Aussie conservative coalition wins majority

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison could form a majority government as the ruling conservative coalition was on course to win some more seats in the general election that defied exit polls to deliver a shock defeat to the opposition Labor Party, forcing its leader Bill Shorten to resign. A party needs 76 seats for a simple majority in the 151-member House of Representatives, the lower house of Parliament. According to ABC, the Liberal party led by Morrison was expected to secure a majority with at least 77 seats. Around 16 million Australians swarmed to the polling booths across the country on May 18 to elect the nation’s 31st PM, in what was widely referred to as the climate change election.

Pak mulls NSA for reviving diplomacy

The Imran Khan-led Pakistan government is actively considering appointing a National Security Adviser (NSA) to revive backchannel diplomacy with India to iron out issues hindering the resumption of peace talks between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, official sources said. Since assuming the office in August, Khan has repeatedly reached out to India for the resumption of peace talks on all outstanding issues. But India has made it clear to Pakistan that terrorism and dialogue will not go hand-in-hand. The likely appointment of the NSA is meant for reviving the backchannel diplomacy with India to sort out some of the pressing issues between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, official sources said. A senior official said that the government was likely to appoint a retired military official as the NSA. 

Defence ministry rejects Verma’s petition

The defence ministry has rejected Vice Admiral Bimal Verma’s petition challenging the appointment of his junior, Vice Admiral Karambir Singh, as the next Navy chief, holding that seniority is not the sole criteria for selection. The ministry said Verma’s statutory petition dated April 10 against the appointment of Vice Admiral Singh to the top post is devoid of merit and has been rejected in exercise of powers under Section 23 of the Navy Act 1957. Verma, commander-in-chief of the Andaman and Nicobar Command and the senior-most naval commander, had moved a military tribunal last month questioning the appointment. Singh will take over as the Navy chief from incumbent Admiral Sunil Lanba, who is retiring on May 31. The tribunal had on April 25 directed the defence ministry to decide Verma’s petition within three weeks.

Overall voter turnout pegged at 66.5%

An estimated 61 crore out of the total 90.99 crore people voted during the seven-phase general election, with more than 64 per cent polling in the final round on May 19, capping one of the most bitterly fought polls that saw sporadic incidents of violence. While the EC did not give an official consolidated figure for all seven phases, estimates suggested nationwide voting of 66.5 per cent. According to EC data, in phase one, the turnout was 69.50 per cent. It decreased marginally to 69.44 per cent in phase 2 and further to 68.40 per cent in the third round. In phase four, the turnout stood at 65.50 per cent and in the fifth phase, the turnout dipped to 64.16 per cent, but went up marginally to 64.40 per cent in the penultimate phase. Election for one seat, Vellore in Tamil Nadu, has been deferred over the alleged use of money power.

Govt plans to add AI in MCA 21 portal

The corporate affairs ministry is planning to introduce an artificial intelligence system in the MCA 21 portal as it seeks to make the compliance process easier as well as ensure routine enforcement activities are done round-the-clock on an autopilot basis. MCA 21 is the electronic backbone for the dissemination of information to all stakeholders, including the regulator, corporates and investors. All filings under the Companies Act are submitted to the ministry through this portal. Corporate affairs secretary Injeti Srinivas said the ministry would look to “introduce AI in MCA 21 when version 3 of the portal is rolled out in about a year’s time”. “It will look to rationalise all the forms, follow the principle of single source of truth so that one is not required to fill in known details again and also interlink databases,” he said.

Germany urged to reverse anti-BDS motion

The Arab League has called on the German parliament to rescind a resolution that condemned a boycott movement against Israel as “anti-Semitic”. The call comes after the Bundestag passed a motion on May 17 against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, warning that its actions were reminiscent of the Nazis’ campaign against Jews. Founded in 2005, BDS describes itself as a Palestinian-led movement, which calls for the boycott of Israeli goods, services and culture as a means of pressuring the Jewish state to end its occupation of Palestinian territories. The non-binding resolution said the BDS movement’s ‘Don’t Buy’ stickers on Israeli products revive memories of the Nazis’ slogan ‘Don’t buy from Jews’, and other graffiti on shop facades and windows.

UK Act secures Sikh right to carry kirpans

The UK government has passed an amendment by which Sikhs in the country will be allowed to carry kirpans and use it during religious and cultural functions. The Offensive Weapons Bill received the royal assent last week. The Bill aims at tackling rising knife crime in the UK and it become an act of law after receiving the royal assent of Queen Elizabeth II. The Bill had been amended late last year to ensure that it would not impact the right of the British Sikh community to possess and supply kirpans, or religious swords. The Offensive Weapons Act covers new offences around possession of certain offensive weapons in public and enforces new restrictions on the online sales of bladed articles and corrosive products in attempt to crack down on rising knife and acid attacks.

Kailash Mansarovar in tentative heritage list

Unesco has included the Indian part of Kailash Mansarovar in its tentative list of world heritage sites. It was in April that the Archeological Survey of India sent the proposal mooted by the environment ministry to Unesco. In the proposal, Kailash Mansarovar is in the mixed category both as a natural as well as a cultural heritage. Covering 6,836 sq km within India, the area is flanked in the east by Nepal and bordered by China on the north. The Indian site is part of the larger landscape of 31,000 sq km referred to as the Kailash Sacred Landscape constituting Mt Kailash and Lake Mansarovar in the remote south-western portion of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China and adjacent districts in the far-western region of Nepal. Both China and Nepal have proposed the landscape as a world heritage site to Unesco.

Campuses to screen students for NCDs

The Union health ministry has advised states and Union territories to hold screening sessions in school and college campuses for mental health and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cancer, diabetes and blood pressure at regular intervals. The aim is to ensure early diagnosis of these chronic diseases for their treatment on time. A senior health ministry official has sought the implementation of measures such as ensuring tobacco-free campus, restricting use of unhealthy diet including sugary beverages and junk food in canteens and establishing counselling centres on mental health condition and tobacco cessation. The official also advised promoting physical activity and yoga in the campus and creating an enabling environment to mitigate air pollution.

‘Indian monsoon, Atlantic Nino are linked’

There is a growing teleconnection between Indian summer monsoon rainfall and Atlantic sea surface temperature anomalies, said a new study, which is likely to brighten the prospect of a more accurate monsoon prediction. The unusual warming or cooling of the Atlantic Ocean, known as the Atlantic Zonal Mode (AZM) or the Atlantic Nino, is known to influence the weather in Africa. According to the study led by Abu Dhabi-based climate scientist Ajaya Ravindran, there is a growing teleconnection in a warming world between the Indian summer monsoon rainfall and the AZM. The study, conducted by the Centre for Prototype Climate Modelling of the New York University Abu Dhabi, found a robust increase in the inter-annual variability of the sea surface temperature over the eastern tropical Atlantic Ocean as a result of global warming.

US to unveil Mideast peace plan in June

The Donald Trump administration will unveil the first phase of its long-awaited blueprint for Mideast peace at a conference in Manama on June 25 and 26, which is designed to highlight economic benefits that could be reaped if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is resolved, the White House said. Trump has repeatedly touted his plan for peace between Palestinians and Israelis as the “deal of the century”. The plan, which has been two years in the making, envisions large-scale investment and infrastructure work in the Palestinian territories. But the central political elements remain mostly unknown. And the economic workshop in Bahrain will not address the most contentious parts of the conflict: borders, the status of Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees and Israel’s security.

India dealt a weak hand in RCEP talks

India has registered a trade deficit in 2018-19 with as many as 11 RCEP member countries - including China, South Korea and Australia - out of the group of 16 nations that have been negotiating a trade pact since November 2012. According to provisional data, India’s trade deficit - the difference between imports and exports - with three countries (Brunei, Japan, and Malaysia) has in fact increased marginally in 2018-19 as compared to the previous fiscal. However, the deficit with Australia, China, Indonesia, South Korea, New Zealand and Thailand has narrowed in 2018-19 as compared to the preceding fiscal. Interestingly, the trade surplus with Singapore ($2.7 billion) in 2017-18 has turned into a deficit of $5.3 billion in 2018-19. India had a trade surplus with Cambodia ($0.1 billion), Myanmar ($0.7 billion) and the Philippines ($1 billion) in 2018-19.

Evidence of water found on Ultima Thule

NASA has found evidence of a unique mixture of methanol, water ice and organic molecules on Ultima Thule’s surface - the farthest world ever explored by mankind. The US space agency has published the first profile of Ultima Thule - an ancient relic from the era of planet formation - revealing details about the complex space object. Analysing just the first sets of data gathered during the New Horizons spacecraft’s flyby of the Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69 - nicknamed Ultima Thule - unveil much about the object’s development, geology and composition. Researchers are also probing a range of surface features on Ultima Thule, such as bright spots and patches, hills and troughs, and craters and pits on Ultima Thule.

Climate plays a role in language diversity

A region’s climate has a greater impact than landscape on how many languages are spoken there, according to a study that mapped language diversity around the world. The research, published in the journal Nature Communications, found that areas with more productive climates tend to have more languages. “We were able to show that despite popular belief, climatic factors have a stronger effect than landscape factors - like how mountainous it is, or how many rivers there are - when it comes to language diversity,” said professor Lindell Bromham from The Australian National University (ANU). The researchers think this could have a lot to do with food production -  another driver of language diversity. “If an area can reliably support food production for more of the year, it may allow human groups to persist in smaller areas, so you can pack more different cultures into one region, and therefore more languages,” Bromham said.

Newsmakers

Austrian Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache quit on May 18 after allegations that he promised public contracts in return for campaign help from a fake Russian backer he met at a luxury villa on Ibiza a few months before the parliamentary election in 2017.

India’s fastest woman Dutee Chand has revealed that she is in a same-sex relationship, becoming the first sportsperson in the country to openly admit so. Dutee, 23, is the 100m national record holder and winner of two silver medals at the 2018 Asian Games.

Thousands of people have signed an online petition calling on the UK Home Office to allow Bhavani Espathi, an Indian woman suffering from Crohn’s disease, stay in Britain. Her application to stay on human rights grounds had been rejected. Crohn’s disease requires a specific immunosuppressant, which she says is currently unavailable in India.