25 AUGUST 2016

Ø  India on Wednesday began multiple investigations to determine the extent of damage caused by the reported leak of huge quantity of secret data detailing the combat and stealth capabilities of the Indian Navy’s soon-to-be-inducted Scorpene submarines. The Navy, in its early response, said the leak was from outside India while downplaying the operational impact of the leak. The source of the leak, if confirmed, can have a serious bearing on the significantly large defence ties between India and France with French companies in the race for deals worth billions of dollars including the Rafale fighter deal. The incident emerged in a news report on Tuesday in The Australian, which also released a few sample documents. According to The Australian, the data includes 4,457 pages on underwater sensors, 4,209 pages on above-water sensors, 4,301 pages on its combat management system, 493 pages on its torpedo launch system and specifications, 6,841 pages on the communications system and 2,138 on its navigation systems.

Ø  The Union Cabinet, on Wednesday, cleared the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016, banning commercial surrogacy in India. The Bill also bars foreigners, homosexual couples, people in live-in relationships and single individuals, making only childless, straight Indian couple married for a minimum of five years eligible for surrogacy. Eligible couples will have to turn to close relatives, not necessarily related by blood for altruistic surrogacy — where no money exchanges hands between the commissioning couple and the surrogate mother. Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj defended making homosexuals ineligible for surrogacy. Taking a jibe at celebrities like Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan, who had children by way of surrogacy, Ms. Swaraj said that, “rich people outsource pregnancies to poorer women because their wives cannot go through labour pain. We have put a complete stop to celebrities who are commissioning surrogate children like a hobby, despite having biological ones.”

Ø  A powerful earthquake rattled a remote area of central Italy on Wednesday, leaving at least 120 people dead and scenes of carnage in mountain villages. With 368 people injured and an unknown number trapped under rubble, the figure of dead and wounded was expected to rise in the wake of the pre-dawn quake, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi warned. Scores of buildings were reduced to dusty piles of masonry in communities close to the epicentre of the quake, which had a magnitude of between 6.0 and 6.2. It hit a remote area straddling Umbria, Marche and Lazio at a time of year when second- home owners and other visitors swell the numbers staying there. Many of the victims were from Rome.

Ø  Turkish tanks backed by fighter jets and special forces rolled into Syria on Wednesday in an unprecedented operation to drive Islamic State (IS) jihadists out of a key Syrian border town. The operation — named “Euphrates Shield” — began at around 4:00 am (0100 GMT) with Turkish artillery pounding dozens of IS targets around Jarabulus, the Turkish Prime Minister’s office said.

Ø  The Centre gave its green signal for investments worth more than Rs. 27,000 crore in new highways and railway lines across the country to boost economic growth. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved infrastructure projects worth Rs. 27,328 crore for expansion of railway lines in 11 states and development of 1,120 km national highways in five states. The government plans to increase its investments in the infrastructure sector. About 8,300 kilometres of roads involving more than Rs. 1 lakh crore investments were revived, said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget speech. Total investments earmarked in the current fiscal for roads and railways sectors amounts to Rs.2.18 lakh crore. The Centre is also augmenting port capacity by developing greenfield projects in both eastern and western coasts. In the aviation sector, the Centre plans to revive torpid airports.

Ø  The negotiations for the proposed mega Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between 16 Asia Pacific nations including India and China are likely to miss the December 2016 deadline for their conclusion, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said. The talks for inking the pact, known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), might “move into 2017,” Ms. Sitharaman told reporters, adding that the next meeting to review progress is slated for November this year.