India’s Rustom-2 UAV gets massive upgrade, will soar to 27,000 feet in April

Rustom-2, India’s medium-altitude long-endurance drone being developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation, is targeted to achieve a huge milestone in April when it will take off from its test range in

Karnataka’s Chitradurga to fly for more than 18 hours at a height of over 27,000 feet, people familiar with the development said.

Rustom-2, also known as Tapas-BH (Tactical Airborne Platform for Aerial Surveillance-Beyond Horizon 201),

successfully completed the last flight test in October last year when it successfully flew for eight hours at an altitude of 16,000 feet.

“This will be a huge step,” said a senior government official about the

indigenously-developed unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) designed for strategic reconnaissance and surveillance operations. Rustom-1

Very Well Written..

100% factual aspects are brought out in this text. Circulate this to as many people as you can...

*Dear CJI* & fellow Justices of Supreme Court of India,

1. A party Wins Lok Sabha elections, gets 303 seats with massive 46% vote share.

😔

2. Then it wins state after state to get majority in Rajya Sabha.

3. It passes Kisan Bills in both the Houses, gets President's approval & the Bills become Laws.

4. Some 20-25 K of 1 state sits on road for a month, then you stay the LAWs.

5. What a mockery of the democratic process..!!!

6. Where are our protectors of democracy now ?? Those who were screaming that democracy is being murdered, not so long ago ??

7. The Supreme Court today said, "We are trying to solve the problem in accordance with the Law."

8. Hello Sir ji..! Your job is not to solve a problem (but to judicially decide a case on merits). That would mean you don't want to annoy any party. You want to please everyone. Sorry! you are not here to please people U are here to interpret existing Law & pronounce a judgment.

9. Your job is to say who is right and who is wrong. That's all. Nothing more. Nothing less.

10. But you didn't do that. What do you do? From this country of 130 crore people, you hand pick four people and ask them to tell you what is their opinion about these Laws.

I actually have sympathy for @BharatBiotech's scientists and the volunteers who took part in their clinical trials so far. They have been let down by bad science and poor regulatory processes. The company should never have submitted #Covaxin for regulatory approval w/o Ph 3 data

That mistake -the original sin, if you like- has led to a series of mis-steps, errors, cover-ups, linguistic contortions, and lack of clarity. The regulator shd have held the #Covaxin approval request and said, "we'll look at it when you have at least some preliminary ph 3 data"

Instead, they clubbed their approval of 3 separate products into one press release. That was Mistake No 3, driven I suspect by the desire to have a wholly Indian offering (Covishield though made in Pune was already labelled, don't forget as an #Angrez product.

But the regulators had this problem: How do you conjure of an efficacy number in the absence of ANY Ph 3 data? They could not and so they didn't. Instead they gave it a half-arsed approval, underwent a linguistic contortion to come up with "Clinical Trial Mode".

The trouble with #AliceInWonderland words and novel phraseology is this: people ask, as indeed they should, "But what does it mean?". Here's the difficulty: No one knows. Not the CEO of @BharatBiotech, not anyone in @MoHFW_India nor indeed anyone in @ICMRDELHI.

Here are my coffee highlights of 2020: I tried the following roasters from India: Blue tokai, Kapi kottai, Corridor seven, Subko, Curious Life, Black baza, Karma Kaapi, QBF, El Bueno, Beanrove, Third Wave.

Most ordered coffee: Corridor Seven Riverdale, Mind=blown from Kapi kottai, Ratnagiri espresso from Curious Life, BT's Riverdale. Orchardale estate and Hoysala.

Best coffees of 2020 (as per my judgment). 1. Riverdale from BT 2. Curveball from Kapi Kottai 3. Hoysala from BT 4. Producer Lot series 1.

Best and most consistent roaster in 2020: @BlueTokaiCoffee hand down! Great experimentation on the producer series front and also delivering great coffees across 2020. What a comeback!

Best espresso coffee: Hoysala estate and Ratnagiri espresso from Curious Life. Hoysala is an all-rounder coffee, works great with milk also works well for an americano.

THREAD: Former tax chief Shabbar Zaidi who many hoped would be the best bet to fix Pakistan’s tax system but left in less than a year made some very candid comments in a webinar /1

Pakistani businessmen have stashed $150 billion offshore after making those in profits through local businesses, claims Zaidi. They would make more returns on those in Pakistan but there is the fear factor of the unknown/2

As tax chief Zaidi went to business chamber KCCI, told them and I will ease any tax-related hurdles, just stop selling smuggled goods across Karachi, the president plainly refused the offer saying that’s not possible/3

“I faced resistance from the business community. They are not even 1% interested in tax reforms” said /4

“No politician has a listed company, except JKT. They don’t want documentation” /5

#EPWConversations

Our #RepublicDay #TwitterTakeover with @glorious_gluten has begun!

For the next hour, she will be discussing the relationship between the #police, #State and the #law.

Join the conversation and send us your questions in the comments section.

On #26January, 2021, the Indian republic completes 71 years since its formation; against the background of a global pandemic that has starkly exposed its fault lines. | @glorious_gluten

The 299 member #ConstituentAssembly was unique for there were 15 women (including a #Dalit woman Dakshini Velayudhan) who were voted to be a part of the
Committee and make their contribution to the building of the republic. #RepublicDay | @glorious_gluten

The #Constitution has also been described as an elite document borrowing heavily from the
Government of India Act, 1935 and heralded by the upper echelons of the country.

The judiciary, army, the police are repositories of this colonial legislation. @glorious_gluten

Those living on the margins have mediated the everyday life of Constitutionalism in the country bringing the document to life as during the Pathalgadi movement led by Adivasis in Jharkhand. | @glorious_gluten

Sources : TN Minister for Food and Civil Supplies, R Kamaraj gets infected with Covid19. He has been admitted in MIOT.

A few questions to @CMOTamilNadu 1/n

1) When he claims that he is providing world class health facility and claims the state has prospered under his rule, why none of his cabinet colleagues, who were infected with Covid19, for example Minister for Higher Education KP Anbalagan get admitted into a government 2/n

hospital. Does @CMOTamilNadu’s own cabinet colleagues don’t trust government hospitals ? Or, whatever @CMOTamilNadu says is a lie ?

2) When his own cabinet colleagues get infected with Covid19, and have the risk of becoming a super-spreader, why is @CMOTamilNadu 3/n

undertake political campaigns ?

3) Is @CMOTamilNadu aware that Minister Kamaraj, recently participated in the recent function to distribute Pongal gifts and people jostled to get a selfie with him and he has become a super spreader of Covid 19 now ? 4/n

4) When his own cabinet colleagues who get infected with Covid19, are crorepatis and get treatment in private hospitals, what would a poor @actorvijay fan most of whom are BPL & their family will do in case they get infected ? 5/n

1. There are exceptions to every rule, but I don't think even those who hate Rahul Gandhi or the dynasty react so viscerally to them as those who hate Modi, especially the Lutyens cabal, only because Modi treats most of them like they don't exist. The Lutyens ecosystem is rattled

2. since Modi arrived because it has failed to housetrain him like they had done with so many others including ABV & LKA. In 6 years they've tried first to change him and then to destroy him. But he's still here and that should tell them Modi is like no one they've seen before.

3. Every attempt to destabilize Modi has failed. Starting from award wapsi soon after he took over, letters by retired babus, the continuous refrain about "unsafe India" , the engineered protests, riots after CAA-NRC, getting lobbies from abroad to give their one cent's worth,

4. the attempts by sections of the media to link every murder, lynching, rape, assault and 'love jihad' to him, and now the farm protests, like he was some kind of Darth Vader/Hitler/Devil combo who ran an evil empire. It has failed each time, and has made Modi even stronger.

5. Sure, Modi's governance model is not without its warts. But which govt in independent India has been flawless? Sure, there are undesirables in this govt just as there were in previous ones. But all of them were voted to power by the people. That's Indian democracy. Who do we

Why have 300 million people been protesting in India? A few people have asked me about this so thought I’d offer a handy summary thread (1/22)

Small farmers make up 60% of India’s working population and are routinely romanticized as the backbone of the country. Nonetheless, decades of policy have given them a raw deal (2/22)

From the 1960s, innovations in agriculture (like pesticides and GM seeds) massively increased food production in India. But they also increased the need for small farmers to take out loans to pay for expensive seeds and equipment so they could produce competitively. (3/22)

These loans, with punitive repayment programmes, have dragged much of the farming population into debt spirals that have led to increased poverty, loss of dignity and, most notably, 300,000 suicides (4/22)

Against this background of farmer disempowerment, the ruling party in India, the BJP, tried to stealth pass three bills that would liberalise the agricultural sector and make farmers even worse off than they are right now (5/22)

Lets start exposing khalistani..

Peeps.. see.. this is my profession to expose anti hindus, anti Nationalists. No one supporting me or funding me to expose and this is selflessly I am doing so don't just enjoy it with popcorn but care to share this post.

Enjoy thread now..

@SureshNakhua

We are a people with pliable moral and ethical standards. Chalta hai, jugaad, we are like this only, kindly adjust, tedhi ungli, patli gully are cute verbal disguises for dishonesty. Taking liberties with the letter of the law has alway been okay. +

To us the law is not a diktat. It's a challenge. Like escaping from a mystery room. We rewrite and re-interpret the laws for ourselves in a more amenable, comfortable, acceptable, practical, convenient, benevolent manner.
+

And then we make abiding by this rewritten legal framework our way of life. In fact, we've made it a very cool thing as well. Giving and getting proxy at attendance, fudging a concession form, traveling by bus and claiming air fare, padding up travel expenses... +

... borrowing petrol and medical bills, copying in exams, getting rent bills from your own Dad, taking payment in a spouse's name, paying part in black, buying without a bill, using peons and office cars for personal work, bribing a traffic cop, ... +

... using the services of a tout at the RTO, greasing a TTE's palm, finding a railway contact to release EQ for non emergencies, buying booze and washing machines from the army canteen, getting fitness and sickness certificates without check ups... +

[FACT CHECK]

The @nytimes recently published an article about the Turkish occupation of Afrin, calling it a ‘safe zone’. The article contains several inaccuracies about the situation on the ground, outlined

The Afrin canton has seen virtually no combat during the Syrian Civil War. Religious minorities were protected under the AANES and its predecessors in this overwhelmingly Kurdish region. An estimated 316,000 internally-displaced Syrians - both Kurdish and Arab - fled to Afrin.

The invasion’s raison d'être does not hold up to scrutiny. Turkey accused the PYD/YPG forces in Afrin of launching “more than 700 attacks” against Turkish cities. However, upon further investigation, only 15 confirmed incidents of cross-border attacks from Afrin emerged.

Over half of Afrin’s majority-Kurdish population were forcefully displaced by Turkey’s invasion and prevented from returning. Around 400,000 Syrian Arabs were settled in the region. Currently, Arabs and Turkmen make up around 75% of the population…

...Together with Turkey’s erasure of the Kurdish language and culture in occupied Afrin, this amounts to a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing and a prosecutable crime against humanity.

Supreme Court takes up the suo moto case on 'remediation of polluted rivers'.

Meenakshi Arora (amicus curiae) : The water quality level as on January 18 was excellent. Ammonium levels were in control. If that can be maintained, it will be good.

Arora submits that the NGT has appointed a river monitoring committee for Yamuna river and requests court to call for a report from the committee.

"They could assist us in a big manner", Arora submits.

#YamunaRiver #RiverPollution

Arora : Haryana has said they are in the process of upgrading certain STPs and CETPs.
#YamunaRiver #RiverPollution

CJI : Alright. Today we will pass an order calling for a report from the committee you mentioned.

What can we learn from India's farmer protests?

@PLAAS webinar starting now. Click below to watch (now or later) and follow #FarmersProtests

Most Indian farmers have less than 2 hectares! And depend on state-guaranteed prices for wheat & rice. This has been the foundation for smallholder agriculture for decades. It's this system which is under threat from new agricultural laws.

Siddharth Joshi, PhD #FarmersProtests

Restrictions on buying farmland by non-farmers and companies in Karnataka have been removed. These were meant to protect farming communities from dispossession by corporate interests. The squeeze on farmers means a crisis for rural people, says Joshi

#FarmersProtests

The 3 Indian farm laws that are being disputed are about removing regulation of farm product markets; removal of guaranteed farm prices; promotion of contract farming which would make farmers 'price-takers' from agribusiness.

#FarmersProtests

Dr. Vikram Singh (Joint Secretary, All India Agricultural Workers Union) says there are almost 300,000 protesters are on the streets, have been on the road for the past two and a half months. This is unprecedented, a mass movement that extends beyond a peasant movement.

One religion focuses on living a good, decent life, doing one’s dharma while being cognizant of impact of one’s actions over many births.

Other focuses only on after life, advocates even hurting others in its name.

Under which system can they coexist - serious answers pls

I’m not looking for partition should have been thorough type answers. That doesn’t help

Even other countries face this challenge but there, it is between liberal society founded on Abrahamic principles and this religion.

India is unique because of the nature of Sanatana Dharma

What sort of a person would even kill another just to get to heaven.

1. values his own existence so poorly that life has no meaning for him

2. Or brainwashed to believe that some lives aren't even lives so they can be taken

3. or rewards of some mythical heaven worth killing

In any society the ones with no hope for their life are most dangerous.

So I can understand why Modi Ji is working to bring them into mainstream and give them hope in life away from those who have kept them in ghettos.

That takes care of the 1st group.

What abt the other 2?

Even if the 1st group reforms we have some hope.

But the second and third - those that don’t value non-believers’ life is worth it or those that think promise of heaven is more important. How does one handle them.

Hoping for internal reformation hasn’t worked out.

What now?

The #toolkit dropped by @GretaThunberg had many key players but the name of the foreign expert Pieter Friedrich was dramatic as he was the part of a true story we were working(About group which tried every possible way to unsettle

These series of events have been around everyone for long but yet major stakeholders failed to notice this shift from proxy war to info-war/psy-war
Our attempt was to try & map this network, we did expect a elaborate design but the reach & depth of the planning was shocking(2/17)

The proxy war:
The story starts from the 1980’s, where Bhajan Singh Bhinder aka Iqbal choudhary was funding a terror network for carrying out large scale violence with the help of another terrorist Lal Singh & Pakistan’s ISI. India escaped this attack,Lal Singh got arrested(3/17)

These attacks were part of a large conspiracy called K-2(#Kashmir-#Khalistan), which hatched in Lahore under patronage of Amir ul Azeem, the secretary of Jamaat-e-Islami and was supported by several others like the Uncle of present S&T minister of Pakistan @fawadchaudhry (4/17)

At the same time in the US Bhinder & his gang were involved in a major trans-national drug trafficking & a DVD privacy network. In order to fund this network they managed to take control of the most prominent Gurdwara(Fremont Gurdwara) after a bloody fight within Gurdwara (5/17)

Delhi High Court is hearing a petition by Elsevier against Sci-Hub and LibGen seeking restraining orders on publication of articles which infringe the copyright of Elsevier.

LibGen is unrepresented before the court today as well.

Sr. Adv. Amit Sibal submits that these rogue websites call themselves pirate websites who do not concern themselves with copyrights.

Sibal: I have gone through the application of Sci-Hub, and it states that they are aware of copyright laws, but find them "oppressive".

#SciHub #LibGen

Sibal: A majority of the material we produce is available on subscription basis, while some material is available publicly.

Wishing you all a Happy New Year 2021.
#HappyNewYear2021

Here is a thread of the LiveLaw annual round up stories of major developments of 2020.

1. Good & Bad : 65 Important Supreme Court Judgments Of

2. Bail & Personal Liberty: Important Judgments Of

3. Supreme Court Constitution Bench Judgments Of

4. References Answered And Made By Supreme Court In

5. Important Supreme Court Judgments On Arbitration Passed In