LIVE news updates: Covid virus jumped to humans at Wuhan mkt, find studies

Live news updates:The findings may quash the theory that the virus leaked from the lab at the infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology

Live news updates: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has congratulated Sri Lanka's newly-elected President Ranil Wickremesinghe and said that India will continue to be supportive of the quest of the people of the island nation for stability and economic recovery, through established democratic means, the Indian High Commission said on Tuesday. Wickremesinghe, 73, was on Thursday sworn in as Sri Lanka's eighth president after he was elected by lawmakers.

A day after the Enforcement Directorate questioned Congress President Sonia Gandhi for over six hours on the second day of her appearance in connection with a money laundering case linked to the National Herald newspaper, the 75-year-old has been asked to appear again on Wednesday, officials said.

The second phase of the Common University Entrance Test (CUET)-UG exam for the current year will be conducted on August 4 for students seeking admission in various undergraduate courses at different colleges across the country. A total of nearly 14,90,000 candidates, including students within the country and abroad, have already registered for CUET-UG 2022. The first phase of the exam has been conducted for which nearly 8,10,000 candidates appeared on July 15. After the completion of the first phase of the exam, the second phase will be held on August 4 in which nearly 6,80,000 candidates will write the exam.

While monkeypox virus has been detected in about 75 countries in just three months, it may not spread as fast as SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind Coronavirus (Covid-19), a US infectious disease expert said. The recent outbreak, first reported from the UK on May 7, has now more than 16,000 cases and five deaths in Africa.

3:00 PM

Anyone proven guilty must be punished, but media trials unacceptable: Mamata

Days after her cabinet colleague and senior TMC leader Partha Chatterjee was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a school recruitment scam, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday slammed the media for launching a "malicious campaign" against her party.

 

Banerjee also asserted that anyone was proven guilty by the court must be punished but probe “agencies must not be used to malign political parties”.

 

2:58 PM

Karnataka CM Bommai completes one year in office, as BJP eyes retaining power

With assembly polls in Karnataka only months away, and amid the pressure to deliver and bring BJP back to power in the state, it has literally been a race against time for Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, who completes one year in office on Thursday.

As he looks to lead the party in the assembly polls, due before May next year, and break decades old jinx of no party in government retaining power in the state (since 1985), Bommai now has merely eight to nine months left to repackage and sell his administration's development narrative to voters.

To highlight his government's achievements and to bring back its development agenda to fore, the ruling BJP is organising a mega rally at Doddaballapura, some 40 km from here, on July 28, the date one which exactly one year ago Bommai took over the mantle of power from the BJP's seasoned oarsman and his "political mentor" B S Yediyurappa.

The mega event named Janotsava' (festival of people) which will see mobilisation of lakhs of beneficiaries of state government's schemes, is likely to be attended by BJP national President J P Nadda, and it is aimed to send out a message of development, as the party has set a target of winning 150 seats in the polls next year.

2:47 PM

ED files charge sheet before court here against arrested Delhi Minister Satyendra Jain, others

ED files charge sheet before court here against arrested Delhi Minister Satyendra Jain and others in a money laundering case. 

2:47 PM

India wheat prices jump to record high, limit scope for govt-to-govt deals

Indian wheat prices jumped to a record high, despite a ban on exports, amid strong demand and dwindling supply from a crop damaged by heatwave.

 

The price rally has reduced chances of India supplying substantial amounts of wheat under government-to-government deals with countries struggling to secure shipments amid the disruption of the war in Ukraine.

 

"Most of the farmers have sold their crop. Negligible supplies are coming up for sale even though demand is robust," said Gopaldas Agarwal, a trader based at Indore in central India.

 

Local wheat prices jumped to a record 23,547 rupees per tonne on Wednesday. That was up nearly 12% from recent lows that followed the government's surprise ban on exports on May 14.

2:47 PM

India wheat prices jump to record high, limit scope for govt-to-govt deals

Indian wheat prices jumped to a record high, despite a ban on exports, amid strong demand and dwindling supply from a crop damaged by heatwave.

 

The price rally has reduced chances of India supplying substantial amounts of wheat under government-to-government deals with countries struggling to secure shipments amid the disruption of the war in Ukraine.

 

"Most of the farmers have sold their crop. Negligible supplies are coming up for sale even though demand is robust," said Gopaldas Agarwal, a trader based at Indore in central India.

 

Local wheat prices jumped to a record 23,547 rupees per tonne on Wednesday. That was up nearly 12% from recent lows that followed the government's surprise ban on exports on May 14.

2:45 PM

Good scheme started by UPA govt has practically perished: Chidambaram on subsidised LPG cylinder

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Wednesday said the "exorbitant" price of the subsidised cylinder under the 'Ujjwala Yojana' is a "spoiler" and asserted that a good scheme of subsidised cooking gas started by the UPA has practically perished due to the "callous attitude" of the present government.

The measure of success of the Ujjwala scheme can be gauged only by the number of refills ordered by the beneficiary, Chidambaram said.

He said data shows that nearly 25 per cent of beneficiaries order only one or two or three refills per year and in the remaining months they do not use LPG cylinders but use non-clean fuel.

2:36 PM

Odisha reports 1,174 new Covid cases, 1 death

Odisha recorded 1,174 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, while there was another fatality, the health department said.

There are 7,011 active COVID-19 cases, of which 1,642 are in Khurda district and 1,290 in Sundargarh, according to a bulletin.

The test positivity rate was 5.46 per cent as the cases were detected out of 21,488 samples tested. As many as 155 children were among the new patients.

2:16 PM

Hong Kong set for billions in inflows from China companies' listing upgrades

Hong Kong is set to see billions of dollars flowing in from the mainland with more Chinese companies expected to upgrade their listings in the city to tap into a bigger pool of capital amid the looming threat of delistings in the United States.

 

E-commerce giant Alibaba Group said on Tuesday it would apply to convert its Hong Kong secondary listing into a dual primary that would make it easier for mainland Chinese investors to buy its shares.

 

The move is likely to prompt other major firms such as JD.Com Inc, Netease Inc and Baidu Inc to consider upgrading to dual primary listings, said Periscope Analytics founder Brian Freitas, who publishes on Smartkarma.

 

2:11 PM

20 suspended RS MPs begin relay protest in Parliament complex

Twenty opposition MPs, who were suspended from the Rajya Sabha for disrupting proceedings, on Wednesday started a 50-hour-long protest inside the Parliament complex.

The MPs are holding the relay protest near the Gandhi Statue and will stay at the site through the night, said TMC MP Dola Sen said, who is one of the suspended parliamentarians.

The 20 MPs, suspended over the last two days, include seven from the Trinamool Congress (TMC), six from the DMK, three from the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), two from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and one each from the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

2:10 PM

Anurag Thakur hits out at Congress CMs for defending Sonia Gandhi

Responding to the Congress allegation of the Enforcement Directorate harassing party president Sonia Gandhi, Union Minister Anurag Thakur slammed Chief Ministers of Congress for protesting in the national capital and looking after the issues of their own States.

"Chori bhi aur seenajori bhi, ye Congress se sikha jaye, bhrashtachar bhi aur bawal bhi," said Thakur.

The Union Minister further said, "If they haven't done any corruption, then why fear? Chief Ministers of Congress have no work in their states. Incidents of rape, and murder are being reported from Congress-ruled states, but their CMs are camping in Delhi instead of maintaining law and order in their respective states."

2:10 PM

Ready to listen to democratic public protesters, says Sri Lanka's newly-elected Prime Minister Gunawardena

Sri Lanka's newly-appointed Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena on Wednesday said the government is ready to listen to the demands of democratic public protesters, but denounced acts of terrorism, calling it the greatest threat to democracy.

Gunawardena, 73, an ally of the Rajapaksas and a school friend of the newly-elected President Ranil Wickremesinghe, was sworn in as the Sri Lankan Prime Minister last week amid an unprecedented economic and political crisis.

Addressing Parliament on Wednesday, Gunawardena said the Sri Lankan government is ready to listen to the democratic public protests, but they could not accept acts of terrorism.

1:56 PM

TCS signs deal with M&S; expects $1 bn retail sector biz in UK, Europe to outgrow Co revenues

TCS expects the $1 billion retail sector business in the UK, Europe to outpace the company's overall revenue growth on the back of strong demand for IT services, a senior official has said.

 

The country's largest software exporter on Wednesday announced a multi-year, multi-million dollar deal with Marks & Spencer, with which it has been working for over a decade, to transform the British retailer's human resource operations.

 

12:36 PM

Covid virus jumped to humans at Wuhan market, didn't leak from lab: Studies

The origin of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2019 was at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China, and resulted from multiple spillover events of the SARS-CoV-2 virus jumping from live animal hosts to humans working or shopping there, according to a pair of related studies.

The findings, by a team of international researchers led by the team at University of California San Diego, may quash the theory that the virus leaked from the lab at the infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology causing the pandemic that has so far claimed at least 6.4 million lives.

Instead, the studies, published online via First Release in the journal Science, showed that a pathogen successfully jumped from a non-human animal host to human, in what is known as a zoonotic event.

It posits that the SARS-CoV-2 virus jumped from animals to humans at least twice and perhaps as many as two dozen times.

12:17 PM

SC agrees to hear PIL seeking appointment of chairperson, others in law panel

The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to consider listing for hearing a 2020 PIL seeking a direction to the Centre to declare the Law Commission as a "statutory body" and appoint the chairperson and members to the panel.

 

A bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli took note of the submissions of lawyer and petitioner Ashwini Upadhyay with regard to vacancies in the Commission.

 

12:16 PM

ED records Sonia Gandhi's statement on third day of questioning in money laundering case

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday recorded her statement for the third time before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the money laundering case linked to the National Herald newspaper.

She reached the federal agency's office in central Delhi at 11 am accompanied by her children Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Rahul Gandhi.

The session began around 11:15 am by a team of investigators that includes the main probe officer and a person who takes down statements dictated by Gandhi on a computer.