The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on  Jul 12  filed a Chargesheet against three persons, including a Myanmar national, in a case of extortion by members of banned terror outfits in Manipur.

The charge sheet was filed in the NIA Special Court, Imphal, against three cadres of the proscribed terrorist organisations namely (People’s Revolutionary Army), KCP (Kangleipak Communist Party), PREPAK (People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak) and UNLF (United National Liberation Front), among others.

The accused, charged under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) 1967, have been identified as 38-year-old Deepak Sharma alias Khinmaung of Myanmar, Suraj Jaiswal (33) of Manipur and Shaikhom Bruce Meetei (38), also of Manipur.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on  on Jul 13 held productive discussions with his counterparts from the Association of Southeast Asian (ASEAN) nations and reviewed the progress in cooperation in areas like fintech, food security and maritime domains.

Jaishankar is  in the Indonesian capital  Jakarta  to attend a meeting of the ASEAN-India Foreign Ministers. He also met Singapore's Indian-origin Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan and noted the progress in implementing the comprehensive strategic partnership.

Jaishankar also met his counterpart from Brunei Dato Erywan Pehin Yusof on the sidelines of the ASEAN-India Ministerial. The member countries of ASEAN are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The external Affairs Minister started his engagements in the capital of Indonesia with a meeting with the Secretary General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Dr Kao Kim Hourn.  During his stay in Indonesia, Jaishankar will meet his counterparts under the ASEAN framework in the format - ASEAN-India, East Asia Summit and ASEAN Regional Forum.

After Jakarta, Jaishankar will travel to Bangkok to participate in the 12th Foreign Ministers' Meeting of Mekong Ganga Cooperation (MGC) Mechanism. MGC, one of the oldest mechanisms of the lower Mekong region, is guided by India's Act East Policy.

The MGC is an initiative by India, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam to facilitate closer connections between the six member countries which share the Ganga River and Mekong River basins.

In Bangkok, Jaishankar will also attend the BIMSTEC Foreign Ministers' Retreat on July 17. BIMSTEC is an economic and technical initiative that brings together the countries of the Bay of Bengal for multifaceted cooperation. 

India was among the 28 countries that voted in favour of a United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution on religious hatred in the backdrop of the burning of the Quran in Sweden. Twelve countries voted against the resolution and seven

Argentina, China, Cuba, India, South Africa, Ukraine and Vietnam were amongst those who backed the resolution. Britain, the United States and European Union countries including France and Germany, plus Costa Rica and Montenegro, voted against the resolution. Benin, Chile, Mexico, Nepal and Paraguay abstained.

Amongst those who strongly opposed this were the US and European Union, who said this resolution is in conflict with their view on human rights and freedom of expression. The resolution, introduced by Pakistan, on behalf of the 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), called for the UN Rights chief to publish a report on religious hatred and for states to review their laws and plug gaps that may “impede the prevention and prosecution of acts and advocacy of religious hatred.”

China, which is always under the scanner for its alleged treatment of the Uighurs, supported the OIC resolution. 

Ajay Singh, the promoter of cash-strapped SpiceJet, has decided to infuse Rs 500 Crore into the airline by way of subscribing fresh equity shares and/or convertible instruments.

The infusion of fresh capital, as per SpiceJet will strengthen the company’s financial position and is a powerful vote of confidence in its future and long-term viability. 

With this fund infusion by the Promoter, SpiceJet would be entitled to additional credit facilities of INR 206 Crore under the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme.

It is already utilising $50 million ECLGS funds that it has received and its own cash to revive its grounded aircraft.

Bengaluru-based startup Dukaan is at the centre of a controversy after it fired 90 per cent of its customer support team and replaced them with an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot.

A tweet of Suumit Shah, founder of Dukaan, sparked an outrage online for saying that the chatbot had drastically improved first response and resolution time of customers' queries.

According to BBC, many users criticised his tweets and accused him of disrupting the lives of his staff with this "heartless" decision.

Suumit Shah is the co-founder and CEO of Dukaan, a DIY platform which allows merchants and retailers even those with zero programming skills to set up their e-commerce store. Shah launched Dukaan in June 2020 with Subhash Choudhary, co-founder and CTO of the company.

Before Dukaan, Shah founded Rankz.io and Risemetric in 2018 and 2014, respectively. Shah is an entrepreneur and a product designer. He belongs to  Mumbai. He holds a degree in engineering. After learning major courses online, Suumit worked with various big corporations including Mcdonald’s and Cred.

He has also worked with Housing.com and TinyOwl as Digital Marketing Manager. Suumit then went on to start his own business called Risemetric, along with his friend Subhash. After four years, he founded Rankz.io in 2018.

HCL launched the Cyclothon, its first cycling initiative in Chennai, in the presence of Udhayanidhi Stalin, Minister for Youth Welfare and Sports Development of Tamil Nadu at a function on Jul 12 . The event is being held under the aegis of the Cycling Federation of India with support from the Tamil Nadu government and SDAT. Cyclothon will be held on October 8, 2023, in Chennai and will cater to professional cyclists, amateurs and hobbyists. 

Nine gymnasts, including four women, got selected for the Indian team for the upcoming Asian Games after two days of GFI Artistic Gymnastics Selection Trials  in Bhubaneswar.

In the Men’s Senior Individual category, Yogeshwar Singh from Haryana, Rakesh Patra and Tapan Mohanty, both from Odisha, bagged the top three spots.

Women’s Senior Individual Category saw Dipa Karmakar finish first, followed by Pranati Das and Pranati Nayak.

One of the favorites heading into the contest, Dipa Karmakar, was the stand-out performer in her category. 

Senior Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin achieved a rare distinction of getting the wickets of both father and son in his illustrious Test career when he dismissed Tagenarine Chanderpaul on the opening day of the first Test against the West Indies.

Ashwin, who had made his Test debut in 2011 in New Delhi, had dismissed Tagenarine's father Shivnarine Chanderpaul during his maiden appearance in the longest format.

Ashwin had trapped Chanderpaul senior plumb in-front in the second innings of that Test match which happened 12 years back.

Ashwin, who had 474 Test wickets before this match, bowled young Tagenarine with a beauty and became only fifth bowler in world cricket to dismiss both father and son during his career.

Funnily, it is the Chanderpauls, who feature thrice in the list of the father and son duo dismissed by same bowler.

Australian fast bowler Mitchell Starc and South Africa's off-spinner Simon Harmer are the other two bowlers who had dismissed Shivnarine and Tagenarine.

May be it has got to do with Chanderpaul senior's longevity as he retired as late as 2015, while his son made his debut in Tests last year.

The other two bowlers to achieve the feat are England all-rounder Ian Botham and Pakistan legend Wasim Akram.

Their feat was also eerily similar as they dismissed the New Zealand father son duo of Lance and Chris Cairns.