Patel’s one-page resignation letter – he put out copies in English and Hindi on his Twitter handle – was scathing in its criticism of the Congress and its leaders who he said, did not have a roadmap for the people, were non-serious and behaved as if they hated Gujarat and Gujaratis. “Whenever our country faced challenges and when the Congress needed leadership, Congress leaders were enjoying abroad,” said the Gujarat Congress working president, who hit national headlines in 2015 when he, then a 21-year-old, became the face of the Patel Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) to seek inclusion of Gujarat’s Patel community as other backward classes (OBC) and get quota benefits in education and jobs. “Whenever I tried to draw the attention of party leaders towards pressing issues of Gujarat, it seemed they were more focused on their mobile phone screens and other gadgets,” Patel said, describing “lack of seriousness about all issues” as a major problem with the Congress’s “senior leadership”. Ending the over 31-year-old incarceration of Rajiv Gandhi assassination convict AG Perarivalan, the Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered his release taking into account his good conduct in prison, medical condition, educational qualifications acquired in jail and the long pendency of his mercy plea since December 2015. A bench of justices L Nageswara Rao and BR Gavai ruled, “Seeing his satisfactory conduct in jail, medical records, educational qualifications achieved in jail, and pendency of his mercy petition filed under Article 161 before TN Governor since December 2015…in exercise of powers under Article 142, we direct the petitioner to be set free.” The court further held that the decision of Governor to refer the mercy plea of Perarivalan to President on January 25 last year had no constitutional backing. “The Governor is bound by aid and advice of state council of ministers,” the bench said, adding, “the decision to refer the plea to President has no constitutional backing as per the SC decision in Maru Ram case (1980), which held that Governor has to abide by aid and advice of state cabinet and if he is not agreeable to the decision, the Governor must send the matter back to the state for reconsideration. The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted bail to former media executive Indrani Mukerjea, who is facing trial for the murder of her 25-year-old daughter Sheena Bora in 2012. Indrani, who has been in Byculla jail since her arrest in August 2015, had approached the top court challenging the order of the Bombay high court on November 16, 2021 denying her bail. The 50-year-old told the top court that the trial would not end soon as 185 out of 253 witnesses in the case remain to be examined. Moreover, the trial judge hearing her case was on leave from June 7, 2021 till May 4, 2022 further delaying the trial. She had also claimed that being a woman and having mental and other health issues, she deserved to be released on bail. A three-judge bench headed by justice L Nageswara Rao granted Indrani bail on the ground that she had been in custody for more than six years and there was no scope for the trial to end soon, considering the fact that out of 237 witnesses, only 68 witnesses were examined so far. The prosecution, led by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), had opposed bail and informed the court that the trial will not take long as the prosecution will be giving up on 50% of the remaining witnesses. By June 2022, India intends to deploy the S-400 missile defence system that it has received from Russia to defend itself against threat from Pakistan and China, a Pentagon spy master has told US lawmakers. India started receiving the delivery of S-400 missile defence system from Russia in December last year, Lt Gen Scott Berrier, Director, Defense Intelligence Agency told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee during a recent Congressional hearing. As of October 2021, India’s military was seeking to procure advanced surveillance systems to strengthen its land and sea borders and boost its offensive and defensive cyber capabilities. “In December, India received its initial delivery of the Russian S-400 air defence system, and it intends to operate the system to defend against Pakistani and Chinese threats by June 2022,” Berrier said. “India continued to develop its own hypersonic, ballistic, cruise, and air defence missile capabilities, conducting multiple tests in 2021. India has a growing number of satellites in orbit, and it is expanding its use of space assets, likely pursuing offensive space capabilities,” he said. Berrier told lawmakers that New Delhi is pursuing an extensive military modernisation effort encompassing air, ground, naval, and strategic nuclear forces with an emphasis on domestic defence production. India is taking steps to establish Integrated Theatre Commands that will improve its joint capability among its three military services. Since 2019, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given priority to strengthen India’s economy by expanding its domestic defence industry, and establishing a negative import list to curtail defence purchases from foreign suppliers. “India’s longstanding defence relationship with Russia remains strong, holding their first ‘2 2’ format talks in December — a joint foreign and defence ministerial that India previously only held with the United States, Japan, and Australia. “India has maintained a neutral stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and continues to call for peace,” Berrier told the lawmakers. According to Berrier, throughout 2021, New Delhi continued to implement foreign policy aimed at demonstrating India’s role as a leading power and net provider of security in the Indian Ocean region. More than 6.6 million people died due to air pollution in 2019, a new study published on Tuesday estimated, with India contributing the highest share at 1.67 million, or 17.8% of such premature deaths. Overall, according to a study in the Lancet Planetary Health, nine million people died to pollution, a number unchanged since the last analysis in 2015. The nine million fatalities represent one in six deaths worldwide. Water pollution was responsible for 1.36 million premature deaths, lead exposure leading to another 900,000 and toxic occupational hazards added a further 870,000 premature deaths, the report said. Ambient air pollution, which refers to air in normal circumstances, was responsible for 4.5 million deaths in 2019, up from 4.2 million deaths in 2015 and 2.9 million in 2000. The report mentions that India made efforts against household air pollution, most notably through the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana programme, but still had the world’s largest estimated number of air pollution related deaths. “India has developed instruments and regulatory powers to mitigate pollution sources but there is no centralised system to drive pollution control efforts and achieve substantial improvements. In 93% of India, the amount of pollution remains well above WHO guidelines of 10 µg/m3,” it said. According to the report, air pollution is most severe in the Indo-Gangetic Plain, where topography and meteorology concentrate pollution from energy, mobility, industry, agriculture, and other activities. Burning of biomass in households was the single largest cause of air pollution deaths in India, followed by coal combustion and crop burning. Population-weighted mean exposure to ambient air pollution peaked in India at 95mg/m3 in 2014, was reduced to 82mg/m3 by 2017, but more recently has been rising slowly again.