The Evening Wrap: Pakistan demands joint probe into missile incident

Stating that the incident involving the accidental firing of a missile which ended up in Pakistan indicates many “loopholes and technical lapses” of serious nature in “Indian handling of strategic weapons”, Pakistan on Saturday demanded a joint probe to “accurately establish the facts” on it. “The Indian decision to hold an internal court of inquiry is not sufficient since the missile ended up in Pakistani territory. Pakistan demands a joint probe to accurately establish the facts surrounding the incident,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) of Pakistan said in a statement. “The grave nature of the incident raises several fundamental questions regarding security protocols and technical safeguards against accidental or unauthorised launch of missiles in a nuclearised environment.” Stating that they took note of the statement from the Ministry of Defence (MoD), the MoFA said such a serious matter cannot be addressed with the simplistic explanation offered by the Indian authorities. A day after Pakistan made a detailed presentation that an Indian supersonic surface–to–surface missile landed 124 km inside its territory, the MoD on Friday said that in the course of a routine maintenance on March 9, a “technical malfunction led to the accidental firing of a missile” and the Government of India has taken a “serious view” and has ordered a high–level Court of Inquiry. Russia strikes near Kyiv; mosque reported hit in Mariupol Russian forces pounding the port city of Mariupol shelled a mosque sheltering more than 80 people, including children, the Ukrainian government said on Saturday. Fighting also raged on the outskirts of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, as Russia’s expanding invasion bombarded other resisting cities into rubble. There was no immediate word of casualties from the shelling of Mariupol’s elegant, city-centre mosque. The encircled city of 446,000 people has suffered some of the greatest misery from Russia’s war in Ukraine, with unceasing barrages thwarting repeated attempts to bring in food and water, evacuate trapped civilians and to bury all of the dead. An Associated Press journalist witnessed tanks firing on a 9-storey apartment building in the city and was with a group of hospital workers who came under sniper fire on Friday. A worker shot in the hip survived, but conditions in the hospital were deteriorating: electricity was reserved for operating tables, and people with nowhere else to go lined the hallways. Ukraine’s military said on Saturday that Russian forces captured Mariupol’s eastern outskirts, tightening the armed squeeze on the strategic port. Taking Mariupol and other ports on the Azov Sea could allow Russia to establish a land corridor to Crimea, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy encouraged his people to keep up their resistance. “The fact that the whole Ukrainian people resist these invaders has already gone down in history, but we do not have the right to let up our defense, no matter how difficult it may be for us,” he said. Mr. Zelenskyy also accused Russia of employing “a new stage of terror” with the alleged kidnapping the mayor of Melitopol, a city 192 km west of Mariupol. After residents of the occupied city demonstrated for the mayor’s release Saturday, the Ukrainian leader called on Russian forces to heed the calls. “Please hear in Moscow!” Mr. Zelenskyy said on Saturday. “Another protest against Russian troops, against attempts to bring the city to its knees.” Mann stakes claim to form government Punjab Chief Minister-designate Bhagwant Mann on March 12 met Governor Banwarilal Purohit and staked the Aam Aadmi Party’s claim to form the next government in the State. Mr. Mann said he met the Governor and submitted a proposal to form the next government. “We informed the Governor that the oath ceremony would be held in Khatkar Kalan [the ancestral village of freedom fighter ‘Shaheed-e-Azam’ Bhagat Singh] at 12.30 p.m. on March 16, after the Governor asked for information on our plans,” he said, adding that all Punjabis were invited to the function as it was their own government. Mr. Mann said the new government would work towards the development of the State and take historic decisions. However, he did not share details about the induction of Ministers in the Cabinet. PF rate cut to 8.1% for 2021-22, the lowest in years The return on retirement savings parked with the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is set to fall to 8.1% for 2021-22, 0.4% lower than the 8.5% rate credited to EPF members’ accounts in the last two years and the lowest rate in several years. The PF body’s Central Board of Trustees (CBT), chaired by Labour and Employment Minister Bhupender Yadav, is learnt to have recommended the 8.1% rate for the year at its meeting at its meeting in Guwahati on Saturday. The EPFO is the country’s largest retirement fund and the second largest non-banking financial institution with a corpus of about ₹16 lakh crore. The proposed rate will have to be ratified by the Finance Ministry before it is added to the balance of EPF account holders and usually, the PF accounts are credited with the annual returns with a significant time lag after the year in question has concluded. The cut in the EPF rate, at a time when inflation is resurging, could attract criticism from central trade unions that had opposed the decision to cut the rate from 8.65% in 2018-19 to 8.5% in 2019-20. Welfare, regional factors provided ballast to BJP in Uttar Pradesh: post-poll survey The relatively high popularity of the Central government, the positive effects of welfare schemes and, in the case of Uttar Pradesh, a sharp religious polarisation led to the BJP’s victory in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Goa. These are the findings of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies-Lokniti’s post-poll survey conducted in these three States and Punjab, published exclusively by The Hindu. (No post-poll study was done in Manipur.) Besides these factors, the effective bipolarity of competition was a major factor in U.P., Uttarakhand and Punjab. Goa, without such sharp bipolarity, gave the BJP only a slight advantage. The survey finds that voters were more satisfied with Central government than they were with the State governments in the four States. In Punjab, there was a high level of dissatisfaction with both the Central and State governments. While more than half of the respondents exclusively blamed the government for COVID-19-related deaths in Punjab, one-third in U.P. and even fewer in Uttarakhand did so. Respondents mentioned unemployment and price rise as the key problems they face, but the BJP’s victories in U.P., Uttarakhand and Goa were due to the votes of the beneficiaries of free rations and cash transfers, among other factors. The party mattered more than the candidate, which explains the strong support for the BJP in U.P. and Uttarakhand, and for the AAP in Punjab. The candidate mattered more in Goa, which explained the tight race there. The surveys were conducted using face-to-face interviews at the elector’s home after voting had taken place in constituencies that were randomly selected. Click here to read the first of the State-wise analysis with a detailed break-up of the survey results from Uttar Pradesh. Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 4,29,87,701 at the time of publishing this newsletter, with the death toll at 5,16,474. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 12 MARCH 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]( Pakistan demands joint probe into missile incident  Stating that the incident involving the accidental firing of a missile which ended up in Pakistan indicates many “loopholes and technical lapses” of serious nature in “Indian handling of strategic weapons”, Pakistan on Saturday [demanded a joint probe to “accurately establish the facts” on it](. “The Indian decision to hold an internal court of inquiry is not sufficient since the missile ended up in Pakistani territory. Pakistan demands a joint probe to accurately establish the facts surrounding the incident,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) of Pakistan said in a statement. [People work around what Pakistani security sources say is the remains of a missile fired into Pakistan from India, near Mian Channu, Pakistan on March 9, 2022. Photo: Pakistani security sources via Reuters] “The grave nature of the incident raises several fundamental questions regarding security protocols and technical safeguards against accidental or unauthorised launch of missiles in a nuclearised environment.” Stating that they took note of the statement from the Ministry of Defence (MoD), the MoFA said such a serious matter cannot be addressed with the simplistic explanation offered by the Indian authorities. A day after Pakistan made a detailed presentation that an Indian supersonic surface–to–surface missile landed 124 km inside its territory, the MoD on Friday said that in the course of a routine maintenance on March 9, a “technical malfunction led to the accidental firing of a missile” and the Government of India has taken a “serious view” and has ordered a high–level Court of Inquiry. Russia strikes near Kyiv; mosque reported hit in Mariupol   Russian forces pounding the port city of Mariupol shelled a mosque sheltering more than 80 people, including children, the Ukrainian government said on Saturday. [Fighting also raged on the outskirts of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv]( as Russia’s expanding invasion bombarded other resisting cities into rubble. There was no immediate word of casualties from the shelling of Mariupol’s elegant, city-centre mosque. The encircled city of 446,000 people has suffered some of the greatest misery from Russia’s war in Ukraine, with unceasing barrages thwarting repeated attempts to bring in food and water, evacuate trapped civilians and to bury all of the dead. [A firefighter enters a house to extinguish a fire after shelling on the 17th day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in Kyiv on March 12, 2022. ] An Associated Press journalist witnessed tanks firing on a 9-storey apartment building in the city and was with a group of hospital workers who came under sniper fire on Friday. A worker shot in the hip survived, but conditions in the hospital were deteriorating: electricity was reserved for operating tables, and people with nowhere else to go lined the hallways. Ukraine’s military said on Saturday that Russian forces captured Mariupol’s eastern outskirts, tightening the armed squeeze on the strategic port. Taking Mariupol and other ports on the Azov Sea could allow Russia to establish a land corridor to Crimea, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy encouraged his people to keep up their resistance. “The fact that the whole Ukrainian people resist these invaders has already gone down in history, but we do not have the right to let up our defense, no matter how difficult it may be for us,” he said. Mr. Zelenskyy also accused Russia of employing “a new stage of terror” with the alleged kidnapping the mayor of Melitopol, a city 192 km west of Mariupol. After residents of the occupied city demonstrated for the mayor’s release Saturday, the Ukrainian leader called on Russian forces to heed the calls. “Please hear in Moscow!” Mr. Zelenskyy said on Saturday. “Another protest against Russian troops, against attempts to bring the city to its knees.” Mann stakes claim to form government Punjab Chief Minister-designate Bhagwant Mann on March 12 met Governor Banwarilal Purohit and [staked the Aam Aadmi Party’s claim to form the next government in the State](. Mr. Mann said he met the Governor and submitted a proposal to form the next government. “We informed the Governor that the oath ceremony would be held in Khatkar Kalan [the ancestral village of freedom fighter ‘Shaheed-e-Azam’ Bhagat Singh] at 12.30 p.m. on March 16, after the Governor asked for information on our plans,” he said, adding that all Punjabis were invited to the function as it was their own government. Mr. Mann said the new government would work towards the development of the State and take historic decisions. However, he did not share details about the induction of Ministers in the Cabinet. PF rate cut to 8.1% for 2021-22, the lowest in years    The return on retirement savings parked with the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is [set to fall to 8.1% for 2021-22, 0.4% lower than the 8.5% rate credited to EPF members’ accounts in the last two years]( and the lowest rate in several years. The PF body’s Central Board of Trustees (CBT), chaired by Labour and Employment Minister Bhupender Yadav, is learnt to have recommended the 8.1% rate for the year at its meeting at its meeting in Guwahati on Saturday. The EPFO is the country’s largest retirement fund and the second largest non-banking financial institution with a corpus of about ₹16 lakh crore.   The proposed rate will have to be ratified by the Finance Ministry before it is added to the balance of EPF account holders and usually, the PF accounts are credited with the annual returns with a significant time lag after the year in question has concluded. The cut in the EPF rate, at a time when inflation is resurging, could attract criticism from central trade unions that had opposed the decision to cut the rate from 8.65% in 2018-19 to 8.5% in 2019-20. Welfare, regional factors provided ballast to BJP in Uttar Pradesh: post-poll survey The relatively high popularity of the Central government, the positive effects of welfare schemes and, in the case of Uttar Pradesh, a sharp religious polarisation led to the BJP’s victory in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Goa. These are the findings of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies-Lokniti’s post-poll survey conducted in these three States and Punjab, published exclusively by The Hindu. (No post-poll study was done in Manipur.) Besides these factors, the effective bipolarity of competition was a major factor in U.P., Uttarakhand and Punjab. Goa, without such sharp bipolarity, gave the BJP only a slight advantage. The survey finds that voters were more satisfied with Central government than they were with the State governments in the four States. In Punjab, there was a high level of dissatisfaction with both the Central and State governments. While more than half of the respondents exclusively blamed the government for COVID-19-related deaths in Punjab, one-third in U.P. and even fewer in Uttarakhand did so. Respondents mentioned unemployment and price rise as the key problems they face, but the BJP’s victories in U.P., Uttarakhand and Goa were due to the votes of the beneficiaries of free rations and cash transfers, among other factors. The party mattered more than the candidate, which explains the strong support for the BJP in U.P. and Uttarakhand, and for the AAP in Punjab. The candidate mattered more in Goa, which explained the tight race there. The surveys were conducted using face-to-face interviews at the elector’s home after voting had taken place in constituencies that were randomly selected.  Click [here]( to read the first of the State-wise analysis with a detailed break-up of the survey results from Uttar Pradesh. Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments The [number of reported coronavirus cases from India]( stood at 4,29,87,701 at the time of publishing this newsletter, with the death toll at 5,16,474.  Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. Today‘s Top Picks [[‘We don’t want to live with Russia and it’s a fake republic’: A Ukrainian in hiding speaks of war and fear] ‘We don’t want to live with Russia and it’s a fake republic’: A Ukrainian in hiding speaks of war and fear]( [[Female Qazi solemnises wedding of Dr. Zakir Hussain’s great-grandson] Female Qazi solemnises wedding of Dr. Zakir Hussain’s great-grandson]( [[First ever GI-tagged Kashmir carpets flagged off to Germany] First ever GI-tagged Kashmir carpets flagged off to Germany]( [[First indigenous COVID drug to be made available soon] First indigenous COVID drug to be made available soon]( Copyright @ 2021, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. 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