Suspense over Advani's address as BJP National Executive meets in Bengaluru

April 3, 2015

Bengaluru, Apr 3: Bharatiya Janata Party's two-day national executive meet begins in the Karnataka capital on Friday, but all eyes will be on party doyen LK Advani whose name doesn't feature among the list of speakers at the event, sources said.

Advani

However, Law Minister DV Sadananda Gowda confirmed that Advani will attend the meet.

"Advani ji will come here on Friday. He is a national executive member, not an office bearer so he will come only tomorrow," he said.

Evading a direct reply to the question, party spokesperson Syed Shahnawaz Hussain said "the party has the guidance of all senior leaders".

Despite repeated questions, the BJP leader refused to say whether or not Advani would deliver a speech.

Advani, one of BJP's main founding members and tallest leaders, has attended and addressed at all national executive meetings of the party since 1980 when the party was founded, except one exception.

During the last meet in Goa when Narendra Modi was named the head of the party's campaign committee in Lok Sabha polls, not only did Advani skip the event but also sent a letter resigning from all posts of the party.

His differences with the party's decision were later reconciled and he took back his resignation. After that, Advani, more than once, has congratulated Modi for leading the BJP to victory in general elections.

According to party sources, this time Advani, a three-time BJP president, is not keen on addressing the party's national executive meet.

Sources added that organisation secretary of the party Ramlal met Advani in Delhi days before the meet over the issue. But it was not clear if Advani will speak at the forum.

Advani, along with Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Murli Manohar Joshi, is a part of a 'Margdarshak Mandal' , or the party's guiding committee which includes Narendra Modi and Rajnath Singh.

The three veterans have already been eased out of BJP's parliamentary board, the highest decision-making body of the party.

The guiding committee, however, has not held a single meet since being set up last August.

In its ts national executive meet on Friday and Saturday, the BJP will focus on expanding its base in the country, especially among states of Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha where it is weak.

BJP leaders are also likely to discuss how to involve workers in the Clean India and Clean Ganga campaigns.

The meeting, which is likely to be the last one before the Bihar assembly polls, is also expected to focus on the state elections.

Also featuring on the agenda will be BJP's poor performance in Delhi, upcoming state polls and the party's membership drive.

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Agencies
May 28,2020

Several India-based firms are spoofing the World Health Organisation (WHO) by creating fake Gmail accounts and luring business leaders in disguise of informing them of latest COVID-19 announcements and hack their personal and financial information, Google has warned.

These "hack-for-hire" firms, many based in India, have been creating Gmail accounts spoofing the WHO, largely targeting business leaders in financial services, consulting, and healthcare corporations within numerous countries including, the US, Slovenia, Canada, India, Bahrain, Cyprus, and the UK.

"The lures themselves encourage individuals to sign up for direct notifications from the WHO to stay informed of COVID-19 related announcements, and link to attacker-hosted websites that bear a strong resemblance to the official WHO website," security researchers from Google's Threat Analysis Group said on Wednesday.

The sites typically feature fake login pages that prompt potential victims to give up their Google account credentials, and occasionally encourage individuals to give up other personal information, such as their phone numbers.

On any given day, Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) said it is tracking more than 270 targeted or government-backed attacker groups from more than 50 countries.

Last month, it sent 1,755 warnings to users whose accounts were targets of government-backed attackers.

"Our team of analysts and security experts is focused on identifying and stopping issues like phishing campaigns, zero-day vulnerabilities and hacking against Google, our products and our users," said the tech giant.

Google continues to see attacks from groups like Charming Kitten on medical and healthcare professionals, including WHO employees.

"We're seeing a resurgence in COVID-related hacking and phishing attempts from numerous commercial and government-backed attackers," said the company.

Government-backed or state-sponsored groups have different goals in carrying out their attacks: Some are looking to collect intelligence or steal intellectual property; others are targeting dissidents or activists, or attempting to engage in coordinated influence operations and disinformation campaigns.

Google said that since March, it has removed more than 1,000 YouTube channels that were part of a large campaign and behaving in a coordinated manner.

"These channels were mostly uploading spammy, non-political content, but a small subset posted primarily Chinese-language political content similar to the findings of a recent Graphika report," said the company.

Several cybersecurity firms have seen a spike in COVID-19 related scams and hacking attempts. Hackers are also creating scam sites similar to COVID-19 relief packages.

Researchers at Check Point Software Technologies revealed in mid-May that they have seen 192,000 coronavirus-related cyber-attacks per week over the past three weeks, a 30 % increase compared to previous weeks.

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News Network
February 9,2020

New Delhi, Feb 9: As the outbreak of novel coronavirus has lead to the death of more than 800 Chinese nationals, aviation regulator DGCA on Saturday said that foreigners who went to China on or after January 15 will not be allowed to enter India.

The DGCA, in its circular to airlines on Saturday, reiterated that all visas issued to Chinese nationals before February 5 have been suspended.

However, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) clarified, "These visa restrictions will not apply to aircrew, who may be Chinese nationals or other foreign nationalities coming from China."

"Foreigners who have been to China on or after January 15, 2020, are not allowed to enter India from any air, land or seaport, including Indo-Nepal, Indo-Bhutan, Indo-Bangladesh or Indo-Myanmar land borders," the DGCA said.

Among Indian airlines, IndiGo and Air India have suspended all of their flights between the two countries. SpiceJet continues to fly on Delhi-Hong Kong route.

On February 1 and 2, Air India conducted two special flights to Chinese city of Wuhan, epicentre of the outbreak, evacuating 647 Indians and seven Maldivians.

Till date, three Indians have tested positive for novel coronavirus.

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News Network
August 8,2020

Nagpur, Aug 8: "He was a great son and always the first one to help others in need. He sacrificed his life for the country," said Neela Sathe, the mother of late captain DV Sathe, who was flying the Air India flight that crash-landed at Kozhikode airport on Friday, claiming 18 lives.

Indian Army Retired Colonel Vasant Sathe and his wife Neela lost both their sons in line of duty. The couple is originally from Nagpur, Maharashtra.

Speaking to news agency, Neela broke into tears and said, "He was a great son and always the first one to help others in need. 

His teachers still appreciate him. During the Ahmedabad floods, he saved the children of the soldiers by lifting them in his arms. I wish God would have called us instead of him."

"Both our children sacrificed their lives for the country," she added.

Remembering DV Sathe's childhood, Neela talked about every that moment when he made his parents proud.

Neela told with great pride that Captain DV Sathe had received the Sword of Honor and had also won eight medals in the Air Force.

Neela last talked to DV Sathe over phone call a few days ago during which captain told her mother not to go out of the house amid COVID-19 crisis as if something happens to her, he won't be able to bear that.

Vasant, captain's father retired as a colonel after serving in the Army for 30 years, following the footsteps of their father, both his sons joined too the Army.

Their elder son Vikas, was in the Army, and at the age of 22, he was martyred in an accident in Ferozepur in 1981. Their younger son Deepak (DV Sathe), who served as a pilot in Air India after serving in the Indian Air Force, died in the plane crash on Friday.

An Air India Express plane carrying 190 passengers including 10 infants skidded while landing at Karipur Airport in Kozhikode on Friday evening.

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