The Supreme Court on Thursday said that it will proceed with the three issues suggested by the Attorney General of India while hearing the constitutional validity of reservations on the basis of economic conditions.

A Constitutional Bench headed by Chief Justice of India UU Lalit said that it will proceed with the first three issues suggested by the Attorney General as they encapsulate the entire case.

The issues suggested by the Attorney General of India KK Venugopal are – whether the 103rd Constitution Amendment can be said to breach the basic structure of the Constitution by permitting the State to make special provisions, including reservation, based on economic criteria.

The other two issues are – whether the 103rd Constitution Amendment can be said to breach the basic structure of the Constitution by permitting the State to make special provisions in relation to admission to private unaided institutions, and whether the 103rd Constitution Amendment can be said to breach the basic structure of the Constitution in excluding the SEBCs/OBCs/SCs/STs from the scope of EWS reservation.

The arguments in the matter will begin on September 13.
The constitutional validity of the 103rd Amendment Act, 2019 which enabled the State to make reservations in higher education and matters of public employment on the basis of economic criteria alone will be the first matter to be examined by a five-judge bench, led by Chief Justice of India UU Lalit.

A five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice UU Lalit had said earlier that the Janhit Abhiyan case will be the lead matter now.

Janhit Abhiyan’s matter is relating to the challenging of the constitutional validity of the 103rd Amendment Act, 2019 which enabled the State to make reservations in higher education and matters of public employment on the basis of economic criteria alone.

Moreover, the Janhit matter will be heard together with a case filed by the Andhra Pradesh government against the High Court’s decision of quashing its decision of granting reservations in education and public service for the entire Muslim population of the State in 2005.

Earlier, the court had appointed Shadab Farasat, Kanu Agarwal and two others as nodal counsels to see common compilation.

ODISHA, Sept 8: India has successfully completed six flight-tests of the Quick Reaction Surface-to-Air Missile (QRSAM) system from the Integrated Test Range in Chandipur off the Odisha coast, as part of evaluation trials by the Army, the DRDO said on Thursday.
The flight-tests were carried out against high-speed aerial targets mimicking various types of threats to evaluate the capability of the weapon systems under different scenarios, it said.
“During these tests, all the mission objectives were met establishing pin-point accuracy of the weapon system with state-of-the-art guidance and control algorithms, including warhead chain,” the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) said in a statement.
The performance of the system has been confirmed from the data captured by a number of range instruments like telemetry and Radar and Electro Optical Tracking Systems (EOTS) deployed by ITR, it said.
The tests were conducted in the final deployment configuration consisting of all indigenously-developed sub-systems, including the missile with indigenous Radio Frequency (RF) seeker, mobile launcher, fully automated command and control system, surveillance and multi-function radars, the statement said.
The uniqueness of the QRSAM weapon system is that it can operate on the move with search and track capability, and fire on short halt, the DRDO said.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has complimented the DRDO and Indian Army on the successful flight trials.
The system is now ready for induction into the Army, the statement added. (Agencies)

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday along with senior party leaders began the second day of the party’s Bharat Jodo Yatra from Agasteeswaram town of Kanniyakumari district in Tamil Nadu to combat the divisive politics of the BJP-led Centre, to awaken the people of the country to dangers of economic inequalities, social polarisation and political centralisation.

Senior leaders including party MPs KC Venugopal, P Chidambaram, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and others participated in ‘Padyatra’ along with Rahul Gandhi. Jairam Ramesh, Congress General Secretary in-charge Communications said that it is a Bharat Jodo Yatra to combat the divisive politics of BJP, to awaken the country to dangers faced by India because of economic inequalities, because of social polarisation and because of political centralisation.

“This is also a Yatra that will strengthen the party organisation, mobilise party workers and the entire party is ensuring that the Bharat Jodo Yatra is a resounding and outstanding success,” said Jairam Ramesh.

He further said, “We are focussed like Arjun was focussed on the fish when he went for Draupadi’s swayamvar. We have only one vision right now – to ensure the successful completion of Bharat Jodo Yatra.”

The Congress leader further said that they don’t want to waste his time countering the arguments from the other side.

“There will always be professional critics, arm-chair critics, people who will raise questions in India for everything you do,” he added.

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said that the tricolour belongs to every religion, state and language, but it is under attack today by the BJP and the RSS that are dividing India on lines of religion and language.

Speaking at the launch of the Bharat Jodo Yatra at a rally on Wednesday, he said every single institution of the country is under attack as he sought the support of the people to help keep the country united.

A 3,500-km march from Kanyakumari to Kashmir will be undertaken by Rahul Gandhi which will be completed in 150 days and cover as many as 12 states.

After reaching Kerala on September 11, the Yatra will traverse through the state for the next 18 days, reaching Karnataka on September 30. It will be in Karnataka for 21 days before moving north.

Earlier on Wednesday, Rahul Gandhi slammed the Bhartiya Janata Party and said that the opposition was not scared of the BJP.

His remarks came while addressing the rally on its inaugural day in the evening hours.

“They (BJP) think they can frighten the opposition using CBI, ED and IT. The problem is they don’t understand Indian people. Indian people don’t get scared. Not a single opposition leader is going to be scared of the BJP,” said Congress MP Rahul Gandhi.

He further highlighted the importance of the Indian tricolour and called out the BJP for allegedly treating it as their personal property.

“It gives me great joy to begin BharatJodoYatra from this beautiful place. The national flag represents the religion and language of every single person living in this country. They (BJP and RSS) think that this flag is their personal property,” he added.

In what is being seen as a Congress’ “masterstroke” to take on the Narendra Modi government in the upcoming 2024 elections, Congress launched the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ on Wednesday in which Rahul Gandhi started the 3,570 km journey lasting about 150 days from Kanyakumari to Kashmir.

As the party begins the nationwide yatra, some pertinent questions arise about the lodging and fooding of Rahul Gandhi. However, the party has made it clear that he will not stay in any hotel but rather will complete the entire journey in a simple manner.

Rahul Gandhi will stay in the container for the next 150 days. Sleeping beds, toilets and AC are also installed in some of the containers. During the journey, the temperature and environment will differ in many areas. The arrangements have been made keeping in view the intense heat and humidity with the change of places.

“About 60 such containers have been prepared and sent to Kanyakumari where a village has been set up in which all these containers have been placed. The container will be parked in a new place every day in the shape of a village for night rest. Full-time Yatris who stay with Rahul Gandhi will eat together and stay close,” said the sources.

The sources further said that Rahul Gandhi considers the Bharat Jodo Yatra journey as a way to connect with the common people.

The 148-day march will culminate in Kashmir. The five-month Yatra is scheduled to cover a distance of 3,500 kilometres and more than 12 states. The Padyatra (march) will cover a distance of 25 km every day.

The Yatra will include Padayatras, rallies, and public meetings which will be attended by the senior Congress leaders including Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

The Congress suffered a debacle in the assembly polls held earlier this year and the Yatra is seen as an attempt to rally the party rank and file for the upcoming electoral battles.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will unveil a grand statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose near India Gate in the national capital on Thursday.

The jet black granite statue, with a height of 28 ft. will be placed under the Canopy near India Gate. The statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, which will be unveiled by the Prime Minister, will be installed in the same place where a hologram statue of Netaji was unveiled earlier this year on Parakram Diwas (January 23) by him to mark the 125th birth anniversary of Netaji.

According to an official statement, the grand statue of Netaji being unveiled has been carved from a monolithic block of granite weighing 280 MT. After 26,000 man-hours of intense artistic endeavour, the granite monolith was chiselled to produce a statue weighing 65 MT. The statue is completely hand sculpted using traditional techniques and modern tools. The team of sculptors for executing the statue was led by Arun Yogiraj.

“The 28 feet tall towering statue of Netaji is one of the tallest, realistic, monolithic, handmade sculptures in India. The PM had on 21st January 2022 assured that a grand statue of Netaji made of granite will be installed at India Gate as a symbol of the nation’s indebtedness to him,” said the statement.

A 100 feet long truck with 140 wheels was specially designed for this monolithic granite stone to travel the 1,665 km from Khammam in Telangana to New Delhi.

The Prime Minister’s arrival at the canopy for the unveiling of the statue of Netaji will be heralded with traditional Manipuri Shankh Vadayam and Kerala’s traditional Panch Vadayam and Chanda. The unveiling of the statue of Netaji would be accompanied by the tune of Kadam Kadam Badhaye jaa, the traditional INA song, informed the statement.

“To demonstrate the spirit of Ek Bharat – Shrestra Bharat and Unity in Diversity a cultural festival by 500 dancers drawn from all parts of the country, would be showcased on the Kartvya Path. A glimpse of the same would be shown to the Prime Minster on the step Amphitheatre near India Gate by around 30 artists who will perform tribal folk art forms such as Sambalpuri, Panthi, Kalbelia, Kargam and dummy horse with live music by Nashik Dhol Pathik Tasha and Drums. Mangalgaan penned by Padma Bhushan Pt. Shrikrishna Ratanjankarji on the auspicious occasion of the 1st Independence Day of India in 1947 is being presented by Pt. SuhasVashi along with a team of singers and musicians. Ashish Keskar will be the music director for the presentation,” it said.

The festival at Kartvya path (earlier Raj Path) would commence at 08.45 PM on Thursday after the main function and will also continue on September 9, 10, and 11 from 7.00 pm to 9.00 pm.

A special 10-minute Drone Show on Netaji’s life would be projected at India Gate at 08.00 pm on September 9, 10, and 11. Both the cultural festival and the drone show would be open to public with free entry.

NEW DELHI, Sept 7:
India saw a single day rise of 5,379 coronavirus infections, taking the tally of COVID-19 cases to 4,44,72,241, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated today.
Active Covid cases have declined to 50,594, while the death toll has climbed to 5,28,057 with 27 fatalities, including 11 deaths reconciled by Kerala, the data updated at 8 am showed.
The active cases comprises 0.11 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has increased to 98.70 per cent, the health ministry said.
A decline of 1,742 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.
The daily positivity rate was recorded at 1.67 per cent and the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 2 per cent, according to the health ministry.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,38,93,590, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.19 per cent.
According to the ministry, 213.91 crore doses of Covid vaccines have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive.
India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16.