29 JULY 2016

Ø  Mahasweta Devi, a colossal figure in Bengali literature and a respected social activist who lent her voice to the poor, passed away at a private hospital here on Thursday. The litterateur, who was honoured with the Sahitya Akademi, Jnanpith and the Magsaysay awards, was 90. Mahasweta Devi was born into a family of literary figures in Dhaka in 1926. In a literary career spanning over half-a-century, she wrote over 120 books. Most of her works centred on the lives of the poor and downtrodden.

Ø  While Beas in Punjab is billed the cleanest railway station, Madhubani in Bihar is at the bottom of the grid. Gujarat has five stations in the list of top 10 cleanest stations in the country — Gandhidham, Jamnagar, Surat, Rajkot and Ankaleshwar. Vasco Da Gama (Goa), Kumbakonam (Tamil Nadu), Nasik Road (Maharashtra), and Salem (Tamil Nadu) are the other railway stations that have been ranked among the top 10 cleanest stations.

Ø  After six days of intense aerial and surface scanning for the missing An-32 aircraft, the search and rescue operations are now shifting significantly under water, with additional deployment of specialised vehicles that can go deep into the sea. While the aerial and surface searches will continue, officials said the strengthening of underwater capabilities is primarily because of two reasons: the lack of any credible leads yet, and the likelihood of the aircraft being deep under the sea. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said in the Lok Sabha on Thursday that no concrete evidence on the missing aircraft had emerged so far. “Current search operations are focused on surface and underwater domain to look for survivors and debris,” he informed the House. In addition to the Navy submarine which was deployed a few days ago, several other underwater assets were being pressed into service to monitor the sea bad. The general depth in the search area is about 3-3.5 km. INS Nirupak, with autonomous underwater vehicle and camera, joined the search on Wednesday. Assistance has also been sought from the Geological Survey of India for the deployment of its Oceanographic research vessel, Samundra Ratnakar, for sub surface search. In addition, the National Institute of Ocean Technology research vessel, Sagar Nidhi, is expected to reach the search area in a few days for conducting sea bed profiling. Briefing Parliament on the events of the day of the crash, Mr. Parrikar said weather in the area, approx. 500 km East of Tambaram, was mainly overcast with multi-layered clouds and embedded convection. “One thundershower cloud was reported in the area. The aircraft had weather avoidance radar and had asked for deviation to the right to avoid it,” he observed.

Ø  China on Thursday denied that its troops had crossed into the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Uttarakhand. In New Delhi, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar also rejected that the Chinese forces had carried out an “incursion” into the Indian sided of the LAC in the Barahoti sector. Beijing declined to comment on reports about the improvement of infrastructure and India’s enhanced military profile in Ladakh. Answering a question on reports that the Chinese forces had crossed into the Indian side of the LAC, Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Senior Colonel Yang Yujun said Chinese troops “always conducted activities on the Chinese side of LAC”. “We are committed to maintaining peace and stability along the China-India border,” The India-China border is not formally demarcated. There are areas where both sides have differing perceptions of the LAC. Barahoti [in Uttarakhand] is one such area. There was no incursion, just transgression which has been settled. There is a well-defined mechanism to settle such transgressions. The Chinese spokesman downplayed reports on India’s enhanced military presence in Ladakh, including the deployment of T-72 tanks.