Today News Diary on 18 February 2021

1. IPL auctions | Rajasthan Royals buys Chris Morris for ₹16.25 crore to seal the most expensive deal

2. CSA approaches ICC, lodges complaint against Cricket Australia for tour postponement

3. ICC to launch series to celebrate India's 2011 World Cup win

4. PM Modi to chair Niti Aayog's Governing Council meeting on February 20

5. Coronavirus | India to gift 2 lakh vaccine doses to U.N. peacekeepers

6. India's domestic air passenger traffic down by 40% to 77.34 lakh in January

7. Prima facie Inclined to strike down Centre’s notification on EIA for projects, says Supreme Court

GK Snapshots

International

China defends use of Twitter, Facebook in virus campaign

The Chinese government defended its use of Twitter and Facebook on Thursday, following a report that it had used its growing social media presence to spread disinformation about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. When asked about the report, the Foreign Ministry''s top spokesperson, Hua Chunying, didn''t directly address the allegations about China''s role in spreading virus disinformation. However, she called the report hype and said China should have the right to use social media too.

US Citizenship Act of 2021 to be introduced in Congress on Thursday

Proposed by President Joe Biden, the US Citizenship Act 2021 - which among other things intends to eliminate the per-country cap for employment-based green cards would be introduced in Congress on Thursday, a move that would benefit hundreds and thousands of Indian IT professionals in America.

Pakistan's economic indicators improving: PM Khan

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday said Pakistan''s economic indicators were slowly improving, banking on foreign reserves and exports, despite the severe challenge posed by the COVID-19 outbreak.

Business

Rupee pares losses to end 9 paise higher at 72.65 on weak dollar, forex inflows

Mumbai: The rupee pared its initial losses to settle higher by 9 paise at 72.65 against the US dollar on Thursday following consistent forex inflows and losses in the American currency in the global markets.

We plan to sell 1,100 cars in 2021, says Spinny's founder

 Online used car retailing platform provider Spinny is eyeing to sell 1,100 vehicles in 2021, the company said here on Thursday.

Sensex skids for 3rd day as global rally stalls; ONGC zooms 8 pc

Domestic stock indices nursed losses for the third consecutive session on Thursday as a lacklustre trend in global equities and concerns over stretched valuations sparked a retreat from risky assets.

Nation marching towards self-reliance, says industrialist

Industrialist and vice-chairman of India Cements Ltd N Srinivasan has said the country being the second largest producer of cement has the scope of becoming a manufacturing hub not only for cement but also for other products.

Flipkart, trade body tie up to help small businesses grow

Flipkart, an e-commerce firm, on Thursday said it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Tamil Nadu Micro, Small Medium Enterprises Trade and Investment Promotion Bureau to serve local artisans, weavers, craftsmen.

Legal

SC closes suo motu proceedings to probe larger conspiracy to frame ex-CJI Gogoi

The Supreme Court closed the proceedings initiated to probe a larger conspiracy to frame ex-CJI Ranjan Gogoi in an alleged sexual harassment case and "fixing" of benches in the top court.

Court directs lodging of FIR in case of caste-based question asked in DSSSB exam

A Delhi court has directed the concerned authority to register an FIR under the provisions of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, in a case of caste-based question being allegedly asked in the primary teachers'' recruitment exam by the Delhi Subordinate Services Selection Board (DSSSB) .

Lawyer couple's murder:Telangana HC issues notices to state govt:

The Telangana High Court on Thursday on its own took cognisance of the killing of a lawyer couple in Peddapalli district of the state and directed the government to properly and expeditiously conduct investigation into the matter.

Toolkit case: Have not leaked anything to media, police tells Delhi HC

Delhi Police Thursday told the Delhi High Court that it has not leaked any material to the media in relation to its probe in the FIR against climate activist Disha Ravi for her alleged involvement in sharing a toolkit backing the ongoing farmers'' protest.

Entertainment

People tend to cast actors in roles they've done before: Parineeti Chopra

Bollywood star Parineeti Chopra says actors tend to get cast based on their previous work when all they want is to do roles where they can "change things up" and surprise viewers.

Diljit Dosanjh turns producer with 'Honsla Rakh', announces Dussehra release

Punjabi star Diljit Dosanjh has turned producer with his upcoming "Honsla Rakh", which features him alongside actors Sonam Bajwa and former "Bigg Boss" contestant Shehnaaz Gill.

Donald Glover inks overall deal with Amazon Studios

Actor-singer Donald Glover has reportedly signed a massive overall deal with Amazon Studios.

ED custody of actor-producer Sachin Joshi extended

A special court here on Thursday extended the Enforcement Directorate custody of actor-producer Sachin Joshi in a money laundering case till February 22.

Sports

Darling of IPL auction Maxwell fetches Rs 14.25 cr deal

Chennai: IPL's perennial under-performer Glenn Maxwell once again fetched big money at the players auction with Royal Challengers Bangalore bidding a whopping Rs 14.25 crore to secure his services on Friday.

This Shahrukh Khan too aims to carve identity of his own

Named after a Bollywood icon, drawing attention was no big deal for Tamil Nadu cricketer M Shahrukh Khan but what fetched him an IPL contract worth Rs 5.25 was purely his big-hitting prowess that he displayed during the recent Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

Djokovic into Australian Open final for 9th time

Novak Djokovic reached the Australian Open final for the ninth time by beating No. 114-ranked Aslan Karatsev 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.

3rd India vs England ODI could be shifted to Mumbai to ensure smooth departure: Maharashra CA

The Maharashtra Cricket Association on Thursday said that there have been some ongoing discussions with the BCCI to shift the final ODI between India and England slated on March 28 from Pune to Mumbai to facilitate smooth departure of the visiting team.

Serena stopped: Osaka beats Williams in Australian Open SF

As Serena Williams walked off the court after her latest so-close-yet-so-far bid for a 24th Grand Slam title ended with a loss to Naomi Osaka at the Australian Open, the 39-year-old American paused and put  her hand on her chest while thousands of spectators rose to applaud.

News in Detail

1. IPL auctions | Rajasthan Royals buys Chris Morris for ₹16.25 crore to seal the most expensive deal

Chris Morris, who came with a base price of ₹75 lakh, generated bids from four teams before it became a battle between Royals and Punjab Kings. 

He surpassed the record of Yuvraj Singh who was bought by Delhi Capitals for ₹16 crore in 2015.
Chris Morris on Friday surpassed Yuvraj Singh to become the most expensive buy in the IPL auction history with Rajasthan Royals shelling out ₹16.25 crore for the South African all-rounder in Chennai.

Morris' big pay day came after another all-rounder and perennial under-performer, Australian Glenn Maxwell, once again managed to attract a winning ₹14.25 crore bid from Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Morris, who came with a base price of ₹75 lakh, generated bids from four teams before it became a battle between Royals and Punjab Kings.

Royals eventually sealed it with a record bid which made Morris the costliest buy at the auction ever, surpassing Yuvraj Singh, who was bought by Delhi Capitals for ₹16 crore in 2015.

The costliest player in the IPL remains Virat Kohli, retained for Rs 17 crore by Royal Challengers Bangalore.

In 70 IPL games, Morris has scored 551 runs at 23.95 and taken 80 wickets at 23.98.

Earlier, KKR made the opening bid for Maxwell but it eventually became a two-way war between Chennai Super Kings and RCB before the Virat Kohli-led team won him with a bid which came to $1.96 million.

Punjab Kings, who had paid ₹10.75 crore for Maxwell in the previous auction, had released the 32-year-old following the 2020 edition in which he made 108 runs in 13 games at 15.42.

England all-rounder Moeen Ali also went for a high price of ₹7 crore to Chennai Super Kings. Both Maxwell and Moeen had base prices of ₹2 crore.

Bangladesh star Shakib Al Hasan was lapped up by KKR for ₹3.2 crore. He missed the IPL last year as he was serving a ban for failing to report a corrupt approach.

Australian Steve Smith, who was released by Rajasthan Royals, was bought by Delhi Capitals for ₹2.20 crore, only ₹20 lakh more than his base price.

2. CSA approaches ICC, lodges complaint against Cricket Australia for tour postponement

“Australia had earlier this month postponed their tour of South Africa next month, citing “unacceptable health and safety risk.”

An irked Cricket South Africa (CSA) has finally lodged an official complaint with the ICC after Cricket Australia indefinitely postponed its national team's three-Test tour of that nation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Australia had earlier this month postponed their tour of South Africa next month, citing “unacceptable health and safety risk” in that country because of a fresh COVID-19 outbreak, a decision that virtually knocked them out of contention from the World Test Championship final later this year.

3. ICC to launch series to celebrate India's 2011 World Cup win

India had won the 50-over World Cup under the inspiring leadership of Mahendra Singh Dhoni with a six-wicket win over Sri Lanka in the final in Mumbai.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) will launch a series named #CWC11Rewind on Friday to mark the 10th anniversary of India's 2011 World Cup triumph at home.

The series will look back at tournament's iconic moments through 100 posts. Some of the contents will include a five-min highlights of every match released on the ICC website on the day the match occurred, player focused highlights from each match across ICC social channels, daily Instagram Reels content targeting a younger demographic and interviews with key players from the event.

The contents will be both in Hindi and English languages.

4. PM Modi to chair Niti Aayog's Governing Council meeting on February 20

The council will deliberate on issues related to agriculture, infrastructure, manufacturing, human resource development, service delivery at grassroots level and health and nutrition

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair Niti Aayog's Governing Council meeting on February 20 where issues related to agriculture, infrastructure, manufacturing and human resource development will be discussed, according to an official statement.

The council, the apex body of Niti Aayog, includes all chief ministers, lieutenant governors of Union Territories (UTs), several union ministers and senior government officials. The sixth meeting of the Governing Council will witness the entry of Ladakh for the first time, in addition to the participation of Jammu and Kashmir as a U.T., the statement said.

This time, other UTs headed by administrators have also been invited to join, it added.

Prime Minister Modi is the Chairman of Niti Aayog. The council will deliberate on issues related to agriculture, infrastructure, manufacturing, human resource development, service delivery at grassroots level and health and nutrition, the statement said.

The meeting will also be attended by the ex-officio members of the Governing Council; union ministers; vice chairman, members and CEO of Niti Aayog; and other senior officials of Government of India. The Governing Council meets regularly and its first meeting took place on February 8, 2015.

However, due to COVID-19 pandemic, the Governing Council did not meet last year.

5. Coronavirus | India to gift 2 lakh vaccine doses to U.N. peacekeepers

Jaishankar calls for an end to ‘vaccine nationalism’ India announced a gift of 2,00,000 doses of vaccine to the U.N. Peacekeeping Forces on Wednesday.

The announcement was made by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar during his remarks at a U.N. Security Council open debate on the implementation of resolution 2532 (2020), passed last year, noting the impact of COVID-19 globally and calling for the cessation of hostilities around the world to help combat the pandemic. The debate was attended by the Foreign Ministers of UNSC member countries.

“Keeping in mind the U.N. Peacekeepers who operate in such difficult circumstances, we would like to announce today a gift of 2,00,000 doses for them,” Mr. Jaishankar said. The Minister said India had already sent vaccines to 25 countries under its Vaccine Maitri programme and that 49 more countries would be supplied in the coming days.

Until February 9, India had supplied 62.7 lakh of a total of 167.7 lakh of its vaccines as gifts, the remainder being sent on commercial terms, Minister of State for Health Ashwini Choubey told Parliament last week.

6. India's domestic air passenger traffic down by 40% to 77.34 lakh in January

The total number of passengers flown by the Indian carriers on domestic routes in January 2020 was 1.27 crore . India's domestic air passenger traffic declined around 40% to 77.34 lakh in January 2021 over the year-ago period as the pandemic continues to hit air travel demand, as per the monthly traffic data by the aviation regulator, DGCA on Thursday.

The total number of passengers flown by the Indian carriers on domestic routes in January 2020 was 1.27 crore. The passenger load factor, a measure to assess how much of an airline's passenger carrying capacity has been utilised, during the previous month has shown a declining trend compared to December primarily due to the tourist season, the DGCA said.

The load factor of six major domestic airlines--IndiGo, SpiceJet, Air India, GoAir, Vistara and AirAsia India -- stood between 70% and 64.9% in January, as per data.

"Passengers carried by domestic airlines during January 2021 were 77.34 lakh against 127.83 lakh during the corresponding period of previous year, thereby registering annual growth of -39.60%," it said.

Budget carrier IndiGo flew the most number of passengers at 42.03 lakh with a market share of 54.30%followed by rival carrier Vistara which carried 9.92 lakh passengers during the month, cornering 12.8% share of the total domestic traffic in the month.

IndiGo also recorded the highest on-time performance during the month with on an average 93.7% of its flights from four metro airports --Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad --departing/arriving on time.

7. Prima facie Inclined to strike down Centre’s notification on EIA for projects, says Supreme Court

A committee of four experts, appointed earlier by the apex court, had valued at ₹220 crore the 300 heritage trees which were to be chopped for the construction of five railways over bridges in West Bengal.

The Supreme Court on Thursday orally observed that prima facie it was inclined to strike down Centre’s notification exempting authorities from undertaking the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) if a road project has length less than 100 kilometer.

The top court, hearing a plea against felling of over 350 trees for construction of railway over bridges (ROB) and widening of National Highway-112 from Barasat to Petrapole on the Indo-Bangladesh border in West Bengal, said it would consider setting up of an experts’ panel on fixing criteria on felling of trees for such projects on the basis of their overall value.

“We will lay down guidelines on this. Firstly, we want to say the cost of the project will include the cost of the value of the true and secondly, the trees of certain types and certain age will never be cut down. We want to determine the age of maturity of trees,” a bench headed of Chief Justice S A Bobde said.

The bench, also comprising justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, sought names of experts from lawyers including Solicitor General Tushar Mehta for the committee to be set up to lay down criteria on felling of trees for such projects.

A committee of four experts, appointed earlier by the apex court, had valued at ₹220 crore the 300 heritage trees which were to be chopped for the construction of five railways over bridges in West Bengal in terms of oxygen and other products they offer.