New Delhi, October 29: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is all set to announce ‘Union Home Minister’s Special Operation Medal-2022’ on the occasion of National Unity Day on October 31, the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
The award will be declared on October 31 morning when the country will be celebrating a large-scale ‘Run For Unity’ event to mark the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who is known as the Iron Man of India.
An official internal order issued by the Police Division-I of the MHA earlier this week mentioned that “Union Home Minister’s Special Operation Medal” for the year 2022 will be declared on October 31, 2022 as per schedule”

In this regard, the order reads, the National Informatics Centre (NIC) has been requested to depute a suitable representative on October 31 to upload the declared award on MHA’s website by 9.30 am.
Instituted by the MHA on July 23, 2018, ‘Union Home Minister’s Special Operation Medal’ is conferred to state and Union Territory (UT) Police Forces, Central Police Organizations (CPOs), Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and Security organizations throughout India to recognize only those operations, which have a high degree of planning, high significance for the security of the country, state and UT and have a significant impact on the security of large sections of the society.
The award is conferred for special operations in the areas such as terrorism, border action, arms control, prevention of narcotics smuggling and rescue operations.
All recommendations for the award is sent to the MHA within three months of the special operation.
A committee in MHA screen all the nominations and recommend for award. Director Intelligence Bureau is a member of the selection committee under the Chairmanship of Home Secretary, and two Directors General of Police of states and UTs by rotation in alphabetical order and one Director General of a CAPF by rotation (the larger organisation are given preference) in the committee every year. The Union Home Minister is the competent authority to approve the final list of awardee recommended by the Selection Committee of MHA.
A certificate (Scroll) signed by the Union Home Minister is awarded to each winner alongwith the medal.

In a year, only three Special Operations are considered for award. In exceptional circumstances, the award may be given to five Special operations only to encourage state and UT police. (Agencies)

New Delhi, October 29: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday highlighted the global threat of terrorism is growing and expanding, particularly in Asia and Africa, despite the UN Security Council’s (UNSC) best efforts to combat the “gravest threat to humanity”.
Addressing the UNSC’s special meeting of the Counter-Terrorism Committee in the national capital, Jaishankar said, “Terrorism remains the gravest threat to humanity. The UN Security Council in the past two decades has evolved an important architecture built, primarily around the counter-terrorism sanctions regime to combat this menace. This has been very effective in putting the countries on notice that had turned terrorism into a state funded enterprise.”
“Despite this, the threat of terrorism is only growing and expanding, particularly in Asia and Africa, as successive reports of 1267 sanctions committee monitoring reports have highlighted,” he added.

India is hosting the two-day anti-terrorism meeting of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). The ongoing meeting in Delhi is being held under India’s chair of the Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC).
Jaishnkar told CTC members that their presence in Delhi at the special meeting demonstrates the importance that the UNSC member states and a wide range of stakeholders, place on this critical and emerging facet of terrorism.
“That the council is holding this special meeting of its counter-terrorism meetings in India, is also a product of the fact that counterterrorism has become one of the top priorities during our ongoing tenure in the security council,” he added.

Highlighting the flip sides of emerging technologies, Jaishnakar said technologies like virtual private network, encrypted message services and blockchains, have also thrown up new challenges for governments and regulatory bodies.
“The technologies have also thrown up new challenges for governments and regulatory bodies due to their potential vulnerability for their misuse by non-state actors, given the very nature of some of these technologies and the nascent regulatory environment,” the minister said.
“In recent years, terrorist groups, ideological fellow travellers particularly in open and liberal societies and lone wolf attackers have enhanced their capabilities by gaining access to tech. They use tech, money and ethos of open societies to attack freedom, tolerance and progress,” he added.
Furthermore, Jaishankar said internet and social media platforms have turned into potent instruments in the toolkit of terrorists and militant groups for spreading propaganda, radicalisation and conspiracy theories aimed at destabilising societies.

“Another add-on to the existing worries for governments around the world is the use of unmanned aerial systems by terrorist groups and organised criminal networks,” he added.
Lastly, Jaishankar announced that India will be making a voluntary contribution of half a million dollars to the UN Trust Fund for Counter Terrorism this year to augment the efforts of UNOCT in providing capacity-building support to member states

New Delhi, Oct 29: With 1,574 people testing positive for the coronavirus infection, India’s tally of COVID-19 cases rose to 4,46,50,662, while the active cases declined to 18,802, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Saturday.
A decrease of 596 cases has been recorded in the active covid caseload in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am stated.
The death toll has climbed to 5,29,008 with nine fatalities which includes five reconciled by Kerala, while one death each has been reported from Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana and Maharashtra. it said.

The active cases comprises 0.04 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has increased to 98.77 per cent, the health ministry said.
The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.95 per cent and the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 1.11 per cent, according to the health ministry.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,41,02,852, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.18 per cent.
According to the ministry, 219.62 crore doses of covid vaccine have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive.

The first-ever such meeting organised on Thursday under the chairmanship of Union Home Minister Amit Shah also emphasised focusing on “cybercrime, improving conviction rates, narcotics and border security”. As the meeting concluded on Friday evening, top sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs said, the Home Minister suggested ” we (all states and the Centre) should move towards thematic approach”.

To achieve a 90 per cent conviction rate target, the states were also advised to focus on forensic sciences which play a big role.
Noting that “internal security is shared responsibility of both Centre and states”, it was decided jointly to work with the spirit of “Team India”.

All states were also advised to “constantly and annually” review goals and have a plan where their internal security will be in 2047.
The states were also advised to hold regular meetings of Narco Coordination Centre (NCORD).

In the meeting it was also mentiined that “Bihar and Jharkhand have became free from naxalism”, and that 9,200 North East militants surrendered arms in last eight years.

Besides, it was also pointed out that development taking place in North East and areas under Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) have been reduced.
It was also mentiined that North East, Jammu and Kashmir and Left Wing Extremism (LWE) or naxalism are areas where Prime Minister Narendra Modi led Central government has achieved unprecedented success.

The ‘Chintan Shivir’ was attended by Governor of Punjab; 10 Chief Ministers from Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Goa, Haryana, Kerala, Manipur, Punjab, Sikkim, Tripura and Uttarakhand; Deputy Chief Ministers of Maharashtra and Nagaland; Lieutenant Governors of Ladakh as well as Jammu and Kashmir.

Home Ministers of Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Meghalaya, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Puducherry and Rajasthan as well as Finance Minister of Jharkhand also atttended the event.

Development of eco-system for cyber crime management, modernization of police forces, increase in usage of IT in criminal justice system, land border management and coastal security and other internal security issues were also key focus areas of the event which has the objective to prepare an action plan for the implementation of ‘vision 2047’ and ‘Panch Pran’ announced in the Independence Day speech of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Speaking at the inaugural session of the event, the Home Minister on Thursday had said that the initiative of the ‘Chintan Shivir’ was taken by current Prime Minister and former Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi.

Shah said both Centre and States can fight against cross-border crime when all states will jointly plan and take steps accordingly.
The Minister said that the ‘Chintan Shivir’ will help formulate a joint plan to deal with crimes and other issues.

The aim of the conference was also to facilitate national policy-making and better planning and coordination. Various topics were also discussed in the six sessions of the ‘Chintan Shivir’.

Many important issues such as Home Guards, Civil Defense, Fire Protection and Enemy Property was also discussed with focus on cyber security, drug trafficking, women’s safety and border management.