Morning Digest: EAM Jaishankar discusses Afghan situation with Iran President; explore new destinations to expand export basket, Modi tells industries, and more

Several crores of Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) savings have been drained out through fraudulent withdrawals at a regional office in Mumbai, as a result of officials of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) acting in connivance.

Iran would welcome an Indian role in stabilising Afghanistan, said Iran’s new President Ebrahim Raisi, during a meeting with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar in Tehran, where the Minister attended Mr. Raisi’s swearing-in ceremony.

An unidentified militant was killed in an encounter with security forces in Budgam district of Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday, August 7, 2021, police said

Leaders of at least 12 Opposition parties, including former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, on Friday attended the “Kisan Sansad” (farmers’ Parliament) at Jantar Mantar in the city to express their solidarity with protesting farmers, who are demanding the repeal of the three farm laws.

The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Central government point-blank to come clean on whether it intends to “close” tribunals across the country by not filling up vacancies that have been pending for years.

The Assam and Meghalaya governments on Friday decided to start settling the “less complicated” areas of dispute along the 884.9 km border between them before moving on to the more complicated ones. They also decided to form three regional committees each to first get the views of the people living in the disputed areas and prepare a recommendation within 30 days for a decision at the level of the Chief Ministers.

TMC MP Dola Sen, one of the loudest protestors in Rajya Sabha and among the seven lawmakers suspended from the current monsoon session, says her party MPS are being singled out though members from other parties were also shouting slogans and had torn papers.

Twitter informed the Delhi High Court on Friday that it had appointed a permanent Chief Compliance Officer (CCO), a Resident Grievance Officer (RGO) and a Nodal Contact Person on August 4 in compliance with the new Information Technology (IT) Rules.

The Public Accounts Committee headed by Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury is going on a four-day tour of Srinagar, Kargil, Leh and Drass on August 14. The committee visit is in connection with a 2019 report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on “high altitude clothing, equipment, ration and housing” for the Indian Army. The committee will be spending Independence Day at Kargil.

Lawyer Manohar Lal Sharma has moved the Supreme Court seeking contempt action against the Prime Minister, the Union Home Minister and the Ministry of Home Affairs for the appointment of Rakesh Asthana as Delhi Police Commissioner.

The Ministry of Railways has directed General Managers of all Zonal Railways, Production Units and other establishments across the country to update the online telephone directory regularly and make sure that calls made to landline numbers are attended properly.

India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives have agreed to work on “four pillars” of security cooperation, covering areas of marine security, human trafficking, counter-terrorism, and cyber security, in a recent virtual meeting of top security officials of the three countries.

After his last assignment with the Indian women’s hockey team, chief coach Sjoerd Marijne was proud of the girls’ fourth place finish in the Tokyo Olympics and hoped that they would inspire the newer generation of players in the country.