The Evening Wrap: India announces diplomatic boycott of Beijing Winter Olympics

Terming China’s decision to field a People’s Liberation Army soldier involved in the June 2020 Galwan clashes as the torchbearer for the Winter Olympics Games in Beijing as “regrettable”, India announced a diplomatic boycott of the Games just ahead of the opening ceremony on Friday. State broadcaster Doordarshan also announced it will not telecast the opening and closing ceremonies live, where India has one athlete, skier Arif Khan, participating. The decision came after Chinese media reports identified Qi Fabao, a PLA regiment commander who received military honours for the Galwan clashes, where he was injured, as one of about 1,200 runners bearing the torch at a relay in Beijing. China’s decision to field him and New Delhi’s announcement of its first ever political boycott of the Olympic Games, are likely to increase India-China tensions that have risen since PLA aggressions along the Line of Actual Control began in April 2020. India had earlier expressed support for the Beijing Olympics, even as more than a dozen countries, led by the United States, had announced a boycott of the Games. “It is indeed regrettable that the Chinese side has chosen to politicise an event like Olympics,” said MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi, referring to the media reports. “The Charge d’Affaires of the Embassy of India in Beijing will not be attending the opening or closing ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics,” he added. The Indian Ambassador to China, Pradeep Kumar Rawat, whose appointment was announced in December, is expected to take charge in the next few weeks, and hence the Charge d’Affaires Acquino Vimal is the top diplomat in Beijing at present. Vimal and other officials had been expected to attend the ceremonial functions at the games, although the MEA had said no political or high level representation would be sent from Delhi. Prasar Bharti chief Shashi Shekhar Vempati also tweeted that “consequent to the announcement by the MEA”, Doordarshan’s sports channel would not telecast the Olympic ceremonies, as planned earlier. The Chinese decision to publicly honour the military commander for involvement in the deadly clashes in the Galwan valley, where 20 Indian soldiers, and at least four Chinese soldiers (far higher according to media reports) were killed, is seen as a deliberate insult to New Delhi, which came despite the fact that the Modi government had decided not to join western boycott calls over human rights concerns. In November 2021, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar had hosted a virtual Russia-India-China (RIC) trilateral meeting which issued a joint statement where they “expressed their support to China to host Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.” Other countries, including the U.S., Japan, Australia, United Kingdom and a number of European countries including Latvia, Lithuania, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden and the Czech Republic have announced their plans for diplomatic boycott: sending athletes and sports officials, but no diplomatic or political presence, in protest of China’s restrictions on its Uighur population in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses. Meanwhile Russian President Vladimir Putin, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, Presidents of five Central Asian republics Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are due to attend the opening ceremony on Friday. Putin is also expected to hold a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and in a statement ahead of Khan’s visit, the Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Khan would meet Xi and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and conclude a number of bilateral agreements. COVID-19: Supreme Court dismisses plea to postpone GATE 2022 The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a plea made by aspirants to postpone the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) examination 2022 due to COVID-19, saying interference merely 48 hours before the scheduled examination would create a potential for “chaos and uncertainty” for students. “Postponement of GATE exam 2022 barely 48 hours before the scheduled date is replete with a potential for chaos and uncertainty for students who have registered for the exam,” a Bench led by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud observed in a short order dismissing the petition. The court said there was no “overarching situation for the court under Article 32 of the Constitution to supplant the duties and functions of the regulatory authorities to hold the examination”. The students, represented by advocate Pallav Mongia, said there was complete lockdown in various States such as Jammu and Kashmir. The virus had spread widely in States such as Kerala, which had imposed a lockdown during the weekend. The lives of students were at risk. They sought the examination to be rescheduled by a month. Justice Chandrachud observed that there would never be an “absolutely clear situation” under the circumstances, and the court would not want to intervene and create havoc in the future of the students because the virus was dominant in some of the States. The Bench said the examination was notified months back and the students should have prepared for it. The examination is scheduled to be held offline in February. The Union and IIT Kharagpur are the regulatory authorities. Tamil Nadu Governor returns Bill against NEET; DMK, Congress MPs stage walkout from Lok Sabha Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi has returned to the Assembly Speaker a Bill seeking to dispense with NEET-based admissions for undergraduate medical degree courses, the Raj Bhavan said on Thursday. The Bill adopted by the Assembly in September sought to admit students to UG medical degree programmes on the basis of Plus Two scores. After a detailed study of the Bill that sought an exemption for the State from NEET and the report of the high-level committee constituted by the State government in this regard, the Governor was “of the opinion that the Bill is against interests of the students specially the rural and economically poor students of the State,” a one-page press release from the Raj Bhavan said. Hence, the Governor has returned the Bill to the Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly on February 01, 2022, giving “detailed reasons, for its re-consideration by the House,” it said. The release said the Supreme Court in Christian Medical College, Vellore Association Vs. Union of India (2020) also has comprehensively examined the issue specially from the social justice perspective and upheld NEET as it prevents economic exploitation of poor students and was in furtherance of social justice. In a related development, DMK and Congress members from Tamil Nadu staged a walkout from the Lok Sabha over the NEET Bill. They demanded a recall of Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi, taking exception to his decision to return the NEET Exemption Bill. DMK leader T. R. Baalu speaking on the anti-NEET Bill informed the House that the Governor of TN has sent back the Bill back to the TN Assembly Speaker, instead of sending it to the President for assent. The members of the DMK and the Congress trooped into the Well raising slogans against the Tamil Nadu governor. Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said the role of constitutional authorities such as a governor should not be discussed in the House. Supreme Court adjourns Sidhu road rage case review to February 25 Punjab Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu in the Supreme Court on Thursday successfully sought the adjournment of a review of a 2018 judgment, which let him off with a ₹1,000 fine in a nearly 34-year-old fatal road rage case. A Special Bench of Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and Sanjay Kishan Kaul rescheduled the case to February 25. The Punjab elections are due on February 20. Sidhu's lawyers, senior advocate P. Chidambaram and A. Karthik, sought time to get further instructions from their client. They had sought an adjournment of four weeks. Chidambaram explained that he was asked to appear in the case only hours back and a new advocate-on-record was appointed. Justice Khanwilkar, in turn, referred to a letter circulated by Sidhu's side seeking adjournment. The judge said it mentioned the case was listed “unexpectedly”. The court clarified the case was not listed “unexpectedly” and was already mentioned in the weekly advance list of cases prepared by the court registry. The court, however, did not entertain a request by senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, appearing for the family members of the man who died in the incident, to post the case in two weeks. “The notice was issued in the case in September 2018... All this while you did not do anything, now you suddenly want to,” the Bench asked. The apex court had acquitted Sidhu of culpable homicide in the case on May 2018. Instead, it found him guilty of the lesser offence of voluntarily causing hurt under Section 323 of the Indian Penal Code. A review was filed against the judgment. The court issued notice on the review in September 2018. The May 2018 judgment, written by a Bench led by Justice J. Chelameswar (now retired), had then reasoned that the crime was three decades old and there had been no former enmity between Sidhu and his victim, Gurnam Singh. It had even said that roadside brawls were a “very common sight in this country”. Justice Kaul was the puisne judge and part of the original Bench led by Justice Chelameswar that authored the 2018 judgment. Sidhu may face a prison sentence of one year if the court decides to swap the ₹1,000 fine for a jail term under Section 323 IPC. 2 crore graduates register in eSHRAM unorganised worker portal Just over 2 crore people who declared that they held a graduation degree or higher education have signed up for the Centre’s portal for unorganised sector workers since it was launched in August 2021, according to a government written response in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday. To Janata Dal (United) MP Ram Nath Thakur’s question, Minister of State for Labour and Employment Rameswar Teli said the eSHRAM portal, launched on August 26, 2021 as a national database of unorganised workers, had registered 24.54 crore workers as on January 30. “The number of workers declaring holding the degree of graduation or higher education is 2,00,88,063.” While launching the portal, the government said it would be used to formulate welfare schemes for unorganised sector workers. So far, a majority of those who have signed up are women (52%), according to another reply by the Ministry. Joe Biden says Islamic State leader killed during U.S. raid in Syria The leader of the violent Islamic State group was killed during an overnight raid in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, President Joe Biden said Thursday. The raid targeted Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, who took over as head of the militant group on October 31, 2019, just days after leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi died during a U.S. raid in the same area. A U.S. official said he died as al-Baghdadi did, by exploding a bomb that killed himself and members of his family, including women and children, as U.S. forces approached. He is also known as Amir Muhammad Sa’id Abdal-Rahman al-Mawla. The operation came as IS has been trying for a resurgence, with a series of attacks in the region, including a 10-day assault late last month to seize a prison. U.S. Special Forces landed in helicopters and assaulted a house in a rebel-held corner of Syria, clashing for two hours with gunmen, witnesses said. Residents described continuous gunfire and explosions that jolted the town of Atmeh near the Turkish border, an area dotted with camps for internally displaced people from Syria’s civil war. First responders reported that 13 people had been killed, including six children and four women. Biden said in a statement that he ordered the raid to “protect the American people and our allies, and make the world a safer place.” He planned to address the American public later Thursday morning. “Thanks to the skill and bravery of our Armed Forces, we have taken off the battlefield Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi — the leader of ISIS,” Biden said in a statement. He said all Americans involved in the operation returned safely. The two-story house, surrounded by olive trees in fields outside Atmeh, was left with its top floor shattered and blood spattered inside. A journalist on assignment for The Associated Press and several residents said they saw body parts scattered near the site. Most residents spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. The Pentagon did not initially identify the target of the raid. “The mission was successful,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in a brief statement. “There were no U.S. casualties.” Idlib is largely controlled by Turkish-backed fighters but is also an al-Qaida stronghold and home to several of its top operatives. Other militants, including extremists from the rival IS group, have also found refuge in the region. Chandrayaan-3 set for August launch India plans to execute the Chandrayaan-3 mission this August, Minister Jitendra Singh told the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. Though the government had stated that the mission was scheduled for 2022, this is the first time that a specific month has been announced. The Chandrayaan-3 mission is a follow-up of Chandrayaan-2 of July 2019, which aimed to land a rover on the lunar South Pole. It was sent aboard the country’s most powerful geosynchronous launch vehicle, the GSLV-Mk 3. However, lander Vikram, instead of a controlled landing, ended up crash-landing on September 7, 2019, and prevented rover Pragyaan from successfully travelling on the surface of the moon. Had the mission been successful, it would have been the first time a country landed its rover on the moon in its maiden attempt. “Based on the learnings from Chandrayaan-2 and suggestions made by the national level experts, the realisation of Chandrayaan-3 is in progress. Many related hardware and their special tests are successfully completed. The launch is scheduled for August 2022,” Singh said in reply to a query from Ravneet Singh and Subburaman Thirunavukkarasar who wanted to know what delayed the mission. The Minister attributed them to “pandemic linked” delays and a “reprioritisation” of projects. The last major satellite launches by the ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) were the Earth Observation Satellite-3 in August last and the Amazonia satellite in February. The ISRO has planned 19 missions until December consisting of eight launch vehicle missions, seven spacecraft missions and four technology demonstrator missions. The ISRO has been allotted ₹13,700 crore for this financial year, nearly ₹1,000 crore more than it spent last year. Despite the several missions planned this year, the budgeted outlay this year is less than the ₹13,949 crore allotted last year. Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 4,18,65,073 at the time of publishing this newsletter, with the death toll at 4,99,686. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 03 FEBRUARY 2022 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( India announces diplomatic boycott of Beijing Winter Olympics Terming China’s decision to field a People’s Liberation Army soldier involved in the June 2020 Galwan clashes as the torchbearer for the Winter Olympics Games in Beijing as “regrettable”, [India announced a diplomatic boycott of the Games]( just ahead of the opening ceremony on Friday. State broadcaster Doordarshan also announced it will not telecast the opening and closing ceremonies live, where India has one athlete, skier Arif Khan, participating. The decision came after Chinese media reports identified Qi Fabao, a PLA regiment commander who received military honours for the Galwan clashes, where he was injured, as one of about 1,200 runners bearing the torch at a relay in Beijing. [Chinese media reports identified Qi Fabao (second from left), a PLA regiment commander who received military honours for the Galwan clashes, as one of about 1,200 runners bearing the torch at a relay in Beijing. File]  China’s decision to field him and New Delhi’s announcement of its first ever political boycott of the Olympic Games, are likely to increase India-China tensions that have risen since PLA aggressions along the Line of Actual Control began in April 2020. India had earlier expressed support for the Beijing Olympics, even as more than a dozen countries, led by the United States, had announced a boycott of the Games. “It is indeed regrettable that the Chinese side has chosen to politicise an event like Olympics,” said MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi, referring to the media reports. “The Charge d’Affaires of the Embassy of India in Beijing will not be attending the opening or closing ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics,” he added. The Indian Ambassador to China, Pradeep Kumar Rawat, whose appointment was announced in December, is expected to take charge in the next few weeks, and hence the Charge d’Affaires Acquino Vimal is the top diplomat in Beijing at present. Vimal and other officials had been expected to attend the ceremonial functions at the games, although the MEA had said no political or high level representation would be sent from Delhi. Prasar Bharti chief Shashi Shekhar Vempati also tweeted that “consequent to the announcement by the MEA”, Doordarshan’s sports channel would not telecast the Olympic ceremonies, as planned earlier. The Chinese decision to publicly honour the military commander for involvement in the deadly clashes in the Galwan valley, where 20 Indian soldiers, and at least four Chinese soldiers (far higher according to media reports) were killed, is seen as a deliberate insult to New Delhi, which came despite the fact that the Modi government had decided not to join western boycott calls over human rights concerns. In November 2021, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar had hosted a virtual Russia-India-China (RIC) trilateral meeting which issued a joint statement where they “expressed their support to China to host Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.” Other countries, including the U.S., Japan, Australia, United Kingdom and a number of European countries including Latvia, Lithuania, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden and the Czech Republic have announced their plans for diplomatic boycott: sending athletes and sports officials, but no diplomatic or political presence, in protest of China’s restrictions on its Uighur population in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses. Meanwhile Russian President Vladimir Putin, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, Presidents of five Central Asian republics Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are due to attend the opening ceremony on Friday. Putin is also expected to hold a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and in a statement ahead of Khan’s visit, the Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Khan would meet  Xi and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and conclude a number of bilateral agreements. [underlineimg] COVID-19: Supreme Court dismisses plea to postpone GATE 2022 The Supreme Court on Thursday [dismissed a plea made by aspirants to postpone the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) examination 2022]( due to COVID-19, saying interference merely 48 hours before the scheduled examination would create a potential for “chaos and uncertainty” for students. “Postponement of GATE exam 2022 barely 48 hours before the scheduled date is replete with a potential for chaos and uncertainty for students who have registered for the exam,” a Bench led by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud observed in a short order dismissing the petition. The court said there was no “overarching situation for the court under Article 32 of the Constitution to supplant the duties and functions of the regulatory authorities to hold the examination”. The students, represented by advocate Pallav Mongia, said there was complete lockdown in various States such as Jammu and Kashmir. The virus had spread widely in States such as Kerala, which had imposed a lockdown during the weekend. The lives of students were at risk. They sought the examination to be rescheduled by a month. Justice Chandrachud observed that there would never be an “absolutely clear situation” under the circumstances, and the court would not want to intervene and create havoc in the future of the students because the virus was dominant in some of the States. The Bench said the examination was notified months back and the students should have prepared for it. The examination is scheduled to be held offline in February. The Union and IIT Kharagpur are the regulatory authorities. [underlineimg] Tamil Nadu Governor returns Bill against NEET; DMK, Congress MPs stage walkout from Lok Sabha [Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi has returned to the Assembly Speaker a Bill seeking to dispense with NEET-based admissions]( for undergraduate medical degree courses, the Raj Bhavan said on Thursday. The Bill adopted by the Assembly in September sought to admit students to UG medical degree programmes on the basis of Plus Two scores. After a detailed study of the Bill that sought an exemption for the State from NEET and the report of the high-level committee constituted by the State government in this regard, the Governor was “of the opinion that the Bill is against interests of the students specially the rural and economically poor students of the State,” a one-page press release from the Raj Bhavan said. Hence, the Governor has returned the Bill to the Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly on February 01, 2022, giving “detailed reasons, for its re-consideration by the House,” it said. The release said the Supreme Court in Christian Medical College, Vellore Association Vs. Union of India (2020) also has comprehensively examined the issue specially from the social justice perspective and upheld NEET as it prevents economic exploitation of poor students and was in furtherance of social justice. In a related development, [DMK and Congress members from Tamil Nadu staged a walkout from the Lok Sabha]( over the NEET Bill. They demanded a recall of Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi, taking exception to his decision to return the NEET Exemption Bill. DMK leader T. R. Baalu speaking on the anti-NEET Bill informed the House that the Governor of TN has sent back the Bill back to the TN Assembly Speaker, instead of sending it to the President for assent. The members of the DMK and the Congress trooped into the Well raising slogans against the Tamil Nadu governor. Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said the role of constitutional authorities such as a governor should not be discussed in the House. [underlineimg] Supreme Court adjourns Sidhu road rage case review to February 25 Punjab Congress leader [Navjot Singh Sidhu in the Supreme Court on Thursday successfully sought the adjournment of a review of a 2018 judgment]( which let him off with a ₹1,000 fine in a nearly 34-year-old fatal road rage case. A Special Bench of Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and Sanjay Kishan Kaul rescheduled the case to February 25. The Punjab elections are due on February 20. Sidhu's lawyers, senior advocate P. Chidambaram and A. Karthik, sought time to get further instructions from their client. They had sought an adjournment of four weeks. Chidambaram explained that he was asked to appear in the case only hours back and a new advocate-on-record was appointed. Justice Khanwilkar, in turn, referred to a letter circulated by Sidhu's side seeking adjournment. The judge said it mentioned the case was listed “unexpectedly”. The court clarified the case was not listed “unexpectedly” and was already mentioned in the weekly advance list of cases prepared by the court registry. The court, however, did not entertain a request by senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, appearing for the family members of the man who died in the incident, to post the case in two weeks. “The notice was issued in the case in September 2018... All this while you did not do anything, now you suddenly want to,” the Bench asked. The apex court had acquitted Sidhu of culpable homicide in the case on May 2018. Instead, it found him guilty of the lesser offence of voluntarily causing hurt under Section 323 of the Indian Penal Code. A review was filed against the judgment. The court issued notice on the review in September 2018. The May 2018 judgment, written by a Bench led by Justice J. Chelameswar (now retired), had then reasoned that the crime was three decades old and there had been no former enmity between Sidhu and his victim, Gurnam Singh. It had even said that roadside brawls were a “very common sight in this country”. Justice Kaul was the puisne judge and part of the original Bench led by Justice Chelameswar that authored the 2018 judgment. Sidhu may face a prison sentence of one year if the court decides to swap the ₹1,000 fine for a jail term under Section 323 IPC. [underlineimg] 2 crore graduates register in eSHRAM unorganised worker portal Just [over 2 crore people who declared that they held a graduation degree or higher education have signed up for the Centre’s portal for unorganised sector workers]( since it was launched in August 2021, according to a government written response in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday. To Janata Dal (United) MP Ram Nath Thakur’s question, Minister of State for Labour and Employment Rameswar Teli said the eSHRAM portal, launched on August 26, 2021 as a national database of unorganised workers, had registered 24.54 crore workers as on January 30. “The number of workers declaring holding the degree of graduation or higher education is 2,00,88,063.” While launching the portal, the government said it would be used to formulate welfare schemes for unorganised sector workers. So far, a majority of those who have signed up are women (52%), according to another reply by the Ministry. [underlineimg] Joe Biden says Islamic State leader killed during U.S. raid in Syria The [leader of the violent Islamic State group was killed during an overnight raid in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province]( President Joe Biden said Thursday. The raid targeted Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, who took over as head of the militant group on October 31, 2019, just days after leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi died during a U.S. raid in the same area. A U.S. official said he died as al-Baghdadi did, by exploding a bomb that killed himself and members of his family, including women and children, as U.S. forces approached. He is also known as Amir Muhammad Sa’id Abdal-Rahman al-Mawla. The operation came as IS has been trying for a resurgence, with a series of attacks in the region, including a 10-day assault late last month to seize a prison. U.S. Special Forces landed in helicopters and assaulted a house in a rebel-held corner of Syria, clashing for two hours with gunmen, witnesses said. Residents described continuous gunfire and explosions that jolted the town of Atmeh near the Turkish border, an area dotted with camps for internally displaced people from Syria’s civil war. First responders reported that 13 people had been killed, including six children and four women. [People inspect a destroyed house following an operation by the U.S. military at the Syrian village of Atmeh, Idlib Province on February 3, 2022. ]  Biden said in a statement that he ordered the raid to “protect the American people and our allies, and make the world a safer place.” He planned to address the American public later Thursday morning. “Thanks to the skill and bravery of our Armed Forces, we have taken off the battlefield Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi — the leader of ISIS,” Biden said in a statement. He said all Americans involved in the operation returned safely. The two-story house, surrounded by olive trees in fields outside Atmeh, was left with its top floor shattered and blood spattered inside. A journalist on assignment for The Associated Press and several residents said they saw body parts scattered near the site. Most residents spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. The Pentagon did not initially identify the target of the raid. “The mission was successful,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in a brief statement. “There were no U.S. casualties.” Idlib is largely controlled by Turkish-backed fighters but is also an al-Qaida stronghold and home to several of its top operatives. Other militants, including extremists from the rival IS group, have also found refuge in the region. [underlineimg] Chandrayaan-3 set for August launch [India plans to execute the Chandrayaan-3 mission this August]( Minister Jitendra Singh told the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. Though the government had stated that the mission was scheduled for 2022, this is the first time that a specific month has been announced. The Chandrayaan-3 mission is a follow-up of Chandrayaan-2 of July 2019, which aimed to land a rover on the lunar South Pole. It was sent aboard the country’s most powerful geosynchronous launch vehicle, the GSLV-Mk 3. However, lander Vikram, instead of a controlled landing, ended up crash-landing on September 7, 2019, and prevented rover Pragyaan from successfully travelling on the surface of the moon. Had the mission been successful, it would have been the first time a country landed its rover on the moon in its maiden attempt. “Based on the learnings from Chandrayaan-2 and suggestions made by the national level experts, the realisation of Chandrayaan-3 is in progress. Many related hardware and their special tests are successfully completed. The launch is scheduled for August 2022,” Singh said in reply to a query from Ravneet Singh and Subburaman Thirunavukkarasar who wanted to know what delayed the mission. The Minister attributed them to “pandemic linked” delays and a “reprioritisation” of projects. The last major satellite launches by the ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) were the Earth Observation Satellite-3 in August last and the Amazonia satellite in February. The ISRO has planned 19 missions until December consisting of eight launch vehicle missions, seven spacecraft missions and four technology demonstrator missions. The ISRO has been allotted ₹13,700 crore for this financial year, nearly ₹1,000 crore more than it spent last year. Despite the several missions planned this year, the budgeted outlay this year is less than the ₹13,949 crore allotted last year. [underlineimg] Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments The [number of reported coronavirus cases from India]( stood at 4,18,65,073 at the time of publishing this newsletter, with the death toll at 4,99,686. [underlineimg] Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. Today's Top Picks [[Explained | The sub-lineages of the Omicron variant] Explained | The sub-lineages of the Omicron variant]( [[When ‘Minnal Murali‘ made it to an engineering examination] When ‘Minnal Murali‘ made it to an engineering examination]( [[Tusker barges into Karnataka school forcing students, teachers to bolt themselves inside classrooms] Tusker barges into Karnataka school forcing students, teachers to bolt themselves inside classrooms]( [[Pandit Bhimsen Joshi birth anniversary: From a small-town boy to Bharat Ratna] Pandit Bhimsen Joshi birth anniversary: From a small-town boy to Bharat Ratna]( Copyright @ 2022, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. 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