• Finally… Months after states took the lead in announcing financial assistance for the kin of Covid victims, and after being prodded by the Supreme Court, the Centre on Wednesday informed the SC that the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has fixed an ex-gratia of Rs 50,000 to be paid by the states from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF).
• No escape: On June 30, the SC had ruled that the Centre cannot shy away from its responsibility under the Disaster Management Act (DMA) to fix a compensation amount payable to the kin of those who succumbed to Covid, which was declared a national disaster under the Act.
• Missed deadlines: While rejecting petitioners’ demand for Rs 4 lakh ex-gratia, it had asked the NDMA to determine the quantum within six weeks. The six-week deadline got extended to months and after seeking time several times, the Centre on Wednesday informed the apex court.
• Why Rs 50,000? Justifying the modest amount fixed by the NDMA, the Centre said, “Covid-19 is a disaster that has not abated. The total number of deaths continues to rise. There is uncertainty about the new variants of the virus and likely future waves. Therefore, it is not possible to ascertain the total final financial burden emanating from the ex-gratia.”
• States show the way: The states have taken the lead over the Centre in providing ex-gratia to the kin of Covid victims, not from SDRF but from other sources like the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. Those providing ex-gratia are: Andhra Pradesh (Rs 10 lakh to orphaned children, Rs 5 lakh in case of death of one parent), Bihar (Rs 4 lakh), Haryana (Rs 2 lakh only to BPL families), Karnataka and Assam (Rs 1 lakh), Tamil Nadu (Rs 5 lakh to orphaned children and Rs 3 lakh in case of death of single parent), Tripura (Rs 10 lakh in three instalments) and Nagaland (Rs 10 lakh only to the kin of working journalists).
• The bill: With the country recording nearly 4.5 lakh Covid deaths, the financial burden of this ex-gratia would add up to Rs 2,250 crore for the states.

• Observing that the “armed forces deal with emergencies…both at the border and in the country” the Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday rejected the Centre’s plea for continuing with the status quo for the upcoming National Defence Academy (NDA) exams due on November 14 and allowing women to appear from May 2022 onwards.
• The defence ministry had on Tuesday submitted that a study group had been constituted to formulate the changes in curriculum and infrastructure required to facilitate the entry of women into the NDA. However, the court said that it didn’t “believe that armed forces response team will not be able to deal with the scenario” as they “are capable of finding solutions.”
• The court added that its interim order has “given a hope to women to take exam in November” and any change now will “belie that hope.” On being told that implementation of the order will put the armed forces in a “tight position”, the court retorted that the “armed forces have dealt with far more tighter situations.”
• The SC’s refusal to vacate its interim order issued last month that allowed women to appear for NDA exams from this year itself came on the back of objections raised by the petitioner who argued that allowing women to sit for the exams from May 2022, as sought by the Centre, would mean that their entry into the NDA will only happen in 2023. For this year, the second NDA exam is scheduled for November 14, while the course commences from January 2 next year.
• Interestingly though, the SC has kept the next date of hearing in the case for the third week of January, after the Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Aishwarya Bhati, representing the defence ministry said that the results for the exams will take two months.It remains to be seen if the date for starting the next course will also be rescheduled now.

• Erdogan talks Kashmir: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan once again brought up the issue of Kashmir at the UN, saying Istanbul maintains “our stance in favour of solving the ongoing problem in Kashmir for 74 years, through dialogue between the parties…” Hours later, foreign minister S Jaishankar tweeted on the need to adhere to UNSC resolutions following his meeting with his counterpart from Cyprus, with which Turkey has a long ongoing conflict.
• Biden commits vaccines: US President Joe Biden said the US is doubling its purchase of Pfizer’s Covid-19 shots to share with the world to 1 billion doses as he embraces the goal of vaccinating 70% of the global population within the next year.
• Taliban seek a seat: The Taliban are challenging the credentials of the ambassador from Afghanistan’s fallen government, and has asked the UN to let the militant group represent the country, nominating Mohammad Suhail Shaheen as its new representative. The decision now rests with a U.N. committee that generally meets in November.
• France, US patch-up: France said it will send its ambassador back to Washington next week, days after it recalled the envoy as a fallout of the nuclear submarine deal between the US, UK and Australia. In a phone call, French President Emmanuel Macron and President Joe Biden “decided to open a process of in-depth consultations, aimed at creating the conditions for ensuring confidence,” a joint statement said.

Also: PM Narendra Modi called for easing international travel through mutual recognition of vaccination certificates. He was addressing the virtual Global Covid-19 summit hosted by Biden. Modi arrived in the US today.

• India’s largest publicly-traded television network Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL) signed a merger deal with Sony Pictures Networks India, per a regulatory filing by the media company to stock exchanges on Wednesday.
• The merged entity will be a publicly listed company in India with Sony holding a 52.93% majority stake and ZEEL the remaining. Sony’s shareholders will also infuse $1.575 billion in the entity.
• Punit Goenka will continue to be the managing director and CEO of the merged entity despite shareholders calling for his exit. However, a majority of the board of directors will be nominated by Sony.
• Why it matters: The move is set to create the largest entertainment network in India with a 26% viewership share, ahead of leader STAR. Sample this: 70 TV channels, two video streaming services (ZEE5 and Sony LIV) and two film studios (Zee Studios and Sony Pictures Films India).
• The reach: ZEEL is present in over 173 countries and reaches over 600 million individuals in India every week, while Sony reaches out to over 700 million viewers in India and is available in 167 countries.
• For Zee: While ZEEL has a larger network viewership share than Sony, it derives most of its strength from regional general entertainment channels (GEC) and movies; Sony has a stronger foothold in Hindi GECs and sports.
• ZEEL’s corporate governance standards and opaque balance sheets has concerned shareholders as well. But expect global media behemoth Sony to keep a hawkish eye now. ZEEL would also have access to Sony’s international catalogue.
• For Sony: Its entertainment channels have largely depended on seasonal productions such as Kaun Banega Crorepati for its success. But now add more than 260,000 hours of TV content from ZEEL, which also boasts the world’s largest Hindi film library with rights to more than 4,800 movie titles across various languages.

The Supreme Court has dismissed the petitions by the Chhattisgarh government challenging a stay on investigations against BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra and former chief minister Raman Singh in the so-called toolkit case.

The court said: “We come across many cases of politically motivated FIRs lodged against political rivals in many states, and as the Supreme Court we cannot take up petitions challenging the efficacy and correctness of the decision behind the lodging of FIRs.” It asked the Chhattisgarh government to await the High Court’s decision in the matter.

Background:

• In May, Patra, Singh and other BJP leaders tweeted an image of a document claimed to be a Congress “toolkit” enlisting measures to hurt Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s image. Fact-checking websiteAltNews said its analysis of images showed that the supposed “toolkit” was created on “forged Congress letterhead“. Twitter later flaggedPatra’s tweet as possible misinformation.
• The Chhattisgarh police later filed an FIR against Patra and Singh based on a complaint by the state president of the National Students’ Union of India’s Chhattisgarh.
• But on June 14, the Chhattisgarh High Court stayed the investigation, saying its continuation “will be nothing but an abuse of process of law”.

• Over 5,500 Mynanmarese have fled a crackdown by the military and crossed over into Mizoram over the past week, news agency Reuters reports. Most arrived by crossing the Tiau river by boat, the head of the Young Mizo Association, a civil society group, said.
• The Myanmarese town of Thantlang in Chin State near the Indian border is otherwise home to 10,000 people, but most have left to seek shelter in surrounding areas including in India. There has been an upsurge in violence in the area after the National Unity Government, a rebel administration set up by opponents of the military rule, declared an uprising against the junta on Sept. 7.
• Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military toppled a government led by pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and took full control of the country.
• Since the coup, Mizoram has provided shelter to over 11,000 Myanmarese nationals, including former lawmakers belonging to Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD). There has been a similar influx of refugees into Nagaland and Manipur as well.
• Mizoram chief minister Zoramthanga recently urged Prime minister Narendra Modi to provide humanitarian assistance to Myanmar nationals coming to Mizoram.

Over in Nagaland…
R.N. Ravi has resigned as the union government’s interlocutor for Naga peace talks.

The Oversight Board, a semi-independent body that reviews Facebook’s content-moderation policies, will examine the social media platform’s “cross-check” system that exempts high-profile users from rules applicable to the general users.

Tell me more:

• As part of a series of expose, The Wall Street Journal reported that the “cross-check” allowed certain high-profile users to post content that would otherwise warrant action by Facebook’s content moderation team.
• The system was originally set up so that Facebook could avoid bad press when it takes down content that should not have been -m say, a body positivity content by a celebrity.
• But WSJ reports it allowed high-profile users to break Facebook’s rules that apply to the rest of the users. The programme reportedly protects 5.8 million people as of 2020.

And now?

• The Oversight Board said the disclosures “have drawn renewed attention to the seemingly inconsistent” content-moderation policies of Facebook.
• The board will publish the information Facebook shares on the transparency report that the board will release in October. Note: This is separate from the transparency report that Facebook publishes.
• ICYMI: Facebook created the Oversight Board as part of an effort to address criticism over how it handles problematic content. Some of the board’s decisions: Asking Facebook to provide a definite time-frame for Donald Trump’s suspension, and overturning the removal of a post that claimed RSS and BJP were threatening “genocide of the Sikhs”.

• The day didn’t begin well for bottom-placed Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) as fast bowler T Natarajan tested positive for Covid-19 — he was asymptomatic — and six more team members were placed in isolation. On the field, it was a pretty mediocre effort after the men in orange chose to bat first against Delhi Capitals (DC).
• David Warner fell for a three-ball duck, Wriddhiman Saha looked good but didn’t last for long. Skipper Kane Williamson was scratchy during his stay in the middle, dropped twice and then holed out. Manish Pandey couldn’t make his start count, ditto for Jason Holder. It was only the cameos of Abdul Samad and Rashid Khan — the only batsmen to cross 20 — that lent some respectability to the total. DC’s South African pace duo of Anrich Nortje and Kagiso Rabada were excellent and were ably backed by spinner Axar Patel.
• Prithvi Shaw’s dismissal in the third over of the chase gave SRH some hope. But Shikhar Dhawan dug in — he passed 400 runs this IPL campaign — with Shreyas Iyer for a 52-run stand. Even after the former departed, Iyer powered on with Rishabh Pant as DC reached home (and the top of the points table) with 13 balls remaining.
• Scorecard: DC 139/2 (Iyer 47 not out, Dhawan 42) beat SRH 134/9 (Rabada 3/37, Nortje 2/12) by 8 wkts

World Health Organisation. The global body on Wednesday released its revised air quality guidelines for six key pollutants including extremely hazardous particulate matters — PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ — making them more stringent compared with the earlier standards set in 2005. The new annual standard for PM_2.5 would be 50% less at 5 micrograms per cubic metre (µg/m3) compared with 10 µg/m3 in 2005 whereas its 24-hour mean would be 15 µg/m3 now compared to 25 µg/m3 in 2005. In India, the acceptable level for PM_2.5 is much higher — 40 µg/m3 and 60 µg/m3 for annual and 24-hour mean, respectively.