The Congress workers and members held an intense protest against the questioning of their president Sonia Gandhi by the Enforcement Directorate.

Sonia Gandhi has appeared for the third round of questioning by the probe agency Enforcement Directorate.

Even though there was heavy security deployment outside party headquarters AICC in the national capital, the party workers staged massive protests who were subsequently detained by the police.
Several barricades have been placed to prevent the Congress workers from taking out any kind of march towards the ED office.

The party workers, raising slogans, attempted to cross the barricades and were subsequently detained by police.

Till now several party leaders, including Sachin Pilot, have been detained.

However, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi have not joined the protest.

Several Congress parliamentarians were detained near Parliament on Wednesday as they tried to carry out a protest march from Parliament house to Rashtrapati Bhawan against the questioning of their president Sonia Gandhi by the Enforcement Directorate.

The parliamentarians had planned to give a memorandum to President Droupadi Murmu over the central government’s alleged vendetta politics and no discussion of important issues like price rise in Parliament.

Earlier during the say, Rajasthan Chief Minister and Congress leader Ashok Gehlot on Wednesday said that there should be a timely Supreme Court decision on the terror of ED in the country.

Addressing a press conference along with Ghulam Nabi Azad, Jairam Ramesh and Anand Sharma, Gehlot said, “First they summoned Rahul Gandhi. He was interrogated for several hours in five days. Sonia Gandhi has been summoned for the third time today. We have no idea how long it would last. There should be a timely SC decision on the terror of ED in the country.”

APJ Abdul Kalam Death Anniversary: He is credited with the development of the Agni and  Prithvi missiles has inspired generations with his relentless work for the welfare of the country.

Today marks the seventh death anniversary of the “Missile Man of India” Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam or Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. Dr Kalam is hailed for his contribution to the space and science projects of the country while he also played an instrumental role in conducting the 1998 nuclear weapon test.

He is credited with the development of the Agni and Prithvi missiles and has inspired generations with his relentless work for the welfare of the country. Born in 1932 to a modest family in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu, Dr Kalam joined the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in 1958. He was then inducted into the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in 1969 where he worked as the project director for the SLV-III, India’s first satellite launch vehicle.

He earned the sobriquet of the missile man of India after he returned to DRDO in  1982 and conceived the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program (IGMDP). He strived to bring India on par with other countries in terms of missile technology and research.

Besides being a remarkable scientist, Dr Kalam also served as the 11th President of India. From being a driving force behind India’s missile development, Dr Kalam soon came to be known as the “People’s President” for his humility and high thinking.

Dr Kalam was felicitated with the Padma Bhushan in 1990 while he received Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour, in 1997. He authored several books including his famous autobiography ‘Wings of Fire’ and ‘Ignited Minds’.

Dr Kalam died in 2015 when he was delivering a lecture at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Shillong. The former president collapsed and died after suffering a cardiac arrest at the event.

On Tuesday, the Department of Telecom got total bids worth Rs 1.45 lakh crore from the four private telecom companies on the first day of the much-anticipated 5G spectrum auction, said Union Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

Industry estimates put sell-off deals to outperform Rs 80,000 crore to Rs 90,000 crore.

Four rounds under the hammer of the 5G spectrum auction were finished on Tuesday, which saw telecom operators – Reliance Jio, Adani Group, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea bid for the spectrum.

The auction process is likely to finish today, and 5G services are expected to be launch  in several cities in the county by the end of the year.

“We have to complete this process by August 14 and 5G services in the country will start by September-October,” Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in a press conference after the bidding yesterday.

 “Going by the initial responses, it seems all the previous revenue records would be broken during this auction process,” Vaishnaw said.

 “Approximately Rs 1.45 lakh crore is an important number. This shows that the entire industry is now moving towards a positive territory in terms of new investments, quality of services, new technology,” the minister said.

The telecom industry is heading towards becoming a sunrise sector, he said.

The four bidders; Airtel, Reliance Jio, Vodafone Idea, and Adani Data network, is bidding for nine bands of three different frequency from low (600 MHz, 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz), to Mid (3300 MHz) and High (26 GHz) frequency bands.

The whole the spectrum auction is worth approx Rs. 5 lakh crore On June 15, the Union Cabinet approved the proposal from the department of tele-communication providers to assign 5G Spectrum through an auction for aprivate captive network.

India is expected to get full fledge 5G services by March 2023, Vaishnaw had said at an event earlier.

 “Telecom is the primary source of digital consumption, and it is very important to bring trusted solutions in telecom. India has its own stack of 4G like radio, equipment, and handset. 4G is ready to deploy in the field and 5G is ready in the lab, and 5G will be ready to deploy in March 2023.”

 “The technology, core network behind 5G services should be built up by India, that would be an achievement for the country,” said Vaishnaw.

Speed capacities of 5G services would be about 10 times higher than what is possible through the current 4G services.

It is the first occasion when the Gautam Adani-led Adani group, which as of late forayed into the telecom area, took part in the offering system of the 5G telecom spectrum allocation bidding. However, the Adani group has said it in no way it wants to enter the customer mobility space.

27 july: Banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Chief Yasin Malik has fallen ill and has been shifted to a hospital from Delhi’s Tihar Jail where he was on a hunger strike for past many days.

As per the news report ,Yasin Malik has been shifted to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in Delhi this evening by authorities after he remained on hunger strike since 22 July.

Malik has stopped eating food since 22 July alleging that his case was not being investigated properly.

“Malik have refused to eat on Friday and declared an indefinite hunger strike. Initially, the jail officials met with him and tried to convince him to end his hunger strike, but he categorically refused. From 24 July, he was on intravenous fluid,” reports said.

Malik is in custody since 2019 when NIA arrested him in a terror funding case. On May 25, he was convicted by the court after he accepted the charges levelled against him. After being convicted in one case, he is currently facing trial in the Rubaiya kidnapping case.

A 7-magnitude earthquake that shook the Philippines’ main island of Luzon on Wednesday left at least two people dead and about 30 others injured.

One person has been reported dead in Benguet province in the northern Philippines, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC). At least five injuries were recorded by local officials in the province of Benguet.

A 25-year-old man was also murdered, according to Jocelyn Bernos, the governor of the province of Abra, after being pinned under a concrete slab in Bangued. According to what she said in a radio broadcast, at least 25 people had minor earthquake injuries, according to the Xinhua news agency.

According to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS), a 7-magnitude earthquake shook the northern Philippine province of Abra at 8:43 in the morning local time (0043 GMT).

The epicenter was the village of Lagangilang, and the institution first recorded the magnitude as 7.3. An amended report said that the earthquake occurred at a depth of 17 kilometers and relocated the epicenter to Tayum town.

Many regions of the main Luzon Island felt the tremor, including Metro Manila, where tall structures shook and rail service was disrupted. Numerous other provinces, including as Ilocos Sur, Pangasinan, Nueva Vizcaya, Bulacan, Laguna, and Cavite, also felt it.

In the capital region, panicked employees in offices, including the presidential palace, ran out of the buildings.

Mayor of La Paz town in Abra province Joseph Bernos said the quake damaged many concrete houses, buildings and infrastructure in the province. “I received reports that there were massive damages in our province,” he told a radio interview, adding that some buildings at the University of Abra were also damaged.

In Ilocos Sur province’s Vigan City, a popular tourist destination noted for its restored Spanish colonial and Asian architecture on the west coast of Luzon island, the tremor also caused damage to century-old buildings.

The important route that connects Baguio City to Manila, also in the northern Philippines, known as Kennon Road, was reportedly blocked while the extent of the damage was being determined.

The destroyed area will be visited by Philippine President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos later on Wednesday, according to his press secretary Rose Beatrix Cruz-Angeles.

Chief PHIVOLCs Renato Solidum issued a warning that the tectonic earthquake would set off aftershocks and potentially result in harm like landslides. He exhorted the populace and the local government representatives to exercise caution.

“Make sure to inspect the buildings for cracks and watch out for landslides, especially when it rains,” he told a news conference, urging villagers to leave areas prone to landslides.

The Philippines has frequent seismic activity due to its location along the Pacific “Ring of Fire.”

On July 16, 1990, northern Luzon was shaken by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake that caused a 125-km-long ground rupture that stretched from Aurora province to Nueva Vizcaya, killing around 1,200 people and damaged scores of buildings and houses.
(with inputs from IANS)