Major News and Events of 14 August 2016

With Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s 3-day India visit coming to an end today, India has urged China to revisit its technical point for refusing to list Maulana Masood Azhar (Chief of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammad terror group) in the banned list of United Nations. India’s external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj also asked her counterpart to align China’s technical hold on Azhar in line with that of its own zero tolerance aspect towards terrorism. India has also assured China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi that they will discuss any technical issues that China has raised on India’s NSG membership issue.

A day after PM Modi, in an all-party meeting on Kashmir issue, said that the time has come for India to highlight the atrocities done by Pakistan to the people living in Balochistan and pak Occupied Kashmir (PoK), activists from the Pakistani region thanked the Indian government. Baloch activist Naila Qadri Baloch thanked Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the support. She went on to urge PM Modi to raise the sufferings of baloch people to the United Nations General Assembly session, scheduled to be held in coming September. 

India has virtually turned down Pakistan’s request of entering a dialogue on Jammu and Kashmir when External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said that dialogue can’t go on with a country that sponsors and supports terrorism. India has made it clear that they are ready to hold talks with Pakistan only on relevant and contemporary issues including follow-up discussion on Mumbai and Pathankot terror attacks. On the wee hours of Sunday, Pakistan violated ceasefire in Poonch and resorted to unprovoked firing, to which Indian security forces responded heavily.

U.K. Secretary of State for International Development Priti Patel, currently on a 3-day visit to India, has revealed that passage of the GST (Goods and Services Tax) has helped India become a more attractive destination for foreign investors because of the ease of business. She called it an important reform and said that her government is already assisting India in the development of smart cities that includes Amravati, Indoor, and Pune.  She also met PM Modi and discussed on strategic relationship between India and UK.

India’s long-distance runner Lalita Babar qualified for the finals of women's 3,000 metre Steeplechase after finishing 4th in the qualifying heat. Lalita will participate in the final on August 15. She is the only track and field sportsperson from India to reach the finals in 32 years, since PT Usha in 1984. Her winning performance was a puff of fresh air even as other Indian athletes made a poor show. Even mixed tennis doubles partners Sania Mirza and Bopanna lost to the US pair Venus Williams and Rajeev Ram 6-2, 2-6, 3-10 in the semi final match. India is waiting with abated breadth to see gymnast Dipa Karmakar win the first medal for India with her match winning Produniva vault.

After a man identifying himself on Facebook as Partha Mandal (a resident of West Bengal’s Nauhati in Hooghly district) sent obscene comments to senior Congress leader and daughter of President Pranab Mukherjee, Sharmistha Mukherjee, she decided to take on her online harasser head-on. She not only lodged a complaint to Cyber Crime unit of Delhi Police but also took a screenshot of the "lewd" messages and publicly shared on Facebook to publicly expose and humiliate the harasser. Anyesh Roy, DCP (Cyber Crime), told media that they have launched a probe to catch the culprit.