Happy Media

The Hindu January 22, 2020 Federal prosecutors charged U.S. journalist Glenn Greenwald on Tuesday with assisting a group of hackers who intercepted the cellular phone calls of Justice Minister Sergio Moro when he was the judge handling Brazil's biggest-ever corruption case. The Intercept website edited by Mr. Greenwald published damaging conversations between Mr. Moro and prosecutors in the Car Wash investigation that showed the judge advising them in the case against now jailed former leftist president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. “We will not be intimidated by these tyrannical attempts to silence journalists,” Mr. Greenwald said in a statement, in which he said the government of Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro does not respect basic press freedoms. Mr. Greenwald was charged with criminal association with a group of six people, who face charges of hacking the telephones of Brazilian officials as well as bank fraud and money laundering. Mr. Greenwa...

The Tribune January 22, 2020 India’s former top diplomat, Deb Mukharji, has exposed brutalities of law enforcement agencies against Muslims of Uttar Pradesh (UP) for protesting against the recently passed controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Protests have rocked India since legislation was passed in December last year that eased the way for religious minorities from three Muslim-majority neighbouring nations to gain Indian citizenship, but not if they are Muslim. The law, passed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist government, discriminates against Muslims and undermines the country’s secular foundations. At least 28 people have been killed in the protests and hundreds more sustained injuries in clashes with police, fuelling public anger. Chief Minister UP Yogi Adityanath in December 2019 declared a war against Muslims after he vowed to “take revenge” on people protesting against the controversial citizenship law. Deb Mukharji, who had...

Financial Express January 22, 2020 The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has become the world’s largest derivatives exchange in 2019 by number of contracts traded, according to data published by Futures Industry Association (FIA). The trading volumes of contracts at NSE has surpassed that of Chicago-based CME Group to emerge as the largest derivatives exchange in 2019. Additionally, data from World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) stated that NSE was the third largest exchange in cash equities segment by number of trades. Vikram Limaye, managing director and CEO at NSE, said that it was a matter of great pride that NSE had emerged as a global leader and was grateful to the government and regulators that helped NSE achieve its goal. Trading in equity derivatives increased by 70% from 2015 to 2019, the average daily trading was Rs 52,371 crore in 2015, which increased to Rs 88,772 crore in 2019. Equity derivatives are contracts in which the underlying asset is an equity shar...

The Indian Express January 22, 2020 A total of 12,313 electoral bonds worth Rs 6128.72 crore were sold since the inception of the scheme, an analysis by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) states. Of these, 12,173 bonds, worth Rs 6108.47 crore, were redeemed by political parties within the validity period. According to an RTI query filed by ADR, the highest sale of bonds was in Mumbai — 2,899 bonds worth Rs 1,879.96 crore (30.67%) — followed by 3,478 bonds worth Rs 1,440.337 crore (23.50%) in Kolkata and 1,630 bonds worth Rs 918.58 crore (15%) in New Delhi. The data also reveals that 12,173 bonds worth Rs 6,108.47 crore were redeemed during the twelve phases and 59.20% of the total value of electoral bonds were redeemed in two months alone — March (phase VIII) and April 2019 (phase IX). “Highest amount of bonds – 4,607 bonds worth Rs 2,251.32 crore (36.86%), were redeemed during phase IX in April ‘19, followed by 2,738 bonds worth Rs 1,364.69 crore (22.34%)...

Hindustan times January 22, 2020 The defence ministry on Tuesday cleared two Indian and five foreign shipbuilders to take part in a Rs 50,000-crore project to build high-tech submarines in the country, one of the biggest Make in India programmes in the military sector, two senior officials said on condition of anonymity. Six advanced submarines will be built under project P-75I to scale up the Indian Navy’s undersea warfare capabilities and counter the rapid expansion of China’s submarine fleet. The project will be pursued under the government’s ‘strategic partnership’ (SP) model, which seeks to provide fillip to the government’s Make in India programme. “The defence acquisition council (DAC) approved the shortlisting of Indian strategic partners and potential original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) who would collaborate to construct six conventional submarines in India,” the defence ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. The Indian strategic partners cleared to c...

The Hindu January 20, 2020 IANS Attackers could use those credentials to gain remote access to the affected devices, like we have seen recently in some home cameras and devices, including Amazon-owned Ring security cameras A hacker has leaked usernames and passwords of over five lakh servers, routers and Internet of Things (IoT) devices on the Dark Web, which can be used to install malware on Internet-connected devices at home or at work. Attackers could use those credentials to gain remote access to the affected devices, like we have seen recently in some home cameras and devices, including Amazon-owned Ring security cameras. According to a ZDNet report on Sunday, the list of Telnet credentials has been published on a popular hacking forum that includes each device’s IP address, along with a username and password for the Telnet service. Telnet is one of the earliest remote login protocols on the Internet. It is a client-server protocol that provides the user a te...

The Hindu January 20, 2020 Reuters India announced the curbs on imports of refined palm oil on Jan. 8 in a bid to help domestic refiners raise their plant utilisation rates, according to industry officials familiar with the matter. Thousands of tonnes of refined palm oil are delayed or stuck at various Indian ports after the world's biggest edible oil buyer placed restrictions on imports amid a diplomatic row with key supplier Malaysia, multiple sources told Reuters. India announced the curbs on imports of refined palm oil on Jan. 8 in a bid to help domestic refiners raise their plant utilisation rates, according to industry officials familiar with the matter. In a typical year India relies on imports for almost all of its supply of the vegetable oil used in everything from soap to cookies. But Malaysia, the world's second-biggest producer and exporter of palm oil, has publicly bridled at New Delhi's move even as India has stepped up orders from Indonesi...

The Hindu January 21, 2020 Reuters Australia will begin screening passengers arriving from a Chinese city in a bid to stop the spread of a new coronavirus, the country's chief medical officer said on Tuesday, although authorities warned that an outbreak would be hard to prevent. Chinese authorities have confirmed more than 200 people have caught the new virus, which causes a type of pneumonia that has killed four people in the central city of Wuhan. The virus - which can pass from person-to-person - broke out in Wuhan but four cases have been reported in Thailand, Japan and South Korea, raising concerns about its spread through international air travel. Brendan Murphy, the chief medical officer for the Australian government, said biosecurity officials would begin screening passengers arriving on the three weekly flights to Sydney from Wuhan starting on Thursday. Passengers would be given an information pamphlet and asked to present themselves if they had a...

The Hindu January 21, 2020 World Health Organisation (WHO) will convene an emergency committee on the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) under the International Health Regulations. The committee will meet on January 22. Announcing this in a tweet, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom said: “The Emergency Committee on the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) will ascertain whether the outbreak constitutes a public health emergency of international concern, and what recommendations should be made to manage it.” The total number of confirmed cases of coronavirus reported to date (Jan 21) is 222:(China: 218, Thailand: 2, Japan: 1, Rep of Korea: 1), including 4 deaths (all in Wuhan, China). The number of people reported with 2019-nCOV in Wuhan, China, includes 15 health care workers. In India, the Union Health Ministry on Monday wrote to the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) to facilitate thermal screening at the international airports of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Beng...

The Hindu January 21, 2020 China said on Monday that human-to-human transmission has been confirmed in an outbreak of a new coronavirus, a development that raises the possibility that it could spread more quickly and widely. Team leader Zhong Nanshan, a respiratory expert, said two people in Guangdong province in southern China caught the virus from family members, state media said. Some medical workers have also tested positive for the virus, the English-language China Daily newspaper reported. The late-night announcement capped a day in which authorities announced a sharp uptick in the number of confirmed cases to more than 200, and China’s leader called on the government to take every possible step to combat the outbreak. The recent outbreak of novel coronavirus pneumonia in Wuhan and other places must be taken seriously,” President Xi Jinping said in his first public statement on the crisis. “Party committees, governments and relevant departments at all levels sho...