“Congratulations to Shri Ram Nath Kovind Ji on being elected the President of India! Best wishes for a fruitful and inspiring tenure.”
ELECTED// India has a new President in Ram Nath Kovind who took over from Pranab Mukherjee as the 14th President of India on Tuesday, July 25. Kovind, who was earlier the governor of Bihar, won the Presidential election last week, defeating opponent Meira Kumar. 71 year old Kovind was born in a poor family in Kanpur in 1945. His father was a farmer who had to sell his land in order to educate his son. Kovind trained as a lawyer and worked in the Delhi High Court and Supreme Court. He joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1991.
Over the years he has been involved in issues and protests connected to the rights of the Dalits. Dalits are people who were labeled ‘lower caste’ and ‘untouchable’ in many parts of India. Although this practice is now frowned upon, Dalits continue to be ill-treated in some parts of India. As a lawyer, Kovind provided free assistance to Dalits. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1994 and he completed two terms in Parliament. His nomination as the BJP’s candidate surprised many, as he was not a famous politician.
In the final vote count, NDA nominee Kovind received 65.6 per cent votes translating into 702,044 electoral college votes, while UPA candidate Meira Kumar managed to get 34.35 per cent (367,314 votes). 522 MPs voted for Kovind, while 225 parliamentarians voted for Meira Kumar. In the last Presidential polls held in 2012, Pranab Mukherjee had defeated PA Sangma by over 69 per cent votes
Let’s see what the next five years of Kovind’s term brings!
PANAMA PAPERS PLASTER NAWAZ; ONE MORE PAKISTAN PM QUITS PRETERM
POLITICS// Nawaz Sharif has resigned as prime minister of Pakistan following a decision by the country's Supreme Court to disqualify him from office. The ruling came after a probe into his family's wealth following the 2015 Panama Papers dump linking Mr Sharif's children to offshore companies. Mr Sharif has consistently denied any wrongdoing in the case. The five judges reached a unanimous verdict in the Islamabad court, which was filled to capacity.
“Following the verdict, Nawaz Sharif has divested himself of his responsibility as prime minister,” a spokesman for Mr Sharif's office said in a statement. However, it said he had “serious reservations” about the judicial process.
There was heightened security in the capital, with tens of thousands of troops and police deployed. The court's ruling stated that Mr Sharif had been dishonest in not disclosing his earnings from a Dubai-based company in his nomination papers during the 2013 general election
One of the judges, Ejaz Afzal Khan, said that Mr Sharif was no longer “eligible to be an honest member of the parliament”.
Pakistan's Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan earlier advised Mr Sharif to accept Friday's verdict. The court has recommended anti-corruption cases against several individuals, including Mr Sharif, his daughter Maryam and her husband Safdar, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and others.
MITHALI FALLS SHORT OF WORLD CUP RAJ
CRICKET// The Indian woman’s cricket team lost the Women’s World Cup finals very narrowly to England last month. Had they won the match, which was played at the Lord’s in London, it would have been the first ever title win for India in the Women’s World Cup
As big as cricket is in India, the women’s game is not watched much. Mithali Raj and her band changed that when they charged their way to the final of the Woman’s World Cup. Half-hour before it all ended, India was in a winning position needing just 29 runs from 33 balls with 5 wickets in hand. That was before English bowler Anya Shrubsole ran through the Indian batting order, taking a series of wickets, pulling off a win for her team.
The tournament saw wonderful performances from some players. Captain Mithali Raj was the top scorer for India and with 409 runs in the tournament, she was the second highest scorer overall. Middle order player Harmanpreet Kaur won millions of fans when she smashed a famous 171 runs against Australia in the semi-final.
The Indian woman’s team may have lost the World Cup but they have won a million fans-and that may be the biggest result yet of this tournament
Nitish Kumar back as Bihar CM, with new alliance
POLITICS// In less than 24 hours, Nitish Kumar has returned as Bihar’s chief minister, rekindling an old alliance with the BJP. Nitish was sworn in at 10 am at Raj Bhavan in Patna by governor Keshari Nath Tripathi. Senior BJP leader in Bihar Sushil Modi has been sworn in as deputy chief minister. He has previously served as Nitish’s deputy from 2005-2013.
The JD(U) has 71 lawmakers in the 243member state assembly. With the BJP’s support, Nitish’s party now has 124 – one over the halfway mark. The “decision to form new government taken in the interest of Bihar, we will take the state to the path of prosperity,” Nitish said after he was sworn in on Thursday. Prime Minister Prasad Yadav’s son Tejashwi Yadav met state governor Keshri Nath Tripathi on Thursday morning, echoing Gandhi’s view that this decision was part of a longer plan. He registered protest that the RJD – the single-largest party in the Bihar assembly – had not been invited to form the government. “RJD being the single largest party should have been invited to form the government. We are taking legal advice and will move court against the governor’s decision,” he told reporters after the meeting. He said the people of Bihar had given the grand alliance the mandate to run its government for 5 years which Nitish “betrayed”.
RAVI SHASTRI BACK TO COACH MEN IN BLUE
CRICKET// Former Indian allrounder and team director Ravi Shastri has been appointed as the new head coach of the Indian men's cricket team last month. The 55-year-old was among ten applicants who applied for the position earlier this month. He was interviewed by the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), comprising of former cricketers Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and V V S Laxman, after being included in the shortlist of six names. Besides Shastri, Virendra Sehwag, Lalchand Rajput, Richard Pybus, Ravi Shastri and Tom Moody were interviewed by the CAC.
Shastri was also the director of the Indian team between 2014 and 2016 during which time he led the Men in Blue to the semi-finals of the World Cup and 2015 World T20.
Shastri had also applied for the job in 2016, but legendary leg-spinner Anil Kumble was chosen over him by Board of Control for Cricket in India's Cricket Advisory Committee.
The head coach position has been vacant since Anil Kumble’s resignation following India’s 180-run defeat against arch-rivals Pakistan in the Champions Trophy final at the Oval on June 18.
A BEAUTIFUL MIND; UNTIMELY END
DEATH// Iranian mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani, who was the first woman to win the Field Medal in 2014, died recently. She was suffering from cancer. A brilliant mathematician, Mirzakhani was given the Field Medal, which is seen as equal to a Nobel prize in Mathematics, for her work in theoretical mathematics.
Theoretical math is a very complex area that studies ideas and concepts in math rather than real life problems involving addition, subtraction and multiplication. However her work can be applied in related subjects such as physics to understand how the Earth came to exist and within math itself to better understand prime numbers.
Mirzakhani was born in the West Asian country of Iran. As a young student, she won many prizes in math competitions earlier reserved only for boys. She won gold medals for Iran in the International Math Olympiad in 1994 and 1995. She later moved to the United States to study and work
IRAN DEFIES US WITH PHOENIX THE SATELLITE-ROCKET
SPACE// Iran successfully launched its most advanced satellite-carrying rocket into space, the country’s state media reported, in what is likely the most significant step yet for the launch vehicle. A confirmed launch of the “Simorgh” rocket would mark another step forward for the Islamic Republic's young space program, but is likely to raise alarm among its adversaries, who fear the same technology could be used to produce long-range missiles. The U.S. State Department called the launch “provocative”. Iranian state television said the rocket, whose name means “phoenix” in Persian, is capable of carrying a satellite weighing 250 kilograms. The report did not elaborate on the rocket's payload. Other state-linked agencies including the semiofficial Fars news agency also described the launch as successful.
Media reports did not say when the launch took place at the Imam Khomeini National Space Station in Semnan, some 220 kilometers (138 miles) east of Tehran.
Iran frequently announces technological breakthroughs that are difficult to independently verify. It has carried out multiple tests of short- and medium-range ballistic missiles as well as other domestically produced weapons over the years. The Simorgh is a two-stage rocket first revealed in 2010. It is larger than an earlier model known as the Safir, or “ambassador”, that Iran has used to launch satellites on previous occasions. The launch comes as the United States has criticized Iran’s ballistic missile tests, which American officials argue violate the spirit of the 2015 nuclear deal that Iran struck with world powers. Under the agreement, which does not expressly prohibit missile tests, Iran agreed to limit its uranium enrichment program in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.