Here are the top 5 news updates of January 29, 2022:
The Israeli spyware Pegasus and a missile system were the "centerpieces" of a roughly USD 2 billion deal of sophisticated weapons and intelligence gear between India and Israel in 2017, according to a report in The New York Times. The report titled 'The Battle for the World's Most Powerful Cyberweapon', said that the Israeli firm NSO Group had for nearly a decade been "selling its surveillance software on a subscription basis to law-enforcement and intelligence agencies around the world, promising that it could do what no one else -- not a private company, not even a state intelligence service -- could do: consistently and reliably crack the encrypted communications of any iPhone or Android smartphone." The report also referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Israel in July 2017 - to become the first Indian prime minister to visit the country.
Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope today said that the peak of COVID-19 third wave is over in the state as COVID-19 cases are reducing in cities like Mumbai, Thane, Raigad, Palghar that were worst hit. "Yes, I can say that peak of the third wave has over now because COVID-19 cases are reducing in cities like Mumbai, Thane, Raigad, Palghar where the situation was worst during the recent wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although in some parts of Maharashtra still, the cases are moving upward," Tope told news agency ANI. "However, in the cities like Nashik, Nagpur, Pune, Aurangabad number is still rising but there is no reason to worry even in these places because infected people are getting cured in 5 to 7 days with simple treatment and medicines," he added.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal today said that a law should be made against religious conversions but nobody should be wrongly harassed. Stating that religion is a private matter, Kejriwal while addressing a public gathering in Jalandhar said, "A law should definitely be made against religious conversions but nobody should be wrongly harassed through this. Conversions done by scaring them is wrong." The AAP national convener also said that everybody has a right to worship as per their choice. Several states including Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have brought in laws to regulate forcible religious conversions. Several other states like Assam are also mulling similar laws.
The Shiv Sena today described State Bank of India guidelines which lay down that three-month pregnant candidates will be considered temporarily unfit and will be allowed to join work four months after delivery as discriminatory and demanded that they be revoked. In a letter to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the party's spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said the guidelines debilitated the progress made to empower women. She said the present guidelines, which allow the appointment of candidates up to six months' pregnant provided she furnishes a certificate from a special gynecologist, was brought forward in 2009. "The new proposed guideline delays the process of recruitment and promotion for women. This comes at a time when the state of India's female workforce has worsened. Such regressive and sexist guidelines will exacerbate the exclusion of women as well as the inequality faced by them," Chaturvedi said.
Taking a jibe at the alliance formed by Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that if SP-led alliance forms the government, then Azam Khan will replace Jayant Chaudhary in the government. "Yesterday Akhilesh ji and Jayant ji held a press conference. They say that we are together. But how long is this together? If their government is formed, then Jayant ji will leave the government and Azam Khan will come back. The people of Uttar Pradesh have understood from the distribution of tickets what is going to happen next," Shah said while addressing an effective voter interaction programme in Muzaffarnagar.
