NEW DELHI: Despite the nationwide lockdown and fear of contagion due to the coronavirus, the Border Roads Organisation has constructed a major strategic bridge in Arunachal Pradesh that will provide adequate movement of supplies to about 3,000 troops deployed along the Line of Actual Control with China and ensure quick mobilization during contingencies at two disputed areas in the region. The bridge will also allow easy availability of supplies to 451 villages near it.

The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) constructed a 430 feet long bailey bridge at Daporijo over the Subansiri river in Arunachal Pradesh’s Upper Subansiri district. The BRO has upgraded the bridge, whose construction began last month, to class 40 tons, which means that it can bear the weight of heaviest loads such as artillery guns that can then be taken to forward areas along the LAC. The upgrade will also cater for the future infrastructure development of Upper Subansiri. 

Former Fiji Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase, who was installed as leader following one coup attempt and overthrown by another, died Tuesday aged 79, a family spokesman said.

The founder of the Soqosoqo Duavata Ni Lewenivanua Party, who served as Fiji’s sixth prime minister from 2000 to 2006, died in hospital after a short illness.

Qarase passed away at the Oceania Hospital in Suva early Tuesday, family spokesman Mesake Koroi told AFP.

New Delhi: 

The Supreme Court Collegium on Sunday recommended the appointment of new Chief Justices for Bombay, Orissa and Meghalaya High Courts.

The top court panel decided to recommend the elevation of Calcutta High Court judge Dipankar Datta as Chief Justice of Bombay High Court.

The collegium, headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde, also decided to recommend elevation of Allahabad High Court judge Biswanath Somadder as Chief Justice of Meghalaya High Court.

The decisions of Supreme Court collegium were uploaded on its website on Sunday.

BMW Group President and CEO Rudratej Singh passed away on Monday morning due to a massive cardiac arrest, sources said.

The German auto major had appointed Mr. Singh as the head of India operations from August 1, 2019.

ICICI Bank has announced that it has integrated its AI powered multi-channel chatbot, ‘iPal’, with the world’s two most popular voice assistant apps–Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant– to enable its retail banking customers to undertake an array of banking services with just a simple voice command. This novel facility offers customers yet another way to connect with their Bank from home at a time when they are advised to stay indoors in the wake of the nationwide lockdown.

The launch of voice banking facility comes close on the heels of new digital initiatives undertaken by the Bank namely, chat based banking services on WhatsApp and ‘ICICIStack’, a set of digital banking and APIs (Application Programme Interface), to ensure uninterrupted banking experience to customers—both retail and business. ‘ICICIStack’ offers nearly 500 services that covers almost all banking requirements of customers such as digital account opening, loan solutions, payment solutions, investments and care solutions.

Kapil Dev Tripathi was on Monday appointed Secretary to President Ram Nath Kovind.

The 1980-batch retired IAS officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre will replace Sanjay Kothari, who was selected as the Chief Vigilance Commissioner in February. Mr. Tripathi’s tenure is on a contract basis and is co-terminus with the tenure of the President.

Mr. Tripathi, who retired as the Secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas in June 2018, was heading the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) that does top-level recruitments in the central public sector enterprises.

Facebook today announced the launch of its third party fact checking system in Bangladesh to discourage the spread of fake news in the country.

Facebook in partnership with Boom Fact check will review and rate the stories, including photos and videos from Sunday.

In a statement issued on Sunday the News Partnership Director of Facebook Anjali Kapoor said that the fact checking will build a more informed community in the region.

Founder Editor of Boom Govind Ethiraj said in a statement that it will debunk misinformation on topics from health and medicine to current affairs so that Facebook users in Bangladesh are able to identify factual information and news online.

When third party fact-Checkers rate a post as false or fake, it will appear less or at the bottom of news feed. This will reduce the spread of the post.

In case a certain news item or post or video is suspected to lack authenticity, the third party fact checkers will write articles about the content which is shown in the related articles immediately below the story.

If a person shares a news or item with false information, they will receive a notification about its lack of authenticity.

Gene Deitch, an American Oscar-winning illustrator, animator, film director and producer has died. He was 95.

His Czech publisher, Petr Himmel, told The Associated Press Deitch died unexpectedly during the night from Thursday to Friday in his apartment in Prague’s Little Quarter neighborhood. No further details were given.

Deitch’s movie “Munro” won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1960. He was also nominated for the same award twice in 1964 for “Here’s Nudnik” and “How to Avoid Friendship.”

Earlier, he had created the “Tom Terrific” series, while the “Sidney’s Family Tree,” which he co-produced was nominated for an Academy Award in 1958.

Born Aug. 8, 1924, in Chicago, Deitch arrived in Prague in 1959 intending to stay for 10 days, but fell in love with his future wife, Zdenka, and stayed in the Czechoslovakian capital.

Working from behind the Iron Curtain, he directed 13 episodes of “Tom and Jerry” and also some of the “Popeye the Sailor” series.

He captured life in communist Czechoslovakia and later in the Czech Republic after the 1989 anti-communist Velvet Revolution in his memoirs “For the Love of Prague.”

In 2004, he received the Winsor McCay Award for his lifelong contribution to animation.

Featuring India’s most revered cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has created a new video under the title Team Mask Force to promote wearing masks in public places and help the country battle the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Team Mask Force has been created to spread awareness about wearing masks in public places.

The video has messages from Board president Sourav Ganguly, Smriti Mandhana, Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, Harmanpreet Kaur, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid and Mithali Raj.

The Ministry of Home Affairs on Friday issued a new list of activities which have been exempted from the nationwide lockdown.

The activities that have been exempted include activities regarding timber/non-timber forest produce, bamboo, coconut, areca nut, cocoa, spices plantations, non-banking financial institutions (NBFC) and cooperative credit societies and construction in rural areas.

As per a notification issued by the chairperson of the National Executive Committee, these activities have been included in the consolidated revised guidelines on lockdown measures.

Collection, harvesting, and processing of minor forest produce (MFP)/ non-timber forest produce (NTFP) by scheduled tribes and other forest dwellers have been exempted from lockdown restrictions.

Harvesting, processing, packaging, sale and marketing activities of bamboo, coconut, areca nut, cocoa, spices plantations have also been spared from lockdown restrictions.

Cooperative credit societies and NBFCs including housing finance companies (HFCs) and micro-finance institutions (NBFC-MFIs) with bare minimum staff will be allowed to function amid the nationwide lockdown.

The constructional activities in rural areas that have been exempted from lockdown include water supply and sanitation, laying/erection of power transmission lines and laying of telecom optical fiber and cable with related activities.

MHA had recently issued a set of guidelines for strict implementation during the extended country-wide lockdown till May 3.