Andhra govt imposes night curfew, issues fresh guidelines amid Covid surge

 The Andhra Pradesh government on Monday imposed a night curfew from 11 pm to 5 am to check the rise in Covid-19 cases in the state

The Andhra Pradesh government on Monday imposed a night curfew from 11 pm to 5 am to check the rise in COVID-19 cases in the state. The decision was taken following the review meeting held by Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy with the officials of the health department on the COVID-19 situation. Theatres, multiplexes and cinema halls will be operational with 50 per cent occupancy or alternate seating arrangements. The government has also imposed restrictions on public gatherings, allowing 200 people outdoor and 100 inside the auditorium.

Wearing of masks is mandatory at public places and penalty of Rs 100 will be levied for the violation. Religious places in the state should follow COVID-19 appropriate behaviour and wearing of a mask is compulsory inside the premises. Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) must be conducted for urgent testing. One COVID-19 care center will be set up in each segment….

Govt bans 20 YouTube channels, two websites under new IT rules

 The Youtube channels and the websites were allegedly running anti-India content from Pakistan.

20 YouTube channels and two websites on Monday were taken down by India after the Union government, for the first time, invoked the emergency powers under the intermediary guidelines and digital media ethics code in the IT Act that was notified recently, according to a news report in Economic Times. The YouTube channels and the websites were allegedly running anti-India content from Pakistan.

According to the newspaper, I&B secretary Apurva Chandra directed YouTube and the Department of Telecom to ban the content as it infringes upon the sovereignty and integrity of India.

I&B officials said that the ‘anti-India content’ was being run by Pakistan with the help of Inter-Services Intelligence. One of the groups identified on YouTube was ‘Naya Pakistan‘ that had more than 2 million subscribers and was running ‘false news’ on various issues such as Kashmir, farmers protests in India, Article 370, and Ayodhya. The total subscriber base of these YouTube channels is estimated to be more than 3.5 million and have a total viewership of 500 million, according to the officials.

Govt imposes restrictions on public procurement from China, neighbours

However, it provided relaxation in case of medical supplies in light of Covid-19

The Centre, late on Thursday, amended its General Financial Rules to restrict public procurement from countries which share a land border with India on grounds of national security, a move squarely aimed at China.

However, it provided relaxation in case of medical supplies in light of Covid-19. And keeping in mind some other neighbouring countries, nations with which India has a line of credit or provides development assistance were also exempted.

“The Government of India today amended the General Financial Rules 2017 to enable imposition of restrictions on bidders from countries which share a land border with India on grounds of defence of India, or matters directly or indirectly related thereto including national security,” said an official statement. According to the new order, any bidder from countries sharing a land border with India will be eligible to bid in any procurement whether of goods, services or works only if the bidder is registered with the ‘Competent Authority.’

The Competent Authority, in this case, is the Registration Committee constituted by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). “Political and security clearance from the Ministries of External and Home Affairs respectively will be mandatory,” the statement said.

Huawei, ZTE corp threaten our national security, says US attorney general

The US government added Huawei to its economic blacklist in May, saying the Chinese company was involved in activities contrary to US national security.

Huawei Technologies Co and ZTE Corp “cannot be trusted,” US Attorney General William Barr said, labelling the Chinese firms a security threat as he backed a proposal to bar US rural wireless carriers from tapping an $8.5 billion (£6.64 billion) government fund to purchase equipment or services from them.

The Federal Communications Commission will vote on Nov. 22 and is proposing requiring the carriers to remove and replace equipment from the companies. Barr said in a letter to the FCC released on Thursday that “their own track record, as well as the practices of the Chinese government, demonstrate that Huawei and ZTE cannot be trusted.”

He added that “we should not signal that Huawei and ZTE are anything other than a threat to our collective security, for that is exactly what they, through their actions, have shown themselves to be.”Barr noted that federal prosecutors charged Huawei with violations of the US embargo on Iran, bank fraud, obstruction of justice and trade secret theft. ZTE pleaded guilty in 2017 to illegally sending approximately $32 million in US goods to Iran.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said the commission “cannot ignore the risk that the Chinese government will seek to exploit network vulnerabilities in order to engage in espionage, insert malware and viruses, and otherwise compromise our critical communications networks.” The move is the latest US action aimed at barring US companies from purchasing Huawei and ZTE equipment. Huawei said last week that “in 30 years of business, Huawei has never had a major security-related incident in the 170 countries where we operate.”